Tuesday, March 17. 2009
Roger's post here today captures some of the inanity swirling around the AIG situation over the past few days. In my view, the AIG focus is populist, boob-bait scapegoating - along with a (doubtless welcome) chance to trash Wall St. Everybody loves to trash it until they need a loan, want to make an investment, or want to start a business. It's a distraction from the real issues in the economy which pose hard and complicated questions. Tough finance and tough politics.
The previous owners of AIG (the shareholders and bond holders - me included, I am sorry to say) have already been thoroughly punished. Like it or not, though, AIG is still one stone in the arch that holds up the superstructure of the global economy, same as Citigroup (same as Lehman was, and we saw how that worked out). Unlike Citi, We The People now own AIG, so it behooves us to run it well in a businesslike fashion unless or until it is broken into parts and sold. Thus of course those folks should get their contractual bonuses. That's how these folks get paid: it's not "extra" for doing a good job. Their salaries are token, and generally quite modest. Not getting your bonus is a finance company's gentle way of saying "Start looking for another job. We don't need you here anymore because you are not adding enough value to our enterprise." If they don't get paid they will leave, and our national "investment" in AIG will go down the toilet. We are getting these guys cheap, too.
Sorkin at the NYT agrees.
Our friend Tigerhawk has written one of the clearest and most succinct pieces on the background of the financial mess. Too much easy money from governments too politically timid to sit through economic contractions, too many greedy borrowers, and overly-lax lending. We are headed back in that same direction again.
Related: Bank punished by Fed for not making bad loans
We like to put it out there into cyberspace, especially stuff that the MSM neglects, but also whatever seems interesting or diverting to us. We do not aim to cover everything, though. We all have day jobs, so whatever we do is all we can do.
( Our dirty little secret is that we use politics to attract readers to our non-political posts, like recipes, gardening tips, an early morning glance at each Sunday's Lectionary, and pretty girls on occasion.)
How many newspapers these days give you an early look at Sunday's Lectionary reading these days?
If you like us, please send us around with a recommendation to your friends. A steadily growing readership is our reward. Furthermore, we feel sad when we consider all the folks around the planet who might enjoy us, but still do not know of our existence.
Photo: Our fact-checker, on the job serving breakfast at Maggie's Farm HQ this St. Paddy's Day morning. But Corona on St. Patrick's Day?
 I saw a Right Whale with calf from a schooner in the Gulf of Maine about 20 years ago. I had no idea there were so few of them, or that the european Right Whale population had been long hunted to extinction.
Along our American coast, with a few conservation efforts, their numbers are slowly recovering. Still, 350-400 is about as close to extinction as a species can get. Whales are as easy to kill as cows.
Magnificent critters.
Photo from the NYT article.
Monday, March 16. 2009
Charles Murray at The American. One quote:
...do we want the United States to be like Europe?
I argue for the answer “no,” but not for economic reasons. The European model has indeed created sclerotic economies and it would be a bad idea to imitate them. But I want to focus on another problem.
My argument is drawn from Federalist Paper No. 62, probably written by James Madison: “A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.” Note the word: happiness. Not prosperity. Not security. Not equality. Happiness, which the Founders used in its Aristotelian sense of lasting and justified satisfaction with life as a whole.
and another
What’s happening? Call it the Europe syndrome. Last April I had occasion to speak in Zurich, where I made some of these same points. After the speech, a few of the twenty-something members of the audience approached and said plainly that the phrase “a life well-lived” did not have meaning for them. They were having a great time with their current sex partner and new BMW and the vacation home in Majorca, and saw no voids in their lives that needed filling.
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
Robert Heinlein, as quoted in a counterattack piece at Synthstuff
Our pal and occasional contributor Nathan sent us this photo of a rainbow over the Seine, from last week. He does get around:
Sunday, March 15. 2009
"Don't limit God to your perspective and finite understanding of life."
Being an analogy minded person, I have always stated it as:
"You can't put God into our human mind just as you can't put the world's oceans into a thimble."
Dan, at A Slower Pace
John 2:13-22
13And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
15And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;
16And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
17And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
18Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
19Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
20Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
21But he spake of the temple of his body.
22When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
Jan Lievens (1607-1674) was a pal and a rival of Rembrandt. This is The Feast of Esther (1625).
Saturday, March 14. 2009
"I looked at my watch, I looked at my wrist.
I punched myself in the face with my fist.
I took my potatoes down to be mashed,
then I made it on over to that million dollar bash."
