text:
Filling what was, in retrospect, an obvious gap, I've started a tumblelog called "Occupations in which people are somewhat more likely than average to wear bow ties."
All posts in category Thunderlads at Large
Occupations in which people are somewhat more likely than average to wear bowties
Posted by acilius on July 6, 2015
Meaning of Life?
The other day, I noticed a tweet in which Cliff Pickover linked to a 2010 article by Sean Carroll called "Free Energy and the Meaning of Life."
The article, which I had not seen before, included this paragraph:
Because the Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that entropy increases, the history of the universe is the story of dissipation of free energy. Energy wants to be converted from useful forms to useless forms. But it might not happen automatically; sometimes a configuration with excess free energy can last a long time before something comes along to nudge it into a higher-entropy form. Gasoline and oxygen are a combustible mixture, but you still need a spark to set the fire.
and this one:
Here is the bold hypothesis: life is Nature's way of opening up a chemical channel to release all of that free energy bottled up in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of the young Earth. My own understanding gets a little fuzzy at this point, but the basic idea seems intelligible. While there is no simple reaction that takes CO2 directly to hydrocarbons, there are complicated series of reactions that do so. Some sort of membrane (e.g. a cell wall) helps to segregate out the relevant chemicals; various inorganic compounds act as enzymes to speed the reactions along. The reason for the complexity of life, which is low entropy considered all by itself, is that it helps the bigger picture increase in entropy.
I tweeted the link, adding these comments:
You may recognize the reference to Stewart Brand's famous remark, "On the one hand, information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting each other."
Of course, it was just Professor Carroll's use of the collocation "Energy wants" that reminded me of Mr Brand's quote and led me to parody it. Energy doesn't at all want to be useful, and biochemical processes don't at all fight entropy. Life, like all physical processes, continually increases entropy.
Anyway, I do want to put in a partial defense of something which Professor Carroll explicitly rejects. Here's his opening paragraph:
When we think about the "meaning of life," we tend to conjure ideas such as love, or self-actualization, or justice, or human progress. It's an anthropocentric view; try to convince blue-green algae that self-actualization is some sort of virtue. Let's ask instead why "life," as a biological concept, actually exists. That is to say: we know that entropy increases as the universe evolves. But why, on the road from the simple and low-entropy early universe to the simple and high-entropy late universe, do we pass through our present era of marvelous complexity and organization, culminating in the intricate chemical reactions we know as life?
That "Let's ask instead" makes it clear that the phrase "the meaning of life" appears in this article rather jocularly. Professor Carroll and his friends are reinterpreting the question "What is the meaning of life?" to mean, not "What meaning has the transcendent order of the universe inscribed on life?," but "What is there about life that might make it interesting to a physicist whose primary concern is with cosmology on a large scale?" That is, in itself, a fine question, and in an age when the idea of the physical universe as a place nested in a larger order that inscribes it and its parts with true and eternal meanings is not in all quarters regarded as a self-evident truth, it might seem like a natural way of repurposing a chunk of language that might otherwise have fallen into disuse.
Still, I do think that a question like "What is the meaning of life?" can still be asked coherently in something like its old sense. Moral Foundations Theory, pioneered by people like Jonathan Haidt, shows that social scientists are capable of describing the concerns that lead people to decide that some things are sacred in a way that puts them above judgment, some are distasteful in a way that puts them beneath notice, and some are subject to evaluation. For an example of something that is above judgment, imagine a pious monotheist hearing that some or other story about God makes God look bad. To such a person, making that observation shows only that the observer is looking at the story from the wrong angle and missing its point. For an example of something distasteful in a way that puts it beneath judgment (what Edith Wyschogrod, following Heidegger, called "bare life,") imagine a discussion among philosophers about the ethical implications of particular methods of trimming one's toenails. The average person would burst out laughing if s/he overheard such a thing.
The tripartite moral reasoning that isolates the realm of judgment from, on the one hand, a super-moral realm of the sacred, and on the other from an infra-moral realm of bare life hinges on the concept of meaning. The infra-moral is not only distasteful, but meaningless. The other two realms each have their own particular forms of meaning. The meanings of actions that are subject to judgment are intelligible to reason and open to rational challenge. The meaning which sets the sacred realm apart is one which is ultimately mysterious, that is to say, beyond the capacity of language to express or of the rational mind to comprehend. The moral reasoning that carries us through the realm of judgment does involve continual attempts to identify the boundaries of that realm. So we again and again look for fragments of the sacred in our rational surroundings, and for fugitive significances in the realm of bare life. The three realms thus interpenetrate each other.
Indeed, the examples of "anthropocentric" answers that Professor Carroll gives to the question would suggest a world that has already drifted far from the views of the Stoic and theistic thinkers who used to ponder questions of transcendent meaning. If by "love" we mean, not the set of social connections and moral obligations that word would have brought to the minds of people in the days when Stoicism and theism were the default world-views, but an emotional state characterized by extreme attachment between individuals and those individuals' fervent desire to enjoy life together, then it's difficult to see what "meaning" has to do with it. "Meaning" is a word we borrow from descriptions of communicative behavior, and the part of that emotional state which we tend to call "love" in our day and age is precisely the part that has the least to do with the pair's efforts to send or receive or preserve messages outside itself. That intensely private, intensely intimate relation is a brute fact, not inscribed with any particular meaning intelligible to anyone outside the pair. Even the members of the pair, as their feelings evolve, cannot entirely comprehend the particular emotional state they inhabited in earlier phases.
That's as much a state of matter as or "self-actualization" in its in this article after starting with a brisk dismissal of "anthropocentric" ideas that invoke it. I made an almost-serious suggestion here a little while ago about something that we might want to think about when we think about life as something capable of carrying meaning. Like Professor Carroll, I do think that if we are to find anything useful about such an expression it ought to apply to more than human life. On the other hand, it ought to be about humans. The proper question to ask is, what is it about life that makes it possible for humans to find meaning, not just in their own individual lives or in each other's lives, but in the fact that they are living beings like other living beings.
Posted by acilius on June 22, 2015
An impossible balance?
Yesterday, I posted this on tumblr:
I don't exactly agree with what I said there, that we must not remember the twerp or his cause. It's really more that we have to strike a balance, and that balance is nearly impossible to achieve.
On the one hand, terrorists kill because they want to become famous and to gain publicity for their cause. Therefore we should ignore them. On the other hand, terrorists kill because they want to blind us to the humanity of their victims and to isolate the group of people to which the victims were targeted for belonging. Therefore we ought to raise our voices and cry out about the violence, to remember what was done, why it was done, and face the facts which make it likely to be repeated.
So, we have to simultaneously ignore El Twerpo and examine him deeply, simultaneously dismiss his loathsome beliefs and search for their roots in our social order and their echoes in our own minds, simultaneously equate him with all that is weak and contemptible and recognize the bleak power that broods behind him. How can we strike this balance? The hell if I know. But I am sure it must be done.
Posted by acilius on June 20, 2015
The clean and the unclean
A few days ago, I left a long comment on Chris Dillow's blog "Stumbling and Mumbling." Mr Dillow had posted about a controversy that began when someone participating in a march protesting the results of Britain's recent general elections (results which I predicted with less than total accuracy) added these words to a war memorial:
The controversy took on a life of its own after journalist Laurie Penny tweeted about it:
The furore that greeted Ms Penny's remark reminded Mr Dillow of a book that I happened to have read just the other day: The Righteous Mind, by Jonathan Haidt. I'd heard about this book more or less continually, from various people, since its original publication three years ago, and had been meaning to get round to reading it ever since. Professor Haidt, a social psychologist, argues that moral reasoning is best understood not as any one thing, but as a network of six interlocking systems. These systems are the ways we have learned to differentiate between Care and Harm, Fairness and Cheating, Sanctity and Degradation, Loyalty and Betrayal. Authority and Subversion, and Liberty and Oppression. According to Professor Haidt and his fellow advocates of "Moral Foundations Theory," analyzing the opinions people express about what is right and wrong in terms of these six systems and of the relationships among them enables researchers to give more accurate accounts of the concerns of people who differ from them in class and culture than do other models, especially models drawn from reductionist philosophical projects such as utilitarianism.
Excerpts from Mr Dillow's post:
The left and right don't understand each other's conceptions of morality, and don't even try to do so. This is the message I take from last night's row about Laurie Penny's reaction to the vandalism of a war memorial….
"Destruction" isn't entirely hyperbole. The Tories' proposed £12bn cut in welfare spending is equivalent to £45 per week per working age benefit recipient. That would impose horrible hardship upon many.
Instead, Laurie's mistake consists in doing exactly what Jonathan Haidt in The Righteous Mind accused the left of: she's seeing morality as comprising just one idea whereas the right sees others.
Haidt and his colleagues claim that there are (at least) five foundations of morality: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion and sanctity/degradation. The left, he says, stresses the first two of these but underweights the last three.
And this is just what Laurie was doing. She was emphasizing the care principle, whilst being blind to the sanctity principle – to the idea that we believe that some things, such as vandalizing war memorials, are wrong because they break taboos even if they don't do material harm to anyone…
Which brings me to the problem. Far too many – on left and right – are so wrapped up in their own narcissism and so quick to condemn others that they fail to understand (or even try to) where others are coming from: the virtue of Haidt's framework is that it facilitates such understanding.
