A Philosopher Muses.

After a long happy time with blogger, I'm trying WordPress. See my new blog, A Philosopher Muses.

Jesus Camp

Jesus Camp

Ruach Hamidbar

Tonight I attended my first service at Ruach Hamidbar (Spirit of the Desert), a congregation here in the Valley of the Sun (that is, the Phoenix metropolitan area) affiliated with ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. The Shabbos service was a perfect preparation for the High Holy Days. Ruach's gifted rabbi, Ayla Grafstein, is creating a Jewish Renewal DVD Library as well as completing a feature documentary about Jewish Renewal. Watch this blog for more information.

The Telling

Spoiler warning!

The final chapters of The Telling parallel the final chapters of The Left Hand of Darkness, with the breakthrough into communication and communion with the Other and the painful dénoument—but the rôles are reversed.

Skype 'My status' button

Skype 'My status' button

Bush destroys U.S. military

Destruction of the military capability of the United States is being conducted by the administration of Mr. George W. Bush. The New Republic has an analysis and summary of this process. This destruction should outrage any patriot.

An Inconvenient Truth

Last May, Mumbai received 37 inches of rain in a single day.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy RSS Feed

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy RSS Feed will keep you up to date on the very frequently added new entries in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Amy Brown Fantasy Art

If you do not like fantasy art, do not visit Amy Brown Fantasy Art.

Corpses get cold.

The moment somebody pulls a six-shooter out, it will have a chilling effect.

So says Michael K. Young, president of the University of Utah, in response to the decision by the supreme court of that state that it is unconstitutional for the university to ban guns on campus. (See today's Chronicle of Higher Education, online edition. [Nota bene: unless you are an individual subscriber or a member of an institutional subscriber, you may not be able to access full content.])

Face the Issue

Face The Issue works to raise awareness of common emotional and physical health issues faced by young adults and to build a supportive community without judgement.

The Metaphysics Research Lab

The Metaphysics Research Lab explores axiomatic and computational metaphysics. Metaphysics is the science of what is presupposed by the special sciences.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is an authoritative dynamic encyclopedia.

Mermaids.

"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each" from "Teach me to hear mermaids singing" (Donne) ?

Dharma Bump

Dharma Bump is a blog by Adriana Scarpin.

Good day, I want my life back.

Guten Tag, ich will mein Leben zurück.

Domestic violence

Proposition 107 strips unmarried women of protection against domestic violence.

Arizona: Vote No on Proposition 107.

Arizona Proposition 107 would amend the Constitution of the State of Arizona to make it unconstitutional for an employer, public or private, to offer domestic partnership benefits to an unmarried couple—any unmarried couple.

Lies and D----d Lies.

As a patriot, I find it painful to listen day after day to Mr. Bush's lies.

The Law Cannot Make a Man Love Me.

"It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him
from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important."
-- Martin Luther King Jr.

December 15, 1791.

On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights became part of the Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

September 17, 1787.

On September 17, 1787, members of the Constitutional Convention signed the final draft of the Constitution.

Before [the President] enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States."

The Pomo Generator

If you enjoyed "Transgressing the Boundaries", try rolling your own with the aid of the Pomo Generator. Unless you're as smart as Alan Sokal, though, yours won't be as funny as his.

The Sokal Hoax

In case you were on another planet between 1994 and 2004, here's "Transgressing the Boundaries" by Alan Sokal.

Team Building and Project Management

Here are 101 Tips concerning project management. Whether you are a team leader, a team member, or both, these are well worth some careful consideration.

Everything wants to flow.

Everything wants to flow; nothing wants to stagnate.

Big Brother Runs Mad.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the Department of Education, in blatant violation of the FERPA law, has turned over student records to the FBI without permission from the students or their parents.

The Icken or the Chegg?

