Flavored or Ribbed? My Life Really Has Changed!

I'm sure I'm not the first one to comment on this site, but I just found it today. There is a lot to say after wandering around the site for a couple of minutes. Like "I want my $85,000 dollars back!" or "I want my four years back!" or "thank God I haven't joined yet and started posting pictures of my children dressed as the pope!" or "Joey Mckeown! oh man! that just ruined your blog for me!" or "If I ever register with this site, you have the right to euthanize me, even if I seem perfectly healthy!"

I must admit though the school I am currently going to is just like my undergraduate alma mater. For example at the above web site you see questions like this,

I've heard people say that the Catholic Church changed its doctrine concerning the charging of interest. Is this true, and is it a failure of infallibility?

And at my current student union web site you get questions like this,

How to choose a condom
one that fits - more details
flavor, ribbed etc - what difference does it make?
anal sex - what's best?
what about lube?
and what about dams?

Sunday Morning, 11:45 am

Ah, Sunday mornings! Is there any thing better then Sunday mornings? Going to early mass, eating a big breakfast afterwards, drinking three cups of strong percolated coffee, reading the Financial Times, and smoking my pipe. Life is all about the simple pleasures.

The Best Short Story Ever!

I never knew this, but apparently "Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words, which he did". Fr. Neuhaus writes today in his blog over at First Things. I don't want to keep you in suspense, so here is the greatest short story ever written. “For sale: baby shoes, never used.”

Ed Stien's View

Ed Stien is a cartoonist for my local, Denver that is, paper. I can't say that I like his cartoons but every now and again there is a funny one. I found two this week.














On another note, he also has good fun at the expense of the think tank that I worked for over the summer. It feels so good to know that I was part of the vast-right-wing-conspiracy for a whole three months.

"To Mier" Is Human

Well, I'm sure you all woke up to the good news. But I just came back from the bar and then heard the good news. What a great day, we slapped GW Bush a good on. Seriously George! What would Reagan do? I tell you what he wouldn't do, nominate a lackey to the highest court in the land. Any who, I don't assume any one who cares about politics reads my blog, so I'll just leave you with the definition of the newest word in the English language (a la the term 'to bork'), "to mier" means "to put your own allies in the most untenable position possible based upon exceptionally bad decision- making."

What's Wrong With Wodehouse!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't know what any one sees in Wodehouse. The only thing that amazes me about him is that he is still read forty years after his death, and a hundred years after he ceased to be funny. On that note, I wish to draw you attention to an article in last months First things about Wodehouse, by Joseph Bottum. (As you can guess, it is a little hard to get First Things out here, so I can no longer be the first on in the blogosphere to comment on the new issues.) I am not too sure what the point of the article is. I can only assume that it is what all Wodehouse is, viz. filler. Like all Wodehouse this article is a lot like reading nothing. I am a little disappointed in First Things this month (October). They also ran an article by Stephen M. Barr, on some hack pseudo-theory of the origin of life. In all its a good thing that I'm out of the country, because RJN would be hearing from me otherwise.

Back to Wodehouse. Please don't try to convert me. Sure the man was a good writer, i.e. he would have passed with an 'A' in Strunk English comp class. Also, I admit, that he has influenced so many authors whom I do love, Waugh, Chris Buckley, and I'm sure a couple others. On the other hand that does not make you a worthy writer. For example, Wolfe (the 18th century philosopher) influenced Kant and Hegel, but is he worth reading, of course not.

Then there is the whole Nazi thing. To suckle on the tit of Nazi Germany for five years is beyond reprehensible. Granted, he was not evil; just an idiot. Though I think that is Wodehouse in a nutshell, he was just an idiot.

appendix, Ole Hjortland has a blog. One of my fellow M.Litt. students here. He is a great philosopher, and for all of you who are going into philosophy of logic you will here much about him in a few years. He will certainly be added to my links page when I update that again.

Today is unusually sunny, So I took some pictures.















This is the Quad



















The Cathederal and Bell Tower














View from my room














The North Sea














Bell Tower again














Nave of the Catherderal

















A normal every day street



















The Scores, (the street the Philosophy Department is on)

Only in France

The French in recent years have seen one millionaire citizen quit the country every day. The reason? High taxes. The only problem with this is that the tax base created by the wealthy is evaporating, with all those rich people going to England, Belgium, and Monaco. So the French governmant has started to ease up on the tax burden. In an article in the Financial Times about this I say the following,

"The proposals form part of the tax reform initiative recently unveiled by Dominique de Villepin, ... [who] said no taxpayer should receive a bill for more than 60 per cent of the income."

