Might Want To Read

It's That "Content of Their Character" Thingy…Again.

Recommended reading, Rorty in a nutshell

In a nutshell

There are some books, whether you agree with the perspective or not, that are just so useful in epitomizing a particular matter or worldview that they become necessary reading.

This book, “Contingency, irony, and solidarity”, published way back in 1989, is one of those books. In it Rorty does the average man an immense favor by clearly and unambiguously laying out the operating assumptions of at least one version of the post-modern liberal project.

Of course just what post-moderrnism is, is somewhat in dispute, as a glance at the Wiki editorial history shows. Nonetheless, with an appropriate shrug at the disciples of irony and deconstruction, this 2010 Wiki description (and post modernists are all about description and subversive redescriptrion) serves as well as many I have seen:

Postmodernism is a tendency in contemporary culture characterized by the problematisation of objective truth and inherent suspicion towards global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. It involves the belief that many, if not all, apparent realities are only social constructs, as they are subject to change inherent to time and place. It emphasizes the role of language, power relations, and motivations …

This blurb from the back of the book may help as well.

 

So, what else is new, you ask? This book was written 24 or more years ago!

We’ve (you say) been confronting modern-liberals for decades now who seemingly cannot or will not explain how it is that they derive their conclusion that we must yield to their direction, from their seemingly – or so we infer – ultimately nihilistic worldviews.

Yet it is a fact that we continue to ask how it is that they think this all works. How, we want to know, do they get an affirmative conclusion, or an imperative statement, from what must be, when we take their other descriptions of reality into account, negative (metaphysical, ontological, logical, take your pick)  premisses?

Well, this book explains how it is done. Here’s the secret. The secret is that there is no secret. There are no inferences derived. There are no deductions believed to be entailed. It’s all just what they want according to their own, particular sensibilities. Just as we figured.

The point of view is anti-foundational, anti essentialist, nominalist, i.e., anti essential natures and natural kinds, in extreme. Therefore there are [so they believe] no real and objectively existing universals to even fill their places in universal categorical propositions.

Nice to see one of the princes of the pack admit it so clearly.  Yet, the blithe nature of the admission made those decades ago, confirms what nearly everyone – not just intellectuals – by now intuits directly: that the modern political left, so steeped as it is in this theory of meaning,  cannot really be argued with.

Let Limbaugh fume that words have meanings. The opposition shrug and say ‘our meanings are different from yours’.

With them, it’s not as we have repeatedly inferred, a matter of dis-covering an objective reality and reasoning from axioms based on it . What is at issue as far as they are concerned are their sensitivities and their imaginations and their desires: and your reality will bend to their narrative and program, or else.

This is not the place to examine just where their belief system degenerates into incoherence.  I am not sure that incoherence or what is an admitted self-reference problem is even a troubling issue with someone whose notion of “truth” is,

” … that since truth is a property of sentences, [notice it doesn't say 'propositions' or arguments*] since sentences are dependent for their existence upon vocabularies, and since vocabularies are made by human beings, so are truths.”

Why should it? He just previous to that writes,

“The very idea that the world or the self has an intrinsic nature … is a remnant of the idea that the world is a divine creation, the work of someone who had something in mind, who Himself spoke some language in which He described His own project … [then later] On the view I am suggesting, the claim that an adequate ‘philosophical’ doctrine must make room for our intuitions [meaning immediate apprehensions of reality] is a reactionary slogan …”

As I said, you will probably not find a more concise,  lucid, and unabashed exposition of the doctrines we confront every day as the solidarity pedlars steadily gnaw away at our formal liberties in the supposed name of relieving suffering and humiliation and exclusion -  but of just what exactly, they cannot and feel they need not, say.

Thinking back, many of us will say that this entire matter feels like a rehash. Wasn’t the debate over the bankruptcy of post-modernism and deconstruction held back in the early nineteen nineties in the universities, the important journals, and the big papers? Didn’t Alan Sokal make public fools of them? Didn’t they fold up their tents and kind of go away?

Yes, yes, and no. They not only didn’t not go away, the theorist of 25 years ago has clearly written the psychic program that the modern-liberal Democrat runs today.

From academia to the street and polling booth  in a couple decades.

Once upon a time, even Democrats referred to a common reality, imagined that humans had a moral center in addition to inchoate urges, and could be thought to understand the difference between truth and falsehood and to at least know in their consciences if they were lying or not.

Only a fool  would make that assumption now.

