Tuesday, March 31. 2009
 Norm's wife Adele found this good new book site, The Second Pass. She says:
The Second Pass is a new American books blog edited by John Williams. In his introductory message to readers John explains that the loss of book reviews from the pages of the print media and the possible disappearance of many newspapers has prompted him to go online to create a space where many voices can come together to talk about books old and new.
There's a section for new publications, and one for books that have been around for some time, and a brilliant feature called The Shelf which asks readers who come to the website to recommend books in 75-125 words. I am already considering what I might recommend there myself, and I have noted down a George Pelecanos novel called The Turnaround to go on my wish list.
Did you read this: Oh What a Lovely Recession - Left-Wing redistributionists seize the moment.
Apparently poverty is good for us little people. We're just too dumb to realize it.
We had three pretty good posts here about making money yesterday (scroll down), so it seems timely to post Francesco's "money speech."
 The freedom to create wealth - indeed the very notion of the regular energetic person creating wealth if he or she wants to - is as essential an American freedom as all of our others. Ace reminds us of Francisco's famous speech. One bit:
To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money--and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man's mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being--the self-made man--the American industrialist.
"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose--because it contains all the others--the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money.' No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity--to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality.
"Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters' continents. Now the looters' credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide-- as, I think, he will.
"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other--and your time is running out."
The whole speech is here.
 When I was a kid, my babysitter would take me fishing for Blue Crabs off the dock. What it required was a string with a hunk of bacon tied to the end. When you gently pulled it up to just below the surface, you needed a crab net to scoop up the crabs clinging to the bacon. Otherwise, they would let go of the bacon.
My Mom was never disappointed to find a bucket of two dozen crabs when she got home.
We have posted, somewhat disparagingly, about the Blue Crab's natural history and the Blue Crab as dining material, (too much effort, basically) but we never have disparaged good Maryland crab cakes, especially when consumed in volume with volumes of bad beer in low-life Maryland tatoo pubs with dogs walking around, after a day of duck hunting.
The subject comes up because we noticed projects about the aquaculture of Blue Crabs. Very cool. Fresh water? Who would have thought it?
Here's how they raise them from broodstock.
What a clever country we are. Speaking of clever people, Sippican sends this recipe:
CRAB CAKES
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 tablespoons sour cream
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves (preferably flat-leafed)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
2 pounds lump crab meat, picked over
2 cups fine fresh bread crumbs
1/3 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup vegetable oil
tarragon tartar sauce as an accompaniment
lemon wedges as an accompaniment
In a bowl whisk together the butter, the eggs, the sour cream, the pa rsley, the
lemon juice, the Worcestershire sauce, the paprika, the salt, and the cayenne and
stir in the crab meat and the bread crumbs gently. Form 1/2-cup measures of the
mixture into twelve 3/4-inch-thick cakes and transfer the crab cakes as they are
formed to a baking sheet sprinkled with half the cornmeal. Sprinkle the crab
cakes with the remaining cornmeal and chill them, covered with plastic wrap, for
at least 1 hour or overnight.
In a large heavy skillet heat the oil over moderately high heat until it is hot but
not smoking and in it sauté the crab cakes in batches, turning them once, for 3 to
4 minutes on each side, or until they are golden, transferring them as they are
cooked to paper towels to drain. Keep the crab cakes warm on another baking
sheet in a 200°F. oven. Serve the crab cakes with the tarragon tartar sauce and
the lemon wedges.
Makes about 12 crab cakes, serving 6.
I'd skip the bread crumbs. They dilute the crab meat.
No time to write today, but I just wanted to post a little reminder that, in every recession in my lifetime, the Left screams "Failure of Capitalism!" and does its best to exploit the opportunity for government power grabs.
It's not about economics - it's all about power and control.
If you'll be in NYC this week, there is a big sale of good Beretta stuff at Soiffer-Haskin. Up to 80% off. (No firearms, though.) A sign of the times for luxury goods.
All of the doomsday computer modeling on climate rely on a positive feedback hypothesis, which has often been discussed by Watts Up and Climate Skeptic.
