Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Keeping An Eye On Egypt This Weekend
OS never thought he'd be doing this, but here is the Al Jazeera Live Stream.
It's 5:30 (17:30) CT US time, 1:30 am in Egypt.
Pres. HopeyChangey is expected to make remarks tonight.
Just now, Sen. John Kerry is bloviating from Davos, calling for Mubarak to suddenly stop being the person he has been for the last thirty years. And to think, we could have had this clown for President... He's saying that people's wishes and rights should be respected.
Egypt has turned off the internet internally, and is jamming mobile phone service. Hasn't deterred the mob too much. They're even attempting to block AlJazeera, unsuccessfully.
Obama is on now:
Calling upon the authorities to refrain from violence against peaceful protests--sez the US will stand for them everywhere. (Like Iran, Mr. President?)
'We've been clear that there must be reform. In the absence of reforms, grievances have built up over time. (You think?)'
He is trying to say anything he can to keep the proverbial lid on, maybe talk over the head of the Egyptian government to the street? Mainly platitudes. What can he say at a time like this? The US is inextricably identified as the party that has propped up an odious regime for over three decades. Obama just got around to calling Mubarak tonight. Days after the chaos began. What a leader.
And, the protests have spread to Jordan...
And, in Lebanon...
This is going to get interesting.
It's 5:30 (17:30) CT US time, 1:30 am in Egypt.
Pres. HopeyChangey is expected to make remarks tonight.
Just now, Sen. John Kerry is bloviating from Davos, calling for Mubarak to suddenly stop being the person he has been for the last thirty years. And to think, we could have had this clown for President... He's saying that people's wishes and rights should be respected.
Egypt has turned off the internet internally, and is jamming mobile phone service. Hasn't deterred the mob too much. They're even attempting to block AlJazeera, unsuccessfully.
Obama is on now:
Calling upon the authorities to refrain from violence against peaceful protests--sez the US will stand for them everywhere. (Like Iran, Mr. President?)
'We've been clear that there must be reform. In the absence of reforms, grievances have built up over time. (You think?)'
He is trying to say anything he can to keep the proverbial lid on, maybe talk over the head of the Egyptian government to the street? Mainly platitudes. What can he say at a time like this? The US is inextricably identified as the party that has propped up an odious regime for over three decades. Obama just got around to calling Mubarak tonight. Days after the chaos began. What a leader.
And, the protests have spread to Jordan...
And, in Lebanon...
This is going to get interesting.
Just Because It's Friday: Psalm 42, In Honor Of The 400th Anniversary Of The King James Bible
The King James Bible Trust site is a wonderful place to visit. It reminds us of just what wonderful work the human mind can produce, led in the correct direction.
1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
And, as a bonus, Herbert Howells beautiful setting of the opening verses, sung by Worcester Cathedral Choir.
Enjoy, and OS hopes it provides a bit of inspiration for the weekend.
1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
And, as a bonus, Herbert Howells beautiful setting of the opening verses, sung by Worcester Cathedral Choir.
Enjoy, and OS hopes it provides a bit of inspiration for the weekend.
Academically Adrift: Limited Learning On College Campuses
OldSouth took The Lovely Mr. OS to lunch yesterday, in celebration of seeing the sun for the first time in two weeks. On the way, we listened in on this chilling interview on NPR:
A new book by a team of researchers reveals some troubling findings: today’s college students are spending 50 percent less time studying than students did several decades ago. And 45 percent of those surveyed say they didn’t have “any significant improvement in learning” in the first two years of college.
We’ll speak to one of the researchers, Professor Richard Arum of New York University. He is the co-author of “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.”
OS was troubled to hear this, incredulous even, especially given the realities of skyrocketing costs and student loan indentured servitude that students are entering in order to attend college. What kind of kid blows off these sorts of opportunities, especially when the world clamors for a place at our educational table?
Then, after lunch (our first date of the year), Mrs. OS gets a call from one of her college students, who has just been offered one of the best opportunities of her young career, and she was wheedling Mrs. OS, her major professor, to (a) either excuse her from it, or (b) let it be considered an entire semester's work in her major subject. (It's about a week's work to complete, two at most.) Mrs. OS was not willing to do either, but indicated her willingness to factor it in to the overall semester's work. Tearful student, proclaiming how unfair it all is, etc. etc. etc.
