:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Saturday, November 15, 2003 ::

California Insider - $62 billion

And so, if Schwarzenegger is somehow going to balance the budget while cutting the car tax and increasing no other taxes, he must cut $4 billion, or about 5 percent, from this year’s spending (with half the year already gone), and then freeze spending for the following year. But programmed spending, absent any changes in law, is already projected to rise on its own to $87 billion in the fiscal year that begins July 1. So he must cut $14 billion, or 16 percent, from that number. And if he is going to leave untouched school spending dictated by Proposition 98, he must cut his $14 billion from $56 billion, which is the projected spending for the non-education part of the budget. That’s a reduction of 25 percent.

:: Jim Nichols 11/15/2003 08:22:00 PM [+] ::
...

"Friendship is not that relationship where all is relaxed but the relationship where one's highest faculties are poised for graceful movement." --Ted Blanton

:: Jim Nichols 11/15/2003 02:03:00 AM [+] ::
...

Yahoo! News - Radical Cheerleaders Rah-Rah in Protest: "They fight bombs with pompoms and kick high for consciousness. The Radical Cheerleaders, a loose network of young, mostly female activists, have put a new face on protest. Using the same moves performed by a high school pep squad, they've heckled for livable wages at an Alabama Taco Bell, chanted anti-war rhymes on Boston Common and marched in the Saskatchewan Pride Parade. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/15/2003 01:11:00 AM [+] ::
...

Salon.com News | Burying brutal truths about war: "Burying brutal truths about war
The Toledo Blade exposed a shocking massacre by U.S. troops in Vietnam that was covered up for three decades, but the media has largely ignored the story. Is the press more timid during wartime?"

:: Jim Nichols 11/15/2003 12:52:00 AM [+] ::
...

Salon.com News | The great debate, reloaded: "Before the invasion, Hitchens and his fellow hawks either completely failed to acknowledge this risk, or downplayed it as a nonissue. And now that events have forced them to admit that, yes, Houston, we have a problem, they have a simple answer: They're Islamo-fascists. They're the bad guys. They're al-Qaida, they're Saddam. Kill them all and let Allah sort them out. This kind of thinking is attractive to those inclined to unitary answers, satisfyingly visceral responses to terrorist atrocities like 9/11 and grand moral causes. But one need not go as far as the Stalinist left -- the ANSWER crowd is so historically ignorant and morally myopic that they refuse to acknowledge that ousting Saddam was a noble achievement and call those fighting the U.S. in Iraq 'freedom fighters' -- to recognize that simply calling our foes 'terrorists' and lumping them all together as 'Islamo-fascists' is simplistic. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/15/2003 12:31:00 AM [+] ::
...

Why not....
Salon.com News | The Democrats' campaign blues:

"'There's been a ratchet toward the antiwar left in Iowa as a result of the Dean surge, but the good news is that a lot of the swing voters and moderates aren't paying attention yet,' said the Progressive Policy Institute's Marshall. 'But the candidates have got to be careful, because you can't say one thing now and then strike a diametrically opposed position next November.' "

Bush did exactly that!! What was South Carolina but one big honkey tonk for Right Wing causes... then appearently everyone plugged their ears and were willing to buy into his reworked (reRoved?) message. To which everyone was all shocked once he was in office because of how conservative he turned out to be. And I'm thinking shit? was anybody listening in South Carolina....

:: Jim Nichols 11/15/2003 12:10:00 AM [+] ::
...

Salon.com Comics | This Modern World: Chicken Hawk Down

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 11:53:00 PM [+] ::
...

W is for What?

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 08:58:00 AM [+] ::
...

Chasing Bush - Tracking George W. Bush throughout his UK visit

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 08:48:00 AM [+] ::
...

Beautiful
Hit & Run: Doctoring the Numbers

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 08:46:00 AM [+] ::
...

Guardian Unlimited Film | Features | 40 best directors

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 08:38:00 AM [+] ::
...

The New Yorker: The Critics: Books: "I want to be a poet, and I’m working to turn myself into a seer. . . . It has to do with making your way toward the unknown by a derangement of all the senses. . . "

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 07:43:00 AM [+] ::
...

Now i'm really in trouble

I'm starting up a newsletter. I figure it will make me sit down once a week and write something a little more substantial than the common 3/4 line blog with link that I tend to do. I figure it will just be a round-up of some of my favorite articles on the web of late, as well as any random thoughts I might have... cause I do have lots of random thoughts. I promise its only gonna be once a week.

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 06:37:00 AM [+] ::
...

