ZOMG Sarah Palin is so incredibly dumb!!!1!one!!

I mean, like she's so dumb!

Well, that's the position of Michelle Goldberg, who gets positively bitchslapped by Ann Althouse at around 10:00 into this video (note: Video from November 2009).  The three minutes starting at that point is a very interesting window into the progressive way of thinking.  Goldberg is very clearly sealed in the progressive bubble (see her comment at 40:45 that "reality has a liberal bias"), but is also absolutely incapable of defending her positions when someone pushes back.

This is a long video, but is important for anyone who - like me - is tired of sneers from smug progressives.  They congratulate themselves on being more insightful and nuanced (see 10:50), when what they really are being is tribal.

Goldberg offers numerous examples of what lawyers call "declaration against interest", where the statement is so contrary to their chance of winning their case that the statement is presumed to be true.  For example, at 24:00, Goldberg states "... I found it, if not unbelievable, then her psychology is so different from anyone that I've ever encountered as to seem unrecognizable ..."  For someone who by her own admission values nuance to offer a nobody I know voted for Nixon example is telling indeed.

Tribal.  Goldman has chosen Obama's progressive intellectual tribe.  She picks arguments that support that decision, and rejects arguments that show that decision to be less than wise, and there's no bridging this divide.

Watch the exchange that starts around 26:00, where Althouse (who voted for Obama) says that he's "dithering" on what do do about Afghanistan.  Goldberg rushes to his defense, exclaiming that she loves (her words) an intellectual President.  Althouse is looking for leadership; Goldberg is happy to have someone from her tribe on top. Althouse brings it up again - and Goldberg challenges her again - at 37:30.  There's simply no possibility of common ground here, or of a true intellectual debate of the ideas.

None of this would matter much if the Left were intellectually sound.  Unfortunately, it's not, and rather than being the odd "black swan", Goldberg's helplessness in the face of reasoned analysis is sadly par for the course.  The Left is populated by people who spent their school years in the comfortable cocoon of compliance.  Rather than challenging ideas that were presented to them - from either the Left or the Right - they cruised along, got their honors degrees from Ivy League schools by parroting what their professors expected, and became so used to hearing that they were "the best and the brightest" that they came to believe it in their bones.

They have no idea that there are people who don't think like they do, but think as well - or better - than they do.  And when they run into one of these people, they have absolutely no idea how to respond other than falling back into tribal platitudes.




Progressive 's view of Gov. Palin seems based not on analysis, but on which tribe they self-identify with. I mean, ZOMG she's so dumb. I mean, how can you do anything like this if you're not ZOMG dumb dumb dumb?

I keep saying that this Republic needs an intellectually vigorous Left.  Sadly, we don't have one, but even worse we have an intellectually feeble left that thinks that they're Ever So Clever, and therefore Fit To Rule.

I don't know what to do about this, other than sit back and watch the inevitable collapse of the current Intellectual Order.  This coming decade will be a series of catastrophes for them as Great Society and the New Deal collapse, as the most progressive states go bankrupt, and as we see a return to 1970s-era stagflation as the policies implemented during the first two years of the Obama Administration bite.  The Progressive Intellectual's world view will be swept aside, but a lot of regular folks will get caught in that rip tide, too.

What I do expect is that whatever is left standing at the end of the decade will be stronger and more intellectually vigorous than what we have now.  Not that that is saying much.

"We have to join in, or perish."

Fable 3 has a very fine cast - including Ben Kingsley - with some comments on what it's like as a screen actor taking video game roles.



Very interesting indeed.

Yup, that's how it works

Full disclosure: I made this entirely by myself, without any help from Al Gore's Intarwebz ...

Via The Original One Legged Old Fat Man.

Meditation

There was a curious custom in Tibet, before the Chinese surgically excised* Buddhism from that unfortunate land.  When a person was dieing, the local Lama (priest) would sit with him, with his fingers literally on the pulse.  At the moment of death, the Lama would begin to instruct the dead on how to approach the cycle of reincarnation - and hopefully avoid a new cycle entirely.

When I first heard of this, it was explained that to me that a person does not die all at once.  Rather, there is a period where the nerves are still alive, and presumed to be open to such instruction.

I always thought this to be nonsense.  You do not get powerful rituals surviving hundreds or thousands of years for this sort of utilitarian reason.  Rather, the rituals speak to something deep in our souls, the souls of the living.  It is a meditation, but not for the dead.  It's for the living.  What is it to be human?  What does it mean to live?  What is it to die?

Worthy questions.  Here in the West, we've lost much of this, and the further you are in the coastal Progressive bubble, the more you have likely lost.  Offered as a three step progressive (although not Progressive) regime, here is a meditation on these questions.

Proust:



Longfellow:



Country Music:



It is said that the Infinite condescends to the mind of man, speaking in many different voices in the hopes that one of them will be understood.  But the voices all say the same thing, if we listen.  As the ancient mystic Greeks said, it is the same wax that takes many molds.  Another of those infinitude of voices was captured in the non-canonical (and possibly heretical) Gospel of Thomas:  The Kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it.

See it.

* Actually, that term is literally correct when you consider some of the horrors  inflicted on the Tibetan Lamas by the conquering Chinese.

Sunday morning giggle

Because I'm lazy and overslept.

Best. Drag. Race. Ever.

A Bugatti Veyron vs. a Jet Fighter.  Of course, it's Top Gear.

Marty Robbins - Big Iron

#2 Son wanted me to take him to see True Grit.  I think it was because of Red Dead Redemption, or perhaps the soundtrack in Fallout: New Vegas, which includes this song.  But as someone who grew up during a time when the Cowboy was King (and when this album was released), it sure is a fun trip down memory lane.

We've seen Marty Robbins here previously, and covered his NASCAR career.  Word has it that he won Talladega in 1973 by removing the restrictors from his carburetor.

Be that as it may, there's no denying that he's having a resurgence of popularity with a new generation.  One that doesn't realize that he won a Grammy Hall of Fame award, just that he's on every channel in Fallout: New Vegas.  It's surprising - but very nice indeed - to have #2 Son play some Marty Robbins.  Not because I asked him to, but because he thinks it's a cool song.



