Last weekend, at the CSO (Chicago Symphony) I was privileged to hear a rendition of Ein Heldenleben (which translates as “A Hero’s Life”), note in the remarks below I’m drawing on the excellent program notes provided for the concert. Richard Strauss (pronounced Rikard with a hard “k” for the ch) wrote this to reflect and remind the listener of Beethoven’s Eroica. The Beethoven “Hero” Symphony itself was initially pointing to the Heroic life of Napoleon (and after general disappointment with Napoleon and his decision to invade Russia. But the hero in Strauss’ work is not Napoleon or Alexandar (neither the Tsar or the Macedonian conqueror) but … himself.

It’s an interesting thing, to witness a grand tone poem to the heroic image of … an urban mild mannered domestic fellow, who granted is a musical genius, but … the “heroic” scenes painted aren’t the normal visions of heroism. The foes vanquished in martial and magnificent phrases are … chattering art critics. The beautiful visions of love and romance, the young neighbor girl whom he was engaged to teach music, whom he subsequently married.

This vision, this recasting of the ordinary is a reversal of the contemporary Arendt inspired “banality of evil” … replaced in this case with a recasting into a frame reminiscent of Odysseus or Achilles … our more ordinary life. So “banality of evil” becomes the heroic banal.

St. Augustine as he begins his autobiography begins with … Creation. Augustine sees himself in cosmic context. Our countries founders saw themselves as a set apart from the common. In fact there was a notion that this sort of pride was a good thing. Perhaps what Ein Heldenleben is suggesting is that we take this notion into the ordinary. Or perhaps  put differently, our ordinary lives should not be seen as anything but extraordinary. That is, the ordinary per se is not heroic but needs to be recast in that mold, that is we all need to strive for excellence, not because “everyone is the best at something” (which is false) but because striving for excellence is required someone how sees himself as heroic.

Good morning.

1. OWS and excellence.
2. Security FAIL.
3. Tick, tick tick … when will it go boom?
4. Man as industrious ant … and the speed of reclamation when we leave.
5. The real question was who thought sending the two women to that event was a good idea?
6. A question for the anti-gun nuts … how else is this going to be dealt with?
7. Big Tobacco, the most successful green movement out there.
8. Pithy summation of history.
9. I don’t think that’s the point. I’d imagine every campus has a constant flood of sexual scandals which it is dealing with. The trick which Penn failed to notice was this one in particular need action not coverup.

Good morning.

1. Hate speech and assault.
2. Iran/nuke apologetics begin.
3. Pinoy catholics in Israel.
4. Imaginarium? Why not just say fantasy driven politics.
5. Mixing sport methods.
6. Black markets avoiding the regulatory state(s).
7. The ontological argument for God’s non-existence.
8. Hopefully the end to that travesty, but I fear it’s premature for that pronouncement.
9. The missing middle connection.

Good, err, day.

1. Noodle tech, in my household from my grad school days when they were a staple at 7 for one dollar, they are known as “papa noodles.”
2. Regulation pretending to spur employment just raising costs and killing actual productivity.
3. A correction to the “spending” problem … if spending to fix the recession means real investment then temporary stimulus ain’t gonna help.
4. Atheists attempting to be clever, not successfully.
5. On atheists and their hermeneutic, this has been my experience as well the people I’ve actually interacted with who stick to a “literal” reading hermeneutic have been atheists.
6. A likely suggestion.
7. The gravity of the situation.
8. Wealth is never “created” by theft and fraud. It might be collected, not created.
9. Obamacare glitch?
10. Transcarpathia.
11. Just going for a jog.
12. Bias in academia, an example. Oh, and how not to argue in favor or public schooling over homeschooling.
13. Fall and invasion … symptom or cause.
14. For your Christmas tree a little math for the occasion.
15. An OWS sympathizer talks about the now that it’s over status.

Link posting scheduling will be spotty. I’m in Pacific TZ + hotel connection is not the best … and doing this during down time at the job site will be catch as catch can.

