Dan Hannan waxes eloquent about friend Timo Soini, leader of the True Finns, who recently told Europe to take a hike, refusing to bail out its reckless bankers with their taxes.
DanHan refers to Soini's WSJ editorial, which is a cheerful explanation of the pernicious practices that occur when bankers and politicians get together to perform a gang-rape on the citizenry.
When I had the honor of leading the True Finn Party to electoral victory in April, we made a solemn promise to oppose the bailouts of euro-zone member states. Europe is suffering from the economic gangrene of insolvency—both public and private. Unless we amputate that which cannot be saved, we risk poisoning the whole body.
To understand the real nature and purpose of the bailouts, we first have to understand who really benefits from them.
At the risk of being accused of populism, we'll begin with the obvious: It is not the little guy who benefits. He is being milked and lied to in order to keep the insolvent system running. He is paid less and taxed more to provide the money needed to keep this Ponzi scheme going. Meanwhile, a symbiosis has developed between politicians and banks: Our political leaders borrow ever more money to pay off the banks, which return the favor by lending ever more money back to our governments.
In a true market economy, bad choices get penalized. Instead of accepting losses on unsound investments—which would have led to the probable collapse of some banks—it was decided to transfer the losses to taxpayers via loans, guarantees and opaque constructs such as the European Financial Stability Fund.
In a true market economy, bad choices get penalized. Soini understands, and states, the obvious. Why won't our politicians do likewise?
Further, he notes:
This is not just about economics. People feel betrayed. In Ireland, the incoming parties to the new government promised to hold senior bondholders responsible, but under pressure they succumbed, leaving their voters with a sense of disenfranchisement. The elites in Brussels have said that Finland must honor its commitments to its European partners, but Brussels is silent on whether national politicians should honor their commitments to their own voters.
This is not just about economics.
Green Shoots nomination for Timo, ya'll. He gets it. Here's hoping Finland ends up being the real-life Mouse That Roared. All it take for a Ponzi scheme to collapse is for one of the victims to scream bloody murder and refuse to play. After that, it's just a matter of time.
Showing posts with label Green Shoots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green Shoots. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Green Shoots Nominee: Pearson Foundation Awardee Eric Schweinhart
OS has an ongoing business research project underway, and he won't bore you with details.
However, as he was rooting around, he ran across the Pearson Foundation's program for college students. It's unique in that it identifies and supports young people already in university who are excelling and contributing in unique ways to the community.
Eric's story is inspirational, and OS hopes you find it an uplifting moment.
However, as he was rooting around, he ran across the Pearson Foundation's program for college students. It's unique in that it identifies and supports young people already in university who are excelling and contributing in unique ways to the community.
Eric's story is inspirational, and OS hopes you find it an uplifting moment.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Kaziah Hancock And Her Soldier Boys: A Portrait Of Compassion
Some things just leave one speechless, and in tears.
God bless her.
God bless her.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
New York String Orchestra: Green Shoots Nominee
Music teaching in much of the United States consists of the following:
Mom-n-Dad, with a child eager to learn music(sometimes, sometimes not), engage a teacher with a good local reputation. Teacher teaches Junior some technique, and begins putting him/her through his Rota of favored pieces. That Rota ensures that both Teacher and Junior look good for Mom-n-Dad, who happily write checks. That Rota tends to omit any and all material that might expose weaknesses in Junior's technique and Teacher's grasp of musical styles.
Usually, Junior graduates from high school, heads to University and other interests, and can call up bits of pieces from the rota in the future. Junior marries, has children, and the process begins again.
Sometimes, Junior thinks that music will be a great profession. Junior enters a good conservatory/university music school, and is confronted by a Professor who sez: 'Let's hear a D harmonic minor scale, two octaves, please', and Junior sez: 'What's that?'. The Theory Graduate Assistant sez, 'Please write an A-major scale in both treble and bass clefs, and Junior sez: 'What's that?'. The Orchestra Professor places a middle Haydn symphony on Junior's stand, and Junior sez: 'Who's that?'.
Two years of pain and torment follow, and Junior either survives the Trial By Fire (because Teacher's rota turns out to have been a house of cards), or heads off to pre-med or business, or worse, the Music Education major. On that track, Junior may well end up as a Teacher with a Rota...
If Junior joins the local Youth Orchestra, he/she is run through a standard Rota of about a dozen nineteenth-century Russian pieces, which sound impressive, and neglect such inconveniences as learning how to perform Bach, Mozart, or even get familiar with Beethoven and Bartok. That comes later, in the Trial By Fire, the reasoning goes. The immediate idea is to keep Mom-n-Dad writing checks, and everyone feeling good about themselves.
One effort, quietly underway since the late 1960's, runs counter to that grim march over the cultural cliff, The New York String Orchestra.
The New York Times reviewed its Christmas Eve concert, and the news is heartening. They were performing Mozart and Mendellssohn, not Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich 5.
Green Shoots nominee. A donation link is found at the first link above.
If only we had about twenty such efforts in a nation of 380,000,000 people...
Mom-n-Dad, with a child eager to learn music(sometimes, sometimes not), engage a teacher with a good local reputation. Teacher teaches Junior some technique, and begins putting him/her through his Rota of favored pieces. That Rota ensures that both Teacher and Junior look good for Mom-n-Dad, who happily write checks. That Rota tends to omit any and all material that might expose weaknesses in Junior's technique and Teacher's grasp of musical styles.
Usually, Junior graduates from high school, heads to University and other interests, and can call up bits of pieces from the rota in the future. Junior marries, has children, and the process begins again.
