Thirty-Six Years Ago Today, Richard Nixon Saved Israel—but Got No Credit

History that escaped the media circus at the time...

James Piereson writes in The New Criterion

Conservatism in America deploys the principles of tradition, reason, and orderly change in defense of liberal institutions—the Constitution, representative government, liberty and equal rights, the rule of law.

Rules of Mark

in no particular order:



one must focus on the secondary or the intermediate to accomplish the primary



paradox is the crux of every issue



morality dictates theology

(more to follow as addendum)

5 albums that shaped me before age 20

John Wesley Harding by Bob Dylan

To Our Children's Children's Children by the Moody Blues

Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan

Meet the Beatles by the Beatles 1964

The Ventures

Bonfire of the Trivialities

Charles Krauthammer on bailout bonuses.

Niall Ferguson interview: "There Will Be Blood"

This interview fleshes out in some detail what one of the foremost thinkers is predicting in the next few years, world-wide.

There will be blood, in the sense that a crisis of this magnitude is bound to increase political as well as economic [conflict]. It is bound to destabilize some countries. It will cause civil wars to break out, that have been dormant. It will topple governments that were moderate and bring in governments that are extreme. These things are pretty predictable. The question is whether the general destabilization, the return of, if you like, political risk, ultimately leads to something really big in the realm of geopolitics. That seems a less certain outcome. We've already talked about why China and the United States are in an embrace they don't dare end. If Russia is looking for trouble the way Mr. Putin seems to be, I still have some doubt as to whether it can really make this trouble, because of the weakness of the Russian economy. It's hard to imagine Russia invading Ukraine without weakening its economic plight. They're desperately trying to prevent the ruble from falling off a cliff. They're spending all their reserves to prop it up. It's hardly going to help if they do another Georgia.”
“I was more struck Putin's bluster than his potential to bite, when he spoke at Davos. But he made a really good point, which I keep coming back to. In his speech, he said crises like this will encourage governments to engage in foreign policy aggression. I don't think he was talking about himself, but he might have been. It's true, one of the things historically that we see, and also when we go back to 30s, but also to the depressions 1870s and 1880s, weak regimes will often resort to a more aggressive foreign policy, to try to bolster their position. It's legitimacy that you can gain without economic disparity – playing the nationalist card. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of that in the year ahead. It's just that I don't see it producing anything comparable with 1914 or 1939. It's kind of hard to envisage a world war. Even when most pessimistic, I struggle to see how that would work, because the U.S., for all its difficulties in the financial world, is so overwhelmingly dominant in the military world.

I think the IMF has been consistently wrong in its projections year after year. Most projections are wrong, because they're based on models that don't really correspond to the real world. If anything good comes of crisis, I hope it will be to discredit these ridiculous models that people rely on, and a return to something more like a historical understanding about the way the world works.” “I mean most of these models, including, I'm told, the one that policy makers here use, don't really have enough data to be illuminating … You're going to end up assuming that this recession is going to end up like other recessions, and the other recessions didn't last that long, so this one won't last so long. But of course this isn't a recession. This is something really quite different in character from anything we've experienced in the postwar era. That's why these projections give positive numbers for 2010. That's the default setting. And it just seems to me ostrich-like, to bury one's head in the sand and assume this has to end this year because, well, that's what recessions do.

Kevin Kelly

innovation is more important than price because price is a derivative of innovation.

Rush

The response from Rush. He's never been a legend in my mind, but he's a great infotainer. He doesn't live up to his own hype in my mind, but I have no problem with his hyping, because it's half tongue-in-cheek, half self-fulfilling and half on target. He's iconoclastic and a good antidote to the liberal group-think ooze that masquerades as conventional wisdom.

Vertical Politics

the politics of solutions, not ideology, attributed by Mike Volpe at the Provocateur to Mike Huckabee. For example, the fair tax. Worth looking into.

In his book, Do the Right Thing, Mike Huckabee talked about the concepts of vertical and horizontal politics. Horizontal politics is when solutions to policy are figured out based on ideology. In other words, whatever is the issue, the individual tries to figure out how their ideology should deal with the issue. Vertical politics is when someone just tries to figure out what the solution is and doesn't worry about how that applies to ideology. Huckabee made the point that most voters want people that solve problems. They aren't ideological and so they aren't as impressed with ideological solutions. Explain to someone how a policy will help them and that is the person they will vote for.

Ready, set, go

Now where was I? Oh yes, seemingly random links, posts, thoughts to share....


