Yesterday's browse through the local antique shop yielded a real treasure, a copy of A Twentieth Century Testimony, published in 1978 by Thomas Nelson (ISBN 0-8407-5143-5). Intended more as a 'coffee-table' pictorial book than a real literary work, it features the words and images of Malcom Muggeridge, the prolific British journalist and author. He passed from this earth in 1990, but in his day, never failed to stir the cultural pot with his command of the written and spoken word.
Muggeridge, to the surprise of many, embraced Christianity as his only hope, and the world's only hope, in the late 1960's. He introduced much of the West to Mother Teresa, and championed Solzhenitsyn when he was shunned on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
OldSouth keeps a copy of Muggeridge's little masterpiece The End of Christendom close by, and revisits it annually. (The link takes you to Amazon, so you can order your own copy...hint, hint...)
He wrote prolifically for over sixty years, yet these words taken from yesterday's purchase are amongst his most luminous and pithy:
Good and evil provide the theme of the drama of our mortal existence. In this sense, they may be compared with the positive and negative points which generate an electric current. Transpose the points and the current fails, the light go out, darkness falls, and all is confusion.
The darkness falling on our civilization is likewise due to a transposition of good and evil. In other words, what we are suffering from is not an energy crisis, nor an overpopulation crisis, nor a monetary crisis—from none of these ills that are commonly pointed out—but from a loss of a sense of moral order in the universe. Without that, no order whatsoever—economic, social, or political—is attainable.
For Christians, order is derived from that terrific moment, when, while all things were in quiet silence and that night was in the midst of her swift course, thine almighty Word leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne, leaped down to dwell among us, full of grace and truth. It was thus that Christendom came into existence, and to abandon or repudiate the almighty Word from which it is derived would be infallibly to wind up two thousand years of history and ourselves with it.
Have a good rest of the month, and keep your chin-straps on.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Saturday Morning, Small-Town South
The workload is enormous at OldSouth's international corporate HQ (and if you believe he works from a corner office, then he has such investment opportunities for you! You see, we buy up all these dodgy mortgages, slice them into teeny-tiny pieces, and sell bonds backed up by all those teeny-tiny pieces. And, if anything goes wrong, the taxpayers make you whole, 100 cents on the dollar....well, never mind....).
No really, Saturday morning, we had to get out of the house, and treat ourselves to breakfast at a little family-owned place in town. Called the daughter in grad school, to see if she wanted to join us, no answer, oh well. Drove into our little town, past the increasingly vacant little office buildings, the vacant car dealership, the 'for sale' and 'for rent' signs.
We walk in the restaurant, and hear the daughter's voice: 'What are my parents doing here?' Great minds think alike, she's escaped to breakfast with her best friend from high-school, unemployed by the Great Recession. College education, industrious, attractive, bright sense of humor, papering her world with job applications. Usually, not even an acknowledgment of receipt of the application. Unemployment benefits still running, but of course no heath coverage. Living at home again. Some days, she says, she just doesn't want to leave the house.
Any number of thoughts come to mind. This young lady is now at least a year now from establishing a separate household for herself, even if she finds a good job next week. Marriage, family not on the horizon, and she's now twenty-five. This does not bode well for real-estate over the next five years or so around here.
She's not untypical, except she has the college degree.
OS is concerned that we are witnessing an entire group of young people slowly becoming marooned.
(Hmm...millions upon millions of jobs saved or created.)
No really, Saturday morning, we had to get out of the house, and treat ourselves to breakfast at a little family-owned place in town. Called the daughter in grad school, to see if she wanted to join us, no answer, oh well. Drove into our little town, past the increasingly vacant little office buildings, the vacant car dealership, the 'for sale' and 'for rent' signs.
We walk in the restaurant, and hear the daughter's voice: 'What are my parents doing here?' Great minds think alike, she's escaped to breakfast with her best friend from high-school, unemployed by the Great Recession. College education, industrious, attractive, bright sense of humor, papering her world with job applications. Usually, not even an acknowledgment of receipt of the application. Unemployment benefits still running, but of course no heath coverage. Living at home again. Some days, she says, she just doesn't want to leave the house.
Any number of thoughts come to mind. This young lady is now at least a year now from establishing a separate household for herself, even if she finds a good job next week. Marriage, family not on the horizon, and she's now twenty-five. This does not bode well for real-estate over the next five years or so around here.
