Julian's Jabberings

Moving to Blogspot

2010-01-01T22:56:00.000-08:00

In honor of the new decade, I'm moving this blog to

http://juliansjabbererings.blogspot.com/

That means I can finally stop wasting money on Mindspring monthly fees.

Maybe I'll resume blogging, but that remains to be seen.

What the heck is e-mail?

2007-06-28T22:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a funny 1977 ad that explains the strange new concept of email (from reddit).

Brief reviews, part 1

2006-10-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

I have a massive piles of books to review, going back a year. Short reviews are the only way I’ll get through them (with +, 0, and – indicating position, neutral, or negative overall opinions.)

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell (+)
Gladwell considers the subtle reasons why certain products, ideas, and behaviors spread across society. Among other things, he discusses the factors behind the propogation of Hush Puppies, Sesame Street, New York crime, and teenage smoking. It’s a pleasure to read, and both the general concepts and specific examples are interesting.

I, Claudius, by Robert Graves (+)
This fictional autobiography of the Roman emperor Claudius is awesome. Graves paints a vivid picture of life in ancient Rome, breathing life into historical personas such as Claudius, Augustus, and Caligula. In addition to the exceptional writing, the intrigue, corruption, and immorality of the Roman aristocracy makes for a great story.

Self-Made Man, by Norah Vincent (0)
Vincent spent a year-and-a-half impersonating a guy, to learn about how men experience life. She involved herself in the most masculine parts of society: a bowling league, strip clubs, dating, a monastery, aggressive sales, and the men’s movement. Though she sheds some light on the male condition, it’s clear that she’s a somewhat unbalanced person. Susan Faludi’s Stiffed is much better.

Breaking the Spell, by Daniel Dennett (0)
Dennett, an atheist philosopher, considers religion from the perspective of evolutionary biology. There are some worthwhile ideas scattered throughout the book, but not enough to justify reading it.

Java Concurrency in Practice, by Brian Goetz (+)
For anyone who writes multithreaded Java code, this is a fantastic book full of valuable concepts.

Journey of the Jihadist, by Fawaz Gerges (0)
The author, an American scholar who grew up in Lebanon, spoke with several Islamists about who’s involved in the Islamic Jihad, their views and motivations. This book had such potential, but its organization was too incoherent to be that revealing. However, the portion of the book dealing with the current Iraq War and the perspective of the insurgents is well worth reading.

The Soul of a Doctor, multiple authors (0)
This book is a collection of essays by Harvard medical students, describing their initial exposure to patients and the practice of medicine. Times of transition, such as becoming a doctor, are of general interest. However, the writing and insights don’t measure up to Atul Gawande’s Complications.

The Double Helix, by James Watson (+)
This is Watson’s classic account of his research that revealed the structure of DNA. It’s a light, readable story of scientific discovery. Like any autobiography, it’s probably a biased perspective, but it conveys how a major participant felt at the time.

The Pro-Growth Progressive

2006-07-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

Gene Sperling, author of The Pro-Growth Progressive, was one of Bill Clinton’s top economic advisors. He advocates policies that he believes will increase the size of the economy (pro-growth) and will assist working and middle-class Americans (progressive). Naturally enough, these are the centrist economic policies pursued by the Clinton administration.

He convincingly argues that policies benefiting average Americans - progressive taxation, the EITC, family leave laws, increased education spending, etc. – also stengthen the economy. While I’ve long believed that social programs, by investing the nation’s human capital, leads to economic gains, it’s reassuring to hear an economist agree with those views. Sperling also slams Bush’s right-wing policies, in areas such as tax cuts and Social Security changes, as having a negative economic impact at enormous cost.

Sperling’s support of free-trade agreements and balanced budgets was less persuasive. While his claims have some merit, I’m not sure about the overall effect of trade agreements or whether reducing the deficit outweighs the moral benefits of increased social spending. As Clinton did in his autobiography, Sperling highlights second-tier economic programs that most people haven’t heard of, but which are the kind of thing you want White House staffers to spend time on (and are another reason to elect Democrats to public office).

Economic books are generally kind of dry, but this book is better than most. At least Sperling avoids abstractions and focuses on real-world issues that people face and the policies to address them. It’s a decent read for policy wonks, though of course Sperling tries to play up the economic accomplishments of the Clinton years and positions himself for a role in a future Democratic administration.

The Great War for Civilisation

2006-06-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East is an extended account of the last few decades of Middle East history. Fisk focuses on the events he covered as a journalist, including some elements of a memoir as he describes, for example, what it was like to cover the Afghan rebellion against Russian control. He portrays other historical incidents, such as the Turkish genocide of the Armenians, which he sees as particularly important.

Fisk emphasizes the suffering of the Middle East inhabitants, whether caused by war, tyranny, or sanction-induced poverty. While the accounts of war, torture, cancers arising from depleted uranium exposure, etc. can be overwhelming, they serve as a counterpoint to way most histories downplay the human suffering aspect. Fisk is very critical of most government actions, and his writings will piss off anyone who holds a high opinion of any country’s behavior in the Middle East: US, Britain, Israel, Iran, or any Arab nation.

While I found the book quite worthwhile, it’s not for everyone. Only read it if you have liberal/pacifist views and you’ve already read multiple books on the Middle East. While the book started and ended with gripping topics – Fisk’s interviews with Osama bin Laden and the current war in Iraq – it dragged at times in between. William Cleveland’s A History of the Modern Middle East and Anthony Shadid’s Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War are better books to read first, after which you can read Fisk’s 1000-page book for more details.

Bait and Switch

2006-05-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

Barbara Ehrenreich intended Bait and Switch to be a follow-up to her Nickel and Dimed, except that she’d try out a mid-level corporate career instead of menial labor. However, despite being intelligent and educated, she didn’t receive an offer, or even an interview for a salaried position. Instead, she wrote about her unsuccessful efforts, along with the harrowing job market that people without specialized skills face.

Ehrenreich was very naive at first, being surprised, for example, at the detrimental impact of having gaps in your resume. However, her depiction highlights how difficult it can be for many people to find employment, since none of the fellow job seekers managed to find decent careers. Bait and Switch was less compelling than Nickel and Dimed, partially because a stymied job search isn’t exciting and partially because I’ve known several people who’ve struggled with periods of unemployment. Still, it’s a quick and easy read that emphasizes how tough the American economic system is for large segments of society.

Medicare phrasing

2006-05-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

The San Jose Mercury News has a Medicare story that begins,

Medicare's long-term financial woes deepened over the last year as the program's main funding source for hospital care is projected to go broke in 2018 - two years sooner than predicted last year, according to an annual report by the program's trustees.

However, when you read further, it turns out that the 2018 is the first year in which Social Security benefits exceed revenue. In reality,

The program will no longer be able to pay benefits at promised levels in 2040, one year earlier than predicted last year.

That's like saying that someone is broke the day after they retire, since their expenses exceed their income. Unfortunately, most people will take the newspaper headline Study: Medicare to go broke in 2018 (which doesn't appear in the online version) at face value.

The IT Crowd

2006-05-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

There's a British TV comedy called The IT Crowd, about a small IT department led by a computer-illiterate manager. I heard about from Ned Batchelder's blog, which includes YouTube links to each episode.

The first episode was silly, but it was funnier and more entertaining than any US sitcom I've seen in a while. Other geeks, or people who deal with them on a regular basis, might want to check it out.

My Name is Asher Lev

2006-04-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

The title character of Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev is a Hasidic Jew who possesses an amazing artistic talent. The book’s central tension involves the conflict between Asher’s artistic drive and the devout religious traditions he grows up with. Potok pulls you into the world of mid-20th century Hasidic Brooklyn through his portrayal of someone who has difficulty follows the standards of that society. Though Asher’s characterization as a young boy seemed a little contrived, before long you get pulled into his struggle to reconcile his artistic genius with his ultra-orthodox beliefs.

The Man Behind the Microchip

2006-04-22T14:22:00.000-07:00

Leslie Berlin’s The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley, as a biography and a business book, isn’t the kind of book I normally read. Still, as a software developer in Silicon Valley, it was interesting to gain some historical background, from the perspective of a seminal figure in the area. Noyce was of the inventors of the integrated circuit and a founder of Intel. He possessed a charismatic, adventuresome, larger-than-life personality and had a massive influence on the high-tech industry. The book is well-written and an easy read, with a reasonable balance of the biography, technology, and business aspects. Berlin studies recent scientific and technological history and she’s written an impressive account of Noyce’s life.

The Wimp Factor

2006-04-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

The first part of psychologist’s Stephen Ducat The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity was so-so. He started off with some psychological foundations. Many American men feel compelled to prove their masculinity, since much of popular society looks down on guys who are effeminate, weak, or homosexual. That idea is credible, but some of Ducat’s more psychological ponderings are dubious. The second chapter examined views towards masculinity in 19th century American, a moderately interesting topic.

Things picked up in the remainder of the book, when Ducat analyzed how masculinity concerns affected recent Presidential politics. George H. W. Bush struggled to overcome the perception of being a wimp, which many voters view and the media view as a fatal flaw in a Presidential candidate. In 1988, Republican strategists managed to mitigate the “Wimp Factor”, aided by Michael Dukakis’s utter lack of machismo. While The Gulf War made Bush appear more masculine for a short time, it wasn’t enough for him to win the 1992 election.

The following chapter examines the nation’s reaction to Hillary Clinton, which Ducat connects with male fears of female sexuality, female power, and castration. Ducat’s analysis of the popular opinion of Hillary was very interesting. The next chapter, about Bill Clinton, divided his Presidency into two phases: before and after Monica Lewinsky. Before Monica he was viewed as a weak man dominated by his wife, while the revelations of infidelity made him appear as more of a macho guy.

The rest of the book investigates the mental association of liberalism with being effeminate and conservative beliefs with masculinity. These associations gave rise to the gender gap in voting patterns and views towards social programs, war, and other policy issues. The 9/11 attacks and the administration of George W. Bush made masculinity even more of an issue. Overall, The Wimp Factor gives you a lot to think about, if you don't mind the author’s liberal beliefs.

A History of the Modern Middle East

2006-04-01T14:27:00.000-08:00

William Cleveland’s A History of the Modern Middle East is an excellent narrative history. Though it starts with the rise of Islam, two thirds of the 550-page book cover the period after World War I. It presents a clear account of the formation and subsequent events of Iran, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other nearby nations. It concentrates on the politics, power struggles, and wars, while neglecting social and cultural developments. Except for a discussion of the aftermath of the first US-Iraq Gulf War, Cleveland doesn’t spend much time on the human suffering arising from the wars and from government repression. Overall, the book provides a valuable context for understanding current events in the Middle East.

How to Survive a Robot Uprising

2006-03-25T18:07:00.000-08:00

How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion addresses the scenario that occurs in countless sci-fi movies. Daniel Wilson, the author, is a robotics grad student at Carnegie Mellon, and he consulted with various robotics experts for advice. The book is largely the repetition of a joke that wasn’t that funny in the first place. Still, it’s full of interesting information about the capabilities and vulnerabilities of robots, making it a decent introduction to the subject. Besides, it’s short and full of illustrations, making it a quick read. While it’s a so-so book, it would be a good gag gift for a science-fiction fan.

Imperial Grunts

2006-03-12T21:37:00.000-08:00

In Imperial Grunts, journalist Robert Kaplan presents the perspective of US soldiers stationed around the world. On the positive side, it’s good to hear the perspective of the “grunts”, in this book Army Special Forces and Marines, who are assigned difficult, arduous, and dangerous responsibilities. In addition to the expected time Kaplan spent in Iraq and Afghanistan, Kaplan also visited Yemen, Colombia, Mongolia, the Philippines, and the Horn of Africa.

My main frustration was Kaplan’s extreme conservative, pro-military stance, in which the soldiers are presented as flawless heroes. I wouldn’t characterize anyone in the worshipful tones Kaplan applies to every American soldier he comes across. He’s dismissive and contemptuous of academics, liberals, the mass media, and everyone else, none of whom can compare to his beloved soldiers.

