I remember Uncle Ken telling us about the time he was arrested for writing on the sidewalk with chalk, but I don't remember anything about assault with a deadly weapon at Berkeley. Maybe it's none of my business, but that's never stopped me before.
I saw a show on PBS once about a lady scientist who trained an orangutan to use American sign language, the one that deaf people use. He got so that he could form simple phrases and sentences, but he never got past about the level of a two year old human. She raised him from infancy and he seemed to think that he was human. Although the lady and the orangutan formed a special bond, maybe too special, he was also friendly with other humans and everybody liked him. That was until he hit puberty and tried to become too friendly with some of the women around the university. They tried locking him up but, by that time, he had become quite an escape artist. It was finally decided that he had to go live in a zoo or park with others of his species. He never did adapt to that, even after the lady was told to stop visiting him because, whenever she did, he was devastated for days after she left. Meanwhile, the funding for the program was cut, and the university decided that they weren't going to support any more experiments like this because it wasn't fair to the animals. Last I heard, the lady was trying to find a way to adopt him on her own, but I never heard whether or not she was successful.
I briefly had a job with UPS in the Chicago suburbs. I could never do it to their satisfaction and finally gave up trying. I think my biggest problem was sorting my load in the morning. The packages came down a conveyor and each driver took off the ones for his route and loaded them in his truck in the order in which they would be delivered. We were supposed to complete this task and get out on the road in a certain amount of time, and I never could. The best I could do was toss the packages into the truck any old way and then stop by the side of the road to sort them afterwards. This used up some of the time that I was supposed to spend making my deliveries, so I couldn't complete that on time either. At one point they sent a supervisor out with me to see what I was doing wrong, but he wasn't much help. Well actually, he was too much help, sorting the load for me while I was driving the truck. We made record time that day but, of course, the next day without him along, it was back to business as usual. In a subsequent meeting with me and the big boss, this guy denied helping me and said that he couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I finally decided that I just wasn't cut out for this line of work and quit to spare them the task of firing me. It turned out for the best, though, because, shortly after that, I moved to Cheboygan where I lived happily ever after.
Friday, December 29, 2017
civil service interviews
I had a brief stint at the post office. Before I took the actual test I studied in a book of practice tests. It was just a certain way of thinking and the longer I took the practice tests the better I got at it, so I did pretty good on the test. When I went in for the interview, the guy looked kind of bored and he asked me if I could lift a forty pound bag of mail. I said I supposed so, and he said I was hired.
Years later I took an IRS exam in Texas and did well enough to be called in for an interview. Well I knew about those civil service interviews, if you passed the test you got the job. So when they asked me if i had ever been arrested I told them about my arrests including the one in Berkeley for assault with a deadly weapon. What? they asked, and I went on about how you know, it was the sixties, and you know and they were all What? again. And in the end they didn't hire me. I guess all civil service interviews are the same.
Years later I was being interviewed for juror duty, and I told about the Berkeley arrest, thinking maybe it would get me off duty, but it didn't. It was about a guy at the Nabisco bakery who slipped moving some equipment and broke his knee on the greasy floor. The Nabisco lawyer said, well the guy should have refused to move the equipment but I thought hell, if the boss tells you to do something you have to do it. Made a short speech to that effect in the jury room, and I don't know if it had any effect, but the jury voted for the guy. A few months later I ran across the guy's lawyer on the street, and he said when he heard about that Berkeley arrest he knew I was a bleeding heart liberal and didn't try to kick me off the jury.
Hum, bleeding heart liberal. There's a discussion, but we will skip that this freezing morning because neither dawg seems interested in liberals.
Gorillas have a pretty big vocabulary, but not what we call a language. But they do know how to lie. Sometimes one of the gorillas makes the warning noise for predators and all the gorillas run away and he eats the breadfruit they have stored up, but generally they only let him get away with that once or twice. I suppose the cry of alarm became the word for lion and so on. But vocabulary is not enough, you have to have syntax. Those chimps that pushed the computer buttons had a large vocabulary and they could express themselves pretty well as to what they wanted, but they never developed sufficient syntax to be called a language. They didn't have that hard-wired stuff like we humans do.
Years later I took an IRS exam in Texas and did well enough to be called in for an interview. Well I knew about those civil service interviews, if you passed the test you got the job. So when they asked me if i had ever been arrested I told them about my arrests including the one in Berkeley for assault with a deadly weapon. What? they asked, and I went on about how you know, it was the sixties, and you know and they were all What? again. And in the end they didn't hire me. I guess all civil service interviews are the same.
Years later I was being interviewed for juror duty, and I told about the Berkeley arrest, thinking maybe it would get me off duty, but it didn't. It was about a guy at the Nabisco bakery who slipped moving some equipment and broke his knee on the greasy floor. The Nabisco lawyer said, well the guy should have refused to move the equipment but I thought hell, if the boss tells you to do something you have to do it. Made a short speech to that effect in the jury room, and I don't know if it had any effect, but the jury voted for the guy. A few months later I ran across the guy's lawyer on the street, and he said when he heard about that Berkeley arrest he knew I was a bleeding heart liberal and didn't try to kick me off the jury.
Hum, bleeding heart liberal. There's a discussion, but we will skip that this freezing morning because neither dawg seems interested in liberals.
Gorillas have a pretty big vocabulary, but not what we call a language. But they do know how to lie. Sometimes one of the gorillas makes the warning noise for predators and all the gorillas run away and he eats the breadfruit they have stored up, but generally they only let him get away with that once or twice. I suppose the cry of alarm became the word for lion and so on. But vocabulary is not enough, you have to have syntax. Those chimps that pushed the computer buttons had a large vocabulary and they could express themselves pretty well as to what they wanted, but they never developed sufficient syntax to be called a language. They didn't have that hard-wired stuff like we humans do.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Thinking Without Words
Some people can indeed think without words, my hypothetical wife does it all the time. I read something about it once, told my hypothetical wife about what I had read, and she said that she thought everybody thought like that. You know when people say something like. "I can (or can't) picture that."? I had always thought that was just a figure of speech, but it turns out that some people think primary in pictures instead of words. If they hear or read something in words, their mind has to translate that into a picture before they can commit it to memory. I'm just the opposite. If I see a picture or witness a real life event, I have to describe it to myself in words before I can assimilate it.
Then there are people who have what's called a photographic memory. I took a test once to become a postal worker, and flunked it miserably. We were shown a series of boxes, each containing a dozen or more addresses. We were allowed to study the diagram for five minutes, then the paper was taken away, and we were given a list of all the addresses, in no particular order, and had to say which addresses belonged in which box. The guy sitting next to me had successfully taken this test before and become a substitute mailman for awhile in some city down below. Now he was taking it again because he had moved up here and wanted to do the same work locally. In discussing it afterwards, it became apparent that we each had different ways of processing knowledge. During the five minutes of study, I kept looking for some kind of pattern, and there was none to be found. The other guy said that he just looked at the whole page and, when he closed his eyes during the test, he could see the whole page in his mind like a picture. Okay, in this case it was words and numbers, but it wouldn't have made any difference to him if it had been apples and oranges. If it had been apples and oranges, I would have memorized it by saying to myself, "apple, apple, orange, apple, orange, orange, apple", like that.
Primitive humans probably thought about what they saw around them and made up words to describe it later so they could tell others about what they had seen. A guy like me would have had a hard before language was invented, because I wouldn't even have been able to talk to myself.
the lying leaders of tomorrow
A thrilling tale from Old Dog about his brother-in-law. Glad it had a happy ending. A taco buffet? Is that where you have the hard shells at one end and then a bunch of bowls with like onions and pico de gallo and picadillo and whatnot and you make your own taco. As I recall that's the way Mexican food hit the scene in the taco craze of the seventies. It was all about the puzzled guest and the charming hostess (women still did all the cooking in those days) explaining how to go down the line and fill the hard shell and come up with your own customized taco, one that expresses the real you in every way.
I think the Brits have a whole range of things they call puddings while on this side of the pond it is the chocolate, butterscotch, or chocolate goo. I wonder about Mexican (Tex Mex) food being better here in Chicago than the west coast. But you know those west coasties, they have to be all healthy and organic and trendy with their food. I like those mom and pop Mexican restaurants where the gringos are in the minority and novellas are blasting from the tv and distracting your waitress.
Have I at last brought up a subject that interests the dawgs? The thing I was wondering was can you think without words? How can thinking come first if you can't think without words? Well when your subconscious solves problems it doesn't use any words, and there are times when it seems like a make a decision without going through that if/then thing.
Beagles brings up the subject of body language, particularly learning to be deceptive with it. But how much more deceptive we can be with spoken language. Ah the art of the lie. I've probably said this before, but as Beagles sez, that has never stopped me from saying it again. Below about five years old, kids don't lie because if they broke that lamp they think everybody must know it. But at a certain point they realize that if nobody else was around nobody else knows, and if they say the cat did it, and maybe throw a little adorableness into their presentation, they just might beat the rap.
The white lab crowd rounded up a bunch of kids, maybe six years old and they cooked up some scenario where the kids had to lie to their cohorts. They all could do it, but like kissing ass, it's not good enough to just do it, you have to do it well. They noted the kids who did it well and then they observed them on the playground and the best liars were the natural leaders.
Just as I am happy for Old Dog's brother-in-law, I am happy for Beagles' broken pelvis cat, glad to hear it lived long and prospered.
I suppose you could say that the whole shebang of the big bang is God's way of doing things. Equally you could say it is not, both sides are logically tenable. But as I understand it intelligent design of the kind that the bible thumpers are always trying to get into the curriculum goes considerably beyond that.
And speaking of crazed bible thumpers, this just in, Roy Moore is demanding a new election claiming voter fraud. How can Donald not just love this guy to pieces? I expect tweets to that effect to be floating in from cyberspace in an hour or two.
I think the Brits have a whole range of things they call puddings while on this side of the pond it is the chocolate, butterscotch, or chocolate goo. I wonder about Mexican (Tex Mex) food being better here in Chicago than the west coast. But you know those west coasties, they have to be all healthy and organic and trendy with their food. I like those mom and pop Mexican restaurants where the gringos are in the minority and novellas are blasting from the tv and distracting your waitress.
Have I at last brought up a subject that interests the dawgs? The thing I was wondering was can you think without words? How can thinking come first if you can't think without words? Well when your subconscious solves problems it doesn't use any words, and there are times when it seems like a make a decision without going through that if/then thing.
Beagles brings up the subject of body language, particularly learning to be deceptive with it. But how much more deceptive we can be with spoken language. Ah the art of the lie. I've probably said this before, but as Beagles sez, that has never stopped me from saying it again. Below about five years old, kids don't lie because if they broke that lamp they think everybody must know it. But at a certain point they realize that if nobody else was around nobody else knows, and if they say the cat did it, and maybe throw a little adorableness into their presentation, they just might beat the rap.
The white lab crowd rounded up a bunch of kids, maybe six years old and they cooked up some scenario where the kids had to lie to their cohorts. They all could do it, but like kissing ass, it's not good enough to just do it, you have to do it well. They noted the kids who did it well and then they observed them on the playground and the best liars were the natural leaders.
Just as I am happy for Old Dog's brother-in-law, I am happy for Beagles' broken pelvis cat, glad to hear it lived long and prospered.
I suppose you could say that the whole shebang of the big bang is God's way of doing things. Equally you could say it is not, both sides are logically tenable. But as I understand it intelligent design of the kind that the bible thumpers are always trying to get into the curriculum goes considerably beyond that.
And speaking of crazed bible thumpers, this just in, Roy Moore is demanding a new election claiming voter fraud. How can Donald not just love this guy to pieces? I expect tweets to that effect to be floating in from cyberspace in an hour or two.
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Thinking and Talking
I don't remember ever reading anything about this, but common sense would seem to indicate that thinking had to come first. Otherwise, what would there be to talk about? I assume we're talking about language here because nonverbal sounds like laughing and crying usually expresses emotion rather than thought. Then there's body language which, if it's spontaneous, usually expresses an emotion, but body language can be learned and practiced deliberately, even deceptively. In that case, a certain amount of thought has to precede it. Laughing and crying can be done deliberately as well, but it takes some practice to make it sound convincing. I seem to remember seeing something on TV about how actors are able to produce this stuff on demand. If they want to cry, they just think of something sad, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the part they are playing at the moment.
Non-human animals certainly communicate with each other, but can their vocalizations be considered language? Some species are said to have an extensive "vocabulary", but that might just be a long list of different sounds that they make. At what point do we call it "language"? Some animal vocalizations appear to serve multiple purposes. I always thought that cars purr only when they are content, until the day I brought an injured cat to the vet. This cat had been run over by a car and was diagnosed with a broken pelvis. I doubt that he was happy about the situation, but he purred while the vet was examining him. I thought we would have to put him down, but the vet told us that, while cats do not usually respond favorably to medical intervention, they often get better on their own. This one made a complete spontaneous recovery and lived with us for years afterward.
I meant to answer Uncle Ken's point about intelligent design theory yesterday, but you know how that goes. While genetics seem to be governed by mathematical probability that borders on randomness, somebody must have ordained the laws of math and random chance in the first place. Or did they just fall out of the sky spontaneously as well? As for all those snippets of vestigial DNA, they might come in handy in the event of some kind of habitat disruption like climate change. Be that as it may, there is no way of knowing if the Intelligent Designer employs the same type of logic that we do. Just because something doesn't make sense to us doesn't mean that it might not make sense to Somebody who is much smarter than we are.
Non-human animals certainly communicate with each other, but can their vocalizations be considered language? Some species are said to have an extensive "vocabulary", but that might just be a long list of different sounds that they make. At what point do we call it "language"? Some animal vocalizations appear to serve multiple purposes. I always thought that cars purr only when they are content, until the day I brought an injured cat to the vet. This cat had been run over by a car and was diagnosed with a broken pelvis. I doubt that he was happy about the situation, but he purred while the vet was examining him. I thought we would have to put him down, but the vet told us that, while cats do not usually respond favorably to medical intervention, they often get better on their own. This one made a complete spontaneous recovery and lived with us for years afterward.
I meant to answer Uncle Ken's point about intelligent design theory yesterday, but you know how that goes. While genetics seem to be governed by mathematical probability that borders on randomness, somebody must have ordained the laws of math and random chance in the first place. Or did they just fall out of the sky spontaneously as well? As for all those snippets of vestigial DNA, they might come in handy in the event of some kind of habitat disruption like climate change. Be that as it may, there is no way of knowing if the Intelligent Designer employs the same type of logic that we do. Just because something doesn't make sense to us doesn't mean that it might not make sense to Somebody who is much smarter than we are.
