I’ve been spending a lot of time in hospitals and churches lately but found time do 30K on the bike, and the next day through the kindness of a couple of friends, the opportunity to do a tour of a landward stretch of Sydney Harbor which included a personalized tour of their old neighborhood haunts. Landscape is nothing without memory. As we went up and down the precipitous streets many of which found unlikely ways to find the water’s edge there was a running commentary by my hosts on who lived in such and such a place and what became of this or that person. And it became plain to me what a glorious opportunity each of us is given to contribute to the world, and how sad it would be to think the chance too mean.
So it’s been a good and tiring weekend and since the news has been kinda heavy of late I thought some readers would like to know what became of the Seekers. They had a career after fame. Here’s one hit from a reunion concert in 1993, which features the original and inimitable lead singer, Judith Durham.
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93 Comments
1. Dave:As you know, the American version of All Saints is Haloween.
Had an abnormal number of trick or treaters last night. Went through three bags of candy. And they all said “thank you”. As
did a large number of accompanying adults.
Those that have gone before us, including those whom we knew, made the various and sundry rituals/observances possible. Let us continue the process.
Nov 1, 2008 - 11:17 pm 2. NahnCee:Good stuff, Maynard.
I’ll see you that, and raise you this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ttDUGM-1mU
Compare and contrast. And, Happy Halloween.
Nov 1, 2008 - 11:24 pm 3. cedarford:Churches and hospitals – Richard I hope nothing too bad is going on with you or friends&family! You had mentioned heavy times in a few posts, I was thinking you were talking exclusively about global news. If it is someone’s health, you know that like all events and times when each of us feels adversity has the upper hand, that too, will pass…If its bad news, well, political crap fades fast..the darn bad economic stuff takes a lot longer to mend..
My parents were big Seekers (and Bee Gees) fans. I am a 2nd generation fan. I think Judith Durham had one of the best voices of her generation (of any country)and I admire Bruce Woodley’s songs.
Nov 2, 2008 - 1:26 am 4. wretchard:No family tragedies or anything like that. But I did spend a lot of time visiting people on the slow mend. Hospitals and emergency rooms are fascinating places. And even if nothing bad is happening to you personally, it’s a place of intense human drama. You see people distraught in the corridor or some visitor’s room or in the elevator and can’t help overhearing stuff like “they didn’t think it would come back, but it has”. Soon you realize what a sharp division there is between the outside world, the world outside the hospital walls in which the concerns are social advancement, careers or extramarital affairs and the world of the sick and the dying, where all people ask for is a little more ease or a little more time.
The denizens of this hospital world are interesting. Apart from the doctors and nurses and patients there support people of various kinds; and clergymen of different denominations, moving almost invisibly through the millieu, or more often, a lay volunteer there to give Communion or say a prayer. Once I was in an elevator with a hospital staffer with a therapeutic dog who went around to the wards to cheer the patients up. I asked of course, if there were therapeutic cats. Regrettably the answer was no.
The evenings were the most interesting. You’d leave when the patient was asleep and visiting hours were over, looking at the nurses gear up for another long nocturnal shift. Then you’d wander out past the cafeteria and the chapel on the ground floor and go into the darkened premises. Invariably you’d find, as your eyes adjusted, that there was always someone there at pew or on a kneeler. You never asked why they were there, or why, come to think of it, you were too.
Nov 2, 2008 - 1:52 am 5. ADE:Two years ago, I was in Cambridge on All Saints night; as a tourist, memorised by the history all around.
I stumbled across the free annual performance that the King’s College Choir puts on at about 7:00PM.
In the cool dusk air, candles lit, we heard something like this this. I was sitting behind the conductor.
I could believe that the Saints were coming out of their graves, that two thousand years of history were behind us.
Is it all over now?
ADE
Nov 2, 2008 - 3:02 am 6. Doug:Where were you september 11th
Nov 2, 2008 - 3:34 am 7. Doug:Little Bitty
Nov 2, 2008 - 4:02 am 8. Doug:Sorry for the ot, but American Thinker has some good stuff.
Nov 2, 2008 - 4:03 am 9. Ex-fetus:Since we are doing videos, here is the Obama one. He appears at the 1:14 mark, IIRC. Michelle is the one wearing the ‘Love High School ‘ T-shirt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRiiZ5M0_TQ
WARNING: The energy levels are somewhat higher then youse guys seem comfortable with.
Nov 2, 2008 - 4:10 am 10. Doug:Livin’ On Love
Nov 2, 2008 - 4:16 am 11. Doug:It’s Five O’ Clock Somewhere
Nov 2, 2008 - 4:18 am 12. bobal:I maintain Jesus was not an economist, therefore he couldn’t have been a socialist. And in his day, the means of production were a simple plow and stoop labor, not the mass production factory, and there were no great universities with departments creating new technology. Having withdrawn to the mountains, he returned, hero like, to share what he had found there, a pearl of great price. He threw out wildly impractical suggestions, called fools fools, condemned hypocritess and lawyers, gave the money bag to Judas to carry, and lived off the women. He told great stories with deep meaning, and humor too. It’s said he was the kind of man that could turn water into wine. He left his birth place, and his family, and his friends too, and finally left life itself. Having done zero to contribute to the material advance of his society, his every act was an effort to bring forth life and more life, and he often failed, and he changed the world, a little for the better, taken all in all.
