Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich

I'm intrigued by Barbara Ehrenreich's new book, which attacks the positive thinking movement in American culture. Below is a 43-minute interview that Hanna Rosin of Double X conducted with Ehrenreich about it. The interview really whetted my appetite. In it, Ehrenreich discusses the long history of positive thinking in American history and its influence in corporate culture, psychology, and theology.

Ehrenreich first encountered positive thinking in a meaningful way when she was diagnosed with breast cancer eight years ago. At a support group website, she expressed her feelings of anger at the disease. Commentors rebuked her and urged her to think positively, rather than negatively, if she wanted to recover from cancer. Thus began her journey to this book, which included an exploration of idea of the modern CEO and a visit to Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.

It sounds quite fascinating, and I will probably read the book when it becomes available.

Darth Vader Conducting an Orchestra Performing the Imperial March

(YouTube Link)

Darth Vader did not approve of how the conductor of the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra was leading a performance of The Imperial March, so he stepped in to do the job himself.

via Topless Robot

Or Kamchatka Brand Vodka In A Pinch

By Sleazy Scoundrel.

Comic Book Character Costume

An artist from MAC Cosmetics painted a woman as a comic book character for Halloween -- right down to the dot printing style of old comics books. Or, alternatively, as a figure from a Roy Lichtenstein painting.

The pictures were taken by publicist and photographer Tasha Marie. You can view more at the link.

Link via Geekologie Artist's/Company Website

Shepard Fairey, Plagiarist

I'm not a fan of Shepard Fairey's politics, but I love his artwork. It's vibrant, vivid stuff. A pity that it's not actually his. After his lawyers ditched him for lying to them, he admitted that he did steal an image from the Associated Press as the basis of his famous "Hope" poster of President Obama.

It gets worse: here's a post from 2007 by a man named Mark Vallen showing, image by image, how much work Fairey has plagiarized. (H/T)

Had Fairey identified himself as a collage artist and been upfront about his incorporation of outside images, there would be no ethical issue at stake. There might be legal issues for copyrighted images, of course, but not an ethical one.

The work in Fairey's portfolio is simply stunning and I'd love to have many of these images adorn the walls of my home. They remain beautiful. They're just not Fariey's.

Klingon Military Recruiting Video

(YouTube Link)

Meredith Woerner of the sci-fi blog io9 suspects that this video might be viral marketing for the next Star Trek movie. Ostensibly, it's a Klingon military recruiting commercial. I'm not sure what is the original language, but thankfully it's been dubbed into Klingon for your convenience.

via io9

Once It's On the Internet, It's There Forever

NPR has a story on how material on the Internet can come back to haunt individuals for many years long after it was published.

Back in library school ('98-01), I often met older librarians-in-training who were cantankerously skeptical of the Internet. Among their strongest critiques was that nothing on the Internet is permanent. With just a few keystrokes, it can disappear.

Oh, how wrong they were! Once there's something about you or by you on the Internet, it'll be there forever. The NPR story includes many personal narratives of individuals whose careers have been stopped or destroyed because of reputation-damaging information online. Example:

Take the case of Andrew Feldmar, a Canadian psychotherapist in his late sixties living in Vancouver. In 2006, on his way to pick up a friend from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he tried to cross the U.S./Canadian border as he had done over a hundred times before. This time, however, a border guard queried an Internet search engine for Feldmar. Out popped an article Feldmar had written for an interdisciplinary journal in 2001, in which he mentioned he had taken LSD in the 1960s. Feldmar was held for four hours, fingerprinted, and after signing a statement that he had taken drugs almost four decades ago, was barred from further entry into the United States.

Andrew Feldmar, an accomplished professional with no criminal record, knows he violated the law when he took LSD in the 1960s, but he maintains he has not taken drugs since 1974, more than thirty years before the border guard stopped him. For Feldmar, it was a time in his life that was long past, an offense that he thought had long been forgotten by society as irrelevant to the person he had become. But because of digital technology, society's ability to forget has become suspended, replaced by perfect memory.

