Wednesday, February 04, 2004

The Shirt On Your Back

Interesting/entertaining piece by Walter E. Williams regarding free trade at Townhall.com.  Williams titled his piece The anti-free trader’s true enemy.  The crux of the matter is, that businesses, which find themselves at a disadvantgage, readily throw away the capitalism business model, to level the playing field with a government bomb.  This is not business, it is coercively bringing your product to market, with the government as your enforcer.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/04 at 07:59 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Hey Neighbor

It seems that almost everyone has one neighbor that drives them crazy, for one reason or another.  It may be deferred maintenance on the neighbor’s home is driving down values in the overall neighborhood, or, the neighbor keeps a junked car or three in their front yard, or, quite possibly, the neighbor is just a general nuisance and, like the kid picked last for the team sport on the playground, nobody really wants them around.  It appears we have a case here in West Michigan that fits the profile of the kid picked last.

One Marlin A. Sleeman, a resident of Lake Bella Vista, a subdivision a tad north of my home with a bit of snob appeal, was convicted for “indecent or obscene conduct in a public place.”  Sounds serious.  The conviction results from Ms. Sleeman’s sunbathing habits, which, Ms. Sleeman’s neighbors found offensive.  Based on the accompanying photo in the dead tree rendition of this article, there may be an aesthetic validity to the neighbors’ complaint, but, if you read article, one finds the neighbors’ use of the law is simply a method the neighbors attempted to use to control Ms. Sleeman’s behavior.  The basic testimony, per the article.

“They” (the neighbors who testified I assume - ed. - itals by ed.), “said she sat provocatively in a lawn chair near the street.  They also said she arranged her shorts and hiked up her shirt to expose as much skin as possible, but never showed her private parts.”

Ooh, sounds horrendous.  Believe it or not, Ms. Sleeman was convicted.  Not necessarily surprising, when you consider the strong conservative base of West Michigan, and the fact that you are never further than a mile or two from a church in a fifty mile radius.

Even more amazing than Ms. Sleeman’s conviction though is the fact that Judge Dennis Kolenda threw out the verdict on appeal.  The judge’s ruling as reported by the Grand Rapids Press.

He said Sleeman did not engage in indecent behavior, and pointed out other neighbors wore similar apparel. The judge also disputed that the manner in which she sunbathed moved beyond that which is readily observable on television.

Kolenda said accusations that Sleeman gave people “the finger” also were insufficient to prove she acted criminally. He said “the finger” is expression, and expression is protected under free speech.

In the end, the judge said, neighbors were annoyed by Sleeman’s “lifestyle and appearance”—clearly not a crime.

“Nonconformists must be tolerated, not merely because genuine freedom encompasses the right to be odd, which it does, but because such tolerance dignifies the right of dissent,” he wrote in his opinion. “Dissent is essential to a free society.”

Congratulations Judge Kolenda.  But Ms. Sleeman isn’t quite shuck of this little dust up yet.  It appears that the Kent County Prosecutor’s office is on the side of conformity and voter appreciation, as evidenced by the following.

Now, the Kent County prosecutor’s office is trying to move the case to the Court of Appeals. Because this is a second appeal, the county must ask the court’s permission to hear the case, said Lynn Hopkins, an assistant prosecutor who often argues appeals.

Reading the entire article will provide you with other details of Ms. Sleeman’s eccentricities and interactions with her neighbors over the years.  While Ms. Sleeman is, to say the least, somewhat of a pain in the ass, she isn’t breaking any laws.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/04 at 07:02 AM
(1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

It Is To Laugh

U.S. military blames lap dances for declining military discipline.

No further comment.

Via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/03 at 12:26 PM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Dropping the Ball X 2

Over at Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen has a couple of posts up regarding meetings.  The first, posted on January 31st, is titled How to improve meetings, as is the second, posted on February 2nd.

Based on the suggestions provided within the posts, the lament seems to be the interminable droning on of meetings, or, the late arrival of the attendees.  Here’s a couple of the suggestions.

1. Make everyone stand up until the meeting is over…

3. Give everyone a chess clock to limit the number of minutes they are allowed to speak for (this is a variant of an idea from Robin Hanson. Read here for some commentary.

