Lots of people have been asking me why, given my background in logging, I don't join the Cal timbersports team.
I just say it would be like joining the archery team because you fought in Iraq before college.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Non sequitur
A non sequitur in the context of my exploits in Filipino endontology and dilettante apologetics on behalf of Israel.
Some day I will own an old plantation house in the Mississippi. (Note that I avoided the contraction "I'll." This means I mean business, since I generally consider a lack of contractions pompous. By the by, I also consider songs sung in the third person pompous.) I'll wear linen, sniff magnolias, sip lemonade, and maintain both clipped hair and moustache.
Some day I will own an old plantation house in the Mississippi. (Note that I avoided the contraction "I'll." This means I mean business, since I generally consider a lack of contractions pompous. By the by, I also consider songs sung in the third person pompous.) I'll wear linen, sniff magnolias, sip lemonade, and maintain both clipped hair and moustache.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
I loled.
This is an entry that should probably go into my equivalent of Lisa's "Looks Like Rain," if I had one. So avert your eyes if you don't want to be exposed to my hidden (some would offer that they're really not all that hidden) character flaws.
This passage made me lol: "Rachael Corrie, an American, was killed when an Israeli soldier bulldozed her." LOL!
How stupid would you have to be to get bulldozed? Probably about as stupid as you'd have to be to pay money for an Evergreen State College (another lol) degree. (The real question is how narcissistic and sanctimonious you'd have to be to think the world at large would hold you as some kind of legitimate martyr for getting crushed in an effort to save a bit of real estate, 'marginalized' occupants or not.)
But Corrie's ineffectual and, admittedly, more substantive than average activism isn't what I find most worth thinking about. Her demise harkens back to some situations my family has experienced, namely, environmental activists who sought to block our family logging company's efforts to log redwoods in the mid-nineties. They employed similarly narcissistic tactics, that is, they chained themselves to trees that were to be felled and lay beneath fallen logs that were to be bucked, so that any action on the loggers' part would lead to the activists' deaths. I term them narcissistic because their actions imply that we, the loggers, value their lives more than we do our profession and more importantly, our obligation to the mill to fulfill our contract. It's a wrong assumption.
At risk of sounding ponderous, the tactics of Corrie/Greenpeace et al are poisonous to society. I reject wholeheartedly Ayn Rand's philosophy (would even go so far as to affirm Whittaker Chambers' assessment of Atlas Shrugged's undertone as "to the gas chambers go"), but I think she got it right when she pointed out the greatest and most repugnant piece of moral bankruptcy is the exploitation of someone else's moral code against the adherent by one who does not keep it. Corrie's like-minded ilk live outside of societal norms, trampling over property and self-determination rights alike, yet they employ a societal norm, that of not killing crunchy Northwestern bitches, against the adherents.
Obtuse and imperfect hypothetical arguments are trotted out against any deviation from living under the hegemony of the decided deviants ("oink oink oink is stopping a logging site's work punishable by the death penalty oink oink oink"), but I should like to live in a world where more Telegraph Avenue blackguards have to be scraped out from under felled Douglas firs. Hats off to the Israeli bulldozer engineer for keeping Corrie, erm, intellectually honest.
This passage made me lol: "Rachael Corrie, an American, was killed when an Israeli soldier bulldozed her." LOL!
How stupid would you have to be to get bulldozed? Probably about as stupid as you'd have to be to pay money for an Evergreen State College (another lol) degree. (The real question is how narcissistic and sanctimonious you'd have to be to think the world at large would hold you as some kind of legitimate martyr for getting crushed in an effort to save a bit of real estate, 'marginalized' occupants or not.)
But Corrie's ineffectual and, admittedly, more substantive than average activism isn't what I find most worth thinking about. Her demise harkens back to some situations my family has experienced, namely, environmental activists who sought to block our family logging company's efforts to log redwoods in the mid-nineties. They employed similarly narcissistic tactics, that is, they chained themselves to trees that were to be felled and lay beneath fallen logs that were to be bucked, so that any action on the loggers' part would lead to the activists' deaths. I term them narcissistic because their actions imply that we, the loggers, value their lives more than we do our profession and more importantly, our obligation to the mill to fulfill our contract. It's a wrong assumption.
At risk of sounding ponderous, the tactics of Corrie/Greenpeace et al are poisonous to society. I reject wholeheartedly Ayn Rand's philosophy (would even go so far as to affirm Whittaker Chambers' assessment of Atlas Shrugged's undertone as "to the gas chambers go"), but I think she got it right when she pointed out the greatest and most repugnant piece of moral bankruptcy is the exploitation of someone else's moral code against the adherent by one who does not keep it. Corrie's like-minded ilk live outside of societal norms, trampling over property and self-determination rights alike, yet they employ a societal norm, that of not killing crunchy Northwestern bitches, against the adherents.
Obtuse and imperfect hypothetical arguments are trotted out against any deviation from living under the hegemony of the decided deviants ("oink oink oink is stopping a logging site's work punishable by the death penalty oink oink oink"), but I should like to live in a world where more Telegraph Avenue blackguards have to be scraped out from under felled Douglas firs. Hats off to the Israeli bulldozer engineer for keeping Corrie, erm, intellectually honest.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Let's suspend morality.
