/rascality

motherjones: Argentina’s Dirty War is hilarious, according to...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:50:44 -0400

Argentina’s Dirty War is hilarious, according to inexplicably influential Internet person.

(As for the context, try this.)

"When I say that the conservative lacks principles, I do not mean to suggest that he lacks moral..."

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 03:19:14 -0500

“

When I say that the conservative lacks principles, I do not mean to suggest that he lacks moral conviction. The typical conservative is indeed usually a man of very strong moral convictions.

What I mean is that he has no political principles which enable him to work with people whose moral values differ from his own for a political order in which both can obey their convictions. It is the recognition of such principles that permits the coexistence of different sets of values that makes it possible to build a peaceful society with a minimum of force.

”

- F. A. Hayek, “Why I Am Not a Conservative,” The Constitution of Liberty

Video games and violence

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 06:10:17 -0500

The only conclusion I can draw from studies linking violent video games to physical violence is that a large segment of the population really, really likes violent video games.

Kcecelia: A Confession

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:20:31 -0500

Kcecelia: A Confession:

kcecelia:

My Lord, I loved strawberry jam
And the dark sweetness of a woman’s body.
Also well-chilled vodka, herring in olive oil,
Scents, of cinnamon, of cloves.
So what kind of prophet am I? Why should the spirit
Have visited such a man? Many others
Were justly called, and trustworthy.
Who would…

"Re-vision – the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new..."

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 04:58:01 -0400

““Re-vision – the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction – is for woman more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival. Until we understand the assumptions in which we are drenched we cannot know ourselves. And this drive to self-knowledge, for women, is more than a search for identity: it is part of our refusal of the self-destructiveness of male-dominated society.””

- Adrienne Rich, On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978 (h/t @sacredflow)

A Joke For Sex Educators

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 08:08:48 -0400

An oldie but a goodie I used to use to warm up the crowd when presenting on Health Psychology to undergraduates:

Begin by asking for a show of hands and asking, “how many of you would consider yourselves relatively well-educated about sexual matters?” Pretend to count any hands.

Say “all right,” and then ask, “how many of you know what, by law, must be written at the bottom of every condom manufactured in the United States?” Modify your answer (below) in case anyone knows the joke or guesses your response.

Say, “Made in the USA.” Pause a moment, then shrug your shoulders and add, “well, if you’ve never had to roll them down that far…”

Apologize to anyone you made woozy with that remark, then proceed with your material.

nothing quite like waking up 2 the sound of waves greeting a...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 05:49:17 -0400

nothing quite like waking up 2 the sound of waves greeting a coastline

"…William Earl, who is professor of philosophy at Northwestern University, said in an essay called..."

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:04:26 -0400

“

…William Earl, who is professor of philosophy at Northwestern University, said in an essay called “Notes on the Death of a Culture”

“An academic philosopher today must above all things avoid being edifying. He must never stoop to lying awake nights considering problems of the nature of the universe and the destiny of man, because these have largely been dismissed as metaphysical or meaningless questions.

“A scientific philosopher arrives at his office at nine o’clock in the morning dressed in a business suit carrying a briefcase. He does philosophy until five in the afternoon, at which point he goes home to cocktails and dinner and dismisses the whole matter from his head.”

Professor Earl adds, “He would wear a white coat to work if he could get away with it.”

”

- Alan Watts

Truth

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 10:22:21 -0400

OK folks, 1 more time & the list is not exhaustive: factual, mathematical, scientific, statistical, literary, cinematic, emotional, personal, political, mythological, musical, spiritual, & even existential truth.

Yes by truth we mean one thing but that doesn’t mean we have to talk about it in only one way or as having only one form (kind of like God).

Treat all these kinds of truth like you’d treat your students, employees, or kids; that means admit you get along better with some more than others, but don’t play favorites. Ok?

"Honor-related crimes, often wrongly labeled an Islamic practice, take place in patriarchal..."

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:20:17 -0500

“Honor-related crimes, often wrongly labeled an Islamic practice, take place in patriarchal communities where gender roles remain strictly divided and the interests of the community prevail over those of individuals, particularly women.”

- Nicole Page http://reut.rs/A3YxS1

"This enthusiastic stumping for the reality of Hell betrays not only a shriveled sense of human..."

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:51:37 -0400

“This enthusiastic stumping for the reality of Hell betrays not only a shriveled sense of human decency and a repulsive interest in pain inflicted on others, but a deplorable lack of imagination.”

- http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2011/04/25/hell/

"A person really discovers his true self in a genuine act of self-realization only if he risks..."

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 08:22:40 -0400

“

A person really discovers his true self in a genuine act of self-realization only if he risks himself radically for another.

If he does this, he grasps unthematically or explicitly what we mean by God as the horizon, the guarantor and the radical depths of this love, the God who in his existentiell and historical self-communication made himself the realm within which such love is possible.

This love is meant in both an interpersonal and a social sense, and in the radical unity of both of these elements it is the ground and the essence of the Church.

”

- Karl Rahner, SJ - Foundations of Christian Faith

"However, we must listen still more closely to the sphere that appeals to us in the originary words..."

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 09:17:42 -0500

“

However, we must listen still more closely to the sphere that appeals to us in the originary words “thanc”, “memory,” “thanks.”

What gives us food for thought ever and again is the most thought-provoking. We take the gift it gives by giving thought to what is most thought-provoking. In doing so, we keep thinking what is most thought-provoking. We recall it in thought.

