#205 Larison on Optimism

Daniel Larison has a good post over at Culture11 on happiness and optimism. Here is one of the opening paragraphs but you should read the whole thing.

"Optimism wars against restraint when it tells us that we can have it all, and when it tells us that values will always keep increasing, and that we can have the goods we seek more often and at less cost. Optimism wars against nature when it tells us that there will always be a technological or mechanistic fix to any jam in which we happen to find ourselves. As we are beginning to face a world where there are no longer problems to be solved so much as realities to be borne, a healthy move away from optimism is the first step towards finding some lasting happiness in a confused and fallen world."

I responded in the comments by saying that the day I read the article I was also reading Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound. The following passage struck me as relevant to what Larison was saying. The context is that Prometheus has been riveted to a mountain on orders from Zeus. The Chorus is questioning Prometheus about what his crime was.

Chorus: Did your offense perhaps go further than you have said?

Prometheus: Yes, I caused men no longer to foresee their death.

Chorus: What cure did you discover for their misery?

Prometheus: I planted firmly in their hearts blind hopefulness.

Chorus: Your gift brought them great blessing.

Prometheus: I did more than that; I gave them fire.

Chorus: What? Men, whose life is but a day, possess already the hot radiance of fire?

Prometheus: They do; and with it they shall master many crafts.

Chorus: This then was the offense for which you suffer here...

So I'm oversimplifying but Prometheus strikes me as a progressive, always hopeful for the future of a creative mankind. While Chorus seems to wonder why Prometheus would grant finite creatures such hope, in the form of fire, though their life is "but a day." I think Prometheus realizes it and that's why he calls it a blind hope. So Prometheus plays the part of the progressive while Zeus is the conservative. Of course he's conservative. He's in power after all. Thanks to the help of Prometheus in the "progressive" rebellion, he is now lord of the gods.

#204 Hamilton on the Mortgage Crisis

Alexander Hamilton wasn't really talking about the mortgage crisis, but his words provide a perfect warning to us and an indictment of the spineless representatives who voted to hand sweeping new powers over to the executive branch last week. I pulled a book of American historical documents off my brother's shelf this weekend and flipped to the Federalist papers. In the first paragraph of the first paper Hamilton says the following,

"The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than... the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind."

The bold emphasis is mine.

#203 Interesting Links XXIV

Since oil prices have risen, I've been angry at the use of ethanol and the resulting rise in the price of corn. Why? Because corn is an input in just about every product you will find in the grocery store. So when the price of corn rises, groceries require a larger share of my overall budget. Tim McMahon takes a look at the inflation adjusted priced of corn since 1974 and presents the cool graph below.

Speaking of economic matters, I've also been interested in the impact of the lack of rain on the local economy of Lake Lanier, which is about 45 minutes to an hour north-northeast of downtown Atlanta. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created the chart below showing the water levels over the past year and where that compares with the average, the historical records, and levels called "action zones" which "provide guidance on meeting minimum hydropower needs at each project as well as determine the amount of storage available for downstream purposes such as navigation, water supply, water quality." For a larger version of the chart go here and click on Lake Lanier or click on the link at the bottom defining the action zones. I was hoping for a longer chart to show a historical timeline, but they actually graph the historical avergage on the orange line on top. So you can see just how bad the situation is. It is even below record levels.


Since I took basic accounting and economics in college, I've wondered why basic concepts of personal finance, specifically the time value of money, aren't taught as high school courses alongside math, english, history, and science. I think we are failing our children, especially the poor when we leave this out of the curriculum. Instead, we restrict it to an option in college. There's a reason guys like Dave Ramsey are so popular. He's filling a gap in our education system. That gap causes many individuals and families to suffer for lack of basic knowledge of the principles of personal finance. Governor (of the Federal Reserve Bank) Frederic Mishkin agrees and gave a short speech on the issue.

You've probably heard the phrase, "In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity." This is often falsely attributed to St. Augustine. But Philip Schaff, a church historian, suggests a different origin. He says, "This famous motto of Christian Irenics, which I have slightly modified in the text, is often falsely attributed to St. Augustin (whose creed would not allow it, though his heart might have approved of it), but is of much later origin. It appears for the first time in Germany, A.D. 1627 and 1628, among peaceful divines of the Lutheran and German Reformed churches, and found a hearty welcome among moderate divines In England." I like the idea as a motto for the church. It could be shortened to "Unity, Liberty, Love." Other great, biblical short mottos to live by are

• Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8)
  
• Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love you neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:28-31)
  
• Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king (I Pet. 2:17)

Check out Tagzania. You can create your own maps and tag locations. I'm not sure how it compares to just using the Google map creator, but it could be interesting.

