Friday Calf Blogging – A History

Friday calf blogging – and the faithful are more than keeping up – the originator of this lovely "fad" is "bumping it up a notch!" I'll confess I can't keep up with amazing contests and cool videos, but I can do what failed poets do since, well, forever – share someone else's poem. Oh, and a really beautiful old postcard I found somewhere online.

Like most little boys, when I was a little boy, I dreamt of being a cowboy – they were the closest things America had to knights errant, and my grandfather inspired a love of chivalric virtue. My grandfather was one of those rare examples of Christianity that walked the walk rather than wasting a lot of talk. One of my useless advanced degrees was aimed at being a pastor, so this poem captured my imagination. Hope you all enjoy the picture card and the verse!

The Calf Path

One day thru the primeval wood
A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made a trail, all bent askew,
A crooked trail, as all calves do.
Since then 300 years have fled,
And I infer the calf is dead.
But still, he left behind his trail
And thereby hangs my mortal tale.

The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way.
And then, a wise bell weathered sheep
Pursued the trail, o'er~vale and steep,
And drew the flocks behind him too
As good bell weathers always do.
And from that day, o'er hill and glade
Thru those old woods, a path was made.

And many men wound in and out,
And dodged, and turned, and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because 'twas such a crooked path,
But still they followed, do not laugh,
The first migrations of that calf.
And thru the winding woods they stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane
That bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street.
And this, before men were aware,
A city's crowed thoroughfare.
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis.
And men, two centuries and a half
Trod the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a 100 thousand route
Followed the zig-zag calf about,
And o'er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A 100 thousand men were led
By one calf, near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way
And lost 100 years per day.
For this such reverence is lent
To well establish precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach
Were I ordained , and called to preach.
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out, and in, and forth, and back,
And still their devious course pursue
To keep the paths that others do.

They keep the paths a sacred groove
Along which all their lives they move.
But how the wise old wood gods laugh
Who saw that first primeval calf.
Ah, many things this tale might teach,
But I am not ordained to preach.

By Sam Walter Foss

Hitchens and Rage Boy

I just read an item by Christopher Hitchens at Slate, and I hope everybody reads/passes on his article – so as many people as possible actually read it. The article has a compelling start:

If you follow the link, you will be treated to some scenes from the strenuous life of a professional Muslim protester in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar. Over the last few years, there have been innumerable opportunities for him to demonstrate his piety and his pissed-offness. And the cameras have been there for him every time. Is it a fatwah? Is it a copy of the Quran allegedly down the gurgler at Guantanamo? Is it some cartoon in Denmark? Time for Rage Boy to step in and for his visage to impress the rest of the world with the depth and strength of Islamist emotion.

Ridiculously short post here, but the other man at Slate has the goods… please take a look!

Remembering Occam’s Razor

Economy, parsimony, and simplicity… I guess today is nostalgia day. This is a "not so current events" day, and the events are the Civil Rights Act of 1964, United Steel Workers of America v. Brian F. Weber (1979), and Cheryl J. Hopwood, et al. vs. The State of Texas (1994). The motivation for this post is actually Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed: Self Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy. "Judicial Activism" was the section I was reading, but more important, it was the subsection concerning definitions and distortions that caught my eye.

I would heartily recommend Thomas Sowell on virtually any topic, but especially on subjects in the area of political philosophy, race and ethnicity/culture, and judicial activism. I know, he's an economist, and not so surprisingly, I purchased his Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy and am enjoying it immensely. My youngest daughter thinks I'm a dweeb, but since she was with me, I provided an incentive for her to read it… I buy her books and let her put the price of both our purchases on her Borders Rewards card instead of mine if she'll agree to read the book. I love incentives! She agreed as long as I read it first because she'll "read it slower and have questions" so I had better learn it first. I also love my daughter ;-)

Now that everyone knows I love my daughters and Thomas Sowell, we'll get back to business. First, the Civil Rights Act is legislation that forbids racial discrimination in "apprenticeship training programs, such as that which excluded a white worker, Brian F. Weber, in order to include black workers with lower qualifications" (Sowell, The Anointed, 1995, p. 233). Where the Civil Rights Act forbids just such discrimination:

Justice Brennan who claimed elsewhere that discerning the original intent of lawmakers was virtually impossible, in this case saw lawmakers' intent so clearly – Congress' "primary concern" for "the plight of the Negro in our economy" – that he disregarded the plain words of the Civil Rights Act (as cited in Sowell, 1995, p. 233).

