Take A Chance

Manifest Destiny

In his column yesterday, David Brooks wrote about America’s boundless verve and optimism. He wrote, “this eschatological faith in the future has motivated generations of Americans…to start up companies with an exaggerated sense of their chances of success. The faith is the molten core of the country’s dynamism.” But he goes on to write that we are experiencing a crisis of faith today.

What’s more, headlines today are saying Obama is getting rebuffed by the Chinese on everything from human rights to currency valuations. President Hu is emboldened by the fact that 86% of Chinese believe their country is on the right track, compared with 37% of Americans. And, I would have to agree that I’m skeptical that our government can address the systemic issues in our economy.

But, it would be un-American to end this post on a sour note. So, Brooks links us to an article from a year ago, before Obama was even elected, by Michael Porter in BusinessWeek titled “Why America Needs an Economic Strategy“. Even a year later, it remains a lucid assessment of where we are today and what we need to do to get back on track. I was amazed to read that the last time there was a public-private President’s Commission on Industrial Competitiveness was in 1983!

Let’s put down the Palin autobiography and get to work.

Reluctance by Robert Frost

Out through the fields and the woods
    And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
    And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
    And lo, it is ended.

The leaves are all dead on the ground,
    Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
    And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
    When others are sleeping.

And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
    No longer blown hither and thither;
The last long aster is gone;
    The flowers of the witch-hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
    But the feet question ‘Whither?’

Ah, when to the heart of man
    Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
    To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
    Of a love or a season?

Atlas Engaged

I submit for Fight Club’s consideration Anne Heller’s timely biography: Ayn Rand and the World She Made. Because, if there was ever a counterpoint for Rand’s unfettered capitalism (and by extension Alan Greenspan’s) it would seem to be our near brush with financial collapse. But, apparently the tea parties and Glenn Becks of the world have breathed new life (and book sales) into Ayn Rand. And, their bogeyman is Obama’s “socialist agenda.”

Nearly a year since Obama’s election, and in spite of two wars and a recession, Obama has embarked on an ambitious agenda of nation-building at home. What the Randian naysayers call socialism, I call getting America back on track.

It’s immoral that families go bankrupt due to illness. It is reprehensible that financiers made off with our savings and now are repossessing the very homes they talked us into. And, as Thomas Friedman has been advocating for years, we should be focusing on green technology, not only because it will help with climate change, but because it will lead to energy independence and thereby increased national security.

So, a year after much of the country came together to elect Barack Obama, we should renew our dedication to fixing what is wrong with our country. We, especially the Atlases among us, should share in the necessary sacrifices and engage in rebuilding America.

Schwarzenegger Veto Message

Although Broken Spines is a family blog, I couldn’t resist a post on the Governator’s recent veto message to the California Assembly. All you have to do is read the first letter of each sentence vertically – you get the message.

Lisbeth Salander

I just friended Lisbeth Salander on Facebook. Normally, this would not be noteworthy, other than the fact that Lisbeth is the fictional heroine of Stieg Larsson’s detective series The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire and the forthcoming Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I just finished the second book and can’t wait for the third to come out. I studied at Handelshögskolan in Stockholm where the novels take place. Reading them takes me right back to those dark winter nights on Sveavägen. Maybe that’s why I want to be Lisbeth’s friend, if only on Facebook.

Hurry up and read them, because Hollywood just purchased the rights to the series.

Sell the Vatican, Feed the World

Sarah Silverman is awesome. Through her heretical, irreverent, and biting wit, she actually makes a good point.

Audience Participation

Don’t get me wrong. I like the Decemberists as much as the next guy. Well, actually not as much as the guy next to me at their show in Minneapolis on Friday. Clearly he was a big fan; he knew the words to every song…and sang them…loudly. As if this weren’t enough to show his glee, he played the air guitar and air drums and air keyboard throughout the show, constantly bumping into me. To top it off, Colin Meloy employed the time-honored, raised-arms, clap-along-with-me routine. But, this time Meloy teased the audience and varied the beat throwing everyone off. My gleeful neighbor giggled at the ploy. And, as I have stated in this space before, I hate being told to clap. And, if the Decemberists had varied their set at all from when they played Rock the Garden (a much better show btw) here last summer, and if the guy next to me didn’t totally drive me nuts, I would have clapped.

Or, maybe I’m getting too old to go to concerts.

Referendum on the Second City?

After having just read Devil in the White City, about Chicago hosting the World’s Fair in 1893, it is interesting to see the reactions to losing their bid for the Olympics in 2016 (the modern equivalent of a World’s Fair). Even President Obama and Oprah couldn’t convince the IOC to bring the Olympic to the Midwest. Instead, South America will get its first Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, a city more famous for its crime–guide books say not to carry anything, not even a bag to the beach, and they advise you to carry small bills so that when (not if) you’re mugged, you don’t lose much.

Anyhow, there is no need to prove that Chicago is a worldly city. Chicago proved that 116 years ago when Daniel Burnham delivered the White City to an awestruck world. Plus, they still have the Cubs.

Congratulations Cariocas!

 

Jules & Vincent As Legos

As you ponder my previous post about Samuel Jackson as a Norse raider, now imagine him in Lego form. Our compliments to the CubeDude (via The Coolist).