Quotation Of The Day: Yes, The Mainstream Press Does Believe America Is A Vain And Superficial Country; Thanks For Asking Edition

Instead of worrying about how the new pope will deal with the on-going abuse scandal or the other Vatican problems, seek rapprochement with the Protestants, deal with the impending demise of organized Christianity in Europe, or encourage the growth of Catholicism in developing countries, The Daily Beast has decided to focus on papal fashion and whether the new pope will shop at St. Peter's Big and Tall:

Like normal people, popes come in a variety of shapes and sizes. So to prepare for whoever is ultimately chosen as the new pope, papal outfitter Ditta Annibale Gammarelli (who’s dressed every pope in the last century with one exception, Pius XII, who had his own personal tailor) has produced two sets of pope attire in three different sizes each (small, medium, and large). Each set, comprised of four components—a floor-length wool cassock, a white sash, a white skullcap, and an optional scarlet mozzetta, in addition to a one-size-fits-all red velvet cape (for winter weather)—have been prepared in anticipation of the new pope’s uncertain waistline.

Quotation Of The Day:Vocabulary And Education

From E.D. Hirsch:

It isn’t overstating the case to say that the most secure way to predict whether an educational policy is likely to help restore the middle class is to focus on the question: Is this policy likely to expand the vocabularies of 12th-graders?

Hirsch may be correct, but his Common Core disciples and their STEM allies aren't producing those policies.

Quotation Of The Day: Baseball And Oral Interpretation Edition

I got to spend this morning in tab room trying to keep an oral interpretation tournament running on time, Tonight, I plan to spend some time watching the World Series, This description of the Detroit Tigers' legendary announcer Ernie Harwell combines the best of both parts of my day:

It all starts far, far from any stadium. There are no diamonds and no throngs of adoring fans—just a crackling radio hissing through a stale summer garage into air as golden-tinged as the dead, yellow lawn.

There’s a man’s voice: “He stood there like a house by the side of the road and watched it go by…and Thomas is OUT, for excessive window shopping!”

The voice is as thick as the greasy garage air, syrupy and mellifluous from decades of polishing.

Quotation Of The Day: Why It Doesn't Pay To Vote For Either Romney Or Obama Edition

From this Bill Kauffman post at The American Conservative:

In his memoir If You Don’t Weaken (1940), Oscar Ameringer, witty and humane radical from the erstwhile hotbed of American socialism, Oklahoma (it really was!), professed a “rule of never voting for a presidential candidate who had the slightest chance of election. The ballot is too precious lightly to be thrown away on candidates selected and financed by the ‘angels’ and archangels of the two historic old parties which have managed my adopted country into the condition it is in today.”

Oscar’s statute remains sound. We are facing in 2012 the worst Democrat-Republican twosome since, uh, 2008? 2004? 2000? I detect a pattern.

A state’s electoral votes have never been decided by a single popular vote, so as history is our guide your vote for president does not matter.

Quotation Of The Day: Snapshot Of America Edition

From the Huffington Post:

Friday nights in the Dallas suburb of Allen are about to become even more larger-than-life, as the Allen Independent School District prepares to open a new $60 million stadium for its high school football team. . . .

Allen Eagle Stadium's construction continued even as Texas lawmakers cut the state's education funding by $4 billion, reducing all school district tax rates by about one-third in 2006. By the 2011-2012 school year, Allen was facing a $4.5 million budget shortfall and was forced to cut 44 teaching positions and 40 support positions through attrition and voluntary buyouts.

While the simultaneous educational budget cuts and glamorous stadium construction yielded an incongruous couple, the school's operating budget stood separate from construction. So in October 2011, Allen voters agreed to increase property tax rates by $0.13 to offset state education cuts.

