Wednesday night, the local NBC affiliate broadcast the late news between segments of Olympic coverage. It's been a slow news week in Tennessee, just the usual murder and mayhem, corruption and ineptitude that increasingly characterize life here in this place OldSouth loves so much.
Then along comes this story!
Sorry, the video won't imbed, you'll have to hit the link.
A high school choral teacher, in a tough tough neighborhood in the shadow of the State Capitol, doing an inspiring job with kids who need someone to look up to.
So, after a week of sleazy governors, sleazier bankers, financially bankrupt Greeks, morally bankrupt politicians, and general idiocy, OS hopes you find Mr. Peter inspiring.
Here's an exercise: View the video, and then surf over and read about Governor Paterson.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Betcha that numb feeling you've had since September 2008 will leave, and you'll get in touch with your inner sense of outrage.
When that Gibralter of Far-Sighted Virtue, Bill Clinton, ran for President in 1992, he had a key advisor who kept hammering home one point: It's the economy, stupid.
Nothing else matters, just keep the cash flowing. Nobody cares about all that ethics shit, anyway. Ethics are for fools. Ethics are something you dredge up when you need to beat someone around the ears. Ethics are for other people. You just concentrate on the money-and-power-thang, ok?
That model does not seem to have served us well.
It's the Culture. And OS respects his readers too much to call them 'Stupid'.
Llewellyn Peter, Green Shoots nominee.
Friday, February 26, 2010
If Only They Were Joking!
From JDA:
Convert Your Tax Refund into More Debt for the Treasury
Really, to quote Jeff Foxworthy, 'I can't make this stuff up!'.
As always, JDA gives the account of the latest folly of ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings with high spirits and fabulous humor.
Friends, if she's not a regular part of your reading, you're missing out.
Convert Your Tax Refund into More Debt for the Treasury
Really, to quote Jeff Foxworthy, 'I can't make this stuff up!'.
As always, JDA gives the account of the latest folly of ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings with high spirits and fabulous humor.
Friends, if she's not a regular part of your reading, you're missing out.
Governor Paterson Heads For The Exits
OldSouth had a long day yesterday, and broke his normal routine. It was a good day, but by about 6:00 he was an hour from home, tired and hungry. Eating in restaurants alone is no fun, but it was necessary last night. So, he grabs a copy of yesterday's YewNorkTimes to see what the latest MSM spin is, just for amusement, and finds his table.
Well, hot-DAUMMN!, up on the top left of the front page, in a separate box just to make sure it's not missed, with three writers listed as authors, the news of Governor Paterson's incredibly sleazy behavior as he apparently sought to intimidate a woman that his sleazy top aide has battered.
This is news. This is the second New York governor in three years to get caught in some seriously sleazy behavior. Paterson even makes Eliot Spitzer look relatively benign. Spitzer just had a case of 'The Joneses' for young hookers, and engaged in bank fraud to cover his tracks. Paterson intervened directly with the battered woman to intimidate her into silence. The State Police (who had no jurisdiction in the case) had also been by for a 'friendly visit'. This crosses the line into truly dark, evil behavior, smudging the line between governance and criminal gang leadership. This is overtly criminal, at both the State and Federal level. (More about that later!)
What stuck OS was the fact that the YewNorkTimes reported it at all. A few years ago, the YewNorkTimes would have actively participated in the cover-up of this criminality--after all, Paterson is a Democrat, black, and blind. A true liberal 'Three-fer' (Three 'misunderstood oppressed righteous minorities in need of our understanding and unqualified support, all in the same person. We feel three times as righteous for enabling his criminality. You know--a 'Three-fer'.)
And in today's web edition, news that Paterson won't seek re-election. Boy, that was quick!
Of course, what's needed here is a resignation. Or an impeachment, in case he needs some encouragement to GetOutOfDodge. If he had a shred of honor....but wait, he threatens battered women, so let's not seek what does not exist.
And, let us remember, the State of New York is on a trajectory toward almost certain bankruptcy. Good to know HizHonor had time to engage in a bit of official extortion on the side...
A few further questions come to mind, while on the subject:
1. This, on its face, is a Federal civil rights case. Gross abuse of power by a Governor to silence a battered woman seeking redress in a local court. Does AG Holder have the stones to allow Federal prosecution of a fellow black Democrat politician? (Don't hold your breath!)
2. Where's Jesse Jackson, 'speaking truth to power', or Al Sharpton? Or is it only white-on-black violence that interests them, as grist for the race-baiting mill? And, Jesse, Al and Paterson are pretty tight friends over the years, are they not? How much about behavior this did they know, and decide to sit by in silence?
Once again, the collapse of the YewNorkTimes' subscription base, directly as a result of their complete lack of credibility (and outright hostility to the United States at points), seems to have led to some sort of attitude adjustment somewhere on the daily editorial staff.
Of course, the editors of the Op-Ed page still think the country can spend us into oblivion without consequence, and daily drink the Obama Kool-Aid. Their conversion experience will have to wait until about the second or third week of November.
Well, hot-DAUMMN!, up on the top left of the front page, in a separate box just to make sure it's not missed, with three writers listed as authors, the news of Governor Paterson's incredibly sleazy behavior as he apparently sought to intimidate a woman that his sleazy top aide has battered.
This is news. This is the second New York governor in three years to get caught in some seriously sleazy behavior. Paterson even makes Eliot Spitzer look relatively benign. Spitzer just had a case of 'The Joneses' for young hookers, and engaged in bank fraud to cover his tracks. Paterson intervened directly with the battered woman to intimidate her into silence. The State Police (who had no jurisdiction in the case) had also been by for a 'friendly visit'. This crosses the line into truly dark, evil behavior, smudging the line between governance and criminal gang leadership. This is overtly criminal, at both the State and Federal level. (More about that later!)