Plus, he’s a 100% embedded journalist who makes no effort to seek outside information that could conflict with what the soldiers are telling him. For example, he quotes a local Afghan leader praising US efforts while surrounded by soldiers, without considering that five years ago the official was probably praising Osama bin Laden and the Taliban in similar terms. If you want to understand what’s going on somewhere, you shouldn’t just listen to how an occupying army views the situation.

When Kaplan gets to Iraq and Afghanistan, subjects that I’m familiar with, the disconnect between his vantage point and mine is enormous. He praises the exemplary efforts of the military to avoid civilian casualties during the US assault on Fallujah. In Afghanistan, Kaplan complains that the rules of engagement force American soldiers to treat captured insurgents too leniently, when a more aggressive interrogation would provide needed information.

Kaplan is a vivid writer, and I do trust his observations of the daily lives and attitudes of soldiers. Still, the book gets repetitive after a while, and the continual military jargon gets tiresome. Women are presented from an ogling perspective, always described in terms of their attractiveness and their skimpy attire. The most infuriating aspect of the book was Kaplan’s jingoist attitude, and I wouldn’t recommend the book to anyone. As an antidote, I’m now reading Robert Fisk’s new book on the Middle East.

Married to the Job

2006-02-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

In Married to the Job, psychologist Ilene Philipson describes people whose excessively strong attachment to their workplace is akin to marriage in intensity. Those people, many of them her patients and a majority of whom are women, aren’t obsessed with their work accomplishments or the material benefits of their careers. Instead, their relationships with their coworkers and recognition by their supervisors can become more important emotionally than their families are. Philipson points out that many American have issues about emotional attachment to their jobs, even if it doesn’t go as far as “marriage”.

Several societal factors are pushing people in that direction. As described in Robert Putnam’s book Bowling Alone, Americans are less socially involved in their leisure time. At home, more time is spent in solitary, less engaging activities like watching TV and surfing the net (when they aren’t taking work home with them). Work hours are increasing. And many companies, especially those in Silicon Valley, have cultures that push their employees to be more emotionally involved.

The book itself is a light read, full of personal anecdotes. I could relate to sense of my job being more meaningful than other aspects of my life, except for my real marriage. Though there aren’t any profound insights, Philipson mentions how psychology has traditionally downplayed the importance of one work environment, compared to family and childhood experiences, and the book is an attempt to counter that. Though the book drags at the end, when she describes the value of therapy and provides some self-help style suggestions, overall it’s worth reading.

Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe

2006-02-26T11:10:00.000-08:00

Erik Wielenberg's Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe is mainly a rebuttal of arguments by Christian theologians. He attempts to demonstrate the philosophical foundations of ethics in a naturalistic (godless) worldview. He frames the question as someone who has shifted from Christianity to naturalism, making his arguments less relevant to someone from a different religious background or who has never accepted religion.

Wielenberg starts by considering how one can find meaning in life in the absence of supernatural forces. He then searches for a basis for morality, countering theist claims that ethics is in some dependent on God. Then he explores why one should act morally if no divine judge makes you account for your actions. Another chapter examines traditional Christian virtues such as humility and charity.

Though Wielenberg makes some good points, I didn't get that much out of the book. In part, elaborate philosophical discussions about ethics are less convincing than my visceral feeling that, for example, murder is wrong. He didn't cover my ethical ponderings: ambiguous ethical trade-offs and the variation in ethical beliefs among different people and cultures. The book would probably be a lot more pertinent to present or former Christians contemplating ethical concerns.

Encyclopedia Idiotica

2006-02-21T23:14:00.000-08:00

Stephen Weir’s Encyclopedia Idiotica: History's Worst Decisions and the People Who Made Them is all right. It’s a light, breezy account of 50 historical events that struck the author as particularly idiotic. The sections about historical periods I was more familiar with contained a few inaccuracies and oversimplifications. Also, some of the perceived idiocies were plausible mistakes (the Mariner I spacecraft failing because of a missing hyphen in its software). Others, such as the explosion at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, are better characterized as greed or indifference than idiocy. Still, it’s entertaining to learn more about the subjects I knew little about, such as Custer’s Last Stand or Florence Nightingale.

The Kite Runner

2006-02-20T15:38:00.000-08:00

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner largely takes place in Afghanistan, providing a glimpse of what life is like there. The novel’s protagonist is Amir, the son of Baba, a well-off and overbearing father. Amir and his father flee to America after the Russian invasion, but Amir returns to an Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban a few years later. The perspective of an Afghan-American makes the narrative accessible to an American reader.

A central part of the story involves Amir’s relationship with Hassan, a boy Amir’s age who’s the son of the family servant and a member of the Hazara, a disliked ethnic group. Hassan is in some ways a friend of Amir’s and in some ways a social inferior, leading to some uncomfortable situations. Amir’s interactions with Hassan and with Baba, the father whose standard he can’t satisfy, form the human side of the book.

Overall, it’s a worthwhile, well-written novel that presents a vivid portrayal of Afghanistan. As a warning, a couple of the scenes are kind of disturbing.

Huck’s Raft

2006-01-29T22:33:00.000-08:00

Steven Mintz’s book Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood is a thorough discussion of the topic. He goes from early colonial times to the modern day, covering children of all races, classes, and backgrounds. For example, the book depicts life as a young black slave, an Irish servant girl, or a teenager fighting on either side of the Civil War.

Mintz demonstrates how the life of children and the adult perception of them have changed over the centuries. It’s a long book, at almost 400 pages, full of vivid personal accounts and factual content. Huck's Raft is impressive and well-written, if you have the persistence to get through it.

First, Do No Harm

2006-01-29T17:21:00.000-08:00

In First, Do No Harm, journalist Lisa Belkin examines how life-and-death decisions are made at Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas. She describes a handful of ethically challenging cases. A terminally ill teenager requires additional desperate measures to prolong his painful existence. A premature baby stays alive through massive intervention techniques, but has a poor long-term prognosis. A poor immigrant is paralyzed from the neck down by a bullet wound, but indicates by blinking that he wants to continue living.

Belkin presents the views and feelings of the main players involved in each case: doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, family members, and when possible, the patient. She records the dynamics of the hospital ethics committee that handles any contentious decisions. She presents the arguments made by each side, without stating her own judgment about the right course of action.

The events of the book occurred in 1988, and medical technology and processes have obviously evolved since then. Still, medical practitioners continue to face similar issues about how far to go in prolonging someone's painful existence and who should make the final decision. The book itself reads as a novel, painting a vivid picture of the people at the hospital and their concerns.

Iraq events

2006-01-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

Several Iraq news stories have caught my eye lately.

Regarding the early stages of the war,

Paul Bremer, who led the US civilian occupation authority in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, has admitted that the Americans 'didn't really see' the threat coming from insurgents in the country.

The Bush administration's gross incompetence continues to expose US soldiers to unnecessary risk (from Daily Kos).

A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.
...
The vulnerability of the military's body armor has been known since the start of the war, and is part of a series of problems that have surrounded the protection of American troops. Still, the Marine Corps did not begin buying additional plates to cover the sides of their troops until this September, when it ordered 28,800 sets, Marine Corps officials acknowledge.

The Army, which has the largest force in Iraq, is still deciding what to purchase, according to Army procurement officials. They said the Army is deciding between various sizes of plates to give its 130,000 soldiers; the officials said they hope to issue contracts this month.

The true cost of the war, even in purely economic terms, is vastly more than official estimates. (from Daily Kos).

The real cost to America of the Iraq war is likely to be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion, up to 10 times more than previously thought, according to a report written by a Nobel prize-winning economist and a Harvard budget expert.

The study, which expands on traditional estimates by including such costs as lifetime disability and healthcare for troops injured in the conflict as well as the impact on the American economy, concludes that the U.S. Government is continuing to grossly underestimate the cost of the war.

In addition, 11 American soldiers died in a single day last week, while over the weekend (from AmericaBlog),

A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter went down in northern Iraq, killing all 12 Americans believed to be aboard in the deadliest crash in nearly a year, while five U.S. Marines died in weekend attacks, the military said Sunday.

On a lighter note,

Bernard Planche, 52, was kidnapped on his way to work at a water plant. Planche worked for a non-governmental organization called AACCESS and was found Saturday night near a checkpoint in the Abu Ghraib neighborhood. His captors had demanded the withdrawal from Iraq of French troops - even though the country has none in Iraq.

I shouldn't laugh, since being captured must have been terrifying for Planche, who is now safe, but I can't resist.

Us and Them

2006-01-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

David Berreby's Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind covers an important topic -- how people divide themselves into groups by race, religion, nationality, etc., and the effects of that grouping. However, the book as a whole was a disappointment. He spends chapters going over basic points, such as the arbitrariness of the way societies categorize people and consider the various categories, along with the changing nature of those categories across cultures and over time. A less well-read audience would probably appreciate the book more.

A History of Twentieth-Century Russia

2006-01-01T22:28:00.000-08:00

Robert Service's A History of Twentieth-Century Russia is a good piece of narrative history. His perspective focuses on those at the top: the power struggles among the leaders and the policies they pursued. He spends less time discussing Russian society and the lives of typical people. That kind of analysis explains the functioning of the Soviet state, though it's less illuminating about how the Communist revolutionaries gained power in the first place.

He doesn't emphasize the horrors of the Russian Civil War, World War II, and Stalin's purges, which seems a little odd but keeps the book from being depressing to read. I was most interested to learn how people like Stalin and Gorbachev came to power, topics that were covered in great detail. It's a worthwhile history, though the big picture was sometimes lost in all the details. Note that an updated version of the book, A History of Modern Russia: From Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin, was published several months ago.

Freakonomics

2005-12-26T21:17:00.000-08:00

Despite its title, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's Freakonomics: A Rough Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything isn't about economics. Instead, it's a mathematical and statistical investigation of various down-to-earth social phenomena.

The most interesting chapter analyzes declining US crime rates over the last few decades. Lots of press attention focuses on the authors' persuasive claim that legalized abortion has reduced the crime rate, since many potential criminals were never born in the first place. They also concluded that longer prison terms and larger police forces have reduced crime, while a growing economy, innovative police practices, gun law changes, and capital punishment have exerted a limited effect.

Another chapter examines what factors in a child's environment correspond to higher standardized test scores and finds patterns that challenge conventional wisdom. For example, children with many books at home tend to do better, but whether or not their parents read to them doesn't really matter. The general conclusions agree with Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate - who the parents are matter more than what they do.

The other chapters are less exciting, but still worthwhile. Overall, the book an easy, fast read; I finished it in three days while trying to maintain a slow pace. A couple of the arguments were unconvincing, but overall Freakonomics gives you plenty to think about.

Brothel

2005-12-25T17:06:00.000-08:00

In Brothel: Mustang Ranch and its Women, medical student Alexa Albert explores the secretive world of legalized prostitution. As a research project, she lived at the Mustang Ranch for months, and visited other brothels, to understand the day-by-day lives of the women who worked there.

To my surprise, many of the prostitutes had pimps: men who brought them into the trade and received a significant fraction of the women's incomes. The author describes how other women deal with boyfriends, husbands, or children while living at the brothel. She summarizes the kinds of men who visit the brothel, and how many of the women take pride in their ability to please them. She reveals the social dynamics between the women, ranging from animosity to close bonds.

The book is a very humanizing and accessible portrayal of life in a brothel. The author starts off hostile to prostitution, but ends up much more sympathetic to it. Whatever your opinions, Brothel provides a fascinating view of a subculture rarely exposed to outsiders.

Stupid headline

2005-12-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

When reading the paper this morning, I came across this headline:

Stakes as high for Iraqis as for Bush administration

This may sound radical, but perhaps the Iraqi people have a little more at stake than Bush does.

The Ethical Brain

2005-11-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

In The Ethical Brain, neurologist Michael Gazzaniga, who served on the President's Council on Bioethics, tries to apply his knowledge of neurology to tackle various ethical problems. While he brings up some important questions, his answers are disappointing. Though I agree with him more often than not, he generally states his conclusions without providing a solid justification. Since I've read better books on the nature of the mind, I can't recommend this one.

