31 January 2012

"Paper will stand anything"


Dear Dr. Bones,

Let's do it bassackwards and start with the steak rather than the sizzle:

Massachusetts First State in the Nation to Pursue ‘Pay For Success’ Social Innovation Contracts
Commonwealth to seek performance-based investments to spur innovative solutions to social issues, achieve better outcomes and save money

BOSTON — Wednesday, January 18, 2012 — The Patrick-Murray Administration today announced a first in the nation initiative to allow Massachusetts to enter into “pay for success” contracts designed to encourage innovative solutions to social problems, improve the performance of government and save taxpayer money. The Executive Office for Administration and Finance (ANF) today issued Requests for Response (RFRs) as a next step in pursuing these social innovation financing contracts.

“Social innovation financing is a tool that helps us tackle long term social issues with innovative methods,” said Governor Deval Patrick. “These initiatives will help us change the delivery of state services to save money and improve program performance.”

Massachusetts is the first state in the nation to issue a competitive procurement to obtain services using this approach. Funding for the Commonwealth’s program would be paid from budgetary resources, but only if the programs work to deliver better social outcomes and savings to the state budget. President Obama’s FY 2012 budget included a proposal to invest $100 million in “pay for success” projects in seven pilot areas including job training, education, juvenile justice and care of children with disabilities. Through this initiative, the Commonwealth expects to be well-positioned to compete for any federal funding that may be available in the future.

“Social innovation financing is one of the tools we are pursuing to accelerate system-wide improvements in government performance,” said Secretary of Administration and Finance Jay Gonzalez. “It’s a creative idea based on a simple premise – have government pay for demonstrated success rather than the promise of success.”

Performance-based investments will help encourage innovation and tackle challenging social issues. New and innovative programs have potential for success, but often have trouble securing government funding because it can be hard to rigorously prove their effectiveness. Social innovation financing allows the government to partner with innovative service providers and, if necessary, private foundations or other investors willing to cover the upfront costs and assume performance risk, to expand promising programs, while assuring that taxpayers will not pay for the programs unless they demonstrate success in achieving the desired outcomes.

Initially, the Patrick-Murray Administration plans to explore the use of social innovation financing to tackle two challenging issues:

* Chronic Homelessness – The Administration seeks to partner with social entrepreneurs to provide stable housing for several hundred chronically homeless individuals. The goal of the initiative will be to improve the well-being of the individuals while simultaneously reducing housing and Medicaid costs.

* Juvenile Justice – The Administration seeks to partner with social entrepreneurs to support youth aging out of the juvenile corrections and probation systems so as to assist them in making successful transitions to adulthood. The juvenile justice contract will be designed with the specific goal of reducing recidivism and improving education and employment outcomes over a six-year period for a significant segment of the more than 750 youth who exit the juvenile corrections and probation systems annually.

The Administration may expand these initiatives to additional policy domains in the future.

Through the RFRs being issued today, the Patrick-Murray Administration will explore a number of options for social innovation financing, including:

Pay-for-success contracts – agreements which will allow the state to pay service providers after they have demonstrated success, rather than the current process of paying for the promise of success. These contracts will target innovative social service programs in domains where sophisticated, multi-year performance measurement is possible.

Social impact bonds – financing arrangements where third party intermediaries and investors give service providers, typically non-profits, upfront funding and other expertise to allow them to enter into pay-for-success contracts with the government. For example, the United Kingdom is piloting a social impact bond program to reduce criminal recidivism.

The sizzle went like this:

MA leads nation in 'Pay for Success' Social Innovation Contracts
Bob_Neer | Mon, Jan 30, 2012 10:56 PM EST

Kudos to Secretary of Administration and Finance Jay Gonzalez for experimenting with a new financing structure that has the promise of increased efficiency. This is one reason Massachusetts has one of the most successful economies in the nation, and why Governor Patrick remains very popular: our government is willing to try new things.

In the Social Innovation Press Release Sweepstakes, ’tis likely enough that our poor old MA "leads the nation."

