Sunday, December 09, 2007

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Leon Russell - A Song For You

Leon Russell wrote one of the greatest songs ever and Willie Nelson and Ray Charles do it justice.

Otis Redding - I've been loving you...

Monday, September 17, 2007

A More Perfect Constitution for a More Perfect Union

Prof. Larry Sabato and Prof. Sandy Levinson believe our Constitution needs a structural overhaul.

I agree. Consider the following:

- Money has so overwhelmed the political system that we are left to hope for a benevolent plutocrat to offset the dominant influence of self-centered special interests.

- Partisan redistricting ensures very few districts are competitive, meaning politicians are left to pander only to their base.

- The executive branch usurps the authority of the legislative and judicial branches, and everyone stands around and watches.

- People don't vote because they have little faith that their government will work for them.

The Constitution was never intended to be a static document. Our system of government, as currently constituted, is broken. It's time for a change.

Prof. Sabato's 23 proposals can be viewed here:
http://amoreperfectconstitution.com/23_proposals.htm

Prof. Levinson's site on our undemocratic constitution:
http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/slevinson/undemocratic/blog/

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Ed Poullard, Creole accordian maker and player

An article and movie about Ed Poullard, a Creole accordian maker and musician based in Beaumont, Texas.

Les Amis Creole's website.

YouTube clips with Ed Poullard.

Kerouac on life

"[T]he only people that interest me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing ... but burn, burn, burn like roman candles across the night."

-- Jack Kerouac, "On the Road," original draft

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Monday, July 30, 2007

Barbara Jordan on the Constitution

"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminuation, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution."

Congresswoman Barbara Jordan in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, July 25, 1974

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Power and Transformative Change

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.”

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

-- Frederick Douglass

Saturday, July 21, 2007

The Founders' Constitution

A compendium of foundational texts:

http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/

John Adams on Representative Government and Trial by Jury

"The constitution is not grounded on 'the enormous faith of millions made for one.' It stands not on the supposition that kings are the favourites of heaven; that their power is more divine than the power of the people, and unlimited but by their own will and discretion. It is not built on the doctrine that a few nobles or rich commons have a right to inherit the earth, and all the blessings and pleasures of it: and that the multitude, the million, the populace, the vulgar, the mob, the herd and the rabble, as the great always delight to call them, have no rights at all, and were made only for their use, to be robbed and butchered at their pleasure. No, it stands upon this principle, that the meanest and lowest of the people, are, by the unalterable indefeasible laws of God and nature, as well intitled to the benefit of the air to breathe, light to see, food to eat, and clothes to wear, as the nobles or the king. All men are born equal...

"The judges answer to questions of law: but no further. Were they to answer to questions of fact as well as law, being few they might be easily corrupted; being commonly rich and great, they might learn to despise the common people, and forget the feelings of humanity: and then the subjects liberty and security would be lost. But by the British constitution, ad questionem facti respondent juratores, the jurors answer to the question of fact. In this manner the subject is guarded, in the execution of the laws. The people choose a grand jury to make enquiry and presentment of crimes. Twelve of these must agree in finding the Bill. And the petit jury must try the same fact over again, and find the person guilty before he can be punished. Innocence therefore, is so well protected in this wise constitution, that no man can be punished till twenty four of his Neighbours have said upon oath, that he is guilty. So it is also in the tryal of causes between party and party: No man's property or liberty can be taken from him, till twelve men in his Neighbourhood, have said upon oath, that by laws of his own making it ought to be taken away, i.e. that the facts are such as to fall within such laws.

"Thus it seems to appear that two branches of popular power, voting for members of the house of commons, and tryals by juries, the one in the legislative and the other in the executive part of the constitution are as essential and fundamental, to the great end of it, the preservation of the subject's liberty, to preserve the balance and mixture of the government, and to prevent its running into an oligarchy or aristocracy; as the lords and commons are to prevent its becoming an absolute monarchy. These two popular powers therefore are the heart and lungs, the main spring, and the center wheel, and without them, the body must die; the watch must run down; the government must become arbitrary, and this our law books have settled to be the death of the laws and constitution. In these two powers consist wholly, the liberty and security of the people: They have no other fortification against wanton, cruel power: no other indemnification against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and cloathed like swine and hounds: No other defence against fines, imprisonments, whipping posts, gibbets, bastenadoes and racks...

