The Magical Misery Tour

In the 18th century, well-to-do Londoners visited the Bethlem Royal Hospital ("Bedlam"), the insane asylum, for entertainment. It was considered vastly amusing to watch the wretched inmates, many chained to the wall, acting out their madness. If a prisoner-patient refused to cooperate by behaving dementedly enough for the spectators, they were permitted to shout at and poke the poor wretches until they obtained a satisfying result.

An appalling story of man's inhumanity. But at least London didn't promote tours of the site, or shake down visitors for making the guests go insane. Leave that to south Los Angeles, gangland central.

New headquarters of Drop Dead Tours, Inc.

The LA Times explains:

A group of civic activists, united by faith and a belief that the poor economy in the interior of Los Angeles is a social injustice, is preparing to offer bus tours of some of the grittiest pockets of the city, including decayed public housing, sites of deadly shootouts and streets ravaged by racial unrest.

After a VIP preview last weekend, L.A. Gang Tours expects to open to the public in January, giving tourists a look at the cradle of the nation's gang culture -- the birthplace of many of the city's gangs, including Crips and Bloods, Florencia 13 and 18th Street.

To do the business right, they might put up historic markers. "On this site, 'El Lobo Loco' (1986–2005) fell victim to a shotgun blast during the course of his duties as a lookout." "Here was the site of the armory of the Screaming Armadillos, 1979 until it was raided in 1990."

"This is ground zero for a lot of the bad in this city. It could be ground zero for a lot of the good too," said Alfred Lomas, a former Florencia member who has become a leading gang intervention worker in South Los Angeles and is spearheading the tours. "This is true community empowerment."

Excuse me? True community empowerment? Busing thrill-seeking tourists around to show them authentic urban pathology — your area's pathology? "Hey, Duke, how 'bout we finish up by giving the dudes a spike and let 'em do up, you know, just fruit juice or somethin' in the seer-inge, make it like real?"

Actually, "It wasn't long ago that organizers decided against a plan to have kids shoot tourists with water pistols, followed by the sale of T-shirts that read: I Got Shot in South-Central."

Naturally, the profits from the tours — at a planned fee of $65 per adult (reductions for children and the aged?) — will go for uplift. "[Profits will be] funneled back into the community through jobs, 'franchised' tours in new areas and micro-loans to inner-city entrepreneurs. Early routes will focus largely on South L.A., with forays through Watts and Florence-Firestone."

Franchised gang-bang tours! At last, a growth industry for underdeveloped neighborhoods! Think of the grant potential. Massive Stimulus money.

JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! UP TO $1,000/HOUR!

Gang shoot-out turf curator. Thorough knowledge of gang history and locations required. Women, minorities especially encouraged to apply. Cite employment notice SOUTH CENTRAL-4522-J-13B.

Corpse model specialist Grade II. Poses as shooting victim. Experience preferred. Women, minorities especially encouraged to apply. Cite employment notice WATTS-8549- L-347F.

"It's going to be fascinating -- but really controversial," said Francisco Ortega, a field staffer with the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission and a respected mediator and neighborhood advisor in South L.A. Ortega said there could be great value in "sensitizing people, connecting them to the reality of what's on the ground."

"But the other side is that it could come across like a zoo or something," Ortega said. "You're being carted about: 'Look at that cholo over there!' It could be perceived as demeaning for the people who are living in these conditions. I don't know how they're going to manage those perceptions."

Not to worry one slight bit, Francisco. We've got your back.

Perception management specialist Grade III–IV. At tour conclusion, sensitizes tourists. Explains that what they have seen is, despite appearances, a vibrant community undone by racism. LA Times former reporters especially encouraged to apply. Cite employment notice PR-0083-T-386J.

Graffiti art curator and guide Grade III. Familiarity with tags, from beginning of Mexican immigration to present, required. Street cred a plus. This is a non-tenure-track position. Cite employment notice GRAF-7330-G-991U.

Other backers include Ron Noblet, a leading gang expert and an early proponent of using gang intervention to augment traditional police tactics. Noblet dismissed any potential for criticism or controversy.

"There will be a lot of people who will be delighted if he fails," Noblet said of Lomas. "But there is clarity in the dream."

I have a dream …

Our very own noble Duke of York

Oh, the noble Duke of York.
He had ten thousand men.
He marched them up
to the top of the hill.
And he marched
them down again.