One envisions Mommy Dearest as a toothless crone at Salem Village chuckling unintelligebly to herself as she ladles out the purple-prose Kool-Aid® to naïve blue children of H*rv*rd who have now divested themselves of "intellectual foundation" so thoroughly as to be incapable of keeping steadily in mind that they do not especially *desire* to surpass the Airstrip One of Torycomrade D. W. D. Cameron, "younger son of stockbroker Ian Donald Cameron" in "piloting a social impact bond program to reduce criminal recidivism."

And that is only what is wrong with this pious viennasausage on its LEFT side. The flip side is even more so. Every genuine Brit stockbroker an’ Yank banecapper must dismiss it even more contemptuously than the present keyboard just did. ¡Fancy any self-rational creature specuvestin’ even a halfpence on such terms as "the State to pay service providers after they have demonstrated success"! [1]

A better plan would be to see what a little hydraulic fracturing directly under B[e]acon Hill turns up. That way we would have a chance to see how the goodvolks who lurk in back of the Massachusetts Bay Torture Authority react on the receiving end of "We regret any inconvenience this may cause," which in itself would be Success enough, even in the total absence of recoverable fossil fuel.[2]

Happy days.
--JHM
___
[1] Fairembalance (the Fox goddess) has asked me to point out that what we have here is, in its way, an honest swindle. Foxily squirreled away in the fine print is "it can be hard to rigorously prove ... effectiveness." Thus ScroogeBank, or Panmure Gordon, or Mittens Blindtrust LLC, or whoever, has been warned up front exactly what she would be gettin' into, were she to specuvest. Not bein' "small people' but rather fine up-standin' Corporate Citizennesses of the new dispensation, nobody is likely to sympathize with these gentry when the accounts they present for payment are in due course pronounced "lacking in rigor" and returned with a check for maybe seventeen cents on the dollar billed.

But then, precisely because they are not "small people," their freelordships do generally read the fineprint, or at least get the hired hand of a _J. D._ to do so for them, which means that Don Neutrino's lunar schemes are more likely to win their nod than is this devaldoggle.

That, however, raises the question of what marks and dupes the Devaldoggler Community propose to attract. His Excellency's own career in the Secret Sector has been such as to rule out serious expectation that Serious Funders--those in the ‘Mittens’ Romney weight class or above--will want anything to do with it. H.E. must be out to prey on smaller fry, but ¿on whom, exactly? There is no 800 number or website mentioned, so evidently H. E. does not expect to cure the solvency of individual Blue Blazers.

A good thing. All of the BB's' spare change for the immediate future seems to have been committed towards buying back The People's Seat™ for St. Elizabeth of Warrenbuffet. More peripheral and parochial specuvestment opportunities like "chronic homelessness" and "juvenile corrections and probation systems" and Cameronian recidivism will be found on the back burner atop the Great Blue Hill. Until Thanksgiving, say.

___
[2] Paddy McTammany scribbles merrily, but would have you mark, Dr. Bones, that the pricetag for privatisations is nowadays never lower than "Cost ++Plus" and often much higher, especially when digging is involved to a big extent.

28 January 2012

Trick-or-treatin' as Standard & Poors


Dear Dr. Bones,

_¡Feliz paleosábado!_

¿Did you know, _Señor Doctor_, that the ‘narrative’ of "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" goes back as far as Lucian, encomiast of Great Alexander? So says Big LEW, the Learnèd Elders of Wiki, [1] and ¿who is Yoo or Eye to say different?

Though she’ll thus be celebrating her two thousandath a week from next Wednesday, Freedame Narratio is still goin’ strong. In fact, her freeladyship has just _aufgeschnappt_, ‘_shnuqqered_’, [1a] a certain Party Neocomrade (seventh grade) M. X. Gurfinklel of Pajama Junction NJ an’ Common Terror magazine.

