Self-fulfillment replacing self-duty

Going to the Mat | Matt Johnson | Healthy and Unhealthy Obsessions

This is your brain on mid-life crisis says Tom Smith, about Gov. Mark Sanford, it is a sharp criticism:

Once more the human animal baffles me. Gov. Sanford, who I thought was pretty cool for trying to refuse to take stimulus money, turns out to be a love-crazed loon. I have long accepted that women are mysterious, but increasingly I fear I do not understand men either. What is it with these middle aged guys who ruin themselves, not to mention their families, by chasing after ridiculous objects of affection or even obsession? The length of the flight alone would keep me from flying to Argentina to have sex, not to mention prior engagements. Do I just not get it? Do I not know what love is? Hasn't this guy ever heard of cold showers or push ups?

I think in a deeper sense this is all the fault of liberals. Nobody used to think that just because you were 49 and the mother of your children no longer enthralled you as she once did that you were somehow entitled to fly across the hemisphere to satisfy your man lust. Real men sucked down a couple of stiff drinks, played a round of golf, fired up a good cigar and accepted the responsibilities of running the free world. But no more apparently. Now it's, oh my feelings, and I don't know who I am anymore, and nine other kinds of [b.s.]. It makes me embarassed for my sex. But, this is all the fault of the sexual revolution, and the associated rise of the therapeutic culture, which you may recall were not Republican ideas.

Despite the rhetoric about the fault of liberals, I don't think Smith is that far off the mark as a general point. Men used to be obsessed about inanimate things (cars or motorcycles), esoteric things (coins or stamps) or, heaven forbid, sports. Now they have become obsessed with feelings and validation and it seems stupid.

[...]

Should Sanford have had a few stiff drinks, a cigar and a round of golf, or certainly a cold shower? I don't know, probably and 30 years ago he might have. But our society has become very adept at putting the self-desire before the self-duty. What Gov. Sanford lost sight of was that in fulfilling his selfish, personal desires, he abdicated his duties to his wife, his family, his friends and his constitutents. He is a symbol of a culture that has put so much emphasis on feelings, on therapy, on self-validation, and self-fulfillment, the concept of a manly sacrifice for the benefit of others has become lost along the way. Sanford's affair is indicative of the culture exalts one's own personal, physical desires first and men have lost the wherewithal to think clearly or to sacrifice an immediate physical want (sex) upon the alter of what is considered proper or dare I say moral?

Smith's rather spurious accusation of liberalism reminds me of this Chesterton quote:

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.

Otherwise I agree with Smith and Johnson in full.

At least we're not Detroit!

So it turns out my wifi problems of which I wanted to speak no more have reared their head again. My poor MacBook has been shipped away for repairs to either the wifi card or antenna. (Aren't they one unit in MacBooks? The technician tentatively hinted otherwise, but he got a glassy look in his eyes whenever I mentioned the word "firmware" so I'm not sure how on-the-ball he was).* I have a full backup (actually two), but no record of my firefox session, so all the tabs I had open and ready to blog about are beyond my grasp. (Also, blogging on this old iBook G4 with Safari 3 is really annoying.)

As filler, check out some Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Videos:





* I can not express how galling I find it that Apple refers to their tech support staff as "Geniuses." If you haven't had the (non-)pleasure of visiting a tech support desk in an Apple store, know that I'm not exaggerating. Their actual job title is "Genius." The arrogance of it would astound even if they were particularly good at their jobs, which in my experience, they aren't. On multiple occasions I have had to come in with problem already diagnosed in order for them to take action. On multiple occasions I have had to explain the difference between the "Core Duo" and "Core 2 Duo" system profiles to them, especially as it related to upgrading to 802.11n. This time I had to show them records of ping** output and extracts from log files in order for them not to blame it on my router and send me away, which is exactly what they did to Special Lady Friend when she went in a week ago complaining of the same symptoms. For the record, we both knew the problem was with our laptops and not some external cause because the laptops did not work at our homes, offices or public libraries, and other devices connected fine at all those locations.

** Speaking of ping, I found out this weekend that RCN (among other ISPs) blocks the return of ICMP packets, making it impossible to ping anything further upstream than your own router. (Or perhaps some subset of ICMP? -- not sure, but traceroute doesn't seem to work either.) I only mention this because it's really hard to Google for something like internet is working, but ping is not working, because what you end up getting is a bunch of forum posts about the opposite -- network or internet access not being available, and people replying that you need to try ping to diagnose the problem. So if anyone has internet access but can't ping anything, it's probably your ISP or a similar firewall. (NB: I'm not really a networking guy, but this does seem to be what's going on to the best I can tell.)

