The Anger of Compassion

There are more things in Heaven and Earth...

Here's a three-dimensional, animated (rotating), globe.

Why do you care? Because it represents not only geography, but economic activity.

Reminded me of this, which I have above my desk.

(Hat tip: Lew Rockwell at LewRockwell.com)

93: Victor Hugo novel or My Bible Knowledge?

How well do I know the Bible?

You know the Bible 93%!

 

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

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Why yes...I do know it all.

Friday Betty Boop Blogging

Three short videos of the ever-so-demurely dressed Betty Boop:

The Old Man of the Mountain

Minnie the Moocher

Snow-White

Cab Calloway's singing is featured in each one. Yep, the original moonwalker himself.

"I don't want to die the same day Castro dies."

A light of civilization goes out whenever a humorist dies. That's awkwardly put, but I have no artful words for the death of fellow Marine and humorist Art Buchwald, who has died of kidney failure.

Read the WashPost column. Find out about Buchwald's career as a wine taster for the Marine Corps. Better yet, find some Buchwald and read that.

Wine taster for the Marine Corps. That's just impeccably funny.

Art Buchwald 1925 -- 2007. RIP.

If Atlas Shrugged is Worth Criticizing, It Should Be Worth Reading

Well, that should be obvious, but apparently it is not.

Charles Pretzlik is described as the "companies" editor of the Financial Times, but, it seems, he'd have preferred to be a literary critic. Surely, though, literary critics are supposed to read the works they write about?

For Pretzlik's latest target is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, about which, he writes, John Galt is not worth knowing. Oh dear. He has perhaps not even read the book, to judge by his own comments. I say this because, while he criticizes the book, he offers no examples and no argument of substance, just assertions. Indeed, his assertions often betray his own ignorance. He swings and misses in his third paragraph, for example:

Yet, Rand's story about an engineer, John Galt, who "stopped the motor of the world" by leading successful businessmen on strike against the new elite of collectivist free-loaders is easily the most successful business book ever.

Umm...not really. It's true that most of the leading figures in the story are businessmen of one type or another. It's also true, though, that significant strikers include Richard Halley, a composer; a superior court judge named Narragansett and a brain surgeon named Hendricks; physicist Quentin Daniels; philosophers Hugh Akston and Ragnar Danneskjöld; and actress Kay Ludlow. Perhaps Mr. Pretzlik skimmed over any mention of them? Is that what a literary critic does? I just hope he doesn't do his day job in like manner...

But there's more. Pretzlik doesn't use the tired argument that Rand advocates "rule by the strong," but he does manage to hint at it: Atlas Shrugged, he writes, "grants" business leaders "Nietzschean superman status."

Please.

I'll give the Financial Times credit, though: in reply, it gave space to Julie Meyer of Ariadne Capital, who it turns out is up to the task. In Europe, she observes, the "stink of entitlement is still pervasive:"

Europe’s leaders would do well to find out about John Galt. The Continent (perhaps excluding Britain) basically has no growth story. A society that is not growing, that is not creating, is dying. Europe may have the richest poor people of any region in the world, but you can count on one hand the £1bn companies that have started from scratch over the past 30 years. Fine entrepreneurs went elsewhere to build their dreams.

Went elsewhere means that they are not in Europe, that Europe -- and Europeans -- do not benefit from their efforts. Ms Meyer, by the way, does not offer that offensive Republican argument for entrepreneurship and free markets, that it "increases tax revenue." Instead, she just asks that the creators and builders be allowed to create and build, and benefit from their efforts.

Yaron Brook of The Ayn Rand Institute also has a thing or two to say about the Pretzlik piece: Atlas Shrugged is, he writes, "a deep exploration of the philosophical foundations of freedom." I endorse his "Randian tip" as well.

John Galt is, by all means, worth knowing. To Julie Meyer and Yaron Brook, therefore, I offer my own humble thanks for their defense of Ayn Rand's masterpiece; we'll hear more discussion, I'm sure, in this the 50th anniversary of its publication.

To putative literary critic Charles Pretzlik I offer an Anger of Compassion tip: "Don't quit your day job."

The 20 Most Annoying People on the Right

I liked this list of "The 20 Most Annoying People on the Right. Some of the folks appearing on the list have been dealt with here on this blog -- for example, Larry Kudlow -- but there are worthwhile comments about each winner.

