The mastermind of punk has died

He certainly shook things up when he unleashed the Sex Pistols upon the world of rock music!

Malcolm McLaren dies at the age of 64

A traditional Italian Easter! Buona Pasqua from East Boston!

Here's my mother's pizza chena, a regular at our Easter table.

Sorry you couldn't  make it.  The rice pie was just as good.

Easter Sunday, by Patti Smith

Always worth a listen on Easter Sunday from my favorite odd-ball, Patti Smith.

Easter Sunday, we were walking.
Easter Sunday, we were talking.
Isabel, my little one, take my hand. Time has come.
Isabella, all is glowing.
Isabella, all is knowing.
And my heart, Isabella.
And my head, Isabella.
Frederick and Vitalie, savior dwells inside of thee.
Oh, the path leads to the sun. Brother, sister, time has come.
Isabella, all is glowing.
Isabella, all is knowing.
Isabella, we are dying.
Isabella, we are rising.
I am the spring, the holy ground,
the endless seed of mystery,
the thorn, the veil, the face of grace,
the brazen image, the thief of sleep,
the ambassador of dreams, the prince of peace.
I am the sword, the wound, the stain.
Scorned transfigured child of Cain.
I rend, I end, I return.
Again I am the salt, the bitter laugh.
I am the gas in a womb of light, the evening star,
the ball of sight that leads that sheds the tears of Christ
dying and drying as I rise tonight.
Isabella, we are rising.
Isabella, we are rising . .

Bravo Peggy Noonan

Peggy Noonan spells it out wonderfully

John Paul the Great, about whom I wrote an admiring book which recounts some of the scandals—I spent a grim 2003 going through the depositions of Massachusetts clergy—one fact seems to me pre-eminent. For Pope John Paul II, the scandals would have been unimaginable—literally not imaginable. He had come of age in an era and place (Poland in the 1930s, '40s and '50s) of heroic priests. They were great men; they suffered. He had seen how the Nazis and later the communists had attempted to undermine the church and tear people away from it, sometimes through slander. They did this because the great force arrayed against them was the Catholic Church. John Paul, his mind, psyche and soul having been forged in that world, might well have seen the church's recent accusers as spreaders of slander. Because priests don't act like that, it's not imaginable. And he'd seen it before, only now it wasn't Nazism or communism attempting to kill the church with lies, but modernity and its soulless media.

Only they weren't lies.

There are three great groups of victims in this story. The first and most obvious, the children who were abused, who trusted, were preyed upon and bear the burden through life. The second group is the good priests and good nuns, the great leaders of the church in the day to day, who save the poor, teach the immigrant, and, literally, save lives. They have been stigmatized when they deserve to be lionized. And the third group is the Catholics in the pews—the heroic Catholics of America and now Europe, the hardy souls who in spite of what has been done to their church are still there, still making parish life possible, who hold high the flag, their faith unshaken. No one thanks those Catholics, sees their heroism, respects their patience and fidelity. The world thinks they're stupid. They are not stupid, and with their prayers they keep the world going, and the old church too.

Read the entire article.

The ultimate virtucrats: environmentalists

Can't say I'm surprised!

A little Saturday afternoon smoothness with Tom Verlaine

Tom Verlaine under his Marquee Moon! Bravo.

Keyboardist Jon Lord To Release New Album In March

An interesting conceptual enterprise from Jon Lord, who once attacked keyboards with great ferocity  for Deep Purple.

According to JonLord.org,  Jon Lord will release his next album, To Notice Such Things, on March 22 through Avie Records.

Titled after the main work -- a six movement suite for solo flute, piano and string orchestra -- the album was inspired by, and is dedicated to, the memory of Jon's dear friend Sir John Mortimer, the English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter, author and creator of British television series Rumpole Of The Bailey, who died in January 2009.

"He was a great friend and a great inspiration to me and I hope my love and respect for him comes out in the music," says Jon.

I can't wait!

Soft Machine in Italy

One of the great progressive music bands in my lifetime: Soft Machine.

TSA brilliance

Let's put a 4-year-old with leg braces through a little airport screening hell. But let's not call it a war on terror.

The very great Steve Morse

Steve Morse



He is the most tasteful guitarist of my generation. Period.

Holdsworth and Company!

Always worth a listen. Holdsworth, Levin, Bozzio, Mastelotto live!

Iron Maiden looking like Metallica doing Jethro Tull

Mashing away with Cross Eyed Mary, the Tull classic.
Clever! Very Clever.

What I share with Joseph Schumpeter: a birthday

Joseph Schumpeter was born on this day. So was I.

Hat tip to Organizations and Markets: "Happy Schumpeter Day"

It was, from the beginning, a power grab!

The global warming consensus is falling apart.

Good for climate change skepticism. That's how science is supposed to work, isn't it?

But the claim [that the Himalayan glaciers could melt away] was rubbish, and the world's top glaciologists knew it. It was based not on rigorously peer-reviewed science but on an anecdotal report by the WWF itself. When its background came to light on the eve of Copenhagen, Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the IPCC, shrugged it off. But now, even leading scientists and environmental groups admit the IPCC is facing a crisis of credibility that makes the Climategate affair look like small change.

“The global warming movement as we have known it is dead,” the brilliant analyst Walter Russell Mead says in his blog on The American Interest. It was done in by a combination of bad science and bad politics.

The impetus for the Copenhagen conference was that the science makes it imperative for us to act. But even if that were true – and even if we knew what to do – a global deal was never in the cards. As Mr. Mead writes, “The global warming movement proposed a complex set of international agreements involving vast transfers of funds, intrusive regulations in national economies, and substantial changes to the domestic political economies of most countries on the planet.” Copenhagen was never going to produce a breakthrough. It was a dead end.