What stuck OS was the fact that the YewNorkTimes reported it at all. A few years ago, the YewNorkTimes would have actively participated in the cover-up of this criminality--after all, Paterson is a Democrat, black, and blind. A true liberal 'Three-fer' (Three 'misunderstood oppressed righteous minorities in need of our understanding and unqualified support, all in the same person. We feel three times as righteous for enabling his criminality. You know--a 'Three-fer'.)
And in today's web edition, news that Paterson won't seek re-election. Boy, that was quick!
Of course, what's needed here is a resignation. Or an impeachment, in case he needs some encouragement to GetOutOfDodge. If he had a shred of honor....but wait, he threatens battered women, so let's not seek what does not exist.
And, let us remember, the State of New York is on a trajectory toward almost certain bankruptcy. Good to know HizHonor had time to engage in a bit of official extortion on the side...
A few further questions come to mind, while on the subject:
1. This, on its face, is a Federal civil rights case. Gross abuse of power by a Governor to silence a battered woman seeking redress in a local court. Does AG Holder have the stones to allow Federal prosecution of a fellow black Democrat politician? (Don't hold your breath!)
2. Where's Jesse Jackson, 'speaking truth to power', or Al Sharpton? Or is it only white-on-black violence that interests them, as grist for the race-baiting mill? And, Jesse, Al and Paterson are pretty tight friends over the years, are they not? How much about behavior this did they know, and decide to sit by in silence?
Once again, the collapse of the YewNorkTimes' subscription base, directly as a result of their complete lack of credibility (and outright hostility to the United States at points), seems to have led to some sort of attitude adjustment somewhere on the daily editorial staff.
Of course, the editors of the Op-Ed page still think the country can spend us into oblivion without consequence, and daily drink the Obama Kool-Aid. Their conversion experience will have to wait until about the second or third week of November.
Revive Lend-Lease: Daniel Hannan For President
Back in the darkest days of WWII, when England stood alone, Roosevelt lacked the Constitutional authority to enter the war without the Congress(those were the days!), and Churchill desperately needed ships for the fleet. The US had spare destroyers, and the British had ports in the Caribbean and Canada. So, a swap was arranged. Destroyers for ports. As all such transactions that occurred between the US and England, it was terribly unequally weighted in the favor of Uncle Sam, but Churchill's back was against the wall. The program was dubbed 'Lend-Lease', and it proved helpful.
Well, OldSouth proposes we right that terrible injustice. We are as desperately in need of sane leadership as England was in need of destroyers. The UK has Dan Hannan.
We've got huge reserves of coal, natural gas, copper, and Disneyworld. Hell's-bells, we'll even throw in Bill and Hilary, a couple of disgraced New York governors, and half of the Screen Actors Guild. They're out of work anyway.
As this little snippet illuminates, Dan Hannan has a lot better understanding of the US Constitution than our PeopleInCharge.
We shouldn't let the fact that he was born in Chile and holds a UK passport be any sort of impediment...
Well, OldSouth proposes we right that terrible injustice. We are as desperately in need of sane leadership as England was in need of destroyers. The UK has Dan Hannan.
We've got huge reserves of coal, natural gas, copper, and Disneyworld. Hell's-bells, we'll even throw in Bill and Hilary, a couple of disgraced New York governors, and half of the Screen Actors Guild. They're out of work anyway.
As this little snippet illuminates, Dan Hannan has a lot better understanding of the US Constitution than our PeopleInCharge.
We shouldn't let the fact that he was born in Chile and holds a UK passport be any sort of impediment...
Taxation In The Land Of Fruits And Nuts
Just picked this anecdote from a recent Mish post. You may need to read it a couple of times, just to take it in:
Hi Mish
I just picked up tax documents from my CPA. California require me to pay 30% of my estimated tax for the year on 04/15/10 and another 50% by 06-15-10. The balance of 20% is due on 01-15-11.
They want 80% of my annual estimate after 6 months, taxing me on money I have yet to earn for the year.
'Taxing me on money I have yet to earn for the year....'
Siphoning off actual cash on profits that may or may not materialize.
Hmm...this should encourage business and job formation in California, whaddayathink?
Here's an idea: Have RBS open business lending offices out there on Planet Ahnuld, and use some of that UK taxpayer money to lend to start-ups. What could go wrong?
Hi Mish
I just picked up tax documents from my CPA. California require me to pay 30% of my estimated tax for the year on 04/15/10 and another 50% by 06-15-10. The balance of 20% is due on 01-15-11.
They want 80% of my annual estimate after 6 months, taxing me on money I have yet to earn for the year.
'Taxing me on money I have yet to earn for the year....'
Siphoning off actual cash on profits that may or may not materialize.
Hmm...this should encourage business and job formation in California, whaddayathink?
Here's an idea: Have RBS open business lending offices out there on Planet Ahnuld, and use some of that UK taxpayer money to lend to start-ups. What could go wrong?
The Mexican (Well, Scottish) Standoff: The Quandry of RBS
It falls to the droll Robert Peston of the BBC to deliver bad news, especially these days. He does it with as much 'stiff upper lip' as one can reasonably muster.
But, no doubt about it, the news is bad.
RBS, now a ward of the UK taxpayer, lost another £6.2 billion last year. Lessee, at $1.60 a pop, that's....(be right back, gotta use a spreadsheet for this one)...
$2,560,000,000. Two billion, five hundred sixty million. Dollars. Or, as we say 'round here: A sheeutload of money, bubba! Sheeut!
