Saturday, March 24, 2007

Well, the cold lingered through Wednesday, but I'm finally more or less well again. Of course, that means Wife has picked it up and is enduring a long weekend. Hopefully it won't keep her down as long.

March Madness is boring - almost a cosmic payback for watching an 11-seed wipe out brackets when it went to the Final4 last year. Good games - just no good storylines. Which will make this very forgettable unless there's still a Duke-Kentucky 1992-level game still to come.

Still reading Team of Rivals, which gets better with every chapter. I was interrupted this week by a push to get a release done at work that kept me up until 4AM. Oy, but it's past, from all indications. The book's pretty inspiring with its early-life biographies of Abraham Lincoln, William Henry Seward, and Edward Bates (Salmon Chase has admirable qualities, but is not one to be imitated). Lincoln carried books around all the time to read in whatever timespans he could. Yeah, probably a lot of people did that I wouldn't want to be similar to, but I'll be selective.

It's also interesting to read over the politics of the 1840s and 1850s. I remember most of the names from middle/high school, but it's interesting to look at it all from a perspective that's not intended to indoctrinate. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster's compromises on slavery that only kept the pressure bottled up longer, John C. Calhoun's decades-long work towards undermining the Union, and the different motivations and effects of the anti-slavery movements.

Slavery came into play in so many seemingly unrelated issues, makes me think what it could be now. Maybe the mixing of church and state. I try to live my life in line with the precepts of the Bible (I'd love to claim it as a literal roadmap but it doesn't take much effort to find contradictions), but religion is a choice, and shouldn't be imposed by society. Period.

I'm also afraid the Constitution is becoming holy writ. I consider the Constitution the best societal contract ever written, and itwas ahead of its time, but not ahead of all times. Part of Lincoln's greatness was adapting the Constitution to stamp out slavery, and establish a more federal republic. I don't think ignoring the Bill of Rights as the Bush administration is the right direction for Constitutional change, but saying we never want to do things differently than rural English farmers did 200 years ago - well, that doesn't make sense either. I wouldn't mind another Constitutional Convention - I just wonder where you'd find a Washington, a Franklin, and writers like Madison and Monroe who try to generate a just system for all rather than enhancing their position. I know many of the Convention delegates were sectarian, but the leaders had a sense of the greater good and the gravitas to bring most of the partisans to compromise. Can you think of anyone to put in that role?

Partially as a result of this reading, I am going to try to learn more. Not just reading, but actually learning and remembering stuff. As an initial experiment, I'm trying to get back the 50 states and their capitals. I've got all the states, but Hartford keeps eluding me until I give up and check it. Any suggestions for good sets of facts to start with? I'm thinking countries w/capitals, seas and significant lakes, get geography down, then maybe hit historical lists.

Yes. I am a dork. Never claimed otherwise.

It's amazing how little movies have interested me in the last 6 months. Many I wouldn't mind seeing, but none that got me to the theater at my own instigation. I'm kinda looking forward to this summer: Harry Potter 5, Transformers (although the most recent trailer suggest Michael Bay has replaced any magical nostalgia with over-effected crap), Spider-Man 3, Dragonlance (that one's actually in the fall). I think there's a couple more, but I can't think of them. And still nothing entrances me more than thinking about the Harry Potter book in July. 748 pages of narrative goodness.

Hehe, to give an idea of how little I'm interested in March Madness right now, I'm watching the beginning of The Day After Tomorrow. Horribly-written movie, but great fun effects.

As always, I appreciate any and all comments.
posted by Unknown 7:00 PM | 1 comments