In the news…

Football…

So Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg, at a nightclub, in a city where guns are supposed to be verboten?Burress should have shot himself in the head; he would have done less damage.  I can’t think of a better poster-person for the NRA, not even Palin herself.

So, TTU beat Texas, which beat Oklahoma, which beat TTU.  Do football games mean anything at all?  Should they?

Which goes to show that games are for statisticians, not for logicians.

Politics…

So the Obamamites will be attending an elite and expensive private school.   Well, hey, hey, Barrack,  one’s principles can only go so far, right?  I mean, principles are one thing, but reality is…real, right?

Fixing the Economy

It’s sick, they tell us.  We need an infusion of capital and credit to get back to the good old days of a steadily growing GDP, of booming sales on Thanksgiving Friday and Xmas, of low unemployment, and growth in average income and standard of living.

We need to get back to spending and spending and borowing and spending, to support all the products and services that are being offered.  Consuming is good.  Consuming is patriotic.  We can measure the success of our lives by the quantity of waste we deposit in the land fill, of items bought and income earned.

“Here lies Joe Blow, a Good American Consumer.  Old Joe bought 17 cars in his lifetime, 26 television sets, 237 pairs of shoes, 32 square yards of newsprint, 21 lawn mowers and snow blowers, three houses including one valued at 175,000 1986 dollars, and he raised his family to consume at a rate above the average.  R.I.P. Joe Blow, a Patriotic Consumer.”

Is something wrong here?  Are the most fundamental assumptions of our lives messed up? 

Before we try to “fix” the economy, shouldn’t we be asking what kind of economy we ought to have?    Someone, Socrates or Plato, said that the unexamined life is not worth living.   Don’t we owe it to ourselves and to future generations to examine and test the assumptions underlying our lives and our economy?

Is a consumption-based economy good?  Do we really want to go all out to stimulate a consumption frenzy?  Or–should we chuck it all and get off here and try something totally different?

Remember:  economists don’t tell us what is best or good;  they look at the mechanics of what is, and assuming a set of parameters that are defined as desirable, try to tell us how to get there from here.  They are not concerned with morality or goodness or human worth.  They value things and people based on dollars and productivity and consumption.

New = Old in New Clothes

Back when Jimmy Carter was president-elect, the word was put out that Carter was interviewing a huge number of candidates for appointment.    The late Ham Jordan said that “if you see Zbig Brezinsky at National Security and Cy Vance a Secretary of State, then I’d say we have failed [to bring change and new ideas].”  Well, guess what.

Obama is stocking his new administration with all the usual suspects, and throwing political bones to the already high and mighty in the Democratic Party.  Probably the worst example of this will be Hillary Clinton’s appointment as Sec/State.  Her only qualification is her high profile in the party and her connection to Bill Clinton.  Talk about political favors. 

Yes, there will be ethnic diversity in the Obama administration.  But ethnic diversity and quotaism should be a by product and not a goal.

The Big Three Losers

It was apparent this week when the CEOs of America’s big three car companies flew on their respective private jets (no plane-pooling there) to beg for government welfare that said CEOs are a big part of the problem.

Certainly any loans or other band-aids should contain a requirement that all executive compensation agreements be cancelled.  No silver or golden parachutes and sell off the limos and the executive condos.

All of these executives ought to be willing to work for a base salary of no more than $100k plus a bonus calculated on the company’s bottom line.

Not that I agree that there should be a big-three aid package. 

Failure is not a bad word.  Businesses come and go.  Those that have survived across generations and become American institutions are not sacrosanct.  Many times, companies and nations deserve to fail.  Clear the decks and let new ideas and greater flexibility come in.  The future does not belong to the unweildy.

Kids Need to Play in Dirt! And They Need Pets

 For a couple of years now, research results have been trickling down about a surprising factor behind allergies and asthma.

It seems that those allergic to cats often never had one as a pet, and those who did are less likely to be allergic.

