Tommy Devine's Cosmos Report

Phelps Last Laugh

2009-07-14T14:39:00.013-04:00

Kelloggs Gets Burned

Massachusetts residents knew something was up when Olympic god Michael Phelps showed up at a Boston Celtics home game.

What the fans didn't know was that Phelps was in the Bay State that day to film a commercial for Subway Sandwiches at the pool at Boston University. Here's a picture of Phelps warming up at the Boston University Fitness and Recreation Center, or "FitsRec" as the students call it.

Of course this is the same Michael Phelps who was dropped last year by Kelloggs Cereal Company despite having received sportsdom's highest honor by appeared on the front of Kelloggs' Corn Flakes.

The reason? Phelps was photographed huffing on a bong at a college party. Kelloggs felt that such an evil act as bonging made Phelps unfit to be a public role model. Yet apparently that is not what the American people feel, or that is what Subway is hoping. As Dan Neil writes in the L.A. Times:

Super-swimmer Michael Phelps returned to big-time advertising Sunday with a TV spot for Subway titled "Be Yourself." Oh, the irony.

Surely Phelps -- 14-time Olympic gold medalist and endorsement juggernaut -- was being only himself, only human, when he was photographed in November hitting a bong at a party at the University of South Carolina. That photograph, first published by the British tabloid News of the World in January, resulted in a three-month competition ban and cost Phelps a reported $500,000 deal with Kellogg. The swimmer promptly issued a sniveling apology, copping to "regrettable," "inappropriate" and "youthful" behavior (doesn't the latter want to excuse the former?). Phelps, 24, has more or less cheerfully dined on PR ashes ever since, in interviews with Matt Lauer, among others.

Interestingly, the apology from the world's fittest stoner infuriated proponents of legal weed, who saw the episode as a missed opportunity to advance the cause. After all, if Aqua-Man smokes bud, how bad can it be?

This is the greatest Olympian of all time, a man chandeliered with gold medals on the cover of Sports Illustrated. His achievements mock the moral hysteria that traditionally rains down on marijuana.

The Subway ad itself is nothing special. It's a compare-and-contrast between Phelps' glamorous life as a sports superstar and that of Jared Fogle, Subway's former-fatty mascot. Jared prefers the low-fat sweet-onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich, while metabolic dynamo Phelps dares to eat the foot-long Meatball Marinara with Jalapeño, containing 1,060 calories and more than 3,000 milligrams of sodium.

Eating these will not make you an Olympic swimmer. A floating island, maybe.

Actually Phelps is a marketeer's dream come true. Listen to how flawlessly and sincerely he recites his no doubt totally rehearsed lines at this press conference. Also, maybe it's just the echo of the scandal, but some observers have noted that Phelps appeared to be sorta stoned.

So while Kelloggs foolishly squandered their Phelps connection, Subway is cashing in royally. Is it possible that Subway is even trying to exploit the Phelps' cannibus controversy? Some critics have noted that the address of the website for their ad campaign is:

http://www.subwayfreshbuzz.com/

Walk This Way

Every morning, even in the bad weather above, I walk the woodland way into downtown Northampton. I'm pleased to see that once again science says that I am staying fit by doing so. According to Yahoo News:

CHICAGO – Walking or biking to work, even part way, is linked with fitness, but very few Americans do it, according to a study of more than 2,000 middle-aged city dwellers.

In what may be the first large U.S. study of health and commuting, the researchers found only about 17 percent of workers walked or bicycled any portion of their commute.

Those active commuters did better on treadmill tests of fitness, even when researchers accounted for their leisure-time physical activity levels, suggesting commuter choices do make a difference.

For men in the study, but not women, the active commuters also had healthier numbers for body mass index, blood pressure, insulin and blood fats called triglycerides. Women walked or biked shorter distances and they may have done so less vigorously, the authors speculated.

Lazy chicks! Well, I for one intend to keep on truckin' to good health. And don't forget that bicycling is almost as good.

Shrinking?

On King Street in Northampton I passed this Springfield Republican newsbox and saw that the paper in it dates back to June 20th.

As a matter of fact I've noticed that a lot of Republican newsboxes seem abandoned these days, although I see others that are still being updated daily. Has the paper cut back on it's distribution again?

Amherstopoly

The old fashioned variety store A.J. Hastings in downtown Amherst has been open every single day without fail since 1914. On blizzard days it may only open for an hour or two, but it has never been completely closed for a single 24 hour period in all those 95 years.

Of course 95 years does not compare to 250, which is how long Amherst itself has been around since it broke free of the town of Hadley. To commemorate the anniversary, Hastings is selling a specialty version of the monopoly game.

I wonder what game piece stands for Larry Kelly - the flag? How about Augusten Burroughs - the scissors? How about J. Mascis - the brontosaurus?

Today's Video

Break your chains, count your change and try to walk the line.

Doing Nothing

2009-07-13T12:54:00.014-04:00

The Virtues of Inaction

Despite the promise from the White House and Democrats in Congress that if we passed the massive spending and bailout bills that unemployment would not rise above eight percent, it is now at 9.5 percent with no sign of going anywhere but up. Yet apologists for the spending still claim that despite the growing evidence of failure that action has to be taken because something simply had to be done. But did it really? As Jeffrey Miron explains in the latest copy of Reason, there was always the option of doing nothing:

The first thing to note about the financial crisis is that the federal government never had any business intervening in the personal decision of whether you want to own a home. There is no rational economic argument, or any argument I know of, that says the market of buying and selling homes is imperfect in some way, requiring government action. Construction firms have plenty of incentive to build homes and sell them. People who have the wherewithal have plenty of incentive to buy homes if they so choose. For the government to intrude into homeownership was an off-budget, nontransparent, backdoor attempt at redistributing income. And when the policy became a way of transferring income to people who couldn’t afford those homes, it was doomed to failure.

When people try to pin the blame for the financial crisis on the introduction of derivatives, or the increase in securitization, or the failure of ratings agencies, it’s important to remember that the magnitude of both boom and bust was increased exponentially because of the notion in the back of everyone’s mind that if things went badly, the government would bail us out. And in fact, that is what the federal government has done. But before critiquing this series of interventions, perhaps we should ask what the alternative was. Lots of people talk as if there was no option other than bailing out financial institutions. But you always have a choice. You may not like the other choices, but you always have a choice. We could have, for example, done nothing.

By doing nothing, I mean we could have done nothing new. Existing policies were available, which means bankruptcy or, in the case of banks, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation receivership. Some sort of orderly, temporary control of a failing institution for the purpose of either selling off the assets and liquidating them, or, preferably, zeroing out the equity holders, giving the creditors a haircut and making them the new equity holders. Similarly, a bankruptcy or receivership proceeding might sell the institution to some player in the private sector willing to own it for some price. With that method, taxpayer funds are generally unneeded, or at least needed to a much smaller extent than with the bailout approach.

Bailouts took money from the taxpayers and gave it to banks that willingly, knowingly, and repeatedly took huge amounts of risk, hoping they’d get bailed out by everyone else. It clearly was an unfair transfer of funds. Under bankruptcy, on the other hand, the people who take most or even all of the loss are the equity holders and creditors of these institutions. This is appropriate, because these are the stakeholders who win on the upside when there’s money to be made. Distributionally, we clearly did the wrong thing.

From the perspective of long-run efficiency, the question is also relatively straightforward. By the end of 2005, it should have been apparent that the U.S. economy was fundamentally misaligned. We had significantly overinvested in housing and significantly underinvested in factories, plants, and equipment. In effect, we needed a recession: a period to readjust the balance between the different types of capital.

More broadly, failure is an essential aspect of free markets. Failure shows capitalism is working, because it means resources are moving from bad uses to good uses.

It is becoming obvious that the government's spending programs are actually making things worse, and have had the effect of prolonging the recession, not ending it. Yet there is growing talk in Congress of yet more stimulus spending, which is just more of the same bad medicine.

Homeless Chic

Thanks to the bad economy created by bad government policies, there are a lot of people in the area living in tents, as revealed in this photo montage by Paolo Mastrangelo of a tent encampment in the woods of Northampton.

Living in a tent might be fun for a weekend, but it's got to suck for much longer than that. No running water? No electricity? No thanks. However, perhaps the electrical problem can be solved thanks to this new tent using the latest in solar technology.

The Orange Company today revealed their vision for the tent of the future. Utilising cutting edge eco-energy technology, the Orange Solar Concept Tent will allow campers to keep in touch and power their essential camping gadgets. Latest research shows that by weaving specially coated solar threads into conventional fabric, revolutionary new ways of capturing the sun’s energy could soon become a reality. These radical advances mean that rather than relying upon familiar fixed panels, designers were free to conceive how a tent of flexible solar fabrics might look.

Providing the homeless with an electric tent may be expensive and inadequate, but it may also be more affordable than other short term solutions. I predict the electric tent will become a useful tool in the struggle to provide housing for all.

Everybody's a Comedian

Massachusetts Senator and failed 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry is not known for his sense of humor. In fact, his generally unfunny manner was blamed in part for the failure of voters to warm up to him in 2004. So it is a surprise to find this funny little blurb attributed to him in a Men's Journal article on jet lag:

“I can’t say my past experiments with jet lag remedies have been very scientific. When I’m flying, I usually take an Ambien and listen to one of my own speeches on my iPod. I’m out in seconds. But it doesn’t always work, and sometimes you’ll have some funny moments from being overtired. There was an incident in New Orleans, at Mardi Gras, in 1997. But the video has been destroyed and I gave the beads back.”

- Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Daddy?

Speaking of Kerry, the first photo has surfaced of former Senator (and Kerry's 2004 Democrat Vice Presidential nominee) John Edward's alleged love child. He admits he had an affair with the child's mother, but claims the kid isn't his. What do you think?

While the photo is not a dead ringer that Edward's is the dad, it also offers nothing to disprove it. Interesting that Edwards's won't just submit to a blood test, which would settle the matter once and for all. But maybe that's because he already knows how the test would come out.

Time

Once upon a time people would rely on bells ringing around town to help them keep track of time. This old bell tucked away under a staircase in the Northampton courthouse was made in 1823 by the foundry founded by Paul Revere.

We moderns rely on things like the clock at the corner of Main and King Street in downtown Hamp. Unfortunately it hasn't been very reliable lately, either turned off or with so many bulbs out in the numbers that you couldn't be sure what it said. Now that's changed with a brand new digital version that doesn't rely on light bulbs!

Nothing preserves time like photographs. Blogger and music dude Jim Neill apparently had a normal Valley upbringing (if there is such a thing) with the exception that he had the sense to take pictures. Here he is in Northampton's Pulaski Park in 1982.

This is an undated photo he released recently of the old Funhouse at the former Mountain Park in Holyoke.

I love the motto on the front, "It's fun to get lost!"

I think I had too much of that kind of fun, and I ain't talkin' about Mountain Park.

Today's Video

No comment.

Journalism Fiasco

2009-07-12T14:34:00.006-04:00

How Springfield's Paper Failed the Community

Here's a reprint of a classic, long out of print Boston Globe article that provides a priceless journalistic snapshot of Springfield politics at the dawn of the 1990's.

Originally published in the Feb. 19, 1990 issue of The Boston Globe.

SCOOPED IN SPRINGFIELD

By Stephen J. Simurda

SPRINGFIELD--When veteran reporter Don Ebbeling returned home from a vacation in Florida two weeks ago, he found a fat envelope stuffed in his door. Inside were articles that had appeared in The Boston Globe while Ebbeling was away. The articles published on Jan. 21, 22 raised questions about the relationship between Hampden County District Attorney Matthew J. Ryan Jr. and reputed organized crime leaders.

As he read the articles, "It kind of extended my vacation a couple of hours," says Ebbeling, who has written about organized crime, politics and the courts for more than 20 years at the Springfield Newspapers. "I was pleased that finally something was published in a widespread newspaper" about Ryan's behavior, says Ebbeling.

But if the reporter was happy to see the articles, he and others at his newspaper were not so happy to see them in a paper based more than 75 miles from the Springfield office where Ryan has served since 1959. Federal court reporter Kevin Claffey expressed the reaction of many. "It was both embarrassing and gratifying," he said, "Embarrassing because of where it appeared and gratifying because it confirmed what I and others had been saying over the years."

His editors were less gratified. "I felt a certain amount of anguish," admits Wayne Phaneuf, managing editor of the Springfield Union-News. Adds executive editor Carroll F. Robbins, "I felt we'd been scooped. I was embarrassed and hurt."

In the days following the Globe stories, the Union-News struggled to catch up. But even as they worked to pursue what had become the biggest story in years in western Massachusetts, a variety of sources (including current and former reporters, editors and community leaders) questioned why many of the allegations concerning Ryan had not already appeared in the Springfield Newspapers.

At the root of the issue for most people is a perception that the Newhouse-owned daily paper has favored Ryan and other powerful officials or specific issues for years, despite evidence of serious wrongdoing in some cases.

"The record is quite clear that there has been no aggressive reporting on (certain) people over the years, and we've done lots of tough stories on other subjects," says one reporter. "We're all very frustrated here," says another. A former editor adds that in pursuing certain stories, "You were constantly aware that there were obstacles" within the newspaper.

As one high-ranking law enforcement official says, "If I knew something that was going on and had to be covered, I wouldn't go to the Springfield Newspapers."

Coverage of Matty Ryan, the crusty district attorney who has yet to respond to charges about his links to the mob, appear to support this feeling. A few examples:

--Editor Phaneuf admits he was aware in 1985 of rumors that Ryan played a weekly racquetball game at the YMCA with reputed mob boss Al Bruno, but could not substantiate it. Reporter Claffey says he had the story and submitted it. Phaneuf denies this and doesn't respond when asked why he didn't simply send a reporter to the YMCA to get the story. It eventually broke in the Boston Herald in 1986.

--The Globe's Jan. 21 story on Ryan began with an incident involving a Milton Bradley Co. executive who implicated himself through a wiretap in a fencing operation and later saw the case dropped by Ryan. Francis Bloom, the former top assistant DA who figured prominently in the Globe stories, says he tried twice to give this story to Springfield Union-News reporter Cynthia Simison.

Simison says she went to her paper and the decision was made not to run the story because the paper did not have a copy of the indictment. "Editors of the paper were definitely involved" in making the decision not to pursue the story, Simison said. A decision was also made not to seek the indictment as a public document. "Why (the decision) was made, I don't know," says Simison, "And people here don't seem to remember me going to them."

--Last September, Union-News political reporter John Appleton had written an article about a possible investigation of Matty Ryan by the state Board of Bar Overseers. Although Appleton thought the story was solid, his editors say they wanted corroboration from the judge that they believed brought the complaint (something that would have been highly unusual). As the story sat in the Union-News computer, the Boston Herald broke it.

--Reporter Ebbeling says he has written a number of stories critical of Matty Ryan over the years that were not published, going back as far as the late 1960s, when he connected Ryan to a private client who was a known gambler. In 1984, Ebbeling was taken off the political beat and given what he viewed as a demotion to covering district courts. Although he won't link the action to stories about Ryan, he admits that was the perception in the paper's newsroom.

Reporters and others says it's not just Ryan who seems to get favored treatment from the newspaper. They point out that first-term congressman Richard E. Neal, a former Springfield mayor, has long received good press. This continued even after Neal was connected to a lucrative health insurance contract he gave to a campaign supporter in the final days of his mayoral administration.

An investigation was initiated by the city council and an interim report concluded "further investigation would be fruitful," and did not rule out impropriety. The city council, under severe financial constraints, decided against paying more money for the probe.

Less than two months later, on Jan. 4 of this year, the paper editorialized that, "The only reason anyone would want it (the investigation) to continue would be an attempt to embarrass Neal."

Carroll Robbins says the paper is continuing to investigate the story, however. "We consider that a current story," he said. Reporters argue that "it was dead," however, until the Globe series on Ryan appeared. One reporter says his editors became concerned and revived the story after learning that the Globe might also be investigating this story.

There's no question that evidence points to what one newsroom source called a "narrow but deep blind spot" at the Springfield Newspapers. Reactions to that blind spot and explanations of the reason for it vary widely.

Publisher David Starr denies it exists. "It simply isn't so. We cover Matty Ryan the way we cover anything in our town." To some, there is a great irony in these words.

"This paper dedicates itself to mediocrity," says George Nasser, a Springfield attorney who ran against Ryan in 1978 and was endorsed by one of the two Springfield Newspapers that existed at the time. (The Morning Union and afternoon Daily News merged to become one all-day paper--the Union-News--in June 1987.)

"What this paper needs is a Gorbachev," says Al Giordano, a reporter who covers Springfield for the Valley Advocate, a weekly tabloid, "They need to bring in somebody to restore order and journalistic excellence." Until the Globe stories, Giordano had been something of a lone voice in Springfield, writing several stories lambasting Ryan for questionable behavior.

Reporters looking for symptoms of the problem at the Union-News often point to a practice of killing stories that deal with issues that are viewed as sensitive. Current and former reporters say the "deep-sixing" of stories that seem to touch a raw political nerve is commonplace. Both Robbins and Union-News editor Arnold S. Friedman deny they have ever killed stories that were written and ready to go in the paper, for political or other reasons. But several reporters disagree.

The most recent example, according to reporter Brad Smith, occurred last month when a story he wrote about a controversy dealing with the decision to fill a vacant seat on the city's school committee "went into Robbins' desk and ... just died." He and others claim the paper have a clear preference for who they would like to see in the school committee position.

When asking people in Springfield for reasons why the newspaper may appear to protect certain people, one unusual connection comes up regularly. Paul Robbins, son of executive editor Carroll Robbins, is a political consultant in Springfield whose clients have included Matty Ryan, Richie Neal and Mayor Mary Hurley. As one reporter said, "There's a natal connection there."

Both father and son strongly deny that their jobs influence each other. "I'm afraid to call my dad at the newspaper to ask him what time dinner is at his house on Sunday," says Paul Robbins. "I can't tell my son how to direct his career," adds his father.

But many people in the city echoed the sentiments of Vincent Dimonaco, former president of the city council and unsuccessful candidate for mayor, who feels that in hiring Paul Robbins, one gets the newspaper in the bargain. "My feeling was that if I had hired Paul Robbins, I would have walked away with the election" last fall, he said.

It's this close connection to the city's power structure that many point to as the reason for many apparent journalistic lapses at the Springfield Newspapers. Publisher Starr has served for years as head of a private downtown development group, for example. There's a feeling that he and others at the paper sometimes work to set the city's agenda, rather than cover it.

Former city councilor Mitchell J. Ogulewicz Jr. recalls his first meeting with Starr in which he claims the publisher told him the newspaper was "going to manipulate and cajole the voters" into electing the paper's chosen candidate for the city council. Starr denies this. Ogulewicz and other speak of attempts by Friedman to influence councilors votes on a variety of issues. Freidman denies this. Reporters are generally unsurprised by the allegations. Even if they are untrue, the perception that they are true is strong.

Carroll Robbins and Wayne Phaneuf say they have been trying to change these perceptions since the newspapers have been merged. Robbins acknowledges the papers "have had a conservative tradition. We weren't crusading newspapers." But, he notes,

"I would like to be."

Phaneuf and others in the newsroom point out that one of the most chilling effects of the perception of the paper's shortcomings has been a self-censorship by reporters who have long ago learned to read certain signals from their editors. These signals may be changing. The editors admit that the embarrassment felt after the Globe stories on Matty Ryan has spurred them toward more aggressive coverage of some issues.

"The problem," notes Robbins, "is to pursuade our staff that we have some integrity in the way we go after stories. That we're not afraid of any story. That we don't protect anybody."

Staff members applaud the sentiment, but many feel they need to see more before they'll believe it.

Absolutely Awful

I'm speechless with sadness about the tragic death of Army veteran Mark Ecker, of East Longmeadow, who lost his legs while on duty in Iraq, and was killed this weekend in an Interstate 93 rollover accident. I met Ecker once in 2007 at a Jefferson Starship concert in Northampton, a portion of the proceeds of which went to local veteran groups. Here's a picture of Ecker addressing the audience that day.

Although Ecker does not appear in it, here is a video by Jeff Ziff of scenes from that concert, held at the Northampton Fair grounds.

Anatomy of the Machine

2009-07-11T14:24:00.011-04:00

Farewell Geocities.

So the old Geocities site where this internet project began is no more. This old interview with me is the the final thing to transferred to this blog from the now vaporized Geocities site. I won't miss Geocities, which became an cyberspace antique thanks to things like Blogger, MySpace and Facebook, but I'll always praise Geocities for the role it played back in the early years of the internet when it was the only place the average person could make a website.

The questions in this interview were asked by Monique Hulbert, at that time a professor at Western New England College in Springfield. I rescued this interview before it could be vaporized because as far as I know it is the only document that gives any kind of overview of the history of modern politics in Springfield.

Anatomy of the Machine
An Interview With Tom Devine

Let's begin with an obvious question: What is the meaning behind the name of the paper, The Baystate Objectivist?

I doubt I would have ever given it that name if I'd known beforehand how people would be confused by it. What causes the most misunderstanding is the term "Objectivist" which some people mistakenly assume is a reference to the journalistic term "objective," which means to write without obvious bias. But the truth is the use of the term Objectivist in the name of my publication has nothing to do with anything involving journalism.

It was meant to refer to the branch of philosophy known as "Objectivism," whose adherents are sometimes described as "radicals for capitalism." In other words, Objectivists are supporters of pure, laissez-faire (hands off) capitalism as it would exist in a virtually unregulated free market. The Baystate Objectivist has no official ties to the Objectivist movement, nor do I present myself as any kind of expert on Objectivist theories. For anyone wanting indepth information or guidance about Objectivism, I suggest they check out Ayn Rand's wonderful books and essays. Still, if you already know something about Objectivism, you can probably see its influence in my writing pretty clearly.