Mrs. OS held the line, and told the dean to do likewise via a later email. Another uncompensated hour dedicated to student crisis on a day off...over news that should have made the student dance for joy.
Upper-class students in her major in other universities would kill for this opportunity, we were telling one another.
But, maybe not...Pfft!
A new book by a team of researchers reveals some troubling findings: today’s college students are spending 50 percent less time studying than students did several decades ago. And 45 percent of those surveyed say they didn’t have “any significant improvement in learning” in the first two years of college.
We’ll speak to one of the researchers, Professor Richard Arum of New York University. He is the co-author of “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.”
OS was troubled to hear this, incredulous even, especially given the realities of skyrocketing costs and student loan indentured servitude that students are entering in order to attend college. What kind of kid blows off these sorts of opportunities, especially when the world clamors for a place at our educational table?
Then, after lunch (our first date of the year), Mrs. OS gets a call from one of her college students, who has just been offered one of the best opportunities of her young career, and she was wheedling Mrs. OS, her major professor, to (a) either excuse her from it, or (b) let it be considered an entire semester's work in her major subject. (It's about a week's work to complete, two at most.) Mrs. OS was not willing to do either, but indicated her willingness to factor it in to the overall semester's work. Tearful student, proclaiming how unfair it all is, etc. etc. etc.
Mrs. OS held the line, and told the dean to do likewise via a later email. Another uncompensated hour dedicated to student crisis on a day off...over news that should have made the student dance for joy.
Upper-class students in her major in other universities would kill for this opportunity, we were telling one another.
But, maybe not...Pfft!
So, How Did An Iranian Book Celebrating Suicide Bombers End Up In The Arizona Desert Near The Mexican Border?
Is it time to finish building that fence? Deploy active duty military units? Really, finally pay attention to the threat?
One could begin to think that Janet Napolitano and her boss might actually want something horrible to happen inside our borders...our own Reichstag moment, so to speak.
It's either that--or shocking, mindless neglect. Any other explanations?
One could begin to think that Janet Napolitano and her boss might actually want something horrible to happen inside our borders...our own Reichstag moment, so to speak.
It's either that--or shocking, mindless neglect. Any other explanations?
Rahm Emanuel's Back On The Ballot
Unanimous decision by the Illinois Supreme Court.
So, the guy who led Obama from Chicago to The White House now goes back to run Chicago.
This should be interesting. By the time November 2012 arrives, Rahm will need to resurrect anyone as a live voter who died within the last forty years within the environs of Cook County, in order to counteract the actual live voters in the rest of the State of Illinois who will not be voting for HopeyChangeyVersion2.
Like 1960, all over again.
So, the guy who led Obama from Chicago to The White House now goes back to run Chicago.
This should be interesting. By the time November 2012 arrives, Rahm will need to resurrect anyone as a live voter who died within the last forty years within the environs of Cook County, in order to counteract the actual live voters in the rest of the State of Illinois who will not be voting for HopeyChangeyVersion2.
Like 1960, all over again.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Amy Chua's 'Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother': Part Deux
OldSouth finished the book last night as the snow descended. The first part of the book is light-hearted, self-deprecating, actually quite funny.
The second and third sections are quite dark. It requires extraordinary candor to autobiographically recount such miserable behaviour toward not only children, but husband, students, colleagues, childrens' teachers, and extended family and friends.
Amy Chua was under no obligation to write the book or publish it, so real credit goes to her for displaying that sort of moxie. OS hopes his readers buy it and read it--that many thousands of parents and teachers buy it and read it. This country needs to have a serious public discussion about parenting, and this book is a great place to begin.
The older child, Sophia, bore up relatively well under the onslaught. It is a miracle that Lulu, the younger, did not begin self-injuring behaviours, or develop eating disorders, or attempt suicide. She fought back against the craziness, and held to her own sense of self, which probably saved her. OS has seen cases where that did not happen, with tragic outcomes, too painful to recount.
OS's initial take, before reading the book, was to give Amy Chua 2 3/4 cheers. He's revising that down to about 1.5 cheers. There are so many parents unwilling to devote time, thought, and hard work to their children, and we are paying the price every day for that neglect. Amy Chua is not one of those parents, not by a long shot.
