"Delighted to See You Again. "

"It seems a year since we met."

--------------------

What's the difference between a birthday wish and New Year's resolution?

Just take your unspoken wish, and affix an "I resolve to..." at the front. Then next year at this time, see how things have worked out.

AnD HaVe YoUrSelF a HaPpY 1-1-11 !

(Don't stay up too late and sleep away half of that day, eh? And again, a Saturday to top it off.)

Update.

This is how we do it, baby...

If you want a quick lesson in skewing, read this line: "Guess who was named by one survey as the most influential left of center European thinker?"*

and then this: "In our recent readers ballot we asked you who you think are the thinkers with the most influence on the European left-of-centre political agenda."

Well that's a clear misinterpretation. A trick in the writing. They asked who influenced European thinking, and Krugs recasts himself as a "European thinker".

Nope. Re-read the question before the poll results, please. (I shudder to think how his economic expertise -- the prize winning skill -- has been dulled perhaps by poor reading skills prior to the expert economic analysis. Or perhaps it's just in the writing -- and characterizing the writing of others? -- where he falls short. Ah, these trying-to-do-it-all media stars today...)


* I honestly don't get why the ambition doesn't die down, once they are comfortably secure financially, and begin mistaking prizes for real-life results. Step back and enjoy what you've earned for yourself. Skewing and spinning ... why put your reputation on the line at the end of your career and all?

** I've always thought Krugman's "work" would play better in Europe anyway, where they don't have pesky Constitutions like ours that guarantee the individual unfettered rights, comparatively, to those our European ancestors preferred to ... opt out of.

*** Added: no, I wasn't shuddering literally.

Duh - duh...

... duh - Dumb!

The Ez gets some feedback on his "work".*

It's too late to do anything about Krugman (got that prize hanging out his back pocket and all...), but Klein can still be countered on the facts, I think.

Pushback is good. First Amendment guaranteed too, for those of us still respecting da docs -- you know, that over 100, Constitution and all...

* As an immigrant's child myself, he gets no pass for newcomer status here, not knowing that it wasn't written around 1910 or so. ("over 100 years old") Particularly when opining on legal issues.

And I LOVE the idea of a Constitutional fact showdown between (in this corner...) young, self professed wonk Klein, and in this corner: Sarah "she's a joke!" Palin.

Personally, I'll take Sarah for $500 please. (Even with the working-class college degree behind her name, and the understanding that I'm no fan, just neutrally analyzing here...)
------------------

* My favorite comments:
Rick Caird Today 01:34 PM
Call:

I have argued many times that Ezra Klein is a child. He thinks like a child, he writes like a child, and he acts like a child. Ezra really is not complaining our 200+ year old Constitution is not understandable. His complaint is that it is perfectly understandable and that he does not like what it actually says.

hurtin1 Today 01:36 PM in reply to Rick Caird

Response:

I think metaphor is unnecessary. He actually *is* a child. He's still eligible for his parent's health insurance under Obamacare.

And, the wonk himself responds. Of course, the Constitution is binding. Even if it is a stuffy old document and nobody except the self-professed wonky experts like himself know what the darned thing is saying anyway...

Posted at 3:57 PM ET, 12/30/2010
Yes, the Constitution is binding
By Ezra Klein This morning, I gave a quick interview to MSNBC where I made, I thought, some fairly banal points on the GOP's plan to honor the Constitution by having it read aloud on the House floor. Asked if it was a gimmick, I replied that it was, because, well, it is.

Suggestion Mr. Klein? Slow down, and spend a little time picking which areas you want to specialize in. Lobbyists may have the luxury of plugging their positions quickly, and with little thought as to what they're saying, but until you get out of the news-covering business into the policy-plugging paid lobbying job?

Your face, not your brain, appears to be your top moneymaker right now, kiddo. (A regular gender groundbreaker like that.) Now, I know there's untamed ambition at play here -- grab all the media showpieces that will have ya -- but maybe slow it down a bit and learn your craft before you go practicing on the public airwaves? Whichever craft it is you eventually decide to settle on practicing...

Another suggestion?

So if I was unclear: Yes, the Constitution is binding. No, it’s not clear which interpretation of the Constitution the Supreme Court will declare binding at any given moment.

Go earn yourself a law degree before expressing your legal expertise on screen. That might help you better understand how the Supreme Court works, if you study precedent and actually undertake the formal study to understand some of these ideas. It's not always consistent surely (see Roe v. Wade), but it's definitely not a crapshoot.

And while it's not easy, for sure, understanding how legal minds think and understanding why they decide as they do, this is just another pretty, but overgeneralized statement for the masses to feed on: "...it’s not clear which interpretation of the Constitution the Supreme Court will declare binding at any given moment."

Funny how much clearer legal issues become when you actually, you know, study in the field, consider what the legal minds are arguing, then think for yourself and stop buying the "it's all politics now!" way of counting Supreme Court votes, currently en vogue in the young (under 100! only 26 in fact...) wonky pundity liberal media expertise talking heads, and amongst some of the lesser legal analysts in the professorial circles too.

(There's one over on Volokh -- no names please -- who continually plugs the notion that counting to 5 is what makes something Constitutional or not. Nope, the document stands, for all to read... which is why, once inititiated, despite your outcome preference, the Roe decision is such a twisted mess, relying on penumbral thinking to get you where you wanted to go all along... Similar to justifications behind the recently passed, constitutionally questionable healthcare law, except whereas one was "Keep your laws off my body", our liberals have now aged as a population (the young Kleins of the world notwithstanding) and now embrace the everybody-in! mandate, while the conservative cry today has become "Keep your laws off my pocketbook, please!")

Confusing sure. But impossible to understand, and unclear as to what's binding or not? Nope, just another example of lowering the bar. Next time, decline the appearance and free up the slot for some better-qualified expert who better understands the issues at play? Economist, journolist, now legal advice opiner... this is what happens when your ambitions outrun your expertise.

