Tuesday, May 31. 2005
 Proud of Buddy
Buddy, the son of my dear friends, has just graduated from his Navy Seals training. From the tales I have heard, it is tough beyond imagining. There are two kinds of men - Seals and regular guys. Buddy is a tough kid. Good going, big guy. America needs you.
Ambulance Chasing Lawyers converge on Gitmo. This is the kind of thing that gives them a bad name. Who has deeper pockets than the US Treasury? From LGF.
The Cochin Harbour Terminus Station and the Train of Hope This is one reason the internet is so enjoyable: more bare, ruined choirs. From The Hindu: As you make your way through the deserted parking lot and step inside this old structure, a foreboding silence acknowledges your presence. The only sound that greets you in this vast building is the echo of your footsteps. Memories of another day, when this structure once represented the lifeline of Cochin sweep past. One of those memories, quite vivid, of me dragging my mother through the hustle and bustle to the Higginbothams book stall (that stood by the entry to the platform) coaxing her to buy me the latest Enid Blyton, while following hastily the porter, laden with our luggage to board the Madras Express, remains etched.
The Mess at St. Paul's Ongoing problems at the once-excellent school, but it's had troubles since they eliminated daily chapel, and whatever other traditions went along with that - in my opinion. Banning Kitchen Knives This is what nanny liberals in a nanny state will get you - a movement to ban kitchen knives because people are being killed with them. But of course, dopes - if they can't have guns, what's the next best thing? How long until the Brits have a movement to ban axes and hammers? Did they ever hear of "people kill people?" Or do they prefer not to believe that? In Confederate Yankee. "Banned in Boston" - Banning Spanking Soon?
And, as if to compete with the Brits in insanity, Boston - well, the prosperous Boston suburb of Brookline - has issued an anti-spanking advisory. Does this include not spanking terrorists, I wonder. No doubt it does. In Brookline, next time your 5 year-old runs into the road, show respect and understanding, OK? Right Thinking has a little piece.
Route Irish Still, sadly, dangerous. Despite Chrenkoff, Baghdad is not yet in full control. Like Israel, Iraq may have to adjust to a long period of trouble.
Surfin in NYC Guess what? New York has better beaches than Hawaii. All you need is a wet suit in the winter.
Art News
The great moguls have been the collectors and patrons of art since the Renaissance, at least. Now we have a bunch of newly-minted moguls, from the hedge funds, who are making sure those prices stay well beyond my reach. From Institutional Investor:
Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors (whose earnings of $450 million put him at No. 4 on our top 25 list) has rapidly assembled a serious collection of contemporary and modern art. He reportedly paid $52 million for a Jackson Pollock, $20 million for a Manet and $25 million for a Warhol. Cohen also shelled out $8 million for Damien Hirst's Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a 14-foot tiger shark entombed in formaldehyde. ARTnews has named Cohen one of the world's top ten art collectors for the third straight year. Kenneth Griffin of Citadel Investment Group (No. 8 on our list, with $240 million) made the ARTnews ranking for the first time last year, after plunking down an undisclosed sum for a Cézanne still life, Curtain, Jug and Fruit Bowl; it sold for $60.5 million in 1999. At least eight hedge fund managers were among the magazine's 200 top art collectors in 2004. Institutional Investor
Monday, May 30. 2005
EU Constitution is Dead (for the moment) Northwest Harbor, Me: The Editor discourages weekend political postings in a worthy effort to reduce weekend agitation, but I just want to say that France was, for once, right - but for the wrong reason - in rejecting the EU Constitution. Their reason was that they did not want more capitalism sauvage imposed by Brussels. But, on the the larger issue, they were correct: France didn't want to sacrifice its autonomy (even if their motives are in error and their understanding of economics is infantile). That is good. That represents an aspiration for freedom and a healthy distrust of distant government. Didn't they have an ugly revolution about that kind of thing? Watch the Netherlands vote "no" too - another weenie nation headed straight towards third-world status. Why have these nations no faith in the energy, productivity, responsibility, self-sufficiency, and ambition of their people? They have become nations of infants, voting for milk in baby-bottles. Pathetic. Bill Kristol in The Weekly Standard: It's hard for Americans to appreciate just how out-of-touch the establishment (and it really is a single establishment) of Paris, Berlin, the Hague, and Brussels is. Its arrogance almost beyond belief. Former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the father of the 448-article constitution, early on in the campaign dismissed complaints about the document's opacity by assuring his countrymen, "The text is easily read and quite well phrased, which I can say all the more easily since I wrote it myself." As Ivan Rioufol of Le Figaro, writing in the Wall Street Journal, commented, "The French didn't know whether he was simply cynical or unaware of the absurdity of his statement. And so he became a caricature of the self-obsessed, aloof politician."Now, watch for calls for a re-match. Hey, EU, how about best of 3? That's enough. I am off to the boat, and God Bless America and protect our brave men at arms.
