Month: October 2007

One American interrogator in Iraq felt it, and resisted. He has some lessons from the experience.

Yeah: these guys are apparently critical social glue. Everything is explained here.

A reader writes re: John Lewis:

Let me come to your defense on this. The question you asked (Did Bill get to him?) is a valid one. It is a question that will only get someone’s knickers in a twist if they have a short memory and/or don’t know the facts.

In March of this year when Obama and Clinton were in Selma, Ala. to commemmorate the march, John Lewis was on Obama’s side. He was with him at Brown Chapel AME Church and not with Clinton at the First Baptist Church. As I understand it, he (John Lewis) wanted to come out for Obama then, but Bill stepped in to ask him to wait.

I won’t go on any further, but I see your question as a good and valid one. To which I’ll answer with not Yeah … but HELL YEAH!!!!

Fading memory has helped some to forget about the Clintons, their political machine and their ruthlessness. A rising black politician in the Democratic party is a threat to them and their power over blacks. So they are doing what they can to crush him, and punish any Democrat who associates with him. As Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers rise, her leverage increases. As does the fear of those Democrats who know what follows if they cross the power-couple from Hot Springs. I don’t know what prompted Lewis to back Clinton; he marched between Obama and Clinton in Selma, but worshipped with Obama afterwards as you can see above. But I very much doubt that Bill did not have a word with him. Again: the way in which Hillary uses her marriage to advance her own power is striking. No real feminist would do this; only someone who postures as a feminist while using her husband as a tool.

(Photo: Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama speaks with U.S. congressman John Lewis before addressing a crowd gathered for the commemoration of the 1965 Voting Rights March at Brown Chapel AME Church March 4, 2007 in Selma, Alabama. By Scott Olson/Getty.)

If you missed Steven Pinker’s essay in the New Republic, you shouldn’t have. Vaughan at Mind Hacks offers this aside:

Once, whilst drinking with a psycholinguist (say that after a few pints) I was taught a useful way of quickly working out the stressed syllable in any English word – something which is apparently called the ‘fuck test’.

Simply insert the word ‘fucking’ into the word, as if you were using the swear word for emphasis, and the syllable that follows the ‘fucking’ is the stressed syllable.

For example, absolutely -> abso-fucking-lutely. The stressed syllable  is the third: i.e. absolutely. It works for every multi-syllable word I’ve found so far.

Which just goes to show that psycholinguists are some of the coolest melonfarmers in the whole of cognitive science.

Absofuckinglutely, man.

There’s a difference between being frugal and being a "tightwad." Marketers are beginning to understand and exploit the difference.

"Shaker visual poetry" is a phrase used to describe the drawings that the Christian sect of Shakers made under the influence of the Holy Spirit. UbuWeb explains:

Between 1837 and 1850 ("known as the Era of Manifestations") the Shakers composed (or were the recipients of) "hundreds of … visionary drawings … really [spiritual] messages in pictorial form," writes Edward Deming Andrews (The Gift To Be Simple, 1940). "The designers of these symbolic documents felt their work was controlled by supernatural agencies … — gifts bestowed on some individual in the order (usually not the one who made the drawing." The same is true of the "gift songs" and other verbal works, and the invention of forms in both the songs and drawings is extraordinary, as is their resemblance to the practice of later poets and artists.

The above, from the early 1840s, is just one of many such "drawings."

Tacoma, Washington, 10.30 am.

Meet the most hip-hop candidate:

Giuliani 100 percent. He takes no prisoners; he took down the entire mob. He’s easily vilified. He’s the most gangster. But I wouldn’t vote for him; he scares me.

Scares you? Apart from removing your constitutional rights and nuking Iran, what have you got to be scared of? Oh, yeah: David Frum.

It’s a really confused country, isn’t it? Among the confusions:

Why have Roman Catholics historically been more reluctant to view gambling as a sin than Protestants — but then again, why have even Protestants opted to raise money through bingo? Are people who gamble responsible for the consequences of their own behavior, or is gambling evidence of an addiction? Why are poker tournaments and lotteries considered gambling, but investing in the stock market or real estate is not? Are we really witnessing something new here, or have Americans always been gamblers? Is gambling more harmful to women than men, and therefore a feminist issue? Is gambling rational? Is it glamorous? What does the popularity of gambling say about American attitudes toward thrift, and if American views of thrift are changing, what implications follow for the study of American values? Are younger people more or less attracted to gambling than their elders?

The Brits have no such conflicts. They’ll bet on anything.

Well, this is easily the most controversial window view I’ve ever published. I did due diligence in trying to figure out where it was exactly, and have decided to leave it at Jerusalem and remove the moniker Palestine. One reader objected here. Here’s another reader:

Just a quick note since my nephew lives in Har Homa. It is beyond the Green Line which generally is considered Palestinian territory, subject to final negotiations , of course. It was built along with other settlements to provide an iron clad barrier of Jews around Jerusalem. It’s purpose is to prevent the division of Jerusalem.

While your reader is correct that Har Homa falls within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, what he fails to admit to is those boundaries were expanded in various stages unilaterally by Israel between 1967 and 1993. These boundaries far, far, far exceed anything in the past and in fact extend right up to the city of Ramallah.

Har Homa is a settlement and that is how its residents feel about it. My nephew and his family moved there from Ariel with the express purpose of preventing the division of Jerusalem and preventing Palestinian access.

Oy.