Soft Power

Our President's trip to China did not seem to go well.

President Obama is leaving China without any definable concessions on things such as support for tougher sanctions on Iran or currency exchange rates.

They gave no sign of budging
despite rhetorical nudging.

Lone Terrorist

I'm seeing an implicit sort of argument lately - that the Fort Hood killer was not a terrorist because he acted alone.

Is that a key part of the definition? Do you need a conspiracy to qualify? Is a 2-person conspiracy - like McVeigh and Nichols - enough?

Also, if you're crazy, is that grounds for disqualification? Because I'm betting a lot of suicide bombers have a nutty streak. I'm hoping they get their own DSM entry soon: Explosive Suicidal Ideation.

Whether there's more than one person to blame,
the goals and the means are the same.

Quantum Love Song

Take a glass of water. Empty half of it. Repeat indefinitely.

At some point you get down to a single molecule of water, and the loop stops.

What if time itself is like that?

Quantum time is the analogue of classical continuous time (or ordinary time) yet with the fundamental difference of being discontinuous, having a minimum approximate duration equal to 10-44 seconds, the Planck time.

You can see the possibility for love poetry focusing on this peculiarity:

Does time arrive discretely
in instantaneous blips?

Let me spend it sweetly
in the tasting of your lips.

Fitzgerald, Obama, Burris, ?

Who will get Obama's Senate seat in 2010?

Could it be a Republican? Lynn Sweet at the Sun-Times thinks it's a live possibility:

Democratic Party leaders in Washington -- and the Obama White House -- failed to recruit a candidate strong enough to scare Rep. Mark Kirk -- the Republicans' best bet -- from the race. The only luck they had was the decision by Sen. Roland Burris -- appointed by now-indicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to fill Obama's remaining term -- not to run to keep the seat.

This seat did belong to a Republican in 2004.

When one party thinks it has a lock,
solid as a rock,
they're often in for a shock.

Town Hall Meeting

I attended my congressman's town hall meeting today.

Most of the talk, and yelling, was about the House health care bill. My congressman, Dan Lipinski, a sort of conservative Democrat, had been against it before he voted for it.

So a lot of tea-party type people felt betrayed. Understandably. The congressman's story was that the bill had changed, and would change again. I wish I found this reassuring.

One audience member, on his way to advocating for "single payer", actually attacked "Objectivists" for being willing to "let people die". He was roundly booed.

I'm not sure this is a case of "all publicity is good publicity".

Objectivists don't actually want to let people die. They want to let people be free - to take care of themselves and those they care about.

All health care systems, at some point, let people die. Medical resources are finite. Health is finite. Government monopoly medicine would also let people die.

But the rhetoric will be different. We will hear about the greatest good for the greatest number. And the lines will be longer. And the waits will be longer. And less money will be "wasted" on "prolonging" life.

And more money will be spent
on bureaucratic government.

Disturbing

Anja Hartleb-Parson brought this story to my attention:

Last week, a jury acquitted Kenneth Herron of a misdemeanor charge stemming from an incident in which he somehow managed to get into the Grizzly Bear Grotto at the San Francisco Zoo. Herron, who has a history of mental illness, ended up within bear-arm's length of two 500-pound grizzlies, one of which walked over and sniffed Herron's foot before police scared it away. Herron was extracted, arrested, and charged with trespassing and "disturbing a dangerous animal."

Apparently the jury spent a lot of time deciding whether the bear was "legally disturbed".

You have to be disturbed
to enter a grizzly's grotto.
But if the bear doesn't stir,
or consume you like a gelato,
then a jury may infer,
and indeed conclusively find,
that your presence barely entered
the grizzly's mind.

Jennifer Cronin's "Grace"

This is a painting which has been part of the Black Duckling Art Exhibit. It's entitled "Grace", and it's by Jennifer Cronin.

I'm not sure why this lass
has hammered the glass,
or why a sewing machine
lurks in the scene,
but her face
bears the trace
of a thought
that's distraught.

I counted. I've now done 18 marathons.

There's an issue about the counting. I've also done 3 50k's, which are 31 miles each; and I've done 2 ironman-distance triathlons, which include a marathon run as *part* of the race.

But I've decided to keep it simple and not mix categories.

I must admit I'm slowing
but so far I'm still going.

Making A Point Of Punctuation

I was amused by this fellow:

Frustrated by living in "St Johns Close", in Turnbridge Wells, Mr Gatward decided to buy a can of black paint and a craft brush before correcting the name to "St John's Close".

Is it to his credit
that he felt compelled to edit?

Let me admit that what he did is something I have often felt like doing.

But the story got me to thinking about the 5 reasons we tack an "s" on the end of a word:

1) to make a noun plural: I dream of dogs.
2) to make a verb third person singular: The dog dreams when it sleeps.
3) to make a noun possessive: I found the dog's toy.
4) to make a noun both plural and possessive: I found the dogs' toy.
5) to form a contraction between a noun and "is": The dog's hungry.

In written language,
the apostrophe helps us to tame
all these confusing "s"s
that pretty much sound the same.