Nov 2, 2008 - 4:35 am 13. Manny C:Chin up tiger! Life’s purpose is bigger than oneself or those one loves. Kind friends are like ointment on what can be life’s continually itching scab. But there’s One more enduring.
Nov 2, 2008 - 5:56 am 14. Barry Meislin:Related.
Nov 2, 2008 - 6:10 am 15. buckets:I hope W isn’t secretly a “cat person.” I wonder if researchers have ever done studies on left/right and cat/dog ownership. I would throw out there, totally unsupported by anything but anecdotal evidence, that those of the libertarian conservative bent prefer the loyal, honest, and faithful companionship of a dog, while our leftist friends prefer the cold, demanding, arrogant and authoritarian nature of a cat.
But I have to admit kittens are just plain adorable.
Nov 2, 2008 - 7:37 am 16. programmer:Put on your headphones, turn up the volume and lean back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfG9v9JueJE
Nov 2, 2008 - 7:38 am 17. exhelodrvr:Buckets,
I’m conservative, and I love cats!! (Dogs, too. I hope that doesn’t make me a centrist.)
” asked of course, if there were therapeutic cats”
But I’m afraid that if you tried that, the cat would think “Oh, cool, look at all these new servants!”
Nov 2, 2008 - 7:52 am 18. exhelodrvr:Judith Durham was quite a pianist, too. I didn’t realize until seeing some of these YouTube videos.
Nov 2, 2008 - 8:08 am 19. Leo Linbeck III:And it became plain to me what a glorious opportunity each of us is given to contribute to the world, and how sad it would be to think the chance too mean.
Brings to mind one of my favorite John Henry Cardinal Newman meditations:
All Saints Day is a reminder each year that we have it within our power to have our own Feast Day. We can be saints; in fact, we are called to be saints, each and every one of us. God wants us to be with Him forever in the next world, and graces us in ways that are as varied as our DNA – different for everyone, and yet somehow all the same.
There is somehow this notion that saints are weirdos: hermits living in the mountains on wild berries and pine bark (some parts are edible); monks living in silence in a mountain abbey; fiery preachers letting loose jeremiads on the streets; poor nuns caring for the dying on the streets of Calcutta. But these extraordinary ways of living are not prerequisites for sainthood, not for most of us anyway; in they were, we would all despair.
No, each of us has our path, extraordinary in its own way in that it is the path that God has chosen for me, and only for me. We know little about it at the beginning, but over time understand it better if we pray and reflect on it – thus the importance of memory, community, and culture.
But two things are certain and true for all paths: a) it will be difficult, it will be painful, it will test our mettle; b) we have the ability to follow it, if we choose to do so. Through God’s grace and the love and support of others, we can do it. We can become saints.
And that is a nice thought, now isn’t it?
Happy All Saints Day. May it become the Feast Day of all members of The Belmont Club.
L3
Nov 2, 2008 - 8:08 am 20. Doug:Cats, Dogs, Women, I must be a Librarian.
—
As Taliban Overwhelm Police, Pakistanis Hit Back
SHALBANDI, Pakistan — On a rainy Friday evening in early August, six Taliban fighters attacked a police post in a village in Buner, a quiet farming valley just outside Pakistan’s lawless tribal region.
The militants tied up eight policemen and lay them on the floor, and according to local accounts, the youngest member of the gang, a 14-year-old, shot the captives on orders from his boss. The fighters stole uniforms and weapons and fled into the mountains.
Almost instantly, the people of Buner, armed with rifles, daggers and pistols, formed a posse, and after five days they cornered and killed their quarry. A video made on a cellphone showed the six militants lying in the dirt, blood oozing from their wounds.
The stand at Buner has entered the lore of Pakistan’s war against the militants as a dramatic example of ordinary citizens’ determination to draw a line against the militants.
Nov 2, 2008 - 8:09 am 21. NahnCee:buckets – on his original BC site, before he became Mr. Fernandez, his nom de plume was “Wretchard the Cat”. Beware of making any remarks about the alleged superiority of dogs over cats as a person’s best friend.
Nov 2, 2008 - 8:14 am 22. slade:“Oh, cool, look at all these new servants!”
Dogs have masters.
Cats have staff.
Nov 2, 2008 - 8:59 am 23. NahnCee:Cats are too cool to say anything like, “Oh, cool!” It’s like imagining Frank Sinatra or Miles Davis saying, “Oh, cool! I think I’ll ask for an autograph.”
Signed — Chloe’s Temple Slave
Nov 2, 2008 - 9:34 am 24. programmer:In defense of dogs:
A few years (ok, several few), I hunted boar with dogs and a knife. (Childhood wish fulfillment). After the hunt, over appropriate beverage, it occured to me that dog’s relationship with man had changed the course of humankind. No longer was man restricted to ambush hunting. With the appropriate number of dogs (no offense, but probably not chihuahuas) and a long enough handle on a knife, man could chase, bay, and kill for food most any wild game animal on the face of the earth. Cats are great and are valuable for ridding farmsteads of vermin, but when it comes time to walk the wild lonesome, they look at you and hint strongly, “Leave lots of cans of catfood open, please.”