Sacred Fragments

2005-11-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

Rabbi Neil Gillman's Sacred Fragments is a brilliant introduction to Jewish theology. Since my childhood religious education was rather devoid of intellectual content, it was neat to see the various approaches to theology and their connections with general Western philosophy.

Gillman explores the traditionalist outlook, the radical views held by Reconstructionist Judaism, and the middle-of-the-road positions of Franz Rosenweig, Abraham Heschel, and others. His topics range from the epistemology behind Jewish beliefs to the purpose of ritual and how Jewish thinkers comprehend the Holocaust. Sacred Fragments is a challenging read but well worth the effort for anyone curious about the ideas underlying Judaism.

City Boy

2005-10-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

Herman Wouk's City Boy focuses on Herbie Bookbinder, a bright overweight 11-year old boy growing up in the Bronx during the late 1920's. He has a series of adventures at home, school, and summer camp, with a style vaguely reminiscent of Tom Sawyer. Though some of the incidents are entertaining, the book as a whole didn't make much of an impression on me. Wouk does capture the atmosphere of his own childhood and presents a vivid portrayal of Herbie, his friends, and his family. Still, City Boy isn't nearly as riveting as Wouk's The Caine Mutiny.

A History of Russia

2005-10-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

Walter Moss's A History of Russia, Volume I: To 1917 was decent. The writing was very clear; the maps, chronology, and genealogy made the book accessible to someone like me who knows little about Russian history and geography. The book also has a nice balance between narrative history, culture, and the everyday life of the Russian people. However, it wasn't as exciting as it could have been, despite the importance of the events it describes. Things did pick up in the last part of the book, which covered the late imperial period from 1855 to 1917.

Brief reviews

2005-09-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

With the Katrina excitement, I'm not motivated to write any long reviews, but here's what I've read lately.

John Julius Norwich's A History of Venice was all right. Venice was a commercial power with a stable political structure that lasted a thousand years. While the population of Venice benefited from that situation, it makes for boring history.

Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel about an intersexual character who changes from a woman to a man. The first part of the book, which discussed the protagonist's grandparents, was appealing, but the characters and the narrative become less interesting later on.

Susan Jacoby's Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism was pretty good. She analyzes atheist/agnostic/deist thought, and the religious reaction to it, throughout American history. She discusses the secularist aspects of the fights regarding the Constitution, abolition, woman's suffrage, civil rights, and other areas.

Good to Great

2005-08-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

In Good to Great, Jim Collins investigates 11 large companies that displayed a significant long-term turnaround. Those companies had stock returns comparable to the general market before their transitions, but significantly outperformed the market for fifteen years after their transition. In each case, Collins and his research team examined comparison companies in the same industry that started in about the same place but were unable to take off. For example, Walgreens grew and became more profitable while Eckerd deteriorated.

The research team identified various similarities among the successful companies. They had exceptional leaders who hired a first-rate team. They faced the brutal facts while seeking out a path to greatness. They focused on an area that they cared about passionately, could be the best in the world at, and could drive their economic engine. They were disciplined about determining the correct course of action and carrying out the necessary tasks. They applied technology to accelerate their momentum, without viewing technology as a panacea.

The book is very well written and accessible, even to someone like me who doesn't follow financial news. Each chapter ends with a listing of key points and unexpected findings, which helps crystallize the main ideas. It's an above-average book in a subject area that doesn't interest me much. Anyone who is particularly interested in the business world would get a lot out of it.

Four book reviews

2005-08-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife is the best novel I've read this year. It's a non-traditional love story in which the guy has a propensity to jump forward or backwards in time. When Henry and Clare encounter each other, sometimes he's older than she is and sometimes he's younger. Consequently, he has memories of events she hasn't experienced yet and visa-versa. Niffenegger does an excellent job of revealing the story, making it easy to suspend disbelief and care about the characters.

The Best Software Writing I, edited by Joel Spolsky, is all right. I had previously read the best of those essays online, such as Paul Graham's Great Hackers, Clay Shirky's A Group is its Own Worst Enemy, and Aaron Swartz's PowerPoint Remix. The other essays were decent, but not sufficient to justify purchasing the book.

In get me out of here: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder, Rachel Reiland paints a vivid picture of her struggle with that affliction. She describes the circumstances that led her into a mental institution and the laborious therapy that she went through in order to get better. Though I don't know anyone who suffered from BPD, her narrative is compelling.

In Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond examines the impact of major environmental changes on various societies, some of which managed to overcome the problems and some which ended collapsing. Part of the book's appeal is learning about the collapsed societies, such as the Anasazi, the Norse settlements in Greenland, and the people of Easter Island. He also analyzes contemporary societies, ranging from China, whose industrialization and rising standard of living have a global environmental impact, to Japan, which remains mostly forested despite its high population density. Collapse includes a lot of interesting material, though it doesn't rise to the level of Diamond's Guns, Germs, Steel.

Garp

2005-07-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

John Irving's The World According to Garp is a novel about an odd author and his family. You can't help wondering how much Irving based the protagonist on himself. Though the novel was mildly entertaining, I don't understand the accolades it received. Irving explores various feminist issues, but societal changes over the last three decades make Irving's treatment of feminism incredibly dated.

Computer Networks

2005-07-28T22:28:00.000-07:00

In an effort to fill a massive gap in my technical knowledge, I read Andrew Tanenbaum's textbook Computer Networks. Tanenbaum is a CS prof in Amsterdam who has written a few textbooks, though politics junkies may be more familiar with his website http://www.electoral-vote.com/. The book discusses each of the layers in the standard transport models, along with a chapter on security issues. Tanenbaum focuses on the fundamental concepts; you won't learn any practical networking skills. Still, Computer Networks is a good way to learn the underpinning and what all those acronyms mean.

London bombing and Iraq

2005-07-07T22:50:00.000-07:00

I was wondering how the London bombing compared to the Iraqi death toll.

According to the Iraq Body Count, between 22787 and 25814 civilians have been reported killed by military intervention in Iraq. That works out to roughly 30 per day. When you include military casualties, the London bombing amounts to a typical day in Iraq.

I don't intend to minimize the horror of the London bombing. It just provides some perspective about how much suffering the Iraqi people have faced.

Short reviews

2005-07-06T00:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't felt like reviewing books lately, but here are some comments about the last few I read. I'd recommend all five of them, though none were exceptional.

David Callahan's The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead first explores the extent of cheating in the US, from illegal file sharing to corporate scandals. He blames that cheating on various factors: the widening gap between rich and poor, a societal focus on possessions & status, the corporate bottom-line mentality, and weak enforcement of laws against white-collar crime. Callahan examines American values and society from a liberal perspective, and finds faults that give rise to widespread cheating.

Lawrence Wright's Twins and What They Tell Us About Who We Are discusses twin studies and what they reveal about the heredity vs. environment debate. Most noticeably, identical twins have very similar personalities, even if they grow up apart, which is strong evidence for behavior being in ones genes. It's a light, easy read, though it's not as profound as Matt Ridley's Nature Via Nurture or Stephen Pinker's The Blank Slate. I took issue with Wright on one point, regarding the relation between scientific support of inherited behavior and the rightward drift of the nation. Though both trends have occurred over the last few decades, I'm not convinced that the former led to the latter.

Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking comes across as a collection of essays with a common theme, regarding the information that can be gained from brief observations. For example, a psychologist filmed fifteen-minute conversations between various couples, and after analyzing many such conversations deduced the signs that accurately predicted whether the relationship would succeed. Blink if full of entertaining tidbits, but don't expect any deep insight into how the human mind works.

Lord Kinross's The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire is a very good history of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the book is well written, as it brings to life the major events, leaders, and societal changes for 600 years of history. It was a little rushed and less coherent towards the end, only devoting a single paragraph to the Armenian genocide. The Ottoman Empire went from a dominant power threatening Christian Europe to a weak force, mainly because it stagnated under a series of weak Sultans hemmed in by rigid traditions, while Europe made significant headway in terms of technology and organization.

In Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives, Frank Sulloway analyzes the lives of the most prominent people who took part in the major scientific debates going back for centuries. He searched for correlations between their stances and aspects of their personal lives, especially birth order. He found that firstborns tend to resist scientific revolutions, while laterborns generally support revolutionary theories. He investigated how birth order interacted with other factors to determine how receptive historical figures are to innovative ideas. Though his statistics became somewhat convoluted at times, with my passing interest in psychology and the history of science I found it interesting.

Slave

2005-06-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

Mende Nazer's Slave: My True Story belongs to a genre I've never encountered before -- the contemporary slave narrative. She grew up in a small tribe in Sudan, and the first part of her biography describes what was, except for the nastiness of a female circumcision, a happy childhood. When she was 12, Arab raiders attacked her village, burning huts, killing many people, and capturing the author and other girls.

She ended up a house slave, spending all her time cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. She was beaten, deprived of social contact, and not allowed to leave the house. After several years, she managed, unlike most slaves, to escape.

Though I've heard in abstract that slavery still exists, it's shocking to read the first-hand account of a modern-day slave. It's an unsettling juxtaposition of the ante-bellum South with modern technology like airplanes and VCRs. Nazer, with the assistance of journalist Damien Lewis, presents a lively and powerful account of what she lived through, and what plenty of her contemporaries are still, sadly, contending with.

Book tag

2005-06-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

Continuing the book tag meme that's drifting across the blogosphere…

Total number of books I’ve owned
After multiplying our book shelf count by the average number of books per shelf, I estimate that my wife and I own around 600 books.
[UPDATE: The number of books I've owned, includes those I no longer possess, comes to around 1000.]

Last book I bought
Our last Amazon order, which arrived today, includes five books, one of which I suggested: Lawrence Wright's Twins: And What They Tell Us About Who We Are.

Last book I read
I'm midway through three books right now, each of which I'm enjoying: Lord Kinross's The Ottoman Centuries, David Callahan's The Cheating Culture, and Andrew Tanenbaum's Computer Networks. Switching between books is a helpful approach my wife suggested.

Last book I finished
Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. It comes across like a collection of magazine articles -- entertaining and informative without any great insight.

Five books that mean a lot to me
Julian, by Gore Vidal. Though it's not the best novel I've read (Anna Karenina qualifies for that honor), the saga of Julian the Apostate, the pagan Roman emperor who fought a doomed battle against Christianity, was appealing and provided me with my cyberspace alter-ego.

The Language Instinct, by Steven Pinker. It's a fascinating exploration of language and what language reveals about the mind.

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler. Agile development, evolutionary design, and continual refactoring form the basis for my approach to software development.

Moral Politics by George Lakoff & What's the Matter with Kansas? by Thomas Frank. These two books tackle, from different perspectives, the great moral issue of our time: Why do so many people vote for Republicans, despite the disastrous consequences of Republican rule?

Koran desecration feedback

2005-05-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest on the Koran desecration story.

Muslims in several countries demonstrated Friday in resurgent anti-American anger over reported desecration of the Islamic holy book, the Koran, and some protesters called on their leaders to demand an apology from the United States.

The ironic thing is that US government's condemnation of Newsweek led to more coverage of Koran desecration in the US and international media. Then the FBI reports came out, triggering the latest round of protests.

The White House blamed Newsweek for inflaming Muslim opinion, but the blaming indirectly inflamed Muslim opinion even more.

Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain

2005-05-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

Joseph F. O'Callaghan's Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain covers the time frame from 1063, when Spain was largely Muslim except for some small Christian kingdoms in the north, to 1248, when the Christian powers directly or indirectly controlled the entire Iberian Peninsula.

The narrative can be a bit confusing to someone who's not familiar with the general history and geography of the region, though the maps and the genealogical charts of the monarchs were quite helpful. Since kings Alfonso VII of Leon-Castile, Alfonso I Henriques of Portugal, and Alfonso I of Aragon all reigned at the same time, it's naturally difficult to keep everyone straight.

