Sempringham

Leutwein Epilogue

2012-01-31T05:45:00.000-06:00

Thanks for the comments and emails concerning the previous post about Victoria Leutwein and her family.

Since putting the story up, I've come across two additional parts of the story that may interest you.

On June 6, 1903, the passenger ship Graf Waldersee set sail from Hamburg for Boulogne, Plymouth, and New York. Among those aboard was one Isabella Leutwein of "Calamazoo." Our Isabel never made it to South West Africa. It is possible the military situation there made it unsafe for her to proceed on her most excellent adventure.

And on May 15, 1954, the Chicago Daily Tribune ran this obituary:

Down the Rabbit Hole

2012-01-28T15:32:00.002-06:00

I'm afraid this is going to turn out to be a long post, but I'll keep it as short as I can. If you're only interested in my brilliant insights into the political issues of the day, you can skip it entirely and miss nothing. It's a rabbit hole.

I have a useless interest in portrait photography at the end of the 19th century, particularly in "cabinet cards," which are what you got if you took the family down to the local photographer. So I roam eBay, looking for interesting cabinet cards. Recently I came across this attractive portrait:

This is fairly typical of a studio pose by good photographer of the time. I liked the photo, but even more interesting was what was written on the back on the cabinet card:

The seller on eBay identified her as "Victoria Sentwein," and indeed that was my first reading of it. But when I could find no record of a Sentwein of any sort in the census records, I went back for a second look. That's when I noticed that the S in Sentwein did not match the S in Schools. Was that an L? Could her name be Lentwein?

No, not exactly: it was Leutwein; that first N is actually a U. The 1930 Census of Chicago lists Victoria, still a public school teacher, staying at the Hayes – a 500 room residence hotel:

End of story? Not quite, because Victoria came from a very interesting family. A 1904 newspaper article tells us about her father:

For the love of an Indiana girl, Prof. Carl Leutwein, ... brother of Col Theodor Leutwein, governor of German South [West] Africa, gave up friends in his native land, a lucrative position in the German army, and his only chance of again returning to his country.

Prof. Leutwein is residing at 801 North Rose street, and a few chapters in his varied career are interesting and romantic. He is well known about Michigan, having taught French and German in the University of Michigan for 10 years, and been instructor of German in Kalamazoo college for several terms.

Prof. Leutwein was born in Germany 50 years ago and is a graduate of Heidelberg university. Later he entered the German army and served several years. In consequence of his many advantages and good family his promotion was rapid. At the age of 25 years he ranked as major and was allowed three year's leave of absence.

Met a Yankee Girl

Prof. Leutwein came to this country. He traveled for a time and a year later wandered into the little city of Laporte, Ind. There he met Miss Jennie Hammond, pretty, sweet and buxom. An ardent cour[t]ship followed and Miss Hammond became the wife of Major Carl Leutwein. Wishing to remain in Laporte Major Leutwein secured a position as pastor of the German Lutheran church, of that city. Unmindful of his leave of absence the days sped rapidly by. Then one morning the major awoke to the realization that he had overstayed his time and that according to the rules and regulations of the German army he could never again return to his country. [Or he would be arrested for desertion?] He secured positions as instructor of German and French in several of the large universities about the middle west, but later went to Ann Arbor, where he was engaged as instructor for 10 years.

Pro. Leutwein has not seen his brother or any member of his family whom he left in Germany since he came to this country 25 years ago.

Col. Leutwein is governor of over 2,000,999 square miles of territory in South [West] Africa and diamond fields have recently been discovered in his territory which are said to be larger and finer than those in Kimberley.

..."My brother, Col. Theodor Leutwein was the next oldest son in my father's family and he was chosen to take my place in the army. Now he is governor of German South [West] Africa. We have always been very different, however, and I believe he is much better fitted to be a soldier than I am. ... He has always loved fighting; I do not. I love books, not fighting. I have my children, my books and am happy. I would not change."

Col. Theodor Leutwein

About Victoria's uncle, Col. Theodor Leutwein, I won't say much, though we'll come back to him soon. If you're interested, you can read his Wikipedia entry, or just google the name. He spent a good part of his career in German South West Africa, now called Namibia, where he was responsible for "pacifying" the native population. He was not brutal enough for his superiors in Germany, and command was transferred to Lt. Gen. Lothar von Trotha. What ensued is now known as the Herero and Namaqua Genocide.

All that happened in 1904.

Victoria had several siblings, including a younger sister, Isabel or Isabella. We have three frames of Isabel's life, starting in July 1897, when the Fort Wayne (Ind.) News ran a short piece about her:

Interesting girl. Isabel was probably born in 1874, which would have made her about 25 years old at the time, but both Victoria and Isabel gave different ages or years of birth in every census, always making themselves younger than you would predict from the last, and we can't be sure the first record was correct.

It's easy to imagine Professor Leutwein's concerns about Isabel. I can almost hear the nuns in The Sound of Music singing, "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Isabella?" Letters were no doubt exchanged with his brother in German South West Africa. Until, in February 1903, the Kalamazoo Gazette ran this story ...

Don't miss that last paragraph.

Whether Isabel made it to Africa, or was still in Germany when her uncle Theodor returned there in 1904, I've been unable to determine. The third frame from her life to be presented here was taken in 1910. At that time, the U.S. Census finds her in Redfield, South Dakota, married 5 years to Emmett C. Ryan. She has a daughter, Maurine; another child died in infancy. In 1922 Emmett Ryan would be the (unsuccessful) Democratic candidate for Congress from South Dakota.

Isabel died in April 1958 in Washington, D.C., where she had been living with her daughter since Emmett C. Ryan died.

Finally, there was poor Carl Leutwein Jr., younger brother to Victoria and Isabel.

The "sister who saw the Kalamazoo woman in Chicago" was undoubtedly our Victoria.

That's as far down the rabbit hole as I've gone. There are more tunnels and chambers to be followed and explored.

Beautiful Victoria, with the ornate handwriting, never married. How did Victoria's picture wind up on eBay?

I suspect I'm the only living person who cares.

Mitt Just Can't Help Himself

2012-01-26T20:02:00.000-06:00

I've been watching tonight's Republican debate over on CNN.

Mitt just made a claim to be the son of immigrants because his father was born in Mexico.

Does he have an inner voice that says, "No, Mitt! Don't say that!"?

Apparently not.

Musical Interlude

2012-01-21T21:48:00.000-06:00

Paul Krugman is an interesting guy. On his NY Times blog, among very wonkish posts about economics and very angry posts about politics, he sprinkles music videos that he likes. Usually, our tastes don't match. This one, which he correctly calls "strange but wonderful," is different.

But He's Very Popular with Rabies Sufferers

2012-01-20T16:05:00.000-06:00

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo says "If you want to know why the GOP establishment is freaking out, check out this chart."

I didn't know the GOP establishment was freaking out, but am glad to hear it. The red line is Newt's UNfavorability rating in the real world. And he looks like a winner in South Carolina tomorrow. We'll see.

A Perfect Storm

2012-01-19T13:23:00.001-06:00

Rick Perry has withdrawn from the presidential campaign. Touted by our political media as a formidable opponent when he entered the race, he turned out to be, as many have said, George Bush without the brains. [That, Anneliese, is a good example of "scarcasm."] It seemed Perry couldn't open his mouth without needlessly insulting a foreign country, most recently Turkey.

In his withdrawal speech, Rick Perry endorsed Newt Gingrich.

Even before Perry's withdrawal, Newt was riding a rocket ship in the South Carolina polls, and now leads Mitt Romney.

But Newt will get no sleep, because tonight at 10:35 CST ABC News will broadcast an interview with his second wife, Marianne, in which she will claim Newt tried to talk her into an open marriage.

“I said to him, ‘We’ve been married a long time,’” Marianne Gingrich says, in an excerpt from the interview released Thursday morning by ABC News. “And he said, ‘Yes but you want me all to yourself. Callista doesn’t care what I do.’”

Oh my!

Meanwhile, we're starting to get a notion of why Mitt Romney said he might release his tax returns in April. He apparently wants to release only his 2011 tax returns, which have not been prepared yet. We won't be able to see what he did with his money in prior years, for which returns have already been filed.

What does it matter? ABC reports:

For weeks, Romney has cited a desire for privacy as his reason for not sharing his tax returns -- a gesture of transparency that is now expected from presidential contenders.

"I can tell you we follow the tax laws," he said recently while on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. "And if there's an opportunity to save taxes, we like anybody else in this country will follow that opportunity."

Uh-oh.

But tax experts tell ABC News there are other reasons Romney may not want the public viewing his returns. As one of the wealthiest candidates to run for president in recent times, Romney has used a variety of techniques to help minimize the taxes on his estimated $250 million fortune. In addition to paying the lower tax rate on his investment income, Romney has as much as $8 million invested in at least 12 funds listed on a Cayman Islands registry. Another investment, which Romney reports as being worth between $5 million and $25 million, shows up on securities records as having been domiciled in the Caymans.

Official documents reviewed by ABC News show that Bain Capital, the private equity partnership Romney once ran, has set up some 138 secretive offshore funds in the Caymans.

Poor Rick Santorum, who advocates assassinating Russian scientists, is finally declared the winner of the Iowa caucuses – just in time to hear Perry endorse Newt. The news about the open marriage interview broke last night, so Perry already knew about it, but endorsed Newt anyway. Consider that.

But don't count Santorum out yet! The Republicans are bat**** crazy, and there's no telling who their next messiah will be.

Hey, there's always Ron Paul.

Now, to make this absolutely delicious, there's another Republican debate tonight! Who will rabies strike next?

Not to be missed. Oh, what a great idea it was for the Republicans to have a debate every 2 or 3 days!

And the South Carolina primary is Saturday.

Update: Couldn't watch the debate for more than 25 minutes. First question was to Gingrich about the interview with his second wife. Gingrich was shocked! shocked! that the CNN moderator would lead off the debate with such a question. It was all about the media attacking Republicans and protecting President Obama. Red meat for the crowd.

Republicans are bat**** crazy.

Nothing is Forever – Kodak Falls

2012-01-19T11:35:00.002-06:00

Eastman Kodak was a giant among American companies. There were upstarts: Fuji, Ilford, Agfa, and others. None had the prestige of Kodak, which was earned over 131 years of producing superior products. From its earliest days it had a reputation as a great place to work, and it set the standards for the film industry.

And then came digital.

Eastman Kodak has finally filed for bankruptcy. They will continue operating under bankruptcy protection.

It's Not Class Warfare – It's Math!

2012-01-19T07:09:00.000-06:00

Andrew Tobias recommended this video, saying it had "no shouting, no ominous music – or soaring music, for that matter – just quiet common sense." It does a good job of describing reality. Remember reality?

Don't worry, he stops with the "I do not feel disappointed ... " sentences before you want to drive pencils into your ears.

A Good Summary

2012-01-14T07:53:00.002-06:00

In case you missed it, Stephen Colbert is running for President of "the United States of South Carolina," and is polling better than Jon Huntsman. What's Colbert up to?

Jason Zinoman in the NY Times sees "a longtime thematic undercurrent of 'The Colbert Report': Mr. Colbert is a serious performer playing a silly character, while the media and political world are deeply silly but pretending to be serious."

Yup.

Amazing Historical Footage

2012-01-12T09:08:00.002-06:00

While cruising YouTube this morning, I came across this amazing footage of an interview with Czar Nicholas II, conducted in 1916.

How fascinating that it is so well preserved.

Perry Returns to the People Who Elected Him

2012-01-04T06:19:00.001-06:00

Another video headline cut short by the character limit:

I'm beginning to think Talking Points Memo does this on purpose. Remember the Rick Santorum thing a few months ago? Incidentally, you can click on this video all you want, and it won't play. If you're determined to hear what Perry was really saying, click here.

Jan 9 Update: The photo which was the subject of the post is not displaying. I'm working on it.

Jan 12 Update: Finally got around to it.

The Cool Side of Prince Charles

2011-12-27T21:50:00.003-06:00

I'll bet you didn't think there was one.

Newt Zombies

2011-12-27T18:57:00.000-06:00

Children under the age of 16 should be sent out of the room before you view this video:

God save America.

Update: The Gingrich national campaign apparently discovered what the "Newt Hampshire" folks had done, and ordered it taken down. The Republic is safe.

Romney's Taxes

2011-12-22T21:29:00.001-06:00

So Mitt Romney says he's not going to release his tax returns. Instead, "I will provide all the financial info, which is an extraordinary pile of documents which show investments and so forth.”

Well, if you're going to do that, why not release your tax returns, which has been SOP for presidential candidates for decades?