Big Iron (Songwriter: Marty Robbins)

To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day
Hardly spoke to folks around him didn't have too much to say
No one dared to ask his business no one dared to make a slip
for the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip

It was early in the morning when he rode into the town
He came riding from the south side slowly lookin' all around
He's an outlaw loose and running came the whisper from each lip
And he's here to do some business with the big iron on his hip
big iron on his hip

In this town there lived an outlaw by the name of Texas Red
Many men had tried to take him and that many men were dead
He was vicious and a killer though a youth of twenty four
And the notches on his pistol numbered one an nineteen more
One and nineteen more

Now the stranger started talking made it plain to folks around
Was an Arizona ranger wouldn't be too long in town
He came here to take an outlaw back alive or maybe dead
And he said it didn't matter he was after Texas Red
After Texas Red

Wasn't long before the story was relayed to Texas Red
But the outlaw didn't worry men that tried before were dead
Twenty men had tried to take him twenty men had made a slip
Twenty one would be the ranger with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip

The morning passed so quickly it was time for them to meet
It was twenty past eleven when they walked out in the street
Folks were watching from the windows every-body held their breath
They knew this handsome ranger was about to meet his death
About to meet his death

There was forty feet between them when they stopped to make their play
And the swiftness of the ranger is still talked about today
Texas Red had not cleared leather fore a bullet fairly ripped
And the ranger's aim was deadly with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip

It was over in a moment and the folks had gathered round
There before them lay the body of the outlaw on the ground
Oh he might have went on living but he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the ranger with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip

True Grit

#2 Son and I went to see it.  Two thumbs way, way up.

It took some guts to remake a film that not only stared John Wayne, but Glen Campbell, Dennis Hopper, and Robert Duval.  One that won an Oscar.  But this film not only bests out the original, it possibly sweeps the board: it's possible that every role is performed better in the new one than the old.  Not certain, but possible.

What is certain is that young Miss Hailee Steinfeld (at 14, a year younger than #2 Son) gave a performance that is nothing short of astounding, and which is Oscar-worthy.  Kim Darby's performance in the original pales in comparison.

And Matt Damon steals the show as La Boeuf, the Texas Ranger.  I have a soft spot in my heart for Glen Campbell, but he was as hard drinking as the character of Rooster Cogburn.  Not sure if that had anything to do with it, but his performance doesn't match Damon's.

Jeff Bridges perhaps won't get nominated for an Oscar, as he did in last year's Crazy Heart, but he fills The Duke's big, big boots more than adequately.  His Rooster Cogburn is different from Wayne's - it doesn't feel like he's trying to be Wayne at all, although one quote is clearly left in as a tip o' the brim to the original: Fill your hand, you son-of-a-bitch!

Remakes are Hollywood's stock in trade, it seems.  Love that or hate that, we should appreciate when a great, iconic film is redone better.  Highly recommended.

Don't fret, Progressives ...

There's always tomorrow.

In Soviet Russia, fox hunts you

Fox shoots hunter in Belarus:

A wounded fox shot its would be killer in Belarus by pulling the trigger on the hunter's gun as the pair scuffled after the man tried to finish the animal off with the butt of the rifle, media said on Thursday.

No word in the article whether the words Hey Bubba Sergei, hold mah beer vodka were heard.

Foxes of the world, unite!

Hat tip to Rick, via email.  Seems that he's doing most of my blogging for me lately ...

There are two types of data

Data you care about, and data that you don't bother to back up.  I keep saying that backups are critical, the most important part of security.  This is why:

Medical researchers in Oklahoma are offering a no-questions-asked $1,000 reward for the return of a stolen laptop that contains years of research on prostate cancer.

Sook Shin lost the 13-inch white MacBook last Sunday after thieves smashed the window of the car she shares with husband, Ralf Jankecht, and made off with the laptop. Data on the machine was not backed up.

Years of research, gone in an instant.  Don't be like her.

Of course, Ms. Shin did save the cost of a $15 USB thumb drive.

The invisible mountain of skulls

It's not often that I get a little cross when I read Tam, but that happened today.  No, I didn't get cross at her, but her post triggered a rant at my former compatriots on the left.  She wrote about the moral emptiness of the proposed bans on standard "high" capacity magazines, and serves up j'accuse:

So, by saying you're in favor of magazines that hold no more than X rounds, you're publicly stating that it's only X+1 bodies that bother you.

As Weer'd points out, these proposals would not have prevented either the Texas Tower or Virgina Tech massacres.  There's your first mountain of skulls, invisible to the Paladins of the Left.  Which was precisely Tam's point.

But that's not what got be cross.  The Left's own policy Prescriptions result in mountains of skulls, and these are equally invisible to our Moral Betters.  Consider the floods in Queensland, Australia:

I am sitting here in my home in South East Queensland, watching the news come in about the flooding everywhere. Entire suburbs around Brisbane and several smaller towns are either isolated by flood-waters or have been evacuated. Highways are cut everywhere.

People have been dying. So far about 20 people have died in the past week – nine just this morning when a deluge went through the Lockyer Valley. Most of them children. Another 70 are missing. One could put it all down to “just” weather.

Except EXACTLY the same floods occurred in EXACTLY the same places back in 1974, with much the same tragic loss of life and destruction of property.

C'mon, Borepatch, I hear you say.  You can't blame weather on the Left.  No, I can't.  But I can blame the Left for canceling projects that would have prevented a repeat of 1974:

And that’s what we did – or at least started. Wivenhoe Dam got built as the first step, but by the time it was finished clever people like you lot [Environmentalists - ed] who “knew” that such things were never going to happen again had taken over. CO2 AGW madness had already taken hold.

Instead we had “post modern” minds like Tim Flannery “advising” the government that because of Anthropogenic Global Warming, SE QLD would be perpetually in drought from then on. “Forget dams and flood mitigation programs”, intoned the wise Dr Tim – “build desalination plants instead”.

So that’s what our government did. And that is why thirty five years later, we are once again suffering exactly the SAME tragic loss of life and destruction of property, pretty-much exactly where, and when, and how, those stupid scientists who foolishly believed climate was cyclical had predicted.

And when push came to shove, what was the winning argument?  I mean, this was a do it for the children project, right?  What did the Left think was more important than children?

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett ... said he made the interim decision to reject the controversial $1.8 billion plan to dam the Mary River because evidence showed it could kill off endangered species.

“The project would have serious and irreversible effects on national listed species such as the Australian lungfish, the Mary River turtle and the Mary River cod – both of those endangered.

So, the same people who tell us that we're monsters because we think their magazine ban is idiotic, the same people who want to shut down our right to speak our mind "hate speech" - these Moral Exemplars For All Time seem curiously unable to see the corpses created by their own philosophy.

Color me unimpressed with their for teh childrens pleading.  This Republic could use a vigorous, intellectually and morally strong Left.  We don't have one.