Just for a moment. Here's my maiden delve into current events. (I'm sure all three of you are absolutely titillating!)
Regardless of the moral questions concerning the conflict in Gaza, let's agree on these pretty standard facts:
-Israel has an infinitely more effective fighting force than that of the Palestinians.
-Israel has both the capability and probably the political wherewithal (were they cavalier enough to use it) to obliterate the Gaza strip, and I mean every living soul it contains. It would resultantly become a pariah state and probably have a pretty high level of attrition in the ensuing Arab/Persian-Israeli war, but it's common knowledge that the formal militaries of the non-Israeli Mideast are complete clowns and would be rendered ineffective within months. Israel would draw severe censure from the US, but not a complete withdrawal of support (what with the State Department now able to gleefully watch as Israel does what was probably more geopolitically urgent than the Iraq invasion, ie, the forceful neutralization of Iran). And Western Europe? Toothless, per usual; but probably more critical than they were of the last few genocides committed by the Arab world (Kurdistan, Darfur anyone?). But- and I diverge from the objective theme- this is all moot, as Israel is a representative democracy with a sizeable domestic minority critical of IDF's pugilism and would never even consider the 'ultimate solution,' though its converse is in the mandate of their current Gazan adversary. Here's a fun one: try to name a modern war fought between two true democracies and then mull on the ramifications of your list.
-Hamas is no match for the IDF, whether IDF is justified in its actions or not (see above).
With Israel pretty much untouchable by its critics, who's doing a greater disservice to the Palestinians: the Israeli hawks who kill a thousand or so Palestinians every six years and will do so ad infinitum if the current climate is maintained, or the Euro-lefty-slobs who perpetuate the climate by inuring the Palestinians to reality with their toothless indignation? And here's the reality: the maintenance of a 100:1 kill ratio in the Jews' favor, white phosphorus, and slum conditions for the Palestinians, combatants (sic) and civilians alike. It's irrelevant to discuss whether it's right or wrong, because it is what it is and will continue to be, mass street protests in Oslo or not.
It's always very sad when each successive generation of kids learn the world as it is versus the world as they want it to be/what's "fair". I know the thought of the noble terrorist throwing rocks at a tank is so romantic for some, but that doesn't change the reality, which is getting shot by depleted uranium bullets.
Regardless of the moral questions concerning the conflict in Gaza, let's agree on these pretty standard facts:
-Israel has an infinitely more effective fighting force than that of the Palestinians.
-Israel has both the capability and probably the political wherewithal (were they cavalier enough to use it) to obliterate the Gaza strip, and I mean every living soul it contains. It would resultantly become a pariah state and probably have a pretty high level of attrition in the ensuing Arab/Persian-Israeli war, but it's common knowledge that the formal militaries of the non-Israeli Mideast are complete clowns and would be rendered ineffective within months. Israel would draw severe censure from the US, but not a complete withdrawal of support (what with the State Department now able to gleefully watch as Israel does what was probably more geopolitically urgent than the Iraq invasion, ie, the forceful neutralization of Iran). And Western Europe? Toothless, per usual; but probably more critical than they were of the last few genocides committed by the Arab world (Kurdistan, Darfur anyone?). But- and I diverge from the objective theme- this is all moot, as Israel is a representative democracy with a sizeable domestic minority critical of IDF's pugilism and would never even consider the 'ultimate solution,' though its converse is in the mandate of their current Gazan adversary. Here's a fun one: try to name a modern war fought between two true democracies and then mull on the ramifications of your list.
-Hamas is no match for the IDF, whether IDF is justified in its actions or not (see above).
With Israel pretty much untouchable by its critics, who's doing a greater disservice to the Palestinians: the Israeli hawks who kill a thousand or so Palestinians every six years and will do so ad infinitum if the current climate is maintained, or the Euro-lefty-slobs who perpetuate the climate by inuring the Palestinians to reality with their toothless indignation? And here's the reality: the maintenance of a 100:1 kill ratio in the Jews' favor, white phosphorus, and slum conditions for the Palestinians, combatants (sic) and civilians alike. It's irrelevant to discuss whether it's right or wrong, because it is what it is and will continue to be, mass street protests in Oslo or not.
It's always very sad when each successive generation of kids learn the world as it is versus the world as they want it to be/what's "fair". I know the thought of the noble terrorist throwing rocks at a tank is so romantic for some, but that doesn't change the reality, which is getting shot by depleted uranium bullets.
You'll find that in the 'Misadventure' section.
