My Eyes Are Brown

I Today was crystal clear and sunny. One of my New Year’s resolutions, which I may keep more or less well, is to blog here once weekly rather than once daily, and to blog far more regularly at my research site. Your eyes reflect: Depth and wisdom. What’s hidden behind your eyes: A tender heart. … More My Eyes Are Brown

Gizzard Soup

Now the radio is singing: Got my pistols loaded up and I’m Alabama bound. I have heard this song as got my ticket in my hand, going down to New Orleans, but no, it is got my pistols loaded up and I’m Alabama bound. I am back home in the sweet sunny South, making gizzard … More Gizzard Soup

N. Machiavelli

Machiavelli, via Porch Dog: When evening arrives, I return home, and enter my study, and at the door I take off my daytime clothes, full of mud and filth, and I put on royal and curial robes. Having gotten dressed again appropriately, I enter the ancient courts of ancient men, where received lovingly by them, … More N. Machiavelli

Repaso

1. As we know, in Reeducation I was considered unfeeling. To prove I was not, I was directed to renounce the intellectual life. 2. I have already realized before that “unfeeling” only meant “not histrionic” and “frighteningly bright to a man like me.” Now I realize that what it meant more fundamentally was that I … More Repaso

Refuting Myths

The number of myths now masquerading as fact are very tiring to refute, so I am glad when other people help to do it. Right now I am glad the NYT has refuted a few myths about religion, the Founders, and the Framers. The article refers to Mitt Romney’s speech on the matter earlier this … More Refuting Myths

David C. Korten

For your consideration: Adam Smith was as acutely aware of issues of power and class as he was of the dynamics of competitive markets. However, the neoclassical economists and the neo-Marxist economists bifurcated his holistic perspective on the political economy, one taking those portions of the analysis that favored the owners of property, and the … More David C. Korten

Is This Sexism?

Bad: “She gave up tenure to follow her husband, and she should be rewarded for this.” Better: “She gave up tenure to follow her husband, and it is our gain.” Lagniappe: name that -ism, or that logical fallacy. “If this candidate is local, her supporters cannot be objective. The only possible basis for support any … More Is This Sexism?

Saturnalia

Holiday greetings to all! Enjoy the perfect description of this year at Unsane’s! 😀 Coming up from a southern beach as the sky turned rosy-dark I blinked and merged left beneath an arrow saying Golden Gate Bridge. I moved with the automatic gestures of a commuter but then started and thought: “People wait their entire … More Saturnalia

Mary Austin

I have my grandmother’s copy of Land of Little Rain, but I see that it is now a Google Book, a Virginia e-text, a part of the Berkeley SunSITE, and a Gutenberg e-book. This book describes things as they were in the nineteenth century when my various relatives arrived. At random: I like that name … More Mary Austin