Figless pudding
No figgy pudding at my sister's home this year, nor turkey, nor ham, nor anything usually associated with a holiday dinner. Instead we had a taco buffet, which was perfectly acceptable considering the circumstances. A week after Thanksgiving my brother-in-law had triple bypass coronary surgery, something that came out of the blue. He woke in the middle of the night with breathing problems and after much yelling and cursing my sister was able to drive him to the hospital; calling 911 and waiting for a response would have cost precious minutes and she can run a red light with the best of them. The patient has been home for more than a week now, recovering nicely but is a little weak, has lost a lot of weight, but otherwise looks good and the prognosis is excellent. Since the simple dinner took a lot of pressure off my sister I hope it becomes a tradition; it's a great alternative and a relief from the usual stressful holiday hooplah. And without little kids running around with their contagious joy at the arrival of Santa Claus, Christmas ends up being just another day with the family and kind of dull, except for the part this year that was as serious as a heart attack.
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Since I don't know all the words to most holiday carols the food known as figgy pudding was new to me, and I'm glad Uncle Ken brought it up. What a marvelous concoction, and you don't even need figs. Anything described as a combination of fruitcake and haggis deserves further study, and the recipes I've found are all over the place with their ingredients. Sweet, savory, or in between and you can bake it, boil it, steam it, or fry it. Liquor is a common ingredient and you can light it on fire. Properly done, it should age for a month before consumption and it will keep for a year. What's not to like? I see endless potential with this one.
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A curious side note regarding food was brought up by my nephew living near Los Angeles, in Redondo Beach. He's a good cook, somewhat of a "foodie" and says the Mexican food in Chicago is better than the stuff in L.A. I would have thought otherwise but it makes sense since a lot of the West Coast Mexicans can be second, third, or even fourth generation but in Chicago a lot of the restaurants are run by more recent arrivals, first generation types. Muy autentico.
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I agree with Chomsky, cognitive processes precede spoken language. But listening to what many people are saying these days you would never know it, it's like they are not thinking at all.
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Since I don't know all the words to most holiday carols the food known as figgy pudding was new to me, and I'm glad Uncle Ken brought it up. What a marvelous concoction, and you don't even need figs. Anything described as a combination of fruitcake and haggis deserves further study, and the recipes I've found are all over the place with their ingredients. Sweet, savory, or in between and you can bake it, boil it, steam it, or fry it. Liquor is a common ingredient and you can light it on fire. Properly done, it should age for a month before consumption and it will keep for a year. What's not to like? I see endless potential with this one.
-----
A curious side note regarding food was brought up by my nephew living near Los Angeles, in Redondo Beach. He's a good cook, somewhat of a "foodie" and says the Mexican food in Chicago is better than the stuff in L.A. I would have thought otherwise but it makes sense since a lot of the West Coast Mexicans can be second, third, or even fourth generation but in Chicago a lot of the restaurants are run by more recent arrivals, first generation types. Muy autentico.
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I agree with Chomsky, cognitive processes precede spoken language. But listening to what many people are saying these days you would never know it, it's like they are not thinking at all.
which came first, thinking or talking?
I've seen those trail camera things all over the internet. The photos, wild animals poking around and maybe sometimes looking shocked when the flash goes off. Good times. They also have those Go something jimmies where you can strap them on you, like body cams I guess. One guy somehow strapped one to his cat's head and he was able to see what his cat did all day long when it went outside, and the answer was not much. Cats are great, but I have to admit that they don't do much. People ask me how are my cats and I want to trot out some little story, and i think back and they slept and they ate and they went to the litter box and they slept and they crawled into my lap and then they jumped off and they slept, and maybe they batted the catnip mouse around a bit, and maybe they ran from room to room in the apartment like everything was on fire for a couple minutes before curling back into sleep. It's hard to fill a Christmas letter with what the cats have done.
I read somewhere that when we first dropped down from the trees we were a favorite meal of the saber tooth tigers, just enough to quell those hunger pains, but not so much that you sleep all day, though they likely did that anyway, being cats. So I mentioned this to Buddy and Sweetie, about their ancestors dining on my ancestors, and they looked mildly interested but a little puzzled. They just didn't see how even a small hominid could fit into those itty bitty cans. And who opened the damn things in those days anyway. I used to think that when cats figured out how to open cans of cat food that would be the end of it for us humans, but then I realized that even if cats knew how to open cans they would prefer to have somebody else do the work.
So thinking you know, really hard to figure out how you could do that without a language? Isn't thinking just talking to yourself? Which came first? Thinking, and we had to invent language to do that properly, or language because we didn't have much to think about until we had some words? Some of those fancy pants linguists, including that new wave leftist Chomsky, believed that the thinking came first, that we had evolved some proto-language hard-wired into our brains just waiting to be given some words to speak with, the reason language pops up whenever you have a bunch of people together.
Is that worth chewing on?
I read somewhere that when we first dropped down from the trees we were a favorite meal of the saber tooth tigers, just enough to quell those hunger pains, but not so much that you sleep all day, though they likely did that anyway, being cats. So I mentioned this to Buddy and Sweetie, about their ancestors dining on my ancestors, and they looked mildly interested but a little puzzled. They just didn't see how even a small hominid could fit into those itty bitty cans. And who opened the damn things in those days anyway. I used to think that when cats figured out how to open cans of cat food that would be the end of it for us humans, but then I realized that even if cats knew how to open cans they would prefer to have somebody else do the work.
So thinking you know, really hard to figure out how you could do that without a language? Isn't thinking just talking to yourself? Which came first? Thinking, and we had to invent language to do that properly, or language because we didn't have much to think about until we had some words? Some of those fancy pants linguists, including that new wave leftist Chomsky, believed that the thinking came first, that we had evolved some proto-language hard-wired into our brains just waiting to be given some words to speak with, the reason language pops up whenever you have a bunch of people together.
Is that worth chewing on?
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
It Wasn't Much Fun
"On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson Trail.
Talk of your cold! Through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see.
It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGhee."
From "The Cremation of Sam McGhee" by Robert Service
If Sam McGhee had been driving a 4WD pickup, equipped with a good heater, instead of a dog sled team, he might not have whimpered so much. We made it to my grand daughter's and back without incident, but I'm glad we didn't have to go outside much. My grand daughter gave us her poinsettia plant because she was worried that one of her cats might eat it and get sick. It was dead by the time we got it home. I understand that poinsettias are vulnerable to cold drafts, which makes me wonder why they are known as a Christmas plant. Anyway, we didn't get a lot of snow, and the snow we did get was dry and fluffy, but they sure got the "blowing" part right! The wind has gone down by now, but so has the temperature, 5 above when I last checked, and heading south from there. It's supposed to be like this for at least the next week. So much for the Global Warming Theory!
My daughter gave me a trail camera. They have been all the rage with the sporting set for some time now, but I have never gotten around to buying one. You just hang it up in the woods and it automatically takes a photo whenever it senses motion. Some of them will even live stream the pictures to your computer in real time. This one doesn't, it has a memory card like any other digital camera, which is just a well because we don't have Wi-Fi in this neighborhood.
My grand daughter gave me a book, "Should the Tent Be Burning Like That? - A Professional Amateur's Guide to the Outdoors" by Bill Heavy. The following excerpt struck me as somewhat relevant:
"Four million years ago on the African savanna, a few of the more adventurous primates climbed down from the trees, stood up on two legs, and, at a crucial moment in evolutionary history, were eaten by giant hyenas. Sadly, the genetic material of those brave hominids (Greek for 'appetizers') is lost to us. The remaining proto-humans spent a terrorized night listening to the cracking of bones and murmuring to each other, 'Let's hang out here a while longer. '"
Talk of your cold! Through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see.
It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGhee."
From "The Cremation of Sam McGhee" by Robert Service
If Sam McGhee had been driving a 4WD pickup, equipped with a good heater, instead of a dog sled team, he might not have whimpered so much. We made it to my grand daughter's and back without incident, but I'm glad we didn't have to go outside much. My grand daughter gave us her poinsettia plant because she was worried that one of her cats might eat it and get sick. It was dead by the time we got it home. I understand that poinsettias are vulnerable to cold drafts, which makes me wonder why they are known as a Christmas plant. Anyway, we didn't get a lot of snow, and the snow we did get was dry and fluffy, but they sure got the "blowing" part right! The wind has gone down by now, but so has the temperature, 5 above when I last checked, and heading south from there. It's supposed to be like this for at least the next week. So much for the Global Warming Theory!
My daughter gave me a trail camera. They have been all the rage with the sporting set for some time now, but I have never gotten around to buying one. You just hang it up in the woods and it automatically takes a photo whenever it senses motion. Some of them will even live stream the pictures to your computer in real time. This one doesn't, it has a memory card like any other digital camera, which is just a well because we don't have Wi-Fi in this neighborhood.
My grand daughter gave me a book, "Should the Tent Be Burning Like That? - A Professional Amateur's Guide to the Outdoors" by Bill Heavy. The following excerpt struck me as somewhat relevant:
"Four million years ago on the African savanna, a few of the more adventurous primates climbed down from the trees, stood up on two legs, and, at a crucial moment in evolutionary history, were eaten by giant hyenas. Sadly, the genetic material of those brave hominids (Greek for 'appetizers') is lost to us. The remaining proto-humans spent a terrorized night listening to the cracking of bones and murmuring to each other, 'Let's hang out here a while longer. '"
no figgy pudding
No figgy pudding, but then there never is, which is just as well, doesn't sound like something I would like, I mean figs, take them out of the newton, where they are not so hot either, and they are just this dark gooey sweet thing, and dark gooey sweet things are a dime a dozen.
So it wasn't that bad a day, not all that windy and the sun was out, so it was kind of pretty. I assume the roads were fine at the top of the lower forty-eight, and Old Dawg had a not unpleasant trip to his sister's house.
So I was thinking about that tangled code of the AI machine. Kind of like where you have a nice little house and then you come into some money so you put on an addition and then another one and then another one and pretty soon you have this hodge podge, which is nice enough but if you had come into all that money at once you could have built a more sensible mansion. And DNA, you know most of that is unused, it's junk we've carried around since we were some kind of sea worms and all kinds of stuff has changed since then and some things work differently and the whole thing is wildly inefficient and yet yields that piece of work that is us.
Perhaps that would be an argument against intelligent design. Would an Intelligent Designer (I'm sure we all know Who that would be) use such an inefficient helix? But I don't want to argue intelligent design, do that in your churches or your spiritual coffee klatches, where it belongs instead of wasting school time where you could be learning to do arithmetic so that you will be able to see through the current tax bill and toss those bums out and get back to a sensible classic liberal program which would put a smile back on kindly Uncle Ken's face. Is that too much to ask?
So anyway I am thinking of what kind of thinking goes on in those wonderful great ape brains of ours. I have already gone through that subconscious thing but what about the conscious, where we sit down with a problem and sit up with a solution. Where did that solution come from, the muse, thin air, the subconscious is what I am thinking of because where else could it come from?
But that brain, not sure if the sea worm had one, put I think we got one not long after that and it was probably used to regulate our organs and who knows what kind of thinking, and probably it just grew hodge podge so um, well I'm wondering if it is so very different from AI. That's all for this morning.
So it wasn't that bad a day, not all that windy and the sun was out, so it was kind of pretty. I assume the roads were fine at the top of the lower forty-eight, and Old Dawg had a not unpleasant trip to his sister's house.
So I was thinking about that tangled code of the AI machine. Kind of like where you have a nice little house and then you come into some money so you put on an addition and then another one and then another one and pretty soon you have this hodge podge, which is nice enough but if you had come into all that money at once you could have built a more sensible mansion. And DNA, you know most of that is unused, it's junk we've carried around since we were some kind of sea worms and all kinds of stuff has changed since then and some things work differently and the whole thing is wildly inefficient and yet yields that piece of work that is us.
Perhaps that would be an argument against intelligent design. Would an Intelligent Designer (I'm sure we all know Who that would be) use such an inefficient helix? But I don't want to argue intelligent design, do that in your churches or your spiritual coffee klatches, where it belongs instead of wasting school time where you could be learning to do arithmetic so that you will be able to see through the current tax bill and toss those bums out and get back to a sensible classic liberal program which would put a smile back on kindly Uncle Ken's face. Is that too much to ask?
So anyway I am thinking of what kind of thinking goes on in those wonderful great ape brains of ours. I have already gone through that subconscious thing but what about the conscious, where we sit down with a problem and sit up with a solution. Where did that solution come from, the muse, thin air, the subconscious is what I am thinking of because where else could it come from?
But that brain, not sure if the sea worm had one, put I think we got one not long after that and it was probably used to regulate our organs and who knows what kind of thinking, and probably it just grew hodge podge so um, well I'm wondering if it is so very different from AI. That's all for this morning.
Monday, December 25, 2017
bring on the figgy pudding
most people consider their own opinions to be superior to other people's opinions
And indeed they do, and that't the problem. If people thought that agriculture was for the birds and why bother to chuck a spear when you can just as well run after that mastodon with a rock, we never would have gotten here. Teachers don't have to be classical liberals they just have to display knowledge and show that it is good, and show the students how to think to obtain more and by gum they will toss aside the prejudices of their youth and the crackpot theories of their relatives and neighbors.
Well of course they won't. We thought they would but they won't. The downtrodden that we had hoped to lift up, will not listen to us. The triumphal march of liberalism is done. The world is going to hell. Didn't I just devote a whole week to that? If even the other Beaglesonians in their august robes (we do wear august robes don't we?) aren't paying attention what hope is there for the world? Merry Christmas.
You know we humans admire inspiration. Those thoughtful Greeks invented muses, a little whisper from the heavens. It put us closer to the divine. Cranky Tom Edison thought perspiration was more important, and maybe so, but don't we admire the tightrope walker more than the drudge?
You know I come to points in my paintings where I don't know what to do. Should the background be blue or black or a checkerboard of the two, or a thousand juggling clowns on unicycles, or something else? I just don't know. I put down my brushes and make lunch and read he paper and nap and go to the gym and fiddle with this and that and go to bed and in the morning there is the answer. It is a gift from God.
Who I don't believe in, so it's really something going on in my subconscious, by which I mean whatever my brain is doing that I am not aware of. Does either of the dawgs do the Jumble? Sometimes I get it right off, and sometimes I get it after a bit of jiggering, and sometimes I hit a stonewall and I write the letters down on a piece of paper and open the basement door (I assume my subconscious is in the basement) and toss it in and maybe ten minutes later there is a knock on the door and there is the answer on a silver platter. How does it do that? Well the brain is way more complicated than any supercomputer, who knows?
They seldom go into how these supercomputers play chess. I think they just go through thousands of possibilities, working them out itty bitty move by itty bitty move and select their next move accordingly.
But this AI is something else. I believe the computer is rewriting its own software, I'm assuming somewhere it is keeping a log. On 12/25/17 at 6:18:32 I changed 01101... to 01111 at location 10010.. I am thinking the original code was relatively simple but the overwritten code must be quite a tangle, far beyond the power of carbon units to untangle. Put probably the carbon units could program another computer, possibly also using AI, that could go through that tangle and write what is going on in a way that we could appreciate it.
Seems like maybe there is something worth knowing there. Maybe there is some comparison to the carbon brain.
