Death of a Freedom Fighter
I'm sorry to hear of the death of libertarian leader Rose Friedman, as announced on the website of the Friedman Foundation.
Rose Director Friedman passed away Tuesday, August 18, 2009, in her home in Davis, California, of heart failure. While the exact date of her birth is uncertain, she is believed to have been 98 years old.
She will be remembered both as a talented economist and an influential advocate of freedom. Her economic work helped to discredit the idea of government management of the economy, rolling back policies that were hindering wealth creation and thus helping extend the blessings of prosperity to millions around the world. And as a standard-bearer for human liberty, she contributed to the galvanizing of public opinion – especially in the 1980s – against the growing encroachments of intrusive government.
She will also be remembered as both the professional partner and beloved wife and friend of her late husband of 68 years, Milton Friedman.
She was always in the shadow of her more famous, Nobel Prize winning husband Milton, but Rose's contributions were said to be essential to his work. In the couple's memoirs Two Lucky People, they described their life's work thusly:
Our central theme in public advocacy has been the promotion of human freedom....it underlies our opposition to rent control and general wage and price controls, our support for educational choice, privatizing radio and television channels, an all-volunteer army, limitation of government spending, legalization of drugs, privatizing Social Security, free trade, and the deregulation of industry and private life to the fullest extent possible.
Our country owes both Rose and her late husband a great debt of gratitude.
New Span
That goddamn bridge project in Westfield is finally done.
It was hard not to hate the traffic tie-ups caused by construction of the new bridge, but now that it's done it will be a huge improvement in what used to be one of the worst traffic bottlenecks in the Valley. Here's State Senator Mike Knapik (all decked out in safety gear) and the living dangerously State Rep. Don Humason at this morning's opening.
On the Wall
Everyday I enjoy the tranquil beauty of the woodland way into downtown Northampton.
Each morning I pass this abandoned shack that has on its side a weird painting on a piece of plywood of a figure skater.
I know there must be an interesting story behind that old painting and how it came to be on the side of that shack, if only I could discover what it is.
The woodland way isn't all beautiful mysteries. I also pass what appears to be a cement factory. Could it possibly appear more dreary?
Yet the other day some graffitiers added some color. Is this a word?
This is a word, although a misspelled one.
Dinosaur Doings
Saturday night Amherst's Dinosaur Jr. paid a visit to their sister city of Northampton to give a free show at Pearl Street. Someone posted this setlist, but apparently they didn't recognize many of the songs.
I wasn't aware until recently that the band has their own official sneakers:
I love the band, but those sneaks are pretty ugly, unless you wear them with a space suit.
Anniversary calendar.
2 comments:
I've always hated that Westfield bridge. I hope the new one is better.
That first example of graffiti is really well done!
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