Considering how much of the blame for Springfield's economic problems can be laid directly at the feet of political interference in the local economy, I hoped that using the term Objectivist in the name of the paper would alert readers to the fact that this was an aggressively pro-business publication. My miscalculation however, was in assuming that the term Objectivist was more widely known than it apparently is. Instead I've found that the majority of people assumed that I was trying to make some kind of statement about journalistic "objectivity," perhaps even offering myself as a kind of model of objectivity in writing, which is a ridiculously arrogant pose that I would never assume. I've always been a amused by this confusion, since I can't see how anyone could read two paragraphs in a row of The Baystate Objectivist and think that I was trying to be objective in a journalistic sense. If there is a publication in the Valley more opinionated than mine, I've never seen it.

Even more ironic, the name The Baystate Objectivist was originally intended to be humorous. Everywhere you look around here, you see businesses called "Bay State This" and "Bay State That" in every conceivable area of commerce. When choosing a name for a company located in Massachusetts, is it possible to be less creative than to use the term "Bay State" in your name? I'm annoyed by repetitious, unimaginative practices like that are blindly accepted and copied. Therefore in a spirit of contempt, I used it in the paper's name.

So I had decided the name of the paper would be called The Baystate . . . what? I actually toyed with the idea of calling it The Baystate Septic Service," complete with the motto, "We flush Away the Bullshit in Local Politics," but that seemed a little too coarse.

I also wanted to poke fun at the long-standing journalistic tradition of revealing an ideological bent in the name of a publication. For example, there is The Burlington Free Press, The Cleveland Democrat or, good grief, The Springfield Republican. So hoping to make seem absurd a trite commercial name and at the same time tweak a mainstream journalistic convention, the awkward but whimsical name of The Baystate Objectivist was born.

As it turned out, instead of seeming clever, no one got the joke outside of maybe a few philosophy professors at our local colleges. My wit, if you can call it that, didn't connect with the general audience. Ultimately the name became a joke on me, since I have been forced repeatedly to explain the meaning of the paper's name.

What did you have in mind at the beginning?

In a crazy way, it all evolved out of a card game. I was playing cards with some friends at my late buddy Jay Libardi's house over on Denver Street when the conversation came around, as it was likely to do when you had a political junkie like me around, to a discussion of local politics. I often observed how our conversation had little to do with the official accounts of events as they were being reported in the local media. It was all about behind the scenes intrigues and descriptions of sleazy situations as they truly were as opposed to what you might be reading about those issues in the morning paper or on TV, where everything was being reported in an upbeat, cheerleading manner.

It wasn't just my friends and I who talked that way. It was as if the people of Springfield seemed to have an inate understanding that there was more to everything that transpired in our Valley than was ever revealed through official channels. It was as if there were two Springfields, one official version that nobody believed in, and another much more real and interesting Springfield that everyone acknowledged but which no one reported on. I remember Libardi saying to me something like, "Maybe you ought to try to start a publication that would report on Springfield politics the way people actually talk about it." I didn't take his suggestion very seriously at the time, but that planted the seed. Over the coming weeks I started going,"Hmmm. . ."

So when did you decide to go ahead and actually do it?

I don't remember exactly, it just sort of oozed into existence. There was a series of small decisions, as opposed to one big one. There were considerable obstacles due to my own ignorance and inexperience. For example, I had no idea how to distribute the thing once it was printed. I wondered whether it would all be a waste of time.

When you stop and think about it, what I was trying to do really wasn't that unique. There is a long tradition in American politics of citizens writing and publishing their views and then distributing them to the public. Thomas Paine is a famous example. The Federalist Papers were also distributed that way. The Abolitionist and Women's Suffrage Movement used the same technique as well. Compared to what those movements were trying to accomplish, my attempts to spark a little fresh debate into the life of Springfield politics were, at best, extremely modest.

This was also during the time of the "Zine Scene." With the arrival on word processing technology anyone could print anything, as opposed to the past when you had to pay to have it printed at a press. There were lot of zines in Northampton having to do with music, but mine was the first political zine.

When the first issue of The Baystate Objectivist was published, what was the initial response?

There was none. Zilch. It was as if that first issue had fallen into a blackhole. I was prepared for criticism, even harsh criticism, but this was worse. To hear nothing, no feedback of any kind, that was the one possibility I had never considered.

So you were discouraged?

Yeah, I thought, "Oh well, so much for that." It was Jay Libardi who talked me into following it up with another issue, in spite of the zero response. So the second issue came out, and that got a little feedback, not much, but enough so that I was encouraged to continue.

What I didn't realize at the time was that the low level of feedback I got is typical for anyone entering the world of political activism. Before you get involved you have this impression, understandable but false, that the world of politics is all these people interacting and debating and struggling to achieve their goals. You go into the political arena prepared to meet all of your supporters and confront your opponents. What's shocking is to discover how really small and narrow the world of political activity really is. The level of public involvement, even on very controversial issues, is surprisingly limited. There are all these enormous vacuums of power and influence where only a very few people are participating. The only plus side to that lack of participation is that it makes it easier for one person to make a difference.

At what point did you become committed to The Baystate Objectivist as a longterm project?

After the third issue. That was when the first "Heroes and Villains" appeared, which is a list I put together every year of the ten best and worst people and organizations in the Valley. It was that issue that first caught the attention of Dan Yorke.

How did you first meet Yorke?

Again, I think it was Libardi that suggested that I send copies of the paper to local media outlets. So I did and as it turned out I never received a reply from anyone. I'd sent one to Channel 40, but I'd addressed it to the general manager. Frankly, at the time I'd never heard of Dan Yorke. I discovered later that he'd been on the radio for years, but in those days I paid little attention to talk radio. This was just after Yorke's radio station had died, so he came out with his TV show, where I happened to catch him when I was channel surfing one night. For a number of reasons, he intrigued me.

I remember the first night I saw his program. He had as his guest Betsy Wright, a local tax protester who had her car confiscated by the IRS because she refused to pay taxes to support the military. Somehow, Yorke discovered that she worked for some social service agency that was dependent on taxpayer funds. Yet when Yorke tried to confront her on that fact, Wright refused to publicly reveal where she worked.

Yorke showed her no mercy. He was determined to make her face the issue of whether it was hypocritical for her to insist that people should be forced to pay taxes for social programs of the kind that paid her salary, but that somehow she had the right to withhold taxes for the military policies she disagreed with. What would her attitude be if conservatives started withholding taxes that support welfare programs? The rest of the media had given Wright a free pass with their glowing coverage of her activism, but Yorke insisted that she confront this inconsistency in her position. Wright repeatedly tried to dodge the question, and in the end Yorke completely destroyed her credibility. You could tell that she was very, very, sorry that she had gone on that show.

I had never seen local programming like that. The only thing remotely comparable was a local interview show that ran for a hundred years on Channel 22 called At Home with Kitty. It was hosted by Kitty Broman, a likeable enough gal but frankly her only known qualification for hosting the show was the fact that she was part owner of the station. The soundstage was set up to look like a living room, with a couch and cups and saucers set up on a coffee table. She even wore an apron. The illusion they strove for was as if the guests had stopped in for a cup of tea with Kitty. It was an unintentionally hilarious program, which showed the lamest puff pieces about local politicians. It almost seemed to be a rule that no controversial topics were allowed. I think many people used to watch the show just to make fun of it.

What impressed me about Yorke was that he didn't seem to be interested in a topic unless it was controversial. He didn't try to avoid confrontation or debate, instead he embraced and encouraged it. He wasn't afraid to put a guest on the spot and he did not try to make them feel that they were attending a tea party. I recognized that in a journalistic sense Yorke's show was breaking new ground, and that maybe it would be a forum that would be open to reporting about what I was doing. So once again I sent off copies of the Objectivist to Channel 40, only this time I addressed it to Dan Yorke himself.

So how did Yorke respond?

Within a week, I got a handwritten letter from him saying that he was interested in what I was doing, but wanted more information. The letter made no commitment that he would ask me on his show. I don't think he was sure what to make of my paper at first. Anyway, I sent him a letter describing the history of the project thus far, and the very day that he received it he called and invited me to come over to the station and tape a show with him that afternoon.

How did the internet version come into existence?

Because of its underground nature the internet was ideally suited to the Baystate Objectivist. At long last there was this outlet that any of my readers with a computer could gain access to without having to search all over town for a printed copy. It also greatly expanded what could be done. For one thing the graphics were now in color. Also I could greatly expand the range of what I wrote about, not just local issues but matters involving the state, the nation and foreign affairs. I also got heavily into cultural matters like art and music and other things which there was simply no room for in the printed version. It also got a lot more personal. The subject was sometimes me and what I was doing.

You often hear in discussions of Springfield politics references to "The Machine." What exactly does that refer to?

The gang of insiders who rule our Valley. (laughs) Actually, in its most generic sense, there is nothing necessarily sinister or morally suspect about a political machine. What the term usually refers to is the organization that arises out of a political campaign, ranging from the people at the polls holding signs on Election Day to the consultants and confidants surrounding the candidate at the highest levels. If this organization works properly from top to bottom, then each level complements the other like intermeshing parts of a piece of complicated machinery. In that sense, it is almost a form of praise to say of this or that candidate, "He has a well-oiled political machine." The point is the term "political machine" does not automatically have negative connotations.

Then why, regarding Springfield, is it almost always used in a negative context?

Because weird transformations can occur within a political machine when someone is re-elected to office repeatedly. What can happen is that the political machine, which is an entity existing outside of the government for the purpose of getting someone elected, begins to merge with the power structure itself. Let me try to make it clearer by giving you a simplified scenario of the process by which an originally benign political machine can evolve into something that is ultimately unhealthy to the political process.

Let's pretend I'm running for Congress. You are my campaign manager and together we put together a successful political machine to get out my message and to get my supporters to the polls on Election Day. Once I win, I hire you and others who served in my campaign as my aides. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. I mean who am I supposed to hire? People I don't know? People who worked for my opponent? It's perfectly legitiment, but still significant in one sense. It is the first example of how being a member of my political machine can ultimately translate into working within the government itself.

Okay, so my first term in Congress comes to an end, and it's time to put my machine back to work toward getting me re-elected. Not surprisingly, my machine is now bigger and more powerful than it was when I ran the first time. Through the votes I've cast in Congress, plus the constituent service I've provided, I now have friends and allies I did not have originally. Although I may have political opponents, it will now be difficult for them to put together a political machine of their own as big and powerful as the one I've been able to erect through the power of my incumbency. In fact statistics suggest that the probability of me getting re-elected is overwhelming - about 90% of all incumbents succeed in winning another term.

Let's assume that I win that second term and then a couple of years later, I win a third. During all this time I am solidifying my support base and strengthening my machine by rewarding those who support me with whatever favors my office can provide. For example, whenever I see a chance, I'm slipping my supporters in here and there as jobs open up in the bureaucracies of the local governments in my district.

I'm also helping to secure financial support for my campaigns by helping out the businesses in my district with their government related (or government created) problems. Finally, lobbying groups who share my views on the issues also become interested in helping to insure my re-election. Again, there is nothing automatically sinister or corrupt in this process. In many cases, I'm simply doing what anyone who held my office should do, and the fact that it also serves my interests may be completely incidental. After all, if I've been a life-long opponent of gun control for example, what is wrong with The National Rifle Association noting that fact and working to insure that I am not replaced by someone with an opposing view?

Yet it is at this stage, if I continue to be re-elected, that potentially dangerous developments can evolve. Now suppose as I enter my third or fourth term, you, my trusted aide, announce that you have decided to run for Mayor of the largest city in my district. I enthusiastically support your decision, not only out of friendship but in addition because the current Mayor of that city is a political opponent of mine whom I fear may one day run against me for Congress. You, of course, as a newcomer running your first campaign for office have no real political machine of your own to use, but there's no need for you to try to build one from scratch. I'll be happy to let you use mine.

I'll personally call my campaign contributors and urge them to become your campaign contributors. I'll arrange for my consultants to offer advice to you. I'll tell my poll workers, envelope stuffers and street canvassers how much I would appreciate it if they would offer you their services. This is where the evolution of my political machine enters an entirely new, and potentially more ominous phase. Up to this point, my political machine worked only as a vehicle for advancing my own political career, but now for the first time, it has become something that can be used to advance the political careers of other politicians who are loyal to me.

It is important to stress the importance of this transformation of my political machine from something that once served only me into something that can now be used to serve anyone I choose. Let's assume that you win that mayoral race. Two crucial developments have now occurred relating to my political machine. First, since we are both working with the same organization, once you become mayor and put together your own administration, you are drawing from essentially the same pool of people for your political appointments, specifically, the members of my machine. Getting you elected mayor has greatly expanded the patronage base of jobs that can be used to reward our mutual supporters. Secondly, by helping you get elected mayor, I also eliminated a potential competitor. This is also a new and important evolutionary development: the use of my political machine to block and frustrate the advancement of those who might oppose me, not only in the present, but in the future as well.

Now try to imagine what would happen if this process continued through my seventh term, my 14th, my 18th? What you end up with is something like the situation that was created in real life by the late Ed Boland during his nearly four decades as Congressman from the Springfield district. At the full maturity of Boland's Machine in the mid-1980's, every State Senator from Springfield was a Democrat who was loyal to Ed Boland. Every single State Representative was a Democrat who was loyal to Ed Boland. On the City Council, all nine members were Democrats who were loyal to Ed Boland. Even the School Committee ended up consisting entirely of Democrats loyal to Ed Boland. What happened in Springfield is a perfect example of how a powerful political machine, created over decades of incumbency, can do damage to the democratic process.

The two party system in Springfield was all but dead. It's no surprise that it was during this period of total one party rule that most of the events investigated by former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger's corruption probe took place. With everybody playing on the same team, where was the opposition to speak out when insider wheeling and dealing started to get out of hand? A one party system was no more healthier for Springfield than it was for the Soviet Union.

A political machine that originally existed to elect one person, Ed Boland, gradually evolved over time to become this octopus that had acquired control of all local offices in an interlocking mosaic of machines that were all dependent on Ed Boland. There were sometimes various factions, but the original Boland Machine remained the unifying force. Ultimately, the Boland Machine no longer functioned outside of the government as Boland's campaign tool - over four decades his machine had become the local government itself.

What do you mean when you say there were factions within the Boland Machine?

Boland was a remarkable man who, whatever his many flaws, inspired friendship and respect. Even those who disagreed with him politically usually spoke well of him as a person. Yet each time his political machine captured a new office, Boland's personal control of the entire organization was somewhat diluted. Every new person acquiring power with the help of Boland's Machine had their own people and their own agenda to advance. The most important division that developed within The Machine was between what you might call the more conservative "JFK Democrats" and the more liberal "McGovern Democrats," JFK referring of course to the former President and McGovern referring to the ultra-liberal Senator who ran against Richard Nixon in 1972.

It's strange to realize that by modern political standards, John F. Kennedy was largely a conservative. For example, he revived the economy from a recession through a series of tax cuts and boosts in military spending, which was precisely the same policy Ronald Reagan used twenty years later to revive the economy from the recession of 1982. Kennedy's policies overall also had a strong pro-business slant. He was only really considered a liberal in the area of civil rights. If he were alive today, and advocated the same policies, he would probably be considered a moderate Republican.

Boland (above with former D.A. Matty Ryan) was one of a whole generation of local Democrats who considered JFK to be the single most important influence on their political careers. In that category would be Matty Ryan, Charlie Ryan, Judge Keyes, Tommy O'Connor, Joe Napolitan, Tony Ravosa Sr. and others of that generation who were inspired to public service by JFK. On a personal level not everyone in that group got along, especially in the years before Boland consolidated his power, but each of them in their own way considered themselves to be a keeper of the flame for what they believed to be the idealism of the Kennedy era.

When did Boland consolidate his power?

I don't mean to give the impression of Boland as this Machiavellian figure who plotted the takeover of Valley politics. He was in many respects the lucky recipient of larger political trends beyond his control such as the Democrat landslides that followed Kennedy's assassination. But if you were to choose a date when Boland's Machine first crossed over the line into a destructive phase, it was in 1968 when Boland successfully turned back a challenge from Charlie Ryan. Ryan had become Mayor of Springfield by defeating Tommy O'Connor, a Boland loyalist. After three terms as Mayor, Ryan attempted to overthrow Boland himself, but failed. After that, the supremacy of Boland's Machine was never seriously challenged.

Who were the "McGovern Democrats"?

The terms "JFK Democrats" and "McGovern Democrats" were not labels that anyone used to describe themselves in real life. These are just handy terms I'm using to identify the two major factions, each of which were too informal, and in some situations too overlapping, to be rigidly labeled.

However, the "McGovern Democrats" were those who began their careers in the latter period of the Boland Machine's history. They were the Democrats who emerged in the era after Kennedy's assassination and who were on the whole much more liberal than those who rose with Boland in the beginning.

The primary figure of this era was Richard Neal, who first appeared on the scene as the leader of the McGovern for President campaign in Western Mass. He was, believe it or not, something of a long-haired activist in those days, who used to run around in a green army coat. Still, Neal's real political roots were in the old ward style politics of ethnically segregated neighborhoods like Hungry Hill. Neal was no flower child, he knew how to play political hardball, and he understood the purely pragmatic systems of loyalty, rewards and punishments that are so essential to machine politics. And he was very, very ambitious.

Another key player emerging within The Machine during the 70's was David Starr, in the role of publisher of The Springfield Newspapers. The Springfield papers by that time were no longer locally owned, but had been taken over by The Newhouse Corporation, a multi-billion dollar media chain that owns outlets all over the country and is also heavily invested in real estate. Their policy is to hire local talent for routine reporting purposes, but to keep the key management positions reserved for executives, usually brought in from out of state, whose primary loyalty is to the Newhouse Corporation.

Starr's evil genius was that he realized more clearly than anyone else how the power of Boland's congressional seniority could be exploited through Boland's ability to use that seniority to obtain access to economic development funds. As the number two person on the Appropriations Committee in Congress, Boland (shown at right with Silvio Conte, Charlie Ryan and Ted Kennedy) could attach funding amendments to legislation that would funnel taxpayer funds to Springfield. Almost the entire 1980's Downtown revitalization program was financed in that manner. Starr recognized the extent to which it would be extremely helpful to his insider's clique to gain control of the process by which those funds were directed, through whom, and in support of what agenda. So Starr began positioning himself to be a key player in all of the major economic development decisions, eventually succeeding, after a bitter struggle, in taking over the primary economic decision making group, Springfield Central.

That was a disastrous development. Springfield was not unique in that it was run by machine politics. Mayor Daley in Chicago and Boss Tweed in New York are just two well-known examples of this reoccurring problem in American democracy. But at least those machines had to face a reform-minded press that exposed some of the worst abuses. In Springfield we had the deadly combination of machine politics and a monopoly newspaper whose publisher was also one of the leaders of that machine. The result was that Starr's agenda, and the Boland Machine members who were loyal to it, were presented to the public without a hint of criticism.

What did you make of the probe into suspected corruption in Springfield government that was conducted by former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger?

It depends on how you look at it. Despite all the fuss it caused, there were not as many indictments as people expected and most of the indictments that did come down didn't stick. More was suggested in the way of wrong doing than was actually proven. In fairness to those who were acquitted or had their charges dropped, I wouldn't want to engage in speculation or gossip that would amount to second guessing the verdicts. But that said, there are aspects of the investigation that were never properly discussed in the local media, but which should have been, and which are not irresponsible to discuss now. For example, I think it was pretty obvious that Harshbarger was conducting a classic 'pyramid' style probe. That fact made it hard for the average person to make sense of what Harshbarger was trying to do without knowing something about the way pyramid style investigations are conducted. I especially regret that so little of what was written about the investigation in out of town media was reported locally.

So what is a 'pyramid style' probe?

It's a fairly common investigative technique which is often used in organized crime cases. I think Harshbarger found the pyramid style useful in Springfield because of the powerful political machine he was confronting and its hierarchical structure. Basically in a pyramid syle probe you start at the bottom and get indictments against smaller figures near the base of the organization, then use them to climb toward the top figures you had in mind as your real target all along. If you go after the big boys first, then everyone beneath them unites to frustrate a conviction. Therefore Harshbarger started with underlings like City Councilor Francis Keough and School Committee member Ed Friedman and tried to pressure them into squealing on those higher up.

So who was Harshbarger really after?

According the The Washington Post, which next to The New York Times is probably the most respected newspaper in America, Harshbarger was out to bag himself a Congressman. His ultimate target was Richard Neal. The same thing was said at various times in the Boston papers. But that theory was never explicitly stated in the local press. Finally, The Springfield Republican on December 27, 1998 admitted that: "Leaks to Boston newspapers in the early 1990's had said Harshbarger's investigation was aimed at Neal, a former mayor." But at the time of the probe the Springfield Newspapers just kept mindlessly repeating Neal's official statement that investigators had never approached him. Well of course they hadn't. The very nature of a pyramid probe is that the person at the top is always the last person dealt with. In the end the prosecutions never moved into high enough levels to endanger Neal himself, although he was dragged through several courtrooms as a witness. He always had a terrible memory.

Why did the probe ultimately fail?

Harshbarger made two fatal miscalculations. First, he underestimated the extent to which those he attacked would be supported and protected. No one ever thought of the indicted Personnel Director Joe Dougherty as a college professor, but they got him a job at STCC, a taxpayer financed institution, while he was awaiting trial. So you had this situation where the taxpayers were paying Dougherty a salary while those same taxpayers were waiting to put him on trial for ripping the taxpayers off! Later, applicants with their doctorates in social work were passed over so that Francis Keough could become the city's homeless czar. Charles Kingston continued to profit from school bussing contracts. Everyone Harshbarger tried to get testimony out of was taken care of so that they wouldn't have to crack under pressure.

Second, Harshbarger should have insisted that the trials not be held in this jurisdiction. Sometimes a judge is nothing but a lawyer who was a loyal servant of the local machine. Judges too are creatures of the political process. It was crazy to try those cases before judges who were themselves products of the political machine that was on trial. In that sense it was doomed from the beginning.

