Balanced civilized history

Civilized history.  Trials of insouciant thought and defining principle.  The backbone of  daunting things.

The regal.  The royal.  The sublime.   Fairness.  Temperate temperance.   Demeanor.   Cool.  Tolerance.  Tradition.  The  sullen hammer.

The respect.  The fear.  The taut and tight.   Tis fear all about.

The tacky hammers.  The gods of Olympus .  The want of a hammer.  The hammers of good avocation.    Political hammers.

Taut and tight.  Taut and tough.  The whip hand.  Unnerving posture.    Better than their lessers.   Lesser than their betters.  Grinding hands  creating.  Creating  hands grinding.   Fairy tales.

Balance power.  Rough justice.  Principle in the winds.  The court of courts.  Tough bastards know justice.

From  The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/04/a-conversation-with-john-paul-stevens/237984/

The Nation
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/87543/ginsburg-breyer-resign-supereme-court

The dumb ...... the honored creed. The rancid bastards ...... the true.
http://bschiff.com/

Cold warm water

Sick questions are here to stay.   Sick questions are here today, tomorrow, forever and a day.  The weepers, the shouters, the deadly droll.  Paper our hearts with flimsy tears.   Paper our pockets with dew.  The streets of  mulch turn fallow and dry. The seeds of doubt are ever planted.

The worry.  The grumble.  The game of the lame   The worry.  The predicament.    In sickness and in health .   Beyond reproach the dead bargain away our time.  The dear seal our longings with the kiss.   The true kiss our longings with a seal.  Futures to go.  To have and to have not.  To will and to will not.

Simple colds and dead stress.  Cold warm water.  To live and die too damned well.

New Yorker...Bitter Pill
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/05/02/110502ta_talk_surowiecki

Fortune Magazine   Allan Sloan
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/04/15/paul-ryan-medicare-reform-hocus-pocus/

The dumb ...... the honored creed. The rancid bastards ...... the true.
http://bschiff.com/

Noble dreams flirting

Let the workers and the hardy beware.  Let the stern and the staunch beware.  The right way to go about the right things is the right way.  The earnestness which which to pursue earnest goals is earnest.  Dream the dream.  It is a good dream.  It is not a dream worth waking from.  It is a sturdy little devil.  It stands for all goodly things.  It is a lustful dream full of lust for the good, lust for the right, lust for the true.  A compact little dream this .  A compact little dream factory of a compact little dream this.  A dreamers little dreamy dream.  A dream.

The one.  The many.  Good for all.  Good for me.  Goodness goodness all around.  All purposeful goodness all around.  All purposeful goodness, all purposeful poisoned pens of goodness all around.  As always...it is good to be good.

Good dreams walking

Newsweek....Rick Marin and Tony Dokoupi
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/04/17/dead-suit-walking.html

Noble dreams flirting

The Economist ....Direct Democracy.....Vox populi or hoi polloi?

http://www.economist.com/node/18584396?story_id=18584396

The dumb ...... the honored creed. The rancid bastards ...... the true.
http://bschiff.com/

Happy cruelties behind the curtain

So the gets are gotten.  The world is ours.  There is the surging march of the gentle tides of gentle history... the light of shining dreams and happy diversions, the constant light, the complacent light.  Happiness fulfilled.   Society successful.  Values given value give  toys of the boys and whirls of the girls.

An honored place this little piece of heaven ours.  Of respect, of standing, of aspiration, of good aspiration.   A meaningful endeavor  is a meaningful haunt.  Aspiration.  Staunch achievement.  A good clean world to have and to hold.   A safe world.  An honest safe new world.  Better than the rest.

from The Economist...Cyber Stalking
http://www.economist.com/node/18584386?story_id=18584386

Andrew Hill   Financial Times....greed is good
The Week....Financial Times


The dumb ...... the honored creed. The rancid bastards ...... the true.
http://bschiff.com/

Here there and everywhere.

Here there and everywhere.  The world is overrun by the foreign other.  The foreign other is an evil other who is stealth and quiet and who comes as a thief waiting, waiting, waiting to bite the hand that feeds, to ruin the new mother that suckles.  The bad bad foreign other.

The proud defenders of the faith.  Ah...the good for me is good for you.  The right for me is right,  Harmony requires the harmonic.  Identity requires the identified.  Live with me, be of me.  stand for the good and decent and pure, the right.  Don't tread on me.  Don't sing songs of change.

