Back in the Saddle, Again

OMG.  Over a year since the last post!  You would think I took a vow of silence.  But, you would be wrong.  You might even think I devoted myself to 365+ days of non-stop golf.  But, you would be wrong, although I award extra credit to those kind thoughts.  Instead, the real answer is a combination of too much work and slow writing.  My post topics transit quickly from current events to history before I hit "PUBLISH."  Maybe I can stick with a Jewish New Year resolution to more frequent, brief blog posts.  Why not?

My wife printed a NY Time Magazine article from July 28 titled, "Why Do Americans Stink at Math?"  I got through half a dozen paragraphs.  Make math interesting.  Get students to investigate ideas instead of droning at them and assigning repetitive homework.  Yeah.  So?  The educational stench covers all topics.  English, history, science.  Even in our sports-obsessed culture, phys ed is short shrifted.  Foreign languages, art, music?  Feh.

Which bring's me to Paul Krugman's latest theme expressed in his NYT columns and blog that explores the mystery of the unrepentant.  Why is it, he ponders in a repeating excess of  spilled electrons, that economists whose ideas failed miserably post-2008 continue to defend those ideas against Terabytes of data?  PK has it wrong.  People rarely change their minds about anything. Most ideas and opinions are simple prejudices: limbic beliefs based on nonsensical pre-conceptions. Intellectual arguments are ineffectual tools.  We are emotional beings, and emotion trumps intellect every time.

Syria

The United States might blow things up and kill people from a distance in Syria because Assad bin Assad, a cruel wretched son of a cruel wretch, added sarin to the misery of Syrian's civil war.  The only correct thing to do, is indict Assad for war crimes and haul him off to The Hague for trial.  Removing him, though, gives too much advantage to the Islamic fundamentalist component of the rebellion.  What we want, is a true, democratic revolt that will overthrow the current regime and install a non-sectarian representative government with participation by all ethnicities and sects, and includes equal rights for women.  Zero chance for that.  Americans think they are looking through a window, but are really squinting at a mirror.  We think that rebellion against a dictator means replacing cruelty with fairness.  In Syria, as anyone who knows the area would have predicted, the battle segments to Shia, Sunni, Alawite, plus a few other groups.  Nothing Assad could do -- either good or bad -- is sufficient incentive for people to change allegiance.  We did not learn from Iraq where expected anti-Saddam fervor became Shia vs Sunni vs Kurds because it always was.

Back to Work

Writing again after an unexpectedly long hiatus.  Blame the day job.  No.  That's not true.  Blame the wingnuts.  Yes, they are demoralizing.  But, more importantly, they keep changing the landscape faster that I -- who writes slowly -- can keep up.  Call it the inverse dichotomy paradox.  The original Aristotlean paradox says that no one can reach a destination because first, you must get half-way there, then half of the half, and so on, with each increment half of the one before which, a couple of thousand years before Newton, seemed like a genuine constraint.  The inverse case has nutters moving twice as far from reality with each new step.  Try to respond cogently to one piece of conservative nonsense and, by the time I am ready to hit the "Publish" button, my writing is now off-target from the newest craziness.  Think of whack-a-mole played against mutant vermin that grow and grow and grow. 

The NRA is a Terrorist Organization

The National Rifle Association is a terrorist organization.  It is complicit in the murder and maiming of thousands of Americans every year.  The Association, despite its overwhelming political agenda, calls itself a charity and has 501(c)3 status.  Unbelievable.  The NRA, its leadership, and, yes, its members must face the reality of their murderous legacy.

The Emperor's New Clothes

The biggest problem with living the big lie is that just one lone defector can crash the whole enterprise.  New Jersey Governor Chris Christie demolished years of Republican party propaganda in just three days.  The man who was keynote speaker at this year's Republican National Convention praised his party's biggest worstest scariest awfullest demon multiple times and received warm praise from the President in return.  The two walked together through some of the worst damaged parts of New Jersey.  Romney must be on the floor in one of his mansions kicking his feet and chewing the antique, hand-knotted Persian carpet.  Fox and Friends needed a complete hard reboot following their morning video interview with Christie and Heckuvajob Brownie, in trying to find some reason for bashing Obama, instead showed himself to be too stupid to know how stupid he is.  The Republicans are so nusto crazy extreme these days, that just one man doing his job honestly and honorably appears, in contrast, like Arthur pulling Excalibur from the stone. 

Rocky III

We are all toddlers informed only by single syllable words and unable to do simple arithmetic.  That is the most important conclusion I drew from Monday night's debate.

Mitt Romney tells us that all nations exist only to serve American purpose.  We are not allowed to understand our enemies or imagine objectives that may not be Americentric.  Good guys and bad guys.  White hats and black.  Life is so simple.  Be tough, send messages, and continue to inflate a military that has, after 11 years in Afghanistan and 9 in Iraq, fought to poorly defined stalemates.  Do you remember those bumper stickers that said, "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam"?  Mitt doesn't.  I do.

The world's greatest businessman and financial wizard has a plan to simultaneously (1) balance the US budget, (2) cut taxes by 20%, and (3) increase military spending.  Half of America is believes him.  Then, again, half of all Americans are below average intelligence.  I don't know the size of the correlation, but I would be willing to bet -- $10,000 anyone? -- that it is large.

Liar's Logic

Romney has discovered a corollary to Goebbels' Law.  The Nazi propaganda minister said tell one big lie and then repeat it again and again and again. Mitt prefers breadth to depth.  Romney's tells a million lies.  Each Romney lie can be refuted, but there just isn't enough time to knock them down. One big lie can be answered.  A million lies are like a denial of service internet attack.  The system crashes from overload. 

There is an old joke about Lyndon Johnson that applies well to Mittens.  Johnson lied often, so people became adept at reading his body language.  If LBJ tugged at his ear, you knew he was telling the truth.  If he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up, he was telling the truth.  If he interlaced his fingers, he was telling the truth.  And, if he opened his mouth, he was lying.