Sometimes, Junior thinks that music will be a great profession. Junior enters a good conservatory/university music school, and is confronted by a Professor who sez: 'Let's hear a D harmonic minor scale, two octaves, please', and Junior sez: 'What's that?'. The Theory Graduate Assistant sez, 'Please write an A-major scale in both treble and bass clefs, and Junior sez: 'What's that?'. The Orchestra Professor places a middle Haydn symphony on Junior's stand, and Junior sez: 'Who's that?'.
Two years of pain and torment follow, and Junior either survives the Trial By Fire (because Teacher's rota turns out to have been a house of cards), or heads off to pre-med or business, or worse, the Music Education major. On that track, Junior may well end up as a Teacher with a Rota...
If Junior joins the local Youth Orchestra, he/she is run through a standard Rota of about a dozen nineteenth-century Russian pieces, which sound impressive, and neglect such inconveniences as learning how to perform Bach, Mozart, or even get familiar with Beethoven and Bartok. That comes later, in the Trial By Fire, the reasoning goes. The immediate idea is to keep Mom-n-Dad writing checks, and everyone feeling good about themselves.
One effort, quietly underway since the late 1960's, runs counter to that grim march over the cultural cliff, The New York String Orchestra.
The New York Times reviewed its Christmas Eve concert, and the news is heartening. They were performing Mozart and Mendellssohn, not Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich 5.
Green Shoots nominee. A donation link is found at the first link above.
If only we had about twenty such efforts in a nation of 380,000,000 people...
Thursday, August 26, 2010
MIT Rolls Out Oil-Eating Bots: A Good Knock-On Effect Of The BP Spill
No one is happy that the Deepwater Horizon disaster occurred.
But, America has this imaginative way of responding to challenges.
Let's hope this really works.
Let's also hope the White House Clown Show doesn't regulate them out of existence.
Because if they DO prove effective, a major hurdle in off-shore drilling can be cleared, e.g., What happens when things go awry?
This technology, therefore, will be targeted by ThePeopleInChargeOfMakingCertainTheEconomyFails.
It will allow energy production. Bad.
It will create jobs and private-sector wealth. Very bad.
It will, therefore, impinge upon the ability of the Environmental Left to shut down whole portions of the economy. Intolerable!
Three Cheers for MIT. Green Shoots Nominee.
But, America has this imaginative way of responding to challenges.
Let's hope this really works.
Let's also hope the White House Clown Show doesn't regulate them out of existence.
Because if they DO prove effective, a major hurdle in off-shore drilling can be cleared, e.g., What happens when things go awry?
This technology, therefore, will be targeted by ThePeopleInChargeOfMakingCertainTheEconomyFails.
It will allow energy production. Bad.
It will create jobs and private-sector wealth. Very bad.
It will, therefore, impinge upon the ability of the Environmental Left to shut down whole portions of the economy. Intolerable!
Three Cheers for MIT. Green Shoots Nominee.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Green Shoots Award: Santosh Ostwal, Master of Jugaad
From The Economist, an inspiring story of inspiration and perspiration.
SANTOSH OSTWAL, husband and father of two, lost his apartment in 2001 after quitting his job in Pune to solve an engineering problem he’d been thinking about for twenty years. Today his solution – a mobile-phone adaptation that triggers irrigation pumps remotely – is saving water in India and helping more than 10,000 farmers avoid several taxing, dangerous long walks a day.
[Mrs Ostwal employed] the Indian concept of jugaad, an inspired kind of duct-taped ingenuity that employs only the tools at hand.
In 1981 Mr Ostwal, then an adolescent, visited his family’s village near Pune during his summer vacation. Every midnight, his 82-year-old grandfather (who had lost a leg to gangrene and walked with a stick) would walk a mile to switch on the water-pump to ensure that his oranges were ready to ship the next morning. Since the water and electric supply were erratic (and allocated to the industrial belt during the daytime), he would make up to ten such trips a night. Mr Ostwal felt a deep desire to help his grandfather, but couldn’t do anything about it as a student.
Seven years later, after completing his engineering degree, he visited the village again. The problem had not gone away. He suggested to the farmers that a remotely controlled switch might make their lives easier, and was surprised to hear their reactions.
'I will tell you one wonderful thing. Farmers were not accepting this as a problem of theirs. They would tell me that this is routine work for us and our sons. Why do you worry so much? Walking a couple of miles daily is no big deal. What other work do we and our sons have? Let them work hard and appreciate the food that they get at the end of each day!'
He was aghast with the explanation but let it pass, since he had a far more measurable problem to deal with. He did a back-of-the-envelope calculation.
'There are 3.1 million official connections of water pump sets in Maharashtra alone. The all-India figure is more than 1 billion. While farmers didn’t mind too much with the drill of walking up to the farm to switch on their motor pump sets and then head back home, I found that there was a strong resistance to walk back all the way to the farm to switch off their pump sets. A lot of water and electricity would be wasted. A 5 HP motor which wastes 4 to 5 hours of water daily not only consumes upto 1000 litres per day, but also results in soil erosion which decreases the yield… And then in that 15 day period for me, I decided, ‘Yes. This is my career and I am going to make my career in irrigation automation. That’s all.’ This was in 1991.'
He started with a $2 alarm clock.
OS will rely upon you to read the story from there.
Mr. (and Mrs.) Ostwal not only overcame an engineering quandry, but a cultural one as well. They never gave up, and they did it for love of family and country. He still hasn't made any big bucks off it, but he will, or he will from the next brilliant solution. He by-golly deserves to, and to not be taxed into extinction for his pains!!
If OS may be now permitted to translate into his local dialect:
Ya'll, we need to be importing some of that jugaad from India, instead of our shirts and pants. Any wonder why our companies want to hire those folks over there, ya'll? We used to do this sort of stuff all the time! Now we act like we can't get anything done without the permission of ten committees and an Act of Congress!
