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Demeter
Demeter's Journal
Demeter's Journal
November 2, 2013
Detroit is the battleground chosen by Wall Street to crush the last vestiges of American democracy by creating “the template for direct corporate rule.” Finance capital recognizes that it can no longer coexist with democratic institutions, which are most easily destroyed by attacking Black rule in the cities.
A half-century after the man once known as Detroit Red spoke those words, the last grains of sand are trickling from the hour glass of what has passed for democracy in America. The principle of one-person, one vote – or any meaningful franchise, at all – is no longer operative for the majority of Black people in the state of Michigan, whose largely African American cities are run by emergency managers accountable to no one but Rick Snyder, the venture capitalist in the governor’s mansion. The same bell is tolling for every urban center in the land, as hegemonic finance capital creates the template for direct corporate rule through the systematic destruction of Detroiters’ citizenship rights.
The 82 percent Black metropolis has been reduced to a Bantustan in both the economic and political senses of the term. Surrounded by some of the richest counties in the nation, the impoverished city exemplifies a national racial wealth gap that is more profound than that which existed in South Africa at the height of apartheid, as detailed by Jon Jeter in this issue of BAR (See “Worse Than Apartheid: Black in Obama’s America”). The Emergency Manager law, passed by the Republican state legislature after rejection by voters in a referendum, makes the Bantustan analogy complete, with a Black corporate lawyer overseeing the dismantling of every mechanism of local democracy. Kevyn Orr’s ascension as plenipotentiary of Wall Street is also the ultimate logic of the most vulgar current of African American politics, which seeks only Black representation at the highest levels of power, no matter whose interests are served. Wall Street long ago scoped this Black weakness, and has exploited it at every political level.
“The same bell is tolling for every urban center in the land.”
...Kevin Orr, ensconced in a $5,000 pH er month luxury penthouse condominium paid for by one of Governor Snyder’s private slush funds with contributions from secret corporate donors, is building the template for urban democratic dissolution from scratch. He is a crude and unimaginative man, doing Wall Street’s bidding with little finesse in the bright light of day. His arrogance is buttressed by the certainty that he is backed by the real rulers of the American State, Wall Street, and that the outcome in Judge Steven Rhodes’ federal bankruptcy court will create precedent to render all of America’s cities servile and neutered. Orr is also aware that his coloration provides perfect cover for his mission – added value for his services, well worth the luxury suite. (The judge ruled that Orr’s accommodations were irrelevant to the case.).... Wall Street recognizes that it cannot effectively consume the public sphere as long as the public retains the electoral democratic mechanisms to stop it. In other words, concentrated capital can no longer coexist with even the thin gruel of American democracy.... MORE
DEATH OF A GREAT AMERICAN CITY--CITY OF MY BIRTH, INCIDENTALLY
Detroit Will be Democracy's Decisive Battle by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/detroit-will-be-democracys-decisive-battleDetroit is the battleground chosen by Wall Street to crush the last vestiges of American democracy by creating “the template for direct corporate rule.” Finance capital recognizes that it can no longer coexist with democratic institutions, which are most easily destroyed by attacking Black rule in the cities.
“If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to agree that we're going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet. It's one or the other in 1964. It isn't that time is running out -- time has run out!” – Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” Cleveland, Ohio, April 3, 1964.
A half-century after the man once known as Detroit Red spoke those words, the last grains of sand are trickling from the hour glass of what has passed for democracy in America. The principle of one-person, one vote – or any meaningful franchise, at all – is no longer operative for the majority of Black people in the state of Michigan, whose largely African American cities are run by emergency managers accountable to no one but Rick Snyder, the venture capitalist in the governor’s mansion. The same bell is tolling for every urban center in the land, as hegemonic finance capital creates the template for direct corporate rule through the systematic destruction of Detroiters’ citizenship rights.
The 82 percent Black metropolis has been reduced to a Bantustan in both the economic and political senses of the term. Surrounded by some of the richest counties in the nation, the impoverished city exemplifies a national racial wealth gap that is more profound than that which existed in South Africa at the height of apartheid, as detailed by Jon Jeter in this issue of BAR (See “Worse Than Apartheid: Black in Obama’s America”). The Emergency Manager law, passed by the Republican state legislature after rejection by voters in a referendum, makes the Bantustan analogy complete, with a Black corporate lawyer overseeing the dismantling of every mechanism of local democracy. Kevyn Orr’s ascension as plenipotentiary of Wall Street is also the ultimate logic of the most vulgar current of African American politics, which seeks only Black representation at the highest levels of power, no matter whose interests are served. Wall Street long ago scoped this Black weakness, and has exploited it at every political level.
