Dum Luk's

Vigilence

2012-01-18T08:40:00.000-08:00

Just pay attention.

--ml

Gut Jul 2011

2011-12-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

As King John said:

To All & Sundry

F. Christmas in particular!

And may none be denied light enough to see by.

--ml

Noir with …

2011-11-27T16:08:00.001-08:00

Review by Martin Langeland

Bruno Heinz Jaja's PunktContrapunct was introduced at the Hoffnung Interplanetary MusicFestival as a sort of kaffee with flagellated cream.
If it weren't a tautology, I might call Roy's book a Noir with …but you see the problem. Fortunately you can read this delightfulyarn available at several locales [Itunes, Smashwords, B & N], cheap, and enjoy the whipping as abystander. From one sentence to the next he will surprise you withwry laughter, or conjure a rueful sigh, at a sharpish observation,while he slips in the necessary info to keep the plot humming alongand your ratiocinative powers nicely misdirected. This is thatrarity, a book that has been intelligently edited. No wasted effort.No windmilling. Just graceful, skillful language deployment inservice of the muse. The sex is nice too. I give it five stars onlybecause a one to four star system permits no higher accolade.
--ml

The MBA Culture Defined

2011-11-09T10:30:00.000-08:00

Atrios muses:

I don't have a fully fleshed out point here, but it occurs to me that there are certain people in politics who are like the finance guys in business. They're so removed from the actual product that they're selling that they forget that customers actually need to like and buy their crap.

That's how the Plundecrats go to work this past thirty years and more.
--ml

Diaspora!

2011-10-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

Actually that should read "I've Joined".
Intermittent blogging continues here. But those seeking a social network experience should look for dumluks@diasp.org.
--ml

Bela Lugosi Slurps Again

2011-10-17T01:26:00.000-07:00

The fortnight of seasonal tricks and treats quickly, but stealthily, approaches.
To aid your mayhem quest and spread the cheerful dread I offer this virtual haunted house tour through the cobwebby passages of Dum Luks.
Bela Lugosi fans look here for the tale direct and here for the flourishes and details of incipient verisimilitude which warm the cockles while chilling the spine.
Muse on all the likely comers.
When the hobgobblins and haints depart it will be timely to make our penitient orisions with this carefree ditty.
Yet one dry squib remains to delight as our guide turns on his peg leg to ask a penny for the guy.
As the children's radio show host said: That ought to keep the little bastards. Alas the mic was still on and so that was his last show. Fear not. This omnibus score card is neither final nor farewell.
--ml

A Dirty Secret

2011-10-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

What price a turn of phrase?

Dailykos posts a diary recommending some counter actions to ameliorate the unhappiness of local merchants over toilet use at the Wall Street demos: OWS. It concludes with the above photo of a mural depicting a common cliche.
Thing is, carpets are dirt traps. Dirt arriving on top from boot soles, shedding animals, plants and so forth, wend their way through the warp and weft of the carpet to the floor where continued traffic turns it into an abrasive. I suspect that many a tweeny has been unjustly accused of sweeping it under the carpet when nothing more than normal activity by the occupants of the room caused the pile. No justice for the lower 99%.
--ml

A Sweet New Year!

2011-09-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Just out of the oven for Rosh Hasanah.
--ml

The Cat Will File You Now

2011-09-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

--ml

New Chair

2011-09-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

Left to Right:LapSang Souchong, Bruiser James and Smedley Q. Clangwheedle take the seat while Ozma Tiamat Mehitabel, with suitable disdain, turns her back to all above.
--ml

Consult Consultants Consulting

2011-09-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

Earle: "The job of a consultant is to restate the client's question in such a way that the problem states its solution."

Problem:
At present we have a depressed economy with too little demand.
Unemployment is unconscionably high.
Major corporations are awash in cash.
Income inequality is at the highest level in generations.
Manufacturing has moved offshore.
Research is moribund.
Our greatest innovations are fraudulent financial instruments.
Infrastructure -- roads, bridges electric grids, water supplies and sewage systems, et. al. -- are antiquated and crumbling.

So: Government should tax the rich to get money to build infrastructure, providing demand to employ people, increase investment in manufacturing, spur innovation by increasing research, and regulate the banks to make them the servants of capitalism they are meant to be rather than the piratical bosses they claim to be now.

Plutocrats own the government.

Geez! It was working so well until that last line!

So maybe the real solution is to get new elected officials -- ones who serve the public rather than the plutocrats?
--ml

Curiouser and Curioser

2011-09-09T07:41:00.000-07:00

Saw this ad on my morning Krugman:

What caught my attention was the graphic. Circles with lines taking various controlled paths. In three colors. Red. Blue. Yellow.
Reminds me of ...
oh, yeah. A stylized color offset press.
Just the thing to bring the digital world to mind.
--ml

Marketing Fail

2011-08-08T15:54:00.000-07:00

My bank statement -- always a fantasy exercise -- is even more over the top due to an ad for a visa card. The headline is "Carpe Savem Translation: Seize the Savings!"
As it happens, Latin is one of several languages that Dum Luks can be misunderstandable in. So I seized my ancient Collins Gem (Carpe liber) and found this:
Save is servāre. Save up is reservāre. No conjugation leads to savem which sounds like it might be very vaguely Piute or even more distantly Shoshone. The closest to a root for savem I found in a quick look is: Sāvior "to kiss".

So it might read "Seize the kiss!"
But a freer rendering might be: "Getcha Redhot Kiss Off!"
--ml

Softly He Lifts His Snow White Mane ...

2011-07-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

Despite his work life incarceration in the enforced gezelligheid (Dutch) of the modern era, here he skips bringing a sweet offering called Platterland. It is by Rob Hunter. It is sub-headed You'll Be Happy Here. But this is less an imperative and more a winsome blandishment softly uttered in anticipation rather than trepidation, one imagines. The author calls it a “hypertext puzzle box.” And — filled with nine stories and a novella — so it is.
Certainly “The Orange Virgin” — the novella in question — is a quandary box filled with the seminal clutter of a well stocked mind made redundant — thereby free to gambol — by an errant world devoid of all nous about the classicism once imparted to a tender youth through a stern apprenticeship to Greek and Latin Masters frequently mistaken, though no more, for antarctic birds. In it a clash of titans fills the foreground as the earth goddess and sky demon jostle one another back into their proper dominions. A lavish palimpsest of characters spatters the way, like the texture of a well painted flat, rich in hue and vast in breadth while the depth leaves the reader breathless. Call it Ulysses in Willapac or the Decimated Decameron. Hell, its really Shakes' comic countrymen gathered in a giddy fête to gigue around the good old phallus. Lots of slap the stick humor. The image of a thousand clowns emerging from a VW or a deux chevaux is commonplace. Conjure the effort of stuffing the 957^th clown in! In the 30 years Rob struggled to create his Parnassus he must have felt like that when he wasn't envying the easy life of Laocoön. Oh far far better to cope with seas snakes than with narrative strands! Golems dance with demi-urges to the heady rhythms of cigar chomping manticores while Ur Goats nod and udderful bulls bellow to be milked though they know not where. Life is confusing for a bas relief left to the imagination below the belly button.

Notice must be taken of the cover art by Anna Wilkenfeld. Two of Swords distils Platterland — You'll Be Happy Here to a heady liquor while serendipitously capturing the current political scene.
But there is more. Nine stories more, sort of like this:
What is alien? Perhaps no more than your full on normal point of view, but seen out of the corner of another's eye?

So a Fixer says to the Golem behind the bar somewhere in the Larger Magellanic Cloud: Which way to the Poconos?

Now appearing nightly: Ernie Kovacs and Arnold Stang in "King of the Wood" the new off-off Willapaq hit play from the Golden Bough.

"Three smashed thumbs!!!" — The Carpenter of Kennebunkport.
"Huh?" — Burt and I.
"Nertz" — Unperiodic Variety.

Who was that white suited dude with the handlebars?
You mean a mustache?
One of those too.
Was he driving a late model Fulton Riverboat?
No he was in the subway. In Milan.
Oh, Mark Twain.

Memory is the available time machine. Our own Doc Wonmug dials the relevant and irreverent past to show: 'here be dragon'.

But, seriously folks... Rob Hunter has assembled a delicious assortment of adventures with an interstellar cast of characters including Flyin' Ed. Those of you who have read Rob's work before will dispute my clumsy attempts above to assault the flavor of Rob's wit, imagination and sheer narrative dazzlement. Those who don't know Rob's work ... first, I envy them the encounter whose consummation is devoutly to be hurried to commencement and savored in the repletion during. There is no second because you are already clicking on the handy order form.
For those so churlish as not to have done so, follow the links for print, e-book and audio book formats. all for the amazingly low price — offer only available this century —of absolutely not a nickel, no shipping or handling, free — except where otherwise stated in the fine print.
— ml

The Pace is Just Dizying ...