She's not untypical, except she has the college degree.
OS is concerned that we are witnessing an entire group of young people slowly becoming marooned.
(Hmm...millions upon millions of jobs saved or created.)
Saturday, February 20, 2010
The Winter Olympics: Inspiration
Kajillions of words are spewing forth about the Vancouver Winter Olympics, so OldSouth will be brief.
1. Curling is, well, mesmerizing to watch. Whoodathunkit?
2. It takes real courage to strap on skis and take on the downhill course. It appears to be an accomplishment to cross the finish line on one's skis, in one piece.
3. It takes something else entirely to compete at Skeleton: e.g. heading down the bobsled track face-first, six inches off the ice, at eighty-five miles an hour. Them folks gots stones!
4. But the best thing about this event are the huge smiles that come across the faces of the competitors as they cross the finish line. Even if they don't place in the top three. The common theme seems to be:
I did it! I got here, crossed the line, and can go home and get on with my life. And I've got some great stories to tell. I'm so grateful I got to do this.
Contrast this with, say, what one encounters in the NBA, or NFL, NHL...
1. Curling is, well, mesmerizing to watch. Whoodathunkit?
2. It takes real courage to strap on skis and take on the downhill course. It appears to be an accomplishment to cross the finish line on one's skis, in one piece.
3. It takes something else entirely to compete at Skeleton: e.g. heading down the bobsled track face-first, six inches off the ice, at eighty-five miles an hour. Them folks gots stones!
4. But the best thing about this event are the huge smiles that come across the faces of the competitors as they cross the finish line. Even if they don't place in the top three. The common theme seems to be:
I did it! I got here, crossed the line, and can go home and get on with my life. And I've got some great stories to tell. I'm so grateful I got to do this.
Contrast this with, say, what one encounters in the NBA, or NFL, NHL...
Bulldozing The House, And Leaving It To The Bank
HT to Calculated Risk.
Well, this guy didn't fly a plane into the bank and murder employees.
Still, it did take some chutzpah to take a bulldozer to one's own house before the bank seized it.
If the land was worth, say 50K, then this guy just blew a 300K hole into the local bank's balance sheet.
No 'extend and pretend', if the house no longer exists! And since it was bulldozed for the cameras, and the story is broadcast, no way to spin those facts away, either.
Undoubtedly, the bank may attempt to sue or prosecute over this, but do they really wish to be subject to discovery and have to try the cases in front of a small-town Ohio jury? What might come to light that would be of interest to the bank inspectors? Will they give twelve citizens the opportunity to draw their own knives on the bank, all completely legally? And endure the press coverage of the trial and subsequent jury nullification? And watch customers take their business down the street?
News travels fast in small towns!
Cheaper to hire a cleanup crew, and quietly haul the remains away, upon reflection.
The anger is building out there. Murder is not an option.
Creativity, however, can be highly effective.
Well, this guy didn't fly a plane into the bank and murder employees.
Still, it did take some chutzpah to take a bulldozer to one's own house before the bank seized it.
If the land was worth, say 50K, then this guy just blew a 300K hole into the local bank's balance sheet.
No 'extend and pretend', if the house no longer exists! And since it was bulldozed for the cameras, and the story is broadcast, no way to spin those facts away, either.
Undoubtedly, the bank may attempt to sue or prosecute over this, but do they really wish to be subject to discovery and have to try the cases in front of a small-town Ohio jury? What might come to light that would be of interest to the bank inspectors? Will they give twelve citizens the opportunity to draw their own knives on the bank, all completely legally? And endure the press coverage of the trial and subsequent jury nullification? And watch customers take their business down the street?
News travels fast in small towns!
Cheaper to hire a cleanup crew, and quietly haul the remains away, upon reflection.
The anger is building out there. Murder is not an option.
Creativity, however, can be highly effective.
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Demise of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
In the US, what with a professor murdering her colleagues, and a disaffected computer engineer deciding to wage a one-man war on the Internal Revenue Service with his private airplane, New Orleans taking the Super Bowl, and Tiger Woods delivering his tightly-scripted apology, the deliberately-engineered demise of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh by an expert team of assassins has not generated much attention.
But it does deserve some thought, as we in the US are engaged in a long-term brush war against some very bad people. How do we protect ourselves against monsters without becoming monsters ourselves?