And now, the science scandals just keep on coming. First there was the vast cache of e-mails leaked from the University of East Anglia, home of a crucial research unit responsible for collecting temperature data. Although not fatal to the science, they revealed a snakepit of scheming to keep contradictory research from being published, make imperfect data look better, and withhold information from unfriendly third parties. If science is supposed to be open and transparent, these guys acted as if they had a lot to hide.

Despite widespread efforts to play down the Climategate e-mails, they were very damaging. An investigation by the British newspaper The Guardian – among the most aggressive advocates for action on climate change – has found that a series of measurements from Chinese weather stations were seriously flawed, and that documents relating to them could not be produced.

Meantime, the IPCC – the body widely regarded, until now, as the ultimate authority on climate science – is looking worse and worse. After it was forced to retract its claim about melting glaciers, Mr. Pachauri dismissed the error as a one-off. But other IPCC claims have turned out to be just as groundless.

Hugo Chavez and his thugs

What the liberals and socialist from Amherst to Cambridge choose to ignore: Hugo Chavez and violence against protesters. Joe Kennedy call your office.

Is it time again to boycott Citgo?

Ron Radosh on Howard Zinn

The "historian" as propagandist. Ron Radosh, speaks truth to the legacy of Howard Zinn.

From Zinn's perspective, history should not be told from the standpoints of generals or presidents, but through that of people who struggle for their rights, who engage in strikes, boycotts, slave rebellions and the like. Its purpose should be to encourage similar behavior today. Indeed, Zinn candidly said that history was not about "understanding the past," but rather, about "changing the future." That statement alone should have disqualified anyone from referring to him as a historian.

Howard Zinn presented a pedestrian view of American history, a view that found popularizers in small minds like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Ultimately it was insulting to both the profession and the people he championed. The future may need changing but what history has shown is the alternative systems, socialism and communism, no doubt favorites of Zinn, were wisely relegated to the dustbins. The historical illiteracy we face today is part of Zinn's legacy.

More on Zinn here. 

The meaning of Scott Brown

D.R. Tucker:

There was a collective sigh of relief from the blue-state right on Tuesday night. For years, conservatives and Republicans in overwhelmingly Democratic states had to live their lives in fear and shame, having been convicted without trial on charges of ignorance and intolerance. They suffered in silence, realizing that they could not convince ideologically rigid progressives that they too, believed in equality, fairness and diversity, disagreeing only on the manner through which such goals should be achieved.

Now, in the wake of Brown’s victory, they can finally live in peace and freedom, acknowledging their true selves and affirming their true identities. They can finally march down the street in a parade of patriotic pride.

Brown will forever be a hero to blue-state conservatives. He embodies what conservatism actually is: upbeat, hopeful, forward-thinking, energetic. For too long, progressive activists and Democratic strategists have raised the specter of sulking, snarling, scowling Southern conservatives as a means of scaring people away from conservative and Republican ideas; they will no longer be able to get away with such attacks. Brown has demonstrated that an optimistic person from any part of the country can find merit in the right’s core philosophy.

Against Big Government

Wake up America.
Poll: Most Americans Want Smaller Government, Fewer Services "All hail the Libertarian Moment!"

Cato weighs in on gay marriage

The Moral and Constitutional Case for a Right to Gay Marriage | Robert A. Levy | Cato Institute: Commentary

No compelling reason has been proffered for sanctioning heterosexual but not homosexual marriages. Nor is a ban on gay marriage a close fit for attaining the goals cited by proponents of such bans. If the goal, for example, is to strengthen the institution of marriage, a more effective step might be to bar no-fault divorce and premarital cohabitation. If the goal is to ensure procreation, then infertile and aged couples should be precluded from marriage.

Instead, most states have implemented an irrational and unjust system that provides significant benefits to just-married heterosexuals while denying benefits to a male or female couple who have enjoyed a loving, committed, faithful and mutually reinforcing relationship over several decades. That's not the way it has to be. Government benefits triggered by marriage could just as easily be triggered by other objective criteria, leaving the definition of marriage in the hands of private institutions.

In honor of Dr. King

Required reading: Letter from a Birmingham Jail.

It's a groundswell of support for Brown

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette endorses Scott Brown for U.S. Senate.

What About Microeconomics? - Forbes.com

What About Microeconomics? - Forbes.com

So little time...

To read the Top 10 Libertarian books of the decade.

A pretty good compilation.

My review of the Elusive Quest is here.

Hallelujah with the LSO

Wonderful!



The joys of Western civilization.

Thought for the day

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself - and be lenient to everybody else.
- - Henry Ward Beecher

The moral sentiments updated. Adam Smith was right about a lot of things

The blog site known as Knowledge Problem tackles Mark Hauser's thesis that biology not religion is responsible for our morality.

What I found particularly striking is the consistency of his analysis with arguments made over 200 years ago, by David Hume and Adam Smith. Both Hume and Smith argued that our morality is grounded in our human nature in the form of our “sentiments”, and that in many ways these sentiments transcend the specifics of religion or culture.

Paul Samuelson has died

The old master of the economic textbook sweepstakes, Paul Samuelson has died. He is famous for saying: 'I don't care who writes a nation's laws, or crafts its treatises, if I can write its economics textbooks.'"

R.I.P.

Obama strikes the right notes. Bravo!