Steve Benen makes a suggestion:

Only the candidate knows for sure, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that Romney, worth about a quarter-billion dollars, makes just about all of his income from “dividends, interest, and capital gains,” which means he pays taxes at a much lower rate.

In a campaign context, that means the multi-millionaire Republican pays a lower tax rate than working families and — this is important — intends to pursue tax policies as president that would keep this advantage for people like him in place.

Romney could be more forthcoming on these facts, but he’s running for office for Pete’s sake.

Jesus Responds to Rick Perry's "Strong" Ad

2011-12-15T22:35:00.001-06:00

Via Chicago Ted, I've learned that Jesus was annoyed enough with Rick Perry's Strong ad that he has prepared a response. Watch it here.

What Happened to All the Prostitutes?

2011-12-15T18:32:00.001-06:00

I knew that would get your attention.

But this is just a sidebar item that came up as I was researching a Chicago photographer named Alfred Brisbois. At the time of the 1880 Census, Brisbois was living in a boarding house in Leadville, Colorado, along with people whose occupations were listed as saloon keeper, miner, prospector, roustabout, and – yes, the reason you're still reading – prostitute. Hey, it was the Wild West.

The raciest picture ever to appear on Sempringham.

I've looked at a lot of census records in the last 40 years, and I've come across prostitutes there before, but it still got me wondering: How have census takers handled the issue of ladies of the evening over the years? So I took a few minutes to try and find out, and here is what I discovered.

Before 1850, the U.S. Census recorded the name of only the "head of household" of each family. Everyone else was just counted in "number of males 10-18, number of females 10-18" and so on. No occupation, no country of birth, no information about the parents. The 1850 census was the first to record a name, age, and occupation for each person it counted. Genealogists everywhere are forever in its debt.

Out of curiousity, I searched the decennial censuses for "prostitute," and it gave me the following numbers.

1850 - 0
1860 - 0
1870 - 0
1880 - 4,723
1890 - 0 (The 1890 census was destroyed by a fire at the Commerce Department in Washington, D.C., on Jan 10, 1921. Records of only 6,160 of the 62,979,766 people enumerated survived.)
1900 - 2 (one in Delaware, one in Texas)
1910 - 6 (five in Montanta, one in Wyoming)
1920 - 0
1930 - 0

For privacy reasons, the 1930 census is the last one that is currently available to the public.

Wanting to be careful in my research, I pulled out my Roget's Thesaurus, looked for synonyms of "prostitute," then searched for the synonyms. The only thing that got hits was "concubine":

1850 - 0
1860 - 0
1870 - 0
1880 - 25
1890 - 0
1900 - 929
1910 - 326
1920 - 19
1930 - 0

So what happened there? Was there an outbreak of concubinage at the turn of the last century?

Drilling down into the numbers, looking at the individual census entries, the word "concubine" appears in the relationship field (denoting their relationship to the "head of household"), rather than the occupation field, where the description "prostitute" appeared. The "concubines" were women who lived with a man, with children that shared the man's last name, even though the women did not. They lived in the South: Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky. And guess what! They're black. So there's obviously something else going on there – something in the mind of the census taker, maybe?

Anyway, I thought this was all weird enough to share, even if I'm not sure what it means.

All-American Muslims

2011-12-14T10:14:00.000-06:00

Two must-see episodes from the Daily Show.

Go to Talking Points Memo and scroll down.

In fairness to Lowe's, they were in a tough position. They had to choose between their moral and ethical responsibilities to their stockholders (and their employees, for that matter), and morality and ethics on a higher plane.

Nothing is pure.

Death Penalty

2011-12-12T21:36:00.002-06:00

Seems like we should have heard about this before now. Colin Woodard at The Washington Monthly writes:

Last week, the American Bar Association urged Kentucky to indefinitely suspend executions, after its researchers found that 50 of the 78 people who’ve received death sentences there later had their convictions overturned on appeal. Trial attorneys for ten of these falsely convicted persons have since been disbarred, at least five of them for conduct related to the capital cases, the ABA reported.

The optimist will say, "Hey, the system works!"

I guess I'm not an optimist. Just because your conviction has been overturned, doesn't mean you didn't do it. But, still ....

A Little Public Grief

2011-12-10T08:07:00.001-06:00

Suellen J. Miller

September 23, 1951 - December 10, 2010

Her first of many trips to Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago

A student at St. Gabriel's School in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

Suellen tells the photographer exactly how many seconds he has to take his camera out of the church kitchen while she's preparing Thanksgiving Dinner for 100.

Youth.

She had her picture taken in front of this same mailbox in Lincoln, England, 10 years apart. This is the later picture.

At the Scott Polar Institute in Cambridge. Lawrence of Arabia's brother served as model for this statue, so Suellen got to combine two loves: Lawrence and Polar Exploration.

Napping with Waveland, her "Kitty in a Big Boy Suit." Waveland was Suellen's cat, no doubt about it. It was 6 months before he acknowledged I was good for anything except opening cans and cleaning poop out of his litter. He'd drop me in a second if she walked back through the door.

Ashamed

2011-12-10T06:00:00.001-06:00

"I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian," Rick Perry tells us in this ad, titled Strong, just before launching into a little hate mongering against gays in the military. He then fantasizes that "our kids can't openly celebrate Christmas, or pray in school."

This is a guy that George Will thinks is one of two viable candidates to come out of the Republican Freak Show. Which tells you everything you need to know about George Will.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell ended in September 2011. Despite the predictions of some, implementation was a non-event.

In a Gallup poll taken last December, 67 percent supported repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

People who attended church monthly supported repeal 64 percent to 32 percent.

People who attended church weekly supported repeal 55 percent to 40 percent.

Why would anybody be ashamed to admit that he's a Christian? Maybe because of Christians like Rick Perry.

Everything Old Is New Again!

2011-12-08T19:27:00.001-06:00

Finally! Mitt Romney has pulled off the gloves and gone after Gingrich with attack ads.

Time to dust off this 2008 political ad from the same people who brought you Libertarian Paradise.

Democrats for Romney!

Two (Short) Good Reads

2011-12-08T05:21:00.001-06:00

Don't miss Gail Collins' last Herman Cain column. Several good chuckles there. I considered a career as a motivational speaker, but every one I've ever heard has depressed me. (That statement might seem less of a non sequitur after you've read the column.)

Then, if – like me – you've become curious about the shooting of Utah Senator Arthur Brown, you can find a good summary here.

The Social Security Payroll Tax Cut

2011-12-07T21:03:00.001-06:00

Anyone trying to understand what's really happening with the Social Security payroll tax cut is going to find him/herself dealing with a) people who don't know what they're talking about, and b) people who know what the story is, but are trying to mislead you.

In Category A, among legions of others, we can put David Welna of National Public Radio, who authoritatively reported today:

Fact No. 3: The payroll tax holiday that Congress approved a year ago reduced Social Security's revenues this year by $145 billion.

An erratum added to the story later said:

A previous Web version of this story incorrectly said that the payroll tax holiday approved by Congress a year ago reduced Social Security's revenues this year by $145 billion. The correct amount is $105 billion.

Actually, the correct amount is $ 0.00. The payroll tax cut has resulted in absolutely no loss to the Social Security trust funds. That's because of section 601 of the Tax Relief Act, which states:

There are hereby appropriated to the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund established under section 201 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 401) amounts equal to the reduction in revenues to the Treasury by reason of the application of subsection (a). Amounts appropriated by the preceding sentence shall be transferred from the general fund at such times and in such manner as to replicate to the extent possible the transfers which would have occurred to such Trust Fund had such amendments not been enacted.

In plain English, the section provides that the payroll taxes lost to the Social Security trust fund because of the payroll tax cut are replaced out of general revenues. Now you can say that's a good thing or a bad thing (I'd say "almost certainly bad," but that's a different post), and it's certainly increasing the debt, but you can't say Social Security's revenues have been reduced.

Reporters need to do their homework. The web makes it a lot easier than it used to be, and if Welna had done a simple Google search, he could have written an accurate story.

So thanks to Amy Bingham at ABC News, who reported:

The one-year cut to Social Security’s funding stream decreased federal revenues by $112 billion in 2011, but the already-dwindling trust fund for Social Security remained untouched because the government borrowed extra money to fill the gap, adding instead to the $1.3 trillion deficit.

Then there's Category B, the people who are trying to mislead you. Among these are Illinois Senator Mark Kirk, as this video of a statement he gave in front of an empty Senate chamber clearly shows:

Listen to him as he talks about proposals that would "underfund" Social Security by $250 billion. These proposals have the same mechanism as Section 601, above, so they do not underfund Social Security. But keep listening past the short sound glitch in the video, and you discover that he knows it's not true! He knows it, but he's saying it anyway.

We know he knows it because he starts talking about the injustice of replacing Social Security tax revenues with U.S. Treasury Bonds that are rated less than AAA. The bonds are the payment from the general fund.

But, whah? Where did he think the payroll taxes were going, into a sock? They're going into special U.S. Treasury Bonds. And they're rated less than AAA only because of that little episode where the Republicans threatened default on America's debt if taxes were raised on millionaires.

It's like the old story of the guy who killed his parents, then begged the court for mercy because he was an orphan. Well, not exactly like it, but you get the point.

The Republican Freakshow

2011-12-05T06:26:00.001-06:00

Andrew Tobias points us to this column from the German magazine, Spiegel. The title: The Republicans' Farcical Candidates: A Club of Liars, Demagogues, and Ignoramuses.

A taste:

As it turns out, there are no limits to how far they will stoop.

It's true that on the road to the White House all sorts of things can happen, and usually do. No campaign can avoid its share of slip-ups, blunders and embarrassments. Yet this time around, it's just not that funny anymore. In fact, it's utterly horrifying.

It's horrifying because these eight so-called, would-be candidates are eagerly ruining not only their own reputations and that of their party, the party of Lincoln lore. Worse: They're ruining the reputation of the United States. [My emphasis]

'Freakshow'

They lie. They cheat. They exaggerate. They bluster. They say one idiotic, ignorant, outrageous thing after another. They've shown such stark lack of knowledge -- political, economic, geographic, historical -- that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein and even cause their fellow Republicans to cringe.

Musical Interlude

2011-12-03T18:24:00.001-06:00

Jim Messina wrote this song for his brother, Danny, to celebrate the birth of his son, Tyler. So it's called Danny's Song.

I wish I could write songs for my brothers and sisters.

From the Mouths of Boobs Comes Wisdom, Part II

2011-11-30T22:15:00.001-06:00

You've got to hand it Newt Gingrich – like a broken clock, twice a day he tells the truth in spite of himself:

“One of the real changes that comes when you start running for president — as opposed to being an analyst on Fox — is I have to actually know what I’m talking about.”

h/t to Steven Benen, who saw it at Think Progress.

How I Became a Philanthropist, Chapter 1

2011-11-29T17:11:00.001-06:00

If you own just one square inch of New York City land, how rich could you be? Depending on where the inch was located, I imagine you could be very rich, indeed. If that square inch found itself in the middle of a piece of land that Donald Trump wanted to build on, and he owned all the land around it, you might be able to set some kind of record for cost per square foot with your little square inch.

"Gee, I don't know, Donald. I've always had a sentimental attachment to this square inch of land, and was hoping to pass it down to my nephews and nieces."

That was something like the reverie that went through my mind when I remembered, for no particular reason, that I am the owner of a square inch of land in Klondike gold country.

I am not kidding you. It was deeded to me in the 1950's by the Klondike Big Inch Land Co, Inc. The deed came in a box of Quaker Puffed Wheat, a cereal that tastes like gritty styrofoam. My kid brother couldn't read yet, so he didn't realize the extreme value of this gold-edged piece of paper. But I was a loyal watcher of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, so I knew all about the Gold Rush. I'm sure I gave him a good cover story. It was mine, and it was a beautiful thing to behold.

Now, more than 50 years later, it was clear that all I needed to do was find the deed, notify Exxon Mobil that I was willing to talk business, and I could make all my loved ones rich beyond their wildest dreams. Because, you see, when I have fantasies about having a lot of money, I'm always giving it away to my adoring family and friends. Because that's just the kind of person I am.

I haven't found the deed yet (the picture above was stolen from another site [because that's really the kind of person that I am]), but I don't intend to bother. Looking for instructions on how best to manage my Canadian Empire (Larry McMurtry will probably be interested in taking notes from the beginning) I happened upon this article on the web site of what is essentially the Yukon Territories tourist bureau. It's a good read, with interesting links. But here are the best bits:

...long after all the rocket rings and plastic submarines and other cereal-box prizes were lost, millions of those official-looking, legal-sounding, gold-embossed deeds to a square inch of Yukon land remained in drawers, albums, safe deposit boxes, scrapbooks, vaults and, more importantly, in the memory of a generation of men and women not so young anymore [Was that really necessary?].

