Amazon's List of 'Well-Read' Cities

This is so astonishing that I’m not sure I believe it.  Amazon added up sales of books, magazines and newspapers, hard copy and digital combined, and then did a per capita calculation.  Columbia came out 16^th in the nation.

Cambridge, Mass. tops Amazon's list of 'well-read' cities

By Doug Gross, CNN, May 27, 2011

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/05/27/amazon.well.read.cities/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

1.      Cambridge, Massachusetts
2.      Alexandria, Virginia
3.      Berkeley, California
4.      Ann Arbor, Michigan
5.      Boulder, Colorado
6.      Miami
7.      Salt Lake City, Utah
8.      Gainesville, Florida
9.      Seattle, Washington
10.  Arlington, Virginia
11.  Knoxville, Tennessee
12.  Orlando, Florida
13.  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
14.  Washington, DC
15.  Bellevue, Washington
16.  Columbia, South Carolina
17.  St. Louis, Missouri
18.  Cincinnati, Ohio
19.  Portland, Oregon
20.  Atlanta, Georgia

Even within South Carolina we might expect more readers in Charleston and Greenville.  Columbia is a small city that is both the Capital and a University town;  maybe that’s it.  Anyway, it’s nice not to be on the bottom for once.

Government by Referendum

Populism, selfishness, rejection of accountability and responsibility are out of control.  We live in a Republic – an exceptional form of government established by our Founders.  But people today don’t have any knowledge of that let alone any respect for its genius. 

In this column, David Brooks and Irving Kristol remind us of the value of republicanism and the shortcomings of direct democracy – the need for and value of institutions.  We are also reminded of the original meaning of the phrase “public spiritedness” as exemplified by George Washington.

It’s worth your time – right and left.

The Politics of Solipsism

By David Brooks

NYT, May 5, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/opinion/06brooks.html?ref=davidbrooks

Some of my takeaways:

·         “The common man is not a fool, and the proof is that he has such modest faith in himself,” wrote Irving Kristol. 

·         America’s founders were republicans.  

·         The Founders erected institutions to protect themselves from their own shortcomings of character and judgment.

·         Originally, public spiritedness meant “curbing one’s passions and moderating one’s opinions in order to achieve a large consensus that will ensure domestic tranquility.”

·         Today, public spiritedness means somebody with passionate opinions who signs petitions and becomes an activist for a cause – self-expression rather than self-restraint.

·         Rather than study problems, issues and policies, politicians serve voters in the way a business serves its customers – the customer is always right. 

·         We are no longer alert to government policies that corrode the character of the nation.

·         [I would add that today’s politicians, even Presidents, are more likely to remind us that “elections have consequences” rather than “I was elected to serve all the people.”]

We have a dearth of leaders;  not in the nation but in politics and media.  We must find people who can help us realize we need institutions to protect ourselves from our own weaknesses.  We must revive the republican virtues upon which the country was founded.

The Senate Voted on Two Budgets

Here, in my view, is a simple example of media bias. 

You are likely aware that the Senate voted on the Ryan budget, which lost 40 to 57 with several Republicans joining all Democrats in voting no.  If you know this, it’s because you watched the news or read a newspaper and noticed the headlines – they were everywhere.

This vote was arranged in order to get all Senators on the record regarding the Ryan budget.  Democrats were anxious to have the vote because they knew the measure would lose and they knew that blue state Republicans would vote with the Dems.  Republicans went along because they believed that the vote would help them despite the certain loss.  They also went along because part of the deal was that there would also be a vote on the Obama budget.

The Obama budget was defeated 97 to 0.  No Democrats voted for it, not even blue state Democrats.  There were no main stream media headlines announcing this – Google it.  Only the blogs and right wing media reported the second vote.

That’s bias.  Our media have taken sides.  The Forth Estate is as dysfunctional as our politics.

Here is an interesting column from David Brooks describing how British politics and media are functional while ours are not.

Britain Is Working

By David Brooks

NYT, May 23, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/opinion/24brooks.html?_r=1&ref=davidbrooks

Brooks describes how politics is supposed to work;  it’s worth a read.  I took away two key points:

·         Main stream media should be setting the American political agenda, not cable TV or talk radio.

·         We have stopped talking to each other, even inside government.  Brooks wrote:

If the quintessential American pol is standing in his sandbox screaming affirmations to members of his own tribe, the quintessential British pol is standing across a table arguing face to face with his opponents.

American leaders are saying that anyone who will do what is necessary to win a government office should not be allowed to serve.  We had best start paying attention.

Medicare: The New Third Rail of American Politics?

The special House election in a Republican district in New York was a major disappointment.

·         Voters there allowed the election to turn into a referendum on Medicare rather than a broader referendum on fiscal policy – debt, deficit and unfunded liabilities.