Hell's-bells, ya'll, the spot I'm sitting in was howling wilderness 200 years ago, barely settled 100 years ago, and wasn't reached by electricity or phone until well into the 20th century! And I'm sitting here running my businesses off a laptop while I drink my coffee!
Send the Mexicans home, ya'll. Let's go to India and recruit us some engineers to remind us how to do that jugaad thang!
Whoooweeee! Give that couple The Green Shoots Award!
SANTOSH OSTWAL, husband and father of two, lost his apartment in 2001 after quitting his job in Pune to solve an engineering problem he’d been thinking about for twenty years. Today his solution – a mobile-phone adaptation that triggers irrigation pumps remotely – is saving water in India and helping more than 10,000 farmers avoid several taxing, dangerous long walks a day.
[Mrs Ostwal employed] the Indian concept of jugaad, an inspired kind of duct-taped ingenuity that employs only the tools at hand.
In 1981 Mr Ostwal, then an adolescent, visited his family’s village near Pune during his summer vacation. Every midnight, his 82-year-old grandfather (who had lost a leg to gangrene and walked with a stick) would walk a mile to switch on the water-pump to ensure that his oranges were ready to ship the next morning. Since the water and electric supply were erratic (and allocated to the industrial belt during the daytime), he would make up to ten such trips a night. Mr Ostwal felt a deep desire to help his grandfather, but couldn’t do anything about it as a student.
Seven years later, after completing his engineering degree, he visited the village again. The problem had not gone away. He suggested to the farmers that a remotely controlled switch might make their lives easier, and was surprised to hear their reactions.
'I will tell you one wonderful thing. Farmers were not accepting this as a problem of theirs. They would tell me that this is routine work for us and our sons. Why do you worry so much? Walking a couple of miles daily is no big deal. What other work do we and our sons have? Let them work hard and appreciate the food that they get at the end of each day!'
He was aghast with the explanation but let it pass, since he had a far more measurable problem to deal with. He did a back-of-the-envelope calculation.
'There are 3.1 million official connections of water pump sets in Maharashtra alone. The all-India figure is more than 1 billion. While farmers didn’t mind too much with the drill of walking up to the farm to switch on their motor pump sets and then head back home, I found that there was a strong resistance to walk back all the way to the farm to switch off their pump sets. A lot of water and electricity would be wasted. A 5 HP motor which wastes 4 to 5 hours of water daily not only consumes upto 1000 litres per day, but also results in soil erosion which decreases the yield… And then in that 15 day period for me, I decided, ‘Yes. This is my career and I am going to make my career in irrigation automation. That’s all.’ This was in 1991.'
He started with a $2 alarm clock.
OS will rely upon you to read the story from there.
Mr. (and Mrs.) Ostwal not only overcame an engineering quandry, but a cultural one as well. They never gave up, and they did it for love of family and country. He still hasn't made any big bucks off it, but he will, or he will from the next brilliant solution. He by-golly deserves to, and to not be taxed into extinction for his pains!!
If OS may be now permitted to translate into his local dialect:
Ya'll, we need to be importing some of that jugaad from India, instead of our shirts and pants. Any wonder why our companies want to hire those folks over there, ya'll? We used to do this sort of stuff all the time! Now we act like we can't get anything done without the permission of ten committees and an Act of Congress!
Hell's-bells, ya'll, the spot I'm sitting in was howling wilderness 200 years ago, barely settled 100 years ago, and wasn't reached by electricity or phone until well into the 20th century! And I'm sitting here running my businesses off a laptop while I drink my coffee!
Send the Mexicans home, ya'll. Let's go to India and recruit us some engineers to remind us how to do that jugaad thang!
Whoooweeee! Give that couple The Green Shoots Award!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Green Shoots Award, Literally: Alexandra Reau, Michigan Teen Entreprenuer Farmer
And, for something inspiring for the weekend, this delicious item from the New York Times.
Lawn mowing and baby-sitting are standard summer jobs for the enterprising teenager. Alexandra Reau, who is 14, combines a little bit of each: last year, she asked her dad to dig up a half acre of their lawn in rural Petersburg, Mich., so she could farm. Now in its second season, her Garden to Go C.S.A. (community-supported agriculture) grows for 14 members, who pay $100 to $175 for two months of just-picked vegetables and herbs. While her peers are hanging out at Molly’s Mystic Freeze and working out the moves to that Miley Cyrus video, she’s flicking potato-beetle larvae off of leaves in her V-neck T-shirt and denim capris, a barrette keeping her hair out of her demurely made-up eyes. Who says the face of American farming is a 57-year-old man with a John Deere cap?
It's a great read, a truly inspiring story.
No stimulus money spent here.
No farm subsidies.
No gubbermint involvement, period. (At least not yet!)
No bankers.
Positive economic and cultural outcomes for all parties.
Damn! How'd that happen?
Three cheers, and a Green Shoots award for Miss Reau.
Lawn mowing and baby-sitting are standard summer jobs for the enterprising teenager. Alexandra Reau, who is 14, combines a little bit of each: last year, she asked her dad to dig up a half acre of their lawn in rural Petersburg, Mich., so she could farm. Now in its second season, her Garden to Go C.S.A. (community-supported agriculture) grows for 14 members, who pay $100 to $175 for two months of just-picked vegetables and herbs. While her peers are hanging out at Molly’s Mystic Freeze and working out the moves to that Miley Cyrus video, she’s flicking potato-beetle larvae off of leaves in her V-neck T-shirt and denim capris, a barrette keeping her hair out of her demurely made-up eyes. Who says the face of American farming is a 57-year-old man with a John Deere cap?
It's a great read, a truly inspiring story.
No stimulus money spent here.
No farm subsidies.
No gubbermint involvement, period. (At least not yet!)
No bankers.