The Volokh Conspiracy » Three cheers for President Obama!: "It is true that Obama administration has not always fully lived by these noble words. But at least today, the words themselves are what matters. The President’s Nobel Prize Speech was no apology tour, no bow to a foreign monarch. Like his speech at West Point, the Nobel speech was a strong continuation of the bipartisan Kennedy-Reagan foreign policy based on military strength, support for human rights, readiness to negotiate, and realistic idealism. Today, our President made me especially proud to be an American.

Here's the Obama passage that made David Kopel, on this day, a believer.

I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism — it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.

I raise this point, I begin with this point because in many countries there is a deep ambivalence about military action today, no matter what the cause. And at times, this is joined by a reflexive suspicion of America, the world’s sole military superpower.

But the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions — not just treaties and declarations — that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest — because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if others’ children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.

The Nobel Committee thought it would get the usual refrain that typified the Obama apology tours. Instead, it got a real shot of American exceptionalism of the kind that has enabled the comfort of their convictions. And it was Obama who delivered the singe. I'm sure it was not what they expected.

Martha Coakley's dubious history

Ann Coulter rips into Martha Coakley, our putative next U.S. Senator.

However, will this be an issue?

The great Douglass North on the new Nobel winners in Economics

Beyond the models: Douglass North on Ostrom and Williamson's enlargement of the study of economics.


Hat tip: Organizations and Markets.

My review of Professor North's book, Understanding the Process of Economic Change, is available here.

Government's eminent domain failure

Judge Souter's gift keeps on giving. Kelo was the Supreme Court at its worst.
When will they learn?

New London (AP) - Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation's most notorious eminent domain project.

There are a few signs of life: Feral cats glare at visitors from a miniature jungle of Queen Anne's lace, thistle and goldenrod. Gulls swoop between the lot's towering trees and the adjacent sewage treatment plant.

But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues? They are noticeably missing.

Proponents of the ambitious plan blame the sour economy. Opponents call it a "poetic justice."

"They are getting what they deserve. They are going to get nothing," said Susette Kelo, the lead plaintiff in the landmark property rights case. "I don't think this is what the United States Supreme Court justices had in mind when they made this decision."

Kelo's iconic pink home sat for more than a century on that currently empty lot, just steps away from Connecticut's quaint but economically distressed Long Island Sound waterfront. Shortly after she moved in, in 1997, her house became ground zero in the nation's best-known land rights catfight.

Contractor: New Zumix building project to be completed this month

ZUMIX project near completion

WOBURN, EAST BOSTON, MA, ISSUED NOVEMBER 20, 2009…Landmark Structures Corporation, a leading full service General Contractor/Construction Management Company since 1993, anticipates a November completion date for a joint venture renovation project between ZUMIX and the East Boston Community Development Corporation.

Landmark Structures has served as General Contractor for the estimated $2 million project that encompasses the renovation of a 9,000 square foot former firehouse at 260 Sumner Street in East Boston into the new home of ZUMIX, a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to building community through music and the arts.

ZUMIX and the East Boston Community Development Corporation, in a joint venture, purchased the former fire house from the City of Boston. More
File Photo: Eastboston.com

21st Century Schziod Man -- The Ian Wallace Run

WOW! The late Ian Wallace with Marc Bonilla on guitar rendering magnificently an "uncanny" classic.

CIvil liberties under Obama; A word to the wise

How can this be under the poseur Obama?

In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day.

The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site "not to disclose the existence of this request" unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization.

Kristina Clair, a 34-year old Linux administrator living in Philadelphia who provides free server space for Indymedia.us, said she was shocked to receive the Justice Department's subpoena. (The Independent Media Center is a left-of-center amalgamation of journalists and advocates that – according to their principles of unity and mission statement – work toward "promoting social and economic justice" and "social change.")

The subpoena (PDF) from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded "all IP traffic to and from www.indymedia.us" on June 25, 2008. It instructed Clair to "include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information," including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers' Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on.

"I didn't think anything we were doing was worthy of any (federal) attention," Clair said in a telephone interview with CBSNews.com on Monday. After talking to other Indymedia volunteers, Clair ended up calling the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, which represented her at no cost.

Who's watching Eric Holder?

A little history lesson: the victims of Communism

Masters of the Universe; Too big to fail

This is a joke right?

With Goldman taking a daily beating in the PR department for everything from its runaway profits to "Government Sachs" conspiracies to swine flu vaccines, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein decided to give his side of the firm's story in a lengthy interview with The Sunday Times of London.

But some things are probably better left unsaid, most notably Blankfein's declaration that Goldman is "doing God's work."

It's an unfortunate phrase on many levels. What Blankfein was trying to say is Goldman serves a "social purpose," as The Sunday Times reported he also did say. "We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital," Blankfein said. "Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It's a virtuous cycle."

There is an element of truth to that statement but it shows a level of tone-deafness that's surprising, even coming from a Wall Street CEO. As Henry and I discuss in the accompanying video, there are concrete steps Goldman could take to refurbish its image, which is going to take another hit in the court of public opinion.

Given the ongoing outrage about Goldman's bonuses - estimated to exceed $20 billion for 2009 - a year after the company was rescued by the U.S. government (whether they admit it or not) - Goldman's supporters are probably wishing Blankfein had chosen to speak softly and carry a big checkbook.

I disagree

Macca's hard on himself and the Beatles. As a songwriting duo I have yet to find any better than Lennon and McCartney.

A little wisdom from the Angry Economist

Collectivism sucks.
Really it does. Fear the smart set; they think they never make mistakes.

Jeffrey Bell: Bob Novak, Truth Seeker - WSJ.com

Jeffrey Bell: Bob Novak, Truth Seeker - WSJ.com

East Boston News: Advice on spyware

East Boston News: Advice on spyware

A little Tin Machine in the morning.