That feat does rather resemble dynamitin’ fish in a barrel, admittedly. ¿What more natural consequence of wombschoolery an’ freedumbin’ down than that every Tom, Dick an’ Harriet of a kiddie selfservative sees no reason she herself should not set up as a Kiddiemistress whight away? On strictly _a priori_ grounds, then, the student of Neocomradology would expect the woods of Foxcuckooland to be full of Little Miss Gurfunkels. And so they are, theory and practice well met at least for once. It is rather the tippy-top oif the Whight Guard iceberg that eludes computation from antecedent probabilities. A zillion M. X. Garfunkels are just what one expected, or damnwell shoulda, but ¿who could have forseen Don Neutrino de Gangrina, the _Zauberlehrling_ blown up six orders of magnitude an’ solemnly projected on the face of the Moon? ¡Poor long-suffering Cynthia!

But one can’t begin to point out the need for charity that far from home, so, back at Pajama Junction, I assume you see that Eye am picking on Master Mikey because it thinks it can be Standard & Poor’s all by its neoself. Even with this week’s Standard in one hand an’ the bran’-newtest of Criterions in the other to help Mikey through the spells an’ pentacles an’ whatnot, the poor laddie’s chances of success are not such as anybooby sane would care to specuvest in.

On his way to the deluge, Mikey pulls a little _shtykele_ Eye would like you to make a memorandumb of, Dr. Bones, for future use agaianst. Never before just now have I seen wombscholar or ziocomrade try to establish that this-or-that is "an open secret" by quotin’ -- ta-DAAH! -- her ownneoself.

Evidently the Spectre of Narcissus Dexter now haunts Foxcuckooland.to the max. I say "to the max," for I cannot see collective omphaloscopy goin’ beyond *that* high drool mark.

There was once a joke on Airstrip One that ran (IQFM)

I am the Master of this College,
If I don’t know it, it ain’t Knowledge

but Little Mikey Gurfinkel has just discovered a _plus ultra_. Turnin’ it around into the positive, an’ without the faintest hint of a grin, the yungkher lays it down that whatever Master Narky supposes himself to know a little about--say, the financial unhappiness of Frogs--is eo ipso common knowledge, "an open secret."

From there to Psolipsism in the strictest clinical sense is not more than two minute’s walkat an easy pace. With a stroller.

Accordingly, I betcha it won’t be long before the goodvolks up the slippery slope to Castle Podhòretz are sendin’ out to fizzydog.com to have one of the dungeon labóratories drained.

Yoo will join with Eye in hoping, sir, that Little Mikey Gee successfully breasts the self-inflicted flood, charity being mandatory by our own palæostandards and Old Criteria if not necessarily by those of Mikey’s masters. And in hoping, further, that it learns its lesson an’ desists from tryin’ to emulate its famous grown-up cousin Victor, Freelord Frankingsteen, in the dungeon-labóratory arts until it has acquired a really firm grip on what the _Qabbálâ_ [1b] it is doin’.[2]

Happy days.
--JHM

(( Though I did not get that far, this particular sweet puppy of Redarkenment is cutest when it gets started barkin’ _modo fucuyamico_.

(( For example, ¿Did Yoo know, O Bones, that the poor unlucky Frogs are "a predominantly continental, military, Statist nation," whereas Wunnerful US are to be numbered rather with "the oceanic [3] nations (and [Our] late 20th century converts, the Germans)? That game could, in principle, be lots more fun than signing up with the Jumblies for yet another cruise in that same old Western Sieve of theirs.

(( ¡Infinite vistas of laughing from them open! Unfortunately, cross-dressin’ as S&P is not one of them. That is rather as if the Common Terror Cruise Line started sailin’ out of Boston, but had chosen Hoboken or Hackensack or Honduras--the Gulf of Mosquitoes--for the target of the maiden voyage.

