Miss O'Hara has had an unpleasant fact brought to her attention

I usually avoid linking to posts with this kind of, uhm, uncharitable attitude, shall we say? But the blogger Miss O'Hara, who leans toward Ann Coulter in style and worldview, has just realized that her upcoming wedding day falls on Earth Day. Her reaction here.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, hiss or cheer. Honestly I don't.

Weekend Stubble: Homeward Hardbound (Pt II)

Paul Collins sniffs a growing trend for books about the history of whoever lived in a certain house.

Brandywine Books: Benign sociopaths

Lars Walker has decided that a friend of his is a benign sociopath. I think he might be onto something.

And no, no, it's not a mean post or nasty at all. It's very tolerant, really. Thoughtful, even. Food for thought.

I found out about his post by reading this at Daddy's Roses. Joan says:

I had never thought of there being such a personality as a "benign sociopath"; but I know several, don't you?

Well, yes. Now that you mention it. I do.

Zogby Online Polls

I got burned out on polls a while back, and tend to ignore them. I tend to be rather cynical about them, if you must know.

But I see that Zogby polls are catching a lot of grief around the blogosphere today, for a poll result that seems particularly skewed.

I went over to the Zogby website and looked around a little, and here's something I found interesting. There's no way to get on a list to be telephoned (since phone polls are random), but Zogby does have a place to sign up to participate in online polls.

Just so you know.

The Fair Tax BlogBurst

I'm still researching the "Fair Tax", so don't read this as an endorsement just yet, but I thought you might like to know there's a new blogburst/blogroll set up to promote it. And they're looking to add new members, if you're interested.

From Publius Rendezvous, the second blogburst post:

While many people know what the FairTax is all about, many others do not. This week we’ll cover a little ground explaining the basics of the FairTax, and why the members of this Blogburst think it’s an idea whose time has come.

First off, let’s be clear about one thing — the FairTax is not about tax reform. It’s a complete replacement of the existing system. The current tax on income is completely gutted...

hat tip: Slobokan's Site O' Schtuff: The Fair Tax Blogburst #1

The Long Tail -- Book now available for pre-order

Perhaps you've heard of The Long Tail concept, introduced by Chris Anderson in this October 2004 article in Wired Magazine? Or maybe you've been reading Anderson's blog, also called The Long Tail? I hadn't been over in a while, so I popped over, to find that his book is now looking at a June 30 publication date, but is available for pre-order now. He warns in a Feb. 6 post that the cover and subtitle are likely to change yet.


The Long Tail: Why the Future Is Selling Less of More

AP Wire | College campuses finding homes in unusual places

From James Hannah, Associated Press (Akron Beacon Journal, Feb. 25, 2006):

DAYTON, Ohio - Community colleges are branching out to old factories, libraries and YMCAs to avoid expensive new construction, attract new students and serve those in out-of-the-way places.

"You're seeing a lot more outreach to reach students, to be more available to them in places where they work," said Claire VanUmmersen, vice president of the Center for Effective Leadership at the American Council on Education.

Recycling existing buildings also saves money for colleges at a time when many face declining funding from state governments. And outlying areas can be a gold mine of untapped students as colleges compete with each other to increase enrollment.

Students are attending college at an abandoned steel mill in Pennsylvania and at an inn next to a historic canal in Ohio. They share digs with a small public library and an insurance agency in Nebraska, where students soon also will take classes at an ice cream parlor.

There are about 1,000 public community colleges in the United States. Of the 530 that responded to a 2005 survey by the American Association of Community Colleges, about 60 percent have multiple campuses, some with as many as 12. About 40 percent offer courses at prisons, 20 percent at religious institutions and 11 percent in shopping centers...

Full article

hat tip: Community Colleges Creating Unusual Branches at The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

The Cartwrights and Cowboy Compassion - Acton Institute PowerBlog

So, Jordon J. Ballor was watching a rerun of Bonanza the other day, and it occurred to him that it provided a good way to work into a discussion of how wealth and power can be used compassionately, with emphasis on the incredible good that can be done with micro-loans...

Dr. Helen: Menace in Europe Podcast

Dr. Helen Smith and Glenn Reynolds chatted with Claire Berlinski about the situation in Europe, and her new book: Menace in Europe: Why the Continent's Crisis Is America's, Too. The podcast is 28 minutes long, and can be listened to without an iPod.

