G as in Good H as in Happy

Ruminations in Honor of [African] Bush

Feisty African blog Bullets and Honey with "aid" commentary:

What we are Desperate, and in the Dark...

January 7, 2005

...is the test for which we are prepared daily.

Tell All I see Them on the other side.
I love you.

Update: Don't miss Jeff's comment below,"there is a man who loves his family."

As the magnificent Byron Katie is wont to say, when people are re-visiting the hell of their lives with an alcoholic parent: "Did he get up and go to work some days? That can be very, very hard for some people."

Thank you. Everyone. For doing what's sometimes hard and frightening. Out of love.

Why LifeCoaches Are Doing Well

The above post on thinking for yourself does not foreclose help in thinking things through...

Credibility

November 25, 2005

Dilbert's Scott Adams gets to the nub of a communication issue. He's talking about the evolution-education controversy. But in general, when contempt on one or both sides of any issue runs high, how is someone inquiring from the middle with a reasonably open mind to judge? Playing to the galleries of the already-extreme does not win votes, or shed light.

The average person (me) has no credible source of information on the topic of evolution.

Let me say very clearly here that I’m not denying the EXISTENCE of slam-dunk credible evidence for evolution. What I’m denying is the existence of credible PEOPLE to inform me of this evidence.

The people who purport to have evidence of evolution do a spectacular job of making themselves non-credible.

Disagreeable. Too busy&smart to deign to marshall and explain evidence and answer objections without a pose of weariness and exasperation. Condescending, contemptuous, and throwing a tantrum that the mere earthlings would dare to question Us. Us!

Persuasion score: Needs Improvement.

Always-useful questions:

• What can I learn here?
• How might I improve my position?
• How can I serve my fellow man in this matter?
  

Hospitable Talk

November 19, 2005

The key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.

The dreaded coffee hour, cocktail party, professional association meet-and-greet. Even extraverts get the blues.

Smart, good-hearted brusque physican helps via her own struggles with small talk. This summary is pro forma only. Go say hello to Shari, just eccentric enough...

Weekend Movie

This 5-10 minute "Hello" ["watch film"] is an eloquent exercise in iconography, and presages the kind of mix&match nostalgia we expect to show up in culture memes as time goes on.

Blogs, journalism, blah-blah-blah with a point of light emerging

In a lightheartedly serious vein, a profile of the living embryo of new, local, on-the-ground journalism is posted at PressThink in Jay Rosen's absence. As many have pointed out, there is as yet no market model for the New Thing.

H2Otown from Watertown, MA, is written by the charming, prolific, dedicated Lisa Williams, and covers "news" that is local, from political to social and economic on a (mostly) small and large scale. If she lost interest or disappeared, there is no overarching institution to continue the job.

A proposal for a new interim model: The economy becomes so productive through automation and inspired institutional models that leisure proliferates, and is used in this fashion by enough talented independent people that whatever structure is emerging has time and space to do so.

Time will tell. As the anarchists and anti-capitalists keep saying, it's not all about money.

FEC Good News

Apparently, the Federal Election Commission issued an advisory opinion that blogs -- at least the blogs it addressed in the opinion -- are "press" for the purpose of exemption from the abominable and unconstitutional campaign finance laws. As Redstate says, this is a huge win.

They're Americans. We get to speak our minds. Nobody has to listen, or agree. It's a good system.

Another Countless Host

November 13, 2005

A subterranean motif that interests us has once again surfaced, and we are braced for more: the recent or soon-to-be grad-u-ate who is jaw-droppingly unaware of decorum or emotional intelligence. Kirby. Andrew. Krystal. Now Cristine.

Communication = Kindness / Intelligence / Courage / Detachment

November 9, 2005

This advice from the University of Chicago School of Business on how to write and make presentations at the Ph.D. level in economics is required reading on communicating for almost everyone who cares about his subject, message, or audience.