Bush, Iraq, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Something just struck me. A lot of Republicans and other pro-Bush folks have been working extra hard of late trying to show that Bush and Co. didn't actually imply that Iraq and their (up to this point non-existent) WMD were an immediate threat to the security of the United States. One catch though... if they didn't lie to us--one could, though I wouldn't, make the argument--"for our own good;" then that just makes the administration seem utterly incompotent. I think its funny that the hawks wanted to be cut loose specifically to prove the superiority of U.S. hegemony; and now our humbling showing of absolute lack of omnipotence is undermining the credibility that we presumably could have claimed (and oh did they ever) that we were just holding in the wings for when it was truly necessary. Secrets out... gigs up... Empires are still Empires.... theres always a "hey we're extended too far button" flashing at some point on the game screen.

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 06:05:00 AM [+] ::
...

"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 05:57:00 AM [+] ::
...

Strauss keeps popping up everywhere on my radar screen. To say the least i'm completely intrigued by it all. I just found out that appearently most the theorist in my department a Straussians. Noble lies and perpetual war: Leo Strauss, the neo-cons, and Iraq Danny Postel - openDemocracy, Leo Strauss, the Straussians and American foreign policy Mark Blitz - openDemocracy, Leo Strauss's American Gang, Foreign Policy In Focus | Global Affairs Commentary | The Strong Must Rule the Weak: A Philosopher for an Empire, The Long Reach of Leo Strauss, What Hath Strauss Wrought?, Philosophers and Kings, What was Leo Strauss up to?, "Con Tract" by Laura Rozen

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 05:53:00 AM [+] ::
...

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China's forgotten Aids victims: "'They are waiting for us to die,' one villager told me. 'Once we are all dead their problem will be solved'. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 05:42:00 AM [+] ::
...

Yahoo! News - Boondocks

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 12:26:00 AM [+] ::
...

Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers: "The commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks said on Thursday that its deal with the White House for access to highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports would let the White House edit the documents before they were released to the commission's representatives."

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 12:20:00 AM [+] ::
...

Now this is 3 in the morning fun.

buddhist - zefrank.com

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 12:14:00 AM [+] ::
...

Critical Mass: What you can't say at Emory:

:: Jim Nichols 11/14/2003 12:07:00 AM [+] ::
...

Amen

tonypierce.com + busblog: "who am i so worried about?

howard stern has shown that you dont have to give a fuck and you can still rule the world.

rush limbaugh has never given a fuck - other than by selling out to the right when it was trendy to do so - and he now gets to do bottles of pills, go to rehab for a few weeks and then get his old job back and not have to worry about prison, which is mostly filled with guys who got busted cuz of lots of drugs.

the president doesnt give a fuck about what the voters think, or about the UN, or anyone other than him and his people.

and now even the snow doesnt give a fuck where it lands.

so why do i run around caring so much?"

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 11:59:00 PM [+] ::
...

I just started up a guestbook... please sign up. Let me know who's reading me people!!

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 11:47:00 PM [+] ::
...

I guess thats 10 points for the don't fuck with god camp
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Jesus actor struck by lightning need I say more...

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 11:34:00 PM [+] ::
...

These are cool

Anti-USA Posters East German Anti-American posters

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 11:33:00 PM [+] ::
...

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: November 09, 2003 - November 15, 2003 Archives: "The retreat of South Korea and Japan must be added to that of Turkey, which has also pulled back on earlier pledges to supply troops. The winter of 2003-2004 looks to be shaping up as a dark replay of that of the year previous. Only now with a difference. Last year our near total isolation could be floated on tough talk and denigration. It was, after all, theoretical. We had a nominal need for friends. We needed to get a UN resolution. We wanted the Europeans behind us. We wanted support from countries like Turkey and the Arab states. But our need was predicted and probable, not concrete, not immediate. Now it’s really concrete. We are literally begging for assistance and not getting it."

"In this whole unfortunate business, the White House took our preeminence and mistook it for omnipotence or something near to it. And by treating our preeminence as omnipotence they’ve put our preeminence into question."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 11:20:00 PM [+] ::
...

Thats gonna be me in 2,050 years... Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | Play's first staging for 2,050 years except it'll be first showings. And if they can fix my other computer they can have my first play... the one that actually did get produced.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 11:11:00 PM [+] ::
...

I went to see a talk at The SHARE Institute tonight. Tonights speaker was an Economics Professor from American River College (can't find anything online on him). His topic was on giving an overview/introduction to Kenya which is where he is originally from. It always amazes me how little I know about the world--I'm talking, the real world; but at the same time the more I learn the more I really truly want to break through that haze of ignorance. I had a really nice time.

The S.H.A.R.E. Institute for anyone who doesn't know about it, is a small N.G.O. that works on womens issues throughout the globe. They do a number of mini-loans, and education programs. Some recent work has been done in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Nicaragua to mention just a few.