The existence of a positive climate feedback loop, however, is purely theoretical and, as many have noted, nature tends to be more about negative than positive loops. Furthermore, the computer models have yet to show any predictive power.
Watts Up now has evidence for negative feedback loops in climate. It's time to start over with the climate models - and it's time for the modelers to show a little humility. After all, those genius Wall Street quant modelers haven't done too well, have they?
Shamelessly stolen from S,C&A:
Milwaukee school voucher program is a success
Being green is for the little people. Al Gore is big people. If you want to know what people really believe, watch their behavior and ignore their words.
I doubt that cap and trade will happen, partly because of how it would destroy trade
Kling gets it (h/t Insty):
ARNOLD KLING: “For quite a while, but especially over the last nine months, the best way to predict developments in politics and finance has been to ask: what will do the most to increase the concentration of power? Every headline, from the Geithner regulatory plan to the proposed cap on the charitable deduction, to the resignation of the General Motors CEO, should be viewed in that light.”
PETA is a big-time animal killer. Where's the outrage?
Just one reason that International Human Rights Law is a joke. Related: Ow, my vanity
The Call of Obama. Related: Is Obama twice as self-centered?
Whitewashing FDR: A New Deal apologia
A splendid essay: Oh, What a Wonderful Recession. One quote:
These pundits, left-leaning economists, and other designated “experts,” differ on the precise ramifications of the vanished “American Dream,” but the crux is similar: we’re entering a long, long era of reduced expectations and simpler way of life. Considering the sources—and academia is the epicenter—it’s not surprising that “Reaganism” is now a filthy word, Wall Street money-grubbers are and will be considered pariahs on the order of pornographers and ambulance-chasing lawyers, and high taxes are both necessary and desirable. An element of this commentary is the lingering resentment of the Bush years—the “stolen” election of 2000, Kerry’s loss in ’04, and the supposed philistinism of the former president—but the larger theme is, hey, we’re now in charge! Most of the writing expresses hostility to entrepreneurship and the commercial world, the belief that business, large and small, is somehow dirty, anti-intellectual, and brings out the worst in people. The underclass must be protected because it’s too fragile to be trusted to the greedy, corrupt upper class; a huge, benign government needs to steer such unfortunates in their private and professional lives.
Typical of this paternalistic mindset is the cover story of April’s American Prospect, “Less is the New More: Why post-consumer America could be a better place,” written by Cornell University economist Robert H. Frank, an out-and-out exercise in wishful thinking that’s not uncommon among self-styled “progressives,” who, between the lines, believe that the current financial collapse will ultimately be recorded as a positive paradigm shift. In other words, to use the catchphrase from Martha Stewart, one of the discredited icons of the “greedy” culture that purportedly began with Reagan, the continuing economic crisis can be turned into “a good thing.”
Absolutely pathetic. Read the whole thing, and weep for our spineless, pitiful and over-educated, decadent and entitled co-citizens. Our elites just don't get it.
Monday, March 30. 2009
We know that you have been too busy to post much lately. Despite that disappointment, we want to note and celebrate the numerous wonderful career and personal things going on in your life this year.
Everything's coming up daffodils. You are indeed one blessed and fortunate Dylanologist.
Literally. Well, it's the closest thing he's ever had to a for-profit job.
Plus he guarantees that government employees will fix your car when it breaks. That's reassuring.
While it may be overly simplistic to divide people into the producers (of profits) and the non-producers, there is still something to it. And there is something to it psychologically too, because the non-producers often carry a small secret uncomfortable feeling about being more directly dependent on the effort and profit of others to produce the $ to cover their paychecks.
The creation of wealth is a kind of magic from which everyone benefits. I am sick of the CEO-bashing and business-bashing and bashing of commerce. The Left acts according to the foolish and economically moronic illusion that wealth (and poverty) are static, and operate on a zero-sum basis. That's what "Gimme yours" comes from.