And given the ravages of the years and the current uncertain economic times, a steadily mounting stream of these former children, their attorneys [my aghast emphasis], their widows and their executors are writing to inquire after their “property,” which they assume has increased in value over all these years.

But, alas, the replies carry sad news. Not only do these people not own the land now. They never did, because each individual deed was never formally registered. The Klondike Big Inch Land Co., an Illinois subsidiary established to handle the cereal’s land affairs, has gone out of business. And anyway, the Canadian government repossessed all the land back in 1965 for nonpayment of $37.20 in property taxes.

But still, the cereal saga won’t die. Thousands of “owners” have written to officials in the Yukon. A vast, sparsely populated area that is one of two of Canada’s northern territories. “Please tell them to stop.” pleaded Cheryl Lefevre. a land-office clerk who stores the Yukon’s files on the matter, files now more than 18 inches thick.

[snip]

There were always some “owners” writing for information. But it built to a flood more recently, involving Canadian consuls general in the United States, the Yukon and even the prime minister’s office in Ottawa.

Steven Spoerl wrote Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau to announce he was declaring the formal independence of his four square inches.

Each writer gets a polite reply that refers to Quaker’s “promotional gimmick” and suggests they write Chicago.

“The deeds were not meant to have any intrinsic value,” Quaker now says, “but rather to give the consumer the romantic appeal of being the owner of a square inch of land in the Yukon.”

Ironically, there are reports that ... those 7-by-5-inch deeds that were 35 times larger than the piece of land they represented, are bringing upwards of $40 in some antique shops.

A recent check of eBay found certificates being offered for $24.24 to $31. One enthusiastic person writes,

Hi...You dont mention in your description...but it looks like its in very good condition....correct??....and it is also unsigned...these deeds are worth much more unsigned...thank you

Yeah, instead of $24.24, they're worth $31.

Dear friends, nephews and nieces: don't despair. I am constantly thinking of new ways to get fabulously wealthy, and share my good fortune with you. It's just a matter of time.

Love, Uncle Bob

Deja Vu All Over Again

2011-11-29T06:06:00.001-06:00

The High Priestess of Hate Mongering, Pam Geller, was given space the other day on an anti-Obama site that calls itself "American Thinker" to present her latest evidence of the Muslim plan to take over America.

If you're not familiar with Geller, count yourself among the formerly lucky ones ("formerly" because those days are now over). She is author of a charming book called, Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance, and numerous articles around the web that combine racism, anti-Obama hysteria, and fear of the unknown in entirely new ways.

Here's a sample via Loonwatch.com:

So why not tell the truth about Obama and his reported strange sexual predilections? My question is, it is well known that Obama allegedly was involved with a crack whore in his youth. Very seedy stuff. Why aren’t they pursuing that story? Find the ho, give her a show!

Classy stuff.

My favorite is her attempt to prove that President Obama is the love child of Malcolm X.

Barack Hussein Obama Jr Malcolm X Barack Hussein Obama Sr. Barack Hussein Obama Sr., Tom Mboya, and Philip Ochieng, all share common physical features of the Kenyan Luo tribe: Modest stature under six feet, round faces, small chins, wide set eyes, slanted back foreheads, and retracted hairlines…none of these features are shared by Malcolm X and Barack Hussein Obama Jr.

So we are talking about serious derangement here. She's very influential in the Fox News crowd.

Geller's "American Thinker" article takes a seemingly bizarre fact and spins a conspiracy out of it: apparently, whole Butterball turkeys are halal, or slaughtered according to Islamic law. Or so Butterball would have us believe. I hesitate to do this to you, but maybe you should read Geller's article, here.

Without getting too deeply into the specifics, an animal that is halal has been slaughtered with a sharp knife cut across its neck, and bled to death. To someone standing on the sidelines, it is very similar to kosher, except where it is not. Some sources say the slaughter must be done by an observant Muslim, and a prayer to Allah said as the knife is applied. A purist will argue with me, but after reading around quite a bit on this, I rather like the way Wikipedia puts it:

Whether Muslims' factory-slaughtered meats meet halal standards is an ongoing debate, and the answer depends largely on the individual being asked.

And, indeed, there is some question about whether Butterball turkeys really are halal. But Butterball certainly wanted people who cared (formerly, only Muslims) to think so. That is, until Geller's little treatise. Butterball has apparently backed off their halal claims.

But it raises the question: Why? Why would a company like Butterball bother with something like halal? Are their owners religious Muslims? Are they really part of a vast Muslim conspiracy to force us, against our will, to eat meat sacrificed to Allah? Is creeping Islam, like creeping communism, destroying us from within?

And then it dawned on me:

$$$

Capitalism!! Of course!

Butterball's web site lays it out:

Butterball is one of the largest global turkey providers in the world. For more than 25 years, Butterball® has been providing quality turkey to markets around the globe. Currently, exporting over 100 million pounds of turkey products annually to over 50 countries, it’s no wonder that Butterball is one of the most celebrated choices for turkey. Butterball is committed to developing the best new products to specifically cater to all international cultures. [My emphasis]

For customers around the world who care, Butterball felt – for whatever reason – they could say their turkeys are halal. And those who didn't care ... didn't care. Until now. Butterball is clearly worried that they'll be the next Proctor & Gamble logo conspiracy.

Incidentally, there are other companies you may have heard of that offer halal meats. McDonald's, for instance, offers halal chicken nuggets in Dearborn, Michigan. I'll bet none of that halal chicken winds up in Detroit, though.

Bad News from Europe

2011-11-28T11:39:00.001-06:00

It seems like every week the European Central Bank does something to quell fears of the Euro's demise. For a few days it works, and then it doesn't.

From today's Der Spiegel, in an editorial titled, A Continent Stares into the Abyss:

Investors have lost confidence in the euro-zone countries and in their ability to rescue the common currency. Not even the recent changes of government in Italy, Greece and Spain have been enough to persuade them otherwise.

There is a growing sense of fear, both in the financial markets and in government offices. Even serious bankers who exude confidence in public admit privately that the monetary union could soon fall apart.

The previous bailout attempts have been worthless, they say, noting that Europe must finally reach for the only weapon whose firepower is endless, the European Central Bank. The ECB must finance the debtor nations, even if its own constitution bars it from doing so. The central bank has enough money, and it can also print money if necessary.

Most European leaders share this realization by now -- all except Merkel. She remains resistant, concerned about the central bank's independence and monetary stability. She is also staunchly opposed to all attempts to pool the debts of euro nations through jointly issued debt known as euro bonds.

The German chancellor is increasingly isolated. At home, she must defend any concessions to save the euro against her coalition partners, the business-friendly Free Democratic Party and the conservative Christian Social Union (the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union). She must convince members of parliament from her own party and abide by the rules set by Germany's Constitutional Court in its far-reaching decisions on the euro crisis. The FDP is creating alarm by polling its members on the party's position on the crisis. In other countries, Merkel is seen as a stubborn defender of German interests who hasn't recognized how serious the situation is -- and is therefore jeopardizing the entire monetary union.

Good News

2011-11-27T09:43:00.001-06:00

From today's NY Times:

AS North Carolina Republicans tell it, the Obama for America volunteers stole in under cover of night and stayed, undetected — noticed belatedly only because of election results across the state.

“It was very scary,” said Chris Sinclair, a strategist for Billie Redmond, the Republican candidate for mayor in Raleigh. “You don’t know what’s going on until you wake up after Election Day and go, ‘Oh my gosh, what happened?’ ”

What happened was that candidates supported by Democrats trounced Republicans in the Raleigh and Charlotte mayoral races this fall, and even wrested control of the Wake County school board from Republicans associated with the Tea Party.

It was only after the damage was done that local party leaders learned of the hidden hand of thousands of Obama for America volunteers and staff members. Never publicizing their work, they went door-to-door across the state, successfully getting their voters out to the polls in a highly effective dry run for 2012.

“I have said to all of my Republican friends, ‘This is real,’ ” Mr. Sinclair said of the Obama organization. “I’ve seen it; I’m coming off the front lines — it ain’t fun and we better be ready.”

Now, don't you feel better already?

Giving Thanks

2011-11-24T06:23:00.001-06:00

There's a lot to be thankful for. Gail Collins gives thanks for the Republican presidential debates.

My favorite this week was the Thanksgiving Family Forum, in which everybody in the race who isn’t a Mormon went to Iowa to compete for the love of the Christian right. This was the one in which Rick Perry assured the audience that because of his strong anti-abortion stance he would immediately end the policy of sending China “billions of dollars” in American foreign aid.

Who knew? Truly, it was the most interesting TV moment since I watched somebody bid way too much money for an abandoned storage locker containing fake leather furniture and a portrait of cats with big eyes.

The whole thing is here.

Just Wondering

2011-11-23T22:14:00.001-06:00

Why is it that the people who are most excited about American Exceptionalism are usually people who have no problem with torture, as long as it's done by Americans?

I guess that's one area where we're no longer an exception.

The Forces of Deceit

2011-11-23T05:53:00.001-06:00

Cyrano de Romney? Or Geppetto's latest creation?

By now you've read that Mitt Romney signaled the quality-type guy he is by including, in his first campaign commercial, a tape of President Obama saying, "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose."

The problem with the commercial, of course, was that the statement was taken out of context: The statement was made in 2008, and Obama was explicitly quoting an aide to John McCain. So the entire quote is:

Even as we face the most serious economic crisis of our time, even as you are worried about keeping your jobs or paying your bills or staying in your homes, my opponent's campaign announced earlier this month that they want to ‘turn the page’ on the discussion about our economy so they can spend the final weeks of this election attacking me instead. Sen. McCain's campaign actually said, and I quote, ‘If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose.’

When challenged about how dishonest the ad was, Romney senior advisor Tom Roth answered, "He did say the words. That's his voice."

Wow, talk about your moral relativism!

So the folks at Think Progress decided to make a little video of Mitt, using only words he really said, in his own voice:

Maybe the Obama campaign should run it, as an obvious object lesson. Nah.

It has been encouraging, though, to see the news media responding to this ad. I've been very critical of them in the past, so fair is fair: for once, they're pretty much calling it like it is:

"Misleading" – CBS News

"... the second time in as many weeks that Romney has taken an Obama quote out of context." – the Associated Press

"Ridiculously misleading" – Politifact

Think of it: "He did say the words. That's his voice." Why does anybody take these people seriously? They're not taking themselves seriously.

JFK Assassination - 48 Years Later

2011-11-22T06:14:00.001-06:00

I had a great time Saturday at Dave and Trudy's – a wonderful pre-Thanksgiving dinner and lively conversation with informed, interesting people.

At one point the discussion got around to the the John F. Kennedy assassination in Dallas. Dave had recently been to Dallas and visited Dealy Plaza, where the assassination took place. He was surprised, he said, by how close the Texas Book Depository (where Oswald shot from) was to the point where the bullet hit President Kennedy.

I was interested to hear that, because it mirrored my own reaction when I visited the site about 8 years ago. One of the talking points of conspiracy theorists has been that the distance between the two was so great that firing with such accuracy was unlikely, even for a trained marksman such as Oswald.

It's been 48 years since the assassination. (So long that I need to explain what I mean by "Dealy Plaza" and "Texas Book Depository." If you're above a certain age, these need no explanation.) But the assassination continues to fascinate.

The NY Times today has an interesting little video about "The Umbrella Man," a bystander who figured in some conspiracy theories. Entertaining, and definitely worth watching.

You'll find it here.

Musical Interlude

2011-11-21T21:19:00.001-06:00

Iris DeMent. A thinking person's Country: Let the Mystery Be.

Secret Recording Shows Gingrich Terrified of Winning GOP Nomination

2011-11-21T18:27:00.001-06:00

Cambridge, Mass – A secretly made video recording of an emergency campaign meeting Thursday night depicts an hysterial Newt Gingrich, apparently fearful that he might actually win the Republican Presidential nod. The former House Speaker is one of eight candidates permitted to participate in the series of Republican presidential debates, most of which have been televised or made available through online streaming.

The individual who made the video is a Gingrich staff member, but would show it to reporters only on condition of anonymity. Four reporters were allowed to view, but not copy, the recording.

The emergency campaign meeting was called in response to a New Hampshire Journal poll, announced Friday, but of which the Gingrich team had advance notice, which showed Gingrich running neck-and-neck with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in the Granite State. The poll, conducted by Magellan Strategies, a Republican-associated firm, found Gingrich to the be choice of 27 percent of votes, with Romney at 29 percent. The difference, however, was well within the poll's 4 percent margin of error.

