Good Idea; Too bad it's wrong

Three Things...

2011-08-05T09:00:00.000Z

I do not understand:
a. Why money bet in the Stock Market, and money bet in Casinos, are taxed at different rates;
b. Why cutting taxes increases revenues, in the United States, but not elsewhere and,
c. Why "deficits don't matter" if the President is a Republican, but they are unsustainable if the President is a Democrat.
No wonder Economics is known as "The Dismal Science".

Oh, Good,

2011-08-01T07:00:00.001Z

... I Thought We Might Be In Trouble ...
This Bipartisan Deal (Hah!) to increase the debt limit is quite illustrative of how politics works these days in the sad, sad capital of the formerly great nation of the United States.
Remember when Ross Perot was running for President?
A century or so ago?
He had this charming notion that legislation should be submitted to the ordinary voter - read out loud on teevee, to be submitted to a popular vote.
Ignoring that for the scheme to work, the bill would have to be:
a. Comprehensible
b. Understanable
c. Reasonable
d. Present a logical choice (e.g.: raise the debt - do not raise the debt)
Legislation in todays Congress (and in state Legislatures generally) fits none of the above criteria/
This bill in particular looks a bit like one of those great football plays. You know: "Tackle-Eligible-Three-Wide-Right-Fumblerooski-Flea-Flicker-Double-Reverse-Fullback-Option-To-The-Quarterback". Amazing!
Usually resulting in a safety.
The obvious thing about this POS is that, no matter if you vote for it or not, by the time the elections come around, your fingerprints will be nowhere to be found on the corpse. It's all about automatic triggers; arbitrary targets; "bipartisan" commissions; slash & burn cuts. The congressional budgetary authority has been turned over to a player-to-be-named-later.
Precisely why our solons can vote for it.

That's Odd;

2010-10-23T18:30:00.000Z

Gone From NPR, Williams Begins Bigger Role On Fox

... I thought Juan Williams was a Muslim.

("When I get on a plane," he said, "I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.") Juan Williams, on Fox News

I mean, look at that complexion. Look at the little moustache. Look at the Arab-Doing-Business-With-The-West suit. Juan looks to me like he'd be a lot more comfortable wearing a Galabeeya.
Or, considering his name (Juan?); maybe he's one of those furriners who's been sneaking across the border to steal jobs from honest hard-working Americans. I wonder: has he ever been carded by an Arizona cop?
OK; I guess that's enough stereotypes from me for today. Sorry - I guess I've been watching too much Faux News.

History Lessons

2010-09-20T05:00:00.000Z

A while back, I took a trip; spent a few days in Georgetown. No, not the one in DC. The Georgetown in Malaysia, at the North end of the Malacca Straits.

It's a pretty ramshackle place - a leftover from the colonial days of the British Empire, set there to protect the shipping in the straits. Named, I presume after The Mad King George. Not much to see, and seems like everybody smokes incessantly, so eating is a bit of a challenge. Probably the most interesting place was Fort Cornwallis (1786). Yes, named after that Cornwallis. Awarded a fort, I guess, for coming in second at the Battle of Yorktown (1781). It occurred to me later that the General would probably never have been so famous if he had won the battle. Enduring fame would have come to a later commander, the one who finally lost the last major battle of the Revolutionary War. In the course of that war the British Army won most of the battles but, as predicted early by Sir Edmumd Burke, they could have won every battle and still lost the war. You cannot win a war if the other side won't stop fighting. Unless, as I've probably mentioned a few times before, you simply exterminate them (Carthagos Est Delenda).
What a terrible shame, isn't it, that Tony (The Poodle) Blair couldn't convince our own Mad King George (The Blunt Instrument) Bush? He was so intent on invading other countries, and putting them to rights, that he couldn't be bothered to check his history books.
So Now, here we are, with two lost wars, trying to find a graceful way to exit, carrying our dead with us as we go.
In Afghanistan, the warlords have never paused except to reload. Our miniscule military force on the ground has been kept rushing from pillar to post trying to find some key leader of an essentially leaderless resistance. Our wonderfully learned West Point Generals seem unable to concieve that they're fighting warriors who never even went to college.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, the various factions, having been well paid, well armed, and well trained by the U.S. military and assorted CIA cohorts, are waiting for us to leave, at which time the Potemkin Government they've put up for show will disappear, and they'll set about deciding whose Man-on-a-White-Horse will become the new Brutal Thug Dictator, replacing Saddam Hussein.
Let me dedicate this to our very own American Mad King George: Masters of War

Of Course, There's Another Way

2010-09-11T11:00:00.002Z

To deal with this: "In quotes: Koran-burning threat". The good pastor Terry Jones (another Reverend Jones; Oh My!), if he would reflect for a moment on the violence, the destruction, and the out and out atrocities committed by those who have professed Christianity over the last millenium or so, might wish to toss a few Holy Bibles on his bonfire, as well.
Though, truthfully (as if that has anything to do with human motivation), every kind of person of every kind of social or religious background, is sometimes given to mindless acts of violence.
Of course, it can be fun to do something that you know will provoke the ersatz outrage of those who make a profession of being outraged. Like the staffers at Fox News, in the case of those who claim to be more-Christian-than-thou. Or, of course, the ADL cadre, who troll through the news seeking any taint of anti-semitism. And then, as here, with this little piss-ant church from Florida, there are those who like to get an expression of outrage from the Muslim guardians of righteousness. As the faux outrage spirals ever higher, so to does the pay scale of the demonstrative savers of their respective societies.
I do like some of the very predictable quotes gathered in the above very modest compendium of BBC News.

Who Authorized This?

2010-09-03T18:00:00.001Z

Or, How did the CIA end up such a power unto itself? How does it get to wage war, complete with war crimes, with no adult supervision? Why does nobody ever ask questions like this? Is J. Edgar Hoover still alive (or something resembling life), and working across the street from the FBI?
Report: Blackwater Created Shell Companies. Lost in the report (well, almost lost): "Last year, Panetta [CIA Director - ed.] canceled a contract with Xe that allowed the company's operatives to load missiles on Predator drones in Pakistan, and shifted the work to government personnel ." My question: Just what the hell is the CIA doing loading missiles on RPVs?. Apparently, having sowed land mines over large swathes of Southeast Asia, pretty much destroying Laos and Cambodia, where people are routinely blown up still today, the ever-vigilant CIA is working hard to create yet another toxic dump in a foreign (read, not-like-us) part of the world. Isn't this sort of activity supposed to be the purview of the military?
Oh, well; I don't suppose the dead really care much whose finger pushed the button.
It's just that I take great offense that such crimes are perpetrated in my name.
It's madness! It's madness!

If I Were Glenn

2010-08-26T10:30:00.001Z

I'd be leery of setting myself up to be compared to Dr. King. The lachrymose, saccharine, Glenn Beck is just not a very dynamic figure, except, of course to the persistently and insistently uninformed sort who "Just Sorta Know" when something's not right. I refer, of course to Sarah Palin, the leader of the Know-Nothing Movement, masquerading as the Tea Party patriots, or some variant thereof. I do confess, in these uncertain times, it can be a great relief to be absolutely certain of your (and your leader's) righteousness. Still, Faux News and its stable of odd comentators seems an unlikely place to find a fair and unbiased evaluation of the day's events. Herewith, Glenn's plan for August 28: Restoring Honor, or "Beckapalooza", according to some naysaying critics.

Absurdities In The News:

2010-08-25T05:00:00.000Z

... John Boehner

"Sees ongoing economic uncertainty" (In a speech to the City Club of Cleveland, Boehner said Obama needs to act immediately on several fronts to break what the Republican describes as "ongoing economic uncertainty." ) AP, August 24.
"...called on President Obama Wednesday to fire his economic team." (House Republican leader John Boehner Tuesday called on President Obama to extend the Bush tax cuts, fire his economic team, and listen to the fears and “entrenched uncertainty” that is stalling job growth on Main Street." ) Christian Science Monitor, August 24.
His reasoning for the latter? Apparently it's because the President's economic team sees an unusual level of uncertainty in the economy. In other words, either they stole Boehner's forecast, or he stole theirs!

ALSO:

PepsiCo, maker of carbonated soft drinks and oily-salty potato and corn chips, is launching a marketing campaign to convince people that they sell healthy food (PepsiCo, largely known for junk-food brands such as Doritos and Pepsi, is setting out to triple its sales of healthier products in the next decade.) AP, August 24.

ALSO:

"Vonage Mobile"is a free app that lets you make "free phone calls": (http://apps.facebook.com/vonage-talkfree/). Apparently, if you opt for this, your Smart Phone, your WiFi, and your 3G services will no longer cost you anything. Its all Free!. (But I wouldn't make book on this last claim).

I leave additional examples (of which there is no lack) as an exercise for the reader.
Enjoy!

There's Too Much

2010-08-10T08:00:00.001Z

Outofdate stuff on this blog. It is, after all, six years old. My thesis, that "I Could Be Wrong" has been well demonstrated. However, I do think that some of my more {ahem} inspired Maunderings have stood the test of a short period of time. Therefore, I've gone back over the rambling discourses; if you can call them that, and reposted a few of them here: The Best Of Frank Maunder .
Take a look, if you've a mind. It's a lot easier than trying to sort through all the odds and ends on your own (unless you'd really rather do that). Enjoy!
F. Maunder, Prop.

The Cynics Among Us

2010-08-08T11:50:00.000Z

..., Including me, might simply say there's really no point in spending time and money gathering current information about the earth's meteorological state, if you have no intention of using it (Dimmer view of Earth). Ultimately, it can only be used by others as ammunition to illustrate how deeply and completely you abandoned your duty to properly care for the welfare of the country. And the planet. Best to just cripple the ability for the EOS (Earth Observing Satellite) system to measure state-of-the-earth data.
Or, a more earthy person might point out that, since politically and culturally there is absolutely no will whatsoever to do anything about the devastation of the planet, You Can't Fatten a Steer By Weighing It. So why waste the effort?

More Proof

2010-08-01T13:00:00.001Z

..., If any were necessary, that Society has evolved much faster than Mankind: A hundred years ago, when people used a wall-mounted phone to make a long distance call, they tended to speak louder, to overcome the dissipating effects of distance. Today, however, everybody has a Mobile Phone (Cell Phone, in the USA). Even with a SmartPbone though, people still shout when they talk at long distance. Wouldn't a truly evolved talker know that his phone was smart enough to make the needed amplification adjustment for the distance involved?
No, even the smartest of smart phones is actually not much more than a shiny can-on-a-string to its proud (but unevolved) owner.

What America Needs

2010-07-25T16:00:00.000Z

Yes! According to the new Mouth of the South, Newt "No Mosque Near Ground Zero Til Churches & Synagogues in Saudi Arabia" Gingrich, what America needs is to be more like Saudi Arabia. Perhaps Mr. Gingrich would prosper in such a toxic society; at least he wouldn't have had to divorce his cancer-stricken wife while she was hospitalized, just to take a new wife. He could have had four wives all at once, instead of serially.
Something America doesn't need: an Amphibian-American President.

Mission Accomplished

2010-07-24T05:00:00.001Z

Now, Years Later... After the immediately previous president, the now notoriously maladroit George W. Bush completed his own personal mission in Iraq; that is, he killed Saddam Hussein, we find a curiously inept semi-non-government in that sad country, apparently unable to accomplish even the simplest of tasks: Top Insurgents Escaped Prison Days After Iraq Took Over. Of course, an actual functioning society was never in the sight of the former president. In fact, I suspect he wouldn't recognize a functioning society if he were to actually live in one. Which he doesn't. However, feeling pestered by his Secretary of State Colin "You Broke It, You Bought It" Powell, the president embarked on a course of Nation Building.
Doesn't seem to have worked.
Turns out, Bush was a wizard at Nation Destroying, but all his horses and all his men never managed to put any of them back together again.
It's left to the new president, Barack H. Obama, to try to put Humpty back together. Thus far, eighteen months into his term, he hasn't managed it with Afghanistan, the United States, or, apparently, with Iraq. I think the current president, a seemingly intelligent man, is devoutly hoping that what we would see in a game of chess as stalemate will look enough like success to satisfy the warlike instincts of the ordinary U.S. citizen, so he can, as president Richard M. Nixon did, simply declare victory and walk away.

Nothing Could Be Easier

2010-06-04T14:30:00.001Z

Than getting the government of Israel to make itself more enemies. Here, Nadav Tamir (a Consul-General for Israel in the USA) Hamas, Israel, and the Gaza flotilla: seven facts you need to know explains how Israel was defending itself from the well-known terrorists in Gaza. Unfortunately, the world at large doesn't see things exactly in the same way.
This is not at all an unusual occurrence. The state of israel seems to be almost wierdly tone deaf when it comes to the view of people who are actually sympathetic to the Palestinians. OF COURSE the "Aid Fleet" was intended to make Israel look bad. Thanks to the actions of Israel, it succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of the instigators. Haaretz, the pretty-much mouthpiece of the Israeli government, op-edded that the United States acted like a turncoat for not unconditionally supporting any- and every- thing Israel does. It's one of the hazards, of course, of being a client state of the US. Eventually, the boss will decide you're interfering in it's agenda, causing too much trouble. And it's not as if Israel wasn't warned. But, in their resolute tone-deafness, they didn't hear the warning.
Conclusion: the Israelis are a bunch of knee-jerk chumps: Pavlov would be pleased.
Conclusion 2: the terms Middle East and Peace should not appear in the same article.
Unless you're telling a joke.

