The Decline and Fall of the GOP
Times They Are A-Changin’ (Bob Dylan). Well of course times are a-changin’, nothing in this universe is ever static and the fact that the affairs of mice and men are still a-changin’ in our time is just as inevitable as death, taxes and Oprah giving advice to the eager. Listening to Colin Powell, Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Tom Ridge, John McCain and others mix it up over the future of the Republican Party (GOP) is about as boring as watching paint peel and listening to rusty wheels squeak, but as often is the case, the boring stuff can be the most important stuff in the grand scheme of things. Squeaking wheels and peeling paint aside, the mutterings of the aforementioned could well be the death rattle of the Grand Old Party and the possible demise of this very important force in American Body Politic should be the cause for serious introspection by the body citizenry. Let us not forget that the Republican Party grew into a National political force from the ashes of the Whigs when the Whigs as a national political party could not agree to support or oppose slavery, and as a result, fractured into obscurity as a national political force. Notable people, such as Abraham Lincoln, switched to the Republican Party from the Whigs because the Republican Party opposed slavery while the Whigs that supported slavery switched to the Democratic Party and aligned themselves with the southern political contingent. Rank and file Whigs that opposed slavery switched to the Republican Party and became aligned with the northern political contingent. And so the stage for the great Civil war was set, rather boring stuff, huh? For the life of me, I can never understand the bloc support by the Black Community for the Democratic Party when it was the Republican Party, and not the Democratic Party, that supported the abolition of slavery, and indeed, as late as 1964, it was the Republicans that provided the support needed to pass the Civil Rights act when the Dixiecrats (southern Democrats) as well as other Democrats opposed the passage of the Civil Rights Act. But I digress. When discussing the decline and fall of important social entities, like the GOP, people often return to the seminal work of Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776) to make sense of it all. I too returned to that work and found what I was looking for and I will quote the passage of interest: “The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principal of decay;” This quote about ancient Rome suffering from the effects of “Immoderate Greatness” could certainly apply to the GOP and indeed the USA as our power and influence on the world stage has been without peer and our immoderate greatness propelled a prosperity that was the envy of all. But alas, “Prosperity ripened the principal of decay”, describes the great engine of social change because decay always follows closely on the heels of unbridled success. Few could argue that decay has not set in where prosperity once ruled the day, not only for the GOP, but for the USA as well. Lets look at the GOP and the total success it enjoyed when it inherited a balanced budget and surpluses “as far as the eye can see” from President Bill Clinton in the year 2000. Not only did the GOP inherit a sound economy (for the moment), the GOP gained a massive political advantage granted by an electorate that had grown weary of silly peccadilloes and the secret dealings of a cult Government. What did the GOP do with its “Immoderate Greatness”? It totally focused on the maintenance of personal as well as party political power and spent the country into ruin while propelling us deeper into a bigger and bigger socialist style Government of entitlements and rights. The prosperity that can ruin a country can also decay a Political Party into obscurity as quickly as it can ruin an individual indulging in excess. The sound economy for the moment that the GOP inherited from President Bill Clinton was in reality a ticking time-bomb because the GOP as well as the Dems had a hand in passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) act in 1999 that repealed part of the 1933 Glass-Steagall act. The passage of the GLB act set the stage for the financial disaster that has befallen us today by, in general, virtually eliminating regulation of lending and banking and that lack of prudent regulation allowed greed to take flight and ruin citizen and countries alike. Another insight can be gained about the effect of the GLB act on our current financial disaster from the historians Arnold Toynbee and James Burke. Toynbee and Burke argue that ancient Rome was doomed from the start because its economy was basically a “Raubwirtschaft” or plunder economy based on looting existing resources rather than producing anything new. When GLB was passed, it accelerated our decent into a consuming economy fueled by making money off of money. Making money off of money is the new and improved modern way of managing a plunder economy that simply loots existing resources gained from things of real value and multiplies (substitute the modern financial term of leveraging here) the real value into an inflated value that cannot sustain a real economy. In short, our modern 70% consumer economy is based on plunder looted from existing resources and was enabled by passage of the GLB act that the GOP and Dems can both take credit for. But again, I digress. I believe the GOP is doomed and I say, good riddance. All in all, what a dumb and stupid end for the Grand Old Party that rose into prominence by championing the abolishment of the scourge of slavery. I hope one day soon to say that the Democratic Party is also doomed and we all can say, good riddance. With each passing day, more and more citizens are finally waking up to the fact that a periodic revolution at the ballot box is no longer possible with the corrupt entrenched two-party system that we now have. Realizing this situation is accelerating the identification of being an Independent rather than Republican or Democrat and we can only hope our enlightened youth will step into the void with some new leadership some day soon.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Rock In Tree
Rock In Tree
Lets say that your television set crapped out, and in desperation for something else to do, you meandered down to Brown County Indiana. Further, after stopping at the Dairy Queen for a “Death by Chocolate” blizzard, a local yokel directed you towards the very small town of Needmore Indiana (wouldn’t you just love to find out how the town of Needmore Indiana got it’s name?), because, he said, there was evidence that aliens from outer space had visited the area and proof of the outer space visit could be found in the Yellowwood State Forest. Well now, vegetating in front of a TV is one thing, but looking at a potential full-scale adventure is quite another, and so with eager anticipation radiating from your gullible big-city face, you ask the knowledgeable Hoosier for directions to where you could find the evidence for the out-of-this-world event. After much arm waving about this crook in the road and that turn-off next to the scum-covered pond, and, oh by the way, what out for ticks (don’t wear white clothing) you are directed to a country gravel road in the middle of no place, where, no doubt, the Owls make love to the Chickens in the dark of night. And so fortified with an ice-cold brewski, you put on your hiking boots and prepare to hike to a most unusual place, a place where few have even heard about and fewer still have even bothered to go. If you have a GPS, you’re in luck. Punch in the following coordinates, 39°, 12.204 North and 086°, 21.995 West. Take your time in getting to the GPS point because the forest is about the way it was before there was even a people called Hoosiers milling about in the area and so there is much to see as you walk in the privileged area. Perhaps you will notice that the flora and critters haven’t changed all that much since the time when the last continental Glacier ground to a halt on this very spot and before the stout Hoosiers began to chop down the old growth trees in an attempt to eke out a living in these parts. If you would have gotten to the designated GPS coordinates a couple of years ago, you would have found a mighty 80 foot Oak tree on the banks of Plum Creek (or Plum Crick as the indigenous folk call it), and if you looked up, you would have seen a 400 pound boulder wedged in a branch fork about 30 feet up. No doubt you have noticed that I mentioned that if you would have gotten to this place a couple of years ago, you would have seen what is pictured above, because a mighty storm racked the area a awhile back and felled the once mighty and storied tree with the terrestrial interloper still locked in it’s branches. The tree fell with the pictured stone still firmly wedged in its fork and it now lies on the forest floor instead of reaching for the sky with its strange burden trying to pull it down. But wait, there’s more. There are a number of trees that are still standing around in the same area that have big rocks in their branches. Here are the GPS coordinates for two more of them: N39, 14.986, W086, 18.492 and N39, 14.984, W086, 18.560. I have went to these places and seen the strange sight of boulders in the tree tops with my own eyes and have speculated, along with many others, as to how heavy rocks could find themselves, up in a tree. Many experts have speculated about how the rocks defied gravity and lodged themselves in the tops of trees, but in reality, no one knows. There are two prominent theories concerning this mystery and they are, (1) drunken IU students put the heavy stones in the trees by some unknown means and they did so because it seemed the thing to do at the time with the added benefit of confounding the local Hoosiers by doing so, (2) a UFO visited the area and put the stones up in the trees. I personally think that theory (1) is the most plausible theory because I have seen the many implausible and mysterious things that drunken IU students have done in the past. As far as the UFO theory, think about it. Why would a people smart enough to build space ships that can motor about the cosmos find it necessary to go to Needmore Indiana in order to place rocks in the tops of trees? Would they do so to confound Hoosiers? I think not, because there are many lesser things that confound Hoosiers, e.g., Hoosiers are still confounded about the change to daylight saving time, so placing heavy rocks up in the trees would not seem a worthy endeavor by an advanced race of greenies. But there is something else about these rocks in the trees. Rocks do not belong in the top of a tree; they belong on the ground with all of the other rocks. As I looked up at the trees this obvious truth became apparent because like the rocks stuck up in a tree, there are those among us that are also stuck in a place where we do not belong. Some call these out-of-place people Contrarians, because they always seem out of place with their contrary opinions and counter arguments. In these days and times, I feel more and more like a Rock in a Tree.
Lets say that your television set crapped out, and in desperation for something else to do, you meandered down to Brown County Indiana. Further, after stopping at the Dairy Queen for a “Death by Chocolate” blizzard, a local yokel directed you towards the very small town of Needmore Indiana (wouldn’t you just love to find out how the town of Needmore Indiana got it’s name?), because, he said, there was evidence that aliens from outer space had visited the area and proof of the outer space visit could be found in the Yellowwood State Forest. Well now, vegetating in front of a TV is one thing, but looking at a potential full-scale adventure is quite another, and so with eager anticipation radiating from your gullible big-city face, you ask the knowledgeable Hoosier for directions to where you could find the evidence for the out-of-this-world event. After much arm waving about this crook in the road and that turn-off next to the scum-covered pond, and, oh by the way, what out for ticks (don’t wear white clothing) you are directed to a country gravel road in the middle of no place, where, no doubt, the Owls make love to the Chickens in the dark of night. And so fortified with an ice-cold brewski, you put on your hiking boots and prepare to hike to a most unusual place, a place where few have even heard about and fewer still have even bothered to go. If you have a GPS, you’re in luck. Punch in the following coordinates, 39°, 12.204 North and 086°, 21.995 West. Take your time in getting to the GPS point because the forest is about the way it was before there was even a people called Hoosiers milling about in the area and so there is much to see as you walk in the privileged area. Perhaps you will notice that the flora and critters haven’t changed all that much since the time when the last continental Glacier ground to a halt on this very spot and before the stout Hoosiers began to chop down the old growth trees in an attempt to eke out a living in these parts. If you would have gotten to the designated GPS coordinates a couple of years ago, you would have found a mighty 80 foot Oak tree on the banks of Plum Creek (or Plum Crick as the indigenous folk call it), and if you looked up, you would have seen a 400 pound boulder wedged in a branch fork about 30 feet up. No doubt you have noticed that I mentioned that if you would have gotten to this place a couple of years ago, you would have seen what is pictured above, because a mighty storm racked the area a awhile back and felled the once mighty and storied tree with the terrestrial interloper still locked in it’s branches. The tree fell with the pictured stone still firmly wedged in its fork and it now lies on the forest floor instead of reaching for the sky with its strange burden trying to pull it down. But wait, there’s more. There are a number of trees that are still standing around in the same area that have big rocks in their branches. Here are the GPS coordinates for two more of them: N39, 14.986, W086, 18.492 and N39, 14.984, W086, 18.560. I have went to these places and seen the strange sight of boulders in the tree tops with my own eyes and have speculated, along with many others, as to how heavy rocks could find themselves, up in a tree. Many experts have speculated about how the rocks defied gravity and lodged themselves in the tops of trees, but in reality, no one knows. There are two prominent theories concerning this mystery and they are, (1) drunken IU students put the heavy stones in the trees by some unknown means and they did so because it seemed the thing to do at the time with the added benefit of confounding the local Hoosiers by doing so, (2) a UFO visited the area and put the stones up in the trees. I personally think that theory (1) is the most plausible theory because I have seen the many implausible and mysterious things that drunken IU students have done in the past. As far as the UFO theory, think about it. Why would a people smart enough to build space ships that can motor about the cosmos find it necessary to go to Needmore Indiana in order to place rocks in the tops of trees? Would they do so to confound Hoosiers? I think not, because there are many lesser things that confound Hoosiers, e.g., Hoosiers are still confounded about the change to daylight saving time, so placing heavy rocks up in the trees would not seem a worthy endeavor by an advanced race of greenies. But there is something else about these rocks in the trees. Rocks do not belong in the top of a tree; they belong on the ground with all of the other rocks. As I looked up at the trees this obvious truth became apparent because like the rocks stuck up in a tree, there are those among us that are also stuck in a place where we do not belong. Some call these out-of-place people Contrarians, because they always seem out of place with their contrary opinions and counter arguments. In these days and times, I feel more and more like a Rock in a Tree.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Reconstructing America
RECONSTRUCTING AMERICA
Think back to when you were, lets say, 20 years old. Come on now, put your feet up on the old La-Z-Boy recliner and let your mind meander back to the days when you were an indestructible know-it-all that had all of the answers to all of life’s vexing problems. Perhaps a strong libation or two would help the recall process along, notwithstanding that the tasty chemical depressant might even help dull the edge of age-related embellishment of the actual facts and sharpen the honesty of the recollection as well. Are you back to the glory years yet? Ok, don’t dwell on that fantastic red headed babe you almost got next to or the muscled-up incredibly suave and debonair hunk that danced with you at the sock-hop, focus instead on what you thought life had in store for you. You know, perhaps you would be an airline pilot, with all of the prestige of flying happy people to and fro on vacation or powerful people to incredibly important business meetings that relied on your fantastic cool flying skill to save the day. Or perhaps, you would become a world famous female Medical Doctor that due to your incredible knowledge and expertise would not only cure the sick and balm the hurt, you would pave the way to expand the horizons of all females of great character to reach beyond the glass ceiling and fulfill their complete potential. Of course, there is the possibility that you were one of those who didn’t have a clue as to what you would become down the line, but you should had at least some sort of fuzzy vision of where you thought life would eventually take you. So the moment of truth has arrived, now that you have gotten “further down the line”, did you end up where you thought would be after gravity has taken its toll and too many brewskis have made their indelible mark? I would be willing to wager General Motors Corporation’s future that where you are now is probably not where you thought or hoped you would be when the blush of youth was on your cheeks. On thing for sure, how you and I got to where we are was not the result of some incredibly complex conspiracy by unknown people or entities. Instead, our life’s journey was facilitated and enabled by our heredity, parental training, formal education, personality, culture, society and the countless decisions made by us and others that affected the course of our journey into geezerdom. I like to think that our country, America, is very much like a singular citizen because, after all, a country is little more than the sum of its collective people. So the journey of our country into maturity (as reflected by our evolving culture) is no doubt similar to that of a singular citizen making his or her way towards maturity, aided and abetted by life’s circumstance and happenstance, i.e., the country’s journey into maturity is not as a result of an incredibly complex conspiracy by unknown people or entities, it is the result of the same forces that enables and facilitates its least indivisible part. Suffice to say, where our country is now is probably not what the founding fathers envisioned and codified into the Constitution when the blush of youth was on our country as well. When our country was young and vigorous, our culture reflected our youth by being a personally responsible and self-reliant people that resulted in a “Can-do” society that could do anything it believed in. The Constitution was the country’s holy foundation that enabled our youthful sprit to soar and was not subject to interpretation by the shifting winds of whim or fancy that has so transformed the holy document into what it has become today. Somewhere along the line, we have been transformed from a personally responsible and self-reliant people into a timid and hesitant people that can no longer build a highway system or pursue the cause of simple justice and has perpetrated an entitlement culture that now spreads responsibility for everything to everyone. (I will bet that if a scholarly study was done, it would be determined that the speed of a country’s decent into mediocrity is proportional to the number of lawyers it has.) The present day entitlement culture is now a fact and the likelihood of a return to our youthful culture and Constitutional foundations is as unlikely as an individual’s unwinding the years back into youth. So hang-on American, the reconstruction of America is in full force and the youth of today will inherit a American quite unlike what was envisioned in her youthful days.