It's not just neurotic introspection. This guy was a monster, who happily participated in the murder of a lot of innocent people. But he was a human being, and no human life should be deliberately cut short nonchalantly.
The short version of the story is, that while on a business trip to Dubai, he was tracked down and killed by an expert assassination team, who were travelling on falsified European and UK passports. The hotel security cameras caught it all, except the act of killing itself. By the time his body was discovered, the team had left the country.
Very slick, very pro. Assumed to be Mossad, but about even odds that it was another Palestinian entity.
This guy made a lot of enemies in his day, as he himself was an equal-opportunity murderer.
OldSouth is always interested when people who live on opposite ends of the left/right spectrum arrive at essentially the same conclusion. Here we have one of those instances.
Alan Dershowitz at Huffington Post, in his lawyerly fashion, explores the legal and moral questions raised.
Mohammed Daraghmeh, also at Huff Post, explores the real possibility that Mahmoud was sent to his reward by the Palestinian Authority, who bear no love for Hamas.
In either case, he's no longer with us. He can't kidnap anyone, kill anyone, or supply weapons to help others do the same. This is cause for at least a sigh of relief.
Conservative Israeli blogger Israel Matzav offers more detailed perspective:
There are two reasons why Israel would want al-Mabhouh dead, and I'm going to take the second reason first because the main reason segues into the second question. Think Munich. Remember after the Munich Olympic Massacre how Israel sent agents all over the world to kill the murderers of Israel's Olympic team? Why did Israel do that? To show that actions have consequences. Al-Mabhouh kidnapped and murdered two Israeli soldiers. The kidnappings were among the very first terror attacks carried out by Hamas. If Israel killed al-Mabhouh, it has shown that it knows how to settle scores and that terrorists should not expect to ever be able to live in peace. Al-Mabhouh knew all that - that's why he lived in exile in Syria and it's why he had a security detail.
But the second reason for knocking off al-Mabhouh is far more important. Mabhouh helped found Hamas’s armed wing Izzadin Kassam in the 1980s, was behind the kidnapping in the first intifada of two Israeli soldiers and later established strong ties in Sudan, which he used to smuggle weaponry from Iran to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He was reportedly responsible for the weapons convoy that, according to foreign reports, Israel bombed during Operation Cast Lead as it was making its way to Gaza through the Sudanese desert.
In other words, if Israel took out Mabhouh, it also took out Hamas' weapons supplier, lessening the likelihood of any retaliation from Gaza.
In the midst of all the European hand-wringing over this assassination, and the outrage expressed at Israel for invading Gaza in early 2009, we need to remember:
Israel voluntarily handed over Gaza in 2005, exchanging tangible land and assets for intangible promises of peace with the Palestinians. What they got was Hamas taking Gaza over, using it to stage rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. Which led to the death and destruction of early 2009.
Mabouh was one of the prime actors in Hamas, and its weapons procurer. Sans his behavior, thousands of lives would have been spared.
So, the question remains: If we knock 'people like this' off, do we begin to become like 'people like this'?
And, knowing that a person like Mahmoud creates wholesale death and destruction, how can we fail to take advantage of the opportunity to send him to his reward?
Theze is complicated times, ya'll.
But it does deserve some thought, as we in the US are engaged in a long-term brush war against some very bad people. How do we protect ourselves against monsters without becoming monsters ourselves?
It's not just neurotic introspection. This guy was a monster, who happily participated in the murder of a lot of innocent people. But he was a human being, and no human life should be deliberately cut short nonchalantly.
The short version of the story is, that while on a business trip to Dubai, he was tracked down and killed by an expert assassination team, who were travelling on falsified European and UK passports. The hotel security cameras caught it all, except the act of killing itself. By the time his body was discovered, the team had left the country.
Very slick, very pro. Assumed to be Mossad, but about even odds that it was another Palestinian entity.
This guy made a lot of enemies in his day, as he himself was an equal-opportunity murderer.
OldSouth is always interested when people who live on opposite ends of the left/right spectrum arrive at essentially the same conclusion. Here we have one of those instances.
Alan Dershowitz at Huffington Post, in his lawyerly fashion, explores the legal and moral questions raised.
