Natalie Solent |
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Politics, news, libertarianism, Science Fiction, religion, sewing.
You got a problem, bud? I like sewing.
E-mail: nataliesolent-at-aol-dot-com (I assume it's OK to quote senders by name.) Back to main blog RSS thingy 
Jane's Blogosphere: blogtrack for Natalie Solent. 
Links ( 'Nother Solent is this blog's good twin. Same words, searchable archives, RSS feed. Provided by a benefactor, to whom thanks. I also sometimes write for Samizdata and Biased BBC.) The Old Comrades:
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Saturday, May 03, 2008
My felicitations to Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. Despite my preference for isonomy over democracy, I must say the golden boy done good. My scepticism over democracy is as nothing to that of fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. She was one of the luvvies whose views the Guardian's Zoe Williams naively appended to an article telling people to Fear the Hair, apparently under the impression that these endorsements would gain Ken Livingstone votes. Ms Westwood's contribution: Boris as mayor? Unthinkable. It just exposes democracy as a sham, especially if people don't vote for Ken - he's the best thing in politics. Unthinkable." Now that the voters of London have chosen Fear the Hair and Do It Anyway, I fear we must bid farewell to "Arabella Weir, actor and writer", "Blake Morrison, writer" and "Diana Melly, writer." Adieu. Monday, April 28, 2008
In the future, everyone will be respected for fifteen minutes. The trouble with Simon Blackburn's quips is they are each around a hundred words too long to be funny: "The belief that everyone deserves equal respect and that anything else is discriminatory and elitist. The truth is the exact opposite: discrimination is a virtuous activity and elites are to be admired. The very few human beings who are good at anything, whether football or playing the violin or writing or painting, form an elite and deserve respect for their excellence. Other people either deserve sympathy for trying and failing, or should be ignored if they have not even tried." Chris Bertram, linking to Norman Geras, thinks Blackburn shouldn't get all bent out of shape just because he's not David Hume. And for those of us who should be ignored, here's Wikipedia on "15 minutes of fame." Sunday, April 20, 2008
One of the things that holds me back from waking up this blog is the feeling that any post that comes after a long silence ought to be important. No, there is no good reason for this feeling. Here is a trivial and oddly-edited paragraph from the end of an education story in the Times a few days ago: How to soothe students? Tht reports that the University Mental Health Advisers Network wants students to get exam questions in advance as it would “significantly reduce the fear factor associated with the unknown”.Thanks for that report, Tht. Now it is true that for some subjects proficiency can be meaningfully tested by an open-book exam. Outside school, when you program computers or balance the books or fit an engine part you are allowed to have the manual in front of you, so long as you know your way round it. For other subjects this wimpy proposal would simply move the fear later in time and deny the students practice in overcoming it. If you present yourself to a potential employer as a French interpreter she does rather expect you to understand and say lots of French words, you know, even ones you did not know were coming. If you wish to drive a lorry on the public roads it is considered best for you to how to emerge from a junction without having to consult page 141 of the driving test manual. Continuing the education theme, I commented on this post of Brian Micklethwait's on the subject of whether parenting and teaching conflict. And not continuing the education theme, there are a couple of posts by me over at Biased BBC. Saturday, February 23, 2008
Update. I still haven't quite got used to the way that old blog posts are not thrown away. The story can be picked up again by anyone who shares your interest. Back in 2002 I wrote a post called The Gift of Life about a girl conceived in order to give a life-saving transplant to her older sister. I defended the practice, and mentioned some pictures I found when googling the girl's name. I had forgotten all this. Now (er, not exactly now, see below) Andy Behrens writes: The Marissa Ayala who drew the pictures that you refer to in your posting The gift of life is not the one who donated bone marrow to her sister.There is a second timeslip to this story. Mr Behrens' email was written on the 11th February. Sorreee! "Superficially, the stance is wryly apologetic, but the substance is a non-apology: sorry for being so clever, I should have realized that I needed to say it in words of one syllable for the benefit of those dreadful oiks in the media." Another one likely to send me to the Yellow Pages to look up an affordable contract assassin is "I'm sorry you were upset." It glides past the questions of whether "I'm sorry" means "I am saddened by" or "I apologise for", and whether your upset was reasonable or hysterical. Go to this Cuban government site. Click "Estructura del estado Cubano". Click "La Asamblea Nacional del Poder Popular". Click "VI Legislatura". It says, COMPOSICIÓN DE LA ASAMBLEA NACIONAL VI LEGISLATURA Half a century of socialism and yet whites are still overrepresented in the corridors del poder popular? Clearly, the involuntary option has failed. Wednesday, February 20, 2008
When the history of Fidel Castro's rule in Cuba comes to be written all that stuff about the excellence of the healthcare system will turn out to be lies but the claim of high literacy rates will be more or less true. Communist education gets results because force is near to the surface. I acknowledge but do not approve. See previous post here (scroll down to "Two education stories from Poland"), quoting Brian Micklethwait, or you can get more recent Micklethwait here. A further advantage of communist education is that the wishes of the teachers are given almost as short a shrift as those of the pupils. Force works well in education because the forcers can look at the forcees all the time they are doing the forcing. It works less well in healthcare and very badly indeed in agriculture. Wednesday, February 06, 2008
The view from my office looks just like this. As I was saying to Linda from Accounts, the existence of a volcanic peak arising from an inland sea used to be described, along with the Two Brewers Hotel, as "the best kept secret in Hertfordshire," but they stopped doing that in order to keep the secret better. Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Nostrils remain unfanned! Anthony Cox has a very proper job yet still manages to blog and worry about Rob Hinkley to whom absolutely nothing has happened. |