Later chapters covered the warfare techniques, which were interesting, along with finance and liturgy, which were too esoteric for my taste. O'Callaghan largely presented the Christian perspective, though he does quote some Muslim writers bemoaning the fact that the horrific Christians had taken over their glorious cities. He carefully examines the extent to which the Reconquest was a crusade, a topic I really didn't care about.

It's a decent book, and it may be the best treatment of the Reconquest.

American Dream

2005-05-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

When the so-called welfare reform legislation was being debated a decade ago, there were plenty of arguments about what its consequences would be. I read American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare to find out what actually happened. Jason DeParle, the author, is a journalist who covers social policy for the New York Times. He interweaves the lives of three Black welfare mothers in Milwaukee with an analysis of welfare changes and consequences.

Focusing on specific people provides a concrete factual basis for discussion, in contrast to the pontificators on both sides of the debate who don't know what they're talking about. DeParle traces the lives of the women and their families from a Southern plantation to Chicago and from there to Wisconsin. You learn about their early years, work lives, attitudes, boyfriends, and children. DeParle reveals their experiences and their views of the world. Bad decisions, their subculture, and society as a whole all contribute to the difficulties they face in life.

When welfare changes force them to work, two of the women manage to find and hold onto jobs. For example, one becomes a nurse's aide, a low-paying tiring position that consists of wiping people's butts and other tasks that are necessary to take care of the infirm. Their incomes didn't improve significantly over what they previously received as a welfare check. The third woman, a crack addict, has a lot more difficulty.

Your judgment of welfare changes largely depends on your priorities and what aspects of the prior system you find objectionable. DeParle considers welfare reform to be a success, since poverty levels didn't rise and because many former welfare recipients found jobs. However, since my main concern is the quality of life of poorer Americans, I don't view forcing a mother of small children to work long hours to be progress.

The remainder of the book consists of policy wonk stuff: programs, proposals, politics, perceptions, and results. The politicians all come across as unimpressive to incompetent and the private organizations that dealt with welfare projects are far worse. Most of the programs that were supposed to provide job training were basically worthless. However, when people were required to work, or at least show up for particular activities, in order to receive a welfare check, many of them chose to drop off the welfare rolls instead.

As a liberal, I had a few complaints about the book. DeParle never addresses certain arguments against welfare restrictions, such as the possibility that, without a public safety net, companies can pay lower wages and demand more from the working poor. The families he presented often don't have enough to eat, a situation that concerns me a lot more than whether an able-bodies adult is on the public dole. Still, American Dream presents enough facts for you to form your own opinions while challenging your prior beliefs.

Metaphors We Live By

2005-05-20T23:14:00.000-07:00

I picked up Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, to learn more about theoretical underpinnings of Lakoff’s Moral Politics. They argue that metaphors play a prominent role in human communication and how people comprehend the world.

For example, the metaphor ARGUMENT IS WAR manifests itself in a variety of phrases, such as “Your claims are indefensible” and “He attacked every weak point in my argument”. The authors examine the variety, structure, and coherence of metaphors, making a strong case that they reflect something more substantive and significant than mere linguistic shorthand. They propose an experiential approach to philosophy, emphasizing metaphor, as an alternative to objectivism or subjectivism.

Still, Metaphors We Live By was less rewarding than Moral Politics, in part because political thought interests me more than philosophy and linguistics do. The basic idea is sound, but the subtleties became repetitive after a while. Though I’m still curious to learn more about cognitive science, I’ll seek out another author’s perspective.

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

2005-05-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

In Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, Robert Sapolsky examines the impact that stress has on people. As motivation for the book’s title, Sapolsky first considers a zebra’s stress response to the presence of a predator, which effectively improves the zebra’s chances of surviving that short-term crisis. Humans in modern society deal with different kinds of long-term chronic stress, which in turn causes a variety of consequences.

Much of the book describes the functioning of major aspects of human physiology – digestion, circulation, sexuality, sleeping, etc. – and explores how stress affects that functioning. Sapolsky works his way up from hormones triggered by stress to the impact on daily life and long-term health. I learned a lot of physiology along the way, since I haven’t studied biology since high school.

Though the book’s subtitle mentions coping, only a single chapter discusses “Managing stress”. You should read the book to satisfy your intellectual curiosity, not as a self-help guide. The book has several amusing asides, but the biology exposition and the analysis of scientific research make it more challenging than the author’s The Trouble with Testosterone. Still, it’s worth reading if you're willing to put in the effort.

Doomsday Book

2005-05-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

In Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book, a young twenty-first century British historian travels back to the fourteenth century to observe daily life. Various complications arise in a story that alternates between the near future and the Middle Ages. The depiction of Medieval England was solidly researched. The main historical flaw I observed is that the treatment of children in the book reflected modern attitudes instead of the harsher and less sentimental approach of the Middle Ages.

However, the book’s characters and plot developments weren’t too exciting and didn’t justify its 578-page length. You’d expect more to happen to a modern young woman transported back to a different era. And the twenty-first century segment seemed rather pointless. While the Doomsday Book started out promising, and I liked the ending, it dragged out quite a bit in the middle. However, others must have a more charitable view of the book, since it won the Hugo and Nebula awards.

How the Irish Saved Civilization

2005-05-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization describes some significant historical events. Ireland was a chaotic, pagan region that was never part of the Roman Empire. During the fifth century, St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland, which made the Irish people less warlike and more literate. Scholars at Irish monasteries eagerly acquired, studied, and copied Greek and Roman literature, helping preserve it after Western Rome collapsed. Subsequently, Irish missionaries spread Christianity and classical knowledge to England and the continent.

The book has some inaccuracies, such as omitting the presence of Christianity in Ireland before St. Patrick’s missionary work. Cahill unfairly dismisses the Arian heresy as a “debased, simpleminded form of Christianity” and understates the significance of the classic literature preserved by the Islamic world.

In much of the book, Cahill attempts to evoke the moods of the times. For example, an epic poem, which he quotes extensively, reveals the temperament of pagan Ireland. That whole approach left me skeptical, and I found the many excerpts from poems, Christian hymns, Patrick’s writings, Plato, and others to be distracting. Though the book is accessible, I’d prefer a more traditional, and less poetic, historical account.

Banning military recruiters

2005-05-03T23:11:00.000-07:00

This will be an interesting case.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether the nation's colleges and universities may bar military recruiters from their campuses without losing federal funding.

The case, to be heard in the fall, poses a clash between government money and free speech.

A coalition of law schools last year won an appellate court ruling that said their right to free speech included the right to refuse to associate with military recruiters. The law schools argued that the Pentagon's policies on gays and lesbians in the military were discriminatory.

They cite an ironic precedent.

In their suit, the law schools argue that under the 1st Amendment's protection for free speech, they have a right not to associate with persons or organizations that espouse discriminatory policies — and they are relying on a recent and controversial Supreme Court precedent for this view.

Five years ago, the justices ruled 5 to 4 that the Boy Scouts had a free-speech right not to associate with homosexuals and thus could exclude from their ranks an openly gay scoutmaster from New Jersey. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the author of the opinion, said the Scouts' free-speech right of "expressive association" trumped a New Jersey law that prohibited discrimination against gays.

The same is true in the military recruiting case, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said last year.

In other words, the decision allowing the Boy Scouts to discriminate against gays is bolstering the legal case for limiting recruiting by an organization that discriminates against gays.

10,000 fugitives

2005-04-14T21:46:00.000-07:00

This article raises so many questions.

U.S. law enforcement officials captured more than 10,000 fugitives around the country in a week-long drive to round up some of the most violent criminals who had previously evaded justice.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Thursday a total of 10,340 fugitives were captured by an operation led by the U.S. Marshals Service between April 4 and April 10 -- about 10 times as many fugitives who were arrested the same period a year ago.

How were so many fugitives caught during a single week? What do the involved law enforcement officials do during the rest of the year? How many fugitives are roaming the street anyway? Is there any connection to 10,000 Maniacs?

The Wages of Guilt

2005-04-12T21:26:00.000-07:00

In The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan, Ian Buruma discusses how the Germans and Japanese come to terms with their nation's actions during World War II.

He makes some interesting points. For example, Auschwitz is the main association of the war in the German mind, while the Japanese focus on Hiroshima. Separate chapters describe how Germans approach the Holocaust, how the Japanese remember Hiroshima (in ways similar to the US reaction to 9/11), and how the Japanese consider the Rape of Nanking. In general, the Germans accept guilt for their wartime actions, while the Japanese deny that they launched a brutal war of aggression.

Buruma’s research was very impressive. For both Germany and Japan, he read the postwar literature, spoke to a variety of individuals, and so on. However, the book was disappointing is some ways, since he didn’t provide the insight into German and Japanese psychology that I was hoping for. Maybe that’s because he focused on elite opinion, such as what the artists and political leaders were saying, instead of the man-on-the-street reaction. The Wages of Guilt wasn’t quite as good as it could have been.

Beautiful Inez

2005-04-02T15:03:00.000-08:00

Bart Schneider, my uncle, wrote Beautiful Inez as a prequel to his earlier book Secret Love; the protagonist in Secret Love is a secondary character in Beautiful Inez. The story focuses on Inez, an unhappy married violinist who has an affair with another woman. I was a little wary of a male author depicting a Lesbian romance, but he pulls it off fairly well.

The character portrayals are multi-dimensional, and the interweaved subplots held my interest. The sad ending made me reluctant to finish the book, but it’s a good sign that I actually cared about what happened to Inez. The musical references and atmosphere of San Francisco in the early 60’s add substance to the narrative.

The Hundred Years War

2005-03-20T23:28:00.000-08:00

I read Desmond Seward’s The Hundred Years War to find out how the war turned out, since A Distant Mirror only covered the first half. Seward did a decent job of describing the various leaders, such as characterizing John II as “probably the most stupid of all French kings.” The summaries of battles were clear without going too deeply into tactics and presented the evolving military technology. Seward discusses the mercenary ambitions of the British, the wartime casualties, and the devastation that the French people suffered.

The earlier parts of the book seemed more compelling than the later parts, though I’m not sure whether that was due to more animated writing early on or to the succession of battles becoming repetitive. Though the war was futile in terms of what it accomplished, it gave rise to a long-lasting sense of national identity among the British and French, along with a strong antagonism between them. Seward presents a coherent and multi-faceted account of the war.

The Good Women of China

2005-03-20T13:23:00.000-08:00

The Good Women of China consists of anecdotes about the lives of Chinese women. Xinran, the author, was a radio host in China for many years. Many of the stories are quite sad, since the women had to contend with the ruthless Communist government, poverty, and sexism.

In one chapter, letters from a teenager reveal how she coped with sexual abuse from her father. Another chapter describes the immense poverty of a rural village. Xinran records survivor accounts of the devastating 1976 earthquake in Tangshan, including women who lost their children in the quake and are now running an orphanage. A lesbian provides her perspective of a society in which homosexuality is taboo. Women with bourgeois or foreign backgrounds discuss their torment during the Cultural Revolution. The Communist Party arranged marriage for teenagers who originally strong supporters of the Revolution.

Xinran writes well, pulling the reader into her caring depictions of women’s lives. The best way to understand another society is to observe the lives of ordinary people, and Xinran provides such a glimpse. Communist China was brutal for almost everyone, but women probably suffered more than men did.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

2005-03-17T23:07:00.000-08:00

In The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, neurologist Oliver Sacks describes some of the more noteworthy cases that he’s encountered, some of which are intriguing. For example, patients with aphasia, who cannot understand words, thought a speech by then-President Ronald Reagan was hilarious. In contrast, a patient with tonal agnosia, who understood words but not speaking tones, timbre, etc., complained that Reagan was not cogent.

However, the book’s writing style is a bit too erudite for my taste, referring to neurologists I’d never heard of and philosophers I’m not familiar with. As a result, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is less appealing than other books I’ve read about psychology and mental functioning.

Life of Pi

2005-03-05T14:17:00.000-08:00

Yann Martel’s Life of Pi tells the story of a teenager from India who gets marooned on a lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger. The first part of the book, which introduced Pi, the main character, is all right. The central narrative, in which Pi struggles for months to survive in his precarious situation, is entertaining and captivating. The novel probably has some deeper message, as suggested by Pi’s discussion of his unconventional religious beliefs, but I wasn’t able to figure out what it was. Nonetheless, I still appreciated Pi’s description of his adventures.

