From...A Glimpse into China's Slave Empire

When 1 billion slaves isn't enough.

This is a powerful article on China's mad dash into Africa and the Hell and slavery they are bringing with it. Journalist Peter Hitchens was extremely fortunate to live and tell his tale of brutality, greed, and a dark glimpse of the 19th century come to roost in the 21st.

How China has created a new slave empire in Africa by Peter Hitchens From The Daily Mail/UK

On...David Foster Wallace

This post is not about the recent debate that currently is the blogosphere's hot topic. It is about an author I was not aware of until his recent death. But since his death I have encounter numerous articles about him. [see below]And I'm intrigued. Perhaps it's his death or perhaps the high regard the articles lay about his fresh grave. The name did ring a bell, but that was it.

Again the amount of novels and films and music our culture produces is immense and continuous and much of it is sludge at the bottom of a contaminated lake. So ultimately I'm not surprised that I miss some of the good stuff, especially in the world of fiction, which I find the hardest area of the culture to really keep up with. This is doubly sad as I consider myself a writer and hopefully will be able to add to the cultural richness of American letters (and not the sludge part, though I guess that's not all bad either).

His defining novel (he only wrote 2), Infinite Jest, is huge (over 1000 pages) and since I haven't tackled Thomas Pynchon yet (except for the novella The Crying of Lot 49) I'm not sure I will be getting around to it any time soon. Though his collection of short stories is definitely on my target list. So little time to absorb the good stuff and create your own.

So what's the point of all this? I guess the point of this blog is simply recognition of a life, even an invisible life. Billions of people making a go at the good life. So few make a mark. It doesn't have to be writing or sports or any of the tangibles. And ultimately I don't know if Wallace achieved that, perhaps not. Suicides I feel are not posterchilds of the good life. But for others to "know thyself" we have to examine each of the dark corners of this world, even the invisible one's, which are certainly the hardest to breakdown. Maybe someone will find a lesson, no matter how small in looking at one man's work and struggle. So here's to spreading a little more knowledge about the invisible life in our quest to achieving the good life.

The Rest is Silence by Julian Gough from Prospect. She makes some interesting points, especially about the crippling embrace of academia and teaching in general.

Legacy by Entertainment Weekly, where I first discovered DFW.

Collection of Articles and Stories from Harper's to sample his prose.

On...Weird Al

Didn't think I'd post on Weird Al ever, but Wired has pretty nice piece on his career and influence in musical satire. He does have a new album coming out soon. Can't wait. :)

Click HERE for the article and numerous YouTube clips of his career.

Adding...Ross Douthart

I've added Atlantic commentator Ross Douthart to my list of bloggers. I've enjoyed a number of his recent posts on the election and baseball. So consider him worthy. His September 25th post "The Election about Nothing" I feel sums up quite a lot about the election going into tonight's debate.

From...Andrew Klaven

The final segment from Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson and his interview with novelist Andrew Klaven (Empire of Lies, True Crime). It's eight minutes of discussion on The Dark Knight, George W Bush, ridicule, the role of the artist in society, the suburbs, and being cool. Just sharing the cool.

HERE

On...The Value of Education

I would be interested if anyone has any views on this debate, the attached article focuses mainly on the English College system, but can be applied to the US college system as well.

The following is the main focus article.

Making it pay

Sep 18th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Is a university degree still worth the time and money it takes?

The Article from the Economist is HERE. Also there are a number of really good comments made by others, which is shocking since most comments from readers are inane, emotional, or highly political. Perhaps the Economist has a higher grade of reader. Some of the better ones are these--What People Make III, PROF, and, Market Failure. I'm sure there's more.

On...IF

I'm not sure why it took so long for me to come across this poem by Kipling (I have to thank William Kristol for mentioning it) since I've rather enjoyed Kipling over the years and one of his poems is the only one I've ever really memorized (The Thin Red Line) and I teach The White Man's Burden during the Imperialism Unit, but it did evade me. Especially since about a quarter of the poem I have heard in other contexts (The Simpsons). But enough about me. Here's the poem, IF.

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

From...The Armchair Economist

The Armchair Economist, Steven Landsberg, ways in on the election at Atlantic.com. He looks at the issues that influence him in regards to voting (Free Trade, Immigration, Energy, & Health Care). He states that he is not normally a fence-sitter when it comes to voting, but this year he found it difficult, until he did his own research on the candidates' voting records and proposals. At the end he tentatively chooses a candidate.

You can read his article HERE. I especially found his 4th point (on Health Care) very interesting. I had not heard this particular argument before. I plan on looking into it more.

On...Poetry

First a poem by one of my favorites, the English poet Robert Herrick, a randy scoundrel.

DELIGHT IN DISORDER
by Robert Herrick


A SWEET disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness :
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction :
An erring lace which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher :
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbons to flow confusedly :
A winning wave (deserving note)
In the tempestuous petticoat :
A careless shoe-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility :
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.

