Cosmocracy!

Avoid it like the plague.

Gold standard Republicans

Bachmann, Pawlenty, Gingrich: they've joined a gold standard bus tour. Easy to unite on the what, harder on the how.

Lunch with the CIA (chew slowly)

The mad hedge fund trader had lunch with Leon Panetta and shares the results.

Interesting:

The long term outlook for supplies of food, natural resources, and energy is becoming so severe that the CIA is now viewing it as a national security threat. Some one third of emerging market urban populations are poor, or about 1.5 billion souls, and when they get hungry, angry, and politically or religiously inspired, Americans have to worry.

This sounds like a recipe for endless nationbuilding.

Any farm labor shortage

... can be filled by using criminal labor.

[GA Gov.] Deal suggested that people who are on criminal probation could fill the job openings: “There are 100,000 probationers statewide, 8,000 of which are in the Southwest region of the state and 25 percent of which are unemployed."

This Georgian idea dovetails in an odd way with events in Maryland, where the Democrat legislature tried to pass a law prohibiting employers from doing criminal background checks.

Of course, if you ran a farm in Georgia, you'd eventually have to do a background check to ensure you were hiring criminals.

Perhaps, eventually, non-criminals would sue. Unemployed college graduates; illegal aliens; teenagers tired of wilding; consider their needs before passing a criminal opportunities act.

Flannery O'Connor has a repository

Not underground, here, on the Web.

Summer is for shorter hair

Williambanzai7 is something of a financial stylist.

Al-Zawahiri's connetions

Muckety has one of its interesting little network charts drawn up for Ayman al-Zawahiri today. (Note - the expand function produces various effects from box to box)

What would Malcom Muggeridge say?

"Surely the glory of journalism is its transience."

USG puts out call for starship designers

USG has (borrowed) money for all kinds of projects.

From one darned jihad to the next

As much as chimps may prefer Glocks or H&Ks, I'm really struck by the resurgence in Model 1911 Brownings.

"M1911 comeback" gives 147,000 hits on Google. This is an old article but still interesting; the new article is in gun stores with every arms make putting out multiple variations on this venerable theme.

As a mere child I was taught the design was to stop the Moros of Mindano - Islamists peeved with Teddy Roosevelt and infused with lots of get-up-and-go. Well here we are 100 years later and...

(IBM just turned 100 as well.)

Job creation

... White House style.

Bitcoin fraud

... has begun. The claimant is a fraud or he was defrauded.

Renewable energy

Less so than you think.

Army revises its sumptuary laws (again)

The old Class A (greens) have been abolished in favor of dress blues. Wherever the A was worn, blues will now be worn.

The first time my father saw me in greens he said "You look like a Bulgarian railway conductor." The first time in blues, "Now you look respectable."

This would be an upgrade if Army folk didn't wear their battle fatigues absolutely everywhere at all times (even to Congressional hearings).

The debate continues!

Pipe or Cigar? Corporates or munis? Bourbon or Scotch? One hull or two? Cross-country or downhill? Sabre or épée? Mink or fox? Marienbad or Corfu? English or western? Oil or acrylic? Greek or Latin? Boarding or day? Gold or silver? Homburg or bowler?

Share the road

On a busy highway today I saw no fewer than two dead foxes. Share the road. We need foxes for hunting.

I still believe in John Edwards

"I still believe in John Edwards" gets you six hits on Google. That's quite a metric.

Top Gear demographics: your handy guide

No one wants a demographic mismatch in their television viewing; that would be socially and personally inappropriate. To save you, our worldwide readership, time that might be lost in inappropriate entertainment selection, we offer this brief socio-economic analysis of Top Gear.

English Top Gear (l-r): art school graduate (celebrity); public school boy (dilettante); public school boy (engineer)
Typical stunt: Have foxhunters and hounds try to catch an SUV cross-country
Audience appearance: well groomed, orderly middle class.
Program pace and tone: slow to moderate, needlessly competitive, slow repartee

Russian Top Gear (l-r): science institute graduate (analytical); macho proletarian (aggressive); clerk (docile)
Typical stunt: drive a car filled with explosives through a rocket barrage
Audience appearance: salt of the earth
Program pace and tone: fast, contrived, rapid repartee

Chinese Top Gear (l-r): hipster slacker (opinionated), white collar wage slave (intense); undergraduate student (verbose)
Typical stunt: See which powers a grain mill better, donkey or Cadillac
Audience appearance: random, young
Program pace and tone: slow; gaps in repartee

Australian original Top Gear (l-r): art school graduate (opinionated); formula car racer (relaxed); rally racer (chirpy)
Typical stunt: race to haul more gold ore in competing pickups
Audience appearance: farmers
Program pace and tone: slow to moderate, gregarious, little repartee

Australian new Top Gear (l-r): rally racer (chirpy), prole (droll), prole (dull)
Typical stunt: test drive a downmarket Ford
Audience appearance: farmers
Program pace and tone: slow to moderate, contrived, less repartee

American Top Gear (l-r): rally racer (self-conscious), prole journalist (cheerful), NYC comedian (out of his element)
Typical stunt: whatever BBC Top Gear did last season
Audience appearance: younger blue collar men
Program pace and tone: slow, sparse repartee

McLuhan comments on Republican debate

Not really, but his comments apply to all debates since 1976.