"This is ridiculous!" Gingrich is seen and heard screaming at his campaign team. "Three months ago these same nitwits polled me with a 60 percent unfavorable rating!

"I've had three religions! I've had three wives, and cheated on two of them, for Christ's sake! I've been reprimanded and fined $300,000 for House ethics violations! Are people in New Hampshire out of their *&%#ing minds?"

The video then shows a pedagogical Gingrich explaining the basis of his campaign.

"It's sad that the news media doesn't report accurately how the Washington economy works! Do you know how much the President of the United States is paid? $400,000 a year! Why would anyone in their right mind work for $400,000 a year? What am I, a school janitor?"

One off-screen staff member is heard asking whether Gingrich didn't think it his patriotic duty to serve as President, if actually nominated and elected.

"I love humor disguised as a question," Gingrich responds. "That's terrific!"

"Look, we are in this for one thing and one thing only: to attract bigger contracts to Gingrich Group. We do that by getting me free television time on these debates so I can look like a principled conservative. If I get elected, the D.C. cash cow pulls its teats out of our mouths for 4 years! In the last 6 years I got $2 million just from Freddie Mac for 'historical advice,' and nobody looked twice! It doesn't work like that for Presidents!"

"Instead of playing Micky Mouse games, let's make some money!" he shouted at his staff.

"Nobody leaves this room until I have a plan that keeps me in the campaign as long as possible, but guarantees I will never be the nominee!"

Upon which Gingrich is seen storming out the door to his waiting wife, Callista.

Update

Politico reports:

Newt Gingrich tonight said at an address at Harvard that child work laws "entrap" poor children into poverty - and suggested that a better way to handle failing schools is to fire the janitors, hire the local students and let them get paid for upkeep.

The comment came in response to an undergrad's question about income equality during his talk at Harvard's Kennedy School.

Another Update

See this discussion on Rachel Maddow, which sounds about right. Hat tip to Andrew Tobias.

A Negative Vortex

2011-11-19T08:15:00.001-06:00

Things in Europe are getting really dangerous. It's going to be harder and harder to step back from the edge. From today's NY Times:

Nervous investors around the globe are accelerating their exit from the debt of European governments and banks, increasing the risk of a credit squeeze that could set off a downward spiral.

Financial institutions are dumping their vast holdings of European government debt and spurning new bond issues by countries like Spain and Italy. And many have decided not to renew short-term loans to European banks, which are needed to finance day-to-day operations.

If this trend continues, it risks creating a vicious cycle of rising borrowing costs, deeper spending cuts and slowing growth, which is hard to get out of, especially as some European banks are having trouble meeting their financing needs.

“It’s a pretty terrible spiral,” said Peter R. Fisher, vice chairman of the asset manager BlackRock and a former senior Treasury official in the Clinton administration.

The pullback — which is increasing almost daily — is driven by worries that some European countries may not be able to fully repay their bond borrowings, which in turn would damage banks that own large amounts of those bonds. It also increases the already rising pressure on the European Central Bank to take more aggressive action.

[clip]

The flight from European sovereign debt and banks has spanned the globe. European institutions like the Royal Bank of Scotland and pension funds in the Netherlands have been heavy sellers in recent days. And earlier this month, Kokusai Asset Management in Japan unloaded nearly $1 billion in Italian debt.

At the same time, American institutions are pulling back on loans to even the sturdiest banks in Europe. When a $300 million certificate of deposit held by Vanguard’s $114 billion Prime Money Market Fund from Rabobank in the Netherlands came due on Nov. 9, Vanguard decided to let the loan expire and move the money out of Europe. Rabobank enjoys a AAA-credit rating and is considered one of the strongest banks in the world. [My emphasis]

Uh-oh. This is starting to sound way too familiar. The whole article is here.

Chicago Botanic Garden

2011-11-17T21:12:00.001-06:00

Several friends have made a concerted effort to keep me engaged with life after Suellen's death last year. I haven't made it easy for them, but they persevere. Thank you, all.

Sue, one of Suellen's dearest friends, started taking me out to the Chicago Botanic Garden about once a month. We would walk around the grounds and share memories of Suellen, or just talk about things going on in our lives. Or politics!

A few months ago Sue lost her mother, and I hope our walks have helped her as much as they helped me.

Tuesday we went on another walk, and I finally grabbed a camera as we were headed out the door. It has been a leisurely Fall in Chicago, with temperatures dropping below freezing for the first time just last night. Most of the leaves at the Garden had fallen, but it was still a beautiful place.

I had no idea artichokes could grow in Chicago.

Wikipedia says, "the Chicago Botanic Garden is a 385-acre (156 ha) living plant museum situated on nine islands featuring 24 display gardens and surrounded by four natural habitats: McDonald Woods, Dixon Prairie, Skokie River Corridor, and Lakes and Shores."

Admission is free, but parking is $20. I was going to say something snide about that until I remembered other places where I've paid $20 or more for parking. This was definitely the best deal.

The guy above was putting Christmas lights on the tree.

The Chicago Botanic Garden has a very nice cafeteria where you can sit inside or, on a nice day like this, out on the large deck that overhangs the water. Or you can take your lunch along a path and eat while regarding a gorgeous view, thinking deep thoughts.

Sue and I agreed that we're willing to go back in the winter.

Newt

2011-11-17T19:21:00.001-06:00

Can Gingrich's 15 minutes be up already? Reason would dictate it, but reason dictates nothing in the Republican Party. Barney Frank is having great fun with Newt:

Let's assume the Wingnuts are already backing off their infatuation with Gingrich. It might be assuming too much (see second sentence of this post), but he has a record that will catch up to him eventually. So where does that leave the GOP in their search for Anybody-but-Mitt?

Let's go back to our list:

~~Donald Trump~~

~~Michele Bachmann~~

~~Rick Perry~~

~~Herman Cain~~

Rick Santorum

~~Newt Gingrich~~

Ron Paul

~~Jon Huntsman~~ (hey, he's a Mormon, not a True Christian)

Can anybody construct a scenario in which Ron Paul gets the nomination? I can't.

So Santorum is in a great position (last man standing), but doesn't seem to have the smarts to figure out what he needs to do. Okay, so he's against abortion and gays, but that's the price of admission to the GOP. Does he think about anything else? Obama's birth certificate? Obama's grades? Any of the other important issues facing our country?

It's up to you, Rick. Carpe diem.

For all the inevitability in which some commentators wrap Mitt's nomination, it remains to be seen if the guy will be able to pull together a majority at the convention.

Gallup has this analysis:

Romney is generally acknowledged as a front-runner, if not the leading candidate, based on nomination preference polls as well as his fundraising totals and prior experience in running for president. But Romney remains a fairly weak front-runner in three respects.

First, in most prior GOP nominating contests, the front-running candidate had a large lead over the rest of the field, whereas Romney has had at best only slight leads over his rivals.

Second, the percentage of Republicans who prefer Romney as the party's nominee has failed to grow over the course of the campaign, even as prominent challengers such as Mike Huckabee declined to run and as some of Romney's current rivals, including Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry, gained in the polls earlier in the campaign only to lose much of their support as they became better known.

Third, his lower Positive Intensity Scores indicate he is not generating a lot of enthusiasm among Republicans.

A Republican convention that goes through several ballots before deciding on the standard bearer can't be ruled out. Multiple ballot conventions used to be fairly common. Thomas Dewey won the nomination in 3 ballots in 1948. Wendell Willkie took 6 ballots in 1940. And every political junkie's favorite, the 1924 Democratic Convention, took 103 ballots to decide who was going to lose to Calvin Coolidge.

Are desperate, pleading phone calls once again being made to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie? Is John McCain plotting a comeback?

Pass the popcorn, please.

Lazy

2011-11-16T16:32:00.001-06:00

Via Talking Points Memo we get to see a new Rick Perry ad, called "Lazy." In it, Perry takes an excerpt from a statement by President Obama:

We’ve been a little bit lazy over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted — ‘Well, people would want to come here’ — and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new businesses into America.

Let's see what Perry does with that:

Now, don't get upset. What did you expect? If you showed this ad to a Tea Partier he'd probably pop a blood vessel in anger at Obama. Nothing new here.

Except maybe this:

Does Rick Perry seem even stupider than usual in this ad? Even without knowing that his point is stupid? Is this Rick Perry doing his imitation of Will Ferrell doing his imitation of George W. Bush?

And While I'm on the Subject ...

2011-11-16T15:24:00.001-06:00

This year I sent a large contribution to Chicago's classical radio station, WFMT. It is, as far as I know, the best classical music station in the country. You can give them a listen online, and tell me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, they were so grateful for my enormous gift, which could only be described as philanthropic, that they sent me two CD collections: The Complete Works of Mozart and The Complete Works of Beethoven. I've enjoyed CD's from both sets, though I'm not sure I'll make my way all the way through either of them. (Did I mention that it was a large contribution? I could have bought a congressman!)

There was something about the collections that got my attention, even before I played the first CD. Can you guess what it was?

Beethoven lived for 56½ years, Mozart for almost 36. Making no statement on the relative quality (as if I could), the surviving body of Mozart's work is almost exactly twice as large.

"Too many notes," indeed.

And there could be no better time to recall Tom Lehrer's profound observation, many years ago now, that, "It is a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for 2 years."

I might have exaggerated the size of my contribution a little bit. Except for the part about buying a Congressman.

Ensemble Rameau

2011-11-16T12:42:00.001-06:00

Monday night I was torn. I had the opportunity to attend a Hard Art Groop concert at the Merit School of Music, in the West Loop area of Chicago, or travel to Evanston to hear a Baroque quartet, Ensemble Rameau.

I have reported previously about the Hard Art Groop. I love them. And the West Loop is pretty accessible from anywhere once the rush hour traffic clears out. All Chicago highways lead to the Loop.

Evanston, on the other hand, was designed to be inaccessible from anywhere but Winnetka. A Chicagoan wishing to go to Evanston by any conveyance except the Red or Purple lines is consigned to congested city streets. If you are patient, you will get there eventually. But it will be time to head home.

Nevertheless, I opted for Evanston that night. I'd been feeling a little frayed lately, and thought some chamber music was likely to sooth my soul. I was right.

The concert venue was as interesting as the music. A "temporary, experimental lending library," The Mighty Twig is a store-front establishment founded as a response to the City of Evanston's closing of the nearly 100-year-old South Branch of the Evanston Public Library. Not so willing as the city to signal its own demise, a group of citizens banded together to create a lending library in the same part of town. In less than a year, more than 3,000 families have joined up.

Ensemble Rameau are four musicians who play Baroque music on period instruments. Because the music was quiet and intricate, I could take pictures only while they were tuning their instruments, when the slapping of my camera's mirror wouldn't compete.

The ensemble played pieces from two musicians, Tommaso Giordani (1730-1806) and Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767). Of Telemann, the program notes said, "He went from being the most renowned composer in Europe during his lifetime, to practically unknown by the mid-20th century," though his works have received more attention since then.

As is usual at things like this, I managed to make a fool of myself. After the performance, the musicians happily talked to the audience about the music and their instruments. Having read in the program that, "In Paris, the most popular works of Telemann were his quartets for flute, violin, viola da gamba, and continuo," I checked off the instuments I figured were a flute, violin, and viola, then asked the gentleman above if his instrument was a continuo.

"No, it's cello."

He then kindly explained what a continuo is/was, but I heard nothing because the blood rushing to my face produced a loud ringing sensation in my ears.

I learned from this young lady that Ensemble Rameau may be offering a concert of French Baroque Christmas music next month. That would be something to look forward to.

I already knew Andrew, above. In addition to being a musician, he is a painter. In fact, I own three of Andrew's paintings, including one of a man playing a violin. Or is it a viola? I'm pretty sure it's not a continuo. Or am I?

Do I need to point out the tie?

The thing about Evanston that makes it worth overcoming all the obstacles it has thrown in your path for getting there is concerts like this. A cozy group of musicians, in a cozy venue, with a comfortable and attentive audience. I'm sorry you missed it.

Flavor of the Week

2011-11-14T21:52:00.001-06:00

Uh-oh, Talking Points Memo was right, and I was wrong.

The successor to the ~~Trump~~ ~~Bachmann~~ ~~Perry~~ ~~Cain~~ Anybody-but-Mitt crown looks to be Newt!

Not a Moment of Thought

2011-11-14T21:44:00.001-06:00

E. J. Dionne writes about Rick Perry's "oops" moment in last week's debate:

What really matters is the subject that sent Perry’s brain into lockdown. He was in the middle of describing sweeping changes in the federal bureaucracy closely connected to his spare vision of American government. One presumes a candidate for president ponders such proposals carefully, discusses them with advisers and understands their implications.