·         The Republican candidate was incompetent, unable to communicate our fiscal problems, to explain the Ryan budget or control the debate.

·         The Democrat was either stupid or a liar – pretending that the popular position:  Medicare as we know it – was easily sustainable.

·         The voters there – led by my own “selfish generation” – were either stupid or selfish in their insistence on Medicare as we know it.

The risk is that this election means that the general population has its collective head up its butt.  As an optimist, I can see these slivers of hope:

·         New York is a blue state and therefore even upstaters there may not represent the sensibility of the greater nation.

·         It’s good news that that the Democrat won only 47% of the vote.

·         It could be that the off election had a low turnout that does not represent the true feelings of the district.

·         Millions were spent on propaganda ads here so perhaps the sleepy, disgusted center was misled in a way that will not apply to a general election in 2012.

·         Perhaps this result will remind the disgusted, a-pox-on-both-your-houses center that staying home is not an option.

These rays of possible light are weak tea compared to the current attitude of seniors and about-to-be-senior Boomers.  My generation appears to be saying “I want mine” regardless of the cost to my grandchildren or the good of the nation.  How shameful.

My grandchildren better get a serious education because we are going to leave them in the worst fiscal condition the nation has ever seen.  I hope they turn us Boomers in to Soylent Green – we deserve no better.

http://www.economist.com/node/18744523?story_id=18744523&fsrc=rss

The Obama/Netanyahu Flap

I thought the best net view of this issue was from Bill Kristol on Fox last night.  He said:

·         At least the President isn’t also insisting that America return to its 1836 border with Mexico.  [Perhaps Palestine and Israel should be returned to the Ottoman Turks or ultimately to their Egyptian predecessors.]

·         In his speech to Congress, Netanyahu made it plain that he is completely willing to see a Palestinian state.  His simple wish is that the Palestinians also recognize the state of Israel.

·         What nation has the right to tell any other nation how to negotiate or what conditions might already be decided?

Some think that Netanyahu will lose the support of Americans because he presumed to lecture our President.  Personally, I felt exactly that way when Congress and Arizona were lectured by the arrogant Mexican President Calderon.  But in this case, I was deeply embarrassed – again – by the ineptness of President Obama and his Administration.  He earned the outrage of his ally and the lecture from his more experienced peer.

Nobody wants a UN Resolution establishing Palestine as a state complete with predetermined borders but if the goofy Security Council is irresponsible enough to go there, then so be it.  The discredit will yet again be on the UN and have no better than zero affect on the problem.

Netanyahu vs. Obama -- What Is It About "No" That You Don't Understand?

By Judith Miller

FoxNews.com, May 25, 2011

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/05/25/netanyahu-vs-obama-dont-understand/#ixzz1NOXkXntK

Divisions Are Clear as Obama and Netanyahu Discuss Peace

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

NYT, May 20, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/world/middleeast/21prexy.html

Hunger in North Korea

Here’s a little exercise in accountability.  There can be no national government that cares less about its people than North Korea.  It’s starvation season there for North Koreans not in the government so the well fed Kim Jong-Il is begging for help again.

North Korea has long since grown dependent on food handouts from its estranged brother, South Korea, and from the United States.  But the South’s current president has taken a tougher line, tying assistance to less provocative behavior by Kim Jong-Il’s nuclear-tipped regime.

International critics of the North Koreans complain about the lack of transparency there.

·         Diplomats and foreign-aid staff are restricted in where they may travel.

·         South Korea says that the North is hoarding 1 million tons of rice, playing up a shortfall in order to get aid on the cheap.

·         Some say Mr Kim wants the aid in order to announce a bumper harvest in 2012.  Something approaching paradise has long been promised to North Koreans for 2012, the 100th anniversary of North Korea’s founder, Kim’s father.

·         The South also suspects North Korea of exaggerating its troubles in order to shift focus from denuclearization, last year’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island and the sinking of a naval corvette.

·         An activist network in the South says that the price of rice in the black market has actually fallen by around half in recent months.

Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter and other aid organizations who visited Pyongyang recently, say the fault lies with South Korea and the United States.  The hungry must be fed.  Tying government behavior to aid is wrong.  It’s even wrong for providers to demand transparency:

·         We wish to tour the country – as we do everywhere else in the world – to gather data about need.

·         We wish to monitor that the food goes to the hungry and not to the government.

·         We’d like to have a role in policies that might make North Korea less dependent.

It is past time for all non-emergency American aid to come with some basic strings – such as transparency.  When a government will not allow independent verification of need and distribution of aid, then the consequences are on that government.  Let the emergency of starving masses first soften the hearts of the unrelenting, rogue regime and its military. 

These principals should go double for hostile governments and redoubled for those that threaten their neighbors with weapons of mass destruction and their proliferation to other rogue states.

