Herpetology On Stage

Friday night I saw actors playing lizards doing mating dances, in M.A.T.E.

Saturday night I saw an actor playing a newt doing a mating dance, in Jeeves In Bloom.

Two nights in a row,
in unrelated shows!

Tell me, what were the chances
of parallel belly-crawling mating dances?

Non Neocon

The Chicago Reader, a free weekly, ran an article that mentioned the course my wife is co-facilitating at Shimer College. The reporter does a decent job with her factual reporting on the course, but the headline is amusingly wrong:

Who's Buying Shimer?
A former student follows the money behind the new neoconservative bent at the local Great Books college.

My wife's friends had a good chuckle over the idea that she was neocon.

I don't know much about the other focus of the article, the "buying" of Shimer. It sounds like the college recently took on new funding and new board members. But the article does nothing to flesh out the neocon angle.

Perhaps in a certain ideological frame
all non-progressives look exactly the same.

Strike Three

Serial killer whale:

Tilikum, the largest killer whale at any SeaWorld park, has been involved in two previous deaths.

If I were a trainer, I'd give up on training this one.

Don't turn your back
or he may attack.

M.A.T.E.

I saw a comedy tonight, M.A.T.E, which is about animal mating strategies.

It starts off with 4 scientists lecturing the audience on the topic. They have their own relationship tensions, which play out during the show.

But the scientists also become the animals they are talking about, acting out the mating strategies in a sort of cartoon form. Chris Delgado, Danielle Gennaoui, Keland Scher, and Deanna Myers were very energetic and amusing.

The show is set in a bar, and made good use of the setting. One scene involved 2 "lizards" meeting on a blind date. The girl lizard was reading a romance novel and holding a flower while sitting at the bar.

Bacteria can reproduce
in solitary splendor.

But human beings must work to seduce
someone from the contrary gender.

What Happened To "All Dogs Go To Heaven"?

Certain Christians believe that the virtuous will be lifted up to heaven as Judgment Day nears. This miraculous event, called the Rapture, will leave sinners behind on earth.

It will also, allegedly, leave all animals behind. Including the beloved pets of those virtuous enraptured Christians. Thereby arises a money-making opportunity:

...61-year-old Bart Centre has come up with a plan to look after those domestic animals not scooped up in the heavenly exodus. In July, he started Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, a pet-sitting service to care for those critters.

"Each Earth-Bound Pet representative is a confirmed atheist, and as such will still be here on Earth after you have received your reward," the company's Web site promises. "Our network of animal activists are committed to step in when you step up to Jesus."

By this means he hopes to capture
cash from those who plan to rapture.

There Is A House

I just finished The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Liked it, didn't love it.

The House of the Seven Gables
is a densely woven fable
with miscellaneous strengths
and a somewhat padded length.

I like The Scarlet Letter
eight times better.

Bittersweet Medals

Here is research that 3rd place makes you happier than 2nd place:

Research by three U.S. academics, who analyzed heat-of-the-moment reactions, medal-stand temperament and interviews of Olympians, shows that bronze-medal winners, on average, are happier with their finishes than silver medalists. Take silver, and you tend to fixate on the near miss. Score bronze, and you are thankful you were not shut out altogether.

Suppose two of you are in very hot
competition for the number 2 spot...
Should you slow down? I think not.

Pole Dancing In The Olympics

It sounds like something I would suggest in jest:

Hong Kong-based Ania Przeplasko, the founder of the International Pole Dancing Fitness Association, the sport's fledgling supervisory body, believes Olympic recognition is only a matter of time and would be a victory for underappreciated sports worldwide.

"There will be a day when the Olympics see pole dancing as a sport," she said. "The Olympic community needs to acknowledge the number of people doing pole fitness now. We're shooting for 2012."

Since pole vaulting is already in,
I bet pole dancing will be a big win.

Nanny State Newspeak

New York City reinstates "bake sales", if you can still call them that:

Months after it barred schools from holding most food fundraisers, the city says bake sales can go on - as long as no homemade treats with undisclosed calorie counts grace the fold-out tables.

A "bake sale" with nothing homemade
is a promise betrayed.

Devilish Ducklings

Devilish ducklings come in many types. The evilest of all has zebra stripes.

Madison and the Angels

We had a great discussion last night about James Madison's hypothetical comment concerning angels:

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

What did he mean by this? Did he mean that we are beasts? Did he mean that we are cursed with original sin? Such is sometimes argued.

Or did he just mean we have the *capability* of doing the wrong thing? Maybe because we have free will?

Angels seem stuck on "rejoice"
but humans have a choice.

Homicidal Suicide

The Texas kamikaze's suicide note is all over the political map, raging against George Bush, the Catholic Church, Big Business, the IRS, and so on. He hated almost everybody!

So it's hard to pin him down on the left-right continuum. But that won't stop people from trying! As the NY Daily News puts it:

The right called him a socialist, and the left branded him a right-wing tea partyer.

Few want to claim him for their own. Which is a good thing. You would have to worry about the fate of a country where a high percentage of people celebrated such behavior.

I notice that he badly frightened his wife the night before he totally flipped. She took her kid and spent the night in a hotel. When she came home she found he had set their house on fire.

I think she did a very smart thing in going to a hotel. I suspect he would have killed her and the kid on his way out that morning. Why? I don't know exactly, but that's what mad-at-the-world killers often do. They kill their immediate families along with themselves. I think it's some kind of deadly narcissistic gesture, where you spitefully try to destroy all "your stuff," including your family.

