Turkey Report: Lots

Wasn't it a collapsiing Department store that pushed the folk in South Korea to demand real democracy? If the pollution and corruption in China cause the people of China to move the same way (from the opposite direction) China could make even greater strides economically. Sort bad news, great news.

Sure were a lot of turkeys in the back yard this morning.

Great kit Joel. It's so true that Americans love to cheer for the underdog. Perhaps we are just positioning ourselves for a great come-from-behind victory. Hopefully we realize that securing that victory requires that we put more of our resources into people-not just our own but around the world. It seems that when we put too many of our resources into excess, politics, and war, we fall perilously behind. Few Americans root for the villain.

Turning my complacent Canadian gaze from Urrip to 'Merka I observe that the people in say, Helsinki and Naples have a world view at least as cohesive as folk in Loose Tooth Arkansas and Yew Nork. As for speaking the same language? *giggle*
I don't think the American Enterprise is diseased, just a little hung over from success. I'd still bet on it, heck, I have.

The Washington Post is publishing this stuff? A little on the lightweight side, isn't it?

I really enjoyed Joel's Outlook column. I imagine he may catch some flack from both sides of the political spectrum, but I think he's used to this. And he is made of stern stuff. I really liked the line about the importance of globalism, which I assert was inspired by my boodle post because, you know, nobody else on the planet but me has ever thought about globalism before.

What I really liked is that the article encompasses what I believe is patriotism at its best. True patriotism is not jingoism. It isn't about claiming that your country is the gosh darn greatest thing in the world.

Patriotism is about believing in the potential of your country, working hard to bring that potential to fruition, and then basking a bit in the reflected glory. It's sort of like the feeling a parent has for a child.

For the first rule of being a parent is to never give up.

scowboyseven, I think it's good that the editors of Outlook aren't afraid of a bit of thoughtful humor.

Accurately predicting the future is impossible, and Achenbach walks us through a reasoned assessment of the current state of things extended 50 years into the future. If it can't be completely accurate (as Joel well knows), why not give it a humorous perspective?

I'm a little disappointed that he didn't bring up flying cars and personal transcontinental rockets and scrubbing bubble nanobots in our bloodstreams and other medical advances that will help keep people alive and healthy for 100 years or more, or cloning (for medical or reproductive use), or expanding on the effects of the internet and personal computing on the future of commerce and politics (after all, information *is* power, isn't it?). I could go on, but I think you see my point.

Think about where you want to place your bets. It's worth talking about, but you can't take it too seriously. After all, the cloaked intergalactic virus-bearing anti-matter asteroid (directed by super-cockroaches from the Alpha Centauri, no less) that's going to wipe us all out may be augering in as I write this, making this Outlook piece moot.

At least it'll save us the trouble of finishing the longest Presidential campaigns in history.

bc

I hate to get personal boss but judging by that photo under the Outlook header I think you could use some more R&R.
Also, lose the hat.

Too bad someone (An editor? A graphic artist?) at the Washington Post is using James Montgomery Flagg's famous Department of Defense poster on the home page to promo your article about America maintaining its superpower status. I could have much more to say but Loomispouse is calling me downstairs to fix Sunday breakfast.

http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/Design/patriotic/flagg.html

From there, this image would become the most famous poster of both world wars, an estimated four million copies issued in the first World War and about 400,000 in the second.

During the world wars a voluntary organization was organized by a group of artists to produce promotional materials and posters for forwarding the war efforts. This organization, "Division of Pictorial Publicity," under the leadership of Charles Dana Gibson, met once a week in New York City to brainstorm the DOD's (Department of Defense) latest list of requests. Each concept was matched with an appropriate artist who would then render sketches and submit them to the committee headquarters in Washington. Once approved, the artist would complete the work.

One such assignment was Flagg's Wake Up America, which was a complete departure from the style of Uncle Sam. Flagg was also a prolific cartoonist, and his pen and ink drawings graced the pages of every major magazine and news paper in print. Is pen and ink scratch-board technique used in the original Cosmopolitan Magazine (1920s) became widely recognized and often imitated. He was also well known for his more 'risque' images of beautiful women in various stage of undress. These were seen in private offices, homes and the drawing rooms of prominent men's clubs; or often sent to friends as jokes.

[*partial repost from last kit*]

Mornin' all...

Beautiful day here, as well. Cool, dry and sunny... just the way I like it.

Just finished Joel's Outlook piece. I particularly liked the quote he closed with: "But the antidote is everywhere. The antidote is being American."

I'm assuming that "being American" is meant in the traditional sense -- and couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, to do so would most likely land one on the "no fly" list or worse.

Heck... if the Founding Fathers were around today, I'd expect most of them would learn firsthand what it's like to be "extraordinarily renditioned".

"I believe in America."- The Godfather

This quote popped up in my mind when I read this article. America is a unique world superpower than its predecessors. Maybe it's the Constitution, capitalism, Civil Rights, multiculturalism etc. I feel American influence in the world is maintained. Countries (BRICs, Asian Four Tigers, EU) are busy catching up in emulating America's successes whether it's political, social, or economical. I hope America continues to stay ahead of the "catch-up" countries.

CITIZENS, NOT CONSUMERS!

Please go to www.teamsters.com to stop Mexican trucks from rolling on American highways beginning 9/5. American lives are at stake, U.S. truckers' pay will be undercut, and smuggling is expected.

The life you save may be your own.

Eek! Spam at 10:47 - or perhaps just an impassioned though drastically off-topic tunnel-vision response. It strikes a chord with all those of us living on the I-35 corridor and see big rigs all the time. Of course, there are those who say that the trade habits represented by NAFTA are what contributes to our global hegemony.

Welllll.....The "antidote is being American" line failed to inspire me. A little too close to the fuzzy notion of American exceptionalism. What I do expect is that we'll stop declining so quickly after this presidency and have a chance to begin recovering both economically and in soft power.

After that, Joel's guess/hope is as good as any other.

"Manifest Destiny" reborn. Hubris is contagious. It may be better to consider Santayan's dictum about those who forget the lessons of history.

Santayana's

bc tacking biogerontology?

Richard Engel of NBC News did an excellent segment last week on Kurdistan. Now I see Tom Friedman is in Iraq and covering almost the same material for his op-ed today in the NYT.

Thanks to all those, including Shiloh, was anaswered by questions Friday night about the Yazidis. I have the graf about the Yazidis from the fictional thriller I just completed, written by a London author born in Lebanon. I was searching the NYT archives last night and found two interesting articles on the Yazidis, one by Neal Farquhar in the early 2000s, IIRC, and one done in 1993 by Loomis Chaffee grad Chris Hedges. May share later in the week. Some of it, particularly Farquhar's piece, is pretty humorous.

We are now trying to plan our day--a grape stomp and a "Lucy and the Ialian Women" costume contest at a winery in Stonewall, near the LBJ ranch. I have a particular interest in Lucy--not the one whose display is causing some controversy at a Houston museum. Or getting my husband a new swimsuit at 75 percent off at a better big-box retailer and a sneak movie peek at "3:10 from Yuma" tonight.

SCC: all typos...rushing

That's probably NYT reporter Neil MacFarquhar.

I was going to ask some questions about why not being "the" super power of the world would be such a bad thing. Losing top dog status wouldn't suddenly make us Haiti. If it turned us into, say Canada, that mightn't be a bad thing.

But, I got sidetracked by Sarah Stillman's Homefront piece hours ago and I still can't find a way to explain how she has it both all right and all wrong.

Frosti, I read that too, and am mulling the stance over. She mentions a watering hole in my neighborhood that professors seldom eat dinner at, despite her claim about the five PM fettuccine feasting. I guess she could not resist the alliteration.

