Benjamin, One Word

graphene

Ah, Yes. January. Midwest.

In this case, Stow, Ohio.

Tiger Mothers

By now you've heard about the Tiger Mother controversy, right?
No? Okay, well there was this Chinese American Harvard Yale law prof who wrote this NYT WSJ op-ed piece about how she drove her two daughters to specified goals, wouldn't let them have sleepovers even, and threatened all sorts of wildly lunatic reprisals just because she loved them and wanted them to succeed and by the way, please buy the book about it.
So after that it was a long, is she right, is she wrong debate, mostly among men but some women, too, including at least one Chinese American daughter of a lunatic mother who begged to differ about the approach.
Me, I pretty much got over wondering if I was some sort of a monster because I took a more laisse faire approach, since it's fairly clear I am a monster, but not necessarily because of that. But who knows?
Anyhoo, the debate is still going on and I found this great quote:

It’s just way better to be the world’s best acrobatic kite-surfer than the third best pianist in Cleveland. Also, the ethos of hyper-individuation is about activity/personality search and matching. It’s better to be happily mediocre at something you love than miserably amazing at something that never quite felt right.

I'm not sure it's right, but then I'm not sure of much. Although I can talk a good game.

Quote O' Teh Day

Thank you, Andrew Sullivan. Thank you for saying this. It's about the torture, of course, which Bush has gladly, proudly admitted to.
I used to read Scott Horton every day. Then I couldn't stand it anymore.

Under international law, George W. Bush is a war criminal. There is no dispute about that outside a tiny coterie of legal mediocrities and political hacks and a general public as yet unable to grasp that their ex-president should be in jail.)

Which gets me to thinking, how many known, living war criminals do we have, the U.S. and Britain. Is is agreed Kissinger is a war criminal? McNamara and minions, I guess, can't remember if he's still alive. Sullivan says the jury's still out on Blair.

What I Want To Be When I Grow Up

"...a free intelligence, a type hated with equal hatred by all the smelly little orthodoxies which are now contending for our souls."

 Orwell on Dickens. This is from a piece Andrew Sullivan is pondering as he ponders the call for civility following Tucson. Me, I learn where I can.
Smelly little orthodoxies. Love that. 

The Dowager Dutchess

"One can't got to pieces over the death of every foreigner. We'd all collapse the minute we opened a newspaper."

I love Maggie Smith and I love Downton Abbey.

That is all.

Previously.
"What is a weekend." (accent on the second syllable, can you hear it?)

Quote O' Teh Day

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." - Voltaire

From this, which came from this, which came from this.
It started here.

It's all in the oneness, right? Is the internet God?