2011-07-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a re-post of a milestone:

Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Word Inflation

One of Earle's favorite comments was:
"The first fifty years are the hardest."

But I first encountered word inflation, not through Victor Borge's twoderful skit, but when Earle turned 45. Overnight the comment grew:
"The first hundred years are the hardest."

Now is Dum Luk's time. About 11 am PST visitor number 10,000 (according to Sitemeter) came calling from Princeton, New Jersey, in quest of portable beehive ovens.
So now all of you kind readers are "among the lucky first twenty thousand".
--ml

It is worth re-posting because sitemeter informs me that visitor #20k came calling at 10:52:38 pm on 20 July 2011. The visitor, from Sarawak, Malaysia, googled for "word inflation". Hopefully I satisfied that itch.

Consider yourself, dear reader, to now be among the first fifty thousand visitors. Early adopters all.
--ml

Fatalism is Lazy

2011-06-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

Paul Krugman complains about the fatalism which pervades the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box.
I would add that there is also an element of laziness which prevents a more active approach.
Much of the work that needs doing is boring, stupid and dumb stuff. Like rebuilding old bridges, replacing sewer lines, upgrading water works or remaking the various highways for power, data, goods and people into more efficient 21st century models. How about insulating houses for an exciting job? How about cleaning up urban streams for rugged outdoor activity.
Yeah. Right. Not sexy like writing up a derivative trading algorithm to make a ton of money for the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box.
We've ignored maintenance for two generations too long. It isn't romantic work. It is hard back breaking labor. You have to wear work clothes to do it, not fashionable whatevers from Armani. So the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box have ignored it. They kept the money to pay for maintenance in their own pockets. With more than five applicants chasing every job opening I bet it's easy to find workers willing to do the jobs. I don't think there are too many non-tea party mayors who would refuse the offer. All that lacks is a bit of can do from the Masters of the Sands of Policies Box instead of the fatalism we get.
The lazy fatalism that won't sully its hands with anything less filthy than money.
--ml

Gorp

2011-06-01T18:05:00.000-07:00

About three o'clock every afternoon a persistent question seems to present itself.
No matter how well answered yesterday, it returns day after day to pose a problem susceptible to a rich myriad of divergent solutions. How rich? Why as rich as my most vivid imagination yet admirably suitable to my meager purse. The solution may expand to fill all comers at a serendipitous meeting of old friends, or contract to suit the contents of the cupboard.
What might answer? Flanders and Swann sang a song that catches the thought:

The Wompom
We have a song here, more or less as a postscript, it's about something that's not really an animal, but it's certainly more than a mere vegetable. I am referring, of course, to that fantastic newly-discovered hybrid, the Wompom. ...
You can do such a lot with a Wompom,
You can use every part of it too.
For work or for pleasure,
It's a triumph, it's a treasure,
Oh there's nothing that a Wompom cannot do.

Oh, the flesh in the heart of a Wompom
Has the flavour of porterhouse steak.
And its juice is a liquor
That will get you higher quicker
And you're still lit up next morning when you wake.

The answers have no known geographic limitation. They range from collations as simple as flour and water to the austere complexities of a jaded gourmet's palette wake-up regime. While masters strain and heave the veriest amateur may strike it lucky and carry off the prize. Or not. The point is: It fills. It satisfies. Brillat-Savarin beams.

The question is: What's for dinner?
My all purpose response is: Gorp.

So just what is 'gorp'?
Not so easy. Like a wompom it is so flexible as to evade precision. That lack of precision might be a key that you are on to it. A plain rare chop doesn't give you much room to dance. It either is or it isn't. But don't you dare claim to know the only true recipe for chili (Chile? Chilli? Chilly?). Fist fights seem inevitable in any crowd larger than two. Experts differ. Any peaceable discussion requires a definition of terms. By chili we often refer to a reddish soupy sauce containing beef and/or pork either ground coarsely or diced into ¼” to ½” pieces and spiced with capsicums in the form of chile powder(s) mixed with other herbs and spices. (Chili powder's a gorp to itself. See here or here for recipes to make chilli powder. But there are more variations on the recipe for chili powder than there are chiles.) How about cumin? (“Ewh! Armpits!” Says the rude child) Or cinnamon, cloves, cacao, or herbs such as marjoram, oregano or thyme. How hot do we spice it? Just the virtual thrill of cayenne or the blazing full out hell fire of Naga Vipers at 800,000 – 1,382,118 Scovilles.
A pot of chili usually contains meat and often onions. I was once served a bowl that contained a boot lace eyelet. No doubt it featured well aged, even tanned, beef. Muy auténtico. Possibly there are tomatoes and other vegetables. But, important distinction, do we include beans? No Texan would say yes. But if so, what sort of beans? The non-Texan part of the world makes other choices indulging in a plethora of legumes. Accompanied by: Rice? Cheese? Noodles?Various chopped vegetables – tomatoes, lettuce, scallions, peppers, olives, et al? Oyster crackers? Saltines? Chips – corn, tortilla or pita? Tortillas – flour or corn? Use mere dots? The table covering models? Or something in between-ish? Or corn bread? White or yellow or a mix including sweet corn? Serve it in a bowl? Or in wraps and sauce as a casserole? Or a stand alone 'handwich'? These are only a few of the changes cooks ring on this basic food. Every sort has its adherents proudly claiming the pinnacle of savor.
As Chili is claimed by the Southwest of North America, so any good gorp may be closely associated with a culture. Perhaps this association is more or less specious. No matter. Spaghetti is Italian – except the regions of Italy each do something completely different with their particular local pasta and sauce than most mid-westerners, as an instance, expect.
Dorothy made her spaghetti sauce from a pound of ground beef, with an onion, a rib or two of celery and a quarter of a green bell pepper diced fine . Add a can of button mushrooms, a small one of tomato paste, a tablespoon of oregano, the merest blessing of an ancient, consecrated clove of garlic, and a grind of pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes and serve.
How very different her modest restraint was from Earle's more complex chemistry experiment:

Dad's Spaghetti Sauce
Dice 4 slices of bacon, 3 ribs of celery and 4 onions.
Mince 6 cloves of garlic.
Sauté bacon slowly to render fat.
Brown 1½ pounds coarsely ground beef.
Add vegetables. Sauté about 5 minutes.
Add 4 cans consomme, 2 large cans tomato paste, (1 large can tomatoes), (⅓ cup dried shitake mushrooms), ⅓ cup oregano, 1 bunch parsley, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 tablespoon mustard, ½ teaspoon cloves, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon tarragon, 2 teaspoons celery seed.
Simmer at least 4 hours.
Thicken with 1½ tablespoons cornstarch per quart.
Let stand overnight. The flavors need time to blend. Freezes very well.

A third version is Strike Night Spaghetti.
Mix your favorite red sauce with a mess of cooked pasta (rotelli work very well with lots of crannies to hold the sauce) and fill an oblong baker. Bake to warm and cover with cheese (Mild cheddar, colby or co-jack). Brown that and serve.
This was a favorite with the crew about 1 am of a Sunday morning as we finished clearing out the set (usually two stories and free standing – that was built more like a house than a suit of flats) of the production that closed Saturday night so we could erect the set for the next play on Monday. We had to clear and clean the amphitheatre by 10 am Sunday for rehearsals. This was called striking the set, hence 'strike night spaghetti'.
At the Kirin Beer Hall in Shinjuku they made a wonderful spaghetti with a red sauce, featuring tiny mushrooms, which was vaguely Italian, but decidedly Japanese. What might you expect in an ersatz German Beer Hall? The beer was very good, too.
Yet all of these delicious red sauces are only part of saucing pasta. Sauces may be varied. With cream sauces. With fish sauces. The Italian Food page at All About dot com is a good jumping off point if you are unfamiliar with Italian cooking as Italians do it.
Gorp also results when two cultures meet. Chop suey, supposedly, was the result of Chinese in the US trying to please the tastes of European descendants working on the California end of the Transcontinental Railroad. And succeeding.
This is a myth, apparently. The late nineteenth century immigrants from Taishan in Guangdong Province were enterprising restauranteurs who offered a native za sui, or sub gum (sub gum, Cantonese: “numerous and varied”, means one or more meats or fish with mixed vegetables, Rice or noodles or soup, i.e.: gorp) stir fry, served on rice. Their non-Chinese customers miscalled it Chop Suey and loved it. One American addition is the deep fried noodles that make a nice crunchy garnish.
In the wheat growing regions of Northern China, noodles may be boiled or steamed or served in soup or stir fried in oil (Chow Mein) or stir fried with a stock (Lo Mein) or fried into a pancake or served cold with fresh garden vegetables in a sweet sour stock as a summer cooler or deep fried as a ″bird's nest” or as a crunchy topping or … but I go on.
Pizza is another American innovation (or not, as one prefers) only reminiscent of the bread, herbs and cheese of Roma. Consider a recipe for Neapolitan Fried Pizza ascribed to Sophia Loren which I clipped from a feuilleton some forty or more years ago.