"hegemonic masculinity" is my current least-fave of student phrases.

And Haiti is the basketcase of the Western Hemisphere. What goes on there on a moment-to-moment basis is heart-rendering and gut=wrenching. Nearly unbelievable, which is part of our response problem.

Is "being number one" our national objective? Maybe we're watching too much sports programming. Or perhaps competition is just a little too much emphasized in our culture generally--from Miss America to American Idol, to NASCAR and the "World" Series. It would never occur to me to ask, "Will the U.S. still be number one in 50 years?" My question would be, will we still be here in 50 years, not just the U.S. but the rest of the world as well. As a nation, what is our place in the world, and what should our role be in the immediate and more distant future?

I certainly agree that America has the resources to "solve our problems" but first we have to acknowledge that there is a problem, and that's where we're not so talented. I recently heard a story on NPR about a town in Switzerland that is situated downhill from some permafrost. Global warming is making it increasingly likely that the ground will thaw, resulting in avalanches that could threaten the city. They built a dam to protect themselves from that possibility. It was completed FOUR YEARS AGO. Contrast that with the levees in New Orleans.

This article is painful to read because it seems to imply that being number one is a good thing. I'm not so sure. There is a lot of guilt or bad karma or whatever you want to call it associated with the fact that our wealth is maintained through military might--including the killing of innocent people, and wholesale exploitation of people who by the luck of the draw were born in less powerful countries.

If this world is going to survive, at some point being number one is going to have to take a back seat to international cooperation and the understanding that we are all in this together.

I don't think Joel's point is that it would be a disaster of epic proportions if America was no longer the biggest dog in the yard. I believe Joel is simply making the observation that compared to most of the world America is big, rich, stable, and has strong institutions. A situation that, quite reasonably, suggests that it is neither inevitable nor especially likely that America's best years are in the past.

Kb asks "Is "being number one" our national objective?" Too often I think that answer is yes, and it is measured in the same way cable networks measure "best new series," with a constantly morphing, read the numbers in the best possible way method. I suppose it is easier to compete for #1 than to form a national concensus on what being a good nation means.

POT ODDS

Yes, I think we still have pot odds as we call it in poker.

These 'odds' are shrinking though as the U S continues to file WTO cases while ignoring the WTO and citizen's desire to play a little cards online.

Ah, perhaps our 'pot odds' are on the democrats who may deal with this issue, HONOR our agreements while seeking to enforce agreements made by others to us as well.

Our standing in the world is directly related to our image.

We try to be the big bad U.S. and ONLY what we want counts.

Me, I am counting my outs for the pot odds, they are improving and a few less Republicans will improve those for everyone.

HONOR THE WTO RULING IN FAVOR OF ANTIGUA and LET US PLAY CARDS!!!!

KB's post makes my try to link the ideas in the article and this boodle, with the current speculation about Mother Teresa's letters. I'll try this:

Our national striving to be the best, the first, the wealthiest, the coolest.... should be tempered by humility and compassion. Our status, in the current global political economy of a zero-sum game means that others suffer that we might live to excess. And, I don't think that our happiness is very "high" on the contentment -meter, as a result of having lots of stuff, cheap food, gallons of poorly-priced fuel....

Contrast this with the lived reality of MT's life: she worked to relieve human suffering. The one lesson I will take from what others say about her inner torment, doubt, spiritual dryness, and perhaps chronic depression is this: she made choices to acknowledge the worth and dignity of others, despite great anguish.

Many of us, when in pain, either ignore others in our self-absorption or lash out.

Now, how to connect the personal with the political -- not sure!

Thanks, KB for saying so much of what is on my mind about our excesses and how others are harmed.

kbert... good points.

I think a big part of the problem is that much of U.S. policy (both domestic and foreign) is based on the principle of "do as I say, not as I do".

I think the biggest part of the problem, though, is that our elected officials are chosen not because of their intellectual and leadership abilities, but because they've learned to master the sound bite and news cycles. They're all fluff, no substance. Even the ones I'd rather see in power are mostly fluff.

And not a dang one of them has a long term plan for anything except the security of their own political careers (and maybe those of their offspring).

--

btw... thanks for that link to the Miami Herald piece earlier. Call it coincidence, serendipity, or Providence, but that article perfectly describes my own "conversation" for the past few weeks.

The effect of Reagan's "shining city on a hill" speech should have been the USA as an exemplar nation for good, in the sense of John Winthrop's use of "city on a hill" in his 1630 sermon, "A Model of Christian Charity." Good is not what we have set as an example. I agree with martooni, that we have become a "do as I say and not as I do" bad example. And in the words of Matthew 5:14 "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." This country has lost moral authority over the past decade or so, and in Toynbee's view, unless we have a correct response to that challenge, our fall, like Rome's, is certain.

We are a land of Utopians.

Having a bias towards optimism, I liked the article. I think, though, that the best way to maintain our position is to ensure that the rest of the world is brought up to where we are. That won't be easy, and it will require sacrifice that will be painful. But I believe it can be done. The question is, do we have the political will and vision to do it? Certainly the current administration cannot. Give me a politician who will reach out to the other side and show the ability to craft creative compromises that make real progress towards solving the problems we face, and I'm with that person all the way.

What a scrumptious day -- yesterday, too. I can see by the number of boodle postings that a pretty high percentage of the regulars (and, um, irregulars) are out enjoying.

As for the topic at hand, I have noticed over the years that there are an incredible number of people I run into who have such an entitlement fantasy -- mostly the rich kids and their rich parents (the Potomac types), but also others who just can't get their minds around the fact that they are *not* the only people in the world. Yes, shocking, I know. A sense of entitlement is for the insecure (and, well, the Republican party (and, I guess, some Democrats, too)).

Is the US number 1? In my mind, it is one of many, and not the *only* one. Ethnocentricity has never impressed me, and while I am proud of my sports teams when they win, and disappointed when they lose, it's really easy for me to put it past me and get on with my life. Would that others could/would do the same (and not always necessarily in regards to sports).

Gonna go out and play some more.

i also don't get the need to be number one, although i think the u.s. will be very influential for a long time, so i'm not at all worried about it.

a change in administration, even if it's another republican, should significantly improve how we're viewed and how we interact with other countries. the reality is, and it's still hard to comprehend, that we are currently living under one of the worst (if not the worst) administrations ever with respect to foreign policy.

no kill i

You ok, gwe?

Yup, except for the fact I have to go to work.

Hi all...

I was going to post a little something last night about the main course I had planned for today's cookout (and the fun Bean and I had prepping it last night), but wanted to make sure no family members died of food poisoning first.

Two and a half words: Leg O' Lamb

Started with a fresh whole lamb leg -- about 7 lbs, bone and all. I should mention that as much as I love lamb and as often as I've made it, I've never made it from a whole leg -- either had the butcher cube it for me or started with a "de-boned" one.

So there I was with the leg laid out on the cutting board, sharpened knives at the ready, trying to figure out where to start. All I could think of was my departed grandfather, the guy who spent 50 years of his life as a professional butcher, rolling his eyes before rolling over completely in his grave.

The ever-so-curious Bean (my assistant) was there at my side, poking the lamb leg very carefully with one finger. I don't think I've ever seen her eyes so wide -- especially when I picked up the leg and showed her how the lamb "walked".

In any case, I figured it out and after many "ewes" by Bean (and Mrs. M), I managed to end up with a little over 4 lbs. of cubed lamb.

Next came the marinade... 1.5 cups of olive oil, 1 minced head of garlic, 1 chopped bunch of fresh oregano, 1 plastic thingie of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and my no-longer secret ingredient -- ground ginger. The "ewes" were everywhere as I mixed the lamb cubes into the marinade, holding a piece up every once in a while for effect. Covered and placed the concoction in the fridge at approximately 10:00pm last night to soak up all that goodness until grill time at 6:00pm today.

