Monday, August 2. 2010
At 99, Mitch Miller has died but isn't forgotten, nor his singalongs in our living rooms.
The brief from Wikipedia:
Mitchell William "Mitch" Miller (July 4, 1911 – July 31, 2010)[1] was an American musician, singer, conductor, record producer, A&R man and record company executive. One of the most influential figures in American popular music during the 1950s and early 1960s, both as the head of Artists & Repertoire at Columbia Records and as a best-selling recording artist, he is sometimes thought of as the creator of what would become karaoke with his NBC-TV series, Sing Along with Mitch. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in the early 1930s, Miller began his musical career as an accomplished player of the oboe and English horn, and recorded several highly regarded classical albums featuring his instrumental work. But he is best remembered as a conductor, choral director, television performer and recording executive.
Let's let Mitch Miller take us for a stroll.
If this is too schmaltzy for you, more the pity. Second part is vaudeville. (When Gavin was born, he wouldn't stop howling. I walked the hospital corridor singing "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye" which quieted him. Not a single nurse nor visitor had ever heard of vaudeville!)
We need Mitch Miller in our living rooms today. His lasting impacts.
Students Who Don't Study - Evidence shows that college students put in less and less time on coursework but receive higher grades.
Allitt begins:
American discussions of education often veer over into utopian fantasy, and one of the commonest delusions is that nearly every young person wants to be educated. The reality is quite different.
Nearly every young person wants the qualifications that offer access to well paid work, and will do as much as it takes to get them. But most youngsters do not care deeply about education for its own sake, especially if getting it requires long hours of solitary, disciplined study. Learning is hard, often joyless, and for centuries was understood to be so alien to youngsters’ inclinations that it had to be reinforced with frequent beatings.
Now we indulge the idea that not just basic literacy but a high level of formal education is for everyone, and that they will appreciate it.
Neither man nor life is perfectable. Indeed, it would be difficult to find agreement on "perfection" anyway.
Some people in the psychological health professions have an unspoken and even unacknowledged notion that, given proper therapy and/or proper medicines, we could all be brought to "normality" or "mental health." I term that "psycho-utopianism," and I hold the copyright for the term.
My view of all utopianisms is that they represent infantile wishes; that they are unrealistic dreams. Dreams of Eden. "If only..., this organization would run better." "If only we had..., we'd be happier." "If only the country would..., life would be better." "If only I were more motivated to (work out, make more money, get a better job, Etc.), I'd be happy."
In Psychoanalysis, we often use the term "normal neurotic" for those whose defenses and adaptations are in the normal range, ie not too dysfunctional and not too misery-creating. Most people are in that category. Psychoanalyst Dr. Joyce McDougall wrote a wonderful book in 1992, Plea For A Measure Of Abnormality, which addresses the topic.
I am not a therapeutic nihilist. I try to be a realist. Everybody has character flaws and weaknesses and immaturities, and always will regardless of the next miracle drug or the next whatever. The trick is to know oneself, to know one's strengths and weaknesses and flaws, same as it is to know the limits of external reality. A good life is a struggle with both.
It would not be difficult to preach on this topic at long and tedious length with the implications for how it applies to many or most human endeavors in the post-Eden world, but I'll save my ammunition for another time.
- From Sandel in The Atlantic (2004), The Case Against Perfection - What's wrong with designer children, bionic athletes, and genetic engineering.
- Ars Psychiatrica discusses the ailments of prosperity: The Age of Anomie?
- Yet another normal neurosis may get an "official" diagnosis: Internet Addiction - "What once was parody may soon be diagnosis." Same thing goes for "sex addiction" in my opinion. It's like shopaholics and chocaholics: from Oprah to DSM 5 in one easy step.
- If "Borderline Personality" is up to 10% of the population, is it really all that abnormal?
- One in five Californians say they need mental health care. Those are just the folks who want to deal with their "issues." Willingness to address one's "issues" is partly cultural.