See saw.  See saw.  Up and down.  Up and down.  All the mean spirited dimwits.  All the rotten thieves in the night.  stealing our heritage.  Stealing identity.  Meaning me harm.  They are not like me.  The interlopers interlope.  The Knights of the round table defend the good.  They are not of the civilized.

Here there and everywhere.  They bring not to the table.  They know nothing.  Fractures.  Separation.  The whole is not a liquid thing.  The whole is no boundaried mosaic, pieces separate and enclosed.  The  melders.  Those standing uninvited.  Who flips on who with  goodness of spirit.and common respect? Not me.

European problems.  Not like ours.

Britain, immigraion... The Week

French Panel Debates Secularism and Islam
By STEVEN ERLANGER and MAÏA de la BAUME
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/world/europe/06secular.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=immigration%20and%20multiculturalism&st=cse


The dumb ...... the honored creed. The rancid bastards ...... the true.http://bschiff.com/

Kings and things

So what's what?  So we know the issues, the stories, the problems.  We know the fears, the contradictions, the prejudices, the tall tales told by the tale tellers.  We get the flack.  We all know that the damned bastards are to blame, that the damned bastards don't give a rat's behind for the good of anyone but themselves.  If I were only king of the damned world, we say.  If I were only king of the damned world.  Then things would ge better, we say.  Then things would be a damned sight better.

Sun beams and moon beams frolic together on a merry mist as the bunnies and squirrels dance around the may pole and the little chipmunks do cartwheels 9in the park of our imaginations.

If only I were king of the world, we say,  Then candy canes and marshmallows would be floating in the sky.

If only.

Two for simple answers.

From The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/04/should-big-banks-be-regulated-as-utilities/237342/
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/us-education-is-much-better-than-you-think/68635/

Rapscallion fancy

We beg the grim reaper to not waste our poor little lives.  we watch the angels as they watch over us.  the little devils...they come from there, they come from from here, they saunter about and just come from every  which where.

We have our little lusts.  They have our little lusts.  We have our little  depravities.  They have our little depravities.   We are bold in manner, strong in virtue.  The just want to know the nobility of our character.   We just want our dear little selves spread around for all to see and know.  They will love us to death.

We lust for composure in a void.  They wish us no void, tell us no tale, love the ones they are with...us ...always us....always lucky little us.   The marvel of  life's blood.  No more sneaking through sins unapplauded, unwanted.  We all can reap the wild wind together in a wild dirge of rapscallion fancy....and be better wonders for it.

By Andy Isaacson   the Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/05/are-you-following-a-bot/8448/

ahh...the fun of cell phone tracking
http://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/michigan-police-search-drivers-cell-phones-durring-traffic-stops/
theNewspaper.com: A journal of the politics of driving

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp
The dumb ...... the honored creed. The rancid bastards ...... the true.

http://bschiff.com/

The righteous right all wrongs

And the virulent shall be pure and the pure shall lead and the true shall beckon heaven and the good shall be forthright.

And the secure shall be strong and the tolerant shall falter and the self righteous shall be our sultry light in the skies.

And the humble shall be honored and the loud shall not be silenced.  The quiet shall not simmer.  The reflective shall have no time, shall have no home.  The reflective shall be taught to do no other thing.

The rich shall be of fire.  The poor shall be of disdain.  The winds shall not be of reaping.  The thieves shall not be of compromise.

Backs shall be straight.  Limbs shall be strong.  Aim shall be true.  Thoughts shall be lustful.

Home shall be where the heart is.  The righteous shall right all wrongs.

F. Brinley Bruton  msnbc.msn.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42225974/ns/world_news-europe

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/opinion/20wed4.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


The dumb ...... the honored creed. The rancid bastards ...... the true.
http://bschiff.com/

Love the rancid bastards

And....

And.....

The red roses are red

The blue violets are blue

Violate my little life......

Love the rancid bastards

.
Mark Ames and Mike Elk ... The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/print/article/160062/big-brothers-thought-control-koch

The dumb ...... the honored creed. The rancid bastards ...... the true.
http://bschiff.com/

Some gifts just keep on giving

Death to the corrupters, the saboteurs, the mercenary clowns.  Death to the rise and loves of sincere autocracy, the rise and loves of right thinking felons,  those free from the sins of the understanding fool, those free from the rise and loves of the devils in the details of all the good flunkies.

Sincere hubris and answers from above.  The strong protect the weak.

Fixers fix.  Some damned things are just too damned important to be damned left alone.