When I think of producers and wealth-producers, I do not think of Ayn Rand's heroic industrialists, nor do I think of Wall Street deal-makers, bond salesmen, or money-managers. Those are a tiny number. No, I think of people like the alligator farmer they had on Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel. I think of people like Sippican, who creates value out of a chunk of wood. I think of the high school drop-out who buys a gas station, adds a mini-mart, and ends up owning three of them and employing 40 people. I think of my gunsmith and his two younger apprentices who will probably buy the business from him someday. I think of a guy who buys an old building and fixes it up. I think of the gal who trained my hunting dogs. I think of my carpenter, who keeps my house from falling down. I think of the dairy farmer who uses some of our land for his yearlings. I think of our groom, a legal Mexican immigrant who built a grooming business and now has 12 grooms working for him - and now two blacksmiths too: he says he's too busy running things to do our grooming anymore. I think of Synthstuff with his general store. I think of the NYC bridge-painting contractor I met on a hunting trip who started out as a union apprentice. All independent, proud creators of value and wealth - out of thin air, sweat, hard work, and knowledge.
Those are the folks who pay all of the taxes, create the jobs, and make the donations. That is the beating commercial heart of America where anybody who wants to can still build a business and make money if that is what they want to do. Everything else depends on that and those folks, from government to churches to museums to opera houses to universities and every other non-profit, to bridges and airports and conservation and medical research. We should all be grateful to them for what they do instead of joining the silly few who look down their noses on commerce - while feeding off its magic.
Related to the previous post, via BL via Insty: Whose money? The new debate about freedom. One quote from Cianfrocca:
Because of the way the world is made, this means that some people will receive a lot more money than others.
But is there truly any injustice in this? Consider the alternative. If we say that a baseball pitcher, or a top movie star, a great trader, a gifted entrepreneur, or even a well-motivated and hard-working local beer distributor should submit to an arbitrary salary cap, then what happens? The extra value created by that individual will go to other people, who are quite likely to be politically favored. The inevitable outcome is pervasive corruption.
Another:
I’ve said from the beginning of the current bailout mess that government-assisted companies are necessarily to be deemed as failures. This includes everyone from Bear Stearns to General Motors to AIG to Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac to Citigroup. It’s simply not just to expend public dollars to prop up failed enterprises. I’ve said many times that we simply can’t let them fail in an unordered way, because the collateral damage is too great. But neither can we let them continue to operate indefinitely.
Common shareholders of assisted companies need to be wiped out, and the operations should be sold off or liquidated in an orderly fashion. That’s what I had hoped would happen to AIG, Fannie/Freddie, and GM. Instead, our current government acts as if it can run these businesses indefinitely, even as it says with its lips that it can’t and shouldn’t.
That’s a true injustice, and that does amount to rewarding failure with taxpayer dollars. That makes me mad as hell, mad enough to take up a pitchfork and march. But I won’t be marching to the neighborhoods where CEOs reside. I’ll be marching up Capitol Hill and the White House.
The Left has been talking a lot these days about income equality. I have no idea why. Even putting aside the fact that the Left's only plan to reduce inequality is to reduce the incomes of the prosperous, I see no virtue in income equality.
Furthermore, I see many serious problems with the concept, just two of which are disincentivization of risk-taking and of the assumption of responsibilities.
Fred Bauer discusses Yglesias on redistribution of "the wealth" (h/t, Riehl). One quote from Yglesias:
What if we had a 95 percent marginal tax rate on income over $10 million? What dire consequences would flow from this?
Besides the minor details of the loss of freedom and the confiscation of citizens' property (and the fact that people would quit buying those $200 million Powerball tix), what could possibly be wrong with it?
Ed. note: Many of the topics on wealth and poverty are discussed in Cassandra's fine post.
 Slate says that Emily Yoffe is the author of What the Dog Did: Tales From a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner. Her essay in Slate is What is narcissistic personality disorder, and why does everyone seem to have it?
Not a bad essay for (and presumably by) a non-professional. Fact is, the whole subject is so complex that I haven't even tried to write about it: there would be so many "but"s and "if"s and "except"s in it that it would be dull reading. One quote from Yoffe's piece:
This is the cultural moment of the narcissist. In a New Yorker cartoon, Roz Chast suggests a line of narcissist greeting cards ("Wow! Your Birthday's Really Close to Mine!"). John Edwards outed himself as one when forced to confess an adulterous affair. (Given his comical vanity, the deceitful way he used his marriage for his advancement, and his self-elevation as an embodiment of the common man while living in a house the size of an arena, it sounds like a pretty good diagnosis.) New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley wrote of journalists who Twitter, "it's beginning to look more like yet another gateway drug to full-blown media narcissism." And what other malady could explain the simultaneous phenomena of Blago and the Octomom?
