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The 2009 roster

This year's book conquests:

Anna Maria Jopek sings "Sypka Warszawa"

The angelic Anna Maria Jopek's new(ish) song. Evidently it's about the Warsaw Uprising.

Varley on Sherlock Holmes

Precisely what I expected:

There is no Holmes in this movie. It’s as simple as that. Yes, Sherlock was good with his fists, and he knew some Eastern martial art. But this witless, dark, violent, quick-cutting abomination lingers on the violence and not much else. Goddam it, if you want to make a Jackie fucking Chan movie, get Jackie fucking Chan.

Is this a real Sargent?

I was looking over the sale at AllPosters.com, and found this picture, called “Gathering Flowers at Twilight,” by John Singer Sargent. I’ve never seen such a painting, and it isn’t in the Carter Ratcliff book. It isn’t very good—the foreshortening on the girl’s left arm is terrible, and her direct, haunting stare just does not feel at all like the confidence and nonchalance typical of Sargent’s paintings. (Although there is a kind of dark stare in his portrait of the Pailleron children.) The landscape does resemble his impressionistic style, and of course it has a signature at the bottom that might or might not be Sargent’s. The picture doesn’t appear at jssgallery.com, or johnsingersargent.org, the internet resources of Sargent’s work, and although this reproduction is sold at several poster websites, I haven’t found a website other than a poster-selling site that mentions this picture. It’s possible that it’s just a not very good picture—Sargent painted in haste sometimes. (He’s said to have painted this portrait during an hour of conversation.) But I wonder if it’s possibly inauthentic. If anyone knows anything about it, I’d be very interested in hearing more.

An Objectivist at Christmas

Every year, it comes up at least once: someone says, “if you’re an atheist, why do you celebrate Christmas,” or “Merry—whatever it is you celebrate…” So here again is Ayn Rand’s comment on the matter. And an equally good explanation by Onkar Ghate.

Infantalization

Perry de Havilland makes a great point.

Number 4

What's number 4 on the Tax Policy Center's list of worst tax mistakes of 2009?

4. California. It claims to be the fifth largest economy in the world but can’t pass a serious budget, and can’t govern itself. It is the poster child for dysfunctional state governments and fiscal crises everywhere.

Responses to person-borne IEDs

From Counter-Terrorism Blog:

PersonBorne IED's are likely to be the next significant security challenge to the aviation industry but systems designed to prevent them should be able to adapt to next-gen challenges. If an array of sensors are going to be used to scan individuals entering aeroplanes then they should be developed with next-gen threats such as bio-hazards and software hazards in mind. To some degree this threat could be met by the market; just as airlines, which provide good in-flight services are more pleasant to fly on, an airline, which effectively screens passengers at the door for a variety of threats may attract more customers. A smart screening system operated by the airlines, using its own intelligence and backed by government when appropriate may be preferable to the current lumbering response and would certainly be a welcome addition to security in countries where government screening is best described as sporadic.

Dan Walters on California finances

Dan Walters:

So we're squandering our limited debt capacity on nonessential things such as stem cell research and bullet trains while our existing infrastructure is crumbling, demand from an increasing population grows, politicians' credibility is almost nil, and bankers deservedly treat us like a Third World country.

The Choir of York Minster

Merry Life Day?

Nothing says "Christmas" like praying wookies, a dented R2D2, and Carrie Fisher singing a Christmas Life Day carol:

For those keeping track

No, Ed Brayton has still not explained why he has a moral right to force me to pay for his doctor bills.

Learned helplessness in the age of Obama

This post brought to mind a thought I had a few weeks ago when, looking into the window of the Victoria's Secret at Union Square in San Francisco, I saw that the new tactic for selling lingerie is to put big signs in the window that say "HOPE!"

Isn't hope a rather effete concept? I mean, hope contains an element of helpless passivity; as contrasted with, say, ambition, or will, or determination, hope is what you do when you are out of all other options, and can do nothing other than wait for someone else to come along and solve your problems for you. Hope is not an expectation or even a wish; hope is an optimistic faith in something outside of your power. One strives for success, but one hopes for rescue. Hope was the last of the evils left in Pandora's jar; when Bart Simpson is backed up to the giant blender and cannot figure out an escape, he says he hopes that "something will come along to save" him. It seems to me that this is precisely the connotation that the Obama campaign had in mind, and why "hope" is so disappointing as a national slogan.

The role of the critic

Joan Houlihan on poetry criticism:

Rather than avoid overt rating, I think more critical writing should do just that--evaluate. Guidance depends not only on learning how to read what someone says is worth reading, but learning how to see what's not worth reading, how to make distinctions between and among all of the possible things to read we are presented with constantly. I don't see how critics can abandon evaluation, not teach readers how to make distinctions between and among what's good, better, best. If an education in poetry does anything, it seems to me it should at least help poets not only to to say something about poems, but to evaluate them, to make distinctions between and among them and yes, to render a judgment on them. As with any field, there are practioners who are better than others—-more experienced, more talented, original, exciting, etc-—and some who are overrated (or underrated). Readers—and students—are not helped by an avoidance of this reality.

Star Trekking Sherlock Holmes

This movie review sounds eerily similar to what some Hollywood folks have lately done with certain science fiction franchises lately....

Iran ignores deadline for nuclear deal

Iran's president [sic] on Tuesday dismissed a year-end deadline set by the Obama administration and the West for Tehran to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The United States warned Iran to take the deadline seriously.

But hey, a nuclear Iran is a manageable risk, right?

Because you just can't get enough Hayek at Christmas

The conversation continues at Cato Unbound with my latest comment, and a new comment by Daniel Klein.

The Singing Revolution

I watched a moving and sweet documentary last night called The Singing Revolution, about how Estonia gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1989. I have very fond memories of those exciting times, watching as the Baltic states declared their independence, but I had not known much about Estonia—most of the news then seemed to be about Lithuania, where the Soviets shed a lot more blood. Particularly amazing was how the Estonians elected their own parliament, which proceeded to declare independence during the very moments when Soviet tanks were descending upon them! A fascinating and inspiring story. Very, very highly recommended.

Here's the trailer:

You can buy it on Amazon or rent it on Netflix.

My law review article on McDonald

At VC, Dave Kopel very kindly pointed to my forthcoming NYU Journal of Law & Liberty article, noting that it "provides the best collection of citations and sources in  defense of the theory that, long before the 14th Amendment was written, it was widely understood that the principle of “due process” substantively prohibited certain arbitrary acts by legislatures (e.g., giving A’s property to B) even if the proper procedures were followed."

Now, see...

This is just how the Boston Massacre started...

By the way, Sarah Massey explains how to file a citizen complaint here. I see no reason why complaints should be limited to D.C. residents. You can email the D.C. police department's Internal Affairs Division at citizen.complaints@dc.gov