More common examples include people posting compromising Facebook photos and losing jobs (or not getting hired) as consequences. You might delete a photo from your profile or a post from your blog, but in some form, it will usually be archived somewhere on the Internet.

I started blogging while I was on my way into ministry, so I developed an early, healthy paranoia and assumed that people would read me and deliberately try to misrepresent my writings [in retrospect, this should have been a warning sign]. I also decided to blog under a pseudonym, which helped shield me from parishioners digging for dirt.

Most of my colleagues in the Methoblogosphere did not. And every now and then, I get requests by participants in the Methodist Blogger Profile series, asking me to delete sections or entire posts because the bloggers endured flack for what they've written.

Now I have fewer people in my life who are out to get me, but I still take certain precautions. To protect myself from any future problems, I follow two rules:

1. When in doubt, don't post it. If there's even a question in your mind about the prudence of posting something, don't do it. Err in favor of caution.

2. Assume that everything that you write is read by everyone in your life. Don't think for a moment that your name is Google-proof or that your pseudonym will never be discovered.

To which I am considering adding a third:

3. Assume that everything that you write will eventually be read by your children. I don't want my little girl, when she grows up and starts surfing the Internet, to have doubts about her father's moral character or sanity, even if I'm not worried about what people think now. What you write isn't just read by the people in your life at present, but by everyone that you will ever meet for the rest of your life and afterwards.

The Internet has a permanent memory. Act accordingly.

Weekend Music: "As Good As I Once Was" by Toby Keith

(Video Link)

I love this song about aging.

I used to be hell on wheels
Back when I was a younger man
Now my body says "You can't do this, boy,"
But my pride says "Oh, yes, you can."

Recipe: Morning Glory

2 eggs, fried over-easy
2 strips of bacon
1/4 grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
1/3 sour cream
1 large flour tortilla

Place the cheese on the tortilla, then bacon, eggs, and sour cream in that order. Serve in the morning with a cup of hot coffee and an episode of Upstairs, Downstairs.

Remote-Controlled Human

Look at the picture. When the man moves his joystick to the left, the helmet on the girl’s head pulls her left ear, signally that she should go left. When he moves his joystick to the right, the opposite occurs.

Thomas Ricker of Engadget speculates about the one application for this device from Kajimoto Laboratory: a navigation aid for the blind. With a GPS system added, it could be used to give the visually impaired greater independence.

But I have another in mind: a wife-trainer. With some additions, this could be used to train a wife to follow instructions, just by tugging on her ears as needed.

Will it work? Well, there's only one way to find out for sure!

UPDATE: No, it will not. The apparatus suffered a catastrophic mechanical/anatomical failure. I declare the experiment unsuccessful.

Libertarianism as a Religion

Ilya Somin recently reflected on the influence of Ayn Rand. I was particularly struck by this passage:

In becoming a libertarian without any influence from Rand, I was actually unusual. Over the last 15 years, I have met a large number of libertarian intellectuals and activists of the last two generations, including some of the most famous. More often than not, reading Rand influenced their conversion to libertarianism, even though very few fully endorse her theories or consider themselves Objectivists.

Emphasis added.

I have noticed that many self-identifying libertarians relate their ideological development in religious language that would be familiar to evangelical Christians. Once were blind, they now could see the falsehood of statist assumptions and the truth of individual liberty and responsibility.

Perhaps I spend too much time with libertarians, but I don't often see conservatives describe a similar political awakening as strongly, and I can't recall hearing liberals express a political conversion experience in this manner.

It makes me uneasy. I know from personal experience how damaging it is to adopt an ideology as a personal identity. Ideologies as identities have a way of stifling objective thought along the lines of "This is who I am now, this is my ideology, and I will now apply it to all situations or questions that I have about the world."

Ideologies blindly applied to the world, without regard to conflicts between what can and is objectively known about a topic and what the ideology's stance on that topic is, constitute sloppy thinking.

If you shook me awake at 2 AM and asked me if I thought that we should legalize all drugs for consenting adults, I'd probably say yes. But that's because my ideology would provide me with a shortcut around thinking critically about all aspects of an issue.

