Wednesday, September 24, 2008
STILL NO POWER
Our house is still without grid power. I spent a good deal of yesterday working to get things rigged for a longer haul running on the generator for minimal function and survivable air flow in the house, because I think it might be another week before we get electrons flowing from outside again ...
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 12:41 PM
Saturday, September 20, 2008
VIRTUE, AFTER THE STORM
There's no way I can "catch up" on all I've missed out on since the hurricane. I'm still spending a LOT of time just maintaining the minimal functionality I've got with the generator here at the house (these little machines take quite a bit of monitoring and on-going fiddling to operate consistently), and trying to pick up the pieces of my shattered office at work. But in amongst all that, I'm scanning here and there in my usual haunts online and picking out the most interesting looking bits to read more deeply.
In that process, I came across this essay about the importance of the notion of "virtue" in moral philosophy. (That may seem like a trivial or almost like a tautological statement, BTW, but it's not, as this piece explains.) Although the example given by the author at the end to illustrate what may be a way forward, "back" to a virtue-based ethics, is one that makes me queasy, I do agree with the basic premise of the piece -- that the fundamental ground of liberal moral philosophy is essentially empty at its core; that something more, and more fundamental, is required than the basic liberal prescription of individual autonomy.
Looking for a solid foundation upon which to ground such a "pre-liberal" core of virtue is a hard project for a secular, scientifically-minded person such as myself. And it must be made clear that this project does not entail a rejection of the liberal moral or political program. Rather, it is a recognition that, ultimately, the liberal moral program is only instrumental in nature, albeit hugely important. The liberal moral and political insights of the Enlightenment are wonderfully and crucially important. But they aren't enough.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 3:56 PM
OFF AND ON AND OFF AND ON
We lost power again, three (?) days ago. I now have a generator providing haphazard power to the house, but it's a touch-and-go thing. If I can get that stabilized, I may post more later.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 8:50 AM
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
BACK
I am finally back online, with power to the house, four and half days after Ike. We had downed trees and fences, but Anthea, all the animals and I came through OK. Thanks to all who stayed in touch via Blackberry (which came back online only a few hours into Day 1), and especially Michael and Chizuko, who fed me news via email through that low-bandwidth link.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 4:26 PM
Friday, September 12, 2008
IKE
8:00 PM: Winds gusting up now. Had some power interruptions. If I haven't responded to your emails, we're OK. But I'm thinking we'll be losing power for the duration soon.
See you on the flip side ....
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 7:59 PM
Thursday, September 11, 2008
911
Seven years ago today. NEVER FORGET.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 6:43 PM
STORM WINDS
It looks like hurricane Ike is headed this way, although the models have more spread of projected paths than I've seen lately. Which is a good segue into a link dump of some material about Islam that's collected in my browser as a result of a little online discussion I've been having in a forum I frequent:
- The Language of the Koran: This piece is a personal testament by a Muslim who grew up in Syria from a devout childhood to a loss of faith based on something one doesn't hear much about unless you dig pretty deeply, the linguistic difficulties of the Koran itself. This item is brief and, as I indicate, personal, but it points to two things that are, in my opinion, extraordinarily important. The first is the fact that the actual text (as opposed to the content and substance) of the Koran is itself extremely problematic. The language is not the Arabic spoken by any population today, and an honest approach to that fact opens the door to the second important point: That deep, scholarly understanding of that text outside of the world of believing Muslim scholars who work primarily from the accepted religious authorities on the issues raised by the problematic language is almost completely nonexistent. Over the last 200 years, Christian and Jewish biblical scholarship has been deeply enriched by textual analysis from a whole host of angles, from material created by deeply committed religious scholars, to completely secular researchers and analysts. Everyone but the most ignorant fundamentalists accepts that understanding of the Bible has been enriched by this process. Nothing even remotely like this has taken place in the Muslim world.
- A Culture of Darkness: And this brief item explains why. It reviews the objective evidence that demonstrates how Arab and Muslim culture is almost completely closed off to all learning from outside itself, and even from critical perspectives from within.
