"Applications to Columbia numbered 18,081, and the college accepted 1,618 of them, for what was certainly one of the lowest acceptance rates this spring at an American university: 8.9 percent."

From a piece in the NYT: A Great Year for Ivy League Schools, but Not So Good for Applicants to Them - New York Times

Is this article bad news for very bright and scholarly-minded kids? I don't think so. There are lots of interesting colleges which will give you an Ivy education or better - for far less money, and still don't stoop to taking every applicant who can pay the bill. I like Berea, which is on my mind today.

As an amateur-expert on charities, here's a very interesting one which is worth looking at: Kiva - Loans that change lives. Their concept is right, because every little new business has a ripple effect that magnifies and spreads wealth.

The NYT's Kristoff video report (quite remarkable) on Kiva is here.

Walter Turnbull, founder and conductor of the Boy's Choir of Harlem, died Friday at 62.

Judy Collins with the Harlem Boy's Choir. YouTube. That old Scottish bagpipe tune will get you every time - even though Judy's version is a bit too white bread for my taste.

Kirsch reviews Clive James' new book, Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts, in the NY Sun. A quote:

Mr. James is one of those rare writers who convinces you that criticism is not necessarily a handmaiden in the palace of the arts — that it can be transformed, Cinderella-style, from drudge to princess, given the energy and style of a first-rate fairy godmother (or godfather). In a time when criticism is dominated by the theory-sick monographs of academics, and when the future seems to belong to amateur and professional blurbists, it is more than entertaining to read Mr. James's lucid, passionate, erudite essays. It is heartening, and seems to promise that the critical role once played by a Samuel Johnson or an Edmund Wilson is still possible in the 21st century.

Whole review here.

Like totally frogified. C'est so Paris!

Reminds a reader of this classic French exchange (video). "Your mother was a hamster...")

White Christmas. Wow - best I have every heard.

and a Happy Chanukah to our Jewish readers. 

This came in over the transom, but I see it referenced here:

FROM A RETIRED SDPD Officer now living in Pennsylvania:
 
I respectfully submit the following commentary on illegal immigration for
your benefit and consideration. I was not only born and raised in
California, but was a San Diego police officer from the late 60's through
the early 90's. More specifically, I was a police supervisor from 1976 on,
and was head of the police department's anti-gang unit during the latter
70's. There is a saying, "As California goes, so goes the rest of the
country." In the matter of illegal immigration, Pennsylvania's leaders
would better serve its citizens by not following California's lead. It
would be my pleasure to discuss any of these issues with you or answer any questions you may have.
 
In the mid-70's the City of San Diego ordered all its police officers, me
included, to stop detaining - or even questioning - the illegal aliens we
frequently encountered in the course of our duties. Ignore the issue of
illegal immigration altogether, the directive said. The reason for this new
order? The city had come under ferocious attack for its long-standing,
reasoned policy towards illegal aliens. Along with the threat of lawsuits,
such words as "racism", "xenophobia", "bigotry" and "discrimination" were
being bandied about by shadowy, strangely-aligned illegal alien advocacy
groups from both sides of the border. The common denominator linking these leftists was their alliance with the American Civil Liberties Union. And they all kept to the same script, as they do even today; they would never acknowledge that the only issue on the table was illegal Mexican
immigration. None of the city's leaders at that time - or since then, for
that matter - had the stomach for the vitriolic, in-your-face gutter fight
these belligerents were looking for. Against all common sense, the city put
its head in the sand and capitulated to the inflammatory rhetoric of a few,
loud militants....to the detriment of its own citizens' best interests.
 
By the late 70's, the unabated flow of illegal aliens into San Diego
resulted in the melt down of its criminal justice system. The jails were
filled beyond capacity, and - because of an ACLU lawsuit - under a court
order to start releasing criminals, including illegal aliens, into the
streets. Prosecutors and the courts were overwhelmed, unable to keep up
with the load. Mexican street gangs comprised of illegal aliens were on the
rise in all parts of the city. The police department responded to this
crisis, in part, by instituting a policy wherein only violent offenders and
felony suspects actually went to jail. Those arrested for misdemeanor
crimes, including illegal aliens with no local address or identification,
were issued "citations" on the spot and told to appear in court at a later
time. That policy, of course, only served to exacerbate the already
sky-rocketing crime rate. And though there was indisputable proof that the root cause of the crisis was illegal immigration, none of the city's
leaders had the personal courage to actually do anything about it for fear
of being tagged "racist" or "bigot". It was around that time San Diegans
were beginning to hear those slurs from a new quarter - the Mexican
Consulate's office.
 
