At the Northeast Squeeze-in a few years ago, I took a class with the great Bob McQuillan. To get started, he went around the room asking each of us to play. I played the Reel Des Jeunes Mariees on English Concertina and he and others joined in on accordion. As you hear, I had a rough time getting started. His diplomatic feedback at the end: "That's a great tune..."
A voice in the wilderness in re: the Terry Schiavo fiasco.
When Congressman Anthony Weiner told Luke Russert that “I can’t say with certitude” whether a picture apparently sent from his Twitter account to a young coed was his it recalled Bill Clinton’s famous answer when he was asked whether he ever had sex with Monica Lewinsky.
“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the–if he–if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not–that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement….Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.”
How can truth be a matter of “it depends”? Well the lawyerly Bill Clinton knew that what Jack Balkin, writing in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy explained. The relationship between reality and the law is not what the layman might expect. “law creates truth — it makes things true as a matter of law,” he writes. So to the question, did Bill Clinton have sex with Monica Lewinsky, well it depends — and it depends on the law. Balkin writes:
So the kerfuffle leads us to matters of great moment. I never really saw with clarity that "law creates truth." Bothers me at a gut level, but there is not alternative unless God comes down and rules us directly.
Transparency is worth $1bn today
Every heard of AirBnB.com (Air Bed n Breakfast)?
Forward thinking, start-up entrepruneur Brian Chesky has created a service that bridges the gap between travelers and ‘spare bedrooms’. Anyone can become a hotel for the night and anyone can book a room, with the only middleman being the website. That transparency has earned Chesky a $1bn valuation as he is raising $100m to fund the huge growth he is seeing.
Interesting that many tech savvy investors and even travel businesses passed on this investment as they didnt think people would want to offer their spare bedrooms. BUT Chesky’s bet paid off as airbnb has grown at over 800% per year since and has booked over 1.6m rooms.
Transparency = $
People did this sort of thing locally. A widow in the North End survived the Depression by cooking meals and serving them in her dining room to clients who booked the evening. One client, a bachelor judge, would entertain there every Wednesday night.
| Solitude and Leadership Source: theamericanscholar.org If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts |  |
Principles That Don’t ChangeRemarks on accepting the Bradley Prize17 May 2011I want to tell you what it has been like to spend my life as a professor at Harvard, the most prestigious university in America, perhaps the world. In my time there, Old Harvard, a place of tradition with its prejudices, has become New Harvard, a place of prestige with its prejudices. What’s the difference?
There are two old jokes about Old Harvard: “You can always tell a Harvard man but you can’t tell him much,” and “You will never regret going to Harvard; others may, but you won’t.” These describe arrogance, and of course the arrogance of Harvard men, not the women who are there now in profusion and force. With arrogance went a certain fastidiousness mocked in another joke: “A Yale man washes his hands after he goes to the bathroom—a Harvard man washes them before.” No doubt this one came from Yale, as it makes Yale represent normal male humanity in contrast to a studied, self-conscious few. This Harvard attitude survives today in the act that students call “dropping the H-Bomb”—that is, disclosing that you go to Harvard. Even I never announce that I’m a Harvard professor. I say that I teach. Where? In a college. Yes, but where? Around Boston. Oh, I see: you must be a Harvard professor.
In the Old Harvard, such reticence was assured arrogance trying not to be condescending; now, it’s truly embarrassed and apologetic, humility fighting with pride.
The always impish and always delightful Professor Harvey Mansfield, known affectionately as "C- Mansfield."
Student Responses and the Two Cultures |
An interesting feature of the folk version of Wisdom is that it is often surprising and even paradoxical. I think this is an example.Last year I was invited to attend the graduation of a friend's son from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. It was an impressive experience.During the ceremony, the names are called and the cadets go up to get their diplomas. At one point, a name was called and the rest of the graduating officers broke into loud cheering and applauding. Those who had already received their diplomas, rolled into white baton-like objects seen from a distance, blandished them enthusiastically. A great fuss was made over this student who was about to receive the diploma. Who was it? It was the "Class Goat," the student graduating with the poorest academic record.I was assured by all who are familiar with The Point that the cheering is in no way ironic or sarcastic. This is not a "nya, nya..." but a heartfelt cheer for an esteemed fellow officer.The cadets are expressing some of their tribal wisdom. Why do they cheer the student with the lowest grades?
1. I think they cheer for the student with the lowest GPA because they want to show support. Even though the student didnt do as well as the others that doesnt mean he or she didnt try. Its better to build up than to tear down cause you never know when you will be the one with the loweest GPA.2. I think that they cheer for the classmate with the lowest GPA because you are only as strong as your weakest link. As a unit they cheer for "the goat" to show their support and encouragement for this person to continue what they are doing and to become better and more successful. A school like this is more about success as a group not really success for each individual.3. I agree with Melissa about only being as strong as your weakest link. I also feel that it simply comes down to hazing, which is sometimes a serious problems in certain military institutes (my brother mentioned this when he was in military school). It was probably just a gentle way of poking fun of their weakest link.4. This is just a guess but maybe they aren't cheering for the class goat but for everyone else. It may be a sarcastic celebration of not being last in the class.
In giving his speech the president may have done three things, none of which he quite intended. First, he has essentially denounced as evil and misguided, though in a lukewarm fashion, decades of American policy in the Middle East. Second, he has delegitimized Israel, at least within the context of its current borders. Third, he has by implication suggested that the rule of many of his allies is undemocratic and, in consequence, declared himself King of Arabia. He has assumed ultimate responsibility for the political development of the region now. He’s declared it broken. Now he owns it.
Can these blunders be nullified?
Jennifer Rubin argues that the Palestinian Right of Return and Israel’s boundaries were the primary bargaining chips of each side in the decades-long diplomatic faceoff. To get a comprehensive settlement the Palestinians would have to give up the idea of turning Israel into an Arab state in exchange for borders of their own. In turn the Israelis would make territorial concessions only if they could be assured that the Palestinians would not be in a position to destroy it as a Jewish entity.
There was a certain asymmetry in the confrontation that often went unremarked. Israel was the world’s only Jewish state while the Palestinians were part of a larger community in the region, some would say indistinguishable from it. Israel’s existence was its all-in-all. On the other the hand, the Palestinian state was in the final analysis, optional to the Arabs in the region as a whole. Israel non-negotiably needed to live. Palestine’s nonnegotiable demand was that Israel needed to die.
Home truths for slow learners....
