On The Y Chromosome?

Instapundit reports on shocking news from the UK:

Playing with toy weapons helps the development of young boys, according to new Government advice to nurseries and playgroups.

Pacifist parents who try to ban weapon-like toys
Frequently find that their sons chase forbidden joys
Converting sticks into swords and legos to guns,
Pursuing their own ideas of solid fun.

That's Beignet To You, Buster

New Orleans: a strange place where
They make their donuts square.

High Stakes

Deb at Mariposario writes:

I am so afraid that without Bhutto's restraining sobriety, that part of the world will begin (or accelerate, depending on your perspective) a terrible downward spiral. What chance do all of the oppressed women in the Islamic nations have now? (I'm sure many of them are getting the message: Take off the chador, babe, and you'll just SEE what happens to you.)

I want to go back to yesterday.

Rather than persuade you on "the error of your ways"
They terrorize your days.

Dynasty

I see where Benazir Bhutto's 19 year old son, Bilawal, may take over the "leader of the party" role.

That will make three generations of Bhuttos at the head of the Pakistan People's Party. This kid's grandfather was hanged, and his mother was assassinated. So I think it's a gutsy move if he decides to fill their shoes.

Our politics are tame
Compared to that deadly game.

It does seem odd that the same family keeps heading up the party. Or does it? If Hillary's elected we'll be in full alternating Bush-Clinton dynasty mode!

Now I'm inspired to push
To nominate Jenna Bush.

Then we might as well see
What it's like to be governed by Chelsea.

Brunching in New Orleans

I had the opportunity to meet and share a meal with John Landrum today. He's the engaging author of The Jonkheer's Wife.

I reviewed the book for The New Individualist. It's in the latest issue. I hear they did their usual great job with the visual layout, adding photos of Holland to jazz up my prose.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen the issue yet. Probably that's because of my local post office. What I have seen is this scary picture of the cover, featuring a 1970's horror flick version of "The Abominable Dr. Paul". (Compare to original here.)

I was glad to hear John's thinking of writing a sequel,
Even though the original will be tough to equal.

The Slightest Philosophy

I've been reading The Slightest Philosophy, by Quee Nelson. It's a fascinating defense of what she calls "naive realism" in philosophy. In other words, she maintains that when you see an apple, you actually see a real apple that is out in the world. Probably this sounds non-controversial to most of you, but it's certainly controversial in philosophy, and she tackles the issue head-on.

Most of the book takes the form of a dialog between a philosophy professor and a student. As philosophy books go, it's really easy to read. What's more it's witty, and I keep finding myself in agreement with the author.

I found out about the book only because the estimable Stephen Hicks gave it a good review.

I was pleased that Nelson had some kind words for Thomas Reid, the Scottish philosopher of common sense. I've long been a big fan. I think his criticisms of Hume had real merit. But hardly anyone seems to have read him, so I never get a chance to talk about him with anybody!

"I saw an apple."
That's what I said.
Could it have been
A mere patch of red?

I tasted the apple,
I bit through its peel.
Could it be true
That it's not really real?

I tossed the apple
In the sky.
Doubt its existence?
Please tell me why.

UPDATE: After I finished reading the book, I published an extended rave review here on The Atlasphere.

Robot Romance

You've probably seen the prediction that humans will soon be marrying robots:

"My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots," artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience.

Of course, there's already a scary warning video about dating robots. But warning videos are usually worthless, so I figure robot relationships are practically a done deal.

I just want to know whether it will be a relationship of equals.

If you were a robot
And I was flesh
And our glances met
And our bodies meshed -

Would it be all right?
Could you ever feel
That a beating heart
Was a match for steel?

Spirits of the Season

I miss the ghosts of Christmas past,
The faces long since gone who graced
This festival with their presence.

I shall not name them, but they come,
Marching toward me, one by one,
With memories of fond moments.

Puppy for Christmas

Okay, he wasn't really a puppy. But he was small and frisky. He followed me home. At one in the morning! Well, I was out walking my own dogs, and he seemed to want to play with my dogs.

He was quite cute, but he looked cold. I hadn't seen him around before. So I let him in, and I called the phone number on his heart-shaped tag, hoping someone was awake at his house.

The lady on the phone was quite happy to hear from me. It seems he had escaped when "Santa" arrived at their house several hours before. She drove over to pick him up right away. He was glad to see her. She was even gladder to see him.

Thus ends the wagging tale of a hound
Who once was lost but now is found.

Good Will's Limiting Case

Actor Will Smith is spreading good will toward all, including his belief that Adolf Hitler wasn't completely bad.

Strangely, the "Hitler was a good person" quote never appears in the stories themselves - only in the headlines. So I figure he didn't actually say that in those words. Just like Gerald Ford never actually said "Drop Dead" to New York City.

Headline writers somehow get a pass
To misquote you to sound like an ass.

Here's part of what Smith apparently did say:

"Even Hitler didn't wake up going, 'let me do the most evil thing I can do today'," said Will. "I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was 'good'. Stuff like that just needs reprogramming.

Some of that's true. But I don't believe that Hitler really thought he was doing good.

Also, he didn't need reprogramming. He needed killing.

Monsters on a psycho path,
Need to be met with righteous wrath.

UPDATE: Smith says the reporter / was a distorter:

"It is an awful and disgusting lie. It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous misinterpretation. Adolph Hitler was a vile, heinous, vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet."

To me it sounds like he's not denying the quotation, just the media interpretation that "Hitler was a good person."

