Usurpation

Some fool tried to hijack my blog. Seems to have gone away now. Funny how possessive one gets of abstract things, like the Muslims getting all possessive about Jerusalem, when it has little if any real religious significance for them. Found a great game on Shockwave.com - texttwist. Should help with puzzling.

[5/1/2002 6:46:21 AM | Robert Speirs]
Stock market, political campaigns

Although the market was up today considerably, the Dow Jones is still under 10,000 (9945) and the NASDAQ is still under 1700. This is a bit worrisome, since
traditionally the market looks three or more months ahead. If we were really in the midst of a strong recovery, would the indices be exactly where they were in
February?

Of course, it isn?t too many months until the political campaigns. Maybe that?s what the markets are dreading. Here in Florida Janet Reno, running for governor
against the First Brother, Jeb Bush, has been clumping around the state in her red pickup truck and clodhopper boots, waiting for someone to say, ?Hey, I?ve
been waiting for a candidate like you to come around!? As if. Maybe things will look a little different in October, but right now I?d be willing to bet a hundred bucks
the Jeb steamroller will make Janet into the longest, thinnest, ugliest patch of tarmac in the Sunshine State.

Every other day or so, I take a walk in the increasingly humid Tallahassee atmosphere past the Capitol and by Andrew?s restaurant downtown where the
politicos have lunch. I am always amazed by their ordinariness. Or is that why people vote for them? Not having voted for anyone since Carter in 1980, I can?t
tell. Yes, I?m ashamed of that vote, but at least I learned my lesson and got my head straight. I didn?t make the mistake of swinging the other way and voting for
Reagan, or Bush 41 or Dole or Bush 43. Heck, I gave the political system its chance. I wasted a vote on McGovern, then thought in 1976 Carter might really
make a difference because he promised ?zero-base budgeting?. He won, and didn?t I feel like the world was all better? Then he didn?t deliver. Surprise. I had
seen Kennedy continue Eisenhower?s policies, Lyndon Johnson ramp up Kennedy?s war, Nixon expand, then lose Johnson?s war while saying he was ending
it. Ford?s presidency was the only interval of sanity in there. ?The heck with it?, the nation said, and relaxed for a few months, got the troops back from
VietNam, took down the Tricky Dick pictures defacing government offices and played some golf. Then Carter drove up to Washington with a truckload of guilt
and self-loathing, canceled the Olympics, drove interest rates up to 20%, failed to do anything about Iran and Afghanistan and opened the door for Reagan.

During Reagan?s terms I got used to the idea that I was not a collectivist, although I certainly knew I was not a ?Reaganite?. Then Bush 41, one of my least
favorite people, stumbled through four incoherent years, opening the door for the eight year disgrace whose name will not disfigure this blog. I started to feel
good toward the Republicans for restraining the damage and putting a name and a historical mark of shame on the disgrace, but not good enough to vote for
any Republicans. Now I?m watching to see if Dubya can put together a few good years.

[edit]

[4/26/2002 8:40:17 AM | Robert Speirs]
THE DEFINITIVE TERM

A comment on Fredrik Norman's blog mentioned a new term for "suicide bombers". "Genocide bombers" conveys the
essence of the Arab threat to Israel, to wit, extermination, and takes the focus off the "suicide" part. For my part, I'm going
to use that term from now on.

[edit]

[4/26/2002 6:35:00 AM | Robert Speirs]
Stay-at-home dads

About that story saying ?stay-at-home dads have a higher rate of heart disease? that everyone?s sending to James
Lileks: isn?t it possible that a good number of ?stay-at-home dads? are staying at home because they have medical
problems? Specifically, maybe a lot of them have heart problems which make a full-time stressful job possible. So
wouldn?t these dads have a significantly higher rate of heart problems? Staying at home may not be the problem.

[edit]

[4/23/2002 8:47:59 AM | Robert Speirs]
LePen shocker

Last evening, in the middle of a gout attack, medicated to the gills, I saw on the web a story about Jean Marie LePen
coming second in the French elections. This resonated with me because in 1963-4 I lived in Paris, when DeGaulle was
having a heck of a time with the Algerian war and its aftermath, which formed a lot of LePen?s attitudes. Those were the
days when General Raoul Salan?s ?Secret Army? (OAS) threatened to parachute into Paris and overthrow le Grand
Charles? government. Salan was the head of the former French Algerians who wanted Algerie to remain Francaise.