Sorry, Mr. President

They said don't jump to conclusions
about whether religious delusions
colored this killer's motivation,
but I'm succumbing to the temptation
of guessing that this baddy
imagined himself a jihadi.

Airtight

20 years ago, this is what came tumbling down:

From each according to his ability,
to each according to his need,
and if you try to climb over The Wall,
we'll shoot you and laugh while you bleed.

Beware of Post

They put these yellow posts - bollards - on bike trails as a way of keeping cars out.

My hard-earned advice of the day is: don't drive your bike straight into one.

As we came up on this post, a woman cyclist was chastising 3 guilty-looking children about some leaves which had been set on fire on the trail. I apparently paid too much attention to the chastisement, and not enough attention to the steel post.

I'm scraped up a bit, and I expect to be black and blue on my left side in a few places. I was wearing my helmet, but I don't seem to have hit my head. Bike seems fine. iPhone seems fine.

I haven't crashed a bike in years. I suspect the underlying cause was post-marathon daze. I always feel less observant the day after a run of that length.

When a bollard's on the trail,
swerve around, or EPIC FAIL!

What Army Officers Fear

The Fort Hood shooter told a lot of his fellow soldiers that our opponents were the good guys in Iraq and Afghanistan. You might think this would get you in trouble in the Army.

And it could. But it didn't. The AP reports:

His fellow students complained to the faculty about Hasan's "anti-American propaganda," but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal complaint.

The Army is a huge inertial bureaucracy, and fear of seeming biased is today a standard feature of such institutions.

Sometimes, in order to CYA,
you need to look the other way.

Born with an Accent

They don't just kick the insides of their mommies' tummies, they eavesdrop too:

Babies Cry in Accents Heard in the Womb

It's the original version
of learning by immersion.

Monumental

Ran the Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis today. Lovely course. But a bit hillier than the pancake flat Chicago course. Beautiful day. But a bit warmer than is really ideal for running that distance.

Still, I'm not complaining.
I'm so glad it wasn't raining.

Colliding With Bread

I wonder how much they're overbudget at this point:

The Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, just cannot catch a break. First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropping a piece of bread on a section of the accelerator has, according to the Register, shut down the whole operation.

First a coolant leak,
now bread dropped from a beak -
they're on an unlucky streak!

Nuts

Latest word: the homicidal psycho-psychiatrist rumored-possible-jihadi-sympathizing Army Major is alive.

I'd rather he were dead
instead.

Perfected Through Infection

After I got my swine flu shot, I was reading up on viruses, and was shocked to find out that we're all part virus:

Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are retroviruses derived from ancient viral infections of germ cells in humans, mammals and other vertebrates; as such their proviruses are passed on to the next generation and now remain in the genome.
...
They play a key role in evolution.

So we're not just descended from our "ancestors," we're also descended from some viruses that infected egg cells or sperm cells. And some of the modifications were useful.

Ancestors, I thank you all,
for bringing about my existence,
including those bugs, microscopically small,
who sneaked past your bodies' resistance.

Clan of the Cave Bear

A sad tale of Muslim separatists:

A bear killed two militants after discovering them in its den in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say.
...
The militants had assault rifles but were taken by surprise - police found the remains of pudding they had made to eat when the bear attacked.

Best to beware
of the homecoming bear.

If he finds you in his cave
the hole becomes your grave.

Where Is The Commitment Of Yesteryear?

As of a couple of days ago:

Putting his own political capital on the line, President Barack Obama headlined a pair of get-out-the-vote rallies for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine Sunday, two days before the election.
...
“We will not lose this election if all of you are as committed as you were last year,” Obama told about 11,000 sign-waving Democrats in a Newark sports arena.

Corzine failed despite
a great big push from the president.

I put the blame tonight
on ungrateful Jersey residents.

Coverage

Paul Hsieh puts it succinctly:

“Coverage” is not the same as actual medical care.

People imagine "having coverage" as having a safety net.

But many universal coverage systems involve waiting lists and rationing. Which means the "safety net" features big gaping holes.

Sometimes when you're on

a real long waiting list,
by the time your turn comes up

you no longer exist.

A+ for Creativity

Police were investigating a report of two would-be burglars with painted faces. Then they arrested a couple of guys who had used permanent marker to disguise themselves.

It worked as a mask,
but they failed to think
about the hard task
of removing the ink.

Lull

For book club we read Paris 1919, a 500 page tome about the peace conference at the end of the first world war.

The topic sounds dry, but the book is lively.

Sitting in headquarters
they re-drew the world's borders,
but the world did not comply
and the new lines went awry
by and by.

Costume

Behold an ass
trying to pass.

Happy Hallowe'en

They speak of the need to care, but their stares are cold.
And they lecture on sacrifice, but their coats are warm.

They praise your brains for being above the norm,
as they scoop them out of your skull with spoons of gold.

Heartland Institute Celebrates 25 Years

We attended the Heartland Institute's 25th Anniversary Benefit Dinner. The Heartland's a free-market think tank, which started out dealing with local Midwestern issues, but which found a different niche over time - namely, supplying information to state and municipal legislators.

