Poor Nancy Pelosi.
She just keeps getting caught in the act of being herself.
She has the unique gift of pouring gasoline onto any fire with reach.
On the first attempt to pass the TARP, she delivered a scathing partisan speech, and then called for the vote, which failed. She was notably silent the next time.
Now, of course, we can't criticize The First Woman Speaker In The History Of This Great Country.
After all, she's a girl, and that would be sexist.
And we can't object to any of the grand designs of the President.
After all, he's black, and that would be racist.
This reasoning is beginning to wear thin.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Health Care Bill, All 1018 Pages Of It
Congress hasn't read it, some reportedly refusing to read it.
So, let's read it ourselves.
An enterprising guy has posted a pdf copy on his blog, here.
His link is about a quarter of the way down the page, and it downloads quickly.
He's vociferously against it, so for now, ignore him, download and read.
A confession:
OldSouth hasn't read it yet,(trying to make the deadline on the 2008 return), but it's a project worth undertaking.
Just the snippets read so far make him wonder: Given the track record of state and federal governance since about 1930, how will these provisions play out over time?
Will we want to live in this sort of world?
So, let's read it ourselves.
An enterprising guy has posted a pdf copy on his blog, here.
His link is about a quarter of the way down the page, and it downloads quickly.
He's vociferously against it, so for now, ignore him, download and read.
A confession:
OldSouth hasn't read it yet,(trying to make the deadline on the 2008 return), but it's a project worth undertaking.
Just the snippets read so far make him wonder: Given the track record of state and federal governance since about 1930, how will these provisions play out over time?
Will we want to live in this sort of world?
Julia Project Week 1, and a Bach Moment
The goal--to learn every Bach chorale as published in the classic Breitkopf edition--to able to sing any line whilst playing the other three.
Week one: This is fun, and it is a mind-bender for those like me, trained as single-line orchestral musicians. But it's fun for just that reason.
I've spent great stretches of my life feeling vaguely restless and at times unhappy. After the privilege of marriage to my bride and raising two bright children with her, it finally dawned on me that the restlessness was borne out of boredom: If I'm not learning something, working on the next project, creating something, I'm not happy.
Everyone in the house is the same sort of person, including the border collies.
Bach scratches that itch. And ideas for my composing/arranging trade are beginning to flow fast and furious.
And, for this week's Bach moment: Rostropovich performing the prelude to the first Cello Suite. It's about two minutes long.
Bach worked in obscurity, in deeply difficult circumstances.
Rostropovich survived both WWII and Stalin in Russia.
Both endured to create this moment.
Week one: This is fun, and it is a mind-bender for those like me, trained as single-line orchestral musicians. But it's fun for just that reason.
I've spent great stretches of my life feeling vaguely restless and at times unhappy. After the privilege of marriage to my bride and raising two bright children with her, it finally dawned on me that the restlessness was borne out of boredom: If I'm not learning something, working on the next project, creating something, I'm not happy.
Everyone in the house is the same sort of person, including the border collies.
Bach scratches that itch. And ideas for my composing/arranging trade are beginning to flow fast and furious.
And, for this week's Bach moment: Rostropovich performing the prelude to the first Cello Suite. It's about two minutes long.
Bach worked in obscurity, in deeply difficult circumstances.
Rostropovich survived both WWII and Stalin in Russia.
Both endured to create this moment.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Picture of the Day!
With Colonial Bank going down for the count today, along with other smaller fry, the FDIC is busily at work arranging mergers. This is beginning to look like a 'Duct-Tape and Chewing-Gum' sort of effort.
But the bigger banks swallowing the little ones need not worry--they get to keep the profitable stuff to themselves, and pass the trash onto the FDIC, who will soon be passing it on to us('cuz they're running out of money!).
So, in honor of the day, this cover from The Economist.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
In A World of Endless Change, A Tradition to Savor
One of the conundrums of Christianity is that Scripture is very short on details as to how worship services should be structured and conducted. Jesus of Nazareth was totally silent on the matter, except for his appearance in synagogue to read from Isaiah, and his appearance at the temple, whip in hand, to clear the bankers out of the courtyard.
My hero!
But we have a situation now where Christian worship ranges from the High Mass at St. Peter's Basilica to Holy Roller services in the hills of Applachia. It gets confusing at times.
The English church, in its wisdom, adapted the early's church's liturgy of the services of the hours, and created Choral Evensong: simple, beautiful, eloquent, brief, and to the point.
And the BBC has been broadcasting at least one weekly since the 1920's.