Best stick with plugging the recipes. And your fellow economist wonks, naturally. Annie Lowrey, is it? (In joke: for months, Klein was referring to his lady love as another independent economist when citing her opinions on that then-healthcare bill. After the Journolist brouhaha, a commenter suggested he start telling readers of their intimate association when citing her economic work on his blog. Journalism 101 -- if your sources are tainted or there's any appearance on non-neutrality, you disclose to the readers your relationships. I think, after Journolist, he finally "got" that.)

Pay just $695 for ... nothing.

No, no, no. We've got it all wrong on this "mandatory" health care law, says former WaPo writer Garrett Epps, "a novelist and legal scholar (who) teaches courses in constitutional law and creative writing** for law students at the University of Baltimore." Heh.

Here's how he spins it, with that creativite writing/law background and all:

There will remain a small but significant number of Americans who can afford health care insurance but choose not to buy it. But contrary to the sound bite above, even they are not required to "maintain a minimum level of health insurance." If they wish to keep their uninsured status, they may do so by paying an addition to their income tax bills--ranging from as little as $695 for an individual taxpayer to $2,085 for a family of six or more. The claim that the government is "forcing individuals to buy a commercial product" is worse than spin; it is simply false.

Well, thanks but no thanks, Mr. Epps. I'd prefer to continue spending annually that $695* er... "donation", to satisfy my individual health needs in the way I best see fit. I don't think the government has the right to demand payment for non-services out of me, just to continue to prop up a troubled industry that apparently has troubles making profits on service voluntarily contracted for, yet can afford to pay their administrators untold bonuses.

Under the Constitution, you can't force such involuntary "contributions" out of people on behalf of a well-lobbied private industry, for services not consumed or desired.

Our Bill of Rights protects individuals from such overreaching legislative "solutions", even if a majority of citizens should go along with such a power grab and transfer (which polls show, they don't.)

Back to the creative drawing board, Professor Epps.

* You'd be surprised how far a well-spent $695 can take you, in some parts of the country especially, if you think of it in terms of real money, not just excess government largesse. Or "throwaway".

UPDATE: Regarding this part of his "creative" argument, Epps errs because the administration has already committed itself: It's not a tax.

This brings us to the contention that the act somehow regulates "inactivity." Let's you and I test this proposition: why don't you just remain totally inactive in 2014, when the Act first takes effect.

Quit your job and get rid of your investments. The government will not regulate you. (True, it may offer you government-financed health care; but again, that is a benefit, not a regulation or punishment.)

But if you decide actually to work (I recommend that, by the way), you are not being "inactive." You are taking part in commerce. The Constitution gives Congress plenary authority "to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."

A system of regulation might easily include requiring you to pay taxes if you choose to burden commerce; willful refusal to maintain adequate health coverage for yourself and your family is such a burden. To claim otherwise doesn't pass the straight-face test.

Finally, there's this:

Conservatives like to prate about "individual responsibility" when it is a question of forcing the poor to work; asking the solvent to pay for themselves seems quite in line with these conservative values.

Again, Mr. Epps makes the fatal error of confusing having health insurance with having good health. A deal, sir? Take back the mandate and the $695 penalty/tax/shakedown, and let those with no outstanding unpaid healthcare bills off the hook. If you don't consume, and don't treat, (as so many of the voluntarily non-insured do now for their minimal needs), you're not required to pony up to carry the overconsuming insureds, or the consuming non-paying non-insureds. Deal? Then, those treating and consuming medical services would have an incentive to see costs brought down, and treatment made more economically efficient.

What we have now... those costs can continue to balloon, we're just counting on the non-consumers to continue that way and be forced into this messed up system, so we can shift their premiums to pay for the "nobody turned away for pre-existing conditions" promise the government found it so easy to make. It's a bit like the Social Security Ponzi scheme that nobody wants to touch today, preferring to let our wealthy elders continue to collect from a system that was originally sold as a "safety net" for poor elderly. (So now we have the young working poor essentially subsidizing your wealthy Grandma's Cabo trip. Don't worry though -- she's inviting you along, and you'll inherit any extras she leaves behind. But not so for those without wealthy elderly in their inheritance family trees... Which is why it has to be a need-based social system, nevermind what the numbercrunchers like Krugman, with elderly parents themselves presumably collecting, tell us. He's biased, a liberal spokesman, remember. Not a neutral numbercruncher -- where would we find that in this telegenic age? )

Instead of first tackling that problem though, political experts who have now moved on to more lucrative positions, instead gave us another HUGE government program, currently being rejected by the people, with fuzzy details on how this will actually work in reality.

Again, thanks for the offer of help, but no thank you. Not without an opt-out. And one that isn't priced at $695 for starters, either. Good day!




** Remember back in the good old days, when the creative artists weren't afraid to quit their day jobs and immerse themselves in their creative pursuits? It's this double-dipping and cross-consulting (economist/journolist; law professor/creative writing teacher; spokesman for a cause/indpendent analyst) that's messing up the mix nowadays, I think.

And the country is beginning to show it, the natural conflicts of interest that arise in pursuing the "truth" of the matter. Ah truth, ever elusive, but surely still worth pursuing, no? (or is there a $695 opt-out there too, where if you pay the piper, we can just close our eyes to the natural consequences of systemic failure as a whole?)

Orswag Update.*

Sandwiched between Elizabeth Edwards and Chelsea Clinton as "The Reliable Source Person of the Year", Jim Fallows notes that The WaPo indeed finally found a place to cover Peter's pickled principles promotion...

In the funny fluff features section, of course!

Peter Orszag: The OMB director made nerdy sexy by hooking up with ABC hottie Bianna Golodryga. Then he made wonky rakish -- when his jilted ex had his baby just weeks before he proposed to his new love. Now married, he ended the year cashing in for a big job at Citigroup.

(What, you were thinking this was straightforward business news?)

* It must be "Pretty Boy Face" news day on the Subsumed blog, eh? I think the elder grandmothers who are still reading/viewing must just lap this stuff up. Wait til the demographics shift though, and people are calling for quality newsreporting once again...

Speaking of pretty faces...

