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April 20, 2005
NYC Blogger Fest
by JeremyCan you call a meeting of six bloggers a 'fest?' Well too late. On Monday Cara (far left in the picture directly below) and I (far right) had an evening on the town in Manhattan with Judith, Mary, Neo-neocon and Norm on the occasion of his first real trip to that particular big city. We had a first rate evening of drinks (fewer than you'd think from looking at the first picture) dinner and conversation.
The waitress took the picture so I blame her for the fact that the top picture does none of us justice, though it's probably more my fault for not bringing along my external flash unit.
I should tell you that Norm does smile in real life. He's really a mellow, witty, and extremely nice cat. But I can guess what he was thinking about when it came time to smile for the camera (namely: 'If I put a big smile on my face, my regular readers will know I was just saying 'cheese.') And I, in fact, don't weigh three hundred and fifty pounds.
The bottom picture is much better because Cara took that one, 'cept she ain't in it :-(
Posted by Jeremy at 08:52 PM | Comments (7)
April 19, 2005
Fats Domine, Spirito Santana
by JeremyLooks like the Vatican is staying both European and conservative, for what it's worth. There was hope, it seems, for something hipper, but it is not to be:
SAO PAULO, Brazil -- The scene could have been plucked from a rock concert: A Grammy-winning movie star, clad in dashing robes and backed by an electric band, swept across a stage in a smoke-filled warehouse, belting fiery tunes to ecstatic, candle-waving fans.But the sweating, panting star was the Rev. Marcelo Rossi, a Roman Catholic priest. His gold-trimmed robes were ecclesiastical. His lyrics evoked the Holy Spirit. And the smoke was incense.
Rossi's boogie-woogie sermons on the edge of this sprawling city are part of a church-sanctioned campaign to stem an exodus of Latin Americans from Catholicism, the region's dominant religion for half a millennium. But it's far from certain that livelier preaching can do the trick. Retaining the church's foothold in Latin America, home to nearly half the world's 1.1-billion Catholics, is widely viewed as one of the toughest tasks awaiting the next pope.
When I awoke from a nap to hear Jeff Jarvis talking on MSNBC about a new pope name Ratzinger, I rejoiced at what was apparently my mistaken apprehension that the world was to see the first Jewish Pontiff. Not that such a thing would have solved the Brazil problem. But it would have done much by way of reaching out to culturally Jewish atheists such as myself.
Posted by Jeremy at 04:55 PM | Comments (1)
April 09, 2005
Gun Rights from a Liberal Perspective
by JeremyI think I've finally figured out, in a way I can truly comprehend, why anti-gun-control people feel that gun ownership is something like a natural human right. This was always something that seemed off the wall to me, but I've got it now.
Other animals have particular ways of defending themselves against attack. Each beast of the field or forest is a samurai in its own way. You've gotta be. A dog will bite your throat until you're dead (if he really has to). If you're small enough he'll shake you from side to side while making a sound like "ah-rrr-aaaah-raowlrgh-raaaaaargh" and so forth.
We humans seem to have been slighted when it comes to natural self defense. So sure, you can understand where guns fill that frightening void for people. That's not the part that I had trouble with. It's the notion that ownership of a manufactured object made of metal could be considered a God given right. But the thing is this: we are the tool makers. A few other animals make tools but -- and I'm sorry -- compared to us, all the other toolmakers are pathetic little turds. What, you can fish a disgusting larva out of a dead tree using a twig in your beak? That's truly impressive. I can order you a case of queen bees on ebay using my palm pilot, so think about that.
So it's not the gun per se that is natural, but the tool-making adaptation that makes the gun possible. There was a time when a sharp stone on the end of a stick was the most effective weapon we tool makers could make. Now it's the gun. In future it might be something else (the tazer doesn't seem to have the star quality you'd want in a survival tool, it has dynamism but lacks gravitas in my opinion).
However, the next question is whether this is a part of our nature that can be trusted. I don't think humans and apes are as trustworthy as, for instance, canines. Who would you sooner trust with your life, a chimpanzee or a dog?
Our problem is that our instincts for survival have taken an unprecedented leap into abstraction. A dog can kill you with his teeth, but nature has arranged it so that he's not really in charge of that faculty; it manifests when nature wills it so. This keeps a dog (usually) from using his power for greed or self aggrandizement or to satisfy a sadistic pleasure (I said usually, though I'd be eager to hear your mean-dog stories). Dogs, or at least 90% of them, are like highly trained law enforcement professionals. As opposed to, what, 10% of humans? So I trust the average dog with those choppers but I do not trust the average human with a gun.