The Beeb kindly archives services for a week, so they can be savored at your convenience.
My hero!
But we have a situation now where Christian worship ranges from the High Mass at St. Peter's Basilica to Holy Roller services in the hills of Applachia. It gets confusing at times.
The English church, in its wisdom, adapted the early's church's liturgy of the services of the hours, and created Choral Evensong: simple, beautiful, eloquent, brief, and to the point.
And the BBC has been broadcasting at least one weekly since the 1920's.
The Beeb kindly archives services for a week, so they can be savored at your convenience.
Pull The Camera Back
It is good, in an emotionally-charged environment, to try to 'pull the camera back', to see the drama a bit more in context.
Members of Congress and Senate have been greeted by rooms full of enraged constituents, and Nancy Pelosi once again demonstrated her gift of throwing partisan gasoline onto the fire of public discourse by referring to the protestors as 'un-American' in last Saturday's USA Today Op-Ed.
There is video everywhere, but two examples, here and here, are illustrative.
Close-up camera work is very immediate, but it's valuable to pull the camera back and see the context.
The lawmakers assumed they were going to meet rooms half-full of supportive constituents, and 'explain' their support of a massive piece of legislation they themselves had not read.
The constituents, on the other hand, heard news of the meetings, and saw it as the opportunity to express their utter frustration with a government that has totally gone out of control. ObamaCare was just the final exasperating proposal that brought them out in droves, and the meetings provided the forums to vent their anger.
Add to that a few well-publicized disparaging remarks from White House staffers referring to the citizens as 'AstroTurf', and Pelosi's comment that the protesters were seen carrying Nazi emblems, stir gently for a few days, and stand well back as you wait for the explosion.
What seemed to stun Arlen Specter was the fact that his constituents were not happy that he had switched parties, just to preserve his chairmanship! He was surprised to find that they had begun reading about what was happening to them, and truly shocked that they were talking to one another. Some had even read the bill! The most telling moment was when a 35-year-old small businesswoman declared, 'You have wakened a sleeping giant!', to roars of approval in the room.
Then, video begins to surface of Obama's union supporters beating people who dared to disagree, scenes of citizens locked out of meetings, with more comments from the elites that these people are just racists, etc.
OldSouth thinks that something big is being overlooked in the coverage of the emotional moments: It isn't just about ObamaCare, or Obama. It's about Congress, spending, spending, spending the future away, ignoring the pleas of the voters to stop.
They have lost faith in their government, and have concluded the only means of getting the attention of their representatives is to show up in droves and scream at them.
There is something happening in the culture, a true green shoot. The internet is allowing people to read about what has happened to them, and what may yet happen, from authoritative voices such as Simon Johnson, professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, who was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund during 2007 and 2008.
This post from Jesse is a great introduction and summary.
The entire article is here.
Members of Congress and Senate have been greeted by rooms full of enraged constituents, and Nancy Pelosi once again demonstrated her gift of throwing partisan gasoline onto the fire of public discourse by referring to the protestors as 'un-American' in last Saturday's USA Today Op-Ed.
There is video everywhere, but two examples, here and here, are illustrative.
Close-up camera work is very immediate, but it's valuable to pull the camera back and see the context.
The lawmakers assumed they were going to meet rooms half-full of supportive constituents, and 'explain' their support of a massive piece of legislation they themselves had not read.
The constituents, on the other hand, heard news of the meetings, and saw it as the opportunity to express their utter frustration with a government that has totally gone out of control. ObamaCare was just the final exasperating proposal that brought them out in droves, and the meetings provided the forums to vent their anger.
Add to that a few well-publicized disparaging remarks from White House staffers referring to the citizens as 'AstroTurf', and Pelosi's comment that the protesters were seen carrying Nazi emblems, stir gently for a few days, and stand well back as you wait for the explosion.
What seemed to stun Arlen Specter was the fact that his constituents were not happy that he had switched parties, just to preserve his chairmanship! He was surprised to find that they had begun reading about what was happening to them, and truly shocked that they were talking to one another. Some had even read the bill! The most telling moment was when a 35-year-old small businesswoman declared, 'You have wakened a sleeping giant!', to roars of approval in the room.
Then, video begins to surface of Obama's union supporters beating people who dared to disagree, scenes of citizens locked out of meetings, with more comments from the elites that these people are just racists, etc.
OldSouth thinks that something big is being overlooked in the coverage of the emotional moments: It isn't just about ObamaCare, or Obama. It's about Congress, spending, spending, spending the future away, ignoring the pleas of the voters to stop.
