on the "lack of originality" in contemporary classical

particularly from those who think that, post-Cage, there's no way to create an original musical sound anymore...

Sounds & Fury: The Next Big Thing:

Every composer writing today should have printed in large red letters and placed in a prominent place on the wall above his writing desk Schoenberg's, "There is still plenty of good music to be written in C Major." It will give him the perspective he needs to write real music instead of racking his brains to discover The Next Big Thing, or, if he's incapable of doing so, convince him to give up composing music entirely as a hopeless enterprise where he's concerned.

do you have a dam problem?

how could you tell, 'cause they've decided it's none of your dam business anymore...

Scholars and Rogues » The nation’s 120,000 dams: Much more inspection, repair needed:

The National Inventory of Dams, maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, contains more than 85,000 dams. The inventory is limited to dams of high or significant hazard that would result in loss of life or significant property damage in the event of failure.

But not all the information about these NID dams can be viewed by the public. That’s because, presumably, of concerns that would-be terrorists might attack high-hazard dams.

The upshot of that is that you can't legally find out if the house you want to buy, the town you want to lease a shop in, the factory you want to build on the water, will actually be safe.

This is yet another of what SHOULD be a no-brainer for the Federal Government to step in and pay for better inspections and better infrastructure while the states are in budgetary crisis, either by doing the work through the department of the interior, or subsidizing the state budgets to cover it.

But they won't.

And like the bridge that collapsed that might have been saved or replaced had Uncle Newt not put a stop to Clinton's infrastructure program of 1993, they won't until somebody dies.

Speaking of dams, I just realized that one of my fav classic Bugs Bunny cartoons never made it to the Golden Collections (which they say they won't make any more of... :( ).

"to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance"

slacktivist: To bigotry no sanction: George Washington:

The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy—a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

The Government has, of course, failed to live up to that ideal time and again, though in time has often corrected itself.  To the revisionists who would restore the non-existant "Christian" origins to this country, let them reconsider their decision to place Mr. Washington on their side.  He surely would not be.  This letter, in full context defending the non-interference of Government in the religion, was written to a Hebrew congregation in 1790.

i love this quote

Grand Canyon:

Nearly everybody, on taking a first look at the Grand Canyon, comes right out and admits its wonders are absolutely indescribable, and then proceeds to write anywhere from 2,000 to 50,000 words giving the full details . . .

Irwin S Cobb