An ancient human conceit is that we inherit our behaviors from our forebearers, including language. There is a belief that if someone has Greek heritage, (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
Difference = disorder
07/04/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentReading Chris Hayes’ book, A Colony in a Nation, my attention was drawn to his formulation of the disturbance generated by disorder. For some people, (Continue Reading)
Magnum Opus Secundum
06/16/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentSo many themes, they get scattered and lose impact. It seems time to pull some threads together and knit a rope, or rather a hawser. (Continue Reading)
Why Didn’t the American colonists pay the f**** tariff?
05/12/2018 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsChris Hayes writes about how the common slogan regarding police violence against Blacks is, “Why don’t they just do what the cop says?” The tariff (Continue Reading)
Who learns what how?
04/15/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentI’ve written about my wife’s cousin’s experiences learning Italian and Japanese. Tonight he revealed that in English he never could comprehend what he reads. He (Continue Reading)
To post in every courthouse and school room in the country
04/10/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentFrom Steve Schmidt, the McCain-Palin campaign chairman, on what it means to be a fidelitist (new word for me). [on the MSNBC show The Eleventh (Continue Reading)
What looms ahead?
02/28/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe entry Hate and Special Status discusses a little of Pankaj Mishra’s talk at A.S.U. The rise of anger (his talk and book are Global (Continue Reading)
Markings
10/07/2017 Pat Barrett Add CommentMy son told me how students had set a school bus on fire, one he had been using as a traveling aquaponics exhibit and lab. (Continue Reading)
Great quotes re punishment and the law
06/24/2017 Pat Barrett Add Comment“Punishment is the last and the least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime.” – John Ruskin “For if (Continue Reading)
My drive for synthesis reaches new heights
04/11/2017 Pat Barrett Add CommentFriends say I am good at synthesizing disparate elements. I am better at that than at analyzing, but before synthesizing must come analysis. At times, (Continue Reading)
Jane Jacobs – the basics of society
03/17/2017 Pat Barrett Add CommentDark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs, written in 2004 p. 148 In March 2003, a former Federal Reserve governor, Lyle Gramley, was quoted by The (Continue Reading)
Dynamics around religion in a community
01/27/2017 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere’s how a dominant religion in an area can sidestep the Constitution. My wife came to work in the East Valley of the Phoenix Metropolitan (Continue Reading)
Why language is important
01/24/2017 Pat Barrett Add CommentIn going over my essay of teaching Standard English, I said the following and my friend, Brian, thought it worth writing out. So here it (Continue Reading)
Acuity
01/20/2017 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere’s a good example of the almost inconceivable acuity of attention to detail some people have: there are 76 uprights, wrought iron with floral designs (Continue Reading)
Tracing the arc of growth to fulfilment or to a dead end
12/27/2016 Pat Barrett Add CommentAs I was reading a bit about the Hanseatic League in one of my old history books, the NYT came with a long article on (Continue Reading)
Where it all starts and where it all ends
12/02/2016 Pat Barrett Add CommentFundamental to my world view and something I consider the starting point in discussing human activity on earth (as opposed to elsewhere?) is sex. The (Continue Reading)
A grain of truth in a sandstorm of distortions
11/19/2016 Pat Barrett Add CommentMy attempts to engage with the idea that facts are determined by one’s world view and show that world view as well as perspective can (Continue Reading)
A loaded weapon
11/18/2016 Pat Barrett Add CommentWhen the Supreme Court supported the internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent in concentration camps at the outbreak of WW II, a dissenting voice, (Continue Reading)
Why not, indeed?
11/12/2016 Pat Barrett Add CommentYou get in the express line (15 items or less) at the grocery store behind an elderly person who clearly has a lot more than (Continue Reading)
Backdoor investigation
09/21/2016 Pat Barrett Add CommentOne route to finding reality is the direct approach. For instance, do energy company executives bring women in to their conventions for the sexual entertainment (Continue Reading)
150: the Magic Number
09/14/2016 Pat Barrett Add CommentTruly a Basic feature of life. The magic number is 150. When I was reading a Malcolm Gladwell book I was fascinated by his diving (Continue Reading)
The charge of those responsible
09/14/2016 Pat Barrett Add CommentPersonal responsibility is the slogan of Movement Conservatism, different from Republicanism. No doubt personal responsibility is the hallmark of a well-formed personality, but that begs (Continue Reading)
Underlying factors – covert motivators
07/24/2016 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe response to my response to his response to……. I know. But that is the effect of the current handling. Consciously or subconsciously, they know (Continue Reading)