New Year’s Resolution: I didn’t make any; I didn’t resolve not to eat Lindt dark chocolate candies in order to minimize my waistline, or plan on heading down to the very expensive drying rack/elliptical machine we bought after christmas last year. I did not take any Polar Bear plunges for charities in order to save the long-suffering basilisk population from the dreaded Kawasaki syndrome* (which, by the way, is not normally a malady that small lizards** that wish to trade in their Japanese made motorcycle for another variety must endure). Actually, I do have one resolution- to complete this overall topic of the deterioration of the middle class by next New Year’s Eve.
CULTURE FRENZY
CULTURE FRENZY
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” —Edmund Burke (first used in part 26). Morally, it serves an even better purpose here as it did there.
See-through: A few members of congress might be excepted from the subcategory of men, referred to above as “good” for countless reasons, (some of which I have addressed during the course of this overall topic). The second half of the banks and financial institutions bailout money (which falls under the heading of ‘Troubled Assets Relief Program” [or TARP]- so fancy) is about to be released, as requested by ex-president (Bush). Any member of congress, previously assumed to be good, or already thought to be evil, cannot possibly still have a constituency that respects their integrity, if they have not demanded that the American people be made aware of how the first half of the bailout money has been distributed before releasing the second half. A Common Cause email, or two, requests that there be an increase on governmental accountability and transparency; no reasonable human being would disagree with the need for transparency, particularly as it concerns the monetary force-feeding of financial institutions.
Diligence: Striving after knowledge is good. It is a matter of debate about which approach is preferable, that of esoteric agnosticism or diligence. It is the prerogative of those who calmly accept the ways of the world as it is, as continuously authored by those doing harm to the anonymous masses who never object, to sit back and be bemused by the struggle of the ineffectual multitude who constantly and frustratingly continue to ask why things must be the way they are and who is to blame for them. There is no path to enlightenment for the latter. And some of us seek in vain for a change to the governmental coin flip that’s results might best be summarized as “heads I win, tails you lose.”
So, this is christmas: For christmas I received a few presents, along with a requested book- “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”, by Robert M. Pirsig. This is an excellent yarn to date, which can be appreciated on a variety of levels. It has a potentially untrustworthy narrator, excellent imagery, is loaded with philosophy and can be appreciated for its many layers of sub-textual meaning. The second sentence of the author’s note is a disclaimer that what follows: “should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice.” The novice could surely distinguish orthodox Zen Buddhistic tenets from the thoughts, words and actions of the pathologically calm narrator. The narrator’s is that most famous of leisurely philosophical schools, championed early by Diogenes- and could just as well go by a twenty-first century name Zen Apathy. This school preaches that if there are problems in one’s individual life, or in the wider world, it is in vain to struggle to find a solution that involves a complaint, and likely is born of one, for life is most simple if we decide not to strive after a resolution to an esoteric*** problem. Surely we are better off just attempting to understand things which very naturally occur to us. I certainly admire the calm and the world of a character who is not directed by a treacherously insecure psychological compulsion to fawningly investigate the unreasonable ways of the world, which is often what this overall topic might seem to be restricted to. If I kept going there I probably would have quoted Tennyson, like a certain impeached governor from Illinois, who on his Facebook profile page, probably has an Alexander Hamilton quotation somewhere.
History channel I: Recently, I began watching one hour vignettes on each of the seven deadly sins, catalogued by Evagirus Ponticus, who in the 4th century had originally included an eighth, which pope Gregory I later combined into one of the seven. Gregory’s list (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride) excluded what essentially became known as apathy (in Latin- acedia); he included the apathetic aspects into the deadly sin of sloth. This sin’s history is far more confusing, and interesting, than what I have represented here, but for the purposes of demonstration I figure, that in this case, I need not be so thorough. Apathy, which is now included within the definitional bounds of sloth, is traditionally considered in the sense of spiritual apathy, so as I am highlighting its demerits here, I am considering it in a secular way. Other words that might fall within the overall confines of sloth proper- sadness, indolence, self-pity, despair, sadness (tristatia), indifference, laziness, melancholy, and chronic procrastination. Almost every human can fall prey to at least one of the litany of conditions which specify the relative burdens of mental or physical inactivity. Only those who contend that feeling uncertain about anything is beneath them are exempt, particularly where the solution to any problem is not unequivocally final. They have faith in their apathy.
