My kids' Dad

New blog

Although it is ironic that I should want to create a new blog when I find it difficult to make enough time to post on this site more often I will be creating a new blog to deal with Jewish prayer. I need to work up the study material for a class I am teaching so I might as well publish some of it. Since the class is for young people I know I will not be able to present a good deal of it in any case.

EconTalk podcasts

This week my family and my uncle and aunt came by to see the kids. We took advantage of the occasion to travel to Mackinac Island and then Sault Ste. Marie (rapids on the river that connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron) . The boat tour through the American and Canadian locks was memorable both because it was fun and taught us some history.

Russell Roberts is an exceptional economist and his podcasts over at EconTalk are a real treat. During our drive between lower and upper Michigan it was a pleasure to hear his podcasts on fixing US Health care with John Cogan and another interviewing Chris Anderson on The Long Tail.

A Personality

It is nice just to relax for a few days... spend time with the family and enjoy reading some of Richard Thieme's book (best taken in small doses to digest the deeper bits).

As previously mentioned - Serenity was a fun flick - so the OK Cupid Serenity Quiz was fun:

You scored as The Operative.

You are dedicated to your job and very good at what you do. You've done some very bad things, but they had to be done. You don't expect to go to heaven, but that is a sacrifice you've made for a better future for all.

H/T Jackie

Then I couldn't resist the Battlestar Galactica Quiz:

You scored as Capt. Lee Adama (Apollo).

You have spent your life trying to life up to and impress your Dad, shame he never seemed to notice. You are a stickler for the rules. But in matters of loyalty and honour you know when they have to be broken.

H/T Jamie Jeffords

This unabashed wallowing in self analysis then led to the OK Cupid Politics Test:

You are a Social Liberal (71% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (75% permissive)

You are best described as a: Libertarian

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

H/T Jamie Jeffords

Who knows - perhaps I'll take up reading my horoscope next... NOT!

The best I can say about these results is that there is a grain of truth to each one and ridiculously simplistic and shallow and nonetheless a bit of fun. These tests remind me of David Keirsey's personality tests - insightful but seemingly flawed. (I take issue with Keirsey's opposing scales which balances intelligence types - while he does a nice job describing distinctive attributes - as we mature we are able to assume our experiences and integrate those characteristics so that we can be each type as we see fit. For me it necessitates taking the test twice, one for the functioning self (I answer the phone readily because I have learned to and enjoy the interaction), and then again taking the test for the latent self (what I was born with and would rather not answer the phone) which reveals a difference between natural inclinations and learned/assumed ones.)

GuestMap

This looks like fun! Add yourself to my GuestMap by zooming into your location and adding an icon for yourself, a short message and your blog URL. The PayPal link is for the map hosting service.

The site is found here.

World Blog Day

Welcome to World BlogDay2005 brainchild of Nir Ofir of Spark Armada blog. The purpose is to expose readers to 5 'unknown' blogs that will cross pollinate the blogosphere. Ethan Zuckerman blog exposed me to this and I like the idea that we reach out to other cultures and points of view that we normally wouldn't reference. Some on my blogroll already fit this description but this gives me a little more license for blogs I haven't come to really know yet. Still check out some of those on my blogroll as well!

The Life of David is subtitled 'thoughts of an eccentric medical student in Ghana'. Now this is probably an example of what we're looking for - what else but the blogosphere would connect you to some nice fellow in Ghana in such a personal way?

David Cowan writes Who Has Time For This? and certainly sometimes has a very different perspective than I do. I am not sure that he qualifies as 'unknown' but the blog is fairly new and he certainly has a smart crowd commenting on his posts.

Digital Doorway.. enter the laughter also has a fairly new blog and pretty popular (even if you don't count the spam). She is also funny and a talented writer.... and different (but in a nice way).

I Still See a Spark in You has religious appreciation - one that values Christianity and Chabad/Judaism. You wanted a different perspective but not unreadable.

Planet Grenada is yet from another culture. This from a modern day 'Moorish' perspective. An interesting read if anything.

On Blogging and Amnesty

Richard Bennett has managed to stir the pot again in his blog on Amnesty International. Some of the comments impugning Richard motivated me to jump into the fray, the subsequent backup was appreciated. T.M. Lutas says his piece and offers this fine link about the corrosive statements of Amnesty International.

