The White House is holding an economic report behind its back so you don’t see it.
How’s that stabilization working?
Another Win for Transparency
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Book Report: The Black Death by Nick Carter (1970)
Well, the book had no icepickings, but it had a bunch of murder and mayhem. This is the 56th book in this paperback series following a Killmaster for the secret agency AXE. Nick goes with a revolutionary to Haiti; she wants to invade, he wants to extract a physicist who is building the Haitian bomb. Carter recognizes their guide as a KGB agent with his own agenda. The plot utlimately gets explained as an afterthought. A Haitian nuke? Ah, who cares, BANG BANG naked woman BANG BANG knifing explosion naked woman. That’s why one reads pulp.
As an addendum, I said this when I read another Nick Carter novel:
- Fortunately, no trained goats tempted Nick, or it would have been a much different story.
All I have to say about that is this book features a trained goat.
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Book Report: Happy Days: Ready to Go Steady by William Johnston (1974)
This is the first book in a series based on the television series Happy Days. As such, you can expect that there will not be a number of icepickings.
Instead, the book gives me a weird timewarp sense. I grew up in Milwaukee when the television series was actually on television, so it (and Laverne and Shirley provided a bit of pride for the city (which now sports a Fonzie statue in a prominent place, if I am not mistaken). So I am reading a book about a television series from my youth which depicted my hometown in a bygone era. Needless to say, that’s some weird nostalgia.
The book is a thin, teenish high school thing about Richie meeting a new girl and getting his first job over the summer. Things progress until he’s actually engaged to her, and then they break it off and agree to be friends.
The book gives no sense of Milwaukeeness; instead, the Cunninghams live in some nameless and smallish-seeming town. Chuck, the older brother who disappears from the television series, appears, but the book focuses on Richie and Mr. and Mrs. C. with brief appearances of Potsie and Ralph Malph. You will recognize some of the names, but not really the tenor of the series, in this book. Of course, I might not remember the series well.
It’s definitely a book for people who, 35 years later, are interested in the niche into which the book falls. Otherwise, you’re better suited reading something else.
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Correcting and Explaining
Last night, a photograph apparently depicted President Obama looking at a woman’s back side.
This morning, Good Morning America is on the case, giving an alternative explanation and mocking the French President to much laughter in the newsroom.
A question, good friends, is how often did the media throw its newsgathering apparatachiks into gear to provide context for an unflattering George W. Bush or John McCain photo? I believe that answer is and ever shall be Never.
The media continues to beclown itself with its haste to correct and contextualize anything unflattering about Obama I.
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Those Nazi Republicans At It Again
Now Congress has legislation in the pipeline to give the Attorney General the ability to identify and intern terrorists on his say-so.
Funny, they told me the Republicans wanted this sort of power. But Alcee Hastings is not a Republican.
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Book Report: Bachelors Get Lonely by A.A. Fair (1961, 1971)
You know, Erle Stanley Gardner wrote innumerable Perry Mason novels and far fewer in this series featuring Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. A shame, really, because these are a touch more enjoyable than the lawyer novels. They feature a small private detective who is irresistable to the ladies and who is quite easily roughed up. A bit tongue in cheek, I think, but not burying the needle in Campy.
In this book, a businessman hires the team to find a leak in his organization. They do, easily, but Lam thinks something more is at work. He finds a tangled web of love affairs, double-crosses, and women who like to take their clothes off. Lam manages to dodge a murder rap and, of course, solve the crime to the chagrin of his boss and the local police.
I’d be happy to find more of these in the wild. Someday, I might have to actually order them by name if I cannot.
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Another Article Ignored
The Constitution of the United States, Article 2, section 1:
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
With the clock running out on a new US-Russian arms treaty before the previous Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, expires on December 5, a senior White House official said Sunday said that the difficulty of the task might mean temporarily bypassing the Senate’s constitutional role in ratifying treaties by enforcing certain aspects of a new deal on an executive levels and a “provisional basis” until the Senate ratifies the treaty.
“The most ideal situation would be to finish it in time that it could be submitted to the Senate so that it can be ratified,” said White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Security and Arms Control Gary Samore. “If we’re not able to do that, we’ll have to look at arrangements to continue some of the inspection provisions, keep them enforced in a provisional basis, while the Senate considers the treaty.”
Samore said administration lawyers are exploring the “different options that are available. One option is that both sides could agree to continue the inspections by executive agreement; that would work on our side. On the Russian side, as I understand it, that would require Duma approval.”
So, do you think our legislative branch of government will stop this power-grab by the executive branch? Aw, hell, no. That’s just one more actual responsibility removed from their plate so they can convene show hearings, pontificate, and abdicate their Constitutional duties for easy busy work.
(Link seen on Instapundit.)
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Book Report: The Legend That Was Earth by James P. Hogan (2000)
I’m always up for a James Hogan novel. I first read Inherit the Stars in middle school and have encountered other novels in the 20 years since (see also Paths to Otherware and The Multiplex Man).
This book starts in the near future, where aliens have established contact and want to impose a soft totalitarianism on the world, and they find helpful accomplices in Western governments, particularly the United States, where the ruling class wants power and wealth that collaboration will bring. A fixer gets dragged into insurgent plots because his ex-wife has become a revolutionary. The battle for Earth becomes bloodier as the insurgents arm up and begin convincing aliens that the Earth way of creativity and experiential pleasure beats the rational and regimented alien way.