The 50 states have many legislators.
The good news is they're not all liberty-haters.

And I Hope Disney Sues Them For Infringement

A couple of Chicago residents have been arrested - charged with plotting the death of a Danish cartoonist. This 78-year-old man:

The Chicago men, who knew each other from a military school in Pakistan, on Tuesday were accused of an international plot dubbed "The Mickey Mouse Project"... Authorities say Headley reported to Ilyas Kashmiri, the operational chief of what the FBI describes as a Pakistani-based terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida, according to the complaint.

I'm glad to see the freedom to draw
defended by the forces of the law.

Maybe An Old One

You can take your dog running, but you have to be careful about taking him too far. Why is that?

Most mammals can sprint faster than humans — having four legs gives them the advantage. But when it comes to long distances, humans can outrun almost any animal. Because we cool by sweating rather than panting, we can stay cool at speeds and distances that would overheat other animals. On a hot day, the two scientists wrote, a human could even outrun a horse in a 26.2-mile marathon.

No matter how long you make the course,
I'm doubtful I could beat a horse.

But I'm willing to run the experiment
for the sake of general merriment

Stay Loyal To The Royals Or Else

News headline:

Morocco punishes journalists over royal reporting

In countries with kings,
one must take care
about the sorts
of things
one dares
report.

Patching a Theory

The climate's getting colder, but the explanation's bolder: "When the planet's getting hot, its temperature swings a lot in a wild up-and-down line. And so this apparent decline in temperature is just proof of an upward thrust!"

Flu Emergency

The government runs the flu vaccine program. The vaccine is "distributed free".

Predictably, there are chronic shortages.

I have to agree with Donald Tabor's assessment:

Had the government simply stayed out of the way, there would be adequate supply in the United States, and it would only have been necessary for the CDC to issue recommendations for priority, leaving it to health care providers to see to it that those who needed the vaccinations most got them first.

We're now to the point where Obama has declared the swine flu to be a national emergency. The purpose of the declaration seems to be to allow doctors to cut through federal red tape:

For instance, federal rules do not allow hospitals to put up treatment tents more than 200 yard away from the doors; if the tents are 300 yards or more away, typically federal dollars won't go to pay for treatment.

I urgently hope to somehow make it through
this scary and unnecessary
emergency of flu.

Animals vs. Animal

Last night my dogs got in a fight a young adult raccoon.

So Romeo and Juliette
today had a trip to the vet.

They both seem okay. Juliette, who was wounded more, is going on antibiotics.

It's painful, I suppose
when a bandit bites your nose.

Fresh Eyes

Talking with a child can be a gift
that shifts
your perspective,
removes your blinders.

It's not so much a corrective,
as it is a reminder
of what it's like to view
the world anew.

Balloon Boy

I know this is one of my recurring questions, but here it is: What were they thinking?

They knew the boy would turn out to be hiding in an attic all along. Did they think no one would suspect it was all a hoax?

Did they think a young boy would keep his mouth shut under questioning?

What were they thinking? They weren't.
And that's why they got burnt.

Their Days and Their Bodies Were Numbered

A murder victim in Illinois was identified by his pacemaker.

A murder victim in California was identified by her breast implant.

A murder victim in Florida was identified by her artificial hip.

When trying to hide your murder victim's identity,
be sure to remove every serial-numbered entity.

Welcome Home Poem

My wife has returned from the East,
where she traveled with our daughter,
on Virginia's Skyline Drive.

So I'm glad, to say the least,
for it's not the same without her,
even though I did survive.

Phidippides was First

Detroit had a combination marathon / half-marathon race today. Three runners died, in separate incidents.

That's 3 dead out of 19,000 runners. A lot higher than average:

The Detroit Free press reported that deaths in marathons are relatively rare, occurring in about one in roughly 67,000 participants or 1 in 100,000 participants, according to various studies. About half of all deaths happen in the last mile.

That statistic about "the last mile" is interesting. A lot of people decide to really crank it up to a sprint for the last mile. Sounds like now and then they overdo it.

Anyway, I'm still planning to run a marathon in the next month or two.

I'll try not to go too fast.

Don't want my last mile
to be my last.

Marsupial Advantages

Giving birth, for humans, is dangerous. You've got this big-brained head to squeeze through your "birth canal".

Isn't there a better way? Perhaps that favored by marsupials? Why not squeeze the young out early, and allow their later development to take place in an easy-to-exit pouch?

If people were in possession of pouches,
like those that belong to kangaroos,
birth would not involve terrible ouches,
since virtual preemies would crawl outside,
ready to jump in the pouch for a snooze
and a multi-month ride.

Jeff Recommends

The Black Duckling, which I wrote about the other day, has now been "Jeff Recommended".

If you live outside the Chicago area, you're probably wondering who Jeff is and why his recommendation matters.

"Jeff" in Chicago is a bit like "Tony" in New York - it's our big local theater award committee. There are 3 stages in the Jeffs: Recommendation, Nomination, Award.