As for Jimmy Carter, this singularly stupid man cannot be recalled to his maker soon enough.

Jimmy Carter Blasts U.S. for Withholding Food Aid to N. Korea

Fox News, April 28, 2011

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/04/28/carter-n-korea-wants-guarantees-nukes/#ixzz1NOMpVIsS

The Politics of Hunger in a Brutal Place

Economist, May 12th 2011

http://www.economist.com/node/18682803?story_id=18682803

THE END OF THE WORLD - oops, not

I love Hitch.

Ain’t it the truth?  It was better when the crazies had to take to the streets with a sandwich board.  Now they have the internet.

Battle of the Sexes – The Smartphone Standard

Yep, marriage still beats dating – today’s standards are just too high.

Bob Dylan is 70

Some of us are more tightly connected to Dylan’s music than others.  There aren’t many fans of his conduct back in the day but the guy’s been consistently independent.

The idiot communists, laborites, pinko-commie progressives and every other hard left loony group have long been gaga over his early songs and heartbroken that the boy and man were steadfastly apolitical.  He’d sing at your gathering but ignore your glorious cause.

This year, Dylan agreed to perform in China – a very good thing – but had to once again endure all the loony lefties coming out of the woodwork. 

·         Reuters reported that he performed in China despite being censored – he denies that the Chinese censored anything. 

·         The awful Maureen Dowd castigated the man for going to China and not mentioning Weiwei’s detention. 

·         They all demanded that he sing the old songs – which he doesn’t do anymore – because they would offend Chinese Officials. 

·         Dowd compared Dylan’s performance in China to Beyoncé crooning to Qaddafi and Elton John serenading Rush Limbaugh’s forth wedding.

·         In a rare move, Dylan responded to all this on his website.  The link is below – it has a very Dylanesque closing paragraph.

A pox on all lefty morons.  Happy birthday Mr. Zimmerman.  Rock on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/opinion/10dowd.html?_r=2

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/us-dylan-china-idUSTRE7354IW20110406

http://www.bobdylan.com/news/my-fans-and-followers

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/05/13/136287250/bob-dylan-china-did-not-censor-me

P.S.  Dylan was never for everyone while for old fans like me, making a list of favorites is just too hard a task – there are just too many.   But if anyone thinks he stopped writing and singing decades ago, think again.  Even those who never believed he could sing might try this cut from the fabulous, must-see, 2000 movie The Wonderboys. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9EKqQWPjyo&feature=fvsr

His Love and Theft album from about 2001, ranks up there with all of my favorites.  Unfortunately there are no YouTube videos for Bye and Bye which might be his best cut ever.  It certainly compares to his 1963 version of Corrina, Corrina for which there is also no video.  You can hear snippets here or buy the cuts for a buck.

http://www.amazon.com/Bye-And/dp/B0028GA478/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1306278904&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=bob+dylan%2C+corrina

Any cut on Love and Theft is good but after Bye and Bye, try Lonesome Day Blues, Cry a While and Mississippi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJGj8SWhKWc&feature=related

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=bob+dylan%2C+love+and+theft

Poor N, this week porch night may have to include playing all of the Dylan I own.  Maybe I’ll give her a break and just play this album over and over.

Herschel, the Magnificent Jew

From Paul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD5AiDxqOKk

Cat and Dolphins

This is amazing, from Bud.  It’s a short video of dolphins and a pet cat interacting.  The clip is from 1997 at Theater of the Sea which is a marine animal park in Islamorada, Florida.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rynvewVe21Y

http://www.theaterofthesea.com/

Visitors to the park get to interact with dolphins and other animals from pontoon boats.  It’s pretty clear that handlers trained the animals to interact but it’s still incredible to watch.  When you think about it, training the cat is a more remarkable feat than training the smarter dolphins.

What GOP Confusion?

On the Sunday shows, George Will scoffed at the hype in the press over the GOP potential Presidential candidates.  In fact, the majority of talking heads now seem to agree about the various crazies adopted by the press for sundry reasons – they are not credible candidates.  Fox news embarrassed itself by giving a platform to the blowhards under the dubious title of “debate”. 

The left wants Romney because he’s as left as the GOP gets after Huckabee and doesn’t have Huckabee’s religion/social issues.  The GOP main stream and real conservatives want Daniels.  Some of the latter talk about Ryan, Christy, Bush, Huntsman and Pawlenty.  Nobody but the crazies like Palin, Bachman, Trump or Gingrich.  And nobody at all mentions Santorum or Ron Paul or the rest of those nitwits in the Fox “debate”.

As if on cue, Huckabee and Trump are out while Gingrich and Romney have pretty much imploded for the last time.

