Crucial Updates on the Second Nike Commercial

The Mozart Piece is "Requiem," for those who care.

Also, it has recently come to Harrogate's attention that the Cold Blooded Road Warrior featured in the Second Commercial is indeed Michael Jordan's son. So now not only are High Art and, more generally, Human Achievment at stake: but, Readers, we now appear to be in the midst of Nepotism at it's absolute most fascinating. The Clinton and Bush Dynasties pale in comparison (literally and figuratively).

Anyways, Harrogate loves both of these commercials. He really does. But sometimes what we love is the most dangerous thing of all, so sayeth Harrogate. Leave no stone unturned, leave no SPLIFF unlit, in the pursuit of self-awareness.

Stay alert, and Stay With Fox.

In Honor of the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The real reason why spring is the best time of year has nothing to do with pitchers and catchers reporting or the fact that college atheletes play through a tournament while schools and television networks make a fortune off of their talents. (And who says slavery is dead?)

No, the real reason why spring rocks---- Hockey. There is 20 games left in the NHL season and playoff positioning is in full gear.

To honor this wonderful time, here is a clip-- a rare clip from Salon.com. This clips shows just how hockey players would dominate other sports.

"Clark the Canadian Hockey Goalie"

Update: the link is now working, though you will need to scroll down. Maybe this clip will work.

Nike, High Art, Mozart, and Harrogate

Oh Readers, the greatest Month of the whole American Year, March, is coming and coming fast.

Soon that maverick intellectual, Harrogate, will be inundating himself and--by extension--The Rhetorical Situation with a prolifera of all things college basketball. The coming tournaments, first the conferences and then the Big Dance--aka the Clearing at the End of the Path--are American spectacles that occupy a level unto themselves. Funny how sitting in front of a television four weekends in a row can give rise to the full spectrum of human emotions. But wait! Harrogate reveals too much, too soon. The regular season is still upon us. Let us organically grow into the moment, for in due time there will surely be, as they say, great wailing and gnashing of teeth. Or something like that.

For now, check out these commercials. The first, a recent classic, maybe the Greatest Shoe commercial ever. It has all the trappings of celebrating the human spirit in the mode of Dionysian Antiquity while at the same time very much participating in the postmodern Appolonian capitalist orgy that is today. It features the proud father Michael Jordan at the end. Jordan's smile may be the single most pleasant to behold, and of course the most lucrative, in the history of American sport. This first commercial knows how to bank on it, baby!

And then, second, Harrogate offers the awesome Nike commercial currently running. The Mozart does its job very nicely. The Goth emotions of it all, the defiance of the heroic Road Warrior who has come to take our candy and eat it right in front of us, the communitarian ethos on the line in this commercial will be palpable even to the most basketball-indifferent of spectators.

Nevada Dems on Crack: LGF Remains on the Fox Teat, Blasts KOS. Harrogate, Meanwhile, Reports. You Decide

Daily Kos has a great entry on why the Reno, Nevada Democrats are on crack for trying to arrange their Presidential Primary Debate to be broadcast (filtered) by Fox News Channel. Check it out, Oh Readers. Do check it out.

Harrogate for all his sexiness and brilliance cannot understand why Democrats keep going onto the Fox News Channel. It remains one of the Great Unanswered Mysteries, it really does.

A similar move would be for an atheist to go a snake handler revival :-P week in and week out to make his passionate case. Sure, the snake people might listen to ye for a while if you're all up in their grill, but only in a very bemused and detached way. And then as soon as you leave the head snake handler will go into his analysis of all the things that were wrong with what you said. Ah, Harrogate and his analogies. How do you perfect perfection?

Meanwhile, those pukes at Little Green Footballs take the opportunity to launch vitriole at Kos while at the same time paying their typical fellative homage to Fox News Channel.

LGF, people, will indeed take your breath away with its level of cesspooldom. The commenters join their Head Lizard in waiting with bated breath for IT to happen, so that they can cheer for the killing of all Muslims everywhere from their tactical positions with the 101st Keyboard Division. They really, really think they are fighting a war and that Charles Johson is a visionary.

Faux News... No Really- Fake News on Fox-- Wait... I give up

This weekend, Fox News will run a comedy show. No, it is not Billo or Hannity. Or Ollie. Or Gibson. Or Brit. Or the Beltway Boys. Or Cavuto. Or...

