After the Iraq war turned out to be such a big disaster, many liberal bloggers waited in anticipation for the war cheerleaders to come and say "I was wrong", and apologize for encouraging such a horrible outcome.

Personally, I'm waiting for Steven Johnson to come out and say "I was wrong about TV making anyone smarter". Considering all the studies that come out every year pointing out the negative effects of TV, it would be the right thing for Mr. Johnson to do.

If he really believes that TV is making us all smarter, then he should make the argument based on science (as in published scientific studies), instead of little graphs that he drew himself (as he did in "Everything Bad is Good for You").

On average, kids (between the ages of 8 and 14) watch over 4 hours of TV/video per day. I really believe that parents would not encourage their kids to watch so much TV if it weren't for Mr. Johnson (and those like him) persuasively making the argument that watching TV is good for kids.

Unlike the Iraq cheerleaders, Mr. Johnson could (if he wanted to), undo some of the damage he's done. He could do this by coming clean and admitting, in print, that there is no real science to back up the argument that "TV makes kids smarter".

What an appropriate analogy! Let's hope sanity will replace the bigotry of the last eight years. Obama does sound like a man of the Enlightenment, even though he has to pay lip service to the current generation of bigots.

Far too people realize that many Founding Fathers were free thinkers. Without their influence the Constitution and Bill of Rights and with it the Unites States of America the way we know it would never have taken shape.

I haven't read the book, but this review at least (which is, I would hope, based on a reading of the book) falls into the trap of giving Priestley (and his peers) anachronistic values and understandings. I worked at the Joseph Priestley House Museum (in Northumberland, Pennsylvania) as an intern for a summer a few years ago, and had the task of giving tours as well as doing research on Priestley's life, so hopefully I can make some corrections.

One of the biggest mistakes people make about Priestley is underestimating the role that religion played in his life. It wasn't a side show, with science as the main event - science was the side show, and politics as well, with religion as the main event. He was trained and worked as a minister for about a decade before he moved into academia. All his scientific and political philosophizing were done with the goal of creating a unified understanding of the world based on his understanding of religion. In addition to having a laboratory in his Northumberland home, Priestley held religious services for the local Unitarians (a religion that at the time was much closer to mainstream Christianity than current Unitarian-Universalism is, and that was quite intolerant of unbelievers by today's standards) out of his parlor every week. The last work he wrote before he died was a book on religion and philosophy, not natural science.

It's interesting to note that he chose to live in Northumberland - Jefferson and others wished that he remain in Philadelphia, but he headed inland (no one's quite sure why, he claimed it was due to the level of disease that was found in Philly, but others lived with it, and even if that was the case there was no need to go as far inland as he did). For all his unique ideas about religion, science, and politics, almost all of them ended up being off the mark in some way - his legacy was a lot of almosts, or of inspiring others to see what he couldn't. He was also a very difficult man - he had fallings out with both of his sons, at various points, and kicked one out of the house never to speak to him again soon after he moved to Pennsylvania.

Priestley truly was a remarkable man, but it cheapens his legacy to misrepresent it to support a modern political agenda (which is what O'Hehir does, even if unknowingly, and what Johnson probably does as well, if O'Hehir's review is indicative of the book), or to create some sort of saint-like hagiography of the man. Those of us on the left often criticize right-wingers for their fawning (and inaccurate) portraits of the founding fathers. We would do well to caution from doing the same of our own historical "heroes". If you're truly interested in Priestley, take the time to read some of the academic biographies out there. Robert Schofield's work is a bit dense, but probably the most up to date and thorough. Also, if you get a chance, visit the museum. It's a bit hokey, but they do a good job of interpreting his life considering the resources they have, and it's a nice area to visit.

Carl Wilhelm Scheele, the chemist (actually an apothecary) credited for the discovery of oxygen before Priestley and Lavoisier, was Swedish, not Danish. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Wilhelm_Scheele

Also, I was surprised not to find any reference in Mr. Leonard's review to Thomas Kuhn and his classic "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," which discussed this paradigm shift along with many other interesting examples.

I meant Mr. O'Hehir's review in my previous post, not Mr. Leonard's. Sorry.

Interesting 'lead' for further Read. By 'most' accounts,

the last 100 years have been monstrous failures. Yes?

The dis-Ease sure is apparent. Unrelated, last evening,

with my son, granddaughter, and daughter-in-law, I viewed a DVD shared by a contemporary midwife. It was stated that`In 1900 over 90% of childbirth's occurred outside of hospitals. Births

were at homesteads. Yesterdays Wa/Po front page had an article ref: Dangers ref: C-sections deliveries. Doctors fear legal lawsuits. hmm. Docs and attorneys may harm? Ump. Maybe yes?

