Quote of the Day

From Dunk's Almanac - Old Fashioned Observations for the Modern Military Leader. 1995.

by Major Gene Duncan, USMC (Ret.)

"If you learn nothing else in this life, learn that nothing is black nor white. Everything is varying shades of gray."

Article: "The View from Gate 14," by Peggy Noonan

The View From Gate 14
Declarations
The Wall Street Journal: April 25, 2008
by Peggy Noonan
http://www.peggynoonan.com/article.php?article=416

Excellent article on the irony of airport friskings. I've been there...

Excerpt:

America is in line at the airport. America has its shoes off, is carrying a rubberized bin, is going through a magnetometer. America is worried there is fungus on the floor after a million stockinged feet have walked on it. But America knows not to ask. America is guilty until proved innocent, and no one wants to draw undue attention. America left its ticket and passport in the jacket in the bin in the X-ray machine, and is admonished. America is embarrassed to have put one one-ounce moisturizer too many in the see-through bag. America is irritated that the TSA agent removed its mascara, opened it, put it to her nose, and smelled it. Why don’t you put it up your nose and see if it explodes? America thinks.

And, as always: Why do we do this when you know I am not a terrorist, and you know I know you know I am not a terrorist? Why this costly and harassing kabuki when we both know the facts, and would agree that all this harassment is the government’s way of showing “fairness,” of showing that it will equally humiliate anyone in order to show its high-mindedness and sense of justice? Our politicians congratulate themselves on this as we stand in line.

All the frisking, beeping and patting down is demoralizing to our society. It breeds resentment, encourages a sense that the normal are not in control, that common sense is yesterday.

Samples of arguments for and against the producer

Too good to pass up. First: posts from Gawker.com against poking fun at the producer.

flossy at 05:14 PM on 05/22/08
Uh, what? It's better to publicly humilate this guy than Emily or Julia because unlike them, he doesn't want the attention? Just because you dislike the navel-gazing/attention-whoring ways ways of our home-grown web 2.0 celebrities (and yeah, it bores me too) doesn't make it okay to pull out the sharp knives for someone who stumbled ass-backwards and completely unintentionally into his internet fame.
I mean, I get it--dude has poor taste in clothes, more money than sense (and not much of either), poor grammar and a spotty understanding of our legal system. Hilarious! Almost as hilarious as watching Gawker's "creative underclass" turn on some nobody whose education isn't up to our liberal-arts-college standards. Oh, wait, that's not funny.

Ouch. He's right, you know.
For:
AndSheSaid at 07:44 PM on 05/22/08
It may be that Shuttershades is a decent guy who doesn't deserve this treatment. If so then this may in fact teach him a valuable lesson:
If you look like a moron, speak like a moron, and act like a moron, then people will think you are a moron.
To the people saying that we shouldn't make fun of him for how he speaks I say bullshit. He should not be mocked for his accent, but for adopting speech that is idiotic.
Yes the NYC public school system is a disaster but that still isn't an excuse. He has cultivated a certain image that is based sexism and stupidity.
Maybe this mockery will make him realize that he may want to reconsider how he presents himself. Not to mention how he attracts women (money fans? really?). I doubt it. But I think it is perfectly reasonable to call him on it.
Most of the time we allow guys like this to get away with being idiots. It is considered mean (and even worse -- "elitist") to tell them to grow up and behave like a civilized human being.
This kind of behavior is excused and even encouraged. We live in a culture where a president is celebrated for being a "man of the people" because he deliberately mispronounces words and appears to be incapable of stringing together a coherent sentence on his own.
Speaking knowledgably is seen as a form of snobbery. And insisting on people behaving intelligently is seen as elitist.
I appreciate the fact that Gawker is one of the few places where such elitist snobs are allowed to talk back to -- and have at least have as much of a voice as -- d*bag morons.

No more posts on the producer.

Hey! I'm a producer

Dear Friends,

How would you like to start your day with an exciting new mantra? "I'm a young dude and I get girls. I do what I do and I'm a producer."

Due my current station in my life, I thought it appropriate to bestow a new title on myself:

Cagey

~

Producer

Being a producer is about entitlement and status. The antithesis would be dis' espect. According to Paul Brian:

The hip-hop subculture has revived the use of “disrespect” as a verb. In the meaning to have or show disrespect, this usage has been long established, if unusual. However, the new street meaning of the term, ordinarily abbreviated to “dis,” is slightly but significantly different: to act disrespectfully, or—more frequently—insultingly toward someone. In some neighborhoods “dissing” is defined as merely failing to show sufficient terror in the face of intimidation. In those neighborhoods, it is wise to know how the term is used; but an applicant for a job who complains about having been “disrespected” elsewhere is likely to incur further disrespect . . . and no job. Street slang has its uses, but this is one instance that has not become generally accepted.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/disrespect.html

To learn about being a producer, please view the following link:

http://gawker.com/392686/cash+waving-craigslist-players-fury-these-photos-are-mines

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Cagey

The Parable of the Ant and the Grasshopper

OLD VERSION: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION:The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and da nces and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green.'Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, 'We shall overcome.' Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.The ant has disappeared in the snow.The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2008.

