That's what elected governments do. They govern, because voters send them to the state capitol to govern.
Even when there is an angry mob screaming at them:
You are cowards!" spectators in the Senate gallery screamed as lawmakers voted. Within hours, a crowd of a few hundred protesters inside the Capitol had grown to an estimated 7,000, more than had been in the building at any point during weeks of protests.
"The whole world is watching!" they shouted as they pressed up against the heavily guarded entrance to the Senate chamber.
They were screaming at the wrong people. Their advocates had fled the state, and abdicated their duties.
All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's "budget-repair bill" - a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.
Walker said Wednesday night that Democrats had three weeks to debate the bill and were offered repeated opportunities to come back, but refused.
But, tucked away in the middle of the article is a tiny little gem:
Within hours of Wednesday night's vote, protesters had seized the Capitol's lower floors, creating an ear-splitting free-for-all of pounding drums, horns and whistles. Police all but gave up guarding the building entrances. But Wisconsin teachers unions urged their members to go to work on Thursday rather than join in the re-energized demonstrations.
Because now, if the teachers wildcat strike, the local school systems can fire them, and replace them with other teachers, honored to have the job. And not likely to stand with the teachers union.
Now, the union leadership is faced with collecting voluntary dues from the membership, because the obligatory deduction from the paycheck will soon be a thing of the past. This should be interesting, finding out just how many state employees are willing and voluntary union members.
The lower house, the Assembly, will pass the bill on Thursday, and Gov. Walker will sign it. The Dems will certainly attempt to litigate it into the ground, since they always litigate to get their way, especially when they know they don't have the votes to prevail on their own.
Good luck with that...
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Vivian Schiller Quote Of The Week At National Press Club
Really, she said this, two days ago.
Schiller also defended federal funding for public broadcasting, which is currently under fire in Congress. To her credit, she avoided a tit for tat with Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who argued in an op-ed in last Friday's Wall Street Journal that public broadcasting, backed by liberals, is rich enough to go private.
Even though NPR gets about 10 percent of its revenue from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it "plays a critical role in generating the other 90 percent," Schiller explained. "You pull out one thread, and the whole thing unravels.”
Yessss!
Schiller also defended federal funding for public broadcasting, which is currently under fire in Congress. To her credit, she avoided a tit for tat with Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who argued in an op-ed in last Friday's Wall Street Journal that public broadcasting, backed by liberals, is rich enough to go private.
Even though NPR gets about 10 percent of its revenue from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it "plays a critical role in generating the other 90 percent," Schiller explained. "You pull out one thread, and the whole thing unravels.”
Yessss!
Can You Say 'Cash-Burn'?
I knew you could.
The US Treasury burned through 81.6 billion dollars in the first four days of March.
It has about 100 billion left on hand. About 5 days of cash, at the current burn rate.
The debt ceiling is only 14.294 trillion. That's trillion, with a 'T'. We've been rolling over Federal gubbmint debt since the early 1930's, from when OS's sainted mother was a pre-schooler. The debt limit has to be raised, the gubbmint sez, in order to stay in business.
The Democrats in the Senate beat their breasts, and declare with much weeping and gnashing of teeth that the House bill, cutting 60 billion of spending out immediately, is just completely, well well well(lip trembling, eyes tearing up) draconian!
HowKoodJoo! HowKoodJoo! HowKoodJoo! YouBrute! YouBrute! YouBrute!
Three days of spending equals 60 billion dollars. Three days. We've got the fleet and the military deployed around the world, five days of cash on hand, and the Democrats won't consider spending a penny less on anything, anywhere, anytime.
The chaos in Africa (and it ain't jest North Africa, ya'll), the Middle East (The House of Saud just may be a house of cards), and tomorrow's deadline for the Spanish cajas to get their act together or else, sent a huge passel of money in the direction of the latest 10yr T-bill auction, so thus far we haven't had a real mess on our hands. Yet. OS also wonders if the recent stock market spikes aren't the assets of the Rich Who Don't Wish To Be Famous parking their cash in a safer clime.
The Treasury’s largest single expenditure in the first four days of March, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, was paying off maturing debt. During those four days, Treasury paid $128.477 billion to redeem old bonds. At the same time, it borrowed $133.196 billion by selling new bonds.
Wonder what happens if and when those interest rates go up?
The US Treasury burned through 81.6 billion dollars in the first four days of March.
