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Showing posts from January, 2010

Crabwalking through History

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Note: This is a loose end. I intended to explore this subject again since my post last summer. See July 19, 2009. The tragedy depicted here happened 65 years ago today. “History, or, to be more precise, the history we Germans have repeatedly mucked up, is a clogged toilet. We flush and flush, but the shit keeps rising.” (page 122) So does Gunter Grass attempt to capture the essence of history within his novel Crabwalk . I read it back during my beach vacation last summer. The weather today is more appropriate for it though. Outside my home it is cold, grey and raining. We had some freezing rain overnight. The title for the novel comes from Grass’ interesting approach to history. “…should I do as I was taught and unpack one life at a time, in order, or do I have to sneak up on time in a crabwalk, seeming to go backward but actually scuttling sideways, and thereby working my way forward fairly rapidly?” (page 3) The novel shifts from the past and the present and, further, it shifts non-

10,725

I wanted to post this earlier in the week but work, family, and other important issues of the day prevented it. Here is a quote from Richard Russell's web site dated September 28, 2009: "I look at the big picture, and I scratch my head. One item remains on my mind. Back in 2008 I wrote a good deal about the 50% Principle . Considering the entire Dow rise from its 2002 low to its 2007 high, it was important what the Dow did on a decline toward the halfway point or 50% level. That level was 10725. On October 6, 2008, the Dow closed at 10249. On that day the Dow closed below the 50% level. From there, the Dow declined to a March 8 low of 6547. Since then, on the advance from March low, the Dow has never climbed back above 10725, the 50% level. I find that significant." On Tuesday the Dow closed at 10, 725.43. It reached the critical 50% Principle threshold. In terms of Dow Theory, this represents a test of the rally. It is not uncommon for major market corrections to retrac

Dehumanizing Democracy

The Supreme Court today made a horribly unwise decision. It blew past the previous inane ruling made decades ago that "money is speech" and jumped to the colossally stupid conclusion that "there is no distinction between individuals and corporations as it applies to spending on federal campaigns." In other words, corporate spending on political campaigns is protected by the First Amendment. This tranforms the political sphere, like the public sphere before it, into a marketplace - that most sacred temple of our national religion of capitalism. It is difficult for me to express how utterly harmful this is to our already screwed-up campaign financing situation. The next president will be forced to spend well over a billion dollars to get elected, most of that money will now inevitably shift toward negative campaigning (because it works so effectively on the feeble minds of our voting population not because it actually communicates anything of intellectual value in th

An Ironic Election

The irony of it all. Ted Kennedy works his whole life for some sort of national healthcare policy. He dies just after Obama (whom Kennedy anointed as the next great national leader) becomes President. Obama's number one domestic priority is some sort of national healthcare policy (the president has never been specific about the policy). Then a Republican wins Kennedy's former Senate seat - a seat held by the Kennedy family since the 1950's. This tilts the national healthcare debate slightly in the Republican's favor because it gives them a thin 41 votes in the Senate. Is national healthcare now doomed because its greatest champion during my adult lifetime has died at the moment of its greatest chance for success? I can only hope so. The bill has evolved into a patched together compromise that really doesn't please anyone . It has never adequately addressed the fundamental crisis of healthcare in this country - which is cost . Instead, it morphed into "boog

A New Lesson from Frankenstein

Last semester my daughter had to read Frankenstein as part of her advanced placement lit class. She whined a lot about it. AP makes her work more than she wants to. But, she got a B in the class and that’s just fine with me. Especially since she studied hard to get it. Anyway, I hadn’t read Mary Shelley’s classic work since college. For a couple of weeks mostly around the holidays it served as bedtime reading. Frankenstein is likely the world’s first science fiction novel , at least the modern beginnings of the genre . Somewhat amazingly, this novel was first published in 1818. It is a piece of gothic fiction with some vague bits about biology, chemistry (or alchemy), and electricity thrown in. Electricity was a theoretical science at the time of Shelley’s writing. It had first been written about in the 1600’s but was merely a scientific curiosity at the time of the novel’s publication. The intentional use of theoretical scientific methods to “reanimate” human life gives the novel

Haiti

I've been trying to wrap my mind around this disaster in Haiti . When they first said as many as 100,000 dead I was surprised and thought the estimate would end up being too high. Surely 100,000 human beings can not perish in an earthquake in the 21st century. Today they say 200,000 . It just blows my mind. The last time a rector scale 7 earthquake hit in the US was in the Aleutian Islands in 2003 . Apparently, magnitude 7 or larger quakes happen on average almost 20 times each year worldwide, though there have been a good bit fewer than that recently . The ones in California aren't that big usually. That horrific tsunami that devastated parts of southern Asia in 2004 was due to a 9, the second largest earthquake ever recorded . Pat Robertson says the Haitian earthquake is the result of a pact with the devil . Let's see. Brit Hume thinks Tiger Woods should become a Christian and drop this Buddhism stuff . Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh implies we gave enough to Haiti befo

Frozen Pine Winter

Since sundown January 1 it has been below freezing here for all but a few hours. The last two mornings it has been 14 degrees. Our heat pump is giving us the finger, running nonstop. But, this weekend has been bright and sunny and mid-afternoon today it got up to 34 degrees. The wind was forceful yesterday but the sun felt warm enough. I spent awhile this afternoon outside with the dogs in the sun and a constant, slow freezing breeze. The dusting of snow we got Thursday night is still everywhere the sun doesn’t shine. When I was a kid growing up here we had cold spells that would last a week or two. So, this reminds me of the way winter used to be, cold, in the shadow of pines waving in the dry arctic breeze. Most of the stock ponds have frozen over. On cloudy days you can walk on the sheet of ice, but when the sun is out it melts the surface into slush. Tree dormancy is something of importance that most people never consider. I was told by the County Extension Agent several years ago

No podium, no curtain

Jennifer and I had the pleasure of watching the DVD of Gustavo Dudamel’s inaugural concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic last night. I ordered the DVD from amazon.com on Tuesday and it arrived in two days without any special shipping. There are so few packages in the various delivery systems of this country that what few there are just zip right on through, arriving promptly. A subtle sign of an excess in capacity – the Great Recession is with us still. The quality of the sound on the DVD is great but not noticeably better than the recording Jennifer purchased off iTunes and gave to me for Christmas. Nevertheless, watching a classical music performance has always given me an added dimension of joy and this was no exception. Several things make this DVD better than merely listening to the excellent recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. This is the first time, other than in photographs, I have ever seen the amazing Walt Disney Concert Hall . The orchestra is situated more or less i

Great Firsts

This is how karma works. The best gift I received this past Christmas season was from my wife. Jennifer gave me a new recording of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 , “ Titan ”. I have several other performances of this magnificent symphony in my collection, but this one was particularly special for a variety of reasons . What makes a gift so special? Is it the thoughtful giving or the appreciative receiving? This Christmas, my best gift was one that moved beyond the simple joys of the exchange. The gift immediately inspired other experiences and broadened into this shared connection of a broader gratitude. Jennifer and I listened to this rather historic performance and were both pleased. It led to a discussion about the symphony itself. I played my copy of Benjamin Zander’s excellent lecture on Mahler’s First which added depth and numerous specific guideposts by which to appreciate the symphony’s intricate, complex, development. This, in turn, led to a discussion about other great firs