January 5, 2009
Soon As You Get a 9" Laptop
Some blogger will say he has a 10".
I hate to miss a chance for a bad joke and have been wanting to mention my christmas present: an Acer Aspire One, in Sapphire Blue. Somebody mentioned feline sleepware -- I really like this thing. I have not seen the Asus machines that started the genre but this one has a very substantive, quality feel. I had to get the XP one for work purposes but I would have opted for Linux otherwise, which gives you a really cool laptop for $350.
I cannot carry a conventional laptop but this one is easy for trips to the coffee shop (mmm coffee...) or just catching up on work or blogs from another room.
Thanks, honey!
In the lap of Big Corn
Instapundit links to a Popular Science post discussing "If You Dropped a Corn Kernel From Space, Would it Pop During Re-Entry?" I love that the page has banner ads for popcorn from shopping.com.
I'm sensing a cabal...Professor Reynolds, Senator Grassley, some guy named Orville....
Mon Dieu!
Not a very Happy New Year for French auto insurers:
The French Interior Ministry has increased its provisional count of the number of cars torched over New Year's Eve from 445 to 1,147.
Hat-tip: Pillage Idiot, who mentions "land of brie, wine, and car torchings. I omitted "body odor," because that's understood." I guess the Sarkozy spirit of Hope and Change hasn't made it to Baltimore.
Hmmm... Could this be the start of Detroit's new initiative to stimulate demand?
Protectionism Works Great in a Downturn
The idea that we learned any lessons from the 1930s shows zero empirical proof. I guess tight money is not too likely, but the new administration is ready to bring back the WPA and Smoot-Hawley. Reuters:
WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Both President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will huddle with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders on Monday to try to advance a huge economic stimulus bill that Obama hopes can be enacted quickly, despite Republican reservations.
Obama's transition team said it is mulling "buy American" provisions for the stimulus package that could favor U.S. companies over foreign competitors.
Bottled water and ammunition, kids. Bottled water and ammunition.
Hat-tip: Professor Makiw
Einstein's reputed definition of insanity...
I think it was actually Benjamin Franklin who said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
January 4, 2009
Obama's Silence
Hamas vs Israel?
Silence.
"The president-elect is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza," his national security spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said in a statement after the ground assault got underway.
But she offered no further comment on the violence in Gaza and used a phrase repeated often by Obama and his aides: "There is one president at a time and we intend to respect that."
Senior advisor David Axelrod said Sunday that Obama is "committed" to achieving peace in the Middle East, in the only extended comments from the president-elect's team so far.
"Obviously, this situation has become even more complicated in the last couple of days and weeks... But it's something that he's committed to," Axelrod told CBS television.
That's really going out on a limb there. Really.
Naturally, some are upset.
"The start is not good," said Khaled Meshaal, leader of the Hamas Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza since June 2007.
"You commented on Mumbai but you say nothing about the crime of the enemy (Israel). This policy of double standards should stop."
I have criticized the President-Elect on this in the past.
But to be fair, it really is above his paygrade.
HuffPo DAWG Denyer
You can't believe everything you read from the partisan hacks at Huffington Post. In their mad dash to discredit President Bush and accelerate the acceptance of collectivism, they'll say just about... Oh. Wait a minute.
Harold Ambler claims that a certain ex-VPOTUS owes us an apology;
Mr. Gore has stated, regarding climate change, that "the science is in." Well, he is absolutely right about that, except for one tiny thing. It is the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind [emphasis in original].
Ambler, who has a book coming out "Apology Accepted," presents -- to the Huffington faithful -- a serious and comprehensive refutation of the conventional wisdom on climate change.
Brother AC is right: this might be a very good year after all.
UPDATE Link fixed, should've hat-tipped Insty
And yet, when I suggested that every American politician be put on record as a champion or a "denier" of "the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind" I was called over confident.
(I look forward to reading the linked Ambler post - shortly after the broken link is fixed.)
And yet I must still quibble with this characterization of the Global Warming swindle: A bigger whopper is that Social Security will forever provide a dependable retirement "safety net" for every American.
Happy New Year.
Maybe it's just me, but I've noticed a dearth of Happy New Years wishes so far in 2009.
Shouldn't we be all full of hope and change?
... and optimistic?
A new era?
Dawning of the age of aquarius or something?
Or have we just buckled down for the worst year evah (tm)?
