Sunday, September 21. 2008
The media have done only a fair-to-middlin' job of creating the impression that Obama's main personal and political contacts have been people other than Ayers and Dohrne and Rev. Wright and Tony Rezko, but if he has any other pals or close associates, I've never heard of them. Does he have any? On the other hand, the media has done an excellent job keeping Obama's growing-up mentor and surrogate father Frank Marshall Davis in the closet. Obama may have learned his Alinsky from books, but he grew up at the feet of his red-diaper Mother... and Davis. (As I understand the story, Obama's Kenyan/Moslem father knocked up Obama's single mother, married her in Hawaii to make the kid legit - despite having a wife or wives in Africa - and then hit the road.) Those are the reasons that I am not convinced it's paranoid to have Manchurian Candidate thoughts about Obama. Maybe it's hysterical and fear-mongering - but who really knows this guy Obama, besides his wife? Who is in a position to deny it? Did a single person who has known him personally witness to his real self, to his character, at the Dem convention? Or anywhere else? No. Isn't that odd? Most 40+ year-old guys have at least one colleague and friend who has known them and has worked with them over many years, played sports with them, hunted or hiked or rock-climbed or sailed or fished with them, confided in them, gotten half-drunk with them, smoked late-night cigars with them, prayed with them, done projects with them - and who can credibly witness publicly to their character, depth, collegiality, work ethic, hobbies and interests, habits, struggles, intelligence and perceptiveness, personality, and core beliefs. Who speaks for Obama besides Obama, and a few Hollywood airheads? I realize I know very little about this guy, nor does anybody else. He's a media-made icon. He is a Mystery Man, a blank slate, unless you look carefully for the facts the media never mentions. Here's an Accuracy in Media piece on Frank Davis, with the AP's efforts to minimize the relevance of the relationship. Davis' reported homosexuality and pornographic avocation may be irrelevant, but his committment to Communism is not. At any rate, it's not what you would call an American Story.
This is Camille Pissaro's Apple Picking (1886). 
A quote from Whittaker Chambers (h/t, Dr Bob): The New Deal was a genuine revolution, whose deepest purpose was not simply reform within existing traditions, but a basic change in the social, and, above all, the power relationships within the nation. It was not a revolution by violence. It was a revolution by bookkeeping and lawmaking. In so far as it was successful, the power of politics had replaced the power of business. This is the basic power shift of all the revolutions of our time. This shift was the revolution.
Tiger notes that, at times of possible economic collapse, moral hazard moves to the margin. He discusses Hamilton's handling of the Panic of 1792. How Washington and the politicians handled the Depression. Amy Shlaes discusses recovery without bailouts.
Matthew 9: 9-13 | 9 | And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. | | 10 | And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. | | 11 | And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? | | 12 | But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. | | 13 | But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. |
Saturday, September 20. 2008
 Cocker Spaniels
Apparently not everyone is aware that Cockers were bred as Woodcock hunters, thus "cocker". It was not until the turn of the century that they became known as a separate breed from Springers; smaller, but with similar spaniel talents and deficiencies: bouncy and energetic, but not overly-endowed with brains and with a tendency to pee on rugs when excited. Wonderful small flushing dogs and retrievers, they are great cheerful family dogs which cannot reach the kitchen counter, and that can, with the difficulty of any spaniel, be trained to do a fine job in the field. And a dog that cannot do work to find food in the field is a decadent waste of dog food, is it not? The English cocker is considered a better hunter than the American, but I am not certain that that is a fact. Plus I have never hunted over a Cocker. At some point, we will do a piece on Woodcock hunting, which is fine 20 ga. sport because they are tiny targets which twist and turn in seemingly-random directions. A relevant detail is that the European Woodcock is a larger bird that the American, with more meat on it.
 The debate about halting short-selling. Bad medicine but it's a bad disease. More good stuff on short-selling from Megan.
Put down the sick and elderly. They are just too expensive and unattractive - and they drool. It's called Ethics. Indeed, it is Scientific Ethics, entirely rational and Utilitarian. AKA evil. A similar argument could be made against the blind, the deaf, the crippled and the foolish. Why Obama is wrong about Al Qaida. Congress stunned by Bernanke warnings. What a mess those marginal mortgages created. Of course, everybody knew they would be a problem eventually - but not this big. Blame Congress for requiring banks to issue those mortgages, and blame the banks for buying too many of those rotten mortgage derivatives with their enticing yields and their phony triple-A ratings. Do not expect neutral reporting any more. Q&O. My view: reporters now pick and choose when to be "neutral;" strangely neutral about Jihadists, highly biased about American politics. For reporters and regular folks too: Learn all the tricks at Camp Obama. Is this creepy, or am I old-fashioned?