History channel II: One of the “cures” for sloth in the second decade of the 1900s, developed by John Brinkley of Milford, Kansas, was the injection of goat testicles.**** The History Channel’s presentation of each of the sins was masterful. They take what has been a set of religiously identifiable evils, historically tracks them through the centuries and end by investigating the scientific reasons why mankind keeps committing them, some more frequently than others. Apathy is probably the easiest to commit, with apologies to gluttony. This panoramic approach is fascinating and shows how religion has failed to suppress the set of instinctual drives within the brain that seem to have been identified by scientists.
Zen apathy: In the Pirsig novel (“Zen”) the narrator refers to Einstein and the preferred type of scientific method, which involves a series of tests to determine what may be wrong with a machine, but it is generally understood that he could be referring to about any type of problem- say deciding on which of the insects at the bug buffet tastes best or determining how to, as a voter and interactive citizen, handle 21st century politics. The narrator points out, in quite an interesting manner, that (interpreting Einstein) “truth [is] a function of time”. This is fairly enlightening stuff and may seem to absolve all proponents of apathy from ever envisioning temporary solutions to some of this world’s most arcane problems investigated by the diligent. Perhaps the apathetic were formerly quite diligent and have grown tired of beating their head against the wall in search of elusive truths and we might be making their same mistakes. I have probably overly chastised too many people during the course of this political diatribe for being part of the problem simply because they did not agree with me. Truth and facts are with difficulty obtained and change more readily than we would like to admit, so there is- ahhh, truth in what Pirsig writes (“truth [is] a function of time”). My attempts in this forum are likely in vain, but my point has always been that if we are just spinning our political wheels, perhaps it is time to put on new tires; it is time, especially for the middle class, to take a different route, that the present truth, we must finally consider, is open to us; that metaphor would make more sense if one realized how much the narrator discusses cycles and roads. I have written a number of times that electing representatives from an alternate party is not the whole answer, but merely a start and probably only a better answer for now. Staring at the same problem well into this millennium is more fruitless than voting for your grandfather’s politicians. To quote Pirsig- “The more you look, the more you see.”*****
Cultivate our garden I: Clearly these people who are so accepting of the current system and so dismissive of any insistence that it ought to change are being more rational than those who despise the many faults of this world controlled by rich men. People who pay any attention to the best things that have been thought and said in the world (an old Matthew Arnold line) will recall that perhaps Einstein’s most famous quote- “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” is another feather in the cap of proposed change, a cap to be worn by those who challenge our collective political mindset. It is assumed that I should abandon the Utopian ideals I highlight when I draw attention to a social or political evil or governmental flaw, for the “ghost of rationality” (according to Pirsig) can lead more than just fictional characters astray, as Pirsig’s narrator, in Zen, reports. I would argue, that waiting for the dust to settle, without being the cause of stirring some of it up, is also not at all rational. Being an optimistic ingenue, or a Zen-like sage, is respectable, but not always in light of the dubious limits of our times.
Cultivate our garden II: Clearly these people have not read enough Voltaire who wrote- “We should tolerate each other because we are all weak, inconsistent, subject to mutability and to error”- especially if we try where we are likely to fail, because we may only be right for a little while. We should all be so passionate as when we were young and had sisters who had fake funerals for their Cabbage Patch Kids born in 1983, that died of Lupus, who considered burying them in the back yard, by your dad’s shed with a marker, not a cross, because Milly Louise was never baptized as a catholic. Ah, youthful exuberance- quite an incorrigible quality.
Hey, this section falls under the heading- Culture Frenzy- did you expect me to give a film review of the new “Notorious” movie, which is about deceased rapper Notorious B.I.G? Weren’t there any other famous black men to glorify, like Martin Luther King, Booker T. Washington, Arthur Ashe, Thurgood Marshall, or Jesse Jackson. Just kidding about that last one. If the filmmaker responsible for “Notorious” was considering the latter personage on that list, as well as Notorious B.I.G. . . . good call. Jesse Jackson is the black modern day equivalent of Alexander Hamilton without the writing talent.