Think back to when you were, lets say, 20 years old. Come on now, put your feet up on the old La-Z-Boy recliner and let your mind meander back to the days when you were an indestructible know-it-all that had all of the answers to all of life’s vexing problems. Perhaps a strong libation or two would help the recall process along, notwithstanding that the tasty chemical depressant might even help dull the edge of age-related embellishment of the actual facts and sharpen the honesty of the recollection as well. Are you back to the glory years yet? Ok, don’t dwell on that fantastic red headed babe you almost got next to or the muscled-up incredibly suave and debonair hunk that danced with you at the sock-hop, focus instead on what you thought life had in store for you. You know, perhaps you would be an airline pilot, with all of the prestige of flying happy people to and fro on vacation or powerful people to incredibly important business meetings that relied on your fantastic cool flying skill to save the day. Or perhaps, you would become a world famous female Medical Doctor that due to your incredible knowledge and expertise would not only cure the sick and balm the hurt, you would pave the way to expand the horizons of all females of great character to reach beyond the glass ceiling and fulfill their complete potential. Of course, there is the possibility that you were one of those who didn’t have a clue as to what you would become down the line, but you should had at least some sort of fuzzy vision of where you thought life would eventually take you. So the moment of truth has arrived, now that you have gotten “further down the line”, did you end up where you thought would be after gravity has taken its toll and too many brewskis have made their indelible mark? I would be willing to wager General Motors Corporation’s future that where you are now is probably not where you thought or hoped you would be when the blush of youth was on your cheeks. On thing for sure, how you and I got to where we are was not the result of some incredibly complex conspiracy by unknown people or entities. Instead, our life’s journey was facilitated and enabled by our heredity, parental training, formal education, personality, culture, society and the countless decisions made by us and others that affected the course of our journey into geezerdom. I like to think that our country, America, is very much like a singular citizen because, after all, a country is little more than the sum of its collective people. So the journey of our country into maturity (as reflected by our evolving culture) is no doubt similar to that of a singular citizen making his or her way towards maturity, aided and abetted by life’s circumstance and happenstance, i.e., the country’s journey into maturity is not as a result of an incredibly complex conspiracy by unknown people or entities, it is the result of the same forces that enables and facilitates its least indivisible part. Suffice to say, where our country is now is probably not what the founding fathers envisioned and codified into the Constitution when the blush of youth was on our country as well. When our country was young and vigorous, our culture reflected our youth by being a personally responsible and self-reliant people that resulted in a “Can-do” society that could do anything it believed in. The Constitution was the country’s holy foundation that enabled our youthful sprit to soar and was not subject to interpretation by the shifting winds of whim or fancy that has so transformed the holy document into what it has become today. Somewhere along the line, we have been transformed from a personally responsible and self-reliant people into a timid and hesitant people that can no longer build a highway system or pursue the cause of simple justice and has perpetrated an entitlement culture that now spreads responsibility for everything to everyone. (I will bet that if a scholarly study was done, it would be determined that the speed of a country’s decent into mediocrity is proportional to the number of lawyers it has.) The present day entitlement culture is now a fact and the likelihood of a return to our youthful culture and Constitutional foundations is as unlikely as an individual’s unwinding the years back into youth. So hang-on American, the reconstruction of America is in full force and the youth of today will inherit a American quite unlike what was envisioned in her youthful days.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Car Business
Car Business
On 5 December 2008 the first of several Congressional hearings about the automobile industry was conducted. The televised hearing was typical Congressional theater that had pompous Congressional finger-wavers in full throat about the awful Automobile CEOs who dared to come to the peoples Washington DC in their Corporate jets to beg for public money to survive. There were several things that struck me as important during the hearings. The first thing that struck me during all of the bashing of the domestic automobile industry was what was not addressed. There was never any analysis of how the foreign automobile makers had managed to capture so much of our domestic market other than foreign car makers all made far superior cars and the management of the foreign car makers were as close to Greek Gods as one could possibly get. Not once was it pointed out that most of the imported cars had an average of 19% VAT advantage over American cars. Here is how it works. Value Added Tax (VAT) countries like the EU, China, Canada and Mexico are rebated their VAT when their product is exported to a non-VAT country, like the USA. The typical VAT on a complex product, like an automobile, can be as much as 10%. So when a foreign VAT manufacturer exports to the USA, it enjoys a 10% discount that reduces the production cost, and therefore, the price of the car for sale in the USA. But wait, there is more. When a non-VAT country, like the USA, imports into a VAT country, a VAT of 10% is added to the import price at the border, voila, a typical 19% disadvantage to the USA when trying to sell cars on the foreign market (the foreign car maker gets 10% back while the USA gets tagged 10% when trying to sell in the foreign country, a 19 to 20% total disadvantage to the USA manufacturer.) This has nothing to do with quality, style or gas consumption, it a clear unfair trade practice. Another advantage foreign car companies get when they build a factory here in the USA is that the states fall all over themselves giving tax abatements, infrastructure, and God only knows what else that permits a Toyota to build a very modern, new and highly efficient manufacturing facility to compete with GM that has 90 year old inefficient plants that pay all kinds of taxes and is never in line for tax abatements. I could list many other disadvantages that our domestic manufacturing has to endure at the hands of our Government, but I think you get the idea. The most striking thing about the hearing was the universal condemnation that was heaped upon the domestic automakers for paying good wages and benefits to the employees. Think about it, our elected Government representatives, berating GM, Ford and Chrysler for being so dumb as to pay good wages and benefits to our citizens that are not in line with third world wages. What was not discussed at the hearing was the fact that current labor costs, inflated or not over foreign costs, contribute about 10% of the price of a automobile manufactured and sold in the USA (go online and conduct the research, it’s true, labor makes up about 10% of the price of a domestic car). Think about it, if one cut the labor costs to zero, there would still be a 10% disadvantage to the domestic car manufacturer’s due to VAT alone. This wage comparison thing got me to thinking about Henry Ford and how he managed to put together his magnificent company that brought personal freedom to all of America’s citizens by manufacturing affordable and reliable automobiles to the masses. Back when Henry Ford got going with his assembly line, the labor on the line was very hard and Henry could not hire people fast enough because of the attrition rate of people quitting. It was reported that for every 1,000 people working, Henry had to hire 960 more just to keep up with the attrition. The current rate of pay was $2.38 per day with no such thing as benefits other the benefit of having a wage-paying job. On January 5, 1914, Henry Ford announced to the nation that he was implementing a new minimum wage of $5.00 per day in addition to a profit-sharing plan for his employees. Henry was hailed as a friend of the worker and branded as an outright socialist. The result of the unilateral wage increase was that the company’s profits doubled in the next year. Henry Ford said of his wage increase, “The payment of five dollars a day for an eight-hour day was one of the finest cost-cutting moves we ever made.” One has to wonder why we must continuously learn the same lessons over and over again like paying Coolie wages does not result in a viable business, regardless what brilliant and enlightened Government people think. One other thing Henry Ford got right. He said that another reason he arbitrarily raised wages was so that he could sell more cars as a result of people having enough money to buy a car. Brilliant. Lets do the math, when we all are making Coolie wages, how are we going to buy a $25,000 automobile, notwithstanding sending our kids to College and paying the ever increasing taxes? Brothers and Sisters, wages and benefits paid to our laboring autoworkers is not the reason for the current problems in our domestic automobile business.
On 5 December 2008 the first of several Congressional hearings about the automobile industry was conducted. The televised hearing was typical Congressional theater that had pompous Congressional finger-wavers in full throat about the awful Automobile CEOs who dared to come to the peoples Washington DC in their Corporate jets to beg for public money to survive. There were several things that struck me as important during the hearings. The first thing that struck me during all of the bashing of the domestic automobile industry was what was not addressed. There was never any analysis of how the foreign automobile makers had managed to capture so much of our domestic market other than foreign car makers all made far superior cars and the management of the foreign car makers were as close to Greek Gods as one could possibly get. Not once was it pointed out that most of the imported cars had an average of 19% VAT advantage over American cars. Here is how it works. Value Added Tax (VAT) countries like the EU, China, Canada and Mexico are rebated their VAT when their product is exported to a non-VAT country, like the USA. The typical VAT on a complex product, like an automobile, can be as much as 10%. So when a foreign VAT manufacturer exports to the USA, it enjoys a 10% discount that reduces the production cost, and therefore, the price of the car for sale in the USA. But wait, there is more. When a non-VAT country, like the USA, imports into a VAT country, a VAT of 10% is added to the import price at the border, voila, a typical 19% disadvantage to the USA when trying to sell cars on the foreign market (the foreign car maker gets 10% back while the USA gets tagged 10% when trying to sell in the foreign country, a 19 to 20% total disadvantage to the USA manufacturer.) This has nothing to do with quality, style or gas consumption, it a clear unfair trade practice. Another advantage foreign car companies get when they build a factory here in the USA is that the states fall all over themselves giving tax abatements, infrastructure, and God only knows what else that permits a Toyota to build a very modern, new and highly efficient manufacturing facility to compete with GM that has 90 year old inefficient plants that pay all kinds of taxes and is never in line for tax abatements. I could list many other disadvantages that our domestic manufacturing has to endure at the hands of our Government, but I think you get the idea. The most striking thing about the hearing was the universal condemnation that was heaped upon the domestic automakers for paying good wages and benefits to the employees. Think about it, our elected Government representatives, berating GM, Ford and Chrysler for being so dumb as to pay good wages and benefits to our citizens that are not in line with third world wages. What was not discussed at the hearing was the fact that current labor costs, inflated or not over foreign costs, contribute about 10% of the price of a automobile manufactured and sold in the USA (go online and conduct the research, it’s true, labor makes up about 10% of the price of a domestic car). Think about it, if one cut the labor costs to zero, there would still be a 10% disadvantage to the domestic car manufacturer’s due to VAT alone. This wage comparison thing got me to thinking about Henry Ford and how he managed to put together his magnificent company that brought personal freedom to all of America’s citizens by manufacturing affordable and reliable automobiles to the masses. Back when Henry Ford got going with his assembly line, the labor on the line was very hard and Henry could not hire people fast enough because of the attrition rate of people quitting. It was reported that for every 1,000 people working, Henry had to hire 960 more just to keep up with the attrition. The current rate of pay was $2.38 per day with no such thing as benefits other the benefit of having a wage-paying job. On January 5, 1914, Henry Ford announced to the nation that he was implementing a new minimum wage of $5.00 per day in addition to a profit-sharing plan for his employees. Henry was hailed as a friend of the worker and branded as an outright socialist. The result of the unilateral wage increase was that the company’s profits doubled in the next year. Henry Ford said of his wage increase, “The payment of five dollars a day for an eight-hour day was one of the finest cost-cutting moves we ever made.” One has to wonder why we must continuously learn the same lessons over and over again like paying Coolie wages does not result in a viable business, regardless what brilliant and enlightened Government people think. One other thing Henry Ford got right. He said that another reason he arbitrarily raised wages was so that he could sell more cars as a result of people having enough money to buy a car. Brilliant. Lets do the math, when we all are making Coolie wages, how are we going to buy a $25,000 automobile, notwithstanding sending our kids to College and paying the ever increasing taxes? Brothers and Sisters, wages and benefits paid to our laboring autoworkers is not the reason for the current problems in our domestic automobile business.
Monday, April 6, 2009
It's A Matter of Trust
It’s A Matter of Trust
Trust what I say
And do what you’re told
And surely all your dirt will turn into gold.
(Van Morrison, from the song, “The Mystery”)
Never trust a skinny Chef or fat Banker.
Never trust a sickly Doctor or poor Lawyer.
Never trust a loud musician or rich artist.
Never trust an eloquent Politician or tight-lipped executive.
Never trust a farmer in a business suit or a preacher in blue jeans.
Never trust an indispensable man or a man for all seasons.
Never trust a stampeding mob or solitary man.
Never trust a swaggering Captain or a man who kills animals for sport.
Never trust a man who is obsessed with his looks or a woman who cares little about grooming.
Never trust a man who considers himself a citizen of the world or a man fearful of life beyond his family.
Never trust a multinational business or a church with a worldwide reach.
Never trust a man who does not drink or a woman who does not cry.
Never trust a free lunch or 15% interest.
Always trust the wife who says, it really matters little or the husband who says, I’ll take care of it, somehow, someway.
Always trust the little girl with bouncing curls and giggling gate as she throws her arms around your neck and says, give me a kiss, grandpa.
Always trust the little boy with flashing sneakers and a dirty tee shirt and says, let’s shoot some baskets, grandpa.
Always trust an angry man and a vengeful woman.
Always trust your heart in matters of love and your gut in matters of finance.
A final quote:
“The world’s cemeteries are full of indispensable men.”
Trust what I say
And do what you’re told
And surely all your dirt will turn into gold.
(Van Morrison, from the song, “The Mystery”)
Never trust a skinny Chef or fat Banker.
Never trust a sickly Doctor or poor Lawyer.
Never trust a loud musician or rich artist.
Never trust an eloquent Politician or tight-lipped executive.
Never trust a farmer in a business suit or a preacher in blue jeans.
Never trust an indispensable man or a man for all seasons.
Never trust a stampeding mob or solitary man.
Never trust a swaggering Captain or a man who kills animals for sport.
Never trust a man who is obsessed with his looks or a woman who cares little about grooming.
Never trust a man who considers himself a citizen of the world or a man fearful of life beyond his family.
Never trust a multinational business or a church with a worldwide reach.
Never trust a man who does not drink or a woman who does not cry.
Never trust a free lunch or 15% interest.
Always trust the wife who says, it really matters little or the husband who says, I’ll take care of it, somehow, someway.
Always trust the little girl with bouncing curls and giggling gate as she throws her arms around your neck and says, give me a kiss, grandpa.
Always trust the little boy with flashing sneakers and a dirty tee shirt and says, let’s shoot some baskets, grandpa.
Always trust an angry man and a vengeful woman.
Always trust your heart in matters of love and your gut in matters of finance.
A final quote:
“The world’s cemeteries are full of indispensable men.”
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Bend Down
Bend Down
Bend down. Bend down low and hear my lament:
Who will cry out and care for the forgotten when the fog of crisis blinds and frightens virtuous fools and unscrupulous mavens alike? The virtuous fools, who are now blinded and bewildered by the fog of crisis now becoming reality, are those who swooned and stampeded like ignorant children into believing that an effortless Nirvana awaited us all, if only we just believe. Yes, those virtuous fools who feasted upon “feel-good” ideas and soaring rhetoric that promised a new world of enlightenment that would educate the ignorant, bring wealth to the poor, justice to the downtrodden, healing to the sick and respect from the world at large, and all to be gained by just believing. The virtuous fools cannot cry out and care for the forgotten because they still believe in the carefully constructed hooey that was designed to bring power to those who strive to remake us into something that we are not. Could it be, Pogo, that we have met the virtuous fools and the virtuous fools are us? The unscrupulous mavens, who only worship greed and lust for power, are only freighted by the unfolding crisis because they must blindly hurry in the resulting fog to find a way to turn a profit and retain power from the very mess that they created and they care not one wit about the forgotten. And who are the forgotten and what is the crisis? The forgotten are our progeny, our children and grandchildren, who will inherit a broken country that renders freedom meaningless. The crisis that I am speaking of is unfolding before our very eyes and is the changing of our democratic Republic into a broken third-world wreck by the Educated Idiots (or the French, Idiot Savants, if you prefer) in the form of BHO and Company who are heel-bent to remake our country into some kind of Socialist thing and remake the world for good measure. My lament is that our innocent children and grandchildren will not benefit, as we did, from the careful husbandry of our magnificent country by those who preceded us that not only blessed us with freedom, wealth and unlimited opportunity, but also instilled within us, a sense of morality that was the envy of the world.
Fall down. Fall down and hear my despair:
The wrecking of our country will occur not from bullets or bombs rained down upon us by despots or fanatics, the wreckage will be perpetrated by the Educated Idiots we ourselves place into Governance over us. The cascading financial debacle, perpetrated by greed and lust for power, will be used by the Educated Idiots as a fortuitous vehicle to purposely debauch our money into worthless pieces of paper and thereby make us all beholding to the Government instead of ourselves for our livelihood and well being. What an inglorious legacy for such a glorious country.
Bend down. Bend down low and hear my lament:
Who will cry out and care for the forgotten when the fog of crisis blinds and frightens virtuous fools and unscrupulous mavens alike? The virtuous fools, who are now blinded and bewildered by the fog of crisis now becoming reality, are those who swooned and stampeded like ignorant children into believing that an effortless Nirvana awaited us all, if only we just believe. Yes, those virtuous fools who feasted upon “feel-good” ideas and soaring rhetoric that promised a new world of enlightenment that would educate the ignorant, bring wealth to the poor, justice to the downtrodden, healing to the sick and respect from the world at large, and all to be gained by just believing. The virtuous fools cannot cry out and care for the forgotten because they still believe in the carefully constructed hooey that was designed to bring power to those who strive to remake us into something that we are not. Could it be, Pogo, that we have met the virtuous fools and the virtuous fools are us? The unscrupulous mavens, who only worship greed and lust for power, are only freighted by the unfolding crisis because they must blindly hurry in the resulting fog to find a way to turn a profit and retain power from the very mess that they created and they care not one wit about the forgotten. And who are the forgotten and what is the crisis? The forgotten are our progeny, our children and grandchildren, who will inherit a broken country that renders freedom meaningless. The crisis that I am speaking of is unfolding before our very eyes and is the changing of our democratic Republic into a broken third-world wreck by the Educated Idiots (or the French, Idiot Savants, if you prefer) in the form of BHO and Company who are heel-bent to remake our country into some kind of Socialist thing and remake the world for good measure. My lament is that our innocent children and grandchildren will not benefit, as we did, from the careful husbandry of our magnificent country by those who preceded us that not only blessed us with freedom, wealth and unlimited opportunity, but also instilled within us, a sense of morality that was the envy of the world.
Fall down. Fall down and hear my despair:
The wrecking of our country will occur not from bullets or bombs rained down upon us by despots or fanatics, the wreckage will be perpetrated by the Educated Idiots we ourselves place into Governance over us. The cascading financial debacle, perpetrated by greed and lust for power, will be used by the Educated Idiots as a fortuitous vehicle to purposely debauch our money into worthless pieces of paper and thereby make us all beholding to the Government instead of ourselves for our livelihood and well being. What an inglorious legacy for such a glorious country.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Catharsis
Catharsis
Catharsis: 3. Psychiatry. Psychotherapy that encourages or permits the discharge of pent-up, socially unacceptable behavior.
