Coolidge on Debt

The Fuse is Lit



Of all the challenges facing America today, nothing is more threatening to our future as our ballooning national debt, which threatens to lock our nation into a permanent recession. Hopefully a libertarian revolution will arise in time to escape disaster, but the hour already grows late. Here is former Northampton Mayor (and the only Pioneer Valley resident ever elected to the presidency) Calvin Coolidge lecturing the nation on fiscal responsibility in 1924.

We could use a man like Calvin Coolidge today.

Birds of a Feather

Have you noticed at the supermarket check-out what the tabloids are doing to John Edwards? By the time they are through with him he will be the most hated man in America. 

And whose judgement was so poor that they thought that the despicable Edwards should be a heartbeat away from the presidency? Why it was Massachusetts' own John Kerry, who picked Edwards as his vice-presidential running mate in 2004.

Maybe its time for Massachusetts to have a second new Senator!

At Raos

Today I went to Raos Coffeeshop in downtown Amherst.

Unlike many times I've been there, it wasn't too crowded.

I see that Raos has a new line of t-shirts, with a big eye on the back. 

Raos coffee is indeed a real eye-opener which they brew very high in cafeine - and we love them for it! While I was there I ran into my friend Will who showed me a math problem he invented that was published in the November issue of The College Mathematics Journal. 

 

Not only could I not solve the math problem, I couldn't even understand it!

Heil Coolidge

Cal's Achievements

  Remember last summer when someone put some grease under the nose of the statue of Calvin Coolidge in Northampton's Coolidge Park to make him look like Adolph Hitler?

 

  

That was so disrespectful, so unjustified, so outrageous - and so funny! Cal's mustache has since been cleaned off, but lately another problem with the statue has been rectified. Despite being the only resident of our Valley ever to be elected to the presidency, when alive Coolidge was pretty quiet about his accomplishments, which is part of why he was called "Silent Cal." However, his statue should not be modest, and thus it was with dismay that it was discovered that one of Cal's honors - his service as Northampton's Clerk of Courts - had been unintentionally omitted. The problem was there was no room on the statue to add anymore accomplishments! 

 

 

However the other day I noticed that a portion of the monument was wrapped in duct tape with some poles holding something in place. What could it be?

 

 

A day later - voila! The tape was removed and sure enough there was a special plaque stuck on the side of the monument listing Cal's years as Clerk of Courts. 

 

 

Maybe the prestige of that extra honor will be enough to scare away the next vandal that wants to turn him back into Hitler. 

 

 Classy Lady

   

I'm saddened to read in this morning's paper about the death of former Springfield City Councilor Mary Montori (above). Everyone called her "Betty" and on a legislative body often rightfully derided as the "City Clowncil" she was a person of character and strong convictions. 

If Springfield could only have had more people of conviction like Betty Montori in public office, someone who was willing to stand up for what she believed no matter what the consequences, the city may never have fallen to its current state. May she rest in peace. 

 

 Authentic Journalist

   

Former Valley Advocate reporter and WNNZ radio host Al Giordano (above) was a friend of the late singer/songwriter Jeff Buckley. In fact Buckley's song The Sky is a Landfill is based on an essay written by Giordano. Al had this to say about Buckley's tragic death:  

Jeff Buckley was a singer-songwriter with a voice of five octaves and the big heart of an authentic revolutionary. Jeff dedicated his life to telling the truth. His death by drowning in the Mississippi River in 1997 was pronounced “accidental.” 

Don’t believe it! I was one of the last humans to see Jeff in New York City, on his way to the airport, to Memphis, where he was late in recording an album for Sony. The music company had fucked with him and his ability to tell the truth as he saw it. They wouldn’t let him choose his own producer. They imposed one on him: wanting to exploit his talent commercially, in violation of Jeff’s own vision. 

Some months later, on the night before he was to begin recording at the gunpoint of a contract with Sony, as his bandmates were arriving by airplane, Jeff, drunk on wine, on the banks of the river where signs shout that the currents are dangerous and do not swim there, Jeff entered the river with his boots on: With his fucking boots on! 

He was last heard singing “Wanna whole lotta love” and then he sung no more.... Do you want to know how to kill an authentic journalist or a revolutionary? Do you want to know how to provoke a truth-seeker and truth-teller into taking his or her own life? Play a con game on him or her: that’s how. 

 

Cal's Place

The Coolidge Presidential Museum.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Coolidge.

Too few people are aware that a museum about Calvin Coolidge, the Northampton mayor who is the only Pioneer Valley resident to rise to the presidency of the United States, is located on the second floor of Hamp's Forbes Library. Or at least few people seemed aware of it when I stopped by yesterday as the museum's only customer. It's free and open to the public, if only the public would get their butts over there.

Calvin Coolidge was once considered by historians to be a minor American president, but has been considerably upgraded in recent decades. Liberal historians, anxious to justify Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, unfairly denigrated the preceding presidents. However, today Coolidge is considered to be one of the founding fathers of the small government, balanced budget school of American conservatism. In a famous example of Coolidge's enhanced stature, when Ronald Reagan was first sworn in as President, he had a portrait of Roosevelt removed from the Oval Office and replaced by one of Coolidge.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the museum to local visitors is the section devoted to Coolidge's long career in Northampton. He started in politics as a prominent Hamp attorney, and the door to his office is on display.

Here is one of the ballot boxes that were in use when Coolidge was elected to Northampton's mayoralty.

This display shows how the flag festooned downtown of Northampton exploded with pride when their former mayor was elected to the presidency. The election of Republicans do not get as warm a reception in modern Northampton politics. Hamp still loves Silent Cal, but they don't much vote for his party anymore. 

He was called Silent Cal because he was one of those rare politicians who believed a leader should be judged by what he does, not by what he says. In a famous story a woman is said to have confronted Coolidge at a White House dinner and exclaimed, "I bet my husband five dollars that I could get you to say more than three words."

Coolidge looked her in the eye and replied, "You lost."

Even Coolidge's own son was forced to work in the tobacco fields of Hadley, as shown in this photo on display.

When someone said that they would never expect to do such sweaty labor if they were a president's son, young Cal Jr. replied, "You would if you had my father!"


Coolidge's stern manner caused the nation to laugh when pictures appeared in the media after he was forced to wear an Indian headdress on a visit to a Sioux reservation.

That famous headdress is on display in the museum protected behind glass.

The Indians gave Coolidge a collection of artifacts, including these peace pipes. 

Hey, I'll bet you could fit a lotta ganja in those babies!

When Coolidge was found dead on the floor of his Northampton home The Boston Globe had these screaming headlines: 

The museum is free and open most afternoons. To find out the exact hours click here.

I'm saddened to hear of the death of Heath Ledger, one of the stars of Brokeback Mountain. I thought it was brave for him to take that role, not just because he was a straight actor playing a gay person, which can sometimes damage an actor's appeal, but because the film also dealt with an extremely taboo subject - homosexual infidelity in a straight marriage. Some of my most intense affairs were with married men, and it was long overdue to see a serious artistic treatment of this surprisingly common but hidden aspect of modern marriage.

Of course I also regret he died because he was sexy as hell. 

Apparently his death was drug related. Damn, what a waste.