What Krugman is to the Times,
Klein, Ezra is to the WaPo, a prettier face perhaps, but one of these "economist/journalist" liberal guys who helped to pimp the government's unconsitutional healthcare bill into passage, when Congress was busy playing Santa Claus before Christmas break last year. (Where will the adults be, do you suppose, when the bills -- the financial, not legislative bills -- on these easy promises come due? Collecting Social Security on top of their mega-incomes and pensions is my guess...)

Both Krugman and Klein allegedly participated in the secretive "Journolist" discussions that had journalists privately conferring with each other to tailor the administration's "pro-healthcare" bill spin. Instead of acting as neutral journalists, they conspired to help the thing pass.

And told us, "Just wait, once the public sees what's in it, they'll like it well enough."

Time came and went. Even with the guarantees for students/young adults to be carried on their parents plan up to age 26, even with the senior breaks that AARP negotiated for their demographic, even with the "nothing will change" promises... well the public still isn't buying it.

And with the legal arguments advancing, that this mandate thing pushes the Commerce Clause precedent just a bit too far, how do the economic Spinmeisters respond?

Why, just dismiss the Constitution in terms of importance, of course! (Now why didn't we think of that, eh?)

Ah, that Ez. Always quick with the easy answers. It is a pretty face, though, no? Maybe if you just leave the sound off...


UPDATE: I erred above in using the term, Spinmeister. The self-described word for the work they do is a "Wonk". Not a cog. A Wonk. So: textbook authors, journalists, economists, Mister predictors, spokesmen for the left on the political shows... how do they find the time to specialize and become all-knowing in all that? Must be in the genes, eh?

Things that make you go "Hmmm..."

or "Say What You Mean; Mean What You Say..."

Here's the recent blurb of an updated post on Paul Krugman's economics blog:

Geloiocracy
Geleiocrats of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your dignity.

And here's the post itself:

Geloiocracy
That seems to be the answer to my question about what to call rule by the ridiculous. Thanks for all the suggestions.

If I’m to believe Google Translate, this should be pronounced Gay-Lee-ocracy; but would Ancient Greek be different?

Hmmm. I know the winter weather has everyone flustered, and there was that quick update too...

Update: Yes, in the tradition of gerontocracy, I guess we should Anglicize the pronunciation, soft g and all. So Jellyocracy it is.

Now I know the Times is scrambling to attract younger eyeballs in advance of implementing their online fee schemes. (The Murrow-Stewart comparison cracked me up though, even for the dumb youngsters who've never heard a tape of Murrow when the bombs were falling in London...; Maddow as Ellie Roosevelt next?)

And I know it's bad weather and perhaps his daily servants haven't been able to make it in. (?) You know how that can unhinge relaxation routines and all. Or maybe Santa didn't deliver on the private helicopter wish.

But I do believe, in the post here and comparing Ireland to ... Nevada (legalized gambling + prostitution, and quickie divorces are what most minds associate, no?), Krugman's overstepping a bit with his creativity juices. Trying, but not working it hard enough to hit the mark...

Tell me straight out now:
How gay is that?

Tis the season.

In Northwoods hockey action, Webster-Siren overcame a strong Stoughton team by outskating their downstate opponent and drilling the winner on the power play with less than a second left before entering overtime.

The 8-team holiday tournament finally had a competitive game going into the final seconds last night -- which is not to say we haven't seen some good hockey from the boys this round. It's just -- the way these things are seeded, and given the fast-paced nature of the game itself -- the result is usually settled in the first two periods, which team is going to dominate.

Plus, psychology plays a role at this level. My observation? The Madison area teams (Memorial, Stoughton) have a bit of the northwoods/proximity to MN hockey spook to them, whereas the teams from here come in a bit intimidated by the (program) wealth and size of the closer-to-big-market boys. Unfounded speculations all around.

Last night, it played out on the ice, thankfully... a well skated game. Stoughton outshot WS (co-op team, school populations joined to form one team), 34 to 17 last time I looked.

But WS outskated them, and with a clean game and the referees not needing to blow the whistles and slow things down, we had a good third period of excellent view hockey. But Stoughton slipped up and landed a man in the penalty box, the "Blizzard" took advantage and fired hard on goal, poking in the rebound with less than a second left before OT. .6 on the clock.

Wausau East (Dan Bauer's team -- excellent writer) v. Webster Siren for the championship. Rice Lake, defeated by Stoughton in the first game, v. River Falls for consolation champion. Stoughton v. Hayward, knocked out of contention by Wausau yesterday. And Amery v. Madison Memorial, where truth be told, the Madison school district doesn't devote much precious budget money to hockey, of all sports.

(Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

The Tap Code.

or,
If you like Cher, you'll love Scritti Politti:

Each time I go to bed,
I pray like Aretha Franklin...

HT: Bob Herbert.

ADDED: "Perfect Way."

and,
Patti Smith on Kids are People Too, circa 1979.

HT: Maureen Dowd.

Spring ! (in a way it is...)

Seems there's a subset of Americans who celebrate today as the point where things begin getting brighter and sunnier out there. Why not join 'em?

HT: Joe Soucheray.

Blog Update.

Just like a prep game, the motivations for this blog are pure: to write simply about what tickles my fancy...

I'm working on a "Top Ten Favorite Moments of 2010" that didn't get blogged here. And the DeMille review: no pay = no deadlines. When it's fully written, it will run. I'd never be one to write a blurb, if untrue, just to hawk merchandise.

You see a lot of that going around on some of the more commercial blogs now though, and you take it for what it's worth... No t-shirts, no kitchen-drawer gadgets, no Amazon links.

No phone, no pool, no pets,
I ain't got no cigarettes

...





Y'all come back now,
y'hear?

Saturday spirit !

Post office closes at noon, it's flurrying here -- lots of blowing but little accumulation. Another beautiful, cold, overcast Saturday.

Saw an excellent prep hockey game Thursday night: Hudson at Rice Lake. We were down by 2, the kids seemingly running out of gas... when they stepped it up and forced the OT tie. Hudson scored a minute or two in, and I don't play those PC games, but trust me -- it was a win for the team just tying it back up.