“The same bell is tolling for every urban center in the land.”
...Kevin Orr, ensconced in a $5,000 pH er month luxury penthouse condominium paid for by one of Governor Snyder’s private slush funds with contributions from secret corporate donors, is building the template for urban democratic dissolution from scratch. He is a crude and unimaginative man, doing Wall Street’s bidding with little finesse in the bright light of day. His arrogance is buttressed by the certainty that he is backed by the real rulers of the American State, Wall Street, and that the outcome in Judge Steven Rhodes’ federal bankruptcy court will create precedent to render all of America’s cities servile and neutered. Orr is also aware that his coloration provides perfect cover for his mission – added value for his services, well worth the luxury suite. (The judge ruled that Orr’s accommodations were irrelevant to the case.).... Wall Street recognizes that it cannot effectively consume the public sphere as long as the public retains the electoral democratic mechanisms to stop it. In other words, concentrated capital can no longer coexist with even the thin gruel of American democracy.... MORE
DEATH OF A GREAT AMERICAN CITY--CITY OF MY BIRTH, INCIDENTALLY
November 1, 2013
I'm taking a semi-sidetrack from Simplicity this weekend....One could say, there's nothing simpler than Death. Oh, the details may vary, but it's a one-way door. Once a person passes, his story ends.
Death is the price of life, due from the first definable moment that the clock starts running. Different individuals, different species, barring an outside cause, will die at different times in different ways. So what does a person do? (The survivors, the temporarily alive, I mean)
Let's consider the options:
Religion / Philosophy (multiple variations)
Denial (pretty universal if not continuous)
Resignation
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may"
Procreate
Publish
Distract
In less sophisticated times, people gave Death a lot more thought. They saw on a regular basis how tentative and fragile Life is as a state of being. Death informed their lives.
But in this 21st century, in this wealthy culture, Death has been tidied away, conducted behind closed doors, and never thought about as a reality by any one, not even life insurance salesmen.
Certainly not by our President, who has no difficulty ordering a rain of Death on people half a world away...and doesn't understand why anyone would get upset and want to take his Gameboy away....
Nor by our Bankster Class, who will never see the results of their fiscal crimes.
So, while we wait for Revelation, let's document those crimes....
as we celebrate and mourn our Lost but Loved.
Weekend Economists Celebrate El Dia de los Muertos November 1-3, 2013
http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/filepicker%2FWlyhPBxTScCffju47tmM_death_.I'm taking a semi-sidetrack from Simplicity this weekend....One could say, there's nothing simpler than Death. Oh, the details may vary, but it's a one-way door. Once a person passes, his story ends.
Death is the price of life, due from the first definable moment that the clock starts running. Different individuals, different species, barring an outside cause, will die at different times in different ways. So what does a person do? (The survivors, the temporarily alive, I mean)
Let's consider the options:
Religion / Philosophy (multiple variations)
Denial (pretty universal if not continuous)
Resignation
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may"
Procreate
Publish
Distract
In less sophisticated times, people gave Death a lot more thought. They saw on a regular basis how tentative and fragile Life is as a state of being. Death informed their lives.
But in this 21st century, in this wealthy culture, Death has been tidied away, conducted behind closed doors, and never thought about as a reality by any one, not even life insurance salesmen.
Certainly not by our President, who has no difficulty ordering a rain of Death on people half a world away...and doesn't understand why anyone would get upset and want to take his Gameboy away....
Nor by our Bankster Class, who will never see the results of their fiscal crimes.
So, while we wait for Revelation, let's document those crimes....
as we celebrate and mourn our Lost but Loved.
November 1, 2013
The smartest thing yet written about the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s federal exchange program is a post by Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute at his “Rortybomb” blog at Next New Deal. Konczal makes two points, each of which deserves careful pondering. The first point is that to some degree the problems with the website have been caused by the overly complicated design of Obamacare itself. Instead of being a simple, universal program like Social Security or Medicare, the Affordable Care Act system is designed as if to illustrate Steven Teles’ notion of “kludgeocracy” or needless, counterproductive complexity in public policy. By using means-testing to vary subsidies among individuals and by trying to match individuals with private insurance companies, the ACA requires far more information about people who try to sign up than do simpler public programs like Social Security and Medicare. If Congress had passed Medicare for All, the left’s preferred simple, universal alternative to the kludgeocratic ACA mess, signing up would have been a lot easier and the potential for website snafus correspondingly less.
