I've not given a whole lot of thought to activities other than meeting for drinks Friday night and dinner Saturday night. It's possible to overplan, after all, and other things will happen or not, organically. I see some concern about what spouses might do as we blather about our geeky interests. I'm less worried about that because really, I think that there will be little need for spouses to separate from the rest of us. With a group our size, it's entirely probable that we simply won't have the ability to hold a seminar or anything like that.
One sort of cool thing is down the street from the LVH: a shave shop. Gentlemen can get a professional, straight-razor shave from a barber. I've had one of these, at an Art of Shaving salon at the Planet Hollywood mall, and it's a treat. Haven't had it at this place which looks a little less polished than the Art of Shaving.
Shopping at the LVH is a bit limited. There's some stores and boutiques, but it's nothing like the Forum Shops or the Venetian/Palazzo or the Planet Hollywood stores, which are all overwhelming in their retailosity. There's outlook malls on the south strip and the LV Fashion Center next to the Mirage, also. The spa and salon at the LVH did look pretty good; at least there was the full range of massages and treatments on offer.
The LVH is right next to the Las Vegas Country Club so if you want to golf, the concierge can get you hooked up. I've no idea what greensfees and club rentals would be.
The pool and sun deck at the LVH are pretty good. It was a bit cool for that sort of thing when I did my recon trip earlier this month (technically still February as I write) but there's bound to be an outdoor bar by the pool so you can lounge in the sun, have someone bring you alcoholic beverages and maybe little snackies that you charge to your room while you are thus lazing about, and dip in the pool to cool off when you feel like it. There's also tennis courts and a fitness center that looked pretty good for the health-minded.
I took my mother-in-law and her friend, and my wife, to Hoover Dam a few weeks ago. It's about an hour's drive there, an hour for the basic tour, however much time you want to spend taking pictures and drinking in the remarkable sight of the thing, and if you want to get lunch (that's a dam pricey cheeseburger, by the way) that's some time too. Maybe a half day, four to five hours. Since I did it once, frankly I've little desire to do it again. Hey, if you want to, you can arrange for a helicopter or small airplane tour of the Grand Canyon.
Of course, there's shows. Lots of shows. About six Cirque du Soleil shows at various casinos, Phantom at the Venetian, Celene Dion at Caesar's, Garth Brooks at the Encore, Absinthe also at Caesar's, Penn & Teller at the Rio, about half the time there's someone not bad playing at the Hard Rock. The house acts at the LVH are an impressionist and an Elvis "tribute" singer, which frankly didn't look all that impressive although I didn't actually see their shows so maybe they are good.
Dueling piano bars. Ice bars -- everything made of ice, including the glasses; you get a fur coat to wear while you're there. The dancing water fountains and art exhibits at the Bellagio. Jousting shows at the Excalibur. Gondola rides at the Venetian. Classic video arcades at Circus Circus. The Big Shot and upper-deck roller coaster at the Stratosphere, or the roller coaster at New York New York. Comedy clubs. Magic clubs. Dance clubs (typically only open quite late). All within an easy monorail ride from our hotel.
And then there's always, you know, gambling. If you like that sort of thing.
Point is, there will be things you and your spouse can do together. There will be things your spouse can do if he or she gets bored with us geeks talking about geeky stuff. No one should be bored, at least not for very long.
But since I'm the Cruise Director, it falls to me to ask if there are any things that we ought to plan other than meeting for a dinner, or whether I might find some things that have Spouse Appeal. I don't know your spouses so I'd keep these things pretty generic.
It's the idea of being literally reduced to a brain in a bottle that is so frightening. Not having a body with which to interact with and sense the universe would be a big, big issue for me. It doesn't seem like it could possibly feel like life. I suppose that after a while it would seem normal, though, but before going through that process -- a very unsettling notion.
Are you also a transhumanist, Jason? When ("if," as I see it) immortality comes, it may involve the transformation of the conscious self into something that is no longer recongizably human, like uploading one's mind, Neuromancer-style, into a durable, artificial, analogue of the brain.
If that's what immortality eventually is, I'm not sure if I would want to do that or not.
Jeff Koons gets sued for pretty much every major work of art he "creates." I've given up saying he's not an artist, though, because he is very well able to provoke an emotional reaction from nearly everyone.
A friend of mine was a curator at LACMA and told me the story of trying to get one of Koons' stainless steel balloon dog sculptures (which stands taller than a man and weighs over two tons) up three flights of stairs to display in the appropriate gallery. Two men almost died.