Forgetting an idea at the heart of your program, in other words, is not the same as forgetting a phone number, a friend’s name, a football score or the title of a recently read book.

Perry’s memory lapse showed that he wasn’t asserting anything that he is truly serious about because he is not serious about what government does, or ought not to do. For him, governing seems a casual undertaking.

“And I will tell you,” he declared, “it’s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: Commerce, Education and the — what’s the third one there? Let’s see.”

Yes, let’s see what “gone” might imply. Would Perry end all federal aid to education? Would he do away with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the part of the Commerce Department that, among other things, tracks hurricanes? Energy was the department he forgot. Would he scrap the department’s 17 national labs, including such world-class facilities as Los Alamos, N.M., Oak Ridge, Tenn., or — there’s that primary coming up — Aiken, S.C.?

I’m not accusing Perry of wanting to do any of these things because I don’t believe he has given them a moment of thought. And that’s the problem for conservatives. Their movement has been overtaken by a quite literally mindless opposition to government. Perry, correctly, thought he had a winning sound bite, had he managed to blurt it out, because if you just say you want to scrap government departments (and three is a nice, round number), many conservatives will cheer without asking questions.

This is a long way from the conservatism I used to respect. Although I often disagreed with conservatives, I admired their prudence, their affection for tradition and their understanding that the intricate bonds of community are established with great difficulty over time and not easy to reweave once they are torn asunder. At their best, conservatives forced us to think harder. Now, many in the ranks seem to have decided that hard and nuanced thinking is a telltale sign of liberalism.

That sounds right.

Not a Pretty Picture II

2011-11-10T07:50:00.000-06:00

I've never made a study of it, but my understanding is that the standard defense in a rape trial – especially when the accused is actually guilty – is to attack the woman making the accusation. She was a tease. She's a slut. She's a divorcée, and you know what they're like. In high school she was considered "loose".

So if Sharon Bialek's "celebrity lawyer," Gloria Allred, is a decent person (not to mention a good lawyer), she should have strongly warned Bialek what she would be in for if she went public with her accusations about Herman Cain.

And sure enough, within 12 hours we found out:

Records show she twice has filed for personal bankruptcy, first in 1991 and then again in 2001. In the latter case, she claimed $5,700 in assets and more than $36,000 in liabilities. Among the creditors seeking payment was a management firm demanding back rent of $4,500, four credit card companies and a lawyer asking for his legal fees.

[Clip]

The IRS filed a tax lien against her in 2009 for nearly $5,200. In August, the Illinois Department of Revenue claimed Bialek owed the state more than $4,300, including penalties and interest, relating to income taxes from 2004, according to county records.

And I think this much is fair. Bialek came out of nowhere to make these accusations. We have no idea who she is, or how to weigh the credibility of her statements.

For his part, Herman Cain says he can't remember Bialek. He doesn't remember her name, he doesn't remember the occasion. He doesn't remember her even after seeing her picture. Luckily, a New York Post columnist was in the back seat, taking notes. Bialek, says Andrea Peyser, "flirted like a tart" at her meeting with Cain. The meeting that Cain can't remember, but Peyser confirms took place.

I was not there, so I won't pretend to know what really happened. What I do know doesn't sound good for either of them.

Update: In the middle of the Cain campaign's all-out effort to destroy Sharon Bialek, Cain's attorney has issued a threat to other women who may be considering stepping forward: they should "think twice" before doing so. Cain's attorney has represented Kobe Bryant and the family of JonBenet Ramsey, but I have yet to see him described as a "celebrity lawyer." I'm not sure what the rules are for that.

Not a Pretty Picture

2011-11-10T06:20:00.000-06:00

Via Andrew Tobias, Robert J. Shapiro describes what November might be like if Italy defaults.

Ground zero of the European sovereign crisis has moved from Greece to Italy, and that’s very bad news for Europe, the United States, and most everywhere else....

In a period of worst case scenarios, here’s what could well happen later this month. Start with the fact that Italy alone has $2 trillion in outstanding government debt. Most of those bonds are held by Italian, French and German banks, including the biggest banks in the world. Anything approaching an Italian default would wipe out the capital of those banks, leaving them insolvent; and most of the Eurozone economies would grind to a halt.

It gets worse, because a financial meltdown centered on sovereign debt is much more dangerous than one triggered by mortgage-backed securities. In effect, a sovereign debt crisis strips sovereigns of their ability to act to contain the crisis. With Italy and Greece in default, for example, who will believe those governments as they move to head off general bank runs by, say, guaranteeing money market balances as the United States did successfully in the days after Lehman? And if the biggest banks in France and Germany go down, Sarkozy and Merkel wouldn’t have the credibility to do much about it either.

The bad news doesn’t end with Europe. Our own big financial institutions, along with those in Britain and Japan, have thousands of deals going that involve the major banks in Germany, France and Italy. Overnight, all of those deals become suspect, which could spread financial panic beyond the Eurozone. And remember the credit default swaps that destroyed AIG? No one knows precisely how many of those “guarantees” are out today against Italian government bonds and the commercial paper of French, German and Italian banks. The fact that no one knows could be a big problem in itself, since that, too, could breed a broader financial panic. In any case, there’s little doubt that those credit default swaps involve, at a minimum, hundreds of billions of dollars, Euros and pounds. That would leave American, European and Japanese financial institutions on the hook for those losses. And if they can’t make good on them, they could go down as well. Their only hope would be another bailout — if Congress could approve one before the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street folks pick up their pitchforks.

Read the whole thing here.

There is a strong self-fulfilling aspect to these prophecies. Bear Stearns had enough cash to get them though the last crisis – until the people they did business with started worrying that they didn't.

Lightning and Thunder

2011-11-09T12:14:00.001-06:00

The problem with a global economy is that something happening "over there," over which we have no control, can have a very big effect over here. It's nothing new. There was the Long Depression of 1873-96, which was called the Great Depression until a greater depression came along (sort of like the "Great War" became "World War I.") That one was felt in the United States and Europe. But our economies are much more intertwined now than they were then.

Today comes news that Italian 10-year government bonds are trading above 7 percent, which with Greece was the bail-out trigger. Things seem to be falling apart rapidly over there.

Paul Krugman:

This is the way the euro ends.

This is the way the euro ends.

Not with a bang but with bunga-bunga.

Seriously, with Italian 10-years now well above 7 percent, we’re now in territory where all the vicious circles get into gear — and European leaders seem like deer caught in the headlights. And as Martin Wolf says today, the unthinkable — a euro breakup — has become all too thinkable ....

[clip]

I still find it hard to believe that the euro will fail; but it seems equally hard to believe that Europe will do what’s needed to avoid that failure. Irresistible force, meet immovable object — and watch the explosion.

Krugman seems to be right about things economic most of the time, and he's very smug about it. I hope somebody is working out an orderly way for European countries to exit the Euro. If there even is such a thing.

But I have decided that, just to be safe, I will not buy any 10-year Italian government bonds.

Joao Silva Update

2011-11-07T05:42:00.000-06:00

For the past year I've been following the progress of photographer Joao Silva, one of two surviving members of the Bang Bang Club. Last October, while covering the war in Afghanistan, Silva stepped on a land mine.

Yesterday he competed in the New York Marathon.

"Distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee ..."

2011-11-03T14:00:00.000-05:00

Paul Krugman today offers a public service announcement that should be required reading for all journalists and journalism classes:

Look, let me make a public service announcement: if you rely on bought and paid for sources on income inequality, you’re going to embarrass yourself again and again. These people never get it right, because their whole reason for being is to obfuscate. You should never, ever, trust what they say on this issue. [My emphasis.]

Krugman appears to be limiting his warning to "sources on income inequality," but let me tell you: that's a phrase that could be easily replaced by one word: anything.

He's talking here about the Tax Foundation, but the rule applies to The Hudson Institution, The American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, and the Heritage Foundation. Although they like to call themselves "scholars" and "fellows," no real scholar would have anything to do with them. Not because of their views, but because of their predetermined results. They are propagandists; no more, no less.

I talked about this briefly here (and offer it as evidence of my last statement), beating Krugman by nearly 2 years. I have made sure the Committee has my phone number.

Who's Next?

2011-11-02T22:15:00.000-05:00

Okay, Herman Cain is toast. Even though the wingnuts were out in force yesterday, defending him before they actually had any facts about the allegations against him (my personal favorite, Ann Coulter's "Our blacks are so much better than their blacks ... The only racism you hear in America is against conservative blacks"), it turns out that folks in the Perry camp have known about the allegations since Day One.

Talking Points Memo reports:

According to [Perry pollster Chris] Wilson, the main incident occurred at a DC-area restaurant and that “everybody was aware of it,” but that for legal reasons he can’t discuss the details. But he added that if Cain’s accuser comes forward — and one of the two women who reportedly received a settlement has expressed interest in doing just that — her story won’t be pretty. “If she talks about it, I think it’ll be the end of his campaign,” he said.

“It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place, so many people were aware of her situation, the fact she left—-everybody knew with the campaign that this would eventually come up,” Wilson said.

So Herman Cain's 15 minutes are up. As are Michele Bachmann's and Rick Perry's.

Do you think I'm counting Perry out too quickly? Oh, sorry, I didn't know you've been out of the country:

So let's see .... Who will the wingnuts turn to next to protect them from Mitt the Mormon?

~~Michele Bachmann~~

~~Rick Perry~~

~~Herman Cain~~

Rick Santorum

Newt Gingrich

Ron Paul

~~Jon Huntsman~~ - Let's face it, this is the wingnuts' year to choose the candidate. Without gobs of money, like Romney, Huntsman never had a chance.

My money's on Santorum.

Nov. 3 Update:

Talking Points Memo thinks recent polls, taken before Cainegeddon, are pointing to Gingrich. And so they are. But I have trouble believing The Wingnuts will go from a surprise sleazeball directly to a known sleazeball. But then, they're not The Wingnuts for nothin'.

Greece in a Nutshell

2011-11-01T21:34:00.000-05:00

Kevin Drum has an outstanding explanation of what's going on with Greece – and the rest of Euro Europe – here.

Anybody see a way out? The Greeks and Germans would love to hear about it.

This is not looking good.

For Some People, Facts Just Don't Count

2011-11-01T20:01:00.001-05:00

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (above) has got it all figured out:

“I hear your complaints,” Bloomberg said. “Some of them are totally unfounded. It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, Congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp. Now, I’m not saying I’m sure that was terrible policy, because a lot of those people who got homes still have them and they wouldn’t have gotten them without that.

“But they were the ones who pushed Fannie and Freddie to make a bunch of loans that were imprudent, if you will. They were the ones that pushed the banks to loan to everybody. And now we want to go vilify the banks because it’s one target, it’s easy to blame them and congress certainly isn’t going to blame themselves."

Wow.

You'd think he'd be better informed than that. But I guess you'd be wrong.

Republican Prospects for Winning the Presidency

2011-10-29T10:25:00.002-05:00

Andrew Sullivan has a take on the Republican primaries that makes sense to me:

My own take on this is that Cain is a great performer - he makes a living as a motivational speaker, after all - and the rest of the field is hobbled by one glaring problem respectively, while Cain isn't. Perry is simply too dumb and lazy to be president. Romney too transparently opportunist for a purist party. Paul is disqualified because of foreign policy. Bachmann is a programmed bonkers-bot. Santorum is a frothy substance whose views of the world are frozen in place sometime around 1986. Gingrich is an asshole who could never win the presidency, and even those who like his permanent smirk/snarl understand that. Huntsman might as well be Al Sharpton, because of his views on climate change, gays and because of his working for Satan. No wonder Cain has a shot, given the debates. He is likable and brilliant at simple, effective presentation. He has the skills of an actor, and a roguish shamelessness that reminds me a little of Clinton. Even though you know he's a total charlatan, you still kinda like the guy.

He's black too, and one cannot help but feel that some of his support is really a way of expressing hatred for Obama, and proving that the Tea Party is not racist.

But Cain is a function, I think, of a deeper Republican reality. It has become a wing of the entertainment industry, and in that media-industrial complex, the money to be made is immense. You do not make that money or become a star in conservative circles by actually governing, by the process of compromise and negotiation with one's opponents, or by detailed policy knowledge. In the universe where conservatism is defined by Levin and Malkin and Limbaugh and Hannity, you have to be a great polemicist, you have to be partisan above all, you need to be outrageous at times, and you have to appeal to the gut, rather than the brain.

This is an entertainment company based around a religious identity politics and masquerading as a political party. Once you grasp that, you can see why a Mitch Daniels or a Richard Lugar or a Jon Huntsman are asterisks. They know things; they want to govern, not perform; and they are not in a permanent mode of marginalized and angry opposition.

