Concurrence (and Other Things)

I concur:

Another question for Ms. West: If American adults are emotional slackers stuck in arrested development, who is responsible for the innovations and incredible wealth generated by the economy? Accepting restraint and boundaries is important, as Ms. West says, but painting outside the lines is important too. Instead of founding their company in a friend's garage while they were in their mid-20s, Larry Page and Sergey Brin might still be waiting their chance in a traditional top-down business. And if their project were finally approved, it would not carry a name as juvenile as Google.

My concurrence is for the arguments John Leo presents (in today’s WSJ) as a rebuttal and minor book review (of sorts) to Diana West’s “The Death of the Grown-up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization.” While it’s certainly true that America’s tastes have been significantly dumbed-down over the past quarter-century or so, and it’s equally true that we’re more adolescent than most as a culture, I’m not entirely convinced this is a Bad Thing. Like Mr. Leo, I grew up in the 1950s. And I’m not even ready to return to Happy Days because, in truth, they weren’t all THAT happy. As a matter of fact, the Eisenhower era is the stereotypical “uptight” period of our history. If you didn’t conform during that time, you were essentially toast. And if you were anything but a WASP back then you were pretty much toast, too. But those points are essentially a minor digression, and I don’t wanna get into a major digression wherein I cite chapter and verse about the ills of the ‘50s. Ms. West and Mr. Leo’s main points are the prevalence of an adolescent attitude in US society. And I agree with Mr. Leo, as previously stated.

Mainly because I don’t intend to ever “grow up.” It’s just too damned late for that…

I concur, Part Deux:

In what will surely be seen as a defining moment for the 9/11 truther movement, the History Channel has delivered a blow for sanity and rationalism by airing a superior documentary entitled 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction.

There’s no other way to say it; the truthers got reamed.

They got reamed to the point that the truthers who produced the internet video Loose Change are scrambling to alter the third version of their conspiracy mongering tripe, even going so far as to drop any reference to the twin towers being blown up by the government (they continue to insist WTC #7 was brought down by explosives).

The documentary took no prisoners as it destroyed almost all of the major conspiracy theories associated with 9/11 while revealing the real motivations of the truthers; that they are part of a political movement driven by raw, unreasoning hatred of George Bush, the American government, and to some extent, America itself.

[…]

The show will air again this weekend. Check your local listings but I have it in the Chicago area airing at 7:00 PM central Saturday night and 11:00 AM central on Sunday morning.

Don’t miss it.

That’s Rick Moran, writing at Right Wing Nuthouse. I watched the show in its entirety last evening and all I can add to what Mr. Moran says is “It’s about damned time someone said this.” Mr. Moran has a good essay up on the truthers and the History Channel’s show. Highly recommended.

I’m not quite surprised by this:

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll finds Congress' approval rating the lowest it has been since Gallup first tracked public opinion of Congress with this measure in 1974. Just 18% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 76% disapprove, according to the August 13-16, 2007, Gallup Poll.

The mystery, Gentle Reader, is which 18% of us approve of the job our Congresscritters are doing. Who are these people? And which rocks are they living under?

Jumping the shark?

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The political left and the political right will join forces on Fox's "24" this coming season. Janeane Garofalo, an outspoken liberal, is set to co-star on the conservative-leaning real-time drama, whose co-creator/executive producer Joel Surnow jokingly describes himself as a "right-wing nut job."

Garofalo will play a government agent who is part of the team investigating the crisis befalling Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and company in the upcoming season.

“Janeane Garofalo, an outspoken liberal…” Department of Redundancy Department, that. An absolutely needless and ultimately superfluous characterization, unless you’re part of that 18% that approves of Congress, i.e., you happen to live under a nice comfy rock. NO ONE makes me dive for the remote quicker than young Janeane. Absolutely. No. One. I can’t stand that woman. Doubtless she wouldn't like me all that much, either. So it evens out.

But. Back to the subject at hand. I dunno about you, Gentle Reader, but I believe I’ll give this one a pass. Not that I watched the show to begin with.

We had our first, and only (so far), back to back 100-degree days Sunday and Monday. And it was pretty danged hot yesterday, hitting 103. Days like that make me worry about the health and well-being of my air conditioning unit, which is going on eight years old. The AC systems (I use the term loosely) in RVs are essentially small, low capacity units not unlike a window-mounted air conditioner, and they struggle when the temperature exceeds 100 degrees. My unit ran virtually non-stop from around 1400 hrs until late, late in the evening yesterday. But the unit worked “as advertised” and I stayed cool. That doesn’t prevent the odd “what if” thoughts from occurring from time to time though… especially when the AC unit begins to make strange, unusual noises.

Let us pray…

Today’s Pic: “Your Moment of Zen,” as Jon Stewart used to say (and maybe still does, I dunno). A view of the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, SFO. Golden Gate Park was one of the places that I always included on “the nickel tour” for visiting firemen, relatives, friends, and such who came to visit while I lived in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area Soviet Socialist Republic. YMMV, but I consider GGP to be one of... if not the... best municipal parks in all of North America. And I’ve been in more than a few…

July, 2000. Another of my “first generation” digital camera pics. The usual disclaimers about quality apply.