Never mind.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Super Committee Discussions
If you want to know what's really going on inside the Super Committee working on the nation's budget, here's an insight: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/11/12/opinion/sunday/20111113_MCFADDEN_CARTOON.html?ref=opinionhttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/11/12/opinion/sunday/20111113_MCFADDEN_CARTOON.html?ref=opinion
Raising Cain
I didn't watch last weekend's republican debate, and no new polls are out yet. Still, one of the surprising results of polling to date is the continued strong showing for Herman Cain.
I just came across a blog post from a couple of weeks ago by Bruce Bartlett, an experienced republican operative, titled "The Secret of Herman Cain's Success." It is worth reading, for the view it gives of the post-civil war history of partisan leanings by African Americans.
His post includes useful reminders of the history of the Democratic Party as a pro slavery party and a racist party for a century after the Civil War. I think he gives insufficient recognition to support of some white southern democrats during this period for economically progressive and populist measures. I totally reject Bartlett's view that republican policies at the present time are at all beneficial for racial minorities or anyone else not in the top one percent economically. Herman Cain, of course, is in the top one percent.
If you read Bartlett's post, be sure to read the comments. They contribute a lot to understanding the context.
I'm working on my own detailed critique of Bartlett's views.
I just came across a blog post from a couple of weeks ago by Bruce Bartlett, an experienced republican operative, titled "The Secret of Herman Cain's Success." It is worth reading, for the view it gives of the post-civil war history of partisan leanings by African Americans.
His post includes useful reminders of the history of the Democratic Party as a pro slavery party and a racist party for a century after the Civil War. I think he gives insufficient recognition to support of some white southern democrats during this period for economically progressive and populist measures. I totally reject Bartlett's view that republican policies at the present time are at all beneficial for racial minorities or anyone else not in the top one percent economically. Herman Cain, of course, is in the top one percent.
If you read Bartlett's post, be sure to read the comments. They contribute a lot to understanding the context.
I'm working on my own detailed critique of Bartlett's views.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Mario Monti, Technocrat, To The Fore
So now, at the insistence of Brussels technocrats, economist Mario Monti has become Prime Minister of Italy.
This completes the process begun in the 1980's and 90's when Italian technocrats, briefly in control of Italy's government, sought to exchange Italian economic independence for German central bankers.
There were many economists who warned that a plan where countries had to borrow money in someone else's currency would eventually not work.
Eventually may be this year, next year or the year after, but looks like sooner rather than later.
Many Italians cheered the departure of Berlusconi and the arrival of the technocrats. Lat's see what they say a year from now.
This completes the process begun in the 1980's and 90's when Italian technocrats, briefly in control of Italy's government, sought to exchange Italian economic independence for German central bankers.
There were many economists who warned that a plan where countries had to borrow money in someone else's currency would eventually not work.
Eventually may be this year, next year or the year after, but looks like sooner rather than later.
Many Italians cheered the departure of Berlusconi and the arrival of the technocrats. Lat's see what they say a year from now.
Businessmen In Government
For those pining to turn government over to a businessman to run, I have a one-word response: Berlusconi!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
So How's The Football Team Doing?
I confess. Over the years, I have enjoyed watching college sports. When I was a student at Ole Miss, I even watched some of the games from the sidelines, wearing a press pass and carrying a 4x5 Speed Graphic press camera. I can still, fifty odd years later, give a rousing "Hotty-Totty," the Ole Miss cheer.
But I never understood what big time college sports have to do with education. Lately, I have to conclude that college sports interfere with education.
Last September, I received a weird e-mail from the Chancellor of the University of Mississippi complaining about "anonymous, malicious and public attacks" on the athletics director, including threats on the chancellor that it "will get real ugly" if the director isn't removed. A month later I received an e-mail from an organization seeking my support in their effort to get rid of the athletic director. Earlier this month I received a letter informing me that both the football coach and the athletic director have resigned.
All of this came to mind as I heard the news about Joe Paterno and the Penn State football team. Plainly in both cases, the tail is wagging the dog.
I imagine few members of the public in either Pennsylvania or Mississippi know the name of a single college professor or the head of the institution, but they know the name of the coach. And to most of them, the most important fact about a public university is the football team's won-loss record.
In the face of this set of priorities, any talk by our political leaders of a need to improve higher education is whistling in the wind.
