Bob Dylan didn't dedicate Ballad of a Thin Man to Goldman Sachs during his short, blistering set at the minor league ballpark up in New Britain, Connecticut - but as I listened from the general vicinity of second base with the family on this cool summer evening, I couldn't help thinking about the investment bank's obscene profits this last quarter, built on the backs of the American taxpayer nonetheless. Something is happening here, but we don't know what it is. Jim Kunstler has some ideas:

But don't worry, as Dylan intones on his latest record, it's all good.

By last count, the house has seven guitars under its roof (only three of 'em mine) and in the last month, we added a full drum kit. The youngest (11) is looking for the right distortion setting on his amp so he can work on his tunes, while my oldest (17) is changing the strings on her acoustic. The 14-year-old may well head downstairs shortly to thump away on his drums on the basement. A Dylan playlist is running endlessly on the Mac in the kitchen, and has been for this last 90 minutes or more (we're all off to see Mr. Zimmerman tomorrow night at a minor league stadium in Connecticut). Yesterday, it was Macca (we're set for the McCartney show at Citi Field on Friday night). The classics are appreciated by the Watsonian millennials dwelling within this mock tudor, I can tell you.

I enjoy the overlap of the music, which is often joined by the faint buzz of someone's iPod ear buds set to "inflict damage."  We're music-obsessed around here, but not in the most organized, formal way. It's just something that accompanies everyday life. And when it's quiet, it seems really quiet to my ear (dulled as they are from too much rock and roll). Too much so. As I said, I like being home - because I like the noise.

Lazy Sunday breezes, when the pm on the clock doesn't necessarily mean morning is over. We keep it easy and drop in some recent reads before heading outside with a book and something cool:

Even in the Madison Square Park of 2009, with its vestiges of boom era yuppiedom still in bloom as the party ends, James Wolcott finds a witty way to continue his recent (and vastly entertaining) obsession with American Ballet's prima ballerina on a summer afternoon. Mr. W is attempting the rarely attemped high-wire blogging feat of expertly promoting his wife's new novel whilst launching the gorgeous Veronika Part to superstardom and beyond. If any one can pull it off, he can. (And please do order The Bird Catcher by Laura Jacobs).

Speaking of balancing acts, Lance Mannion's been walkin' on a wire for years, attempting the bridge the unbridgeable with posts on human relations between the sexes. Now, he's off on his yearly family sojourn to the Cape - but before decamping for the seaside, he filed the 512th in the Mannionesque series on how women view men who are viewing women, viewed by a blogger of considerable viewing experience. This one's part deux of the world's most intelligent analysis of The Hangover - grab another cuppa and settle in.

Blue Girl doesn't know it (and indeed, no one seems to have noticed!), but I'm on day 35 of an everyday blogging challenge inspired by her own successful series of writing exercises. Freshen the chops. Find something to say that you normally wouldn't. Exercise and discipline for those six-pack writing abs. Poke.

Speaking of the installment plan, the prolific Dan Leo is on part 151 of his Arnold Schnabel’s Railroad Train to Heaven series, this one improbably featuring Cape May, Nancy Sinatra,and Heaven Hill bourbon.

Before her blog break, the fab Ms. Peel posted an epic on British train travel humor that had me in mind of some of the classic Holmesian timetable consultation. Oh, to suffer Ms. Peel's travails: "...just try going from Oakham to Swaffham, the Mutt and Jeff of market towns. You can get to Swaffham, via Peterborough, but the trains only run late in the day - not very helpful at all."

Meanwhile, the Siren rises to defend Manhattan Melodrama by way of Johnny Depp's latest pirates flick (transported to inland Prohibition capers) - which is to say, she finds another great hook for writing about the brilliant Myrna Loy.

As a German Pope should, Pope Benedict XVI seems to understand the nuances of schadenfreude, which he delivered to progressive American Catholics in knockwurst-sized chunks of good, clean ecclesiastical fun this week.

How else to explain the sheer level of personal delight that Benedict provided at the expense of the right-wing, commie-baiting Latin Mass crowd epitomized by the likes of Pat Buchanan, and defensive anti-socialist middle class culture warriors like William Donohue. Oh, it had to hurt (so good).

First came the proposed "new world order" contained in the Pope's encyclical Caritas in Veritate - or "charity in truth." The reviews were unanimous:

The Times: "Benedict sounds like an old-school European socialist, lamenting the decline of the social welfare state and praising the “importance” of labor unions to protect workers."

USA Today: "What politician would casually refer to 'redistribution of wealth' or talk of international governing bodies to regulate the economy?"

Time: "Benedict believes that capitalism as such is now effectively "obsolete" and must be replaced by a new form of market economy whose driving force is not the maximization of profits."