Mohammed Daraghmeh, also at Huff Post, explores the real possibility that Mahmoud was sent to his reward by the Palestinian Authority, who bear no love for Hamas.
In either case, he's no longer with us. He can't kidnap anyone, kill anyone, or supply weapons to help others do the same. This is cause for at least a sigh of relief.
Conservative Israeli blogger Israel Matzav offers more detailed perspective:
There are two reasons why Israel would want al-Mabhouh dead, and I'm going to take the second reason first because the main reason segues into the second question. Think Munich. Remember after the Munich Olympic Massacre how Israel sent agents all over the world to kill the murderers of Israel's Olympic team? Why did Israel do that? To show that actions have consequences. Al-Mabhouh kidnapped and murdered two Israeli soldiers. The kidnappings were among the very first terror attacks carried out by Hamas. If Israel killed al-Mabhouh, it has shown that it knows how to settle scores and that terrorists should not expect to ever be able to live in peace. Al-Mabhouh knew all that - that's why he lived in exile in Syria and it's why he had a security detail.
But the second reason for knocking off al-Mabhouh is far more important. Mabhouh helped found Hamas’s armed wing Izzadin Kassam in the 1980s, was behind the kidnapping in the first intifada of two Israeli soldiers and later established strong ties in Sudan, which he used to smuggle weaponry from Iran to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He was reportedly responsible for the weapons convoy that, according to foreign reports, Israel bombed during Operation Cast Lead as it was making its way to Gaza through the Sudanese desert.
In other words, if Israel took out Mabhouh, it also took out Hamas' weapons supplier, lessening the likelihood of any retaliation from Gaza.
In the midst of all the European hand-wringing over this assassination, and the outrage expressed at Israel for invading Gaza in early 2009, we need to remember:
Israel voluntarily handed over Gaza in 2005, exchanging tangible land and assets for intangible promises of peace with the Palestinians. What they got was Hamas taking Gaza over, using it to stage rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. Which led to the death and destruction of early 2009.
Mabouh was one of the prime actors in Hamas, and its weapons procurer. Sans his behavior, thousands of lives would have been spared.
So, the question remains: If we knock 'people like this' off, do we begin to become like 'people like this'?
And, knowing that a person like Mahmoud creates wholesale death and destruction, how can we fail to take advantage of the opportunity to send him to his reward?
Theze is complicated times, ya'll.
This Week's Bizarre Tragedy: Austin, Texas
These pictures tell the end of the story.
Here's the account from today's Fox News account.
Here's the long diatribe left by Joseph Stack, before he burned his home to the ground, left his wife a widow, and his young step-daughter undoubtedly traumatized.
OldSouth slogged through the long farewell, just to see if there was any nugget of wisdom to glean:
Well, he hated the government in general, and the IRS in particular. And unions. And the Catholic Church. And big business. Accounting firms. CPA's. Politicians in general, members of Congress in particular.
He spent a lot of his energy over the years crusading against all of the above. Especially the IRS.
Along the way, he lost two businesses and a marriage in California.
He relocated to Austin, and it appears the cycle was underway again.
LongStoryShort, much like our intrepid professor in Alabama, he decided that all his heartbreaks were someone else's fault. Therefore, he was justified in murdering his tormentors; and himself as well in this instance.
Not one word contemplated the horrific consequences for the people who loved him, who are left to sort life out in the wake of this crime.
OS ain't preaching, folks. He remembers a time when he felt much like this, and but for grace, did not act out in this destructive a manner. There but for grace...
We live in troubled times. And we're in for a rough sled over the next few years. So, let's hug the ones who love us extra-good, and think of them first as we make any decision, however seemingly insignificant. Let's choose our battles with a bit of humility and wisdom. Let's do something, however small, to make someone else's life better, to tidy up our tiny corner of the culture a little bit today. Let's remember who we are, who we aren't, and how we got here.
And how blessed we are.
Here's the account from today's Fox News account.
Here's the long diatribe left by Joseph Stack, before he burned his home to the ground, left his wife a widow, and his young step-daughter undoubtedly traumatized.
OldSouth slogged through the long farewell, just to see if there was any nugget of wisdom to glean:
Well, he hated the government in general, and the IRS in particular. And unions. And the Catholic Church. And big business. Accounting firms. CPA's. Politicians in general, members of Congress in particular.
He spent a lot of his energy over the years crusading against all of the above. Especially the IRS.