Positive economic and cultural outcomes for all parties.
Damn! How'd that happen?
Three cheers, and a Green Shoots award for Miss Reau.
Monday, March 29, 2010
The 'Birmingham Hoard': Saxon Art Treasures To Remain At Home
This is happy news, an inspiring moment.
An amateur metal detector enthusiast discovered a collection of 7th century Saxon gold artifacts in the Midlands. Valued initially at over three million pounds, the collection could have probably brought more, were it broken up and auctioned to the highest bidder.
As it turned out, the money was raised, and a plan developed, to keep the collection together, and in residence in Birmingham.
And, long term, the rewards, both cultural and financial, for that region of the UK will far outstrip the wads of short-term cash that could have been made.
And, it was a voluntary and cooperative effort!
It can be done this way, without anyone inflicting trauma on anyone else.
Green Shoots Nomination, definitely, to all involved.
OS hopes you take a few minutes to view the slideshow of these artifacts.
Breathtakingly beautiful pieces, made more enjoyable by knowing the story.
An amateur metal detector enthusiast discovered a collection of 7th century Saxon gold artifacts in the Midlands. Valued initially at over three million pounds, the collection could have probably brought more, were it broken up and auctioned to the highest bidder.
As it turned out, the money was raised, and a plan developed, to keep the collection together, and in residence in Birmingham.
And, long term, the rewards, both cultural and financial, for that region of the UK will far outstrip the wads of short-term cash that could have been made.
And, it was a voluntary and cooperative effort!
It can be done this way, without anyone inflicting trauma on anyone else.
Green Shoots Nomination, definitely, to all involved.
OS hopes you take a few minutes to view the slideshow of these artifacts.
Breathtakingly beautiful pieces, made more enjoyable by knowing the story.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Space Exploration From Yorkshire UK: Green Shoots Nominee
An admiring shout-out to this creative eccentric, who proves that engineering trumps technology.
This Yorkshire hobbyist rigged up a digital camera bought on eBay in a mount, complete with tracking device. Attached to a weather balloon, it travels some twenty miles to the edge of space, and captures stunning photos of the curvature of the earth. Balloon bursts, camera returns to earth by parachute, and our good Yorkshireman locates it with the tracking device.
Cost per exploratory trip to The Final Frontier: £500.
Green Shoots Nominee for creativity and inspiration.
The story mentions that NASA has shown some interest. Given what the current administration has done to its budget, this may be prudent!
HT to Breitbart.
This Yorkshire hobbyist rigged up a digital camera bought on eBay in a mount, complete with tracking device. Attached to a weather balloon, it travels some twenty miles to the edge of space, and captures stunning photos of the curvature of the earth. Balloon bursts, camera returns to earth by parachute, and our good Yorkshireman locates it with the tracking device.
Cost per exploratory trip to The Final Frontier: £500.
Green Shoots Nominee for creativity and inspiration.
The story mentions that NASA has shown some interest. Given what the current administration has done to its budget, this may be prudent!
HT to Breitbart.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Food For Thought From The Acton Institute
OS has spent a little time, not enough, in the erudite pages of the Acton Institute.
It's a think tank with a peculiar purpose:
The Mission of the Acton Institute is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.
The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty is named after the great English historian, Lord John Acton (1834-1902). He is best known for his famous remark: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Inspired by his work on the relation between liberty and morality, the Acton Institute seeks to articulate a vision of society that is both free and virtuous, the end of which is human flourishing. To clarify this relationship, the Institute holds seminars and publishes various books, monographs, periodicals, and articles.
A free and virtuous society--now that's worth spending our energies on.
Acton Institute becomes a GreenShoots nominee, and their feed is posted on your right.
It's a think tank with a peculiar purpose:
The Mission of the Acton Institute is to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.
The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty is named after the great English historian, Lord John Acton (1834-1902). He is best known for his famous remark: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Inspired by his work on the relation between liberty and morality, the Acton Institute seeks to articulate a vision of society that is both free and virtuous, the end of which is human flourishing. To clarify this relationship, the Institute holds seminars and publishes various books, monographs, periodicals, and articles.
A free and virtuous society--now that's worth spending our energies on.
Acton Institute becomes a GreenShoots nominee, and their feed is posted on your right.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Monday Morning, Home Again
Home again after three days of travels, and OS is so grateful to sleep in his own bed, eat food cooked under his own roof, and have the privilege of a quiet day to spend with Mrs. OS, who is utterly wonderful, in great part because she so lovingly tolerates Mr. OS. He gets to pet all his dogs, always a treat, and watch the cat who drinks coffee with him in the morning maneuver toward his mug when she thinks he's preoccupied. It's a ritual, and all these little rituals help create the texture of this good life he is so blessed to lead.
Way, way, way too much to write about all at once, much of it arcane that no reader should really care about, so the mental sorting process is underway.
But this can be said, in a general way: The weekend was a deeply heartening, encouraging experience.
America is blessed with a lot of energetic, creative, and ambitious people who think that the best way to live one's life is by contributing to the lives around them. OS met some of them this weekend, some of them facing daunting odds in their situations, yet demonstrating great good cheer and moxie.
In general, they are working (quietly) to undo the damage that of the past fifty years of deterioration have wrought on the culture, and they are quietly succeeding.
Here's hoping they get their work done before the trolls in the guv'mint realize what's happening.
But, that's also for another day....
Moh', latuh.
OS
Way, way, way too much to write about all at once, much of it arcane that no reader should really care about, so the mental sorting process is underway.
But this can be said, in a general way: The weekend was a deeply heartening, encouraging experience.
America is blessed with a lot of energetic, creative, and ambitious people who think that the best way to live one's life is by contributing to the lives around them. OS met some of them this weekend, some of them facing daunting odds in their situations, yet demonstrating great good cheer and moxie.
