Ideas Have Consequences

Tue Jun 11, 2002 3:40 pm by McGehee [blogoSFERICS]

The Volokh Conspiracy is a closet egghead's paradise. Not only have I found Eugene Volokh to be a source of some of the most rewarding reading I've found in years, but now his brother Sasha has sparked the ol' gray matter with an item questioning the way in which philosophy is studied. A quick exchange of e-mails resulted, and although my initial response to Sasha's post was muddled, his reply helped me to focus my thinking. Mathematics is about numbers. Economics is about values and exchanges. But philosophy is not about ideas. It's about the consequences of ideas. Any idea, no matter how long ago it was developed, is as valid today as it was then. That goes for Socrates on logic, or Euclid on geometry, or Adam Smith on economics, or Karl Marx on -- whatever the hell it was Karl Marx was blithering about. And so if all we were interested were the ideas themselves, we could simply divorce them from the historical context in which they were put forth. But simply studying ideas for their own sake gets us nowhere useful. What we need to know is what will happen if we apply these ideas. Mathematical ideas can be tested in equations. Economic ideas can be tested in the marketplace. Where do we test philosophical ideas? The only laboratory available is human experience, of which the record is history. Furthermore, the consequences of past ideas create the milieu in which newer ones are conceived and offered for testing. Philosophy as intellectual history is the only analog that such a discipline can have to the lab notes of a scientist testing a hypothesis. But unlike that scientist, we can never draw a final conclusion and close the experiment -- because like history, the evolution of ideas, and of the consequences resulting from them, will only end when humanity does. In recent years we have been reintroduced to the notion of "unintended consequences." This is something we have had to rediscover only because the attempted divorce of ideas from consequences is fairly recent; generations of Dead White Males understood that ideas have consequences, both intended and otherwise -- which is why they took philosophy as seriously as they did. What -- you wondered why our highest degree of learning is the Doctor of Philosophy?

Final Results Are In

Tue Jun 11, 2002 9:40 am by McGehee [blogoSFERICS]

Total unique visitors tracked yesterday by ExtremeTracker: 578. That's more than ten times the pre-June 10 daily average, yet the bulk of it came after the slightly-before-2:00 p.m. EDT Flyover update for 'Dirty Bomb' story news, and the slightly-after-2:00 p.m. EDT InstaMention in which the Professor hyped Flyover. It remains to be seen how much of that traffic will sustain itself. In a side note, apparently a lot of Flyover visitors check out my Web Log links, because John Dunshee of Just Some Poor Schmuck credits the Flyover empire with a high number of referrals to his blog. Happy to help, John. Call it trickle-down InstaPundit traffic.

‘German Antique’

Tue Jun 11, 2002 9:32 am by McGehee [Wackadoodle] [blogoSFERICS]

That's the heading on an item in today's "Inside the Beltway" by John McCaslin. It's carried in The Washington Times but doesn't appear to be archived there (as far as I've been able to determine), so I'll copy the item here: German antique Could that have been President Bush's controversial former secretary of labor nominee Linda Chavez and her husband, Chris Gersten, arguing Sunday afternoon with a Purcellville, Va., antique dealer peddling a Nazi flag? Yes, says our eyewitness. "The local merchant had the flag hung over the edge of the table to display it for sale — this was a consignment item," says Ken Hottenstein. "After all of the yelling and threats by the Chavez's to get the [news]papers, call the police and people in high places involved, the merchant rolled the flag up just to get them to leave, which they did." Mr. Gersten was reportedly so agitated at the display of the flag that he "picked up an item and threw it down on the display table. Mind you, he had not purchased that item," the witness says. The couple, who live near Purcellville, in rural Northern Virginia, could not be reached for comment yesterday. "I am a conservative and I can't stand it when people wish to censor and hide history," says Mr. Hottenstein. "Are we to take every thing that offends people and destroy it?" Mrs. Chavez last year withdrew her nomination to head the Labor Department after reports surfaced that she'd hired an illegal immigrant in her home. She denied the charges, saying she was only helping a penniless Guatemalan refugee flee an abusive relationship. She was later critical of the Bush administration for not being overly supportive during her failed confirmation process. On the one hand, strong feelings about the Holocaust and its perpetrators are a good thing. On the other hand, it's a bad thing to censor history. There are those who would like for everything about the Confederacy to be erased from remembered history, never pausing to think what would happen if they succeeded: "Mommy, who did we fight the Civil War against?" "I don't know, sweetheart." "Then how do we know we were the good guys?" Ditto the Holocaust. Rush Limbaugh says once conservatives have achieved total victory over liberalism, we should preserve a few of them on college "campi" so we'll never forget what they were all about. If we are to remain a healthy civilization with a healthy understanding of what we stand for, we must never eradicate any and all discussion of the things we stand against. UPDATE: Chavez wrote a column about this incident, defending her conduct by stating, among other things, that the item in question would have attracted all kinds of neo-Nazis and white supremacists. I don't know about that, but it sure attracted Linda Chavez and her husband.