George Will said with his usual calm, confident, matter-of-fact manner that in 2013 one of three people will be giving his acceptance speech:  Barack Obama, Tim Pawlenty or Mitch Daniels.  That is guts ball for Will and incredibly reassuring.

The center of this nation needs to vote in the Republican primaries next year.  The objective is to defeat Obama – that man is simply too far left to lead America.  Obama is a demonizer, divider and class warrior, far from the promise of the 2008 candidate. 

In addition to the Presidential decision, Congressional progressives and right wing crazies must be dealt another severe beating at the polls.  The Presidential candidate should serve as the model for the kind of Senator we want to see in Washington.

The Bible thumpers and libertarians who run the Republican Party must be ignored.  They will not vote for Obama or stay home and see him reelected.  We need a leader in the White House with a history of bringing people – and legislators – together to solve problems.  We need a model of common sense that puts aside the tired old saws and attacks real root issues.  We need a model for Congress to follow and he probably needs to be the kind of person loathed by the activist base in both political parties. 

Our troubles can only be solved by bipartisan Congressional action led by a President who has earned wide support from the American people.  That man is not Barack Obama.  The right man, it seems to me, is Mitch Daniels.

Vote in the primaries;  defeat the party radicals.

Wow! Maps with Street View

Bud sent me this amazing site – you’ll be astonished.

Type in your address and take a look.  Play with the controls, there is much that you can do.  Don’t miss the photo and news tabs.  Also, check out your old neighborhoods – lots has changed.

http://www.vpike.com/

I am very curious to know how they get these images and how often.  How does a satellite do this? 

War Dogs

Note that you can click on any picture in any post to see it without interference.

This is a story for dog lovers.  Get out the Kleenex before you read about Pfc. Colton W. Rusk, Marine machine gunner and dog handler, and his dog Eli.  

War Dog – Photo Essay

by Rebecca Frankel

Foreign Policy Magazine, May 4, 2011

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/04/war_dog

The Dogs of War:  Beloved Comrades in Afghanistan

by Elisabeth Bumiller

NYT, May 11, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/world/middleeast/12dog.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=war%20dogs&st=cse

Note that you can click on any picture in any post to see it without interference.

Can you believe this snapshot?  Look at the other shots in the photo essay even if you don’t have time to read the articles. 

The dog, being smarter than people, seems to be reaching back with his front leg for the helicopter.  The Naval Seals are no dummies either – unless maybe they learned by experience – note the muzzle on the dog.  If my best friend ordered me to jump out of an airplane, I would absolutely try to bite him.

The Special Forces prefer German shepherds and Malinois but Marines in Afghanistan rely on pure-bred Labrador retrievers.  In Afghanistan, the job is to sniff out IEDs and the Labs have the superior nose.  I’m guessing but I bet the Labs are great ambassadors too when the situation allows.

The best military IED-finding hardware bats about 500 – the dogs find 80%.  Look at this Rover as ROV:

He has lights and cameras and goes anywhere.  I don’t see communications equipment on this dog but the article says they have it, along with doggie bullet proof vests and other gear.

So far, 20 Labrador retrievers out of the 350 have been killed in action – most in explosions of homemade bombs.  Within the Special Operations Command, the home of the dog that went on the Bin Laden mission, 34 dogs were killed in the line of duty between 2006 and 2009.   Like their handlers, dogs that survive go on repeat deployments, sometimes as many as four.  Dogs retire from the military at the age of 8 or 9.  

Over the last two years, there has been an effort to rapidly increase the number IED detection dogs in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The Marine Corps has plans to deploy as many as 600 dogs to their program before September 2012.  In late 2010 the Marines awarded a $35 million contract to American K-9 Interdiction to train and kennel their dogs.  Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos stated that he'd like to see "a dog with every patrol."

Combining the two reports we get the following story about Colton and Eli. 

During his deployment in Afghanistan, Marine Private Rusk sent his parents a steady flow of pictures and news about his beloved bomb dog, Eli, a 3 year old black Lab.  When Colton was shot by a sniper, Eli crawled on top of his body, attacking anyone – including Rusk's fellow Marines – who tried to come near him.  Rusk did not survive the assault but Eli, who was the first name on the survivors listed in Private Rusk’s obituary, was granted early retirement so he could be adopted by Private Rusk’s parents.

After the dog’s retirement ceremony in February at Lackland Air Force Base, an event that generated enormous news coverage in Texas, the Rusks brought Eli into their home for the first time.  “The first place he went was Colton’s room,” Mrs. Rusk said. “He sniffed around and jumped up on his bed.”

There’re more great pictures here:

War Dog II

by Rebecca Frankel

Foreign Policy Magazine, May 12, 2011

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/12/war_dog_ii?page=0,0



Note that you can click on any picture in any post to see it without interference.