Neapolitan Fried Pizza Sophia Loren

Proof 1 tablespoon of yeast in ¼ cup lukewarm water.

Mix with 5 cups flour and 1 cup, or more if needed, of water .
Knead and let rise about 30 minutes.
Saute 6 minced cloves of garlic in ¼ cup of olive oil.
Puree 3 pounds of Italian Tomatoes.
Add to garlic with fresh basil.
Cook over high heat for 15 minutes.
Form dough into 6” rounds. Fry in olive oil.
Spread with sauce and cheese., fold in half.

Not exactly your B'way slice with the cheesy top lost in a swamp of red yellow oil. First I had was in 1962 when a window to the street served a four inch slice from a 20” pie on a paper napkin for just 15¢. Bread and cheese with flavored oil. Yum.
Today pizza is a proud exemplar of a truly global dish with bells and whistles, from ultra-super-thin crust to Chicago-Sicilian-drown-your-enemies-in-a-bathtub deep dish, with added refinements in every region. Even I, here at Dum Luk's, once made a double decker pizza as a way to make stuffed crust even more ... Stuffed. Think of it: A crisp crust on the bottom covered in a meaty sauce and cheese under a softer layer of bread covered in a meaty sauce with cheese. That's a jawbreaker of pizza goodness about 2” thick. Well ... I always admitted to being a gourmand. That's a politer (to porcines) way to say pig.
Then there is macaroni cheese, which I consider one of the finer achievements of gorp. My extensive experience was mostly gained as a means of feeding The Kid™ and utilizing the five pound block of government cheddar and pony keg of powdered milk which came our way once a month from a more generous (to the dairy industry) surplus food program soon to be stopped by a rogue regime in the eighties. To this day The Kid™ believes, with a goodly portion of truth on her side, that the best dinners begin by sautéing a mess of onions. Meanwhile boil some pasta in another pot. Add meat, if available, to the onions. A can of tuna fish can substitute or skip it for a veggie delight (lactose tolerant). Add garlic, celery, bell peppers, mushrooms, carrots, green beans, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, scallions, Lima beans, corn, leeks, or whatever takes your fancy or you happen to have. Add more. Add less. Cook's choice. Add herbs, cook's choice: maybe celery seed, oregano, thyme; or celery seed, basil, bay leaf (crunch it up); or fennel, ginger and allspice. Salt. Pepper. To make your sauce, in the pot stir in a tablespoon or two of flour and some dry mustard to make a roux with the fat (butter, olive oil, or both) in the pan. Add powdered milk, if using. Stir to spread the dry stuff in a thin layer to avoid clumps. Add stock – Milk, water, chicken, beef, mushroom, veggie-- what do you want it to taste like? Let this simmer for a quarter of an hour or so. Time depends on how you like your veg. Stir it now and then to keep it dancing. By now it should be a bit thick – but not a lot. Add a pound or so of cheese diced fine or grated as you have the patience for. Stir to mix and melt the cheese. Add the cooked pasta, stir some more and serve. The Kid™ still adores this meal—which we used to have every Tuesday night for half a dozen years — and was taking a college nutrition course before she tumbled that I was slipping her the vegetables.
Why every Tuesday? That was the day Diana was scheduled to work the swing shift at the library and so it was just The Kid™ and me and maybe Del (who thought I was stingy with the cheese.) Diana took her vegetables in a less cheesy manner. She prefers her mac cheese as Noodles Jefferson.
Old Tom was an inventor and promoter. That way he had with words! While President he expended much personal energy on ways to expand the products of American Agriculture. His sojourn in Paris broadened his culinary horizons. He thought American farmers – particularly in Virginia and the Carolinas – could make a good thing out of sesame seeds, particularly the oil. Among many other foreign blandishments the lobbyists eager for American trade foisted on this simple country boy was some pasta and a wheel of Parmesan cheese.
This led to Noodles Jefferson. Cook pasta. Mix with melted butter and grated Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper. Serve. Elegant and simple at once.
One of The Kid's™ good friends was beyond finicky. Her idea of macaroni cheese was tres tres nouvelle cuisine. I fetched her with a simple bowl of buttered orzo flecked with a few cut leaves of Italian parsley.
On line most any good recipe site will provide dozens of variations on this essential comfort food. There does seem to be a bit of a continuo in the noodle. Elbows. Elbows? Well. I have nothing against elbows. I have a great tuna casserole from the fifties that uses them. But what about Rotelle? Or Radiatori? Del always preferred Rotini for there superior sauce conveying areas. But there's also gemeli and bowties and farfalle and conchiglie – aka shells (I like little ones for pasta salads and The Kid™ likes big un's. So there.) Well here's a list. Here's a bigger one.
So, Gorp = meat (protein, animal or vegetable) + veg (vitamins & minerals) and flour(thickener, carb) + water (stock, milk, wine)?
That's neat phony math, but way to limiting to be gorp.
This is just one byway of one pot meals. There are all kinds of soups and stews. There are salads. There are sausages. There are hamburgers, the least of which are merely ground beef formed into a patty. There are breads.
Breads merit a completely different post. But consider that, not just one or two, but whole libraries of books have been written on ways to mix flour and water, with or without a leaven, to obtain nourishment. Something that basic/fanciful, simple/complex and quick/slow that its variations keep us happy all our lives long if only we try; That's gorp
And that's whats for dinner.
--ml

UPDATE: to fix link

2011-05-18T00:15:00.000-07:00

Archy's Clever Wife proves it with a debut blog post that shoots the bobbin through the bell.
Welcome to Sleeping with Leonard Cohen!
--ml

Tempus Crawls to Flight

2011-04-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

Six years today.
394 posts.
19,687 unique visitors who viewed 24,643 pages.
But who's counting?
I know it makes a pretty hefty paper back if printed. Larger than a standard novel, but less than a block buster (in more senses than one). Poke around and see what you find in the tags on the right side bar. Might learn something, or get a laugh. Mostly I endeavor to amuse.

There are still more posts floating around among the dust kitties and pebbles between my ears set dancing as I come down the stair of life, bump, bump, bump. There's the rest of the history of the stove. There's discovery of bread making to share. There's the explication of gorp I promised Roy. Perhaps I'll get them typed up just as soon as ...

Thank you for stopping by.
Thank you for the use of the hall.

Most of all:
Thank you.
--ml

Solidarity!

2011-03-07T11:19:00.000-08:00

From the IWW via Oly Mike at the Left Coaster:

That's more like it.
And if you feel the need for an apposite stem winder, see Tommy Douglas clips at You Tube. His Mouseland parable is particularly appropriate for this poster. Funny, if you elect white cats in preference to black cats, they still write very good laws -- for cats. The Us needs us mice to gather and elect mice to govern. Only then will we have a chance to create a progressive society where all care for all, and each can be their best.
--ml

Just a Thought ...

2011-02-26T17:20:00.000-08:00

This is my preferred campaign:

The progressive who's policy is:

”... It's simple. Its effective. Its doable. Right Now.”

and makes it so, wins.

Think: "Not Insurance reform -- but medicare for all."
or "This year the Bush tax cuts expire. Today I introduce the Obama tax reform -- one which lowers taxes on 90% of Americans while raising the revenue we need to defend, to leran, to repair and to grow."
or: "To survive, this great nation must be as good as its word. So today I have asked Congress to investigate all questionable actions of the previous administration to assure all of us, the American People and the people of the world, that in America we do not break our oath. And if any do so in our name, they meet prompt, swift, but above all, fair justice."

A different world? Maybe. But one that invites.

Aren't you glad I don't run the zoo?

--ml

Gut Jul!

2010-12-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Solstice 2010!

--ml

Solstice Meditation

2010-12-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

DaveJ at Open Left poses a discussion topic:

What are some things that a real, honest-to-goodness "far left" would be agitating for, and why isn't anyone doing just that?
Here's a start:
Nationalize the oil companies.
Guaranteed job or income for everyone, put to work on infrastructure investment projects, alternative energy projects, retrofitting buildings to be energy efficient, etc.
Cradle-to-grave Medicare-For-All.
Child care for all.
Eldercare for all.
6 week paid vacation for everyone.
Triple Social Security's payments, lower retirement age to 55.
Worker representatives on Boards of Directors.
Limits to the how much of larger companies can be owned by a person or entity.
When companies reach a certain size they become public entities. (Because they have so much effect on everything.)
Companies responsible for externalized cost payback.
A person whose job is replaced by technology receives for life a share of the savings.
Bring back 90% top tax rates. (OK I have been agitating for that one.)
Very very high estate taxes on very large estates. Maybe up to 99% on estates over $1 billion.
Freedom from distraction. We have a right to our own attention, free from advertising and commercialization. The right to public spaces free from commercialization.
How many of these are even "far left" ideas? I'd agree with most of these. Basically I'm describing Europe here, not Maoist China.