The Dastards!

2010-02-27T14:00:00.000Z

The Democrats in the Senate are plotting: Coburn warns against majority-vote tactic in weekly Republican address
Yes; they're planning to pass legislation with a Majority Vote. Imagine! allowing a measly majority to determine the outcome of a legislative process!
Well, it's true, in these benighted times, that we really don't want our government to function.
Actually, in this case (Health Care Reform), I blame the President.
One of the things being said against him in the campaign was that a "community organizer" was a poor reccomendation for the presidency. I disagreed. It seemed to me then, silly fool that I was, that someone whose expertise was in getting the various stakeholders in a process to meet and negotiate was exactly what a President ought to do.
Well, I am so out of date here. The President's job today is to roll over the opposition and rule autocratically.
Observe, if you will, the relative efficiencies of George W. Bush and Barack H. Obama. It's no contest. By trying to be collegial in the face of absolute opposition, the President has frittered away his mandate. Mandates are nice, but such limited things. Bush started with one, but 6 months into his presidency, he was accorded a failure. Then he "hit the Trifecta". Remember? Pretty much ruled by fiat the rest of his administration. Pretty much dismantled the federal government in the process.
All the king's horses and all the king's men are unlikely to restore it in our lifetime (well, mine. If you're very young you might eventually see a functional government).

Nice Euphemism Tom

2010-02-25T13:00:00.000Z

Yes; When the United States "intervened" in 2003, apparently we didn't attack, or invade, or occupy, or Bomb The Snot Out Of Iraq. It was more like we faced them down and sent them to a 30 day rehab. Like Charlie Sheen. "Ok Iraq, we're taking you off to Betty Ford's for a nice little rest". "U.S. intervention in Iraq" . A few hundred thousand wounded/maimed/dead, and its an Intervention! For the rest, Thomas is, as usual, pretty perceptive regarding the miasma that is Iraq. But still, there are those little-mentioned elements that are so hard to sniff out, one might think there was some denial involved. Why is there such a uniform assumption that everybody loves an Election? In fact, most times most places throughout history, "Free, Democratic Elections" aren't how people select their leaders; or they've been pretty thoroughly corrupted. As for the outcome of such a process being welcomed, I have one example: USA 2000. Ok, another: USA 2008. Lots and lots of people did not consider the eventual selectee for President to be legitimate. The other rarely mentioned factoid about Iraq's elections: the various elective offices are not open to all citizens. There's a Religious Qualification for the office of President, Prime Minister, and, for all I know, Assistant to the Assistant Undersecretary of American Military Cooperation. For some offices, you gotta be Shi'te; for others, Sunni. I think there's a few slots for Kurds, also. Reservations Required.
We distorted our version of elections pretty mightily to get our Puppet Government installed. And looking at the historical record with regard to US Puppets, the next government won't hold up very long.
I personally am trying to decide which government to bet to beat the spread: Iraq or Afghanistan.

So, What's New?

2010-02-20T11:00:00.005Z

I guess there really hasn't been any substantive change through the centuries: "Before he left Rome,Caesar, by proclaiming edicts and bending the will of the Senate, had set in place a program to shore up the faltering Roman economy. The problems were many and daunting. With the commencement of the war, money had grown increasingly scarce, even while prices soared. The treasury of Rome had been emptied to pay for Caesar's military campaigns. No taxes were flowing in...." A MIST OF PROPHECIES Steven Saylor, St. Martins Press, 2002, P. 55). Except, of course, that George W. Bush is certainly no Caesar, no matter how much he thinks he is. War(s) - no change. No taxes - no change. "Bending the will (hah!) of the Senate - No Change! It's all very discouraging isn't it.
Just another instance of Maunder's Corollary; "He who does remember his past is still doomed to repeat it".
Other than that, It's a pretty good mystery set in Rome, slightly-B.C.E.

Because It Works

2010-01-16T09:00:00.002Z

So Well... Skelton opposes repeal of 'Don't ask, don't tell'.
Yes, as the redoubtable Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), from the Show Me State, notes, we are currently fighting not one, but two wars. For some reason, shooting, bombing, missling, killing, dying - these aren't problems. A faggot in the army - that's a problem!
Maybe Rep. Ike (yeah, I know, I'm probably confusing him with the Reverend Ike) thinks it ("Don't Ask, Don't Tell") is a suitable legacy for his tenure in office. I'd consider it an embarassment.
Myself, I wonder why anybody who's told so clearly that he (she) isn't fit to serve his country would still volunteer to do so. I am reminded here of a fellow sailor who served in a nearby office when I was in the Navy. Everybody knew he was Gay (OMiGod!). Nobody cared. He did his job. He bothered nobody. He planned on a career in the service. The Office of Naval Intelligence (aka the Elephant Trackers, on account of they never lost track of an Elephant) found him out! Sent him to the brig. Where a squad of lusty strong (and I'm assuming non-gay) U.S.Marines beat him into a coma. After a few weeks in the hospital, he was court-martialled, found guilty of whatever, and dealt a Dishonorable Discharge. Which, at that time, pretty much meant his life was over. No one would hire him, he got no GI Bill benefits. In essence, he was criminalized. One wonders who benefitted from this Inqisitorial process. The Navy lost a reliable sailor. The sailor lost a bright future. The United States was, however, saved from ... ?.

Unindicted

2010-01-03T06:00:00.001Z

The Justice Department, working under the Bush Rules, did their job: Iraqis furious as Blackwater charges dismissed.
Mission Accomplished guys!
After all, we know the entire focus of the previous administration was twofold:
1. Eviscerate the federal government - render it wholly incompetent.
2. Transfer tax dollars with the greatest possible dispatch to business cronys.
On both counts, there can be little doubt. The administration of G.W.Bush was an unparalleled success!
Meanwhile, it just wouldn't do if the business cronys the attack on Iraq was intended to enrich ended up being prosecuted for their activities. It makes no sense, does it? And it's really very simple to fix any possible legal problems.
First, 'negotiate' a status-of-forces agreement with the puppet government of Iraq that gives American 'civilians' immunity. DONE.
Second, if the business buddies or their employees get caught out, make sure the US Justice Department violates the defalcator's Fifth Amendment rights during the investigation. All the evidence will become inadmissable in court. DONE.
As lower level corrupt government officials might say: "The Fix Was In"

Error Prone

2009-12-26T02:22:00.002Z

Yes; People are prone to make mistakes.
I think it's time we disabuse ourselves of the idea that any system that involves human decision making will be error-free. Check this out:
Tug Grounded on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound
Now, tugboat Pathfinder's exact and only job is to ensure the safety of oil tankers like Exxon Valdez as they transit Prince William Sound and pass by the reef. The tug is designed for the job, the crew is trained for the job, the crew is experienced and has local knowledge of the area. Indeed, since the Exxon Valdez Disaster in 1989, Bligh Reef has become perhaps the most carefully watched hazard to navigation in all of North America. Pathfinder didn't just graze the reef either; it slammed square into it.
What happened?
The Coast Guard is investigating. Well, I should hope so!
One is inclined to suspect Human Error is at the heart of this.
Consider: If a highly skilled experienced crew going about their work can screw up this badly.
How can one reasonably expect that the drones who toil in the 'Security' Lines at airports will unerringly identify the crazies who want to board a plane with a condom full of firestarter? Out of the Billion plus people who pass through the lines each year?
Isn't this just a bit of an Unrealistic Expectation?
Meanwhile, you can follow the track of the Tug Pathfinder here.

Wonderful Things (Part II)

2009-11-29T04:30:00.000Z

Sometimes, ..., I find it's good to step back, and remember that the world is full of wonderful and beautiful things.
At this stressful time of year (hmm - is there any time any more that isn't stressful?), its a good idea to take a break - go check out something fun, like the Joe Louis Puppet Theatre.

Here's a video of a fight scene from the Ramakien; the Thai version of the Ramayana.
Enjoy!

From Your Mouth

2009-11-08T09:00:00.001Z

To God's Ear.

"Allahu Akbar" (God is great) - Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, November 5 2009.
"Ain't God Great" (Isn't God great) - Sen. Joseph Isadore Lieberman, August 2000.
Yes, Crypto-Republican Joseph Lieberman, who shouted "Ain't God Great" when asked by Al Gore to be his VP, is going to investigate the "Domestic Terrorist" who went on a rampage at Ft. Hood, who reportedly shouted "God Is Great", a "terrorist phrase", according to the paranoia-philiac Senator from Connecticut.
Sen. Lieberman is chiefly known for having been the legislative force behind the creation of the Homeland Security Department a dysfunctional coalescence of several already individually dysfunctional federal bureaucracies.

It's All In How You

2009-11-04T18:45:00.000Z

Spin It! Here's an article from the NY Times Health section that appears to say: "...people who exercise don’t necessarily lose weight"
If one actually reads the article, however, things aren't as they appear from the title/first paragraph. What it really says is that people who exercise for three months showed a weight loss of somewhere around 1 to 2 pounds per month!
So, over a two year period, this would amount to a loss af somewhere between 24 and over 50 pounds. A not inconsiderable loss after all!
When one includes the overall improvement in health plus the improevment in self image, one can hardly find any downside whatsoever.
A better headline might perhaps be "A few hours a week of jogging, swimming, raquet sports, or even pumping iron, can result in vast improvements in your life".
Of course, exercise is not nearly as good a means of weight loss as the latest "New Miracle Diet Pill", which can help you shed all those unsightly pounds, and even restore those six-pack abs that you never actually had but wish you did.
Lets be honest here: ultimately, there's really no substitute for the Best Diet Aid Ever - Wishful Thinking.

Celebrations

2009-11-02T05:40:00.006Z

Sometimes, I find myself taking a too-apocalyptic view of the world. When I catch myself at this, I find it's good to step back, and remember that the world is full of wonderful and beautiful things.
Don't mistake me: the Apocalypse is on its way. But just because it's all going to end doesn't mean it's all to no purpose. Tonight, here in the Land of Smiles, there's a marvelous celebration. Unlike in more Christian places, it's a celebration of life, rather than of death. Here we celebrate Loy Krathong, instead of All Souls Day. It's much nicer, really, to float a Krathong on the river than to walk around a graveyard. At least so I think.

Here's a video I made a couple of years back, in Suan Lumpini, the park in the center of Bangkok that hasn't quite been concreted over yet.
Anyway, Enjoy!

I'm Furious Too

2009-10-18T02:15:00.000Z

Once Again, it seems, the US Government has picked the wrong puppet:
"Mr Karzai is furious..."
I can't imagine why it's so difficult for the CIA to find a good-looking well-spoken popular, but also spinelessly compliant, "client" to run the government of one of our overseas possessions. Perhaps we do actually find such people, but forget to vet them for competence. (Sort of like George W. Bush hiring people for his Administration). Could it be, do you suppose, that it's just Not In The Cards for people living in other places to happily embrace the democracy the United States tries to impose on them? With a batting average of Zero, with the notable exception of territories we stole from Mexico, it seems we just don't know how to find the right Quisling to administer our rightful sun-never-sets-on-US foreign lands.

Nonsense! (As Usual)

2009-10-14T06:30:00.001Z

Now About That Nobel Prize the committee just awarded to Barack Obama: There are those, of course, who insist that the President has yet to accomplish anything. They are Dead Wrong! In fact, the single greatest contribution to peace thus far in this admittedly still young century has been the changing of the guard, from the toxic and deathdealing George W. Bush. to the far more benign and peaceable Obama.
It's true that the change of administration was scheduled by law, but that doesn't alter the fact that the number one deterrent to any peaceful settlement of conflicts worldwide has been replaced. If President Obama does nothing else, he has still earned the prize. In fact, I think almost any replacement of the previous president would be deserving. With the exception, of course, of any of a number of Bush's Neocon Cronies. They remain a Clear And Present Danger (thank you Tom Clancy) to what remains of the [Constitution for the United States of America].
Please; I ask you all to keep an eye on them. Pay attention to

The Man Behind The Curtain

(Looks a bit like Dick Cheney, doesn't it?)

My Friend Mary

2009-09-27T04:58:00.003Z

My friend Mary lost her job last year.

My friend Mary is about to lose her COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985) insurance coverage.

My friend Mary is too young (60) to get Medicare health coverage.

My friend Mary isn't wealthy.

My friend Mary is a three-time breast cancer survivor.

My friend Mary isn't going to get affordable health insurance in the private market.