Unrelated, but interesting: A Simulation Of What It’s Like To Experience Schizophrenic Symptoms. h/t, Linkiest
 If you blinked this morning you missed the link I posted to a gallery of the Playboy centerfolds, semi- and unclad, "Maggie's Farmcritters", from 1953-2008. It was taken down by order from she-who-must-be-obeyed, our in-farm censor. Banned from the Farm even as a link, not to mention in full display "below the fold" as a hidden page.
As a site posting great art, I wonder if painted nudes will be banned, or statues figleafed. Bird Dog, better skip the Belvedere Museum outside Vienna.
But, my wife is from Europe, and enjoys the female form. She posed nude and in lingerie when younger. Her mother has a nude drawing of my wife on her living room wall. We have several Klimpts hanging in our house, and it hasn't corrupted our sons, both former champion breast-feeders. My wife enjoyed and emailed around my review of the Hooters International Swimsuit Pageant.
The other day I replied to a Commenter that "As I age, I would find more delight in finding the perfect Italian Cheesecake, far rarer than the perfect 'cheesecake.' " Personally, I would never allow cream cheese cake to pass my lips, but I wouldn't ban others from enjoying it when tastefully done.
What are your tastes and limits in either cheesecake?
(Photo is an Italian Cheesecake. Ricotta cheese. Not too sweet.)
Sunday, August 1. 2010
That's a Picasso quote. For me, even his small etchings and line drawings have more soul and substance and solidity (and variety and visual surprise) than all the work of the other great artists I have seen. Every line shows strength, boldness, certainty, inevitability, regardless of whether it is etchings, lithos, oil, ink, watercolor, collage, sculpture - anything. It's called "talent."
If you're in the neighborhood, I'd advise not missing the Picasso show at the Metropolitan Museum. We got there yesterday. 300 works, all dusted off from their own mind-boggling collection. If I didn't suffer from "museum brain," I could have spent an hour just in the last room with the small etchings from the 1960s. As always, the audio guide is very good ($6, and two for one if you are a member.)
The show runs until Aug 15, and it's never crowded in August. I'd say the show is worth a special trip to NYC because it is a visual feast. For me, an overdose because just a handful of wonderful pictures fills my feeble brain to the brim.
This from his "Classical" period, 1920s.
More of my pics below the fold -
Continue reading ""Good artists borrow. Great artists steal." The Met's Picasso show"
Saturday, July 31. 2010
Thanks, Opie, for these photos with the data, which came in over the transom. I cannot source it, but kudos to whoever put this together. It is interesting not only to see the different sorts of families (extended, nuclear, large, small, desert, middle-class) but to see what they typically eat in a week.
Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide. Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07. (I guess that included the wine and beer)
Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo: Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53
Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo. Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
On continuation page below, USA, Bhutan, Mexico, Poland, Chad, and Italy:
Continue reading "Food and Families around the world"
It’s not for me to argue Catholic teachings, but my friend The Anchoress Elizabeth Scalia’s reply to Anne Rice's problem with whether Christians are living her political liberalism probably comes as close as to the Catholicism I learned being raised a Jew in a Catholic and Jewish neighborhood. Rice, like many or most of various religions, confuses politics with faith or, worse, substitutes politics for faith.
There’s a universal message, whether from scripture or Pope, that works: Open your heart and G-d will walk in. Close your mind and G-d’s presence is clouded, at least until your heart is set free.
Struggle with that as you wish or need to find meaning and salvation. Struggle is important in building strengths and to advance. That allows the confidence and trust that ultimately works, to accept the faith in man and in our actions being truer to G-d’s missions for us.
There’s a practical measure each can easily know, if not denied: Are you living life’s struggles with contentment instead of anguish or anger.
There are varying interpretations of whom Jacob wrestles, the result of which is his renaming as Israel. There’s agreement, however, that wrestling spirits with spirit is transforming.