For more on the book (at Barnes & Noble), click on the book cover below.


Menace in Europe: Why the Continent's Crisis is America's, Too

Camp Katrina changes into MilTracker

Blogosphere news: The Camp Katrina blog morphs into MilTracker.com. Says Phil Van Treuren:

Remember: MilTracker's goal is to become your source for links to uplifting news about our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines . . . so put us on your blogroll and drop us a line whenever you have some good news to share.

If you have good news about our military, MilTracker wants to link to you!

Returning to Class

Well, here's something to think about (not to mention look forward to). A lot of people currently serving in the American military are planning to go to college or university when they get out of the military, right? And at least some of the classes they will take will probably be overseen by professors who are used to having their "Michael Moore leanings" go unchallenged, right? And...

Hmmm. This could be interesting, yes?

Movies and theology, take two (and a tale about a beaver)

Last week, I linked to a couple of blogs where people were addressing movies and theology. Today I got an e-mail steering me to Divine Comedy at the Cineplex, an article at ChristianityToday.com by Craig Detweiler.

The thumbnail bio at the bottom of the article says "Craig Detweiler directs the Film/TV/Radio program at Biola University. He is co-author of A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture and screenwriter of the (virtually) unseen comedies, The Duke and Extreme Days." The subtitle for the article is "We all love movies that make us laugh, even in the worst of times -- and from Annie Hall to Blazing Saddles to The Big Lebowski, there's good theology behind that."

From the article:

Ten classic comedies were screened at the recent City of the Angels Film Festival. A broad coalition including Fuller Seminary, InterVarsity, and Catholics in Media offer this annual event as a gift to the city, a celebration of theology and film.

For a history of the City of the Angels Film Festival (aka CAFF), go here. The first CAFF was held in 1994.

So, if you like to ponder theology and film, I guess you have lots of company.

I generally prefer to enjoy my entertainment without trying to find hidden meanings, myself. Or, if meaning seems to be there and begs to be discussed, I generally confine my discussions to talks with my husband or a few close friends. The idea of going somewhere to hash out spiritual meaning in popular culture with a bunch of strangers doesn't appeal to me at all. (With the exception of limited engagement, carefully delineated, in the blogosphere, of course ;-) But, if it appeals to you, now you know somewhere else you can go to find others who also like it. Just promise me you won't let anybody lead you too far astray in the process, all right? Amateur theologians can get pretty big on their own theories, you know?

Some background might be in order. I think film festivals like this might be good, might even be very good -- but I also worry that they might go bad, even very bad. And here's why. You get a lot of people together trying to be as meaning-full as the next person, and things can go strange in a hurry, in my experience.

Let me give you one example.

When I was in college, I wrote a short story about a beaver that got into building dams and wound up building so many that he couldn't properly keep up with maintenance and so one washed out and took the others out, too. It was a pretty plain story, in more ways than one. All it was meant as was a gentle reminder to not let oneself get spread too thin. The professor gathered up all our short stories, which he then presented to the class anonymously for discussion. My simple, humorous little tale came up, and one student saw the marks of social injustice in it or something, and the next thing I knew there were at least twenty otherwise intelligent people saying that this story had proven to them that the Idaho Power Company was evil and should be stopped, or maybe taken over by the government, and maybe hydroelectric power was a bad thing overall.

Excuse me?

I nervously raised my hand, and when called upon suggested that it wasn't about that at all, but was simply a tale about a beaver that got overambitious, couldn't keep up, neglected what shouldn't have been neglected, and wound up paying for it. It was, in short, just a basic non-Aesop Aesop's Fable. That suggestion was met with derision, and a chorus of "What do you know?" So I owned up to being the author. In a sane world, this would have given me some authority in saying what the story was and what it wasn't, but this was a college classroom in full what-is-the-meaning-of-the-universe mode, not at all interested in common sense. That sorry little episode ended with me being branded simultaneously as someone who wrote wise tales about the evils of corporations (especially public utilities) and as an idiot for not seeing how I'd proved their viewpoint.

I've seen similar things happen when grown people get together specifically to talk about "philosophy." It's astonishing the "truths" people can conjure up when they're trying to be "deep."