But...
Sans love, there is no virtuous circle. Achievement is not love. Obsessive hard work is not love. A perfect performance of Mendelssohn or Prokofiev is not love. Felix and Sergei did not compose pieces of music so that they could become the steel-cage ultimate fighting rings for the egos of parents, teachers and children. OS even contends that that manic sort of preparation to perform a short list of repertoire does not actually train a student to be a musician--it creates a highly programmed kid who can impressively perform a particular piece. Put a piece by Schumann or Shostakovich in front of such a kid, and ask them to make sense of the score themselves. They are lost in the woods, even after performing Mendelssohn and Prokofiev brilliantly. OS has lost count of the times he's seen this play out.
There seems to be no greater framework, no greater stage upon which this story is played. The chief aim of life is to achieve, to win, to be on the early acceptance list to Harvard--Brown will not do, and Duke is synonymous with humiliation. All that is still in place in TigerMotherWorld.
OS kept asking himself as he read: So, the kids and the mom and even the dogs win all the prizes, all the time. Then what? What's the next demand? How much is enough? And OS says this as a hard-charging father of two very high-achieving kids, of whom he is outrageously proud.
Are they loved because they are accomplished? Or do they succeed because they are loved, and respond to that higher call by working their tails off? Yes, in order to achieve substantial things, hard work is required, and a child has to be guided and confronted along the way. There's a lot of value in that process, up to and including that competition or exam, which are an integral part of the process. It's good to win, and that should be the goal. A's are better than B's, and should be the goal.
Do we define success, though, only by the sheepskins on the wall, and the trophies and the resumes, the power we wield, the faculties we sit on, the number of publications on the vita, or by how our lives and our work contribute to the lives around us? It's not either/or, it's both. It really is both.
Are we supposed to live vicariously through our children's accomplishments? What if, along the way, they fail at something, like not winning the grand prize at the competition? What if they go to Michigan State instead of Yale? Are they still loved, do Mom and Dad still exist?
OS was hoping to hear more about all this from Amy Chua, and strangely, she seems silent, as if the questions just don't occur. She now treats her children and husband more humanely, which is good.
At least until next time the Tiger gets the urge to roar.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
The second and third sections are quite dark. It requires extraordinary candor to autobiographically recount such miserable behaviour toward not only children, but husband, students, colleagues, childrens' teachers, and extended family and friends.
Amy Chua was under no obligation to write the book or publish it, so real credit goes to her for displaying that sort of moxie. OS hopes his readers buy it and read it--that many thousands of parents and teachers buy it and read it. This country needs to have a serious public discussion about parenting, and this book is a great place to begin.
The older child, Sophia, bore up relatively well under the onslaught. It is a miracle that Lulu, the younger, did not begin self-injuring behaviours, or develop eating disorders, or attempt suicide. She fought back against the craziness, and held to her own sense of self, which probably saved her. OS has seen cases where that did not happen, with tragic outcomes, too painful to recount.
OS's initial take, before reading the book, was to give Amy Chua 2 3/4 cheers. He's revising that down to about 1.5 cheers. There are so many parents unwilling to devote time, thought, and hard work to their children, and we are paying the price every day for that neglect. Amy Chua is not one of those parents, not by a long shot.
But...
Sans love, there is no virtuous circle. Achievement is not love. Obsessive hard work is not love. A perfect performance of Mendelssohn or Prokofiev is not love. Felix and Sergei did not compose pieces of music so that they could become the steel-cage ultimate fighting rings for the egos of parents, teachers and children. OS even contends that that manic sort of preparation to perform a short list of repertoire does not actually train a student to be a musician--it creates a highly programmed kid who can impressively perform a particular piece. Put a piece by Schumann or Shostakovich in front of such a kid, and ask them to make sense of the score themselves. They are lost in the woods, even after performing Mendelssohn and Prokofiev brilliantly. OS has lost count of the times he's seen this play out.
There seems to be no greater framework, no greater stage upon which this story is played. The chief aim of life is to achieve, to win, to be on the early acceptance list to Harvard--Brown will not do, and Duke is synonymous with humiliation. All that is still in place in TigerMotherWorld.