Instead of focusing on Sowell's primary point in this conversation, I'm going to highlight a secondary point that brings a murky distortion into sharp relief. It was once a goal in this country to make certain things as "color blind" as possible – such as admissions to colleges, apprenticeship training programs, etc. In order to bring this distortion into relief I need another quotation from yet another judge, in this case, a federal judge in Texas:

The plaintiffs have contended that any preferential treatment to a group based on race violates the Fourteenth Amendment and, therefore, is unconstitutional. However, such a simplistic application of the Fourteenth Amendment would ignore the long history of pervasive racial discrimination in our society that the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted to remedy and the complexities of achieving the societal goal of overcoming the past effects of that discrimination (as cited in Sowell, 1995, p. 233-234). Emphasis added.

Thomas Sowell provides a number of excellent responses to such errant nonsense. He pays only passing attention to the word "simplistic" because he already addressed the problem earlier in the book. It's a lesson worth learning. Verbal gymnastics are not the same as an argument or a proof, and judges should know that. It pays to watch for words that prove nothing about the premises of an argument, and more important, contribute nothing to the truth or falsehood of the conclusion. Although the significance of the word simplistic is easy to miss in this context, Sowell makes the point firmly:

As in so many other contexts, the word "simplistic" was not part of an argument but a substitute for an argument. To interpret the Fourteenth Amendment as meaning what it says – equal treatment for all – does not ignore the history which led to the passage of that Amendment (Sowell, 1995, p. 234). Emphasis added.

Personally, I like the rule of law. Moreover, I like the notion that I can count on the rules to remain the same until such time as a legislator changes it – because he represents me by virtue of having won an election. I find the notion that an unelected judge can pass law by fiat from the bench reprehensible. Clearly, the Constitution put the responsibility for law-making outside the bounds of the bench, and unfortunately we, as a free people, have allowed our system of law to become frenchified by blatherskites on the bench. Is there something we can do now? Something like Michigan?

Ok, I'll admit the two linked-words frenchified and blatherskite were a little over the top, but I just learned 'em an' I had to use 'em! They SOUND like insults

J

Happy Sunday!

The Cow and the Calf... Blogging

It seems Terri over at IT(L)TIE has spread this viral thing called "Calf-Blogging" for Fridays, and truly, who am I to fight such a swell of veal? Since the tide is rising, and really, Thorn is kind of cute, I thought I'd include a picture of the Cow and the Calf that I'm sure Thorn would enjoy -- for grazing rights of course

Now that I've "caught" it from Coffee, I'll be searching for the cure before it gets out of hand ;-)... or not. This bellicose bovine bedlam might be the blessing of greater Rombalds Moor! The reference is obscure, but... FUN. Follow the picture's link, I've been there and it were beautimous!

Cheers you two.

Before Fathers’ Day Ends

Father and Son

It's late today, Fathers' Day, and thanks to Gravebinder (I'm guessing) I've been yakking all weekend. Thanks bud! Despite that, I found something out about Fathers' Day that was interesting. I shipped it off to my own Father, and because I liked the history and the sentiment, I thought I'd pass it along. So in addition to my own Father, honors to my brother (known to you as Attila the Pun), my son-in-law (pictured above with his son), Gary, and Dan, all are fathers I've seen in action and admire. Honors to Coffeespy by virtue of his blog and odds and ends I've picked up from Gravebinder. But today, special honors to Gravebinder, who probably best epitomizes why Fathers' Day came to be… the love and sacrifice of a single dad:

The idea for creating a day for children to honor their fathers began in Spokane, Washington. A woman by the name of Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the idea for Father's Day while listening to a Mother's Day sermon in 1909.

Having been raised by her father, William Jackson Smart, after her mother died, Sonora wanted her father to know how special he was to her. It was her father that made all the parental sacrifices and was, in the eyes of his daughter, a courageous, selfless, and loving man. Sonora's father was born in June, so she chose to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington on the 19th of June, 1910.

