Keith Burgess-Jackson

Food

My favorite television program.

I Want a New Left

John Pepple has some thoughts about multiculturalism.

Politics, Part 4

Politics, Part 3

Sarah Palin nails it.

Politics, Part 2

Mitt Romney can't win. Our only chance to defeat Barack Obama is by supporting Newt Gingrich.

From the Mailbag

I am glad I never signed up for that Do Not Call list for telephone solicitations. The telephone calls I receive are a never-ending source of live entertainment and a culturally enriching educational experience.

Some minutes ago, I received a call informing me that my number had been selected to receive a home security system. When I asked what my number was, I was given a garbled version of my telephone number.

Having been interrupted, my interlocutor, who spoke with a foreign accent, needed to start from the beginning again, apparently following a sales script.

I kept interrupting him for detailed information. For example, he said "We are your local security company." I asked where my locality was. He was unable to answer, but said that he was located in Tampa, Florida ("Tahmpah").

I asked why he was speaking with a foreign accent.

He said he was from a foreign country. I asked what country it was. He answered, "Japan."

Jackpot! Pleased to learn that we had a language in common, I started jabbering away in Japanese, asking various personal information.

Mirabile dictu, he seemed not to understand a word I was saying. He handed me off to a supervisor, who likewise did not have an American accent, and that supervisor handed me off to another supervisor, whose English was even worse. The company seems to consist exclusively of Filipinos. When I got to the Peter Principle level of linguistic incompetence where I could only understand half the words I was hearing, I expressed regret and politely ended the conversation.

Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY)

P.S. Why would a Filipino think it's better to be a Japanese than a Filipino? Sounds like Raaacism to me.

The Great Climate Hoax

Don't fall for it, folks. "Global warming" is the pretext for taking over your life. That "scientists" are behind this will do immeasurable harm to science. Mark my words.

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work” and “In China, the Human Costs That Are Built Into an iPad” (“The iEconomy” series, front page, Jan. 22 and 26):

It’s ironic and disheartening that the company that set out to change the world could accomplish the task only by employing vendors who subject workers to slave-labor wages and an Orwellian work environment.

With all due respect to the late, great Steve Jobs, if the famous 1984 Super Bowl commercial for Apple were reshot, the image of Big Brother on the giant screen might fittingly be his own.

In stark contrast to its counterculture origins, Apple seems to have evolved into the embodiment of everything it once despised—a greedy, callous, ruthless behemoth beholden only to fund managers who demand incremental profits every quarter at any cost.

BRUCE SILVERMAN
Minneapolis, Jan. 26, 2012

Note from KBJ: See what happens when you deify Steve Jobs (or anyone else)?

Politics

Your cat has climbed into the tree in your front yard and won't come down. You love this tree, which provides shade for your house and habitat for local birds. You tell Ron Paul about the cat and ask for his assistance. He thinks for a moment and blurts, "Cut the tree down!"

Pat Travers, "Stevie" (1977)

Makin' Magic (1977).

Dilbert

Here.

Orin S. Kerr on Concurring and Dissenting Opinions

Most of the opinions you read as a law student are “majority” opinions. When a group of judges get together to decide a case, they vote on which side should win and also try to agree on a legal rationale to explain why that side has won. A majority opinion is an opinion joined by the majority of judges on that court. Although most decisions are unanimous, some cases are not. Some judges may disagree and will write a separate opinion offering a different approach. Those opinions are called “concurring opinions” or “dissenting opinions,” and they appear after the majority opinion. A “concurring opinion” (sometimes just called a “concurrence”) explains a vote in favor of the winning side but based on a different legal rationale. A “dissenting opinion” (sometimes just called a “dissent”) explains a vote in favor of the losing side.

(Orin S. Kerr, “How to Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students,” The Green Bag, 2d ser., 11 [autumn 2007]: 51-63, at 54)

Politics

I don't see how anyone, after reading this, can support Mitt Romney. The man is despicable.

Law

My Philosophy of Law students and I spent two class periods discussing this famous hypothetical case by Lon L. Fuller. It's great fun to teach, and I think the students enjoyed it as well. Note that the title—"The Case of the Speluncean Explorers"—is redundant. A spelunker is a cave explorer, so the title is, in effect, "The Case of the Cave-Exploring Explorers." A better title is "The Case of the Spelunkers."

Philosophy

Here is a New York Times op-ed column (by a philosopher) about the value of philosophy. In my view, philosophy, like economics, is a technical discipline. It cannot tell us what to believe. What it can tell us is the cost of belief (in terms of other beliefs we might be inclined to hold). In order to believe in the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, perfectly good being, for example, one must abandon the belief that there are gratuitous evils. You can believe that there are evils, but not that there are gratuitous evils. The only leverage a philosopher has is the principle of noncontradiction.

Philosophical argumentation consists in drawing out the implications of what one's interlocutor already believes. One begs the question when one uses as a premise a proposition that is not already believed. For example, if you're a utilitarian, I can use utilitarianism as one of my premises in an argument to show that you must accept some further proposition (such as that it's wrong to eat meat). If you're not a utilitarian, then I cannot use utilitarianism as one of my premises. That argument will get no grip on you. Note that I can use utilitarianism as one of my premises even though I, myself, am not a utilitarian. All that is required is that you (my interlocutor) be a utilitarian. To be a good philosopher, one must be familiar with many theories, principles, creeds, and doctrines.

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

“F.D.A. Creeps Forward” (editorial, Jan. 11) highlights the agency’s action to limit misuse of an important human class of antibiotics (cephalosporins) in food animal production.

Factory farms are major contributors to the selection and transfer of drug resistance genes, which threaten human health. Animals far outnumber humans in the United States and consume a higher volume of antibiotics, particularly at subtherapeutic doses for growth promotion. Sludge and downstream waterways from farms create an environment where drug resistance can transfer to human pathogens, leading to treatment failure.

We applaud the Food and Drug Administration order. But we see this as a small first step toward improving antibiotic use in animal husbandry and curtailing drug resistance. More needs to be done. Antibiotic resistance in American hospitals now costs $20 billion a year. Responsible stewardship of antibiotics should be practiced in food animals as in humans.

STUART B. LEVY
Boston, Jan. 25, 2012

The writer, a medical doctor, is director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University School of Medicine and president of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics.

Chilliwack, "Fly at Night" (1977)

Dreams, Dreams, Dreams (1977).

Dilbert

Here.

Feminism

If you read this, you will see why so many young women reject feminism. It's anti-sex; it's anti-male; it's puritanical; and it politicizes everything.

Cycling

I hope the Arenberg Forest isn't omitted from this year's Paris-Roubaix course. It is one of the greatest spectacles in sport.

Addendum: Here is a clip from A Sunday in Hell (1976). Here is the entire film.