Ah yes a little Tin Machine rattling in the morning. Bowie rules!

The smarter they are the dumber they are: Harvard edition

BLOOMBERG:

Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard University’s failed bet that interest rates would rise cost the world’s richest school at least $500 million in payments to escape derivatives that backfired.

Harvard paid $497.6 million to investment banks during the fiscal year ended June 30 to get out of $1.1 billion of interest-rate swaps intended to hedge variable-rate debt for capital projects, the school’s annual report said. The university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said it also agreed to pay $425 million over 30 to 40 years to offset an additional $764 million in swaps.

The transactions began losing value last year as central banks slashed benchmark lending rates, forcing the university to post collateral with lenders, said Daniel Shore, Harvard’s chief financial officer. Some agreements require that the parties post collateral if there are significant changes in interest rates.

“When we went into the fall, we had some serious liquidity management issues we were dealing with and the collateral postings on the swaps was one,” Shore said in an interview yesterday. “In evaluating our liquidity position, we wanted to get some stability and some safety.”

Harvard sold $2.5 billion in bonds in the fiscal year, in part to pay for the swap exit, even as the school’s endowment recorded its biggest loss in 40 years, the report released yesterday said. This is the first time the university has detailed the cost of exiting its swaps.

What is it about Harvard alumni, you can always tell one but you can't tell him much. Blowback on know-it-alls.

Nobel Laureate Oliver Williamson's Econ 224 class

Nobel Laureate Oliver Williamson isn't exactly an economic formalist and we could probably use fewer of them these days. The course outline from his course in "The Economics of Institutions," is here. 

Hat tip: Organizations and Markets.

More hate crimes against Christopher Columbus

Out of the plumbers bags of tricks. When will this be considered harrassment?

DENVER—A Denver parade in honor of Christopher Columbus is on—despite a phony e-mail that circulated Thursday saying the downtown celebration was canceled for lack of funds.

The Sons of Italy's Columbus Day Parade Committee in Denver was shocked to learn of the e-mail sent to the media, which was signed by Sons of Italy President Richard SaBell. The fake e-mail said protesters had "ruined" the event and tarnished the legacy of an Italian hero.

SaBell rushed to assure people the e-mail was a hoax after local media and The Associated Press started reporting Saturday's parade was off. He said he reported the phony e-mail to Denver police.

"I feel violated," said SaBell, adding he didn't know who was behind the hoax. "This whole thing is bogus. The parade was never off."

Denver police said its computer crimes unit is investigating.

Colorado has observed Columbus Day since 1907 and is credited with being first to make the day a state holiday. Columbus Day has since become a federal holiday.

Autumnal joy at the Garlic Festival in Orange, MA

The North Quabbin Garlic Festival -- "the festival that stinks" -- takes place each year in Orange, MA. It's one of our favorite harvest-time events with enough to keep the kids busy for an entire afternoon.

The festival is also a great opportunity for artists from Central Massachusetts and beyond to plug their work. One of the most arresting sets of work belonged to sculptor James Kitchen, who works superbly with industrial junk.

We need to hear more from Marc Bonilla

Marc Bonilla's soaring intrepretation of Procol Harem's Whiter Shade of Pale

Poem for the day: Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry epitomizes to some degree, the idiocy of rural life.

A Speech to the Garden Club of America in the New Yorker, of course.

(With thanks to Wes Jackson and in memory of Sir Albert Howard and Stan Rowe.)

Thank you. I’m glad to know we’re friends, of course;

There are so many outcomes that are worse.

But I must add I’m sorry for getting here

By a sustained explosion through the air,

Burning the world in fact to rise much higher

Than we should go. The world may end in fire

As prophesied—our world! We speak of it

As “fuel” while we burn it in our fit

Of temporary progress, digging up

An antique dark-held luster to corrupt

The present light with smokes and smudges, poison

To outlast time and shatter comprehension.

Burning the world to live in it is wrong,

As wrong as to make war to get along

And be at peace, to falsify the land

By sciences of greed, or by demand

For food that’s fast or cheap to falsify

The body’s health and pleasure—don’t ask why.

But why not play it cool? Why not survive

By Nature’s laws that still keep us alive?

Let us enlighten, then, our earthly burdens

By going back to school, this time in gardens

That burn no hotter than the summer day.

By birth and growth, ripeness, death and decay,

By goods that bind us to all living things,

Life of our life, the garden lives and sings.

The Wheel of Life, delight, the fact of wonder,

Contemporary light, work, sweat, and hunger

Bring food to table, food to cellar shelves.

A creature of the surface, like ourselves,

The garden lives by the immortal Wheel

That turns in place, year after year, to heal

It whole. Unlike our economic pyre

That draws from ancient rock a fossil fire,

An anti-life of radiance and fume

That burns as power and remains as doom,

The garden delves no deeper than its roots

And lifts no higher than its leaves and fruits.

Listening to the sage from Clemson

Economist Bruce Yandle on what matters in an economy and what the Fed should do.

God Bless Bill Safire

We'll never see his like again. William Safire dies at 79.

A sound Nixon man and a better writer, Safire was always refreshing to read on the pages of an institution that epitomizes the liberal media.

This is a big loss.

More from The Daily Beast.

100 Best Blogs for Econ Students | Online Universities Weblog

100 Best Blogs for Econ Students | Online Universities Weblog

When September arrives in East Boston

When a trip to the Produce Center in Chelsea for cases of tomatoes signals not only September but the time to make a year's supply of tomato sauce.