Notice his rough handling of the hapless middlebrows.

Label the picture

I choose Clients in search of a patron.
(Part of our hard-hitting, wall-to-wall Election 2012 coverage.)

Brass to reclaim programs

Senior generals are looking to restore military programs that Gates cut. This is like a bad conspiracy movie filmed by a left wing director.

We are China

Charles Hugh Smith:

Despite their many differences, the economies of China and the U.S. share a number of key traits: both are corrupt, rigged, crony-capitalist, rely on phony statistics and propaganda and operate with two sets of rules, one for the elites, and another for the masses.

I don't think anyone under 30 realizes how far we have come in the falsification of data, in the open courting and rewarding of cash patrons, and in the application of informality to government decisionmaking, waivers being a brilliant example of the collapse of law in the US.

This seems like a good place to plug Shadowstats, if you havent't visited that site yet.

For a vigorous, healthy democracy

... you need a monarchy. Awesome data from 2010.

Unacceptable!

Before PC foisted "unacceptable" on the world, we would say "stupid," "inhumane," "evil," "wrong," "bad," "cruel," "thoughtless," "illegal," "immoral," "fattening," and occasionally, "NFG."

The Republicans, swimming in the water pop culture provides, deem "Obama’s ‘New Normal’ Is Unacceptable."

I could focus on the substance of their post but "unacceptable" stops me cold every time.

Chasing yield

Let's see, an 17.25% payout annually, that's pretty good. Until you consider the yield to maturity!

The end of the Arab nationalist

Buried in these hollow musings about overseas social engineering (did you think that our government would limit this to the USA?) there lies a point that needs broader development: the Arab revolutions have thus far collapsed Arab Nationalist governments. The monarchies have survived but the secular dictatorships have fallen, with Ba'athist Syria and nationalist Yemen on the brink.

That Arab nationalist governments are being destroyed and their ideology is on death's door is an historic point something like the end of communism.

Dodd-Frank doomed

Any reasonable adult knew that Dodd-Frank was going to help political friends, hurt political enemies, and that any bark or bite would be removed in the application of the law. This story can be filed with all that shock-unexpected-surprise economic reporting.

Walter Benjamin = kitsch

An admirer of Benjamin notes that he has been rendered into kitsch by the cultural machine and that his fans are his worst enemies.

I would say that he has been made accessible to that vast middlebrow audience that over here torments us with the idiot reductionism of PBS, NPR, NYT, WaPo, etc.

Pallets of cash

You wondered what pallets of cash look like. Now you know. (Next year, this may buy a gallon of milk.)

"Going to Law School Was The Stupidest Thing I Have Ever Done!"

Okay, then!

We need this

We need a "Cannon Superstore." Imagine the possibilities.

Theodore Darymple

The writer we know by the pen name Theodore Darymple has a fan blog (with audio and video clips, for those so inclined).

What would Auberon Waugh say?

“Anyone wishing to communicate with Americans should do so by e-mail, which has been specially invented for the purpose, involving neither physical proximity nor speech.”

Humanity's right to cheap soda

... apparently extends to welfare recipients.

Corruption noticed

The Politico has done quite a spread on the scope of Obama's deep, personal corruption. Knowing their readers as well as they do, however, they had to take the sting out of the story by subordinating it to a big headline and investigation that proves talk show hosts sell advertising.

Give me my rights

All I ask for is that the federal government show the same respect for MY gun rights as they show for the gun rights of Mexican drug cartels.

I wonder if Howie Carr will say that on his show today. His favorite mantra is, "All I ask for is the same rights granted to illegal aliens in this country."

The deserving and undeserving poor

Peter Hitchens fights for the distinction.

What we think of when we pass a traffic camera

Maryland deploys speed cameras built like battleships. An irate public responds, nevertheless. Apparently here the flash was damaged but the camera itself survived.

In the first season of Top Gear, they tried to outrun the flash in a series of tests. Fail, as the kids say.

Army revises its sumptuary laws

The black beret began as a symbol of distinction awarded Ranger infantry. Rangers saw the green berets on Green Berets in the 1960s and did not want to be less special than the Special Forces.

Shortly afterwards, airborne jump school cadre began wearing cranberry berets.

The beret impetus had another source; the army was wearing ugly, lopsided baseball hats imposed by Creighton Abrams near the end of the Vietnam War (IIRC).