The other day I was wheeling my Japanese chariot down to the local Wally World to get some cheap stuff and enrich the Chinese economy. I pulled up to an intersection that was a four way stop and because the car to my left had gotten to the intersection a tad earlier than me, I waited my turn until the car on the left cleared the intersection. As the car on the left started to pull into the intersection, I noticed that a car coming from in front of me was speeding into the intersection. It at once became obvious that the oncoming car was not going to stop. The car on my left slammed on the brakes and the oncoming car almost lost control as it tried to avoid the crash. A crash was narrowly adverted, primarily because the car on my left was manned by a defensive driver and had stopped in time to avoid the smash. The oncoming car slid to a halt and the driver began to yell and scream obscenities at the car on the left. The outraged driver then got out of his car and began to make menacing advances to the person in the car on the left. He said he was going to kill the @$%#*@# that had gotten in his way. In other words, the oncoming driver had no intention of stopping at the intersection and was going to cause harm to anyone that got in his way. The menacing driver eventually got back into his car and with a departing third finger salute to everyone present, gunned his car, and went speeding back on his way. I will wager AIG’s contribution to Obama’s election campaign that you have witnessed something similar to what I have just described in that there are some people who believe they are not required to live by the rules like everyone else. In fact, the stop sign running, and other uncivil persons, can only flaunt society’s rules and get by with it because most of us do live by the rules. In other words, if we all did not behave in a civil manner, we all would be engaged in constant confrontation with everyone else, uncivil slugs included. The outcome at the intersection would have been quite different if no one bothered to obey the stop sign. Chaos and personal confrontation would most likely result and a lot of people would probably get hurt. The uncivil slugs in our society would not be able to enjoy the same carefree life afforded to them by virtue of everyone else behaving in a civil manner and obeying society’s rules. Rather simple stuff we all learned in kindergarten, right? All of this got me to thinking about a paragraph I had read awhile back about this rather simple subject, and after a search, I found what I was looking for. Arthur Schopenhauer wrote the paragraph in question and I thought you wouldn’t mind if I shared it with you.
“A number of porcupines huddled together for warmth on a cold day in winter; but, as they began to prick one another with their quills, they were obliged to disperse. At last, after many turns of huddling and dispersing, they discovered that they would be best off by remaining at a little distance from one another. In the same way the needs of society drives the human porcupines together, only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature. The moderate distance which they at last discover to be the only tolerable condition of intercourse is the code of politeness and fine manners.”
For some reason or another, the escalading lack of civility (including the lack of politeness and fine manners) that the intersection incident dramatized, has rapidly become the norm rather than the exception in our society. Most of the readers of this piece, who happen to have sprouted a fine crop of gray hair, can fondly remember our earlier days when people went to great lengths to be polite, non-confrontational and civil to one another. I bet that you, as well as I, have speculated about the reason why this decent into uncivil social behavior began in the first place and when it all got started in the second place. I searched my memory about when this change began to occur and imagine my surprise when I discovered that the uncivil change in social behavior happened to coincide with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. At first blush, the Civil Rights Act was an attempt to correct the perceived injustice that some members of society were suffering at the hands of other members of society. Indeed, a noble cause. However, opposition to the legislating of new rights that was not in the Constitution cautioned that the Civil Rights Act was an attempt to legislate morality. Indeed, the Civil Rights Act was passed under, of all things, the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to circumvent limitations on congressional power to enforce the Equal Protection Clause. A clear case of the end justifying the means because what a tortured streach of reasoning that the blocking of commerce between the states could occcur because of various kinds of social discrimination that the Civil Rights Act would correct. Of course the dissenters were sweep away with a wave of an enlightened hand that reasoned that the Civil Rights Act would be a necessary Catharsis that would allow pent-up emotions about a wide range of perceived social injustices to be released after the socially downtrodden saw that it was now against the law to perpetrate all such social injustices. After the Catharsis that the Civil Rights Act enabled, voila, peace and tranquility within the body social. (Brothers and Sisters, this was the beginning of (Gasp) Political Correctness.) However, upon the second blush of cynical reality, the Civil Rights Act was, after all, an attempt to legislate morality even though morality is indeed the exclusive property of the body social, regardless if the enlightened think so or not. Consider the possibility that the Civil Rights Act formalized by law what a free civil society normally does, thus, removing the obligation from society to teach its young about the importance of politeness and civility in social behavior because the law now tends to such things. So feel free to socially misbehave all you want unless a cop stops you for violating another person’s legislated civil rights, that is. You can socially misbehave regardless of what society thinks or requires because your uncivil social behavior is merely a sanctioned Catharsis occurring. What an outstanding example of unintended consequences causing a counterproductive effect. What a cornucopia of opportunity for the scumbag lawyers.
Catharsis: 3. Psychiatry. Psychotherapy that encourages or permits the discharge of pent-up, socially unacceptable behavior.
The other day I was wheeling my Japanese chariot down to the local Wally World to get some cheap stuff and enrich the Chinese economy. I pulled up to an intersection that was a four way stop and because the car to my left had gotten to the intersection a tad earlier than me, I waited my turn until the car on the left cleared the intersection. As the car on the left started to pull into the intersection, I noticed that a car coming from in front of me was speeding into the intersection. It at once became obvious that the oncoming car was not going to stop. The car on my left slammed on the brakes and the oncoming car almost lost control as it tried to avoid the crash. A crash was narrowly adverted, primarily because the car on my left was manned by a defensive driver and had stopped in time to avoid the smash. The oncoming car slid to a halt and the driver began to yell and scream obscenities at the car on the left. The outraged driver then got out of his car and began to make menacing advances to the person in the car on the left. He said he was going to kill the @$%#*@# that had gotten in his way. In other words, the oncoming driver had no intention of stopping at the intersection and was going to cause harm to anyone that got in his way. The menacing driver eventually got back into his car and with a departing third finger salute to everyone present, gunned his car, and went speeding back on his way. I will wager AIG’s contribution to Obama’s election campaign that you have witnessed something similar to what I have just described in that there are some people who believe they are not required to live by the rules like everyone else. In fact, the stop sign running, and other uncivil persons, can only flaunt society’s rules and get by with it because most of us do live by the rules. In other words, if we all did not behave in a civil manner, we all would be engaged in constant confrontation with everyone else, uncivil slugs included. The outcome at the intersection would have been quite different if no one bothered to obey the stop sign. Chaos and personal confrontation would most likely result and a lot of people would probably get hurt. The uncivil slugs in our society would not be able to enjoy the same carefree life afforded to them by virtue of everyone else behaving in a civil manner and obeying society’s rules. Rather simple stuff we all learned in kindergarten, right? All of this got me to thinking about a paragraph I had read awhile back about this rather simple subject, and after a search, I found what I was looking for. Arthur Schopenhauer wrote the paragraph in question and I thought you wouldn’t mind if I shared it with you.
“A number of porcupines huddled together for warmth on a cold day in winter; but, as they began to prick one another with their quills, they were obliged to disperse. At last, after many turns of huddling and dispersing, they discovered that they would be best off by remaining at a little distance from one another. In the same way the needs of society drives the human porcupines together, only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature. The moderate distance which they at last discover to be the only tolerable condition of intercourse is the code of politeness and fine manners.”
For some reason or another, the escalading lack of civility (including the lack of politeness and fine manners) that the intersection incident dramatized, has rapidly become the norm rather than the exception in our society. Most of the readers of this piece, who happen to have sprouted a fine crop of gray hair, can fondly remember our earlier days when people went to great lengths to be polite, non-confrontational and civil to one another. I bet that you, as well as I, have speculated about the reason why this decent into uncivil social behavior began in the first place and when it all got started in the second place. I searched my memory about when this change began to occur and imagine my surprise when I discovered that the uncivil change in social behavior happened to coincide with the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. At first blush, the Civil Rights Act was an attempt to correct the perceived injustice that some members of society were suffering at the hands of other members of society. Indeed, a noble cause. However, opposition to the legislating of new rights that was not in the Constitution cautioned that the Civil Rights Act was an attempt to legislate morality. Indeed, the Civil Rights Act was passed under, of all things, the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to circumvent limitations on congressional power to enforce the Equal Protection Clause. A clear case of the end justifying the means because what a tortured streach of reasoning that the blocking of commerce between the states could occcur because of various kinds of social discrimination that the Civil Rights Act would correct. Of course the dissenters were sweep away with a wave of an enlightened hand that reasoned that the Civil Rights Act would be a necessary Catharsis that would allow pent-up emotions about a wide range of perceived social injustices to be released after the socially downtrodden saw that it was now against the law to perpetrate all such social injustices. After the Catharsis that the Civil Rights Act enabled, voila, peace and tranquility within the body social. (Brothers and Sisters, this was the beginning of (Gasp) Political Correctness.) However, upon the second blush of cynical reality, the Civil Rights Act was, after all, an attempt to legislate morality even though morality is indeed the exclusive property of the body social, regardless if the enlightened think so or not. Consider the possibility that the Civil Rights Act formalized by law what a free civil society normally does, thus, removing the obligation from society to teach its young about the importance of politeness and civility in social behavior because the law now tends to such things. So feel free to socially misbehave all you want unless a cop stops you for violating another person’s legislated civil rights, that is. You can socially misbehave regardless of what society thinks or requires because your uncivil social behavior is merely a sanctioned Catharsis occurring. What an outstanding example of unintended consequences causing a counterproductive effect. What a cornucopia of opportunity for the scumbag lawyers.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Stimulus
Stimulus
A drunk once confided to me: The reason God created booze and brewski was so that ugly people could enjoy sex too. I really don’t know why the fellow directed his observation about ugly drunk people in my direction but I did think at length about what he apparently said in humor. You know things like, if God wanted to ensure that the planet would always be fully populated, creating booze and brewski would be an easy way to do it. You know, a sort of Divine Stimulus Program. Nevertheless, I did curtail my alcohol consumption several-fold to test the drunk’s hypothesis and to lose some weight, what the sunshine boys call a Win, Win situation. On second thought, given that the hypothesis might indeed be correct, then perhaps it could end up being a Lose, Win situation. All of this brings to mind the famous quotation attributed to Sir Winston Churchill when Lady Astor accused him of being drunk, to wit the grand man was reported to have said, “Yes, madam, I am drunk. But in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly." But I digress. The Divine Stimulus Program to keep the planet populated got me to thinking about the Washington (Divine) Stimulus Program, you know, the one where the Government is creating money and the created money will somehow be injected into the economy which will then “stimulate” demand, which will then stimulate the economy to produce more goods, services, etc., which will stimulate the creation of jobs, which will stimulate the payment of money for labor (physical and intellectual), the payment of money for labor will then stimulate more demand for goods and services and, voila, a functioning and viable free market economy where only ruin and wreckage had once prevailed. Yeah, right. In days gone by, I was a Program Manager and I used to pitch my programs to get money in order to execute the program. The pitch was usually a view-graft presentation showing all of the elements of the program and how it would all come together, on time and within budget. Usually somewhere in the presentation things would inevitably get a little hazy on how a key element would occur (like requiring a technology that did not yet exist) and this is the place where a miracle would need to take place to make the program successful. Well in reality there are no such things as miracles and the so-called Government stimulus program requires a miracle somewhere in there to make it successful, and here is the reason why. First, there are two basic kinds of economies, a Top Down Economy (managed economy, e.g., USSR) and a Bottom Up Economy (free market economy, e.g., USA), with many variations in between. The USA has a free market economy even though with each passing day it becomes more and more a managed economy. The government intervening into a free market place by throwing artificial money into the system (the stimulus program, with more about artificial money later) transforms the functioning of the free market because the intervention is an attempt to manage the economy rather than let the free market place manage the economy. Just like you can’t really pay off a credit card with a credit card, you really can’t manage a free market place by intervening in it. If you attempt to manage a free market, you can only further disrupt the functioning of the economy. This counterproductive situation should be patently obvious even to Flim Flam Politicians. Let’s talk about money. Money is a wonderful invention by man to facilitate the functioning of an economy. Without money, we would be reduced to barter, and we all understand that an economy based upon barter would leave us stuck in the Stone Age. Real money is the medium of exchange (gold, paper certificate, ones & zeros, etc.) that we all agree has the same value as our labor, goods or property. Money relies exclusively upon the faith and trust of the people that money is as valuable as their hard work, property and productive enterprise. Real money can only be produced by productive enterprise because only real money represents real value. The Government cannot produce real money, only productive enterprise can produce real money and only real money is viable in a free market place because it alone represents real value. Government can only produce artificial money because it (the Government) is not engaged in productive enterprise in a free market economy. If the Government produces (prints or borrows) artificial money, that artificial money can only dilute the value of real money (inflation) because it (artificial money) was not produced by productive enterprise. Unless a miracle occurs, throwing artificial money into a free market economy cannot possibly grow the economy because the artificial money does not represent real value and the intervention is doomed to eventual failure. The only possible way to restart the economy and cause it to grow is to create the conditions favorable to productive enterprise. This can be done by a moratorium on business taxes, eliminate capital gains tax, provide incentives for business to do business here rather than outsourcing factories and jobs to more favorable locations. The most important change that must occur before any long term improvement can occur is that our economy must change from a 70% consumer driven Gross National Product (GNP) to a more sustainable productive enterprise GNP. So here is the situation that this Government Stimulus Intervention leaves us stuck in. We will all get drunk on artificial money, but in the morning we will be sober, and the economy will still be ugly.
A drunk once confided to me: The reason God created booze and brewski was so that ugly people could enjoy sex too. I really don’t know why the fellow directed his observation about ugly drunk people in my direction but I did think at length about what he apparently said in humor. You know things like, if God wanted to ensure that the planet would always be fully populated, creating booze and brewski would be an easy way to do it. You know, a sort of Divine Stimulus Program. Nevertheless, I did curtail my alcohol consumption several-fold to test the drunk’s hypothesis and to lose some weight, what the sunshine boys call a Win, Win situation. On second thought, given that the hypothesis might indeed be correct, then perhaps it could end up being a Lose, Win situation. All of this brings to mind the famous quotation attributed to Sir Winston Churchill when Lady Astor accused him of being drunk, to wit the grand man was reported to have said, “Yes, madam, I am drunk. But in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly." But I digress. The Divine Stimulus Program to keep the planet populated got me to thinking about the Washington (Divine) Stimulus Program, you know, the one where the Government is creating money and the created money will somehow be injected into the economy which will then “stimulate” demand, which will then stimulate the economy to produce more goods, services, etc., which will stimulate the creation of jobs, which will stimulate the payment of money for labor (physical and intellectual), the payment of money for labor will then stimulate more demand for goods and services and, voila, a functioning and viable free market economy where only ruin and wreckage had once prevailed. Yeah, right. In days gone by, I was a Program Manager and I used to pitch my programs to get money in order to execute the program. The pitch was usually a view-graft presentation showing all of the elements of the program and how it would all come together, on time and within budget. Usually somewhere in the presentation things would inevitably get a little hazy on how a key element would occur (like requiring a technology that did not yet exist) and this is the place where a miracle would need to take place to make the program successful. Well in reality there are no such things as miracles and the so-called Government stimulus program requires a miracle somewhere in there to make it successful, and here is the reason why. First, there are two basic kinds of economies, a Top Down Economy (managed economy, e.g., USSR) and a Bottom Up Economy (free market economy, e.g., USA), with many variations in between. The USA has a free market economy even though with each passing day it becomes more and more a managed economy. The government intervening into a free market place by throwing artificial money into the system (the stimulus program, with more about artificial money later) transforms the functioning of the free market because the intervention is an attempt to manage the economy rather than let the free market place manage the economy. Just like you can’t really pay off a credit card with a credit card, you really can’t manage a free market place by intervening in it. If you attempt to manage a free market, you can only further disrupt the functioning of the economy. This counterproductive situation should be patently obvious even to Flim Flam Politicians. Let’s talk about money. Money is a wonderful invention by man to facilitate the functioning of an economy. Without money, we would be reduced to barter, and we all understand that an economy based upon barter would leave us stuck in the Stone Age. Real money is the medium of exchange (gold, paper certificate, ones & zeros, etc.) that we all agree has the same value as our labor, goods or property. Money relies exclusively upon the faith and trust of the people that money is as valuable as their hard work, property and productive enterprise. Real money can only be produced by productive enterprise because only real money represents real value. The Government cannot produce real money, only productive enterprise can produce real money and only real money is viable in a free market place because it alone represents real value. Government can only produce artificial money because it (the Government) is not engaged in productive enterprise in a free market economy. If the Government produces (prints or borrows) artificial money, that artificial money can only dilute the value of real money (inflation) because it (artificial money) was not produced by productive enterprise. Unless a miracle occurs, throwing artificial money into a free market economy cannot possibly grow the economy because the artificial money does not represent real value and the intervention is doomed to eventual failure. The only possible way to restart the economy and cause it to grow is to create the conditions favorable to productive enterprise. This can be done by a moratorium on business taxes, eliminate capital gains tax, provide incentives for business to do business here rather than outsourcing factories and jobs to more favorable locations. The most important change that must occur before any long term improvement can occur is that our economy must change from a 70% consumer driven Gross National Product (GNP) to a more sustainable productive enterprise GNP. So here is the situation that this Government Stimulus Intervention leaves us stuck in. We will all get drunk on artificial money, but in the morning we will be sober, and the economy will still be ugly.
