Short Summary of the Panthers/Giants Game Yesterday
Giants: Here you go Panthers, why don't you go ahead and win this game?
Panthers: Thanks fellas, but we'd really rather not win today. Here, you can have the ball.
Giants: No really, we insist. You guys deserve a big win with your new quarterback after last year's tough season.
Panthers: That's mighty kind of you but we would rather see you have a win in your new stadium. Here, take the dang ball.
Giants: Look, we like you guys and we are going to give you one more chance to make a game of it. Go ahead, we want you to give us a good game.
Panthers: OK, we'll give it a shot. Look, we're moving the ball, we're gaining confidence. Never mind. Here take the ball.
Giants: Thanks. Tell you what, we're just going to kneel down and run out the clock so we can all get the hell out of here.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Monday, September 06, 2010
An Armed Society is a Polite Society
“An armed society is a polite society” is the Robert A. Heinlein quote I see used often by conservatives and gun enthusiasts. That and “Tanstaafl! (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch). The quote is from his novel “Beyond this Horizon” which was first published in 1942. Interesting fact: he finished the novel the day before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The full quote is spoken by a character called Mordan Claude who is an administrator for the office of genetics. He befriends the novel’s main character, Felix Hamilton, while attempting to persuade Hamilton to mate in order that his superior genes may pass on and enrich the species. Felix is reluctant to create progeny because he feels life has no purpose. That is the crux of the story, that and a revolution by inferior radicals who feel they are being repressed when they’re really not, they’re just stupid and selfish.
This quote is an interesting example of how taking a quote from a work of fiction out of context can be tricky. Heinlein addressed the nature of fiction when answering a question in 1973 about his famous character Lazarus Long, a man who has lived over 2,000 years. The interviewer asked him what a man that old would know that we don’t. Heinlein replied, “I haven’t the slightest idea; I’m not even a hundred, yet! Remember, this thing’s a work of fiction.”
Here is a more complete quotation: “Well, in the first place, an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That’s a personal evaluation only. But gunfighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things to kill off the weak and the stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both. It’s a good thing.”
When quoting from a work of fiction to make a point I think you hit some quicksand when the quote is coming out of the mouth of a character. This quote is a good example of this problem because, although this is a very polite society, it’s also a violent society. The reason everyone is so polite is not because the presence of armed males (only males generally go armed) has brought a mutually assured head wound type of peace; everyone is so polite in a Victorian way because one slip of the tongue will likely put you in a situation where you will have to defend your life. Maybe this fulfills some kind of Wild West macho fantasy for those gun enthusiasts but if the frequency of violence that is apparent in this novel existed in today’s world it wouldn’t be the gun rights utopia they are dreaming of. I doubt most that adopt this quote are aware of the nature of the society Heinlein created for this novel.
There is a scene where Felix Hamilton is eating dinner in a pay restaurant with his friend, Monroe-Alpha Clifford. Food is free in this society, by the way, spending money at a restaurant is considered a good way to flaunt your wealth. They are dining in the balcony of this restaurant and Clifford, because he’s a clumsy and dorky math whiz, while attempting to crack open a crab leg flips it into the crowd below. Hamilton, because the dinner was his idea, “assumes the honor” and negotiates an apology with the alpha male of the offended party and what could have been an offense that resulted in a duel if the offended party didn’t feel satisfied is resolved peacefully. After their parlay ends a third party interferes and insinuates that the two men are candy asses for not having a shoot out in the middle of a public place. Felix then resolves this dispute by putting a slug from his pistol into the chest of the offending loudmouth. If that is not frighteningly enough it turns out the lout was attempting to insult the gentleman on the floor in order to coerce him into a duel. We later learn that it was an assassination attempt. In this society it is acceptable to resolve simple social offenses in public with firearms and no one bats an eye when it is revealed that one man was attempting a political assassination in broad daylight with an insult that would be expected to force the other to resort to deadly violence. Also in this society young men that go armed in public are called “braves.” Polite? Oh yeah! Violent and deadly? You betcha!
Another problem with this quote is that the idea of an armed society is a polite society did not come from Heinlein. It was a theory that science fiction editor, John W. Campbell, had asked Heinlein to investigate. So, if a quote you find supports your views comes from the mouth a character in a novel, a novel that is exploring a concept that is not even necessarily supported by the author is that quote still relevant to the person using the quote to promote his agenda? I say no. Taking a quote from any document and taking it out of context without considering the work as a whole is lazy research.