My friend Mary, under the new, improved, "Health Care System", as written by Sen. Max "My Job Is To Get 60 Votes" Baucus (D-Mont), won't be able to get any kind of government-sponsored health coverage.

My friend Mary will, however, be able to form a "Co-Op" with a million or so fellow cancer survivors, and, using the "Magick Of The Marketplace" negotiate an affordable health care plan with, e.g., Blue Cross.

My friend Mary can hear the insurance company executives laughing.

My friend Mary, and her fellow "undesireables" aren't joining in the laughter.

My friend Mary (and I) are astonished at the timidity of the "Democrats" in the United States Senate. No Profiles In Courage in sight.

This Is Logic?

2009-09-26T10:00:00.004Z

My Students Would Get An F!

Can you reconcile the following statements?

a: "Government Is Always Wrong"

b: "The Free Market Is Always Right"

c: Therefore "Private Insurers Can't Compete With A Government Plan"

With this logic firmly in place, one wonders why we are even having a debate about Health Care.

Just how did medical care get "commoditized", anyway?

Nice

2009-09-25T02:00:00.004Z

Isn't it? That we have such staunch defenders of our right to select our own doctor! Unless you're poor, in which case One Will Not Be Appointed For You. We just wouldn't feel right, denying you Freedom Of Choice.
Interestingly, many of these same Defenders Of Freedom also staunchly deny people the right to select their own spouse!
One more cynical than I might suspect a taint of hypocrisy here. But not me!
After all, if the Defense Of Marriage requires us to deny marriage to at least one - perhaps several - Detested Minorities, then sobeit!
And for those who aren't up on their Holy Bible; you should be reminded that, somewhere in The Book Of Genesis, The Lord says, and I quote: "I Said Adam And Eve - Not Adam And Steve, You Morons!" I haven't found the exact spot in the bible where it says that, but many Fox News-like commentators and bible-thumping Charlatans have assured us all that that is what the Lord Sayeth. For those few retro folk who insist on the notion that there is some sort of Separation Of Church And State, I suggest you check out the Federal Register. There's even an entire office of government dedicated to defining just who does and who does not fit the definition of Church.
Oh Well. I've drifted from my original intent a bit here. The point I wished to make: Perhaps the Defenders Of Marriage For All - those who want to include Gays(Oh, My!) and Lesbians (Oh, My!) as worthy of selecting the spouse of their choice, should buy a clue from the defenders of medical choice. Buy youself a passel of politicians!

Don't Fall For It

2009-09-12T22:00:00.010Z

Madam Speaker!

Nancy Pelosi

Last Night during President Obama's speech to the Congress, Congressman Joe Wilson, from South Carolina interrupted with a nicely choreographed shout of "You Lie!" Caused a ruckus. Go figure. Now the Speaker wants an apology, in public, on the floor of the House. Bad Idea, Nancy!
The Congressman's outburst was merely his First Shout in his incipient campaign for Governor of his state: a position he (and many more) believe will shortly be coming open. Thanks for the unexpected gift, Mark Sanford

Joe Wilson

It's a dead cinch that the congressman would like nothing more than a chance to
refuse to apologize;
denounce the "Ultraliberal, Big Government, Socialistic Congressional Leadership";
Resign from Congress - a "Hero" to that certain group of voters that follow the more bellicose of lead-from-the-sideline teevee and radio talking heads.

As a populist (well, faux populist) campaigner, pledged to Restore States Rights, distance the Great State Of South Carolina to it's rightful place as a leader against that oppressive Washington D.C.. What an opportunity! A chance to run against a House of Representatives that presents a whole mess of easy targets. Not a lot of Profiles-In-Courage in that bunch. Lots of go-along-to-get-along congresscreatures on both sides of the aisle. Like fish in a barrel they are. He'll be a shoo-in.
Governor Joe Wilson...
Creating yet another Balkan-like state among the crumbling sociopolitical infrastructure of the United States.

Socialized

2009-09-05T06:00:00.000Z

Groceries! (Oh! My!)

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 35 million Americans received food stamps in June, up 22 percent from June 2008 and a new record as the country continued to grapple with the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The food stamp program, which helps cover the cost of groceries for one in nine Americans, has grown in step with the U.S. unemployment rate which stood at 9.4 percent in July.

The Labor Department will release August employment figures on Friday.

June was the seventh straight month in which food stamp rolls set a record. The average benefit in June was $133.12 per person.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Chuck Abbott; editing by Jim Marshall)"

Brainwashed!

2009-09-04T03:00:00.000Z

On September 8. Best if you keep The Children away from school. That awful pretend president Barack "Hussein" Obama will be transmitting evil liberal-socialist-nazi brainwaves into the schools, infecting all the innocent youngsters.
Obama goes back to school. Yes; along with keeping them away from the brainwashing sites, probably best to also fit them out with tinfoil hats - wellknown for blocking mindcontrol thoughts from aliens and secret-muslim-radical-fake-presidents alike!
As the ever-alert Jim Greer (chairman of the Republican Party of Florida pointed out: "The address... obligates the youngest children in our public school system to agree with our President's initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates."
WOW! How dare he!
Considering that the Redoubtable Mr. Greer is from Florida, one wonders if he was present in the school where, on Sept. 11 2001 then-President George "W." Bush was reading to The Children. Of course, nobody has ever suggested that George W. Bush had any thoughts to broadcast!
Perhaps it's a sort of Right-Handed compliment to President Obama to worry that he'll seduce all those promising innocent young potential Republican Voters into becoming eeeeuww! Liberals!
He must be a pretty persuasive guy, to be able to instruct The Children in a few minutes, when their honest hard-working family-values conservative christian parents can't even get 'em to pick up after themselves!

Critical

2009-09-03T04:54:00.003Z

As I mentioned in a footnote to a previous post; It's time for President Obama to start opposing the things he formerly proposed. So that he can get the I'm Against Whatever Obama's For congresscreatures to pass the legislation he actually supports.

Now's The Time:

Obama to address Congress as health care debate grows

Time for the President to toss the "Public Option" overboard. How about proposing Privatizing Medicare? Sounds Good To Me. Get rid of that evil Socialized Medicine. Your Taxes (Your Hard-Earned Dollars) Will Go Down! Yes!
What you pay for health care will, of course, go up. Waay Up. But at least the money won't pass through the hands of those Government Bureaucrats. It'll pass into the hands of those Insurance Company Bureaucrats. Where a large part of it will stay.
It's the Capitalist Way. Let the deserving company presidents and CEOs have as much money as they can arrange to wring out of their customers.
Slightly (only slightly) more seriously: it might be a really good idea for people to step all the way back to an examination of First Principles of Society. What's appropriate in the Public Sector, and what's appropriate in the Private Sector?

Examples:
1. Public Police Department protection from criminals?
2. Public Fire Department protection from fires?
3. Public Health Department protection from disease?

Does that third department seem appropriate? Actually, there's already such a thing; tasked with seeing to the health of the population at large. Working to insure sanitary conditions and guard against epidemics. I don't hear a lot of complaining about those functions. Especially now that there's a New Flu scare. Let's get the government to make a vaccine!
There are some, of course, who consider vaccines to be a Liberal Conspiracy to infect The Children with that infectious Liberalism. Or perhaps to make them gay! Still, most people Trust (Oh My!) the Government's ability to deal with infectious diseases. So why not trust the government health system with health issues generally?
Not positive here, but I suspect it's that old paranoid Dog-In-The-Manger feeling that My money might wind up being spent on Your care.
I pay taxes for all three of the departments I listed above, not to save you from crooks, fires, illness. Those government programs (socialized police, fire, health departments!). I just don't want those plagues visited on you to spread to me!
When it comes to my own personal care, I trust that my special virtue - the same one that makes it certain I will win the lottery someday - will protect me from fire, flood, crooks, liars, cheats, thieves and, yes, cancer, stroke, heart failure, and all health problems taken together. Except for the problems I already have; for those I can take a pill. Courtesy of the new Medicare Prescription Drug (Company) Benefit.
So there's really no reason to change things is there? We're all happy the way things are now.
QED

What Does "Winning" Mean?

2009-09-01T02:00:00.003Z

Last year, one of the things Candidate Obama campaigned on was the need to "win the war in Afghanistan". So: More Troops, New Commander, More Money. Also, somebody assigned to create some "Metrics" with which to measure "Progress". Come up with something like the fabled (and fabulous) "Body Counts" of Vietnam War era fame. Still, one really must decide first what it means to "Win" before one can measure "Progress", mustn't one?
A common definition of winning, or success, when talking about Iraq has been the phrase "...stable democratic government that is friendly to the USA".
Well. That's not going to happen. Democracy isn't going to exist in that part of the world today any more than it existed in fifteenth century Europe. Not to mention that Puppet Governments are never popular, not even with their Puppet Masters. As we see, the "Government Of Afghanistan" is much more a State Of Mind of old leftover Cold Warriors. So, sorry, Winning: Not In The Cards. We've already Lost The War. And yes, it's Obama's Fault. In the previous administration, the plan was to neither Win nor Lose the war. An Endless War; a Perpetual Profit Center for the Arms Suppliers. A Full Employment Plan for Soldiers OF Fortune (note: now constituting 57% of US forces in Afghanistan - New York Times, Sept. 1). A Rapid Promotion Plan for REMF's (Rear Echelon... I leave the rest to you to fill in). Yes; Keep It Simmering.
"... With contractors focused on preserving profits and filing paperwork with government auditors, he said, 'you grow the part of government that, probably, the taxpayers appreciate least.'
Congress appropriated at least $106 billion for Pentagon contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003 through the first half of the 2008 fiscal year, the report says." (Ibid)
What's really eerie; for seven years, Nobody Complained! Now, with the new president actually considering the idea of an End To The War In Afghanistan, people are worried! I even read that some Pentagon REMF's are afraid that the new president doesn't have a Bushlike commitment to the war!
An odd sidebar: With the likes of Cold Warrior George Will advocationg an end to the war, causing one to wonder if the End Times are upon us, we see an interesting phenomenon. Perhaps the Party Of No can be manipulated by a sort of Automatic Whiplash process. Perhaps if the President now declares his opposition to something, the People United Against Everything The President Is For will advocate for it. Health Care Reform might end up being a Republican Issue, passed by 100% of Republican Congressmen, abetted by a small number of Blue Dog (read; 'Fraidy-Cat) Democrats.
President Obama can scream and yell and threaten to Veto any health care bill. Then (hiding his smirk), Reluctantly sign it. Handing out the symbolic pens to the Republican Sponsors!
Well, it's a nice scenario, isn't it? Goes along with the general fantasy world we appear to have slipped into in this century.

In 2003...

2009-08-23T14:00:00.001Z

... when (about) a million marchers protested the then-President's plan to invade Iraq, the media seemed to mostly characterize the protesters as "naive", or "unrealistic".
Today, when what actually appears to be a lot less than a million protesters are showing up at "Town Hall" meetings, the media seem to conclude that this is a complete hindrance to the current-President's major initiative.
Why? What causes them to take such a different view of the disputes?
There's also some criticism of President Obama for putting forth different rationales for his Health Care Plan. This, I've read, completely discredits the entire plan. Unlike, of course, then-President Bush's continuous floating of different trial balloons as reasons he should be allowed to invade Iraq. My own favorite was the assertion that the cost of patrolling the No-Fly Zones (something like $55 million/year) was simply too much for the DoD budget to bear! At any rate, the then-President finally struck paydirt with his claim that Iraq had WMD, which got the public scared enough to believe the absolutely unsubstantiated assertion, and logrolled the Congress, not a group noted these days for their Profiles In Courage. So, Bush got his way. Ending up wasting a few trillion dollars and creating a permanently destabilized and ungovernable Iraq in place of the 55 million dollars a year and a permanently disabled but stable Iraq. To say nothing of the numberless dead.
By comparison, today's major issue, health care reform, doesn't seem important to the people who haven't had to think about their own future.
I myself am endlessly thankful for the government's Socialized Medical Care program. Without Medicare, I'd have to keep working until I finally dropped dead - or figure out some way to get filthy rich. This only to have some way of paying for medical care if something should happen.

Just Had To Show This

2009-08-22T04:00:00.000Z

Sometimes a Picture Really Is Worth A 1000 Words!

"De Mortuis..."

2009-08-21T01:00:00.002Z

nil nisi bonum"
But, sometimes there are exceptions. It's Official now: Michael Jackson is even more annoying dead than he was when he was alive.
Or perhaps it's the sleazy operators who look at a dead celebrity and see $$$ signs.
"By George - I think he's got it!"

No Public Option!