I'm convinced that the obscene amounts of money he charges -- and gets -- for his "art" is part of the art itself.
A McJob is a low-prestige, low-skilled job in the service sector that offers few-to-no opportunities for advancement. Its hallmarks are high employee turnover, repetitive work frequently requiring some act of sucking up or other ego subordination to another person (often but not necessarily the customer), and intense, soul-crushing micromanagement from supervisors who are rarely appreciably happier than their charges. Term popularized in Douglas Coupland's bleak anthem novel Generation X.
A job at McDonald's is debatably not a McJob, if one is able to rise up to be a full manager and start making reasonably good money.
I get some of that, too. I'm the cook, although a number of other divisions of labor in the Likko household do break down along more traditional gender lines. Right on down to me cleaning up after the dogs and she cleans up after the cats.
Even just gawking at the vulgar spectacle that is the Strip. For that you'll probably find a monorail ticket will be handy. (My wife is already sick unto death of that joke.)
Vegas has shows, shopping, spas -- Mrs. Likko has no shortage of ways to deplete the Likko Checking Account in Las Vegas. I'm willing to bet that all the other non-blogging spouses who possess even minimal social skills will figure out something fun to do.
Yeah, I don't think this is name would cause anyone in Vegas to even invest the effort of moving their necks to look from their computer screens. I could have said "Coalition of Legitimate Sicilian Businessmen" or "International Congress of People With Absolutely No Unusual Sexual Proclivities" and that wouldn't have mattered, either. They want your eighty bucks a night and they want you to not damage their room. After that, they kind of stop caring.
I read a similar story about these guys. Apparently the Marine had a crush on the civilian guy, and the civilian guy had a crush on him back, but they were platonic friends for a long time who were both very shy about admitting their respective interest. (IIRC, I think the civilian guy was not out and the Marine was discreet about it; might be wrong about that.) So they corresponded while the Marine was on deployment, confessed their attraction to one another over e-mail, and this picture captured their first kiss ever. It's incredibly romantic.
Burt Likko, Jason Kuznicki and Boegiboe, Russell Saunders, Tod Kelly.
Indicated strong likelihood of attending:
Jaybird (Maribou's attendance uncertain); Will Truman (Dr. Truman's attendance uncertain); Mark Thomson; E.D. Kain; Mark Boggs.
Please advise if you are coming, so I can make the correct reservation for our group dinner. For the same reason, please advise if you are bringing a spouse or other date.
As Tod notes above, this is the regime in nearly every state. And the reason the Confrontation Clause isn't in play is that CPS or its equivalent is not engaged in criminal law enforcement. Because there isn't criminal law enforcement going on, also, the "beyond a reasonable doubt" threshold for deprivation of life, liberty, or property is not in play. The more relaxed preponderance of the evidence standard is.
Don't think for a second, either, that there aren't people very willing to game the system and use it to their advantage, particualrly in family law situations. More accusations of child molestation come out of bitter divorces than any other source. (Citation needed, I know; my evidence and that of my colleagues is anecdotal.) It's easy to get people all up in arms in the political arena because... well... Child molestors!
In anonymous-reporter situations, there should be some sort of penalty for the making of a baseless accusation, one which not only reveals no substantial evidence of endangerment of a child, but which is a) made with malice towards the accused subject of the complaint, and b) causes a substantial diversion of resources that could have gone to the protection of a child actually at risk. The penalty should be substantial enough to deter the use of such agencies as a catspaw in pursuit of personal vendettas or seeking advantage in pending or contemplated family law cases.
Cheers, James; this was an ambitious post and it got its job done cogently. It seems to me that in this taxonomy...
Harm is the root principle for moral opposition to rape, murder, theft and such similar actions that cause clear identifiable harm to discrete identifiable individuals. Offense is the root principle for moral opposition to things for which the majority has an aesthetic dislike, but that can’t be demonstrated to have a clear identifiable harm to discrete identifiable individuals.
...you narrow "traditional morality" to the criminalization of victimless acts. Given that you take the issue to the extreme -- criminalization of victimless acts does not advance any social good, would you advocate decrminalization of the following acts, all currently crimes in at least some of the United States:
Possess anime depicting minors engaged in sex acts.
Cultivate marijuana.
Gamble on professional sports, using a bookie on the internet.
Sell rare parrots to willing buyers.
