More Cloward-Piven Activity?

Moonbattery provides us with some analysis of how a global tax proposed by the International Monetary Fund would bring about "hope and change" by driving the United States and the free world into financial ruin. Frankly, I wouldn't give this line of thought a second of my time, but it makes too much sense given some of the loony left policies emanating from the White House these days.

If the Cloward-Piven strategy is new to you, go here.

Singularity Summit

Here is a report on the Singularity Summit held in New York last weekend. Source: Instapundit.

Narcissism

Scott Johnson provides us with evidence and comment on the blatant narcissism displayed by the Obamas at the International Olympic Committee meeting in Norway last week.

About ten days ago, I found myself standing in front of the home of Bess and Harry Truman in Independence, Missouri, contemplating the presidency of an ordinary, everyday couple thrust into the leadership of the free world. I suspect the Democrat party will soon wish it had a "Give 'em Hell, Harry" to replace the sorry example it and the state-run media ushered into the White House in 2008.

One Thousand Trillion Operations Per Second

Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) has posted an article about Kraken, a supercomputer at the University of Tennessee that has achieved the petascale - see the title for a definition.

Zora Neale Hurston: Keeping Black Folk Culture Alive

Learning never stops. That's good because the minute you stop learning, you stop growing as a person. Thanks to my daughter, I learned about Zora Hurston in an article in the summer issue of City Journal. The quarterly is one of my favorites and the article supports my contention that it is a hallmark of fine writing and essential information.

If anyone preserved and promoted the folk culture of Americans of African ancestry in the first half of the 20th century, it was Hurston. In the second half of that century, desegregation, diffusion, and assimilation all worked to diminish the culture she worked so hard to preserve. The fact that she was a conservative who believed in self-sufficiency and fierce individualism did not endear her to her contemporaries. Today, her soaring literary legacy and the folkways upon which much of it is based, have returned her to popularity among a wide range of readers.

You can discover Zora Neale Hurston for yourself at this City Journal link.

Calling Long Distance

Political and social upheavals almost always lead to displacements in time and space. Something as commonplace as a telephone book may answer the lingering questions that accumulate as people rebuild their lives and associations far removed from the place they knew or imagined. Such is the case with a 1958 phone book from Cuba, one that presents information and impressions of the island BC, "before Castro."

For the last fifty years, anti-capitalist forces here and abroad have worked overtime to create a negative image of Cuba BC. Thanks to Babalu Blog and its link to evendon.net, you can explore the real Cuba before communism destroyed it. Let your fingers do the walking. There's nothing like an original source.

Home

Our 21st century Voyage of Discovery from the mouth of the Missouri River to the High Plains, Rocky Mountains, and approach to the continental divide at Lemhi Pass has ended. It has been a long and rewarding three weeks. Traveling in the traces of Lewis and Clark was an opportunity for personal discovery that I will write more about over the coming weeks. OTR's news aggregation and personal comments on the American experience will resume, as well.