Sigh.

I think I'll change the subject now...

The Common Room: Cleaning the Living Room

The lady who came up with this checklist for a cleaning project obviously understands people who love to read.

Technical difficulties

My ability to connect to the internet has left something to be desired since Thursday last, but we're fine, if you were wondering.

I've had plenty to do offline. In fact, in the leisure column, I rediscovered quilting over the weekend, which was rather fun. At least it was fun after I convinced one of our cats that quilt-tops-in-progress do not exist so that felines have something new to pounce on and try to haul off at a dead run while someone tries to hand-stitch...

Defending Western civilization, one blog post at a time

Patrick O'Hannigan over at The Paragraph Farmer blog has decided to launch "an occasional series" to promote "positive things in the Western legacy." The debut post is Worth defending (the musical edition).

New Book: "Preemption, A Knife That Cuts Both Ways" by Alan Dershowitz

The very conservative Tony Blankley is highly recommending the quite liberal Alan Dershowitz' new book. (You were sitting down, right?)


Preemption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways (Issues of Our Time)

hat tip: Egads, Alan, have I misjudged ye? at Elephants in Academia

Harvard, Take Two

This evening I find that people exasperated with the far-left faculty that pushed Harvard University President Larry Summers out the door might have some surprising allies -- Harvard students.

No, really.

Ruth R. Wisse, the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and professor of comparative literature at Harvard, has an interesting commentary in today's OpinionJournal. The title is Coup d'Ecole. The subhead is "Harvard professors oust Larry Summers. Now they must face their students."

Her description of this generation of students might surprise you, as might her ideas about which way things might be trending at Harvard. (She even expects the return of ROTC, for instance.)

Earlier somewhat-related post: A totally academic exercise

More on George Washington's refusal to be king, in name or otherwise

The Father Without a Son, an article by Lee Harris at TCS Daily, has, amongst other things, a great overview of how the United States wound up with a President instead of an elected monarch. The title of his article is from George Washington's contention that he was better suited to the office because he had no son (and therefore no heir apparent).

The article is packed with information on some of the difficulties the founders faced in setting up a brand new type of government, on Washington himself, and on how later Presidents were swayed by his example.

The Brussels Journal

This looks interesting. From About The Brussels Journal:

“I believe in being free, acquiring knowledge, and telling the truth.”

The above quote from the legendary American journalist H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) sums it up pretty much. The Brussels Journal is a project set up by European journalists and writers to restore three values that are so lacking in the so-called “consensus-culture” of contemporary Europe: Freedom, the quest for Knowledge, and the Truth.

We defend freedom and, though we do not pretend to know the ultimate truth, we strive to acquire as much knowledge as possible by presenting facts and views that are hard to find in the “consensus-media” of Europe.

We are not an organisation; we are a coalition of individuals. Our contributors do not necessarily share every view represented in the articles of this website, but we know they all write with an earnest desire for the truth. What binds us is our defence of liberty and the conviction that the state exists to serve man and never the other way round.

Hat tip: johng

A totally academic exercise

Please understand that I feel it is entirely up to Harvard University as to who gets to have the not-so-fun-at-least-lately job of being the president there. Having said that, Joseph Knippenberg, writing at NoLeftTurns, has invited people to throw their two cents in and make suggestions on who might be a good choice to replace the gentleman who is taking leave of the post.

Please understand that Knippenberg himself has no say in the selection either (and additionally feels that "Harvard as a whole is probably ungovernable"). He just didn't like that another website had asked for suggestions and there wasn't a conservative on their list, so he's just trying to open things up a little.

He gets the ball rolling with some suggestions of his own. For instance, Zell Miller. The reason he gives for this candidate?

Zell Miller knows a good bit about living in an institution with people who can’t stand him.

For another example:

Bill Kristol is a Harvard man; unfortunately, his experience in the White House probably doesn’t adequately prepare him for the Machiavellian nastiness of faculty politics.

I'm not sure I'll play, but I know a couple of you who are pretty good at this variety of zinger. Have fun. Please play nice, but have fun.

Update: James D. Miller is campaigning for the post over at TCS (aka Tech Central Station). See Hey, Harvard, Hire Me!