What's being lost in all this is Mill's classical liberal idea – that there is a strong case for cognitive diversity. For me, Laurie's voice is a welcome contributor to this diversity. If the herdthink that rushes to condemn leads to her being more inhibited, something valuable will be lost.
My comment was largely directed at earlier commenters who were too fired up about the issue to address the material about Professor Haidt's theories that Mr Dillow had raised, and so consisted largely of an elaboration on some points Mr Dillow had already made:
Just the other day I finally got round to reading The Righteous Mind, and here you bring it up.
I think Professor Haidt gives us a very clear vocabulary for explaining, among other things, why religious freedom is so hard to maintain. Different religious groups have different conceptions of sanctity. What one person sees as deeply holy another person might see as purely functional, so that Laurie Penny's comparison of the welfare state to a war memorial might be unintelligible to someone who regards the welfare state simply as a set of policies and institutions to be evaluated by their effectiveness at helping poor people get on, rather than as a transcendent force that sanctifies society. Likewise, the depth of horror that many people feel when a war memorial is vandalized is unintelligible to those who regard that memorial in purely functional terms; clean it up, and it sends the same message it sent before. The uncleanness that bothers those who are most horrified is a ritual impurity, not the marks that bleach or acetone can remove.
What really makes it difficult for people with different senses of the sacred to share a homeland is that something which one group regards as the most sanctified of all things might strike another group as the vilest of all pollutions, and vice versa. Go to an old church and look at the niches from which the Puritans tore the visual artwork during their days of iconoclasm, and think of all the other religious conflicts in history.
War memorials are very much part of this kind of thing. They appeal to Professor Haidt's Loyalty and Hierarchy axes, but to Sanctity as well. So, if you regard a particular war as an abomination, a particular cause as hideously unjust, then a memorial commemorating those who died to advance that cause may strike you not only as a symbol of disloyalty and subversion, but also as a pollution of the space it occupies. Imagine if a memorial to the Kouachi brothers were erected outside the front window of the offices of Charlie Hebdo. Would it be enough to drape that memorial with a cloth so that no one could see its message? Would it be enough to remove it quietly and replace it with a flagpole flying the Tricoleur? Or would you feel an urge to destroy the memorial as noisily and dramatically as possible and to put some object on the site to which the Kouachis would have objected (perhaps an obscene image of Muhammad)? Indulging that urge would hardly be necessary to display one's loyalty to France, and would likely involve violation of the hierarchy of the French state. It would make sense only as an attempt to exorcise the ritual impurity that association with the Kouachis would bring upon the site.
Now, the protestors who scrawled "Fuck Tory scum" under the words "Women of World War Two" were probably not objecting to the women of World War Two, not even to those among them who took Tories with poor hygiene as lovers. Still, to the extent that the war memorial is a symbol of the state and the Cameron government has come to be identified with the state, presumably they would have seen the memorial as an unclean thing and their graffiti would be an attempt to purge its uncleanness.
In fairness to Ms Penny, I should probably mention that she does seem to be more aware of these issues than either Mr Dillow or I have implied in the remarks above. So the first tweets she posted after the one that caused all the trouble describe her grandmother's contribution to the United Kingdom's efforts in the Second World War and the role that the postwar development of the welfare state played in improving her lot. Ms Penny tells us that her story and those of women like her consecrate the welfare state as a monument to the memory of the "Women of World War Two," and that the Cameron government's policies are a desecration of this monument:
So Ms Penny explicitly acknowledges the importance of the Sanctity/ Degradation axis as part of moral reasoning. For her, that axis may be subordinate in its importance to the Care/ Harm axis and the Fairness/ Cheating axis. But those who responded to her tweet in ways like this:
don't seem to be treating the Sanctity/ Degradation system as an independent thing either- calling Ms Penny a "cunt," libeling her late grandmother, etc, are not obvious ways of increasing the overall holiness of Twitter. For these tweeps, Sanctity seems to be a function of Loyalty and Authority, Degradation a function of Betrayal and Subversion. Perhaps healthful dialogue between people who disagree on moral questions requires, not only that we all acknowledge the full spectrum of moral concerns, but that we respect each of the six systems on its own terms, not trying to reduce the concerns of one to the terms of another.
Posted by acilius on May 15, 2015
Alison Bechdel is pretty great
Cartoonist, memoirist, and Broadway legend Alison Bechdel has found herself involved in the controversy over PEN's decision to give an award to Charlie Hebdo. She explains her mixed feelings about this situation, and why she took the action she took, in this blog post.
I added a comment to that post, in which I expressed my admiration for Ms Bechdel (she really is quite admirable!) and briefly rehearsed some of the points I made in posts here and here.
Posted by acilius on May 11, 2015
Why I am not a utilitarian
Yesterday I visited Oxford's "Practical Ethics" blog and read a post titled "Why I Am Not a Utilitarian," by Julian Savulescu. Professor Savulescu says that he is not a utilitarian because utilitarianism advises us to act in a way that he would find impossible:
As we argue, Utilitarianism is a comprehensive moral doctrine with wide ranging impact. In fact it is very demanding. Few people if any have ever been anything like a perfect utilitarian. It would require donating one of your kidneys to a perfect stranger. It would require sacrificing your life, family and sleep to the level that enabled you to maximise the well-being of others. Because you could improve the lives of so many, so much, utilitarianism requires enormous sacrifices. People have donated large parts of their wealth and even a kidney, but this still does not approach the sacrifice required by Utilitarianism.
For these reasons, one criticism of utilitarianism is that it is too demanding.
Bernard Williams, a famous critic of Utilitarianism, once infuriated Dick Hare, a modern father of Utilitarianism, in a TV interview by asking him,
"If a plane had crashed and you could only rescue your own child or two other people's children, which would you rescue?"
Utilitarians should rescue the two strangers rather than their own child.
People think I am a utilitarian but I am not. I, like nearly everyone else, find Utilitarianism to be too demanding.
I try to live my life according to "easy rescue consequentialism" – you should perform those acts which are at small cost to you and which benefit others greatly. Peter Singer, the greatest modern utilitarian, in fact appeals to this principle to capture people's emotions – his most famous example is that of a small child drowning in a pond. You could save the child's life by just getting your shoes wet. He argues morality requires that you rescue the child. But this is merely an easy rescue. Utilitarianism requires that you sacrifice your life to provide organs to save 7 or 8 lives.
Easy rescue consequentialism is, by contrast, a relaxed but useful moral doctrine.
I would go further than Professor Savulescu, and argue that it is not only unreasonably difficult to act as utilitarianism would advise in these extreme situations, but that the emotional attachments and personal drives that utilitarianism urges us to discard are the very things that make it possible for us to behave morally in the first place. Professor Savulescu quotes research showing that the people who would in fact be willing to behave in ways that utilitarians urge upon us in their thought experiments are extreme egoists and psychopaths. While such people might be willing to let their own children die in order to save the lives of a larger number of strangers, I would not envy those strangers were they subsequently to find themselves in any way dependent on their rescuers.
Other commenters on Professor Savulescu's post had made this point by the time I got to it, so I did not say anything about it in my own comment. Instead, I picked up on a remark that an earlier commenter had made about the various thought experiments in which utilitarians deal. One of the more famous of these thought experiments is the "Trolley Problem," in which one is asked to consider two hypothetical alternatives in response to a runaway trolley. Left unchecked, the trolley will run over several people and kill many of them. The only way one has to check it is to push a fat man in front of the trolley, killing him but saving the others.
This and similar thought experiments raise the question of knowledge- how does one know that one will be able to push the fat man over, how does one know that his body will suffice to stop the trolley, how does one know that the others will be slower to get themselves out of the way of the trolley than one will be to push the fat man over, etc etc. In posing the hypothetical, a philosopher can always dismiss these questions by saying that, ex hypothesi, the premises are all true. But the closer you get to real life, the more pressing and more numerous the knowledge problems become.
When philosopher Jeremy Bentham developed utilitarianism 200 years ago, he built it around a notion often called "the hedonistic calculus." This calculus subtracts pain from pleasure, yielding a quantity of net pleasure. The right action is that which provides the greatest amount of net pleasure for the greatest number of people. Faced with the question of how any person could possibly know what action would provide this, considering that to do so one would have to know every consequence one's action is likely to have on every person for all of future time, what precisely the feelings of each of those people would be about each of those consequences, and how intense each of these feelings would be, Bentham resorted to a utopian solution. He coined the word "Panopticon," naming a social system in which every person was under total surveillance at all times. In such a system, the authorities might be able to form an educated guess as to what the consequences of their policies would be for their subjects.
The idea of the Panopticon in turn raises several questions. How would such surveillance originate? If it were instituted by people who were not themselves under surveillance, and who did yet not have access to the information surveillance would produce, how could they know that the surveillance they were crafting would itself serve to produce the greatest net pleasure among the greatest number of people? Moreover, since the subjects of the Panopticon would know that they were under surveillance, the institution of surveillance itself would change their psychology quite dramatically, making it impossible for people living before the creation of the Panopticon to have an empirical basis for their expectations as to how such people would react to life within it. Would those conducting the surveillance themselves be subject to surveillance, and if so, who would maintain surveillance on those conducting surveillance of those conducting surveillance? Would there be other societies outside the realm of the Panopticon, and if so how would one know what policies would bring the greatest net pleasure to the members of those other, unsurveilled societies? What about future generations, whom it is impossible to keep under surveillance as they do not yet exist? How could the rulers of the Panopticon assess the feelings the consequences of their policies would produce in people of future times when they cannot monitor such people? And, considering that the hedonistic calculus is essentially about subjective feelings of pleasure and pain, how do we respond to suggestions that our understanding of each other's subjective feelings is always incomplete? Finally, how does the existence of the Panopticon condition individual behavior? Does every individual of every station have access to the complete records of the Panopticon? Are all to use this information in making every decision in their lives?
