A Penrose's Law Dilemna for Moderate Reactionaries

Boies Penrose (1860-1921),  a Republican boss in Pennsylvania, proposed the Political Law*: "Politics is a profession. Better to lose an election than lose control of the party."**

How the 'establishment Republicans' will react to the head line Eric Cantor succumbs to tea party challenger - The Washington Post, should be interesting.

In the old days, when party's meant something, leaders might follow this sensible, though long term, advice.

I think, in the end, the political leaders of the Republicans will buckle down, and accept.  After all they want power, and believe (with good evidence) in co-option by money.


The moneyed interests behind the party seem to believe they can turn the extreme reactionaries to their will in the end (they being moderate reactionaries).


Anyone choosing to draw and analogy between these forces and the Rhur industrialists are welcome to.


However, I think those moneyed interests may be right.  You see there is another Pernrose insight worth considering -- "I believe in the division of labor. You [moneyed interest] send us to Congress; we pass
laws under which you make money...and out of your profits, you further
contribute to our campaign funds to send us back again to pass more laws
to enable you to make more money."



---

* There is another Penrose's law, attributed to  Lionell Penrose, which posits an inverse relationship between the number of psychiatric beds and prison population.

**This is often ascribed to "Tammany Hall."  This is incorrect.

Canada's loss....

...is not the United States' gain.







Ted Cruz officially gives up his Canadian citizenship

The origins of a killing.

In a article, Occaisionally, our local newspaper, the Seattle Times, stops fronting for developers and does part of its job.


In the article, Oso neighborhood never should have been built | Local News | The Seattle Times, we are told that neighborhood wiped out in the recent landslide should never have been built.



That over 50 years ago, unenforced lasw, underfunded agencies, dishonest developers, and unwarranted deference to supposed land rights perpared to kill people this year. 

It would be good to recall, that things have not gotten better.  In the early 1960s, agencies were better funded and there was actual respect for people in government agencies trying to do their jobs.

Expect more disasters to come.

A Fatal Flaw

If I remember my Artistotle, a tragedy requires a  fatal flaw, a wrong decision that engenders disaster.


For that reason, I hate the use of tragedy for unavoidable natural disasters, truly random accidents, and sad oddities -- acts of God as it were.

On the other hand, the landside at Oso might be considered a tragedy, with the fatal flaw being a combination of cowardice, greed, and most of all a failure to govern.


This is shown in a story covered by KUOW, our local all NPR all news station: Oso Highlights A Policy Challenge: Development Pressure Vs. Landslide Risk | KUOW News and Information.*

In short Barbara Dykes, the county hearing examiner whose brief covered review of land slide risks, was not renewed in her position by the board, after intense lobbying by the Master Builders Association of Snohomish and King Counties.


They claimed "[Dykes] was more likely to rule against development interests than in favor ... even while Dykes held the position, more than 80 percent of development projects".



In an initial burst of character, a six-month moratorium on all building permits within a certain
distance of known slide areas was proposed by a member of the Snohomish County Concil.  Since then, at the behest of the Master builders, voting on the issues has postponed.


There will, of course, be no significant change in that county's land use policy. 

 











* This was a gratifying  'dog walking on its hinder legs' moment, for this mediocre news service.

Have the Jews Lost Europe? – Forward.com

Have the Jews Lost Europe? – Forward.com



This is an 'on one hand, but on the other hand' article, but at least raises the question -- why do Jews bother to live in Europe.



In the new World, Jews share with most other people's the immigrant experience, and the issues of ethinic identity in a new land.



Here, as a consequence, we are, particularly in the United States, a free people, annoyingly pushing our own issues; or as it is called in Europe (not only on the right) Jews having too much control of US policy.



This position appears to incomprehensible In Europe, where it seems we should be happy to a tolerated, but unliked, minority.



Should any one of us make permanent home anywhere from the Ural Mountaints to the point of Dingle?

When Jesus Died at Auschwitz

From the Forward, an article  When Jesus Died at Auschwitz  about a video from ThatJewDiedForYou.com/, a Jews For Jesus group.


I suppose the reason it was thought that Jesus depicted at the gates to Auschwitz will get Jews to convert
to Christianity, is a suscription to the historic Church teaching that persecution of Jews is the fault of the Jews.



Given my low expectations, I am not as surprised by the video as the author of the article.

Worthwhile looking at (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/wwi-photos_n_5118292.html), as this was probably the defining event of the last century.