The speech that Arizona Governor Jan Brewster should - but won't - give

In a more vigorous, and less degraded age of this Republic, we might have expected something like this:

My fellow Arizonans,

I address you tonight to explain why I am vetoing the legislature's latest bill, banning public gatherings within 300 feet of funerals.  I understand that emotions are running very high after the senseless shootings in Tucson.  I understand that the group that has announced its despicable plans to protest outside the funeral of a 9 year old victim has further inflamed the situation.

But our system of government is clear.  The First Amendment of the Constitution recognizes the right of all people publicly to assemble.  It recognizes the right of all people freely to practice their religion.  It constrains the government from restricting these rights, even when we see them as bizarre, or even offensive.

It restricts the government especially when we see these as offensive.

We can look on the Constitution as merely a piece of paper, or we can look on it as something real, that binds us with well thought out restrictions devised by wise men long ago.  Men who saw that evil seduces us to act, by appealing to our better natures.  These men had seen the results of that evil - evil done with the best of intentions - and bound our government with chains as mighty as they could craft, to prevent that evil from establishing itself on our shores.

While I agree with the sentiments that moved the Legislature - agree with all my heart - I will not bring that evil to these shores.  This government will not violate the Founder's sacred intent, and prevent the people from assembling.  Nor will it prevent what I personally believe to be a contemptible church from spreading its message of hate, in the course of exercising its understanding of its religion.

I therefore veto the Legislature's well-intended statute, because it does violence to the Constitution.

I encourage all Arizonans to exercise their rights of assembly and speech as well, especially in Tucson, and especially at this little girl's funeral.  Those rights are equally precious, and protected by that same Constitution.  As it has often been said, "The First Amendment protects you from the Government, not from me."

I've spoken with the head of the State Police, and with the Tucson Chief of Police, and by a strange coincidence both the State Police and the Tucson police are busy that day, and will not be in attendance at the funeral.  I do ask all Arizonans to exercise their good judgment, and consider whether it would be wise to bring firearms.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless this great state.

The situation would almost certainly be addressed peacefully, since the Westboro Baptist Church members, while contemptible, are likely rational.  It's almost certain that they lack the courage of their convictions.

But it's possible that the Good Citizens of Tucson might have the opportunity to mete out justice.  It's happened before here, and still occurs:

The older man - measured, polite - had decided it was time the world was told why a man should be abducted, tied to a lamppost and have boiling tar poured over his head and body before being 'decorated' with feathers.

...

"This man had been warned," he says. "This man was known to have been dealing drugs in our community. If you have kids rolling through the doors with their eyes all over their heads, you know that something is not right.

"It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to work it out. Selling drugs to children is not on. The community wants drug dealers off the street, but they have no confidence in the police. If police catch these people dealing, they don't do anything.

The Constitution binds our government with mighty cords, restraining its acts.  The Government should be bound with these cords, to protect the People.

But the Government needs to be wise enough to know when to step aside to let the People do what it should not.

Via The Other McCain.

Musical (geeky) interlude

#1 Son loves Minecraft.

The definition of "awesome"

It's "iPhone controlled cold beer dispensing compressed air cannon."



Via El Reg, who offer up details:

Ryan Rusnak, 25, first rigged up a bog-standard refrigerated beer vending machine to dispense refreshment at the touch of his Jesus Phone.

Dissatisfied with having to physically retrieve the can from the machine's tray, he and Graham Phero decided it would be "awesome" if the device could fire ale directly to the customer using compressed air.
Accordingly, they added a ballistic beer unit to the mix, and after a few prototypes and several high-velocity mishaps, they triumphed

And well done to Mr. Rusnak and compatriots - the fridge/canon is password protected.  Extra crazy security points!

I'm shocked to see this sort of thinking emerge from a University, where the students are (supposed to be) under drinking age. 

Canada

Uncle Jay finds out that it's not for wimps.

Global Warming causes irony

Rick emails with this demonstration of unanticipated consequences:

Some scientists studying penguins may be inadvertently harming them with the metal bands they use to keep track of the tuxedo-clad seabirds, a new study says. The survival rate of King penguins with metal bands on their flippers was 44 percent lower than those without bands and banded birds produced far fewer chicks, according to new research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.


The theory is that the metal bands — either aluminum or stainless steel — increase drag on the penguins when they swim, making them work harder, the study's authors said.

Author Yvon Le Maho of the University of Strasbourg in France, said the banded penguins looked haggard, appearing older than their actual age.

I blame the release of anthropogenic carbon dioxide during the aluminum refining process.

UPDATE 13 January 2011 13:47: Rick emails with a suggested update:

The increased mortality of the penguins (caused by the scientists who put the metal tags on them) was used as evidence of global warming: i.e. based upon their study, penguins were dying at an alarmingly higher rate then they were before.  They concluded that it was due to loss of habitat caused by global warming.  Their data was spot on.  Of course, they did leave one variable out of their equation...

Added to the "Junk Science" category because, well, it was junk science.

Tennessee

It really is snowy, all over the South.

We should be more like Europe, mkay?

Belgum has been unable to form a government months after the last election, and so the King has started direct rule:

Great news from Belgium: after three months without the country managing to elect a government, King Albert has started making policy. Possibly an actual crisis isn't necessary, and a mere mechanical hiccup is enough to start the transition from democracy to responsible government.

More likely not: at some point the politicians of Belgium will presumably manage to cobble together a democratic government, and he will be expected to hand over. However, if that takes a while longer, the idea will start to implant itself in some minds, that there is an alternative. He is in charge now, and the reason really is that it might as well be him as anybody else, and at least it solves arguments. And that is the whole reason for monarchy. As people come to realise that the problems caused by competition for power, even when mediated through an electoral process, are inevitable and finally catastrophic, any reminders of how to settle on an easy choice will be useful.

Me, I blame Sarah Palin and her vitriolic, "eliminationist" rhetoric.  Seriously, can everyone in Brussels please just shut up about how we Cowboy Americans don't know how to govern properly?

Hat tip: Foseti.

Heh

Fish, barrel.  The Czar of Muscovy looks at the media coverage of the Tuscon shooting, and slaps the media into next month.  Filled with smart analysis, but ending with this delightful crescendo:

... when you want to predict what the media will do next, always imagine what a 14-year-old freshman will do, or how she will interpret the events in relation to herself, to impress a senior guy.

But don't forget that these journalists are smarter than you and me.  Nicer, too.

Legacy

I fly home today, after a too-short visit with Mom and Dad.  We've said what needs to be said, which is good - I'm not sure I'll get to see him again.

Thanks to everyone who's left comments during this long, sad journey.  Thanks especially to Stephany and Brigid, whose advice has been particularly helpful.  Say what needs to be said.  Don't leave things unsaid.  Every day is a gift.