In general, they are working (quietly) to undo the damage that of the past fifty years of deterioration have wrought on the culture, and they are quietly succeeding.
Here's hoping they get their work done before the trolls in the guv'mint realize what's happening.
But, that's also for another day....
Moh', latuh.
OS
Friday, March 5, 2010
Geert Wilders Address To House Of Lords: Churchill Was Right
Geert Wilders can travel in the UK again, no thanks to a Labour government that has abandoned the idea of free speech.
He addressed the House of Lords today. The entire text is here, and is necessary reading.
Remember, in his home country, he is on trial for saying these things. He was barred entry to the UK for saying these things.
The entire speech is memorable, and uncompromising.
Ladies and gentlemen, not far from here stands a statue of the greatest Prime Minister your country ever had. And I would like to quote him here today: “Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. No stronger retrograde force exists in the World. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step (…) the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.” These words are from none other than Winston Churchill wrote this in his book ‘The River War’ from 1899.
Churchill was right.
Wilders is an important voice in the culture, because he addresses the culture head-on, and does not mince words.
Ladies and gentlemen, we should defend the right to freedom of speech. With all our strength. With all our might. Free speech is the most important of our many liberties. Free speech is the cornerstone of our modern societies. Freedom of speech is the breath of our democracy, without freedom of speech our way of life our freedom will be gone.
I believe it is our obligation to preserve the inheritance of the brave young soldiers that stormed the beaches of Normandy. That liberated Europe from tyranny. These heroes cannot have died for nothing. It is our obligation to defend freedom of speech. As George Orwell said: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”.
Green Shoots nominee!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Bill Pearce, 1926-2010: A Lifetime Green Shoots Award
It's hard to know where to begin to talk about Bill Pearce. He was so many things to so many people for so many years. Every person he touched, whether in person, in concert, or over the radio, was a better person for having been in his presence.
OS will just have to make a list:
1. First, he was a marvelous musician. This mp3 gives you a taste of his artistry on the trombone. Listen from the beginning to the end, and you're in for the real surprise after he finishes playing. A lot of people attempt to play the instrument, and very very few do it well, because it is a wicked hard thing to do. He always played with a liquid, singing tone, drawing the audience in, only to interject some astounding bit of virtuosity along the way. There was an amazing precision to his playing as well--flawless intonation, impeccable taste. (He also had a world-class baritone voice, which he employed to great effect, both as a singer and radio broadcaster.)
2. Second, he was wonderful radio broadcaster, spending his career at Moody Radio, a religious broadcasting outfit in Chicago, from the late 1940's until health no longer allowed him to continue--well over fifty years.
3. Third, he was a fabulous, sweet, humble gentleman. Anyone who could play like that, sing like that, and talk like that had every reason to sport a real ego. And, he could have made a truckload of money along the way, had he chosen to. He always saw his gifts as something he could offer gratefully to God, and in the service of others.
His health began to fail in 1995, as Parkinson's disease took hold. He retired from his concert work, and, in the march of time, events and cultural dissolution, faded from view. But he kept soldiering on as best he could, as long as he could, doing what he could for the people around him.
Douglas Yeo, bass trombonist with the Boston Symphony, published an extensive interview with Bill in 1998. It is a fascinating, inspiring story, well worth the time taken to read and absorb. Look at all the influences and events that came together in this extraordinary life--family, teachers, work ethic, a Marine bandmaster who heard something special about him, mentors, colleagues. It's an account of a life well spent, that added value to every life around him.
From the 1960's onward, Bill hosted a late-night radio show, Nightsounds, which played quiet music and offered encouragement to troubled souls. The website for the show is here, and includes an official obituary here. There are a number of Bill's performances to enjoy at the website.
OS took the time to use the PayPal link to make a modest donation to keep the show going from its archives, and hopes his readers will consider doing the same.
Green Shoots Award to Bill Pearce, hands down.
(Here's hoping OS will find a seat warm next to him in the heavenly band one fine day.)
OS will just have to make a list:
1. First, he was a marvelous musician. This mp3 gives you a taste of his artistry on the trombone. Listen from the beginning to the end, and you're in for the real surprise after he finishes playing. A lot of people attempt to play the instrument, and very very few do it well, because it is a wicked hard thing to do. He always played with a liquid, singing tone, drawing the audience in, only to interject some astounding bit of virtuosity along the way. There was an amazing precision to his playing as well--flawless intonation, impeccable taste. (He also had a world-class baritone voice, which he employed to great effect, both as a singer and radio broadcaster.)
2. Second, he was wonderful radio broadcaster, spending his career at Moody Radio, a religious broadcasting outfit in Chicago, from the late 1940's until health no longer allowed him to continue--well over fifty years.
3. Third, he was a fabulous, sweet, humble gentleman. Anyone who could play like that, sing like that, and talk like that had every reason to sport a real ego. And, he could have made a truckload of money along the way, had he chosen to. He always saw his gifts as something he could offer gratefully to God, and in the service of others.
His health began to fail in 1995, as Parkinson's disease took hold. He retired from his concert work, and, in the march of time, events and cultural dissolution, faded from view. But he kept soldiering on as best he could, as long as he could, doing what he could for the people around him.
Douglas Yeo, bass trombonist with the Boston Symphony, published an extensive interview with Bill in 1998. It is a fascinating, inspiring story, well worth the time taken to read and absorb. Look at all the influences and events that came together in this extraordinary life--family, teachers, work ethic, a Marine bandmaster who heard something special about him, mentors, colleagues. It's an account of a life well spent, that added value to every life around him.
From the 1960's onward, Bill hosted a late-night radio show, Nightsounds, which played quiet music and offered encouragement to troubled souls. The website for the show is here, and includes an official obituary here. There are a number of Bill's performances to enjoy at the website.
