Random Thinking

Today is Pi day, the day we celebrate that wonderful irrational real number that defines the ratio between a circle’s circumference and it’s diameter. Why is today Pi day? Because, at least in the USA, today is March 14th, written as 3/14, which are the first three digits of Pi. In honor of Pi day, you should eat something round for lunch or supper. I had a bagel for lunch.

For those of you who don’t live in the USA and write your dates as 14/3, never fear! You too get a Pi day but you need to wait until July 22nd. Why July 22nd, you might ask. Because July 22nd would be written as 22/7 and 22 over 7 is a rough approximation of the value of Pi!

So happy Pi day everyone!

Hat tip to Michel who left me two voice mails to make sure I didn’t forget!�

The daily comic strip For Better Or Worse has added a character named Shannon who is developmentally disabled. Ecki over at the downsyn forums pointed out today’s strip which deals with the r-word that I have been discussing in my recent blog entries.

Technorati Tags: disability, down syndrome

A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess

You would think that it would be impossible to write a book about a 15-year old rapist/murderer and somehow have him come out as a sympathetic character. Burgess has achieved that remarkable feat in this book. The genius of it is in the use of the first person and in the use of slang to give voice to Alex. The slang also serves to make the violence almost comical as instead of kicking someone in the mouth, Alex describes giving a tolchok into the rot and knocking out a few zoobies. So even though the book is full of violence and rape, the language removes us from it in such a way that the book feels less violent than it is. Although this may seem like it would make the book hard to read, it all makes sense when read in context.

The story itself is a fairly simple and fast read. If you have seen the movie then (other than the last chapter) you know what happens in the book. Alex and his friends commit violent crimes, Alex gets arrested, he gets cured of his violence and then gets cured of the cure. The movie follows the book almost exactly. The key difference is that the original American edition left out the last chapter (the American publisher thought it was a sellout as Burgess explains in the introduction) and Kubrick followed the American edition of the book. Is the last chapter a sellout? Does it cheapen the book? I think it changes the story to some extent. Burgess suggested that it changed the book from a fantasy into a novel. I think this overstates it but if you have read the American edition without the last chapter then you need to read it again with the last chapter.

The book is a classic and should be required reading. Although adult in concept and story line, anyone old enough to read the daily paper is old enough to read this book. Beneath all the violence in the book, Burgess is trying to make a point about free will and what it means to be human but he doesn’t overstate it. The story and the language carry the reader and the message is just there to do with as you please. As Burgess says in the introduction, “Eat this sweetish segment or spit it out. You are free.”

Technorati Tags: book reviewing, books

So thanks to Deblog, I have found out that there is a contest going on to win a Nintendo Wii. Since I just read that a Wii is a great way to get exercise and lose weight, and I need to do both, I am entering the contest! To enter you need a blog (which I have) and must be willing to give a free ad to a pen company (for a chance to win a Wii I will gladly do that).

So here is my post:

John Chow, the root of all evil, is giving away a Nintendo Wii. The contest is sponsored by 1234Pens.com a company that makes promotional pens.

Technorati Tags: Nintendo Wii, corporate sellout

It started in 1968 with the bombing of two department stores in Frankfurt, Germany. Andreas Baader saw post-war Germany as little better than a fascist state. He was arrested for the bombings but with the help of journalist Ulrike Meinhof, he escaped and thus was born the Baader-Meinhof Gang which spread terror across West Germany through most of the 70′s. Neither Baader nor Meinhof would make it past 1977 as they both committed suicide after having been captured in 1972 after a series of bombings and bank robberies.

But the organization they started would outlive them. BMG became more popularly known as the Red Army Faction (RAF) and grew rapidly through the 70′s and early 80′s. Second and third generation members joined and carried on the terrorist activities of the group. Brigitte Mohnhaupt joined the RAF in 1971 and was arrested in 1972. While serving her eight year sentence she was trained by Gudrun Ensslin and Andreas Baader to take over the organization. She was released in early 1977 shortly before most of the leaders of RAF committed suicide in prison. She immediately disappeared.

