Deconstructing Ancient Greeks

Western universities were founded to train doctors, lawyers, divines, educated bureaucrats that run country and empire. Later, real science faculties were added: maths, chemistry. These days, new specialties like gender, race, colonialism and class studies are becoming mainstream. Classics are re-interpreted and deconstructed. Xenophon's Anabasis is now the story of imperialist Greeks intervening in the internal politics of a Third World nation, and Xenophon, a racist propagandist of the superiority of the European race. Plato's Republic is identified with the American South, with its exploitation of slave labor, the suppression of women and the "Other" in public affairs, and forced reproduction by gang rape. One can even find homophobic jokes in Aristophanes' comedies, negating the generally believed openness of Ancient Greeks to pederasty. It is good that the new generation criticizes and "deconstructs" their masters' narratives so, in turn, the next generation will be presented with academic material that can easily be laughed off. 

The Brits humiliate Argentina

The Economist humiliates Argentina once more. Britain defeated Argentine forces in the Malvinas war, that is a fact, but the picture published today to represent Argentina (right) is another offense for the self-image of old Argentinians like me.  We used to think of Argentina as a White, European country, and in my times, it was. I never saw a Bolivian indian from the Altiplano like the pictured in the streets of Buenos Aires. I could cry "Racism" but it would not be true because Argentina has undergone a population replacement in the last fifty years. The sons of the Italians and Spaniards in Buenos Aires migrated to Milan and Barcelona, the Jews moved to Miami and Israel. The Economist may have tried to reflect this objective reality. 

Now to the subject matter in hand: Argentina once more imposed foreign currency controls and foreign firms cannot repatriate their investments. That makes idiots of those who believed in Argentina and invested in this country. Argentina's sovereign bonds now trade at a third of its face value. The Economist qualifies this situation as a humiliation for the IMF, but I would accuse Madame Legarde of having wasted American taxpayers' savings. She was booted upstairs and now manages the EU's finances. Decadence, everywhere I look. 

You shall wage war with diversion

An IDF helicopter evacuated soldiers from the northern border to Rambam Hospital in Haifa on Sunday afternoon following the firing of anti-aircraft missiles from Lebanon towards Israel by Hezbollah despite the fact that soldiers were uninjured.

The IDF wanted to create a "fog" on the Lebanese side to allow Hezbollah to flaunt its achievement and meanwhile carried out a massive assault on Hezbollah.

Someone commented: Israel let the hezbos experience the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat all within a few hours. How great is that in demoralizing the enemy. Brilliant!

Note that we are in war. Hizbollah is a terrorist organization but also the de-facto Lebanese government. Under the French, Lebanon was a nice place. 

English vs Chinese Justice

Lord Coke’s ruling that a judge could not be paid with the fines he imposed. Dr. Bonham’s Case, 8 Co. Rep. 107a, 118a, 77 Eng. Rep. 638, 652 (C.P. 1610). 

Judge Dee always expropriates the criminal's property and uses to money to fund his court and its employees. Judge Dee is a historical magistrate who figures in many popular Chinese detective stories. All his cases deal with wealthy, plunderable evildoers.  

The Weekly Chapter: Hebrew Slaves

In our annual tour of the Bible, we are approaching the end, where Moses codifies his laws and prepares the people to enter the Promised Land. Regarding slavery, Moses has very clear views.

How is a Jew enslaved? If he is caught stealing and cannot repay the harm he has caused, he will be sold as slave. No Jew is born a slave. 

Slavery lasts six years. In the seventh year, his owner has to free him and send him away with a suitable present. 

If he refuses to leave (apparently freedom was harder than slavery), the owner will make a cut in his ear to mark him publicly as one who has chosen his abject status. 

I am decided to die a rich Jew

"Negative rates are counterintuitive, unprecedented, insane and downright scary. They are like a parallel universe where everything you’ve ever learned about finance and human behavior is turned upside down." (Yahoo Finance)

Warren Buffett told CNBC that: “I think stocks are ridiculously cheap if you believe ... that 3% on the 30-year bonds makes sense...”

Think. Think like this Jew. Bonds are yielding from nothing to minus something. Their alternative, if you have savings, is stock, paying 2 -5% dividend. Meaning: stocks are cheap. 

Except that they were never higher. 

Why investors are not buying stocks but negative yield bonds? Because they fear a big recession, or a Japanese intractable deflation. 

I took a loan and bought stocks. I am abnormally optimist, there will be no deflation in Israel, and I am going to die rich.


Shabbat Shalom. 

Quantum gravity

We are organisms built to survive and reproduce in the environments that evolved on the surface of this planet. We do not have any built in instrument to investigate reality outside of what is/was necessary for those goals. How can we understand how quantum gravity works? Only by building a thinking machine able to investigate reality and then, like Vger 6, come back and translate it for us.

The StarTrek film about the return of Voyager 6 to meet its maker ends with the human proposing an unsolvable paradox (invented by an Ancient Greek) and the defeat of the thing. It is interesting to speculate what would have happened if instead of self-destruct, V-ger would have transmitted to humanity the knowledge it had collected. It did not and StarTrek proceeded to the next chapter with Captain Kirk stupid as he was before. That is what I remember.

Yet the film's website states that "Decker rewired the relay connection and keyed in the final sequence of the transmission manually. This prompted V'ger to begin transmitting its data, effectively merging with Decker, thus taking V'ger to a new level of existence. At last satisfied with its answers, V'ger disappeared in a blinding flash of white light". 

It was left unsaid what happened to V'ger's data and how it affected humanity. Very unsatisfying end. 

BTW, a Vulcan scientist T'Uerell, after deciphering the secrets of the Borg Collective, uncovered evidence that it was V'Ger who first created the Collective to serve as heralds in its search for its Creator.