I like most of these ideas. They seem somewhat left of center in the real world. Too bad I'm stuck in this one where we're taught to consider these ideas a far radical fantasy of socialism bent so far left its fascism, or something.
Some things I'd add:

A six hour work day in a four day work week at twice the current pay.
Political advertising provided free by communications media companies as a cost of their license to use our public airwaves.
Nationalization of all grids: telephony, power, rails etc. with a mandate to improve and maintain the best technology.

These dreams do not mark me as barmy. I have other signifiers for that. And so does everybody else. But dreams they are. That is my current point: As a Free society dedicated to freedom, equality, and technological progress we must provide a firm foundation to every member of our society. FDR called it the Four Freedoms. Truman called it the Fair Deal. JFK called it the New Frontier. LBJ called it The Great Society. But the point is for society to provide what is necessary to every member of our community so that they are able to contribute their best to our culture.
Now the American dream is a perversion of our national goals. We work harder to maintain less than our parents -- oh so briefly -- had in the fifties and sixties. Our children must accept even less because the surplus we make goes to the 2%.
The American dream requires Freedom. Who is free who is a paycheck away from foreclosure? Freedom begins when one's need for food and shelter are satisfied. Freedom demands the best infrastructure to furnish basic needs with minimal effort; To provide the tools to make what mind can imagine. Freedom requires a well stocked and cultivated mind in a healthy body.
The American dream requires Equality. Equality does not happen when 2% of the people inherit more than 50% of our assets. It requires free education for all to the highest level they can achieve because that way we all can benefit from their best efforts.

The party that makes policies of these ideals is worthy of votes by the 98%. Any party whose policies increase the 2% primarily -- not so much.
--ml
UPDATE: 12/22/2010 I am reliably informed by The Kid^tm, in the full glow of her newly minted A.B.Hist., that I blew it. (Did not use the in-house fact checker. Am lower than -- Ah-ah! be civil.) Indeed the synapse slipped and are now corrected above. Mr. Truman offered us the Fair Deal. It was the first President Roosevelt who demanded the Square Deal. As the French probably don't say: Chagrin c'est moi.
--ml

Sunday Cats

2010-11-14T14:46:00.000-08:00

Bruiser James, aka Diamond Jim, and Smedley Q. Clangweedle await.
Not sure what. Too early for a smackerel of gnosh. The door is too far to be their concern. Still they wait. For something.
--ml

November Sunday

2010-11-07T11:00:00.000-08:00


Ozma Mehitabel Tiamat meditates in the watery light of an early November Sunday morning

--ml

Samhain Approaches

2010-10-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

Once again the season compels notice of Samhain and the pinnacle of autumn. Here at Dum Luks we like to remember a tale of a haunted house, or retell a second hand story of Bela Lugosi, the fine actor whose talents were most richly rewarded by a bit of romantic tosh called Dracula, a tale, I admit, beloved by all but the most querulous and peevish killjoys. Yet hardly much of a stretch to one of Lugosi's towering abilities.

A click on Samhain among the tag cloud at right will present for your reading pleasure the entirety -- so far -- of Dum Luk's meditations on the season.
As always: for your enjoyment ...
Sweet crabs dance in your cider.
--ml

Shaun Limns the Other Horn

2010-07-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

Upper Left: They've warned us…
... and he flourishes forth the other horn of the dilemma as he lists the first ten points of the Tea Party Agenda which the GOP will gladly pursue. Read it and reap that any one could be so blind.
Then read Goldy's piece on dog poop bags to get the reason.

The problem is that in a real world we only consider half the possible solutions to our problems. We need more parties. We need them now.
--ml

My Side Does Misdirection, Too

2010-07-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Steve Bennen:

Asked about his message to struggling families, the V.P. added, "My message is, keep the faith. We are moving in the right direction. We are not going to let you go without food or basic services. That will not happen in this country, in our administration. And secondly, we're creating new jobs that are going to be the kind you can raise your family on."
Maybe I've missed it, but the line about the "Bush Recession" struck me as new. Biden said it casually, as if it were common, but it's generally been a phrase Democrats have avoided.

Indeed it is "Bush's Recession" and a main goal of the plutocrats' drive to the restoration of Pharoah's regime.
So far an excellent point.
So far as it goes.
But it misdirects from the lie.

What I noticed was Biden's assurance that the administration was "not going to let you go without food or basic services". This is the administration that cut the stimulus down from 900 billion when 1.2 trillion was needed. This is the administration that refused to consider a public option for health care reform. This is the administration that called forth the 'cat food commission' to cut Social Security benefits. This is the administration that watched the elimination of federal aid to state governments to keep the jobs of teachers and other state employees without so much as an "Oh, I say...". This is the administration that agrees with the fiscal deficit hawks and moves budget balance to the fore when unemployment exceeds the official 9.7% rate and all signs point to a coming dive for the economy.
Its as if we did get FDR -- but the 1937 vintage instead of the 1933 model we needed.
Alas there is but one thing the Demoralocrats have going for them though it's a corker: the other choice remains a party convinced that the only real people are those with incomes and assets in excess of a couple of million dollars, and that wage slavery is a humane and enlightened version of property slavery because the slave gets to take care of itself. The party that leads us in a merry dance to the bonfire of the objectionable parts of the constitution: e.g: the first and fifth amendments.
But -- as usual -- I'm just some old fart ranting off left. Mere background noise to the hum of traffic in the greatest country the world has ever seen -- now new and improved with more efficient greed and 110% God approval.
Fumpfhff.
--ml

Economics

2010-06-30T18:06:00.001-07:00

I can do stuff.
You can do stuff.
Others can do stuff.

But not always
the same stuff.

Sometimes
I want your stuff.
Sometimes
you want my stuff.
Sometimes
We want other's stuff
Or they want ours.

If I have something you want
and you have something I want
We can trade.

But Others can too.

But
If I don't want to trade ...

You can beat me up
And take my stuff.
Or I can do that to you.

Or we can do it to someone else.
Together.

Maybe there are more
Than us
Who make stuff.
Who want stuff.
Who trade stuff.
Maybe there are many.

Not all want to trade
at the same time.
But at some time.
So we have money.

So We can make stuff.

That creates money.
so we can spend money

Later

To buy stuff we want.

Then.

Or I can blow you up.

I don't want to do that.

You better do what I say.

or.

or.

or.

And so it goes.
--ml

The Real News is in the Asahi

2010-06-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

Supermodel: Save water, pee in shower
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2010/06/18

SAO PAULO--Environmental conservation advice from the world's richest supermodel? Apparently so, and some you really would never expect.
In the name of saving water, German-Brazilian Gisele Bundchen recommends that everyone urinate in the shower.
Bundchen, 29, says in her blog that everyone should do their share in protecting the environment in daily life. Her suggestions include not pouring used cooking oil down the drain and ways to minimize paper waste.
And then there's that urination in the shower thing. She says that for every 19 people who take her advice instead of flushing a toilet, about 83,220 liters of water can be saved every year.
Bundchen, whose riches include a property valued at 16.5 billion yen ($180.44 million), has been actively engaged in environmental causes.

What a way to start Sunday: Good coffee and fresh news from the world through Japanese eyes.
Besides this, today offers a glimpse of manga adopting traditional Kabuki and Noh drama themes. Funny how we move from new to tradition to old hat to irrelevant to new...
Happy Sunday -- its Strawberry jam season here at Dum Luk's.
--ml

Today in Procrastnation

2010-06-02T15:08:00.001-07:00

...
--ml

Climbing Mountains

2010-05-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

That said, if I really value being seen as an individual first, rather than my gender, size, race, then I must accept that other women are also free to make choices about the way they lead their lives as well. More importantly, I must actively work to ensure their ability to make choices I might not personally make is free of sexist, transphobic, classist, ableist, homophobic, racist and sizeist oppression. After all, they are my sisters – regardless of whether or not my own lived experiences mirror theirs or I agree with their life choices.

Applies to men as well though that is off topic for yet another excellent Snarkey's Machine post.
--ml

How to Delete Your Facebook Account.

2010-05-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

Seems to work.
--ml

As the Twig Is Bent ...

2010-05-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

The founder of Facebook IMs a friend shortly after starting Facebook:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb fucks.

