Amazing street performer

Check this out. Simply amazing.

Siberian Ice Cream

Among the last things in the world I'd anticipate is this. I love being happily surprised.

Kay Thompson

Last night, I enjoyed watching again one of my favorite movies—Funny Face. Besides the big names of Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn, Kay Parker shines. This is the only movie in which I recall seeing her perform. She's wonderful. For a fun sample, check out "Clap 'Yo Hands".

Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights

Yep, the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights is a new link I've added to my favorites here. It's a breath of fresh air needed desperately in Washington, D.C.

For example, breathe this in. Objectivist or not, consider this excerpt:

And as a historical fact, the U.S. economy during the period 1870 - 1913 grew significantly faster than it did after the Fed was established. True, there were many bank failures in this period, but there were also many business failures in general: banks were actually less likely to fail than were other businesses. The number of bank failures speaks to the dynamism of the period, not to anything fragile in the financial system. Precisely because market mechanisms were permitted to work, depositors, creditors and counterparties all kept a close eye on banks, monitoring leverage and withdrawing funds at the first sign of problems....

So pre-Fed we had runs on banks, some undoubtedly severe--but with the Fed we’ve had the Great Depression, the S&L meltdown and now perhaps the greatest worldwide credit crisis ever.

Think about it. Think about it as the Fed pours billions more into a black hole of irresponsible failures it fostered. Think about it as you listen again to Alan Greenspan blame a country of victims for the results of his actions on behalf of the Fed.

More on the US govt engineered economic crisis

This brief article provides some background on how the US govt engineered the current economic crisis. It includes a prescient forecast from 1999. Check it out.

Nationalizing American Business

Time magazine gave the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights some air time on the government-caused turmoil on Wall Street. For details, click here.

Real life 007

Check this out. It's a story of a real life 007—Tommy Sneum.

Among other things,

He filmed German radar installations, often under the noses of the German guards, with a camera provided by MI6. He flew to Britain with his films in a Hornet Moth biplane he had found minus its wings in a barn. He and a friend, Kjeld Pedersen, rebuilt it and took off from a field.

Halfway across the North Sea Sneum had to venture out on the wing in thick fog to refuel the plane from a can of petrol while Pedersen tried to keep it steady.

How long before someone writes a screenplay for this, please?

Iran "Arrests" Squirrels

In the "Oh come on!" category, check this out.

Rumor has it that a moose whose name starts with Bull (no pun intended but I enjoy it nonetheless) put up bail money and then, with suspect Rocky in tow, skipped town. Now, Boris and Natasha are on the hunt.

Another rumor has it, according to what I can recall from a Wait Wait Don't Tell Me show, that Dick Cheney turned to the President and said: "Ok, we tried your idea. Now let me get back to work."

The Plough

If you're ever visiting Philadelphia, consider dining at The Plough. Mary and I came across it quite by happy accident on a warm August afternoon. The food and service were good. I'm not sure how to describe the restaurant's ambiance other than I liked it. To see for yourself, check out the pictures at their site.

How you know vs. what you know

At a recent job interview, I was asked to rate myself on a certain skill needed for the job. Without hesitation, I said 10. The heat was turned up from there. Later, I wondered aloud if I even ranked as a 5, smiling as I asked the question.

Fortunately, my humor was not lost on the interviewer. I got the job. Evidently, I had impressed him enough with my actual knowledge on the subject at hand.

Later, it dawned on me to question his question—e.g., do you mean how much I can retain in my head at any given time or my work ethic in hunting down answers needed to get the job done? Had I done that, I could have given him a two-part answer—7 in terms of conscious retention and 10 in the relentless pursuit of answers.

Philosophically, this takes on a common error—the fallacy of omniscience. Few, if any, will tell you flat out: I know everything! Yet, too many act that way. It's an easy error to fall into, especially if you don't pay conscious attention to the fact that reason is man's means of knowledge.

Today, something important dawned on me—that I pride myself more on how I know than what I know. I have learned an enormous amount about IT methods and operations over the past decade. However, more important than that is how I learned so much. Simple hard work is part of it, of course. Not spending hours daily idling away on the Internet or gabbing/grousing with colleagues is part of it. But, fundamentally, the how is this—looking beyond countless distractions in my field of vision to the core reality at hand, guided by the power of reason and the moral code it upholds.

An analogy that comes to mind is a picture I see often of a common moment in professional basketball games—the back of a basketball player as he faces a tiny net, preparing for his foul shot, while hundreds of fans for the opposing team wave all manner of distractions behind it. What looks daunting is the player's opportunity to literally stand and deliver. The focus he needs to summon from within himself is intense, tossing out what is unimportant and tuning in to what matters most to him.