Merry Christmas. See I can say that now, unlike those nightmare Obama years when the secret police were listening in to haul you off to reeducation camp for wishing Jesus a happy birthday. Going to be a brutal day here in Chicago, me and Old Dog stumbling through snow and wind to get to our sisters' houses. I hate to say it, but I'm disappointed to learn that Cheboygan's weather is going to be a tinge more tropical than down here firmly in the middle of the lower forty-eight.
Bring on the figgy pudding.
And indeed they do, and that't the problem. If people thought that agriculture was for the birds and why bother to chuck a spear when you can just as well run after that mastodon with a rock, we never would have gotten here. Teachers don't have to be classical liberals they just have to display knowledge and show that it is good, and show the students how to think to obtain more and by gum they will toss aside the prejudices of their youth and the crackpot theories of their relatives and neighbors.
Well of course they won't. We thought they would but they won't. The downtrodden that we had hoped to lift up, will not listen to us. The triumphal march of liberalism is done. The world is going to hell. Didn't I just devote a whole week to that? If even the other Beaglesonians in their august robes (we do wear august robes don't we?) aren't paying attention what hope is there for the world? Merry Christmas.
You know we humans admire inspiration. Those thoughtful Greeks invented muses, a little whisper from the heavens. It put us closer to the divine. Cranky Tom Edison thought perspiration was more important, and maybe so, but don't we admire the tightrope walker more than the drudge?
You know I come to points in my paintings where I don't know what to do. Should the background be blue or black or a checkerboard of the two, or a thousand juggling clowns on unicycles, or something else? I just don't know. I put down my brushes and make lunch and read he paper and nap and go to the gym and fiddle with this and that and go to bed and in the morning there is the answer. It is a gift from God.
Who I don't believe in, so it's really something going on in my subconscious, by which I mean whatever my brain is doing that I am not aware of. Does either of the dawgs do the Jumble? Sometimes I get it right off, and sometimes I get it after a bit of jiggering, and sometimes I hit a stonewall and I write the letters down on a piece of paper and open the basement door (I assume my subconscious is in the basement) and toss it in and maybe ten minutes later there is a knock on the door and there is the answer on a silver platter. How does it do that? Well the brain is way more complicated than any supercomputer, who knows?
They seldom go into how these supercomputers play chess. I think they just go through thousands of possibilities, working them out itty bitty move by itty bitty move and select their next move accordingly.
But this AI is something else. I believe the computer is rewriting its own software, I'm assuming somewhere it is keeping a log. On 12/25/17 at 6:18:32 I changed 01101... to 01111 at location 10010.. I am thinking the original code was relatively simple but the overwritten code must be quite a tangle, far beyond the power of carbon units to untangle. Put probably the carbon units could program another computer, possibly also using AI, that could go through that tangle and write what is going on in a way that we could appreciate it.
Seems like maybe there is something worth knowing there. Maybe there is some comparison to the carbon brain.
Merry Christmas. See I can say that now, unlike those nightmare Obama years when the secret police were listening in to haul you off to reeducation camp for wishing Jesus a happy birthday. Going to be a brutal day here in Chicago, me and Old Dog stumbling through snow and wind to get to our sisters' houses. I hate to say it, but I'm disappointed to learn that Cheboygan's weather is going to be a tinge more tropical than down here firmly in the middle of the lower forty-eight.
Bring on the figgy pudding.
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Big Brother is Watching You
In our lifetimes we have seen the proliferation of surveillance cameras all over the place. People were worried about it at first, but they seem to have gotten used to it by now and just take it for granted. I remember a few years ago when a lady disappeared from an all night gas station where she worked alone. I don't think they ever did find out what happened to her. There were no cameras at this particular location and everybody was like, "Why not?" There was talk for awhile about passing a law requiring all businesses to have those cameras, but nothing ever came of it. Last I heard they were talking about installing facial recognition devices at airports to speed up the screening process, but I don't know if they ever actually did it. Sounds like the Chinese have gotten ahead of us on this one.
I don't know about Finland in particular, but most European countries have a different grade structure than we do. There is nothing like our high school or middle school. There are 10 elementary grades, and then the kids are given aptitude tests, the results of which direct them either to college or trade school. Speaking of middle school, I almost called it junior high because I remember when they changed it in Cheboygan. The old junior high building had gotten too small, and they were considering whether to add on to it or build a whole new middle school. The middle school option was projected to cost two million dollars more, so naturally, that's the option they chose. One day somebody in the bus garage was asking what the difference was between a junior high and a middle school. "About two million dollars", I replied laconically. Cheboygan used to have four elementary schools that fed into one middle school but, last I heard, they were down to one because enrollment had declined that much. I seem to remember that they had restructured the middle school grades as well, but I don't remember exactly what they did to them.
Now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a gun ad on TV in my life. I don't know if that's a law or what.
Going to our grand daughter's place for Christmas dinner tomorrow if we don't get snowed out. They are predicting heavy lake effect in some locations. It's not supposed to be severe in Cheboygan, but my grand daughter lives in neighboring Emmet County where it might be.
"Merry Christmas to all and, to all, a good night."
I don't know about Finland in particular, but most European countries have a different grade structure than we do. There is nothing like our high school or middle school. There are 10 elementary grades, and then the kids are given aptitude tests, the results of which direct them either to college or trade school. Speaking of middle school, I almost called it junior high because I remember when they changed it in Cheboygan. The old junior high building had gotten too small, and they were considering whether to add on to it or build a whole new middle school. The middle school option was projected to cost two million dollars more, so naturally, that's the option they chose. One day somebody in the bus garage was asking what the difference was between a junior high and a middle school. "About two million dollars", I replied laconically. Cheboygan used to have four elementary schools that fed into one middle school but, last I heard, they were down to one because enrollment had declined that much. I seem to remember that they had restructured the middle school grades as well, but I don't remember exactly what they did to them.
Now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a gun ad on TV in my life. I don't know if that's a law or what.
Going to our grand daughter's place for Christmas dinner tomorrow if we don't get snowed out. They are predicting heavy lake effect in some locations. It's not supposed to be severe in Cheboygan, but my grand daughter lives in neighboring Emmet County where it might be.
"Merry Christmas to all and, to all, a good night."
Ho, Ho, Ho!
On this fine Christmas Eve I'd like to mention a TV commercial that aired recently on one of the oldies TV stations. It was very short, less than a minute, but it was for Henry Repeating Arms. Perhaps it's a sign of the times but I don't think I've ever seen a gun company advertised on TV before, at least not in Chicago.
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Any discussion of public education should also include not only the curriculum but also the methodology, how it is being taught. The United States is no piker when it comes to funding public schools but somehow we don't get much bang for the buck. I'll put some of the blame on the bureaucracies that control the schools; too much funding is being sucked up by administrative processes to the detriment of actually teaching the students. Programs that include the arts, music, and physical education are all being slashed. The teaching profession is not held in high regard and many good teachers are driven out of the system because they are teachers and not disciplinarians, administrators, or bureaucrats.
I've been reading a little about the Finnish school system, one of the most successful in the world. They have a completely different approach to education than that of the US. Children don't begin school until the age of seven; prior to that they are in day care where they learn to socialize, play, and be children. Letting children be children is a big part of their system and the students are usually fully engaged in their classes. Little or no homework is assigned and classes are loosely structured. I don't know the level of parental involvement but I suspect it is much higher in Finland than it is in the US, so that is a major factor which should not be ignored. The teachers in Finland spend all of their time teaching and are not bogged down in administrative duties, standardized testing, or other distractions and have no interference from school boards, administrations, or politics. And they are held in high esteem, which is nice for them. We could probably learn something from them, they have some interesting points of view. They don't say the weather is bad, they say your clothing is inadequate.
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AI hasn't gotten much mention lately but there are a couple of things that have popped up recently. Our good friends, the Chinese, have an AI system that uses facial recognition to identify a person in seconds from a database of more than a billion faces. Quite a trick, since most Chinese often look alike to me. You could use a live stream from the CCTV cameras that are common in public areas and identify everyone on the feed in a matter of minutes. I think it works the other way around, too. You give the system a face and it lets you know when it shows up on a camera. They've been arresting a lot of bad guys since they don't have to go searching for them anymore. Sooner or later any person of interest will show up on a camera, somewhere.
Another interesting development is an AI robot that taught itself chess in about four hours and then proceeded to defeat a chess grand master. Big deal, you say? It used moves that have never been seen in the history of chess, and that's scary. The AI systems are becoming so advanced that the eggheads don't know how they work, and they work very well. Until they don't, of course, but by then it will be too late. AI can be a real threat, and there is a great video on YouTube sponsored by some AI researchers. It's called SlaughterBots, but it's only fiction, for now.
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Cornbread are square? Not in this kitchen.
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Any discussion of public education should also include not only the curriculum but also the methodology, how it is being taught. The United States is no piker when it comes to funding public schools but somehow we don't get much bang for the buck. I'll put some of the blame on the bureaucracies that control the schools; too much funding is being sucked up by administrative processes to the detriment of actually teaching the students. Programs that include the arts, music, and physical education are all being slashed. The teaching profession is not held in high regard and many good teachers are driven out of the system because they are teachers and not disciplinarians, administrators, or bureaucrats.
I've been reading a little about the Finnish school system, one of the most successful in the world. They have a completely different approach to education than that of the US. Children don't begin school until the age of seven; prior to that they are in day care where they learn to socialize, play, and be children. Letting children be children is a big part of their system and the students are usually fully engaged in their classes. Little or no homework is assigned and classes are loosely structured. I don't know the level of parental involvement but I suspect it is much higher in Finland than it is in the US, so that is a major factor which should not be ignored. The teachers in Finland spend all of their time teaching and are not bogged down in administrative duties, standardized testing, or other distractions and have no interference from school boards, administrations, or politics. And they are held in high esteem, which is nice for them. We could probably learn something from them, they have some interesting points of view. They don't say the weather is bad, they say your clothing is inadequate.
-----
AI hasn't gotten much mention lately but there are a couple of things that have popped up recently. Our good friends, the Chinese, have an AI system that uses facial recognition to identify a person in seconds from a database of more than a billion faces. Quite a trick, since most Chinese often look alike to me. You could use a live stream from the CCTV cameras that are common in public areas and identify everyone on the feed in a matter of minutes. I think it works the other way around, too. You give the system a face and it lets you know when it shows up on a camera. They've been arresting a lot of bad guys since they don't have to go searching for them anymore. Sooner or later any person of interest will show up on a camera, somewhere.
Another interesting development is an AI robot that taught itself chess in about four hours and then proceeded to defeat a chess grand master. Big deal, you say? It used moves that have never been seen in the history of chess, and that's scary. The AI systems are becoming so advanced that the eggheads don't know how they work, and they work very well. Until they don't, of course, but by then it will be too late. AI can be a real threat, and there is a great video on YouTube sponsored by some AI researchers. It's called SlaughterBots, but it's only fiction, for now.
-----
Cornbread are square? Not in this kitchen.
Friday, December 22, 2017
Pie Are Round
I am reminded of a line that was delivered by one of the characters on the old TV show "Hee Haw":
"I asked my son what he learned in school today and he said, 'Pie are square'. Why that's ridiculous! Everybody knows that pie are round. Cornbread are square."
Uncle Ken has said that he couldn't understand why the public schools aren't turning out classical liberals like himself. One reason is that all the teachers aren't classical liberals, another reason is that all the kids aren't paying attention, and another reason is that kids learn things from other sources besides school. If a kid's teacher tells him that pie are square, his parents tell him that pie are round, and his little friends tell him to forget about pie and try this new booze or drug that they have just discovered, what's the kid supposed to believe? While it may be true that all opinions are not equal, most people consider their own opinions to be superior to other people's opinions, and those people can vote. They don't always vote but, when they do, they are likely to vote for someone who they believe holds opinions compatible with their own.
"I asked my son what he learned in school today and he said, 'Pie are square'. Why that's ridiculous! Everybody knows that pie are round. Cornbread are square."
Uncle Ken has said that he couldn't understand why the public schools aren't turning out classical liberals like himself. One reason is that all the teachers aren't classical liberals, another reason is that all the kids aren't paying attention, and another reason is that kids learn things from other sources besides school. If a kid's teacher tells him that pie are square, his parents tell him that pie are round, and his little friends tell him to forget about pie and try this new booze or drug that they have just discovered, what's the kid supposed to believe? While it may be true that all opinions are not equal, most people consider their own opinions to be superior to other people's opinions, and those people can vote. They don't always vote but, when they do, they are likely to vote for someone who they believe holds opinions compatible with their own.
Consumer Reports or the drunk on the next barstool?
Why are we talking about majority rule? Oh, that's right FDR. A lot of people did hate FDR but more people loved him. Doesn't mean he was a good president, though I have to say the founding fathers and the adopted son of the Institute do like their social security. Hum, that's a trinity isn't it? I guess Beagles would be the Father because he signed up with blogspot. I guess that would make me the Holy Ghost. Boo.
I don't think Beagles was in Ms Arvin's history class. Now there was a woman who loved FDR, and a daughter of the south, and fond of the word daresay, she was always daresaying something, a nice little expression that I ought to be working into my conversation. Anyway we once had a little class debate on FDR. I was a little Republican in those days, getting my political opinions from the editorial cartoon in the Trib - it was on the front page, remember, and in color I believe - and they found occasion to trash Eleanor Roosevelt, so I was against her and her commie hubby.
But I didn't nail him for his economics, I nailed him for giving away the store to Joe Stalin at Yalta. In retrospect I am not so sure of that, boots on the ground are boots on the ground, but I'll bet the Birchers had plenty to say about that.
If we spent our time in schools teaching every crackpot theory, we'd have no time to teach anything else. I daresay we'd have to teach Nazism and KKK like they were just other opinions as valid as any other. If we taught about every religion we would have no time to teach addition and subtraction. And I'll have to say it again all opinions aren't equal. If Beagles reads a well researched article in Consumer Reports that says Chevy is the way to go, and then steps into Al's Tap for a quick one and the drunk on the next barstool says, "Fuck Chevys," does that make the decision a tossup?
There is only so much time in a classroom, if you are interested in crackpot theories there is the internet or the drunk on the next barstool.
Spit and polish was the bone and sinew of ROTC in Champaign Illinois in 1963, but we had classes too. I remember one of the regular army guys telling us that the Korean war was a great thing for the US because we got to test out all our weapons, an opportunity that the Russkies, being at peace didn't have. Even then I wondered what the fuck is wrong with this guy.
I don't think Beagles was in Ms Arvin's history class. Now there was a woman who loved FDR, and a daughter of the south, and fond of the word daresay, she was always daresaying something, a nice little expression that I ought to be working into my conversation. Anyway we once had a little class debate on FDR. I was a little Republican in those days, getting my political opinions from the editorial cartoon in the Trib - it was on the front page, remember, and in color I believe - and they found occasion to trash Eleanor Roosevelt, so I was against her and her commie hubby.
