A power line blew in downtown SF today. The Chronicle got reactions from the worst affected:
Naturally, when you hear an explosion, you think the worst,” Von Jones said. Nevertheless, he hurried back to work. “We’re Fruit of the Loom — we’ve got to make this commercial.
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Further evidence without the irony:
Having an orientation toward the future is also strongly correlated with both happiness and confidence.
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James Fallows comments on the matter of medium and writing:
As is obvious to everyone now, but as was not obvious to most people then, the “sound” of peoples writing is overwhelmingly their own sound, not that of the ThinkPad or the quill pen or the Number 2 pencil or even, gasp, the Macintosh.
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Roger Ehrenberg seems like a smart guy, but his comment on the Bear Stearns imbroglio demonstrates the disconnect between Wall St. and retail investors:
That liquidity, together with security selection, are the two most important variables impacting investment returns.
Translation: Asset Allocation? Never heard of it. Sign here.
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From Grady Hendrix’s exegesis on ninjas:
The Israeli affinity for ninjas makes sense when you consider that ninjas are basically supercool Jews.
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“When it comes to the songs themselves, the songs are in charge, not me,” White says. “Take a song like You Dont Know What Love Is You Just Do As Youre Told [from "Icky Thump"]. That was pretty much a country song in my mind. If I really was in control I could have just said, Hey, how dare you allow electric guitar and heavy organ on there. But I dont do that. I let the song tell me what it wants.”
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Daniel Johnson is surprised no one is talking up a John Bolton candidacy. No really, that John Bolton.
In Johnson’s defense the guy is British. In Johnson’s eternal disgrace is this quote:
Bolton looks like Teddy Roosevelt and talks like Ronald Reagan. What more do you want?
I admit Bolton and TR share a bit in the largish belly department, and their facial hair are roughly equivalent. Also, Reagan did talk like a deranged Bircher at times. So maybe, there is some measure for comparison on that account.
But, with all seriousness, an untrained Walrus would do a better job as President than John Bolton.
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Task: Attempt to maintain interest in Conservative Historian Andrew Roberts’ diary-thing beyond the first recounting of names.
If you make it to this description of Bush, you win:
He was full of resilience and fortitude — as I’d taken for granted he would be — but he was also thoughtful, charming and widely read. If he wasn’t the most powerful man in the world, he’d be the sort of chap you’d have as a mate.
What you win is debatable.
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Glenn Reynolds says of urban african immigrant polygamists:
Interesting report. This would be dealt with more effectively in a non-multicultural framework, I suspect.
So let’s try that:
*Enter non-multicultural framework….
Wow, people who broke the law by creating polygamist marriages before I entered this non-multicultural framework are still breaking the law!
*And we are done.
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Kevin Drum discusses how “principles” make it easy reach conclusions quickly and wrongly (which is correct) but ends his discussion with a strange tidbit:
On a slight tangent, have you noticed that although “ideology” and “principles” have nearly identical meanings in common usage, we usually use ideology when speaking about people we don’t like and principles when talking about ourselves?
Except “principles” and “ideology” aren’t really identical in common usage. One is a part. The other is the whole. An “ideology” is a group of (presumably) semi-coherent “principles”. A slight metonymy develops by which a principle like “Less Government” stands for the whole “Libertarian” ideology but that is more referential than anything else.
As far as, “principles” for me but not for thee, consider the above example. Libertarians are famously divisive and diverse in their sub-ideologies. Yet, they are all Libertarian no matter whichever principles they claim motivate their belief.
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