February 2009
3 posts
Lost in the Swamp - or - Who is a Conservative?
American history for well over a hundred years has been following a great arc of expanionistic imperialism - irrespective of who is in Congress or the White House. The main drivers for imperialism are ego and the desire to take other people’s stuff: wealth, goods, trade routes, natural resources. The beneficiaries of American Imperialism have been corporations - formerly American, now...
January 2009
34 posts
Did you Ever Think Rush Was Patriotic?
Here is the one and only Rush Limbaugh hoping that President Obama fails.
Notable Quote (emphasis added):
“Why would I want that to succeed? I don’t believe in that. I know that’s not how this country is going to be great in the future, it’s not what made this country great.
So I shamelessly say, no, I want him to fail, if his agenda is a far- left collectivism, some...
Worst Pop Singer Ever?
Ron Rosenbaum uses this long Slate article to excoriate Billy Joel:
http://www.slate.com/id/2209526/pagenum/all/
My first thought in reading Mr. Rosenbaum’s screed was - All right, you don’t like Billy. We get it. Then, geeze, man, it’s pop music. Get over it. Then, what the hell is this guy’s problem? I mean, Billy is mostly harmless. And when he isn’t...
Praise Song for the Day
I have mixed feelings about Elizabeth Alexander’s Inauguration Poem, PRAISE SONG FOR THE DAY. It is better read than heard. That might not be a defect, but it certainly is not a strength.
Some examples:
“Repairing the things in need of repair” scans like a half-line from a limerick. In a serious poem, it’s awful.
There are some good lines (notably excluding “about to speak or speaking”)...
Two Views of the Inauguration Address
I have mixed feelings about Time Magazine’s Joe Klein. Today, I’ll give his commentary on the Inauguration address a passing mark.
Notable Quote:
“And let it be recorded that Obama’s first act as President was to correct Chief Justice John Roberts, who managed somehow to mangle the 35-word oath of office, misplacing the word faithfully, as in “faithfully execute...
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Inaugural Poem
On the Inauguration A Villanelle It started with a call of “Yes, we can!” While focusing on all we have to gain. Now we await unfolding of the Plan. Hope began to flourish as he ran, Thinking of the things we could attain. It started with a call of “Yes, we can!” Throughout this land we hold and all we scan From mountain, on to ocean, over plain, Now we await unfolding of...
Thought on the Inauguraton
Does anyone else feel that, at long last, there is an adult in charge?
Graceful Exit
American Entrprise Institute pundid NORMAN J. ORNSTEIN gives George W. Bush high marks for the smooth transition with the change of administration.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/opinion/20ornstein.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
Quite a contrast from the Clinton to Bush transition, when the exiting administration was held in the utmost contempt by the returning Nixon cadre.
Evidently Bush is...
A Paul Krugman Value Pack
Wow, Krugman has a lot to say today.
First his NY Times editorial:
Notable quote:
“Old-fashioned voodoo economics — the belief in tax-cut magic — has been banished from civilized discourse. The supply-side cult has shrunk to the point that it contains only cranks, charlatans, and Republicans.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/opinion/19krugman.html?_r=1
Then several Blog...
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A Farewell to Republicanism
“We are taking leave not merely of a single Administration. For eight years the Republican Party has been in power. For twelve of the last sixteen years it controlled the legislative branch of the government. When, a few years hence, an attempt is made to minimize the disaster of this last quadrennium, and to point to a preceding eight year period of material development and growth, let it...
This Day in Republican Infamy
On January 19th, 1989, Ronald Wilson Reagan, our 40th president, a simpleton, the lovable bufoon who gave us “Governement is the problem” and the absurdity of supply side economics, pardoned the odious George Steinbrenner for the crime of making illegal campaign contributions to the loathsome Richard Milhouse Nixon.
This is one of the 10 worst Presidential pardons of all time.
...
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The High Cost of Inauguration?
If you heard it on Fox, or read it on Drudge, turn your BS filter up to max.
One recent lie they are promoting is the high cost of the Obama inauguration.
Ain’t so.
Here is the truth.
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200901170003
Unemployment - It's Worse Than You Think
The figure being published is 7.2%. As is that weren’t bad enough. But actual joblessness is worse than unemployment figures indicate. The real value is 13.5%
Notable Quote:
“The official unemployment rate is 7.2%. However, if you start counting all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, all the people who dropped off...
The Spirit of Detroit
Soulfully expressed by Mitch Albom.
http://www.freep.com/article/20090110/COL01/301100004
Well done, Mitch.
Quote Out of Context
Stumbled across this and thought is was amusing.
