A Good Guy Finishes First

It's a long way from Waverly, Tennessee to Interlochen Arts Academy, especially as a transfer student attending for his senior year.

It took a special kind of moxie for Jake Rychen to achieve this, and this morning marked his graduation from the Academy.

This August, he begins his trumpet studies with the fabulous Michael Tunnel at the University of Louisville.

There is a world full of bad news out there, things that make us cringe, things that make us look to the future with real concern.

Then there are kids like Jake, who (with our support and encouragement) may yet turn the culture back in a good direction.

Kudos to Jake, his family, Interlochen and U of L for this morning's moment of inspiration.

And, a special shout-out to The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, who sends an examiner to his part of the world twice a year to hear students. Those exams provide a path to the outside world for kids like Jake, who exercise the ambition to prepare to the rigorous standards of ABRSM exams.

We all have a few bucks to donate, even in a recession.

Interlochen and U of L School of Music belong on the list.

Real Golf at the Irish Open

For those who seek relief from the likes of Manny Ramirez, what's-his-name-the-swimmer-who-is-so-stupid-as-to-smoke-dope-in-public, and their ilk, I suggest you turn to the Golf Channel on Saturday morning, and watch events like The Irish Open.

They normally play in conditions that American pros won't even leave the hotel suite for. Saturday's play was delayed when the winds were so high they threatened to pull the clubs from the hands of the players.

You haven't heard of most of these guys, like Robert Rock, Graeme MacDowell, and Shane Lowry, and Johan Edfors. You will soon enough, when the Ryder Cup rolls around again.

They are inspiring, with Lowry (the young amateur) finally taking the cup over Rock after four playoff holes played in the chill and the rain. The crowds were cheering their boy Lowry in Tiger-like decibel levels. His poor mother, standing in the gallery, couldn't bear to look. (Rock had to console himself with the 500,000 euro award for highest finish by a professional.)

Home-made swings, ugly rough, pot bunkers full of wet sand, gale-force winds, rain.

Real golf.

Last year, I met a kid at my local club, fresh from four years on his college team, who wouldn't go out to practice because conditions were wet and chilly. He stayed in the clubhouse and discussed his plans to go play the European Tour. He smirked when I suggested that the day's conditions were typical of what he would encounter across the pond. Now that kid has a real future...in some other line of work.

*****

And, what to my wondering eyes did appear, but John Daly, dressed head-to-toe, learning how to work for a living on links courses. If he survives this, we might see him on the senior tour, hopefully sober and with what remains of his brilliant abilities intact.

But he has to make cuts first, which he failed to achieve this weekend. He has to show up to tee times, which he seems unable to do as well.

Ethical Midgets with Ivy League Degrees

It isn't as if these people didn't know better....

Just because someone has an English surname, a long pedigree, Ivy League credentials, and a respectable job in the financial district doesn't mean they aren't actively participating in organized crime. The code of silence certainly has been in place for years.

How many family fortunes have been devastated while these guys were having Monday lunch, trading stock tips on the firms they were hired to regulate?

Last week, I visited a recently widowed family member at her retirement center. It appears her late husband had everything in cash before the crash arrived. One of her friends, in her eighties, also recently widowed, was not so fortunate. I could feel the worry in her heart. She was wondering if a lifetime of work and saving would be enough to allow her to live out her life in the modest dignity of this facility, where she had the basics of safety, food, and company.

This is the true impact of the hustlers on our culture.

Denninger provides one such example from today's odd-looking activities at Wall Street.

Wrestling Midgets

As Jeff Foxworthy regularly reminds his audiences: "I can't make this stuff up!"

Here in bucolic Burns, Tennessee, thirty-five miles west of Nashville (and light years removed from civil society), we have a mayoral campaign underway.

For years, it was never a problem. Ed 'Shot' Grove ran unopposed for years, serving as both mayor and police chief. If someone needed the police, they wouldn't say 'Call the police'; they'd say 'Give Shot a call.' He'd eventually turn up, and everybody would calm down. Think Sheriff Andy and Mayberry.

But Shot was forcibly retired, at age 78, following revelations that he had hired police officers with felony records, and the State of Tennessee revoked accreditation from his police department.

So now we have Mayor Bishop, now up for re-election, opposed by the police chief he fired last month, running as a write-in candidate. (Ya'll keeping track of all this?)

The town is littered with hand-lettered signs. The Mayor did have a big ole' sign sporting the University of Tennessee logo, proclaiming 'Go Vols, Go Bishop!' or words to that effect. UT took a dim view, and two cease-and-desist letters later, that sign disappeared.

So what's an incumbent to do, here in Burns, to endear the voters to himself?

