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(Studio version, official video.)

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I did not even know the Feelies were playing in Chicago tonight. The boss was on the way out of the office, and said he was going to walk over and see them. I said, “tell me about it tomorrow”. I wanted to finish something up, and I was working away. The phone rings. The boss says, “you should come over here”. Groovy.

They were excellent. I never saw them play before, but I had their first album, Crazy Rhythms, which I probably got in 1981 or 1982. “Have”, actually. It must be in the basement with the rest of my vinyl.

They played mostly songs from later albums which I did not know. Then, for an encore they did “Boxcars” by REM, “Fa Cé-La” off of the first album, then a killer cover of What Goes On by the Velvet Underground. I was thinking, the only way they can top that is with a Stones cover. What a musical genius I am. The crowd shouted them back for a second encore and they did “Paint it, Black”.

I was hoping they would do Moscow Nights, but I cannot complain.

The crowd was sitting down in the seats. Then near the end of the set, this skinny, intense, young guy comes running down front and starts dancing frantically all by himself. The ice is broken, the space in front of the stage and the aisles fill up with people.

A beautiful, cool evening in Chicago, at the Pritzker Bandshell in the very lovely Millenium Park. It was a large, happy, well-behaved crowd. It is good to see a band like the Feelies getting that much love. They were never big “back in the day”. They are a great band and they deserve the affection and the big turnout.

UPDATE: Greg Kot’s review from the Trib.

UPDATE II: Thank you, mysterious gangly kid! — Agreed. (Lots of photos)

The underlying fundamentals are toxic: US gross debt as a percentage of GDP (currently at 375%) is still climbing, housing prices are still falling (wealth destruction as far as the eye can see), un/underemployment is still rising (an inability to service debt), the financial industry is back to its old tricks (bonuses are shooting through the roof again, etc.), China is still manipulating its currency (dashing prospects of future jobs), commodities (higher costs for daily life) are shooting up again, etc. Worse, what action has been taken is largely short term masking of symptoms and not a cure. Our government “brain-trust” is using all of its financial powder on deprecated 20th Century economic measures to prop up the industries that got us into this crisis: like the greasing of palms in the bloated construction industry (what relation that industry has to our future prosperity is a big mystery) and the flooding of a failing oligopoly (the financial industry) with free money.

So where is it heading?

“… a post-Westphalian century replete with neo-feudalism and global guerrillas is on an inexorable march.”

John Robb.

No, really.

Ayn Rand reached out to Farrah, and wanted her to play Dagny Taggart in a TV miniseries version of Atlas Shrugged, sounds like circa 1980.

I can see it. Done in retro-40s costume, maybe? Or hypermoderne science fiction style?

Either way would have been cool. A big budget, big-name miniseries would have been the best way to film the (very long) novel.

Farrah would have been a very interesting casting choice, though not looking anything like the Dagny in the book.

(I don’t think Angelina Jolie, does either, but she is going to play Dagny in the upcoming movie, apparently, if that ever actually happens. Now is the time for the movie, though. At the beginning of the Reagan Era, we did not need it as badly as we need it now.)

Who would have played Hank Reardon, Francisco D’Anconia, John Galt, Midas Morgan and Ragnar Danneskjöld, circa 1980? Who should play them now?

Those are just the names I remember without looking them up. And I last opened the book in High School. The book does have a way of sticking with you.

I benefitted from exposure to Ayn Rand, but I never became a Randian. So it all worked out OK.

Link via Dr. Frank

I was never a big fan. I liked Cheryl Ladd way better.

I paid no attention to Farrah whatsoever since the ’70s, other than noticing tabloid headlines in the grocery store, from time to time, that indicated she was having a rough go of things.

So I was surprised to find myself a little sad when I heard she died.

It took me way back to the ’70s, and made me think of all kinds of long-gone people, places and things. I don’t miss those times. But they are part of me.

I liked this video that I saw on Ann Althouse.

There is another one on there with the BeeGees singing. That is the correct decade, of course, the ’70s. But the Archies doing “Sugar Sugar” goes better, since there is something sweet about many of these images of the young Farrah that goes better with the ’60s pop song, that the ’70s disco song does not capture. I like especially where she is dancing at :31 and at :49. She looks young, normal and happy, except, of course, also being incredibly good looking. I get a kick out of seeing her with Danny Partridge, too. I grew up on the Partridge Family and the Brady Bunch, like a lot of people did.