I'm beginning to wonder if the GOP is heading for a defeat they don't see coming - even in an economic environment which should make the presidency theirs' for the taking. I hope it is. Something needs to wake them up from their increasing detachment from the reality of governance.

Liberals' Answer to Fox News

2011-10-26T08:29:00.001-05:00

Paid my monthly visit to The Huffington Post this morning. Saw these headlines within inches of each other on the politics page:

Actor Makes Shocking Comment About Sarah Palin

Robertson Makes Shocking Comment About GOP Presidential Candidates

Santorum Makes Shocking Remarks

I just love great journalism.

Actually, my post title is a little unfair to The Huffington Post. They have a tendency to make a to-do about trivial things, but they do not (as far as I know) actually make things up.

Addendum:

I will make an exception to the high class nature of this blog just this once. I had already posted the above item when I decided to find out what GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said that was so shocking. It turns out that he condoned the assassination of nuclear scientists in Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

In fairness, that is kind of shocking, especially the Russia part.

But not nearly as shocking as what appeared in my browser tab:

Considering the Santorum/Google thing .... Well, I'm just sayin'.

Search Engines

2011-10-25T22:45:00.001-05:00

I've said many times that this is a high class blog.

So I was shaken to the roots of my being when I discovered, via Feedjit Live (that little widget thing in the right-hand column that shows the flags of the countries Sempringham has received visits from), that someone arrived here by doing a Google search on "cheerleaders for latent campus sodomites."

Google, you need to pay more attention to your algorithms. We don't talk like that here.

The said search took the Googler to a post titled "How Low Can We Go?" Uh-oh, the phrase was actually used there.

But not in a good way!

(Sigh.)

Huh?

2011-10-25T22:18:00.000-05:00

The NY Times wonders if this Herman Cain effort is the first viral campaign video of the 2012 election. When I looked at it this morning, it was at about 80,000 views. As I'm posting, it's at 149,000. Maybe that's viral to the NY Times, but have they ever seen the one of the couple dancing down the church aisle at their wedding?

Whether it's viral or not, wherever I read about it, the words "weird" and "creepy" seem to be used. It's so, uh, different that the campaign had to assure everyone it wasn't a hoax perpetrated on the campaign. Considering that Cain is now leading the polls of Republican voters, maybe I should be less dismissive.

Nah!

Notice, particularly, the smoke being blown at you. And watch Herman Cain's smile at the end.

Weird.

And creepy.

For His Country

2011-10-25T21:48:00.002-05:00

Please take a moment to reflect on the sacrifice of Sgt. 1st Class Kristoffer Domeij of San Diego, who was killed in Kandahar Province last weekend by an improvised explosive device.

Sgt. Domeij was 29 years old and the father of two girls.

Sgt. Domeij was on his 14th combat deployment since enlisting in 2001.

I wish I could say something about that, but everything I write sounds jingoistic or empty.

From the Mouths of Boobs Comes Wisdom

2011-10-24T17:28:00.001-05:00

Newt Gingrich:

I think one of the Republican weaknesses has been that we rely too much on consultants and too much on talking points. And we don’t rely enough on actually knowing things.

h/t to Kevin Drum, who reads the National Review so I don't have to.

Occupy Chicago Protesters

2011-10-22T19:55:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the folks who showed up at the Occupy Chicago demonstration site on Saturday, October 22. Absolutely everybody I talked to was very pleasant, although a couple asked me for money (their pictures are not included here).

[Update: That evening, 1,500 to 2,500 protesters marched from this site to Grant Park, where about 100 of them were arrested. Here's the story from the Chicago Sun-Times.]

Drums were ever-present.

The place was crawling with people with cameras. This is one worth clicking to expand it.

Tour bus riders shout and wave their approval.

The Chicago Police were nicely blasé about everything. At most, there were two cars. Here, there's one car and a bicycle.

Signs of the Times - Part 2

2011-10-22T17:02:00.001-05:00

See the post below for background on these photos.

I'm really disappointed that the above photo didn't come out. I thought I had it cold, but she moved the sign, and I didn't notice when I was chimping the picture. The sign says: "Screw the Chicago School of Economics. F**k [Milton] Freidman (sic) to hell."

My people!

Signs of the Times - Part 1

2011-10-22T16:54:00.000-05:00

Okay, the title is a cliché.

This morning I went down to the Occupy Chicago site on LaSalle St. to see what was going on. One thing I discovered is that protesters aren't, as a group, early risers. When I got there, I'd say there were 15-20 folks there. And they all smoked and had facial hair. Ugh.

But as time went by people started arriving from the suburbs, and the average age of the group increased. There is a march scheduled for 6:30 tonight, I'm told, and last week 5,000 people were there.

I'm told.

Well, I took almost 200 photos in the 4 hours I was down there, and a picture is worth a thousand words, so the next few posts will equal maybe 100,000 words to describe what I saw. The first two posts will just show signs I saw.

Remember: if you want a closer look at the picture, click on it.

I know a poly sci major when I see one. [Above]

The picture above is particularly interesting, I think. The plaque on the building commemorates the fact that "Standard Time" was created on this site.

A Must-See

2011-10-21T16:54:00.001-05:00

Stephen Colbert is shocked to learn that American soldiers in Afghanistan have burned Bill O'Reilly's latest.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Small Town Virtues

2011-10-21T08:11:00.001-05:00

I found this post at The Reality-Based Community to be thought provoking. Even many of the comments were interesting, which is not the case at most blogs (Sempringham being a notable exception).A taste:

Sara Robinson gave me permission to post the following ... about her home town of Bishop, CA:

In my mind’s eye, I can walk up and down Main Street of my hometown as it was 30 years ago and easily name 50 thriving small businesses, each of which was supporting at least one middle-class family, often two or three (and I can usually name the families, too, because one of them was mine). On the profits they made from these businesses, these families were able to own nice middle-class houses, send their kids to college, take vacations, buy new cars, and generally live the American Dream as we understood it then.

Several things happened to put an end to that. First, K-mart moved into town, and in short order shut down several of the sporting goods stores, at least one book store, one family-owned pharmacy, two hardware stores (one of which had been in business since 1888), the local dairy, and a couple of dozen other core businesses. The result was a significant loss of middle-class, independent jobs, which were only partly replaced by the deeply inferior $6.50/hour jobs offered at the new store.

The next was that the Berlin Wall fell, which led two years later to the closing of the Union Carbide mine that was the biggest employer in town. Seven hundred union jobs in a town of 5,000 — poof. Suddenly, the US decided that having a domestic source of strategic metals like tungsten, molybdenum, and vanadium was no longer a security necessity; now, was OK to depend on Russia and China for these things, especially if their miners got paid a quarter what ours did. Losing the mine and the related jobs also cost us another big chunk of Main Street.

This one-two punch set the stage for the third plague, which of course was the meth epidemic that came along just after the mine closed.

In my small-town experience, big corporations give (as Carbide did for 50 years) and big corporations also take away (as both Carbide and K-Mart did in the late 80s). But the ultimate effect was to turn my town from a comfortable, optimistic middle-class American town to a working-class trailer-park meth-fueled hell where nobody can get a job that pays a living wage unless they’re running a lab in their garage. “Home” as I knew it has been gone for 20 years.

Read the whole thing here.

Something We Can All Agree On

2011-10-20T22:10:00.000-05:00

Over on the conservative blogs, they're running this picture of President Obama and Qaddafi:

The idea, of course, is that Obama was good buddies with Qaddafi.

On the liberal blogs, they're running this video of Senators McCain, Lieberman, Graham, and Collins with Qaddafi:

The idea, of course, is that McCain, Lieberman, Graham, and Collins were good buddies with Qaddafi.

Well, if you want to get something done is this world, sometimes you have to shake hands with somebody you'd rather not, if you had your druthers. Move on, nothing to see here.

But we can all agree that "Clueless Marco" Rubio is a Class A jerk:

Rubio is so anxious that President Obama not get any credit for this that he's willing to ignore the role of the American military.

Anyway, number of American soldiers killed overthrowing Qaddafi: ZERO.

Worth the wait, numbskull.

It Was Only Eleven Years Ago

2011-10-20T21:20:00.000-05:00

NPR's Planet Money program got hold of a secret government document from 2000 that contemplated the effect on the world financial system of the United States paying off its debt, which looked to be possible by 2012.

It was not necessarily a good thing! There would be no U.S. Treasury bonds, and that was the safest haven in the world.Ah, the good old days.

What the heck happened?

Oh yeah. George W. Bush. Thanks again, Scalia.

Thanks to Steve Benen for directing me to this.

Indeed

2011-10-20T20:49:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sullivan:

To rid the world of Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Moammar Qaddafi within six months: if Obama were a Republican, he'd be on Mount Rushmore by now.

Nine Nine Nine

2011-10-19T21:35:00.000-05:00

Via Paul Krugman's blog, I've learned that the Tax Policy Center has crunched the numbers on Herman Cain's Nine-Nine-Nine tax plan. Here's what they found out:

A middle income household making between about $64,000 and $110,000 would get hit with an average tax increase of about $4,300, lowering its after-tax income by more than 6 percent and increasing its average federal tax rate (including income, payroll, estate and its share of the corporate income tax) from 18.8 percent to 23.7 percent. By contrast, a taxpayer in the top 0.1% (who makes more than $2.7 million) would enjoy an average tax cut of nearly$1.4 million, increasing his after-tax income by nearly 27 percent. His average effective tax rate would be cut almost in half to 17.9 percent. In Cain’s world, a typical household making more than $2.7 million would pay a smaller share of its income in federal taxes than one making less than $18,000. This would give Warren Buffet severe heartburn.

My gosh, I'm surprised.

Social Security

2011-10-18T22:06:00.000-05:00

For months I've been wanting to write about Social Security funding issues. There is so much BS written and spoken about it that even intelligent, well-meaning people can be excused for believing some of it.

I considered writing a four-part series, but truthfully that's more work than I can muster the energy for this year. Lucky for you.

Lucky for me, it's not that complicated. Here it is in a nutshell:

• Under current law there is a gap between what's coming in and what's going out, and the gap is getting bigger.

• BUT the gap does not continue getting bigger forever. By about 2030 the gap levels off, and then stays constant as far as the eye can see.

• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) measures the gap at 0.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the next 75 years.

• And the CBO provides us with a list of Social Security change options and their size as a percent of the GDP.

Click on it to enlarge it. Then pick one or more items that add up to 0.6.

Congratulations, you've just saved Social Security and doubled your sexual desirability quotient!

Kevin Drum has written about this at greater length, and I especially recommend this post and this one. The CBO document, Social Security Policy Options, is available here.

Caveat: Somebody needs to worry about the fact that worker's FICA taxes have been temporarily reduced (2%) during this recession. It's a quick and easy way to put a little extra money in employed person's hands, so has some stimulus effect. But it has an effect on the gap described above, too. That's something to watch. Plus, there's a crowd out there that doesn't like Social Security not because it doesn't work – it obviously does – but because it's against their "philosophy." They are bound to try to use that 2% as a wedge to promote their views. Life has taught me to be very cautious of people who have a philosophy (which seems to be just about anybody who went to the University of Chicago).

Occupy Chicago

2011-10-17T17:56:00.000-05:00

Today your intrepid reporter grabbed a camera and took the L down to the Loop to check out the Occupy Chicago protest going on in the city's financial district. I've been wondering what to make of the protest, which originated in New York City's Wall Street district and has since spread to literally hundreds of cities around the country.

From afar, the protests seemed unfocused: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Oh.

So I went down to talk to people and take some pictures. Here they are, in no particular order. Click on any picture to get a bigger size.

I particularly liked this first one. It's the self-imposed rules everyone must abide by. People drive or walk by and bring bags of apples, sandwiches, coffee, etc. There is a central place where everything is kept.

There were a lot of people with cameras.

This captures almost everyone at the protest, including the cameramen.

"End the Fed" was a popular sign. I was getting just a little suspicious.

The guy lying on his side with his feet in the street was singing something. I agree that money is not speech.

I like the above sign, too.

These people had been there for a while. I talked to the fellow on the right for a few minutes. He was really nice, and was very articulate. He had hitchhiked in from Oregon on his way to New York City. He had to change his party registration back in Oregon in order to vote for Ron Paul. He told me he had to quit school. He was getting food stamps and the government was paying for his education, but he lost his part-time job. If I understood him correctly, he thinks the federal government should be shrunk, power returned to the states, and there should be competition among the states for citizens. He was having a good time. Two nights in a row he was picked up by attractive young women and driven to a place where he could sleep. I wouldn't keep going to New York, either.

