The Misspent Life

Beat This, Llamabutchers

Frequent readers of the Llamabutchers know that they often will share with us the fun Google searches that bring people to their site (see here for a good example).  They've got some choice ones, but I think that it will take a lot to top what I'm the #1 result for:

Clarification

In response to Blimpish's comment:

"'... namely the long-term untenability of a political philosophy that demands the subjectation of self-interest (or national interest) for the benefit of an uncertain "other"' - expand a bit on this. Not sure I quite agree on it as a characterisation of the key weakness of European social democracy. After all, all politics demand that we at some stage put the common interest (often, if not admittedly always, an uncertain 'other') before our own."

I could point out that I said “one of the most fundamental…” not “THE fundamental…” and leave it at that, but I don’t think I’ll be that cheap. I do agree with you that politics and being in society does demand a certain degree of common interest. I’m not a Millian or a Randian, after all, and do support quite a shocking amount of self-abnegation and sacrifice (albeit mostly social, rather than economic). A good example of this is the idea of military service, the idea of giving your life for your country. Granted one can make arguments that one really fights for your home and family and not the greater good of the nation, but I don’t buy into the idea that selfish reasons lie behind acts of charity and unselfishness and I don’t think you would make those arguments. Another would be my full-throated support of the rigorous use of shame to enforce social norms.

Truthfully, there is a lot behind what I wrote--as the questions I posed at the end of my post show--and I haven’t fully thought through or really formed codified opinions on many of these issues, so perhaps I should not have been so sloppy with my quickly written post. This is, after all, still a 'blog that people read for frivolity rather than substance, not a term paper.

Ästhetisches Wählen

Interesting article in today’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung by Frank Schirrmacher analyzing Gerhard Schroeder's call for early elections. You will remember that the last time around Schroeder and his Social Democrats narrowly avoided being chucked out of office by lurching to the Left and embracing full-frontal Anti-American fever. This is all old news, I know, and rather tedious. But, with the call for early elections, many observers have looked at the recent history to discern just what tactics Schroeder will use to try to hang on once again.

My Milkshake is Almost Better Than Yours

The fourth best, actually.

Who the FUCK runs the Senate?

It's not the Republicans, that's for sure.  It is obvious that the Democrats would not tolerate someone voting out of line and this just shows that the Republicans are still not ready for prime time after all these years and that Frist has no chance of becoming President.  This is not a bi-partisan deal, but a Democratic deal that Republican Senators have signed up for like they were in the minority.

On a side note, it is funny hearing the media obsess about Star Wars being against Bush and all that, but watching Harry Reid talk about Bush trying to thwart democracy tonight by asking that his nominees get voted on when his party controls the Senate, reminded me of Palpatine saying that the Jedi's were out to overthrow the Republic.  Such intemperate language on Reid's part is extremely irresponsibe.

A "Non" or "Nee" Means Cheaper Guiness

I must say that reading about the potential economic impact of a rejection of the "European" "Constitution" adds a selfish reason for my wanting to see the damn thing fail.  This is, of course, in addition to my standard right-wing reactionary political and philosophical objections with the shockingly complex, menacingly intrusive, and stunningly toxic ream of paper that those corrupt post-socialist bureaucrats are trying to stuff down the throats of their admittedly moribund and culturally treasonous wards.

You see if the "European" "Constitution" fails and it were to hurt the standing of the Euro currency in relation to the US dollar then my trip to Ireland will be a little less costly. 

(Not that I'm 100% behind a strong dollar policy, believing the recent weakness of the dollar to be one factor in the relatively good economic performance we have seen lately.  Of course, I'm not a committed weak dollar man, either, seeing this policy as a suboptimal and economically misleading prop for sectors that should probably be Schumpetered.)

This One Is Better

I should have used this picture instead, it is much funnier.

Picture

There weren't many pictures taken this week as Blimpish visited Chicago, indeed I didn't take any.  But I know that some of you are very curious indeed as to what this meeting of the minds must have looked like.  To that end, I have chased down a picture and will share it with you now.

GBV

Inks, this one's for you.

Star Wars

I won't give you much of a review of Star Wars, but I will say that it was an experience.  The movie was okay in spite of it being a crap movie only because of all the back story that this movie filled in.  In my expert opinion, they should have ended the movie when they closed the Darth Vader mask.  The whole Frankenstein thing was off the hook, unbelievably bad news.  Also ridiculous was when the Emperor made Annakin do something bad and then when Annakin was ashamed of what he did he immediately bowed down and asked for more.  A completely "Thank you, sir, may I have another?" moment.

The theater, a small one on the Northwest side, only had two Darth Vaders and one Jedi.  Thankfully I didn't have to pee because I was stuck in the front corner of the theater and it was not easy to wind your way out.  The reason I thought I would have to pee was the number of Leine's Red that Blimpish and I drank while sharing our coming out, "When did you first read Strauss?" stories after dinner which for some unknown reason chased his friend away.