The only way the unrest affected me directly was that, as a high school chemistry student at the Paris American High
School, I overheard the chemistry teacher grouse about the restrictions the French government had placed on the selling
of acids like sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric. One of the terrorist tactics at the time was throwing acid into the faces of

Stock market, political campaigns

Although the market was up today considerably, the Dow Jones is still under 10,000 (9945) and the NASDAQ is still under 1700. This is a bit worrisome, since traditionally the market looks three or more months ahead. If we were really in the midst of a strong recovery, would the indices be exactly where they were in February?

Of course, it isn’t too many months until the political campaigns. Maybe that’s what the markets are dreading. Here in Florida Janet Reno, running for governor against the First Brother, Jeb Bush, has been clumping around the state in her red pickup truck and clodhopper boots, waiting for someone to say, “Hey, I’ve been waiting for a candidate like you to come around!” As if. Maybe things will look a little different in October, but right now I’d be willing to bet a hundred bucks the Jeb steamroller will make Janet into the longest, thinnest, ugliest patch of tarmac in the Sunshine State.

Every other day or so, I take a walk in the increasingly humid Tallahassee atmosphere past the Capitol and by Andrew’s restaurant downtown where the politicos have lunch. I am always amazed by their ordinariness. Or is that why people vote for them? Not having voted for anyone since Carter in 1980, I can’t tell. Yes, I’m ashamed of that vote, but at least I learned my lesson and got my head straight. I didn’t make the mistake of swinging the other way and voting for Reagan, or Bush 41 or Dole or Bush 43. Heck, I gave the political system its chance. I wasted a vote on McGovern, then thought in 1976 Carter might really make a difference because he promised “zero-base budgeting”. He won, and didn’t I feel like the world was all better? Then he didn’t deliver. Surprise. I had seen Kennedy continue Eisenhower’s policies, Lyndon Johnson ramp up Kennedy’s war, Nixon expand, then lose Johnson’s war while saying he was ending it. Ford’s presidency was the only interval of sanity in there. “The heck with it”, the nation said, and relaxed for a few months, got the troops back from VietNam, took down the Tricky Dick pictures defacing government offices and played some golf. Then Carter drove up to Washington with a truckload of guilt and self-loathing, canceled the Olympics, drove interest rates up to 20%, failed to do anything about Iran and Afghanistan and opened the door for Reagan.

During Reagan’s terms I got used to the idea that I was not a collectivist, although I certainly knew I was not a “Reaganite”. Then Bush 41, one of my least favorite people, stumbled through four incoherent years, opening the door for the eight year disgrace whose name will not disfigure this blog. I started to feel good toward the Republicans for restraining the damage and putting a name and a historical mark of shame on the disgrace, but not good enough to vote for any Republicans. Now I’m watching to see if Dubya can put together a few good years.

THE DEFINITIVE TERM

A comment on Fredrik Norman's blog mentioned a new term for "suicide bombers". "Genocide bombers" conveys the essence of the Arab threat to Israel, to wit, extermination, and takes the focus off the "suicide" part. For my part, I'm going to use that term from now on.

Stay-at-home dads

About that story saying “stay-at-home dads have a higher rate of heart disease” that everyone’s sending to James Lileks: isn’t it possible that a good number of “stay-at-home dads” are staying at home because they have medical problems? Specifically, maybe a lot of them have heart problems which make a full-time stressful job possible. So wouldn’t these dads have a significantly higher rate of heart problems? Staying at home may not be the problem.

LePen shocker

Last evening, in the middle of a gout attack, medicated to the gills, I saw on the web a story about Jean Marie LePen coming second in the French elections. This resonated with me because in 1963-4 I lived in Paris, when DeGaulle was having a heck of a time with the Algerian war and its aftermath, which formed a lot of LePen’s attitudes. Those were the days when General Raoul Salan’s “Secret Army” (OAS) threatened to parachute into Paris and overthrow le Grand Charles’ government. Salan was the head of the former French Algerians who wanted Algerie to remain Francaise.

