Fish for Friday

This column serves up fish caught by casting our hook into the waters of recent correspondence, thus abstaining from our usual practice of blogging on anything whatsoever.
   Only fish will be served that we think will be good for you, either for information or for provocation to think about something new, or about something old but from a different perspective.

Regarding the photo of Brad Pitt on the "Thor's Day" column, to give the devil, if not the god his due, Pitt actually is a good actor. Have you seen A River Runs Through It? To cite just one fine example.
    Let's not be trifling with Thor. When a guy will disguise himself as a bride to recover his mighty hammer from a bunch of giants, then use it to kill them all, well, that is the stuff of legend that we mere mortals best stay away from.

A reconciliation between science and Christianity would mean squaring physics, chemistry, biology, and a basic understanding of probabilistic reasoning with a raft of patently ridiculous, Iron Age convictions. In its most generic and well-subscribed form, Christianity amounts to the following claims: Jesus Christ, a carpenter by trade, was born of a virgin, ritually murdered as a scapegoat for the collective sins of his species, and then resurrected from death after an interval of three days. He promptly ascended, bodily, to “heaven”—where, for two millennia, he has eavesdropped upon (and, on occasion, even answered) the simultaneous prayers of billions of beleaguered human beings. Not content to maintain this numinous arrangement indefinitely, this invisible carpenter will one day return to earth to judge humanity for its sexual indiscretions and sceptical doubts, at which time he will grant immortality to anyone who has had the good fortune to be convinced, on Mother’s knee, that this baffling litany of miracles is the most important series of truth-claims ever revealed about the cosmos. Every other member of our species, past and present, from Cleopatra to Einstein, no matter what his or her terrestrial accomplishments, will (probably) be consigned to a fiery hell for all eternity.

I skimmed the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy late last night on the philosophy of music, just to get a sense of what the subject matter is. Out of fairness I won’t draw any conclusions about the field without much more careful reading. My first reaction, though, is that to philosophize about music in such a way misses the whole point. For instance, the long discussion about how music expresses emotions. That is one of the things that music can be used for, but only one of many. When it is used for that purpose, one hearing of the St. Matthews Passion will teach more about music and emotion than a library full of philosophical argument. The Buddha of which one can speak is not the Buddha. Which is why the whole concept of a philosophy of music startled me a little.

The only way I can judge Obama in the context of the upcoming election, is in contrast to his opponent, and for me the choice is clearly Obama. If you think we need to raise taxes, Romney will go just the opposite way. As to ideology, Romney’s is that government workers are the cause of all evil, and only workers in the private sector have virtue. (As an aside, Colorado Springs may be the most anti-government city in the country, but they sure were happy to see all those government firefighters come to fight the Waldo Canyon fire. And nobody blamed the homeowners, although everyone in Colorado knows that building up a mountainside puts you at a huge risk of fire.) And from my perspective as a lawyer, the thought of Romney with a Supreme Court appointment is scary. One more Justice like Scalia and we can forget the Bill of Rights. Scalia has been perhaps the most political Justice ever on the Supreme Court, and his "reasoning" in some cases has been bizarre.

Dear MoveOn member, Talk about a contrast in styles.
    This past Sunday, Mitt Romney held a $50,000-per-plate fundraiser at David Koch's mansion in the Hamptons. MoveOn partnered with allies to crash the party with 200 protesters, the "Romney-mobile" with a dog strapped to the roof, and a 99Airlines plane flying above with a "Romney has a Koch problem" banner. We grabbed national headlines and put the spotlight on Romney's connections to the 1%.
    That's what MoveOn's built to do—pit our people power against their big money. So instead of a lavish affair, we're launching our national election campaign with the exact opposite. On July 21 and 22, MoveOn members are throwing 2012 Election Community Parties—potlucks, backyard cookouts, and big community parties to fuel a 99% victory this fall.
    MoveOn is 7 million members strong—twice as big as in 2008—and we know from experience that member-led parties are a smart way to leverage our size. Hundreds of MoveOn members are needed to throw parties so that tens of thousands more can attend and get ready for election season. Throwing a party is fun and rewarding, and hosts will get everything they need—from a detailed host agenda to a national prep call.
    Can you throw a party to get MoveOn members in [your town] fired up for the election? –Lenore Palladino, MoveOn.org Political Action

Enjoyed your morning poem but wonder: Doesn’t the consumption of yogurt and skim milk contribute to the inhumane treatment of dairy cows who are artificially inseminated at 13 months and after 9 months gestation have their offspring removed from their care within 3 days of birth so that they can spend the rest of their short lives in an endless circle as slaves to the milking machine until they develop diseases common to milk cows such as mastitis after which they become part of the US beef supply, 19% of which are cull dairy cows?