Warren Buffet weighs in on the economic outlook:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/71649/



I watched CPAC for a coupla hours last night. Ron Paul, Wayne LaPierre, Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh.



Pundita picked up my link to an article about Pope Benedict XVI in the Dec 2008 issue of Asia Times Online by Spengler discussing economics and localism. All of which ties into my current interest in GK Chesterton's distributism.
http://pundita.blogspot.com/2009/02/president-barack-obamas-speech-to-us.html

Modern day McClellans

Powerline's Scott Johnson fleshes out the issue of the general's footdragging in Iraq. Bottomline: Petraus=Grant.
The full article he references is here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122221472541069353.html

the OODA loop

Observe, orient, decide, act. Do this at a quicker clip than your opponent or obstacle and you win.

OODA “Loop”

For the background on OODA see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_Loop
For a personal historical testimony of Colonel John Boyd's OODA loop theory:
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/thoughts.html#OODA

further musings

the oldest is first but for blog writing time is reversed....ie the the first is the last or latest, the most recent.

When the miracle flows, it flows both ways. With each gift the threads of benevolence are knotted, snaring both giver and recipient. I've only slowly come to realize that good givers are those who learn to receive with grace as well. They radiate a sense of being indebted and a state of being thankful. As a matter of fact, we are all at the receiving end of a huge gift simply by being alive. (Kevin Kelly)


Pasteur once said, chance favors only a mind prepared.

sesquipedalian (characterized by the use of long words)
(said of the prose of WF Buckley)

Narrative is the quality of story telling. Story is a fundamental prism through which we as human beings can look at ourselves and derive meaning, purpose and direction in our living. Our lives are stories, and stories resonate with our primal approach to integration with our environment. Bringing a sense of story-telling, or narrative, to our conscious self-dialogue or our social interaction is a basic tool for framing meaning within a context of particulars that apply to ourselves in time and space, i.e. reality. And Meaning is the meat our brains need to grow.

"The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of blessings previously secured" (Cicero)

What's it for or about anyway, when you, alone, is all that's at risk
Temporal for sure, foreclosure assured, consider it done.
If you hear things that still the storm for you, or find the stillness within the storm,
There's nothing that can rob what's bequeathed to you
It's out of reach for all the cosmos except you
And if you let it go
It won't slip away.

"We find ourselves facing a version of the paradox of the Cretan liar: (if) all beliefs, including this one, are the products of evolution, and all beliefs that are products of evolution cannot be known to be true....But how can reality have any moral quality without having an immanent or transcendent purpose? ... The last of the atheist's Ten Commandments ends with the following:"Question everything." Everything? Including the need to question everything, and so on ad infinitum?
(Theodore Dalrymple)

Aristotle noted, "That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it."

cultural, political dribbles and threads

James Taranto writes the blog Online Journal: Best of the web" for the WSJ. He's a master of irony and turning the tables on the uncunning of the culturally bourgeois pc status quo:

"The New York Times, meanwhile, reports on some good news: Americans' life expectancy has increased. But wait! Actually, this is bad news! The headline reads, "Gap in Life Expectancy Widens for the Nation."

So the rich are getting older while the poor are getting younger? Not quite. Everyone is living longer, but "affluent people have experienced greater gains, and this, in turn, has caused a widening gap":

In 1980-82, Dr. [Gopal] Singh [of the Department of Health and Human Services] said, people in the most affluent group could expect to live 2.8 years longer than people in the most deprived group (75.8 versus 73 years). By 1998-2000, the difference in life expectancy had increased to 4.5 years (79.2 versus 74.7 years), and it continues to grow, he said.
The Times notes that "the Democratic candidates for president, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, have championed legislation to reduce such disparities." This sounds a bit too "Logan's Run" for our liking.

But maybe the folks in Massachusetts have the solution to this vexing problem. After all, there are lots of euphemisms for death. Instead of saying that richer people live longer, why not say that poorer people "go to a better place" faster? That sounds nicer."