They have lost faith in their government, and have concluded the only means of getting the attention of their representatives is to show up in droves and scream at them.
There is something happening in the culture, a true green shoot. The internet is allowing people to read about what has happened to them, and what may yet happen, from authoritative voices such as Simon Johnson, professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, who was the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund during 2007 and 2008.
This post from Jesse is a great introduction and summary.
The entire article is here.
Monday, August 10, 2009
'Julia Projects'
Nora Ephron, the creator of Julie & Julia, definitely makes the list for the 'Green Shoots' Award.
Go see the movie, I don't wish to give it away.
It's the account of two people deciding to take life by the horns by embarking on a long-term difficult project, the outcome of which was unknowable. What follows should inspire us all.
I've got one 'Julia Project' underway already: 18-handicap golf, walking the course from the blue tees. Right now, I'm getting close riding from the white or yellow tees, so there is much work to do, but it's pure joy.
And, closer to home, there is the standard volume of the Bach chorales sitting on my piano. What if I could learn to play any three voices while singing the fourth, and take on the whole book? I've toyed with it, and it's not easy. Today I began deliberately, making the morning coffee and visiting with the master before anything else is undertaken.
I begin with #137: 'Was Gott vertraut, hat wohl gebaut.'
Who puts his trust in God most just
Hath built his house securely
G major, just one sharp to deal with, no major departure from the key, and the melody is very simple. This should be doable! After all, I'm a an experienced musician--people pay me for what I do and know in this field.
Five minutes in, I'm totally absorbed, singing one line and playing another. Looks are deceiving, I discover again, with the internal voices (each simple in itself) coinciding to create a complex and subtle whole.
On to my day--bills to pay, forms to fill out, work to do.
That book of chorales stares at me from the piano.
Thanks, Julia, Julie, Norah, and Johann.
Go see the movie, I don't wish to give it away.
It's the account of two people deciding to take life by the horns by embarking on a long-term difficult project, the outcome of which was unknowable. What follows should inspire us all.
I've got one 'Julia Project' underway already: 18-handicap golf, walking the course from the blue tees. Right now, I'm getting close riding from the white or yellow tees, so there is much work to do, but it's pure joy.
And, closer to home, there is the standard volume of the Bach chorales sitting on my piano. What if I could learn to play any three voices while singing the fourth, and take on the whole book? I've toyed with it, and it's not easy. Today I began deliberately, making the morning coffee and visiting with the master before anything else is undertaken.
I begin with #137: 'Was Gott vertraut, hat wohl gebaut.'
Who puts his trust in God most just
Hath built his house securely
G major, just one sharp to deal with, no major departure from the key, and the melody is very simple. This should be doable! After all, I'm a an experienced musician--people pay me for what I do and know in this field.
Five minutes in, I'm totally absorbed, singing one line and playing another. Looks are deceiving, I discover again, with the internal voices (each simple in itself) coinciding to create a complex and subtle whole.
On to my day--bills to pay, forms to fill out, work to do.
That book of chorales stares at me from the piano.
Thanks, Julia, Julie, Norah, and Johann.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Things I'm Thankful For Today
Too, too many to list, but before I return to my deadline, a couple of items from this weekend:
A happy, happy, happy marriage. My Bride is just amazing, and I marvel that she tolerates me, much less loves me like she does.
Our son's 18th birthday yesterday--I could go on endlessly about The Boy, but he would object, which is one of the reasons I admire him so.
Our daughter's 25th birthday last week--see above for why I don't go endlessly about her either. She's on the road, celebrating at a friend's wedding.
The two kids are so different in temperament and interests, and each one already has made a huge positive impact on their worlds.
Yesterday, we celebrated with a cheap Chinese lunch, and The Boy and My Bride and I enjoyed Julie & Julia yesterday afternoon. It was delightful, moving, inspiring--and I am very hard to please. Usually, when I go to a movie, I'm bored to tears and sleep through it. I savored every frame of this one.
I do work I love.
Golf.
Four affectionate dogs, and four cats. 'Nuff said there.
And, to leave you with a thought, here is the epitaph the real Julie wrote about the real Julia five years ago. Grab a Kleenex before you click.
Back to work--deadline looms.
A happy, happy, happy marriage. My Bride is just amazing, and I marvel that she tolerates me, much less loves me like she does.
Our son's 18th birthday yesterday--I could go on endlessly about The Boy, but he would object, which is one of the reasons I admire him so.
Our daughter's 25th birthday last week--see above for why I don't go endlessly about her either. She's on the road, celebrating at a friend's wedding.
