Sunday, January 11. 2009
An unusual recording from Dylan, from his often-disparaged 1970 Self Portrait record. I cannot embed this YouTube, but it's here.
My guess is that he never got around to making up words for the tune.
Brings back poignant memories for me, but I won't tell you what they are other than that they involve a stunningly beautiful but erratic girl who had two Chessies.
 Earth on brink of new Ice Age.
We are all screwed.
Yes, I did have a good hunt yesterday. Thanks for asking. Grouse. Got two, missed two. Passed on shooting one in a Birch tree. Passed on a Woodcock in a swamp because I could not remember whether they were still in season. I was right to pass on that tempting bird. Tired legs from tramping through the snow all day.
 Iraq politics. Sounds like normal.
We all want longer, healthier lives but it's going to cost us. WaPo. One quote:
We are on a collision course between our wish to live longer, healthier lives and our capacity to pay for that wish. Whether we can somehow avoid the collision is perhaps the most important domestic issue of this century. From now on, health care costs will be up there with globalization, terrorism and climate change as a force shaping our world.
Let's fry up some fresh Sea Kittens. Perfect for those good folks who like to eat pussies.
JC Phillips: My New Year's resolution is to make more soup. Mine too.
The MLA is so mad at David Horowitz that they could spit. Idiots. See, unlike Bill Ayers, David had second thoughts about The Revolution. h/t, Viking
The vacuity of contemporary art.
Kudlow on Obama's tax cuts. The Repubs fear Obama's tax-cutting ideas. But Pelosi wants to punish the earners. She's a paleo. In my view, gummint cannot spend to prosperity. It's no different from living high off your home equity.
Fourth quarter GDP coming on Jan 30. What if it isn't terribly bad?
Chutzpah is right. We need to legalize illegals to save our economy. Um, what?
Insty:
WELL, IF YOU ASK ME, free markets are “social justice.”
Ayn Rand warned us about this stuff.
LA: "Put Jews in the ovens." This refrain is going around. It's an old song, and one of the ugliest.
Good point at Neoneo about Obama's negativity.
Saturday, January 10. 2009
Finally back from South Pacific at the Beaumont. Slow, snowy, slippery, mind-rattling drive home through blinding snow on unplowed highways. What a wonderful performance, though, and well-worth the conditions. Ms. Kelli O'Hara is a doll. We saw her in her NYC debut in Light in the Piazza. I'd guess her future looks bright.
The Dyl would have loved this. And, I was thinking, so would the Sipp Clan. A real treat, thanks to Mrs. BD.
When you want the best of anything, or want to be the best in anything, you go to New York. Sinatra said it better. It ain't for everybody, nor should it be. Sure is mightly pleasant to visit, though.
We have many ex-NYC readers who like these sorts of photos, and I am happy to oblige despite my lousy camera skills.
NYC is at its most lovely in a snowstorm. It wasn't coming down heavily yet -
More of my NYC photos below the fold -
Continue reading "South Pacific in the snow"
I am a fan of the young Cuban sculptor Yoan Capote, and have begun collecting some of his work. Here's Lote (Retrato de la masa), 2008:
This will make your day. Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite 2, mvt 2:
 We have been officially notified that Maggie's Farm has probably won the top blog award from the highly-respected ICEIE.
It's quite remarkable and deeply gratifying to us, especially since we think blog awards tend to be bogus and a bunch of baloney, and therefore have nothing to do with them.
But not this one. This one is a keeper. The Grand Pricks. We will treasure it always.
 Remembering Antietam. Jules
What card check would do to the Sun Belt
In search of the just-right desk. Desk feng shui? Gimme a break.
via Jim Miller:
U.S. household debt, which has been growing steadily since the Federal Reserve began tracking it in 1952, declined for the first time in the third quarter of 2008. In the same quarter, U.S. consumer spending growth declined for the first time in 17 years.
Bailing out one of the 20th Century's best business models. Quote from Reason:
Blaming the customer is the second-to-last refuge of any crappy industry, business, or organization (the last refuge being asking for a handout on Capitol Hill). As my ex-L.A. Times colleague and current Reason magazine Contributing Editor Tim Cavanaugh has noted in our pages, the paper we both short-timed for was filled with people making jokes about whether we could just "fire our readers." Over the recent holidays, an entire journalistic Festivus celebration of customer-blaming broke out over New Yorker finance columnist James Surowiecki's lament that, "The real problem for newspapers…isn't the Internet; it's us. We want access to everything, we want it now, and we want it for free." To extrapolate, if only us greedy human beings would realize that our very democracy was at stake, that we "are taking an active step in the formation of a country without a civic conscience," then we'd damned well volunteer to pay an unnecessary premium to keep our finest journalists in permanent six figures. Sounds precisely as convincing as the argument that enlightened voters will surely agree to pay extra taxes so that political campaigns can be financed through "clean" money.
Related: The Seattle P-I is dying.
Allah Akbar in Oslo. Oslo?