Dig deep, make the most of what you can, and remember: a willful spirit is often contagious. Never give in, thinking your opponent is bigger and better than you. If you battle hard, playing purely out of pride, you might just surprise yourself. Isn't that what the Christmas spirit is about?

Have a great Saturday out there.

Roll on, highway...

Round and round and rounder still ...

Economist journalist McArdle picks up on what this blog was filtering for you folks back in May. My header and lede sentences:

Don't punish the innocent and lessen their personal health choices.

or, A Tax on the Healthy.

The New York Times argues for mandatory premiums from those Americans choosing not to consume medical services.

Make no mistake, they advocate directly reaching in and transferring dollars* from monthly household budgets of non-consumers, to hospitals and medical providers who need help keeping their own books balanced when they can't collect from their customers

The nut graf:

And we return to George Will's question for Elena Kagan's confirmation hearings: Does the federal government then also have the Constitutional right to require daily calinsthetics -- exercise and stretching routines -- of the masses? To force an activity on the populace simply for being, in a targeted effort to reduce the nation's healthcare bills that are bringing the country down?

I strongly recommend we don't use this artificial opportunity to punish the healthy who aren't consuming medical services and adding to the stack of unpaid bills. They're the most innocent in this mess. You want those people on your side, more like them.

I think McArdle was off planning a wedding back then, perhaps, and thus needs to catch up now, not that she necessarily played it safe in her opinions, seeing how things would shake out.

For the rest of us though, nothing new in the recent court ruling-- the argument simply remains: the mandate to purchase is unconstitutional for the reasons Barnett's discussed from the beginning. (You can't regular 'non'-activity, and there's no effective opt out, as with much discussed, allleged comparable, car insurance: You don't have to drive a car. You have to breathe, and this mandate applies to all the living...)

Last November's popular vote, and the growing independence of the Supreme Court, are healthy signs that the judiciary won't be cowed into "a going along = getting along" mentality.

We're finally beginning to overcome such weaknesses in thinking, it seems. And that's a bandwagon we'd welcome more and more of you aboard...

Miami's Cam Wake leads NFL in sacks...

yet he's currently only 5th in fan Pro Bowl voting.

And Jim Fallow notes,
not many mainstream publications are ready to report on Peter Orswag's new job just yet. Why am I not surprised. Maybe in the New Year? ...

Live their lives,
lookin' behind...

Pretty Yet Timely.

Quite possibly, the best Michael Jackson song to car dance to. (Meaning you keep your hands, both of them, on the wheel, after turning it up when the song comes on.)

Nevermind what happened to his career, nevermind it's the beat not the lyrics, he was at his heights when this one hit. Plus, it helps to be young when you're creating your own version of the "classics"*.


* I was in high school myself, preferred Prince (it was like the Sox and the Cubs -- you choose one), but appreciated Michael. How could you not?

Remember When?

Except for the car accident right ahead of us in the funeral line, and -- from earlier - the semi quarter-flipped just a few feet off the road with its belly showing parallel to the highway, it was safe travels and a dry drive home yesterday.

Good to be back. 14 below last night. But sunny today...

Don't remember it being this cold as a child, myself.

"We won't be sad.
We'll be glad.
For all the life we've had..."

Why?

Because we like you*, dear reader...

One more link for your cold Monday morn. And it's cold out there everywhere today, no?
--------------
*Plus, the kids should just know this stufff. And who knows what their mothers are feeding them these days...



MIC...KEY... M...O...U...S...E!*

*Nope, not that old to know the originals. Just good records when I was young, and eclectic cultural habits, trying to soak up as much of this Americana as I could...

Yippee-Yay, Yippee-Yi, Yippee-Yo. (I'll be Spin, you be Marty... for a change.)

For your Monday morning reading pleasure.

or, From the Email Inbox.

A Little Christmas Story

When four of Santa's elves got sick, the trainee elves did not produce toys as fast as the regular ones, and Santa began to feel the Pre-Christmas pressure.
Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her Mother was coming to visit, which stressed Santa even more.
When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two others had jumped the fence and were out, Heaven knows where.
Then when he began to load the sleigh, one of the floorboards cracked, the toy bag fell to the ground and all the toys were scattered.
Frustrated, Santa went in the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered the elves had drunk all the cider and hidden the liquor.. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the cider jug, and it broke into hundreds of little glass pieces all over the kitchen floor.
He went to get the broom and found the mice had eaten all the straw off the end of the broom.
Just then the doorbell rang, and an irritated Santa marched to the door, yanked it open, and there stood a little angel with a great big Christmas tree.
The angel said very cheerfully, 'Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't this a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Where would you like me to stick it?'

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Not a lot of people know this.

Come... the New Jerusalem.

What if religious thinkers indeed got the whole damn thing all wrong, as the Tull song* goes?

What if the City upon the hill, the shining beacon of greatness and justice to all the world, exactly fulfills the prophecies of the much discussed, much desired capital of the peaceable** world... as a shared city?

"We Got the Whole Damned Thing All Wrong!"



--------

*I'll give you this one, for our younger readers. And a link to the title song too...

** On peace: "If we can make it there, we'll make it anywhere, it's up to you...."

On peace, II: "It's asking for the taking..."

On Ron Paul.

I like his attitude on the WikiLeaks. (With the 4th Estate in America choosing these days to render itself impotent -- easier to cover fluff and rewrite either this party or that's talking points; to go for the funnybone rather than the brain -- I'm glad the hackers are stepping up to report what's really going on out there...)

And his economic stance makes an awful lot of sense to me, given the reality of what is happening out there, and continues to happen when we fail to let the game-players fail, when the results are in and they've essentially... failed:

If there is vindication here, Mr. Paul says, it is for Austrian economic theory — an anti-Keynesian model that many mainstream economists consider radical and dismiss as magical thinking.

The theory argues that markets operate properly only when they are unfettered by government regulation and intervention. It holds that the government should not have a central bank or dictate economic or monetary policy. Once the government begins any economic planning, such thinking goes, it ends up making all the economic decisions for its citizens, essentially enslaving them.