Susie Bright wrote: "Science fiction would have curled into a historical corner if it wasn't for the Internet crowd that created a resurrection." Laurie Mann wrote: "So while I don't believe that the Internet revived SF, I do believe that SF readers 'made' parts of the Internet. It's very true that SF is popular on the Internet, but that's not the same thing as saying that the Internet revived it." I wrote: "Susie, Laurie is absolutely right. I've been on the 'net since it was the net - dns servers? The address space was a flat file of twelve count em twelve sites. Now, who worked at the twelve sites and the ones that followed? People who wore hiking boots in the machine room, programmed on the bare metal, lived on caffeine and hypomania, divided the world into winners and lusers, \& \ldots ---in other words, readers, writers, and editors of sf&f. You have it dead backwards, just as Laurie (who knows her stuff) said. f&sf created the Internet and the w^3, not the other way around. The genre was in no danger of death or disease. It keeps on breeding with every branch and aspect of literature, constantly producing healthy offspring."

my del.icio.us

In the past week or so, I've begun to use del.icio.us seriously. Keep an eye on my del.icio.us for short citations that I might previously have posted to this blog.

Meaning and Mitzvah

I heartily recommend Meaning and Mitzvah by Rabbi Goldie Milgram.

Endicott Redux

The new Endicott Studio blog replaces the Endicott Calendar. Enjoy!

Finding harmony with the natural environment

The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives.

To live in harmony with such a country seems to require either a degree of public regulation we will not tolerate or a degree of private enlightenment we do not possess.—Aldo Leopold

Armed Madhouse

Palast's old-style gum-shoe detective work to dig out the info on the War on Terror, greed-dripping schemes to seize little nations with lots of oil, the hidden program to steal the 2008 election, and the media biases that keep it unreported are the meat and bones of this BBC television reporter's new book. Armed Madhouse is illustrated with dozens of documents marked "secret" and "confidential" that have walked out of file cabinets and fallen into Palast's hands.

a network of response

A chain of command is easy to describe; a network of response isn't. To those who live by mutual empowerment, "thick" description, complex and open-ended, is normal and comprehensible, but to those whose only model is hierarchic control, such description seems a muddle, a mess, along with what it describes. Who's in charge here? Get rid of all these petty details. How many cooks spoil a soup? Let's get this perfectly clear now. Take me to your leader!

—Ursula K. LeGuin, "The Shobies' Story," Universe, 1990; reprinted in The Space Opera Renaissance, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (New York: Tor; A Tom Doherty Associates Book; First Edition: July 2006), pp. 727–744.

A wall of separation between church and State

To Messrs. Nehemiah Dodge and Others, a Committee of the Danbury Baptist Association, in the State of Connecticut

January 1, 1802

GENTLEMEN,

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association, give me the highest satisfaction. My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, and in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious association, assurances of my high respect and esteem.

(Thomas Jefferson, Writings (The Library of America; 17), p. 510.)

New Address of Blog of Paul E. Oppenheimer

Please note the new address of Paul Oppenheimer's Blog.

Land of the Free?

Whatever civil liberties remain to Americans are rapidly being taken away by the administration of Bush II, the Republican congress, and the newly distorted Supreme Court. "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance" used to be a rallying cry of people who called themselves political conservatives. Where are they today? Are they committed to restoring the Land of the Free, or have they now put greed above all their other gods?

New Blog

A friend of mine, Nancy C. Much Ross, has founded a new blog on blogger. There is no non-trivial content yet, but I look for great things from her.

Jewish Meditation 101

If you are interested in learning about Jewish Meditation, I recommend:
Ribner, Melinda (Mindy);
Everyday Kabbalah: A Practical Guide to Jewish Meditation, Healing, and Personal Growth;
(New York: Citadel Press; Kensington Publishing Corp.,
1998); ISBN 0-8065-1980-0.

I quote from the publisher's puff about Mindy: "Melinda Ribner, C.S.W., is the Director and Founder of the Jewish Meditation Circle. . . . Melinda, also known as Mindy, received a nonrabbinical ordination to teach Jewish meditation from the legendary Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach that was witnessed by Rabbi Yidel Stein and Rabbi Dr. Seymour Applebaum, both of whom are Orthodox rabbis. Additionally, she is a certified social worker and a psychotherapist in private practice and at a psychiatric clinic, where she uses meditation as a treatment modality.

