Music Friday: Talkin' Loud But Sayin' Nothing

I referenced this song in my previous post about bullshit receptivity. 

Here's a cover of Brown's song by Living Colour. 

Musing of the Moment: Bullshit Receptivity

One of the books I'm currently reading is Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein. 

I've probably prattled on about how much I think Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow is a great book on this blog before, so I was automatically drawn to any new publication with Kahneman's name on it. 

On the books chapter titled "Occasion Noise," I was intellectually smitten by these paragraphs:

"Other studies tested the effect of mood on gullibility. Gordon Pennycock and colleagues have conducted many studies of people's reactions to meaningless, pseudo-profound statements generated by assembling randomly selected nouns and verbs from the sayings of popular gurus into grammatically correct sentences such as 'Wholeness quiets infinite phenomena' or 'Hidden meaning transforms unparalleled abstract beauty.' The propensity to agree with such statements is a trait know as bullshit receptivity....

"Sure enough, some people are more receptive than others to bullshit. They can be impressed by 'seemingly impressive assertions that are presented as true and meaningful but are actually vacuous.'"

Having sat through a number of graduate seminars in the humanities, I think there's a lot of bullshit receptivity happening in those environs. 

I know I've sat in lectures and so-called discussions where abstruse theories having been bandied about and I've read all kinds of Theory that sounds important and "pseudo-profound" but doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. Or change anything for the better. 

Like James Brown sang, these theorists are "talkin' loud and sayin' nothin.'" 

One can also apply this concept of bullshit receptivity to the mass of political ads we have to deal with if we watch any of the local TV stations. 

In sum, there's a lot hokum out there that is quite vacuous.  

Talking loud but what are they really saying? 

Random Notes from a Crank

In the print edition of The New Republic, the article is titled "Fields of Red." The online edition has an entirely different title, which begs the question, "Why?" Regardless, the article analyzes my extreme discomfort with my home state apparently turning into a red state in national politics.  

I used to be proud to be from Iowa because of its high literacy rate, but now it's state that voted twice for Moscow Don. The article makes sound suggestions that the Democrats need to do a much better job of reaching out to and persuading blue-collar voters, but as Jacobs relates, "While the party has done better with voters who are younger, more diverse, and more well-educated, Iowans are disproportionately older, whiter, and less likely to have a college degree." 

I miss how my home state was a swing state, and now it's more like Kansas or Missouri. That's sad as hell. 

If you need any further proof that Faux News is a simply a propaganda arm of the GOP and bootlickers of Moscow Don, consider the fact the channel did not broadcast the the January 6th hearings on Thursday, July 21. 

To show how out of reach the current Supreme Court is, the recent poll indicates that Americans want the ability to get an abortion to be protected at a national level. Check out the article from AP: "Majority in US Want Legal Abortion Nationally." 

One citizen featured has a smart perspective: "Blake Jones thinks six weeks 'is far too early to be able to make a decision like that,' and while he personally doesn’t approve of abortion, the 28-year-old Democrat in Athens, Georgia, said he’s pro-choice because he doesn’t believe 'that my views should affect other people.'" 

Jones said he thinks the point of viability is more appropriate for restrictions on abortion, but even then, there should be exceptions if the pregnant person’s health is at risk or the baby would be born with a severe health issue."

Music Friday: "Everybody Loves Me, Baby" & "American Pie"

I was watching TV late a night the other day, and there was a commercial advertising the a tour by Don McLean to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American Pie album. 

The title track is a classic that most people know. 

However, I'm starting with a song down the playlist and the famous title track as seen on BBC TV.

Random Notes from a Crank

As someone who cares about words and how we use them, I'm troubled by the trend of people making words shorter for no other reason than using a different term. 

For example, in certain business circles or certain people use the word, "vacay," to stand for "vacation." First off, the former bastardization sounds goofy. Just think of someone saying to someone else that they're "going on vacay." Does shortening the word by one stinking syllable really help people? I think not. 

The other one I've seen in sports media that I don't like is the term "presser" for "press conference." The two-syllable term doesn't really approximate the two-word term. I guess "er" is in the word "conference," but "er" is nowhere near anyone with a right mind would abbreviate the full word of "conference." If anything, it should be "presscon" if there really is a need for shortening the language, which there isn't. 

At the hotel we stayed at this weekend, the brand name of the toilet paper was "Comfort Bay," which is ironic. There's nothing comforting about those sandpaper-like sheets as you try to wipe your butt. 

We are in Galesburg, Illinois and had lots of time to kill, so we checked out the campus of Knox College. Since we're baseball people, we looked at the college baseball field, which has some serious dimensions with short corners and 400 feet to straight center. 

The dimensions reminded me of what I've read about Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, the home of the Cardinals and the Browns at one time. Its dimensions were quite unique with all kinds of distance markers. For example, the left field line was at 351 feet and right field line at 310. True left center was 379 with deep left center at 400. Deep left center field corner was 426 with true center at 422.

Those dimensions are nowhere as bizarre as what was going at the Polo Grounds: left-field line at 279, left-center at 450, center at 483, right-center at 449, and right-field line at 258.  

Music Friday: "Here Comes the Rain Again"

It's been one hell of a long day. I got up at 5:05 this morning because we had to drive to Galesburg for a baseball tournament with our team set to play at 11am. 

Well, that plan didn't work out at all. Rain. Lots of damn rain. 

So the game we were supposed to play today got moved to tomorrow at 1pm. 

I never bought a cassette or CD of the Eurythmics, but I always enjoyed their music. Here's a song that's appropriate. 

Music Friday: "Thoughts and Prayers"

Another week goes by and another mass shooting because of people's insane and fundamentalist interpretation of the second amendment that was written in 1789. 

So I'm presenting this DBT song yet again. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Chicken Rub

I'm smoking some chicken drumsticks this afternoon, so I searched the InterWebs for advice on a good rub for chicken. 

Based on the recipes I pondered, I created this rub that is similar but not the same as other rubs. 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup of light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons (TB) of kosher salt
• 2 TB of paprika
• 2 TB of garlic powder
• 1 TB of onion powder
• 1 TB of smoked paprika
• 1 TB of black pepper
• 1 TB of Penzey's Old World seasoning (similar to seasoning salt)
• 1 TB of coriander
• 1 TB of chili powder

Music Friday: "Fourth of July"

With the recent stupid rulings from the Supreme Court, I'm not feeling too pro-America. 

Nonetheless, here's a great song from Soundgarden. 

Enjoy the holiday if you can.