Shrinkwrapped attempts to connect some Middle East dots.
Human plasticity: left/right front/back brain
Dichotomies such as left brain vs. right brain are understood to be interesting concepts, but too simplistic in describing what is an unbelievably complicated and still very mysterious organ: the brain. Of course, it’s the brain itself doing the studying, in an ongoing “know thyself” effort that is profoundly human.
The left/right brain dichotomy is fun for games and parlor tricks, such as this test of the turning dancer. Do you see the silhouette revolving clockwise or counterclockwise? I always see it clockwise and cannot ever reverse it, no matter how hard I try.
Supposedly, this makes me strongly right-brained, intuitive and feeling and artistic rather than logical and and mathematical and linear. But most of the other facile internet tests I’ve taken—and I’ve taken quite a few—tend to put me squarely in the “in-between” category, evenly balanced between left and right brain, which feels just about right to me.
Oops, I said “feel.” Too right-brained. Continue reading →
It’s that time again: the Sanity Squad
Tonight. Eight PM. Here. Listen.
Basra: Iraqi Tet?
This NY TImes article by Frank Rich compares the recent fighting in Basra to an Iraqi “mini-Tet.” He thinks it’s a shame that today’s press—unlike the MSM’s behavior right after the real Tet offensive—hasn’t really played up what he sees as a big defeat for our side, and that so few Americans seem concerned:
That’s why it’s no surprise that so few stopped to absorb the disastrous six-day battle of Basra that ended last week—a mini-Tet that belied the “success” of the surge.
The real situation in Basra is much harder to read, of course. Continue reading →
Where are the snowmen of yesteryear?
Old snowmen never die, they just melt away.
John Kerry on Obama’s unique attributes
Even though it happened a couple of weeks ago, John Kerry’s bizarre assertion that an Obama Presidency could help the cause of moderating Islam around the world simply because he is a black man bears revisiting.
Here’s the clip (and for a longer excerpt, go here):
I think the Kerry quote is important because it illustrates a number of principles: Continue reading →
Obama as Macavity: lies vs. “misleading generalizations”
Commenter Martin Bebow writes, appropos of yesterday’s post in which I cite an example of Obama lying about Karl Rove:
I think the use of the word ”˜lied’ is excessive in this case. He did say “people like Rove’ after all. I generally agree with most of what you write neo (except the Juno review) but I think it is important that we be restrained in dealing with the opposition. Obama’s real mistake here is making a misleading generalization. We need leaders who can look beyond generalizations and think clearly about what needs to be done now. We need to hold both Republicans and Democrats to a stern standard of honesty about the problems we now face.
I think Bebow’s point is a good one. And I must say that, in that instance, I did miss Obama’s sophisticated verbal circumlocution.
Which actually makes Obama’s statement more pernicious, not less. Continue reading →
Obama lied, the press sighed
Hey, even if Karl Rove says it, it can still be true.
What’s Rove saying? That Obama is an arrogant liar.
You might ask what’s so strange about a politician lying? Don’t they all? (And I’m sure some would say, about Rove, “takes one to know one.”)
Well, there is a general tendency in the direction of politicians and what we might call deception. But since Obama makes a point of being a different sort of politician, his lies make him a supreme hypocrite as well. Continue reading →
The liberal Obama and Humpty Dumpty: belief in the power of words
I’ve written previously about Barack Obama’s masterful use of words as a smokescreen. His lawyerly skills serve him well in this regard.
But Peter Wehner has been on his case lately as opposing counsel. Obama has been spending time distancing himself from Reverend Wright without actually answering the real questions that would put the issue to rest. Wehner has suggested ten questions Obama should answer, for starters. Oh, would that Obama actually decided to tackle them, or that the unchallenging MSM saw fit to ask them of him!
Now Obama wants to distance himself from the appellation “liberal.” Once a proud term, in recent decades it’s become somewhat of a dirty one—not in Cambridge or Berkeley, of course, but in national elections. Continue reading →
Breaking news: Al Gore will run as Ralph Nader’s VP
What does a man who’s won, not only the Nobel peace prize, but—far more impressive—an Oscar, do for an encore?
Al Gore could merely rest on the very considerable laurels he’s earned as Bill Clinton’s two-term Vice-President, and in the cause of promoting global warming (ooops–that is, promoting the news about global warming). But this man feels the continuing need to serve his country and the world (and not as a waiter, either, although he would look good in the outfit).
Yesterday I noted widespread speculation that he just might be about to step in to break the impasse that’s tearing the Democratic Party apart, and finally offer a true People’s Choice for President: himself. After all, we know that he really won in 2000, and that it was only his extreme politeness that caused him to defer to George Bush in the post-election brouhaha.
The rest, as they say, is history. Al Gore has learned his lesson: no more Mr. Nice Guy, he says.
And so today Mr. Gore has rejected his role as savior of the Party, ignoring all the pleas from distraught Democrats. He has a higher calling.
At a news conference this very morning, Gore dropped the shocking bombshell that he is running for the Vice Presidency. Again. But not with Hillary Clinton, which would have been a historical first: the same person as Veep to both husband and wife. Continue reading →
A mind isn’t such a difficult thing to change, after all
So far it’s taken me something like 200,000 words—and still counting—to explain my change of political mind.
But Gerard Vanderleun shows you how to do it in one easy step.
Maya Plisetskaya: a dancer like no other
How old do you think this woman is?
Or this one (hint: it’s the same woman, around the same time)?
Or how about this one?
All three are pictures of Russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. She’s eighty years old in the first two photos (see this and this) and eighty-one in the third (see this). Continue reading →