Remainder Books from Borders wot I read

Thoughts on the race after Saturday's Republican debate

I thought Romney had a good night. I'm mystified somewhat by his take on the Chinese currency question. I'd have to defer to Greg Mankiw's argument on this. The Chinese change the ratio of dollars to yuan by buying our Treasury instruments. Thus they make the dollar more dear, the yuan less so. Romney is thus demanding that the Chinese buy less of our debt which would make our debt service more expensive. I suppose he knows this but doesn't want to explain it in Ohio and will change his position given cover as Gingrich did for him on the immigration question. It's that sort of thing though that bothers me. Here I don't know know if he believes something or if he figures the voters are too stupid/ prejudiced to be talked to. I suppose the currency position polls well, and maybe he has set it up as a defense against Huntsman. He seemed awful ready to counter punch him over the Chinese issue.

A blog post by Ilya Somin in Volokh Conspiracy reminded me of a former German named Pinkie.

One of the commenters (Joe Horton): It seems to me that the Nazis got power not so much by getting votes (which they were able to do in a number of ways) so much as by killing, or at least beating the cookies out of people and families of people who disagreed with them. Once legitimate law enforcers were cowed by the apparent burgeoning Nazis, they, too, came under the spell. This is all pretty well described in the recent book, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin, which details the ambassadorship of William Dodd to Germany in the 30’s. It makes fascinating, if chilling reading.
Another (SteveMG): Sydney Hook, in Out of Step: An Unquiet Life in the 20th Century, says he was immediately shocked and frightened at seeing Hitler speak. His ability to mesmerize the audience, his outright racial appeal, his open promotion of violence, his appeals to “blood”, it was all there.

Erik H adds at the end a book which also looks interesting,

David Brooks has called Santorum a working class conservative, a Volokh post a big gubmint conservative. It was interesting to see him cite his grandfather's leaving Italy in the 20's when Mussolini came to power as to my not real informed speculation Mussolini was also a big gubmint conservative in a way; probably just went a tad far for the pops. Anyway, Santorum is kind of a Catholic Social Welfare kind of conservative apparently; so at least in a religious social sense it's nice that the evangelicals would have him. It's interesting how Iowa broke - quite polar with Santorum and Ron Paul, the latter a simplistic libertarian true enough but also simplistic enough to be anti-libertarian also.

Was reading about books as gifts on Althouse and thinking about the sadness in my grandmother giving me the Reader's Digest for Christmas and reflecting that she was a contemporary of Scofield Thayer more or less and could have subscribed to The Dial, his avant-garde journal. Except for being moderne which seems now old fashioned I guess there is only the challenge that there were some beautiful, structurally challenging or penetrating things done. In Googling Thayer to find the article (again), I came upon the author of Sea Power, I would expect a relative. Thayer was apparently analyzed by Freud and became schizophrenic; it's an interesting story. I came to it because of his connection to ee cummings, an old fashioned moderne of whose is:

I'm very fond of
black bean
soup(O i'm
very
fond of black
bean soup
Yes i'm very fond
of black bean soup)But
i don't disdain
a beef-
steak

Gimme gin&bitters to
open my
eyes(O gimme
gin&
bitters to open
my eyes
Yes gimme gin&bitters
to open my eyes)But
i'll take straight rum as
a night-
cap

Nothing like a blonde for
ruining the
blues(O nothing
like a
blonde for ruining
the blues
Yes nothing like a blonde
for ruining the blues)But
i use redheads for
the tooth
-ache

Parson says a sinner will
perish in the
flames(O parson
says a
sinner will perish
in the flames
Yes parson says a sinner
Will perish in the flames)But
i reckon that's better
than freez-
ing

Everybody's dying to be
someone
else(O every
body's
dying to be some
one else
Yes everybody's dying
to be someone else)But
i'll live my life if
it kills
me

The 'lost poem' in the Thayer article is even more scandalous to the pc reader. I had thought that 'the only emperor is the emperor of ice cream' was his but it's from Walther Stevens though I would like to see a copy of the book Sound and Sense by Laurence Perrine where I swear it's done by Edward.

When Gingrich stood up to oppose hysteria over Mexican participation in our country, he got credit for courage and then talking about allowing children or adolescents to work brought out a lot of applause from those who found work throwing papers as kids. Romney responded to the first action by slip streaming behind him as I understand it. Well, when Romney said he should return the $1.4 million he got from Fannie, Gingrich didn’t find this a useful criticism but made a grandiose justification for it. He’s not going anywhere IMHO. He’s a tribune without power who will not have power though, yes, some may enjoy his talking back to the judicial teacher of Roe v. Wade and homosexual marriage being embedded in various constitutions, etc.

From my 2 cents.

The DNA of the United Kingdom.

Christopher Hitchens solves a mystery for me and gives me some German to pass along to my son. Freud said something like Nietzsche new himself best or had the best grasp of psychology in the previous generation. Nietzsche died shortly after having jumped in a river yelling some wild statement; so this didn't make sense to me. Hitchens points out that he had tertiary syphilis (which doesn't preclude you being sane earlier). Having addressed this mystery, there comes up the idea that Nietzsche would seem to have addressed issues of narcissism whereas Freud was more into dynamic understanding, anyway a lessor problem.

When I saw this review of the biography of George Kennan, I thought of how the U.S. might have done better with him as Secretary of State during the Kennedy period. I see that Kissinger had some recent comments on Kennan also.