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MadV: "One World"

I just read about this in WIRED, in an article by Clive Thompson (who wrote about Townsend Brown and the lifters a few years ago).  So this YouTube magician who wears a Guy Fawkes mask and does 'anti-gravity' tricks with playing cards does a short video (seen at the end of this clip) that generates like THOUSANDS of video responses, making this the most-video-responded clip on YouTube.  And the resulting compilation is really quite compelling.  See for yourself:

Reboot America

Thomas Friedman in the NYTimes uses an expression I've been using for years now:

That’s why we don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover. That is why the next few months are among the most important in U.S. history. Because of the financial crisis, Barack Obama has the bipartisan support to spend $1 trillion in stimulus. But we must make certain that every bailout dollar, which we’re borrowing from our kids’ future, is spent wisely.

It has to go into training teachers, educating scientists and engineers, paying for research and building the most productivity-enhancing infrastructure — without building white elephants. Generally, I’d like to see fewer government dollars shoveled out and more creative tax incentives to stimulate the private sector to catalyze new industries and new markets. If we allow this money to be spent on pork, it will be the end of us.

Of course, it's not just that whatever "stimulus" package Washington comes up with has to be "spent wisely."  It's also that the whole political process by which such decisions are made needs to be rebooted as well. 

Congressional  reapportionment needs to be revisited.  Constituents are supposed to choose their representatives, not the other way around.

And it might even be time to re-think the electoral college, a relic of the 18th century -- when it could take three months to tally the results from an election, a process that now takes hours if not minutes. 

There is a whole host of Constitutional provisions that need to be restored, starting with the clause that mandates hard national currency -- not the printing press money that floods our national coffers today. 

Or the provision that says that copyrights should be for a limited time, not virtual perpetuity. 

And while we're at it, the Supreme Court might re-visit that 1888 decision that extended the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to corporations, giving them the same rights as real persons.  That might go along way toward reducing the influence of big money on the political process.

Or how about that antiquated idea that war needs to be declared by Congress, not the Executive?  The framers knew what they were doing with that one, but it's been pretty much discarded since World War II.

So, yeah, by all means.  "Reboot America."  But not just so that we have better Internet on high-speed trains. So that the whole idea that became "America" undergoes the kind of restoration that will carry those concepts effectively into a new century and millennium. 

Otherwise, civilization is going to be taking gas from the Chinese for a long time to come.

The Final Word

...on the subject:

Internet Marketing Gurus, Take Note:

Your secrets have all been revealed, and once this video makes the rounds, you're going to have to find real jobs:

Merry Ho Ho

And Happy Ha Ha.
Best wishes to all for a safe and warm holiday, wherever you are and whatever you're having. --Ann, Paul... and Zoe

Last Minute Holiday Preparations

In case you're wondering what to do with all the crap you're going to wind up with after Christmas, Hanukah, Kwaanza, or wheteverthehell you're having:

And Now for A Word from Our Sponsors

This just in from Bailout Nation:

Schadenfreude

It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy -- in this case, the guy who tormented me at Camp Kennebec through the summer of 1962:

Katzenberg Gets Hit in Madoff Swindle:

A few years ago, Hollywood financial adviser Gerald Breslauer shed most of his clients to focus on two top entertainment-industry figures: director Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg. Now, both of Mr. Breslauer's remaining clients have been hit by the alleged fraud by New York money manager Bernard Madoff.

Mr. Katzenberg has suffered millions in Madoff-connected losses, say people familiar with the matter.

See now, if I'd understood "networking" better when I was eleven, I coulda been part of this story, too....

Now THAT's a BAR

The Depot Grille - Staunton, VA. The bar was built in the 1890s and hauled down here from a hotel in Albany, NY.

Harp Guitarist

Stephen Bennett at Artisan Guitars in Franklin