(HT: Rod Dreher)

Quote Of The Day: The Power Of Negative Thinking Edition

I've written before that I don't really view the world in "glass half full" or "glass half empty" dichotomies. In my world the glass is always cracked and leaking. At long last, someone has written a book that I might agree with. Oliver Burkeman who has written The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking has written a s New York Times op-ed that illustrates why positive thinking may not not be quite as wonderful as its supporters allege:

Though much of this research is new, the essential insight isn’t. Ancient philosophers and spiritual teachers understood the need to balance the positive with the negative, optimism with pessimism, a striving for success and security with an openness to failure and uncertainty. The Stoics recommended “the premeditation of evils,” or deliberately visualizing the worst-case scenario. This tends to reduce anxiety about the future: when you soberly picture how badly things could go in reality, you usually conclude that you could cope. Besides, they noted, imagining that you might lose the relationships and possessions you currently enjoy increases your gratitude for having them now. Positive thinking, by contrast, always leans into the future, ignoring present pleasures.

Buddhist meditation, too, is arguably all about learning to resist the urge to think positively — to let emotions and sensations arise and pass, regardless of their content. It might even have helped those agonized firewalkers. Very brief training in meditation, according to a 2009 article in The Journal of Pain, brought significant reductions in pain — not by ignoring unpleasant sensations, or refusing to feel them, but by turning nonjudgmentally toward them.

From this perspective, the relentless cheer of positive thinking begins to seem less like an expression of joy and more like a stressful effort to stamp out any trace of negativity. Mr. Robbins’s trademark smile starts to resemble a rictus. A positive thinker can never relax, lest an awareness of sadness or failure creep in. And telling yourself that everything must work out is poor preparation for those times when they don’t. You can try, if you insist, to follow the famous self-help advice to eliminate the word “failure” from your vocabulary — but then you’ll just have an inadequate vocabulary when failure strikes.

Even if I didn't agree with Burkeman's sentiments, I'd have to use this quotation because it contains the word rictus, a term I first encountered reading The Big Sleep one of my favorite novels:

“I knew that my mouth was open and the ache at the side of my jaws told me it was open wide and the strained back, mimicking the rictus of death carved upon the face of Harry Jones”

Quotation Of The Day: Politics In A Nutshell Edition

I will admit to selectively editing this David Halperin paragraph about for profit colleges, I inserted the future tense phrasing and removed politicians' names,  That being said, the original sentiment strikes me as a wonderfully concise statement of everything that's wrong with Washington or, on a smaller scale, Pierre.

There is stalemate in Washington on holding this industry accountable, because the big money that it spends on lobbying, lawyering, and campaign contributions has bought the allegiance of many congressional Republicans and  Democrats and [will] thwart. . . [any] determined reform efforts. . . .

The most frightening thing is that stalemate may be a better alternative than letting those who have been heavily lobbied and financed do the will of their handlers.

Quotations Of The Day: Headlines Edition

From Conor Friedersdorf: The Vital Fight in Congress That Turns on a Blood-Stained Memo.

From IO9,com: Archeologists Uncover Maya Temple of the Blood Drinking Sun God

From Kyle Cupp: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Zombies

From Alyssa Rosenberg: Five Marvel Superheroines Who Would Make For Great ABC Television Shows.

Finally, this one just sounds dirty. From the New York Times: Tea Party Aims to Apply Its Touch to the Senate G.O.P.

Quotation Of The Day: Presidential Campaign Edition

Rod Dreher sums up my mood perfectly:

Still, it’s an interesting question: how is it that things can be so crummy for so long, with so many real, and real serious, problems facing the country, and the only protest movement we can generate is that pointless SWPL-palooza [Stuff White People Like] called Occupy Wall Street, and the election still comes down to Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney? Read David Brooks today on why this campaign is so awful.  I swear, this campaign is like watching CSPAN1 and CSPAN2 having sex on Ambien.

Quotation Of The Day: Grammar Edition

From this Kyle Wiens post in Harvard Business Review:

On the face of it, my zero tolerance approach to grammar errors might seem a little unfair. After all, grammar has nothing to do with job performance, or creativity, or intelligence, right?