Take a look at the site. Make a small donation if you can.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 11:00:00 PM [+] ::
...

Issues for 2004 #1
Up untill the elections I'm gonna be running my list of what I think the issues will (at least should) be. So here it is:

1. Irag
2. Social Security
3. Judicial appointments
4. abortion

okay... now that I've said that I don't think thats saying much... that was pretty obvious (okay this all seemed cooler in my head tonight on the way home)

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:40:00 PM [+] ::
...

Love him or hate him... should be interesting...

A new Dennis Miller show??

Newsday.com - Dennis Miller, Unbalanced: "What everyone does not know particularly well is the 'who.' As is: Who really and truly is this amusing fellow with the hydrochloric acid wit? Liberal or conservative? Democrat or Republican? Funny or serious? But as one of the great moving-target acts in American show business, Miller (who turned 50 last week) is not in an entirely obliging mood on these questions. He is not - he explained emphatically in a recent interview - a journalist, even though he studied to be one in college and his new show putatively deals with the news. He recalls talking to a prospective boss at some newspaper 'who told me he'd pay me by the column inch. He saw a Road Runner column of dust.'"

"The show, he also explains, 'will not be fair and balanced. If I disagree with someone, I can be unfair and unbalanced. ... In America, we're so interested in keeping things balanced that we've lost our minds.'" Amen brother Miller.....

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:24:00 PM [+] ::
...

I've found me another one
AnalPhilosopher
Okay this is an excellent blog. Its amazing all the things you can find on the web; intellegent, interesting people... keeps my faith....errr intrigue in the human race.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:01:00 PM [+] ::
...

Extremely well put
AnalPhilosopher

Scientists, too, risk losing whatever authority and respect they once had when they enter into public-policy debates. Economists are the worst culprits. Economics aspires to be a science, but many of its practitioners believe that they can and should take normative stands on matters of policy and principle. Where did economists get normative expertise? I’m dumbfounded by the arrogance. Economics will earn respect as a science only when its practitioners cease evaluating. They have a great deal to contribute to public affairs. What they have to contribute is an understanding of how things are, not how they ought to be. Economics is the science of means, not of ends. It issues hypothetical imperatives, not categorical imperatives. It is said that many social-scientists have physics envy. Perhaps they envy the authority of physicists. If so, they should focus on facts, as physicists do. Physics earns its authority the old-fashioned way: by staying above the fray.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 09:50:00 PM [+] ::
...

very timely
"The fetters imposed on liberty at home have ever been forged out of
the weapons provided for defence against real, pretended, or imaginary
dangers from abroad." -James Madison

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 05:21:00 PM [+] ::
...

i'm such a child... these things are fun to me

My inner child is sixteen years old!

Life's not fair! It's never been fair, but while
adults might just accept that, I know
something's gotta change. And it's gonna
change, just as soon as I become an adult and
get some power of my own.


How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 05:18:00 PM [+] ::
...

"I do not seek, I find."
-- Pablo Picasso

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 05:15:00 PM [+] ::
...

May 8th Rally in Sacramento - www.may8.org

Put Students First!
Not One Dollar Cut From Public Education!

Education Not Incarceration is a group of teachers, parents, students, and community members who are outraged by the current cuts in education funding. We believe that the state budget needs to prioritize education funding, as well as funding for other important social services, over increased spending on prisons.
Why Education Not Incarceration? With the state budget in crisis, legislators and Gov. Gray Davis are looking for spending cuts - the problem is they are looking toward public education and other social services to find their savings. In the meantime, they are looking to increase spending on the state prison system. Rather than looking for alternatives to incarceration for our youth, it appears that the state would be willing to make more drop outs, increase the achievement gap, and create an environment that pushes kids out of schools and onto the streets. Apparently our students are worth more to the state legislature in jails rather than in schools...

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 04:48:00 PM [+] ::
...

Sad if true... sad if not true
One of the most powerful things about the web is the fact that it has allowed people to see how easy it is to manufacture truth; how many sides there can be to one story; and so on and so on. I think its really healthy because it makes people ask those scary questions: whats real?; whats true?; how do you know?; who do you believe?

Apperently this women who had an aol online journal died in a car accident and her friend has come on to her journal to tell everyone.

Is it real? Death from a car accident is something so unimaginable you want it to be a hoax. Creating a hoax about something like that is so disgusting that you just want to curl up in a ball and beg for truth, and the existence of a stable objective world, to suddenly appear and make everything okay and understandable for that little voice inside your head. As Buzzmachine notes:

See the discussion in the comments on whether this is legitimate. I hate such discussions. People wondered whether Salam Pax was real even as the bombs were falling on him. People wonder whether this is real. It's an important part of what we do as a community: This is fact-checking the new way. But it's (a) sick if someone made this up and (b) sad that we have to wonder.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 04:34:00 PM [+] ::
...