SheDAISY's He's A Hero hits very close to home:

He's a young man
In his golden years
His hair of black now quickly fades to gray
The limp as he walks is his only souvenir
From those purple-hearted war time days

But you don't hear him complain
No matter how the fall
I don't have a lot, he'd smile and say
But lord I have it all

He's a hero
In my mother's eyes
He taught her how to raise me right
and never compromise
He always says he has the
finer things in life
Somewhere to live, someone to love
and the Good book to live by

Some say his heart is big
All though his fortune's small
I don't have a lot, he'd smile and say
But lord I have it all

A rembrandt in his own right
A master at his craft
Creating something beautiful
A memory that will last
And always last

He's the constant
In our family
Beginning this long line of love
We've cared
And even when he's gone he'll watch over me
When I close my eyes at night I feel him there

Wear my name, well my child
Be true and stand tall
You don't have a lot he'd always say
But lord you have it all

You don't have a lot he'd always say
But thank the Lord you have it all

Hero in my mother's eyes

Watching Mom makes me realize that the most beautiful and the most terrible terrifying words in the English language are in sickness and in health, until Death do us part. She's quite an inspiration.

I've written before about the curious problem of Grace, but it boils down to this:

If you were going to die soon
and had only one phone call you could make,
who would you call and what would you say?

And why are you waiting?

I'm sure glad I made that call.

And you might want to stop by Stephany's, Brigid's, and Chris Byrnes' places right now, as they're also hearing life speak in its Outdoors Voice right now.

What's sad is that it's pretty accurate

Via Theo Spark.

OK, so I'm a nerd

It's 1/11/11:11:11

The futility of health care "reform"

Aretae ponders what makes things get better, and looks at how the health care industry stacks up:

Almost everything in the world is getting better and less expensive. Why? Better technology, new entrants, real competition, proper incentives, new approaches

A few things in the world (Education, Health Care) are NOT getting both better and less expensive. Why? Lack of (a) technology, (b) new entrants (c) real competition, (d) decent incentives (e) new approaches. Indeed, one can make an argument for rate of progress in a field being based entirely on those 5 factors.

His is the best analysis I've seen explaining the deep pit of FAIL that is our current system.  Incentives count, and they're all aligned wrong.

What he doesn't discuss is what Obamacare will do to this.  Tech, new entrants, competition, incentives, new approaches - can we expect this "reform" to actually improve any of these?

Unlikely.  When you consider that the two groups that spent the most lobbying for Obamacare were the AMA and the Insurance companies, you can kiss new entrants, competition, and new approaches goodbye.  The FDA ensures that we get no new tech (specifically, their risk adverse rules mean that new tech is 3x to 10x more expensive).  As to incentives, they've been set by the AMA and the Insurance companies, and written into law by a compliant Democratic Congress.

That's one righteous "reform" effort, right there.  Fail.

You really need to RTWT.

The "Sarah Palin made the crazy man shoot the Congresswoman" meme has officially jumped the shark

I have proof.

I'm out at Mom and Dad's house, andd their taste still runs to PBS Newshour in the evening.  Last night's show had David Brooks (not my favorite "conservative" collumnist) roundly condemning this meme as despicable.  Jim Lehrer challenged Mark Shields, Brooks' liberal counterpart, to address Brooks' statement.

Shields agreed completely.  So did Lehrer.  On PBS, the usual suspects all lined up behind what the sane side of the blogosphere is saying - there's no connection, the shooter is a lone crazy, the claim that Palin's "targets" caused this is pathetic, the whole nine yards.  They were all contemptuous and dismissive of the whole thing.  All of them.

Color me surprised, but  PBS rose to the occasion, and did so in magnificent form.  Stick a fork in it, this meme is done. If even PBS isn't buying it, it's over.

I guess you're never too old to learn something at your parents' house.

UPDATE 11 January 2011 11:02:  Brooks has a simply outstanding column in today's New York Times, The Politicized Mind.  Regular readers will know that I'm not a big Brooks fan, but this hits all the right notes: the rush to judgment, the media blindness caused by a left-wing tilt, reporter's ignorance of mental health issues.  It's a sober j'accuse on the Time's Op-Ed page that will hopefully help tone down some of the silliness.  Well done, Mr. Brooks.

Guts and Brains

Major Dick Winters, R.I.P.:

"He was one hell of a guy, one of the greatest soldiers I was ever under," said Heffron, who had the nickname "Babe" in the company. "He was a wonderful officer, a wonderful leader. He had what you needed, guts and brains."

Winters, of course, was the leader of E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in World War II highlighted in Stephen Ambrose's Band Of Brothers, and the H.B.O. series of the same name.



What is most remarkable about his memoir Beyond Band Of Brothers is his repeated expressions of regret that when he had a particularly tough mission, he would rely on First Platoon for the toughest fighting.  They were his most experienced men, but he said over and over again that too many of them lost their lives because of his decision to do that.

Winters always seemed uncomfortable with the public spotlight from Ambrose's book and the HBO series.  He was matter of fact, and always careful to give credit to his men; he stepped out of the public eye five years ago.  I was particularly touched by this from his obituary:

An intensely private and humble man, Winters had asked that news of his death be withheld until after his funeral, Jackson said.

He expressed a concern for family and friends around him until the very end.  Humble indeed, and leading by example, from the front.

A brave captain is as a root, out of which, as branches, the courage of his soldiers doth spring.

- Sir Phillip Sidney

Quote of the Day: On the Death of the Academy

At The Gormogons, on why the Universities are turning out so many people who no longer know how to think critically:

I can guarantee that a Ph.D. in English offers no certainty of real critical thought. What it offers most of the time (particularly in fields like eco-crit) is the usual array of lefty cant. Instead of actually considering the literature as literature, which may have useful or beautiful things to say, most lit scholars these days are taught to judge works in terms of support (or lack of support) for current political agendas. The baleful influence of Foucault (which is essentially warmed-over Nietzsche) has led literary study away from looking at literature as anything but an indicator of power relations. The result is a sort of half-assed sociological reading of everything as text, and all texts are mere expressions of the hegemon's episteme. In short, it collapses into pure relativism in short order, and even fundamental ideas of logic and life as it is actually lived are disdained as mere constructs. By the way, this is also why the humanities are seen as the odd-sock drawer of academe. Too many of us have traded our birthrights for pots of message (to borrow a line from Chesterton). And it's almost always a lefty message.