In pattern, this is what I do in IT...not for a few seconds or minutes, but across days, months, years. Of course, to keep it natural, to remain a well-rounded human, this is a cultivated habit, integrated with the need to exchange ideas constructively with others who are not technical (of course) and those who are technical but too often get caught up in one or more countless distractions.

Practically, this distinction is critical. That is, I'm walking into a new job soon, knowing a lot but needing to know a helluva lot more. I can do this confidently because I know precisely how to gain more knowledge, gain it quickly and put it to practical use quickly...and have fun doing it.

287 Loop Around NYC

Note to self: When traveling to New Haven, CT from Philly, blow past NYC/NJ traffic jams by jumping off I-95 onto 287. It's less than 50 miles out of the way and stress-free. Also, it completely bypasses the very heavily traveled George Washington Bridge in favor of the easy-to-cross Tappan Zee bridge.

Usain Bolt

If you've been watching this summer's Olympics, you had to notice a marvel named Usain Bolt. After his world-record wins, IOC president Jacques Rogge took it upon himself to single Bolt out for criticism.

Why? In Rogge's words: "I understand the joy. He might have interpreted it in another way but the way it was perceived was 'catch me if you can’. You don’t do that. But he’ll learn. He’s still a young man."

Dude, it's a foot race...literally! "Catch me if you can"? That's the point! Bolt can do that, did do that (gloriously, thank you very much), and, most of all, should do that.

Yes, Bolt is still a young man and he should learn...to dismiss the likes of Rogge.

Specifically, dismiss that ugly idea that deems it important to hide your pride. What made Bolt a joy to watch was his joy, his wonderfully unabashed joy in discovering just how great he really is at running. To watch him marveling at his own extreme ability, to see him have the time to do that before he even finished the freakin' sub-10 second race was a, well, marvel, a joyous one. God bless him.

Bolt, in the name of the best within you, to hell with Rogge. Keep running incredibly fast as long as you can. But most of all, keep beaming with unrestrained pride every time you win. You earned it!

Underground Grammarian

While cleaning out some ancient files, I came across my subscription copies of the Underground Grammarian. Having spent literally years working to recover from my lousy grade school education, especially as it pertained to my grammar, I loved Richard Mitchell's passion for this subject expressed via the Underground Grammarian.

Naturally, this being the 21st century rich with internet resources, I decided to see if Mr. Mitchell was remembered anywhere. Happily, he is. More, this site has copies of his work! What a treat!

Here's a quote from John Simon at this site about Mr. Mitchell:

There exists in every age, in every society, a small, still choir of reason emanating from a few scattered thinkers ignored by the mainstream. Their collective voices, when duly discovered a century or so too late, reveal what was wrong with that society and age, and how it could have been corrected if only people had listened and acted accordingly. Richard Mitchell's is such a voice. It could help make a better life for you or, if it is too late for that, at least for your children. Ignore it at your and their peril.

Another site paying homage to Mr. Mitchell exists here.

MIT Pranks

Barry's comment in my previous post warrants this separate post. To my delight, I checked out the link he mentioned and laughed out loud early and often.

Among my favorites is the MIT fire truck on the Great Dome. Obviously, it echoes the 50 year old prank mentioned earlier.

The "In Case of Zombie Attack, Break Glass" bit is priceless.

The programmer geek in me loves this one.

While I had heard of rickrolling, this MIT example was the most inspired application I've seen of it so far. Kudos!

Got a favorite of your own? Lemme know!

One of Greatest Prank of All Time

Check this out. I tip my hat to them. Well done!

Tim Russert

Just taking a moment to say I'll miss Tim Russert. He was a good man. A measure of how good he was is how solid his son is in this interview.

God bless him.

Consistency

This is just a quick note to myself to give more thought to something Ayn Rand said in regard to conservatives (which I am decidedly not!): "consistency is a requirement of reason, not of faith".

Food for thought. I need to chew on this observation.

Open It!

Sometimes, the little things in life make such a difference. In this case, I am referring to a gadget named "Open It!".

I bought it last Christmas for about $10 at Home Depot. The purpose for which I bought it was to make it easier to open goodies sealed in tough plastic covers. Too often, those damned things are a bear to break open. This handy tool does a great job of slicing through them much more effectively than normal scissors.

Well, this week, I've been wrestling with installing stick and peel tiles in my closet. The stick and peel part was easy. The hard part was lining them up neatly and, toughest of all, cutting them to fit well around a large water heater.

