I think we may yet have another Churchill.
While he still has the freedom to speak, and we have the freedom to listen, both privileges bought for us at unimaginable cost, I hope we all take his words to heart.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
June 6, 1944/June 6, 2009
I awoke this morning to one of the most insightful comments I have ever heard on radio, compliments of NPR's Scott Simon.
I wish I could persuade the world to visit his words and take them to heart, especially these quoted from his interview with historian John Keegan, responding to the question:
'What if D-Day had failed?'
"America would be marooned," said John Keegan, sweeping a hand over a globe. "Alone on a vast planet flooded by fascism." Hitler might have let America alone for a while, he said. But every Jew in Europe, every Roma, every gay, Jehovah's Witness, disabled or retarded person, and millions more Poles and Russians would have been executed or worked to death.
How many millions would we allow to be killed, he asked, so that Americans could live in an isolation some would call peace? And what kind of Hell would be left to our children in a world dominated by the creators of the Nuremberg Laws and death camps?"
It is sobering to remember that Hitler was only fifty-one years old when he took his own life the following May. Had he and his regime prevailed, he and his could have been in power well into the 1960's and beyond. It beggars the imagination.
So, here I sit on June 6, 2009, drinking coffee, watching the Memorial Golf Tournament (hosted by Mr. Nicklaus), catching up on the laundry. My bride and children are thriving, each in their own corner of the world. Business, although down somewhat, is good. We get to follow our dreams and make a living at it. How many people have that privilege?
We have this, in great part, because of what these brave souls accomplished on June 6, 1944.
One of those boys who did not survive that day hailed from a small town in central Kentucky, one of my mother's dearest high school friends. Her eyes still well up when she recalls him, these sixty-five years later. My father, recently passed, fought in the Pacific. In his final years, he shared memories of boys who never made it home. He arrived home with a lifelong case of survivor's guilt, and his adulthood friends were mostly boys from his Marine company who all settled within two miles of one another. He was the last to depart, and his loneliness was profound.
What if we lived our lives a bit more deliberately in the shadow of these men and women?
Would we have hit songs like 'Blame It On The Alcohol' all over the radio?
Would we conduct our politics with knives and poison?
Would we tolerate mayoral races featuring wrestling midgets?
Would we embrace business practices based on the notion that the person on the other end of any transaction is a sheep to be fleeced? Would a Bernie Madoff even be possible?
Would we look at the world outside our borders and say 'Never again' (and mean it!) to the new flock of facists who think it's perfectly acceptable to massacre entire classes of people in the name of some twisted utopian ideology?
Would we not look harder at ourselves, and make certain we are not headed down the slippery slope toward despotism ourselves?
What would we do with our lives and our culture if we lived a bit more in the shadow of June 6, 1944?
I wish I could persuade the world to visit his words and take them to heart, especially these quoted from his interview with historian John Keegan, responding to the question:
'What if D-Day had failed?'
"America would be marooned," said John Keegan, sweeping a hand over a globe. "Alone on a vast planet flooded by fascism." Hitler might have let America alone for a while, he said. But every Jew in Europe, every Roma, every gay, Jehovah's Witness, disabled or retarded person, and millions more Poles and Russians would have been executed or worked to death.
How many millions would we allow to be killed, he asked, so that Americans could live in an isolation some would call peace? And what kind of Hell would be left to our children in a world dominated by the creators of the Nuremberg Laws and death camps?"
It is sobering to remember that Hitler was only fifty-one years old when he took his own life the following May. Had he and his regime prevailed, he and his could have been in power well into the 1960's and beyond. It beggars the imagination.
So, here I sit on June 6, 2009, drinking coffee, watching the Memorial Golf Tournament (hosted by Mr. Nicklaus), catching up on the laundry. My bride and children are thriving, each in their own corner of the world. Business, although down somewhat, is good. We get to follow our dreams and make a living at it. How many people have that privilege?
We have this, in great part, because of what these brave souls accomplished on June 6, 1944.
One of those boys who did not survive that day hailed from a small town in central Kentucky, one of my mother's dearest high school friends. Her eyes still well up when she recalls him, these sixty-five years later. My father, recently passed, fought in the Pacific. In his final years, he shared memories of boys who never made it home. He arrived home with a lifelong case of survivor's guilt, and his adulthood friends were mostly boys from his Marine company who all settled within two miles of one another. He was the last to depart, and his loneliness was profound.
What if we lived our lives a bit more deliberately in the shadow of these men and women?