ADDED:
While others were beating their chests and acting big, Ron Paul was demonstrating the kind of political courage that seems to have disappeared in America as quickly as the media drive to ferret out the truth.

During his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, he was best remembered for declaring in a debate that the 9/11 attacks were the Muslim world’s response to American military intervention around the globe. A fellow candidate, former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, interrupted and demanded that he take back the words — a request that Mr. Paul refused.
...
Mr. Paul now views his exchange with Mr. Giuliani in 2008 as a crucial moment in his drive for more supporters. “A lot of them said, ‘I’d never heard of you, and I liked what you said and I went and checked your voting record and you’d actually voted that way,’ ” he said. “They’d see that the thing that everybody on the House floor considered a liability for 20 years, my single ‘no’ votes, they’d say, ‘He did that himself; he really must believe this.’ ”

To use the "driving" metaphor so popular in political circles, any seasoned driver knows you keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel. Once you delegate personal authority, thinking others must necessarily know better; once you stop pushing on the gas to move forward -- even slowly! -- in what you believe the right direction, handing over the wheel to others in a compromise move, you're essentially putting your future, your final destination, into other hands.

Once you quit on a cause, it becomes easier and easier and easier to justify your compromising, to blame others, and to promise, ever so eloquently, that things WILL be different in the future. Except it's too late then, you've essentially compromised away credibility.

But the guy, like Ron Paul, who knew where he ultimately was heading and refused to be detoured, delayed or discouraged from his goal of getting there?

The long-distance race doesn't always go to the swiftest afterall, but to those who simply refuse to quit running* while others around them drop**.

*And I don't mean in the election years only.
** I use "drop" expansively here, including those who deliberately abandon the original destination and choose another route midway through the drive: perhaps thinking more prosperity and personal power lies right around the corner...

Saving America v. Saving Obama's Career.

Peggy Noonan:

What are the Democrats to do? If you are stuck with a president, you try to survive either with him or, individually, in spite of him. Some Democrats will try to bring him back. How? Who knows. But that will be a great Democratic drama of 2011: Saving Obama.

The White House itself still probably thinks the Republicans can save him, by overstepping, by alienating moderates. But so far, on domestic matters, they're looking pretty calm and sober. They didn't crow at the tax compromise, for instance, even though they knew the left is correct: It wasn't a compromise, it was a bow. To reality, but a bow nonetheless.

Surviving -- individually -- in spite of him.

Sometimes I think, it would have been best had President Obama not promised so big, because it makes folks lose faith. Who can believe what this administration says now, when they've broken so many promises already? (ie/ No tax cuts for the rich. End DADT.)

Who will believe Democrats promising the same in the future? It's like the hopeless corruption of Chicago politics -- where the only way out is to get out -- has infected the country as a whole now.

Cynicism reigns, and good people wither. Corruption kills not only hope, but any simple dreams of true ... change.

I wonder if Tom Friedman...

regularly reads my blog?

Me: "If you've got American troops stationed in your backyard, and the American Prez pretty much telling Israel, "Our ally: right or wrong. Your crimes are our crimes, and we will pay for your sins... We got your back, no matter what." Heck, you might not realize what you're risking until it's much much to late to take positive actions to improve your position... although I suppose they've got another potential ally all picked out to support them and replace us, once the American moneytree runs dry..."

Tom today (better late, than never):

They just don’t get it: we’re not their grandfather’s America anymore. We have bigger problems. Israeli ... negotiators should take a minute and put the following five words into Google: “budget cuts and fire departments.” Here’s what they’ll find: American city after city — Phoenix, Cincinnati, Austin, Washington, Jacksonville, Sacramento, Philadelphia — all having to cut their fire departments. Then put in these four words: “schools and budget cuts.” One of the top stories listed is from The Christian Science Monitor: “As state and local governments slash spending and federal stimulus dries up, school budget cuts for the next academic year could be the worst in a generation.”

I guarantee you, if someone came to these cities and said, “We have $3 billion we’d like to give to your schools and fire departments if you’ll just do what is manifestly in your own interest,” their only answer would be: “Where do we sign?” And so it should have been with Israel.

Israel, when America, a country that has lavished billions on you over the last 50 years and taken up your defense in countless international forums, asks you to halt settlements for three months to get peace talks going, there is only one right answer, and it is not “How much?” It is: “Yes, whatever you want, because you’re our only true friend in the world.”

If it takes a middle-aged Midwestern woman to spur columnists to address what people out here really want to read about, so be it.

Now about that Peter Orswag "promotion"...
---------------

ADDED:
Friedman to the Palestinians: "Here’s some free advice: When America goes weak, if you think the Chinese will deliver Israel for you, you’re wrong. I know China well. It will sell you out for a boatload of Israeli software, drones and microchips so fast that your head will spin."

Will a future superpower China trust Israel enough to take her under a protective wing as an "ally"? Hmm. It's a gamble I wouldn't take. Something tells me the Chinese government won't cave so easily as heavily lobbied American politicians have done all these years, substituting foreign interests for security at home.

Even for all the spy software and computerized military technology that Chinese manufacturing money can buy...

Metrodome Collapse.

And Favre and the Vikings haven't even taken the field yet:

MINNEAPOLIS — The inflatable roof of the Minneapolis Metrodome, where the Minnesota Vikings play, has collapsed following a snow storm that dumped 17 inches on the city.
...
The National Weather Service says the storm that hit Minneapolis and much of the upper Midwest has dumped more than 21 inches of snow in some areas.

The Vikings' Sunday NFL football game against the New York Giants had already been pushed to Monday.

It wasn't clear whether anyone was injured in the collapse, which happened overnight.

Snowing here in Chicagoland; Mal said he'd never seen the intense snowfall and drifts!, back at his home in New Richmond.

We've a wake to attend here, family Christmas plans have been changed already, and the best you can do is be flexible, I think, play it all by ear. Life goes on, and we respect Mother Nature too.