Okay that's enough disgruntled ranting. Enjoy those Cleveland videos.

The Banality of Hypocrisy

Popehat | It Is Not The Hypocrisy; It’s How Banal and Trite the Hipocrisy Has Become

"...speculating about whether the pockets of their impeccable blue suits are stuffed with smuggled Thai anal beads made out of the polished bone of dead hookers."

There's a sentence fragment that ought to pique your interest.

(This is perhaps the only time I'll ever get to link to a post that both mentions anal beads and yet is safe for work.)

Ink

dispatches from TJICistan » Blog Archive » tattoo: "I have no intention of ever having a tattoo, but living in a society where they’re so common, one sees several a day, and the question “if I ever got a tat, what would it be?” springs to mind at least occassionally.

The definative answer finally dawned on me today. It’d be one of my favorite quotes from the last few decades:

Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking.

–Ferdinand Foch

Huzzah! A fine choice.

For more on written tattoos I recommend Body Type: Intimate Messages Etched in Flesh.

In other tattoo matters, Edward Goldman raised an interesting point on a recent episode of KCRW's Art Talk, to wit, if we had better art education in America, would people continue to choose such banal tattoos?

On chilling effects

Popehat | Euphemisms That Should Disappear: “Chilling Effect”:

Although the language of law has introduced many toxins into everyday English, I can think of few as pervasive as the term “chilling effect,” which has evolved from its original and limited meaning (suppression of legitimate political speech by overbroad or arbitrarily enforced laws) to mean, today, “deterring me from doing something that everyone knows is wrong, but that I’d like to do anyway.”

[...]

In plain English, we call these “chilling effects” compensation for wrongs, deterrence, and punishment. And yes Mr. Wright your clients hopefully will be deterred by the prospect of paying damages in a civil suit from molesting little girls like Savana Redding in the future. Even if their hearts are in the right places. Even if it’s to protect her from advil.

That's in response to the attorney for the school district whose goons flunkies administrators ordered 13 year old Savana Redding to strip so that they could look for contraband Advil on nothing but another girl's accusation. (None was found.) This attorney, a Mr Matthew Wright, claimed that the recent supreme court ruling holding Stafford School District responsible would "have a chilling effect on [schools'] response to threats of drugs on campus."

I've been interested in this case for a while, because the school administrators seem so obviously wrong to me that I wonder how this case could have progressed this far. Well, I don't really wonder. I know that the local government will always stick up for the local schools, and the state government will back up the local government, and everyone has a hair across their ass about drugs, so I'm not actually surprised. But really, this is the kind of behavior we allow only in jails and prisons. How did we get to the point where drugs turned in to such a bogeyman that the very act of setting foot in a school, which you are required to do, made kids subject to strip searches based on nothing more than some finger pointing from a peer looking to get themselves off the hook?

Is there a single person in the country who would say "Yes, you may order my daughter or sister to strip in order to protect other children from over-the-counter anti-inflammatories."

Schools are prisons.

"Would these faces lie to you?"

Triumph at the Michael Jackson Trial

I was out last night, walking through Gallery Place, and the sidewalks were positively abuzz with news of MJ's death.

I once knew a guy...

It seems the crazy barefoot [running] people have more actual research backing them up than the “motion control super duper space shoe” people do. Since they tend to keep up with nutty trends anyway, I also began to notice more of the fitness community I hang out on the sidelines of picking up the trend as well. They’re about split down the middle whether it’s only good for sprinting or the best thing since protein shakes.

I had a friend in high school who sprinted barefoot. This raised some eyebrows at the college football combines.

Of course, this guy was also a 6'3" 240lb white dude with corn rows and a positively Rasputinian beard, which he braided into two strands to pull through the holes in his chin strap before games -- going for a Varangian look, I think.

His entire family referred to him by their surname, and he introduced himself as his surname repeated twice (e.g. James James, though I've changed the name).

He hunted and butchered/charcuterized about a dozen different species. I had moose salami at one of their family Christmas parties. Delightful.

He spent his childhood in Mongolia and the more isolated bits of Fiji, which left him with a lack of popculture knowledge that was Leeloo-esque in its completeness.

His father was ostensibly a Seabee, but judging from his mid-back length braid, nearly-fetishistic love of long range rifles, and general lack of naval repair facilities in the Gobi, he was in fact a hitman.

So the bare foot running thing didn't really registry on his list of oddities.

PS Now he's a high school history teacher.

Hiatus

Sorry about the break from regularly scheduled blogging action. I am back.

