Elbow connected to the brain bone

You may know that I began the school year. Today was my second day as a high school English teacher at Finneytown High School.

Already, one young man was in-school-suspension'd from my classroom. Hey, it was his choice. Otherwise, most of the kids I see seem to be great kids. Overall, I think I'm really going to enjoy working there.

We began organizing journals right away. I'm going to emphasize journal writing ala Peter Elbow. In case you didn't know, Elbow wrote "Writing without teachers" and "Writing with power." Ironically, Elbow is somebody I first encountered not in one of two graduate degree programs, nor even in undergrad. I first read Elbow in high school - thanks in fact to my high school English teacher.

Oddly enough, It could be one thing like that book that could be enough to inspire a kid. Keep that in mind. Anyway, I recommend Elbow highly.

The Last Refuge of the Incompetent

"The Empire will vanish and all its good with it. Its accumulated knowledge will decay and the order it has imposed will vanish. Interstellar wars will be endless; intersellar trade will decay population will decline; worlds will lose touch with the main body of the Galaxy..."

So rests the fate of the Galactic Empire, according to Isaac Azimov's "prophet", Hari Seldon in FOUNDATION.

And in the face of microcosmic decay (the house is definately in need of being cleaned), mounting deadlines and midnight chorus of crickets, I have just finished reading it (again). I love that book.

Asimov's novel about the death and hope of the Galactic Empire is considered a foundational work (if you'll pardon the pun) of science fiction. But the book is compelling for a number of reasons. The titular Foundation is a small colony located on a fringe planet of the galaxy called Terminus. Its mission is to preserve knowledge and technology through the dark ages of the empire's decline and to use them eventually to usher in a new era of united galactic government. Small and unarmed, it must solve and survive a number of episodic crises involving its greedy, beligerent neighbors if it is to end the interregnum.

The Foundation is forced to use technological, economical and sociological forces to bring to heel its would-be conquerors because it simply lacks a military option. The characters are clever, cunning and compelling politically as they puzzle out solutions to the crises.

A recurring theme of the book comes from Foundation Mayor Salvor Hardin's motto: "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." Of course, it would be easy to dismiss the Hardin character as some weak-willed pacifist. Indeed, each episodic leader of the Foundation faces the temptation to press an obvious technological advantage in battle - none of the other planets, for example, remember how to harness and maintain nuclear power. Instead, however, they choose solutions which, not only avoid armed conflict, but also solidify the political power of the Foundation among the planets of the fringes.

Every time I read this book, I am struck by the idea that military adventurism is the last refuge of the incompetent; that "every blaster can be pointed both ways". This is the curse of countries with superior militaries: they feel compelled to rely on them. It is, however, a simple truism: Ground wars are not winnable.

No conventional army has subdued a hostile guerrilla force through military supremacy without paying a price disproportionate to the gain. Not in Viet Nam. Not in Chechnya. Not in Afghanistan. Not in Gaza or South Lebanon. Not in India. Or Ethiopia. Not in the American Colonies. Not in the Roman war in 90 C.E. against the Jews described by Josephus.

The war in Iraq is wrong because better solutions could have/should have been found. Israel's war with Hezbollah is wrong because it has weakened global perception that Israel's military is unbeatable and won them essentially nothing. (There will be no long term peace there. The IDF will return to Southern Lebanon before my daughter goes to high school.) The coming war between the United States and Iran is wrong because the United States can not afford it - and, furthermore, we should not have to.

We should send a copy of Azimov's book to every member of Congress and Israel's Knesset. Send one to George Bush? Why - He doesn't read anyway.

The Pirates' Code

Anti-evolution, hardline conservatives lost control of the Kansas State Board of Education in a primary election there last week (please hold all applause until I'm finished).

I smell a change in the wind, says I.

Maybe this is the bellweather for wrenching free from the clutch the Christian Right has on chesnuts of this country.

Kansas: incumbent Connie Morris, who had once been a school teacher, lost her bid for re-election. She had described evolution as "an age-old fairy tale" and "a nice bedtime story."

She believes that "intelligent design," on the other hand, is true, faith-based, scientific method.

These people have argued for years that "intelligent design" is as legitimate a scientific theory as that posed by Old Man Darwin; That "intelligent design" belongs in a science classroom along side of or better yet, in place of evolution.

By playing the equivalence card, these people have pirated scientific inquiry by dressing up a faith-based idea as science. In essence, they have robbed the marketplace of ideas by selling faked Guccis.

Darwin's ideas might be a little provincial for contemporary genetic wonderkinds, but you can't fault the man for advancing our understanding of empirical science as well as biology and evolution. For his time, his thinking was meticulous and methodical.

Its fundamentalist ideologues like Morris who are the ones setting scientific inquiry back to the age of fable. It is horrific to think these people have been teaching our children.

Seriously though, I'm wondering what exactly these people - the Pat Robertsons, the Billy Grahams, the Ralph Reeds, and well, Morris have done for anyone anyway. Have they done anything to actually help people? Of course not. They are only interested in stuffing their recalcitrant dogma down everyone's throat.

"Intelligent design" is the truth, they say. Any dissent or disagreement is nothing less than mutiny. Godless liberals are made to walk the plank. Then rise up, ye scallawags - just like they did in Kansas.

The prevailing metaphor for free speech in this country was established by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1919. In a dissenting opinion in Abrams V. US, Holmes wrote: "...the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas -- that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market..."

Well, guess what: The marketplace of ideas has once again dumped these people on a spit of land shrinking in the distance while the ship of state sails off and they are left with nothing but a call on the wind: "Ha Ha!"

Never fear, though. These loonies will be back. Somewhere, they will sail in and strike under the cover of the full moon - when we least expect it. Like the sequel to a bad movie, they follow the pirates' code: "Take what you can. Give nothing back!"

I say: "Argghh! And good riddance to them!"