If I was awake and had time to think about the question a little more, I'd probably say that marijuana should definitely be legalized, but maybe crack cocaine shouldn't. Maybe the effects of that drug are so debilitating that we shouldn't go that far.

But that takes work, and I could avoid all of that simply by thinking "I'm a libertarian, so how should I respond to this question in a manner that is consistent with my ideology?"

Or to use a different example, "I'm a believer in religion X, so how should I respond to this question in a manner that is consistent with my religion?"

One need only glance at the pages of history to know how flawed ideologies can be. Which is why I get uncomfortable with libertarians expressing their political opinions using the certainty of religious language.

I generally identify myself as a libertarian. But not with a lot of enthusiasm. Well, at least not as much as I used to. I don't want to be a libertarian; I want to be a correct thinker. And that means keeping my options open. It means seeking truth instead of an ideological identity or tribe.

Instead of saying "I'm a libertarian," it would be better for one to say "I am a thinker and I have reached many libertarian conclusions." The goal should always be truth, not fidelity to an ideological identity.

World Wars I and II Explained in Comic Form

By deviantART user Angus McLeod, via Boing Boing.

View World War I Comic

View World War II Comic

Philosophers

From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereral.

Moral Priorities at Work

Annoyed Librarian often writes about librarian job postings are so demanding and so low-paying that they seem insulting to the librarians who read them. When I was in library school, we called these "West Jeff Jobs" because the West Jefferson Public Library was especially notorious for offering them. AL rants about what such jobs do for morale in the profession:

So, sure, in one sense, many of your jobs do suck, but I reserve my Library Jobs that Suck category for very specific jobs. A Library Job that Sucks must be temporary, part-time, and require an MLS and library experience. These have always seemed to me the most shameful jobs, the ones where libraries were trying to exploit a bad job market to get better librarians than they morally deserve, where they demand professionals but don't provide professional situations. Jobs like these make all of us worse off, because it shows that there are libraries that don't take seriously any professional or personal commitment to librarians. The librarians become mere widgets to be exploited at will and disposed of easily. That's hardly the sort of job that brings glory to the profession.

There's no such thing as "morally deserve" in relation to wages. You deserve only what your employer has agreed to pay you for your labor. And that's unlikely to be anything other than what the market can support. If you think that the market can support more, then go and get a different job.

You should assume that your employer is only interested in exploiting you for corporate (or personal) profit. Your employer should assume that your only interest is in personal profit. Once you understand that your employer only wants to exploit you, and that you only want to exploit your employer, you'll be much happier because you won't be guided by illusionary moral motives.

Your employer may regard you as nothing but a widget but (1) he'll do that anyway, even if you think that it's unfair or socially irresponsible and (2) you're free to do likewise to your employer. An employer might exploit a labor glut, but you're also free to exploit a labor shortage.

I think that some librarians get far too emotionally invested in their work, and that's why complaints like this are common. They want to save the world, or at least some part of it. They see their work as a moral calling rather than as a way to make money. And I confess that I, too, used to be afflicted with this impaired thinking.

Now, the only reason I go to work is for my paycheck. I earn it fair and square by doing the work that I agreed to do for that paycheck, and no more. If other people benefit or social goods are attained, it is of no consequence so me; only that I get paid.

And I'm quite open about this. My employer doesn't mind because I do my job well.

If you don't think that an employer is paying you enough money, don't work there. You have no moral duty to care about society in general or any institution or profession in particular. You're free to act in your self-interest, and so is everyone else.

Pounding Feet, III

A few months ago, I ran six miles. I did it again today, but at 7 MPH instead of 6 MPH.

Next week, I'll increase the speed on the treadmill to 8 MPH and start over again at 2 miles.

I'm also making progress toward my goal of doing 100 push-ups in a single set. So far, I'm up to 64.

At 33, I'm in the best shape of my life.

