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"You are who you think you ain't."
It's the Dog Days. My mind is incapable of any sustained reading of a long book. So I picked up the second volume of Hunter S. Thompson's letters, Fear and Loathing in America, to go with my rereading of his articles in The Great Shark Hunt.
I like this story from the NYT: U.S. Releases Group of Iranians Held in Baghdad.
Members of an Iranian Energy Ministry delegation were arrested and held overnight by American troops in Baghdad for having unauthorized weapons, before being released this morning, American and Iraqi officials said in Baghdad.
Dear Everybody,
On the train to Naperville. The city sweats beneath the summer sun.
At some point feeling replaces certainty. I feel I get the gist of Riemann’s thoughts on the number of primes less than a given number. I feel I understand what Hegel is saying about sense certainty. I feel that Alberto Gonzales’s resignation is a good thing. But how do I know if my feelings are right? I could have the learned quiz me. But how do I know the learned really know? Epistemological paranoia freezes my brain.
The morning with its gray sky and sharp cool wind could be mistaken for an autumn dawn instead of one in the midst of the dogs days. Idly recalling my life while I drink coffee and smoke a cigarette is like writing--a central challenge is what to put in and what to leave out. My memory is a wild and untamed beast. I must discipline it.
A full moon, a cool breeze, the scent of freshly cut grass: an accumulation of failures gnaw at me. Yes, that is what has me feeling empty and lonely. What I wouldn't give for a touch, a kiss, and some assuring words.
I made an unexpected trip back to Iowa yesterday. I had no desire to go, but duty calls. However, this morning is cool and no clouds litter the sky, something I have not felt or seen for sometime.
The release of yesterday's intelligence assessment on the Iraq Occupation and Surge strategy does not give reason for hope about Iraq--no matter what your political persuasion. From NYT, Report Offers Grim View of Iraqi Leaders:
A stark assessment released Thursday by the nation’s intelligence agencies depicts a paralyzed Iraqi government unable to take advantage of the security gains achieved by the thousands of extra American troops dispatched to the country this year.
Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, called for a limited United States withdrawal to begin this year.
The assessment, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, casts strong doubts on the viability of the Bush administration strategy in Iraq. It gives a dim prognosis on the likelihood that Iraqi politicians can heal deep sectarian rifts before next spring, when American military commanders have said that a crunch on available troops will require reducing the United States’ presence in Iraq.
But the report also implicitly criticizes proposals offered by Democrats, including several presidential candidates, who have called for a withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq by next year and for a major shift in the American approach, from manpower-intensive counterinsurgency operations to lower-profile efforts aimed at supporting Iraqi troops and carrying out quick-strike counterterrorism raids.
Such a shift, the report says, would “erode security gains achieved thus far” and could return Iraq to a downward spiral of sectarian violence.
More grim news coming from Iraq: More Iraqis Said to Flee Since Troop Increase (NYT).
The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes has soared since the American troop increase began in February, according to data from two humanitarian groups, accelerating the partition of the country into sectarian enclaves.
Despite some evidence that the troop buildup has improved security in certain areas, sectarian violence continues and American-led operations have brought new fighting, driving fearful Iraqis from their homes at much higher rates than before the tens of thousands of additional troops arrived, the studies show.
I am sorry, at least for myself, that I have not been able to blog much. I have attempted several times during the past few days to blog from the iPhone, but ATT's terrible network failed each time. The iPhone is a great piece of technology connected to a horrible piece of technology.
This from Reuters, US foreign policy experts oppose surge:
More than half of top U.S. foreign policy experts oppose President George W. Bush's troop increase as a strategy for stabilizing Baghdad, saying the plan has harmed U.S. national security, according to a new survey.
As Congress and the White House await the September release of a key progress report on Iraq, 53 percent of the experts polled by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for American Progress said they now oppose Bush's troop build-up.
That is a 22 percentage point jump since the strategy was announced early this year.
The survey of 108 experts, including Republicans and Democrats, showed opposition to the so-called "surge" across the political spectrum, with about two-thirds of conservatives saying it has been ineffective or made things worse in Iraq.
Foreign Policy, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the experts polled on May 23 to June 26 included former government officials in senior positions including secretary of state, White House national security adviser and top military commanders.
The findings were published in the form of a Terrorism Index in the magazine's September/October issue, to be released on Monday. The magazine published similar indices in July 2006 and in February.