It's Tribal Indoctrination, not education.  Three things come to mind, all post worthy (and which I've posted on in the past, so you can all relax ...):

1. I continue to claim that this is terribly damaging - politically - to the Left.  Politics is about persuading the undecided middle, and the Democrats are increasingly unable to do so without resorting to lies or one-off tricks.

2. 'Puter is absolutely correct that the logical result of this Tribal Indoctrination is the current climate of incivility.  The utter contempt for viewpoints opposing the current leftie meme du jour starts at the Academy.  There's little common ground for actual discussion here, because a real discussion has to start with an assumption that your opponent argues from a position of integrity, whether he's right or wrong.

3.  Since the Tribal Indoctrination is so obvious and pronounced, and since most of the country does not hold these Tribal Affiliations, what is the future of public higher education?  What should be the future of public higher education?

Read the whole thing, which is packed with smart.

UPDATE 10 January 2010 14:39: Gettoputer leaves a comment pointing out that my excerpted quote was from Professor Mondo.  His analysis is packed full of smart.  And Midwest Chick also leaves a comment that is packed full of smart.

Reloading 101

ASM826 is not only a great rifle instructor, he is great at explaining things like reloading.  He has a series up that's worth your while, if you've a hankering to try it yourself.

Part 1. Why bother?

Part 2. Getting started


Part 3. Checkpoint: Are you doing it right?

Part 4.  Reassess: why bother reloading?

Part 5.  Video

Part 6.  Casting bullets

Part 7. When it goes wrong, it goes very wrong indeed

It looks like he's still adding to the series, but he's helpfully tagged it for your convenience.  Excellent.

I've had the pleasure of reloading with him in his ammunition factory, along with #2 Son.  As I said, he's an excellent instructor.  If you're considering taking this up, you should spend some time on his posts.

Was it "Kill the joos"?

Huh:

Fox News reported Sunday morning that an internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by the network indicated that suspect Jared Lee Loughner, 22, is "possibly linked" to an anti-Semitic, white supremacist group.

The DHS memo called the group American Renaissance "anti-government, anti-immigration, anti-ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government), anti-Semitic." The information reportedly came as Loughner's computer and personal effects were searched in the shooting investigation.

Sorry, I have absolutely no idea how to score anti-government, anti-immigration, anti-Zionist, anti-semetic on the usual two dimensional left-right political axis.  Looks like a 2:2 tie to me (maybe 2:1:1; maybe).  Then again, I'm sure our intellectual superiors in the Media will rush to explain it to me.

Sure makes the Mein Kampf connection a lot clearer, though. That said, DHS is arguably the most consistently incompetent Federal Agency.  Let's see what else comes out on this.

Via Don Surber.

Neat trick for sharpening knives

I'm sharpening Mom and Dad's kitchen knives, which haven't been sharpened in a long time.  What was always hardest for me when using a whetstone was keeping a consistent angle on the blade.

Here's a neat trick I learned today - use one of these:

A half inch binder clip put on the blade (not the sharp side, duh) will keep things at a consistent angle.  No fuss, no muss.

It's a bit sad that it took so long to learn this trick, but better late than never.

And remember - it's the dull knives that are dangerous.  With tricks like this making it so easy, there's no excuse in not sharpening every six months or so.

Your sunday morning techie coolness

Brought to you by Al Fin, it's a lighter than air ship that will take you to orbit:

JP Aerospace is developing the technology to fly a balloon or more accurately, their relative, the airship directly to orbit.

Flying an airship directly from the ground to orbit is not practical. An airship large enough to reach orbit would not survive the winds near the surface of the Earth. Conversely, an airship that could fly from the ground to upper atmosphere would not be light enough to reach space. The resulting configuration is a three-part architecture for using lighter-than-air vehicles to reach space.

They're testing components, which is very cool indeed - much cooler than some blueprints and a pack of "Artist's Conceptions".

The potential fly in the ointment is the upper stage, that actually takes you to orbit.  At those altitudes (>150,000 ft), and at orbital speed, what little air there is flows over the airship at hypersonic speeds.  It's not clear that JP Aerospace has figured out to deal with this.

But still, it's one of the coolest things I've seen is some time.

Word

KurtP asks the question:

So now- in order to enhance our privacy- we need to use our national internet ID?
So you can track us- but not 'really' track our surfing habits- because it's for the children,,,or something.

Just like the Republicans hustled up to give all sorts of powers to the Homeland Security Department in 2001, the Democrats are hustling to give all sorts of powers to the FCC.

Coke Party, Pepsi Party.  Me, I prefer Leninade.

Dang.  And I even said I'd be less gloomy.  Hmmmm, OK - how about this?   The Fed.Gov's idiotic ID card program is going to be hopelessly broken (security-wise).  Therefore, you'll probably be able to be whoever you like on the Intarwebz.  So where would you surf as Barack H. Obama?  Remember: with great power comes great responsibility ...

The Glamor of Air Travel

It's pretty much all gone now. Up until now, I've consoled myself with the satisfaction of $200 tickets to go out to see Dad. After all, if it's really a 600 MPH Greyhound bus, your expectations are set differently than, say, First Class to Paris.

So what's with the ticket price going to $450? It's just a guess, but I somehow don't think that the service will be twice as good, or that we'll get there twice as fast.

It adds to an overall gloomy mood. I've noticed it in my posts lately, and while there are some things that I have a mind to post on, I won't. In fact, I'm going out of my way to post goofy/funny stiff. There's enough gloom in the world as it is.

I'm also taking a week off from Saturday Redneck. I just wasn't of a mind to put one together. Same with a Gun Pr0n post - just couldn't work it up. Hopefully next week.

But now it's off to see Dad again. Back later.

Location:Atlanta Hartsfield Airport

Blogroll updates

Midwest Chick emails (!) to say that I've been on her blogroll for quite some time.  She's a regular read, which makes me wonder just how slow I've been.  I mean, if you don't read her, you'll miss stuff like this:

Why do I keep reading SOTU (State of the Union address), as STFU??

The Adaptive Curmudgeon seems like a bit of a kindred spirit.  He describes himself:

Adaptive Curmudgeon, or “Benevolent Dictator Of This Blog”, lives somewhere, does something, and remains vaguely anonymous for no particular reason.  As we all know, blogs are commonly used only to help restrain an author’s illogical desire to stand curbside spouting unrequested opinion.  Thus, if this blog doesn’t meet your standards.  You should lower your damned standards.

Heh. 

Welcome to the blogroll, folks!  And the usual note to anyone else who's blogrolled me - if I haven't added you here, email be at borepatch {at} gmail {dot} com, or leave a comment.

Imbibers of the world, unite!