January 3, 2009
Hooked on Chrome
The browser wars seem so 1990's, I just haven't been interested in playing. In any case, my work has me effectively chained to Internet Explorer. I'm used to it and roll my eyes when associates whine for Mozilla 3.2.1.5 support. I came up in the UNIX world and am used to people's having particular tastes in tech.
Not sure what prompted me to try the Google® only-slightly-evil Chrome browser this morning. But holy-crimin'-Eddy, this thing is fast. I've been trying to objectively compare my new 7Mb dedicated pipe to my old shared 8Mb. Faster, slower, can I tell? Then I switch to Chrome and it is like being plugged directly into the server. It imported all my IE bookmarks, preferences and even passwords. As I type this, I even get spell-check right in the text box.
Sweet. Here's a link in case I am not the last guy who has tried it.
Spell checking in a text box?
2003 called, it wants it's feature back.
New folks around here may not know that AlexC and I are actually the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" characters you see on TV.
This is the cat's pajamas, JK. It even fails elegantly when I fat-finger a comment-post rather than simply losing everything as MS Exploder did.
Update: Adobe Flash presently does not have plug-ins for Chrome. Apparently, the cat has just a small nightie and no pajamas.
A good part of me suggests that this is one of the reasons for Chrome's performance. Blog sites are using a lot of active script to defeat pop-up blockers and hijack the user experience. I started visit Hugh Hewitt and NRO only on special occasions (Rep. Tom Tancredo's Birthday, National Heterosexual Awareness Day, &c.) because they took over my browser. Chrome opens them all instantly.
January 2, 2009
Headline of the Day
Conservatives look to Flake to rescue GOP
Once considered almost a novelty for his relentless one-man attack on House GOP spending practices and push for Cuba policy reform, many conservatives now are looking to the five-term congressman for guidance in rehabilitating the tarnished Republican brand.
They are looking in the right place. Anybody have a Republican they like better than Rep. Jeff Flake (R - AZ)?
Hat-tip: Club for Growth
Constitutional Conservatism
Peter Berkowitz has a guest editorial in the WSJ today, actually a synopsis of a longer article forthcoming in Policy Review. He echoes a lot of points I hold about a pragmatic call to return principles without discarding Meyers's Fusionism:
But the purists in both camps ignore simple electoral math. Slice and dice citizens' opinions and voting patterns in the 50 states as you like, neither social conservatives nor libertarian conservatives can get to 50% plus one without the aid of the other.
Yet they, and the national security hawks who are also crucial to conservative electoral hopes, do not merely form a coalition of convenience. Theirs can and should be a coalition of principle, and a constitutional conservatism provides the surest ones.
The principles are familiar: individual freedom and individual responsibility, limited but energetic government, economic opportunity and strong national defense. They are embedded in the Constitution and flow out of the political ideas from which it was fashioned. They were central to Frank Meyer's celebrated fusion of traditionalist and libertarian conservatism in the 1960s. And they inspired Ronald Reagan's consolidation of conservatism in the 1980s.
Berkowitz suggests that both social conservatives and libertarians can coalesce around the Constitution. Amen to that. Where GOP legislators and the Bush administration have "wandered off the reservation" were instances where they moved away from Constitutional principles.
This Is About Dialog, so Shut Up!
P.J. O'Rourke once expressed skepticism about protesters. He said "You don't see Republicans marching down Wall Street every time they raise the capital gains tax." You can count me among the unbelievers.
I admire Gandhi and Martin Luther King's marches because those people were disenfranchised. They did not have recourse at the ballot box and I don't expect that writing a letter to the editor was too convenient. Even the 60s dirty hippies anti-war protesters had a valid point that they were old enough for conscription, but not old enough to vote. But the marchers of today represent a feel-good party. Fight the power! And meet chicks!
Personal opinion of course. I have friends and relatives who think it is important and efficacious enough to participate. I have suggested to each that they'd be better off earning some money for a candidate that shares their views or writing a letter to the editor.
A student uprising at the New School in New York City called for the resignation of university president Bob Kerry, the former Democratic Senator from Nebraska and Vietnam War hero. The NYTimes reports that when he emerged from his office, the peace-lovers chased the prosthetic-leg wearing Kerry down the street. Pretty classy.
Marcus Michelson, also a graduate student in philosophy, said the sit-in was meant to show that the students were serious about having a seat at the negotiating able. “This is about starting a dialogue, and to do that you have to be seen as an equal,” he said. “People just don’t give equality, you have to take it.”
These people have a pretty funny idea of dialog.