Wrong. If it takes someone more than 20 years to notice how to properly use "it's," then that's not a learning curve I'm comfortable with. So, even in this hyper-competitive market, I will pass on a great programmer who cannot write.

Grammar signifies more than just a person's ability to remember high school English. I've found that people who make fewer mistakes on a grammar test also make fewer mistakes when they are doing something completely unrelated to writing — like stocking shelves or labeling parts.

In the same vein, programmers who pay attention to how they construct written language also tend to pay a lot more attention to how they code. You see, at its core, code is prose. Great programmers are more than just code monkeys; according to Stanford programming legend Donald Knuth they are "essayists who work with traditional aesthetic and literary forms." The point: programming should be easily understood by real human beings — not just computers.

And just like good writing and good grammar, when it comes to programming, the devil's in the details. In fact, when it comes to my whole business, details are everything.

I have three quick reactions.  First, I need to proofread more carefully before I hit publish. Second, I have told students that a link exists between programming and grammar.  It's good to see someone support that premise. Finally, grammar is necessary but people who write with good grammar may still produce boring work: feel free to insert a necessary not sufficient cliche.

HT: Andrew Sullivan

Quotation Of The Day: Evangelicals Used To Be Progressive Edition

From this James Rohrer post on Salon/Alternet:

Most Sioux County [Iowa] voters are descendants of Dutch Protestant immigrants who settled the area more than a century ago. Their grandparents and great-grandparents were if anything even more theologically conservative, more pietistic, and more inclined to lace every conversation with biblical injunctions. But a century ago, the local folk opened their Bibles and found admonitions against rich rulers exploiting the poor. They found Jesus preaching that the “sinners” would enter the Kingdom of God before the Chamber of Commerce types, and understood that disciples must speak out against the Trusts and war profiteers. I just spent a week reading through the Alton Democrat for 1900, which routinely drew upon the Bible to editorialize against the imperialist ambitions of the United States –even dubbing its capitalist rulers “immoral” and “evil”– and to denounce the moneyed aristocracy that unjustly controlled the destiny of the people. . . .

The Bible has not changed, and neither have the core theological beliefs of the people of Sioux County. But society has changed and the nature of political action has evolved almost beyond recognition since the turn of the 20th century. The Bible and the Christian tradition can be tapped as resources for an array of political agendas. That the “heartland” has in recent decades swung so far away from the populist tradition of [William Jennings] Bryan is not because there is something intrinsically authoritarian or anti-democratic in the religious beliefs of the masses, but because Republican strategists in the last two generations have done a far better job than progressives at organizing, marketing and communicating their message in a way that appeals at a visceral level to the hopes and fears of many people. To change America, we must change this reality.

While discussing Rohrer's essay, Ed Kilgore adds a paragraph from his review of  Michael Kazin's biography of William Jennings Bryan, A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan

Once upon a time, right here in America, tens of millions of people read the Bible daily and read little else; believed it to be the literal and inerrant Word of God; and somehow interpreted it as a saga wherein God repeatedly delivered His people from the predations of the rich and the powerful and the privileged, perpetually condemned their subjugation as a divine commandment, and further commanded that they respect their equality as His children. In other words, those politicized Christians who have formed a firm alliance with Mammon and Mars on the grounds that the Word’s main message today is to condemn abortion and homosexuality and feminism are forever vulnerable to those faithful who read their Bible and see otherwise.

Quotation Of The Day: National Debt Statistics Edition

From this LA Times Daniel Lazarus post:

According to FactCheck.org, the national debt rose 190% under former President Reagan. It rose 52% under President George H.W. Bush, 37% under Bill Clinton and 86% under Bush II. During his first three years in office, President Obama has presided over a 45% increase in the national debt.

Quotation Of The Day: The Disposable Middle Class Edition

April Rubin gives cold-blooded advice to financial managers:

The middle class is toast. In the wake of the financial crisis, middle class families in the U.S. are burdened by too much debt, the rising cost of health care, fewer jobs and the ever-increasing price tag on retirement.