Why Star Trek Sucks

Normally, I would not entertain such blasphemy as Charles Stross' screed denouncing Star Trek. But this is an issue that should be addressed. First, Stross cites Roger Moore's recent speech on the subject:

He described how the writers would just insert "tech" into the scripts whenever they needed to resolve a story or plot line, then they'd have consultants fill in the appropriate words (aka technobabble) later.

"It became the solution to so many plot lines and so many stories," Moore said. "It was so mechanical that we had science consultants who would just come up with the words for us and we'd just write 'tech' in the script. You know, Picard would say 'Commander La Forge, tech the tech to the warp drive.' I'm serious. If you look at those scripts, you'll see that."

Moore then went on to describe how a typical script might read before the science consultants did their thing:

La Forge: "Captain, the tech is overteching."

Picard: "Well, route the auxiliary tech to the tech, Mr. La Forge."

La Forge: "No, Captain. Captain, I've tried to tech the tech, and it won't
work."

Picard: "Well, then we're doomed."

"And then Data pops up and says, 'Captain, there is a theory that if you tech the other tech ... '" Moore said. "It's a rhythm and it's a structure, and the words are meaningless. It's not about anything except just sort of going through this dance of how they tech their way out of it."

Stross then goes on to say:

As you probably guessed, this is not how I write SF — in fact, it's the antithesis of everything I enjoy in an SF novel.

SF, at its best, is an exploration of the human condition under circumstances that we can conceive of existing, but which don't currently exist (either because the technology doesn't exist, or there are gaps in our scientific model of the universe, or just because we're short of big meteoroids on a collision course with the Sea of Japan — the situation is improbable but not implausible).

There's an implicit feedback between such a situation and the characters who are floundering around in it, trying to survive. For example: You want to deflect that civilization-killing asteroid? You need to find some way of getting there. It's going to be expensive and difficult, and there's plenty of scope for human drama arising from it. Lo: that's one possible movie in a nutshell. You've got the drama — just add protagonists.

Actually, I kind of get this. Star Trek could be very technobabble-driven. But keeping a universe going for 27 seasons (not counting the movies and the animated show) requires some formulaic work. A two-hour movie or even a two-season show can create a more coherent, cohesive universe. But it can't produce quantity. And there's something to be said for a steady supply of decent science fiction.

A show like Firefly is glitzy and glamorous, like that cheerleader in high school that you wanted to date, but never got the chance to (and really never had a chance, anyway). Star Trek is the girl you marry. She won't stand you up, she'll be there every night, and you don't have to worry about the relationship getting suddenly cancelled. Sure, she's not cheerleader-hot, but she brings a steady supply of happiness into your life.

And that's not a bad deal.

HT: io9

Klingon-Language Rapper

(YouTube Link)

Klenginem is a German rapper who performs in the Klingon language, mostly modified Eminem songs. Here is his performance of "SuvwI'pu' qan tu'lu'be", which is known in English as "Without Me."

Official Website via Popped Culture

Uninsured by Choice

This morning, I heard this odd commentary on NPR by a recent college graduate about her woes of being uninsured. There are millions of Americans who are so inextricably poor that they cannot afford health insurance and are utterly screwed when they get sick. But I'm not convinced that Molly Adams is one of them.

"So what do you do?" is a question people ask a lot when you're fresh out of college. I'm a freelancer, doing all kinds of broadcast production jobs. But that doesn't cover my rent, so I'm also a bartender. And neither of these jobs comes with health insurance.

I do some freelance writing on the side, too. But Ms. Adams: very, very few people manage to earn a living doing freelance anything. Broadcasting? Is there a job market for that? It's time to re-assess priorities. Hie thee to the nearest big box retailer and apply for work there. Do that at about ten others, too. Sure, the work is rough, but these companies offer medical insurance.

Freelancing is not the path to financial security. If you can get there, that's great! But you need a serious back-up plan because the odds are not good. Get yourself a drone job and do freelancing on the side.

A few weeks ago, before I was dropped from my parents' plan, I had an eye exam and a physical. It was like a last meal. I asked way more questions than I ever did before. I've started flossing my teeth every day, something I never did when I knew I could go to a dentist if I had a problem.