Mindy's book is practical, straightforward, and humble. All meditative traditions in the world of which I am aware begin in the same way: learn to breathe. In Jewish Meditation, meditation, like our human lives, begins and ends with breath. A key word in Judaism is ruach; in a religious context, ruach is often rendered into English as "spirit" or "Spirit". In a more literal translation, the word means simply breath.

People who become interested in Kabbalah and are not safely wrapped in an Orthodox Jewish community, especially native speakers of English, sometimes become fascinated with the complexities of Jewish Meditation. Rather than cater to this fascination, Mindy takes a simple, straightforward approach. I was fortunate enough to meet
Reb Goldie Milgram. She has been kind enough to undertake my spiritual direction. She it was who recommended this book to me.

If you have any comments about Mindy's book or about Reb Goldie's website, I would appreciate your sharing them in this blog.

A Poem Honoring The Eightieth Anniversary Of The Birth Of Leonard (Len) S. Oppenheimer On The Tenth Of July In The Year 2006 Of The Common Era

A Poem for My Father

Power-Law Homelessness

Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage.

The Atlantic Monthly

http://www.theatlantic.com/ is the blog of the Atlantic Monthly. Throughout my lifetime, The Atlantic has always been a high-quality magazine.

http://az252509.livejournal.com/

http://az252509.livejournal.com/


This is the new LiveJournal for Paul E. Oppenheimer
.

My web site is slowly but surely progressing.
Please visit me often at http://www.peoppenheimer.com/
and send me your questions, comments, criticsims,
and suggestions.

Jennifer Niederst Robbins

I have been using HTML and XHTML Pocket Reference (Third Edition; http://www.oreilly.com/, 2006);
ISBN 0-596-52727-6. The cover boasts: "Quick, Comprehensive, Indispensable". This is no idle boast.

Paul E. Oppenheimer's book purchasing pages

http://peoppenheimer.org/files/commercial/commercial.html, Paul E. Oppenheimer's book purchasing pages, will soon be migrating to the
http://vendors.peoppenheimer.org/ domain.

Eventually, this entire blog will be moving to the
blog.peoppenheimer.org domain.

A Superb Walkthrough!

There is a superb walkthrough of using GnuPG encryption with Mac OS X Mail on the I speak dog blog.

FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF

Find out for yourself.

Ellen Datlow has a blog at Amazon.com

Ellen Datlow's Profile at Amazon.com

Ellen Datlow, one of the most important editors of fantasy and science fiction, has a blog at Amazon.com

If you like what Ellen has accomplished and contributed as writer, editor, critic, reviewer, and so on,
chances are that you will enjoy reading her blog.
I do.

Alfred Bester, "Star Light, Star Bright": an appreciation.

Here is an appreciation of Alfred Bester's "Star Light, Star Bright" by Paul E. Oppenheimer.

"Genius". Socrates had a genius (he called it a daemon, since he spoke Attic Greek rather than Silver Age Latin). Places had genii locorum. Sacrifice was offered to the genius of the emperor. Everyone was given a genius at birth. When did we begin to mean by "genius" someone extraordinarily creative, someone who could make a new world from the everyday? In the fifties, we were much preoccupied with so-called genius, by which we seem to have meant the abilities that enabled a person to create new means of destruction.

The granting of wishes often involved in the European mind a pact with a god or spirit who was an evil genius. Bester was awarded the first Hugo in the year in which I was born. His childhood overlapped the Great War, the war that changed the world forever. Bester's work, life, and thought have been entwined inextricably with the Cold War --- his comic books involved fantasies of heroes of extraordinary powers. These heroes had wish-fulfilling powers.

The doomed man also finds/loses himself in a place of the infernal powers. They grant his wishes. Thus he is able to find the hero/villain of the piece (who serves also as a McGuffin) --- the genius who is not a genius in the sense of Lewis Terman, the sense that dominated our time. In the Yiddish culture of the shtetls, an ilui was a boy who exhibited extraordinary powers of memory and reasoning --- and of the ability to connect widely disparate texts. Confucian mandarinism had similar ideas. Bester turns the fifties' idea of genius on its head by reverting the the wish fulfilling talisman, the evening star, Astarte. "A genius at wishing": the fifties through a looking glass.