Financial advisors in the future who want to prosper need to hitch their star to high net worth clients, including , maybe even especially, those from outside the U.S. who are seeking a dynamic asset allocation approach designed to deal with rising global market and economic volatility.

It’s a reality that advisors need to embrace, but all too many are behind the curve. They are using old-fashioned methods to appeal to clients who are rapidly disappearing and who will in the future not be able to afford their products and services.

I guess that if one is a financial planner one doesn't care that the middle class is being destroyed; one only cares that one is "behind the curve" in chasing wealthy clients and throwing middle class clients to curb.

Quotation Of The Day: Human Fallibility Edition

From Chad Segersten:

Often I find myself missing opportunities to be gracious, to listen a little deeper, to be thankful, to appreciate, to smile, to laugh, to support a friend, to help a stranger.

In my case, the phrasing should begin "too often I find myself . . . ."

Quotation Of The Day: Things A Preseidential Candidate Doesn't Want To Hear Edition

From this Politico interview with John McCain:

Asked why he chose not to go with Romney, McCain said: “Oh come on, because we thought that Sarah Palin was the better candidate. Why did we not take [Tim] Pawlenty, why did we not take any of the other 10 other people. Why didn’t I? Because we had a better candidate, the same way with all the others. … Come on, why? That’s a stupid question.”

McCain attempts to clarify here.

Quotation Of The Day: We Should All Feel Safer Now Edition

From this Yahoo News Article article:

"CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)," agency spokesman David Daigle told The Huffington Post.

Quotation Of The Day: Suicidal, Hard-Hearted, And Spineless Edition

Writing about the House Republican farm bill that "cut food stamps by more than $12 billion while actually adding new subsidies to agribusiness," Walter Russel Mead sums up the decision than nearly anyone else:

The House Republican majority certainly looks like it’s trying to destroy itself. The combination of raising agricultural subsidies by billions of dollars and cutting food stamps is one of the most stupid, self-destructive moves an American political party could make.

A party with principles might cut food stamps and farm supports. A party with no principles but good political instincts might spend more on food stamps and farm subsidies. But to cut food stamps while subsidizing big agriculture manages to make Republicans look hard-hearted and spineless at the same time.

HT: Rod Dreher

Quotation Of The Day: Chart Is Worth A Thousand Words Edition

According to Gallup, Americans have lost faith in nearly every social institution.  In fact, only three institutions have an approval rating over 50%.  The survey was conducted from June 7-10, 2012.

I'm not much of a joiner; some may even consider me cynical and anti-social.  That being said, I have to wonder if any free society can thrive when citizens have so little trust in the institutions that are necessary to hold a society together.

Quotation Of The Day: Is School Both Too Hard And Too Easy Edition

From this Anthony Cody Eduweek post:

I also think we end up here with a far too simple concept of "easy" and "hard." I think the way we need to make school "harder" is not by increasing the number of facts that students need to memorize, or the age at which they learn math concepts. I think we need to deepen their ability to apply these concepts in meaningful ways. (emphasis in original)

Quotation Of The Day: Poet Laureate Edition

I missed the announcement that the United States has a new Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey.  I'm totally unfamiliar with her work, so I'll trust Charles McGrath who reports:

Ms. Trethewey’s great theme is memory, and in particular the way private recollection and public history sometimes intersect but more often diverge. “The ghost of history lies down beside me,” she writes in one of her poems, “rolls over, pins me beneath a heavy arm.”

The following poem was published in 2010.

Vespertina Cognitio

by Natasha Trethewey

Overhead, pelicans glide in threes—

         their shadows across the sand

                  dark thoughts crossing the mind.

Beyond the fringe of coast, shrimpers

         hoist their nets, weighing the harvest

                  against the day's losses. Light waning,

concentration is a lone gull

         circling what's thrown back. Debris

                  weights the trawl like stones.

All day, this dredging—beneath the tug

         of waves—rhythm of what goes out, 

                  comes back, comes back, comes back.