Well with just five days to go until the election or is it four? I have to say I have been impressed with Obama particularly. He seems like the kind of passionate, honest, reach across the aisle person we could use in the White House.
I almost laughed when one of the talking heads claimed that he was so far to the left and so unwilling to work with members of the opposite party. The "head" said we should never elect such a person as President. And I thought....
You are partially right and partially wrong. We have had such a person for about eight years who never listened to anyone except those who matched his internal compass as far as direction. I hope the talker is wrong and that Obama will seek a middle ground in working towards a better America and a better global community. Like it or not we are joined at the hip with 6 billion other people seeking employment and other forms of economic improvement. We need to collaborate with many to husband resources and keep heading forward. For my part I am optimistic about the future.
Well I am headed off this morning to a company which consults on elearning. It should be an interesting day. Best of luck to you all regardless of political position. See you at the polls next week. Help a shut-in to vote if you have the time.
Editor
Phil Wesel
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Rainy raises blisters & funds for breast cancer
This blog is dedicated to a well recognized art form i.e. the women of the world. Much of the art of this world dating back to the feminine images of Mary and Child from the middle ages celebrate both womanhood and motherhood. It is one of the common themes even in less obvious paintings such as Degas ballet dancers.
Last weekend my wife celebrated her womanhood by walking over sixty (60) miles for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer fund among others. Each of the over 4000 ladies that walked had to raise a minimum of $2200 to participate. Can you imagine that a small crowd of 4000 woman and an even smaller crowd of some 200 survivors raised Eight point two million dollars to find cures for this form of cancer.
I was especially proud of my beloved because she did all of the fund raising on her own. I was only peripherally involved ( I drove her to and from the event). My wife is a survivor and I hope that she takes the opportunity to do the walk again next year. It goes under the heading of breast cancer three day and they hold them all over the country. I believe the total raised by this organization over the last nine or ten years is $300 million. Perhaps they should be in charge of congress as they seem to do an excellent job of managing budgets.
At any rate, this blog is hats off to all the women who walked of which my wife was one. I think this was a great cause and a great way for her to spend her weekend. Ladies, my heartfelt congratulations on your success.
Phil
Last weekend my wife celebrated her womanhood by walking over sixty (60) miles for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer fund among others. Each of the over 4000 ladies that walked had to raise a minimum of $2200 to participate. Can you imagine that a small crowd of 4000 woman and an even smaller crowd of some 200 survivors raised Eight point two million dollars to find cures for this form of cancer.
I was especially proud of my beloved because she did all of the fund raising on her own. I was only peripherally involved ( I drove her to and from the event). My wife is a survivor and I hope that she takes the opportunity to do the walk again next year. It goes under the heading of breast cancer three day and they hold them all over the country. I believe the total raised by this organization over the last nine or ten years is $300 million. Perhaps they should be in charge of congress as they seem to do an excellent job of managing budgets.
At any rate, this blog is hats off to all the women who walked of which my wife was one. I think this was a great cause and a great way for her to spend her weekend. Ladies, my heartfelt congratulations on your success.
Phil
Monday, October 13, 2008
Politics Aside - An Art Inspired Blog
I'm trying to read a three volume history of modern art. You know I love the topic of art in general and believe that most writers, this one included, want to help educate on art. However, sometimes the points they make are difficult to comprehend.
At any rate, the interesting point of the first of these three books is that artists attempt to paint forms of social reality as they then see it. This helps explain why a twentieth century Russian painter living in poverty might have a different reality than a twentieth century American illustrator living in better circumstances. Certainly painters share an appreciation for particular styles and forms often when they themselves haven't been influenced by the underlying social reality. Painters as a group I think are willing to see and judge for themselves the kinds of things they see in the art and real world. Hence you have the rise of painters such as those from the Ashcan school such as Robert Henri, William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shin, John French Sloan, Davies, Lawson, and of course Maurice Prendergast. At the turn of the century they tended to paint a social commentary regarding New York as they saw it. And that was as a gritty, sometimes a little dirty place, where life florished in spite of its challenges and surroundings.