Proclaimed in 1868, and originally known as Decoration Day, 
Memorial Day was slow to catch on in the South, which, understandably, had their own day to memorialize their war dead. We must honor them too - they were fighting for freedom, as they saw it. How easy it is to forget the meaning of the holiday - the day to remember fallen soldiers, and to decorate their graves - unless you have lost one recently, or saw pals die in battle. In that case, it's easy to remember. It shames me to think how much of what I take for granted has been bought with blood, sweat, and tears. How do you thank the dead, other than with remembrance and prayer? A detailed history of Memorial Day here.
Friday, May 27. 2005
Put me in, Coach: Macho Coach Drops Trousers Pray, not Prey, Pastor: Pastor-Investor Pleads Guilty Caffeine and Hyperactivity, Here Saudis and Homosexuals. From Gay and Right Poll says 60% say country on wrong track, CBS gleefully reports
Russert and Dean: From MSNBC Transcripts: MR. RUSSERT: Let me stay on your rhetoric. January, I mentioned that "I hate the Republicans, what they stand for, good and evil, we are the good." In March, you said, "Republicans are brain dead." You mentioned you're a physician--and this is April. "[Dean] did draw howls of laughter by mimicking a drug-snorting Rush Limbaugh. `I'm not very dignified,' Dean said." DR. DEAN: Well, that's true. A lot of people have accused me of not being dignified. MR. RUSSERT: But is it appropriate for a physician to mock somebody who has gone into therapy and the abuse for drug addiction? DR. DEAN: Here's the point I was trying--as most of these things are taken by the Republicans, spun around Washington saying this in a one sentence, which I generally had said. But then they're sort of manipulated around, saying this is the kind of thing he said. The Rush Limbaugh comment was one that I made about Rush Limbaugh, and I also said something about Bill O'Reilly. The problem is not that these folks have problems. They do, and they have problems in the case of a drug addiction. That's a medical problem. And I respect those who clearly, in my profession, who are trying to overcome their problems.The problem is it is galling to Democrats, 48 percent of us who did not support the president, it is galling to be lectured to about moral values by folks who have their own problems. Hypocrisy is a value that I think has been embraced by the Republican Party. We get lectured by people all day long about moral values by people who have their own moral shortcomings. I don't think we ought to give a whole lot of lectures to people--I think the Bible says something to the effect that be careful when you talk about the shortcomings of somebody else when you haven't removed the moat from your own eye. And I don't think we ought to be lectured to by Republicans who have got all these problems themselves.Rush Limbaugh has made a career of belittling other people and making jokes about President Clinton, about Mrs. Clinton and others. I don't think he's in any position to do that, nor do I think Bill O'Reilly is in a position to abuse families of survivors of 9/11, given his own ethical shortcomings. Everybody has ethical shortcomings. We ought not to lecture each other about our ethical shortcomings.
Thursday, May 26. 2005
Monkeys alive and well in Kansas - More curriculum monkey business. The downside: They make religous folks look dumb. The upside: It's a free country. Being free to be dumb is better than not being free, and subject to the "experts." Think about it - how often do those "experts" turn out to be wrong? In this case, the expert theory is probably more right than wrong, but still... Child welfare dept. drops the ball again: WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- State and local authorities are investigating how a convicted rapist from Oregon failed to register as a sex offender in New York and was allowed to serve as a foster parent in an upstate county for four years before it was discovered.