On Sunday, Fox will broadcast the premier episode of the "1/2 Hour News Hour," trying to provide a "conservative alternative" to The Dialy Show or The Colbert Report. While The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are reactionary, this show will be conservative. I wonder if they will joke about (and support) torture?

So, the fair and balanced show will air at 10pm Eastern, 9pm Central. It is produced by Joel Surnow, the executive producer of 24. Here is a clip from the show that Fox leaked to YouTube. While I am not sure if the clip is funny, the comments under the clip are very entertaining. It seems unfunny because of the delivery (no timing) and poor interaction between the co-hosts. It is hard to judge the material because there is not enough of it and it seems one-sided, which raises the question as to whether or not it is propaganda for the one sided treatement. Also, it relies on a laugh track at certain points.



Here is the intro to the show. Notice the red meat issues for the red states:



I am happy that the show will air this week. I will be discussig parody in class. I have already showed the SNL clips on the presidential debates. I planned on using The Dialy Show and The Colbert Report. Now I have this "alternative."

Today's sign of the apocalypse

While watching the News Hour with Jim Leher, syndicated columnist Mark Shields discussed the Iraq debate in Congrss by stating, "It is the fifth year of the war and the first time Congress debated it." No one disagreed with him,

Last week a student of mine stated in class "now is not the time to criticize and debate the war. W are in war and we must..." (stay the course, remain united, buy lolipops... fill in the blank yourself.

No student challenged her on this position. I don't know if most students don't care or if they they agree with her. If the people don't get to debate this issue, then who does? Isn't that how we got into that mess in the first place-- no deliberation?

Brilliant Insight about Sexual Behavior

I feel guilty for linking to this. This articles is so bad that critcism of it seems unfair. However, if you would like a good laugh, then read "Moral Mayhem."

The articles states that chastity "ain't what it used to be" because of a well-marketed culture and academia. Rather than discuss human nature and the animalistics desires humans possess, or denouce the individual for bad choices, the author states that companies market to perferences of the young and lead people away from traditional understandings of sexuality (Because 50 or 100 or 150 or 200 years ago, everyone knew how to behave-- See Ben Franklin's exploits in France as an example. Wait, I mean, read about the purity of ancient Romans and their orgies. Wait... I mean...Ancient Greece... Wait what about the sexual exploits, I mean purity, in the Bible...Wait. Just forget it.) Further, professors tell students "drink responsibly" or "have safe-sex" rather than "be sexually pure," or "commit to your future spouse with your eyes and heart and body," or "sex outside wedlock is wrong" or "be modest."

But wait, there's more. The articles concludes with

The local result is that when a student enrolls at Texas A&M, he or she becomes saturated in a sexually promulgated community. Revealing dress can be seen around the campus. Sexual appetite, passion, desire, bodies and skin are among the ingredients to the average college party. One walk through Northgate at night will open the na've eye. There, hundreds of students gather to drink and dance. While seeking to "have a good time," many see sexuality and the chance to get frisky on the dance floor as a means to that end. Get drunk. Get wild. Get laid. As long as no one gets hurt, sick, diseased or pregnant, American culture and this school seem to be satisfied.
Pop-culture is teaching this generation to "indulge your sexual fantasies." Academia at the same time is saying, "do what you want, just don't be stupid about it." It seems that, at this point, neither of these influential titans has the courage to say, "stripping might actually be wrong."

What I love most about this article is how is avoids TELLING STUDENTS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS. It is "Pop-Culture" that makes the world bad as if it can be separated from the individual. It is a professor that is wrong for teaching the young generation "do what you want but don't be stupid" not the students who do STUPID THINGS.

Wait-- maybe my problems are not my fault but stem from the editorial. Maybe I should blame the author of the editorial for making the world a bad place.

Welcome to Texas, Circa 1615

Texas law-maker, seemingly theo-crat extraordinaire, and House Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum expressed interest in reverting knowledge in Texas back to 1615 C.E.

According the Dallas Morning News .
Dallas Morning News, Chisum distributed a flier to all Texas House members that encouraged the state to stop teaching Evolution and teach Creationism. The memo, which was written by Georgia GOP Rep. Ben Bridges, contained a link to the web site, Fixed Earth. According to the website Fixed Earth, you can “Read all about the Copernican and Darwin myths—and their many ramifications to Kabbala based Big Bangism.” You can also purchase the book, The Earth Is Not Moving: Over 400 Years of Deception Exposed! The Bible Told the truth All Along!, which is

But wait, there’s more!!! While you are at Fixed Earth, you can not only read the myths of the universe but also get a great helping of anti-Semitism. For example, if you read about how you can petition your state legislature to remove “evolution science” from public funded schools, you will see that “evolution” is really a religion. In fact, it is not just any religion, it is a Jewish religions and it comes from The “Holy Book” Kabbala. It seems that, according to this web site, Evolution is nothing more than a conspiracy to destroy the Christian Faith by Jewish physicists. I knew Darwin left something out of his texts.