Then came the hot peppers and oil... 2 hot banana peppers (one yellow, one orange) sliced into rings, 1/2 head of pressed garlic, and a dash or three of ground ginger all mixed into 1/2 cup of olive oil.

A warning on hot peppers: Even if you wash your hands several times after cutting them up, if you find yourself having to pee within the next 24 hours, make sure you put on a pair of heavy gloves beforehand (or ask your partner to assist). Don't ask me how I learned this.

Anyway... the end result was incredible. I skewered and then grilled the cubes (pulled straight from the marinade mix) on our little tabletop Hibachi. All that dripping olive oil and lamb fat made the charcoal flare just enough to sear all the best juices inside. Slightly crunchy on the outside, melt-in-your-mouth goodness on the inside.

Let's just say that four adults and one Bean chomped through almost three pounds of the stuff (and this after a small steak each).

The best part is that I still have an extra pound or so (still soaking in the marinade) to grill tomorrow.

Just backboodling after coming home from a lovely barbeque. I didn't win the horse shoes game though I had a good time. If I get the sense of the boodle that's what really matters. I don't feel the need to be first, though if you'll notice....*cough cough*

Good night and have a super Independant Contractor/Assistant Manager Day

gwe, I hear you on that. I'm so glad to be off this entire weekend, although I've got to check a couple of things tomorrow from home.

martooni, glad your culinary effort turned out so well. I've never eaten much lamb - we never had it when I was a kid (ha ha) - and the few times I've tried it as an adult, I just wasn't impressed. And there's the whole cute little lamb thing. My son, who is a notorious picky eater, had some sort of grilled lamb kabob at a restaurant in Frisco that he really liked. He mentioned the "melt in your mouth" quality.

mostly... I've had baaaad lamb myself, so I can understand where you're coming from.

If you can find a place (or a someone) that knows how to make it right, you will not be disappointed.

Just make sure you ban all images of cute, wooly creatures from your head. They're not really all that cute anyway. All they do is eat, poop and complain a lot.

Polybius rightly identified Rome's staying power with its mixed constitution. Our founding fathers self-consciously followed Polybius' lead in establishing our country - and this has become part of the warp and woof of how we see the world.

It is easy to miss this issue, but it is precisely this ingrained set of checks and balances that allows us to adapt more effectively to changing circumstances than nearly any other country in history. Is it messy? Yes. But it works remarkably well.

Keep betting on America to reinvent ourselves while, sadly, many other countries will fall by the wayside after having their moment in the sun.

Reinventing ourselves does not always mean that an answering mimesis is correct. William Shirer once said...
"America may one day go fascist democratically, by popular vote."

Another important question is who will we (as a nation) be in fifty years. I agree that, even if it is no longer a truly unipolar world political situation, we will still be extremely strong and relatively safe at the nation-state level.

I worry more about the serious emotional dislocation of the majority of Americans with the political process. I sense that, even for many who dutifully vote, there is a sense of futility in assuming that the political process means anything anymore.

Harkening back to Joel's article on "retail politics," I would be amazed that anyone today could win on an issue-based, personal appeal basis. Maybe it was because I caught the last half of The Manchurian Candidate today on cable or maybe it is the last 6-3/4 years of erosion of our constitutional compact concerning personal liberties, but I am currently much more worried there. Maybe I am naive but, when I was younger, even through Watergate, I sensed a stronger belief in the legitimacy of our political system.

Of course, maybe it's just the evil, liberal MSM systematically destroying our beloved political institutions. Look what they've done to poor Larry Craig. ;-)

George Will, gone mad:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/31/AR2007083101535.html

Iraq = D-Day Give me a major break.

The US may well remain Top Country in some sense, but that doesn't mean the lives of its ordinary citizens are going to become better than the lives or OCs in other countries. I'm not talking about Sudan or Mongolia or a lot of places that will continue to be worse off than the US, rather Denmark or New Zealand, where outcomes are a part of policy.

i'm not a george will fan, but his article does not compare iraq to world war ii.

C'mon L.A.:

"Today, in an America understandably weary of a war of choice that has been defined by execrable choices, a frequently seen bumper sticker proclaims: "War is not the answer." But here, especially, it is well to remember that whether war is the answer depends on the question"

"War was the answer to what ailed Europe in 1944. "In 1942," writes Timothy Garton Ash of Oxford and Stanford's Hoover Institution, "there were only four perilously free countries in Europe: Britain, Switzerland, Sweden and Ireland." Twenty years -- a historical blink -- later, almost all of Western Europe was free. Twenty years after that, Spain, Portugal and Greece had joined the liberal democracies. Today, for the first time in 2,500 years, most Europeans live under such governments."

Do you really think G. Will is just posting some whimsical travelog from Omaha Beach? Or is he equating: who would'a believed in '44 that Europe would be a bastion of democracy : who in '07 would'a believed Iraq would later be a bastion of democracy.

Geez.

A busy day, and a couple of comments before I go to bed.

bill everything, I see where you think G Will is implying a comparison between WWII and Iraq, particularly with that bit at the end about sacrifice and transformation.

I also think that if he *is* trying to make some sort of a thoughtful case for supporting the Iraq war, this column doesn't come close to doing so.

Who said something about faint praise...?

bc

Why does G.Will's article have a Normandy beach dateline? Seems obvious to me it's to make a WW2 comparison, whether or not it's explicitly mentioned.

Hey, will Achenbach ever be able to toss the Bayeux tapestry into an analysis as gracefully as George Will does? And--how 'bout that "implicit hope" stuff, where George invents another ex post facto rationale for bidness, bidness, bidness? Can Joel ever be as effective a propagandist?

Just asking, that's all.

The prediction by papers in this region is that in the next 20 to 30 years, China will be the superpower over taking the US. Twenty years? I doubt it. The road to superpower status is not an easy ride. There's little doubt that China will be a country of considerable power in 50 years. But I don't think it would be *the* superpower rather it would be one of the superpowers.

Assuming there is no change in the system of government, whatever influence China tries to exert would be met with resistance. Southeast Asian countries view China with suspicion. They have been since WWII and still do because they don't subscribe to the same ideology. I think any country that has some form of democracy in place will view communism with suspicion. Southeast Asian countries need the US's presence in the region to balance the political and economic power. The US has been a superpower for too many years for it to just let go.

And also assuming you won't have anymore administration like the present one, I don't think the US will become Rome since now you are aware you could become Rome.

Thanks KB for a great comment. Feeling great about the country because we have 9 aircraft carriers is little sort of sick. When that sort of sentiment came out of Wilhelmine Germany, or Tsarist Russia ("Look at how many dreadnoughts we have!!"), it was obvious what lay behind it - militarism and imperialism. Why should it be any different now?

And maybe we should take a close look at that last line: "But the antidote is everywhere. The antidote is being American" and substitute some other nation there too. A large nation makes it sound bombastic and slightly sinister "The antidote is being Chinese. The antidote is being German. The antidote is being French." A small nation makes it sound bombastic and slightly ridiculous: "The antidote is being Guatemalan. The antidote is being Swiss."

Good morning, all, and Happy Labor day to all of us Americans who have another 50 years or so of being - well, whatever we are - to look forward to.

Here's some interesting - but hardly surprising - reading from today's WaPo, a short item regarding a new book about the GW Bush presidency:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/02/AR2007090201422.html

Dissent in the White House over policies, strategies and tactics that haven't worked? Disagreements over political appointments and personnel matters? Say it ain't so!

Sheesh.

bc

Morning all, Scotty Happy Birthday!

