The Times They Are a-Changin'

Over twenty years ago, as I was starting college, I picked up a stereo set at a yard sale that had an 8-track player. So while my colleagues were building their CD collections, I was plunding Goodwill stores for 8-track cassettes. Today, as the world has moved to MP3 technology to the point of even making CD’s obsolete, I find myself accumulating compact cassettes at an alarming rate, including an eclectic box of about 45 of them that I scored at a flea market last week for the grand total of $1.00.

I’ll keep maybe 6 or 7 of them – I wanted the box more for the cassette racks included therein – but I figured I’d at least listen through them to see if there’s anything worthwhile I might be overlooking.

Working alphabetically (naturally), I come upon two compilations of Joan Baez, including her live set "From Every Stage" produced in 1975. A great voice, certainly, but the lyrics (both hers and the artists she interprets) reflect the pattern of the times, and are what you’d expect from someone in their early 30's with a well-established reputation for social activism. The opening a capella number, for example, contains a reference to "that killer Kissinger" amongst other harmonious diatribes.

Nonetheless, I was struck by her introduction to "Natalia," which is reproduced here verbatim:

[This song is] written about a political prisoner in USSR. And in USSR, when you do something naughty they throw you in the mental hospital and tell you you’re "cuckoo" and try to get everyone else to believe it. The terrible thing is that, eventually, sometimes, you get to believing it, too.

But there is one woman, named Natalia Gorbanevskaja, who never believed it. She was very, very strong. She wrote a poem about the invasion of Czechoslovakia – she thought it was a very poor idea. And when she wrote the poem, the government of the USSR thought she was a very poor idea and they put her in the ol’ bughouse. She was pregnant at the time – she was very strong, and she convinced herself she would be fine, she would have her child, she would go on speaking out – so every time she comes out of the looney bin she writes another poem, and the put her back in. But – it is because of people like Natalia Gorbanevskaja I am convinced that you and I are still alive and walking around on the face of the earth.

>>>>>>READ THE LAST SENTENCE AGAIN!<<<<<<

Ah, for the days when being a liberal meant that you believed in liberty, and not being a syncophant parroting clever bumper-sticker philosophies while blindly following the mass media with sheep-like docility.

Maybe the Dixie Chicks can adapt this idea for their next album and include a song about the human rights violations in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. I mean, when they and their acolytes are finished blaming President Bush for everything...

A footnote -- Joan's Wikipedia biography contains a paragraph about her trip to North Viet Nam with Jane Fonda et al in 1972. Whatever her feelings towards Viet Nam (and every western military action before or since, apparently), Joan at least saw through the charade of the communists. Read the rest of the bio and you'll have no doubt that she was (and is) a firm left-winger, but, to her credit, not a Phoanie.

Better than his Brother

One of my favorite residents of Marion, Massachusetts has passed away. I knew a Ed.D. and a Structural Engineer from that town, but there was only one Professor.

He was also an author -- Real Grass, Real Heroes -- an account of the 1941 baseball season. We could use some of those real heroes right about now. And I do mean real.

Ultimate Ring Toss

This is what can happen in your back yard when the township doesn't pick up the recycling in time and the kids get home from school early...

Have the ADA people seen this?

I have to admit I had worked in this building for over 3 years (3 of those months in a wheelchair) before I was struck by the irony of this sign.

Quarterbacking the Elephants

It was January 1988 and I was a senior in high school, on a Model United Nations trip in Den Haag (The Hague). We shared a youth hostel with a school from Massachusetts. Hanging out with them one night, I asked them -- being the amateur political scientist that I was -- if they were all Dukakis fans. Oh, no, they replied -- they were all Republicans. Then you must all be for Bush, I inferred. This time the objections were even louder -- no, NO, NO! they insisted. They wanted Jack Kemp. All of them -- male, female, black, white -- nodded in agreement.

I can't say I was too familiar with the former AFL quarterback, then a Representative from western New York, or even that I knew he was running for president. A passionate supply-sider and Ronald Reagan's true ideological heir, Kemp never stood a chance against an incumbent Vice President, not to mention an over-confident televangelist who split the conservative vote.

Kemp, ever the good soldier, would go on to serve in the first Bush administration, somewhat miscast as HUD Secretary, then with Bush's defeat in 1992 he formed a conservative group which nearly everyone saw as a stepping stone to another presidential run. Yet he sat out 1996, and was on nobody's short list when Bob Dole tapped him as his running mate.