Paul E. Oppenheimer
peoppenheimer.org

The Ellen Datlow SciFiction Appreciation Project

Censorship of open source software

Military censorship of open source software

Two new books by my favorite authors.

Kay Redfield Jamison has published "Exuberance", in which she explores the healthy territory between neutral affect and hypomania. Charles de Lint has published "Widdershins", the latest Newford novel.

Paul Oppenheimer's Audio Blog

The ED SF Project

The ED SF Project

"The ED SF Project"
"The Ellen Datlow/SCI FICTION Project, that is. We're showing the love for five and a half years of great short fiction, and we need your help! We've got over 300 stories to cover, so if you're a person who loves short speculative fiction, we want you. Go here to read the list and add your voice."

Ellen Datlow is one of the great editors in speculative and interstitial fantasy, and has brought many new authors into the public eye and ear.

Personally I owe her a debt for expanding my reading horizons.

MRI Spectroscopy

The feature story "MRI: A Window on the Brain, " by Paul Raeburn, (Technology Review, 108: 11 (December 2005/January 2006), pp. 70--75), is an interesting overview of two variants of fMRI of which I had not previously heard: diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and, yet more exciting, MRI Spectroscopy. As far as I can tell from the article, which is written at a very popular level, DTI simply provides finer-grained anatomical information than conventional MRI. MRI Spectroscopy, however, goes beyond fMRI in offering real-time identification of other chemicals than oxygen. This is very promising.

Although I find Technology Review valuable for bringing new developments to my attention, it seems to me a deficiency in that periodical that no references to primary sources are given.

"... we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness."

Quotation #26857 from Michael Moncur's (Cynical) Quotations:

The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.
Andre Malraux
French author & resistance leader (1901 - 1976)

[from The Quotations Page ]

Essence and Modality

"Essence and Modality," by Edward N. Zalta, will soon appear in Mind.

The exploration of meaning and myth.

Paul Oppenheimer's Blog

By the way, a convenient way to purchase or get more information about many of the books I mention or use is to visit my commercial page
Commercial pages recommended and used by Paul E. Oppenheimer.

This exploration of meaning and myth is quite new to me.
Of the husband who neglected his wife in Middlemarch, he sought the key to all mythologies. The days of philology were great days. So, even though I am trained in a contemporary anglophone department of philosophy I would like to tackle questions of the meaning of life.

Sur La Lune Fairy Tales.

Sur La Lune Fairy Tales discusses mythology, mythography, and folklore.

Paul Oppenheimer's Blog

Paul Oppenheimer's Blog



This exploration of meaning and myth is quite new to me.
Of the husband who neglected his wife in Middlemarch, he sought the key to all mythologies. The days of philology were great days. So, even though I am trained in a contemporary anglophone department of philosophy I would like to tackle questions of the meaning of life.

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Author Comment pauloppenheimer Registered User (1/16/06 2:35 am) Reply | Edit Myth & Meaning Myth & Meaning We are an animal who asks questions. We are an animal who makes up stories to answer our questions. These stories give meaning to our lives. Our myths give meaning to our experiences. Sometimes we must wait long before meaning emerges --- or before we can make it; I don't know which. When we are able to find/put meaning in/into a series of experiences, we make a new myth. The myth not only solidifies the new meaning. It does more: It structures the meanings we find in later experiences. It also restructures our memories. An idiot knows only one language. What am I if I know only one mythos? Language shapes meaning. Language and meaning structure reality. So, is reality proper to the beholder? Is reality socially constructed? If a person belongs to more than one culture, then what are we to say? That multiple mythoi are true, or that no mythos is true? Is there one and only one meaning to a life? To a sequence of events experienced my multiple persons? URI = http://peoppenheimer.org/

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Paul Oppenheimer's Blog

In due time,
Paul Oppenheimer's Blog will be moving to

http://peoppenheimer.org/

Revision of My HomePage

P. E. Oppenheimer's Web site, Paul E. Oppenheimer, is undergoing continual revision. Most recently, the following corrected entry has been added:

• Poggio, T., Little, J., Gamble, E., Geiger, D.,
  Weinshall, D., Villalba, M., Larson, N., Cass, T., Bülthoff, H.,
  Drumheller, M., Oppenheimer, P., Yang, W., Hurlburt, A., Beymer, D.,
  O'Donnell, P., and Gillett, W., "The MIT Vision Machine,"
  Proceedings of the DARPA Workshop on Image Understanding, (1988);
  reprinted as "The MIT Vision Machine" in
  Artificial Intelligence at MIT: Expanding Frontiers
  (Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 1990), pages 492–529.
  

