Sunday, October 21. 2007
A re-post from 2005 We have enjoyed him since the 60s - some memories there - but just stumbled into this perfect, but too short, CD - oh yeah, it has John Coltrane too, plus Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, and Tommy Flanagan. Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane. Look at Round Midnight, too. Can I compare Burrell with Wes Montgomery? No, too ignorant to do so.
Saturday, October 20. 2007
 There's something desperately wrong with all of you.
No, not you. You're fine. It's those other people. The ones interested in politics. Now, don't get me wrong. I vote in every general election. As far as I can recall, I've never voted for anyone with any enthusiasm. There's something weird and strange about being enthusiastic about a politician. If you're not holding your nose when you're pulling the lever, I have no use for you. The politician is just like the plumber to me. I call the plumber when the big porcelain bowl won't empty. You all seem to want to sit right in the bowl all day long, every day, and are amazed and angry to discover that others don't want to forego having a well-adjusted, autonomous life and climb right in there with you. Guess what that makes you in the hopper of life. All government is the least worst thing you can make it. If you like the government, don't just tolerate it -- you're daft.
Continue reading "Obsessive-Compulsive Political Disorder"
The American Precision Museum in Windsor, VT. Looks like it's well-worth a side-trip. h/t, piece at Synthstuff about the place.
Friday, October 19. 2007
Biggest charity auction item in history. Darn funny. And Rush matched it with his own funds.
 More on Pakistan's war against Waziristan, at Rick's Place. This could be good. I guess you could call it a "civil war." I don't think there will be anything civil about it, now that they have Ms. Bhutto on board. The Pakistanis are good folks, and should not be "misunderestimated".
Celebrate Diversity Sameness. "Classical" music does not exist as an entity. Montiverdi and Ravel are not in the same category - it's just a dumb convenient category for lousy record shops that make their money selling pop schlock to teens. Nevertheless, it sells online. Do real "record shops" even exist anymore? I used to enjoy them very much. Half a billion of the UN's tsumami money went to fraud. In my opinion, the UN is just another virtuous-sounding, feel-good fraud, and Betsy agrees. Heck, if countries want to talk to eachother nowadays, they can just pick up the phone and give them a jingle. I think all those people just like a nice excuse to get out of their shitholes and spend time in wonderful NYC and America, on their country's nickel. No News Here. None. MLK had a house full of guns. Classical Values. Who knew? Good for him. I did not agree with much of his politics, but he was a good-hearted, flawed Christian fellow with a highly worthy mission. I am sorry he wasn't carrying the day he was shot, because he might have been able to save himself if he was quick. The real Ann Coulter. TigerHawk. She has always enjoyed being provocative. People should not get upset with her - she's just a typical cantankerous Yankee character, but female, blond, photogenic, and on the TV. (We have tons of folks who think like her up here, but not ready for TV.) More on Ann, and Bad Advice, at Dr. Bob (I left a comment). Was going to link a piece at Blue Crab, but he has so many good ones up that I'll just send you over there to nose around. I missed this great, little story from Iraq. One more murderous bad guy killed, by a 72 year-old. Photo: Robert Frost's New Hampshire farmhouse.
 I enjoyed The Barrister's intro to Signalling Theory, especially the lengthy biology link. It's really all just about non-verbal communication, isn't it?
To what extent is my public presentation (hair, clothes, deportment, jewelry, etc.) designed to signal things about myself which I might want known, or to signal things about myself which might not be true? And how much of conventionality and conformity is an effort to not signal anything personal? After all, there are many occasions in life when one's personal "stuff" is not welcome, wanted, or appreciated. And signaling one's conventionality is, in fact, signaling that one is clued in enough to know how to do that, when necessary. At work in the office or at my Boston hospital, I tend towards Ann Taylor and Brooks Brothers business wear, with either simple jewelry, or none. If everything is "text," as the dopey lit profs say these days, what's my message? I suspect that people get into the most trouble when they signal messages unwittingly. Our Editor wonders what this young Theo lady in the photo might be signaling, above and beyond "Check me out, dude."
Tractor with the Maggie's Farm staff. But can you find the tractor? NSFW or for older fellows, on continuation page below.
Continue reading "A nice old John Deere"
Tuitions rise while endowments swell. As we have noted in the past, higher education institutions are now investment organizations with annoyingly high overhead (faculty, students, buildings, sports facilities, etc). If they could just dump that overhead, they might be pretty good businesses. It might not hurt to just keep the football and basketball teams, though, for fresh cash flow. The situation reminds me of the time, about 20 years ago, when ski areas woke up and realized that they were actually real estate businesses.