It has about 100 billion left on hand. About 5 days of cash, at the current burn rate.
The debt ceiling is only 14.294 trillion. That's trillion, with a 'T'. We've been rolling over Federal gubbmint debt since the early 1930's, from when OS's sainted mother was a pre-schooler. The debt limit has to be raised, the gubbmint sez, in order to stay in business.
The Democrats in the Senate beat their breasts, and declare with much weeping and gnashing of teeth that the House bill, cutting 60 billion of spending out immediately, is just completely, well well well(lip trembling, eyes tearing up) draconian!
HowKoodJoo! HowKoodJoo! HowKoodJoo! YouBrute! YouBrute! YouBrute!
Three days of spending equals 60 billion dollars. Three days. We've got the fleet and the military deployed around the world, five days of cash on hand, and the Democrats won't consider spending a penny less on anything, anywhere, anytime.
The chaos in Africa (and it ain't jest North Africa, ya'll), the Middle East (The House of Saud just may be a house of cards), and tomorrow's deadline for the Spanish cajas to get their act together or else, sent a huge passel of money in the direction of the latest 10yr T-bill auction, so thus far we haven't had a real mess on our hands. Yet. OS also wonders if the recent stock market spikes aren't the assets of the Rich Who Don't Wish To Be Famous parking their cash in a safer clime.
The Treasury’s largest single expenditure in the first four days of March, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, was paying off maturing debt. During those four days, Treasury paid $128.477 billion to redeem old bonds. At the same time, it borrowed $133.196 billion by selling new bonds.
Wonder what happens if and when those interest rates go up?
Vivian Schiller's Departure From NPR: Long, Long, Loooooong Overdue
The NPR account here says it was much less a voluntary, in-the-interests-of-honor moment, than a response to a fed-up board of directors who told her it was time to leave.
However, as easy as it is to scapegoat Ms.Schiller, a great deal of the responsibility for this mess lies with the board of directors themselves. After the miserable treatment of Juan Williams last fall, his firing by phone, and Ms. Schiller's contemptuously dismissive public comment about his 'psychiatrist or publicist or whatever', they should have fired her. On the spot. And disavowed her. On the spot.
They didn't do that. They were too timid to do the right thing, and probably shared her contempt of their one black commentator, who had committed the sin of NotAdheringToThePartyLine. Not acceptable to, ahem, escape the plantation.
They also hired that idiot Ron-Schiller-No-Relation who was caught in the act of being himself, wining and dining with people he was clearly told were Muslim extremist bad guys, ranting about how racist the Tea Party people are, how the GOP has been taken over by them, and then spouting off how NPR would be better off without Federal funds! They knew who he was, and what he was, or they should have. That's what a board is supposed to do--mind the store.
All those people Ron-Schiller-No-Relation just tarred and feathered verbally will be more than happy to make sure that is a reality. NPR, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, are Toast. Stick-a-fork-in-'er, Bubbah! She's done!
And that day is also loooong overdue. NPR allowed itself to become a handmaiden of the political and cultural Left, the kookier the leftie the better. Since many of the affiliates also broadcast classical music during their days, guess what? After four decades or so, many people associate classical music with The Left, and vice-versa. Had NPR been a handmaiden of the kooky Right, the effect would have been the same--a discrediting of both enterprises.
OS stopped sending money to them after 9/11, when he began hearing sympathetic accounts of suicide bombers being broadcast from NPR. The term 'morally repugnant' does come to mind....
It is now up the local boards of the local affiliates to decide how to go forward on the local level, with their local donors and advertisers. One way or another, the federal dollars are going to go away. There are great sources of programming around the world to choose from and purchase, both in terms of talk radio programs, music and culture, news and opinion, representing a wide range of interests and views. And, in a return to the days when local radio was a joy to experience, they could (GASP!!! OMG!!!) develop their own programming. OMG!!!! That's, that's...hard WORK! We'll get our hands dirty, and some of it might not be successful, and some of it might end up with an audience of (eeewwww) normal Mom-n-Dad kind of people, who drink (ewww,gross!)...beer, and go to church.
OMG!!!!
Not all of NPR's programming was terrible. Science Friday, for instance, is always a fun listen. Car Talk is great fun. Scott Simon on Weekend Edition on Saturday morning often does wonderful interviews.
Let the good stuff live, and the loonie-toonie-leftie nonsense can go find its own audience, without one taxpayer dollar spent for either.