Maybe this means gravity is incorrect and we possess intelligent falling.

On a lighter note, Rep. Chisum thought he carried out a “Good Samaritan” act by distributing the flier. He stated he did not mean to offend anyone and he did not know the website contained anti-Semitic remarks BECAUSE HE DID NOT EXAMINE THE SITE IN QUESTION.

How can a Rep. be this dumb? After living in Texas for five years, I think I have reached my limit with this nonsense. How do these representatives stay in office? He advances a position and does not even check the sources he uses but still thinks he does a good act. Jackass.

Clevon: "I thought you was on the pill or some shit!"

Pirates and Emperors

It's always fun to post something at direct odds with those paranoid--"the prayer rugs are coming!, the prayer rugs are coming!"-- fascist bigots over at Little Green Footballs (Harrogate cannot bring himself to link to the filth of which he speaks, but he does recommend that Readers go there, for it is important to know thine enemy). Sometime long about a month ago, this particular video really upset the Self-Important Head Lizard and all his Kool-Aid-drinking followers that think they're fighting a war from their keyboards. "Nuke Mecca!" they scream. "Has it started yet?" they wonder if anything happens anywhere, fashioning themselves as modern-day Cassandras who will be ready when the "war against Islam" takes to American streets. Such drivel, they're comedic really.

Also, there is a wonderful ubiquity of brand new babies shaping the scene in Harrogate's world these days, and it gets him to thinking "Red State" style, 'bout teaching them there Values. Mommy PhD has been inspirational here, lately blogging about the intellectual development of her young daughter. Harrogate shouts out to Mommy PhD and all other new parents within the megaphone call of this award-winning blog: check out Noam Chomsky working hard for his money in the spirit of Schoolhouse Rock!

Herein, many questions from the Child can be addressed, but the answers don't come easy. What is the difference between an emperor and a pirate?, asks the song. And Harrogate will be damned if he knows the answer.

Schoolhouse Rock!!!!!! Enjoy.

Blood on the Tracks

Harrogate's fascination with movie Westerns goes back longer than he can actually remember. Movies like Last Train from Gun Hill, The Searchers, and Lonely are the Brave kept him up late as a young boy, thinking about what he'd seen. In the midst of such movies one thing you cannot escape is the unfairness of life; nor can you avoid that part in you that wants to be noble in the face of it. The sublimity of the music attending these movies is palpable, too. Take the famous refrain from The Good the Bad, and the Ugly--the song to which, incidentally, Mrs. Harrogate walked down that aisle to marry a crazy fellow who likes to write, and often speak, in the third person.

Nor does the genre lack for moments of dry humor that stick with you forever, like friendly ghosts always ready to be recalled. There is a scene from The War Wagon, for instance, in which John Wayne and Kirk Douglas are talking by a stable, trying to decide if they can trust one another, when two baddies almost get the drop on them. Harrogate says "almost" because their shadows give them away. Our two heroes spin and shoot reflexively, and all you see is the shadows fall and you hear the 'thunk' of their bodies. Douglas and Wayne regard one another critically for a moment, and then Douglas announces, "Mine hit the ground first." To which Wayne replies, with that classic smug half-grin: "Yeah, but mine was taller."

In later years Harrogate realized the real money, for him anyway, was less in the modern movies than in the books, from the early frontier stuff through L'amour, Larry McMurtry, and of course Cormac McCarthy, who remains the current king of the genre at this point. The constructed personality of the storyteller, or narrator, in these works is at least as important as the story and characters. A classic case in point is "Lily, Roesmary, and the Jack of Hearts" from Bob Dylan's classic early 70s album, Blood on the Tracks -- an indelible piece of artistic vision that has occupied Harrogate's "Top Five" since he was ever able to conceive of a "Top Five."

So distilled, this song. The vault robbery at the center of the action remains wonderfully underplayed, almost functioning on a Freudian-subconscious level. "The drilling in the wall kept up," Dylan's narrator intones, "but noone seemed to pay it any mind." Did Harrogate say Freudian? Scratch that. Let us call it a memento mori--"remember you must die"--big drama and power politics may seem larger than life, but that is the greatest heist of all.