14. Jerry Lewis: The Republican pork king of the House.

I'd have to agree that anyone earning such a title eminently deserves a spot on this list, especially when up against such heavy hitters as Dennis Hastert (House) and Ted Stevens (Senate). Both of whom, by the way, also earned spots, as numbers 13 and 12, respectively. I was also happy to see the #1 spot awarded to John McCain, Mr. Free Speech himself.

But for an "Honorable Mention" I'll go ahead and nominate Mark Krikorian, who has offered a cure for much of what ails America: take away more liberty, specifically that of young people. He not only claims that conscripting young'uns into military and civilian service would be good for them and for the country, he goes beyond that to mock any possible moral arguments against it by terming it "libertarian cowflop."

As a further -- dishonorable -- mention, I'd nominate conservative pundits in general: only one moral objection was raised to Kirkorian's statement (it was Andew Stuttaford). Offensive as it was, only one writer at The Corner saw fit to object to it. Apparently "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is up for...what? Popular referendum? A vote? The will of the majority as determined by, say, some contest on American Idol?

(And how well do you think American voters would do, in terms of preserving individual rights and liberties? Let me offer one tiny example: I searched online, today, for "libertarian cowflop," and didn't find much. Ryan Sager blogged it, and received 0 comments for his trouble.

To all of you libertarian conservatives, paleo-conservatives, libertarians of conservative bent, whatever you like to call yourselves, and particularly to Objectivist supporters of Bush and the Republicans: these are your purported allies on the Right. Note well how highly they regard you and your views.

On Presidentendentious Carter

"It now turns out that Jimmy Carter--who is accusing the Jews of buying the silence of the media and politicians regarding criticism of Israel--has been bought and paid for by Arab money."

So begins this column by Alan Dershowitz on the subject of Jimmy Carter and his latest book. Near the end, Dershowitz argues thusly:

Accordingly I now call upon Carter to make full public disclosure of all of his and the Carter Center’s ties to Arab money. If he fails to do so, I challenge the media to probe deeply into his, his family’s, and his Center’s Arab ties so that the public can see precisely the sources and amounts of money he has received and judge whether it has corrupted the process of objective reportage and politics by Carter and others who have received such funds. Finally, I ask the appropriate government agencies to conduct an investigation into whether Carter should be required to register as a lobbyist for foreign interests.

I love it. Let us not forget, either, which First Brother was a lobbyist for Libya, of all fucking places. Or Carter's public affection for Arafat and Castro.

Why anyone retains any respect for Carter is a mystery to me.

Stringin' Along, Singing My Song...

Last weekend, while listening to Classical Guitar Alive!, I did some blog updating. Today, while listening to the same program (and, later, some off-the-wall Beatles stuff.

I began by adding items to the Classical Guitar Stuff section...then I renamed it, slightly, because of some of the items I did add. What I have over there is of more interest to the learner/listener than to a music fan who likes the guitar...but then, that's what I am, a learner, so there you go. Anyway, the list now includes methods, music theory, scale and chord libraries, websites, books on learning the fretboard, repertoire, and more.

What I've noticed, though, is how things have changed since I took classical guitar lessons around 1976 or so. Of course, obviously I have stuff that I can't link to, because it's out of print. So yeah, that's a change, of course. But I'm talking about positive changes. First of all, back in 1976 I'd progressed way beyond what I remember accomplishing: there are scribbled notes and comments in my Carcassi method and in my repertoire books, as you'd expect (and as I'd expected), but some of them are dozens of pages beyond what I remember practicing or playing. I was playing Sor, Carcassi, transcriptions of Bach and Rachmaninoff. Hmmm...well, that's kind of nice, I suppose, and reason for optimism as I once again delve into music theory and reading, scales, and practicing.

The other change is technology plus change in attitude. The old Carcassi method is still available, as it bloody well should be, and so are the Noad and Shearer methods. This is good: I hope they all stick around for many, many more years. But there's also new stuff out there, and both method and repertoire books are being made available with accompanying compact discs, which I think is excellent. And even beyond that is that I'm seeing books (both classical- and jazz-oriented) with music notation, analysis, accompanying CD, and tablature. I think this is fabulous.

