Freespace

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