Here is an example of how to quote a work of fiction properly. Back in 2004 I read this column in the New York Times by Verlyn Klinkenborg about global warming and how an issue this large will not get addressed until it is an emergency:
“In a way, the true puzzle of global warming isn't the mechanics of man-made climate change -- the feedback loops, the damage to the ozone layer, the shift in oceanic oscillations, the melting of the ice-caps, the desertification of formerly productive agricultural lands. Those can be studied and understood. The true puzzle is human nature. In every one of these accounts of climate change and environmental degradation, the authors note the inertia of the global system, whether they're talking about economic or climatic models of the future. But there's another kind of inertia built into the system too, and I know no better account of it than a passage from Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation,'' the opening novel in his classic series about a science called ''psychohistory,'' which combines psychology and statistics. ''The psychohistoric trend of a planet-full of people contains a huge inertia,'' says Hari Seldon, the ancestral hero of the foundation. ''To be changed it must be met with something possessing a similar inertia.''
This is a way of saying we live as we have always lived. Sometimes -- like now -- nearly everyone is aware of dramatic changes in the world. Yet we continue to live in the assumption that we can ride out the changes without changing ourselves, coasting, as we have always coasted, on the historic wave of human development. What it will take to wake us up is a wave of equal size traveling in the opposite direction. That wave is already on its way.”
As you can see, a little context goes a long way.
What bothers me most when I see these Robert Heinlein quotes used to support causes is that he was a thinker who could hold opposing ideas in his head at the same time. He isn’t the hippy idealist people see in the novel “Stranger in a Strange Land” and he wasn’t the militarist people see in “Starship Troopers.” He can’t be pigeon holed that easily. He’s too complex for soundbites.
“An armed society is a polite society” is the Robert A. Heinlein quote I see used often by conservatives and gun enthusiasts. That and “Tanstaafl! (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch). The quote is from his novel “Beyond this Horizon” which was first published in 1942. Interesting fact: he finished the novel the day before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The full quote is spoken by a character called Mordan Claude who is an administrator for the office of genetics. He befriends the novel’s main character, Felix Hamilton, while attempting to persuade Hamilton to mate in order that his superior genes may pass on and enrich the species. Felix is reluctant to create progeny because he feels life has no purpose. That is the crux of the story, that and a revolution by inferior radicals who feel they are being repressed when they’re really not, they’re just stupid and selfish.
This quote is an interesting example of how taking a quote from a work of fiction out of context can be tricky. Heinlein addressed the nature of fiction when answering a question in 1973 about his famous character Lazarus Long, a man who has lived over 2,000 years. The interviewer asked him what a man that old would know that we don’t. Heinlein replied, “I haven’t the slightest idea; I’m not even a hundred, yet! Remember, this thing’s a work of fiction.”
Here is a more complete quotation: “Well, in the first place, an armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life. For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization. That’s a personal evaluation only. But gunfighting has a strong biological use. We do not have enough things to kill off the weak and the stupid these days. But to stay alive as an armed citizen a man has to be either quick with his wits or with his hands, preferably both. It’s a good thing.”
When quoting from a work of fiction to make a point I think you hit some quicksand when the quote is coming out of the mouth of a character. This quote is a good example of this problem because, although this is a very polite society, it’s also a violent society. The reason everyone is so polite is not because the presence of armed males (only males generally go armed) has brought a mutually assured head wound type of peace; everyone is so polite in a Victorian way because one slip of the tongue will likely put you in a situation where you will have to defend your life. Maybe this fulfills some kind of Wild West macho fantasy for those gun enthusiasts but if the frequency of violence that is apparent in this novel existed in today’s world it wouldn’t be the gun rights utopia they are dreaming of. I doubt most that adopt this quote are aware of the nature of the society Heinlein created for this novel.