The British taxpayer, under Gordon Brown's unelected service as PM, has been forced to pony up £45.5 billion to prop RBS up. £25.5 just last fall, and £10 billion of that has evaporated already.
Peston continues:
So what are we as taxpayers getting for the fortune we've put into RBS?
What we're not getting is oodles of credit funnelled to businesses vital to the UK's economic recovery.
By its own admission, Royal Bank has flunked the government-set target of providing £16bn of additional loans to "credit-worthy" businesses.
It insists that's not as a result of bad faith on its part.
Royal Bank says the money is there to be lent, but that bankable businesses don't want to borrow - or, at least they don't want to borrow enough.
In fact, there has been a £12.2bn reduction to £151bn during the course of the year in the total volume of loans provided by Royal Bank to companies.
These are disturbing figures - not least in the context of the shocking official statistics released this morning on investment by British business, which showed that in the last three months of 2009 business investment fell almost 6 per cent to a level not seen since 1992.
It's a classic Mexican Standoff: The lender only wants risk-free loans, and businesses will be damned if they'll borrow a penny from these clowns! Or anyone else, for that matter. They're better off downsizing, deleveraging, and hunkering down. Someone else can stick his neck and get it chopped off.
On either side of the pond, who can set up any sort of projections of production costs/sales/revenue/profit etc. when the People In Charge don't seem to believe that unbridled spending into eternity creates instability? Then there are the tax increases that will hammer any profits. And as-yet-unanticipated regulations. And unions. And health insurance 'reform'. Makes you wanna go out and borrow a billion or two, huh?
If you make money, you're a villain, and the tax-man comes calling, to remind you Who'sInChargeByGod. If you lose money, you're wiped out. Unless you're a large bank, or GM, or Fannie, Freddie, or AIG. Then they give you more to play blackjack with.
Chin-straps on, friends and neighbors. It's going to be a rough ride.
But, no doubt about it, the news is bad.
RBS, now a ward of the UK taxpayer, lost another £6.2 billion last year. Lessee, at $1.60 a pop, that's....(be right back, gotta use a spreadsheet for this one)...
$2,560,000,000. Two billion, five hundred sixty million. Dollars. Or, as we say 'round here: A sheeutload of money, bubba! Sheeut!
The British taxpayer, under Gordon Brown's unelected service as PM, has been forced to pony up £45.5 billion to prop RBS up. £25.5 just last fall, and £10 billion of that has evaporated already.
Peston continues:
So what are we as taxpayers getting for the fortune we've put into RBS?
What we're not getting is oodles of credit funnelled to businesses vital to the UK's economic recovery.
By its own admission, Royal Bank has flunked the government-set target of providing £16bn of additional loans to "credit-worthy" businesses.
It insists that's not as a result of bad faith on its part.
Royal Bank says the money is there to be lent, but that bankable businesses don't want to borrow - or, at least they don't want to borrow enough.
In fact, there has been a £12.2bn reduction to £151bn during the course of the year in the total volume of loans provided by Royal Bank to companies.
These are disturbing figures - not least in the context of the shocking official statistics released this morning on investment by British business, which showed that in the last three months of 2009 business investment fell almost 6 per cent to a level not seen since 1992.
It's a classic Mexican Standoff: The lender only wants risk-free loans, and businesses will be damned if they'll borrow a penny from these clowns! Or anyone else, for that matter. They're better off downsizing, deleveraging, and hunkering down. Someone else can stick his neck and get it chopped off.
On either side of the pond, who can set up any sort of projections of production costs/sales/revenue/profit etc. when the People In Charge don't seem to believe that unbridled spending into eternity creates instability? Then there are the tax increases that will hammer any profits. And as-yet-unanticipated regulations. And unions. And health insurance 'reform'. Makes you wanna go out and borrow a billion or two, huh?
If you make money, you're a villain, and the tax-man comes calling, to remind you Who'sInChargeByGod. If you lose money, you're wiped out. Unless you're a large bank, or GM, or Fannie, Freddie, or AIG. Then they give you more to play blackjack with.
Chin-straps on, friends and neighbors. It's going to be a rough ride.
Back In The Day(2005), When The Democrats Railed Against The 51-Vote Majority
Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Reid and the MSM are about put on the full court press to pass a health care takeover that this country clearly does not want.
Is there a need for some fixes to the system? Absolutely.
Is ObamaCare the answer? Absolutely not. And Obama and company know it. That's why they will attempt to ram this huge program through via the parliamentary maneuver known as 'reconciliation'. No amendments can be offered, and minimal debate allowed.
In 2005, when the Republicans were in the majority, some judicial appointments were under consideration. The Republicans contemplated changing the Senate rules to allow approval by simple majority, which by the way is what the Constitution specifies.
The Democrats screamed bloody murder, warning darkly of the 'tyranny of the majority'. Sadly, the GOP leader Bill Frist relented. It was the beginning of the end, as conservative voters decided they had been sold out by both Bush and the GOP.
But, here for your viewing, the protestations of the Democrat Senators in 2005, decrying the very thing they now proclaim as the only way forward.
They may just succeed, but they will blow the country up. OS has come to the conclusion that they just don't care, that the will to power trumps any ethical restraint.
Is there a need for some fixes to the system? Absolutely.
Is ObamaCare the answer? Absolutely not. And Obama and company know it. That's why they will attempt to ram this huge program through via the parliamentary maneuver known as 'reconciliation'. No amendments can be offered, and minimal debate allowed.
In 2005, when the Republicans were in the majority, some judicial appointments were under consideration. The Republicans contemplated changing the Senate rules to allow approval by simple majority, which by the way is what the Constitution specifies.
