Epistemic Ingemination

I hit the Washington Monthly’s “Political Animal” blog daily — it is one of the finer, nuanced, thoughtful liberal weblogs. But today, Sunday, 11/30/08, it is so far-ranging and succinct and informative that I just have to say:

Forget this noise that you’re looking at. Go read http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/.

Here I thought that I had a quiet and restrained readership, a group of folks who were never going to comment on anything. My old friend and band mate from the Killer Bees, Chris, writes in to point out to me that I have had comments effectively disabled for I don’t know how long. (I have it set that you have to be registered to comment — which is good, as it kills 99% of comment spam — but I had also set things so that no one could register. D’Oh! And I call myself a systems administrator. What a maroon….)

Anyway, y’all can join in now if you like. Don’t fret about the ‘having to register’ part — nobody will ever see it except me, and I’d rather walk barefoot across broken glass than make your email available to a spammer. And you’ll be able to tell me I’m an idiot properly — publicly in view of everyone else. It’s a win, n’est pas?

And, BTW, Chris says that as long as we’re talking about Tony Banks, this is a good one. Yessir. You can get a pretty good aerial of his rig around 5:00 into the video.

These are some of the ones that caused me to do what I did.

Jessica — The best rock piano solo ever starts at 2:29. Chuck Leavell. A minute and fifteen seconds that changed everything.

Green Eyed Lady — solo at 2:53. Ends at 3:45. Jerry Corbetta defines what rock organ needs to be. Everyone else scrambles to catch up.

Squonk — the whole song. Tony Banks actually played all of those keyboards. While holding down the bass line at the same time. I still want to be Tony Banks.

Streetwave — solo at 2:55. Monophonic synth at its most expressive, ever. I’ve never figured out whether it was played by David Foster, Larry Williams, or Steve Porcaro, but my guess is Steve. Just magnificent work, in any case.

Lucky Man — solo at 3:23. The one that started it all. Keith Emerson plays the first solo as ballsy as anything a guitar can do. I was immediately hooked; this piece quite literally changed my life. Less than a decade later I was geeking synclaviers and touring with rock stars. (Thank you, Rick.)

We’re not really here.

Well, okay, maybe we’re here. But the matter that we see and measure here has a very nebulous foundation indeed. It would seem that the mass of the baryon particles that make us up is derived from the spontaneous appearance and disappearance of virtual quarks in the quantum vacuum of QCD-scale spacetime.

Put another way, all of this Stuff comes from the interactions of statistical improbabilities that have no finite existence.

Says so right here.

I love it. For a physics nerd like me, these results rock. Better than Metallica and AC/DC combined.

Just a few notes to the right-winger talking heads on TV:

• The country is not “center right.” It never was. Unfortunately for you, the country appears to have finally become immune to fear-mongering. Kind of nullifies your playbook, doesn’t it?
• The Republican party is not conservative in any true ideological sense of the word. If anything, it’s rankly exploitative. It has also repeatedly proven that it is incapable of responsibly governing this country.
• The Democrats out-raised the Republicans this year by breathtaking margins. Obama alone, taking no Federal funds in the general election, and taking no money from lobbyists, raised over $500 million dollars, from 6.5 million donors. That’s about $79 per donor. You wanted campaign finance reform? The Dems delivered it to you. Stop complaining.
• Republican approval ratings are at 34% — an all time low.
• The Republican party has botched everything that it has touched for more than a decade now. It will take us generations to get things back on track. The American public has noticed.
• If you take the time to analyze the election results, it is apparent that the Republican Party has become the party of uneducated Southern fundamentalists. Good luck with that.

Let’s work on those talking points, shall we?

An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer.

The bartender says “You’re all idiots”, and pours two beers.

Brand new. The Monty Python Channel On Youtube.

From Emo Philips. This one is said to have been voted the funniest religious joke of all time…

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.”

I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?” He said, “Yes.”

I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.”

I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.”

I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.”

I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.”

I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”

I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist or Northern Conservative Reformed Baptist?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist.”

I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region.”

I said, “Me, too!” Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”

I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.

Let’s revisit. How perfect can six and a half minutes be?

Starbuck’s profits plummet 97%.

More blogging soon; I’ve been enjoying a week of happy returns and letting the BloodFire seep away. Election season is hard on folks like me…

I just received a note from Jeffery Tyler, a long-time adversary (not an enemy) who is a thoughtful, well-decorated, regular Army, career Mil-Spec conservative.

His poetry tonight is far, far beyond my talents.

[This] day, the last battle of the Civil War was fought and won, by all Americans.

Tonight is my Super Sunday. Blood sport. Game Night.

I am… cautiously optimistic that my candidates will win. More soon.

…

7:45 – The majors call Pennsylvania for Obama. Pretty huge; this was a must-do McCain strategy cornerstone.

8:03 – Udall gets New Mexico Senatorial; 55:45 dems so far in the US Senate…

8:10 – Wisconsin and Michigan, Obama. Like kicking crutches away from an old broke-leg guy.

8:13 – Georgia goes McCain. Thought we might’ve caught that one, but not a swing state in any sense; not unexpected, no worries.

8:39 – Obama gets Ohio. That’s that. McCain needs Florida and everything else at this point.

8:51: – Obama takes New Mexico. Thanks, Bill.

9:08 – The Republican Party has now apparently lost all of its US Congressional Representatives in New England.

9:13 – Obama takes 60% in Orange County, Florida??

9:32 – Even Fox is doing a postmortem on McCain now.

We Won.

Tomorrow we shall discuss.

I understand that there’s some kind of political competition on Tuesday. Must do some research…