tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63425149790401680052024-03-28T12:51:13.874-07:00Jamesian Philosophy RefreshedChristopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.comBlogger2253125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-82639003563683296832024-03-28T05:40:00.000-07:002024-03-28T05:40:00.244-07:00Whitehead on flow and fluency<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAVVjXCYtN6MeQgyqHUaTX_0acb56KX99NkZbAh7RDUHdkre984GaRYgB9b_cH-8CkuWjkvAi8HPCrg01bKCadeNYFOFDBM01NVHW8Adj1dD4gcq431A2eX_-HBQACReKtdV2qptLTIHGUXf5SNbJyd6ss5B2dIDF1AZ7h-EofTI2neEsdfIXhFkzYgwa/s450/St-Helena-Jamestown.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="450" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAVVjXCYtN6MeQgyqHUaTX_0acb56KX99NkZbAh7RDUHdkre984GaRYgB9b_cH-8CkuWjkvAi8HPCrg01bKCadeNYFOFDBM01NVHW8Adj1dD4gcq431A2eX_-HBQACReKtdV2qptLTIHGUXf5SNbJyd6ss5B2dIDF1AZ7h-EofTI2neEsdfIXhFkzYgwa/s320/St-Helena-Jamestown.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I mentioned Whitehead's apparent sympathy with Heraclitus in my last post about him. My reading had not yet at that point discovered<b> Process and Reality. Part II, Chapter Ten</b>, which takes the form of an extended meditation on the sentiment "all things flow." In Heraclitus' Greek, <i>panta rhei.</i> <p></p><p>The sympathy is here made explicit. Indeed, a full understanding of that sentiment is said to be one of the main goals of philosophizing at all. </p><p>Some of the thinkers of the early modern world tried to ban flow, or fluency, from their picture of the world. </p><p>But Whitehead adds, "Newton, that Napoleon of of the world of thought, brusquely ordered fluency back into the world, regimented into his 'absolute, mathematical time, flowing equably without regard to anything external.' He also gave it a mathematical uniform in the shape of his Theory of Fluxions."</p><p>What a marvelous packing of two concise sentences! Almost as magnificent as Heraclitus' two words.</p><p>"Newton, a Napoleon of the world of thought," from a Brit writing less than six score years after Napoleons final defeat by the Brits, this phrase is itself rich. It involves an acknowledgement of genius, but one that is at least a touch grudging. The subsequent language, of a brusque order, regimentation, the dispensing of uniforms, enhances the idea of Newton as a conqueror, in a world in which not few who are conquered are grateful. </p><p>Let us fill out the metaphor a bit. Think of the medieval scholastic ideas of time as the Bourbon regime. Think, then, of Descartes -- and even more so of Spinoza -- as Danton, Robespierre and the other revolutionaries, proud of their break with the past and willing to do without the monarch of flux altogether. Newton is then the Napoleon indeed. The monarchy of time returns, uniformed with the new mathematics of what we call calculus and what Newton called fluxions. </p><p>Yet Napoleon came to a bad end, confined to a remote volcanic island with no scope for his military genius or political ambition. Whitehead was well aware of early 20th century physics. He knew that Einstein had proved to be the Duke of Wellington of the world of thought. </p><p>Indeed, Whitehead may have fancied himself the Talleyrand, negotiating the post-Newtonian world with the other philosophers at the Congress of Vienna of the world of thought. </p><p>As to the fluidity of the cosmos, Whitehead's view is that it is of two sorts: the pursuit by many actual occasions/societies (mindfully or otherwise) of their own ideals on the one hand, and the perpetual perishing of all, regardless of ideas, on the other hand. He calls these the fluidity of creativity and of transition, respectively. He finds references to this distinction in the works of Locke, but regrets that Locke did not put "his scattered ideas" on the subject of time together in a systemic way. </p><p> </p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-74259923162169657952024-03-26T22:49:00.000-07:002024-03-27T12:49:25.793-07:00A thought on US bankruptcy law<p><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_WVQ4hBFhDFtLf02Ca07_493qBqRkkxRmlmpereZtskwFhPsxXhoKQm8yiyTWZWJfuKcyxfe3ZZBrPO06wZs67ppDL7nAJ3zy5SRO6dLlIq9r6oOJ54OAFtmE-5V3mDxJoTIY_Z48WSWZZ5wL_tKt_p7wqSlkr2I9Czzh76Y7DJGDqYE9bf-yYqFcpQmr/s290/WeWork.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="290" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_WVQ4hBFhDFtLf02Ca07_493qBqRkkxRmlmpereZtskwFhPsxXhoKQm8yiyTWZWJfuKcyxfe3ZZBrPO06wZs67ppDL7nAJ3zy5SRO6dLlIq9r6oOJ54OAFtmE-5V3mDxJoTIY_Z48WSWZZ5wL_tKt_p7wqSlkr2I9Czzh76Y7DJGDqYE9bf-yYqFcpQmr/s1600/WeWork.jpeg" width="290" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br />The arbitrage of rental periods turns out to be a somewhat common (or at any rate a not-too-rare) business model. A company or other business entity can enter the market as a tenant, taking long-term rental properties, and then turn around and serve as landlord, leasing out the same spaces (perhaps after renovating them, etc.) to shorter-term and higher-rent paying tenants.</span><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">If this works: great! The arbitrager has one stream of money going out the door and another larger stream coming in the door. <br /></span><div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: times;">If it doesn't work ... the relations between a landlord and a tenant can become a complicated matter once the tenant has placed itself under the protection of a bankruptcy court by way of a chapter 11 filing. As sub-lessor tenants attempting this arbitrage play have done repeatedly. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">This isn't the most exciting subject in the world but, hey, this is a hobby blog. My hobby blog. I may come up with something that interests you more the next time. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">If a business declares bankruptcy in the middle of a rental month, and it has not paid that month's rent, </span><span style="font-family: times; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In bankruptcy law, the term Stub Rent refers specifically to the rent incurred from the date of the filing of a bankruptcy petition through the end of that rental period, typically a month. The Stub Rent is what was specifically at issue in a well-known case on the failure of HQ Global, a pioneer rent-arbitrager. It is also an issue in the WeWork matter, but is in principle distinct from the issue of fair use payments for continuing estate administration, the bigger issue of WeWork.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The issue of the priority (or lack thereof) for a landlord's claim for the stub rent is convoluted, and distinct points of view are taken. Landlords would of course like the matter to be treated as high priority on a level with employee wages. But the circuits are split. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-59741629-7fff-41b4-cc9e-af8adc1498b1"><span style="font-family: times;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Unpaid pre-bankruptcy rent in a commercial property lease is an unsecured claim, and landlords go to the ‘back of the line’ with other such claimants with regard to that claim. On the other hand, obligations incurred after the filing, or properly speaking after the “stub” period, may become an expense priority entitled to full payment. They get to the front of the line.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">A debtor tenant that needs some muscle for purposes of negotiation can seek to string along the question of its assumption/rejection of leases. Although the statute deliberately seeks to limit opportunities for such games-playing, they do exist.</span></p></span></span><p>The WeWork case has brought many of these issues front-and-center. And there may be a number of cases forthcoming. The arbitraging of commercial rents is not an uncommon business model, and it is the sort of thing bound to create Stub Rent controversies galore. </p><p>Fun times. </p></div></div>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-6280590018459673532024-03-25T21:46:00.000-07:002024-03-25T21:46:00.141-07:00Nineveh and Tyre, Part II<p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ArarS9FULKNWxlWEVWy_adWTZM-7jFHwBRsg67TlgMF09Dy2pSqYAYrhz-55S-gFEJP01Iev4Cdt7AkftXO3rBP5tmQr86ILTbpxfo1tEe9KacW1K5CPIejIZua2L4CkDdGa2Fzl7q0tdMq7Cs-i0agD0d1qs-acXc0pXpQQozhxN8Em34pCQi1125vI/s960/jonah_compressed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ArarS9FULKNWxlWEVWy_adWTZM-7jFHwBRsg67TlgMF09Dy2pSqYAYrhz-55S-gFEJP01Iev4Cdt7AkftXO3rBP5tmQr86ILTbpxfo1tEe9KacW1K5CPIejIZua2L4CkDdGa2Fzl7q0tdMq7Cs-i0agD0d1qs-acXc0pXpQQozhxN8Em34pCQi1125vI/s320/jonah_compressed.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><br /><br /> Friday, I shared some thoughts about Rudyard Kipling's poem RECESSIONAL. </span><p></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">I quoted especially this verse:</span></p><p><i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">Far-called, our navies melt away;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"> On dune and headland sinks the fire:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">Lo, all our pomp of yesterday</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"> Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">Lest we forget—lest we forget!</span></i></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Today I would like to talk briefly about the two Biblical references, Nineveh and Tyre. </span></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Nineveh figures in the story of Jonah. Jonah was ordered to deliver God's wrathful message of impending destruction to Nineveh, a city near the one we know as Mosul. </span></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Jonah is reluctant to do his duty, and in the course of his flight he is swallowed whole by a large sea creature. Everybody remembers that bit. What they might not remember is that eventually Jonah gets to Nineveh. He cries out that in forty days God will destroy the city. But Nineveh reforms its ways. God sees this and relents. Nineveh is not destroyed.