Ashley Highfield, BBC director of new media, live online, Thursday November 13 @ 4pm: "one of the key social trends that we've noticed is, in a fragmenting society, people want to get more involved in their media consumption, want to contribute, sometimes as a substitute for real-world communities."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 04:18:00 PM [+] ::
...

Ashley Highfield, BBC director of new media, live online, Thursday November 13 @ 4pm: "One of the biggest shifts in News reporting I think is that the reports do not all have to come from our reporters. Increasingly, our audience can submit articles, views, comments, photos, and even video footage. The big challenge in this world is how to maintain both impartiality and quality in this world of user generated content. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 04:18:00 PM [+] ::
...

INTRODUCTION TO NIETZSCHE

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 02:52:00 PM [+] ::
...

Since everyone else and their mother are chimeing in

I thought i'd throw my two cents in on how to fix Iraq.

1) More troops (preferably: non U.S.) with a time table of say 10 years (which means Washington is gonna need to do some major grovelling to get other countries to sign on. I mean serious bribery and ass kissing... America wanted this war now its gonna have to pay for it (see ya tax cuts!)) And I think the voting public needs to realize the rest of the world is not gonna want to work with G.W. and Company (another reason to kick 'em out)
2) Getting Iraqi's properly trained to enable a slow transition for protecting the country (meaning by the end the of the 10 years forign troops should be sitting inside barracks outside of the cities doing nothing... hell they should prob. spend the last 4 years never seen and never heard from cause the jobs being done and they aren't needed)
3) more money for legitimate contracts
4) all of this working with (and if possible through) the U.N.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 02:29:00 PM [+] ::
...

I keep saying i'm gonna give it a shot... but I haven't yet...

Op-Ed Columnist: Love, Internet Style: "Online dating puts structure back into courtship."

"Most of the sites have programs that link you up with people like yourself. One of the side effects of online dating is that it is bound to accelerate social stratification, as highly educated people become more efficient at finding and marrying one another."

"If you judged by these essays, skinny-dipping with intellectuals is the most popular activity in America." hey, that'd be fun!

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 02:13:00 PM [+] ::
...

"I want to pump you up," "clean house," and then hang you out to dry...

This whole state and local politics thing has been new for me. Up until the recall I've never really cared--I know I know local politics are much more important shame on me. Well I'm finally getting into the action. You know knowledge really does keep people out... when you don't know what's going on its hard to get your foot in the door cause you feel overwhelmed and stupid... but once you're in for some reason all that stuff just seems to fade away. Anyways my point was I really think CA voters are in for a ride; this fiasco isn't over yet. The Schwarzenegger campaign was a fraud (okay every campaign is a fraud) and the only people to be irritated at are the voters. When I talk to most people who voted for Schwarzenegger they have all these delusions about him and how he's gonna run government. Well let me let you in on a secret; most the things people hate(ed) about Davis and "insiders" were/are systemic and you'll see all the same shit from anyone in office. Schwarzenegger is already taking in money (what happened to Mr. Clean?) Now take a look at the replacement whose supposed to lead the changes in the budget... funny... she likes all Cali's old tricks--will we get something different? I don't think so... we'll just have to wait and see.

sacbee.com -- Opinion -- Peter Schrag: Circuit-riding budget whiz comes to California: "Arduin gets warm praise from her former bosses, but everywhere she's been some mess gets deferred."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 02:02:00 PM [+] ::
...

Hey, we all have to have goals
I'm gonna shoot for 1000 visitors in 2 weeks.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 01:40:00 PM [+] ::
...

I know you'll think its stupid but...

I've been in therapy for a little over a year now. Reaching that year mark really made me do a lot of thinking about what the point was; why was I in therapy? I can tell you that it has been both one of the most intellectually draining and intellectually stimulating experiences of my life. In my head recently i've been thinking of ideas about this novel I want to write on what i'd consider utopia; not cause I think you can make utopia but because I think its important to always have something out in front of you to remind you of what could be. Anyways I've realized that I think everyone should be in therapy; maybe not weekly but at least over some consistent time period. And its not because I want to create a whole new market of clients for therapist; the other half of my thoughts on this is that I think everyone should also be trained to participate as a therapist. So you'd have lots of part time therapists running around. It'd really get people to not only look at their own lives more in depth, but also learn how to respectfully participate in another persons endeavors into looking into their life. If we all did a little more introspective work and worked at helping others to do the same, maybe we'd have a different perspective on the world. I'm specifically saying it would be a better one (though i'm inclined to think so); I just think it'd definitely be different.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 01:33:00 PM [+] ::
...