Indeed we are.
--ml

This Is Consistent

2010-05-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Atrios:

Politicians routinely fetishize the "small business owner" perhaps just slightly less than they fetishize "the troops" or "the family farmer," so it'd be nice if that love translated into policy.

It does. It Does! Who gets screwed most consistently by Government policies? Small business, the troops and the family farmer.
Feel the love. Talk the talk. And get to the curb slave.

--ml

It's Catching

2010-05-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

NYT:

The Diaspora* group was inspired to begin their project after hearing a talk by Eben Moglen, a law professor at Columbia University, who described the centralized social networks as “spying for free,” Mr. Salzberg said.

Lot's of folk don't like the con.
--ml

From the Dept of Empty Gestures

2010-05-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

I've had it with Facebook. Can't quit, but can 'deactivate' so I did that. No offense offered to anybody else, so please don't take any.
As Marquis wrote:

dear boss
everyman s hand is turned against a cockroach
and occasionally his foot.

sometimes i sit alone and think
there is nothing lower than an ugly little kink
like me like me like me
last night i cried
i decided a suicide
i d be i d be i d be
so i climbed to the sixth floor window
and out of that window
my little carcase i hurled
but i wasn t dashed to the pavement dead
i floated up to the eighth floor instead
i ask you boss
how insignificant
can a fella get

With the realization that this gesture is even more futile then that of the bardic cockroach, I remain:
--ml
UPDATE: Googleads, ever solicitous, greets the publication of this post with four (4!) ads offering to improve self-esteem!

Chairman of the Bored

2010-05-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

Lapsang Souchong has taken too many meetings of late.
--ml

Today in Aphorisms

2010-05-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

As usual our political fate hangs on the independents: people who cannot commit, or make up their minds, or pay attention.
--ml

Politico's Anthem

2010-05-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

Goldy posts about an RE listing of Reagan Dunn's home. The prominent pol has a very commodious manse. It reminded me of the musical "Fiorello!", by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. It featured pols speculating on how Beau James's* aides would tell the judge to account for their luxurious life style. It featured lyrics such as:

I can see Your Honor doesn't pull his punches
And it looks a trifle fishy, I'll admit,
But for one whole week I went without my lunches
And it mounted up, Your Honor, bit by bit.
Up Your Honor, bit by bit.

As Brecht might have put it: How does a lunchless politician compare to a bought pol?
--ml
*James J. Walker, aka: "Gentleman Jim" and Beau James, Mayor NYC in the Early Thirties of the last century. (Gad! Never thought I'd survive nuclear winter to write that phrase!)

Whose Hand Is That In My Pocket?

2010-04-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

The Electronic Freedom Foundation offers a time line of changes to Facebook's privacy policies. Slippery slopes ain't in it. More of an avalanche.
Terms of subtly, or not so, dubious import are explicated in the Facebook to English guide.
Should a reading of these fill you with grave doubts similar to those I experience, there is a handy guide to opt out.
The real shame is the lack of a true cancellation. Hanging about in deactivated limbo is not equivalent.
--ml

What Krugman Wrote

2010-04-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

An old friend from high school was commenting on his career in Economics which spanned NGOs, government and currently a major bank on Wall street.

"And the money is just stupid."

--ml

Blogaversary

2010-04-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

Half a decade. Not many regulars, maybe, but about 18,000 seekers found ideas about beans and boiling ham in beer, absurd decisions, the history of the nail, hard boiling eggs, heard a Bela Lugosi story, or read a series on the Bed of Procrustes, and various other Dum Luks' topics interconnected only in what I (laughingly) call my brain before grazing on in the fields between the tubes.
Just a pokey little corner blog. But mine own. I'll keep it.
--ml

I Did It Not For Myself, But For You

2010-04-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

Brenda Rosser at Econospeak begins a series which exhumes the roots of the current global financial crisis. Amply sourced and throughly footnoted as it is, the actual prose is pellucid. It is tempting to call the perps pirates! as is my wont. Yet there is a distinct glimmer in events of earnest but flawed persons hoping to ride a whirlwind to the aid and benefit of, at least, their masters, but also as many others nearby as possible. The worst flaw, perhaps, was a compulsion to justify an action as beneficial to those damaged by it.

Statecraft's most carefully tended tool is dissembly.

--ml

Half Don't Pay?

2010-04-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

Various noise machines are trumpeting that the median income ($50,000) and below families don't pay any income taxes. This proves that the wealthy are bearing all us free loaders on their back.
Uhm....
Well. Not pre-xactily.

Median Income: $50,000

Personal exemptions for 4 people

(Ma, Pa and 2 kids): $3650 x 4 = $14,600

Standard deduction: (Married filing jointly) $11,400

Taxable Income : $24,000

Tax on $24k

(from 2009 Tax Tables): = $2,769

Better than $200 a month. Not in the CEO league, maybe, but not nothing either.

To avoid taxes the taxable income would have to be less than $5. Per year.
[A living wage!]
And of course we aren't talking about the other taxes we pay. No. That would con fuze our ittle brains.

Those who don't pay taxes are those wealthy enough to avoid taxes by hiding their income.
Meh and triple Meh.
--ml

Grieve And Suffer.... So Long as You Tax

2010-04-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

In Canada they call this the GST. The Mnemonic I prefer for this is Grief and Suffering Tax. Vat for Value Added Tax sorta works as in "all a youse step into this snake pit and we's see which one is whicher than the rest."
But the question I stumble over is why does a consumption based economy think that punishing consumption will result in profit? Yet 'K' street wants this. Meh.
--ml

Rewrite for Digby

2010-04-11T17:12:00.000-07:00

Seriously, if the shiftless ~~welfare~~ CEO queens would just stop stealing all this money from hardworking ~~white~~ people, we wouldn't have all these problems. I don't see why all everyone always jumps to the conclusion that it has anything to do with race.

Yep.
--ml

Serial Tweeting

2010-04-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

So I just tweeted:

Is it fair

to commit

serial Tweets,

to write chained

thoughts

like old highway signs

advertising

Burma Shave?

Or is the challenge

concision,

to express a thought,

like haiku,

in the narrow

compass

of 140 characters?

If the first

then only

perseverence

delays the appearance

of the first novel

in mini-installments.

Silly.

--ml

In doing so I discovered that one may not write "on twitter" in a tweet alone, as the program interprets that as a request to follow twitter.
--ml

Word Choice

2010-03-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

"Great Strides" does not describe "little baby steps". Except in editorial rooms, of course. --ml

Vagrant Thought as I Read Krugman's Column

2010-03-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

We are confidently assured, by just about every authority figure entitled to opine on the political scene, that there are two great parties in the US.

One says no.

The other strains mightily to produce a gnat.

A gnat, moreover, which was made by our bespoke policy establishment, to fit the other party which didn't want the suit. (Mixing metaphors is a lot of fun.)

Great? I have other uses for the word.

-ml

Marketing as Stand Up

2010-03-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

Seen on a toilet carton: "The Global Performance Toilet."
What were the copy writers thinking?
Did no one of the many who approved the copy think of the implications?
What blind dedication.
No sense of humor whatsoever.
--ml

Succinct Summation

2010-03-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

The best capsule review I've seen:

Looking Back

My marker for Obama was whether he'd get a health care bill with a public option. He didn't. A year ago passage of some sort of health care reform seemed inevitable, and not a tremendous challenge. Only a year of dithering and bipartisaning and gangs of wankers and pre-compromising and, frankly, failure to put forward something simple and popular jeopardized it.

The bill's more good than bad, but it isn't what we should have gotten. It isn't what we voted for.

Thanks, Duncan.
--ml

But, Then ...

2010-03-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

Conventional wisdom, as often happens, proved inapt in the particular situation.
--ml

Ponder #7310

2010-03-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

Re: Krugman, 3/7/10:
Consumer Protection is too important to multi-task.
--ml

Another Look at Freedom

2010-02-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

xkcd illustrates one of Dorothy's favorite precepts:
"My freedom ends at the start of the next person's nose."
--ml

Past the Far Turn ...

2010-02-15T17:26:00.000-08:00

So Dick Francis departs. Saaa-a-a-a...
Good innings? Indeed.
I delighted in his appreciation of horses and the monkey shines achieved by the humans around them.
I enjoyed his writing.
But mostly I thank him for inspiring me to boil ham in beer. One of my readers favorite posts. But mostly a damn good way to cook ham.
Thank you, sir.
--ml

Digby's View Point

2010-02-02T16:45:00.001-08:00

Digby concludes:

You know, when I wrote at the beginning of this post that deficits were worse than terrorists, I was exaggerating. Now, I realize they are actually going to go there. Oh boy.

