This week's video relating to music alluded to in the novel The Ten Weeks is Grand Funk Railroad's "Closer to Home." It's their performance of this classic in Shea Stadium, New York, on 9 July 1971. On the album with the same name, the song ends with a very effective fade out. Unfortunately, that couldn't …
Obama’s Messianic Pitch: Not as “Un-American” as it Looks
Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics finds Obama's decidedly "messianic" (my characterisation) presentation in the campaign and afterwards to be in conflict with American traditions: Since he emerged on the national stage, Barack Obama has not been the model of American republicanism. This was the case during the campaign, and it continues today. Juxtapose the …
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Happy Anniversary, People’s Republic of China! Thanks for the Revival!
Today, of course, is the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong mounted the Tian An Men and announced that the Chinese people had stood up. Above: the Tian an Men (Gate of Heavenly Peace) in the centre of the photograph, taken from the Beijing …
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Trying to Get India and Pakistan Together is Easier Said Than Done
The current administration, for all of the strange things it is doing these days, is right to at least try to facilitate this: The foreign ministers of Pakistan and India, meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York at the weekend, did not agree on the resumption of formal …
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The Warning Signs of Power Corruption in Organisations
Seen this kind of thing before, from the blog of attorney Chris Banescu: Here is the risk inherent in leadership: The greater the leader’s power, wealth, authority, and influence, the more likely the leader could succumb to ethical lapses and moral failings. The risk increases if the organization has a culture that lacks financial or …
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Dealing with Anti-Semitism at NBC, Palm Beach Style
Americans for Limited Government and Net Right Nation are rightfully indignant at this: Americans for Limited Government is appalled that an employee of the NBC news network apparently felt it was appropriate to send an email to an ALG employee, in response to a standard news release, saying, "Bite me, Jew Boy." According to ALG …
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Iran and its Nuclear Weapons: The Only People Who Will Do Anything
"Cuban missile crisis in slow motion" is a good way to describe the situation: Graham Allison, a Harvard professor who is one of America’s leading security strategists, likes to speak of the U.S.-Iranian nuclear confrontation as “the Cuban missile crisis in slow motion.” Well, on Friday morning, that slow-mo process started moving a little faster, …
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The Real Socialists Hit the Streets
A few days ago I wrote a piece on how the "socialists" who are in the ascendant in our government have sold out. Evidently the real articles--and their anarchist friends--have hit the streets of Pittsburgh: Police fired canisters of pepper spray and smoke at marchers protesting the Group of 20 summit Thursday after anarchists responded …
The Ancestor of T-Rex: Moving the Goalposts (Again) of Evolution
Just when they thought it safe to hang their hat on a theory... This fearsome T Rex, as the Tyrannosaurus is hailed in popular culture after Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park movie series, now apparently has an ancestor not much larger in size than an average human. The evolutionary downgrading was one-hundredth its size but …
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Kevin Ayers: May I?
I'm continuing my series of videos of songs that pop up in the novel The Ten Weeks. This time it's Kevin Ayers' "May I?" which appeared on his 1970 album Shooting at the Moon. This rendition (I think) appeared on Spanish television in 1972. Kevin Ayers is someone most Americans are totally unfamiliar with. And …
Positive Infinity 