Go figure...
U.S. to Push for Iraqis to Take On Bigger Role, Bush Says: "The United States is developing a plan to 'encourage more Iraqis to assume more responsibility' quickly in governing the country, President Bush said today as the top military commander in Iraq blamed most of the violence there on a desperate band of no more than 5,000."

is it just me or does "encourage more Iraqis to assume more responsibility" have a very pejorative connotation to it... as if Iraqis' were neglecting their jobs and we had to swoop in and save them; instead of the other way around where we run things?

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 01:05:00 PM [+] ::
...

Please look at the man behind the curtain... and not the policys... oh and look at how mean people are to him

Spinsanity - The Republican assault on "political hate speech": "Gillespie originally debuted the term during an appearance with Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe on NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sept. 7:

The kind of rhetoric you hear from [Democratic presidential candidates] ... on either side of the aisle, Ronald Reagan never said Jimmy Carter couldn't find countries in his own hemisphere. Walter Mondale never said that President Reagan was a miserable failure. When Bill Clinton ran against President Bush, he didn't compare him to Saddam Hussein or the Taliban. And when Bob Dole ran against President Clinton, he didn't say that he was an absolute phony or a liar. The kind of words we're hearing now from the Democratic candidates go beyond political debate. This is political hate speech."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 12:32:00 PM [+] ::
...

"Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which
I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as
brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
-- George Bernard Shaw

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 12:11:00 PM [+] ::
...

bloggy: GOP Love Boat: "GOP Love Boat "

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 12:01:00 PM [+] ::
...

Philosoraptor: "Strangely, we’ve always recognized that it’s bad to be a loutish woman or a sissified man—in fact, we’ve traditionally exaggerated the badness of those things. But to this day some people still think that it’s o.k. to be a loutish man or a sissified woman. It isn’t. Everybody should be at least moderately self-reliant and courageous, and everybody should be at least moderately kind and cooperative."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 11:15:00 AM [+] ::
...

Happiness in slavery....

Religion Helps Shape Wealth Of Americans, Study Finds: "“Religion is an important factor in wealth accumulation, a factor that hasn’t received a lot of attention,” "

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 11:11:00 AM [+] ::
...

tonypierce.com + busblog: "theres good news and bad news to having more than a dozen readers to your blog. lets start with the bad news.

bad news is, if you find yourself in a moment of sadness and you want to write about that feeling, people will start emailing and commenting with words of advice. which is super nice. dont get me wrong. but sometimes a guy just wants to write about how depressed he is, just to vent.

other bad news comes when the guy's mom reads about how he wants to fling his black helicopter into the side of a mountain. it can be hard to explain to her that what he's writing isnt literal, that its symbolic, dramatic. its not a cry for help. its just representative of wanting the madness to end. it's far from suicidal."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:59:00 AM [+] ::
...

See the scary thing is I really think a lot of people will buy into the administrations oh so sad plight of having to have information analyzed. When will people realize objective anything... be it media, opinion, truth.... is a fraud. Everyone has a side... only fascists want to try to just circumvent the process and not have it out in the marketplace of ideas

It’s Bagh-SPAN: Bremer Bunch Will Broadcast: "The Coalition Provisional Authority running Iraq, created by the Bush administration, dissatisfied with the American television news decisions on covering the conflict, is about to create its own broadcast operation, with the capacity to bypass the networks, live from Iraq, 24 hours a day."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:51:00 AM [+] ::
...

The land of the free...

Radio Ink - The Voice of Radio Revolution: "According to the Illinois Leader, a National Guard soldier based in Rockford, IL, who blasted President Bush on a local radio talk show Friday, may face court martial for her public comments."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:46:00 AM [+] ::
...

remarkable facial hair, but not much of it was what you'd call thrillingly telegenic.
EducationGuardian.co.uk | Arts & Humanities | Stuart Jeffries: How to make philosophers telegenic: "Philosophers have beards, wear glasses and smoke a pipe. So just how would Stuart Jeffries make them - and their ideas - look interesting for his short film?"

"For it is a truth insufficiently acknowledged that television is a fundamentally visual medium, while philosophy lends itself to visual representation about as much as George W Bush lends himself to commendation by the Plain English Campaign."

--------
god philosophers are an odd bunch...

"the history of western philosophy is a televisually untapped mine of great stories. Hegel put the finishing touches to the Phenomenology of Spirit as the Battle of Jena raged outisde the city walls. Wittgenstein wrote the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus while serving in the Austrian army in the first world war. There are stories that cry out to be told: Althusser's home life, Foucault's gay romps, Russell's hetero philandering, Deleuze's death plunge, Gramsci's imprisonment, Hannah Arendt's successful escape from the Gestapo, Walter Benjamin's doomed flight from Nazism across the Pyrenees, royalist Thomas Hobbes' flight to France to avoid the wrath of the Roundheads, Descartes meditating in an oven, the death of Socrates."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:24:00 AM [+] ::
...