In the early 80's, San Diego taxpayers learned that Mexican children were
entering the United States daily to attend local public schools. At the end
of the school day, these children would walk across the border and return
to their homes in Mexico. Outrage over the fact California taxpayers were
paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the public education of
foreigners was lost to those now familiar screams of "racism", "bigotry"
and...because they were children..."mean-spiritedness". The local school
boards said it wasn't their problem to address, that laws prevented them
from asking such intrusive questions as, "Who are you and where do you
live?" when enrolling students. And, they added, what harm was there really in educating those poor Mexican kids. They also said they needed a lot more tax money to hire new Spanish-speaking teachers because, inexplicably, more and more of their students didn't speak a word of English. 
 

Kudos for an excellent blog. I read it twice daily, before I brush my teeth in the morning, and before I go to bed with my most recent proletarian sex slave comrade, (carefully selected by Raul from our political prisons Happy Thinking Centers, well-fed, smelling sweet, and cleaned up nice almost like a chiquita South Beach gal with Victoria's Secret thong, etc., just for poor little ol' me).

Yes, the girls cheer me up. How would you like a visit from Hugo or Raul on your death bed? Would that cheer you up? No. Or old Mrs. Castro? With her old lady smell? And her Bible and rosary? God forbid!

You raise the level of discussion of the entire blogosphere, with wit, intelligence, and cultivation. And you keep my kind of people thinking, instead of stultifying in the coffin of dead ideas and dead theories. We leaders must be stimulated, but, alas, we cannot allow the People to get confused! Keep up the good work. You capitalists have such humor! I wish we could afford it.

But please, amigo - just three minor criticisms: Too many Jesus pictures - it reminds me of my blessed mother, God rest her soul. More babes instead, please, to distract us from the subject of age and death.  And  how come no baseball commentary? And, lastly, how come no stock tips? You Yanquis know the score, but my Swiss bankers were behind the S&P last year, not even including fees! And my hedge funds did great, but after fees, and after your terrible US short-term capital gains taxes, I hardly kept up with inflation! Sheesh. Thanks a ton, Hugo, Thesesa, Cindy, and Hillary, for the necessary introductions to your hedgie friends - I might as well have had a proletarian Vanguard tax-exempt fund! And my "pal" Georgie Soros can ---- me for his after-tax gains! He is a burro and a closet capitalist pig, masquerading as an internationalist socialist!

With warmest personal socialist regards from beautiful Cuba, (where the sunshine is from Fidel, the hurricanes are from Bush, the cigars are great, freedom is just a bourgeois indulgence, and the money is from, wait, where? Oh, there isn't any for them, but why do the People need money if they're happy? Free medical care from aging experienced Russia-trained doctors!!!  Free rice!!! Free beans!!! Beano from your Miami relatives!!! No more revolution, and no more confusion!!!)

Your amigo, Fidel Castro Fidelito

PS. Still waiting for that next Viagra shipment from the States, the large WalMart package. I have left orders to leave it all in my coffin, just in case. Not to worry - Raul will send you the cigars via Mexico. Haha. Like Freud? Sometimes a good one is worth a Cuban cigar? Viva WalMart. The price is right.

PPS: Are you sure you can sneak me into Sloan-Kettering if I need to go? You have a certain connection? Are you sure they have priests there? It doesn't matter to me, but it matters to my beloved countrymen. I think I might need a good Jewish doctor, and all we have are these glorifed Russian nurses that call themselves "Dr.," and shake so much they give you the creeps. Rum and tequila. If they drink rum at breakfast, they settle down and seem OK, but it's not exactly New York medicine, and Raul says they are 40 years out of date, but what does he know? Their medicines expired in 1972, but its free!  Heck, it's good enough for The Little People! But they are ignorant! Thank God! If they got the internets, we'd be SCREWED!

Mr. Chavez visits Iran with Mr. Morales and If Graham Greene were writing the novel how would it end? It seems the Mid East and Asia are not the only worries for the mighty US, no me thinks I smell more than one ratoncito in Latin America. Condi and George W will need our allies to start speaking up soon. If you do not read the ATLANTIC, then I highly recommend you buy the May issue:

A Castro-loving, Bolivar-worshipping, onetime baseball-player wannabe, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is perhaps the world’s most openly anti-American head of state. With Latin America in the midst of a leftward swing, how dangerous is he?