A poem I just dashed off (revised in keeping with the form):
I
Am Nothing
Struggle Makes Us
Strong Enough To Accept
The Guiding Light To Make
Something Better Of I
G-d’s Better I
Is All
Us
Rembrandt's depiction of Jacob's wrestling is one of engagement, not separation.
Friday, July 30. 2010
 The Volt: G.M.’s Electric Lemon.
Can somebody tell me how this piece of expensive and useless crap is supposed to save the world?
Where do people think electricity comes from? Thor?
Photo is a Yugo, not a Volt. But you knew that.
 Since News Junkie is taking off for August, and only the names and the dates change, here’s a guide to the daily news for our readers. Fill in the blanks.
CONGRESS:
Congressional Democrats Deny Scheme To _________________.
Congressional Democrats Propose Scheme To _________________.
Congressional Democrats Expect To Survive 2010 Elections Because _________________.
Congressional Democrats Poll Numbers Continue To Decline Because _________________.
Congressional Democrats Refuse To Investigate ___________________.
Congressional Republicans Have A Secret Plan to ______________________.
Congressional Republican’s Secret Plan Is Not To _______________________.
Congressional Republicans’ Chances Hindered By Extreme Statements About _____________.
Congressional Republicans’ Extreme Statements Are Only So To Leftist Journalists Who Say ________.
PRESIDENT:
President Obama declares urgency of ____________________.
President Obama puts off decision on __________________.
President Obama vacations in _____________________.
President Obama nominates ____________________.
President Obama’s nominee’s past reveals _______________.
President Obama recess appoints _________________.
President Obama’s longtime friend under the bus ______________.
President Obama says Bush at fault for _________________.
President Obama breaks another campaign pledge to _________________.
President Obama praises despot ___________________.
President Obama criticizes ally ________________.
JOURNALISM AND COMMENTARY:
Major media journalists ignore above news about ____________________.
Bloggers investigate and reveal facts about ___________________.
Major media find excuses for _________________________.
Bloggers persist about ___________________.
Major media run stories about bloggers not being journalists ____________________.
Polls indicate more people believe bloggers about _________________.
Major media continues to ignore facts about ________________.
Major media continues to shrink ___________________.
Major media appoints new liberal to masthead ___________________.
Major media reports scientist saying science says to ____________________.
Scientist’s science is based on faulty methodology ________________________.
Major media repeats scientist’s assertion about ___________________.
Smart person eloquently points out the obvious about ________________.
Smarty pants commentator points out purported minor exceptions to the obvious to disprove the obvious about _________________.
MAGGIE’S FARM:
Old server crashes again and excused as ________________________.
Bird Dog vacations in ____________________.
Photos of Bird Dog’s vacation in _________________________.
Debate continues on how much cheesecake is appropriate ________________________.
Big links to Maggie’s cheesecake from major blogger _________________________.
Serious subjects essayed at Maggie’s Farm arouse commenters about other subjects ____________.
Fun subjects at Maggie’s Farm arouse commenters to add to fun about ___________________.
Maggie’s Farm recipes and computer advice only work for blogger _________________.
Bruce interrupts permanent vacation to say (sometimes boring) _________________.
Joy Bliss pithily starts a subject and doesn’t finish about ______________________.
Great art and literature you never heard of about _____________________.
I think that the religious faith of most average Christians waxes and wanes over time, sometimes even in the course of a day. I do know people whose faith seems to be 100% and rock solid. In the end, I don't find thinking about the topic of strength of faith particularly useful or productive. God is a mystery to me, as is existence itself (and most other things too), but I believe that in prayer and in practice one can come into relationship with God - or at least with Jesus.
Ron Rosenbaum speaks up for the Enlightenment agnostic in everyone: An Agnostic Manifesto - At least we know what we don't know. One quote:
Atheists have no evidence—and certainly no proof!—that science will ever solve the question of why there is something rather than nothing. Just because other difficult-seeming problems have been solved does not mean all difficult problems will always be solved. And so atheists really exist on the same superstitious plane as Thomas Aquinas, who tried to prove by logic the possibility of creation "ex nihilo" (from nothing). His eventual explanation entailed a Supreme Being standing outside of time and space somehow endowing it with existence (and interfering once in a while) without explaining what caused this source of "uncaused causation" to be created in the first place.