St. Petersburg Times Online: Jeb Bush jokes people of San Francisco may be endangered: "'It looks like the people of San Francisco are an endangered species, which may not be a bad thing. That's probably good news for the country.'"

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:23:00 AM [+] ::
...

Telegraph | Education | Why children should be equal: "Sticking with justice, I assume we can agree that private schools are unfair, in that they conflict with equality of opportunity. It's unfair that a child's prospects in life should depend on her social background, on her parent's willingness and ability to pay for an education better than others are getting. Principled defences of private schools will, I imagine, concede that , but claim that other values are more important. My mistake is to give fairness, or equality of opportunity, too much weight, or to ignore all the good things that would be sacrificed if we were to pursue it as seriously as I suggest. So let's look at those other good things, and see how much of value would indeed be lost if we were to abolish private schools."

"Freedom of religion, of expression, of sexuality: these are real rights. They protect fundamental human interests - things so important that we all have a duty to respect them even if we'd rather not. Is the freedom to spend your money on an expensive education for your child in that category? No."


"And we shouldn't kid ourselves. With a few honourable exceptions, independent schools are hardly bulwarks of pluralism and variety. The schools in question are typically means by which parents can enable their children better to compete in the game that everybody else is playing. Only rarely are they ways of playing a genuinely different game. "

And then there was an interesting comment on Crookedtimber's blog where I had found the article....

"In America, most of the upper-middle class do not go to private schools. Most move to a really expensive neighborhood with great public schools and send their kids there. The quality of the schools helps to drive up the property values.
The assumption seems to be that “no private school” equals “equality of schooling.” Anyone who has seen the variety of public schools would be under that illusion. Forcing people who live together to school together will merely cut down on people who don’t want to school together from living together. Posted by pathos ·"

Hmmm... shit I don't know what the answer is. Though I do have a big issue with private schools at least in concept.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:08:00 AM [+] ::
...

Got a trial subscription to Oxford English Dictionary. I love it! You can just sit there and read for hours...

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:03:00 AM [+] ::
...

In the cd player

The new Paul Westerberg-- Come feel me tremble

I love it... i've only had a couple of listens and its not as good as Suicaine Gratification--which I think is one of the most brilliant albums ever written--but its really good. I still need to see this guy live

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 10:00:00 AM [+] ::
...

I'm trying my hand at bringing the gospel of Jim to the masses... i'm gonna see if its worth paying 20 bucks a month to advertise. If you wandered in and like what you see drop me a line... the more lines I get the more I will work at making this not just enjoyable for myself but for potential readers.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 09:41:00 AM [+] ::
...

They kicked out the good ole' boy...

Yahoo! News - Ten Commandments Judge Removed From Bench

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 09:37:00 AM [+] ::
...

Grist Magazine: Environmental news and humor

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 09:34:00 AM [+] ::
...

Its funny how science can be "economically inconvenient"

Grist | Muckraker | They blinded me | 12 Nov 2003

In the final days of October, Craig Manson, assistant Interior secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, dealt a "Godfather"-style blow to a team of government biologists that was about to release a final report with flow recommendations for the Missouri River -- a blow that could have a sizable ripple effect on the river itself. The report was to have argued for the need to better mimic the natural flow of the Missouri (releasing more water from hydroelectric dams in the spring and less in the summer) to prevent extinction of the river's endangered sturgeon, tern, and plover populations, and to reduce the risk of future flooding.

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 09:32:00 AM [+] ::
...

this is sad
The Observer | Review | The 100 greatest novels of all time: The list

I don't read enough!
okay lets see....
I once got half way through Count of Monte Cristo
I own wuthering heights (see its right over there on my book shelf)
I own Madame Bovary (rigth below W. Heights)
Alice in Wonderland -- check
The Brothers Karmazov... also sittin on the shelf
The Picture of Dorian Gray... again... shelf... this is embarrassesing (but so is my spelling)
Ulysses... oh yeah sure judge me cause I did my required 3 pages I doubt you understood it anyways
The Great Gatsby.... shelf
Brave New World-- check
The Plague.... shelf
1984..... never finished (isn't that sad)
Catcher in the Rye... Check... though I have to admit it wasn't as great as i'd hoped. I guess I was expecting life changing. I merely got highly entertaining.
Charlotte's Web. I'm gonna say yes... cause i'm almost positive we read it in school (maybe it was just the movie)
On the Road.... some asshole has my copy... I want it back so I can read it again....
To Kill a mockingbird .... school....
okay... so lets see.
Read 6
made the effort (err almost) on 3
own 5 more.
pathetic... pathetic

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 09:13:00 AM [+] ::
...