And when they were up, they were up.
And when they were down, they were down.
But when they were only halfway up,
They were neither up nor down.

— Folk song

Our very own noble Duke of York has spoken. We are in Afghanistan until we're out. When we're in, we're in. When we're out, we're out. But when we're only halfway in, we're neither in nor out.

I didn't watch the Equivocator in Chief on the television. A matter of self-preservation: seeing and hearing him at the same time is overdose territory for me. It turns my liver into to boiled haggis (which makes me feel sheepish). By now you've seen (if you're made of stronger stuff than I), read about, and digested — eww, there goes my liver again — The Master's microscopically calibrated speech before the West Point cadet props. Cue the George M. Cohan song "Over There": We're going over, we're going over, and we'll be back when 18 months are over, over there.

Your blogger did consent to read the transcript. I won't elaborate on what the majority of commentators twigged: this was not a speech about geopolitical strategy, but an angle-playing, shape-shifting piece of calculation that followed the pattern of The Master's political career. Give everybody a generous helping of what they want, never mind they want contradictory things. "Give," of course, verbally, not necessarily actively.

I'm a political man and I practice what I preach
I'm a political man and I practice what I preach
So don't deny me baby, not while you're in my reach.
I support the left, tho' I'm leanin', leanin' to the right
I support the left, tho' I'm leanin' to the right
But I'm just not there when it's coming to a fight.

— The Cream, "Politician"

A few lines from the speech, with my comments boldfaced:

"On September 11, 2001, nineteen men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people. … As we know, these men belonged to al Qaeda – a group of extremists who have distorted and defiled Islam, one of the world’s great religions, to justify the slaughter of innocents." [Obligatory "religion of peace" boilerplate.]

"Then, in early 2003, the decision was made to wage a second war in Iraq. The wrenching debate over the Iraq War is well-known and need not be repeated here. It is enough to say that for the next six years, the Iraq War drew the dominant share of our troops, our resources, our diplomacy, and our national attention – and that the decision to go into Iraq caused substantial rifts between America and much of the world." [The mess we're in is Bush's fault. Although that's partly true.]

"… We have given Iraqis a chance to shape their future, and we are successfully leaving Iraq to its people." [You can't claim success in advance. "Successfully" or not, we are leaving Iraq because it has sunk into enough brain pans that the human and financial costs of this misadventure were spent on a geopolitical folly — removing a distasteful government that was an enemy of the neighboring distasteful government in Iran, thereby removing the biggest check on Iran's malevolent ambitions.]

"Although a legitimate government was elected by the Afghan people, it has been hampered by corruption, the drug trade, an under-developed economy, and insufficient Security Forces. … And as Commander-in-Chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan." [You got your fraudulent Afghan presidential election; you got your corruption; you got your drug trade; you got your under-developed economy. You got your 32,000 American military people already in Afghanistan. Send in another 30,000 for just about the length of time it takes The Master to make up his mind, and they'll see to it that those Afghans pull their socks up.]

"I make this decision because I am convinced that our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the epicenter of the violent extremism practiced by al Qaeda. It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak. This is no idle danger; no hypothetical threat. In the last few months alone, we have apprehended extremists within our borders who were sent here from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan to commit new acts of terror." [And why were these "extremists" within our borders? Because people like The Master don't recognize borders, especially for the United States, and can't admit that some of our "diverse" population wants us dead or dhimmis.]

"We will support Afghan Ministries, Governors, and local leaders that combat corruption and deliver for the people. [If we can find any.] We expect those who are ineffective or corrupt to be held accountable. [By their friends in Afghanistan.] And we will also focus our assistance in areas – such as agriculture – that can make an immediate impact in the lives of the Afghan people." [Hearts and minds. Farms, not arms.]

"Unlike Vietnam, we are joined by a broad coalition of 43 nations that recognizes the legitimacy of our action." [But with a handful of exceptions, they're not sending their own to Afghanistan, just standing back and watching.]

"To abandon this area now – and to rely only on efforts against al Qaeda from a distance – would significantly hamper our ability to keep the pressure on al Qaeda, and create an unacceptable risk of additional attacks on our homeland and our allies." [It would take too much space to analyze this fully, but it symbolizes The Master's basic lack of understanding the big picture. In the first place, al Qaeda is just the thin end of the wedge; militant Islam, which has a footprint you could lose a thousand al Qaedas in, is the ultimate threat. We could wipe every last Al Qaeda Club member from the face of the earth and it wouldn't slow Islamization if we did nothing else.