(( Simply not doin' itself proper justice here, this little señorito isn't. If Yoo ask Eye. ))

___
[1] Die Stelle, die Goethe in der Übersetzung Wielands benutzte, lautet:


Endlich fand ich doch einmal Gelegenheit, mich in einem dunkeln Winkel verborgen zu halten und die Zauberformel, die er dazu gebrauchte, [1a] aufzuschnappen, indem sie nur [1b] aus drei Silben bestand. Er ging darauf, ohne mich gewahr zu werden, auf den Marktplatz, nachdem er dem Stößel (‘pestle’) befohlen hatte, was zu tun sei. Den folgenden Tag, da er geschäftehalber ausgegangen war, nehm’ ich den Stößel, kleide ihn an, spreche die besagten drei Silben und befehle ihm, Wasser zu holen. Sogleich bringt er mir einen großen Krug voll. Gut, sprach ich, ich brauche kein Wasser mehr, werde wieder zum Stößel! Aber er kehrte sich nicht an meine Reden, sondern fuhr fort, Wasser zu tragen, und trug so lange, daß endlich das ganze Haus damit angefüllt war. Mir fing an, bange zu werden, Pankrates, wenn er zurückkäme, möcht’ es übelnehmen — wie es dann auch geschah —, und weil ich mir nicht anders zu helfen wußte, nahm ich eine Axt und hieb den Stößel mitten entzwei. Aber da hatte ich es übel getroffen; denn nun packte jede Hälfte einen Krug an und holte Wasser, so daß ich für einen Wasserträger nun ihrer zwei hatte. Inmittelst kommt mein Pankrates zurück, und wie er sieht, was passiert war, gibt er ihnen ihre vorige Gestalt wieder; er selbst aber machte sich heimlich aus dem Staube, und ich habe ihn nie wieder gesehen.

– Karl Moritz: _Deutsche Balladen_

___
[2] A *really* firm grip would include noticin’ that if Little Mikey (or indeed Big Vic) can constitute themselves as a financial ratin’ service with no more than a magic s*ll*ble or three [1b], why, ¡so can everybooby else!

The problem, of course, is that the Serene Demographic of Podhòretz does not recognize the principle I thus appealed to. Up at the Castle, the neogentry are bound (as I conjecture) to assume that impersonatin’ Standard & Poor’s is merely another one of those many things that are perfectly OK when done by virile ganders like themseselves, entirely out of the question for silly geese like Yoo and Eye further down the Slope.

Nevertheless, everybooby, an’ her brother-in-law too, can go through the external motions of doin’ it. Eye could go through the motions, Yoo could go throw the motions, why, ¡even an unscrupulous Native of Palæstina Inventata Gingrichensis could go through the external motions!

Everybooby doing it is but potentiality at this point, yet it would not take many trying to actualize to create such a Chinese fire drill in the labóratory that a clamorer would clamor in vain for the *real* Standard & Poors to please stand up. A clamor in which it would not always be possible to distinguish virile neoganders from silly geese, even. (Party Neocomrade M. R. Levin, Esq., for example, ofter sounds a lot like Party Neocomrade Dr. R. H. Limbaugh’s imaginary butt "Mister Newt Castrati" even when there is no circumambient clamor at all. But Ailes knows best.)


[3] "Selon Sigmund Freud, qui débattit de cette notion [du Sentiment océanique] dans son _Malaise dans la civilisation_, il n’est pas à l’origine du besoin religieux parce que celui-ci provient plutôt des sentiments de désaide infantile et de désirance pour le père, remplacés plus tard par l’angoisse devant la puissance du destin."

22 January 2012

Introducin' DVNN, the "destructive, vicious negative nature" wonderproduct



The best defense / By Boston Herald Editorial Staff
Saturday, January 21, 2012

When nothing else works, run against the media. Hey, it’s working for Newt Gingrich.

“I think the destructive, vicious negative nature of much of the news media makes it hard to govern this country, hard to attract decent people to run for public office, and I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate with a topic like that,” Gingrich railed at CNN debate moderator John King Thursday night. (( &c. &c. ))

Opinenotwhine

Newt comes off as a somewhat intelligent, but very angry old man. If he isn't bolstering his ego, or talking about Reagan, he really hasn't much to say.

