Nobody 674

Sunday, November 26, 2006
Nobody # 674

Nobody Asked Me But:

Today is both my son’s birthday and he and Benjamin’s second full day in their new home in Reno. Happy Birthday son, and may your new life be filled with health, happiness and love.

I love you,

Dad<<<

Question from “Food For Talk:” What are the three things that make you happiest?

1. Sharing life with my wife – from our vacations to sitting in our yard, to just being together.

2. Spending time with my family – my times in their presence are truly magic moments.

3. Spending time with my friends.

4. Watching Bruin basketball.

5. Reading at Starbucks with my cup of black and my Coldstone.

6. Creating something.

Follow-up question: What skill do you most need to improve?

Counting.<<<

News item from Tucson: “Some restrooms at UA will be 'gender neutral.'”

I wonder if my alma mater will now add a gender category to their admissions?

Gender – Choose one:
Male
Female
Neutral

Or: First guy - “Let’s duck into the men’s restroom man, I need to wash this ink off my hands.

Second guy - I can’t go it there, man. I’m a neutral.”<<<

Bruin quote of the week - after UCLA looked terrific in winning the Maui Classic, Darren Collison (left) would take no credit for his MVP trophy:

"Any one of us could have it," Collison said. "I'm more proud of the victory we had. This is a big victory for us."

I think the question of whether or not we have a replacement for Jordan Farmar has been answered – emphatically!<<<

More on UCLA’s 88-73 victory over 19th ranked Georgia Tech in Maui – this from the LA Daily News:

“It was an affair UCLA (4-0) controlled after the initial five minutes, and was never threatened during the last 30 minutes in an incredibly complete game.”<<<

Call me fool if you will, but I would have paid a thousand dollars for a very close in seat for Barbara Streisand’s recent concert at Staples Center. I get chills just thinking about it – the event, not the thousand.<<<

From Wikipedia: “Philosopher-kings are the hypothetical rulers of Plato's utopian Kallipolis. If his ideal city-state is to ever come into being, philosophers [must] become kings…or those now called kings [must]…genuinely and adequately philosophize." (The Republic, 473c).

Two notes:

1. Plato defined a philosopher firstly as a wisdom-lover.

2. Plato's ideas as put forth in Book II of The Republic with reference to women mean that he does not preclude philosopher-queens.

I have been thinking for the past couple of weeks about who in the history of American politics comes closest to qualifying as a Philosopher- King. My choice must have ruled with wisdom, power and compassion. I believe that Plato would have agreed that the latter is an integral part of wisdom. For purposes of this discussion, I have limited my candidates to strong presidents and one outsider. There are legislators and Supreme Court Justices who might have qualified in an expanded search.

First, here are those considered but rejected.

George Washington – He comes very close. He had the power part right, Strong but benevolent, and had an innate wisdom as well. But he was not A wisdom-lover and was too class-conscious to serve all the people Equally well.

Thomas Jefferson also comes close. He was certainly the philosopher and a powerful king as well but also one who too often used his power for petty purpose.

Andrew Jackson was too much power, too little wisdom.

Woodrow Wilson was strong and thoughtfully wise but impractical. Wisdom requires both thought and common sense.

Teddy Roosevelt was much the king but a philosopher has to use reason to temper impulse. TR was all about impulse.

Harry Truman is surprisingly high on the list. He had street-corner wisdom and a willingness to use his power to make the world a better place. But a Philosopher King cannot allow old loyalties to tie him into cronyism.

LBJ – It is hard to imagine a PK who drowns in his own crudeness.

Ronald Reagan was strong but simplistic; wisdom goes much deeper than a mantra.

Now for winners:

FDR. Is my first runner-up. He had them all – wisdom, power, compassion, and he used them well. But at times he was a little too careful, a shade too political. Stanford historian, Thomas Bailey, summed it up well when, referring to a Roosevelt biography subtitled “The Lion And The Fox,” wrote that for all his gifts FDR should have been “more the lion, and less the fox.”

Honorable mention: Eleanor Roosevelt who is only lacking the presidency on her Philosopher King resume. She was everything her husband was and more. There was no “fox” in her. She would have been a great president and our second PK.

And the winner is - Abraham Lincoln, whose great intelligence, including common sense, willingness to use his power in any way necessary to complete his mission and exceptional compassion in so doing make him an easy choice as our Philosopher King.<<<

What should the Democrats do first when they take over the House and Senate in January? The Los Angeles Times editorial page wants tax reform - a simpler, flatter tax code. The Washington Post has a different priority - reforming the “deeply flawed Bush administration legislation on the detention, interrogation and trial of ‘enemy combatants’ in the war on terrorism.”

If choosing between the two, I stand with the Post. Tax reform is important, but re-applying American values to our treatment of suspects, even terror suspects, is more important.

But neither of these should, in my opinion, be number one. I save that spot for replacing the Bush policy vacuum in Iraq with a plan that will extricate us from what has become an untenable mess.<<<

On that subject, the post-Rumsfield Pentagon has come up with three recommendations:

Go big – pour in more troops. (From where and to what purpose??)

Go long – Bush’s “stay the course” under a new name.

Go home – which they reject on the grounds that it is “likely to push Iraq directly into a full-blown and bloody civil war.” (As opposed to the “half-blown” bloody one now taking place?)
*Actually 13,000 civilians deaths in the last four months is in reality something more than half-blown.

I say establish a time-table for giving Iraq back to the Iraqis and come home – with honor.<<<

Which brings me to my Iraq quote of the week, from Frank Rich of the NY Times:

“At this late date, only triage is an option, not victory.”<<<

This, from Time Magazine is too good to pass up, so I will name it runner-up quote of the week:

“If Jane Austen were writing a novel about Bush's public aspect, the title would be Pride and Petulance.”<<<

Will John Murtha please shut up? He lost his fight to be second in command in the House because of past practices that were ethically, questionable. And now he refers to proposed ethics reforms as “total crap.”<<<

Come on Democrats. Don’t screw things up even before you take power. First it was the Pelosi/Murtha mess and now it is Pelosi vs. Jane Harmon. Harmon’s ability, seniority and centrist approach make her a perfect choice to head the House Intelligence Committee. But some petty gripes on Pelosi’s part combined with pressure from the Black and Hispanic caucuses to get one of theirs into the position make this look like same old politics with only the power having changed. This is NOT what the voters wanted, nor will it make them believe that their vote really made much of a difference.<<<

And on the subject of difference:

1. "Defense is just hard work. We have to be committed," Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson said. "They have to be more aggressive. What we always tell the guys is defense is a full-time job.”

2. Ben Howland at UCLA doesn’t “tell” defense, he demands it.<<<