But I didn't nail him for his economics, I nailed him for giving away the store to Joe Stalin at Yalta. In retrospect I am not so sure of that, boots on the ground are boots on the ground, but I'll bet the Birchers had plenty to say about that.
If we spent our time in schools teaching every crackpot theory, we'd have no time to teach anything else. I daresay we'd have to teach Nazism and KKK like they were just other opinions as valid as any other. If we taught about every religion we would have no time to teach addition and subtraction. And I'll have to say it again all opinions aren't equal. If Beagles reads a well researched article in Consumer Reports that says Chevy is the way to go, and then steps into Al's Tap for a quick one and the drunk on the next barstool says, "Fuck Chevys," does that make the decision a tossup?
There is only so much time in a classroom, if you are interested in crackpot theories there is the internet or the drunk on the next barstool.
Spit and polish was the bone and sinew of ROTC in Champaign Illinois in 1963, but we had classes too. I remember one of the regular army guys telling us that the Korean war was a great thing for the US because we got to test out all our weapons, an opportunity that the Russkies, being at peace didn't have. Even then I wondered what the fuck is wrong with this guy.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
The Majority Myth
We don't really have majority rule in this country because there is no clear majority. What happens is several minorities form a coalition, either accidently or on purpose, become a temporary majority, and elect somebody. They might all like the guy for different reasons, or they might all dislike his opponent for different reasons, but that doesn't mean they all like each other. Obama was able to put together a coalition of Blacks, Hispanics, young people, and liberals, but some of these guys must have jumped ship on Hillary, leaving Trump to win by default. Trump has his own cult following, but they wouldn't have been enough to get him elected if he hadn't won the support of some other groups like White supremacists and disgruntled Rust Belt factory workers. I don't know what kind of percentages FDR had, but let's say 60% for the sake of discussion. That's impressive, but it also means that 40% didn't like him. If 12% had switched sides, for whatever reason, it would have thrown the election the other way.
If Uncle Ken wants more money for his schools he can't afford to disregard the people who believe in creationism, intelligent design, the various JFK conspiracies, UFOs, and a flat Earth. If he alienates them all, they might join with the anti-tax people and vote down any millage proposal he advances. That doesn't mean you have to teach all those crackpot theories as scientific fact, but you should acknowledge that they exist and that some people have very strong beliefs about them. I remember when Mr. Sears taught us about the great religions of the world. Of course you can't teach religion in the public schools, but you can teach about religion and the role it has played in history, which is what he did.
Most of the "spit and polish" tradition in the military is not mandated by the official regulations. It is a result of individual soldiers competing with each other for fame and glory. Sometimes the leadership gets carried away and you have to call them on it, like the time one of our sergeants wanted us to put shoe polish on our rubber boots. (It says right on the shoe polish can that the product will deteriorate rubber.) The intent of the regulations is to keep your equipment clean and serviceable, anything beyond that is ostentatious at best, and destructive at worst.
knowledge for the sake of knowledge
It was that Kewpie doll Kellyanne Conway who coined the term alternate facts. I think the term was too intellectual for Trump who favors Fake News because it sounds more like you are calling the other guy a liar. Insulting the other guy is always preferable to not doing so. Has anybody else noticed that Trump never insults anybody to their face? He has meetings with foreign dignitaries or other politicians and all is second helpings of chocolate cake, but the minute they are gone he is calling them names to the press, who are the exceptions that prove the rule, he insults them whenever he sees them.
If you're going to teach creationism and intelligent design in the schools then you are going to have to teach flat earth, and that some people think pi should be rounded down to three, and that LBJ killed Kennedy and that Elvis is still alive. You can differ with whether FDR was a great president, but you would have to agree on the dates he was born and died and the bills he signed. Of course nobody is loved by all, but how did your teacher account for his landslide victories? Some things are facts like that the Sears Tower is the tallest building in Chicago, and some are opinions. like Javy Baez is the greatest shortstop ever and Rosie O'Grady who tends bar at Al's Tap is the prettiest girl in Lakeview.
Old Dog brings up a good point in what is the purpose of education, The current and generally prevalent theory is to help you get a job. Hey nobody cares if I can prove that there are an infinite number of prime numbers, I need to add and subtract so I can run this here cash register. Another theory, spoken of by the philosophers of the time of implementation of public schools was to have an informed populace to democratically guide the ship of state. If the voters are better informed won't they make a wiser decision at the ballot box and won't that profit all Americans?
In our climb to civ we have learned a lot, we have accumulated quite a body of knowledge, we also have created a vast tapestry of literature and arts. Wouldn't it be a better world if we exposed our public school students to that? Does everything that doesn't directly result in getting a job have to be branded useless and cast into the ash bin? Gentlemen, I beseech you.
I can see marching and drilling as useful. In the movies when somebody is raising an army it seems like the first thing they do is get them out on the parade grounds where our hero can glimpse Rosie O'Grady out of the corner of his eye slipping him a wink as he executes a snappy right turn. It gets the guys to moving as a unit, something that helps on the battlefield. Speaking of the battlefield don't all the soldiers say when they get to the front, well I might get killed here, but at least I don't have to worry about my fucking brass and shoeshine. Polishing and spitshining are tedious, but they aren't the worst part. The worst part is standing in front of some dickwad and having to take shit from him because of the condition of your ornamentation. The army runs on Authority, but whenever you give out authority people will abuse it. I hate that shit.
If you're going to teach creationism and intelligent design in the schools then you are going to have to teach flat earth, and that some people think pi should be rounded down to three, and that LBJ killed Kennedy and that Elvis is still alive. You can differ with whether FDR was a great president, but you would have to agree on the dates he was born and died and the bills he signed. Of course nobody is loved by all, but how did your teacher account for his landslide victories? Some things are facts like that the Sears Tower is the tallest building in Chicago, and some are opinions. like Javy Baez is the greatest shortstop ever and Rosie O'Grady who tends bar at Al's Tap is the prettiest girl in Lakeview.
Old Dog brings up a good point in what is the purpose of education, The current and generally prevalent theory is to help you get a job. Hey nobody cares if I can prove that there are an infinite number of prime numbers, I need to add and subtract so I can run this here cash register. Another theory, spoken of by the philosophers of the time of implementation of public schools was to have an informed populace to democratically guide the ship of state. If the voters are better informed won't they make a wiser decision at the ballot box and won't that profit all Americans?
In our climb to civ we have learned a lot, we have accumulated quite a body of knowledge, we also have created a vast tapestry of literature and arts. Wouldn't it be a better world if we exposed our public school students to that? Does everything that doesn't directly result in getting a job have to be branded useless and cast into the ash bin? Gentlemen, I beseech you.
I can see marching and drilling as useful. In the movies when somebody is raising an army it seems like the first thing they do is get them out on the parade grounds where our hero can glimpse Rosie O'Grady out of the corner of his eye slipping him a wink as he executes a snappy right turn. It gets the guys to moving as a unit, something that helps on the battlefield. Speaking of the battlefield don't all the soldiers say when they get to the front, well I might get killed here, but at least I don't have to worry about my fucking brass and shoeshine. Polishing and spitshining are tedious, but they aren't the worst part. The worst part is standing in front of some dickwad and having to take shit from him because of the condition of your ornamentation. The army runs on Authority, but whenever you give out authority people will abuse it. I hate that shit.
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Alternate Facts
I believe that's a relatively new term, coined by one of the Trumpists on a TV talk show. It has become somewhat of a joke, but I don't think the guy who originally said it was kidding. In one manner of speaking, there are no such things as alternate facts but, in another manner of speaking, one man's fact is another man's fiction. Evolution is only a theory, but it's a theory that has been generally accepted by the scientific community. Creationism is also a theory that is accepted as fact by many religious people. Then there's intelligent design, which is kind of a compromise between the two that is believed by some religious people. Ask anybody who really believes any one of these three theories, and he will likely tell you that it's a fact, and that the other two are only theories. I'm partial to intelligent design myself, but I don't claim it to be a fact, just a theory that appeals to me. So which one should they teach in the public schools? What's wrong with teaching all three as the unproven theories that they really are? That's what that teacher told us about FDR. The textbook painted him as a national hero who was loved by all. What the teacher did was explain that, while FDR was certainly popular, he was not universally admired by all Americans in his own time. By the way, if that teacher could hear herself described as any kind of liberal, she would turn over in her grave, but she never had the chance to read the Beaglesonian Institute.
Okay, I was wrong about the Nazis. I thought it was one of those names that's formed by the initials of several other words like US, UN, UK, or USSR. I figured that the "N" stood for "National" and the "Z" stood for "Zocialist", which I thought was the way the Germans spelled "Socialist". I didn't know what the other two letters stood for. According to my dictionary, "Nazi" is actually derived from an abbreviation of one German word: "Nationalsozialist". Only the "N" is capitalized if you are referring to a real Nazi from World War II era Germany. If you are referring to a guy who just acts like a Nazi, but is not a card carrying party member, the "n" is usually not capitalized.
We carried a magazine with five rounds of live ammo on guard duty in Berlin. We carried it in our pouches and were not supposed to load it into our weapon unless there was an imminent need to do so. If we saw somebody strange lurking around, we were supposed to holler "Halt!" three times and, if he didn't halt, fire a warning shot into the ground before aiming one at him. This changed after a German teenager was shot dead by one of our guards in an ammo dump. The Germans I talked to didn't blame our guy, since the teenager had no business in there, and he must have known it because there were big signs on the fence that said so in four languages. Nevertheless, we were told that, henceforth, we were only to shoot in self defense. If the lurker was trying to run away like that teenager was, we should just let him go and, of course, report it immediately.
Okay, I was wrong about the Nazis. I thought it was one of those names that's formed by the initials of several other words like US, UN, UK, or USSR. I figured that the "N" stood for "National" and the "Z" stood for "Zocialist", which I thought was the way the Germans spelled "Socialist". I didn't know what the other two letters stood for. According to my dictionary, "Nazi" is actually derived from an abbreviation of one German word: "Nationalsozialist". Only the "N" is capitalized if you are referring to a real Nazi from World War II era Germany. If you are referring to a guy who just acts like a Nazi, but is not a card carrying party member, the "n" is usually not capitalized.
We carried a magazine with five rounds of live ammo on guard duty in Berlin. We carried it in our pouches and were not supposed to load it into our weapon unless there was an imminent need to do so. If we saw somebody strange lurking around, we were supposed to holler "Halt!" three times and, if he didn't halt, fire a warning shot into the ground before aiming one at him. This changed after a German teenager was shot dead by one of our guards in an ammo dump. The Germans I talked to didn't blame our guy, since the teenager had no business in there, and he must have known it because there were big signs on the fence that said so in four languages. Nevertheless, we were told that, henceforth, we were only to shoot in self defense. If the lurker was trying to run away like that teenager was, we should just let him go and, of course, report it immediately.
Thanks, but no brains
Education is a very loaded topic and I am taking my time with any comments; it's a can of worms but I do have a few questions. Education is good, more is better, but is the current discussion considering only formal education? I'm curious as to what should be considered the minimally viable level of education in society and how it relates to the realities of the workplace. I suspect that there are many students in college who are only there because it is expected of them and it is a stalling tactic to avoid entry into the dreaded world of the adult working stiff. Are students realistic in their expectations or do they really believe that their Master's Degree in Gender Studies will lead to a lucrative and long-lived career?
Then there's the status thing, the Ivy League piece of paper is superior to the piece of paper from Montana State, unless you were studying mining. And how much of it really matters? A lot of employers require a college degree, any degree; they don't care. The degree shows that you are trainable or at least able to learn what is necessary and have a certain level of social skills. Would comprehensive aptitude tests be a better indicator of an employee's potential? But thinking about education is just making me more stupid. I don't think we ever outgrow the ability to learn, it's just a question of what we learn and how we apply it.
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You guys and your army.
Hey, it's common ground and the differences in experience are interesting, it's like there was a big generation gap. I was wrong, though, about my use of the term "commander of the relief." I meant Sergeant of the Guard, as Mr. Beagles mentioned. After nearly fifty years some facts can slip through the cracks.
One thing I could never figure out about guard duty is that you were issued weapons, but never any ammo. I felt like a badass with that .45 automatic on my hip but I had no idea how to operate it; it was just for show. What was I supposed to do with it, smack somebody on the head? It may have been different in Berlin.
All that trivial shit was really important, like marching around in the armory and polishing your brass and spit shining your shoes.
In retrospect, I think it was important. If you're not capable of taking care of the simple stuff how can you take care of the big, complex stuff? And in dicey combat situations you have to turn off your brain and simply follow orders; thinking too much can get you (and your buddies) killed. Mental discipline is a much greater hurdle than physical discipline, or so I've read. My experience was a piece of cake, only a little more demanding than the Peace Corps. A guy I knew was in the Peace Corps and he had to eat monkey brains. Give me SOS, any day.
Then there's the status thing, the Ivy League piece of paper is superior to the piece of paper from Montana State, unless you were studying mining. And how much of it really matters? A lot of employers require a college degree, any degree; they don't care. The degree shows that you are trainable or at least able to learn what is necessary and have a certain level of social skills. Would comprehensive aptitude tests be a better indicator of an employee's potential? But thinking about education is just making me more stupid. I don't think we ever outgrow the ability to learn, it's just a question of what we learn and how we apply it.
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You guys and your army.
Hey, it's common ground and the differences in experience are interesting, it's like there was a big generation gap. I was wrong, though, about my use of the term "commander of the relief." I meant Sergeant of the Guard, as Mr. Beagles mentioned. After nearly fifty years some facts can slip through the cracks.
One thing I could never figure out about guard duty is that you were issued weapons, but never any ammo. I felt like a badass with that .45 automatic on my hip but I had no idea how to operate it; it was just for show. What was I supposed to do with it, smack somebody on the head? It may have been different in Berlin.
All that trivial shit was really important, like marching around in the armory and polishing your brass and spit shining your shoes.
In retrospect, I think it was important. If you're not capable of taking care of the simple stuff how can you take care of the big, complex stuff? And in dicey combat situations you have to turn off your brain and simply follow orders; thinking too much can get you (and your buddies) killed. Mental discipline is a much greater hurdle than physical discipline, or so I've read. My experience was a piece of cake, only a little more demanding than the Peace Corps. A guy I knew was in the Peace Corps and he had to eat monkey brains. Give me SOS, any day.
buying a car
Well yes, I do believe the public schools should be turning out people with liberal tendencies. But I mean the classical definition of liberal as one who doesn't take things for granted and thinks about things, not the current definition of liberal as left of center. That teacher who said FDR was not so hot was likely a classical liberal, presenting both points of view, assuming that her arguments were reasoned and she didn't just call him a commie or something, and that she logically refuted the textbook's pro FDR arguments without just dismissing them as fake news.
Why is Beagles capitalizing every letter in Nazi?