It's an important first for Dream Theatre. In the competitive world of Chicago theater, it's an important marker of respect, and a public recognition that helps to draw in new audience members.

After years of off-the-beaten-path brilliance
and bounce-back-from-problems resilience,
what could be sweeter
for the artists of Dream Theatre?

Toward The End I Was Miserable

Did a 24 mile run.
I'm glad that's done.

Saudacious

Our nominal allies, the Saudis, are worried that the West might stop buying so much oil.

The NY Times reports that they are proposing a solution:

Saudi Arabia is trying to enlist other oil-producing countries to support a provocative idea: if wealthy countries reduce their oil consumption to combat global warming, they should pay compensation to oil producers.

Money for NOT supplying oil?
Could it be they've gotten spoiled?

Too Tired To Insert Verse Breaks

I think that when you stay up late, you should get a text message from Next Morning offering a friendly warning that tomorrow may not feel that great.

The Black Duckling

My friends at Dream Threatre opened an extraordinary play tonight, The Black Duckling, by Jeremy Menekseoglu, the prolific playwright who was tonight proclaimed "the Ibsen of Pilsen". (Dream Theatre is located in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.)

The play is presented as a "silent melodrama", much of it with a live musical accompaniment by composer and flautist Trevor Watkin. I'm no musicologist, but Watkin's music struck me as a fusion between jazz and classical, and very pleasing to listen to, when I could pull my brain off the storyline and focus on the tunes. I think they should come out with a soundtrack CD.

A projection screen is overhead, and words appear there in sync with the action. Sometimes it is dialog. Sometimes it is rhymed narration. The actors move in sync with the musical background - which takes us back to the 19th century meaning of melodrama.

I found it took some getting used to, watching an unvocalized but musical play onstage. For a lot of the first act I was still thinking about the impression it made as a mode of story telling. That went away with the second act. By then I was fully emotionally engaged in the story and characters.

The setting, to me, felt like a European town, pre-World War II, a town with a cemetery, and a burlesque hall, and a eugenicist doctor. Not a town where I would want to raise a kid. They style of the play is somehow closer to a fairy tale than to a naturalistic story, closer to the poetic Ibsen than prose Ibsen.

The play has enough thematic material for 4 ordinary plays, which kind of leaves your head spinning with ideas when it's over. Menekseoglu is never short on ideas. In this case, a lot of the ideas revolve around the beauty of a certain kind of innocence.

That beauty and innocence is embodied by the luminous Anna Weiler, playing Slee, a young woman with an overbearingly religious father, played with characteristic gravity by Menekseoglu himself. Slee finds a job working as a maid for a burlesque dancer, but doesn't tell her father the exact nature of the work done by this "fine lady".

Slee proceeds to slide into the confusing world of people who see sex - and imperfect children - as curses upon humankind, a view she is never learns to share, despite being betrayed repeatedly by people who imagine they are trying to protect her.

Megan Merrill is wonderfully hardbitten as the "fine lady" burlesque dancer who wants to spare Slee the fate that befell herself. Bil Gaines is charming as the idealistic poet who finds himself torn between Platonic Love and Earthly Lust. Danielle Gennaoui shines as a crippled child with love in her heart. Dori Scallet and Stacie Hauenstein are disturbingly pleasant as the eugenicist doctor's efficient nurses.

There's some choreographed burlesque dancing, but be forewarned (or reassured) that none of the young ladies ever gets anywhere near to being nude.

One of my own obsessions is rhyme, and one of the things I like so much about the play was its use of verse and rhyme. An actual poem, about "the black duckling," plays a key role in the plot, and makes a strong thematic statement as well. The poem has a William Blake feel to it, perhaps because Blake, too, was fascinated by innocence - and its opposite.

The innocence of a child's fresh start
rarely survives in the grown-up's heart.

Kindly Disregard The Rope

The FTC is trying to reassure bloggers that they're not interested in investigating individual bloggers or "playing gotcha in gray areas".

Ann Althouse, law school professor, responds:

Not yet. But once the law is on the books, will you never feel tempted? Nothing will motivate you to venture into the gray?

"Don't worry about this new law -
we plan to be lenient."

But here's the flaw:
they'll tighten the noose when convenient.

Go For It

The AP picks
on the Man's verbal tics:

Yet in the portfolio of presidential phrases, none is more pervasive than Obama's four-word favorite: Let me be clear.

It is his emphatic windup for, well, everything.

I'm willing to let him be clear,
but very often I fear,
what follows is pleasantly quirky
but strangely murky.

Waiting for Duck-Go

My friends are in a whirl,
and no doubt frazzled,
rehearsing the tale of a set-upon girl,
but I simply expect to be dazzled.

Side Kicked

Ouch:

Owners of Sidekick phones, made by a Microsoft subsidiary and sold by T-Mobile USA, may have lost all the personal data they stored on the phone, including contact numbers.

The companies say the data is "almost certainly" gone after a failure of servers operated by Microsoft wiped out the data. The companies said they hoped to update customers on recovery efforts Monday.

