More politics: A plea to those voting in Super Tuesday primaries

If you are a Republican

Pleas vote for Mitt Romney!

If you are a Democrat

Please vote for Hillary Clinton!

Why? The answer on both accounts is that I would like to see some semblance of a conservative in the White House.

More nerdiness…

I enjoy being a nerd

So I was glad to see this press release…

PI, the popular mathematical symbol, today announced that it is a candidate for President. Pi’s campaign theme “Endless Change”, is based on its infinite and endless series of digits. “We expect an uphill battle. e and PHI have also announced”. Detractors point out that PI’s campaign theme, “endless change”, based on its endless digits which never repeat and have no discernable [sic] pattern, actually make PI “history’s biggest flip-flopper”.

I can understand e getting into the race. He’s a small but important player in the mathematico-political world with some serious ties to the engineering lobby. But Phi? Come on. You know that his campaign is going to be carried by his aesthetics and nothing else.

Belated Burns Business: a toast to the lassies

As I mentioned in my post on Rabbie Burns day, it’s common to hold Suppers to honor the occasion (I enjoyed my first of these last Friday!). The evening is somewhat structured, traditionally, and you can read about all that’s involved here.

At the supper I went to I was graciously asked to provide the Toast to the Lassies, which is supposed to be a “humorous but not offensive” take on the ladies present that is ultimately complimentary.

I like to do toasts and things of this nature in verse, and fortunately I was able to put something together earlier that evening. The structure and grammar is meant to invoke Burns own poetry, though anything I write winds up having shades of Spenser peaking through.

Anyway, here’s the toast:

Toast to the Lassies at the Burns Supper of 2008 *

Fair lassies wi’ us in this place
O’ lilied hand an’ rosied face
We count your presence now a grace
For all yer trouble

For sure ya prat an’ sure ya prattle
Sure I ha’ fought ye many’s th’ battle
I know again I’ll hear yer rattle
But leave tha’ be

An’ sure in all ya gi’ us fits
An’ lead us roun’ like we ha’ bits
But true ‘s no just where y’ wists
But where needs goin’

Sae lassies, here’s yer health again
Tae Beth’s, tae Mary’s an’ tae Jean’s
Wi’out ye we would lie our lane
An’ lie in sorrow

—–

lie our lane: lie alone

Note: The names in the last stanza reference Burns’ lovers.

*Truth be told I gave a slightly bawdier version of the toast at the supper than I thought would be prudent to post here.

Michel Monday: Björk – Human Behavior

I’m instituting a new tradition here. As you might have guessed, it’s called Michel Monday. Each Monday I’m going to post a video from Michel Gondry, the greatest music video director of all time (though he is probably better known now for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). I’m not going to post all of his videos (some of them I don’t like, usually because I really didn’t like the song to begin with), but I’ll wind up posting most of those made in 1995 or later.

This week is the only pre-’95 video I’ll post: “Human Behavior” by Björk. Gondry and Ms. Guðmundsdóttir have collaborated half a dozen times, and her out-there-ness is often a great canvas for his out-there-ness.

Celebrating justification, a sonnet

I wrote this (English) sonnet as the conclusion to my entry into the Trinity Foundation Christian Worldview Essay Contest a couple of contests ago. It was inspired by imagery from Horatio Bonar in his book The Everlasting Righteousness.

O ’twas a dungeon drear wherein I dwelt.

To which I added day and night alike,

The bricks of my hand, mortar by me dealt.

There deeper drove my chain’s restraining spike.

I could no remedy for my estate.

My guiltiness unto more guilt did lead.

But one with greater might deemed not this fate.

My crime he made his own and then me freed.

Such light! And I beheld this thing anew:

My garb was not a pris’ner’s robe and chain.

But mail instead and crest of him that’s true.

Then trumpets called me unto my Lord’s train.

And now his toil or fight is all my joy!

Though bricks I lay, I fear no chain or ploy.

I sincerely apologize…

For my overuse of commas.

Sorry. Sorry everyone! Sorry.

Zeppelin, Klosterman, and the definition of irony

Remember when I told you that Led Zeppelin had played a successful reunion show with Jason Bonham on drums? That made this passage from Chuck Klosterman IV the most deliciously ironic I’ve seen in a long time…

(Caution! I know this will surprise you, but Robert Plant does a bit of cursing).

Chuck Klosterman: But couldn’t you have toured with Page, Jones, and Bonham’s son Jason on drums?

Robert Plant: But what the fuck for? John Bonham’s kid isn’t as good as John Bonham. Look, I know you’re a journalist, so I’ll go along with this question. I don’t make my living by making my living. My time is so important that I can’t compromise my taste–or my idea of what’s right–simply to match someone else’s view of what’s a good, calculated move. And can you imagine what a lumbering monster that tour would’ve been? It would have been quite sluttish to come back firing like a bunch of hard rockers.

It would have made for great icing on the cake, but unfortunately the rumors about Bonnaroo getting the Led out seem to have been untrue.

Happy Rabbie Burns Day!