There is a scene where Felix Hamilton is eating dinner in a pay restaurant with his friend, Monroe-Alpha Clifford. Food is free in this society, by the way, spending money at a restaurant is considered a good way to flaunt your wealth. They are dining in the balcony of this restaurant and Clifford, because he’s a clumsy and dorky math whiz, while attempting to crack open a crab leg flips it into the crowd below. Hamilton, because the dinner was his idea, “assumes the honor” and negotiates an apology with the alpha male of the offended party and what could have been an offense that resulted in a duel if the offended party didn’t feel satisfied is resolved peacefully. After their parlay ends a third party interferes and insinuates that the two men are candy asses for not having a shoot out in the middle of a public place. Felix then resolves this dispute by putting a slug from his pistol into the chest of the offending loudmouth. If that is not frighteningly enough it turns out the lout was attempting to insult the gentleman on the floor in order to coerce him into a duel. We later learn that it was an assassination attempt. In this society it is acceptable to resolve simple social offenses in public with firearms and no one bats an eye when it is revealed that one man was attempting a political assassination in broad daylight with an insult that would be expected to force the other to resort to deadly violence. Also in this society young men that go armed in public are called “braves.” Polite? Oh yeah! Violent and deadly? You betcha!
Another problem with this quote is that the idea of an armed society is a polite society did not come from Heinlein. It was a theory that science fiction editor, John W. Campbell, had asked Heinlein to investigate. So, if a quote you find supports your views comes from the mouth a character in a novel, a novel that is exploring a concept that is not even necessarily supported by the author is that quote still relevant to the person using the quote to promote his agenda? I say no. Taking a quote from any document and taking it out of context without considering the work as a whole is lazy research.
Here is an example of how to quote a work of fiction properly. Back in 2004 I read this column in the New York Times by Verlyn Klinkenborg about global warming and how an issue this large will not get addressed until it is an emergency:
“In a way, the true puzzle of global warming isn't the mechanics of man-made climate change -- the feedback loops, the damage to the ozone layer, the shift in oceanic oscillations, the melting of the ice-caps, the desertification of formerly productive agricultural lands. Those can be studied and understood. The true puzzle is human nature. In every one of these accounts of climate change and environmental degradation, the authors note the inertia of the global system, whether they're talking about economic or climatic models of the future. But there's another kind of inertia built into the system too, and I know no better account of it than a passage from Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation,'' the opening novel in his classic series about a science called ''psychohistory,'' which combines psychology and statistics. ''The psychohistoric trend of a planet-full of people contains a huge inertia,'' says Hari Seldon, the ancestral hero of the foundation. ''To be changed it must be met with something possessing a similar inertia.''
This is a way of saying we live as we have always lived. Sometimes -- like now -- nearly everyone is aware of dramatic changes in the world. Yet we continue to live in the assumption that we can ride out the changes without changing ourselves, coasting, as we have always coasted, on the historic wave of human development. What it will take to wake us up is a wave of equal size traveling in the opposite direction. That wave is already on its way.”
As you can see, a little context goes a long way.
What bothers me most when I see these Robert Heinlein quotes used to support causes is that he was a thinker who could hold opposing ideas in his head at the same time. He isn’t the hippy idealist people see in the novel “Stranger in a Strange Land” and he wasn’t the militarist people see in “Starship Troopers.” He can’t be pigeon holed that easily. He’s too complex for soundbites.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Charlotte Skyline Panorama
Yesterday I went to northwest part of town to golf nine holes at Sunset Hills Golf Course. I had a weird day of golf. I easily made par on the first hole and then stunk the place up for the rest of the day. On the way back home I noticed a good view of downtown from an angle I hadn't seen before. The picture below is a stitch of three photos which I converted to black and white. I'm very pleased with how this turned out.
Yesterday I went to northwest part of town to golf nine holes at Sunset Hills Golf Course. I had a weird day of golf. I easily made par on the first hole and then stunk the place up for the rest of the day. On the way back home I noticed a good view of downtown from an angle I hadn't seen before. The picture below is a stitch of three photos which I converted to black and white. I'm very pleased with how this turned out.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Still My Favorite Concert Video
Ever since it first came out on the remastered audio tape back in the late 80s, Jimi Hendrix's breakout performance at the Monterey Pop Festival has been my favorite live recording/video/performance I didn't see. I was watching a bit of it tonight and the first 30 seconds of the opening song, Killing Floor, is still jaw-droppingly intense. I can't remember where I read this great summary of the performance, it was a long time ago, but it has still stuck with me. The writer essentially said that here is a young guy full of talent who had to leave his home country just get noticed and now he's back home and he's angry, hungry and just ready to explode and he does. Below is a still I took using VLC Media player right after Jimi just played a lick while introducing his seminal version of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone." It's the smile of a guitarist who has just nailed his riff. I always liked how Jimi loved Bob Dylan. I find the respect Primus has for Tom Waits similar.
