Back from Buenos Aires

I got back this morning from a few days in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on a business trip. It was a beautiful country, with great summer weather. The people were very friendly (and patient with my attempts to use a few Spanish words and phrases, as I'm just a beginner at the language), and the food was excellent. I hope to return for a longer time in the future, and hopefully to get some Spanish tutoring while I'm there.

Buenos Aires is a huge modern city (population around 15 million) undergoing a lot of construction, especially in the Puerto Madero neighborhood, where this picture was taken. This was an old port that ceased being used in the 1960s, but is now the location of many restaurants, hotels, and businesses.

Although a website about Argentina business warned me that subjects not to discuss were the Perons and the Falkland Islands, both subjects were brought up by Argentinians I conversed with, and it wasn't a problem.

This was one of those rare trips where I returned home to Phoenix to find the weather much colder and wetter than it had been in the place I was visiting.

UPDATE (January 26, 2007): CNN Money recommends travel to Buenos Aires, and specifically offers this dining suggestion:

Tip: Cabana las Lilas in the Puerto Madero section of Buenos Aires is often cited as the best spot for grilled beef.

But Robin Goldstein, a writer for Fodor's travel guides, says you'll find a more authentic dining experience at half the cost just next door at La Caballeriza (address: Alicia Moreau de Justo 580).

I didn't visit Cabana las Lilas, but did eat at La Caballeriza with a large group of locals, and it was excellent (even the blood sausage wasn't bad).

Interview with Jon Winokur

Guy Kawasaki interviews Jon Winokur, whose books of curmudgeonly quotations are prized possessions of mine. It was Winokur's The Portable Curmudgeon which inspired me to track down and read the very entertaining autobiography of Oscar Levant.

Here's a short excerpt, chosen because it makes a point that is part of Paul Krassner's standup act:

Question: What are you working on now?

Answer: The Big Curmudgeon, an omnibus edition of previous curmudgeon books plus new material, and The Big Book of Irony, a small-format hardcover in which I try to share my delight in the many facets of irony and clear up some misconceptions, because irony is widely misunderstood.
It drives me crazy when people say “ironic” when they mean “coincidental.” The classic example is Morissettian Irony, which I define in the book as “irony based on a misapprehension of irony, i.e., no irony at all.” It’s named for the pop singer Alanis Morissette, whose hit single, “Ironic” mislabels coincidence and inconvenience as irony.
In the song, situations purporting to be ironic are merely sad, random, or annoying (“It's a traffic jam when you're already late/It's a no-smoking sign on your cigarette break”). In other words, “Ironic” is an un-ironic song about irony. Which, of course, is ironic in itself. But wait, there’s more, a “bonus irony” if you will: “Ironic” has been cited as an example of how Americans don’t get irony, despite the fact that Alanis Morissette is Canadian!

By the way, here's a rewrite of lines from Morissette's song to actually make them ironic.

More Discovery Institute hypocrisy about Dover

Judge Jones' ruling in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case found the Dover Area School District's policy on intelligent design a violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause on two grounds. First, on the ground that it had a specifically religious purpose, and second, that intelligent design is not science but religion, and so the policy was an endorsement of religion. These are two of the three prongs of the "Lemon Test" for whether a state action violates the establishment clause.

The Discovery Institute has argued that Jones' ruling should only have used the "purpose" test and not the "endorsement" test.

Ed Brayton points out that this position is contrary to the position that creationists and intelligent design advocates have argued for the last three decades--that the "purpose" prong of the Lemon Test for violations of the First Amendment's establishment clause is unfair and should be abandoned. Ed observes that at least four DI personnel--Casey Luskin, Frank Beckwith, Mark Ryland, and David DeWolf--have all argued this way in the past.

His post also responds in some detail to the specific arguments made by Philip Italiano, a law student at Rutgers Law School, who is the latest to argue that Jones should only have used the "purpose" test.

W. Virginia record Powerball winner says his money is all gone

Jack Whittaker, the trouble-plagued winner of what was then the largest Powerball jackpot, $315 million (a $113 million lump sum after taxes), now says that it's all gone.

UPDATE (January 15, 2007): Apparently Whittaker claims that thieves cashed checks at multiple branches of City National Bank to steal his money--and this is why he can't pay a settlement to a woman who sued him for assaulting her at the Tri-City Racetrack and Gaming Center near Charleston, WV. But the bank just says that they are investigating "small discrepancies" in his accounts--which doesn't sound like it's all gone.

David Paszkiewicz publicly displays his incompetence

At long last, Kearny, NJ U.S. History teacher and Baptist youth minister David Paszkiewicz has spoken out publicly about his teaching (in a letter to his local newspaper), and has publicly displayed his incompetence on early U.S. history in the process.