Yup, you guessed it, Open It! was a perfect tool for this job. Wherever I had to do precision cutting of this heavy, sturdy plastic tile, Open It! was a hero. I especially appreciated it when I had to cut a slight curve. Try doing that with a straight edged cutting knife (and as safely as Open It! does).

This ends our commitment to our sponsor. Now, we return you to your regularly scheduled program. ;^)

The Lives of Others

Mary introduced me to an excellent movie entitled The Lives of Others. Justly, it earned an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Check it out.

Nifty

Check this out.

Coffee: black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love

The title of this post refers to Turkish coffee. I'm not a big coffee drinker but I love this proverb; it's short, memorable, and, from what I recall of tasting Turkish coffee, true.

If you're interested in making some Turkish coffee, check out CoffeeGeek.com.

Tent Rocks

For my annual birthday trip (April/May), Mary and I flew out to New Mexico. We were lucky enough to stay with friends in Albuquerque.

A highlight of the trip was hike through the canyon at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. Some pictures follow. As always, remember to click a pic to see it expanded into a larger view.

Get this: We were in a truly isolated location, miles away from the highway. The road to the canyon itself as a long dirt road, a "washboard" ride. So, pretty remote, eh? No. Three busloads of school kids plus a caravan of parents and/or teachers arrived moments after we did! In mock terror, we bolted for the bathrooms before they were lost to us forever!

Pic	Comments
	The start of our hike into the canyon. I should have zoomed in on this one. At the top is a giant boulder perched precariously on an outcropping.
	Once inside the canyon, we quickly had a camera shootout—these 2 guys shooting us while we shot them.
	I was fascinated by this tree not only framed by the canyon walls but also with its huge trunks exposed. Most likely, the dirt they used to be buried in was washed away during the rare flash floods through the canyon.
	I welcomed seeing man streak across the sky while I inched my way through the canyon.
	I like the contrast of dark and light here combined with proximity and distance.
	Life sprouting up at the first opportunity amidst the immovable.
	Sights like this make me wonder what it'd be like to see nature at her furious work during rare Southwest rain storms. Of course, to be there personally would be dangerous!
	Mary is framed here as we hustle between the canyon walls closing in on us and crowds of loud children catching up with us from the buses.
	Majestic and exotic.
	Fortunately, the temperature was uncharacteristically cool. That made it easier to keep trekking all the way to the top.
	At certain points, I half expected a film crew to pop up amid the rocks shooting a scene for the Star Trek series: "Jim, I'm a doctor, not a geologist! Ask Spock about these rock formations, dammit!"
	So, Spock, what can you tell me about these formations?
	Having covered the canyon floor, we now begin a long, slow ascent. By the way, the canyon floor was often very sandy, like a beach, a gentle reminder of the danger of being in the canyon while it's raining.
	Catching my breath on the way to the top...
	Sometimes it's good to look down...
	It's even better to look out at the distance...
	Here's another look at looking down, at looking at the stairway to heaven; well, to a heavenly view...
	Ahhh...
	I love this shot. It's my laptop's new wallpaper image.
	Drinking in the view...
	On the way out, more jets passing by. Thanks, guys, for bringing me to this wonderful place!

72 Degrees

Obama recently stated the following: "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK...."

Break out the charts because we'll need 'em to break down just how much is wrong with this statement. In essence, it boils down to is this: They won't like us. And? What's your point? What's your argument?

Won't like us!? By what standard?

The standard of judgment of "other countries" matters. If you care about what the death-worshippers, the dictators, the statists and their ilk think, if you embrace their standard of judgment, you're doomed spiritually let alone existentially. If you care what the best among them think—i.e., the freest, the bravest, if you embrace their standard of judgment, then you embrace man's life qua rational animal, you value the highest degree of comfort man's reason can afford you—e.g., 72 degrees all the time, all the food you need, etc.

As a contrast to the feeble ideas (or lack thereof) behind Obama's statement, Objectivist philosopher Harry Binswanger reminded me via his email list of the spirit of another era, an era we ought to emulate—the era that gave birth to Cyrano de Bergerac. In particular, he cited Cyrano's famous "No thank you" speech. While I could not find a transcription, I found this excellent rendition of the scene.

Note: I made a point of finding a scene that is based on Brian Hooker's translation. I've never seen another other translation that is anywhere near the poetry of Hooker's fine work. If you know of one, please let me know.

In the meantime, keep the spirit of Cyrano alive in your mind and your heart.

Wedding

This past weekend, I attended my first Jewish wedding. It was wonderful! It was a perfect blending of setting and people.

