Cause of the financial meltdown via Commentary Magazine

In February of 2009, Peter Wallison carefully presented the real reasons for the financial meltdown in the article from Commentary Magazine.  Much has been written since about the cause and reason this meltdown occurred, however Wallison's piece has stood the test of time as a definitive explication of the whole sordid event.  Cutting to the chase one could say that the underlying cause of this fiasco was the politicization of the housing market.

Yale's latest failure of nerve

Like many other institutions of higher learning, Yale caves in the face of anything smacking of political correctness. This story in PL is the latest example and begs the question exactly how much money now flows to the school's coffers from Arab sources.

ADDED:   This link sheds further light on Y's decision to cancel the program mentioned above.

A visit to Orvieto

Thursday, June 9. 2011

A drive to Orvieto

We took a drive to Orvieto, with the goal of seeing the renowned Signorelli chapel's 16th C. frescoes - the Chapel of the Madonna di San Brizio inside the 15th C. Duomo.

Pics and verbiage below the fold -

Driving through the scenic Tiber Valley. That's a lake behind a dam in the Tiber. The non-agricultural parts in the valley's hills, which separate the Tiber Valley from the Valle Umbra to the east, are mostly national park. Nice pic, given my cheapo photo "equipment" - Panasonic Lumix mostly -

The old town, in a thunderstorm. As I am wont to say to other tourists when Mrs. BD is not nearby, "It's all Disney Italy; none of this is real." I have no idea why they look at me strangely, because I am just being jocularly metaphysical.

The facade of the duomo is magnificent and absorbed Mrs. BD for over half an hour, but I was just glad to get to see the deservedly famous Signorelli frescos in the chapel. The dead rising from the earth, the devils, etc. No pics allowed, but it has been much-published.

I have limits to what I can process, absorb, and appreciate whether it is serious music, museums, art, architecture, littacher, dance, great food and wine, deep thinking, sermons, lectures, people, gardens, etc. When I am full, I need to remember to stop.

Got to watch your visit times: no visitors during Mass. This is a church, not a museum:

The stripes are cool - the duomo on the town square at the top of the hill speaks loudly about the grandeur of God, but the thunderstorm spoke even louder - but in harmony:

Orvieto is a bit of a tourist destination, but most of the tourists we saw were from Italy. We did meet a honeymooning couple there from South Carolina, at lunch. They were taking trains through Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. I told them I rented a car through Costco. They laughed, said they love trains.

Grabbed a light lunch at a little Mom and Pop joint in Orvieto, where the proprietor and his wife seemed annoyed to have anybody coming in to bother them. Typical. The Pappardelle with Porcinis was great. Perfection. Italians sure know how to get their pasta al dente every time. We said so, but they understood not a single word of English. We shared the Papparedelle and each had a salad, I think.

Naturally, I had a beer, then a glass of Orvieto. Stupid not to, in Orvieto.

I think the Porcini mushroom might be the best flavor on earth.

Then a gelato during our hike to the car. For gelato, I just close my eyes and point because they are all tasty, and I like surprises.

After a few days based at our lovely tenuda outside Todi, onwards to Bevagna!
More Italy to come. I took lots of pics...

A visit to Unbria #3

Umbria #3: Where and what

Snap above is on the country road in the hilly Tiber Valley driving from Todi to Montefalco, with the charming town of Todi in the distance, on the hill. Italy is good about having a sharp distinction between town and country. Little-to-no sprawl. Except in the big cities, you go from urban density directly to vineyards, olive groves, or forests full of deer, cinghiale, eagles, even wolves and, best of all, the ferocious and dangerously-expensive Wild Black Truffle. People like to live in towns, where they can walk to work and shop, and can say bon giorno to their neighbors.

Bit of history

A quick history and geography of Umbria in central Italy, northeast of Rome, to put my forthcoming travel pics in context. It is generally similar to the history of the entire area we now term Italy.

Central Italy was the prehistoric land of the Etruscans (hence "Tuscany" - land of the Etruscans) and of the less-known Umbri. They were, relatively speaking, peaceful and prosperous farmers and traders. When Rome began its imperial expansion around 250 BC, Umbria up along the old trading route to the Adriatic (which the Romans later termed the Via Flaminia) seemed like an obvious target.

The Romans did their Roman thing there for 600 years until the empire began to unwind and Goths and Lombards moved into Tuscany and Umbria both by immigration and by arms in the 400s-500s. In many ways, these waves of invasion became sort of Romanized and Christianized, in time. The Byzantines were in the mix then, too.