But it's interesting how there are two valid sides to this argument, isn't it? It's fun, this "open mindedness" stuff, this "critical thinking" (I used to be a critical thinker in name only).
Posted by Jeremy at 06:18 PM | Comments (1)
April 04, 2005
Don't Kid a Kidder
by JeremyI got 18 out of twenty right. Only one fake smiler fooled me and only one real smiler struck me as fake (via Norm)
After you've taken the test you can see my results here.
Yes I know that I have to put a post up on Michaeltotten.com. I'm working on it. Keep your pants on.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:43 AM | Comments (2)
April 03, 2005
Book Tag
by JeremyI been tagged. I'm a little late in responding, but here goes...
You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
"All Creatures Great and Small" by James Herriot
Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Never a serious enough one that I could easily remember. But here's one: Dunia from "Crime and Punishment." Her brother scared me, though. That was before I met Cara, of course (Cara's sister is very nice and has never murdered anyone with an axe.)
The last book you bought is:
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry. Haven't read it yet.
What are you currently reading?
Portraits from Life by Ford Madox Ford.
You must read this book. Ford was kind enough to escort the English speaking world over the threshold from the 19th Century to the 20th. You get that from a mere list of some of the literary friendships he remembers in this memoir: Henry James, Stephen Crane, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, D. H. Lawrence, Theodore Dreiser.
Here's a bit about Stephen Crane:
"And poor, frail Steevie, with all the organs of his body martyred to the waters of Cuba, the mosquitoes of the swamps around Athens, the cold Caribbean, the dusts of Wyoming or Nevada or Colorado, the stenches of Bowery slums, the squalor of New York hall-bedrooms...Heaven knows where he really had or hadn't been; he might, like Cyrano, have come sliding from the moon to the earth down a sunbeam...Poor, frail Steevie, in the little room over the porch in the E, writing incessantly -- like a spider that gave its entrails to nourish a wilderness of parasites. For, with his pen that moved so slowly in microscopic black trails over the immense sheets of paper that he affected, he had to support all that wilderness. That was the thought I could not bear."
And this:
"He saw [...] the folly and malignity of humanity -- not in the individual but in committees."
And Ford was known for his ability to mimic -- both in person and in writing -- the bizarre speaking style of Henry James. Here's a sample in which Henry James asks Ford's maid for advice on hiring a maid for his own household:
"'Would you then advise me...for I know that such an ornament decorates your master's establishment and you will therefore from your particular level be able to illuminate me as to the...ah...smooth functioning of such, if I may use the expression, a wheel in the domestic timepiece -- always supposing that you will permit me the image, meaning that, as I am sure in this household is the case, the daily revolution of a really harmonious chez soi is as smooth as the passing of shadows over a dial...would you then advise me to have...in short to introduce into my household and employ...a...that is to say...a Lady Help?'I advanced at that [...] as the housemaid with a sigh of relief disappeared amongst the rustlings of her skirts."
Five books you would take to a deserted island:
- The Complete Works of Shakespeare
- Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
- All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
- A very large field guide to edible and medicinal plants
- The unabridged Oxford English Dictionary (the single volume, magnifying glass one. I already own it, so it would be no trouble)
The effect I'm going for is a set of books that would make it impossible for me to forget the depth, scope, and (often) the beauty of the human world (not to mention the contributions of so many other animals who labor every day to make it all possible).
If you want me to apologize for All Creatures Great and Small, you should go back and read it. Having that book on the island would be the closest thing to having an ark stocked with two of each animal. More importantly, those stories add up to an argument in favor of love and faith (in the importance of our humble lives) whose power no mammal, even the most morose among us, could resist. And the story-telling can't be beat.
Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
It's not really fair of me to pass the stick because I sat on the stick (ouch) for so long and I fear the historical gravitas has passed on this thing. So I'll pass the stick but set it on 'optional.' Apologies if you've already done it or been asked and declined to.
- Pootergeek because he's a smart dude and because I want to find out if he reads about anything other than all that genome stuff
- Also a clever hombre whose thoughts I always find interesting, James Hamilton.
- Also a bright young man, is Glenn H., plus he needs an excuse to tear himself away from work to blog something.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:34 PM | Comments (2)