The only way the unrest affected me directly was that, as a high school chemistry student at the Paris American High School, I overheard the chemistry teacher grouse about the restrictions the French government had placed on the selling of acids like sulfuric, nitric and hydrochloric. One of the terrorist tactics at the time was throwing acid into the faces of supposed collaborators with the Algerians. So the authorities radically restricted the availability of acids. And the next year they threw the American armed forces, including my father, out of France.

The worst hit for the French is to their prestige, their image of practical common sense. The runoff should be a great circus. All the lefties are saying they will be voting for Chirac. Why does it strike me, though, that those who opposed Chirac might just think, in their practical yet vindictive Froggish way, that a vote against Chirac, even if it’s for LePen, might send a most effective message to the Gaullist remnants. After all, everyone says there’s no chance LePen will actually win…… Stay tuned.

By the way, that last post was in response to my sister sending me a copy of a survey in the Guardian lamenting how the average reader knew so little about the true state of things in the Middle East - as though the Guardian has a clue!

GRAMMATICAL MAN
I've been reading Jeremy Campbell's "Grammatical Man" from the early '80s. It's about entropy, information, DNA, languages. Reminds me of James Burke's "Connections" series, except it's more focused and a bit more technical. I was especially intrigued by Campbell's exploration of the role of information science in explicating the function of DNA and what that means for evolution. I didn't know, for instance, that some DNA does not code for particular proteins, but "choreographs" the sequence of protein-creation. It's easy to see that mutations to that kind of DNA would have more far-reaching effects than mutations in the DNA that only codes for specific proteins. Campbell compares the complexity available through evolutionary change to the complexity of language available because of the "mutation" of Chomsky's generative grammar structure. His suggestion that some universal "grammar of life" allows, even requires complexity opens up a lot of ground for speculation. I'm rereading it. Only after I finish and think a bit will I start speculating wildly. Good mind-calisthenics.

Another email to my sister in Egypt:

Interesting you choose the Guardian. I hope you didn't spend any money on searching that archive of lies and willful ignorance. How about the "Independent" (methinks my lady doth protest too much!)? They were both reporting a "massacre" in Jenin which anyone has yet to substantiate. Hard to do, since Jenin has been destroyed by booby-trapped bombs as well as Israeli tank shells. Oh, yes, the refugees. The ones who were told to leave by the Arab armies, and that they would soon be able to return after all the Jews were dead. The ones who were expelled from Jordan in 1970, who took over Lebanon until Sharon attacked in the '80s, the ones expelled from Kuwait in 1991 - need I go on? The Arab world needs its "Palestinian refugees" just like Hitler needed his Sudeten Germans.

Oh, and is the average reader aware that there was no such thing as a "Palestinian nation" until 1967? Is he aware that terrorist attacks went on well before Israel, in self-defense, expanded the 1967 borders, by the simple expedient of crushing the armies of Arab nations with several hundreds of millions of inhabitants? Is the average reader aware that a return to the 1967 borders would not be the end of Palestinian terrorism, but merely a return to the pre-1967 terrorism? Is the average reader aware that Arafat at Oslo promised not to engage in terror or let armaments into the "West Bank"? And, on the strength of that promise, and under pressure from the ignorant and vicious Clinton admnistration, the Israelis let that snake reestablish himself in Judea and Samaria? Why do you think Sharon's in power? Oh, and does that average reader know that the "Al-Aqsa intifada" was planned and implemented long before Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount? Oh, the Israelis use three times as much water as a Palestinian? Maybe that's because they live modern lives, not the poverty Arafat is content to let "his people" languish in, while he disposes of the hundreds of millions the Saudis send every year, not to mention the 75-85 million of US taxpayers money that goes from the UN right to Mr. Ringo-without-a-shave. Did you ever notice how much Arafat looks like Ringo? What a joke, if people weren't dying.

NEW PUZZLES

OK, I’ve been trying to hide my shame and depression at not being able to make much headway on Cox and Rathvon’s “Loops” puzzle. I will give myself one more try. I am having much better success with Richard Maltby’s latest in Harper’s, entitled “Perfect Puzzle”, since the imperfect but always entertaining Mr. Maltby made a few booboos in his last effort.