This is—or should be—grade-school stuff, but many of the New Atheists seemed to have stopped thinking since their early grade-school science-fair triumphs.
Right, sort-of (I don't think we even know what we don't know). Science is not a religion. It's just a formalized, rigorous mode of inquiry from which most of the data and facts and theories are inevitably replaced over time. It is incapable of handling the Big Questions and Big Truth, but it sure can be useful. For example, we currently believe that "gravity" doesn't exist as a "force," but it's a handy concept anyway. Someday, our talk of "forces" wil be viewed as little more than 18th century gods.
Chesterton: ""If there were no God, there would be no atheists."
Thursday, July 29. 2010
Conscious guilt causes agony while unconscious guilt can shape a person.
I tend to see more people wracked with conscious guilt. Sometimes it's neurotic (ie, irrational in proportion), and sometimes it is good old ordinary guilt for rotten behavior and/or evil thoughts.
There are many causes of self-defeating or self-sabotaging behavior besides unconscious guilt (for examples, avoidance of difficult things or avoidance of risky challenges), but guilt is always on the list of considerations.
Dr. X discusses the topic here and here.
I want to go the the museum at the Belevedere Palace in Vienna more to see the Kokoshkas than to see the jazzy Klimts. Klimt is fine, but Kokoshka is one of the gnarly German Expressionists that I get a kick out of. Well, Austrian in this case.
I have a good Klimt quote though:
I have never painted a self-portrait. I am less interested in myself as a subject for a painting than I am in other people, above all women...There is nothing special about me. I am a painter who paints day after day from morning to night...Who ever wants to know something about me... ought to look carefully at my pictures.
Kokoshka's famous 1914 Bride of the Wind:
Wednesday, July 28. 2010
A quote from his interview:
You know what that rally was? The "me first" rally. "Pay me my raise first. Pay me my free health benefits first. Pay me my pension first. And everybody else in New Jersey, get to the back of the line." Well, you know what? I'm not going to sit by and allow that to go unnoticed, so we'll shine a bright light on it, and we'll see how the people react. But I think we are seeing how the people of New Jersey are reacting, and that's how you make it politically palatable in other states in the country. Just shine a bright light on greed and self-interest."
It's the right time to take on the greed of government unions. Somebody's got to do it before every Dem state goes bankrupt. As I always say, the marriage between government unions and the Dem party is an intrinsically corrupt conspiracy against the people.
Rick Moran led us to the real meaning of Dog Days. Via Wiki:
For the ancient Egyptians, Sirius appeared just before the season of the Nile's flooding, so they used the star as a "watchdog" for that event. Since its rising also coincided with a time of extreme heat, the connection with hot, sultry weather was made for all time.
Sirius is the shiny dog collar tag in Canis Major:
Tuesday, July 27. 2010
It's good to hear Tom Sowell say it: How Smart Are We? Elites may have more brilliance, but they can’t have as much experience as the people whose decisions they preempt.
One quote:
One of the ideas that has proved to be almost impervious to evidence is the idea that wise and far-sighted people need to take control, and plan economic and social policies so that there will be a rational and just order, rather than chaos resulting from things being allowed to take their own course. It sounds so logical and plausible that demanding hard evidence would seem almost like nit-picking.
"Things taking their own course" means, of course, people exercising free choice.
Some of us here have been accused of being elites ourselves. If I am in that category somehow, put me in the subgroup that has no interest in controlling anybody but myself. Just that is difficult enough, and often impossible.
 One pesky little computer problem is when you run a program most of the time the computer is up, like an email program, but it minimizes to the Task Bar and clutters up the place with its icon. For 'permanent' programs that run all of the time, the better routine is to stick the icon in the SysTray (the area just to the right of the Task Bar) and leave the Task Bar area for current projects.