Even in a society constructed as a Panopticon, then, it is far from clear how one could know enough to live as the utilitarians say we should. Indeed, many forms of knowledge that are required, for example knowledge about future events or about other people's subjective responses, may not be obtainable even in principle. A commenter named Sean OhEigeartaigh pointed out that utilitarian thought experiments require unrealistic assumptions about the amount of knowledge a moral agent might have. This was the point I was picking up on in the comment below:
I think Sean O hEigeartaigh makes the vital point, which is that these scenarios require more information than a person could reasonably be expected to have. Indeed, I would go further, and say that the whole concept of the hedonistic calculus requires that an agent have more information than a human being could possibly have. As such, utilitarianism is not an ethical theory at all, inasmuch as it cannot develop a set of criteria for judging human behavior. Its only possible use would be as a theodicy, a means of justifying the behavior of a supernatural being who is either omniscient or at a minimum radically better informed than humans can be.
Perhaps it is too much to say that utilitarianism is possible even as a theodicy. To make a theodicy go, one must grant, first, that a supernatural being exists, second, that that being is in some profound sense better than we are, and third, that the actions of that being require moral justification. None of these premises would appear to be particularly secure. Moreover, an attempt to use utilitarianism to justify the acts of whatever supernatural being we have posited would immediately run into a variety of other problems, some of them quite severe. Most obvious, perhaps, is the stubbornly ambiguous concept of "pleasure" at the stem of all theories of utility. I for one can think of no reason why a utilitarian theodicy would have an easier time meaning one thing at a time by this word than the attempted utiltarian philosophies of the last two centuries have had. Furthermore, the implications of conceding the existence of a supernatural being whose knowledge is radically superior to ours would seem to be rather wide-ranging and to call for a rethinking of the concept of rationality on which Bentham et al were trying to elaborate. So perhaps the time has come to discard utilitarianism altogether.
The bit about pleasure refers to another problem that Bentham tried to solve by accepting something horrid. Asked what he would say if it could be shown that playing push-pin had given more net pleasure than high art, he would unhesitatingly say that in that case push-pin was better than high art. Bentham's most famous follower, John Stuart Mill, tried to escape from this by distinguishing among various forms of pleasure, high and low.
What Mill ended up doing was raising a question that has widely been considered fatal to the claims of utilitarianism to be taken seriously: what exactly is "pleasure"? I think we know, when we say that listening to music gives us pleasure, and eating a fine meal gives us pleasure, and being reunited with a loved one gives us pleasure, and completing an important job of work gives us pleasure, that we are not saying that these experiences are interchangeable. Saying that we have received pleasure isn't at all like saying that we have received money. If we set out to describe with technical precision what it is that each of those experiences has given us, we will not be surprised to find that the answer is a set of distinct and complementary feelings, not differing quantities of any particular substance. Discard the idea that "pleasure" and "pain" are the names of substances, in the Aristotelian sense of the word "substance," and it is difficult to see what, if anything, is left of the hedonistic calculus.
Posted by acilius on December 2, 2014
Police unions
Late last night, I saw this on Twitter:
My response was:
I had a couple of things in mind here. First, the police are supposed to operate within communities where the rule of law is established, and to preserve that rule of law. Unionization makes them likelier to do this. In some places in the world there are still radical trades unions, but in most places most unions are pretty thoroughly interwoven into civil society. Pay your union dues, go to union local meetings, etc, and you'll be constantly reminded that you are part of the local community and that you have a stake in the well-being of your neighbors. Each time you receive one of those reminders you become that much more likely to act like a human being while you're on the job. Combat forces, by contrast, have as their mission "to engage the enemy and to destroy him," as the US Army Infantry Field Manual used to put it. If we forbid unions in the military, that is largely because we want our warriors to remain aloof from the people we are sending them to kill.
That's a sort of generalized communitarian point. Second is a more left-wing kind of point. Collective bargaining between representatives of the average cop on the beat and the representatives of the city governments shows that average cop that s/he makes a living by working for wages and as such has more in common with other wage-earners or would-be wage earners than with the people who call the shots in politics, which is to say the people who live primarily on the proceeds of capital. That isn't to say that unionized police will want to abolish capitalism; careers in police work tend to be more attractive to very conservative people, and for that matter I'm inclined to support capitalism myself. But I do believe that the only legitimate power is limited power. And a police force staffed by officers who know that their economic interests are further from those of the average politician or politician's paymaster than they are from those of the average suspect is a definite limitation on the power of economic elites who are always eager to use the law as a weapon to intimidate those who get in their way.
Here's a clip from the 1976 documentary Harlan County USA, in which a unionized coal miner, in New York City to protest outside the headquarters of the company against which he's been on strike for nine months, talks with a unionized NYPD patrolman. The seventies are ancient history in a lot of ways, of course, but this is still a good illustration of the general points I'm making here:
Posted by acilius on December 1, 2014
Three cheers for Liza Cowan
This morning I looked at Twitter and saw this from Liza Cowan:
I mention such a wide variety of people on this site that I laughed out loud when I saw this. Perhaps Catharine MacKinnon, Pope Benedict, Susie Bright, the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, and Leonard Nimoy (to mention five names that have occurred here more than once) are all together in some darkened room plotting iniquity at this moment, but I find it hard to imagine. So I wrote in reply:
Liza explained:
Apparently Liza's nemeses had Googled her name and Pam Isherwood's together and found our old page of "Artists and Art Blogs." They are both mentioned there, because of course they are- they're both very distinguished artists, and you're in for a treat if you go to their sites. But the inquisitors took the presence of their names on the same list as evidence that Pam is Liza's "follower." Looking over the list, Liza seems to have a pretty impressive set of followers, including Harvey Kurtzman, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Queen of England.
This controversy stems from Liza's view of transgenderism. As I understand it, her view is related to that of the late Shulamith Firestone, who held that the relation between men and women is very much like the relation that Marxism describes between bourgeois and proletariat in the later stages of capitalism. Women form a worldwide class of the oppressed, men a worldwide class of oppressors. Femininity, on this view, is a scar left by abuse, masculinity a weapon wielded by the privileged. Liza's opposition holds that gender is a more playful thing, that it is a set of roles we play, some by choice, some under duress, and that by playing the game our own way we can subvert the oppression that certainly does characterize gender relations by and large.
I am not qualified to have an opinion about this issue. Maybe Liza is right, maybe the Politically Correct Thought Police who are calling her names are right, maybe the truth is something else altogether. What I do know is that Liza is an exciting artist, a rigorous thinker, and a good friend. So if someone is out to ban or silence or smear people associated with Liza Cowan, I hereby volunteer to be banned, silenced, and smeared. As I put it this afternoon:
Posted by acilius on September 10, 2014
Down the political rabbit hole
Recently in a comment on Alison Bechdel's blog, I replied to commenter NLC, who added to a political discussion the observation that not everyone who supports the USA's Republican Party is equally objectionable. I agreed, and added:
@NLC: "There are Republicans and there are Republicans."
That's very true. I know some Republicans who, however hard I may find it to understand why they vote the way they do, are demonstrably quite all right in all the ways that really matter. I even know some Republicans who do yoga.
Fox News seems to be the separator, young people who are decent watch Fox News and leave the Republican Party, old people who are decent watch Fox News and turn into something like addicts- seriously, that channel is like crack cocaine for them. I suppose that means that in the long run Fox News will kill the Republican Party, but in the meantime it will kill a lot of worthwhile things.
In remarking on Fox News (a.k.a. the Faux News Channel,) I was thinking of some recent posts on a site that is for the most part at an opposite pole politically from Alison Bechdel's, Rod Dreher's blog at The American Conservative. Mr Dreher is still quite conservative, but no longer identifies as a Republican. One reason for this seems to be the effect that he has seen right-wing media have on its elderly fans. In a post titled "Fox Geezer Syndrome," Mr Dreher quotes at length from several of his commenters who have told stories of aging their aging parents who have made themselves difficult to be around, not because of the opinions which Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and the rest of them have encouraged them to hold, but because of the belligerence, the obsessiveness, and the overall childishness with which they have begun expressing those opinions since immersing themselves in a constant stream of such material. Adding to those comments, Mr Dreher writes:
I recognize the Fox Geezer Syndrome these readers identify. This is what happens when conservatism becomes an ideology instead of an approach to life. It indicates an extremely unconservative temperament, frankly. I'm not deploying the No True Scotsman fallacy; these Fox Geezers may well be conservative in their politics, right down the line. What they're doing, though, is allowing politics to consume their minds and their entire lives, such that they are making impossible the kinds of things that true conservatives ought to be dedicated to conserving: that is, the permanent things, like family. I have been around Fox Geezers before, and I see absolutely no difference between them and the kind of self-righteous loudmouths on the left that make reasonable discussion impossible, because all problems are reduced to a conflict between Good and Evil, and decided in advance.