Luckily, it's the Christian Sabbath so I suspect many people will just take today as a day of rest...

Self-Administered Justice?

RIP Mark Madoff:

NEW YORK — Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's eldest son hanged himself by a dog leash in his apartment Saturday, exactly two years after his father's arrest in a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that swindled thousands of investors of their life savings.

Mark Madoff, 46, was found hanging from a ceiling pipe in the living room of his SoHo loft apartment as his 2-year-old son slept in a nearby bedroom, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

Madoff, who reported his father to authorities, has never been criminally charged in the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history and has said he and his brother Andrew never knew of their father's crimes.
...
Mark Madoff's body was discovered after his wife, Stephanie, became concerned when he sent an e-mail to her early Saturday morning that someone should check on their 2-year-old son, said the law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the death.

Madoff's wife, who is at Disney World in Florida with her 4-year-old daughter, sent her stepfather to the home. The toddler was found unharmed, along with a dog.

Bernard Madoff, 72, swindled a long list of investors out of billions of dollars. He admitted that he ran his scheme for at least two decades, cheating thousands of individuals, charities, celebrities and institutional investors. Losses are estimated at around $20 billion, making it the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history.

He was arrested on Dec. 11, 2008, after confessing his crimes to his sons.

The scandal put a harsh light on members of the family. The financier's brother, Peter, played a prominent role in the family's company. Mark and Andrew Madoff both worked on a trading desk at the firm, on a side of the business that wasn't directly involved in the Ponzi scheme.

In February, Mark Madoff's wife petitioned a court to change her last name and the last names of their two children, saying her family had gotten threats and was humiliated by the scandal.

Just days ago, a court-appointed trustee filed a lawsuit seeking to recover any money from the fraud scheme that had been paid to members of the Madoff family, including Mark Madoff's two young children.
...
A year ago, the trustee, Irving Picard, sued several relatives, including Peter, Mark and Andrew, accusing them of failing to detect the fraud while living lavish lifestyles financed with the family's ill-gotten fortune.

The lawsuit accused Mark Madoff of using $66 million he received improperly to buy luxury homes in New York City, Nantucket and Connecticut.

"This is a tragic development and my sympathy goes out to Mark Madoff's family," Picard said in a statement Saturday.

Said Bernard Madoff's lawyer, Ira Sorkin: "This is a great tragedy on many different levels."

Calls to the FBI and U.S. Attorney's office were also not immediately returned. Previously, spokespeople for the brothers had repeatedly denied that they had any knowledge of their father's crimes.

How sad -- sincerely -- for everyone involved... Suicide is never the answer, even if he was thinking his family was better off without him, and perhaps even if -- with life insurance, annuities and previously transferred money -- financially, now they are.

----------------
*Reminiscent of this death.

Pete Orswag in at CitiBank.

or,
"But Dad, ALL the successful organizational kids are doing it..."

File under the "surprise, surprise" tag. Jim Fallows bends over backwards trying to be PC about this, but he's spot on in his analysis:

[A]nother category, which I think is even more important, involves things that everyone "knows" but has stopped noticing. This is very similar to what is called "Village" behavior in the big time media.

An item in this second category has just come up: the decision of Peter Orszag, until recently the director of the Office of Management and Budget under Barack Obama, to join Citibank in a senior position. Exactly how much it will pay is not clear, but informed guesses are several million dollars per year. Citibank, of course, was one of the institutions most notably dependent on federal help to survive in these past two years.
...
I believe Orszag (whom I do not know at all) to be a faultlessly honest man, by the letter of the law. I am sorry for his judgment in taking this job,* but I am implying nothing whatsoever "unethical" in a technical sense. But in the grander scheme, his move illustrates something that is just wrong.

The idea that someone would help plan, advocate, and carry out an economic policy that played such a crucial role in the survival of a financial institution -- and then, less than two years after his Administration took office, would take a job that (a) exemplifies the growing disparities the Administration says it's trying to correct and (b) unavoidably will call on knowledge and contacts Orszag developed while in recent public service -- this says something bad about what is taken for granted in American public life.

When we notice similar patterns in other countries -- for instance, how many offspring and in-laws of senior Chinese Communist officials have become very, very rich -- we are quick to draw conclusions about structural injustices. Americans may not "notice" Orszag-like migrations, in the sense of devoting big news coverage to them. But these stories pile up in the background to create a broad American sense that politics is rigged, and opportunity too. Why do we wince a little bit when we now hear "Change you can believe in?" This is an illustration.
_____
* What choice did he have? He could have waited a while. He could have gone to a lucrative job at a business school or even a think tank, for perhaps half-a-million per year versus many millions. He could have written a book and gone big time on the lecture circuit. He could have taken a corporate job somewhere other than finance. He could have taken a finance job someplace other than Citibank (or Goldman Sachs or AIG etc..)

[Illustration is Thomas Nast's famous caricature of Boss Tweed, in an earlier era of pluto-politics.]

(Still on vacation. Just consider this a PSA post -- or news not to be missed in our blessed holiday season! Can't wait to see what the satirical writers do with this one -- riper for the pickings now than even the much-discussed Queen of Caribou and that failed Senatorial candidate who once admitted to dabbling with witch-dating...)

Holiday Road.

Travelling the Heartland, visiting with family...

It's a long way down, the holiday road.

The blog is temporarily shuttered.

It's in the way that you use it...

It comes and it goes...
So don't you ever abuse it,
Don't let it go.

By JENNY GROSS, Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG – An acclaimed outdoorsman who wrote movingly about testing himself against nature is presumed dead after a crocodile snatched him from his kayak while he led an American expedition from the source of the White Nile into the heart of Congo.