Warring feudal duchys and kingdoms dominated the dark ages in this part of Italy, during a time when the declining Roman regions were also set upon by piratical Saracens (mainly seeking slaves for the Middle Eastern slave trade) and Normans (seeking adventure), until Papal power exerted itself and built an authoritarian, theocratic peace by the 1100s and 1200s. They were big on building castles with which to assert their powerful churchly presence, but from the days of the late empire people were building their own keeps and walls to defend themselves from foreigners and also from their neighboring towns. The Roman Legions had previously made walls and keeps unnecessary: the Roman armies had been the wall. The Pax Romana.

The Papal State pretty much controlled central Italy, perhaps to its detriment, until the Italian nation was invented 150 years ago. Roman Catholicism was pretty much corrupted by money and politics, during that era, including the Benedictines. 

2011 is the 150th anniversary of that political event. Garibaldi, etc.

Geography

Geographically, southern Umbria divides itself into three regions: The north-south-running Tiber Valley where the Tiber flows south towards Rome, the fertile north-south running Valle Umbra which is like a mini version of California's Central Valley, and the eastern Valnerina which is the area in the majestic Appennines where the river Nera flows down to eventually join and magnify the Tiber.

We visited and stayed in incredible hotels in each of those three areas of Umbria. As in Roman times, rural and quaint Umbria is a popular Roman getaway place, full of bikers, motorcyclists, foodies, and hikers. It's only a 2 or 3 hour drive from Rome, and it is packed with "unspoiled gems." 

Most of the towns were Umbrian first, Roman later, and then Medieval-Renaissance. Except for towns damaged by the war (like Terni) or by earthquakes (like Foligno), there is a lot of Renaissance, generally built on Medieval town footprints.

Except for Assisi with its bus-loads of pilgrims, we saw few non-Italian tourists and only one American couple - friendly folks from Montgomery, Alabama! Some Brits, Aussies, Austrians, and Dutch. We tend to meet people when we travel. That's part of the fun.

Todi, Amelia, Orvieto, Montefalco, and Perugia are on hills in the Tiber Valley. Towns in Umbria tended to be built on hills for defensive purposes, which is why exploring Italy is such a good physical workout. Assisi, Spoleto, Spello, and Terni are along the western edge of the Apennines where they rise from the plain. Norcia, and our monastery hotel, are in the mountains themselves near where the Nera emerges from the mountains.

Weather

Best times for Italy or any Mediterranean travel are Spring and Fall. May and October are perfect. Italy climate here.

I will have lots more fun travel pics soon - Pic below of the Valle Umbra, looking west from the Assisi hillside:

Pic below from the garden of our 6th C. Benedictine monastery hotel in the Valnerina in the Apennines, with a small hillside olive grove (doubling as parking area) below the wall. It is no wonder that people love to visit Italy: it has the food, the history, the scenery, the quaintness, the vino, the art and architecture, and the delightfully tough and fashionable Italian gals.

Posted by Bird Dog in History, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 12:00 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

  

QQQ

"The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments."

George Washington

Posted by Bird Dog in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ) at 11:00 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

  

Turkey, Istanbul, Claire Berlinski and Michael Totten

Here is an interview by one of the most entrepreneurial reporters in the ME, Michael Totten, of one of the most informed reporters in Istanbul and the region, Claire Berlinski.  This is definitely a twofer as these two probably know more about the region than any other reporters there, and they are both independents and free of MSM biases.  Very good read!

post hoc, ergo propter hoc

This article, "Mosques as barracks..." reveals the content of two studies about Islam that not many are aware of.  The first is a study sponsored by the NYPD after 9/11 to determine the threat posed by the teachings in various New York mosques, and the second was a more rigorous scientific study  and the influence of the imams and the "educational" material disseminated  to the communicants in all mosques in the the US.  It is clear that from the standpoint of the basic objective of the studies, i.e., to determine the extent to which the mosques are furthering the jihad concept believed to have motivated 9/11, at least 50% of the mosques are guilty of promoting a violent approach to converting non-believers, or infidels, to Islamic beliefs.  Clearly these studies should be a wakeup call to those under the spell of political correctness and the belief that we in the west should be indiscriminately tolerant of all religions and faiths that this virulently violent side of the Islamic faith poses a great danger to our society.  Much like the those in the thrall of Communism, adherents to Islamic jihadism are willing, instructed, to practice deceit in order to gain control of levers of power in any society they are "invading" under the rubric that the means justifies the end.  The gullible do not recognize this fact and are, therefore, susceptible to the end game of the jihadists which is sharia law and the return of the Caliphate.  The present government of the US, (as was the Bush administration), is negligent not to acknowledge these facts and alert Americans to the dangers we face with these people in our midst.