Like the winter needs the spring................

America.....................................I Need You

Return.................................

"There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity."
-Douglas MacArthur

image via

Power...........................

"The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things - the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and genuine to the bad and counterfeit."
-Samuel Johnson

image via

Opening paragraphs.....................

LONDON. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets, as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill. Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snow-flakes — gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun. Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas, in a general infection of ill-temper, and losing their foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if the day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest.
-Charles Dickens, Bleak House

50 years ago.......................

Freddy Scott..............................Hey Girl

Now I know why.......................

...........cashmere sweaters are so expensive.  You can too, simply by going here.

thanks craig

Isn't he married to someone famous......?

Happy 52nd birthday..........

to Wayne Gretzky, one of the all-time great hockey players.

A few Gretzky quotes:

You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take.

The highest compliment you can pay me is to say that I 
work hard every day, that I never dog it. 

When you win say nothing, when you lose say less.

Skate where the puck is going, not where it's been.

Actually, yes...................

via

Friday threefer.......................

Incredible Bongo Band.........................Apache (1973)



The Ventures.......................................Apache (1962)




The Shadows......................................Apache (1960)

Favorite quote of the day...............

Scott Sumner has probably forgotten more about the dismal science then I ever knew, or wanted to know.  I read his The Money Illusion Blog, not because I understand NGDP (because I don't), but because I like watching smart and passionate people debate important issues about which I am clueless.  It is a twofer: entertaining and educational.  Here is the quote from this recent post:

"I don’t really have anything to say, other than that the world economy is in the hands of a bunch of people who are stark raving mad."

Apparently, us middle-class folk are doing just fine

From the Carpe Diem blog:

"Bottom Line: Despite assertions by progressives who complain about stagnant wages, inequality and the (always) disappearing middle class, middle-class Americans have more buying power than ever before. They live longer lives and have much greater access to the services and consumer products bought by billionaires."

Full post is here.

Opening paragraphs..................

Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumber'd, heavenly goddess, sing!
That wrath which hurl'd to Pluto's gloomy reign
The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain;
Whose limbs unburied on the naked shore,
Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore:
Since great Achilles and Atrides strove,
Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove!
-The Iliad of Homer, translated by Alexander Pope

Tynan writes.........................

 .........on non-regrets, happiness, and learning to make better decisions - here:

"....it's important to separate the gratitude and acceptance of events from the objective truth of them. It's better to say that I'm not glad that I lost all that money, but I'm still happy, unphased, and ready to push forward undeterred."

50 years ago........................

Garnet Mimms and the Enchanters..............Cry Baby

A few thoughts from Robert Frost..............

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. 

Thinking isn't agreeing or disagreeing. That's voting.

Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.

A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body - the wishbone. 

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

The best things and the best people rise out of their separateness; I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.

The best way out is always through.

The middle of the road is where the white line is-and that's the worst place to drive.

Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.

By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day. 

The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.

Yep...........................

via

Actually, it is the sun, but..............

Sometimes you just have to make your own heat...

Janis Joplin............................................Summertime

What part of "I'm busy" don't you understand.....

I don't usually watch the ads preceding Youtube videos, but for some reason this one happily caught my attention.  At a bit over three minutes, it's longer than your normal ad, but...............

Opening paragraphs.........................

"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes.  But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist - I really believe he is Antichrist - I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do?  I see I have frightened you - sit down and tell me all the news." 
-Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Can't hurt to ask....................

Michael Stanley Band.......................Waste a Little Time On Me



My itunes version came from Stage Pass.  This one is just OK.

On ideologues..............

     "At the very best there are two major problems with ideology.  The first is that it does not represent or conform to or even address reality.  It is a straight-edge ruler in a fractal universe.  And the second is that it inspires in its believers the notion that the fault here lies with miscreant fact, which should therefore be conformed to the requirements of theory by all means necessary.  To the ideologue this would amount to putting the world right, ridding it of ambiguity and of those tedious and endless moral and ethical questions that dog us through life, and that those around us so rarely answer to our satisfaction.  Anger and self-righteousness combined with cynicism about the world as he or she sees it are the marks of the ideologue.  There is always an element of nostalgia, too, because the ideologue is confident that he or she is moved by a special loyalty to a natural order, or to a good and normative past, which others defy or betray."
-Marilynne Robinson, When I Was A Child I Read Books:  Essays

Love the line, "It is a straight-edge ruler in a fractal universe." Been reading Robinson's essays on my Kindle lately.  She can turn a phrase better than most writers.  You may expect to read more of her here in the coming days.

My apologies for not citing the cartoon artist.  I've seen his/her work in various places through the Intertunnel, but can't seem to find the name.  Any help would be appreciated.

Celebrating and supporting.......................

..........the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs.  Rick Platt is happily paying his property taxes this year.  Full story here.

Must see.....................

Daniel Hannan opines on the financial crisis.  He suggests, among other things,  not asking those with a vested interest what to do in a time of crisis.  He reminds us that the People often know better than our "Leaders" and that there is a world of difference between being "pro-business" and being "pro-markets."  In order to have a failure of capitalism, you have to be operating under capitalism.  In other words, failures need to fail, not be rescued, subsidized, and allowed to grow larger.  Do watch.  Can't think of a better investment of ten minutes and forty two seconds.



thanks Maggie's Farm

Lexie adjusts to the move.........

via

Weaving a silver lining.................

