Why I Love Wacko Conservatives -- Consider Elena Kagan

The conservative argument against the confirmation of Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court goes something like this:

1. She hasn't done anything.

2. What little she has done was all wrong in every way that something can be wrong.

3. She hates the military.

4. If she objects to the characterization in no. 3, she's a liar.

Look here, here, and here, too.

5. Finally, they say she's ugly.

“This Work Just Doesn’t Inspire Me!”

Do you really need some inspiration? Are your classes totally blah? Or could it just be you?

Inspiration is generally the result of hard work and continued
engagement with that hard work. There’s a Buddhist notion that if we find something boring, we should do it 278 times. This sort of full-on engagement will result in an inspiring revelation about whatever we once found boring.

It is a luxury to be able to "wait" for inspiration especially when we are
not working to evoke it. Think of Picasso: He wasn't “inspired” every
day, but he went to the studio every day because that was his job: to
make art.

I'm not "inspired" every day, but I come to school . . . every day.
And the glorious thing is that inspiration happens, like good luck, as
a result of design. Someone said that "good luck is the residue of
hard work." Same with inspiration.

We earn inspiration. We don't wait for it.

Okay, I've gotten all Protestant work ethic on you.

Regarding Discipline

Regarding Discipline: The etymology of the word focuses on the process by which we impart skills and ideas rather than on the skills and ideas themselves. Doctrine and Scholarship deal with the skills and ideas in the abstract. So discipline, rightly understood, is what we deal with more than anything else in the K-12 world. We are teachers, not scholars, and we teach kids, not subjects. Process, at this age, is as important as content. They’re not flawed little adults; they’re kids.

Kids have a measure of discipline. They have disciplined themselves in at least a few things. It has worked for them. Rewards and discipline -- carrot and stick. What would we replace these with?

We are constantly given to straying from healthier paths unless we have the self-discipline to stay true. Kids have less self-discipline. And they are bombarded by messages telling them to just f**k it, that only idiots work hard for . . . anything.

And yet, they know that they need to learn stuff and generally they do want to learn stuff. . . . just not necessarily at the same moment we want to teach it or in the place its being taught or in the proven manner in which it might be taught.

Sometimes kids say to me, “I’m not inspired, Greg! It’s hard to work when I’m not inspired!” And I know that, ideally, I’d like to be able to inspire every kid all the time. But inspiration doesn’t come easily and when it does come, it usually doesn’t come to a bunch of people at the same time. And those to whom it doesn’t come will regard their suddenly inspired peers as a little off balance and in need of being brought back down to the real doldrums of what we’re enduring. Inspiration is scandalous.



Inspiration is rare. If we all waited for inspiration, nothing would get done. If Picasso or Woolf or Ellington or Cassatt waited for inspiration every day, they wouldn’t have done a tenth of the work they did. A painter paints, an accountant accounts, a teacher teaches, a composer composes, and a student studies. And it’s discipline -- imposed from within and without -- that motivates them all. To the extent that a necessary discipline has not been developed within, and that’s the case with kids generally, it has to be provided. And, of course, kids will sometimes think that they have the discipline others find missing.

Rock, Paper, DEATH . . . Dies!!!

Meat Tree and Pelt Swan, founders of the heavy metal covers supergroup Rock, Paper, DEATH, have split irreconcilably and have not announced plans, but a source close to the band insists that Tree and Swan will get “heavier. Much heavier. I’m not even lyin’.” All that's left for fans after their last concert, June 11th, at "The Agnes," will be the "Meat Tree" action figure featuring "my gold shorty pants," the Rock, Paper, DEATH video game featuring RPD vs. various emo groups as they attempt to control the universe, and the Rock, Paper, DEATH Garage Band tutorial that allows budding metalists to play along with RPD while RPD plays along with 70's metal bands.

The group had been slowly falling apart: Founder Jack Tyranny left a year ago to pursue his dream . . . “scream metal.”

Lizard Breath Cold Blood moved to Canada. Tree was reported to have said that Cold Blood moved to Canada, “to watch paint dry or study Abba sheet music or some such . . . . It IS Canada after all – the least heaviest place EVER.” When reached by walkie-talkie at her “Canada First!” encampment, Cold Blood unleashed a string of profanities against “U.S. metal hegemony,” not one word of which can be printed in this family blog.