You have nothing to lose but your thirst!

Drink, Comrade, drink!  It's that or the Gulag!

It's real, and has a real sense of humor:

Ingredients: Seething disappointment, Carbonated Water, Cane Sugar, Citric Acid, Gum Acacia, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Glyceryl Abietate, Sodium Benzoate, Artificial Color.

Combine this with some Stolichnaya, and you have a party fit for the New Soviet Man.  And this video is obligatory:



Kulaks need not apply ...

Style points

They go to the spammers sending email from the account called "emailclicksyou.com".  Made me giggle, that did.

Didn't open the email, but I did giggle.

Anti-Communist Comic Book from the 1950s

Is This Tomorrow was a full length (50 page) comic book from the 1950s, describing how a Communist takeover of America might happen.  It's quite interesting reading, as a time capsule of the intellectual wars of the day.

Sadly, the line Wolverines!!!1!! is not to be found in its pages.

Global Warming causes totalitarianism

It seems that one of the IPCC's big authors on their latest report has a book out.  He thinks he's found what the biggest impediment to Saving The World™ is.  Democracy:

In short, Shearman and Smith argue that liberal democracy – considered sacrosanct in modern societies – is an impediment to finding ecologically sustainable solutions for the planet

The author is Dr. David Shearman.  His bio is impressive:

Professor David Shearman, MD, is Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Adelaide, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University’s Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences and Law School.  Professor Shearman was an Assessor for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report and the Fourth Assessment Report.

Unfortunately, Dr. Shearman does not seem to read this blog, as it would have helped him avoid some common n00b errors:

Chapter 9 will describe in more detail how we might begin the process of constructing such real universities to train the ecowarriors to do battle against the enemies of life. We must accomplish this education with the same dedication used to train its warriors. As in Sparta, these natural elites will be especially trained from childhood to meet the challenging problems of our times.

Dr. Shearman, I pointed out here that you really can't rely on Plato, since he didn't really understand the actual Sparta of his time:

Plato based the governmental structures of The Republic on the system of Sparta.  This was a brutal, rigid system, perhaps more easily recognized in a time when National Socialism had just been defeated in a terrible war, and a new Cold War was breaking out with International Socialism.  But Sparta was already collapsing when Plato wrote, and he was ignorant of or ignored the work of contemporaries that saw the Spartan system more clearly.  Plato was wrong.  Russell again (p. 118-119)

Apart from war, the reality of Sparta was never quite the same as the theory.  Herodotus, who lived in its great period, remarks, surprisingly, that no Spartan could resist a bribe.  This was in spite of the fact that contempt for riches and love of the simple life was one of the main things inculcated in Spartan education. ... We are told that the Spartans were inflexibly patriotic, yet the king Pausanias, the victor of Platea, ended as a traitor in the pay of Xerxes.

[Aristotle] goes on to accuse the Spartans of avarice, which he attributes to the unequal distribution of property.

Let's see, a grand theoretical foundation of centralized, elite rule, justified by equality and fairness, but based on a romanticized system that fell apart during Plato's own lifetime.  That's the theoretical basis for the elite's claim to power.

Sure, but this time, it'll work!

Dr. Shearman, the flaw in your argument has been known for a half century or more, even in Adelaide.  But thanks so very much for playing!  Your take home prize is a quote from Samizdata, offered in a different context, but strangely applicable to your neo-fascist scheme:

The problem I have with this whole discussion is that it grants what is a monstrous totalitarian perspective a polite hearing rather than the sort of response it truly deserves. It strikes me to just dignify the proposition "the state should spay women and castrate men" with "wouldn't it be better if we just find a way to reduce the fuel we burn?" is to in effect tolerate the intolerable. A far better response, and dare I say a more ethical one, would be "your policy will indeed reduce the world's population because people like me will put a 10mm hole between the eyes of totalitarian scum like you."

Substitute "establish a Global Fascist Eco-Government" for "spay women and castrate men" and you've got just about the right words, and music.

And the last comment to Dr. Shearman is that he is very likely to be a poser, lacking the courage of his own convictions.  I doubt very much that we will see your sort at the head of Brown Shirted battalions enforcing your proposals.  You're just mugging for the cameras, playing the Bad Boy to impress the chicks.  After four or five decades of this sort of thing, we'd expect you to grow up a bit.

What do you get when you cross a car with a computer?

You get a computer with wheels.  When you boot it, "they" will come, as eventually they come to all computers that are on the network.

Good thing your car isn't on a network, right?  Oh, wait.  Well good thing that the designers thought long and hard about security, right?  Oh, wait:

Car thieves of the future might be able to get into a car and drive away without forced entry and without needing a physical key, according to new research that will be presented at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium next month in San Diego, California.

The researchers successfully attacked eight car manufacturers' passive keyless entry and start systems—wireless key fobs that open a car's doors and start the engine by proximity alone.

...

Capkun and Aurélien Francillon and Boris Danev, both researchers in the same institution, examined 10 car models from the eight manufacturers. They were able to access all 10 and drive them away by intercepting and relaying signals from the cars to their wireless keys.

Security wasn't an afterthought.  It wasn't thought of at all.

How do you know if you're vulnerable?  If you can start your car via your key fob, you almost certainly are.  If you can unblock your car doors via a key fob, you're at increased risk of theft, but less than the new wireless cars.  Or shield your key when not in use.  Leaving it in, say, an old ammo can gives you extra style points for shielding.

The Borepatch recommendation is to drive something without all the new fangled electronics.  Like this:

Or since, as they say, this baby don't run on faith, perhaps one of these:

50's on the left, 30's on the right

Via Ralph, in an email.

Don't be a bad person, mkay?

Heh.  Via Michael Graham, who thinks it's satire.  Ya think?

I love the Good People.  They didn't have guns, mkay?

I wonder how you put draw on this

"Knokkers" (stop giggling).  (via)

So what happens when the Young Firebrand becomes The Man?

Well, remember how the Young Firebrand used to delight in mocking the self-important, stodgy Establishment Stuffed Shirts?  People like to do that to him:

The most original invention since the electric light bulb! Although a heatball is technically very similar to a light bulb, it is a heater rather than a source of light.

...

During its use as a heater, HEATBALLS have an unavoidable emission of light in the visible spectrum. This light is harmless and cannot be used as a reason for reclamation.

Take that, self-important, stodgy Establishment Stuffed Shirt!  And there's plenty more where that came from:

Heatball is free from mercury, independent from lobbyists,and a symbol of free mind

Outstanding, simply outstanding industrial grade mockery.

