Inside Job. We recommend it even though the slant of the director is a bit too much Wall Street greed and a bit too little politician/bureaucrat benefit and ignorance. Nevertheless the focus on the politicians, and particularly the horrific economic and regulatory mistakes of Greenspan and Bernanke, make this documentary worth watching. A balanced review of the film is offered by Gene Epstein of Barron’s at: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111904502004575562621077193024.html
Waiting for Superman. Do not miss this excellent video capture of the outrageous lottery education system that awaits youngsters, mostly urban low economic kids, who desperately long for an education that is regularly denied them. The agents of denial are a combination of chance and the most horrific of all cabals – lazy teachers; their prophylactic, self serving union shield that insulates them from performance evaluation and long overdue termination and the disinterested administrators and politicians who are only too quick to feather their nests while sending their own kids to private schools. America is flirting with destruction; mostly brought about by excessive entitlements and a complete capture of its democratic system of governance by special interests and greedy politicians and bureaucrats. But if there is one reason; one cause; one ailment worth providing these fools their just desserts, it is the blatant and ongoing disregard they have for youngsters who want to get a good education and use their God given talents to build a better life for themselves and their neighbors. Take a blood pressure pill and bring along a handkerchief but, by all means, get this video!
Reading:
Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. There are many good reasons, recorded throughout history, to go to war. And, of course, there are many very good reasons to not to go to war or, at least, avoid it at most all costs. If and when you go to war, expect bad things to happen even with the war machine telling you otherwise. This book, this story telling; this capture of waste and silliness and puerile antics; this documentation of bad decisions and voluminous wasting of the American public treasury should result in indictments; lengthy prison sentences; record setting fines and judgments against the many guilty. Within the last week a bunch of bureaucrats took to task the bunch of bureaucrats who oversaw the waste. Consequence to the wastrels? NOTHING. At a minimum, Bush II, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the neocon gang of fools should be forced to stand in front of the pentagon for four hours daily reading excerpts from this book to those who enter the building. You can get the book at your library or at: http://www.amazon.com/Imperial-Life-Emerald-City-Vintage/dp/0307278832/
The Great Recession and Government Failure by Gary Becker. Becker has the credentials and the common sense to write the best summary of the mess we are in – its causes; its personalities; and the ultimate way out. He writes succinctly and provides us all with a road map to refer to when we hear the silliness of politicians and bureaucrats with their nonsensical explanations and impotent solutions. The essay was printed in the Wall Street Journal on Friday, September 2, 2011. They may make you register or pay for it so we direct you to the Hoover Institutions website (Mr. Becker is a senior fellow there) and you can access it readily: http://www.hoover.org/news/daily-report/91511
Triple Agent by Joby Warrick. It is interesting that this book was even written considering that the only way to get at the facts and circumstances surrounding a successful al-Qaeda suicide bombing at a CIA compound are to speak with those who are not supposed to speak. The story of the unfortunate intelligence personnel is one of mission, hubris and an enemy that played those factors well. Even though the author does his best to follow their script, as we read this story, we were constantly reminded of General Eisenhower’s warnings about setting priorities and limits. Perhaps even more so we were reminded of one of the most basic fundamentals of all – know thyself. Must reading but most certainly very bothersome reading. Get it at your library or http://www.amazon.com/Triple-Agent-al-Qaeda-Mole-Infiltrated/dp/0385534183
Some additional reading/learning comments:
We, at TheFundamentals, are occasionally asked where we go to read about important topics of the day. Who do we trust? What do we read? Well, there are a few examples offered above but if you want to check in at a very worthwhile location to get some good information and analysis, just bookmark http://www.hoover.org/ We imagine you will stop by and get addicted just as we have.
An example. Former NYCity schools administrator, Joel Klein, takes a look at the two new publications (one written by a Hoover fellow) on public school reform. Klein’s review was published in the Wall Street Journal and we highly recommend it to you for reading. We can only offer the WSJ site because we cannot locate a link elsewhere. Here it is: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904006104576504730339106252.html
No comments:
Post a Comment