SCHOOL -- 1958 vs. 2008

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school,
pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun
rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's
shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to
show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack
hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or
gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized
students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after
school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake
hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests
Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both
expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts
other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good
paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits
still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a
zombie. Tested for ADD.. School gets extra
money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car
and his Dad gives him a whipping with his
belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up
normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful
businessman.
2007 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy
removed to foster care and joins a gang.
State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she
remembers being abused herself and their dad goes
to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin
to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the
smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for
drug violations. Car searched for drugs and
weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English,
goes to college, gets a great job.
2007 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper
articles appear nationally explaining that
teaching English as a requirement for graduation is
racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against
state school system and Pedro's English teacher.
English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given
diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living
because he cannot speak English, he cannot
support his family and goes on welfare.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers
from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane
paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny
charged with domestic terrorism, FBI
investigates parents, siblings removed from home,
computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a
terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess
and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his
teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes
on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and
loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny
undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Dilbert sticks a perfect ten on "tolerance" in America

I don't find there to be a better literary device than irony/satire to depict negative effects of "tolerance." When all is said and done, the concept of "tolerance" is something akin to lifting up a rock and looking at what crawls out from underneath.

I'm afraid, unfortunately, that someday, we're going to have "tolerated" ourselves to death, because tolerance waters down what is right and wrong by putting all value concepts on an equal playing field.

Transcendentalism

Source: dictionary.com
tran·scen·den·tal·ism
–noun
1. transcendental character, thought, or language.
2. Also called transcendental philosophy. Any philosophy based upon the doctrine that the principles of reality are to be discovered by the study of the processes of thought, or a philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and spiritual above the empirical: in the U.S., associated with Emerson.
Origin: 1795–1805;

Existentialism

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition -
existentialism
A movement in twentieth-century literature and philosophy, with some forerunners in earlier centuries. Existentialism stresses that people are entirely free and therefore responsible for what they make of themselves. With this responsibility comes a profound anguish or dread. Søren Kierkegaard and Feodor Dostoevsky in the nineteenth century, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Camus in the twentieth century, were existentialist writers.

Article: Hillary Clinton and socialism's "common good" path to communism in America

Hillary Clinton and socialism's "common good" path to communism in America
Jan Ireland Jan IrelandJuly 6, 2004

The Bush tax cuts enabled America to climb out of the Clinton recession despite the financial devastations of 9/11 and stock market downturns. Ten straight months of economic progress and job creation have made the economy robust.So it is incongruous that Hillary Clinton would tell a San Francisco audience recently that Democrats will rescind the Bush tax cuts for the "common good."

Mrs. Clinton's plan is not only wrong, it's socialist.Ronald Reagan defeated communism, but we are still being leeched by creeping socialism. The 45 communist goals read into the Congressional Record in 1963 linger, and they were supposed to be for the "common good" also.The phrase itself a few decades ago was anathema. It does not appear in the 1945 United Nations charter, though that institution is about nothing if not socialism. Mrs. Clinton's rarely-mentioned very radical mentor, Saul Alinsky, revered it. "The radical is that unique person to whom the common good is the greatest personal value."The inscription on the Liberty Bell exhorts "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." And Ronald Reagan reminded "...the guiding hand of Providence did not create this new nation of America for ourselves alone, but for a higher cause: the preservation and extension of the sacred fire of human liberty."