Here is the opening song from this night, Killin' Floor
Ever since it first came out on the remastered audio tape back in the late 80s, Jimi Hendrix's breakout performance at the Monterey Pop Festival has been my favorite live recording/video/performance I didn't see. I was watching a bit of it tonight and the first 30 seconds of the opening song, Killing Floor, is still jaw-droppingly intense. I can't remember where I read this great summary of the performance, it was a long time ago, but it has still stuck with me. The writer essentially said that here is a young guy full of talent who had to leave his home country just get noticed and now he's back home and he's angry, hungry and just ready to explode and he does. Below is a still I took using VLC Media player right after Jimi just played a lick while introducing his seminal version of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone." It's the smile of a guitarist who has just nailed his riff. I always liked how Jimi loved Bob Dylan. I find the respect Primus has for Tom Waits similar.
Here is the opening song from this night, Killin' Floor
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
You think they're expensive now...
A 23 inch color TV cost $580 in 1968. That is the equivalent of $3685 in today's money.
A 23 inch color TV cost $580 in 1968. That is the equivalent of $3685 in today's money.
What's wrong with NASCAR
I was reading this interview with five of the top NASCAR drivers from a recent Sports Illustrated and Jimmie Johnson said this: "It's really difficult to pass, and when you get a chance, you practically have to drive over your head to pull it off" and Dale Earnhard Jr. said "You can be two tenths of a second faster than somebody [on each lap] and run them down and then get stuck behind them at about five car lengths." I've seen this over and over this year. A car will pull up on the back bumper of another car that is obviously slower and due to aerodynamics the faster car cannot get around the slower car. If they could find a way to make the cars less dependent on aerodynamics you would have better racing. My solution? Mandate that teams can't run a body style more recent than 1979. Now that would be racing. I want to see some square grills out there.
I was reading this interview with five of the top NASCAR drivers from a recent Sports Illustrated and Jimmie Johnson said this: "It's really difficult to pass, and when you get a chance, you practically have to drive over your head to pull it off" and Dale Earnhard Jr. said "You can be two tenths of a second faster than somebody [on each lap] and run them down and then get stuck behind them at about five car lengths." I've seen this over and over this year. A car will pull up on the back bumper of another car that is obviously slower and due to aerodynamics the faster car cannot get around the slower car. If they could find a way to make the cars less dependent on aerodynamics you would have better racing. My solution? Mandate that teams can't run a body style more recent than 1979. Now that would be racing. I want to see some square grills out there.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Howdy
Like others I have been using Facebook as a communication tool and that has really slowed down my blogging. I even got suckered into a religious discussion with a jackass who is a friend of a friend. Stupidest thing I've done in a while. I need to refer myself to this XKCD comic when I feel myself heading to that particular online abyss. Losing sleep over Bioshock is one thing, losing sleep because you are arguing with a fundamentalist Christian is another. Doing that makes playing Bioshock at midnight look like you are in a laboratory curing toenail fungus.
This unfounded and blatantly politically motivated fake hysteria over the Cordoba House in New York City is still pissing me off. At least people who truly understand how this country is supposed to work have been airing their intelligent and thoughtful opinions to the debate. Timothy Egan at the New York Times has a take on the current political climate which I like.
Golfing
Wednesday Brigham and I went to a golf course in Matthews, NC called Emerald Lake. Chris had been there before years ago and I hadn't played there yet and we are going back. For a public course that only charges $35-$40 dollars for eighteen holes it is a beautiful golf course. The fairways are impeccable and the rough consists of Bermuda grass that is just tall and thick enough to slow your club speed down and force you to club up and hope for the best. The course design also utilizes water real well. The par 5 fifth hole is especially notable for the way water is used. You have to drive the ball over water onto a wide and forgiving fairway that doglegs to the left. After that it's 150 to 200 yards to an island green. That was a fun hole. The greens need work and they are working on them. They did vary from soft and slow to hard and fast so I couldn't get a good read a few times. They were still better than other public courses I have played on.