In 1926, a National Father's Day Committee was formed in New York City. Father's Day was recognized by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. In 1972, President Richard Nixon established a permanent national observance of Father's Day to be held on the third Sunday of June. So Father's Day was born in memory and gratitude by a daughter who thought that her father and all good fathers should be honored with a special day just like we honor our mothers on Mother's Day.

The excerpt below is from the Silver Anniversary Book on Father's day published in 1935. I would like to thank William Jackson Smart's great granddaughter, Bonnie, for sharing this with me.

"This year, 1935, the Silver Anniversary of Fathers' Day is being observed. Thirty-seven years ago, in the Big Bend hills of Washington, the day had its nativity in a lonely farm dwelling. There Sorrow ministered amid the moaning of the March winds.

A father sat with bowed head in his aloneness. About him clung his weeping children. The winds outside threw great scarfs of powdered snow against the window panes, when suddenly the last born tore himself from the group and rushed out into the storm calling for his mother. Yet even his baby voice could not penetrate the great silence that held this mother.

Hurriedly, the father gathered him back to his protection and for more than two decades, William Jackson Smart, alone, kept paternal vigilance over his motherless children.

This poignant experience in the life of Mrs. John Bruce Dodd of Spokane, Washington, who was then Sonora Louise Smart, was the inspiration for Fathers' Day which materialized through the devotion of this father and the father of her own son, John Bruce Jr., born in 1909. Through the observance of the love and the sacrifice of fathers about her everywhere, her idea of Fathers' Day crystallized in 1910, through a formal Fathers' Day petition asking recognition of fatherhood." Read it all here.

Happy Fathers' Day to all you dads out there, but especially to you single pops! I hope your day was the best of days! I wish I could have been as great a father as those I've mentioned. More important, I pray your sons grow to be better fathers than you are now, that your daughters grow to choose the best of men as fathers for their children, and that we all strive to be better with our children.

Stay well dads.

Comments & Trackbacks & Data, OH MY

Hi Folks. It seems I'm an inveterate fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of guy when it comes to software installation. I've inadvertently destroyed the comments posted to my blog thus far. Try HaloScan! It's an easy two step installation! Now you'll have trackbacks!

First, I'm not certain what a trackback is… exactly, but hey, if it's new, I want one [yeeesh, sounds like a Jessica Simpson commercial] because I'm certain I'll find a use for it… whatever it is. Lucky for me, I've an email or two that have some of the comments – I will be reproducing them as posts.

My abject apologies to everyone L

Here's the first comment, from Jeff, that I'm reproducing. Once I figure HaloScan out, things will be moving a little smoother in the comments section. Anyway, in response to Men Like Orchids Too:

I was listening to DC101, a local radio station, talking about the proposed "all womens' floor" of a Marriot. The woman commentator said women like a place to go to feel secure away from men and not get hit on. I was waiting in the parking lot of a Borders before going in to hear the author of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants speak (that's another story).

I called up DC101 and said my piece:

If a woman is going to stereotype a man as violent, then the hotel better get ready to make an all white floor, too, because there are plenty of whites who feel threatened by people of other races (and vice versa to be fair). In fact, there is more black on white violence than there is man on women violence (DoJs annual reports back this up). Also, I want a hetero floor, too, so I don't have to worry about homosexuals hitting on me, because you know they're all like that (sarcasm)...

The woman on the radio told me it didn't matter what statistics I could give her, an all woman floor was fine while an all white floor was racist... then she hung up on me.

Face it -- Being a man acting in the essence of man is no longer acceptable. It has given rise to all manner of social discourtesies and petty crimes because most people assume a man won't step up and do what should be done to correct the behavior. And in the cities of this nation, they're largely right.

I'm sure there are some American women left who don't buy into the Oprah ideal of anything with a vagina being too good for anything with a penis unless the penis is in chains and controlled, but I found it easier to look outside the me-centric females here to other countries where a lady expects the door to be held open, finds it romantic if you're jealous, and expects that someone impugning their honor will be dealt with severely.

Wow, Skald. You really set me off, huh?
Posted by Jeff to Skalduggery at June 12, 2007 7:42 PM

Part of the reason for reproducing Jeff's post is because I agree with the content and spirit of the post. What **really sets me off** is the response: "The woman on the radio told me it didn't matter what statistics I could give her, an all woman floor was fine while an all white floor was racist... then she hung up on me."