Two Americans being guided by 35-year-old South African Hendrik Coetzee on the grueling trip could only watch in horror. They paddled unharmed to safety after the Tuesday morning attack on the Lukuga River in Congo.
...
In a blog called The Great White Explorer that chronicled the trip sponsored by the Eddie Bauer clothing and outdoor equipment company, Coetzee wrote about the thrill of taking to uncharted waters, including stretches that might soon disappear due to planned dams. He also described sometimes facing suspicion from military and other officials. One day ended in a storm:

"As hard, warm drops trashed at our little selves and a pair of goats, we stood precariously on an unknown slope deep in the heart of Africa, for once my mind and heart agreed, I would never live a better day," wrote Coetzee, who was known as Hendri.
...
Coetzee wasn't just interested in the adrenaline rush, said Hugh du Preez, a friend who kayaked with him.

"He also had a fantastic social conscience," he said, explaining that Coetzee ran kayak trips for underprivileged kids in Sudan. "He was one of those people that would look after others not only in a physical sense but also nurture them spiritually and mentally."
...
One of the Americans recounted on his blog how Coetzee has warned them about the dangers of the trip, including "three-ton hippos that will bite you in half."

"Stay off the banks because the crocs are having a bake and might fancy you for lunch. Basically, stay close behind me and follow my lead. Any questions?" the blog quoted Coetzee as saying.

Deadly hippo and crocodile attacks on humans are not uncommon in Africa, though figures are hard to pin down. Johnny Rodrigues, a wildlife expert in Zimbabwe, said parks authorities there are reluctant to give out numbers for fear of scaring away tourists.

"They are the predators of the water," Rodrigues said of the crocodiles.

So don't you ever abuse it...
We come and we go.

In Coetzee's most recent entry dated Nov. 26, he wrote: "As I licked my dry lips and carefully checked that my spray deck was on properly, I had the feeling I might be doing something I should not. I pushed through the doubt and when I finally shot out the bottom of the rapid I was happy I did. It was just paranoia after all."

Save the ... Snails!

People, people. This is just wrong:

Giant snails take a beating on Miami Beach
By The Miami Herald | Arts and Culture
BY DAVID SMILEY

The 45 giant pink snails visiting Miami Beach for Art Basel season were supposed to inspire reflection on the environment and the fast pace of South Florida life.

Instead, the recycled plastic gastropods have been treated like unwanted tourists — punched, tagged with graffiti, relocated by county order and, in one case, tossed into Biscayne Bay.

“Every morning I wake up with a disaster,” said Gloria Porcella, co-owner of Galleria Ca’ d’Oro, which has backed the Italian art collective behind the 45 snails’ appearance.

...
Sometime over the weekend, several snails on Dade Boulevard were upended, and someone tagged two others with graffiti, she said.

The topper: A snail in Maurice Gibb Memorial Park was “launched in the water” of Biscayne Bay.

Miami Beach police say they have received reports about the vandalism and a detective from the department’s property crimes bureau is investigating.

For Porcella, who just opened a gallery in Coral Gables, the experience is a first. She said the snails project, which has also been exhibited in Rome and Paris, has never been vandalized or disrespected the way it has been in Miami Beach.

Surprise, surprise.

Can we at least stop funding the settlers with American taxpayer money then? (Too late to ask for our billions back?)

Can we withdraw American troops from the region, in the coming decades, and let the Israelis fend for themselves against the "terrorists" who will fight back, fight for the homeland that is continually being taken from them?

If the UN has no legitimacy to Israel now, having served its purpose back in '48, then let Israel fight -- alone -- to preserve the independence of their UN-created homeland. If it wasn't won fairly, and it can't be defended fairly apparently either, then why are we risking American blood and treasure to boost the misconceptions of religious extremists? (G-d given title, to take land as they see fit.)

Are we still pretending that what's going on between Palestine and Israel has no bearing on terrorism? Anybody still believe that? How about the belief that the U.S. is backing the wrong wronged party here? That one starting to catch on, in any enlightened circles?? Inquiring minds want to know...

U.S. Ends Push to Renew Israeli Freeze on Settlements
By MARK LANDLER

WASHINGTON — After three weeks of fruitless haggling with the Israeli government, the Obama administration has given up its effort to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to renew an expired freeze on the construction of Jewish settlements for 90 days, two senior officials said on Tuesday.

The decision leaves Middle East peace talks in limbo, with the Palestinians refusing to resume negotiations absent a settlement freeze and the United States struggling to find another formula to bring them back to negotiations. It is the latest setback in what has proved to be a tortuous engagement for President Obama.

Officials said the administration decided to pull the plug because it concluded that even if Mr. Netanyahu persuaded his cabinet to accept an extension — which he had not yet been able to do — the 90-day negotiating period would not have produced the progress on core issues that the administration originally had hoped for.

Speaking of pulling the plug,
symbolically, isn't it time to let Sharon -- and all his administrations stood for -- die the most dignified death possible? Let the past be past, and look to the future... But then again, why?

If you've got American troops stationed in your backyard, and the American Prez pretty much telling Israel, "Our ally: right or wrong. Your crimes are our crimes, and we will pay for your sins... We got your back, no matter what." Heck, you might not realize what you're risking until it's much much to late to take positive actions to improve your position... although I suppose they've got another potential ally all picked out to support them and replace us, once the American moneytree runs dry...

Elizabeth Edwards dies...

and UW Law Professor Ann Althouse gravedances, in a pre-death post and then one after. Here's my comment, highlighting two of Ann's quotes:

She did not apologize to us for participating in the deceit perpetrated by John Edwards, which skewed the 2008 Democratic primaries....

She was one of the new sort of political wives, who had independent career aspirations yet choose to move into a man's shadow.

Shhh... hush now. She's gone, Ann, to a place where even your mean spirited words on a person's deathbed can't reach her anymore...

You know, I'm in my early 40s; you're pushing 60. Not sure how you were raised compared to me, but... why speak ill of the dead? You look particularly ugly here -- why gravedance?

Does it boost your ratings all that much? Can't you find a young bosomy female to aim your angst at? It's just ... unbecoming. At 60, 40 or 20 even.

Not sure how come you never picked up on this in your up American upbringing but, why speak ill of the dead here? She's gone; let her rest in peace already, and perhaps focus internally:

What the heck made you so naive as to support a man like Edwards (or Obama, for that matter?) Not everyone can be as ... independent a career woman as you, raising your lil Co-hen's alone, and now supporting a houseman of your own, who seems to be choosing a "career" very similar to Elizabeth, no?