I thought the song was a bit of a spoof about Woodstock, but who knows? Dylan with The Band, on the Basement Tapes (which were just fooling-around practice tapes):
 Why did Lincoln pick Andrew Johnson?
Representation without taxation
Brussels Journal reports on this week's NYC climate conference. They begin:
More than six hundred scientists, economists, legislators, and journalists from around the world met in New York on March 8-10 for the second International Conference on Climate Change. Presentation after presentation documented the pseudoscience and dictatorial intentions behind the climate alarmism of the UN, EU, and Obama administration.
Read the whole thing.
Stocks that are never coming back.
Pride goeth before a fall in the polls.
Social status prudery. Overcoming Bias
How Radical is Obama? RWNH
The Myth of Relativism and the Cult of Tolerance. Anderson at American Thinker
The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. He is the man who has lost everything except his reason.
G.K. Chesterton (h/t, Dr. Bob)
 My Last Duchess (1842)
That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
That depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 't was not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much" or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat:" such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, 't was all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace -all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush,at least. She thanked men - good! but thanked
Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech - (which I have not) - to make your will
Quite clear to such a one, and say, "Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss
Or there exceed the mark"- and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
- E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count, your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.
Another Browning dramatic monologue. This poem is in every high school anthology, but it still knocks me out. The Duke of Ferrara speaks throughout, during his negotiations for his next marriage, and implies that he had his last duchess murdered, or put away. She was "made too soon glad." I think the "Notice Neptune" bit says it all.
Photo is a Theo duchess.
Friday, March 13. 2009
Toon above from Theo
Some people just want to see the world burn. Goldberg
Cockpit Chatter. Amusing.
Carefully calibrating your fear to accomplish their goals. And it's quite clear what those goals are.
James Lovelock: Anti-Green Ecologist and classic Brit crank/harmless lunatic. How does he get newspaper coverage? If every person who is a bit off in the world got news coverage...never mind.
Now yet another one. Oh, almost forgot. A second one today. (It's usually just one per day.) How many Dems are crooks and finaglers? Has this been studied yet?
The Constitution says we should redistribute wealth. But how often? Hourly? Daily? Monthly? Seems to me that people move in and out of money. Mostly out, lately.
Good old Yankee Pittsfield, where the cops confiscate semen
IPCC Update: We're all gonna drown. I don't care. I have a boat.
Only going to tax the rich - as long as you don't count everybody else
It's tough being a woman making $350,00/yr in a do-nothing job. Government can solve it.
I am all in favor of natural forest fires, but this lady is wacked
Psychology Abuse. Shrinkwrapped
Dang gun lobby won't stop killing people. Will no one stop them?
The Liberal Revolution: Come for the egalitarianism, stay for the bestiality and tyranny.
Photo below from a NYC health food (?) shop in NYC, borrowed from Conspiracy. Worth every penny, no doubt:
 Somebody told me this week that he was putting together a Team Penning team in New York State. Not only did I not understand how that Western game works, I never would have imagined that there are Team Penning classes and competitions throughout NYS, CT and MA.
Here's how the game is played. Sounds like good fun, a bit like billiards with horses and cattle. Or maybe more like Chinese Checkers?
Here's just one of the sponsors I found by Googling Team Penning New York.
Via Right Wing Prof:
"Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy?" - Jimmy Hoffa
Thursday, March 12. 2009
 Adirondack fly fishing legend Fran Betters is ill, and asks for help in selling his shop and asks that, if you want one his hand-built rods, to buy one now. Been to his place a number of times over the years. Always in that chair, tying flies or building rods, with his wife in attendance. A crusty codger with a good heart.
Read his poignant letter at his site.
If you fish, buy something from the old fellow to help put his mind at ease. Even a few flies. Fran invented the famous Ausable Wulff. A good wet fly.
We should have been following this conference in NYC closely, but we can't do everything. Here's a dispatch from Reason, with this quote from Klaus' speech:
Klaus (also) warned that powerful rent-seeking groups were riding the global warming alarmism bandwagon all the way to the bank. Rent-seeking occurs when individuals, firms, or organizations attempt to make money by manipulating the regulatory environment rather than by trade and production. Klaus cited firms and non-governmental groups that plan to profit from carbon rationing in the form of emissions permits trading and by deploying highly subsidized solar and wind energy projects.
Watts Up has been following the conference. He also offers this toon:
Video of a studio rehearsal, with Mark Knopfler and his band. Again, no date or place. 70s for sure. It's a lovely tune:
Wednesday, March 11. 2009
Sippican does art.
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