"The best I've every played with" - Larry Bird

Dennis Johnson died last Thursday. He was one of the greatest players to ever put on a Celtics uniform. Larry Bird said DJ was "the best I've ever played with." Bob Ryan proves once again why he's the best sportswriter in the country.

I am also here to say that I have seen every great basketball player of the last 50 years, and I have seen only one person play the game in the manner of a Dennis Johnson. That building in Springfield is a Hall of Shame without a Dennis Johnson plaque hanging on the wall. But no matter. DJ left us with the indelible memory of a unique basketball player, and that is enough.

Read the whole column.

Was Hayek a conservative after all?

Stimulating and erudite.

The libertarians, do they matter?

Ponder the fact that the libertarians slipped out of the Big Tent last November.

A petty governor disses a great figure

Someone ought to tell Governor Deval Patrick, Democrat, that the Gipper carried the liberal State of Massachusetts twice. Not once but twice! That's worth a proclamation, isn't it?

Not even one for the Gipper?

The new icon of Massachusetts Democrats has rebuffed efforts to commemorate a day for Ronald Reagan, the last Republican to win the Commonwealth in a presidential election. And Reaganites are not happy.

Governor Deval Patrick decided not to sign a proclamation recognizing Feb. 6 as "Ronald Reagan Day." A month into his term as governor, snubbing the Gipper's birthday has left Patrick open to partisan sniping.

A prominent conservative said Democratic New York Governor Eliot Spitzer declared the holiday.

"It's the difference between a little more sophisticated guy who's governor and a guy who's still playing partisan politics after a campaign," said Grover Norquist, founder and chairman of the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project.

Thirty-three governors -- 20 Republicans and 13 Democrats -- inked the agreement to recognize Reagan's birthday in their states, Norquist said. The 17 remaining governors either didn't reply or refused outright; Patrick was a frank "no," Norquist said.

State Republican Party Chairman Peter Torkildsen said he felt disbelief.

"To me, Ronald Reagan is one of the great figures of the 20th century, and not only that, he carried Massachusetts twice, which no Republican for president had done since Dwight Eisenhower," Torkildsen said in an interview.

This doesn't nothing to enhance Deval's stature. Does anyone remember an administration getting off to such a clumsy start?

New York Times does pop sociology very badly

The New York Times searches for meaning in some very bad Super Bowl commercials.

Then, too, there was the unfortunate homonym at the heart of a commercial from Prudential Financial, titled “What Can a Rock Do?”

The problem with the spot, created internally at Prudential, was that whenever the announcer said, “a rock” — invoking the Prudential logo, the rock of Gibraltar — it sounded as if he were saying, yes, “Iraq.”

To be sure, sometimes “a rock” is just “a rock,” and someone who has watched the Super Bowl XIX years in a row only for the commercials may be inferring things that Madison Avenue never meant to imply

Leaves us wondering, did Stuart Elliot watch the same commercials as the rest of us?

Colts do it!

Da Bears were really never in this game once Manning got his groove.

I have to ask myself: After watching the AFC Championship two weeks ago, what right did the Chicago Bears have to be in this year's Super Bowl. The Bears' lackluster performance demonstrates that the National Football Conference is really pathetic; so much for the NFL's vaunted parity.

More than warm private jets

Interesting post on global warming from Glenn Reynolds.

McDonald's beats Starbucks coffee, but not Brookline

What I've known for years. You want a cup of coffee that tastes burned and sometimes bitter, go to Starbucks and save the world. You want a decent cup in a pinch, go to McDonald's. I've held this view even before McDonald's switched to Paul Newman's brand.

Say what you will about the Golden Arches, but at least the conglomerate isn't pretentious enough to call its employees "baristas."

Meanwhile there are more than few old timers who will miss McDonald's in Brookline which is closing its doors. Who would have thought Brookline residents would be defending McDonald's as a social hot spot.

Good economic news

GDP rate for 2006 a respectable 3.4%.