1. Who cracks first?
2. Faces, here and here.
3. A book recommended. I was reading it on the flight (and finished the City and the City).
4. Water water everywhere.
5. An exterior criticism of top down policy design.
6. Retail and tomorrow’s hack/theft opportunities.
7. Impartiality for the judiciary?
8. American Orthodoxy and gay rights … I haven’t listened to this yet, but in part this will serve as a reminder. What do you think?
9. Yes. Government can create “real jobs” … the problem is incentives are hard to keep lined up with providing a good service inexpensively as well as its hard for competition to drive innovation, which is why government creating jobs like that is horrible idea.
10. OWS as unhappy Deadheads.
11. Build a better battery and … the world will beat a path to your door.
12. Two books noted.

Good morning. Traveling West tonight, for the first of (hopefully) a two week startup straddling the Thanksgiving week.

1. A suggested blog title found here which is sure to amuse Ms Minerva.
2. Vroooom.
3. Oddly, religion not specified. Was it or was it not relevant?
4. Zippo in the persons per mile per gallon metric.
5. Two rules for the pack attack.
6. Just 10? Huh, that’s the tip of the iceberg.
7. Da Vinci meets … American marketing genius.
8. Normally that’s 2nd term stupidity … does Mr Obama feel like a one termer?
9. So, immersed in the west should it be called the Advent fast? or not?
10. I like batch.
11. Likability?
12. Some OWS supporters push the meme that the gatherings are very law abiding. Really?

Good morning. Off again today, still sleeping in. 😀 …. Links?

1. Our unemployment woes.
2. About grade and taste in the syrup world.
3. No price gouging here. Especially if you define price in a way that make that impossible.
4. In the wake of the Penn State kerfuffle.
5. Oooh, somebody at the NYTimes has a really really reprehensible idea. Let’s put a price on our integrity and sell it off.
6. We didn’t “know then” and not “know now” … we just have regulated “building” out of the realm of possibility.
7. I wonder if the sign holder realizes the subject of his/her criticism holding the sign.
8. 185k pages! That’s the real scandal.
9. What the Democrats wish for in the health care realm.
10. Tampering with history …. don’t do it. The way to do with regrettable incidents is not to whitewash, to forget and move on.
11. US integrity and willingness to stand up for what is right … out done by the Arab league?
12. And some wise advice.

Well,  running a little late, I’m “on vacation” at home today, i.e., the day off. I, err, slept in.

1. Geek, ya’ think?
2. About that thing you have …
3. Farce and art.
4. Seriously?
5. Bike sans fork.
6. Oh, please … Marvel mutants aren’t proxies for gays and such, it’s a connect with generic teenage feelings of alienation. Duh. “Dad you just don’t understand me at all!” isn’t a teenage plea that is exclusive to gays.
7. Come on, that’s just cruel.
8. A biopic.
9. Uhm, that’s a really really bad metaphor … letting the Trojan horse allowed the sack of the city, rapine of the women and sale of the people into slavery. And that’s touted as a good thing.
10. Do the poor benefit? Well, alas, yes quite a bit.
11. Mr Cain’s accusers linked?

Good morning.

1. Mad men and the police procedural.
2. A counter to the “end bonuses” notion.
3. Education as ritual.
4. Climate and a paper on the same, examined in some detail.
5. What? No ASL? No Third Reich? Shocking?
6. Until they run out of Joe.
7. Book titles doing more than announcing the contents.
8. Evil, not just banal. I wonder if the Penn State kerfuffle has a connection.
9. Crying for Argentina.
10. Never work. Seems to me most guys think there are about 8 colors with names like red, green, blue, and purple. For example, fuschia is a plant, not a color and the putative color given that name is just purple. At the gym a few weeks ago, I had an outraged daughter scandalized by my calling some stretching pads “black” and “lighter black”.
11. Dreaming a little dream.
12. Two generations at one posting.
13. Cinema.
14. Mr Jobs and the elephant in the Apple fandom’s closet.
15. Reforming higher ed, some thoughts.