Fill For Me A Brimming Bowl
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| | | Fill for me a brimming bowl
And in it let me drown my soul:
But put therein some drug, designed
To Banish Women from my mind:
For I want not the stream inspiring
That fills the mind with--fond desiring,
But I want as deep a draught
As e'er from Lethe's wave was quaff'd;
From my despairing heart to charm
The Image of the fairest form
That e'er my reveling eyes beheld,
That e'er my wandering fancy spell'd.
In vain! away I cannot chace
The melting softness of that face,
The beaminess of those bright eyes,
That breast--earth's only Paradise.
My sight will never more be blest;
For all I see has lost its zest:
Nor with delight can I explore,
The Classic page, or Muse's lore.
Had she but known how beat my heart,
And with one smile reliev'd its smart
I should have felt a sweet relief,
I should have felt ``the joy of grief.''
Yet as the Tuscan mid the snow
Of Lapland dreams on sweet Arno,
Even so for ever shall she be
The Halo of my Memory. |
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Friday, September 19. 2008
How has Alaska been doing? Does Biden lose the Catholic vote for Obama? Wife Quiz: Are you sexually confident? The Tahiri story still avoided by the MSM. Nobody ever heard of the Logan Act? Palin on Hannity: Partial transcript "Believe this," you alumni. Powerline Does Bill Clinton support Obama? Kinda sorta. Real answer: No. 30 years of "climate change" erased. I guess we should be glad, but I'd like it a bit warmer. Only Obama has the power to fix this solar system cooling mess: HMM: Sounds like the opening of a science-fiction thriller: "NASA will hold a media teleconference Tuesday, Sept. 23, at 12:30 p.m. EDT, to discuss data from the joint NASA and European Space Agency Ulysses mission that reveals the sun's solar wind is at a 50-year low. The sun's current state could result in changing conditions in the solar system." (Via Watts Up With That).
 A reader, "Rural Counsel," offered this deeply American comment on my post yesterday about Elite Northeast Conservatives:
I think it boils down to a rural versus urban mindset. Or in a related concept, to the old social classes. There was a time that conservative meant "wealthy." Prep school. Ivy League.
Those days are long gone. Conservative now contains the best of American independence and stubborness, self-reliance and work ethic, individualistic. And that, my friends, describes most folks who make a living off the farms and ranches across that "flyover" country.
Elitism doesn't cut it any more. We've seen that electing elites doesn't get us good government. Intellect is nice, but it doesn't fill the bill. We need more grit and temperment than we do PhD dissertations. These self-anointed conservative intelligentsia are about as outdated as the Electoral College; they need to get the chip off their shoulders and become a little more egalitarian.
I may spend my first and last hour of the day out in the barn feeding and watering cattle. I may clean stalls and spread manure on my fields. I sweat every summer getting my hay crop in, and take the chainsaws out in the woods in the fall to cut my firewood for the winter. I'm more likely to be welding on equipment or changing the bearings on the kicker on my baler than I am to be reading the NYT or National Review. I'd rather be taking my kids out to target shoot than being in the "know" about inside politics.
But you know what? I've got three engineering degrees (2 from MIT) and a law degree. I don't need to be told what to think. Just point out the facts; I can draw my own conclusions.
I've met plenty of folks with Ivy League degrees, and they aren't particularly better or brighter than the blue collar guys I used to work with in the chemical plants. And frankly, they aren't as nice. Or as trustworthy.
We don't need first class intellect and second class temperment in the Executive Office. Common sense and a "show me" attitude are the right tools.
We should vote for someone that we'd be comfortable sharing a foxhole with, not someone with the biggest stack of diplomas. Because the important part of the job is a lot closer to picking a business partner than it is picking a college president.
This reader sounds a lot like me: A chain-saw, pick-up truck and single malt Conservative - but I am a blue-blood and an Ivy Leaguer too, for whatever it's worth, these days: not too much. Which is for the best, probably, although it does enrich one's life in subtle and private ways.
World markets soar. Government has the power to damage - or to support markets. I am in favor of government supporting the operations of markets and ensuring the conditions for their free and honest operation - but minimizing their intrusion into industries.
The trout get active and hungry again at this time of year in New England. This unique and wonderful stream on Long Island, about 1 1/2 hours from New York City, has sea-run Browns, Rainbow and Brookies - some quite large. Not many places where sea-run trout are found: if readers know of other streams that do, let us know about it. Of course, this stream holds hatchery fish too. It is a very special place. The rule is barbless flies only, and first-come, first-served for assigned beats. This photo of one of our Maggie's Farmers on the stream is from a couple of years ago. 
Thursday, September 18. 2008
 Obama turns mean. Mocks McCain. Dem team cheers market turmoil. It's sick out there.