This will be a good thing. This moment is loooong overdue.
However, as easy as it is to scapegoat Ms.Schiller, a great deal of the responsibility for this mess lies with the board of directors themselves. After the miserable treatment of Juan Williams last fall, his firing by phone, and Ms. Schiller's contemptuously dismissive public comment about his 'psychiatrist or publicist or whatever', they should have fired her. On the spot. And disavowed her. On the spot.
They didn't do that. They were too timid to do the right thing, and probably shared her contempt of their one black commentator, who had committed the sin of NotAdheringToThePartyLine. Not acceptable to, ahem, escape the plantation.
They also hired that idiot Ron-Schiller-No-Relation who was caught in the act of being himself, wining and dining with people he was clearly told were Muslim extremist bad guys, ranting about how racist the Tea Party people are, how the GOP has been taken over by them, and then spouting off how NPR would be better off without Federal funds! They knew who he was, and what he was, or they should have. That's what a board is supposed to do--mind the store.
All those people Ron-Schiller-No-Relation just tarred and feathered verbally will be more than happy to make sure that is a reality. NPR, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, are Toast. Stick-a-fork-in-'er, Bubbah! She's done!
And that day is also loooong overdue. NPR allowed itself to become a handmaiden of the political and cultural Left, the kookier the leftie the better. Since many of the affiliates also broadcast classical music during their days, guess what? After four decades or so, many people associate classical music with The Left, and vice-versa. Had NPR been a handmaiden of the kooky Right, the effect would have been the same--a discrediting of both enterprises.
OS stopped sending money to them after 9/11, when he began hearing sympathetic accounts of suicide bombers being broadcast from NPR. The term 'morally repugnant' does come to mind....
It is now up the local boards of the local affiliates to decide how to go forward on the local level, with their local donors and advertisers. One way or another, the federal dollars are going to go away. There are great sources of programming around the world to choose from and purchase, both in terms of talk radio programs, music and culture, news and opinion, representing a wide range of interests and views. And, in a return to the days when local radio was a joy to experience, they could (GASP!!! OMG!!!) develop their own programming. OMG!!!! That's, that's...hard WORK! We'll get our hands dirty, and some of it might not be successful, and some of it might end up with an audience of (eeewwww) normal Mom-n-Dad kind of people, who drink (ewww,gross!)...beer, and go to church.
OMG!!!!
Not all of NPR's programming was terrible. Science Friday, for instance, is always a fun listen. Car Talk is great fun. Scott Simon on Weekend Edition on Saturday morning often does wonderful interviews.
Let the good stuff live, and the loonie-toonie-leftie nonsense can go find its own audience, without one taxpayer dollar spent for either.
This will be a good thing. This moment is loooong overdue.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
The Young Police Chief Makes The Decison to Live: Marisol Valles-Garcia
It was a prudent decision.
A young police chief who fled a violent Mexican border town is now seeking asylum in the United States, FoxNews.com has learned.
Marisol Valles-Garcia, 20, made international headlines last year when she accepted the post as top law enforcement official of Praxedis G. Guerrero in October. The town had been without a police chief since her predecessor was shot to death in July 2009.
Hopefully, since Homeland Security and the Democrats of the House and Senate don't think there's a problem on the border, and refuse to take the steps necessary to enforce it, INS will grant this request.
OS posts this, and hopes his readers pass it along, because this young lady's story will be an embarrassment to both the US and Mexican governments. Without sufficient sunlight trained upon her situation, they could put her through the tortures of the damned, before they quietly dump back over the border to be murdered.
A young police chief who fled a violent Mexican border town is now seeking asylum in the United States, FoxNews.com has learned.
Marisol Valles-Garcia, 20, made international headlines last year when she accepted the post as top law enforcement official of Praxedis G. Guerrero in October. The town had been without a police chief since her predecessor was shot to death in July 2009.
Hopefully, since Homeland Security and the Democrats of the House and Senate don't think there's a problem on the border, and refuse to take the steps necessary to enforce it, INS will grant this request.
OS posts this, and hopes his readers pass it along, because this young lady's story will be an embarrassment to both the US and Mexican governments. Without sufficient sunlight trained upon her situation, they could put her through the tortures of the damned, before they quietly dump back over the border to be murdered.
Monday, March 7, 2011
A Quick Memo For Future Western Governments: A Lesson From Libya
Date: 7 March 2011
[begin memo]
Lissen-up, ya'll. Only got time to send this memo 'round once.