Slavery is probably a good example of the triumph of liberalism, in that we almost never see anybody saying it is a good idea anymore, and those KKKers, who are lately having a small comeback are widely held in disdain. Slavery and the anti-antisemitism of the Nazis was based on the theory that certain other races (who turn out actually to not even be separate races) are inferior to others. Science does not support this, and somebody who has a good scientific education will not believe it.
You can teach propaganda in your school, but you are going to have to fly in the face of facts to do it, and if you are presenting facts your propaganda isn't likely to fly very far, In general the more you know the better you can make decisions. If you read about cars you are probably going to make a better decision on your purchase than the guy who walks in knowing nothing. It's the same with forming your political opinions.
It's probably best not to believe whatever your peers believe. Oh they might be right, but probably not and if you can gather enough information and think about things you may conclude that your peers were right all along, but more likely you will come to a more informed decision. That is what school should be for.
I did indeed say that college profs did not make leftists out of my generation. It was kind of a common concept back then that if you sent your kid to college he would be exposed to all these crazy ideas and come back nutty. I believe that if you coolly examined the facts you would conclude that the war was a mistake, but I do have to wonder how much of my anti-warness came from peer pressure. That part about the students radicalizing the profs was probably overreach on my part.
I'm going to go back to that car purchase example. The more you know the better your decision will be. Just because all your buddies hate Chevys and love Fords doesn't mean that you should buy a Chevy.
I can't believe that tax bill went through. I mean here is a case where the casual observer takes a glance and sees a huge gaping hole where the rich are going to drive their money trucks through. And now the reps are going to try to throw a bunch of job creator magic dust in our faces and try to make us think otherwise. If our school system has any value at all, it's not going to work.
Why is Beagles capitalizing every letter in Nazi?
Slavery is probably a good example of the triumph of liberalism, in that we almost never see anybody saying it is a good idea anymore, and those KKKers, who are lately having a small comeback are widely held in disdain. Slavery and the anti-antisemitism of the Nazis was based on the theory that certain other races (who turn out actually to not even be separate races) are inferior to others. Science does not support this, and somebody who has a good scientific education will not believe it.
You can teach propaganda in your school, but you are going to have to fly in the face of facts to do it, and if you are presenting facts your propaganda isn't likely to fly very far, In general the more you know the better you can make decisions. If you read about cars you are probably going to make a better decision on your purchase than the guy who walks in knowing nothing. It's the same with forming your political opinions.
It's probably best not to believe whatever your peers believe. Oh they might be right, but probably not and if you can gather enough information and think about things you may conclude that your peers were right all along, but more likely you will come to a more informed decision. That is what school should be for.
I did indeed say that college profs did not make leftists out of my generation. It was kind of a common concept back then that if you sent your kid to college he would be exposed to all these crazy ideas and come back nutty. I believe that if you coolly examined the facts you would conclude that the war was a mistake, but I do have to wonder how much of my anti-warness came from peer pressure. That part about the students radicalizing the profs was probably overreach on my part.
I'm going to go back to that car purchase example. The more you know the better your decision will be. Just because all your buddies hate Chevys and love Fords doesn't mean that you should buy a Chevy.
I can't believe that tax bill went through. I mean here is a case where the casual observer takes a glance and sees a huge gaping hole where the rich are going to drive their money trucks through. And now the reps are going to try to throw a bunch of job creator magic dust in our faces and try to make us think otherwise. If our school system has any value at all, it's not going to work.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
All Education is Not Created Equal
Uncle Ken seems to be saying that public schools should be turning out proper liberals, and he wonders why they don't always. I think it depends on what is being taught and who is teaching it. Students in the Roman Empire and in the American Old South were probably taught that slavery was a good thing, while students in non slave holding regions were taught that slavery was a bad thing. The public schools in NAZI Germany were certainly geared for turning out good NAZIs, while the schools in the Jewish ghettos, maybe not so much. Even if the NAZI government had complete control of the curriculum, most of the teachers in the Jewish schools were probably Jews, and they likely put their own spin on the lessons. I remember that one of my teachers in Sawyer Elementary had a right leaning slant. One day we were reading about FDR in our textbook, and it had nothing but good things to say about him. After we finished the chapter, our teacher told us to close our books and she gave us another perspective on the man. She didn't dispute what the book said, she just told us that everybody in FDR's time didn't think that way, and we should be exposed to both sides, the better to form our own independent opinions. Another teacher who leaned more to the left might have just taught from the book and let it go at that.
Last I head, people in some parts of the country were still arguing about whether or not evolution should be taught in the public schools. I remember following an internet discussion on the subject and reading a comment written by a guy who was himself a student in a public school: "It doesn't matter what they teach, the kids aren't paying attention anyway". My own experience, both attending and working in the schools, tends to confirm that. Many kids are resistant to anything the teacher, or any adult for that matter, has to say. They learn all they want to learn from their so called peers. I asked Uncle Ken once if his profs in college were responsible for radicalizing his generation, and he said that, on the contrary, if anything we radicalized them, or words to that effect.
So just rounding up a bunch of kids and stuffing them in a classroom does not guarantee that they will come out liberal, conservative, or anything else.
Last I head, people in some parts of the country were still arguing about whether or not evolution should be taught in the public schools. I remember following an internet discussion on the subject and reading a comment written by a guy who was himself a student in a public school: "It doesn't matter what they teach, the kids aren't paying attention anyway". My own experience, both attending and working in the schools, tends to confirm that. Many kids are resistant to anything the teacher, or any adult for that matter, has to say. They learn all they want to learn from their so called peers. I asked Uncle Ken once if his profs in college were responsible for radicalizing his generation, and he said that, on the contrary, if anything we radicalized them, or words to that effect.
So just rounding up a bunch of kids and stuffing them in a classroom does not guarantee that they will come out liberal, conservative, or anything else.
stay in school Young Man
You guys and your army. You know I was going to go into the army. When I signed up for my draft card it was kind of cool. I was carrying around a draft card like a real man. Later on my sensitive moral compass would not let me go to Vietnam, but possibly bigger in keeping me out of khaki was that ROTC course they made us take in college. Beagles was in ROTC in high school but the difference with that was it was full of guys who wanted to be in ROTC, so I don't know, I reckon they got along better. But everybody that entered a land grant college had to be in ROTC, so they treated us like we were draftees and they were officers. All that trivial shit was really important, like marching around in the armory and polishing your brass and spit shining your shoes. You had to stand at attention while some dickwad looked at your brass and your shoes and he always found something wrong so you always got demerits and the only way to work them off was to go into the ROTC office and do piddly shit. Bunch of fucks. I wasn't so much afraid of being shot by the Cong as I was of mouthing off to one those pricks and going onto KP and mouthing off at the cook and ending up in army jail.
But probably the real army wasn't that bad, after all everybody had to get along, and mostly you were just navigating these mild but rigid rules, like a long afternoon at Camp Swampy looking out for Sarge. I am disappointed that nobody says "Halt, who goes there," but then the army is not known for its sense of humor.
Okay back to civ where agriculture is just beginning. Nice for the hotshots who aren't getting their hands dirty anymore, Maybe not for the farmers who used to ride bold and free hunting and feasting, and starving sometimes and who now at least had regular meals, but had to spend much of their days mucking in the mud. Hamlets become cities become nations. And now we have some better technology and better still we have writing, a storehouse of knowledge that doesn't go out when some wise guy dies or get jumbled when one guy tells another who tells another and on and on.
And now we have the Roman Empire and something like a middle class. Oh there were slaves who were never going to go anywhere, but some of them got a break, some of them got to be big shots in the Empire, there were schools, you could study in them and get ahead.
You hit a little bump there with the fall of the Empire, but as the nations slowly arose they needed bureaucracies, and they needed learned men to run them. As we enter the Renaissance we see a lot of schools, science is beginning to be dabbled in, math is making great strides, there is all that culture stuff.
The better educated guy is better off, but not so much the guy without the education. But let's cross the ocean, and you know here we had a big democracy. All those European titles were in the ash bin, anybody putting on airs was not a regular guy and maybe he would be made fun of and maybe he would be tarred and feathered.
Maybe I know this because I went to education school and it was drummed into my head, but I don't think enough is made of it, is the establishing of public schools which were free and which people had to attend, more or less. This came at a great cost, building the schoolhouses and paying teachers cost dough, and the loss of work from Johnny being away from the farm learning his ABCs must have been considerable.
But people didn't mind, they felt like it was for their own good, smarter kids would make more money. A good kid got good grades. Stay in school young man. Smarter grade school kids made smarter high school kids made smarter college kids, and the whole American education system used to be the best in the world. It was great, we were getting smarter all the time.
And we were getting richer, well not all of us, mostly the guys who were spending more time in school, Better educated people know more, they should be running this country right? But the thing is the better educated you are, the richer you are, and likely you become more interested in keeping your riches and not sharing them with anybody, where you should be liberal, with all this enlightened education, you are also rich and you become right wing.
That's as far as I am going today. The main thrust is how a good thing, education, carries within it the seeds of an elite unwilling to share anything.
But probably the real army wasn't that bad, after all everybody had to get along, and mostly you were just navigating these mild but rigid rules, like a long afternoon at Camp Swampy looking out for Sarge. I am disappointed that nobody says "Halt, who goes there," but then the army is not known for its sense of humor.
Okay back to civ where agriculture is just beginning. Nice for the hotshots who aren't getting their hands dirty anymore, Maybe not for the farmers who used to ride bold and free hunting and feasting, and starving sometimes and who now at least had regular meals, but had to spend much of their days mucking in the mud. Hamlets become cities become nations. And now we have some better technology and better still we have writing, a storehouse of knowledge that doesn't go out when some wise guy dies or get jumbled when one guy tells another who tells another and on and on.
And now we have the Roman Empire and something like a middle class. Oh there were slaves who were never going to go anywhere, but some of them got a break, some of them got to be big shots in the Empire, there were schools, you could study in them and get ahead.
You hit a little bump there with the fall of the Empire, but as the nations slowly arose they needed bureaucracies, and they needed learned men to run them. As we enter the Renaissance we see a lot of schools, science is beginning to be dabbled in, math is making great strides, there is all that culture stuff.
The better educated guy is better off, but not so much the guy without the education. But let's cross the ocean, and you know here we had a big democracy. All those European titles were in the ash bin, anybody putting on airs was not a regular guy and maybe he would be made fun of and maybe he would be tarred and feathered.
Maybe I know this because I went to education school and it was drummed into my head, but I don't think enough is made of it, is the establishing of public schools which were free and which people had to attend, more or less. This came at a great cost, building the schoolhouses and paying teachers cost dough, and the loss of work from Johnny being away from the farm learning his ABCs must have been considerable.
But people didn't mind, they felt like it was for their own good, smarter kids would make more money. A good kid got good grades. Stay in school young man. Smarter grade school kids made smarter high school kids made smarter college kids, and the whole American education system used to be the best in the world. It was great, we were getting smarter all the time.
And we were getting richer, well not all of us, mostly the guys who were spending more time in school, Better educated people know more, they should be running this country right? But the thing is the better educated you are, the richer you are, and likely you become more interested in keeping your riches and not sharing them with anybody, where you should be liberal, with all this enlightened education, you are also rich and you become right wing.
That's as far as I am going today. The main thrust is how a good thing, education, carries within it the seeds of an elite unwilling to share anything.
Monday, December 18, 2017
Guard Duty
Old Dog summed it up pretty well, but Spandau was different. Troops from the US, the UK, France, and Russia all took turns guarding that place. I seem to remember that each country did it for three months at a time, and the four US battalions split their three months between them. Each battalion contained about four companies, and it didn't take a whole company to fill all the guard posts. There were about 15 towers and a three man relief team was assigned to each one. Add to that the Sergeant of the Guard, a driver, and a couple of supernumeraries (extra guys you have in case somebody gets sick), and the whole compliment was about 50 people. I pulled Spandau guard two or three times during my 30 months in Berlin. We also pulled compound guard (motor pools, ammo dumps, and gates) around our own barracks more frequently, maybe once or twice a month. The shifts were the same, two hours on and four hours off for a 24 hour stretch.
Spandau guard was mostly a formality. In the beginning they had been worried about the prisoners' friends trying to bust them out or their enemies trying to break in and do them harm but, after 20 years passed without incident, nobody expected anything exciting to happen anymore. We only guarded the perimeter wall and didn't have access to the rest of the prison. A guy called a "warder" was assigned to each prisoner. It was their job to keep an eye on their man, but they weren't exactly guards. The prisoners were not allowed to communicate with anybody but their warders so, if they had any concerns, they would tell their warder and he would pass it on to whoever. Visitors were allowed only twice a year, on Christmas and the prisoner's birthday. Like I said, Speer's girlfriend rented a small cottage right across the street from the prison. Every day at noon, she would stand out in her yard and blow on a whistle to let Speer know that she was still waiting for him. I don't think they were allowed mail, newspapers, radios, or televisions. The reason for all this isolation was that, in the beginning, the Allies were worried about the prisoners making contact with their old comrades and fomenting some kind of uprising. Everybody had stopped worrying about that a long time ago but, like I said, "the rules could not be changed".
I don't remember the number of general orders for guard duty being reduced to three, but I only remember about thee of them:
1. To take charge of this post and all government property in view.
2. To walk my post in a military manner, keeping always on the alert, and observing everything that takes place within sight or hearing.
3. To quit my post only when properly relieved.
The rest of them were about reporting anything strange that went on to the Sergeant of the Guard and the guy who relieves you. There was also something about obeying the orders of the officers of the guard only. When you were on guard duty, you were detached from your regular outfit and under the command of the Officer of the Day. Nobody else was supposed to tell you what to do.
I liked guard duty, KP not so much, mostly because of the hours. On guard you worked two hours on and four hours off for 24 hours. About half of your four hours off was spent on administrative stuff, but it was possible to get two hours sleep if you didn't fool around. In my outfit, it was a rare thing to get 8 hours sleep in a 24 hour period, so guard duty was like a vacation to me. KP was about a 16 hour shift, and you had to get up for your regular duty the next day. The cooks worked 24 hours on and 24 hours off. They seldom worked their whole 24 hours on, but they were expected to if the need arose. Their 24 hours off was really off and nobody messed with that.
In my outfit, nobody said "Who goes there?" We were told that was only in the movies, in real life we were supposed to say "Who's there?" The army was funny that way, you'd think that it would be the same all over, but it wasn't.
Spandau guard was mostly a formality. In the beginning they had been worried about the prisoners' friends trying to bust them out or their enemies trying to break in and do them harm but, after 20 years passed without incident, nobody expected anything exciting to happen anymore. We only guarded the perimeter wall and didn't have access to the rest of the prison. A guy called a "warder" was assigned to each prisoner. It was their job to keep an eye on their man, but they weren't exactly guards. The prisoners were not allowed to communicate with anybody but their warders so, if they had any concerns, they would tell their warder and he would pass it on to whoever. Visitors were allowed only twice a year, on Christmas and the prisoner's birthday. Like I said, Speer's girlfriend rented a small cottage right across the street from the prison. Every day at noon, she would stand out in her yard and blow on a whistle to let Speer know that she was still waiting for him. I don't think they were allowed mail, newspapers, radios, or televisions. The reason for all this isolation was that, in the beginning, the Allies were worried about the prisoners making contact with their old comrades and fomenting some kind of uprising. Everybody had stopped worrying about that a long time ago but, like I said, "the rules could not be changed".