Nov 2, 2008 - 9:46 am 25. bogie wheel:Even if you don’t find them in hospitals, most anyone who has ever lived with a cat can tell you they are definitely therapeutic.
Comic relief is one of the great therapeutic contributions that our three cats make to our household.
Saw a news mag video a couple years ago about a program out in California (? or somewhere in the SW) where male convicts work with a cat shelter to bathe, groom, nurse, and socialize the cats, and become familiar with their dietary & medical needs. The convicts learned job skills and, perhaps more important, compassion through their bonding with the animals. That this was done with just cats, and no dogs, was all the more extraordinary.
As for inspiring videos, there’s a YouTube one about Team Hoyt, which is set to the song “I Can Only Imagine.” Too lazy to find the link right now. But it’s a good one.
I’ve thought more than once that, if Sarah Palin ever attains national office and remains in the spotlight for a while, watching Trig Palin grow up could be one of the great (and perhaps most underrated) lessons (I would even go so far as to say blessings) our nation receives from what has otherwise been the pretty disagreeable experience of Campaign ‘08.
A lot of people give lip service to the phrase about “caring for the least among us,” and how a society’s greatness can be measured by how it treats its least powerful members … and unfortunately, a lot of that “compassion” gets politicized (as a way of grabbing $$ or clout) by casting “the least among us” in the role of perpetual victims. And then you see someone like Nick Vujicic, or Dick & Rick Hoyt, or Dr. Rory Cooper, and it drives home just how much we are the needy ones who can learn from them.
What the hell is perfection, anyway? So far as I know only One person has met that standard. The rest of us, we muddle long as best we can. Some people just wear their infirmities on the outside. Shame on a culture that tries to sanitize & disappear this aspect of being human. Relieving suffering is one thing, and a good thing. But eliminating innocent lives that are not up to OUR standards of “quality” is quite another thing … a malignant cancer on the soul of a people.
God help us.
Nov 2, 2008 - 9:48 am 26. NahnCee:Cats purr. Better invention than sliced bread.
One of the very many extremely bad things about Islam that I just can’t stomach is its injunctions against both cats and dogs. What is *wrong* with those people?!?
Nov 2, 2008 - 9:57 am 27. Herb:L3
Nov 2, 2008 - 10:12 am 28. Jeff:Well and beautifully said. Thanks.
It’s All Saints Day, not All Saint’s Day.
Even if you wanted to make it possessive, it would be plural, not singular.
In other words, it would be “All Saints’ Day” not “All Saint’s Day”; the day of all saints, not the day of all saint.
Nov 2, 2008 - 10:43 am 29. Lesley:Here’s an old Anglican hymn traditionally sung on All Saints Day. This hymn is sung at all our family funerals, too. And it is true, saints lived not only in ages past, there are hundreds and thousands still.
Leo, thanks for that Sunday meditation.
I Sing A Song of the Saints of God
Nov 2, 2008 - 12:12 pm 30. newscaper:re: “I maintain Jesus was not an economist, therefore he couldn’t have been a socialist.”
Jesus never said his followers should *become* Caesar.
He also said the poor would always be with us.
Nov 2, 2008 - 3:25 pm 31. PA Cat:There definitely are therapeutic cats– the hospice in which my mother died had several. One of the cats (a large cuddly marmalade fellow) lived on her floor and was with her at the end.
Nov 2, 2008 - 4:59 pm 32. WSL:28 Jeff: I believe November 1st is All Saints Day. In some places, it is also called All Hallows Day. The night before, i.e., October 31st, would then be All Hallows Eve, or Halloween for short.
Nov 2, 2008 - 5:15 pm 33. bobal:A home without a pet or two is really not a home.
Nov 2, 2008 - 5:43 pm 34. Doug:A Kiss is Still a Kiss.
—
How The Times followed a trail to find Barack Obama’s aunt
Those intriguing passages in Mr Obama’s book were first investigated by The Times during a visit to Kenya in September to interview members of the family, including “Granny Sarah”. Inquiries as to the current whereabouts of Omar elicited only vague responses – and even the suggestion, from a full brother of the missing man, that no such person existed.
This triggered a six-week search, one that would lead eventually to Boston and to Aunt Zeituni. Public record searches found traces of O. Onyango Obama, Uncle Omar’s real name, in Boston. A friend and a former landlady said that he now uses the name Obama Onyango.
In the course of searching for Uncle Omar The Times found a Zeituni Onyango, who also played a prominent part in Mr Obama’s book.
The Times called the Zeituni Onyango in Boston three times. The first time a woman said that she “went to California”. The second time a woman said: “She died last summer.” The third time a woman said in French that she did not know her at that address.
On visiting the housing estate, however, neighbours confirmed that she was indeed the “Auntie Zeituni” in Mr Obama’s book – as she eventually confirmed herself.
Uncle Omar has still not been found.
It was not until Wednesday evening that The Times obtained a formal identification of Ms Onyango by George Hussein, Mr Obama’s half-brother who had known her throughout his childhood.