If'n you sell boatloads of gee-whiz-modern weapons to lunatic dictators, 'cuz ya wanna make some dough and curry their favor, remember this: The most likely target for your toys will be the civilians in that country, and you'll be left to clean up the GodAwfulHumanitarianTragedy created by those lunatic dictators, to whom you sold those boatloads of gee-whiz-modern weapons to make some dough and curry their favor.
And, no matter how much cash you make today, you'll be spending shitloads more on the cleanup of the GodAwfulHumanitarianTragedy before too long.
And you'll end up like Lady MacBeth, desperately trying to wash the blood from her hands.
Better off drilling for our own oil and gas, mining our own coal, developing our own hydro and nuke capacity. Lots cheaper, and saves millions of lives.
And, if'n you don't believe OldSouth, you can hit the BBC Live Feed here, and see fer yerself.
Shit-fahr, yall. Don't take my word fer it.
[end memo]
[begin memo]
Lissen-up, ya'll. Only got time to send this memo 'round once.
If'n you sell boatloads of gee-whiz-modern weapons to lunatic dictators, 'cuz ya wanna make some dough and curry their favor, remember this: The most likely target for your toys will be the civilians in that country, and you'll be left to clean up the GodAwfulHumanitarianTragedy created by those lunatic dictators, to whom you sold those boatloads of gee-whiz-modern weapons to make some dough and curry their favor.
And, no matter how much cash you make today, you'll be spending shitloads more on the cleanup of the GodAwfulHumanitarianTragedy before too long.
And you'll end up like Lady MacBeth, desperately trying to wash the blood from her hands.
Better off drilling for our own oil and gas, mining our own coal, developing our own hydro and nuke capacity. Lots cheaper, and saves millions of lives.
And, if'n you don't believe OldSouth, you can hit the BBC Live Feed here, and see fer yerself.
Shit-fahr, yall. Don't take my word fer it.
[end memo]
Joe The Plumber Visits Madison, Until The Threats On His Family From Wisconsin Send Him Home
What a great bunch, our friends at NEA and SEIU.
Sorta' wants to make one stand up and cheer, don't-cha-know?
Actually, Joe's account of his visit was remarkably fair-minded, not a knee-jerk reaction at all.
I went to Wisconsin with an open mind. I wanted to understand exactly what was going between the state and the unions, so I spoke with people on both sides of the issue. While I did so, I recorded our conversations so that the people watching my interviews can make up there own minds.
The first day there I spoke to some great guys who were Correction Officers. They do a tough, dangerous job day in and day out and they do not get thanked enough for the job they do. They are squared away, salt-of-the-earth men; guys I would want to go fishing with and throw back some beers. I honestly believe what they get paid is not near enough for the job they do. Their worries and concerns were genuine.
Steve, a CO in Wisconsin says, “I make 32,000 dollars a year before taxes. How am I suppose to afford the extra healthcare that my family needs”?
This guy’s pay has been frozen for 4 years. That doesn’t begin to seem right.
Then the ugly started...the threatening phone calls to his house, from Wisconsin.
Home again, file the police report, buy another gun, get another dog.
And, still, remarkably fair-minded at the end of the day.
It's a good read, and some good insight.
Sorta' wants to make one stand up and cheer, don't-cha-know?
Actually, Joe's account of his visit was remarkably fair-minded, not a knee-jerk reaction at all.
I went to Wisconsin with an open mind. I wanted to understand exactly what was going between the state and the unions, so I spoke with people on both sides of the issue. While I did so, I recorded our conversations so that the people watching my interviews can make up there own minds.
The first day there I spoke to some great guys who were Correction Officers. They do a tough, dangerous job day in and day out and they do not get thanked enough for the job they do. They are squared away, salt-of-the-earth men; guys I would want to go fishing with and throw back some beers. I honestly believe what they get paid is not near enough for the job they do. Their worries and concerns were genuine.
Steve, a CO in Wisconsin says, “I make 32,000 dollars a year before taxes. How am I suppose to afford the extra healthcare that my family needs”?
This guy’s pay has been frozen for 4 years. That doesn’t begin to seem right.
Then the ugly started...the threatening phone calls to his house, from Wisconsin.
Home again, file the police report, buy another gun, get another dog.
And, still, remarkably fair-minded at the end of the day.
It's a good read, and some good insight.