The Democrats screamed bloody murder, warning darkly of the 'tyranny of the majority'. Sadly, the GOP leader Bill Frist relented. It was the beginning of the end, as conservative voters decided they had been sold out by both Bush and the GOP.
But, here for your viewing, the protestations of the Democrat Senators in 2005, decrying the very thing they now proclaim as the only way forward.
They may just succeed, but they will blow the country up. OS has come to the conclusion that they just don't care, that the will to power trumps any ethical restraint.
You Must Remember This...
...a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is still a sigh;
The fundamental things apply, as time goes by.
It's a wonderful old song, made immortal by that scene in Casablanca.
And like most wonderful old songs, it is memorable because it conveys truth.
OS saw a few minutes of the Health Care Summit, brought to us by the Obama administration.
Millions of words have been spoken and written already, so no need to analyze more.
But OS hopes his readers 'remember this': Obama, Joe B, Miss Nancy and Mr. Harry would never have consented to sit in front of the cameras (as they so often dishonstly promised) and pretend to discuss health care, had the voters of Massachsuetts not elected Scott Brown. The Tea Parties and town meeting near-riots left a number of Democrat members in shock.
They were running for cover, pure and simple, as the plan is hatched to just pass Senate health care via 'reconciliation' is now quietly being put into place. They really think they can pass this turkey under cover, in the dead of night, without anyone taking notice! If they do, they will blow up the Senate, and the country with it. Obama will have a veritable tiger by the tail.
..it's sill the same old story, the fight for love and glory, a case of doe or die...
No matter what the future brings, as time goes by.
OS hopes this will lend encouragement to his friends in the UK, who have suffered so under their unelected Prime Minister.
The fundamental things apply, as time goes by.
It's a wonderful old song, made immortal by that scene in Casablanca.
And like most wonderful old songs, it is memorable because it conveys truth.
OS saw a few minutes of the Health Care Summit, brought to us by the Obama administration.
Millions of words have been spoken and written already, so no need to analyze more.
But OS hopes his readers 'remember this': Obama, Joe B, Miss Nancy and Mr. Harry would never have consented to sit in front of the cameras (as they so often dishonstly promised) and pretend to discuss health care, had the voters of Massachsuetts not elected Scott Brown. The Tea Parties and town meeting near-riots left a number of Democrat members in shock.
They were running for cover, pure and simple, as the plan is hatched to just pass Senate health care via 'reconciliation' is now quietly being put into place. They really think they can pass this turkey under cover, in the dead of night, without anyone taking notice! If they do, they will blow up the Senate, and the country with it. Obama will have a veritable tiger by the tail.
..it's sill the same old story, the fight for love and glory, a case of doe or die...
No matter what the future brings, as time goes by.
OS hopes this will lend encouragement to his friends in the UK, who have suffered so under their unelected Prime Minister.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Tea Party Movement Launches In England This Saturday
This comes to us from Daniel Hannan, who OS hopes to meet one fine day, and convince him to allow the US to lease him for a decade or so. Fond hope...
The Tea Party launches in the UK this weekend.
They're even serving tea, in the great British tradition.
Three cheers from your American cousins!
OS has to go earn his keep...moh' latuh'.
The Tea Party launches in the UK this weekend.
They're even serving tea, in the great British tradition.
Three cheers from your American cousins!
OS has to go earn his keep...moh' latuh'.
This Is How Wars Begin: The Falklands And Obama's Cluelessness
This just over the transom.
Going largely unnoticed here in the US, Argentina is rattling the saber over the Falkland Islands again.
And the Obama administration has decided to remain neutral!
This from the UK Telegraph:
The Obama administration’s decision to remain neutral in the dispute between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands is a shameful decision that will go down very badly across the Atlantic. As The Times has just reported, Washington has point blank refused to support British sovereignty over the Falklands, and is adopting a strictly neutral approach.
In the words of a State Department spokesman:
“We are aware not only of the current situation but also of the history, but our position remains one of neutrality. The US recognises de facto UK administration of the islands but takes no position on the sovereignty claims of either party.”
The remarks had echoes of an earlier statement by a senior State Department protocol official who, when asked about the shoddy treatment of the British Prime Minister in March last year, responded:
“There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”
[end quote]
WHAT???!!!???
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
The silence of the Obama administration on this matter screams to the world about its amorality.
All that blather about 'self-determination' for this group and that around the world. The residents of the Falklands have made unmistakeably clear that they are British! And have zero desire to be joined to Argentina.
The UK has one destroyer in the port, and some troops on the island. They assumed they had an ally!
Obama's amorality will only embolden the hawks in a bankrupt Peronist Argentina, and strengthen Chavez's hand in South America. It's like 1937, all over again, only this time on the doorstep of North America. One timely visit by a US carrier group through the Gulf, and on down to the South Atlantic would save thousands upon thousands of lives.
Cowardice and amorality always pave the way to war. Always.
How did this country forget that?
Going largely unnoticed here in the US, Argentina is rattling the saber over the Falkland Islands again.
And the Obama administration has decided to remain neutral!
This from the UK Telegraph:
The Obama administration’s decision to remain neutral in the dispute between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands is a shameful decision that will go down very badly across the Atlantic. As The Times has just reported, Washington has point blank refused to support British sovereignty over the Falklands, and is adopting a strictly neutral approach.
In the words of a State Department spokesman:
“We are aware not only of the current situation but also of the history, but our position remains one of neutrality. The US recognises de facto UK administration of the islands but takes no position on the sovereignty claims of either party.”
The remarks had echoes of an earlier statement by a senior State Department protocol official who, when asked about the shoddy treatment of the British Prime Minister in March last year, responded:
“There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”
[end quote]
WHAT???!!!???
