Tuesday, January 19. 2010
Re Brooks' The Pragmatic Leviathan today, I very much disagree with his view that the O admin is pragmatic and non-ideological, but I do think he is right about this:
The American people are not always right, but their basic sense of equilibrium is worthy of the profoundest respect. President Obama has shown himself to be a fine administrator, but he erred in trying to make himself the irreplaceable man in nearly ever sphere of public life. He erred in not sensing that even a pragmatic government could seem imperious and alarming.
If I were President Obama, I would spend the next year showing how government can serve a humble, helpful and supportive role to the central institutions of American life. Even in blue states like Massachusetts, voters want a government that is energetic but limited — a servant, not a leviathan.
From Insty on that topic:
We’ve controlled Haiti before, didn’t like it, and gave it back. Haiti’s best defense against invasion is that if you seize Haiti . . . then you have Haiti. I mean, if this were St. Bart’s or Bonaire you’d have something, maybe, but . . .
Related, The Englishman appropriately quotes from Kipling's 1899 The White Man's Burden - a poem variously viewed as ironic or sarcastic or literal - or an ambiguous mixture of all (which I suspect). One verse:
Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought.
Related: Extreme moral preening at SDA. An EMS guy I know left for Haiti on Monday. He is a Godly guy who has the skills to do something that matters.
 There are people who hate me purely because they have learned of my conservative/libertarian political views. Real, venomous hatred, despite the fact that I believe myself to be a friendly, kind, thoughtful, reasonably attractive, socially appropriate, and relatively warm person with a respectable pedigree and well-bred manners.
Truly, and trite as it sounds, some or even most of my best friends are Liberal-ish, and I have never hated anyone for their political views. In social situations, it doesn't even register with me.
I do not understand this hatred, but I admittedly have never spent much time trying to understand it either. It does hurt my feelings, though.
Yes, I am voting for Scott Brown today, and not just because he is a hunk.
I still think the Dem could win this election in a squeaker. The machine is powerful and fully engaged, and will be driving thousands of Dems from nursing homes to the polls - and I know that all of my beloved but misguided MA relatives will be voting D (and would be even if the candidate were a child molester or a mass murderer. It's just a habit which makes them feel virtuous).
So, as if our MA readers needed a reminder, take a few minutes and vote today. This is one of those elections where every vote matters. In my view, the mere fact that Brown has a real chance is astonishing.
Bear in mind that Coakley Believes Democrat's GOTV Efforts Will Ensure Win.
Monday, January 18. 2010
Watch this CNN video:
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2010/01/18/dnt.cohen.haiti.patients.dying.cnn.html
...Or anyone else. Compare and contrast:
INTERNATIONAL AID TO HAITI: ARABS OPT OUT
This CBS / Associated Press report lists countries providing aid to Haiti in the wake of that country’s devastating earthquake. Conspicuous by its absence is the entire Muslim world, including the extremely rich oil producing nations.
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/14/world/main6097735.shtml
However, Arab countries do not discriminate against non-Muslim countries. Their help was missing after the earthquakes in Turkey and Iran and during war and famine in Muslim Africa too.
ISRAEL’S DISPROPORTIONATE RESPONSE
Because of Israel’s long history of enduring bomb and missile attacks the Israeli army (the IDF) is one of the most experienced in the world in treating mass-injuries and using specially trained sniffer dogs to locate wounded persons in the rubble.
The IDF was one of the first on the scene in Haiti last week (sending considerably more troops and doctors than, for example, Britain and France did). Hundreds, if not thousands of Haitians have already been treated (and many life-saving surgeries performed) in the IDF Medical and Rescue Field Hospital, set up in a large tent on a soccer field in Port-Au-Prince. In addition, Israeli forces have located and rescued survivors trapped in ruined buildings, including many who were injured during the collapse of the UN headquarters.
A book: The Importance of Fathers: A Psychoanalytic Re-evaluation
About the documentary: “In Search of Memory: The Neuroscientist Eric Kandel” A wonderful fellow.