Merry Christmas from all of us at HaXo4z.ru

It seems that a whole bunch of government officials - including some in cybersecurity - fell for the whole "open your mouth and close your eyes" trick:

A malware-laced e-mail that spoofed seasons greetings from The White House siphoned gigabytes of sensitive documents from dozens of victims over the holidays, including a number of government employees and contractors who work on cybersecurity matters.

...

Recipients who clicked either of the above links and opened the file offered were infected with a ZeuS Trojan variant that steals passwords and documents and uploads them to a server in Belarus.  I was able to analyze the documents taken in that attack, which hoovered up more than 2 gigabytes of PDFs, Microsoft Word and Excel documents from dozens of victims.  I feel reasonably confident I have identified several victims,  all of whom appear to be employees of some government or another. Among those who fell for the scam e-mail were:

Click through for a list of those who fell into this cunning* trap.  It's pretty interesting.  Remember, kids, nobody every emails you anything worthwhile in a ZIP or EXE file.  Ever.  So when you clicky-clicky and then see this ...

... just say "no", mkay?

* Sarcasm alert, of course.  And note to JayG: the Massachusetts Statie who was among the pwn3d clearly should have his LTC revoked.  Let's just call it invoking the "Lowell Rule".  Although unlike the poor sod in Lowell who didn't do anything, this idiot actually did the clicky-clicky bit.

Chicks with Guns

Old:

And new:

The first looks to be from the 19-teens or 1920s, and is from the Connecticut State Archives.  The second is from 45SURF, who has a bunch more.  If you like this one, you'll like the others (all SFW, too).

It's quiet. Too quiet.

Even for a library.  Coyote posts a picture of an abandoned library in Detroit - part of what's increasingly an abandoned city.

It's creepy.  Looking at the pictures, I felt that something was missing - that I'd seen something very nearly like this before.  The creepiness came from an unsatisfied feeling of anticipation.  With a little help from Photoshop The Gimp, I fixed it.

It's OK to use your Outdoor Voice in this library.

Those of you who've been living in a cave for the last 3 years can get the zombie story here.

You can't bulls*** the boss, he's a smart sonofab****

Robert emails to tell me of an interesting request:

Right NOW. I need everyone, regardless of where you live to send a message to the Texas Governor Rick Perry. Let him know you would like Ted Nugent appointed to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Directors post.

I go on and on about Regulatory Capture, and how government agencies become beholden to (and directed, at least informally) by the industries they ostensibly oversee.  The Nuge running the Parks and Wildlife folks gives an entirely new spin.

Click through to see how you can help.  The Usual Suspects would be horrified by this, of course, which just makes it more important.

Post title from here.

On this day in 1847

Sam Colt sold 1000 of these to the US Government.  It was his first sale to them, and put his company on a firm footing.

The Walker Colt Single Action revolver was the result of a collaboration between Sam Colt and Captain S.H. Walker, then serving in the Mexican War.  He thought current revolvers under powered, and is perhaps the first proponent of the dictum that any pistol caliber is fine, as long as it starts with a 4.

The Walker Colt revolver in .454 offered power aplenty, said to be the most powerful handgun until the introduction of the .357 Magnum.  You can own one of these unique pieces of firearms history for the low, low price of $920,000.  Yikes.

Golly, I'm glad we're not as dumb as scientists in the past!

I mean, they used to believe in phrenology:



Boy, what a bunch of idiots.  We're ever so much smarter today.  Oh, wait:

Neuroscientists are examining whether political allegiances are hard-wired into people after finding evidence that the brains of conservatives are a different shape to those of left-wingers.

Scans of 90 students' brains at University College London (UCL) uncovered a "strong correlation" between the thickness of two particular areas of grey matter and an individual's views.

Self-proclaimed right-wingers had a more pronounced amygdala - a primitive part of the brain associated with emotion while their political opponents from the opposite end of the spectrum had thicker anterior cingulates.

Woah!  Phrenology's back!  And badder than ever!  I'm certain that you're shocked - shocked! - that it turned out to be conservatives influenced by the primitive part of the brain.   And lest you scoff at the (ahem) checkered history of phrenology, let me just say that this is straight up.  Really:

[The research] was commissioned as a light-hearted experiment by actor Colin Firth as part of his turn guest editing BBC Radio's Today program but has now developed into a serious effort to discover whether we are programmed with a particular political view.

...

Mr Firth - who recently declared he had ended public support for the Liberal Democrats - said he would like to have party leader and now Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg subjected to the tests.

"I think we should have him scanned," he said.

Hey, now there's a scientific justification for hooking politicians up to high-voltage test equipment!  Err, "mostly" scientific:

The research was carried out by Geraint Rees director of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience who said he was "very surprised" by the finding, which is being peer reviewed before publication next year.

Emphasis mine.  Oh, well.  Can we still hook up politicians to high voltage devices?

Heh

XKCD rules.

Perspective

On Global Warming.  Language mildly NSFW.



This is perhaps the greatest reply to the whole ZOMG-Thermageddon!!!1!!one!! thing.

Quote of the Day

Those who accept this [Progressive Intellectual] vision are deemed to be not merely factually correct but morally on a higher plane. Put differently, those who disagree with the prevailing vision are seen as being not merely in error, but in sin.

Thomas Sowell, The Vision of the Anointed.

I've been saying for a while that Progressivism makes its adherents unable to think clearly.  Sowell suggests that they don't want to think clearly, and that Progressivism frees them from the requirement to.

My apologies

Instead of doing you some new blog fodder, I enjoyed the sunny, warm day here in Georgia.  With my lovely spouse, and #2 Son.  It was nice.

And then I went to update my "Best Posts" category, which I hadn't looked at in 4 months.  There's some more stuff there; if you're new here, you should take a look.

And you should take a look at this.  I wish I couldn't relate to this song, and I really wish I couldn't relate to the captions.  Especially the ones that say I want to be like my dad and I want to get along with my parents.  As Stephany says in the comments to this post, "Stand tall.  Like is short."

Amen, and thank you, Stephany.

Back soon.

UPDATE 3 January 2011 12:11: Here's the song:

Breaking: Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide increases number of Major League Home Runs

From a comment at Watts Up With That:

If you extend back to 1958, the co-efficient of correlation between CO2 and HadCRUt global temperatures is 0.907.

How significant is that?

Well put it this way : The co-efficient of correlation between the number of Home Runs hit in MLB and HadCRUt global temperatures over the same time period is 0.885.

Make of that what you will!

If the Red Sox don't win the World Series this year, I'm going to blame Global Warming.