Konczal’s second point is even more important — the worst features of Obamacare are the very features that conservatives want to impose on all federal social policy: means-testing, a major role for the states, and subsidies to private providers instead of direct public provision of health or retirement benefits. This is not surprising, because Obamacare’s models are right-wing models — the Heritage Foundation’s healthcare plan in the 1990s and Mitt Romney’s “Romneycare” in Massachusetts...most conservative and libertarian plans for healthcare for the elderly involve replacing Medicare with a totally new system designed along the lines of Obamacare, with similar mandates or incentives to compel the elderly to buy private health insurance from for-profit corporations.
..................................
If you don’t like Obamacare, you should really, really hate the proposed conservative alternatives to Social Security and Medicare...Will the flaws of Obamacare really hurt the right and help center-left supporters of universal social insurance? I doubt it. To begin with, this implies a willingness of the right to acknowledge that Obamacare, in its design, is essentially a conservative program, not a traditional liberal one. But we have just been through a presidential campaign in which Mitt Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts presided over the creation of the most important model for Obamacare, rejected any comparison of Romneycare with Obamacare. What is more, instead of agreeing with Konczal that the flaws of Obamacare are shared by most conservative entitlement reform proposals, conservatives are likely simply to denounce Obamacare as “socialism” or “collectivism” while promoting their own, Obamacare-like replacements for Social Security and Medicare, with blithe indifference to their own inconsistency.
Nor are progressives likely to press the point in present or future debates. Unlike conservatives, who are right-wingers first and Republicans second, all too many progressives put loyalty to the Democratic Party — most of whose politicians, including Obama, are not economic progressives — above fidelity to a consistent progressive economic philosophy. These partisan Democratic spinmeisters are now treating Obamacare, not as an essentially conservative program that is better than nothing, but as something it is not — namely, a great victory of progressive public policy on the scale of Social Security and Medicare.
In doing so, progressive defenders of Obamacare may inadvertently be digging the graves of Social Security and Medicare.
AS THEY MAY HAVE ALREADY DONE FOR UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE, WHICH IS NOT PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE...
Here’s how GOP Obamacare hypocrisy backfires
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/28/what_the_tea_party_misses_if_you_hate_obamacare_youll_really_hate_what_the_right_wants_to_do_to_social_security/The smartest thing yet written about the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s federal exchange program is a post by Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute at his “Rortybomb” blog at Next New Deal. Konczal makes two points, each of which deserves careful pondering. The first point is that to some degree the problems with the website have been caused by the overly complicated design of Obamacare itself. Instead of being a simple, universal program like Social Security or Medicare, the Affordable Care Act system is designed as if to illustrate Steven Teles’ notion of “kludgeocracy” or needless, counterproductive complexity in public policy. By using means-testing to vary subsidies among individuals and by trying to match individuals with private insurance companies, the ACA requires far more information about people who try to sign up than do simpler public programs like Social Security and Medicare. If Congress had passed Medicare for All, the left’s preferred simple, universal alternative to the kludgeocratic ACA mess, signing up would have been a lot easier and the potential for website snafus correspondingly less.
Konczal’s second point is even more important — the worst features of Obamacare are the very features that conservatives want to impose on all federal social policy: means-testing, a major role for the states, and subsidies to private providers instead of direct public provision of health or retirement benefits. This is not surprising, because Obamacare’s models are right-wing models — the Heritage Foundation’s healthcare plan in the 1990s and Mitt Romney’s “Romneycare” in Massachusetts...most conservative and libertarian plans for healthcare for the elderly involve replacing Medicare with a totally new system designed along the lines of Obamacare, with similar mandates or incentives to compel the elderly to buy private health insurance from for-profit corporations.
..................................
If you don’t like Obamacare, you should really, really hate the proposed conservative alternatives to Social Security and Medicare...Will the flaws of Obamacare really hurt the right and help center-left supporters of universal social insurance? I doubt it. To begin with, this implies a willingness of the right to acknowledge that Obamacare, in its design, is essentially a conservative program, not a traditional liberal one. But we have just been through a presidential campaign in which Mitt Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts presided over the creation of the most important model for Obamacare, rejected any comparison of Romneycare with Obamacare. What is more, instead of agreeing with Konczal that the flaws of Obamacare are shared by most conservative entitlement reform proposals, conservatives are likely simply to denounce Obamacare as “socialism” or “collectivism” while promoting their own, Obamacare-like replacements for Social Security and Medicare, with blithe indifference to their own inconsistency.