Beyond reproach, the world needs love.

sneers and reprise

Rick Ungar Forbes,com
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/04/16/gov-scott-walker-reportedly-planning-financial-martial-law-in-wisconsin/

Blogging for Michigan
http://www.bloggingformichigan.com/diary/6434/and-so-it-begins-emergency-financial-mgr-fires-entire-government-of-benton-harbor


http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing ....

And now the apocalypse. It has finally come.

And now the apocalypse.  It has finally come.  The world has finally evaporated and the netherworlds of shadows and specters haunts the winds.  It is come.  The dark terror of yesterdays horrors and fears is come out of the mists of the dregs of time and has brought us to 1937 and its look to the future.

Trust is the love.  The trusting lords and masters.   The trustworthy lords and masters. The eternal battle cry.... "The American people implore me to do my bidding." We have ourselves come and gone and get to look forward to the past.  Its dreams are ours again.  It visions are ours for a song.  The visit to the strange country of the past is just around the corner.  Bless the beasts and the children.  Again and again.  And with feeling.  Cometh the killers.

Rick Ungar Forbes,com
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/04/16/gov-scott-walker-reportedly-planning-financial-martial-law-in-wisconsin/

Blogging for Michigan
http://www.bloggingformichigan.com/diary/6434/and-so-it-begins-emergency-financial-mgr-fires-entire-government-of-benton-harbor


http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing ....

And now the dawn looks bright

Then and again.  Always then and again.  Always the mystique of humanity in flux.  Always the mystique of humanity traversing the problems of existence in ways practical, necessary, burdening, resting
.
Invitations to commingle with the fates come upon us often and we get mellow at the thought.  Forever the mysteries of the fair and noble society haunts our aspirations and our dreams.  Up from the muck comes our climb.  Up from the muck comes the climb of those who see in their own betterment the betterment for all, those who see in the ordered world the safe havens for all, those who see in the world held as a beacon a standard for all.  We have our aspirations, our lusts, our meaningful diversions.  We have our firm foundations of good moral backbone and glorious antecedents in whose memory we cherish the fight.  Honor.  Always honor.  The gods appreciate honor
.
Talking points: The Week Magazine

New York Times Book Review
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/books/review/book-review-the-origins-of-political-order-by-francis-fukuyama.html?_r=1&nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3


http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing ....

Glory in the morning

Power corrupts.  It corrupts mightily and famously.  It corrupts hedonisticlaly, morally, severely. It turns virtue on its head and relegates expression to a game.  Power fuels the laundered images of fear and the abject lack of restraint.  Power goads and practices, flails and takes what it takes.  It can be a serene thing  it can be a strong thing, a mocking thing, a self satisfied thing.  Power can shine like a beacon, drop like a stone, crush like a runaway truck.  It lures.  It calls.  It wants.  It produces sweet songs to calm the ear, sweet reason to sack the instincts.  It may turn away from its prey and seem to be something else, a trivial thing that hides itself from challenges and flies sweetly from inspection.  Power knows.  It sweats.  It works very very hard. It knows itself.  It knows its dupes.  It glorifies all.

From The New York Review of Books
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/apr/28/wall-street-leviathan/

From The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/standardized-tests-prove-im-better-than-michael-jordan/2011/03/29/AF4sdL4C_story.html


http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing .

Easy sometimes

Easy sometimes.

Heroic measures stand for staunchness against the floods of barbaric pressures.  Heroic measures are bloody but unbowed, tough and straight as a steel arrow, suffer no fools and right all wrongs.

Defenders.

http://www.economist.com/node/18010553?story_id=18010553

http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing .....

The pangs of past regret

And again the night comes and the day breaks and the story unfolds.  And again the parties interact and the trends trend and at the bottom of the pile is that long lamented world gone by.  It was different then.  In ways that were special.  In ways that were good and sincere, lovely and tenacious.  Charm rang us awake.  Hope put us to sleep.  Things were better then.

The sun was brighter then. The days drifted with the clouds then and there was a smile in the air.  Bonds were stronger then.  Fabrics were tougher, more prone to endure.  Thoughts were more thoughtful then, more rational.  Principles were more principled .  The honorable were more honorable.

The laments of past foolishness hurt much deeper, then.  The pangs of past regret ran stronger.  The path from then to now was much clearer then, much clearer.  The virtues were more virtuous then.  The then was not as good.