[In the second place, if "extremist terrorism" in the United States is the problem, 30,000 soldiers stationed on our borders (minus the Muslims among them) and the same amount of money spent on anti-terrorist activities domestically would be far more effective. We'd be fighting them on our turf, where we have the upper hand, instead of on their turf, where they do. If we don't fight the terrorists at home, we'll have to fight them in the Middle East.]

Blogger "disappears" Dennis Mangan

When a political dissenter vanishes in a banana republic dictatorship, the slang term for it is that he was "disappeared."

We haven't yet reached the point in the United States where individuals who speak in ways that threaten the status quo are themselves disappeared. But their outlet and archived work can be wiped out just like … Dennis Mangan's, courtesy of Blogger.

While it's still barely possible that Mangan's being yanked off the blogosphere was a technical problem that will be resolved, after three days it seems unlikely. Dennis, who had no prior knowledge that his blog would be shut down, at latest report says he has received no explanation or contact from Blogger.

Dennis deals with controversial subjects: human biodiversity, "Climategate," intelligence differences, alternative medicine, alternative personal finance, and more. That's part of what makes his work interesting and stimulating. I disagree with his atheism, I don't like the sexual manipulation "Game" that he defends, and there are other areas where our outlooks differ. But his postings are not rants; they offer rational arguments. He doesn't deal in personal attacks (although he enthusiastically defends himself against what he considers to be such). Dennis doesn't use vulgar language. Above all, whether you think as he does or not, he's a bright and articulate blogger.

In other words, while much that he says goes against the politically correct received wisdom, he is not remotely "offensive" in any sane meaning of the term.

Blogger lists various reasons why it can scupper a blog on its site, including this:

Blogger strongly believes in freedom of speech. We believe that having a variety of perspectives is an important part of what makes blogs such an exciting and diverse medium. With that said, there are certain types of content that are not allowed on Blogger. While Blogger values and safeguards political and social commentary, material that promotes hatred toward groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity is not allowed on Blogger.

That sounds acceptable, except that in today's soft-totalitarian environment, "hatred" means any expression that the Left deems unacceptable. So subjects like human biodiversity, even when discussed in scientific terms, are branded "hate" by the P.C. Inquisition. We've reached a point in cultural Marxization where the government doesn't have to shut down free speech; any private organization with the power will do the job itself. Even individuals will censor their own expression, lest they be found guilty of "hate speech" in the minds of some designated victim group.

It could be argued that Blogger is a business with the right to set its own terms. But under anti-discrimination laws, no business can legally refuse service to anyone because it doesn't like or respect them. Telephone, wireless, and cable services, most power companies, pharmacies, and any number of other organizations are under private ownership; should they have the right to refuse transactions and destroy intellectual property without explanation?

Blogger is a carrier. It is protected by legal language six ways from Sunday against liability. It is no more responsible for what someone writes and transmits through it than the phone company is responsible for what you say in a phone conversation. (I believe even threatening and harassing calls are dealt with by law enforcement, not the company.) If you object to the content of a billboard, you take it up with the advertiser, not the company that owns the billboard. Et cetera.

Liberty doesn't die in a sudden, dramatic coup. It's a series of tiny incremental steps, many of which affect a few people at a time, so the majority doesn't know or care. But they eventually coalesce in the Megastate that determines what you may write, read, or speak.

Incidentally, if one day you should be suddenly informed that Reflecting Light "has been removed," it won't be because I've removed it, unless I tell you so in advance.

Obama sending "SWAT teams" to mortgage lenders

SWAT team calls on Clement F. Platelet, president and CEO,
Shrinkage Home Mortgage Co., Bank Run, Virginia

"Obama steps up pressure on mortgage lenders," says the headline in the LA Times.

Officials unveiled requirements Monday that would step up government scrutiny and threaten fines on banks and other mortgage lenders should they lag in converting temporary mortgage modifications into permanent changes in loan terms and conditions by the end of the year. …

The effort also involves sending what Treasury Department officials described as three-person "SWAT teams" to the offices of those firms starting Wednesday to help them obtain the necessary documents from borrowers and trouble-shoot problems. The hope is to shame mortgage servicing companies into doing a better job of making 90-day trial modifications permanent by highlighting those firms that are not performing well and threatening penalties or other sanctions against laggards based on the agreements they signed to participate in the program.