The other day I took my seven year old niece and my twenty five year old son to the Brandywine River Museum. I was not surprised that my granddaughter wanted to run around the museum talking to nearly everyone that she met. She is after all living in an age of innocence. I was surprised by the art that my son liked. He liked the oil paintings composed in black and white like some of the works of Remington, Pyle, and even some of the Ashcan school painters. What he liked the most was the level of detail on the people's faces. I knew then that he had been touched to some degree by the visit. He could distinguish the look of anguish on an indian or a beggers face and the looks of happiness in a young girls smile. It was gratifying to see that his eyes were not closed to what he was seeing. It wasn't just a bunch of pretty pictures. They all had statements to make.
How does your family feel about art? More importantly, do you let your granddaughters' color pictures and make shapes and do all the wonderfully creative things that only kids seem willing to do. If you don't (without my getting preachy) maybe you should consider giving them the chance to get the bug. Until next time it's all for arts sake.
Phil
At any rate, the interesting point of the first of these three books is that artists attempt to paint forms of social reality as they then see it. This helps explain why a twentieth century Russian painter living in poverty might have a different reality than a twentieth century American illustrator living in better circumstances. Certainly painters share an appreciation for particular styles and forms often when they themselves haven't been influenced by the underlying social reality. Painters as a group I think are willing to see and judge for themselves the kinds of things they see in the art and real world. Hence you have the rise of painters such as those from the Ashcan school such as Robert Henri, William Glackens, George Luks, Everett Shin, John French Sloan, Davies, Lawson, and of course Maurice Prendergast. At the turn of the century they tended to paint a social commentary regarding New York as they saw it. And that was as a gritty, sometimes a little dirty place, where life florished in spite of its challenges and surroundings.
The other day I took my seven year old niece and my twenty five year old son to the Brandywine River Museum. I was not surprised that my granddaughter wanted to run around the museum talking to nearly everyone that she met. She is after all living in an age of innocence. I was surprised by the art that my son liked. He liked the oil paintings composed in black and white like some of the works of Remington, Pyle, and even some of the Ashcan school painters. What he liked the most was the level of detail on the people's faces. I knew then that he had been touched to some degree by the visit. He could distinguish the look of anguish on an indian or a beggers face and the looks of happiness in a young girls smile. It was gratifying to see that his eyes were not closed to what he was seeing. It wasn't just a bunch of pretty pictures. They all had statements to make.
How does your family feel about art? More importantly, do you let your granddaughters' color pictures and make shapes and do all the wonderfully creative things that only kids seem willing to do. If you don't (without my getting preachy) maybe you should consider giving them the chance to get the bug. Until next time it's all for arts sake.
Phil
Why Phil Gramm Belongs on Anderson Cooper's 360 as part of his Ten Most Wanted in the Wall Street Meltdown
I wrote to Anderson Cooper this morning encouraging the CNN news organization to add both Phil Gramm and Wendy Gramm to the Ten Most Wanted in the melt down of most peoples life savings. Yes a number of us have been complicit because of the ensuing panic. When someone cries "fire" in a crowded theater we often don't stand around waiting to verify the facts. Here's what I wrote to AC360....
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html
If you don't read any other posts, please read this one.
thanks
Phil
"I am following your ten most wanted whose to blame. We should seriously consider the roles that both Wendy and former Senator Phil Gramm played in this debacle through both legislation Gramm attached to the Omnibus Budget Act which largely prohibited CDS from being regulated as a commodity. His wife was deeply involved in the decision not to regulate energy contracts which ultimately was part of the downfall of Enron.
Enron was the "canary in the coal mine" predicting the multi billion dollar collapse of that firm and the lost life savings of 100 of thousands of Americans.
Now we have the same thing at the hands of Phil Gramm with a multi-trillion dollar collapse and the lost life savings of millions of Americans. This time these two engaged in reckless behavior that literally cost most of us 40% of the value of our pensions and the losses aren't over yet."
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html
If you don't read any other posts, please read this one.
thanks
Phil
Friday, October 10, 2008
More on why CRA isn't the whipping boy that Sean Hannity and others would love to hate.
Simply put gentlemen, the devil is in the details and the details pretty much dispel this conservative based myth once and for all. Sorry R.M. and Fox you will have to find another so called liberal cause to blame as there is little or no truth to CRA being remotely at the heart of this mess. When you have come down off your high horse and really examined the data, you'll find that two thirds of the mortages were neither low income nor minority focused so you need a new plan of blame.
http://www.newamerica.net/blog/asset-building/2008/its-still-not-cra-7222
http://www.newamerica.net/blog/asset-building/2008/its-still-not-cra-7222
How do art and politics mesh?