Who's well-being is served? Babies are born with respiratory problems from "safe-convenient" or, a lie? Why fussy?

C-section delivers are Not safer.

Docs rush home for micro-trash?

Microwaved foods under a microscope do not even appear as food after they are hot-Nuked.

The eulogy? The truth is, IMO, we allow a greed-motive careless for 'our' well being destroy.

It's an abusive day-era that bewilders many economist, plant botanist, nutrition trained ETC.,

My thought: ` Agrarian, poet, novelist, and farmer, Wendel Berry, is among the contemporary writers who views 'our' touting of unprecedented prosperity since 1900, post WW2, and surly/surely - today, mentions:' *

'rather than being founded in a convivial wholeness with the earth and with other, is predicated on systematic exhaustion or destruction of life's sources--soil, water, and air and the rural communities that inspire, define, and support our being.*

`

What is Failure? Huh. People take virtual flights to worlds of growing reliance on quack religion group-think-creeds, drugs, anti-depressants, not to mention how some "stinker-pants" folk today will lob a cheap-shot attack and smarty-pants ask:`Ya Take med today, Andrew? Or, bebop-o? huh? Heh. I'll ponder:`O go gulp No-doze capsules of green Hemlock? No. I'll take a cup of natural antacid, lemon balm tea. The body today needs a guru to give "life-enhancement" and the home is often No joyful resting Place? That's a personal question each human needs to ponder/wonder.

I read from Norman Wirzba, Novalist, was a German romantic philosopher, once remarked that all the proper philosophizing is driven instinctually by the longing to be at home in the world, by the desire to bring to peace the restlessness that pervades much of human life. William Wordsmith described it [lack], a wedding between the human mind and this "goodly universe."

It's in the great book:`the art of the commonplace, The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry.

We people are in a 'flight' of greed? Or, we may permit the pharms to dull the body, the minds sensibilities, and so-called progress poisons air, destroy Earth fertility, and what is the earth bounty? Actually, communities are disregarded, varied opinions are ignored as Idiotic, and people with compassionate care are scorned. Heretical? Prophetic.

Destructiveness is unmistakably apparent. Problems are unavoidable. It's as clear as the blue sky?

Soil?

Crisis.

Severe.

Toxification (sp) of air ? Pollution, Deforestation, Water Contamination, Fertility of Earth?

`Soil?

Depletion. species extinction, decimation of rural communities sustainable economies, and indigenous cultures, and how about in the midst of material "luxury" and the permeating dis-Ease?`

Social Cynicism and Hopelessness

Blatant toxification, erosion, and No peace and joy?

Frantic? Where do people turn for stress release, and serious depth questions of honest consideration: `What are we all striving for? Ultimately? A false economy that never replenishes.... and only takes (Greed) ruins self and the hope for a healthy future. I love to not be filled with cynicism. We people are coauthors in discovery, kinship, fellowship, and Wendell Berry writes:`"The Morning News"... We seem to have lost the ability to work in the sun with hope, or sit at peace in the shade of any tree. Maybe read:`The Sycamore-poem?

He also writes:`* In "The Morning News" *

I will purge my mind of those airy claims

of church and state. I will serve the earth

and not pretend my life could better serve.*

*

Authentic and responsible thought,

while not restricted to the local or regional,

depends on the clarity and precision that comes

from sustained attention to the particular. * I agree.

Foci. Back to yesterdays, Washington Post-* When W. Wilson was at the White House there was a henhouse? There was a photo of sheep grazing the White House lawns to keep down on manicuring the shrub. The article was interesting to me, and there are great civilian caretaker of the environment etc., that wish to actively lobby Barack Obama to Garden.

The folk request a vegetable plant garden to teach... Barack and Michelle, and children,

can enjoy untainted from chemicals: beets, broccoli, and cauliflower? Nutritious health.

P.S. Wish my daughter-in law a speedy, and safe delivery? The Swan is due today with

a babe wearing blue booties. Blessing. I say:`I no do any diaper changes? Yet, I bet i do.

Just to irk? I'll try to copy William Carlos Williams. He writes of honest gratitude, and simple pleasures, to be enjoyed.

There is nothing to eat,

seek it where you will,

bot of the body of the Lord.

The blessed plants and the sea,

yield it to the imagination intact.

(Lord is used in a sense of harmonious cosmos?)

We are earthen critters. And Believers in Earth Care?

I hope so. Or, anticipate a imminent eulogy. Fun read.

Andrew O'Hehir? There is one grey hair Ya need to dye?