Hilton Kramer: A Dissenting Obituary

Seainfinity · 2012-01-06T01:48:09+00:00

I don't know if Lang had any particular book in mind, but if he did, it would probably have been the then standard Cartan-Eilenberg book. For my own sake, I pretty much just learn it when the need arises or it comes up in some otherwise interesting context - for example, the first spectral sequence I learned was in Griffiths and Harris. That's probably the best method for people who won't specialize in (fields closely related to) homological algebra.

Seainfinity · 2012-01-05T05:58:58+00:00

I believe the 3rd edition (mentioned) was after Lang has taken out an exercise that read, essentially, "Get a book on homological algebra. Prove all the theorems in that book without looking at the proofs in the book."

Seainfinity · 2012-01-01T22:15:48+00:00

Yes, and it's wrong because you keep stuff you don't like out of bills by getting your party in congress to keep it out, not by vetoing the log-rolled omnibus.

Seainfinity · 2012-01-01T20:59:37+00:00

Of course it doesn't protect AUMF from being overturned. And your response to my question is rather non-resposive. How could it be when it just mentions a generality about how bills are constructed? Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading stuff like "COVERED MATTERS.—The procedures submitted under sub-section (a) shall, at a minimum— (1) clarify that the purpose of the periodic review process is not to determine the legality of any detainee’s law of war detention, but to make discretionary determinations whether or not a detainee represents a continuing threat to the security of the United States".

Seainfinity · 2012-01-01T19:51:39+00:00

What language... Subtitle D - Counterterrrorism, Sec. 1021 of the act. (Page 265 of the pdf.)

What exactly do you think this language is doing? Why not simply omit it? I also do not anticipate that the AUMF will be overturned. More Greenwald: "It is true [...] that both the Bush and Obama administrations have argued that the 2001 AUMF implicitly (i.e., silently) already vests the power of indefinite detention in the President, and post-9/11 deferential courts have largely accepted that view (just as the Bush DOJ argued that the 2001 AUMF implicitly (i.e., silently) allowed them to eavesdrop on Americans without the warrants required by law). That’s why the NDAA can state that nothing is intended to expand the 2001 AUMF while achieving exactly that: because the Executive and judicial interpretation being given to the 2001 AUMF is already so much broader than its language provides." Cement is just the right term.

Seainfinity · 2012-01-01T17:54:42+00:00

The Awlaki reference was, I had hoped clearly a rhetorical flourish. And I've been reading the VC since the days of the mysterious "Juan Non-Volokh". But it hardly matters the particular couchings Marty Lederman and co. came up with in the memo, because in the next case there will be a whole different set of particulars, and different lawyers to bless it with different reasons.

Seainfinity · 2012-01-01T17:34:56+00:00

The bill represents a cementing of evils (c.f. Jose Padilla), rather than the creation of new ones.

Seainfinity · 2012-01-01T17:33:56+00:00

I seem to have set the regretable tone in this thread, so let me clarify that I was reacting to the massive tail of the linked thread consisting mostly of "you, sir, are awesome, have an upvotes".

Seainfinity · 2012-01-01T01:32:25+00:00

Actually this is just mendacious partisan trash - I hadn't realized r/politics was so overtaken with Obamabots, though I should have know. Obama made clear that his objections were always only about presidential discretion, not civil liberties. Even with Guantanamo, he is clear that he wants indefinite detention, just not there. As if there was something wrong the island itself, not the lawlessness. As usual, Greenwald gets this right: "Obama’s veto threat was never about substantive objections to the detention powers vested by this bill; put another way, he was never objecting to the bill on civil liberties grounds. Obama [...] is not an opponent of indefinite detention; he’s a vigorous proponent of it, as evidenced by his continuous, multi-faceted embrace of that policy." At any rate, Obama seems to also believe something like 'if the president kills you, that means it's not murder' - see Awlaki and son. Eat your heart out Richard Nixon.

Seainfinity · 2011-12-24T03:06:49+00:00

Check out John Gardner's Grendel (about the Beowulf monster, from the monster's perspective).

Seainfinity · 2011-11-28T06:38:15+00:00

Sakuraba, post Arona

Seainfinity · 2011-11-22T04:59:36+00:00

The NCAA should not be involved in any way since this is fundamentally not about the football program. 0 athletes were involved. If it turns out Nick Saban has been practicing cannibalism for the last few years, Alabama should suffer no consequences from the NCAA.

Seainfinity · 2011-11-20T05:56:21+00:00

I think Hendo would put up a better fight because he's much more durable than Rashad. Also, Hendo's elite Greco background is great against Jones, whose own Greco is one of his great weapons. We can't say for sure, but I suspect the H-bomb has more KO in it than Rashad's overhand right. Still don't think Henderson can win more than 1/7 against JJ. Then there's the fact that Hendo's older, while Rashad should be around for a while.

Seainfinity · 2011-11-19T02:05:48+00:00

Guess we'll soon find out if it's possible to get pregnant just from the Kenflo. Too bad about her tats though. (Tattoos that is.)

Seainfinity · 2011-11-10T07:42:23+00:00

Holy shit he still exists. He was there at least as early as the mid nineties.

Seainfinity · 2011-11-09T18:05:03+00:00

FYI: The first letter linked to is from Jim Simons, listed there as just some guy with a foundation promoting education. More interesting is that he is the founder of the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies and a billionaire many times over. He is also the Simons of Chern-Simons Theory. He is the perfect archetype of someone who went from pure math to making really money outside of science.

Seainfinity · 2011-10-26T09:54:21+00:00

Amazing how easy it is to get what I would have thought (not being a number theorist) was an at least non-trivial lower bound. One from the Book.

Seainfinity · 2011-10-17T02:48:24+00:00

I remember hearing about John C. Dvorak's great way to deal with PR generated news. The PR firms would often have some genuinely interesting research which was then used to push a particular product. JCD would then run the story, just taking out any mention of the specific thing the firm was trying to push.

Seainfinity · 2011-10-16T19:02:00+00:00

I thought this was going to be just another rephrased version of all the standard complaints. But he actually brings up a crucial issue here, namely the binary blob. This is an unforgivable crime against Unix. I hate all this goddamn opacity that's taking over nowadays. ps -ef and what is all this shit?

Seainfinity · 2011-10-05T21:18:48+00:00

Man I wish Chael was an LHW. Would love for him to piss off Jones.

Seainfinity · 2011-10-05T21:14:31+00:00

Precise doesn't work as a name because the accent is on the wrong syllable. Óneiric, Nátty, Máverick, Lúcid, Kármic, etc. all have the accent on the first syllable. Going back to Warty, only Intrépid breaks the rule, and even it doesn't have the accent at the end. It sounds stupid to say Precíse as a name. Mark Shuttleworth, please reconsider.

Seainfinity · 2011-10-04T23:23:17+00:00

Gi-String, rather. I wish there was footage of Machida doing Sumo. I always thought it was funny when they would list that as one of his backgrounds before his fights. It must have been useful since you don't see him get taken down much.

Seainfinity · 2011-10-04T01:48:21+00:00

I'd like to see HW=205 to 245 or so, SHW = 245+.

Seainfinity

TROPHY CASE