4. Lock the door when the meeting starts on time and do not allow latecomers to enter.

Cowen’s conclusion, in his first post on meetings, is as follows.

Meetings are not always about the efficient exchange of information, or discovering a new idea. Meetings can be about displays of power, signaling that a coalition is in place, wearing down an opponent, staging “theater” to make someone feel better, giving key players the feeling of being insiders, transmitting information about status, or simply marking time until something better happens. It’s one thing to hate meetings. But before you can improve them, make sure you know what meetings are all about.

There is veracity in that concluding statement by Cowen, and in the suggestions above, but, I think the main point has been missed, wide, like the proverbial statement “He couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.”

The meetings being discussed, as in need of improvement, are business meetings.  I want to consider an effective business meeting, and I will do so from the perspective of a church council meeting, which, I was at one point, the president of.

Prior to becoming the president of the church council, at the church I attended at the time, I had been involved in these council meetings as a church deacon.  I dreaded attending these council meetings.  The meetings tended to be endless bitch sessions or rehashings of the matter at hand, with seemingly no one willing to take control.  Much like some business meetings.  The Pastor of the church, was the titular head of the council, the president, as in 95% of the churches within this denominatin, but, like his business counterparts, meaning the leader of the meeting, he did not, or could not, control the flow of the meeting.

After serving as a deacon, and suffering through two years of meetings, I was elected as an elder of the church, and, in the first council meeting I attended, as an elder, the Pastor of the church nominated me for president of the council.  Suprisingly, I was duly elected.  At the age of 31 or 32, I was president of a church, a church known for old men being elders and Pastor’s being the head of.

Enough background.  Upon assuming the presidency, in that first council meeting, I laid down the rules, just as a business owner, or meeting leader, should do.  A business meeting, or a church council meeting, for that matter, are not democratic processes.  Someone is in charge of the meeting.  That someone, in the case of a business, is the owner, the president, or meeting caller.  In the church, it was the president or Pastor.  These individuals are responsible for ensuring the timeliness of the meeting, and, more importantly, they are responsible for ensuring the business at hand is transacted.

With that in mind, I offer these suggestions on how to improve a meeting.

1.  Be a leader.
2.  As a meeting leader, set a time limit, and, more importantly, make it stick.  Did you call a one hour meeting?  Make it a one hour meeting.
3.  Lay down the rules for the meeting attendance.  It starts at such and such a time.  You will be there.  No exceptions.
4.  Allow adequate discussion of the matters under consideration, but remember, if you are the leader, you are in charge.  Control the flow of the discussion.  Do not allow endless reiteration of what has already been voiced.  Summarize what has been stated, and act on it.
5.  Be a leader.

Does this seem dictatorial?  Well, indeed it is, but, as I mentioned earlier, neither a business, nor a church, is a democratic institution.  Someone is ultimately responsible for what occurs within the meeting.  If that someone cannot control the events of the meeting, as I suggested above, they should not be in charge.

The meetings I chaired started on time, accomplished all the agenda items, and, ended on time.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/03 at 09:11 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Maybe I Should Have More Than Two Beers

As a cigar smoker, after reading this, I should possibly have at least a shot of vodka with my nightly beers.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/03 at 08:07 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Who is NIPR.mil?

Do you find this ambiguous domain in your referrer logs?  I do, and so does Karen De Coster, evidently.

From one of the links in Karen’s post on this shadowy visitor.

Here’s a two links about NIPR.mil: carnicorn.com & Nipr.mil, as Francisco suspected, is not a single domain a but a hush-hush web proxy that acts as a gateway for hundreds of U.S. military domains in order to hide their identities. It was established by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) in response to a memorandum (CM-5 1099, INFOCOM) issued in March 1999 by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, calling for “actions to be taken to increase the readiness posture for Information Warfare.” “Uncontrolled Internet connections,” the document says, “pose a significant and unacceptable threat to all Department of Defense information systems and operations.

Hi NIPR.mil.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/03 at 07:22 AM
(1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Posturing Over A Breast

It’s 7:52 A.M. and I just finished shoveling the overnight snowfall.  I walk inside, log on, and click over to Drudge and see that the infamous breast is still making tongues wag, eyeballs bulge and, bloviators bloviate.