A chain email worth reading over and over

I know there are more people in the U.S. than ingrates. But this certainly is "on message," or should be.

Made in the USA : Spoiled Brats


The other day..........................

I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some poll data I found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right?

The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with the performance of the president. In essence 2/3s of the citizenry just isn’t happy and want a change.

So being the knuckle dragger I am, I starting thinking, ''What are we so unhappy about?''

Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter? Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job? Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?

Maybe it is the ability to drive from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we move through each state? Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the way that can provide temporary shelter? I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around the world is just not good enough. Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and provide services to help all and even send a helicopter to take you to the hospital.

Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home. You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to extinguish the flames thus saving you, your family and your belongings. Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar or prowler intrudes , an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will come to defend you and your family against attack or loss. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90 percent of teenagers own cell phones and computers.

How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy that are the envy of everyone in the world? Maybe that is what has 67 percent of you folks unhappy.

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S. , yet has a great disdain for its citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who do nothing but complain about what we don't have , and what we hate about the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know. What about the president who took us into war and has no plan to get us out? The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession? Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for succeeding in keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist attacks? The commander in chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there defending you and me? Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did this news affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn't take a look around for yourself and see all the good things and be glad? Think about it......are you upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is

it because the "Media" told you he was failing to kiss your sorry ungrateful behind every day.

Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no draft in this country. They didn't have to go. They are able to refuse to go and end up with either a ''general'' discharge, an ''other than honorable'' discharge or, worst case scenario, a '' dishonorable'' discharge after a few days in the brig.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of Americans? Say what you want but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds it leads and they specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts. How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells , and when criticized, try to defend their actions by "justifying" them in one way or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write a book about how he didn't kill his wife, but if he did he would have done it this way...... Insane!

Stop buying the negativism you are fed everyday by the media. Shut off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as a country. There is exponentially more good than bad.

WE ARE THE MOST BLESSED PEOPLE ON EARTH, WE SHOULD

THANK GOD SEVERAL TIMES PER DAY.....

Amen!

Manhattan is greener than you think

And it's not because of Central Park.

"Every new skyscraper in Manhattan is a strike against global warming."

Today is Milton Friedman Day

I've been busy but not too busy to observe Milton Friedman Day.

Absolutely essential: Press Zero

The human revolt against the Interactive Voice Response computer (aka Phone Tree Hell) is in full swing.

My favorite is my broadband ISP, RCN which GETHUMAN.COM properly grades as a F.

Here's what you have to get through to get a person on the other end of the line

Dial RCN @ 800‑746‑4726 @ Press 1; at prompt press 3; at prompt press 2; at prompt press 4.

I speak from experience.

Hat tip to Marginal Revolution.

The Costco effect

Bulk buying and its costs. Is Costco distorting consumer behavior? Should we care? 

Ted Reisdorf, 43, chief executive of Paragon Custom Homes of Scottsdale, Ariz., goes to Costco once every month or two and stocks up on household supplies, to save him more frequent trips to the grocery store. Once he is there, however, he walks up and down every aisle to see “what jumps out” at him. Mr. Reisdorf usually adds some books, DVDs or baked goods to his cart. “I always buy stuff I don’t exactly need,” he said.

The decline of downtown Boston

Now Filene's Basement in downtown Boston is closing temporarily. Filene's Basement is a major draw on Washington Street and its closing could have spillover effects. Maybe the Mayor should spend less time about building skyscrapers and luxury housing that he does about the declining downtown that was once the heart of this city.

BOSTON --Filene's Basement, a landmark for downtown Boston shoppers for nearly 100 years, is considering temporarily closing its flagship store in the coming months, much to the dismay of longtime customers and Mayor Thomas Menino

Interesting!

An amazing dispatch from Peter Byrne

IN THE November 2006 election, the voters demanded congressional ethics reform. And so, the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is now duly in charge of regulating the ethical behavior of her colleagues. But for many years, Feinstein has been beset by her own ethical conflict of interest, say congressional ethics experts.

As chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 through the end of 2005, Feinstein supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars a year for specific military construction projects. Two defense contractors whose interests were largely controlled by her husband, financier Richard C. Blum, benefited from decisions made by Feinstein as leader of this powerful subcommittee.

He will be missed

Bill Parcells will be missed on the sidelines. He is one of the great motivating coaches in the history of the game. And for the press, he certainly put on a good show but he chose not to address the media to announce his decision to retire from football.

He opted instead for an email. A little out of character but 19 hard seasons wear heavily on a man. He's entitled to bow out in any manner he chooses as far as I'm concerned.

In his last try, the Cowboys blew a chance to beat the Seahawks when Pro Bowl quarterback Tony Romo botched a hold on a short field goal with a little more than a minute left.

Parcells goes out having losing lost four of his final five games, including the last three. His announcement came 15 days after the loss to Seattle.

"I am retiring from coaching football,' Parcells said in a statement. "I want to thank Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones for their tremendous support over the last four years. Also, the players, my coaching staff and others in the support group who have done so much to help. Dallas is a great city and the Cowboys are an integral part of it. I am hopeful that they are able to go forward from here."

The announcement came in a morning e-mail.

Oderint, dum metuant

"Let them hate us but let them fear us." Among all the litany from the lesser lights of civilization that make up the "anti-Zionist" crowd, Israel is partly at the root of America's image problem. Why am I not surprised?

Bravo for a honest non-vegetarian

Great article for those moderate meat-eaters among us. Required reading for those who want to challenge the sanctimony of some vegetarians.

Although vegetarians may think that surrendering human supremacy will reduce the harm that people do to the environment, any such effort is invariably counterproductive. Denying humans their supreme power means denying them their supreme responsibility to improve society, to safeguard the environment on which it depends and even--dare we say it--to improve nature as well.

Besides, humans are already sovereign--the trouble is that most of them don't realize it or, for political reasons, refuse to acknowledge it, maintaining instead that real sovereignty lies with God, nature or the free market. But real-life experience tells us otherwise. Since vegetarians began warning in the eighteenth century that the earth would run out of food unless everyone immediately shifted to potatoes and grain, the global population has more than sextupled, global per capita income has increased nearly tenfold even when inflation is taken into account, while consumption of meat, poultry and seafood has risen as well, up 37 percent in the United States since 1909 and even more strongly in less developed portions of the world. More people are living better and eating more richly than anyone in the 1700s would have thought possible. Regardless of whether they are consuming more meat and poultry than is good for them, it is yet another reminder, as if any more were needed, of how thoroughly Malthusian myths about limits to human productivity have been shattered.

Scarcity no longer serves as an argument for vegetarianism, and neither, for that matter, does health, since we know from studies of Okinawan centenarians and others that small amounts of meat and dark-fleshed fish are good for you; that moderate amounts of alcohol (which vegetarians for some reason appear to avoid) is good for you as well; and that plenty of exercise, a sense of well-being that comes from a strong social structure and, of course, universal healthcare are equally essential.

So the next time you tuck into a plate of tagliatelle Bolognese, a leg of lamb or a proper coq au vin made from some rangy old rooster that's had more lovers than most of us can dream of, you should see it not just as a chance to fill your stomach but, rather, as an occasion to celebrate humanity's ongoing struggle to create abundance out of scarcity. Venceremos! It's a lot better than wallowing in the silly defeatism of a diet of tofu and sprouts.

The pitfalls of not living in New York

My favorite drummer, Bill Bruford, played four nights in Manhattan. Had I lived there I would have taken him in. He can play just about anything.

Bill Bruford’s seminal jazz quartet Earthworks packed the house for most of its ten shows at NYC’s Iridium Jazz Club, November 2-5, showcasing some new pieces and treating the audience to favorites from the group's repertoire as well as from Bruford’s solo career. Joining the leader and his longtime collaborator Tim Garland were electric bassist Laurence Cottle (credits: Eric Clapton, Brian Eno) and young Welsh virtuoso pianist/composer Gwilym Simcock