A group of students caught on camera protesting the a 32% hike in tuition. Difficult to say how many there were, or who they were, but they certainly made some noise.
The taser came out on this one. Wouldn't you love to be the campus security officer photographed doing this, and returning to work on foot patrol next week?
As reality arrives on ground level, people will be upset.
This reminds me of the Left Bank riots of Paris. Never thought we'd see it here...
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Welcome to Paris at UCLA (14 Arrested, 1 Tasered)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, Definitely Not Amused by ObamaCare
Robert J. Samuelson is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on political, economic and social issues. His column appears on Wednesdays.
Samuelson joined The Post on the business desk in 1969. In 1976 he became an economic reporter for National Journal, where he began a weekly column, which began appearing in The Post in 1977. In 1984, Samuelson became a columnist for Newsweek.
In other words, no one can call him a 'Teabag Person', or 'AstroTurf' and pass the laugh test.
He is not amused by ObamaCare.
The disconnect between what President Obama says and what he's doing is so glaring that most people could not abide it. The president, his advisers and allies have no trouble. But reconciling blatantly contradictory objectives requires them to engage in willful self-deception, public dishonesty, or both.
This from an icon of the East Coast Media.
What are Obama and Pelosi to do? Do they put Samuelson on the enemies list? Do they declare The Washington Post 'not a news organization'?
The wheels, blessedly, may be coming off the train. There is hope yet.
Samuelson joined The Post on the business desk in 1969. In 1976 he became an economic reporter for National Journal, where he began a weekly column, which began appearing in The Post in 1977. In 1984, Samuelson became a columnist for Newsweek.
In other words, no one can call him a 'Teabag Person', or 'AstroTurf' and pass the laugh test.
He is not amused by ObamaCare.
The disconnect between what President Obama says and what he's doing is so glaring that most people could not abide it. The president, his advisers and allies have no trouble. But reconciling blatantly contradictory objectives requires them to engage in willful self-deception, public dishonesty, or both.
This from an icon of the East Coast Media.
What are Obama and Pelosi to do? Do they put Samuelson on the enemies list? Do they declare The Washington Post 'not a news organization'?
The wheels, blessedly, may be coming off the train. There is hope yet.
Andy and Jon, Children of The Bubble
Meet Andy.
Andy is 28, used to work in advertising, and now works on a political campaign. He's an Activist.
Meet Jon.
Jon is 34, used to work on Wall Street until recently. He's a Lawyer.
Neither have any memory of a world in which residential property values did not rise at a pace well past any other investment. It's as if one has a right to buy a house for Price A(say 75K) refi it a few times, touch it up a bit, and sell it for a multiple of A(say 295K). Anyone or anything who gets in the way of that would be just so, well, unprogressive, don't you think?
So, how do Andy and Jon's paths cross? They both moved to Louisville, and each bought one of those charming little frame shotgun houses in Butchertown, in the district traditionally associated with the stockyards and slaughterhouses.
Now, Andy and Jon and their fellow Butchertown Children of the Bubble have problem on their hands. There is still a meat-packing plant in Butchertown!! OMG!!! It's been there since 1969, and it..it..it SMELLS LIKE A PACKING PLANT!!
It employs 1400 people, but, you know, they're those kind of people, who don't have college educations, but are likely to have pot bellies and speak English with funny accents and drink beer and raise children. A lot of them go to church! Some of them smoke! OMG, they must go! They will just ruin our property values!
So, Andy the Activist, chair of the local homeowners association, and Jon the Lawyer get together to file complaints with the zoning commission, and lawsuits against the zoning commission, and generally stomp their feet to demand, DEMAND I SAY, that this nuisance be removed from their presence forthwith!
Now, it will cost the firm some $350 million to build a new plant, but that's a small price to pay in order to make Butchertown a 'Walkable Neighborhood', near the proposed botanical gardens, with each of those little shotgun frame houses selling for $500k. After all, we're Young Professionals, the sort of people a city wants, unlike those smelly worker types, with their smelly children.
So, the packing plant is spending hundreds of thousands dealing with the neighbors, the city, the lawsuits, etc., while employing 1400 people who actually produce something. Every day, live pigs go in one door, and bacon and ham depart the other. People buy and eat bacon and ham. People can't buy and eat inflated real estate valuations, generally.