So what's the solution?

I remain a great believer in the Good Guys winning in the end. Somehow, someday, justice will be done, and the villains of the local Machine will one day be made to pay for what they've done. The first step in doing that, of course, is to throw them out of office.

Marketeers

There was a good crowd this morning at the Northampton Farmer's Market on Conz Street.

This young lady was raking in the change by playing violin.

Didn't get a jug yet of this year's local crop of Maple Syrup? Here's your chance.

Some corned beef sure would go good with all that cabbage.

Surprisingly, you can buy beef here, and of course it is 100% grass fed with no hormones or anti-biotics!

Snappers

The annual New England photography convention is being held at UMass this weekend. In the campus center every kind of photo supply you can think of is for sale.

Down by the campus pond the male photographers were flocking around this model. (click photo to enlarge)

The women photographers were more interested in shooting the flowers.

Elsewhere on campus, UMass is redoing the plaza around the Southwest dorms. This video I made this morning shows you the work so far.

A student video shows the exact same area (and then some) before the work began, concluding at the legendary Pierpont party-dorm.

Here is a room in Pierpont in 1977. Notice the classic PHILCO refrigerator. Also note the handy trashcan placed right in the middle of the room for convenience. Note the psychedelic tube-light over the desk.

A community blackboard in Pierpont in 1977.

I love the things written on it, bad spelling and all:

"THIS MEETING WAS A FARSE" - "I can't live in a community with so many rude people. It's disgusting" - "As far as I'm concerned I have nothing to do with this community" - "We all need singles" - "If you are going to talk about something serious at least you can do is not come drunk and stoned. Nothing was accomplished".

An evening in Southwest in 1977:

Bad Art

2009-07-10T14:35:00.010-04:00

A Local Example

Leonard Baskin

One of the best known artists to live and work in the Pioneer Valley was the late Leonard Baskin (1922-2000). However, personally I was never a fan. Here's a sculpture of an owl that is standing on the campus of Smith College in Northampton. Only Baskin could take a majestic bird like an owl and make it look squat, unbalanced and awkward. Owls also give the impression of wisdom, which is why they are often used as symbols of education, but Baskin manages to make his have an expression of blank stupidity.

I first became aware of Baskin's work back when I was living in Northampton in the late 1970's and renting space in this great big house whose owner (a professor at Smith) was on a long tour of Asia. It was as beautiful a home as I’ve ever lived in, but its otherwise elegant reading room was almost ruined by having one of Baskin’s hideous drawings hanging on the wall. I had never heard of Leonard Baskin before, and assumed he must be some acquaintance of the owners and that they must have hung the painting in order to humor a talentless friend. I couldn’t believe it when I later discovered that he was considered one of America’s foremost artists, and was even asked to make a contribution to the national monument to Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Washington DC. Typically, his contribution is depressing.

Baskin is probably best known for his sculptures, but they are really just three-dimensional versions of his horrible drawings. Dark, ugly, hulking things, they are the kind of sculptures that frighten small children and cause dogs to bark. There are several to be seen on display in Northampton’s otherwise excellent Michelson’s Gallery, and it is a tribute to the management of that establishment that they continue to draw customers despite having Baskin sculptures on prominent display.

The main thing wrong about Baskin's work is that an artist can't be considered great who cannot make something beautiful. By beautiful I mean inspiring, as in uplifting. The proper role of an artist in society is to put before the public objects whose beauty inspires the viewer to appreciate and understand what is the best that is possible, to visualize and present the ideal.

That is why the artist has traditionally had such a revered position in society. In a world where the perfect and the best are rarities, the best artists presents us with their vision of the ideal. It is not the role of the artist to show us the world “as it really is." That is the role of the journalist. It is not the role of the artist to relieve their inner turmoil. That is the role of the psychiatrist. It is not the role of the artist to comment on the ills of society. That is the role of the sociologist, the politician and the propagandist.

The proper role of the artist is to ask one question, “What is the most beautiful and most inspiring art I can create expressing the greatness of mankind and it's highest ideals?" The value of an artist in a healthy society is determined by how well their art answers that question. Therefore it is a sad reflection on the state of our society that Leonard Baskin was considered a great artist.

By the standard of art as an expression of mankind's best and highest ideals, Baskin was practically an anti-artist. His repellent drawings with their terrified, screaming faces and deformed bodies, his grotesque, menacing sculptures and all around complete negativity makes it impossible to consider him a first rate, or even a third rate artist. He was one of many aberrations from a dark period in our cultural history, when we forgot what art is and what it should be, when we lost our way so badly that in our confusion we praised sick souls like Leonard Baskin. Our consolation is that his art will not endure. In better days we will remember to forget that we once praised him.

God's Presence

Every year since 1972 there's been a freak festival out west called the Rainbow Gathering. Last Saturday on the 4th of July they got their ultimate wish - a double rainbow! Dig this awesome video:

Yoker Done Good

Northampton internet innovator Paolo Mastrangelo, now a video editor in New York City, alerts me that the fast rising comedian T.J. Jagodowski has local roots:

I am unwed, but I live with my brother in Chicago. The rest of my family is back in Massachusetts—in Holyoke, Mass. So they'll come visit. They'll take the train down and see the shows in New York usually. My mom literally loads up a van of 40 to 50 people—they'll load up a bus. My dad will cook up a bunch of snacks and they'll drive in during the day, all go out to eat in Little Italy, see the show and then go home. So these people ranging in age from 19 to 82 get back home at 4 in the morning and then drive home from the Holyoke Mall parking lot. They rally."

Give it Away

Food Not Bombs passing out food on the Amherst Common.

Today's Video

Front porch music.

Stepping Out

2009-07-09T15:14:00.008-04:00

Rosenberg's Statement

Yesterday in Amherst as I was about to cross the street to go shop at the Big Y, Amherst bloglord Larry Kelley pulled up.

"Hey sailor," he called out, "ya lookin' for a date?"

Just kidding! Actually Kelley was on the way to pick up his daughter, but we chatted a little about recent blogworthy events, such as how State Representative Stan Rosenberg has publicly confirmed that he is gay. He did it in an offhand, almost by the way manner, as part of a Fourth of July essay he wrote for The Hampshire Gazette.

As a foster child who grew up as a ward of the state, as a gay man, as a Jew, I understand what it's like to be cast as "the other." I rarely discuss these facets of my character because I don't practice identity politics. I practice policy politics. And I firmly believe that we will never fulfill our potential as a just society until we embrace the principle of equality for all and adhere to it as fundamental, immutable policy.

Kelley and I agreed that the statement was no surprise. Not just in the gay community, but among straights as well it was pretty obvious to anyone who cared to contemplate it that the never-married, never seen on the straight dating scene Rosenberg was probably gay. But does it matter that he came out and said so?

Sorta. It doesn't hurt to have straight people see that gays are not creepy deviants, but people they actually know and who are successful in public life. It is especially important for young gay people to see that. On the other hand I have no qualms about any gay person who doesn't care to talk it about it. Who wants to go through all the crap you have to put up with from ignorant people who have all kinds of misconceived notions and ugly labels they want to put on you once you say that you are gay?

Personally I never pretended to be straight, as I knew early on that the damage I would do to myself by faking straightness would be worse for my psyche than anything any gay basher might do. But I've seen plenty of people come out and what they have to put up with. Beforehand, everyone is always whispering behind your back, "Is he gay? Is he gay?" Then when you finally come out and say, "Yeah, I'm gay," the straights go, "Aha, I always knew it!" Well if you always knew it, why all the whispering? Then they criticze you for being dishonest for not coming out sooner. However, if you then go on to talk about your sexuality more than a couple of times after that, they tell you to "stop shoving your sex life down our throats."

Straight people - I'll never understand them.

As a politician Rosenberg is not ideologically aligned with me. For example, from what I've seen he never saw a tax increase he didn't like. But I was impressed with Rosenberg when I met him in person last year at the Amherst Survival Center. Here's a picture of him I took that day.

What impressed me was that Rosenberg was genuinely interested in learning about the Survival Center and how it operated. I could see that this was not some politician blowing through on some photo opportunity for a political campaign. He asked intelligent questions and made insightful comments. He actually sat down and ate lunch with all our regular customers, and again showed an interest in what people had to say. In other words he acted like a real person gathering information about an issue he cared about, instead of just acting like a politician.

Kelley pointed out to me other admirable aspects of Rosenberg's character. Several years ago Amherst got embroiled in one of those political correctness scandals that only Amherst seems capable of, this time regarding the play Westside Story being performed at the local high school. Most people regard that play as a beloved American classic, but a handfield of dizzy leftists were demanding the play be cancelled on the grounds that it had racist overtones that no one had ever noticed before.

In other words, it was precisely the sort of issue that politicians abhor, since politically there is no winning position on it. Whatever side you take, you're going to alienate people. Yet Kelley expressed admiration for the fact that Rosenberg came out publicly on the side of those who wanted to show the play, citing First Amendment issues. That did not please some members of Rosenberg's core constituency, but he defied them anyway. Few would have criticized Rosenberg for staying silent, but he spoke out because he felt there was a larger issue at stake.

Kelley also reminded me that Rosenberg, despite representing the district that includes UMass, recently caused the UMass hotel to lose its special tax exemption. For Rosenberg it was a simply matter of fairness, why should the region's privately owned hotels be placed at a competitive disadvantage? Such commonsense thinking is in too short supply in politics these days.

In other words, Stan Rosenberg is a person that, whatever your political persuasion, must be considered a man of courage who isn't afraid to do what is not politically popular. Sadly there are not many others of such strong principles in politics today. These are characteristics that dwarf into insignificance anything to do with Rosenberg's sexual orientation.

Yet I'm sure there are those who, having supported him in the past, will now not do so because Rosenberg has become "officially gay." But that's okay. Who wants the support of such mental midgets anyway?

Says it All

I love this graphic in today's Boston Herald:

The "GOP hopeful" referred to is Charlie Baker, a former bureaucrat under William Weld who is running for Governor. But the fact is every candidate for Massachusetts Governor this year from both parties (and third parties) is going to lambaste Deval Patrick for the recent round of tax increases by linking him to the still reviled Michael Dukakis. The tax-raising Dukakis handed control of the governorship to the Republicans for sixteen years. Will that be the Patrick legacy as well?

High Times

Captain Skypilot Ken Babbs the Intrepid Traveler (above) invited the Merry Pranksters over for a Fourth of July bash. Check out the home movie.

Gathering Clouds

Bill Dusty took a series of cool photos of a massive thunderstorm descending on Springfield's Eastfield Mall. Check it out here.

Orientation

The UMass campus was filled this morning with new students undergoing orientation for the start of school in September.

The UMass Alumni Association had a little display set up offering the members of the Class of 2013 free UMass flip-flops (useful when dealing with ideologically rigid professors) and Cape Cod potato chips.

The Class of 2013?

Damn that makes me feel old!

Today's Video

In the late 1970's UMass Collegian cartooning legend Steve Lafleur was so popular you would go to parties or Martian Highway shows and see people actually dressed up like characters from his comix. Here is Steve and his friend Johnny Ricco in a recent attempt at playing the Grateful Dead.

Um, stick to the penwork Steve.

Storm Over

2009-07-08T16:35:00.006-04:00

Hamp Scenes

A terrible thunder storm late yesterday afternoon brought down this branch in Coolidge Park in downtown Northampton.

It also brought out this transcendent rainbow.

A t-shirt in the window of Dynamite Records has lyrics by Rob Lind of the popular Boston band Sinners & Saints.

"I always listened to music for two reasons," says Rob Lind, pulling on a Budweiser at the Thirsty Scholar Pub, in Somerville. "I listened to music that made me want to smash bottles and break things, and I listened to music that made me want to cry." - Rob Lind in The Boston Phoenix

Here's some classic footage of Sinners & Saints playing City Hall Plaza in Boston in the year 2000.

Also in the window was this poster for the new Rancid album. I like the title, "Let the Dominoes Fall."

I don't know much about the band Rancid, but from their name and poster I suspect that it's not the sort of record you would put on to create a mellow mood. According to the Wikipedia:

Rancid is an American punk rock band formed in 1991 in Albany, California, by Matt Freeman and Tim Armstrong, both of whom previously played in ska punk group Operation Ivy. The band is credited with helping to revive mainstream popular interest in punk rock in the United States during the mid-1990s.

Here's a charming little ditty off of their new album, a song called, "Last One to Die."

On Bridge Street they salute the Jolly Roger.

At La VeraCruza they like the new Supreme Court nominee.

I don't support Ms. Sotomayor, and the more I learn about her the less I like her.

My friend Don Matera is working on a painting of Bela's Vegetarian Restaurant.

Everybody was hula-hooping in Pulaski Park.

On Rawls

2009-07-07T14:47:00.015-04:00

An Intellectual Villain

The name of John Rawls (above) is probably familiar to anyone who ever had to suffer through an introductory college philosophy class. For those of you who were fortunate enough to have escaped such classes, Rawls was the author of a book called A Theory of Justice. It is best described as incomprehensible, but it won the hearts of those academics who were desperate to find a philosophical basis for their leftist beliefs in the wake of the collapse of Marxism as a credible system of thought.

It is impossible to describe Rawls'theory, since he himself was never able to adequately explain exactly what it was. At best it was merely a way of thinking about justice, provided you had no intention of reaching any clear conclusions. Despite its confusing vagueness, the theory did have this virtue in the eyes of the political Left - that it was impossible to use its principles and still embrace capitalism. That was all that was needed to earn Rawls' theory a prominent place in most undergraduate philosophy curriculums. But modern curriculums are full of such nonsense, so why single out Rawls' theory for special censure? What is so bad is that since no one, including Rawls himself, could make clear precisely what the theory intended, the end result was often to simply discourage any thinking at all about the meaning of justice among students. Ayn Rand had this to say about Rawl's theory when it was first published:

Kant originated the technique required to sell irrational notions to the men of a skeptical, cynical age who have formally rejected mysticism without grasping the rudiments of rationality. The technique is as follows: if you want to propagate an outrageously evil idea (based on traditionally accepted doctrines), your conclusion must be brazenly clear, but your proof unintelligible. Your proof must be so tangled a mess that it will paralyze a reader's critical faculty—a mess of evasions, equivocations, obfuscations, circumlocutions, non sequiturs, endless sentences leading nowhere, irrelevant side issues, clauses, sub-clauses and sub-sub-clauses, a meticulously lengthy proving of the obvious, and big chunks of the arbitrary thrown in as self-evident, erudite references to sciences, to pseudo-sciences, to the never-to-be-sciences, to the untraceable and the unprovable—all of it resting on a zero: the absence of definitions. I offer in evidence The Critique of Pure Reason.

Within a few years of the publication of Rawl's book, commentators will begin to fill libraries with works analyzing, "clarifying" and interpreting its mysteries. Their notions will spread all over the academic map.

Within a generation, the number of commentaries will have grown to such proportions that the original book will be accepted as a subject of philosophical specialization, requiring a lifetime of study—and any refutation of the book's theory will be ignored or rejected, if unaccompanied by a full discussion of the theories of all the commentators, a task which no one will be able to undertake.

Rawls' theory made the subject of justice seem so obtuse and the means of seeking it so confusing and abstract, that an unstated notion was also being taught - that the search for justice is an exotic, super-intellectual process which only the most advanced minds can even attempt to understand. In other words, the theory falsely implied that issues of justice were beyond the ability of everyday people to comprehend. Reading Rawls did little to help students to understand the concept of justice, but it could discourage students from ever pursuing the subject on their own, or worse, caused them to concede the issue to elite intellectuals. This sense of the pursuit of justice as something confined to a small elite no doubt contributed to Rawls popularity among the elite intellectuals who taught his theory.

The disillusionment that Rawls theory creates among students hoping to understand one of life's most important subjects is a terrible intellectual crime to commit against young minds, and at exactly that age when most people are the most idealistic and receptive to developing a lifelong dedication to the pursuit of justice. In that sense Rawls was the intellectual equivalent of a killer, only instead of ending lives he wiped out ideals, either by leading those who read him down the dead-end path of socialism, or more often, simply killing their interest in the subject of justice altogether. For that reason I predict that with the passage of time Rawl's reputation will only decline, and in the end history shall damn him.

Dumbness in High Places

More evidence that the Nobel Prize ain't what it used to be.

"You know, this is not a good time to stand on principle and say we shouldn't bail these guys out." - Paul Krugman, Nobel Laureate economist.

Oh really? Then what fuckin' good are having principles in the first place? It is during troubled times that sticking to one's principles is most crucial.

Jorma on Michael

There is so much pop trivia clogging the veins and arteries of our everyday life that it is easy for us here in the U.S. to forget how lucky we are and how we must not let our dream die in these troubled times. - Jorma Kaukonen on the death of Michael Jackson.

Hadley Hiatus

Over the weekend I was visiting in Hadley and we sort of shlepped around. These twin willows just past the Calvin Coolidge Bridge are two of the town's elders.

In the 70's and 80's hippie style head shops occupied the space between the willows. I remember smoking joints with friends beneath those trees, whose long leaves flowing to the ground protected us from the view of passerby. By the 90's the place had become the site of a sleazy porn shop. Now the building is completely gone, leaving those willows to reign supreme over an empty field.

That is in contrast to the view of evolution as expressed by R. Crumb. (Definitely click to enlarge)

No, inspite of all the development along Route 9 Hadley is still farm country. For example I took this picture standing directly behind the malls.

How rich is the bounty of our Valley.

Flags and bunting are everywhere, and not just because it's the Fourth of July. 2009 is the 350th birthday of Hadley.

There is a contest underway for who can decorate their house the best for the birthday. Entry Number Ten is located on Route 9.

One of my earliest memories is of my grandparents coming to visit in a car very much like this one sitting in a Hadley car lot. It was the same color and everything.

This Route 9 sign for a swordfighting club reminds us that the students will be returning to the Valley on September 4th. It may seem like a long way off, but that time will pass like a summer cloud.

So enjoy your summer while you still can.

Today's Video

Because America is the center of the cultural universe, we are not always aware that other countries have their own enormously popular stars whom we have never heard of. Andy Madadian is a rock god in Iran, and recently he teamed up with America's Bon Jovi to sing a song in solidarity with the Iranian freedom fighters.

Very well done.

The Socialist Holocaust

2009-07-06T16:06:00.010-04:00

Have We Learned Our Lesson?

It isn’t often that a book appears of truly monumental importance, but if any modern history book deserves that distinction, then The Black Book of Communism does. Originally published in France, where it subsequently caused an uproar throughout Europe, its English translation is now causing an equally profound reassessment of global politics and history here in the United States.

Frankly, a more joyless book was never written. In dry, almost clinical detail the scholars who contribute to this book (several of whom are former prominent leftists themselves) painstakingly recount the mind-numbing legacy of crimes, repression and terror which in total surpassed Hitler’s death toll by more than ten times. In fact, Hitler comes across as a rank amateur in the mass murder department by comparison to Josef Stalin and Mao Zedong.

It isn't widely recognized that more people have been tortured and killed in the name of socialism than under any other political system in human history. This book is the first major work to explore the subject of the Socialist Holocaust since the fall of the USSR. Following the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, scholars at last gained access to mountains of previously top secret directives, essays, memos and reports that for the first time document just how murderous the so-called “Socialist Motherland" and its allies really were. The official Soviet documents explode once and for all the myths that once allowed socialist apologists to pretend to defend it. Among them:

Myth #1 - The terror and mass murder were aberrations of the communist system, and not an integral part of socialist government.

The historical documents now reveal that repression was the central, all important means by which the communists sustained their system. The gulags and concentration camps were a key component of economic production, providing the slave labor to produce the products and resources by which the illusion of socialist success could be maintained. The seemingly irrational purges, many of which swept up hundreds of thousands of completely innocent people, were in fact specifically designed to provide forced labor for the socialist state.

Myth #2 The Russian Revolution led by Vladimir Lenin was a noble expression of high ideals that was later betrayed by Josef Stalin.

Official documents now reveal that Lenin was actually a bloodthirsty dictator of the worst kind. It is chilling to read the cruel cynicism of Lenin’s newly released writings, which prove that he was totally enthusiastic about the use of terror tactics and in fact encouraged the use of mass murder as a political tool. Lenin believed that genocide would help hasten the arrival of a new “socialist man" who would emerge after all who resisted socialist ideals were killed off. These previously secret documents have put to rest any doubts that crimes against humanity were an inseparable aspect of the socialist state from its inception.

Myth #3 Mao may have been a cruel dictator, but at least he was able to feed the impoverished Chinese people.

The documents from the old USSR also provide a window into what was really happening in other socialist societies with which the Soviets had dealings. Not only do we now know that the basic diet of the typical Chinese peasant never increased during Mao’s reign, but that his infamous “Great Leap Forward," which was the forced collectivization and industrialization of Chinese society, resulted in the single largest man-made famine in human history, with up to 25 to 30 million deaths directly attributable to Mao’s socialist reforms.

And the list of shattered myths could go on and on. The book also documents human rights abuses in socialist countries in Africa, South America and elsewhere around the world. Indeed, socialism was a failure on every continent and in every society where it was tried, often starting with high idealism but always ending with a poverty-stricken police state. What inspires great contempt is the accounts of the behavior of intellectuals and left-wing activists in Europe and the United States who twisted themselves like pretzels to find the excuses and explanations which shielded most of humanity from recognizing the full degree of horror being perpetrated by the socialist nations. In light of what is now known, Ronald Reagan’s depiction of the communist world as “an evil empire" was not political hyperbole, but was as plain a statement of fact as saying that the sky is blue.