Some programs have a setting in their Options that tells them to minimize to the SysTray, so check that first.
To solve this little poser, we have a program with the cheek-pinchingly cute name of Trayconizer. It's not promised to work on every program, but it's worked on the three I've thrown at it.
Home page is here. Get the 'Unicode build'.
Unzip the file to its own 'Trayconizer' folder in a place you'll later be able to locate. This is, if you put the Trayconizer folder in a 'Tools' folder, remember it for the next step.
To set up a program for trayconizing, go to the Start Menu, find its icon, right-click on it and open the Properties.
In the 'Target' box, put the full path to Trayconizer before the path to the program.
(capital letters are only used for clarity in the following)
For example, if you placed the Trayconizer folder in a 'Tools' folder, the path would be:
C:\Tools\Trayconizer\Trayconizer.exe <existing path to program>
If you stuck it in a folder with a blank space in the name, like 'Program Files', you need to put the whole path in quotes:
"C:\Program Files\Trayconizer\Trayconizer.exe" <path to program>
If there's an error in the path, Windows will let you know when you click 'OK' to close the box. If you get stuck, open the Properties of the Trayconizer icon, highlight the 'Location', copy it to memory with Ctrl-C, paste it into the 'Target' box with Ctrl-V.
Now when you minimize the program the icon should go to the SysTray. Single-click on it to get a few options, double-click to pop the program back open.
Monday, July 26. 2010
As I always do before trips, I am catching up on history. This trip will be Vienna and the Danube. I view these places historically as the hinterlands, but you cannot fault their production of music in recent centuries. Music, wars, and sort-of hideous baroque architecture.
Vienna had been a Roman frontier outpost, but surely had been a barbarian settlement before that.
I do recall that European History in high school made my head spin from the endless alliances and endless wars and the reconfigurations of empires, kingdoms, duchies, principalities, and nations. With my ADD, it's a wonder I did so well with it. Forgot most of it. The War of the Spanish Succession.
I did not forget some details of the devastating Franco-Prussian War, but I certainly had forgotten that "German Austria" wanted to be part of Germany after WW1, but the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations forbade it. German Austria reached down into the (still) German-speaking areas of northern Italy. The Austria of today is a relatively brand-new nation (1945 or 1955 - pick the date) although it was a Babenburg duchy in 1156 and later was roughly the core of the Hapsburg's power for 640 years.
The Hapsburgs are credited with keeping the Ottomans out of Europe in 1683, but the King of Poland, Jan Sobieski, deserves lots of credit. There were 300 years of resisting the Ottoman Empire's invasions. I have never understood why Middle-Easterners coveted Europe, but they still do.
I find it amusing to think of what was going on in the wilds of the American colonies at the same time. Only Spain really cared, because of the gold. Otherwise insignificant except as pawns in larger European power games.
In the early 1700s, the Hapsburgs counted among their imperial control Belgium, Sardinia, Corsica, the Duchy of Milan, Naples, and Sicily. Two hundred years earlier, HRE "Emperor" Charles V in 1516 also happened to be King of Spain, bringing Spanish America, for a while, into the bounds of the Holy Roman Empire - such as it was: A crown, a flag, a bunch of castles and palaces, a title, and some truly snazzy outfits with fancy medals on them to impress the gals. Being King of Spain, on the other hand, was probably a cool gig with plenty of perks and babes.
The modern European nations are all younger in their configurations and their governmental structures than the US (except for the post-Empire island core of Britain).
One thought this perspective gave me is that the EU may be little more than an expanded reconstitution of the Holy Roman Empire - combined with the old Roman Empire. In time, it will pass too.
Photo below, Palace Schoenbrunn, first constructed as a hunting lodge in the early 1700s. "Hey, honey, have you seen where I put my camo and my ammo?"
That's from a time when royal governments lived off the labor of the people. Not like now, right?