It's amazing how valuable things become when you suddenly have to pay for them.

I have co-workers at the restaurant where I work who have never been able to put more than $2,000 into their checking accounts — and it's not just the artists. I know many people who are waiting tables or tending bar while they work two unpaid internships to earn a place in a company. That's why a lot of us are just not that into health care — it doesn't make a lot of financial sense.

You know what doesn't make a lot of financial sense? Working two unpaid internships (I speak from experience). Now if your friends think that the potential payoffs -- fantastic jobs -- are worth the risks, then they should take the risks. But they should be prepared for their bet not going their way.

But I do worry about a catastrophic event. I ride my bike a lot in a city filled with bad drivers. I worry about getting into an accident. And when I think about not being covered, and maybe having to spend $20,000 on a broken leg, I admit I get bitter. Why is it that I'm working 40 hours a week, contributing to society, and yet I still don't have health insurance? Aren't I earning it?

Ms. Adams, society doesn't owe you anything. Even your employer doesn't owe you anything beyond the wages that you've agreed to work for. You don't get insurance by contributing to society. You get insurance by getting a job that offers it. You get insurance by deciding that having it is worth not having the exact job that you want.

You may decide that a potential future that springs from your freelance broadcasting jobs is worth the risk of going without insurance. But you're the one making that decision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now it may seem like I'm a bit condescending to Molly Adams and her perspective. Or more than a bit. To clarify: I'm not at all surprised that a recent college graduate is discovering that her dream job will not appear and immediately elevate her into the lifestyle that she wants.

After all, I used to be that kid. I was 22 and had a history degree. But I had insurance within a few months of graduating because I went to work in a warehouse shoving boxes around. The job was awful and the pay unimpressive, but I wanted a job that offered insurance. So I went out and got one.

I'm not surprised that a young, recent college graduate has an adolescent view of the world. But I am surprised that NPR found this opinion worthy of national broadcast.

Vivaldi on an Accordion

(YouTube Link)

Alexandr Hrustevich plays part of the Summer concerto from Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons'. This is quite an amazing performance.

Hat tip to Minnesotastan at Neatorama.

Seven New Professors on RateMyProfessor.com

Including Professor Xavier, Indiana Jones, and Dumbledore.

Nobel Prize Categories I'd Like To See

• Best Legs
• Monster Truck
• Kirk/Spock Slash Fiction
• Yoda Impersonation
• Astrology

Add your own in the comments.

Art Blogging: Jeremiah Ketner

Jeremiah Ketner is a Chicago-based artist who depicts colorful, carefree, images of flowers and fairies. He met and married a Japanese woman who took him to Japan. Ever since, he has been mesmerized by modern Japanese aesthetics, and it shows in his work. Ketner is drawn to a simplicity that he finds in nature, particularly flowers. He studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design and the Southern Illinois University. Take Me To Your Special Place, acrylic on wood, 2007.
Mushroom Snacks For Our Serpent, acrylic on wood, 2008.
Another Tomorrow, acrylic on wood, 2008.

You can read an interview with Ketner here. The best part:

What is the strangest comment anyone has ever made about your artwork?

One guy thought I was an Asian female. Then he met me, and seemed highly disappointed.

Quick Reviews of the New DC Animated Movies

Today, I watched Batman/Superman: Public Enemies. In the midst of economic chaos, Lex Luthor is elected President of the United States. He immediately moves to bring superheroes under his control by co-opting those who accept official recognition and using them to capture those who won't join him. Batman and Superman become outlaws, all while an asteroid made of kryptonite continues its collision course with earth.

The movie is a 66-minute thrill ride and quite rewarding for the DC fan. The plot is fast, the action is well-directed, and atmosphere is serious. The movie features the original voice actors from the DC Animated Universe, which is a nice touch.


