RSSEgghead Stuff Archives
December 09, 2007
More Brains Equals Less Happiness (with related Jumbled Thoughts on anti-Bush/anti-Jock sentiment)
Too little time to ramble appropriately. But here's a jumble of semi-related issues on nerd alienation, anti-Bushism and anti-jockism. First, the comments to this posted article on growing up brainy but inevitably unhappy are interesting, even touching (the comments are more interesting than the article). Though myself a fully formed non-jock last-picked-for-any-team somewhat "brainy" nerd, I nevertheless experienced less trauma than these folks did with "jocks" and other less eggheady types. Perhaps because the school environments I had were not too pro-jock, and were definitely pro-nerd. (That didn't stop all of the usual expected adolescent brutality and social ineptness coming my way, however). Then, I jump below to a bunch of slightly related half-formed theories here, going from the social exclusion of nerds to a distantly related political one: a working theory that alot of anti-Bush personal (not political) sentiment is fundamentally anti-jock resentment by nerds. To which discussion I append an appreciation of jocks.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:53 AM | Comments (11)
November 22, 2007
Kennedy Assassination, Nixon, and Coincidence
On this anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, people argue coincidences and conspiracies (pssst- there wasn't any, Oswald was all alone). But there is a story about that day that is funny in its own right, probably true, and might give rise to a nice reflection on coincidences. Richard Nixon told this account to Larry King; I cannot find it online but I recall it from a book. The story is quite plausible even if Nixon wasn't always so.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
November 21, 2007
Beowulf ynne thae fylmmen? Hwaet tha fukkke? Godes yrre baer.
That great hard-of-hearing epic, Beowulf, the one that actually begins with a shout of "WHAT!" (spelled Hwaet!), has made it onto the big silver mead-hall screen. A great line from one review says "as you may remember from Cliff's Notes. . . .", but your humble servant actually has read the thing in its original, um, English and always wondered how, aside from some good monsters, this drama-less one-dimensional Dark Age gangsta rap could possibly be made into a good story. I haven't seen the film yet, but I shouldn't have been surprised at Hollywood's ingenuity in that area: they made stuff up.
Continue reading "Beowulf ynne thae fylmmen? Hwaet tha fukkke? Godes yrre baer."
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 01:35 AM | Comments (4)
November 03, 2007
Safe from Pakistani worries
This just in on Pakistan: "Musharraf’s leadership is threatened by an increasingly defiant Supreme Court . . . ." Well, glad we don't face any dangers like that here in the USA.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:08 PM | Comments (1)
October 05, 2007
Islamic Spain Comes to DC, October 10
For those in the US capitol area, Wednesday October 10 starting 8:30 in the evening (meaning food is OK for the umma-fied), the restaurant Busboys and Poets at 2021 14th Street, is doing a film screening of CITIES OF LIGHT: THE RISE AND FALL OF ISLAMIC SPAIN. The producer Alexander Kronemer will be there. (UPDATE/CORRECTION: One can NOT tell by his very non-Muslim name how much time, effort, and money the Islamic community regularly spends on telling its own story as it appears he is indeed Muslim unlike my previous assumption (thanks, commenter Ahem); apologies to Mr Kronemer and the umma for my undue, though normally well-justified, cynicism in this area.*) Below the break is more detail.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:40 PM | Comments (3)
August 26, 2007
Corporate Islamofascism and Constituent Verbal Furballs
It is an accurate observation that the non-playful use of the term "Islamofascism" usually indicates that the written work which contains it emanated from some part of Idiotland, or has at least crossed its airspace. On the other side of the spectrum, to me anyway, in this day and age, once I see "corporate" used as a slur or with some kind of ominous overtone, a "here comes a rant from the other coast of Idiotland" reaction kicks in. ( I have yet to come across "corporate Islamofascism" but I am sure there is a rare neocon progressive out there nurturing it under ultraviolet light in a shoebox to use if say Wal-mart were to add Muslim prayer-time breaks for employees, although that would probably end up being "corporate dhimmitude".)
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 05:33 PM | Comments (1)
August 18, 2007
Is "The Only Good Arab is a Dead Arab" A Threat?
Having actually personally met some of the apparent victims in this situation, it pains me to say that I think they are probably wrong. Last year, a Foreign Service officer (and Georgetown Foreign Service School alumnus) emailed and voice-mailed a series of messages to individuals of the Arab-American Institute. These were "the only good Arab a dead Arab"; "they should burn in hell", etc .- type comments, and resulted in criminal charges. But to look over the whole accusation/indictment, and one ought to before judging, one can ask if there is enough here to charge Mr. Bigoted Foulmouth with a crime. After gender and time of day circumstances are considered, it may add up, but it's a close call. Without more, I'd go down on the side of free speech and say dismiss the charges unless more facts come out. (It does, nonetheless, make you wonder about State Department vetting standards.)