Don't feel at all comfortable adding any comments about Joel's column except to say from the outside it seems the last 6-7 years have had a negative impact on moral - hopefully the next election will cure that.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend, fantastic weather here. Went to Ribfest yesterday and we purchased a large quantity of ribs and fresh squeezed lemonade.

I too never grew up with Lamb and the only times I did have it, when I was in University, was Lamb liver or fatty chops, since then I have been hesitant to try it.

Mornin' all...

If you would like a "War is not the answer" bumper sticker for your very own, they're free.

http://www.fcnl.org/index.htm

I've had mine proudly displayed on Stella's rear windshield since the administration first started making the case for war in Iraq.

Now I must make some coffee or I will die.

Peace...

'Morning, Boodle. I have survived (rather well, actually) the visit of the Thundering Herd, who are all still blissfully asleep (and quiet) upstairs. I smell bacon cooking in the kitchen, and my wife (the Martha Stewart of Southern Maryland) has no doubt laid out an immaculate 37-course breakfast for them.

Bill, I think I have to side with L.A. Lurker and bc on the George Will piece. I'm not normally a GW fan, either, but I think you're reading something into it that isn't there. If Will wanted a comparison to Iraq, I think he would have made it clearly enough. Instead, I think he was simply reacting to the generic "war is not the answer" motif he specifically mentioned, and he was tying into a (very proper, in my mind) remembrance of D-Day and the "necessisty" of WWII. In fact, he says quite explicitely, that there was a time when in fact war WAS the answer, and I would add not only the answer but the ONLY answer. Now, pacificists like my friend martooni may disagree, and that's fine; that's a debate we all started about 1963 and by 1974 we still didn't have a clear resolution to it. I believe Will was reacting to the pure pacifist anti-war position in general, and in that I tend to agree with him. YMMV, but in any event I don't see it as nearly a clear-cut Iraq simile as you do. If it was, I'd most likely be on your side.

I am rather fascinated by Bush's visit to Iraq. I'm about 98% certain he's going to use it to buttress whatever absurd claims he's about to make about how we're "winning" in Iraq, based on the Petraeus Report plus his "deep and wide-ranging, on-the-ground personal assessment" he himself made -- at no small risk to his own delicate person -- yadda yadda yadda. Conversations he's had with "our generals," plus, "all the fine young men and women on the gorund who everyday are opening schools and barber shops and village markets and cable TV outlets and Internet cafes," blah blah. Oh, and the dozens, nay, hundreds, of average-Joe Iraqs he met, everyone of whom personally begged us to stay in Iraq and who kissed his hand as he walked by. All BS, of course.

Jeez, the smell of that bacon is driving me insane (apologies to you vegans out there; just keep remembering my Neanderthal roots as a meat-eating omnivore).

Front page alert.
Will there be enough room in the bunker for all the Mudgkins?

Morning Boodle. Drive-by greetings to you all.

Don't worry Boko999. Have you noticed how the last couple front-page exposures have brought some pretty thoughtful comments on the kit? I've appreciated some of the new voices, from time to time. Let us make some cookies and coffee and wait to see who shows up.

And if Martooni would kindly fax me whatever is left of his delicious-sounding grilled lamb, I will be grateful.

Good Morning. Happy Lucky to Have a Job and Get the Day Off To Celebrate It Day.

Happy Birthday, mo and Scottynuke!

I like rain forest's observation that the U.S. is less likely to become Rome now that we begin to realize it is a possibility.

bill everything, I think retail politics still works in many parts of the country; it does here. When you either don't think much about the system or are losing faith in it, the personal, issue-based vote may be the only one which makes sense.

Time to sweep the old glass off the porch (bad Escaping Dog!) and clean out the shop. Labor indeed.

Morning, everybody. Mudge, I have to agree with you on Bush's visit to Iraq. Even for a president, that's a looong way to go, unless he's gonna use it for his own ends. Like he will be in any danger.

(Boy, that would be news, wouldn't it? US President injured [killed] in IED attack! That might bring on Armageddon.)

Lovely morning in the mountains; the thermometer read 57 degrees when I got up. We are still celebrating the biggest upset in college football history.

Anybody heard from Cassandra? I hope her computer is okay.

[* faxing Yoki some lamb with a side of hot peppers *]

Anybody happen to read Novak's piece today?

I usually ignore him, but I found the opportunity to see him eat crow impossible to miss:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/02/AR2007090200888.html

Morning all! Happy Labor Day to those celebrating. Happy Monday to those not. And Happy Birthday to everyone!

MMMmmmmmmmmmm...martooni... As a Greek American, Sunday wasn't Sunday when I grew up unless we were at my Yia Yia's house eating lamb.

Your description of last night's dinner has inspired me to re-create it for the G household this week. Thanks for revealing your secret ingredient. I never would have thought of ginger, but that sure sounds good.

Of course most Greeks in these parts (meaning the rest of my extended family) insist that lamb isn't cooked until it's the color and consistency of cardboard. Fortunately, my family likes it a deep shade of pink.

Love the college upset story and the team names do not matter, just the delicious improbable win against the odds.

+I roasted red, green, orange, and piebald peppers yesterday according to a recipe that somehow pleases Tuscan and Sicilian cooks in my extended family. After roasting, peeling, de-seeding, you save the juice to make this marinade:

+olive oil (brave sorts go for the smelly sort)
+teaspoon of pomegranate juice
+rock salt (pinch)
generous grate of black pepper

Store, lidded, overnight in the icebox.

These sweet pepper layer nicely into a chicken sandwich.

Hot peppers. Sweet peppers. Raw peppers. Roasted peppers. Don't you love a fool-proof vegetable?

Joel, you are right when you quote that guy who sais: "The EU lacks a common language, a common postal system, a common soccer team, even a standardized electric socket."

BUT our cellphones work in every memberstate. No problems with coverage etc. *include winky smiley here*

Your GDP comparison of US and China is misleading to readers because you take China's GDP as official exhange rate which is significantly lower than when you compare it on purchasing power terms.GDP as an official exhange rate (the one you used) is misleading because it amounts for the weakness of a country's currency in the world markets. This is obvious for less developed countries, including China, because their currency cannot match US dollar or Euro in international markets.

On the other hand, using GDP in PPP terms, is a better indicator as it includes domestic purchasing power and average consumption, and also this form of GDP measure compensates for that currency weakness in world markets. This is what is generally used for China and other developing countries.

By the way, Happy Labourday everyone.
I had mine on May 1st, it's about time you alle got yours.
Enjoy the bbq's.

G'morning boodle. My vow to gorge on tomaotes and save nada for later has fallen by the wayside. Today I must make salsa because even my non-gardening salad loving uncle will not take another off my hands. Alas, I did not grow peppers this year but I have a little micro-climate all staked out for next year's mondo salsa garden.

Bush is in Iraq to hand out bumper stickers for military vehicles. "Spreading democracy, not practicing it, since 2000." I hate those suprise visits because I know there will be many people who were supposed to be enjoying some much needed down-time who are now doing eye wash duty for the prez. (Think Bruno Kirby in Good Morning Vietnam)

OK Yoki but the Uncle Sam image and the title "Bet on America" may provoke some passersby. If some wackos show up, so be

it, I'll be amused. I have the soul of a troll.

Whenever I take a potshot at one of the Humanities (from my layman's veiwpoint) for their lack of predictive value, love of jargon,

etc. my inate sense of fairplay sends me down the tubes of the internets for more information on the present state of the

discipline (after the potshot, I don't want to my fun.)
Joel's article seems to fall into the sphere of political science or politics as it is called at Princeton and I have some questions.

What can polysci tell us?
Does it have predictive value and if so what would be an appropriate application?
Any successes?
What is the big question among its practitioners?
What are the important tools used to study the subject (I imagine Muliple Regression Analysis might be useful)?

