Monthly Archives: November 2004

Handy stickers.

Kids! Put these on your textbooks!
disclaimer sticker

This textbook contains material on gravity. Gravity is a theory, not a fact, regarding a force that cannot be directly seen. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.

Philosophy matters.

I’m not sure who’s behind it (the name “Werbach” suggests it might be Kevin or Adam), but these 19 Theses about the Democratic party’s massive failure in the past election sure make sense. Obvious sense, but sense nonetheless.

It’s been clear to me since before the election that progressives have lost control of the national dialog. Conservatives have spent the past four decades organizing think tanks, publishing journals, training politicians, and getting everyone on the same page–while liberals have chased after a long string of incoherent programs without a single defining or uniting vision. The result is that conservatives are well-organized, intellectually appealing, and compelling; we are just a bunch of nice people.

Undoing this intellectual and political deficit will take a long time. I wouldn’t be surprised if it took decades. So where are the progressive think tanks? The progressive journals? The work of building a coherent philosophy is far more important than the Democrats believe. The Republicans understand this, and that’s why they’re winning. It’s time for us to get started, now, too.

Why daddy is a doofus.

Yesterday Clara and I went to the park. I was unshaven (almost no time for personal hygiene in our nonstop weekend schedule), unshowered (ditto), baseball cap pulled down over my messy hair, clothes slightly splattered with food from one of Clara’s meals earlier in the day, shoes still stained with mud from a visit to the pumpkin farm last month. And then, in the bathroom, C. wiped her wet hands on my pants, so I got to emerge from the bathroom with a big wet spot right on my crotch. My humiliation is complete–I am now totally uncool. If the teenaged Clara ever asks me, a few years from now, when I became such a dork, I will point to this day.

How to fold a shirt.

Thanks to ReadyMade magazine, I’m now a T-shirt-folding ninja. Here’s the video that shows how you, too, can fold a shirt in 3 seconds and amaze your family and friends. (Old news, I know, but laundry time makes me feel so badass now that I just can’t resist sharing with the few of you who haven’t heard about this yet.)