Last year I updated the poem (forgive my sacrilege)

Delight in Disorder Renewed: An Ode to Robert Herrick
by Mark A. Trexler

A sweet disorder in the dress
of ladies, here a touch of mess.
A scarf of ruby color thrown
haphazardly bare shoulders shown.
In floating lace, which here and there
hooks upon silky underwear.
A button neglected, ah me!
A soft curve or rosebud to see.
A winning smile, a gust so high
Skirts up! Exposing creamy thigh.
Or bending down, what should appear?
Why only a white cheeky rear.
So ladies, maintain your proud work
for moral men's lustful eyes do lurk.

On...The Petraeus Doctrine

Most of the blogsphere and MSM have been focusing on the Markets or McCain v Obama, but the articles that I have been most interested in the last few days have been about our little forgotten war in Iraq (remember that place). Anyway The Atlantic Monthly has a couple of interesting articles online. You should check them out regardless of the brouhaha over their dubious cover and the wackjob photographer they now regret hiring (they are actually suing her).

The first is ...

The Petraeus Doctrine

Iraq-style counterinsurgency is fast becoming the U.S. Army’s organizing principle. Is our military preparing to fight the next war, or the last one?

by Andrew J. Bacevich

The second article from the Atlantic is a look back at the Rumsfeld years in the Pentagon, beyond Iraq.

What Rumsfeld Got Right

How Donald Rumsfeld remade the U.S. military for a more uncertain world
by Robert D. Kaplan

On...Trying to Understand Wall Street

Robert Samuelson (old mustache man) from Newsweek has a decent article on trying to make sense of what's going on with big lenders.

You can find the article HERE

My 2 cents in a short version because I'm real busy at the moment.

But...the government (in my humble opinion) is setting a terrible precedent in bailing out AIG and Freddie Mac and Fannie May and Aunt May's Gooey Cookie Emporium and any other company (check this as the final (hopefully) blunder in the Bush White House). Free markets mean free markets--the freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail. Run your company better or you're done. Change with the times, evolve, or you go extinct.

The Federal Government should not supply corporate welfare any more than it already does. And more regulation? On what? Government bureaucrats looking over the shoulders of every S&P 500 company to see if they are running their company well? If they're so great they should be hired by the company in the first place at 10 times what the Fed will pay them. There needs to be a survival of the fittest mentality out in the market. If companies know they will be helped out they may take unnecessary risks. Or (as in AIG) the company gets a "loan" from taxpayers and the company defaults the government now owns billion dollar corporations. With that threat they may not take enough risks. And the gov't taking over a company can't possibly be a good idea. The government doesn't run anything at a profit. They run big deficits. Creeping socialism at its finest, even if its unintentional.

One last thing, though I stated this way before I had a blog (trust me), giving tax payers "stimulus" checks was the stupiest idea in the world. It has already created a ridiculous precedent. Every time the economy gets indigestion the politicians will start calling for another round of checks (my Senator Carl Levin has just suggested this possibility). It's never going to end. Don't get me wrong, thousand dollar checks are pretty sweet, but that doesn't make it right. We just got one and now they want to do it again. We aren't even in a recession! (or at least the definition of a recession that now is old fashion). If we don't have 3% growth every quarter the doom and gloom from MSM starts spouting off. The expectations of the common American is ridiculous. Everyone dreams of a utopia. IT DOESN'T EXIST. It will come to a point where a politician will call for one and anyone who votes against it (or vetoes it) will be charged as cruel and unfeeling against the little guy, the single-mother with six kids and a gimpy knee. Another Pandora's Box opened up. Someone needs to get that Greek chick a better lock.

Anyway, I'm done for now. Probably more later (unless a certain baby is born, then blog-posts may be slim for a while)

...On Esquire's 75th Anniversary

Excuse me while I morph into a shill, but the 75th anniversary issue of Esquire (which just came out) is really fantastic. I haven't gotten through it all but it's big. They've been working on it for years, even hiring an editor just for this issue.

They profile their opinion of the 75 most important people that will shape the 21st century. Some seems a bit tacked on (more like influential for the next decade to me), but many are very unique (meaning people I've never heard of who are doing some pretty interesting things in various fields).

They also have huge profiles on 6 they think will have the most continuing impact: Putin, Jobs, Rupert Murdoch, Lebron James, filmmaker PT Anderson (There Will Be Blood), and Louisiana Gov Bobby Jindal.

I really liked the small piece on Jim Webb and his thoughts on writing and art. Also the David Petraeus job heading which reads: "Commander, everything between Libya and China." Hilarious.

Also select covers are equipped with electronic ink, with flashing words and moving images--the future is now! Hear NPR on E-INK HERE and see write up HERE

...Daring Eagles

I encourage everyone to check out Michael Yon's latest post "Where Eagles Dare," about the top-secret mission to deliver a new turbine to the Kajaki Dam. Posted: 9 September 2008
from Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

It's in my links to other Blogs to the right of my page.

[He's moved on to new posts, so here is the LINK to "Where Eagles Dare."]

... On Hilarity

Very Funny stuff from the Onion.


Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans