Underbelly

Still, sounds better than deep fried Twinkies, Ore...

2012-05-27T08:04:48.806-07:00

Still, sounds better than deep fried Twinkies, Oreos, Pickles, Butter, etc. Yes, butter. http://www.ineedtext.com/FoodBlog/2010/07/20/the-thought-of-deep-fried-butter-is-perplexing-but-its-quite-lame/

Next time you are in Cuiaba, see if you don't ...

2012-05-24T05:28:57.513-07:00

Next time you are in Cuiaba, see if you don't find a 7 7/8 straw that was bought in San Antonio.

I don't have anything interesting to say about the Brazilian economy either.

I will be in Greece in a couple of weeks for a con...

2012-05-22T12:06:23.499-07:00

I will be in Greece in a couple of weeks for a conference. The financial and now government situation is worrying. What is your sense of the situation on the ground?

If Buce doesn't think that the Greeks are the ...

2012-05-18T09:39:01.079-07:00

If Buce doesn't think that the Greeks are the ten lost tribes, who does he think they are? The Britons? The American Indians? The Japanese? Don't tease us!

An enticing offer, and in fact I may be in Thessal...

2012-05-18T07:57:43.931-07:00

An enticing offer, and in fact I may be in Thessaloniki in a few days. But my time and schedule are not my own. I'll keep you posted.

Error--it should be kay m h r kc at otenet.gr. I...

2012-05-17T14:09:56.670-07:00

Error--it should be

kay m h r kc at otenet.gr. Ignore the a and the y and no spaces

Hi Bruce, Someone that comments as dilbert dogber...

2012-05-17T14:07:39.360-07:00

Hi Bruce,

Someone that comments as dilbert dogbert on Calculated
Risk suggested I try to catch up with you. Do you plan to be in Thessaloniki?

I post as Haralambos in my comments on the site. My training is in philosophy, but I do a lot of academic editing.

You can follow a thread here: http://www.hoocoodanode.org/node/15910

Ping me if you see I am up there or mail me at kay m f r kc at otenet.gr. Ignore the a and the y and no spaces

Forgot to tell you to check out Haralambos, a comm...

2012-05-16T17:01:15.389-07:00

Forgot to tell you to check out Haralambos, a commenter at Calculated Risk. He is an American living in Greece who comments on the Greece situation. You two might get together and knock back a few.

I am waiting for the re-introduction of the grizzl...

2012-05-16T15:59:31.464-07:00

I am waiting for the re-introduction of the grizzly bear into California. It was a low land bear so Californians could experience a wilderness experience without leaving home.

I recently watched a "Great Courses" vid...

2012-05-16T12:15:16.379-07:00

I recently watched a "Great Courses" video on ancient empires which contained the the claim that the Philistines were (descendants of) Mycenaeans. Wikipedia suggests a similar connection. Maybe there'd been more intermarriage than sits well with modern Jews, and a feeling that it was time to go home.

http://straussiana.blogspot.com/2008/11/banfield-e...

2012-05-13T17:25:30.863-07:00

http://straussiana.blogspot.com/2008/11/banfield-eulogy.html

i get by pretty good with concha y toro

2012-05-13T06:26:52.579-07:00

i get by pretty good with concha y toro

Well, let's see. We had the Great Leap Forwar...

2012-05-12T16:03:17.889-07:00

Well, let's see. We had the Great Leap Forward, which enormously exacerbated the 1958-61 famine that killed tens of millions. From the 1980s the commune system slowly got liberalized but is still often medieval and corrupt.

Since China's explosive export-led growth starting really in the 1990s what we have seen is a huge construction and manufacturing explosion in China's cities and this has led to a huge rural-urban migration, probably unrivaled in history over such a short time span.

The problem now is that there may not be enough labor in rural villages to produce the food that China needs. Climate change has also exacerbated the problem, which the USA and China are now the biggest drivers of. So, just as China is driving much of the oil price increase (not Obama) so it will also start to drive up food commodity prices, which will help US farmers but not many others.

"you read all them books?" another old f...

2012-05-11T15:18:18.266-07:00

"you read all them books?" another old farmer asked me once as we passed one of my hand made bookcases in my farm house. i didn't tell him that it was just one of my bookcases -- i had a library upstairs and shelves and shelves of books in other rooms. so, underbelly, i ask you, "you read all them books?"