Alcohol myopia. I recently learned that alcohol doesn't just induce disinhibition (duh)and one-track preoccupations, but it also exaggerates inhibitions: scared drunks are more fearful of danger than the sober - when they are reminded of it. Who knew?
The blurb says this:
Last November, at the central market in Valencia, opera singers disguised as shopkeepers were selling produce at the various stalls there. Verdi's Il Travatore starts playing over the loudspeakers & they burst into song. None of the shoppers has a clue what's going on.
Too bad the recorded sound quality is poor, but what a kick.
A government fee is imposed on those who directly benefit from the government service, such as a fishing fee to support restocking, a fee for using a toll-road, or an extra fire insurance fee to support the local fire-fighting service in higher-risk areas near forests. A government tax is imposed on everyone, or most, though the government service does not directly benefit the taxpayer.
Eminently sensible Robert Samuelson opines that President Obama’s tax on the financial industry benefits all taxpayers, who have had thrust on them the costs of bailing out excess risk-takers who themselves benefit in higher pay for taking higher risks. However, Samuelson misses the fact that the tax would land on the well-run firms, acting to reduce their “reward” for acting responsibly.
More sensible, and targeted, would be a high, even confiscatory fee imposed on those in specific firms receiving a taxpayer-bailout who in the current or previous year received salary and bonuses above, say, $1 million. That would make them think twice about reckless gambling and insufficient due diligence. It may not raise enough to offset billions of taxpayer funds spent to stabilize markets, but it won’t stifle markets or penalize the responsible firms, and will encourage more responsibility by targeting rather than blunderbussing.
Of all of the entertaining and/or interesting radio shows we enjoy (when we have time to hear them), there is one which I think comes closest to the Maggie's Farm sensibility - The John Batchelor Show.
Around here, it comes on late at night on WABC. It's more intelligent and informative than anything on the boob tube. If you don't know it, give him a try.
Very cool bumper music too.
From Steyn, to whom we linked yesterday in our post on the MA Senate race:
As Michael Barone observed, "the educated class" was dazzled by style, the knuckledragging morons are talking about substance. They grasp that another year of 2,000-page, trillion-dollar government-growing bills offers America only the certainty of decline. Just before the Senate's health care vote, Obama, the silver-tongued orator, declared that we were "on the precipice" of historic reform. Indeed. On Tuesday, we'll find out whether even Massachusetts is willing to follow him off the cliff.
Except when you need a specific course for a specific purpose or requirement (eg Physical Chemistry), I recommend choosing courses by the teacher, not by the topic.
At a medical meeting recently, I found myself making the same mistake I have often made: picking meetings by topic instead of by speaker. You can get more out of a brilliant person talking about Coke vs. Pepsi than you can from a mediocrity discussing your medical topic of interest.
Sunday, January 17. 2010
While the rest of the country has been freezing, it has been near 70F and sunny in San Diego. But, all good things must end: it’s supposed to pour this week, possibly the most in several decades, our Chargers’ winning streak just came to an end and the NY Jets will proceed to the final four playoff for the SuperBowl slot, and worst of all my mother-in-law arrives tomorrow for 3 weeks.
I’d burn her broom but then she couldn’t leave. Started me thinking of Ernie Doe’s 1961 hit “Mother-in-Law.”
Below the fold is another Ernie Doe fav “Here Come The Girls”. NSFW
Continue reading "Sad Day In Sun Diego"
Our employees in DC indeed seem disconnected from the majority of the folks they represent. From Noonan's Slug the Obama Story 'Disconnect':
In a time when the people of Massachusetts have real concerns about their ability to make a living, stuff like the Schumer letter is just more evidence of a party's disconnect.
Politics is about policy. It's not about who's emotional and who cries or makes you cry. It's not about big political parties and the victories they need in order to rule. It's not about going on some ideological toot, which is what the health-care bill is, hoping the people will someday see and appreciate your higher wisdom.