One of the Clinton generals, later eased out by Donald Rumsfeld, had the brilliant idea of making every soldier both special and elite by giving the entire army authority to wear the black beret.

The Army Times reports that the beret has been scotched for a field cap for line troops. There is a practical aspect to this. As one soldier noted, "I hate wearing a wet sock on my head. Plus it makes my head/skin break out."

Now if we could just go back to making the wearing of fatigues off post or in the office a UCMJ punishable offense, this old soldier would be quite happy.

"Rabbi to the stars"

One supposes the stars need rabbis, too. But what's this about rabbinical death curses?

First Things pans Atlas Shrugged

But then they would, wouldn't they? Meanwhile, Nathaniel Branden praises the film. But he would, wouldn't he?

"Underwater nation"

Jim Willie says the underwater nation cannot swim. If you like your commentary vivid, this is for you. BTW, large excess reserve accounts at the Fed? Many are currently loan loss reserves that disguise a bank's insolvency...

"False Keynesians"

Barack Obama has been victimized by "false Keynesians." Perhaps you heard this already.

Do you get the feeling that no matter what, Mr. Keynes is not going to be tarnished by this debacle?

Will it be inflation or deflation?

Jesse's arguments for inflation seem compelling:

The US is a democratic republic and a huge net debtor, in both current and future obligations. The choice of genuine deflation as such would therefore be a national economic and political suicide favoring foreign holders of its debt. I cannot think of a reasonable scenario for such a choice except for coercion such as war reparations and under heavy constraint. But it is a possible choice.

Further complicating the decision is the inescapable fact that the US holds what is still the world's reserve currency despite a movement to alternatives. A stronger dollar and monetary deflation would crush the world economy by destroying the interconnected global banking system as it is now constituted, in addition to devastating its own domestic economy. Deflation does favor the ends of a powerful few, however, so it cannot be said to be off the table.

If the status of world currency works against domestic fiscal policy, one has entered the land of Triffin's Dilemma.

The modern collector as WalMart shopper

Low comedy from flush middlebrow art collectors. But you were expecting, what exactly?

The search for authenticity has shifted, interestingly, to Iron Curtain era dissident art.

Activist court, international edition

Beyond Dispute: International Judicial Institutions as Lawmakers -

Today, it is no longer convincing to only think of international courts in their role of settling disputes. While this function is as relevant as ever, many international judicial institutions have developed a further role in what is often called global governance.

This is a paper today but it will be an entire scholarly discipline tomorrow.

Unnatural selection

The triumph of "women's health" issues may be reducing the number of women in the world - radically.

"The mirage of ennumerated powers"

From the Claremont Review:

The truth that dare not speaks its name then is this: there is no formula, no principle, nothing arising even out of the logic of the Constitution or the American regime that can furnish any hard limits that confine the federal government's reach or divide the local from the national jurisdiction.

And,

even with the guidance of the Constitution, even with some of the principles contained there, imparting a useful discipline, casting up warnings, the decisive grounds of judgment must be found elsewhere, outside the text.

Mladec = Blofeld?

Private Eye certifies his villainy. (Note to NYT readers, PBS watchers, and NPR listeners: the captions are switched.)

Not just a talk show meme anymore

Howie says:

There are two Americas. John Edwards was right. But not in the way that the Anthony Weiner of the last decade could have ever imagined. The two Americas are the Dreaded Private Sector, where the real unemployment rate hovers close to 20 percent, and housing prices have taken a bigger plunge than they did during the Great Depression. And then there’s Public Sector America, where the good times never end.

That Dreaded Private Sector needs to shape up. In a command economy, can't you just order it to shape up?

Privatizing the right to deceive

One of the benefits of being a state-owned enterprise is that all of the lying privileges the central state reserves to itself become available to you. Hence, the deceptive and manipulative behavior of GM, reported here would get an ordinary (unprotected) firm in trouble with the SEC. This is a testing of the waters; GM will likely push the envelope of "self expression" in this government-by-waiver. What's good for GM...

Repossess your bank

It didn't work this year but try again next year.

Head first

Gadad Bob has plunged "Head first into Christianity." If I were forced to predict how that would have come about for Bob in particular, the way it happened is the way I would have predicted: heavy reading of Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II. The really satisfying thing about this stage of the RC church (for me, an non-RC) is having had two world class German theologians at its head (if my may call the previous pontiff a German theologian). In this post, Bob makes a core insight "accessible" to all:

For to be born into the human state is to follow the realtor's eternal advice of purchasing the worst property in the best neighborhood. Life -- or the civilizing process -- consists of improving your properties.

And it is a never-ending project. We are all fixer-uppers. Some may have more superficial "curb appeal" than others, but when you actually see who lives inside, or inspect the foundation, or consider how high the roof goes, you may be in for a surprise. Conversely, some rather modest shacks can be mansions inside.