Didn't Mark Twain observe: "I never let m...

2012-05-10T13:53:14.921-07:00

Didn't Mark Twain observe: "I never let my schooling interfere with my education"?

Engineers are of a type. My neighborhood is fille...

2012-05-10T06:13:32.192-07:00

Engineers are of a type. My neighborhood is filled with Raytheon employees and is, as far as I can tell, the only game in town if you are in the mood for an old fashioned fourth of July parade.

People learn in so many different ways, depending ...

2012-05-09T18:16:33.422-07:00

People learn in so many different ways, depending upon their inherited and acquired psychological make-up. Then there's all the socio-cultural layering so that, by primary school, students are widely varying and yet they are in basically didactic, standardized environment. I gues we can't all go to Montessori schools or have private tutors like the King of Siam but obviously a more differentiated schooling environment would be more desirable.

In that respect, we are largely going backward in this country in the current political environment.

Went to Steve's' link and noticed he did n...

2012-05-09T13:46:09.469-07:00

Went to Steve's' link and noticed he did not capitalize bettelheims.. As the proud owner of an autistic son I would use a more forceful way to note my displeasure.

Yes, but once the critical 50% point is reached, A...

2012-05-08T15:51:01.512-07:00

Yes, but once the critical 50% point is reached, America will simply grind to a halt.

Speaking as a citizen, civic virtue does not exten...

2012-05-08T15:29:02.000-07:00

Speaking as a citizen, civic virtue does not extend to the cynicism and mendacity towards his fellow citizens that are the foremost characteristics of Mittens as well as his Kittens. Though perhaps not all of them, still the vast majority of Republican politicians and not a few Democrats have nothing but contempt for their fellow citizens so our political culture, especially at the national level is wholly lacking in civic virtue.

On the other hand, in a country as large as ours, it is probably realistic to expect to cultivate the kind of civility described in your quotation at the local government level.

It's prolly worth noting that there are a fair...

2012-05-08T08:03:35.468-07:00

It's prolly worth noting that there are a fair number of Christians today who look back to the Gospels and early church, and don't want to go much further.

(And Jimbo is only half-right that Christianity didn't evolve until the Reformation. There was plenty of evolution, but the evolvers suffered the fate of the Albigensians.)

I'd say that the bigger difference between US ...

2012-05-08T07:53:49.555-07:00

I'd say that the bigger difference between US and French politics is that France's disaffected voters can go either Commie or Le Pen, depending on their mood at the moment. Their American equivalent is pretty much wedded to the Republican Party.

This a great post. Yes, post Jesus history is hig...

2012-05-06T17:39:16.794-07:00

This a great post. Yes, post Jesus history is highly relevant if only because the institutional Church which emerged post-Constantine and the compromise of the Nicene Creed basically shut down the further evolutions of Christianity until the rebellion of the Reformation. For example, there is evidence that the early Church had a strong female influence in its practices and was very communal (as opposed to hierarchical) both tendencies long rejected by the institutional Church.

Obviously, the current ossified and misogynist Church (I was raised Catholic) can only offer a backward vision of the future (like the GOP IMO) and it will continue to lose developed country adherents as a result and this is also occurring in the developing world, though usually to evangelicals, who are even more backward, unfortunately.

I also would like to recommend Doris Lessing's...

2012-05-06T07:04:04.349-07:00

I also would like to recommend Doris Lessing's "Prisons We Choose To Live Inside."

"The five collected essays are generally meant to be read in order though they can be read independently. The essays appear in the collection in the order that they were delivered as lectures. The titles of the essays are:

-When In the Future They Look Back On Us
-You Are Damned, We Are Saved
-Switching Off to See "Dallas"
-Group Minds
-Laboratories of Social Change

Her original lectures, of which the book is a transcript, may be heard here: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/1985/11/07/massey-lectures-1985-prisons-we-choose-to-live-inside/

Did not know about Knight but he seems to be a gen...

2012-05-05T22:27:51.327-07:00

Did not know about Knight but he seems to be a genuine humanist economist. Ironically, the freshwater school of economics seems to be, nowadays, the lesser accommodating of a humanist perspective and more towards the market is perfectly rational perspective.