A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. -Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900)
Alexander Lee has an article in History Today on Eco and his gradual opposition to modernism which began to figure in his philosophy, his writing and his fiction. He writes: Driven by an unshakable belief in humanity’s capacity for reason, modernism rested on the assumption that objective truths about past realities existed independent of the observer, in the same way that Juliet’s rose would have smelt as sweet by any other name. Provided that they were approached with sufficient caution and self-awareness, these truths could be uncovered by rational enquiry. By stripping away foolish preconceptions, a disinterested scholar could determine the underlying ‘laws’ of human society much as a scientist could discover the laws governing the physical world. Once such ‘laws’ had been uncovered and made known, the oppression foisted upon mankind by an exploitative class structure and organized religion would be done away with, and immense socio-economic improvements would follow.
That is really quite good.
Who is...Max Weber?
According to a WSJ poll, both parties’ presidential front-runners are growing increasingly unpopular, with Hillary Clinton showing an especially steep decline over the past month. Among voters in both parties, 56% hold a negative view of Clinton and 32% hold a positive view. That 24-point gap is almost twice as wide as in a Journal/NBC poll last month, when 51% viewed her negatively and 38% positively, a 13-point gap. GOP front-runner Donald Trump continues to be the candidate in either party viewed most negatively, with 65% of registered voters viewing him unfavorably and 24% favorably, a 41-point difference. Unlike with Clinton, those numbers haven’t changed much over the past month.
Actor and director George Clooney, a supporter of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, broke ranks over campaign financing on Saturday to condemn the 'obscene' sums of money in U.S. politics and praised Clinton's chief political rival in the process. Clooney made the remarks in an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC News ' Meet The Press the day after he and his wife, Amal, hosted a fundraiser on Democratic Party hopeful Clinton's behalf Friday night with a price tag of up to $353,400 per couple.
According to a WSJ poll, both parties’ presidential front-runners are growing increasingly unpopular, with Hillary Clinton showing an especially steep decline over the past month. Among voters in both parties, 56% hold a negative view of Clinton and 32% hold a positive view. That 24-point gap is almost twice as wide as in a Journal/NBC poll last month, when 51% viewed her negatively and 38% positively, a 13-point gap. GOP front-runner Donald Trump continues to be the candidate in either party viewed most negatively, with 65% of registered voters viewing him unfavorably and 24% favorably, a 41-point difference. Unlike with Clinton, those numbers haven’t changed much over the past month.
Actor and director George Clooney, a supporter of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, broke ranks over campaign financing on Saturday to condemn the 'obscene' sums of money in U.S. politics and praised Clinton's chief political rival in the process. Clooney made the remarks in an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC News ' Meet The Press the day after he and his wife, Amal, hosted a fundraiser on Democratic Party hopeful Clinton's behalf Friday night with a price tag of up to $353,400 per couple.
For liberals the Middle Ages have never ended. Unhappy with your wages? Petition the prince.
Bjorn Lomborg is featured in two videos on Gates Notes, the blog of Bill Gates. In these pieces, Lomborg addresses the issue of energy poverty and argues that the world's poor need better access to cheap fuels, including fossil fuels. Gates states that "...we should be investing dramatically more money in RandD to make fossil fuels cleaner and make clean energy cheaper than any fossil fuel."
The Bank of Japan is revealed to be a top 10 holder in about 90% of all Japanese stocks. Crazier still, if as Goldman predicts the BOJ doubles its purchases of ETFs, the central bank could become the No. 1 shareholder in about 40 of the Nikkei 225’s companies by the end of 2017,The Bank of Japan is buying Japanese stocks!
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called Obama's recent visit "an attack on the foundation of our history, our culture and our symbols.""Obama came here to dazzle the non-state sector, as if he wasn't the representative of big corporations but the defender of hot dog vendors, of small businesses in the United States, which he isn't," Rodriguez said. The foreign minister’s response came days after Cuba President Raul Castro said that the United States is "the enemy" and warned Cubans to be vigilant about the United States' efforts to undermine the Communist revolution, according to Reuters. Sounds like, smiling aside, Obama was just salt in Cuba's wounds. So who was Obama's visit aimed at and what was the objective?
Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They don't want anyone interfering with our friendship.
Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if Congress passes a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held responsible in American courts for any role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They don't want anyone interfering with our friendship.
