Strange Doctrines

"Thusly," Saith the Horde

Folks: the word 'thus' is already an adverb. 

That is all.

Who Does Lincoln Belong To Now?

I thought corpus evidence might settle the question (as if it hadn't already been settled). So:

Not so much.

"Carmageddon" My Ass

Why I Am So Lucky

The Enchantress is now preparing Dampfnudeln mit Vanillesoße from this little book, an heirloom bequeathed her by die Grossmama:

(Idiomatic translation of title: "What Husbands So Love to Eat.")

 

(Idiomatic translation of inscription: "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.")

What Is It Like to Be a Mouse?

Christine O'Donnell might just have the brains to bridge the phenomenological divide and tell us.

John Cottingham: Undergraduate Sophist

Shorter John Cottingham: Would that all atheists had the humility to realize that the only thing that can save all of humankind from its moral inventions are the religious doctrines I prefer to believe in.

(Via Arts & Letters Daily.)

That Would Explain It

From BBC News - Reading Arabic 'hard for brain': "When someone learns to read Arabic they have to work out which letters are which, and which ones go with which sounds."

Cause and Effect

A $100 Bill Is Lying on the Sidewalk

Unbelievable. Well, okay, somewhat believable. In any case, a rather large market niche has opened up.

Oenophile

[ˈiːnəˌfaɪl]. n. One who savors and articulates various ways in which grape juice can go bad.

Nominations for the Annual 3QD Philosophy Prize...

...are now open. To spare you the effort of advocating on my behalf, I've generously nominated myself.

Didn't See That Coming

 If you ever want to be read by Doug J at Balloon Juice, you should know that he has standards:

In many cases, when you understand someone’s motivations, loyalties, and basic outlook, there is no reason to read that person’s actual arguments, because you already know what they will be. So it is with Joe Klein’s and James Fallows’ pieces in support of Jeff Golberg’s “who will bomb these meddlesome Persians” piece.

On the other hand, Doug says in the very next paragraph, "Glenn Greenwald’s piece on all of this is worth reading."

Because there's just no telling what Glenn Greenwald's motivations, loyalties, and basic outlook on this issue might be.

Next Thing You Know, They'll Be Residing in Extravagant, State-Funded Housing

"Michelle Obama" has asked James Lindgren to sign Obama's mass birthday card. James "find[s] it hard to say precisely why [he finds] this email a bit creepy." Fortunately for aficionados of shark-jumping, though, he gives it a college try:

[A]sking millions of Americans to sign a birthday card for the President suggests a tone-deafness about the cult of personality. If we lived in a dictatorship, getting millions of subjects to celebrate the Dear Leader’s birthday would be routine, but in a free republic this appeal to get millions of citizens to celebrate a current president’s birthday strikes a discordant note to my ear. 

No, I am not saying we are in a dictatorship; I am saying that because we are not, we should not be emulating the trappings characteristic of that fundamentally different sort of regime. Nor do I think this is particularly ominous, just a very small step in the wrong direction.

A small step, comrades, or a giant leap?

Michael Drake Finds This Hard to Fathom

Kids Today

According to this New York Times piece, a meta-analysis by Sara Konrath purports to find that "college students today are 40 percent less empathetic than those of 30 years ago, with the numbers plunging primarily after 2000." This claim somewhat dovetails with previous studies that supposedly document "an increasing narcissism among college students since the late 1980s."

Conceding the point that kids today are just awful people, I still think we really should try a little harder to see things from their point of view. (We're the ones with all the empathy, after all.)

Anyway, the article ends by noting the practical implications of this "rapid deterioration" (Bruce Perry, quoted in the article) in empathy: "Low empathy is associated with criminal behavior, violence, sexual offenses, aggression when drunk and other antisocial behaviors."

Thing is, after the late 1980s, the rate of violent crime began to decline.

Must be that lacking empathy takes all the fun out of being cruel.

(H/T Rob Sica.)

One Should Wield Guns in Campaign Ads Responsibly

I find it utterly charming that David Kopel's problem with Dale Peterson's campaign ad (Peterson is running for Alabama Agriculture Commissioner) isn't Peterson's Colonel-Kilgore affect, his inane tough talk about "thugs and criminals" (because nothing poses a greater threat to Alabama agriculture than thugs and criminals) or the fact that having dismounted his trusty steed (yes, that's right), he brandishes a very long, very manly-looking rifle. No. Kopel's problem is that while brandishing the rifle, Peterson "puts his trigger finger inside the trigger guard"!*

*Kopel's commenters point out that the trigger guard safetry rule doesn't apply to a lever-action gun with the hammer down. So I guess it's safe to vote for Peterson, then.

4'33'' - the Blog Post

Will You Kindly Just Dig It?

From Music Matters: Can reading program notes reduce your enjoyment of music?

The latest issue of Psychology of Music includes an interesting study by Lisa Margulis (University of Arkansas) who decided to investigate what the effects are of the widespread practice of including program notes for classical concerts on musical experience. In this study, the researchers presented people without formal musical training excerpts from Beethoven String Quartets prefaced by either a dramatic description, a structural description, or no description al all. Consequently, they were asked to rate their enjoyment of the music, and in a later stage, to recall excerpts and descriptions. What would you expect the results were? The results show a significant negative effect of description, suggesting that prefacing an excerpt with a text description reduces enjoyment of the music....

Click over to read the whole thing.

We Appreciate Your Input

The leading complaint in a review for Costco Van Nuys:

The majority of the people who work there are Hispanic and very "RUDE".

I half expected him next to advise Costco that they change their name to Costco Rico.

The Phatic Wilde

From Prospect Magazine:

(Via 3 Quarks Daily.)