Three Days of Partying

Well, the 3 days of family partying has begun. Tonight it was our house, 17 people chowing down on lasagna and ice cream pie.

Tomorrow, at my Dad's, pizza and a liver sausage ball and jam cookies for Christmas Eve. That'll be the really crowded event.

Tomorrow++, roast beef and pumpkin pie, again at my Dad's.

When it's done
I'll weigh a ton.

Holiday Wishes for Suicide Bombers

Msnbc's front page, for the moment, claims to have an "interview with a suicide bomber."

I don't think so. Unless they managed Dante's trick and took the trip to hell.

Sure enough, it's just front-page hype. When you click through it's "would be suicide bomber" in the text.

Oh, fevered nuts,
May you splatter your guts
In a practice gone wrong,

Gathered with friends
Who at last meet their ends
In a blast loud and strong.

Taxes in Texas

It's that time of year.

"Brand new laws are coming to town!"

On January 1st, around the nation, statutes galore will deliver new restrictions and collect new taxes.

In Texas, they're taxing strip club visitors, at $5 per visit. To "help rape victims".

"This is an industry that largely employs women, and this gives them an opportunity to raise funds for a crime that affects women," said state Rep. Ellen Cohen, a Houston Democrat who sponsored the legislation.

No, Representative Cohen, you're not GIVING ANYTHING to ANYBODY involved in strip clubs. You're TAKING something from them.

Why must our "Representatives"
So often misrepresent?
Why must they torture language
To hide what their actions meant?

As for rape victims being women, of course that's the case we usually think of and worry about. But there are huge compounds around the country where men are routinely raped. Their cries are not heard. Their assailants are not charged. Authorities look the other way. Some of these rape-infested compounds are actually run by the state of Texas.

Of course, it's only fair.
There's a reason these men are there.
They did something bad.

So any hope they had
Of not being violated
Is vacated.

Blenderman

The Blenderman Video is a riot.

For some reason I had to update my install of QuickTime to get it to play right. At first I had sound but not video.

It must run a little longer than 10 minutes, because my screen saver, which turns on after 10 minutes, wrecked my first attempt to take in the final twist.

Despite all these obstacles, I persisted, and triumphed.

There is no greater splendor than
The spectacle of Blenderman!

I exaggerate? Perhaps I do.
But, really, truly, it's worth a view.

Sudden Substitute

I'd worn running shoes,
Rather than boots.
They looked funny, too,
With my red suit.

Someone got sick today -
That was the cause
Of my having to play
Santa Claus.

(Many pictures were taken with kids on my knee,
But none, so far, have been emailed to me.)

The Tranquility Myth

The W$J ran an op-ed called The Happiness Myth today.

The author, Steve Salerno, does a nice job ridiculing the "you can have whatever you imagine" way of thinking. But he seems a bit ambivalent about happiness itself. He ends this way:

My father didn't have it all, but I believe he was at peace with himself and the life he led. Shouldn't that be enough for any of us?

The elevation of "peace with yourself" to a supreme attainment is interesting, recalling Stoicism and Buddhism. It's a bit jarring to find in a business newspaper.

So much resignation is ugly to behold,
A bitter fruit that makes the spirit old.

Be wary of false peace
Where all dreams cease.

Burned

There's a group home in Massachusetts for troubled teens. Sometimes they get zapped with painful jolts for their trouble-making.

But one night a prank caller got the staff to zap a couple of teens repeatedly for doing... nothing.

The teens were awakened in the middle of the night and given the shock treatments, at times while their legs and arms were bound. One teen received 77 shocks and the other received 29. One boy was treated for two first-degree burns.

Now 7 people are fired for cooperating with the prank caller. It occurs to me that the whole thing is like a repeat of the notorious Milgram Experiment. I've heard that Milgram couldn't run his experiment under current ethical research rules. But pranksters don't worry too much about ethics.

Don't go along
When you know it's wrong.

Dry Runs in the Wetware

Karl Popper had this idea that life proceeds by trial and error. This includes one-celled organisms and plants. They "try" things and some of them are errors. Some of the errors are fatal.

But if you have a nervous system, you get to do dry-run trials - in the brain itself.

So you get to see ahead
Which choices will leave you dead.

But why call it trial and error?
I think it might be fairer
To call it trial and success.
It can seem slow
With lots of No-No,
But sometimes the answer is Yes.

Special Delivery

I had known for a long time that my parents first met at a party. A Christmas party. Given by one of my mother's friends.

What I hadn't known until tonight was how my father got invited.

It turns out that he had a seasonal job with the post office. Delivering mail during the Christmas rush. One mail recipient was a young woman who was giving a party. She asked him if he would like to come.

Now that I have heard this tale
I vow to never again say "snail"
When speaking of the U.S. Mail.

I must admit that I feel retroactively nervous
To think my existence is owed to the Postal Service.

Concrete Bound

There's an ugly Christian Science church near the White House. Attendance is way down, upkeep is expensive, and the congregation would like to tear the monster down.

But, no. The D.C. Historic Preservation Board has decreed that it's a landmark, not to be torn down, nor altered much without permission.

Is this 1971 building a classic of some particular style? Oh yes. "Brutalism."

If someone wants to preserve a building, they should offer to pay for it and maintain it at their own expense. It's just plain brutal to take away the owners' actual property rights, leaving them with a worthless deed and a big white elephant on their hands.

Ugly in the making,
Brutal in the taking.
Forever shall it stand
By the government's demand.