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Dark Side of Knowledge
The Dark Side of Knowledge
Let’s take a walk. Let’s take a walk down my favorite walking trail that is a converted railroad bed (The Monon). Instead of mighty steel monsters belching billows of fearsome black smoke while clamoring up and down gleaming rails that caused the earth to shake and quiver as they made their way to and fro, the railroad legacy is now a rail free path with a grown-up canopy of trees and flora complete with busy critters that hardly takes notice of Nike clad feet softly treading to and fro in search of exercise and solace instead of forgotten steam engines straining for commerce and schedule. If you happen to get on the trail in the early morning, most of the indigenous critters you see are fully engaged in their business and are not in the least alarmed with the passage of fashion conscious bipedal critters aimlessly meandering to and fro along the trail. More likely than not, you will hear the absolutely beautiful clear notes of Red Cardinals birds singing away to the absolute delight of the walking and jogging bipedal creatures. I always like to think that the Red Cardinal birds are singing their beautiful song for my pleasure but I know in reality that they (the Red Cardinals) are instead sending out a warning to others of their kind to stay the hell away from their territory. Knowing this reality is the dark side of knowledge. I would rather believe that the songs the birds were singing were because the birds were happy and the singing was a declaration to all who could hear that the world is a beautiful place that merited the gorgeous notes being sprayed into the wind. I would rather believe this because it enriches my soul. But the knowledge of why they (the birds) are really singing only enriches my mind. Sometimes it is much better to have one’s soul enriched rather than having one’s mind enriched. There are many examples of the dark side of knowledge other than the whimsical example above. Take, for example, the knowledge of evolution as first detailed by Charles Darwin in his seminal book, On the Origin of Species. This knowledge of the evolution of life into more complex life, and the notion that survival of the fittest is the basis for the natural selection of those chosen to evolve, was all the intellectual rage in the time of Hitler and this knowledge became the basis for his book, “Mein Kampf”. Mein Kampf would become the political foundation for the Nazi movement that promoted the practice of eugenics to help create the master (German) race because it was believed that natural selection for evolution by survival of the fittest was as applicable to human races as it was to lower animal species. Therefore, to the Nazis, the German people were the fittest of all of the human races and elimination of inferior races and undesirable humans was only the fittest humans being naturally selected in accordance with the natural selection process described by Darwin. All of this knowledge of evolution and natural selection by survival of the fittest became the basis and justification for the murdering and killing of millions and millions of innocent people by the Nazis and German people in order to evolve into the “Master Race.” Again, the dark side of knowledge. A more contemporary example of the dark side of knowledge is the economic collapse that we are currently undergoing. Nefarious people, driven by greed, have used the knowledge of economics, finance and human behavior to concoct ruinous financial instruments in order to gain monetary advantage over others. Rather than to use knowledge to benefit all, the dark side of knowledge drove supposedly honorable people to ruin million and millions of innocent people. Other knowledge, such as how to split the atom and release the power of the universe, was first used to build a bomb in order to kill people rather than use the knowledge for a benign purpose. In this case, the dark side of knowledge may well doom us all.
Let’s take a walk. Let’s take a walk down my favorite walking trail that is a converted railroad bed (The Monon). Instead of mighty steel monsters belching billows of fearsome black smoke while clamoring up and down gleaming rails that caused the earth to shake and quiver as they made their way to and fro, the railroad legacy is now a rail free path with a grown-up canopy of trees and flora complete with busy critters that hardly takes notice of Nike clad feet softly treading to and fro in search of exercise and solace instead of forgotten steam engines straining for commerce and schedule. If you happen to get on the trail in the early morning, most of the indigenous critters you see are fully engaged in their business and are not in the least alarmed with the passage of fashion conscious bipedal critters aimlessly meandering to and fro along the trail. More likely than not, you will hear the absolutely beautiful clear notes of Red Cardinals birds singing away to the absolute delight of the walking and jogging bipedal creatures. I always like to think that the Red Cardinal birds are singing their beautiful song for my pleasure but I know in reality that they (the Red Cardinals) are instead sending out a warning to others of their kind to stay the hell away from their territory. Knowing this reality is the dark side of knowledge. I would rather believe that the songs the birds were singing were because the birds were happy and the singing was a declaration to all who could hear that the world is a beautiful place that merited the gorgeous notes being sprayed into the wind. I would rather believe this because it enriches my soul. But the knowledge of why they (the birds) are really singing only enriches my mind. Sometimes it is much better to have one’s soul enriched rather than having one’s mind enriched. There are many examples of the dark side of knowledge other than the whimsical example above. Take, for example, the knowledge of evolution as first detailed by Charles Darwin in his seminal book, On the Origin of Species. This knowledge of the evolution of life into more complex life, and the notion that survival of the fittest is the basis for the natural selection of those chosen to evolve, was all the intellectual rage in the time of Hitler and this knowledge became the basis for his book, “Mein Kampf”. Mein Kampf would become the political foundation for the Nazi movement that promoted the practice of eugenics to help create the master (German) race because it was believed that natural selection for evolution by survival of the fittest was as applicable to human races as it was to lower animal species. Therefore, to the Nazis, the German people were the fittest of all of the human races and elimination of inferior races and undesirable humans was only the fittest humans being naturally selected in accordance with the natural selection process described by Darwin. All of this knowledge of evolution and natural selection by survival of the fittest became the basis and justification for the murdering and killing of millions and millions of innocent people by the Nazis and German people in order to evolve into the “Master Race.” Again, the dark side of knowledge. A more contemporary example of the dark side of knowledge is the economic collapse that we are currently undergoing. Nefarious people, driven by greed, have used the knowledge of economics, finance and human behavior to concoct ruinous financial instruments in order to gain monetary advantage over others. Rather than to use knowledge to benefit all, the dark side of knowledge drove supposedly honorable people to ruin million and millions of innocent people. Other knowledge, such as how to split the atom and release the power of the universe, was first used to build a bomb in order to kill people rather than use the knowledge for a benign purpose. In this case, the dark side of knowledge may well doom us all.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The War of 1787
The War of 1787
On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified and we became a unified nation as a Republic (not a Democracy or Federation). There were deep divisions among the citizens at the time pertaining to what type of government the new nation would embrace. There was a sizable faction that argued that only a Federation of States could preserve the freedoms and rights of the individual citizens and were vehemently opposed to a Republic because they felt that a Republic would foster a strong central (federal) government that soon would abridge the rights and privileges of free men and the sovereignty of the states. Those who were opposed to a Republic being formed were collectively known as the “Anti-Federalists”. The Federalist Papers were published as a means to answer the concerns of the Anti-Federalists and were authored by Hamilton, Madison and Jay. The Federalist papers codified in print the reasoning and thought of those who championed a Republic and the papers in fact became the foundation for the subsequent Constitution of the United States. The Anti-Federalists lost and the Federalists won and so the first battle was fought, won and lost, in a war that is continuing to this day. The first battle was a political battle fought by the Anti-Federalists (Federation form of Government) and the Federalists (Republic form of Government) and even though the Federalists won the battle, they have not yet won the war. Indeed, the first political battle sowed the seeds for a much larger battle that resulted in an armed conflict that nearly tore this nation apart. That battle was called The Civil War. Make no mistake about it, the civil war was fought to succeed from the Republic and form a Confederation of the several states. Slavery was only one of many issues that sparked the conflict, not the fundamental reason for it. Other issues could have just as well started the inevitable war that was started by ratifying a Constitution for a Republic instead of a Federation. Things such as taxes, individual freedoms, unfair trade, ad infinitum, would eventually produce a fracturing of the Union just as well as the just abolishment of slavery. The right to enslave another human being or any other thing held dear to those in certain states would be allowed in a Federation that the central Government of a Republic would not permit. Even though Slavery was an abomination that had to be outlawed, the seeds for the Civil War were sowed in the political battle fought during the founding of our nation, not the issue of slavery of itself. The Constitutional Convention that produced the Constitution attempted to address the concerns of individual freedoms and states sovereignty that was championed by the Anti-Federalists by immediately including, by amendment, a bill of rights codified in Amendments I-X (1-10) of the Constitution (The Bill of Rights). Of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, the tenth is the most important (The Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.) and has been thoroughly trashed by the Supreme Court to become meaningless ink stains upon an ignored treasure. One could say that the concerns of the Anti-Federalists have been realized in our day by the continuous erosion of individual rights as well as anything that resembles the sovereignty of the states (States Rights). The war has continued on with political battles being fought and won by the Federalists in the form of Presidents Wilson, Lincoln and Roosevelt that has enabled the Federal Government to become ever more stronger and stronger by being involved in every aspect of a citizens life and in the operation of every state. And now comes this President, Barack Hussein Obama. Just as the Civil War, WWI, The Depression and WWII provided the means to advance a stronger central federal government, the current economic crisis (see the Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel’s quote, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before”) will present President Obama and Company with the golden opportunity to nearly complete the transition to a Socialist government by using the laws of the Republic and a swooning electorate to do so. I really don’t think the war will be ended by the new battle being waged by the overreaching of President Obama but I do believe a new battle is shaping up as the citizens finally become aware what is happening. I can only hope it will be a political battle and not another armed conflict that will distinguish the upcoming battle. Just like the Anti-Federalists feared would happen is happening as our individual rights and freedoms are vanishing right along side the loss of States Rights because of a central federal government that grows ever stronger with each passing day and crisis.
On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified and we became a unified nation as a Republic (not a Democracy or Federation). There were deep divisions among the citizens at the time pertaining to what type of government the new nation would embrace. There was a sizable faction that argued that only a Federation of States could preserve the freedoms and rights of the individual citizens and were vehemently opposed to a Republic because they felt that a Republic would foster a strong central (federal) government that soon would abridge the rights and privileges of free men and the sovereignty of the states. Those who were opposed to a Republic being formed were collectively known as the “Anti-Federalists”. The Federalist Papers were published as a means to answer the concerns of the Anti-Federalists and were authored by Hamilton, Madison and Jay. The Federalist papers codified in print the reasoning and thought of those who championed a Republic and the papers in fact became the foundation for the subsequent Constitution of the United States. The Anti-Federalists lost and the Federalists won and so the first battle was fought, won and lost, in a war that is continuing to this day. The first battle was a political battle fought by the Anti-Federalists (Federation form of Government) and the Federalists (Republic form of Government) and even though the Federalists won the battle, they have not yet won the war. Indeed, the first political battle sowed the seeds for a much larger battle that resulted in an armed conflict that nearly tore this nation apart. That battle was called The Civil War. Make no mistake about it, the civil war was fought to succeed from the Republic and form a Confederation of the several states. Slavery was only one of many issues that sparked the conflict, not the fundamental reason for it. Other issues could have just as well started the inevitable war that was started by ratifying a Constitution for a Republic instead of a Federation. Things such as taxes, individual freedoms, unfair trade, ad infinitum, would eventually produce a fracturing of the Union just as well as the just abolishment of slavery. The right to enslave another human being or any other thing held dear to those in certain states would be allowed in a Federation that the central Government of a Republic would not permit. Even though Slavery was an abomination that had to be outlawed, the seeds for the Civil War were sowed in the political battle fought during the founding of our nation, not the issue of slavery of itself. The Constitutional Convention that produced the Constitution attempted to address the concerns of individual freedoms and states sovereignty that was championed by the Anti-Federalists by immediately including, by amendment, a bill of rights codified in Amendments I-X (1-10) of the Constitution (The Bill of Rights). Of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, the tenth is the most important (The Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.) and has been thoroughly trashed by the Supreme Court to become meaningless ink stains upon an ignored treasure. One could say that the concerns of the Anti-Federalists have been realized in our day by the continuous erosion of individual rights as well as anything that resembles the sovereignty of the states (States Rights). The war has continued on with political battles being fought and won by the Federalists in the form of Presidents Wilson, Lincoln and Roosevelt that has enabled the Federal Government to become ever more stronger and stronger by being involved in every aspect of a citizens life and in the operation of every state. And now comes this President, Barack Hussein Obama. Just as the Civil War, WWI, The Depression and WWII provided the means to advance a stronger central federal government, the current economic crisis (see the Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel’s quote, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before”) will present President Obama and Company with the golden opportunity to nearly complete the transition to a Socialist government by using the laws of the Republic and a swooning electorate to do so. I really don’t think the war will be ended by the new battle being waged by the overreaching of President Obama but I do believe a new battle is shaping up as the citizens finally become aware what is happening. I can only hope it will be a political battle and not another armed conflict that will distinguish the upcoming battle. Just like the Anti-Federalists feared would happen is happening as our individual rights and freedoms are vanishing right along side the loss of States Rights because of a central federal government that grows ever stronger with each passing day and crisis.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
National Sales Tax
National Sales Tax
Here is a reasonable guess about how BHO and Company is going to get us to approve a National Sales Tax. First, you need to revisit my piece, “Prepare To Be Nudged” because you will recall that part of the science on how to get people to make the decisions you want them to make is to create the proper “Choice Architecture” in order to assure that the decision taken will be the targeted decision. The choice architecture must be constructed to not only limit the choices that will be available to make but it (choice architecture) must also guide the decision maker to the targeted decision because it seems to be the most reasonable and fair choice. You can rely on Professor Cass R. Sunstein to know how to create a choice architecture to enable BHO and Company to get the swooning citizens to support a National Sales Tax. Here is how you construct the choice architecture and how it will be done. Below is a chart on who paid what portion of the personal income tax in collected 2006 (AGI= Adjusted Gross Income):
Percentile by AGI........................ Percentage of Tax Paid
Top 1%................................................ 39.89%
Top 5% ...............................................60.14%
Top 10% ............................................70.79%
Top 25%............................................ 86.27%
Top 50%............................................ 97.01%
Bottom 50%...................................... 2.99%
First you propose to raise taxes on the wealthy (top 25% who already pay almost 90% of personal income taxes). This BHO has already done. When it is pointed out that excessive tax on the Government designated wealthy will not only run the risk of killing the golden goose, it is unfair as hell as well to keep punishing the productive of our society and rewarding those who contribute little. Notwithstanding that the bottom 50% are the very ones who receive the most from the Government after the Government takes it from others. It seems only reasonable that in a Democracy, all should contribute, right? Voila, a National Sales Tax by acclamation. Only the Dems could pull this off because they are the designated Party of the People.
