Thought of the Day – Feb. 28, 2018

Today’s Washington Post has an article about the inevitable conspiracy mongers denying that the shooting in Parkland, Florida, really took place.  All the victims are supposedly  actors.  This allegation is of course the result of exactly zero research – the “voices from the dark corner of the Internet” don’t want the news to be true, and therefore immediately conclude that it can’t be true.  Their psychological make-up is similar to that of Holocaust deniers.

Thought of the Day – Feb. 21, 2013

The White House strategy on gun control will be taken from their playbook on the Dreamers: Agree to negotiate, say you’re open to reasonable proposals, then reject each and every suggestion until the clock runs out and the impetus fades.  Or turn things over to Congress in the full knowledge that it will not be able to act.  In the end, nothing changes.  Which was the goal from the beginning.

Jerry Seinfeld on the Olympics

After talking about the Biathlon, Jerry says:

And that other one that I love is the luge.  Y’know the luge where the guy wears the slick suit.  This is on the bobsled run, but it’s not even a sled.  It’s just bob.  It’s just a human being hanging on for their life.  This is the whole sport.

“Oh, he pointed his toes, oh this guy’s a tremendous athlete.”

The luge is the only sport I’ve ever seen, that you could have people competing in it against their will and it would be exactly the same.  Y’know, if they were just grabbin’ people off the street.

“Hey, hey, hey what is this?  I don’t wanna be in the luge.”

Y’know, you put the helmet on him, you wouldn’t really hear him scream.

“You’re in the luge, buddy.” – “Ahhhhhhh!”

World record.  Didn’t even wanna do it.   I want to see that event next year, the involuntary luge.
To get the full impact, of course,  you have to hear Jerry do the vocal effects.  Recorded in 1998.

Quotation of the Day – Feb. 14, 2018

“The King’s intelligence was below average, but was quite capable of improvement…. He became very dependent on others, for he had scarcely been taught to read and write, and he remained so ignorant that he learned nothing of historical events nor the facts about fortunes, careers, ranks, or laws. This lack caused him sometimes, even in public, to make many gross blunders…. ”

“His ministers, generals, mistresses, and courtiers learned soon after he became their master that glory, to him, was a weakness rather than an ambition. They therefore flattered him over the top, and in so doing, spoiled him. Praise, or better, adulation, pleased him so much that the most fulsome was welcome and the most servile even more delectable. They were the only road to his favor and those whom he liked won his friendship by choosing their moments well and never ceasing in their attentions. That is what gave his ministers so much power, for  they had endless opportunities of flattering his vanity, especially by suggesting that he was the source of all their ideas and had taught them all that they knew. Falseness, servility, admiring glances, combined with a dependent and cringing attitude, above all, an appearance of being nothing without him, were the only means of pleasing him….”

“All their praise he took with admirable complacency, and truly believed that he was everything that they said.  Hence his liking for parades, which he carried to such lengths that he was known abroad as the ‘Parade King’.”

St. Simon on Louis XIV, the “sun king.”  What a shame that these old histories have no relevance to life today.

Thought of the Day – Feb 13, 2018

It seems a school district in Minnesota is bravely striking a blow for free speech and excellence in education by banning To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn from the classroom.  (See ” ‘Hurtful’ Harper Lee and Mark Twain dropped from Minnesota Curriculum,” The Guardian Feb. 12, 2018)  Tender ears might be offended by some of the nasty words they encounter.  To be sure, the words are nasty, but that’s no reason to pretend they don’t exist; I suspect the pupils might even have heard them now and then, even used them on occasion themselves.  Suppressing the literature won’t make the words go away.  It’s worth noting the pupils themselves made no complaints.

According to the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, “There are a lot more authors out there with better literature that can do the same thing that does not degrade our people.”  Better literature than Huck Finn and Mockingbird?  Should we put a warning label on them?  On the other hand, maybe there is an upside.  If word gets around that these books are banned, students may be more motivated to seek them out and read them.

The Athenian court suppressed Socrates for corrupting the youth with his language (all those pesky questions), and quite successfully too – we’ve hardly heard of him since.

Quotation of the Day – Feb. 5, 2018

Today brings the news that Paul Ryan has deleted a tweet that cheered a $1.50 increase to a Pennsylvania school secretary’s weekly pay because of a $1.5tn tax cut, after it drew criticism that he was out of touch with ordinary Americans.

Hardly surprising.  Over a year ago John Oliver made this memorable quip: “Paul Ryan probably tips waiters by saying, ‘Find a job the market has deemed has more value’.”