I don’t know how to put this delicately…but I never knew there were so many–ah–euphemisms (kakophemisms?) for anal intercourse until I read this list of words which you cannot emblazon on an NFL personalized jersey. And, I think that if you had asked me, I would have said I did indeed know quite a good number. The scales have fallen from my eyes. (via Hit and Run.)
From the monthly archives:
March 2005
Congratulations to the team at King’s College London, who have managed to achieve the first claimed “cure” of Type 1 Diabetes via transplanted islet cells. Just to drive the point home, the technique that they used was originally developed in Canada, so it’s a double win for socialized medical research.
The temptation is almost overpowering to speculate that the reason this particular procedure was developed outside the USA might have something to do with the fact that curing a disease with a single operation doesn’t produce a lifelong dependence on patented pharmaceuticals. But this temptation probably ought to be resisted; it’s only a single case. But well done King’s College, and perhaps this will shame our government into funding London’s hospitals properly.
I just got off the phone from an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Of course, you’ll all be agog to read my views on bankruptcy reform, social security, the trade deficit, the impending crisis of capitalism, and so on. You’ll have to wait a little while, however. The topic of the interview was bunnies vs bilbies.
Interesting discussion at the Loom (via Panda’s Thumb):
So here is a fascinating scenario to consider: a small-brained African
hominid species expands out of Africa by 2 million years ago, bringing
with it stone tools. It spreads thousands of miles across Asia,
reaching Indonesia and then getting swept to Flores. It may not have
undergone any significant dwarfing, since they were already small. This
would change the way we think about all hominids. Being big-brained and
big-bodied could no longer be considered essential requirements for
spreading out of Africa. And one would have to wonder why early
lineages of hominids became extinct in Africa when one branch managed
to get to Flores.
I figure the most scientific explanation is that one day a wizard showed up at the door. The road goes ever on and all that.
I’m rereading Louis Hartz’ 1955 classic, The Liberal Tradition in America, one of the first academic books that fired my brain when I got to college. (David Greenstone taught me. I should read his Lincoln book out of filial piety.)
Here’s a bit on Hartz by Arthur Schlesinger: "The broad liberal objective is a balanced and flexible "mixed
economy," thus seeking to occupy that middle ground between
capitalism and socialism whose viability has so long been denied
by both capitalists and socialists." Interesting shifts in usage since that was written. For a Democrat to stump for a ‘mixed’ economy today would be ballot box poison. But all Schlesinger is saying is: the New Deal. Which folks like.
Hartz’ basic thesis is packed into his Tocqueville epigraph: "The great advantage of the Americans is, that they have arrived at a state of democracy without having to endure a democratic revolution; and that they are born equal, instead of becoming so."
Via “Armed Liberal”:http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/006456.php, I see that George W. Bush appears to be on the verge of “taking action”:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1516076,00.html to signal emphatically to Sinn Fein that they are _personae non gratae_, unless they get rid of the hard men in the IRA. I’d noted in a “previous post”:https://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/003252.html that there was a political controversy over whether Sinn Fein would be specifically singled out for exclusion from the St. Patrick’s Day party in the White House, or whether instead all political parties would be disinvited from the party, so as to make the snub less pointed. Now, according to the _Times_ it appears that no political party is going to get an invitation to the reception – but that the relatives of a recent victim of the IRA will be invited to the White House instead. If the _Times_ is right on this (the story seems to have some legs, but rightwing British papers are frequently unreliable sources on Northern Ireland politics), the Bush administration is sending about as clear and unambiguous a signal as one could possibly hope for. Interestingly, the signals from the North seem to suggest that Sinn Fein and the IRA recognize that they’re in real political trouble – not only because of the frost in their relations with the Irish, British and US governments, but also, more importantly, because of protests from natural constituency in the Catholic working class communities in Northern Ireland (where the murder in question has been highly controversial). For the first time in my memory, there’s a serious internal challenge to the IRA’s ability to control its own community, and to the frequently brutal actions of its hard men. Getting rid of them would be a considerable step forward for democratic politics in the North.
I’ve been sitting on this great post about reforms to US bankruptcy laws and how they fit into the general pattern of risk being shifted from business to workers and to ordinary people in general. But I waited too long and Paul Krugman’s already written it. So go and read his piece, and then, if you want, you can look at the things I was going to write that Krugman hasn’t said already.
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Trevor Phillips is urging that consideration be given to segregating black boys, and teaching them separately.
bq. Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said it may be necessary to examine the option of segregation because of the discrepancy between the academic achievements of black and white teenagers. Low levels of self-esteem, an absence of positive role models and a culture where it was “not cool to be clever” were combining to affect the performance of Britain’s black pupils, according to Mr Phillips. While he acknowledged some might perceive his conclusions as “unpalatable”, he insisted the steps were essential to protect future generations of black youths.
Former Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, England cricketer, ecumenicalist, and anti-apartheid campaigner David Sheppard has died. For my dad he was a cricketing hero. For me, as a teenage Anglican, he was a political hero. (via Normblog where there is more).
Mad Melanie Phillips has started using the subject-line “Weimar Broadcasting Corporation” for “her”:http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/001080.html “rants”:http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/001081.html against the BBC. I have to say, it sounds rather a good idea. How about “these guys”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar for a new board of governors:
bq. Weimar is one of the great cultural sites of Europe, since it was the home to such luminaries as Bach, Goethe, Schiller, and Herder. It has been a site of pilgrimage for the German intelligentsia since Goethe first moved to Weimar in the late 18th century. The tombs of Goethe, Schiller, and Nietzsche may be found in the city, as may the archives of Goethe and Schiller.
And we’d still be able to turn over to Channel 4 for “Wifeswap”:https://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/003305.html …..
Regular CT readers will know that “I’m a big fan”:https://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/003012.html of Edgar Reitz’s “Heimat”:http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0087400/ and that I was thrilled when it was released on DVD in the UK. The “Heimat news page”:http://heimat123.net/news.html now announces that “Heimat 2”:http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0105906/ (the sequel) will be out in May in the UK (and slightly earlier in parts of Europe). Fantastic!
In O’Hare airport, the Starbucks sells Lemon Poopy Seed muffins. At least they’re honest about it. Makes you wonder what’s in the coffee.
As mentioned here, there has been a general increase in repression in Iran in recent years, and several bloggers have been arrested and imprisoned Similar repression is taking place in Bahrain. You can keep up with developments and suggested actions with The Committee to Protect Bloggers.
This is worth thinking about in relation to the current euphoria about positive developments in Lebanon and Israel/Palestine (and some positive gestures in Egypt and Saudi Arabia), and attempts to tie all this to US policy in Iraq.
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I haven’t had a chance yet to read Nicola Lacey’s “biography”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0199274975/qid=1110056861/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-3107565-2133731 of H.L.A. Hart, but it’s not every day you see this kind of exchange in the “London Review of Books”:http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n04/letters.html#1. Unfortunately, Nagel’s initial “review”:http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n03/nage01_.html is only available to subscribers. (Brian Leiter had a link “posted”:http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2004/11/gardner_reviews.html to some comments from John Gardner on Lacey’s biography, but it doesn’t seem to be working now. Maybe Gardner has published his comments?)
What would you have “paid”:http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/March-April-2005/scene_bitkower_marapr05.msp to take a class with Nozick? The end of the article linked is, as it says, priceless.