</span></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">The biblical resonance of Tyre is a bit stranger.</span><span face="Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p><p><span face="Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In the book of Ezekiel, the prophet of that name declares that Nebuchadrezzar (Nebby, let us call him) will soon attack and destroy Tyre. Three chapters later the same prophet declares that God has decided that Nebby will not destroy Tyre after all, but will take over Egypt instead. In point of historical fact, Nebby neither conquered Egypt nor destroyed Tyre. </span></p><p><span face="Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The God of the Hebrews at the time of the composition of Ezekiel was not omniscient. He did not have a lot of "omnis" to Him in general. Heck, He was not even sure of His own near-future plans. "Hmmmm, yesterday I told Ezekiel I was going to have Nebby take over Tyre. Today, you know, I'm just not into that plan anymore." </span></p><p><span face="Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Josephus describes a siege of Tyre by Nebby that lasted 13 years. But Tyre seems to have survived it -- and the city lasted until it was eventually destroyed by Alexander of Macedonia, long after the book on Ezekiel's prophecies had closed. This doesn't seem to be a matter of saying "the people of Tyre repented and so they were spared." God simply developed other plans, for Tyre and/or for Nebby. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">So: Kipling's reference to Nineveh and Tyre in the lines above have some ambivalence to it. Yes, both cities are now (in Kipling's world and ours) archaeological sites rather than cities. But Kipling could have picked any number of Biblical place names to make THAT point. ... "our pomp of yesterday is one with Babel and Sodom." He didn't do that. In both of the cases Kipling actually does cite there was within the canonical time-frame, a divine targeting <i>followed by </i>a divine relenting.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This lends an optimistic tinge to the somber words of Kipling's poem. </span></span></span></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-76980359832887234832024-03-21T23:00:00.000-07:002024-03-22T05:38:29.112-07:00Nineveh and Tyre Part I<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhl2qMbiyMDg7_cb_h9jMygirj_OYAsW1VuDC6er8g2XLrjxu0son5aRTizrheMFf07tZcObmnPwXug5XdSmB_D1XvYtuCrvEo9Ah0Pgabt7cgkv1pvZB0tVjU9lTn5RMxQUIfdAjLZOA5IlvjaLl5Ubwr126gR8CTTl7EA8u-U_ISQonV7xSVFKr1_6-iW" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="195" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhl2qMbiyMDg7_cb_h9jMygirj_OYAsW1VuDC6er8g2XLrjxu0son5aRTizrheMFf07tZcObmnPwXug5XdSmB_D1XvYtuCrvEo9Ah0Pgabt7cgkv1pvZB0tVjU9lTn5RMxQUIfdAjLZOA5IlvjaLl5Ubwr126gR8CTTl7EA8u-U_ISQonV7xSVFKr1_6-iW" width="181" /></a></div><br />Rudyard Kipling, in his poem <i>Recessional </i>(1897) famously prophesied a time in which the British Empire would be no more, hard though this may have been to imagine in 1897, the diamond anniversary of the reign of Victoria. <p></p><p>The poem consists of five stanzas of six lines each, and each stanza has a straightforward ABABCC rhyme scheme. The third sticks to my mind right now. </p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Far-called, our navies melt away;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> On dune and headland sinks the fire:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Lo, all our pomp of yesterday</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif;" /><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Lest we forget—lest we forget!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif;" /></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Of course, the British Empire did in fact melt away, under the pressure of two world wars in the first half of the following century and then of the sweeping anti-imperial mood in the non-industrialized parts of the world that followed the end of the second of them.</span></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Fortunately, as it melted away it was replaced in near-hegemony by a more-or-less friendly successor power where people spoke the same language, so its fate was not the harsher one of the conquered seats of defeated empires in days past, not that of Carthage, and its royal family did not have to go the way of the Romanovs. And, (speaking of royals) we have seen with Elizabeth II's death and the coronation at long last of her son Charles, that the mother country of the old Empire can still put on the pomp of yesterday.</span></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Why did Kipling write this? He was so often a flag-waver for the Empire, an enthusiast. The empire was not just presumed, Kipling generally presumed, also, that the best specimens of humanity in the various countries held by the Empire would themselves serve it. Why such a mournful poem about its eventual passing? </span></p><p>Maybe just as a matter of craft. The Diamond Jubilee year was full of enthusiasm, boast, pomp. In that context, Kipling could hardly have made a dent by adding more of the same. He went against the flow. He stood in spirit behind the ears of the celebrants whispering "this is all mortal." </p><p>I hope to say something more specific in a separate post, perhaps next week, about Kipling's invocation of those two Old Testament cities in that fourth line of the above stanza. </p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-11025436264262854692024-03-20T22:30:00.000-07:002024-03-20T22:30:00.128-07:00Whitehead's "eternal objects" -- and his God<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0-95LHhnDi2v2zN-_6IP0WDWfnLAKcmrMMYBzBsf0zrG-ChY3PHMUbEuKesy8wKbXYQ5qA7lQXTUUKrmbYkb15LvhKeOqoASyO4ckxxCbXz615LWPJlc1zsGP_0NRHLBI23qfb-xNxqopVXKDC-U_ONcuvrQW_9F6OBnA0z6uBOOjKd1goz1H8K90_-vm" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="403" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0-95LHhnDi2v2zN-_6IP0WDWfnLAKcmrMMYBzBsf0zrG-ChY3PHMUbEuKesy8wKbXYQ5qA7lQXTUUKrmbYkb15LvhKeOqoASyO4ckxxCbXz615LWPJlc1zsGP_0NRHLBI23qfb-xNxqopVXKDC-U_ONcuvrQW_9F6OBnA0z6uBOOjKd1goz1H8K90_-vm" width="161" /></a></div><br />This is my fifth recent post on the meaning of Whitehead's masterpiece, PROCESS AND REALITY. <p></p><p>On the big issue of Time versus Timelessness, Whitehead generally seems more on the side of Heraclitus than on that of Zeno. He believes that time, change, motion are all real. Indeed, at points in this book he seems to be struggling to invent a new vocabulary to allow precise statements about the realities of THOSE realities. </p><p>But every once in a while he can pull us up short with a mention of "eternal objects." What the heck are THEY? </p><p>An eternal object is an abstraction. Whitehead uses "eternal" in this sense to mean precisely outside of time. And he uses "object" to denote something objective, neither a social construction nor a subjective whim. So Whitehead, it is fair to say, is not a nominalist about abstractions. </p><p>Eternal objects are the sorts of things that can recur. That is, Christopher Faille as a living breathing person does not recur. The person I was an decade ago will never exist again. We can say the same of the person I was an hour ago. These are the Christopher Failles of distinct beats of temporal reality, distinct occasions -- with a complicated relationship with each other. </p><p>But a very specific shade of green? This is an abstraction, i.e. an eternal object. And that is perhaps paradoxically why it not only occurs but <i>recurs </i>within the temporal flow. This leaf in front of me may never be exactly the shade of XYZ Green than it was an hour ago. But that won't stop some other leaf from occupying exactly the same spot in the logical space of green.</p><p>Beyond this we get to morality. Because among the abstractions/eternal objects there are those that act as "lures." These represent ways I might act and lives I might live whenever I come to a forking of possibilities. I am being lured one way and another by eternal objects, and I must choose wisely among them. </p><p>Now ... who or what is Whitehead's God? I can't really claim to understand Whitehead adequately here, but I will press on. God seems to play a part in Whitehead's system as the bestower of order upon the indefinite multiplicity of eternal objects. There exists an objectively best way for me to go in any case of choice. When I puzzle to figure out what the best way is, I am struggling (though I may not acknowledge this) to discern the mind of God. The lures have been both laid out and ranked in a primordial way. </p><p>Note that this, with all of Whitehead's talk of "lures," seems very different from the traditional views of God within the three big Monotheisms and the books they share. Whitehead's God does not command. He does not send down commandments and threaten hellfire. He lures. The process theologians like Hartshorne have tried to reconcile Whitehead's God with those old texts, but with let us say imperfect success.</p><p>The problem with that reconciliation is that God as Whitehead understands Him (and I'm skipping ahead to near the end of the book to find this) is the "principle of concretion -- the principle whereby there is initiated a definite outcome from a situation otherwise riddled with ambiguity." </p><p>Sorry, but that doesn't sound very scriptural. </p><p><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #333333; font-family: "Libre Franklin", "Helvetica Neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding: 0px;"><br /></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-84939302946360572352024-03-20T05:33:00.000-07:002024-03-20T05:33:00.132-07:00From Holmes Sr. <p><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", mastodon-font-sans-serif, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", mastodon-font-sans-serif, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLXmA7VqvDWCl8skpXGPckdySGSfOWGRAoBbNFEWJpXTMYd0SnBmRv_g1_ywlQ7ywNl4oXZNMPJ8eI9LcPlDIAqMIb-wljEkOzk-oaal3v8YpYP1FR9PUG51VJ-246puNH1GhRn3oRadSbbJo8d3pgqnKu2nPxT99RoduopeAWOBOKbMGDFVvspm0CD5bo/s1800/epoch.