You must understand, non-guitarists, that guitar notation has always looked unlike other notation: for one thing, the guitar -- unlike some instruments -- is easily capable of handling more than one note at a time, so intervals, chords, and the like are no big deal and thus make frequent appearances. But there are other, somewhat stranger differences, too: the guitar, like the piano, has quite a range, but guitar music is nonetheless written on one staff, unlike piano music, so there are plenty of leger lines required in order to represent all of the notes. Those unfamiliar with the guitar may also notice quite a number of unfamiliar numerals and wonder what the p, i, m, a notations mean. What you're seeing, there, is recommended fingering and fretting (that is, for both hands), or how to play that particular combination or series of notes, and it's pretty important on the guitar, since, again unlike the piano, on the guitar the same note can be played in many different areas of the fretboard (and on different strings).

And tablature was always regarded as being declasse at best, fit only for those rubes who couldn't read music.

But there's more to it than that. Yes, notation does contain more information than tab: rhythm and meter and dynamics, none of which is much expressed in tab, if at all. But tab tells you exactly where each note is played, with no interpretation required. Tablature, really, is just another way of presenting the information imparted by those numerals and the p, i, m, a notation.

The combination of printed notation, analysis, tablature, and accompanying compact disc is almost like having a teacher in the room with you as you practice. Add a small electronic tuner/metronome, and you're good to go.

Oh...uh, you'll need a guitar, too.

So, am I fascinated by the guitar and its place in classical music? Bet yer ass.

Heading for the Top of the Tower

According to this Michael Rose story from The Unofficial Apple Weblog, iTunes now our fourth largest music retailer. Rose writes that

the iTunes Music Store has sold over two billion songs, and is now the fourth largest music retailer in the US, ahead of Amazon.com and sneaking up on #3 Target.

I can see it. My son and I have downloaded classical, jazz, ragtime, and rock music from iTunes, single tunes as well as entire albums; I've sent and received entire albums as gifts; and I've sent playlists as gifts.

So who's the largest music retailer in the United States? Well, it ain't Tower Records.

(According to this story, iTunes sells over 5 million songs a day, or 58 tunes per second.)

And according to Eliot Van Buskirk at Wired News, iTunes is on the way outta here. There seems to be some confusion, though, between headline: "Who's Killing MP3 and ITunes?" and story, which purports to offer "seven reasons why MP3 is the future of the music industry." So I guess the MP3 format is either dying or the future of the music industry. Interesting read nonetheless. There's definitely something to Van Buskirk's point that consumers are tiring of being regarded by the recording industry as little more than potential pirates. Listen up, record companies: I've bought music in three vinyl formats (single, long-player, and EP), on cassette tapes, on compact discs, and via downloads. I've never stolen your product. Get over it.

And yes, they're "albums."

Jazz Guitar Starts Here

Some members of the Goodman band were in on it: they snuck Christian's amplifier onto the stage before that night's performance, and arranged for Charlie himself to come through the kitchen door. Which he did.

Benny Goodman, who had already auditioned Oklahoma City's Charlie Christian and dismissed him as an "impossible rube," was pissed not amused.

So, irked and onstage that night at the Victor Hugo restaurant in Los Angeles, he called for "Rose Room," which featured a series of changes he was confident Christian didn't know, and wouldn't be able to handle.

But Christian loved "Rose Room," and knew it well, and could handle the changes. And the solos as well -- matching Goodman, and offering twenty of his own, according to legend, each one unlike the last. That version of "Rose Room" lasted three quarters of an hour, by the end of which Charlie Christian was in. Charlie Christian, who had been offered $2.50 a night and the possibility of playing with the Goodman bands, was on the payroll at a hundred and fifty bucks a week, and found the Benny Goodman Sextet formed around him.

Earlier in 1939, John Hammond had informed Benny Goodman that Charlie Christian was the best electric guitarist he'd ever heard, and that Goodman should give him a listen, and should consider placing him in one of his bands. Goodman's response: "Who the hell wants to hear an electric guitarist?"

But that was before "Rose Room."

So, this afternoon I created a separate Charlie Christian links section, with recordings, books of his solos (analyses and transcriptions), and websites, all of which I recommend and hope you check out. What Chuck Berry and Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman were to rock guitar, Charlie Christian was to jazz and to all subsequent electric guitar. In fact, he's been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an "early influence." Be kind to yourself: check him out. Start with the recommended Benny Goodman Sextet CD and with the Leo Valdes web site.

Charlie Christian wasn't the first electric guitarist, or the first recorded jazz guitarist, or the first one to record a guitar solo. But he had something none of his predecessors had: he was Charlie Christian.