On a recent flight while readying to depart for New Orleans, Jack was seated on the plane when a guy took the seat beside him. The guy was an emotional wreck, pale, hands shaking, moaning in fear. "What's the matter?" Jack asked. "I've been transferred to New Orleans, there are crazy people there. They've got lots of shootings, gangs, race riots, drugs, poor public schools, and the highest crime rate in the country." Jack replied, "I've lived in New Orleans all my life. It's not as bad as the media says. Find a nice home, go to work, mind your own business, enroll your kids in a nice private school. It's as safe a place as anywhere in the world." The guy relaxed and stopped shaking and said, "Oh, thank you. I've been worried to death. But if you live there and say it's OK, I'll take your word for it. What do you do for a living?" "Me?" said Jack. "I'm a tail gunner on a Budweiser truck." 
Edward Feser, author of Locke, asks the above question in a dense, meaty, scholarly piece at TCS which takes more than a couple of minutes to absorb. His conclusion: Those who seek to appropriate Locke's legacy today must decide which part of it they value most, for they cannot coherently have it all. One must either endorse Locke's revisionist metaphysics - his rejection of objective essences and final causes in nature, his reductionistic account of the nature of persons, and so forth - and abandon the traditional moral and religious elements of his philosophy; or, if one wants to maintain these conservative elements, one must reject the revisionist metaphysics, and return to something like the Scholastic worldview it replaced. One must be either a radical or a reactionary. It is no longer possible (if it ever was) to be a Lockean.
Thursday, October 18. 2007
 I, your News Junkie, am leaving for a three-day bird hunt tonight, but I am leaving our readers with these:
Keep your $5 million. Joe Torre is gone. Sad about it. It's the end of the Torre Era in New York. If you don't know what a "Hudna" is, you'd better learn. h/t, Jules Pakistan finally getting serious. This looks like the real deal. Brown hands UK sovereignty to Brussels. The Last British Government "Everything and its opposite is prima facie evidence of a US conspiracy." No Pasaran The Garden State will be left with nothing but weeds. Ankle Biting Voters vote with their gut. Pajamas (h/t, Blue Crab's comments on the subject) A poll of the Right blogosphere. We are centrist, which is surely why Mr. Hawkins did not poll us. The Barrister referred to obesity earlier today. Mr. Free Market asks "Who ate all the pies?" Opie sent us the Thelonious Monk download site. Thanks, Opie Is the value of wine fully reflected in its price? Prof B The backlash against Gore and globalistical warmening begins Will Massachusetts be the first state to legalize marriage with robots?
"Look out your window, baby, there's a scene you'd like to catch,
The band is playing "Dixie," a man got his hand outstretched.
Could be the Fuhrer
Could be the local priest.
You know sometimes
Satan comes as a man of peace.
He got a sweet gift of gab, he got a harmonious tongue,
He knows every song of love that ever has been sung.
Good intentions can be evil,
Both hands can be full of grease.
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
Well, first he's in the background, then he's in the front,
Both eyes are looking like they're on a rabbit hunt.
Nobody can see through him,
No, not even the Chief of Police.
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
He's a great humanitarian, he's a great philanthropist,
He knows just where to touch you, honey, and how you like to be kissed.
He'll put both his arms around you,
You can feel the tender touch of the beast.
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
Well, the howling wolf will howl tonight, the king snake will crawl,
Trees that've stood for a thousand years suddenly will fall.
Wanna get married? Do it now,
Tomorrow all activity will cease.
You know that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace.
Somewhere Mama's weeping for her blue-eyed boy,
She's holding them little white shoes and that little broken toy
And he's following a star,
The same one them three men followed from the East.
I hear that sometimes Satan comes as a man of peace."
"Man of Peace," off Infidels. Dylan has occasionally played this one live, including this performance from Amherst, MA, in 1999.
 I attended a local political debate last night in my small Yankee town. We have a Town Meeting system of government (meaning that every voter can come and speak, and vote, on every issue before the town), and we elect two paid Selectmen as administrators.
