Thursday, November 27, 2008

Left Unmentioned


In All The Foofaraw regarding the Automakers Imminent Demise two factors seem to have gone largely unmentioned:
Unlike the little boy who takes his football with him when he leaves the game; the infrastructure and the technology possessed by the bankrupt (in many ways!) companies will NOT disappear. Not that GMFordChrysler has a lot to offer in those areas, but they do claim that they are on the veritable brink of major breakthroughs in quality, efficiency, and safety. The same brink they've been on for several decades. But then, with their feet cemented firmly in the twentieth century where they were spawned, what else could one expect?
The Fact That Dare Not Speak Its Name; one of the largest economic factors favoring foreign car makers, and greatly disfavoring the domestic folk, is Health Insurance costs. Those sneaky foreigners have (Gasp!) Socialized Medicine! They can make more profit with less labor overhead on every car they can sell.
Billarycare, as it was called, was hugely panned, and quickly discarded as being anti-Capitalist some sixteen years ago. All the major industry groups shunned the idea, in concert with the Health Insurance Industry. I'm guessing that industry in general, the little that remains, and particularly the automakers, would now welcome a plan to divest themselves of the cost of healthcare for both their current workers and also for their insured retirees. One wonders if the incoming President would like to take a swing at this one?

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Consumers...


AKA Debtors are getting yet-another-chance to borrow more money! Cool! For those with maxed-out credit cards, or unable to buy a New SUV, or whose Homeowners-Line-Of-Credit has run out: A Life-Line To Consumers! Now, step right up, the lending window is Open For Business at the bank of your choice. Financed with your tax dollars (of course!).
The redoubtable Hank Paulson, a notorious One-Trick Dog, is focused entirely on the movement of money, his only-stock-in-trade. Mr. Secretary Paulson has dealt another $800,000,000,000.00 to his clients in the Finance Industry; an industry whose total output is 0 (nothing, that is, nil, nothing, zip). Except that these days borrowing from the gov't. seems to be a lot more profitable than actually trying to make/sell something tangible. Tangible product is so 20th century I suppose.
The only drawbacks to Mr. Paulson's plan:
a. When people go into Survival Mode, they stop buying all those wonderful things (like Maxi-SUV's), and budget for necessities only; like food, shelter, and absurdly overpriced toys for the Grandchildren. We'll only have a short time to wait 'til Black Friday tells us how bad (or perhaps not-so-bad) the shopping portion of the economy has become.
b. At some point in time this Supply-Side Capital-Formation Genius-Of-The-Market economic model (the Upstairs/Downstairs Model) founders on the resulting destruction of the middle class. The wage-earners go deeper in debt, lose everything, end up, as Tennesee Ernie Ford said:
CONCLUSION: I wouldn't recommend buying a used car from this man. Or, indeed, from anybody associated with the (blessedly soon-to-be-outgoing) present toxic administration.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Is It Ignorance...


Or is it merely a case of Wishful Thinking? Just when there's Yet-Another-Illustration of massive American civic illiteracy, we have New York Times (and Pulitzer Prize winning to boot!) columnist Thomas Friedman telling us that the United States Congress has the power to amend the Constitution! Go ahead, take a look. The United States Constitution is now officially at the Top of The Frank Maunder Reading List. In this particular case where we're talking about amending the Constitution, I think we should perhaps take a look at

Article. V.
"The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; ..."

You note: Congress Proposes amendments. The states Ratify. How fast does the forward-thinking Mr. Friedman think the states can organize statewide elections, or statewide Conventions?
I think this column is not dissimilar to a Wishful-Thinking Episode of Mr. Friedman mentioned Here, where he talks about a 500 MPG car that mostly runs on some of that Limitless-Inexpensive-Electricity that is also (how fortunately) environmentally cost-free.
Hey, sometimes we all have episodes of I-want-what-I-want-when-I-want-it. I understand. But really, doesn't a writer for a major metropolitan newspaper have an accuracy-in-reporting requirement imposed on his/her umm... Maunderings?

Conclusion: Read Your Constitution (and other governing documents as well, please). Also, it would not come amiss to study up on basic principles of Physics; especially in regard to matters of energy. Look here Energy: Part 1, and also here Energy: Part II if you'd like an easy-to-read Introduction To Basic Principles Of Energy

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Please, Let's Somebody Ask...