But, of course! The terraists are merely a toy to distract the so smalls. But deficits? Sacre Bleu! They steal from the Noblesse! From, oui, Me.
--ml
Classified ad:
Bijou oil can shack. Magnificent view of all invaders. Willing staff available for peanuts. Ready to move in for right rentier. Contact Peter Peterson for details.

That's about Right

2010-01-30T17:49:00.000-08:00

Digby posts about Tony Blair's testimony:

"I have learned absolutely nothing and have no regrets whatsoever about being completely wrong about everything."

I want the t-shirt. I do! I do! I do!

--ml

Is Imagination Wasted on Children?

2010-01-24T10:43:00.000-08:00

Or only on school boards?
Literature, like enoki, should not be wasted on children. Fortunately there is no question that Magnetic Betty, another effort by Rob Hunter, is literature. For one thing, its cover does not proclaim that it's word choice is level appropriate, or class specific or meet any other double entendre friendly rubric. This means that this volume is not approved by the Global Council for Excessive Explanation of Pointless Innuendo's Dumb Down Project (GCEEPI:DDP). This relieves all serious adults of any responsibility to attend the remainder of this review.
Now, for the rest of us: Yes! Rob Hunter has done it again! He has added a highly polished small industrial diamond to the crown wrought by Carroll, Sendak, Thurber, and a few others. Too few others for our own good. With the omelette pan I join in giving this book a full "zoop!"
It is available from Lulu, or through Rob himself. You have your directions -- follow them!
--ml
This update is to correct a terrible omission. This tale is splendidly illustrated by Lee Suta, a superb choice to complement Rob. My apologies to Mr. Suta.

Welcome Gargantuan Tails!

2010-01-20T12:53:00.000-08:00

John McKay of Archy, one of the eldest denizens of my blogroll, is branching out.
Going all uptown and market tuned he has a brand new blog:

Mammoth Tales will feature science journalism, science education, history of science, and maybe a little plain old history in those fields that I feel comfortable commenting on. I plan to offer links to stories that I find interesting, even if I don't have much to add to the stories. Moving away from science, I like good conspiracy theories, pseudo-science, and hidden histories. Expect an occasional deconstruction of those ideas. I also like to expose bad writing about science and history. But, there will also be mammoths.

This is excellent news! A very fine writer is extending his proboscis in a sinuous way to delight all who treasure the revelation of curious truth and deflation of pernicious myths. Keep your eye on it -- the book, Mammoth Tales, is coming soon.
(You can also follow him on twitter (archymck).
--ml

Which Shell Covers the Pea?

2010-01-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

Kevin Drum opines:

Aside from tax cuts, George Bush spent eight years in the White House and really wasn't able to advance the conservative agenda in any major way at all.

Create Department of Homeland Security (whose primary mission is to prepare the populace for life in a police state)
Invade Afghanistan
Invade Iraq
Dismantle FEMA
Undermine Social Security by tying it to Medicare and soring healthcare costs
Increase payroll taxes
Emasculate FISA courts
Assert and maintain Executive privileges.
Claim unprecedented executive powers
Deprive Congress of its control of the purse.
Shift the federal court system far to the right.
Discredit scientific information
Loot the treasury twelve ways from Sunday
Operate an exceedingly corrupt administration without legal consequense
Abrogate international treaties on arms control and torture

No, Kevin, The Republican agenda didn't budge in the past decade. And because of the above the Democrats dither that they may have stepped too far to the left.
--ml

Ad Copy Revision

2010-01-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

As published the headline reads:

In the past seven years
the dollar is down 40%.
Gold is up over 400%.
What's in your Pocket?

Bills, and lint.
--ml

Slightly Holidazed*

2009-12-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

* Stolen from Bun Rab the boy drummer as inimitably limned by W. Kelly of the soft brown eyes.
--ml

Camouflage

2009-12-23T09:26:00.000-08:00

Froma Harup via DemFromCT at Daily Kos notes:

Many have bemoaned the near-extinction of the political species known as the moderate Republican.

Closer observation suggests that this subset thrives now as Democrats.
--ml

The Choice

2009-12-18T09:26:00.000-08:00

U. Utah Phillips related one iteration of the situation:

After half a dozen attempts at providing such health care as we are able to give evenly throughout the community, our most recent attempt began feebly and was negotiated sillier and sillier. The sausage machine is not done with it yet. The final bill -- the one that gets signed into law -- if it is passed will be different. Not much better most likely. Hopefully not too much worse.
Some will call it inadequate. Some will call it the best we can do to start now. And that's just the ones who want a bill.
The samurai in the kabuki will stamp their feet on the most resonant part of the stage they can find. The choice before us will be viewed with alarm. Called: Very grave.
The signing, if it happens, will be lauded as a major historic achievement.
In every possible outcome, people will continue to die prematurely because someone whose life was not threatened demanded cash to serve. The difference is how many die. The difference is how many bankruptcies. The difference is how many divorces, how many abandonments. The difference is how much avoidable pain we accept.
The choice is truly simple. Pass this bill and -- without remit -- work to make it better. Or kill the bill and watch another generation pass before congress critturs muster enough intestinal fortitude to make another try.
Let's eat our shit sandwich now and then roll up our sleeves to replace the cooks.
--ml

Ten Years On

2009-11-27T14:40:00.000-08:00

Goldy at HorsesAss.org fulminates over Joel Connelly's column in the PI which is rather dismissive of the WTO demonstrations in Seattle on Novomber 30, 1999. The title here links to that post which is worthy of attention.
Diana and I were among the demonstrators that breezy fine Northwest fall day. That Christmas I circulated the following account of the experience to friends and far flung relations.

By and large and by training, I am a free trader. That is, I believe that all would be better served if there were no governmental impediments to the movement of ideas, people and goods from any country to any other. Such a world would find the best widgets made in one place, perhaps; but readily available, and affordable, everywhere because every other place specalized in what they did best of all the world.
Best product naturally includes consideration for the environment, for a widget made in a dirty manner is less good than one made cleanly.
In my naivete I did my small best to support, the GATT, NAFTA and the WTO Treaty.
Since when I have looked about me and discovered that the promises of free trade do not appear. Yes we “boom” and have “low” unemployment. Prices have not fallen. The world is not cleaner. The ratio of worker wages to boss wages has not risen equally. Looking further I discover that these agreements have little to do with free trade. Rather they set the rules by which capitalists pillage the rest of us and the planet.
The US supports free trade, yet we pay more than three times the world price of sugar in order that some few dozens of agri-businesses will continue to grow sugar beets at a loss made good by corporate welfare in the belief that thereby we save the family farm.
Free trade is not the layoff of a US worker at $25,000 per year to be replaced by two Mexican workers at $5,000 per year each, with the $15,000 savings going to top up the CEO’s million dollar bonus.
Free trade is about raising the standards of the world to the very best we have anywhere on the globe, and then finding ways to make that standard higher. The WTO does not have that goal anywhere in its agenda.
So Diana and I went to the AFL/CIO demonstration to protest that fifty years of “free” trade has brought so much to the veriest few at the cost of all of us.
We: trade unionists, environmentalists and other interested groups filled the stands and field at Memorial Stadium to oveflowing. One of the parking lots, more than a city block in size, was filled with busses. Perhaps more were, I didn't see all of them.
At the rally before the march we heard from the heads of Green Peace, The Sierra Club and other groups. Trade unionists from Europe, Africa, India and China spoke of the devasation caused by the world’s present un-free trade.
The people present were not just from around Seattle. They came from 144 countries in ones, tens, or hundreds. Over 40 of the busses were from Canada.
In all I believe the AFL/CIO estimate of 50,000 people. The published figures, which in two days dribbled from “35,000 non-violent demonstrators and 5,000 violent activists”, to “20,000 demonstrators of whom 5,000 caused the trouble,” were edited to suit editorial fears.
At one point I decided to find the porta-facility before the long march began. By the time I came out, everyone was flowing out of the stadium towards the street. Guess leadership just shines through. This meant that Diana and I were separated by a sea of bodies. We spent the next half hour hunting for each other. We joined up before the March had ambled more than a block or two.
I had expected a parade with folks marching under the banners of their affiliation. Didn’t get it. This was free form. At one point we found ourselves marching under an immense green “condom” promoting “safe” trade. Before long we were engulfed in a scurry of teen age turtles speaking Canadian.
A mother carried a babe asleep. “Now he’ll sleep through anything!” says she.
Longshoreman and pilots, just one pair in contrast marched side by side. Technicians and performers from AFTRA marched alongside Amerindians in full fig. The juxtapositions were so many and so varied that the cammeraderie of longhairs and hard hats passed as unexceptional solidarity.
Not all was up beat and “safe”. We were joined briefly by a “good Soldier Schwenk”, as I called them. These were students, exuding Europeaness, in khaki fatigues and ex army trench coats with Deutch flag patch. And there was the knapsack. Probably this contained nothing more threatening than skivies and lunch. But we had heard about tear gassing of other demonstrators — not part of our group — the day before. The pack might contain something a bit more threatening. No doubt that was my paronia.
It was chilling to look up at eyes peering over a black bandana over the face of a lean, dark young man sitting on his heels atop a signal control box surveying the crowd with contempt.
It was more chilling, as we neared the first route turn just a block or two from the meeting hall, To see a side street blocked by about 30 jack booted motorcycle cops staring coldly at us through their dark goggles. They were armed with batons, mace, tear gas and side arms.
At 4th and Pine the march planned to turn. There was confusion. Some marched on down 4th towards the convention center. Speakers exhorted us first one way then the other. As soon as we understood that the march route turned, the Turtles, Diana and I turned. This was the first time that there appeared to be spectators on the sidewalk. Though they may have been reserves for the rowdys down the street. At least three of them urged us to stop being abortions and find Jee-sus.
Turned again onto 5th, glad that the march had been no more vigorous. We were poohed. Then we saw the Westin hotel. City transit busses used as barracades are an impressive sight — one more associated with international news than us. Yet it gave me a surge of energy when I thought, mistakenly, alas, that we had so threatened them with our peaceful protest that this was the responce when we were so tired a line of yellow tape stopped us easily.
Back home we learned how a wonderful experience had been co-opted by an unholy alliance among a handful of rowdys whose purpose was destruction, and the media whose conception of news begins and ends in a body count.
Thanks to Bill Clinton some measure of perspective was restored. No one else, not the WTO, The rowdys, nor the police will thank him.
But I do.
Now if he would stop defending our non-exeistant family farmers, and our inefficient industries, walking on water would be a non-event for him.

