1809 Was A Very Good Year

Cranmer is essential reading every morning.

This morning, he commemorates the 200th anniversary of Alfred Lord Tennyson's birth.

1809 was a very good year, and there is a bit of hope in the recalling of it.

The French Revolution had come and gone, spilling oceans of blood. In its wake arose Napoleon Bonaparte, who spilled even more, and in 1809, dominated the world stage.

It was not a good time, by many measures.

But, in a cabin in Kentucky, in a prosperous family of Leipzig, and in a vicar's family in Lincolnshire--three boys were born: Abraham Lincoln, Felix Mendelssohn, and Alfred Tennyson.

Their lives headed off in dramatically different directions, but what a contribution each made!

So, mom and dad--that little rug-burner tossing his Cheerios off the high chair holds infinite promise for us all. Nurture that kid--who knows what might happen?

So in honor of Tennyson, his elegaic Crossing The Bar:

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.

Three Minutes, Twenty-six Seconds of Inspiration

Another nominee for the Green Shoots Award.

Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, an excerpt here provided from the final movement.

You don't have to love classical music to love this!

This group and conductor seem to all share the same heartbeat.
It doesn't happen often, and everyone deserves the opportunity to experience it.

About eighty virtuoso musicians, working together, each dedicated to creating a whole much greater than the sum of the parts...what would the culture look like if people learned how to do this on a regular basis?

Where the Recession Isn't

I'm allergic to shopping malls in general. Artificial, overpriced, all look the same, modern pagan temples to conspicuous consumption; and 'scuse me please, but the Victoria's Secret window displays are embarrassing.

But yesterday, I was in one, getting one of my kids fitted for a new pair of glasses via Lenscrafters--it was a good sale, and I took them up on it.

This mall was not dead, only a couple of empty spaces, but it wasn't hopping as in previous years.

However, the kid wanted to check in at the Apple Store to price an upgrade to his computer.

Holy Cow! This place had thirty customers in their modest space, at 8:00 pm. I saw little kids in strollers playing with iPhones. Pretty amazing...

The nice sales lady said they were gearing up for Tax Amnesty Weekend, when the State of Tennessee lifts its 10% sales tax finger off the retail sector for three days. She said the line outside the door would stretch to a three-hour wait.

To quote Jerry Springer: 'What have we learned here?'

Well, Apple makes products that really work, are great fun to use, and dramatically improve people's lives.

And, when the State ceases to punish people who engage in economic transactions--you know, making stuff, selling stuff, buying stuff--business blooms.

Hmmm...

Maybe, if the State were smaller, and taxed its citizens less, the citizenry would thrive better.

Maybe, if business could concentrate on making and selling stuff people really want, (unlike GM and Chrysler) people would buy their stuff without Mr. Obama paying them cash to shop.


Hmmm...

All He Wants To Do Is Dance, Dance...

George Stephanapoulis at ABC's This Week has an unenviable task: getting people in our political leadership to simply answer simple questions in a direct manner.

He himself is a master of the double-speak-spin-till-you-drop school of linguistic obfuscation, as Bill Clinton's former press secretary. Bill and Hilary operated by rendering the English language meaningless, wearing down friend and foe alike with a flood of sound that sounded sort of like English, but really meant inherently nothing.

Bill's classic line sums up his life: 'It depends on what your meaning of 'is' is.'

It will be counted a tragedy of our culture that he was allowed to get away with it, allowed to finish out his term, allowed to deconstruct the only thing we have to communicate ideas--language.

Tim Geithner learned the lessons of Bill Clinton well.

As you read the transcript of today's interview, notice how the Secretary begins to chatter verbiage at every juncture where a simple question is asked.

Questions like: Doesn't this mean a tax increase? Can you assure those Republicans that make the attempt to work with you that you won't betray them in the end?

At every juncture, every simple question is answered with a torrent of verbiage, that once read, really means very little. Secretary Geithner is attempting to run out the clock, while sounding erudite.

Meanwhile, back in the land of reality: An acquaintance needs to fill a secretarial position in a small academic department in a small college in a small town. 150 resumes to pore through. Another has a newspaper staff position to fill. 250 resumes, many with master's degrees, and more arriving every day.

For these people, words have meaning, even if they don't for the Treasury Secretary.

They live in the world he and his created for us...

Calculated Risk Delivers Again

Calculated Risk continues to be the first place OldSouth checks over his morning coffee.

Balanced news about what's really going on, delivered with wry humor.

'Bank Failure Friday' has developed a bit of a cult following, even. By the way, we're up to 69 FDIC takeovers this year, mainly of small fry, and CR tells us we're just on the front end. Banks are dropping at the rate of about 5 per week now.

Late last night, CR posted a bit of humor for us all to enjoy.

It addresses the cultural basis of our economic quandry, and makes us laugh at the same time.

Yes, that is Steve Martin performing in the sketch...

Cash for Clunkers--Part Deux

Ahh, Congress to the rescue. Pulling out the old credit card so's the voters can keep on claiming their 'free money' at the auto dealership. Warms the heart, unless you meditate on the fact that this money has been borrowed from our children and grandchildren. But, just don't think about it, and it'll all be ok.

It's the culture of the outstretched hand, each hand reaching for the mythical something for nothing.

