Brains: Well, She Turned Me Into A Newt!

Oklahoma School District Accuses Student Of Witchcraft

( And subjected her to intrusive interrogations and searches )

Florida defies Supreme Court, enforces the Pledge of Allegiance

( Oh, dear. )

If you voted for Obama, you're supporting Paganism!

( Gay marriage is all about sexual availability! )

Republican and Sex. Sex and Republicans.

( What is their obsession? )

The Alluring Danger of Dilettantism

I've been puzzled by the popularity of the game Guitar Hero, for what seems to me like obvious reasons. It's like karaoke minus the trouble of having to hear the sounds you make. If you want a more interactive way to enjoy music, why not dance, or play air guitar? Or better yet, if holding a guitar appeals to you, why not try actually learning how to play? For the cost of an Xbox and the Guitar Hero game, you can get yourself a pretty good guitar. I assume I am missing the point of it, the competitive thrill, but I can't help but feel that Guitar Hero (much like Twitter) would have been utterly incomprehensible to earlier generations, that it is a symptom of some larger social refusal to embrace difficulty.

Complete Control: Nick Carr responds to the above

Distraction is the permanent end state of the perfected consumer, not least because distraction is a state that is eminently programmable. To buy a guitar is to open possibilities. To buy Guitar Hero is to close them.

As a side note, I would like to thank Alex Blumberg of All Things Considered for forcing me to explain things to my nine-year-old that she shouldn't have to yet know after he said, "Prescribing Keynesianism to some politicians is like prescribing crack to a coke addict."

Oh, Nyarathotep, He's Right.

Ze Frank says:

Each day I live in mortal fear that I've used up the last idea that'll ever come to me. If you don't want to run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them. You can tell yourself that you don't have the time or resources to do 'em right. Then they stay around in your head like "brain crack." No matter how bad things get at least you'll have those good ideas that you'll get to. Later. Some people get addicted to that brain crack and the longer they wait the more they convince themselves of how perfectly that idea should be executed.