2009-08-18T02:00:00.001Z

Apparently, according to the 'usual sources' - all of which seem to be more about promoting some particular point of view than actually reporting anything real - the President is willing to cave and discard what's become known as the " Public Option" in health care reform. My question: Does this mean that the people currently insured under the already-existing "Public Option" (aka Medicare) are going to have their insurance cancelled?
"The agency (Medicare) provides health insurance to 98 million people, pays 1.2 billion claims a year and has an annual budget of more than $700 billion. It has a pervasive influence on medical care, regulating hospitals, doctors, health plans, laboratories and almost every other type of health care provider. When Medicare decides to cover a new treatment or adopts a new payment policy, private insurers often follow its lead." ("Lack of Medicare Appointee Puzzles Congress"; New York Times, August 17, 2009).
Or will the current Medicare recipients be grandfathered, as it were? If Medicare is cancelled, what's going to happen to those niney-eight million people? Most of 'em probably can't get, or can't afford, private insurance. Heck, the private insurance companies didn't want them to begin with; that's why they let the government create Medicare in the first place. So they could charge an arm 'n a leg to insure the healthy, and then turn them over to a tax-supported system when they started to need expensive health care.
A caution: when people have to loot their childrens' education funds, hock the house, risk bankruptcy, all to provide medical care to Granny, who is now without insurance, those currently mythical Euthanasia Chambers out behind the local hospital are going to start looking like a good idea.
On the plus side: the Medicare Trust Fund won't be running out of money.
On another plus side: the George W. Bush Medicare Prescription Drug (Company) Benefit, dedicated to shelling out the greatest possible amount of tax dollars to Big Pharma, won't be giving your tax dollars away, either.
Saved From Socialized Medicine! Thank God Almighty! Also Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News", et. alia.

The Experience

2009-08-14T07:15:00.003Z

"Palm Pre phone secretly used GPS to report user's location to company". (Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2009). This appears to be in support of the company's alleged "great user experience."
Yes, according to software developer Joey Hess, his mobile phone has been reporting his whereabouts to "Palm Inc."; likely a CIA shell corporation aiding in the TIA(Total Information Awareness) program. Imagine what it must feel like - being stalked by your own phone! Of course, that is probably exactly what is going on in your case as well, though perhaps your phone is reporting to a different "Company". After all, as Dick (Undisclosed Location) Cheney and Don (Remember Him) Rumsfeld would say, it's a part of the "Freedom Experience" that's the birthright of every American Citizen.
Just how we came by this annoying euphemism "User Experience", an offshoot perhaps of Bill Gates' "Compute Experience" I cannot say. But it does seem a little... umm... racy. Is a "Phone Experience" perhaps something like a "Sheep Experience", or maybe a "Donkey Experience"? Really, I'd rather use a phone than have an experience with it. Though it does look a bit as if some people are "Going Steady" with their phone. Almost to the point where it might be appropriate to suggest that they "Get A Room".
In any case, while not wanting to appear in any way speciesist, I think I'd prefer to confine my "Experience"s to friends of the Human persuasion. or at the outside, at least to the Class Mammalia

Follow The Logic

2009-08-06T01:30:00.002Z

I really don't understand why some people are having trouble with the argument being put forth by the "Birthers". Here's how the argument goes. Lets begin with the -

First Premise: Barack "Hussein" Obama can't possibly be the President of the United States. That's quite clear. I mean, just look at him! He's Black! (In case you hadn't noticed) Actually, not very black, but black enough. More like Colored, maybe. Anyway, he's not at all like all the presidents we had before. (He's also intelligent, which really means he's "Uppity).

Therefore: He must not be qualified to be President.

Consider: the requirements to be President (from Article II, Section 1; Executive Power): "...No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

Thus: Barack "Hussein" Obama is NOT a "natural born citizen".

QED.

Note: I personally have No Comment with regard to the First Premise. It's noticeable that most people begin by believing what they Want To Believe, and proceed from there, in a sort of Reverse Drunkard's Walk to the necessary premise.

Footnote: A friend of mine from Britain exclaimed to me that he believed Americans to be the most ignorant people in the world. I demurred. I believe that Americans are quite ordinarily ignorant. It's just that they have so much greater scope for their ignorance. A larger canvas than others, so to speak. A bigger wall for the shit to stick to.

"Threat Reduction"!

2009-08-03T02:00:00.001Z

Orwell Was Right! "War is Peace", apparently, at least to some Department of Defense (Hah!) and some Military-Industrial Complex folk. The amusingly-labelled "Threat Reduction Agency" is scoping out the possibility of making the world's biggest-ever bomb - although not the 9.5 million kg size mentioned by the semi-literate and an-metric writer and editor of this article: Pentagon eyes accelerated "bunker buster" bomb. Now there's threat-reduction for you!
Yes, George Orwell proves once again to have been a prophet of modern man.
Reminds me of a graffito I saw on a toilet wall once (in a Navy Club, unsurprisingly): "Support Mental Health Or I'll Kill You".
I do appreciate self-referential, or Orwellian, irony. Helps me keep my apocalyptic view of humanity fresh and growing.

Well Yeah!

2009-07-31T02:00:00.001Z

Col. Timothy Reese seems willing to Speak Truth To Power here: Time ‘to Go Home’. How it's escaped the notice of pretty much the entire United States Government and Military for all these years is beyond belief. Finally, someone up and says "Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose..." Actually, I think we started to stink somewhere along about Day Three in Bagdhad. In rebuttal, a spokesman (the proverbial Spokesman, brought forward when the principal can't stand the heat), offered that: "some of the problems the memo referred to had been solved since its writing in early July"! Well; of course. After six years of heavy lifting, the problems we created during that time have been largely solved in the moments between the proverbial 11:59 and Midnight. How Fantastic Is That!
Now, in my opinion, Gen. Odierno is a moron studying to become an idiot. Still, he's obviously learned the Army's Secret Handshake - or - How To Follow Orders, quite well, so he can't be a total washout. Good soldier that he is, he's willing to take the fall and look like even more of an incompetent than he really is. He'll take the incompetence of the entire DOD on his own solid shoulders.
Considering that, dating back at least to the First Crusade, power in that part of the world has been held by leaders who successfully practice the politics of resentment, fear, and anger (pretty much the way some US administrations have been doing lately), how anyone could ever have believed that the Occupying Army of the United States would ever be welcomed to Bagdhad is far beyond credibility. Col. Reese simply says what I and perhaps a million or so others said in 2003. Perhaps he too will be labelled as "naive" for thinking that the Hegemonic Force of the Triumphalist Last-Superpower-On-Earth United States Military isn't capable of subduing every country that dares to demur. I guess some people need reminding.
On the Other Hand, there's Maunder's Lemma (see sidebar on left): Not only do men not remember their past, they don't even remember the present!

The Serial Resignee

2009-07-26T11:55:00.000Z

It Seems To Have Gone Unnoticed (well, largely unnoticed): But - Alaska Gov. (now ex-) Palin (Palin faces questions as she makes her exit) also resigned her Mayorship and her position on the Alaska Oil & Gas Board. Could a pattern be emerging?
Apparently the New Plan is to "speak out" on important issues. Or, as Mrs. Palin Tweets: "Ain't gonna shut my mouth / I know there's got to be a few hundred million more like me / just trying to keep it free..." Sense Free, I'd guess. Count me not among those who are like Sarah Palin.
I don't know about the voters of the United States or Alaska in general, but I personally feel a bit disinclined to give much credence, or my vote, to someone whose thought process extends no deeper than 140 characters. Still, in these short-attention-span-times, perhaps a Tweet is about as much data as the ornery citizen can handle.

Those Republicans!

2009-06-25T06:00:00.000Z

They certainly appear to be a randy bunch, don't they? The Senator (Ensign), and now the Governor (Sanford). And don't forget former moralists Larry Craig and Newt Gingrich. Add in a handful of Born-Again Charismatic Charlatans from the TeeVee Ministries, and it adds up to quite a stud farm. Maybe that's why there was such outrage against Bill Clinton. A lot of the opposition party felt he had strayedonto their turf.
In any event, with the Presidential Hopefuls from the Republican Party rushing, Lemminglike, over the cliff, it now seems that Sarah Palin will be a shoo-in for the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination. She, at least, is a whole generation removed from extra-marital sexual escapades, having left that sort of thing to her daughter Bristol.

Bottom Line: The Democrats have more power, but the Republicans have more fun!

What Are They Thinking?

2009-06-23T11:11:00.002Z

...Or perhaps What Are They Smoking? It says Here, in The Washington Post: "In recent days, GOP leaders have invoked the unambiguous Cold War rhetoric of Ronald Reagan as the model for the message Obama should be sending to the demonstrators..." My God! Where did these guys go to school? California? I'd really be interested if Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham are referring to when Ronald Reagan sent undercover agents to Tehran to bribe the Ayatollahs with weapons to attack Iraq; or are they talking about when Reagan sold Nerve Gas to Saddam Hussein to use against Iran (and also his own Iraqi Kurds)?
The record of Ronald Reagan is actually pretty clear. Whenever the United States was actually attacked, he retreated and negotiated. All the while talking big. Iran? He bribed 'em. Lebanon? He pulled the troops out.
On the other hand, he won Big Time in Grenada.
So I guess he wasn't a Total Wimp.

On The Defense Of Marriage

2009-06-18T02:19:00.002Z

In The "Good Old Days" (which probably weren't really all that good), most people thought the best way to Defend Marriage was to forbid Divorce. Force people who didn't want to stay together to stay together. (Note: the Catholic Church, only now emerging from the 17th Century, still espouses this concept).
Today, most people think the best way to Defend Marriage is to forbid ermm... Marriage! Force people who do want to stay together to remain apart.
I have a Third Way: Don't let people who are going to get divorced get married! How simple is that? Only allow marriage to those who will stay married.
Hey, it could work! What's certain is that neither of the two strategies I mentioned above is worth that classic Bucket Of Warm Spit. They have been time-tested and found worthless.
Full Disclosure here: I really do not understand the fierce drive many people have to Get Married. At Any Cost.
Equally, I even more really do not understand the fierce drive some people have to decide who can and can't get married.
It's all a big riddle to me.
So, perhaps I shouldn't even be bloggerizing about it.

It Used To Be Called

2009-06-15T11:00:00.000Z

Brinkmanship. Yes, back in the Good-Old-Days of the Cold War, when pugnacious superpatriots like John Foster Dulles were running things, There were lots and lots of Warnings - like this one: NKorea warns... being tossed around, by a lot of people who really should have known better. But...
North Korea, of course, is still stuck in the middle of the 20th Century, thinking that this sort of thing will do something positive for their sad little state. A lot of people in saner (or less insane) countries are worried.
Maybe, just maybe, these guys are crazy enough to start the shooting war.
They certainly sound bellicose enough! In fact, they sound a lot like the (fortunately now former) President George W. Bush, with his casual talk of evildoers; axis of evil; and, of course, the personal favorite of Kim Jong-Il, "pygmy".
Well, insults aren't exactly the stuff of a peaceful approach to international diplomacy, but then N. Korea is also noted for ringing denunciations, loud warnngs, and direct threats.
The thing is, there's a lot of history to indicate that there's at least one person in N. Korea who's sufficently aware of the real world to understand that an attack by N. Korea on, well, on Anybody, would mean the End Of The World (of North Korea, anyway). The continued existence of that country requires them to stay strictly inside their own boundaries with the rare exception when they can sally forth and diddle the United States, for instance, with some action like the siezing of the USNS Pueblo. That was, of course, forty-one years ago. At a time when we were deeply involved in a losing war in Vietnam. Where we had no business to be. But someone in N. Korea took note, and estimated (correctly, it turned out) that the US wouldn't go to war for a historic Casus Belli, like the siezure of a ship on the high seas, when already involved in a war for economic reasons.
Let's hope that the clever clever N. Korean bureaucrat who figured that one is still around to let 'em know that a real attack would start a real war.
Signalling the End Of The Kingdom

Don't You Think

2009-06-14T11:00:00.000Z

There's Some Toxic Thinking, when somebody (Dick Cheney in this case) professes to believe that torturing people who are in custody and behind bars somehow Protects The Country from attacks by people who are out and on the loose?
If he were serious about such things as preventing terrorist attacks, why did he and his boss (George W. Bush in this case), the Commander-In-Chief of the huge and mighty United States Armed Forces, let the Terrorist-In-Chief (Osama bin Laden in this case) slip away, time after time after time. One might almost believe the real purpose was to keep a fearsome enemy afield with which to frighten small children and gullible voters. Here's CIA director Leon Panetta, giving voice to the suspicion that, yes, the Dark Master of the anti-American Neo-cons would be delighted if the terrorists he nurtured during his tenure would now rise up and strike at his successor (Barack Obama in this case): CIA chief believes Cheney almost wants US attacked

Sadly, I find this quite believable.

Avoid Reality

2009-06-13T12:00:00.000Z

At All Cost!... As it says here, the leading lights at PETA are deeply saddened that the scapegrace employees at

Pike Market

are being so disrespectful of the salmon: Seattle's Pike Place fishmongers under fire.
Still, as Jeremy Ridgway, a manager at one of the fish stalls says "I mean, the fish are dead,..."
I gotta admit, it makes me a little bit crazy when people become so focussed on a single issue to the exclusion of all else, that they lose track of what's real in the world. I suppose it's nice for them to be able to worry about Dead Salmon, rather than have to worry about the fact that Live Salmon are being driven to extinction - partly because of their own heedless selfish and self-centered unsustainable assault on the environment.
To quote the Judge from the long-gone TV show "Picket Fences"; I Order You All To Get Real!