I don't remember the number of general orders for guard duty being reduced to three, but I only remember about thee of them:
1. To take charge of this post and all government property in view.
2. To walk my post in a military manner, keeping always on the alert, and observing everything that takes place within sight or hearing.
3. To quit my post only when properly relieved.
The rest of them were about reporting anything strange that went on to the Sergeant of the Guard and the guy who relieves you. There was also something about obeying the orders of the officers of the guard only. When you were on guard duty, you were detached from your regular outfit and under the command of the Officer of the Day. Nobody else was supposed to tell you what to do.
I liked guard duty, KP not so much, mostly because of the hours. On guard you worked two hours on and four hours off for 24 hours. About half of your four hours off was spent on administrative stuff, but it was possible to get two hours sleep if you didn't fool around. In my outfit, it was a rare thing to get 8 hours sleep in a 24 hour period, so guard duty was like a vacation to me. KP was about a 16 hour shift, and you had to get up for your regular duty the next day. The cooks worked 24 hours on and 24 hours off. They seldom worked their whole 24 hours on, but they were expected to if the need arose. Their 24 hours off was really off and nobody messed with that.
In my outfit, nobody said "Who goes there?" We were told that was only in the movies, in real life we were supposed to say "Who's there?" The army was funny that way, you'd think that it would be the same all over, but it wasn't.
Halt! Who goes there?
But wait, I don't remember that Beagles was a guard at Spandau.
He wasn't. Guard Duty is another one of those jobs that have to be done, like KP, and it's done on a rotating basis. Your name is on a duty roster, and when it's your turn, you just do it. Different units have different areas of responsibility; Mr. Beagles could have just as easily been assigned to guarding warehouses, offices, the motor pool, or even the swimming pool. Once you gain a little rank you don't stand guard duty anymore, you get to sit an office as "commander of the relief" and only go out when the shifts change every couple of hours. It's much easier and you're not standing out in the rain. Guard duty sucks (KP sucks even more) but I still remember the First General Order: I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved. I don't remember the rest of the general orders and there were only three at the time, reduced in number from seven or so. A lot of corners were being cut at the time.
There were other jobs like guard duty and KP, such as CQ and Duty Driver, both of which demand a lot of sitting around. CQ (charge of quarters) has you sitting in the office answering the phone, and probably includes cleaning the place up. Duty driver is self explanatory; you have a jeep assigned to you and if anything needs to be picked up or dropped off (including people), there you go. Otherwise there's a lot of hurrying up and waiting. Duty driver was the best, zipping around in a jeep was a lot of fun, but they don't use jeeps anymore.
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Kept those goobers to myself, Uncle Ken. I think some gas stations sold them but they were mostly sold from roadside stands, if memory serves. And yes, always in a small paper bag but cold, not steaming hot. I may have been eating them wrong; the YouTube videos show people shelling them in their hands and then eating the nuts. The way we did it was to just pop the whole thing in your mouth and let the tongue and teeth do the job as you enjoy the weird slimy juices and textures. Spit the shell out after you've sucked it dry and grab another one, not as messy as shelling them by hand, I think. Disgusting, yes, but not as messy.
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More later
Go for it, Uncle Ken! I'm more inclined to ponder the end of civilization myself, but to each his own. There's room for everybody on this ship through troubled waters. I mean civilization, not the Institute.
He wasn't. Guard Duty is another one of those jobs that have to be done, like KP, and it's done on a rotating basis. Your name is on a duty roster, and when it's your turn, you just do it. Different units have different areas of responsibility; Mr. Beagles could have just as easily been assigned to guarding warehouses, offices, the motor pool, or even the swimming pool. Once you gain a little rank you don't stand guard duty anymore, you get to sit an office as "commander of the relief" and only go out when the shifts change every couple of hours. It's much easier and you're not standing out in the rain. Guard duty sucks (KP sucks even more) but I still remember the First General Order: I will guard everything within the limits of my post and quit my post only when properly relieved. I don't remember the rest of the general orders and there were only three at the time, reduced in number from seven or so. A lot of corners were being cut at the time.
There were other jobs like guard duty and KP, such as CQ and Duty Driver, both of which demand a lot of sitting around. CQ (charge of quarters) has you sitting in the office answering the phone, and probably includes cleaning the place up. Duty driver is self explanatory; you have a jeep assigned to you and if anything needs to be picked up or dropped off (including people), there you go. Otherwise there's a lot of hurrying up and waiting. Duty driver was the best, zipping around in a jeep was a lot of fun, but they don't use jeeps anymore.
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Kept those goobers to myself, Uncle Ken. I think some gas stations sold them but they were mostly sold from roadside stands, if memory serves. And yes, always in a small paper bag but cold, not steaming hot. I may have been eating them wrong; the YouTube videos show people shelling them in their hands and then eating the nuts. The way we did it was to just pop the whole thing in your mouth and let the tongue and teeth do the job as you enjoy the weird slimy juices and textures. Spit the shell out after you've sucked it dry and grab another one, not as messy as shelling them by hand, I think. Disgusting, yes, but not as messy.
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More later
Go for it, Uncle Ken! I'm more inclined to ponder the end of civilization myself, but to each his own. There's room for everybody on this ship through troubled waters. I mean civilization, not the Institute.
the rise of civ
I've been remiss and unobservant. I read a few lines of the song and I didn't know what to make of it so I didn't go any further, But on rereading it, it's pretty good. I like the little story, though the parallel between a soldier doing his stint, and a Nazi serving his sentence seems like kind of a gap, but if we are to make art we have to cut a few corners. The chorus reminds me of Dylan's Ballad in Plain D:
Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me
“How good, how good does it feel to be free?”
And I answer them most mysteriously
“Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?”
Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me
“How good, how good does it feel to be free?”
And I answer them most mysteriously
“Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?”
But wait, I don't remember that Beagles was a guard at Spandau. Maybe for a spell, but not for his whole, um, sentence. Being locked up with the prisoners is a nice touch. If you were a guard, how come you only saw Speer once? Did you actually exchange smiles? More details on that meeting please.
Jam on Jerry's Rock, how did that work in? I googled it expending to hear like some meeting between Eric Clapton and Jerry Garcia, but it's one of those sad old folk songs, that I, who normally likes bleak movies and books, just can't get into.
Apparently Old Dog never did share a sack of goobers with some Bama babe in his camo car, a pity, but I am looking for details. Were they available every couple blocks like front yard smoker bbqs in Texas? Did they come in a plain paper sack, were they as good as that long ago magazine article said they were? Youth wants to know.
And that looks like it clears the board for the weekend. I know how much you lads enjoyed my exposition on liberalism, income inequality, and the end of the world, and here's another idea I am kicking around, that's kind of related to that whole liberalism thing, but I am not sure of where it is going.
But I know where it is starting, with the discovery of agriculture. Before that we don't know much, back when we were hunting and gathering we didn't have any written language . I guess there's that oral tradition and there was lore passed on by the elders, but let's face it, we spent thousands and thousands of years wandering around in the woods and getting nowhere.
I saw on tv years ago that at first everybody farmed their own land, and if they had a chief it was just for the duration of some emergency, and while he was chief he had to farm his own land at the same time because nobody was giving him anything. Eventually the village got so big that it was just one emergency after another and I guess the villagers got together and agreed to tend the chief's garden if he would devote his whole time to running things. and eventually he needed some assistants, and we are seeing the rise of the class that doesn't get their hands dirty.
But it's good because these guys have a bit of leisure, time to sit around and think about things, time to invent a little doodad to ease the work of the guys getting their hands dirty, do a little technology, a little bit of turning folklore into culture, a little bit of knowledge which is often useful, but it doesn't have to be.
More later
Friday, December 15, 2017
The Song
I suppose I should have mentioned that the song was my own, but I figured that it would be obvious. I composed it over 20 years after the fact, but it's not on my tape, and I don't think I've ever written it down until now. I can't sing it for you because I don't have a microphone. I would have to do it acapulco because I haven't played my guitar in at least ten years and would likely have to learn how all over again. Funny how time slips away, somebody should write a song about that.
I think the reason Spandau was chosen for the NAZI war criminals was that the war crimes people expected to have more prisoners than they ended up with. As it turned out, they only put seven men in there and, by the time I arrived on the scene, it was down to three. Rudolf Hess was in for life, and the other two were nearing the end of their 20 year sentences. The third guy was named Von Shirak, or something like that, and I don't know anything about him.
The reason that "the rules could not be changed" was that Spandau operated under a treaty that had been made shortly after the war between the US, the UK, France, and Russia. All four parties had to agree before anything could be changed, and the Russians vetoed anything that was proposed by any of the other three parties. That's why the three prisoners were never moved to a smaller facility. Even after Speer and Von Shirak were released, the whole complex was maintained just for Hess until he died. Shortly after that, Spandau was demolished to prevent it from becoming a rallying point for either pro or anti NAZI activists. Too bad, it looked like a haunted castle and would have made a nifty museum.
I only saw Speer that one time, and I never saw the other two. I didn't think he looked like a NAZI, I thought he just looked like somebody's grandpa. We weren't supposed to communicate with the prisoners but, when we both watched that "727 climbing sharply through the sky", we exchanged silent smiles. The 727 was designed to use shorter runways than the other commercial jets, and they had only recently started landing at Templehoff. I knew that a plane just like that was going to carry me out of Berlin in a few months, and I think that Speer did too.
In truth, he wasn't released "shortly after me", but about a month before me. I may have been confused about that because I first read about his release in a newspaper article shortly after I got out. According to that article, Speer's girlfriend met him at the prison gate with a bouquet of flowers and they boarded a 727 for an undisclosed destination. She had faithfully waited 20 years for his release, renting a house right across the street from the prison.
I have lost interest in the bitcoin, it sounds too technical for my blood.
I think the reason Spandau was chosen for the NAZI war criminals was that the war crimes people expected to have more prisoners than they ended up with. As it turned out, they only put seven men in there and, by the time I arrived on the scene, it was down to three. Rudolf Hess was in for life, and the other two were nearing the end of their 20 year sentences. The third guy was named Von Shirak, or something like that, and I don't know anything about him.
The reason that "the rules could not be changed" was that Spandau operated under a treaty that had been made shortly after the war between the US, the UK, France, and Russia. All four parties had to agree before anything could be changed, and the Russians vetoed anything that was proposed by any of the other three parties. That's why the three prisoners were never moved to a smaller facility. Even after Speer and Von Shirak were released, the whole complex was maintained just for Hess until he died. Shortly after that, Spandau was demolished to prevent it from becoming a rallying point for either pro or anti NAZI activists. Too bad, it looked like a haunted castle and would have made a nifty museum.
I only saw Speer that one time, and I never saw the other two. I didn't think he looked like a NAZI, I thought he just looked like somebody's grandpa. We weren't supposed to communicate with the prisoners but, when we both watched that "727 climbing sharply through the sky", we exchanged silent smiles. The 727 was designed to use shorter runways than the other commercial jets, and they had only recently started landing at Templehoff. I knew that a plane just like that was going to carry me out of Berlin in a few months, and I think that Speer did too.
In truth, he wasn't released "shortly after me", but about a month before me. I may have been confused about that because I first read about his release in a newspaper article shortly after I got out. According to that article, Speer's girlfriend met him at the prison gate with a bouquet of flowers and they boarded a 727 for an undisclosed destination. She had faithfully waited 20 years for his release, renting a house right across the street from the prison.
I have lost interest in the bitcoin, it sounds too technical for my blood.
No Trump
It wasn't a great stretch for me to realize that the Ode to Albert Speer, or whatever it's proper title is, is a Mr. Beagles original. Long ago he mentioned his involvement in some local folk music scene, then there was the reference to the sad ballad Jam on Gerry's Rock, and finally his duty in Berlin. The dates match, it all adds up, and it's no wonder that Uncle Ken hasn't heard it before. Not knowing what kind of tune accompanies it, I'm guessing it has a Gordon Lightfoot kind of sound, something like the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald but this all conjecture. It reads well as it is and doesn't need music.
The song (poem?) took me to Wikipedia where I read up a bit on Speer and Spandau prison. Quite a big place for so few guys; the Allies took the Nuremberg Trials very seriously. Speer must have had quite an imagination, as he is reported to have gone on an imaginary walk across Europe, counting out the steps and reliving his past travels. The guy knew how to do hard time, didn't go crazy, and lived for quite a few years after his release.
I, too, plugged the first two lines of the Speer piece into Google and the Institute came in at number four. I don't know what that means, coming in one place higher that the search by Uncle Ken. The system is rigged.
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I didn't find many recipes for boiled peanuts, AKA goober peas; they take a lot of time, figure at least ten hours of boiling the raw legumes. There are many styles, depending on the southern location, but the Lousiana Cajun style sound particularly tasty. And boiled peanuts are not without a pedigree: they are the official snack food of South Carolina. If you don't want to bother with cooking them yourself they are sold in cans, but pricey, on Amazon. Some Walmarts sell them too, but maybe not the stores up north.
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Nobody seems to care about Bitcoin or cryptocurrency, which is fine by me. But I was wondering about something, the possibility that Bitcoin mining is a ruse for a more insidious purpose. You set up these expensive boxes that run 24/7, using software that is supposed to crunch the numbers so you can make money. The software is very specialized, but how do you know that mining is all that it's doing? It could be cracking passwords, laundering money, god knows what else and you would never know until the guys in suits knock on your door while the black helicopters hover nearby. And if it was such a foolproof system of generating income why hasn't Google unleashed all of it's computing firepower and taken it over? There is much I don't know about the whole business, but something is fishy.
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I saw my first Amazon Book Store a few days ago. It's a strange concept for me; they kill the brick & mortar stores and open up their own. I didn't go in, but I've read that prices aren't listed and you have to use a smartphone or device to find out what they cost. Having a Prime account is supposed to be a big help, but I wonder if they accept cash. Odd, very odd. I'm slipping into a future which I cannot grasp very well. No smartphone, no service?
The song (poem?) took me to Wikipedia where I read up a bit on Speer and Spandau prison. Quite a big place for so few guys; the Allies took the Nuremberg Trials very seriously. Speer must have had quite an imagination, as he is reported to have gone on an imaginary walk across Europe, counting out the steps and reliving his past travels. The guy knew how to do hard time, didn't go crazy, and lived for quite a few years after his release.
I, too, plugged the first two lines of the Speer piece into Google and the Institute came in at number four. I don't know what that means, coming in one place higher that the search by Uncle Ken. The system is rigged.