The trouble with revisiting past documents is facing the amount of change I required to arrive at my present state of near enlightenment.
Right.
--ml

What the Samhain?

2009-10-31T11:45:00.000-07:00

Hereabouts the wind blew in some cold and wet marking the seasonal change that concentrated the Celtic mind: Samhain! Winter is coming. Celebrations involved treats of hot cider and fresh apples. Baked goodies were welcome too.
For those not fortunate enough to have a well stocked larder, the event was yet another "oh, Shit!" moment in a long series of assaults on their human dignity. They viewed the aggressive opulence of the well to do with hope of generosity or malice at its denial.
One treat was always available to all who could manage a bit of fire in a shelter out of the wind, a good tale, the scarier the better so that everyone could claim the shivers came from hobgoblins, not the chill air. "Ooooh," sez Gran tucked up in the old horse blanket, "Someone's just trod on m'grave!"
Follow the link in the title for Dum Luks' previous seasonal contributions. Both the joys and frights are observed -- can Bela Lugosi be far behind? No, sez I.
--ml

Did He Just Say ... ?

2009-10-18T17:26:00.000-07:00

Digby quotes Peter Beinert:

The demographic shifts that have put the Democrats in power—more young voters, more Hispanic voters, more highly-educated voters... (emphasis added)

Did he just say Republican voters are dumb as rocks?
--ml

Old Proverbs Applied

2009-10-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

If one engages in a formal process of separating sheep from goats, it is a good idea to be prepared for the goats to act like goats. Surprise at this result may not be an adequate response.
--ml

Different County, Different Ballot

2009-10-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

Same Election.
Goldy shows a King County ballot which obscures I-1033 which is likely to get a large "no" vote there.
Here in Skagit County the opposite is true. Here's our ballot.

Curious when you compare the two.
--ml

DeLong Illustrates a Point

2009-10-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

In a post of interest about the future of Academe, and of Berkeley in particular, Brad DeLong illustrates a point with the following:

There were plenty of people who were disappointed when The Lord of the Rings movies came out because the characters didn’t look anything like the characters they had created in their own minds.

Hmmm... My disappointment with LOTR was in the destruction of Tolkien's plot and characters. Tolkien wrote Aragon as a hero -- not as an angst filled mid-twentieth century Willy Loman. Elrond was committed to Sauron's defeat no matter the cost -- not a mingy Wall Street lordling more concerned that his prospective son-in-law was unworthy of his Long Island Princess then that evil might prevail. And, for Christ's sake, Tolkien wrote high romance, not maudlin boy gets girl stuff. Yes, Aragon worried that he was unworthy -- but that was before he committed to the fellowship. There were far greater concerns then his worthiness after that. Of course Elrond grieved that his daughter might give up her immortality. But he knew that Sauron's dominion must be defeated, regardless. His gift was not niggard but freely given. The LOTR writers seized on the appendices to justify their need to expand the female characters in ways acceptable to the money men in Hollywood.
Finally, more CGI orc slaughter-- and too much antic Gollum --was not an adequate replacement for the wonder of Tom Bombadil who places the entire saga in perspective when he peers at Frodo through the ring. And laughs.
Given all that, what the actors looked like, or sounded like, or anything else was so secondary as to be lost to view.

Does no one else feel that way?
--ml

Inept Marketing?

2009-10-08T13:48:00.000-07:00

An e-mail just arrived from a service company, that shall be anonymous here, that tracks various stats. Included was the following:

Here's what we've found for your account:

Now, on to the updates…

This is a true statement so far as I know. But might it not be more productive, for the marketing, to include a loop in the mail merge that deletes this in the case of null fields? After all, it isn't as if their product can do something about the situation.
--ml

Saturday Games!

2009-10-03T10:42:00.000-07:00

--ml
h/t: Sandwichman

Obvious? Shnobvious!

2009-09-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

Haaretz offers:

Food columnists say they assume that readers will understand their intent, as readers, too, are well-versed in the ways of cooking. Chef and cookbook author Israel Aharoni, at least as experienced as Russo, once offered a simple recipe for falafel in his newspaper column. "A few days later I met someone in the street who told me he had not managed to prepare the falafel. Every time he threw the balls into the cooking oil, they fell apart.

"I went over the recipe with him, step by step, and waited to hear where he'd taken a shortcut. But he followed instructions to the letter - shaping the balls, making sure the oil was boiling and the mixture was prepared exactly according to the instructions.

"At the end he said to me, 'Perhaps the chick peas from the can weren't fresh.' 'You used canned beans?' I said. 'You didn't say not to,' he said. And then I learned that what seems obvious to me is not obvious to everyone."

What is in my head rarely makes it all the way to the page. What one reads on the page seldom makes it fully into the reader's thought without an assortment of assumptions, an admixture of experience -- some at variorum -- and a plethora of prejudices more or less flavoring the mix.
It's a wonder we manage a simple "G'day".
--ml

Revised Lincoln

2009-09-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

... A government of the corporatists, by the corporatists, and for the corporatists ...
--ml

Atrios is Surprised

2009-09-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

The Republicans were always going to oppose whatever the Democrats came up with, I just didn't know the Dems would let them do that while also letting them work to make sure anything they came up with is really unpopular.

--atrios

This thought only surprises if one thinks that the politicians elected support the central aspirations of the health care plank of the Democratic Party. Attempts to achieve universal health care have been attempted in just about every decade since the thirties. Each attempt has been repulsed by cries of "Socialism! Booga-booga-booga!" The nature of the political election process tends (not 100%) to eliminate the stoopid and poorly advised. No matter how idiotical a pol may appear -- and most are superb actors -- it is a fatal error to believe that they are indeed idiots. Consider the results of (in)actions by a dem majority congress 2006-2008. Any thing Mr. Bush wanted passed. Dem proposals -- not so much.
Our congress critturs are not too inarticulate to answer the charge of socialism with a well framed justification of single payer; maybe "get the greed out of our health care!" or another simple phrase that resonates. That they don't do so indicates that they are paid not to.
--ml

Health Care Reform

2009-09-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

To My Honorable Congress Critturs:
Bob Somerby cites:

Total spending on health care, per person, 2007:
United States: $7290
United Kingdom: $2992
Average of OECD developed nations: $2964
Japan: $2581

Do you represent Natural Persons (a legal term) many of whom are working families,
or do you to represent Persons as a Legal Fiction (a legal term) i. e. corporations?
--ml

But What Is Truth?