The setting was the Whispering Pines Conference Center in Rhode Island. The wedding day, Saturday, was awash in perfect May sunshine. It seemed as if the bride and groom had supernatural connections since the day was sandwiched between two rainy storms. Nature itself blessed the day.

The people were all very friendly to me even though I was a stranger among them. That is, Mary is the ex-girlfriend of the father, Ilan, of the bride. I was with Mary, of course. Though I was a stranger, I felt right at home.

While I've always liked Ilan, I like him all the more now. I enjoyed watching him revel in his role as grandfather as well as father of the bride. The genuine affection returned to him spoke volumes about him—all good.

In that lives one of my measures of a man—how good he acts toward those he professes to love speaks far more to me than his explicit ideas. This is consistent with my comments earlier about excellence.

Speaking of excellence, Ilan's toast to the new couple after the ceremony was both outrageously funny and touching at the same time. When he sat down, he positively beamed with happiness. I turned to Mary and told her that I liked him before and liked him all the more now, adding playfully: "What did you ever see in this guy!?"

107 year old light bulb

Now, this is cool. Check it out.

Tips for Older IT Workers

Fellow 50+ IT folks, check this out. While it includes what should be obvious to any good IT worker ("Never stop learning"), it makes some suggestions I hadn't considered ("Teach a course").

This article includes a link to a couple of techie blogs, one of which is adorned with a cute subtitle—"News for nerds".

Food for thought...and action.

Excellence

As my blog's welcome states: "It's not who I am underneath but what I do that defines me." Today, a work colleague had tagged to the end of an e-mail this quote from Aristotle: "Excellence is not an act but a habit." It echoes that line I like so much from the movie Batman Begins.

The full quote follows:

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

This, in turn, is echoed by Ayn Rand's definition of virtue.

The emphasis, then, is on action. To be good one must do good. Pardon the expression, but this perspective cuts through a lot of bullshit. Most people know all too well the types who talk the talk (and talk and talk and talk...) but fail to walk it.

That said, the far more complex issue is this question: what is good?

Contrary to common belief, it's not a question hopelessly lost in a messy mass of subjectivity and/or out-of-context absolutes. Answering that question objectively is possible. Critical to answering it sanely is being cognizant of the fact that before you can answer "what is good?" you must ask yourself "Good? By what standard?"

For details, please see the corpus of the works of Ayn Rand.

Albuquerque Museums

I'm back from a good trip to the Southwest—specifically, Albuquerque, New Mexico. I'm happy to report that it has several interesting museums within walking distance of each other. Rather than list them all here, I'll refer you to the town's cultural services site.

However, I didn't notice at that site two museums I found especially interesting...

1. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
2. National Atomic Museum

The latter is moving to the outskirts of town soon. It'll be near the Balloon Museum.

More on these and my trip later. :^)

Subprime Mess: Statist Policy Does It Again

Don't Blame The Markets is a good article by the New York Sun on the subprime debacle. Properly, it lays the blame at the feet of a "small army of hard left political hustlers who spent the early 1990s pushing risky mortgages on home lenders."

Conflate

Wiktionary's definition of "simplistic" includes this usage note: "This is not to be conflated with “simple”. simplistic implies simplicity to excess, whereas simple does not. The phrase “overly simplistic” is therefore a tautology."

Conflate is a good word to keep in one's vocabulary, one's mental toolbelt. Merriam-Webster defines it as follows:

1 a: to bring together : fuse b: confuse
2: to combine (as two readings of a text) into a composite whole

In the case of simple vs. "simplistic", it's an error, of course. At the same time, it echoes Ayn Rand's reminder about the importance of the precise use of language—the primary purpose of which is precise understanding, the growth of your own personal knowledge. It aids communication, of course; but first and foremost, understand well what it is you wish to communicate.

The precise use of language is aided by knowing about something Rand called package-dealing". The arch example of a package-deal is the word selfishness, how it is commonly used. Ayn Rand writes of it as follows (from her nonfiction book, The Virtue of Selfishness):

The title of this book may evoke the kind of question that I hear once in a while: "Why do you use the word 'selfishness' to denote virtuous qualities of character, when that word antagonizes so many people to whom it does not mean the things you mean?" To those who ask it, my answer is: "For the reason that makes you afraid of it." But there are others, who would not ask that question, sensing the moral cowardice it implies, yet who are unable to formulate my actual reason or to identify the profound moral issue involved. It is to them that I will give a more explicit answer.