Here is a reasonable guess about how BHO and Company is going to get us to approve a National Sales Tax. First, you need to revisit my piece, “Prepare To Be Nudged” because you will recall that part of the science on how to get people to make the decisions you want them to make is to create the proper “Choice Architecture” in order to assure that the decision taken will be the targeted decision. The choice architecture must be constructed to not only limit the choices that will be available to make but it (choice architecture) must also guide the decision maker to the targeted decision because it seems to be the most reasonable and fair choice. You can rely on Professor Cass R. Sunstein to know how to create a choice architecture to enable BHO and Company to get the swooning citizens to support a National Sales Tax. Here is how you construct the choice architecture and how it will be done. Below is a chart on who paid what portion of the personal income tax in collected 2006 (AGI= Adjusted Gross Income):
Percentile by AGI........................ Percentage of Tax Paid
Top 1%................................................ 39.89%
Top 5% ...............................................60.14%
Top 10% ............................................70.79%
Top 25%............................................ 86.27%
Top 50%............................................ 97.01%
Bottom 50%...................................... 2.99%
First you propose to raise taxes on the wealthy (top 25% who already pay almost 90% of personal income taxes). This BHO has already done. When it is pointed out that excessive tax on the Government designated wealthy will not only run the risk of killing the golden goose, it is unfair as hell as well to keep punishing the productive of our society and rewarding those who contribute little. Notwithstanding that the bottom 50% are the very ones who receive the most from the Government after the Government takes it from others. It seems only reasonable that in a Democracy, all should contribute, right? Voila, a National Sales Tax by acclamation. Only the Dems could pull this off because they are the designated Party of the People.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Womb Government
Womb Government
Rosy Fingered Dawn comes creeping up over the eastern darkness and the birds and other critters acknowledge the new day mistress by beginning to stir from their nocturnal sojourn. Hesitant chirping and animal mutterings signal that a new day is about to begin as the rosy glow gently changes night into day. Be it a day of new challenges or boring sameness, only time will tell. The soft colored light begins to filter through your bedroom window and starts the process of washing out the gray scale images of fitful sleep by bringing color and revealing structure to your bedroom and nuance to your consciousness. If you’re fortunate enough to have a loving mate, you resist the urge to awaken further by pulling closer to the warmth and security that is yours for the taking. Instead of springing out of the warm embrace of your bed, you instead wriggle down into the covers much like the vice grip hold that Linus always has on his security blanket. If the above describes in any way your routine of meeting the day, don’t feel too bad about it. We all do the same thing in one manner or another. I believe it has something to do with a primordial instinct that is plumbed into us all and that is to seek the warmth of security in order to put off the harshness of reality and the uncertainty of life and living. Some have even said that our craving for warmth and security is a universal longing to return to the womb where it was always warm, safe and secure notwithstanding that everything was not only comfortable but all of life’s requirements were being provided for as well. Some have even likened Mother Earth as being a womb that shelters us all while proving for all of our needs during our sojourn here on this beautiful blue planet. That’s a fanciful notion I could believe in. The thing about being safe and warm in the security of a Mother’s womb is that you are not free to do everything you would like to do, in others words Brothers and Sisters, there is never a free lunch. There are some really, really smart people that know all about Mark 1 Mod 0 humans longings for the warmth that security brings to the human condition and that, most generally, we are prepared to give up a great deal of freedom to obtain it (security). These really smart people use this knowledge to their advantage as they create programs and situations that are irresistible to us in our desire for the warmth of security that having all of life’s requirements provided for us brings. Why do these smart people do this? Come on now, you can’t really be that naïve, can you? They do it to obtain and hold onto power. As responsible adults (removed from the real womb, that is), we all know that we really can’t get something for nothing, (like government provided universal health care, social security, welfare for the poor, education for all, housing and shelter for all, food for all, etc.,) but we always buy into the notion that it is the other guy who is going to pay the price. Some have called this kind of Government that is so kind and caring “Nanny Government”, but I really think a much better term would be “Womb Government”. Well the price we all must pay for Womb Government not only comes out our paychecks but it is also paid for with our loss of freedom as well. The country’s founding Fathers were also very smart and they knew about the human condition much better that most of the Flim Flamers of today. They struggled mightily with the rare opportunity to start with a clean slate and create a kind of government that would not only preserve the dignity of man but guarantee freedom for all as well. The Government that was finally decided upon is called a Republic and not a Democracy. That form of Government, Republic, is being systematically destroyed by the notion and desire for Womb Government. The founding fathers were deathly afraid of the “Tyranny of the Majority” because the founding fathers knew that the majority can be easily manipulated by the clever (womb to tomb benevolence) to obtain and keep power and that’s why a Democracy was feared. History proves the founding fathers wisdom in this regard. A Republic uses the rule of law to ensure liberty and justice for all and it’s not at all surprising that the “Justice System (Supreme and federal courts)” is the vehicle used to change the Constitution and establish law to create a Democracy where none existed before. This is being done in order to enable the far left agenda that uses Womb Government to further that agenda. We good people unknowingly further the far left agenda by not insisting on change back to our Republican form of Government but by accepting the silly notion of Womb Government as well. My friend Dick Blaker has dug out an amazing video that is the best I’ve seen to further explain this Government thing. I hope you will take the time to view this very important work. http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/
Rosy Fingered Dawn comes creeping up over the eastern darkness and the birds and other critters acknowledge the new day mistress by beginning to stir from their nocturnal sojourn. Hesitant chirping and animal mutterings signal that a new day is about to begin as the rosy glow gently changes night into day. Be it a day of new challenges or boring sameness, only time will tell. The soft colored light begins to filter through your bedroom window and starts the process of washing out the gray scale images of fitful sleep by bringing color and revealing structure to your bedroom and nuance to your consciousness. If you’re fortunate enough to have a loving mate, you resist the urge to awaken further by pulling closer to the warmth and security that is yours for the taking. Instead of springing out of the warm embrace of your bed, you instead wriggle down into the covers much like the vice grip hold that Linus always has on his security blanket. If the above describes in any way your routine of meeting the day, don’t feel too bad about it. We all do the same thing in one manner or another. I believe it has something to do with a primordial instinct that is plumbed into us all and that is to seek the warmth of security in order to put off the harshness of reality and the uncertainty of life and living. Some have even said that our craving for warmth and security is a universal longing to return to the womb where it was always warm, safe and secure notwithstanding that everything was not only comfortable but all of life’s requirements were being provided for as well. Some have even likened Mother Earth as being a womb that shelters us all while proving for all of our needs during our sojourn here on this beautiful blue planet. That’s a fanciful notion I could believe in. The thing about being safe and warm in the security of a Mother’s womb is that you are not free to do everything you would like to do, in others words Brothers and Sisters, there is never a free lunch. There are some really, really smart people that know all about Mark 1 Mod 0 humans longings for the warmth that security brings to the human condition and that, most generally, we are prepared to give up a great deal of freedom to obtain it (security). These really smart people use this knowledge to their advantage as they create programs and situations that are irresistible to us in our desire for the warmth of security that having all of life’s requirements provided for us brings. Why do these smart people do this? Come on now, you can’t really be that naïve, can you? They do it to obtain and hold onto power. As responsible adults (removed from the real womb, that is), we all know that we really can’t get something for nothing, (like government provided universal health care, social security, welfare for the poor, education for all, housing and shelter for all, food for all, etc.,) but we always buy into the notion that it is the other guy who is going to pay the price. Some have called this kind of Government that is so kind and caring “Nanny Government”, but I really think a much better term would be “Womb Government”. Well the price we all must pay for Womb Government not only comes out our paychecks but it is also paid for with our loss of freedom as well. The country’s founding Fathers were also very smart and they knew about the human condition much better that most of the Flim Flamers of today. They struggled mightily with the rare opportunity to start with a clean slate and create a kind of government that would not only preserve the dignity of man but guarantee freedom for all as well. The Government that was finally decided upon is called a Republic and not a Democracy. That form of Government, Republic, is being systematically destroyed by the notion and desire for Womb Government. The founding fathers were deathly afraid of the “Tyranny of the Majority” because the founding fathers knew that the majority can be easily manipulated by the clever (womb to tomb benevolence) to obtain and keep power and that’s why a Democracy was feared. History proves the founding fathers wisdom in this regard. A Republic uses the rule of law to ensure liberty and justice for all and it’s not at all surprising that the “Justice System (Supreme and federal courts)” is the vehicle used to change the Constitution and establish law to create a Democracy where none existed before. This is being done in order to enable the far left agenda that uses Womb Government to further that agenda. We good people unknowingly further the far left agenda by not insisting on change back to our Republican form of Government but by accepting the silly notion of Womb Government as well. My friend Dick Blaker has dug out an amazing video that is the best I’ve seen to further explain this Government thing. I hope you will take the time to view this very important work. http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Beggar Man, Thief
Beggar Man, Thief
I listened very carefully to BHO’s plan to help fix the home mortgage problem. Most all agree that the home mortgage situation is the root problem of the current financial meltdown so until someone comes up with a viable way to fix the root problem, flailing away at the overall problem will continue to be the rule of the day. Unfortunately, I don’t think what is being offered is going to help all that much, but to be truthful, BHO and company should get an attaboy for coming up with a well thought out plan to address as much of the problem as possible. But, the mortgage fix plan is mostly a political façade to address as many of the concerns of the electorate as possible, and cannot possibly fix a problem that only the marketplace can solve. Well duh. I guess people will never understand that politicians will always do political things when the government “solves” citizen’s problems. Most all of you know I have a Real Estate Company with my son and so I have some first hand knowledge of how the problem evolved. Until five or six years ago, the real estate market was responding to traditional forces and then in response to Barney Frank and the Congress to get as many people into housing as possible, interest rates began to rapidly go down unrelated to any normal financial or market forces. For example, I was looking at property in Cape Canaveral Florida as a winter home and most of the Mon and Pop houses were going for about $130-150K. Within three of four years, the same house was selling for $300K instead of $150K. The inflated price was being driven up by low interest rates and easy money and because money was so cheap and banks were lending based on the inflated price with little regard to ability to pay (because of the implied Government backing and guarantee), many people bought at the inflated price. When everything crashed, the price of the Mon and Pop house quickly returned to the traditional market determined price of about $150K. The financial problem is that the banks require real estate prices to go back up to the inflated price in order to fix their balance sheet problem because people are walking away from a house that has a $300K mortgage and has a value of only $150K. In other words, the market will always determine the price of a house and when the artificial loan rates and the inflated prices that the government intervention caused are removed (the financial crash) the price of a home will revert back to its market determined value and not the artificial political social engineered price. So the BHO plan can in no way drive the current price of a home back up to the artificial inflated price to really fix the value problem and the plan will be mostly ineffective. Now stick with me as I put the finishing touches on this perfect storm of irresponsibility. Because of government inspired (make that directed) low interest rates providing cheap money the prices of all homes were going up regardless of whether you were selling or not. So the easy money scumbags began to offer home equity loads based on 100-120% of an artificially inflated price. Voila, free money for the masses. I have set at the real estate closing table and tried to explain to a seller that he has to pay $35K to sell his house because of his home equity loans and the fact being he has already spent his equity in the house and the buyer is not going to bail him out by paying over market price for his house. Remember all of my raving about people thinking they can get something for nothing? Now lots of people who took out home equity loans are upside down as hell and can’t afford their mortgage payments because everything has crashed which is causing jobs to be lost, etc., etc.; the cascade to ruin I’ve been talking about. Oh well, I hope that BHO’s plan can fix the mortgage problem, but I really don’t think it can.
I listened very carefully to BHO’s plan to help fix the home mortgage problem. Most all agree that the home mortgage situation is the root problem of the current financial meltdown so until someone comes up with a viable way to fix the root problem, flailing away at the overall problem will continue to be the rule of the day. Unfortunately, I don’t think what is being offered is going to help all that much, but to be truthful, BHO and company should get an attaboy for coming up with a well thought out plan to address as much of the problem as possible. But, the mortgage fix plan is mostly a political façade to address as many of the concerns of the electorate as possible, and cannot possibly fix a problem that only the marketplace can solve. Well duh. I guess people will never understand that politicians will always do political things when the government “solves” citizen’s problems. Most all of you know I have a Real Estate Company with my son and so I have some first hand knowledge of how the problem evolved. Until five or six years ago, the real estate market was responding to traditional forces and then in response to Barney Frank and the Congress to get as many people into housing as possible, interest rates began to rapidly go down unrelated to any normal financial or market forces. For example, I was looking at property in Cape Canaveral Florida as a winter home and most of the Mon and Pop houses were going for about $130-150K. Within three of four years, the same house was selling for $300K instead of $150K. The inflated price was being driven up by low interest rates and easy money and because money was so cheap and banks were lending based on the inflated price with little regard to ability to pay (because of the implied Government backing and guarantee), many people bought at the inflated price. When everything crashed, the price of the Mon and Pop house quickly returned to the traditional market determined price of about $150K. The financial problem is that the banks require real estate prices to go back up to the inflated price in order to fix their balance sheet problem because people are walking away from a house that has a $300K mortgage and has a value of only $150K. In other words, the market will always determine the price of a house and when the artificial loan rates and the inflated prices that the government intervention caused are removed (the financial crash) the price of a home will revert back to its market determined value and not the artificial political social engineered price. So the BHO plan can in no way drive the current price of a home back up to the artificial inflated price to really fix the value problem and the plan will be mostly ineffective. Now stick with me as I put the finishing touches on this perfect storm of irresponsibility. Because of government inspired (make that directed) low interest rates providing cheap money the prices of all homes were going up regardless of whether you were selling or not. So the easy money scumbags began to offer home equity loads based on 100-120% of an artificially inflated price. Voila, free money for the masses. I have set at the real estate closing table and tried to explain to a seller that he has to pay $35K to sell his house because of his home equity loans and the fact being he has already spent his equity in the house and the buyer is not going to bail him out by paying over market price for his house. Remember all of my raving about people thinking they can get something for nothing? Now lots of people who took out home equity loans are upside down as hell and can’t afford their mortgage payments because everything has crashed which is causing jobs to be lost, etc., etc.; the cascade to ruin I’ve been talking about. Oh well, I hope that BHO’s plan can fix the mortgage problem, but I really don’t think it can.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Rich Man, Poor Man
Rich Man, Poor Man
I just finished doing my taxes and tucked the completed forms into the mail for transport to the giant Black Hole located in a Galaxy far, far away called the US treasury. I happened upon something while doing my taxes that you might be interested in. And please don’t take my word for it, breakout the 1040 booklet that Uncle Sam sent you and go through the numbers yourself to verify what I have observed. What I am talking about here is that if you are a married couple filing jointly, and you make $43K, the Government declares that you are Poor and you qualify for an Earned Income Credit and the Government will take some money from someone else and give it to you. If you are married and filing jointly, and you make $70K, you qualify for the Alternative Minimum Tax and the Government will declare that you are Rich and take money from you and give it to someone else. That’s right, it only requires $27K to separate the Rich from the Poor in this Country. I could have played some games with single filers versus other filers and came up with a separation of only $3K between being Rich or being Poor, but that would have put me into the same league as Flim Flam Politicians. If there was ever a more classic definition of Redistribution of Wealth, I don’t know what it would be. Oh, by the way, there is a stench in the air and I smell it. A national sales tax is coming.
I just finished doing my taxes and tucked the completed forms into the mail for transport to the giant Black Hole located in a Galaxy far, far away called the US treasury. I happened upon something while doing my taxes that you might be interested in. And please don’t take my word for it, breakout the 1040 booklet that Uncle Sam sent you and go through the numbers yourself to verify what I have observed. What I am talking about here is that if you are a married couple filing jointly, and you make $43K, the Government declares that you are Poor and you qualify for an Earned Income Credit and the Government will take some money from someone else and give it to you. If you are married and filing jointly, and you make $70K, you qualify for the Alternative Minimum Tax and the Government will declare that you are Rich and take money from you and give it to someone else. That’s right, it only requires $27K to separate the Rich from the Poor in this Country. I could have played some games with single filers versus other filers and came up with a separation of only $3K between being Rich or being Poor, but that would have put me into the same league as Flim Flam Politicians. If there was ever a more classic definition of Redistribution of Wealth, I don’t know what it would be. Oh, by the way, there is a stench in the air and I smell it. A national sales tax is coming.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Milgram Experiment
America circa 2009 and the
Milgram Experiment
I hope all who begin to read this piece has the fortitude to become fully engaged in the subject presented because if one carefully considers what the frightful ramifications are, then perhaps you can have a greater understanding about what is going on today. First, you would be well advised to Goggle “Milgram Experiment” and find the time to read up on what the experiment was about and the fact that the experiment has been repeated many, many times by many, many different professionals and the results have always been the same regardless of where the experiment was performed or under what conditions. Indeed, researchers at California’s Santa Clara University just recently replicated the 1961 experiment in 2006 and the results were not only similar but the experiment was done under much more stringent and ethical conditions than the original Milgram experiment in order to address professional and ethical concerns about the experiment itself. Stanley Milgram began his work on this subject while working on his Phd at Harvard University with the experiment being conducted in 1961 by Milgram when he was Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University. The experiment was done during the Israeli court trial of the Nazi holocaust architect, Adolf Eichmann, and (the experiment) was an attempt to answer critical questions concerning following lawful orders even when those orders results in crimes against humanity. The trial once again raised very serious moral and ethical issues concerning the dichotomy of following a country’s lawful orders that result in pain, suffering and death to others, or not following orders because of ethical or moral concerns about inflicting pain and suffering to another human being. Not following a country’s lawful orders usually results in penalties to the one disobeying the orders or laws and that situation greatly complicates the issue. One should very carefully consider this question because it is a very, very complicated question and it is just as relevant today as it has been throughout the history of mankind. The question goes to the very heart of the ideology struggle that the one world government movement is waging today, and that is: Is one a citizen of the world (Humanity) or a citizen of your respective country, or even, are you a citizen of the world (Humanity) first and then of your respective country second? An important question because the World Court in the Hague can and does haul people in and tries them for crimes against humanity and other such crimes and the penalties are real to the one following lawful orders of one’s country. Bear in mind that the greatest moral and ethical country the world has ever seen, the USA, has rained death and destruction upon enemy and innocent alike during wars, and even dropped the atomic bomb upon ordinary people to end WWII. No one brought Harry S. Truman to a court of law because of crimes against humanity. The reason being, of course, we won the war! But if we had lost instead of winning the war, old “Give-em Hell Harry” would have swung from the gallows just like Eichmann did. Of course winning or losing should not determine moral or ethical righteousness, but for now they do and the One World Government folks will correct the winning/losing attribute by subjecting all peoples of the world to the same ethical and moral standards that One World Government will then adjudicate and thereby solve the dichotomy problem of who’s orders to follow. Well I guess this would at least resolve the latent penalties problem. The Milgram experiment was not designed to answer such complicated social questions as these even though the results of the experiment did illuminate the ethical and moral problems in greater detail, it was instead, designed to determine if ordinary people could follow orders even when real pain and suffering resulted to others in the course of following those orders. The experiment has answered that question without a doubt. Regardless of how many times the experiment is conducted, upwards to 80% of ordinary people willing follow orders and inflict pain and suffering even to the point of death upon fellow humans. This experiment goes a long way into understanding how ordinary Germans could inflict such horrendous pain and suffering upon other people. They were just following orders. The experiment proves that it is a deeply held human trait that can allow upwards of 80% of us to inflict pain and suffering upon others and we can do so because following orders somehow relives us of any universal, biological or cognitive moral/ethical imperative not to do so. Good God, many people in the experiment even enjoyed using the power associated with having life and death decisions over others of their kind. Some later experiments have even demonstrated mere peer pressure is almost as effective as lawful orders in mitigating moral or ethical concerns while harm is being done to others. All of this brings us to today. I’m sure you, as well as I, have been bewildered by the likes of Bernard Madoff, Banks, Financial Services Executives and other such scum bags that could knowingly inflict such pain and suffering upon their fellow man. They were either following orders to make profit because greed is now a virtue or excessive peer pressure relived them of concern for their fellow man. In short, they were only following orders, and they really can’t understand why people are so angry with them for doing so. Their problem is, orders aside, they have lost and will now suffer the consequence. Most of us ordinary law abiding (make that order following) citizens keep on following Governmental, Institutional, and Official Orders while acquiescing to Peer (Media) pressure that is at odds with our personal moral and ethical underpinnings even though we know in our hearts that relying on following orders to mitigate the moral/ethical responsibility of a free people will not leave to our progeny the same country that was left to us. This is the same old dichotomy that’s always been with us. When do we rise up as a free people and say we are no longer going to follow lawful orders (laws) but instead remove those who will not follow the same moral/ethical imperatives as the rest of us? As the Milgram experiment has demonstrated many times over, we will more than likely keep on following orders because doing so relieves us of any personal responsible for what happens, in short, we become enablers by following orders. All of this brings to mind the Son of God riding into Jerusalem upon an ass, carrying a palm leaf to signify peace and bringing a message of love to hapless humans who to this day, can’t decide if love should rule or just take the easy way and follow orders.