She was only on Charlie’s Angels for one year, and made one iconic poster, and she became this massively famous person. Everyone in the world knew her name and her face … and her hair. She really was the American face of the ’70s. A very Warholesque 15 minutes.

Fame and youth and beauty and all worldly goods pass away.

Rest in peace. We will remember you as young and beautiful forever.

One of my pals asked me for a list of ten good books for possible Summer reading.

This is what I came up with for him.

………….

Here are some recommendations. Not really a “top ten” but ten good ones that I have liked especially well that you may find interesting.

David Kilcullen, The Accidental Guerilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One (Gen. Petraeus’s counterinsurgency advisor provides an overview of where we are now, how we got here, and what to do next. Half memoir, half primer, this is the best book on the current military conflicts the USA is engaged in. Highest possible recommendation. I am going to see him speak tonight.)

Robert Coram, Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War (2004) (John Boyd was an eccentric genius who had a major impact on US military thinking, this is his story, and a case study of integrity in the face of social and professional pressure. If you like this, the book to drill down on Boyd’s thinking and theories is Frans P. B. Osinga, Science, Strategy, and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd.)

Joseph Roth, The Radetzky March (Novel. Written in the 1930s, set in the era just before World War I, the story of a family whose destiny was woven with the Habsburg monarchy, a love story about the love a father for his son, a topic not usually dealt with in fiction, and a portrait of a time which I have some nostalgia for.)
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I have too little time to read, let alone re-read. But there are certain books that had an impact on me, that I think about from time to time, and that I have an urge to re-read. I suppose that re-reading, or at least wanting to re-read is a sign that a book is part of a person’s quantum library. I have more, but I will pick ten:

• Charles Norris Cochrane, Christianity and Classical Culture: A Study of Thought and Action from Augustus to Augustine
• Eric Rucker Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros
• Robert A Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
• Homer, The Iliad
• George Orwell, 1984
• Quentin Reynolds, They Fought for the Sky: The Dramatic Story of the First War in the Air
• Thomas Sowell, Knowledge and Decisions
• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
• Evelyn Waugh, The Sword of Honor Trilogy
• H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds

A few years ago I re-read Starship Troopers, which had a huge impact on me when I was 11 years old. It was just about as good as I remembered it. I also re-read 1984 about five years ago. I first read 1984 when I was ten years old. I read it a couple of times afterwards. It is absolutely foundational to my thinking. In the ensuing years, I have read almost everything else by Orwell. I found that 1984 was much better than I remembered it being — So much so that I will certainly to go back to it one more time.

For some reason, the ten books above are nagging at the back of my mind to be re-read.

Please feel free to provide your own lists and observations in the comments.

I saw Dr. David Kilcullen speak last night at the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago.

The full presentation is available as a video, here.

He talked about his new book, The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One. I think it is the best book I have read so far about the current wars the USA is engaged in, why they went wrong, and what to do about it. The phrase “must read” is over-used. I try not to over-use it. “Accidental Guerilla” is a must read.

It is very much worth listening to, and I won’t summarize the talk here, which is itself a summary of the book.

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Gen. Odierno remembers the day in Iraq.

Those of us in safer places — safe because of our Army over more than two centuries — recall the work and sacrifice and victories of our soldiers with gratitude.

Perhaps the best and only thing that the old can bequeath to the young is a good fight, a truly good struggle in something that matters, a fight that carries a person beyond the confines of a little, self-serving life into something deeper and more lovely.

Fr. Bob Sprott, God, Country, Notre Dame.

One small victory for an economy governed by law rather than arbitrary power.

A suit brought on behalf of Indiana pension funds claim that Chrysler deal orchestrated by Obama’s administraion illegally gave priority unsecured creditors, violating the law that gives priority to secured creditors. The Indiana brief argued:

Without a stay, Chrysler’s section 363 sale will be able to close Monday afternoon, and this case will be moot. Mootness would not only deprive the Indiana Pensioners of an opportunity for full recovery, but it would deprive the Court and the Nation of the opportunity for final determination of substantial and novel issues of law never before addressed by this Court or any other (save the decisions below). These issues include (i) whether the Sale attempted here—indisputably the fastest reorganization on record—constitutes an illegal sub rosa chapter 11 reorganization plan and violates the longstanding and fundamental rule that first-lien creditors have absolute priority in bankruptcy, and (ii) whether Treasury has the authority to direct the course of, and fund, this bankruptcy through the use of TARP funds under the EESA. The Court should stay the Sale Orders so that the Indiana Pensioners may, in good order, ask the Court to review whether the law permits such wholesale alteration of bankruptcy law, not to mention the American capital markets, by the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government acting beyond the color of Congressional authority.