It is not a mere semantic issue nor a matter of arbitrary choice. The meaning ascribed in popular usage to the word "selfishness" is not merely wrong: it represents a devastating intellectual "package-deal," which is responsible, more than any other single factor, for the arrested moral development of mankind. In popular usage, the word "selfishness" is a synonym of evil; the image it conjures is of a murderous brute who tramples over piles of corpses to achieve his own ends, who cares for no living being and pursues nothing but the gratification of the mindless whims of any immediate moment. Yet the exact meaning and dictionary definition of the word "selfishness" is: concern with one's own interests. This concept does not include a moral evaluation; it does not tell us whether concern with one's own interests is good or evil; nor does it tell us what constitutes man's actual interests. It is the task of ethics to answer such questions.

The lesson I take from that is this—precision matters, not just in my particular profession, but most particularly in my personal life, in all my relationships from casual to intimate. The precise use of words helps me to enjoy and honor those relationships at the same time. When I call or regard someone as either selfless or selfish, I use those words with absolute precision. Paradoxically, that razor sharp mental focus makes it all the easier for me to enjoy my emotions, my happy responses to those closest to me. For more details, for now, I refer you to the corpus of Ayn Rand's works.

The Leningrad Cowboys...

...a Finnish rock band and the Red Army Choir sing, in English, "Sweet Home Alabama". Too funny. Must see.

Simplistic

An interesting skirmish is afoot at The Detroit Free Press. It includes the charge that Ayn Rand's philosophy is "simplistic". The skirmish includes an excellent response from HBinswanger, which is provided below in toto:

As a professional philosopher, I'm responding to the charge that Objectivism is "simplistic." That term exemplifies what Ayn Rand termed an "anti-concept": "an unnecessary[sp] and rationally unusable term designed to replace and obliterate some legitimate concept."

"Simplistic" obliterates the concepts of "clarity" and "fundamentality." Ayn Rand is remarkably clear and deals in fundamentals. E.g., her basic axiom is "Existence exists." Simple, but clear and absolutely fundamental.

Or, take her definition of reason: "the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses." It's simple, but eliminates the pervasive false alternative of empiricism vs. rationalism.

In ethics, she holds that one's life is one's ultimate value. Again, it is clear and fundamental--also revolutionary.

For more technical issues, e.g., her new theory of concepts, see Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. Those who smear Objectivism, as "simplistic" should consult it.

Polemically, I'll add this observation: if you grant the premise of a notion like "simplistic", you open yourself up to the same charge. For example, those who dismiss Ayn Rand's philosophy as "simplistic" are, themselves, being "simplistic".

Note: This also echoes a point I made earlier about the fallacy of self-exclusion.

This is one of the things I don't like about polemics—it's too easy for it to devolve into "I'm rubber you're glue..." nonsense. I prefer HBinswanger response above. It elevates the entire dialogue, keeping the focus on ideas and fundamentals.

Atlas Shrugged movie

51 years ago, Ayn Rand's great novel Atlas Shrugged was published. For years, a movie has been "in development". The latest incarnation on this effort can be read here.

Interestingly, this report includes this confession:

What's most interesting is that Perelman managed this even though he isn't much of an Ayn Rand fan. "It's not very good literature," he and I agreed, "but I have respect for her."

It's one thing not to be a fan of Ayn Rand's ideas or her writing. It's quite another to posture as if you know what you're talking about when you claim Atlas Shrugged is not great literature.

Facets of Ayn Rand

For some wonderful personal insights into Ayn Rand's personality, visit facetsofaynrand.com. Enjoy.

Atlas Shrugged

My favorite novel is now featured at atlasshrugged.com. I can't say enough good things about this truly great adventure story. The philosophy behind and within it challenges, among other things, the core ethical assumptions of centuries. As such, it is radical—radical in the truest sense of that word. At the same time, it's a breath of fresh air, giving depth to a lighthearted appreciation of all that is good in this fascinating world.

Telemarketers: Optional Responses

Jerry Seinfeld showed a classic response to a telemarketer once on his show. Today, I came across another response to a telemarketer. Check it out.

Cold Comfort Farm

Last night, Mary and I enjoyed watching Cold Comfort Farm. Not having heard of it in any way before, I went in with no expectations.

I came away loving it. Its sense of life is delightfully benevolent. The sprightly center of the story is played by Kate Beckinsale. Her performance in this film was the best I've seen in her films so far. My evaluation may be colored by the cheerfully unsinkable nature of the character she played.

If you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think of it.