The "elevator story" on Orthodoxy

My own favorite "elevator story" on Orthodoxy is "This was Christianity before Charlamagne founded Roman Catholicism."

Apologies to the RC brethren!

J.D. Huneycutt has a funnier story.

Meanwhile, how long before we see door-to-door atheists?

AKP - less victory than publicized?

We have been overdosing on AKP victory stories but Spiegel says the Turkish Islamicists have not done well enough to revamp the polity.

BTW, how nuts is it to read a Boston/New York/Washington newspaper for analysis of a Turkish election?

Hackers vs. Bernanke

I wonder if these are the folks behind Climategate? Addison Wiggin has the new video of hacker demands on Ben Bernanke.

Art forgery stories

Can you get enough of them?

"The Arab awakening is turning into the Arab nightmare"

And this is a surprise to whom? The left.

"An Ollie North moment" for the MSM

That's what these Palin emails are, Quigley says. I say, let's wait a little longer.

Monarchism: a third way?

You missed it: "The Russian Imperial Union-Order organised a conference, 'The Monarchy and Progress.' Question: To side with communism or liberalism?

Conclusion: neither.

Why can't we have conferences like that?

"Greece will default sometime in 2012"

So says Taki, who adds:

... this prediction comes from the great oracle of economics Taki, the very same Taki who smelled a rat even before the Greek government was caught red-handed cooking the books under the advice of the poisonous giant squid, Goldman Sachs.

If Greece restructures any of its debt the wrong way, it'll enter technical default, and I think that's already happened. If I read Zero Hedge correctly, a default "event" has already occurred and lowered the national rating to CCC. Of course, more events are yet to come. "How can anyone take these Greek politicians seriously?" Let's not limit this to Greek politicians.

An evolutionist looks at churches

Proposes that Protestant "openness" is an invitation to extinction.

Bitcoin - more bit than coin?

John Robb, who is usually good with P2P, is down on bitcoin. Joel Bowman, part of a team of bubble watchers, says stop picking on bitcoin. Samizdata sees the fate of the Internet in the lowly bitcoin. Cryptome says what we have here is triple entry book keeping - a good thing.

It's hard to imagine goldbugs trading physical for blips. These bitcoin hoarders must be a different beast entirely.

There's no need to hedge risk

... because there's no risk to hedge. Welcome to zombieland where capitalism = nostalgia.

Regulators vs hippies

Yoghurt eaters patronizing a farmer's market in California are discovering that voting Democrat has consequences.

The generals were terrified

Some generals in command of our PowerPoint Army went four days without a PowerPoint slideshow. "Heartstopping."

Barofsky is our favorite ex-bureaucrat

Dan Rather sometimes acts like a journalist. Who knew?

“Counsel, you’re scaring me”, Mr. [Dan] Rather said. “You should be scared, I’m scared. You can’t not be scared.”, former TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky replied.

Profanity at the link.

Anthony Powell remembered

A few years ago, I gave my wife A Dance to the Music of Time and she liked it. She detests my politics but reads my novels!

I'm not, therefore a disinterested party. I had read it myself in the 70s after reading Evelyn Waugh's war trilogy. Waugh's books were strong drink - a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel told me how much he cried at the end of this trilogy. This brought a tear to my own eye. Blast sentimentality.

Powell's series was less striking, in terms of that sentimental chord, less cartoonish as well, and given the length, the civility, the resonance, you had the feeling this can go on forever. When it ends, you are at a loss and the loss has a tinge of surprise. It's good to remember Powell, and better to remember him at length. There is such a thing as the conservative novel.

Understanding the oligarchy and wage slavery

This is a good post, but Charles Hugh Smith can do much better: "Our Participation Fuels Financial Tyrrany." Smith is a wonder, sitting on the emerging left-right convergence, however he lacks certain basic reading in his education, such as the Fugitives' work generally and Man Against Money in particular.

Hell week for royalists

We're tired, very tired. (1) Queen's birthday. (2) Duke of Edinburgh's birthday. (3) Anniversary of Umberto II's departure from Italy.

All this hot on the heels of the death of Grand Duchess Leonida Georgievna, the Romanov heir, and her successor's visit to Russia (Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna).

No longer available in Greece

Courtesy, American Monarchist.

The tragedy of the feminized male

This Limbaugh meme of the tragedy of the feminized male (as being played out in the Weiner scandal) is powerful stuff. This is the old Limbaugh from 1984 and the kind of analysis on which he built his show. When the man was hitting on twelve cylinders (3 hours x 4 segments per), it was like four weeks of great newspaper columnist punditry in one show.

He needs to return to that level. The linked transcript is too long, but skim it: the meme is worth it. And excellent photoshopping!

Moldbug is back

And he's serving "slow history"...

Back in a new twitterized format

Let's try something different...