OS kept asking himself as he read: So, the kids and the mom and even the dogs win all the prizes, all the time. Then what? What's the next demand? How much is enough? And OS says this as a hard-charging father of two very high-achieving kids, of whom he is outrageously proud.
Are they loved because they are accomplished? Or do they succeed because they are loved, and respond to that higher call by working their tails off? Yes, in order to achieve substantial things, hard work is required, and a child has to be guided and confronted along the way. There's a lot of value in that process, up to and including that competition or exam, which are an integral part of the process. It's good to win, and that should be the goal. A's are better than B's, and should be the goal.
Do we define success, though, only by the sheepskins on the wall, and the trophies and the resumes, the power we wield, the faculties we sit on, the number of publications on the vita, or by how our lives and our work contribute to the lives around us? It's not either/or, it's both. It really is both.
Are we supposed to live vicariously through our children's accomplishments? What if, along the way, they fail at something, like not winning the grand prize at the competition? What if they go to Michigan State instead of Yale? Are they still loved, do Mom and Dad still exist?
OS was hoping to hear more about all this from Amy Chua, and strangely, she seems silent, as if the questions just don't occur. She now treats her children and husband more humanely, which is good.
At least until next time the Tiger gets the urge to roar.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
The Joys Of Being Snowed In
Cabin Fever is beginning to wear on OldSouth. It's been too cold for golf for weeks now, and the restlessness is evident.
Last night brought another three inches or so. Had the cold air arrived about an hour earlier, it would have been seven inches.
In any case, we're snowed in. The outdoor cat has moved in for the day to sleep in the warm, the younger border collies are out romping in the snow (their favorite weather), the old border collie is passed out on the floor (not interested, been there, done that)
The ice arrived before the snow, and the trees on the property are breathtakingly lovely.
Hoping you enjoy. Keep warm and dry.
OS
Last night brought another three inches or so. Had the cold air arrived about an hour earlier, it would have been seven inches.
In any case, we're snowed in. The outdoor cat has moved in for the day to sleep in the warm, the younger border collies are out romping in the snow (their favorite weather), the old border collie is passed out on the floor (not interested, been there, done that)
The ice arrived before the snow, and the trees on the property are breathtakingly lovely.
Hoping you enjoy. Keep warm and dry.
OS
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Bear-Stearns Traders Knowingly Selling Investor 'A Sack Of Shit': Lawsuit from 2008 Now Made Public
From Atlantic Magazine biz page:
Former Bear Stearns mortgage executives who now run mortgage divisions of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Ally Financial have been accused of cheating and defrauding investors through the mortgage securities they created and sold while at Bear. According to e-mails and internal audits, JPMorgan had known about this fraud since the spring of 2008, but hid it from the public eye through legal maneuvering. Last week a lawsuit filed in 2008 by mortgage insurer Ambac Assurance Corp against Bear Stearns and JPMorgan was unsealed. The lawsuit's supporting e-mails, going back as far as 2005, highlight Bear traders telling their superiors they were selling investors like Ambac a "sack of shit."
Denninger has been on top of this all along, alleging that the frauds originate at the very beginning of the process--the creation of the individual mortgages themselves. Little wonder that so much of the paperwork has gone missing...
OS is no financial whiz, no economist.
But he does know this: If you bleach all the trust out of a culture, where no one has any idea whether or not he is dealing with an out-and-out crook--things grind to a halt. Perhaps slowly, but inevitably.
Former Bear Stearns mortgage executives who now run mortgage divisions of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Ally Financial have been accused of cheating and defrauding investors through the mortgage securities they created and sold while at Bear. According to e-mails and internal audits, JPMorgan had known about this fraud since the spring of 2008, but hid it from the public eye through legal maneuvering. Last week a lawsuit filed in 2008 by mortgage insurer Ambac Assurance Corp against Bear Stearns and JPMorgan was unsealed. The lawsuit's supporting e-mails, going back as far as 2005, highlight Bear traders telling their superiors they were selling investors like Ambac a "sack of shit."
Denninger has been on top of this all along, alleging that the frauds originate at the very beginning of the process--the creation of the individual mortgages themselves. Little wonder that so much of the paperwork has gone missing...
OS is no financial whiz, no economist.
But he does know this: If you bleach all the trust out of a culture, where no one has any idea whether or not he is dealing with an out-and-out crook--things grind to a halt. Perhaps slowly, but inevitably.
