DAPancost.com

Accepting the Challenge…Kind of

I was challenged the other day during a phone conversation with a friend who had several comments to make on last week’s Freedom Friday post. Though her comments will remain between us, she seriously stimulated my thinking. She succeeded in motivating me to re-think the direction of these posts because as a result of our conversation I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions. Questions for which my answers lean more toward opinion rather than well researched, clear and rational understanding.

I’m not liking this about myself. I may be able to defend my opinions with well chosen rhetoric, but that’s not good enough. Rhetoric isn’t reason. Rhetoric may support it, but it isn’t a very good replacement.

Here’s the thing. I’m a freedom lover, an advocate for liberty. I’m very much aligned with the “Leave us alone” crowd. The question that most stimulated me after my discussion with my friend was: “Am I a liberty advocate based on the principles advanced by America’s Founding Fathers, or because I’m an independent cuss who simply wants to do as he pleases?”

Other questions I’ve been playing with are:

Read the rest of this entry »

SNJ091909 — A Night with Diana Krall

What can I say about this lady? Her sensuous voice just sends me. Her piano playing is as near perfect as one can get. She’s a Grammy winner whose consistently at the top of the jazz charts. She brings a unique contemporary interpretation to all sorts of wonderful jazz standards. Her “Quiet Nights” album (released on March 31, 2009) has fixed her in my view as the absolute Queen of Jazz .

So for your listening pleasure I bring to you the following wonderful jazz from the Queen herself — Diana Krall. I hope you enjoy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Is there a way out?

Regardless of which side of the political spectrum you’re on you can’t help but be impressed by the event that took place in Washington, D.C. on September 12th. A huge number of people (yes I know the numbers are being questioned — no matter, they’re still big) from across America showed up to protest a radically arrogant and out-of-control federal government. No riots, no looting, no violence, no arrests, just outspoken outrage and peaceful protest. Amazing.

The “sleeping giant” of true freedom-loving Americans is starting to stir. The question now is, “Are we really going to have an impact? Is it enough, or is it too little, too late?” Is there really a way out of this mess?

Read the rest of this entry »

SNJ091209 — A Night of Random Goodies 2

Not much to say tonight, just playing around with Grooveshark and following wherever its recommendations lead me. Its easy to do and a lot of fun. You can discover some great music this way. Give it a shot. Just go to Grooveshark and type in your favorite artist. Then click on a song and give it a listen. With each song comes recommendations and links to other similar music. Click on one of the recommendations and play that one. Then rinse and repeat for as long as you wish. A great way to spend some time with your favorite artists and discover new ones. Hope you enjoy this evening of random jazz.

Christo Redentor — Duke Pearson
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Christo_Redentor/10853627

Black Orpheus — Cassandra Wilson
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Black_Orpheus/10382996

The Best Thing For You — Diana Krall
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/The_Best_Thing_For_You/23034167

You and the Night and the Music — Elain Elias
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/You_and_The_Night_and_The_Music/9646404

Mood Indigo — Rosemary Clooney
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Mood_Indigo/3736048

Bird Alone — Abbey Lincoln
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Bird_Alone/2554173

Learnin’ The Blues — Katie Melua
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Learnin_The_Blues/8556669

If You Can Dream — Lena Horne
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/If_You_Can_Dream/7182981

Hey Big Spender — Peggy Lee
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Hey_Big_Spender/3408723

I Didn’t Know What Time It Was — Anita O’day
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/I_Didnt_Know_What_Time_It_Was/3735363

In a Sentimental Mood — Nancy Wilson
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/In_a_Sentimental_Mood/18181579

Backlash Blues — Nina Simone
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Backlash_Blues/950863

Who’s Really to Blame, Democrats, Republicans or …?

No matter which side of the political spectrum you are on you can hardly escape the feeling that America is in a real mess. Our politics are full of corruption. Our culture promotes the absolute worst of what it means to be human. We are involved in a multiple front war that seems to have no end in sight. Our future seems to be, at best, dismal if not outright catastrophic. What’s worse is that most of us feel that there simply is nothing we can do to divert disaster.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi, All. I’m Back for More

Well, it’s the seventh and as promised, I’m going to start posting again. Took me a while to remember how to do everything. I also had to adjust how I do things because I got a new iMac and am still transferring stuff off my laptop to the new machine. So my return post is being posted a bit late and without much editing. Me at my worst.

It’s good to be back even though things will be a bit different. During my brief hiatus, when not trying desperately to breathe during the two weeks in August where temps were in the 90’s with 90% humidity, I did some thinking about the blog and decided to make some changes. Some were internal and not visible on the blog (i.e. adding and subtracting various WordPress plugins) and some were or will be more visible as time goes along. Here’s some of the more visible changes I came up with: Read the rest of this entry »

Announcement: Taking Some Time Off

It’s the end of July and it’s very, very hot here in Olympia, WA. It’s going to get into the upper 90’s and close to 100 this week. Miserable, miserable weather with way to much humidity. Going to be sitting in front of a fan or in our local Borders Bookstore for as long as I can this week. Too hot to think or do anything.

Anyway, between the heat and the need to focus on some business issues over the next few weeks, I’ve decided to take some time off from blogging for a bit. I’ve got some decisions to make and some actions to take that will require most of my attention so I’m suspending any blog posting until September. I will return to posting on a regular basis on September 7th. In the mean time if I come across anything I think is interesting or would be of value to you, I’ll put up a quick link and description for your Internet exploration pleasure. I’ll just not be posting as regularly as I have been for the next several weeks.

