Nov
30
- As you’ve undoubtedly heard, Democratic activist operatives got to ask plenty of “gotcha” questions during a televised Republican primary debate that were only designed to make the Republican party as a whole look bad. CNN, of course, denies that their hosting and filtering out participants for the debate was biased in any way. After all, any question is a good one, right?
- An excellent response to liberals and Democrats who are trying to justify the brazen dishonesty involved on the part of CNN and the activists.
One question I might try to take on later is whether or not liberal activism necessarily means liberal activists have to lie. After all, if you believe progress occurs through any challenge whatsoever to the present, then isn’t saying anything (it could be a lie, it could be the truth, who cares) always in the service of a greater good?
The Leftist ideology driving the Democratic party via the netroots now is probably far too radical to be allowed to have any sort of power - it seems to see all media as manipulative which doesn’t parrot its stance exactly. Which raises the question: What does a sustainable liberal critique of the Right look like, and how can we encourage a moderate Democratic party that is opposed to Republicans on issues but not openly pining for the death of the Vice President?
Nov
29
According to one of his other lawyers, Karinna Moskalenko, Kasparov has wisely shunned all food and water provided to him by the authorities, going on what may be history’s first self-preserving hunger strike, and he has been given no phone call or visitation rights.
Technorati Tags: russia, putin, kasparov
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Nov
27
Is It Possible To Insist On A More Thoughtful Politics?
Filed Under auden, poetry, politics | 6 Comments
Certainty, fidelity
On the stroke of midnight pass
Like vibrations of a bell,
And fashionable madmen raise
Their pedantic boring cry:
Every farthing of the cost,
All the dreaded cards foretell,
Shall be paid, but from this night
Not a whisper, not a thought,
Not a kiss nor look be lost.
- from Auden’s “Lullaby”
1. Perhaps forging a more thoughtful politics is a fashionable madness.
After all, once more rigor is applied to language and argument, such standards, if accepted by many, become mores. Thoughts become rules, then become sentiments, then finally law and the spirit of the law.
Certainty and fidelity might be best left moments in our existence. The problem for a free society is how to encourage fidelity without overemphasizing certainty. But a more thoughtful politics only encourages fidelity when it acts as if it is certain. A continual questioning uproots the law and makes the possibility of moral action difficult to conceive.
There does not seem to be a solution to this problem except to drop “thought” from the foundations and practice of politics altogether. For in any case, all my screaming just becomes a “pedantic boring cry,” sounding vaguely prophetic and most certainly apocalyptic. And some vibrations of a bell echo throughout a mortal coil an entire life, and such a person may not be the most thoughtful, but is more than willing to sacrifice.
2. Perhaps the problem is that I am not clear about the ends of a more thoughtful politics. Do I want people to be more thoughtful because everything is going to work better?
Of course not - it is entirely conceivable we will be a worse world for attempting to think through things. The trains may not run on time; people prone to questioning their country may ask even harder, jarring questions; all possibility for faith could be lost.
The reason why one should want a more thoughtful politics is when one considers that there is a season for all things under the heavens. If we lead our private lives well, even in darkness we do not lose a moment: every whisper, thought, kiss and look matters. It is possible we can experience great pain. But an even greater good is being enjoyed, inasmuch we are loving.
I haven’t been very subtle in arguing that thought is perhaps the greatest form of love. Thought may be a perpetual sacrifice, an alienation of nearly every other desire to merely see how things actually are. Most of the ancients therefore saw mathematics as the highest form of thought, but in doing so, they made a mistake: they thought objectivity - the inherently inhuman - ideal and the greatest good. Mathema are far more important when we consider the perfect forms of the soul, the return to virtue, the fulfillment of human being in the everyday.
3. A thoughtful politics is necessary because it is the product of a thoughtful, concerned people, conducting themselves well in their private capacities. How can our government display, though, our very personal sense of being?
Perhaps, as a thought experiment, we can conceive of Congress as an institution that mirrors how we talk amongst ourselves and deliberate. It can be seen as filled with petty little games and people trying to gang up on each other and then hanging out later drinking like all the cursing and shouting and power trips were meaningless. It can be filled with people enjoying life and their jobs and all the mistakes and goods that accompany such enjoyment.
