From two weekends ago on the Ice:

she looks waaaayy too happy

Remember that little investment that the Oracle of Omaha made in Goldman Sachs in 2008 to help ally the fear that the entire banking industry was collapsing?  5 billion dollars of perpetual reserved shares.

But Mr. Buffett’s investment came with a heavy cost, as many lifelines do: 10 percent annual dividend payments. That comes out to more than $1 billion thus far — or more than $1.3 million a day.

You know what they say, it takes money to make money.

Buffett Finds a Friend, Sometimes, in the Fed – NYTimes.com.

I’ve been on a kick recently exploring liturgical music from the 16th Century, concentrating on the work of Spanish Renaissance composer Francisco Guerrero. Here is a piece of one of his greatest works: Cross-posted at A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music.

In the wee hours today the Republican majority in the Wisconsin Assembly passed Governor Walker’s budget cuts bill just before the Dems were able to march out. Caught by suprise, the Dems erupted in rage and rushed the Republicans as they left the chamber, screaming and chanting “Shame!”.

Imagine the consequences if the GOP had behaved that way after the Dems passed Obamacare.

UPDATE: A fuller description of Dem’s idea of civility comes from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

“Shame! Shame! Shame!” Democrats shouted in the faces of Republicans as the GOP lawmakers quietly filed off the floor and a police officer stood between opposing lawmakers.

“Cowards all! You’re all cowards,” yelled Rep. Brett Hulsey (D-Madison) as another Democrat tried to calm him down.

Most Republicans had no comment on the vote afterward and some were escorted out under police protection. Earlier in the night, Majority Leader Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) said that Democrats had been given more than two full days and nights to make their case – effectively turning the debate into a filibuster – and that Republicans had done nothing wrong.

“It seems clear our side wants to vote and I challenge anyone watching to say we have not held out for an adequate debate,” Suder said.

“The democrats were clearly stalling,” said Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc). “That’s why Assembly rules allow for a vote on final passage. We took that vote and did what the people of this state asked us to do on Nov. 2 – get spending under control.”

“…escorted out under police protection.” This must be some permutation of “civil” the Beast has yet to encounter. As the saying goes, if it weren’t for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all.

President Roosevelt used oil policy to goad Japan into attacking; the Wisconsin governor’s threat to union power has brought the Federal government into battle, one that is spreading into other states and will expand until it is, like WWII, settled one way or another.

One may argue the propriety of the administration in power joining the national Democrats and their unions to intimidate state governments on such strictly local matters as budget and work rules but that came when the DNC and the Obama campaigners went to Wisconsin to help create and pay for Egyptian-style mobs in Madicon. 

It puts the Wisconsin legislators who wish to offend neither their constituents nor their national party into the no-win middle that accounts for their absence from their workplace. For short: cowardice.

The longer view isn’t reassuring: State budgets must be addressed, states can’t print money. Tax increases enough to cover the gaps will, as Connecticut is about to show us, prove problematic both for state treasuries and at elections. Spending cuts, even in the face of unions (now maybe become the low-hanging fruit) seem more likely to help. Those require emasculation of the public unions. Temporarily overcoming them won’t do; it’s temporary.

The Feds can’t afford to buy the states anymore but neither can the DNC afford to give up its union allies. Civil wars are usually the bloodiest; this could be interesting.

Mark Alexander at The Patriot Post provides a nice stream of commentary on the events of the day that is always timely, insightful, and well written. Thankfully, he does allow for such commentary to reprinted in its entirity.  The Constitution Club is dedicated to providing you with up to date insights on the issues of the day and we have been following the protests and budget battle in Wisconsin closely.

Alexander’s Essay – February 24, 2011

Collectivist Tyranny

“If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy. … I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” –Thomas Jefferson

It may look more like Socialist protests in Greece or France, but the latest incarnation of collectivist insurrection is under way in Madison, Wisconsin, spreading like a plague into Indiana, Ohio and other Midwest states.
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The white house is backing off from events in Madison. From the Washington Examiner:

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer is claiming that “This is a Wisconsin story, not a Washington one,” contradicting the Washington Post’s reporting that the president and his political apparatus has gotten deeply involved in the effort. But Pfeiffer fails to acknowledge that unions, particularly in the public sector, and President Obama’s apparatus are the same thing, having worked to get out the vote for Democrats for years.