It was an inspired choice -- or so it seemed -- and for a few heady days that summer following the convention, the symmetrical Dole-Kemp ticket actually led in several polls. Kemp rallied diehard conservatives to the Republican ticket and it actually seemed like the GOP had a shot against the well-oiled, well-managed Clintonista regime. Here was a candidate who appealed to conservatives without offending liberals, who had legitimate deep roots in two bluish states (CA and NY, which, believe it or not, were still considered somewhat in play in 1996), who had genuine credentials with African-Americans, and who was solidly pro-Life without it being a hallmark of his ideology. Too good to be true -- right?

It was not to be, and although Clinton's re-election was almost inevitable, it could have been closer if Kemp hadn't completely disappeared in the last two months of the campaign. His pitiful peformance against the robotic AlGore in the VP debate that year was unforgivable, and was a signal even to the most devoted Republicans that the election was over.

But Quarterback Jack's most productive days had predated his 1988 campaign and subsequent falterings. He had advocated the Reagan economic agenda with more passion than anyone except perhaps Reagan himself, and set the course for a decade of prosperity and the defeat of Communism. The rest is a footnote. He will be missed.

They don't allow SCATES either...

This sign wouldn't be so egregious if it wasn't posted on the door of the local library.

Seriously.

Rumor has it...

that Arlen Specter is switching parties. But according to confirmed reports, he's still a Democrat. So I don't really know what the big deal is...

Thou Shalt Not Steal

Unless you're Jacoby Ellsbury against the Yankees on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in Tampa...

Harry the K (1936-2009)

He wasn't the greatest broadcaster ever. An article even appeared in a Philadelphia magazine a few years ago speculating that he was "losing it." But, my goodness, what a voice! Maybe the best I've ever heard, on or off the radio. Some random memories of Harry Kalas --

(1) His call of Mike Schmidt's 500th career home run is my first conscious memory of hearing his voice, on a short-wave radio on the southern tip of Africa.

(2) I was a rookie radio "board op" in upstate NY in 1993. Driving to work one day, I had the station on and heard Larry King interviewing Harry Kalas and other radio voices (I think Jon Miller was among them). Our was, of course, a voice-oriented business, and we had fine-tuned ears to identify stronger and superior vocal talent, trying to develop our own vocal cords to a higher level and maybe land a job that would get us out from behind the board and instead behind a microphone. I had heard Harry before, of course, and knew his voice well. Upon arriving at the station, the operator I was relieving was sitting there in almost reverent silence listening to the conclusion of the interview. "Did you hear that voice?" she asked in a near-whisper, "I've never heard anything like that!"

(3) Beyond all that, however, he'll always be remembered in the Salad Bar for his narration of the commemorative video of the 2001 New England Patriots.

Rough Start

What a rotten week. We've lost a highly promising young pitcher, the greatest voice in radio history, and one of the most colorful diamond performers this side of Babe Ruth.

And the standings in the American League East are inverted.

Things can only get better...

Ahhhhhhhhh Spring!

Twilight of my Career

About five months ago, my daughter decided she wanted to play basketball. So we signed her up with the local youth association for their 5th & 6th grade girls league. The problem was, about 60 girls signed up and there were only four coaches. The math (15 to a team) wouldn't work at that level, so the coordinate sent several begging, pleading, desperate e-mails asking for some more coaches. Finally, I wrote back to him -- saying, basically -- I ruptured my right achilles tendon last April, so I can't run, can't jump, and, beyond that, even with two healthy legs I was a terrible player, and I'd never coached before and had no idea how I'd relate to a bunch of 10-12 year olds, but, if he was that desperate, I'd do my best to help out. As I've often said, crisis forces people to do strange things, so he accepted my offer, such as it was.

I was then warned, by others, that I would have two more problems -- the kids wouldn't listen, and the parents would complain. For whatever reason, neither of those conditions ever came to fruition. The young ladies were of the highest quality character, and many of the parents helped out with coaching and other stuff. We lost our first four games, but came together at the end to win our first playoff game, finishing the season somewhat shorthanded in our final playoff game, but a good run nonetheless.

So I guess I have to do this again next year when my daughter is in Sixth grade. I can only hope that I'll be just as lucky (if luck was involved) with the quality of the players and parents on next year's team.

I let them choose their team name -- they almost unanimously chose "Twilight" -- one of those irritatingly inflexible singular sports franchise tags (ie "Minnesota Wild" -- "Utah Jazz" -- "Stanford Cardinal" -- how do you cheer for one player?). I think it had something to do with vampires, but whatever. It was fun.

Cavalier Attitude

Hard to believe that it was twenty years ago this month. One of the few bright spots during the darkest of years. And one of the few good pictures ever taken of me, here with my first car, purchased March 9, 1989, and departed this world May 9, 1997. Taken to his final resting place under his own power November 14, 1997. "Roger," my 1985 Chevrolet Cavalier -- dependable, durable, reliable, loyal. Like his namesake, he never missed a start. Unlike his namesake, he was faithful to the end, and our treasured companion through the changes of life. through 73,700 miles, 5 addresses, 4 insurance carriers, 3 states , 2 engines, and zero accidents. RIP old friend -- you earned it.