Since the arrival of Italian immigrants in East Boston, the canning (or bottling to be precise) of tomatoes for Sunday morning sauces commences with the harvest. Some tomatoes are grown in backyards along with basil; others are purchased in Chelsea. Either way they are enjoyed year round once the flavor has been sealed in air tight jars

For a few days in the crispy air of fall, a pleasant smell of basil and tomato wafts through cellars below the three-deckers on the island that is known as East Boston. Those jars make Sunday possible.

There will be fewer of these days as time, that eternal constraint, and a generation of Italian families passes. Precious they are indeed those cellars in the autumn.

God bless Fred Cusick

That voice -- so distinct -- was part of my early life listening and watching the Bruins on Channel 38. The Bruins were all the rage back in the early 1970s. Fred Cusick, one of the best play-by play announcers in hockey, has died. He was 90 and left the benchmark for which all Bruins announcers will be measured.

The exhilarating voice was the narrative to the art that was Bobby Orr, the greatest hockey player ever.

Fred Cusick will be missed.

Hat tip to RedMassGroup.

God bless Tony Dungy!

Former Indianapolis Colts coach, Tony Gungy is a remarkable human being. If anyone can help Michael Vick regain his footing literally and figuratively, it's Coach Dungy. Here's a piece of wisdom. "It's definitely harder being a dad than a coach."

So many books, so little time in a beautiful Vermont bookshop

The solitude of a rural used book store in Plainfield, Vermont. The Country Bookshop on Mill Street is a feast for the restive mind.

Here are some of the titles I picked up for a song this past weekend.

Michael Grant, Julius Ceasar

Luciana Ferrara, The Treasures of the Borghese Gallery

Charles Mackay, LL. D. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

James Bruce Ross & Mary Martin McLauglin, The Portable Medieval Reader

Ian Stewart, Nature's Numbers

and my favorite Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy.

Poem for the day: R. T. Smith

By way of The Writer's Almanac for September 1, 2009

In The Night Orchard
by R. T. Smith

I know, because Paul has told me
a hundred times, that the deer
gliding tonight through tangleweed
and trashwood, then bounding across
Mount Atlas Road, are after his pears.

And who could blame them?
On the threshold of autumn, the Asian
imports, more amazing than any Seckle
or indigenous apple, start to ripen.
Then a passing crow will peck one open.

That's when the whitetails who bed
and gather beyond Matson's pasture
will catch the scent and begin to stir.
It's a dry time, and they go slowly mad
for sweetness. No fence can stop them.

The farmers like Paul will admit
it starts in hunger, but how suddenly
need goes to frenzy and sheer plunder.
When the blush-gold windfalls are gone
and the low boughs are stripped

of anything resembling bounty, bucks
will rise on their hind legs and clamber
up the trunks. Last week Cecil Emore
found one strangled in a fork,
his twisted antlers tangled as if

some hunter had hung him there
to cure. We all remember what it's like,
this driven season, this delirium
for something not yet given a name,
but the world turns us practical, tames

us to yearn for milder pleasures.
For Augustine, it was actual pears
that brought him out of the shadows
and over a wall, for Eve, the secret
inside what we now say was an apple.

Others have given up safety for less,
and I wonder, catching an eight-point
buck outlined on the ridge amid spruce,
if it's this moonstruck nature that renders
the ruminants beautiful, or if we stalk

them out of envy, not for the grace
of their gliding, but for the unadorned
instinct that draws them after dark
into trespass and the need to ruin
the sweetest thing they've ever known.

"In The Night Orchard" by R. T. Smith, from Brightwood. (c) Louisiana State University Press, 2004. Reprinted on this blog without permission.

Support The Writer's Alamanac!

Ted Kennedy and Redemption

Ask and you shall receive. The Senator asked and the Pope granted a blessing. :

"I also want you to know that even though I am ill, I am committed to do everything I can to achieve access to health care for everyone in my country. This has been the political cause of my life. I believe in a conscience protection for Catholics in the health care field and will continue to advocate for it as my colleagues in the Senate and I work to develop an overall national health policy that guarantees health care for everyone.

"I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness, and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings. I continue to pray for God’s blessings on you and our Church and would be most thankful for your prayers for me."

YouTube - UKZ "Radiation"

Here's Eddie and Company UKZ-Band "Radiation"

The always great Billy Cobham

Always a pleasure to revisit one of the world's best drummers, Billy Cobham.

Will Wilkerson versus the Marxist intellectuals

What We Are Not Embarrassed by: "Here is a good debate proposition: It ought to be less embarrassing to have been influenced by Ayn Rand than by Karl Marx." But the intellectuals love the jargon.

R.I.P. Senator Edward M. Kennedy

Never voted for the man but he earned his reputation as a liberal lion. The estimable Martin F. Nolan pens today's front page news story and does a great political figure due justice. In displays of loyalty through thin and thick times, Massachusetts voters never abandoned Senator Kennedy. In doing so, they made history.

De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est.

Roaming through syllabi

Professor Peter Boettke's course is certainly interesting.

She can take great photographs but can't add

This is sad because I think Annie Leibovitz is one of the greatest photographers still with us.

Poem for the day: Robert Frost's "A Minor Bird"

A MINOR BIRD

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.

Mind bender: Eddie Jobson at Arlington's Regent Theatre.

Eddie Jobson's musical career -- extending from Curved Air to Roxy Music, U.K. and beyond -- speaks for itself. He's a master and a gentleman. And his August 19, 2009 show at Arlington's Regent Theater rocked.

Things are looking up

BBJ: Investors upbeat!

She's at least consistent

Cindy Sheehan speaks:

The "anti-war" "left" was used by the Democratic Party. I like to call it the "anti-Republican War" movement.

Not exactly. The anti-war left let itself be used by the Obamatons.

