A Clinton Flashback

It all depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is:

"I ‘saw’ him in the figurative sense."

"The reference of seeing my father lead in civil rights," he said, "and seeing my father march with Martin Luther King is in the sense of this figurative awareness of and recognition of his leadership."

"I’ve tried to be as accurate as I can be," he continued, smiling firmly. "If you look at the literature or look at the dictionary, the term ‘saw’ includes being aware of — in the sense I’ve described."

The questioning did not relent. "I’m an English literature major," he insisted at one point. "When we say I saw the Patriots win the World Series, it doesn’t necessarily mean you were there."

He meant the Super Bowl, of course. Or maybe he was being figurative.

The Beatles Do Stairway

A pretty fabulous YouTube mash-up:

Hat tip: Tube Junkie.

(Update: A reader writes: Just a quick correction – the Beatnix video isn’t a YouTube mashup, but came from the album Stairway to Heaven, released about a decade ago. (It’s actually a wonderful album that offers nothing but covers of "Stairway to Heaven," done in the styles of everyone from The Beatles (as we’ve seen), to Elvis, The Doors, the B-52s’ (Rock Lobster style), opera, and even the Andrews Sisters. Pretty wonderful stuff.)

Professor’s Little Helper

Nature has an interesting story on scientists using various cognitive-enhancing drugs to push their limits. It’s rather like the use of steroids by athletes – but they’re brain steroids, if you will. Mind Hacks notes:

These are the same drugs that have caused concern about their level of use among students, chiefly modafinil (Provigil) and methylphenidate (Ritalin), although other drugs such as Alzheimer’s medication donepezil (Aricept), non-amphetamine ADHD drug atomoxetine (Strattera) are also candidates.

I haven’t had a cow about the baseball steroids "scandal" because the only issue to me is whether some athletes have cheated by getting an unfair advantage over others. I don’t actually believe the use of steroids in sports is inherently problematic – as long as everyone gets a fair crack at the needle. I guess it’s because my own long-term use of testosterone replacement therapy has opened my eyes to the power and largely benign impact of moderate and responsible steroid use. I need it, of course, and when I’ve forgotten my dose (who wants to jab themselves if they can put it off?), I’ve experienced serious fatigue and marginal weight-loss. But I really can’t see the harm in aging men without HIV using testosterone or human growth hormone to ease the transition into geezerdom – or just because it makes you feel good or look hotter. It’s positively harmful for the young; but I tend to believe that adults should be allowed to put whatever chemicals they want into their own bodies. The line between medical and cosmetic or lifestyle usage seems to me to be rather blurry – and will get blurrier as science advances. So if a prof wants to do a little Provigil, it’s no worry for me. Why should it be a worry for anyone but the prof himself?

Rural Barack

A reader writes:

In regards to your post that Obama’s support in rural NH is surprising; let me give you a little anecdotal evidence of his surprising support in rural central Pennsylvania:

I teach civics and government at a small rural public high school in central Pennsylvania … not exactly a hotbed of liberalism. In fact, in the mock election that I ran for the school in 2004 the students re-elected George Bush with nearly 70% of the vote. Of course now Bush couldn’t buy a compliment from the vast majority of my students, but more surprising to me than that is how they’ve turned to Obama in droves. 

We just finished a project in which we looked at six of the top Republicans and six of the top Democratic candidates and the students in my overwhelmingly white, rural, middle to lower middle class town are excited about Barack Obama.  I’ve been teaching at this school for 10 years and thought I had a pretty good understanding of the political pulse of my students and I never, never would have predicted his appeal.  It’s astounding.

But not surprising to me was who is running a distant second … Ron Paul.

Staying In Iraq

Hilzoy vents:

People sometimes talk about "doing what it takes in Iraq", or "giving the surge a chance", as though such choices had no actual downside; as though letting George W. Bush have his way on Iraq policy was like letting your child pursue some wildly improbable but ultimately harmless dream. "Why not let him try?", they say, as though he were a teenager hoping to become a movie star, or me trying to make the NBA. This is obviously crazy: nothing about Iraq is harmless. Our soldiers are dying in Iraq; our money is being spent there; our resources are being diverted away from places like Afghanistan, where they might have done a lot more good. And, to top it all off, we are doing damage to our Army that will take decades to undo, and that might prevent us from responding adequately the next time we face a real threat, rather than one that exists only in Bush and Cheney’s imaginations.

She must want the terrorists to win, right?

How Much Is Matt Worth?

I’d say this lowballs him:

If you want to buy the Drudge Report, offer him $10 million. If he’s even interested in selling, don’t be surprised if he counters with $15 million or more. But don’t pay a penny unless you lock the man in the fedora in to a long-term contract. Without him—and his sources—the site is worthless.

I know this now counts as a massive suck-up, but I think the man is a genius, easily the most gifted media entrepreneur of his generation. And I wrote that a very long time before it was cool.