Of a wide variety of questions, one question a voter asked the two First Selectman candidates was this: "What do you plan to do about the epidemic of obesity?" Neither of the two stooges - one a young lawyer, the other a local insurance guy - had the cojones to reply with the correct answer: "I think a person's weight is their private business, and not a legitimate concern of government." Wimps and weenies. I felt like slapping them both: they had brilliant virtuous ideas about "bike paths and walking paths." Paid for by me, no doubt. Of course, the people who want to be fit already bike or run or walk on the roads, and the fatties in this town would not be caught dead on a bike - and the very sight of it might give people heart attacks. Ain't politics great? Image: Rockwell's Town Meeting picture, representing Freedom of Speech
A re-post from the distant past 
You think your dog is smart? Or do you think you are smart? Jim was famous in the 1930s, and not just for finding coveys of quail: "Such were Jim's powers that he could even look into the future and foretell coming events. For seven years in a row he was shown a list of entries in the Kentucky Derby, and picked the winner each time in advance of the race. With equal ease he could correctly predict the sex of babies yet unborn. In 1936, just before the World Series games were played, Van Arsdale, in the presence of friends, placed before Jim two pieces of paper upon which the names of the teams had been written. He explained, "Jim, I have here the names of the two teams that will be playing in the World Series. Will you show us the one that will win?" Jim placed a paw on the slip bearing the word "Yankees." Later events proved him correct." Read the whole thing, by Henry Ferguson in Rural Missouri
It is indeed difficult to discuss subjects when assumptions and premises are not shared. It is difficult to be a nation under those same conditions. I think it is always necessary to clarify assumptions before discussing any issue. Steyn: "The common space required for civil debate has shrivelled to a very thin sliver of ground." - The 'cold civil war' in the US. (thanks, H)
From Malanga in City Journal, a quote: The new Religious Left is in one sense not new at all. It draws its inspiration from the Christian social-justice movement that formed in the mid-nineteenth century as a response to the emerging industrial economy, which many religious leaders viewed—with some justification—as brutal and unfair to workers. In America, the movement gained traction thanks largely to the efforts of Baptist minister Walter Rauschenbusch, who served New York City’s poor. Unlike nineteenth-century reformers who sought to help the poor by teaching them the bourgeois virtues of hard work, thrift, and diligence, Rauschenbusch believed that the best way to uplift the downtrodden was to redistribute society’s wealth and forge an egalitarian society. In Christ’s name, capitalism had to fall. “The Kingdom of God is a collective conception,” Rauschenbusch wrote in Christianity and the Social Crisis, politicizing the Gospel’s message. “It is not a matter of getting individuals to heaven, but of transforming the life on earth into the harmony of heaven.”
Sounds like Obama. The whole thing, The Religious Left, is here. I suspect this is a vocal, but not sizeable, group of people who will be given good media access despite their "theocratic" inclinations. The "Social Gospel," it seems to me, has very little to do with Christianity, which concerns itself with matters of the spirit and saving souls, and thus largely rejects earthly concerns about things like power as vain distractions and temptations. I would steer clear of churches that do politics, and I believe that Dr. Dobson (who is truly wise on the subject of Christian child-rearing) is similarly foolish to get involved in political matters. It should be beneath their dignity.
The history of curing ham. The Dems on education, before they were in the Teachers Union's pocket. Geographical history of world religion in 90 seconds. Schools and the sexualization of children. Moonbattery Rudy on Hillary: "Honestly, I don't know Hillary's experience. She's never run a city. She's never run a state. She's never run a business. She's never met a payroll. She's never been responsible for the safety and security of millions of people... So I'm trying to figure out where the experience is."
Rudy is telling us - showing us - that he has what it takes to take on the Dems. That is more important to me than whether I agree with everything he has ever said. After all, the only person who is always perfectly right about everything, and with whom I always agree, is me - and I do not want a political job.
Limits on Canada Goose in a hayfield one morning last week: 
Decoys at sunset: 
Wednesday, October 17. 2007
Ingrid Fliter plays Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 2. (h/t, Classical Virtuoso)
Buddy made me think about David Gelernter's book, Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber. A stunning, serious, soulful book by the Yale computer science prof, which made a big impression on me when it came out. On the lighter side, I am reading Greenspan's best-selling memoir, Age of Turbulence. A fine read without a dull moment. I didn't know he had gone to Julliard, and wanted to be a jazz sax player. The guy was always the smartest guy in the room. You realize that being a central banker means learning as you go.
Bloomberg reports that it was Morgan Stanley who dumped the NYT stock today, in a block trade. Who else will dump? And, speaking of Morgan Stanley, Tyler Cowen on Morgan Stanley in the 70s, vs. now.
 About Benjamin Disraeli, by Gelernter in the Weekly Standard (2005). A quote:
Like nearly all successful politicians, he was a fine actor and first-rate manipulator, accustomed to saying things he didn't necessarily (wholly) believe. Like nearly all brilliant men, he could be hard to read. Like all celebrated wits and superstar parliamentarians, he was a champion improviser, superb at making things up as he went along. For all these reasons, historians tend to forget his passionate sincerity on the topics he cared about most: Britain, the Jews, the Tories, the government of England. No man ever left behind so many pregnant thoughts for his followers, admirers, and professional interpreters to ignore.
Read the whole thing.
 The Microsofting of Google. Opinion Journal
Major shareholder bails out of Times How is the Chinese government doing? The NYT takes a look at dentistry, finds an unmet need which only government can solve. (Yes, the NYT is shocked that dentists work for the money.) Further discussion, including how it's done in the UK, at Gates Opie wonders whether this cool exercise machine does any good. Hammacher Schlemmer
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