Rose Friedman, Milton's better half, has died

Economist and benefactor Rose Friedman has died.

They were known for being both romantically and intellectually suited to each other, often appearing in public holding hands, and though often debating — Ms. Friedman was known as the less compromising of the two — rarely, if ever bickering. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2006, only a few months before her husband died, Ms. Friedman said the 2003 invasion of Iraq created the first major argument of their life together. She was in favor; he was not.

“We have disagreed on little things, obviously — such as, I don’t want to go out to dinner, he wants to go out — but big issues, this is the first one,” she said.

Ms. Friedman’s contribution to the couple’s work was “not so much in technical economic writing, but on the policy side,” said Gary Becker, a Nobel laureate and professor of economics at the University of Chicago, who was a student of Mr. Friedman’s and a longtime friend of the couple. “It was an extremely close intellectual fellowship, and she was not someone who got credit for things she didn’t do. They discussed ideas constantly. Her feelings about the importance of private markets, opposition to big government, were even stronger than his. Her lasting influence will be as a collaborator, but she was a major contributor to the collaboration, and that’s a significant legacy.”

The Prince of Darkness no more!

The great reporter and columnist Robert Novak has died. R.I.P. They don't make them like Novak anymore.

He was always eager to share his passion for public policy and politics. In speeches to college graduation classes, Bob distilled the essence of his years-long ruminations on America for young people just starting out in life:

“Always love your country — but never trust your government!

“That should not be misunderstood. I certainly am not advocating civil disobedience, must less insurrection or rebellion. What I am advocating is to not expect too much from government and be wary of it power, even the power of a democratic government in a free country.

“Ours is one of the mildest, most benevolent governments in the world. But it too has the power to take your wealth and forfeit your life. ... A government that can give you everything can take everything away.”

That sounds like good advice, whether you’re a conservative or a liberal. And Bob most definitely was a conservative, though he never let his political inclinations blind him to what he saw as the realities of the world, even when it angered his natural allies. Bob’s dissent from the Bush administration’s rush to topple Iraq’s Saddam Hussein earned him the ill will of other, perhaps less insightful conservatives. In one of those incomprehensible moments that occasionally mar the nation’s political discourse, Novak found himself labeled as one of America’s “unpatriotic conservatives” in a cover story in National Review magazine.

Bob’s disagreement with the mainstream of conservative thought on Iraq exemplified his independent spirit, his dedication to a robust discussion of the great issues facing the nation and his belief in the values underpinning our society.

Bob saw America as the inheritor, greatest manifestation and guardian of the best of Western civilization. He was introduced to those values at the University of Illinois through a freshman course on the history of Western civilization. Recalling that time in his 2007 memoir The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington, Bob wrote, “It was a golden moment for a 17-year-old boy from Joliet, leading to four years of exploration in the riches of our heritage: Plato, Aristotle, Chaucer, Castiglione, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Milton, John Donne, Hawthorne, Melville, T.S. Eliot — dead white men all. How barren would be my life without that background?”[Editor's emphasis]

In later years, Bob became worried about the retreat from those values on the college campus. Typically, he resolved to do something about it. To help perpetuate the education of America’s youth in those values and traditions, Bob in 2000 endowed at his beloved University of Illinois the Robert D. Novak Chair of Western Civilization and Culture.

Fellow columnists pay tribute here. Human Events pays tribute here.

Update: One of the best tributes is written by Jeffrey Bell.

"Requiescat in pace."

Serenity now! Or later

YouTube - UK (U.K.) "Nevermore" with Eddie Jobson, Alan Holdsworth, John Wetton and Bill Bruford.

I prefer my Holdsworth in an ensemble setting like this one.

Policemen doing their job

I have a question: I'm all for cultural literacy but are policeman required to know "all of the beautiful people?"

AP: You're Bob Dylan? NJ police want to see some ID

Dylan, who is a cultural icon, acted with class. I have another question, can't anyone walk around without being asked for an ID?

Meet the new boss same friends as the old boss

Hope and change, really? Corporations sit down with Big Government on ObamaCare. Huffington Post: Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma

Reaching the Zimbabwe standard

The nightmare of a default on U.S. Treasuries.

Prominent economists have starting considering a possible Treasury default, while the business-news media and investment rating agencies have begun openly discussing a potential risk premium on the interest rate that the U.S. government pays. The CBO estimates that the total U.S. national debt will approach 100 percent of GDP within ten years, and when Japan's national debt exceeded that level, the ratings of its government securities were downgraded.

Read the whole article, a brilliant analysis.

"I'm from the government and I'm here to help you raise your kids"

Combine the Nanny State with a welfare one and you have the march of Big Government into family life. This is no mere mission creep but a preordained plan to make the world anew. The Obamacrats, to borrow a phrase, really want to warranty your life. This is the antithesis of freedom and people ought to wake up. Chuck Norris : Dirty Secret No. 1 in Obamacare - Townhall.com

Dirty secret No. 1 in Obamacare is about the government's coming into homes and usurping parental rights over child care and development.

It's outlined in sections 440 and 1904 of the House bill (Page 838), under the heading "home visitation programs for families with young children and families expecting children." The programs (provided via grants to states) would educate parents on child behavior and parenting skills.

The bill says that the government agents, "well-trained and competent staff," would "provide parents with knowledge of age-appropriate child development in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains ... modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices," and "skills to interact with their child to enhance age-appropriate development."

Are you kidding me?! With whose parental principles and values? Their own? Certain experts'? From what field and theory of childhood development? As if there are one-size-fits-all parenting techniques! Do we really believe they would contextualize and personalize every form of parenting in their education, or would they merely universally indoctrinate with their own?

