Thursday music link, a day late
If you put Oliver Wendell Holmes ("the First Amendment does not protect the right to shout 'fire' in a crowded theatre") and JM Keynes (describing Treasury anti-inflation policy in the 30s as "crying 'fire, fire' in Noah's flood") together, does that mean that German politicians talking about the inflationary consequences of a Greek bailout are shouting "Fire!" in a flooded theatre?
In related news, note that the main issue the ratings agencies have is the Greek pension liability, and the main component of the austerity measures will end up being a reform of the pension system. The sovereign bond market is a curious place, where "He's willing to cheat his own grandmother, that one", can be a mark of the utmost probity.
Fire.
"Rhythm Killers" was a great album, although the approximately 9 million exactly similar Bill Laswell productions which followed it weren't all quite so good.
Actually, it should be 'He's willing to cheat somebody else's grandmother, that one.'
ReplyDeleteIf only we had an ethicist handy to explain why that's not so bad.
(To anticipate: evolutionary arguments cannot apply to grannies - to a first approximation your own grannies are past their reproductive period.)
Objection: Laswell didn't make that many LPs that sounded exactly like Rhythm Killers, because he only made a handful with Sly and Robbie. That millions that sound much the same are the ones HE HIMSELF plays bass on.
ReplyDeleteI interviewed him once. He was grumpy.
I see the BBC Athens correspondent is playing the traditional BBC correspondent role of impartially deciding that the workers are in the wrong.
ReplyDeleteevolutionary arguments cannot apply to grannies - to a first approximation your own grannies are past their reproductive period.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but they can still act as allomothers. See (eg) Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Mother Nature. Grannies are definitely important in evolutionary terms: a gene for cheating your own granny would probably not be selected for.
Not to mention the value of having a reputation for trustworthiness...
I actually quite like some of Laswell's stuff that he plays bass on, but he's the musical equivalent of dill. You just think "hmmm, a little bit of dill would give this a fresh aniseedy taste that goes well with fish", and then somehow five minutes later your soup tastes of nothing but Bill Laswell.
ReplyDeleteWell not always....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqKqXKGDqKM
But yeah, one Bill Laswell album pretty much has it covered.
Better than Peter Gabriel though. He should be up before some kind of tribunal for his world fusion albums.
To combine your Tory spanking post with your Doctor Who post, I have to say I'm increasingly seeing in DC not a smooth PR guy but a character thrown forward in time from the 1950s. You know, sweaty-faced and pint-swilling; Jag sportster parked outside the country pub, scarf-wearing wife sitting meekly in the passenger seat, still sore from the last strapping. And he won't even look at you, not since he started losing that game of round-the-clock for a tenner.
ReplyDelete