Jon Stewart remains my hero –

As I have not been around DI of late, I thought I'd pop in just momentarily to reiterate my adoration (no, that's not too strong a word) of Jon Stewart. His show recently won an Emmy and in a poll conducted by Time Magazine over the summer, he was once again named the most trusted journalist in America. Some find that appalling, that a comedian doing "fake news" would be trusted - but not only do I not find it a surprise, I find it emblematic of what is great about our country. Yep, strangely enough, I believe that beyond all of the nonsense foisted upon us by the fear-mongers and the naysayers and the hand-wringers, above the greed and corruption, the re-emergence of public racism and class-ism that has knocked the very wind out of us over this last year - we, as a culture, have maintained one vital component of our identity as a nation.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
America: Target America
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview
We still have a senses of humor. Most importantly, we can still poke fun at ourselves. Stewart takes on the rightwing nutjobs with LMAO-level attacks, but he just as willingly puts Obama and the Democratic congressfolk smack in their liberal places. He brilliantly points out the hypocrisy by putting videos back-to-back in which politicians completely contradict themselves. He forces us to see the political blustering for what it is, and gives voice to sanity in the midst of complete crazy. He makes sure we never forget our humanity. Last week, he took on the absurdly ridiculous overreaction to the elementary school in New Jersey in which children sang a song about the new President during Black History Month. As he points out, no one complained about it at the time. And Stewart's lampooning of the way the rightwing media turned this non-story into something murky and evil became especially potent when he pulled out video of school children in New Orleans singing a song in which they THANK THE LORD for Bush and FEMA!!! Good grief. The twinkle in Stewart's eyes as he reads the lyrics that group of kids sang is priceless. Carry on -

Continue ReadingJon Stewart remains my hero –

What is intelligence?

What is intelligence? Let us count the ways. Actually, the many definitions you’ll find below are merely the tip of the iceberg. I have listed my sources at the end of this post. “I’ve become more aware of and impressed by how much of leadership is about emotional intelligence. The more you lead, the more you understand how much of it is about motivation – and motivation is about emotions…To lead, being smart isn’t sufficient. You have to connect with people so that they want to help you move the organization forward.” Robert Joss, Dean of Stanford University’s Business School. “Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used.” Carl Sagan “I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.” Woodrow Wilson “It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer” Albert Einstein “Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.” Winston Churchill “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” Stephen Hawking "The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge, especially toward a purposeful goal." dictionary.com “We define emotional intelligence as the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions.” Salovey & Mayer, Emotional Intelligence (1990) “Does a president need to be smarter than his advisors? The key is how to define ‘smart.’ A president can hardly be more expert than, in sum, a collection of advisors…” Ron Suskind, The Price of Loyalty "Much evidence testifies that people who are emotionally adept -- who know and manage their own feelings well, and who read and deal effectively with other people's feelings -- are at an advantage in any domain of life, whether romance and intimate relationships or picking up the unspoken rules that govern success in organizational politics.” Daniel Goleman “Intelligence is solving a problem or creating a product that is valued in society.” Image by Brunosan at Flickr (creative commons) Image by Brunosan at Flickr (creative commons) Howard Gardner

Continue ReadingWhat is intelligence?

Womens Rights in the 21st Century

I found a fascinating post on one of the blogs I regularly read: Weekend Diversion: An Amazing Group of Women. It is mostly about the Asgarda women of the Ukraine, a small group of (mostly young) women working for the rights of women in an environment plagued with sex trafficking and other abuses of women, Eastern Europe. There is also a video of Loudon Wainwright singing "Daughter". Well worth clicking over to hear the song and see pictures of essentially a modern tribe of Amazons. Meanwhile, I wondered if the United States is the only nation in which there are so many groups of women actively protesting against rights for women. Like Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, who worked diligently to persuade women to vote against the Equal Rights Amendment, and continue to agitate to prevent any laws from passing that explicitly give women protections already enjoyed by men. Pro Life groups are also essentially anti-women's rights, and largely manned by women. It is basically a matter of whether the government or a women may legally decide who or what may live within her body and what may be expelled. Men already have this protection, granted by their reproductively deficient bodies allowing them to claim any foreign internal organism as a hostile alien.

Continue ReadingWomens Rights in the 21st Century

On the need to pay for content

There has been a lot of talk lately about coming up withe new models of providing information, such that the consumers will "continue" to pay for content. Not so fast, says Paul Graham:

Publishers of all types, from news to music, are unhappy that consumers won't pay for content anymore. At least, that's how they see it. In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either. If the content was what they were selling, why has the price of books or music or movies always depended mostly on the format? Why didn't better content cost more? . . . Economically, the print media are in the business of marking up paper.

But don't people pay for information? Only certain kinds of information:

People will pay for information they think they can make money from. That's why they paid for those stock tip newsletters, and why companies pay now for Bloomberg terminals and Economist Intelligence Unit reports. But will people pay for information otherwise? History offers little encouragement.

[via Daily Dish]

Continue ReadingOn the need to pay for content

How to spot a liar.

I don't think I'm good at spotting liars. I don't usually recognize the that I've been lied to until after "things just don't add up," and that might be a long time after the lie occurs. I'm almost always surprised when it turns out that my trust was betrayed. This two-minute How-Cast video gives a brisk summary of some some advice that resonates with me. Now I'll just have to see if I'll be able to employ this advice to good effect.

Continue ReadingHow to spot a liar.