Nor are progressives likely to press the point in present or future debates. Unlike conservatives, who are right-wingers first and Republicans second, all too many progressives put loyalty to the Democratic Party — most of whose politicians, including Obama, are not economic progressives — above fidelity to a consistent progressive economic philosophy. These partisan Democratic spinmeisters are now treating Obamacare, not as an essentially conservative program that is better than nothing, but as something it is not — namely, a great victory of progressive public policy on the scale of Social Security and Medicare.
In doing so, progressive defenders of Obamacare may inadvertently be digging the graves of Social Security and Medicare.
AS THEY MAY HAVE ALREADY DONE FOR UNIVERSAL SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH CARE, WHICH IS NOT PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE...
November 1, 2013
50 Ducks walk into a CVS
November 1, 2013
.... So let's start with talking about the current state of affairs for whistleblowers in the United States. In the last segment I mentioned President Obama has used the Espionage Act against whistleblowers more than every other president combined. And now there's an "insider threat" program that encourages federal employees to report suspicious actions by their coworkers. Have us understand why are these practices so dangerous, so dangerous to bringing the truth forward to the public.
COLEMAN-ADEBAYO: Well, I think we first have to identify or define what a suspicious act is, because according to the Insider Threat Program a suspicious act is any kind of activity that places stressors on various employees. And so, for example, a stressor can be financial difficulties at home. A stressor can be difficulties with your children. A stressor can be a health-related issue. Those are the stressors that this act is addressing as a problem for the administration. That's very important for you to understand.
So, for example, if an employee goes to lunch with a colleague and she's bemoaning the fact that her 15-year-old son is giving her a lot of problems, that's a stressor, that's a problem, and the employee who is listening to this narrative must go back to the Insider Threat office at their agency and report that their colleague is having problems with her 15-year-old son. Or if you find out that one of your colleagues is having trouble paying their mortgage, that is a stressor that must be reported.
DESVARIEUX: And if you don't report it?
COLEMAN-ADEBAYO: And if you don't report it, there are all kinds of penalties, including being fired from your job. So essentially what this act has done is to take a chapter out of the Stasi, out of East Germany, in which you basically turn colleagues against each other. Basically they're rewarded for snitching on each other. So you break up any possibility of community inside the organization, any possibility of collegiate relationships inside of the organization, and you basically have everyone looking over their shoulders trying to determine whether or not someone is going to snitch on them, whether that narrative is truthful or not.
So you can imagine how this can be--this kind of executive order can be abused. If you want to get rid of a colleague, all you have to do is, you know, go to the Insider Threat office and say, I heard that Mary said that she's having trouble with her husband....
Obama's Insider Threat Program Turns "Colleagues Against Each Other"
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10904.... So let's start with talking about the current state of affairs for whistleblowers in the United States. In the last segment I mentioned President Obama has used the Espionage Act against whistleblowers more than every other president combined. And now there's an "insider threat" program that encourages federal employees to report suspicious actions by their coworkers. Have us understand why are these practices so dangerous, so dangerous to bringing the truth forward to the public.
COLEMAN-ADEBAYO: Well, I think we first have to identify or define what a suspicious act is, because according to the Insider Threat Program a suspicious act is any kind of activity that places stressors on various employees. And so, for example, a stressor can be financial difficulties at home. A stressor can be difficulties with your children. A stressor can be a health-related issue. Those are the stressors that this act is addressing as a problem for the administration. That's very important for you to understand.
So, for example, if an employee goes to lunch with a colleague and she's bemoaning the fact that her 15-year-old son is giving her a lot of problems, that's a stressor, that's a problem, and the employee who is listening to this narrative must go back to the Insider Threat office at their agency and report that their colleague is having problems with her 15-year-old son. Or if you find out that one of your colleagues is having trouble paying their mortgage, that is a stressor that must be reported.
DESVARIEUX: And if you don't report it?
