Texas Rangers May 22 2012

At this point in time the Rangers are in a deep funk. It looked good when they took two out of three from the Angels but since then they were swept by Kansas City. The hitting is cold, the pitchers have the YIPS (even Yu Darvish). Let's hope they can get it worked out.

Hannah Arendt

It is true that totalitarian domination tried to establish these holes of oblivion into which all deeds, good and evil, would disappear, but just as the Nazis' feverish attempts, from June 1942, on, to erase all traces of the massacres- through cremation, through burning in open pits, through the use of explosives and flamethrowers and bone-crushing machinery- were doomed to failure, so all efforts to let their opponents "disappear in silent anonymity" were in vain. The holes of oblivion do not exist. Nothing human is that perfect, and there are simply too many people in the world to make oblivion possible. One man will always be left alive to tell the story. Hence, nothing can ever be "practically useless," at least, not in the long run. It would be of great practical usefulness for Germany today, not merely for her prestige abroad but for her sadly confused inner condition, if there were more such stories to be told. For the lesson of such stories is simple and within everybody's grasp. Politically speaking, it is that under conditions of terror most people will comply but some people will not, just as the lesson of the countries to which the Final Solution was proposed is that "it could happen" in most places but it did not happen everywhere. Humanly speaking, no more is required, and no more can be reasonably asked, for this planet to remain a fit place for human habitation.
- Hannah Arendt. Eichmann in Jerusalem. (232-233)

Pursuit of Happiness

America's political system used to be about the pursuit of happiness. Now more and more of us want to stop chasing it and have it delivered.
-Jonah Goldberg. Liberal Fascism. (20)

Salvation and the State

You must make them understand that their salvation is in themselves....They [the people] must not look to the state for guidance- they must learn to guide the State.
-Dorothy Sayers

Education

Education is ever more important as societies grow more democratic. The purpose of education is not to prepare for a job; it is, far more, a preparation for understanding and giving meaning to the civilization in which one lives. Only the cultural maturity of the majority will allow democracy to last. Otherwise fanaticism and violence will motivate people. It will be the only way of filling the spiritual void of their existence, by replacing individual liberty with collective exaltation.
Jean-Francois Revel. Democracy Against Itself. (264-265)

Democracy

The fact is that humanity is doomed to democracy, and this is so because without democracy, it is doomed, period.
-Jean-Francois Revel. Democracy Against Itself. (198)

Texas Rangers May 8 2012

Maybe the Rangers have their mojo back. They beat the Orioles last night 14-3. Cory Snyder had six RBI's, which is a team record. Josh Hamilton hitting a home run in the top of the ninth was icing on the cake. Tonight's game is not over yet (bottom of the eighth, Rangers up 10-1) but I have to go ahead and put something down. Hamilton is in the zone: four two-run homers. So much for Snyder's record. This is only the 14th time it has happened in Major League history. In other words, it is rarer than a perfect game. Hamilton also had a double off the left centerfield wall. And Beltre had a homer as well.