There's STILL no one as Irish as Barack Obama

I posted a video a while ago about some guys singing about how there's no one as Irish as Barack Obama. It's a great song, but, honestly, it wasn't a great video.

They've come out with another video. This one still isn't great, but it's much better than the original.




Like the poet said,

"All changed, changed utterly.
A terrible beauty is born."

That is from William Butler Yeats' poem Easter 1916, about a black day in Irish history. It is not a terrible beauty that is about to be born, but all is about to change, change utterly.

"An Irish mountain is a Colorado speed bump,
blessed and cursed with a leprechaun's arthritic charm."

America is where the Irish have sent their children and their dreams, when they could not afford either.

"Israel made a covenant with God, and Ireland struck a bargain.
But America heard the sales pitch
and walked away
to sign a contract
with its children."

Let it not be said that the center does not hold; America is where the center holds.

It is strange to let myself be sentimental again, to let go of a certain amount of fear of optimism. It almost takes an effort of will to let myself believe in what I haven't believed in a long time. So many things to believe in again; possibility; change; liberals reclaiming their rightful reputation for being the ones who solve problems.

I feel like the world is holding its breath for these last few days, so many people fighting so hard, feeling optimistic, watching the polls, reading blogs, reading newspapers. It is at once the best and worst of times. We are fighting two wars; we are in the midst of a massive financial crisis; our budget deficit has skyrocketed; we have lost the moral high ground.

And yet, if current trends hold, we are about to elect a black man President of the United States only 43 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, only a few decades after the President of the United States of America had to resort to the use of armed force to integrate schools. The worst president of at least modern times, if not all times, is a complete and utter failure, isolated and impotent. We are seeing the best of Americans and the worst of Americans. A clueless Republican Representative goes on TV and questions the patriotism of a mainstream candidate for president; it may very well cost her her seat in Congress. She is the worst of America, but the response, the hundreds of people who gave money to her opponent, a man most had never heard of, is the best of America.

"I want to ride rough ride the streets of Manhattan and Detroit,
zoom float zoom the cresting waves of Floridian Atlantic beaches,
staring into the face of the exploding Cape Canaveral dawn."



All quotes after Yeats are from "Irish and American Colors and Fires," copyright me 1993.

FT Weekend, #3

I'm a little late posting about the Financial Times Weekend, but all of this stuff will be relevant for a long time.

First up is the cover story on the Life & Arts section, about a young woman in China who is working her way up. She started in a factory, moved into real estate, and is moving on again. And she's in her early 20's, with a junior high school education. Sounds like my grandfather. Horatio Alger is taking over China.

Lunch with the FT this week is with Isabel Allende, who is a political activist, a novelist, a journalist, and a matriarch.

There are a couple of pieces on Northern Ireland, which is technically at peace, but, apparently, still not peaceful. Attitudes change follows political change, in this instance. Matthew Engel describes it as a "truce," rather than peace. The area is the beneficiary of a different American cultural/entertainment export than what we normally think of. It's a blockbuster, but not a profitable one: Sesame Street has come to Belfast. It's called Sesame Tree, because they can't imagine a street that is both Catholic and Protestant. I didn't know that Sesame Street has been seen in 130 countries. Sometimes the American version is just dubbed over, but sometimes, like this time, it's specific to the country. Somewhere, Jim Henson is a happy camper.

Mark Sellers has some good advice on who to trust when it comes to financial advice. Hint: make sure their interests are aligned with yours. He has some insights about the financial press in particular. Then he says goodbye. This is one problem with the FT: they find great writers in the world outside of journalism, and they bring different perspectives, but they don't tend to last long in the paper.

I don't think I've seen a ballet in years, but I would be interested in seeing whatever Wayne McGregor does with the Royal Ballet. Very thougtful and curious, but decisive. Peter Aspden spends most of the article trying to exploit the tension between the traditions of ballet and this guy's clearly cutting-edge instincts, and fails. He finds inspiration in cognitive science, and apparently finds lots of great opportunities in trying to bridge art and science, mind and body, ballet and modern dance. Clearly very artistically challenging. Very cool.

Jancis Robinson finds a new area for wine, in, get this, Italy. On Sicily, on the slopes of Mt. Etna. Sometimes it helps to look for the new in your own backyard, I suppose.

Susie Boyt once again brilliantly channels her insecurities, this time obsessing about linen towels and napkins.

And finally, Chrystia Freeland comments on the new twists in the debate between wealth and happiness. Apparently economists don't buy that there is one. My guess is that very few of those people have been poor. But still, it's a good debate to have in the FT.