Would we have hit songs like 'Blame It On The Alcohol' all over the radio?
Would we conduct our politics with knives and poison?
Would we tolerate mayoral races featuring wrestling midgets?
Would we embrace business practices based on the notion that the person on the other end of any transaction is a sheep to be fleeced? Would a Bernie Madoff even be possible?
Would we look at the world outside our borders and say 'Never again' (and mean it!) to the new flock of facists who think it's perfectly acceptable to massacre entire classes of people in the name of some twisted utopian ideology?
Would we not look harder at ourselves, and make certain we are not headed down the slippery slope toward despotism ourselves?
What would we do with our lives and our culture if we lived a bit more in the shadow of June 6, 1944?
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
So, How Does The Real Estate Mess Play Locally?
This is a local example of the bigger problem.
You'll see the local bank's front page, quaint as it is, with a list of properties for sale. This has been a recent addition to the web site, by the way.
Look at listing #7, asking $108,000. I walk into the bank, and it's advertised in a circular on the table where customers fill out their deposit slips--zero money down, bank financing at 5%, 8K tax credit for first-time home buyers, the whole shooting match. No takers, the flyer has been there for many weeks, updated with the tax credit offer.
Visit the house, and you find it's a block off a busy highway, overlooking used car lots, the back side of the former Wal-Mart location, a tattoo parlor, surrounded by weedy lots, eroding at a healthy clip. A true Jim-the-Realtor moment.
This could never have been intended as an owner-occupant property. With mortgage, insurance and taxes totalling well over $750 a month, no one can rent it for a profit.
Something will have to give, (like about $50,000 off the asking price), and it will be a rental for some person of very modest income, or it will have to be torn down.
The list on the bank's site is growing.
And this is Tennessee, not California.
You'll see the local bank's front page, quaint as it is, with a list of properties for sale. This has been a recent addition to the web site, by the way.
Look at listing #7, asking $108,000. I walk into the bank, and it's advertised in a circular on the table where customers fill out their deposit slips--zero money down, bank financing at 5%, 8K tax credit for first-time home buyers, the whole shooting match. No takers, the flyer has been there for many weeks, updated with the tax credit offer.
Visit the house, and you find it's a block off a busy highway, overlooking used car lots, the back side of the former Wal-Mart location, a tattoo parlor, surrounded by weedy lots, eroding at a healthy clip. A true Jim-the-Realtor moment.
This could never have been intended as an owner-occupant property. With mortgage, insurance and taxes totalling well over $750 a month, no one can rent it for a profit.
Something will have to give, (like about $50,000 off the asking price), and it will be a rental for some person of very modest income, or it will have to be torn down.
The list on the bank's site is growing.
And this is Tennessee, not California.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
And the Winner Is...
In the hotly-contested race for mayor in Burns, Tennessee:
The incumbent, Mayor Bishop, who recently launched his new career as a wrasslin' referee overseeing wrestling midgets.
Words fail...
The incumbent, Mayor Bishop, who recently launched his new career as a wrasslin' referee overseeing wrestling midgets.
Words fail...
The Real News is Always Buried Somewhere Toward the End of the Article
The GM Bankruptcy dog-and-pony show officially begins Monday morning.
In the great tradition of East Coast journalism, the Washington Post reports on continued 'sweetening' of the deal offered GM bondholders, in order to smooth the way for a takeover by the Federal Government and the UAW. (It's like we live in ***!!!*** FRANCE these days...)
The real news begins in paragraph eight, long after most casual readers have zoned out, and begun thinking about baseball scores or American Idol gossip. Italics are mine.
In the great tradition of East Coast journalism, the Washington Post reports on continued 'sweetening' of the deal offered GM bondholders, in order to smooth the way for a takeover by the Federal Government and the UAW. (It's like we live in ***!!!*** FRANCE these days...)
The real news begins in paragraph eight, long after most casual readers have zoned out, and begun thinking about baseball scores or American Idol gossip. Italics are mine.
'Administration officials were confident many of the bondholders would accept the sweetened deal, especially after the informal committee of lenders had agreed to it. "This new offer we believe has a greater chance of success," an administration official said.
Small individual bondholders, who represent a fifth of the $27.2 billion in unsecured debt, were shut out from voting on the offer.
The "Main Street Bondholders," representing some of those individuals, said the deal unfairly gave the United Auto Workers' retiree health-care trust fund 66 cents on the dollar, while offering bondholders 13 cents on the dollar, assuming the new GM is worth $25 billion. This group of bondholders vowed to fight back using a section of the bankruptcy code, which could give them their own standing.
