Sunday, February 8. 2009
 Photos of Chai Wallahs (h/t, Grow a Brain)
Everything about speech balloons. Cool. (h/t, David Thompson's Friday Ephemera)
$100 billion to New Orleans. What's to show for it?
What am I doing with my gifts?
Obama dimishes himself to serve Pelosi
Dicks of New York? This is about as mature as a whoopee cushion. The audience should ask themselves what they have done to protect NYC from terrorists.
Why PA is slipping away from the GOP
What causes personal bankruptcies in the US? (h/t, Tiger)
Incentives matter: betting on weight loss
He wants Obama to force people to listen to his radio show
Europe's war on free speech. Brussels Journal. Europe, like most of the world, has never really been a freedom-loving place.
Viking:
Including debt service, the cost of the Generational Theft Act is estimated at $1.175 trillion, all of which will be borrowed to be paid by America's children.
Think of it this way: we're going to borrow and spend almost one Russia, or one India. We could buy South Korea or Mexico. We could have our own continent by purchasing Australia and all their handsome actors and actresses. We could have Belgium, Sweden, and still have some pocket change left over for Greece. We could have five Hong Kongs.
Job loss: Women and minorities Men hardest hit!
The stimulus tragedy. WSJ
Via Gateway:
MICHAEL GREENSPAN ON THE STIMULUS: “This monstrosity of a bill, and the assumptions underlying it (e.g., ‘Politicians are wiser than non-politicians,’ ‘Citizens don’t own what they earn,’ etc.), are making me consider joining the Republican Party.”
Plus, from Harvard economist Robert Barro, interviewed in The Atlantic: “This is probably the worst bill that has been put forward since the 1930s.”
This was the Dems' moment to strike. From Jonah Goldberg (h/t Anchoress):
The economic crisis was almost too good to be true. Like FDR and Lyndon Johnson, Obama was poised to act on Rahm’s Rule of Crisis Exploitation in a way that would not only guarantee a newer New Deal and an even greater Great Society, but would also receive bipartisan approval. That’s why Obama wanted so much GOP support—so as to ratify the left turn to European-style social democracy, particularly when voters cottoned on to the con.
But that didn’t happen. Obama and his party were undone by their hubris. There was just too much muchness in the bill. The once impressive support from conservative economists evaporated. Right-wing radio has been having one long tailgate party celebrating Obama’s overreach. According to the polls, voters are souring on the whole thing. Republicans finally discovered testicular fortitude—and they seem to like it.
There is still probably bipartisan support for a stimulus bill, but only for a measure intended to stimulate our market-based economy rather than one that hastens its Swedenization.
Again, Obama’s presidency has many victories ahead of it, and Democrats still run the show. But the perfect storm of liberalism has dissipated to mere scattered showers.
From Here Comes the State in Weekly Standard:
Voters, then, have every reason to expect from Washington a stimulus bill that will help restore growth. But they aren't getting one. The stimulus plan is flawed. It marries a few measures that count as stimulus with tons of spending on a domestic agenda that the Democrats have waited years to push through Congress. Why? Because Obama and the Democrats who run Congress are more interested in an idea than they are in economic recovery.
 Suffolk Rabbit Pie. Yum. A tasty Medieval dinner. My supermarket has frozen rabbit. (But I thought Rabbit Joints aka rabbet joints were a cabinetmaking deal.) I guess they mean thigh and leg. I assume you remove the bones before putting it in the pie, but they aren't clear on that.
Rabbit with Garlic. Wow.
VDH takes a look at what's going on, and he is not pleased. He touches most of the bases.
Related, Melanie Phillips on America, What Have You done?
Related: Rick Moran looks at the future of Conservatism. It's depressing, but I think he is wrong.
Saturday, February 7. 2009
 No, not batteries. It's about broadcasting electric power. This is cool. (h/t, No Pasaran)
This derives from the work of physicist Nikola Tesla.
But how long before kooks, cranks and paranoid psychotics claim that the electromagnetism is giving them health problems? Well, all they need are nice tin foil hats to keep them safe. Like the basic household one I am modeling in the photo.