I suppose in the last example, you could say that the parrot is the victim. But that gets us to two theories I don't think you've addressed: aggregation of harm, and communitarian-based harms. From an aggregation standpoint, if everyone bought and sold rare parrots, the demand would quickly drive the species to extinction. From a communitarian standpoint, Congress has determined that the preservation of endangered species like parrots is an inherent good for the United States as a whole, even if said parrots are not indigenous to the United States. Should we be ready to reject such an argument out of hand simply because it is so obviously based on the aesthetic appeal of parrots to the majority?
(Yeah, I played the "won't somebody think of the psittacines" card. I'm willing to go there.)
What Tod said above. Also, I'm not apologizing for taking a U.S.-centric view of U.S. foreign policy and framing my policy position advocating withdrawl from a U.S.-centric perspective. Nor will I apologize for being bitter about the latest in a long string of American deaths caused by stupid, frivolous things like the purported defamation of a purportedly holy book. (I'm not too thrilled about any Afghans dying in the riots, either.)
Is the U.S. complicit in the horrible state of affairs in Afghanistan? You bet. But yes, some of the horrible state of affairs in Afghanistan is resident there and, for our purposes, those horrible things are indelibly part of that landscape. We've not changed them and it's not for lack of trying. You can call that "blaming the Afghans" if you want: after all, it isn't Americans who rioted over the inadvertent burning of a Christian Bible that resulted in these most recent deaths.
The voting example is probably the most powerful here. State conviction abrogates Federal right.
I conceded that bankrutpcy laws are subject to amendment by statute.
Open question if a state's recognition of a polygamous marriage would compel Federal recognition. A moot point in practice as no state is considering adopting polygamy and there is no cultural outcry for it. In the future, who knows.
On “Leaguefest: Let’s Talk About What’s Really Important”
I've not given a whole lot of thought to activities other than meeting for drinks Friday night and dinner Saturday night. It's possible to overplan, after all, and other things will happen or not, organically. I see some concern about what spouses might do as we blather about our geeky interests. I'm less worried about that because really, I think that there will be little need for spouses to separate from the rest of us. With a group our size, it's entirely probable that we simply won't have the ability to hold a seminar or anything like that.
One sort of cool thing is down the street from the LVH: a shave shop. Gentlemen can get a professional, straight-razor shave from a barber. I've had one of these, at an Art of Shaving salon at the Planet Hollywood mall, and it's a treat. Haven't had it at this place which looks a little less polished than the Art of Shaving.
Shopping at the LVH is a bit limited. There's some stores and boutiques, but it's nothing like the Forum Shops or the Venetian/Palazzo or the Planet Hollywood stores, which are all overwhelming in their retailosity. There's outlook malls on the south strip and the LV Fashion Center next to the Mirage, also. The spa and salon at the LVH did look pretty good; at least there was the full range of massages and treatments on offer.
The LVH is right next to the Las Vegas Country Club so if you want to golf, the concierge can get you hooked up. I've no idea what greensfees and club rentals would be.
The pool and sun deck at the LVH are pretty good. It was a bit cool for that sort of thing when I did my recon trip earlier this month (technically still February as I write) but there's bound to be an outdoor bar by the pool so you can lounge in the sun, have someone bring you alcoholic beverages and maybe little snackies that you charge to your room while you are thus lazing about, and dip in the pool to cool off when you feel like it. There's also tennis courts and a fitness center that looked pretty good for the health-minded.
I took my mother-in-law and her friend, and my wife, to Hoover Dam a few weeks ago. It's about an hour's drive there, an hour for the basic tour, however much time you want to spend taking pictures and drinking in the remarkable sight of the thing, and if you want to get lunch (that's a dam pricey cheeseburger, by the way) that's some time too. Maybe a half day, four to five hours. Since I did it once, frankly I've little desire to do it again. Hey, if you want to, you can arrange for a helicopter or small airplane tour of the Grand Canyon.
Of course, there's shows. Lots of shows. About six Cirque du Soleil shows at various casinos, Phantom at the Venetian, Celene Dion at Caesar's, Garth Brooks at the Encore, Absinthe also at Caesar's, Penn & Teller at the Rio, about half the time there's someone not bad playing at the Hard Rock. The house acts at the LVH are an impressionist and an Elvis "tribute" singer, which frankly didn't look all that impressive although I didn't actually see their shows so maybe they are good.