"We are treating this matter very seriously," said Brian Marchetti, a spokesman for the state's Office of Children and Family Services. "Children's' safety and well-being are always our top priority. Every child deserves to be protected from sexual predators." Click here: Newsday.com: Authorities probe how convicted rapist became foster parent
I think this is a Mississippi River Channel Catfish. This is about as big as they get, Captain Ahab . Editor: Then tonight I get an email from Curt, saying "Is this a bait fish?"
Teach the Constitution in school, you must be kidding. From the Federal Register: SUMMARY: The Assistant DeputySecretary for Innovation and Improvement announces that, pursuant to legislation passed by Congress,educational institutions receiving Federal funding are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution onSeptember 17 of each year. This notice
implements this provision as it appliesto educational institutions receiving
Federal funding from the Department. "The rule puts into effect a provision that was inserted in the final federal-spending bill for 2005 by Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat and the Senate's unofficial constitutional scholar. The Chronicle: Daily news: 05/25/2005 -- 03 ." "But many university presidents remain concerned that Senator Byrd's provision could establish a precedent for Congress's setting curricular requirements," said Becky Timmons, director of government relations at the American Council on Education. "Federal law prohibits the Education Department from establishing a national curriculum. Our members find it very intrusive," Ms. Timmons said. "They are concerned about the precedent it holds for Congress telling them what to teach."
It is inconceivable that the American Council of Education believes that teaching the Constitution is opening the door to Congressional edicts regarding curriculums at the elementary, high school and college level. It makes common sense to teach the Constitution of the United States if you are educating Americans who have the right to vote and decide who leads their city, state, and country. Isn't an informed public the best safeguard for Democracy? I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that Ms. Timmons is a card carrying ACLU member. People are always looking to pounce on anything remotely patriotic. It's a good thing Senator Byrd is a Democrat or we would be reading the how President Bush changed the American History curriculum. Editor's Note: I beg to respectfully disagree with the learned and honorable Opie. Of course, every kid should have a civics course in grade school and in high school - but that is the responsibility of the local school systems. I know it's getting late to close the barn door, but keep the Feds away from our schools. The real problem is that the schools want the Fed $, so they have to give up their own authority and judgement to get it. That isn't good.
Hedgies: Brother, can you spare a dime? From the NYT: ON average, according to Institutional Investor's most recent survey, the 25 best-paid hedge fund managers each took home $207 million in 2003, about double what they made a year earlier. That's $207 million in cash - not in equity or stock options. Meanwhile, the nation's 25 highest-paid chief executives each made an average of $37 million in total compensation last year, including options granted (but not those exercised), according to Business Week. Most hedge fund managers do make money for their investors. But even if a hedge fund manager doesn't make a cent for his investors, the manager invariably makes a fortune for himself. Think about it: just for showing up to work, the manager of a hedge fund with $1 billion in assets is guaranteed to earn $20 million a year in management fees alone. Why should he take any risks? Why should he alienate his cautious investors? If we add in his 20 percent cut of the gains, and assume that his returns last year were just average (in line with the S.& P. 500) he would have grossed a total of $41.8 million." Gunslingers No More: The Cautious Cash In - New York Times
Where the rich put their money: Not in hedgies, right now. A Blog: The UN: One World United Under a Global Dictatorship Walking away with Birkenstocks? Here. Another Blogger for ya - from California: Thompson at Large Another Blog: Pave France - The British Need More Parking Stanley Kunitz Turns 100 this summer. McCain vs. Frist? McCain is running for sure. Bad Taste Humor - as bad as above item: A Michael Jackson cartoon. The Latest on Soros - Click here: Accuracy In Media - AIM Report: CNN's George Soros-gate - May B :The latest campaign by the Soros-funded operatives is to "save PBS" because Kenneth Tomlinson, the new Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), is demanding that public TV and radio adhere to federal law requiring fairness and balance in programming. The New York Times sparked the controversy when it reported that Tomlinson had authorized monitoring of the liberal bias on the Moyers PBS show and had backed a PBS show for Paul Gigot and members of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page. Lincoln Bedroom: Sorry - donors still sleep there.