Musings

Do we often let our theories or understandings of things become confused with the actual thing itself? But perception of an object is not the object itself. My understanding is not exhaustive of the thing i am attempting to understand. When i engage with an idea or phenomenon of common knowledge that has had formulation over the millenia, and begin to apprehend the whole sum of what has been said and/or known/established thus far, i may or may not become adept at the subject, but still I will not be owner of the object itself. Most especially when that object is the Prime Mover, the Big Idea. For example, someone (one of the "New Atheists", I think) has posited that there are "4 components of the Judeo-Christian theory of God: omniscience, omnipotence, goodness and creator." Thus, they assume they have pinned god down succinctly, and may dispose or otherwise arbitrate over whether or not God is sufficient for their sanction. But, let one's idea of god not be thought sufficient to know God, but only as one's idea [Plato's chair notwithstanding]. God alone is God. How can a 4 dimensional being conceive of a being of a greater dimensional array? Let us stipulate that God is prior to all other being. By definition, God must be primal, eternal and self-existant. Because the universe exists, then, God, the cause of it, is its creator. My assertion, definition, dissection or disputation of god's omnipotence does not rise to the level of God's self-existance. If my human mind asks: can god create a rock so big that he cannot lift it? one may respond: well if he can do so, and then not lift it, then he's not omnipotent; or if he can't create such a rock then he's not omnipotent, and so disprove any assertion of god's omnipotence....sorry, but not so, the actual state of God's omnipotence is such that God can create such a rock AND lift it as well, Cartesian logic notwithstanding. Nor is God's omniscience flummoxed by the paradox of God's forgetfulness much less my dimensional finitude. This is not a case of "A" being equal to "not A". Pity the man who thinks of god as the created, finite, limited, several-dimensioned being created by craven mind of men. God is the uncreated infinite unlimited trans/poly-dimensional being forever beyond the pinching grasp of craven men, who nonetheless can, by mysterious grace, contemplate God. The "Judeo-Christian" "theory" of God is not some closed theory that exists within the covers of a theological textbook or even a bible. Be not quick to erect straw men that you then dissect as representing the god you suppose you have apprehended based on your reading of either scripture or the scribbled ravings of self-appointed intellectual elites. 9-09-07

"God" as a term must be understood to refer to a primal or primary reality, a fundamental, non-projected, incomprehensible, uncreated Transcendence.

For the truculent iconoclast we must point out that the term refers to something pre-dating all phenomenology & human conception, out-classing all categories of mind, thought, image, etc.

We are thus obliged to stipulate that all words and language employed are merely referent, symbolic, suggestive, reductionist....But also that all words, ideas, meanings so employed derive their utility from that irreducible & inescapable light that the infinite unknowable darkness casts on all else, conferring Meaning itself, if it is to be had, on any and all differentiated existence.

"Intelligibility... leads us in the final analysis....to that transcendant and primordial thought imprinted on all things" Pope John Paul II (re: Galileo) 1992. The intelligibility of the created universe is treated by the materialist philosopher as a "fait accompli" or a natural inevitability resulting from the evolution of our perceiving organ tissue in the environment of it's context. Of course things make sense because senses make things. Logic is logical because it exists as logic, therefore it must be logical to itself, else it wouldn't be adaptive to survival of the "species" or the dna or the whatever reductionist microcomponent agent directs the perpetuation of material being. 09-29-07

The mathematical phenomenon of the laws of motion, for instance, govern the physical motions of objects within a wide sphere of common experience, observed and tested, and proven to the mind of humanity, in such a way as to astound and surprise that mind with the coherence and orderly relationships of their associations. For example, the acceleration of falling objects (i.e. objects responding to gravity on earth) is such that their speed increases as the mathmatical square of the time traveled. 09-29-07

Why and how is it that it should be precisely and exactly that quantifiable and distinct proportion, linking time and space in a dynamically charged continuum? The self-revealing answer seems to indicate that it is because time & space, material and intelligibility, share some singularity of origin, and thus, relationship. 10-26-07

"You cannot step into the same river twice"

The title of this entry is taken from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus.

The following are steps into a river.

2-23-03
Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
The act of measuring one magnitude of a particle, be it it's mass, it's velocity, or it's position, causes the other magnitudes to blur. This is not due to imprecise measurements. Technology is advanced enough to yield hypothetical correct measurements. The blurring of these magnitudes is a fundamental property of nature.
The notion of the observer becoming a part of the observed system is fundamentally new in physics-as-understood-by-the-common-man (me). In quantum physics, the observer is no longer thought of as external and neutral, but through the act of measurement he becomes himself a part of the observed reality. This marks the end of the neutrality of the experimenter, or of "science" per se.