Time was, those little shotgun houses actually housed families with children. Their dads worked in the plants. They worked to support their families, eventually own their little house bought with the help of the local S&L, and hopefully launch their kids and grandkids to a better life than theirs. That was the deal. That was The American Dream.
The Bubble killed much of that off. The workers commute from the south side, not from 'Walkable Neighborhoods', where they try to raise their kids. The Young Professionals remodel their houses in their Walkable Neighborhoods, oddly empty of children and young mothers, and harrass anyone who dares cross their path.
Even if that anyone happened to have been there first, for some decades.
Until we address the raw narcissism of the culture, the Fed and government can hose the economy down with cash, stimulus programs, tax credits, jobs programs, health reforms, bailouts, what have you.
It won't matter.
I'm to the point of thinking that the sooner the air is let out of the real-estate bubble, and values return to the mean, the better. Then and only then will sanity begin to have a fighting chance.
Andy and Jon will just have to adjust, and perhaps produce something with their lives beside litigation.
OMG!!!
Andy is 28, used to work in advertising, and now works on a political campaign. He's an Activist.
Meet Jon.
Jon is 34, used to work on Wall Street until recently. He's a Lawyer.
Neither have any memory of a world in which residential property values did not rise at a pace well past any other investment. It's as if one has a right to buy a house for Price A(say 75K) refi it a few times, touch it up a bit, and sell it for a multiple of A(say 295K). Anyone or anything who gets in the way of that would be just so, well, unprogressive, don't you think?
So, how do Andy and Jon's paths cross? They both moved to Louisville, and each bought one of those charming little frame shotgun houses in Butchertown, in the district traditionally associated with the stockyards and slaughterhouses.
Now, Andy and Jon and their fellow Butchertown Children of the Bubble have problem on their hands. There is still a meat-packing plant in Butchertown!! OMG!!! It's been there since 1969, and it..it..it SMELLS LIKE A PACKING PLANT!!
It employs 1400 people, but, you know, they're those kind of people, who don't have college educations, but are likely to have pot bellies and speak English with funny accents and drink beer and raise children. A lot of them go to church! Some of them smoke! OMG, they must go! They will just ruin our property values!
So, Andy the Activist, chair of the local homeowners association, and Jon the Lawyer get together to file complaints with the zoning commission, and lawsuits against the zoning commission, and generally stomp their feet to demand, DEMAND I SAY, that this nuisance be removed from their presence forthwith!
Now, it will cost the firm some $350 million to build a new plant, but that's a small price to pay in order to make Butchertown a 'Walkable Neighborhood', near the proposed botanical gardens, with each of those little shotgun frame houses selling for $500k. After all, we're Young Professionals, the sort of people a city wants, unlike those smelly worker types, with their smelly children.
So, the packing plant is spending hundreds of thousands dealing with the neighbors, the city, the lawsuits, etc., while employing 1400 people who actually produce something. Every day, live pigs go in one door, and bacon and ham depart the other. People buy and eat bacon and ham. People can't buy and eat inflated real estate valuations, generally.
Time was, those little shotgun houses actually housed families with children. Their dads worked in the plants. They worked to support their families, eventually own their little house bought with the help of the local S&L, and hopefully launch their kids and grandkids to a better life than theirs. That was the deal. That was The American Dream.
The Bubble killed much of that off. The workers commute from the south side, not from 'Walkable Neighborhoods', where they try to raise their kids. The Young Professionals remodel their houses in their Walkable Neighborhoods, oddly empty of children and young mothers, and harrass anyone who dares cross their path.
Even if that anyone happened to have been there first, for some decades.
Until we address the raw narcissism of the culture, the Fed and government can hose the economy down with cash, stimulus programs, tax credits, jobs programs, health reforms, bailouts, what have you.
It won't matter.
I'm to the point of thinking that the sooner the air is let out of the real-estate bubble, and values return to the mean, the better. Then and only then will sanity begin to have a fighting chance.
Andy and Jon will just have to adjust, and perhaps produce something with their lives beside litigation.
OMG!!!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Return of Music to Saint Peter's Basilica
Long overdue, but very welcome!
One of the unintended and tragic consequences of Vatican II was the disappearance of almost the entire corpus of church music from the Catholic Church, replaced by really really really cheesy drivel. Badly written(most of the 'poetry' never scans, therefore is unsingable), badly sung, accompanied by out-of-tune guitars with a vocabulary of four chords.
Joseph Ratzinger is attempting to set things straight, by encouraging the return of choral and organ music, and all the arts, back to the church.