The sexiness and the innocence of Lily, the desperation and big-heartedness of Rosemary, the awe-inspiring ethos of Big Jim--this song has it all. Gambling, dancing, troubled childhoods, brutal frontier justice, tragic prostitution, high-stakes business, and the ambiguous line between love and lust all give way in the end to one con man known simply as the Jack of Hearts, whose boys "can go no further" until he is finished with his "business back in town."

The con man is such an important figure in the Frontier Narrative, oh Readers. To be a true frontier con man, among other necesseties: his origins must be unknown and fraught with danger, he must be smooth with the ladies (this is true even though it isn't a rule that he has to be good-looking--he usually is), and he poses an ineradicable threat to even the most powerful and insightful of those occupying conventional society. He is the great destabilizer of the status quo, whatever story is being told, yet he is at the same time absolutely essential to that story: and of course, the narrator is always his complicit double. Even without hearing it, just by reading the lyrics, printed below, one can clearly sense the narrator's fascination with the con man whose story he's telling. There are, indeed, moments where the two figures merge; even though Lily is technically the song's most sympathetic figure, Dylan infuses the entire thing with an ironic sarcasm before which Lily really stands no chance. It is fitting that the whole thing fades out with her thinkin', most of all, about the Jack of Hearts.

The festival was over, the boys were all plannin' for a fall,
The cabaret was quiet except for the drillin' in the wall.
The curfew had been lifted and the gamblin' wheel shut down,
Anyone with any sense had already left town.
He was standin' in the doorway lookin' like the Jack of Hearts.

He moved across the mirrored room, "Set it up for everyone," he said,
Then everyone commenced to do what they were doin' before he turned their heads.
Then he walked up to a stranger and he asked him with a grin,
"Could you kindly tell me, friend, what time the show begins?"
Then he moved into the corner, face down like the Jack of Hearts.

Backstage the girls were playin' five-card stud by the stairs,
Lily had two queens, she was hopin' for a third to match her pair.
Outside the streets were fillin' up, the window was open wide,
A gentle breeze was blowin', you could feel it from inside.
Lily called another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts.

Big Jim was no one's fool, he owned the town's only diamond mine,
He made his usual entrance lookin' so dandy and so fine.
With his bodyguards and silver cane and every hair in place,
He took whatever he wanted to and he laid it all to waste.
But his bodyguards and silver cane were no match for the Jack of Hearts.

Rosemary combed her hair and took a carriage into town,
She slipped in through the side door lookin' like a queen without a crown.
She fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear,
"Sorry, darlin', that I'm late," but he didn't seem to hear.
He was starin' into space over at the Jack of Hearts.

"I know I've seen that face before," Big Jim was thinkin' to himself,
"Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf."
But then the crowd began to stamp their feet and the house lights did dim
And in the darkness of the room there was only Jim and him,
Starin' at the butterfly who just drew the Jack of Hearts.

Lily was a princess, she was fair-skinned and precious as a child,
She did whatever she had to do, she had that certain flash every time she smiled.
She'd come away from a broken home, had lots of strange affairs
With men in every walk of life which took her everywhere.
But she'd never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts.

The hangin' judge came in unnoticed and was being wined and dined,
The drillin' in the wall kept up but no one seemed to pay it any mind.
It was known all around that Lily had Jim's ring
And nothing would ever come between Lily and the king.
No, nothin' ever would except maybe the Jack of Hearts.

Rosemary started drinkin' hard and seein' her reflection in the knife,
She was tired of the attention, tired of playin' the role of Big Jim's wife.
She had done a lot of bad things, even once tried suicide,
Was lookin' to do just one good deed before she died.
She was gazin' to the future, riding on the Jack of Hearts.

Lily washed her face, took her dress off and buried it away.
"Has your luck run out?" she laughed at him, "Well, I guess you must
have known it would someday.
Be careful not to touch the wall, there's a brand-new coat of paint,
I'm glad to see you're still alive, you're lookin' like a saint."
Down the hallway footsteps were comin' for the Jack of Hearts.

The backstage manager was pacing all around by his chair.
"There's something funny going on," he said, "I can just feel it in the air."
He went to get the hangin' judge, but the hangin' judge was drunk,
As the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk.
There was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts.