Paul Harvey (1918-2009)

My comments as posted on the official Paul Harvey website:

"Paul Harvey was, almost without question, the greatest radio broadcaster in history. Nobody did it better, or longer. And what a terrific voice! He instinctively knew how to blend solid reporting, great writing, broadcasting style, salesmanship and humor. Many have tried, and most have failed, to achieve even a portion of his success, relying instead on celebrity or pomposity as their foundation, neglecting those fundamentals that Paul Harvey mastered early in his career. There will never be another Paul Harvey. RIP."

Fair-Not Doctrine

The passing of Paul Harvey (official website here) marks the end of one of the greatest careers in broadcasting, lasting over 50 years and continuing almost to the end of life at the age of 90. Nobody did it better, or longer, than Paul Harvey.



The broadcasting industry -- specifically radio -- has been in the news recently with discussion of the "Fairness Doctrine" in the back rooms of the Nation's Capital, the purported goal of which is to give the left-wingers a stronger foothold on our radio waves, equal to or greater than the dominance they already have in the rest of the media.



Fair or otherwise, their ambition betrays the same lack of understanding of the free market that they have consistently displayed in the past 200 years or so. Their allegation that left-wing forays into radio have failed because of a lack of exposure is absolute nonsense, but it is akin to their equally inane postulate that people are unable to succeed on their own without help from a higher resource (ie the government re-distributing taxpayer money).



In other words, the reason left-wingers have failed is because they can't sell, and the reason they can't sell is because it runs against their deeply-held convictions. It has nothing to do with their political or social positions, their broadcasting talent (or lack thereof), or "exposure." As nouveau-socailists, they simply fail to understand that radio stations outside of NPR exist TO MAKE MONEY, and those stations and their owners will carry any program that can sell itself to the station's (and network's) advertisers.

That's why Paul Harvey, Rush Limbaugh and (to a lesser extent) G. Gordon Liddy and Sean Hannity have succeeded, and Mario Cuomo, Bill Press, Randi Rhodes, Alec Baldwin and the whole sorry cast of Air America failed. The first group could sell ice to the proverbial eskimo; the latter group doesn't understand the basic principles that drive the free market in the first place.

Maybe if they had listened to Paul Harvey over the years, they'd understand the rest of the story.

Losing the Battleground

It's been a bad two months for fans of the 1949 movie Battleground. We lost Van Johnson in December, Ricardo Montalban in January and now James Whitmore this week. His role as Platoon Sgr. Kinnie earned him an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.

Denise Darcel ("Denise") and Jerome Courtland ("Abner") are, to my knowledge, now the only surviving actors from Battleground, although there may be a few still living who had minor parts.

See the movie. Please.

Harry the Great

WWII buffs, particularly those who have read and seen sagas of POW's (from Hogan's Heroes to Stalag 17 to The Great Escape) will enjoy this link to Tunnel Harry. This link forwarded to me by RAH, whose father was one of the heroes of WWII.

To the Victor

Victor Davis Hanson offers his take on GWB here. Somewhat more positive that Murdock's, offered below.

I've personally found the media coverage of the past few days absolutely intolerable. There's the swooning Koolaid-drinkers of the far left and mainstream media (pardon the redundancy), and the nitpicking nabobs of negativism on talk radio that are launching premptive strikes before the moving vans have unloaded. I'll match my VRWC credentials against anybody, but I'd at least like to see the ink dry on the cabinet papers before we get too carried away.

NRO has been somewhat of a refuge, providing both candid coverage of the outgoing administration, and surprisingly positive commentary on the new one, as old friend Jonah Goldberg writes here.

That being said, I do think this Geithner thing is going to come back to haunt BHO. He should have pulled the plug on this one. But that would have been too drastic of a change.

The final legacy of the second Bush administration will be the Obama administration, and we'll see what kind of legacy that will be. But whatever our complaints against the former president, we have to thank him for keeping us safe for 2,688 days, for dealing with a nearly incomprehensible crisis, and for making the tough decisions when the chances of success were slim. Thank you, Mr. President. May history judge you with greater fairness than your contemporaries.

Parting Shots

DeRoy Murdock presents a detailed criticism of the outgoing administration on NRO.

I have long maintained -- and Murdock seems to agree -- that the central flaw of Bush II was a failure to communicate (with apologies to Cool Hand Luke).

Or, as Steve Taylor once said ("Bouquet") -- "Nothing's sadder than the words, 'what might have been.'" (FYI the above link has the lyrics wrong).