Just finished: Cicero's De Senectute (On Old Age)

Montaigne was most correct when he said that Cicero gives "one an appetite for growing old."

"For what advantage is there in life? Or rather, are not its troubles infinite? No there are advantages too: yet all the same there comes a time when one has had enough. That does not mean that I am joining the large and learned body of life's critics! I am not sorry to have lived, since the course of my life has taken has encouraged me to believe that I have lived to some purpose. But what nature gives us is a place to dwell in temporarily, not one to make our own. When I leave life, therefore, I shall feel as I am leaving a hostel rather than a home."

They don't make Stoics like Cicero the staple of sound learning anymore. What a shame!

Einstein the deist

Walter Isaacson on Einstein, brilliant! Do you believe in God? Einstein was asked. He replied:

"I'm not an atheist. I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws."

Tyler's take on the ever improving economy

Conservatives: The economy is doing well; look at the unemployment rate.
Liberals: No it's not; look at real wages, they've been stagnant for years.

Tyler Cowan provides a great starting point for the Great Debate over the state of the current U.S. economy. He's worth reading.

I believe that the much-heralded "real wage stagnation" consists of three major factors: a) potential real wage increases being absorbed by rising health care premiums in the broader employment package, b) unmeasured improvements in the quality of economic life, the internet being one example, and c) an unusually long lag between rising productivity and real wage gains. I am increasingly of the belief that the third factor no longer operates.

Are atheists the new fundamentalists?

Is the ever-clever Richard Dawkins a simpleton shilling for the authoritarism of science? Are believers evil?

A high debate takes place in Britain around the proposition: "Are we better off without religion?" As is custom for the debating society, Intelligence Sqaured, a vote is held before and after the arguments. Apparently the atheists won the "popular" vote and were able to draw even more undecided observers into their column by the end of the night.

But Charles Moore of the Daily Telegraph, who voted against the proposition, observes the continuing trend: Atheists who aren't careful for what they wish. Their rhetorical and argumentive skills are turning them into the what they dislike about organized religion: dogmatism, arrogance and self-centeredness.

I feel that atheism may be acquiring precisely those characteristics that atheists so dislike about religion - intolerance, dogmatism, righteousness, moral contempt for one's opponents.

When you hear or read people like Richard Dawkins, you have to admit the force of many of their arguments. Religious people do often say extraordinarily indefensible things about their faith, and can be astonishingly evasive or confused. Very few of us (certainly not I) can competently maintain the standard arguments for the existence of God against a determined onslaught.

And yet the Dawkinses and Graylings, the Hitchenses and the Parrises, seem somehow to be missing the point. What they say is dry and unnourishing. I think one reason for this lies in their underlying conception of what it is to be human - they think that the highest quality is to be clever.

More from the Associated Press, via the Christian Post.

A more civil debate between Rev. Purpose (Rick Warren) and the St. John of Secular Humanism Sam Harris here.

Carla Howell's annual rite to sing her song

It's tax time which means it's time for libertarian activist Carla Howell's little ditty on the joys of filing taxes. I'm not sure Carla's into paying taxes on principle but the song reminds us all of the need to simplify the tax system either with a national sales tax or a flat rate income tax.

Today, Americans spend more than 6 billion hours at a cost of $265 billion preparing their taxes in what amounts to tortuous deadweight loss to the economy.

Soccer: The world sport of peace

The Brits may have cowered to Little Hitler in Iran, but they're still tough when it comes to soccer, apparently.

Tottenham fans fought with Spanish police in riot gear Thursday night during the English team's UEFA Cup quarterfinal at Sevilla. Seven fans of the London club were reportedly hospitalized — mostly with cuts to their heads. A policeman also was reported to have been injured in the disturbances.

The violence appeared to begin at about the 30th minute of Sevilla's come-from-behind 2-1 win, after the home team tied the game on a disputed penalty kick by former Tottenham player Frederic Kanoute. Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson was called for a foul in the 18th for taking down Adriano Correia. Television replays showed Robinson got a hand to the ball before making contact with Adriano.

Fans ripped up plastic seats at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium and hurled them at police, who then hit spectators with night sticks. Before the match, about 50 Tottenham fans reportedly clashed with police outside the stadium.

More Pelosi

One has to admit that George Bush is blessed by his political enemies and opponents.

Where was Speaker Pelosi, the guardian of all that is true, liberal and San Franciscan speaking out against Arab oppression?

