It was dazzling, was it not, the rebirth of a shattered Germany from the ashes of The Great War and The Great Depression? That young, charismatic leader who seemed to appear from nowhere, who had this magic touch about him; the ability to mesmerize, surrounded by equally brilliant men who carried out his vision of a Greater Europe.
Here is a gallery from Life Magazine, recently released photos of Berlin and The Bunker taken within a very few days of The Fuhrer's demise...the utter chaos and devastation juxtaposed with the banal details--the painting looted from an Italian museum, a molding SS officer's cap, the blood-stained couch where the final suicides took place, the shallow trench in the garden used to cremate the bodies.
It isn't as if we have not been warned. In one manner or another, either via the force of arms, or the inexorable force of mathematics, all utopian regimes--claiming the right and ability to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth at the point of a sword--all of them fail. Jefferson, Adams, Madison and company knew this, and labored to forge a Constitution and a path forward that would discourage Utopians.
OS hopes we pay heed, while we yet have time and grace on our side.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
This Is What An Impasse Looks Like: Jeff Sessions Asks A Simple Question, And Never Gets An Answer
The question being: Does this budget spend more or less than we agreed to last August?
And the spin begins.
After all that blood spilled, all that sturm-und-drang, Obama'z gunna do whut he sees fit to do.
Congress? Shmongress!
Constitution? Whuzzat?
Mathematics? Huh?
And the spin begins.
After all that blood spilled, all that sturm-und-drang, Obama'z gunna do whut he sees fit to do.
Congress? Shmongress!
Constitution? Whuzzat?
Mathematics? Huh?
Monday, February 13, 2012
NEA Crocodile Tears: School Closings
On today's list of National Edumacation Association (aka 'Gimme Moh' Munney Hunney), a plaintive story about proposed elementary school closures in Orlando, Florida.
OS ain't buying it...'cuz whenever the courts would order school closures for the sake of forced busing for 'racial balance' the NEA cheered, or at the very least stood by silently.
If you live in Louisville, Nashville, Chicago, Indy, Cincy, Cleveland, any of the once-vibrant cities with lovely neighborhoods that revolved around the local elementary school, go revisit those parts of town--if you dare.
The Left operates from a simple formula: Create chaos, and then seize power to be 'the solution' to the chaos. Tax and vilify all who disagree.
Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.
OS ain't buying it...'cuz whenever the courts would order school closures for the sake of forced busing for 'racial balance' the NEA cheered, or at the very least stood by silently.
If you live in Louisville, Nashville, Chicago, Indy, Cincy, Cleveland, any of the once-vibrant cities with lovely neighborhoods that revolved around the local elementary school, go revisit those parts of town--if you dare.
The Left operates from a simple formula: Create chaos, and then seize power to be 'the solution' to the chaos. Tax and vilify all who disagree.
Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.
Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Pop Stars
As OS writes, the Grammys are grinding on. As a former member of NARAS, OS can assure you of two certainties: They aren't worth watching, and OS isn't. He's watching a re-run from the 2011 Westminster Dog Show, where the competition was real, and votes weren't sold and traded.
Whitney Houston will this evening be idolized, feted, memorialized, lionized. The publishers who hold copyright to the songs she recorded will be especially tearfully grateful to her, as their receipts will receive a healthy boost from the repeated plays, sales and downloads. Rather like the 'Elvis Effect' in which the labels and publishers celebrated a wonderful 1977 and 1978 in the wake of The King's premature exit from This Vale Of Tears. The past few years have been tough, and earnings are, after all, earnings.
Like Elvis and Michael Jackson, Miss Houston was a compelling performer, profoundly gifted. And like Elvis and Jacko, she supervised her million-dollar talent with a ten-dollar brain.
Like Elvis and Michael she should not be so much remembered as a tragic hero/heroine as much as An Object Lesson, to borrow a phrase from an earlier age.
What's not generally understood is the raw banality of the music business. Hunter Thompson expressed it best:
As both participant and observer in DuhBiz, OS has almost lost count of the lives put through the sausage grinder: performers, composers, side musicians, engineers, on and on it goes. For Miss Houston, Elvis and Jacko, the truth of Thompson's analysis dawned much too late (or never at all). Or, they thought they were exempt, that the bad stuff would never catch up with them. That the money would always be there, that the money would solve all problems that might be encountered.
Million-dollar talents. Ten-dollar brains.
And it isn't like Miss Houston didn't have some wiser heads in her world attempting to help her out. All for nought, she knew better than they. Her death is a tragedy, but she is not a tragic figure. She is an Object Lesson.
And, tonight, the stars arrived on the red carpet, including the recipient of the next Whitney Houston Object Lesson Prize, Nicki Minaj. You must click the link to view the photo. Words fail, they simply fail... One would think that some sense of perspective may have descended upon Miss Minaj, given events of the past few days. But, then again, we're dealing with ten-dollar brains.
Back to the Dog Show. The contestants there are smarter.
Whitney Houston will this evening be idolized, feted, memorialized, lionized. The publishers who hold copyright to the songs she recorded will be especially tearfully grateful to her, as their receipts will receive a healthy boost from the repeated plays, sales and downloads. Rather like the 'Elvis Effect' in which the labels and publishers celebrated a wonderful 1977 and 1978 in the wake of The King's premature exit from This Vale Of Tears. The past few years have been tough, and earnings are, after all, earnings.
Like Elvis and Michael Jackson, Miss Houston was a compelling performer, profoundly gifted. And like Elvis and Jacko, she supervised her million-dollar talent with a ten-dollar brain.
Like Elvis and Michael she should not be so much remembered as a tragic hero/heroine as much as An Object Lesson, to borrow a phrase from an earlier age.
What's not generally understood is the raw banality of the music business. Hunter Thompson expressed it best:
“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”
As both participant and observer in DuhBiz, OS has almost lost count of the lives put through the sausage grinder: performers, composers, side musicians, engineers, on and on it goes. For Miss Houston, Elvis and Jacko, the truth of Thompson's analysis dawned much too late (or never at all). Or, they thought they were exempt, that the bad stuff would never catch up with them. That the money would always be there, that the money would solve all problems that might be encountered.
Million-dollar talents. Ten-dollar brains.
And it isn't like Miss Houston didn't have some wiser heads in her world attempting to help her out. All for nought, she knew better than they. Her death is a tragedy, but she is not a tragic figure. She is an Object Lesson.
And, tonight, the stars arrived on the red carpet, including the recipient of the next Whitney Houston Object Lesson Prize, Nicki Minaj. You must click the link to view the photo. Words fail, they simply fail... One would think that some sense of perspective may have descended upon Miss Minaj, given events of the past few days. But, then again, we're dealing with ten-dollar brains.
Back to the Dog Show. The contestants there are smarter.
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