Nothing like a full-sized carpet to pull a room together. I found this antique 14X22' Kerman on eBay. It's just the thing for my double-wide. They want $120,000 for it, which seems quite reasonable for the size, the condition, and the age. The link and details here.
I did buy this very appealing semi-antique 9X12 Tabriz this week on eBay. Geometric and more shroomy-hallucinatory than the usual Tabriz. $230. How's that for a cost-effective way to bring beauty into one's house? I've seen old rugs like this go for $2-4000+ at auctions, and I really enjoy the look of this one. I don't mind if rugs are a bit worn. New rugs look terrible to me.
And here's one I really like. It is an antique 5X8 Caucasian Kuba. The seller claims it's 1890 but I am always a skeptic with the ages of rugs. The yellow looks unnaturally bright to me, but what do I know?
From Bruce Kesler -
Easier than figuring out what women really want is what Americans really want from their government: a free ride. Whenever lofty goals are polled, majorities speak in favor. Whenever asked whether they are willing to pay for the goals themselves or personally participate in furthering those goals, majorities say no.
A recent poll of attitudes toward charities shows 70% expressing deep caring for the environment, relieving poverty and improving schools. But, less than 20% have personally done anything to aid these causes in the past year, and on most such causes the personal effort drops to 10%.
An analysis in 2008 of several surveys of contributions to charities led liberal New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff to chastise “Bleeding Heart Tightwads,” for liberals contributing far less than conservatives, financially and of their time.
The latest polls, for example from Rasmussen and CBs of the so-called stimulus package in Congress shows majorities skeptical that it will deliver stimulus, and favoring tax cuts over spending. Americans believe they are better qualified to decide what to do with their earnings than Washington’s legislators and bureaucrats, especially when so much of the stimulus bill is deemed wasteful, unnecessary, and unproductive of economic growth.
In every popular vote for government-provided healthcare, the majority has said no as the extra and excess costs become evident and the loss of quality, choice and access become clear. Nonetheless, the stimulus bill contains many provisions that will move the US toward government-run healthcare.
President Obama and his party may have won a winning margin of about 5% of the popular vote, which is hardly a mandate for such dramatic changes and charges to our population and future generations mired in $1-trillion more impoverishing debts.
 Prof. Sutherland makes the point that folks like Shakespeare and Milton were seeking neither fame nor personal glory. All Shakespeare wanted was to make enough money to retire as a country gentleman as his father had been before coming onto hard times. He would be astonished to learn that people read still his plays and sonnets - and that they read them as "literature," much less that they are read at all. Plays were the movies of their time. They were not written to be read. And John Milton, a successful London businessman, sought only to glorify God - and to play some politics - through his writing hobby.
Talent will out. It bursts out, when it exists. Will threw these famous lines into a pensive, melancholy soliloquy into the mouth of a minor role (Jaques) in a comedy (As You Like It).
Interesting note from a piece on the Globe Theater: "Above the main entrance of the Globe was a crest displaying Hercules bearing the globe on his shoulders together with the motto "Totus mundus agit histrionem" (the whole world is a playhouse)." Also, theaters had no toilet facilities. Good grief.
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Image: The Globe Theater
Friday, February 6. 2009
 Superb essay by Yuval Levin at Commentary, h/t to many including Powerline and Insty. It's a Best Essay because it goes far beyond the immediate topic and taps into deeper political undercurrents. One quote:
The sense of potential that accompanied Palin’s introduction, and the feeling that she might really reverse the momentum of the campaign, were not illusory. For two weeks or so, the polls moved markedly in McCain’s direction, as it seemed that his running mate was something genuinely new in American politics: a lower-middle-class woman who spoke the language of the country’s ordinary voters and had a profound personal understanding of the hopes and worries of a vast swath of the public. She really did seize the attention of swing voters, as McCain’s team had hoped she might. Her convention speech, her interviews, and her debate performance drew unprecedented audiences.