No it's a lot easier to bash Bush on both sides of the Atlantic and engage in futile diplomacy on an unmitigated pretentious level.

Pelosi’s visit took place at a time when several Syrian political and human rights activists are facing trial for exercising their right to freedom of expression. Former prisoner of conscience Kamal al-Labwani is due back in court on April 10. He was arrested in November 2005, on his return to Syria after several months in Europe and the United States, where he met with officials to call for peaceful democratic reform inside Syria. He is charged with “encouraging foreign aggression against Syria.” Prominent writer Michel Kilo and human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni have been detained since May 2006, following their signature of the Beirut-Damascus Declaration, which called for improved relations between Syria and Lebanon.

Hat tip: Austin Bay.

Quote for the day

By way of the dedication page of Manfred Fuhrmann's Cicero and the Roman Republic

I have resolved to take
wisdom for my playmate;
for I know she will be a good
counsellor and a comforter to me
in trouble and in sorrow
The Wisdom of Solomon 8, 9

Now playing...Marin Marais

Delightful after dinner music.

Marin Marias, French composer and viol player, had time for more than music. According to Wikipedia, Marin Marais married Catherine d'Amicourt in 1676 and had 19 children together. Wow!

My longtime favorite after hearing it for the first time on WCRB-FM years ago is the title ttrack from Sonnerie de Sainte Genevieve du Mont.

Government-run health care will be a disaster

Government health care will have the efficiency of the post office in the age of e-mail.

As H. L. Mencken said: "For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, elegant, and wrong." Universal healthcare is a textbook case.

A socialist kill-joy in Venezuela

Hugo, the protofascist sure knows what's "good" for his people.

Venezuela's government left bar-owners reeling by imposing an alcohol ban over Holy Week and Easter weekend, forcing drinkers in the whisky-mad Catholic country to use covert methods in search of a fix.

The ban outlaws drinking alcohol from 5:00 pm to 10:00 am each night from March 31, and all day from the following Thursday to Easter Sunday. It aims to lower the toll of traffic accidents due to drunk-driving over the period.

But it has led the South American country's top beer brewer, Cerverceria Polar, to cancel a series of festive events it had planned for the week on the tourist island of Margarita and other resorts.

In a shop in the neighborhood of La Carlota, near the president's residence in Caracas, drinkers have taken to ordering "a kilo of beans" from their grocer -- code words for a pack of beer.

Traders in the seaside resorts have complained they will lose up to 70 percent of their business during the ban. Other celebrations -- salsa, reggae and rock concerts -- have also been called off at beaches on Venezuela's Caribbean coast.

Hardened bar and restaurant-owners in the coastal capital Caracas were not cowed, however, saying that in parts of the city the police will be unable to enforce the dry-out.

"In the working class areas there is no alcohol ban," said one bar owner in the central district of Chacao. "The police won't go in there because the delinquents are better armed than they are."

Pedro Carreno, the interior and justice minister in the government of firebrand socialist President Hugo Chavez, has championed the ban, insisting: "You don't have to have alcohol to have a good time."

The finance ministry meanwhile has announced new taxes to curb the country's taste for mature Scottish imports. Venezuela is the world's biggest consumer of 18-year-old whisky.

Can we question his patriotism now?

Arson. Clear and Simple. I hope the prosecutor presses serious charges.

Three Yale University students were arrested early Tuesday morning for burning an American flag on a pole attached to a house in New Haven, the Yale Daily News reported today.

The three men, all of foreign origin, were charged with offenses ranging from reckless endangerment to arson and were held in jail Tuesday night after a judge refused to release them without bail.

According to the newspaper, the New Haven police said the men — two freshmen and a senior — first attracted police attention at about 3 a.m. Tuesday when they asked two offcers for directions back to their residence. They were identified as Said Hyder Akbar, 23, Nikolaos Angelopoulos, 19, and Farhad Anklesaria, also 19.

The two officers returned to the neighborhood shortly afterward and found the flag burning in front of a house. One officer pulled down the flag to keep the fire from spreading and the other tracked down the three men. The police said the men admitted to starting the blaze, the newspaper reported.

Mr. Anklesaria was identified as a British subject and Mr. Angelopoulos as a citizen of Greece. Mr. Akbar was born in Pakistan and is a naturalized American citizen, the newspaper said.

Mr. Akbar is the author of a published memoir, “Come Back to Afghanistan,” describing his experiences over three summers spent observing reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan and acting as an informal translator for American forces there.