AUTO BAILOUT
Business is good . . . for bailed out car manufacturers: With everyone else reeling from this economy, I am relieved that GM and Chrysler were given $17.4 billion. I am also encouraged that I will never run out of material if I periodically check on what the echo narcissists (see part 16) have to say about the state of politics. A certain radio program host mentioned a couple of weeks ago that though we have given financial giants $700 billion, those citizens who clamor for transparency in the manner that money is used are fools. Very briefly . . . . what? I do not presently have a teenager living in my house, but when I do, I plan on inquiring what they may have spent on the $40 they convinced me they needed for gas and lunch if they are asking for another $40 a day later. I might ask for receipts so that I might determine how my money was spent. Should I continue with this metaphor or has it already sunk in? In so many parts of this overall topic, it makes no sense to list them, I have indicated that there should be some independent accounting arm of the government which tracks the worthiness of expenditures. The gifting and subsequent use of $700 billion to those industries and corporations this particular radio host mentions did not even want the bailout money is more important than providing a panda in captivity with an endless supply of bamboo shoots, and pandas love them some bamboo. If an elect set of pandas crapped all over several tons of the highest quality bamboo "borrowed" from other pandas who may have put it to better use, I don't see how one could desire to offer more bamboo to those who have so wasted it.
George Will news: One of his last columns from 2008- “The Door Opens for Big Government, and it Walks in” appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on December 28, 2008 (Opinion Exchange section OP3). Will’s traditionally conservative concern is over the level of meddling that government should not be a part of in private industry. Will comically recalls Lyndon Johnson’s involvement, in 1966, in the directing of the “U.S. surgeon general to dampen demand by warning the nation about the hazards of cholesterol in eggs.” Will refers to Johnson, in the article as the Egg Czar- pretty funny. That story sets up the point of Will's article. Generally, I am against government’s involvement in anything but delivering my mail. But when the alternative is not meddling at all and leaving teenagers to buy hockey cards at $10 a pack, crystal meth or a basilisk as a pet without parental sign-off, well, that is worse. Will’s contention, that though we (the taxpayers) bailed out the car companies,****** no one in government should push the auto manufacturers toward the production of greener vehicles.
Let’s be Frank: Let’s be Barney Frank. Say what you will about his role in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle (received campaign contributions of more than $42K over the last 19 years- protecting the assets of aforementioned), his abrasiveness, that he’s a career politician with 27 years experience (and has also done some good things), he has a truly bloated resume. When he was interviewed by Business Week, a periodical that Will quotes from in his article, Frank mentions that “ ‘a push for green cars is very much what we’re involved in. We don’t think that’s politics.’ ” Huh? Surely, having the chair of the Financial Services Committee (which overseas the housing and banking industries) encourage automakers to build more green cars is the essence of political action; I didn’t watch “West Wing” all those years for nothing. For someone like Will, who is my intellectual superior in every way, who could recognize such posturing in his sleep, but expresses his bewilderment at Frank’s designs and integration of political opacity, the very opacity that someone like Will, and his minion conservative echo narcissists normally applaud, well, this is puzzling. Frank’s statement is like the denial by Hamas that their anti-Semitic charter, writings and public statements betray their contention that they are not anti-Semites. Hey, I never said I had given up looking things up on Wikipedia.
Getting the business: Business Week, as quoted by Will, asked Barney Frank if “Congress realize[d] how few hybrids have been sold, as it pushes Detroit to make them, and will Congress give consumers greater incentives to buy these cars?” Frank’s response: “Those who are ‘blaming the auto companies forget to blame somebody else—the consumers. In the recorded history of America, no one was ever forced at gunpoint to buy a Hummer.’ ” Be careful, Mr. Frank, history ain’t over yet. I imagine that in the next 12 months, if the economy continues this way, some car salesman in Dubuque will actually attempt to force someone who is shopping for a vehicle to buy a hummer at gunpoint in order to save his job. I would make a comment about the notion that Plaxico Burress was just a hard-up car salesman who accidentally fired a bullet into his thigh while trying to get someone into an Escalade, but the humor would be lost on most people once I finally decide to publish this beast of a blog topic a year after the wide-receiver’s criminal trial is over. I would say this to Frank- the American consumer cannot purchase a vehicle that does not exist, one say of the affordable variety, if our wages remain stagnant and the prices on all other necessary costs continue to rise. Getting a conservative to “buy” that would be more difficult than getting a consumer to purchase an overpriced green vehicle. Jesus, negotiating with terrorists would be preferable to arguing with conservatives on the topic of the separation of government and private markets, which is the new separation of church and state topic.
Further Will: Will reiterates: “Consumers are such a disappointment to Congress. But what Congress really believes is that people are not ready to buy those cars at a price that reflects the costs of making them. Why else has it voted tax subsidies for buyers?”