It's Worse

2009-06-12T13:00:00.001Z

Than I Thought!
I. Santayana's Surmise: A man who forgets his past is desstined to repeat it.
I.1. Maunder's Corollary: A man who remembers his past is likewise destined to repeat it.
I.1.1: Maunders Lemma: Not only do men not remember their past, they don't even remember the present!

Bigger Losses!

2009-06-10T01:30:00.000Z

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the airlines, or at least most, or many, or some, will continue to lose money in the forseeable future.
This is not at all unusual. Most air carriers actually make their living off government subsidies anyway (the new GM business model). However, it need not be so. Airlines could easily return to profitability, even with the reduced passenger load, with one simple change. Charge by the Wheel for "Carryon Luggage. Let the Oh-So-Modern travellers who disdain to actually carry their carry on luggage, or put backpacks on their backs, pay the freight, as it were. After all, they already seem willing to go to considerable extra expense and effort to affix wheels (Wheels! - OH MY!) to objects ill-suited to them. The only good part about all this wheeled luggage, making up in some small way for the damage they do to unwary travellers ankles, is watching the physically-challenged passengers trying to hoist the ovesized and overweight "Hand Carry Bag" into the overhead rack. Why so many find it needful to travel with more of their stuff than most people on the planet possess is a topic for another day.

A Much Better Proposal

2009-06-05T04:53:00.000Z

The Late, Great State of California, mired in a financial disaster largely self-made, is considering now if they can save money by halting Welfare Payments: (Budget plan could doom CalWORKS aid to families, children). Thus truly "Ending Welfare As We Know It."
Well.
I have a better idea.
Close the schools! It's pretty obvious that they aren't doing much good anyway. If you look at the state of the California Civic Body - the voters, that is. They want Money. They want State Services. They Don't want to spend the Money on the State Services. Ahhh, the sweet smell of Something-For-Nothing. It's pretty clear that all that money spent on Civics Classes and Math and Economics Classes has been money wasted. Why keep spending on something that doesn't work?
Prop. 13 didn't cause the collapse of the once-heralded California State School System. It proved that the education system had already failed, having produced a voting population of Idiots!
So It's Time, People: Let's finish the job. Close The Schools. Maybe the kids will end up smarter than their parents.
It's certainly worth a try.

More About Old White Guys

2009-05-27T09:01:00.000Z

In a fine example of Grasping-At-Straws, some of the more knee-jerky (or just the more jerky) leftovers of the late unlamented far right are citing the new Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's (Obama Hails Judge as ‘Inspiring’) comments from an 8 year old lecture. She said something like: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Well, I gotta say Look At The Record: it looks to me like the Latina would only have to be half-wise to be able to outshine the recent results of the Old-White-Guy network. I speak of the political legal social and economic outcomes of the last 30 years. Ms. Sotomayor and others like her could scarcely do worse. I'm a little surprised that the no-longer-so-neo-cons didn't also point out that she gave this speech at Berkeley, which probably means she's a Socialist at least, if not a downright Communist!
Of course the ever-facile Newt Gingrich has labelled her as a "racist" for her comment. When it comes to simplistic statemsnts, Newt's always a great go-to guy! Unfortunately (or not), I'm not a member of Newt's Twitter Club.

Missing The Point

2009-05-26T09:26:00.002Z

As usual. Yes; the kids are 'texting' up a storm. Yes ("Texting May Be Taking a Toll"); it's not a healthy thing to do, either physically or socially/emotionally (My Opinion). What people who like to take alarm at this sort of thing tend to ignore is the well-documented fact that Teenagers Engage In Risky Behavior. Almost might be the defining characteristic, in fact.
However, lets look at the sum of what these kids are doing. When they take up some New Thing, it's usually a replacement for some Old Thing (Old - meaning last week or even older!). So: James Dean exemplified the behavior of the '50's, where Badass Hotrodders were supposed to play Chicken even unto death. Texting is safer. In the '60's the Flower Children were supposed to get as stoned as possible on any kind of totally unrecognizable street drug if offered. Texting is safer. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to supply other examples.
What isn't being talked about is the social context. Why are people so desperate to continually exchange communications with friends/family/tribe/posse? The Texts and Tweets need not contain any news or information or even sense. They're simply a sort of a Proof Of Existence. People are so isolated from their tribal area, so surrounded by strangers and thus potential enemies that they need (in an emotional sense) continuous contact with Someone They Know.
I've noticed on occasion, when I've removed a mobile device from the possesion of a stricken student, that the student may become well-nigh Catatonic. They just sit there, in a self-created Sensory Deprivation Chamber, waiting for their sensory I/O device to be returned to them.
Yeah, that's not a healthy response.
The question I ask is: Why Are They So Desperate to begin with?

Ok - The Last Word...

2009-05-22T17:12:00.002Z

About the Great California Budget Crisis.

"If you think this country's bad off now, just wait 'til I get through with it.".

Isn't it just amazing how the cry of "We're overtaxed" can gum up the works. In fact, I think it's the Tax Cutters who overtax the syntax.
Sorry.

Make Up Your Mind!

2009-05-22T14:50:00.000Z

Why Don't You? California voters - nothing if not feckless - have just rejected a set of tax/bond/finance/"special purpose" ballot propositions. See my earlier post regarding the California Budget Process. Some claim it's Voter Outrage: "Why did all the propositions except 1F fail? Robinson Earl ("Voters aren't happy," Letters, May 20) identified the reason. Voter outrage is the key. But why?" (Letters, SF Chronicle May 22). Some are putting the blame where it belongs: "Yes, the politicians have all done a horrible job managing the state's finances. But California voters as a whole deserve just as much if not more of the blame for the mess we're in." (Letters, SF Chronicle May 21). Now here's whats annoying about all this (aside from the economic devastation, that is): The wise voters of the State of California, wanting to make sure the government doesn't get out of hand, have used the Initiative and Recall process to create a Legislature that can't legislate and a Governor who can't govern. The leges get term-limited on account of "we don't want career lawmakers". They're supposed to be those "Citizen Congress"people the Founding Fathers supposedly intended. Amateurs,that is, who temporarily shelve the Important Business of their careers to selflessly serve in the government. Amateurs, you got'em. They're routinely stampeded by well-rehearsed Lobbyists. Once they become sufficiently confused, they turn to the Voters, who are supposedly the best-qualified to Decide Matters. The voters get balky at the system they themselves created!
I don't want an amateur Doctor, an amateur Pilot, an amateur General. Nor do I want an amateur Government. But it looks like that's what I've got.

It's Not Easy

2009-05-21T11:19:00.002Z

Not Easy to sell "your" mercenaries to someone else: Iraqi militiamen frustrated that promised jobs haven't materialized. Of course, the US Army is trying to market its mercenary army (The Sons Of Iraq) to the Government of Iraq. Which is no way going to hire thousands of disaffected Sunni soldiers - many of them from the former Iraqi army that the Sunni (sort of) Brutal Thug Dictator Saddam Hussein used to oppress the then-oppressed-now-ruling Shi'ite. Not a chance Gen. Petraeus. This part of your Surge is a looming failure. This is the Middle East and it's Payback Time. The kind of socio-cultural tradition the previous president shoulda been informed about. But then, George W. Bush really just wanted to be a War President; he didn't really much care about the end result.
Sort of like Czar Peter III, left to play with his Toy Soldiers, while his wife Catherine managed the Empire.
Too bad George 43 didn't marry a Catherine.

Well - There's The Problem -

2009-05-21T09:59:00.000Z

Right There! "...16 U.S. intelligence agencies"! Sixteen; count'em. Sixteen bunches of paranoid (at least) psychotics (possibly), all dead set on keeping their comings and goings and doings a Deep Dark Secret. Cheney's speech contained omissions, misstatements.
As an aside, for those who wonder just how Nancy Pelosi ended up with her knickers in such a twist; "Briefings" from CIA ops, and others of similar ilk, are well designed to attract attention HERE! (We Need More Money), while shifting it away from HERE! (Pay No Attention To The Man With The Tongs And The Flaming Splinters).
Those who have sat through, or delivered, testimony in a government setting will know what I mean.
Which doesn't mean that the Speaker of the House should be excused for nop paying attention when the CIA tried to slip the Iron Duke past the committee.

Didn't He Promise

2009-05-20T14:49:00.001Z

to "Balance The Budget"? It's really a fine irony (if you haven't lost your job your house your car your stake in the economy) that Gov. Schwarzenegger claimed his management skills would be up to the task of rationalizing the economy of the State of California. "Defeat is sharp rebuke to governor, Legislature". While the current Gov. is certainly more intelligent and far better informed than the last Actor-Governor, Ronald W. Reagan, he's as big a fool if he truly believed (I'm certain he has now been disabused of the notion) that he could err, Terminate the state's disfunctional legislative budget process. Unaware, apparently, that he, the "Governator", as he likes to style himself, is as much a victim of the toxic budget process as he is a shaper of it. In California today, and for many years now, All Roads Lead To Proposition 13. The iconic Prop 13 is a carefully crafted document that acts pretty much in the manner of a dull self-castrating knife. It decrees that people who own stuff can avail themselves of what was once a robust social, economic, and educational infrastructure without having to pay their share in its upkeep. And indeed today it's apparent that it hasn't been upkept. Of course, the deficit is just a part of the general economic malaise. But the budget "process", if one may call it that, is a hopeless morass. As intended by the ornery California Vogter, easily led my the nose or other appendage to vote in favor of self-destructive measures.
As I said: A Fine Irony.

I Wish

2009-05-18T11:00:00.002Z

I Wish Someone would describe for me just exactly what a Victory in Afghanistan would look like. Perhaps this kind stranger (for surely nobody in charge of this morass has been willing to do so) could also explain to me how Defeat would look somehow different.
Thank you Kind Sir.

Born Again

2009-05-17T05:00:00.001Z

Swear Ta God! - There's so many bornagain liberals springing forth with revelations about the evils that men do. Where were they during the recent years. Or decades? Now we have this Major Discovery of a Military Industrial Complex! David Barstow, an investigative reporter for The Times... had found that the Bush Pentagon fielded a clandestine network of retired military officers and defense officials to spread administration talking points... while posing as objective “military analysts.” Many of these propagandists worked for military contractors.
Well I'm shocked! Shocked! We were informed just last year of something President Eisenhower warned us about in 1961.
So. What else is new? Coverups. Horsetrading. And yes, it seems Frank Rich hasn't twigged to the obvious: the President has (sorta) asked the court to keep those shocking photos secret. Payback for the Pentagon letting one of their own be fired (see The Horns Of A Dilemma).

I'm thinking of opening a Full Immersion Born Again Liberal Believer Camp. We can rehash the Old news and try to make it all seem New again.

4 Pictures = At Least 4K Words

2009-05-14T04:00:00.002Z

Frazz

The Horns Of A Dilemma

2009-05-13T08:25:00.001Z

Which Is Worse:

A. Release The Photos, and risk "Inflaming anti-American opinion" - or -

B. Don't Release The Photos, and leave it all up to people's imagination. And, of course, to the Demagogues Blogues.

Obama seeks to block release of abuse photos

What To Do... what to do... "Whether t'were worse..."
My own take is that there is absolutely no aspect of this entire shabby situation that is not entirely and totally informed by Political Calculation. From the getgo it's been a wonderful example of the old adage "Better not to commit the sin than to make amends after." Still, in the spirit of Horsetrading, the President had to offer something to the Flags at DOD, in return for their acquiescence in the firing of Gen. David McKiernan as Commander in Afghanistan. If this is what it takes to fire the guy in Afghanistan, what will the President have to offer the DOD's when he realizes it's time and past time to get rid of the incompetent poseur Gen. Raymond Odierno, the commander in Iraq?
Of course, the original perpetrators of the outrage are now safely in retirement. At locations we wish were unknown - and also inaccessible!

Almost Bush-esque

2009-05-09T13:07:00.002Z

Is The Pope's Ear For Irony. In Jordan on a Goodwill Visit that appears to be coming up short in the Good Will department

Pope Benedict

Denounced what he called "Ideological Manipulation" as a cause of "tension and division, and at times even violence in society"!"
Remarkable! I must admit I am unable to concieve of any person place or thing on Planet Earth more manipulative of ideological symbols than The Pope. In fact it's pretty much the job description, isn't it?
Of course, The Pope was in the Middle East not just to point out the toxicity of ideological manipulation - he was also there to pray for the Conversion Of The Jews. That prayer is always an e-ticket ride in Jerusalem.
All in all, I think The Pope should be checked for hearing loss. Or, perhaps, he's just lost a few centuries; stuck in the Middle Ages, as it were.