In a way, Mr. Obama's disconnection is a sign of the times... If the president wants to lead toward something better, he should try listening. If you can't connect through the words you speak, at least you can do it through your ability to hear.
Why the liberal Cape Cod Times endorses Scott Brown, at Powerline, and why a small newspaper's opinion matters. (Nothing to do with Coakley's inconceivable flub that Curt Schilling is a Yankee fan.)
I think the O's frantic last-minute visit to MA today will help Brown, but we understand that the purpose is not to persuade, but to get out the unenthusiastic Dem vote.
Related: America needs one brave Dem
Related: Coakley counting on union muscle to win. No doubt. Did you ever hear of "union brains" applied to an election?
Related: Hundreds turn out to greet Brown in Kennedy territory - Hyannis.
Related from Auster, who refuses to get his hopes up (me neither, but I lie to myself all the time):
The special Massachusetts election will be over on the night of January 19. Meaning that, if Brown wins, the signature measure of Obama's stunningly radical presidency will have been effectively killed exactly one year after Obama's inauguration. But, nope, I'm not investing any hopes in the prospect of Brown's winning. No sirree Bob.
Related from Steyn (the whole thing is hilarious):
America's preparing to celebrate the first anniversary of Good King Barack the Hopeychanger's reign by electing a Republican?
In Massachusetts?
In what the tin-eared plonkers of the Democrat machine still insist on calling "Ted Kennedy's seat"?
 Our dear pal Sippican is moving from the MA seashore to central Maine on the mighty Androscoggin River.
If there is good grouse country nearby, I will be a visitor.
Rumford, to be specific (pop 6000). Whether he has a reason or not I have no idea. Rumford is an interesting old lumber mill town, with turn of the century mill company housing developments which would be of interest to any student of the history of town planning.
Photo is the Sipp family's new house. I like it. It's not a house - it's a home.
But does it get broadband?
Giotto's Wedding Feast at Cana, a 1304 fresco in Padua.
John 2:1-11
2:1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
2:2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
2:3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."
2:4 And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come."
2:5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
2:6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
2:7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim.
2:8 He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it.
2:9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom
2:10 and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now."
2:11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Saturday, January 16. 2010
Something America needs more of: good shoeshine stands. This one is in Grand Central Station, NY - a train station which hosts several shoeshine stands of various styles. Those guys do a better job than you could ever do yourself, and a good, solid, comfortable pair of shoes is like a good old friend. Gotta care for them.
I am told that high quality leather shoes, well-cared for and never worn two days in a row (the 2 lbs. of foot sweat per day is a problem for leather's endurance), should last 40 years or more. I own about three pairs of 20+ year-old dress shoes which are just entering their prime years.
 Scott Brown for Senator! Wasn't the O in CT a month ago to raise money for Dodd? Worked out well. Obama to Massachusetts to deliver the coup the grace?
Related: Martha Coakley says Devout Catholics 'Probably shouldn't work in the emergency room'. What a moron. How about Moslems?
Eureka! I am a Conservative (and I never realized it). Don't feel badly - it happened to many of us over the years.
Climate change! More China provinces plan power rationing -report
Heather: Chicago’s Real Crime Story - Why decades of community organizing haven’t stemmed the city’s youth violence
Not Ideas About The Thing But The Thing Itself
At the earliest ending of winter,
In March, a scrawny cry from outside
Seemed like a sound in his mind.
He knew that he heard it,
A bird's cry, at daylight or before,
In the early March wind.
The sun was rising at six,
No longer a battered panache above snow...
It would have been outside.
It was not from the vast ventriloquism
Of sleep's faded papier-mache...
The sun was coming from the outside.
That scrawny cry--It was
A chorister whose c preceded the choir.
It was part of the colossal sun,
Surrounded by its choral rings,
Still far away. It was like
A new knowledge of reality.
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