I probably can come up with some more and I think the Boss is in a good position to answer them.
Smart boy wanted.

What a super long weekend this has been. Hello Eurotrash, very happy to hear from you, I missed your observations. Brought some of the garden's overflow to daughter #2 yesterday so got to see how much the new grandpuppy had grown (quite a bit!). Then in the afternoon met a neighbor's new Bernese puppy. What a cutie, now "S" is making noises about getting one when he retires. We're gonna need a bigger vacuum cleaner. Saw Lewis Black last night. His solution to our present situation of presidential candidates, none of whom he likes, is to elect Santa.Of course, Santa being fictional, the next best thing, according to Black, is to make the next president always appear in public wearing a Santa suit. It works for me. Off to make pesto out of most of the remaining basil. I freeze it in ice cube trays for use all winter. By the way, I bought a pair of Crocs yesterday, not the big ones, these are smaller and look like Mary Jane's. They are still pretty ugly but wow are they comfortable! I will, however, never wear them out of the yard.

Sorry for the chop on my last post. I hope no one gets seasick. I blame 'notepad.'

SCC (....spoil my fun.)

Mikra, what is the comparison between the American and Chinese economies, then? I'd like to see the numbers.

Great column on America, Joel.
May I suggest our core problem is the way we finance election campaigns. The politicians wind up representing special interests instead of the voters. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where that has led us.
A great rant on this subject is here:
http://ncstockguy.blogspot.com/

Off-topic Boodle help needed. I swear I recently read an article, possibly local, about striped wasps coming. Not yellowjackets. They're big, and the tail end is striped light and dark. Well, this morning I went out and we have them. Probably between 50 and 100. They're on every bush and all over the ground by the shop (fortunately not near the house). I killed or slowed down a bunch with wasp spray before conceding defeat. Don't want to work around them. Now I can't find the article. Anyone know anything about striped wasps?

I've seen at least 6 photos of Bush allegedly in Iraq, and they all look Photoshopped. Anyone else?

Forgive me if someone else linked to this, but RMOing over Bush's priorities (so what else is new?).

'First, Mr. Bush said, "I'll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol' coffers." With assets that have been estimated as high as nearly $21 million, Mr. Bush added, "I don't know what my dad gets -- it's more than 50-75" thousand dollars a speech, and "Clinton's making a lot of money."'

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/washington/02book.html

Saw another article this morning, probably WaPo where he's quoted as saying he doesn't intend to be hanging around the UN, like Clinton.

Why be president if you can't cash in afterwards? Too much to hope that like Tony Snow, he leaves early because he's tired of struggling financially?

kbertocci....I, for one, am most emphatically not in it "as one" with you. man...did that statement ever wreak of open-ended promises leading to authoritarianism the previous century so kindly blessed us with.

Well, for those of you reveling in the David v. Goliath beating up of Michigan on Saturday (whose season is now *officially* over), as a Michigan grad (undergraduate), I really didn't like the results much (although I will admit that I admire the underdog -- who must now be viewed as an overdog). And then, my Detroit Tigers, who are tanking clearly without the actual Tiger in their tank, blew a 7-0 lead to lose by 8-7.

That does it! I'm officially taking up knitting! So there!

To all the birthday boodlers, HBTY.

dbG...you sure seem to get a lot of your info from 3rd party sources.

why not actually particpate?

Welcome to the knitting circle. Start with a cap on circular needles; later you can make mittens, then onto gloves and socks.

bill everything..... your post had an interesting start..and then descended...like much of the mindless cant from the 70s you feel so retrospectuvely (or is it selectively?) positive about.....into the cliches about Constitutional chaos, whatever that might actually mean in an empirical sense, the more hysterical types like you seem trapped into these days.

how about some fresh ideas for we meddling folks in the hinterlands?

Names, please.

I might have cicada killers - I hope so, as they are not as dangerous as they look.

Cicada Killer is available as a Boodle handle.

George...what is the better alternative for financing campaigns? there is a notion that at least with competing money sources no one interest group can dominate. maybe the problem isn't just the money...but the kinds of people who are elected. or maybe it's an electorate that doesn't know it's head from a hole in the wall; an electorate, were it confronted with making hard leadership decisions, couldn't. you get what you are sort of thinking.

If you wanna be snarky, Anonymous at 11:47 and 11:41, at least sign your Boodle name/handle/nom de guerre.

Actually, CP, I've been knitting for decades. I like to knit afghans (in the afghan stitch, which I suspect is really more in the crocheting world). I used to go up to the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival with a friend (who has now moved to PA), and I would get some tools of the trade. But with my knee and back problems, I don't go anymore. Besides, I've got plenty of started-but-never-finished projects begging me to come back.

As if.

Hope Cassandra and her computer are ok.

Boko, I thought you were getting all poetical on us.

I won't read George Will or Robert Novak, even to rule on interpretations. Ted Sorenson was on the Charlie Rose show the other day, had interesting things to say about presidential characteristics, JFK, and Obama. He wrote an article for the New Republic, which I haven't read and is available only to subscribers - but basically is endorsing Obama. I wish Charlie had pressed him harder on JFK's misjudgements and flaws, but then he wouldn't be Charlie.

Ha, ftb! I recently went through a hideous collection of bags - ripped out 6 inch long starts on baby blankets for people who are now in adulthood, wound tangled skeins of yarn, organized patterns and needles. Now it's a not so hideous box of yarn. dr showed me it's possible, maybe even preferable, to have several projects going at the same time. So, I have some easy ones and some more difficult ones. Last night I tried to get more of the alpaca scarf done, but dropped a couple of stitches, and had to rip it back to before where I had been (if you know what I mean!).

Judging from this week's "bonus one-size-fits-all poll" on his chat site, it seems that Gene W might be reading the boodle after all.

Hi Gene!

Isn't "middling folks from the hinderland" an oxymoron?

FTB -- sorry, I missed your secret knitter-boodler sign long ago. I guess the real news is if men knit....but if that describes you, then a thousand pardons. I better get my glasses script checked.

O O
0

(me, stunned again)

I'd like to pick up on something rainforest touched upon. The ending quote of the articles states that "... the antidote is everywhere. The antidote is being American." I don't see this as an appeal to American exceptionalism, nor is it a bit of bombast. The point is that you avoid "being Rome" by making a positive decision to be the best of what your nation has been. To choose the good qualities that made us/you something to admire. In that sense, there is nothing silly or bombastic about transposing this phrase into the mouth of nationals of another country -- be Swiss, be Guatemalan, be Chinese, be whatever. Be what makes you proud of your country, don't allow it to descend into the chaos and dissipation that ultimately overtook Rome.

My personal belief is that the best way to "be Americans" is to abandon the fear-mongering and cultural cowardice of the neocons and to embrace the influx of all those other people in the world who want to be Americans. We are pirates, taking the best that other nations have to offer and making it our own. However, we are at our best when we commit our acts of piracy by taking those who want to come here, not by going out to take it; that is when we are at our worst.

Um, CP -- don't know exactly what you meant. There may be scores of secret, closeted male knitters (don't know any myself), but in case you missed any of my previous postings, I ain't no man.

Gotta go do a modicum of work now. Just to see if I can on a holiday.

Nah.

A little anecdote about the different power plugs in Europe.
It is true that the English have totaly different plugs to the continent.
But it's the Italian plugs that are the most anoying. They look identical to the standardised ones used in continental Europe, but the prongs are a about 2 milimeters closer together. It took me and a collegue about an hour to figure that out when we went there to install a server. One hour of cursing because we just couldn't fathom why the power cords we took with us wouldn't get in the @#|* sockets.