Try the Goodman CD and the Valdes website. You won't need more. You'll be hooked.

Identity Crisis -- or Opportunity?

Okay, we now have the Opera browser on cell phones, and even on the Nintendo Wii. But were you ready for a Nintendo DS with an iPod emulator? Or DS running (again) Opera?

Methinks the boys and girls at Opera Software are pretty innovative types. And they have to speak Norwegian every day and all that...

(Hat tip on the iPod emulator: Erica Sadun at The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

Steel Yourselves, Sports Fans

Okay, I've now employed the ultimate in rationality to choose a team to root for: a soccer team, that is, footballers in the English Premier League (hey, if Pejman Yousefzadeh can do it...).

Pejman's choice is Chelsea, but mine is Sheffield United, hands down (heh, it is soccer, after all). Why? Well, the team is named the Blades, and my straight razor is an H.G. Long & Co. Special Cross Daggers, made in Sheffield, in its day a major center of the British steel industry.

Doesn't hurt that Blades was also the name of M's club in London. That would be -- M, that is -- Admiral Sir Miles Messervy, able and patient supervisor of a certain middle-grade English civil servant, somewhat known through fiction and film. Not that you should ever use Admiral Sir Miles' name on an unsecured line.

Unfortunately, my initial awareness of Sheffield United came in learning that they were shut out 3-0 by Swansea.

Does this mean that my American football team should be the Pittsburgh Steelers? Hmm....never been to Pittsburgh in my life, but they do have a badass logo...and it is, once again, steel. Could be there's a certain Reardenesque logic going on here, too.

(Tonight's shave -- with a Merkur blade somewhat past its prime, apparently -- not only resulted in a bit of blood but left a few resistant if not outright rebellious stiff whiskers at the edge of my jaw as well. Judicious application of that Special Cross Daggers straight took quick care of them. Thank you, Sheffield steel!)

Badfinger Gives Me the Finger

Hey, you want disappointment? Try downloading some Badfinger tunes from iTunes, such as "Come and Get It," "No Matter What," and "Day After Day."

Trust me, whatever this is, it's not what you heard in the 70s, and it's not what you hear on Classic Rock FM radio formats.

This truly sucks. Hell, the Paul McCartney "Come and Get It" demo on Beatles Anthology 3 sounds more like the Badfinger single than this thing does. This is the most disappointing thing I've ever gotten from iTunes. The words "fraud" and "stolen" come to mind.

Crap. Well, they know how to piss me off. Joey Molland and Steve Jobs owe me ninety-nine cents per tune. Don't care how they split it up, they need to pay what they owe.

If it fits...

Now this one I did kinda guess...

what kind of panties are you? thong You are sassy, sexy, and wild.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Sounds like me!

Posted by Craig Ceely at 07:06 PM | Comments (0)

Divas R Us

Didn't guess this one, either:

"Which Sopranos Diva Are You?" Gloria Trillo Borderline personality - hauntingly like Livia's but without the follow through. Likes danger, excitement and travel - all the finer things.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

But I liked her. Heh. "All the finer things." Oh my yes.

Romance is always in style

Which Sex in the City character am I? Not sure I'd have guessed this one, but then I've never been averse to posting photos of near-naked women on this blog:

Which sex in the city character are you? Charlotte

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Somali Men Now Free to Fear Women!

Somebody at the Times is paying attention, and calling it right: I liked this headline: "Young celebrate freedom in a city where fear is still lurking:"

There was not a hijab or niqab in sight as clubbers at the Global Dance Hall worked up a sweat to gangsta rap and Kenyan hip-hop. Instead, women shook their hair and stole glances at the men lining the wall.>br>

Quite what Mogadishu’s Union of Islamic Courts would have made of the occasional flash of ankle beneath the long dresses is anyone’s guess. But no one cared as they celebrated their new freedom.

Flashes of ankle, oh my yes.

But the Somalis have the right idea: celebrate freedom with music and with women (come on, who cares about men's ankles?). I wonder if M Net's Rock Down Africa is still around? It should be imported into Mogadishu, and a former co-host brought back: I'm sure I'm not the only guy who finds Gerry Rantseli worth celebrating. I only went to that story for the gown, you know.

And did you catch the line about what the women were doing? They "shook their hair and stole glances at the men lining the wall." Some things, I guess, are universal: guys line the walls of the club instead of dancing with babes, in Somalia as in America. No wonder The Game was a bestseller. Maybe, if it did some good here, there should be a Somali edition?

(Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds

Fred Reed on "Life Is Not an Embassy Party"

Fred Reed has a bug up his ass about people with a surfeit of money running things, including the rest of us. As usual, when Fred has a bug up his ass, he expresses it rather well:

A rich friend once invited me to his house in the West End of Richmond, Virginia. At supper when you wanted the mashed potatoes, you didn’t say, “Pass the potatoes, please.” No. You rang a little bell and a black guy came out and held the bowl while you scooped potatoes. It was hugely embarrassing. I suspect that he felt like a fool. I know I did. I wanted to scream, “What’s wrong with these people?” and go have a beer with the black guy.

It doesn’t matter whether an investment banker has seen a barracks or a pair of work gloves. It bothers me to have policy made, and wars started, by those who have never seen the country they rule, or the world they play with, who have never had to make a living, to carry a rifle or worry about snipers, who have never run the back alleys of Taipei or anywhere else and, god help us, can’t serve their own potatoes.

Why Conservatives Are No Friends of Liberty, example # 1,368

Over at The Corner this morning, Larry Kudlow writes

On another note, President Bush’s op-ed today in the Wall Street Journal argues that his tax cuts fueled economic growth while simultaneously spurring record tax revenues. The bottom line? The budget deficit has plunged while the economy has soared.

Think of it as the Bush Boom—think of it as another “W” in the win column for supply-side economics and the Laffer Curve.

At lower tax rates, economic behavior responds with more work and greater investment. Our expanding economic pie throws off more tax revenues, even at these lower tax rates.

If Objectivism has its fakes, such as those who defend or even befriend the Brandens, then "fiscal conservatives" have their fakes too: I ask you, when are conservatives going to stop speaking of higher tax revenue as A Good Thing? Such revenue will be used for more No Child Left Behind legislation, more FEC and FCC persecutions and fines, more of everything at the federal level conservatives profess to dislike. So why celebrate more money being made available for such purposes?

More Kudlow:

In his op-ed, Mr. Bush also pledged to clamp down on budget spending and corrupt earmarks. He’s aiming for a balanced budget plan by 2012. (I think it could happen sooner). He asks the Democratic Congress for bipartisan cooperation but if not, he clearly threatens to use his veto pen.

Oh, that's a credible threat.

Actually, though, why should I wonder when we'll stop hearing the "increased tax revenue" argument from conservatives? These are the same folks who've been desperately arguing, all my life, that their candidates represent the lesser of two evils, even as we march to greater and increasing statism. Silly me.

UPDATE That op-ed to which Kudlow refers can be found here. I didn't notice any "threat" to use the "veto pen."

Choose to Reject This Statist Creep

Some time back, I wrote

Further, I shall never, ever forgive Democratic/Leftist activists in this country for the way they have corrupted the word "choice."

Well, it seems that Investor's Business Daily knows enough to follow my lead! Good on 'em, I'm a former subscriber.

For a man who considers himself pro-choice, John Edwards' campaign for the White House has so far been defined by his urge to limit individual decisions.

Our ability to choose for ourselves is what makes Americans unique in the history of the world. At no time have people living under any government had as much freedom to make decisions for themselves as we have had under more than two centuries of the American system.

Yet proposals to limit our choices still have political resonance, and Edwards — who believes "a woman's right to choose" is "constitutionally protected" — wants to build his run for the White House on that sad fact.

Edwards, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate in 2004 and a trial lawyer by trade, is co-opting positions from one likely competitor and one possible rival in the 2008 primaries. From Sen. Hillary Clinton, he is adopting universal health care; from Al Gore, he is borrowing the global-warming straitjacket.

John Edwards is simply a white Barack Obama: "Hey, I'm a photogenic moderate! Do stories about me! Keep calling me a moderate! Vote for me!" Meanwhile, those of us not employed in the mainstream media will continue to say, "Moderate, my ass."

Knowledge is Power, Jan 2007 edition...

Now this is a list worth reading: from Tampa Bay Online (by Jeff Holick of the Tampa Tribune): Fifty Things We Know Now (That We Didn't Know This Time Last Year) 2006 Edition,
Two of the items struck me as immediately practical:

28. Around the world, middle-aged and elderly men tend to be more satisfied with their sex lives than women in the same age group, a new survey shows.

Opportunity! Chance favors the prepared mind and all that.