The lovely Melis has the Today Show tuned in, and I can overhear Lauer et al reading scripts emphasising the mighty FCC’s ongoing investigation, as I sit in the kitchen, listening to an ES-355 sing to me.  They’re going to uncover the conspiracy behind this titillating display, for the children of course.

Think about this.  Consider the lineup of performers on that stage.  Jackson, Timberlake, Kid Rock, P Diddy, Jessica Simpson, faux musicians all.  These individuals are entertainers?  For whom?  Parents, FCCers, MTVers, politicians and other various dogooders, mouthing platitudes of concern for the children, what in the hell did you think you were going to see on that stage?  A wholesome rendition of Kum-By-Ya?  Check your premises people.  Each and every one of the performers on that stage, as a friend stated to me an email, are “delinquents and adolescent barbarians who need their asses spanked, but good..”  Nouveau spoiled rich kids is all they are, and all this acting shocked at their antics, on stage, is only an acknowledgement, by all the posturers, that they’ve been fooled all along by the performers so called personas as wholesome entertainment for the whole family.  Bah.

Update:  I almost forgot this.  Last night, while reading The Razor’s Edge, Melis and daughter were watching American Idol.  One auditioner was reprimanded by Simon for appearance.  Simon’s comment, and I paraphrase here to the best of my recollection, was “This is all about image.”  Nothing about talent or musical ability, image.  Think about that, too.

Update II: Roderick Long’s concluding statement on the fiasco.

Government: the thin blue line that separates us from Janet Jackson.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/03 at 06:52 AM
(1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Monday, February 02, 2004

Where is North Korea’s Solzhenitsyn?

The former chief of North Korea’s Camp 22, modeled, no doubt, on the infamous Russian gulags, is going to be on the BBC tonight, per the Guardian.  In the article, under the headline Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea’s gulag, Kwon Hyuk, an assumed name the former chief has taken, provides some details of the horrors being perpetrated within Camp 22, and, within the gas chamber within the camp.

How about it you London dwelling Samizdatists, are any of you going to be watching and providing a report?

Via Drudge.

Correction:  The program evidently aired on BBC yesterday evening.  I hope not every individual was watching the Super Bowl spectacle.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/02 at 03:46 PM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Marxism - An Apologist and a Realist

On the 31st of January, I read an article by Slavoj Zizek titled What Is To Be Done (With Lenin)?.  The simple answer, of course, is to kick his ideas into the gutter where they belong.  Because I couldn’t quite put my finger what I wanted to state in regards to Zizek’s rather obtuse question, I did not post on this at that time.  My hesitation resulted in rather fortuitous events, since both Curt and Shonk, at Selling Waves, handily analyzed the piece while I contemplated.

Today, as an antidote to Zizek’s piece, I point to an article by Per Bylund titled The Modern World-System.  Bylund’s piece deconstructs the simplicity angle Marxism at times utilizes to sugar its utopian fantasy.  All of the links make for interesting reading.

Link to Bylund piece via The Lassize Faire Electronic Times which was linked via J. Orlin Grabbe.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/02 at 02:06 PM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Monday Morning Humor

McQ, at the blog Questions and Observations, commenting on PETA’s hiring of Richard Pryor for a campaign against KFC.

“Now there’s a guy who has some empathy for chickens, having once been a fryer himself.”

Posted by John Venlet on 02/02 at 07:13 AM
(2) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

False Outrage equals Free Publicity

Drudge bears the headline “OUTRAGE AT CBS AFTER JANET BARES BREAST DURING DINNER HOUR; SUPER BOWL SHOW PUSHES LIMITS,” complete with bare breast close up.  Oh the horror.  A quick read of various blogs this A.M. shows this incident is the topic of conversation.  Of course, Justin Timberlake states,

“It was not intentional and is regrettable.”

Yeah, right Justin.  MTV, in this statement, backs Timberlake up.  Ho, hum.

Hey, its not like Janet’s breast is an eyesore, though that sun broche could wreak havoc on someone’s teeth and gums.  In fact, Janet’s breast doesn’t look much different than a National Geographic photo layout of life in Africa, to this day.

If you really want to be outraged about something, get outraged about George Will sideline cheering for expanding government, as Greg Ransom points out.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/02 at 06:35 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Sunday, February 01, 2004

An Exquisite Scourging

Reading, is an integral part of my life.  It has been since I was in the third grade, when my teachers, instead of mindlessly punishing me for inappropriate behavior in class, behaviors such as inattention, blurting out answers to questions, or disrupting teaching, would say, “John, get yourself a book and sit, quietly, in the back of the class and read.”  A punishment I readily assented to.  Today, those behaviors would be evaluated and, in all probability, medicated.

Needless to say, I’ve read more than a few books since those days.  But I had not read any H.L. Mencken until now.  I was first made aware of Mencken when I was rooting around in the archives of a weblog I enjoy.  I was searching for a posting dealing with Objectivism, when I stumbled upon a comment where the weblog author mentioned that an individual he respected had recommended that the author read more Mencken.  I made a mental note of this and, the next time I was at the library, I investigated the library’s shelves for Mencken’s works.  I found two, though one was a collection of Mencken’s work compiled by another individual.  The one actual work by Mencken was Heathen Days.  I plucked this autobiographical volume from the shelf and grabbed a seat.  I cracked open the book, read the first story, and I was on my way.  After reading the first story, I was so enthralled, I checked out the book, went to a local coffee hangout, and did not leave until I had finished the entire book three hours later.  In an email to a friend, I summed up my impression of the book by stating “What a ride!”  Needless to say, I went back to the library, that same day, returned Heathen Days and plucked the edited collection of Mencken’s work from the shelf, and headed home with the new material.  This book also, did not disappoint, and in fact, spurred me to visit our local book resellers to scour their shelves for works of Mencken.  I found one.  A Mencken Chrestomathy, and, it is in regards to this work, that I want to share a few thoughts.

Mencken is a critic of astounding breadth and depth.  Men, women, religion, morals, government, democracy, psychology, science, music, nothing and no one is beyond his scrutiny, and, in A Mencken Chrestomathy, Mencken has provided us with “a collection of choice passages;” as the word chrestomathy, “in its true sense,” means.  Mencken’s pen goes to work, flaying imbecility, immediately in the preface.  And he does not spare his chosen field of endeavor, journalism, from his penetrating gaze.  As I read, my pen was constantly in my hand, underlining choice phrases, annotating passages of hiliarity or noting an area of interest that bears further investigation.  What follows, are my impressions on various sections of this work of Mencken’s, which may entice you to read what Mencken has to say.

The first series of writings in A Mencken Chrestomathy deals with “Homo Sapiens” and is followed, closely on its heels, by “Types of Men.”  The thoughts that Mencken presents, in these two series of essays and articles, strike you with the intensity of one of Mencken’s favored forms of punishment.  The bastinado.  Thoughts such as “The simple fact is that most of man’s thinking is stupid, pointless and injurious to him.”  The blow from such a statement does not so much injure, as sharply draw you back to reality.  Whether you are friend, philosopher, bachelor or slave, Mencken has considered it and stripped away the dross with the alacrity of Zorro defrocking a young lass with his rapier.

In the series entitled “Women,” if Mencken were alive today, the feminists would form a special femi-nazi squad in order to hunt Mencken down and purify the race of men.  In the series on “Religion,” of special interest to me because of my mystical streak, Mencken put me before the mast and commenced my flogging.  When I was finally cut loose from the mast, I was not so much bloodied by Mencken’s pen, but, like a frat pledge during initiation, found myself asking “Might I have another, Sir.”

A series on “Morals” and “Crime and Punishment” quickly follow, and in the first essay in the latter series mentioned here, Mencken says this about penology.

The science of penology, in these days, is chiefly in the hands of sentimentalists, and in consequence it shows all the signs of glycosuria.

I was not familiar with the word “glycosuria,” but when I looked it up, I laughed and laughed and annotated my copy of the book with the note “Look up this word and laugh.”  In the next series, titled “Death,” Mencken had me laughing again with this observation from the essay “On Suicide.

“Half the time of all medical men is wasted keeping life in human wrecks who have no more intelligible reason for hanging on than a cow has for giving milk.

Mencken’s pen spares nothing.

The next series, on “Government,” begins with the essay “Its Inner Nature.”  He succinctly sums up the purpose of government in the very first sentence.

All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him.