Whatever the Democrat campaign may imply, there is nothing suspicious about the story or its timing. The only mystery, perhaps, is how so many people read Mr Obama’s book in the US without wondering what might have happened to the mysterious relative, lost in America.
Nov 2, 2008 - 6:46 pm 35. NahnCee:I had wondered who first found Auntie Z. Personally, I was thinking Billary, who then slipped it along at the opportune time, since it beggars belief that either the Times or AP would actually do any investigative journalism on their own without having a Hansel and Gretel trail of cookie crumbs to lead them to the scoop.
Nov 2, 2008 - 6:51 pm 36. Doug:But it’s a non-story because John does not want to bring up the *I* word.
Nov 2, 2008 - 6:54 pm 37. Bill P:Richard,
Thank you so much for alerting me to the YouTube Videos of Judith and the Seekers. I have all of their records and still love them, 40 years later. And, after looking at some of her later videos and music, I can attest that she can still deliver the goods.
I have read your site for years, and appreciate your insight. Hearing Judith again motivated me to say thanks.
Nov 2, 2008 - 7:12 pm 38. Mad Fiddler:It cannot be denied that there are some cats with people skills; cats who actually LIKE people; cats who want their humans to be happy.
Perhaps the difficulty is the number of PEOPLE who sincerely believe that their cat is uniquely endowed with inscrutable wisdom and magical powers of insight, as evidenced by the way the cat sits motionless for hours, with only the occasional twitch of the tail to indicate that the critter has not expired.
Someone pointed out that cats evolved as solitary hunters, which mainly relate to other beings by killing and eating them, except that for a few minutes every six months or so, they have yeowling spitting sex with another animal with claws.
Dogs evolved as pack animals, so that they have some social skills to be able to get along with the rest. In fact, the social skills of many humans test out as more rudimentary than those of dogs.
Seriously, when our mother was deeply depressed about the loss of driving privileges, and her independence generally, as a result of double cataracts and a botched first repair, my brother and sister schemed and bought a tiny shih-tzuh puppie. She eventually got her vision restored, but that puppie really brought her out of her miseries.
Nov 2, 2008 - 7:16 pm 39. Doug:“Someone pointed out that cats evolved as solitary hunters, which mainly relate to other beings by killing and eating them, except that for a few minutes every six months or so, they have yeowling spitting sex with another animal with claws.”
Nov 2, 2008 - 7:41 pm 40. PA Cat:—
Been a bit of selection on the domestic side since folks started using them to guard the granary.
—
You could lesson the depression of the Obama Years by posting here more frequently, Fiddler!
We’re gonna need it.
Mad Fiddler (and others looking for a therapeutic laugh)– if you haven’t seen this old Super Bowl commercial about cat herding, you’ll enjoy it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8
Nov 2, 2008 - 8:56 pm 41. Mad Fiddler:Okay…
A Rabbi, a Pastor and an Ayutollah sat down at a bar…
Hmmm. Can anyone suggest a middle and an ending that don’t end up in hideous violence?
Let’s not forget that pain and suffering are fundamental to successful slapstick.
Think of “Spring Time for Hitler and Germany” from the great silly show “The Producers”
or “The Inquisition” from the movie “History of the World Part One.”
Check out Jeff Dunham’s skit “Achmed the Dead Terrorist”
(There’s an odd coincidence: “Judith Durham” / “Jeff Dunham” What can it MEAN????)
Nov 2, 2008 - 9:13 pm 42. Mad Fiddler:What can a Muslim holy man drink?
In the “Thirteenth Warrior” the muslim guest among vikings is offered Mead. He responds that his religion forbids drinking the products of fermented grains or grapes.
The Viking scarcely skipping a beat points out to the Muslim – ably played by Antonio Banderas – that mead is fermented HONEY, upon which they smile and drink a draft to honor all their fellows slaughtered in the course of the previous scene.
I had some mead at the wedding where I met my wife that was. (”ex-”)
It’s one of the good memories of that relationship, now I come to think of it. Pity I didn’t choose to become more familiar with the one than the other.
Nov 2, 2008 - 9:36 pm 43. Ex-fetus:Koran 5:90 Wine an abomination devised by Satan
“Believers, wine and games of chance, idols and divining arrows, are abominations devised by Satan. Avoid them, so that you may prosper. satan seeks to stir up enmity and hatred among you by means of wine and gambling, and to keep you from the remembrance of God and from your prayers. Will you not abstain from them?”
Like all religious tracts, it is somewhat ambiguous. Beer isn’t mentioned, and since beer was made by the Egyptians thousands of years before ol’Mo the goat fukker had his moment, I would assume beer isn’t covered.
Or maybe there actually is more then one version of the Koran. Muslims claim there isn’t, but they lie about lots of other stuff too.
There is something about drinks made from fruits and grains but I couldn’t find that in my first google pass and didn’t think it was worth working on.
Nov 2, 2008 - 11:11 pm 44. NahnCee:If so then Mead, Vodka ( potatoes) and the drinks made from leaves ( holly and mint leaf) as well as any of the fermented milk drinks would seem to be OK.