Baylor University Strikes A Calm Blow For Sanity
The administration did not give in to the hysteria, and didn't allow itself to be bullied by a few undergraduates.
The news story opens, as news stories so often do, with a 'mean old administration vx. the bright-eyed, idealistic, and obviously virtuous students'. Blah, blah, blah.
BAYLOR - For weeks, they've met unofficially on Baylor campus, but so far their efforts to be officially recognized by Baylor University have been unsuccessful.
Students with the Sexual Identity Forum say it's time the historic Texas institution finally confronts its tenuous history with homosexuality.
It's been a constant source of friction between students, faculty and staff. In September of 2010, a national tragedy sparked a turning point for Baylor senior Samantha Jones.
Jones, who is openly gay, says the bullying and suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi served as a wake-up call to gay students around the nation. Jones says Baylor's reaction to the tragedy left much to be desired.
"We didn't get an e-mail saying, 'This is someone who you can approach if you're struggling with this,' ...nothing," Jones says. "And that hurt even more."
Jones decided what Baylor needed was a Sexual Identity Forum, a student group where the topics of homophobia, hate crimes and suicide could be discussed among fellow students. In November of 2010, Jones filed her first request to create an officially recognized student group.
What MizzzzzJones does not understand is: Baylor University didn't owe her that. It's a university, founded to prepare eligible students for professional adult lives. It is not is not is not a therapy group.
And as for its 'tenuous history'--this doesn't sound tenuous:
"Baylor University welcomes all students into a safe and supportive environment in which to discuss and learn about a variety of issues, including those of human sexuality. The University affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God. Christian churches across the ages and around the world have affirmed purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm. Temptations to deviate from this norm include both heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior. It is thus expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching."
Texas has any number of really great universities from which MizzzzzzJones could have chosen. She chose Baylor, which has been Baptist-To-The-Bone from the day it was founded. If she's uncomfortable, it's not Baylor's job to transform itself into an institution that will make her comfortable.
MizzzzJones is also welcome to announce her discussion group is meeting at any time and place in the world, apart from Baylor University. She can seek the sponsorhip and sheltering wing of any institution in the world, apart from Baylor University.
What she can't have is the fulfillment of her narcissistic fantasy that she is entitled to Baylor's blessing for a course of action that Baylor has clearly stated it will not endorse.
Kudos to Baylor's board and administration. Universities, and the world in general, function better with the grownups in charge.
The news story opens, as news stories so often do, with a 'mean old administration vx. the bright-eyed, idealistic, and obviously virtuous students'. Blah, blah, blah.
BAYLOR - For weeks, they've met unofficially on Baylor campus, but so far their efforts to be officially recognized by Baylor University have been unsuccessful.
Students with the Sexual Identity Forum say it's time the historic Texas institution finally confronts its tenuous history with homosexuality.
It's been a constant source of friction between students, faculty and staff. In September of 2010, a national tragedy sparked a turning point for Baylor senior Samantha Jones.
Jones, who is openly gay, says the bullying and suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi served as a wake-up call to gay students around the nation. Jones says Baylor's reaction to the tragedy left much to be desired.
"We didn't get an e-mail saying, 'This is someone who you can approach if you're struggling with this,' ...nothing," Jones says. "And that hurt even more."
Jones decided what Baylor needed was a Sexual Identity Forum, a student group where the topics of homophobia, hate crimes and suicide could be discussed among fellow students. In November of 2010, Jones filed her first request to create an officially recognized student group.
What MizzzzzJones does not understand is: Baylor University didn't owe her that. It's a university, founded to prepare eligible students for professional adult lives. It is not is not is not a therapy group.
And as for its 'tenuous history'--this doesn't sound tenuous:
"Baylor University welcomes all students into a safe and supportive environment in which to discuss and learn about a variety of issues, including those of human sexuality. The University affirms the biblical understanding of sexuality as a gift from God. Christian churches across the ages and around the world have affirmed purity in singleness and fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman as the biblical norm. Temptations to deviate from this norm include both heterosexual sex outside of marriage and homosexual behavior. It is thus expected that Baylor students will not participate in advocacy groups which promote understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching."
Texas has any number of really great universities from which MizzzzzzJones could have chosen. She chose Baylor, which has been Baptist-To-The-Bone from the day it was founded. If she's uncomfortable, it's not Baylor's job to transform itself into an institution that will make her comfortable.