Locus of Aeschylus quotation?

If you can give the citation for the Aeschylus quotation used by RFK the day MLK was assassinated, please tell me. From memory: "Even during sleep, sorrow falls, drop by drop, into our hearts; thus, in spite of ourselves, we learn wisdom."

What Is Metaphysical About The Metaphysical Poets?

What is metaphysical about the metaphysical poets? (cf. Aristotle, Metaphysics)

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intrinsic-extrinsic/

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intrinsic-extrinsic/

Writing on writing

Writing on writing

http://mally.stanford.edu/mally.html

Ernst Mally

http://www.blogger.com/home

http://www.blogger.com/home

Quotations.

The Quotations Page is full of interesting quotations. I used to keep topoi, or commonplaces, on my web sites. These days, I am more apt to depend on secondary sources such as The Quotations Page. [However, if you have a copy of one of my poems that I used to have posted on my old web sites, please send me a copy.]

The Theory of Abstract Objects

The Theory of Abstract Objects
Edward N. Zalta has been working on the theory of abstract objects.
Many of the key ideas come from the work of Alexius Meinong.

I strongly recommend the introduction to The Theory of Abstract Objects
to be found at
The Theory of Abstract Objects


(Disclaimer: Zalta and I have collaborated before, and are collaborating again now.
My point of view is anything but unbiased.)

the possibility of fire

the possibility of fire

Philosophy, et cetera

Philosophy, et cetera is a blog by Richard Chappell, a philosophy student at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.

The Poetry of Sylvia Plath

The Poetry of Sylvia Plath is a blog devoted to the poetry of Sylvia Plath.

sarah_len

sarah_len is a young poet. To the best of my knowledge, she has not been published yet. It is to be hoped that as she finds her own voice, the letters of acceptance will begin to come in.

FAES: Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences

FAES: Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences

I quote from the home page of the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences:

• 
  Origins & Mission



• The beginnings of FAES can be traced back to the early 1950's, when a Graduate Evening Program was formed at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to permit members of the science and medical community to supplement laboratory training with advanced formal education. By 1959, FAES was incorporated as a non-profit organization with a mission "to foster and encourage scientific research and education, and to facilitate communication among scientists, by whatever means may be practical.

The Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences is mentioned in Goodwin, Frederick K., M.D. and Jamison, Kay Redfield, Ph.D., Manic-Depressive Illness (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. xiii.

Blogger Help : What is BlogThis! ?

Blogger Help : What is BlogThis! ? is a nice article explaining the Blog This! button.

Sylvia Plath

"Sylvia Plath --- probably manic-depressive, certainly hospitalized and treated for severe depression --- described her experience in "The Bell Jar" (1971):

'I hadn't washed my hair for three weeks. . . .

I hadn't slept for seven nights.

My mother told me I must have slept, it was impossible not to sleep in all that time, . . . . ' (pp. 72--73)"

(Goodwin, Frederick K., M.D. and Jamison, Kay Redfield, Ph.D., "Manic-Depressive Illness" (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), page 42.

figgy_pudding has raised a question of how societal norms for women in the United States of America during the nineteen fifties and sixties might have exacerbated Plath's depression. I would be interested in hearing comments regarding this question.

Online Papers in Philosophy

Online Papers in Philosophy

Google toolbar

Google toolbar for Mozilla Firefox available at http://toolbar.google.com/.

Google toolbar for Microsoft Internet Explorer available at http://toolbar.google.com/.

"Exuberance: The Passion For Life"

Kay Redfield Jamison has written a new book: Exuberance: The Passion For Life. In it, she explores positive moods and how they are related to manic and hypomanic states. As we have come to expect from Doctor Jamison, the book is well-written and synthesizes data and insights from many areas of life.