Lily's arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch,
She forgot all about the man she couldn't stand who hounded her so much.
"I've missed you so," she said to him, and he felt she was sincere,
But just beyond the door he felt jealousy and fear.
Just another night in the life of the Jack of Hearts.

No one knew the circumstance but they say that it happened pretty quick,
The door to the dressing room burst open and a cold revolver clicked.
And Big Jim was standin' there, ya couldn't say surprised,
Rosemary right beside him, steady in her eyes.
She was with Big Jim but she was leanin' to the Jack of Hearts.

Two doors down the boys finally made it through the wall
And cleaned out the bank safe, it's said that they got off with quite a haul.
In the darkness by the riverbed they waited on the ground
For one more member who had business back in town.
But they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts.

The next day was hangin' day, the sky was overcast and black,
Big Jim lay covered up, killed by a penknife in the back.
And Rosemary on the gallows, she didn't even blink,
The hangin' judge was sober, he hadn't had a drink.
The only person on the scene missin' was the Jack of Hearts.

The cabaret was empty now, a sign said, "Closed for repair,"
Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair.
She was thinkin' 'bout her father, who she very rarely saw,
Thinkin' 'bout Rosemary and thinkin' about the law.
But, most of all she was thinkin' 'bout the Jack of Hearts.

My Funny Valentine

Linda Ronstadt tears this up.



Dedicated to Harrogate's admiring throng.

Carolina Wins

Last night's installment of the UNC/Duke rivalry was an impressive one, and among other things, reinforced something Harrogate has been saying for some time, now: In the world of college basketball, there is simply no place more difficult to win than on Duke's home floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It isn't just when Carolina comes knockin', either. The crazies keep the gym rockin' from the opening tip off, and one can palpably feel their influence and inspiration on the hometown players.

And let us be honest, here: Duke outhustled Carolina last night, they showed more heart. It galls Harrogate to admit these simple truths, but that's the way it seems to be every time those two teams hook up. North Carolina fields better atheletes, runs a prettier offense, and projects a left-of-center ethos: and for all of these things, Harrogate is thankful. Not to mention the fact that its campus is indeed the Southern Part of Heaven. But even with all of this, Duke just plays scrappier. Harrogate tips his cap to the hated rival, they are in a rebuilding year and were desperately overmatched last night, and yet they rose to the level of the challenge and indeed, they led for most of the game.

In the end, though, there was just far too much Carolina depth, with Frazor and Miller coming off the bench to provide crucial guttiness that the starters, for all their superior talent, just couldn't seem to muster. And throughout there was just wayyyyyy too much Brandan Wright for Duke to deal with. Kid is 6'9 but plays like he's 7 feet tall. His wingspan exceeds 7'0 and goes into the 7'3 range. Wright will be a lottery NBA pick whenever he elects to jump ship--let us hope, Readers, that he gives Carolina at least one other year!!! He has a soft touch, hits hook shots and baseline jumpers, runs the floor like a man obsessed, blocks shots, makes the extra pass, pretty much does everything you'd ever want from your power forward. And he does all of this with a smoothness and unflappability that you almost never see in a senior, let alone a freshman.

Little Ty Lawson, another freshman, was pretty awesome at times, too, when he's got his offense going he really does seem unguardable. Still to early to compare him to (Everybody Loves) Raymond Felton and the other great point guards in UNC's hallowed history, but he has that kind of potential.

The rest of February and all of March promise to constitute one helluva crazy ride for the Big Baby Blue, and Harrogate's ready to ride that train all the way to Atlanta. As long as Carolina and Texas A&M do not meet in the Big Dance, Harrogate's pretty sure he can handle whatever emotional devastation awaits in that clearing at the end of the path.

Ta ta, Readers. Ta ta.

Misfits

A lot of people don't know this about Harrogate, but the very first piece of music he ever fell absolutely, madly, in love with, is Misfits by the Kinks. Introduced to the record by his father at the tender age of 10, Harrogate didn't then understand most of the lyrics on the album. For example, the raucus track "Live Life" includes the verse: "Have you heard about the troubles throughout the land/ With the fascists and the left wing militants?/ Out of work executives are killing themselves/ And the I.R.A. are killing everybody else." That's pretty heavy, no?