COLEMAN-ADEBAYO: And if you don't report it, there are all kinds of penalties, including being fired from your job. So essentially what this act has done is to take a chapter out of the Stasi, out of East Germany, in which you basically turn colleagues against each other. Basically they're rewarded for snitching on each other. So you break up any possibility of community inside the organization, any possibility of collegiate relationships inside of the organization, and you basically have everyone looking over their shoulders trying to determine whether or not someone is going to snitch on them, whether that narrative is truthful or not.
So you can imagine how this can be--this kind of executive order can be abused. If you want to get rid of a colleague, all you have to do is, you know, go to the Insider Threat office and say, I heard that Mary said that she's having trouble with her husband....
November 1, 2013
...Karl Popper argued that the preservation of democracy requires independent courts, legislature and press to check and restrain otherwise overweening authority. Shockingly, Snowden has shown that, today, these mechanisms have failed.
But for Snowden, Congress wouldn't even know what the NSA is doing. Secret Fisa court hearings have served as little more than a rubber stamp in authorizing its activities. Only one or two tough-minded newspapers have taken on the fight.
Relying on occasional brave whistleblowers is scant protection for liberty and democracy. Popper wrote for the world of the 20th century. In the 21st, the internet has changed the game....Congress may draw red lines around bugging Angela Merkel's cellphone, or reading Americans' emails, but a few new, broadly-drafted laws or congressional committees won't be enough. Government's and business's hunger for information is insatiable; their technical abilities to obtain it will only improve. Snowden has shown us that they cannot be trusted with this power.
The balance between the individual and state needs to be more fundamentally altered. New rules, in fact new kinds of rules, are needed. What is required is nothing less than a renegotiation of our contract with the state, and with each other...Snowden has shown us many remarkable things. But perhaps, the most important is that the old ways of arbitrating our freedom, privacy and security don't work anymore. The internet is an extraordinary and unprecedented new world. It demands new kinds of rules – not government's, but ours.
MORE AT LINK
Citizens of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your data
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/31/citizens-world-unite-data?CMP=ema_565&et_cid=54637&et_rid=kdmpf@hotmail.com&Linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.theguardian.com%2fcommentisfree%2f2013%2foct%2f31%2fcitizens-world-unite-data...Karl Popper argued that the preservation of democracy requires independent courts, legislature and press to check and restrain otherwise overweening authority. Shockingly, Snowden has shown that, today, these mechanisms have failed.
But for Snowden, Congress wouldn't even know what the NSA is doing. Secret Fisa court hearings have served as little more than a rubber stamp in authorizing its activities. Only one or two tough-minded newspapers have taken on the fight.
Relying on occasional brave whistleblowers is scant protection for liberty and democracy. Popper wrote for the world of the 20th century. In the 21st, the internet has changed the game....Congress may draw red lines around bugging Angela Merkel's cellphone, or reading Americans' emails, but a few new, broadly-drafted laws or congressional committees won't be enough. Government's and business's hunger for information is insatiable; their technical abilities to obtain it will only improve. Snowden has shown us that they cannot be trusted with this power.
The balance between the individual and state needs to be more fundamentally altered. New rules, in fact new kinds of rules, are needed. What is required is nothing less than a renegotiation of our contract with the state, and with each other...Snowden has shown us many remarkable things. But perhaps, the most important is that the old ways of arbitrating our freedom, privacy and security don't work anymore. The internet is an extraordinary and unprecedented new world. It demands new kinds of rules – not government's, but ours.
MORE AT LINK
October 25, 2013
Well, maybe not. I used duct tape to mend a vacuum cleaner hose cheaply, quickly and effectively. Not "elegant" in the artistic meaning of the word, but it got the job done, and will keep doing so, indefinitely.
Perhaps we shall reserve "elegance" for the original design, which ought to be simple and effective enough to NOT need repair by something as tawdry as duct tape. A vacuum cleaner, of course, is a kind of kludge....nothing like a simple, elegant solution.
kludge (informal or slang word)
alternate spelling: kluge
1. an ill-assorted collection of parts assembled to fulfill a particular purpose.
In Computing: a machine, system, or program that has been badly put together.
verb
1. use ill-assorted parts to make (something).
"Hugh had to kludge something together"
However, duct tape itself is a supremely elegant design...
Elegance is a synonym for beautiful that has come to acquire the additional connotations of unusual effectiveness and simplicity. It is frequently used as a standard of tastefulness particularly in the areas of visual design, decoration, the sciences, and the esthetics of mathematics. Elegant things exhibit refined grace and dignified propriety.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elegance
Did you know duct tape comes in high-fashion colors for crafts? And people have made prom dresses and other clothing out of duct tape? (and at a cost comparable to the real thing, at today's prices for duct tape).
