“There is the moral of all human tales; ‘tis but the same rehersal of the past, First Freedom, and then Glory—when that fails—barbaism at last.” –Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

“The sun’ll come out tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow there’ll be sun.” –Charles Strouse and Martin Carmin, Annie

“A bait banker thus desponds,
From his own hand forsees his fall,
They have his soul, who have his bonds;
Tis like the writing on the wall.” –Jonathan Swift, The Run Upon the Bankers

The sample quoted one of my favorite scenes from the Wodehouse’s novels. Steyn mentions how Bertie Wooster and his Aunt Dahlia are discussing his uncle being upset by the Exchequer’s insistence upon taxing his income:

“Is he still upset about that income-tax money?” ask Bertie.

“Upset is right,” replies Aunt Dahlia.” He says that Civilization is in the melting-pot and that all thinking men can read the writing on the wall.”

“What wall?”

“Old Testament, ass,” snaps Aunt Dahlia. “Belshazzar’s feast.”

“Oh, that, yes,” says Bertie. “I’ve often wondered how that gag was worked—with mirrors, I expect.”

Steyn turns to the biblical passage. I thought, “oh, no. He is going Paul Erlich on me.” You must recall those silly books from the nineteen-seventies about end-of-the-world by various combinations of Old/New Tesstaments and space aliens. In After America, we learn how Daniel 5: 25-28 speaks of man’s foolishness with economics.

[note: the passage uses arabmaic names of weights and monetary values. Mina, shekel (1/60th of mina), and parsu (half-mina). In modern terms half-dollar, penny, and two bits.]

“This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, TEKEL, AND PERES. These words means: MENE, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it; TEKEI, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

“If the deficits are “unsustainable,” than what happens when they can no longer be sustained?” –Mark Steyn

“If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” –Herbert Stein

When will it stop? Who will suffer when it does stop? Didn’t the novelist Ernest Hemingway write that the bells toll for thee?

To fill the gap in Burkeanson’s education I found this excellent book by Mary Pope Osborne, whose Magic Tree House books have long been one of Burkeanson’s favorites.    If you know a young person lacking in knowledge of the man whose birthday most of the country was just celebrating, this is a great place to start.   You will find both the life of Jesus and the many artworks he inspired.   http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Masterpieces-Viking-Kestrel-picture/dp/0670881988/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1293488848&sr=1-1

 Incidentally while reading about the Last Supper, Burkeanson exclaimed that Jesus was “just like Dumbeldore.”  I pointed out that no, Dumbledore was a lot like Jesus, and even more so was Dumbledore’s most famous student.

For myself my Israel Test occurred in ninth grade. After our English class read and discussed Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice the teacher caught me shaking my head. I thought Shylock got screwed by a sneaky, lawyer’s trick! A dead-beat bum’s girlfriend dressed like a man so to lie to the court about the pound of flesh deal. Sigh. Was Shakespeare telling us about the antisemitism in Europe? Gilder does and he explains how the Jewish merchants kept capitalism alive despite European mismanagement of it.

The Israel Test by George Gilder

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