OS took the time to use the PayPal link to make a modest donation to keep the show going from its archives, and hopes his readers will consider doing the same.
Green Shoots Award to Bill Pearce, hands down.
(Here's hoping OS will find a seat warm next to him in the heavenly band one fine day.)
Friday, February 26, 2010
Green Shoots Nominee: Llewellyn Peter
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.
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.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
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.
Friday, February 5, 2010
A Green Shoots Nominee From Rush, Kentucky
OS admits to a certain grumpy relationship with academia. He's always loved learning, and been impatient and abrasive with schools. College days were not fun, and when he graduated, he drove out of town and didn't bother to look back.
On the other hand, there are people, a lot of them who live in the South, who think that colleges are somehow inherently evil, places where 'Commanihsts' and other low-lifes lie in wait to corrupt the morals and characters of their children.
Really, those people exist. OS knows a few, and has no patience with them. They sabotage their children's lives, especially the lives of their daughters. Usually, they do it in the name of some perverted version of Christianity.
They breed tragedy.
Then, along comes a story like this one.
Monica Marks, who grew up around a lot of people described in the paragraph above, is heading to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She hails from Rush, Kentucky (near Ashland, which sits in the mountains on the West Virginia border). Neither her mom or dad graduated high school, and went to a church that 'discourages pursuit of a college degree', as the article politely states.
In other words, her Dad looked the local church culture in the eye and said, 'Hell, no! This kid is going to college, and I'm gonna do what it takes to get her there and beyond!'
Monica escaped. And her story may give a few other kids the courage to do the same. No one in that part of Kentucky will be able to claim that 'it just can't be done', 'cuz Monica went and did it! The preachers will rant, and the parents of the girls who dropped out of school at sixteen to start having babies will gossip and fume.
Let 'em. Monica escaped!
Undoubtedly, Monica will teach, for at least thirty years. And write. And mentor kids like the kids she grew up with. She has the potential to affect thousands upon thousands of lives for the good.
Kudos to Monica, her high school, and the University of Louisville. 'They all done real good', to use the local dialect.
But the Green Shoots nomination goes to Jesse Marks, who supplied his girl with books, and supported her in her quest by selling janitorial supplies, and didn't care what the local fundamentalists thought of him.
His courage will bear fruit for the entire century.
On the other hand, there are people, a lot of them who live in the South, who think that colleges are somehow inherently evil, places where 'Commanihsts' and other low-lifes lie in wait to corrupt the morals and characters of their children.
Really, those people exist. OS knows a few, and has no patience with them. They sabotage their children's lives, especially the lives of their daughters. Usually, they do it in the name of some perverted version of Christianity.
They breed tragedy.
Then, along comes a story like this one.
Monica Marks, who grew up around a lot of people described in the paragraph above, is heading to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She hails from Rush, Kentucky (near Ashland, which sits in the mountains on the West Virginia border). Neither her mom or dad graduated high school, and went to a church that 'discourages pursuit of a college degree', as the article politely states.
In other words, her Dad looked the local church culture in the eye and said, 'Hell, no! This kid is going to college, and I'm gonna do what it takes to get her there and beyond!'
Monica escaped. And her story may give a few other kids the courage to do the same. No one in that part of Kentucky will be able to claim that 'it just can't be done', 'cuz Monica went and did it! The preachers will rant, and the parents of the girls who dropped out of school at sixteen to start having babies will gossip and fume.
Let 'em. Monica escaped!
Undoubtedly, Monica will teach, for at least thirty years. And write. And mentor kids like the kids she grew up with. She has the potential to affect thousands upon thousands of lives for the good.
Kudos to Monica, her high school, and the University of Louisville. 'They all done real good', to use the local dialect.
But the Green Shoots nomination goes to Jesse Marks, who supplied his girl with books, and supported her in her quest by selling janitorial supplies, and didn't care what the local fundamentalists thought of him.
His courage will bear fruit for the entire century.
Monday, February 1, 2010
A Success Story, Brought To You By People The Pundits Ridicule
It's not all bad news out there.
Consider Northern Ireland's Wrightbus.
From the FT, earlier in January:
Last week, when London’s authorities revealed the company that would design and build a new bus for the capital, mayor Boris Johnson heralded the planned vehicles as “state of the art”.
But behind the proposed cutting-edge buses is an old-fashioned family business called Wrightbus. Its workers still make the vehicles, partly by hand, on the site where it was founded – in God-fearing Ballymena, the Northern Irish town represented in parliament by the Rev Ian Paisley, and known as the “buckle on the Bible belt”.
In keeping with its traditional values, Wrightbus has a church within its grounds, tithes money to tuberculosis wards in Uganda, still has a tea trolley, employs a welfare officer, offers loans to staff in difficulty and has always stuck to a principle of little or no borrowing.
But, hold on folks! This success, in Paisley's old stomping grounds(likely at least someone in that plant voted for the man!)? You mean, it's not captive to the banksters? You mean, it takes care of its people?
It's not unionized?
It's not on government life support?
It employs craftsmen?
It hasn't moved to India, or China, or Mexico, to take advantage of the slave labor market?
Maybe it succeeds because it has steadily tread against the dominant cultural tide.
Green Shoots Nominee!
Consider Northern Ireland's Wrightbus.
From the FT, earlier in January:
Last week, when London’s authorities revealed the company that would design and build a new bus for the capital, mayor Boris Johnson heralded the planned vehicles as “state of the art”.
But behind the proposed cutting-edge buses is an old-fashioned family business called Wrightbus. Its workers still make the vehicles, partly by hand, on the site where it was founded – in God-fearing Ballymena, the Northern Irish town represented in parliament by the Rev Ian Paisley, and known as the “buckle on the Bible belt”.