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1228" data-original-width="1800" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLXmA7VqvDWCl8skpXGPckdySGSfOWGRAoBbNFEWJpXTMYd0SnBmRv_g1_ywlQ7ywNl4oXZNMPJ8eI9LcPlDIAqMIb-wljEkOzk-oaal3v8YpYP1FR9PUG51VJ-246puNH1GhRn3oRadSbbJo8d3pgqnKu2nPxT99RoduopeAWOBOKbMGDFVvspm0CD5bo/s320/epoch.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", mastodon-font-sans-serif, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr</span><p></p><p><span face="system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Fira Sans", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", mastodon-font-sans-serif, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The true US Declaration of Independence from our Mother Country may be found in these words. </span></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-1442064941104924012024-03-19T05:28:00.000-07:002024-03-19T05:28:00.251-07:00True story<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgv02i0tktJqm9KzRIFimpvIkK_4mOck0zq_2S7oAFIrxhlG-buRbIiiXjXpFDLH-CCVcY25tJz7mdGBR9vxBXSkG6SIvS0X7jXCljtqKk9Y4tK40CMHcvd8XolEYmYN6B4BoPIcDv-gqGR06gE0kOryp4PHlfmV3LF3gARnNCqQt3R7wiGiYX9Tg5XH2kc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="190" data-original-width="266" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgv02i0tktJqm9KzRIFimpvIkK_4mOck0zq_2S7oAFIrxhlG-buRbIiiXjXpFDLH-CCVcY25tJz7mdGBR9vxBXSkG6SIvS0X7jXCljtqKk9Y4tK40CMHcvd8XolEYmYN6B4BoPIcDv-gqGR06gE0kOryp4PHlfmV3LF3gARnNCqQt3R7wiGiYX9Tg5XH2kc" width="320" /></a></div><br /> ... the Love of my Life wanted to get to the nail salon for a scheduled appointment a few days back. We also needed to pick up some dry cleaning. I suggested I knew a convenient route, we could do the latter on the way to getting to the former. <p></p><p>I might mention that her hair salon is a couple of towns away, and it happens to be in the town I grew up in. I can be a bit cocky about the best routes for getting to places there. </p><p>On the day in question.... she had to be there by 12:30 PM. That was mission critical. </p><p>I told her as we left our driveway we could pick up the pants and get to the salon too. Right after we picked up the pants, she became anxious about the salon and how I was taking my bloody time and ... YOU'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT. She started looking obsessively at the clock.</p><p>When we were in my home town I noticed one conveniently green light and said, "We can go straight here -- it wouldn't be my usual route but..."</p><p>"You aren't going to get there are you."</p><p>I proceeded. We didn't exchange any further words until I said,"Look up ahead. There's the sign."</p><p>Now I tap at the car's clock to draw her attention to it because, oddly, she isn't looking at it any more. </p><p>Then I turn into the salon's parking lot. At 12:29 PM.</p><p>My words to her as she stepped out of the passenger side door -- and I swear the tone of my voice was expressive of my customary humility -- were, "In my business we have an expression for this -- beating the deadline to a bloody pulp!" </p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-63090460745702876382024-03-15T08:52:00.000-07:002024-03-15T08:52:00.131-07:00POLITICO gets something everyone else missed<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjg4nNDgIPZhFiIAt6KO8-PZzMySNCpOmglyIYNLE-xDYIc-nc1g456TIESUmrYWDAN4rene_6myOsaO9B8GxdvTLWh9dok_s_--F50lf5SPNu7QuAZm0CZby8_K7QBVG9k1aMaKc279vsJ_Wf3k1DkwEV7bIJjCbFziErcIotWiiuApAFrGjAnapnaYPHn" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjg4nNDgIPZhFiIAt6KO8-PZzMySNCpOmglyIYNLE-xDYIc-nc1g456TIESUmrYWDAN4rene_6myOsaO9B8GxdvTLWh9dok_s_--F50lf5SPNu7QuAZm0CZby8_K7QBVG9k1aMaKc279vsJ_Wf3k1DkwEV7bIJjCbFziErcIotWiiuApAFrGjAnapnaYPHn" width="320" /></a></div><br /> THIS is a fine and perceptive scoop. May have been the best single piece of 'morning after' journalism on the Super Tuesday primary.<p></p><p>https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/03/05/super-tuesday-2024/cryptos-big-night-00145274</p><p>Congrats to Jasper Goodman. </p><p>Personally, I think it is still an open question whether Bitcoin and all its kin, cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets, are a permanent feature of the American and world financial landscape or whether they are going to vanish away. They may be doomed to become as hard-to-find as an etch-a-sketch. </p><p>BUT ... if you are of the permanent-feature persuasion, you will consider March 5, 2024 an important on the way to the securing of that status not through market savvy but through the political system.</p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-25373941695383499722024-03-13T22:30:00.000-07:002024-03-13T22:30:00.226-07:00The coming AI collapse<p><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7RDxkzxwp6AaNdHV4hCRKtvyIzDUX-nw5Gz-xyk4JaQ3I8N-lEVIibIMW1QLxCpCG2dJI4Q0Kf8eJ9t0YSfWN6Z2Czns4dE1IunPrFRNXzAwOSMWXKbcGq6URpt9nwPRDLI3K_eFXwPhLviCy15qhbWs9ZvGwTSeaAM9USiKZ0C5vaASUA8cCbCsW7FM5/s300/androids.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7RDxkzxwp6AaNdHV4hCRKtvyIzDUX-nw5Gz-xyk4JaQ3I8N-lEVIibIMW1QLxCpCG2dJI4Q0Kf8eJ9t0YSfWN6Z2Czns4dE1IunPrFRNXzAwOSMWXKbcGq6URpt9nwPRDLI3K_eFXwPhLviCy15qhbWs9ZvGwTSeaAM9USiKZ0C5vaASUA8cCbCsW7FM5/w404-h226/androids.jpeg" width="404" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br />Artificial intelligence, in the form that bothers people most these days, is a matter of the consumption of very large masses of text, and their re-packaging and re-use of that text to look and sound like something new and original. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">Should this worry us? Maybe not. It may be about to self-destruct. After all, as it happens more and more often, the AI algorithms are more and more busy digesting AI-generated texts. As a group of (admittedly human) researchers noted recently,<span style="color: #1a202c;">“We find that use of model-generated content in training causes irreversible defects in the resulting models."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #1a202c;">The models as they consume their own work will self-degrade and become useless over time.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #1a202c;">One of the members of the group of scholars involved is Ross Anderson, a Cambridge University professor. He has put the problem this way, in a blog post, </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #1a202c; font-weight: 600;">“</span><span style="color: #1a202c;">Just as we’ve strewn the oceans with plastic trash and filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, so we’re about to fill the Internet with blah. This will make it harder to train newer models by scraping the web, giving an advantage to firms which already did that, or which control access to human interfaces at scale."</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #1a202c;"><span style="font-family: times;">That is a relief.</span></span></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-61956124895291564832024-03-12T22:30:00.000-07:002024-03-12T22:30:00.147-07:00Whitehead's cosmology -- and a tee shirt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhRzsZYpqFb6sJrzmpTizSQ3J8EfvLM47j3PMXtrLBJZ4I-73kCtiVnUrbQtEvfwHVL01X16ozRAYwovOF_LuhobwyG_BbOIr8pV_CLSDI-qqwaK7dC0CL2C9WvMUnc1X-z2ExNwcPSAxpuB9py3dFO1OEjl7Q70LYBgjouPVifSPyBkYWvQm9p7HhVr5-r" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1050" data-original-width="1050" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhRzsZYpqFb6sJrzmpTizSQ3J8EfvLM47j3PMXtrLBJZ4I-73kCtiVnUrbQtEvfwHVL01X16ozRAYwovOF_LuhobwyG_BbOIr8pV_CLSDI-qqwaK7dC0CL2C9WvMUnc1X-z2ExNwcPSAxpuB9py3dFO1OEjl7Q70LYBgjouPVifSPyBkYWvQm9p7HhVr5-r" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p> So, what's it all about, Alfie? Is it just for the tee shirt we live? </p><p>I have written of late in this blog about Alfred North Whitehead's book, <i>Process and Reality.</i> But I have written chiefly of what he says there about other philosophers. Plato, Locke, Hume....Now I hope to get to the core of Whitehead's original thought. What does he say about ... process and reality? What is his cosmology? </p><p><i>I have to bring one more historic figure, Leibniz, into the mix even to say this next bit, though. Because you can think of Whitehead's core supposition as a monadology. Any one of us is a society of society of societies ... all the way down. The ultimate bottom level, the individual nuggets (or monads, if you will) at the bottom of this hierarchy of societies? Whitehead seems to think there is a bottom, and he does give it a name: </i>occasions.<i> A lot of unconscious and brief occasions, conceived of as independent of content, might constitute the bottom building block. Sort of a monad, except that Leibniz' monads were windowless and Whitehead's are ALL window. </i></p><p><i>Science may continue moving downward through molecules to atoms to sub-atomic particles to what he called, writing a century ago "the mysterious quanta of energy" and still find that any quantum is a society of societies, the monad eluding us. To quote Whitehead directly on a related point: "The electromagnetic society exhibits the physical electromagnetic field which is the topic of physical science. the members of this nexus are the electromagnetic occasions."