Piece here: The Talented Mr. Chávez

"López Obrador -- a 52-year-old former mayor of Mexico City whose campaign plays to women by distributing pictures of him on heart-shaped, rose-dotted fliers -- is the disciple of New Deal-style programs. He pledges to work "for the good of all, first the poor" and wants to blow a hole in the North American Free Trade Agreement by refusing to honor Mexico's commitment to lower tariffs on U.S. corn and beans"

The New York Cosmopolitan - very, very good, and healthy, too. Make it,  pour it in the vodka bottle and put it in the freezer and then take it over to the party. The recipe is very easy. Yes, we prefer it with Rose's instead of fresh lime.

 
1 cup vodka 
1 half cup Triple Sec
1 quarter cup of cranberry juice. 
1 quarter cup of Rose's Lime juice.

The Burj Al Arab in Dubai is the only seven-star hotel in the world. This roof-top tennis
is just one remarkable aspect of this place. This is Agassiz and Federer, but I believe that it
is really a helipad. Nice promo, though.

A glance at the current issue of the International Socialist Review: Noam Chomsky on Latin America. I don't know what authority Chomsky possess beyond that of any ordinary blogger, but these comments aren't his usual loony rants.

(The article, "Latin America at the Tipping Point," is not online. Information about the magazine is available on its Web site.)

Challenges from Latin America are "bubbling up" for policy makers in Washington, writes Noam Chomsky, the controversial author and professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Countries across South America are growing "completely out of control, with left-center governments" that are increasing their trade with China and the European Union, he says. Even in Central America, he says, "the lid is barely on." Indeed, writes Mr. Chomsky, "the noisy protests during President Bush's trip in November 2005 to the Summit of the Americas, in Argentina, amplify the dilemma."

Washington's thorniest problem at the moment, he writes, is Venezuela, which provides almost 15 percent of the oil imported by the United States and whose president, Hugo Chávez, has accused the United States of supporting a 2002 military coup to oust him. Venezuela already has a closer relationship to China than does any country south of the United States, he says, "and is planning to sell increasing amounts of oil to China as part of its effort to reduce dependence on a hostile U.S. government."

Compounding matters, he writes, is the close relationship that the Venezuelan government is establishing with Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba. The two nations have arranged a barter system whereby Venezuela provides Cuba with low-cost oil in exchange for help with literacy and health programs. "Joint Cuba-Venezuela projects are also having a considerable impact in the Caribbean," Mr. Chomsky writes. He mentions as an example a program under which "Cuban doctors are providing health care to people who had no hope of receiving it, with Venezuelan funding."

According to Mr. Chomsky, "Washington's Latin American policies are only enhancing U.S. isolation." One example that he cites is the United States' trade embargo against Cuba, which the United Nations recently voted to condemn for the 14th straight year. The vote on the resolution was 182 to 4, he notes.

Chavez continues his charming ways: terms Bush "donkey" and "drunkard."

And he continues to destroy Venezuela and there seems no end in sight. The Bridge finally collapses!

"Today the bridge has collapsed, cutting the only access to modernity, to progress. The fallen bridge however is symbolic of the current state of Venezuela vis-a-vis the rest of the world. Hugo Chavez built a bridge to Havana; a second to the FARC-controlled mountains of Colombia; the third to the Foro de Sao Paulo HQs and then another to Tehran, the rest he burnt."The symbolism of Venezuela's collapsed bridge | www.vcrisis.com There is more on this sad tale hereThe Devil's Excrement .

Two weeks after breast cancer surgery, two days ago my pal lands this 140# Tarpon. Captain Juan Garcia of Indian Key, Fla. helps hoist the big guy on deck. Would make a lovely addition to the den, but they let him go...the right thing to do. If you got hooked by temptation, wouldn't you want God to set you free?

That's my New Orleans big brother, in Hazelhurst, Mississippi. Date: Dec. 30, 2005. Time: 8:45 AM. Rifle: Browning A-bolt with Leupold 3.5X10 scope. Caliber: 30.06. Bullet: Federal Premium with  Nosler ballistic tip 165 grains. Shot: 125 yards from a ground blind. He would prefer to kill a terrorist, but a freezer-full of White-Tailed Deer will suffice. A good ol' boy. Nice buck.

The Latin Beat: Mexico