Sandro Magister, covering this week's events, offers this insight:
Among the arts to be represented in the Sistine Chapel next Saturday, November 21, at the highly anticipated meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, music is perhaps the one that has suffered the most from the divorce that has taken place between artists and the Church.
The distress in music has been the first to afflict the Church. Because while the masterpieces of Christian painting, sculpture, and architecture still remain accessible to all, even if they are ignored and misunderstood, great music literally disappears from the churches if no one performs it anymore.
Again: Great music literally disappears from the churches if no one performs it anymore.
And it disappears from cultures as well. It has faded so rapidly from our culture, in great part, because it disappeared from the churches, all the churches, beginning in the 1960's
It is good to see the Pope take the lead on this matter, because so much more is at stake than just music, and he gets it!
Green Shoot Nominee!
One of the unintended and tragic consequences of Vatican II was the disappearance of almost the entire corpus of church music from the Catholic Church, replaced by really really really cheesy drivel. Badly written(most of the 'poetry' never scans, therefore is unsingable), badly sung, accompanied by out-of-tune guitars with a vocabulary of four chords.
Joseph Ratzinger is attempting to set things straight, by encouraging the return of choral and organ music, and all the arts, back to the church.
Sandro Magister, covering this week's events, offers this insight:
Among the arts to be represented in the Sistine Chapel next Saturday, November 21, at the highly anticipated meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, music is perhaps the one that has suffered the most from the divorce that has taken place between artists and the Church.
The distress in music has been the first to afflict the Church. Because while the masterpieces of Christian painting, sculpture, and architecture still remain accessible to all, even if they are ignored and misunderstood, great music literally disappears from the churches if no one performs it anymore.
Again: Great music literally disappears from the churches if no one performs it anymore.
And it disappears from cultures as well. It has faded so rapidly from our culture, in great part, because it disappeared from the churches, all the churches, beginning in the 1960's
It is good to see the Pope take the lead on this matter, because so much more is at stake than just music, and he gets it!
Green Shoot Nominee!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Let's Just Not Go There...SOOO Unpleasant And All...
Our Nobel Peace Prize Awardee in residence would rather Congress not investigate the Fort Hood massacre.
It could be, well you know, embarrassing, and might bring up that question about terrorism, the nature of Islamic extremism, and how this monster slipped through, right under the noses of all the responsible parties.
Besides, there hasn't been enough time to shred all the relevant documents.
And, given enough time, people forget, and after all the poor psychiatrist was under a lot of stress, and the poor man was shot by the police!
The families buried their sons and daughters this week. I'd venture to guess they and theirs want some independent inquiry into why their lives were shattered.
It could be, well you know, embarrassing, and might bring up that question about terrorism, the nature of Islamic extremism, and how this monster slipped through, right under the noses of all the responsible parties.
Besides, there hasn't been enough time to shred all the relevant documents.
And, given enough time, people forget, and after all the poor psychiatrist was under a lot of stress, and the poor man was shot by the police!
The families buried their sons and daughters this week. I'd venture to guess they and theirs want some independent inquiry into why their lives were shattered.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Cognitive Dissonance
U.S. Posts $176.36 Billion Deficit for October - WSJ.com
The October deficit figure is wider than the Congressional Budget Office's estimate for a $175 billion deficit in the month and wider than the $165.9 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
The Treasury on Thursday also revised September's deficit to a slightly narrower $46.57 billion, from a previously reported $46.61 billion. Even with the revision, the U.S. in fiscal year 2009 posted a record total budget deficit of near $1.4 trillion -- three times its previous record.
At the equivalent of 9.9% of gross domestic product, the figure is the widest U.S. deficit as a share of GDP since 1945.
The current fiscal year deficit of just the Federal government is almost 10% of GDP.
That's before the states and local entities...
vs.
Senator Reid tees up 2010 jobs bill - TheHill.com
Harry Reid thinks the way to solve all our woes is to toss another $500 billion onto the fire.
There is a complete disconnect between reality and behaviour.
What planet are they on?
They act like badly-parented children, who never learned the direct relationship between behaviour now and and results later...
The October deficit figure is wider than the Congressional Budget Office's estimate for a $175 billion deficit in the month and wider than the $165.9 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.
The Treasury on Thursday also revised September's deficit to a slightly narrower $46.57 billion, from a previously reported $46.61 billion. Even with the revision, the U.S. in fiscal year 2009 posted a record total budget deficit of near $1.4 trillion -- three times its previous record.