He Should Change His Name to Ptarmigan

Mon Jun 10, 2002 7:17 pm by McGehee [Humor?] [blogoSFERICS]

The Corner has an item declaring that one of the senior British officers in Bagram is a Lt. Col. Chicken. If he gets promoted, he can take comfort in the fact that the Brits, using different rank insignia, don't distinguish full colonels from the "lite" variety by referring to them as "bird colonels." (Re the title I've given his item: there is a village in Interior Alaska named Chicken. Local lore claims the founders thereof wanted to name the place "Ptarmigan" but decided "Chicken" was easier to spell. Thus, exotic comestibles in Alaska are all said to taste like ptarmigan.)

How Did I Get THERE?

Sun Jun 9, 2002 8:47 pm by McGehee [Our Times] [blogoSFERICS]

It started with an item at InstaPundit, which promised a discussion of "why pornography is (usually) bad". Turns out it wasn't a discussion of the morality of pornography, but the quality. It proved, nevertheless, to be interesting reading, and of course to fully understand the points being made I had to examine the, er, exhibits. You know, you just never realize the philosophical ramifications of some topics until -- well... The original discussion has become a blogbuzz, with further commentary here. My opinion? Uhhhhh...... People who fuel demand for pornography typically aren't the most ambitious people you're likely to meet -- otherwise they'd get their jollies the old-fashioned, pre-Magic Lantern way. So if the quality of what they get isn't all that great, who should be surprised if they settle for it rather than demanding a better -- a better, uh... You know.

Well It’s About Time!
Sun Jun 9, 2002 1:24 pm by McGehee [blogoSFERICS]	I didn't even have anything I wanted to blog today -- just with Blogspot being down, and then my cable modem having a cyberfart, and now Blogger being so dang buggy, I've been chewing at this since this morning and it's about @#$!! time I was able to get through. Maybe I'll have something to blog about later. If something else doesn't go wrong.

Cousins, I’ve Got Cousins

Sat Jun 8, 2002 11:48 am by McGehee [blogoSFERICS]

First it was this item about Indy racer Robby McGehee. Today I received in my e-mail a message from another cousin, artist Paul McGehee. It's a promotional message, but family and commerce needn't be mutually exclusive, so for what little help it may provide, I'll reproduce the message here. Dear friends, My new print will take you back to a simpler time, when cares were few... "Old Rehoboth Beach" - 1925 http://paulmcgeheeart.com/pages/OldRehobothBeach.htm if you wish to visit my main site: http://paulmcgeheeart.com Imagine a warm, breezy summer's day at the Delaware seashore, over three quarters of a century ago...children playing in the surf, dodging the breakers as they roll in from the salty Atlantic...a sunny blue sky populated by seagulls, and a kite or two...a memory from the past. Imagine your own signed, or remarqued, copy of "Old Rehoboth Beach" displayed in your home or office, just right for gazing at and daydreaming... Your copy of "Old Rehoboth Beach" can be ordered online for fast shipment to your door at http://paulmcgeheeart.com. If you have any questions, or you would prefer to place your order by phone, you may call me at (703) 525-2805 or toll-free at 1-800-ART-PRINT. They are also available at Paul McGehee's Old Town Gallery, 109 N. Fairfax St., Alexandria, VA 22314, phone (703) 548-7729 where my staff will happily assist you in your art and custom framing choices. "Old Rehoboth Beach" is now available! Enjoy! With my best wishes, Paul McGehee Seriously, check out the site. Paul's quite talented (even if he isn't as closely related to me as Rod McGehee, who's a first cousin). UPDATE 12:30 p.m. EDT: This item inspired me to collect links on Google for a special McGehee-themed links page I've had on my main website for years and years, and in the course of the search I found this link which echoes my Robby McGehee item by calling him "a reluctant guinea pig". Anyway, as of this moment I'm still collecting my links, but later this afternoon the expanded page should be up, for anyone who's interested.

