The Greater Good

This week's SF Weekly (July 21, 2010) contains a list by Benjamin Wachs titled Ban-Wagon. The jist of it lists things our city government might ban for the dreaded Greater-Good.

• Pension Reform
• Things that look like guns
• The 49ers
• LOLcats
• Humor that isn't empowering
• Sex that doesn't offend the Midwest
• Things that are labeled "organic," but aren't organic enough for us
• Books: We all know they're going to die eventually anyway
• Intolerence
• Straight white guys
• Gendered pronouns
• Coffee beans without a romantic origin story

Now I'm sure that this is Irony. I mean the adults on the Circus of Supervisors would never ... Surely the Mayor would want to appear level-headed for his campaign .. A bit of self-depreciation from the chattering class? .. If the same powers that know when to give us rain (when you're out from underneath the awning) have any sway in this matter, Brucecorp's Bay Guardian will take this vital story and run with it.

Back in the real world, this bit of doggerel was sufficient excuse to post a picture of a small town's (Springfield, N.Y.) 4th of July.

Mom's Fruit Salad

Here is a quick recipe I got from my mom. At first blush, it looks like one of those handy housewife - early 60s style insta recipes found in the local church bulletin. (she assures me that in fact, it is exactly that) The extended family loves it, the local church asks for it specifically, and both my sister and I like it. It's straight-up, non-healthy, non-ethnic, verrry non-cosmopolitan, quick, tasty, almost foolproof, plop on your picnic plate food. Don't try to tart this one up. If a more upmarket presentation is required, you're probably better served by starting with gelatin or a Maderia aspic and building from there. If your hot dog and sweet corn need a spoonful of something and cole slaw just won't do, this might be the ticket. (and you would not believe how much slaw gets moved from bowl to dish to garbage in restaurants)

Dry mix 1 box (3oz) lemon jello and 1 box (3 oz) orange jello in serving bowl. Set aside. Combine a 12 oz can of pineapple, 1 can mandarin orange, and 1 cup of grated carrots in a work bowl. Drain and reserve the liquid using water to bring it up to 2 cups. Boil the liquid and use it to melt the jello. Add 1 cup of ice water - mix - add fruit and fridge. Stir after 1 hour.

A quick rule of thumb is 3oz jello, 1½ c fluid, 1 c fruit. If you're in the middle of a heat-waves (like the one that just made N.Y. melt down), you could drop a tablespoon or two of fluid to make things stiffer. The almost foolproof remark comes from the inclusion of pineapple. Fresh pineapple contains bromelain, which is a protease enzyme. This enzyme chops (digests) the long protein molecules that need to tangle to make the jello set. (kiwi - actinidin: same deal) Heat denatures a protease, hence canned fruit - boiled juice.

The Business of the Court

That's right, now you can have all the same disregard for the environment (albeit virtual) that big oil does everyday! Why should they get to have all the fun?

Simply enter the web address of the site you'd like to contaminate and watch the spill happen.

Instant oil Spill

Found in Presurfer

Now that we've had our fun, cleanup consists of pushing delete or left clicking the red x. Recent headlines suggest that the analog world's messes are more stubborn. However, like the digital world, they leave hidden copies and traces that are prone to resurfacing at the most inopportune time. In a roundabout way, this brings us to the crux of the post. I have seen some trial balloons on the net suggesting that corporations should have the right to vote. (so far, only national elections have been mentioned)

Before you dismiss the idea as the wet dream of power mad insiders, you might want to review the current tenor of our political discourse. Although the courts have been edging toward the idea of the corporation as a person (most commonly attributed to Santa Clara County V. Southern Pacific R. Co., 118 U. S. 394 (1886)) for quite some time, the current SCOTUS appears ready to lurch the last inch. Upon the discovery of a new legal classification would come the natural step of assuring the inalienable rights guaranteed in the Constitution; huddled masses breathing free, the downtrodden being admitted to the shining city on the hill, etc. A media ready slogan, perhaps "No Taxation Without Representation", and the bandwagon be rollin'. Pointing to the Constitution as being written by and for landowners and men of substance would provide an easy choice for the Originalists. (read: Antonin stare decisis when it suits me Scalia) Boy howdy, that would show them gov'mint elites we mean business. Unlikely: yes, a can of worms that will blow smoke in every direction: fer sure, impossible: no.

Going back to the recent corporation / money / speech decision, I note that one aspect is little remarked upon. The money spent on a candidate is taken from the profit side of the ledger. (Ford vs. Dodge Brothers) This gives the CEO and Board latitude to spend the stock and stake holder's investment dividends on a personal hobbyhorse. A few years back, there was a big brouhaha concerning Union leaders supporting this or that candidate. The manufactured consensus was horror at the thought of the poor working man being relieved of his dues to support someone he might not agree with. Change the scenario to a man in a suit and Granny Tilda's nest egg, and all's fine in the world. (that's not irony, it's chutzpa)

Current law protects the Board and Boss from any number of things, personal responsibility being a major one, answering questions concerning unwelcome results another. In our messy analog world, the best we can hope for is that the question of campaign spending, by a boss who probably has plenty of his own cash, is reflected in the stock's desirability.