At the equivalent of 9.9% of gross domestic product, the figure is the widest U.S. deficit as a share of GDP since 1945.
The current fiscal year deficit of just the Federal government is almost 10% of GDP.
That's before the states and local entities...
vs.
Senator Reid tees up 2010 jobs bill - TheHill.com
Harry Reid thinks the way to solve all our woes is to toss another $500 billion onto the fire.
There is a complete disconnect between reality and behaviour.
What planet are they on?
They act like badly-parented children, who never learned the direct relationship between behaviour now and and results later...
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The Hard Decisions Begin in Earnest, County by County
Save our Fairfax County Public Schools band and strings programs - The Petition Site
A vendor sent this notice over on email, urging that Fairfax County (Maryland?), staring a $176,000,000 deficit in the face, keep its band and orchestra programs publicly funded.
Many have expressed concern, dismay and questions over the Straw Man list suggesting the elimination of the Fairfax County Elementary Band And String program in the FY2011 Budget. The school system faces a $176 million deficit. Eliminating a program that serves 28,000 students is not acceptable. This will, in a short time decimate our secondary school bands and orchestras.
This is not an appeal to sign a petition, but an illustration of the quandry faced by counties everywhere.
A few thoughts:
1. Not picking on these folk in particular, but every county and every school board will be facing tough decisions beginning this next fiscal year. One bad thing about The Stimulus is that it allowed local leadership in some cases to paper over the problem for one more year, 'kicking the can down the road'(to quote Fred Thompson), and making the subsequent decisions even more painful. Yo' taahmm is UP, everybody. Gotta make some hard decisions.
2. I'm a musician by trade, but I'm a parent, and friend of other parents. If it comes down to keeping the chemistry, maths, history, and foreign languages curricula in place versus the school band and orchestra program, then band and orchestra have to go. Let's hope it doesn't come down to that, but it may!
3. The nasty little secret no one wants to discuss is that most public-school band and orchestra programs are dreadfully bad. I've seen a lot do more harm than good. Many don't deserve to survive. If they're good, they can likely survive outside the walls of the school.
4. If it's important to families and communities for children to learn music, and learn how to do it well, then this can be provided with much higher quality and less cost outside the walls of the public school. How much does it matter to you, mom and dad? Enough to write checks, volunteer, and quietly make certain your neighbors' kids from less affluent circumstances also have that opportunity? I see marching bands(don't get me started!) where the band-boosters have purchased semis and trailers to haul all that stuff around--upwards of 500k in capital investment in some of these programs! This really matters to these folk, and they pour out the money and time to make certain it happens. (And marching bands really suck as a music education approach.) Imagine a community youth orchestra with a 500k capital investment for gear and rehearsal space!
5. A two-word solution for music education in schools that doesn't cost tons of money: Choral Music. Every kid arrives at school with the instrument installed. You need a really good teacher, a really good piano(and pianist), and about 2k a year for music library purchases. For about 120-150k a year, every kid in the school can learn how to read music and how to sing. That's a lot more than is presently being accomplished.
These hard choices must be made. The money is not in the public coffers, and will not be there for years to come. Whining and demanding that non-existent tax revenues be spent on programs that don't deliver value for students is not the solution. Some very worthy programs, such as the Fairfax County elementary string orchestra, may have to reorganize outside the walls of the school.
Hard decisions will have to be made.
If we make them wisely, the culture will begin to recover.
And, after that, the economy will begin to function again.
A vendor sent this notice over on email, urging that Fairfax County (Maryland?), staring a $176,000,000 deficit in the face, keep its band and orchestra programs publicly funded.
Many have expressed concern, dismay and questions over the Straw Man list suggesting the elimination of the Fairfax County Elementary Band And String program in the FY2011 Budget. The school system faces a $176 million deficit. Eliminating a program that serves 28,000 students is not acceptable. This will, in a short time decimate our secondary school bands and orchestras.
This is not an appeal to sign a petition, but an illustration of the quandry faced by counties everywhere.
A few thoughts:
1. Not picking on these folk in particular, but every county and every school board will be facing tough decisions beginning this next fiscal year. One bad thing about The Stimulus is that it allowed local leadership in some cases to paper over the problem for one more year, 'kicking the can down the road'(to quote Fred Thompson), and making the subsequent decisions even more painful. Yo' taahmm is UP, everybody. Gotta make some hard decisions.