A few weeks ago, I watched Green Lantern: First Flight. Unlike Batman/Superman, which assumes that viewers are completely familiar with the characters and general mythos, this is a superhero origins movie, as well as a cop story. So its main failing is that it compresses a lot into 77 minutes. In the first twenty minutes, Hal Jordon learns of the existence of aliens, is recruited into an alien police force, and is dispatched on his first interstellar mission. He doesn't seem to suffer any mental whiplash at all of these changes, which is a bit unrealistic. Still, I don't think that a writing team could have done a better job of fitting the entire Green Lantern story into a short movie, so it's a forgivable error. Overall, it's a good superhero movie.

Congratulations to Ironic Catholic

...on the birth of her son.

The Button

"Button, Button" is one of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone. A mysterious stranger gives a woman in desperate financial straits a box with a button on it. She's told that if she pushes it, she will receive one million dollars. And someone, somewhere in the world, that she doesn't know, will die. She and her husband feud throughout the episode about whether or not to push the button before ultimately coming to a decision.

This funny short film imagines the a very different outcome for the scenario.

The Button - watch more funny videos

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

I finally got around to seeing Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. This 43-minute film by Joss Whedon is a combination superhero film, musical, and tragicomedy. I can enthusiastically recommend it: funny, touching, and remarkably tolerable for a musical.

An unsuccessful mad scientist falls in love with a girl that he often sees at the laundromat. Can he win her heart and make it as a supervillain?

You can watch a full screen, high-quality definition here.

Art Blogging: Eric Carle

Eric Carle (1929- ) is an American illustrator, famous for his work in children's books. A native of Syracuse, New York the and son of German immigrant parents, he moved to Germany at the age of six. He remained there and studied art at the Akademie der bildenden Künste. In 1952, he returned to the United States, where he worked in graphic design and advertising. Carle was recruited to illustrate the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? in 1967, and he quickly became a star in the field of chidren's book illustration. His primary medium is collages of hand-painted papers, layered to provide different colors, shapes, and textures.

Carle's most famous book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar, published in 1969.

Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? is currently my daughter's favorite book. She regards the Red Fox (the first animal that the bear encounters) as the finest of Carle's works.

An illustration from the 1971 book Have You Seen My Cat?.

The Batman Musical

The current Batman TV series, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, is a pre-Dark Knight light-hearted show. There's even a musical episode.

Part 1:

(YouTube Link)

Part 2:

(Video Link)

Part 3:

(YouTube Link)

Parenting Advice

So my daughter is now one year old and crawling all over the place. She absolutely loves books and will often crawl over to her shelf, grab a picture book, and then drag it over for Mommy or Daddy to read to her. When she hands you a book, your job is to read it immediately, and she will let you know quite loudly that delay is unacceptable.

Sometimes she will drag a book over to the dog and prompt him to read it to her. But he is a dog, and so does not. This gets her very frustrated and again, she expresses her feelings vocally. My question is, experienced mothers and fathers: how can I get my dog to be more cooperative?

Caveman Science Fiction

A comic strip about a primitive made scientist whose ambition goes too far. Via Miss Cellania.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

I finished reading Canticle. It's a post-apocalyptic novel set in a Catholic monastery a few centuries after a nuclear war reduced the world to Iron Age-level technology. This is a dynastic novel that follows the monastery's inhabitants throughout the ages, as humanity gradually rebuilds. Miller has written a carefully-crafted work, where each word and phrase, particularly in the dialogue, is thoughtfully selected. A substantial portion of the novel is in untranslated Latin, but it's possible to get the gist of what's going on, even if you can't read that language. The book is an interesting sociological and theological exploration, and I think that many Christian readers of this blog might enjoy it.

I'm also working on two other novels. The first is The Foresight War, an alternate history of World War II by Anthony G. Williams. There are, I think, two types of alternate histories. Many novels labeled as such are murder mysteries or whole plots simply located within alternate realities, such as Fatherland and The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which address the larger alternate events only tangentially. Others focus primarily on those changing events themselves, as one finds among the works of Harry Turtledove and Harry Harrison.

