THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

"HANDED DOWN" TO WHOM? | 2005-04-04

To youm, that's whom.

James Jackson Kilpatrick pointed out years ago that the United States Supreme Court was described as "handing up" a decision. I have no way of searching this out in a reasonable amount of time.

Today the courts "hand down" decisions. They "hand down" a decision that overruled an overwhelming vote by the California plebescite against giving benefits to illegal aliens. They "handed down" decisions that enforced racial busing against the wishes of eighty to ninety percent of the public, including a majority of blacks.

Before the World War II Generation gave us Obedience Training, "We the People of the United States of America and OUR posterity" were the only purpose of the Constitution. Before the World War II Generation was obedience-trained, "We the People of the United States of America" were the only source of authority the Constitution had.

But now the guys in robes hand DOWN decisions to us. They ARE the Constitution.

We are allowed to debate questions until the guys in the black robes hand a decision DOWN to us. Then they not only make the Final Decision, they can put us in jail for contempt of court if we discuss it.

STAFF WORK AND BOB | 2008-01-16

The University of South Carolina's main football rival was Clemson. A lot of USC people carried this rivalry over into being happy when Clemson lost to other teams.

I disagreed with this on two grounds. First, the obvious one that I always rooted for a Palmetto State team anywhere. But the second is more subtle.

I though that if Clemson lot, it meant that if they beat us that year, it made it even more shameful. Secondly, if we beat THEM, it made the victory sweeter.

I used to get a lot of bitches about how I quoted people who were flattering to ME. As I explained, I have heard all the bitches about what I say thousands of times, so I'm just tired of the repetition. I certainly don't MIND them after fifty years in this fight, and when Pain or somebody else calls me down legitimately, I quote them and thank them.

Being wrong and SEEING it is how I learned most of what I learned.

But there is another consideration that relates to the Carolina-Clemson example. There are literally a million blogs out there, and THIS is the one YOU chose to spend time on. If "Bob" did not have a lot of good things to say, this should not make YOU feel particularly satisfied.

As Tim just said, "As usual,the people here were right on it."

When I was working with Congressman AshBROOK, we would be having a staff talk and people would use the "Ashbrook" with him sitting right there. We referred to HIM as "John." When we said "Ashbrook" it was in reference to the Ashbrook position on things, the Ashbrook image, the institution we were meeting about, to which we were devoting almost all of our waking hours.

Here we use "Bob" for both the institution and the old Bastard himself. If I should finally be hanged or put in the loony bin, it will probably be easier for you to continue using BUGS, for BOB's Underground Graduate Seminar, right on.

And there is the matter of qualifications. I am not overly pleasant when it comes to commenters. I am hard on you and I am often unfair, so it takes moral COURAGE to get in here with me and roughhouse. Every other quality has been justifiably doubted, but nobody on either side has ever denied that I have a huge amount of raw brain power and knowledge.

"BUGS is for those who have outgrown their college education, whether they had one or not." And you know first hand that old professor Bob allows no relaxing of that standard. You got your degree here at BUGS, which beats the hell out of anyone who jumped the hoops through another of a million PhDs.

When we spoke of "Ashbrook" we spoke of the fact that we had been hired, kept our jobs, were on a side of right, and were proud to be part of that staff, of that TEAM.

By now, I hope that "Bob" means a lot more here than just ME.

THE INFALLIBLE BOB FALLIBATES | 2006-01-20

I just gave Joe hell for saying "I could be wrong."

Then I wrote a piece, replying to Joe, about how it I feel things deeply.

Joe kept writing "I could be wrong" because he was making personal observations about me and he was being very careful to make it clear that he was not criticizing me personally, he could be wrong.

Joe is sensitive. So I attacked his sensitivity.

The same sensitiviy I just claimed a right to.

When I say I am wrong a lot, you have to admit I practice what I preach.

Once again, all this is simple but not easy. I deeply believe that you should STOP apologizing.

But on the other hand I just said that I understand sensitivity. This simple stuff gets complicated fast.

Joe, put it another way besides apology.

This is the problem with not being a Wordist. A Wordist can cut out his frontal lobe and stick a book in there. Sometimes I wish I had the Book of Whitaker to stick in there.

Everything in science starts simple. I remember being a Discussant at an economics convention and standing in front of a blackboard full of calculus equations and making corrections.

But all that calculus was based on the words, "supply and demand," what goes by the not-so-simple-sounding name of Microeconomics.

The whole basis of Western Science, expresed in Occam's Razor, is simple enough:

"Cut your assumptions to the bone."

So you get simple basic like the Laws of Thermodynamics.

So you get engineering professors standing in front of blackboards full of equations more complicated than anyone before Occam's Razor could have imagined.

The world gets very, very complicated when you see the simple truth.

NASAL VERSUS ENGLISH | 2004-09-21

When I was in high school, a lot of Dentsville School was made up of army brats. Watching TV, I always got the stereotype of the "Southern accent," which sounded like nothing I had ever heard in the South, while Yankees portrayed on TV spoke perfect English.

In "the Raid" -- a 1954 movie starring van Heflin about the Confederate raid on St. Albans, Vermont in 1864 -- very few of the Southern Union prison escapees who wanted to be in on the raid could speak correctly like the natives of New Hampshah did. In the movie, all the New Englanders spoke Midwestern, soft English.

Meanwhile, back here on earth, I used to hurt peoples' ears when I said, right through my nose, "A Yankee is somebody who tells me I've got a "southern eeeeeeeyaxkseeeeeent."

The Yankee army brats tended to say the word that means 'uncooked" as rooooah.

Does anybody else notice how many announcers on television seem to throw a lot of nasal "eee's" into what they say? The state of Meeeuhsachusetts gets mentioned a lot.

You have any examples that come to mind?