"All Men Are ..

Created Equal..."
So says the Declaration of Independence.
What is the definition of "All Men"?
The rich, white male population? Or is it somewhat broader?
This is the fundamental question of the United States of America since its inception.
We still struggle to agree on any part of the definition.
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

Try It

Del was at the door. He unslung his pack to settle down.
"I've brought something for you to try."
As I handed him a glass of wine he pulled a jar from his pack and offered it to me.
Pickled Garlic read the label.
"It's more of an ingredient looking for a recipe than anything else," he said.
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Community, Del Stories

In Support of ...

The preceding post is not an endorsement of negative campaigning by any Democratic candidate. That is a tactic required by the moral bankruptcy of the other side.
The vote so far demonstrates that almost as many Democratic voters favor one candidate as the other.
Now I would rather see the reasons to vote for a nominee rather than reasons, sometimes spurious, to vote against a candidate.
The world is indeed a vicious place in which violence is endemic. What I want to know is what the nominee plans to do in office to mitigate that fact.
--ml
tag: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

Count the Vote

Goldy urges the superdelegates to throw their weight behind Obama to make him the Democratic nominee because "Hillary can't win." He opens his post:

Well, of course, she could win. Shit happens. Scandals. Wars. Terrorist attacks. Assassinations. But barring some paradigm-shifting calamity crushing Barack Obama’s presidential aspirations (or the man himself), Hillary Clinton just can’t win the Democratic nomination.

Didn't we get a President in 2000 on the basis of not counting votes, or completing due process, because five Supreme Court Justices (who were appointed by Republican Presidents) thought they knew who won?
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, politics

CW = Contrary Words?

One notes the conventional wisdom:

One thing seems quite evident prior to getting the vote totals: while Obama has a floor, McCain and Clinton have ceilings, and they've already hit them. ... check out Charlie Cook writing about Obama's chemisty: "This unusual combination created the equivalent in Democratic politics of nitroglycerin. It has already overpowered all but Clinton and is pushing its beneficiary closer and closer to the nomination, despite the inherent advantages that she began with."

--DemFromCt

But I note the delegate count is within a 150. Also noteworthy are: The high number of Republican Congressional retirements; The many highly qualified, serious, Democratic candidates running all over the country; The enormous number of new voters who register as Democrats; The flood of small donor funding for many of these candidates.
Nitroglycerin separates particles dramatically. When any candidate has the political equivalent of nitro, they blast ahead of expectations and their opponents, e.g.: Darcy Burner's Washington 08 fund raising.
I don't think a 1650/1508 delegate split is evidence of nitro, no matter how enthused the supporters of either candidate are.
That those eligible to vote in the Democratic primaries consistently divide so nearly for two candidates, while offering major support to Democratic candidates in Congressional races might be interpreted as a desire in the electorate to change the composition of the Executive and Congress (and therefore the Judicial) and an acceptance of either Democratic Presidential candidate, rather than an overwhelming preference for one candidate.
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, Politics

Another Trip to the Well

On listening to streaming audio:
A commercial classics station that broadcasts in a language I do not comprehend is much more bearable than one that broadcasts in English. From annoyances the ads rise to mildly intriguing puzzles.
--ml
tags: Dum Luks Stockpot, management

A Fool's Day Squib

The Vancouver CBC station reported more anti-intellect acts by CBC's management this morning. The reader assured us this was not a joke: The CBC, after better than 30 years on radio and television, has canceled the Canadian Air Farce.
For those unfamiliar with Canada's premiere satire troupe think of the network canceling Saturday Night Live.
But my favorite CBC/April Fool memory is of Bob Kerr, host of Off The Record. This was a long running afternoon classics show which could play a full Mahler or Buxtehude symphony without interruption. And just as well do a smattering of art song fragments. Bob featured his favorite instrument on his Organ Thursdays which introduced more than one generation to the breadth of the King of Instruments. His commentary on both composers and performers was always considered, informed, and zestful with never the least hint of academic stodge or snobbishness. Never did he indulge, as is the fashion in the US, in an attitude of: "Now, do listen [children], this will be so-o-o good for you."
One April first, mid 80's or thereabouts, he burst into his opening theme glowing with the excitement -- very infectious -- of this marvelous discovery that only just arrived in his mail box. He had played it once before the show and now promptly played it for his listeners. What we heard was a more than acceptable standard of play of the Minute Waltz distanced by the obvious youth of its recording technology, like listening to a cleaned up wax cylinder of Caruso. Bob was utterly fascinated with it. He played, he said, a British CD Mags' insert which claimed to be a recording of Chopin playing the Minute Waltz in something just over 60 seconds.
How was this possible?
The magazine claimed that a hitherto obscure Frenchman had invented a recording device -- I think it involved smoke patterns on glass but, then again, that might be my imagination supplying what my memory lacks -- and just happened to live near the villa occupied by a Mme. Sand and M. Chopin. The latter was gracious enough to perform for the instrument. The result was buried in the back garden to preserve it from one war or another until it was forgotten. Gr gr gr gr someone overturned that corner and retrieved the precious artifact. Science was enlisted to devise a means of reproduction. This led to the flimsy CD included in the magazine.
Bob was oddly skeptical and enthralled all at once. Partly he denied the notion of the inventor while he so much wanted to hear Chopin play even at the great technical remove offered. He played it once or twice more, interspersed with this information and his reactions, before turning to the day's program. But he did so only to clear our palettes. Soon he was back to play the cut and marvel at the wonder of actually hearing Chopin perform the Minute Waltz in something like 68 seconds. This was more than the title called for, but rather less than the vast majority of pianists managed, as somebody hastily sent to the disk library for examples proved.
Over and again was the wonder that we listened to Chopin himself.
And what did we think of that?
Then the canker worm raised its head. A listener called in to report that Bob might want to examine the mast head.
There it was: "Issue 0401." The rage for a lost penny wasn't in it.
Bob informed us he had already sent a postcard to the magazine canceling his subscription. For several minutes he fulminated against the asininity of the perpetrators. The imbecility! The Rudeness! The just plain impoliteness of it!

And the wonder we felt: "What was it about that recording that we experienced when we believed it was genuine?

That passionate, intelligent, involvement with music is what CBC used to be. Since Brian Mulroney gutted the CBC budget causing the decimation of the news department, until then one of the finest in the world, in the late 80's 'til now when the boobitariat reins at CBC headquarters it has been downhill all the way up.
--ml
tag: Dum Luks Stockpot, CBC Radio 2