Pardon My French

2009-05-03T02:50:00.003Z

But This is just F#$%ing Stupid!. How sad when the (supposedly) Highest Court In The Land spends its time on such nonsense. George Carlin (The Seven Forbidden Words) ... Where are you when we need you?

Joining The Party

2009-04-29T02:00:00.001Z

Or; Crossing The Aisle, as it used to be called, is Sen. Arlen Specter R. (now D.) - Pa. It's a rare occurrence. The last one I recall was that strangely appellated Ben (Nighthorse) Campbell - Colorado crossed from D. or R. Pretty much the same circumstances, only different...erm.
It's now easy to understand why the Dems decided they'd better give Crypto-Republican Sen. Joe (Smite Them Hip And Thigh) Lieberman DI - Connecticut enough perks to caucus with the D.'s.
Still, Strange Bedfellows aside, I scent a real opportunity here. After the manner of modern "Sports Teams" (as some entertainment corporations are called), Let's Make A Deal. While we're about it, lets make it a Blockbuster. I propose a swap of Sens Lieberman and Dianne Feinstein D.(sorta) - Ca. for Sens Olympia Snowe R. - Maine and Chuck Hegel R. - Nebraska. It might be enough to keep Sen. Hegel in the Senate (if he's still there, in fact). All of these pols (except Sen. Feinstein) are known for their mavericky ways, so it would not actually make a lot of difference except for the warnings on the labels.
It might cause a minor reduction in the Dishonesty Quotient, however - a Good Thing in my way of thinking.

DOD Pork

2009-04-28T03:00:00.003Z

..."At a time of economic difficulty, it makes no sense to take a strategically important weapons system and cap it and cost 95,000 jobs in a relatively short period of time," said Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), talking about
Weapons Programs that might get removed from the DOD budget. Amazing! WMD as a jobs program! Why bother with all that Stimulus Spending (labelled by Sen. Isakson's Party-Of-No as Porkulus) when we can just shovel more money into DOD programs to develop more effective Killing Devices?
Considering how frequently the United States is called on to Defend Itself; far more than any other country (except for Israel), it might make sense to spend every possible dollar on guns 'n stuff. Especially since it'll create Lots Of Jobs! (in My District)

Does It Worry You

2009-04-27T13:00:00.004Z

That it seems to be no problem at all to find people who are willing to carry out what they're now euphemistically calling "Severe Interrogation Techniques". In fact, it's never been difficult to fine torturers and killers. In any society. Civilization doesn't necessarily mean civilized behavior.
There've been some comments in the news about the principles established by the Nuremburg Trials, where a number of Germans were convicted of War Crimes. The principle of personal moral responsibility in the face of illegal orders was, however, established in the trial of

Captain Henry Wirz
of the Confederate Army. His defense of "Following Orders" was judged to be insufficient to clear him of crimes against POWs in Andersonville Prison. Still, when people ask Why do the CIA "Operatives" seem to be immune from prosecution?; I have to say Because the ones we tried were "Them", and the ones we aren't going to try are "Us". It seems as if the presence of Pogo The Possum were never more apparent. We have Met The Enemy.

The

2009-04-23T01:20:00.001Z

Classified Documents that former VP Dick "If I Only Had A Heart" Cheney claims knowledge of: ("...classified documents that prove...") are filed right next to that famous "List Of Communists In The State Department" that Senator Joseph R. McCarthy waved about but never allowed to anyone to actually see. Isn't it interesting how the (blessedly) former administration can cite so many documents that it also claims have to be kept from sight lest they provide Comfort To The Enemy. Just guessing here - The Enemy is Anybody-But-Us.

It's A Nightmare

2009-04-20T03:30:00.000Z

...This whole thing about the Disappearing Newspapers.
In a nightmarish sort of Maunderingstate it occurred to me that if the Print Media all close up shop (something I think as inevitable as GM going belly up), eventually they'll also pull the plug on their Archives.
Now, I really don't spend a lot of time looking at Old News. It is, after all, OLD. However, I suddenly had a panicky realization that all those URL's I've embedded in all those postings on FranksMaunderings (here, that is), will suddenly lead to nowhere. The Bit Bucket. It's happened before. I discovered while searching through an old posting that links to, specifically, http://news.yahoo.com/ articles disappear after a few days. Yahoo, it seems, is rather impecunious regarding storage of old items. I had to muck about looking for the equivalent-or-nearly-so items on other websites to replace the missing links (ehh) where I'd witlessly relied on Yahoo to keep the articles I linked to. It took a lot of time, and was a pain in the ...
But, I now had nothing but Good Links to my sources.
Or So I Thought.
But yesterday I realized that some or any or most or all of those sources are likely to disappear over time. Being nothing if not inventive. Or stubborn. Or obsessive, I Hatched A Plan. I'll simply add a new Blog to my stable, follow the links in my postings, Cut 'N Paste the actual web document into my new blog, and Link To That!.
I created the blog. I began searching thru this blog - yes, this one here, where you are, I hope reading with Great Anticipation for the denoument. I found, among other things, that I put out a lot of stuff without any external links. Not until September 11 (yoww!) of 2006 did I ever include a link to outside sources. Sure enough, on that very first post where I had included external links (How Dems Can Win the Midterm Elections) I discovered that it had already happened! One of the links went to an extinct location: "http://www.newt.org/backpage.asp?art=3547". Yes, Newt Gingrich's .org had been cancelled. YES! But unfortunately, this meant that you, the reader, were now unable to sample the wierd wisdom of the New Intellectual Leader of the Party Of No. Also, it makes my otherwise semi-impeccably maintained blog look shoddy. So, I did a little searching, and found another place where those words of wisdom were posted. Think about it: how likely is it, really, that the Words Of Newt will actually be extinguished? Anyway, I followed my above mentioned prescription and replaced the links in that posting with links to copies I made of the original (sort of) articles.
You can see the New Improved Post at the link above.
It's gonna be a while before I get through all those postings.
Some of 'em, I might simply delete. Save myself a little time and effort.

Don't Do The Crime

2009-04-19T01:30:00.001Z

... If You Can't Do The Time. This was the theme (patter-)song of a popular police drama on TeeVee way back in the (I think) '70's. Oddly, the star of the show, a retread from Spanky And Our Gang child stardom, would later be tried for murder. Found not-guilty, as those with high name recognition often are. Not making a judgement here - I'm just saying...
Anyway, here we have Michael V. Hayden speaking up (Former C.I.A. Director Defends Interrogation) in an attempt to justify criminal acts that he previously admitted were criminal acts! Based on the interesting theory that the Evildoers (and we Know Who You Are!) will take advantage of the fact that we claim we won't torture them anymore - so that they can prepare for a future time when, presumably, a more bloodthirsty President (like the current President's immediate predecessor) will instruct his spies to go back to torturing their prisoners.
Remarkable! One wonders what mental gymnastics the General had to commit to reach such a ermmm... Tortured conclusion.
In lockstep of course "Senator John Ensign, a Republican from Nevada, also criticized the administration on Sunday, saying that the disclosure would limit future options against terrorism. 'The harm is that if we ever return to those policies, one is they can train against them now,' he said on CNN’s 'State of the Union.' 'Do we really think that having advanced interrogation techniques is something we don’t want to use if we find Osama bin Laden?'"
Ahh, Yes: the Reveal. What we (well, not Me, but some of You, apparently) really want to do is to extract Vengeance on a Hated Enemy (Osama bin Laden) for vengeful acts he instigated against us! How can we get back if all we can do is Try and Convict him for crimes committed? NO! Heat Up The Irons. Ready The Tongs. Grease Up The Rack. Check The Bamboo Splinter Supply Is Sufficient. Ready The Water Tub. We just gotta inflict as much pain on this hated enemy who's also a member of a despised minority. Not Really A Human Being At All, is he?
Please, Please - Don't Take My Torture Chamber Away!
And, certainly, Don't Jail Me For Following Orders!

75%

2009-04-17T13:00:00.001Z

Of Texans in This Poll say they don't want to secede from the United States. Too Bad!, I say.
Interestingly, 31% say they believe Texas has the "right" to secede. Gov. Rick "Goodhair" Perry claims to believe it too. Guess all those school reforms didn't stop at least 31% of Texas' schoolchildren from being shut out of an education. Maybe it's that Texas Schoolbooks are a little shy on discussions of the Civil War, which many of us thought put the idea of secession to rest. Still, there are a lot of those "The South Will Rise Again" bumperstickers to be seen. And with the Flat-Earthers joining with the My-Mom-Wasn't-A-Monkey-ers (Creationists on Texas School Board Prevail), it seems unlikely that the kiddies will be getting any schoolbooks that deal seriously with reality any time soon.

He's Speaking, Of Course,

2009-04-15T13:15:00.002Z

Not About intelligence, but rather about the difference in test scores between the Rich and the Poor: How to Raise Our I.Q. I'm a fan of Nicholas Kristof; he knows a lot about a lot of places in the world that few people visit. He studies things - uncommon these days. He thinks about things - well-nigh unheard of in these days of Cable "News". Like so many, however, he has mistaken I. Q. Test Scores for actual Intelligence. In an article from the very same NY Times, almost two years ago, that I somehow managed to save; Joseph Berger (This Is a Test. Results May Vary) does a lot to shred the myths that have given rise to Test-O-Mania not only in the US but around the world.
As they say in Texas (an otherwise benighted state); "You don't fatten a calf by weighing it." (Thanks, Molly Ivins).
An interesting check to see if Rich vs. Poor actually has anything to do with I.Q. might be to repeat the I.Q. Tests on the hosts of now Poor and Stupid who were until recently Rich and Smart. I speak here, of course, of the Wizards Of Wall Street (and other participants in the loot-and-plunder schemes now unravelling). Did they lose IQ points along with their fortunes? Did they suddenly become stupid?
Or were they always stupid, blessed only with an ability to substitute "Innovative Financial Instruments" for reality? And, of course, to successfully Fill In The Box on the Answer Sheet.

Seems Odd

2009-04-14T14:43:00.000Z

... Doesn't it?That a Senate election in 2008 "...a Senate Race Without End" is taking longer to resolve than a Presidential election in 2000. I guess the megabux spent on Diebold voting machines, and spent trying to keep Diebold from rigging them, didn't really solve any 'problems' with voting. I note that there are those among us (I include myself here) who think it better to get it right than to get it instantly. Horse Races; sure, get that photo-finish machine to give instant results. When (s)electing a leader; let's not leave it to a machine. Let's count all the votes. As many times as needed.

An Example

2009-04-13T04:00:00.001Z

A Tutelary (ahem) Example of my thesis regarding Rules & Regulations: "When all the rules-that-make-sense have been made, the rule-makers, having nothing better to do (my suggestion - Self Destruct) commence upon making non-sensical rules." Such appears to be the case here: Amazon responds to queries, blames a 'glitch'. I really do not suppose that Amazon.com has any formal policy saying something like Gay Books Are Yucky - Hide Them From The Kids. I think some flunky with too much time (and too little brain) simply decided to Clean Up a minor personally irritating loose end.
I think it encouraging, in these benighted times, that people not only noticed, but inquired about this imbecilic situation.
A little embarrassment for a corporation can be a rejuvenating thing. Of course, The Great American Corporation& ™ has been getting a lot of that lately. See, for instance, what Google News has to say about General Motors.
Remarkable how an "Iconic Company" managed to maneuver itself so handily into such a dire end. There's Irony there somewhere, but I don't really know just where.

Not A Surprise

2009-04-12T03:30:00.001Z

Not surprising that we are seeing (ok, reading about) an increase in the bombings shootings and general mayhem in Iraq. It's been a nice exercise in global realpolitik to (ahem) "recruit" several brigades of disaffected Sunni combatants. At a cost of a few hundred US$/warrior/month, the United States occupying forces in essence bribed the insurgents to turn around and shoot at their unregenerate (unbribed) friends.

The "Sons Of Iraq"...

The visible signs of conflict subsided. This is an unsurprising result. It was a pretty tough slog for the insurgents, trying to mount a resistance with little weaponry and little training. As part of General Petraeus "Surge", however, in addition to getting paid to fight, they're being armed and trained by US trainers. A pretty good way to take a break from the dangers of fighting a guerilla campaign against a massive occupying force. The currently ruling Shi'ite government was undertandably nervous, of course. They couldn't say too much about the situation, but it was clearly going to make it tougher to mount a Payback Operation against their traditional foes - now better armed and better prepared. Now that the occupying forces are on their way out, the maneuvering for advantage in the upcoming Civil War is beginning to show. The U.S. military recently stopped paying the Sons of Iraq, and the former insurgents now need to become former turncoats and return to being insurgents if they're to survive the New Iraqi Civil War. They're likely going to end up between a vengeful Iraqi (Shi'ite that is) regular army and an even more vengeful rebel (Sunni that is) irregular army. It appears that's what the Unregenerate Insurgent Sunnis are doing now: Another suicide bombing, letting the turncoat Sons Of Iraq know it's dangerous for them to try to collect their pay from the occupiers.
The Sons Of Iraq had better have a pretty good story to tell: something about how they always intended to take the money and the guns, and then return to the welcoming arms of their fellow Resistance Fighters, better able to kill the enemy (which by now is pretty much everybody in the world).

