I have just selected some books to bring with me for Christmas vacation. We will be spending about two weeks with my in-laws and I anticipate some time to catch up on my reading. Here are my choices (I'm not sure that I'll be bringing them all, mind you):

*The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan
by Ben Macintyre

*Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy, Revised and Expanded
by Thomas Sowell

*Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One
by Thomas Sowell

*Gentleman Revolutionary : Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution
by Richard Brookhiser

-and-

*To Rule the Waves : How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World
by Arthur Herman

My father in law also has an excellent library. But I do like to have a couple of my own books, too.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 12:50 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Thanks to Mark for the Random PG Wodehouse Quote Generator from which I take the following:

I was sauntering on the river bank with a girl named something that has slipped my mind, when there was a sound of barking and a large hefty dog came galloping up, full of beans and buck and obviously intent on mayhem. And I was just commending my soul to God and feeling that this was where the old flannel trousers got about thirty bobs worth of value bitten out of them, when the girl, waiting till she saw the whites of its eyes, with extraordinary presence of mind opened a coloured Japanese umbrella in the animal's face. Upon which it did three back somersaults and retired into private life.

I don't know what it means, really, but it did speak to me.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 02:31 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I beat the NY Times up all the time, but sometimes they get it right. There has been an interesting series on the sale and marketing of inappropriate financial products, including but not limited to life insurance and mutual funds, to soldiers. Apparently, for as little as $1500, you too can buy congressional intercession on behalf of your sleazy business practices. The first article is here and the second one, run today, is here. Go read the second one to understand my comment about how cheap it is to buy access.

This practice, by the way, stands in sharp contrast to the actions of the most prominent Americans during the Civil War. I have been reading, at night, the McCullough biography of Theodore Roosevelt, called, "Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt". The President's father, during the Civil War, was instrumental in creating the Allotment Commission. I find nothing of any consequence about it after a Google search, but let me explain.

The men went off to fight in the Civil War and left their familes and women behind, often made destitute by the lack of income after the men left their civilian jobs. Roosevelt, and others, conceived of the Allotment Commission. They presented it to Lincoln and secured his agreement. What was it? Simple. It was a mechanism by which Union soldiers could allot some portion of their pay to be subtracted from their pay check and transmitted directly back home. No one else had ever thought of this. Roosevelt traveled to practically every encampment and preached to the men the value of this service. Many signed up and many millions of dollars were sent home. This was a selfless act on Rooselvelt's part.

We dishonor the memory of the men who toiled on behalf of the common soldier, without recompense, by permitting these scum to prey upon our soldiers. It is just shameful.

Posted by: Random Penseur at 11:25 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This one may take me awhile, so if you plan on reading the whole thing, grab a pew, missy (as I tell my daughter when I want her to sit down and as she delights in repeating back to me). If you don't plan on reading this one, that's ok, I bet someone else is writing about this in a better way than I am.

The Root Causes. Everyone seems to think that we need to understand the root causes of terrorism, the root causes of ceaseless anti-American hatred, the root causes of anti-Semitism, the root causes of _______ (fill in the blank, how about obesity?). The world faults us for failing to understand the root causes. They want us to ask: why do they hate us? What did we do wrong? The media drumbeat on this point, in our own newspapers and from our allies, is as relentless as it is nonsensical and downright contemptuous.
more...

Posted by: Random Penseur at 11:57 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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1 wow, that was helladope. I don't see all of the same root causes as you, but I do believe that there are quite a few things that america needs to put in a box somewhere and bury. I'm going to be in the backyard diggind a deep hole if anyone needs me.

Posted by: shank at July 20, 2004 12:16 PM (+4mO/)

2 That's fine. I don't expect people to agree with me. That's what makes a horse race. That said, I think I'm right.

Posted by: RP at July 20, 2004 12:23 PM (LlPKh)

3 Very nicely done. Eloquent. (This is not just sucking up, either. I have thought these very same thoughts; although I must say you said them sooo much better than I could have.) Finding the "root cause" is a gigantic waste of time. We won't understand the answer should we ever get one. My deepest sympathies for the loss of your cousin. Love, Em

Posted by: Emma at July 20, 2004 01:58 PM (NOZuy)

4 Hmmm... It's an interesting piece. I've always believed that such a passionate emotion as hatred was akin to love, though complete opposites. When you love people you try to make their lives better; when you hate them, you try to destroy their lives. Both require the same devotion. But indifference only comes into the equation when you're of little to no consequence. People need to blame somebody for their misfortune, or their once majestic country's fall from grace. It is America's lot in life to suffer the burden of being the hated, at least in this day and age. I'm not naive enough to believe that US supremacy will last forever. More dominant empires in human history have faded away. Pursuing the reason for their hatred is futile. To stop them from hating us we would have to cease being who we are: free, happy and successful. Only in our total failure would the world's malcontents stop wasting their arrows on us. They would have to find another target.