Duct tape prom dress could win Kansas teen $5,000
http://www.komonews.com/news/offbeat/Duct-tape-prom-dress-could-win-Kansas-teen-5000-160412155.html
How did I get off on this tangent?
Well, it wasn't simple, that's for sure. But that's what you get, from a Generalist's brain....
Weekend Economists Simplify Everything! October 25-27, 2013
Last Weekend, we danced around the issue of simplicity, literally. 
The truth is, it takes a lot of intelligence, creativity, experience and some very complex reasoning to get to simplicity, or as scientists and engineers would call it, the Elegant Solution:
elegant solution:
The word elegant, in general, is an adjective meaning of fine quality. Refinement and simplicity are implied, rather than fussiness, or ostentation. An elegant solution, often referred to in relation to problems in disciplines such as mathematics, engineering, and programming, is one in which the maximum desired effect is achieved with the smallest, or simplest effort. Engineers, for example, seek the elegant solution as a means of solving a problem with the least possible waste of materials and effort. The elegant solution is also likely to be accomplished with appropriate methods and materials - according to the Elegant Solution Organization, duct tape is not likely to be part of an elegant solution, unless, of course, the problem involves taping ducts.
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/elegant-solution
The word elegant, in general, is an adjective meaning of fine quality. Refinement and simplicity are implied, rather than fussiness, or ostentation. An elegant solution, often referred to in relation to problems in disciplines such as mathematics, engineering, and programming, is one in which the maximum desired effect is achieved with the smallest, or simplest effort. Engineers, for example, seek the elegant solution as a means of solving a problem with the least possible waste of materials and effort. The elegant solution is also likely to be accomplished with appropriate methods and materials - according to the Elegant Solution Organization, duct tape is not likely to be part of an elegant solution, unless, of course, the problem involves taping ducts.
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/elegant-solution
Well, maybe not. I used duct tape to mend a vacuum cleaner hose cheaply, quickly and effectively. Not "elegant" in the artistic meaning of the word, but it got the job done, and will keep doing so, indefinitely.
Perhaps we shall reserve "elegance" for the original design, which ought to be simple and effective enough to NOT need repair by something as tawdry as duct tape. A vacuum cleaner, of course, is a kind of kludge....nothing like a simple, elegant solution.
kludge (informal or slang word)
alternate spelling: kluge
1. an ill-assorted collection of parts assembled to fulfill a particular purpose.
In Computing: a machine, system, or program that has been badly put together.
verb
1. use ill-assorted parts to make (something).
"Hugh had to kludge something together"
However, duct tape itself is a supremely elegant design...
Elegance is a synonym for beautiful that has come to acquire the additional connotations of unusual effectiveness and simplicity. It is frequently used as a standard of tastefulness particularly in the areas of visual design, decoration, the sciences, and the esthetics of mathematics. Elegant things exhibit refined grace and dignified propriety.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elegance
Did you know duct tape comes in high-fashion colors for crafts? And people have made prom dresses and other clothing out of duct tape? (and at a cost comparable to the real thing, at today's prices for duct tape).
Duct tape prom dress could win Kansas teen $5,000
http://www.komonews.com/news/offbeat/Duct-tape-prom-dress-could-win-Kansas-teen-5000-160412155.html
How did I get off on this tangent?
Well, it wasn't simple, that's for sure. But that's what you get, from a Generalist's brain....
October 25, 2013
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/361577/assessing-exchanges-yuval-levin
THE OPINION IS THAT IT IS THE ECONOMIC/HEALTH/INSURANCE-COMPANY-ALL-YOU-CAN-STEAL EQUIVALENT TO KATRINA IN N'AWLINS.....
How bad is it? Read this and weep: Scott Adams couldn't even do it justice
Assessing the Exchanges By Yuval Levinhttp://www.nationalreview.com/corner/361577/assessing-exchanges-yuval-levin
Why a four year old child could understand this.
Run out and get me a four year old child,
I can't make head or tail out of it.
Groucho in Duck Soup (movie)
Run out and get me a four year old child,
I can't make head or tail out of it.