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~rzach/logblog/2005/11/anti-realisms-logic-and-metaphysics.html

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~rzach/logblog/2005/11/anti-realisms-logic-and-metaphysics.html

Fantasy Poetry

The Mumpsimus is a fascinating blog, written by a fantasy poet.
The Mumpsimus covers fantasy poetry and many related topics.

The Mumpsimus

The Mumpsimus is a literary blog worth a look.

Commitment.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiation (and creation) there is one elemental truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves in too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would come his way.

Whatever you can do,
or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius in it,
power and magic in it"

-- Goethe

Silver or Gold by Emma Bull

Silver or Gold by Emma Bull

When I Was: Endicott Studio's Autumn 2003 Journal of Mythic Arts

When I Was: Endicott Studio's Autumn 2003 Journal of Mythic Arts

The Orderly Design of Complex Systems

The key to the orderly design of complex systems, . . . , lies in the decomposition of their function into modules whose behavior can be independently and concisely specified.

--- Ward and Halstead

Teleoperable Human Beings

At supper, we were discussing teleoperation in general, and telesurgery in specific. I came home to find an article discussing how surgery can be used to make human beings teleoperable: Teleoperable Human Beings.

The Cult of Mac Blog

The Cult of Mac Blog

"The Onion Girl," by Charles de Lint.

Charles de Lint is a writer of extraordinary intelligence, imagination, and compassion.

SWT:ME Pictures

SWT:ME Pictures

Changing Hands Bookstore

Changing Hands Bookstore

A thing left undone.

It is a commonplace that ought implies can. However, there are very convincing cases in which we want to say that I ought to have performed a particular act when I could not. Charles de Lint's The Onion Girl is a well-written novel built around this paradox.

Remythologization of the World --- and yet . . .

The artists at http://www.endicott-studio.com/ are extraordinary. They feed the soul with myths. Myths make meaning.
And yet: The world is as it is.

Who served.

Democrats.

Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965--71.
David Bonior: Staff Sgt., Air Force 1968--72.
Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969--72.
Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966--69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
Daniel Inouye: Army 1943--47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966--70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts.
Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948--52; Bronze Star, Korea.
Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965--68; Silver Star and Bronze Star, Vietnam. Paraplegic from war injuries. Served in Congress.
Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951--53.
Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962--67; Naval Reserve, 1968--74.
Jack Reed: Army Ranger, 1971--1979; Captain, Army Reserve 1979--91.
Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956--76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars,and Soldier's Medal.
Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
Pete Stark: Air Force 1955--57.
Chuck Robb: Vietnam.
Howell Heflin: Silver Star.
George McGovern: Silver Star and DFC during WWII.
Bill Clinton: Did not serve. Student deferments. Entered draft but received #311.
Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.
Walter Mondale: Army 1951--1953.
John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and AirMedal with 18 Clusters.
Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

Republicans.

Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
Tom Delay: did not serve.
Roy Blunt: did not serve.
Bill Frist: did not serve.
Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
Rick Santorum: did not serve.
Trent Lott: did not serve.
John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
Jeb Bush: did not serve.
Karl Rove: did not serve.
Saxby Chambliss: did not serve ("bad knee"). The man who attacked Max Cleland's patriotism.
Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
Vin Weber: did not serve.
Richard Perle: did not serve.
Douglas Feith: did not serve.
Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
Richard Shelby: did not serve.
Jon Kyl: did not serve.
Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
Christopher Cox: did not serve.
Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
Don Rumsfeld: served in Navy (1954--57) as flight instructor.
George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; got assigned to Alabama so he could campaign for family friend running for U.S. Senate; failed to show up for required medical exam, disappeared from duty.
Ronald Reagan: due to poor eyesight, served in a non-combat role making movies.
Bob Dornan: Knowingly enlisted after fighting was over in Korea.
Phil Gramm: did not serve.
John McCain: Vietnam POW, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.
Dana Rohrabacher: did not serve.
John M. McHugh: did not serve.
JC Watts: did not serve.
Jack Kemp: did not serve ("knee problem," although he continued in NFL for 8 years as quarterback).
Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard.
Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
George Pataki: did not serve.
Spencer Abraham: did not serve.
John Engler: did not serve.
Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.