This left Grey Monster, founding drummer, to continue the tradition with the newest RPD members, bassist Jayne Poisonwell and singer Der Desecrator. “It’s no secret that I opposed the break up so it’s no wonder that many have asked if there’d be a RPD tribute band,” Monster claims.
“Rock Paper Death won’t die,” Monster continued, “although I’m legally prohibited from using the name ‘Rock Paper Death.’”

Monster says he will create a “RPD tribute band” called “Rochambeast!”

However, “Doc” Martin Lindsey, a representative for Poison Apple, the corporation formed by Swan and Tree to manage the band’s business back in happier days, states that the corporation will strictly control the licensing of tribute bands and Monster’s “Rochambeast!” will not be permitted to perform covers of the covers performed by the band. “Meat and Pelt agree on one thing,” says Lindsey, “and that’s that there should be a sudden, violent ‘D’ of RPD. I’m not even lyin’.” Ominously, both Tree and Swan have been seen in San Francisco with acoustic guitars and tambourines.



But it shouldn’t come to any surprise that signs of the band’s utter demise are mixed. Last week when RPD was inducted into Rock n’ Roll Cover Band Hall of Fame in Daly City, California, and after accepting their third Grammy for best private school affiliated heavy metal cover band, Tree and Swan were interviewed by Times of London reporter, Renee Dragonvan. Tree insisted that he and Swan “couldn’t help but jam a little bit backstage after our induction.” Dragonvan asked if she could record a bit of their jamming and was invited to do so only to find that Tree and Swan jammed with air guitars. “Of course, we jammed on air guitar,” Tree explained, “because we didn’t have our real guitars with us – they’re big and heavy -- but we jammed long into the night, kinda’ put our differences aside, I’m not even lyin’, and we talked about our roots.”

And just what are the roots of Rock, Paper, DEATH?

A band came together and was already wildly popular before their first concert. But the members of RPD were family oriented, so they found a solution to touring while remaining with their families.

The solution: RPD didn’t tour. Tree explained: “The Beatles stopped touring and remained popular, so why should we even start?”

All concerts were in the same place. And they were free. “The loyalty of our fans was amazing,” recalled Swan. “All of them, every single one, came to every show. I’m not even lyin’.”

Recipes from the Kitchen of Greg and Tina

Asparagus with Sauteed Meyer Lemon Slices

Ingredients:
Asparagus for 4 - steamed, roasted or sauteed with a little salt and black pepper.
1 Meyer lemon sliced crosswise very thinly with a very sharp knife to make about 10
slices
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS butter

Place olive oil and butter in a saute pan over medium-low heat. When butter begins to bubble, place the Meyer lemon slices in the pan. Don't let them overlap. Watch for the slices to lift a little from the bubbling liquid underneath them. DO NOT turn over the slices. Sprinkle with some salt and black pepper. Saute on lower flame for another minute or a bit less. Gently, pick up the slices by the rinds with a tongs. Place the lemon slices on top of your asparagus. The slices go great with the asparagus, but can also be eaten alone.

Take Me Out of the Ballpark

Michael Kimmelman fr. “On the Bad New Ballparks” in the Nov. 19th, 2009, issue of The New York Review of Books:

“At the [new] Yankee stadium . . . [T]he stadium sound system, echoing against the hard walls, keeps up a torrent of advertising, music, and instructions for spectators to ‘Get Loud’ and ‘Make Noise.’ . . . Major league baseball used to be a game of reverie. It was, and in amateur pickup games and at minor league fields is still, experienced as long stretches of near silence, interrupted by bursts of excitement. The soundtrack has long been the steady murmur of the crowd and the burbling chatter of radio or television announcers free-associating between plays. The new stadiums subvert this reverie. They fill the silence for the crowd that seems to number more and more multitaskers, who text or chat on cell phones during the game, and gladly pass an hour dawdling in line at the Shake Shack outlet at Citi Field rather than watch the action from their seats. As my friend . . . put it, marveling at the long lines, ‘They’re buying tickets to a mall that happens to be at a baseball stadium.’”

Chewy Cookies -- More Capitalist Scheming to Our Detriment or a Wise Use of Resources and Marketing? You Decide!!!