In thinking about bloggers it seems to me that there is a spectrum of bloggers that can be characterized by four boundary types:

1. Blog readers - the lurkers that avidly read blogs but rarely if ever offer comments (most likely when peeved by some post). We all tend to lurk at times but thoughtful and sincere comments are appreciated.
2. Non-bloggers - new blogs that go up but are then forgotten (probably due to the realization of the amount of effort that goes into blogging). CEOBlogger is an example of a blog that had exciting prospects but just halted one day.
3. Amateur blogger - people like myself that blog because we love the concept. We typically don't make any money. (I spend some money to host this blog on typepad and a substantial effort to articulate my thoughts.) For me blogging helps me to develop my thinking, share it with people that may care (such as my progeny in the distant future) and learn from other bloggers by reading and interacting. Others have their personal reasons.
4. Professional bloggers - people who derive a significant source of income (directly or indirectly) from their blogs. Some seem to have such as vast following that advertising revenue may be significant while other may use their blog as a vehicle to advertise their 'product'. The obvious danger in being a professional is that you risk offending your audience (and income) by speaking in an unguarded fashion - this is one of the traits I admire in Thomas Barnett - him placing his principles above his 'manners'. Although when you reach such a level of popularity it becomes impractical to either allow comments or respond individually, although Tom found a clever way to foster the interactions through a discussion board.

For those actively engaged in blogging perhaps the greatest satisfaction is the intimate social interactions and the quality of intellectual discourse.

Kyle Maxwell posts a great piece in practical blogging advice.

Andrew blogs about public discourse and its impact upon democracy. I offer that blogging is an evolution of public discourse which scales well as the size of our nation has long eclipsed the ability to connect.

The EU and personal travel

The gap between posts just shows how preoccupied I have been lately and not without a shortage of material to write about. Much of the 'load' is due to family duties. We are preparing for another cross country road trip this summer to meet family (including cousins from the EU) on the west coast. We are using timeshare points and hotel points to 'pay' for most of our lodging and so far have calculated 6,800 miles of driving (just under 11,000 km for my metric friends). This works out to about $500 in fuel - double that to include wear and tear on our minivan - but this is still much less than airfare for four and far more interesting as we see the country en route plus we have the luxury of having our own transportation while visiting. Highlights of our plans with family include Yosemite, Sequoia National Forest, San Diego, Mexico and Los Angeles.

Today I have heard a couple rants about the Department of Justice not prosecuting Felt for his role as 'Deep Throat' in Watergate. While this make for great theater, what a preposterous idea... regardless of whether Felt broke any laws or not you must consider two factors that make this whole idea impractical and silly. First Felt is suffering from senility and doesn't have many days left - how far would an impartial system take this case? Not very. Second this case is so politically loaded that a Republican administration would be foolish to want to attack those that brought down a previous Republican administration that was admittedly guilty of the charges. A Democratic administration could possibly get away with it provided the first factor wasn't extant.

How about that EU? The results of the French vote are not surprising but some of the statements made around the issue are:

The prevailing view among European elites was summed up by a senior EU bureaucrat we spoke to last month who said about the French and the constitution: "They haven't read it. If they had read it, they wouldn't understand it. If they understood it, they wouldn't like it." Nonetheless, he thought that the French should vote yes anyway.

The snippet above comes from the Wall Street Journal and reveals an arrogance towards the populace that our own elitists would not dare utter... had they been so bold the spanking at our last election would have been that much more severe. This shows a great difference between cultures as we jealously guard our inclusion in participatory democracy not trusting others to decide our fate. Perhaps this is germination of self determination on the continent or perhaps it was a miscalculation on the part of the EU bureaucrats wanting to give the appearance of representative democracy. Jacques Chirac offers his assessment:

"France has expressed itself democratically. You have rejected the European constitution by a majority. It is your sovereign decision and I take note of it," he said.

Jacques sure sounds like he is governed by the will of the people, doesn't he? If this is the sort of attitude the French people appreciate or even tolerate, then c'est la vie! Despite this and more recent defeats, I don't see any crisis looming for the EU, this is more of a procedural road block than any kind of foundational problem. T.M. Lutas offers a fine discussion of core issues that Europe faces as it attempts integration as it struggles to fins its roots in a self sustaining model.

Meanwhile Mark at Zenpundit teases with an alluring review of Freakonomics. Mentioning 'counter intuitive' and noticing the anomaly along with horizontal thinking is irresistible.