A lot of people are conditioned to think in very short terms. They have little or no historical sense or larger "world-view". Those who do so can be swept along by any herd mantra and ignore or forget what once was common knowledge for prior generations or eras. This new era brings with it a plethora of ways to deconstruct or forget altogether former assumptions of basic reality. For example: bumpersticker punditry, like, "straight, but not narrow", or "the religious right is neither". A democratic consensus of strategy or community becomes less and less likely.



a random quote from the intelligentsia(Slate magazine):
"The insights imputed to meditation are questionable, too. Meditation, the brain researcher Francisco Varela told me before he died in 2001, confirms the Buddhist doctrine of anatta, which holds that the self is an illusion. Varela contended that anatta has also been corroborated by cognitive science, which has discovered that our perception of our minds as discrete, unified entities is an illusion foisted upon us by our clever brains. In fact, all that cognitive science has revealed is that the mind is an emergent phenomenon, which is difficult to explain or predict in terms of its parts; few scientists would equate the property of emergence with nonexistence, as anatta does." from: Buddhist Retreat Why I gave up on finding my religion. By John Horgan Posted Wednesday, February 12, 2003, Slate magazine
(2-18-06)

my comment:
perhaps Francisco himself was, afterall, just an illusion. Perhaps his mother thought so, too, ...who, no doubt, along w/ other cognitive scientists, corroborated the non-existence of his mind...that discrete particle of unified entity-ness...our perception is a clever illusion of our perceiver(brain)...wait, ... starting to get blurry here...confused...no, maybe not...ah!
I'm a bag of chemicals, now I understand. Meaningless random atoms have achieved what the "made-in-the-image-of-God" only imagined. So fulfilled, so self-satisfied.

Self is an illusion in the sense that the story in a novel is an illusion, in spite of the empirical existence of the novel itself, or the veracity of the significance of the story. It both exists and does not exist and there is no contradiction. Just don't try to squeeze a fistful of water too tightly, and insist on always having things your own way.

Days past, slow and fast.

Forgive me, bloggee, for I have sinned...it's been 8 m0nths since my last blogsession.

Of every word you shall give account, so let my words be few...

two ears, one mouth, do the math...

And yet I'm as likely to err on the one side as the other, so doesn't that make it a wash?

Still, I suspect it's better to err on the revelatory side than on the "prudential" side,

at least it adds a little fuel to the fire...hope you feel the warmth...

So here we are, still at Searock, chopping wood and carrying water, doing the necessary things, conducting our lives, etc. Trying to stay outta trouble, yet stir the pot sufficiently to cook up something of substance. Circling the drain with ever more relevance and cogency, speed and freedom from self-importance. Still have those major creative projects gestating on a back burner somewhere nearby. (This is just a minor dalliance, no?) Putting out the daily wildfires, eschewing superfluity, albeit superficially and spottily, in the face of the staggering suffering being endured in the world at large. And so I take up the blog, that 21st century democratic tool of the upwardly mobile proletariat, to assuage the inward call to outwardness and activism, to self-revelatory declaration and messianic glory. It affords the reader some perspective against which to see themselves, perhaps; some perspective on who they're reading, and fill in a very few of the blanks inevitably left by a world going faster than any of us really can keep up with.

Today I hauled up more granite from the shore, at 120lbs. per cubic foot. In 9 or 10 tons I should have plenty to re-pave the path. I can get about one cu.ft. per haul. Last night I called Pepe, the stone mason, and secured his willingness to come out for a visit and reveal his secrets. Need to know what mix he used for grout and such. J. Hudson gave me the name of a person who worked here some time in the past on the courtyard patio, someone who may be willing to help with the path. So far, though, he's been unwilling to call me back.

Also today, fixed a short in the garbage disposal switch box that I created when I installed the safety cover over the switch. Difficulty factor of 7.9 out of 10. Fixed the broken leg on the J. Butler-built bed in bedroom 1. Restocked all firewood piles...man, there are a lot of rats out in the woodpile! (judging by the amount of rat turds) Put pulleys, ropes and cleats on the two ferns hanging in plant room 2, so they can be lowered down to be watered and cared for properly. Other stuff got done, but at what point do you get bored recounting stuff, neglecting stuff you oughta be doing, etc. Love everybody....do what needs doing...spend it all!

Romance, pathos, fun, & logic

Romance and pathos and fun and logic all welded together. This is a phrase i came across in a book by William Lee Miller called Lincoln's Virtues. It was something he quoted from the Reverend Mr. Gulliver of Norwich, Conn. commenting to Linclon regarding the illustrations used in a speech he'd given.



Anyway,
It is a thought that nearly perfectly captures the ideal quality of the persuasive. It is what i want to learn, how to couch all expression.

3 on a match

3 circles interacting...a marvel to contemplate
proton, neutron,electron
thinking, feeling, acting
truth goodness beauty
beginning middle ending
height width depth
space time energy
you me them
poverty, disease, ignorance
health wealth wisdom
past present future
1,2,3, go