Towards a pre-Goldwater Republicanism

The flight of wealthy Obama voters out of the Democratic Party has begun and the GOP is about to be inundated by money and personalities that hail from a pre-1964 political era. That was when liberals of means knew their interests and acted accordingly. This flight from the Democrats will be augmented by a tide of independents who have just now figured out "what it is."

Rockefeller returns and the Snow/Collins/Specter types will soon hold the commanding heights within the party. I fear conservatives within the GOP will be the rump of a rump (the larger rump being the pre-Obama Republicans).

It may be time to take the New York Conservative Party's example national.

(Scanned news clip above has a caption from 1970: "That venerable institution, Nelson Rockefeller, with sidekick Bob Dole looking on, vents his political philosophy on a group of student demonstrators who had previously vented theirs. The action occurred in Binghamton, N.Y., on Thursday. Need we ask why Rocky was fingered for the job? Courtesy Eicher.)

Bumper sticker of the day

Harsh, and yet...

Certifiably demonic caregivers

Hospices care for people in the last stage of illness. A hospice will have clergy on staff for obvious reasons. At the Hospice by the Sea in Florida, "chaplains were told Feb. 23 to 'cease and desist from using God in prayers.'"

Make it better

The other day I saw a bumper sticker, "Veterans for Obama," affixed to a car with handicap license plates. Assuming the handicap was earned in the service, I wonder what the driver of that vehicle makes of the latest news from his hero.

In the late 20th Century, America was a land governed by lawyers. They would make their case / suggestion / point and leave it at that. Nowadays we are ruled by Ivy League professors who happen also to be lawyers and they are - of course - more intelligent and diligent than mere attorneys.

So when the proposal is made, "Let the war wounded heal themselves," the old-style politician would have thought his work was done. Brilliant idea, it's on the table, done. But the new class of leader has the facts and figures to prove it will be worthwhile to allow the wounded to heal themselves. He is prepared to argue a full case in the court of public opinion. In this case we save $540 million if we cut off medical support to veterans. Awesome. Case closed.

You see the difference between an Ivy League law professor and an ordinary attorney? And yes you can put a price on suffering. Juries do it all the time. Don't look so shocked.

Not being a professor, I tend to wonder about how things will be implemented, however.

What will the veteran have to do to get the same level of medical care afforded to civilian Obama voters? The vet could pretend to be an indigent civilian but when the screener asks where the condition arose, he would answer "war" and be disqualified from government assistance. Oops.

The solution appears to be: (1) go to an emergency room (2) speak no English (3) present forged ID. Or, veterans could simply perform back-alley operations on each other.

Whatever their choices, the savings to the government will be substantial. Enough money will be freed up for earmarks, bailouts, federal funding for community activism. Perhaps enough servicemen may still remain motivated enough to safely ferry Obama, Reid, and Pelosi about in their military aircraft of choice.

This government is all about savings - but the right kind of savings.

A bean ball hits the beantown

Looks like Boston is shaping up as a one-newspaper town - with that paper being Murdoch's. Lovely.

A Gordon Brown moment

To celebrate his visit, a little something from Private Eye.

Political automobiles

People nowadays like to make political statements with their cars (witness the hybrids) but there was a time when the very name of the car was politically charged.

The interwar ideological struggle between democracy and tyrrany somehow played out in the marketing department of Studebaker, where they made Dictators, Commanders, Dominators, Champions (enemies of Dominators?), and Presidents. They showed a taste for executives of all persuasions.

The People's Car, on the other hand ("Volkswagen") left no doubt that one identified with the masses from either a red or brown standpoint.

For parliamentarians, the Premier auto company made Premiers, but not enough to survive the rising tide of fascism.

After the war, there seems to have been a monarchist boomlet: you could express these tendencies in an Austin Princess or with a Ford Monarch. (I like the ones with the giant crown in the grill.)

Nowadays, Asians have developed a taste for republicanism: Australia's HSV makes a Senator and Nissan makes its own President (with no nod to Studebaker).

The Red Chinese you would expect to name cars "Liberator" but this name has been taken by bourgeois Greens naively playing at revolution. In fact, China is set to export cars made by Chery to the US and these lack political nomenclature. Like Chery itself, they seem to have been named by Pee Wee Herman. There's Karry and Tiggo and Riich. (A car named Riich might be a political statement for a Red automaker - can't rule that out.)

The best Chery auto name transcends politics. It transcends everything. It's the "Eastar Cross."

(That's its picture topside.)

The serials: Talk radio ruining the right?

An editor of National Review, of all people, is moaning about talk radio ruining the right. In other words, the dumbed down, culture-free, newspaper-quality, middlebrow National Review represents a standard to which lowbrow talk radio should aspire.

I was reading a back issue of Modern Age this weekend, marvelling at its eternal excellence while lost in a piece about Germany's biedermeier literature - literature I last enjoyed as a teenager and with which I associate many happy memories.