I've always had an odd penchant for bad decisions. It's an ingrained habit I try to pass off by unequivocably embracing the decisions, hoping that observers might attribute these miscarriages of logic to my overwhelming zaniness and inexorable idiosyncrasy. Exhibits: (A.)My taste for logging was more stillborn than my present day enthusiasm might let on; my first summer in the woods was a moody self-exile imposed after falling out with a girl and assuming the role of spurned lover. (She didn't really love me, by the by!) In fact, I was physically ill with dread the night before returning to the mountain for my second week of choker setting. (B.) I once ran ten miles the very morning I felt my constitution surrendering to the flu, employing the scintillating logic that once down with the flu, I wouldn't be able to get any good runs in, so I had better get this one done. I went on to coolly play the 'incorrigible and thus lovable' card on my mother by describing my exploits, even as I was, eh, pretty much dying. (C.) Once, on the indoor soccer court and already on a yellow card, an opponent, whom I had just fouled pretty cynically, informed me that I had better not try that again. So, knowing that I was then obligated to try to hurt him, I shoved him into the wall the first time the flow of play permitted, got in a fight, and was pretty predictibly escorted out of the park.
What I'm trying to say is that I'm given to rash decisions made on trivial premises. For example, I didn't want to wipe my savings out on the dental treatments I need, so, logically, I went to the Philippines to have it done. This morning, I had one pretty ruthlessly deep filling done and another tooth extracted by a Filipina-Chinese dentist. To be honest, the experience was, in the most important ways, pretty congruent to its Stateside counterpart, down to that irritating tendency toward tut-tutting of most dentists. But there were some interesting deviations. For example, all of her instruments were kept in old Folgers-esque novocaine cans. Also, prices were discussed pretty openly (with the dentist herself eventually performing as cashier!), an American taboo I'll never understand and choose to attribute to the silly deification we assign to people in the medical industry. (As an aside, why are we permitted to question our mechanics, hair stylists, and plumbers but not our doctors? Sure, the services they render are more important to our well-being, but doesn't that make lying prostrate to a single person's dictates on the subject all the more dangerous? It's silly that we hold them in such high esteem that it's considered a slight to imply that their rendered services aren't too priceless to engage in the crassness of rate discussion over. That's blind faith most people are willing to place in someone they've never met because of an MD at the end of his/her name. This sheepishness is all the result of a sexist assault on midwifery back in the early twentieth century...but I digress. And, for the record, I think modern midwifery is dangerous bourgeois posturing toward an unremembered and romanticized past. Another entry.)
I've literally forgotten what I was saying and refuse to edit for coherence later. The point is, my first dabbling in medical tourism wasn't at all bad, and, considering an American dentist would have sent me to an oral surgeon just to have a bum tooth pulled, my trip has already paid for itself. Tomorrow: a root canal and crown.
Gizbagel!
What I'm trying to say is that I'm given to rash decisions made on trivial premises. For example, I didn't want to wipe my savings out on the dental treatments I need, so, logically, I went to the Philippines to have it done. This morning, I had one pretty ruthlessly deep filling done and another tooth extracted by a Filipina-Chinese dentist. To be honest, the experience was, in the most important ways, pretty congruent to its Stateside counterpart, down to that irritating tendency toward tut-tutting of most dentists. But there were some interesting deviations. For example, all of her instruments were kept in old Folgers-esque novocaine cans. Also, prices were discussed pretty openly (with the dentist herself eventually performing as cashier!), an American taboo I'll never understand and choose to attribute to the silly deification we assign to people in the medical industry. (As an aside, why are we permitted to question our mechanics, hair stylists, and plumbers but not our doctors? Sure, the services they render are more important to our well-being, but doesn't that make lying prostrate to a single person's dictates on the subject all the more dangerous? It's silly that we hold them in such high esteem that it's considered a slight to imply that their rendered services aren't too priceless to engage in the crassness of rate discussion over. That's blind faith most people are willing to place in someone they've never met because of an MD at the end of his/her name. This sheepishness is all the result of a sexist assault on midwifery back in the early twentieth century...but I digress. And, for the record, I think modern midwifery is dangerous bourgeois posturing toward an unremembered and romanticized past. Another entry.)
I've literally forgotten what I was saying and refuse to edit for coherence later. The point is, my first dabbling in medical tourism wasn't at all bad, and, considering an American dentist would have sent me to an oral surgeon just to have a bum tooth pulled, my trip has already paid for itself. Tomorrow: a root canal and crown.
Gizbagel!
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Two notes on a passage to the Philippines.
Does that constitute a pun? Is it plagiarizing Forster? Whatever.
1. I can never help but be impressed by the general malaise that settles over an airplane's passengers when a baby begins to cry because of bad turbulence. Really, crying is the most natural response in Christendom when your little aluminum cylinder, at sea in hostile air pockets and suspended over the North Pacific, begins to rock and dip and- this is the worst part- creak. I like to think the uncomfortable silence is a collective moment of realization that we are a stuuuupid and unfit species for willingly putting ourselves into this flying Orient-bound deathtrap.
2. Foreigners on airplanes smell really, really bad and love sitting next to me.
1. I can never help but be impressed by the general malaise that settles over an airplane's passengers when a baby begins to cry because of bad turbulence. Really, crying is the most natural response in Christendom when your little aluminum cylinder, at sea in hostile air pockets and suspended over the North Pacific, begins to rock and dip and- this is the worst part- creak. I like to think the uncomfortable silence is a collective moment of realization that we are a stuuuupid and unfit species for willingly putting ourselves into this flying Orient-bound deathtrap.
2. Foreigners on airplanes smell really, really bad and love sitting next to me.
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