I'm sure my comment will soon be deleted though -- no mentioning personal issues on the Althouse blog unless... you're secretly celebrating the death of a non-working attorney Mom*, who leaves behind two children at home...

If that don't fire up the snark machine at Althouse, what can??? (BREAST cancer... it was da breasts that did her in, and we all know how any mention of those, positive or negative! baby, can up the blog hits. A dead woman, especially a well known one, drives traffic. And that Althouse woman, she knows how to play the traffic-driving game.)

Still, you think even an out East upbringing would have taught some compassion for the dead, some indication of a time to speak out... and a time to close your mouth, for respect's sake.


* It's my understanding that she quit practicing law when her eldest son was killed in a car accident, and she wanted to be present for every moment possible with the other two, born late in her life. Sounds like, in retrospect, she made a good choice, her time being truly limited and all. But I would NEVER presume to judge her personal family choices, especially now that she is dead.

ADDED:
At least, the good professor is getting some pushback in the comments:

Kathleen said...
"She was one of the new sort of political wives, who had independent career aspirations yet choose to move into a man's shadow."

LOL. or...maybe she didn't want to outsource raising her kids. You're dating yourself, professor.

and

Titus said...
You sound somewhat mean Ann regarding this woman and I don't find it attractive at all.

I don't understand any of the nastiness people display when someone dies-it's weird.

We all die and it sucks for all of us.

thank you and good day.

and

Jason said...
Eh. It's over.

I'm cutting slack.

I have no political foes on deathbeds in America. Only brothers and sisters. Countrymen.

RIP Elizabeth Edwards.

John is paying his own price, one way or another. All that counts now is what he does from now on. Same as the rest of us.

and finally, some perspective:

Daniel Fielding said...
The reason she died so soon was because she made a conscious decision to stop taking the meds that were keeping her alive.
This happens to many a Stage IV cancer patient, especially for those whose have gotten cancer for the second time after the cancer has metastasized. Usually when that happens, there is not much the physicians can do, but make your last days as comfortable and pain-free as they can.
I suppose that this was the scenario Ms Edwards was faced with a few days/weeks back, and she decided to not prolong the inevitable.

RIP, Ms Edwards.

Snow!

Only 2 inches, but we'll take it...
My landlord Larry got a new toy: a bright shiny green-and-yellow John Deere riding snow blower, with chains on the tires, and a matching yellow cap. He can plow now with the shovel on the front of the pickup, and get closer/between our cars if they aren't parked too tight...

I have a shovel of my own in the trunk this winter, thanks to an early sale at Farm and Fleet. (or Fleet Farm, the Blain not Mill's one. Started here in Rice Lake, actually...)

The sun is fully out behind the clouds -- a typical winter sight, the hidden orange halo effect. It's was a light snowfall too; there's ice underneath, but a fluffy two inches to brush off the car...

They have the main roads plowed well. That's one nice thing about the Streets departments in smaller northern towns, they generally are practiced and know what they're doing. Thankful for the new tires too, underneath an old car.

And did I mention, it's another beautiful Saturday morning?

It just struck me as funny.

But I'm pretty sure,
he didn't have what she thinks he's having...

Insult to Injury
Dec 3 2010, 4:07 PM ET

Eugene Volokh has a condundrum:

"Funchess was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of death." Or, if you prefer, "Appellant was also sentenced to one to two years imprisonment for abuse of corpse, a concurrent term of one month to two years for tampering, and one to two years for criminal conspiracy, to run consecutive to his death sentence."

For sentences of time in prison, whether the sentences run concurrently or consecutively ends up being very important. But just what the significance of having consecutive death sentences, or prison terms consecutive to a death sentence, I can't off the top of my head figure out (though it's not like you can have imprisonment concurrent with the death sentence, either).

I'm guessing it's so that even if the death sentence is overturned on appeal, or commuted, the guy stays in jail. Alternatively, maybe it just struck the judge as funny.

Oh those junior economists...
Why sweat the details, eh?

(I'm guessing she just made a spelling error. Or perhaps is unfamiliar with the words she's using. Either way...)

------------

UPDATE:
Fixed!
But it appears Megan has moved on to personal problems of her own:

The Mortgage Deduction Should Be Done Away With--But It Won't
Business Dec 3 2010, 4:21 PM ET

Having recently entered into homeownership, I am now in the unhappy state of having to advocate against my own interest. As someone whose freelance expenses make it worthwhile to itemize, I plan to take the mortgage interest tax deduction until they phase the damn thing out, or I pay off the house, whichever comes first. But as an economics journalist, I retain my deep hatred for the thing.
...
The deduction's sort of like a giant McMansion in an undesirable exurb with a whacking great underwater mortgage: no matter how terrible it is, no matter how much we hate it, we're probably stuck with it for the foreseeable future.

You know, you don't have to accept all those unwise favors and privileges: How deep is your hatred?

Next thing you know, people will be paying you not to work, and that's when you really find yourself in an economic condundrum principled pickle, and all...

Go Crazy. Punch a Higher Floor.

Q. "And if the elevator tries to bring you down?"

Happy Friday, friends!

("Take a look around you...")

"We wait in joyful hope..."

or, for the secular crowd:
"Busy, busy, busy!"

It's odd when there's more written here, there's more downtime in general. (Like how your place looks most scattered, when you're in the midst of organizing). Less here means a busy R/L, and with the weather and the travel checklist, hobbies get neglected.

The lake has frozen over in the last week; we're due for another week below freezing, and more snow on top of the weeks-long ground cover. 13 degrees at 3:10 on the bank sign yesterday afternoon, I noted. (My camera either is on the blink, or just had a fro-mo: temporarily frozen up.)

It's a simpler time of year, if you let it be.



ADDED:
It's like there was a double suicide pact on last week's Survivor, as the bedimpled host was forced to "smuff" two torches. Should have made them self extinguish, and no, that's not the same as suggesting they light themselves on fire...