Ideals vs Self-Interest: A False Dichotomy

Near the end of His Excellency, Ellis writes

The second long-term pattern in his thinking about slavery was a relentlessly realistic insistence that ideals per se must never define his agenda; indeed, he associated an idealistic agenda with sentimental illusions, like the belief that American virtue was sufficient to defeat Great Britain in the war....

Try to reconcile that with this—Washington setting an historic precedent in surrendering his sword.

The fact is the American Revolution was not just political. It included an implicit moral revolution. The new moral code implied was that of rational selfishness. As such, Washington was wise to reject the idealism that kept the world in slavery and darkness for centuries. America's practice of slavery was part of that ancient legacy that had to be addressed and Washington struggled with it, as Ellis reports.

In the end, American virtue did defeat the British. A new ideal—the virtue of rational selfishness—drove the American force. It is secondary that not all Americans shared that ideal. What was crucial was that the leading thinkers —the Founding Fathers—embraced the ideal, with Washington chief among them, literally and figuratively.

So, although I disagree with Ellis' ethical orientation, I admire and appreciate his work in his biography of Washington. I got to see Washington as the great, real man he was, not just some impassive face perched on a mountain. I got to see how fitting it is that he is the father of our country—a deeply principled, intelligent, moral man of action.

At the same time, I am grateful to Ayn Rand for arming me with the ideas necessary to navigate around the kind of conventional errors Ellis makes in his review and analysis of Washington's life. My respect and admiration for Washington is all the richer and more personal.

Hamiltonian Power and "Behaving Responsibly"

A light went on when I made a connection between Ellis' comments on force being used to get "both individuals and sovereign states...to behave responsibly" and his report of Alexander Hamilton's dangerous quest for power.

Ellis reports on page 250...

In collusion with disaffected and disloyal members of Adams's cabinet, Hamilton had hatched a scheme to transform the Provisional army into a permanent military establishment and an instrument for his expanded power within the Federalist Party. To be fair, Hamilton had convinced himself that Napoleon's imperial ambitions did include North America....[H]e envisioned marching his army through Virginia, thereby intimidating the Republican leadership in its major sanctuary, then launching a preemptive invasion of Florida and the Louisiana Territory....

He goes on to report that "Washington was unwittingly providing the imprimatur of his name to this wild scheme...playing directly into Hamilton's hands....At any rate, the moment exposed the dangerous tendencies of Hamilton's genius once released from Washington's control."

Whoa. Hold up. The dangerous tendencies of Hamilton's genius? More like the dangerous logic of the idea of forcing people to "behave responsibly". Hamilton's scheme strikes me as terribly consistent with that premise.

I ain't lion!

Check out this amazing video.

Touching as it is...still...as a form of urging caution, I'll just say two words: Siegfried and Roy!

A Unified American Nation...for freedom

On page 202 of His Excellency, Ellis describes a 1790 attempt to end slavery. "Whatever [Washington's] personal views on slavery may have been, his highest priority was the creation of a unified American nation."

This formulation does not do justice to the magnitude of the deeper issue. A "unified American nation"? For what purpose?

America wasn't just a new nation. It was the first nation in history dedicated expressly to the idea of individual rights. It was radical. It still is, given how many are willing to give it up at the first sign of pressure.

But the point here is that it was fragile at its birth, as cited in Ellis' book. To be precise, protecting his own and his country's fragile freedom was Washington's highest priority and a unified American nation was the means to that end.

Did everyone understand that freedom? No. Was it universally applied immediately after millenniums of slavery across the world? No. The revolution had just started. Slavery was a horrible, "in your face" contradiction and the Founding Fathers knew it. Tragically, resolving that contradiction took time and rivers of blood.

Balance of Power

In my 2/7/08 post, I cited Ellis as follows:

Both individual citizens and sovereign states often required coercion to behave responsibly, which meant that the federal government required expanded powers of taxation and ultimate control over fiscal policy.

Among the problems with this claim, notice this core assumption: the federal government will "behave responsibly" in its use of coercion.

How right the Founding Fathers were to do everything in their power to assure a balance of power in our government. Too much power in one group's or one man's grasp is dangerous.

Check your premises.

Dilbert

Today, while doing some technical housekeeping, I decided to add a link to the Dilbert homepage.

Being fuzzy on how to use HTML to display on my blog both a free Dilbert graphic and a link to the Dilbert home page, this site gave me the necessary guidance. That assistance combined with the Blogger wizard engine (which makes so much of blogging a joy) gave me the result I wanted, which you can see on the right side of my blog now.

Incidentally, I love that I can do that—just plug a search into Google to get an instant answer to a technical point that is not second nature to me. Man, the Internet rocks!