Shame them? That has a nice moral ring to it. Except it has nothing to do with shaming; it's coercion. "Servicers that don't meet their obligations under the program are going to suffer the consequences," Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Barr warned.

That's what kind of country we are being made into, courtesy of the federal government's apparatchiks.

First, some years ago, Jorge W. Bush and his ruling junta "encouraged" (in the sense that a mugger encourages you with a pistol to hand over your wallet) banks and mortgage companies to service "diverse" clients by giving them mortgages on houses they couldn't possibly afford. Then the country's financial regulators went out for a long lunch while garbage loans were packaged and sold to various pin stripe–suited rubes. Then insurance on the garbage loans became securities to be bought and sold. It was a sand castle constructed of fantasies, which collapsed when the big wave came in.

So what have we learned from the debacle? Nothing, it seems. Now, Barack Hussein Obama and his ruling Politburo are threatening the very companies his predecessor threatened into making bad loans. They'll "suffer the consequences," Komissar Barr says, if the rulers' ukaz isn't obeyed.

I don't have a warm spot in my heart for bankers and lenders of any stripe, you understand. Insofar as they actually deceived or misled their mortgage customers, they should go under the lash. But the great majority of their customers who took out mortgages they couldn't manage did so willingly. Why not? It was raining McMansions, courtesy of two administrations who never met a minority they didn't like, other than heterosexual white males.

None of this should have happened if we were still a constitutional republic instead of playing one on TV. Where is it written in the Constitution that the government is to decide who should get home mortgages, or what kind of revised terms are forced on the lenders after the fact?

But this is how it is and shall be, in things great and small, until citizens decide against signing away their independence in exchange for favoritism and social engineering. The economy should come with an imprinted warning: "This is not a toy. Keep it out of the hands of politicians and other children."

Art Tatum lives (and so does Rachmaninoff)

What music lover hasn't fantasized occasionally about taking a time trip to hear an exceptional performer of the past in person at a real, live concert?

Time travel is still on scientists' to-do list, but by golly, technology has begun to give us a pretty good approximation.

A few years ago, Telarc offered us modern recordings of Sergei Rachmaninoff's pianism. Rachmaninoff made a number of piano-roll transcriptions of his playing. A sound engineer found that the piano rolls were actually an excellent recording medium -- they were just a lousy playback source. Using computer technology and a new, high-tech system for controlling the keyboard of a modern concert grand, the label gave us newly recorded versions of Rachmaninoff's playing.

It's unlikely we will get any more such marvels from Telarc, which has been absorbed into the very commercial Concord Music Group. But a new company, Zenph, has stepped in with its own new-old recordings.

Zenph uses a different, and presumably less expensive, technology to achieve similar results. Here's how they describe it:

Zenph Studios takes audio recordings and turns them back into live performances, precisely replicating what was originally recorded. The Zemph software-based process extracts every musical nuance of a recorded performance, and stores the data in a high-resolution digital file. These re-performance files contain every detail of how every note in the composition was played, including pedal actions, volume, and articulations -- all with micro-second timings.

The re-performance files are played back on a real acoustic piano fitted with sophisticated computers and hardware, letting the listener "sit in the room" as if he or she were there when the original recording was made. The re-performance is then recorded afresh, using the latest microphones and recording techniques ... .

Zenph's sonic updating of an Art Tatum album contains three pieces recorded in 1933 and 10 others recorded in 1949. They sound as "present" as any jazz piano tracks laid down last week.

Tatum's fans, of whom I'm one, now have a new kind of treat -- hearing Tatum's playing just as if he were here now. He is universally considered one of the greatest jazz keyboard artists of all time, if not the greatest.

His style is (and where the Zenph re-recording is concerned, I use the present tense deliberately) unique. Generally it's based on the stride-piano format that was popular in his early years, but that's only a launching pad. From there he goes in almost every direction imaginable, and some that are unimaginable. The melody line is broken into fragments -- a kind of musical cubism -- and diversions, played with trans-human speed and articulation. His imagination is unlimited and prolific. Even while you are trying to absorb one astonishing effect, he's moved on to another.