Magritte Symmetry

I'm Back from vacation and re-entering the work-a-day world. Somewhere I read an article about investors that were given information on a yearly cycle as compared to investors that attempted to ride the market on a day to day basis. The less informed made decisions on long term factors and emerged with a reasonable profit. The day to day folks were able to say that they had a few instances of windfall profits, but over the summing period made less money overall. Relevant to this, I noticed that the same commentators are pushing the same memes and products, different only in which dilemma of the day was used to fill in the blank. The combination of too many cherry picked details giving the illusion of competence in the subject, an ahistorical worldview bounded by the last edition, blood specked frothing substituting for thinking, and an amoral determination to push the owner's product, leave you wanting less. I can feel my inner curmudgeon (or cynic, your call) returning in full force. In summary, vacations are good for the long term.

This Sunday's round-up reflects my just dipping my toe back in. I can't really sort it into catagories, so I'll list it chronologically.

• Pre-existing Rights: Of course, these are chartered and customary rights that pre-existed the creation of both the Confederation and the Republic. These were rights that the colonists possessed as part of their constitutional inheritance resulting from the struggles between Crown and Parliament in the 17th century, or which evolved as part of the colonial experience. Sullum has confused them with natural rights right from the start, and his entire argument suffers because of it.
• Something you already suspected Wealthy Defaulting More Than Others on Their Home Loans: Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.
• Venus Envy: To European ears, President Obama's analysis -- a characteristic piece of consensus-building -- appeared wholly reasonable, even unexceptional. On Thursday, Jose Borroso, president of the European Commission, indicated his agreement, telling the British newspaper The Times, "The transatlantic relationship is not living up to its potential."
• Independence Day Eve: Whenever I hear someone claim that “our enemies hate us for our freedom,” I think first of the USS Vincennes and July 3rd, 1988. Twenty-two years ago today, Vincennes was as sophisticated as warships came and by far the most powerful surface vessel on Persian Gulf patrol.
• Anti-Miltiarism and the Right: On the face of it, that sounds right, but as Millman noted there was no Jacksonian backlash against McCain’s pro-Georgian enthusiasm. Why not? There is no way to be absolutely sure, but a likely reason is that when McCain’s “Jacksonian” supporters heard this (if they were paying attention to the August war at all) they took it in the spirit in which it was offered: as a fanatical statement of hostility to Russia.
• Futurists ponder planet, avoid despairing: Where We Are Winning – Where We Are Losing: Futurologists Publish Annual Report on Major World Problems and Opportunities.
• Debating Non-Violent Islamism: I found much to criticize in the book, including Berman's exceedingly thin engagement with the vast scholarly and historiographical literature, his still-puzzling obsession with Ramadan, and his tiresome infighting with a few liberal Western journalists such as Timothy Garton Ash and Ian Buruma. But looking past the polemics, there's a serious debate to be had about how to think about non-violent Islamist activism in Europe and the United States, the Middle East, and throughout the Muslim communities of the world.
• End of the Establishment: When Mitt Romney denounced the new START treaty in the Washington Post last week, he didn't simply demonstrate that he's determined not to allow Sarah Palin to outflank him on the right. He also affirmed something else -- the decline and fall of the Republican foreign-policy establishment.

I had lunch with my cousin Susan and she showed me around her town. Aparently NYC, in order to assure its watershead (or lebensraum, again - your choice), has been buying land and moving people.(not necessarily with their co-operation) Plenty of insider profit making opportunities and back room "for the greater good" monkeyshines. Shows to go you that all the less desirable characters don't necessarily live in D.C. or some far away foreign capital. Here in the future, homegrown isn't necessarily a guarantee of qualification.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Friends of Irony

Higgs Boson

The particle physics community is buzzing about a blog posted by a University of Padua (Italy) physicist saying that he's been hearing rumors about a "light Higgs boson" discovery at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois.

The story is at the link. I'll post-edit in more links below as I find primary material from the labs.

Reentry

I returned from N.Y. late yesterday night. Saw most of the family and several old friends. Downstate has changed enough since I lived there that I actualy needed a map. To be honest, signs noted the changes, but I neglected to read them. Getting lost on vacation can be fun. Take-aways from my time away.

• Folks in Buffalo know how to make the best roast beef sandwiches and do a fine job on pickled beets too.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art whopped our local versions before the end of the first room.
• Small town 4th of July parades are way better than the big-time professional ones.
• A hot day in upstate N.Y. is way different than a hot day in S.F.(it was melt the lard off your butt hot around the 6th)
• You can get along without being online. The withdrawl symptoms ease after the 9th day.
• Family is family.

May (picture above) serves me coffee in the morning.(Happy Donuts - next door) I'm not really sentient before the first cup, so I've come to depend on her for acculturating the curmudgeon in the morning. I bought her the hat (and some Amish fudge for the kids) and now we're going to work on the laconic yup (serviceable, albeit a bit chipper) and y'all. In return, she's going to teach me to pronounce her name properly. (it's Sokmay. Where y'all from, N.Y.?) I'll post more pictures as time permits.