Can we now question Said Hyder Akbar's patriotism? Or his stupidity?

Over and out at the Philly Inquirer

One of my favorite economics writers is calling it quits. Andrew Cassel has written his last column for the Inquirer. And he goes out on a tall note calling for better economic education for students.

A smart financial-education program would give kids the tools to understand that, and also help them avoid investment fads and emotion-laden financial sales pitches down the road.

But economics learning doesn't - or shouldn't - end with investing and personal finance.

At its core, economics isn't about managing money at all; it's about making choices, balancing risks and rewards, and creating wealth in the broadest sense.

The primary focus, in fact, should be on developing what economists call "human capital" - a fancy term for whatever each of us has to offer the rest.

In my own idealized economics-education program, kids would learn mainly about investing in themselves, and only secondarily about investing in stocks and bonds.

They also would learn that markets and commerce - which for many still carry a bad odor of greed and exploitation - are neither immoral nor amoral, but simply a way for human beings to cooperate with one another as strangers.

If we want to get along with people we'll never meet, competition and trade are the keys. The former spurs us to do our best, and the latter lets the whole world share in the fruits of our effort.

Hear! Hear!

An archive of his columns can be found here.

Blinder-sided! The Free Trade Debate Heats Up!

Economist Alan Blinder made the front page of the Wall Street Journal today. His comments on the pains rather than the gains from free trade are likely to cause a stir in economics. Blinder is reconsidering his pro-free trade stance which to economists is akin to Richard Dawkins believing in God.

Former student Greg Mankiw, a very bright Harvard economist and former Bush advisor, is not taking this sitting down. He's rooting for the Jedi; I guess that means team: the free traders.

I love Alan Blinder, both as a person and as an economist. I took courses from him as an undergraduate at Princeton, wrote my undergraduate thesis under his supervision, coauthored one of my first published articles with him, and have been friends with him for more than a quarter of a century. I am therefore surprised to see him lured by the dark side of the force.

The WSJ article is here.

A cutting comment from Professor Mankiw's blog is here:

Blinder's conversion seems to be driven by extremely weak evidence. E.g., on his visit to the Davos summit (his first mistake) he heard how excited businessmen were re the propects of savings from outsourcing; anecdotes from Tom Friedman's book; a dinner where a financial exec told him how good the quality of financial analysis done by overseas analysts, etc.

I mean, the man took a life of rigorous empirical research and replaced it with Lou Dobbs like horror stories as the driving force for policies that would be truly destructive (tax breaks for firms that only hire US workers (destroy the WTO framework), a school system that trains kids to participate in jobs that can't go overseas (whatever that means).

His solutions, in short, range from the banal (better education and training) to the bizarre.

My guess is that he knows his message of alarmism is popular among those who run Congress and may soon run the White House, and he's becoming their favorite economist.

More from Tyler Cowan at Marginal Revolution.

Random Reference

Sometimes the reviews are more memorable than the albums. Vincent Gallo reviewing King Crimson sticks in my mind.

I bought with my own money, well money I stole, my first Beatle album in 1967. The Beatles were the perfect band for a seven-year-old to get interested in music, rock music. By the way, I never liked hippies, I hate hippies, especially pot smoking hippies. Marijuana and socialism were the evils of the twentieth century.

Read the whole review. It says more about the artist Gallo than the band at hand. And that's not a bad thing.

Why Multiculturalism sucks

I oppose efforts by devout Christian pharmacists who refuse to dispense the so-called Morning After Pill. But I notice the double standard when it comes to faith-based restrictions on the handling of pork by Muslim employees.

Many Muslims believe the pig is an unclean animal and consider it a sin to eat pork. The Qur'an has multiple passages in which Allah instructs believers to avoid eating pig flesh. It is so core to their beliefs that some consider it sinful to sell the meat, because that encourages others to participate in a sinful act.

In the Muslim world, there is even a stronger taboo against pork than alcohol, said Owais Bayunus, an imam at the Abu Khudra Mosque in Columbia Heights. Wearing gloves will not solve the issue, he said. "There is a school of thought within the Muslim community that if you sell pork or alcohol to someone, then you are contributing to the propagation of a sinful activity," he said. "Many Muslims do not want to see non-Muslims involved in a sinful product."

At Target stores, some Muslim cashiers opposed to selling pork had grown accustomed to waving over other employees whenever they came across bacon, ham or other pork products, even pepperoni pizza. In many cases, they simply switched on a little light above their registers and another cashier would rush to their side and swipe the product for them.