First, has anyone really proven what it actually costs the automakers to manufacture a green car? Meaning, are the prices being charged justifiable? You cannot have it both ways. You cannot say that the law of supply and demand dictates for how much the manufacturers have the right to sell their green cars (at what they consider is fair market value) if the demand for them is so low (at the prices being charged) that the consumer isn’t buying them. There is no reason to chastise the consumer for some mythical breach of contract where the automakers feel as if the consumer should be contractually obligated to buy their overpriced cars. Might they not set the price too high for a reason, so that they can continue to sell the same old, non-environmentally friendly vehicles, which in turn would make the oil companies happy? Mightn’t the oil companies be giving the automakers kick-backs for the potentially excessively-priced vehicles? We wouldn’t want any transparency in private business in order to find that out would we? See how not having a government, or a monitoring agency involved in protecting the public’s interests (i.e. their money/investment) might be worse than not allowing it? Here’s a hint- stop making environmentally unfriendly vehicles, the consumer will then be forced to not buy them (as they will not exist) and will then be enamored with the idea of buying a green car at a price they can afford after it has been proven that it is worth the price.
Second, I know people who purchased an environmentally-friendly vehicle, who were deemed too prosperous to get the tax subsidy. Frank, and Will, comment as if they are being completely transparent with the knowledge at hand. How many people have been denied those tax subsidies for having decided to purchase a green car? What is the economic cut-off/who is too rich to get the subsidy? How does this Leap Frog tag pen know that I am pointing to the silverback gorilla whose forest huffing, is not unlike the average, or even exemplary, conservative’s, whose humility, like Frank’s, is selective. Negotiating with my son about picking up his toys from the kitchen floor is less exhausting than trying to teach conservatives that it is the voyeur in us, and not the Buddha, that must prevail.
Third, and this goes back to Frank’s hummer comment- car companies designed and manufactured the hummer knowing full well how environmentally disadvantageous it was; it was later that the consumer learned how economically crippling that type of vehicle was once gas hit $3-$4 a gallon. It would be unwise to assume that the two factors are not together at play limiting the consumer’s ability to both protect the environment and their financial well-being. The blame is well-placed in the automaker’s court. Should people just buy horses and hay in order to prove to the government and the automakers that the product choices they have been providing us with are unsuitable for our needs? Again, we cannot buy a car that does not exist.
Note: In a couple of articles I read, Bush had asked that the auto bailout money should be paid back- riiiiight, just like all of the products promised by one-bid/sole source military contractors will be delivered, or the money will be, in lieu of the missing helicopters, concrete bunkers, or cutter watercraft (see part 8). One article, courtesy of FoxNews.com indicated that Bush “is concerned that some automakers may not survive over the long-term, and urged Congress to act next week on his approach to helping the troubled industry, which would tap billions of dollars from a Department of Energy program previously approved and funded to develop fuel-efficient vehicles.” (See- http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/05/bush/ “Bush: Any Aid to Automakers Must Be Paid Back” December 5, 2008. It is going to be tough for more green car designs, hopefully affordable ones, to become a reality if the government redirects the money from the coffers filled to that end.
Out on bail: All the talk about bailouts makes me sick. The commercial (retail) real estate developers have recently asked for assistance- “The Wall Street Journal reports that some of the country’s biggest developers have asked Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to be included in a $200 billion loan program recently created by the government to support the market for car loans, student loans and credit card debt.” (See- http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/12/22/daily11.html “Commercial Real Estate Developers Seek Bailout” Nashville Business Journal, December 22, 2008. Also, see part 38—Economy and Infrastructure section- a horsefly that is pig smart could have predicted that.) What’s next, a request for a bailout by porn industry magnates? Yes! “Joe Francis and Larry Flynt claim the economy has made America's sexual appetite go limp, so they're going to the one place where sex is always rampant -- Congress.” Yes, congress a place where ideas on the erection of American infrastructure, among other things, also go limp. (See- http://www.tmz.com/2009/01/07/porn-kings-help-us-through-hard-times/ “Porn Kings to D.C. - Help Us Through Hard Times.” TMZ, January 7, 2009. I think the squirrels are going to ask for an acorn bailout, their nests are quite high in the trees this winter; the kangaroos may ask for more darkness, as it is too hot to accomplish much in the Australian sun; I want the government to bail us out from the useless President’s day national holiday we celebrate each mid-February. I get that day off from work, in place of a more desirable floating holiday I would probably choose to take in the summer. It could be 13 degrees in mid February. I want the government to bail on that day and choose a lesser-known, less successful president to honor for such a generically- named holiday- James Buchanan was born on April 23rd. Good enough. I would have picked a June, July, or August birthday month- but none of these pathetic ex-presidential bastards (I could think of) were born anywhere near those months. We could celebrate the day that Burr shot and killed Hamilton (July 11th) and just call it Vice-President’s day. The wrong that Burr prevented, in killing Hamilton, was at least as beneficial to the health of the country as anything good Polk, Hayes, Garfield or Cleveland may have been given credit for while in office.