 

* Note. Rorty was involved, his curriculum vitae reports, in analytic philosophy before abandoning it for a kind of deconstructive and ironic pragmatism. Therefore he well knows the traditional conceptual difference between a proposition and a sentence, and his use of “sentence” is, for those of us not yet familiar with him, pregnant with meaning and intent and back references. Get the book … cheap from a remainder bin or used book shop if you can.

So who’s Ashley Judd?

I was not, and I am still not, certain who Ashley Judd really is, or why she has gained as much notoriety as she has. The facts don’t seem to be entirely clear.

In order to get some perspective, I Googled her name and in so doing, came across a number of entries; some of which featured a relatively unattractive dull eyed woman. Which I suppose, has only the most indirect and inferential bearing on her potential fitness for public office, but which does fit the general genetic profile when it comes to leftie females as compared with normal and healthy women.

Here is a screen capture:

Anyway, as one can see from the profile box on the right of the search results capture, she appears – at first glance -to have some very impressive academic and professional credentials.

 Ashley Judd
Actress
[snip]
Education: Harvard University, Sayre School, Franklin High School, John F. Kennedy School of Government, University of Kentucky, Paul G. Blazer High School
Siblings: Wynonna
Parents: Naomi Judd, Michael C. Ciminella

However clicking on Wikipedia, it seems to be a different story.

“Judd attended 13 schools before college … An alumna of the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Kentucky, she majored in French and minored in anthropology, art history, theater and women’s studies.”  … [then later]  “On May 9, 2007, it was announced that Judd had completed her bachelor’s degree, in French, from the University of Kentucky.”

So what she apparently has is a bachelor’s degree in French and women’s studies awarded a decade or quite a bit more,  late.

What then of that Harvard mention, which tops the list of her educational achievements? You know even over and above the “John F. Kennedy School of Government”?

Golly … this Ashley must be a gen -u- wine genius!

Here we go, as per Wiki …:

Judd [received] … a Mid-Career Master of Public Administration degree (MC/MPA) from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 2010 through the Mid-Career Master of Public administration program (MC/MPA) (an eight credit program with a summer mentorship which typically takes a year to complete in contrast with the traditional MPA program which typically takes at least two years of study).

So then, despite what the quick view profile insinuates, Judd did not graduate from Harvard as people usually understand it.

Instead, and according to Wikipedia and its sources, Ashley Judd took eight credit hours of a curriculum which bestowed upon her something called a Mid-Career Master of Public Administration, from …. drumroll … The John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Therefore, what we see listed as implying, at a cursory glance, credentials or even degrees garnered from what is arguably the premier American Ivy League university as well as a famous school of government studies, turns out instead to be  eight credit hours worth of an adult education certificate. (Note how Harvard is listed in the capture image above in such a way so as to minimize the drawing of any immediate inference on the part of the unfamiliar viewer, with the fact that the Kennedy School is within Harvard, and that Ashley Judd’s  eight credit hours of adult education there count as the official sum and matriculating substance of her entire connection with either institution.)

I don’t think that there has been such a pathetically transparent attempt to burnish a not very sterling curriculum vitae since the obtrusively gynecomastic Keith Olbermann held up his Cornell agricultural station degree (or whatever)  before his billowing pinstripes, and blusteringly announced to Ann Coulter and the world that his degree was just as good as her Ivy League version was. And cheaper too! … nah nah nah.

Now as regards Ashley Judd. There is undoubtedly much more one could say about this diminished capacity crackpot and her view of life, and what that view of her’s reveals about her fitness to direct her own life, much less anyone else’s … “It’s unconscionable to breed, with the number of children who are starving to death in impoverished countries” … but she bores me, and seems now to have receded as a threat to edified humanity.

So, I’ll leave it at that for the present.

Any Guitarists Out There?

 

Ok. Been awhile. I’ve been busy tilting at metaphysical windmills, in an ongoing and probably futile attempt to get to the core, you know the real crux of the collectivist mindset.

You think after ten years I might have learned that deep down inside, there is no there, there, to their there. After all, they admit as much … as self-proclaimed moral nihilists and eliminative materialists. Leftism: a caravan to nowhere.

Speaking of caravans, and something a bit more positive in the way of one, I went to Youtube the other day to pull up a  video wherein Frank Vignola the amazing jazz guitarist  had guested with the Hot Club of Detroit jazz group. As I may have mentioned before, when I first saw that particular 90.3 FM WCPN video, I didn’t know who Vignola was, nor of his reputation.