Thanks for spending time with me so far, and I look forward to sharing future thoughts, observations and ideas with you for a long time to come once I return on September 7th.

SNJ07-25-09: A Night of Jazz Flutists

I first fell in love with the flute as a jazz instrument when I heard Herbie Mann back in the mid 1970’s. The flute has such a melodic well-rounded sound that it immediately captured my interest.

Tonight I’ll be sharing some great jazz done by some phenomenal flutists. Hope you enjoy. These guys have strong talent and wonderful backup musicians. There’s not a piece here that I don’t thoroughly love.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

• My Girl from Blacknuss — A jazz musician’s take on a hit pop tune.
• Ain’t No Sunshine from Blacknuss — Another great jazz take on a pop hit.
• Fingers in the Wind from The Inflated Tear — Nice piece. Kind of reminds me of music played during montage in a travelogue.

Moe Koffman

• Autum Leaves from Devil’s Brew — Upbeat version of a great jazz classic.
• Angel Eyes from Devil’s Brew — One of my favorite “Private Eye” type songs.
• Killer Joe from Devil’s Brew — Another “Private Eye” piece. I so love these.
• Have You Met Mr. Ed from Devil’s Brew — The only Mr. Ed I know is the horse… and no, I haven’t met him.
• Devil’s Brew from Devil’s Brew — This one could qualify for still another inclusion into my “Private Eye” collection.

Hubert Laws

• Pavane from The Masters of Jazz Fusion — Almost has a classical music or latin feel to it. Nice piece.
• Wildfire from Family — An up beat piece of jazz fusion.
• What A Night from Family — Nice mellow piece. Good for background music at a romantic dinner.
• Caras Falsas (False Faces) from Bella Cinderella — Let’s close out with a little latin flavor.

Hope you enjoyed these talented flutists and as usual if you have any requests or suggestions, let me know via comment or contact form.

Picture by flicker user Steve Snodgrass under Creative Commons License. Use of this picture does not constitute an endorsement by Steve Snodgrass of the ideas in this post.

Liberty and Happiness: Contributing to Society through Rational Self-Interest

You hear it all the time. Mostly from politicians, though preachers also parrot the phrases. The phrases are spoken so often they’ve become part of our mentality and are now no more than mere white noise. I’m talking about the phrases giving back, making a contribution, or contributing to society. These phrases are usually used with other phrases designed to make us feel guilt if we decide not to participate in whatever charity or political scheme is being promoted.

Most of the time, at least in this era, requests for contributions are geared toward the idea of self-sacrifice. It is often implied that because we have benefited from the positive things in society, we must somehow pay for those benefits by “giving back.” The idea that we can enjoy those positive things simply because we traded our time, talent and money in exchange for them, is considered, by certain individuals, to be selfish and immoral.

What these “elitist” individuals fail to realize is that contributions to society take place every day through a mechanism they despise. That mechanism is rational self-interest.

Note, please, that I am talking about rational self-interest, not the kind of self-centeredness that you find wrapped up in today’s obsession with excessive consumption. Those who live to consume are not rationally self-interested. They are slaves to their impulses and act only as their impulses dictate. They are on a constant hunt for the new. They live by the slogan “Bigger is Better.” or “Greed is good.” They eat their cake, and once eaten, they are frustrated because they no longer have it. Their lives are an endless cycle of spend, spend, spend, even when they are drowning in debt. Their reward is their self-destruction. They are irrelevant.

The “elite” who usually mouth the “give back” mantra are just as irrationally self-centered as the consumers. Their interest isn’t in improving society or in helping others, their interest is in feeding their ego and maintaining power over others. They use the idea of giving back to guilt others into doing what the elite think is “best.” Your life has no meaning to them except for what they can extract from you for their own ends whether those ends be political power or charitable causes. Both lead to your self-sacrifice for their personal ends. Not a real pleasant way for you to live your life.

The rationally self-interested, however, understand that life is a balance. It is a balance between productivity and consumption; between trade and benevolent giving. Life is not about self-centered consumption, nor is it about total self-sacrifice for the good of others. Life, specifically their own life, is their highest value.

The rationally self-intrested believe in production and trade. They produce things of value to others that they can trade for things that they value. They believe in earning their pleasures through exchanging value for value. The benefits they receive come from these exchanges. Therefore, they owe “society” nothing. They earned their benefits.

Giving becomes a voluntary act. They give because they wish to give, not because they see themselves as owing anything to anybody. They are free from the manipulative guilt of the constant promotion of self-sacrifice.

Production, trade, voluntary benevolence, these are the weapons that deliver the rationally self-interested from the manipulative hands of the politicians and preachers of modern day guilt. The productive can hold their head high and tell the consumers and elite power-mongers to take a long walk off a short pier. We already gave at the office.

Picture by flicker user Karloswayne under Creative Commons License. Use of this picture does not constitute an endorsement by Karloswayne of the ideas in this post.

Internet Discoveries: 07-15-09 to 07-21-09

Politics and Liberty

• Welfare for Dependent Dictators — End welfare in the form of foreign aid.
• Preparing for the New Economy — Don’t expect a “recovery.” Expect something New and probably not very good.
• The Fallacies of Another New Deal –A longer article, but very education about why we cannot afford to let this happen again.
• Bernie Madoff Was Only a Petty Crook Compared with Uncle Sam — Why do people hate Bernie Madoff, yet excuse the Government from it’s own serious high crimes and misdemeanors? When will enough be enough?

Read the rest of this entry »