In keeping with its traditional values, Wrightbus has a church within its grounds, tithes money to tuberculosis wards in Uganda, still has a tea trolley, employs a welfare officer, offers loans to staff in difficulty and has always stuck to a principle of little or no borrowing.
But, hold on folks! This success, in Paisley's old stomping grounds(likely at least someone in that plant voted for the man!)? You mean, it's not captive to the banksters? You mean, it takes care of its people?
It's not unionized?
It's not on government life support?
It employs craftsmen?
It hasn't moved to India, or China, or Mexico, to take advantage of the slave labor market?
Maybe it succeeds because it has steadily tread against the dominant cultural tide.
Green Shoots Nominee!
Monday, January 25, 2010
From The Weekend
It was a very good weekend.
Friday evening, OS encountered two nominees for the 2010 Green Shoots Award.
Krzysztof Penderecki and Barry Douglas
joined forces with the Nashville Symphony to present Penderecki's Piano Concerto, which dates from 2002. The composer conducted. OS bought tickets, expecting no more than to be able to say, 'I saw the great Penderecki at work before he went to his reward', since the gent is now seventy-nine years old.
He is still spry, conducts pretty stiffly, but managed to convey enough to the musicians for them to carry the piece off.
It was an amazing event. The Concerto is a long, complex, madly difficult, and utterly luminous piece of music. One long, long movement, and OS was saddened to hear it end. If Solzhenitsyn had written music, it may well have sounded like this piece.
Barry Douglas' performance was, well, amazing. The piece is fiendishly hard, with none of the usual mental landmarks a standard concerto contains, and was performed from memory. We sat in the balcony over his right shoulder, in full view of the keyboard.
Why, the reader asks, does this matter to anyone? Well, again, look at the header of the blog. We need the Pendereckis and the Douglases to keep reminding us of our better angels. Truth and beauty walk hand-in-hand, and moments like this remind us that the grim realities of economics, politics and power are not all there is. There is an Unseen Hand involved, actively at work in a lot more than our daily soap opera, and two of The Hand's emissaries showed up last Friday night in Nashville. If you view their bios, linked above, you'll see that these gents are not ivory tower 'artistes'--they're teaching, mentoring, building bridges across hostile real-estate, really contributing to the world. Contrast them with the narcissism of our pop culture heroes, and reality comes into focus a bit better.
It was a good night to meet up with friends, in the same balcony. One college professor friend at the LargeStateU was describing how the campus is literally being over-run with students, with kids parking themselves in halls and stairways of the aging building he teaches in, because there is no place for them to go. Of course, no capital projects even in planning now.
He is graduating bright kids to a world of no jobs, where previously there were always openings.
And Tennessee's in better shape than a lot of states!
At the same time, he reports good morale amongst the students. They're all happy to be there, working hard and happily.
OS has work to complete today, opportunities to meet, a loving wife, two thriving adult children.
He lives a blessed life, and every single day is a gift of grace, completely undeserved.
P.S.--If you are a US citizen, have your called your Senators yet? Ben Bernanke's gotta go. Strike a blow for the culture. We don't want to be Argentina. One is enough.
Even if he stays, he and the Senate need to know there are a ton of really really unhappy voters out there who daily wish him gone. Last week's moment of sobriety needs to be extended.
Remember, thirty-three of those guys and gals have to explain themselves this November.
Make them think about their vote this week, and yours.
Friday evening, OS encountered two nominees for the 2010 Green Shoots Award.
Krzysztof Penderecki and Barry Douglas
joined forces with the Nashville Symphony to present Penderecki's Piano Concerto, which dates from 2002. The composer conducted. OS bought tickets, expecting no more than to be able to say, 'I saw the great Penderecki at work before he went to his reward', since the gent is now seventy-nine years old.
He is still spry, conducts pretty stiffly, but managed to convey enough to the musicians for them to carry the piece off.
It was an amazing event. The Concerto is a long, complex, madly difficult, and utterly luminous piece of music. One long, long movement, and OS was saddened to hear it end. If Solzhenitsyn had written music, it may well have sounded like this piece.
Barry Douglas' performance was, well, amazing. The piece is fiendishly hard, with none of the usual mental landmarks a standard concerto contains, and was performed from memory. We sat in the balcony over his right shoulder, in full view of the keyboard.
Why, the reader asks, does this matter to anyone? Well, again, look at the header of the blog. We need the Pendereckis and the Douglases to keep reminding us of our better angels. Truth and beauty walk hand-in-hand, and moments like this remind us that the grim realities of economics, politics and power are not all there is. There is an Unseen Hand involved, actively at work in a lot more than our daily soap opera, and two of The Hand's emissaries showed up last Friday night in Nashville. If you view their bios, linked above, you'll see that these gents are not ivory tower 'artistes'--they're teaching, mentoring, building bridges across hostile real-estate, really contributing to the world. Contrast them with the narcissism of our pop culture heroes, and reality comes into focus a bit better.
It was a good night to meet up with friends, in the same balcony. One college professor friend at the LargeStateU was describing how the campus is literally being over-run with students, with kids parking themselves in halls and stairways of the aging building he teaches in, because there is no place for them to go. Of course, no capital projects even in planning now.
He is graduating bright kids to a world of no jobs, where previously there were always openings.
And Tennessee's in better shape than a lot of states!
At the same time, he reports good morale amongst the students. They're all happy to be there, working hard and happily.
OS has work to complete today, opportunities to meet, a loving wife, two thriving adult children.
He lives a blessed life, and every single day is a gift of grace, completely undeserved.
P.S.--If you are a US citizen, have your called your Senators yet? Ben Bernanke's gotta go. Strike a blow for the culture. We don't want to be Argentina. One is enough.