His political outlook may be hopelessly hazy,
but he sure went out in a blaze of crazy.

Santelli Rantiversary

It was one year ago today that Rick Santelli ranted on CNBC that it was time for a tea party.

There had already been a good-sized protest or two, but Santelli's rant gave the movement a name.

I want to mention something paradoxical I've observed. At these protests, the signs are often angry, but the people are usually smiling. They're having a good time exercising their rights to assemble and air grievances. This suggests to me that it may have staying power. People like participating.

Not everyone is happy:

Progressivism purports to protect the toiling and exploited masses from the amoral rapacity of big banks, big insurance, big tobacco, and whatnot. It must be exceedingly frustrating to have the toiling and exploited masses turn against the policies you have designed for their own good.

How annoying of these proles
to march with signs on poles
objecting to their bettering
with obvious hand-lettering.

Serenity Now!

I think Ann Althouse is right to object to public school programs requiring students to meditate.

Somehow the Other's religion is neuroscience, to be imposed on rowdy children to make them serene. Thanks, Hollywood liberals. You know, I can't think of one Hollywood movie about kids that had a placid protagonist.

If private schools want to require it, that's one thing. I certainly recited my prayers aloud in Catholic school. But the wall between church and state should exclude this stuff in state schools.

Althouse really lets loose in the comments.

Because all we have is our time. How dare you steal time, systematically, on a daily basis from children? Let a school be a school, and leave the spiritual training to the family and the individual.
...
If I was a kid in a classroom where they did this to me, there is no way I would think about my breathing. I would think about how much I objected to being treated this way. I would either misbehave and get punished (or drugged) or I would compose vicious essays and stories in my head, and put them up on the internet later.

I love her for these 2 comments, above all because she remembers what it's like to be a kid.

In too many schools
they're treated like fools.

Technology Marches On And On

In Switzerland, a shocking solution:

Brothel owners in the Lugano area say electric shock treatment to restart customer's hearts is needed because so many elderly customers are using their services.

The most recent victim was a pensioner, thought to be having fun with the help of anti-impotence medication.

If you're on a so-called "date"
and she sets your heart a-beating,
at a most irregular rate
your existence may be fleeting.

But if they have a defibrillator with them,
you have a shot at getting back your rhythm.

Technology Marches On

Big Brother was allegedly watching, and now there's a lawsuit:

They claim Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton High School, spied on their son, Blake, at home by remotely activating the webcam on his laptop.

It was a school-issue laptop, with "security software" that let you view through the webcam remotely.

Some people like to creep and peep
and watch your children while they sleep.

Hollow Theory

While in Florida we visited Koreshan State Park, a very pleasant hiking location, which is the former site of a utopian commune.

It was founded by some crazy religious group who believed that the earth is a hollow sphere - and we are living on the inside!

If we were in a hollow sphere
I'd expect to look up from here
and get a look at China's Great Wall.

But I don't see that at all.
Instead, I see a clear night sky.
I wonder why.

"I Am Dr. Amy Bishop"

Amy Bishop, PhD, killer of biologists, has a history. The latest bizarro research item:

In March, 2002, Bishop walked into an International House of Pancakes restaurant in Peabody with her family, asked for a booster seat for one of her children, and learned the last seat had gone to another customer, according to a police report.

Bishop strode to the customer, identified in the report as Michelle Gjika, demanded the seat and, after a profanity-laced rant, punched her in the head while yelling ‘‘I am Dr. Amy Bishop.’’

This was in Massachusetts. She got probation.

Court records are unclear on whether a judge granted the prosecutor’s recommendation she take anger management classes.

These classes, if taken, obviously didn't work.

At this point she's done more damage
than the average thug in the hood.

Please, please, Alabama,
lock her up for good.

Rand and Marketing

A couple of months ago, the Wall St. Journal ran an op-ed by Heather Wilhelm, arguing that Rand shouldn't be included in marketing materials for the free market movement.

But in an age where hope, change and warm-hearted marketing clearly resonate, is revitalizing and glorifying Rand's acerbic "virtue of selfishness" doing the free-market movement any good? Doubts are starting to emerge.

It's funny to think that doubts about Rand's approach are just starting to emerge. She has always been controversial, even among those who advocate free markets.

In today's Daily Caller, my wife and Gen LaGreca argue that Rand makes a vital contribution:

It’s amazing that in all their talk of Rand’s “harsh message” and “confrontational language,” many free-market defenders haven’t asked themselves why her writings have inspired millions to become advocates of capitalism. They don’t understand that she completes the 18th century vision of the American Revolution by presenting a morality that fully justifies capitalism and individual freedom.

Rand’s morality of rational, enlightened self-interest defends the individual’s right to his own life, the power of his own liberty, and the glory of his pursuit of his own happiness.

Appeasement can be a crutch,
limping along too long.

Confrontation, as such,
isn't always wrong.

Roger Enright and Me

Someone asked me online, in jest no doubt, if I was related to Roger Enright, a secondary character in The Fountainhead.

Here he is in the movie version, played by Ray Collins.


Once in a while someone asks me, seriously, if I changed my last name to match Roger's.

I would like to claim him as a distant relation,
but that would be unmerited,
since he got his name from her imagination,
but mine was simply inherited.