Chaos Manor View, Monday, August 22, 2016
Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for the West as it commits suicide.
James Burnham
If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.
Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983
Money will get you through times of no Hugos better than Hugos will get you through times of no money.
Jerry Pournelle
Just back from Kansas City, where I was nominated for a Hugo. Didn’t expect to win, and I didn’t, but I had a good time, as did everybody there. I got more exercise than if I’d stayed home. The WorldCon was in a Convention Center, and although I was at one of the closest hotels, it was still a half mile walk to and from the Convention Center. Then, in the Convention City, it was another half mile of walking from the Green Room to some of the panels, the ballrooms and big event halls were spread about over a wide area, and if I got away with fewer than three miles a day I’d be surprised. My son Frank gave me one of those gadgets that measure how far you’ve walked, but alas I didn’t pack it, although I did pack far more than I needed. Ginny Heinlein once told me the proper way to travel was with seven elephants, and always to be sure there were two bathrooms available.
The last time I was in Kansas City was 1976 for a WorldCon. Mr. Heinlein was Guest of Honor, and somehow I got into the act as his executive officer. Sarge Workman drove my son Alex out from California and served as security, everything went well, and I have some stories including Walter the Lobster but for another time. It’s too late tonight.
Had breakfast with Tom Doherty, who recalled 1976 vividly: he had just bought Ace Books, and when he came into the Mulebach Hotel where the convention was, the first person he saw was me, proclaiming “I’m the Chairman of the Grievance Committee, and I’m auditing your company’s books.” They certainly needed auditing. The previous owner had engaged in some odd practices that resulted in quite a bit of money being owed to the authors, and back while I was President of Science Fiction Writers of America I had invented the Grievance Committee (which consisted of me at the time). When Fred Pohl became President he asked if I’d stay on, which I foolishly did, for several years, until I caught Joe Haldeman in a merry mood and got him to accept the job, thus letting me out of it. Anyway, it became a race to see who could find what money was owed to whom. Tom wanted to beat me to it and pay before I could find any, while I wanted to find it first. I don’t recall who won, but it cleared up all the suspicions of the writers against ACE, and also helped SFWA’s reputation as good for authors. Saturday night I went to Tom’s big party which was so loud I told him I was going to flee for my life, and he came with me, letting his subordinates run the party. We walked back to our hotel together.
I also had a strenuous book signing, lasting more than an hour, after which I had to go to a reception so there were still people standing in line when I left. I apologize, but there was nothing I could do about it. They should have scheduled it at an earlier hour, but that might have been difficult. I did have a lot of people to see. This was my first WorldCon in years, what with recovering from brain cancer – still all gone – and the stroke.
Met some new friends in the SFWA suite, saw a lot of old ones, and had a great time. Due to the layout of things – no really central hotel, the huge Convention Center a half mile from the nearest hotel, and no obvious place for it – the usual pro party in the main hotel bar didn’t happen and I never did see a lot of people I should have. But I had a great if somewhat exhausting time. I also got to spend some time with Eric Kaplan, the Executive Producer of one of my favorite TV shows, The Big Bang Theory. He lives half a block from me, but we had a great afternoon in Kansas City; we’re both usually too busy when at home. He was glad to meet Larry and some other writers he reads but has never met. Made for a good afternoon.
One of my functions seems to be as an intellectual honeybee, introducing people who ought to know each other but don’t. That happened a lot in Kansas City.
More another time.
Bunny inspectors, meet shellfish monitors
This appears to be the last “news” story on the doomed website Gawker.com:
http://gawker.com/south-carolina-is-giving-body-cameras-to-shellfish-moni-1785566901
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My old friend Peter Glaskowsky is one of those whom I managed to introduce to some people who ought to know him.
‘Whatever job you do, Cato wants seven billion others in domestic competition.’
<https://kakistocracyblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/14/guanabara-knocking/>
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Roland Dobbins
Odd. Very odd. Then there’s
Lind: ‘And how exactly did we get caught up in this mess? By keeping troops in South Korea long after the Cold War ended, an event that removed all reason for their presence.’
<https://www.traditionalright.com/the-view-from-olympus-watch-korea/>
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Roland Dobbins
We also kept troops in a lot of other places they didn’t need to be. We nearly went to war over Soviet Missiles in Cuba, but somehow we don’t understand that US missiles in Estonia worry the Russians. Odd, that.
This is when we NEED a space program.
http://www.universetoday.com/130276/earth-like-planet-around-proxima-centauri-discovered/
They’ve found what appears to be an Earth-like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri.
In the “Goldilocks” zone.
I don’t know whether the Hubble can be pointed precisely enough to image the planet, or whether it could get anything useful.
John
Hubble probably can’t but we have new ones coming up.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Jerry,
This may be a contributing factor to the current cultural embracing of the far left by the education community. I was having a discussion with an individual who was explaining to me how I was racist (and some other choice terms) simply because I am a white male conservative. She made these statements before knowing any more about me, such as the fact that my wife (and hence my children) are native American, that I spent years in Africa putting systems in hospitals to help with the distribution of anti-retro viral drugs, have been involved in several programs through foundations and my church to help minority groups. She then told me about a conference they were having discussing ‘The Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ and
Two excerpts from the Wikipedia discussion on the treatise and the Wiki discussion on it:
Dedicated to what is called “the oppressed” and based on his own experience helping Brazilian adults to read and write, Freire includes a detailed Marxist class analysis in his exploration of the relationship between what he calls “the colonizer” and “the colonized”.
Since the publication of the English edition in 1970, Pedagogy of the Oppressed has been widely adopted in America’s teacher-training programs. A 2003 study by David Steiner and Susan Rozen determined that Pedagogy of the Oppressed was frequently assigned at top education schools
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedagogy_of_the_Oppressed
Pedagogy of the Oppressed – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Portuguese: Pedagogia do Oprimido), written by educator Paulo Freire, proposes a pedagogy with a new relationship between teacher, student …
And it’s getting late. This will have to do.
From Last Monday
Nice view. Obviously, I lean in your direction. Uncontrolled tech is potentially bad, leave most of this to the states and better yet local communities. They bay area for example. Read the constitution and follow it. If a section needs improvement, amend it. Don’t screw with it.
A practical example. Fluke meters for the USA are built here by hand with a life time warranty. They have a China plant in China that builds them for Chinese. I’ll take mine from the USA plant, built by Americans.
While they could be built by robots cheaper, I’ll take mine built by American hands. That way, people have jobs, and worth, and I don’t have to pay taxes to take care of them. Who knows, we might find people built is better than machine built.
A lot of the bay area wants a socialist utopia. Ok, let the bay area try it. Get rid of the cars, tax everyone at 50 to 90 percent and see what happens. It should be interesting. Most of the Chinese will run like hell, many of the whites already have. I may finally convince my wife to move to Texas or Florida where saner heads exists.
in about a hour, I take Katelin to high school and Angelin to junior high. What happened to my little girls?
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Phil Tharp
There will always be a market for reliably built and improved only when improvements are needed durable goods. Of course that’s not a growth industry and Capitalism puts growth ahead of good service, steady but not large profits, and social stability. Its inevitable, and of course regulations make it necessary to grow or die by raising the cost of doing business and supporting regulators and compliance officers increasingly necessary.
Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.