Good morning.

1. Peacocks? That’s unexpected. I wonder what they use them for.
2. A (missing) view of the game.
3. The new communism and free (leisure) time.
4. Bring out your dead, uhm, bones.
5. The Wisconsin governor and this years Christmas wars.
6. Fantasy and religious backgrounds … although I thought the golum had Jewish (or Arabic) origins, Ms Shelley notwithstanding.
7. That’s an interesting question, what if the OWS blockages were in front of abortion clinics? Same reaction to “non-violent” protests?
8. Odd that liberals denounce Cain bringing out the Clinton sex-scandal playbook (which is not to say, for example, that I approve of the doing so).
9. A recommendation passed on.
10. Connected to the Internet? Who thought that was a good idea? (hint: it is not by any stretch of the imagination an good idea).
11. Stupid scholastic tricks.

Good morning.

1. A global network map, colored by language.
2. OWS domiciles.
3. A reminder of Mr Obama’s (putative) strategy of moving to a non-nuclear world … somehow.
4. Elite.
5. Skillz or pull?
6. Swim swim swim against the current.
7. Marking time.
8. Green energy failing “because it’s too cheap” … heh.
9. Our global economy.
10. Context for descriptive language …
11. And this likely has been seen done by men to men.
12. Cain’s non-banishment in the polls reason one, we don’t trust the media and reason two Ms Hill and Mr Thomas in which this story is reprising that mountain-from-molehill kerfuffle.

Good morning.

1. Petaflops ten and an electric bill.
2. Ben Franklin as Scripture still hanging on.
3. That liberal echo chamber explicitly demonstrated.
4. So is it green to have built in short longevity?
5. Executive and Legislative branches.
6. Romney tackles the third rail.
7. Aussie higher ed as a model?
8. Action movie sans any action.
9. A new way to look at fear and trembling, if you don’t have the faith equal to that of Abraham then you’re an atheist.
10. Science/Engineering education.
11. Mr Obama’s Iraq legacy.
12. Grand strategy: an essay. (HT).
13. Two years down the road, finally a response to stimulus and Mr Bastiat.
14. OWS and the Scouting Jamboree.

Good morning.

1. East coast academia where diversity means people with differing backgrounds submit to conformity.
2. Imagine publishing in academia redux.
3. Occupy Oakland and the consequences of rioting for a populist movement.
4. My daughter liked this clip.
5. And a very clever two y/old.
6. Cain’s problems viewed from the middle.
7. Obamacare and Mr Obama’s compliance.
8. A Berber’s thoughts on the Arab Spring.
9. Mr Corzine and the no-skin in the game problem.

I keep thinking it’s Friday … I’m going to be sorely disappointed tomorrow I suspect.

1. The confused left leaning hagiography of Ms Sanger.
2. Why the problem noted is a government concern is left unargued.
3. How to radically misread Hayek. Mob “wisdom” is not what asymmetrical information implies.
4. Truth to power? Wearing a cross in class.
5. Workplace fridge etiquette and a little (extreme?!) payback.
6. Eyeroll.
7. Better regulations to fix the problem perhaps not …
8. Speaking of regulations … (hint: read the book)
9. A mini-review of a book that should be highly recommended.
10. Those evil corporate dudes cashing in while their company crashes. Oh, wait …
11. In case you thought your commute was bad. Feel better now?
12. Weird conveyances .. here and here.

Good morning.

1. Mr Cain and scandal. I had a thought, why is a politicians adroitness in handling scandal a good thing?
2. Mr Paul asks a question about the scandal report.
3. ‘Tis called heresy.
4. Some remarks for the “Occupy” movement.
5. And another.
6. Officer red-shirt.
7. Canine manufacture.
8. Grow your own.
9. Compensation and value to the nation.
10. A libertarian concurs with Justice Thomas (somewhat).
11. Ruth.
12. Green jobs and multipliers.
13. And to cap things off, fwip!