Are we to assume the state's mediators would understand every parent's social or religious core values on parenting? Or would they teach some secular-progressive and religiously neutered version of parental values and wisdom? And if they were to consult and coach those who expect babies, would they ever decide circumstances to be not beneficial for the children and encourage abortions?

One government rebuttal is that this program would be "voluntary." Is that right? Does that imply that this agency would just sit back passively until some parent needing parenting skills said, "I don't think I'll call my parents, priest or friends or read a plethora of books, but I'll go down to the local government offices"? To the contrary, the bill points to specific targeted groups and problems, on Page 840: The state "shall identify and prioritize serving communities that are in high need of such services, especially communities with a high proportion of low-income families."

Of course this is all very patronizing to "low income" families. They're too stupid to raise kids in the eyes of the social workers. Where's Robert Nisbet when we need him?

R.I.P. Founder of the Special Olympics, Eunice Kennedy Shriver

Eunice Kennedy Shriver has died.

A right to health care? Just whom are the uninsured?

Assuming that health care is a right, how far should we go to provide it to the uninsured. And, just who are the uninsured and why can't they pay for at least basic coverage? Russ Coff over at Organizations and Markets is asking the right questions.

...many believe that healthcare is a right. Certainly there is an ethical and moral obligation to help those who are ill: it is part of the oath to which all physicians pledge as well as the UN charter.

But how far does this right extend? What level of healthcare is a human right and what level becomes a luxury? This is a very practical question. Currently there is a proposal for a luxury tax on insurance plans that offer too much coverage (Listen on NPR). Clearly some believe it is no longer a human right at that level. . . .

But let’s unpack the 46 million uninsured. A Kaiser commission report estimates that about 10 million of the uninsured are illegal aliens. This is conservative — it suggests that quite a few illegal aliens actually are covered. An NCHC report uses a similar estimate. Should they get free coverage? I’ll tip my hand here, I’m not opposed to covering illegal aliens if they are on a path to citizenship (which I also would support under the right conditions). However, it seems implausible to do either without first securing borders. Imagine the cost to taxpayers if sick people all over the world have incentives to enter the U.S. illegally? Even if this is desirable as a policy objective, is it sustainable?

Another issue is what portion of the uninsured could actually afford insurance but choose not to buy it? A paper by Bundorf and Pauly uses multiple methods to assess whether people can pay. The conclusion is that 25–75% of the uninsured can afford to buy at least basic coverage. In the same vein, the NCHC reports that nearly 40% of the uninsured reside in households that earn $50,000 or more.

Using conservative estimates, then, 50% of the uninsured are either illegal aliens or choose not to buy insurance. Probably another 25% are temporarily uninsured because they are between jobs or changing insurance vendors. As such, one can imagine that reasonable and ethical people may question whether the taxpayer should foot the bill for all of the uninsured.

Taxes (that would fund universal coverage) are not optional so the fact that people may legitimately differ in their beliefs is important. It is therefore a worthy effort to put some clarity around the extent and nature of the moral and ethical responsibilities. From a practical standpoint, since at least 90% of voters are insured, it is important to know how much they are willing to pay for the remaining 10%.

Starbucks feels the heat!

FINANCIAL TIMES:

McDonald’s expansion into fancy coffees under the McCafé brand is part of a strategy to capture more customers at breakfast time and win them over from coffee chains to its lower-priced drinks.

The move has forced Starbucks to defend its brand. It has been running marketing campaigns with the slogan: “It’s not just coffee. It’s Starbucks.”

And that is the problem. I've always felt that Starbucks seriously overcharges for burned-roast coffee and that pious, politically-correct image. But at some point those consumer loyalty asks too much and those long morning lines will be a lot shorter.

Never underestimate the power of McDonald's. I have always loved McDonald's regular coffee, and am entralled by the occasional Paul Newman brand carried by some franchises.

McDonald's coffee is far more tastier and robust than anything Starbucks pours into a venti. Competition it works wonders.

The underside of the 1960s: Charles Manson

The ever-readable Dan Flynn sifts past the nostalgia of Woodstock in the air these days to shine light on Charlie Manson, murderous hippie thug.

Theories regarding The White Album, a race war, and the Book of Revelations often cloud other, more central, inspirations for Charles Manson's blood lust. These include political motivations, a desire to exonerate a friend on murder charges, and intimidating music industry figures who spurned Manson, including Doris Day's son, producer Terry Melcher, who had previously lived in the Tate-Polanski home. If we do not know exactly why the Manson Family murdered, it is in part because they probably don't exactly know why either. All we know is that they did it.

The 1960s were the age of The Beatles, civil rights advances, and the peace movement. They were also a time of rationalized violence, drug abuse, reckless sex, and societal upheaval. The Manson Family offers a glimpse at all of these ugly traits from the other side of the '60s.

Charles Manson will rot in jail and hell. But he really should have been hanged a long time ago.

In praise of some inflation

Tyler Cowan on Scott Sumner's idea supporting a targeted inflation rate.

Oh my! A food fight at Reason's Hit and Run

Duck (excuse the pun): theological argument organic farming vs. factory farming and everything in between.

One commenter: If you've never busted sod by hand or even with machine you are in for one steep, painful, and hungry learning curve. I don't need luck. I was killing and growing what I ate before I could drive. I have the know how, know how hard it is, and don't plan on doing it until I have the free time and desire. The romantic notion of living the simple life is a myth that couch dwelling urbanites romanticize about. You haven't lived until you spent a 12 hour day cutting heads off chickens, dipping them in boiling water, yanking off their feathers, gutting them, then searing off the little hairs over an open propane flame. All in 90+ degree weather. Just think, you will get to spread that out over an entire year unless you have refrigeration.