I took a long weekend out on Lake Michigan with the old college mates as a combination reunion and bachelor party. Quite the rare old time. There was a storm one night which dumped 3+ inches of rain onto the venerable but small burgh of South Haven, knocking out the power and water to our rental for two days. In a true show of prioritization we made due with bathing in the lake before laying in an extra stock of ice to keep our beer cold. There was also some abortive fishing, plenty of beach lounging, much cooking of things over open flames (including some pizza on a bonfire -- recommended), consumption of alcohol in modes that the more bluenosed among us may deem "socially irresponsible," and a roastish skit prepared by former suitemate (and SB7 reader) Skipper patterned after that most lofty of cinematic acheivements, The Big Lebowski. Trival pursuits and Arrested Development also made appearances, and there were several conversations on the nature of morality, ethics, the state and the law. (Doesn't everyone do the latter on occassions like this?)

Also contributing to my dearth of blogging in the last few days is my return home on Monday to an internet connection which can be politely called churlish. In deference to my blood pressure, we will dwell no more on this matter.

Can we all finally agree not to take Paul Krugman seriously anymore?

Things I'm Glad I Never Said | Arnold Kling | EconLog

Paul Krugman, writing in August of 2002:

"To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble."

Ouch.

NB: This guy is 10th in line to the Presidency.

But where are the clowns?
Quick, send in the clowns.
Don't bother, they're here.

Restoring Competence to Government | The American Scene | Peter Suderman:

U..S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, a bureaucrat ostensibly responsible for helping Americans make the switch to digital TV, admits that, despite the transition having been in the works for years, until just a few months ago, he didn’t understand the differences between digital and analog signals:

"Too many people don’t know the difference between digital and analog. I didn’t even know myself until a few months ago when my brother-in-law explained it to me."

Good job, brother in law!

I'm shuddering in horror right now. Not only because this is pretty basic high school level science, but because the Secretary of Commerce would gleefully admit to such ignorance. The NY Times article Suderman links also mostly botches the difference between analog and digital signals, and Locke half-brags about being irresponsible enough to leave his Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve. I don't need the guy to master discrete Fourier transforms or anything, but can he at least not go around trumpeting his own ignorance? Is it really too much to ask that we have leaders who drop the aww-shucks-I'm-an-average-Joe bit and stop taking pride in their own shortcomings?

For the record, it's like this:
Got it?

While we're talking about electrical impulses and waveforms, here's the pattern of synaptic activity in the brain of an average person, and US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke:
[Cheap shot. Deal with it.]

Scientists are so mature

Atomic Nerds | I Love Biology So Much

Why does LabRat love science so much she wants to cry? Follow the link to find out.

Giving your ring fingers the day off -or- Do programmers type funny?

dispatches from TJICistan | two fisted four fingered tales

My four finger typing method is unstoppable.

(I use my index fingers middle fingers for letters.

I use one thumb for the space bar. The other five fingers and all ten toes are dedicated to to chording bucky bits…)

I type the same way — almost the same: my left middle finger doesn't get hardly any action -- and everyone's always thought I was weird for it. Well, it's not the only reason people think I'm weird, but it's on the list of reasons somewhere.

I've always wondered if this technique might be more common amongst programmers.* Or at least the ability to type quickly despite not "knowing how to type" in the conventional sense. My first hypothesis is that home-row typing has less utility when programming because of the relative frequency of braces and parens and assorted other punctuation in code.** (Perhaps we could test this by comparing the typing techniques of Perl programmers to Java programmers, or even test several languages and look for correlations between typing technique and proportion of non-letter characters in code corpuses (corpi?) of that language.)

The second hypothesis is that programming languages (at least the good ones) have a higher density of information per character, so that the limiting factor in turning your thoughts into written form is more likely to be your thinking and less likely to be your fingers. This would be a little trickier to test, but I think it's ultimately a better notion.

For the record, I'm not talking about whether you can type quickly — I agree with Jeff Atwood and Steve Yegge that you should be at least moderately fast. I just have a hunch that programmers may be more likely that the average office worker who spends most of the day reading and typing on a computer to have weird, self-taught techniques, like my three-fingers-with-occasional-thumb-and-pinky-back-up fu.


* For non-TJIC readers, he is also a programmer.

** Not that traditional touch typists can't type these things, but compared to someone drafting business correspondence all day long, someone coding in C, with it's preponderances of { and } and & and * and = is bound to get relatively less utility from home-row-based technique. Let's not get started on Perl, which was once described as looking like "Cyrillic on acid."