"What a fine reflection and consolation is it for a man to reflect that he can be subjected to no laws, which he does not make himself, or constitute some of his friends to make for him: his father, brother, neighbour, friend, a man of his own rank, nearly of his own education, fortune, habits, passions, prejudices, one whose life and fortune and liberty are to be affected like those of his constituents, by the laws he shall consent to for himself and them. What a satisfaction is it to reflect, that he can lie under the imputation of no guilt, be subjected to no punishment, lose none of his property, or the necessaries, conveniencies or ornaments of life, which indulgent providence has showered around him: but by the judgment of his peers, his equals, his neighbours, men who know him, and to whom he is known; who have no end to serve by punishing him; who wish to find him innocent, if charged with a crime; and are indifferent, on which side the truth lies, if he disputes with his neighbour."

John Adams, Clarendon, No. 3, January 27, 1766


-------------------------------------------------

I believe the above to be the origin of this paraphrased quote, which is often attributed to Adams:

"Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty. Without them we have no other fortification against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and clothed like swine and hounds."

Surveillance Society

1) "Microchip Implants Raise Privacy Concern," Associated Press, 7/21/07.


2) Justice Brandeis' dissent in Olmstead v. U.S., 277 U.S. 438 (1928) [and see here]:

The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness. They recognized the significance of man's spiritual nature, of his feelings and of his intellect. They knew that only a part of the pain, pleasure and satisfactions of life are to be found in material things. They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone-the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men. To protect, that right, every unjustifiable intrusion by the government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment...

"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding...

"Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means-to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal-would bring terrible retribution. Against that pernicious doctrine this court should resolutely set its face."

3) Minnesota Public Radio piece.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Jefferson on instilling a healthy amount of fear

"When the people fear the government, you have tyranny. When the government fears the people, you have liberty."

--Thomas Jefferson

Quotes from Lady Bird Johnson

The following quotes come from the mind of Claudia Taylor (Lady Bird) Johnson:

The clash of ideas is the sound of freedom.

Any committee is only as good as the most knowledgeable, determined and vigorous person on it. There must be somebody who provides the flame.

The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid.

Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.

Every politician should have been born an orphan and remain a bachelor.

It's odd that you can get so anesthetized by your own pain or your own problem that you don't quite fully share the hell of someone close to you.

No news at 4:30 a.m. is good.

Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest.

The First Lady is an unpaid public servant elected by one person - her husband.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

On the Passing of Lady Bird Johnson

Lady Bird Johnson died today at the age of 94.

Let her be remembered as a true lady, one who possessed uncommon courage and decency, as well as a deep appreciation for the beauty of nature.

The following link discusses her landmark whistle stop tour through the South after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The grace she displayed in the face of deep-seated hostility proved her to be the original steel magnolia.

http://www.pbs.org/ladybird/epicenter/epicenter_report_train.html

"As she had expected, but had hoped to avoid, Lady Bird encountered angry southerners protesting her husband and his civil rights agenda. She continually found herself having to placate people who called her husband a "n----- -lover" without condoning their racism. As she pulled into Richmond, Va., Lady Bird was greeted by a big banner that read "Fly Away Lady Bird. Here in Richmond, Barry [Goldwater] is the Cat's Meow." In Columbia, South Carolina, people booed and heckled Lady Bird during her speech so that she could not be heard. The state hosts were unable to quiet the hecklers, but with a raised, white-gloved hand and a firm voice, Lady Bird silenced the crowd.

"This is a country of many viewpoints," she told the Columbia crowd. "I respect your right to express your own. Now it is my turn to express mine. Thank you."

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Richard Rorty, remembered

I have a hard time abandoning the prescriptive for the descriptive. "Ought" retains its place for me (although we shouldn't toss "ought" statements around casually). A world reduced to contingent "is" statements strikes me as chaos.

While our complex existence is awash in shades of gray, and there is room for a great deal of pluralism -- different conceptions of the good -- the world ultimately resolves in black and white -- concepts of right and wrong -- at the margins. We arrive at this point through unflinching reflection, the unrelenting application of reason, and an irrepressible imagination about a more humane and just future. It is crucial to remain intellectually honest and open to carefully evaluating competing claims during this continuous and evolving process.

Nonetheless, I feel the following comments are worth remembering and Rorty's work is deserving of further study, if nothing else than to remind us all to challenge our certitude -- a great deal of which is just native prejudice burnished with the passage of time -- every now and again. -WW

-----------------------------------------

On the passing of Richard Rorty, an American pragmatist philosopher:

"He believed that moral progress requires the cultivation of imagination and sympathy, an important truth that is too often overlooked."

-- Martha Nussbaum, professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago


"Make your private life beautiful, and your public life humane, he taught us."

-- Virginia Heffernan, television critic for the New York Times


"Besides being modest, he was a beautiful writer and speaker, extremely sharp in debate though with never an indication of any annoyance or anger; for he refused to personalize disagreement."