The tragedy — and I think it is exactly that — is that the elderly often have great wisdom to share with the younger generations, to say nothing of the fact that it is they who have the long view, and who ought to understand how important it is to nurture bonds among family members, especially across the generations. Yet in these cases, it is they who behave like teenagers and twentysomethings, full of piss and vinegar and a toxic certainty, plus a radioactive impulse to crusade. What they lack is the principal conservative virtue: Prudence. I have some strong views too, as you know, but I strive never to let them come between myself and the people I am given to love. If I want them to tolerate me for the greater good, then I must extend the same grace to them.
Conservative that he is, Mr Dreher goes on to identify the same dynamic at work among the elderly liberals and lefties who predominate in the comments section of The New York Times. I've certainly seen it at work among acquaintances who regard any criticism of the Obama administration as support for Mr O's Republican opponents. Such an attitude seems to be as natural a product of habitually watching the rah-rah, Go Blue Team cheerleaders on MSNBC as Fox Geezer Syndrome is of habitually watching the rah-rah, Go Red Team cheerleaders on Fox.
Posted by acilius on September 9, 2014
How to succeed in politics
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Posted by acilius on September 8, 2014


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Bill Rancic Defends His Wife Giuliana After Fashion Police Controversy: 'I Tried to Get Them to Release the Footage' 41 years, 2,191 covers and 55,436 stories from PEOPLE magazine's history for you to enjoy
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- May 26, 2003
- Vol. 59
- No. 20
Driving with Boys
LPGA Star Annika Sorenstam Tests Her Fearsome Game Against the Guys
But first she's whipping up something special at her day job. On May 22 the LPGA's top player will tee off at the Bank of America Colonial tournament in Fort Worth, making her the first female golfer to play in a men's tour event since the great Babe Didrik-son Zaharias did it in 1945. Nearly unstoppable against her own sex—she won 13 of the 25 tournaments she entered last year—she scored the invitation "not to try and beat the guys; Annika is doing this to beat Annika," says Hall of Fame golfer Nancy Lopez, 45. "This is a big test for her."
Growing up outside Stockholm, she wanted to be Bjorn Borg, but at 12 she dropped tennis for golf and learned the game from her parents, Tom, 61, and Gunilla, 59 (her sister Charlotta, 30, is also an LPGA pro). Bland and icy in her first years on tour, she married golf-club salesman David Esch, now 33, in 1997 and lately has been "more playful, more outgoing," says Swedish journalist Gunnar Nordstrom. "She's finally enjoying life." Sorenstam credits Esch, now devoted full-time to handling his wife's affairs, with "being there whenever I need him and doing everything to help me play better," she says. "That's invaluable."
So was her recent practice round with Tiger Woods, though few give the 5'6" Sorenstam much of a chance to shine against the big-hitting PGA brutes. Sorenstam herself downplays expectations. Her goal, she insists, is "to have a good time." But those who know her say there could be a little surprise on the menu. "When the pressure is on, she has nerves of steel," says Nordstrom. "Deep down she's thinking, 'I'm going to show them.' "
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Judicial Nominations
Federal Judges, Gay Marriage, Janet Neff, Judicial Nominations, Lesbians, Politics, Senate Judiciary Committee, State Judges
The Senator, The Judge, Her Friend & Her Lover
We're obsessed with federal judges. And we're fascinated by lesbians (in a strange, quasi-sociological way). So of course we must weigh in on the whole Senator Sam Brownback/Judge Janet Neff controversy. The uber-conservative Senator Brownback (R-KS), a likely standard-bearer for social conservatives in 2008, had been blocking Judge Neff's nomination to the federal bench — […]
3rd Circuit, Federal Judges, Judicial Nominations, Kent Jordan, Noel Hillman, Politics, Senate Judiciary Committee
A few quick updates on our former stomping grounds, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit: 1. There's been some speculation about who might be nominated for the Third Circuit seat previously held by Justice Alito. What we're now hearing is that it's probably going to Judge Noel Hillman, a former high-ranking Justice […]
Recent Survey Reveals Attorneys Biggest Obstacle in Locating Responsive Information
Quickly locating responsive information is the single best way to reduce legal/e-discovery costs. A recent survey of nearly 150 in-house legal/IT professionals identified "locating responsive information" as the No. 1 e-discovery challenge.
Ben Wittes, Books, Federal Judges, Judicial Nominations, Shameless Plugs, Washington Post
Hey, guess what? In our best impression of Howard Bashman, we're going to tell you all about a recent lunch of ours. On Tuesday, we had an absolutely delightful lunch with Benjamin Wittes. He's an editorial writer for the Washington Post, specializing in legal affairs, and the author of a new book about the judicial […]
Judicial Nominations, Politics, Senate Judiciary Committee
About That Cancelled SJC Hearing, and New Leadership at CFJ
Via Howard Bashman, we learned of the cancellation of tomorrow's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. This piqued our curiosity: What was the hearing for, and why was it canceled? So we did a little poking around. We learned that the SJC was planning to hold confirmation hearings for an "unspecified handful of district court nominees." But […]
4th Circuit, Federal Judges, Hotties, Judicial Nominations, Vicious Infighting, William Wilkins
Chief Judge Wilkins Makes Way for "Miss Karen"
Last week was a busy one in legal news, so we apologize for our tardiness in bringing you this news. As first reported at the South Carolina Appellate Law Blog, and later picked up by The State, Chief Judge William Wilkins is retiring as chief judge of the Fourth Circuit. William "Billy" Wilkins of Greenville […]
5th Circuit, 7th Circuit, Biglaw, Bonuses, Books, Frank Easterbrook, Hotties, Judicial Nominations, Lee Rosenthal, Money, Morris Arnold, Politics, Richard Posner, SCOTUS, Senate Judiciary Committee, Sex, State Judges, State Judges Are Clowns, Supreme Court, Weddings, Week in Review
ATL Week in Review: November 27 – December 1
* It's all about the benjamins, baby. Bonus season is upon us. And we're standing by to broadcast every move. So please email us with any news, rumors, and leaked memos about bonuses. * Truthful tips are especially welcome. Look for the first wave of bonus announcements in the coming week. * And check out […]
Arlen Specter, Federalist Society, Habeas Corpus, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Jeffrey Toobin, Judicial Nominations, New Yorker, Senate Judiciary Committee, War on Terror, William Haynes
Senator Arlen Specter: One Heck of a Squash Player
Here's another excellent article from Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker. It's about the role played by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), outgoing chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, with respect to the recent habeas corpus legislation (aka the Military Commissions Act of 2006). If you're confused about the controversy over this legislation, which has wound […]
5th Circuit, Federal Judges, Judicial Nominations, Lee Rosenthal, Senate Judiciary Committee
More Fifth Circuit Scuttlebutt: Lee H. Rosenthal
Before the Thanksgiving break, we wrote a fair amount about some possible nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. We'll now pick up where we left off, and continue with more detailed profiles of some of the potential nominees we mentioned. But first, a request. A number of ATL readers have […]
Breasts, Hillary Clinton, Judicial Nominations, Michael Chertoff, Pictures, Politics
C'mon, Hil, Let Bygones Be Bygones
Back in this comment, Sean Fitzpatrick pointed out a fun fact: One of those "not so sexy" district court nominations [to be submitted to the lame duck Congress] is of former U.S. Representative Jim Rogan (R-CA), who served as lead prosecutor in Bill Clinton's impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. This escaped our notice, but […]
Lean Legal: Three Techniques for the Agile Lawyer
A growing number of attorneys are turning to a set of project management and process improvement techniques commonly known as "Agile."
Antonin Scalia, Conspiracy Theories, Fabulosity, Fashion, Federalist Society, John Roberts, Judicial Nominations, Samuel Alito, Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court
From the Belly of the Beast: An Evening With Scalito (Part 2)
This is a continuation of our prior post about the annual dinner of the Federalist Society. You can read the rest of it after the jump.