The next time she showed up was a few months later when she attempted to kidnap banker J�rgen Ponto. The attempt failed and Ponto ended up dead. Over the next few years she killed a total of nine people and attempted to kill others mostly bankers, executives, and American military officers. She was finally captured in 1982 and sentenced to multiple life sentences. Mohnhaupt is 57-years old and has served 24-years of her sentence. The courts in Germany have decided that she has served enough time and the unrepentant terrorist/killer will be released on March 27th. She will be 58.

The Red Army Faction moved on after Mohnhaupt was imprisoned, renouncing violence in 1992 and disbanding in 1998. The record of the RAF was 36 killed at a cost of death of 23 members with most of the remainder placed in prison.

Technorati Tags: terrorists, Red Army Faction, Brigitte Mohnhaupt

This is a dark chapter in our history. Whatever else happens, our country’s international standing has been frittered away by people who don’t have the foggiest understanding of how the hell the world works. America has been conducting an experiment for the past six years, trying to validate the proposition that it really doesn’t make any difference who you elect president. Now we know the result of that experiment. If a guy is stupid, it makes a big difference.

- Gen. Tony McPeak (retired), Member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War

Quoted in an article in Rolling Stone: Beyond Quagmire

Technorati Tags: George W. Bush, Stupid Conservatives

As I mentioned in my earlier post, there was a diary entry on the Daily Kos that made a joke about George Bus “riding the short limo”. This inspired me enough to write a diary entry of my own that discussed why I found this offensive.

For those who don’t know, Daily Kos is a politically liberal-leaning/progressive web site that has built a huge audience over the last few years. It features multiple writers and normally posts at least 10 main entries per day. In addition, anyone who has been a registered member for more than a week is permitted to write their own stories called diaries that are featured in a list on the right hand side of the site. The entry about the “short limo” was just such a diary and was not from the main writers for the site. So it seemed to me that writing my own diary entry would be the perfect response.

I have a 9 year old son. He has Down syndrome. It is a disability that he struggles to overcome. He is deeply loved by everyone who is fortunate enough to get to know him. He is not stupid. My son should be shown respect for his abilities as well as the difficulties he faces in life. Not the least of these difficulties is being discriminated against because of his disability. We work hard to get school districts and government agencies to provide him with the services that will help him lead as normal a life as possible. But no matter how he ends up, as a human being he deserves our respect and not our disdain.

You can read the entire entry and all the comments I received here. Most of the comments were favorable. Only one person thought I was being too politically correct. Here is a typical response:

Washed from my vocabulary from here on out.

Thanks. You’re right. We should know better.

I would say that in general, the Daily Kos community showed that they are supportive of the disabled and this was a learning experience for many people.

Technorati Tags: Daily Kos, disability, down syndrome

Bedford Park, NY: The neighbors had been complaining that the house was being used by crack addicts. The mortgage hadn’t been paid in four years. Finally, the bank foreclosed and sold the house to a developer. The house was a mess and needed some work so the developer hired a cleaning crew to fix up the place and dispose of all the garbage left by the crack users. The cleaning crew found a lot more than they expected and also found the explanation of why the mortgage hadn’t been paid. The owner of the house was dead… and had been dead for four years. All that remained of 83-year-old Florence Bock was a pile of bones next to her cane. Neighbors said that they thought she had moved to a long term care facility.

I had recently posted about a man who died in front of his television and wasn’t found for a year. I said at the time that I hoped that if I was missing for a year that someone might notice. A year is one thing but to be missing four years and not have anyone check your house!!!

OK, so I hereby propose Tom’s rule #1 for being a good neighbor: If you have an aged neighbor and you don’t see them for a reasonable amount of time (let’s say three months) you are required to make sure that their rotting corpse is not in the house by knocking on their door and if you don’t get a response to call the police and ask them to check the house. Failure to abide by the rule will lead to your embarrassment as your lousy excuse for doing nothing is published in the paper.

