From Omar Khayyam's Ruba'iyat:
If I'm drunk on forbidden wine, so I am! / And if I'm an unbeliever, a pagan, or idolater, so I am! / Every sect has its own suspicions of me, / I myself am just what I am.
My rule of life is to drink and be merry, / To be free from belief and unbelief is my religion: / I asked the Bride of Destiny her bride-price, / "Your joyous heart," she said.
Due to a high metabolism, I don't feel any positive effects from drinking, so Khayyam's "forbidden wine" gives me no succor. Even so, I appreciate good poetry, and I am using his words to commemorate my 1,000th post on this blog. (At least I think this is the 1,000th post.)
I'll buy myself an eggnog latte later as a reward. For my regular readers, I hope you continue to enjoy my blog. As always, thanks for reading.
"And if an epitaph be my story, I'd have a short one ready for my own: I had a lover's quarrel with the world." -- Robert Frost
Monday, November 23, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Want to Learn More about Iran and Nuclear Weapons?
If you want to learn more about Iran and nuclear weapons, you have to listen to Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei. Charlie Rose interviewed him in 2007. See here.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Dodgeball and Evolution
Barry Petchesky cracks me up.
A kid got nailed in the face during a dodgeball game at his school, and now he might sue the city. Maybe he needs to sue evolution for not giving him the reflexes to survive in middle school gym class.
I think I understand what happened here. Kid gets hit in the face, incurs about 15 grand in dental work, and someone has to pay for it. Parents probably don't have 15 grand to pay a dentist or dental insurance, so they need to get the money from somewhere...and they sue. The city, which runs the school, offers to give the lawyer 5 grand and the kid 15 grand to avoid lawyers' fees and a sympathetic jury.
Who's ultimately on the hook? NYC taxpayers. And you know what? I'm okay with that.
A kid got nailed in the face during a dodgeball game at his school, and now he might sue the city. Maybe he needs to sue evolution for not giving him the reflexes to survive in middle school gym class.
I think I understand what happened here. Kid gets hit in the face, incurs about 15 grand in dental work, and someone has to pay for it. Parents probably don't have 15 grand to pay a dentist or dental insurance, so they need to get the money from somewhere...and they sue. The city, which runs the school, offers to give the lawyer 5 grand and the kid 15 grand to avoid lawyers' fees and a sympathetic jury.
Who's ultimately on the hook? NYC taxpayers. And you know what? I'm okay with that.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Book Recommendation: The Assist
I recently finished a great book, Neil Swidey's The Assist. The author shadows a Boston high school basketball team and their driven coach. Along the way, the author examines busing, racial issues, the judicial system, and the code of the streets. Imagine Hoop Dreams crossed with Boyz in the Hood.
On white flight in Boston's neighborhoods: "The sad fact, she said, is most whites aren't comfortable being in the minority, and unless they can be guaranteed a school where they are in the majority, most of them won't return to the public schools." (page 107, paperback, Public Affairs, 2008)
On the origins of basketball: "In December 1891, James Naismith, a thirty-year-old phys-ed teacher at the School for Christian Workers, nailed two half-bushel peach baskets to the edge of an elevated indoor track, divided his eighteen stir-crazy students into two teams of nine, and taught them to bounce a fat ball and toss it at their side's basket. There were no holes at the bottom of the baskets, so Naismith kept a ladder nearby for use after each score." (page 87)
From an experienced school administrator: "Kids are no damn good!" [Headmaster Michael] Fung would tell all the wide-eyed recent college grads he hired to rejuvenate his faculty. "They leave the school a mess. They don't listen. They swear." Then he would pause for effect. "That's why we have to work hard to make them good." (page 168)
Fung advised the teacher[that] students must be taught to respect boundaries. No, the teacher replied, she wanted teach them that they are respected and trusted. Not long after that, her students stole her lunch. Then her credit card. Then her $300 jacket, which they set on fire. She no longer worked at Charlestown High. (page 171)
On Criminal Law: "Do we have a Bruton problem?" he asked, invoking a Supreme Court ruling that had become shorthand for trials of co-defendants that get stuck in a goulash of blame. (page 292)
On white flight in Boston's neighborhoods: "The sad fact, she said, is most whites aren't comfortable being in the minority, and unless they can be guaranteed a school where they are in the majority, most of them won't return to the public schools." (page 107, paperback, Public Affairs, 2008)
On the origins of basketball: "In December 1891, James Naismith, a thirty-year-old phys-ed teacher at the School for Christian Workers, nailed two half-bushel peach baskets to the edge of an elevated indoor track, divided his eighteen stir-crazy students into two teams of nine, and taught them to bounce a fat ball and toss it at their side's basket. There were no holes at the bottom of the baskets, so Naismith kept a ladder nearby for use after each score." (page 87)
From an experienced school administrator: "Kids are no damn good!" [Headmaster Michael] Fung would tell all the wide-eyed recent college grads he hired to rejuvenate his faculty. "They leave the school a mess. They don't listen. They swear." Then he would pause for effect. "That's why we have to work hard to make them good." (page 168)
Fung advised the teacher[that] students must be taught to respect boundaries. No, the teacher replied, she wanted teach them that they are respected and trusted. Not long after that, her students stole her lunch. Then her credit card. Then her $300 jacket, which they set on fire. She no longer worked at Charlestown High. (page 171)
On Criminal Law: "Do we have a Bruton problem?" he asked, invoking a Supreme Court ruling that had become shorthand for trials of co-defendants that get stuck in a goulash of blame. (page 292)
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Where Did the Stimulus Money Go?
Wondering how the stimulus money is being spent? You can look up various beneficiaries online. Here is the breakdown for Santa Clara County. Most of the money went to school districts. Teachers' unions have major pull nationwide, and California is no exception.
According to a recent Pew Center report, the ten most financially troubled states are: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Also, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, New York and Hawaii are suffering fiscal problems.
According to a recent Pew Center report, the ten most financially troubled states are: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Also, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, New York and Hawaii are suffering fiscal problems.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
More Wisdom from Dick Armey
Republican Dick Armey:
Reagan went to Berlin and said, "Tear down this wall." We [Republicans] went to San Diego and said, "Build a fence." It was just stupid. You have Hispanics saying, "I’m not going to vote for those guys because they don’t like me."
More from Dick Armey here and here.
Reagan went to Berlin and said, "Tear down this wall." We [Republicans] went to San Diego and said, "Build a fence." It was just stupid. You have Hispanics saying, "I’m not going to vote for those guys because they don’t like me."
More from Dick Armey here and here.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)