Drinking Maker's Mark whiskey is like a version of a mean value
The number e pops up all over the math world. It is the base of the natural logarithm, irrational, and transcendental.
It was 1992. I didn't have a computer. Why exactly I cannot say. I didn't know what the Internet was. My career had stalled even though I considered myself a star. I didn't even have a girlfriend, so I was a kind of hermit.
Maybe, I should move to Austin, TX. That would require getting my shit together. It could happen one of these days. But no matter where I go--no more crushes.
About noon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down a goodly sum again.
I spent the day thinking about the Riemann Hypothesis. That's a silly
The higher arithmetc begins with some innocently simple questions about the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. Then things become difficult in a hurry. Take the question about how many primes there are less than a given number. No one has answered it to everyone's satisfaction.
Since, then, this certainty will no longer come forth to us when we direct its attention to a Now that is night, or to an ‘I’ to whom it is night, we will approach it and let ourselves point to the Now that is asserted. We must let ourselves point to it; for the truth of this immediate relation is the truth of this ‘I’ which confines itself to one ‘Now’ or one ‘Here’. Were we to examine this truth afterwards, or stand at a distance from it, it would lose its significance entirely; for that would do away with the immediacy which is essential to it. We must therefore enter the same time or space, point them out to ourselves, i.e. make ourselves into the same singular ‘I’ which is the one who knows with certainty. Let us, then, see how that immediate is constituted that is pointed out to us.
Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, Miller translation
WHEN YOU WALK IN THE ROOM
I can feel a new expression on my face
I can feel a glowing sensation taking place
I can hear the guitars playing lovely tunes
Every time that you walk in the room
I close my eyes for a second and pretend it's me you want
Meanwhile I try to act so nonchalant
I see a summer's night with a magic moon
Every time that you walk in the room
Maybe it's a dream come true
Walkin' right along side of you
Wish I could tell you how much I care
But I only have the nerve to stare
I can feel a something pounding in my brain
Just any time that someone speaks your name
Trumpets sound and I hear thunder boom
Every time that you walk in the room
Every time that you walk in the room
Lyrics by Jackie DeShannon
The financial and housing markets continue to get uglier. Nouriel Roubini's blog has a good summary of the situation. Worse than LTCM: Not Just a Liquidity Crisis; Rather a Credit Crisis and Crunch. I won't quote it.
Some of you won't like this, but I sincerely believe it is the truth. Our intelligence consists of memory and imagination that arise from a thoroughly embodied mind. We remember things or make things up, then we utter something about it, or write it down, and then we call ourselves intelligent.
Men Made Out of Words
What should we be without the sexual myth,
The human revery or poem of death?
Castratos of moon-mash--Life consists
Of propositions about life. The human
Revery is a solitude in which
We compose these propositions, torn by dreams,
By the terrible incantations of defeats
And by the fear that defeats and dreams are one.
The whole race is a poet that writes down
The eccentric propositions of its fate.
Wallace Stevens
A lot of people write us and say, "hey, State Street, what's the scoop on you, dude? What kind of mood are you in?" Well our mood on this gray sultry summer day is captured in a poem from Sam Hamill's stunning and magnificent translation of ancient Chinese poetry contained in Crossing the Yellow River.
Drinking All Night, Sleeping All Day
Rosy from wine, she rises
as light rises in the east.
Her sash is half untied.
The stars are fading.
From the garden, crows caw,
"Drunken princess!"
Flowers bend under heavy dew.
She draws her morning water
with a windlass of jade
and a rope of hand-tied silk.
Her face is powdered,
but still flushed faintly purple.
Drinking all night, sleeping all day,
she hasn't a care in the world.
Behind silk curtains, she sleeps
like an emperor's daughter.
Li Ho (791-817)
the dude will abide.
You have heard me extol the virtues of Sam Hamill's stunning and magnificent translation of ancient Chinese poetry, Crossing the Yellow River. And why not? It has things like this in it.
Traveler's Pavilion
Sunrise brightens my autumn window.
Winds have once again stripped trees.
The morning sun slips between cold mountains.
The river runs through last night's mist.
Our court makes use of everything it can,
but what's the use of a sick old man?
And what of my one life remains,
rising or falling on autumn winds?
Tu Fu (712-770)
Me after I solved the free will problem. I still had a few more
It was 1993. I had been without a home computer for four years. I have no idea how I survived.