Along the way, he lost two businesses and a marriage in California.
He relocated to Austin, and it appears the cycle was underway again.
LongStoryShort, much like our intrepid professor in Alabama, he decided that all his heartbreaks were someone else's fault. Therefore, he was justified in murdering his tormentors; and himself as well in this instance.
Not one word contemplated the horrific consequences for the people who loved him, who are left to sort life out in the wake of this crime.
OS ain't preaching, folks. He remembers a time when he felt much like this, and but for grace, did not act out in this destructive a manner. There but for grace...
We live in troubled times. And we're in for a rough sled over the next few years. So, let's hug the ones who love us extra-good, and think of them first as we make any decision, however seemingly insignificant. Let's choose our battles with a bit of humility and wisdom. Let's do something, however small, to make someone else's life better, to tidy up our tiny corner of the culture a little bit today. Let's remember who we are, who we aren't, and how we got here.
And how blessed we are.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The Mount Vernon Statement
Progress is being made. The drafters and signers understand that freedom and prosperity flow from adherence to the Constitution.
We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.
Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The selfevident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.
Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead — forward or backward, up or down? Isn’t this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?
The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature’s God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man’s self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.
The conservatism of the Constitution limits government’s powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively. It refines popular will through the filter of representation. It provides checks and balances through the several branches of government and a federal republic.
We must begin by retaking and resolutely defending the high ground of America’s founding principles.
[initial signers]
February 17, 2010
Edwin Meese, former U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America
Edwin Feulner, Jr., president of the Heritage Foundation
Lee Edwards, Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at the Heritage Foundation, was present at the Sharon Statement signing.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council
Becky Norton Dunlop, president of the Council for National Policy
Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center
Alfred Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator
David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union
David McIntosh, co-founder of the Federalist Society
T. Kenneth Cribb, former domestic policy adviser to President Reagan
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform
William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government
Elaine Donnelly, Center for Military Readiness
Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
Kenneth Blackwell, Coalition for a Conservative Majority
Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring
Kathryn J. Lopez, National Review
The Mount Vernon Statement
Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century
These principles define us as a country and inspire us as a people. They are responsible for a prosperous, just nation unlike any other in the world. They are our highest achievements, serving not only as powerful beacons to all who strive for freedom and seek self-government, but as warnings to tyrants and despots everywhere.
Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead — forward or backward, up or down? Isn’t this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?
The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature’s God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man’s self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.
The conservatism of the Constitution limits government’s powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively. It refines popular will through the filter of representation. It provides checks and balances through the several branches of government and a federal republic.
A Constitutional conservatism unites all conservatives through the natural fusion provided by American principles. It reminds economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America’s safety and leadership role in the world.
A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda.
- It applies the principle of limited government based on the
rule of law to every proposal. - It honors the central place of individual liberty in American
politics and life. - It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and
economic reforms grounded in market solutions. - It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom
and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that
end. - It informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood,
community, and faith.
We must begin by retaking and resolutely defending the high ground of America’s founding principles.
[initial signers]
February 17, 2010
Edwin Feulner, Jr., president of the Heritage Foundation
Lee Edwards, Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at the Heritage Foundation, was present at the Sharon Statement signing.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council
Becky Norton Dunlop, president of the Council for National Policy
Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center
Alfred Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator
David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union
David McIntosh, co-founder of the Federalist Society
T. Kenneth Cribb, former domestic policy adviser to President Reagan
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform
William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government
Elaine Donnelly, Center for Military Readiness
Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
Kenneth Blackwell, Coalition for a Conservative Majority
Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring
Kathryn J. Lopez, National Review
Pardon Me, Mr. President, Weren't You In The Illinois Senate?
So, how did you, The Wan, fail to notice the fiscal freight train bearing down on your state?
If each household in Illinois owes $25,000 just to make the pension plans of the state employees whole, where will they find the money to fund their own pensions, or kids' educations, or house purchases, car purchases, small business start-ups, etc.?
Just wondering...because today you assured us that it is now 'impossible' that the United States will fall into an economic depression.
If each household in Illinois owes $25,000 just to make the pension plans of the state employees whole, where will they find the money to fund their own pensions, or kids' educations, or house purchases, car purchases, small business start-ups, etc.?
