Shaky Danny

There is no recording of this. There was no videotape. It was Chicago. I think I was four years old, which would put this at 1956. A group of kids from the Neighborhood Club, that was the name, went to be on television. I had never seen a television.   Lee Phillips was the producer. There was a bear act. The trainer grabbed me out of the group of kids to ride behind the bear on a scooter. The bear had silver curly hair. I didn’t smell anything. I held onto the big massive wall of curly hair. There were extremely bright lights. I squinted at the cameras and looked away. I wondered what the cameras were. I waved to the kids. Then the dog showed up. The dog perched its paws on my shoulders while we rode around in a circle. The dog’s big head was next to mine; I could smell the dog.   I didn’t know from bears or scooters, but I was afraid of dogs.   Perhaps the bear was affected by my fear because it roared, which also startled me. I had a feeling like: -uh oh ...

BlogSpot just created a beta software update for statistics. BlogSpot used to pollute my view count with my own visits.   It offered an option to turn that off but then it didn’t keep it clicked. Why would someone want to count their own visits? Now it throws me into Analytics which seems overly concerned with Google users. I used to be on Open Salon.   When that closed I chose BlogSpot believing there would be permanence. It was tedious cutting and pasting my entries. Who thought there would be so many? I lost my dates and comments. You would think that there could be an easier transition. That may be working now. Why is it so difficult to have an index or table of contents? I had AdSense on Open Salon. BlogSpot sent me over to AdSense with a new ID which AdSense rejected. I am now trapped in a perpetual user ID embrace from which there is no release. Please don’t send any scripted solutions unless you have tried them yourself.   AdSense sucks as well. You ...

The fabulous nature announces a suspect narrator. The constant revision screams repression and avoidance. Let us make use of our understanding of children and history. Servant was an honorable and necessary profession. It was impossible to run a household without servants, there was too much to do. The wealthy understood this and were raised in these relationships, the middle class not so much. Working in a middle class household, in this case the Banks, subject to even greater pettiness and viciousness could be horrific. The Banks children, observing the dynamic of the household, knew they could be abusive to servants. They took their sense of neglect and entitlement out on their nannies. “Came with the wind” meant that Mary Poppins came without reference, which was unheard of. The Banks obviously had no concern for their children. Confronted with an impossible situation, Mary Poppins resorted to drugging the children with laudanum, an opiate solution that was commonly avail...

1. Kennedy nearly blew up the world. Eisenhower had been waving the bomb around but now there was reprisal. Berlin, Bay of Pigs, Missile Crisis, Assassination, it was called brinkmanship. 2. Reagan was just running his mouth, but middle management on both sides was listening. Brave Petrov, Able Archer, Fleetex, KAL 007, Reagan calmed down after he was shot. Both Irishmen believed they had a special relationship with the Soviet Union. 3. Jefferson unleashed Napoleon on Europe. The only real consequence of the Louisiana Purchase was funding Napoleon. Jefferson said he expected Napoleon to attack the British, but the French direction was clear after the Seven Years’ War.   Napoleon was a general not an admiral. Dropping guns in Haiti, backstabbing Washington on the loan, stopping the tobacco deal, don’t say it turned out for the best. We don’t know what would have happened. Jefferson was slime. 4. Wilson’s intervention in World War I led to World War II. 5. Teddy Rooseve...

Orange you ugly Orange you silly Orange you fat. Orange you goofy Orange you stupid Where’s my hat? Orange you hateful Orange you dummy I can see Orange you made A fool of me Beto you too thin Booker you’re too poor Kamela you’re too short Warren is a bore. They all do fine Even good old Joe Something on my mind You might want to know. This isn’t Europe It is the USA. We don’t like each other We like it that way. I don’t want to go to school. I don’t care if I am sick I want to act the fool We know he’s a prick. DNA proved Justice isn’t so. Children not my own Clown putting on a show Can’t put back What’s taken away? We can see You’re working for pay. Say what you like Land of the free Just don’t give us Sincerity

Brexit makes me proud to be an American. We may see the unification of Ireland, the separation of Scotland and, most certainly, an English depression as a consequence. England will be left as a tax haven, tourist site and source for military mercenaries.   We have all been influenced by vaudeville. But the music hall is most deeply ingrained in English culture. Looking over London’s architecture, it is apparent that they are deeply silly and proud of it. Can silliness be the explanation for their ruin? Perhaps it is the return of Boudicca.   The British were so sick of the Romans that they revolted and laid waste to Romans and their sympathizers. They were defeated attacking a Roman army. The true cause of their defeat was that the British preferred trade even under the Romans. This lesson has been lost. Maybe it is the Greeks. English take Greeks seriously. The English classical education justifies the English empire as in the history of the empires that precede it....

Historical Materialism was once all the rage. Freakonomics is historical materialism without Marx. I am giving an overview and then showing how Marx and basic questions about material conditions can enlighten. Review of Marx Wading through the invective and gossip of three or four volumes of Marx’s Capital to find the nuggets is tedious: dictatorship of the proletariat labor theory of value class struggle money isn’t capital failure of colonialism Centralization of production leads to unions. business cycle Competition drives down margins in investment and production. Profit requires disaster and  disruption. You’re welcome. Sorry if I missed any. These ideas have been absorbed into common use. Occasionally an economist makes a living inveighing against or rediscovering one. Bernanke’s bad asset class or Tom Peter’s excellence, for instance. Here is a list of some other market issues:    Winners change the rules.   Pa...