Yet while Harrogate didn't get the lyrics as a boy, the plaintive, almost desperate sound permeating the record hit a chord with him nevertheless. Harrogate realizes that a lot of people are not familiar with Misfits or indeed most of the Kinks work; beyond "Lola," "You've Really Got Me," "Apeman," and a precious few others, the popular pickins seem to get pretty darned slim. The Kinks, thusly, remain arguably the most underappreciated band in the history of rock and roll, though in their own late 60's-70s heyday, they enjoyed a small devoted following.

The album cover, of course, might well be the greatest ever made. But Harrogate wishes to talk a bit about what he believes to be the crown jewel of the record, a song called "Rock and Roll Fantasy." Ray Davies supposedly wrote the song in 1977 about a week after the death of Elvis Presley, which you can see referenced in the lyrics, printed below. At the time, brother and lead guitarist Dave Davies was thinking about quitting the band and doing something else. This song was a response to Dave, a powerful Rhetorical Appeal that perhaps contributed to keeping Dave on board (a great thing not only for the Kinks, but for Rock and Roll in general, as Dave's experimental guitar style inspired such greats as Eddie Van Halen and Zach Wilde, among others)

Anywho, Harrogate's been thinking a lot about this song, lately. It really points up the raison de etre--as well as the dark side--of cultural production, in Harrogate's award-winning opinion. Staggering numbers of people, after all, take their meaning, and even their will to keep going, from popular art (Eminem speaks to the same thing in "Sing for the Moment"). To a great extent Harrogate has always identified with "Guy in my block" portion of the song. Maybe there are Readers out there who also identify.

The argument of the song seems simple enough, it is two pronged--Ray seems to be telling Dave:

1)We cannot quit because we'll be letting down people like the guy on my block and fans like Dan who have followed us through all the hard times as well as the good ones; &

2)We cannot quit because what if our band is the only thing protecting us from becoming just like these people that depend on us. If we are not to be producers of culture, if we are not to make a contribution, if we are not to impact the world, then really we just become consumers waiting for the next thing to come float our boats. This is not what I, Ray Davies, want, Dave, and I don't think it's what you want either. I don't want to live in a Rock and Roll Fantasy, "hiding away."

Hello you, hello me, hello people we used to be
Isn't it strange, we never changed
We've been through it all yet we're still the same
And I know it's a miracle, we still go, and for all we know
We might still have a way to go

Hello me, hello you, you say you want out
Want to start anew, throw in your hand
Break up the band, start a new life, be a new man
But for all we know, we might still have a way to go
Before you go, there's something you ought to know

There's a guy in my block, he lives for rock
He plays records, day and night
And when he feels down he puts some rock 'n' roll on
And it makes him feel alright
And when he feels the world is closing in
He turns his stereo way up high

He just spends his life living in a rock 'n' roll fantasy
He just spends his life living on the edge of reality
He just spends his life in a rock 'n' roll fantasy
He just spends his life living in a rock 'n' roll fantasy
He just spends his life living on the edge of reality
He just spends his life in a rock 'n' roll fantasy
He just spends his life living in a rock 'n' roll fantasy

Look at me, look at you
You say we've got nothing left to prove
The King is dead, rock is done
You might be through but I've just begun
I don't know, I feel free and I won't let go
Before you go, there's something you ought to know

Dan is a fan and he lives for our music
It's the only thing that gets him by
He's watched us grow and he's seen all our shows
He's seen us low and he's seen us high
Oh, but you and me keep thinking
That the world's just passing us by

Don't want to spend my life living in a rock 'n' roll fantasy
Don't want to spend my life living on the edge of reality
Don't want to waste my life hiding away anymore
Don't want to spend my life living in a rock 'n' roll fantasy

Something to say...

I haven't been posting on the blog very much lately because I haven't had much to say. This all changed tonight. I now have something to say, something to shout from the rooftops. And here it is:

Prince brought it this evening! His performance was the BEST Superbowl halftime show that I've seen.

Standardized Tests for College

It works so well for elementary, middle, and high school students, why not try it here? According to Inside Higher Ed, Texas Gov. Slick Rick Perry wants gaduating seniors to take standardized tests in their field of study. While this will not affect whether or not the student graduates, it will alter how universities receiving funding form the state. The schools with higher scores will receive more funding. According to Perry, these tests will provide:

“a simple and understandable way to compare the quality of degree programs offered at different schools, and academic departments would be able to better assess and refine curricula.”

There are a lot of questions that correlate to the idea of a test at this level:
(1) What subjects could be tested?
(2) How could you test certain humanities subjects and allow for student creativity and interpretation?
(3) How will this effect admissions policies?
(4) If this were to pass, would this alter a liberal arts education?
(5) Will this hinder the search or discovery for knowledge?