Two from Harper's Index

Harpers Index Feb 2011
Harpers Index April 2011


http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/04/page/0013

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/02/page/0013

http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing .....

Pretty pictures

Ideas  rip the blood of bad actors of no repute and aria singers of no legend.  Unorthodox hard edged filters of desperation protect us from the no nonsense void.  Life churns.  The humble ruminate.  The grand reflect.  The rooted sincere have no idle moments.  We all draw pretty pictures.

Rat bastards and sultry party girls  know public interest.  Deficient lay persons come awash with scandal and comprehension.  The thoughts of the fates are the stuff of legend while public minds and group clouds make definitive statements.   Right thinking wonders are never astray while cogent minds  contemplate their navels and grovel at the feet of those who know better.

Surveys of note.

Power Survey
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/who-has-too-much-power-in-america/237312/
Public Opinion on Capitalism
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/04/public_opinion_capitalism

http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing .....

Not tomorrow

Dark actors stave off will and protection.  Weak actors stave off  glory and backbone.  Anarchy, off blue saviors, the color of  any which way you wish.

Good bedfellows sing me sad songs.  Good bedfellows bless the beasts and the children.  Good thieves are good enemies.

Please protect me from freedom.  Please protect me from protection.  Let me habituate in the wild and be an animal.

Government is a rant.  The oppressive might of the wage slave is an illusive quality.  Where to find a balance?  Where to find the love?  The tears of a clown.

Complacency, protection.  Private.  Public.  The head spins.  My individuality.  My community.  My world.  My rough hewn self.  My charismatic, empathetic heart.  Oh, the misery of existence.  The traps of my tears.  The cries of my conscience.

Washington Post….
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-okla-a-beneficiary-sours-on-federal-spending/2011/04/10/AFd24AHD_story.html

The Economist
http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/04/public_opinion_capitalism

http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing .....

The pure of the lure

Policy is the property of the thoughtful, the innovating, the non disingenuous.  It is a reasoned thing covered in the necessary language of the love.  It is a basic image of a picture. It is a basic simpleton of a picture of an image of a cluster of a backwater.

Policy is the logic of the gods.

The lure of the pure
.
Lexington..The Economist
http://www.economist.com/node/18529711

http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing .....

Here comes the past

Democracy......just the sound of the word...the texture of its artful arcane syllables cascading out of the mouth, over perched and parched lips....the breaths deepen, the body tremors, and there is a comforting sniffle to back up the hope and pride.

The grand and great religion of the non secular masses.  The grand and great religion of the sweet, lovely secular champions of honesty, honor and fair play.  the end point of all politics.  The fair shake for all mankind.  We get it.  We got it.  We import it.  We sell it.  We cherish it.  We mangle it.  We push it through hell to see if it is or is not a cardboard illusion.  Tis a strong thing this Democracy.  it mirrors many images.  It shows off many hues and colors.  it is purposeful and pure anything of care and caring.  Always to be improved.  Always to be made superior and worthy
.
Bang goes the money trap.  Rat tat tat goes the fix.  Stomp stomp goes the rants.  And the melting pot just melts all charges to a shiny statue of group wisdom.

Who skews? And why not?...Who plays and takes the spoils?  And why not?

On the supremes and their proclivities.
Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/04/11/110411taco_talk_toobin

On the states and theirs. The comfort and  joys of the gerrymandering fix
From  The Weekly Standard
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/854xppnl.asp

http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing .....

To think a world deeply

Always the nature of fun and games.  The workings of societies and systems soar the heart, spring the spirit.  The bum outsiders know all and change is always needed and all unentrenched minions are never wont to not be open for the better worlds that await.....and await with dreamy fervor.

A simple game to get from A to B.  The world changes.  It sways in ways honorable and profound.  Except when it does not.  Those of good will are always wished well by those of good will.  The guns matter.... all manner and stripe.  The rancid little polka dot guns of simple salvation matter.  Bang bang you are a dumb bastard.

Two views on things that are newly minted......an analysis of Italy....The grand Italians.....a tear for the structure and questions that seem to bear thought and warrant refection.

In The New Yorker.  Booted  by Tim Parks
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/04/11/110411crat_atlarge_parks

The great paeans to the social tools of the new world.  May they be so wonderful.

New York Review of Books
The Internet: For better or for Worse   By Steve Coll
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/apr/07/internet-better-or-worse/

http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing .....