The Siege of Western Civilization A DVD, by Herb Meyer. This 40 minute chat is getting around by word of mouth. Thanks, Right Thinking, who reviews it here.
Wednesday, May 25. 2005
Hack's Memorial Service: Here. A Connecticut guy who gave a hell of a lot more than most of us ever will, and kept on giving.
Big Fish - Mississippi Catfish - story here.
A Cape Cod Day We have been having a Cape Cod day today, and, in fact, a Cape Cod week in New England. What that means is low 50s, 40s at night, strong wind, rain, clouds and fog. It is for hearty folks. Got a fire going right now, in late May. What a wonderful world.
A Chinese Blogger for Justice- Audio-visual in the NYT
Seafarer's Friend. A worthy Yankee charity.
A Call for Information from the Blog-World We would like to collect information on the political activities and political agendas of innocent-appearing non-profit organizations. Our post today on the UCC was not our first on this topic, but the millions of blog-readers out there can collect the info better than we can. For example, we have been told by a reader that the National YWCA has a mission statement to "defeat rascism and sexism by all means necessary." We are all against racism and sexism, but what does that mean, is it true, and what do they do about it? This kind of stuff isn't on the organizational websites - you have to know it from the inside. We suspect that most people are not aware of what the national HQs of many non-profits are doing with their share of dues in Washington and in New York. Let's try to find out. Email us with hard data. Thanks.
Class Warfare Gwynnie recalls that since the major Republican wins in November a number of Liberal politicians have expressed disappointment in their constituents not voting in accordance with the priorities attributed to their perceived “class” by liberal theoreticians. Indeed, blue collar employees are expressing resentment at being described as “working class” by ivory-tower liberals. Class warfare, an invention of Karl Marx, has just about disappeared in the United States, and with it, the block which the Democrat Party is accustomed to assembling, leading, instructing and patronizing. This week, Gwynnie, while using the New York Times for her normal doggie purposes, noticed the three-part series on Class differences and is highly entertained. The articles were entitled: - Class in America: Shadowy Lines That Still Divide
- Up From the Holler: Living in Two Worlds, at Home in Neither
- When Richer Weds Poorer, Money Isn't the Only Difference - Marriage between people of different classes often means moving outside comfort zones
The Times’ message was that class is really important, even if Americans don’t think so. To prove its theory, The Times took a poll: “To discover how Americans regard social class and where they place themselves, The Times conducted a nationwide survey in March. The poll uncovered optimism about a financial future, opportunities and the reward of hard work. While there are differences in the views of rich and poor and some respondents have a sense of tension and inequality, there remains strong faith in the American Dream, however defined. ” [emphasis added] Gwynnie was curious about the concluding spin concerning “some respondents” so she looked at the data. As usual, the quote was negative spin very much in line with The Times’ usual editorial tactics. [Although Mr. Bush was elected, some people (reporters?) think he should have lost in Ohio. Although there are no more public hangings of women in the soccer stadium in Kabul, some Afghanis {Talibani?) find the occupation repressive.] Here are their data: - Is it possible to start out poor, work hard and become rich? 80% said Yes, 19% said no, vs. 57% yes and 38% no in 1983. [The number of respondents having “a sense of tension and inequality” is not revealed]
- Current class vs. when growing up: 45% said higher, 16% said lower
- Likelihood of upward movement vs. 30 years ago: 40% said easier, 23% said harder
- Upward mobility vs. in the EU: 46% said easier, 13% said harder.