Pundits and Preachers.

Sean Hannity: did not serve.
Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (4F with a 'pilonidal cyst').
Bill O'Reilly: did not serve.
Michael Savage: did not serve.
George Will: did not serve.
Chris Matthews: did not serve.
Paul Gigot: did not serve.
Bill Bennett: did not serve.
Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
John Wayne: did not serve.
Bill Kristol: did not serve.
Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
Ralph Reed: did not serve.
Michael Medved: did not serve.
Charlie Daniels: did not serve.
Ted Nugent: did not serve.

This information has been attributed to Illinois State Sen. Howard W. Carroll.

N.B. Paul Oppenheimer has not verified that the attribution of this information to Illinois State Senator Howard W. Carroll is accurate.

Most recent revision: 2005-10-09.

All corrections, revisions, disconfirmations, and relevant evidence will be welcomed.

Seven Senses of "Gene".

Paul Oppenheimer's Blog

Recently, I read a research monograph or refereed journal article that contained a list of seven senses in which the word "gene" is used in the current literature.

Please help me find it again!

Echad is a two-syllable word.

The Hebrew word for One is a two-syllable word.

Fearless Philosophy For Free Minds: Fearless Philosophy Blogpost of the Month (September 2005)

Fearless Philosophy For Free Minds: Fearless Philosophy Blogpost of the Month (September 2005)

Paul Oppenheimer's Home Page

Paul Oppenheimer's Home Page

Paul Oppenheimer is an independent scholar living and working in Scottsdale, Arizona 85251 USA. I have had previous careers in philosophy, information technology, automated reasoning, applications of artificial intelligence in computer-aided instruction, heuristic programming, information engineering, curriculum design, software design, consulting, computer science, logic, robotic vision and simulated human vision, software engineering, artificial intelligence, scientific supercomputing, computational science, and computational engineering. If you would like to find out more about me, please visit my home page.

My research interests are in automated reasoning, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and ethics.

If you would like to chat about any of these topics, please write to me at .

I am a virtual member of the Metaphysics Research Lab in the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University. If you would like to learn more about the Metaphysics Research Lab, please visit http://mally.stanford.edu.

Request for assistance.

Perhaps some kind soul will help me with this Apple OS X 10.4.2+ annoyance.
I should like to be able to send mail using Apple Mail via Gmail (as the smtp server).
The configuration options in Apple Mail don't seem to allow me to specify the port number that Gmail wants.

- Paul E. Oppenheimer
paul.oppenheimer@gmail.com
http://members.cox.net/paul.oppenheimer/

Blogger Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox

Once upon a time, I succeeded in loading a Blogger Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox.
Now I have installed Firefox on a new machine.
I can't remember where I found the Blogger Toolbar.
If you help me with this, I shall be most grateful.

Paul Oppenheimer's Home Page.

Online Papers in Philosophy

Just discovered the very useful blog Online Papers in Philosophy".

The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy

The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (SEP) is the first fully authoritative and fully dynamic reference work.

Paul Oppenheimer's Blog

Paul Oppenheimer's Blog

Introduction to Logic

Introduction to Logic, by Patrick Suppes, first published in 1954, is still the best introductory logic book I know.

Paul Oppenheimer's Blog

Paul Oppenheimer's Blog

Revision of My HomePage

Paul Oppenheimer has revised his homepage
http://members.cox.net/paul.oppenheimer/
to include a link to this blog in its top-level menu.

The book "Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks" (very most recent edition, of course) is excellent.
I am making the transition from Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD, and other Unices to Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.2; this book is very helpful to me.

The Faery Reel

_The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm_, Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (Introduction by Terri Windling; Decorations by Charles Vess; New York, New York: Viking, 2004). Visit the Endicott Studio website for Interstitial Writing, Trollopes, Mythpoieia, Urban Fantasy, Modern Fantasy, Book Reviews, good conversation, beautiful art, and much more. I was the kid who disbelieved in the tooth fairy, in santa claus, in anything that could not be empirically and logically derived, who drew in black and white because otherwise "it would not be true."