</i></p><p><i>Occasions. The word ends that resonant sentence. As a word it suggests process rather than substance, which is the point. What we end up with is something akin the the old idea of a "great chain of being," thought of dynamically rather than statically. A society is a member of a society of societies which is a member of a society of society of THOSE societies and so forth. On each level, one must think of time as the coming and going of occasions of experience. Experience here is a far wider concept that consciousness, though out of it consciousness arises. </i></p><p><i>Occasions of experience give rise to consciousness as prehensions give rise of comprehension. For Whitehead, "prehension" is a critical term. A prehension is the taking-into-account of A by B, regardless of what A and B are, all up and down the great chain of being just described. The tug of planet on moon is prehension. </i></p><p><i>Reality is additive. Physical prehensions don't subtract from each other. What has been done has been done. Thus, the cosmic process is one of a coming together of all with all, whereby every bit of space time comes to be more in tune with its world OVER time. This is why Whitehead called his own views the philosophy of organism. The cosmos is an organism, just as you are. </i></p><p><i>Where mind arises, we may say in more dynamic terms that "conceptual prehensions" have come to be. There is com-prehension. One key fact about conceptuality is that a duality emerges here, the possibility of subtraction along with addition. In our minds and in the workings of our societies there are positive prehensions ("feelings") and there are negative prehensions ("exclusions"). As history moves forward, some things are remembered/preserved and some things are forgotten, negatively prehended. </i></p><p><i>We cannot give a good example of a total exclusion in human history because, if it has been completely excluded, it is not available for our use as an example! But surely conversations transpired even between Socrates and other folks present in the agora with him that were never preserved. Perhaps they discussed how fickle the weather can be in Athens -- nobody thought to preserve Socrates on meteorology, so it has been discarded. </i></p><p>Anyway, you have just received my 7 paragraph italicized effort at paraphrasing the Big Picture according to Whitehead. Now allow me to return to the history-of-philosophy stuff for a moment. </p><p>Whitehead famously called William James "adorable." I don't see that adjective in the book yet, but in the opus Whitehead explicitly agrees with William James about the proper answer to Zeno of Elea. Zeno's paradoxes were built around the infinite divisibility of lines, of any movement from A to B, and they were meant to show that motions and with them changes of all sorts are illusions and to enforce a Parmenidean monism. This purpose was anathema to James of course. James used it to show how conceptualist or intellectualist reasoning goes wrong as it departs from lived needs, pragma. </p><p>James said, relatedly, that in lived experience one either sees/notices a certain change or one sees none. There is no infinite divisibility to it. Reality grows in "buds or drops," like the discrete drops of water we can see emerging out of a barely-leaky pipe. Whitehead thinks likewise. No water splashes on the floor until the whole of a drop escapes together. At every level of the great chain there is chunkiness to the world. </p><p>The next time I write of Whitehead here I expect to write about what Whitehead calls "eternal objects," and with that of Plato. Perhaps I'll say a few words about Whitehead's God. </p><p><br /></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-74215498653110786542024-03-11T22:00:00.000-07:002024-03-11T22:00:00.176-07:00Thoughts on telecom M&A trends<p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI03J1x4OoILDsTRh1fZwohoEVlSg5lXmRN6OmKqCxvqB0p3T7z63ci7q2NtzHcT1hRqIABAJ-KdP7fbkyn_Sjsaj2p1cGDF1pnIjPLlPY-_Zc7oZr7ffRNMDKxxT3IopH9A94hh-5PXXPcqWbN80uOsftGmIeYRVgBPCFow8iKP6V-0LI-j52TXh8gRKf/s750/Lifewire.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="750" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI03J1x4OoILDsTRh1fZwohoEVlSg5lXmRN6OmKqCxvqB0p3T7z63ci7q2NtzHcT1hRqIABAJ-KdP7fbkyn_Sjsaj2p1cGDF1pnIjPLlPY-_Zc7oZr7ffRNMDKxxT3IopH9A94hh-5PXXPcqWbN80uOsftGmIeYRVgBPCFow8iKP6V-0LI-j52TXh8gRKf/s320/Lifewire.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Merger and acquisition activity in the telecommunications market slowed in 2023. Around the globe, such activity reached a mere $61 billion in deal volume, down 15% from 2022. <p></p><p>Furthermore, the deal value numbers may be misleadingly high, because a single deal -- an outlier -- made them look respectable. Telecomm Italian agreed to sell its fixed network business to KKR and that is a $23.3 billion deal, almost two fifths of the whole. </p><p>I'm sure the question on your collective mind right now is -- "Wait: KKR is betting on old-school landlines?" </p><p>But let us move on to another question. <i>Why </i>this decline in deal value? </p><p>Here is a short answer. Interest rates have persisted at high levels for years now. Central bankers stopped raising them, but this was a pause AT a high level, with the bankers taking a "high for longer" stance rather than "an even higher peak for shorter". The plateau is more annoying that the peak would have been, if you are trying to get deals done with the telcos. </p><p>In some areas increased capital spending on 5G and fiber network rollouts has increased the degree to which these companies are leveraged, leaving less liquidity for M&A.</p><p>Why does this matter? If you aren't say, an M&A lawyer looking for the business? </p><p>Well, it does confirm to me that my years as an anarcho-capitalist were not wasted and I'm not about to become a socialist central planner any time soon. Because the above facts indicate to me who is in charge. It isn't the big corporate hotshots that the left loves to demonize. Yes, they can be jerks but they are quite clearly dancing to the tune of the central banks, in the US to the tune of the Fed.</p><p>I can't help but think that if money and credit were not centrally planned matters, if they were subject to market forces themselves, mundane sounding things like the laying of cable and the transition to 5G would get done much more smoothly and efficiently than they are in the centrally-engineered context we actually have. </p><p>New fiber cable should be laid down when and only when a rational enterprise determines that will make them more profit, at less risk, than other things the rational enterprise might do with the same money. The money for such a thing should be borrowed if and when the enterprise decides borrowing -- rather than, say, selling equity in itself --is the most market rational way of raising money. The processes described in the two preceding sentences are intimately connected.</p><p>The central bankers, both when they create easy money AND when they throttle back on it, harm the natural processes by which the forces of spontaneous order could otherwise make these decisions. </p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-30609670528542606072024-03-07T22:30:00.000-08:002024-03-07T22:30:00.151-08:00A thought about Broadway<div class="q-box qu-mb--medium qu-mt--small" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 8px;"><div class="q-flex qu-alignItems--center" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; position: relative;"><div class="q-box" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-right: 38px;"><div class="q-text qu-dynamicFontSize--xlarge qu-fontWeight--bold qu-color--gray_dark_dim qu-passColorToLinks qu-lineHeight--regular qu-wordBreak--break-word" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: calc(21px * var(--dynamic-font-scale,1)) !important; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1.4; word-break: break-word;"><br /></div></div></div></div><div class="q-text" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; max-width: 100%;"><span class="CssComponent__CssInlineComponent-sc-1oskqb9-1 UserSelectableText___StyledCssInlineComponent-lsmoq4-0"><span class="q-box qu-userSelect--text" style="box-sizing: border-box; user-select: text;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyj9QaQUNiL9QrqUyj9I6w-4gM6vxwEgXTwOkNKO1wGVim7nOvg5mfAFODlhqhKCTlcddz3BQ5uR1ZF51o-ByuZPXrt8Bmn2NiVnLvPPjLV5oVtI4VkmpZKalhjEbAUB2RAPhcmSTTSUsWPHhEOzzIBnT7-Xsl0MWeAXvMn_sVMg8pWTqVYuqZ7emYIlC/s1200/ListOfBest.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyj9QaQUNiL9QrqUyj9I6w-4gM6vxwEgXTwOkNKO1wGVim7nOvg5mfAFODlhqhKCTlcddz3BQ5uR1ZF51o-ByuZPXrt8Bmn2NiVnLvPPjLV5oVtI4VkmpZKalhjEbAUB2RAPhcmSTTSUsWPHhEOzzIBnT7-Xsl0MWeAXvMn_sVMg8pWTqVYuqZ7emYIlC/s320/ListOfBest.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">A year ago, I saw the following question on Quora.</span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">"Why did Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote a musical about Alexander Hamilton? Was he popular at the time of the Revolution or during his presidency?"</span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I am going back to that old post now, chiefly because it helps me illustrate what a big-hearted soul I am. I wrote a reply to that question (or, strictly, those questions) that barely even mentioned the fact that, no, Hamilton never had a "presidency". </span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Instead, since I am a big-hearted soul, I gave that gaffe a pass and focused on what makes <i>Hamilton</i> a gripping musical. <br /> </span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">For the record, though, the display of ignorance there tears me up inside. I have to imagine this is a fairly young person betrayed by a disastrously bad education system, one that obviously has not conveyed the basics of the life of one of our founders. </span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">On a slightly related point: I overheard a conversation not too long ago in which the guy on his cell phone in a restaurant near me was talking to somebody about contemporary politics, and happened to mention "the Burr treason trial" as evidence that the political character of the justice system is old news. </span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The person at the other end of the line said something unheard by me. Then the guy in the restaurant said, "no, it has nothing to do with THAT." </span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I had to put the pieces together. The unheard friend on the line likely said, "Treason? He was on trial for killing Hamilton?" </span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="q-text qu-display--block qu-wordBreak--break-word qu-textAlign--start" style="box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; padding: 0px; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background: none;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">No, unheard friend, it had nothing to do with that. I understand, though, that Burr is the bad guy in the Broadway musical about Hamilton. So it is a natural guess! The story of Burr's life AFTER the infamous duel might be worth a separate Broadway musical. </span></span></p></span></span></div>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-70068019395504264782024-03-07T00:15:00.000-08:002024-03-07T00:15:00.302-08:00Whitehead: That famous Plato quote<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCsuL9iIM6p8NrzpE4jS14d0m_H7IpCiX3n-IH4wSpoKw_uQjDxa_v1G2sk7Ih6KdWYCynKJvZ87mvtZTha8rSOdGNmI4Vt5QpAdEZmc7QSIMKDBkPf0NIIfhfR3JR9attBiXq7_tPNnixvuqAOaN5a9kSgg3pIlW7Kgu7bQndlEx2I-tLeNE6a2vwjG10" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="626" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCsuL9iIM6p8NrzpE4jS14d0m_H7IpCiX3n-IH4wSpoKw_uQjDxa_v1G2sk7Ih6KdWYCynKJvZ87mvtZTha8rSOdGNmI4Vt5QpAdEZmc7QSIMKDBkPf0NIIfhfR3JR9attBiXq7_tPNnixvuqAOaN5a9kSgg3pIlW7Kgu7bQndlEx2I-tLeNE6a2vwjG10" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>It is probably the single best known sentence Alfred North Whitehead ever wrote.