An email from a buddy:
 I came across a Japanese Type 14 Nambu pistol. These were reasonably well made Japanese semi-autos, used from mid-1920's until end of WWII. The ammo is available for around $25/box of 50. I had planned on using it for a project that didn't work out
If interested, I can email photos. I'd like just what I paid for it - $300.
I don't need one and do not want one, but it's an interesting firearm from an historical point of view.
Everything about the Type 14 here.
Sunday, July 25. 2010
Encinitas, where I live, is the last refuge of traditional laid back Southern California beach towns. We have the usual run of art shops selling third rate paintings to tourists, any town's laughing-up-our-sleeves joke on the gullible.
But, the beachside bronze paid for by the local Cardiff Botanical Society (WTF does surfing have to do with botany?) has run into disdain for its insufficiently iconic image. Locals don't consider it realistic enough, and aren't to be treated as gullible by purveyers of public art who foist their artistic sense (or not) upon the populace.
The statue, disdainfully titled "Cardiff Kook" by surfers, has been dressed in tutu and bikini, but the latest Encinitans-gone-wild prank is the best yet.
Overnight, a huge papier-mache replica of a great white shark was erected devouring the statue.
The Sheriff Lt. at the scene said, “It wasn’t considered vandalism because there wasn’t any permanent defacing.” The sculptural addition will be removed, to the sorrow of locals and the crowds who consider it an improvement and stop to admire and shoot photos.
Encinitans will strike again.
What public sculpture in your town would benefit from a puckish aesthetic addition?
Saturday, July 24. 2010
Via Dallas News' aviation blog:
Mr. Anubis, in situ.
Can you imagine being a person who is scared of flying, and you do not know that there’s a three story tall statue of the Egyptian god of the dead nearby the runway easement, and you’re in your seat in the takeoff roll, and you look out the window – say it’s night time too – and all floodlit standing there staring at you as you’re going past at 150 mph is – Mr. Anubis ?
or, somewhere nearby also at the Denver International Airport, the Blue Mustang?
 We promised that we would bring the Dylanologist, who is stationed in Rome for the summer, a supply of peanut butter. I guess the Italians don't have it. It's their loss. You would think the southern Italians would get sick of tomato sauce. I am, for sure. They would quickly learn to appreciate a PB&J on white.
Fortunately, they do not use much pasta or really any tomato sauce in northern Italy where I am headed tomorrow.
Despite the glories of Italian (non-pasta) cuisine, sometimes a fellow just needs some peanut butter - and not the unpleasant organic kind. Skippy's ultra-chunky always hits the spot. I will squeeze two large things of it into my bag for the guy.
Hope Italian Customs doesn't give me a hard time for this act of smuggling. After all, it would be easy to suffocate somebody with a face full of Skippy's Creamy.
In the WSJ: "Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege - America still owes a debt to its black citizens, but government programs to help all 'people of color' are unfair. They should end."
America owes no special debt to its black citizens - or to any of its citizens. If any American does not feel fortunate as hell to be here, they should depart - while bearing in mind that half the world would move here if they could. Maybe Webb, an accidental Senator (due to macaca) felt he had to say that for political purposes.
But although Webb, a Dem, does not vote in ways with which I agree, I give him credit for his thought crimes in his op-ed: He seems to believe that all Americans ought to be regarded equally in law and government regardless of the vagaries of skin tone or ethnic background. I agree with that radical postition.
The Other McCain has a more cynical, and probably more savvy, view.
Friday, July 23. 2010
Rhee fires 226 teachers.
This is only a big deal because public school teachers are so often unionized. Pre-teachers unions, they were professionals - meaning that their work was subject to their own conscience, honor, best reasonable effort, etc., - and the judgement of those paying the salary. Today, only private school teachers can be regarded as true professionals, even though I acknowledge the vast numbers of utterly dedicated public school teachers (including many who bemoan the industrialization of their chosen field).
