Buy low, sell high

To the judge installed by the party to represent the will of the people, he declared. “ I am a merchant of ideas”. The judge condemned him to twenty-five years hard labor. Seemd an unfortunate choice of words. Merchants exploit the working class. Speculators. Profiteers. The essence of capitalism.

Or did the judge have a problem with the selling of ideas. Selling for money? Making a profit on ideas? on ideas people would die for?

Later, for this stand he became a hero to many. But an altar does not certify the god and martyrdom does not verify a philosophy. And "merchant of ideas" I discovered, is a pretty common expression ...

the heat, the humidity or...

what is it when the guy with the fruit stand adds faster than the mit guy?

not fun, not fair

I was such a strong supporter last week. It didn't help, they did not select my "told you to buy a top of the line GPS" caption.

As a revenge here is a link to a serious critique.

bei mir ...

After six months of punching Hillary, Dowd cannot use satire or merely be funny at the expense of her favorite democrat. All she does is quote ...as her comrades are under attack. She looks like an union memeber who would not cross another local's strike line, but does not really feels for the strikers...

who laughs last

Didn't get it, at first. Then was amused. Then disheartened by the attacks on my favorite reading...New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest.

Lost New Jersey

Noticed only today. The new building blocks my riverview. The building is by now half rented.

not even the idiots...

No market for poetry. My internet search could find only one idiot's guide for poetry. There is also one for slam poetry ...whatever this is.

Flaw (not tragic)

There are days now when my mother doesn't know my name or who I am am. Yesterday she was in good form. She remembered some. Do you have friends? Do you have friends to talk to? she asked me. No. Was not going to assuage.

Timely, this funny Dowd column today quoting a marriage counselor priest....“Never marry a man who has no friends,” he starts. “This usually means that he will be incapable of the intimacy that marriage demands...

Old age

Patephone. Gramophone. Phonograph. So many words to forget. Babyboomer antiquities. After fifteen minutes, the music stops. If you want to hear more you need to change the side. I like this. You actually listen to the music, not just have it as background. I just bought myself a turntable with special software to transfer the music to digital files. So I would't have to get up every fifteen minutes.

Madonna and ARod

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discovery

All the time and effort I put in educating myself shows only in one area - crossword puzzles. Yesterday, while solving a crossword puzzle, discovered in Wikipedia that I have a Byronic soul. Oops, just admited to using the Internet for solving crossword puzzles.

Rem actam agis

You do something already done. The beauty of Latin texts is the economy of words. Rome on HBO. Talkative and with British accent. Latin du jour - vulgar....Rome actam agis.

Masterbuilder?

Watched Caro on C-span talking at MCNY about Robert Moses. Caro was asking how could an unelected person yield so much power. Undemocratic. But the title of his book is the Power Broker , correctly implying that Moses was only a conduit of power. Not power itself. Moses, no doubt had his own weight, but mostly was only allowing projects be done for those actually elected. He knew how to control or squeeze the sources of money. To spend the money you need big projects. Public works to improve the economy was the mantra of the New Deal. Moses was just finding what projects were worthwhile. He was projecting honesty and was trusted to understand the “public good”.

Of course power corrupts and forty years is too much. You start to believe to your own legend and infallibility. This happened to Caro also. His arguments went unchallenged for too long a time. Half a million displaced persons is a nonsense. Caro argues that the plight of those who suffered because of these projects needs to be heard. But is it democratic to have projects advancing the common good stopped by the few who are affected? Was eminent domain invented by Moses? Could Moses have demolished so much without strong political support? Of course not. Caro’s argument becomes thin. In fact it represents the recent history where any public work is blocked by special interests posing as victims.

The “Fall of New York” is placed on Moses lap by a very thin argument – when Moses left power, the city was in free fall. Did the burning of the Bronx result from Moses’ projects? Not so fast… What about now when New York is doing fine? Is this due to Moses? Not so fast also….

perpetum

An old Vietnamese saying goes like this - If you dispute a bright man you will lose fast, with a stupid you will fight forever. Sounds deep, but let's examine. If I am a bright man I will dispute forever the idiots, if I am a very stupid man I will also fight without end.Doomed to dispute...Of course, even a wise Vietnamese saying.

Had to delete and repost this ....Perpetum ...an unlucky title...