Excuse me, but don't the bonds held by individuals bear the same language and covenants as the bonds bought by institutions--assuming of course, they bought the same issues and maturities?
Do words have meaning? Does the law apply for the little people as well as the powerful? Do you only have legal standing if you are politically connected? Does the party that in the 2000 election screamed 'Count every vote!' now think it's ok to toss out every fifth vote, because they might not like how that 20% might vote?
Do we understand how utterly devastating this is to our society?
Do we wish to become France, or Argentina?
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Why We Should Pay Attention to the Chrysler Bankruptcy
This makes for interesting, if worrisome reading.
The Chrysler 'bankruptcy' has turned into a giant 'taking' by the Federal government.
First it was the bondholders, who were promised they were first in line to be paid. They were tossed out into the cold, the UAW was handed a majority stake, and Fiat was handed(without investing a penny of cash) managerial control.
Now it's the dealers, joining them on the street. Many of them are profitable firms, doing good business for decades, even in this downturn. Their businesses are being taken away from them, without compensation, and handed to the 'preferred' dealers in the region.
This is in clear defiance of both federal and state law.
Next up, General Motors, then?
The bigger, and more sobering questions are:
Do only the politically favored survive?
Is this the sort of America we have worked for?
Is this the legacy we wish to hand our children?
Does this make you want to run out and buy your next car at a Chrysler dealership?
The Chrysler 'bankruptcy' has turned into a giant 'taking' by the Federal government.
First it was the bondholders, who were promised they were first in line to be paid. They were tossed out into the cold, the UAW was handed a majority stake, and Fiat was handed(without investing a penny of cash) managerial control.
Now it's the dealers, joining them on the street. Many of them are profitable firms, doing good business for decades, even in this downturn. Their businesses are being taken away from them, without compensation, and handed to the 'preferred' dealers in the region.
This is in clear defiance of both federal and state law.
Next up, General Motors, then?
The bigger, and more sobering questions are:
Do only the politically favored survive?
Is this the sort of America we have worked for?
Is this the legacy we wish to hand our children?
Does this make you want to run out and buy your next car at a Chrysler dealership?
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Well, As A Matter of Fact, We Are...
Himself, The One, The Prez has admitted the obvious:
The US is broke. Do you notice how politicians of both parties choose holiday weekends to drop bombs on the culture? Two years ago, it was the Bush/McCain/Kennedy immigration bill, scheduled to be passed in the dead of night on Memorial Day weekend, before it could be read. Word leaked out, and the Republican party was nearly destroyed in the fallout. This is the true Bush 'legacy'.
The US is broke, mainly due to the entitlement programs His party insisted be put in place, and expanded year by year. Anyone who suggested even a freeze on spending to allow revenues to begin catching up with expenditures was vilified as a heartless beast. Speaker Gingrich was cut by a thousand knives for his efforts during the early 1990's.
California is some $25 billion in the hole, and cities such as Cincinnati have been caught in the general undertow created by years of pledging to spend more than could ever possibly be generated by the economic base of the city. Barney Frank wants the Treasury to guarantee municipal bonds--but with what?
I first realized some tipping point had occurred in October 2007, one chilly evening in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. My bride and I were there for two events: The semi-annual Lawrenceburg Antique Auction(an experience unto itself, highly recommended), and the kick-off rally for Fred Thompson's presidential bid.
The auction, usually too rich for our blood, was very poorly attended, with anemic bidding. We made out like bandits, to the point I felt embarrassed as I wrote out a paltry check for a magnificent haul of furniture. We could have bought more, but there was no room in the house! We kept asking one another, 'Where are the bidders? So many of the high-rollers aren't even in the room this time!' It's as if they had dropped off the edge of the earth. It was eerie.
We wandered down to the rally, to a square full of enthusiastic, but worried people. The older ones among us were delighted by a speech by Sen. Howard Baker, who had hired Fred in 1973 to help the Watergate Senatorial Committee navigate the crisis visited upon the nation by Nixon.
It was not Fred's best night, sadly. But as he gathered steam, and talked about a government that controlled neither its borders or its spending, he began to connect with his audience, mainly families with kids, dressed in jeans and flannel shirts. They knew things were terribly amiss, that they had been betrayed by the leadership of the party they had sacrificially supported since 1980.