Groucho in Duck Soup (movie)
....The tone of the CMS officials who spoke with me was a kind of restrained panic. Among the insurance company officials (who, I should stress again, work in the Washington offices of some large insurers, and so are basically policy people and lobbyists), there was much less restraint. The insurers are very, very worried about the viability of the exchange system—especially but not exclusively at the federal level....
THE OPINION IS THAT IT IS THE ECONOMIC/HEALTH/INSURANCE-COMPANY-ALL-YOU-CAN-STEAL EQUIVALENT TO KATRINA IN N'AWLINS.....
...For me, and for other critics of Obamacare, the problem with the law was never about these technical matters. I didn’t think the system wouldn’t work because the government couldn’t build a website, but because the basic health economics involved is deeply misguided and would take the (badly inadequate) American health-financing system in the wrong direction. So these problems only seem like a prelude to other, larger problems. But Obamacare was also always going to be a test of the sheer capacity of the administrative state to actually do what it claims the authority and ability to do. At this point, it looks as though we may be witnessing a failure of the administrative state on a level unimagined even by its staunchest critics. We may be. But we’ll have to see.
October 21, 2013
The N.S.A. leaker Edward Snowden today reached out to the United States government, offering to fix its troubled healthcare.gov Web site in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Speaking from an undisclosed location in Russia, Mr. Snowden said he hacked the Web site over the weekend and thinks he is “pretty sure what the problem is.”
In addition to full immunity, Mr. Snowden said he is requesting that he be allowed to work from home.
At the White House, President Obama offered a muted response to Mr. Snowden’s proposal: “Edward Snowden is a traitor who has compromised our national security. Having said that, if he knows why we keep getting those error messages, that could be a conversation.”
TRUST ME, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN...WE AREN'T THAT KIND OF REALISTS AROUND HERE. ESPECIALLY THAT "WORKING FROM HOME" PART!
Snowden Offers to Fix Healthcare.gov by Andy Borowitz
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/10/snowden-offers-to-fix-health-insurance-marketplace.html?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=borowitz&mbid=nl_Borowitz%20%28187%29The N.S.A. leaker Edward Snowden today reached out to the United States government, offering to fix its troubled healthcare.gov Web site in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Speaking from an undisclosed location in Russia, Mr. Snowden said he hacked the Web site over the weekend and thinks he is “pretty sure what the problem is.”
“Look, this thing was built terribly,” he said. “It’s a government Web site, O.K.?”
Mr. Snowden said that if an immunity deal can be worked out, “I can get to work on this thing right away—I don’t need a password.”
In addition to full immunity, Mr. Snowden said he is requesting that he be allowed to work from home.
At the White House, President Obama offered a muted response to Mr. Snowden’s proposal: “Edward Snowden is a traitor who has compromised our national security. Having said that, if he knows why we keep getting those error messages, that could be a conversation.”
TRUST ME, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN...WE AREN'T THAT KIND OF REALISTS AROUND HERE. ESPECIALLY THAT "WORKING FROM HOME" PART!
October 18, 2013
Portrait of Elder Joseph Brackett Jr,
1797-1882
Source:
The Aletheia:Spirit of Truth
by Aurelia G. Mace.
Farmington, Maine:
Press of the Knowlton & McLeary Co., 1907
"Simple Gifts" was written by Elder Joseph Brackett while he was at the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine. These are the lyrics to his one-verse song. Several Shaker manuscripts indicate that this is a "Dancing Song" or a "Quick Dance." "Turning" is a common theme in Christian theology, but the references to "turning" in the last two lines have also been identified as dance instructions. A manuscript of Mary Hazzard of the New Lebanon, New York, Shaker community records this original version of the melody:
Among other uses and adaptations, the Shaker's "Simple Gifts" melody shows up as a part of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite, choreographed by Martha Graham 1944. (I don't think Martha had a clue about the Shakers...especially their tendency to eschew marriage and reproduction, hence the title "Appalachian Spring"
.
This is the movement based on the Shaker tune
Two additional, later non-Shaker verses exist for the song, as follows:
'Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,
'Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,
And when we expect of others what we try to live each day,
Then we'll all live together and we'll all learn to say,
(refrain)
'Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be,
'Tis the gift to think of others not to only think of "me",
And when we hear what others really think and really feel,
Then we'll all live together with a love that is real.[9]
(refrain)
Tis the gift to be loving, tis the best gift of all
Like a quiet rain it blesses where it falls
And with it we will truly believe
Tis better to give than it is to receive
And an additional alternative:
The Earth is our mother and the fullness thereof,
Her streets, her slums, as well as stars above.
