Quote While You Can....

The front & center column in our local "commentary" section featured this piece by John Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute. It begins with this quote by Ray Bradbury:

"There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feel it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme."

Now that's worth reading.......and maybe on a daily basis. Even though all this may be far too late. My fears began with the publication of Robert Hughes' Culture of Complaint some years ago.

Now, whether it's clowns to the right of me or the jokers to the left, it's all about......control.

Maybe This Time......

Not much of a joiner, never have been. But The Long Now Foundation may be an exception. I've been tired of the relentless presentism of modern culture for a long time and, at 65, I'm fed up. So, yes, I can see myself joining an organization the most tangible project of which has been the design and construction of a 10,000 year clock. Such things as always writing "0" in front of the year (so that we're now in 02009) seem more pretentious, but I'm sure they'd just say I'm not yet there in my ten thousand year thinking yet.......

But if not.....

Yet another meeting on the "critical catastrophic crisis" today with Mr. Obama and assorted governors. It's as if, despite a vast and highly questionable plan having been passed, that having meetings every day will somehow help to cure the country's economic malaise.

Then there are the endless theories, mostly incorporating at some juncture a hopeful prediction as to when the recession will 'turn around.'

But it doesn't take a whole lot of reading to see that we are living in a monstrously complex economy, that is tied in to an incalculable degree with other economies in the world, and that no one has an accurate view of what's going on.

Which is why I'm doubly apprehensive at the haste to pass a gigantic 'stimulus package' only a month into the new administration. Yes, there's a lot of pressure to do something, but that doesn't make this wise.

If there's anything specific that bothers me, it's the rush of government at every level to preach tax cutting, while at the same time proposing -and in some cases already passing- measures to generate more revenue, many of which may charitably be called inadvisable.

The thing I'm looking for -and have yet to see- is a list of government cuts to attempt to balance the deficit that is only growing worse. And it's not going to come, because every one of our elected officeholders is already looking at November of 2010 and sweating.

Endless Catastrophe

I believe this subject, which I have visited ere this, bears reiteration. The world is not ending, despite the constant stream of disaster / catastrophe reporting (and even series on cable), such that even 8 inches of lake-effect snow on Rochester or Buffalo is deemed a Sign of the End Times by some.
If this continues, I expect we'll have shows airing next season entitled A Volcano in Your Back Yard, Tsunamis for Two, Lahars in Laredo, Earthquake Ecstasy.
The constant natter about catastrophe and chaos perhaps makes it seem normal to view such series as Obama and the Fearmonger Express, doing exactly the same thing he took G.W. Bush to task for even before his nomination. Only the War on Terror was / is not "real," but if we all don't get behind his legislative agenda we face then end of the world as we know it. The Sky Will Fall.

OK, Chicken Little.....

All Is Speculation

Heard on TWC this morning: "We're going to be talking about that plane crash near Buffalo all day today. We don't know the cause yet, but we're going to be talking about the effect weather may have had...."

.....and so it goes. The Near Bankrupt Paper of Record elected to have Ron Obvious write this story, with an execrably written headline: Fifty Varied Lives, Ended on a Cold, Foggy Night. Extra commas, we has them.

Bye-bye Blagojevich

What was virtually inevitable has occurred, the Illinois State Senate having convicted and removed Rod Blagojevich as Governor of Illinois, and further voted to prohibit him from holding any state office in future. For those who aren't familiar with the document, these things have been done pursuant to specific provisions of the Illinois Constitution of 1970....the law, in other words.

What I am going to say now should not be confused as any sort of encomium for Blag-O, but the performance of the Illinois Legislature, certain other Illinois elected officials, as well as certain member of Congress and other Federal officials (specifically exempting Federal Prosecutor Fitzgerald) has been alternately clownish, discreditable and cowardly in the weeks since Blagojevich's indictment.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan attempted to circumvent the provisions of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 by attempting to have the Illinois Supreme Court declare Blagojevich "incompetent." No provision for doing this is a part of Illinois law. Madigan should resign as Attorney General and be forced to wear a placard in public (I'll settle for a tattoo on her forehead) saying: "I tried to suborn the state."

Congressional Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid attempted to exert pressure to have Blagojevich removed. For this the Illinois Legislature should pass a declaration specifically condeming these actions, including the names.

President Barack Obama went on the record, lending presidential weight to the attempt to speed up Blagojevich's removal. For this, the President and his associates should be vigilantly watched. While Blagojevich probably deserved to be removed from office, there's little doubt the skids were greased because he represented (and perhaps still does.....) an embarassment to the current administration in Washington......which I don't believe is part of his Federal criminal indictment, nor, I believe, is embarrassing someone part of sufficient grounds for impeachment.

As Blagojevich's Federal indictment moves forward, the matter of his other involvements may bear closer watching than it did before "Little Rod" left office.

Sidetracked

I'm afraid my initial impression of President Obama -that of a politician who has the best appearance and presence of any president since Warren G. Harding, and a better speaking voice than any politician I can remember hearing- has been coupled in the days since his election by a sense of "nobody home."
This man has gone into office with significant political capital (which can never be repeated), simply by virtue of his race. And this week he has spent valuable time 1) chiding the opposition party for listening to a popular radio talk-show host, and 2) criticizing the bonuses paid to corporate executives. Neither of these actions is of any importance whatever. I find it impossible to believe that any inhabitant of the White House fears Rush Limbaugh, and the provisions of existing contracts (which the bonuses of the executives in question surely must be) are simply none of his business. I can only conclude (at least I hope!) that these are simply filler material, perhaps diversions of some kind.
Something about Obama has seemed familiar to me since he came to prominence last year, and I finally figured out what it was. He sounds and talks like every good used car salesman I've ever listened to, hoping the volume of his rhetoric will overcome that rattle in the valve train, or the gurgle indicating oatmeal in the radiator.
What should the president be doing? For starters, how about making sure the various energy initiatives begun in the last few years are maintained and go forward? With the current slump to $2 gasoline, many are already fading fast. But I've seen.....nothing.