Mr. Grouchypants

Being the fanboy that I am, I really enjoyed this article on the coolest band in the world … U2. While Bono can be a pompous, overbearing ass, the group is able to produce some truly moving music. I’m still kicking myself for passing up on the chance to see them on their Zoo TV tour.

Bill Vallicella over at Maverick Philosopher has some interesting posts concerning consciousness. I am currently reading Searle’s “Mind: A Brief Introduction”. I haven’t completed enough of it to say whether I agree with Vallicella that Searle’s theory of mind is hopeless, but I do agree with his view of Searle as the critic. That is one of the reasons that I like Searle. He is not afraid to take unpopular stands on issues. One of the other reasons that I like Searle is that he is able to give Dennett fits from time to time.

“Life is never fair . . . And perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”
An Ideal Husband

(From Oscar Wilde’s Wit and Wisdom)

John Stossel hasn’t seemed to mellow much over the years. He’s just as cranky now as he was when I watched him on 20/20 in the 80’s. In his latest column he takes on the bottled water industry. My favorite part is where he quotes the expert suggested by the bottled water association. When asked if bottled water is healthier than tap water, Dr. Stephen Edberg, of Yale University’s School of Medicine replies thusly:

“I wouldn’t say, uh, it’s healthier than tap water. I mean, uh, it’s both, they both provide, uh, water.”

You certainly can’t argue with that.

(Also from Jewish World Review)

Here is an interesting article from Paul Greenberg on the South and religion.

(Via Jewish World Review)

Recently in his Best of the Web feature, James Taranto commented on an article by Slate’s Timothy Noah dealing with why working class people don’t vote for Democrats in larger numbers. Taranto argues that part of the language that Democrats use when discussing working Americans. He feels that the phrase, “working class”, itself is insulting. I’m not sure that is a big issue with blue collar workers. Lots of them probably think of themselves as “working class” people anyway.

However, I’m pretty sure that they many of them do feel insulted by Democrats. Just look at the way that Democrats phrase the problem. They basically start from the assumption that there must be something wrong with working Americans if they don’t vote for the Democrats. They then proceed to try to analyze the voters to discover what could be the cause of their ignorance at the voting booth. Just look at the subtitle of the Noah piece, “Are Bush Supporters Literally Insane?”. He does at least conclude that they are not in fact insane. But the fact that the question is even posed is a problem for the Democrats. The majority of voters are not insane. They are also not stupid, and I’m pretty sure that they pick up on the condescension behind the Dems fretting over why they can’t get enough voters to wise up and vote for them.

Sure the GOP loves rich people. Both parties do. And I imagine that lots of times the Republicans are just paying lip service to issues that working people care about. But at least they are paying lip service to them. The Democrats seem to expect the voters to accept the patronizing attitude from the Dems and vote for them anyway. Maybe it’s just me, but that seems like an insane way to win voters over.

Here is an interesting observation from Oxblog about the motivations of one particular suicide bomber.

Two words I really don’t need to see together: Flying Snakes!

(Via Geekpress)

Here is a review of the movie Groundhog Day. Apparently religious leaders from several faiths identify with the film. The article does a good job of dealing with the underlying philosophical issues the movie addresses. Plus we learn that Groundhog Day observance has its origins in a Catholic holy day. I don’t want to spoil the surprise about which holy day, so I’ll just let you read the article.

Here is an interesting review of the book Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson. The reviewer, Malcolm Gladwell, questions the effectiveness of homework while defending the position that watching today’s TV shows may actually make you smarter. I can see his point about TV. The better shows being produced today are much better than what was on TV when I was growing up.

(Via Arts & Letters Daily)

Update: A dissenting view on the intellectual merits of TV viewing can be found here. Mr. Scheske’s commentary seems on target (I wish I had thought to write it, actually), and he gets a reference to Tony Orlando and Dawn in there for good measure.

This weekend I watched the second of the two dvds in the Greg the Bunny box set. Sadly, that covers all of the episodes of the show that there ever were or ever will be. But if you are interested in edgy humor delivered by puppets, then this is your show. Plus, it has Seth Green for crying out loud. What more could you ask for? (Well, I guess if you are a fan of the show, you could ask that it still be on the air. But it’s a bit late for that now.)

It’s funny because it’s true.