I added the Dilbert link because Scott Adams is so well in touch with the nutty patterns of behavior that afflict life in most large organizations.

Sacrifice: A romantic delusion

"Making voluntary sacrifice the operative principle of republican government had proved to be a romantic delusion." So writes Joseph Ellis on page 168 of His Excellency at the beginning of the section named Infant Empire in chapter 5.

Here, there is certainly a romantic delusion. Ironically, the delusion is the notion that sacrifice—voluntary or not—is romantic.

Ellis adds: "Both individual citizens and sovereign states often required coercion to behave responsibly, which meant that the federal government required expanded powers of taxation and ultimate control over fiscal policy."

The only proper role of government is to manage the use of force to protect us from force (and fraud)—be it from abroad, from our neighbors, and especially from the biggest force wielder of all: our own government. As Washington himself apparently wrote or said: "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." Damn straight.

So, when Ellis associates, in effect, "behaving responsibly" with "sacrifice", he's in dangerous territory.

Sacrifice means to surrender a higher value for a lower value. Given this, Washington was certainly not sacrificing when he risked his life for years to defend everything he loved about America as it was and as it could become. He was gloriously selfish.

The greatest man in the world

Though I knew Washington had earned King George's awe (calling him "the greatest man in the world") when he surrendered his sword after winning America's independence from Great Britain, I did not know that he did so fully aware of the fates of the Roman and English republics at key points, that they fell to military dictatorships.

Ellis also reports that Washington's opinion of America's government, which, at the time, was only the weak Congress operating under the Article of Confederation.

So, while how America was going to work was not yet evident and not looking good under the Articles, one thing for Washington was crystal clear—how America was not going to work—i.e., under a dictatorship, not while he lived.

Not only did Washington lay down his sword, he stopped his officers from raising theirs. On this critical moment in history, Ellis writes: "Whereas Cromwell and later Napoleon made themselves synonymous with the revolution in order to justify the assumption of dictatorial power, Washington made himself synonymous with the American Revolution in order to declare that it was incompatible with dictatorial power.

This and all it implies is one of the most moving moments in history for me. It has earned from me an emotion that does not and cannot come lightly—reverence.

God bless George Washington.

Gasp!

Yup, the Patriots perfect football season came to a crashing halt in the final game. Ouch.

But the opposing team, the New York Giants, was too much for them. They earned the win, playing especially well on defense. They kept Brady, one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, off balance for most of the game.

So, I tip my cyber hat to them. Well done, dammit! ;^)

A hero of the first degree

His Excellency continues to be fascinating and enjoyable. Ellis' is a good storyteller.

In his coverage of Washington, he necessarily touches on Nathanael Greene, who armed Washington with excellent counsel time and time again. While I am familiar with him, Ellis' work has given me a much closer look at him. I admire what I see, enough to put him high on my list of important figures to study. If anyone has a good biography to recommend, please leave a comment.

At a critical juncture, when Washington's competence is being questioned (with cause) and he was spoiling for an all-or-nothing battle, Greene reminded him that he had no choice but to fight a protracted defensive war. "Your Excellency," Greene advised, "has the choice of but two things, to fight the Enemy without the least Prospect of Success...or remain inactive, & be the subject of Censure of an ignorant & impatient populace."

Greene added that not only would Washington risk a defeat with another attempt to repeat the Trenton-Princeton successes of the previous winter in the current winter, but it would also "expose the weakness of the militia to the enemy and not only them but to all europe who now consider them much more formidable than they really are."

Washington accepts Greene's counsel even though its wisdom runs against his grain personally. Ellis writes that Washington's decision not to act "completed his transformation into a public figure whose personal convictions must be suppressed and rendered subordinate to his higher calling as an agent of history, which in this case meant that winning the war was more important than being himself."

While I agree with Ellis that this occasion merits special recognition, I don't share his summation in this case. I hold that there is no higher calling than this—to keep clear the distinction between the "I wish" and the "it is"; that is, to keep clear the difference between your emotions and your rational lock on reality. Washington does that in spades here, fighting through his personal emotions, his past conclusions to see the reality immediately before him, demanding a new approach to solve life and death problems on an historic scale.

In my book, this makes him a hero of the first degree, not because he suppressed his convictions but because he held mightily to his reason, to his ruthless objectivity to serve his admirably selfish interest in winning the war.

God bless him.

The American Cause

In His Excellency, Ellis reports that

widespread support for what Washington described as the "American Cause" was in fact cresting, and would never again reach the height it achieved during the Boston siege. "The spirit of '76" should more accurately (if less lyrically) be called "the spirit of late '75 and early '76," because patriotic fervor began to erode just as the war became politically official and militarily threatening.