<div><br /></div><div>It appears in the third paragraph of chapter 1 of Part II of <b>Process and Reality.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><i>"The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato."</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>The next three sentences, though, give that one some important context.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them. His personal endowments, his wide opportunities for experience at a great period of civilization, his inheritance of an intellectual tradition not yet stiffened by excessive systemization, have made his writings an inexhausible mine of suggestions." </div><div><br /></div><div>It becomes clear that Whitehead is not interested in the overly thoroughly mined <i>Republic </i>and, say, the myth of the cave. He is much more interested in the esoteric <i>Timeaus </i>as a source for suggestions. On the next page, Whitehead is telling us that "the given" is a key datum from <i>Timeaus.</i> Even the most powerful creative being creates from that which is given, that which could have been otherwise. </div><div><br /></div><div>Why does he find THAT notion so intriguing? I propose to leave that question alone for now and to raise another one. In an earlier post I told you that Whitehead said he takes his chief inspiration from the line of canonical philosophers from Descartes to and including Hume. What does THIS have to do with Plato? Ah, now that I have read a bit of this book I will try to speak to that....</div><div><br /></div><div>In the same chapter that includes, early on, the above quoted meditation about Plato there is a more sustained discussion of a point in John Locke's philosophy: and here, too, it is not a point one finds in the popularizations. Whitehead praises something Locke wrote about power. Substances have power -- that is how they are distinguished from their mere attributes. This power can be either passive or active, as in "fire has a power to melt gold ... and gold has a power to be melted." Whitehead admires this way of thinking, in which gold and fire are seen as intermeshed by nature.</div><div><br /></div><div>The idea of power as integral to notions of substance, though, fared poorly at the hands of David Hume. Whitehead pairs Locke and Hume as common sort of duo -- one with an "adequacy" of ideas, the other with a "rigid consistency" in working them through. ["Adequacy" may sound lukewarm, but from Whitehead about Locke it is high praise -- his ideas were adequate to the world he was seeking to describe.] Every trend in philosophy has two great presiding spirits: the champion of adequacy and that of consistency. And generally, as here, the drive to make the ideas of the former consistent leads to some of them getting dropped out of the picture. </div><div><br /></div><div>Reading Whitehead on Locke versus Hume I had to wonder whether he was reflecting here on his own work with Russell. Can we say that Whitehead was trying to be to Locke of analytical logicism whilst Russell was trying to be the Hume? </div><div><br /></div><div>At any rate: Whitehead also tells us that he sees Locke as "in British philosophy ... the analogue to Plato". </div><div><br /></div><div>I wonder, though, if Locke is to be paired with Hume, something like gold and fire in the smelter of history ... who was Plato's Hume? Who subjected Plato's ideas to the demand for rigid consistency? Unbidden, my mind turns to Plotinus. </div>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-68167626650598765752024-03-05T22:30:00.000-08:002024-03-05T22:30:00.146-08:00Pro-life? anti killing? pro birth? <p><span style="font-family: times;"> Anti-abortion forces have often focused on what one may simply call the anti-killing argument. Killing a human being without justification, mitigation, or excuse is murder. A fetus, or even an embryo, is in relevant respects a human being. Thus [insert obvious conclusion here.]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">Bracket that argument for a second. My point in bringing it up now is simply to contrast it with a very different argument one has also often encountered in recent decades. I think of it as the natalist argument. It is not pro-life or even anti-killing. It is pro birth. The higher the birthrate the better. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiz-Or0XLQnsqxIudAe5oq0YE8xSrb6OKICo8iktmhhaVp-f3GVlGBtt2kikkiIH6P1ZpxifS00fqV4RhZlBBvbvi0DTIGiQQaOALd00hno0Fjl3uIJkahS8Dj9lNLLDDAK472fFgRGI-f3YrysS4C6UhNeEL6BvatnqfZ3UqgPQpwwXJmM61Hwy7k_9-uG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1675" data-original-width="2560" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiz-Or0XLQnsqxIudAe5oq0YE8xSrb6OKICo8iktmhhaVp-f3GVlGBtt2kikkiIH6P1ZpxifS00fqV4RhZlBBvbvi0DTIGiQQaOALd00hno0Fjl3uIJkahS8Dj9lNLLDDAK472fFgRGI-f3YrysS4C6UhNeEL6BvatnqfZ3UqgPQpwwXJmM61Hwy7k_9-uG" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br />In recent years this has often gone hand-in-hand with arguments over social security. "To make social security work, we have to have new young people entering the workforce in a regular basis -- the more of them do so, the more fiscally sound the system is for another generation. The prevalence of abortion (or ready availability of birth control for that matter) limits the number of people entering the workforce with less than a two decade gap. Thus, those anti-natalist things are bad and at the least states must be empowered to oppose them." </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">The important points about the merger of arguments over IVF and abortion right now is that (a) the above two arguments lead to exactly contrary conclusions in the subject of IVF, (b) the Republicans have not really figured that out, and that (c) hilarity should ensue.If you've got a rather dark sense of humor.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;">Look to Senator Tuberville. His immediate comments on the Alabama decision against IVF were justifiably ridiculed as confused. His initial response was that he was "all for it." He then proceeds to talk the talk of a natalist anti-abortionist. <span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">“We need to have more kids. We need to have an opportunity to do that, and I thought this was the right thing to do." </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">Of course, a consistent natalist should want to make it easier for infertile couples to avail themselves of this technology, and as a consequence "have more kids". Tuberville seems to have come around as that has gradually dawned on him, or someone has briefed him on what he was TRYING to talk about. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">IVF means we DO get those babies born so they can go on to become productive citizens and pay in to the social security system. Goooo ... IVF! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a;">Watching the circus as the clowns try to figure this out has its plus side. </span></span></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-56421254661421396982024-03-05T01:00:00.000-08:002024-03-05T10:08:06.330-08:00Reinvesting petroleum wealth <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIXr0_NoBigtj0li8qPIFnklZl6tt0sjT0v5zZoFmByIXahyphenhyphencqny4EnYSS7WUNd9rpMhrhJGeovOkcGEPKCe9pBrv727-lmzcih1bgDr5fMX53LurWE3OHabnNUIYRCrcTN-W6cNxwfGOloFeHNcLEUxsxJc6ZFaz3faXx1q_VoJnC1oghaaz842Mhn6yV/s450/450px-Marina_egypt_haddara.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="450" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIXr0_NoBigtj0li8qPIFnklZl6tt0sjT0v5zZoFmByIXahyphenhyphencqny4EnYSS7WUNd9rpMhrhJGeovOkcGEPKCe9pBrv727-lmzcih1bgDr5fMX53LurWE3OHabnNUIYRCrcTN-W6cNxwfGOloFeHNcLEUxsxJc6ZFaz3faXx1q_VoJnC1oghaaz842Mhn6yV/s320/450px-Marina_egypt_haddara.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p><br /></p><p>The United Arab Emirates naturally wants to reinvest some of its oil wealth in a way that will survive once the oil reserves are either pumped dry or (given a successful transition to other energy systems by the world at large) no longer wanted. One small piece in THIS puzzle is the UAE's announced project on the Mediterranean coast, The goal is to make Ras al-Hekmaa, west of Alexandria, a great world tourism Mecca. </p><p>The project could in time attract as much as $150 billion in investment capital. Egypt is dealing specifically with ADQ, a sovereign investment fund for Abu Dhabi. </p><p>The opposition press in Egypt appears to have gotten wind of this weeks ahead of the formal announcement. It isn't playing well. The country's government selling a beautiful stretch of coast to foreign investors!