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
The silence of the Obama administration on this matter screams to the world about its amorality.
All that blather about 'self-determination' for this group and that around the world. The residents of the Falklands have made unmistakeably clear that they are British! And have zero desire to be joined to Argentina.
The UK has one destroyer in the port, and some troops on the island. They assumed they had an ally!
Obama's amorality will only embolden the hawks in a bankrupt Peronist Argentina, and strengthen Chavez's hand in South America. It's like 1937, all over again, only this time on the doorstep of North America. One timely visit by a US carrier group through the Gulf, and on down to the South Atlantic would save thousands upon thousands of lives.
Cowardice and amorality always pave the way to war. Always.
How did this country forget that?
Mossad's Man Inside Hamas
OldSouth always wondered how the Israelis seem to know exactly where to find the terrorists they seek.
Well, now we know in part, to quote St. Paul.
The son of one of Hamas’s founding members was a spy in the service of Israel for more than a decade, helping to prevent dozens of Islamist suicide bombers from finding their targets, it emerged yesterday. Codenamed the “Green Prince” by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of the Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, supplied key intelligence almost daily from 1996. He tracked down suicide bombers and their handlers from his father’s organisation, the Haaretz newspaper said.
It's an inspiring read about moral courage in the most dangerous of circumstances.
Truly, a Green Shoots nominee.
Well, now we know in part, to quote St. Paul.
The son of one of Hamas’s founding members was a spy in the service of Israel for more than a decade, helping to prevent dozens of Islamist suicide bombers from finding their targets, it emerged yesterday. Codenamed the “Green Prince” by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of the Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, supplied key intelligence almost daily from 1996. He tracked down suicide bombers and their handlers from his father’s organisation, the Haaretz newspaper said.
It's an inspiring read about moral courage in the most dangerous of circumstances.
Truly, a Green Shoots nominee.
The Prisoner Who Broke Into Auschwitz
Denis Avey, one of the original Desert Rats of WWII, is an extraordinary man. After being wounded and captured, he was shipped to a POW camp near Auschwitz in Poland, and set to work in the Farben factory. There he befriended one of the Jewish prisoners. He determined to break into the camp, and document as much as he could for posterity.
His story is harrowing, a literal trip into Perdition.
As we passed beneath the Arbeit Macht Frei [work makes you free] sign, everyone stood up straight and tried to look as healthy as they could. There was an SS officer there, weeding out the weaklings for the gas. Overhead was a gallows, which had a corpse hanging from it, as a deterrent. An orchestra was playing Wagner to accompany our march. It was chilling.
And that was just the walk into the camp!
At 91, his story is finally being verified and told. It took two years for him to convalesce after he returned home from the war, and by 1947, no one in England wanted to hear the stories anymore.
So, he had to live with them by himself.
This blog, in general, is about the culture--what makes it healthy or poisonous, and how that eventually plays itself out in the economic and political life of the country. OldSouth sits in the 'Amen Pew' when someone like Muggeridge reminds us that the abandonment of Christendom and its virtues will lead to the return of a Dark Age. Tolkien and Lewis hammer the same theme, each in their own way.
It is easy to sit back and say 'Those nasty, nasty Nazis, weren't they just awful!' It is much more sobering to reflect that the same culture that brought us Luther, Gutenburg, Telemann, Mendelssohn, Goethe, Beethoven, Schubert, Schiller, and Brahms later brought us Adolf Hitler. He was enthusiastically embraced by a culture that had already decided that that inheritance just didn't matter that much anymore. They were looking for a leader would restore the nation's pride, its economy, and make the trains run on time. Ethical details didn't much matter anymore.
The old story of Esau selling his birthright for a 'mess of pottage', e.g. a bowl of lentil soup, comes chillingly to mind.
Luckily, in the 1940's, there still remained an England, America, Canada, Australia, and a few others.
But what if we allow it to happen here, in America?
Lech Walesa visited a few weeks ago to ask just that question, and was ignored. Muggeridge made it his life's work after the mid 60's. Solzhenitsyn warned us of it in the 1970's, and was ridiculed--'it could never happen here'.
Are we so sure?
His story is harrowing, a literal trip into Perdition.
As we passed beneath the Arbeit Macht Frei [work makes you free] sign, everyone stood up straight and tried to look as healthy as they could. There was an SS officer there, weeding out the weaklings for the gas. Overhead was a gallows, which had a corpse hanging from it, as a deterrent. An orchestra was playing Wagner to accompany our march. It was chilling.
And that was just the walk into the camp!
At 91, his story is finally being verified and told. It took two years for him to convalesce after he returned home from the war, and by 1947, no one in England wanted to hear the stories anymore.
So, he had to live with them by himself.
This blog, in general, is about the culture--what makes it healthy or poisonous, and how that eventually plays itself out in the economic and political life of the country. OldSouth sits in the 'Amen Pew' when someone like Muggeridge reminds us that the abandonment of Christendom and its virtues will lead to the return of a Dark Age. Tolkien and Lewis hammer the same theme, each in their own way.
It is easy to sit back and say 'Those nasty, nasty Nazis, weren't they just awful!' It is much more sobering to reflect that the same culture that brought us Luther, Gutenburg, Telemann, Mendelssohn, Goethe, Beethoven, Schubert, Schiller, and Brahms later brought us Adolf Hitler. He was enthusiastically embraced by a culture that had already decided that that inheritance just didn't matter that much anymore. They were looking for a leader would restore the nation's pride, its economy, and make the trains run on time. Ethical details didn't much matter anymore.
The old story of Esau selling his birthright for a 'mess of pottage', e.g. a bowl of lentil soup, comes chillingly to mind.