Why, wrasslin' of course!! So, on May 21, Jerry 'The King' Lawler will be bringing his wrasslin' show, complete with MIDGETS(!!) to perform in Burns, featuring as referee the beloved Mayor Bishop.

Remember, OldSouth, mere mortal that he is, can't make this stuff up. He took this picture this afternoon, May 15, 2009.

Somebody call Shot. This could get ugly...

Nonmarital births, and a non-marital culture

The report on 'non-marital births' from the Center for Disease Control has garnered a lot of headlines this morning, but the summary and report itself deserve a bit more thoughtful consideration.

The really good news is that the birth rate for unmarried teen mothers has dropped, actually halving since 1970. The somewhat less-than-good news is that the bearing of children outside of marriage has become much more casually accepted, with little social sanction attached.

If, as is to be hoped, fewer abortions are undertaken year-over-year, then children born out of wedlock will have to be welcomed, life being preferred over death.

The biggest 'bump' in the charts appears to be in women 30-35, if I read the summary correctly.

This is more than somewhat less-than-good news. It speaks to our cultural problem with the institution of marriage. If half the kids born in the 70's and 80's grew up in circumstances that included a failed marriage of their parents, we should not be surprised to find that, as young adults, these young people hold a jaundiced view of marriage.

Suspicion abounds: Women wonder if this guy, attractive as he appears, is stable enough and of sufficient character to mate for life. Many, many are not. And with the increased acceptance of homosexuality, the available pool of men shrinks. Add in the closeted homosexual men who emerge from the closet a decade and two children down the road, and marriage looks like a high-risk wager for women. I'm not making this stuff up--I've seen it happen several times in my polite little buttoned-down world.

Men wonder if they are walking into a lifetime trap, given the draconian nature of divorce and child support law, which incentivize the less-than-scrupulous wife to bear a couple of kids, thus having husband and his family on the fiduciary hook for a couple of decades at least. They find out too late that they were really just generic heterosexual males capable of donating sperm and generating cash. I've seen this happen several times as well, and it devastates lives. Why take this risk?

The term 'nonmarital' itself is indicative; a fabricated word, a product of our brave new bureaucracy. It is academically cold, exact, and studiously avoids any emotional baggage attached to the term 'out-of-wedlock'. It is a Latin-derived fabrication, less evocative than the old Anglo-Saxon sound of 'wedlock'.

If we're going to thrive as a culture, and eventually as an economy again, we'll have to find a way to make marriage safe again. We'll have to teach our children the art and craft of living together as trustworthy people.

The Graduation Speech We All Need To Hear

In the flood of platitudes uttered every May to graduates across the country these words actually merit reading and consideration.

Penned by an anonymous community college dean, these few paragraphs are words to embrace.

Remember--culture leads, and the economy is the 'trailing indicator'.

So, What Does One Hundred Million Dollars Really Look Like?

One hundred million dollars is a lot of money to most mere mortals.

President Obama and friends are hoping that you never get past that initial emotional reaction.

One hundred million dollars!

That's like winning the Super Lotto five times in a row!

That's three Manny Ramirez salaries--at least when's he's not imbibing in performance-enhancing drugs...

That's, that's...more Ferrari's than can be driven in a lifetime!

But what is it, in proportion to the US Federal budget?

A clever young man has given us the best demonstration of all.

Gruff old Senator Everett Dirksen once growled during a 1960's budget debate, 'A few billion here, a few billion there, and pretty soon, it adds up to real money!'

Indeed it does.

And Obama plans to exponentially expand spending.

We are looking at 50 Trillion (with a T!--that means 'thousand billion') in unfunded obligations, with Medicare, Social Security, and further entitlements. Spending already promised, already in the pipeline.

So, how much is one hundred million dollars?

Just enough to insult our intelligence.

Some Solutions on the Horizon for Health Care

This rolled out by Jeff Immelt at GE this morning.

I caught the first few minutes of the presentation, and it was enough to cheer the heart, at least a bit.

There are solutions to the health-care mess in this country. They are being created in the Third World, and exported back to us.

Now if the Federal Guv'mint will stay out of the way, and allow innovation to proceed.

Immelt made very clear: 'GE is not a charity. We're here to return profit to our investors.' But he also emphasized that countries with good health care in place, and a healthy citizenry, tend to be more wealthy.

He's right!

But, the national health care proposals proposed by Obama and the Congressional Democrats will overwhelm any creation of wealth resulting from improved health care.

We're already looking at 50-something trillion (that's with a 'T') in unfunded obligations at the Federal level. The 'solution' now traveling through Congress will not even be read, much less debated. No one knows, outside of the authors of the legislation, what mischief is contained within those hundreds of pages of numbing prose.

At least in the UK, they held an open debate on the subject, and the discussion continues to this day.

