Friday, October 27, 2006

RUMMY?!?!?

Rumsfeld in Heated Exchange With Reporters Over Iraq

Donald Rumsfeld


By E&P Staff

Published: October 26, 2006 11:20 PM ET
NEW YORK


A press briefing on Thursday by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld drew wide attention when he deflected heated questions from reporters by asking them to calm down and "just back off" and wait, again, for positive results in Iraq.

EXCUSE ME?!?!?

Rummy, please consider telling the men and women in the field of battle to "calm down and "just back off"" PLEASE, ask the parents of soldiers living and dead to just 'calm down'... and wait.

WAIT FOR WHAT?!?!?!?

What is right about Liberals?

Michael Bérubé responding to criticism leveled by "Maximilian Pakaluk’s recent review of my book in the National Review Online." offered the following position....

As I explain in What’s Liberal?, there’s another reason I don’t share Harris’s faith (or that of any other “ethical realist") in mind-independent concepts: I think that believing in them can have nasty consequences. That is, people who believe that they’ve discovered objective moral principles out there in the ether (as distinct from people who think they’re working out sublunary moral principles with their fellow human beings) are especially likely to think of people who believe otherwise—or who simply believe in other principles—as not merely mistaken about this or that but objectively wrong as measured by some nonhuman, observer-independent criterion. Or, as I write elsewhere in the chapter, “you might conclude that people who disagree with you are not simply working from different moral premises but, rather, are alien—or opposed—to morality itself. It then becomes all the easier to exclude them from the conversation, from all forms of human community.” And one of the purposes of the liberal arts—golly, but I thought this argument was as clear as a mountain stream—is to teach people how to think about fundamental disagreements in human affairs, and how to conceptualize fundamental disagreements without coming to the conclusion that the people who disagree with you must be expelled or exterminated.
Not to sound fawning or patronizing but this is the clearest explanation of a "Liberal" position that I have ever encountered. In the space of one paragraph, albeit a complex one, Bérubé is able to point to the crux of the matter, mind-independent concepts. I see his discussion not just as a personal one but as a world-view as well - clarifying many, if not all, of the world struggles.

How clearly I can hear the Christian Fundamentalists saying, "you are not simply working from different moral premises but, rather, are alien—or opposed—to morality itself." Echoed are the voices of the Extremists of almost every camp. Armed with such righteous indignation it is easy to see how violence is the next available method of cleansing the alien immoral influences.

Life becomes very cheap when we disconnect ethics and values from our day to day existence. Mind-independent concepts are just such a disconnect.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Your wall, my graffiti?

Jeneane iffen you are going to offer comments (spray graffiti) on another's blog site (my wall) then you have to know that I get to do what I like with my wall. If that means repainting it, so be it. If it means charging admission to view my wall, extant with your graffiti then so be it.

Lives up to its name, is as good as its word...

Steven over at WinExtra pointed us toward a product that you just don't see every day. Here is a product that really does exactly what it claims. It comes clearly packaged, it is easy to install, does exactly what it says it will do, doesn't have any back-doors or hidden "features"... NaDa, zip ziltch, zero... just exactly what you would expect from every good software provider.

Go here, get yours => Get your NaDa here

I got mine and it is great!

Monday, October 23, 2006

Vacation is over, back to work.

Spent 8 of the last 9 days on "vacation" ...

Getting to spend time with an old friend, priceless. Getting to attend the Goodrich Club Board Meeting, invaluable. Setting aside 1 day to visit my father's cousin in Holland Michigan, beyond measure.

Working my butt off trying to keep pace with my old friend - a daunting challenge at best, an exercise in futility at worst. Ken Shenstone is building a studio complex to compliment the 20 year old wood fire Anagama kiln. Not one to enter into small projects Ken and Buck, in partnership, are building two major studio spaces and a common room/kitchen/music studio. As soon as I get the old fashioned film pictures developed I will post a few. (And, as soon as I get permission I will post earlier pix from mid summer that contrast the progress being made.)

So here is a partial list of accomplishments*...

Roofing: Installed metal ribbed roof and trim (rake side x2 plus high side) on a 37' x 52' slant roof
Roofing: Bituthene and roof felt for the common room
Electrics: Bore 4" hole through 12+ inches of 4000lb concrete
Carpentry: Sheathing exterior wall of common room
Carpentry: Bituthene and Typar wall of ceramic studio
Landscape: Prepare area between house and studio for grass planting
Landscape: French drain (stone over drainage pipe) back of commom room

Social: Friday night losing 3 out of two games of Cribbage to Rusty (Yup, got skunked.)
Social: Saturday night, won 2 out of 2 games of Cribbage from Rusty (small revenge.)


* Fine Print Disclaimer: I merely assisted in these accomplishments. Ken is duly credited with doing the actual work.


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