GM and Ford and Chrysler execs: "If we give you twenty-five billion dollars - how many more people will buy cars?". OR: "If we don't give you the money - how many people won't be able to buy a car?. Listen carefully to their response. My own guess: Very Damn Few. There are, of course, advocates of a bailout. As we see here: "The Future Is in Sight" says Jeffrey Sachs.
I'm sorry Professor Sachs; The Automakers have been promising "the pathbreaking (fill in the blank) set to arrive in (fill in the blank)" for forty years, and have yet to deliver. It's the same kind of empty "Trust Me" plea made by Big Oil when they promise that there will never be an oil spill - and besides, If There Is One, we promise to clean it up. There are oil spills - lots of 'em - and they're never cleaned up.
Same-wise, there will never be {Major Prediction Here} a powered vehicle that has no detrimental environmental impacts! This in spite of the strange and deluded belief held by so many that Electric Vehicles are non-polluting and cheap to run on that abundant-and-inexpensive electricity one can find in one's garage. Cheap if you plug it into your neighbor's garage, perhaps. Unless he reciprocates, of course. Figure about two terawatts/day of added demand for electricity, and shop around for a source, I says, before you tout the future of the Electric Vehicle

Harassing The Beasties

No Wonder They're Going Extinct! Yes, there does appear to be a strong correlation between the activities of Mankind and the rate at which other species hit the wall (become extinct, that is). Small wonder, when the scientists who search for "New Species" get so excited when they discover such that they Harass Them Mercilessly. Catch as many as you can. Put a collar or a transmitter or a camera on them. How on earth is a beastie supposed to survive with all this hardware hindering its every activity? Seeking food - tough enough without the added ballast. Evading capture - well, that's already been a failure. Reproducing - Hah! What self-respecting animal wants to star in a porn movie? In a stunning appraisal, the writer in this piece speculates that: "The tarsiers, which some scientists believed were extinct, may not have been overly thrilled to be found." Well, who would be?

Certainly not the Great Auk, as this historical tidbit shows:

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

What The Doctor Ordered!

Grow Your Own Organs!

Good news!
I've thought for years that this entire debate over donor organs was eventually to be rendered moot - by using home- (or body-) grown organs. Just kickstart a new baby heart next to the old worn-out ticker. When it's hearty (eh) enough, take out the old, splice in the new.
For myself, I'm hoping for a pair of nice new 20/20 baby blues, though I'll happily accept any other color, if they'll rid me of my glasses!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Adamant!

Yes; it seems pretty clear from yesterday's Congressional Hearings that the financial leaders of the Federal Gov't are pretty firm in their intention not to give any of your Hard-Earned-Tax-Dollars to any corporation that produces anything even remotely resembling a tangible asset. No, the TARP (don't ask)funds are to be given exclusively to financial institutions. Companies, that is, whose business is conducted entirely in the realm of symbolism (read: $$$). Their output is Spreadsheets; many, many, Spreadsheets. Tonnes and tonnes of Spreadsheets. These days mostly printed in Red Ink. Understandable, when you think about it. The financial leaders of the gov't are, after all, former mavens of the financial "Industry". They themselves have never produced anything beyond a Spreadsheet. To them, all business is conducted in the Realm of the Dollar-Denominated-Instrument. All their work is devoted to a symbolic (read: $$$) model of the to-be-avoided-at-any-cost Real World. To the Economist, real flesh-and-blood people get in the way of the nice elegant formulae used to describe the ebb and flow of Wealth Creation. A Payroll is a Spreadsheet showing symbolic (read: $$$) transactions. The idea that a payroll is made up of real people, requiring real food and real clothing seems terribly untidy.
No; I'm afraid we can't afford any money for GM or Ford. If they go broke it doesn't signify, as long as the Wall Street Financial Institutions can keep on producing Spreadsheets.
Makes me reconsider my own position that the Automakers shouldn't be bailed out. After decades of gov't. handouts for R&D, always spent on sufficiently futuristic technolgy as to make the actual Development part of R&D impractical. Creating a self-perpetuating government handout branch of the auto industry. Funging (is that a real word?) corporate profits to the Corporate Officers and the Stockholders. Like J. Wellington Wimpy, forever promising a technological breakthrough on Tuesday for a handout today. Now claiming that if the particular automakers GM, Ford, Chrysler go bankrupt, somehow no other company will make cars. All the factory capacity will sit idle. All the workers will be unemployed. We'll all have to walk!
Summing up: I'm entirely conflicted on this entire thing. Think I'll go take in a movie. Evade Reality. If it's good enough for Hank Paulson - it's good enough for me.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Memorial Day...


It's been ninety years now since the "War to End War" ended. How has that worked out so far? Here's a photo memorial from BBC: BBC News Slideshow Of WWI Images

Sunday, November 09, 2008

"Small Cars..."