- With Predictable Results: Not surprisingly, this darkness, with an obscure hodge-podge of nearly incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo at its heart, leads to the rationalization of some pretty primitive and nasty things, like the systematic victimization of women. This item revisits just how bad things are for women in Iran, and how much worse they're likely to get. And this piece, making its way through the PC filters of The Guardian, casts just a little light on how terrible life is for women in Pakistan. Meanwhile, feminists in the West expend their considerable energies pitching fits of comical outrage about Sarah Palin. Now there's a sense of priorities for you.
- But We Keep paying for It: And while the world sleeps, we continue to pour our wealth into Muslim hands through the high-pressure fire-hose of our oil addiction. If you have any doubt, check out this short little snapshot of the economic life of Abu Dabhi, a nasty little medeival kngdom that produces nothing and whose people could not possible create anything -- except the oil to which we are addicted.
- And, Ultimately, We'll Have to Really Fight: Which finally leads to two book reviews. The first, about a recent book chronicling Israel's epic secret war against Iran that's been going on almost completely silently behind the scenes for 30 years, gives only modest hope that effective step against the genuine enemy of civilization are possible. And the second addresses that darling of the left, Tariq Ramadan, the "moderate scholar" who gets trotted out on a regular basis to exemplify the fruits of peaceful dialogue with Islam, and how superior that approach is to the bloody brutishness advocated by the likes of me. I have a particular personal animus toward Ramadan, because a few years ago, I basically lost a group of life-long friends over my refusal to agree to their assessment that he was a moderate. This was taken as evidence that I had become a neocon zombie. Which I take as evidence that Ramadan has been extraordinarily successful in deploying the Islamists most effective weapon against us -- our own open-mindedness, tolerance and desire to believe the best of other people and cultures.
OK, dark, rich Arabiya coffee break's over -- back on your heads!
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 5:06 AM
Monday, September 08, 2008
PALIN HEARTBREAK
I have shared in the enthusiasm of the simple-minded right wing of American politics over the last week over John McCain's selection of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Like the majority of Americans, I have also been disgusted by the media's digging into her personal life, but have taken comfort in the clear fact that this partisan personalistic attack on her has ricocheted and hurt the Democrats.
But now, I'm afraid a personal detail about Palin has surfaced that I can't ignore, and that will cause me to completely rethink the impact she's had on my enthusiasm for McCain's candidacy.
She has a tattoo.
The Big Dipper is tattooed on her ankle.
See the second-to-last point in the document discussed in this news story: I have to confess that this is a crushing revelation about Palin, something that will likely negate the ten-point lead that the McCain-Palin ticket is now showing among likely voters in the most recent Gallup poll, and rightly so. When compared to the kind of personal details of Barak Obama's open book of a life (actually, two open books, and a third on the way), this tattoo scandal shows the utter irrelevancy of the kind of "dirt" the hate-filled right wing has been "digging up" on Obama.
I'm ashamed. Ashamed of myself, and ashamed for my country, that such a person could have, even for a moment, been so close to the highest office in the land.
Antroy, I'm sorry.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 8:11 AM
Sunday, September 07, 2008
THE MASK SLIPS
This little piece in, of all places, The Guardian, sums up pretty well how the Obamatons have blown their lead by letting the mask slip over Palin.
Some polls are showing McCain in the lead now. It will require a concerted effort on the part of Obama's campaign to recapture the position they had a week ago of comfortably sitting on a win that was theirs to lose. "The narrative" Obama's folks have so carefully crafted and scripted out to the mainstream media is now hanging in tatters, with Obama now forced to defend his experience level against the GOP's number 2, the holes in his "stirring biography" now visible, and the chorus of "hope and change" being sung in a different key by a different set of people than those who had experienced him as a blank screen upon which to project whatever made them feel good.
Pretty good work for a single move of political judo. And it never would have had this effect but for the mainstream media's foolishness. That's gotta hurt.
McCain's shown he can take hit after hit politically, fall back, regroup and counterattack. Obama's never faced such a challenge in his life. Let's see how he does.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 8:57 AM
Saturday, September 06, 2008
LINK-O-RAMA
I'm totally behind on blogging and my browser's going to crash if I don't do a link dump, so bombs away!
Coffee break's over -- back on your heads!
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 10:19 AM
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