From the Application For Immediate Stay Of Sale Orders Issued By The Bankruptcy Court filed by the State of Indiana. (Much of it is actually engrossing reading, especially the way the Feds bullied everyone to accept repeated violations of the bankruptcy law.)

Stay granted.

Details here.

Probably only a speed bump. But it is good to see someone speaking truth to power for a change. Obama’s high-handed and lawless takeover of the auto industry is a disgrace, directed at helping his political allies first, and all other consequences second.

It is good to see even a symbolic victory for the rule of law.

Bravo to the Indiana Solicitor General’s office. A small victory, even a temporary victory, is better than no victory at all — and in a case like this one, much better than never having fought.

UPDATE: This comment from the Althouse blog is a good summary of the situation.

“As Elizabeth Windsor, service number 230873, she volunteered as a subaltern in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and a mechanic. Eventually, she drove military trucks in support roles in England.”

Queen Elizabeth II is the last living head of state who served in uniform in World War II.

Obama, Sarkozy and Brown do not want her in Normandy on June 6, 2009. It is unlikely she will be alive or fit to travel in 2014.

They are correctly afraid that they would shown up as the petty, trivial men they are if they had to stand next to her.

These three detestable men just became even more loathsome in my eyes.

The three of them are not worthy to change the bedpans of our World War II veterans.

Jonathan adds: When I heard about the decision to uninvite the Queen, my first thought was, Who wouldn’t be thrilled to be in her presence and ask her about her life experiences and views on various historical figures and controversies? My second thought was that Sarkozy, whom the press reported as the instigator of the exclusion, is a jerk. But of course I was naive and Lex is correct. The President of France would never do such a thing on his own, nor is it clear what he would gain by doing it. He is merely the designated fall guy. This had to be a conspiracy, and a fairly transparent one at that, which makes the participants appear even worse — Brown in particular, but he couldn’t have done it without Obama’s cooperation. Midgets, the lot of them. Here’s hoping she lives to be 100 like her mother and outlasts them.

“[I]f ever there is an attack in US soil using a weapon of mass destruction, it would have originated from Pakistan”.

B. Raman, The Kaoboys of R&AW: Down Memory Lane.

(Book reviewed here and here.)

(“R&AW” = Research and Analysis Wing.)

(“Kaoboys” = People who worked for R&AW under its founder, R.N. Kao.)

I tried to suppress my conservative tendencies at first. I convinced myself that they would eventually pass, like adolescent hot flashes. … I behaved like a 40-year-old married father who suddenly realizes that he’s gay, and doesn’t know what to do.
 
There were early signs of my tendency, and in retrospect they were clearly recognizable. [A] friend of mine from school, even claims that she has always known about it. When we talked about our younger days at a class reunion three years ago and I mentioned switching sides politically, she looked at me with pity in her eyes and said: “[Y]ou were never truly liberal. It was always just a pose for you.” I felt as if I’d been caught in the act, and yet she didn’t mean it in a bad way.
 
The hardest part about being a late conservative is coming out. It’s a moment you postpone for as long as possible. You worry about the way colleagues will react, and you don’t want to humiliate your parents. My mother will be 73 this year, an age at which she is increasingly unlikely to ever shed her prejudices against conservatives. She tries to be polite in conversation and not let anyone see how she really feels, but sometimes her prejudices emerge with a clarity that even I find shocking.

Jan Fleischhauer

… the right of self-defense was not a right that was enacted by governments and granted to the people. The right was inherent in the natural order of the world, and the right existed everywhere. The principle of a natural right of self-defense was pervasive among the American Founders. The Founders viewed resistance to tyranny … simply as an application of the right of self-defense, which was a natural right regardless of whether a person was attacked by a lone criminal, or by a large criminal gang, in the form of a tyrannical government.

David B. Kopel, The Catholic Second Amendment

(Good essay — but riddled with typos.)

Tom Barnett weighs in:

[Obama's] concept of a nuclear-proof world is patently unattainable, potentially dangerous, and inherently wrong. “I’m not naïve,” the president said. “But we go forward with no illusions.”
 
But he is, and he has.

Read the whole thing.

This is a very timely slice of grown-up thinking. Not a minute too soon.