Hat-tip: Insty
January 1, 2009
Happy Castroversary
Yesterday was 50 years. The NYTimes commemorates with a sobering account. It begins with a woman who fled 14 years ago awaiting DNA testing to see if a decomposed, shark-eaten body pulled out of the ocean near the Keys is the son she left behind.
Fifty years ago today, many Cubans cheered when Fidel Castro seized power in Havana, and even now, the revolution attracts many fans — as evidenced by the Canadian tour agencies advertising trips “to celebrate five decades of resilience.”
But the bodies speak to a different legacy.
The son who stayed behind spoke multiple languages and tried to influence Cuba from within as a journalist -- until he was fired and targeted.
Mr. Garcia’s relatives said that on the night of Aug. 15, he climbed aboard a boat with no motor and seven or eight other people, pushing off from an area near Havana with hopes of reaching Florida within a few days.
The pace mattered; the sea was churning. By early Monday morning, Tropical Storm Fay had moved through Cuba into the Florida Straits, bringing nearly a foot of rain, swells of several feet and winds that would strengthen to 60 miles per hour.
Ms. Garcia, 64, a home health aide, said she was not sure if her son had known the storm was coming. Even if he had, she said, “he was desperate and needed to go.”
She said her son had done all he could to change Cuba from the inside. “How can Cubans confront the government, with rocks and sticks?” Ms. Garcia said. “Everyone has nothing, and the people are afraid.”
As my interest in weather has piqued of late, I have spent too much time (any non-zero amount) looking at local TV news. You can put me down as extremely tired of the defeatism and hopelessness surrounding "this economy" and "these tough times." I'm sorry your 401K has lost value and feel for those who have lost work. But if you woke up this New Year's Day as a free citizen in America, I really don't want to hear a lot of bellyaching.
Hat-tip: Instapundit
Happy New Year
A great 2009 year of hope and change to all ThreeSourcers.
December 31, 2008
I'm Not Going Crazy
The real crazy ones always point to another crazy person that thinks the same way as proof.
I saw a Pepsi Commercial and thought they were cashing in on Obama (it would be great if somebody could!) Evan Coyne Maloney agrees:
If Pepsi is invoking Obama’s campaign materials deliberately—and I have no reason to believe that they are—then maybe the folks behind it see some business sense in doing so.
Judging from the volume of painted plates and limited-edition coins being hawked on TV ads that gush about Obama’s “kind eyes and warm smile,” the Merchandising of the President-Elect might be the only growth industry left.
Here in NYC, you can’t walk a block in midtown without passing several street vendors pushing Obamawear.
Click through -- he's got pictures. Hat-tip:
Instapundit
That's it. That's *%#@ing it. I'm going back to Diet Coke.
I avoid the absurd crowds of Times Square for good reasons, and now I have one more. I already feel like vomiting when I pass the street vendors he mentions -- it's true!
But you see, even this libertarian would buy of their wares, if only they'd just sell Obama sock monkeys...
Hmmm. ThreeSources.com Obama sock monkeys? Could work.
Trust me, the TV commercial is worse -- you keep waiting for "I'm Barack Obama and I approved this message."
Fellow Lab Rat
One last whine about the FDA in 2008? Thanks. In addition to actually killing Americans with bad policies, impeding science, and reducing investment in biotech, the FDA approvals process also forces rules that directly interfere with participants' treatment.
Fellow lab rat, Gideon J Sofer has a guest editorial in yesterday's WSJ that spells it out:
Under the Fifth Amendment's guarantee that "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law," a critically ill patient should have access to a potentially lifesaving drug that has been deemed safe for human consumption, if the patient agrees to bear the risks involved. But earlier this year, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case on the issue, denying countless patients their right to pursue life.
FDA rules have a scientific foundation, but the slavery to the double-blind study needlessly interferes with self-directed treatment. Sofer suffers from Chron's Disease and his life is under threat. I suffered the same fate. If my case is less severe, it's not really less severe to me.
I was surprised -- though I should not have been -- when I completed a three-year clinical trial, I was not allowed to discover what treatments I had received over the trial. The drugs I took are now commercially available and it might have made sense for me to try something that I took in placebo form or a very low dose.
I read a great article in Reason that complained that the rules are stacked to provide a good supply of desperate people for clinical trials. I don't think that's the plan but it is a consequence that feeds back into the system. Hey, you can die or you can participate in this trial is pretty compelling.