Problems with the Academy

I though I had it bad. Out of the four professors whom I was planning on studying with, Prof. Haldane, Prof. Broadie, Prof. Skorupski, and Prof. Ashford. All but Skrorupski are on leave this semester. Ashford is at the Kennedy School at Harvard for the year, Broadie is somewhere (but thank God, will be back next semester to teach a class on classical philosophy), and Haldane got a huge grant from the Templeton Foundation to write for the next three years (hopefully he might still advise me on my thesis though). Lucky for me though the school just hired a new moral philosopher, so I'll study contemporary ethics with him next semester.

I consider my self lucky though only in comparison with the five or six guys who want to study logic, and philosophy of language. Now St. Andrews is a good school for ethics, but it is a great school for logic and language. It is one of the few schools in the world with a handful of world class professors in these areas. These guys have literally written the books on these topics. So it is only natural the the school would attract a fair amount of students that want to work on this area. The peoblem is, all of the professors are on leave next semester. Every last one of the senior factually who are specialists in logic and language are gone; leaving the poor logician students with class choices ranging from philosophy of law to film studies. On top of that most of the them are Scandinavians, so they are trying to be proper and polite about it, but the old Viking blood is coming out. They urge, lying dormant for eons, to start rapping and burning Scotland is about to explode in there souls.

Poor bastards! I should sympathize with them, which in principle I do. I mean couldn't the school make sure that the senior faculty take sabbatical on different years? But it is fun telling Danes, Norwigans, and Iclanders that they will have a great time in film studies class.

NB: Why the hell is a major philosophy department offering a graduate level class on film studies?

To MLK: With Love, DP

At the Museum of Modern Art you can sit in the lobby
on the foam-rubber couch; you can rest and smoke,
and view whatever the revolving doors express.
You don't have to go into the galleries at all.

From: May Swenson, "At the Museum of Modern Art"

Sorry Marian, I don't know if you even read my blog, but I found this and thought of you. Well actually I thought about myself, and me not going into the galleries. Ten minutes to close you came out of MoMA's revolving doors. Waite, they aren't revolving doors any more are they? And the foam-rubber couches are gone, and the smoking indoors. They are killing all poetry these remodelings.

I'm Going to be on First Non Stop Flight from Scotland to NY

From the Corner today.

HELP WANTED: NR SEEKING A RECEPTIONIST [Jack Fowler]
That’s right, we are looking for a hearty soul to take on the job as receptionist, switchboard operator, etc. at NR’s World Headquarters in New York City. Punctual, well-spoken, bright, adept at doing tasks (light proofreading, research) above and beyond answering phones and dealing with messengers – if that’s you, or if you know someone whom that describes, please send a resume to me right here. Immediate opening. No phone calls.

Are you still looking for a job Austin?

Sen. Kennedy: 40 Without A Drowning

This is from the the Washington Post. I guess Teddy want to make up for his checkered past.

Sen. Edward Kennedy Helps Rescue Fishermen

The Associated PressMonday , October 17, 2005; 2:24 AM

HYANNIS, Mass. -- U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy attempted to rescue six men who had become trapped by high tide on a jetty off Hyannisport on Sunday.
The Massachusetts Democrat eventually left the rescue to Hyannis firefighters, The Cape Cod Times reported Monday.
Kennedy was walking his two dogs on the shore at 11:15 a.m. when he spotted the men cut off from shore by the rising waters. They had been fishing on a jetty that begins at the tip of the Kennedy compound.
Tides had risen over the patchy rocks, which made it difficult to walk back to shore.
Kennedy and a friend tried to rescue the men using a 13-foot boat but rough waters forced them back.
A crew from the Hyannis Fire Department picked them up. The men, in their 20s, were not identified. They were brought to Cape Cod Hospital with mild hypothermia.

War & Peace 3

From the massive amount of comments I have received over my on-line, live, daily updated review of War and Peace I can tell that I have the ears (or eyes?) of the blogsphere. However, since I am fairly certain no one reads my blog I can do whatever I want. Right now that means another blog on War and Peace.

As I said in my first post about the book. This is the first English translation of War and Peace done exclusively by a male. I said that it will probably not mean anything will be substantially different, and mostly that's true. But there are little things here and there that ring different from other translations, (of course I also don't roll out the fact that I might just be picking up on more of Tolstoy's subtleties that I missed before). Here is an example that has changed completely how I understand Prince Nikolay Bolkonsky. I think Briggs shows much more feeling in the scene where Princess Marya is taking her geometry lesson. Here is how he translates it.

The Princess got one of the answers wrong.

'How can you be so stupid?' he roared, pushed the book away, and truning from her sharply. But then he got up, paced up and down, laid a hand on the princess's hair and sat down again. He drew close to the table and went on with his explanations.

'No, no, you can't do that,' he said, as Princess Marya took the exercise-book with the homewrok in it, closed it and made to leave the room. 'Mathemmatice is a great subject, madam. And you, being like the silly young ladies of today is something I do not want. Perservere and all will come clear.' He patted her on the check. 'This will drive the silliness out of your head.' ...

'Go on then, run along.'