Mathew Ferrara delivers the good news - it's up to us.

S...O...S.......................

The Police.........................Message in a Bottle

Messages............................

Everything you wanted to know about.................

government spending - and more.  Nate Silver is on the case.  Lots of handy charts to make all those statistics friendly-like.  For instance:

Love his conclusion:

We may have gone from conceiving of government as an entity that builds roads, dams and airports, provides shared services like schooling, policing and national parks, and wages wars, into the world’s largest insurance broker.

Most of us don’t much care for our insurance broker.

Thanks Tyler

The Stand-Up Economist.................

Yoram Bauman...............................S*** Happens




Yoram Bauman...........................Hyperinflation in Hell




thanks greg

Walter Russell Mead....................

Faithful readers will realize that WRM is this blogger's favorite pundit.  Here is a smattering of excerpts from recent posts:

On the variance between how we think government should work and how it really works:
"Rot and corruption at the intersection of the health care industry and the political system are already destroying much of the good Obama’s health care experiment hoped to do, and the toll will only mount."

On arguing about the relationships between the People and their government:
"The New England tradition, rooted in Puritan experience and theology, wants a strong state run by the great and the good to serve as the moral agent of the conscience of the community. It is the duty of the state to make the people better, and without a strong and moral state to guide development and regulate behavior, the rich will become greedy and the poor will get lazy and fat."

"There’s a New York tradition, rooted in the middle colonies, that looks to the state primarily to promote the development of the economy."

"There’s a Virginia tradition that worries about the centralism that both the New England and Hamiltonian traditions support. Jeffersonians speak for small business rather than big business, and for parts of the country that are far from the centers of financial and cultural power. In this view, an overweening government is a danger worse that (almost) any problem it tries to solve. The Virginia tradition looks to limit the power of government as far as possible and keep that power as close to the local level. It prefers state power to federal power and thinks the New England model is a “nanny state” approach, while the New York model quickly turns into crony capitalism in which large and well-connected business interests and plutocrats use the power of the state to advance their private objectives."

On being careful what you wish for:
"A new piece in the Wall Street Journal reports that many colleges are cutting back on the number of hours worked by adjunct professors, in order to avoid new requirements that they provide healthcare to anyone working over 30 hours per week. This is terrible news for a lot of people; 70 percent of professors work as adjuncts and many will now have to cope with a major pay cut just as requirements that they buy their own health insurance go into effect"


On the fact that local politics aren't so rosy either:
"But we haven't even started the conversation about a criminal class of politicians who have fastened vampire-like on cities throughout this country. Detroit and New Orleans are the most high-profile examples, but they are not the only places where american kleptocracies prey on the poor."

An over-rated concept..........................

Ray is talking "normal".................................

As I have told my kids on several of those occasions when they were looking at me like I had three heads, "normalcy is just the psychosis of the majority."

It's a process..........................

New Yorker cartoons via

Well..................glad that's done......

We have officially moved.  It is a long story, but my Sweetie and I got married almost five years ago (February 16th).  Due to our respective children not wanting to leave their respective school districts, we kept, and lived in separate houses - until last summer.  Then, on the hottest days in a long, long time (that came with long term power outages all over our part of the world), we finally moved in together - into her house.  Now her house is in Zanesville.  We both work in Newark, twenty five miles away.  We both assumed that move would be temporary.  And it was.  Over the years we have occasionally house-hunted, but never found anything that we both loved.  Until now.  It is a thing of beauty.  There are boxes everywhere, more furniture and artwork than will ever fit, books way in excess of available shelving, no draperies..........you get the picture.  But, we are in...........and very happy.

Moving day..............................!

My Sweetie and I are moving into our new home  today.  I'd like to tell you that the house was a finished product and all the contractors were done and cleaned up after...............but, that would not be the gospel truth.  One of us was extremely impatient and just couldn't wait any longer.  So, a new adventure in living commences.  Blogging will not be a priority for a short while.  Please make yourself at home by scrolling through the "everyday reading" and blogroll lists.  There is plenty of amusement to be found there. Talk with you later.

Oh no, not Ike's Toyland too..........................

Jeff makes a nostalgic tour, a "devil's bargain."  Ride along with him here.

quote comes from the comments section
Photo © Arthur Leipzig

Some days just demand the Kinks................

The Kinks...................................Sunny Afternoon

Why not..............................?

thanks Bilbo

Risk.................................

"There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."
-John F. Kennedy

image via

I'll say.........................

Fifty years ago.................

The Impressions...............................It's All Right

Trending in a positive manner..........

Although multi-family residential starts seem to be out-pacing the single-family ones,  the trend lines continue to point in the right direction.   Optimistic background story and source of the chart is here.

A fairly common theology............

via

Always the Champ.....................

Cassius Clay........................Stand By Me




Cassius Marcellus Clay...................I Am the Greatest




From the list, Ten Things You Probably Didn't Know About Muhammad Ali.  Go here for the full list.

thanks Gerard

Don't think that he really needs our help............

..........but he has asked.  So help him already - here.