Arlen Specter, Federal Judges, Federalist Society, Judicial Nominations, Politics, Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court
From the Belly of the Beast: Senator Arlen Specter
Last week we briefly discussed the appearance at the Federalist Society convention of Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), outgoing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We also described our exchange with him during the question-and-answer session. We now provide you with a somewhat more detailed account of Senator Specter's remarks. We found them surprisingly funny; but […]
5th Circuit, Bad Ideas, Bar Exams, Email Scandals, Emily Pataki, Fast Food, Federalist Society, Food, Judicial Nominations, Politics, R. Ted Cruz, Senate Judiciary Committee, Sex, Week in Review
ATL Week in Review: November 13-17
* Emily Pataki, the attractive and accomplished daughter of New York governor George Pataki, failed the New York bar exam — and sent around an office-wide email about it. The story was broken by the mainstream media. * We heard from some of Emily's law school classmates about the incident. In a reader poll, you […]
5th Circuit, Federal Judges, J. Michael Luttig, Judicial Nominations, Politics, R. Ted Cruz, William Rehnquist
More Fifth Circuit Scuttlebutt: R. Ted Cruz
In our detailed review of possible nominees for the two open Fifth Circuit seats in Texas, we mentioned Texas's Solicitor General, R. Ted Cruz, as a possible nominee. After we dropped his name, a number of you wrote in to share your thoughts about him (as frequently happens after we mention someone in these pages). […]
Arlen Specter, Federal Judges, Federalist Society, Judicial Nominations, SCOTUS, SCOTUS Potential, Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court
At the Federalist Society Conference: Senator Specter
Today's sessions at the Federalist Society annual conference kicked off with a speech by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), the current (but outgoing) chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. His remarks, which focused on the judicial nominations process, were engaging and informative. The crowd enjoyed his dry wit. We may have more to say about Senator […]
Anthony Kennedy, Evan Caminker, Football, John Paul Stevens, Judicial Nominations, Law School Deans, Morning Docket, Politics, Senate Judiciary Committee, War on Terror
* It's finally here: Ohio State vs. Michigan. And the respective law school deans are getting in on the wagering. Dean Nancy Hardin Rogers of Ohio State and Dean Evan Caminker of Michigan cleverly weave law with the age-old rivalry. Dean Rogers asks: "A burning question among the national media is whether the outcome in […]
Crime, Football, HP, Judicial Nominations, Morning Docket, O.J. Simpson, Patricia Dunn, Politics, Senate Judiciary Committee, Videos, Violence
* O.J.'s "confession"? The trial of the century takes a twisted PR turn, years later. [CNN] * President Bush intends to renominate, to the lame duck Senate, some of the judicial nominees who were not previously confirmed, before the Democrats swept the midterm elections. Interesting strategy. [
Federal Judges, Judicial Nominations, Michael Wallace, Peter Keisler, Senate Judiciary Committee, Terrence Boyle, William Haynes, William Myers
President Bush Sticks Thumb in Eye of Chuck Schumer
Not literally — but he might as well have. From the Washington Post: President Bush renominated six previously blocked candidates for federal appeals court yesterday, triggering the first real battle with ascendant Democrats since the midterm elections and signaling what could be the start of a fierce two-year struggle over the shape of the federal […]
4th Circuit, Biglaw, CIA, Deaths, Judicial Nominations, Musical Chairs, William Haynes
New Partners: * Proskauer Rose: Fourteen new partners, three new senior counsel. Names here. * Baker Botts: Eighteen (!) new partners. Names here. * Wilson Sonsini: Thriteen new partners. Names here. (Only two members of the class of 1998. How long is the WSGR partner track as a practical matter?) At Risk: * Some are […]


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The beloved bloody mary: Done best at the Dock at Crayton Cove
Sunday Brunch with Bloody Mary Bar
When: 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays
Where: The Dock at Crayton Cove, 845 12th Ave. S., Naples
Cost: $8.50-$12, per drink depending on vodka selection; brunch menu also available
Information: www.dockcraytoncove.com or 239-263-9940
As I sliced into my third plum tomato and pushed aside my fennel bulb, I noticed the recipe asked me to simmer my vegetables for 50 minutes. Never mind that the carrots and beets still needed to be sliced for this bloody mary mix, but I insisted on bringing the best 'bloody' to the party.
This was my first go at Bon Appétit's 'Best Bloody Mary' recipe, and somehow I thought the veggies and spices would combine themselves into an award-winning mixer, that perfect balance of tomato sweet and spicy zing.
About 36 hours later, it did, but the party was over. I brought Zing Zang instead.
The way I see it, the bloody mary is about three things: good vodka, good mix, and great garnishes. And most of the time it is about brunch, too. With its modern tendency to become a garden in a glass, it makes perfect brunch business. It's also nutrition with a hint of naughty, as it's one of the few cocktails that's encouraged to drink before noon — often as a penance for the previous night's overindulgence.
Long thought of as the healing hair of the disgraced dog, the bloody mary gained that reputation from its simple beginnings as a half vodka-half tomato juice cocktail. The eventual additions of black and cayenne pepper, Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces and lemon juice began the start of the ever-growing list of 'bloody' ingredients to complement its morning-after restorative benefits.
But the bloody is more than just medicinal. In fact, the best thing about this cocktail is the ability to personalize it.
Start with the vodka, the easy part. Nowadays you can order flavored vodkas like Absolut Peppar at most bars, and also Effen Cucumber and Belvedere Bloody Mary, which were crafted particularly for the this drink.
Most bartenders simply open a bottle of prepared mix to add to the vodka, and garnish it with a celery stick, but this is when this cocktail gains character and cojones.
The best place in Naples to do this is The Dock at Crayton Cove, where they've been rolling out a "Make Your Own Bloody Mary" spread for Sunday brunch, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., for more than 20 years.
"(It's) more about the fun and creativity of it than making the best bloody mary," said Jonathan DePasquale, general manger at the Dock, "Because you get to make it yourself. It's your own."
Once your server brings your vodka of choice, hit the bar for your choice of V8, Clamato or house-made spicy or mild bloody mix. When making bloodies at home, making the mix proves to be a nuisance, especially when you have classic mixes such as Mr. and Mrs. T's or my favorite Zing Zang. At The Dock, go for the spicy homemade mix, and then dress it up with a garden of garnish.
When it comes to the garnish, I've seen all vegetables grown under the sun thrown in, and The Dock offers the classic necessities, celery stalks, pickle spears and lemons, but also unexpected additions such as pickled okra and asparagus, mushrooms, caper berries and mini corn. I love olives in my bloody mary, and the Dock offers five different kinds, including the classic pimento, feta and almond-stuffed. If you didn't already add the heat, choose from Worcestershire, Tabasco, cayenne pepper, black pepper, celery salt or fresh horseradish.
As for the best concoction, it's up to you, anything goes. It's a chance to play with your food again, only this time at the bar.
As for the homemade mix, take it from me, go to the Dock.
Bloody mary's rich history
If you really think about it, bloody mary seems like an unappealing name for a cocktail, even if it is red and viscous. Contrary to popular belief, the name is not derived from Queen Mary the First, who earned the nickname "Bloody Mary" for her 17th century persecution of Protestants. I don't think the cocktail would have gained such infamy if it was.
In 1920, a young bartender named Fernand Petiot was working at Harry's New York Bar in Paris when he experimented with a tomato juice and vodka cocktail. One of his patrons, an American entertainer, came up with the name in homage to a Chicago nightclub wherein he used to perform called the Bucket of Blood.
As cocktail lore goes, another story exists that when young Petiot moved to New York and was working at St. Regis Hotel's King Cole Bar in 1933, by then he had perfected the drink to include the spices and the Worcestershire sauce. He served the drink to a lady named Mary who sat at the bar pining away for a boyfriend.
Whichever story is true, perhaps both, we have Fernand Petiot to thank for our Sunday brunch hangover cure.


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The "ministerial exception" and labor laws - The Christian Post story!
Expand Messages
- (Note the connection to the housing allowance issue that the FFRF is challenging.-RLBaty)
The Christian Post
Supreme Court to Hear Case on Church Authority, Hiring Rights
Does "ministerial exception" apply to teachers at religious schools?
By R. Leigh Coleman
Christian Post Reporter
Saturday, October 1, 2011
One of the most important religious cases disputed in years, involving the separation of church and state, will soon come before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The legal battle could change whether or not the federal government can dictate or interfere with church authority.
Arguments in the case, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, will be heard Oct. 5.
The case centers on "ministerial exception," which is a law that has been on the books for some 40 years.
This "exception" protects churches and other religious groups from discrimination claims against them including issues on hiring and firing employees.
The high profile legal dispute involves Cheryl Perich, a former fourth grade teacher at the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church School. Perich was fired for insubordination and disruptive conduct in 2005.
The church congregation that same year approved her termination.
> "Called teachers, like Perich, normally receiveaccording to court records.
> tenure and may be dismissed only for cause,"
Forcing the church to retain Perich after she was fired would be an unconstitutional restriction on its right to choose its religious leaders, church leaders said in a statement.
One of the most important arguments that will come before the Supreme Court in the case is whether the government should be allowed to decide which duties are "religious," and which are not.
In 2008, the district court decided against Perich, ruling that since she had been called as a commissioned minister, her firing was subject to the ministerial exception and thus was not within the court's right to interfere.
Court records show that in 2010, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Perich was not covered by the ministerial exception because most of her duties were secular, and overturned the decision.
Now, a host of organizations are involved in the legalities of the case...
Douglas Laycock, the attorney on record representing the Lutheran Church, told The Christian Post that this legal battle is unprecedented and could impact every church in the nation.
> "Lutheran churches put a heavy weight on teachersLaycock told The Christian Post in a phone interview Friday.
> and religious education by requiring their teachers
> take theology courses and they also get a ministerial
> housing allowance,"
> "This case has the potential to change employmentLaycock said.
> relations in virtually every religious institution
> in the nation."
> "The big question for the Supreme Court is whether
> the ministerial exception rule applies to a teacher
> at a religious elementary school who teaches the
> full secular curriculum, but also teaches daily
> religion classes, is a commissioned minister, and
> regularly leads students in prayer and worship,"
The Supreme Court, which has three female justices, will have to find a common ground that
> "involve inherently religious questions,"and
> "if the matter is a theological disputeThe congregation eventually closed the church's school in 2009.
> and belongs in the court system."