There was a day when a shorter version of the same piece might have appeared in the NR. No more: Buckley's creation has relentlessly moved downmarket. "Don't let them immanentize the eschaton," once NR's proud rallying cry is mere gibberish to the middlebrows cranking out a short ration of two-syllable analysis for what must surely be the upper tier of talk radio listeners.

In that they are much less adept than say Rush Limbaugh who harnesses not merely verbal skills but an admirable literary sensibility to his enormous analytic capacity. He does this live, in real time, putting out the same "product" as NR but of a higher quality, more copiously, and cheaper.

This comparison is apples-to-apples despite what any of today's NR editors may think. The editors currently in charge have made of NR a single product company and their product competes with talk radio. It competes poorly, in fact, because Rush and the better talkers understand their medium much better than NR understands print magazines.

Have you ever picked up a copy of the venerable Spectator? I don't mean the American Spectator (which should out of decency revert to its original name of the Alternative), I mean Britain's Spectator. Just look at the ads to understand the difference in audiences. Gallery reviews; composed music; serious books discussed seriously.

Recently, Standpoint appeared on American newsstands, an excellent new British conservative magazine that the American conservative political movement would find baffling and esoteric. (I'll devote a little space to it soon.)

National Review consciously engineered a downward shift in its appeal to a wider audience. This happened just as Rush appeared on the scene. There should be enough institutional memory at NR to recall there is a conservative highbrow market as surely as there is a lowbrow market and that NR itself is splitting the difference, not out of choice, but because it is staffed by people of limited culture and insight who do not understand their own medium, much less others'.

A leader spams his people

Endless junk mail from the chief executive of the United States. Empty, meaningless "communication." More on the way.

Creepy behavior from the new president.

Truth and reconciliation in the Madoff affair

When bad things happen, there is a bureaucratic drive to limit the scope of the story to the narrowest possible definition of the event.

In the case of the Madoff swindle, Madoff's many financial accomplices have been shielded from scrutiny. Hat tip to Valdis Krebs who is reconstructing the channels that delivered clients into the inferno. As journalism takes its rest, bloggers must step in.

Do not do business with Madoff's accomplices.

Excommunicating the Pope

When politicians demand of the Pope various Roman Catholic excommunications, we should at last understand that nothing is allowed to fall outside of the realm of politics. The government will determine who is in communion and who is not just as it determines who is using too much oxygen or releasing too much carbon dioxide.

Further, when the Pope fails to excommunicate on political command, he is in breach of the public trust and may himself be politically excommunicated by various elected leaders. Such an attack on religious institutions is perfectly in keeping with the scope of Europe's parliamentary dictatorhips.

Don't worry about the Pope or the Church; the political psychosis of the age is the greater concern.

A trade called "journalism"

From the indispensible Politico:

A reporter was escorted out of a White House event by Secret Service agents on Wednesday afternoon after he approached President Obama to seek an autograph.

Politico was founded to deliver the political reporting not available from major U.S. newspapers. This story is archtypical in that the press at large is pleading for autographs and the Politco is observing and reporting on them.

More please.

Best Totalitarian headline of the day

For yesterday from the Kansas City Business Journal: Obama plan will create or save 73,000 jobs in Missouri, 35,000 in Kansas

Hard to pick out a "best totalitarian line" from the "story." The piece presents a White House press release as news with no additional reporting whatever. Claims made in the handout are presented without qualification.

Down with obstructionism!

For today from the Chicago Tribune:

Joliet artist works on behalf of proposed labor law

Best totalitarian line from the story:

The Joliet artist recently completed a painting depicting President Barack Obama holding a copy of the Employee Free Choice Act—complete with his signature. The act has yet to be passed by Congress, but Farrell and union leaders hope that day will come soon.

Soon the workers will triumph.

Taking the oath

As every schoolchild in America knows, the end quickly came for Wallenstein when he had his officers take an oath to him personally rather than the Hapsburg emperor or Holy Roman Empire. The emperor understood the significance of the act immediately and responded.

In this U.S. polity, the people are sovereign and the equivalent offense would be an oath given to a person to the exclusion of the institutions of the people (the collective sovereign).

The end of Wallenstein having been immortalized in theatre, opera, literature, and painting, would-be oath givers like Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, et al, had to walk softly. Thus the Hitler oath for civil servants contains caveats:

I swear: I will be faithful and obedient to Adolf Hitler, Führer of the German Reich and people, to observe the law, and to conscientiously fulfill my official duties, so help me God.

The law and duties make this more than just about Hitler, you see. Likewise, Franco and the clerics:

I swear and promise to respect and make my clergy respect the chief of the Spanish State and the government established according to Spanish laws.

This kind of circumspection is not present in the current celebrity oath for Obama. Currently on viral video it reads:

I pledge to be a servant to our president and all mankind because together we can, together we are, and together we will be the change that we seek.

It is a simple oath: I pledge... because...

This is even more trouble than Hitler and Franco were willing to ask for.