The two kids are so different in temperament and interests, and each one already has made a huge positive impact on their worlds.
Yesterday, we celebrated with a cheap Chinese lunch, and The Boy and My Bride and I enjoyed Julie & Julia yesterday afternoon. It was delightful, moving, inspiring--and I am very hard to please. Usually, when I go to a movie, I'm bored to tears and sleep through it. I savored every frame of this one.
I do work I love.
Golf.
Four affectionate dogs, and four cats. 'Nuff said there.
And, to leave you with a thought, here is the epitaph the real Julie wrote about the real Julia five years ago. Grab a Kleenex before you click.
Back to work--deadline looms.
How Much Is 12.1 Trillion?
So, I'm taking a break from the day's project on deadline, and this story keeps popping up:
Timmy Geithner's letter to Harry Reid on Friday, telling him Congress needs to raise the US government's debt limit to 12.1 trillion(that's with a 't').
Otherwise, there's a possibility of default in October.
The 'D' word. That's not good!
The House is in recess, with the members hiding from their constituents, and shaking down the donors for 2010. Lots of folks on what vacations they may muster, and not paying attention, at least that's what the Obama administration hopes.
I can't think they'll be happy to hear that the letter's existence is now out in the open.
So, how much is 12.1 trillion dollars?
A billion is a thousand million. That's a lot of dough.
A trillion is a thousand billion. That's a lot more dough.
So, now we're at 12 times a thousand times a billion, this year alone.
That little 'point-one' stands for only a hundred billion--chump change for the Obama administration.
There are about 300 million people in the USA. So 12 billion(no need to worry with that 'point-one' divided by 300 million is....
(Had to do this on my spreadsheet, as my calculator won't do this..)
40,000 dollars for every man woman and child present in the country.
For just this fiscal year.
That's just the budget shortfall for this year.
That's what Congress is borrowing in your name, this year alone.
That's not factoring in that maybe 20 million of the 300 million are illegal aliens, and of course in every population there are those who cannot/should not work, such as the aged, small children, the ill and infirm. So, that 40,000 per person actually is a conservative estimate, and we'll ignore that 'point-one', since those in charge aren't too concerned about it, either.
This is before ObamaCare, or another 'stimulus' bill now being chattered about, or some emergency like another bad hurricane, or a war breaking out, or a bunch of biiig bank failures, etc.
Federal tax revenues are down 18% year-over-year, by the way, and real unemployment is well over 10%.
And Nancy Pelosi seems confounded that the voters are upset at their local Congressman/woman? She thinks it's just kooks, wackos and neo-nazis showing up to act ugly...
Maybe she's just out of touch and overworked.
Timmy Geithner's letter to Harry Reid on Friday, telling him Congress needs to raise the US government's debt limit to 12.1 trillion(that's with a 't').
Otherwise, there's a possibility of default in October.
The 'D' word. That's not good!
The House is in recess, with the members hiding from their constituents, and shaking down the donors for 2010. Lots of folks on what vacations they may muster, and not paying attention, at least that's what the Obama administration hopes.
I can't think they'll be happy to hear that the letter's existence is now out in the open.
So, how much is 12.1 trillion dollars?
A billion is a thousand million. That's a lot of dough.
A trillion is a thousand billion. That's a lot more dough.
So, now we're at 12 times a thousand times a billion, this year alone.
That little 'point-one' stands for only a hundred billion--chump change for the Obama administration.
There are about 300 million people in the USA. So 12 billion(no need to worry with that 'point-one' divided by 300 million is....
(Had to do this on my spreadsheet, as my calculator won't do this..)
40,000 dollars for every man woman and child present in the country.
For just this fiscal year.
That's just the budget shortfall for this year.
That's what Congress is borrowing in your name, this year alone.
That's not factoring in that maybe 20 million of the 300 million are illegal aliens, and of course in every population there are those who cannot/should not work, such as the aged, small children, the ill and infirm. So, that 40,000 per person actually is a conservative estimate, and we'll ignore that 'point-one', since those in charge aren't too concerned about it, either.
This is before ObamaCare, or another 'stimulus' bill now being chattered about, or some emergency like another bad hurricane, or a war breaking out, or a bunch of biiig bank failures, etc.
Federal tax revenues are down 18% year-over-year, by the way, and real unemployment is well over 10%.
And Nancy Pelosi seems confounded that the voters are upset at their local Congressman/woman? She thinks it's just kooks, wackos and neo-nazis showing up to act ugly...
Maybe she's just out of touch and overworked.
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