2009-08-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

Tim Abbott over at Walking the Berkshires has a couple of interrelated posts up. The elder offers a top ten double feature of historical dramas like Beckett and the Lion in Winter. Made at different times they still go together. Tim -- like the old actor, Henry, in The Fantasticks -- not only knows the ropes, but the ropes to skip. The second post points derisively at these.
Perusing them I was reminded of a young cinematographer manqué I once worked with back when Z was the heartthrob of all radical filmmakers. I was teaching a course in adaptation, turning a Mark Twain short story into a film.
Naturally the discussion in those very contentious years swirled around how true -- how faithful -- we could be to the text. At one point the C. M. stood up to announce: "The camera never lies."
"It never does anything else." I might have retorted.
Because the photographer chooses the subject, the frame, the mood, the lighting, the shutter speed and every other influence on the result, the camera cannot be a "warts and all" record of an event. The camera cannot help but lie -- that is, tell considerably less than the full reality of the subject.
--ml

Red Ripe Ultimatum

2009-08-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

We can't do single payer in health care?
We can't fund war.
q.e.d.
It really is that simple.
The hard part is what we do instead.
--ml

Digby Nails It

2009-08-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

On some level we're being played and I think most of us know it and don't want to admit it.

No further comment required.

Ah, Jeez...
Except to point out that this applies to everything Not just the ongoing mortgage debacle (what about commercial real estate defaults? Etc... Etc... and so forth, King Mongkut is reputed to remark by Oscar Hammerstein II.)
We've put on the brakes and are now skidding into Clamp Lagoonk, (Obscure reference except to those who have resided on Adak, AK)
--ml

Nothing Changes

2009-08-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

The low state of their morale made even procrastination savourless.

Whiskey Galore by Compton Mac Kenzie

--ml

Signs of the Times?

2009-08-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

The billboard copy reads:

"Optimism is Contagious"

It advertises a bank.
(beat)
(beat)
In that case pessimism must be pandemic.
--ml

Noted But Not Null

2009-08-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

"As a scientist you are taught not to answer questions, but to question answers." — Anonymous

May we all find the wisdom to do the same.

Of late Sandy has been writing, apparently from Industry talking points, against proposed health insurance reforms. It was a double loss then to find her ignoring contrary arguments and asserting exaggerations and distortions as facts to reinforce fear and uncertainty. It is a pleasure to find her back in the science shop where the clarity of her writing about methodology and data versus abstracts and press releases is a joy and needed anodyne to the media hysteria that rules our discourse.
--ml

The Aether Asks

2009-08-02T22:15:00.000-07:00

Surgeon General Koop looks for a new war for the Public Health warriors. Chooses Fat People. Lots of trees die. Electrons are splatted against high tech antennas near you. New twenty seven color presses are sold to Glossy Magazines. Etc. Etc. Etc. and so on ad infinitum.
So Meagan McArdle interviews Paul Campos for the Atlantic. A world of bloggers famous, infamous and nebbish wade in (even Dum Luks) with every ceivable (con and incon) position, pov, and measured incendiarical remark.
One remark that flies by is the notion that Insurance companies -- as a matter of business survival -- measure the cost of risk factors to a nicety of accuracy lest they lose money. Therefore, since they charge a high premium to fat people, it is obvious, despite the most credible scientific studies to the contrary (See the Obesity Paradox series for chapter and verse), that fat people cost a lot of health care.
Mull that one.
Consider that insurance companies, like other casinos, expect to take in more money than they pay out. So of course they would charge a high premium to someone they knew was terminally ill. But... they want to be your pal so you continue to send in your premium. So rather than be seen to turn the oldster with terminal gaffufleitis out into the cold they look around. Who is an easy mark? Somebody who everybody knows is a health risk but who statistically has less illness than other people? Why fat people! So you raise their premiums to pad the P&L, just in case your cousin's kid didn't didn't do as well on that actuarial course as claimed.

Wha... I'M being cynical?
No way. Cynical would be if I claimed they paid for the marketing that supports the war on obesity.

oh.

wait...

--ml

Another Answer for Brad

2009-07-31T17:25:00.000-07:00

Brad DeLong notes the reaction to the Kos/Research 2000 poll about the birthers and asks:

Can we please get another, very different opposition party to the Democrats?

We already have them. They are called Democrats.
--ml
(richly deserved obligatory tip o' the tifter to D.B.)

Today's Haiku

2009-07-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

Then I blamed it on youth.
Now my excuse is age.
As a summer night's heat fades at dawn,
Memory's detail frays
Though the image still is clear.

Sandwichman Commands ...

2009-07-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

Tom Walker
Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence AS YOUR STATUS. AND POST these instructions in a comment to this status.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST book.
July 12 at 7:32am

Jan De Hartog: "The Capitan", page 56, fifth sentence:

"It was a grey windless day with low hanging cloud: darkness would fall soon with that sky."

That sums it up.
--ml

Herd Vision

2009-07-12T17:22:00.000-07:00

Digby concludes:

But there might be a few stragglers who have only recently become convinced of my cowardice who would be surprised at what they see.

That would assume they could see past the beam in their own eyes that prevents them seeing how very brave it is to maintain one's convictions despite the herd's roars.
--ml

Hear him! Hear him!

2009-07-05T10:10:00.000-07:00

"Behind all the new movements of this age - nationalistic, fascistic, communistic - has been more than a suspicion of the mental attitude of a gang of small-town louts ready to throw a brick at the nearest stranger."
--J. B. Priestly

That about sums it up.
Except to add the other bully still going strong: Corporatism.
--ml

S.A.T.S.Q.* MMCXXVII

2009-07-03T08:20:00.000-07:00

Paul Krugman asks:

The question is, what is that higher truth? What do these people really believe in?

Pharaoh.
Glad to help Paul.
--ml
*simple answers etc. ^tm Duncan Black

Ponderable Imponderable

2009-06-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

Is there any credible scientific evidence that preventative medical care prevents anything other than:

Physician penury
Pharma corporations profit hunger
Insurers aquisitivitis

--ml

Simple Answers to Simple Questions

2009-06-09T16:52:00.000-07:00

Digby asks:

Is the US even a nation state anymore?

The US is a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Capital, Inc.

This has been an homage to Duncan Black who is the originator of "Simple Questions ..etc."
--ml

A Quarter for a Truism

2009-04-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

Dday at Digby's quotes Russ Finegold speaking about Somalia.

Moreover, until a functioning economy can be established, piracy will remain the most lucrative business in the region.

Replace "Somalia" with any polity and Bob's your curiouser strange not related personage.
Or:
As Mark Twain might have observed: "Go thou and do likewise."
--ml

More Beer!

2009-04-05T17:01:00.000-07:00

The filtering vat, which makes
a pleasant sound,
You place appropriately on [top of]
a large collector vat.
Ninkasi, the filtering vat,
which makes a pleasant sound,
you place appropriately on [top of]
a large collector vat.

Rinse and repeat 4,ooo years ago. Then go out and create ... civilization?
--ml

Simple Definitions

2009-04-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

Outlaw: What most of are forced to do one time or another by ignorance, stupidity, greed, or in response to coercion.

Criminal: Those who break laws as a profession or career to satisfy their ignorance, stupidity, greed, or in response to coercion.

Pirate: The power elite who plunder everyone.

--ml

Cookingisscienceiscookingisscienceiscookingis...

2009-03-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite anecdotes was one she told to illustrate why it's important not to be too easily offended. Sometimes what seems like overt racism/sexism is simply poor social skills or awkward phrasing (we all suffer sometimes from foot-in-mouth syndrome). Case in point: she applied for a summer job at MIT in a physics lab as an undergraduate. She didn't have any specific lab experience, but the professor asked, "Well, can you cook?" When she said yes, he told her she was hired. Jackson, confused, replied, "To do what?" It was not, as it happens, to whip up some tasty grits for his breakfast each morning; rather, the professor assumed that if she could cook, she had the practical skills necessary to learn her way easily around the lab.

Yum: go read the rest!
And Happy Ada Lovelace day
--ml

Aaaagh

2009-03-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

$170,000,000,000 with no strings attached.
$165,000,000 With tons of outraged: "They can't do THAT!"
but only after the fact.

Kids, it is a problem of scale. Don't worry about the missing bubblegum after the car disappeared.
--ml

Deep Thought #73/A-145

2009-03-16T18:02:00.001-07:00

Why does this culture make us all so angry?
Is anger the only resolution?
--ml

Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

Deep Thought #47509

2009-03-09T18:13:00.001-07:00

The world is a closed system.
As presently operated, there are too many people for it to sustain. A very few have considerably more than enough. Most have less than enough.
The solution is not to eliminate the excess.
The solution is to change the system to create a means to support all who are here.
And to increase that number only if the new system supports it.
--ml

Dum Luks Stockpot, economics, politics

Horton Hears a Jack Boot

2009-03-04T09:30:00.001-08:00

Per McJoan at DailyKos, Scott Horton offers:

We may not have realized it at the time, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship.

I remain astonished that Shrub and Darth climbed into their helicopters and beat into the sunset on January 20th. The only time I wish to see either again is at their war crimes trial at the Hague.
--ml

Dum Luk's Stockpot, Politics, Scott Horton, John Yoo, G W Bush