When things get serious, their real virtues should show - they should be patient and supportive and sparing of words. They should be willing to put their own reputations and constituencies aside, just for a moment, to really think through things and speak wisely and ask when they don’t know.
Every word said in Congress should count at the key moments, when enjoyment isn’t an option. They should be able to switch from their everyday more private capacity of having a career (which just happens to be that of Congressmen), to their true public capacity: representing us at our best.
I know, bringing in Congress to a discussion of love and politics seems corny, and that this entry is a risk: it might show me to be far too immature a thinker to have anything serious to say about politics. But I was thinking that despite the cynicism that is the reasoning behind the Constitution, the idea of representative government is an old one, and one dependent on an ancient question: Can ordinary men govern themselves? If that is the central question, then Congress should mirror us in our perceived weaknesses, and should more than compensate in its strengths.
Technorati Tags: auden, poetry, politics, congress
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Nov
26
On the 11/25 Sunday Night Eagles-Patriots Game, and Why I’m Not Praising Andy Reid
Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments
1. I want to thank John Madden for actually doing a great job of announcing and explaining key things happening during the game. He picked up on Patriots taking away the sideline throws and playing a soft zone inside; thus, the Eagles receivers making catches (like the Detroit game in one way) wasn’t too surprising (and Feeley’s inability to hit the deep throws at the end also wasn’t a surprise).
He also took time to illustrate when Feeley showed a deft touch on the ball, and discussed the Eagles’ defensive schemes: how a three man rush would turn into a four man rush all of a sudden, how the Patriots tried to isolate Randy Moss but he was always covered with help for the defender around. He also noted the wide variety of uses Omar Gaither and Brian Westbrook had.
2. Of course, the main reason why the game is significant is that the “Donovan McNabb sucks” crowd is about to emerge again and create a quarterback controversy. A.J. Feeley played an excellent game against a soft zone and was mobile and got rid of the ball fast and showed great touch. Nevermind his two interceptions at the end of the game against something that Madden saw a mile away and that Feeley was acutely aware of - his first interception being returned for a touchdown also game from trying a sideline pattern.
Now granted, McNabb has looked like crap in the last two games and does hold the ball a bit too long. But I think if there’s something I learned watching the Eagles/Pats game, it was this - this season so far has been Andy Reid’s fault. Entirely his fault. To list the complaints:
- Why on earth did the defense look energized and attacking and willing to gamble? Far too often this season I saw that defense sit on its rear for the whole game and let other offenses toy with it.
- The receivers were open - but hey, let’s say the Patriots played man, with two very good corners in Asante Samuel and Hobbs. Are you telling me that the Eagles would have had an easier time? And whose fault is it that receiver play is inconsistent?
- The play calling. My goodness, I saw an ambitious team out there. And I’m not saying the Eagles should go to the air all the time. I actually think they should run more, way more. But there are ways to be ambitious with the run game just as the Eagles were ambitious with the pass in this game.
I have to say that Belichick did not prepare his team well for this game at all. The way you beat the Eagles is by playing Man on the receivers - it has shut them down all season - and running right at the defense. What you saw on the TD run by Maroney could have been done all night.
That’s it. I’m applying to be head coach of the Eagles. I want all you fans to support McNabb, so he can be there when I take over and instantiate my master plan of running Buckhalter at least a third of the time, and making sure the defense can play gap control when it doesn’t attack outright, and maybe getting some better defensive tackles.
Nov
25
I’m trying to translate this article from German to English and I’m going over what I have translated and sent to the professor and I just can’t believe the nonsense I have sent. It is utterly ungrammatical. As I fix the translation, I do make it sound better in places, and then wonder “does this have any basis in the grammar? Oh well.”
I can’t believe how adept I’ve gotten at working through some incredibly difficult texts - how I can even translate poetry in other languages and see wordplay and shades of meaning - and I’m staring at some German that probably means “the cat sat on the mat” and going duhhhhhhh.
The only good thing that has happened today was the thumping the Giants got from Minnesota. I watched that game and loved every minute of it.
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