And this one:

36. DNA analysis determined the British descended from a tribe of Spanish fishermen who crossed the Bay of Biscay almost 6,000 years ago.

I'm Hispanic! I'm a minority! And I'm tired of being held down by The Man!

(Hat tip: Jonah Goldberg at The Corner)

Prejudices Prevail

H.L. Mencken's Prejudices is now available online.

(Hat tip: Happy Curmudgeon, now added to the blogroll.)

More Cool Mac Stuff

I'm still trying Shiira, and I like the idea of Flock, I really do...but the two browsers getting the most workout around here are Safari and Camino, so imagine my delight in finding these two web sites, run by David Feare and Jon Hicks:

Pimp My Safari

Pimp My Camino

I've already subscribed to the RSS feeds. Cool stuff.

January should be quite the interesting macmonth, techwise. Wow, that sounds like PC Prattle, doesn't it, rather than a Mac Mouthful...

You Can't Say That: That'd Be Free Speech!

Here's another free speech item from Mark Tapscott. He begins thus:

How does one know when the critical point in a Republic's loss of its basic liberties like freedom of speech has been passed? A Dec. 22 notice from the Federal Election Commission looks very much like that point for America.

The notice concerned a complaint the FEC received from one Sydnor Thompson that Kirk Shelmerdine had improperly committed an independent expenditure on behalf of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign during the 2004 race.

And concludes with:

And thus one lone little voice among the formerly free American citizenry is silenced. The grasping, fearful politicians and the petty, controlling bureaucrats in Washington drive another nail in the coffin containing the First Amendment.

Jefferson's point about the need for a revolution every 20 years or so is becoming clearer with each passing day.

Find out what heinous crime Shelmerdine committed by reading the whole thing.

Top Ten Civil Liberties Violations, and More

Because it's so easy to forget, and our esteemed media are more concerned with bullshit like the Ford funeral, here's Dahlia Lithwick with a list of The Bill of Wrongs: The 10 Most Outrageous Civil Liberties Violations of 2006." I liked the way this one was written:

5. Government Snooping

Take your pick. There's the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program wherein the president breezily authorized spying on the phone calls of innocent citizens, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The FBI's TALON database shows the government has been spying on nonterrorist groups, including Quakers, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and Veterans for Peace. The Patriot Act lives on. And that's just the stuff we know about.

And this one is a good summary:

1. Hubris

Whenever the courts push back against the administration's unsupportable constitutional ideas—ideas about "inherent powers" and a "unitary executive" or the silliness of the Geneva Conventions or the limitless sweep of presidential powers during wartime—the Bush response is to repeat the same chorus louder: Every detainee is the worst of the worst; every action taken is legal, necessary, and secret. No mistakes, no apologies. No nuance, no regrets. This legal and intellectual intractability can create the illusion that we are standing on the same constitutional ground we stood upon in 2001, even as that ground is sliding away under our feet.

I've written about the declining Bill of Rights here, and took a hit or two for my anti-Republican bias in the process; on the First Amendment taking a kick in the balls here, and on that damn disappearing Fourth Amendment here. I also observed Bill of Rights Day here.

Will it be getting any better any time soon? Here's what Mark Tapscott has to say about that:

WASHINGTON - Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has cooked up with Public Citizen’s Joan Claybrook a “lobbying reform” that actually protects rich special interests and activists millionaires while clamping new shackles on citizens’ First Amendment rights to petition Congress and speak their minds.

Pelosi tried earlier this year to move H.R. 4682, the “Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006,” which is now cited by Public Citizen’s Web site as the vehicle it is helping the incoming speaker to craft for the new Congress. The proposal Claybrook is helping craft for introduction early in 2007 is expected to be essentially the same bill Pelosi put forth this year.

That is bad news for the First Amendment and for preserving the kind of healthy, open debate that is essential to holding politicians, bureaucrats and special interests to account for their conduct of the public business.

So the alleged civil liberties party wishes to put more shackles on the free speech rights of Americans; meanwhile, the alleged free market party likes to collude in curbing business innovators. (More on that little tale here and here.

Ayn Rand, commenting on the appropriateness of political activism in America, remarked that "it is earlier than you think." For now, tar and feathers seem appropriate. We'd need a lot of both. Meanwhile, be sure to read Dahlia Lithwick's list.

Happy New Year.

(Hat tip on the list: Jess Walker at Hit&Run")