A Concise History of the Crusades

2005-02-27T13:40:00.000-08:00

Thomas Madden’s A Concise History of the Crusades is a good introduction to the subject. He describes each crusade from a European perspective, focusing on the narrative of what happened. He omits the Christian conquest of Spain, though he does discuss the Albigensian Crusade against French heretics. He explains the rise and fall of the crusader states in the Middle East and the evolution of the major crusading orders, such as the Knights Templar.

Many of the crusaders were incredibly inept, with the leaders squabbling among themselves and with Christian armies launching foolhardy attacks, assuming that God’s grace was all they needed for victory. It’s amazing the First Crusade was so successful, managing to capture a large region including Antioch and Jerusalem. Any victories by the Christians or Muslims could generally be attributed to disarray on the other side. Madden draws a coherent picture of some complex historical events I knew little about.

The (mis)Behavior of Markets

2005-02-24T22:14:00.000-08:00

The (mis)Behavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin, and Reward presents a non-conventional way of understanding the stock market and other financial exchanges. Benoit Mandelbrot, the primary author, developed the concept of fractals, a mathematical constructs that he and others have found useful in many fields. His co-author, Richard Hudson, was an editor and writer of the Wall Street Journal for decades.

They start by describing the established financial concepts: the efficient market, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Modern Portfolio Theory, and Black-Scholes formula for option pricing. They then point out the weaknesses of those theories. The most significant weakness is that large price fluctuations, such as the stock market drop in 1987, happen far more frequently than the standard theories would predict. Real financial markets don’t have bell curve statistical variations, which underlies the techniques people learn in business school.

The book outlines a non-standard approach based on fractals. The authors avoid mathematical formulism, and instead illustrate those ideas with descriptions and graphs. They focus on the lives of the major innovators and a high-level description of their research. That approach keeps the book accessible, though I can’t judge what a less mathematically inclined reader would think.

The (mis)Behavior of Markets would appeal to people who are interested in both finance and mathematics. Mandelbrot and Hudson did a good job of popularizing a complex topic. I would have appreciated a more mathematical treatment, but doing so would have lost most of the potential audience.

The Language Police

2005-02-19T22:26:00.000-08:00

In The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn, Diane Ravitch complains about restrictions on public school textbooks and standardized tests. Ravitch provides numerous examples of the detailed rules limiting the material and phrasing that can appear. In response to demands from activists on the left and on the right, textbooks are bland, literature is censured, and historical depictions are inaccurate.

Some requests sound reasonable, such as textbook depictions that reflect the gender and racial makeup of the population. However, many of the limitations go to ridiculous extremes. Almost all literature from before 1970 is unacceptable because it contains images or phrases that students aren’t supposed to see. History books present all societies in a positive light, regardless of what those societies did. Meanwhile, the right objects to material they claim promotes secular humanism, magic, evolution, feminism, and other topics.

The Language Police makes its case, but it felt like an article’s worth of material stretched out into a book. The long lists of censored passages, textbook guidelines, state reading material, and other topics became quite repetitive. Ravitch focused almost exclusively on English and history classes. Her discussion of standardized tests displayed a weak understanding of statistics, and who really cares whether essays on tests are dull? Ravitch was an assistant secretary in the Bush Sr. administration, which made me a little skeptical of her perspective on history texts.

The Language Police was a quick read and involves a little-discussed issue affecting millions of school children. Though it had some faults, it’s probably the best treatment of the subject.

Moral Politics

2005-02-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

In Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservative Think, George Lakoff provides the conceptual underpinnings for the ideas he summarizes in Don’t Think of An Elephant. As a result, Moral Politics is far more coherent and convincing. Lakoff presents a cognitive science theory of the metaphors that liberals and conservatives apply when making moral judgments, which in turn determine their political stands.

As Lakoff sees it, conservatives have a Strict Father model of morality that emphasizes obedience to authority, right vs. wrong, rewards & punishments, and moral strength. Liberals follow a Nurturant Parent model focusing on empathy, compassion, social ties, and fair distribution. These family models lead to specific political views because parenting is a common metaphor for government.

These different moral models explain conservative beliefs more cogently than any explanation I’ve heard before. As a nurturant liberal, conservative opposition to basic social programs has always been incomprehensible to me, since the Republicans I’ve met haven’t been particularly cruel or selfish. From my perspective, ensuring that everyone’s physical needs are met is a clear moral imperative. However, Strict Father morality opposes social programs because it values self-discipline, rewards being earned, avoiding coddling, and moral strength arising from self-reliance.

Lakoff applies his models to explain liberal and conservative views on a wide variety of issues. He examines liberal and conservative rhetoric to demonstrate why liberal arguments don’t register with conservatives. Lakoff’s models do an impressive job of explaining events that occurred after Moral Politics was originally published in 1996, such as the Clinton impeachment and W’s Presidency.

I strongly recommend the book to anyone interested in current events. Though I had feared it would be an abstract academic tome, it was actually quite readable. Lakoff gets a little repetitive at times, but that’s not a big deal. Democrats need to internalize these ideas to generate a more effective message, as Republicans already have.

Medical bankrupcy despite health insurace

2005-02-07T22:25:00.000-08:00

The Nation has a depressing story about the many middle-class people who take large debts, and often end up in bankrupcy, in order to pay their medical bills. Many of those people have health insurance, but the deductables and co-payments are massive.

It's depressing, and it's one more reason why this country needs single-payer health care.

Secret Love

2005-02-06T16:44:00.000-08:00

The main reason I read Secret Love was because its author, Bart Schneider, is my uncle. It’s the first novel I’ve seen that was written by an acquaintance, letting me wonder how much the protagonist and his father are based on my uncle and grandfather. The story takes place in San Francisco in the mid-1960’s, presenting an image of what the city looked like before Vietnam-era protests, the gay-rights movement, and gentrification.

The title refers to the romance between Jake, a Jewish civil-rights activist attorney, and Nisa, a young mulatto actress. Their relationship is hindered by Jake’s desire to keep it secret from his father, children, and public society. Two gay characters, one black and one white, are also entangled in the story.

The characters are distinctive but believable, though they’re all a bit too articulate and Jake sometimes seems too good to be true. Issues like race, religion, and homosexuality percolate throughout the narrative without it becoming preachy. You end up caring about the characters, and the San Francisco atmosphere is an added bonus to anyone familiar with the city.

I enjoyed the storytelling and images of Secret Love, for reasons besides my bias from knowing the author.

The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing

2005-02-05T22:52:00.000-08:00

In The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing: The Experience and Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Judith Rapoport shines light on that puzzling disorder. People with OCD feel compelled to wash themselves for hours each day, go back repeatedly to check whether they accidentally hit someone with their car, and engage in other bizarre behavior that totally disrupts their lives.

The book includes self-descriptions by patients and accounts of parents whose children have OCD. A majority of the book consists of case studies of various OCD sufferers. As Rapoport explains, certain new drugs can lessen or alleviate OCD for many, but not all, patients. Behavioral therapy can sometimes help, but other psychological approaches have had no luck in addressing the disorder.

Though millions of Americans have OCD, most are secretive about it, and until recently the psychological community knew little about it. In fact, until a few decades ago the Catholic Church, concerned with the obsessive religious behavior called scrupulosity, had a better understanding than the psychologists. Rapoport speculates about its causes, noting that many animals have patterns of grooming and searching for danger, which resemble the cleaning and checking patterns of OCD.

The case studies and observations held my attention and avoided the psychobabble of some psychology books. Though none of my acquaintances, as far I know, have OCD, reading about the mental disorder raises questions about human nature. How much control do we have over our actions and desires?

Stiff

2005-02-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

In Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach tells you everything you ever wanted to know about dead bodies. She provides an eyewitness account of places that few visit, observing what people do to cadavers and how they cope with the reality of dealing with corpses.

She starts with an eerie scene in which a roomful of plastic surgeons practice their craft on decapitated heads sitting in pots. She goes on to describe the sordid practice of body snatching for dissection, which was common in past centuries when people were horrified at the prospect of their bodies being desecrated. Researchers watch how bodies decay to gain raw data for forensics. Experiments with human crash test dummies improve automobile safety. Organs are harvested from bodies that are brain-dead, but still have a beating heart. Finally, Roach examines exotic topics like crucifixion studies, head transplants, cannibalism, and using human bodies as compost.

While I was aware of most of the topics Roach covers, it’s interesting to read a first-hand account of what happens in, say, a med school anatomy lab. Roach finds a reasonable way to balance respect for the dead, the grisliness of corpses, and natural curiosity about a taboo topic. Stiff is a quick read, and it isn’t as unsettling as I had feared. Some parts were better than others, but overall I’d recommend the book to anyone who doesn't get queasy too easily.

A Distant Mirror

2005-02-01T22:56:00.000-08:00

Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century is a vivid portrayal of a nasty century of events. The century’s calamities include the Hundred Years War, the Black Plague, the papal schism, pillaging mercenaries, and popular revolts. Tuchman focuses on France and French involvement in the surrounding area.

The book often went into too much detail, such as the ten-page description of the pageantry associated with the Holy Roman Emperor’s visit to Paris in 1387-8. Sometimes I enjoyed the rich images Tuchman conjures up, while at other times it became monotonous. I would have preferred a less detailed account.

The leadership and the whole approach of chivalry were amazingly dysfunctional. The aristocracy lived in incredible opulence while a bulk of the population struggled to get by. The various powers launched a series of ill-conceived and pointless wars, in which the knights were more concerned with glory than in actually achieving their objectives. And the Church was just as flawed as the secular institutions.

I had mixed feelings about A Distant Mirror. Tuchman captures what it was like to live in the chaos of the late Middle Ages, along with vibrant characterizations of the major figures of the time. However, the various campaigns, events, and personages were repetitive, and I had to push myself to complete the book.

The Transformation of American Religion

2005-01-30T13:11:00.000-08:00

The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith is an anthropological view of contemporary American religion and how it has adapted to the modern world. Alan Wolfe, its author, is a non-believer who has studied religious practice for years, making him the ideal person to examine the subject.

The most striking aspect was the way religion satisfies people’s emotional and social needs. I turned away from my Jewish upbringing because the rituals, stories, and prayers never seemed relevant to my life. As Wolfe explains, the American churches that are growing most rapidly position themselves in a way that helps people handle and comprehend their day-by-day lives. I gained a deeper understanding on why so many Americans attend their religious institutions.

Wolfe also describes how churches have evolved over the last few decades, in order to respond to cultural changes and attract more congregants. For example, many churches play Christian rock music to make their services more appealing. Religion isn’t nearly as demanding as it used to be; sermons focus much more on rewards than on obligations. There’s often less focus on doctrinal differences. Many churches organize small-group activities, in which people start off discussing religious issues but end up taking about their personal concerns.

The book mainly focuses on Christianity, though there’s some discussion of Judaism and a little time spent on Buddhism and Islam. The Transformation of American Religion provides an insightful perspective on contemporary American religious practice. I had no idea how much modern culture had shaped religion. My only complaint, which is fairly minor, is that it was sometimes difficult to keep track of all the Christian denominations. Overall, it’s a well-written and accessible account of how the other (religious) half lives.

Abnormal Psychology

2005-01-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

I finally got through Gerald Davison and John Neale’s Abnormal Psychology textbook. I hoped to learn something about schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, autism, and other conditions, beyond the fictional portrayals that appear in Law & Order episodes, and the textbook accomplishes that goal.

It starts with introductory material about psychological paradigms, DSM classifications, research methods, and so on. After that, the bulk of the book examines specific disorders. The last chapter, which is the most compelling, deals with legal and ethical issues such as committing people to mental institutions and the insanity defense.

The descriptions of people’s behavior when afflicted by those disorders, along with some representative case studies, are rather interesting. Theories regarding causes are less appealing, because current understanding is rather nebulous and statistical analyses get tiresome rather quickly. The discussions of how the major schools of psychological thought treat each disorder become monotonous.