Dueling piano bars. Ice bars -- everything made of ice, including the glasses; you get a fur coat to wear while you're there. The dancing water fountains and art exhibits at the Bellagio. Jousting shows at the Excalibur. Gondola rides at the Venetian. Classic video arcades at Circus Circus. The Big Shot and upper-deck roller coaster at the Stratosphere, or the roller coaster at New York New York. Comedy clubs. Magic clubs. Dance clubs (typically only open quite late). All within an easy monorail ride from our hotel.
And then there's always, you know, gambling. If you like that sort of thing.
Point is, there will be things you and your spouse can do together. There will be things your spouse can do if he or she gets bored with us geeks talking about geeky stuff. No one should be bored, at least not for very long.
But since I'm the Cruise Director, it falls to me to ask if there are any things that we ought to plan other than meeting for a dinner, or whether I might find some things that have Spouse Appeal. I don't know your spouses so I'd keep these things pretty generic.
On “Fun with Azathoth”
It's the idea of being literally reduced to a brain in a bottle that is so frightening. Not having a body with which to interact with and sense the universe would be a big, big issue for me. It doesn't seem like it could possibly feel like life. I suppose that after a while it would seem normal, though, but before going through that process -- a very unsettling notion.
"
Are you also a transhumanist, Jason? When ("if," as I see it) immortality comes, it may involve the transformation of the conscious self into something that is no longer recongizably human, like uploading one's mind, Neuromancer-style, into a durable, artificial, analogue of the brain.
If that's what immortality eventually is, I'm not sure if I would want to do that or not.
On “What Is Welfare For?”
Sounds good, although I might then have to put up with #OccupyNotAPottedPlant. I suppose that's a price I'd be willing to pay.
On “A matter of taste”
Jeff Koons gets sued for pretty much every major work of art he "creates." I've given up saying he's not an artist, though, because he is very well able to provoke an emotional reaction from nearly everyone.
A friend of mine was a curator at LACMA and told me the story of trying to get one of Koons' stainless steel balloon dog sculptures (which stands taller than a man and weighs over two tons) up three flights of stairs to display in the appropriate gallery. Two men almost died.
I'm convinced that the obscene amounts of money he charges -- and gets -- for his "art" is part of the art itself.
On “What Is Welfare For?”
So you "hope" I can "change" my hourly rate? Hmm, this is easier than I thought it would be. You may be on to something, Ward.
"
A McJob is a low-prestige, low-skilled job in the service sector that offers few-to-no opportunities for advancement. Its hallmarks are high employee turnover, repetitive work frequently requiring some act of sucking up or other ego subordination to another person (often but not necessarily the customer), and intense, soul-crushing micromanagement from supervisors who are rarely appreciably happier than their charges. Term popularized in Douglas Coupland's bleak anthem novel Generation X.
A job at McDonald's is debatably not a McJob, if one is able to rise up to be a full manager and start making reasonably good money.
"
Really? Then from where will he and his successors get all their corrupt campaignbucks?
On “A matter of taste”
I get some of that, too. I'm the cook, although a number of other divisions of labor in the Likko household do break down along more traditional gender lines. Right on down to me cleaning up after the dogs and she cleans up after the cats.
"
OMGwereallgonnadietheasteroidohnoes!
On “Leaguefest: Let’s Talk About What’s Really Important”
So why not you?
"
Ugh. Now I feel old. Richard Nixon was President when I was born.
"
Even just gawking at the vulgar spectacle that is the Strip. For that you'll probably find a monorail ticket will be handy. (My wife is already sick unto death of that joke.)
"
Vegas has shows, shopping, spas -- Mrs. Likko has no shortage of ways to deplete the Likko Checking Account in Las Vegas. I'm willing to bet that all the other non-blogging spouses who possess even minimal social skills will figure out something fun to do.
"
That "craps" game is incredibly fun.
...when you're winning it.
"
Yeah, I don't think this is name would cause anyone in Vegas to even invest the effort of moving their necks to look from their computer screens. I could have said "Coalition of Legitimate Sicilian Businessmen" or "International Congress of People With Absolutely No Unusual Sexual Proclivities" and that wouldn't have mattered, either. They want your eighty bucks a night and they want you to not damage their room. After that, they kind of stop caring.