In the coming presidential election America has a clear choice: Mrs. Clinton and universal socialism versus Ronald Reagan and universal freedom. George Bush has Ronald Reagan's fire of freedom. John Kerry must bow to the Clintons, though his personal record certainly is socialist.The rapacious Mrs. Clinton wants to empower the government to take what it wants. We see her proclivities in the monstrous HillaryCare attempt ("It's time to put the common good, the national interest, ahead of individuals"), in the idea that the "village" (state) should raise the child, in the greedy timing of the eight million dollar book advance, in the shrill escalating rant similar to Dean's and Gore's. (Socialists always exempt themselves from the restrictions they place on others.)Founder James Wilson wrote "Without liberty, law loses its nature and its name, and becomes oppression." It is irrefutable. Government taking from one group to give to another approved group is socialism, Marxism, and/or communism.The words "common good" are not of themselves evil of course. A group called Common Good works to reform the lawsuit culture in America. Bayer relaxed its Cipro patent during the anthrax scare for the "common good."But a religious group wants "...to develop religiously and politically informed advocates for the common good." Another has a vote litany. Libertarian Socialist Noam Chomsky wrote about The Common Good. The European Union demands to manage markets for the "common good" despite the incomparable success of America's capitalism and the obvious decline of socialist and communist systems in recent decades. Right under our noses in Congress is the Progressive Caucus, a group of about 50 legislators who are openly socialist.Libertarian Ilana Mercer writes "The common good piety should raise as much suspicion as Hillary Clinton's reference to 'our children' ought to.

What is paraded by government and its lapdogs as the common good very often conceals an intention to override individual rights and interests."Objectivist Ayn Rand said "America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices for 'the common good,' but by the productive genius of free men ..."Socialism reaches into our pocketbooks and lives incrementally, always cloaked in some "common good" guise exhorting us to make America better, fairer, more equal. Life is not fair and equal. Socialism takes from producers what it cannot and will not produce itself.George Washington warned "Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."Mrs. Clinton courts socialism. We've defeated communism once in our lifetime, but "common good" socialism could revive the scourge. Patriotic Americans must actively reject the shill — at the ballot box this November. For the real common good.

Poem: "Lines Written by the Side of a River"

"Lines Written by the Side of a River." by Mary Darby Robinson (1758-1800)

FLOW soft RIVER, gently stray, Still a silent waving tide O'er thy glitt'ring carpet glide, While I chaunt my ROUNDELAY, As I gather from thy bank, Shelter'd by the poplar dank, King-cups, deck'd in golden pride, Harebells sweet, and daisies pied; While beneath the evening sky, Soft the western breezes fly. Gentle RIVER, should'st thou be Touch'd with mournful sympathy, When reflection tells my soul, Winter's icy breath shall quellThy sweet bosom's graceful swell, And thy dimpling course controul; Should a crystal tear of mine, Fall upon thy lucid breast, Oh receive the trembling guest, For 'tis PITY'S drop divine !

GENTLE ZEPHYR, softly play,Shake thy dewy wings around,Sprinkle odours o'er the ground, While I chaunt my ROUNDELAY. While the woodbine's mingling shade, Veils my pensive, drooping head; Fan, oh fan, the busy gale,That rudely wantons round my cheek,Where the tear of suff'rance meek, Glitters on the LILY pale: Ah! no more the damask ROSE, There in crimson lustre glows; Thirsty fevers from my lip Dare the ruddy drops to sip; Deep within my burning heart, Sorrow plants an icy dart; From whose point the soft tears flow, Melting in the vivid glow; Gentle Zephyr, should'st thou be Touch'd with tender sympathy; When reflection calls to mind, The bleak and desolating wind, That soon thy silken wing shall tear, And waft it on the freezing air; Zephyr, should a tender sigh To thy balmy bosom fly, Oh! receive the flutt'ring thing, Place it on thy filmy wing, Bear it to its native sky, For 'tis PITY'S softest sigh.

O'er the golden lids of day Steals a veil of sober grey; Now the flow'rets sink to rest, On the moist earth's glitt'ring breast; Homeward now I'll bend my way, AND CHAUNT MY PLAINTIVE ROUNDELAY.

Kevin Shields - City Girl

Watch more Yahoo! Music videos on AOL Video

("Oh no, not another ode to this movie.")
Having enjoyed the good fortune to open my mind to scenes of life in other countries, the most recent being Japan, I felt a keen curiosity revived in the far-off and distant not really held since we were kids.  I once read an article in National Geographic in which the author tried in vain to describe his brief experiences in urban Japan as "peeling back the layers of an onion." By that he meant that he he was at odds with his desire to summarize it so easily and his realization that his ability in doing so was strangely limited.
So there's this cult hit, "L.I.T."  My co-workers are like, "Oh, please bring this in so we can watch it sometime."  I'm still looking for the best reviews on Lost in Translation. In the same vein as my wine advice, the most exquisite language is necessary to describe this transcendental cinematic work.
I found the experience in complete foreign immersion to be the most meaningful after wanting to learn about the psyche, the soul of the city.