Posted by: Mick at July 20, 2004 03:49 PM (VhRca)

5 Em, thank you very much, both for your sympathy and your kind comment. Mick, you raise an interesting point. I think that you would really enjoy the Revel book I recommended. I just finished tonight on the train going home and I intend to quote from it a little bit tomorrow. As for your love/hate dichotomy, the problem I have is that I think that these guys are all burnt out of love and ain't got nothing left but hate. And that's an ugly place to be.

Posted by: Random Penseur at July 20, 2004 09:37 PM (X3Lfs)

6 Mick, Yes, excellent observation. Though I think there might be a little bit of shame entwined with the jealousy. Remember the I Love Lucy episodes where they were travelling through "old" Europe? Lucy trying to learn how to smash grapes for the wine? Yep, Europe was smashing grapes with their bare feet even post-Marshall Plan. Maybe that was just DesiLu Hollywood romanticism. But maybe it was an allagory of what Europeans see as the failure of their own cultures. They were the most technologically advanced continent until America upstaged them, and maybe they just, neuroticly, want to pretend that that isn't true anymore by shouting out about how old they are. Bah! It's so simple. They see themselves as the creators of "military prowess" and just hate hate hate not being that anymore. Nowadays they pretend to hate power, but, please, like any good modern socialist, they crave it. Blind anti-Americanism may well bring about a resergence of BolviShit inclinations, but, hopefully history can finally teach these backward retards that -- in a free country anyways -- the word "responsibility" has a meaning beyond the word entitlement. Idealistic fucktards... (sorry, I've been feelin' a bit ranty lately.....

Posted by: Tuning Spork at July 20, 2004 10:10 PM (dI0HC)

7 Yes, on both counts. I don't refute your points. However, and be it perhaps noblesse oblige, as the dominating force on this earth we are subject to microscopic observation of our efforts, and the judgemental eye of mankind upon us. On nobody else will it be so harsh. We cannot combat their hatred, we must learn to live with it. That's what I'm saying. There is no solution to be found by kissing their arses, and trying to figure out why they dislike us. We have to protect ourselves from their bad intent, because no matter what we do they will continue to hate us. They hate us for being us, and that's not something we should be willing to change to apease them. Is it???

Posted by: Mick at July 20, 2004 11:57 PM (/q0Tq)

8 Just wow. I wish I had a better understanding of the world around me. I wish that I could powerful opinions on things such as you do. I love reading your blog, amber's, mick's, and tink's because you guys have great stories to tell, intelligence to share and lots of passion to do it.

Posted by: Holly at July 21, 2004 09:00 AM (Wkg+N)

9 I did particularly enjoy the scarequotes, RP. Rob wrote about this a while back from the British perspective on the USA.

Posted by: Jim at July 21, 2004 09:08 AM (IOwam)

10 Thanks, y'all, for your interesting and thoughtful comments. I lack the time today to treat them in the depth they deserve, but, in the words of the Governator, "I'll be back" to this topic.

Posted by: RP at July 21, 2004 11:59 AM (LlPKh)

11 I spent a whole summer a few years ago reading up on serial killers. A child not far from us had been abducted and murdered that summer and it turned out the guy had done it many times before. I was burning with the need to know *why* do some people do things like that? Why molest children? Why kill innocents? Why do some people lash out in that way while others with a similar history do not? What is the reasoning, or, the "root cause"? I never came to a nice, pat conclusion. I never came to an understanding either. Sure, I read horrific stories of those who had horrible childhoods and grew up to become abusers themselves. Read of twisted psyches and sick desires. But there was no definitive answer for me. Because many people suffer horrendous childhoods and terrible events and never choose to kill or harm others over it. They pull themselves up out of the muck and insanity and move on. Sometimes under the worst conditions imaginable. We all have root causes. We all have reasons for what we do. But it's not an excuse. It's not even an illumination. It means....nothing, really, except that, when you do something wrong to an innocent human being because something wrong was done to you, then you've failed at what it means to be human.

Posted by: Amber at July 21, 2004 01:56 PM (zQE5D)

12 How totally perfect, Amber. Thank you for putting the exclamation point on my post.

Posted by: rp at July 21, 2004 02:03 PM (LlPKh)

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