Apparently their backup
doesn't stack up.

Black and White or Shades of Grey?

Animal redesign
in Palestine:

Gaza City zookeepers have found a creative way of drawing crowds to their dilapidated zoo — by painting their donkeys. The Marah Land Zoo's only two zebras died of hunger earlier this year when they were neglected during the Israel-Hamas war.

With judicious use of paint
they look like what they ain't!

But it may be a give-away
if they start to bray.

Chicago Marathon Photo

I took a photo centered on the woman in the pink top.

But later I saw this other figure, that I hadn't noticed originally.

Framed against a wall of stone,
she stops to stretch, amid the crowd, alone.
 

Maintaining Pace

Just got off a conference call. One of the participants, an older gentleman with a thriving business, had his heart stop several times on Friday.

Now he's got a pacemaker installed and he's feeling fine.

I'm very glad he's okay, and I'm very glad to live in a high-tech civilization with a wonder-working medical system.

I hope we're not about to wreak havoc on it.

Don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Don't throttle the docs with deadly rules and regs.

Intruder Nightmare

Know your limits:

John Tabutt, 62, told investigators he got his gun when he thought he heard an intruder, then fired at a figure in the hallway, according to Brunelle. It was Tabutt's live-in fiancee, 62-year-old Nancy Dinsmore, who family members say he was going to marry Saturday. Tabutt told authorities he thought she was next to him in bed the whole time.

If you don't wake up quickly... if it takes a while to perceive reality clearly... if you frequently wake up in a panic... be careful about keeping a loaded gun near your bed.

Especially be wary of just shooting "an intruder" in your house. Wouldn't you like to get a good look at the person you're shooting? Wouldn't you like to be really sure it's a bad guy?

Be astute.
You can't unshoot.

Sweat Lodge Deaths

"Sweat lodges" are sort of Native-American saunas. And lately they're getting a lot of use by New Agers. Overheating seems to yield contact with the cosmos. But be careful out there:

Two people died and an estimated 19 others were taken to hospitals after being overcome while sitting in a sauna-like sweat lodge during a Sedona spiritual retreat, authorities said Friday.

They haven't figured out what went wrong yet.

Beware of setting off on a spiritual quest
that detours into cardiac arrest.

The Prestigious Seinfeld Award

I'm announcing the International Seinfeld Award.

The Seinfeld Show, you may remember, was a self-proclaimed "show about nothing". And it was a huge hit.

Similarly, the Seinfeld Award is an award about nothing. Not just any kind of nothing, of course, but nothing that passes itself off as something!

And there's a very special cash prize. Of, you know, nothing.

Needless to say, Jerry Seinfeld knows NOTHING of this award.

So if you can spout
without being found out
give me a shout!

Return to Sender

The FTC is ordering bloggers to alert readers if they get free books.

If you return the books, you don't have to alert the readers.

But if you got a free Kindle download
how do you return it?

And if you got a good insight
how do you unlearn it?

In Case Real Life Chicago Isn't Scary Enough

Anna in the Darkness has won a place on the Top Ten Rated Haunted Houses of Chicago.

A horror play in its 4th year...

Dream Theatre’s Annual Horror Play takes a horrific new twist by taking the Audience out of Anna’s living room and into the bowels of the basement…

A young teacher has barricaded herself in the basement while the entire bloodthirsty town masses to kill her… And lucky you... You're down in the darkness with her...

There's something scary about the placement
of a barricade in the basement.

Degrees of Health

Wonderful internally rhymed headline news:

Study: Choose an Educated Wife for a Longer Life

I'll be living longer because
my wife has a master's degree.

And I might live longer yet
if she'd just pick up a PhD!

Gone Viral

Hmm. Swine flu is widespread across the states. And the vaccine is not.

Be careful and keep your hands clean.
The flu has outflown the vaccine.

Blog Regulations

The FTC has decided to keep an eye on bloggers who review stuff:

...the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.

Oddly, from what I've heard, the regular press isn't covered.

And the regular press does review stuff they get for free. Constantly. Like movies and books and CDs, for example.

But bloggers are suspect and all their endorsements
deserve extra special rules and enforcement!

Standards

Interesting defense against claims Letterman engaged in sexual harassment:

Yet these liaisons were apparently consensual. The women were older than 21. There was no banishment post-affair. Letterman was not married. And this is network TV, not your local Wal-Mart.

It was making sense until that last sentence.

So this would have been wrong at Wal-Mart? But it was okay here?

Do different standards of legal and moral propriety
apply to TV network society?

No Spring In My Step

Yesterday I ran 21 miles. I wasn't very fast, but I covered the ground. I should be ready for a November marathon.

Today Marsha and I went for a 17 mile bike ride.

By this process,
I have acquired
a pair of legs
that feel bone-tired.

Identity Card Revelation

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is ethnically Jewish?!

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A self-hating Jew!
Who knew?

UPDATE: The claim is disputed.

Which End Of The Leash

Gen LaGreca has a question: "Which end of the leash do you prefer?"