Perhaps he bent a little too far over in the direction of making the puzzle easy, spending too much time checking and cross-checking each entry. Or do those ever-fallible computers do that nowadays? I don’t want to give away too many clues, in consideration of those of you who haven’t solved the puzzles yet, but I was particularly proud of my practically instantaneous brainstorm on number 28 across. The only thing that bothered me was that the solution was, while not exactly “uncommon” as Maltby signaled, was more of a traditional “crossword puzzle word” than one is used to seeing in these delightful cryptics.

You know the usual words, the ones that justify elderlies in spending Social Security money on crossword puzzle dictionaries instead of using their brains. Yep, I’m talking about words like “ai” for two-toed sloth, “ana” for a collection, “olla” or “ewer” for a jar, “etui” for a briefcase. Who ever would learn that sort of word if not for crosswords? They do make the composer’s job an awful lot easier. But they degrade the solver’s art to the memorization of useless jargon. So once again I’m picking on Mr. Maltby. Who knows, though? I haven’t finished the puzzle yet. Maybe he’ll stump me with his unclued lights. Stay tuned. And oh, yes, my email address is "robspe@paris.com" and I love to get thoughtful, acute emails.

Dummies and Idiots

Have you noticed the proliferation in the last few years of books titled "Linux for Dummies" or "Politics for Idiots" (that last a bit redundant!). Who buys these? Oh, OK, I will have to admit, I did buy one, called something like the Internet for Dummies. But really, what kind of self-image do you have to have to buy a book that says it's for dummies? Why would you think a book would help, if you're so far gone? Americans are really into other people telling them what to do, how to live, like "Relationships for Schmoes" that I saw the other day. Another good one was "Raising your Self-Esteem for Idiots". At least whoever would buy that book really needs it.

What does it say about us that we would buy books that clearly say to anyone who sees the book that this guy really doesn't know what he's doing, so he has to have everything explained really simply and slowly, like in the other book I saw, "The Alphabet for Morons" where you pay $26.95 for a book made of really heavy, brightly painted cardboard consisting of a hundred pages each with the letter A in a slightly different color? You have to buy twenty-five more books to get the whole alphabet. Hey, why not? We're dealing with morons here! Go for it!!

Maybe someday I'll figure out how to put my email address and links and stuff on my blog. Hey, what happened to that book I just bought, called "Blogging for Cretins"? I had it around here somewhere. Oh, god, don't tell me I flushed it down the toilet again!

MCKINNEY

A so-called political leaderette has made some idiotic and contemptible comments asserting that Bush may have known about September 11 before it happened. It is amazing how much people will put up with from elected representatives. Look at the Arab and even Communist members of the Knesset and what they're allowed to say and do in the middle of a terrible war for the survival of Israel. I suppose, though, that it's just as well Cynthia McKinney's comments are spread around as widely as possible. She is convicted out of her own mouth of breathtaking stupidity. But will she suffer any political injury? If she doesn't, the so-called party she's associated with certainly will.

“LOOPS”-ed!

I have been trying, off and on, to figure out the diagram scheme of the March Atlantic puzzle “Loops”. Can’t do it. It seems totally ambiguous, unless I’m missing something. I have solved most of the clues, but can’t for the life of me figure how to fit the loops of words together. There just seem to be too many possible ways to do it. There’s no rule on how the loops have to be shaped. If you consider all possible loop shapes, not just squares, it seems one would need a supercomputer to fit the words together. I’ll keep trying. Sometimes these “impossible” puzzles are the most educational, although I’ve got a sinking feeling there’s either a flaw somewhere or something very simple I'm overlooking. I’ll report.

Excellent article here: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/04/07/Features/Features.46448.html

by Saul Singer about the Middle East. Odd, that I understand that Iraq is, in a way, the most modern country in the Arab world, the one with the best potential for emerging from Islamo-Fascism, as Sullivan calls it.