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:13 PM | Comments (4)
August 05, 2007
Unitary executive doctrine (for American legalo-politico-geeks only)
There is alot of hullabaloo, palaver, mishegoss, or whatever about the so-called unitary executive doctrine. Despite my minimal government libertarian orientation, both in and out of bed, and a loss of just about all faith in the Bush folks, I cannot get the ruckus. The President has all the executive power except in those areas limited by the Constitution. I still don't get the fuss over the attorney firings, he can hire whomever he wants and fire them. I think people are mixing this up with an unnamed idea that sort of says that the sovereign powers of the nation devolve onto the executive in the absence of Constitutional limits or in times that the Consitution is impracticable to enforce. This usually boils down to saying that in areas of foreign policy, and border control, the President cannot be limited. This may be Addingtonism, but it shouldn't be mixed up with the President's right to control and keep separate the Executive Branch.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:54 PM | Comments (10)
July 20, 2007
That's some clever shirt
A reader over at Hit and Run reported the existence of a t-shirt that reads:
"There are 10 types of people who understand binary:Those who do, and those who don't."
I think that's funny.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:34 PM | Comments (10)
July 02, 2007
Ayn Rand Had Nothing to Do with it, OK?
I am a "classical liberal", a libertarian, or whatever it is. Brilliant, dumb, or neither, but just for the record: Ayn Rand had nothing to do with it, OK? Sentences like this just keep cropping up, though: "Ayn Rand, the Russian émigré novelist and philosopher who inspired more people toward a combined emotional/intellectual commitment to individual liberty than any other figure in the 20th century" or book titles like this: It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand. No, it didn't. Thank you. And "Objectivism" is stupid too.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 04:34 AM | Comments (9)
June 24, 2007
Grand Conspiracy Theories Are Dumb
{Taking advantage of my journal privileges, apropos of nothing, I run and update an old essay of mine.} Acting alone, and for egotistical and political reasons, Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally, and a Dallas police officer in November 1963. On September 11, 2001, disciples of Osama bin-Laden, a maverick Islamist theocrat, crashed themselves and hundreds of others into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon because they believed America to be their enemy, and Americans to be evil. Rumsfeld, the CIA, the Mossad, Unocal, and so forth, whatever their many sins, did not do it.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:44 PM | Comments (7)
May 12, 2007
Existence: A Parable
Written under the combined inspiration of some thoughts of our Site-mistress, a reading of the Book of Revelation, a cool old Twilight Zone episode, and indigestion. A pre-emptive astaghfir'llah to all.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:03 AM | Comments (6)
January 01, 2007
Pithing on the Profit Motive: Markets and Incentives
The ever-quotable Jim Henley gives a nice pithy explanation of the inherent values of the profit motive. That such common sense advantages and incentves of free market economics need to be restated for intelligent and well-meaning human beings is cause for existential sadness. That I myself cannot express it so well only adds to the despair. In any event, this is why markets do better, not utopian -- just better.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 05:50 PM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2006
D.C. area event on Iran policy
D.C.-area folks with a US-Iran interest might want to attend, next Monday morning, a CATO Institute forum on Iran policy (details below break). Movers and shakers and insiders on the wonk-level will be there, and it is free with (I think) a free lunch. The event coincides with a new CATO paper by Justin Logan on the subject, which concludes that "the United States should begin taking steps immediately to prepare for a policy of deterrence should an Iranian bomb come online in the future. As undesirable as such a situation would be, it appears less costly than striking Iran [militarily]."
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 03:57 PM | Comments (4)
November 15, 2006
Eddie Said: Speaking Ill of the Dead
The late Edward Said helped turned me into a reassessor of the Near East and its people. No, not Orientalism, which I only (pretended to) read a few years ago. It was more the outcroppings of common sense amidst the lefty hyperintellectual verbiage - the Edward Said who was basically saying "quit calling me camel jockey, and give me my home back, and evaluate people's behavior as you would your own." One finds this in Covering Islam (which did influence me) and various parts of his writings over the years. Along now comes an author to trash Orientalism, with Said dead and all. Michael Dirda from the Washington Post summarizes the allegations, selected below.
Continue reading "Eddie Said: Speaking Ill of the Dead"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 06:45 PM | Comments (5)