I think the Great Khan was right when he said a man should drink once a month, no more no less.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ffwDYo00Q
Cat cartoon — a series of them. They are *very* accurate about cat behavior.
Nov 2, 2008 - 11:21 pm 45. sgi:Northwest Passage by Stan Rogers, a Canadian icon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz6vU1iSA0k
Nov 3, 2008 - 12:38 am 46. Zeno:Since poverty is always relative, the poor WILL always be with us. Unless the Obamessiah performs some sort of miracle. Or tax to the middle class. Well, something.
Nov 3, 2008 - 12:59 am 47. sfblue:I’ve volunteered at a clinic as a medical assistant for over three years and in my experience, helping someone who I wouldn’t otherwise know to feel better physically or emotionally is wonderful and powerful. I’m having those conversations in the corner Wretchard is talking about. It is literally and act of creating positive energy. The power to choose to help someone is such a gift and I’m afraid that the more people are coerced by the State to ‘help’ those ‘in need’, the less they will choose to (or be able to afford to).
Nov 3, 2008 - 1:15 am 48. 3Case:“Hospitals and emergency rooms are fascinating places.
I agree, W.
Nov 3, 2008 - 6:41 am 49. Wadeusaf:“Dewey Defeats Truman”
Nov 3, 2008 - 7:22 am 50. marymcl:wretchard@ “And it became plain to me what a glorious opportunity each of us is given to contribute to the world, and how sad it would be to think the chance too mean.”
To me one of the great blessings of our civilization is this very capacity to see the promise of life. Another is the ability to laugh, in spite of everything that works to destroy that promise.
And this is as good a time as any to say thank you to Wretchard and all those who have posted at Belmont Club over the years. A friend of mine once said, “There’s a lot of good you can do in the world as long as you don’t worry about who’s getting the credit.” For what it’s worth, I think a lot of good is done here.
And whatever happens tomorrow, it’s still our country. So vote – it ain’t over till it’s over!
Nov 3, 2008 - 7:34 am 51. Alexis:Irrespective of who wins the upcoming election, there will be a battle royale for who gets to lead the opposition against the next president.
Nov 3, 2008 - 8:23 am 52. slade:Alexis! One election at a time!!
Nov 3, 2008 - 8:35 am 53. buckets:For the record, my cats and dogs comment was tongue-in-cheek. Jeez, the election has really turned the mood somber around here. I was just trying to stay in the lighthearted spirit of the original post.
And all this canine and feline discussion brings to mind one of my favorite movie quotes (and as bad as things are, they aren’t quite this bad…)
Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions.
Nov 3, 2008 - 8:47 am 54. Charles:Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”?
Dr Ray Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real “wrath of God” type stuff.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Exactly.
Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… Mass hysteria!
This one is funny. And true.
RickRoll’D
Nov 3, 2008 - 8:56 am 55. Mark:Marymcl writes:
“And this is as good a time as any to say thank you to Wretchard and all those who have posted at Belmont Club over the years. A friend of mine once said, “There’s a lot of good you can do in the world as long as you don’t worry about who’s getting the credit.” For what it’s worth, I think a lot of good is done here. . . . And whatever happens tomorrow, it’s still our country. So vote – it ain’t over till it’s over!”
Yes. Thank you, Mary . . . and thank you Wrichard.
“Hospitals and emergency rooms are fascinating places.”
Indeed.
Three wards will haunt you forever:
Neo-natal intensive care,
Neurology ICU (diving, motorcycle accidents, tertiary syphillis for the most part),
Burn ICU (despair ye all who enter here)
From these and other wards, O Lord, deliver us.
Nov 3, 2008 - 8:59 am 56. Zeno:Today I was walking on campus and I saw a student wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt. I thought: “All this fight during the decades of the Cold War, for this…”
Then I turned around, and saw an older man, probably a professor.
He was wearing a Lenin t-shirt…
Welcome to the New America.
Nov 3, 2008 - 10:41 am 57. Alexis:slade:
Point taken.
I will say this. Each election is not merely an end, but also a beginning. This election will be particularly close, and the results of the election might not be evident for at least a week. I don’t think that either presidential candidate will be able to plausibly claim a mandate and it is unlikely that either man will be able to govern with his own party alone.
I have a strong preference which is shared by the majority in this club. Still, I see this election as a sad vindication of the kind of destructive “king of the hill” politics that empowers the forces of strident opposition at the expense of the genteel compromises of Washington insiders.
It is rare when people actually remember the policy differences of statesmen. Historians are more likely to remember the methods statesmen use to attain public office and how they conduct themselves once they get in.
William Ayers’s lack of attrition let alone contrition about his treason against the United States of America gives a bad example for future generations. If his protege becomes President, how would that not become some kind of vindication for the methods used by the Weather Underground? The problem with teenage rebellion is that the example set by teenage rebels encourages their children to rebel against them.
As for myself, I would like to set an example of NOT acting like the Weather Underground.
Nov 3, 2008 - 11:32 am 58. Doug:Gateway Pundit In Missouri- 18,000 Rally With Palin!… While 400 See Joe Biden
I’m writing in Noonan/Parker
Nov 3, 2008 - 2:03 pm 59. slade:All too true Alexis.