I heard the same sort of thing during my master's program. My moonbat classmates would categorically reject any statistic that tended to weaken their position and claim statistics could be made to say anything. Of course, this nonsense was only used when the statistic opposed their vision of the world. I'll say here what I said in class in response to the notion that one can make a statistic "say anything":

I disagree on at least a few levels. Part of the reason is pragmatic. If "anyone" can make statistics say what is favorable to their cause, why would any right thinking person bother with doing a statistical analysis, or more important, believe any statistical study? It raised my curiosity when you reported what your stats professor said because later in your post you encouraged smart project managers to prepare "charts and graphics for a presentation to guide and show statistical data."

Supposedly, Benjamin Disraeli said "lies, damned lies, and statistics," a statement Mark Twain popularized by expanding it to "There are three kinds of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics" (Wiki). Though I find it as humorous as the next, I only agree with it in so far as the statistics are inadvertently or deliberately misused, or the current method doesn't account for a particular model.

If I submit a proposition such as, most red headed Irishmen are taller than 5' 10", collect a valid sample, and discover that in fact the mean is 6'1", the median 5'8", the mode 5'9", and then proceeded to say I was right because the average height of a red headed Irishman is 6'1", then I don't believe I've made statistics say what I want -- I believe I've lied about the statistics. Clearly, since the median is 5'8" (meaning half of all Irishmen are shorter than 5'8") and the mode is 5'9" (the most frequently occurring height), more Irishmen are shorter than 5'10".

I do believe a person can use statistics dishonestly to support a position, but I also believe that is an excellent reason to know how they should be used -- in order to separate mistakes and errors from dishonesty. That is why I would disagree with your stats professor.

'Nuff said. Again, my apologies for screwing up the comments section, but I hope this new software will actually help me manage comments better in the future.

Strength and Honor all.

Men Like Orchids Too

It seems I'm fated to writing assorted essays rather than the nifty posts I find in myriad other places – posts that occasionally make me laugh out loud! Of course, it's difficult not to chuckle at Coffee's rendition of Princess Diana's musings on the subject of boys and girls:

If women could just shed their inhibitions and be completely open, man and woman alike could finally settle onto the same verticle plane — giggity giggity giggity!

The, ummm, "giggity, giggity, giggity!" refers of course to dancing! – Something my Baptist friends assure me is simply a vertical expression of a horizontal desire. I've also heard that "only a man would say something like that." Horse hooey. Actually, what my Baptists friends told me was that making love standing up was verboten because it leads to dancing… Though Princess Diana has a point, I think our great American Poet sees and understands the, uh, root of the matter more clearly:

PAN WITH US

PAN came out of the woods one day,--
His skin and his hair and his eyes were gray,
The gray of the moss of walls were they,--
And stood in the sun and looked his fill
At wooded valley and wooded hill.

He stood in the zephyr, pipes in hand,
On a height of naked pasture land;
In all the country he did command
He saw no smoke and he saw no roof.
That was well! and he stamped a hoof.

His heart knew peace, for none came here
To this lean feeding save once a year
Someone to salt the half-wild steer,
Or homespun children with clicking pails
Who see no little they tell no tales.

He tossed his pipes, too hard to teach
A new-world song, far out of reach,
For a sylvan sign that the blue jay's screech
And the whimper of hawks beside the sun
Were music enough for him, for one.

Times were changed from what they were:
Such pipes kept less of power to stir
The fruited bough of the juniper
And the fragile bluets clustered there
Than the merest aimless breath of air.

They were pipes of pagan mirth,
And the world had found new terms of worth.
He laid him down on the sun-burned earth
And ravelled a flower and looked away–
Play? Play?--What should he play?

Robert Frost in A Boy's Will (1915)

Do we let the male gods die? Is the green-man no longer? The balance of male and female on Beltane is a must! Leaping the fires of May's Eve through to the Maypole celebration simply isn't that obscure. The god and goddess unite in this mythology – I'm reminded of a conversation from The Rock:

John Mason: Are you sure you're ready for this?
Stanley Goodspeed: I'll do my best.
John Mason: Your "best"! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen.
Stanley Goodspeed: Carla was the prom queen.
John Mason: Really?
Stanley Goodspeed: [cocks his gun] Yeah.