I enjoyed the book, even the italicized expositionary chapters describing the alternate science that powered the aliens. In the middle of the book, though, Hogan splits the characters and then goes into their points of view covering the same time period for some reason. It didn’t really add suspense and just seemed to bog the book down. But when the timelines merged again, the book picked up.
So it’s not his best, but it’s pretty good anyway.
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Kicking Taylor Swift to the Curb
I’m giving up Taylor Swift as my current songstress crush because, frankly, a large number of her songs refer to her Daddy, and each time she does, I’m reminded that her Daddy is probably my age, and that makes me feel creepy. If it makes me feel creepy, it must be creepy indeed.
Instead, here’s Jane Monheit:
I am pretty sure Monheit translates into Hot, man in some language.
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Stossel on Health Care
Here.
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Get Your Picks In
I have July 4 in the Chavez invades Honduras pool.
Because our current leadership seems incapable of handling nothing, so what say the North Koreans fire a missile and Communist tanks roll on the same day?
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Tyrannosaurus Debt
(Link seen on Instapundit.)
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Too Long For A Bumper Sticker
War Is Not The Answer; War Is C., and The Answer Is D. All Of The Above.
or
War Is Not The Answer, But It’s A Good Guess.
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Book Report: St. Louis in Watercolor by Marilynne Bradley (2008)
This is a collection of watercolors by local artist Marilynne Bradley. Each depicts a notable landmark in the St. Louis area, most of which remain. Additionally, each watercolor comes with a bit of the history of the depicted location; Ms. Bradley is also active in the local historical society, so she brings that bit of knowledge to bear.
I paid full price for it in the local bookshop; if I’d planned better, I probably could have gotten an autographed copy from Bradley. I’d originally thought I’d bought the book as a gift for my mother-in-law, but I’d only had the notion to do so, so I got it for me instead and will share it.
Do I recommend it? I guess, if you’re into looking at watercolors or want a little trip through some history vignettes.
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How Republics End
neoneocon and Donald Sensing have more details about the “coup” in Honduras where the military removed a president whose term limits were about to expire and who was going to have a referendum not supported under the Honduran constitution to remove those term limits.
One wonders what would happen in the United States if that sort of power grab occurred. At the local level, it worked for Mayor Bloomberg of New York City. Meanwhile, here’s the start of the Constitutional amendment to repeal the 22nd amendment to our constitution limiting Presidents to two terms.
I think there should be more term limits at the Federal government level, not fewer; however, I do not support the consolidation and acquisition of power to a central, self-selected few as a new aristocracy in Washington.
When the Republic falls, an emperor is not far behind.
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Cross Purposes
How would the passage and signing of cap-and-trade legislation help in President Obama’s stated goal of keeping health care costs down?
Last time I was in a hospital, there were lots of blinky lights, garbled intercoms, and buzzing machinery that need energy to function. With more expensive electricity, how many treatments must be denied to make the scales balance for the unelected board or commission in charge?
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Book Report: Sudden Prey by John Sandford (1996)
Being as this is a 13-year-old Sandford novel, it’s one of the better ones in the series. If you’re familiar with the series but are reading them out of order, note this is the book whose events precipitate the first breakup between Lucas Davenport and Weather, which is the name of his girl who was going to become his wife and eventually does.
The plot centers on a biker-slash-light-militia guy seeking revenge on Davenport and his (city-wide, not state-wide) team after they kill the man’s sister and wife in a bank robbery. Thus, Davenport dispenses with much of the mystery element with which he sometimes struggles in favor of a more straightforward thriller plot. Since Davenport’s still a city cop in this book, he deals with crime instead of the mix of crime and politics he has to deal with later.
That being said, why is it that the quality of many modern series declines over time? Is it because once the brand is built, the author puts less efforts in those books while he or she tries to increase earning potential by writing additional series or books in the time he or she used to spend on a single title? Don’t get me wrong, as a former wannabe novelist, I’m all in favor of that, but as a reader, sometimes it leaves me cold.
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Telling Metric
You know, President Obama was apparently on the television doing an hour-long presentation about health care control. And you know what I find a telling statistic about the perceived importance of this event?
Where were the drunkbloggers?
VodkaPundit didn’t cover it. Instapundit didn’t link to any.
It cannot be an important policy presentation without drunkblogging.
Ergo, nobody in the blogosphere must have taken it seriously.
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Book Report: Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts by Isaac Asimov (1979)
This is an idea of stunning fecundity. As you know, an idea book is any collection of anecdotes or stories from which one can derive ideas for expanded articles or essays. This book collects a large number of facts grouped topically and focusing well enough on history to go into my sweet spot.
I read it over the course of a number of months, a couple anecdotes/facts or a chapter at a time. I’m thinking about putting it onto my desk, though, so any time I’m out of ideas, I can grab it, flip to a random page, and then draw something out to draw out into an essay.
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You Think It’s Bold?
A play flyer for a “bold” play:
Uh huh. Bold, maybe even paradigm breaking. You know what would be bold? If cancer was the good guy. That would be different from every other empowering little piece of literature out there.
I still wouldn’t go see it.
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