-- Richard Posner, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit


"One of the reasons Rorty's view of the world seemed so attractive was that it offered us humans a useful way to think about why it is that we disagree with each other about what those moral truths actually are: If you think you are acting in accordance with the eternal moral truths of the universe, after all, it is likely that you will think of people who think and act differently as being defective, deluded, or downright dangerous. On the other hand, if you think that morality is a matter of contingent vocabularies, you don't have to become a shallow relativist—you can go right on believing what you believe, except that you have to give up the conviction that there's no plausible way another rational person could think differently."

-- Michael Berube, professor of literature and cultural studies at Penn State University


"Rorty believed that human beings must stop looking for some nonhuman or extra-human reality, such as God, nature, spirit, matter, or even human nature; for some thing-in-itself that, though entirely independent of human knowing, would nonetheless provide us with universal laws for governing our actions and our thinking. Rorty believed firmly, and said as much repeatedly, in the predictive capacity of science and its supreme value to human use. He believed that Hitler and Stalin were evil. But he did not believe that, say, the germ theory of disease or revulsion in the face of persecution and fanaticism, no matter how passionately we believe they advance the cause of knowledge or dignity, can yield universal principles or tell us something about the intrinsic nature of reality. We are ineluctably human. No ecstatic encounters with the Other have been scheduled. We are stuck arguing with one another, in order to achieve, not truth, but consensus."

-- Stephen Metcalf


"My sense of the holy is bound up with the hope that some day my remote descendants will live in a global civilization in which love is pretty much the only law."

-- Richard Rorty

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Marcus Aurelius on life

"In a word, thy life is short. Thou must turn to profit the present by the aid of reason and justice. Be sober in thy relaxation... pass through the rest of life like one who has intrusted to the gods with his whole soul all that he has, making thyself neither the tyrant nor the slave of any man."

-- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Part IV, Paragraphs 26 and 31

Churchill on appeasers

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

--Winston Churchill

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Wiesel on neutrality

"Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

-- Elie Wiesel

Friday, May 18, 2007

Quotes from musicians

"Affirmative music was just a thought I had to myself that I could sing something and get people to listen, and maybe they would be better to one another."

-- Pops Staples


"There is a view that jazz is 'evil' because it comes from evil people, but actually the greatest priests on 52nd Street and on the streets of New York City were the musicians. They were doing the greatest healing work. They knew how to punch through music that would cure and make people feel good."

-- Garth Hudson, The Last Waltz, The Band


“Maybe the words that I say is just another way to pray.”

“Our purpose is to educate as well as to entertain.”

“Painless preaching is as good a term as any for what we do.”

-- Curtis Mayfield


"Music is my religion."

"Excuse me while I kiss the sky."

"I try to use my music to move these people to act."

"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music."

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."

"White collar conservative flashin down the street, pointing that plastic finger at me, they all assume my kind will drop and die, but I'm gonna wave my freak flag high."

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."

"Music is a safe type of high. It's more the way it was supposed to be. That's where highness came, I guess, from anyway. It's nothing but rhythm and motion."

"Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel."

"When I die, just keep playing the records."

-- Jimi Hendrix


"All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws."

"You can play a shoestring if you're sincere."

-- John Coltrane


"Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be too famous too young."

"Gray skies are just clouds passing over."

"A problem is a chance for you to do your best."

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."

"Roaming through the jungle of "oohs" and "ahs," searching for a more agreeable noise, I live a life of primitivity with the mind of a child and an unquenchable thirst for sharps and flats."

-- Duke Ellington


"It isn't where you came from, its where you're going that counts."

"Just don't give up on trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."

-- Ella Fitzgerald


"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."

"I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness."

"I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings."

-- Mozart


"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."

"Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."

"Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes."

"Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold."

"This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble."

-- Beethoven


"Affluence separates people. Poverty knits 'em together. You got some sugar and I don't; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flour; well, I'll give you some of mine."

"My version of "Georgia" became the state song of Georgia. That was a big thing for me, man. It really touched me. Here is a state that used to lynch people like me suddenly declaring my version of a song as its state song. That is touching."

"There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we're here to explore new possibilities."

"What is a soul? It's like electricity -- we don't really know what it is, but it's a force that can light a room."

-- Ray Charles


"I found out that every person has their own movable C -- 'do.' When you put your sound or your idea into an arena mixed with other things -- if what you're saying has a valid place -- it's going to find its position in that total thing, and it's going to make that thing much better."