The Democrats’ political tin ear, evident for the past two years, is on full display. Maybe they thought the sight of raging public sector employees shirking work to screech for more of Wisconsin voter’s pay would warm Wisconsonian hearts, but it hasn’t. Recent polls show about half the voters stand with Gov. Wilder, and 35% with the Unionistas. That’s a recipe for disaster.  When private employees bargain for higher wages and benefits, they can at least argue they’re after a larger share of the profits their labors create. Public employees can’t say that. When they want more money it doesn’t come off the spread sheet at some billion dollar corporation, it comes directly out of the pockets of fellow workers, most of whom do not share the same level of income the public employees get! And unlike the demonstrators and the Wisconsin Democratic legislators now in hiding at Scottish Hooters in Illinois,  you can be certain that the taxpayers of this state get up every day and go to work.  They have taxes to pay.

Last November the voters turned out the Dems  en masse. Now the Republicans are in power and they’re doing just what they promised to do.  The mood of the nation is on the GOP side of this issue and one has to wonder what advantage the Dems thought they’d get for running counter to the will of the people once again. On the other hand, they’re Dems, so maybe there wasn’t much thought involved.

On my break from work, I decided to visit one of my favorite places in the world: Barnes and Nobles. I could seriously spend forever and a day in there and it wouldn’t be enough. On display, they had several Ronald Reagan books in honor of his recent 100th birthday. I, of course, was drawn in just like many others before me and ended up buying one called The Reagan Revolution. It’s written by his son, Michael Reagan and it had an ”advance praise” as the book cover called it from Rush Limbaugh. I figured it was worth a shot.

So, over the next few weeks, I’ll be reading and commenting on this book and hopefully shedding some light on how “Ronald Reagan’s principles can restore America’s greatness.”

The Beast spent a truly wild weekend seven days ago, Ice fishing the NH Winnipesaukee Derby. One of his old high school buddies invited him. The Beast had never fished with this crew, so the Beast didn’t know what to expect, but Friday afternoon he bundled his son into the Explorer and we headed out for the lake.

The Beast brought his popup shanty and whatnot, been using it to fish local tidal rivers (saltwater ice – scary) for smelts with seaworms. Sweetwater lakes are fairly foreign to me despite it being much safer than the porous saltwater stuff. Not knowing what to expect, he brought it all.
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Famous for his “Hello!” on Seinfeld, Uncle Leo has said his final goodbye.

‘Seinfeld’ actor Len Lesser dies at 88

LOS ANGELES — Len Lesser, the veteran character actor best known for his scene-stealing role as Uncle Leo on “Seinfeld,” died Wednesday. He was 88.

Lesser’s family said in a statement that he died in Burbank, Calif., from cancer-related pneumonia.

“Heaven got a great comedian and actor today,” his daughter, Michele, said in the statement. “The outpouring of sympathy we’ve already received has been amazing and is so greatly appreciated. Thank you to all the people who helped make my father’s last journey special and surrounded with love.”

Lesser’s lengthy list of television credits included parts on “Get Smart,” “That Girl,” “The Munsters,” “The Monkees,” “The Rockford Files,” “thirtysomething,” “ER,” and “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which featured Lesser in a recurring role as the arm-shaking Garvin. His film credits included “Outlaw Josey Wales,” “Kelly’s Heroes,” “Birdman of Alcatraz” and “Death Hunt.” He most recently appeared on the TV drama “Castle.”

He is survived by his daughter, Michele; son, David; daughter-in-law, Julie; and grandchildren, Jonathan, Kayla, and Mayah.

 

When asked what he thought about Western Civilization, Mohandas Ghandi replied, “It’s a good idea.”

He certainly wasn’t the first to take Western Civilization(WC)  to the woodshed as there is a long pedigree of anti-Western intellectuals and ideas.  Ironically most of it comes from the West.  Many of these self-appointed anti-Western critics are doing their best to euthanise WC with an intellectual version of “Stop us before we kill again!”

Although Voltaire loved to denigrate Christianity, it was Nietzche who knew that being anti-Western wasn’t enough, one had to be pro-Eastern.  Just as leftists realized that being anti-American wouldn’t bear much fruit, they had to invent a mythological beast called multiculturalism.  No thanks, I’ll just take American culture, warts and all.