When you're done, thanks for your time but don't expect any information that you might use to select future treatment. We're the FDA and we have a public to protect!
December 30, 2008
Meritocracy
I submit that there are two true meritocracies left: professional athletics and jazz musicianship. The WSJ Ed Page wishes Congress were held as accountable as NFL coaches: "Three of the league's 32 coaches got the sack yesterday, following three who were fired during this season, and there are undoubtedly more to follow."
NFL coaches are highly paid celebrities who know the perils of their trade, so it is hard to feel sorry for them. But in this age of government failure and corporate bailouts, there is something refreshing about a line of work that is so unforgiving about performance. In the phrase of Bill Parcells, the head of football operations for the (11-5) Miami Dolphins and former Super Bowl coach, "You are what your record says you are."
Pop music of all flavors can be pretty capricious, with the talented and not seeming to get equal distribution of spoils, but I suggest that in the realm of "serious" jazz, all those who make a living at it are pretty damn good. It's less obvious, but I suspect that guys who can play at the top level do not lack for gigs. I know plenty of really good players who struggle, but I doubt that there is a Joe Pass out there who can't find work.
I remain enchanted with Nicholas Nassim Taleb's "The Black Swan," and I plan to change my life to accommodate some of his theses. But he indirectly implies that there is no meritocracy (I may be misreading this, I encourage all ThreeSourcers to read this book and tell me if I am wrong). I suggest NNT grabs himself a brew, puts some Django on his iPod, and watches the NFL playoffs with the sound turned down.
(The non-appearance of my beloved Broncos could be cited as proof -- but I don't see the Chargers as being far more deserving. Colts by 20. And, hey, Go Iggles!)
Now Shanahan can watch the playoffs and March Madness with his ipod unless of course he goes to Kansas City and spends the next 15 years doing to us what he's been doing to Oakland since leaving there.
I had no idea when I posted this that Coach Shanahan was among the examples. I had sent Sugarchuck an email last week complaining that he did not punt at the end of the first half. I hope that he did not show that ownership.
I can't imagine anybody is better. No, not KC, please no.
I'm guessing the meritocracy concept in pro sports doesn't apply to owners, 'cause I can't explain Al Davis. Hope I haven't just offended any Raiders fans... but then, the merit concept goes both ways, doesn't it? The teams (and their owners) have to compete for head coaches, which is why none of the unemployed coaches wanted a gig with Davis last time he needed a head coach, and none will next time, either.
And thanks for limiting the music meritocracy to jazz - it doesn't appear to extend to pop or hip-hop, where success is more dependent on reputation and cachet than real talent; too many are "famous for being famous." However, with some noteworthy exceptions, I'd propose that the music meritocracy also extends to classical and (forgive me for this, urbanites) country.
~ (never miss a chance to diss the Raiders)
I don't think there are a lot of Raiders fans to upset around here, but I'll let you know if I get complaints.
Owners are not selected by merit because they're pretty difficult to fire (cf, Davis, Al). I thought of including classical musicians in the meritocracy pool but I don't know that sector well enough to make a call.
With Country, you do have a fight on your hands. I like good country music but the contemporary Nashville scene seems no less capricious than pop or hip-hop.
As soon as I heard about Mike Shanahan, I wanted to retract and expunge this post. Yet it proves the point: Shanahan won one playoff game in ten years. I wouldn't have let him go, but Pat Bowlen did. And yet our 535 incumbents-in-chief are giving themselves a big raise and settling into their offices.
jk: I *did* put that "with some noteworthy exceptions" to cover both some recent (and past) aberrations in country as well as classical (cf. Salonen, Esa-Pekka). You're not the first, either, to take note of the recent changes in country - which I blame on country's own success, which has made country a destination for some artists in other genres with some talent (cf. Rucker, Darius), and some without (cf. Simpson, Jessica); as well as the increased demand for the product leading to the lowering of the bar for the supply of talent.
I was going to avoid naming names, but hey, shouldn't New Year's Eve come with fireworks?
Should I not have the opportunity to join in again before the end of the day, here's wishing the entire Three Sources blogbrotherhood the very best of New Year's celebrations, and all the best in the coming New Year -
@Kieth: Country? Meritocracy? Have you heard a single song by Taylor Swift?
I generally agree with JK's assesment. Country has devolved into a pop music with a fiddle.