So let us honestly celebrate diversity, especially between the sexes! I'll bore you with some verse (I know, a nasty habit) that celebrates that very thing! This was from a class assignment to twist someone else's poem to my own liking, and I haven't the first idea who's poem I butchered, but here it is:

Beltane's Aftermath

I lie on the
moss-covered forest floor
dappled in moonlight.

Crystalline drops of ecstasy,
attached to your moss-covered mons,
march
across the bridge
of my nose.

Inhaling the musk,
I think about the earth's
revolutions.

Elsewhere,
people are dying.
And I wait,

not impatiently,
for the turning
of the world.

Men… Bad

This is a ridiculously quick post, but I noticed another of Dr. Helen's entries on the marginalization of men…

So the "good advice" for boys has mainly to do with how to handle girls on dates and how to use a kitchen. Apparently, this reviewer's view of good advice for boys is how to turn them into girls!

This is a topic that's been thrown around on this site before, as well as a few other sites. The Coffespy had a book suggestion I think I'll check out:

For the 700th time this year, I'll recommend Throwaway Dads. Not only does it explain why children need fathers, it explains how the United States has allowed the banner of equality, not to be confused with actual equality, to overrun a man's default state and teach him he's wrong for being who he is.

I think this is a topic I'll wind up coming back to… oh… about 700 times.

Truth or Dare and Tithe!

Ahhh, Willamette Valley Vineyards – a wonderful 2004 Riesling I've been saving for, well, drinking at some later date J and today is that later date. Now then, with a couple of glasses of wine the truth of the matter is a little clearer – lucky for me the choice was a Riesling rather than a fruity merlot or some snobbish cabernet variety that's so darn hard to see through…

The truth about what? This comes via Coffeespy's Call to Arms, a multimedia extravaganza concerning the financial straits that the Rightwing Nuthouse is currently navigating. [sigh] If I only had 23 loyal readers to offer! But I do have a baker's dozen… is that thirteen? If I can donate a sawbuck or two so can you [pl.] [evil grin]

Since I've stolen Coffee's poster, because it is kind of cool, I'll also use it to explain the truth about truth. The truth about what? Yup, truth. Pundits like the Coffeespy, Rightwing Nuthouse, and others seem to actually share the knowledge that there is a real, objective, world out there. Moreover, they seem to share the notion that truth can be a property or attribute of a sentence, statement, or proposition. With just a few more steps, we can also reach the idea that there is both good and bad in the world. Dudes and dudettes, Captain America fought against the Nazis because it was the good/right thing to do – the Nazis were an evil regime that was building an evil culture.

While it is "true" that one's enemies rarely view themselves as evil (and sometimes they are not), perception is not the arbiter of truth and good. Comic book writers seem to have a better handle on the common sense notion that there is an objective standard by which we can judge things to be true or false, good or bad. Captain America would not have looked at the cultural practice of "female circumcision" and concluded that it was something to be accepted in the spirit of multiculturalism. For damn sure Wonder Woman would not have! Without an extended discussion of correspondence, coherence, or minimalist theories of truth, the common sense point is easy – one does not "tolerate" vile or evil behavior for the sake of "can't we all just get along?"

Wow, that was a bit much… nahhh. Now go drop your tithe in the Rightwing Nuthouse J

No Excuses, I Am Better Than That

To the left you’ll see my avatar as my daughters, wife, and friends see him – and apparently, even the Coffeespy has found me out! To the right, as part of my banner column, you’ll see a much more accurate rendition of der Skald’s fierce visage… based on, hmmm, in fact, I have this mirror hanging on my wall, and ummm, the reflection is a true image of my, umm, imagination’s imagining my true self, and umm, SEE?

Although the hair is gone and the beard is mostly white, this is a pretty fair representation of... aww, crap. OK, so the guy on the left is more like me than I care to admit, i.e., I love my wife, I love my daughters, I love a good meal, a good mead, and not quite like Volstagg, I like a good fight :-)!

Now then, as soon as I get Coffeespy's boot out of my ass, I'll have another post ready to challenge one's sense of truth... in vino veritas! So pop a cork on your favorite grape or honey, and we'll get down to business.