When one watches the knee-jerk progressives chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho western culture’s got to go” one cannot help but wonder, How many of the classics of Western culture have they actually perused?  Have they followed Dante through the entire Divine Comedy or witnessed a play by Sophocles?  Do they really resent Euclid all that much? Or are Augustine’s Confessions  completely lost on them?

I believe that we are all well aware of the level of ignorance that abounds in academia even with something as basic as geography.

Progressivism is a weed that believes it can grow taller by chopping away at its own roots.  If it was merely an intellectual parlor game that never crawled out of the local coffee bars that would be fine.  The problem is that thes ideas find traction among those anointed revolutionaries that plague the arts and the humanities and I know that the disease is spreading.

Why and what are they attacking and is there a decent counter-attack looming? I have reason to believe so.  I make myself say half-full rather than half-empty only to convince myself that I am an optimist.  Some say I’m just whistling past the graveyard but I think there’s a chance that I actually may be one.

The two essential pillars of WC are Greek Philosophy and Christian Theology.  The ancient Greek way of reasoning about the natural world and the Christian faith with its ethos and sense of redemption for a fallen world.

Progressives point at the worst faults of the West like an abusive aunt constantly deriding those messy children that she does not want to admit any relation to.

What to do about the plague of their ideology, one hardly knows where to begin.  But begin we must and I shall throw down the gauntlet here: an old battered copy of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.  My preferred translation: by Stephen Berg and Diskin Clay.

I don’t know if we’ll save the WC, but it will be a good beginning.

Former liberals make the best converts and best fighters for the conservative cause and David Horowitz is no exception.

“We saw David Horowitz, one of the great warriors of our movement. He talked about the national security menace posed by radical Islam and the obliviousness to that menace that pervades large sectors of the establishment, including some on the right. He got a thunderous reception from the CPAC crowd.”  – Powerline Blog

Every year a bunch of the Beast’s old High School buddies gather to fish the Winni Ice Derby out of Meredith New Hampshire. Top prize for a tagged Rainbow Trout is a boat, but there are categories for Laker, Cusk and such too. There are daily prizes for tagged and untagged fish as well. This year we managed to place in two: 2nd for Lakers and 10th for untagged rainbow. A taste:

This was our home base – our host’s summer lakefront home. We basically fished in his front yard:

Saturday morning was brutally cold and overcast, we were up at first light setting up traps and tip-ups:

Got the heat going in the shanty:

Craig started setting up for breakfast:

The Beast’s son was not impressed with the ambient temps out there, note the reproachful glare:

While the hardier souls set out the traps:

Breakfast was fried sausage, bacon, eggs, potatoes and english muffins. By the time we got back we were ready for something hot in our stomachs. Coffee with Baileys hit the spot too.

Sunup took a bit of the edge off.

The girlfriends showed up after a bit. Women are not allowed to stay over, but they can visit during the day. Strict rule: NO WIVES!

We had a bonfire the night before and there were a few who opted to stay in the bunkhouse a bit longer than others.

Then we waited, eagle-eyed for the first flag (we got a bit pie-eyed after we broke into the Captain Morgans).

We even had a horseshoe pit on the ice, as well as a hockey rink.

And other distractions for the kids, including this novel idea: a shopping cart on skis.

There were Perch aplenty.

And early Cusk

Late morning, our wait was rewarded! The next generation tied into a fine 3.4 pound untagged Rainbow! Here’s the video – warning, f-bomb alert!

This fish did get us on the boards, but only 10th place. But we were happy.

Lunch was handmade venison sausage and pepper subs.

Later afternoon we played liar’s poker and waited. Only perch from then on.

But we had fun anyway

Then it was back to our humble base-camp for a dinner of pasta with red sauce made from venison sausage and ground beef and black bear meat.

Sunday morning some people had to leave early. Those who stayed were rewarded, though. Craig set up a jigging spot and nailed a beautiful Laker.

Before…

After:

That fish got him second place. We took off around three and the Beast had his first shower in two days. Thanks to our host and everybody who worked so hard to make this weekend so memorable! Tight lines, all!