Reading a textbook, instead of a book written for casual readers, has various pros and cons. The summaries and glossary made it easier to review the main points. However, the textbook is obligated to cover the full breadth of the subject, including some boring bits. Though it’s reasonably well written and educational, I’m not sure whether I’d recommend Abnormal Psychology as leisure reading.

Divorce not allowed

2005-01-01T16:42:00.000-08:00

This is totally obnoxious (from Atrios).

A Spokane woman trying to divorce her estranged husband two years after he was jailed for beating her has been told by a judge she can't get out of the marriage while she's pregnant.
The case pits a first-year attorney who argues that state law allows any couple to divorce if neither spouse challenges it against a longtime family law judge who asserts that the rights of the unborn child in this type of case trump a woman's right to divorce.

"There's a lot of case law that says it is important in this state that children not be illegitamized," Spokane County Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine told The Spokesman-Review newspaper.

Further complicating things, Shawnna Hughes claims her husband is not the child's father.

A decision like that illegitamizes all of Bastine's judgements. At least he's stepping down soon.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

2004-12-31T16:43:00.000-08:00

Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a novel told from the perspective of a bright autistic teenager. Haddon does an excellent job of putting you in the head of the troubled protagonist. Plus, it’s a very good story; once I was half way through, I couldn’t stop reading until I completed it. It’s the best novel I’ve read in years, and it’s of particular interest to programmers like me who have milder versions of the main character’s autistic tendencies.

Asteroid will miss

2004-12-27T19:48:00.000-08:00

According to the latest observations, the asteroid collision probability is down to 0.0038% (1 in 26,000). That's a big relief.

I seem to be one of the few people who were actually worried it. A few days ago, I worried about the effects of the tsunami that would result from that asteroid plunging into the ocean.

Now, of course, the massive tsunami in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, etc. occurred instead. I should donate to some charity to assist the relief effort.

Killer asteroid

2004-12-24T22:46:00.000-08:00

As if we didn't have enough to worry about (from Slashdot).

A recently rediscovered 400-meter Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) is predicted to pass near the Earth on 13 April 2029. The flyby distance is uncertain and an Earth impact cannot yet be ruled out.
...
Today's impact monitoring results indicate that the impact probability for April 13, 2029 has risen to about 1.6%, which for an object of this size corresponds to a rating of 4 on the ten-point Torino Scale. Nevertheless, the odds against impact are still high, about 60 to 1,...

The impact energy would be 2000 megatons, 40 times larger than the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested.

A 1% chance of a disaster of that magnitude is a major concern. Hopefully, subsequent measurements will rule out a collision.

The Civilization of the Middle Ages

2004-12-24T11:30:00.000-08:00

In The Civilization of the Middle Ages, Norman Cantor discusses Western Europe from 300 AD to 1500 AD. He concentrates on intellectual and cultural history. For example, the chapters on the 11th and 12th centuries spend more time on legal, theological, and literary developments than on the Crusades and the Norman conquest of England.

Consequently, much of the book involves Christianity, which dominated medieval life. As an atheist who was brought up Jewish, I wasn’t that interested in subtleties such as Papal policies, monastic orders, or the integration of Aristotelian thought into Christianity. Still, you need to grasp those subjects if you want to appreciate the Middle Ages.

The rest of the book seemed more relevant. There’s a decent overview of the rise and decline of the various powers, though Cantor doesn’t go into as much detail as I’d like. He did a good job of portraying the various national powers: their internal structures, strengths & weaknesses, and how they evolved over time.

Other reviews characterize the book as the best single-volume treatment of the Middle Ages, and I’d go along with that. Its writing style and coherence are definitely a notch above most of the history books I’ve come across. Next, to fill in some gaps, I’ll search for books about the Middle Ages with a more narrow focus, geographically and chronologically.

Amazing crossword puzzle

2004-12-18T22:25:00.000-08:00

The New York Times ran an amazing crossword puzzle on Election Day, 1996. There were two valid solutions, one claiming that the newly elected President was CLINTON, and the other claiming that it was BOBDOLE. (from Political Wire)

New websites

2004-12-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

I've come across a few interesting websites recently.

Google Suggest -- A Google variation that autocompletes words as you type each letter, based on popular searches starting with those letters. Very cool (from Joel on Software).

Acronym Finder -- Type in an acronym, and see what it stands for.

Left2Right -- A group blog of high-quality political essays.

Majikthise -- A blog by a philosophy student.

The Scientist in the Crib

2004-12-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind describes research into how babies view the world and learn. The authors, Alison Gopnik, Andrew N. Meltzoff, Patricia K. Kuhl have researched the psychology and speech patterns of infants. The book describes experimental observations and what they reveal about the human mind.

For example, you’ve probably heard that Japanese adults cannot distinguish between the ‘r’ and ‘l’ sounds, just as other sounds that are distinct in certain languages sound the same to English speakers. Researchers tested whether Japanese babies could notice the difference between ‘r’ and ‘l’; the babies became more attentive when the sounds they heard changed. Seven-month old babies could tell the difference, and in fact could distinguish any two sounds that are considered different in any language. However, ten-month old Japanese babies could no longer hear any difference.

Results like these provide insight into basic questions of human nature. For example, newborns who are a less than a day old can imitate an adult who sticks at their tongue or opens their mouth. That action implies an understanding of the visual images the baby perceives and physical acts the baby performs. Many theories of infancy wouldn’t allow a response so soon.

The book’s main weakness is that the authors take too long to make some basic points. Its title refers to similarities between the ways babies and scientists learn about the world. That’s a reasonable analogy, but I didn’t need several pages explaining it. Since I’ve read several books on related topics, The Scientist in the Crib was written at too basic of a level for me. A less technical audience would appreciate it more.

More on Beinart

2004-12-05T08:44:00.000-08:00

Here are some additional thoughts regarding Beinart’s New Republic editorial.

First of all, it’s clear that fighting terrorism and countering Muslim extremism is a serious concern. After 9/11, counter-terrorism efforts received more funding and attention, and almost everyone, including those on the left, agrees with that emphasis. The question is what further steps the US should take. What changes should occur in US policy?

Democratic policies would actually be more effective than those of George Bush. Democrats have sought more spending on domestic security measures than the Republicans have approved. Bush stonewalled the 9/11 commission and delayed implementing their suggestions. Major reform of the intelligence agencies is necessary, but the Bush administration’s main focus has been to suppress or purge people whose conclusions disagree with the Bush ideology.

Beinart frets that “when liberals talk about America's new era, the discussion is largely negative--against the Iraq war, against restrictions on civil liberties, against America's worsening reputation in the world”. Most liberals are perturbed that the US government holds suspected terrorists without trial and subjects some detainees to torture. And when the President is someone like Bill Clinton, who the world respects and admires, it’s a lot easier for the US to gain international support to help achieve the nation’s goals. Liberals, like any other political group, call attention to those policies they disagree with, and dismissing that reaction as negative doesn’t help the debate.

Obviously, the Iraqi war is the crux of the matter, for liberal criticism of Bush and for Beinart’s criticism of liberals. The liberals have always held that invading Iraq was a massive mistake, and subsequent events have proven them right. Though nobody is saddened by Saddam Hussein’s departure, life for most Iraqis has gotten much worse, while the US has suffered an enormous cost in fortune and lives. The suffering in Iraq has become a recruiting tool for Muslim extremists, while the enormous military burden of the war has weakened the US.

Liberals have a serious, coherent, and moral approach to deal with al Qaeda. Unfortunately, it’s a more difficult message to sell than the Republican position of a “war on terrorism”. However, on a topic as important as terrorism, the nation must choose the most effective policy, not the policy that gives you a concise slogan.

An Argument for a New Liberalism

2004-12-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

Peter Beinart has a long article in The New Republic arguing the liberals should take a more hard-line stance towards Muslim terrorisms. Kevin Drum and other bloggers have discussed this article, which I didn’t find to be at all persuasive.

Beinart views the struggle against terrorism as the highest priority, comparable to the fight against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. However, as horrible as 9/11 was, many other factors have killed a lot more Americans than terrorism has. Why should terrorism be viewed as more important than, say, providing health care to all Americans? Here’s Beinart’s perspective:

But there is little liberal passion to win the struggle against Al Qaeda--even though totalitarian Islam has killed thousands of Americans and aims to kill millions; and even though, if it gained power, its efforts to force every aspect of life into conformity with a barbaric interpretation of Islam would reign terror upon women, religious minorities, and anyone in the Muslim world with a thirst for modernity or freedom.

As Legal Fiction points out, liberals are serious about the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism, but disagree with the hardliners about the best means of doing so. Liberals have always been angry about the way women have been treated in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and other parts of the Muslim world. They wanted to reduce aid to Israel, pull US troops out of Saudi Arabia, and stop the sanctions against Iraq, in part to reduce the anti-Western attitudes than fan fundamentalism.

The main weakness of Beinart’s argument is that he conflates terrorism with the war against Iraq. He totally ignores the fact that, prior to the US invasion, Iraq had no connection to al Qaeda or anti-American terrorism. And he fails to comprehend the liberal argument that a US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq increases anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world and makes al Qaeda stronger.

Besides, Beinart spends paragraphs criticizing Michael Moore and MoveOn, but doesn’t make a single negative remark about George Bush. You can’t help wondering why any liberal would take his advice seriously.

Election perspectives from The Nation

2004-12-04T15:54:00.000-08:00

In this week’s issue of The Nation, several people wrote essays about how Bush won the election and what happens next. Though much of the material was very familiar, many of the essays made some good points.

Van Jones talked about the way the Republican message had more emotional resonance than the Democrats. Danielle Allen and Beth Shulman separately explain that Democrats should highlight their values of equality, fairness, and opportunity. Robert Coles reported that even Democratic-leaning voters viewed Bush as more likeable and accessible than Kerry.

Michael Lind argues that “American progressivism, in its present form, is as obsolete in the twenty-first century as the agrarian populists were in the twentieth.” However, the issues he lists to prove his point – urban sprawl, alternative energy, opposition to biotech – are secondary and didn’t receive much attention during the campaign.

Jorge Ramos, Steve Cobble, and Joe Velasquez make a convincing case that Democrats should pay more attention to Hispanic voters, considering that 64,000 changed votes in the Southwest would have given Kerry the Presidency.

The essays didn’t contain anything profound, but they were still worth reading. Even though I’m trying to come to terms with the elections results, they are still depressing and bewildering.

Don't Think of an Elephant

2004-11-25T13:29:00.000-08:00

In Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate - The Essential Guide for Progressives, cognitive scientist George Lakoff explains how conservative rhetoric has framed people’s perceptions, which has led to Republican electoral victories. He goes on to suggest ways in which Democrats can respond.

For example, Republicans coined the term “tax relief” to characterize the Bush tax cuts. The word “relief” frames taxes as an affliction and tax cuts as a mechanism of relieving the pain. That framing disregards the worthwhile accomplishments that arise from government spending of those tax dollars. And whenever anyone in either party repeats the phrase “tax relief”, they reinforce that framing.

Democrats could frame taxes as investments in the future, such as roads, education, health care, or reducing the national debt. Or, since people’s incomes depend on the government for security, justice, infrastructure, etc., liberals could treat taxes as an obligation and tax cuts as shirking responsibility. However, those formulations rarely arose during discussions of the Bush tax cut proposals.

Lakoff proposes two approaches to parenting as metaphors for liberal and conservative worldviews. Conservatives think in terms of a “strict father” model, in which children are born bad and must obey their father’s commands to learn the internal discipline they need in life. Liberals follow more of a “nurturant parent” perspective. As a non-parent, those metaphors didn’t quite resonate with me. However, a small shift – conservatives focusing “right vs. wrong” while liberals focus on empathy – does make a lot of sense.

His suggested responses were less compelling, in part because liberals have such an uphill battle. Republicans have been reframing the debate for decades, funding think-tanks, using carefully chosen terms in their speeches, and influencing the media. Being aware of the issue and avoiding terms like “tax relief” is a good start.