Where to put your money: Why mattress sales will take off. Warren Buffet:
“This should be bullish for Berkshire. With great foresight, I long ago entered the mattress business in a big way through our furniture operation. Now mattresses have become fully competitive as a place to put your money, and sales will soon take off.”
What thou lovest well remains,
the rest is dross
What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee
What thou lov'st well is thy true heritage
Whose world, or mine or theirs
or is it of none?
First came the seen, then thus the palpable
Elysium, though it were in the halls of hell,
What thou lovest well is thy true heritage
What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee.
EZRA POUND, PISAN CANTOS, LXXXI
Friday, January 9. 2009
From Surber:
Let’s all sing.
Oh, the weather outside is frightful/ But the fire is delightful/ And since we’ve no place to go/ Let it uncommonly widespread conditions of instability, let it uncommonly widespread conditions of instability, let it uncommonly widespread conditions of instability.
Related, Zoroastrologicalclimatology. Everything explained.
Fact is, Baby, it's cold outside. Let's go skiing.
Ray Charles & Betty Carter - Baby It's Cold Outside - Awesome video clips here
I sent an article from Psychiatric Times (which we linked a while ago), titled The Decline of Psychotherapy, to a Psychiatric colleague. He responded "Good timing for me. It will be dead just when I am ready to retire from my psychotherapy practice."
The article says:
The number of psychiatrists who provided psychotherapy to all of their patients declined from 19.1% in 1996-1997 to 10.8% in 2004-2005. From 1996 through 2005 psychotherapy was provided in 5597 of 14,108 office visits to psychiatrists lasting longer than 30 minutes, but the percentage of visits involving psychotherapy declined from 44.4% in 1996-1997 to 28.9% in 2005-2006.
People who have never used a good shrink psychotherapist have no idea how helpful we can be, sometimes even very quickly...but sometimes not quickly at all. I wish I could offer examples, but I'm touchy about the confidentiality.
h/t, Theo:
 It must be a depression. Unemployment figures now reach Clinton Administration levels.
I know that the world economy is in a slump, but I have learned to be suspicious of fear-mongering. It's usually a cover for a power grab.
 Good obit at the National Catholic Reporter. (thanks, RWN)
What an angelic face!
Joe the Journalist, plus the fake CNN Gaza clip, at Michelle.
From the WSJ:
Arthur Laurents needed a Maria for his upcoming Broadway revival of "West Side Story." The 91-year-old director, who wrote the libretto for the legendary 1957 musical, found her on YouTube.
Josefina Scaglione was an Argentine stage actress working in Buenos Aires. She spoke English with a rich Spanish accent, was unknown to American audiences and was exactly what Mr. Laurents had been searching for.
Read the whole thing. Here she is with Libertango:
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
Rev. William Boetcker, 1873 - 1962
Kindleberger's classic Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises. There is nothing new under the sun.
 A sand expert
Spending too much? Bad. Saving too much? Bad. It's true: people are not buying stuff. But I am. Some rugs, a standing lamp, and a new Colt in December. Somebody's got to keep the economy moving. I need a sofa too. Everything is on sale these days.
Why party boss Soros wants Norm Coleman out.
How we know that they know that they are lying
A new world economic order? Who are they kidding?
The highest crane operator in the world. In Dubai. of course.
"Ever done the opposite of what the experts say?"
Our friend Stumbling hits a handful of fallacies in a piece on experts. One quote:
...herein lies the purpose of experts. It’s to reinforce these mechanisms, to help people avoid the uncomfortable facts that the world is uncertain, that mistakes are inevitable, and that we are not as in control of things as we think.
Blaming experts for being wrong is like complaining that the economy is not yellow. It’s a category error so howling as to be nonsensical.
Thursday, January 8. 2009
 Nepotism Nation
Big government never needs justification.
Neoneo loves Sanjay
More on the health care Trojan Horse. Coyote
The Generational Theft Act. Michelle
Porn biz wants a bailout too.
How Bush tried to rein in Fanny and Freddie.Rove
Chesler: “The non-Muslim world must have no illusions.”
Jimmy Carter’s defensive tunnels
Kennedy vs. Palin: Driscoll. Related: Palin strikes back
A little ME history. Tiger
How will people handle the end of The New York times?
Via No Left Turns, from Dick Morris:
So it is both fair and sensible to give the poor a tax break and to draw the bulk of federal revenues from the rich. But to exempt the bottom half - a majority of the voters - from paying any taxes and to award them refund checks instead would dangerously alter the fundamental balance of national politics. For the economically well off, it could effectively become taxation without representation - which, as the founders of our nation warned, leads to tyranny.
London busses: There’s no God, so have some fun Via Mr. Free Market:
Dang link problems and spacing problems have me needing a few cold Morettis.
Extreme Alaska cold grounds planes, disables cars
Deadly cold, heavy snow grip Europe; Poles freeze to death
Wheat prices rise as unusual cold snap may damage U.S. crop
Cold and freezing rain in south and central China
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