An Econ Conjecture (be forewarned: this entry was recently voted by my followers as the Most Boring Entry Ever, but it has to do with Econ, not really with cookies.): When I was a child, cookies were considered good if they were crisp. A box of Nabisco vanilla wafers promised crisp golden coins of carmelized sugar. Chips Ahoy? The same.

But now, vanilla wafers are pale yellow and instead of crisp, they're chewy to the point of bendable. Chips Ahoy aren't crisp either. And, of course, many cookie manufacturers have been marketing the chewy, almost doughy nature of cookies. Indeed, cookie dough is sold as is for eating and it's folded into ice cream.

How and why did we go from crisp to doughy? Finally, my conjecture: I suspect that the oil embargo of 1973 and the attendant steep rise in fuel costs cut deeply into the profits of industrial bakeries.

What to do? The demand for cookies continued unabated, but the cost of production skyrocketed.

But if the cookies could be baked for less time and at lower temperatures, well, they'd still be cookies, right? There'd be a saving in fuel costs to be sure and with each batch cooking for less time, labor productivity would go up and labor costs might diminish.

Would people buy cookies that seemed, in their experience, undercooked?

Certainly! But only if they were told to by marketing ploys that sold the idea of the "chewy" cookie.

And since the late 70's, I haven't had one decent vanilla wafer.

The End for Palin is Near -- Not a Moment Too Soon

See Timothy Egan's piece here.

Pledge Break -- Please Give Me Money

And now it is time for a pledge break.

Please give me money.

My polls indicate that only one in ten of you reading my blog ever pledges your support for my blog with a monetary contribution. In Economics 101 terms, this makes you a free rider. In more colloquial terms, a freeloader.




My goal for this pledge break is 2.2 million dollars. I can reach that, but only with your help. Really. It will only happen with your help.

Once I reach my goal, you can go back to the very eclectic writings and videos that draw you into my blog 20 to 30 times a day.

Perhaps you would like a gift in return for your pledge of support. And so, if you pledge – rather, if you SEND or personally give me -- $50,000 I will send you 5 excellent mixes from my very eclectic iTunes library.

Also, please note, some of my more affluent blog supporters have promised to match your gift of support if you give me any amount of money.

So what are you waiting for? Perhaps an 800 number? I can do better than that! If you promise a sum of $100,000 or more, I will meet you personally at the café of your choosing. I’ll buy! And, of course, I’ll bring the mixes.

Eclectic? Well-Rounded? Spiky? Or . . .

Last week, author Cory Doctorow spoke at my school about "gold farming" and the growth of games as content providers and even as locations of labor strife. In the course of the Q&A with our students, he was asked something about how he stays so "well-rounded" and I thought he answered brilliantly saying that he believes "well-rounded is boring" and that, instead, he regards himself as "spiky," i.e., someone who amps up on the knowledge in some very specific areas while reconciling himself to near-absolute ignorance in other areas.

Clearly, in the current Google-fed, information-sated environment, we can more easily afford to be spiky in some areas and relatively untouched by other areas. We know that we can easily acquire literacy and even a measure of depth in a subject through a judicious use of online resources, thus giving us a new "spike," while letting development in other areas pass us by, thus diminishing what had been a spike elsewhere.

My concern: I'm neither well-rounded or spiky. Instead, as a generalist, I'm lumpy. I have several areas of some partially amped up knowledge going beyond the wherewithal of laypeople, but none of these areas rise to the level of spikes. Just lumps.

Musica Electronica -- Song of the Month

About two minutes of this is sufficient, but it gently rewards greater loyalty, too.

Excerpt from NYT: Rand Paul and the Perils of Libertarianism

Rand Paul and the Perils of Textbook Libertarianism
By SAM TANENHAUS
Published: May 21, 2010, NYT

". . . Mr. Paul has tangled himself up in a . . . contradiction. His championing of private businesses, ignoring the rights of just about everyone else, places him on the wrong side of history, just like the first opponents of the Civil Rights Act. One fierce opponent of civil rights legislation, William F. Buckley Jr., admitted as much. 'I once believed we could evolve our way up from Jim Crow,' Mr. Buckley said in 2004. 'I was wrong: federal intervention was necessary.'”

(That's Ayn Rand on the left up there. My guess: Rand P. got his name from A. Rand.)