Bad ass picture of an Iraqi policewoman practicing:


Will Wilkinson discusses luck and redistribution from a Rawlsian perspective. I'm very much looking forward to reading John Rawls.

Ben Myers on why the church should stop performing weddings.

Will Wilkinson says, "People are more or less rational and tend to respond to incentives, and therefore the roads are a zone of patterned lawlessness." But what I most liked about the post is the picture below, because I hate people riding bikes on the road, especially when there's a sidewalk right there. Get on the damn sidewalk!!!


Jim Babka posts on what a joke the War on Drugs is.

Unbelieveble video of a bird formation.

#202 Is Chipper Jones a Hall-of-Famer?

Yet another October without the Braves in the postseason. This year was a disaster, especially where starting pitching is concerned. Who would have thought that Mike Hampton of all people would be the last starter standing? Anyway, the one consolation of the season is that Chipper Jones won the 2008 batting title beating out Albert Pujols after losing it to Matt Holiday on the last day of the 2007 season. Arguably, he's been the best hitter (for average) in baseball over the last two years.



At the beginning of the season I asked myself the question of whether he could be considered a good candidate for the Hall of Fame someday. He's certainly one of the greatest players the Braves have ever had, but I wasn't sure how he compared with the other great players at his position in the history of baseball. So at the beginning of this year, I pulled the statistics for every current Hall of Fame 3rd baseman and here's what I found.

Third Basemen BOLD Indicates Statistical Leader For HOF Third Basemen
Name [Link To Full Stats]	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	RUNS	SB
Frank Baker (bio)	.307	.363	.442	96	987	887	235
Wade Boggs	.328	.415	.443	118	1,014	1,513	24
George Brett	.305	.373	.487	317	1,595	1,583	201
Jimmy Collins	.294	.344	.409	65	983	1,055	194
George Kell	.306	.368	.414	78	870	881	51
Freddie Lindstrom	.311	.351	.449	103	779	895	84
Eddie Mathews	.271	.378	.509	512	1,453	1,509	68
Brooks Robinson	.267	.325	.401	268	1,357	1,232	28
Mike Schmidt	.267	.384	.527	548	1,595	1,506	174
Pie Traynor	.320	.362	.435	58	1,273	1,183	158
Name [Link To Full Stats]	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	RUNS	SB
Hall of Fame Third Basemen

The bold numbers above represents the player that leads all Hall of Fame 3rd baseman in that particular category.

Now here are Chipper's current career stats as of today:

Avg: .310; OBP: .408; SLG: .548; HR: 408; RBI: 1,374; RUNS: 1,378; SB: 138

So if he were to be inducted today, among the 10 existing 3rd basemen, he would place 4th in average, 2nd in on-base percentage, 1st in slugging, 3rd in home runs, 4th in RBIs, 5th in runs, and 6th in stolen bases.

He leads George Kell and Brooks Robinson in every category.

He leads Frank Baker, Jimmy Collins, and Pie Traynor in every category but stolen bases.

And, at 37, he's almost certainly going to play one more year and possibly more. So ignoring the percentage-type categories, he's got a decent chance to pass his fellow Brave, Eddie Matthews, in RBIs near the end of the 2009 season. Passing George Brett and Mike Schmidt in this category by the end of his career is going to prove a little more difficult, as is passing both of these guys in the runs category. We'll see how he holds up. If you're a big fan of Chipper, this goes to show you how great these other guys really were.

He's also achieved several feats that don't show up in the stats. From Wikipedia:

He was the first overall pick in the 1990 amateur draft and TSN's rookie of the year. He won the 1999 MVP, which is considered the most prestigious individual seasonal award in baseball. He won the 1999 and 2000 National League Silver Slugger award for 3rd basemen. He holds or comes in 2nd for several team records. He is behind only Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray on the all-time switch hitters career home run list. He is the only switch hitter in Major League Baseball history to have a .300+ career (.310 as of August 9, 2008) batting average and 400 home runs. He is a six-time all-star (1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2008.) And as mentioned above, he won the 2008 National League batting title. He holds the Major League record for most consecutive games with an extra-base hit (14; tied with Paul Waner.) He's had 8 consecutive 100+ RBI seasons (1996-2003) and 14 consecutive 20+ home run seasons (1995-2008) He has the most home runs in a season by a National League switch hitter (45; in 1999; tied with Lance Berkman although Jones completed the task first.) He hit the first home run at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. (2008) He's hit the most home runs to begin a career playing under one manager (Bobby Cox.) He had 2008's highest on-base percentage with .470. Along with his Atlanta Braves teamates he won the 1995 world series, 3 NL pennants, and 12 division titles.

In short, I think he's a shoo-in, especially given another year or two to pad his stats.