I broke up a fight today at school. It wasn’t between kids, though. I was walking back from getting some snacks at lunchtime at the 7-Eleven across the street when I saw these two little black birds going at each other. I think one was winning. It had the other bird kind of pinned and was pecking it to no end. I wonder what it was about. Maybe the one stole a crumb or something. Anyway, I though it was kind of sick that I was watching it simply for the spectacle, so I decided to make it stop. All I had to do was start walking toward them. The bully bird became afraid of me and let the other one go. When the victim bird started flying away the bully bird flew right after it, though. It probably continued some other place without my interference.

I’m reading the book What Good Are the Arts? by John Carey and a certain passage spawned an interesting train of thought the other day. In the chapter called “Can art be a religion?” Carey writes many detailed pages about one of the most famous art worshippers of the 20th century: Adolf Hitler. The passage that got me thinking was this:

He developed a close relationship with Winifred Wagner and her children, and his annual pilgrimage to the Bayreuth Festival was one of the great festivals of Nazi culture, for which the town was swathed in swastikas.

The phrase “swathed in swastikas” was what my mind wrapped around. I could only imagine the town of Washington, D.C. and how much it is adorned in American flags. In this country, and most likely the rest of the world, people have come to be repulsed by the image of a swastika. In Germany it was merely a symbol of national pride much the same as the way flag stickers appear everywhere on bumpers and windows in this country.

I’m not exactly saying that the United States is like the Nazi regime, but it leads to an interesting comparison. I’m not a fan of any form of nationalism because it is basically blind support with no critical thinking involved. Following blindly leads people to accept almost anything in the name of national pride.

On a related note, Justin posts about how often Hitler is invoked by officials in the U.S. Government.

I just finished a fast food lunch as I often do on days when I substitute. A quick run to the drive thru of the nearest chain is all I have time for with a half hour lunch. Today Jack in the Box was the closest. As I was walking in today (this restaurant had no drive thru window) I saw an ad on the window for a fish sandwich. The fine print said Limited Time Only and so it was obvious to me that this was a Lenten special. Catholics are not supposed to eat meat on Fridays during the season of Lent which is the roughly 40 days before Easter. Fast food chains take note of this and probably also note the fact that more people in this country consider themselves Catholic than any other Christian denomination. Thus they market for the vast number of Catholics during Lent by offering fish selections. Some even go so far as to put them on sale or make them the sandwich of the week on Fridays. I do wonder how many of them would actually admit to this deliberate marketing scheme in our highly PC culture though.

Well, the picture on the window whetted my appetite today and I went for the fish sandwich at Jack in the Box. I was very pleasantly surprised. I usually don’t have high expectations for any food that can be purchased at a drive thru, but the fish was quite good. The filets were just as good as what I’ve gotten at really decent Fish and Chips places. And I love fish and chips. The sandwich was also filling but not heavy like the other sandwiches I’m used to from Jack in the Box.

It feels really funny writing nicely about a fast food restaurant, but I enjoyed my lunch.

Maybe I was just really hungry.

As most people know who might ever read this page, I work in schools as a substitute teacher. Every once in a while I get lucky and there is a computer in the classroom that doesn’t require a logon or, like this one, has only Windows 98 which is easy to get around.

When I’m at school I need to pass the time once I get the kids to work. I often like to read the news and my friends’ sites. Today I tried to go straight to the sites of Jessica, Jacob, Akiko, and Elea but with no luck and got the message:

The page you requested has been blocked because it contains a banned word.

The funniest thing was that I was able to get directly to Andy’s site, which has the subheader “Andy ‘Bad Motherfucker’ Smith”.  His site was blocked at a different school the other day.

…I hope this post doesn’t help the DoJ in reviving the Children’s Online Protection Act by pointing out flaws in filters…

2,050 years gone.

From this one learns it is rather inadvisable to accept the title dictator perpetuus.

It’s a little old now, but it keeps popping up in my mind. My friend Jacob from back in D.C. when I interned at Cato wrote a guest piece on a blog about coffee that I read. He gives his libertarian take on the whole Starbucks phenomenon. Jacob’s is a point of view worth checking out in the realm of coffee because all he does I think is sit around in coffee shops all day in search of the perfect cup. He even makes out-of-the-way trips to specialty coffee shops all over the world. I don’t even like coffee, so his word would be what I go by.

Technorati Tags: coffee, libertarian

I’ve sat on it long enough I think. It’s also been doubly confirmed so I supposed I can announce it to the world.

I received a letter last week (dated on my birthday, no less) notifying me that the Department of Information Studies was recommending to the Graduate Division my admission to the Master of Library and Information Science program at UCLA.

This morning I got an email from the Graduate Division extending an official offer of admission.

UCLA was my first choice, so I have filled out the letter of intent for the department and completed the online forms for the Graduate Division stating that I plan to begin my studies in the fall.

I’m not sure all of this has sunken in with me yet. I’ll have to be living down there by the end of September. It’s a two year program. Quite a big change. It’s exciting, though.