He patted her on the shoulder, and went himself to close the door after her.

Compare that reading, which shows a tyrannical and dense father tempered by true paternal love, with this reading from another translation, which shows only a tyrannical father.

The princess gave a wrong answer.
"Well now, isn't she a fool!" shouted the prince, pushing the book aside and turning sharply away; but rising immediately, he paced up and down, lightly touched his daughter's hair and sat down again.
He drew up his chair. and continued to explain.
"This won't do, Princess; it won't do," said he, when Princess Mary, having taken and closed the exercise book with the next day's lesson, was about to leave: "Mathematics are most important, madam! I don't want to have you like our silly ladies. Get used to it and you'll like it," and he patted her cheek. "It will drive all the nonsense out of your head."...
"Well, now go. Go."
He patted her on the shoulder and himself closed the door after her.

War & Peace 2

I have finished the first section of War and Peace. That is, through Count Kirill Bezukhov's death, and up to the first chapter at Bald Hills.

Not to much to comment on just yet, but there is one thing that I would like to mention. I have always been confused by Kirill Bezukhov's death bed scene. The part where Pierre is horrified when his father is rolled over always seemed forced to me. I mean, what is it about his father's arm that is so horrifying? I think this translation is a little clearer on just what happens, and Pierre's state of mind that leads up to it. After all it is the culmination of the whole scene. Brigs has it thus,

While the count was being turned over, one of his arms got caught helplessly behind him and he made a vain attempt to drag it back. Whether or not the count noticed the horror with which Pierre stared at that lifeless arm, or whether some other idea flashed throuhg his dying mind at that instant, he looked down at his unresponsive arm, then at the expression of horror on Pierre's face, then back at his arm, and finally his face produced a smile which jarred with his features, a pathetically weak smile that seemed to mock his own helplessness. Suddenly, at the sight of that smile, Pierre felt a shudder in his cest and pricklin in his nose, and his eyes clouded over with tears. They finished turning the sick man towards the wall. He gave a sigh.

Vote for the world's top public intellectuals

For all of you out there who are big public policy whores (like myself) I have the hardest test you will ever take. Well, that might be an exaggeration. Anyway, try it out.

If you care, I picked Ali al-Sistani, Pope Benedict XVI, Francis Fukuyama, Samuel Huntington, & Bernard Lewis. These choices, except for the first two, it agree are very debatable. I think that the al-Sistani and Benedict are obviously two of the most influential men in the world today, and I cannot see how anyone can not put them on the list.

So, who are you gonna vote for?

War & Peace 1

Another reason to read this blog (like you need one). This is a Dan exclusive. I am breaking ground and it is only in the blogsphere.

When the new translation of Proust was just coming out, the reviewer at the economist asked why we needed a new translation of Things Past when we already have a classic and still highly readable version in the revised ScottMontcrief version. The only answer was, for those who love Proust just one edition is never enough.

Well, I have never read Proust, but I have read Tolstoy's War and Peace, and I am anxiously waiting for the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of it to come out, due some time in 2007. But there is news on this front now. It looks like Penguin has beat them to the punch. I imagine that Penguin was afraid that their sales where going to drop when the Pevear and Volokhonsky version comes out, so they had Anthony Briggs do a new one for them.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, this new translation only came out a few weeks ago, and so far it is only out in the UK. What I will do is give you poor saps stuck in America with your Garnett and Maude translations a day by day review of the new version. Ok, maybe not day by day but as often as I so choose. This should be a project that I'll be working on for a good long time (this version is 1358 pages, and I do have a bunch of graduate classes to study for).

Then, you can sound snotty at all those artsy parties you go to. You can say, "well yes I could see why you think that of Prince Andrew, but that is only because you have not read the Briggs yet" and you'll be implying that you have. Which, of course, you have not because you are stuck in America like the sap you are.

Here is the what I have to say about the book so far. Its a good readable type, and a good hand sized hard back. This is essential for any book, because if it wont fit in your hand it will be a miserable read. So far I have only read the afterward's defense for a new translation. It is interesting to note that this is the first translation of War and Peace to be done only by a man. It probably will have no effect on anything but it iskind of strange (also the two translations that are collaborations are husband and wife teams, the Maudes and Pevear and Volokhonsky).

Now to the book.

Gamers Are Funny People

I was googeling around looking for downloadible episodes of Firing Line, and what do I find? A "hardcore gamer" web site. Well that is natural enough. This particular site, however, has the following as an introduction,


Welcome to The Firing Line, where we're kind of hoping you don't really know who William F. Buckley Jr. is. If you didn't get that, all the better.


There must be a philological name for this kind of statement. It is a esoteric joke, saying that they hope it is not an esoteric joke, and no one who hears it will get it, and any one who gets it would not hear it. Hum. I wonder if WFB has a word for this kind of situation.

First Things now has a Blog!