How the right wing hated it! The Wall Street Journal stooped to argue that because Benedict didn't go so far as to call for an end to capitalism, it actually meant - in special Catholic smoke signals that can only be divined by conservative RC kimosabe - that the Church had "come to terms with its existence."  Catholic conservative George Weigel was far less elliptical in his National Review rip job; the encyclical, he sniffed, "resembles a duck-billed platypus." The American right wing is up in arms over the Pope's call for a “world political authority” to rein in the worst aspects of global trade and protect the poor and weak. Over at the conservative Catholic-infused Corner, for instance, the normally pious K-Lo damns the Pope with faint defense: "The encyclical is not the gift to the Left the media would have you believe."

Then came President Obama's visit with Pope Benedict today in Rome, after which both parties emphasized "common ground." And while the Vatican made it clear that the President received the traditional lecture on abortion, the Holy See also let slip a discussion on immigration in the U.S. - which to American conservatives would appear to consist of left (Obama) talking to far, radical left (Benedict) on that particular issue.

Quoth U.S. News: "The encyclical ramped up the level of White House enthusiasm for this meeting because you can't read it without sensing that these two men are seeing economic questions the same way," says a Catholic adviser to the White House who spoke on background.

And lo and behold, the Pope had some reading for the President: Caritas in Veritate. And a nifty souvenir for the American Catholic left.

As he so often does, Bob Somerby takes a two-by-four to the Times op-ed page today, swatting Gail Collins with the harshest possible language - that is to say, he judges Collins' recent work to be of the caliber of the NYT's resident conservative sex columnist, Maureen Dowd.

Gail Collins column topics, 2009:
June 20: John Ensign’s affair.
June 25: Mark Sanford’s affair.
June 27: Mark Sanford’s affair.
July 2: Mark Sanford’s affair.
July 4: Sarah Palin’s resignation
July 9: Michael Jackson’s funeral.

As your nation struggles with monetary heists, unemployment and national health care, Collins has three major things on her mind—celebrity, sex and gossip. This morning, though, she stoops to explain the thinking of her high class:

COLLINS (7/9/09): The media, for its part, plans to continue talking about Michael Jackson for quite a while—this is the first time since the election that we feel we have everyone's attention.

Yes, it's all about you, the insider commentariat. Always has been. It's been so unfair of us not to pay rapt attention to - oh, I dunno - the massive battle over our healthcare system or those millions of unemployed Americans. Collins is a fine writer who used to walk the municipal beat in New York, and she can still swing a roundhouse, especially when she turns her often insightful 'tude toward actual news and policy. Thankfully, Jacko's death has us paying more attention.

- Ivy Day in the Committee Room, Dubliners by James Joyce

Unlike the larger and murkier drama in Iran, where one faction of the 30-year theocracy seeks to oust another while pro-democracy organizers seek a foothold in an essentially closed and repressive society, the situation in Honduras was far more transparent - and, in my view, more authentic and dramatic online. While fake Twitter accounts, disinformation and frantic rumors seemed to abound in the long, drawn-out and widespread upheaval in Iran as a large, western echo chamber grew with every "retweet," the Honduran Twitter "story" was far more straightforward, for several reasons:

1. Honduras is small - just 7.5 million people - so an accurate picture of a society in political turmoil is easier to capture.

2. Old media was allowed to cover the story. Live footage from Venezuelan outlet teleSUR and al-Jazeera covered the stand-off from the airport live. Their coverage (streamed via the net) became the basis for the ongoing Twitter dialogue.

3. That dialogue was intense and featured several different points of view - this is important, and in sharp contrast to the Twitter "conversation" over the Iranian protests, which at times devolved into a Diana-like display of mass hysteria. Yesterday, American right-wingers sided with the coup plotters (in contrast to their calls for "freedom" in Iran) while most liberals either took a cautious wait-and-see stance or called for Zelaya's return; the Spanish-language debate (as much as I could folow) was equally intense among Hondurans.

4. There was a real chance to influence the outcome - oh, not at the airport, perhaps, but in terms of U.S. policy toward Honduras and Latin America. Many of those on Twitter appealed directly to President Obama and Secretary Cinton via Twitter. And indeed, the Administration clearly understand it has a more hands-on role to play in this important hemispheric stand-off; Clinton will meet with Zelaya tomorrow.

For my own part, I tweeted like a mad man. The story is a compelling one, it's a true test for President Obama, and offers the chance for better U.S. policy in Latin America. It's time to call the right's commie-baiting on Venezuelan's Chavez, for example - just as it's time for the left to stop allowing him to be the hemispheric pebble in their shoe. Public engagement - promised by Obama during the campaign - should be our guide.