Best totalitarian headline of the day

From Time magazine, "Barack Obama's Inaugural Address: Humility, Gratitude, Sacrifice."

Best totalitarian lines from the same story:

And then he brought it all together, the challenge and the duty and the promise: "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task." This was the day's catechism and call to arms.

We will perform our assigned duties gladly. There is nothing so satisfying as giving our all to the government's tasks.

The Serials: changes in news reporting

A popular meme on the right is that liberalism is losing newspapers their circulation. If it was ever true, it's not true now.

The slimmed down circulations have left papers with their core audience: middlebrows who buy bestsellers; who learn about trends from feature articles; who buy things based on lists and rankings; who search out tips on what to eat, to wear, and of course what to believe.

These middlebrow masses, listening to NPR, watching PBS, reading their newspapers and newsweeklies, are the bread and butter of an entire sector of the economy. The corporations who own and run big daily newspapers are very interested in pleasing this core audience. Expect papers to become more liberal as outlying demographics fall away. As costs are trimmed, one must serve the essential reader.

This dynamic is showcased in the changes happening at the newsweeklies Time and Newsweek. It's interesting to hear editors describe their patrons:

Meacham [a Newsweek editor] , wearing a dark sweater in his office overlooking Central Park, says that "we don't edit with the idea that there is a poor and uninformed reader out there who somehow needs illumination." He sees his audience as "the virtual Beltway," which he defines as people who watch Sunday talk shows, read newspapers and buy hardcover books.

Stengel [a Time editor], wearing a dark sweater in his office with a view of the Hudson River, says his philosophy, especially online, is "news for smart people. . . . We are arguably the best-known news brand in the world, and we want to leverage that."

Teaching point: Smart people buy hardcover books.

You have to translate "smart" here as brand-conscious consumers "who think they are smart," e.g. people of limited culture who are compensating with "must read," "must see," and "must hear," consumption. These tend to be high achievers, woefully overspecialized, whose hardcovers adorn some a prominent coffee table or bookshelf.

I remember during the last campaign, former Time editor Strobe Talbot's special friend, Hillary Clinton, stumbled over the pronunciation of President Medvedev's name settling on national TV for "Whatever." Mr. Whatever. Mrs. Clinton is that reader newsweeklies and newspapers must hold on to - someone not likely to have ever heard Medvedev's name in natural conversation, someone relying heavily on a trusted guide, an interpreter to help negotiate politics, culture, art, and technology.

Consider ever-increasing leftiness the beginnings of a long circulation drive:

Stengel says his goal is to "make Time lead the conversation, not follow it. To speak stronger with a point of view. To mix more analysis with reporting. Not to ask questions, but to answer them on the cover"

Any attempt to shame news organs into professionalism by references to their conduct during the Obama-McCain race misses the changes taking place.

This is "the new normal." "Professionalism" means serving the news corporation's customers better.

Best totalitarian headline of the day

From the Toronto Star: "Obama touches every base for the masses."

Best totalitarian lines from the same story: "A hush fell. More words – 17 minutes of words. And the Poet-in-Chief hit every mark."

Runner up: "Where the teeming masses stood, the passing of power came as crescendo, with fluttering flags and frenzied joy."

News bulletin: The poet-in-chief inspires frenzied joy.

Natural conservatives

Judge Bork was being interviewed on C-Span this week when the president of the Federalist Society tried to pin the Burkean tag on him.

In his (usual) brusque way he shrugged it off opting for something else. Don't ask me what he called it because I became distracted by his example of what it is not. The current debate over "true conservatism" - an ideological construct - he noted is not for him and probably not for Burkeans or conservatives.

If you go to the newer election-inspired "conservative" blogs, you see a lot of this non-conservative paradigm hunting going on with all the jiggery pokery that calls up.

Ayn Rand's taunt, "Conserve what?" is germane here. Either you go down the path of philosophical analysis with Objectivist-like rigor and face the consequences or you declare yourself, as I do, someone who feels himself conservative. You don't split the difference by producing a half-baked paradigm (Libertarian Party) or by negotiating lists of "principles" that are platform planks (conservative splinter groups).

Unlike Ayn Rand or her target Bill Buckley or today's "true conservative" discussants, most of us are not building, defining, or even joining a movement. We are just being ourselves and "feeling conservative" is as far as many need to go. In arguments with the paradigm hunters, I am told that this attitude lets all sorts of Lincoln Chaffees lurk within the movement.

This is a "top-down" view of the issue. The bottom-up view is to let like minds associate for political benefit, then deal with trouble as it comes.

Bork's point, if I extrapolate a little here, is that there may be something we could call a natural political conservative.

We encounter so many natural (non-political) conservatives in daily life that I wonder why movement-minded people don't do something with them, as many of them are already affiliated or organized by interest. Think of those who own classic cars; who collect antiques; who restore buildings, who raise "heritage" breeds, who restore paintings. The list could go on. (Obviously in this matter, gun owners and shooters have already found their political voice.)