I agree with this young man, too. We are so naive.

Well, yeah.

This is an architectural treasure in Chicago, the Continental Illinois Bank Building. According to Wikipedia:

The Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company was at one time the seventh-largest bank in the United States as measured by deposits with approximately $40 billion in assets. In 1984, Continental Illinois became the largest ever bank failure in U.S. history, when a run on the bank led to its seizure by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Continental Illinois retained this dubious distinction until the failure of Washington Mutual in 2008 during the financial crisis of 2008, which ended up being over seven times larger than the failure of Continental Illinois.

Now, as you can see, it is renamed the Bank of America building.

Heh, heh.

The second floor of the bank is absolutely gorgeous, an homage to money. You used to be able to go up there and gawk at the place, which said, very unsubtly, "MONEY LIVES HERE."

Since Bank of America took over, though, the public is not allowed in what was once a very public area of the bank. You cannot take pictures of it. You cannot even see it. A couple of years ago Bank of America bought out my bank. Now they want to charge me $5.00 a month for using my ATM card at Costco. It's part of their "Building Customer Loyalty" program.

The Masters of the House

2011-10-17T09:55:00.001-05:00

I'm reading Michael Lewis' book about the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, which I can recommend to you. It's about how a small group of people made billions betting that the subprime mortgage market was going to collapse – which it did.

On one hand, they deserve credit for all the work they did to understand the flim-flam job the investment banks were running (if you have any doubt about that, read the book). On the other hand, they became billionaires without actually doing something worthwhile. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs pioneered an industry and employed thousands on the road to making their billions. These guys placed bets. And the investment banks' need to cover those bets just made the 2008 collapse that much worse.

One of the guys who shows up in The Big Short, John Paulson, also popped up in a revealing NY Times article the other day about how Wall Street feels about the Occupy Wall Street protests – dismissive, though usually privately. But Paulson had actually released a statement to the press.

The top 1 percent of New Yorkers pay over 40 percent of all income taxes, providing huge benefits to everyone in our city and state .... Paulson & Company and its employees have paid hundreds of millions in New York City and New York State taxes in recent years and have created over 100 high-paying jobs in New York City since its formation. [My emphasis.]

Are you surprised to learn that Paulson employees are major contributors to the coffers of John Boehner?

As I make my way through The Big Short, I can't help thinking of a passage in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. Having just given a fascinating description of the Battle of Waterloo from the French perspective, Hugo describes the scene of carnage afterward. A sunken road in the countryside...

... was filled with horses and riders inextricably heaped together. Terrible entanglement. There were no longer slopes to the road; dead bodies filled it even with the plain, and came to the edge of the banks like a well-measured bushel of barley. A mass of dead above, a river of blood below....

As night falls on the battlefield, a lone figure is seen making its way among the corpses.

He looked about. He passed an indescribably hideous review of the dead. He walked with his feet in blood.

Suddenly he stopped.

A few steps before him, in the sunken road, at a point where the mound of corpses ended, from under this mass of men and horses appeared an open hand, lighted by the moon.

This hand had something upon a finger which sparkled: it was a gold ring.

The man stooped down, remained a moment, and when he rose again there was no ring upon that hand.

This is our introduction to Thénardier, or "The Master of the House," as he's known in the popular musical made from the book.

GOP: Choose Mitt! PLEASE!

2011-10-17T06:04:00.000-05:00

Because Sempringham's readers are intelligent and well-informed, they will already know that Mitt Romney made big bucks as head of a so-called vulture capital firm, Bain Capital. What they did was buy companies, break them up, fire their workers, and send their jobs overseas.

But Sempringham's readers may not have seen this picture of the partners at Bain Capital:

That's Mitt, front center. From the Boston Globe.

Like Kryptonite to Libertarians

2011-09-21T13:37:00.001-05:00

Elizabeth Warren on the Social Contract:

Comic Relief

2011-09-18T22:07:00.002-05:00

GNIS Maps

2011-09-12T02:28:00.000-05:00

In a fit of insomnia, I stumbled upon this page of Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) maps. Fascinating stuff.

More on the Euro

2011-09-11T23:46:00.000-05:00

Krugman's Monday column takes his blog post (see my post below) a step further:

And now it’s all coming to a head. We’re not talking about a crisis that will unfold over a year or two; this thing could come apart in a matter of days. And if it does, the whole world will suffer.

Good-bye Euro?

2011-09-11T08:33:00.000-05:00

From Paul Krugman's blog:

Did the euro just enter its death throes?

OK, I know that sounds over the top, and I hope it is. But recent developments are really, really bad.

The best guide to recent events is actually a paper written this spring, by Paul De Grauwe (pdf). I have to admit that when I first read De Grauwe’s paper I didn’t grasp the full force of his argument about liquidity crises; but he now looks absolutely prescient.

The key point, which I’ve finally taken fully on board, is that in addition to the huge problems of adjustment created by a rigid exchange rate in the aftermath of a bubble, the fact that European nations no longer have their own currencies leaves them vulnerable to self-fulfilling debt crises – in effect bank runs on governments rather than banks (although those too).

To head off this risk, somebody – the EFSF, the ECB, whatever – has to be ready to act as lender of last resort; Eurobonds would have served much the same purpose.

By resigning from the ECB, Juergen Stark has conveyed, deliberately or not, the message that there will be no such lender of last resort, that there isn’t enough political cohesion in the eurozone to stand behind countries under market attack. And this translates directly into soaring spreads for Spain and Italy; the self-fulfilling crisis is on.

You little know, my friends, with how little wisdom the world is governed.

Krugman's summary of De Grauwe's paper can be found here. Take a look at it; it's very instructive.

Spielberg: Be Afraid

2011-09-07T21:55:00.000-05:00

A buddy of mine started the sixth grade on Tuesday, and he did some thinking about how to make the most of it. The result was a 1-and-1/2-minute video he prepared called "Back to School Tips (sigh)," and I think it's good enough to get a much wider audience than it has so far. Please watch it and see if you don't agree:

As I'm writing this, the video has had 78 views, which is pretty good. But "Back to School Beauty Tips" has had 95,000, and "Back to School Makeup Tutorial" has had 445,000! There's even a video called "Back to School Supplies Haul + Organization Tips," in which a girl talks about what she bought at Target. That one has 22,700 views.

Now, I don't have to be critical of those videos to tell you that "Back to School Tips (sigh)" is funnier, technically more sophisticated, and has a healthier outlook.

Just by watching the video, you've helped my friend increase his views. If you liked it, please consider 1) clicking the little thumbs up symbol that says "Like", 2) leave him a comment to encourage him, and/or 3) share the link with anybody you can think of that might enjoy it, or might want a student in their house to see it. You can even add: 4) take a look at some of his other videos, including my favorites, "Random Snapping!;" "Our Little Way of Chess" in which God intervenes in, of all things, a chess game; and "Math Doesn't Suck – Jersey Shore."

My buddy is a talented guy, and I'd like to encourage him in this as long as he enjoys doing it.

Leaving the Cult

2011-09-07T07:42:00.002-05:00

The hottest thing making the rounds in the fact-based universe is a column by a (former) Republican Congressional staffer named Mike Lofgren. I swear I did not write the column under a pseudonym. It's called Good-bye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult.A few quotes:

To those millions of Americans who have finally begun paying attention to politics and watched with exasperation the tragicomedy of the debt ceiling extension, it may have come as a shock that the Republican Party is so full of lunatics. To be sure, the party, like any political party on earth, has always had its share of crackpots, like Robert K. Dornan or William E. Dannemeyer. But the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital center today: Steve King, Michele Bachman (now a leading presidential candidate as well), Paul Broun, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Allen West. The Congressional directory now reads like a casebook of lunacy.It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill.

And:

It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe. This trend has several implications, none of them pleasant.

And:

A couple of years ago, a Republican committee staff director told me candidly (and proudly) what the method was to all this obstruction and disruption. Should Republicans succeed in obstructing the Senate from doing its job, it would further lower Congress's generic favorability rating among the American people. By sabotaging the reputation of an institution of government, the party that is programmatically against government would come out the relative winner.

And:

The media are also complicit in this phenomenon. Ever since the bifurcation of electronic media into a more or less respectable "hard news" segment and a rabidly ideological talk radio and cable TV political propaganda arm, the "respectable" media have been terrified of any criticism for perceived bias. Hence, they hew to the practice of false evenhandedness. Paul Krugman has skewered this tactic as being the "centrist cop-out." "I joked long ago," he says, "that if one party declared that the earth was flat, the headlines would read 'Views Differ on Shape of Planet.'"

And:

Ever since Republicans captured the majority in a number of state legislatures last November, they have systematically attempted to make it more difficult to vote: by onerous voter ID requirements (in Wisconsin, Republicans have legislated photo IDs while simultaneously shutting Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices in Democratic constituencies while at the same time lengthening the hours of operation of DMV offices in GOP constituencies); by narrowing registration periods; and by residency requirements that may disenfranchise university students.This legislative assault is moving in a diametrically opposed direction to 200 years of American history, when the arrow of progress pointed toward more political participation by more citizens. Republicans are among the most shrill in self-righteously lecturing other countries about the wonders of democracy; exporting democracy (albeit at the barrel of a gun) to the Middle East was a signature policy of the Bush administration. But domestically, they don't want those people voting.

And finally:

The GOP cult of Ayn Rand is both revealing and mystifying. On the one hand, Rand's tough guy, every-man-for-himself posturing is a natural fit because it puts a philosophical gloss on the latent sociopathy so prevalent among the hard right. On the other, Rand exclaimed at every opportunity that she was a militant atheist who felt nothing but contempt for Christianity. Apparently, the ignorance of most fundamentalist "values voters" means that GOP candidates who enthuse over Rand at the same time they thump their Bibles never have to explain this stark contradiction.

I swear I did not write that column. Mike Lofgren is a real person, a 30-year Republican staffer. The Republican Party is very sick right now.

Pathetic

2011-09-07T06:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Mitt Romney announced his "59-step plan" to get the economy going again. It consists of – are you ready for his surprising, out-of-box thinking? – tax cuts and deregulation! Good God, have the Republicans had any new thoughts in the last 30 years? It's embarrassing.

Let's just leave aside for a minute the fact that George W.'s tax cuts were (and continue to be) a major player in the deficit and national debt, and that negligent regulation of the financial industry caused the 2008 financial crisis. Is this really all he's got?

Kevin Drum looks closer at Romney's "plan":

From Mitt Romney, explaining step 3 of his 59-step plan to get to get America back to work:
You know, of course, Greta, who has been most hurt by the Obama economy. And it's people in middle incomes. And so what I want to do is lower taxes for middle-income Americans. And so I will remove, for middle-income Americans, people earning under $200,000 a year, any tax on interest, dividends or capital gains. Let people save their money and use their money as they feel best with education, with their future, planning for retirement. Look, we've got to reduce the burden on middle-income Americans. They're just — they're just struggling right now.
I'm not sure which is more breathtaking: Romney's suggestion that someone earning $200,000 is "middle income," or his implication that actual middle-income Americans have more than a minuscule amount of investment income in the first place.

For the record, in 2004 the Tax Policy Center estimated that a median earner would save a whopping $70 if taxes on interest, dividends, and capital gains were eliminated completely. That's right: $70. Seven zero.

Of course, Romney has paired up this proposal with another one to eliminate the estate tax completely, which would save median earners zero dollars but save the super rich millions. The cynicism here is almost off the charts.

In Romney's defense, most people who make $200,000 a year think they're middle income, and would be offended if he called them anything else.

Soak the Poor

2011-08-20T07:04:00.005-05:00

Chicago Ted showed me this episode of the Daily Show last night. If there is a hell, these Fox people are headed there. I may be there to welcome them, but they'll be there.

Sorry, but there's a 30-second commercial first.

The Daily Show - World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Call Me Amazed, and Humbled

2011-08-06T18:47:00.002-05:00

Last week the NY Times ran a front-page story about the closing of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. It was an interesting story that told some of the rich history of the facility.

The story included a photograph of the crowd at the Center's closing ceremony, watching a parachute jump. Go take a look at it. And while you're there, check out the photo credit.

The photo was taken by Joao Silva, the NY Times photographer who had both legs blown off by a land mine in Afghanistan. Previous posts about Silva can be found here and here.

Joao Silva is back at work, largely due to will power that makes me feel like a bowl of jelly and – are you ready for a little irony? – outstanding medical care received at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Mr. Silva, I salute you.

Nothing Suspicious About THAT!

2011-08-04T16:50:00.002-05:00

Oh, this is really special.

