The phrase to be chiseled on the grave of our current economic order is “too big to fail.” Did it not strike you as odd, back when it was first being tossed around, that scale was taken as the analogue of necessity? There’s a basic human bias that equates largeness with importance, and by extension [...]
IOZ views the debate and despairs:
To me the most despairing moment of the whole debate was the discussion of when it is appropriate to use military force, and Joe Biden laid out two points, the first of which was is it feasible, which sounds reasonable after the last eight years until you pause and consider [...]
Mark Kleiman’s passion for justice carries him away in this post discussing Bill O’Reilly’s cameo appearance in An American Carol, in which he slaps the Michael Moore character.
Waiting for the debate and watching the post-debate spin, I saw four ads for the anti-Michael Moore film. I liked it better when thugs like Bill O’Reilly concealed [...]
Links of interest for August 24th, 2008 through September 30th, 2008:
Housing Prices in the Three Americas - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com - A large fraction of the ?troubled assets? that the government may soon buy from Wall Street are backed by real property. When the dust clears, how much will all that property be worth?
The [...]
Seven hours on the road from Chester and we’re finally home, sixteen days and 2518 miles later. We averaged about 50 mpg in the Prius: up to 55 mpg in gentle mountain terrain and as low as 44 mpg on I-5 at 70 mph.
Here’s a Google Map of our travels; I’ll be filling in the [...]
Bumpass Hell, that is, in Lassen Volcanic National Park.
We started out this morning at Burney Falls, a beautiful 129-foot waterfall about 45 minutes north of the park. It may look familiar to Tarzan fans, for it was used as the backdrop for one of the early Tarzan movies with Johnnie Weismuller.
Burney Falls
Then on to [...]
Today I spent most of the day at Backun Musical Services, where I had sent my clarinet for an overhaul. From the moment I walked in the door, I felt more than welcome: everyone there was overflowing with enthusiasm about what Backun is doing to advance woodwind technology, and wanted to make sure that I [...]
Today, while sitting at breakfast in the sunroom of our B&B in Victoria, BC (in a quiet residential neighborhood a block from the beach end of Beacon Hill Park), I saw an elderly woman walking down the sidewalk with a sign pinned to the neck of her blouse.
“War Is Dysfunctional”
I ran out and stopped her [...]
Today we left Ashcroft House with the intention of visiting both the Butterfly Gardens and Butchart Gardens, which are fairly close to each other north of Victoria. But we never made it to Butchart Gardens. Instead, we spent almost three hours entranced by our close encounter with thousands of flying jewels.
A close encounter of the [...]
Last night we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lake Oswego, and this morning visited my former mother-in-law, Mom Powers: 96 years old and still going strong.
A morning with Mom Powers
She lives in a very nice senior community, but complains that most of her acquaintances there just want to “sit around and eat [...]
Publishers of Truth (QuakerQuaker.org)