More along this line was released last week.  KIDS NEED DIRT!  Kids need to have animal playmates.  Keeping kids isolated from dirt and animal companions is bad for their health.

I’m not talking about household dirt.  I mean that brown stuff that is all around us, and containing umpteem billion bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and a few arthropods.

Dirt has a bad reputation.  It shouldn’t.  Everything we eat comes from dirt.  When we die, we will go back to dirt.  (Unless walled off from the natural cycles in a crypt or sarcophagus.)  Dirt is our nourishing mother, from which all good springs.  (Had to write that!)

Sure, I know about dog tapeworms, and had a case of ringworm I got from a cat.  But those are minor, short term infections.  Allergies and asthma are long term, and can be crippling.

I played in dirt, digging in it, rolling in it, making mud pies and even eating it.  That to me is part of a normal childhood.  When I see parents coddling their children, making them play on carpets (ugh!) and keeping pets, if any outside, I think, “How abnormal!”  “Baaad parents.  Unfortunate children.”

Carpets are among the worst things to have around children.

Grass.  Kids from well-to-do homes don’t have dirt in their yards.  They have grass.  Which is sprayed with chemicals to kill the critters.  If you buy a new house, the environs have been treated with chemicals to kill the termites and the creepy crawlies.  KIDS NEED CREEPY CRAWLIES!  Kids don’t need poisons.

Instead, kids are invited to play in more of less sterile sand, which is not the same thing as dirt.    A wholly inadequate substitute.

We have three billion years of past associations with dirt and other critters, and we need it.  Dirt, the right kind of dirt, is healthy. 

Other things being equal and barring serious contagious diseases, it is healthy to grow up in a barnyard, or a zoo.

Do your kids a favor.  Throw away the carpets.  Dig up that yard, and send the kiddoes out with little shovels and toys.  Let ‘em play in real dirt.  Let ‘em play with animals, lick and be licked by animals, and share their rooms with animals.  They’ll thank you for it later.

Bailing Out of the Bailout, and Some Obamacomment

Bailing Out of the Bailout, and Some Obamacomment

 

Most interesting in the House defeat of the Bailout Bill was that most of those voting against the bill will be struggling in the November election.  They didn’t want to take the heat for voting for an unpopular, expensive bailout bill. 

It took a mighty confident incumbent to vote for the bill. 

The cost of not voting for it will come too, but that will be after the election.   No pol wants the shit hitting the fan before an election.  After, is okay.  They can deal with it.  And who knows?  Maybe we will all be dead of plague or nuclear radiation or some mysterious substance in Chinese imports com December, and that particular shit will never hit the fan.

Obama.  You hear a lot from Republicans about the “liberal media.”  Which, IMHO is much exaggerated.  But it is true that the media have treated Obama with kid gloves.  There are tough questions he has not been asked, in such a way that he has to focus and answer.  

When McCain and Palin are asked tough questions, they get all steamed and declare that it’s gotcha journalism and walk away.

No candidate is dealing with the tough questions

What’s in an Name?

Trade names, that is.  Brand names.  How imprtant are they to you?

I don’t feel much brand loyalty.    But as I think about it, that’s not really true.

Some brands stand out.  Toyota, Honda, Brother, Canon, Panasonic, Arm & Hammer.   Dickies.   I trust those brands. 

Hmmm.  5 of 7 are Japanese. 

Did you know that the name “Canon” was taken from “Kwanon,” their first camera model?  No matter.  I have Canon cameras going back to the FTb, which is nearly 35 years old.  Fine camera still, one of the last of the old mechanical cameras, as opposed to electronic and plastic.   My Canon copier is going strong and is nearly 10 years old.  I have tried to stay in the Canon brand for photographic equipment, except for my little Olympus digital.

(If you are looking for a good camera with manual exposure control, try the Canon FTb, the Nikon FM, the Minolta SRT 201 & SRT 202.  Heavy cameras, mostly metal, but good.  Perfect student cameras.  And all Japanese.  Many are going strong after 25-35 years and are available on Ebay.  For a good pro camera, try the original Canon F-1; mechanical and solid, the only problem being that so many have had very heavy use.)