It appears that on the Ides of March, 2011, a corporation was formed in Delaware called W Spann LLC. Said corporation, on April 28, made a $1 million donation to a Mitt Romney Super PAC called "Restore Our Future." Then, on July 12, the corporation was dissolved, without, apparently, actually doing any business. Thanks to Michael Isikoff at NBC News for breaking the story.

The names of the person(s) who formed the corporation are not publicly available (though there's a Wikipedia article that says it knows who it was).

Talking Points Memo reports:

Experts and watchdog groups say the W Spann case highlights broader disclosure problems in the post-Citizens United era. One issue is whether corporations could be used as a vehicle for anonymous donations from foreign nationals. While only Americans can legally contribute, the FEC's three Republican commissioners have blocked efforts to craft rules defining exactly how this applies to corporations, who may be partially owned by foreign entities or may be an American subsidiary of a foreign company. Politico's Ben Smith noted on Thursday that the issue is particularly relevant to "Restore Our Future" because, unlike anonymous-money nonprofits like Karl Rove's "Crossroads GPS," Super PACs only report their contributions to the FEC and not to the more aggressive IRS.

That such a donation could be made by foreign nationals – including foreigners who want to institute Sharia Law in the U.S. (snicker) – is just half the problem.

Thanks to five Bozos on the U.S. Supreme Court, this obviously corrupt activity may be perfectly legal. And just the beginning.

Look Quick! A Republican Who Doesn't Hate America!

2011-08-03T22:16:00.004-05:00

I am not a fan of Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey. But I will give credit where credit is due. The context of this becomes apparent quickly, because he gives it himself. This is a must-watch video:

Why are scenes like this so rare?

Via Talking Points Memo.

What Is To Be Done?

2011-08-02T17:21:00.003-05:00

Steve Benen has a thoughtful post over at The Washington Monthly called, Wanted: More American Liberals. It does a good job of laying out where we are.

A new Gallup poll says 41 percent of those asked described themselves as conservative, compared to 21 percent describing themselves as liberal.

A significant takeaway quote from Benen's post:

It’s important to keep some caveats in mind when looking at results like these. For one thing, the public’s understanding of what these words actually mean varies considerably, and not everyone who considers themselves “conservative” is on the same page as, say, Jim DeMint. For another, ideological identification often doesn’t match up well with policy positions.

And that is really true. Conservative politicians want to end Medicare and Social Security, yet I'd guess that most people who call themselves conservative would like to preserve both programs. Most people who call themselves conservative probably don't like polluted air and rivers, yet conservative politicians promote policies that guarantee both. It goes on and on.

On the other hand, it would be much better for elections if people had conservative policy ideas and called themselves liberals.

How They Fell

2011-08-01T20:49:00.001-05:00

Let's Default

2011-08-01T18:09:00.006-05:00

This is a post I never dreamed I'd be making. As I'm writing, Congress is considering and voting on the latest Grand Compromise.

It's a disaster. It appears to have been written by an infinite number of monkeys sitting at an infinite number of typewriters. There is no sense to it. And it contains a guarantee that this madness will continue for months, maybe years.

What has happened is that a relatively small group of simple-minded people in the Republican Party, called Tea Partiers, has threatened to destroy the credit of the United States of America unless they get their way.

Technically, it's extortion.

To default on the debt is a terrible, terrible thing. We will pay for it for decades. History will call us the Worst Generation. And it should.

But this country cannot survive if a small group of morons is allowed to have their way just because they threaten to destroy us all if we don't give them what they want.

Whether this Grand Compromise passes or not, we are in for some terrible times. But we will never get ourselves out of it if we yield to extortionists. The greater evil is to allow this compromise to pass.

Addendum Aug 2: Joe Nocera sees it, too.

You know what they say: Never negotiate with terrorists. It only encourages them.

These last few months, much of the country has watched in horror as the Tea Party Republicans have waged jihad on the American people. Their intransigent demands for deep spending cuts, coupled with their almost gleeful willingness to destroy one of America’s most invaluable assets, its full faith and credit, were incredibly irresponsible. But they didn’t care. Their goal, they believed, was worth blowing up the country for, if that’s what it took.

[...]

For now, the Tea Party Republicans can put aside their suicide vests. But rest assured: They’ll have them on again soon enough. After all, they’ve gotten so much encouragement.

A Disaster

2011-08-01T06:10:00.002-05:00

I have to agree with Paul Krugman:

A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong.

For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

Jimmy Carter was called a weak president, but he was not. He was undermined by the Northeast liberals in his own party, who did not understand and snickered at his evangelical Christianity.

Barack Obama is a weak president.

God knows, I'm sick of the Clintons. But Hillary would not have caved.

Debt Ceiling

2011-07-23T09:30:00.002-05:00

It's just amazing what the Republicans are prepared to do to this country to make sure millionaires and billionaires don't have to share the pain.

A Guilty Pleasure

2011-07-21T21:39:00.003-05:00

I feel I can now come out of the closet about this Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush video of a song called "Don't Give Up." The video is too hokey by half, but ... well, that's Kate Bush there. And what man wouldn't want Kate Bush telling you not to give up?

There was a time when I needed this song, and it helped.

The reason I can come out of the closet is because none other than Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman posted another version of it on his blog yesterday. Only he called it, Music for the Lesser Depression.

Looks like we're going to be needing this video for a few years.

But don't give up.

Blinding You with Science

2011-07-20T07:11:00.003-05:00

Here's another video that will give you something fun to think about, courtesy of Andrew Tobias:

Four Pernicious Ideas

2011-07-17T07:48:00.003-05:00

My kid brother Chip tipped me off to this op-ed piece in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, named "Four Pernicious Ideas in Budget Debates." Well worth the read.

Good-bye Incandescent Bulbs?

2011-07-15T14:44:00.005-05:00

Have you been hoarding incandescent light bulbs in preparation for their disappearance from store shelves next year? I've been hearing about the ban for years.

Even Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal has an article today which authoritatively states:

The light bulb ban was part of the 2007 energy bill. It will outlaw the sale of traditional 100 watt bulbs starting in 2012. Many Americans dislike the new fluorescent bulbs, which give off less heat and are more energy efficient, because they don't like the quality of the lighting.

You've probably heard about the ban on incandescent bulbs, too. God knows, the Tea Party crowd has their undies in a bundle about it.

Only problem for them is: it's not true. Quelle surprise! Imagine a Tea Partier getting hysterical over something that isn't true!

Kevin Drum has the story.

Carmageddon

2011-07-15T07:27:00.003-05:00

As I've said repeatedly, this is a high-class blog. So I don't like to use words that are not kid-friendly. But this was so funny, I had to share it:

Barking Mad

2011-07-13T21:07:00.005-05:00

Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly:

For the country’s sake, I’d ... be absolutely delighted to learn that Republicans are just aggressive poker players, but when push comes to shove, they’ll be able to tell the difference between fantasy and reason, and they’ll put the nation’s interests first.

But here we are, 20 days until a brutal deadline, and Republicans give every appearance of being downright certifiable. We know this from their own rhetoric, and we know this from every published description of Republican deliberations in this process. According to the party’s own Speaker, at least a quarter of the House GOP caucus actually wants to see the United States default. The actual number is probably much higher.

As one leading economist put it yesterday, observers around the world are saying of Republicans, “There’s no way they could possibly be this stupid.”

It’s time people start coming to grips with the fact they very well might be precisely this stupid.

A Good Question!

2011-06-14T13:39:00.000-05:00

Those Pesky Facts

2011-06-12T09:09:00.005-05:00

I'm in a hurry to run out and take some pictures before the sun rises too high on the horizon, but this post from Paul Krugman's blog is important.

The takeaway quote:

... we don’t have a Medicare problem, we have a health care cost problem. And Medicare actually does a better job of controlling costs than private insurers — not remotely good enough, but better.

If you look at Medicare in isolation, the cost rise looks terrible, because it is:

Source.

But it looks a bit different if you look at private insurance, too:

If Medicare costs had risen as fast as private insurance premiums, it would cost around 40 percent more than it does. If private insurers had done as well as Medicare at controlling costs, insurance would be a lot cheaper.

It’s a mystery why anyone claims that shifting more people into private insurance is a good idea.

Worth 5 Minutes

2011-06-07T06:38:00.002-05:00

I understand there are reasons why asphalt is usually the preferred surfacing material for roadways. It provides good traction. Snow and ice melt faster than with concrete.

But there's a big problem with it: it's black, so it absorbs energy and heat from the sun. It's a big contributor to Global Warming.

Is there another approach we can take to roadways? This little video raises interesting possibilities. I recommend it. It suggests how newer technologies could be applied to the problem.

Well Said

2011-06-06T16:34:00.003-05:00

Amanda Marcotte, writing on Slate.com, summarizes the Tea Party approach to history (see prior post):

... I think it helps to understand that, for right-wing populists, this thing we call "history" is less about real people who did real things in the real world, and more like just the Bible Part II. It's a myth that can be manipulated to suit their purpose, which is usually to establish themselves as the only Real Americans. When Palin says she got it right, I believe she believes that, because her story wasn't really about Paul Revere. Her story was a thinly veiled allegory of the Tea Party worldview, and in it, Tea Partiers are Paul Revere and the British stand in for Obama, the foreign usurper who is out to take their guns. (That Obama is a gun-snatcher is also a lie worth noting, and of course there's a bit of Birtherism going on here, too.) In a sense, Palin's mangling of history is minor compared with some of the major whoppers that have percolated through Tea Party lore, with the big ones being that the main demand of the revolutionaries was an end to taxation (in fact, the main concern was lack of representation in the government, and frankly a larger desire for independence), and that the Founding Fathers were interested in establishing a government based on Christian principles, instead of those pesky secular ones they accidentally wrote into the Constitution.

There's a Good Novel in This

2011-06-06T10:35:00.005-05:00

My readers being the smartest people on the face of the earth, you're all familiar with George Orwell's novel, 1984. In an ironic move (you will see why in a minute) let me quote from the Wikipedia article on the book:

In the Ministry of Truth, protagonist Winston Smith is a civil servant responsible for perpetuating the Party's propaganda by revising historical records to render the Party omniscient and always correct ....

Okay, keep that thought in mind.

Now let's look at Sarah Palin's recent, addled ramblings on Paul Revere's ride:

If this was the first time you've seen that, I should apologize. Please resist the urge to bang your head against a brick wall. It's okay. She's never going to be President.

Okay, now let's move the story up to yesterday, when she was asked about this on, of all places, Faux News. Remember, she had had several days to think of how she was going to answer the question about this ... um ... unique understanding of Paul Revere's ride.

Here's what she said:

You know what, I didn't mess up about Paul Revere. Here's what Paul Revere did:

He warned the Americans that the British were coming, the British were coming and they are going to try to take our arms so we have to make sure that we were protecting ourselves and shoring up all of our ammunitions and our firearms, so that they couldn't take them. But remember that the British had already been there, many soldiers, for seven years in that area. And part of Paul Revere's ride, and it wasn't just one ride -- he was a courier, he was a messenger -- part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there that, "hey, you are not going succeed, you are not going to take American arms. You are not going beat our own well-armed persons, individual private militia that we have." He did warn the British, and in a shout-out gotcha type of question that was asked of me I answered candidly. And I know my American history.

Let's just sit here a minute with blank looks on our faces, and then say, "Uh-HUH!"

But the story doesn't stop there. Talking Points Memo reports that "Palin's supporters have apparently taken to Wikipedia, and are editing the entry on Paul Revere to better fit the former Alaska governor's account."

So we've come a long way since 1984. In the novel, history is revised to suit the centralized, collectivist state.

In the real world, it turns out, things are a little different.

It's About Time

2011-06-05T05:12:00.005-05:00

Of the many hypocrisies that are the Republican Party today, one of the most puzzling has been the ability of the Ayn Rand cultists to coexist with the rapture-believing crazies. Rand did, after all, take Judeo-Christian morality and stand it on its head. Might makes right. Financial success makes right. It's wrong to help those less fortunate than you. It's a wonderful moral system for billionaires (read: Koch Brothers) who think they should rule the world.

Paul Ryan, author of the GOP budget, is a high priest in the cult. He reportedly requires his staff to read all of Rand's novels, and he's gathering the other True Believers around him.

I am delighted that somebody is finally going after him:

And here:

"No disrespect, sir."

Do I believe atheists are immoral? Of course not! Do I believe you need to believe the Bible is the Word of God to run for public office? To me, that is a preposterous idea.

But I sure am glad somebody is finally going after these Ayn Rand jokers. Maybe, just maybe, the right wingers who really do take their religion seriously will, like Colonel Nicholson, wake up to see what kind of bridge they've been building.

Addendum: Here's more.