Because my dog is less than human, he wants and needs the security of a leash and master. Granted his nature, the one thing my dog does not need is liberty.

What about us and our nature? Throughout history people have had their human potential choked off by a leash that autocratic rulers placed around their necks. The first country to set the individual free and to put the government on a leash was America.

As for me, I holler
when they fit me for a collar.

Olympic Fail

Chicago has been spared
the cost of getting prepared.

Now it's the Brazilians
who will end up spending billions.

Denied

Chicago's Olympic fate?
Checkmate!

2016?

At noon standard time, we will know. Is that 7pm in Copenhagen?

The downside is that the city might lose money. The upside is that I would get to watch some of the games.

Chicago awaits
its Olympic fate.

Mmmmm

Here's a story about a woman with an artificial heart that doesn't pulse. The pump just continually spins the blood through her body.

It reminds me of the old Mazda commercial singing the praises of the Wankel rotary engine:

Piston engine goes boing boing boing
but the Mazda goes mmmmmm.

You don't really need your pump
to go bump..thump bump..thump.

But I'd find it disconcerting
to switch to continuous squirting.

Beyond Fatigue

Some people think my enjoyment of endurance sports is crazy. But if you want crazy, I give you Jure Robic:

Over the past two years, Robic, who is 40 years old, has won almost every race he has entered, including the last two editions of ultracycling’s biggest event, the 3,000-mile Insight Race Across America (RAAM). In 2004, Robic set a world record in the 24-hour time trial by covering 518.7 miles.

Here's the crazy part:

Around Day 2 of a typical weeklong race, his speech goes staccato. By Day 3, he is belligerent and sometimes paranoid. His short-term memory vanishes, and he weeps uncontrollably. The last days are marked by hallucinations: bears, wolves and aliens prowl the roadside; asphalt cracks rearrange themselves into coded messages.

His bodily vitality
out-rides his grip on reality.

Grabbing for the Torch

Our president is throwing his weight behind Chicago's Olympic bid. He's even traveling to Copenhagen, to help us clear that last big hurdle.

Our mayor says we can do this without losing money. I hope he's right - for the sake of taxpayer wallets!

If expected revenues sag,
who will be holding the bag?

Fun Day (Manic Monday To Follow)

I ran a half-marathon this morning. (In 2:01:43, for those who want to know.) They called it a mini-marathon.

Then, apparently because I wasn't tired enough yet, I showered and drove down to Dream Theatre to help them build sets for their next show.

Their big new show, The Black Duckling, looks wild. It's set in a world out of Dickens, and it's being performed as if it were a silent movie - the actors will be silent but emotional, and the dialog - much of it rhymed - will appear on a projection screen. A mini-burlesque show is included. I love the one-line summary:

In the darkness of the city, one light refuses to be extinguished.

In some ways, silent acting
is even more exacting.

You cannot rely
on the words to get by.nic Monday To Follow)

Three Solos and a Duet

We saw Mikhail Baryshnikov dance tonight with Anna Laguna. At 61 he's still amazingly graceful with awesome control. I admired the skill, and there were some breathtaking moments.

But there was a lot of self-mockery, and long stretches of purposely awkward movement too. The Sun-Times reviewer raved about it, but I wasn't crazy about it.

To be fair, I didn't hate it.

Over the years, my brain has been scarred
by certain works of the avante-garde.

Walter Kaufmann and est

As I discovered today, Walter Kaufmann mentions *est* more than once in his scholarly 3-volume work, The Discovery of the Mind.

*est* is the grueling psychological seminar that morphed into the Landmark Forum. And Kaufmann was some kind of fan!

Kaufmann develops an idea from Nietzsche and then adds:

...the basic idea is no longer esoteric. In the 1970s it was made popular by Werner Erhard through est: "EVERYTHING A LIVING CREATURE EXPERIENCES IS CREATED UNIQUELY BY THAT LIVING CREATURE WHO IS THE SOLE SOURCE OF THAT EXPERIENCE." To be sure, this point, which is made most emphatically on the third day of the four-day training, is qualified on the final day when people are told:"You're machines.... Your lives are meaningless."

Kaufmann thinks the purpose is to give people a "jolt" through Zen-like "paradox".

But my first thought was: No wonder some people had severe psychological difficulties after subjecting themselves to this goofiness!

You're a meaningless machine
and everything you've seen
or felt your whole life through
was all made up by you!

Your best bet, after this jolt
is to let your mind revolt.
Throw off the contradictions
that can grow into afflictions.

Bill of Health

A fine is not a tax.
A mandate is merely a nudge.

I get the sense
the truth is being fudged.

Secret Workings

I took this great-looking, wonderfully illustrated book out of the library, by Rita Carter, about one of my favorite things:

The human brain. It's so complex.
Its secret workings continue to vex
the scientists who attempt to chart
the function of each pulsing part.

Bit by bit, they seek to find
how mere cells can build a mind.
The human soul desires to know
how nerve firings make it go.