"Make Small Profits" (Henry Ford II). "Yes; Small Cars Make Small Profits" (Frank Maunder). What happens, though, when business-as-usual is overtaken by the limits of sustainability? How many cars (small, large, behemoth-size) do you have to sell each year to make a profit? A Million? Ten Million? Perhaps if you price motor vehichles by the ton it would make more sense. Today, with 250,851,833 Registered Motor Vehicles already on the road in the United States (Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 2006) - How Many More Do We Need? Where Do We Put Them All? How can Drill, Baby, Drill supply enough fuel for a fleet this prodigious? How many cars can one person drive simultaneously? How much of your "Hard-Earned-Money" do you (the taxpayer) want to give to the GM-Ford-Chrysler Corporation so that it (they) can try to continue on with business-as-usual? Perhaps, one might think, this is an Unsustainable position. Perhaps, one might ask, what will the Post-Internal-Combustion-Era look like?
At least we know it won't mean a Recession (OH! MY!), because that is always imminent, but never actually arrives. (Thanks be to God and the Econometricists who measure such things).
Comfort for the afflicted.

Friday, November 07, 2008

An Irony

...But I don't know if you could call it a bitter irony: Just when lots of people are starting to at least give lip service to the idea that Humans need to reduce the rampageous overconsumption of resources - along comes a Imminent-Yet-Never-Will-It-Actually-Arrive Recession(OH! MY!), and LO!, people's consumptive habits begin to wane. Which (and here's the irony), causes the Economic Wizards (and maybe a few Econostrologists) to holler that "We have to get the American consumer spending again". Seems the only way to have a "healthy" economy is to have an unhealthy level of consumption. You know, Consumption is what they used to call Tuberculosis. That's because it consumed the body it occupied. Much like todays Gluttonous American Consumer is consuming Planet Earth. It's a deadly road. "Unsustainable", or so they say.
Given the economic/environmental deadly embrace; how can the Capitalist/Consumption society morph into a sustainable walk-lightly-on-the-land society? How can the residents of the society transform themselves into stewards of the land instead of predators of the land? I'm betting it can't be done without a lot of desperation-induced-lifestyle-change.


An aside: This week (well, this Lunar Month) the folk of the Land of Smiles hold a celebration called Loy Krathong. They (we) build little floats (Krathongs), and set them on the water.The rite is intended to apologize to the God of the River for the violence we committed against the river during the year. It's a beautiful ceremony. Sometimes, though, the Krathongs are obscured by all the plastic bags and oil slicks that befoul the rivers. It seems that it's Human Nature to drop whatever isn't useful in the nearest available spot - to get washed down to the river, the ocean, befouling everything. Just ask the volunteers of Operation Cleanup who annually haul megatonnes (well, kilotonnes) of trash off the beaches and the riverbanks of North America.
My claim: Better not to do the misdeed than to apologize for it afterward. And then to repeat the crime, time-without-end!

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Barack Obama and Moby-Dick

I watched Wednesday morning (it's 12 hours ahead of New York here in the Land of Smiles). My pessimistic evaluation of the polls had things pretty up in the air. The Bradley Effect you know. Actually, I believe there is such a thing, but it's only one thread in an entire fabric of reasons/rationales/feelings/beliefs that make up a voter's mind for him(her). Wow, that sentence wasn't very nice was it? Anyway, there I was, and at 11 AM, after it had already become a sure thing, the polls closed on the West Coast, and CNN immediately called Candidate Obama the winner. I was amazed at how powerful my feelings were. Something about the "officialness" of somebody on TeeVee saying it aloud. About two minutes later my strongest emotion was one of annoyance, as legions of talking heads all delivered oracular statements about the "Historic Event" (code for "He's Black"). Some of the announcers actually said "He's Black" (code for "Historic Event).
Now, sure, this election was historic, in that sense. For the first time in the history of the United States a person other than Yet-Another-Old-White-Guy was elected President. About time, some might say, but hey, let's take a lesson from the President-Elect, and be gracious here.
What does Moby-Dick have to do with this? Aha! Thanks for asking!
Here's what The White Whale has in common with the President Elect. In the book, Moby-Dick, the white whale, is being sought by Ahab, the one-legged whaling captain. But Ahab wants to stick a harpoon in Moby-Dick, not because Moby-Dick is white. Ahab wants to hapoon Moby-Dick because Moby-Dick rove off his leg (the right one, if I remember right). The Whiteness Of The Whale has nothing to do with it! In Chapter 41 (or perhaps 42 - there's a lot of chapters in the book), Melville writes, opaquely, in my opinion, about the significance of WHITE. Concluding that it has a powerful emotional effect, but whether of joy or dread or fear or ... Well, read it yourself, for the full gamut.
Likewise, other than symbolically, The Blackness of the President-Elect has nothing to do with Barack Obama and how he will govern. (Equally Significant: Skinny Legs!) To my mind, the historicity of the election is that for the first time in a long long time the voters went with the intelligent candidate. There's been a run of good-ol-ignorant presidents ever since Ronald Reagan. Admittedly, Bill Clinton was intelligent, but he campaigned as Bubba-From-Arkansaw (because he was smart). Who knows? Maybe President Obama will be the first in a line of intelligent knowlegeable thoughtful studious presidents. Maybe its the beginning of a trend!
My money? He's a One-Time Phenom. He'll say and do things that will make too many voters (and Those Who Prey On Them) unhappy. It will be seen that he is not, as they like to say; "Just Like US!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

January 20

Yes! After being closed for some time due to Rot and Neglect; Our beloved Liberty will (we hope) reopen after a short-but-intensive period of restoration. We sincerely apologize for the interregnum, and hope it will not occur again. Everybody is welcome to come and enjoy the Celebration!