Why should teachers get tenure anyway? Nobody else does, not even pastors.
As in the post below about medical insurance, teaching should be opened up. Throw out those worthless teaching degrees and let the marketplace decide. I'd bet there are plenty of retired guys who would love to teach math or literature or history, and could do a better job than kids just out of their education degrees.
The best English teacher two of my kids had (in private school) was a retired Sports Illustrated writer and editor. He knew his way around choice of words and the construction of sentences, but the "idea" and the "image" were keys. Essay structure had to be perfect, Francis Bacon-style.
And with grammar, he would have ripped my posts to shreds (but I "fly casual" at Maggie's, conversational English - and it is a relief for me to do so).
An expert’s review of “The Internet And The Organization Of Innovation” from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) casts light on the Rasmussen poll that “75% Say Free Markets Better Than Government Management of Economy, Political Class Disagrees.”
The Rasmussen survey, by contrast to the 75% of Likely Voters who say “more competition and less regulation is better for the economy“ finds “America’s Political Class is far less enamored with the virtues of a free market. In fact, Political Class voters [“the clique that revolves around Washington, DC, and Wall Street”] narrowly prefer a government managed economy over free markets by a 44% to 37% margin.”
Professor Shane Greenstein, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management examines the origins and development of the Internet.
From a synopsis provided by NBER, he “uses the example of the creation of the internet to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of two distinct ways of organizing a long-term program for accumulating innovation.”
One approach, which characterized the early development of the internet, relies on autonomous research institutions ("skunk works") to organize and nurture innovators. The other, which has applied more recently, relies on commercial markets to aggregate dispersed initiatives from a wide array of entrepreneurial participants.
The "skunk works" approach runs the risk that innovation will veer into areas where there is no demand, and thus no economic value. The pre-commercial Internet avoided some of those dangers because the participants in that phase of the internet assessed value from their own experiences. Their managers, in turn, nurtured them and permitted experimentation to blossom -- leading to useful and innovative applications, such as e-mail and packet switching. In addition, the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation (NSF) played a pivotal role as "demanders" for innovation. Their substantial funding of research institutions, and their distributed investments to universities, supported the innovative activity that led to the breakthrough technologies that underlie today's Internet. This "skunk works" approach, however, restricted participation and truncated experimentation by excluding innovation along lines that did not support the "acceptable use" requirements of the government agencies. Such restrictions limited learning to an artificially narrow range of issues, and left a wide array of other applications untouched.
In contrast to the early "skunk works" days, the more recent commercial era of the Internet has played to the strength of market-based innovation. It has permitted decentralized exploration from commercial firms facing a wide array of incentives and a wide variety of circumstances. Once released to commercial interests, the Internet became the springboard for a dizzying array of applications that were not envisioned by the sponsoring government agencies. These applications include the World Wide Web and its associated browsing technology.
In other words, government funding or direction of basic research or new programs may be useful and in some cases critical but further development of useful applications, adaptation, and wider spread acceptance and utility are best the province of free enterprise, or as Greenstein calls it "market-oriented and widely distributed investment and adoption."
Instead, in most government programs, the initial laws enacted that seek to foster or enlarge reform or innovation are too often crafted with further government controls in mind or as ignored unintended consequences due to hidden agendas. Not unintended but usually hidden is the self-serving enrichment and enlarged sway of the political class. If initiatives have any validity, they are still often more dangerous than presented just by not being geared to a hand-off to the private sector to adjust and improve but to enlarge the power of the political class while – by the nature of government programs – hindering transparent review and adaptive innovation.
Even in the case of the Internet, as complex and involved in most aspects of business and individual lives as healthcare, if left in the hands of the centralized “skunk works” we wouldn’t have seen the developments we enjoy today. In the case of other government programs, like ObamaCare as one of the worst instances, the clear objectives and consequences are nationalization of close to 20% of the economy and 100% of our lives, and even more stultifying – indeed deadly - to free market development of improved access, delivery and economics.
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