The gaps in this election make one wonder what happened to the spark of synaptic connections – young vs old, male vs female, black vs white, Wall St vs Main St, green vs skeptic, tonic water vs mooseburgers, Jihadist threat vs “all camel and no turbin”.
Those of us who failed to climb on board the Obama bandwagon, were left wondering about the leadership vacuum – how it happened and what to do about it?
The “how” I think is adequately explained by the dialectic in Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Academics and analysts can write more papers, but the cycle is well-enough defined for me. The “what to do” requires more equanimity. Outside of armed insurrection, the solutions – to reversing the growth of government bureaucracies as non-productive and expensive encroachments into personal wealth (watch that moving target spin as the newbies realize that somebody has to pay for all the “social justice”) and, ultimately, national wealth-creating opportunities (”bankrupt the coal industry”) the solutions default into incremental pressures along various dimensions of society – government, culture, family, religion, markets, foreign relations. As I see it, those of us who oppose the Obama platform – as it is currently defined – are left with the unsatisfying options of working at the individual and local levels to create momentum for a different viewpoint.
But I agree that now is the time to start thinking about developing a backbench – as well as reconstituting the A-team above the current level of mediocrity, if I may be so bold.
One of the reasons I admit to not just liking Palin, but actively supporting her political career, is that she doesn’t have $75,000 locked in a freezer, Todd isn’t roaming the Capital halls in Juneau exploring possibilities with pages, as far as I know (I expect we would have heard about it), both husband and wife are sporting all their original body parts, no cosmetic enhancements required, there are no sexual escapades on the steps of the rotunda stairs, no patronage jobs for lovers or mistresses, no questionable VIP loans, no multi-million dollar bonuses, no junkets to Dubai, no employment history with investment banks … I could go on. And on.
Congress needs to be cleaned out. Fast. The level of performance and integrity and patriotism to the principles this country represents must be resurrected to a new standard. Presumably the quality of contenders for the office of President would follow by example or be diluted.
I don’t generally go this critical, but I am disgusted with this Congress – under Bush and I see no reason to change my mind under either Obama or McCain.
Nov 3, 2008 - 2:15 pm 60. Doug:An all-blonde ticket will bring
Nov 3, 2008 - 2:21 pm 61. slade:FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE.
And I would have to add that the problem doesn’t end in Washington. If anything, it is worse at the state level. Look at Mass, PA, CA, AK, just for starters. Look at the number of state pension plans facing bankruptcy because the portfolio managers invested in junk securities – sometimes knowingly, sometimes not.
As I have said many times before, a little corruption greases the wheels of politics but it’s gone too far.
The markets still aren’t back yet despite the numerical rise. Any number of analysts have noted that they aren’t responding to “fundamentals” so much as psychology and the new government support and stimulus programs.
The bigger they come, the harder they fall.
Nov 3, 2008 - 2:22 pm 62. Doug:The Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.
OBAMA: I think we can say that, uh, uh, the Constitution reflected an enormous blind spot in this culture that carries on until this day and — and, uh, — and, uh, that the framers had that same blind spot. I — I don’t think the two viewers are contradictory, to say that it was a remarkable political document that paved the way for where we are now and to say that, uh, it also, uh, reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day.
OBAMA: If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples so that, uh, I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order and — and as long as I could pay for it I’d be okay. But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society.
OBAMA: As radical as I think people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical.
It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it has been interpreted — and Warren Court interpreted it in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties.
It says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you.
But it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.
And that hasn’t shifted, and one of the tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court-focused, uh, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change.
And, uh, in some ways we still suffer from that.
Nov 3, 2008 - 2:35 pm 63. slade:William Ayers’s lack of attrition let alone contrition about his treason against the United States of America gives a bad example for future generations. If his protege becomes President, how would that not become some kind of vindication for the methods used by the Weather Underground? – Alexis
Alexis, Ayers and Dohrn have the luxury of living with their consciences, unlike their victims.
But I point to the money behind billionaire Lester Crown of Chicago who several weeks after his nomination announced a $1.9M “book deal” with Obama. This site has been focused on Soros. I believe his hand has been in play, but the money trail is much closer to home. And Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn are truly bit players on the modern stage on which Obama plays.
Just a personal opinion. Follow the money. And it doesn’t lead TO Ayers but THROUGH him.
Nov 3, 2008 - 4:49 pm 64. Doug:Thank you, Slade.
Nov 3, 2008 - 4:56 pm 65. Doug:‘Rat’s been saying that for months, but in the midst of all his doom and gloom, and my tuneout factor, I’ve missed the basic facts, which you have now posted.
The Chicago writer Kass (sp?) long ago warned that we’d be buying into the Chicago Machine, not just players like the Ayer’s, who are so far out as to pale in comparison, in terms of effectiveness over the longer haul.
Nov 3, 2008 - 4:59 pm 66. Doug:The main reason that Ayers was an impossible sell, were all the “establishment” power players that did business with him as though he was one of us.
Nov 3, 2008 - 5:03 pm 67. Doug:…he was one of them to some degree, but only with the media’s total failure to do the jobs would the Electorate remain as ignorant as they are about who the people around Obama REALLY ARE, and of course, who Obama and Michelle really are.