I prefer the latter category, and The Foresight War fits squarely within that subgenre. The point of departure is that a British military historian is transported back in time to 1934. No explanation is given -- it is simply a deus ex machina. He is able to persuade certain British politicians that he is indeed from the future, and that his warnings about the rise of Nazi Germany are real. Consequently, the UK is far better prepared for war when it breaks out in 1939.

The other novel is Depth of Revenge by Richard Golden. It is about an Israeli nuclear missile submarine. One day, they receive information that a surprise nuclear attack has essentially destroyed their nation, as well as the chain of command that authorizes them to launch their missiles. Inside the captain's safe is a letter, written by the Prime Minister, that he is to open in the event of such a disaster. Golden's book has very little dialogue and focuses on the action and the captain's thoughts. That's the way that I like speculative fiction in general -- shut up and get to the action.

Adam & Eve in the 'Friend Zone'

(Video Link)

Adam tries to jump ladders with Eve and be more than 'just friends'. It doesn't work.

Monty Python Turns 40 Today

(YouTube Link)

The first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus aired 40 years ago today. You can view many clips of that show at the official YouTube channel.

The above video is of my favorite sketch -- "Argument Clinic." What's your favorite sketch?

HT: Megan McArdle

Winston Churchill Motivational Posters

If you haven't ever seen the blog The Art of Manliness, you must check it out. It is a clarion call for and examination of (an idealized) classical masculinity. Most recently, the authors produced a series of motivational posters using pictures of and quotations by Winston Churchill.

While preparing for the birth of our first child, my wife and I considered different baby names. I thought that if I had a son, he should be named after a great man that he could really look up to. Winston Churchill was easily within the top five (others included George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and William-Adolphe Bouguereau). Well, we had a girl, and my wife prudently pointed out Winston is an odd name. The latter is sad, for Sir Winston would be the sort of man that I would like a son to emulate.

I'm Posting This For My Mother-In-Law

(YouTube Link)

Although I assume that other readers will be entertained by this Australian school answering machine message.

HT: YesButNoButYes

The Proclamations of Malthusian Prophets

Among the Jehovah's Witnesses, there is a pervasive sense of impending, eminent, armageddon. But in the early decades of this movement's history, the eschaton was not only eminent, but tied to specific dates. The first date was 1914. Observers noted at the time that the world did not end. So the leaders of the movement concocted an explanation for why the world had not ended but that they were not actually wrong to say so, and pushed the real date forward to 1918. Later, the same prediction was rolled forward to 1925, 1941, and 1975. At none of these points did the world end, and the failure of these predictions to come true did much to discredit the Jehovah's Witnesses -- at least among critics. Alas, the failed prophecies did not do enough to discredit the movement, and it is presently thriving and growing around the world.

I was reminded of this slice of history upon reading an article in Scientific American entitled "Another Inconvenient Truth: The World's Growing Population Poses a Malthusian Dilemma." It contains the usual doomsday predictions made by Malthusians for more than a century: that the world cannot support an increased human population, and that mass famines are inevitable. You may have heard of Paul Ehrlich, a major eschatologist of the 1960s and 70s, whose book The Population Bomb was a best-seller. His dire predictions, extended decade after decade, did not come to pass, yet he still thrives as a paid writer and speaker.

And now another generation of prophets makes the same predictions, based upon the same models, for the near future. Despite their track record, I'm willing to hear them out.

But this is absolutely critical: the current crop of prophets must explain why previous predictions have never come true. They must explain why the Malthusian methodology was flawed, and how their methodology is substantially different.

Otherwise, there's no reason to take them seriously.

Abbot and Costello: Math is Hard

(Video Link -- via Have You Seen This?)

Question of the Day

Should/do U.S. states, cities, and regions have the right to secede from federal control?

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round for All Eternity

One of the strange things about having a kid is that a new genre of music suddenly invades your life and takes up housekeeping. Many of these songs demonstrate an ability to get stuck in one's head and never leave. That's how, recently, I found myself quietly singing "Baby Beluga" one evening while walking the dog. In public. It couldn't have been something cool, like Metallica's "The Unforgiven" that decided to take up residence in my brain. It had to be "Baby Beluga".