Ellis goes on to report the following:

The mythological rendition of dedicated citizen-soliders united for eight years in the fight for American libery was, in fact, a romantic fiction designed by later generations to conceal the deep divisions and widespread apathy within the patriot camp.

Interesting. Among other things, this reinforces in my mind the importance of ideas as opposed to trying to accomplish very difficult (to put it gently) goals across time primarily on emotion. An emotion can carry you only so far. An idea can carry you forever, gaining momentum as you continue to feed it daily with your choice to honor it.

"A race of Amazons in America"

In His Excellency, I came across a particularly enjoyable slice of history.

The context is Washington putting his entire army at risk in the battle in New York during July 1776. Though I'm familiar with how narrowly Washington escaped the British here, I didn't know this—Abigail Adams, upon hearing from husband John that Howe was poised to close the trap utterly to destroy Washington's army, declared "even if all America's brave men were killed or captured...the British army would find itself opposed by 'a race of Amazons in America'".

Man, how I do like Abigail! I admired her when I first got to see her via McCullough's biography of John Adams. But the spirit of that statement sums up so much that is good, all I can say is "Wow!".

Patriots: 18 down and 1 whopper to go

38 year old Junior Seau is one of the solid players who got the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl. Here's hoping the Patriots can pull off one more win to make NFL history!

Bellini's

During the holidays, I enjoyed a very nice dinner at Bellini's Italian Eatery in Clifton Park, NY. It was a pleasant surprise because this fine restaurant was in a strip mall. It seemed oddly out of place. But there it thrives as if it were situated in midtown Manhattan.

Since that's quite a hike, I can't return there regularly, of course. However, I was pleased to find that Bellini's has a location at The Shops at Evergreen Walk in South Windsor, CT. That's close to the expansive Buckland Hills Mall, which means it's close to me!

Is Objectivism Winning?

Some friends recently said that they felt Objectivism wasn't winning.

Winning? By what standard?

My standard of judgment is how this philosophy of reason helps and has helped me personally. By that standard, it has already "won". I put that in quotes because I don't embrace the idea of intrinsicism—the view that things can hold value apart from a valuer. To put it precisely, I won, putting these rational ideas to work for my happiness across decades.

What about the rest of the world? Follow my example. Save your own personal world. The more people who focus first on saving their own world, their own life in it, the better off the world as a whole will be.

That said, the critical question "By what standard?" still applies. "Save your own personal world"? Does that mean I can do whatever the hell I want, stepping all over people in the process? Certainly not—that's a Nietzschean view, not an Objectivist view. The standard of judgment here is man's life, man qua man as a rational animal with a life normally spanning decades.

A full exposition of standards and Objectivism is well outside the scope of this post. For starters, visit the Ayn Rand Institute.

I just wanted to write enough to convey this idea: when you ask a question like that be prepared to state your standards.

Grammar Blogs

I was happy to stumble across, of all things, grammar blogs. My happy stumble started with a Google search on "moot point". That brought me to a site named "Language Rules!".

During and after college, I invested long stretches of time in learning English grammar. My elementary education on the subject sucked. So, I had tons of work to do overcome the deficiency. I've been told that the hard work is evident in my writing here and elsewhere. While I welcome the compliment, I find that I'm still learning. Precision of thought as well as its expression is a lifelong challenge.

So, it's no surprise that I welcome finding grammar resources on the net. Thank you, virtual grammar community!

Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer has passed away. Growing up during the Cold War era, I regarded him as one of my heroes. His epic chess battles against Soviet Boris Spassky was an integral part of that experience. But his amazing success at such an early age was also one my first experiences seeing a superlative mind in action.

That said, he did not remain one of my heroes.

It's not that I "grew up", which is a rationalization too many use to give up on their values. It's the fact that Fischer turned about to be as nutty as he was brilliant at chess. Check out the Globe article referenced above.

In effect, he was my first exposure to a common phenomenon—a compartmentalized mind, one which applies reason to a very narrow range of human activity but not nearly enough to practical matters, including and especially simple justice to other human beings.

Speaking of justice, that's why I took some time to write about his passing here—to take a moment to remember the best within him. His best was simply amazing and a pleasure to behold.

Computer Incantations For World Peace

Computer Incantations For World Peace is an upbeat jazz instrumental by Jean-Luc Ponty on his album Individual Choice. It's one of my favorite tunes.

The title makes me smile because it's a silly, sweet sentiment. I don't care what he calls it; I just like it. :^)