He knew the question was coming so he prepared a typical self-righteous defense, attack the messenger/questioner. It was a fair question for the debate platform. Gingrich's dismissive tone was just more drivel from his defensive zone.

The independents in this country will never elect Newt or Santorum. Actually, Santorum is more suitable for a senior church deacon position. I am all for strong faith, just don't push yours on me.

Posted 1 day ago Reply Link Abusive

aschark replying to Opinenotwhine

It seems that you're favoring Mitt in this primary. Of course that's OK, but, as you assume, Newt's debate coaches (I'm sure he has them, but I could be wrong), prepared him to answer questions about his 2nd wife's remarks in a Presidential debate. Maybe you're right, but he was prepared for it. Mitt, on the other hand, stuttered when it came to Bain, and his tax returns. It looked like he wasn't prepared, and if he gets into it with Obama, who, I'm sure, will not toss softballs to Mitt. Don't forget, Obama became Senator, unopposed - his opponents were disqualified, or resigned from the election. I've read posts on other articles where they said that they would rather vote for Obama than Newt. That, translated, means that they want a large government, higher debt for the kids, and, when the smoke and mirrors fade, a government run Country, contrary to our Constitution. Another translation, rob Peter (taxpayers) to pay Paul (entitlements). Like Margaret Thatcher said " Socialism is good until you run out of other people's money."
Posted 21 hours ago (( 22-01-12 05:26AM )) Reply Link Abusive


It only 'seems' that the fruits of the J-school an' frathouse babes are in the tank for Mittens? Golly!

Does this second peanut have mental reservations about astronomy as well, I wonder, an' never venture anythin' rasher than "The sun appears to rise in the east, most days"?

Yet I suppose doubt *IS* possible. We know the views of the editorial bratpack's Venerable Funders, who alone enjoy True Freedumb of the Press (their freelordships own one, you see).

We do not know for sure what any individual employee, fruit or babe, of their Employin' Corporation thinks about the Ascent of Don Neutrino. Standing outside the monkey house and proceeding from general principles, I would guess that some of them don't mind it at all.

Maybe we will be able to tell better from listening to the Three Weird Sisters on Monday: Felon Finneran, or Freelord Katz of Katzenyammer, even Duchess Jason of Sanseverino-Taxis Herfreeself, might conceivably reveal, by tone of voice or choice of epithet, that (s)he does not see altogether newt to newt with the Employin' Corporation Combine of Greater Worcester County.

Did any "compassionate selfservatives" survive from Good King Dubya's golden days, they might now be sheddin' a tear or two for the plight of the Romneyphobe babe or fruit stuck scabbin' for the _Herald_ of Louisedayhicksville. She (Freedame Neocompass) might -- but at this point my imagination is getting frisky -- even quote the anonymous bratpack's openin' patter an;' wonder if the patterers secretly think that Don Neutrino's detection of "the destructive, vicious negative nature of much of the news media" might apply to their own dear Employin' Corporation.

I am not sure whether one must be well outside the monkey house to reflect on the Marx brand on of scabbin' for an E.C. that has an insatiable appetite for panegyrics of True Freedumb, but would (as I conjecture from afar) take about fifteen seconds to give any fruit or babe who went about badmouthin' St. Mittens an' cryin' up Don Neutrino, or maybe Dr. Paul from Planet Dilbert, a thorough course of Real Romneycare -- the "I like being able to fire people" product.

Happy days.

08 January 2012

St. Anselm Meets the Fool (Round Two)


Dear Dr. Bones,

It warms McProd’s heart to see Brookline rebuke Louisedayhicksville like this,

Holier-than-thou Rick’s got to go
Pol politicized church sex abuse scandal
By Margery Eagan
Sunday, January 8, 2012

(...) Perhaps Rick Santorum blames New Hampshire’s “cultural liberalism” for those assaults, too, though liberal is hardly a word I’d use to describe the Granite State. It is not clear what he blames for priestly attacks on teenagers and children in Ireland, throughout Europe, parts of Africa, South America and most recently Haiti.