Your message has been successfully submitted and would be delivered to recipients shortly.


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For a limited time, Victorinox Swiss Army has brought back one of their most popular watch series, the Original Victorinox Swiss Army watch. The watches are available in different color combinations and sizes. There is also a gift set available that includes an original Swiss Army knife. Even though this was one of their most […]
The Victorinox Swiss Army Original Watches are Back
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"es chacheli", large café au lait with a croissant, local honey, jam and butter"la bergamote" croissantdaily muffinalmond croissantassorted danish brioche à têtetoasted bagel with cream cheese 5 toasted bagel with cream cheesehouse-made granola with fresh seasonal fruits and whipped greek yogurtsteel-cut oatmeal with brown sugar, dried fruit and chopped nutstwo eggs any style with bacon or sausage, potato röstiand toasted brioche or whole wheatgreenmarket omelet with goat cheese and herbstoasted bagel with house cured salmon and chive cream cheesefour-minute egg with toasted brioche or whole wheatpotato röstihouse made pork sausage or maple-glazed baconcookie plate
air dried speck tête de moine cow switzerlandswiss landjäger d'alpage l'etivaz cow switzerlandbündnerfleisch ossauiraty sheep francefinocchiona valdeon blue goat/cow spainhot sopressata bonne bouche goat vermontsweet sopressata lillé coulommiers cow vermont
Dinner is served daily from 5:30 PM to closing
buzzard bay from massachusetts
air dried speck tête de moine - cow - switzerland
swiss landjäger d'alpage l'etivaz - cow - switzerland
bündnerfleisch ossau-iraty - sheep - france
finocchiona valdeon blue - goat/cow - spain
hot sopressata bonne bouche - goat - vermont
sweet sopressata lillé coulommiers - cow - vermont
house-made pickles
eggplant mousse
marinated olives
marinated mushrooms
butter lettuce with crispy bacon and buttermilk dressing
yellow fin tuna crudo, pickled fennel and celery sprouts
white and green asparagus salad with speck, basil vinaigrette and egg mimosa
house-made pork terrine with frisée and radishes
chicken liver pâté with toasted brioche
beet salad with blue-cheese ricotta and parsley
steak tartar with quail egg and toasted baguette
crispy duck necks with rosemary and garlic aioli
steamed mussels with sunchokes, charred savoy cabbage, white wine and dill
early spring soup, basil, smoked pork broth, chicken, asparagus and peas
tagliatelle with cockles, asparagus and basil
braised tripe with garlic rubbed farm bread
pan seared sweetbreads with celery, preserved lemon and hazelnuts
crépinette of pork shoulder with sautéed spinach
lamb and beef burger with apple wood smoked bacon, cave-aged emmentaler, red onion jam on house-made whole wheat sourdough bun and potato chips
seared diver scallops with peas, asparagus, fava beans and charred red bell pepper coulis
goat cheese gnocchi with swiss chard, preserved lemon, tomato and parmesan
smoked and roasted pork loin with potato gratin
seared salmon with lobster broth, calamari, small turnips and broccoli rabe
calves' liver with potato rösti, sage and caramelized onions
seared swordfish with royal trumpet mushrooms, small bok choy and huckleberries
duck breast with roasted cipollini onions, yukon gold potatoes, asparagus and mint jus
please inform your server of any allergies or dietary restrictions
Our goal is to enrich the neighborhood and the world beyond with a restaurant that is exciting, hospitable and affordable.
The food at Trestle on Tenth is contemporary American with a Swiss and French influence, ranging from $8.50 to $13 for Appetizers and $18 to $25 for Main Courses at dinner.
Offerings and Prices are subject to changes.
Guests who would prefer to bring their own wine selection, may do so for a fee of $25


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Besties With Benefits. Much like FWB (Friends With Benefits), but with your best friend.
It's so awesome that we're BWB!
by YourKitty July 01, 2012
Top Definition
A legendary player from Jedi Knight Academy. His skills in the game surpassed all limits. bWb is now a term given to players that show great skill.
WOW! The techniques you used in that duel were nothing less than bWb. You have incredible skill!
by rsp1218 May 05, 2005
boy with boobs. also known as bwbb; boy with big boobs
look at that BWB! he should get a bra or lose some weight.
by sabrinasalacious July 17, 2009
a pornographic abbreviation for "big wet butt" or "big wet booty"
i love delilah strong's bwb
by NeedTo August 03, 2008
Black wanna be: Typically young white males who through Gansta , RAP, and other urban music and dress, act like they are black.
That white boy listening to Gansta RAP and wearing bling is such a BWB.
by KathySmith December 28, 2007
Buds with benefits. Two guys, can be straight, bi, or gay, that like to have sex with each other. Usually restricted to oral and handjobs.
Guy 1: Man I haven't had sex in like a month, I'm blue ballin like crazy.
Guy 2: Wanna be BWB's?
Guy 1: What's that?
Guy 2: Let me show you...
Guy 2: Wanna be BWB's?
Guy 1: What's that?
Guy 2: Let me show you...
by AssBanditFromDetroit April 30, 2007
n. Bitch With a Baby (an attractive young woman who has one or more children). pl. Bitches With Babies
So I was checkin' this girl out, and then I saw her pushin' a stroller, and I was like "damn, I ain't even tryin to mess wit a BWB."
by solomon January 28, 2005
When you plan to meet with some one and you want to be discreet, "I'm meeting a buddy....BWB"
by hokahey May 17, 2013


text:
The Dangers of Super Heroes
First crocodile humping and shuttle exploding, now capes and capers.It is an unfortunate fact of life that children enjoy imitating things they see on TV, in the movies, or in videogames. Sometimes imitating these things can injure the children or possibly even damage them to the point of not working at all. It happened with MTV's Jackass, "Beavis and Butthead," Animal Planet's Steve Irwin, NASA's Challenger disaster, and honest cop Serpico. However, in today's news I read about a child imitating something that truly frightened me; America's superheroes. In an effort to emulate his favorite superhero, 9-year old Julian Roman proved that he could in fact not leap six-feet when attempting to jump to an adjoining rooftop, and instead plummeted to his tragic death.
This prompted me to examine the popularity of superheroes in today's society. We of course have legends like Superman, Batman, Ice Cream Man and something Woman, but what heroes are our children most at risk at while imitating? There are new super heroes cropping up every day, some of them more known than others, all of them very dangerous when imitated by children. I have decided to warn parents by creating a brief tutorial on some of the "rising stars" of the super hero community, along with how you should explain them to your idiot children.
Talking to Your Kids about Super Heroes
Having a meaningful conversation with your children is one of the most difficult things a parent can do. Regardless of the topic, there are various "walls" between you and your child, such as your age difference, their intense hatred of your authority, and possible bitterness over sexual abuse. Warning your kids about the dangers of super hero imitation is important enough to overcome these barriers and talk to them. Start out with an easy topic like drugs or sex and then segue gradually into the super hero conversation. Sprinkle your dialogue with superhero buzzwords like "cape", "justice" and "ring of the red puma" so that you seem to be "hip" and talking on their level. Once you are comfortably "rapping" with them, begin to explain the more popular street superheroes and the consequences of imitating them. Make sure to single out the following superheroes:
The Rooftop Avenger - Defender of New York City, the Rooftop Avenger wears a green cape, cowl, and black spandex body suit. He traverses the city by leaping effortlessly from rooftop to rooftop while battling criminals by using his patented dive attack. When he spots villains on the street below, he dives head first off the building, crushing them beneath his massive body. If the crooks are fleeing in an automobile, he will get on a road overpass and drop cinderblocks onto their windshield. Tell your kids that rooftops are not the "hip" place to hang; mention how "totally rad" the Sewer Crawler is and say that he even has a female companion named "The Waste Processing Tomato." If your kids still aren't convinced, tell them the Rooftop Avenger was caught performing oral sex on a man in a public restroom. After all, your kids would NEVER want to grow up to be like their dad.Another case solved!Train Track Lass - Train Track Lass watches over Chicago, monitoring the evil plots of criminals who use the rail system as an easy way of trafficking stolen goods. Her powers include the ability to stop a moving train by standing in its path and the ability to derail a train by placing her neck on the tracks. Tell your kids that even a ten-ton truck cannot stop a moving freight train and give them the pointer that you are much more likely to derail a train by misaligning the track with a sledgehammer than by using your neck. Included in this brochure is a photograph of a hobo who was split in half by a moving train. Show this to them and say "this could be you, G-money. Werd."
Human Inferno - Due to a bizarre pottery kiln accident, Human Inferno's body is continually engulfed in flames which he can project from his hands to burn evil-doers. He can also fly, doubling the risk to your children from "burning to death" to "burning to death while falling to their death". Give them step by step instructions on how to correctly use a pottery kiln and describe the agonizing horror of immolation by reading personal accounts of napalm attacks written by Vietnamese villagers. Demonstrate the laws of gravity by throwing your house cat out a window. If you don't have a cat, throw one of your younger children out the window. You can always make another one.