For quite a few months I typed my documents with the grammar checker turned on. Whenever grammar checker told me to change something, I did my darnedest to do it.
The volatility in the stock market is interesting to watch. It’s kind of scary too if you have some of your life savings invested in it. Of course, there is much white noise when the so called expert analysts explain what is driving the volatility. I like the softness in the housing market as an explanation best. My personal experience is that housing prices are not what they were two years ago.
I have, naturally, been spending some time setting up my new computer the way I want it. Here's how it's going.
The American and European football seasons are upon us. The baseball season is winding down. It is time to take stock of how I've done this past year in my sports wagering.
From VOANews:
On Friday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki welcomed Iraq's national team to celebrations in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
Most Baghdad residents were barred from the celebration because of security concerns.
Iraq defeated Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the Asian Cup final, sparking a rare moment of national jubilation.
Moving to a new and different kind of computer is like moving into a new house. First, you must learn to navigate a different set of rooms. Second, you must get the basics you enjoy setup. In my case getting my new computer to work with gmail, installing Firefox, linking to my favorite websites, etc. Then I must decide about purchasing yet another copy of Microsoft Office. It’s so damned expensive even though it’s nice. Open Office is functional and free. Free is good even if not pretty.
Standing on the borderAnd so it goes.
Looking out into the great unknown
I can feel my heart beating faster as I step out on my own
There's a new horizon and the promise of favorable wind
I'm heading out tonight, traveling light
I'm gonna start all over again
And buy a one way ticket on a west bound train
See how far I can go
(Because I can)
I'm gonna go out dancing in the pouring rain
And talk to someone I don't know
(Because I can)
Leann Rimes, One Way Ticket
I bought a MacBook Pro today. I took the money from my sports
I will be mobile blogging from my iPhone for awhile just to see if I
My computer keeps overheating and crashing. The fans are working fine, so I'm stumped. Could this be the excuse I need to buy a new one? After all it is over four years old.
This post was sent via my new iPhone,which, by the way, is way cool! I will report more later when I figure out what I am doing. It is the toy I could not live without.
From Reuters:
BERLIN (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has told a German magazine that the United States has too many problems in Iraq to become involved in armed conflict with Iran.
Military action is sometimes discussed in Washington as an option in trying to derail what it sees as Iran's drive to develop nuclear weapons.
The United States "is not in a position to get into a new military conflict," Mottaki was quoted as saying in an excerpt of an interview to be published in Focus magazine.
"170,000 American soldiers can guarantee neither their own safety nor the security of Iraq," he said.
Iraq won the Asian Cup football final. Good for them. Let's celebrate and hope nobody takes advantage of it.
Cult: 1. A system of worship or ritual, 2. A religion or sect considered as false, 3a. Obsessive devotion to a person or principle. 3b. The object of such devotion.
American Heritage Dictionary fourth edition.
Pretense: 1. A false action or appearance intended to deceive. 2. A studied show; affectation. 3. A feigned reason or excuse; pretext. 4. An outward appearance. 5. A claim, esp. without foundation. 5. Pretentiousness; ostentation.
American Heritage Dictionary fourth edition
Let’s not waste too many words on the patently obvious. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is a liar. He’s part of the Bush Cult so we do not set high expectations for him when it comes to trivial matters such as the truth.
The director of the F.B.I. offered testimony Thursday that sharply conflicted with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales’s sworn statements about a 2004 confrontation in which top Justice Department officials threatened to resign over a secret intelligence operation.
The Iraq football team stands one victory away from being the champions of Asia, not a small feat. At least 50 Iraqis are dead because they were celebrating that feat.
From Reuters:
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The death toll from two car bombs in Baghdad that targeted Iraqis celebrating the national team's win in the Asian Cup semifinal on Wednesday has reached 50, police said.
They said 135 people had been wounded in the two blasts.
The Iraq soccer team beat South Korea to make it into the Asia Cup championship game.
At first public sentiment was for the Iraq War and Occupation; now it has soured on the endeavor. When public sentiment was for the war, the public got war. Now that public sentiment has soured, the public gets war too.
The generals have a new plan for Iraq: US is seen in Iraq until at least ’09 (NYT).
Edwards’s Riemann’s Zeta Function, although over thirty years old, remains an indispensable guide to early work done on the open questions in Riemann’s 1859 paper and the Riemann Hypothesis in particular. The problem is that the mathematics in it makes my eyes glaze over. Each time I read it, I get frustrated.