When most academics and commentators discuss the Nazi holocaust, they quite properly stress the importance of recognizing that the holocaust that occurred in Germany was a natural outgrowth of the Nazi philosophy and ideals. Yet to this day it is still rare to hear discussions of the far greater death toll which occurred under the wide varieties of communist nations around the world and hear anyone expressly identify that the common link that united them all was the attempt to create a socialist utopia. The warnings against socialism should at the very least be as stern and as repetitive as the warnings against fascism.

Insanely however, the symbols of communism have become fashionable, by a generation too ignorant about history to know how foolish they look.

It was President Reagan who said that socialism would ultimately end up “on the trash-heap of history." We can only hope that it has, and let us always be vigilent in teaching future generations that they must never again be deceived by the wicked illusion of the socialist dream.

As GM Goes

Amherst Parade

As I usually do every year, I went to the Amherst 4th of July parade. In Amherst they fight all year over the parade - is there something inherently evil about celebrating nationalism? In Amherst that's considered a serious question. But once the parade actually happens, it's as red, white and blue as any parade in any town in the Valley.

Of course there is also the rainbow colors of the gay-peace flag.

Almost anyone can participate, even this gang of politicians were welcomed.

Among the spectators was libertarian leader Terry Franklin.

This float celebrates Amherst's 250th birthday.

Other towns also sent representatives. Here my neighbor Ruthie rides for Northampton's Pedal People.

Here I am unfazed by the attack of the Atkin's Farm killer tomato.

A message scrawled on North Pleasant Street by a U2 fan has the last word on the festivities.

This will give you goosebumps.

Touch me
Take me to that other place
You can teach me, Lord
I know I'm not a hopeless case

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day

Northampton Courthouse Porch

2009-07-03T15:30:00.004-04:00

Watch your step!

Center view.

Right view.

Left view.

Globe and doves at the Haymarket Cafe.

Strange flag on a Hamp house.

Old Glory in Florence.

Happy Fourth of July everybody!

City Reborn?

2009-07-02T14:45:00.012-04:00

Or City on the Skids?

I had every intention of attending the ceremony in Springfield on June 30th marking the departure of the Springfield Control Board and the return of the city to independent governance. However, at the last minute something came up and I couldn't go. I was a little disappointed, but not particularly, since I suspected that a lot of asshole politicians would be there. According to photos of the event by Bill Dusty, I was not mistaken.

Of all the Grand Poohbahs onstage one in particular was conspicuous in his absense: current Congressman and former Springfield mayor Richard Neal. Perhaps staying away because of a guilt complex over his own role in making the Control Board necessary?

Of course also absent was former Mayor Mike Albano, who wisely stayed away lest the sight of him cause the citizens present to fly into a rage, resulting in Albano being tarred, feathered and thrown into the Connecticut River.

Or would he? Everyone seemed to agree at the ceremony that, thanks to the Control Board, Springfield is in stronger financial shape than it's been in decades. But what about political shape? Afterall, whether or not the gains made by the Control Board can be preserved is heavily dependent upon the poltical leadership the city has. There the outlook is not so encouraging.

For example, current mayoral candidate Bud Williams has accepted campaign cash from Albano. So has City Councilor Jimmy Ferrara. The public revelation of these contributions by the Valley Advocate did not inspire either of them to return the money or issue an apology. Apparently being a "Friend of Mike" is still not considered taboo, at least not witnin the inner circles of city governance.

But it's worse than even that, as notorious Albano stooges like Brian Santaniello and Peter Murphy are brazenly running for office. You would think they would be ashamed to do so, but for a long time serving in City Hall has meant never having to say you're sorry, even as the city falls apart all around them.

Indeed only one public official, Councilor Timothy Rooke, has ever publicly expressed regret for his own (relatively minor) role in the fall of Springfield. Everybody else has taken a "Who me?" approach to their responsibility, and frankly, why shouldn't they? The public has repeatedly shown that incompetence has no consequences at the polls.

Back in 2005, after the discovery of the 41 million dollar deficit, the uncomputerized City Hall where they couldn't even determine how many employees were on the payroll (talk about an invitation to corruption in a city where no invitation was ever necessary) where insiders paid no taxes, where the homeless shelter was turned into a slush fund, where the police commissioner chased Puerto Rican welfare mothers around hotel rooms with a wiffle bat, where a downtown "entertainment district" was run by City Hall insiders with mob connections, where visionless economic planners curried favor with privileged insiders, where the race card was repeatedly played for money and power, where the local media were cheerleaders for the crooks, where innovation was unwelcome, where the most devoted activists were encouraged to leave town and where any honest man or woman who appeared on the scene in any role was regarded as a threat.

After all of that, when the voters had a chance to express their outrage in 2005, what did they do? They re-elected every damn incumbent on the ballot.

So the Control Board may be gone, but what is to be done about the dumbest electorate in the Valley? Will voters set Springfield on the path to permanent recovery, or are the Albano party boys coming back on the scene? As an alternative to the former Albano loyalists Dom Sarno and Bud Williams, there is the fresh face of David Parkhurst. There are good candidates running for City Council this November, like John Lysak, Alexander Sherman, Mike Fenton, Robert Underwood, Melvin Edwards and others anxious to shake things up, but will they be shoved aside by the same old crowd?

That is the real test of whether Springfield has a brighter future ahead. Springfield's new era started not on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday, but is still to come on a Tuesday in November.

Voters conspicuous in their absense.

Here's a medley by Dusty of the vague comments and dull speeches made at the power transferring ceremony.

The Unveiling

Everyone who serves as Governor of Massachusetts gets the honor of having their portrait hang in the statehouse until the end of time. Westfield State Representative Don Humason took these photos of the hanging of the portrait of the 70th Bay State Governor.

Former Massachusetts Governor (and future president?) Mitt Romney with his former Lieutenant Governor (and future senator?) Kerry Healy.

Here's me and "Muffy" Healy in 2003.

The portrait unveiled.

The portrait itself.

Many noted that Romney got his wife into the portrait by the picture on the desk. I guess marriage really does mean something to some Repubicans.

Hampness

It's been over a year since the flophouse Augies' burned in Northampton, yet nothing has been done to reopen it.

However the antique store on the ground floor is still open. In the window is an example of something which used to fly every March over ol' Pine Point.

The staircase in Thornes Market got a new rug.

Faces finally went all the way and turned their entrance totally turquoise.

Today's Video

Weird but strangely moving.

The Anniversary

2009-06-30T15:21:00.012-04:00

Healing Book Giveaway

I think McMurphy knew better than we did that our tough looks were all show, because he still wasn't able to get a real laugh out of anybody. Maybe he couldn't understand why we weren't able to laugh yet, but he knew you can't really be strong until you see a funny side to things. In fact, he worked so hard at pointing out the funny side of things that I was wondering a little if maybe he was blind to the other side, if maybe he wasn't able to see what it was that parched laughter deep inside your stomach. - (from One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest)

Always comes the moment when it's time to take the Prankster circus further on toward Edge City. And always at this point some good souls are startled. Kesey can remember them all, people who thought he was great so long as his fantasy coincided with theirs. But every time he pushed on further -- and he always pushed on further -- they became confused and resentful. - (Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test)

And one day the King's most loyal servant came into the royal chambers and said, "Your Majesty, all of the kingdom's wheat has been infested with a fungus that turns the people crazy when they eat it!" The King sadly contemplated this news then replied, "If we are going to be able to understand the people, then you and I must consume the fungus and become crazy too. But before we partake of the grain, let us make a mark on each other's forehead so that later, when we see one another, we will know that we chose to become insane, while everybody else is just crazy." - (Ken Kesey's Twister)

One of these days you're going to have a visitation. You're going to be walking down the street and across the street you're going to see God standing over there on the corner motioning to you saying, 'Come here, come to me.' And you will know it's God, there will be no doubt in your mind -- he has slitty little eyes like Buddha, and he's got a long nice beard and blood on his hands. He's got a big Charlton Heston jaw like Moses, he's stacked like Venus, and he has a great jeweled scimitar like Mohammad. And God will tell you to come to him and sing his praises. And he will promise that if you do, all the muses that ever visited Shakespeare will fly in your ear and out of your mouth like golden pennies. It's the job of the writer in America to say, 'Fuck you God, fuck you and the Old Testament you rode in on, fuck you.' The job of the writer is to kiss no ass, no matter how big and holy and white and tempting and powerful. - (Kesey's Advice to Young Writers)

Ken Babbs, Zane, The Merry Pranksters, Skypilots, Hog Farmers, et al, had a great idea for commemorating September llth. They suggested taking a book you think has mind-expanding properties and leaving it somewhere in a public place where someone might find it and take it home to read. They even provided a little marker that you could print off their webpage and stick in the book so people would know to take it home and not leave it at a lost and found or something. The concept is that an occasion that is a real bummer, like remembering the horrors of September 11, may be alleviated in a positive way by people sharing books that would give each other a more enlightened and hopeful view of life.

Well, it was just whimsical enough an idea to convince me to try it, but then of course that posed the question of what book I should leave out for discovery. I'm not normally one for parting with books. I still have some I've had from childhood and my whole place is messy with books tucked in every cranny while my shelves are ready to collapse with the weight of them. Yet whenever I try to throw any of them away I get all nostalgic and remember the circumstances behind how I first read the book and the people and the places associated with it, some of them gone forever, and the next thing you know I feel like I'm betraying old friends and decide I can't throw the books away.

But this was for a good cause and besides I wasn't really throwing the book away. I was sharing it with a stranger who may need a kindly dose of consciousness raising on a sad anniversary. So not knowing who this stranger might be, or what his tastes are, I decided to go with the Norton Anthology of American Literature, a big fat doorstopper of a book with gossamer thin pages from my own college days, a book predating the revised politically correct version. None of the evil Dead White Males were censored from this edition to be replaced by inferior talents elevated by virtue of having neither a penis nor white skin. I figure that until the day when sanity returns to academia and the Dead White Males are returned to their rightful pedestals, than those of us left who still know the true masterpieces should share them with others.

So sure enough early on the morning of September 11 I went to the benches in front of St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church in downtown Amherst and placed the big fat anthology with all the writings of the Dead White Males in it, and the Prankster/Skypilot marker with the picture of Ken Babbs on it sticking out the top and I put it on the bench and walked away.

When I came by about four o'clock that afternoon the book was gone without a trace. Now I wish I had sort of lurked around awhile, somewhere out of view, to see who took my book. Oh well, whoever you are, I hope you're enjoying it.

The Perfect High
by Shel Silverstein

There once was a boy named Gimmesome Roy.
He was nothing like me or you.
'Cause laying back and getting high was all he cared to do.

As a kid, he sat in the cellar,
sniffing airplane glue.
And then he smoked bananas --
which was then the thing to do.
He tried aspirin in Coca-Cola,
breathed helium on the sly,
And his life was just one endless search to find that perfect high.

But grass just made him want to lay back
and eat chocolate-chip pizza all night,
And the great things he wrote while he was stoned
looked like shit in the morning light.
And speed just made him rap all day,
reds just laid him back,
And Cocaine Rose was sweet to his nose,
but the price nearly broke his back.

He tried PCP and THC,
but they didn't quite do the trick,
And poppers nearly blew his heart and mushrooms made him sick.
Acid made him see the light,
but he couldn't remember it long.
And hashish was just a little too weak,
and smack was a lot too strong,
And Quaaludes made him stumble,
and booze just made him cry,
Till he heard of a cat named Baba Phats who knew of the perfect high.

Now, Baba Phats was a hermit cat who lived up in Nepal,
High on a craggy mountaintop,
up a sheer and icy wall.
"But hell," says Roy, "I'm a healthy boy,
and I'll crawl or climb or fly,
But I'll find that guru who'll give me the clue as to what's the perfect high."

So out and off goes Gimmesome Roy to the land that knows no time,
Up a trail no man could conquer to a cliff no man could climb.
For fourteen years he tries that cliff,
then back down again he slides
Then sits -- and cries -- and climbs again,
pursuing the perfect high.

He's grinding his teeth, he's coughing blood,
he's aching and shaking and weak,
As starving and sore and bleeding and tore,
he reaches the mountain peak.
And his eyes blink red like a snow-blind wolf,
and he snarls the snarl of a rat,
As there in perfect repose and wearing no clothes --
sits the godlike Baba Phats.

"What's happening, Phats?" says Roy with joy,
"I've come to state my biz.
I hear you're hip to the perfect trip.
Please tell me what it is.
For you can see," says Roy to he,
"that I'm about to die,
So for my last ride, Fats,
how can I achieve the perfect high?"

"Well, dog my cats!" says Baba Phats.
"Here's one more burnt-out soul,
Who's looking for some alchemist to turn his trip to gold.
But you won't find it in no dealer's stash,
or on no druggist's shelf.
Son, if you would seek the perfect high --
find it in yourself."

"Why, you jive motherfucker!" screamed Gimmesome Roy,
"I've climbed through rain and sleet,
I've lost three fingers off my hands and four toes off my feet!
I've braved the lair of the polar bear and tasted the maggot's kiss.
Now, you tell me the high is in myself. What kind of shit is this?
My ears 'fore they froze off," says Roy, "had heard all kind of crap,
But I didn't climb for fourteen years to listen to that sophomore rap.
And I didn't crawl up here to hear that the high is on the natch,
So you tell me where the real stuff is or I'll kill your guru ass!"

"Ok, OK," says Baba Phats, "you're forcing it out of me.

There is a land beyond the sun that's known as Zaboli.
A wretched land of stone and sand where snakes and buzzards scream,
And in this devil's garden blooms the mystic Tzu-Tzu tree.
And every ten years it blooms one flower as white as the Key West sky,
And he who eats of the Tzu-Tzu flower will know the perfect high.

For the rush comes on like a tidal wave
and it hits like the blazing sun.
And the high, it lasts a lifetime
and the down don't ever come.

But the Zaboli land is ruled by a giant who stands twelve cubits high.
With eyes of red in his hundred heads, he waits for the passers-by.
And you must slay the red-eyed giant, and swim the River of Slime,
Where the mucous beasts, they wait to feast on those who journey by.
And if you survive the giant and the beasts and swim that slimy sea,
There's a blood-drinking witch who sharpens her teeth
as she guards that Tzu-Tzu tree."

"To hell with your witches and giants," laughs Roy.
"To hell with the beasts of the sea.
As long as the Tzu-Tzu flower blooms,
some hope still blooms for me."
And with tears of joy in his snow-blind eye, Roy slips the guru a five,
Then back down the icy mountain he crawls, pursuing that perfect high.

"Well, that is that," says Baba Phats, sitting back down on his stone,
Facing another thousand years of talking to God alone.
"It seems, Lord," says Phats, "it's always the same,
old men or bright-eyed youth,
It's always easier to sell them some shit
than it is to give them the truth."

Now Online

Former Northampton City Councilor and beloved curmudgeon Mike Kirby has released his sixth installment chronicling the Hamp banking scandals, focusing on a car business that may not be all it appears to be:

It was September 12, l997. Richard Egbert, lawyer for Irving Labovitz, had Mike Smith, former chief of commercial lending at Heritage Bank, on the stand. His intent that day, as it was most days, was to undercut Smith’s credibility. This day the spotlight was on the relationship between Smith and Northampton businessman Matthew Pitoniak. Pitoniak helped him get his condo in the Virgin Islands, and a grateful Mike Smith had made Matthew Pitoniak a millionaire virtually overnight, funneling money to trusts with winsome names out of “Lord of the Rings” such as Rivendell, Treebeard and Quickbeam.

He got $700,000 to acquire Splash Car Wash in Springfield, $610,000 for 180-182 Main Street, $1.1 million for Fitzwillys, $950,000 for 492 Pleasant Street, and $490,000 to acquire 19 Fulton Avenue. The last loan in this string enabled Matthew Pitoniak and Edmund Komansky (Quickbeam Realty Trust) to construct the building where the Northampton Pro-Lube facility is today.

According to the papers, Mike Smith was now managing an auto shop, earning about $250 a week and living up over the garage. An innocent juror or newspaper reader like me would probably think that this new career of his reflected credit on him. Bank executive starts life over again managing a garage. Puts past behind him, goes straight. Shows contrition for his sins, gets back to his working class roots.

Read the latest installment in this epic work of citizen journalism by clicking here:

There's also an interesting new blog about the old Paramount Building in Springfield.

The Paramount Theater was purchased in the summer of 1999. The Theater hadn't been opened for years, employed no one, and paid no taxes. We made a huge investment, saved a local landmark, employed over 150 people, and paid approximately $220,000 in back taxes to the city of Springfield. The Hippodrome opened in December of 2000 after a year of renovations.

Check it out by clicking here.

Around Amherst

I see that the Munson Hall Annex at UMass is fenced off and headed for demolition.

Unlike Munson Hall proper, the annex has no real architechtural or historic significance. Still, I feel a little sad when I see anything associated with my own time at UMass disappear.

Elsewhere on campus there have been small improvements made since the students left for the summer. They finally took down that ugly fence that was up while the Grad Research Center was being painted and are shown here removing the bushes and high grass that had grown behind it.

The grounds crew ripped out all that unattractive shrubbery in front of the Student Union and replaced it with lovely rows of roses.

In downtown Amherst the Black Sheep Deli has a fancy new chalkboard sign.

And Motown Bernie got himself a scooter to putter between panhandling spots.

Today's Video

Amherst bluesman Damon Reeves playing at home.

McCullough in Houston

2009-06-29T15:33:00.009-04:00

A Literary Flashback

In the spring of 2002 I had the pleasure of attending a lecture at the University of Houston by the world-famous historian and best-selling author David McCullough. If forced to describe McCullough's lecture in a single word, the term I would choose is "inspiring." I don't mean that flippantly, as in the manner in which the word is thrown out by self-help gurus who "inspire" you to quit smoking or lose weight. I mean inspirational with a capital I, with the concept linked to Big Ideas and the Highest Idealism.

When I arrived at the lecture with my uncle, retired Professor John E. Devine, it appeared as though we wouldn't be able to see McCullough in the flesh. Despite having reserved tickets in advance, we discovered when we went to pick them up at the box office shortly before the lecture was to start that our tickets were for an "overflow" room. That meant that we would have to watch and listen to the lecture on a giant TV screen in another room, since so many people had reserved tickets ahead of us that there were no seats available in the Lecture Hall.

Actually sometimes seeing a lecture that way can be an advantage, since you can usually see and hear better over the closed circuit TV than you can from a lousy seat in the actual Lecture Hall itself. The major disadvantage of seeing it on TV, however, is that you miss out on some of the more subtle aspects of the experience, in particular the interplay of energy between the speaker and audience.

After taking our seats before the giant TV screen, McCullough himself completely unexpectedly appeared in the overflow room. He thanked us for coming and apologized for the lack of space for us in the main hall, then promised to keep our presence in mind as he gave his talk. As it turned out, shortly after he left we were all invited into the Lecture Hall anyway, since many people who had reserved seats failed to show up, thereby making the overflow room unnecessary. Yet I would estimate that by the time the lecture began the hall was still 99% full.

McCullough's impromptu visit to those of us who had been originally exiled to the overflow room was one of the classiest gestures of respect for an audience I've ever seen a public speaker perform. A literary prima donna would have taken the news of an overflow crowd as food for his ego, not as cause for concern and a personal display of gratitude. That kind of endearing humility simply cannot be faked.

The emminent historian was introduced by U of H President Arthur K. Smith, who did a solid job of summarizing McCullough's mind-boggling list of accomplishments, stretching from his Yale graduation in 1955 through virtually every literary award you can imagine, ending finally with a humorous counterpoint to his highbrow resume by stating that McCullough "likes to cook spagetti on Sunday nights."

McCullough began his talk, entitled "First Principles," by observing that since the tragic events of September 11 it has become commonplace to hear people say that, "everything is different, everything has changed." While conceding that "we are probably changed in more ways than we realize," he dismissed the notion that this is a time of special hardship for the United States.

Instead he urged us to regard current events from a historical perspective. He pointed out that even in the lives of people still living there were such extreme trials as the Great Depression and World War II. In a particularly apt and original example, McCullough referred to the great influenza epidemic of 1918, which took over 500,000 lives, a death toll that completely dwarfs the 3000 people who lost their lives on September 11. Of course history is not a contest where challenges are rated on a scale defined by body counts, but the point he made was that America has faced many hard challenges, and that our current threats are not unique in either size or severity.

McCullough compellingly made the case that the most difficult period in our nation's history was at the very beginning. In bringing this point home McCullough proved to be a virtual fountainhead of facts, figures and anecdotes which vividly brought to life the Revolutionary War era. I doubt that I was unique among those present in feeling as the talk progressed that I really don't know enough about our Founding Fathers and Mothers, and should probably begin reading up on them, perhaps beginning with McCullough's famous books. Of course part of the reason authors such as McCullough make lecture tours is to generate interest, and thereby sales, in their own writings. But there was no hint of the huckster in McCullough's talk and it was very apparent that he believed - and passionately - in everything he said.

That sincerity was the quality that elevated McCullough's speech above the usual fare one encounters from the literary lecture circuit. As he recounted the terrible hardships, the steely determination, and the unflagging idealism of the heroes of the American revolution, McCullough effectively brought to life the commitment required of the revolutionaries noble vision of "the life of the mind without boundaries."

For example, he read this electrifying passage from the correspondence of Abigail Adams: "These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life or the repose of a pacific station that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, waken to life and form the character of the hero and the statesman."

This is heavy stuff, which McCullough presented with a motivational sense of historical drama, made all the more compelling because he made clear the extent to which we moderns who were sitting in the audience are a part of that same dramatic and historic heritage. It would've been a person with a very cynical heart who could've left that lecture without a renewed sense of patriotism and civic responsibility. Indeed the lecture was on one level the kind of intellectual scolding that leaves one feeling somewhat like a shmuck for all that we take for granted. Fortunately the wisest people, such as McCullough, recognize the need for such scoldings.