This reminds me of Florida's attempt to teach history as being "factual" rather than "constructed" and to make sure it is by pssing a bill to force teachers to teach it this way. To see the Florida bill, go here.

Oh, well. It is only Texas. It is just anohter attempt here to help those who do not need the help.

The beauty of satire

The unique patriot Jon Swift provides a wonderful insight into the fight over minimum wage. Here is an excerpt:

Because American workers get paid so much, many businesses are outsourcing labor or moving overseas. If we want to compete, we are going to have to lower the minimum wage below the levels in countries such as China and India, whose economies are booming. In parts of China, for example, the minimum wage is about 20 cents an hour. In some states in India, the minimum wage is about 10 cents an hour. If we want to stop hemorrhaging jobs to these countries, we are going to have to undercut those rates.

Lowering the minimum wage would also solve our immigration problem. The minimum wage in Mexico is about 50 pesos a day, or $4.53. In an 8-hour workday, that's about 57 cents an hour, a little more than one-tenth of the U.S. minimum wage. If we just set the minimum wage below 50 cents an hour, how many Mexican immigrants do you think will risk their lives sneaking over the border for that? By significantly lowering the minimum wage below Mexico's, we could end the immigration problem very quickly.

Some Republican Senators have an even better idea: Abolish the Federal minimum wage altogether. They sponsored a bill that would let states set their own minimum wages below the already inflated Federal minimum wage. This measure would have given states the ability to compete to see who could pay workers less, helping small businesses and attracting new businesses. Some of the poorer states in the South, for example, could set their minimum wages at zero, which would allow family farmers to pay their workers by giving them room and board or scrip instead of cash. They could import workers from places like Africa, where just earning a little food and a roof over their heads would represent a significant improvement in their living standards. The South would finally rise again with this kind of economic stimulus.

Unfortunately, this measure didn't pass, but 28 Republican Senators voted for it, including potential Presidential candidates John McCain, Sam Brownback and Chuck Hagel, both of the Senators from Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina, and the bill's sponsor Wayne Allard. These Senators know that if we are going to compete with Third World economies we need to start paying Third World wages.

Blogging Jesus Camp

My wife and I watched the docu-drama Jesus Camp this morning. The beginning of the movie made her so uncomfortable that she repeatedly needed to leave the room. Here are a few random musings about the film. It is
certainly worth watching. If you plan to watch it, you may not want to read this.

1. The absence of theology:

There is no deeply religious or philosophical discussion about the Bible or about religion. Instead, there are a series of authoritative claims that people, especially kids accept without discussion. For example, consider one of Ted “I have lust in my heart and needed to resign from ministries Haggard’s comments: “We don’t need to have a general assembly about it. It is in the Bible.” This overlooks competing interpretations of the Bible, how to decide which competing verses are more important, how to discuss different translations of the Bible (in the Greek texts, the Mary is not a virgin but a young woman), and how to decide which rules to follow and which rules to overlook (there are over 600 rules in the OT—some people would gladly adopt the rule that prohibits two men form laying with one another like a man and woman, but would gladly overlook the ban of shellfish, wearing clothes that contain multiple types of fabrics, and the rules that state we should take slaves from neighboring countries and not from our own people.) Further, why should we decontextualize the rules? The rules on shellfish develop out of concern for proper dietary preparations during the time of the Old Testament. We do not have those problems today. We are not about to impose slavery. Well, hopefully we are not.

Side Note: There is a funny scene in the movie when Haggard discusses homosexuality, which was filmed before he resigned. It appears as if he is repenting on camera.

2. Literalism, in the Bible and in Life.

Everything is literal- Not only Biblical interpretation; there is no distinction between literalism in any aspect of life and there is no distinction between fiction and reality. They cannot admit that Harry Potter is fiction. The camp leader states: “Warlocks are the enemy of God. If Harry Party had been in the Old Testament, he would have been put to death…. This is a generation devoted to purity.” Another will not discuss ghost stories because they do not honor God.

It seems everything that is non-Christian is a threat to Christianity. The consequence of this would be the death of the imagination, the prevention of political consensus, and possibly, the prevention of a political consciousness. Though I doubt that the leaders of this movement would care any of these if they developed against literalism. Will the strict adherence to this literalism lead to a rejection of the basic tenets of the Evangelical lifestyle like it did in the Puritan community, or, will Evangelicals reconcile spirituality and materialism in a way that the Puritans could not.