I thought Evan and the Hot Club boys had some local to Cleveland rock band mop top sitting in [far right] as a courtesy gesture. Then I heard Vignola’s lead solo during Nuages. The reaction of the band members tells you all you need to know about Vignola’s musicianship. You might want to listen to the first 40 seconds of the clip which I have started with the lead handover.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ZIF9f1pO8&feature=player_detailpage#t=315s

So anyway, despite the fact that I don’t much care for – to put it politely – French accordion, I thought I’d take another listen. That’s when I stumbled across a related subject matter video put up by a fellow named Jay Cunningham. He’d attended a luthiers’ convention (that’s ‘guitar builders’ to us civilians) in Woodstock.

What Jay Cunningham captured with his battery powered video camera was what looks to be an impromptu acoustic jam featuring Vignola, backed by his sideman, and one Julian Lage.

As with Vignola earlier, I had no idea who Julian Lage was. I figured he was some obscure grinning Frenchman having a turn at the guitar at a trade show jam. I was wrong. Turns out he’s an American, and quite famous – having been an official child prodigy, who somehow, he reports, had a more or less normal upbringing.

If you don’t like guitar work, skip the video. If old standards bore the hell out of you, skip the video. If you have never played any kind of musical instrument, skip the video. You won’t have any idea how amazing what he is doing is, since you will have no context in which to locate it.

If, however you know anything about musicianship, take a look. There are many fine and highly talented musicians in the world. This, is a little different. You are watching real genius. Take note at the 2 minute mark.

And thanks to Jay Cunningham and his video camera with its dying battery, some of that genius, apparently spontaneously expressed before what seems to be a small, casually gathered audience of trade show attendees, was captured for posterity.

 

 

 

So Who Are The Bigots?

big·ot [big-uht] 
a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion.
Origin:
1590–1600; < Middle French ( Old French: derogatory name applied by the French to the Normans), perhaps < Old English bī God by God

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.

A movement to redefine a basic institution of civilization into a novel form, unsupported by traditional practices or even rational justifications for gov’t involvement. Supporters commit acts of vandalism, intimidation/assault (including by law enforcement), and violence up to and including attempted mass murder; those who oppose are met with bullying attempts to silence them and ban their employment.

All of those could also apply to the introduction of laws against blacks and whites marrying.

Actual voting results do not back up claims that the fight is over, and even if they did– Truth is not determined by a majority vote. Forcing people to call a thing by a nice name does not change the thing; as was pointed out in arguments yesterday, forcing kids in a class to call everyone a friend does not actually make them friends.

Makes No Sense

Joe “Court Jester” Biden is at it Again – Ladies, Get A Shotgun

Joe’s at it again. His job as Court Jester is sealed bythis video where he advises Women to get a 12 Ga. Double-Barrel Shotgun for protection. The Jester’s advise is two shots anywherewill scare a bad guy away. Watch this:

Pope Resigns

This is very unusual– as Donald R. McClarey at the site I heard it from, The American Catholic, pointed out:

This would be the fifth time that a Pope has abdicated in the history of the Papacy, the first being Pope Gregory XII in 1415. 

The decision comes after a “long period of prayer”

28 Feb he goes into a period of reflection and prayer, and then there will be a conclave to elect the new Pope.  (No period of mourning, so it could be over in less than two weeks after the period of reflection ends.)  This is taken pretty much directly from the video report at the link, which seems to be radio over some stock footage.

I hope that, whatever his health problems are, they won’t be bad enough to prevent him from spending time with his brother (also a retired priest) and his cats.

UPDATE:

EWTN just posted their news article on the subject; the press conference is to be held “in a few minutes” and here is the text of his announcement:

Dear Brothers,
I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.
Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.
From the Vatican, 10 February 2013

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

Sign me up as a “ditto” to what SuburbanBanshee says.

Lies Of Omission

I’m fairly sure that anyone here is sufficiently ”plugged in” to current politics enough to have heard about House member Gabby Gifford’s recent plea for further gun restrictions. I’m not sure what your local media is like, but there’s a fair chance that there was even a mention of Sarah Palin or at least some sort of “incitement” behind that shooter’s attack. Given the body count, it’s not too surprising.