“Where,” says Gwynnie, “are the ‘shadowy lines’? Although The Times is trying hard to make class important and thus reopen class resentment (and benefit old-line Democrat tactics), their data disclose just the opposite. The Times says, “The movement of families up and down the economic ladder is the promise that lies at the heart of the American dream. But it does not seem to be happening quite as often as it used to.” Gwynnie suggests that maybe that’s because so many are now in the middle, but not “happening quite as often as it used to” could refer to 1946, 1935, 1920 or even 1815. Here are The Times’ statistics for the period 1988-1998: MOVED STAYED MOVED
UP SAME DOWNTop 20% 52.5% 47.5%Upper middle 55.6% 30.0% 45.0%Middle 37.5% 27.5% 35.0%Lower middle 40.0% 37.5% 22.5%Bottom 20% 47.5% 52.5%
Note the following: - The same percentage moved up from the bottom as moved down from the top.
- For the middle 3 categories, more moved up than down
- An average of 40% stayed in place
If this is not mobility, what is? It is hard to wage class warfare if 60% of us will be in another “class” in 10 years! View from 1776 has a companion piece.
The Obesity Scam - who is behind this hysteria? There is NO obesity health crisis. Pure BS and pure pseudo-science, yet another big fat arena for the trial lawyers. Fat ain't very appealing, it's fatiguing, it makes you look like an out-of-control person, it's a turn-off, and it damages your hips and knees, but being fat doesn't damage your health all that much, especially when balanced with the joys of good food. Get fat if you want! It's a free country! All it is, is gross and it won't help your sports. Disclaimer: Yes, I do own shares of McDonalds, but I can't eat that crap myself. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. And I hate the way they tie you down and force that Big Mac down my throat. Barf City. Global Warming - Antarctica ice cap is growing?!?!?http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050516/full/050516-10.html You call this a church? Photos and details of Oakland's new Christ The Light Cathedral, at Curt Jester. Amazing architecture. It would not go over in New England. The New Mai Lai. You can do 999 things right, and some jerk can do one stupid thing, and as far as the Left goes, you are now the Devil. Unless you're a Dem or a Lefty, in which case it is overlooked. I hear there are wives who think like that. Abu Graib is the current "one dumb" (trivial, tho illegal) thing. But Larry Summers is now being led around on a dog leash with a choke collar by rabid maiden schoolmarms in Cambridge, and no-one complains. Is it because he's not a Moslem? Where is Seymour Hirsch? On Abu Graib, there's even a new book out, and articles like this one. What I hate about this stuff is how delighted the hate-American-first crowd is when we screw up, and how depressed they get when things go well.
Tuesday, May 24. 2005
Judiciary Filibusters The Repubs have the votes, the power, the ideas, and the future - but they can't govern worth a damn.
Isikoff: It is a "blip" Innocent lives, far away, may be a "blip" to Isikoff - or is the main concern about the life of the magazine?
OPINION IN BRIEF
"It would be devastating to the egos of the intelligentsia to realize, much less admit, that businesses have done more to reduce poverty than all the intellectuals put together. Ultimately it is only wealth that can reduce poverty and most of the intelligentsia have no interest whatever in finding out what actions and policies increase the national wealth. They certainly don't feel any 'obligation' to learn economics, out of a sense of 'social responsibility,' much less because of any 'social contract' requiring them to know what they are talking about before spouting off with self-righteous rhetoric." --Thomas Sowell RE: THE LEFT
"How come it never occurs to liberals or Democrats that the very terms in which they phrase the question are part of their problem? These, after all, are people who are obsessed with politically correct terminology, from 'African-American' to 'fetus.' Yet somehow it never dawns on them that 'working class' is an insult. Think about it: Would you call a janitor, a secretary or a carpenter 'working class' to his face? The term connotes putting someone in his place: Your lot in life is to work. Thinking is for the higher classes. The questions the Democrats ask about the 'working class' reflect precisely this contempt: What's the matter with these people? Why don't they understand that we know what's good for them? Why do they worry about silly things like abortion and homosexuality? If they must believe in all that religious mumbo-jumbo, can't they keep it to themselves? Every time the Democrats lose an election, they make a big show of asking questions like these. Then, the next time they lose an election, they once again wonder why the 'working class' has forsaken them. Maybe it's as simple as: because they were listening." --James Taranto
Dance, White Guy, Dance - Video - thanks, AnkleBitingPundit.
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