MTheads

Decline of Handwriting, Decline of War?

I had an interesting conversation the other day with a mix of people from different countries.  We were talking about the decline of various skills like handwriting and face to face conversations.  Instead, the newer generations type and think in short little bursts.  One man said he fears our century's cultural decline is indicative of humanity's decline. 

Someone else mentioned that the 20th century was no standard by which to judge humanity if you take into consideration the atrocities of those past 100 years.  Surely good handwriting couldn't save us from wars, epidemics, genecide or inhuman ideologies.  This got me to thinking about something I had read recently by Neal Stephenson. 

In In the Beginning ...Was the Command Line, Stephenson writes:

...Anyone who grows up watching TV, never sees any religion or philosophy, is raised in an atmosphere of moral relativism, learns about civics from watching bimbo eruptions on network TV news, and attends a university where postmodernists vie to outdo each other in demolishing traditional notions of truth and quality, is going to come out into the world as one pretty feckless human being.  And--again--perhaps the goal of all this is to make us feckless so we won't nuke each other.

Perhaps the ambivalence of modern thinking and modern behaviour is paralyzing our ability to act on cultural or moral grounds, thus keeping us from engaging in either very good actions or very bad ones.  Or not.  Who knows. 

Neal Stephenson is an incredible writer, and a very interesting thinker.  I definitely recommend reading In the Beginning...Was the Command Line.  While it is about how the various personal computer operating systems (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.) developed and why, he spends quite a bit of time considering the whys of what makes us make the choices we do.  A favorite topic of mine.

And read his Cryptonomicon.  It's The Name of the Rose for our feckless century.

 

More School Choice

Quick link to article on school choice from the Wall Street Journal.  Michigan Pushes for School Choice.

The education revolution will happen.  First the discontents,  the freethinkers, and the visionaries. Then those in the middle with the ability to see.  Lastly, the enemies of change will co-opt the issue as their own.  That stage is almost here.

Wanted: First Rank Conspiracy Theorists

Since those nutty, wonderful, sublime Truthers, nobody has a good conspiracy.  Dang, I love myself a good conspiracy. 

The implications of Obama being born in Kenya and then smuggled into Hawaii are underwhelming.  No corporate killings, no assassination plots, no world domination.  Just a woman with incredible foresight.  Who in their right mind would bother themselves with this theory??  

Before the other side congratulates themselves on their incredible reasonableness, let's remember the equally fatuous conspiracy concerning Sarah Palin's son.  A bunch of idiots are convinced that Sarah Palin did not give birth to Trig.  At first, I thought Andrew Sullivan's McCarthyish screeds demanding to see the birth certificate before the last election was brilliant performance art.  Unfortunately, no.

More important than accepting the obvious because the other alternatives require a suspension of thinking, we take Palin's word for it because the implications that arise from a cover-up are too dull for a good movie.  Same goes for the movie about two-week-old Obama's wild flight from Kenya to preserve his chances for becoming President.  Maybe he and his mother have to run to make a connecting flight. Do they make it?

President Obama was born in Hawaii and Sarah Palin is Trig's mother.  To doubt either is wishful thinking that the people we don't like are somehow illegitimate.  Get hobbies.

Tuesday's He's Got Talent Pic!

I have suggested this picture for our next Christmas card.  Husband doesn't think it has the right solemnity one might want for a Christmas card.  I like the idea of this picture peeping out from among dozens of snowy nights, happy families in matching sweaters, and the reason-for-the-season cards.  A palate cleanser of sorts...

 

Beautiful and moving.  Deep, too.

 

DC Budget Deal Favors Live Children Over Dead Ones

One group of people works towards a world where poor women can get free abortions from conveniently located Planned Parenthood clinics -- at tax payer expense, too, as abortion is a kind of human right to these types of ideologues. 

But when it comes to where and how poor children are educated, this same group of people works to prevent any choice.  No to charters, no to vouchers, no to religious institutes or same sex schools, or boarding schools or on-line schools.  No to any change, choice, reform, or referendum even if the parents and children clamor for it.   This group of ideologues knows best.  Free abortions come with a price, apparently. 

Then you have another group.  This is the one I identify with.  I'd like tax money to be directed towards real educational choices and reforms.  I'd like to give parents control over where and how their children are educated.  Let school choice reign.  Let parents make choices, bad or good.  How much worse could education get for a segment of our society?  I trust people to make, in the aggregate, better choices for themselves than our self-selected elites can make.

Our self-selected elites prefer the sterility of a world where abortions are routine and people take the education they are given.  I prefer a chaotic world where people make their own choices, to include poor women choosing whether they want to fund their own abortions, or choosing which school they'd like to send their children.  Again, I trust people.   What does the other side trust?

Pertinent Link: D.C. Wire article on DC budget deal

Few Thoughts...I Mean, A Few Thoughts.

Some thoughts:

The word "furlough" is funny. 

People who argue that Libya is nothing like Iraq are cute and stupid at the same time.  I just wanna take them home and shake them real hard.

O.K.  Those are the only two thoughts I could make even a little funny.  The pizza is ready and I'm hungry.

Just remember, life is good and too short.  Enjoy it!

 

How Much Have I Had To Drink and Look At My Funny Pet Photos Friday!!!

There's a cat who wants a treat!  Unfortunately, brain is his favorite.  Don't always have that on hand.  It can be a little scary sleeping downstairs in the living room with him lurking around....

 

You tell him there's no more kefir.....