The Blogosphere Ecosystem, Updated

Fri Jun 7, 2002 3:27 pm by McGehee [blogoSFERICS]

NZ Bear's Blogosphere Ecosystem -- a ranking list based on the number of sites on the list with links to a particular site -- has been updated with more sites added to the list. The result is that although Flyover Country Today (link obsolete) now shows eight links rather than five, it's now tied for 179th place rather than 161st. There are three other sites with eight links. Bear has also created a ranked list based on the total number of links on the site going to other sites on the list. Flyover shows 18 of these and is tied for 140th with four others. The out-linking list puts Flyover among the "Playing Hard to Get". Those with the most out-links are "Penultimate Link Sluts", so I guess my mama brung me up right.

Friendly Advice (Yeah, Right!) for Roy Barnes

Thu Jun 6, 2002 4:03 pm by McGehee [Humor?] [blogoSFERICS]

Just when you thought it was safe to think about politics, some Democrats have been talking up our own ‘King Roy’ as a viable candidate for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. The word is that Barnes’ record could serve him well in such a bid. No doubt they’re looking at that record in somewhat the same way Bill Clinton wanted America to view his record as Governor of Arkansas. Well, partisanship has its limits, so here are a few bits of well-intentioned advice for you, Governor, if you’re serious about this presidential business. Two words: “contact lenses.” The last time a major party gave its presidential nomination to a man who wore glasses full-time was 1948. And whatever you might think you have in common with fellow Democrat Harry Truman, there’s one thing Truman had in ‘48 that you wouldn’t have in ‘04: incumbency. So, Roy, you might want to ditch the specs. They make you look like Archie and Veronica’s principal, Mr. Weatherbee. While we’re at it, think “makeover.” Having more hair than Mr. Weatherbee won’t count for much to voters in those other 49 states, where how you look almost matters more than what you stand for, so you might want to try a new hairstyle — maybe a Gary Condit. And while we Republicans may only use the phrase “gubernatorial expansionism” to refer to your penchant for grabbing power away from the Legislature and other constitutional officers, Roy, you should bear in mind that a presidential campaign is media-driven, and the camera adds 15 pounds. Don’t alienate your base — either one. Being a Democrat, of course, you’re faced with the fact that your base in a national campaign is vastly different from your base here in Georgia. And yet, if you get the nomination, nothing could be more embarrassing than losing your home state because voters here don’t recognize you anymore. This is a Catch-22, sure enough, but that’s life as a Democrat. Think ahead — way-y-y ahead. Out in California, there are those who say that Gray Davis may have gotten into his present predicament because his eyes were on a 2004 presidential campaign instead of his 2002 re-election campaign or, more importantly, actually governing the state. That’s just so much hooey. There’s nothing major political contributors respect more than a politician who raises money for a presidential campaign while still seeking re-election to his day job. Or better still, for a presidential re-election campaign before he’s been elected the first time. Those money men want to know that you’re ambitious, that you‘ll bring the same go-getter attitude to D.C. that you‘ve demonstrated in Atlanta. Aim high! Be careful about taking advice. This is something with which Republicans have some experience, since we are often presented with advice from people who don’t have our best interests at heart. In your case, ignore advice from Al Gore or John Kerry — listen to us Bush Republicans. We only want to help you. Yeah, that‘s the ticket.

Trenchant Observation Dept.

Wed Jun 5, 2002 3:46 pm by McGehee [Here's Your Sign] [blogoSFERICS]

Stupidity must be quantifiable. Some people have a demonstrably large amount of it. Today I saw a person trying to back out of her driveway onto a four-lane highway -- despite having a driveway long enough and unconstricted enough that she could very easily have turned around and come out front-ways. Because she was coming out backwards she was stymied by traffic that would not have been such an obstacle had she simply used some of that wasted gray matter taking up space inside her noggin.

Page 762 of 796 pages « First  <  760 761 762 763 764 >  Last »