The False Dichotomy Zone

hey I am a raving athiest in league with satan and the a.c.l.u.!

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 08:53:00 AM [+] ::
...

Maybe its just me but Gore seems so much more enjoyable to watch now. He still has that goofy Goreness (which never really botherd me) that everyone always attacks him for; but now a days he seems a little more fired up. Like I said maybe its just me.

Gore hits culture's reliance on television - Wednesday, 11/12/03: "Gore, speaking on ''Media and Democracy'' at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, told attendees that the decline of newspapers as the country's dominant method of communication leaves average Americans without an outlet for scholarly debate.

''Our democracy is suffering in an age when the dominant medium is not accessible to the average person and does not lend itself most readily to the conveyance of complex ideas about self-governance,'' Gore said. ''Instead, it pushes toward a lowest common denominator.''"

"Gore said a remedy to television's dominance may be the Internet, a ''print-based medium that is extremely accessible to the average person.''"

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 08:45:00 AM [+] ::
...

What happended to objective 2?
President Addresses the Nation: "Our strategy in Iraq has three objectives: destroying the terrorists, enlisting the support of other nations for a free Iraq and helping Iraqis assume responsibility for their own defense and their own future. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 08:37:00 AM [+] ::
...

Nietzsche as Critic and Captive of Enlightenment: "Nietzsche as Critic and Captive of Enlightenment"

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 07:20:00 AM [+] ::
...

Now we know why the guys got problems...

Newsday.com - Who's Looking Out for Him?:

" In Levittown, when I was a kid and you were walking down the street and someone said, 'Hey, O'Reilly, you -- liar,' you punched him. It was like, WHAM!' - he smashes his fist into his hand - 'I can't imagine someone calling my father a liar to his face. He would have killed him.'"

poor guys just suffering, lonely, and angry... (reminds me of myself in a way)....

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 07:16:00 AM [+] ::
...

The Onion | Mom Finds Out About Blog: "In a turn of events the 30-year-old characterized as 'horrifying,' Kevin Widmar announced Tuesday that his mother Lillian has discovered his weblog.

'Apparently, Mom typed [Widmar's employer] Dean Healthcare into Google along with my name and, lo and behold, PlanetKevin popped up,' Widmar said. 'I'm so fucked.'"

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 07:07:00 AM [+] ::
...

Okay this guy rocks...
tonypierce.com + busblog: "you are so fucked up if you are the one who has to chase them. so fucked up. they want you to be like everyone else. they want you to be like the associated press. im not like anyone, and im definitely not like the associated press."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 06:51:00 AM [+] ::
...

I wonder how we get people to think? (more like this guy preferably... he's pissed)
tonypierce.com + busblog:

"hello.

is this thing on?

seems to me, and im just some jerkoff not really paying much attention, but it seems to me that you let those motherfuckers steal the election, you let them get us into this fucked up war, you let them shove the economy right into their assholes and shit it all over your faces, you let them re-do the gubernatorial election in cali and let a potsmoking groping son of a nazi take over, and now youre letting them control the television too?

are you people high?

and the weirdest thing is, bush has a pretty good chance of getting hired for another four years, not because he deserves it, but because you guys cant get it together."

:: Jim Nichols 11/13/2003 06:46:00 AM [+] ::
...

Richard Rorty: "'In my utopia, human solidarity would be seen not as a fact to be recognized by clearing away 'prejudice' or burrowing down to previously hidden depths but, rather, as a goal to be achieved. Is it to be achieved not by inquiry but by imagination, the imaginative ability to see strange people as fellow sufferers. Solidarity is not discovered by reflection but created. It is created by increasing our sensitivity to the particular details of the pain and humiliation of other, unfamiliar sorts of people' --Richard Rorty, 'Contingency, Irony and Solidarity'"

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 07:38:00 PM [+] ::
...

Prints the chaff: Whitey in the Boondocks

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 05:23:00 AM [+] ::
...

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't." --Anatole France

"When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it." --Anatole France

and who is Anatole France you say (or was that just me)... well lets see... Anatole France - Biography: hmmm... learn something new and useless everyday.

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 04:18:00 AM [+] ::
...

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." --E. F. Schumacher

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 04:14:00 AM [+] ::
...