</p><p>But the Egyptian government's decision has been catalyzed by its foreign exchange crisis. We will see how the politics of it will play out. </p><p>My thoughts, though, are with the UAE at this point. It has of course occurred to them, since they are not run entirely by dummies, that petroleum money won't keep flowing their way forever. The world, with the prompting of weather disasters related to climate change, will wean itself off of the fossil fuels, and economies built on extraction will have to be ready for it. Thus, the investment of that money through vehicles such as ADQ into opportunities that will survive such a transition. </p><div class="text__text__1FZLe text__dark-grey__3Ml43 text__regular__2N1Xr text__small__1kGq2 body__full_width__ekUdw body__small_body__2vQyf article-body__paragraph__2-BtD" data-testid="paragraph-1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #404040; font-family: var(--tr-font-regular); line-height: 24px; margin: 0px 0px 12px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;"><br /></div>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-88743078664838329292024-03-01T13:28:00.000-08:002024-03-01T13:28:00.177-08:00Antitrust and credit cards<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjW5RS9iuV6sIHx4PcBwoJsI9vESluUaReIPrgFwNYMg3qxgbo7IK4bYazsG5obdqiwdSGuAAkDOonq5upzJEMmDfkJWfDbPHAhB-NAORWTsywUs_140Wa81MofOOIImGXabX0pK4eRr0Jq2hgUn66fW86Xn_9fUVuy2nXYrFs0UmVm0IMYklJczfTMopJK" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="740" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjW5RS9iuV6sIHx4PcBwoJsI9vESluUaReIPrgFwNYMg3qxgbo7IK4bYazsG5obdqiwdSGuAAkDOonq5upzJEMmDfkJWfDbPHAhB-NAORWTsywUs_140Wa81MofOOIImGXabX0pK4eRr0Jq2hgUn66fW86Xn_9fUVuy2nXYrFs0UmVm0IMYklJczfTMopJK" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><br />Capital One now says it wants to buy Discover. No actual cash will change hands, according to the proposal, but the all-stock transaction will be worth more than $35 billion.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Visa, Mastercard, and American Express are the Bigfoot types in the credit card market. But both Capital One and Discover are important enough that their merger will require a lot of regulatory review, and there is a good deal of suspicion that they will never get the necessary sign-offs. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Specifically, the Office of the Comptroller will have to approve. So will the Federal Reserve. Even if they both do, the Justice Department could bring an antitrust action to block the merger. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The two parties to the contemplated transaction have begun a PR campaign to persuade us that this merger would actually be GOOD for competition. "The three giants have it all locked up. By uniting, us two outsiders will be able to crash their club force down the rates that cardholders pay!" </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It is a familiar argument. In this case, it can be spruced up a bit by facts about the nature of the sort of competition involved. Creditcard companies compete for holders on the one hand (you and me, dear reader) as well as for merchants on the other. Most of us know the annoyance of presenting a Discover card at a cash register and hearing 'sorry, we don't accept that one.' </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The relative paucity of merchants to accept a card is of course a barrier in the competition for cardholder loyalty. Who the heck wants a card if you have to work so hard to find a place where you can use it? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">If Discover and CapOne were at present accepted at largely the same places, the merger would not help them much as a competitive matter. They will still be declined at the same places, too! The deal appears to have synergy only to the extent that now have different merchants, so the combined card will have a much broader platform of acceptance points that either of the individual cards. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I don't have the numbers of that but I will be following.... </span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-50841248532732211152024-02-29T01:15:00.000-08:002024-02-29T04:57:06.703-08:00Arbitrary news from a style guide<p><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMMFHyZe_AR4iqjUmy46WT1_HGIIt7IwBWkyCnJ-klbu7DhFwSoNuSnLHMMWv_6ZrvhiVWtgcufig-yHBLIogPWHmpWJsmgumjtx0_ILEbRYlQhXpT1INz9w2yS9hYL1xGOudbXNa3CAd8ai9azDkmiqGQAeAIEiq2khWUvcx80o1oqcsr045Lj4ida4g1/s402/Lane.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="402" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMMFHyZe_AR4iqjUmy46WT1_HGIIt7IwBWkyCnJ-klbu7DhFwSoNuSnLHMMWv_6ZrvhiVWtgcufig-yHBLIogPWHmpWJsmgumjtx0_ILEbRYlQhXpT1INz9w2yS9hYL1xGOudbXNa3CAd8ai9azDkmiqGQAeAIEiq2khWUvcx80o1oqcsr045Lj4ida4g1/s320/Lane.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"> GUARDIAN's style guide cautions writers about the "National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers". The caution is that the word "and" is not part of that title. There will be a temptation to insert it after "Schoolmasters" because this sounds like a merger of two originally distinct groups, sort of like the Presidents' Day of educational unions. </span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The guide also suggests not using NASUWT. Call it by the whole long name on first mention, then say "the union" rather than using those "unlovely initials". </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This inspired a little research. NASUWT came into existence because of a secession in the first instance, and later a merger. In the UK, a fair number of men put aside their schoolteaching jobs to go fight the Great War in 1914. When the survivors came back, and sought a return to their civilian career, they found that women were dominating their field. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">They were unhappy about this. The men seceded from the National Union of Teachers in 1919 to create the National Association of Schoolmasters, with that obviously gendered name. NAS existed to argue for, essentially, discrimination in their favor. </span></p><p><span style="color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, Guardian Text Egyptian Web, Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;">In the 1960s, NAS encouraged the creation of the Union of Women Teachers, UWT, and they became known as the "Joint Two." Other unions, including the NUT, continued simply to sign up both men and women. But the Joint Two held out for various discriminatory practices, with the guiding idea at this point that boys should be taught by men and girls by women. </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The merger didn't happen until after the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, when the maintenance of single-sex trade unions became illegal. It was a union not of two unions but of three. The third was not, as you might expect, of the Nonbinary Teachers Association. It was Scottish Schoolmasters Association. (I guess they all wore kilts so the non-binary thing was assumed). </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Meanwhile, the National Union of Teachers, whence the original secession, has become the National Education Union as of 2017. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That was your random trip on my associative train. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By the way, the above image has nothing to do with any of this, except that it is a house on a street named "Schoolmasters Lane" in Dedham, Massachusetts.</span></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-40970332600837662472024-02-28T11:25:00.000-08:002024-02-28T22:31:25.021-08:00Whitehead: I imagine a pet turtle<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFtDMNB98x2nq9i32WENepl_gQHhwrM1dLRmjSXYp08z2HfkUOTYnOkKhEoWk-wFmzOkpYGPgG-lfq1aNfve9pTf3tyzlOKdFkhj_0jYjcpCERCmGdFpFjqiR_Hg9UHPlNKkMSpqoAgqTfdfMuDNlYY-rI1pOw8IpZJycnNfLax23WcYvo2_FiXVmUkXah" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFtDMNB98x2nq9i32WENepl_gQHhwrM1dLRmjSXYp08z2HfkUOTYnOkKhEoWk-wFmzOkpYGPgG-lfq1aNfve9pTf3tyzlOKdFkhj_0jYjcpCERCmGdFpFjqiR_Hg9UHPlNKkMSpqoAgqTfdfMuDNlYY-rI1pOw8IpZJycnNfLax23WcYvo2_FiXVmUkXah" width="240" /></a></div><br />Whitehead called his own view of the cosmos "the philosophy of organism."<p></p><p>Over the nearly-a-century since he wrote the book on it, though, the name has become cemented as "process philosophy". That has also given rise to such related terms as "process theology." Nobody seems to say "philosophy of organism." </p><p>In the early going of his book, PROCESS AND REALITY, Whitehead quotes a Latin phrase he attributes to Augustine. He does not assist with an English translation.</p><p><i>Securus judicat orbis terrarium. </i> I thought for a second it meant that Augustine had a turtle residing securely in his terrarium and that the turtle was getting judgmental. So I thought, "why would one name a pet turtle Orbis?" Hence the image for this blog post. But no, the Latin phrase means:<i> "</i>the whole world judges rightly." Don't put yourself in a position of saying "the whole rest of the world, but for me and my small cult, is wrong." Judgments are secured by the terrestrial orb. Augustine used this notion against the Donatists of his day. </p><p>Whitehead uses it against the idea that metaphysical speculation is useless. It has had a use, he says, allowing for progress as "one idea after another is tried out, its limitations defined, and its core of truth elicited." Though Whitehead is sparing with examples in this passage, I will give him one, Even Descartes' ideas about matter helped give the world analytical geometry, which has proved valuable. So the speculative enterprise has proved valuable -- something securus by the judicat of the whole orbis. </p><p>Further, Whitehead says, we don't have any choice but to proceed with metaphysical speculation, because "there are no brute, self-contained matters of fact, capable of being understood apart from interpretation as an element in a system." Satisfaction with the self-contained matters of fact is, in Whitehead's view, what Francis Bacon and others has offered in the place of metaphysical speculation, what ought to replace it. </p><p>But, as you can see, Whitehead considers that idea a non-starter. </p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-43575407367234090302024-02-26T22:30:00.000-08:002024-02-26T22:30:00.275-08:00Life, Death, and Oklahoma<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHmF_pCvi0wogOlxsphBlWcJMnvO3-L5WdBs8qdioyg1AaBZoGk3IM_MElQWaWhwe6eHkWNklIw2DIq3xHPcGMk0spegld9UA2w1RTbxkIytb_o_SUkKW3MOfuOPGI9vHaqyquI3ml6K-CkBnBtEo3Zvt_jvOTvM6n3IjAAd2A38qxxliNYYmHkyMPED19" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHmF_pCvi0wogOlxsphBlWcJMnvO3-L5WdBs8qdioyg1AaBZoGk3IM_MElQWaWhwe6eHkWNklIw2DIq3xHPcGMk0spegld9UA2w1RTbxkIytb_o_SUkKW3MOfuOPGI9vHaqyquI3ml6K-CkBnBtEo3Zvt_jvOTvM6n3IjAAd2A38qxxliNYYmHkyMPED19" width="320" /></a></div><br /> Richard Glossip still alive? I heard about his case months ago, and only now decided to check up on him.