If rules were made to be broken, what about laws?
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Gold Coins and American Rebellion
Is there a future in America for the more limited government that our Founding Fathers thought they were bequeathing to us? Something as trivial as a gold dollar coin can tell us something about that possibility, because you don't see a whole lot of those in circulation, despite the best efforts of politicians and government bureaucrats who think they are looking out for our good.
Good Cop, Bad Cop: Crime Tales of Two Eras
To be sure, Ian Rankin, the leading figure in the so-called “Tartan Noir” movement, has been a powerful force in moving British detective fiction away from its cozy, genteel, village and country house gentry stereotype, but in his own day Freeman Wills Crofts did much the same thing, albeit more gently, decades earlier. Both series are well worth reading and discussing today—the two detectives share a defining quality, one that readers will find bracing in an era seen as rife with immorality and excessive concentration of power.
Rediscovering Economics as a Social Science
There may be an inverse relationship between the health of the economy and the quality of books published about economics. In the 1980s, for example, the US economy was booming yet bestseller lists brimmed with gloomy and embarrassing tracts predicting America’s decline. Today, the country struggles through the worst recession in decades, but a significant number of serious, thoughtful books on economic issues have reached a wide audience. This could be an example of necessity being the mother of invention. Sustained economic crises should prompt new thinking, particularly when they were generally unforeseen and have failed to respond to textbook solutions. The current financial crisis has generated several excellent books examining the causes and long-term implications of our current economic environment. More fortuitously, at least two recent books have looked deeper into economic methods and explore questions that economists have largely ignored for more than a century. One of these is Bourgeois Dignity, the second in a series of six volumes by Deidre McCloskey examining the causes of the Industrial Revolution. This topic may seem quaint and of limited relevance, but it’s easy to forget how significant this epoch was. Before the Industrial Revolution, living standards for most of humanity
Happy Anniversary Coaxial Cable!
I bet you hadn’t heard anything about it. And it’s not exactly the anniversary of the cable, but when the cable made Network television possible coast to coast. If you’re a fan of TV at all, you’re going to want to read this wonderful piece by Terry Teachout about how profoundly things changed in that late summer of 1951, not only for the reach of a television signal, but also for programming.
The Welfare State Reckoning
Champions of liberty are usually harsh critics of the welfare state. Most have accepted the notion that some kind of social safety net is here to stay, but all agree the current level of spending and income redistribution is completely and disastrously unsustainable. With what’s happening in Europe, there are few except maybe the most diehard socialists who think things can continue as they are. If only we could tax the “rich” a little bit more . . . . Yet, countries could take every penny of every “rich” person and there still wouldn’t be enough money to sustain current and future transfer payments.
Rock and Roll Holes of Fame
Finding the gaps at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame By Warren Moore The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its newest class of inductees. While I don’t see any Tom Petty-level headscratchers this time around, I’m pretty much left with a resounding “meh.” Not surprisingly, The Small Faces/Faces are my favorite of the lot, but I can understand the importance of the Beasties and Chili Peppers, both of whom have done some interesting genre fusion over the years, and even though I was never a fan, G’n’R were almost a perfect example of over-the-top in their era. All they needed was a plane crash to become truly archetypal. However, the dearth of progressive rock continues as Rush gets Susan Luccied again, and we have yet to hear from Crimson, Yes, ELP or their ilk. On the hard rock end, Motorhead, Blue Oyster Cult and Deep Purple (all remarkably influential acts) are outside looking in as well. While some critics have argued that this is a result of industry bias, Lauren Onkey, who was a prof of mine during my Ph.D. years, and who is now in charge of educational programs at the Rock Hall, suggests that
Hubert Sumlin, RIP
One of the few guitarists who deserves to be called legendary, Hubert Sumlin, died yesterday at the age of 80. Sumlin was the lead guitarist for Howlin Wolf's band and in the 50s and 60s, on tracks like "Killing Floor" and "Smokestack Lightning," laid down some of the most influential guitar licks of all time. Hubert Sumlin was the guitarist that Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck grew up wanting to be.
‘Hugo’ Is a Children’s Movie Mostly for Grownups
I made a point of catching Martin Scorsese’s change-of-pace movie, Hugo, because it was highly praised, both by film critic Michael Medved, and my friend Anthony Sacramone of the Strange Herring blog. My own response is ambivalent. This is a brilliant, fascinating, beautiful movie, suitable for all ages. Nevertheless, it hasn’t done very good business (I saw it in a theater almost empty), and that doesn’t actually surprise me much. As Sacramone notes, “. . . it’s a kids’ film for adults.” I don’t think actual kids will love it (that may not be a bad thing either, as I’ll explain below). But adults, especially ones who love cinema, will embrace it once they discover it. I expect cult status on DVD is in its future. The titular hero is Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), an orphan boy who lives in the Paris railroad station. He was brought there to live by his drunkard uncle, who took care of the station clocks. After teaching Hugo to do the job, the man disappeared. Hugo has been maintaining the clocks on his own ever since, afraid of apprehension by the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen in an interesting performance), who takes perverse delight
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