MizzzzJones is also welcome to announce her discussion group is meeting at any time and place in the world, apart from Baylor University. She can seek the sponsorhip and sheltering wing of any institution in the world, apart from Baylor University.
What she can't have is the fulfillment of her narcissistic fantasy that she is entitled to Baylor's blessing for a course of action that Baylor has clearly stated it will not endorse.
Kudos to Baylor's board and administration. Universities, and the world in general, function better with the grownups in charge.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Harvey Weinstein Interview This Morning On Weekend Edition (Saturday)
Harvey Weinstein is the movie producer who brought us The Kings Speech. Blessings upon him and the generations that follow him for doing the world such a great service.
This morning, OS heard a long, delightful interview with the gent on NPR. He is a charming conversationalist, and had some real insight, and a moving story to share about his childhood. Scott Simon, host of the show, is one of the best interviewers now working in his trade.
SIMON: But what makes a good film?
Mr. WEINSTEIN: A good film is a good writing, first and foremost, because the writer starts with a blank page. And those words have to capture an imagination of a director, somebody like myself - producers, actors. And I think a good film is something that moves you, and something that entertains you, and something that, you know, enhances your understanding of life.
SIMON: But what makes the difference between you saying yes to a project and I'd love to but I can't?
Mr. WEINSTEIN: It's the quality of the scripts that I get. It's all about reading. People say to me all the time: How can I get in the movie business or how do I get there, how can I have your job. And I just say, you know, I had an unfortunate accident. When I was a 10-year-old kid, I played cowboys and Indians, I was on the losing side of a guy who had like kind of musket, like a Davey Crockett musket and he poked my eye out.
Six months I stayed home because both my parents worked. But there was a librarian next door, her name Frances Goldstein. I knocked on her door one day and said, I'm bored out of my brain, you know, can I read something? And thus began my education into the world of reading.
So for those people who like to do what I do, the answer is read. Read everything. I read "The Americans." I read "The Russians." And I still to this day read a book or two every week, and read every magazine article I can get my hands on.
Did you catch what transpired? A little boy asked for books, and the librarian next door opened the world to him.
And he opened the world to us.
It's the WhoodKoodaKnowed Rule: We can never never never know what may result from those small generous acts, those daily opportunities that arrive to us unbidden. We're not supposed to know. We are supposed to respond, however.
C.S. Lewis said it best in one of his most famous addresses, The Weight of Glory:
The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour's glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations--these are mortal,... But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
Mrs. Goldstein, Heaven bless you, and may you forever bask in the glow of your good deed.
This morning, OS heard a long, delightful interview with the gent on NPR. He is a charming conversationalist, and had some real insight, and a moving story to share about his childhood. Scott Simon, host of the show, is one of the best interviewers now working in his trade.
SIMON: But what makes a good film?
Mr. WEINSTEIN: A good film is a good writing, first and foremost, because the writer starts with a blank page. And those words have to capture an imagination of a director, somebody like myself - producers, actors. And I think a good film is something that moves you, and something that entertains you, and something that, you know, enhances your understanding of life.
SIMON: But what makes the difference between you saying yes to a project and I'd love to but I can't?
Mr. WEINSTEIN: It's the quality of the scripts that I get. It's all about reading. People say to me all the time: How can I get in the movie business or how do I get there, how can I have your job. And I just say, you know, I had an unfortunate accident. When I was a 10-year-old kid, I played cowboys and Indians, I was on the losing side of a guy who had like kind of musket, like a Davey Crockett musket and he poked my eye out.
Six months I stayed home because both my parents worked. But there was a librarian next door, her name Frances Goldstein. I knocked on her door one day and said, I'm bored out of my brain, you know, can I read something? And thus began my education into the world of reading.
So for those people who like to do what I do, the answer is read. Read everything. I read "The Americans." I read "The Russians." And I still to this day read a book or two every week, and read every magazine article I can get my hands on.
Did you catch what transpired? A little boy asked for books, and the librarian next door opened the world to him.
And he opened the world to us.
It's the WhoodKoodaKnowed Rule: We can never never never know what may result from those small generous acts, those daily opportunities that arrive to us unbidden. We're not supposed to know. We are supposed to respond, however.
C.S. Lewis said it best in one of his most famous addresses, The Weight of Glory:
The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour's glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations--these are mortal,... But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
Mrs. Goldstein, Heaven bless you, and may you forever bask in the glow of your good deed.
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