And over at tdaxp it seems that while the cat is away the mouse will play...

And more work is awaiting me here as I have been trolling ebay for the best deals in a set of crossbars for the roof rack, an overhead DVD player for the minivan (meaning that I get to cut big holes in the headliner soon), some new car speakers, and some games for the kids. Being in a profession that involves a lot of conceptual and symbolic work, there is something very satisfying  about using your own hands to produce a tangible result. I'll try to post some photos of the install once complete. Tomorrow off to the final chess tournament of the school year.

Star Wars as a religion

Our son comes home with a medal and trophy (after driving across the state for a chess tournament) and we all are excited! He played a field of around 20 first grade kids and trounced four of of the five matches (although in two of them he stalemated the other kids when all they had left was a king). The fifth kid is a chess machine with a dad to match (but very nice people). It is great to see tangible rewards for all his dedication.

Added a couple new links for some interesting blogs:
One Handed Economist is a young libertarian economist who tracks Hayek
Allen's Blog is a venture capitalist who posted an interesting book review

Our local paper ran an interesting story about Star Wars as a religious force. It is rare that we get such interesting stories from the local fourth estate.

In 2002 more than 70,000 Australians listed "Jedi" as their religion on national census forms. 

"What's fascinating is you get people responding to it in this very kind of religious way," said Brenda Brasher, an expert on religion and pop culture from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

"Science fiction is providing a certain kind of grammar for a particular generation to articulate ideas and value ... some of whom have had trouble speaking meaningfully using the grammar inherited from previous generations."

Translation: Yoda makes sense. Deuteronomy? Not so much.

Lucas himself has said the creative impetus for Star Wars came from taking a variety of religious notions and "trying to distill them down into a more modern and easily accessible construct."

He borrows from Eastern religions and New Age philosophies to posit a Force through which creatures can control their own destiny.

Formal religion is digestible to some, others find their thirst slaked in literature, music or Star Wars. Our need for spiritual feeding takes on many forms and no one type is appropriate or welcome at all times. Like all of those nutrients on cereal boxes - you only need so much vitamin B-6 before it becomes toxic - we may crave something essential that is missing and find it in an astounding array of sources.

On the other hand Jackie Passey hated Revenge of the Sith but her commenters offer thoughtful analysis. For some Star Wars is a reality, for many entertainment and others none of the above.

Even sick we have it good...

Suffering from a rather nasty flu for several days now, I hope my posts have not become too terse nor abrupt.

I still hear the occasional 'Bush is evil/corrupt/incompetent' song - I certainly have my own complaints and criticisms but looking at the big picture I believe history will regard him kindly. These excerpts are posted by a man who is living in Iraq:

There are actually a million stories I can tell to make a comparison between pre and post-Saddam Iraq and to show how dramatically life has improved since April 2003 and the list doesn't necessarily start from the security which is much better off now than under Saddam who murdered 3 million Iraqis during his reign; a figure that dwarfs any post-liberation body count or my salary as a dentist which increased by a hundred folds and doesn't end by the huge change in the Iraqi army that changed from a tool of repression for both, the conscripted soldiers and the civilian population to a security preserving tool that young Iraqis volunteer to join.

Technology and communications had their share too; we moved from a country where your e mail needs two weeks to pass through the filters of the Mukhabarat to a country where people like me can publish their thought to the entire world by a click!

By European and American standards, Iraq could be considered hell on earth and I agree; life is difficult here, really difficult for many Iraqis and it would be almost impossible for a European or an American but the question here is this: is it more difficult now than under Saddam?
The answer is NO.

Saying that Iraq was better off under Saddam is in my opinion similar to saying that Germany was better off under Hitler...

Maybe I'm not seeing the truth and maybe I'm having confused daydreams after receiving heavy doses of the Bush-Blair propaganda, after all I'm just a simple Iraqi who lived 25 years in Iraq before and after Saddam.
I leave you to decide which perspective is more acceptable.

If this is the result of incompetence, let's have more of it!

Hitchhikers

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a hilarious five book sci-fi trilogy written by the late Douglas Adams. On April 29th we will have a chance to see the movie in theaters. In the mean time check out the blogs of three key characters Arthur Dent, Marvin the psychotic robot, Zaphod Beeblebrox and check out the trailer.

It's been a long time since I read the series... now I'll have to read it again...

H/T David St. Lawrence at Ripples.