~T. Greer, blaming CMT Music Videos
Wow, a post on the Broncos and country music all in one convenient location! We watched Shanahan's press conference today and as my wife quietly wept I felt this coach was the embodiment of Hemingway's "grace under pressure." I hope that Mr. Bolen's exercise in creative destruction works out but if Shanahan winds up in Kansas City he will be doing a Shiva like two-step on the hearts of Bronco fans for years to come.
Speaking of the two step, it is important to remember, when discussing country music, that in Nashville, in the shadow of the CMT building, real country musicians play real country music on Lower Broadway. The same Cashville Gnats who turn out drivel for triple union scale during the day go down to broadway and play for peanuts at night, just to do something real. These two universes, living in parallel, have always been there. Keith points out that Nashville doesn't know how to handle it's success and this awkwardness has also always been there. The fact is that there is no greater place to see meritocracy at work than in Nashville. The greatest musicians and not just country musicians flock there and only the best of the best get to gig. They have the best pickers, song writers, singers and facilities and yet they seldom fail to disappoint. They have a glorious history and they seldom fail to piss all over it, driving the likes of Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn out of the industry while simultaneoulsy trying to ride their coattails. Thankfully others like Rick Rubin and jack White allowed these giants the opportunity to record some of their most compelling work when Nashville turned it's back on them. The sorry fact about Nashville is that's it run by Al Davis.
I will stop the diatribe with a short reading list. "How Nashville Became Music City USA- 50 Years of Music Row" by Michael Kosser is a good place to start. "Dreaming Out Loud" by Bruce Feller is depressing but informative and for something uplifting, try Mark Zwonitzer and Charles Hirshberg's "Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone" a great biography of the Carter family. And buy any and every damn record you can find by Buddy Miller. That's country.
Wishing all the Three Sources folks and happy and healthy New Year, it's your old cousin Sugarchuck pickin' and a grinnin'.
We do aim to please, sc. Best of 2009 to you and yours.
I briefly considered trying to make this a universal post by asking if anybody saw President Bush seated next to George Jones last night at the "Kennedy Center Honors." Maybe get immigration and the FDA in there, we'd be on to something.
I haven't spent a ton of time in Nashville but I spent a lot of time in Austin, TX. Sixth Street is covered with awesome awesome awesome super fantastic guitar players who are not making money while the pretty boys (and girls) on CMT are raking it in. That ain't meritocracy.
I must admit Alan Jackson did a nice job on "He Stopped Loving Her Today" as Mister Jones looked on. I can be a little harsh.
Hey JK, I wonder if we don't actually have a problem with free markets here. More people want Shania Twain records than want Redd Volkheart. More people want to watch fishing shows on t.v. or poker tournaments than hockey. Maybe those guys are getting ahead on merit and we can't see it, being the snobby elitists that we are. Well, actually you are the elitist with all that jazz music; I am a hillbilly.
Brave Sir Obama
Unforunately, we were treated to Mr Obama's opinions for two years about how things were wrong. Now that world watches his every move, he has the temerity to say, "there is only one president at a time."
Meanwhile, the world waits.
World leaders, including Gordon Brown and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, have called for an immediate ceasefire.
Mr Ban even said that Israel’s response attacks from Gaza amounted to an ‘excessive use of force’.
But Mr Obama has made the decision to leave all comments to outgoing President George Bush, who has so far chosen only to attack Hamas.
On the golf course, his security team even turned away a letter from pro-Palestinian campaigners urging him to help stop the four-day-old violence.
Pensioner Robert Steiver, 65, of Honolulu, said he was disappointed that the president-elect was not echoing the condemnation of other world leaders.
He told the Honolulu Advertsier: ‘I don't think he's taking a vacation, he's preparing to be the next president.
‘I'm deathly afraid he'll continue the failed policies of the Bush administration. I've been suffering with the Palestinians for years.’
Still time for one last disagreement with my blog brother ac in 2008 -- awesome. (Maybe I misread...)
I'm actually pretty pleased at both his deference to President Bush and his allowing Israeli operations to continue. The World and the Daily Mail readers eagerly await somebody to stop Israel. And I fear next January 20, the new Sherriff in town will be more likely to kowtow to the good opinion of the Daily Mail editorial board.
My disagreement is not with Bush or his response, it's correct.
My complaint is that Obama is laying low.
He should be agreeing with Mr Bush and his administrations policies towards Israel.
I fear that his silence is driven by knee-jerk "dont agree with Bush-ism"....
Good point. I guess I am so relieved that he is not attacking President Bush in this, and championing appeasement that I am handing out props. You're right. Happy New Year.