Thus we recall in thought that to which we owe thanks for the endowment of our nature - thinking. As we give thought to what is most thought-provoking, we give thanks.

”

- Martin Heidegger, Was Heißt Denken?

"The naive assumption that the creator of the world is a conscious being must be regarded as a..."

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 04:22:52 -0500

“

The naive assumption that the creator of the world is a conscious being must be regarded as a disastrous prejudice which later gave rise to the most incredible dislocation of logic. For example, the nonsensical doctrine of the privatio boni would never have been necessary had one not had to assume in advance that it is impossible for the consciousness of a good God to produce evil deeds.

Divine unconsciousness and lack of reflection, on the other hand, enable us to form a conception of God which puts his actions beyond moral judgement and allows no conflict to arise between goodness and beastliness.

”

- Carl Jung, Collected Works 11, § 600, n. 13

#firstlineofbushbook

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:38:10 -0500

“It was the worst of times, it was the least of minds.”

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a simpleton in possession of no knowledge, must be in want of a mind.”

“Many years later, facing the Hague, George W. Bush was to recall that distant afternoon when his mother took him to discover the jar.”

“Dick Cheney, light of my life…”

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like.”

“You better not never tell nobody but Cheney.”

“If I am out of my mind, it’s all right with me, thought George W. Bush.”

“The sky above the ranch was the color of television tuned to the Disney Channel.”

“You are about to begin reading George W. Bush’s new autobiography, ‘If on a Winter’s Night a Pet Goat.’”

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own mind, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

“I was the shadow of the feared Dick Cheney / By the false azure in the windowpaney.”

“En un lugar de la Rancha, cuyo nombre no puedo acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo que invadió Iraq…”

“Where’s Ma going with that jar?”

“In a hole in the ground there lived an orc.”

“George knew that he could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of war for oil.”

“Cheney and his dæmon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen.”

“It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the particulars of our adventures in International Law…”

“I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands.”

"Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the..."

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:55:05 -0500

“

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market-place, and cried incessantly: “I am looking for God! I am looking for God!”

As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. “Have you lost him, then?” said one. “Did he lose his way like a child?” said another. “Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated?”

Thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.

“Where has God gone?” he cried. “I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun?

Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning?

Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God’s decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives.

Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto.”

Here the madman fell silent and again regarded his listeners; and they too were silent and stared at him in astonishment. At last he threw his lantern to the ground, and it broke and went out. “I have come too early,” he said then; “my time has not come yet. The tremendous event is still on its way, still travelling - it has not yet reached the ears of men.

Lightning and thunder require time, the light of the stars requires time, deeds require time even after they are done, before they can be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the distant stars - and yet they have done it themselves.”

It has been further related that on that same day the madman entered divers churches and there sang a requiem. Led out and quietened, he is said to have retorted each time: “what are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchres of God?”

”

- Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Section 125

"What, then, is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms — in short,..."

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 04:16:15 -0500

“

What, then, is truth? A mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms — in short, a sum of human relations, which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people.

Truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that is what they are; metaphors which are worn out and without sensuous power; coins which have lost their pictures and now matter only as metal, no longer as coins.

We still do not know where the urge for truth comes from; for as yet we have heard only of the obligation imposed by society that it should exist.

To be truthful means using the customary metaphors - in moral terms, the obligation to lie according to fixed convention, to lie herd-like in a style obligatory for all…

”

- Friedrich Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense”

"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue;..."

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 10:46:02 -0400

“A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”

- Tom Paine

"If a player had an arm amputated, Belichick would not identify whether it was the right arm or left...."

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 07:58:00 -0400

“If a player had an arm amputated, Belichick would not identify whether it was the right arm or left. There is no need to supply information that might help an opponent. The Patriots would prefer we observe the player and figure out for ourselves which arm is missing.”

- Dan Shaughnessy, “Favre’s Ego Downright Frightening” http://is.gd/gwv7T

Mad Men Season 4 Final Exam Study Questions

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 10:54:00 -0400

Why did Betty fire Carla, and why didn’t she want her to say goodbye to the children or accompany Don to California?

To what degree is Don spontaneous, calculated, reckless, and/or impulsive? In your answer, be sure to include throwing customers out of the office, the full-page anti-cigarette ad, and getting engaged to Megan.

Why did Don get engaged to Megan? Was it just her mothering skills?

Why did Don leave Dr Faye, and have we heard the end of her?

Henry Francis tells Betty “there are no fresh starts.” What does he mean, and is he right?

Why did Joan decide to have the baby? Conversely, why did she decide against an abortion? What should she say to her husband? To Roger?

Assess the validity of the following statements, using examples from the series to support your arguments:

“Joan Holloway is a better feminist role model than Peggy Olson.”

“Betty Draper’s fatal flaw is her inability to perceive a world outside that of social appearance and custom.”

“Betty is attempting to parent beyond the limits of her capacity, and for this reason deserves our sympathy.”

“Peggy succeeds precisely where Joan fails, and fails precisely where Joan succeeds.”

“Henry Francis is having second thoughts.”

“Roger Sterling is a tragic figure.”

Use any of the following texts, motifs, or ideas discussed in class to illustrate any charcacter from the series:

The Oresteia

King Lear

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Tell-Tale Heart

Angel Heart

Don Juan

Existentialism