Today is the 249th anniversary of the birth of the bard of Scotland, Robert Burns. Alternatively, Robbie Burns. To the Scots, Rabbie Burns. And to the Jews, Rabbi Burns.*

To celebrate, enjoy a haggis, some whisky (no’ whiskey, whisky), and here is his most famous poem, which contains the line “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men…”

To a Mouse

On turning her up in her nest, with the plough, November, 1785

Appallingly clever?

I hate to post over my poll, but just saw this from RedState, with a possible reason for the upcoming $8.5 million Bush-bashing. The author suggests that because of the campaign finance reform bill that McCain (whose not a Republican, but plays one on the primaries) coauthored, the group that decided to bash Bush will take the opportunity to gently suggest a generalization to all Republicans… including the presidential nominee. Thus, they will be allowed to spend unlimited dollars in support of their cause.

Actually… I’m kind of impressed.

A poll on fighting, defending honor and turning the other cheek

I found a great bit of video in this article, sent to me by a good friend. The piece is an intriguing and amusing bit of musing on the apparent fad of posting street fighting videos.

I really hate that I couldn’t embed the video, but I definitely recommend checking it out (skip to about 35s in to get to the action). It depicts two guys who could only appropriately be described by the phrase John Travolta uses in Pulp Fiction for the guy who keyed his car the week he got it out of storage. Anyway, these guys appear to have their friend taping them as they randomly slap passers-by. This time, however, they slap a lady who is walking with a man that the clip describes as a professional boxer (though I find that doubtful).

And then their uppance comes.

I have a question for the Christian readers of this blog. Would it be inappropriate for a Christian man to react in the same way this ‘boxer’ did?

Part of me loves this guy. I want to call his actions both manly and gentlemanly. Wouldn’t it be inappropriate for him to not defend the honor of his companion?* If I were the man in the video, I would hope to respond with the same immediacy and vigor.

But then I am conflicted. Am I not called to turn the other cheek? The hypothetical is of course complicated by the fact that it is not my cheek that must be turned. Still, after the initial slap has happened, the woman does not seem to be in any more danger, so I would not be protecting her. Is the onus on me to appear weak to the world here for the sake of Christ?

So here’s the poll question – If I am ever in the same situation as the man in the video, should I:

A. Move into a position to protect the woman, warn the kids that I will protect her, but do nothing physical.

B. Immediately punch the one who slapped her, then stop and only continue to fight if it is for protection.

C. Do just like the guy in the video… wail on both of the kids until the woman pulls me off of them.

Leave a comment with your answer, and if you have time, your reasoning.

—–

*I want to make a caveat here that the defense of a woman’s honor should never come from some Victorian sense of the weakness and inherent virtue of women. However, there is nothing inherently wrong with the traditional role of the male as the protector (after all, he is on average likely to be more equipped to act as such). Further more, when the action is performed by one who appropriately understands the personhood and value of his wife/girlfriend/friend, it becomes an act of sacrificial love.

I should state too, that one should be prepared to defend any who are in need of defense.

This is just appalling

WASHINGTON (AP) – A liberal advocacy group plans to spend $8.5 million in a drive to make sure President Bush’s public approval doesn’t improve as his days in the White House come to an end.

How petty can you get? I mean honestly…

The only benefit for Democrats that I can think of coming from this is an ability to continue to run on being anti-Bush, the way some Republicans run on being Reaganesque. But really, that’s a bit of a stretch. No, it seems that some liberals are willing to spend millions of dollars* to make sure other people don’t like someone that they don’t like.

I am speechless.

I am without speech.

—–

*Shouldn’t they be buying carbon credits or something like that with all this dough?

Breaking news from 1968: Bob Gibson makes me tingle

All over.

Seriously. All but two or three of these strike outs are swinging, and the majority of them look half-hearted. It’s like the Tigers were just sticking the bat out there hoping to get any contact at all. I’ve seen all white orchestras with better swing.

(HT: Keith Burgess-Jackson)

Soonest our best men with thee do go…

In reading some of what was written about Martin Luther King Jr. yesterday, I was particularly sympathetic to those who complained that the legacy of a great and complicated man had been reduced to the one sentence, “I have a dream.” Furthermore, while inspirational, the “I have a dream” speech is one of the least controversial elements of King’s work and life. To combat this one-dimensional notion, I encourage you to read King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

For my own part I find it hard not to caricature King. Acknowledging this I tried to consider a couple of points yesterday. First, that Dr. King was not popular, and his methods were not popular. It is quite possible that had I been alive, I would have been frustrated with King and the unrest that he brought about. Second, I am ashamed to think that I do often prefer order over justice.

I have no good summing up or lesson from these thoughts. I only present them in hopes that you would consider them as well.

Around the World explained

After posting the Around the World video yesterday I found this mind blowing video of Michel Gondry explaining everything that’s going on.

The five characters represent the five elements of the song:

• Tall Men = Bass
• Mummies = Drums
• Disco Girls* = Keyboard
• Skeletons = Guitar
• Astronauts = Vocals

The different elements of the stage have different meanings as well. The complexity is just incredible.

Did anybody notice this on their own?

*Michel calls them “disco girls.” They look like synchronized swimmers to me.