“failure to do THEIR jobs “
Nov 3, 2008 - 5:04 pm 68. Doug:This Video alone would have fundamentally changed the election had the Chronicle not LEFT OUT entirely the most important facts.
…then there’s the LA Times tape, etc, ad infinitum.
SF Gate Multimedia (video)
Nov 3, 2008 - 5:18 pm 69. slade:Rat’s been saying that for months – Doug
I know that Doug and I would have given credit but I don’t know that many posters/bloggers here know of ‘Rat’ and wherefore he speaks. So I just try to spread the “thinking.”
To each his own thought.
Nov 3, 2008 - 5:30 pm 70. Doug:The Olde Tyme Belmonteers are all too familiar with the Desert Rat, Slade.
I’m copying our combined wisdom for the fruitless task of enlightening Ash.
…also well-known to the Oldies but Goodies.
Nov 3, 2008 - 6:11 pm 71. Doug:“One of the reasons I admit to not just liking Palin…”
Perhaps most important is that she loves this country and what it stands for more than Barry or Mr. BS Biden will ever know.
…couldn’t expect folks as high and mighty as Noonan to be impressed by that.
Nov 3, 2008 - 6:20 pm 72. Annoy Mouse:It’s the tide. The dismal tide. It’s not the one thing.
Nov 3, 2008 - 9:14 pm 73. Doug:Obama Staffer Spreads the Wealth Around… Registers in 3 States-
Nov 3, 2008 - 9:49 pm 74. Doug:Votes in 2
Joshua said..
Jim, heads up,
from American Spectator, Obama campaign source said, “senior Obama aids knew his Auntie was here illegally.”
Aunt Zeituni’s Protectors
ALL IN THE FAMILY
“Senior aides to Sen. Barack Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick were aware that Obama’s aunt, Zeituni Onyango, was living in the United States illegally and in a South Boston public-housing project, and were monitoring her at the request of senior Obama campaign officials, according to a current employee for Obama’s key political consulting firm, AKP&D Message and Media.”
“Back in early 2007, as Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod was organizing and planning the Obama campaign, he identified Obama’s unique family situation — a number of half-brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, some living overseas — as a potential problem, says an employee for Axelrod’s political consulting firm, and who has done work on the Obama campaign. “Given [Obama's] father’s family history here and in Africa, David wanted the campaign to know who was who, where they lived, and what they were doing.”
“No surprises. We knew she was here illegally. We knew her income levels, but I don’t think anyone from the campaign had had contact with her.”
Rest of the story tells how Axelrod arranged the deal to watch over Auntie…
Nov 3, 2008 - 9:53 pm 75. Doug:Aunt Zeituni’s Protectors
Geeze, the first comment was 9 HOURS AGO!
SPREAD THAT SPECTATOR LINK AROUND!
Nov 3, 2008 - 10:14 pm 76. Aristide:And who were Grandma Toots protectors?
Some have suggested that most Cancer patients are terminated by an injection. Is the day before the election a coincidence or a crass attempt for sympathy?
Perhaps someone with medical expertise can answer the practice regarding the termination of cancer patients.
Not sure if anyone that could answer the second question would!
Nov 3, 2008 - 10:15 pm 77. Doug:Ohio Coal Association Says Obama Remarks Make It Clear: Obama … -
“It’s evident that this campaign has been pandering in states like Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania to attempt to generate votes from coal supporters, while keeping his true agenda hidden from the state’s voters.
Nov 3, 2008 - 10:21 pm 78. Doug:“Senator Obama has revealed himself to be nothing more than a short- sighted, inexperienced politician willing to say anything to get a vote. But today, the nation’s coal industry and those who support it have a better understanding of his true mission, to ‘bankrupt’ our industry, put tens of thousands out of work and cause unprecedented increases in electricity prices.
“In addition to providing an affordable, reliable source of low-cost electricity, domestic coal holds the key to our nation’s long-term energy security – a goal that cannot be overlooked during this time of international instability and economic uncertainty…
It’s the way I want to go, Aristide.
Plenty of Moriphine.
The way my mom would have gone had I not intervened.
…as a consequence she went through agonizing tests, and the final humiliation of an amputation of her leg before dying.
Everything she would not have wanted to happen, did.
Nov 3, 2008 - 10:25 pm 79. Doug:Obama’s half sister was there.
Nov 3, 2008 - 10:28 pm 80. Aristide:I’d guess Hospice was involved, as it was with mom, ’til she was taken to the (hated) hospital.
Obama on Obama
Nov 3, 2008 - 10:34 pm 81. Doug:Obama: I’ll Bankrupt Coal Industry; Your Energy Prices Will Skyrocket
Ohio Coal Association Responds -
RUSH: Here is Obama, this is in January of this year in an editorial board meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle.
OBAMA: What I’ve said is that we would put a cap-and-trade system in place that is more — that is as aggressive if not more aggressive than anybody else’s out there, so if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can, it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.