Clobbered In The Last Election? No Worries, Just Stop The Clock! Harry Reid Declares It's 5 January 2011
Really. In the Senate, it's January 5, 2011.
After a nearly three-week absence, the Senate is back in session Tuesday in a chamber where time has ground to a halt: It's the same legislative day there that began Jan. 5.
The ruling Democrats have effectively stopped the clock for a reason: They contend that on the Senate's first day in session, its rules can be changed with just 51 votes, rather than the 67 normally needed. And the rules they are trying to change all have to do with the minority's ultimate weapon: the filibuster.
In other words, they never adjourned the previous session of the Senate!
WTF?!
Mitch McConnell notes that it appears to be one more attempt to nullify the outcome of last November's election. Like that MotherOfAllSpendingBills that Harry Reid sprang on the Senate with less than two days' notice, demanding its passage in the December lame-duck session. The whole thing was so egregious that it didn't pass the smell test for even the Democrats--or at least for the ones who have to face the voters in 2012.
For OS's readers overseas, a few simple truths must be understood about the US Democrat party, in order to understand US politics:
Words have no meaning, being simply sounds one uses to get one's way today.
Rules are for suckers, and other guys.
Only power matters.
They exist to campaign for the next election, whenever that is. If they lose, then its the fault of the great unwashed pool of voters, and the Dems have the obligation to 'adjust' the outcomes for TheGreaterGood. They just thinkin' of us, ya'll.
Trotsky would be proud.
So, here we are, on January 25, 2011. The Senate is meeting today, on January 5, 2011. And if Harry Reid gets his way, then it will still be January 5, 2011 in November of 2012.
At which point, WeTheEnemy (that great unwashed pool of voters) get to remind him of the current date and time.
Again, OS sez it: Political violence is not an option. Once the genie is out of the bottle, and blood flows, Heaven only knows what tragedies await us. NO, NO, NO!
However, this sort of blatant abuse of power, repeated again and again, as we have experienced in the past two decades, sets the stage for just such a tragedy.
OS has children, and would like to have grandchildren some day. And hopes to have a stable, free, and peaceful America for their lifetimes. Lest the darkness fall, we must keep insisting that light prevail, while we still have time.
After a nearly three-week absence, the Senate is back in session Tuesday in a chamber where time has ground to a halt: It's the same legislative day there that began Jan. 5.
The ruling Democrats have effectively stopped the clock for a reason: They contend that on the Senate's first day in session, its rules can be changed with just 51 votes, rather than the 67 normally needed. And the rules they are trying to change all have to do with the minority's ultimate weapon: the filibuster.
In other words, they never adjourned the previous session of the Senate!
WTF?!
Mitch McConnell notes that it appears to be one more attempt to nullify the outcome of last November's election. Like that MotherOfAllSpendingBills that Harry Reid sprang on the Senate with less than two days' notice, demanding its passage in the December lame-duck session. The whole thing was so egregious that it didn't pass the smell test for even the Democrats--or at least for the ones who have to face the voters in 2012.
For OS's readers overseas, a few simple truths must be understood about the US Democrat party, in order to understand US politics:
Words have no meaning, being simply sounds one uses to get one's way today.
Rules are for suckers, and other guys.
Only power matters.
They exist to campaign for the next election, whenever that is. If they lose, then its the fault of the great unwashed pool of voters, and the Dems have the obligation to 'adjust' the outcomes for TheGreaterGood. They just thinkin' of us, ya'll.
Trotsky would be proud.
So, here we are, on January 25, 2011. The Senate is meeting today, on January 5, 2011. And if Harry Reid gets his way, then it will still be January 5, 2011 in November of 2012.
At which point, WeTheEnemy (that great unwashed pool of voters) get to remind him of the current date and time.
Again, OS sez it: Political violence is not an option. Once the genie is out of the bottle, and blood flows, Heaven only knows what tragedies await us. NO, NO, NO!
However, this sort of blatant abuse of power, repeated again and again, as we have experienced in the past two decades, sets the stage for just such a tragedy.
OS has children, and would like to have grandchildren some day. And hopes to have a stable, free, and peaceful America for their lifetimes. Lest the darkness fall, we must keep insisting that light prevail, while we still have time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)