These days, "narcissist" gets tossed around as an all-purpose insult, a description of self-aggrandizing, obnoxious behavior.
The link for the essay is above.
Crittenden. I do not think our gummint could build a Yugo.
 Our readers know there is a nationwide movement, a la the Boston Tea Party, to demonstrate opposition to the multi trillion dollar deficit plans of Obama/Pelosi/Reid. Please remember to join in by mailing the President a tea bag on April 1st.
Mail to:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
 What waterboarding bought us.
Glenn Beck: New enemy of The State. He is a good entertainer.
The whiff of Fascism. Driscoll
The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy. h/t, Insty
Dino:
WFB’s dystopic vision of being governed by the Harvard faculty has largely come true in the person of President Obama. He appears to have the political instincts, executive ability and private sector experience of your average liberal arts professor.
Ameerica's #1 growth industry: Government. And it always needs a bailout, from us. In fact, it is pure bailout.
Idiot takes Al Gore's advice, hilarity ensues
Smartest woman in the world says "You have a marvelous virgin." Who hasn't heard of Our Lady of Guadalupe?
WH questions viability of GM and Chrysler. Duh.
Dr. Sanity reacts to the Greenie Doctrine:
America was never perfect, but it was never conceived to be some abstract utopia showcasing human perfection. The 56 men who came together to usher it forth understood that in order to form a more perfect union they had to pledge their lifes, their fortunes and most of all, their sacred honor. They understood clearly that human freedom only guarantees that mistakes will be made; but that the human soul is only able to thrive when human nature is allowed to be free. Further, they understood that society too, will inevitably progress when the individual human soul is unchained.
The Bald Eagle is technically a fish-hawk - never far from water, especially big water - and his favorite way of hunting is stealing fish from Ospreys. However, he likes to catch ducks too. This photo from a series of photos of two eagles fighting over a diving duck on Lake Tapps, a man-made lake in Washington State.
Sunday, March 29. 2009
Harvard Medical School's Dr. Alice Flaherty
People are reluctant to say that it is "subcultural," but it is. Wasn't it just one year ago that Al Sharpton was supporting Hillary Clinton against Obama because "Obama wasn't black enough"?
What's the main predictor of income gaps in America? Single parenthood.
Excellent overview of the American working person and his income at Villainous. One quote re the non-static nature of low income in the US:
A University of Michigan study shows that only 5 percent of those in the bottom fifth of the income distribution in 1975 remained there in 1991. What happened to them? They moved up to the top three-fifths of the income distribution -- middle class or higher. Moreover, three out of 10 of the lowest income earners in 1975 moved all the way into the top fifth of income earners by 1991.
Thus there is no "poverty class" in the US. We are mobile, and poverty is temporary. Another quote, re Obama's taxes:
...the most astonishing sentence in the op-ed (in The Economist) is this one: “His plan would not raise any taxes on couples making less than $250,000 a year, nor on any single person with income under $200,000.” It amounts to a declaration of war on two-income families, a marriage penalty of punitive proportions.
If those two single persons with income just under $200,000 get married, Mr. Obama is going to hammer them with a huge tax increase. If the second earner, who in many cases is the woman, is going to have to give 54% of what she earns to the government, she might as well stay home with the children.
Read the whole thing. Link above.
Reposted from October, 2006
 It's time to think about what fun, expensive, and unnecessary gear we might be wanting to play with this spring.
Here's our first post on Fishing Bamboo.
And here's a post about Hoagy Carmichael Jr., who is apparently a great fisherman of the Grand Cascapedia, and who is responsible for the renaissance of the split-bamboo fly rod, at Never Yet Melted.
The photo of Amber is to highlight a fine site for fly fishermen, Bamboo Fly Rod. net. Nope, that site is defunct, but we hope Amber isn't. This site has good info on casting with, and the care of, bamboo rods.
Leland is just one of many makers.
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