Also recently mentioned, though only in passing, is that the guy who shot up the Family Research Council in DC. Honestly, my main memory of that was being on a family trip and wondering why the heck somebody targeting based on “anti-gay bias” would have bags of Chick-fil-A. I can remember a few commentators suggesting that it was some sort of cartoonish attempt at “blending in”– an indication of just how crazy his view of those who disagree is or was. “Hey, Chick-fil-a is ‘anti-gay’ the same way that the FRC is– they don’t support redefining marriage to fit current pop culture appeals. The Family Research Council even denies a man and woman are functionally identical to two guys or two gals, of all the nerve! They’ll never notice me coming in and killing people if I have suitable fast food bags!”   Not someone to take too seriously, even if he <I>did</i> have a gun.

I vaguely remember reading a blog about him choosing the target from the Southern Poverty Law Center, but I think that was from a site that collects examples of the SPLC faking and inflating “hate” for fundraising purposes. As I said, it didn’t stick in my mind, and I already don’t trust the SPLC. I assumed that they’d mentioned the FRC as being against homosexual marriage and the guy had gone from there.

Mostly, the “Giffords shooting” (the six dead victims get less press, since it seems likely she was the focus– if only because her public meeting gave that scum a crowd) sticks in one’s mind so much more because of the horrible range of people killed; from the little girl that was a 9/11 baby and the retired grandparent-types to the federal Judge and the first staffer to die in the line of duty, there was someone incredibly relatable to for everyone. Nobody died in the FRC attack, and Leonardo Johnson was able to overcome the shooter even after being shot in the arm.  No fuss about heroism there, so it must have not been that bad of a shot, or it would’ve hit the news, right? (An aside: You might notice that I don’t name the murderers or attempted murderers. I don’t want to give them that level of recognition. The victims or heroes, though, are a different matter, and it took quite a bit of digging to find Mr. Johnson’s name wasn’t “A. Security Guard.”)

After today, I’m rather disabused of the notion that the Giffords attack was anything but more successful and more hyped: the attempted murderer bought the Chick-fil-A sandwiches to rub in the faces of his dying victims.

Insult to injury.  Fatal injury.  Not as cartoonish, now.

If not for Mollie Hemmingway’s post over at Ricochet, I wouldn’t have even thought about media bias. I’m Catholic– if that doesn’t make you realize how much the media screws up, what on earth will?  It would be easier to find stories about the Church where reporters got it right than where they didn’t.  I’m sure other traditional religion followers, or even folks who simply are part of uncommon fandoms or do something as “strange” as know more about a gun than what end the bullet comes out can relate…. The news screws things up, a lot.

I’m guessing folks will remember the “Blame Sarah Palin Because Her Website Had A Map With Gifford’s Area In A Target” to-do? If not, Mollie goes over it, with links. Although I want you to go read it, the short version is: even though Mrs. Palin didn’t say anything vaguely like ”go shoot this bad woman,” and there was no evidence that the Gifford’s shooter had even seen the map or Palin’s facebook page, it was worrying because it might affect an effect on “troubled” people.

Turns out that the FRC was ”mentioned” on the SPLC site– it was on a “hate map.” That’s where the thank-God ineffective attempted murderer got his target. From a hate map.  They’re hateful, you see– so it’s good to target them.

Target a house seat: dangerous.

Make a “hate map” of those who oppose you politically on an issue: not worth mentioning. In fact, noticing that the attacker specifically stated he chose the target because of that “hate map” means that you are picking a fight.

As Mollie writes in response to a quote about that little detail “reigniting the culture wars that erupted around the shooting:”

Excuse me? What is that supposed to mean? I mean, you have an actual shooting in the culture war – an actual shooting – and you dismiss this aspect of the story as a “detail” that is “sure to reignite the culture wars”? The gall. The chutzpah. The …. hypocrisy of our media. The story doesn’t mention, by the way, that the shooter had a list with other groups whose names he got from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Cherry on top: a guy goes in to kill people he hates, and has a list of other targets that he hates, and intends to assault the dying further with a symbol of yet another group he hates… and the SPLC doesn’t include that as a “hate incident.”

It’s Simple – Benghazi – The CiC was MIA and AWOL

MAJOR DEVELOPING STORY — Panetta: Obama Absent Night of Benghazi… Never checked-in or communicated…
February 07, 2013

TWS – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta testified this morning on Capitol Hill that President Barack Obama was absent the night four Americans were murdered in Benghazi on September 11, 2012:

Panetta said that Obama left operational details, including knowledge of what resources were available to help the Americans under seize, “up to us.”