So there is real work available for those arguing out definitions of "true conservative." Why not organize natural conservatives instead?

What next?

The meme among refuseniks just now is that the Obama charm offensive is prelude to the boom being lowered. The policy boom, the tax boom, the agenda.

There is an implied change: Obama gets ugly.

I disagree. Based on this man's love of political theatre and the rewards he gets playing this way, the grandstanding, the "healing" gestures, the conservative outreach, all that stuff that generates a honeymoon for him will continue. The real dirty work will be done by the overt partisans in House and Senate. The White House will keep its distance. The inauguration will continue for four years.

At the same time, Obama has taken control of the party at the secondary level. The Clinton retreads may look influential but in true politruk style they have Obamans working under them, watching them, waiting to replace them. Count Clinton teamsters still in place a year from now.

And we know a new party-building effort is about to begin at the grassroots level using recent campaigners as its core. It promises a cult of personality that will cut out the political middlemen and place a vast political/cultural force directly at the disposal of our new boss.

As Obama plows through rosy accolades, we refuseniks will be getting the Rodney King treatment off to the side. Harry and Nancy have the truncheons ready as do the state Democrats.

This is really going to smart. We'll be fingering our achey lumps while meditating on those purists who sat out the last election.

Best totalitarian headline of the day

From today's Boston Globe, a New York Times Company: "Masses share in Obama's reward."

Best totalitarian line from the story: "Obama's declaration that his own historic rise is as one with America's past is an act of generosity - one that will give his country a new burst of strength."

The leader gives his people strength. The leader shares his rewards.

A trade called journalism

A front page article in today's Washington Times (written by Julia Duin) opens with, "A variety of religions will be whooping it up this weekend ..." It's part of a series called "Waiting for Obama."

Get your whoop on, holy man: Obama's coming to town.

In the Great Chain of Newspaper Being this remark about whooping religions passed through the desk editor, copy editor, and front page editor without incident before landing in the print shop.

Unfortunately, the print shop does not apply quality control to newspaper content. Perhaps that needs to change.

Nutshell department

From today's Daily Reckoning:

Finally, thanks to the worldwide financial meltdown that the U.S. central bank helped bring about, the politicians can take control of America's most important industries. The dreams of central planners, meddlers, world-improvers, collectivists, Bolsheviks, corporatists and fascists are all being realized - right in the United States of America. All industries need money. And the U.S. Treasury department has it. And what it doesn't have, the Fed will supply.

From Saturday's Valleywag:

Incompetence and infighting are endemic to nonprofits, of course. But Wikipedia's bureaucracy is distinctly, fearsomely awful. The site, which dictates the online reputation of countless living people and companies, itself operates by rules that are completely incomprehensible, determined by a self-appointed group of volunteer editors who can seldom stop arguing over obscurities to explain their ways to outsiders.

And some sure signs of recession: counterfeit Bentleys and Rollers on eBay.

"Stupid" corruption

There is a kind of comment that keeps popping up in corruption coverage.

The corrupt, or indecent, or illegal act is labeled as "stupid." "Stupid" is -with some people - the only pejorative they'll use, along with perhaps "inappropriate". Pay close attention to the people making a display of how offended they are at the "stupidity" of the "inappropriate" act. They're telling us something about themselves.

Can we classify folks focused on the stupidity-of-risking -detection as being of the same ilk as the perps?

I do. Without exception. Try it yourself.

p.s. I notice just now some are on a "crazy" bender. Advice to international media conglomerates: when your on-air talent (or your ink-stained wretch) declares Blago "crazy" instead of immoral mark the speaker or writer down for an expense report audit. You won't be disappointed.

Gossip mongers take the lead

The political blogs and pundits have been asleep today (probably hanging back to keep everything responsible), so this Illinois corruption reporting and analysis has fallen to gossip columnists - and it may be their finest hour. (See here, here, here and here to start.)

Tip for the political blogs and pundits: all you have to do is read an affadavit to develop your material.

Go Gawker. Thank you, Smoking Gun.

The bone-chilling voice of pragmatism

A Republican denounces conservatism:

My experience is that conservatives do not ... see that peoples ... always seek someone to offer them a vision of how and why to live. They will seek this from whatever institutions happen to exist near them. And they won't be concerned that the documents that facilitated the formation of a particular institution might not have set forth that role as being a role for that institution to perform.

A professional conservative denounces small government: "Small isn't beautiful".

Help for the dispossessed

From today's copy of The Hill newspaper, page 46, a classified ad:

Change Can Be Difficult

Psychotherapy for the Politically Displaced

By appointment only in Bethesda, MD; Completely Confidential

Aliza Lerner, LCSW-C, [telephone number]

(Capitalization as per the original.)