These tracks were played and recorded on the stage of the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, the exact location of the 1949 concert. So even the hall acoustics are authentic, just what the audience heard at the time.

Zenph has given us more Rachmaninoff "live." Rachmaninoff's later fame as a composer has eclipsed the fact that he was regarded as a pre-eminent piano virtuoso in his day.

These selections were recorded between 1921 and 1942, but they also sound completely up to date. They are all rather short, since they were intended to fit on a side of a 78 rpm record, and some are popular bits of fluff from back in the day -- including Rimsky-Korsakoff's dreaded "Flight of the Bumblebee." But even in the lightweight stuff, you can appreciate his sensitive technique.

Five selections are of Rachmaninoff playing his own compositions. I agree with the annotator: the style is a long way from that of modern Rachmaninoff interpreters, who tend toward hyper-drama, gravitas, depression, lots of keyboard pounding and use of the sustaining pedal. At least for these pieces, the composer himself spun out the notes calmly and fluidly. At times you could think he was playing Debussy.

Next, modern re-recordings of vintage orchestra performances? Wouldn't that be something. Elgar conducting his own symphonies, Beecham and Barbirolli in the 1930s ... I might even get over my prejudice against Toscanini if I could hear how his orchestra really sounded, rather than through the hideous recordings RCA gave him.

For all I know, it might be technically feasible, although the cost would make any producer blanch. Meanwhile, let's have more of the great piano performances in modern sound.

Unhealthy obsession

"Senator, if you'll just refer to
section 1230(h)(3) on page 1,526 … "

I've had little to say about the Government Healthcare Takeover Bill because it has received so much attention from others with more time than I to probe both its substance and implications. But does anyone really comprehend the details of this grab bag of new welfare entitlements, more layers of bureaucracy, and backhanders to convince wavering politicians to vote the "right" way? Surely fewer people can fathom its fullness than can explain the theory of relativity.

No doubt, some honestly believe this gargantuan extension of the federal government into the lives and choices of its citizens is for the good. But the majority of its supporters, in Congress especially, know only what it symbolizes: another step toward the state-run Utopia that their ideology urges, as well as plums for whatever lobby or interest group pays for their re-election campaigns.

It looks to me like the Government Healthcare Takeover Bill is in the running to be the worst piece of legislation since the country's debut. Its only rival is President for Life Obama's $787 billion stimulus bill whisked through last February, which up to this moment has stimulated some corporate profits and the stock market, without the slightest benefit to the individuals and families who are most hurting.

Nine months after the stimulus, the official unemployment rate stands at 10.2 percent, certainly an understatement since the official figures exclude people who are working part time when they want to work full time, and those who have just given up. Thanks partly to the stimulus sucker bait, the national debt has reached new, obscene and nearly unmanageable levels.

In a way, the most alarming thing about the healthcare bill is that it is being rammed through purely as a power play. Look at Saturday's Senate vote: 60 to 39, strictly along party lines. Such a split wouldn't happen if the bill had been seriously studied, analyzed, debated, and thoughtfully considered. There would be crossover votes (from both parties), by Senators who had consulted the wishes of the people they allegedly represent and perhaps their own consciences and powers of reasoning.

Should welfare state healthcare be forced through, against the preference of the majority of citizens, we will be a different kind of country; not only because of the contents of the legislation, but even more because of the high-handed, high-pressure tactics used to get it enacted. This is how they do things in third world coups d'état.

How long till there are tanks and soldiers on the Capitol and White House lawn to protect the President for Life and his legislative junta from the wrath of a defeated people?

ADDENDUM

Sorry, but this is irresistible. From the Newspaper of Record's always overflowing Corrections section:

An article on Oct. 25 about the recent governor’s race in New Jersey misidentified the illegal activity that some Sephardic rabbis had been accused of and that the article characterized as part of the state’s infamous corruption. The rabbis were charged with money laundering, not with selling body parts and then using the money to bribe politicians.

The rabbis are lucky they will only face money laundering charges. Under the proposed government healthcare scheme, selling body parts and using the money to bribe politicians will be a monopoly of the federal government.

Watering the flowers

Alexandra Zaharova and Ilya Plotnikov, Russian advertising photographers, offer striking shots of flower-shaped water.

I guess they're created with Photoshop or equivalent software, but still … remarkable.

And where you find water flowers, you may well find a water butterfly.

So far as I know, they have not photographed a water buffalo.