Thatcher and Koizumi

Noticed a post on Instapundit about the new leader of Japan. It's here: http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=06042002-024249-7777r

I really don't know how to put a link in properly. But that will come in time. I saw this post when I was listening to Neil Young unplugged. Something about North Ontario. Don't despair, Japan. You weren't actually all that good anyway. After all, who won the Second World War, anyway? You're not helpless. Kudos to the group which did Marx and Lennon and Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand me the Pliers, whoever that was. Never thought I could forget. Drinks (3 - 4 more on the way)

JULIAN the APOSTATE and AKHENATON

Just finished a book on the Emperor Julian, who ruled for less than two years in 361-363. It's a Greek tragedy of the most predictable kind, but fascinating nonetheless. In fact, I just finished two books about Julian, one the old standard by Gore Vidal, one more historical and sobersided by Bowersock. They tell the same story.

I've always thought of Julian as like Akhenaton, the Egyptian Pharaoh who reigned about 1350 BC. He wanted to change the world, he was egoistic, introverted, infantile in many ways but far more human than any of his number. Tiberius and Ramses the Great seem like stick figures next to Julian and Akhenaton. Sure, Tiberius was torn by doubts and bitterness - human traits - if you believe Suetonius. And Ramses was egoistic in the good old monarchical way. But neither dared what Julian and Akhenaton did. Neither went hammer and tongs against the received wisdom of the era, fighting an established creed to install what they saw as truth. Gee, there might be some parallels to Objectivists fighting these days against received collectivism, of the "Left" or "Right", and the anarchism that disguises itself as Libertarianism. Can you imagine an Objectivist ruler, pulling down the liberal idols - affirmative action, Social Security, the war against tobacco, welfare, political correctness - and smashing the conservative icons - tax exemptions for religions, farm subsidies, corporate welfare, tariffs, the drug war? It is so easy to think that any such ruler would face the same end as Julian and Akhenaton. Conspiracies would kill him and inertia would reinstall the old regimes within weeks of his death.

But just maybe this time the forces of rebellion could get it right, could put together an ideology that would have a lasting effect and gain a significant victory that would ring down the ages as a clarion call to those who believe in the individual. We could at least try.

GCMHP

My sister, Flea, who lives in Cairo, Egypt, and is very much against the Israeli operations in Judea and Samaria, sent me an email directing me to this page: www.gcmhp.net It's a PR page for the Palestinians' mental health operation in Gaza. I sent this reply:

Dear Flea,

I went to the Gaza "Health" plan website. It would be funny if it weren't so horrific that an "Authority" that sends teenagers to their deaths to blow up innocent Jewish children, like the teenage German guards at Dachau and Auschwitz, most of whom died at the hands of the Russians and Germans, should have the gall to even talk of "mental health". Of course, that's right, I forgot, Saddam will pay their families $25,000, so the families are actually selling their children's lives, with a bunch of dead Jews - hurrah! - thrown into the bargain. And the poorer, more hopeless families of course need Saddam's money more.
And it all works out pretty well. The kid's father can get a second wife, Arafat gets more martyrs to trade for Saudi money. Oh, no doubt some money goes to fund "mental health care counseling", along the lines of "you will be OK when Saddam, Khadafy, al-Assad and bin Laden march into Jerusalem behind Arafat and work their vengeance on the Jews. Until then, just put on this explosive belt, learn to walk like a Jew, pick out a target with lots of babies in it and don't bother to call me in the morning."

What a joke!!

Robbie

By the way, anyone who wants to can reach me at "robspe@paris.com". Someday I'll figure out how to put a reply email box on this blog.

In other news, I hear the Cardinal of Los Angeles is being accused of sexual abuse but, hey, luckily it's OK - it involved a girl!

FINALLY – a technological advance that meets real needs! http://www.msnbc.com/news/733999.asp

ANTISENSEhttp://www.isip.com/antisens.htm – OK, I don’t understand it yet, but it looks important.

HE SAID, SHE SAID

As I wrote in a letter to the New Republic years ago, there is a simple solution to the English language’s lack of a neuter pronoun. I have been puzzled for years by how writers have accepted the use of “his or hers” or “he or she” or, even worse “s/he” (I hate slashes). I won’t get into the irrationality of constructing sentences containing pronouns with unclear antecedents. I know it’s hard to avoid, although it can be done. Why do we need to change the historical use of “his” when the identity of an antecedent is not known?

The answer brings up all sorts of reflections about the wimping out of American and Western society, especially the idiotic perception that women were oppressed by men – as though women were ever weak and men ever THAT strong! Why, it’s an insult to every woman before 1970, like, for instance, Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great, Queen Elizabeth I, Victoria, Boadicea, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Nell Gwynne and on and on. To believe that the use of language was a factor in helping men oppress women, you have to see women as having been weak and helpless and dumb in the old days. Then, around 1970 or so they became much stronger and smarter because authors started using “she or he” where “he” was perfectly comprehensible. Only with that simple-minded belief would you think it necessary to butcher the language the way almost every book published these days does in order to avoid slipping back into the Middle Ages.

For it was always the economic, religious and philosophical environment that dictated what women and men did. Capitalism and its attendant technological advances made it possible for women to do things they had never done before. The use of language reflected this change. The way the change has been made so far, however, has made writing clumsy, interrupted by constant changes of referent.

Some authors have even adopted a bizarre policy of switching between “she” and “he” in successive situations, to “level the playing field”. It reminds me of the rule in college basketball that, when a “jump ball” situation comes up, the ball goes to teams in turn. I prefer the good old jump ball. A basketball game is, after all, an athletic contest, not an exercise in sharing. This switching always catches me by surprise. “Where,” I think, “did that female come from?”

The easy solution? Men use “he”, women use “she”. Think about it.

Paper or Plastic

Is it me or is it obvious that plastic grocery bags are superior to paper? Even in the neo-Puritan "green" weenies' calculations, they have to come out on top. How many resources does it take to produce a paper bag? To transport it? How well does it serve its intended purpose? How much room does it take in dumps - if you think that's important? On every calculus, plastic comes first. Of course, I like plastic because it's better for me. I can carry ten pounds of groceries with one finger. Try that with paper, especially in the rain! Why, the savings in broken pickle jars alone must make up for the only reason I can see even a "greenie" complaining about plastic. They're not as "biodegradable" as paper. But wait a minute, do you really want things breaking down in your landfill, releasing possibly toxic inks and plastic solvents, not to mention habanero salsa residue? I don't think so.

Of course, the weenies hate plastic with an irrational burning hatred because it's plastic, it's not produced by killing something, just by refining petroleum. It's not "renewable". The inconsistencies and baseless fears behind such emotion don't bear going into. And as for the wackos who bring their own cloth bags to the store and throw them at the bagboy, have they ever considered the resources needed to produce, transport and, of course, WASH those things? Plastic still wins.

Following is a letter I sent to a columnist complaining about SUV's at an auto show. I've got to figure out how to put links in!

Dear Mr. Kuntzman,

I've got great news for you. The sky is not falling. You can relax and stop worrying that the ozone "layer" is breaking down, that the earth is warming, that the rivers are getting polluted, that the trees and animals are dying off. In a hundred years our descendants will still be here, living better than we do today. They will be smarter, probably stronger and happier than we are. They will live in a more beautiful, more productive and safer world than we can even envision, thanks to individual ambition, advanced technology and educated appreciation of the pleasures of life, from cigars to wine to fast cars and, yes, mountain climbing.

In your article about SUV's you mention the "environment" about every other word. You must be terribly concerned. Relax.

Robert Speirs
Tallahassee, Florida

APOLOGY

OK, I'm surry. I didn't get it. When is a "flower" not a flower? Sometimes one feels really stupid, but I suppose stupider if one never saw it. Mr. Maltby, you have my cringing, abject beg-pardons. That's all I'll say. One wouldn't want to give away the plot. By the way, my internet connection was down this weekend, so I couldn't comment on any new puzzling. I haven't got very far in "Loops". I still have the impression, though, that Cox and Rathvon's clues are quite well done. It's confusing not to have a ghost of a clue how to fit the words into a diagram. That will change, though, in the usual rhythm of the puzzle solver. Does solving a puzzle recapitulate one's entire educational process, ontogenitically vs. phylogenetically? Or have I been doing too many puzzles?