"For instance, if you were behind a closed door and I heard your voice, I would know it was you without seeing your face. But can you imagine if sound is that identifiable -- more than your face -- that's fantastic, right?"

"I never really relied upon them to keep time or rhythm for me. In fact, I always prefer musicians that play with me to play independent of myself but with me."

"He's speaking a certain language that I find is very valid in rhythm instruments. Very seldom in rhythm instruments do you hear rhythm sounding like a language."

"It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something."

"You don't have to worry about being a number one, number two, or number three. Numbers don't have anything to do with placement. Numbers only have something to do with repetition."

"That's what I was trying to say when we were talking about sound. I think that every person, whether they play music or don't play music, has a sound -- their own sound, that thing that you're talking about. "

"I think that those elements -- light and sound -- are beyond democratic. They're into the creative part of life."

-- Ornette Coleman


"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."

-- Charlie "Bird" Parker


"There is two kinds of music, the good, and the bad. I play the good kind."

"The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician. Things like old folks singing in the moonlight in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago."

"We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself."

"What we play is life."

"You blows who you is."

-- Louis Armstrong

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Thought for the Day

"Life is just a chance to grow a soul."

— A. Powell Davies

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Thought for the Day

It is important to have an idealist’s heart. But in the end, act with a pragmatist’s head.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Vonnegut on Blind Faith in the Free Market

Some of the loudest, most proudly ignorant guessing in the world is going on in Washington today. Our leaders are sick of all the solid information that has been dumped on humanity by research and scholarship and investigative reporting.

They think that the whole country is sick of it, and they want standards, and it isn’t the gold standard. They want to put us back on the snake-oil standard...

Industries should be allowed to do whatever they want to do: Bribe, wreck the environment just a little, fix prices, screw dumb customers, put a stop to competition and raid the Treasury in case they go broke.

That’s correct.

That’s free enterprise.

And that’s correct.

The poor have done something very wrong or they wouldn’t be poor, so their children should pay the consequences.

That’s correct.

The United States of America cannot be expected to look after its people.

That’s correct.

The free market will do that.

That’s correct.

The free market is an automatic system of justice.

That’s correct.

And so on.


"Your Guess is as Good as Mine," Kurt Vonnegut, In These Times, 12/12/05

Monday, April 09, 2007

Faulkner on freedom and equal rights

As certain people seek to deny civil rights and impose second-class citizenship on other people in our country, we should remember William Faulkner's words:

"We cannot choose freedom established on a hierarchy of degrees of freedom, on a caste system of equality like military rank. We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it; our freedom must be buttressed by a homogeny equally and unchallengeably free, no matter what color they are, so that all the other inimical forces everywhere--systems political or religious or racial or national--will not just respect us because we practice freedom, they will fear us because we do."

"On Fear: The South in Labor," William Faulkner, Harper's Magazine, June 1956.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Invent Music

Dave Merrill, a friend, musical collaborator, and one of the smartest and nicest guys you'll ever meet, is pushing the envelope at MIT, using technology to create new sounds and methods of making music.

Check it out.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Political Futures Markets

Slate has gathered up all of the major political futures markets on this page.

The Iowa Electronic Markets can be found here.

(Somebody keep Jim Cramer away from the trading.)

For comparison purposes, the Survey USA polls can be viewed here.

DISCLAIMER: These links are being included just for fun. This is in no way intended to induce anyone to trade on these markets. What you do with your money is your own business.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Supreme Court

Justices Breyer and Scalia converse on their views of the Constitution.

A good PBS site on the history of the Supreme Court.

Monday, January 01, 2007

A look back at 2006


Ware & Robyn, Austin, Texas, January 2006


Robyn waits for Ware's at his new office, January 2006


Waiting for our flight to Asia, July 2006
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A look back at 2006


Attending a close friend's wedding in Singapore, July 2006


Making new friends, Bintan, Indonesia, July 2006


Enjoying the view at our resort, Bintan, Indonesia, July 2006


Sharing a relaxing lunch on the South China Sea, Bintan, Indonesia, July 2006
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A look back at 2006


The Great Buddha of Kotokuin, Kamakura, Japan, July 2006


A scenic hike brought us to this ancient temple, Kamakura, Japan, July 2006


It's a wonder we caught our train given their limited English signage (typical Americans!), Tokyo, July 2006


Ware puts “The Dude” in Dude Ranch on his 30th, Trophy Club, Texas, November 2006
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A look back at 2006


Happy trails on Ware's 30th, November 2006


Thanksgiving weekend in Times Square, New York, November 2006


Santa's Little Helper, Chicago, December 2006


Trying to stay out of the gutter on New Year's Eve, Austin, December 2006
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