Soob

Politics, Foreign Policy, Current Events and Occasional Outbursts Lacking Couth

Monday, May 26, 2008

Suggested Wisdom XVI


The Whited Sepulchre: Allen "Fisks" James Surowiecki's recent article in the New Yorker and tells the tale to both Democratic candidates (opposed to free trade) in an unapologetic fashion that Surowiecki should have done. Best line from Allen's post (Allen in italics):

Two weeks ago, both senators signed on as sponsors of a new bill that would effectively impose higher tariffs on China if it doesn’t revalue its currency.

YEAH ! That will show....us. Put a tariff on their stuff so we'll have to pay....more. With friends like Hillary, who needs....Obama.
Amicable Collisions: Phil discusses 5GW and whether or not warfare need a kinetic angle (right in line with the commentary here at tdaxp) to be considered warfare. He further brings forth a rather worrying aspect of what is, apparently, a very popular bit of virtual indoctrination from that great American vomit bag, Bill Ayers:

As Ayers puts it in one of his course descriptions, prospective K–12 teachers need to “be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and . . . be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, a teacher teaching for social justice and liberation.” Ayers’s texts on the imperative of social-justice teaching are among the most popular works in the syllabi of the nation’s ed schools and teacher-training institutes. One of Ayers’s major themes is that the American public school system is nothing but a reflection of capitalist hegemony. Thus, the mission of all progressive teachers is to take back the classrooms and turn them into laboratories of revolutionary change.
Argghhh!: Ry requests salvation from the "intellectuals" and presents a level and witty criticism of posts at tdaxp, Adam's Simulated Laughter, Arms and Influence and Soob. The offending prospect being, so I glean, analysis paralysis. To this I retort, Nay, Sir Ry! Quite the contrary! Intrepid intellectual exploration is what we're about here! Which isn't completely true but does have a nice ring to it. The last bit of criticism I received (via email) came from a certain retired US military officer who accused me of having "no imagination" because I found the foreign policy initiatives of a particular US senator (Presidential candidate) wanting. Ry's criticism is fair and not baseless ad homonym. That aside some further analysis beyond simple analogy would be welcome.

Phatic Communion: Curtis resurfaces and re-engages both there and at Dreaming 5GW. Hermeticism shmermeticism. Though a 37" LCD... Nevermind!

KuiperCliff: Tim bows out and renders his fare thee's well. Be sure to catch his closing favorite video. Good news, Tim now focuses his analysis at the excellent Ubiwar.

Good stuff.

5 comments:

The Whited Sepulchre said...

Sooby,
Thanks for the linkage.
My name and my typing are seldom gathered beneath the word "wisdom".

Anonymous said...

Soob,
I'm setting up a website. Right now it's little more than my old blog, but I'm looking for writers. I like your style. I'd love it if you'd write some original content for me, and I'd appreciate it if you'd let me syndicate some of your existing pieces. You can reach me at sharif@rabidrabbits.com

Anonymous said...

Hey Soob, thanks for the link.

Anonymous said...

Friends get to call me gollum, Soob. Welcome to the infection(desynex doesn't work, trust me, many have tried).

Yeah, you got me all right. I don't care if the model is imperfect so long as it steers the guys at the pointy end toward the right decisions.

I get the need for better models though. The more a model, in a predictive manner, approaches reality the more it leads to better decisions. but, ultimately, the point is the decision making, and sometimes I think that gets a little lost.

Note on the sacrificial rubber chicken. We actually used one, once or twice. There's an Irish prof at UC Davis, Philip P Power, who told me when a bunch of us were struggling to get my gf's, at the time, compound ready for x-ray diffraction that crystallography and all forms of chromotography are 'black arts'. SO we started sacrificing rubber chickens. Damned if we didn't start getting better results. wasn't enough just to faithfully follow the recipie in the methods text. Had to call down some weird juju from somewhere. Yeah, that was a weird thing to explain in the Confessional that week, I tell 'ya.

Thanks for being a good sport. ;)

Jay@Soob said...

Allen, they are here and I mean it.

zak, check your email.

phil, of course and thank you for the excellent post.

ry...er, gollum. What about kerosene?
Good to see necromancy is still alive and well! And thanks for clarifying.