So close, and yet so far - we see
things never seen - but still they flee
our grasping quest to know at last
how consciousness - so bright and vast -

manages to boldly spring
from such a grey and bone-bound thing.

Read the Bill

I am amazed at this "read the bill" petition. It makes an outrageous demand - that legislators read the bills before they vote on them!

Have you looked at these bills? They're long. They're confusing. They're torture to read. You're not in favor of torture, are you?

What's in these bills?
No one is sure.

Reading them's simply
too much to endure.

In Drumcliffe Churchyard

I am so tired of politics. Like a lot of people, I wish I didn't have to pay any attention to it. Yeats wrote:

How can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?

Speaking of Yeats, here's a pic of me at his tomb:



The inscription reads:

Cast a cold Eye
On Life, on Death.
Horseman, pass by.

Very simple, but who is this horseman guy? Is it one of the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse? Or is it just an imagined traveler - like me - who stops to look at his grave?

There's a theory, by the way, that Yeats may not be buried there at all.

First he was buried in France, but then
years later they dug him up again
to bury him in Irish ground.

Did they retrieve the proper bones?
Or is it someone else, unknown,
sleeping beneath his mound?

National Endowment for Spin

The National Endowment for the Arts has been around since 1965.

But never before has the organization been caught pushing a specific political agenda. Until now:

I would encourage you to pick something, whether it’s health care, education, the environment, you know, there’s four key areas that the corporation has identified as the areas of service.

"The Corporation" being the NEA itself.

The White House Office of Public Engagement was also involved in this.

Disengage and depart.
Get your hands off the art.

The Art Of The Possible

Did the National Endowment for the Arts
think it was fine
to request that artists toe
a political line?

Coming to Believe

David Ramsay Steele gave a very interesting presentation on Belief Systems. He used this term very broadly, with no intended negative connotation. For instance, he thinks Physics is a sort of belief system.

He maintained that you never exactly choose what to believe. Rather, your choice to investigate a topic leads you face-to-face with facts, which you process by your existing procedures for forming beliefs - and the belief is thrust upon you as a kind of gestalt shift.

When your research program is effective,
truth arrives as a stunning new perspective.

I Don't Know How To Love Him

Tonight we saw "Rod Blagojevich: Superstar", which was very funny.

Governor Rod
had a great facade.

But he blabbed on the phone
and got overthrown.

Wishing This Wasn't Still Relevant

So you want a right to health care?
I'm glad to hear it, friend.
We've bundled up a bunch of laws
To help you meet that end.
A friendly little system, where,
No matter what your state,
We'll slice your paycheck, just because
It makes us feel so great.

And if you're feeling poorly, well,
We'll put you on the list
Of those who need a doctor bad...
And if you still exist
A year from now - why - what the hell
We'll let you see a nurse
Who'll tell you what it was you had
And why it's gotten worse.

We'd let you see a doc, except
We're kind of understaffed.
We told them what we'd pay them now
And most of them just laughed.
We threatened them, we begged, we wept,
And told them they must stay.
But strangely - we're not sure just how -
They all have slipped away.

Worry not! We'll fix you yet!
We're training new recruits.
Fellows much too bright to go on
Sweeping streets and shining boots.
They're doing great at school - you bet!
We're grading on the curve!
Brains they're slightly low on,
But we believe they'll SERVE!

The Virtue of Curiosity

U.S. colleges - dare they venture intellectually into the Great Unknown? Mark Lilla, of Columbia, writes:

The unfortunate fact is that American academics have until recently shown little curiosity about conservative ideas, even though those ideas have utterly transformed American (and British) politics over the past 30 years.

He goes on to describe some interesting academics attempts to overcome their aversion and actually study the strange ways of right-wing thinking.

Even if a school of thought makes you furious,
and you're sure its proponents are jerks,
you'll understand it better if you're curious
about how it internally works.

Race Cards Wild

I keep hearing, from the left, including former-prez Jimmy Carter, that the anger against the current prez, and his policies, is somehow racist.

I'm from the South Side of Chicago. I know real racism - regular or reverse - when I see it.

I've been at some tea-party type protests. I've talked to a lot of people and listened in on conversations. This does NOT have to do with race. It's about policy.

If Walter Williams were president, the vast majority of these people would be very happy.

Marching in opposition
and expressions of dissent
do not constitute admission
of secret racist intent.

Censure

I see the House Democrats are moving to "censure" that guy who shouted "you lie" at the President.

Censure is a sort of toothless reprimand. Have they thought this through?

Censure will keep this guy's accusation ringing in our ears a few days longer - the accusation that a certain someone isn't telling the truth.

The truth, when stretched enough,
turns into far-fetched stuff.

Redefined

George W. Bush:

"Look, I know this probably sounds arrogant to say," the president said, "but I redefined the Republican Party."

In retrospect,
it looks sort of wrecked.

Panache

I just read Cyrano again. I love this play.

It was pushed some weeks later into our book club schedule, and I'm taking advantage of the extra time to read some commentaries and notes on the play.

Here's something from Wikipedia that I didn't know:

The play... is responsible for introducing the word "panache" into the English language.

