Another Book Better Than Movie Story

But with quite a difference . . .
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWFkMGM4MmE4YjQ1NTZmM2FkNjUzYzc5NjdjODVkNDk=

Check the link in the last paragraph for a further counterpoint.

Brad DeLong at TheWeek.com

The current recession may turn into a small depression, and may push global living standards down by five percent for one or two or (we hope not) five years, but that does not erase the gulf between those of us in the globe's middle and upper classes and all human existence prior to the Industrial Revolution. We have reached the frontier of mass material comfort--where we have enough food that we are not painfully hungry, enough clothing that we are not shiveringly cold, enough shelter that we are not distressingly wet, even enough entertainment that we are not bored. We--at least those lucky enough to be in the global middle and upper classes who still cluster around the North Atlantic--have lots and lots of stuff. Our machines and factories have given us the power to get more and more stuff by getting more and more stuff--a self-perpetuating cycle of consumption.

Our goods are not only plentiful but cheap. I am a book addict. Yet even I am fighting hard to spend as great a share of my income on books as Adam Smith did in his day. Back on March 9, 1776 Adam Smith's Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations went on sale for the price of 1.8 pounds sterling at a time when the median family made perhaps 30 pounds a year. That one book (admittedly a big book and an expensive one) cost six percent of the median family's annual income. In the United States today, median family income is $50,000 a year and Smith's Wealth of Nations costs $7.95 at Amazon (in the Bantam Classics edition). The 18th Century British family could buy 17 copies of the Wealth of Nations out of its annual income. The American family in 2009 can buy 6,000 copies: a multiplication factor of 350.

Books are not an exceptional category. Today, buttermilk-fried petrale sole with pickled vegetables and parsley mayonnaise, served at Chez Panisse Café, costs the same share of a day-laborer's earnings as the raw ingredients for two big bowls of oatmeal did in the 18th Century. Then there are all the commodities we consume that were essentially priceless in the past. If in 1786 you had wanted to listen to Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in your house, you probably had to be the Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke of Austria, with a theater in your house--the Palace of Laxenberg. Today, the DVD costs $17.99 at amazon.com. (The multiplication factor for enjoying The Marriage of Figaro in your home is effectively infinite for those not named Josef von Habsburg.)

James explains Twitter to old people (like me)

http://www.startribune.com/local/38675377.html

The Stimulus Package, Tracked Daily

http://www.readthestimulus.org

Whom I'd Like To Be When I Grow Up

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126921.500-one-last-chance-to-save-mankind.html?full=true&print=true

A Measured, Fair, Partisan View of Jan. 20

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzVkOTQxYmQzNzRlZjM2MDNkMTZiYTNmYzA0M2EzMzg=

His most interesting takeaway -- Obama won by 7 points, FDR by 18, and the maps for the party state by state in the 1928 elections and then the 1932 results is truly shocking. It's total dominance one way to total dominance the other way.

With that in mind, this speech is even more interesting in it's own right, let alone in comparison:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrfirstinaugural.html

Hope

This is what it looks like:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373

Not to be entirely forgotten . . .

Sooner or later, the facts of '81 to '85 will come out . . . and almost no one will care, and perhaps at this point shouldn't.

Personally, i'm more bothered by the fact that Dohrn is still at Northwestern School of Law than i am that Obama is in the White House, which i'm getting downright happy about, all things being equal (i.e., given that McCain ran an idiot campaign that did not bode well for his governance).

Very, very interesting - and quite fair

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzVkOTQxYmQzNzRlZjM2MDNkMTZiYTNmYzA0M2EzMzg=

Invocation & Benediction

The framing elements of the day's historic events:

Pastor Rick Warren's invocation, in text and video --

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/01/rick_warrens_in.html

and Rev. Joseph Lowery's benediction, transcript linked and video embedded --

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/01/inaugural_bened.html

Truly, i didn't think Pres. Obama's inaugural address was lackluster at all; just what the occasion called for. And if you haven't had occasion to, make sure to click by http://www.whitehouse.gov

Ow - Now That's Gonna Leave a Mark

http://www.disciplesworld.com/newsArticle.html?wsnID=14634

Rich Corinthian Leather

So, in honor of Ricardo Montalban --

http://vodpod.com/watch/279944-baby-its-cold-outside

and it was from watching this very movie, as an exchange student in Greeley, Colorado in 1949 that Sayyid Qutb wrote the book which was the basis for what became . . . al-Qaeda.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/presence-feb06.html

See also http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120190688451636621.html for the context of what so disturbed Qutb.

You can't make this stuff up.

Thank you, Lt. Raz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI1q3etFX2k

He's explaining to us the implications of an operational map captured from a Hamas command post. Oddly, this hasn't attracted much attention in general media, but you can watch it for yourself here.

Huh.

http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=13834

Long Story. Hey, They're Pretty!

May He Rest In Peace

“The sovereign God is not obligated to save any, but He desires to save all, and so denies the necessary grace to none, which may be rejected by some, perhaps by many.”

-Fr. Richard John Neuhaus

Here's a Summer Vacation Idea

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1778399&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1

And Where Were We This Past Weekend?

Ow ow ow ow ow -- ow.

If i ever lose my head enough to call myself a theologian, and then write a book, i pray that Will Willimon doesn't get asked to review it.

This is like watching a South Carolina cook de-bone some slow cooked barbecue --

http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=6046

Munson Springs, Nicely Limned

Thank you, Paul and Jarrod --

http://books.google.com/books?id=sG9uc3HyldQC&pg=PA159

It is kind of funny how the Munson Springs paleo paper Brad & i did is mentioned, but skated around . . . for multiple reasons, i'm sure. I still think we had an extended occupation at the base of that site, but we'll likely never know for sure.

Younger Dryas Incident

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/science/02impact.html

What a tragic story, if i'm reading the interpretation of the end of Clovis correctly.

This Will Discomfit Many

http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB123025595706634689.html -- but delights me; note also the "reads the Bible through each year" aside, not clear if it counted for the total (it oughta count for 66, or at least two).

No Real Shocks Here, Except . . .

. . . Dennis Hopper?

http://wcbstv.com/slideshows/Conservative.Celebrities.20.824701.html