By the way I fond this interesting article on the interwebs.(It's usefull for people who travel globaly)
http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm#plugs

I am very despondant about missing the alcohol kit. In college, my dorm's drink of choice was Hunch Punch. That was one bottle of grain alcohol (not that expensive Everclear stuff) and one can of Hi-C. This stuff was great for drink-til-you-puke contests. We never needed much more than one cooler full.

My parents have been spending the weekend with me and my father is rather outspoken about the Fall of Rome parallels. He cites the use of mercenary armies and the unchecked welfare state as two harbingers of an empire in decline.

I mentioned that the Roman Empire eventually fell due to illegal immigration by the Huns. My son said it was actually from Germans being pushed by the Huns. Durn AP World History courses.

I said we were still on top and he rebutted that we could be on top and still be in decline.

So I asked Joel's question: Who will take over? He said that the Chinese have too many males and the way to absorb that is to conscript them in the army and to send them against something. I said that that's not a very logical thing for China to do.

He said that countries do a lot of illogical things with their armies, invading Iraq for example. I had to agree with that.

Yellojkt,

Your dad made a good point about Chinese males going into the Army. Never thought about that.

Another thing I wondered with the demographic shift in China? Will it change the mentality they have had for thousands of years and will they want to have girls instead of boys?

RE, Foreign electrical plugs. When we were assigned to Scotland and went to fit out our appartment we found all small electrical appliances and tools just came with a stub cord. Strategically located at the checkout counters was a large bin of electrical plugs to purchase and install yourself. When you did and plugged the appliance in and it did not come on further investgation revealed that a fuse was required to be installed inside the plug. The British household voltage is 220 and they believe fusing the plug for only the maximun current draw of the particular appliance. Also for this reason the light switch for the bathroom is located out in the hall.
Plus beware of pluging in things in China. Our standard 110 plug fits their 220 volt sockets. Most lap top computer will accept dual voltage but not DVD players.

Economics, democracy, and the article even mentions Rome (a bit... a teeny bit... well, its almost tangental to be honest).
http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070910&s=chait091007

The neoLaffer curve.
http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1225420

Welfare state in Rome?
3.Rome had no welfare state but simply a grain allotment to the most destitute of their population (and only in Rome itself) and then only to prevent a revolt. Those "welfare recipients" could not just go out and get a job, as is implied by Glodwater by even bringing up a welfare state. They had the army which was anywhere from a 16 year to 20 year enlistment, or they could beg, or they could die. Those lazy bastards!! Sitting around all day starving when they could be getting killed for an emperors' glory! -wikianswers (I like the dig so I left it)

From the TNR artilce I linked to above:
In an unequal society, the majority resents its diminished status. It harbors the expectation of employing elections to drastically overturn its condition. In turn, the wealthy minority fears the outcome that may follow from free elections and the assertion of majority rule. As a result, it resorts to authoritarian institutions to guarantee its social and economic advantage.....

Rulers such as the Bourbons, the Tudors, or the Sauds seize an important part of their subjects' assets. For example, at the death of Augustus (14 a.d.), the top 1/10,000 of the Roman Empire's households received 1 percent of all income. In Mughal India around 1600 a.d., the top 1/10,000th received 5 percent of all income.

Presumably, readers looking at these numbers are supposed to gape in astonishment at the sheer inequity of those autocratic regimes. But the numbers are less astonishing when you compare them to those in the contemporary United States, which Boix does not. As of 2004, the top one-ten-thousandth of Americans earned over 3 percent of the national income--a somewhat smaller share than that earned by the Mughal elite but several times higher than that enjoyed by the wealthiest Romans. The New Republic.

//dbG...you sure seem to get a lot of your info from 3rd party sources.
why not actually particpate?
Posted by: | September 3, 2007 11:41 AM //

Um, for as long as I've been boodling, pointing others to interesting articles they may have missed is considered participation.

Is your participation limited to criticism? :-)

Boko, that article by Jonathan Chaitt about the Laffer Curve, Jude Wanniski, and the rightwing GOP cult was pretty interesting, I thought.

(i wrote this before reading mudge's 9:06)

b.e., my interpretation is that george will is mainly criticizing what he considers the knee-jerk pacifist "war is not the answer" position. he argues that "war is sometimes the answer" based on world war ii. yeah, he's making a "history will tell" kind of point, but context, implications or not, i don't think he's making a case for the iraq war.

It is evening of the last day on a three-day weekend. "Sleep"overs have been unslept. Naps have been taken. Wasps were encountered. Homework was conquered. Dinner was cooked and consumed, and the second glass of wine is gone. All is quiet.

It is astonishing how quickly national importance and hegemony is overtaken by the minutiae of daily life.

Please notice my attempt to aid Joel by the profligate use of the word "hegemony" throughout this Boodle.

Ivansmom, your diligent effort to use the word "hegemony" has been duly noted by the Office of the Boodle Shop Steward, and is greatly appreciated. I believe there may even be a certificate of appreciation for you at this year's awards presentation, if I can get Scotty to put a new ink cartridge in the HP printer.

In other matters, yes, grandchildren have been sent packing (so to speak) with their parents. My son-in-law and I guy-bonded by his making both beef and pork ribs while I did hamburgers and corn, all on my grill. A Corona Light was drunk in recognition of the Labor Movement everywhere.

Did someone mention Hegemony?

All certificates graciously accepted here, Curmudgeon. I hoard them in furtherance of my hegemaniacal ambitions.

Bad Sneakers, I meant to mention earlier that those Mary Jane Crocs are the ones I sent my sister - unfortunately, they're a bit small, so she has to exchange them. She has friends with boats, so I thought they'd be handy for her. We both think they're very cute.

I will only say I'm not a big fan of hegemony.

TBG, I like lamb either way. It depends on the thickness and quality of the lamb and whether it's been marinated already.

I never had lamb at home more than ONCE growing up, (and that with mint jelly which is still weird to me-- greek mint sauces are so much better).

So I basically had to figure out how to cook a lamb chop. I found marinating it in italian, garlic, and lemon juice worked very well.
(I like Italian seasoning on about anything, but lamb marinates VERY well, I must say).

Ginger works everywhere, too, and is a natural digestive. Martooni's prep sounds good.

By the way, through my kitchen experiments, I've also learned that cinnamon and garlic should NEVER be cooked together... a very faint hint of cinnamon if you must in some sauces with garlic, but otherwise they mutally cancel each other out somehow.

I have come over the decades to really like and appreciate ginger. When I was a kid (no, really, I was one once), I found the taste too cloying, but I really like it now. When one isn't feeling up to snuff stomach-wise, a good dose of ginger tea, or even ginger mixed in hot water really helps. Helps with morning sickness, too, I'm told.

Well, my Michigoose soul is gratified that the women of the Detroit Shock are going to the finals of the WNBA championship, having just beaten Indiana by 16 points, besting them in the best of three games.

Yep, when the Red Wings, the Pistons, the Tigers and the Lions (to be redundant on the last team) continue to raise our hopes, if only to dash them (and, of course, the Wolverines), we put hand to heart and cheer for them wimmin, who *really* show the men how to do it.

You betcha!

Tim makes a good point in noting that one way that America has avoided paralyzing stagnation and continues renew itself is through immigration.

This constant renewal of the American spirit comes from people who *want* to be Americans. That's a pretty good antidote, I think.

bc

Oh, BTW-- to take an extreme viewpoint... America will decline only under a hegemony of vegetarian, vegans, and vicious salad-pushers.

A famous WWII leader was a nearly-complete vegetarian, and enjoyed displaying images of animals being slaughtered (especially kosher-style) to his guests to disgust them out of eating meat.

He wasn't Roosevelt or Churchill.

