Happy Fasting!

I won't be posting or commenting until Christmas (New).


I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.

вкусен хляб не ядях, месо и вино не влизаше в устата ми, и ни веднъж не помазах себе си, догдето не се навършиха цели три седмици).

Daniel 10:3

Shucks, No More Road Rage

I'm pasting this interesting news item in its entirety:

Commandments of Christian Drivers to be granted to Siberian motorists

Tomsk, November 12, Interfax - The Commandments of Christian Drivers will be distributed to 1500 motorists in Tomsk (Siberia) during a ten-days traffic safety campaign, the local administration press service reports.

Booklets containing such Commandments of Christian Drivers will be handed out to believers during church services.

The Commandments include such instructions as "Make way for aggressive or inexperienced drivers, for he who concedes a lot, gains more," "Don't get behind a wheel of a defective car, otherwise you may bring trouble to your own home and your neighbour's home," "Don't get distracted and absent-minded on the road, for distraction is the manifestation of sin, and concentration is halfway to virtue."

The booklet provides ten commandments, a driver's prayer and the image of Our Lady.

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Robert Zoellick, World Bank President, called for an international monetary system using gold as a reference point.

With the Fed's new program of quantitative easing (known in the 70s as "monetizing debt"), the international community is tired of Washington's narcissistic "beggar thy neighbor" program of dollar depreciation. Zoellick is courageous for floating the idea of returning to real money and "coordinated floating" exchange rates, but the unanchored floating stuff is too attractive to spendthrift politicians.

Paean To The Static Society, 2

Do you feel the hankering for a return to Doo Wop?



Lighter backups:



The best of the Perry Mason opening themes (I've listened to all of them):



Early Motown genre:

Paean To The Static Society

Over at Och's place, I heard the same tired song about how families are being ripped from the old neighborhood by the necessity to find work in locales where jobs are available. I get a little tired of hearing about how people shouldn't have to move, upgrade their skills, or otherwise make themselves more employable. My response:

I don't have a problem with labor market efficiency. Consumers rule, and workers can't find work without satisfied consumers to keep the production process humming along.

You want a static society? That's fine with me as long as I don't have to live in it. Just raise marginal tax rates to the 90% range, and you'll have all of the stasis that you can handle. Entrepreneurship and small business will go out the window, and the only way to be socially mobile will be by kissing your boss's ass at some mega-cap company.

The nice thing about stasis is that we'll have pleasant TV shows, like Leave It To Beaver. Yes, I'm talking about a return to the 50s and early 60s. Fonzie wasn't so bad, after all, right?

Rand Paul Wins

Make mine Earl Grey.