Michael Kinsley on "Tea Party Patriots"

Michael Kinsley in the 6.10 Atlantic Monthly:

Some people think that what unites the Tea Party Patriots is simple racism. I doubt that. But the Tea Party movement is not the solution to what ails America. It is an illustration of what ails America. Not because it is right-wing or because it is sometimes susceptible to crazed conspiracy theories, and not because of racism, but because of the movement’s self-indulgent premise that none of our challenges and difficulties are our own fault.

“Personal responsibility” has been a great conservative theme in recent decades, in response to the growth of the welfare state. It is a common theme among TPPs—even in response to health-care reform, as if losing your job and then getting cancer is something you shouldn’t have allowed to happen to yourself. But these days, conservatives far outdo liberals in excusing citizens from personal responsibility. To the TPPs, all of our problems are the fault of the government, and the government is a great “other,” a hideous monster over which we have no control. It spends our money and runs up vast deficits for mysterious reasons all its own. At bottom, this is a suspicion not of government but of democracy. After all, who elected this monster?

This kind of talk is doubly self-indulgent. First, it’s just not true. Second, it’s obviously untrue. The government’s main function these days is writing checks to old people. These checks allow people to retire and pursue avocations such as going to Tea Party rallies. This basic fact about the government is no great secret. In fact, it’s a huge cliché, probably available more than once in an average day’s newspaper. But the Tea Party Patriots feel free to ignore it and continue serving up rhetoric about “the audaciousness and arrogance of our government,” and calling for the elimination of the Federal Reserve Board or drastic restraints on the power of the Internal Revenue Service.

“I like what they’re saying. It’s common sense,” a random man-in-the-crowd told a Los Angeles Times reporter at a big Tea Party rally. Then he added, “They’ve got to focus on issues like keeping jobs here and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.” These, of course, are projects that can be conducted only by Big Government. If the Tea Party Patriots ever developed a coherent platform or agenda, they would lose half their supporters.

Orwell and Detroit

Chevrolet makes a bulbous SUV which they've named the Chevy "Tahoe."

Audacity? Well, yes, in one sense it seems to be staggering audacity to name this gaseous bag of pollution after a lake renown for its pristine waters.

However, I'm sure that the marketing mind who came up with this meant merely to connect the vehicle to the rugged, glorious, "off-road" outdoors that the "V" can more easily access if it's a "SUV."

Still, the irony of naming this bloatmobile after Lake Tahoe could not have been lost on the fine minds at Chevy. And I wonder: Did they express concern that there may be some backlash from environmentalists if they name their new gasbag "Tahoe"? Or upon perceiving the irony, while also appreciating the power of the name, did they just chuckle . . . and move on to other business?

Financial System as a Casino Producing . . . Nothing Except Losers and Lost Possibilities

From Frank Rich column, 4.24.10, NYT:

"Even if the [financial] reform bill does bring stringent regulation to derivatives — a big if — that won’t rectify capitalism’s worst “innovation” in our own Gilded Age: the advent of exotic, speculative “investments” that have no redeeming social value and are instead concocted to facilitate gambling for its own sake. Such are the Goldman instruments of mass financial destruction that paid off for John Paulson. In 2007 alone, according to Gregory Zuckerman in his book “The Greatest Trade Ever,” Paulson’s personal take amounted to over $10 million a day, “more than the earnings of J. K. Rowling, Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods put together.” That “financial alchemy,” as Zuckerman calls it, explains why the finance sector’s share of domestic corporate profits, never higher than 16 percent until 1986, hit 41 percent in the last decade.
As many have said — though not many politicians in either party — something is fundamentally amiss in a financial culture that thrives on “products” that create nothing and produce nothing except new ways to make bigger bets and stack the deck in favor of the house. “At least in an actual casino, the damage is contained to gamblers,” wrote the financial journalist Roger Lowenstein in The [NY] Times Magazine last month. This catastrophe cost the economy eight million jobs."

Consider also Garry Kasparov, former chess World Champ, in the New York Review of Books a few months back. He reviewed "Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind." In his review he writes:

"Like so much else in our technology-rich and innovation-poor modern world, chess computing has fallen prey to incrementalism and the demands of the market. Brute-force programs play the best chess, so why bother with anything else? Why waste time with new and innovative ideas when we already know what works? Such thinking should horrify anyone worthy of the name of scientist, but it seems, tragically, to be the norm. Our best minds have gone into financial engineering instead of real engineering, with catastrophic results for both sectors."