Perhaps in his loathsome world view, it’s cultural liberalism gone wild ’round the world!

(( &c. &c. -- there is G*re’s plenty of it where that came from ))

but it will not make any difference out in the neoparishes.

In any case, the Senator himself is but an isolated curiosity.

More interesting would be to learn Freedame Eagan’s views about what is goin’ on inside the dittopans of Santorum groupies. They themselves leave a lot of the Café Ratzo _smörgåsbord_ untouched, unless the pollsters just make things up, yet somehow they mean (as I conjecture) to get all the other exponents of Private Judgment [*] in trouble with teacher.

There is no logical contradiction here, exactly, but ’tis not a very nice way to behave either.

Happy days.

___
[*] ¿About time that likely lad finally made PFC, is it not?

05 January 2012

Leroy von Hindenburg


Dear Dr. Bones,

Gingrich Floats Idea of Anti-Romney Alliance
mannygoldstein | Wed, Jan 4, 2012 11:41 PM EST

In an interview with Laura Ingraham, Newt Gingrich raised the possibility of creating an anti-Mitt Romney alliance with Rick Santorum.

(( Snip Ingraham, Esq. ))

Hey Newt:

First off, the fact that your first name also happens to be the moniker for my beloved city is irritating.

Second, a tip: hydrogen-filled dirigibles are easily felled – just a small flame penetrating the fabric envelope and oh the humanity!

Leroy von Hindenburg has vented a lot of the gas before it had a chance to catch fire. So, at any rate, claims the _Manchester Union-Basher_:

GOFFSTOWN — Newt Gingrich raised a few eyebrows Wednesday when he said he’s not the man to turn the country around as the next President of the United States.

“I’m not the person to do this,” he said.

His point, he said during a one-on-one interview at St. Anselm College with Charles Arlinghaus, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, was that no person could do it alone.

“I don’t ask you to just vote for me, because if you do, you’ll vote and say ‘OK, Newt’s in. I’m going home,’” Gingrich said. “What I ask people to do is to be with me … and let’s work side by side. This can only work as a movement.”


===

About "the humanity": her Grace the Duchess of Nicetynice is not my cup of Kool-Aid, yet it seems unworthy in those who drool of "intellectual foundations" not to offer some sort of reasoned account of why it is perfectly O.K. to gloat when Nazi dirigibles get their richly deserved comeuppance.

I seize on only one aspect of the snapshot Comrade Poster reproduces yet again. I presume it become an idol and icon of PopCult [*] because there are so many different different ‘narratives’ it can be pasted into. We started here from a reactionary pol, so I lapsed into considering the _Hindenburg_ event in its Anti-Fascist sense. But of course Luddietes have reason to adore as well, maybe the best reasons of all. And then there are the Yank Exceptionalists, bound to rejoice at any setback to attempts by Old Euros to put themselves on a par, innovationwise, with the race of Edison and Burbank and ... and Gates and Jobs. On top of all that, I am told that a big fire of any sort is always welcome to readers of local news into the MacL@@han Tube.

With all that arrayed against them, I fear "the humanity" and Her Grace of Nicetynice are iunlikely to win this particular skirmish. Precisely because we nasty gloaters are almost certain to prevail, there is no need to resort to the shabby expedient of pretending we did not hear the objection.

Happy days.
--JHM
___
[*] Over chez G@@Gle, I count thirty-five (35.0) aviation items, most of them pretty inflammatory, before one catches sight of the Field Marshall and President. To be sure, when one finally gets to him, the old boy *does* look less senile and ‘wooden’ than usual, looks almost as if he had actually been a member of "the humanity."

Nevertheless, given so vast a quantitative disproportion, it is pretty silly to deny that Inhumanism has won this round.


04 January 2012

"Views ... repudiated by ... Republicans"



Dear Dr. Bones,

This morning brings (what looks like) additional evidence that the perversion of Roger, zeroth freelord of Simon Pajama in the neopeerage, to illiberalism an’ antidemonocracy is not yet complete. What thoroughbread whightist would ever permit herself to sneer at "ideological purity" an’ "all-too-human yearning for simple solutions"? ¡Picture to yourself, sir, what noises Dr. Limbaugh might make of that heresy, were the Squire ever deemed worthy of hostile attention from so high on high!