Technorati Tags: death, lousy neighbors

Something must be in the air. Something like thoughtlessness, cruelty, or perhaps just stupidity. You will recall that I blogged earlier about the Cartoon Network program, Xiaolin Showdown which made a joke about people with extra chromosome. In that same blog entry was a letter to the editor from the New York Daily News which made a joke about the “short bus”.

The same kind of stupidity has been repeated on a new show called The Winner which is on the Fox Network. The show is apparently about a 30-something guy who has never grown up and still lives with his parents and he is trying to impress some woman. So he lies about where he works but finally has to admit that he works in a video store. She tells him that there is nothing wrong with working in a video store and he replies, “Oh yes there is, if you are over 30 and don’t have Down syndrome.” Excuse me?! What the hell is that supposed to mean?

And finally, I am a regular reader of the liberal blog, The Daily Kos. This blog allows registered users to have diaries on the site and these diaries can be seen by all visitors. One of the registered users told of his 11-year old son making a joke about President George Bush riding in the short limo. He thought it was so funny that he had to share it with everyone. I guess the reasoning is, (1) George Bush is stupid, (2) kids that ride the short bus are stupid, (3) therefore George Bush must ride the short limo. As bad as that is, only one person commenting (other than me) found this offensive. Everyone else thought it was very funny that an 11-year old boy thinks people with disabilities should be insulted.

So what is going on? Why is the R-word still acceptable? Why are jokes about the “short bus” laughed at by the same people that would have a hemorrhage if they were told a joke using the N-word? My son is not stupid. He has a disability that he struggles to overcome. He has touched the lives of thousands of people in a wonderful way. He has changed me for the better in more ways than I could ever list. Please stop using the R-word. Please stop making jokes about the disabled. Please stop insulting my son.

With thanks to Sally and Mary C. for letting me know about The Loser.

Technorati Tags: down syndrome, disability, Daily Kos

1776
by David McCullough

David McCullough’s exploration of the year that the United States declared independence is disappointing both in what material he covers as well as what material he leaves out. Although the title is “1776″, the book is actually about the first three major battles in which George Washington was the commander of American forces. Other events which occurred in that year such as the publishing of “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine and the signing of the Declaration of Independence are barely mentioned and then only in how they affected General Washington’s command. The book ultimately is a brief discussion of the siege of Boston, the fall of New York City, and the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Unfortunately, McCullough is not a very good battle historian. His descriptions of the action make it very difficult to picture how the battles were fought and he includes no diagrams or illustrations to help explain the battlefield action. He does not describe the weapons used by either side.

McCullough also has a great deal of respect for George Washington, so much that he attempts to excuse Washington owning slaves. He makes a point to let us know that Washington freed his slaves after his death but fails to note that Washington had no children to inherit them. He also tries to make much of Washington having written a polite letter to an African-American woman who wrote him a poem. This trivializes the brutality of a system that Washington happily participated in and one in which he gained great wealth.

The narrative itself is rather choppy as McCullough frequently interrupts the flow of the story to provide narratives and letters written at the time. Although some are interesting, most simply repeat what McCullough has already discussed in the text. And there are quite a few spots in the text where McCullough has mangled his sentences. I found myself having to reread sentences because their structure was so poor. “He knew, as the enemy had no idea, just how big a country it was.” Rewording would have helped this sentence immensely. “His council assembled, Washington made the case for an all-out amphibious assault on Boston, by sending troops across the shallow Back Bay in flat-bottomed boats big enough to carry fifty men each.” So, did Washington make his case by sending the troops? Or did he make a case for sending the troops? Poor editing seems to be fairly common throughout the book.

Overall, the book is disappointing especially considering the many rave reviews it has received but it is still a fairly quick and easy read. If you are interested a brief discussion of George Washington’s early military career then the book could be worthwhile but I had expected much better from a two time Pulitzer Prize winner.