OldSouth meditated about his clunker, which he drove to the golf course today:

Lessee--I'm supposed to be encouraged to drive my perfectly fine 2001 pickup, long ago paid for, with a great engine and trannie, to a new car dealer and claim my 'cash' for my 'clunker'.

They apply some free money from Uncle Sam to the purchase of a new vehicle, which will have to be a pickup, 'cuz I need a pickup. Let's say I bring another 5500 in cash to the table, for good measure.

That's 10k toward the purchase of my new pickup.

I have to take on about 20k in debt to complete the deal, to get as good a truck as the one I have.
My credit rating goes down as a result, and 20k in debt appears on my financial statement.
I pay state taxes of several thousand on the purchase.
My insurance payments at least double, even with my perfect driving record.
I pay interest on the loan, while the 'asset' behind the loan begins its cliff dive. I wouldn't be able to sell or trade this truck for 20k within six months, but I am legally obligated for the full balance of the loan.

What's that smell? Oh, it's my calculator in my briefcase, emitting smoke and sparks.

Or, I could spend about 3 to 5k, and get the old pickup repainted, keep my insurance payments(which actually are declining a bit every year), forget about paying the state a bunch of sales tax, and keep driving my truck for five more years--trash to the landfill, mulch to the garden, clubs to the golf course.

Gosh, what should I do???

Cash for Clunkers--And These People Want To Run The Nation's Health Care!!

The Obama Administration is a ship of fools adrift in a sea of nonsense.

How many hundreds of TV ads, both national and local, have been run by the car companies and dealers touting the 'Cash for Clunkers' program? How much money was spent?

One day into the program, 221 million of the 1 billion has been spent, and chaos reigns at dealerships across the country. And the program is now suspended!


These are the same people who demand to run our health care system, set our energy policy, run the banking system, defend our borders, confront the Iranians as they develop nuclear weapons.

They also borrowed over $200 billion dollars in our name last week alone.

Green Shoots On The West Bank, Of All Places!

This story courtesy of Marketplace, American Public Media radio business magazine.

With order restored on the West Bank, lo and behold, businesses open, and life improves for one and all.

OldSouth finds it ironic, that after the lionization of people such as Arafat by NPR and the liberal press, here we have a story that confirms one central fact:

When the zealots, murderers and gangsters are removed from any culture, businesses form, living standards improve, and sooner or later a lot of people understand that mayhem is bad for business.

But first, the people who create mayhem must be confronted. I submit if we spend not one moment more glamorizing the jihadists, and support those who confront them, we'll see a lot more retail advertising, and many fewer posters glamorizing suicide bombers

What if it became so peaceful, and everybody was so busy making money, that the Israelis would be motivated to open the border for one and all?

So, the GreenShoot nomination goes to: Ziad Turabi, the son of a Mercedes dealer and a graduate of an interior- design program at a Palestinian university. He and two friends took a risk unprecedented in Jenin. They invested $5 million in a landmark new commercial venture here -- the Hirbawi Home Center, a palatial furnishings outlet that stretches over five floors.

Boys Will Be Boys--But Should They Run Banks?

Robert Peston lends his usual wry wit to the ongoing debate about how best to go forward from the smoldering ruins created by the latest financial bubble.

He observes that all of the geniuses that created the mess are men, and wonders out loud if that is part of the problem.

He may have a point.

Take Kuhlifornia, for instance--please, take it!

But there is a glimmer of hope, in that Meg Whitman, who led eBay to such success during her tenure, is considering a run for the governorship.

Peston observes: ...in my experience - men are more prone than women to simply run like a train at the goal, and never mind who's flattened along the way.

I'm not certain the issue is gender so much as it is about approach to the education of boys.

Yet one more argument against the obsession with football(US) or rugby(UK) at school.

If, instead, these boys were handed an orchestral instrument, a set of golf clubs, and a schedule that began with singing in choir every morning, they might learn:

1. That the process of learning a skill well requires humility, patience, and the willingness to be taught, and

2. That real success often involves cooperative effort in pursuit of a objective and higher common goal--i.e., a moving performance of a Tallis motet.

What if our future titans of business were trained in this fashion?

(I've seen it happen, and the results are impressive. But those boys tend not to end up in banking, because they weren't on the football team. It's a chicken and egg sort of quandry.)

Add in daily swimming or cross-country running for physical exercise; and make the boys carry their own clubs on the course(and caddy for the grown-ups), and they'll get plenty of exercise.

And they won't need knee surgery in their early 40's...

So, young mothers, when that invitation to 'try out' for PeeWee League football arrives in Junior's school bag: Shred it, and find the nearest children's choir program immediately.

You'll thank me later...

Just Too Funny Not To Share

This from Barry Ritholz at The Big Picture, usually a place of restrained economic analysis.

William Shatner lends a cameo performance to the Conan O'Brien show, reading a portion of Sarah Palin's farewell speech as governor of Alaska.

It's at least as funny as the old Steve Allen routines, when he performed dramatic recitations of 1960's pop songs.

There's a lesson here: If you want to be taken seriously as a public person, show up with your remarks prepared and rehearsed. Otherwise, the public gets to see how your brain works unedited...

Gov. Palin earned this skewering.