Democrats must find and express counterparts to the Republican maxims of “strong defense”, “lower taxes”, “smaller government”, and “family values”. Lakoff proposes stuff like “broad prosperity” and “mutual responsibility” which isn’t at all persuasive. Themes involving empathy and caring for the average American sound more promising, as Bill Clinton proved in the electoral victories.

The book is a short easy-to-read collection of essays, which include some repetition. He applies his ideas to various contexts, such as 9/11, the California recall, and gay marriage. Though I disagree with some of the details, his big picture of how the Republicans have framed the public discourse is on target and important for progressive to comprehend. I plan to read Lakoff’s larger work Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think for a more detailed analysis.

Napoleon's Buttons

2004-11-22T20:15:00.000-08:00

In Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History, chemists Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson discuss chemicals, largely organic, that had a major impact on human society. They cover spices, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), glucose, cellulose, dyes, the pill, olive oil, chlorocarbons, and several other chemicals.

For each substance, they display the chemical structure and explain the chemical reactions that made each substance important. They discuss the origins of each chemical (plants, animals, or laboratories) and efforts to grow, generate, and trade each chemical or a variation with similar properties. They provide a larger perspective of how each chemical affected human history.

The chapter on glucose, as one example, describes the different kinds of sugars, their structure, why they taste sweet, and various sugar substitutes. Sugar was first grown in the south Pacific or India, arrived to Europe with the returning Crusaders, and was planted in large plantations in the New World. The need for workers on those plantations led to much of the slave trade from Africa.

Much of Napoleon's Buttons focused on chemistry, which I found quite interesting since I’ve never studied organic chemistry. The real-world consequences of each chemical made it seem much more relevant than most science books. Also, I gained some appreciation of the influence of chemistry, which is easy to overlook in a world that makes a much bigger deal about electronic technology.

Limbo

2004-11-20T15:37:00.000-08:00

Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams describes the experiences of people from working-class backgrounds who enter the middle class. The author, journalist Alfred Lubrano, the son of a Brooklyn bricklayer, provides anecdotes and analysis that portray the lives of the people, who he calls “Straddlers”, bridging the gap between two differing American subcultures.

As someone who grew up in a middle-class household, I was surprised at some of the working-class expectations that Straddlers deal with. While many, though not all, working-class parents view college as a ticket to a better life, they’re afraid that college will corrupt their children’s values. Working-class families expect their kids to remain nearby and disapprove why they move across the country to further their careers. People in the blue-collar world honestly state their concerns, an approach that doesn’t work so well when it comes to office politics.

My main quibble involves Lubrarno’s idealistic view of people who grew up in middle-class families. He treats his classmates at Columbia, along with others at first-rate universities, as representative of the middle class when they’re actually upper class or the intellectual elite of the middle class. Many people from middle-class backgrounds have difficulty navigating the subtleties of office politics.

Limbo was a quick read, though it was a bit repetitive at times. He provides some insight into one group of citizens, including a few friends of mine. People who’ve made that class transition would find the book a lot more resonant.

Falluja

2004-11-14T09:46:00.000-08:00

US troops may be winning the battle in Falluja, but at a high cost: the death of 31 US troops and over 1,200 alleged insurgents. And the remaining residents of Falluja are suffering, since they lack food, water, and other necessities.

However, as Wesley Clark points out in his analysis, military confrontations alone won't defeat the insurgency (from Daily Kos). When US troops cause death and suffering among the Iraqis, the population becomes angrier and more motivated to support the insurgents. Riverbend, an Iraqi citizen, proclaims bluntly that "People in Falloojeh are being murdered," and that's probably the overriding sentiment of the Iraqi people.

I'm terrified of a Vietnam-like situation during the next four years. The Bush administration will continue to attack Iraqis without making any real headway against the insurgency. And US officials will refuse to acknowledge any mistatkes, much less alter their tactics.

Bad Thoughts

2004-11-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

In Bad Thoughts: A Guide to Clear Thinking, philosopher James Whyte describes flawed approaches that people use when making arguments. I’ve seen most of those questionable approaches many times before: relying on the authority of someone who isn’t an expert, accepting ideas on faith, redefining terms, preventing others from speaking, misusing statistics, and so on.

Sometimes Whyte views things in overly black-and-white terms. For example, his “Motive Fallacy” warns you not to disregard a claim simply because it’s in the speaker’s best interest for you to believe the claim. While that’s a reasonable point, taking into account the biases and interests of a speaker is often helpful.

Bad Thoughts is an easy-to-read book, full of specific examples that clarify each fallacy. Though you’ve probably seen many of the logical errors discussed elsewhere, it’s convenient for them to be collected in one concise analysis. As far as I can tell, the book hasn’t altered the way I make arguments or analyze what others have to say. Still, it was worthwhile, especially since it didn’t take long to complete.

Since Bad Thoughts was published in Britain, you’ll have to order it through Amazon UK. New Scientist has an interview with the author, which motivated me to read the book in the first place.

Latina lesbian sheriff

2004-11-11T23:03:00.000-08:00

This is the most entertaining result of last week's election.

Lupe Valdez is a woman, a Hispanic, a Democrat and a lesbian -- and, come Jan. 1, she's entering the ranks of Texas good ol' boys. Valdez is becoming Sheriff Lupe.

Any one description -- female, Latina, Democrat and openly gay -- would have qualified Valdez's election as Dallas County sheriff for the local history books. But all four?

Good for her! (from Burnt Orange Report)

Winning Modern Wars

2004-11-09T21:24:00.000-08:00

In Winning Modern Wars: Iraq, Terrorism, and the American Empire, General Wesley Clark expounds on the pressing security issues that the nation is facing and the major events of the last couple of years.

The best part of the book is Clark’s description of the US-led military operation that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime. I hadn’t read about those battles since they took place, and it’s difficult to comprehend the big picture from daily news reports. Clark elaborates on the challenges the armed forces faced, the military plans, and how those plans evolved in response to unexpected developments. He takes great pride in what the US military accomplished and in the caliber of the soldiers, their technology, and their organization.

The one troublesome aspect of Clark’s account was his indifference about Iraqi casualties, as when he states,

3rd Infantry Division reported killing some 2,000 Iraqi soldiers in the drive across the Euphrates and up to the outskirts of Baghdad.

That one maneuver killed almost as many people as died in the WTC, and Clark casually mentions it in his only reference to Iraqi war dead. Those war dead are a greater concern to me than the glory of the US troops, which Clark emphasizes.

Half of the book covers topics like terrorism, Afghanistan, the lead-up to the Iraqi war, and post-war planning. Though I agreed with most of Clark’s points, those topics are very familiar from other books and articles that I’ve read. Since the book was completed in August of 2003, it doesn’t provide much insight into the current chaos in Iraq.

In the final chapter, entitled Beyond Empire: A New America, Clark presents a broad picture of how he envisions America’s role in the world. It’s largely an attempt to position himself for his subsequent Presidential campaign, and he comes across as a capable potential commander-in-chief. My main quibble is that, despite the chapter's title, he denies the imperial side of US economic and foreign policy.

I had mixed opinions about Winning Modern Wars, since only a third of it, dealing with the military developments in Iraq, contained new information for a current events junkie like me.

Bush mandate

2004-11-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

Feeling down about the election? Enter Bush mandate in Google and select "I'm feeling lucky". (from Atrios)

The Blank Slate

2004-11-07T22:43:00.000-08:00

In The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, linguist Stephen Pinker makes some strong claims regarding the nature vs. nurture debate. He argues that all people and all cultures shared certain behaviors. Also, a large fraction of the variation in human behavior is heritable: you resemble your parents because you inherit their genes. (As a minor irritation, during much of the book Pinker intertwines those two premises, which involve rather different evidence and implications.)

Much of the book rebuts the Blank Slate theory, in which people are solely influenced by their environment. Pinker tears apart two other theories that he associates with the Blank Slate: the Noble Savage belief that man was much better before civilization corrupted him and the Ghost in the Machine conception of the mind existing in a separate sphere than the body.

The intensity of Pinker’s arguments was surprising, though I agreed with many of his claims. His style reminded me of the way liberal books, articles, and blogs attack conservative actions and theories. Pinker perceives the academic battle between the Blank Slate defenders and his evolutionary biology / intrinsic nature views quite seriously. I was often wary of his straw-man portrayal of the Blank Slate advocates, and his personal attacks on some of them seemed irrelevant when weighing their competing claims.

The highlight of the book was the chapter on children, which every parent should read, emphasizing these three laws of behavioral genetics:

The First Law: All human behavioral traits are heritable.
The Second Law: The effect of being raised in the same family is smaller than the effect of the genes.
The Third Law: A substantial portion of the variation in complex human behavioral traits is not accounted for by the effects of genes or families.

In other words, as long as parents don’t abuse their kids, their influence of their children’s lives is rather limited. Parents don’t need to worry so much about doing a perfect job, despite widespread child-rearing advice claiming otherwise.

Pinker did an enormous amount of research in a wide range of areas and dives into a variety of controversial topics. Some of his emphasis reflects his academic milieu, such as his hostility towards Marxist thought, which isn’t a factor in my political world. And I’d like to read an opposing viewpoint for balance, since I’m skeptical of his caricatures of opposing theories. Still, I learned a lot from The Blank Slate, and he gives you a lot to ponder.

Did Kerry win?

2004-11-07T20:18:00.000-08:00

The Blogging of the President has a list of articles questioning the accuracy of the vote count in Ohio and Florida (from Politics in the Zeros). I'm trying to figure out whether the Republicans stole the election.

Most elections have some level of fraud, going back to Landslide Lyndon and long before that. And considering the extreme Republicans tactics on display in the election, there's every reason to believe that Tuesday's election continued the pattern. The question is whether Kerry would have won the Presidency if it weren't for that fraud.

For example, this graph displays how accurate exit polls with in states with paper ballots, while Bush exceeded the exit polls results in states with electronic ballots. According to this chart, Florida counties with optical scanner tabulations sent voting totals in Republicans did massively better that you'd expect from the party registrations. And there are numerous sad stories from Ohio about voters who didn't receive absentee ballots, voting lines several hours long in minority districts, and other problems.

Since the mainstream media isn't investigating, and the Democratic Party isn't challenging the results, it's an academic issue. Still, it seems more likely than not that the American people elected John Kerry as President.

Martial law in Iraq

2004-11-07T07:59:00.000-08:00

The situation in Iraq continues to worsen.

Iraq's interim government declared martial law on Sunday after insurgents killed 23 Iraqi policemen and set off blasts in Baghdad in a fresh show of force before a planned U.S. offensive on Falluja and Ramadi.

So much for democracy in Iraq. What, exactly, are US troops fighting for? Are soldiers dying so Iraq can have a pro-American regime? Bush will sacrifice endless lives and wealth to achieve victory over the so-called terrorists.

Why Bush won

2004-11-03T22:14:00.000-08:00

I’ve been trying to figure out why Bush won the election today. My predictions of a Democratic victory suggest that I don’t know what I’m talking about, but here it goes.

Fear of a terrorist attack was probably the biggest factor shifting voters into the Bush camp. Since terrorism kills far fewer people than car crashes, disease, accidents, suicides, street crime, wars, etc., it’s a rather low priority in my mind. Still, lots of voters far from any terrorist targets viewed terrorism as a major issue, and thought that Bush would be stronger at fighting it. For whatever reason, people bought the bogus Republican argument that Kerry was too weak to stop terrorism. And concern with ones personal safety is a powerful factor.

Meanwhile, people must be ignorant of all the garbage that has occurred as a result of Bush’s disastrous policies. The situation in Iraq keeps getting worse with no signs of a turnaround, even after the death of over 1000 American soldiers and 100,000 Iraqis. And piss-poor leadership, before the war and during the occupation, has made things much worse. The media has downplayed Iraq, the budget deficit, and other debacles that Bush responsible for.

And moral concerns like gay marriage and abortion remain central to the Christian right, as What’s the Matter with Kansas? explains in great detail. It seems strange that people regard those issues as more important that stuff that has a major direct impact on their lives, such as Iraq and the economy.