The landscape gets cold at night

Again we mock the human soul.  Again we mock the human spirit.  The cadres of popular imagery are apparent no more.  Damn the torpedoes, all speed ahead.  The more we behave the better we become at ability.  The more we are drunk with the powers of observation, the more we are observant of the void.  The emptiness of the great desert of formless nothing haunts our futures and it is a barren desert, a hot dry place
.
The landscape gets cold at night, a counterpoint to the extreme heat of the day. It is an uninviting place, the future in times of trouble and uncertainty.  It mocks us, our belief in it, in its presence, its shape.  It can retreat and hide, run away or crush.  It stares down a hungry lion
.
Deal with what isn't there.  Build monuments to what is not real
.
A view from the other side
.
A view from trying to beard the tremulous lion.

Both from The Washington Post

Ian Morris
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/two-books-on-the-future-of-power-and-diplomacy/2011/02/28/AFHSsSHC_story.html

Robert Samuelson   Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-real-tax-avoidance-scandal-centers-on-dividends-and-capital-gains/2011/04/01/AFRz6TXC_story.html

http://bschiff.com/   the rancid bastards ..... the true.....the dumb ......  the honored creed.....the books I am pushing .....

Another quickie: The life and times of the gray ghost of Christmases past

Sing me no sad songs.....my heart bleeds for the joys of sin
I get up in the morning and seek the world I'm in.....

Marl Milian  CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/03/31/google.face/index.html?iref=allsearch

A quickie because the American people gave me a mandate

........They came to me in the night and and demanded that I do my bidding

Now and again, then and again

One can get worn down by the processes of governance.  One can get overly drunk on the the grand personas of grand personas.  The derivatives of hell, the myopic mind numbing  incandescent devils of the once upon a sweethearts parade, these flights of fancy, your  favorite fido and my favorite slug of a useless star and hero....what better than to love the ones we love, act out on the ones we act out, drama the dramas of our time.

Its the stupid, stupid.

Its the ideology stupid.

Its the veneer of fine wine.

Bouncing heads  spring out of a captivating music box...

The passing parade.

In Vanity Fair

Doubtful Accomplishments
Hubris Maximus: V.F.'s 2010 Cavalcade of Unforgettable Regrettables
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/yearinreview/hubris-maximus-20101

The ubiquitous Trump.  Who can resist. The entertaining monkey as megalomaniac.

On Mediaite

by Mark Joyella
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/a-combative-donald-trump-on-cnn-obama-may-have-pulled-off-%E2%80%98greatest-scam-in-history%E2%80%99/

Rational 'round the rosey....Saunter 'round the glen..

Who believes in rational policy?  And upon whet rational rests your firm beliefs?  Are you the master logician able to leap tall buildings in a single bound with the strengths of your abilities to match premise upon premise with masterful conclusion after masterful conclusion?

Perhaps, as a modern day Sherlock Holmes, you are the master detective striving and gritting and smoking out the true holy premise upon which to base your true holy thought.

No matter.  In the end logic eludes and we circle and circle and drive dizziness to new heights. We delve into the minds of the masters of pious previous thought and the masters of previous pious power. They say always...be scared boy...be very scared.  Be frozen girl...be very frozen.  Accepted truths don't have to be accepted truths.  They just need to be convenient.

From The New Yorker
The Tyrant Tax by James Surowieck
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/03/07/110307ta_talk_surowiecki

From Harpers
By Slavoj Zizek
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/04/0083351

my about page

Erudition, awareness, cynicism, nonsense.  The dumb ...... the honored creed.  The rancid bastards ...... the true.

Lust, void, dominate, dream.   Be a rancid bastard.  Prosper and work.  Live the dream

Books ......

Dominance Games: An Essay on Power    A Novel
Lust Games: An Essay on Honor     A Novel
Void Games: An Essay on Revenge     A Novel ..... due Aug.

information and availability: eBooks
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bschiff

Print versions
Dominance Games: An Essay on Power A Novel
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1460916069/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
https://www.createspace.com/3563938

Lust Games: An essay on Honor A Novel
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1460925858/ref=ord_cart_shr?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
http://www.createspace.com/3565665

Kindle
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SHEV74
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SHEX0Y

Awareness, cynicism.  We stroke what we stroke.

Talk always talk. Write always write. Degenerate always degenerate.

I know, I know....Anyone who distributes news and information has an agenda, is a mouthpiece, is annoying, bothers the hell out of people.....

Either they are old and moldy.  Fat and comfortable.  Puffed up, insulated and lazy.  Callous free loaders who are agent provocateurs.