Organophosphate Man - Dr. Peter Alexei was a research scientist at MIT working on an environmentally sound pesticide when an experiment went horribly wrong, transforming him into Organophosphate Man. Now, whenever he chugs a bottle of pesticides, he gains the strength of twenty men. His skin turns bright orange and his clothing, no matter what he was wearing prior to the transformation, changes into a ripped dress shirt and ragged jean shorts. Tell them that people with different skin colors are dangerous and not to be trusted and that their shoddy clothing may imply a lack of self confidence. Explain that drinking pesticides is not cool and give them a gentle push towards something a little safer like Kool Aid or rubbing alcohol.Reading is funda-evilGumby - Gumby was once just a little green ball of clay... now your kids watch to see what Gumby can do every day! Gumby! He possesses the power to walk into any book with his pal Pokey too... if Gumby has his way than he'll be a part of you! "You" being "your children," of course. Gumby battles it out with literary villains within the deadly confines of books and faces the fury of the Blockheads in the crazy world of Toyland. Warn your children about the dangers of books; beat them about the face with dictionaries, encyclopedias, and even books on tape. Also tell them that consorting with a horse is "against god" and "not what Mark McGwire would do".
There are many other superheroes marauding the streets, waiting to lure your children into lives of imitation and suffering. Don't wait for your children to find out about superheroes from someone else! Get to your kids before the superheroes do!
Doctor Ben Carson, Popeye's survivor, has some advice about school shootings, terrorists on airplanes, chopping malls, and more perilous scenarios.
With all these great tats, it's safe to say I'm the most unique person on earth. Which sounds great, until you realize how lonely it is.
It's not really fall until the Goons make fun of those haunted house people and the faces they make!
Welcome to Tony Ha (loading... loading...) wk's Pro (unreadable due to blurry texture)
The Goons make political Magic: The Gathering cards (with bonus jokes for people who actually play)!
The Something Awful front page news tackles anything both off and on the Internet. Mostly "on" though, as we're all incredible nerds.
Copyright ©2015 Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka & Something Awful LLC.


text:
Page 1
Did the Great Depression affect Educational Attainment in
the US?
khalid kisswani
Quinnipiac University
Great Depression is an example of a macroeconomic crisis that produced adverse economic
and social effects in all spheres of life. Theoretical arguments about the real effects of the
Great Depression on education vary. First is economic hardships, which might force
individuals eligible to go to school to work instead. Second is that high unemployment would
make going to school the best other viable alternative. Following these theoretical notions,
this paper explores the impact of the Great Depression on education, on race (whites and
blacks) and gender (males and females), during the period 1930-1940. Furthermore, I test the
effects of state employment indices on education. The results (using 1960 census data) show
some evidence that education of whites born between 1911 and 1915 was affected. However,
there is no evidence that the variation in state employment indices affected the decision of
schooling on the average (mean).
The author would like to thank the anonymous referees of this journal for constructive comments on previous version of this
paper; however, the author is solely responsible for any shortcomings.
Citation: kisswani, khalid, (2008) "Did the Great Depression affect Educational Attainment in the US?." Economics
Bulletin, Vol. 9, No. 30 pp. 1-10
Submitted: October 25, 2008. Accepted: December 19, 2008.
URL: http://economicsbulletin.vanderbilt.edu/2008/volume9/EB-08I20013A.pdf
Page 2
Macroeconomic crises have adverse effects on various aspects of social and economic
life, generating and profoundly impacting macroeconomic outcomes such as production
and jobs. The Great Depression is a prime example of a macroeconomic crisis that
produced adverse economic and social effects in all spheres of life. Kirkwood (1972)
argues that during the Great Depression the fermenting of a macroeconomic crisis was
characterized by many factors. Gross National Product (GNP) declined by 30% in real
terms, farm income fell by 50 %, which further increased poverty, businesses closed,
factories shut down, and banks ultimately failed. Kirkwood (1972) further shows that
employment was affected severely. In 1929 only 3.2% of the population was
unemployed, whereas in 1933 the unemployment reached as high as 25%. Moreover, net
investment during the Great Depression era was negative, because private investment was
far below depreciation. Thus, most effects of the Great Depression are well known and
fairly cited. However, an important variable that has been ignored and has a bearing on
our understanding the impact of macroeconomic crises is educational attainment.
The theoretical arguments about the real effects of the Great Depression on education
vary. The first is that of economic hardships, which invariably causes the cost of
education to become unaffordable. This might force individuals eligible to go to school
to work for their sustenance. As a result, high school students would drop out, or would
not seek further education. The second argument is that high unemployment would
reduce the opportunity cost of going to school, making going to school the best other
viable alternative. These two theoretical arguments represent the relation between
income and substitution effects, and how one argument dominates the other. As we will
see, these arguments are crucial in understanding the impact of macroeconomic crises on
Following these theoretical notions, this paper intends to explore the impact of the Great
Depression on education, contributing to the literature by providing the evidence on these
effects on race (whites and blacks) and gender (males and females), during the period
from 1930 to 1940. Furthermore, this paper examines the effects of state employment
indices on the average education (at the mean). More importantly, it tests the effects of
state employment indices on the entire distribution of education (quantile regression).
The results (using individual census data from 1960) show some evidence that the Great
Depression affected education of whites born between 1911 and 1915. However, the
results show no evidence that the variation in state employment indices affected the
decision of schooling on the average (mean), but it affected the education of white males
at the top of the distribution (90% percentile).
This paper is organized into five sections. Section 2, reviews the literature. Section 3,
explores the theory behind demand for education. Section 4, describes the data. Section 5,
outlines the effects of the Great Depression on the educational attainment, and section 6
Page 3
The literature of human capital and earnings has grown out of the work of Mincer (1974)
and Becker (1975). The literature shows that an individual chooses the level of education
that maximizes the present value of earnings compared to the cost of seeking this level
(direct or indirect), given the borrowing rate. Altonji (1993) expanded Mincer's (1974)
and Becker's work (1975) by treating education as a sequential choice made under
uncertainty. He examined how variables influencing tastes for schooling, ability to do
college work, and the payoffs to college affect the expected return to schooling.
Due to certain institutional features, like compulsory laws and constraints on borrowing,
the actual demand for education may be different from optimal choices. Such
institutional constraints may affect the educational attainment in two ways. First,
compulsory attendance and child labor laws may constrain education demand for bottom
deciles or percentiles. People may stay in school longer than what they would choose to
in the absence of these laws. Second, borrowing constraints may affect the education
choice for top deciles or percentiles. In the absence of student loans people may be
unable to attend school, even though the return on their schooling could exceed the
interest rate on loans.
A number of studies find large effects of compulsory education laws on the probability of
high school completion between 1920 and 1934. Lang and Kropp (1986) find that
compulsory education laws affect enrollment, even for groups not targeted by the laws.
Angrist and Krueger (1991), through the use of micro-data from the US Census data, find
that children born earlier in the year will obtain fewer years of schooling. In their study
they show a student's enrollment will depend on his age, which is determined by the
quarter of birth. Lleras-Muney (2002), using the 1960 Census for students in secondary
schooling from 1915 to 1939, also finds that increasing the legal age attendance
requirement by one more year leads to a 5% increase in educational attainment. This
effect was significant for whites but not for blacks.
Extreme circumstances, such as war, natural disasters, or political upheavals might also
affect educational attainment. Meng and Gregory (2002) studied the impact of
educational interruptions during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1977) when most
schools in urban China ceased operations for 6 years. They find that the school
interruption had a substantial impact on educational attainment, especially when the
interruption occurs at high school level. They also find that children whose parents had
lower educational achievement and lower occupational status were affected the most.
Ichino and Winter-Ember (2004) tested the effects of World War II on educational
attainment. They find that World War II led to a significant drop in the educational
attainment of individuals who were of elementary school age during or immediately after
the conflict, as opposed to those born in the previous or subsequent decades. Comparing
the evidence for four countries, of which two were directly involved in the conflict
(Austria and Germany) and two were not (Sweden and Switzerland), the magnitude of
this educational loss is approximately 20% in years of education in Austria and Germany.
These individuals also experienced a sizable loss of earnings some 40 years after the war,
which may be attributed to the educational loss caused by the conflict.
Literature Review
Page 4
On the other hand, other research shows that macroeconomic crises do not affect
education. Goldin (1998) finds that secondary-school enrollment and graduation rates
increased spectacularly in much of the US from 1910 to 1940; the advance was
particularly rapid from 1920 to 1935, during the early years of the Great Depression, in
the industrial area of the Northeast and Midwest. De Ferranti et al (2000) suggest that
large enrollment decisions are unaffected by macroeconomic crises, especially moderate
In 2002, Argentina's economy suffered the culmination of an economic decline that
began in late 1998. The crisis was all the more unusual because it occurred when the rest
of the world was experiencing slow growth, but not recession. Real GDP fell 28% from
peak (1998) to trough (2002). Argentina's currency, the peso, was devalued in January 2002.
Inflation was 41% in 2002 this caused real wages to fall 23.7% in 2002 and unemployment
rose from 12.4% in 1998 to 18.3% in 2001 and 23.6% in 20021. However, more recent work
on Argentina confirms that the crisis of the late 1990s and early 2000s did not change
overall enrollment level, but it may have negative effects on the quality of schooling
because of high associated rates of teacher absenteeism (Espana et al, 2002).