Receiving a more than deserved standing ovation at the conclusion of his speech, McCullough entertained a half-dozen questions from the audience. Among them:

-The incongruence between the fight for American liberty and the institution of slavery was raised in the context of John Adams, to which McCullough responded by pointing out that Adams was the only Founding Father who refused to own slaves on principle, and that Adams supported public education for blacks.

-McCullough was also asked what he thought of the literary scandals involving plagerism surrounding his fellow best-selling historians Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Describing both of them as personal friends, he refused to comment.

-Someone asked McCullough to compare the father and son presidencies of John and John Quincy Adams with George and George W. Bush. At first hesitant to reply, McCullough, who is notoriously proud of his Yale pedigree, drew laughter by declaring that the Yale graduated Bushes were superior because "the Adamses only had a Harvard education."

-He dismissed as inaccurate the suggestion that Adams and Benjamin Franklin did not get along, insisting that they had enormous respect for one another. He also humorously pointed out that Franklin, author of the maxim, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," was himself rarely out of bed before eleven o'clock!

If the role of a historian is to give the public a useful perspective on the present by examining the past, then David McCullough perfomed that role beautifully at the University of Houston. In all it was an unusually entertaining and informative evening which provided much sincerely felt inspiration.

Nostalgia Trip

Here's some hijinks by the Subway on King Street in Northampton in 1990. I used to work in the convenience store across the street.

Jim Neill shares this picture of himself and a friend playing the Ted Nugent pinball machine at UMass around 1980. I remember that game as well as the Evil Kneival one next to it. People have forgotten what big stars Nugent and Kneival were at one time.

I ruled the pinball machines at UMass, which was just a natural progression from my lordship over the machines at the Two Guys snack bar on Boston Road in Springfield. Eventually the pinball machines at UMass were replaced by computer games, but now there are no games at all, since everyone can play them for free at home or on their laptops. Here's the gaming area after the games were removed forever in 2007.

Pictures of Lilly

Ya gotta hand it to the Florence section of Northampton, it's got attitude.

Of course what exactly one is supposed to be resisting is not clear. Florence has a great library named after someone named Lilly.

Lilly is a He, and the bewhiskered Mr. Lilly gazes down upon the patrons from his golden frame.

The children's area has a cool starship section.

How come the kids get to have all the fun?

Saturday Night

I stopped in at the Yellow Sofa Cafe in downtown Hamp.

There was a band playing consisting primarily of juveniles.

Again, kids having all the fun!

Today's Video

Tony in England sends along this evidence that the Brits are keeping a stiff upper lip over the Michael tragedy.

Tony also shares this video of Neil Young performing at London's Hyde Park on Saturday night. Although not included here, I'm told that Paul McCartney made an appearance.

Hot Fuckin Tuna

2009-06-27T14:35:00.009-04:00

Assorted Valley Tuna Shit

Back around 1968, if you were to have asked serious rock fans who the best three guitar players were, you would probably hear most suggest Jimi Hendrix (many would still say that today) Eric Clapton (a bigger star today than he was then) and probably a third name far less well known today, Jorma Kaukonen of the Jefferson Airplane.

In their heyday Jefferson Airplane was dominated by its three prolific singer songwriters, Grace Slick, Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, who mostly overshadowed the extraordinarily creative and complex lead guitar playing of Kaukonen and the band's bass player Jack Cassady. But if you listen to the Airplane today, the 60's "Up Against the Wall" credo of the Slick/Balin/Kantner axis often sounds dated, while Kaukonen and Cassady's wonderful guitar playing has passed the test of time beautifully. Kaukonen and Cassady quit the Airplane in disgust when the Airplane morphed into the commercial hit-machine Starship, voluntarily exiling themselves to their side project Hot Tuna, whom Rolling Stone magazine once called "America's longest lived cult band."

Hot Tuna never had any hit records and never wanted any. Kaukonen rejected the record industry's star-making machinery, touring and recording only when he felt like it and strictly on his own terms. So while tragedy transformed Hendrix into a permanent icon, forever frozen at his peak by death; and Clapton aggressively pursued and obtained mainstream megastardom, Kaukonen remained on the fringes of the music industry. Yet Hot Tuna won a hard-earned reputation as one of the ultimate guitar bands, despite never being widely recognized by the general public. Kaukonen always had a following here in the Valley however, performing at places like the Iron Horse and the old Quonset Hut on Rte. 9. Hot Tuna played in Springfield several times, most memorably at the Civic Center with Bob Weir and at the Paramount (now Hippodrome) with Taj Mahal.

But no one as good as Jorma Kaukonen could remain underground forever, and in fact a Jorma revival is now underway, led by a new generation delighted to rediscover what an older generation forgot. Now all of Jorma's old solo albums, most of which have never been available on CD, are finally being re-released in order to blow the minds of modern listeners.

The latest re-release is 1974's QUAH, which was Jorma's first solo effort following the crash of the Jefferson Airplane. It is one the few records Jorma made without Jack Cassady, featuring instead the late San Francisco folk legend Tom Hobson. It also includes wonderfully erzatz album cover art by Jorma's late wife, psychedelic poster artist Margareta.

The oddness of the album cover art matches the eclectic music of the record itself. The opening song "Genesis" is as fine an acoustic love ballad you could want and it's worth buying the CD for that song alone.

But there is so, so much more. The rest of the record is an amazing blend of styles and sounds ranging from the primal blues of Rev. Gary Davis covers to stoner songs like "Flying Clouds" and "Hamar Promenade," to the outright daffy guitar showpiece "Sweet Hawaiian Sunshine." There are also previously unreleased songs from the original recording sessions, including an instrumental that later appeared with lyrics on Hot Tuna's The Phosphorescent Rat and a deeply weird but profound cowboy tune called "Barrier." There is even an unintentionally corny hidden track that I'll let you discover for yourself.

No date for the following photos of Hot Tuna, but I do know that they were taken at the Music Inn in Lenox in the mid-70's. I kid you not, but the show was so loud that the surrounding farmers complained in the paper that the next day their cows wouldn't give milk. Guess cows don't like Hot Tuna. I admit it was a show that probably damaged my hearing, but if so it was worth it. I don't think I've ever had as much fun at a concert since.

Here's an old review of a concert I went to where Hot Tuna was the back-up band for the Allman Brothers.

Damn, I was hoping to produce for you a big ol’ concert review, but frankly I’m not much prepared to write it. The truth is I really didn’t act much like a music reviewer at this concert. I talked to people, walked around and at times just plain ignored what was happening on stage. Therefore the best I can do is offer you these handful of observations, and I hope you can get something out of that.

I’m no expert on these things, but security in the parking lot seemed tighter than it needed to be.

I thought there might be a lot of drunken yahoos running around, but the vibe was more Grateful Dead than Molly Hatchet.

Shame on the people who lingered outside and missed Hot Tuna.

Hot Tuna’s Mike Falzarano is a good vocalist, but personally I prefer that all songs be sung by Jorma.

The Meadows is a great place to see shows, even if you have lawn seats. God bless the giant overhead TV screen. Sound quality was also excellent.

Unfortunately, the person running the TV seemed not to know what to show in relation to what was happening on stage. Sometimes the camera was on drummers during a guitar solo or similar mismatch of image and sound.

Hate to say it, but the absence of Dicky Betts was not as profoundly felt as you might have expected.

When did the Allman Brothers get so psychedelic? That was not their original image. A band for bikers maybe, or for good ol’ boys for sure, but flower power acid heads? No, that's something new, a transparent attempt to cash in on the void left by the demise of the Dead. Still, the Allman Brothers is such a great band, I forgive them for whatever they've had to do commercially to survive. Besides, their light show was as trippy as anything the Dead used to do, so even though the Allman’s may be guilty of copying a trend, they are not lowering their standards.

"Whipping Post" was an obvious and perfect encore.

Therefore, let me close by simply saying that a good time appeared to be had by all.

Below is a ticket stub from a very, very loud show in Springfield, Massachusetts. I actually feared afterwards that I had damaged my hearing, but it returned to normal within a few days.

Did you know there is a plant called Hot Tuna?

Houttuynia is a plant that tastes nothing like hot tuna; the botanical name merely resembles the words "hot tuna." It's a lot easier to remember and say than houttuynia.

Although hot tuna doesn't taste like hot tuna, it is, in fact, edible. The plant is native from Japan down to Java, and across Asia to Nepal, and people in those regions eat the boiled leaves or use them as flavoring. Some people find the flavor to be citrus-y; to others, it is more reminiscent of cheap perfume laced with diesel fuel.

Some cautions must be exercised in planting hot tuna. The plant can be invasive. It spreads vigorously by underground suckers, and although growing only about a half a foot high, it can climb over and engulf a dwarf shrub. Also, hot tuna's wild colors would not be welcome everywhere -- it's not a visually sedate plant.

With these two cautions in mind, you might want to give hot tuna a try, mostly for its looks and maybe even to eat.

Here's the musical Hot Tuna in 1973

Tragic

Have you seen Brendan Fraser lately?

Undressed for Success

Mugshot of a woman arrested this week in Springfield for drug dealing.

Signs

Somebody got obscene with this crosswalk sign in Northampton.

MassBike had a table set up this morning at the Hamp Farmer's Market.

I'm stunned by the closing of the Aurora Borealis store in downtown Hamp.

Thus the Obama Depression claims another victim. Rolando's in downtown Amherst has been closed for some time.

But I notice that inside it still has this poster hanging up of what I assume is an imaginary farm.

Actually I may have known a few dealers who worked on that farm. Of course still open is the nearby Pub, which boasts of being open since 1968.

Despite the 60's pedigree, The Pub has always had the reputation of being a rowdy fratboy bar. Here signs of peace in several languages hang beneath the gay pride flag at Amherst's Unitarian Church.

At Amherst's Newbury Comix a poster advertizes the new Dinosaur Jr. CD in the band's hometown.

Haymarket Scenes

A Cape Cod Grateful Dead shirt in Northampton's Haymarket Cafe yesterday.

Michael on the Haymarket tip jar.

Today's Video

One can never serve too much Hot Tuna.

Death Penalty

2009-06-26T15:15:00.009-04:00

A Threat to Liberty

"About the issue of capital punishment: I would say, in principle, morally, I approve of capital punishment, in cases of first degree murder. That is, if someone by conscious, deliberate intention has murdered someone, he does morally deserve to forfeit his own life. But the issue of objective proof enters here, and I think a good argument could be made -- and I would be inclined to agree with it -- that precisely because errors in proof and evidence are always possible, capital punishment should be outlawed: not out of moral consideration for the murderer, but precisely in order to protect the possible, rare instance of an innocent man being convicted, on the principle that it is better to sentence nine actual murderers to life imprisonment, rather than execute one innocent man." - Ayn Rand

A jury in 2002 refused to impose the death penalty on Andrea Yates, the infamous Houston Texas mother who methodically drowned her five children in the family bathtub. It was the right decision not to put her to death, but in all the media madness surrounding the decision one heard every imaginable reason to spare her but the best one.

Nowhere was the media frenzy more intense than in Yate's hometown of Houston. While the trial made the front pages of most newspapers around the country, few could compare with the screaming headlines that appeared daily in the Houston Chronicle. I was visiting at the time in a middle-class neighborhood right next to the Clear Lake area where the Yates family lived. My cousin works at NASA, as did Russell Yates and thousands of others in Houston, which likes to call itself in its promotional campaigns, "Space City." To the rest of the country the Yates tragedy was about that weird woman down in Texas who did that unspeakable thing, but in Houston it was a hometown story about a hometown girl. That gave the coverage a personal quality which only made it all the more melodramatic.

I was walking downtown near the courthouse on the day when Yates was sentenced to prison rather than to death, and the street was so clogged with media personnel and broadcasting technology that it was almost impassable. In Houston, the Yates case was not just a nighmarish abstraction conveyed through the mass media, but an actual physical presence.

Yet for all of that intimacy with the case, the local media coverage in most ways parroted the national commentary and coverage, including the death penalty stage of the trial. Everyone asked all of the predictable questions: Is mental illness a sufficient excuse? Was the husband in some ways negligent? Conservatives predictably declared the case to be the ultimate example of the collapse of family values. Liberals just as predictably blamed society. Most of the public sentiment fell somewhere in the middle, disgusted and saddened simultaneously. Yet for all the questions and all the chatter about Yate's fate, most of it missed the point.

There is no question that there are situations where it is difficult to argue against the death penalty. In fact in some cases the behavior of the criminal is so despicable that even execution seems too kind. The serial killer Ted Bundy (above) was convicted for killing (among others) a 15-year-old girl whose body was found with dozens of cigarette burns all over her body. The autopsy revealed that she had been alive when those burns had been inflicted. The death penalty for a monster like Bundy? That seems far too compassionate; it feels more like justice to torture him first!

Yet it still remains inappropriate to execute people, even when it is fiends like Ted Bundy. The primary reason is that capital punishment is incompatible with a free society. Supposedly in a free society it is the people that are in charge. The government should act only in the role of the servant of the citizens, existing primarily to preserve their rights - foremost of which is the right to live. Have you ever heard of a servant who had the right to kill the people they are serving? If our government is truly our servant, then it shouldn't have the right to kill us either.

In other words, in a free society the government should purposely be kept small and weak, the better to leave its citizens alone to enjoy their lives free of the interference of undue government authority. A free people should not allow the death penalty for the simple reason that no government acting genuinely as a servant of the people should be allowed to have that kind of power.

Liberals, despite being the ones who usually campaign most stridently against the death penalty, generally don't like to use that argument. Liberals tend to like government power so they can impose their agenda of control over people's income and social behavior in behalf of what liberals consider the greater good. An anti-death penalty argument based on the principle of freedom from Big Government undermines the rest of their agenda, which requires the government to be fat and powerful. For that reason they argue against the death penalty primarily on the grounds of compassion, insisting that it is simply too cruel to put someone to death. Opinion polls show that this argument for compassion has little public support, which is no surprise. Any argument against the death penalty that is based upon pity for murderers will not only fail, but deserves to.

As for conservatives, who generally support the death penalty, they seem strangely blind to their own logical inconsistencies. Conservatives usually have no problem recognizing government overreaching in other matters, yet when government tries to assume the greatest power that that any government can claim to have, the power to kill its own citizens, they are oddly unable to see the glaring inconsistency of supporting the death penalty and their otherwise pro-freedom philosophy.

It was right that Andrea Yates was spared, not because we felt sorry for her, or because she was mentally ill, or because her husband was a shmuck or her minister a creep or because society was somehow to blame. She should not have been killed for the one reason that no one seemed to state, here in Houston or anywhere else.

That reason, and the only reason necessary, is that free societies as a matter of principle do not grant to their governments the power to kill their citizens, no matter what they do or why they do it. In all the millions of words written and said regarding the death penalty in the Yates case, how unfortunate that so few ever suggested anything like that. If they had, then the senseless deaths of those children would at least have had the virtue of sparking a real debate over an essential issue. Alas the coverage, in Houston and everywhere else, never seemed to rise above the level of just another ugly public drama, with the media merely rehashing all of the predictable bromides. So although Yate's life was spared, an important opportunity for public enlightenment on the proper role of government was lost.

Down Dixie

While we're talking about Texas, here's some old pics of me in the City of Devine, located in Texas near San Antonio, in 2001. This is me in front of the Chamber of Commerce.

Here I am in front of the local internet provider.

The editor of The Devine News poses with my Dad, my Uncle John and myself.

Panties Man

The ageless Tom Jones played Northampton the other night. Jim Neill took this photo showing all the ladies undies that were thrown on stage.

Jim brought a pair to throw on stage, but Tom Jones seemed mysteriously reluctant to accept them.

Today's Video

Tony Pierce saw Amherst's Dinosaur Jr. perform in Los Angeles Wednesday night and thought the sound quality sucked:

you know what i like? rock concerts

you know what else i like? being able to hear the singer sing at rock concerts.

you know what i didnt hear last night at the Dinosaur Jr. show? J Mascis' beautiful singing.

being that this is the second show in two years at the Troubadour where the vocals were clearly missing from the dinosaur mix, it would lead me to believe that either the band doesnt want the crowd to hear the singing - or that the sound engineer was overwhelmed with the literal wall of sound produced by a trio of Marshall amps placed behind the gray haired rock god.

funny thing happened on the way to thinking that the band didnt want J's vocals to be heard: the two songs sung by the bassist Lou Barlow

couldnt hear him neither.

fortunately beers were cheap and inspired the crowd to get over the fact that the show had turned into a rock band karaoke night and the last four songs of the set included some spirited moshing and crowd surfing.

let it be known that i will gladly get the new dinosaur record that came out yesterday but i probably will pass if they ever play the troubadour again.

In this video the band is shown in March rehearsing material from the new album at J. Mascis' Amherst home.

Reassessing J.P. Morgan

2009-06-25T17:00:00.006-04:00

We Could Use Him Today

The attempts by Congress to bail out the financial industry in the wake of the financial losses they incurred following their own poor lending decisions raises interesting questions about the proper role of the government in economic management. Is it proper for the taxpayers to come to the rescue of private industries? If the government didn't step in, would there be any other alternative to just letting them fail? Can an advanced industrial economy function without government intervention?

There was once a time in the United States when any major intervention in the economy by the government on behalf of any business was automatically considered improper. After all, why should all taxpayers be forced to subsidize anyone's private, profit-making enterprise? Our forefathers and mothers were wisely skeptical of who would decide who should receive such aid, and how could you prevent political favoritism from influencing who receives it?

An excellent book I read relates to many of these modern issues. It is a biography by Jean Strouse entitled Morgan: American Financier (Random House) about the infamous 19th century "robber baron" J. P. Morgan. This book is just one of a trend of biographies that re-examine the lives of the great capitalists of America's so-called "Gilded Age" from a perspective that largely debunks the conventional portrayal of them as little more than monsters of greed. In fact, the author of Morgan admits she began her research for the book because she wanted to write about the life of a great villain. What Strouse found when examining the historical record, however, was that Morgan was a far more complex person than generally recognized and that much of what he was vilified for was often inaccurate and unfair.

And vilified he was. In a famous cartoon of the time, Morgan was depicted as hoarding the entire world in one arm, while reaching with the other to snatch a piggy bank from a small child. Morgan was enormously powerful, to a degree that would make even today's Bill Gates seem an office clerk by comparison. Morgan controlled or influenced nearly all of the key industries in America, including banking, steel and the railroads. Such political and economic power in the hands of one man terrified the populists of his day, who regarded it as a threat to democracy to have one individual exercise so much economic authority.

What's interesting is that Strouse's book suggests that Morgan exercised that power almost always in a benign way, saving the country from financial collapse on several occasions at little or no profit to himself. He carried out these rescues because he realized that the economy is interconnected, and that the failure of any one of America's great industries would be harmful to everyone else. Therefore an effort toward preserving the economy as a whole was in the interest of every participant in the economy, and the larger the business, the more there was to lose. Morgan understood that narrow-sighted greed is wrong not just because it is immoral, but because in the long run it is bad for business.

Ironically, it was his most spectacular acts for the public good that drew him the most criticism. When he almost single-handedly prevented a ruinous financial crash during the Panic of 1907, the fact that he had made a small profit on the rescue was allowed to overshadow the millions of jobs and businesses he had saved as well. Morgan's critics often took the irrational position that unless his acts were completely selfless, then they must be considered evil.

A large part of the problem was that no industrial economy on the scale that America was creating in that era had ever existed before, and so no one was sure what the rules were and what such an economy required. What's enlightening is to realize that our modern industrial economy was built with almost no government supervision. If we lived under the rules of 1909 instead of 2009, and a major industry like the automakers was failing, history suggests that what the capitalists would do is put together a package of private loans and grants that would save the auto industry in a manner leaving the taxpayers off the hook. They would have done it not out of patriotism or good-will (although such emotions may have figured in their acts) but primarily because a strong economy is good for all businesses, including their own.

Morgan's bad public image was due partly because he was an indifferent advocate in his own behalf. He rarely explained his actions, almost never spoke in public and was inclined to ignore his critics rather than debate them. Part of his secretive nature may have stemmed from the fact that he was less than a paragon of virtue in his personal life. Although married with several children, he appreciated the ability of great wealth to attract beautiful women and had a string of mistresses that would be considered scandalous even by today's standards.

Unfortunately his reclusiveness gave his critics free reign to portray him in the worst light. That vilification accelerated after the major economic intrusions by the government during the Great Depression, when those historians who were anxious to portray FDR's New Deal in a positive light purposely trashed the major capitalists of the pre-Roosevelt era. Now a major historical revision is underway, as historians reassess the economic leaders of that time, and are largely concluding that the initially negative historical verdict on capitalists like Morgan was not justified.

Strouse's book is a major milestone in that effort, all the more remarkable because the author began her work with a much less positive view of her subject in mind. The book is painstakingly detailed, in fact its only weakness is that the otherwise gripping narrative sometimes gets bogged down by minor facts that are sometimes little more than trivia. In Strouse's defense, she probably felt compelled to overdo the details because she is presenting an unorthodox portrayal of Morgan, and therefore needed to go heavy on the footnotes and minor details in order to ward off the inevitable leftist critics who would try to claim that her conclusions were based on insufficient research. Just the same, as one writer complained in an otherwise positive review, "At over 700 pages, one would not wish it longer."

What one would wish for is that the economic planners of today would read this book so that they might see that a self-regulating economy could and once did work, with J.P. Morgan providing both the methods and the rationale for its success. At his death Morgan's obituaries repeatedly declared that the world would never see his type again. As we pay a 700 billion dollar bill to bail out Wall Street, let us hope that they were wrong, because we could use another J.P. Morgan today, and a return to the rules he lived by.

Local Vids

Jeff Ziff takes us for a sun-drenched ride through Agawam and Springfield in a vintage 1969 Super Bee.

Northampton multi-media performer Kelsey Flynn had her bicycle stolen recently, and tells us in this video about what went down.

Ghost Rider

Speaking of bicycling, this eerie white bike now stands on University Drive in Amherst by the spot where a bicyclist was recently killed.