It was not to be for Fred's bid, but he was (and is) one of the few voices willing to say the hard things about the hard choices that must be made.
Not even he predicted how quickly we were to approach the bigger tipping point, less than a year later.
The US is broke. Do you notice how politicians of both parties choose holiday weekends to drop bombs on the culture? Two years ago, it was the Bush/McCain/Kennedy immigration bill, scheduled to be passed in the dead of night on Memorial Day weekend, before it could be read. Word leaked out, and the Republican party was nearly destroyed in the fallout. This is the true Bush 'legacy'.
The US is broke, mainly due to the entitlement programs His party insisted be put in place, and expanded year by year. Anyone who suggested even a freeze on spending to allow revenues to begin catching up with expenditures was vilified as a heartless beast. Speaker Gingrich was cut by a thousand knives for his efforts during the early 1990's.
California is some $25 billion in the hole, and cities such as Cincinnati have been caught in the general undertow created by years of pledging to spend more than could ever possibly be generated by the economic base of the city. Barney Frank wants the Treasury to guarantee municipal bonds--but with what?
I first realized some tipping point had occurred in October 2007, one chilly evening in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. My bride and I were there for two events: The semi-annual Lawrenceburg Antique Auction(an experience unto itself, highly recommended), and the kick-off rally for Fred Thompson's presidential bid.
The auction, usually too rich for our blood, was very poorly attended, with anemic bidding. We made out like bandits, to the point I felt embarrassed as I wrote out a paltry check for a magnificent haul of furniture. We could have bought more, but there was no room in the house! We kept asking one another, 'Where are the bidders? So many of the high-rollers aren't even in the room this time!' It's as if they had dropped off the edge of the earth. It was eerie.
We wandered down to the rally, to a square full of enthusiastic, but worried people. The older ones among us were delighted by a speech by Sen. Howard Baker, who had hired Fred in 1973 to help the Watergate Senatorial Committee navigate the crisis visited upon the nation by Nixon.
It was not Fred's best night, sadly. But as he gathered steam, and talked about a government that controlled neither its borders or its spending, he began to connect with his audience, mainly families with kids, dressed in jeans and flannel shirts. They knew things were terribly amiss, that they had been betrayed by the leadership of the party they had sacrificially supported since 1980.
It was not to be for Fred's bid, but he was (and is) one of the few voices willing to say the hard things about the hard choices that must be made.
Not even he predicted how quickly we were to approach the bigger tipping point, less than a year later.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
A Good Guy Finishes First
It's a long way from Waverly, Tennessee to Interlochen Arts Academy, especially as a transfer student attending for his senior year.
It took a special kind of moxie for Jake Rychen to achieve this, and this morning marked his graduation from the Academy.
This August, he begins his trumpet studies with the fabulous Michael Tunnel at the University of Louisville.
There is a world full of bad news out there, things that make us cringe, things that make us look to the future with real concern.
Then there are kids like Jake, who (with our support and encouragement) may yet turn the culture back in a good direction.
Kudos to Jake, his family, Interlochen and U of L for this morning's moment of inspiration.
And, a special shout-out to The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, who sends an examiner to his part of the world twice a year to hear students. Those exams provide a path to the outside world for kids like Jake, who exercise the ambition to prepare to the rigorous standards of ABRSM exams.
We all have a few bucks to donate, even in a recession.
Interlochen and U of L School of Music belong on the list.
It took a special kind of moxie for Jake Rychen to achieve this, and this morning marked his graduation from the Academy.
This August, he begins his trumpet studies with the fabulous Michael Tunnel at the University of Louisville.
There is a world full of bad news out there, things that make us cringe, things that make us look to the future with real concern.
Then there are kids like Jake, who (with our support and encouragement) may yet turn the culture back in a good direction.
Kudos to Jake, his family, Interlochen and U of L for this morning's moment of inspiration.
And, a special shout-out to The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, who sends an examiner to his part of the world twice a year to hear students. Those exams provide a path to the outside world for kids like Jake, who exercise the ambition to prepare to the rigorous standards of ABRSM exams.
We all have a few bucks to donate, even in a recession.
Interlochen and U of L School of Music belong on the list.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Real Golf at the Irish Open
For those who seek relief from the likes of Manny Ramirez, what's-his-name-the-swimmer-who-is-so-stupid-as-to-smoke-dope-in-public, and their ilk, I suggest you turn to the Golf Channel on Saturday morning, and watch events like The Irish Open.