I have seen the Future, and it works

Lincoln Steffens was a muckraking journalist at the end of the nineteenth century.  It's said that he was THE muckraking journalist, the one that defined the genre.  He was also the son of priviledge, scion of a San Francisco business empire.

He was also a devout leftist.  In 1921, he went to Moscow to observe the new Soviet Union.  Despite seeing obvious troubles, he managed to blame everyone but Lenin, and on his return to the Western Hemisphere wrote I have seen the Future, and it works.

Sadly, he wasn't the last leftie journalist to get seduced by the totalitarian dream.  Walter Duranty won a Pulitzer Prize for his whitewashing of Stalin's targeted famine in the Ukraine.  Edgar Snow (Saturday Evening Post), Brooks Atkinson (New York Times), and Theodore White (Time) all agreed with Harvard History professor John Fairbank that Mao was the best thing to ever happen to China.  The New York Times' Herbert Matthews whitewash interviews with Fidel Castro are notorious.

It wasn't just the Reds, either.  Steffans himself spoke for many journalists when he called Mussolini the "Divine Dictator", "as powerful as an elemental force."  The trope of the journalist, besotted by a smiling tyrant, is cliche.  It is so common as to be boring.  Thomas Friedman is simply the latest in a long, sad line of such.  His latest screed is boringly predictable, even by the low standards of the Times:

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who admires what a "one-party autocracy" such as China's can accomplish when it is "led by a reasonably enlightened group of people," likewise praises the one-child policy in his 2008 book Hot, Flat, and Crowded, where he says it "probably saved China from a population calamity" and hopes the current regime will show the same dictatorial fervor in pursuit of "net-zero buildings."

Joseph Fouche, in a comment at Isegoria's, hits center mass (and inspired this post):

Considering that Russia and China have gone from Red to Brown in the last 20 years and look no worse for wear, Fascism is the new hotness. It’s even better when the changeover is highlighted by a strategically placed touch of Green. When you hear Tom Friedman and others come back from China breathless about their wind power, solar power, and other “green industries”, they’re two breaths away from saying, “I have seen the future and it works.”

Red and Brown are the new Green.    I've said repeatedly that Europe's transition from fascist to "trans-national" socialist required but a half step sideways, and will require only that half step back.  For proof, you don't need to look across the Atlantic; you only need to examine the New York Times newsroom. 

Still boring.  Still here.

Happy Secure New Year!

Hat tip: Theo Spark.

Europeans think that 100 miles is a long way.

Rachel Lucas links to a very interesting interactive map, which overlays a map of Europe onto a map of the United States.  Of course, the USA completely dwarfs Europe.

We just drove from the Boston Suburbs to the Atlanta suburbs, a distance of over 1000 miles.  The same trip in Europe would have taken us from Barcelona, Spain to Poland.  In other words, a trip that took us half way down the eastern seaboard of the US* would have taken us essentially across all of western Europe.

Europeans - or, as Mark Alger points out, East Coat city-dwelling intellectuals - simply don't get this.  As Rachel might put it, They. Don't. Get. It.

The longest road trip I ever took was around 6,000 miles.  One summer, we drove from Maine to Los Angeles, and back.  There's a lot to see, and a lot of people you meet, and you'll learn a lot from that.  We traveled all over in Europe, too, but I didn't learn half as much from those trips as I learned that summer in 1972.  Because for all your having "boots on the ground", you get few opportunities to really interact with the natives.  The tourist situation gets in the way, in a sense that it doesn't when you're in your own country.

Don't get me wrong - we loved living in Europe, and went everywhere.  But our pictures are almost all like this:

Us with the kids in Holland.  Us with the kids at the Eiffel Tower.  Us with the kids in Brussels.  It seems from our photos that Europe is running dangerously low on Europeans.

That's why I'm pretty unimpressed with most Intellectual's view of their "worldliness" because they've vacationed in Tuscany.  And even less impressed by their proudly ignorant view of "Fly Over" country.

A European colleague once brought his family to the USA for summer holiday.  Rather than Florida, they flew to Chicago, rented an RV, and drove to Yellowstone.  He saw a lot of the country, both physically and metaphysically.  You can do the opposite, as an American going to Europe, but most don't.

The closing part of this post's title, of course, is well known to many:  Americans think that 100 years is a long time. That will have to wait for another day.

* Houlton, ME to Key West, FL is the complete eastern seaboard.  It's almost 2000 miles long.

Jake Owen - Startin' With Me

The ancient Romans worshiped the two-faced god Janus.  Not two-faced in the current modern meaning of "untrustworthy", but rather looking simultaneously forwards and backwards.  Janus was the god of the New Year, from which we get the name of the month "January".

It's doubtful that the Romans had anything like country music, but if they had, they'd likely have listened to something very like Jake Owen's Janus-like meditation on looking back, and learning not to do that sort of thing again.

Owen's is a good story for New Year's Day.  He wasn't a musician, but rather an athlete.  A water skiing accident ended that dream, and he taught himself to play guitar while he was recovering.  One night, while watching Sumdood perform at a bar, he asked the owner if he could try some time.  He was good enough to get asked back, and then became a regular, and then started writing his own music.  The next stop was Nashville.

You never know where you'll go next.  What you do know is where you've been.  That's a good meditation for the start of a New Year.



Startin' With Me (Songwriters: Kendall Marvel, Jimmy Ritchey, Jake Owen)

I had a one night stand with my best friends baby sister
And to this day he still wont speak to me
I pawned my grandpa’s old guitar in collage
For a case of beer and a tank of gasoline
I took a swing at my old man one Christmas
I never dreamed that it would be his last
I wish mom had rung my neck
When she caught me with those cigarettes
Which reminds me, I’m down to my last pack

If I had a dime
For half the things I did
That didn’t make no sense at all
I’d be living a little higher on the hog
If only I’d of known
That later on down the road
I’d look back and not like what I see
I’d of changed a lot of things
Startin’ with me

I called my brother everything I could think of
The night he wouldn’t bail me out of jail
I lost a job most folks ‘round here would die for
By laying out all night and raising hell
And I let a woman that I love slip through my fingers
Chalk another dumb move up to my foolish pride
I wasn't there standin’ by the bed
When the preacher bowed his head
With the family, the day my grandma die

If I had a dime
For half the things I did
That didn’t make no sense at all
I’d be living a little higher on the hog
If only I’d of known
That later on down the road
I’d look back and not like what I see
I’d of changed a lot of things
Startin’ with me

If only I’d of known
That later on down the road
I’d look back and not like what I see
Whoa, I’d of changed a lot of things
Startin’ with me
Startin’ with me