Salvation is here where we laugh, where we cry,
Where we seek and love, where we live and die.
When true liberty is found,
By fear and by hate we will no more be bound.
In love and in light we will find our new birth
And in peace and freedom, redeem the Earth.[10]
Another alternate verse:
'tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be fair
'tis a gift to wake and breathe the morning air
and each day we walk on the path that we choose
'tis a gift we pray we never shall lose
"Lord Of The Dance" is another hymn, with words written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1963, that uses the melody of the "Simple Gifts" hymn..
And of course, Michael Flatley took it from there:
Human beings don't do simple very well....certainly not this one! Nor the Congresscritters, as evidenced by their antics this month and last...
Simple "Weekend Economists" October 18-20, 2013
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.
Portrait of Elder Joseph Brackett Jr,
1797-1882
Source:
The Aletheia:Spirit of Truth
by Aurelia G. Mace.
Farmington, Maine:
Press of the Knowlton & McLeary Co., 1907
"Simple Gifts" was written by Elder Joseph Brackett while he was at the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine. These are the lyrics to his one-verse song. Several Shaker manuscripts indicate that this is a "Dancing Song" or a "Quick Dance." "Turning" is a common theme in Christian theology, but the references to "turning" in the last two lines have also been identified as dance instructions. A manuscript of Mary Hazzard of the New Lebanon, New York, Shaker community records this original version of the melody:
Among other uses and adaptations, the Shaker's "Simple Gifts" melody shows up as a part of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite, choreographed by Martha Graham 1944. (I don't think Martha had a clue about the Shakers...especially their tendency to eschew marriage and reproduction, hence the title "Appalachian Spring"
.
This is the movement based on the Shaker tune
Two additional, later non-Shaker verses exist for the song, as follows:
'Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,
'Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn,
And when we expect of others what we try to live each day,
Then we'll all live together and we'll all learn to say,
(refrain)
'Tis the gift to have friends and a true friend to be,
'Tis the gift to think of others not to only think of "me",
And when we hear what others really think and really feel,
Then we'll all live together with a love that is real.[9]
(refrain)
Tis the gift to be loving, tis the best gift of all
Like a quiet rain it blesses where it falls
And with it we will truly believe
Tis better to give than it is to receive
And an additional alternative:
The Earth is our mother and the fullness thereof,
Her streets, her slums, as well as stars above.
Salvation is here where we laugh, where we cry,
Where we seek and love, where we live and die.
When true liberty is found,
By fear and by hate we will no more be bound.
In love and in light we will find our new birth
And in peace and freedom, redeem the Earth.[10]
Another alternate verse:
'tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be fair
'tis a gift to wake and breathe the morning air
and each day we walk on the path that we choose
'tis a gift we pray we never shall lose
"Lord Of The Dance" is another hymn, with words written by English songwriter Sydney Carter in 1963, that uses the melody of the "Simple Gifts" hymn..
I danced in the morning when the world was begun
I danced in the Moon & the Stars & the Sun
I came down from Heaven & I danced on Earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth:
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)
I danced for the scribe & the pharisee
But they would not dance & they wouldn't follow me
I danced for fishermen, for James & John
They came with me & the Dance went on:
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)
I danced on the Sabbath & I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame!
They whipped & they stripped & they hung me high
And they left me there on a cross to die!
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)
I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black
It's hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body & they thought I'd gone
But I am the Dance & I still go on!
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)
They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the Life that'll never, never die!
I'll live in you if you'll live in Me -
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
I danced in the Moon & the Stars & the Sun
I came down from Heaven & I danced on Earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth:
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)
I danced for the scribe & the pharisee
But they would not dance & they wouldn't follow me
I danced for fishermen, for James & John
They came with me & the Dance went on:
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)
I danced on the Sabbath & I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame!
They whipped & they stripped & they hung me high
And they left me there on a cross to die!
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)
I danced on a Friday when the sky turned black
It's hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body & they thought I'd gone
But I am the Dance & I still go on!
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
(...lead you all in the Dance, said He!)
They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the Life that'll never, never die!
I'll live in you if you'll live in Me -
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
Dance then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said He!
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be
And I'll lead you all in the Dance, said He!
And of course, Michael Flatley took it from there:
Human beings don't do simple very well....certainly not this one! Nor the Congresscritters, as evidenced by their antics this month and last...
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