Ah, the glory days of photography, the 1970s and early 1980s, when there were a dozen quality camera brands from Japan and 20 or so aftermarket lens manufacturers.  The Big Five being Nikon (=Nippon Kogaku), Canon, Minolta, Pentax and Olympus.  Yashica, Mamiya, Konica, Ricoh,  Fujica and Chinon getting honorable mention.

A great deal ot the success of those brands were their generally high quality product, marked with those “JCII” stickers (for Japanese Camera Inspection Institute). 

With digital, now Sony and Panasonic are big players in the camera market.

Ever look at those brand names on cheap tools imported form China?  Pittsburgh.  Chicago Electric.  Etc.  Fully, really, that naive intent to deceive.

Southwestern Bell I felt an affinity for, mostly because as a little tyke, I went the the SWBT offices with my grandfather, and was given that booklet about Alex Graham Bell and the telephone.  But when SWB bought AT&T, they changed the name–to AT&T.  Which IMHO has negative loyalty for me.    There are no good connotations for the name AT&T.  I would stop doing business with them if I could, just because of the name.

Potpourri, II

Should I support Obama because he has black ancestry, or Hillary Clinton because she is a woman, or McCain because he spent hard years in a prison camp?  Somehow, much of what has happened politically in 2008 comes down to that.  Everybody would be trumped by a one-legged blind, black woman.

—————

From the 21st century gazeteer:  “Lubbock:  A four-Walmart / one Sam’s Club community 50 miles South of the West Texas distribution center.  Approximate gross purchases, $27.4 million annually.”  That says it all.

_________________

Like adventure novels?  So do I.  Two names you might not have heard of.  Hammond Innes and Geoffrey Jenkins.  Innes is famous and published worldwide for nearly 50 years.  Jenkins, a South African writing in the late 1950s – 1960s, is less well known.   If you like settings involving mining, the sea, ships, wanderings in the desert, lost treasure, give them a try. 

I first encountered Jenkins in the pages of Argosy magazine, which carried his novel, “A Grue of Ice.”   The images of that story, which combined whaling in the antarctic  with the discovery of an island graveyard of lost ships captured by a Nazi raider, stay with me to this day.    Jenkins’ best stories though deal with diamonds on the Namib coast of Africa.

—————

I’ve described before my discontent with the public library’s policies of culling books from the shelves.   The people who make these decisions have no idea of what authors are staples of the genre, what writings are modern classics, and what books are of no enduring interest whatever.  Seems they no longer repair books but discard them if they are torn (maybe the use of tape is a lost skill or perhaps it has something to do with the librarians’ union).   

Some libraries, I am happy to report ARE REAL libraries, retaining books even if they are old or worn.

This was brought on by my visiting the sci-fi section of the Lubbock Public Library and seeing that almost all of Clifford Simak’s books have been culled to make room for new fantasy and Star Trek novels.

And yes, most of Hammond Innes’ and Geoffrey Jenkins’ books have been culled from the shelves.

BTW, the process of editing out the old occurs in encyclopedias too.  The 13 and 14th editions of the Brittanica are still better than those that came later, and if you want a good Viking Desk Encyclopedia, get one no newer than 1965.  The editors cut out the old to make way for the new, and what you end up with are long articles about Marilyn Monroe or, horrors, Donald Trump, and nothing about Edward Devere or Roger Bacon.  There is an argument that we are becoming more and more rootless, living only in the pop culture present.

Lubbock’s Cowboy Symposium

The 2008 ”Cowboy Symposium” is dust.    I didn’t go.

My non-attendance was in spite of their featuring three of my favorite performers:  Don Edwards, Sons of the San Joaquin, and Waddy Mitchell.  I first saw those three on PBS’ Austin City Limits as part of the Michael Martin Murphy show.  I thought they were all great.  Still do.