Why On Earth...

2009-04-06T11:00:00.000Z

Do These Politicians expect us to be fooled by this kind of politicrap? "Alaska politicians renew calls for missile defense funding". Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. Mark Begich, and Rep. Don Young, who constitute the entire Alaskan Congressional delegation (if congress were truly apportioned according to population, AK would have to share a congressman with two or three other states), are foursquare on this. I think it a bit paranoid - okay - Hugely Paranoid to claim that No. Korea is somehow willing to destroy itself in a holocaust of explosive reprisal, just in order to drop a load somewhere in Alaska. What could they hit? An oil slick, perhaps. Until a few years ago, they could have killed a bunch of Salmon, but the fishermen and miners have beat 'em to it.
Really: its politicians like this that give politics a bad name. Couldn't these Bozoes at least pretend to believe that we're smart enough to know better than this?

Tempest...

2009-04-06T01:00:00.001Z

In A Crackpot, so to speak. "North Korean Missile Launch a Failure" - Say The Experts. Just The Facts, man.

First, the twilight-zone nation of No. Korea got lots and lots of front-page ink (Look where the NY Times put the writeup).

Second, lots of other people got pretty-good mileage (politically speaking) from the event.

Third, anyone who gives it more than a cursory thought will know that it's quite impossible for No. Korea to actually attack anywhere outside its own territory.

Any foreign adventure that goes beyond barking loudly will surely cause the destruction of the country.
Sure, they can kill lots of "Enemies", but they wouldn't survive the exercise. The only reason to fear that they might actually make the attempt is the fact that the government of that sad little nation is not known at all for its rational behavior.
Oddly, I take some comfort in their sortie, back in 1968, when they successfully attacked and siezed USNS Puebly, which was spying on them. All other considerations aside, such as that attacking a ship on the high seas should have attracted a massive military response (They got an apology instead), it showed that there's at least one Machiavellian Political Genius in the country that understands How Things Work in the international world quite well. Let's hope that that operative is still umm... operating. Him/Her, or a well-taught successor.

It Takes A Cop

2009-04-01T02:30:00.000Z

Just how insecure; or lame; or limp, is a man who so fears his wife's rejection of his sexual advances that he needs a law. A law that says, in essence, "If you don't let me f... you, I'll call the cops!" Yes, that's what the government (such as it is) of Afghanistan - "Afghan Law Ignites Debate on Religion, Sex" - has decreed. So it goes when you are beset by a Shame-Based Society. Sex is a secretive shameful thing. You have to ask a Higher Power, like God, or Allah, or, in a pinch, an ordinary stiff (ahem), like a Mullah, or a Pope, or President, for permission to engage in some kind of sexual activity. Pass the responsibility for your feelings and urges to somebody else. Now I have to admit that this is actually a pretty good idea! "Not My Fault!", you can say. "God Told Me To Do It!"
But ultimately I suspect it's just another case of

"Good Idea; Too bad it's wrong"

Voodoo Economix

2009-03-23T13:30:00.001Z

200 Billion Dollar deficits as far as the eye can see... (R. Limbaugh, 1993)

The Large Surplus will harm the economy... (G. W. Bush, 2001)

Deficits Don't Matter...(D. Cheney, 2003)

The Deficit is unconscionable... (J. Gregg, 2009)

From these and other similar quotes, of which we certainly have No Shortfall we can derive certain basic Rules of Economics
A. Deficits Don't Matter (if the President is a Republican) -
B. Deficits Do Matter (if the President is a Democrat) -
C. A Budget Surplus is bad (if the President is a Democrat) -
D. A Budget Surplus is out of the question (if the President is a Republican) -

Remember those polls from last January that said "People are willing to give the new President a long time to fix the economy."
Long Time appears to be just slightly less than two months.

A Truth Commission!

2009-03-02T15:30:00.000Z

This might be a Burning Question to some: A Truth Commission for the Bush Era? (NY Times, 2 March). My personal opinion? A "Truth Commission" investigating the Bush Administration will find... nothing.
Still, it's worth a try. Sift out the chaff from the dross, so to speak. And a chronicle of What Went Wrong will be valuable fodder for historians. The lesson, of course, will not be remembered: Axiomatically (Frank Maunder's Corollary, remember?) "Those who do remember the past are likewise condemned to repeat it."

what Th'...?

2009-02-16T21:30:00.001Z

The always entertaining Wall Street Journal, in their manner of Magical Thinking, now manages to assert that "President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form." (Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'), and yet, as California nears 'financial Armageddon,' governor warns; the WSJ appears to be Missing In Action or, perhaps, inaction is the operative word. Seems to me that "Armageddon" is at least as fearsome a vision as "Catastrophe". Moreso when we look at the images of the politicians making the claims. Of course, Gov. Schwarzenegger won office by promising to Restore Fiscal Responsibility - a goal the WSJ deems praisworthy. Especially in a Republican. As a Tax-And-Spend Radical-Liberal-Democrat, President Obama is automatically Unsuited For Office, and is relegated to the category of Catastrophe. While the (Republican) Governor gets an Automatic Pass.

Success!

2009-02-15T05:00:00.000Z

Having been so successful in opposing every effort to restore the United States of America to a viable state, it seems the Republican Party owes a debt of gratitude to Eric Cantor (R -Va).
Yes, as it says in the New York Times, "...Mr. Cantor succeeded again on Friday in denying the White House the support of a single House Republican : In Gingrich Mold, a New Voice for Solid Resistance in G.O.P.
With many more such successes, it seems likely that the G.O.P.'s sledgehammer approach to redesigning the government - described by Rep. Cantor as "its bedrock value — smaller government" (a value which has never been actually utilised by any Republican President) - will indeed succeed: in rendering the government completely non-viable, that is. Ignore what's right for the actual people of the actual USA; think only about what's best calculated to Return The G.O.P. to power. Now, the United States is not about to disappear from the scene. It will endure. Much as the Roman Empire continued to exist. In different places, with different governments and different social systems. It seems to me to be most likely that the United States of the near future will look a lot like what is today most often described as "The Flyover States." With a Western States of America bounding it on the west (obviously), and a United States of New England on the northeast. And the rising seas of global warming marching up the middle (the Mississippi Valley) and shrinking the Island of Florida to a swamp of its former self. Yes; the G.O.P. is laboring greatly to fashion for itself, and for all of us, what we might well call a Pyrric Victory.

Are They Morons?

2009-02-14T00:30:00.001Z

... Or Do They Think We Are?
Before during and after the debates and the re-de-and-rere-structuring of the Stimulus Package, the cadre (or coven) of newly minted "fiscal guardians" was taking up as much bandwidth as it could get, claiming that government spending (Out-Of-Control Government Spending, that is) will do nothing to create jobs.
"Tax Cuts - That's The Way To Unleash Business"

Well. Do they take us for Idiots? Give the rich folk the money and they'll use it to build businesses. Build a new Automobile Factory, I shouldn't wonder...
On the other hand, they claim, spending money on the Smithsonian Institute (a particular target of the faux-jes'plain'folk) won't create any jobs at all! Trying to invoke an image of unpaid docents unpainting the walls with unpaint using unpaint brushes. Unpaid plumbers (just try to find one of those!) unfixing the plumbing. All the un-construction workers un-repairing the building using un-materials. Fantastic! I think the folk who have focussed on money to the exclusion of any notice of the actual, real, physical universe have No Idea what goes into the creation of that mysterious thing called Infrastructure. They seem to think infrastructure is that thing that gets reported and tabulated and plotted in the WSJ. Hey Guys! Think "Roads"; think "Bridges"; think "Running Water"; think "Electricity"; think... Oh, forgetit!

Stimulate Me!

2009-02-09T03:00:00.004Z

The Stimulus Package, so called because it stimulates Republicans to utter even more absurd statements than usual, has now been well and truly emasculated, so it's vote-ready in the Senate, and will be improved out of all recognizeability in a soon-to-appear-in-a-cable-teevee-show-near-you House-Senate Conference. The part that most stimulates me is the part where I can get a tax break for buying a new car! Any reasonable person, looking at the cars passing by on the street, might well conclude that there's already enough cars to go around. In fact there are More Cars in the United States today than there are people licensed to drive them. Therefore, what we need is more cars... It's the same reasoning as the tax break intended to increase Home Ownership, only different.
The way the Stimulus Bill has been bashed and bent seems like a rather desperate attempt to stem the changes already well underway, caused by the impossibility of continuing to endlessly increase the overconsumption of finite resources. It contains lots and lots of provisions to "Restore The Economy" to the status quo ante - rampant overconsumption fuelled by increasing debt. This is what is known as "Wealth Creation". All based on the twin ideas that the Rich Don't Have Enough Money, while the Poor Don't Have Enough Debt. That radical-liberal idea of a Green Economy has been summarily tossed overboard it seems. Future Fear has won out. Business Will Be As Usual 'Til Further Notice it seems. One had briefly hoped that rather than "Limiting Government", we might have set about "Limiting Consumption". Maybe Next Time.

Tone Deaf

2009-02-08T03:20:00.002Z

Israel will be going to the polls in a general election on Tuesday. There are lots of undecided voters (according to polls - I have no vaguest idea how accurate polls are there), but the general assumption is that the next Prime Minister is going to be Benyamin Netanyahu, or Bibi, as he likes to be called. It makes him seem more like a kindly old uncle rather than the murderous thug he really is. He's campaigning on a promise to "Get Rid Of Hamas", but he doesn't say how he plans to do that. Hamas, meanwhile, is campaigning heavily for Bibi, aware that he's their best hope of maintaining their grip on Gaza. They know that a few inflammatory statements, some flag-waving demonstrators, and as many rockets as they can manage to light off will persuade the remarkably tone deaf Israeli voters to vote against any sensible candidate and go for the one who promises the most violent response. The bombs, bullets, and rockets haven't worked so far, so they're bound to start working soon, is apparently the assumption. Much like that chilling phrase in one of the seemingly infinite string of "The Bourne ..." movies, where a CIA Station Chief says "We Keep Killing Them 'Til We Win." Meanwhile, the Palestinians, easy prey for Arabs and Jews alike, aren't going anywhere. They're far too valuable as a fuse for the powderkeg of the (un)Holy Land; that poor bloodsoaked territory so favored (so it is said) by Almighty God, who wants His People (whoever they are!) to kill every other one of His People (whoever they are).

Taxes!

2009-02-06T06:00:00.002Z

There seems to be a lot of enjoyment on the part of some people (particularly those who bloviate on Talk Radio (I include Fox News Teevee in this category), who think that Democrats should all pay their Income Taxes. I agree, of course; I wonder, though, how many people do you know who can fill out a 1040 plus its many wierd and wonderful appendages without error? It's easy to laugh if you have only used a 1040EZ, but if you've had to traverse the minefields to be found in the More-Than-A-Thousand-Forms available Here, perhaps you know that errors are pretty much guaranteed. Or, perhaps, we can call them "Honest Mistakes". Unless they're made by prospective Presidential Appointees. Heck; I have difficulty even following the 1040EZ, or the 1040S, or whatever it's called these days; you know, the form for those of us who don't actually have any of those preferred-tax-treatment "finacial instruments".

I'm reminded that Ronald Reagan got busted for failure to pay California State Income Taxes - when he was Governor of California! He paid the taxes (plus penalties & interest), was forgiven, and went on to become President of the United States, where he did his level best to destroy the progressive tax system.

It's taken a few decades, but the seeds sown by Reagan appear to have borne fruit at last. Instead of Tax-And-Spend, which led to a long period of -admittedly intermittent- prosperity; we have now arrived at Don't-Tax-But-Spend-Anyway, which will lead to a permanent state of poverty for most, but lots of prosperity for the few.
It's George W. Bush's Ownership Society redux.

Just What We Needed

2009-02-04T23:00:00.001Z

An improved way for stalkers to track us!
Yes, folks, now you (or anyone) can follow your children - to see that they're safe, or to track them down. Want to take a long lunch? Your boss will know! Want to leave your abusive spouse? He (she) will know just where you are. Why do we think stuff like this is a Good Idea?
This is what I call Technology-Run-Amok.