People please drive carefully!

Rare Sight

Empty tables in front of Sam's in downtown Northampton.

Celebrity Watch

A movie star sits on a park bench on State Street in Hamp.

Today's Video

A young band tackles a tough song at what looks like a fun event.

Heil Coolidge

2009-06-24T14:15:00.012-04:00

Cal's Achievements

Remember last summer when someone put some grease under the nose of the statue of Calvin Coolidge in Northampton's Coolidge Park to make him look like Adolph Hitler?

That was so disrespectful, so unjustified, so outrageous - and so funny! Cal's mustache has since been cleaned off, but lately another problem with the statue has been rectified. Despite being the only resident of our Valley ever to be elected to the presidency, when alive Coolidge was pretty quiet about his accomplishments, which is part of why he was called "Silent Cal."

However, his statue should not be modest, and thus it was with dismay that it was discovered that one of Cal's honors - his service as Northampton's Clerk of Courts - had been unintentionally omitted. The problem was there was no room on the statue to add anymore accomplishments!

However the other day I noticed that a portion of the monument was wrapped in duct tape with some poles holding something in place. What could it be?

A day later - voila! The tape was removed and sure enough there was a special plaque stuck on the side of the monument listing Cal's years as Clerk of Courts.

Maybe the prestige of that extra honor will be enough to scare away the next vandal that wants to turn him back into Hitler.

Classy Lady

I'm saddened to read in this morning's paper about the death of former Springfield City Councilor Mary Montori (above). Everyone called her "Betty" and on a legislative body often rightfully derided as the "City Clowncil" she was a person of character and strong convictions. In this excerpt from the memoirs of Mitch Ogulewicz, who served with Montori, he recounts how she once bravely defied the entire political establishment and gladly paid the price.

Mitch Ogulewicz in 1985

In January of 1985, longtime City Councilor Rose Marie Coughlin resigned from the Council after she was elected Hampden County Treasurer in November of 1984. It was a position she would hold until the Hampden County government was abolished fourteen years later. Her departure created a vacancy, which according to Council rules meant that the next closest defeated candidate in the last election had first rights of acceptance for the seat. Happy to accept was Morris Jones, a thirty year postal employee and well known Winchester Square (now Mason Square) political activist. The arrival of Jones also ended criticism from some quarters that the City Council consisted of all whites.

Jones was entering office right in the middle of a raging controversy involving the Baystate Medical Center. The hospital wanted to expand and construct new buildings, but the surrounding well-to-do and politically active neighborhood of Atwater Park was opposed, claiming that the new high-rises would spoil their view, increase traffic congestion and lower property values.

Whether the hospital would be allowed to expand was uncertain, since many Councilors, including Mitch Ogulewicz, were undecided. Politically it was a hard call, since the angry neighborhood was very politically active with high voter turnouts. On the other hand, the hospital expansion would create hundreds of new jobs and greatly enhance the quality of health care facilities in the city.

Adamantly opposed was Councilor Betty Montori, the wife of a prominent physician. In fact Montori had run for office specifically with the intent of being a “no” vote on the hospital issue. Equally determined to support the project were Councilors Bill Foley, Frank Keough, Brian Santaniello and Vincent DiMonaco. In many ways Vinnie DiMonaco was considered the leader of the pro-hospital advocates. DiMonaco was a former labor union leader, and advocated the expansion because of the construction jobs it would create and the quality medical coverage it would provide for the poor. Despite some initial hesitation, Morris Jones also joined the supporters. That left in the undecided category Mitch, Bob Markel and Mary Hurley as the swing votes who held the fate of the hospital in their hands. Because it was a special permit, a total of six votes instead of the usual five was required.

With five councilors already in support of the expansion and only one opposed, it was within the power of any of the undecideds to determine the outcome. The three Councilors met on the issue often and it was agreed that if any one of them decided to vote in favor, then the other two would vote yes also. Cynically considering the political realities, they felt that if it was going to pass, then there would be no point in voting against the project and incurring the political wrath of the unions and other special interest groups over a lost cause.

One day Ogulewicz was in his office at the bank when he received a request to meet with Bank President Karl Walzak. Mitch assumed that it was something to do with routine bank business, and was very much taken aback to discover what the real topic was. Walzak informed Mitch that he had just received a phone call from a very high ranking public figure, urging him to ask Mitch to please vote in favor of the hospital expansion. Mitch was totally surprised and asked Walzak, “Do you mean someone called and asked you to apply pressure on me to vote yes?"

The bank President stressed the fact that he was personally indifferent to how Mitch voted on that or any other issue that came before the Council. Walzak said that he merely felt that Mitch should be aware of the fact that the phone call had been made. Mitch was furious that someone would attempt to pressure him politically through his employer, and demanded to know who had made the call. At first he resisted, but finally Walzak relented and revealed the identity of the attempted blackmailer:

David Starr.

Mitch considered the discovery that it was the publisher of the daily paper who had applied this pressure as beyond the pale, and something that Ogulewicz couldn't overlook. He left work immediately and marched straight down Main Street to the corporate headquarters of the Springfield Newspapers. When Mitch arrived, he demanded to speak with the publisher. Ushered into the office, he found Starr was smiling and welcoming.

“Mr. Starr,” Mitch said trying to keep his calm, “I need to have a word with you.”

“Of course,” Starr replied pleasantly, “and don’t call me Mr. Starr. Call me David.”

Mitch was angered by Starr’s friendliness, which he saw as hypocritical considering the phone call he knew Starr had made that morning. It seemed to Ogulewicz indicative of Starr’s arrogant belief that Mitch’s quick arrival at his office apparently meant that Mitch was coming to surrender.

“No thank you, Mr. Starr,” Mitch said, rejecting the offer of moving their relationship to a first name basis, “I don’t want to be too friendly with anyone who puts pressure on the place where I work in order to try to force me to vote their way! Frankly, I don’t appreciate the implied threat!”

The expression on Starr's face revealed that the publisher was caught completely off-guard. At first Starr tried to deny that he had made the call, but Ogulewicz then asked why Walzak, whom he had known since they were youngsters growing up on Hungry Hill, would lie to him about such a matter. Still Starr continued to insist that he had not made the call. The conversation became very heated, with at one point Mitch’s voice becoming so loud that nearby employees gathered outside Starr’s office, concerned about the shouting they heard coming from inside. Mitch finally stormed out of Starr’s office in a rage, aware that what little friendly relationship he had ever had with Starr was now irreparably damaged.

Ironically, despite that ugly incident Mitch ended up voting for the hospital expansion anyway, eventually concluding that the medical needs of the community outweighed the resident’s objections. The other Councilors voted the same way, except for Betty Montori, and the measure passed 8 to 1. Montori suffered for her lone dissenting vote, when the Springfield Newspapers wrote a strident editorial calling for her defeat in the next election.

If Springfield could only have had more people of conviction like Betty Montori in public office, someone who was willing to stand up for what she believed no matter what the consequences, the city may never have fallen to its current state.

May she rest in peace.

Today's Video

Former Valley Advocate reporter and WNNZ radio host Al Giordano (above) was a friend of the late singer/songwriter Jeff Buckley. In fact Buckley's song The Sky is a Landfill is based on an essay written by Giordano. Al had this to say about Buckley's tragic death:

Jeff Buckley was a singer-songwriter with a voice of five octaves and the big heart of an authentic revolutionary. Jeff dedicated his life to telling the truth. His death by drowning in the Mississippi River in 1997 was pronounced “accidental.” Don’t believe it!

I was one of the last humans to see Jeff in New York City, on his way to the airport, to Memphis, where he was late in recording an album for Sony. The music company had fucked with him and his ability to tell the truth as he saw it. They wouldn’t let him choose his own producer. They imposed one on him: wanting to exploit his talent commercially, in violation of Jeff’s own vision.

Some months later, on the night before he was to begin recording at the gunpoint of a contract with Sony, as his bandmates were arriving by airplane, Jeff, drunk on wine, on the banks of the river where signs shout that the currents are dangerous and do not swim there, Jeff entered the river with his boots on: With his fucking boots on! He was last heard singing “Wanna whole lotta love” and then he sung no more....

Do you want to know how to kill an authentic journalist or a revolutionary? Do you want to know how to provoke a truth-seeker and truth-teller into taking his or her own life? Play a con game on him and her: that’s how.

Grace - Jeff Buckley

Schiff for Senate

2009-06-23T14:20:00.012-04:00

The Perfect Replacement for Dodd

Everybody is wrong sometimes about some things, maybe even a lot of things. But few are more wrong more often than Connecticut's pathetic U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd. His role in the economic meltdown of the past year alone is a disgraceful farce of errors, bad judgement and scandal, as outlined in the Wikipedia:

In his role as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Dodd proposed a program in June 2008 that would assist troubled subprime mortgage lenders such as Countrywide Financial in the wake of the United States housing bubble's collapse. Condé Nast Portfolio reported allegations that in 2003 Dodd had refinanced the mortgages on his homes in Washington, D.C. and Connecticut through Countrywide Financial and had received favorable terms due to being placed in a "Friends of Angelo" program. Dodd received mortgages from Countrywide at allegedly below-market rates on his Washington, D.C. and Connecticut homes. Dodd had not disclosed the below-market mortgages in any of six financial disclosure statements he filed with the Senate or Office of Government Ethics since obtaining the mortgages in 2003.

Senator Dodd was involved in issues related to the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. During this period, Dodd denied rumors these firms were in financial crisis. He called the firms "fundamentally strong", said they were in "sound situation" and "in good shape" and to "suggest they are in major trouble is not accurate".

In early September, after the firms continued to report huge losses, Secretary Paulson announced a federal takeover of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Dodd expressed skepticism of the action, which the Treasury estimated could cost as much as $200 Billion.

Dodd is the number one recipient in Congress of campaign funds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Critics also charge that Dodd ignored repeated warnings that the two firms were in need of major reform.

In February 2009 Kevin Rennie, a columnist at the Hartford Courant, ran an op-ed concerning Dodd's acquisition of his vacation home in Roundstone, Ireland. The article alleged that Dodd's former partner in buying the home had ties to disgraced Bear Stearns principal Edward Downe, Jr. who has since been convicted of insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

From the fall of 2008 through early 2009, the United States government spent nearly $170 Billion to assist failing insurance giant, AIG. AIG then spent $165 million of this money to hand out executive "retention" bonuses to its top executives. Public outrage ensued over this perceived misuse of taxpayer dollars.

Obviously Dodd deserves to be voted out of office, and by a landslide margin. But who should replace him? A name coming up more and more is Peter Schiff (below) the economic genius who was nearly alone in warning of the current crisis before it occurred. While Dodd was always wrong, Schiff was almost always right, as reported in the Wikipedia:

In an August 2006 interview Schiff generated controversy when he repeated his long-held investment thesis: "The United States economy is like the Titanic and I am here with the lifeboat trying to get people to leave the ship ...I see a real financial crisis coming for the United States." On Dec 31, 2006 in debate on Fox News, Schiff forecast that "what's going to happen in 2007" is that "real estate prices are going to come crashing back down to Earth." In fact, the median price of an American single-family home did fall in 2007, for the first time in decades. As part of these exchanges on Fox News and his repeated appearances on financial news network CNBC (where he was consistently ridiculed by the network's hosts), Schiff had mentioned factors such as speculators and "the absence of lending standards" which are now seen by many to indeed be contributing factors to the "housing crisis" of 2007-2009.

Schiff also discusses the role of the U.S. consumer in the world, saying that the U.S. consumer thinks he's doing the world a favor by consuming what the rest of the world produces. He is quick to point out that this relationship will come to an end much sooner than people imagine, and with negative consequences for the U.S. Schiff has been quoted as saying: "Consumption is its own reward for Production" —meaning that without production, the US cannot indefinitely sustain its ongoing consumption. Schiff, and other adherents of Austrian economics, promote savings and production as "the engine of economic growth—not consumption".

Schiff has said on numerous occasions that the current economic crisis is not the problem; it is the solution. He claims the transition from borrowing and spending to saving and producing cannot be accomplished without a severe recession, given the current imbalances of the U.S. economy. But according to him, that transition needs to happen. He also thinks the government is doing no one a favor by trying to "ease the pain" with stimulus packages, bailouts and such. Schiff believes these actions will only make the situation worse and possibly result in hyperinflation if the government continues to "replace legitimate savings with a printing press."

Schiff is a firm believer in reducing government regulation of the economy. Schiff worries that Barack Obama will increase such regulation.

As Schiff says in his latest column:

Harry Browne, the former Libertarian Party candidate for president, used to say: “the government is great at breaking your leg, handing you a crutch, and saying ‘You see, without me you couldn’t walk.’” That maxim is clearly illustrated by the financial industry regulatory reforms proposed this week by the Obama Administration.

The underlying problem is that the excessive risk taking which brought about the crisis was not market-driven, but a direct consequence of government interference with risk-inhibiting market forces. Rather than learning from its mistakes and allowing market forces to once again control risks and efficiently allocate resources, the government is merely repeating its mistakes on a grander scale – thereby sowing the seeds for an even greater crisis in the future.

As is typical of government attempts to control economic outcomes, Obama’s plans focuses on the symptoms of the disease and not the cause. The American financial system imploded for two reasons: cheap money and moral hazard – both of which were supplied by the government. Under the proposed new regulatory structures, these toxic ingredients will be combined in ever-increasing quantities.

The proposals most notably involve extra regulatory oversight of financial entities that the government deems “too big to fail.” This implies that it is desirable to have such entities in the first place, and that the government will continue to back those large organizations that fall under its protection. These “too big to fail” firms will enjoy a competitive advantage over smaller firms in attracting capital, as lenders will perceive zero risk in extending them credit. This will cause these firms to grow even larger, producing even greater systemic risks and larger losses when the next round of bailouts arrives. Meanwhile, smaller firms which seek to expand, and which propose no systemic risks, will face greater challenges as higher capital costs render them less competitive.

If the government did not provide these bailouts or guarantees, then the market itself would ensure organizations did not grow beyond their ability to attract capital. It is only when market discipline is overcome by government guarantees that systemic risks arise.

Obama proposes to entrust the critical job of “systemic risk regulator” to the Federal Reserve, the very organization that has proven most adept at creating systemic risk. This is like making Keith Richards the head of the DEA.

Frankly, I'd put Keith Richards in charge of almost anything ahead of Chris Dodd. Like so many others who helped to bring about this unnecessary fiscal crisis and whose stupidity is unnecessarily prolonging it, Dodd deserves to be severely punished at the polls. Schiff is just the one to do it, and according to the Wall Street Journal Schiff is seriously considering it. Let's hope he goes through with it and runs, as Schiff is exactly the sort of person now needed in Washington.

Bikers

Every morning I start my day with a stroll through paradise. Despite all the shit that's gone down, I know that overall I'm one lucky dude. After the rain we've been having it was nice to have clear skies as I took the woodland way into downtown Northampton today. The bright sunlight made the path into a study in darkness and light.

I like this rock between two trees. It looks like a face if you look at it right.

Which I'm sure is why someone put it there. Suddenly a whole bunch of bikers came zooming by!

One had a flat tire, and people were helping. One of them was my friend Joe (below giving the thumbs up) from the Amherst Survival Center.

It turns out the bikers (but not Joe) were going to bike cross-country on an adventure you can follow by going here.

At the end of the trail was parked this very green car.

Today's Video

Keep your head up.

Reagan's Lessons

2009-06-22T14:51:00.013-04:00

Obama Learning the Hard Way

There is much debate among historians over the budget deficits former President Ronald Reagan ran up in the 1980's. The main reason for that controversy is that Reagan was a fiscal conservative, so shouldn't the national debt have shrunk rather that grown while he was office? Yet that's not what happened, as the budget was never balanced a single year of his two term presidency. There are two main theories about why that happened.

One is that Reagan simply lacked the authority to balance the budget. Under the U.S. Constitution all spending must originate in Congress. The President has no power over how much Congress chooses to spend, other than to veto bills considered too expensive. Reagan continually vetoed expensive legislation passed by Congress, but the problem was that Reagan controlled the Senate for only the start of his presidency and never controlled the House. That meant that Reagan's vetoes were repeatedly overriden by Congress. Therefore some have argued that the Reagan era deficits should more properly be called the Tip O'Neil deficits, because that was who was Speaker of the House when Congress passed the unbalanced budgets over Reagan's objections. This argument suggests that Reagan would have gladly balanced the budget, but Congress, which has final authority over the purse strings, never allowed him to.

However, there was another, more cynical explanation put forward by some of Reagan's critics. According to this view, Reagan secretly favored running up the debt, because in the long run that would spoil any plans to expand the size and scope of government since it would become unaffordable to do so and pay off all that debt. These critics claimed that Reagan was purposely "starving the government" by running up debts that would all but slam the door on new government spending, which as an advocate of small government Reagan opposed.

Which theory you believe depends a lot upon your view of Reagan. If you like him, you probably favor the theory that it was all the congressional Democrat's fault. If you don't like him, then you might favor the notion that Reagan cynically used deficit spending to strangle any chances for government expansion.

Someone who seems to be getting a hard lesson in both theories is President Barack Obama. The current massive spending - the highest in history - enacted by the Obama Administration in their first months in office is so huge, and requires so much tax revenue to repay, that Obama is finding he has no money left to do anything else with. That is what is killing his health care proposals in Congress, there appears to be no way to enact the kind of expansion of governement control over health care that Obama wants without adding to the already unacceptably high deficits. It now appears that health care reform is going to die, not because there is insufficient support in Congress, which Obama's party controls, but because there isn't any way to pay for it without adding to the already unsustainable budget deficits.

And Obama is learing Reagan's lesson from Congress as well. Just as Reagan couldn't make Congress stop spending, so a bitter battle appears to be brewing over Obama's pledge to lower spending back to affordable levels after the two year stimulus money runs out. But does anyone really think that the teacher's unions, and the public employee unions, and the other Democrat Party interest groups, who have been fed so generously by the stimulus spending, are going to just voluntarily give up the money in two years? Don't hold your breath. I believe you can safely predict open warfare will break out within the Democrat Party and its special interest groups once it comes time to make those cuts.

So Obama faces the worst of both worlds - a Congress that won't stop spending and deficits so huge that there is no money for new spending programs or the expansion of existing ones. Obama's battle will be to convince his fellow Democrats to cut spending (something which historically they have always refused to do) while coping with a treasury that is constantly broke when it comes to considering any new spending programs.

So although the election of Obama was hailed at the time as a major victory for liberal spending and the expansion of Big Government, that possibility is being crushed as it is becomes increasingly clear that there is no money to do anything but pay off the stimulus bills. Therefore in the end it may well be the ghost of Ronald Reagan who has the last laugh.

Solidarity

Hey, put this up on your website or facebook or whatever to show support for the Twitter Revolution in Iran.

Dubious Role Model

I can't believe that someone sent me a photo of how they looked when they went to a party dressed as Stephen Geoffreys.

The real Stephen Geoffreys at the height of his career in the 1980's.

Stephen in his porno phase.

Stephen today.

Deerfield Day

Yesterday I went to the crafts fair in historic Deerfield. Here I am outside a colonial house.

In the center of town is this massive tree, which is at least three hundred years old.

This monument erected in 1867 honors both the Civil War veterans and those who died in the Indian wars.

Here's the entrance to the crafts fair.

Unfortunately I have no pictures from inside the fair because cameras are forbidden. A copyrighted crafts fair? Apparently they have a problem with people photographing the craft designs and then copying them. Who knew that the crafts fair world was so competitive?

Actually you'd be surprised. A friend of mine used to be in the soda delivery business, bringing the cannisters of soda and removing the empty ones to and from restaurants and bars. You would think that would be a nice, wholesome business, but he told me it was unbelievable how bitter the turf battles were between which companies would get what contracts to service what outlets. Vandalism, dirty tricks, nothing was off limits in the dog eat dog soda pop world. Who'd a thunk?

How True

A t-shirt I saw today at the Amherst Survival Center.

Today's Video

I am an eternal student of language and how it evolves. That is why I like talking with young people, who are the most frequent originators of slang. Most slang dies, but some of it goes mainstream, and it's fascinating to see how that happens and why or why not.

Lately I've been hearing a variation of the term "awesome" which originally became a hot slang term in the 1980's, went mainstream and has since faded. But now I hear it's back as a single sylable "oss." Like, "that new record by Dinosaur Jr. is really oss!" Instead of saying, "really awesome."

Anyway, here is a really oss cover of a really oss song.

Instant Karma

2009-06-20T15:15:00.007-04:00

Flynn Gets His

I missed most of the Springfield mayoral election of 2007 because I was in drug rehab for all of October and November of that year. When I mysteriously stopped posting to this blog, after a week or so my readers started checking the papers and even calling the police, thinking that something terrible must have happened to make me stop. Fortunately something wonderful was happening - I was being reborn - but I'll always be grateful and touched by the number of people who cared when I went missing.

But even in the heavily sedated realm of my institutional setting, cut off from most of my usual sources, I could tell that Charlie Ryan was in trouble. The first sense of it I got from the TV screen, when I saw those ads with Dom Sarno and the trash cans. At first I was pleased to note that Sarno had a bright red Commerce sweatshirt on, but by the time the ad was over I was mad.

I was mad because Sarno was promising in that ad something I knew he couldn't deliver - the repeal of the trash fee. I had never supported the fee - whatever was wrong with Springfield, it wasn't that the citizens were under-taxed. After all that Springfield had been put through by the Albano's and the Keoughs and the Phillips and the sleazes and incompetents of every stripe, they didn't deserve a tax hike on top of it. I thought it was mean of the Control Board to insist on such a thing.

But the point was that the Control Board, not the elected officials like Ryan or Sarno, were the only one's with the authority to repeal the fee. They had already firmly stated that they had no intention of doing so. So Ryan had no power to repeal the fee, and Sarno knew that, yet he was blaming Ryan for not doing so. Sarno also knew that if he himself were elected mayor, the Control Board would still be in control and he would be helpless to repeal the fee. And that is exactly what happened.