Beware of all those who manipulate emotions so aggressively or so negatively. You're giving them power.

http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/holocaust_imagery_ar.asp

Firsttimeblogger-- I grew up liking ginger ale, but lost the taste, probably because I had it so often when I was sick.

To this day I still like ginger snaps-- maximum ginger bite. Gingerbread is only so-so.

Fresh, candied, or powdered ginger are all very different in taste and cooking requirements. I've never been able to use candied ginger and like it.

Ginger?...or Mary Ann? Think carefully. Choose wisely.

That's all I have to say.

Just as long as you don't wind up in the sack with Gilligan by accident, Mudge.

Besides the answer's obvious-- It's always Mary Ann with some Ginger to spice things up.

My experience in living in a 220-240V Type I plug country is that because of double voltage, half the amps are needed for any given appliance compared to 110V, leading to thinner wires that are therefore more likely to fail. This experience was between 50 & 30 yrs ago, and I suppose Japanese figured out how to make reliable 240V appliances in the meantime.

I would add that Orson Scott Card's use of the word "Hegemon" as a formal title always tickled me.

bc

Um, I thought I was the meddling folk from the hinterland?

Look, I took a wide stance on the GW article. Anyone got a problem with that? That doesn't make me, well, you know what. I will, by jiminy, fight like hell to clear my name. Next time I vow to read the article to the end, by god.

When you're on the late night crew, after all, you gotta work hard to generate some traffic. Can't blame a working girl from trying, know what I mean . . . .

Ahhh... the night before The First Day of School.

The girl isn't in bed by her target of 9:00... not by a long shot. I think she realizes that 5:30 a.m. is going to come pretty quickly.

Re. Ginger or Mary Ann, I think it was Arianna Huffington who said something along the lines of, "It's the 21st century, darling; why not both?"

I'd call *that* out of the box thinking, but, er, perhaps not.

In fact, forget I mentioned it.

Clemson's pasting FL St 21-zip in the 2nd quarter, Tommy's going for Daddy Bowden's throat. We'll see if it stays this way...

bc

If native Americans totally stopped having kids, then having a lot of immigration would be a boon. But, as currently practiced, it leads to the US having a rate of population growth that IMHO is too great for all sorts of environmental reasons in addition to what I'm going to mention. In the not too distant future (assuming enough water is found somewhere) the LA region will have ~1,000 sq mi at ~30,000/sq mi, which is, do the math, 30 million people. If these 30 mil were all from Iowa, as we mostly were in the 30s & 40s, then we'd all get along peachy. But of course Iowa folks of those days wouldn't come near the anthill we are becoming. We already see us against them in raising and allocating tax money which tends to dry up the public purse relative to need, and the giant anthill of 50 yrs from now will cost a lot of public money to operate. Maybe this is an LA-centric view, but I think the city where Blade Runner was set may be in our future. It may be the richest city in the world, but who would want to live in it?

Quite agree Wilbrod, the constant and manipulative propaganda from the the 'Free Reign Shubbery' movement destroyed the formal garden industry. Bloody wankers!

What self-centered babble from an over-read, under-observant know-nothing, paid to perform as such. The whole multipart exercise was a joke to see if one can guess at and agree with what the monitor was eventually positing as their original fixed position. Silly game. Stupid waste of time. No learning here.

There is some recompense, at least this is merely the off-center factually-deficit expression of the preset fixation of a journalist in training, and obvious as such, and not someone more impactful, e.g., a hedge-fund manager, who would inevitably fail in their function without a sense of diversification not shown here.

When one has nothing serious at stake in barfing out opinion without critical thought, it shows. Just go to the back room and clean up before hitting the keyboard again, please.

Jeez, two posts in a row featuring bloody wankers. What are the odds?

Ah, thanks Mudge, I knew there was a voice of reason out there somewhere.

\\ Another thing I wondered with the demographic shift in China? Will it change the mentality they have had for thousands of years and will they want to have girls instead of boys?

If they can get the passing down the surname thing sorted out, yes.

And let's not mention the sheer water demand from L.A.

Unless the climate changes drastically, I don't think L.A. can sustain a lot more growth without becoming increasingly less attractive to live in, and severely impacting agricultural water supplies elsewhere.

The midwest is emptying out in comparsion to those population booms elsewhere, so to me it follows the trend of urbanization of humanity.

In India, so much of the population are concentrated in megametropolis that are far bigger than New York City in populations, yet much poorer in water delivery, hygenie and with shantytowns and slums developing quicker than the cities can keep control. Urban planning is a laugh in those cities. The people keep coming because the cities are the best hope for employment; they don't have land to farm and no hope of affording land if they didn't inherit it.

As it is, over 80% of the U.S. population lives in cities and their suburbs. This article discusses the impact of urbanization on agricultural soil resources.

http://biology.usgs.gov/luhna/chap3.html

Pennsylvania is losing 1% of its prime agricultural land to development each year. In 100 years, if that continues, there will be no more prime agricultural land left.

"When one has nothing serious at stake in barfing out opinion without critical thought, it shows."

Whaddaya mean nothing at stake? You said yourself he was being paid.

If the US can hold on to its current hegemony, it will be because of developments like these:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/02/AR2007090201189.html?hpid=moreheadlines

24-3 at the half, bc. Joel must be curled in the fetal position on the floor by now.

And that Louisville-Murray State game was a real cliffhanger. 73-10. Where the he11 is Murray State, anyway? I wonder if it's a typo and they ment Murray's Steaks?

"voice of reason" in the above was NOT irony.

I failed to understand that myself-- I wonder if it was intended as a meta-commentary on his own posting. Very existentialist.

If he truly wanted to insult Joel, all he had to say is: "This is boring. If it was supposed to be funny, it wasn't."

But then we'd have to put Joel on 24-hour suicide watch.

"Put that pen down on the paper, nice and easy. Deep breaths.
Yes, we all know the pen is mightier than the sword, but that is not a seppuku pen. THAT is for doodling nice cute bunnies in bunkers and sketching nice word pictures of life. You remember, Joel? You remember those days? No, don't nod and mutter words at us... tell us all about it, with your friend Mr. Pen."

I guess we can thank his critics for being such bloody wankers at witty writing and sparing him the old one-two to his ego.

Sorry yello, didn't mean to answer Euro's question addressed to you. Just ignore what I said.

Mudge-Murray State is in Murray KY in the western part of the state. Lovely town and the U has a great public radio station. They seem to trade places with Austin Peay (pronounce like pee)State U. of Clarksville TN for a spot in the NCAA basketball tournament where they get hammered in the first round. They have a football team?

Is "bloody wanker" available as a boodle handle?

rain forest-I liked your answer.

Agreed, Wilbrod. Meta-commentary on his own posting makes sense.

A minor point--hedge fund managers haven't fared very well lately themselves. Diversification isn't everything.

frosti, remember when James "Fly" Williams played for Austin Peay and the game cheer became "Our Fly's Open, Let's Go Peay!"

I thought Joel was from the Jacksonville school. But maybe I haven't been paying attention.

24-12 now. Bet the FSU guys are hurting from the half time *PEP* talk and are going to score some more points to avoid the *PEP* talks next week.

Opps 24-11. Never assume an extra point (or two)

dbG-A colleague of Mr. F's was a cheerleader at Austin Peay in the "Fly" era. Get a couple beers in her and she can still do all the cheers.

Wilbrod, my post about LA was intended as a metaphor for the whole country. Is it possible for an unlivable place to be fabulously rich and powerful? In the LA context, what are we going to eat when all the broccoli fields in Ventura County have become houses? Get our food from Ecuador when there's no oil left? Models assume that higher prices always lead to the development of substitutes. I think earth may simply run out of some critical resources, price or not.

LTL, Like Baghdad?

I agree with you LTL-CA.