Luckily, in the 1940's, there still remained an England, America, Canada, Australia, and a few others.
But what if we allow it to happen here, in America?
Lech Walesa visited a few weeks ago to ask just that question, and was ignored. Muggeridge made it his life's work after the mid 60's. Solzhenitsyn warned us of it in the 1970's, and was ridiculed--'it could never happen here'.
Are we so sure?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Good Tidings From Memphis
In addition to deciding to deciding to integrate into the life of the city, the Memphis Symphony has made an adventurous choice for music director.
She (that's right) hails from Taiwan.
The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, seeking a rising star as its new conductor, on Monday named Mei-Ann Chen to be its fourth music director.
Her three-year contract with the MSO starts with the 2010-11 season.
Members of the search committee said last year that they were looking for an "up-and-comer" to be the musical leader of the symphony. Chen's impressive résumé includes jobs in Portland, Ore., Atlanta and Baltimore.
Born in Taiwan, she has lived in the United States since 1989.
She holds a doctor of musical arts degree in conducting from the University of Michigan.
She was the first student in New England Conservatory's history to receive master's degrees simultaneously in violin and conducting.
In 2005, she became the first woman to win the Malko International Conductors Competition.
During her five-year tenure with the Portland (Ore.) Youth Philharmonic, she led its sold-out debut in Carnegie Hall and received an ASCAP award for innovative programming.
In other words, she has great American training, and long experience with making a symphony orchestra work in the context of a heartland American context. Unlike many conductors, she also knows what it means to be an accomplished performer at an orchestral instrument, and would have put in significant time in the orchestral trenches as a player at New England. She knows how to work with young people and parents, which may well be her greatest long-term asset.
Three cheers!
The right person, in the right place, at the right time, can have a huge impact for good on the culture, for a long, long time. Good wishes go her way, and here's hoping all hands pull together to create a success for that city.
An earlier post about Memphis Symphony can be found here.
She (that's right) hails from Taiwan.
The Memphis Symphony Orchestra, seeking a rising star as its new conductor, on Monday named Mei-Ann Chen to be its fourth music director.
Her three-year contract with the MSO starts with the 2010-11 season.
Members of the search committee said last year that they were looking for an "up-and-comer" to be the musical leader of the symphony. Chen's impressive résumé includes jobs in Portland, Ore., Atlanta and Baltimore.
Born in Taiwan, she has lived in the United States since 1989.
She holds a doctor of musical arts degree in conducting from the University of Michigan.
She was the first student in New England Conservatory's history to receive master's degrees simultaneously in violin and conducting.
In 2005, she became the first woman to win the Malko International Conductors Competition.
During her five-year tenure with the Portland (Ore.) Youth Philharmonic, she led its sold-out debut in Carnegie Hall and received an ASCAP award for innovative programming.
In other words, she has great American training, and long experience with making a symphony orchestra work in the context of a heartland American context. Unlike many conductors, she also knows what it means to be an accomplished performer at an orchestral instrument, and would have put in significant time in the orchestral trenches as a player at New England. She knows how to work with young people and parents, which may well be her greatest long-term asset.
Three cheers!
The right person, in the right place, at the right time, can have a huge impact for good on the culture, for a long, long time. Good wishes go her way, and here's hoping all hands pull together to create a success for that city.
An earlier post about Memphis Symphony can be found here.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Checking In With Jesse and JDA
OS is up to his keister in different pieces of paper that need to go in different directions, and everyone tells him that their piece of paper is the most crucial.
On top of that, one of his students has ended up in the ER, and the frantic mom is making the five-hour drive now. Send one up for J, if you would.
But, the day isn't complete without five minutes checking in with Jesse and JDA.
Something is seriously awry (actually a lot is seriously awry), and the ability of the Fed to continue to print and pump may be drawing to a close, finally. OS has stopped buying, and is willing to take his lumps on what he holds, 'cuz rain or shine, those firms will still be with us in five years or so.
This from Jesse:
The average person buys when they should sell, and sells when they should buy. Often they buy or sell when they should do nothing. The Wall Street insiders and their demimonde frequently help them to do this. That is how things are, and now moreseo than before because of the shrinking pools of exploitable non-banking capital and the lack of financial reforms.
And, for grins, this from JDA...
Too, too funny.
On top of that, one of his students has ended up in the ER, and the frantic mom is making the five-hour drive now. Send one up for J, if you would.
But, the day isn't complete without five minutes checking in with Jesse and JDA.
Something is seriously awry (actually a lot is seriously awry), and the ability of the Fed to continue to print and pump may be drawing to a close, finally. OS has stopped buying, and is willing to take his lumps on what he holds, 'cuz rain or shine, those firms will still be with us in five years or so.
This from Jesse:
The average person buys when they should sell, and sells when they should buy. Often they buy or sell when they should do nothing. The Wall Street insiders and their demimonde frequently help them to do this. That is how things are, and now moreseo than before because of the shrinking pools of exploitable non-banking capital and the lack of financial reforms.
And, for grins, this from JDA...
Too, too funny.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Memphis, Tennessee--A Whole Lotta Carry Permits Issued
For OldSouth's readership from across the globe, Memphis probably means Elvis, Johnny Cash, barbecue, Beale Street, Blue Suede Shoes and the duck parade at the Peabody Hotel. It's those things, to be sure, but the reality of Memphis is actually quite gritty. A lot of widespread poverty, a lot of concentrated wealth, a long tradition of corrupt machine politics, all situated on a 'choke-point' for all modes of shipping, north-south-east-west, in North America. Built on the nineteenth-century cotton trade(which was predicated on slavery), everything about the place is shot through with race. Locate the city in a brutally hot climate, next door to Arkansas and Mississippi, and stir gently. What could go wrong?