Even if he stays, he and the Senate need to know there are a ton of really really unhappy voters out there who daily wish him gone. Last week's moment of sobriety needs to be extended.
Remember, thirty-three of those guys and gals have to explain themselves this November.
Make them think about their vote this week, and yours.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Chin Straps On For Tuesday's MA Senate Race
(This post is written especially for those who grace this page from overseas. The nifty new counter widget lets OldSouth know you're out there, and that you check in from time to time. It's now late Friday afternoon in the UK, and OldSouth hopes a few of you read this tonight.)
Republican Brown appears to be pulling ahead of Democrat Coakley.
Who-woulda-thunk-it this time last year, or even in the days following the tearful farewell to Edward Kennedy? Massachusetts has been a virtual Kennedy fiefdom since the 1930's. The 'bluest' of the blue states. Even most of their Republicans are well to the left of the GOP in many ways.
Whether Brown wins or no, this is a real canary in the coal mine. The mood toward Obama and the Democrat Congress and Senate has turned very ugly.
Very. Ugly.
Official unemployment is at 10%. The true number is likely twice that, but hard to measure. But people intuitively know, anecdotally, as they watch what is happening to their neighbors and friends.
They have seen Obama and company cooperate with Wall Street in the crushing of Main Street, and a very large proportion of the nation lives in small towns and small cities.
Americans are outgoing and loquacious. They know and talk to their neighbors, their relatives, their business acquaintances, their friends at church and the civic club and the local high school basketball game. They may move around a bit in this large country, but they maintain long friendships.
They are generous to a fault. The flood of cash, supplies and people headed toward Haiti is so large that air traffic control had to send planes back to Florida yesterday, without landing in Port-au-Prince, for lack of room on the tarmac. The entire volunteer fire department of Bedford-Stuyvesant was packing up to head to Haiti, not exactly sure how they would get there, but packing nonetheless.
It's that kind of country, out here away from Wall Street and Washington.
Contrast this with the raw cynicism of the Hope-and-Change Gang, and their allies on Wall Street, and do not be shocked at what may yet transpire here.
Keep us in your prayers, in the meantime.
Republican Brown appears to be pulling ahead of Democrat Coakley.
Who-woulda-thunk-it this time last year, or even in the days following the tearful farewell to Edward Kennedy? Massachusetts has been a virtual Kennedy fiefdom since the 1930's. The 'bluest' of the blue states. Even most of their Republicans are well to the left of the GOP in many ways.
Whether Brown wins or no, this is a real canary in the coal mine. The mood toward Obama and the Democrat Congress and Senate has turned very ugly.
Very. Ugly.
Official unemployment is at 10%. The true number is likely twice that, but hard to measure. But people intuitively know, anecdotally, as they watch what is happening to their neighbors and friends.
They have seen Obama and company cooperate with Wall Street in the crushing of Main Street, and a very large proportion of the nation lives in small towns and small cities.
Americans are outgoing and loquacious. They know and talk to their neighbors, their relatives, their business acquaintances, their friends at church and the civic club and the local high school basketball game. They may move around a bit in this large country, but they maintain long friendships.
They are generous to a fault. The flood of cash, supplies and people headed toward Haiti is so large that air traffic control had to send planes back to Florida yesterday, without landing in Port-au-Prince, for lack of room on the tarmac. The entire volunteer fire department of Bedford-Stuyvesant was packing up to head to Haiti, not exactly sure how they would get there, but packing nonetheless.
It's that kind of country, out here away from Wall Street and Washington.
Contrast this with the raw cynicism of the Hope-and-Change Gang, and their allies on Wall Street, and do not be shocked at what may yet transpire here.
Keep us in your prayers, in the meantime.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
The Good News Imbedded In The Bleak News
Denninger is the quintessential Angry Man of our time, only he isn't some goofball middle-aged guy living in his mom's basement ranting about how unfair the world is in general, and to him in particular.
This man knows his math, his history, and knows how to make a chart that demonstrates both math and history.
Recently, he shared his reasoning that there is no real economic recovery. He lays out his reasoning here. And his chart.
He tells us that until The Consumer begins to spend again, we're not in for much of a recovery, and he's probably right on that point. The Consumer is not out buying stuff. He's busily paying down debt as fast as he can. An 18% year-over-year drop in consumer credit. That's some 14 billion dollars gone away from last year, i.e. money not spent on goods or services.
That's not good news for anyone looking for things to turn around quickly, out here in the real world, on-the-ground economy.
But it really is good news, because as families dump their debt, (hopefully to zero), they will begin to buy again, with cash. Their lack of fear of the future just might bring some sense of confidence back, cuz people who aren't deeply in debt can face the world knowing that they need never be hostages again.
They will also develop a lack of tolerance for their elected representatives, who think that restraint of spending is for losers.
And that could be the really good news!
This man knows his math, his history, and knows how to make a chart that demonstrates both math and history.
Recently, he shared his reasoning that there is no real economic recovery. He lays out his reasoning here. And his chart.
He tells us that until The Consumer begins to spend again, we're not in for much of a recovery, and he's probably right on that point. The Consumer is not out buying stuff. He's busily paying down debt as fast as he can. An 18% year-over-year drop in consumer credit. That's some 14 billion dollars gone away from last year, i.e. money not spent on goods or services.
That's not good news for anyone looking for things to turn around quickly, out here in the real world, on-the-ground economy.
But it really is good news, because as families dump their debt, (hopefully to zero), they will begin to buy again, with cash. Their lack of fear of the future just might bring some sense of confidence back, cuz people who aren't deeply in debt can face the world knowing that they need never be hostages again.
They will also develop a lack of tolerance for their elected representatives, who think that restraint of spending is for losers.
And that could be the really good news!
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