America leapfrogged Europe in the 19th C because of our advantage in the industries of that era, that required raw materials and labor. We had the wheatfields, iron, coal, etc. all within our boundaries and also the Ukranians who were willing to shovel dirt to dam the river of molten iron for nearly nothing in Cleveland. The Jungle is a good account of it. In Europe, they had already a society in place based on an earlier economy and weren't willing or able to toss it overboard -- they are *nations or societies* which tend to damp the effects of changes in the economic environment (e.g., national health care), whereas we are a *place* where changes to the structure happen pretty freely and the devil takes the hindmost. It's worked out pretty well so far, but now that all that coal, iron ore, oil, virgin prairie, and so forth isn't there to be discovered, and the country is filling up so that every square inch is already owned by somebody who can claim profit from it, it's a lot harder to make a buck as a nation. We talk about our intellectual capital and leadership. Where I work, 2/3 of the technical employees are Indian. That's a form of leadership, I guess, taking the best from elsewhere, but it depends on them wanting to come here. I think we're going to run out of some critical resources like water, and fundamental relationships will be turned on their head, and the risk is the US will be shown to be top dog in the present environment, but not able to cope with the next one, whatever that is. In the 19th C, having coal and wheat was a tangible advantage that existed in only a few countries and couldn't be moved. In the 21st C, is there some advantage of the US that couldn't be purchased by Dubai or Russia using their oil money? Having a president who doesn't worry about the environment or dependence on imported oil, and a nation of fellow-citizens who voted for him, makes me more worried.

LTL, you've got some good points. I still think maybe the US will not be "Number 1" much longer - but maybe that's ok. The world will have to do some major adjustments so we can all survive, and maybe more equity will come about because of it. I know, I'm a dreamer.

Saw some terrific tennis today. The James Blake/Tommy Haas match was a real rollercoaster, and I hoped Blake would win, but Haas did. Then Feliciano Lopez versus Roger Federer. Lopez played brilliantly for 2 sets, but only won 1 - then Roger took over. What amazes me about Federer is how he stays cool as a cucumber, hardly breaking a sweat, while his opponents look totally demolished. Charlie Rose interviews Federer tonight:
http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/09/03/1/a-conversation-with-roger-federer

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article2361393.ece

The infamous Jeremy Clarkson of the Times (London) writes on vacationing near Ottawa. I dread to think what he would make of Daytona Beach. His column is nominally about a Dodge Grand Caravan.

I enjoyed Clarkson's column, as always. Thanks for the pointer, DoC.

Hi LTL,

I beg to differ. The US, though it expanded a lot in the 19th century didn't become the world economical world power until after WW1.
The industrial revolution started in Western Europe, more specifically in the UK And spread quickly to the continent. The European countries had the same access to cheap resources as had the US because they used their colonies.

It's only after WW1, which basically destroyed a whole generation of European human capital that the US was able to become the big kid in the block. WW2, the subsiquent loss of the European colonies and the migration of a sizable part of the european intellectual elite insured that this has stayed like this until now.

But on the other hand, Europe isn't as sclerotic as it's being made out to be sometimes. I don't think that the average standard of living of an european is much lower than that of an average America. (except maybe for the size of a house, There are not many Mc Mansions over here.)

Anyone can answer any question in the boodle whether it be directed or rhetorical. I had no reaction to the issue of Chinese female children except that they all come back to Xian as tourists with their adoptee parents. The Chinese are discarding a resource others are quick to grab.

The lede in that biotech story was buried. The textile mill employed 400. The biotech lab employs 90 in the same building. Our manufacturing is becoming less labor intensive, following the trend that has already engulfed the family farm.

'Morning, Boodle. Cassandra, where are you? It's not the same without you to give us the morning benediction.

Good Gene Robinson column this morning--though perhaps a bit late -- on Bush rewriting history re: the Vietnam analogy he attempted foolishly to make. (Which is perhaps understandable, since Bush wasn't paying very much attention to various world events back then, so I can understand how he might have COMPLETELY MISUNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING during those years he spent guarding Texas's airspace from Bourbon Street. Oh, I'm sorry--did I raise my voice there just for a moment? Hope I didn't wake anyone prematurely; I just get a wee bit ANNOYED at certain dubiously elected persons from time to time. *sigh* There, I feel better now. Time to go take my shower.)

Clemson 24, FSU 18. Weep over it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/04/AR2007090400044.html

(Me, I went to Temple University, which has no collegiate football team to speak of, and hasn't since the 1930s. Navy kicked our butts 30-19 the other day. I think Kurt Vonnegut said it best when he said...oh, never mind.)

Morning all, first day of school here, off to wake the kids and glory in their joy over starting the new year - well I can dream. :-)

I'll post a new kit later this morning (do we have to go back to work today???), but fyi, I'm doing that chat today at 1 and you can always send in a question or comment in advance:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/08/31/DI2007083101472.html

Actually, Mudge, Joel's a Gator, not a Seminole.

He's proabably happy that Tommy beat Bobby in the Battle of the Bowdens. [feelin' alliterative today]

Ah, I have some comments and questions for Joel that I'll post to the discussion shortly...

bc

Server errors prevent pre-chat postings.

TBG Tell more about why you think Gene W lurks here?

I still like KB's (and others) comment that perhaps loosing status might help us rejigger the income distribution a bit....or we might look at other ways to measure our worth than simply square-footage and great rooms in our houses and the girth of our cars.

But there is something very human about competing with others to have more!

I do know this: to achieve something reasonable in culture and society REQUIRES that we rethink education, especially in our poorer communities. That is THE engine of equity and opportunity. Bill Gates knows this, and while I cringe at the hegemony of substandard technology offered to us at the smörgåsbord that is MS, well, he has diagnosed the schools problem correctly.

Good morning, boodle!

CP- I think TBG might be on to something....one of his polls for his chat tomorrow allows for feedback about what may be wrong with his chats. There's been a lot of discontent with his chats here in the boodle lately, so I think perhaps he could be lurking around. Hi Gene!

That, or he's getting lots of nasty postings on his chat.

Losing
Loosing

YOU choose.

Thanks, Kim. I wondered if that was it, but instead I started searching for more obvious clues like

hegemony

knitting

recipes

etc.

A couple of quick comments catching up on Backboodling...

Wilbrod, re. your 9:53 PM: If PA is losing 1% per year of prime agricultural land, er, how do they lose all of it in 100 years? I'm thinking about Zeno's Paradox here...

LTL-CA, we had what was valauble to ourselves and to other countries in the 19th century - natural resources and the industriousness to make something of them.

Do we here in the US have what is valubale in the 21st century? One could argue that money and information are the currencies of the 21st century, and the ability of moving one to the other will be a dertmining factor as to the success of a given entity. If you can make money moving bits and bytes and cash around, you can purchase goods and materials from those who are willing to produce them. Of course, moving an entire nation to an information-based economy - intentionally or not - is even riskier than moving a nation away from the Gold Standard...

I wonder if there would ever be an Information Standard? And given the current state of the Internet, what would that *be*?

bc

Will the Discussion at 1pm be all about Gloom and Doom?

Eurotrash,
My brain isn't providing the source (maybe a course Brad DeLong is teaching?), but it seems that the pre Civil War US had growing incomes because of access to new resources, like all that excellent Midwestern soil--it proved possible to distinguish the effects of access to more resources vs. new technology.

The US industrial takeoff gained steam during the Civil War from military spending and projects like the transcontinental railroad. The US grew explosively from somewhere around 1900 until 1929. Chicago is a monument to that period, not to mention New York's classic skyscapers. Then US GDP grew by something like 60% during the second world war (that last item from Niall Ferguson, War of the World). The US changed from a rich but technologically unsophisticated country to a rich, sophisticated one.

What? Fr