Betts and Jaquez

I somewhat made up for being the first person in my family to graduate from college by sampling the University of Colorado, Los Angeles Harbor Junior College, UCLA, Long Beach State and SUNY Buffalo. 

My loyalty ended up with UCLA, where I met my wife and graduated, and she and I have been following the UCLA women's basketball team. This weekend the young Bruins won their first national title, defeating a powerful South Carolina team by 79-51. 

Six players on the UCLA team are projected to be first round picks in the professional league.  Among them is Lauren Betts, a skilled and overpowering center on defense and offense. The other five seem to me to be highly skilled and intelligent, but I'm no judge. My favorite has been Gabriela Jaquez, who scored 21 points in the final game, along with ten rebounds and five assists.  

I think I picked Jaquez as my favorite four years ago because her older brother had once led the UCLA men.  He is currently an excellent professional player someplace back east. 

Who knows why we decide to follow a team? As a general rule I support those who support me, which would rule out sports teams. But not quite. 

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What Goes Around

 One two three, what are we fightin' for?

Don't ask me--I don't give a damn,

The next stop is Tehran. 

--Country Joe

"Smart people don't like me."

 

Watched a film of Trump saying, "Smart people don't like me." He knows he is stupid. He can't grasp what advisors tell him, so he makes a virtue out of acting on impulse. But people don't dislike him because he is stupid. He openly radiates evil.  

Crying

Trump is a crybaby. He's a three-year-old crybaby with his finger on the nuclear bomb.

 Seen on No Kings Day: Eggs are expensive, because chickens were elected to congress.  

Going to the movies

The last time my mother saw her father, she was six years old, waiting in front of a movie theater in Des Moines, Iowa.  It was 1918. A neighbor had taken her to see a film. 

Joe Farley, recently divorced, was standing in line ahead of them. He ignored them until the neighbor tapped him on the shoulder.  She said, “Damn it, Joe, say hello to your daughter.”

“Hello, Margaret, ” he said. 

At six Margaret began to suspect, like Zhuangzi, that life goes better if you do not force things. But she didn’t fully grasp what this entailed until she reached the edge of old age. 

While I was in college at UCLA, Joe Farley came to California to visit relatives. I asked my mother if she  planned to look him up during his visit. 

“No,” she said.  “If the son-of-a-bitch wants to meet me, he knows where I live.”  

Begging Questions

Almost daily I hear hosts on TV incorrectly using a term from philosophy: "begs the question." I'm not sure I have mastered the correct usage, but I will try to explain.

Suppose I make the following argument. "Water seeks its own level. The Pacific and Atlantic oceans are well connected, so sea level must be the same in both places." 

As it happens, sea level is frequently measured by scientists working in the Pacific and Atlantic, and the level in the Pacific is unmistakably higher by four to eight inches. 

Water does seek its own level, but other factors matter. Gravity isn't uniform.  Some water is saltier and denser.  Currents and winds push water into piles. The Earth's rotation swings oceans around.

In my argument, I asked you to accept a flawed premise.  I begged the question. 

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Award

A few weeks ago, my wife and I tried to watch the movie that won the Academy Award for best picture. After about 15 minutes we turned it off in order to watch anything else. So I can't critique the film, except to say that I thought the opening reeked of falsity on every level.  So why did it win  awards? 

I would like to know. I must have missed something.

How to Lose

When I was in high school 75 years ago, I was taught that Robert E. Lee had been a brilliant general, while U. S. Grant had been a bumbler who prevailed only because he had a large army. 

Today historians are apt to say that Robert E.  Lee enjoyed two or three brilliant if rash tactical victories early in the Civil War. Then he invaded the North twice (really bad strategy) and got clobbered, and then he spent the rest of the war skillfully retreating from Grant while the Army of Northern Virginia dwindled to nothing.  

With Lincoln, Sherman snd Sheridan, Grant planned to reduce his opponent to nothing at all. 

Grant used his assets: the railroads, the telegraph, a constant stream of new recruits, his ability to write clear, definite orders, etc.  

In short, Grant started with a winning strategy, employing five Union armies at once.  Something like Eisenhower in World War Two. Not like Trump's Iran war.  Trump has no strategy. 

Imagine starting a war without a strategy.  Trump is an idiot. 

1, 2, 3,

 Be the first one in your block

To come home in a box

--Country Joe