This is Chris teeing up at, I believe the sixth tee. This is another nice hole with a blind tee shot into a dogleg left with an approach shot that goes over a creek.
"
I'm happy to report that my golf game has improved tremendously in the last year. I was really embarrassed by an outing in July of 2009 so I've been to the range a few times and that has really helped me out. A little practice goes a long way. My drives are consistently straighter although I still don't get the elevation I need and my midrange game is 100% better than it was. I'm finally keeping my head down and following through properly. I hit a shot from about 150 yards out over a grove of trees with my 9 iron that landed within ten feet of the hole. I was ecstatic. It's probably the best shot I have ever hit. Naturally, I missed the birdie put but I didn't care. I don't get very many real pars and I happily took that one. In fact, that's how I keep score. I give myself one point for a par and two points for a birdie. My score Wednesday was 2 which should show you how much of a duffer I am. Still, it's nice to walk off the golf course and feel good about how your day went instead of contemplating burning your clubs in your backyard.
Like others I have been using Facebook as a communication tool and that has really slowed down my blogging. I even got suckered into a religious discussion with a jackass who is a friend of a friend. Stupidest thing I've done in a while. I need to refer myself to this XKCD comic when I feel myself heading to that particular online abyss. Losing sleep over Bioshock is one thing, losing sleep because you are arguing with a fundamentalist Christian is another. Doing that makes playing Bioshock at midnight look like you are in a laboratory curing toenail fungus.
This unfounded and blatantly politically motivated fake hysteria over the Cordoba House in New York City is still pissing me off. At least people who truly understand how this country is supposed to work have been airing their intelligent and thoughtful opinions to the debate. Timothy Egan at the New York Times has a take on the current political climate which I like.
Golfing
Wednesday Brigham and I went to a golf course in Matthews, NC called Emerald Lake. Chris had been there before years ago and I hadn't played there yet and we are going back. For a public course that only charges $35-$40 dollars for eighteen holes it is a beautiful golf course. The fairways are impeccable and the rough consists of Bermuda grass that is just tall and thick enough to slow your club speed down and force you to club up and hope for the best. The course design also utilizes water real well. The par 5 fifth hole is especially notable for the way water is used. You have to drive the ball over water onto a wide and forgiving fairway that doglegs to the left. After that it's 150 to 200 yards to an island green. That was a fun hole. The greens need work and they are working on them. They did vary from soft and slow to hard and fast so I couldn't get a good read a few times. They were still better than other public courses I have played on.
This is Chris teeing up at, I believe the sixth tee. This is another nice hole with a blind tee shot into a dogleg left with an approach shot that goes over a creek.
"I'm happy to report that my golf game has improved tremendously in the last year. I was really embarrassed by an outing in July of 2009 so I've been to the range a few times and that has really helped me out. A little practice goes a long way. My drives are consistently straighter although I still don't get the elevation I need and my midrange game is 100% better than it was. I'm finally keeping my head down and following through properly. I hit a shot from about 150 yards out over a grove of trees with my 9 iron that landed within ten feet of the hole. I was ecstatic. It's probably the best shot I have ever hit. Naturally, I missed the birdie put but I didn't care. I don't get very many real pars and I happily took that one. In fact, that's how I keep score. I give myself one point for a par and two points for a birdie. My score Wednesday was 2 which should show you how much of a duffer I am. Still, it's nice to walk off the golf course and feel good about how your day went instead of contemplating burning your clubs in your backyard.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Okinawa Rifle Range
I found a nice recent picture of the rifle range at Camp Hansen on Okinawa. I had my best week at the rifle range here back in 1988. I went to the range late in one fiscal year and about a month later early in the next fiscal year. I used the same rifle and was already dialed in and was in the black with my first shot and cruised to a high expert score on qualifying day. Good times. Here's a picture of me at the same rifle range in 1988. I'm standing in rifle ranges butts running a target.
I found a nice recent picture of the rifle range at Camp Hansen on Okinawa. I had my best week at the rifle range here back in 1988. I went to the range late in one fiscal year and about a month later early in the next fiscal year. I used the same rifle and was already dialed in and was in the black with my first shot and cruised to a high expert score on qualifying day. Good times. Here's a picture of me at the same rifle range in 1988. I'm standing in rifle ranges butts running a target.
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