2. I'm a musician by trade, but I'm a parent, and friend of other parents. If it comes down to keeping the chemistry, maths, history, and foreign languages curricula in place versus the school band and orchestra program, then band and orchestra have to go. Let's hope it doesn't come down to that, but it may!
3. The nasty little secret no one wants to discuss is that most public-school band and orchestra programs are dreadfully bad. I've seen a lot do more harm than good. Many don't deserve to survive. If they're good, they can likely survive outside the walls of the school.
4. If it's important to families and communities for children to learn music, and learn how to do it well, then this can be provided with much higher quality and less cost outside the walls of the public school. How much does it matter to you, mom and dad? Enough to write checks, volunteer, and quietly make certain your neighbors' kids from less affluent circumstances also have that opportunity? I see marching bands(don't get me started!) where the band-boosters have purchased semis and trailers to haul all that stuff around--upwards of 500k in capital investment in some of these programs! This really matters to these folk, and they pour out the money and time to make certain it happens. (And marching bands really suck as a music education approach.) Imagine a community youth orchestra with a 500k capital investment for gear and rehearsal space!
5. A two-word solution for music education in schools that doesn't cost tons of money: Choral Music. Every kid arrives at school with the instrument installed. You need a really good teacher, a really good piano(and pianist), and about 2k a year for music library purchases. For about 120-150k a year, every kid in the school can learn how to read music and how to sing. That's a lot more than is presently being accomplished.
These hard choices must be made. The money is not in the public coffers, and will not be there for years to come. Whining and demanding that non-existent tax revenues be spent on programs that don't deliver value for students is not the solution. Some very worthy programs, such as the Fairfax County elementary string orchestra, may have to reorganize outside the walls of the school.
Hard decisions will have to be made.
If we make them wisely, the culture will begin to recover.
And, after that, the economy will begin to function again.
Proof Positive: There's One Born Every Minute
P.T. Barnum was right!
The government of Argentina, that model of stability, prudence, and sobriety stretching back generation upon generation, has decided to rejoin the world, and settle up on its old sovereign debt defaults. The bondholders just have to take a 60% haircut, that's all.
Easy-peasy.
Then, they plan to issue NEW sovereign debt, at an attractive rate of interest.
And, there are money managers out there planning to buy in!
Could it be they know, when push comes to shove, they can now dump the resultant losses on the US Treasury and taxpayer?
In the great Latin American tradition of 'La Mordida', how much kickback money should we estimate will funnel its way back to those managers as they make those purchases with their clients' funds?
This should turn out well...it's a sure thing. Where do we sign up?
Argentina Legislation Aims to Settle Bond Dispute - WSJ.com
The government of Argentina, that model of stability, prudence, and sobriety stretching back generation upon generation, has decided to rejoin the world, and settle up on its old sovereign debt defaults. The bondholders just have to take a 60% haircut, that's all.
Easy-peasy.
Then, they plan to issue NEW sovereign debt, at an attractive rate of interest.
And, there are money managers out there planning to buy in!
Could it be they know, when push comes to shove, they can now dump the resultant losses on the US Treasury and taxpayer?
In the great Latin American tradition of 'La Mordida', how much kickback money should we estimate will funnel its way back to those managers as they make those purchases with their clients' funds?
This should turn out well...it's a sure thing. Where do we sign up?
Argentina Legislation Aims to Settle Bond Dispute - WSJ.com
Tear Down This Wall
Twenty years ago, we watched in joy and wonder as the Berlin Wall was pulled down by the citizens of Berlin itself.
The Soviet Empire had been teetering for some time, but we could not see it from here.
Ronald Reagan knew better, and delivered the kick to the sternum that led to its inevitable collapse.
For those of you too young to remember, or too cynical to care, listen to 1:43 of a twenty-seven minute masterpiece, delivered by the last statesman to ever occupy the Presidency.
Words have meaning. Truth has power. Moral uprightness is a force of nature.
The cowards in our State Department wrung their hands at the audacity of Ronald Reagan for stating the simple truth.
They were wrong. They should have all been sacked. It was one of the few things Reagan left undone.
Moms and Dads, teach your children of this day, and how it came to be.
Full text and video here.
Speechwriter Tony Dolan's account of the crafting of the speech here, courtesy of Wall Street Journal.
God bless Ronald Reagan, and mercifully grant us more leaders like him.
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