Golden oldie:
The United States has reduced its carbon emissions by 2% from last year. Over the past 14 years, our carbon emissions are down more than 10%. On a per-unit-of-GDP basis, U.S. carbon emissions are down by closer to 20%. Astonishing--and done without Kyoto or cap-and-trade or wind/solar (which is unchanged at 3%.)
Today, 99 percent of Bangladesh's girls and 97 percent of boys are enrolled in primary school. The great progress in primary education over recent years is the reason that the country has met the two Millennium Development Goals related to primary schooling: universal enrollment and gender equality. But what does that mean? Does this say anything about the quality or the value of their educational experience? Like so many bureaucratic benchmarks, it is half a baseball score, meaningless without a context.
Max Weber was a German sociologist and political economist whose most famous and controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, examines the relationship between Calvinist—or Puritan—morality, compulsive labor, bureaucracy, and economic success under capitalism. The Art of the Plausible.
According to George Will "Progressivism" has four tenants: First, history has a destination. Second, progressives uniquely discern it. (Barack Obama frequently declares things to be on or opposed to “the right side of history.”) Third, politics should be democratic but peripheral to governance, which is the responsibility of experts scientifically administering the regulatory state. Fourth, enlightened progressives should enforce limits on speech (witness IRS suppression of conservative advocacy groups) in order to prevent thinking unhelpful to history’s progressive unfolding.
Gender wage discrimination has been hashed over and over. Most believe that there is disparity but not discrimination--an important distinction. But if it is true, if women are willing and able continuously to do the same amount of the same work as men at less cost, an employer would be foolish to pay men more when he could hire equally productive women for less.
From 1921 to 2012, $10,000 invested in the SandP would have grown to $41,380 under Republican presidencies but to $575,324 under Democrats.
Climate: n: the composite or generally prevailing weather conditions of a region, as temperature, air pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloudiness, and winds, throughout the year, averaged over a series of years. 2. a region or area characterized by a given climate: to move to a warm climate.
The word "Climate" originally referred to an area of the earth. It is from the late 14c., "horizontal zone of the earth," Scottish, from Old French climat "region, part of the earth," from Latin clima (genitive climatis) "region; slope of the Earth," from Greek klima "region, zone," literally "an inclination, slope," thus "slope of the Earth from equator to pole," from root of klinein "to slope, to lean". The angle of sun on the slope of the Earth's surface defined the zones assigned by early geographers. Early references in English, however, are in astrology works, as each of the seven (then) climates was held to be under the influence of one of the planets. Shift from "region" to "weather associated with a region" perhaps began in Middle English, certainly by c. 1600. So the different regions have different weather. The climate is actually different from region to region. The current debate (soon to be outlawed) is over the generalized world climate. As such, sampling is challenging as regions are different.
The battle cry of "Climate Change" is peculiar as it has no opponents. It reminds me of the old definition of a sociologist: A man constantly amazed by the obvious. The very nature of the climate is that it changes--from region to region, from time to time, from season to season. When some climate hangs around for a long time it is usually named, like a Period or an Epoch. The climate is dynamic. Since Christ there have been three major shifts, the period at the time of Christ, the Medieval Warm Period (end of the 9th century to the 13th) and the Little Ice Age (1640s to 1690s). If the earth is warmer now it would be the third time a definitive temperature increase has occurred since Christ. It is interesting that the current "change" is seen as ominous, that the present is optimum. Such a view is the hallmark of the conservative.
In November 2009, NASA declared that it had discovered water on the moon that could allow for the development of a space station on the moon. The water is billions of years old, which could give scientists clues into the history of the solar system. The Steelers signed Brian Mihalik to a futures contract from the Philadelphia Eagles. He was supposed to be a guy with good upside on the defensive line but the Steelers have him listed as an offensive tackle for the upcoming season. Repeat Villanueva?
"And with respect to Congress, and transpacific partnership, I think after the primary season is over, the politics settle down a little bit in Congress and will be in a position to start moving forward. Because I know that we have had a majority of members in the past who were in favor of this deal. Otherwise you would not have gotten the authority for me to go ahead and fast-track this agreement. But I think we all know that elections can sometimes make things a little more challenging. And people take positions in part to protect themselves from attacks during the course of election season." This is Obama talking about Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement and saying that the politicians are compromised by elections as to what they can do. Compromised by elections!
AAAAaaaaaaannnnnddddddd.....a rendering of phases of the moon:
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