3. Agency and Invention:

There is a lack of agency throughout the culture, which seems to contradict the entire notion of being “born again.”

When discussing how he writes a sermon, one of the children stated, “I don’t write. God writes for me.”

Another minister told the crowd of children that “Levi would be a God seeker from an early age” and God wrote the book of his life. These metaphors deny agency, which denies the theological concept of being “Born-Again.” Oh wait, see number one

The rejection of anything else in culture, such as Harry Potter, Brittney Spears, etc., allows the kids to develop ideas and arguments only from Christianity. Yet, without the theology, a larger discussion of faith and religion, and a misreading of the Bible to favor social issues (such as abortion—there is no ban on abortion in the Bible), these children are indoctrinated to have only religious and authoritative premises to work with when engaging others in the public sphere. There would be no common values between the religious and the non-religious or even between some religious sects and other religious sects.

4. The political and the religious

There seems to be a difference between the two in many ways, especially with balancing competing beliefs in society. Yet, the subjects of the movie fail to differentiate between the two and reject communities other than the Evangelical Christian community. One little girl rejects the community because only God will “judge her.” Another Ted Haggard stated that if the Evangelicals vote, they determine elections. There is little need for political consensus.

Global Warming: While I can understand the rejection of some topics such as the absence of school prayer or including evolution but not creationism, but global warming? In one scene a mother home-schools her child and refutes global warming (because the average temperature of the Earth increased less than 1 degree in the past century). There seems to be less concern over stewardship of the land because there will be an imminent return. This plays into the hands of others on the right.

During the camp, they received a visit from “President Bush” in the form of a cardboard cutout. One leader mentioned he surrounded himself with spiritual people. They kids reaffirm their beliefs about religion and G.W. Bush as they recite, “One Nation Under God.” Yet, religious conservatives do not seem to be willing to hold the President accountable for civilian deaths in the war, torture, and for not enacting the social policies the base desires.

America is a Christian Nation: there is a reliance on a literal interpretation of the Bible except for this. There is no mention of this in the Bible and the historical interpretation does not warrant this; how can people reach this conclusion? The best example seems to be the treaty of Tripoli enacted by the Adams administration and the Congress of the time.

Pledging allegiance to a Christian American and the Bible seems dangerous.

5. Odd Practices:

Blessing the absurd: Before camp started, the leaders blessed the pews,
the computers, the electricity, and the Power Point because the devil
wanted to interfere.

Speaking in tongues and the constant crying: This is just too much, especially for the way in which the pathos supercedes the logos. There is no need to discussion.

Libel Laws, Blogs, and Texas

Viki Truitt, a state representative from Texas, pre-filled a bill to limit defamatory comments on the internet, epecially, it seems, blogs. According the the Dallas Fort Worth Star Telegram, the language of the bill "specified that the author of defamatory statements expressed on the Internet would be subject to the same libel limitations as the author of any other statement 'in any other written or graphic form.'" The intent would bring some "civility" to the blog world, or, at least to diminished comments that some object to because they insult individuals and provide little social worth.

The problem, if this bill or any one like it passed, would be the "chilling effect" of speech and would provide one set of standards for traditional, and reserved media outlets such as the Mass Media, and another set of standards for the bloggers. It seems that it would be easier to control the elite and harder to control the people.

Texas is not the only state considering a bill. Tennessee and considered and withdrew support for a bill.

Under current US Defamation Law, it is very hard to prove and very hard to convict. First, Slander applies to spoken discourse ad libel applies to print doscourse. There are two types of libel- liberl per se (the statement and libel per quod (based on circumstances). The first covers statements about criminality, whether or not the person has a contageous disease, attack of a reputation, and attack on sexual immorality. The second type is based on circumstance. If you asserted a person was perfectly healthy and the person received money for health insurance this could be libel per quod. I do not know how satire or irony affects both.

The current Supreme Court test seems to protect freedom of speech over protecting the individual who is criticized by the remarks to ensure a chilling effect does not occur. Private persons receive more protection than public persons. The defenses against a libel complaint are (1) truth (2) comments dows not harm an already tarnished reputation (3) it is a privileged communication and (4) the comment needs to be made with actual malice. The fourth is the hardest to prove.

This may be something worth watching.

A few songs that take me back to my recent float trip down the Amazon