Originally, panache meant simply the sort of plume a soldier might wear in his helmet. After Rostand, it meant a "dashing confidence of style."

Forever flaunting his plume,
Cyrano stared down doom
with style
and a taunting smile.

How Useful The Needy Can Be

With astonishing speed
they move from "let's help those in need"
to "let's take control".

Almost as if - that were the goal.

The Rivals

We saw an excellent production of The Rivals, by James Sheridan, at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

Sheridan wrote it at age 23.

This is the play which features the famous Mrs. Malaprop, the woman who has a large vocabulary but whose tongue often produces the wrong word at the critical moment. One of her funniest lines of the night was:

He is the very pineapple of politeness!

"Pinnacle" was what she meant to say,
but somehow her intention went astray.

Crazy American Roads

I guess my week of driving in Ireland affected my brain. I had forgotten what American roads are like!

They are incredibly huge. One American alley has enough width to make a major highway in Ireland.

Here's one thing I don't understand - why do we Americans waste all that space putting shoulders on our roads? Why don't we just put stone walls where the shoulders are now?

Driving holds more thrills,
more chance to test your skills,
when any mistake at all
skids you into a wall.

Out of Country

Eight years ago we were in Mexico when it happened. For an anniversary trip. This year, we're on the emerald island. But I remember and there is something strange in being among strangers for whom this day is just another day.

I had a college job that involved going through the major attack location on a regular basis. It was always so busy and lively there.

I paused on the ground floor
as the people bustled by
in a place that is no more
where the towers stood so high.

GPS Distress

We had a gps from Hertz, but its audio didn't work, it routed us off of main roads onto country lanes, it told us to take illegal turns, and it seemed inaccurate often. Otherwise, it was great.

On the busy streets of Dublin
these hiccups were most troublin'.

Waitressing in Sligo

So we nip into a restaurant for supper in Sligo, Ireland, and our waitress, who seems to have the local accent, asks where we're from.

We tell her Chicago. She tells us she's from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, which is a couple of hours north of Chicago. But she's been living in Ireland for several years.

She said she worries sometimes that tourists are disappointed that she isn't originally from Ireland, since so many tourists are seeking to experience "the real Ireland." We just laughed.

We gave her
a waiver
from the need to provide local favor.

No Thank You

I hear a certain NY Times columnist says we should learn from the Chinese, whose mode of government is authoritarian but enlightened.

Authoritarianism, however "enlightened"
leaves me frightened.

Trip

Partial itinerary:

Saw ruins of monastery
in County Kerry.

Cove vs. Cobh

In Irish "bh" sounds like "v".
This bhery much puzzles me.

Fortuitous

We pulled into town at 1:30. Saw signs for race at 3:00. I guess it's that famous luck of the Irish.

I ran a 10k
in Bunratty today.

In Coach

Flights overseas
are hard on your knees.

My Rx for Medicine

There really is a way to have far more advanced medical care than we have now. At lower prices.

All we have to do is get the government out of medicine. Let them handle cases of fraud or true negligence. Get them out of the rest of it.

Quit requiring drugs to go through an FDA approval process, quit certifying who can practice medicine, and so on. Make the medical market like the electronics market.

My view
is held by few.

But I believe we should have done this long ago. The true cost of our regulated system is "the unseen." But I see it.

Many now buried and dead
would be among us instead.

Lawmaker, Lawbreaker

When Illinois raised its alcohol taxes, I predicted increased smuggling from neighboring states.

But I didn't predict this:

A Massachusetts Democratic state rep who voted to raise alcohol taxes and slap the increased state sales tax on hootch on top of that is caught buying bottles across the border in New Hampshire. . . . It’s a thing of beauty.

I think that's fair. Just because he thinks citizens should pay, why should legislators have to do so?

But maybe they should have been explicit about this exception.

Is it too late to add a note -
any sales tax for which we vote
doesn't apply
to what we buy!

Surgical Texting

Some hospitals are offering tweets from the operating room.

"Putting numbing medication where the incisions will be. Making first incision right now," Corizzo tweeted at the beginning of the procedure.

Fortunately, it's not the surgeon that's doing the tweeting.

Bloody fingers are sticky
and leave an iphone icky.

Among Schoolchildren

I'm reading reports, which seem to have started with Drudge, that our president is going to make a speech to "all public school children" on September 8. Some people are taking their kids out of school for that day.

But is the story even true? I'm not seeing any mention of it on the news - except on right-leaning blogs.

Drudge links to this document, but it's not a very good proof of anything on its own.

Sometimes rumors
grow like tumors.

UPDATE: It's real.

ellie_kay has given me a link to this video of Obama saying he will give the big speech.

UPDATE 2: I was amused by Venomous Kate's reasons for planning to send her child to school that day anyway. Her last reason is this:

Besides which, I know from experience that my boy is going to tune out any speech lasting longer than 30 seconds in favor of poking the little kid sitting next to him.

Even when you let your rhetoric soar,
children find long speeches are a bore.