Well I am not sure about this one but it is my blog at least for the immediate future. I see art in many things. The art of saying no that a parent uses when talking to a small child. The art of negotiation when buying or selling something that you really want. How many of us have really loved the art that evoked something in us but simply could not afford the artist's price. I am not talking about getting a better price but getting something that you almost cannot do without. That is well priceless in some respects and in others just plays to our materialistic instincts.
At any rate, I have purchased one or two paintings in my life that I simply wanted because they spoke to me. That is where a true appreciation for art lies. I love the work of Henry Pitz. He was a Pennsylvania area artist and author who illustrated childrens books and wrote for one of the art magazines of the fifties. I really enjoyed his art because it had elements of the Brandywine School illustrators and his own cubist tendencies intertwined. Hopefully I can get a few pictures of my favorite, Hilltown, up in the future. For now it must stay in storage. At any rate. enjoy the next few weeks political blogs followed by some real art articles.
best regards
Phil
At any rate, I have purchased one or two paintings in my life that I simply wanted because they spoke to me. That is where a true appreciation for art lies. I love the work of Henry Pitz. He was a Pennsylvania area artist and author who illustrated childrens books and wrote for one of the art magazines of the fifties. I really enjoyed his art because it had elements of the Brandywine School illustrators and his own cubist tendencies intertwined. Hopefully I can get a few pictures of my favorite, Hilltown, up in the future. For now it must stay in storage. At any rate. enjoy the next few weeks political blogs followed by some real art articles.
best regards
Phil
Community Reinvestment Act Was Not the Cause
Here is a brief snipet from Aaron Pressman's article from business week please go there for the full article. Hopefully he and BusinessWeek will forgive my cut and paste under fair use guidelines
Community Reinvestment Act had nothing to do with subprime crisis
Posted by: Aaron Pressman on September 29
Fresh off the false and politicized attack on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, today we’re hearing the know-nothings blame the subprime crisis on the Community Reinvestment Act — a 30-year-old law that was actually weakened by the Bush administration just as the worst lending wave began. This is even more ridiculous than blaming Freddie and Fannie.
The Community Reinvestment Act, passed in 1977, requires banks to lend in the low-income neighborhoods where they take deposits. Just the idea that a lending crisis created from 2004 to 2007 was caused by a 1977 law is silly. But it’s even more ridiculous when you consider that most subprime loans were made by firms that aren’t subject to the CRA. University of Michigan law professor Michael Barr testified back in February before the House Committee on Financial Services that 50% of subprime loans were made by mortgage service companies not subject to comprehensive federal supervision and another 30% were made by affiliates of banks or thrifts which are not subject to routine supervision or examinations. As former Fed Governor Ned Gramlich said in an August, 2007, speech shortly before he passed away: “In the subprime market where we badly need supervision, a majority of loans are made with very little supervision. It is like a city with a murder law, but no cops on the beat.”
Community Reinvestment Act had nothing to do with subprime crisis
Posted by: Aaron Pressman on September 29
Fresh off the false and politicized attack on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, today we’re hearing the know-nothings blame the subprime crisis on the Community Reinvestment Act — a 30-year-old law that was actually weakened by the Bush administration just as the worst lending wave began. This is even more ridiculous than blaming Freddie and Fannie.
The Community Reinvestment Act, passed in 1977, requires banks to lend in the low-income neighborhoods where they take deposits. Just the idea that a lending crisis created from 2004 to 2007 was caused by a 1977 law is silly. But it’s even more ridiculous when you consider that most subprime loans were made by firms that aren’t subject to the CRA. University of Michigan law professor Michael Barr testified back in February before the House Committee on Financial Services that 50% of subprime loans were made by mortgage service companies not subject to comprehensive federal supervision and another 30% were made by affiliates of banks or thrifts which are not subject to routine supervision or examinations. As former Fed Governor Ned Gramlich said in an August, 2007, speech shortly before he passed away: “In the subprime market where we badly need supervision, a majority of loans are made with very little supervision. It is like a city with a murder law, but no cops on the beat.”
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