On “A matter of taste”
I read a similar story about these guys. Apparently the Marine had a crush on the civilian guy, and the civilian guy had a crush on him back, but they were platonic friends for a long time who were both very shy about admitting their respective interest. (IIRC, I think the civilian guy was not out and the Marine was discreet about it; might be wrong about that.) So they corresponded while the Marine was on deployment, confessed their attraction to one another over e-mail, and this picture captured their first kiss ever. It's incredibly romantic.
On “Leaguefest: Let’s Talk About What’s Really Important”
Confirmed attendees:
Burt Likko, Jason Kuznicki and Boegiboe, Russell Saunders, Tod Kelly.
Indicated strong likelihood of attending:
Jaybird (Maribou's attendance uncertain); Will Truman (Dr. Truman's attendance uncertain); Mark Thomson; E.D. Kain; Mark Boggs.
Please advise if you are coming, so I can make the correct reservation for our group dinner. For the same reason, please advise if you are bringing a spouse or other date.
TIA, Your Cruise Director Burt Likko.
On “A matter of taste”
Yeah. Remember how cool it was when Thag invented fire? Man, things sucked before that.
On “On Child Abuse”
I should have been more clear in structuring my elements for a false reporting sanction:
"
As Tod notes above, this is the regime in nearly every state. And the reason the Confrontation Clause isn't in play is that CPS or its equivalent is not engaged in criminal law enforcement. Because there isn't criminal law enforcement going on, also, the "beyond a reasonable doubt" threshold for deprivation of life, liberty, or property is not in play. The more relaxed preponderance of the evidence standard is.
Don't think for a second, either, that there aren't people very willing to game the system and use it to their advantage, particualrly in family law situations. More accusations of child molestation come out of bitter divorces than any other source. (Citation needed, I know; my evidence and that of my colleagues is anecdotal.) It's easy to get people all up in arms in the political arena because... well... Child molestors!
In anonymous-reporter situations, there should be some sort of penalty for the making of a baseless accusation, one which not only reveals no substantial evidence of endangerment of a child, but which is a) made with malice towards the accused subject of the complaint, and b) causes a substantial diversion of resources that could have gone to the protection of a child actually at risk. The penalty should be substantial enough to deter the use of such agencies as a catspaw in pursuit of personal vendettas or seeking advantage in pending or contemplated family law cases.
On “Against Traditional Morality”
Cheers, James; this was an ambitious post and it got its job done cogently. It seems to me that in this taxonomy...
...you narrow "traditional morality" to the criminalization of victimless acts. Given that you take the issue to the extreme -- criminalization of victimless acts does not advance any social good, would you advocate decrminalization of the following acts, all currently crimes in at least some of the United States:
I suppose in the last example, you could say that the parrot is the victim. But that gets us to two theories I don't think you've addressed: aggregation of harm, and communitarian-based harms. From an aggregation standpoint, if everyone bought and sold rare parrots, the demand would quickly drive the species to extinction. From a communitarian standpoint, Congress has determined that the preservation of endangered species like parrots is an inherent good for the United States as a whole, even if said parrots are not indigenous to the United States. Should we be ready to reject such an argument out of hand simply because it is so obviously based on the aesthetic appeal of parrots to the majority?
(Yeah, I played the "won't somebody think of the psittacines" card. I'm willing to go there.)
On ““It” made the ballot in Colorado”
I hope Colorado does "it." Unless, of course, people don't like doing "it" in Colorado. Which would be weird.
On “Bitter Hospitality”
What Tod said above. Also, I'm not apologizing for taking a U.S.-centric view of U.S. foreign policy and framing my policy position advocating withdrawl from a U.S.-centric perspective. Nor will I apologize for being bitter about the latest in a long string of American deaths caused by stupid, frivolous things like the purported defamation of a purportedly holy book. (I'm not too thrilled about any Afghans dying in the riots, either.)
Is the U.S. complicit in the horrible state of affairs in Afghanistan? You bet. But yes, some of the horrible state of affairs in Afghanistan is resident there and, for our purposes, those horrible things are indelibly part of that landscape. We've not changed them and it's not for lack of trying. You can call that "blaming the Afghans" if you want: after all, it isn't Americans who rioted over the inadvertent burning of a Christian Bible that resulted in these most recent deaths.
On “The 14th Amendment vs. Plato”
The voting example is probably the most powerful here. State conviction abrogates Federal right.
I conceded that bankrutpcy laws are subject to amendment by statute.
Open question if a state's recognition of a polygamous marriage would compel Federal recognition. A moot point in practice as no state is considering adopting polygamy and there is no cultural outcry for it. In the future, who knows.