Hillary supporter Trump endorses McCain. As does Bert Prelutsky, in an amusing manner. How the Dems blocked Bush's efforts to heal Fannie and Freddie in 2003. Congress today: We don't know what to do. Resisting climate orthodoxy. h/t, Englishman What a market panic looks like. I don't see Warren Buffet panicking. I see him shopping for deals. These rare times are the best for picking things up cheap. It's a good time to have some cash to put to work. A quote via Powerline: The Washington and New York elites hate Sarah Palin. They, and especially the feminist “leaders” among them, are like the old factory owners in the pre-union days. They fear that the little people are rising up against them, and they must stop this. They are now the establishment, and like all establishments they protect themselves. Sarah Palin may or may not be our next vice president. But if she is not, she will be remembered for one great thing – that for a single moment the “flyover people,” those often ignored and sneered at, felt they had a champion, and they felt that one of their own had made it.
Non-citizen voting? Is that Constitutional? Via Insty: MEGAN MCARDLE: "I knew that rent controls have frozen a great deal of New York's housing stock, but I had no idea how much." Related item here.
Darn right. Rent control drives out the middle class.
How will Wall St. turmoil affect Main St? It will make borrowing more difficult. It's all explained by Steven (Freakonomics) Levitt in the NYT today.
People talk about the Canadian system (horrible for Docs and patients) and the NHS (which 56% of Brits want eliminated). Few discuss the way the French do it, but it's worth thinking about. Part 1 of Health Care Reform discusses the history French system, noting "They emphasize private, fee-for-service practice even more than we do." If you are interested in the topic, Synthstuff links all 4 parts of this essay, written by a Doc who likes the system.
When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. Anon.
Dunn in Am. Thinker discusses the alienation of the elite Northeast conservatives from the rest of American conservatism. He begins: The selection of Sarah Palin as Republican vice-presidential candidate has revealed a serious chasm in conservatism, a chasm separating conservative elites – opinion leaders, pundits, spokesmen -- from the vast population of center-right Americans they purport to represent.
As a more-or-less elite, prosperous, hyper-educated Northeastern conservative, I think he has a point - but it doesn't apply to me. I have an F-150, I like Palin, and I get a kick out of Rush (though I rarely have time to hear him).
A re-post from a year and a half ago -Jim Harrison: Hunter, chef, author, and all-around cool dude. Interviewed in New York Times Books. Got to love this guy. And how about his eager pup? 
Photo credit: Jeff Topping for the New York Times
From Ed Driscoll, on the smiting of God, and hurricanes and the like, with guest appearances by Michael Moore and others:
Wednesday, September 17. 2008
 Why Bernanke decided to lend to AIG - to avoid a world-wide collapse of lending and a possible Depression.
Related: the 8th paragraph gives a good description of credit default swaps, along with other good explanations for the AIG problem. They spent 5 hours frantically trying to find a strategy to refute Zebari's statement. It doesn't take 5 hrs. to tell the truth. Amazon to sell wine. Women don't do logic. That's what the Feminists say. Dems thrilled by bank failures, ugly markets. Where does the US stand in terms of economic freedom? Bush: Drilling Bill is a hoax. Sure sounds like it. They just want to say they did something. Political cover to fool the uninformed. ACORN is up to its old tricks. Speaking of tricks, isn't hacking Palin's email a crime? I think it is. The hatred of this fine lady is patently insane, but I think she can take it. I hope the FBI is on this, today. Got balls? Why the Palins are attractive to the Heartland. It's the testosterone. Obama is the most Conservative candidate we've seen in years. He wants to go back to the 1930s. McCain intends to win. It's a scandal! Quote from RCP (h/t, Viking) The enduring scandal of the McCain campaign is that it wants to win. The press had hoped for a harmless, nostalgic loser like Bob Dole in 1996. In a column excoriating Republicans for historically launching successful attacks against Democratic presidential candidates in August, Time columnist Joe Klein excepted Bob Dole -- not mentioning that Dole had been eviscerated by Clinton negative ads before August ever arrived.
Ace loses it re Andrew Sullivan. Ace, buddy, not to worry. Nobody reads Sullivan anymore unless they are looking for an easy fisking target. His comments were interesting once upon a time, in his youth, but he has been erratic and wacked for years now.
There is so much hysteria and anger out there, it's Grandma Moses time. Grandma Moses began painting at age 70. This is Beautiful World:
Online Literacy at Chronicle. One quote: In the eye-tracking test, only one in six subjects read Web pages linearly, sentence by sentence. The rest jumped around chasing keywords, bullet points, visuals, and color and typeface variations. In another experiment on how people read e-newsletters, informational e-mail messages, and news feeds, Nielsen exclaimed, "'Reading' is not even the right word." The subjects usually read only the first two words in headlines, and they ignored the introductory sections. They wanted the "nut" and nothing else. A 2003 Nielsen warning asserted that a PDF file strikes users as a "content blob," and they won't read it unless they print it out. A "booklike" page on screen, it seems, turns them off and sends them away.
I think I agree that people do not read online material the same way they read books. However, that could be because so much online stuff is thinner in content than books.
I am under 45 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I have taken on the Republican establishment,
I have many kids,
I have the VP spot on the ticket with less than 2 years in the governor's office.
Continue reading "Who am I?"
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