In fact, Panetta says that the night of 9/11, he did not communicate with a single person at the White House. The attack resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Panetta said that, save their 5 o’clock prescheduled meeting with the president the day of September 11, Obama did not call or communicate in anyway with the defense secretary that day. There were no calls about the what was going on in Benghazi. He never called to check-in.

http://redflagnews.com/headlines/panetta-obama-absent-night-of-benghazi

[Impeach this ......... (no good words to describe)]

Gun Show Bans Guns, Kills Show

Yorkshire posted an article on The First Street Journal that discussed Reed Exhibitions’ sudden and unilateral decision to side with the anti-constitutional, Second Amendment killing gun grabbers and the aftermath of that decision. One sixth of the exhibitors and celebrities pulled out of the nation’s largest outdoor sportsman’s show in a show of solidarity with the US Constitution. You can find a large (but incomplete) list of the boycotters here. That list includes Cabelas, one of the nation’s premiere big box stores dedicated to the outdoor sportsman, muzzle loaders, knife businesses, bow organizations and businesses, turkey call companies, fishing related companies and organizations, conservationists, television shows and celebrities, and much, much more.

Reed Exhibitions tried to shrug it all off as “a small percentage of more than 1,000 exhibits” as if Cabelas was equivalent to Kokosing Backwater Beaver Traps, but decided to “stop loss” (an investment term for the first rule of holes) and cancel the show. Granted, they called it “postpone” but if Reed Exhibitions continues to side with the anti-constitutionalist gun grabbers, there will be no show. Period. Because the celebrities and exhibitors necessary for such a show will not participate and the people who go to such a show will not attend. As it is, Reed Exhibitions severely and possibly permanently harmed its reputation with the very people it depends upon for millions of dollars of profit a year.

Hey, Reed Exhibitions, spoiler alert: I watched Red Dawn and your side loses.

Constitution lovers, check out the list of boycotters and support them with your outdoor recreation dollars. You don’t have to be a hunter or even a gun owner. If you’re into boating, fishing, camping, hiking, mountain climbing, conservation or any other outdoor recreation, you can find your equipment and educational needs among that list.

For Eric

A couple of interesting things that fell out of an old book on the general topic. Posted for John’s companion in ideological arms, Eric; and anyone else interested.

Should be self explanatory. You might want to note the list at the bottom of image 2.

 

 

 

//

Just a Marine

From the Allentown, Pennsylvania, Morning Call:

NCAA to honor Kutztown U. grad who lost leg after Iraq War bombing

David Borden, a Marine, lost a leg after Iraq bombing and went on to Afghanistan.

Kutztown grad and US Marine David Borden, who lost a leg and nearly lost his life in a bombing in Iraq, only to return to active duty in Afghanistan, will receive the NCAA’s Inspiration Award Friday in Texas. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO, THE MORNING CALL / August 12, 2011)

By Jeff Schuler, Of The Morning Call | 10:06 p.m. EST, January 17, 2013

His right foot had been blown off. Later, infection would force the amputation of his leg just above the knee.

His right femur was broken. His right forearm was broken, his left shattered. He had a collapsed lung, a ruptured bladder, and doctors also estimated that between 150 and 200 ball bearings had been embedded in his body.

“There wasn’t a piece of his body except for maybe his left leg that wasn’t messed up,” David Borden Sr. said of the Jan. 19, 2008, suicide bomb attack in Ramadi, Iraq, that nearly took the life of his son, Marine Lt. David Borden, Kutztown University Class of 2003.

Yet shortly after coming out of a coma at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, and as he faced countless surgeries and months of rehabilitation, Borden had just two thoughts: to get out of his bed and help motivate others at the facility in their recovery efforts, and to eventually return to active duty.

A lot more at the link.

Captain Borden returned to the Middle East in January of 2011, as a Marine company commander, and he wasn’t just sitting behind a desk; he walked armed patrols outside of the gates as well.

He is being awarded the NCAA Inspiration Award because he played football at Kutztown University, but noted:

I’m not the only injured service member to return to active duty, and I’m not the only injured service member to lose a limb and return to active duty. A lot of people do this and don’t get the publicity I’ve received because of my command billet and this award.

Captain Borden doesn’t think that he is a “hero,” saying:

The word ‘hero’ is for the men and women who give the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

A hero? I will leave that for others to decide. To me, it sounds like he’s just a Marine.
_____________________________________
Cross-Posted on THE FIRST STREET JOURNAL.

79 Years Later

79 years later and only the characters have changed. And from the Chicago Tribune

This is interesting background: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53074154@N00/5740393674/

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 67,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.