Sunday, November 02, 2008

At The End...

It all comes down to a spitting contest. Nothing new to be said, nothing different to be done. Keep chanting the last keynote sound bite. On Tuesday (or before, if you can find a voting machine), the voters will decide! Apparently, the choice is now between a Dangerous-Liberal-Leftist-Socialist or a Four-Year-Long-Bush-Rerun. These are both pretty deadly insults they hurl at each other. At this point however, my money is on the Dangerous-etc. After eight years of Bush-First-Run, there's not a lot of harm that a Socialist (OH! MY!) can still cause. Of course, the same might be said about a Four-Year-etc. as well. After the carpet-bombing of the United States socio-economic structure at the opening of the 21st century, not a lot remains of the infrastructure of society. Not much left to be destroyed. Still, one hopes for a bit of a renaissance with a new President.
Speaking of which: Candidate Obama has shown amazing organizational skills and a sure-handedness in executing a large and complicated campaign. Articulate and knowledgeable too! He's a bit of a blank slate as far as what he will actually attempt to do as president, but one hopes he will be as adept as President Obama as he has been as Candidate Obama.
I still opine that the US is an ungovernable country, no matter who's doing the governing, and it has been so for some time. Approximately since the day when Ronald Wilson Reagan convinced a large portion of the boobocracy that government wasn't Of the People, By the People, For the People but was rather the Enemy Of the People. Somehow, he sold the idea that we (the people) needed a kindly-old-uncle-Ron at the head of the government to emasculate it, and prevent it from harming us (the people). The opposite has, of course, proven to be the case. Now, perhaps, we can hope for an activist president who will get the government up-and-running again.
I Has My Doubts.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Egad!

"At Long Last, Sir (or madam), Have You No Decency?....
While Candidate McCain is marketing fear as his ticket into the White House, it seems Candidate Dole (R.-NC) is attempting to market More-Christian-Than-Thou. Dole attacks with second 'Godless' ad. Reading past the first paragraph, it turns out that its a guilt-by-second-hand-association, at best. Sadly, Candidate Hagan replies that she is, in fact, the More-Christian-etc. candidate.
Now, as I believe I mentioned before, I (perhaps mistakenly) corrected a student of mine, a visitor from Uppsala University, who told me he "knew you had to be a Christian" to run for public office in the USA. I quoted that now quaint old, now largely-ignored document, called the Constitution for the United States of America, Article V, Section 3:
"...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
I guess I was wrong! Not only must one be a Christian; one must proclaim one's piety more loudly than one's opponent.
Fear, Piety, Simple-Man(or Woman)-Of-The-People, Anti-Tax; appeal to the worst rather than the best. That seems to be the trend these days. Make sure to wear a Flag on your lapel Johnny (or Barack). It's what matters most these days, it seems.
In aswer to the Question Above: NO!, it seems there's no decency remaining in the public square. Egad.

A Chill Up The Spine

Yes: The Conviction of "Chuckie" Taylor by a Federal Court in Miami FL must be giving some of the "Extra-Ordinary-Rendition-eers what is known as a moment of clarity. Soon to be stripped of the protection of the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney, what will be the fate of the operatives who engaged in kidnap and torture under the guise of "intelligence gathering"? It's going to be difficult for them to defend their actions, especially in light of the fact that no intelligence was gathered as a result of their exercise in futility. Nor, in fact was any intelligence shown by the participants in this entire exercise in Biblical-Style Vengeance.
It appears that the Miami Court must be a good place to try foreigners and other criminals we don't like. Manuel Noriega, a former CIA operative who apparently stopped taking orders (bad idea!) after becoming Jefe of Panama, was kidnapped during the "Panama Invasion" in 1992, taken to Miami, and convicted of being an all-round baddie.
One has to wonder; if even a Head Of State can be tried/convicted - what about the CIA and DOD guys who umm... are open to charges of violating The UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE?
I think this part of the Convention is pretty clear:
"Part I; Article 1
1. For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
Chief Enabler of the torture program Alberto Gonzalez, and others of the Exceptionalist America persuasion, would probably exempt Americans (or at least their friends and fellow neo-cons) from prosecution for this sort of crime. But I sure wouldn't. Time was when Senator John McCain wouldn't either. We don't know how Candidate McCain stands on this.