Haunting Photos Bring The Great War Back To Life

The Huffington Post

 | by 

Eline Gordts

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World
War I, the 4-year conflict that cost the lives of millions of soldiers
and civilians from all parts of the world.

Starting in 1914, The
Great War plunged Europe into darkness, turning parts of the continent
into a swamp of death, destruction and misery. Soldiers died by the
hundreds of thousands in kilometers-long trenches, bombardments leveled
entire cities and towns and thousands were forced to flee their homes or
battle hunger and poverty if they remained behind.

One hundred
years after the beginning of the war, photographer Peter Macdiarmid
revisited some of the key locations of the conflict. He overlaid his
pictures with shots taken during the war years, bringing the haunting
conflict of 1914 to 1918 back to life.

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Print Collector / Getty Images
  
  In the first picture, a man stands near the town hall of
  Vareddes, France, on March 12, 2014. In the second photo, German troops
  are taking a rest on the steps of the same building during the first
  battle of the Marne in 1914. (First photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
  Images. Second photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty
  Images)
  
  
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Roger Viollet / Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
  
  The colored photograph shows people walking near the Place des
  Heros in Arras, France, on March 14, 2014. The black and white picture
  shows the town hall and the belfry on the square in ruins. (Color print
  by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images. Black and white print by Roger
  Viollet/Getty Images.)
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Gamma-Keystone / Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
  
  The first photo shows a parked car near the former Episcopal
  Palace in Verdun, France, on March 11, 2014. The second photo shows a
  French soldier in what's left of Verdun after a German bombing in 1916.
  (First photo by Peter Macdiarmid. Second photo by
  Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.)
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Topical Press Agency / Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
  
  In the first image, people stand at Trafalgar Square, London, on
  March 17, 2014. In the second image, London street urchins dressed as
  soldiers with paper hats and canes as guns stand in Trafalgar Square in
  1919. Behind them is a notice declaring "The Need for Fighting Men is
  Urgent." (First photo by Peter Macdiarmid. Second photo by Topical Press
  Agency/Getty Images)
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Culture Club / Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
  
  In the colored image, cars are parked at the former railway
  station building in Roye, France, on March 12, 2014. In the black and
  white image, soldiers stand outside the ruins of the railway station in
  1917. (Colored photo by by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images. Black and
  white photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Apic / Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
  
  In the first image, traffic runs from the Basilica of Notre-Dame
  de Brebieres in Albert, France, on March 13, 2014. The second image
  presents a view of the basilica with the tilted statue of the Virgin
  after a shell hit the tower in 1915. (First photo by Peter
  Macdiarmid/Getty Images. Second photo by Apic/Getty Images)
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Photo12 / UIG / Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
  
  The first image shows people walking near the Cathedral in Reims,
  France, on March 11, 2014. The second image shows the cathedral of
  Reims during a bombardment in April 1917. (First photo by Peter
  Macdiarmid/Getty Images. Second photo by Photo12/UIG/Getty Images.)
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Lt. J W Brooke / IWM / Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
  
  In the colored photo, trees surround the Somme canal on March 12,
  2014 in Frise, France. In the black and white photo, British solders of
  the Royal Garrison Artillery working party carry duck-boards across the
  frozen Somme canal at Frise in March 1917. (Colored photo by Peter
  Macdiarmid. Black and White photo by Lt. J W Brooke/ IWM via Getty
  Images)
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Maurice-Louis Branger / Roger Viollet / Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
  
  In the first image, cars are parked near the Place de la
  Concorde, Paris, on March 12, 2014. In the second photo, German
  airplanes wrecked by celebrating crowds on the day of the restoration of
  Alsace-Lorraine are left on the square, Nov. 18, 1918. (First photo by
  Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images. Second photo by Maurice-Louis
  Branger/Roger Viollet/Getty Images)
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Paul Thompson / FPG / Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
  
  The first image shows a gated barrier that runs near Scotland
  Yard on March 17, 2014 in London, England. The second image shows a
  large crowd of men responding to a call by the War Office for married
  men aged between 36 and 40 to become munition workers. They gathered
  outside the Inquiry Office at Scotland Yard in 1917. (First photo by
  Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images. Second photo by Paul Thompson/FPG/Getty
  Images)
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Hulton Archive / Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
  
  The first photos shows parked cars near Les Halles on the Grote
  Markt in Ypres on March 10, 2014. The second photo shows Les Halles
  almost completely devastated by bombing in 1915. (First photo by Peter
  Macdiarmid/Getty Images. Second photo by Hulton ARCHIVE/Getty Images)