But having finally gotten voters to listen, neither Palin nor McCain could think of anything to say to them. Palin’s reformism, like McCain’s, was essentially an attitude devoid of substance. Both Republican candidates told us they hated corruption and would cut excess and waste. But separately and together, they offered no overarching vision of America, no consistent view of the role of government, no clear description of what a free society should look like, and no coherent policy ideas that might actually address the concerns of American families and offer solutions to the serious problems of the moment. Palin’s populism was not her weakness, but her strength. Her weakness was that she failed to tie her populism to anything deeper. A successful conservative reformism has to draw on cultural populism, but it has also to draw on a worldview, on ideas about society and government, and on a policy agenda. This would make it more intellectual, but not necessarily less populist.
Read the whole insightful thing. Link above.
NYPD boat passing by Roosevelt Island, formerly known as Welfare Island, and formerly known as Blackwell's Island, and in future probably to be known as Obama Island:
Nice racks:
Around 71 st, East River. FDR Drive on left, East River, Roosevelt Island on right. Bridge in distance is the Triboro, which the City Council has attempted to rename the RFK Bridge. Why? I have no idea.
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
Alexis de Toqueville (h/t, Viking)
“It’s not global warming any more, it’s climate change. That gets them back in the game. These people are pretty flexible ...”
An Australian union leader, via Tim Blair
"The White House believes that if you owe taxes you should pay them." Robert Gibbs, White House spokesman. Gee, d'ya think? "Believes"? I always thought it was a legal issue, not a moral issue. From NRO on the Sec of Labor's tax problems. Yes, yet another one.
Thursday, February 5. 2009
Spent today in NYC, around New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, (now known as New York Hospital and Weill Medical College, thanks to the Citigroup genius Sandy Weill Or is it properly New York Presbyterian Hospital - now that Presbyterian and NYH merged?). It was cold as hell.
That's Sotheby's building in front with the flags, and New York Hospital beginning just to the right of it.
A couple more below the fold -
Continue reading "NYC today: Photos"
 In a way it's surprising that even one European Dark Ages manuscript survived, but in another way it's surprising that we don't have more of the doubtless many lost Beowulfs. (When you think about it, it's a miracle that we even have Boswell's letters from the 1700s. Some were found being used as wrapping paper in Marseilles. Long story.)
Prof. Sutherland inspired Mrs. BD to dig into this intricately-constructed story, but she elected to do it with Seamus Heaney's wonderful translation from the Anglo-Saxon instead of with the original.
The illustrated edition helps bring the times to life, but it comes in a plain version too. We like Seamus very much.
The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
Mark Twain (h/t, Dr. X)
How many Army and Navy stores have closed over the past 20 years? Here's old Levine's, finally shuttered. My lousy photography makes it difficult to read the "Est. 1923" under the name. Note the signs on the little shop next door.
Wednesday, February 4. 2009
The one in the air, not the Canvasbacks in the water. Photo from the Ducks Unlimited 2008 members' photo gallery.
 Hopey-changey pretty butterflies and pink unicorns and peace 'n love will not alter the fact that other nations pursue their power and money interests ruthlessly, are quick to deceive, and quick to to identify and exploit weakness.
A quote from Russia and Iran get Strategic, from FPIF:
Looking at the developments of the past 90 days through the filter of the new Russian security framework, a clearer picture emerges. It's no longer a question for the United States of whether or not Russia will support additional sanctions on Iran. That won't happen. Russia is on the path to make Iran a strategic partner, a counter to the United States in the regions of rivalry.
The United States falls into a trap in assuming that Russia doesn't want a nuclear- armed Iran. Russian officials repeat over and over that they have no evidence that Iran has a weapons program. U.S. officials discount that statement but shouldn't. The United States needs to remember that Russia has nuclear engineers inside Iran working with the Iranians.
Read the whole brief article. Lovely as Persian carpets may be, the Russians are after the oil and the geopolitical leverage, not pretty rugs. This is a game for big boys.
The incredible case of Phineas Gage. Neurophilosophy. Most famous case in neurology.
No cussing please. Trying to out-Puritan the new Puritans
Teasing, arguing and fighting are normal for kids. Is that news? Related: See the Borderline Sociopathic Blog for Boys
Ancient hot cocoa cups. h/t, Jungleman
What Macy's is doing to stay alive
Old Jews Telling Jokes: Health Care
An Epicurianism update
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