RUSH: He’s gonna bankrupt ‘em, he’s got a cap-and-trade program, Algore, this is to save the planet. He’s going to bankrupt ‘em, by definition, they will bankrupt. But that’s not, by itself, the single most damaging aspect of what he said. This is.
OBAMA: When I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know, under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.
RUSH: So folks, he wants to bankrupt the coal industry. Now, I’ve never seen a presidential candidate actually admit that he wants to destroy elements of the US economy. He did, he said it, and now he wants skyrocketing gas prices. You remember when gasoline spiked up to four bucks? The only thing Obama said about it, “The only thing that bothers me is how quickly we got it up there.” But he didn’t do one damn thing to lower gasoline prices. He didn’t care that they were that high. His only stated concern was that they got up there so quickly. Here he is, same interview with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board, January 2008.
OBAMA: Regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad, because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal-powered plants, you know, natural gas, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money, they will pass that money on to consumers. If you can’t persuade the American people that, yes, there’s going to be some increase in electricity rates on the front end, but that over the long term because of combinations of more efficient energy usage and changing lightbulbs and more efficient appliances, but also technology improving how we can produce clean energy, that the economy will benefit. If we can’t make that argument persuasively enough, you — you can — you can be Lyndon Johnson, you can be the master of Washington, you’re not gonna get that done.
—-
BIDEN: We’re not supporting clean coal! Guess what? China’s building two every week, two dirty coal plants. And it’s polluting the United States! It’s causing people to die! The first guy to introduce a global warming bill was me, 22 years ago. The first guy to support solar energy is me, 26 years ago. Came out of Delaware. But guess what? China’s going to burn 300 years of bad coal, once we figure out how to clean their coal up because it’s going to ruin your lungs and there’s nothing we can do about it. No coal plants here in America, build ‘em, if they’re going to build them over there, make ‘em clean, because they’re killing you!
RUSH: All right, so we’re going to leave the coal industry to the ChiComs, and we’re going to make noises. Like the ChiComs are going to listen to us! “Hey! Hey, Hu Jintao! Clean up your coal,” Biden will say. “Hey, buddy, old pal, clean up your coal.
Nov 4, 2008 - 1:07 am 82. Doug:Stand up, Hu! Let everybody see you?”
Oh, oh, you don’t tell a communist stand up.
Communists tell you to sit down.
SF Gate Multimedia (video)
Nov 4, 2008 - 1:07 am 83. Doug:Obama’s Church It’s Hidden Ties to Black Extremism and Communism
Nov 4, 2008 - 1:43 am 84. Doug:M. Wilcox said…
Nov 4, 2008 - 1:53 am 85. Doug:The fallout from ACORN will be felt for years.
Catholics probe aid directed to ACORN
—
How Bizarre is it for the Catholic Church to send Millions to help the Candidate who favors Infanticide?
At one time, no one would have believed…
Nov 4, 2008 - 2:41 am 86. tomw:MaryMD
A friend of mine once said, “There’s a lot of good you can do in the world as long as you don’t worry about who’s getting the credit.”
That would be:
Nov 4, 2008 - 7:08 am 87. Doug:Ronald Wilson Reagan
Ego and mouth
Nov 4, 2008 - 7:13 am 88. slade:Thomas Sowell
The Olde Tyme Belmonteers – Doug
I know that too Doug even though the current group seems reconstituted with new voices. Given that the Crown story has not been widely reported, a cite would have been appropriate. I make (rare) leaps of free association that don’t translate well if at all – confusing my voice with that of the Desert Rat is not a likely scenario.
Any more than my getting to the end of this day within spitting distance of sobriety. I prepared a pressure-cooked flank steak with boiled vegetables to be consumed with a bottle of spiced rum.
Tomorrow is another day.
The Sowell piece nails the psychology of immaturity. My critiques of Congress have (usually, when I remember) been prefaced by some acknowledgment of mistakes tempering the steel of life and the process. My point is the soft version of Mika’s occasional message – we can and must do much better.
Funny how the pain always starts in the wallet. The family took huge hits from two angles. One year almost to the day after scrounging up a second life savings, I took a huge hit just a few years out from retirement. And now we’re hearing nonsense about a second stimulus package, bankrupting coal, the new “right” to health care, and on it goes. This phase of the battle is about over.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. – John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Speech (1961)
Nov 4, 2008 - 7:59 am 89. Doug:Trish is Treating at the Bar:
Nov 4, 2008 - 9:27 am 90. Doug:Shit blended with Glass Shards.
I enquired about the bread.
She said swallow it straight,
something about learning through experience.
I guess Thomas would understand.
Ayers was voting when BHO arrived.
Nov 4, 2008 - 9:37 am 91. slade:He cowered outside, waiting for Ayers
to leave to avoid photo-opps.
That Trish knows how to throw a party.
Channeling her inner Martha Stewart.
Nov 4, 2008 - 9:43 am 92. exhelodrvr:Wretchard,
Nov 4, 2008 - 10:28 am 93. Ms. Know:Since it’s Nov 5 in Sydney now, would you tell us who won?
The left-wing illuminati feel that Obama is a saint, and so do his supporters. They’re trying to give him his own holiday, and he hasn’t even done anything.
Nov 15, 2008 - 10:21 amSorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.