Well, they have always had a crime problem, a drug-and-despair fuelled crime problem, a completely-senseless-murder-and-mayhem-as-a-way-of-life problem.
So, from today's Commercial Appeal:
The simultaneous election of a leftist President and Congress, and a severe economic downturn, have led to a surge in handgun permits across the state, and especially in Memphis.
The number of Tennesseans licensed by the state to go armed increased by nearly 51,000 people last year — to 268,711, according to new state statistics. That's an increase of 23 percent over the 218,004 Tennesseans with handgun-carry permits on Jan. 1, 2009. By comparison, the 2008 increase was 14 percent, according to Tennessee Department of Safety figures.
In Shelby County, the number of residents with handgun-carry permits jumped by 5,205 in 2009 to 38,130, up 16 percent. The Shelby County increase in 2008 was 15 percent.
The new data indicate that about 6 percent of Tennessee residents old enough to have a handgun-carry permit -- those ages 21 and up -- had one at the start of this year.
The permit rate is a little lower among people with Memphis addresses. The 20,716 people in the city with gun permits account for about two out of every 50 Memphis residents 21 and up, or nearly 5 percent.
Knoxville has the highest concentration of permit-holders among the state's largest cities: More than 11 percent of its residents 21 and up are licensed to carry firearms.
That's two years of double-digit increases, year over year. The article notes a bit later that violent crime rates dropped dramatically as the rate of handgun ownership rose. Of course, the two facts were separated in the article, and no possible correlation between the two phenomena was mentioned.
It's probably impossible to validly correlate one with the other, but the coincidence is striking. If a person with intent to commit a crime knows he faces a real probability that his potential victim is packing, that is a true incentive to make better life decisions.
Tennessee is a 'right-to-carry' state, a 'must-issue' state. Ergo, any legal resident of the state with proof of citizenship, no criminal record, who passes the mandated course, completes the application, and pays his $115, will be issued a conceal-carry permit. Comply with the statute, and the State must comply as well. Easy-peasy.
OS predicts the trend will continue...
Well, they have always had a crime problem, a drug-and-despair fuelled crime problem, a completely-senseless-murder-and-mayhem-as-a-way-of-life problem.
So, from today's Commercial Appeal:
The simultaneous election of a leftist President and Congress, and a severe economic downturn, have led to a surge in handgun permits across the state, and especially in Memphis.
The number of Tennesseans licensed by the state to go armed increased by nearly 51,000 people last year — to 268,711, according to new state statistics. That's an increase of 23 percent over the 218,004 Tennesseans with handgun-carry permits on Jan. 1, 2009. By comparison, the 2008 increase was 14 percent, according to Tennessee Department of Safety figures.
In Shelby County, the number of residents with handgun-carry permits jumped by 5,205 in 2009 to 38,130, up 16 percent. The Shelby County increase in 2008 was 15 percent.
The new data indicate that about 6 percent of Tennessee residents old enough to have a handgun-carry permit -- those ages 21 and up -- had one at the start of this year.
The permit rate is a little lower among people with Memphis addresses. The 20,716 people in the city with gun permits account for about two out of every 50 Memphis residents 21 and up, or nearly 5 percent.
Knoxville has the highest concentration of permit-holders among the state's largest cities: More than 11 percent of its residents 21 and up are licensed to carry firearms.
That's two years of double-digit increases, year over year. The article notes a bit later that violent crime rates dropped dramatically as the rate of handgun ownership rose. Of course, the two facts were separated in the article, and no possible correlation between the two phenomena was mentioned.
It's probably impossible to validly correlate one with the other, but the coincidence is striking. If a person with intent to commit a crime knows he faces a real probability that his potential victim is packing, that is a true incentive to make better life decisions.
Tennessee is a 'right-to-carry' state, a 'must-issue' state. Ergo, any legal resident of the state with proof of citizenship, no criminal record, who passes the mandated course, completes the application, and pays his $115, will be issued a conceal-carry permit. Comply with the statute, and the State must comply as well. Easy-peasy.
OS predicts the trend will continue...
Oh, To Be Able To Turn This Good A Phrase One Day...
Jesse does it again. If he's not on your blog feed, you are missing a daily dose of wisdom.
The concluding paragraphs from his most recent offering:
Why doesn't 'greed is good' work? Because rather than work harder, a certain portion of the population, not necessarily the most productive and intelligent, will immediately seek rents and income obtained by unnatural advantages, by gaming the system, by cheating and coercion, by the subversion of the rule of law, which will sap the vitality of the greater portion of the population which does in fact work harder, until they can no longer sustain themselves.
What will take the place of these modern economic myths? Time will tell, and it will vary from nation to nation. But the wind of change is going to be blowing a hurricane.
The concluding paragraphs from his most recent offering:
Why doesn't 'greed is good' work? Because rather than work harder, a certain portion of the population, not necessarily the most productive and intelligent, will immediately seek rents and income obtained by unnatural advantages, by gaming the system, by cheating and coercion, by the subversion of the rule of law, which will sap the vitality of the greater portion of the population which does in fact work harder, until they can no longer sustain themselves.
What will take the place of these modern economic myths? Time will tell, and it will vary from nation to nation. But the wind of change is going to be blowing a hurricane.
A Transposition of Good and Evil: Thoughts From Malcolm Muggeridge
Yesterday's browse through the local antique shop yielded a real treasure, a copy of A Twentieth Century Testimony, published in 1978 by Thomas Nelson (ISBN 0-8407-5143-5). Intended more as a 'coffee-table' pictorial book than a real literary work, it features the words and images of Malcom Muggeridge, the prolific British journalist and author. He passed from this earth in 1990, but in his day, never failed to stir the cultural pot with his command of the written and spoken word.