-----
I didn't find many recipes for boiled peanuts, AKA goober peas; they take a lot of time, figure at least ten hours of boiling the raw legumes. There are many styles, depending on the southern location, but the Lousiana Cajun style sound particularly tasty. And boiled peanuts are not without a pedigree: they are the official snack food of South Carolina. If you don't want to bother with cooking them yourself they are sold in cans, but pricey, on Amazon. Some Walmarts sell them too, but maybe not the stores up north.
-----
Nobody seems to care about Bitcoin or cryptocurrency, which is fine by me. But I was wondering about something, the possibility that Bitcoin mining is a ruse for a more insidious purpose. You set up these expensive boxes that run 24/7, using software that is supposed to crunch the numbers so you can make money. The software is very specialized, but how do you know that mining is all that it's doing? It could be cracking passwords, laundering money, god knows what else and you would never know until the guys in suits knock on your door while the black helicopters hover nearby. And if it was such a foolproof system of generating income why hasn't Google unleashed all of it's computing firepower and taken it over? There is much I don't know about the whole business, but something is fishy.
-----
I saw my first Amazon Book Store a few days ago. It's a strange concept for me; they kill the brick & mortar stores and open up their own. I didn't go in, but I've read that prices aren't listed and you have to use a smartphone or device to find out what they cost. Having a Prime account is supposed to be a big help, but I wonder if they accept cash. Odd, very odd. I'm slipping into a future which I cannot grasp very well. No smartphone, no service?
Tammy and the goober gobbling Yankee
What. nothing for Uncle Ken to expound upon on a fine Friday morning with a full pot of coffee sitting in the kitchen? How am I to start my day?
Well maybe Beagles thought there should have been more expounding to do on that song about Speer and the guard. I had never heard it before, couldn't make much out of head or tailwise. I slipped the first two lines of it into the google machine and the machine came up with three articles on Spandou, one on the Berlin Wall, and the fifth one was The Institute itself, which maybe doesn't mean that much because Google tries to give you what it thinks you want. .
I am also disappointed that Old Dog has no tale of riding the roads of the south in his camo car a doe-eyed belle at his side and a jug of moonshine between them pulling into some farm stand for cokes for mixers and under the spell of the aroma ordering a couple bags of goober peas, and when the bag is done she is itching to see if what she has heard about Yankees, especially those of Finnish extraction, is true, he says, "Later Honey, right now I got to get myself another bag of these goobers. Can't get them up north you know." Makes her pout, but that just makes her cuter and he is tempted to forgo the goobers, but hey, there will be girls when he goes back north, but there won't be any goober peas.
I used coke because I happen to know that's what they call pop down south, I was hoping for one of those more colorful names the south is full of, but coke was it. But you know that whole thing about what you call pop is, I don't know, more interesting than it has any right to be. Chicago is big time pop country, Champaign was more neutral, and southern Illinois is solidly soda. I picked up the habit, just to be folksy I guess and held onto it through stints in California and Texas, but when I came back to Chicago I proudly reverted to being a pop guy.
That's all I have this mornng
Well maybe Beagles thought there should have been more expounding to do on that song about Speer and the guard. I had never heard it before, couldn't make much out of head or tailwise. I slipped the first two lines of it into the google machine and the machine came up with three articles on Spandou, one on the Berlin Wall, and the fifth one was The Institute itself, which maybe doesn't mean that much because Google tries to give you what it thinks you want. .
I am also disappointed that Old Dog has no tale of riding the roads of the south in his camo car a doe-eyed belle at his side and a jug of moonshine between them pulling into some farm stand for cokes for mixers and under the spell of the aroma ordering a couple bags of goober peas, and when the bag is done she is itching to see if what she has heard about Yankees, especially those of Finnish extraction, is true, he says, "Later Honey, right now I got to get myself another bag of these goobers. Can't get them up north you know." Makes her pout, but that just makes her cuter and he is tempted to forgo the goobers, but hey, there will be girls when he goes back north, but there won't be any goober peas.
I used coke because I happen to know that's what they call pop down south, I was hoping for one of those more colorful names the south is full of, but coke was it. But you know that whole thing about what you call pop is, I don't know, more interesting than it has any right to be. Chicago is big time pop country, Champaign was more neutral, and southern Illinois is solidly soda. I picked up the habit, just to be folksy I guess and held onto it through stints in California and Texas, but when I came back to Chicago I proudly reverted to being a pop guy.
That's all I have this mornng
Thursday, December 14, 2017
goober peas
Grits, I can take them but I'd rather leave them. But goober peas are something I would like to try. I read an article years ago about how down south in their farm stands they have some concoction of newly picked peanuts where they boil them or something, and it's kind of like peanuts, only much better. I don't know if that is the same concoction as goober peas, about which I know nothing except that curious song which I must have learned in school, I don't know why.
They had us sing the most curious songs in grade school. The Caissons Go Rolling Along comes to mind. What the heck? Teacher explained that caissons are cannons, and we were like so what? Why are we kiddies singing songs about dragging cannons over hill and dale? Shut yer yaps and start singing.or no recess for you.
Internet research reveals that those boiled peanuts are indeed goober peas. The article made them sound so good, a crinkly damp paper bag of goobers, still steaming, eaten in the shade of Spanish moss, maybe chased with some sweet tea.
Sweet tea was the default iced tea in Texas. If you just said iced tea and didn't request no sugar you would get it sweet. I asked for sour tea to make joke, but nobody laughed.
They had grits too down there too, and those black-eyed peas I have spoken of, but no goobers. You know I guess I rather assumed that they would make their way up here, like Krispy Kreme and Dr Pepper, but they never have. Oh to be strolling down State Street eating goober peas.
That Georgia election was a couple black eyes for Trump, but I don't see anybody hauling him off unless his polls drop below that solid thirty-five. In the labyrinth of CNN panels I thought I heard some pundit mention thirty-two, but I haven't been able to find any corroboration for that. I'm not sure if we will find evidence of anything on Pence's pure pink hands. Beneath that bland white ghost exterior is a cunning cunning man.
I don't know about that Ryan, he seems like a nice enough aw shucks lad, a cut above the tea party mob, but possibly he will go down with this tax bill. They have some little shell game about creating jobs which is pure vaporware while the real fact of the case is a yuge giveaway to the richie richies. Already Joe Six pack is giving it the stink eye, and when Ryan notices that the cupboard is even barer with the slashed taxes, and to make up for it decides to cut social security and medicare for greedy Joe Six Pack, well maybe that will be the end of the republicans wild ride.
And then the dems can sweep in with, well I have no idea. So far it looks like they may be deep into civil war, Bernies against Hilarys. Maybe it will be like just before the civil war when they had all those political parties, and when we liberals realize discussion has gotten us nowhere and decide to arm ourselves and pound some sense into those southerners on Bernie's march to the sea I may pause along the roadside and enjoy a sack of steaming goober peas.
They had us sing the most curious songs in grade school. The Caissons Go Rolling Along comes to mind. What the heck? Teacher explained that caissons are cannons, and we were like so what? Why are we kiddies singing songs about dragging cannons over hill and dale? Shut yer yaps and start singing.or no recess for you.
Internet research reveals that those boiled peanuts are indeed goober peas. The article made them sound so good, a crinkly damp paper bag of goobers, still steaming, eaten in the shade of Spanish moss, maybe chased with some sweet tea.
Sweet tea was the default iced tea in Texas. If you just said iced tea and didn't request no sugar you would get it sweet. I asked for sour tea to make joke, but nobody laughed.
They had grits too down there too, and those black-eyed peas I have spoken of, but no goobers. You know I guess I rather assumed that they would make their way up here, like Krispy Kreme and Dr Pepper, but they never have. Oh to be strolling down State Street eating goober peas.
That Georgia election was a couple black eyes for Trump, but I don't see anybody hauling him off unless his polls drop below that solid thirty-five. In the labyrinth of CNN panels I thought I heard some pundit mention thirty-two, but I haven't been able to find any corroboration for that. I'm not sure if we will find evidence of anything on Pence's pure pink hands. Beneath that bland white ghost exterior is a cunning cunning man.
I don't know about that Ryan, he seems like a nice enough aw shucks lad, a cut above the tea party mob, but possibly he will go down with this tax bill. They have some little shell game about creating jobs which is pure vaporware while the real fact of the case is a yuge giveaway to the richie richies. Already Joe Six pack is giving it the stink eye, and when Ryan notices that the cupboard is even barer with the slashed taxes, and to make up for it decides to cut social security and medicare for greedy Joe Six Pack, well maybe that will be the end of the republicans wild ride.
And then the dems can sweep in with, well I have no idea. So far it looks like they may be deep into civil war, Bernies against Hilarys. Maybe it will be like just before the civil war when they had all those political parties, and when we liberals realize discussion has gotten us nowhere and decide to arm ourselves and pound some sense into those southerners on Bernie's march to the sea I may pause along the roadside and enjoy a sack of steaming goober peas.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Albert Speer
I meant to say something about Albert Speer yesterday after Uncle Ken mentioned him in his post, but I seem to have gone off on a tangent and forgotten about it. Well, better late than never. True story:
Oh the year was 1966, I climbed that tower again,
Pulling guard at Spandau in the city of Berlin.
From another century, the buildings looked so old,
A 50 acre compound to imprison three lost souls.
They locked us in the towers, I thought that kind of strange,
Since none of us had plans to leave, but the rules could not be changed.
I served my tour of duty, it wasn't very hard,
But I felt as much a prisoner as that man down on the yard.
Chorus:
We all build our own prisons, it's the same for me and you.
We build them out of deeds we've done and deeds we meant to do.
We all are our own jailers, the keeper of the key,
And the only liberator who can set the captive free.
His war was getting over with when I was being born,
But the victors write the history books and he'd done something wrong.
And now my war was raging, but I was not in the fray.
I served my time in Germany, half a world away.
He always kept a garden, he kept it by himself.
His other fellow prisoners never gave him any help.
It must have made the time go by as he worked from spring till fall,
And thought about the girl who waited just outside the wall.
Chorus
The garden was impressive, the part that I could see.
In it were some fruit trees about as old as me.
They said it looked much better a year ago or so,
But he was getting out this year so he'd kind of let it go.
We never saw the other two, they always stayed inside.
For all intents and purposes they had already died,
But this one had his garden and the girl he hoped to see.
For all intents and purposes he was already free.
Chorus
A plane took off from Templehoff, which must have been nearby,
A 727 climbing sharply through the sky.
The prisoner stopped his gardening and leaned upon his hoe,
And I wondered what he thought about as he watched that jet plane go.
Today I still remember him and the way he watched that plane,
And I think of him whenever I hear "The Early Morning Rain".
I understand he was released shortly after me,
But Albert Speer served 20 years and I served only three.
Chorus
Oh the year was 1966, I climbed that tower again,
Pulling guard at Spandau in the city of Berlin.
From another century, the buildings looked so old,
A 50 acre compound to imprison three lost souls.
They locked us in the towers, I thought that kind of strange,
Since none of us had plans to leave, but the rules could not be changed.
I served my tour of duty, it wasn't very hard,
But I felt as much a prisoner as that man down on the yard.
Chorus:
We all build our own prisons, it's the same for me and you.
We build them out of deeds we've done and deeds we meant to do.
We all are our own jailers, the keeper of the key,
And the only liberator who can set the captive free.
His war was getting over with when I was being born,
But the victors write the history books and he'd done something wrong.
And now my war was raging, but I was not in the fray.
I served my time in Germany, half a world away.
He always kept a garden, he kept it by himself.
His other fellow prisoners never gave him any help.
It must have made the time go by as he worked from spring till fall,
And thought about the girl who waited just outside the wall.
Chorus
The garden was impressive, the part that I could see.
In it were some fruit trees about as old as me.
They said it looked much better a year ago or so,
But he was getting out this year so he'd kind of let it go.
We never saw the other two, they always stayed inside.
For all intents and purposes they had already died,
But this one had his garden and the girl he hoped to see.
For all intents and purposes he was already free.
Chorus
A plane took off from Templehoff, which must have been nearby,
A 727 climbing sharply through the sky.
The prisoner stopped his gardening and leaned upon his hoe,
And I wondered what he thought about as he watched that jet plane go.
Today I still remember him and the way he watched that plane,
And I think of him whenever I hear "The Early Morning Rain".
I understand he was released shortly after me,
But Albert Speer served 20 years and I served only three.
Chorus
Brother, can you spare a Bitcoin?
Did Uncle Ken celebrate the loss of Moore with a mess of grits and a bowl of boiled peanuts, fine Alabama delicacies that I recall fondly? Only the most cultivated of palates can appreciate their subtle goodness.
But that was something last night, wasn't it? If the reddest of states can veer away from the dark side it does not bode well for the GOP in 2018 and perhaps the worm has turned. Trump hasn't had a very good month and some of lies are starting to catch up with him. He's denied knowing, or ever having met, the women who have accused him of sleazy behavior but the photos and interviews tell a different story. It seems that he has completely lost his grip on reality, such as it was, and I expect the final meltdown, soon. The Secret Service will step in with tranquilizer darts and a straitjacket, and that will be that. Pence won't last long, what with obstruction of justice charges looming in his future, so that will leave us with Ryan. A hell of a mess in any case and I wonder what is running through Putin's mind today; his plans may have gone awry.
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Bitcoin mining is a crazy business and I think it's a bubble waiting to burst. Yes, it's possible to earn money with it, but at no small expense. Algorithms change and new hardware will be required to keep up, and the electrical usage is astounding. There are plenty of videos available that describe the issues so I won't mention them further but they may be of interest. Unless you have a really cheap source of electricity and don't mind a lot of noise and heat I don't think it's worth the trouble. I expect a lot of people will be going broke following that dream. Cryptocurrency, in general, is a solution in search of a problem in my opinion.
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So, how do we know that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God? It doesn't make God look very all-powerful if he can only have one kid. But maybe, just maybe, there have been dozens, hundreds, millions of offspring, sons and daughters both, and humans, being contrary in the execution of their free will simply ignored or killed them in the interest of societal stability. It doesn't seem impossible to me, except for the blameless of sin part which, I think, is a requirement for legitimate Children of God. And now I'm starting to wonder if God has free will; he changed his mind a lot in the Old Testament, didn't he? As an atheist I shouldn't ask such foolish questions.
But that was something last night, wasn't it? If the reddest of states can veer away from the dark side it does not bode well for the GOP in 2018 and perhaps the worm has turned. Trump hasn't had a very good month and some of lies are starting to catch up with him. He's denied knowing, or ever having met, the women who have accused him of sleazy behavior but the photos and interviews tell a different story. It seems that he has completely lost his grip on reality, such as it was, and I expect the final meltdown, soon. The Secret Service will step in with tranquilizer darts and a straitjacket, and that will be that. Pence won't last long, what with obstruction of justice charges looming in his future, so that will leave us with Ryan. A hell of a mess in any case and I wonder what is running through Putin's mind today; his plans may have gone awry.