They normally play in conditions that American pros won't even leave the hotel suite for. Saturday's play was delayed when the winds were so high they threatened to pull the clubs from the hands of the players.
You haven't heard of most of these guys, like Robert Rock, Graeme MacDowell, and Shane Lowry, and Johan Edfors. You will soon enough, when the Ryder Cup rolls around again.
They are inspiring, with Lowry (the young amateur) finally taking the cup over Rock after four playoff holes played in the chill and the rain. The crowds were cheering their boy Lowry in Tiger-like decibel levels. His poor mother, standing in the gallery, couldn't bear to look. (Rock had to console himself with the 500,000 euro award for highest finish by a professional.)
Home-made swings, ugly rough, pot bunkers full of wet sand, gale-force winds, rain.
Real golf.
Last year, I met a kid at my local club, fresh from four years on his college team, who wouldn't go out to practice because conditions were wet and chilly. He stayed in the clubhouse and discussed his plans to go play the European Tour. He smirked when I suggested that the day's conditions were typical of what he would encounter across the pond. Now that kid has a real future...in some other line of work.
*****
And, what to my wondering eyes did appear, but John Daly, dressed head-to-toe, learning how to work for a living on links courses. If he survives this, we might see him on the senior tour, hopefully sober and with what remains of his brilliant abilities intact.
But he has to make cuts first, which he failed to achieve this weekend. He has to show up to tee times, which he seems unable to do as well.
They normally play in conditions that American pros won't even leave the hotel suite for. Saturday's play was delayed when the winds were so high they threatened to pull the clubs from the hands of the players.
You haven't heard of most of these guys, like Robert Rock, Graeme MacDowell, and Shane Lowry, and Johan Edfors. You will soon enough, when the Ryder Cup rolls around again.
They are inspiring, with Lowry (the young amateur) finally taking the cup over Rock after four playoff holes played in the chill and the rain. The crowds were cheering their boy Lowry in Tiger-like decibel levels. His poor mother, standing in the gallery, couldn't bear to look. (Rock had to console himself with the 500,000 euro award for highest finish by a professional.)
Home-made swings, ugly rough, pot bunkers full of wet sand, gale-force winds, rain.
Real golf.
Last year, I met a kid at my local club, fresh from four years on his college team, who wouldn't go out to practice because conditions were wet and chilly. He stayed in the clubhouse and discussed his plans to go play the European Tour. He smirked when I suggested that the day's conditions were typical of what he would encounter across the pond. Now that kid has a real future...in some other line of work.
*****
And, what to my wondering eyes did appear, but John Daly, dressed head-to-toe, learning how to work for a living on links courses. If he survives this, we might see him on the senior tour, hopefully sober and with what remains of his brilliant abilities intact.
But he has to make cuts first, which he failed to achieve this weekend. He has to show up to tee times, which he seems unable to do as well.
Ethical Midgets with Ivy League Degrees
It isn't as if these people didn't know better....
Just because someone has an English surname, a long pedigree, Ivy League credentials, and a respectable job in the financial district doesn't mean they aren't actively participating in organized crime. The code of silence certainly has been in place for years.
How many family fortunes have been devastated while these guys were having Monday lunch, trading stock tips on the firms they were hired to regulate?
Last week, I visited a recently widowed family member at her retirement center. It appears her late husband had everything in cash before the crash arrived. One of her friends, in her eighties, also recently widowed, was not so fortunate. I could feel the worry in her heart. She was wondering if a lifetime of work and saving would be enough to allow her to live out her life in the modest dignity of this facility, where she had the basics of safety, food, and company.
This is the true impact of the hustlers on our culture.
Denninger provides one such example from today's odd-looking activities at Wall Street.
Just because someone has an English surname, a long pedigree, Ivy League credentials, and a respectable job in the financial district doesn't mean they aren't actively participating in organized crime. The code of silence certainly has been in place for years.
How many family fortunes have been devastated while these guys were having Monday lunch, trading stock tips on the firms they were hired to regulate?
Last week, I visited a recently widowed family member at her retirement center. It appears her late husband had everything in cash before the crash arrived. One of her friends, in her eighties, also recently widowed, was not so fortunate. I could feel the worry in her heart. She was wondering if a lifetime of work and saving would be enough to allow her to live out her life in the modest dignity of this facility, where she had the basics of safety, food, and company.
This is the true impact of the hustlers on our culture.
Denninger provides one such example from today's odd-looking activities at Wall Street.
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