They might be young and on the make.  They might be the wonders who translate events for a new news consuming public in a new news consuming environment.

We all have our favorites, our hates, our disposable clowns.  So much information.  So much endeavor.  so many brave and fearless scribes who comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable.  Who could be jaundiced.?

Who can say they are not worth the prize of our attention?
Is journalism dead?  Is it better? Is it sincere?

It does brave the questions of our survival.

Two views.: one hand wringing, one celebration.  I'll do both.  One for fun.  One in tribute to the solid stodgy set.

From The Columbia Journalism Review a month or two back:
http://www.cjr.org/editorial/beyond_the_facts.php

Roger Simon in Politico:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52523.html

Statistics, Damned Statistics. Damned Lies

One could be a long time follower of the deceptive crafts, a long time lover of the  of parochial crafts of the political operative.  One can be a long time follower of all of the stars of all of the games, all of the felons of all of the games.  The ribald, the antiquated, those with the endearing mouths full of fun and fancy, gibberish and noise ...these make me proud.   The grand and the intense, the frolicsome and the tedious, the major harmonies and bittersweet songs of the eminently sincere....these make me weep.  The lure of  a molten train wreck......the stuff of legend and the lifeblood of the passing scene.

Statistics, Damned stat5istics, damned lies.  The godly rational saints give us all gusto and purpose.

Two examples of the world as it is lived.
Lynnell Hancock   Columbia Journalism Review
http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/tested.php
From The Economist
http://www.economist.com/node/18483411
It takes a lot to be sure of a lot.

Men good and true.

Its hard to be continually enthralled by the news and views that are out there for splendid perusal.  The world is such a tough place.  The big players are so demonstrably sparkling and barren, jaundiced and hypocritical, universally good and admired.  A tough game life.  Played smartly by the fit and the survivors.  It is good to be a survivor.  It is good to be a winner.

First everybody's favorite little tax story.  Look at the leverage.  Look at the competition for stateless entities.  And some don't really like to game and trump the system.  All for the greater good.  Always and forever.  And smartness and toughness is no crime.  Let me in on the action.

David Kocieniewski in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/business/economy/25tax.html?scp=1&sq=David%20%20Kocieniewski&st=cse
From The Week Magazine:
http://theweek.com/article/index/213728/who-leads-the-war-in-libya

Surely there are rational informed people who understand international relations and the greater good and mutual respect and the concerns of men and women of good will everywhere.

How sweet the bottom? A hard charging, heart thumping drive.

More interesting ideas from idea land.  Power and sovereignty, private enterprise, public control.  The mind reels.  Day in.  Day out.   The mind knows that businessmen doers and makers of growth and progress.  The mind knows that states and governments are encompassing behemoths who gobble up all air and do no earthly good.  But who has sovereignty where?  Who has power where?  What is a national boundary? When lumped together in a much larger sample, what happens to the mean?  Who runs the ball park?  Who owns the ball?

More on the race to the bottom.  How fast is fast enough?  How slow is not at all?  In the long run all is well.  In the long run, famously, we are all bye bye.  Where do we get to ride out the short run?  In the sun?  In the desert"  Under a rock? To whom do we all bow?  And how far?  And do we do it prettily, with some mild awareness, with none, or are we happy for the chance to look for more and more odious masters?  Or perfumed ones?  All in the perception.  Of course.

Two links on the state of today.    Always the state of today.

Allan Sloan in Fortune.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2011/03/02/two-governors-two-parties-one-solution/

Michael Schuman in Time
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2059521_2059693_2059692,00.html

My Introduction

My new little adventure......my new little blog......

Having declared myself a writer of note I now need to connect with all of those out there who would show utmost appreciation for my sterling endeavors....my books....my general info right now can be referenced at bschiff.com......my half done web site....

In the mean a reason for posting....

The clutter and anemia in information is startling and overwhelming....I have a few pet peeves about the way the world is perceived ...and about the importance given to a lot of eminently sanguine approaches to information and opinions ad nauseam....My own two cents....For the sake of having something worthwhile to say

Start with these two posts from The Economist....
..
Suckers are born every minute...Those who play the suckers good get well...the rest get to stay suckers

Buttonwood:  Marx, Merwyn or Mario
http://www.economist.com/node/18443402?story_id=18443402

Where Life is Cheap and Talk is Loose
http://www.economist.com/node/18396240?story_id=18396240