I just stuck in that "what looks like," though, because it is possible that what we have here is a probative exception. Selfservative kiddies, that is, ought in general to be as uncomplicated as a June day is long, BUT when it comes to the Neolevant, naturally they must defer to those who know better. A 1001% ACU ratin’ does not, after all, altogether qualify Wally Wombschool to teach brain science or practice rocket surgery. His freelordship could be understood as classifyin’ Native Management among these residual mysteries of the learnèd, rather than with plain-an’-easy stuff like Defendin’ Western Sieve, or Tricklenomics, or Global Unwarmin’, or which team to hoot for on palaeosabbath afternoons.

Taken abstractly, that last item is no doubt the ideal level of complexity, the level that every decent, upstandin’ wad of Tee Putty ought to strive for. Not to know the foe makes one useless to one’s Venerable Funders. But to accept the fundin’ an’ the flattery an’ then go on to talk up one’s own cranky little notions rather than the little crank notions of the Fundin’ Class can be at least as bad, even supposing one’s actual choice of foes to be impeccable.

You will have seen already, doubtless, how these remarks point towards the fiendish Dr. R. E. Paul of TX-14. Admittedly, that freelordship errs as regards the actual names on his hitlist, not (for example) properly fearin’ Neville Chamberlain even when the latter comes bearing umbrellas.

Over to Simon Pajama, the neogentry have evidently decided that the specifically Pauline fiendishness has somethin’ to do with oversimplification. That seems a little hasty to me, but of course I would like to hear your own view, Dr. Bones. Like all our visitors from Planet Dilbert, even the late Miss Rand of Petersburg and Mister Nozick of H*rv*rd, Dr. Paul is clearly a crank. Granted, but ¿what has crankery to do with complexity or simplicity? ¿Or ‘purity’? If one were a Martian learning English, I think one would probably eventually arrive by fairembalanced induction at a meaning like "the flaunting of socially unacceptable opinions." [1]

The Squire does indeed spank Dr. Paul for unacceptability, even bizarrely suggestin’ that the whight-wingers of Iowa have the last word on permissibility -- a position that his freelordship will ditch in five seconds as soon as some other Thought Police offers a better product or a cheaper price. [2]

Happy days.
--JHM
___
[1] As a former native speaker, I would want to advise Marty that it is really a little trickier than that, inasmuch as certain specialized forms of "socially unacceptable opinion" go down easily enough under special circumstances. To be a crank about what is drooled from the pulpit on weekends, or dished out to youth on Commencement Day, one must not only say it and believe it, one must actually try to do it.

I admit, though, that this is only a small district in the vast Empire of Idiocy. And certainly the exceptionalism of this exception does not particularly correlate with either simplism in one direction or mystification in the opposite direction.

___
[2] Like Cook County, IA is located too far from salt water for there to be much antecedent likelihood of it producing accurate knowledge of, or clever managerial schemes for, the Lesser Breeds Without.

The Paymasters of Pajamadom are eager to get Dr. Paul out of the way, but even so, Squire Roger is jumpin’ the gun. "Views that were repudiated by ... Republicans on Tuesday" will, I presume, be about as whight a week from today as it is now--an’ quight a lot less eyebrow-raisin’. Unless, to be sure, the fiend rallies unexpectedly in New Hampshire. But if that happens, then what his freelordship has graciously scribbled here will look just as un-Nostradamic as what a more judicious dilbertophobe might have scribbled.

And the moral of *that*, Dr. Bones, is that the Squire does seem to have gotten the sentimental side of his perversion whight. Though, as I complain, not yet altogether a *simple* Simon Pajama, his freelordship has at least become a good hormone-baser, keystrokin’ what makes him feel comfy rather than gloomy lucubrations of tedious analysis.