Milgram Experiment
I hope all who begin to read this piece has the fortitude to become fully engaged in the subject presented because if one carefully considers what the frightful ramifications are, then perhaps you can have a greater understanding about what is going on today. First, you would be well advised to Goggle “Milgram Experiment” and find the time to read up on what the experiment was about and the fact that the experiment has been repeated many, many times by many, many different professionals and the results have always been the same regardless of where the experiment was performed or under what conditions. Indeed, researchers at California’s Santa Clara University just recently replicated the 1961 experiment in 2006 and the results were not only similar but the experiment was done under much more stringent and ethical conditions than the original Milgram experiment in order to address professional and ethical concerns about the experiment itself. Stanley Milgram began his work on this subject while working on his Phd at Harvard University with the experiment being conducted in 1961 by Milgram when he was Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University. The experiment was done during the Israeli court trial of the Nazi holocaust architect, Adolf Eichmann, and (the experiment) was an attempt to answer critical questions concerning following lawful orders even when those orders results in crimes against humanity. The trial once again raised very serious moral and ethical issues concerning the dichotomy of following a country’s lawful orders that result in pain, suffering and death to others, or not following orders because of ethical or moral concerns about inflicting pain and suffering to another human being. Not following a country’s lawful orders usually results in penalties to the one disobeying the orders or laws and that situation greatly complicates the issue. One should very carefully consider this question because it is a very, very complicated question and it is just as relevant today as it has been throughout the history of mankind. The question goes to the very heart of the ideology struggle that the one world government movement is waging today, and that is: Is one a citizen of the world (Humanity) or a citizen of your respective country, or even, are you a citizen of the world (Humanity) first and then of your respective country second? An important question because the World Court in the Hague can and does haul people in and tries them for crimes against humanity and other such crimes and the penalties are real to the one following lawful orders of one’s country. Bear in mind that the greatest moral and ethical country the world has ever seen, the USA, has rained death and destruction upon enemy and innocent alike during wars, and even dropped the atomic bomb upon ordinary people to end WWII. No one brought Harry S. Truman to a court of law because of crimes against humanity. The reason being, of course, we won the war! But if we had lost instead of winning the war, old “Give-em Hell Harry” would have swung from the gallows just like Eichmann did. Of course winning or losing should not determine moral or ethical righteousness, but for now they do and the One World Government folks will correct the winning/losing attribute by subjecting all peoples of the world to the same ethical and moral standards that One World Government will then adjudicate and thereby solve the dichotomy problem of who’s orders to follow. Well I guess this would at least resolve the latent penalties problem. The Milgram experiment was not designed to answer such complicated social questions as these even though the results of the experiment did illuminate the ethical and moral problems in greater detail, it was instead, designed to determine if ordinary people could follow orders even when real pain and suffering resulted to others in the course of following those orders. The experiment has answered that question without a doubt. Regardless of how many times the experiment is conducted, upwards to 80% of ordinary people willing follow orders and inflict pain and suffering even to the point of death upon fellow humans. This experiment goes a long way into understanding how ordinary Germans could inflict such horrendous pain and suffering upon other people. They were just following orders. The experiment proves that it is a deeply held human trait that can allow upwards of 80% of us to inflict pain and suffering upon others and we can do so because following orders somehow relives us of any universal, biological or cognitive moral/ethical imperative not to do so. Good God, many people in the experiment even enjoyed using the power associated with having life and death decisions over others of their kind. Some later experiments have even demonstrated mere peer pressure is almost as effective as lawful orders in mitigating moral or ethical concerns while harm is being done to others. All of this brings us to today. I’m sure you, as well as I, have been bewildered by the likes of Bernard Madoff, Banks, Financial Services Executives and other such scum bags that could knowingly inflict such pain and suffering upon their fellow man. They were either following orders to make profit because greed is now a virtue or excessive peer pressure relived them of concern for their fellow man. In short, they were only following orders, and they really can’t understand why people are so angry with them for doing so. Their problem is, orders aside, they have lost and will now suffer the consequence. Most of us ordinary law abiding (make that order following) citizens keep on following Governmental, Institutional, and Official Orders while acquiescing to Peer (Media) pressure that is at odds with our personal moral and ethical underpinnings even though we know in our hearts that relying on following orders to mitigate the moral/ethical responsibility of a free people will not leave to our progeny the same country that was left to us. This is the same old dichotomy that’s always been with us. When do we rise up as a free people and say we are no longer going to follow lawful orders (laws) but instead remove those who will not follow the same moral/ethical imperatives as the rest of us? As the Milgram experiment has demonstrated many times over, we will more than likely keep on following orders because doing so relieves us of any personal responsible for what happens, in short, we become enablers by following orders. All of this brings to mind the Son of God riding into Jerusalem upon an ass, carrying a palm leaf to signify peace and bringing a message of love to hapless humans who to this day, can’t decide if love should rule or just take the easy way and follow orders.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Prepared To Be Nudged
Prepare To Be Nudged
Have you ever had an unexpected foreboding? You know, you are minding your own business and suddenly, from out of the blue, your narrow personal vision of the current world is expanded into an apprehensive wide-eyed search for whatever it is that your instinct is trying to warn you about. Sometimes seemingly small and insignificant things happen that only in retrospect become the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and ushers in the unappreciated flood of apprehension. I’ve been living with such an unsettling foreboding for some time now and something just happened that I think will be proven to be the small and insignificant signal that will shed light upon what is causing instinct to give rise to the foreboding. The “straw that broke the camel’s back” moment occurred when I happened to read a New York Times article entitled, “When Humans Need a Nudge Toward Rationality”, by Jeff Sommer in the February 8th, 2009 edition of that bastion of liberal thought. A humorous example of “Nudging” provides insight into what the two Professor Authors (Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein of the University of Chicago) have documented in their current book on the subject, Nudge. The example goes like this: The image of a housefly was etched into the porcelain near the drain of the urinals which are located in the Men’s room at the Amsterdam Airport. The fly images were added to the urinals to facilitate an experiment in human behavior. After the fly images were added to the urinals, “spillage” on the men’s room floor fell by 80%. The explanation for the reduced “spillage” was that men are competitive creatures and so the fly images peaked their competitive nature by focusing their attention to aim at the flies rather than just haphazardly urinating without too much regard to where their un-aimed stream was going. Isn’t science wonderful? The essence of this experiment and the subject of the book is that when officials, authorities or whomever would like to guide human behavior to a more desired and directed outcome, enlightened nudging of human behavior is a splendid way to do so. How this is done is for the enlightened to create “choice architecture” (their words, not mine) in order to nudge human behavior to a more desirable outcome. The creation of a “choice architecture” is the deliberate imposition of structure in an environment (etching flies in a urinal) to induce people to made better choices. I’ll just pause a moment to let all of this sink in…………(I wonder who gets to make the determination on what constitutes a “better choice?”) Now comes the defining “break the camel’s back” moment. Professor Sunstein has been named by President Obama to be administrator of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, or as Professor Thaler light heartily said, “Sunstein would be the Nudger in Chief.” I’ll just pause again for another moment to let that sink in as well…….. I don’t know about you but I think I’ve already read about these kinds of goings on when I read George Orwell’s seminal work, “1984” a number of years ago. I believe my foreboding is caused by the recognition that “Nudging” can be a more clandestine way to bring about thought and other governmental control over people that George Orwell saw fit to conjecture about in his book. The seemingly insignificant event of naming Professor Sunstein to be Nudger in Chief is enough to make any free man or woman apprehensive and afraid.
Have you ever had an unexpected foreboding? You know, you are minding your own business and suddenly, from out of the blue, your narrow personal vision of the current world is expanded into an apprehensive wide-eyed search for whatever it is that your instinct is trying to warn you about. Sometimes seemingly small and insignificant things happen that only in retrospect become the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and ushers in the unappreciated flood of apprehension. I’ve been living with such an unsettling foreboding for some time now and something just happened that I think will be proven to be the small and insignificant signal that will shed light upon what is causing instinct to give rise to the foreboding. The “straw that broke the camel’s back” moment occurred when I happened to read a New York Times article entitled, “When Humans Need a Nudge Toward Rationality”, by Jeff Sommer in the February 8th, 2009 edition of that bastion of liberal thought. A humorous example of “Nudging” provides insight into what the two Professor Authors (Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein of the University of Chicago) have documented in their current book on the subject, Nudge. The example goes like this: The image of a housefly was etched into the porcelain near the drain of the urinals which are located in the Men’s room at the Amsterdam Airport. The fly images were added to the urinals to facilitate an experiment in human behavior. After the fly images were added to the urinals, “spillage” on the men’s room floor fell by 80%. The explanation for the reduced “spillage” was that men are competitive creatures and so the fly images peaked their competitive nature by focusing their attention to aim at the flies rather than just haphazardly urinating without too much regard to where their un-aimed stream was going. Isn’t science wonderful? The essence of this experiment and the subject of the book is that when officials, authorities or whomever would like to guide human behavior to a more desired and directed outcome, enlightened nudging of human behavior is a splendid way to do so. How this is done is for the enlightened to create “choice architecture” (their words, not mine) in order to nudge human behavior to a more desirable outcome. The creation of a “choice architecture” is the deliberate imposition of structure in an environment (etching flies in a urinal) to induce people to made better choices. I’ll just pause a moment to let all of this sink in…………(I wonder who gets to make the determination on what constitutes a “better choice?”) Now comes the defining “break the camel’s back” moment. Professor Sunstein has been named by President Obama to be administrator of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, or as Professor Thaler light heartily said, “Sunstein would be the Nudger in Chief.” I’ll just pause again for another moment to let that sink in as well…….. I don’t know about you but I think I’ve already read about these kinds of goings on when I read George Orwell’s seminal work, “1984” a number of years ago. I believe my foreboding is caused by the recognition that “Nudging” can be a more clandestine way to bring about thought and other governmental control over people that George Orwell saw fit to conjecture about in his book. The seemingly insignificant event of naming Professor Sunstein to be Nudger in Chief is enough to make any free man or woman apprehensive and afraid.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Mister Cellophane
Mister Cellophane
I finally got rid of my 17year old stereo Receiver/Amp and installed a new 7.1 Super Duper Audio/Video Receive/Amp in its place. This new thing is capable of pumping out 735 watts of window busting, pulsating noise that can rival a fully loaded 747 taking off. A cynical and knowledgeable expert suggested that this new 7.1 hunk of technology has as much computing power that all of NASA had during the 1970s. Oh, by the way, it (the A/V Receiver/Amp) was not developed, designed or manufactured in the USA, but it was promoted, marketed and sold in the USA. But I digress. So after I got everything tested, adjusted and calibrated, we considered what would be an appropriate way to test this new civilian entertainment manifestation of the space age. What we came up with was the gritty and visceral Bob Fosse movie masterpiece, Chicago. The DVD movie was presented in full magnificent widescreen that was never realized on my old 21inch color TV and in spectacular Digital Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround sound that was never realized by my old 17year old stereo amp for that matter. However, with my 7 carefully located and compensated speakers, aided and abetted by 2 massive self-powered subwoofers and a 55inch high definition TV, Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah were brought strutting, singing and dancing right into my living room with such clarity and bigger-than–life sound, I nearly forgot what all of this stuff cost. The home theater experience and sound was so overwhelming the effervescence was knocked right out of my cold brewski before I could even dispose of it (the beer) properly. When the movie progressed to the point where the hapless and sappy husband movie character Amos Hart finally sang his song, Mister Cellophane, I could not help but notice the similarity of the character John C. Reilly was singing about and that of the hard working, “play-by-the-rules”, American Citizen. The similarity was made all the more persuasive by the blatant co-opting of Emmett Kelly’s “Weary Willy” Tramp Clown routine of sweeping the spotlight thing by dressing in the Weary Willy costume, right down to the oversized shoes and all. The very last verse of the Mister Cellophane song goes like this:
Mister Cellophane
‘cause you can look right through me
Walk right by me
And never know I’m there
Never even know I’m there.
During this “Bailout” and “stimulate the economy” frenzy and orgy, if there was ever was a Cellophane Person, it’s surely the tax paying, hard working, play by the rules sap, the American Citizen. Maybe you are more perceptive than me, but it seems to me that those who are formulating this bailout/save-the-economy policy doesn't know that the American Citizen is even standing there, i.e., they look right through him and only see the fat cats that caused the problem in the first place. You know the more this goes on the more angry we all should become because they keep on punishing people who had nothing to do the current mess and keep on rewarding those who did. How much longer can this country endure when they keep on punishing citizens that do the right thing while rewarding those who contribute little and are irresponsible to say the least? Mister Cellophane? Yeah, that’s about right.
I finally got rid of my 17year old stereo Receiver/Amp and installed a new 7.1 Super Duper Audio/Video Receive/Amp in its place. This new thing is capable of pumping out 735 watts of window busting, pulsating noise that can rival a fully loaded 747 taking off. A cynical and knowledgeable expert suggested that this new 7.1 hunk of technology has as much computing power that all of NASA had during the 1970s. Oh, by the way, it (the A/V Receiver/Amp) was not developed, designed or manufactured in the USA, but it was promoted, marketed and sold in the USA. But I digress. So after I got everything tested, adjusted and calibrated, we considered what would be an appropriate way to test this new civilian entertainment manifestation of the space age. What we came up with was the gritty and visceral Bob Fosse movie masterpiece, Chicago. The DVD movie was presented in full magnificent widescreen that was never realized on my old 21inch color TV and in spectacular Digital Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround sound that was never realized by my old 17year old stereo amp for that matter. However, with my 7 carefully located and compensated speakers, aided and abetted by 2 massive self-powered subwoofers and a 55inch high definition TV, Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah were brought strutting, singing and dancing right into my living room with such clarity and bigger-than–life sound, I nearly forgot what all of this stuff cost. The home theater experience and sound was so overwhelming the effervescence was knocked right out of my cold brewski before I could even dispose of it (the beer) properly. When the movie progressed to the point where the hapless and sappy husband movie character Amos Hart finally sang his song, Mister Cellophane, I could not help but notice the similarity of the character John C. Reilly was singing about and that of the hard working, “play-by-the-rules”, American Citizen. The similarity was made all the more persuasive by the blatant co-opting of Emmett Kelly’s “Weary Willy” Tramp Clown routine of sweeping the spotlight thing by dressing in the Weary Willy costume, right down to the oversized shoes and all. The very last verse of the Mister Cellophane song goes like this:
Mister Cellophane
‘cause you can look right through me
Walk right by me
And never know I’m there
Never even know I’m there.
During this “Bailout” and “stimulate the economy” frenzy and orgy, if there was ever was a Cellophane Person, it’s surely the tax paying, hard working, play by the rules sap, the American Citizen. Maybe you are more perceptive than me, but it seems to me that those who are formulating this bailout/save-the-economy policy doesn't know that the American Citizen is even standing there, i.e., they look right through him and only see the fat cats that caused the problem in the first place. You know the more this goes on the more angry we all should become because they keep on punishing people who had nothing to do the current mess and keep on rewarding those who did. How much longer can this country endure when they keep on punishing citizens that do the right thing while rewarding those who contribute little and are irresponsible to say the least? Mister Cellophane? Yeah, that’s about right.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Flim Flam Enablers
The Flim Flam Enablers
Psst, Psst. Hey, you there. Yes, you. You are the one, aren’t you? One the many anonymously hiding right there behind all of your righteous indignation about Government running amuck, CEOs lavishly rewarding themselves with millions and millions, society with no morals and no sense of right and wrong, everything going to hell in a hand basket, your IRA, savings and retirement stash fading to chump change. Yes, I thought it was you. Well to be honest, it’s also me too. We are all part of the vast American majority that stands shoulder to shoulder in our infamy; we are the Great American Flim Flam Enablers. The good ole Politicians, Grift’ers, Money Managers, Corporation Moguls, Stock Brokers, you know, the Flim Flammers who rely on us enablers to keep the Flim Flamming vocation alive and functioning well. Come on now, be honest, you know what I’m talking about here, don’t you? I mean you’re not really averse to getting something for nothing, are you? You know, supporting taxing the hell out the “rich” so that you can get a break on your health care and stuff like that. Oh, by the way, now that I broached the subject of taxes, let’s talk about how taxes really work, OK? Now don’t forget, Taxes are power, i.e., more taxes equals more power and less taxes equals less power. So, if you want more power, how do you do it? Well let’s look at how they did it in Indiana. They latched on to the idea of imposing a “sin tax” on cigarettes as a win-win situation because increasing taxes on cigarettes would reduce consumption and improve the general health and the increased revenue from the “sin tax” would be used to establish a program to provide health care for underprivileged children. Now who could be against something like that? Bear in mind now, the Flim Flammers don’t do bad things by advocating bad things, like taxing cigarettes to get more money to increase their power, oh no, they always wrap their Flim Flamming around something glorious, like providing health care for needy children. So, let’s think this through to the logical end. A big tax increase is imposed on cigarettes and the result is indeed a reduction of cigarette consumption. Let’s say they impose a really large tax (like the American tea tax that shifted tea consumption to coffee consumption during the revolution) and cigarette consumption went to effective zero. What happens to the underprivileged child health care program? Do you really think the program will be stopped because of the loss of cigarette tax revenue? Not hardly. You will be taxed to continue the program because who could be for stopping the health care program for underprivileged children. Brothers and Sisters, we have been Flim Flammed into a situation where there is no good solution and we did it to ourselves because we voted for a new tax that increased the power over us and we did it willingly because we thought we could get something for nothing by taxing the despicable cigarettes and their addicted multitudes to pay for child health care that we really didn’t want to pay for ourselves. In short, we enabled the Flim Flammers. But I digress. A word about Flim Flammers might be in order about now. Most people think Flim Flammers use deception and trickery (see above cigarette tax discussion) to affect a dishonest gain from unsuspecting and sometimes cognitive challenged people. The truth is, Flim Flammer use their deception and trickery to target dishonest people (that would be us All-American electorate) because dishonest people are amenable to the suggestion that cheating other people for gain is acceptable (we cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you). This dishonest attribute makes us easy prey, because it’s not too difficult for a cleaver person (Politician) to orchestrate situations that will appear to the dishonest that they are getting something for nothing. When we listen to, believe and vote for Politicians who tell everyone that they are going to reduce taxes and increase benefits for all, well now, we are enabling the power hungry Flim Flammers because we actually believe their tripe that we are going to get something for nothing. How can we continuously be so stupid? It one thing for the Slugs of society to work the system to get all they can get from the productive citizens because they are simple thieves, but it is quite another thing when good, basically honest and hard working people succumb to the notion that it is alright to get something for nothing. Somehow greed has been turned into a virtue by the Flim Flammers because why else would we think that getting 20 and 30% interest on our money while everyone else is getting 1.2% is because we are so cleaver and not because we are stupid enough to actually buy into a Ponzi scheme with our hard earned money. When the current economic situation cascades into an awful depression as I have predicted, don’t go blaming the Flim Flammers because, Brothers and Sisters, we are the very ones that enabled the Flim Flammers to bring ruin upon our heads, not anyone else.