On Kevin Shields: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1931234On Lost in Translation: Review by Peter Rainer. Excerpt: "The movie, which was shot by Lance Acord in lustrous nocturnal tones, presents Japan as an outsider might see it, without apology. The night-worlds both within the hotel and without are equally odd and forbidding. Everything seems hushed—suspended in time."
On the soundtrack: Review by amazon.com. Excerpt: "Sofia Coppola has, with two elegant movies, proved herself a talented director with a keen eye for interior life. She's also got great ears. For Lost in Translation, the story of a May-December friendship in Tokyo between two displaced Americans, the score is a tonic for jetlag. Coppola prescribes a dose of shoegazer pop, from My Bloody Valentine's chiming "Sometimes" to Jesus & Mary Chain's fuzzed-out "Just Like Honey." The music nails the hazy conscious state of actors Bill Murray (as a movie star with a midlife crisis) and Scarlet Johansson (as an emotionally marooned twenty-something). It also provides a safe, warm envelope in which they can enact their overseas adventures. Working with producer Brian Reitzell, whose band Air scored her previous Virgin Suicides, Coppola lured Valentine's Kevin Shields into providing several slices of dreamy indie-rock and sonic wallpaper, as stylish as it is formless. There's a welcome bit of Japanese goofiness, a funhouse-mirror reflection of U.S. folk-rock courtesy of early-1970s band Happy End. And a "hidden" track provides the audio of Murray, in the film, doing his sleepy karaoke version of Roxy Music's "More Than This." --Marc Weidenbaum

Films with Westerners stumbling into new experiences are instructive as we can laugh at ourselves "having a moment" and relying on wits that have dulled from our lives of rote and convenience.  Recommended: Walt Stillman's "Barcelona".

Wine advice, part deux

Could wine ever be described as "conscientious?"

We need to personify it more.

Article: "EQ" vs. "IQ"

Source: The Utne Reader. URL: http://www.utne.com/interact/test_iq.html



Emotional intelligence gives you a competitive edge. Even at Bell Labs, where everyone is smart, studies find that the most valued and productive engineers are those with the traits of emotional intelligence -- not necessarily the highest IQ. Having great intellectual abilities may make you a superb fiscal analyst or legal scholar, but a highly developed emotional intelligence will make you a candidate for CEO or a brilliant trial lawyer.



Empathy and other qualities of the heart make it more likely that your marriage will thrive. Lack of those abilities explains why people of high IQ can be such disastrous pilots of their personal lives.



An analysis of the personality traits that accompany high IQ in men who also lack these emotional competencies portrays, well, the stereotypical nerd: critical and condescending, inhibited and uncomfortable with sensuality, emotionally bland. By contrast, men with the traits that mark emotional intelligence are poised and outgoing, committed to people and causes, sympathetic and caring, with a rich but appropriate emotional life -- they're comfortable with themselves, others, and the social universe they live in.



A high IQ may get you into Mensa, but it won't make you a mensch.

Postmodernism contributes to release of Cole terrorists

From The Online Urban Dictionary:

"The word for May 05 is pomo-
Abbreviation for postmodernism. Usually hostile.
The journal took a pomo turn round about 1990, but it seems to have recovered since. "

Check out the new Mo' Urban Dictionary, shipping today from Amazon. The book includes:
multislacking: doing multiple slackeresque things concurrently
workahol: what workaholics are addicted to

Cagey in with a quick one today. Learned via talk radio that Yemeni terrorists who took part in the USS Cole attack several years ago were released from prison in Yemen. The Yemeni government will not extradite prisoners due to provisions in their constitution. My concern is the creep of postmodernism and political correctness: the Yemeni judge who released them is hitting us with our own medicine. Here's what supposedly happened in a nutshell:

The Yemeni judge saw fit to release the prisoners because they were "graduates of an anti-radicalist therapeutic program." Before you foment, I remind you again that I haven't corroborated this. At any rate, if this is true, then in our current P.C. posture, our current use of P.C. as an excuse for EVERYTHING, then HOW, mind you, do we argue against this claim at rehabilitation? We are as bad offenders at anyone on this, what - with reintroducing repeat offenders into the population (without deportation, especially egregious with regard to the release of illegal immigrant drunk drivers).

So, I hate to say it, but I find this terribly ironic. These terrorists are getting away with murder for many reasons (e.g. a middle eastern nation reluctant to decry Jihadism), but this makes me think that postmodern values - the same values which have watered down everything we used to find offensive, like tearing down the cross - have amplified P.C.ness. Groups like the ACLU specialize in vilifying anyone with Christian beliefs or conservative practices, and favor deviants.

Again, that claim was that "these men were graduates of an anti-radicalist course." You expect me to believe that terrorism can be "cured" as with alcoholism, drug addiction, or other afflictions? Postmodernism: Right and wrong are relative, tax-funded social welfare pork can fix all problems, and we can't call problems what they are at the risk of offending others.