Paszkiewicz's letter shows that his knowledge of the Founding Fathers and the First Amendment comes from crackpot pseudo-historian David Barton. He misrepresents the views of Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin using out-of-context and fabricated quotations, makes the bogus argument that because the words "separation of church and state" aren't in the U.S. Constitution that the concept isn't there either, and generally shows that he doesn't understand the subject matter he teaches.

Kennesaw State University history professor David Parker shows that Paszkiewicz's alleged Jefferson quotation from an April 21, 1803 letter to Benjamin Rush is not found in that letter. (There's something somewhat similar, but Paszkiewicz's version changes the meaning by dishonestly adding and removing words from what Jefferson actually wrote.) Paszkiewicz misrepresents Jefferson's religious views, failing to recognize that Jefferson did not believe in the divinity or miracles of Jesus, and edited the gospels into "Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth" (sometimes known as the "Jefferson Bible") by removing all of the miracles.

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars addresses Paszkiewicz's claims in more detail, showing that he doesn't understand the role of the U.S. judicial system.

Mr. Paszkiewicz, already considered a fool, has spoken and removed all doubt.

(Hat tip to Pharyngula.)

UPDATE (January 15, 2007): I've removed the statement that Ed Brayton has shown that Paszkiewicz used a fabricated Washington quotation, though it appears Washington didn't mean what Paszkiewicz thought he did, and Paszkiewicz didn't quote it correctly. The correct quotation, part of Washington's advice for assimilation, is "You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do every thing they can to assist you in this wise intention." He didn't say he believed it, he said to learn it.

An interesting and lengthy examination of the history of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause can be found in Noah Feldman's "The Intellectual Origins of the Establishment Clause" (PDF) from the May 2002 New York University Law Review (vol. 77, pp. 346-428).

CIA and White House block Cunningham investigation

The Duke Cunningham scandal, which reaches into the Central Intelligence Agency due to contracts awarded for intelligence-related contracts, has been stalled due to CIA refusal to cooperate with DoJ prosecutors.

And now the White House has asked San Diego U.S. Attorney Carole Lam to resign.

There's still a lot of federal corruption that needs to be cleaned up, but it looks like the big fish are being protected from the top.

Wikipedia has some good entries on Dusty Foggo of the CIA, his pal and contractor/Cunningham briber Brent Wilkes, California Rep. Jerry Lewis, and former CIA Director Porter Goss.

UPDATE (January 17, 2007): San Diego U.S. Attorney Carole Lam has resigned. And, due to a provision in the USA PATRIOT Act (inserted by Sen. Arlen Specter), the Attorney General has the right to appoint replacement U.S. Attorneys without Senate approval. Previously the AG could only appoint interim U.S. Attorneys that had to be confirmed within 120 days or be subject to replacement by the relevant federal district court.

UPDATE (February 13, 2007): Foggo and Wilkes were both indicted today on charges of money laundering and "honest services wire fraud."

Microsoft UFO to fly in Phoenix?

The second clue in Microsoft's "Vanishing Point" puzzle to launch Microsoft Vista will be unveiled at 4 p.m. Saturday in Phoenix, which they say was chosen for "high visibility and clear skies." Promised is "a stunt that everyone in the Valley [will] be talking about by Saturday night."

Perhaps a UFO flying over South Mountain with the Microsoft logo on it?

UPDATE (January 13, 2007): It was supposed to be simultaneous sky-writing in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Miami, and Sydney, but I'm not sure if it happened in Phoenix as scheduled--today was a very overcast and cold day.

Scientology "Industry of Death" exhibit in Missouri capitol

It looks like Missouri has followed the lead of Arizona lawmakers in helping out Scientology--they've allowed Scientology to set up an "Industry of Death" exhibit attacking psychiatry in the Capitol Rotunda:

The "Industry of Death" exhibit is sponsored by the Church of Scientology and makes a host of outrageous claims about the field of psychiatry. Twenty-five percent of psychiatrists sexually abuse their patients. ... And for the big surprise, psychiatrists were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - guilty by association, at least, since psychiatrists are responsible for the existence of terrorists and suicide bombers.

Crazy.

How William Dembski's blog handles dissent

RBH describes how a Christian neuroscientist was banned from William Dembski's Uncommon Descent blog. Lots more similar examples of banning may be found in the comments.

Bush on sending more troops to Iraq

George W. Bush on sending more troops to Iraq:

Some Americans ask me, if completing the mission is so important, why don’t you send more troops? If our commanders on the ground say we need more troops, I will send them. But our commanders tell me they have the number of troops they need to do their job. Sending more Americans would undermine our strategy of encouraging Iraqis to take the lead in this fight. And sending more Americans would suggest that we intend to stay forever, when we are, in fact, working for the day when Iraq can defend itself and we can leave. As we determine the right force level, our troops can know that I will continue to be guided by the advice that matters: the sober judgment of our military leaders.

That was on June 28, 2005. Video at Think Progress.

Now Bush wants to push a "surge" of troops over the objections of his military leaders.

(Via Donna Woodka's blog.)