The distortion of priorities starts well before college. This morning I read that a group of high school parents has filed a suit in New Mexico seeking to insert their high school into the state playoffs. The issue? Game officials started the clock too soon at the end of the game (by three seconds), depriving the team of the chance to kick a forty-one yard field goal and possibly get three additional points in a game they won, that would have improved their ranking enough to make the playoffs.
Does anybody really care about education?
But I never understood what big time college sports have to do with education. Lately, I have to conclude that college sports interfere with education.
Last September, I received a weird e-mail from the Chancellor of the University of Mississippi complaining about "anonymous, malicious and public attacks" on the athletics director, including threats on the chancellor that it "will get real ugly" if the director isn't removed. A month later I received an e-mail from an organization seeking my support in their effort to get rid of the athletic director. Earlier this month I received a letter informing me that both the football coach and the athletic director have resigned.
All of this came to mind as I heard the news about Joe Paterno and the Penn State football team. Plainly in both cases, the tail is wagging the dog.
I imagine few members of the public in either Pennsylvania or Mississippi know the name of a single college professor or the head of the institution, but they know the name of the coach. And to most of them, the most important fact about a public university is the football team's won-loss record.
In the face of this set of priorities, any talk by our political leaders of a need to improve higher education is whistling in the wind.
The distortion of priorities starts well before college. This morning I read that a group of high school parents has filed a suit in New Mexico seeking to insert their high school into the state playoffs. The issue? Game officials started the clock too soon at the end of the game (by three seconds), depriving the team of the chance to kick a forty-one yard field goal and possibly get three additional points in a game they won, that would have improved their ranking enough to make the playoffs.
Does anybody really care about education?
Friday, November 11, 2011
Pamlico County Election Results
For those who want to look at the complete unofficial election results for Pamlico County, here is a link to the State Board of Elections web site. There are still a few provisional ballots to be counted. They will be counted at the official canvass at the Pamlico County Board of Elections office Tuesday, November 15 at 11:00. The count announced at that time will be certified as the official count unless there has been a protest or challenge filed before the canvass.
11-11-11
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, along the trench line from the English Channel to the Swiss Border, the guns that had first sounded in August, 1914, fell silent. The greatest human conflict up to that time, that set in motion the fall of empires and the creation of new nations, had come to a pause.
The silence of the guns was not because one side or the other had won or lost. There was no surrender. It was only an armistice - a temporary agreement to stop fighting. It was a truce, not a surrender.
Even that truce almost didn't happen. In late October, the German Naval Command, without authority to do so, organized a final great sea battle with the Royal Navy. They were only prevented when sailor's mutinies broke out in Wilhelmshavn and Kiel. The mutiny grew into a revolution that overthrew the Kaiser and established a republic.
During subsequent peace negotiations, the Western allies treated Germany as a defeated power. John Maynard Keynes, who viewed the punitive provisions of the Versailles treaties as disastrous, wrote a short book, The Economic Consequences Of The Peace, that foretold many of the events that led to the renewal of conflict in 1939.
Still, we continued to celebrate Armistice Day as a day of hope that war would be no more. The custom began of wearing a poppy on Armistice Day, a custom visible at yesterday's session of the British Parliament during the interrogation of James Murdoch.
The wearing of poppies was inspired by the poem, "In Flanders Field:"
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
The silence of the guns was not because one side or the other had won or lost. There was no surrender. It was only an armistice - a temporary agreement to stop fighting. It was a truce, not a surrender.
Even that truce almost didn't happen. In late October, the German Naval Command, without authority to do so, organized a final great sea battle with the Royal Navy. They were only prevented when sailor's mutinies broke out in Wilhelmshavn and Kiel. The mutiny grew into a revolution that overthrew the Kaiser and established a republic.
During subsequent peace negotiations, the Western allies treated Germany as a defeated power. John Maynard Keynes, who viewed the punitive provisions of the Versailles treaties as disastrous, wrote a short book, The Economic Consequences Of The Peace, that foretold many of the events that led to the renewal of conflict in 1939.
Still, we continued to celebrate Armistice Day as a day of hope that war would be no more. The custom began of wearing a poppy on Armistice Day, a custom visible at yesterday's session of the British Parliament during the interrogation of James Murdoch.
The wearing of poppies was inspired by the poem, "In Flanders Field:"
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
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