Do we really, really want our health care in the hands of the people who brought us Amtrak, Fannie and Freddie, the TARP, and the current management of both our banking and auto sectors?

Are these people really trustworthy?

Mine That Bird and Other Inspirational Competitors

It's moments like this that remind us why the Kentucky Derby is what it is.


A $9500 gelding, driven twenty-one hours from New Mexico by his injured trainer, squeezed at the gate and starting dead last, guided along the rail by the world's most fearless jockey, winning by 6 3/4 lengths(and still accelerating as he crossed the wire).

What makes a moment like this so incredibly special, inspiring and joyful?

Could it be because we saw a real competition unfold before our eyes, in contrast to the endless manipulations of money and power that have so crippled so much of the world, and fertilized and watered our cynicism?

The best horse, guided by the best jockey, ran against the odds (50 to 1) through the mud, straight into our hearts and memories: We'll all remember where we were and who we were with when we saw the 2009 Derby.

Two weeks ago, we saw it unfold in slow motion at the Masters, as Angel Cabrera refused to give up, even when trapped behind a tree, and Kenny Perry came within two inches of the green jacket, only to watch it slide away, just like his first putt on the 72nd hole.

Perry lost the tournament, and won our hearts, as he applauded Cabrera on the putt on the 72nd hole that kept his hopes alive.

It was a real competition, played out in the open, within the strictest rules in sport.

Cabrera took the green jacket home, a most well-deserved prize, the pride of Argentina. (He admitted later in an interview that he checked his closet every day, just to make sure it was still there.)

Kenny Perry returned to Kentucky to a hug from his dad, the admiration of his wife and children, a flood of phone calls and letters, and the realization that at age 48, he's in the middle of his best years as a professional athlete.

That's what real competition does--it creates all sorts of winners, in all sorts of ways.

Please somebody, let Congress, the White House and the Captains of Industry in on the secret...

The Chrysler 'Bankruptcy'--It Ain't About Chrysler, Folks

This from Robert Saloman, eminently worth reading.

If you think it's just dry stuff about bankers and lawyers, read it again. It should put a chill up your spine, and cause you to cheer for the creditors who won't allow the Obama White House to subvert the rule of law, and bully them for good measure.


At bottom, the problems with this 'bankruptcy' are ethical:

1. The senior secured lenders are, by law, entitled to stand first in line. There are assets to liquidate (or reorganize and turn into money-makers) to settle their claims. Chrysler certainly holds the rights to thousands of design patents on vehicles, parts, and manufacturing processes. For instance, the mini-van is a very serviceable configuration--millions of moms with kids around the country can't be that wrong. The Dodge pickups, if marketed well, can give the Ford F-150/250/350 lines a real run for their money. Why can't two smaller(NON-UNION!) firms be organized to manufacture and distribute these vehicle lines? Without the horrendous per-vehicle expense added by the UAW's health/pension/work rules/featherbedding, these can be delivered to market profitably. We will always have mommies, farmers, ranchers, building contractors and hunting/fishing enthusiasts who will buy these vehicles. Add in the patents on parts and processes, available to sell or license, and Chrysler looks like a cash orchard awaiting harvest.

2. Why the **&&@@@@!!!! is the UAW being offered 55% of Chrysler? These clowns are in great part responsible for this train wreck. Remember how they would call a strike on one of the Big Three in order to force it to knuckle under, and then pick off the other two in succession. The only upside is that a majority stake might force them to act like adults for the first time in history. They can't 'stick it to The Man' if they themselves are 'The Man'. But after seven decades of wanton childishness, how optimistically should we await this 'conversion experience', this epiphany, this Damascus Road moment, this change of heart?

3. We the taxpayers have been dragged involuntarily, and under false pretenses, into this mess. We can kiss almost every penny shoveled in Chrysler's direction goodbye. Until today, I didn't know that we were protected by a third priority lien, which means we finish about twenty lengths behind the UAW, which (immorally and erroneously) has been positioned as the defacto holder of the first lien. Those promises made to UAW were premised on the expectation that Chrysler would make profit, from which the health and pension bennies would be paid. No profit, no bennies; and it's not up to us to cough up just because profit wasn't made.

So, when is a senior secured debt not a senior secured debt?

When the UAW is in the room? When the White House(of either party) decides that a bankrupt enterprise is 'too big to fail'?

And, next time, when a pension fund manager looks at buying senior secured debt issued by Corporation Q....(remembering of course that the manager bears fiduciary responsibility for his actions)???

Personally, I hope the senior debt holders raise unshirted Cain in court, and tie up the process for months. There's enough Chrysler inventory out there to keep purchasers happy, so the plants can stay closed into next year, no problem.

This isn't about the survival of Chrysler.

It is about the survival of the rule of law.

It is a question of ethics.