___________________________________________
“Having watched a hockey game with gobsmacked attention, my four year old son announced that he too wanted to ski and play golf at the same time. That’s the college scholarship all locked up.
More on hockey please. My family could use the help.”
...
Unemployment
The alleged recovery of the post-2002 Bush years was always anemic, for people who actually have to work for a living. The best months for job creation under Bush were in the range of the worst months under Clinton.* Even when coming out of the ‘01-‘02 recession, job creation under Bush was less than the average of Clinton’s entire term. Elections have consequences.
Jobs have...
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"Speak softly and . . .
You know the rest of the quote.
Ninety years ago this day, “The Old Lion” Theodore Roosevelt (who hated being called “Teddy”) our 26th President, departed this vale of tears, worn down by grief and illness. He was 60.
Picture of a Tree
Here is a great tree photo, titled DANCE.
http://pixelsatexhibition.blogspot.com/2009/01/dance.html
Gotta love “pixels at an exhibition!”
Meditation on a Poem
Late last night I wrote a poem. In weaker moments it appeared to be quite good. Unless that is mere conceit. Would you allow me that one small device?
Points for Whiners
I am gratified when I see someone better known and more highly respected than I making one of my favorite points. The point, in this case, is that one of the reasons why the Republicans governed so badly is that they have no capacity for governance. That, in turn, is because they have contempt for government.
I am also humbled when the point is made so much more effectively than I ever could. ...
Making Sausage
Along with pork in its worst connotations, other worsts can go into the wurst.
It didn’t occur to me to construct a worst persons of 2008 list.
Here is a pretty good one by a guy who did more wurst-work than I would have.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/31/usa-palin-barack
Meditations At Keyboard
All the new poetry is unrhymed. In this it does not resemble the old poetry. The idea, for example, that meter and scheme illuminate the clarity of an idea. That clowning with words would peck and probe the dead irrelevance of the Sonnet, by its rhyme scheme some tragic fallen echo of a first word that is divided. Or lightly the notion that because there is in this word no one sound to which the...
December 2008
27 posts
Alberto Agonistes
Stunning! There, I’ve said it again.
The utterly, stupefyingly, pukifyingly* horrible disconnectedness of these people** has me reduced to babbling incoherence.
Alberto Gonzales is a victim of the war on terror!?!?!
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/12/gonzo_im_a_casualty_of_the_war.php
Or, maybe it’s the war on terriers. (See: incoherence!) You will not believe how...
“That’s rich. And also a really bad argument.”
Well, sure - - I don’t want to work. But is it really my fault? Or that of my former fellow-colleagues who took buy-outs? This isn’t exactly what he’s getting at, but University of Chicago economist Casey B. Mulligan suggests that unemployment is increasing because - and I am not making this up - ” … some employees face financial incentives that encourage them not...
Tortured Reasoning - Part 2
Charles Krauthammer does not share in Ross Douthat’s moral dilemma regarding torture.
Notable Quote:
Let’s take the textbook case. Ethics 101: A terrorist has planted a nuclear bomb in New York City. It will go off in one hour. A million people will die. You capture the terrorist. He knows where it is. He’s not talking. Question: If you have the slightest belief that hanging...
Tortured Reasoning
I came upon Ross Douthat’s muddled post on torture via this link:
http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2008/12/torture-and-mitigation.html#links
Douthat writes:
But to my knowledge, nobody’s written something that captures the sheer muddiness that surrounds my own thinking (such as it is) on the issue. That muddiness may reflect moral and/or intellectual confusion on my part, since the...
Temperature - Down: Heating Costs - Down?!?
If you think talk about the economy is just so much gas, check this out.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB123025190739334395-lMyQjAxMDI4MzIwNjIyNTYxWj.html
Do You Hear What I Hear?
I was a couple months short of my 16th birthday at the time of the Cuban missile crisis. Unlike now, I was more or less oblivious to great events playing out on the world stage. But even I realized that something horribly dangerous was happening. In the end, the Russians backed down; but I think it was because President Kennedy, in his wisdom, gave them a face-saving out. If someone of a more...
U. S. Taxation in the 18th and 19th Centuries
Since colonial times, various levels of government have used taxation to fund their operations. These include excise taxes, tariffs, custom duties, and various types of personal property taxes.
http://americanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/income_tax_history_in_the_united_states
During the 19th Century, U.S. taxes came and went. Taxation was used to fund wars. At other times the population...
How Much is a Billion?
I will probably have something else to say on this subject some time soon.
For now, as a rough estimate, it’s about 1.136*the NY Yankees gauranteed salaries over the next several years.
http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2008/12/billion-here-billion-there.html