And your mom wears Army boots!

Meanwhile, here's some wisdom from a farmer:

"If you really want to hurt the economy, beat the heck out of agriculture," Goehring said. "It is a primary sector in our economy. It is generating new wealth. You can't just rely on services to drive your economy."

Rare Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Oh what the heck! A little more Jeff Beck

The hard reality about health care models

Writing in REASON magazine, the very cogent Shikha Dalmia:

The point is that there is no health care model, whether privately or publicly financed, that can offer unlimited access to medical services while containing costs. Ultimately, such a model arrives at a cross roads where it has to either limit access in an arbitrary way, or face uncontrolled cost increases. France and Germany, which are mostly publicly funded, are increasingly marching down the first road. America, which is half publicly and half privately funded, has so far taken the second path. Should America offer even more people such unlimited access through universal coverage, it too will end up rationing care or facing national bankruptcy.

Mass. ranks high in student spending, local tax burden - Boston Business Journal:

Interesting. BBJ: Mass. ranks high in student spending, local tax burden

Quote for the day

The best and the brightest keep forgetting this
wisdom: "Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man, while under socialism it is exactly the reverse."

Why Jeff Beck is God!

Jeff Beck always a pleasure: Goodbye Pork Pie Hat/Brush With The Blues

Hayek is still relevant; more today than ever

DAVID HENDERSON reviews a classic.

Goldman Sachs and moral hazard; Too big to fail

ORGANIZATIONS AND MARKETS:

"The business of political capitalism, that is. Like Enron, Goldman operates primarily in the nebulous world of public-private interaction. It is the US’s most politically powerful financial firm, skilled at navigating the byzantine regulations governing the virtually nationalized US financial sector. Goldman’s eye-popping $3.4 billion second-quarter earnings shouldn’t surprise anyone; as Craig Pirrong notes, these earnings reflect good old-fashioned moral hazard, with Goldman exploiting its too-big-to-fail status by taking on huge amounts of risk:"

George B. Merry "Dean of the Beacon Hill Press Corps" has died

Stephanie Davis at Massachusetts Matters remembers George B. Merry, the newspaperman from the Christian Science Monitor.

“There is no education in the second kick of a mule.”

More stimulus? Is Congress kidding itself? Why do I ask?

Joe Queenan had a hard life but he's an honest man.

Here's a great review of Joe Queenan's new book Closing Time: A Memoir in the The American Spectator.

The passage that struck me:

Queenan calls any attempts to romanticize this poverty “a mythology concocted by those who were never poor” and tries to set the record straight...

Queenan doesn’t exempt himself from this judgment. Though he has made it financially and as a writer, he doesn’t believe poverty made him stronger but rather more uncaring and vicious than he otherwise should have been. That viciousness has made him a very effective critic if sometimes not a very lovable one. He attributes his survival as a youth and his success later in life to the Catholic Church, to a few oddball heroic shopkeepers who decided to hire the lad, and to his love of literature—while conceding rather backhandedly that his mum managed to keep the family out of even worse circumstances. Queenan’s intelligence was obvious from an early age and Philadelphia’s Catholic schools kept him out of the violent hellholes that were the city’s public schools. His faith didn’t last but its impact has.

Catholic schools have saved many urban souls. The world would be a horrible place without them. Queenan knows this; so do I. Those who claim to fight for the working class -- oddly by keeping it mired in poverty -- have not a clue.

He's working to get to heaven. God bless Alice Cooper

A fascinating profile of Alice Cooper.

"You teach Bible classes, don't you?"

"Wednesday mornings."

There's more to the man than Billion Dollar Babies.

Justice Thomas blew this one!

It what appears to be a momentous momentary lapse of justice, Thomas gives the longest benefit of the doubt to public school administrators. D.R. calls him out.

Notes From D. R.: "Thomas remains an underrated Justice and a role model for conservatives of color, but his wisdom went missing in this case. Savana Redding was essentially raped without force, treated like a third-class citizen by overzealous, clueless school administrators. I never thought I’d say this about a conservative judge, but Thomas should have shown some empathy."

Among his worst dissents of which they are not many.

Sounds like a promising book

Paul E. Gottfried appears to be one of a kind -- moving from Nixon to Marcuse.

Hat tip: Instapundit.

Vandals desecrate World War II Memorial in Wakefield

Is there no shame? Last week, vandals decided to deface a community memorial to World War II veterans in Wakefield with a pithy peace slogan. "War is not the answer." In a free society, there's a time and a place for every opinion. However, the little anarchists, apparently full of themselves, have very little taste or knowledge of history. Town officials soon tried to remove the paint-stained message but the vestige of this major misdemeanor remains.

(Photographs taken 6/27/09 with Blackberry camera).

More on the defacing of the memorial from Marc Sardella.

Corporate rock done right!

ASIA: A little pop improvised

Farrah Fawcett, American Ambassador - Forbes.com

It never dawned upon most of us that Farrah was an
American Ambassador. But Tunku Varadarajan viewed her as one. Maybe we couldn't look beyond the poster. R.I.P. Farrah Fawcett.

A delightful trashing

Andrew Sullivan, hypocrite extraordinaire gets what he deserves from Christopher Badeaux.

Would it be so simple

A libertarian case against the State and marriage. It's a little more messy than that but you get the basic idea.

A lobster tale

From Native Americans to Italians in Maverick Square lobsters have a proud history.

YouTube - Harlan Ellison -- Pay the Writer

The revolt against the creative commons. A writer speaks out.

YouTube - Harlan Ellison -- Pay the Writer