Critical thinking: another oxymoron

Roger Kimball has a long but worthwhile piece expanding on Elizabeth Scalia's essay. Kimball's essay looks for the roots of critical thinking (or, as he would rename it, "criticismism") and why it sucks so badly. John Stuart Mill, Nietzsche, and Richard Rorty have much to answer for, it seems.

Critical thinking: another oxymoron

Roger Kimball has a long but worthwhile piece expanding on Elizabeth Scalia's essay. Kimball's essay looks for the roots of critical thinking (or, as he would rename it, "criticismism") and why it sucks so badly. John Stuart Mill, Nietzsche, and Richard Rorty have much to answer for, it seems.

another Saturday at friction level 5

Was originally going to get up at 1100 (which would have been 10 hours of sleep) and wound up sleeping in until 1300 instead.
I have zero interest in doing anything, which is unfortunate since it's kind of a nice day outside - not too warm, not too cool, and the rain isn't supposed to show up until later. The leg's hurting a little bit, but not that much, and I'm not feeling depressed, so I don't know what's up.

I'm annoyed that I seem to have lost the mixing paddle for the bread machine. Odds are good that it either went down the garbage disposal by mistake or is hiding somewhere in the kitchen. Guesses for grabs, man.

another Saturday at friction level 5

Was originally going to get up at 1100 (which would have been 10 hours of sleep) and wound up sleeping in until 1300 instead.
I have zero interest in doing anything, which is unfortunate since it's kind of a nice day outside - not too warm, not too cool, and the rain isn't supposed to show up until later. The leg's hurting a little bit, but not that much, and I'm not feeling depressed, so I don't know what's up.

I'm annoyed that I seem to have lost the mixing paddle for the bread machine. Odds are good that it either went down the garbage disposal by mistake or is hiding somewhere in the kitchen. Guesses for grabs, man.

Saturday night at the rib joint

Finally got off my ass and went swimming. It was pretty good, except for stubbing one of the toes on my left foot and somebody's incredibly whiny daughter. Thank God the wretched little lloronita couldn't manage in the deep end, which is where I hang out until the pool closes.

After swimming I felt motivated to go get some ribs. The closest place closes at 9 on Saturday night (WTF?) so I wound up heading for King Street Blues over by the Default Wal-mart in Kingstowne. Service was very good, and the ribs were damn good as well, cooked so tender they fell off the bones if you shook said bones after picking them up. The steak knife that came with them was wretched overkill. Fries were fresh and unseasoned, cole slaw okay, beans mediocre and the apple crisp was a little overdone. Hush puppies had some strange green chili pepper-like objects in them, which sucked. I have to say, somewhere on my Evil Overlord to-do list is a pile of death warrants for cooks in rib joints who can't keep the distinction between "Southern" and "Southwestern" straight; there is entirely too much chipotle and other weird pepper bullshit getting into my barbeque and side dishes these days, and it needs to STOP. Hush puppies are lumps of cornmeal baked into tasty little nuggets that need no spicing up, dammit! It's almost enough to provoke me into driving all the way to Famous Dave's, but given the goodness of the ribs I'll forgive them this time.

So, yeah...ordered a couple replacement paddles for the bread robot, read some blogs, and that was that.

Saturday night at the rib joint

Finally got off my ass and went swimming. It was pretty good, except for stubbing one of the toes on my left foot and somebody's incredibly whiny daughter. Thank God the wretched little lloronita couldn't manage in the deep end, which is where I hang out until the pool closes.

After swimming I felt motivated to go get some ribs. The closest place closes at 9 on Saturday night (WTF?) so I wound up heading for King Street Blues over by the Default Wal-mart in Kingstowne. Service was very good, and the ribs were damn good as well, cooked so tender they fell off the bones if you shook said bones after picking them up. The steak knife that came with them was wretched overkill. Fries were fresh and unseasoned, cole slaw okay, beans mediocre and the apple crisp was a little overdone. Hush puppies had some strange green chili pepper-like objects in them, which sucked. I have to say, somewhere on my Evil Overlord to-do list is a pile of death warrants for cooks in rib joints who can't keep the distinction between "Southern" and "Southwestern" straight; there is entirely too much chipotle and other weird pepper bullshit getting into my barbeque and side dishes these days, and it needs to STOP. Hush puppies are lumps of cornmeal baked into tasty little nuggets that need no spicing up, dammit! It's almost enough to provoke me into driving all the way to Famous Dave's, but given the goodness of the ribs I'll forgive them this time.

So, yeah...ordered a couple replacement paddles for the bread robot, read some blogs, and that was that.