<p></p><p>The Glossip case is the one that led a state rep in Oklahoma, Kevin McDugle, to promise to "fight to end the death penalty if Glossip dies." Given how hard it has proven to be to achieve any other result, shouldn't McDugle reach that conclusion for himself anyway? Does he need the sacrifice? Hmmm.</p><p>Anyway, after some web searching, I have to say that appears he is still alive. Either that or he died of natural causes on death row and the fact has been underreported. </p><p>On Jan. 22, the Supreme Court granted cert on Glossip's claims to actual innocence and whether "due process of law requires reversal ... where a capital conviction is so infected with errors that the State no longer seeks to defend it." </p><p><span style="font-family: times;"><span class="EOP TrackedChange SCXW126677739 BCX4" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;">In terms of timing, my guess is that the Court hears arguments early next term, so that a decision won't come down until early 2025.</span><span class="EOP TrackedChange SCXW126677739 BCX4" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #d13438; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span class="EOP TrackedChange SCXW126677739 BCX4" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px;">Glossip presumably lives until then. </span></span></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-4168188573613232742024-02-22T17:13:00.000-08:002024-02-22T17:13:09.999-08:00Process and Reality<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdxvG4VENk-CYjTRrJoDQs2SmrYv69iRsrEuiFKNHB1FHQ-hKmBpXqnY_n-Mpkw6di_tyQzOczP6CsWaxRbYHTHY-a6pA7_HLld-ItFE55klsSLLAQyNtHx2_nYUyRy2a-cKuDTaT3P7sOSafapjRhGgSqyKfhL5xKlvmSbqrfq-crNO2Q2jhoSmMFeGv4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="290" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhdxvG4VENk-CYjTRrJoDQs2SmrYv69iRsrEuiFKNHB1FHQ-hKmBpXqnY_n-Mpkw6di_tyQzOczP6CsWaxRbYHTHY-a6pA7_HLld-ItFE55klsSLLAQyNtHx2_nYUyRy2a-cKuDTaT3P7sOSafapjRhGgSqyKfhL5xKlvmSbqrfq-crNO2Q2jhoSmMFeGv4" width="320" /></a></div><br /> I have recently purchased a copy of Alfred North Whitehead's notorious volume, PROCESS AND REALITY. I have long promised myself I would read this book some day. It has long played a part in my own view of the history of philosophy through the 20th century, and I have had sporadic pangs of guilt over not having tackled it myself.<p></p><p>I gather from the secondary literature that Whitehead tried to bring a philosophy akin to Henri Bergson's into the world of Anglophonic analytical philosophy. </p><p>Whitehead of course knew the latter tradition from the inside. The title page of a classic work therein, the PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA, three volumes on the logical foundations of mathematics, bears his name, along with Bertrand Russell's. </p><p>The third and final volume of PRINCIPIA appeared in 1913. PROCESS came out in 1929. So there were sixteen years between them -- a lot of history (and one world war) and a lot of time for reflection. </p><p>So ... you might consider Whitehead's magnum opus a "bucket list" item for me. </p><p>I see that Whitehead starts by telling us that his inspiration for this work comes largely from his reading of the great canonical philosophers from Descartes to Hume. I imagine the first of a line of books on a shelf at his home as saying "Descartes" on the spine, and the last saying "Hume". You might name the collection after the book-ends rather than by the first and last books. One might call it the period after Galileo yet before Kant. </p><p>At any rate, this admission as to the source of Whitehead's inspiration is a bit odd given Whitehead's famous remark (in this book somewhere?) that all of western philosophy has been a series of "footnotes to Plato." It turns out Whitehead was really fascinated by the footnotes compiled between circa 1630 and circa 1780. Who knew? </p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-7891796482855058222024-02-21T22:14:00.000-08:002024-02-21T22:14:00.150-08:00Democrats win a Congressional seat in Gatsby country<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhx5oBKY6m1i6XueBCUqBqXJhAMDSRVgJK_wPmYwFr4ELdGiYCjlHcpTTVOgv93D54GWhRyyeK3NaDnHez3p3YoH6YcyWREuOoPUTcZ83y0DxAKFW59vQcMU32ukZvnnJ9SpcAntETtdxC2MmxjGw_xrwCXUr-oF0F9HgLSqaZ_hcE890LhlwhYtnPgMFNL" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="247" data-original-width="480" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhx5oBKY6m1i6XueBCUqBqXJhAMDSRVgJK_wPmYwFr4ELdGiYCjlHcpTTVOgv93D54GWhRyyeK3NaDnHez3p3YoH6YcyWREuOoPUTcZ83y0DxAKFW59vQcMU32ukZvnnJ9SpcAntETtdxC2MmxjGw_xrwCXUr-oF0F9HgLSqaZ_hcE890LhlwhYtnPgMFNL" width="320" /></a></div><br />In a special election Tuesday, February 13, called because of the expulsion of former Congresscritter George Santos (R), the seat in the US House of Representatives for the 3d district from New York went to a Democrat, Tom Suozzi. <p></p><p><span style="font-family: var(--tr-font-regular); letter-spacing: 0px;">This drew a lot of attention: because the Republican margin of control of the House is already very thin, and this makes it thinner. There are possible worlds in which the Democrats end up taking control of the House before this session is over, and Hakeem Jeffries becomes Speaker. This election brings the actual timeline at least a little closer to one of those possible timelines.</span></p><p>What came to my mind, though, while I was watching the returns come in, was that this is Gatsby territory. The district maps clearly show the two peninsulas that qualify as real-world analogs of East Egg and West Egg. Somebody should be able to make great symbolic hay out of that fact. I can't come up with anything good, though. </p><p>It was Santos who seems almost a Gatsby-ite character. People are still trying to figure out who is the real person behind all the bull crap. Who is the real-life James Gatz? </p><p>At any rate, the question is now only a curiosity. Santos has tweeted the question "do you miss me yet" to his district. Presumably all the more or less rational among them agree: hell no. And he could end up with a very sparsely attended funeral. </p><div class="article-body__element__2p5pI" style="margin: 24px 0px; width: 707.328px;"><div class="spacing-container__container__2g5QT spacing-container__t-spacing-single-three-quarters__2_moJ spacing-container__b-spacing-single-three-quarters__1fuBK spacing-container__max-width__zScFd" data-testid="ResponsiveAdSlot" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 24px auto; max-width: var(--layout-max-width,1440px); width: 707.328px;"><div class="ad-slot__container__FEnoz ad-slot__fixed-height__6m70D" style="--height: 455px; align-items: center; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(208, 208, 208); border-top: 1px solid rgb(208, 208, 208); display: flex; flex-direction: column; justify-content: flex-start; min-height: 415px;"><div class="ad-slot__inner__2u45U ad-slot__native__3CLmN" style="flex: unset; margin: auto 0px; max-width: 100%; width: 707.328px;"><div class="ad-slot__slot__2lKAK" data-google-query-id="CPeCvJjasYQDFczSKAUdG_4KKA" id="reuters_desktop_native_1" name="reuters_desktop_native_1"></div></div></div></div></div>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-38417426372507593342024-02-20T22:01:00.000-08:002024-02-21T07:12:54.044-08:00Super Bowl: The Game<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjQNWQ83xep30AKcxO-UejphMDdgJSitK3kR2RaSvQJKupx-mZOi0QYWYWI3Gnbf5XqnjMGCYopE620IMnYLQE8qmsYWxGhAsI0g7MiE-zzVo0sqrMsVsF2t4CkZJyU7ndUvLVwgkGZTxKozI7ujhrSzEdswSqAR_d0X0EptjvWx_Ieb2RPGIjdELLQdEma" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjQNWQ83xep30AKcxO-UejphMDdgJSitK3kR2RaSvQJKupx-mZOi0QYWYWI3Gnbf5XqnjMGCYopE620IMnYLQE8qmsYWxGhAsI0g7MiE-zzVo0sqrMsVsF2t4CkZJyU7ndUvLVwgkGZTxKozI7ujhrSzEdswSqAR_d0X0EptjvWx_Ieb2RPGIjdELLQdEma" width="293" /></a></div><br />In case you are one of the few to whom the news has not yet come: The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers in overtime, 25 to 22.<p></p><p>And yes, Taylor Swift was there. She had taken her private jet to Las Vegas from a concert in Japan. A bit of conversation during a post-game hub was captured by a mike. Her love interest, Travis Kelce, also known as the tight end for the victorious Chiefs, whispered to Swift, "How are you not jet lagged?" She responded, "Jet lag is a choice."</p><p>A lot might be said about that cheerful exchange, but I choose not to say it.</p><p>Instead, I will define Kelce's job title. A tight end is an offensive player who lines up close to the tackle and is used alternatively for two purposes. Sometimes -- on running plays -- he is a blocker. At other times he runs a pattern in anticipation of a pass. </p><p>The name of the position suggests a distinction between the TE and the WR, or wide receiver, who is too far from the "action in the trenches" to be of any use as a blocker -- the WR exists only to run patterns and catch passes when the passer finds them out there. </p><p>A wide receiver is typically fast and tall, two physical attributes that assist him in getting open, so that he can be ... found. </p><p>A tight end, on the other hand, is usually shorter and beefier than his team's WR, as befits his hybrid status amongst the functions of the players on offense. </p><p>In Super Bowl LVIII, Kelce started off unimpressively. He only received one pass in the half, and that play only netted the Chiefs one yard. In the second half, though, he was a stand-out, catching seven passes. In overtime he caught another one, for an impressive game total of nine. Those nine plays produced 92 yards.