The series ends on just such a succinct note, in fact, the final essay is titled “Note on a Cuff”

The saddest life is that of a political aspirant under democracy.  His failure is ignominious and his success is disgraceful.

In the next series, “Democracy,” Mencken’s blade continues to whistle through the air, slicing choice morsels for us to consume.  Such as this from “A Glance Ahead.”

Democracy, in fact, is always inventing class distinctions, despite its theoretical abhorrence of them.

Following the series on “Democracy,” Mencken’s razor sharp mind slices, oh so quickly, into “Americans,” “The South,” “History, “Statesmen,” and “American Immortals,” followed by, with no less a sharp gaze, a short series on “Odd Fish.”  Following these sorties, Mencken parses “Economics,” “Pedagogy” is lashed with the observation,

The virtue of a college degree is that it shuts off the asking of certain kinds of questions, some of them embarassing.  It is a certificate of safety, both to the holder and to the nation in general.

“Psychology” “Science,” and general “Quackery” do not escape unscathed either.

“The Human Body,” “Utopian Flights,” and “Sovenirs of a Journalist,” which follow “Quackery,” also do not disappoint.  Mencken’s pen strokes these subjects also with the precise cuts of an Exacto knife.  He deftly wields his weapon, removing impairments to your ability to rationally consider the matters at hand.

In the series entitled “Criticisms,” Mencken states a personal observation which I have found, in myself, to be most beneficial.

A hearty slating always does me good, particularly if it be well written.  It begins by enlisting my professional respect; it ends by making me examine my ideas coldly in the privacy of my chamber.  Not, of course, that I usually revise them, but I at least examine them.  If I decide to hold fast to them, they are all the dearer to me thereafter, and I expound them with a new passion and plausibility.  If, on the contrary, I discern holes in them, I shelve them in a pianissimo manner, and set about hatching new ones to take their place.  But “constructive” criticisms irritates me.  I do not object to being denounced, but I can’t abide being schoolmastered, especially by men I consider imbeciles.

“Literature” is Mencken’s next foray into battle and the titles of these essays are entertaining in and of themselves.  “The Divine Afflatus,” “The Poet and His Art,” “The Author at Work,” “The Blue Nose” and others in this series, and in the series “Literati,” cause some trepidation in me as I write these words.  I wonder if my words would withstand the clarity of his mind.

It is only fitting, that the series “Music” follows the two just mentioned.  In this series we are treated to Mencken’s love of classical music and his disdain for jazz.  Following “Music,” is “The Lesser Arts,” to wit, in Mencken’s estimation, painting.  Two passages from within this series especially struck me.  This, from “Art Critics”

Every time a new revolutionist gives a show he issues a manifesto explaining his aims and achievements, and in every such manifesto there is the same blowsy rodomontadizing that one finds in the texts of the critics.  The thing, it appears, is very profound.  Something new has been discovered.  Rembrandt, poor old boy, lived and died in ignorance of it.

And this, from “Hand-Painted Oil Paintings,” which called to mind Melissa and I sniggering at individuals at a Monet exhibit in Chicago, who sat, staring intently, for fifteen minutes, half an hour, an hour, at one particular painting.

If a man stands before a given painting for more than five or ten minutes, it is usually a sign of affectation: he is trying to convince himself that he has more delicate perceptions than the general.

Within this same series, Mencken parries at “Art Galleries,” “Actors,” “Oratory,” and in “The Libido for the Ugly,” architecture, amongest others.  None escape without a mark.

The last two series in A Mencken Chrestomathy are “Buffooneries” and “Sententiae.”  Fitting reading as a denouement to the care Mencken took in compiling these works.  This work, is, without a doubt, the most enjoyable work I have ever read.  A Mencken Chrestomathy will not end up on my bookshelf.  It will remain on my nightstand, alongside the Good Book I delve into from time to time.  It is only fitting, I think, as Mencken’s words are even more powerful, in light of their clarity and non-obfuscated delivery, than what has been toggled together by a bunch of men hundreds of years ago and labeled as divine.

As the title of this piece states, reading A Mencken Chrestomathy is an exquisite scourging.

Posted by John Venlet on 02/01 at 07:28 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Page 13 of 13 pages « First  <  11 12 13