Governmental transparency: It appears that congress was wise enough to attach a condition to the second portion of the to be doled out “$700 billion financial rescue program . . . The program has come under attack from members of Congress who are critical of how the first half of the money was allocated and calling for changes that broaden its scope, [like putting compensation limits on executive salaries, and indications of how the money is to be spent, among other things]. Under the original program, Congressional approval is needed before the second half can be spent.” (See- “Grim Job Outlook Turns Bleaker” ******* John W. Schoen, msnbc.com- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28565918.) Smart move. Even better move, hire a trustworthy independent counsel or agency to guarantee that CEOs of the industry giants who were bailed out are not given their bonuses and that the money is allocated in a way that makes sense and have the legal balls to block expenditures that will not improve our economic predicament. If that means that an independent set of bean counters are charged with overseeing the money distributed to “Local governments, small businesses, homeowners[********] and other consumers [who] could get additional financial aid from the ongoing [financial bailout] overhaul” (this speculation is contained within the article) then so be it. It might make more sense to bring relief from the bottom up rather than from the top down and appoint responsible parties to oversee it. This is certainly voyeuristic, but it would be a better way to sweeten the deal, and as we know, having learned it from the conservative echo narcissists- a deal is a deal. We are through with the government holding our trust for ransom. I told my kids I would play Hungry Hungry Hippos with them if they ate all of their lunch . . . now where are those ear plugs?
Charge that car: “Automakers All Charged Up Over Electric Cars” Roland Jones, msnbc.com, January 16, 2009. “Almost every automaker at this year’s Detroit auto show—from General Motors and Ford to China-based BYD—unveiled plans to create a mass-produced electric car within two or three years.” The hope is that in three years, a car manufacturer can mass-produce an electrically charged passenger vehicle, with a lithium-ion battery that would last more than ten years for about $30,000. A lot of those types of numbers are contained within the article- I am just summarizing.
Not a member of the club: “Over the year, [2008] wages have risen 3.7 percent, though high prices for energy and food earlier this year made people feel that their paychecks weren’t stretching that far.” Ya think? That was easier to determine than the anger level of the Sam’s Club tire installation guy when I told him I did not have a membership card and that the ill-gotten tires I purchased were obtained with my sister’s card. On a side note- I am not sure how an American business can restrict the ability of free men and women to enter the confines of its establishment simply because they do not have a membership card. Sam’s Club should not be able to consider itself that exclusive; that doesn’t sound like a free market to me. (See- “Jobless Rate Jumps to 7.2 Percent in Dec.” Associated Press, January 9, 2009, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28574446/.)
BUSINESS BAIT
Warning- excessively long quotation: “Badly structured incentives [for businesses that decide to deal from one location or state rather than another] are costly, often mortgaging our future. The majority of spending on economic development—as much as 80 percent—takes the form of tax incentives rather than direct spending. These incentives are hidden from taxpayers in that they are not formally part of the budget, permitting politicians to claim that no new money will be spent. But they are spending, nevertheless. The missing revenues that these businesses would have paid whittle down the size of discrectionary budgets, making it more difficult to fund schools, health care, and environmental and transportation needs. Worse, many of the tax breaks are granted far into the future, long after their impact on attracting or retaining jobs.” Wow, that hardly sounds like the best case scenario to me. (Note: through a number of searches, I was unable to determine the full name or date this article appeared in the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Opinion Exchange section, and only know that the last name of the author is Markusen.)
Solution: This may be simplistic and unconstitutional, but maybe we ought to make it no more attractive for a business to settle in Irving, Texas than for it to settle in Bar Harbor, Maine. If the collective governors/Steinbrenner-like Buonapartes object, ask them if they will soon be seceding from the union. If the answer is no- then carry on. Too often the citizen is held hostage by the zealous adherence to antiquated (state’s rights) concessions, which are prevalent all over the Constitution and cripple true issue resolution from taking place. (See part 39, #3.) Just a warning, I intend to explore this further in part 43.