In Indonesia the deep financial crisis of 1998 appears to have little effect on schooling
outcomes (Thomas et al, 2004). Schady (2004), in his analysis of the impacts of the
macroeconomic crisis (1988-1992 ) on education in Peru, finds no effect on attendance
rates but a significant decline in the fraction of children who are both employed and
attend school. Therefore, given all previous findings, a careful empirical work is needed
in order to understand the ambiguous effect of macroeconomic crises on schooling.
3. Demand for Education.
In the economic model of human capital, individuals acquire schooling until the marginal
benefit of an additional year of education equals the marginal cost in order to maximize
the present value of lifetime income (Willis, 1986; Altonji, 1993). The marginal benefit
of one year of schooling is the resulting increase in the discounted expected stream of
earnings, and the marginal cost is the forgone income and direct private costs like tuition
and books. Given this decision rule, the reason some individuals invest in more
education than others must arise from factors that either raise the rate of return they
receive or lower the cost they must pay for funds.
The effect of a macroeconomic crisis on schooling is ambiguous in theory. In general, an
adverse macroeconomic shock will depress current employment and wage prospects, thus
the opportunity cost of attending school will fall. Holding everything else the same, this
should increase investments in human capital. A shock could also make borrowing
constraints more binding and thus reduce the total amount of schooling attainment.
When macroeconomic shocks are persistent, they may also depress expected lifetime
earnings, thus affecting the marginal benefit from schooling. If the lifetime earnings of
all individuals are reduced by the same percentage, regardless of their schooling, then the
marginal benefit associated with an additional year of schooling will be lower. Crises
need not, however, have a uniform effect across the board on expected earnings.
Additionally, the effect of a crisis on the wages and employment prospects of adults in a
1 United States Congress report (June 2003).
Page 5
household may also have an effect on the schooling and employment decisions of
children (Schady, 2004).
Thus, because of the ambiguous effect on schooling, students or their parents may choose
more or less schooling; they may anticipate or postpone further schooling. The total
effect of a crisis on schooling will depend on the relative magnitude of the changes in the
marginal costs and benefits from education.
4. Data
In this paper, I use the 1960 Census which is provided in the Integrated Public Use
Microdata Series (IPUMS)2. The IPUMS consists of twenty-seven high-precision
samples of the American population drawn from fourteen federal censuses. The IPUMS
assigns uniform codes across all the samples and brings relevant documentation into a
coherent form to facilitate analysis of social and economic change. Since the IPUMS
includes nearly all the detail originally recorded by the census enumerations, users can
construct a great variety of tabulations interrelating any desired set of variables.
My sample is drawn from the 1% state sample. I limit the sample to whites and blacks
(men and women) born in the US between 1896 and 1925. The sample contains 240,018
white males, 251,677 white females, 24,360 black males, and 27,588 black females.
Birth year is derived from reported age and quarter of birth.3 Individuals born in Hawaii
and Alaska are excluded from the sample. People reported to be born in the District of
Columbia and people who did not report their state of birth are excluded as well. This is
done because this paper utilizes the state employment indices for the period of 1930-
1940, and these indices do not include the District of Columbia. Depending on the state
of birth, 48 dummy variables for states are included where each equals one if the person
is born in the state, zero otherwise. Years of education are the number of years of
schooling completed, and the number is derived from the highest grades completed (years
of education range between 0-18 years of education). In this paper I add to the data the
states employment indices from 1930 to 1940, which I use from Wallis (1989).
Following Angrist and Krueger (1991), I constructed four dummy variables on the basis
of quarter of birth. This is done because most school districts require students to attain
age six by January 1 of the academic year in which they plan to attend and to turn 16 (in
most of the states) to drop out of school. These requirements cause quarter of birth and
years of education to be correlated (Angrist and Krueger, 1991). A student who is born
in the third quarter will wait until the subsequent year to enroll in school, while another
student born in the first quarter will be able to enroll that same year. This means that the
variation in education is related to quarter of birth. Also, according to the quarter of
birth, some students turn 16 before others, which enable them to drop out of school
2 Ruggless et al, 2004.
3 Census reports data in April, therefore, year of birth is equal to "1960-age", if born in first quarter, and
year of birth is equal to "1960-age-1", if not born in first quarter.


text:
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Candice Hoyes
International soprano Candice Hoyes debuts in 2014 at the National Slovenian Opera in the title role of Piccinni's
La Cecchina
, a reprisal of her Italian debut. Recent debuts include Hungary's Szeged Open Air Festival and Nevada Opera. Candice trained at Lorin Maazel's Castleton Festival and the Caramoor Festival. She graduated from Harvard University
cum laude
in Sociology, Columbia Law School and Westminster Choir College.
Candice Hoyes's Articles on LARB
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Around the World: Launch Edition
Everyone Has a Place: On Wynton Marsalis's Abyssinian Mass, and the Tour Buses That Took Us There
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text:
East Bay business briefs for Northern California: Safeway, facebook, car dealers, Chevron, Redfin, Fitch, and Mechanics Bank
MDUSD Measure C will cost taxpayers $1.87 Billion
MUSD has time and time again put PLAs in place on projects despite study after study showing they drive up costs at least 20%, and in one study, more than $30 per square foot. This means fewer buildings for students and higher costs for taxpayers.
East Bay Town Hall rallies, Aug 15
East Bay town Hall rallies are scheduled for August 15 in San Jose, Fremont, Alameda, and San Leandro
GOP Boot Camp, Aug 21-22
So far this looks like a trip down memory lane. Maybe we can find some veterans of the last Deukmejian campaign. This is the problem with Republicans…they are stuck in the past. While the Democrats are campaigning using 21st century organizing methods the GOP is still running Reagan's Morning in America Ads.
Guys and Dolls for Hospice, Jul 30
Purchase your tickets now for a performance of Guys and Dolls, benefiting Hospice of the East Bay , on Thursday, July 30th, at 8:00 pm, at San Ramon Valley High School Performing Arts Center, 501 Danville Blvd. , Danville .
Can ordinary folks fix California?
A new study from the New America Movement says 400 ordinary citizens should be randomly selected to act as delegates to a Constitutional Convention to fix California
MCP broadens services
The Monument Community Partnership (MCP), located in Keller House off Concord Ave., is the focal point for a number of service organizations including its own that serve what is called the Monument Corridor.
CD-10 candidate forum, Aug 7
The Contra Costa Council & the Bay Area Council will host a 10th Congressional District Candidates Forum, August 7, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, located at 45 John Glenn Drive, in Concord-Calif.
Who is Claudia Bermudez?
We suspect that the smart money is on Republican Jerry Salcido to pull out the big win in a close election that has the possibility of not only sending a defeated Bermudez into retirement, but maybe even causing a few R.I.N.O.s to go along with her.
Meg Whitman fundraiser, Jul 20
Meg Whitman, the former eBay exec who is running for the 2010 Republican nomination for California Governor, will hold a tres tres fundraiser in San Francisco, July 20, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at a private home. See the PDF documents below for details.


text:
Video: GM, Chrysler Deal May Be Off
Posted: 10/31/2008 - The deal between GM and Chrysler may be off if the government does not do its part in lending money.
Posted: 10/31/2008 - The deal between GM and Chrysler may be off if the government does not do its part in lending money.
Posted: 10/31/2008 - Dogs dressed in costumes in Denver to aid Freedom Dog Services, which rescues dogs and trains them to assist people with disabilities.
Posted: 10/31/2008 - A man who volunteers for an animal refuge and was attacked by a liger died.
Posted: 10/31/2008 - John McCain is set to appear on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" just three days before the presidential election
Posted: 10/31/2008 - A new poll suggests one of the deciding factors in Tuesday's presidential election could be the undecideds.
Posted: 10/31/2008 - Barack Obama starts the day in the state that started it all -- Iowa.
Posted: 10/31/2008 - Republican presidential candidate John McCain is calling the economic policies of his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, to the far left of American politics.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - Economic unrest causes gun sales to skyrocket
Posted: 10/30/2008 - Air Force fighter pilot claims he saw UFO 40 years ago.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - The rocky road for California gays who hope to marry.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - The fragility of the middle class
Posted: 10/30/2008 - Elizabeth Edwards is stumping for health care, not just politics.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - The Federal Reserve estimates Americans have run up about $900 billion in credit card debt. And the number of those even with good credit who are defaulting on their balances is rising.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - Roadside Deer accidents are on the rise.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - Bill Clinton spells out why he supports Obama.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - The Today Show discusses whether or not Obama's half hour ad worked.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - McCain discusses questions about Palin and his chances of winning.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - Supporters and opponents of a measure decriminalizing prostitution in San Francisco are hoping to sway voters in the city by the bay.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - Wall Street is taking in stride the government's report that the economy shrank in the third quarter.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - The government says the economy shrank in the third quarter as consumers cut back on their spending by the biggest amount in 28 years. It was the strongest signal yet the country has hurtled into recession.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - Wall Street is taking in stride the Government's report that the economy shrank in the third quarter.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - Sarah Palin says she expects to follow Dick Cheney into the vice president's mansion early next year. But if she doesn't, Palin says she'll remain on the national political scene.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama says he doesn't want to look back on the final days of the campaign and regret not doing something to help sway voters.
Posted: 10/30/2008 - The Larimer County District Attorney says a review of 36 old convictions found no cases where new DNA technology might have helped the defendant.
Posted: 10/29/2008 - Schools were closed and electricity was knocked out in the Northeast as a snowstorm moved through the area.