And the factors I thought would break in Kerry’s favor simply didn’t occur. Traditionally, most undecided voters support the challenger, but not this time. High Democratic turnout was countered by high Republican turnout. Despite Bush’s extreme right-wing policies and disgraces such as Abu Gharib, voters weren’t abandoning George Bush or sitting out the election. The Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik received only a third of a percent of the vote, slight less than the Libertarian did in 2000.

Kerry was a good candidate who ran a good campaign. However, the Democrats haven’t been able to devise and stick with a clear message that resonates with undecided voters. Bush’s simplistic and dishonest message got through instead. It’s an incredibly depressing situation.

Electoral predictions

2004-11-01T19:49:00.000-08:00

After reading the electoral predictions other bloggers made, it sounded like a fun game to play. When I was on the treadmill at the gym, these numbers popped into my head:

Presidency: Kerry 52% & 330 EV, Bush 46% & 208 EV
Senate: 49 D, 49 R, 1 I, 1 runoff
House: 218 D, 216 R, 1 I

This may just be optimism, but here are my rationales:

The polling samples are overly Republican.
In 2000, Gore did a few percent better than the latest polls, and Bush did a little worse.
Liberal are angry and motivated to vote.
Undecided voters tend to vote for the challenger.
The 2004 election is like 1994 in reverse, with a significant under-the-radar shift in voting patterns.

Mr. Liberal (mentioned by MyDD) came up with similar predictions based on a more knowledgeable analysis. Anyway, we'll find out tomorrow (hopefully) how accurate we are.

The Penguin Atlas of World History

2004-11-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

I purchased Hermann Kinder and Werner Hilgemann’s The Penguin Atlas of World History Volume 1: From the Beginning to the Eve of the French Revolution to visualize the geography behind the historical events I’ve been reading about. It’s helpful to look over the boundaries of the various powers at different points in time, especially since most history books have insufficient maps.

The book is a small paperback, which makes it easy to carry around and access when reading other books. On the other hand, the smaller size means the maps aren’t so detailed. Half of the atlas consists of an abbreviated description of events, which I basically ignore since I’m reading a longer book in parallel. I’m tempted to purchase a more thorough, though more expensive, historical atlas.

Early Medieval Europe 300-1000

2004-11-01T07:54:00.000-08:00

Roger Collins’s Early Medieval Europe 300-1000 is a textbook that covers a lot of ground. He starts with the decline of the late Roman Empire and the transition into the successor states of the Goths, Vandals, and others. He lays out the subsequent historical changes across Europe, up to Charlemagne’s Carolingian dynasty and the subsequent Ottonian dynasty. Collins also describes the surrounding geographic regions, such as England, Spain, Scandinavia, and Byzantium.

A few things frustrated me about the book, which I’d attribute to the subject matter instead of the author. Knowledge of the Dark Ages is limited, leading to inevitable gaps in the narrative and a great focus upon individuals, such as church leaders, who left more of a written record. With such broad geographic and chronological coverage, at times it was difficult to keep track of who the relevant people were and what was going on.

Still, Early Medieval Europe gave me a decent understanding of a historical period that I knew almost nothing about. Since I’m feeling saturated with history, I’ll read other books for a while. After that, I’ll move on to the High and Late Middle Ages, which are much better understood and documented.

100,000 Iraqi deaths

2004-10-28T21:50:00.000-07:00

This is shocking (from Lean Left).

As many as 100,000 more Iraqi civilians have died in the 18 months since the US-led invasion last year than would have been expected in the period before the war, a study claimed today.

Researchers said the chances of a violent death were 58 times higher after the invasion than before it.

The study, whose results were published today by the respected Lancet medical journal, was based on interviews with Iraqis, most of them doctors. The findings were compared with the pre-war death rate.

I'm somewhat skeptical, since those numbers are several times larger than other estimates. However, the methodology -- interviewing a random cross-section of the population and extrapolating from their responses -- sounds like a solid approach to determing civilian deaths.

If those figures are in the right ballpark, they totally undermine the one moral argument for the Iraqi War: stopping Saddam Hussein's horrible human rights abuses. The anarchy and violence in Iraq have made it even worse than it was before the war. And I don't see Iraq improving for a while, even with Bush out of the White House.

Kerry's going to win

2004-10-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

Legal Fiction has a convincing post claiming KERRY'S GOING TO WIN, which dovetails with my impressions. There are numerous signs:

Bush consistently polling under 50% nationwide
Kerry doing even better in the battleground states
High Democratic registrations
Strong Democratic turnout in early voting
Intense interest in the election among Democratic-leaning voters, such as young adults

Plus, as Legal Fiction emphasizes, Democrats are angry and angry people vote. Conservative anger towards Bill Clinton in 1994 gave Republicans control of Congress. And the number of Democrats angry at Bush today is probably larger than the number of Republicans angry at Clinton in 1994.

However, a couple of factors still concern me. Many polls still favor Bush over Kerry. Sure, you can argue about biased polls with bad samples or polling models that don't capture higher Democratic motivation to vote. And, for that matter, there's the widespread tendency of undecided voters to support the incumbent. Still, that reasoning could just be wishful thinking among the liberals, who see what they want to see.

Iraqi insurgent explosives

2004-10-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

Talking Points Memo has a major revelation (from Atrios).

Some 350 tons of high explosives (RDX and HMX), which were under IAEA seal while Saddam was in power, were looted during the early days of the US occupation. Like so much else, it was just left unguarded.
Not only are these super-high-yield explosives probably being used in many, if not most, of the various suicide and car bombings in Iraq, but these particular explosives are ones used in the triggering process for nuclear weapons.

In other words, it's bad stuff.

What also emerges in the Nelson Report is that the Defense Department has been trying to keep this secret for some time. The DOD even went so far as to order the Iraqis not to inform the IAEA that the materials had gone missing. Informing the IAEA, of course, would lead to it becoming public knowledge in the United States.

The complete incompetence of the postwar planning by the Bush administration, who were well aware of the explosive stockpile, is once again on display. And significant numbers of Americans and Iraqis have perished as a result. Plus, there's the cover-up, which backfired in an October surprise that can only hurt Bush's chances.

Let's just hope that people hear about it. The New York Times has one story, which doesn't discuss the car-bomb connections. Joshua Marshal says that 60 Minutes may cover it, which would receive a lot more attention.

Paper ballot secrecy

2004-10-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

Considering all the concerns about computer voting, this story is aggravating.

Santa Clara County doesn't want you to know you don't have to vote on a touch-screen machine next month. You can vote by paper if you choose, and poll workers should be telling you that upfront.

Instead, Santa Clara and apparently other counties with electronic systems are instructing poll workers to acknowledge the paper option only if voters explicitly ask about it. That policy made two poll-worker trainees who contacted us feel like they're under a gag order not to tell people about their rights.

California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley mandated the paper option because it will be at least a year before electronic voting machines in California can spit out a paper stub letting voters verify the choices that they made on a touch screen.

I'll ask for a paper ballot as a matter of principle, largely to protest the Santa Clara County policy. Also, the more people who ask for paper ballots, showing their concerns regarding computer voting, the more pressure the government will feel to address those concerns.

California voters can have a positive impact by who they vote for (Democrats) and how they vote (paper ballots).

The Trouble With Testosterone

2004-10-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

The Trouble With Testosterone and Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament is a collection of articles that originally appeared in Discover and The Sciences. Robert Sapolsky, the author, is a Stanford neurologist who spends three months each year studying wild baboons in the Serengeti. Many of his primate observations are rather interesting, such as the baboons who started gathering food from a garbage dump, which provided more readily available nourishment than they were accustomed to, with both positive and negative health consequences. Another essay analyzed the psychology of the firing squad, in which no individual shooter can take definite responsibility for the prisoner’s death, and how people approach probabilistic events. Other essays were less rewarding, mainly because they covered material I had seen before. Sapolsky is an effective popular science writer; each selection was readable, informative, and connected in some way to our daily lives.

Blog relapse

2004-10-15T01:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I broke down and looked over the political blogs again. They were, obviously enough, focused on the election campaign, focusing on poll results and the Presidential debates. I had heard about the two outrages de jour among liberal bloggers: Sinclair broadcasting an anti-Kerry documentary and a Republican group tossing Democrat voter registration forms.

It's hard to stay away from the blogs, but I'll try not to get so obsessed.

California propositions (revised)

2004-10-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

Here are my current views about the California propositions, now that I've read the San Francisco Bay Guardian endorsements.

Prop. 1A: Protection of Local Government Revenues -- No; excessively limits changes in future funding patterns.
Prop. 59: Public Records, Open Meetings – Yes; open government is a good thing.
Prop. 60: Election Rights of Political Parties – Yes; mainly to prevent the odious Prop. 62 from taking effect.
Prop. 60A: Surplus Property – No; there are already too many nitpicky rules about government spending.
Prop. 61: Children’s Hospital Projects. Grant Program. Bond Act – Yes; how can I turn down children’s hospitals, even with the massive bond burden?
Prop. 62: Elections. Primaries – No; voters in a primary should belong to the relevant party, and blocking third parties from the November ballot is just wrong.
Prop. 63: Mental Health Services Expansion, Funding. Tax on Personal Incomes Above $1 Million – Yes; taxing the rich to pay for mental health care is a no-brainer.
Prop. 64: Limits on Private Enforcement of Unfair Business Competition Laws – No; class-action lawsuits are one of the few forces fighting corporate injustice.
Prop. 65: Local Government Funds, Revenues – No; the proposition's sponsors withdrew their support in favor of 1A.
Prop. 66: Limitations on “Three Strikes” Law. Sex Crimes. Punishment – Yes; applying Three Strikes after non-violent crimes has been an expensive disaster.
Prop. 67: Emergency Medical Services. Funding. Telephone Surcharge – No; since the money goes to massive private hospital chains with questionable practices.
Prop. 68: Non-Tribal Commercial Gambling Expansion. Tribal Gaming Compact Amendments. Revenues, Tax Exemptions – No; since it would lead to slot machines everywhere.
Prop. 69: DNA Samples. Collection. Database. Funding – No; privacy concerns, especially for people who aren’t convicted, outweigh the law-enforcements benefits.
Prop. 70: Tribal Gaming Compacts. Exclusive Gaming Rights. Contributions to State – No; I just don’t care.
Prop. 71: Stem Cell Research. Funding. Bonds – No; though stem-cell research is very promising, the state can’t afford it.
Prop. 72: Health Care Coverage Requirements – Yes; everyone with a job should receive health care.

Except for Prop. 67, I independently came to same conclusions as the Bay Guardian after reading the voter information handbook.

King Lear

2004-10-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

After completing A Thousand Acres, a retelling of King Lear, it made sense to go back and read William Shakespeare’s original play. Changes in the English language over the last four centuries make it difficult to understand what Shakespeare is saying, though the overall plotline was clear. For example, I couldn’t follow the mock trial involving senile Lear, a Fool speaking in verse, a noble fugitive pretending to be a madman, and another man hiding his identity, though it is probably a witty scene. Besides, Shakespeare is always more appealing on stage, as it was meant to be experienced, instead of the printed page. Still, King Lear is a powerful story, and being exposed to it is culturally enriching.

VP debate

2004-10-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

I watched a major portion of the vice presidential debate, until I got tired of listening to Cheney and gave up. Overall, it struck me as almost a tie, with Edwards doing a little better, to the extent I could put aside my personal biases.

Actually, I expected a lot more from Edwards, given his experience as a trial lawyer and his charismatic stump speeches. Cheney, who's a smart guy, did pretty well considering his dour temperament and all the problems that have arisen over the last few years.

Edwards talking about real problems we're facing today -- Iraq in turmoil, 1.6 million lost jobs, 5 million more people in poverty -- struck me as more convincing than Cheney speculating that Kerry wouldn't be effective in fighting terrorism. However, most VP debates have limited impact, and this one will be no exception.

Jay Leno had a great line summing things up.

The most amazing part of the debate was when Dick Cheney told John Edwards in his Darth Vader voice, 'John I am your father.'