Psst, Psst. Hey, you there. Yes, you. You are the one, aren’t you? One the many anonymously hiding right there behind all of your righteous indignation about Government running amuck, CEOs lavishly rewarding themselves with millions and millions, society with no morals and no sense of right and wrong, everything going to hell in a hand basket, your IRA, savings and retirement stash fading to chump change. Yes, I thought it was you. Well to be honest, it’s also me too. We are all part of the vast American majority that stands shoulder to shoulder in our infamy; we are the Great American Flim Flam Enablers. The good ole Politicians, Grift’ers, Money Managers, Corporation Moguls, Stock Brokers, you know, the Flim Flammers who rely on us enablers to keep the Flim Flamming vocation alive and functioning well. Come on now, be honest, you know what I’m talking about here, don’t you? I mean you’re not really averse to getting something for nothing, are you? You know, supporting taxing the hell out the “rich” so that you can get a break on your health care and stuff like that. Oh, by the way, now that I broached the subject of taxes, let’s talk about how taxes really work, OK? Now don’t forget, Taxes are power, i.e., more taxes equals more power and less taxes equals less power. So, if you want more power, how do you do it? Well let’s look at how they did it in Indiana. They latched on to the idea of imposing a “sin tax” on cigarettes as a win-win situation because increasing taxes on cigarettes would reduce consumption and improve the general health and the increased revenue from the “sin tax” would be used to establish a program to provide health care for underprivileged children. Now who could be against something like that? Bear in mind now, the Flim Flammers don’t do bad things by advocating bad things, like taxing cigarettes to get more money to increase their power, oh no, they always wrap their Flim Flamming around something glorious, like providing health care for needy children. So, let’s think this through to the logical end. A big tax increase is imposed on cigarettes and the result is indeed a reduction of cigarette consumption. Let’s say they impose a really large tax (like the American tea tax that shifted tea consumption to coffee consumption during the revolution) and cigarette consumption went to effective zero. What happens to the underprivileged child health care program? Do you really think the program will be stopped because of the loss of cigarette tax revenue? Not hardly. You will be taxed to continue the program because who could be for stopping the health care program for underprivileged children. Brothers and Sisters, we have been Flim Flammed into a situation where there is no good solution and we did it to ourselves because we voted for a new tax that increased the power over us and we did it willingly because we thought we could get something for nothing by taxing the despicable cigarettes and their addicted multitudes to pay for child health care that we really didn’t want to pay for ourselves. In short, we enabled the Flim Flammers. But I digress. A word about Flim Flammers might be in order about now. Most people think Flim Flammers use deception and trickery (see above cigarette tax discussion) to affect a dishonest gain from unsuspecting and sometimes cognitive challenged people. The truth is, Flim Flammer use their deception and trickery to target dishonest people (that would be us All-American electorate) because dishonest people are amenable to the suggestion that cheating other people for gain is acceptable (we cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you). This dishonest attribute makes us easy prey, because it’s not too difficult for a cleaver person (Politician) to orchestrate situations that will appear to the dishonest that they are getting something for nothing. When we listen to, believe and vote for Politicians who tell everyone that they are going to reduce taxes and increase benefits for all, well now, we are enabling the power hungry Flim Flammers because we actually believe their tripe that we are going to get something for nothing. How can we continuously be so stupid? It one thing for the Slugs of society to work the system to get all they can get from the productive citizens because they are simple thieves, but it is quite another thing when good, basically honest and hard working people succumb to the notion that it is alright to get something for nothing. Somehow greed has been turned into a virtue by the Flim Flammers because why else would we think that getting 20 and 30% interest on our money while everyone else is getting 1.2% is because we are so cleaver and not because we are stupid enough to actually buy into a Ponzi scheme with our hard earned money. When the current economic situation cascades into an awful depression as I have predicted, don’t go blaming the Flim Flammers because, Brothers and Sisters, we are the very ones that enabled the Flim Flammers to bring ruin upon our heads, not anyone else.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Getting Riled Up While Parked In a Lazyboy
Getting Riled Up While Parked In a Lazyboy
Getting older is such a drag, and I really do mean drag, i.e., So many reasons not to do something; Looking longingly at a Playboy pin-up; Wondering if there will be enough money to bury your wrinkled old ass; The humiliation of young people shooting you the bird during your driving experience. I could fill a few pages with this kind of draggy stuff, but you get the picture. I am also apprehensive about writing this piece in the first place because when and if a young person ever reads this, they might become frightened that this is how they will end up one day (if they are lucky, that is). After reading this piece, they (young people) might even be inclined to uphold the Bob Dylan advisement to “never trust anyone over 30”. Oh, by the way, Robert Allen Zimmerman, Bob Dylan, will be 68 on 24 May, and it’s hard to believe old “All of the Tired Horses” Bob would ever say; Never trust anyone over 70. No, he wouldn’t say that, would he? However, I would hazard a guess that even good old “Blowing in the Wind” Bob has come to realize that old age is a moving target, i.e., as you get older the notion of old is an age more advanced than yours, and getting a young person to trust you is not part of the aging agenda anyway. The agenda of old age is to remain upright and on the sunny side of the grass for as long as possible and staying the hell out of the way while doing it. But I digress. I was just thinking, while staying the hell out of the way, how it seems to me that nowadays people seemed inclined to be angry a lot. They seem to be angry at every thing. Things big and small, important and trivial, personal and impersonal, etc., you name it and chances are there is an angry person out there ready to cause a ruckus about it. I’ll swear that a lot of people examine every word spoken to them to see if there is some reason they should be insulted, disrespected, or just plain ticked-off and they are always eager to be angry and confrontational about it. Because I am getting older, I tried to think back to earlier times in order to determine if people were as angry then as they seem to be now. I can’t really recall people ever being as angry as now even if my “Tired old Horses” brain can’t recall reality as good as it used to. God only knows that people in days gone by certainly had much more cause to be angry than people nowadays because life was rather rough then and not nearly as good and convenient as modern living is now. Perhaps I should clarify that last remark. When I say things are much better in the modern world, I meant from a physical perspective of just staying alive and getting enough to eat while hoping you didn’t wear out your body with physical labor, you know, stuff like that. I guess a case could be made that living is more stressful now than in the older and simpler times because we have nuclear war hanging over our heads, terrorism, investments and IRAs, endless gadgets to get and maintain, cars to constantly feed, HD Television and on and on. Living during modern stressful times could certainly make a case for being angry in general because things that cause stress in today’s world seem to be beyond anyone’s personal control. Older things, like staying alive, getting enough to eat and the like, were more physical things and were mainly in one’s personal control. Perhaps it’s the not being in control of our own lives that is causing people to be angry all of the time. That very well could be true, but I think there is something else just as fundamental that is causing all of the anger. Believe it or not, I think we are too connected nowadays. E-mail, texting, 24-hour news, cell phones in our pockets, political correctness, credit cards, goggle and on and on. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing all of the time. For example, do I really need to know that the Tutsi are hacking to death every Hutu they can find in Africa, or is it Hutus killing Tutsi? I remember when I lived in on the north shore of Hawaii many years ago we had no TV, one FM radio station and did not receive a newspaper. We walked on the beach, read books and were not angry with anyone mainly because we didn’t know what other people were doing most of the time. Here is something else to think about. Remember when we used to write letters to communicate with people? It took a lot of time to compose a thoughtful letter. Enough time in fact that when one reread the letter before posting, one would have time to remove any unintended offensive rhetoric before it could do harm and cause a person to be angry. Now we can bang away with “quick fingers” on e-mail or a text message and the communication can be in the recipient’s domain before regret can have its say and save the day. I try not to be angry today but Lawyers, Flim Flam politicians, Hedge funds, Bailouts, religious fanatics of every stripe would make any thoughtful person angry and knowing every possible detail about these and endless other crappy things causes me to be as angry as everyone else. Being old also causes me to notice things like this “everybody is always angry” thing and small wonder young folks like to steer a course around old fuddy-duddies mouthing off about such esoteric things. Well excuse me as I recline back in my Lazyboy, get my “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” brain back into gear, and receive my nightly anger fix by clicking onto Lou Dobbs Tonight.
Getting older is such a drag, and I really do mean drag, i.e., So many reasons not to do something; Looking longingly at a Playboy pin-up; Wondering if there will be enough money to bury your wrinkled old ass; The humiliation of young people shooting you the bird during your driving experience. I could fill a few pages with this kind of draggy stuff, but you get the picture. I am also apprehensive about writing this piece in the first place because when and if a young person ever reads this, they might become frightened that this is how they will end up one day (if they are lucky, that is). After reading this piece, they (young people) might even be inclined to uphold the Bob Dylan advisement to “never trust anyone over 30”. Oh, by the way, Robert Allen Zimmerman, Bob Dylan, will be 68 on 24 May, and it’s hard to believe old “All of the Tired Horses” Bob would ever say; Never trust anyone over 70. No, he wouldn’t say that, would he? However, I would hazard a guess that even good old “Blowing in the Wind” Bob has come to realize that old age is a moving target, i.e., as you get older the notion of old is an age more advanced than yours, and getting a young person to trust you is not part of the aging agenda anyway. The agenda of old age is to remain upright and on the sunny side of the grass for as long as possible and staying the hell out of the way while doing it. But I digress. I was just thinking, while staying the hell out of the way, how it seems to me that nowadays people seemed inclined to be angry a lot. They seem to be angry at every thing. Things big and small, important and trivial, personal and impersonal, etc., you name it and chances are there is an angry person out there ready to cause a ruckus about it. I’ll swear that a lot of people examine every word spoken to them to see if there is some reason they should be insulted, disrespected, or just plain ticked-off and they are always eager to be angry and confrontational about it. Because I am getting older, I tried to think back to earlier times in order to determine if people were as angry then as they seem to be now. I can’t really recall people ever being as angry as now even if my “Tired old Horses” brain can’t recall reality as good as it used to. God only knows that people in days gone by certainly had much more cause to be angry than people nowadays because life was rather rough then and not nearly as good and convenient as modern living is now. Perhaps I should clarify that last remark. When I say things are much better in the modern world, I meant from a physical perspective of just staying alive and getting enough to eat while hoping you didn’t wear out your body with physical labor, you know, stuff like that. I guess a case could be made that living is more stressful now than in the older and simpler times because we have nuclear war hanging over our heads, terrorism, investments and IRAs, endless gadgets to get and maintain, cars to constantly feed, HD Television and on and on. Living during modern stressful times could certainly make a case for being angry in general because things that cause stress in today’s world seem to be beyond anyone’s personal control. Older things, like staying alive, getting enough to eat and the like, were more physical things and were mainly in one’s personal control. Perhaps it’s the not being in control of our own lives that is causing people to be angry all of the time. That very well could be true, but I think there is something else just as fundamental that is causing all of the anger. Believe it or not, I think we are too connected nowadays. E-mail, texting, 24-hour news, cell phones in our pockets, political correctness, credit cards, goggle and on and on. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing all of the time. For example, do I really need to know that the Tutsi are hacking to death every Hutu they can find in Africa, or is it Hutus killing Tutsi? I remember when I lived in on the north shore of Hawaii many years ago we had no TV, one FM radio station and did not receive a newspaper. We walked on the beach, read books and were not angry with anyone mainly because we didn’t know what other people were doing most of the time. Here is something else to think about. Remember when we used to write letters to communicate with people? It took a lot of time to compose a thoughtful letter. Enough time in fact that when one reread the letter before posting, one would have time to remove any unintended offensive rhetoric before it could do harm and cause a person to be angry. Now we can bang away with “quick fingers” on e-mail or a text message and the communication can be in the recipient’s domain before regret can have its say and save the day. I try not to be angry today but Lawyers, Flim Flam politicians, Hedge funds, Bailouts, religious fanatics of every stripe would make any thoughtful person angry and knowing every possible detail about these and endless other crappy things causes me to be as angry as everyone else. Being old also causes me to notice things like this “everybody is always angry” thing and small wonder young folks like to steer a course around old fuddy-duddies mouthing off about such esoteric things. Well excuse me as I recline back in my Lazyboy, get my “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” brain back into gear, and receive my nightly anger fix by clicking onto Lou Dobbs Tonight.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
President Barack Hussein Obama
(BHO)
PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
Without any reservations at all, I am hopeful that Pres BHO will be successful as President and lead our country with a consensus of the all of the people. I also hope that now that the Dems, lefties and ideologues in the mainstream media have had their satisfying orgy of demonizing Pres Bush, the personal destruction of our leaders will become a thing of the past. I also have hope that I will win the lottery any day now, but what the hell; we shouldn’t lose hope just because the odds for success are so formidable. But wait, you know what, I think that Pres BHO will probably be a success because I believe the man has shown definite signs of being a gamer and a winner and not just another political ideologue. If you are one of those who have read my book, “Flim Flam”, I am hopeful that you became aware that the inspiration for the book was Pres Bill Clinton and the basic point of the book was that Pres Bill Clinton was also a Gamer, and not just another political ideologue. And if Clinton or any other big time Gamer decides to play in a game, they are winners, because Gamers won’t play in a game they can’t win. That’s what I mean by being a winner. You will recall that Pres Clinton had his Triangulation method of co-opting all of the positions of an issue into his position thereby making his triangulated position the one that would achieve the most support from the greatest number of people. This is how a winner does it because he is not so much interested in or married to any particular position on an issue (a strategy for losing), he is only interested in using the issue to demonstrate that he alone always has the solution to an issue that most people agree with, i.e., this is how you play so you cannot lose. You will also note that Clinton augmented his Triangulation method of consensus building with continuous polling of carefully selected people to ensure his triangulated position being taken was being met with approval from a cross-section of the political spectrum. Again, this is how a (political) winner does it. Now if you carefully consider the political career of BHO to date, you will note many similarities in the successful Modus Operandi of Bill Clinton and MR. BHO. For example, during BHO’s time in the Illinois Legislature, there were an extraordinary number of contentious issues that BHO abstained from voting on. A lack of backbone you say? Not hardly. Mr. BHO was not yet into a position where he could triangulate a position and take credit for it, so he did the next best thing. He abstained from voting and therefore he never had to be on the losing side of a contentious issue or create a possible harmful legacy, this is how a winner operates. Also there are those who say that BHO is in reality a Socialist at heart because so many of the causes and programs he has supported during his political formative years seem to support a socialist agenda notwithstanding how comfortable he appears to be with socialist rhetoric. Lets think about this. If one considers the political arena that HBO grew up in, south side of Chicago, this is what a political person would do and sound like if they were expecting to be popular and enjoy success with the local electorate and political hierarchy. In other words, BHO did what he had to do, and took the necessary positions to be successful in his inaugural career and it is not at all likely that these sophomore positions represent an ideological framework that will support his Presidency. It instead, looks more like a potential winner doing “on the job training” to me. As proof of what I just said, consider that there are a growing number of positions that had to taken during the primary and general elections that are now being triangulated and morphed into a more popular (winning) position for the general electorate. Winners do this, political ideologues don’t. Also, think back during the primary and general elections and you will recall that a number of people were dismayed by the soaring rhetoric and generalizations that substituted for positions and presented nothing of any substance for opponents to grab hold of. Winners know you only take potential positions under duress, and charm and grace created an adoring public that shielded Mr. BHO against potential duress. And the winner soldiers on. One other thing you might want to consider. There were a number of people who were saying that Mr. BHO was following the philosophy of Vito Corleone that holds that you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well that might be how old Vito did it but that not how political winners do it. Think about it. Mr. BHO gathered up the students and practitioners of the Clinton triangulation formula for political success and these people require no OJT, “On the Job Training”, they already know what the game is and they are comfortable with it. Well Brothers and Sisters, I think we have a winner here and you know what, that may not be a bad thing at all. What I mean here is that thinking back to the Clinton Presidency, notwithstanding the blue dress thing and other peccadilloes, most objective people will agree that it was a very successful presidency. And you know why? A gamer and winner may as close as one can get as an ideal leader who will do the will of the people because he wants to be a winner and not force a potential losing agenda upon the people. Sounds like practical Democracy to me.
PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
Without any reservations at all, I am hopeful that Pres BHO will be successful as President and lead our country with a consensus of the all of the people. I also hope that now that the Dems, lefties and ideologues in the mainstream media have had their satisfying orgy of demonizing Pres Bush, the personal destruction of our leaders will become a thing of the past. I also have hope that I will win the lottery any day now, but what the hell; we shouldn’t lose hope just because the odds for success are so formidable. But wait, you know what, I think that Pres BHO will probably be a success because I believe the man has shown definite signs of being a gamer and a winner and not just another political ideologue. If you are one of those who have read my book, “Flim Flam”, I am hopeful that you became aware that the inspiration for the book was Pres Bill Clinton and the basic point of the book was that Pres Bill Clinton was also a Gamer, and not just another political ideologue. And if Clinton or any other big time Gamer decides to play in a game, they are winners, because Gamers won’t play in a game they can’t win. That’s what I mean by being a winner. You will recall that Pres Clinton had his Triangulation method of co-opting all of the positions of an issue into his position thereby making his triangulated position the one that would achieve the most support from the greatest number of people. This is how a winner does it because he is not so much interested in or married to any particular position on an issue (a strategy for losing), he is only interested in using the issue to demonstrate that he alone always has the solution to an issue that most people agree with, i.e., this is how you play so you cannot lose. You will also note that Clinton augmented his Triangulation method of consensus building with continuous polling of carefully selected people to ensure his triangulated position being taken was being met with approval from a cross-section of the political spectrum. Again, this is how a (political) winner does it. Now if you carefully consider the political career of BHO to date, you will note many similarities in the successful Modus Operandi of Bill Clinton and MR. BHO. For example, during BHO’s time in the Illinois Legislature, there were an extraordinary number of contentious issues that BHO abstained from voting on. A lack of backbone you say? Not hardly. Mr. BHO was not yet into a position where he could triangulate a position and take credit for it, so he did the next best thing. He abstained from voting and therefore he never had to be on the losing side of a contentious issue or create a possible harmful legacy, this is how a winner operates. Also there are those who say that BHO is in reality a Socialist at heart because so many of the causes and programs he has supported during his political formative years seem to support a socialist agenda notwithstanding how comfortable he appears to be with socialist rhetoric. Lets think about this. If one considers the political arena that HBO grew up in, south side of Chicago, this is what a political person would do and sound like if they were expecting to be popular and enjoy success with the local electorate and political hierarchy. In other words, BHO did what he had to do, and took the necessary positions to be successful in his inaugural career and it is not at all likely that these sophomore positions represent an ideological framework that will support his Presidency. It instead, looks more like a potential winner doing “on the job training” to me. As proof of what I just said, consider that there are a growing number of positions that had to taken during the primary and general elections that are now being triangulated and morphed into a more popular (winning) position for the general electorate. Winners do this, political ideologues don’t. Also, think back during the primary and general elections and you will recall that a number of people were dismayed by the soaring rhetoric and generalizations that substituted for positions and presented nothing of any substance for opponents to grab hold of. Winners know you only take potential positions under duress, and charm and grace created an adoring public that shielded Mr. BHO against potential duress. And the winner soldiers on. One other thing you might want to consider. There were a number of people who were saying that Mr. BHO was following the philosophy of Vito Corleone that holds that you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well that might be how old Vito did it but that not how political winners do it. Think about it. Mr. BHO gathered up the students and practitioners of the Clinton triangulation formula for political success and these people require no OJT, “On the Job Training”, they already know what the game is and they are comfortable with it. Well Brothers and Sisters, I think we have a winner here and you know what, that may not be a bad thing at all. What I mean here is that thinking back to the Clinton Presidency, notwithstanding the blue dress thing and other peccadilloes, most objective people will agree that it was a very successful presidency. And you know why? A gamer and winner may as close as one can get as an ideal leader who will do the will of the people because he wants to be a winner and not force a potential losing agenda upon the people. Sounds like practical Democracy to me.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Peace
PEACE
Peace, She is a shadow,
A Phantom cast from every Man’s longing.
Deliciously dancing just beyond reach,
A dichotomy that cannot soothe the weary soul.
As you can see from the above verse, I believe that Peace is unobtainable, i.e., if indeed Peace is a shadow of every man’s longing, then if one were to obtain Peace, there would be no more longing for Peace that produces the shadow that is peace. Therefore, the longing for Peace and obtaining Peace are mutually exclusive making it (Peace) a dichotomy. I hope I didn’t lose you in explaining the verse, but hopefully a further explanation of why I believe that Peace is indeed a shadow will be helpful and then perhaps the verse can be accepted as the truth in the matter. First, most all agree that Peace is in reality, the absence of strife. The absence of strife, best described as being a human condition where mindless bliss would prevail, is a situation where only mindless life could enjoy. Because mankind has been blessed with a cognitive mind that is always on the job, bliss is more of a fanciful notion rather than human reality. Therefore, I believe that strife is as much a part of human life and living as eating, drinking, thinking and breathing, so living without strife, is another mutually exclusive situation. The reason that I believe strife is a part of life is due to the nature that life has been designed, or has developed, if you prefer. Most agree that we all have a survival instinct hard wired into our life’s architecture and that instinct drives us to compete with other life for the planet’s resources to ensure survival of ourselves as well as our families. That competition for the planets resources, in its most basic form, is that if life is to endure on this planet, life must feed upon life to do so. You may think that this is an unpleasant situation, but it does not change the fact, and the reality is, humans sit atop the food chain. If any of the readers of this piece has been brave enough to read my book, The Grace of Being, you will know that I went into a very long and boring logical explanation why life is required to feed upon life. Nevertheless, regardless if you believe it or not, or understand the reason for it, life must feed upon life in order to survive and endure. I always marvel at the naiveté that vegetarians display when they explain they are vegetarians because they are abhorred at the thought of feeding upon once living flesh while they instead feed upon plant life and the embryos of plant life (seeds like wheat, oats, etc.) that is endowed with the exact same life giving DNA as animal life. Make no mistake about it, DNA is that which defines all life on this beautiful blue planet, and plant DNA is as much alive as animal life (which includes humans). But I digress. Competing for resources is a very stressful and the resulting competition promotes strife in all of its forms and this situation makes peace a dichotomy. I further believe that in addition to the survival instinct there is also a dominance instinct that drives us to be competitive amongst those of our own kind (humans) in order to satisfy the “survival of the fittest” demands of evolution. The continuous competition that our instincts demand will ensure that strife will be our companion as long as we enjoy the gift of life and there can be no such thing as peace, indeed, only death (the absence of life) brings peace. This should be a very sobering realization that we all personally and collectively keep striving for something that is unobtainable. However, this situation, if true, should not be cause for despair. The human race has developed into a social society that has made use of our cognitive abilities to institute rules, laws and behavior conventions to manage strife by fostering benevolent civil competition as a substitute for unbridled competition that our instincts demands. History has proved that a law-based society that requires benevolent civil competition as a nondestructive means to advance and endure, is a workable situation that is as close to peace as can be managed even though it still creates manageable strife. Surely you can immediately see that when our laws, social and behavior conventions fail, and our most basic instincts are allowed to gain control, unbridled competition will foster the greatest competition of all. War. And if our advanced technology is use to gain advantage in a great war, then the destruction of us all will be our reward, and at long last, Peace.
Peace, She is a shadow,
A Phantom cast from every Man’s longing.
Deliciously dancing just beyond reach,
A dichotomy that cannot soothe the weary soul.
As you can see from the above verse, I believe that Peace is unobtainable, i.e., if indeed Peace is a shadow of every man’s longing, then if one were to obtain Peace, there would be no more longing for Peace that produces the shadow that is peace. Therefore, the longing for Peace and obtaining Peace are mutually exclusive making it (Peace) a dichotomy. I hope I didn’t lose you in explaining the verse, but hopefully a further explanation of why I believe that Peace is indeed a shadow will be helpful and then perhaps the verse can be accepted as the truth in the matter. First, most all agree that Peace is in reality, the absence of strife. The absence of strife, best described as being a human condition where mindless bliss would prevail, is a situation where only mindless life could enjoy. Because mankind has been blessed with a cognitive mind that is always on the job, bliss is more of a fanciful notion rather than human reality. Therefore, I believe that strife is as much a part of human life and living as eating, drinking, thinking and breathing, so living without strife, is another mutually exclusive situation. The reason that I believe strife is a part of life is due to the nature that life has been designed, or has developed, if you prefer. Most agree that we all have a survival instinct hard wired into our life’s architecture and that instinct drives us to compete with other life for the planet’s resources to ensure survival of ourselves as well as our families. That competition for the planets resources, in its most basic form, is that if life is to endure on this planet, life must feed upon life to do so. You may think that this is an unpleasant situation, but it does not change the fact, and the reality is, humans sit atop the food chain. If any of the readers of this piece has been brave enough to read my book, The Grace of Being, you will know that I went into a very long and boring logical explanation why life is required to feed upon life. Nevertheless, regardless if you believe it or not, or understand the reason for it, life must feed upon life in order to survive and endure. I always marvel at the naiveté that vegetarians display when they explain they are vegetarians because they are abhorred at the thought of feeding upon once living flesh while they instead feed upon plant life and the embryos of plant life (seeds like wheat, oats, etc.) that is endowed with the exact same life giving DNA as animal life. Make no mistake about it, DNA is that which defines all life on this beautiful blue planet, and plant DNA is as much alive as animal life (which includes humans). But I digress. Competing for resources is a very stressful and the resulting competition promotes strife in all of its forms and this situation makes peace a dichotomy. I further believe that in addition to the survival instinct there is also a dominance instinct that drives us to be competitive amongst those of our own kind (humans) in order to satisfy the “survival of the fittest” demands of evolution. The continuous competition that our instincts demand will ensure that strife will be our companion as long as we enjoy the gift of life and there can be no such thing as peace, indeed, only death (the absence of life) brings peace. This should be a very sobering realization that we all personally and collectively keep striving for something that is unobtainable. However, this situation, if true, should not be cause for despair. The human race has developed into a social society that has made use of our cognitive abilities to institute rules, laws and behavior conventions to manage strife by fostering benevolent civil competition as a substitute for unbridled competition that our instincts demands. History has proved that a law-based society that requires benevolent civil competition as a nondestructive means to advance and endure, is a workable situation that is as close to peace as can be managed even though it still creates manageable strife. Surely you can immediately see that when our laws, social and behavior conventions fail, and our most basic instincts are allowed to gain control, unbridled competition will foster the greatest competition of all. War. And if our advanced technology is use to gain advantage in a great war, then the destruction of us all will be our reward, and at long last, Peace.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
War
WAR
From my book, The Grace of Being.
“First there was the fist and the tooth,
Then there was the stick and the stone,
Then there was the club and the ax,
Then there was the arrow and the sword,
Then there was the bullet and the bomb,
Then there was the chemical agent and the biological agent,
Then there was the mystery and energy of the universe let loose.
All of these things that increasing knowledge has wrought only brings conflict and strife at increasingly greater levels, and portents ruin, not glory.”
You will be hearing a lot about December 21, 2012 in the coming days. That’s the precise day your world will end and is well past the day you got married. December 12th, 2012 is the day the Mayan Calendar ends its Long Count at 13.0.0.0.0 and coincides with the Earth’s winter solstice on that date. Also at that precise date and time, the sun will pass the center and galactic equator of our Milky Way Galaxy and this event is considered by many to signal the: End of Days. The End of Days, if it comes, will be brought about by a great war, cosmic cataclysm, planet earth ruin, or any other infinite number of catastrophes that might happen be it manmade or act of nature. There are many prophesies out there about the End of Days occurring approximately in the same 2012 time period, depending upon interpretation, but for my money, a great war will be the most likely cause of man’s demise and the Mayans never predicted or knew about weapons of mass destruction that can cause a final war (God, what a detached and dreadful phase, “Weapons of Mass Destruction”). For example, look at this remarkable prophecy by the Hopi Indian, White Feather of the Bear Clan:
“The fourth world shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The signs over the many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.
This is the first sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana men who took the land that was not theirs (note: Pahana means “Lost White Brother” and is the Hopi messiah) and men who struck their enemies with thunder.
This is the second sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes---the white man bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.
This is the third sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White feather saw with his eyes—the coming of white men’s cattle.
This is the fourth sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron.
This is the fifth sign: The land will be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web.
This is the sixth sign: The land will be crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun.
This is the seventh sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it.
This is the eight sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom.
This is the ninth and last sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star (note: the Hopi Blue Star of Kachina is the star Sirius). Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.
These are the Signs that a great destruction is coming. The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle against other people in other lands – with those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as White Feather has seen the white man make in the deserts not far from here. Only those which come will cause disease and a great dying.”
I really don’t know if there are such things as prophecies, however, I do believe war will be the likely cause of man’s demise, if that is our fate, because I am agreement with Carl Sagan’s hypothesis that the reason that there is not abundant life being observed throughout the universe is because life always develops to a point where it discovers technology and 99.99% of the time, technology is used to destroy the very life that discovered it due to great struggles and wars. So, at any point in time, there is little alien life to observe because what life had been before has already vanished because they destroyed themselves. This theory does not provide an optimistic outlook for the fate of mankind that already knows war and has the technology to make war ever more destructive. There is little doubt man’s technology has advanced to the point where we are capable of destroying ourselves many times over and man’s history shows a willingness to engage in war to either resolve problems or gain mastery over others. Perhaps war is inevitable because of how life is designed, i.e., for life to survive, it has a dominance and survival instinct that is hard wired into our beings and these instincts makes it impossible to resist our destructive inclinations, even while we destroy that which we all hold dear (life). We all engage in war on a personal level every day due to these driving instincts. We battle each other for a better job, for a better life, for more power, for sex, for money and on and on. So when we engage in bigger and bigger impersonal wars, it’s a road we all have traveled many times on a personal level and provides for a sense of propriety. There are those who have subscribed to the notion that war is glorious and is the engine that drives man’s advancement. Well, that might have been true when sticks, stones, arrows and swords were technology’s offerings, but with today’s and tomorrow’s weapons of mass destructions, no alien life will even be around to stop by and wonder at our ruin and demise (instead of glorious advancement).
From my book, The Grace of Being.
“First there was the fist and the tooth,
Then there was the stick and the stone,
Then there was the club and the ax,
Then there was the arrow and the sword,
Then there was the bullet and the bomb,
Then there was the chemical agent and the biological agent,
Then there was the mystery and energy of the universe let loose.
All of these things that increasing knowledge has wrought only brings conflict and strife at increasingly greater levels, and portents ruin, not glory.”
You will be hearing a lot about December 21, 2012 in the coming days. That’s the precise day your world will end and is well past the day you got married. December 12th, 2012 is the day the Mayan Calendar ends its Long Count at 13.0.0.0.0 and coincides with the Earth’s winter solstice on that date. Also at that precise date and time, the sun will pass the center and galactic equator of our Milky Way Galaxy and this event is considered by many to signal the: End of Days. The End of Days, if it comes, will be brought about by a great war, cosmic cataclysm, planet earth ruin, or any other infinite number of catastrophes that might happen be it manmade or act of nature. There are many prophesies out there about the End of Days occurring approximately in the same 2012 time period, depending upon interpretation, but for my money, a great war will be the most likely cause of man’s demise and the Mayans never predicted or knew about weapons of mass destruction that can cause a final war (God, what a detached and dreadful phase, “Weapons of Mass Destruction”). For example, look at this remarkable prophecy by the Hopi Indian, White Feather of the Bear Clan:
“The fourth world shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The signs over the many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.
This is the first sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana men who took the land that was not theirs (note: Pahana means “Lost White Brother” and is the Hopi messiah) and men who struck their enemies with thunder.
This is the second sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes---the white man bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.
This is the third sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White feather saw with his eyes—the coming of white men’s cattle.
This is the fourth sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron.
This is the fifth sign: The land will be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web.
This is the sixth sign: The land will be crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun.
This is the seventh sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it.
This is the eight sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom.
This is the ninth and last sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star (note: the Hopi Blue Star of Kachina is the star Sirius). Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.
These are the Signs that a great destruction is coming. The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle against other people in other lands – with those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as White Feather has seen the white man make in the deserts not far from here. Only those which come will cause disease and a great dying.”
I really don’t know if there are such things as prophecies, however, I do believe war will be the likely cause of man’s demise, if that is our fate, because I am agreement with Carl Sagan’s hypothesis that the reason that there is not abundant life being observed throughout the universe is because life always develops to a point where it discovers technology and 99.99% of the time, technology is used to destroy the very life that discovered it due to great struggles and wars. So, at any point in time, there is little alien life to observe because what life had been before has already vanished because they destroyed themselves. This theory does not provide an optimistic outlook for the fate of mankind that already knows war and has the technology to make war ever more destructive. There is little doubt man’s technology has advanced to the point where we are capable of destroying ourselves many times over and man’s history shows a willingness to engage in war to either resolve problems or gain mastery over others. Perhaps war is inevitable because of how life is designed, i.e., for life to survive, it has a dominance and survival instinct that is hard wired into our beings and these instincts makes it impossible to resist our destructive inclinations, even while we destroy that which we all hold dear (life). We all engage in war on a personal level every day due to these driving instincts. We battle each other for a better job, for a better life, for more power, for sex, for money and on and on. So when we engage in bigger and bigger impersonal wars, it’s a road we all have traveled many times on a personal level and provides for a sense of propriety. There are those who have subscribed to the notion that war is glorious and is the engine that drives man’s advancement. Well, that might have been true when sticks, stones, arrows and swords were technology’s offerings, but with today’s and tomorrow’s weapons of mass destructions, no alien life will even be around to stop by and wonder at our ruin and demise (instead of glorious advancement).
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