If You Want To Live The American Dream . . .

 . . . Move To Denmark.




Source.

Sunday Music Blogging

Granddaughter Rebekka is in a children's theater version of ALLADIN.  We're going to see it this afternoon.

That reminded me of this song, from the Disney movie version, that we played with the incomparable Wayne Bergeron at our Spring concert.  Here he is doing FRIEND LIKE ME with his own band.




No vid - just a still shot of the recording studio. Sit back close your eyes and enjoy.  Andy Martin on trombone, Bill Liston on tenor.  Seriously awesome!

UPDATE:  Turns out this was a Disney Junior production, so the song was actually in it.  Not exactly this version, though.

Knight's Castle

A request by Ari at EotAW for books to recommend to his precocious 9-Yr-old son reminded me of a favorite book from that time in my life

My comment:

I was 9 or 10 when I found KNIGHT’S CASTLE by Edward Eager at the Locke Branch Library in Toledo. Absolutely loved the dreamy magic realism. It’s a fine example of moral fiction that is not preachy. The story involves siblings and cousins, and does an excellent job of presenting the girls as equal to the boys, while recognizing each as a unique individual. This book was originally published in 1956! Went on a quest to find it again when my son was about 10. Fast forward: my wife gave me a set of Eager’s books a few years ago, and I read them with my grandsons – to their great pleasure.

That’s when I learned that Eager was from Toledo, also.

As a kid, I was enthralled with the middle ages - and dinosaurs, too, but that's a different story.

Was there a book that you were especially fond of as a child?

What the Hell Friday - Herman Cain Edition

I just heard Rachel and Eugene Robinson discussing the extraordinary weirdness of the Herman Cain campaign - if it is indeed a campaign.  They were speaking of it as performance art.  I have to admit that never occurred to me, and now it reminds me a bit of Pat Paulson.

The even weirder thing about this video is that the crowd cheers - wildly and with reckless abandon - when Cain says," I am the Koch brothers brother from, another mother."   OK - it was at a function sponsored by the Koch brothers group Americans for Prosperity.

If this is parody, it's brilliant, maybe even genius.  If it's real, then Cain is an inestimable buffoon.

The weirdest thing of all is that I seriously have no idea which of these propositions comes closer to the truth.

Source.

Quote of the Day: Tim Duy On The Fragile Economy

At Fed Watch

Bottom Line:  With all attention focused on the Greek drama, plus the well-received Q3 GDP report, it has been easy to overlook the underlying fragility in the US economy.  This was especially the case when US equities looked to be on a nonstop trip to the moon.  Perhaps the US economy can squeak through the next few quarters, and perhaps, in contrast to my expectations, Europe is able to bring an end to the crisis with limited collateral damage to the economy.  But I can't shake the feeling that the US economy closer to running on fumes than is commonly believed, and will run out of gas in a very hostile global environment.

The President's Really Awesome Week

OK -  not THIS week, but still . . .




 Permalink

The Ruling Clawss

Thanks to Eric at Edge of the West, we learn that children's author and illustrator Syd Hoff "had a radical alter ego, a Mr. Redfield who drew cartoons for the Daily Worker." 


Here is a gallery of Redfield's work, collected as The Ruling Clawss  in 1935.  The vast majority of these sharply pointed political cartoons resonate with startling clarity 66 years later.


Check it out.

Inequality Trends in One Picture

Via Krugman, from the CBO Report.

I've seen other graphs that tell this story, but this is the most succinct.

Just about all of the redistribution has taken place from the bottom 80 to the top 1 (and we know that most of that has actually gone to the top 0.1).

It’s a tiny minority, not a broad class of well-educated Americans, who have been winning here.

That's how can tell that this is not capitalism:  capitalist competition would prevent this top-heavy aggregation.  What we have is crony (pseudo) capitalism, corporatism, and near-monopolies.  Every one of these business practices is anti-competitive, and therefore anti-capitalist.

Picture of the Day

Awesome!

Go see it at the source.

Via MoveOn.

H/T to Jane.

Channel Surfing

Art ponders trend lines and channels.  I have some thoughts, which I shared in comments there.  I also have another post in the works, which might go up tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I've taken a look at the last few months of stock market activity, and thought about the opportunity to define trend lines and channels with that set of real world data.

You can see it here.

Tebow, Part 2

The NFL, in many and varied ways, is a cruel place to try to make a living.  Every Sunday, as you struggle to do your job, there are 11 other guys out there, and there job is to make you fail*.  Not only that, but they are among the very best in the world at their job - which, once again, is making you fail at yours.

In this context, the Quarterback is the center of attention.  Spectators, commentators, opposing linemen and blitzing safeties all have him in the cross hairs.  Rookie quarterbacks are especially vulnerable, not having the knowledge and experience to comfortably handle their offensive systems or read and react to pro-level defensive schemes, nor having complete mastery of the pro quarterback's skill set.

A few notably exceptional quarterbacks have achieved a high level of success in their rookie years, and gone on to stardom -  Dan Marino, John Elway, and Jim Kelly are the classic examples.  Others like Troy Aikman, Drew Bledsoe, and even Payton Manning had rough starts, but went on to achieve stardom.  Mediocre to poor careers, like those experienced by Charlie Batch, Brady Quinn and Kyle Orton are more common.

This year, there are a few rookie QB's who could be standouts: Cam Newton, Andy Dalton and Christian Ponder.  Notably absent from this list, though, is Tim Tebow.  His peformance against the Lions on Sunday was dismal.  The previous week against the vastly inferior Dolphins, he was mostly inept, but had a strong finish and managed to pull out an 18-15 victory in O/T.

Tebow is an earnest Young man.  There is no doubting his sincerity, effort, or character.  What is highly questionable, though, is his ability.  He only has a few starts, so the data set is small, and you need to be cautious about drawing broad conclusions.  The cause for worry, though, is his lack of improvement.  You have to believe (or at least hope) that the Broncos coaching staff is competent and has been working very hard to help him develop; so his story shouldn't turn into one like Joey Herrington's or Tim Couch's .  As yet, though, this has been to no avail.  The Lions defense totally undressed him.

It's still a bit early to draw the curtain on Tebow's pro football career.  But unless he starts improving quickly and dramatically, future comparisons will be to David Klingler, not Drew Breese.

H/T to LGM.
____________________________
The NFL is an extremely Republican-type organization.  This is one of the less important reasons why.

Blerg!

This week's Monday night football game: definitely not classic.

They went to O/T - I went to bed.