Charles Bukowski: "'There are so many,' she said, 'who go by the name of poet. But they have no training, no feeling for their craft. The savages have taken over the castle. There's no workmanship, no care, simply a demand to be accepted. And these new poet all seem to admire one another. It worries me and I've talked about it to a lot of my poet friends. All a young poet seems to think he needs is a typewriter and a few pieces of paper. They aren't prepared, they have had no preparation at all.' (from Hot Water Music, 1995) "

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 04:07:00 AM [+] ::
...

Sometimes I feel like I should have known BukowskiDon't "unrinate or defecate in the sink"? Hey, but thats what the women I met in New Orleans told me to do... "use the sink," she said, "toilets broken."

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 04:06:00 AM [+] ::
...

haven't really thought about the fact that I haven't been doing any writing. Thats bad. I should know better, I do know better. I just can think of what to say... or why I would want to say it.

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 03:59:00 AM [+] ::
...

Frankly...: At some point:

"At some point

she reaches over,
breaks the tab off his softdrink,
leaving the inner ring intact.
she holds it up squinting through the perfect circle,
"can i make a wish?"
she closes her eyes, squinches up her face....
he leans in and kisses her."

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 03:57:00 AM [+] ::
...

Youth is beauty, money is beauty, hell beauty is beauty sometimes...

Its 3:30... to sleep or not sleep? Does it matter. I have a paper due last week, the professor was cool about it. I just haven't been able to get myself to sit down and write it. I haven't been able to get myself to sit down and do anything. I feel rather lazy and pretty much a waste of space right now; not that the space could possibly be better used--I can be quite spunky at times (....good thing?).

So now i'm just sitting here chilling out, listening to Ani ("So here I am, publicly morphing into some kinda Fortune 500-young-entrepreneur-from-hell, and all along I thought I was just a folksinger !") di and wondering what my life is supposed to amount to. its Okay cause it doesn't have to add up to a hill of beans, making mountains out of molehills is a long forgotten hobby and life is definitely a molehill looking for a mole.

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 03:50:00 AM [+] ::
...

Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 03:32:00 AM [+] ::
...

"The difference between the philosopher and the ordinary person is one of degree, not of kind. His impulses are the same, but ordered differently. No matter how rational he is, he is still a rational animal: a sexual one, for instance, and a social one. His curiosity is more fully developed than theirs, but unless his other faculties are at least as well developed as theirs, this one trait does not make him better than they are." --Karl Jahn

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 01:59:00 AM [+] ::
...

pedantocracy: "A system of government by pedants; a governing body of pedants."

:: Jim Nichols 11/12/2003 01:53:00 AM [+] ::
...

"When we turn our attention to our own minds, we are faced with trying to understand an unimaginable advanced technology. We can't possibly know (let alone keep track of) the tremendous number of mechanical influences on our behavior because we inhabit an extraordinarily complicated machine. So we develop a shorthand, a belief in the causal efficay of our conscious thoughts. We believe in the magic of our own causal agency." --The Illusion of Conscious Will

I don't know who I am, I don't know where i'm going, and I don't know where to start to answer any of these questions.

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2003 11:58:00 PM [+] ::
...

I've been stuck in a free fall for the past month or two. I don't know where its leading, but I need to start trying to write it out of me instead of letting it just sit inside and eat away at my life. So i'm going to do my best to jot it all down here. I kept saying I was gonna sit down and write some dramatic essay on whats been going on in my head... what i'm trying to figure out and put together. But i've been so scattered and unable to concentrate. So what the hell i'm just gonna go at it in small fragments... which is kind of fitting because in the end thats how we come to see and understand the world--in small fragments.

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2003 11:50:00 PM [+] ::
...

Two weeks ago I slept through it, this week I read through it (new chomsky); I keep missing the Gilmore Girls!!! But its okay, I have some good news that will make up for it. Apperently they're finally going to release season one on DVD.

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2003 11:29:00 PM [+] ::
...

I bring good things

I've gotten my friend Tonja to start up a blog: mizukatze's corner o' stuff & stuff

So keep an eye out for it. The beauty about the net is that its completely about merit. She's someone I could see acquiring a big audience fast.

Now I just got to get John, Eagle, Jessica, Evan, Matt, Mike and Aaron (though aaron is busy running a presidential campaign)... then it'll be good times on the web.

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2003 11:19:00 PM [+] ::
...

Ahhhhhhh!!!!

I finally figured out how to blockquote. I may get good at this yet; too bad I can't read up on how to write well.

:: Jim Nichols 11/11/2003 11:08:00 PM [+] ::
...

"Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself." -- Jane Wagner

:: Jim Nichols 11/09/2003 05:00:00 AM [+] ::
...

Matthew Yglesias: "It seems to me that folks on the right have an unhealthy obsession with the trivial and rarely-successful antics of some relatively small groups of college student agitors. "

:: Jim Nichols 11/09/2003 04:27:00 AM [+] ::
...