The practice seemed to work well for Robla. She said she needed help scanning pork products only "about two or three times a day." In other cases, customers would volunteer to swipe the items themselves.

Occasionally, however, Robla said, people would get annoyed when she told them it was because of her religion. "Some people would say, 'If you won't scan it, then I don't want this thing,' " she said. "I don't understand it. Some people don't even want to wait a few seconds."

This is the end game of multiculturalism, folks. Sharia law is next. Europe and Canada are already bending over backwards. When will Western socialists learn?

Viva Patti Smith; The sea of possibilities

I think her album Easter is one of the greatest rock records ever. Others stick with Horses, her debut.

Here she is writing about her induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. I probably disagree with a lot of her politics and even some of her aesthetic sensibility (see the near idiotic failure of Radio Ethopia). But undeniably she's always been a sincere innovator bringing raw poetry to rock.

Her modesty in crediting her late husband the legendary Fred Sonic Smith is heartfelt.

My late husband, Fred Sonic Smith, then of Detroit’s MC5, was a part of the brotherhood instrumental in forging a revolution: seeking to save the world with love and the electric guitar. He created aural autonomy yet did not have the constitution to survive all the complexities of existence.

Before he died, in the winter of 1994, he counseled me to continue working. He believed that one day I would be recognized for my efforts and though I protested, he quietly asked me to accept what was bestowed — gracefully — in his name.

Today I will join R.E.M., the Ronettes, Van Halen and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On the eve of this event I asked myself many questions. Should an artist working within the revolutionary landscape of rock accept laurels from an institution? Should laurels be offered? Am I a worthy recipient?

I have wrestled with these questions and my conscience leads me back to Fred and those like him — the maverick souls who may never be afforded such honors. Thus in his name I will accept with gratitude. Fred Sonic Smith was of the people, and I am none but him: one who has loved rock ’n’ roll and crawled from the ranks to the stage, to salute history and plant seeds for the erratic magic landscape of the new guard.

Because its members will be the guardians of our cultural voice. The Internet is their CBGB. Their territory is global. They will dictate how they want to create and disseminate their work. They will, in time, make breathless changes in our political process. They have the technology to unite and create a new party, to be vigilant in their choice of candidates, unfettered by corporate pressure. Their potential power to form and reform is unprecedented.

It's the gumbit stupid

The people who are complaining about the conditions at Walter Reed are the same people who support turning over everything to government despite lame attempts to blame "privatization."

The partisans who are scoring political points by gnashing their teeth over the outpatient failures at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are missing the point: The government did it.

It is especially aggravating because many of these same partisans want to turn the nation's health care system over to...the government.

Or have they somehow missed the fact that the care of veterans is the responsibility of the government? Do they somehow believe that a single-payer health care system, or universal health care, or whatever else they want to call it will be immune to the kind of bureaucratic insensitivity, apathy and bungling that is integral to government?

"The open society is coming undone"

Viva Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Why don't you hear howls of support for Hirsi Ali from Western leftists? I suspect for most on the American left Islamism has emerged as the counterveiling force (replacing Marxist theology) against "American hegemony." This, I contend, is an exercise in self-hate and ultimately a broadside against the Enlightenment.

And yet contemporary democracies, she says, accommodate the incitement of such behavior: "The multiculturalism theology, like all theologies, is cruel, is wrongheaded, and is unarguable because it is an utter dogmatism. . . . Minorities are exempted from the obligations of the rest of society, so they don't improve. . . . With this theory you limit them, you freeze their culture, you keep them in place."

A good life lived by Ernest Gallo, an American success story

Another Italian-American success story. Only in America!

BERKELEY, Calif. -- Ernest Gallo, who parlayed $5,900 and a wine recipe from a public library into the world's largest winemaking empire, has died at his home in Modesto at the age of 97.

"He passed away peacefully this afternoon surrounded by his family," Susan Hensley, vice president of public relations for E.&J. Gallo Winery, said Tuesday.

Gallo, who would have been 98 on March 18, was born near Modesto, a then-sleepy San Joaquin Valley town about 80 miles east of San Francisco. He and his late brother and business partner, Julio, grew up working in the vineyard owned by their immigrant father who came to America from Italy's famed winemaking region of Piedmont.

They founded the E.J. Gallo Winery in 1933, at the end of Prohibition, when they were still mourning the murder-suicide deaths of their parents.