</p><p>Anyway, congrats to the Chiefs. You are the new Patriots. (Yes, that's from a lifelong New Englander so you can take it as a compliment). </p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-83759619478477269302024-02-19T22:00:00.000-08:002024-02-19T22:00:00.141-08:00Super Bowl ads<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4chsbgsROcyqvYC-QOQ2oUGalDfgBUSzHnV1bDSsixPpN0JV9Cer6hwfSty1UBgDoF47OmJbh9CdWhw1Qbd3qctFJkngr4ilmihXcRlScgZ2Kh6b6gL8NqjnU5yiIVySit57UDTFQbvCtt5lcVOAQ5sKqV-TAmEUuIkoI-GCDe_eL8gCdvCNG4GkReoAB/s183/DanLevy.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="120" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4chsbgsROcyqvYC-QOQ2oUGalDfgBUSzHnV1bDSsixPpN0JV9Cer6hwfSty1UBgDoF47OmJbh9CdWhw1Qbd3qctFJkngr4ilmihXcRlScgZ2Kh6b6gL8NqjnU5yiIVySit57UDTFQbvCtt5lcVOAQ5sKqV-TAmEUuIkoI-GCDe_eL8gCdvCNG4GkReoAB/s1600/DanLevy.jpeg" width="120" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />This year, the Super Bowl featured a match-up between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco Forty-Niners. I'll discuss that tomorrow. Today, I'd like to say a few words about the ads, which have long been a hallmark of the Super Bowl as entertainment and pop cultural event.<p></p><p>The Super Bowl is guaranteed a massive audience, and the ads are expensively created with that audience in mind, at a cost of about $7 million per second of air time. That isn't what the ads cost to produce, ut is only the cost of airing them. Production costs of course vary wildly but there is no reason to try to cut corners on this. </p><p>This year what stands out in my minds were ads for Homes.com and Apartment.com., featuring Jeff Goldblum and Dan Levy. I think of them as ONE series of ads because the two websites they advertise are both parts of the portfolio of CoStar group. </p><p>Of course Goldblum -- famous among much else for his park in the <i>Jurassic Park </i>franchise -- has long been the celebrity face of apartments.com. Dan Levy seems to have stepped up to play an analogous role for Homes.com. Dan Levy is the son of Eugene Levy, and both were made famous (or, in the father's case, his fame was revived) by <i>Schitt's Creek. </i> </p><p>In at least one of the ads, both Dan Levy<i> and </i>Goldblum appeared. Levy walked into what looked like a boardroom in a skyscraper -- the sort of boardroom one remembers from <i>Hudsucker Proxy. </i>Dan walked in and announced that his uncle has died, leaving him in charge of the company. He describes his vision for the company, which involves the phrase "we've done your home work." The board members look appalled. Goldblum, though, looks unfazed, and says in essence, 'I get it -- and I like what you did there.'</p><p>We may have witnessed a passing-of-the-torch moment. </p><p>I have to admit that I was nonplussed by the only blatant political ad of the program: a plug for the independent campaign of RFK Jr. It looked like a lot of 1960 era black-and-white footage into which the latest Kennedy to be running for President had spliced his likeness. </p><p>Tacky. But these are the times in which we live. </p><p>As promised, something about the game tomorrow. </p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-55824971630713970992024-02-15T22:26:00.000-08:002024-02-15T22:26:00.146-08:00Russia evading oil sanctions<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_0XU9REVDXy3qNFNmqZcUFxdW2dPmWC5H4_UIpGCmF8SNmQaxdMwj-iC0GStx99157A5G9AzJUng49t3qadIvyp-Ux6wLFAeBAkBRYeNM3GN1Rq68MZ8ZQDKUket3JLcpeKy7McIJrFI6BBsf9dBPptsrUDzcRNS4nqcv-bZYO9cVDfFAstpLMRciQoFr" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="192" data-original-width="262" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj_0XU9REVDXy3qNFNmqZcUFxdW2dPmWC5H4_UIpGCmF8SNmQaxdMwj-iC0GStx99157A5G9AzJUng49t3qadIvyp-Ux6wLFAeBAkBRYeNM3GN1Rq68MZ8ZQDKUket3JLcpeKy7McIJrFI6BBsf9dBPptsrUDzcRNS4nqcv-bZYO9cVDfFAstpLMRciQoFr" width="320" /></a></div><br />The BBC did a report recently about how Russia is evading the sanctions intended to punish its invasion of Ukraine. <p></p><p>Apparently, UK law allows that country to import refined petroleum products without regard to where the crude came from. This creates a neat loophole. India (whose foreign policy is at best ambivalent on the subject of the war in Ukraine) imports the crude, refines it, and sells it to the UK. </p><p><span style="font-family: times;">The BBC credits the Centre for Reseach o Energy and Clean Air (CREA) for the key research here. </span></p><section class="sc-4e574cd-0 bhtqwj" data-component="text-block" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: grid; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; gap: 16px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto 16px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 722px;"><p class="sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe" style="border: 0px; color: #202224; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.36px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: times;">CREA's Europe-Russia policy analyst, Isaac Levi, is quoted saying, "The issue with this loophole is that it increases the demand for Russian crude and enables higher sales in terms of volume and pushing up their price as well, which increases the funds sent to the Kremlin's war chest."</span></p></section><section class="sc-4e574cd-0 bhtqwj" data-component="text-block" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: grid; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; gap: 16px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto 16px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 722px;"><p class="sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe" style="border: 0px; color: #202224; font-family: "BBC Reith Serif", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.36px; line-height: 26px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p></section><p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68018660">Russian oil getting into UK via refinery loophole, reports claim (bbc.com)</a></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6342514979040168005.post-72784638389472032362024-02-14T22:23:00.000-08:002024-02-14T22:23:00.165-08:00The Republicans in the state senate of Oregon<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEht0nyfhAV_mrV8N_hn3neDuANQtDHvfYnYAnK1Os5jxCpKjwg0_qQp9ZlCKzctjyvjHVeJeg2u77oOZWRxwk1G4tJlW0sqeZ0pgc2JkleD5NsTk0bhql0g4Zj8AyohV7fDcImb9I4NhmmyiH_kaB4CSlLwmofFyqHP9S2D4HUMU5r8GoI-lqyJBsTMDLW4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="576" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEht0nyfhAV_mrV8N_hn3neDuANQtDHvfYnYAnK1Os5jxCpKjwg0_qQp9ZlCKzctjyvjHVeJeg2u77oOZWRxwk1G4tJlW0sqeZ0pgc2JkleD5NsTk0bhql0g4Zj8AyohV7fDcImb9I4NhmmyiH_kaB4CSlLwmofFyqHP9S2D4HUMU5r8GoI-lqyJBsTMDLW4" width="236" /></a></div><br /><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In 2022, voters in Oregon approved measure 113, which bars from reelection any member of the state legislature with ten or more unexcused absences. The measure was pressed by public sector labor unions in the state unhappy about the tactic of blocking legislation by avoiding a quorum. </p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This year, the mousetrap snapped shut and the mice were caught. Ten of Oregon's state senators, each Republicans, have been disqualified from the ballot. Ten out of a total of twelve in the GOP caucus in that body. </p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What strikes me is something in the NATIONAL REVIEW story on this: <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/democrats-try-to-kick-out-an-entire-republican-legislative-caucus/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-style: dotted; text-decoration-thickness: 1.5px; text-underline-offset: 3px; transition: color 0.2s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/court-disqualifies-all-but-two-of-oregons-republican-state-senators-from-reelection/</a> </p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">NR's Dan McLaughlin wrote that measure 113 was "barely even opposed by Oregon Republicans who were focused on the Governor's race." </p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What a case of strategic malpractice! I don't know if McLaughlin's account is true. But let us take his word for it for a second. The Republicans in Oregon paid no attention to measure 113 when it was put on the ballot. It passed. The fact MUST have been in all the state's news outlets. The could hardly have missed it. They then proceeded with their avoid-the-quorum trick anyway and passed the newly legislated limits on their absences. </p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I am reminded of something Casey Stengel said when he was managing the hapless first-season <i>New York Mets. </i></p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Doesn't anyone here know how to play this game?" He is pictured above. </p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Apparently not. (And that sort of incompetence may save us as a republic.) </p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Consider the excuse McLaughlin seem to offer them. The Republicans in the state were so focused on the Governor's race that they didn't notice measure 113. Really? Should this make us sympathetic to the plight of those now barred from running for re-election? </p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Isn't that a bit like excusing one's walk into a telephone phone booth with, "well, I was trying to chew a piece of gum at the time"? </p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Okay youngsters, go ask your parents what a telephone booth is....</p><p style="border: 0px; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.1875rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p>Christopherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17755575167245729981noreply@blogger.com1