Just wondering...because today you assured us that it is now 'impossible' that the United States will fall into an economic depression.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
A Tenure Brush War At (Fill-In-The-Blank) University
Here's the story.
This one is occurring at Ohio University.
Especially given the bizarre tragedy in Hunstville, administration at the school is, shall we say...on edge.
Not one hint that the faculty member in question has any capacity for violence, but campus police were called to one of the meetings anyway. The faculty member wasn't even on campus that day.
In a way, the specifics of this story don't matter. My friends in academia report that tenure is a running brush war within institutions, pitting otherwise (ostensibly) civilized people constantly against one another.
In the meantime, back at Reality Ranch:
This brush war is brought to you by taxpayers, students, alumni, and donors; all of whom, in one way or another, pony up a lot of money to Ohio University.
Mom, Dad: Would you knowingly send your child into academic harm's way, knowing about these behaviors at a potential school? That the faculty and administration of the entire school spend their days wrangling over this stuff?
Student: Do you want to invest years of your life, and incur student debt, in order to study with these people?
Alumni: Does this make you want to bump up your donation from last year?
Taxpayer: Does this make you want to call your local legislator and raise Cain?
On a personal note, OldSouth had the pleasure of spending a week on that campus a few years back. It's tucked away in the hills of eastern Ohio, and the town and university sort of 'meld' into one another.
It was lovely.
OS would not have been upset to see one of his kids choose Ohio University.
Now, not a chance of the proverbial snowball in a hot location.
Hello out there, academia-people. You live in the same world we do.
OS will stop ranting now, and return to his non-tenured business, so he can pay his taxes to support the state universities that spend their energies....
This one is occurring at Ohio University.
Especially given the bizarre tragedy in Hunstville, administration at the school is, shall we say...on edge.
Not one hint that the faculty member in question has any capacity for violence, but campus police were called to one of the meetings anyway. The faculty member wasn't even on campus that day.
In a way, the specifics of this story don't matter. My friends in academia report that tenure is a running brush war within institutions, pitting otherwise (ostensibly) civilized people constantly against one another.
In the meantime, back at Reality Ranch:
This brush war is brought to you by taxpayers, students, alumni, and donors; all of whom, in one way or another, pony up a lot of money to Ohio University.
Mom, Dad: Would you knowingly send your child into academic harm's way, knowing about these behaviors at a potential school? That the faculty and administration of the entire school spend their days wrangling over this stuff?
Student: Do you want to invest years of your life, and incur student debt, in order to study with these people?
Alumni: Does this make you want to bump up your donation from last year?
Taxpayer: Does this make you want to call your local legislator and raise Cain?
On a personal note, OldSouth had the pleasure of spending a week on that campus a few years back. It's tucked away in the hills of eastern Ohio, and the town and university sort of 'meld' into one another.
It was lovely.
OS would not have been upset to see one of his kids choose Ohio University.
Now, not a chance of the proverbial snowball in a hot location.
Hello out there, academia-people. You live in the same world we do.
OS will stop ranting now, and return to his non-tenured business, so he can pay his taxes to support the state universities that spend their energies....
A Truly Happy Piece Of News From The NY Times
This article from the New York Times does cheer the heart.
Leonard Bernstein was a genius in so many ways, and made huge contributions to the American culture.
Critics remember him for his excesses and flaws, which he indeed did have, aplenty.
But it's hard to imagine American music without West Side Story, or Chichester Psalms, or Candide, or his incredible work in making music accessible to millions upon millions of young television viewers.
...in the 1950s, when American television viewers had three major networks to choose from — CBS, NBC and ABC — classical music was a part of the standard programming mix. Bernstein’s conducting demonstration was one of seven appearances, now on DVD, that he made on “Omnibus,” a 90-minute program that offered segments on science and the arts, particularly music and theater. It ran from 1952 to 1961, and migrated across the networks, from CBS to ABC in 1956, and to NBC in 1957.
These programs have just been made available on DVD. Their scripts formed the basis for much of his wonderful book The Joy of Music.
Again, OldSouth's personal soapbox is that the culture shapes the economy. He hopes that this DVD collection finds its way into the video systems of families everywhere, and are played again and again.
It will enrich the lives of the kids and grandkids in wonderful ways. They deserve to know who Bernstein was, what he accomplished, and to see him in his youthful prime.
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