That said, there were a couple of times yesterday when I stopped to consider the journalistic phenomenon of Twitter. I think it's a brilliant interactive distribution channel for news stories, one that invites participation and conversation. But it's no pure substitute for reporting. Without question, the video feeds from the airport yesterday carried the day. They were supplemented by great opinionated blogging, Flickr pics, and Twitter commentary and linkage.

As I blasted away yesterday on the Twitter story from Honduras, I took two quick time-outs and tweeted them:

Caution on #Honduras info coming via me - RT'ing does not constitute journalism, but merely a conversation (also good) - grain o' salt.

Caveat emptor: nothing I tweet on #Honduras should be taken as journalism or reporting - it's a conversation in public only.

As I watched people pick up on my tweets and pass them on, I thought it was important to issue mild disclaimers. Nonetheless, it was a moment of journalism - one that American television and web outlets pretty much let slip by, unwilling as they were to interrupt the latest updates on the Jacko funeral plans or Sarah Palin's imaginary future.

Tiger Lily, originally uploaded by Tom Watson.

My grandmother called these orange day lilies "Tiger Lilies" and they graced every late June of my early childhood, heralding July and summers of sprinkler dashing, grilled hamburgers, and long bike rides. This one was photographed in my front yard earlier this week; the clump was there when we bought the place 18 years ago and it's only grown heartier and more spectacular every year. Some of the hoity-toity cultivation types call these humble Tiger Lilies - or hemerocallis fulva - "invasive weeds." I prefer "tough volunteers." I look forward to their bloom at the start of every summer, and recall the happy times in my grandmother's back garden.

In the complex world of hemispheric politics, where the name of Revolutionary War veteran James Monroe is still tossed about in glorious ancient relevancy, currency is everything and subtle shifts in the stance of the North American superpower start as ripples below the mouth of the Potomac, only to end as tidal waves on the shores of nations to our south.

The late upset in Honduras has created what appears to be a neat left-right furrow in our own commentariat. Fresh from backing the Khomeini - er, democratic - faction in the dispute over the clearly fraudulent Iranian election, our right-wing voices (God bless 'em) are now arguing that the military takeover in the small Central American nation is anything but the coup d'etat that it so clearly is.

As Larisa Alexandrovna writes for Raw Story, the right-wing nuts are trying to use Obama's relatively cautious support for returning the elected president of Honduras to office as a bludgeon, claiming "radical leftist" leanings.

What is remarkably strange in these talking points is the absence of world condemnation of this coup. Over and over, in countless examples, Obama is being painted as a Castro and Chavez ally, a left-wing radical who supports tyranny. The talking points are so similar and so numerous that the only logical explanation is that this is a coordinated political effort.

Most importantly, these type of extreme word-games have real world implications. Consider that the turn of events in Honduras and the political attack on Obama using that crisis have some on the extreme-right hoping that our own military will remove President Obama from office to protect “democracy.”

More dangerous signal flares: based on his support for the elected government in Honduras, Barack Obama deserves his own, uh, intervention, in the exercise of his presidential powers, argues right-wing blogger MacRanger:

Americans - true Americans - need to keep a special eye on President Obama, or else risk a time when his unconstitutional grabs for power get past the point of no return. Our constitution also provides the solution for that, and I hope our elected leaders - on both sides of the isle - remember that.

Much of this is about using Venezuelan boss Hugo Chavez as a stalking horse to tar Obama as a socialist fellow traveler. In typical follow-the-leader fashion, Pam at Atlas Shrugged said the Honduran military moved to "save itself from a Chavez backed dictatorship." That jibes with the strange, erratic behavior of South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, who says President Barack Obama's call to reinstate Zelaya is "a slap in the face to the people of the Honduras."

Before he departed (once again) to visit his personal Neverland of Trig Palin obstetrics conspiracy obsession, Andrew Sullivan tweeted: "Honduras Is Not Iran" and linked to a reader's email claiming the thuggish armed takeover that sent elected Honduran President Zelaya scurrying to the United States in his pajamas was both legal and necessary. He's right about one thing: it's not Iran - in that American intervention, foreign policy, and citizen involvement can indeed change the outcome and restore the rule of law to the poor country of 7.5 million. There's a worthwhile petition over on Facebook worth signing and sending to your friends demanding the restoration of the elected president of Honduras - which is no less than President Obama, Secretary Clinton, the United Nations Security Council, and the Organization of American States have done.

President Zelaya has vowed to return to his country this weekend to confront the rump government that took control at the point of a bayonet. The situation is, as they say, fluid. I'll be following the story via Al Giordano and his team at Narco News, which has the best sources of any English-language publication covering Central America.