Muggeridge, to the surprise of many, embraced Christianity as his only hope, and the world's only hope, in the late 1960's. He introduced much of the West to Mother Teresa, and championed Solzhenitsyn when he was shunned on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
OldSouth keeps a copy of Muggeridge's little masterpiece The End of Christendom close by, and revisits it annually. (The link takes you to Amazon, so you can order your own copy...hint, hint...)
He wrote prolifically for over sixty years, yet these words taken from yesterday's purchase are amongst his most luminous and pithy:
Good and evil provide the theme of the drama of our mortal existence. In this sense, they may be compared with the positive and negative points which generate an electric current. Transpose the points and the current fails, the light go out, darkness falls, and all is confusion.
The darkness falling on our civilization is likewise due to a transposition of good and evil. In other words, what we are suffering from is not an energy crisis, nor an overpopulation crisis, nor a monetary crisis—from none of these ills that are commonly pointed out—but from a loss of a sense of moral order in the universe. Without that, no order whatsoever—economic, social, or political—is attainable.
For Christians, order is derived from that terrific moment, when, while all things were in quiet silence and that night was in the midst of her swift course, thine almighty Word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne, leaped down to dwell among us, full of grace and truth. It was thus that Christendom came into existence, and to abandon or repudiate the almighty Word from which it is derived would be infallibly to wind up two thousand years of history and ourselves with it.
Have a good rest of the month, and keep your chin-straps on.
Muggeridge, to the surprise of many, embraced Christianity as his only hope, and the world's only hope, in the late 1960's. He introduced much of the West to Mother Teresa, and championed Solzhenitsyn when he was shunned on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
OldSouth keeps a copy of Muggeridge's little masterpiece The End of Christendom close by, and revisits it annually. (The link takes you to Amazon, so you can order your own copy...hint, hint...)
He wrote prolifically for over sixty years, yet these words taken from yesterday's purchase are amongst his most luminous and pithy:
Good and evil provide the theme of the drama of our mortal existence. In this sense, they may be compared with the positive and negative points which generate an electric current. Transpose the points and the current fails, the light go out, darkness falls, and all is confusion.
The darkness falling on our civilization is likewise due to a transposition of good and evil. In other words, what we are suffering from is not an energy crisis, nor an overpopulation crisis, nor a monetary crisis—from none of these ills that are commonly pointed out—but from a loss of a sense of moral order in the universe. Without that, no order whatsoever—economic, social, or political—is attainable.
For Christians, order is derived from that terrific moment, when, while all things were in quiet silence and that night was in the midst of her swift course, thine almighty Word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne, leaped down to dwell among us, full of grace and truth. It was thus that Christendom came into existence, and to abandon or repudiate the almighty Word from which it is derived would be infallibly to wind up two thousand years of history and ourselves with it.
Have a good rest of the month, and keep your chin-straps on.
Saturday Morning, Small-Town South
The workload is enormous at OldSouth's international corporate HQ (and if you believe he works from a corner office, then he has such investment opportunities for you! You see, we buy up all these dodgy mortgages, slice them into teeny-tiny pieces, and sell bonds backed up by all those teeny-tiny pieces. And, if anything goes wrong, the taxpayers make you whole, 100 cents on the dollar....well, never mind....).
No really, Saturday morning, we had to get out of the house, and treat ourselves to breakfast at a little family-owned place in town. Called the daughter in grad school, to see if she wanted to join us, no answer, oh well. Drove into our little town, past the increasingly vacant little office buildings, the vacant car dealership, the 'for sale' and 'for rent' signs.
We walk in the restaurant, and hear the daughter's voice: 'What are my parents doing here?' Great minds think alike, she's escaped to breakfast with her best friend from high-school, unemployed by the Great Recession. College education, industrious, attractive, bright sense of humor, papering her world with job applications. Usually, not even an acknowledgment of receipt of the application. Unemployment benefits still running, but of course no heath coverage. Living at home again. Some days, she says, she just doesn't want to leave the house.
Any number of thoughts come to mind. This young lady is now at least a year now from establishing a separate household for herself, even if she finds a good job next week. Marriage, family not on the horizon, and she's now twenty-five. This does not bode well for real-estate over the next five years or so around here.
She's not untypical, except she has the college degree.
OS is concerned that we are witnessing an entire group of young people slowly becoming marooned.
(Hmm...millions upon millions of jobs saved or created.)
No really, Saturday morning, we had to get out of the house, and treat ourselves to breakfast at a little family-owned place in town. Called the daughter in grad school, to see if she wanted to join us, no answer, oh well. Drove into our little town, past the increasingly vacant little office buildings, the vacant car dealership, the 'for sale' and 'for rent' signs.
We walk in the restaurant, and hear the daughter's voice: 'What are my parents doing here?' Great minds think alike, she's escaped to breakfast with her best friend from high-school, unemployed by the Great Recession. College education, industrious, attractive, bright sense of humor, papering her world with job applications. Usually, not even an acknowledgment of receipt of the application. Unemployment benefits still running, but of course no heath coverage. Living at home again. Some days, she says, she just doesn't want to leave the house.
Any number of thoughts come to mind. This young lady is now at least a year now from establishing a separate household for herself, even if she finds a good job next week. Marriage, family not on the horizon, and she's now twenty-five. This does not bode well for real-estate over the next five years or so around here.
She's not untypical, except she has the college degree.
OS is concerned that we are witnessing an entire group of young people slowly becoming marooned.
(Hmm...millions upon millions of jobs saved or created.)
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