-----
Bitcoin mining is a crazy business and I think it's a bubble waiting to burst. Yes, it's possible to earn money with it, but at no small expense. Algorithms change and new hardware will be required to keep up, and the electrical usage is astounding. There are plenty of videos available that describe the issues so I won't mention them further but they may be of interest. Unless you have a really cheap source of electricity and don't mind a lot of noise and heat I don't think it's worth the trouble. I expect a lot of people will be going broke following that dream. Cryptocurrency, in general, is a solution in search of a problem in my opinion.
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So, how do we know that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God? It doesn't make God look very all-powerful if he can only have one kid. But maybe, just maybe, there have been dozens, hundreds, millions of offspring, sons and daughters both, and humans, being contrary in the execution of their free will simply ignored or killed them in the interest of societal stability. It doesn't seem impossible to me, except for the blameless of sin part which, I think, is a requirement for legitimate Children of God. And now I'm starting to wonder if God has free will; he changed his mind a lot in the Old Testament, didn't he? As an atheist I shouldn't ask such foolish questions.
the battle in Bama
I don't believe that whole thing about Jesus dying for our sins came about until 400 years after the crucifixion when Augustine thought up the whole thing. Augustine by the way, led a rather libertine life with wives and mistresses and a taste of the grape, before he settled into his sinless life. I believe he even recommended temptation as a way to test yourself. Salvation is hardly free if you have to sell your soul to Jesus to get it. What, wait a minute, you only have to forgive your trespassers if they repent (to you or Jesus?), that sounds like an awfully big loophole that the bible doesn't even mention.
You all know what a sick political pup I am. I spent most of yesterday waiting for the polls to close down in Alabama. At the crack of seven I tuned into CNN. Politico had a nice little webpage, with a running total and a map of Alabama where you could click on a county and see how many precincts were in and what the vote was. In the middle of the state was the black belt, which the commentators hastened to inform was so-called because of the rich dark earth, although they added it was also true that a lot of Black people lived there. The top and the bottom of the state was mostly ruby except for Birmingham in Jefferson County and Montgomery in Montgomery county, and Mobile was expected to be a tossup.
With like 0.03 percent in Jones took a pretty good lead, one disturbing thing though was that write-ins were right around 1.0 percent. It had been expected that there would be more reps writing in someone else. So without a lot of info in the pundits got to jawing, like baseball announcers in the middle innings when not much scoring is going on. There had been some talk that maybe the reps would be better off losing because then the dems wouldn't have Roy Moore to hang around their necks. Santorum, the token Trumpist on the panel, seemed to think it would be ok because the reps could bring him before that committee and toss him out and have the rep gov appoint some relatively sane guy. I didn't see that happening because Trump, who had originally been talked into backing Moore's opponent in the primary, had come to be rather fond of the guy, another nutty old white guy with sexual harassment problems, and I didn't see the reps bucking their prez by ousting his buddy.
So I didn't buy that the reps would be better off winning, I wanted a regular dem who would cut the red margin in the senate to one thin vote, and I wanted to see a punch to Trump's ample gut. But halfway through it wasn't looking so hot. Moore went about ten points ahead and was holding it steadily as the precincts reached 50%, 60%. I switched over to Fox and they were pretty merry. But they were as merry about beating McConnell and the regular reps as they were about beating the dems. When they spoke the word establishment, contempt was heavy on their lips. Damn hippies.
But I had that nifty Politico map and as I moved the cursor across Jefferson and Montgomery counties I noticed that hardly any precincts were in, whereas those red counties had already counted most of their precincts so no Moore votes would be coming from them. Sure enough as soon as the blue county votes started coming in, the lead narrowed. I opened the imperial IPA that had remained untouched in my fridge since the Cubs failed to get into the world series. Because imperial IPAs have so much alcohol they are almost syrupy, and sweet it was as Jones took and held a one point lead. Fox called it first and almost immediately lost interest and started talking about Hilary. CNN followed about half an hour later as I was finishing off my IPA and trundling off to slumberland.
And now I am typing out my post and waiting on the morning tweets.
You all know what a sick political pup I am. I spent most of yesterday waiting for the polls to close down in Alabama. At the crack of seven I tuned into CNN. Politico had a nice little webpage, with a running total and a map of Alabama where you could click on a county and see how many precincts were in and what the vote was. In the middle of the state was the black belt, which the commentators hastened to inform was so-called because of the rich dark earth, although they added it was also true that a lot of Black people lived there. The top and the bottom of the state was mostly ruby except for Birmingham in Jefferson County and Montgomery in Montgomery county, and Mobile was expected to be a tossup.
With like 0.03 percent in Jones took a pretty good lead, one disturbing thing though was that write-ins were right around 1.0 percent. It had been expected that there would be more reps writing in someone else. So without a lot of info in the pundits got to jawing, like baseball announcers in the middle innings when not much scoring is going on. There had been some talk that maybe the reps would be better off losing because then the dems wouldn't have Roy Moore to hang around their necks. Santorum, the token Trumpist on the panel, seemed to think it would be ok because the reps could bring him before that committee and toss him out and have the rep gov appoint some relatively sane guy. I didn't see that happening because Trump, who had originally been talked into backing Moore's opponent in the primary, had come to be rather fond of the guy, another nutty old white guy with sexual harassment problems, and I didn't see the reps bucking their prez by ousting his buddy.
So I didn't buy that the reps would be better off winning, I wanted a regular dem who would cut the red margin in the senate to one thin vote, and I wanted to see a punch to Trump's ample gut. But halfway through it wasn't looking so hot. Moore went about ten points ahead and was holding it steadily as the precincts reached 50%, 60%. I switched over to Fox and they were pretty merry. But they were as merry about beating McConnell and the regular reps as they were about beating the dems. When they spoke the word establishment, contempt was heavy on their lips. Damn hippies.
But I had that nifty Politico map and as I moved the cursor across Jefferson and Montgomery counties I noticed that hardly any precincts were in, whereas those red counties had already counted most of their precincts so no Moore votes would be coming from them. Sure enough as soon as the blue county votes started coming in, the lead narrowed. I opened the imperial IPA that had remained untouched in my fridge since the Cubs failed to get into the world series. Because imperial IPAs have so much alcohol they are almost syrupy, and sweet it was as Jones took and held a one point lead. Fox called it first and almost immediately lost interest and started talking about Hilary. CNN followed about half an hour later as I was finishing off my IPA and trundling off to slumberland.
And now I am typing out my post and waiting on the morning tweets.
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Forgiveness
I see that Uncle Ken is still trying to interject a point system into the Judeo-Christian tradition. While it's true that many Christians believe that, they would be surprised to find out that it comes from the Persian prophet Zarathustra, who was neither a Jew nor a Christian. The way that the Judeo-Christian system is set up, no one is good enough to get into Heaven on his own merits. You are expected to sin, and then obtain forgiveness. The Jews used to obtain forgiveness by sacrificing animals in the Temple before the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. I'm not sure what they do now, or that they even believe in an afterlife. The official Christian position is that Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice, rendering all other sacrifices unnecessary and ineffective. Salvation is a free gift conditional only on repentance and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as your lord and master. You will probably sin after that on occasion and, when you do, you just repent and accept all over again.
I never gave temptation a lot of thought but, of course, it's in there. I remember that Jesus himself was tempted by Satan at least once. Satan took Jesus up on a mountain top where they could see all the kingdoms of the world and promised Him that they would all be His if He would abandon God and worship Satan. Of course Jesus didn't buy it, and told Satan to "Get thee behind me!" I suppose that's what we're supposed to do when we are tempted to sin. We could think of temptation as kind of a test, but you don't pass it by merely declining to sin this one time. You have to reject Satan and call upon Jesus to cast him out.
I'm pretty sure that the part about the trespasses means exactly what Uncle Ken thinks it means. You can't expect that your sins will be forgiven if you don't forgive others who sin against you. I don't think you have to forgive them, though, if they don't repent, because even God doesn't do that.
I never gave temptation a lot of thought but, of course, it's in there. I remember that Jesus himself was tempted by Satan at least once. Satan took Jesus up on a mountain top where they could see all the kingdoms of the world and promised Him that they would all be His if He would abandon God and worship Satan. Of course Jesus didn't buy it, and told Satan to "Get thee behind me!" I suppose that's what we're supposed to do when we are tempted to sin. We could think of temptation as kind of a test, but you don't pass it by merely declining to sin this one time. You have to reject Satan and call upon Jesus to cast him out.
I'm pretty sure that the part about the trespasses means exactly what Uncle Ken thinks it means. You can't expect that your sins will be forgiven if you don't forgive others who sin against you. I don't think you have to forgive them, though, if they don't repent, because even God doesn't do that.
temptation
I watched some of the Nuremberg trials last night, not the famous movie but some cable channel, American Heroes, like the History Channel, but I daresay a cut above, They had some kind of mockup with part documentary and part actors, which was okay, better than the History Channel shows which are geared for sixth graders who have to write a paper for class the next day.
Rather a gentleman among the thugs, that Speers. Stood up to Hitler a couple times, was likely complicit in an assassination plot, took full blame, unlike the other thugs. Got twenty years and got out in time to be a minor celeb, getting interviews on tv shows. One wonders if goose stepping could find a place in Dancing with the Stars.
Meanwhile in 1950 Shirer has been waltzing the Strasses of Vienna, mourning the ravages of war, but admiring the sophisticated fighting spirit of the Viennese rebuilding their sidewalk coffee houses. You hardly ever hear of Austria anymore, next he is flying off to London.
Meanwhile the dawgs have been watching the cooking channel.
I never liked using the oven, you know it's so big, and a little scary, a fiery furnace right there in your kitchen and I hear it is hard to clean. But I do like pizza and when I heard that we could both put a man on the moon AND make a microwaveable pizza, I bought one. It turns out that trip to the moon was done better than the microwave pizza, but I use it all the time for other stuff. I chop up some vegetables and put them in, I do a little cooking kind of thing in that between zaps I add the garlic, and the soy sauce, and pepper, and the butter, It works out fine.
NPR picked up the story of revising the Lord's Prayer, saying it was more of a matter of translation. Speaking of translation I also had to look up temptation. The word never had that sinister taint to me. It's such a nice morning that I'm tempted to take a walk along the river before writing my post in the morning. But apparently it has a tendency to apply to deeds we ought not to be doing or so says the google dictionary.
But it seems to me, that we should be led into temptation. How else can we make a choice between good and evil? Why is the concept of free will such a mainspring of the church, if we never use it because the Lord is shielding our eyes?
And speaking of the Lord's prayer what about that trespasses thing (my internet biblical research tells me sometimes its debts or sins), forgive them as we forgive those who trespass against us. Whoa, is that some kind of trick, does that mean that if I don't forgive my trespassers, the Lord won't forgive me. And isn't He getting on His high horse about this, Who tosses all those people into the fiery lake?
Speaking of trespasses and fiery lakes it's election night in Alabama. It will take some time to read the entrails of this one.
Rather a gentleman among the thugs, that Speers. Stood up to Hitler a couple times, was likely complicit in an assassination plot, took full blame, unlike the other thugs. Got twenty years and got out in time to be a minor celeb, getting interviews on tv shows. One wonders if goose stepping could find a place in Dancing with the Stars.
Meanwhile in 1950 Shirer has been waltzing the Strasses of Vienna, mourning the ravages of war, but admiring the sophisticated fighting spirit of the Viennese rebuilding their sidewalk coffee houses. You hardly ever hear of Austria anymore, next he is flying off to London.
Meanwhile the dawgs have been watching the cooking channel.
I never liked using the oven, you know it's so big, and a little scary, a fiery furnace right there in your kitchen and I hear it is hard to clean. But I do like pizza and when I heard that we could both put a man on the moon AND make a microwaveable pizza, I bought one. It turns out that trip to the moon was done better than the microwave pizza, but I use it all the time for other stuff. I chop up some vegetables and put them in, I do a little cooking kind of thing in that between zaps I add the garlic, and the soy sauce, and pepper, and the butter, It works out fine.
NPR picked up the story of revising the Lord's Prayer, saying it was more of a matter of translation. Speaking of translation I also had to look up temptation. The word never had that sinister taint to me. It's such a nice morning that I'm tempted to take a walk along the river before writing my post in the morning. But apparently it has a tendency to apply to deeds we ought not to be doing or so says the google dictionary.
But it seems to me, that we should be led into temptation. How else can we make a choice between good and evil? Why is the concept of free will such a mainspring of the church, if we never use it because the Lord is shielding our eyes?
And speaking of the Lord's prayer what about that trespasses thing (my internet biblical research tells me sometimes its debts or sins), forgive them as we forgive those who trespass against us. Whoa, is that some kind of trick, does that mean that if I don't forgive my trespassers, the Lord won't forgive me. And isn't He getting on His high horse about this, Who tosses all those people into the fiery lake?
Speaking of trespasses and fiery lakes it's election night in Alabama. It will take some time to read the entrails of this one.
Monday, December 11, 2017
Wild Meat and Potatoes
I read Old Dog's article, but I couldn't make Uncle Ken's link work. I do have a little experience raising wild game, however, and I think the reason it's not commonly sold in supermarkets is that it's too expensive to raise compared to cattle, hogs, and chickens. There is a limited market for it in high end restaurants, but that's about it.
I didn't know that potatoes contained all those nutrients, I thought they were all carbs and starch. I never raised potatoes because they are so cheap in the store. I have been told, though, that they thrive in low PH soil, while most agricultural crops require soil that is close to neutral.
A pressure cooker is basically a boiling pot with a secure airtight lid. The advantage is that it takes less time to cook stuff in it because, as the name implies, it cooks under pressure. If you do a lot of home canning, you almost have to have one, otherwise it takes hours to cook most canned goods except tomatoes. Boiling in an open pot also tends to steam up the kitchen, and most home canning is done in late summer when you don't need that.
A microwave is handy for quickly warming up leftovers, but you can also use it for other types of cooking. We make breakfast in ours, but I seem to remember telling y'all about that before. My hypothetical wife also likes to cook frozen vegetables in the microwave. She cooks them right from frozen and they taste like fresh out of the garden.
I didn't know that potatoes contained all those nutrients, I thought they were all carbs and starch. I never raised potatoes because they are so cheap in the store. I have been told, though, that they thrive in low PH soil, while most agricultural crops require soil that is close to neutral.
A pressure cooker is basically a boiling pot with a secure airtight lid. The advantage is that it takes less time to cook stuff in it because, as the name implies, it cooks under pressure. If you do a lot of home canning, you almost have to have one, otherwise it takes hours to cook most canned goods except tomatoes. Boiling in an open pot also tends to steam up the kitchen, and most home canning is done in late summer when you don't need that.
A microwave is handy for quickly warming up leftovers, but you can also use it for other types of cooking. We make breakfast in ours, but I seem to remember telling y'all about that before. My hypothetical wife also likes to cook frozen vegetables in the microwave. She cooks them right from frozen and they taste like fresh out of the garden.
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