So even by political standards - hell, even by Springfield standards - Sarno's ad was about as bold-faced an act of outright lying and conscious deception as you could imagine. I knew Charlie would be at a great disadvantage against those ads, because Ryan is too much of a gentleman to stoop to the level needed to match that kind of dirty fight.

And there were other disadvantages Ryan brought to the race. Bringing Springfield back from the brink of fiscal disaster had required making some very difficult decisions. It meant firing some popular people who were none the less doing a lousy job. People like Springfield Police Chief Paula Meara, who everybody liked but who no one thought was getting a handle on Springfield's rising crime rate. The fear of crime, both real and imagined, is a major barrier to Springfield's recovery, since no one wants to live where they don't feel safe. The middle-class is not returning to Springfield until crime is under control. Crime fighting in Springfield needed a fresh face.

The problem was Meara didn't want to go. She rallied her friends, made angry statements and called in her lawyers. In the end Charlie had to expend a tremendous amount of political capital and taxpayer's money to ease Meara off the stage. You might say he staked his entire second term on relieving Springfield's crime problem through shaking up the upper ranks of the police department, beginning with the Chief. The man chosen to replace Meara was a state official named Edward Flynn.

I met Flynn only once, at some political shindig held at the artspace the Keith Sikes Gang used to run out of the old Valley Bank Space in Tower Square (to some of us forever Baystate West). Here is a video I shot that day.

So after all Charlie had gambled on Edward Flynn, when the news reached me in rehab that Flynn had suddenly quit to take a job in the Midwest, I knew Charlie was finished. Flynn's departure, after having been in town such a short time, killed any chance that Ryan could run on the crime issue. Since battling crime had been the centerpiece of Ryan's second term, and now he couldn't run on it without bringing up the embarrassment of having lost the man he bought out Meara for, and with Sarno's dishonest ads all over TV, I knew Charlie was finished. There was nothing for me to do than to ring the nurse for more medication.

Of course what's causing me to recall all these things is the big scandal that has erupted out west over an illicit romance Flynn has gotten caught up in. It's the sort of sordid affair that ruins a man's career and ultimately overshadows all his other accomplishments. Whether he manages to hold onto his job or not is irrelevant, Flynn's day is done.

I'm sure Flynn is preoccupied now with the firestorm of media surrounding him, and coping with the personal fall-out of having betrayed his wife. But I hope, in the course of it all, he pauses perhaps for a moment to consider another person he let down, a man who staked his mayoralty on his character, and who he also betrayed. I hope Flynn thinks a little bit about karma. About how when you do something wrong to someone, something bad has a tendency to happen to you a little further down the road.

Karma - What goes around comes around. Looks like its coming round to you, Chief Flynn.

Odd Life and Death of J. Wesley Miller

Here's another oldie transferred from Geocities:

So I see in the paper that J. Wesley Miller is dead. Actually the obituary says he died back in September, but his death is only being publicly announced exactly four months to the day later. That strikes me as weird and mysterious, but then everything in the life of J. Wesley Miller was very weird and often mysterious, so why should his death be any different?

People close to the circumstances surrounding the death of Attorney Miller have been contacting me with details about the infamous activist's untimely death. First of all, although the newspaper obituary listed the date of Miller's death as September 13, 2005, the actual date of his death is not known. He was last seen alive in early September but then vanished from view, missing several appointments until concerned acquaintances felt compelled to call the Springfield police. Officers went to Miller's home and forced their way inside, where they found Miller lying on a cot dead of what was later determined to be a massive stroke. How many days he had been lying there dead could not be determined.

At first not everyone believed he had actually died. It would be just like Wesley to fake his own death, but the passage of time has convinced most people that Wesley is in fact deceased. No one has told me that they have actually seen his body however, which for some reason was for a long time held in Boston. In any case many said that they were not surprised by his sudden demise.

Miller was a harsh critic of all healthful activities such as exercising and dieting, insisting that only intellectual activities mattered and that all else was vanity. Miller often complained that colleges and public schools focused too much on physical fitness and should devote the money they spent on sports, gyms and athletic fields to academics and research. With these attitudes it was not surprising that he was considerably overweight, inactive and considered eating "a waste of time." Therefore he ate whatever was cheap and convenient, which often meant junk food. With all of his glorifying of the mind over the body, it seems the good attorney forgot that the mind cannot function when the body is dead from neglect and bad food.

The last time I saw Wesley was at a public meeting held in downtown Springfield to gather citizen input into possible economic development projects. Such public hearings are usually meaningless formalities designed to allow the Economic Development Poohbahs to claim that they listened to public suggestions before going ahead and doing precisely what they wanted to do in the first place. But this was exactly the kind of phony affair that Wesley always attended with great seriousness.

He didn't look very serious. He was wearing an electric orange jumpsuit (God knows where he found such a thing) over which he wore a bright purple bikini over a codpiece that created a huge bulge between his legs. His hair was cut and greased in a big mohawk. The dignitaries could only sit with their mouths gaping as Miller insisted that an excellent idea for an economic development project would be to build a public shrine to LSD guru Dr. Timothy Leary (a proud graduate of Springfield's Classical High School) and then market it as a tourist attraction for hippies.

Many people didn't believe that Wesley was a real attorney, but he was a graduate of Western New England College School of Law and he died a full member of the Massachusetts bar in good standing. Upon graduating he immediately turned around and sued the school for what he called "educational malpractice." The case was settled out of court, and one of the stipulations of the settlement was that he was forever unwelcome on the college campus and was stripped of all alumnae privileges. Wesley couldn't understand their hard feelings, he thought they should be proud of the fact that their student had won his first lawsuit!

Of course Wesley never actually practiced law. He would have, except he never had any customers. Perhaps they were afraid he might show up for court in an orange jumpsuit. In fact I don't think he ever had what could actually be called a real job. His obituary mentions teaching positions, but those were from when he was in graduate school. His parents had been fairly well-to-do, his father was a prominent executive at the former Monarch Life Insurance Company and had accumulated a large amount of stock in the company. His family was definitely considered one of Springfield's upper crust, in fact one of his ancestors was Miles Morgan, to whom a statue was erected on Court Square which stands to this day. But the family lost everything in the collapse of Monarch in the 1980's, turning what should have been a life of gentlemanly leisure for Wesley into one of near poverty. He was too eccentric to get a normal job, so he survived by living with his mother on her small social security check and pension.

I doubt Wesley was ever what you would call normal, but the loss of the family fortune seemed to really unhinge him and started him drifting towards his orange jumpsuit phase. I only knew him after the financial catastrophe, but people who knew him before then told me he used to be more grounded. I considered him a complete lunatic from the moment I met him, but an interesting one. For one thing, in his odd way he was a serious scholar. He had really advanced research skills and was very clever in obtaining information no one else could get. Part of the reason why was because he seemed to know everyone, in fact I was amazed by the number of high ranking people he was in regular contact with. He once bragged to me that he had either written or spoken to every single politician and business owner in Springfield over the last forty years, and I believe he did.

Wesley won my friendship by being useful to me. I would tell him what I was working on for the Baystate Objectivist and he would come by in a day or two with all kinds of documents, news clippings and photos on that subject that would have taken me hours or even days to track down on my own. He seemed to know something about nearly everyone; he was a walking encyclopedia of facts, figures and gossip about Springfield politics. I would eventually come to hate Wesley, but I'll always owe him this much, knowing him was like getting a doctorate degree in the political history of Springfield.

Unfortunately, the better I got to know Wesley the weirder things seemed to get. For one thing, I noticed that he sometimes referred to people as "my research projects." When he wanted to know something about someone he was absolutely relentless in his pursuit of knowledge about them. I began hearing rumors that he had been in trouble over complaints of "stalking behavior." Once Wesley designated you as one of his research projects, you might catch him peering at you from behind a tree. A few research subjects reported him to the police, but no one ever pressed charges.

It got stranger still when Wesley began taking me into his confidence about his "games." The first inkling I had of Wesley's games came from the activist Eamon O'Sullivan. Eamon told me that Wesley had invited him to his house to sample some homemade jam his mother had made. During the course of the visit, Wesley asked Eamon if he could take his picture. Eamon was glad to pose, asking only that Wesley give him a copy when it was developed. At the time Eamon was in a feud with Larry McDermott of the Springfield Newspapers. From what I could tell the feud was sort of one-sided, with Eamon leaving critical and insulting messages on McDermott's answering machine and McDermott pretty much ignoring them. Eamon and Wesley interpreted McDermott's silence as a sign of insufferable arrogance, although I tried to suggest to them that maybe McDermott might be more likely to respond if they were not harassing him on his home phone.

Anyway, Eamon later told me that one day he got a letter in the mail and inside there was a copy of the photograph from the jam tasting visit. Eamon said that on the back was written in Wesley's handwriting, "Larry, here's the picture of Eamon." What could that mean? Eamon told me he had to wonder whether Larry McDermott had gotten the same picture with something like "Hope you liked the jam!" written on the back. In other words Eamon wondered whether Wesley had also sent that picture to McDermott, but had mixed them up and put the one with the message for Larry in Eamon's envelope instead. I told him it couldn't be, it was inconceivable that Wesley might be in a speaking relationship with McDermott and not say anything about it.

But that was before I knew about Wesley's games. Little by little I realized that it was common for Wesley to be actively engaged in communication with people who were either arguing, or in competion with each other or running for office, and befriend them without either one knowing that he knew them both. With both sides thinking he was their friend, he would manipulate them into having confrontations or making embarrassing mistakes, and he seemed to do this for no reason other than his own amusement. He was an intellectual version of the guy in the bar who keeps running back and forth between people trying to set up a fight just to have the fun of watching the excitement of it all when things come to blows. So he would have long phone calls with Tom Vannah of the Valley Advocate, then tell everything Vannah said to their competitor David Starr of the Springfield Newspapers. When Starr gave Wesley his unlisted home phone number, Wesley passed it out to all of Starr's harshest critics. Always he manipulated one person against the other, with each one thinking Wesley was their friend, when actually he was playing a big joke on both of them. At any one time he had dozens of such games underway.

Why did so many powerful and successful people become involved with J. Wesley Miller, a man who pranced around public meetings in an orange jumpsuit? For one thing, they didn't take him seriously. In other words, they humored him. That's part of what his crazy costume was designed to do, make people dismiss him as just a clown. Clowns are safe. But while they were not taking him seriously, they were also not noticing the very serious things Miller was up to.

At first I thought Wesley's games were mean and a little sick but I couldn't see where they did any great harm, not until Wesley got Johnson's Bookstore to close. From what Wesley told me, the owner of Johnson's was undergoing some kind of psychological crisis, and Wesley, an atheist, was advising him to give up his store and find inner peace by becoming a religious missionary overseas. When Wesley told me he had successfully done this I was furious. "Don't you realize what a blow it is to the city to have Johnson's close?"

"I do." he replied in a self-satisfied tone.

"Well then why the hell did you do it?"

He replied, "Because I can."

I believe that on a fundamental level Wesley hated the world. I suspected from things he told me that he had a tough childhood, being very smart and sort of weird he had been taunted and ridiculed by the other kids. He considered his tormentors to be inferior to him, and as an adult he got a kind of unhealthy thrill out of playing power games with prominent people that involved manipulating and making fools of them in elaborate deceptions that only he knew of and about which he could snicker over in private. Sometimes he couldn't keep all his nasty triumphs to himself, and he would tell me about them. It began to dawn on me that Wesley's games were inflicting real damage on people and even on the city of Springfield. When one of Wesley's games almost resulted in some one's suicide, I concluded that no matter how valuable a researcher he was I had to start distancing myself from this weirdo.

Unfortunately, that was when Wesley informed me that he had fallen in love with me. Wesley was a homosexual with a leather fetish, and began leaving off at my house the most vile forms of gay S&M pornography in the insane hope that somehow this would entice me into having a relationship with him. I told him to keep that crap away from me but he wouldn't listen. I had become his latest research project.

I couldn't reject him as sternly as he deserved. Inside he was already a deeply hurt person and very lonely, so I didn't want to crush him. Big mistake - almost as big a mistake as sending him a picture of me in the nude. It was a very PG rated nude picture, you could've run it in a family newspaper, but it was none the less obvious that I was naked. I did this insane thing as a means of softening my refusal to attend Wesley's lecture series entitled, "The History of Art in Springfield." Wesley loved the sound of his own voice and I couldn't imagine sitting there for God knows how long as he droned on and on. Also the invitation said that guests were required to take notes, and I knew that Wesley would be checking to see if the guests did. In short it seemed like the perfect chance to start cutting off contact with Wesley. The invitation had various attempts at humor on it including the phrase "clothes optional" under the dress code. I sent Wesley my PG nude with my rejection of his invitation, writing on the back "This is how I would've dressed if I could have attended." Ain't I witty?

Days passed and I heard nothing from Wesley, so I began to think he had accepted my refusal. Then I got an email from Maureen Turner of the Valley Advocate. She said a letter had come in the mail purporting to be from the Springfield Library Association. In fact, it was written on official SLA stationary. The letter was a warning that someone was appearing nude around library property and asking would the media please help in apprehending this sexually deviant person. It was signed by someone claiming to be the head of security for the libraries. There was a picture accompanying the letter. It was the nude picture I had sent as a joke to Wesley.

I don't know how he got the Springfield Library Association stationary, but I found out that he had sent similar letters to every media outlet in the Valley. I called Wesley on the phone. It got emotional. He cried and asked how could I reject him after all that he had done for me, couldn't I at least have sex with him out of pity? I told him to never call me again and if I ever saw him anywhere near me I would kill him.

It would be years before I spoke to J. Wesley Miller again, and when I did I didn't kill him. Actually, the photo did not have the negative effect Wesley was hoping for, as everyone who saw it recognised it as a hoax. Still I wanted nothing to do with Miller; if he would pull such a stunt who knows what else he was capable of? When we finally crossed paths after several years it was, not surprisingly, at a public meeting. Wesley was there in full regalia, the orange jump suit, the purple bikini, the bulging codpiece. I noticed that he had added chains and motorcycle insignia to his get-up. I remembered that someone told me that they had seen him riding shotgun on the back of a motorcycle in Northampton's gay pride parade, with his arms wrapped tightly around the waist of the leather-clad driver. It made me wonder if he had finally found a boyfriend.

I intended to ignore Wesley's presence at the public meeting. He walked right up to me.

"Greetings and salutations, Thomas!"

"Get away from me Wesley."

"I only want the chance to say I'm sorry. I only did it because I loved you and because I wanted to protect you."

"Protect me?"

Yes, I wanted to destroy your reputation so that you would give up on Springfield and not waste your time on that evil city. You were too good for them. I wanted you to spend your time and your talent on something that deserved it. I'm happy you finally moved out. I was glad when I heard that you went to Amherst."

"Good-by Wesley."

He walked away. Later that evening he got roars of laughter by standing up and doing an impromptu hula dance right in the middle of someone's boring political speech and again when he asked during a question and answer period whether the city had considered turning the York Street Jail into a leather bar. He suggested that patrons could rent out the cells for sexual activities.

But now J. Wesley Miller is dead. Or rather he's been dead for four months and we're just learning about it.

Wesley, you evil nutcase, rest in peace.

Postscript - Someone convinced me that I should reprint this poem by Wesley that originally appeared in the January 1998 issue of The Baystate Objectivist. Ironically it is a lament for the closing of Johnson's Bookstore. That's ironic because Wesley once boasted to me that he had helped to cause the store's closing. Such contradictions are classic Wesley, you could never be sure where he was coming from. The word "lugete" that he uses over and over I believe is Latin meaning, "Oh woe!" So why didn't he just write that? Because Wesley took a perverse pleasure in confusing and annoying his readers by being purposely obscure. What makes the poem worthwhile however, is that most of the poem consists of a list of memory triggers for anyone with deep roots in Springfield. It's worth reading for both the poetic nostalgia and thinly veiled sarcasm.

J. W. Miller in 2004

Johnson's Bookstore Funeral Ode
by J. Wesley Miller, Esq.

Johnson's Bookstore's gone for good;
Springfield's down the tubes.
Doctor Seuss won't puff it up;
Basketball's for Boobs.

All Monarchies must end,
All Monarchs have their fall.
And when at last they do,
It burns the hides of all.

Lugete, Oh Lugete! Johnson's Bookstore's dead.
Lugete, Oh Lugete! Springfield won't be back.
Out of nothing, nothing comes.
Into nothing, nothing goes.

Once downtown was compact
And you could stroll around
Browsing, buying, snacking, joying
From end to end of town.

Forbes and Steiger's, Greene's,
Meekins, Packard, Wheat.
Poole's and Penny's, Kresge's
Neiser's and Stillman's couldn't be beat.

And when we went to the Public Market
Victoria Square was the place to park it.
Brigham's Lerner's Enterprize,
McLellan's, Haynes and True's.

Carlisle's, Kane's, Okun's, Stearns
The Waldorf for a bowl of stew.
Graffito stenciled on Union Trust;
While Brunton Sleeps Springfield Rusts.

The Georgian, Jensen's, Jackson's;
Spiral staircase in Child's;
Adaskin's, Hadley's, Regal's;
Al Strohman was all smiles.

Broadway, Bijou, Poli,
Arcado and Paramount,
Capital and Court Square,
Kimball, Highland, let's be done!

Bricks and mortar fall to dust
Like Abyssinia, Greece and Rome.
When Doctor Seuss passed through
He said, "This is not my home."

Lugete, Oh Lugete! Johnson's Bookstore is dead.

Today's Video

To Chief Flynn.

Pioneer Valley Dead

2009-06-19T14:35:00.008-04:00

From My Vaults

The pictures below are of the Grateful Dead at the Hartford and Springfield Civic Center with ticket stubs providing additional information. The Dead had a storied history in Springfield. They were the first rock band to play the Civic Center when it opened in 1972 and caused a riot when the band refused to come on stage until the seats on the floor were removed (can't cramp the dancers ya know). This took some time and the crowd waiting outside got restless until the next thing you know some windows got broken and a few people got hurt. Despite this bad omen the Dead continued to play the Springfield Civic Center yearly until 1985, when a person alleged to be freaking out on acid hurled himself or fell (it was never determined which) off the old Forbes & Wallace parking garage and landed with a bloody splat on Boland Way. The Dead were then permanantly banned from Springfield, the only band I believe to have earned that distinction.

Be Sure To Enter Portal 12!

The flyer below is a promotion for a UMass concert I attended, one of the unidentified back-up bands mentioned on the flyer was the Patti Smith Group. The other one was something called Roy Ayers Ubiquity. Bob Weir sang the song "Looks Like Rain" and sure enough it did rain, but not enough to ruin the show. (click to enlarge)

Straying a little out of our Valley towards Boston way, the following was one of the earliest shows I saw. Jerry Garcia had a lot of little solo bands he threw together for short tours when the Grateful Dead were off the road. A self-proclaimed "playing junkie" (in more ways than one) Garcia simply couldn't take a vacation and so was always out touring with whatever musical friends were available. Generally he performed under the name Jerry Garcia Band, whose members were always changing, but one of his most obscure projects was something called The Legion of Mary. The band's name has no special significance beyond that Garcia, as Ken Kesey once described him, was "a Christian acidhead." In my wonderfully misspent youth I went to see The Legion of Mary at The Orpheum Theater in Boston. Here is my ticket stub, miraculously preserved all these years.

Here is a picture of me, brazen teen-aged brat that I was, openly huffing a joint on the Boston Common before the show. Wow, was my hair ever really that thick?

Unfortunately I don't remember much about the show, except that the ushers at the Orpheum were really uptight. The theater at that time was a highbrow concert venue, and considered itself somewhat slumming it to have the scruffy Dead folk in for the night. They were terrified that people would burn holes in their newly upholstered seats and fancy rugs. Their fears were not irrational, since the level of smoke in the place was thick enough to cut with a knife, which was typical at Dead events. People were freer in those days and not so intimidated by the health nazis. Here is a picture I took at that show.

Returning to our Valley, the traveling art show of the paintings of Jerry Garcia passed through Springfield in 2001, appearing in a swanky suite of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown's Monarch Place. It was free, and drew a good crowd, no doubt in part because of the rainy weather which made it a great day to take part in an inside activity. Of course it also didn’t hurt that Garcia has an almost fanatical following among fans of the artistic role in which he is best known – the late lead guitarist for the acid-rock blues/jazz fusion-improvisational music experiment called The Grateful Dead.

My friends and I arrived downtown at mid-Sunday afternoon and parked by City Hall. You could tell that something Deadish was up because of the people wandering around with tie-dye t-shirts. I spotted at least two drug dealers operating discreetly on the sidewalk outside the hotel lobby entrance for those wishing to enhance their viewing experience by obtaining an altered state. I don’t know what they were selling; I guess I’m getting too old looking to be regarded by streetdealers as a safe risk for a sales pitch. Once inside, the audience hardly resembled your typical art show crowd, with most people dressed in attire more appropriate for a rock concert than an event of high culture. Predictably, loud Grateful Dead music played as the patrons examined the paintings.

The artwork itself was colorful, whimsical and fun, but the truth is Garcia was not really a serious painter. He apparently liked to use his art to recreate his own visions of altered states, indulging through painting the spacey sensibilities of the psychedelic experience. Not to put too fine a point on it, this is essentially Dope Art, primarily intended to be appreciated by fellow stoners. Some of Garica's work was clever and funny, like the piece, “Big Bird Crashing Through the Wall From an Alternate Reality” or the somewhat more ominous “Grandma’s House,” in which a pleasantly smiling matron sits knitting, oblivious to the menacing face from another dimension emerging beside her. The best pieces however were the abstractions, which were beautiful and otherworldly. It was in the tripped-out psychedelia that Garcia’s talent in painting seemed to best mirror his music.