Don Edwards had a song that began “pushin’ horns weren’t easy…”  that I consider about the best real cowboy song I ever heard.  And as for the Sons of the San Joaquin, well, if I were to rub my laptop and  invoke a genie who offered me three wishes, one of those wishes would be to sing like the lead of that group.  Or like Colm Wilkinson, depending on my mood.  I have always loved beautiful voices and harmonies.   Waddy Mitchell is a leader among cowboy storytellers and poets making the rounds, and he is an authentic cowboy, or drover, buckaroo, or vaquero–whatever he prefers to be called.  (I recollect that Northerners like buckaroo.)

But I didn’t go.

Various reasons.  The $25 ticket wasn’t exactly cheap, but is in line with live entertainment at the Cactus Theater.   And I was busy with little things, and didn’t have a date.    And the last time I went, a strange and, for me, alienating thing happened.

Wilford Brimley, a marvelous actor, was being honored.  Mr. Brimley got his award and spoke.  He happened to comment that he would not be unpleased were the whole Arab region in the Middle East to be nuked into radioactive slag.  Or words closely to that effect.  That got a lot of applause.  In fact, the only ones who did not applaud with enthusiasm were me and mine.  All of the $500 boots and XXX Stetson hat set attending were real receptive to Mr. Brimley’s proposal.  The rest of the program was enjoyable and entertaining, an excellent mix of storyteling, jokes and music.  But a few words left a bad taste in our mouths.

Then there is the odd cultivated anachronism of the Cowboy Symposium.  As I cycled by Thursday evening as they were getting set up, I looked at all the $250,000 RVs and giant pick-up trucks and $30,000 trailers and the old-looking chuck wagons and tack and livestock they unloaded and thought to myself, “it’s like a spaceship landing.  A hatch opens and out comes…a whiskered prospector on a mule.” 

Most of the spectators wearing boots use those boots mostly for the gas pedal and brake pedal of their trucks and SUVs and to limp a few feet to house or office.  It’s a rare boot that ever gets put in a stirrup.  It’s a rare hat that gets worn to keep away the snow or the rain.  

I would like to say that the performers are at least keeping alive a way of life.  But as I look at their fancy RVs, and the life they appear to lead, I don’t see that.  It all seems a show, a pretense, unreal fantasy like an old Red Rider western flick.

“Imperium,” “Brethren,” and “Crusade”

Imperium is written by Robert Harris, who gave us Fatherland, Pompeii, and Archangel.  I’ve not read his book Enigma.  All could be described as historical novels, thrillers with an historical setting except that Fatherland  like Len Deighton’s SS-GB and  Phillip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle  (both great favorites of mine) deals with an alternate future.

Robert Harris is not to be confused with Thomas Harris, who wrote Black Sunday, Red Dragon and the novels better known as the “Silence of the Lambs” movies.  That Harris delves into human aberration in contemporary times.  Robert Harris looks to history as a framework for suspense and involvement.

Imperium is the tightest, most historically rigorous novel I’ve read recently.  As historical biography, with only a few factual liberties taken, it is right up there with Irving Stone’s books.  It is purportedly a lost book written by Cicero’s slave about his master in the last days of the Roman Republic.  Ciceros’ own words as they have come down to us echo from the chapters of this book.    Highest recommendation.

Brethren and Crusade are first novels by a new author, Robyn Young, centered around the Knights Templar in the middle to late 1200s.    They are not in any sense historical romances, but are well-researched and adhere to a historical framework the limits of which the author carefully explains in the notes.  Characterization is deeply rendered, each character being to an extent a product of a twisted past.  These books are not pure entertainment, but have a message for the present.  The author invents a secret movement within the Templars working for peace and multiculturalism, and makes it seem plausible.    These are far superior to the Forever Amber type of historical novel, and remind me a little of The Thornbirds removed to the Templar preceptories of France and Acre.  These books do contain some sex and much violence, and are not for children.  Recommended.