The Party of "NO"

2009-02-01T02:00:00.002Z

The Staunch Defenders in the Party of Fiscal Responsibility hewed to the party line, voting unanimously against the new President's stimulus package, declaring it to be lacking in tax cuts for the wealthy. How, they ask, can rich people lend money to poor people as long as they're saddled with the wealth-destroying taxes imposed by the irresponsible policies of the discredited President Clinton's economic plan? No, it's just as they suspected; President Obama had no true intention of acting in a bipartisan way. Continuing the Tax-Cut-And-Spend policies of the "Fairly Successful" President Bush (William Kristol,Weekly Standard), that is. Unanimously declaring themselves the Caretakers of Small Government.
The good news in all this: The President can stop wasting time and effort trying to be collegial toward the Rebublicans in Congress. If House Minority Leader John Boehner had feigned some degree of bipartisanship, he could later have blamed the Democrats for Politics-As-Usual, when the President was eventually forced to throw some juicy partisan red meat to the more carnivorous among the House Democratic Caucus. Instead, we can return to the dysfunctional system we've been heir to since Ronald Reagan claimed that Government is the problem, not the solution, and proceeded to prove his assertion.

A Chill Down The Spine

2009-01-30T03:33:00.031Z

I saw

this photo in the Bangkok Post this morning. This evening, on BBC World News, there was a report on the Rohingya refugees that the Thai Navy claimed it had not "treated cruelly". The BBC report included film clips showing images like

These...

When I realized that some, or many, or most of the men in the first photo were now dead... drowned... lost at sea; it sent a chill down my spine. Seeing them looking stoically at the camera, knowing their powerlessness, waiting for an unforgiving Guardian Force to determine their life-or-death, was spooky. I don't really have an adequate word for the feeling - spooky will just have to do. Having been lost at sea myself (entirely my own doing, for sure), I can attest to the fear factor. And also a kind of fatalism that takes over and seems to be almost paralytic in its effect.

Around the world, of course, there are people on the move, running from circumstances ranging from bleak to intolerable. In every case, in this crowded world, migrants (generally referred to as Illegal Immigrants) come crashing up against the Guardians of the Border. Wherever the migrants try to go, there are already people living there! Of course there are. That's because it's a livable area. Thats why people try to go there. Just like these Rohingya, there are migrants trying to enter the United States; some (generally referred to as "Hispanics") across the land border to the south; others (mostly from Mainland China by ship across the Pacific. We generally don't see the results of our Border Guardian's efforts. We read occasionally about the dead (but HEY! What Part Of Illegal Don't You Get?) turning up in the deserts of the Southwest. But it seems a small price to pay for Our Security. Of course, we aren't paying the price now, are we?

The Mumbai Maneuver

2009-01-07T10:00:00.003Z

India; AKA The World's Largest Democracy - An assertion that has little basis in observed fact, is maneuvering to deflect any possible blame for the too-little-too-late-too-confused response to the terrorist attack on the five-star hotels of Mumbai. By pointing the finger at Pakistan:

India: Pakistan officials had hand in attacks

In essence accusing the perpetually failing (but not failed - no!) state of Pakistan of being competent - Another assertion that has little basis in observed fact - going back to the inception of the state of Pakistan.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T00:01:00.000Z

And Especially Good Wishes to California, where the state employees and state contractors will soon be getting paid with IOUs.
This kind of State Budget Brinksmanship is endemic to the state, so the residents are accustomed, if not inured, to the whole thing. There are those who, when they find themselves paid for services to the state with state-issued IOUs return the favor by paying their taxes with personal IOUs - a fine way to respond, to my mind, even though (or especially though) it causes the governing angencies great anguish. It's also illegal, but then again, it's illegal (as in Unconstitutional) for the State of California to have either no budget, or a budget not in balance. For the most part the California Legislature does not give a fig, since the members of that dysfunctional body spend their days primarily in search of the next job, as they are always about to be Termed Out of their current position. The Voters, having passed a law limiting the terms of all elected officials, including legislators, are now reflecting on the wisdom of the old adage: Be Careful What You Wish For.
But for everyone, not just the indigenes of the mystical state of California, HAPPY NEW YEAR. Let's hope it lasts the full 365 days.

Free Markets!

2008-12-22T05:55:00.000Z

The Waning Days of the Years-Of-Bush are filled with cries about the "Death Of Free Markets."
Well, Good Ridddance, I say. Mostly because the so-called free markets never were actually free. Entry into the arena of free trade always reauired a fee. Money, Power, Connections, any of the above will do. To the worker who produces the goods and services being freely traded - Nothing.
Sorry; I got a little sidetracked there.
Something that came to me in a nightmare a while ago: Maybe, just maybe, if it's "Too Big To Fail", then it's also Too Big To Be Run For Short-Term-Profit to please the stockholders and generate bonus payments to senior management. If the gov't. (that's you and me, fellow taxpayer) is going to end up on the hook, why doesn't the gov't. have a sayso in the management? If the Interstate Highway System is infrastructure, the why arent the Cars and Trucks travelling on the highways also infrastructure? The vehicles are, like the roadway, merely conveyances for the delivery of people and products.
Now, this is a pretty radical thing to say; I imagine the proud owner of a hugely expensive and very shiny Land Yacht would consider it more as a prized possession than as a transportation device. Often, on the roads of America, the transportation part, implying movement, does not, in fact, apply to the multitudes clogging the asphalt. The prized personal conveyance (My Car!) ends up much more a status symbol than a device that can actually transport one from location A to location B. Without passing (sloowly) through locations A', A", A'"... en route. Not an efficient use of resources, one might say.
This radical notion of Infrastructure and State Participation would seem to apply equally to other areas where we are now seeing some marvelous examples of the ineptitude of management. Of course, we're seeing some pretty clear examples of the ineptitude of governmental management as well as of corporate management. Whether this is because of the incestuous relationship between Business and Government or vice versa, I'm not prepared to speculate now.
Perhaps Next Year.
God Bless Us Each And Every One.

"Go Shopping"

2008-12-20T07:30:00.001Z

In an eerie echo of counter-culture hero and loonie retailer Earl (Madman) Muntz; San Francisco retailers are "slashing prices, in some cases selling items below cost"! YES! "We have not yet begun to shop." Not only are the shoppers out of control, as they have been for many years, consuming everything that comes to hand with both hands, so to speak; now it appears that, just as the shoppers "Gotta Shop" just so the sellers "Gotta Sell". It's in the blood. "What will it take to put you into this {product-I'm-trying-to-sell}?, they cry". With a nation of compulsive sellers selling to a nation of compulsive buyers, it's no wonder that Treasury Sec'y Hank Paulson is focused on topping up the lender's money supply. They're gonna need every penny. Once everybody is far enough in debt, the economy will have recovered its robust appearance, as victims of Consumption (the tubercular kind) are also wont to do.
Even President-Elect Obama seems to be intent on returning the nation to its massively unsustainable levels of overconsumption, lacking any clear pathway to a healthy economy that depends on rational levels (of slightly less unsustainable levels) of consupmtion.

For Every Problem...

2008-12-18T06:00:00.000Z

There's A Solution that's simple, obvious, and wrong. Here's one that seems clearly obvious (well, to me, at least).
Here's the situation: As the year winds down and the time Congress reconvenes approaches, the Senate is in a bit of disarray. NO; That isn't the problem. The problem is that one state (Illinois) is short a Senator, while a near neighbor state (Minnesota) has one too many. WELL! What could be simpler. In the newfound, though sure to be short-lived spirit of collegiality, Minnesota could lend one of its surplus senators to Illinois! It's probably not a goood idea at this time to let Gov. Blagojevich, he of lets-make-a-deal fame, become involved in the process at this time. In the spirit of Keep-It-Simple-Stupid, I suggest a coin toss.
After all these ponderuous matters of "spoilt ballots" (one Minnesota ballot was disqualified because the voter used a smiley instead of filling in the circle - how much more clearly could a preference be stated?!) are resolved, the finally-victorious Senator-Elect from Minnesota could, if he was lent out, be repatriated, and Illinois left, if still a Senator short, at least no worse off. Perhaps the Senator-on-Lend-Lease would have enjoyed the time so much as to decide to run in the eventually-to-be-decided-upon special election. Actually, I may have overquoted H. L. Mencken above; I don't think this solution is wrong at all. Just unusual; and possibly illegal. That doesn't seem to be much of an impediment when Illinois politics are involved though.

Brain Drugs

2008-12-08T04:00:00.004Z

In a shocking development - "Scientists Back Brain Drugs for Healthy People." Yes, the selfless scientists who are hard at work developing new drugs to alleviate the ills of mankind now believe that the fruits of their labors should be shared by all - not just the sick and hypochondriacal. However; aware that the human mind is a complicated mechanism (though, unfortunately, often out of tune, so to speak), it really isn't safe to simply pass out the pills to all comers. "More Research", say the Researchers. This kind of self-serving claim is so ubiquitous in scientific reports that one wonders if anybody ever does any research for the purpose of learning anything - except to find a need to fund further research.

Some years back, for instance, at a "State of the (San Francisco - ed.) Bay" conference, the Keynote Speaker noted with some dismay that much of the bay's marine life was in precipitous decline. Her proposed solution: "A Major Funding of Research" to find out why. My proposed solution: "Stop Pumping All the Water Out of the Bay".

A noted minister and charlatan who's much given to rhyming platitudes has one that's certainly appropriate in this kind of situation: Avoid The Paralysis Of Analysis. Sometimes we really do know enough to do the right thing, without waiting for yet-another-study.
Sorry for mixing such disparate examples. But it was kinda fun.

Scapegoat?

2008-12-07T03:45:00.001Z

India seems intent on blaming Pakistan for the terrorist attack on Mumbai. At first it seemed as though Indian Government was upset that the Indian terrorists were setting up training camps in Pakistan instead of India, as they usually do. Perhaps they were getting tax breaks or something from the Pakistani Government. But no! Feeling the heat from their pallid response to the attacks on high-profile targets, Indian officials decided to blame the Perpetually-Failing-State of Pakistan. Trying to distract attention from the fact that the Indian Government, no great shakes, itself, hasn't been too successful at preventing terrorist activity, either. In fact, judging by the somewhat amazing Charge/Countercharge going on, both of these parties seem intent on finding a Casus Belli, allowing them to substitute a nice little border war for anything resembling actual responsible governance.
Seems almost Bushian in the way it's being played out:
Step One: Find a Scapegoat.
Step Two: Attack!
Step Three: Blame "Faulty Intelligence" for your continuing failures...

Moronic

2008-12-05T02:00:00.001Z

Is What This Is. Debating all the little details of a puny few billion (somewhere between 15 and 150 Billion $$$ is what we're talking about here): Terms for Auto Aid; also known as Micromanaging. In a business-as-usual manner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) proclaimed "As we consider this legislation, our first priority must be to protect the hard-earned money of the American taxpayer..." Subtext: "We Need It For Our Friends On Wall Street." Sen. McConnell isn't the only one piling on, of course. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), the master-micro-manager of the Senate, while grilling the by now well-toasted "Big Three" CEOs wanted to know if they were going to switch their now-useless SUV plants over to the building of Mini-Buses. His plan: spend taxpayer money to build mini-buses to sell to ride-share programs that cities will fund with, you guessed it, taxpayer money! All this will be funded with IOUs, of course. Then again, some congressman wanted to know if any of this bailout money would be given to Auto Parts Suppliers. Helping them, one would suppose, to make more parts to build cars that nobody will make, on account of nobody will buy them. The (by now well-toasted) CEOs, without batting an eye, or lauging hysterically, said something so non-committal that it ended up as an 18 minute blank spot on the Congressional Record. I'm joking. They said something. It got published. It absolutely made no sense in the context of why or why not anybody should give the "hard-earned money of the American taxpayer..." (Thanx Mitch!) to the automobile industry.
Perhaps they should get the hard-earned etc. etc. because, as noted here, At G.M., Innovation Sacrificed to Profits..."Time and again over the last 30 years, G.M. has spent billions of dollars on innovative ideas"... Only to discard them when they threatened to actually become atually viable in the marketplace. Which, as George M. C. Fisher says, was "probably a mistake, in retrospect.”
Do Ya Think?
Oh: there was also something said by G. Richard Wagoner Jr, the CEO of General Motors (GM) to the effect that it would be impossible for the auto industry to be viable if the market in the USA shrank to Only Ten Million Cars A Year. How anybody could make a living selling only 10,000,000 of something is inconievable to this Chief Executive of Mega-Corporation.

I Googled "buggywhip" AND "bailout", and found (not too surprisingly) "about 156" results. Mostly non-responsive. There was, however, this snippet from The Oil Drum: "as the bailout calls for yet another transfer from poor to rich, ... to pass this legislation unless it includes incentives for buggywhip manufactures. ..." YES! I'm not the only one who wonders why the Buggywhip Companies didn't get a bailout in 1908, but their successors should get one in 2008.

Still, looking at this historically (if that's possible), it seems as though this Laissez-Faire Capitalism adventure is pretty much Darwinian in its lifespan. It grows and grows until it founders from its own Gigantism (is that a word?).
Still seems to me that, instead of frantically trying to get debt-ridden consumers to spend more (see Sixteen Tons), it might be better to ride the tide, and look for a way to ease the transition to a less-unsustainable lower-level of over-consumption.

Left Unmentioned

2008-11-27T01:30:00.001Z

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?

Consumers...

2008-11-26T02:30:00.008Z

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:

I Owe My Soul...

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.