All in all, for a celebrity art show this was really first rate, and despite the steep prices, from what I could observe and overhear sales were pretty good. They even had Garcia’s universally popular ties for sale, which are loosely based on his abstract art and which have attracted customers ranging from Bill Clinton to Rush Limbaugh. Yet ultimately the bottom line is that Garcia was really just a musician who liked to dabble in painting, and while he produced a few truly beautiful psychedelic pieces, Jerry Garcia will still always be remembered primarily as a guitar player.

Abnormal

Today on the bus I ran into a celebrity - performance artist Norman Bie of "Deviations from the Norm."

Jerry Garcia saw Norman perform in the documentary The Deadheads and had Dennis McNally get in touch with him. However, Garcia died shortly thereafter so nothing came of it. Here is Norman doing a poem from his act by the grave of the poet Emily Dickinson in Amherst.

Chalk Art

Seen yesterday drawn on a blackboard in Herter Hall at the University.

Today's Video

Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra recorded at Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco 1971.

Otherwise known as The PERRO Sessions or EVERYBODY HERE CAN BE IN THE BAND!

PERRO included, but was not limited to:

David Crosby
Jerry Garcia
Neil Young
Phil Lesh
Paul Kantner
Jorma Kaukonen
Gregg Rolie
Jack Casady
Mike Shrieve
Mickey Hart
David Frieburg
Grace Slick
Joni Mitchell
Graham Nash
Laura Allen
Bill Krueztman

Common Sense

2009-06-18T17:07:00.010-04:00

Lawyers Demand Reforms

The public image of lawyers is usually not very good.

I mean have you heard any good lawyer jokes lately? Neither have I. The trouble with lawyer jokes is that lawyers don't think they are funny and the public doesn't think they are jokes. Why are lawyers so subjected to ridicule and disdain? Well, partly because we don't like things that accompany bad luck, and if you're consulting a lawyer then chances are something in your life has gone rather seriously wrong. That is the meaning behind the old Chinese curse, "May your life be filled with lawyers."

But as professionals who see the constant stream of people going before the courts, lawyers as a group have a pretty good grasp of where society is at. You can't work that kind of gig and not pick up a little something of the street. So it is a major event when the Massachusetts Bar Association comes out publicly on a major societal issue, as the lawyers did today with their call for widespread drug law reform. According to their website:

Massachusetts must enact meaningful drug reform for nonviolent offenders, focusing on education and treatment instead of incarceration and punishment, according to a report of the MBA Drug Policy Task Force released today at the Statehouse. Mandatory minimum sentencing reform and diversion to treatment, alone, could save the state more than $25 million a year.

Converting from criminal prosecution of nonviolent drug offenders to treatment of their addictions is the overall message of the report, “The Failure of the War on Drugs: Charting a New Course for the Commonwealth.” A product of more than one year of research and consideration, the report was created by a task force of nearly three dozen prominent leaders, including lawyers, law enforcement, the judiciary, mental health professionals, physicians, social workers and public policy advocates.

The report’s recommendations would result in substantial savings. Specifically, diverting non-violent drug possession offenders to treatment instead of incarceration could save $8 million in annual costs. An additional $17 million in annual savings could be realized through mandatory minimum sentencing reform, including parole after two-thirds of a sentence is served in state prison and parole after one-half of a sentence is served in county correctional facilities.

Short-term recommendations include:

Implement diversion programs for nonviolent offenders with drug addiction;
Eliminate mandatory minimum sentences linked to school zones and other drug crimes;
Enhance opportunities for work-release, parole and “good conduct” credit;
Restore suspended and split sentences; and
Create a centralized bureau to handle treatment programs for nonviolent drug offenders.

All very wise recommendations and let's hope they are enacted soon.

Speedo Boyz

Steven Tyler of Boston's Aerosmith is lookin' pretty good on the beach these days, especially at the age of 61. The hair of course is dyed, but the rest you can't fake.

The same cannot be said of Pauly Shore, who at 41 is exactly twenty years younger.

Oh the paparazzi can be cruel.

We Kept on Truckin'

I didn't realize Bart's has ice cream trucks.

Bart's has been in business since 1976? That's the year I came to UMass. Me and Bart's - two success stories!

Leaning

Funny cups for sale in the Northampton gaystore.

Motherhood

In the Animal World

In the Human World

Today's Video

Too weird.

Fuller at UMass

2009-06-17T13:36:00.015-04:00

Buckyheads Unite!

Recently I came upon an old paperback copy of a Trancendental Meditation book that spent 26 weeks on the bestseller lists back in the 1970's.

Reading it I was not greatly impressed. I mean I believe in the virtues of just sitting sometimes and clearing your mind in order to eliminate unproductive mind loops and regenerate your thought processes, but I don't believe you have to pay to take some kind of course in order to do it, as this book insists. Besides, wasn't the founder of the TM movement The Marhareshi Mahesh Yogi involved in some kind of scandal involving the Beatles and other celebrities?

According to the Wikipedia:

The Beatles met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in August 1967, studying with him in Bangor, Wales, and in early 1968 attended a TM teacher-training course in Rishikesh, India. (Much of their "White Album" was written during their stay in Rishikesh.) While Starr and McCartney left the Maharishi's camp for personal reasons, Lennon and Harrison departed after hearing a story that he had made sexual advances on Mia Farrow or other course participants. John Lennon wrote the song "Sexy Sadie" ("what have you done? You made a fool of everyone") as he was leaving, the lyrics referring to the Maharishi.

Alex Mardas had relayed the story to John and George, who felt betrayed by the Maharishi. John Lennon would never again see Maharishi in person, but would phone him years later to apologize for his youthful mishap of publicly accusing Maharishi of improprieties—accusations that had nothing to do with Maharishi, but, seemingly, everything to do with John’s personal temperament (it was "an error in judgment," Lennon later commented). Cynthia Lennon believed that Mardas invented a story about sexual impropriety to undermine the Maharishi's influence on the Beatles.

George Harrison, years later, commented on the contretemps, saying, "Now, historically, there's the story that something went on that shouldn't have done—but nothing did." Paul McCartney, in his biography, likewise says that he does not believe the allegations and also attributes them to Mardas. Farrow's autobiography is ambiguous about the incident: she describes "panicking" and fleeing after the Maharishi put his arms around her in a dark cave, immediately after a private meditation session, and that "at my level of consciousness, if Jesus Christ Himself had embraced me, I would have misinterpreted it."

After the Maharishi's death on February 5, 2008, Sir Paul McCartney released a statement saying, "Whilst I am deeply saddened by his passing, my memories of him will only be joyful ones. He was a great man who worked tirelessly for the people of the world...." Ringo Starr released a statement saying, "One of the wise men I met in my life was the Maharishi. I always was impressed by his joy and I truly believe he knows where he is going."

So apparently it was a bum rap. Still, I don't need a Maharishi to tell me to sit quietly and rest my mind, so on that level the book didn't really impress me. However, I was impressed by who wrote the book's introduction - R. Buckminster Fuller, who is arguably the 20th century's most respected scientific mind after Albert Einstein.

What I found most interesting was that the book's introduction made mention of a conference held at the University of Massachusetts in which both the Maharishi and Dr. Fuller participated. Here's an excerpt from that introduction which makes mention of UMass:

On the occasion Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's general meeting at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst I had the gratifying experience of appearing on the platform with him as one of his invited guests. Maharishi and I engaged on the stage in a protracted dialogue. The basis for my part sprang from my own 1927 discovery and private employment of self-disciplines analogous to Maharishi's meditation. My development of these techniques sprang from my pre-1927 general awareness of Yoga and of the meditative preoccupations of various well-known East Indian cases of individuals who have practiced it in depth.

I felt that all the cases of meditation with which I was familiar as practiced by meditators in the Orient had been conducted exclusively for the meditating individual's own gratification. I thought this to be not only selfish but a short-circuited squandering of the high advantage gaining potentials of all humanity.

On the occasion of the 1972 Maharishi Amherst dialogue Maharishi reponded that early in his career he, too, had come to the same conclusion. He pointed out that he had been educated in physics and as a physicist was eager to turn his knowledge to greatest advantage to humanity.

Buckminster Fuller and the Mahareshi held a joint press conference at UMass the day after Dr. Fuller's speech. Here is an excerpt from the UMass press conference, with UMass Collegian reporters asking the questions. Interestingly, the video says the event happened in 1971, not 1972 as Fuller says in his written introduction.

Fuller never formally endorsed Trancendental Meditation, but did endorse meditation generally as a way of maintaining mental balance and coping with the stress of the high rate of change in modern life. Therefore he praised the Maharishi for helping to popularize the concepts of meditation in the Western world.

I recently came across my old 1977 copy of Buckminster Fuller's Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, originally written in 1969 and now long out of print. Not having read it in over twenty years, I found re-reading the book an interesting experience. Back when I was a student at the University of Massachusetts I was something of a Bucky Fuller freak, dating from the afternoon I accidentally met Dr. Fuller in the concourse of the Student Union. He was at a table with a bunch of his books and pamphlets on it, just standing there speaking to a group of students among the jewelry and clothes peddlars who routinely hawk their wares along the passageway between The Blue Wall and the Campus Store. The only difference was that Bucky, who was serving as scholar-in-residence at UMass that year, wasn't selling products, he was pushing design science revolution.

Fuller of course is best known as the creator of the Geodesic Dome, but he also had a hand in an incredibly wide range of other inventions, ideas and scientific and cultural activities. Originally regarded as a crackpot when he first appeared on the scientific scene in the 1930's, by the time I met him in the 70's he was an old man in his 80's who had been nominated for the Nobel Prize and was probably the most respected scientist alive at the time.

Listening to Bucky that day at UMass totally energized me to learn all I could about him and his ideas. I relied especially upon his book Synergetics: The Geometry of Thinking, which among other things attempted to explain the act of thinking and perceiving reality by relying upon mathematical relationships and geometric models. I even stole a notion from the Jesus freaks on campus, who used to memorize a bible verse everyday, only instead of the bible I would take a passage from Synergetics and spend odd moments throughout my day contemplating what that day's passage meant. I believe I benefited enormously from my period as a Buckyhead. The study of synergetics required the most rigorously logical kind of thinking, the discipline of which helped me to drift into the direction of embracing Ayn Rand and Objectivism's reliance on reason.

It also had a profound effect on my approach to politics. Bucky had no use for politics or politicians. He believed it was science, not politics, that really moved the world and that it was foolish to try to change people by preaching to them. "Change people's environment," he said, "and then they will change their behavior spontaneously." Why tell hungry people that it is wrong to steal food? A starving person can't afford to be honest. Make it possible for them to get food on their own and they won't have to steal it. Politicians applied words to problems, where Fuller said you should apply only scientific solutions. When it comes to hunger one invention increasing the yield of a farmer's fields was worth more that a hundred appeals to honesty, anti-hunger speeches or free food distribution programs.

After his death Bucky's theories got hijacked by special interest groups, primarily socialists and environmentalists, who took his teachings out of context to apply them to political goals in ways that he would never have approved of when he was alive. Sadly, that has meant his legacy being less appreciated and respected than it should be, resulting in most of his books going out of print. A fierce individualist, Fuller had no use for collectivism of any kind, but his desire to use science to produce wealth for all was twisted by socialists to mean advocating massive wealth redistribution by a world government. As socialism has become discredited, unjustly so has Buckminster Fuller. In truth Bucky never concerned himself with dividing up the pie in a more equal way, he advocated coming up with scientific recipes to make the pie so big everybody could have as much as they wanted.

I was surprised when re-reading Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth to see how much of it still holds up. The trends which Fuller identified are unfolding precisely as he predicted but not, unfortunately, as quickly as the always optimistic Bucky hoped for. I was also pleased to realize how much of a Buckyhead I remain. I still have contempt for politicians and political solutions, I'm still devoted to logic as the primary problem solving tool and to science as the path to progress.

What makes me sad is that I don't know where young people today can get turned on to Buckminster Fuller in a way not tainted by political agendas. What is needed is for the books to become available again, so that people can encounter Fuller undistorted by ideological agendas. I don't know who will make that possible, but may the day come soon.

A Thousand Words

This picture says it all.

Amen Al

Memo to my remaining daily print colleagues and their nostalgia club: Get over it and get over yourselves. It’s not that the Internet is Mr. Wonderful. Much of it mimics the same bad qualities that drove the public away from daily newspapers. You lost the public to us because - there's no nice or sugar-coated way to say it - you guys really suck at what you do. In your arrogance, you established calcified “rules” of “journalism” and false “objectivity” that neutered and spayed all of your reporters, domesticated so they would never again afflict the comfortable or comfort the afflicted. When you took the honest advocacy out of reporting you emptied it of all passion and reason to exist. It was a nice ride on your profit ledger sheet during the recent decades when you turned your rags into propaganda arms for the wealthy and powerful, but a funny thing happened on the way to the ATM machine: You lost the trust of your readers.

- Former Valley Advocate reporter Al Giordano.

Homegrown

Northampton's The Green Bean has this chalkboard in front describing all the local places it gets its food from.

South River Miso - Conway Ma.
Gill Greenery - Gill Ma.
Real Pickles - Montague Ma.
El Jardin - Holyoke Ma.
Town Farm - Northampton
Country Hen Organic Eggs - Hubbardston Ma.
Bakery Normand - Northampton
Mapleline Farm - Hadley Ma.
Barrington Coffee Roasters - Lee Ma.
Tea Guys - Hatfield Ma.
Vermont Smoke n' Cure - South Barre Vt.
Snow Shoe Farm - Worthington Vt.
Chicoine Farm - Westhampton Ma.

Broken Record

In Pulaski Park.

Today's Video

No comment.

Obama's Blunders

2009-06-16T15:25:00.013-04:00

The Unfolding Disaster

When the massive spending program to "rescue" the economy was passed, it was claimed it would be able to keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent. Now it's at 9.4% and rising, prompting Newt Gingrich to declare that the Obama Administration has "already failed" and even Vice President Biden admitting the stimulus hasn't performed as advertised. Says USA Today:

Just 10 days before taking office, Obama's top economic advisers released a report predicting unemployment would remain at 8% of below through this year if an economic stimulus plan won congressional approval.

Yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that unemployment in May rose to 9.4%.

Biden said the White House is keenly aware of the gap between the rhetoric used to sell fast passage of the legislation and the reality that has 14.5 million people unemployed.

But there is an even more serious, longterm problem that is unfolding, as reported in Money Morning:

Crony capitalism” is a term often applied to foreign nations where government interference circumvents market forces. The practice is widely associated with tin-pot dictators and second-rate economies. In such a system, support for the ruling regime is the best and only path to economic success. Who you know supersedes what you know, and favoritism trumps the rule of law.

Unfortunately, last week’s events demonstrate that the phrase now more aptly describes our own country.

Last Monday (June 8), the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Chrysler LLC’s secured creditors based on the government’s argument that the needs of other stakeholders outweighed those of a few creditors. In this case, the Obama administration concluded the interests of the United Auto Workers outweighed the interests of the Indiana teachers and firemen whose pension fund sued to block the restructuring. Given the enormous financial support that the UAW poured into the Obama campaign, such partiality is hardly surprising.

When making their investment in Chrysler just a few months ago, the Indiana pension fund agreed to commit capital because of the specific assurances received from the company. In allowing this sham bankruptcy to be crammed through the courts, we have shredded the vital principal of the rule of law, and have become a nation of men, rather than one of laws.

The risk that legal contracts can now be arbitrarily set aside will make investors think twice before committing capital to distressed corporations. Oftentimes, enforcing contracts imposes hardships. That’s precisely why we have contracts.

Without absolute faith that deals will be honored, it will be extremely difficult for U.S. companies to borrow money. This will be particularly true for those companies already struggling with too much debt. Without the ability to issue secured debt, how will such companies access the necessary capital to turn around? If secured creditors cannot count on the courts to enforce their claims, they will not put their capital at risk. What good is being a secured creditor if courts can allow the assets securing your claim to be sold for the benefit of others?

Another problem with the government imposing losses on secured Chrysler creditors is that in its bailouts of financial companies [such as Citigroup Inc. and American International Group Inc., the government took steps to specifically pay back creditors, even when those creditors should have been wiped out.

This inconsistency and lack of equal protection further undermines faith in our economy.

KISS Off

There is much about the rock band KISS to make fun of, but the truly enlightened have always known that they have a secret cool factor that cannot be denied. Therefore it was disappointing to hear the usually sensible Gene Simmons (above) gay bashing American Idol star Adam Lambert. As reported in GayAgenda:

Gene Simmons appeared on various Fox News affiliates today and managed to compliment Adam Lambert (with whom KISS performed on the American Idol finale) briefly before saying that the young singer should "keep his mouth shut about his sexual preference", because "we, America" don't want to hear about "what it is you have to do indoors."

He used the same routine on various outlets (with a bestiality chaser in each one), but here's one version of it:

"Adam should have won. On the other hand he should have kept his mouth shut about his sexual preferences. I don't really care what he wants to do and neither does America. But this kid's got talent, Adam Lambert can go on. As long as he's quiet about whatever else he prefers to do indoors. I personally don't care, I mean if you love farm animals, that's fine, but I don't wanna read a magazine about that."

This is of course coming from the man who has bragged about having had sex with 4600 women, who has said such things about his longtime girlfriend as "Loving someone and caring about someone does not mean they have the right to own you. She will mount the milkman if she wants, so relax, why torture each other?" and whose current claim to fame is a reality show about what his family does. Indoors.

As one commenter nails it:

If you talk about a wife or girfriend, you're just talking. If you're a guy and you talk about your husband or boyfriend, you need to shut up and stop shoving it down people's throats. They honestly don't get the double standard.

In Public

This morning people in Northampton were out drumming up voters for the tax override today.

Actually I'm surprised to see the supporters doing that, since the higher the turnout the more likely it is to lose. They need to keep the turnout low so that public employee types can dominate the electorate.

Here's one way to make a Pulaski Park bench better to sleep on - make a newspaper mattress!

Revolting

Amherst lifestyle choice.

IF YOU ONLY KNEW WHAT YOUR GOVMT WAS DOIN on a Northampton curb.

Today's Video

Music from the Northampton underground.

Twitter Revolution

2009-06-15T10:41:00.015-04:00

A Force for Liberty

It's amazing to watch the videos pouring out of Iran this weekend of the massive demonstrations and rioting over the rigged presidential election. Notice how this video is set to a pretty good Iranian rap tune.

The weakness of President Jimmy Carter caused a monstrous religious dictatorship to arise in Iran, and we can only hope that now it is finally going to be overthrown. Despite all attempts by Iran to suppress outside reporting of the unrest, no government controls YouTube or Blogger.com or the internet itself, so the dictators of the world can on longer impose a wall of silence behind which they do their evil deeds. The internet helps to ensure free speech, so no oppressive regime can long endure because the internet is a medium that transends all political control. That is why it is the most revolutionary political tool ever devised - and since people never choose to be oppressed, it works only for the cause of liberty.

Newsy Videos

Here are two videos worth watching dealing with recebt events. Here's the first interview with the brave young patriot Ian Barry, who smoked pot in front of his entire high school.

Hadley had a big parade this weekend for its 350th birthday. Amherst writer Mary Carey took this video of a truck called the Hatfield Hellion doing tricks in the middle of Route Nine.

The Challenger

Mike Franco sends along this photo of Northampton's Dr. Jay Fleitman speaking at a Flag Day event in Belchertown. Fleitman is challenging incumbent Congressman Richard Neal in 2010.

By all accounts the Doctor came across as very impressive.

Land of the Lost

Yesterday I was cutting across Amherst College when I noticed some filming going on of some kids dressed as detectives.

Of course I had to check it out. Turns out they were PBS cameramen filming for a future episode of Fetch! Here's the cartoon host and the actors.

I'm completely out of touch with kid-TV, but I'm told there are young fans who would kill to meet those child stars, whose names I don't even know.

The filming was going on in front of Amherst College's new Natural History Museum. Since it was open and free of charge, I decided to pop in, although I've visited many times including back when it was in its funky old location. It's full of ancient bones of extinct creatures.

Good grief, this place has more skeletons than a politician's closet.

With skulls the size of Volkswagons, Tyranasaurus Rex and a Triceratops are displayed side by side.

In real life the only way those two monsters would have gotten that close together was if they were engaged in a battle to the death.

The real gems of the collection however are these dinosaur tracks discovered right here in the Pioneer Valley, most of them in the Hadley area. How strange to think that dinosaurs once walked where humans now roam through malls.

Those footprints are the oldest known artifacts of local history. If you are a Pioneer Valley history buff, that room is the holy grail - you can't go back any further.

Here is a giant painting of our Valley with a display of the various types of stones to be found beneath our feet.

Nostalgic Visit

Darth Vader guards the porch of this Fearing Street partyhouse in Amherst.

Nearby is this house where I used to attend parties when I was a UMass student. I think it was a frathouse in my day.

Anyway, a friend of mine has the job of cleaning it out now that the students have left for the summer, and he let me come in for a few minutes and poke around. I was pleased to see that it hasn't changed much, and the old antique fireplace is still more or less intact.

Some of the students moved out leaving their wall posters behind, as you can see from this photo of a UMass party animal, now retired.

Springfield Dead

Someone sent me this pic of drummer Bill Kreutzmann mixing with the crowd before a Grateful Dead concert in Springfield.

Today's Video

Amherst's Dinosaur Jr. has a new album coming out June 23 called "Farm." Here's the video of the first single, and it sounds like it has real hit potential. It's a song telling you to do whatever you want to do no matter how old you are and to ignore the evil assholes who tell you to conform to the so-called "proper" ways to behave. Greg Saulmon dug up this quote from the video's director: "At what point are you supposed to be over doing stuff that you enjoy-- like skating or playing ear-splitting music -- just because society says it's uncool to do it? My answer: Never."

A tune after my own heart.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.