Cut bait: Don’t fish for potential businesses to come to your state without “Unified state economic development budgets [which] would enable legislatures, journalists and the public to clearly see the trade-offs among competing economic development programs.” Markusen also writes about fully disclosed incentives, the vigorous enforcement of rules when a business reneges on a contract, that tax incentives should only be awarded to businesses that produce the number of jobs they promised to bring to the state, etc. All of these, in my opinion, are in lieu of altering the Constitution, such as in the paragraph immediately preceding. I know this is the land of opportunity, the country of capitalism and competition, but each state government must always decide to fish or cut bait in terms of trying to decide if a businesses’ inclusion in that state’s confines is good for that particular state government or bad. I don’t believe that particular states should be obligated, or allowed, to make that choice. The incentives for a business to be located in one state should be no better than in any other state. I offer that which is contained in the whole of this paragraph as an alternative to that which is offered in the paragraph directly above, to ensure that one of them is chosen. Because one of them, it cannot be doubted, is preferable to the current format where the highest bidding state government disqualifies most others from contention, and produces bidding wars that sets an unappealing precedent the same way that one community building a baseball stadium for a billionaire sends the wrong message, or the same way that a female monitor lizard spread-eagled on the fake log at the zoo sends the wrong message to the sloth, in the next pen, that is too apathetic to capitalize.
Write stuff I: In a recent installment of the Minneapolis Star Tribune I learned that one could forward input on the state budget for the new legislative session. Send these ideas to http://www.house.mn/ or for federal ideas please let president Obama know at http://www.change.gov/. Of course, those who are apathetic to all types of change, should refrain from providing any input. Hopefully Obama is not too busy with his vow to revolutionize entitlement programs to listen to conscientious budgetary approaches. According to the article below, both Clinton and George W. Bush also promised to overhaul “the nation’s retirement and health-care systems. See- “Obama Vows to Reshape Entitlement Programs” Michael D. Shear, Washington Post, January 16, 2009 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28686114/). Man, would I love to be a fly on the wall at the “fiscal responsibility summit.” We’ve seen enough of the valley. In the entitlements article, Shear writes- “Obama repeated his assurance that there is ‘near-unanimity’ among economists that government spending will help restore jobs in the short term, adding that some estimates of necessary stimulus now reach $1.3 trillion.” If, by government spending, he means a future misallocation of funds spent on undesirable pending infrastructure “requirements”, or that by unanimity, he really means anonymity, and gestures toward a furtive congress, unable to take ownership of past failings (where they have acted, releasing the first half of the bailout money without any preconditions) and past slothful arrogance (where they have remained inactive- i.e. not beefing up the duties of the SEC, etc.), we’re all in trouble. At any rate, Obama has said: “ ‘You have to have a president who is willing to spend some political capital on this [the problems of social security and medicare].” Mr. President, how much political capital do you have? The conservatives have very expensive tastes and would need to be paid quite a bit due to how offended they are that a democrat is in office.
I heard that 58% of those describing themselves as conservatives hope you succeed; I am not sure whether to call the remaining 42% sadists or masochists- I think I would have to look at their bank accounts before deciding for sure.
Christian bail: This will not be a paragraph about the star of the two most recent Batman movies. In these economic times, Obama could turn loaves into fishes, stop talking about direct government spending being the best way to get us out of a recession and economic conservatives would still crucify him. Hopefully, he tones down the amount of money that would normally have been spent on the inauguration. If Obama is only able to talk about alleviating the burdens of Americans without successfully doing so and without drawing attention to the fact that he is not the only one in control of whether things get done (I hear that legislators are actually the ones who write and pass legislation), then he too will be lumped into the group of failures, whether that is because of one, or a series, of inadequately directed actions or inactions. Plenty of conservative sloths will just be WAITING for you to fail. That is Obama's cross to bear. I sincerely hope he succeeds and makes waves and things change, which will not really advance my point about the need for more political parties. In this way, I hope he can become king of the news.
Write stuff II: While fixing social security and medicare are necessary for the long term fiscal health of our country, so is fixing the exodus of American corporations overseas. My friend who was given voluntary separation information a week before christmas in 2008, received an email one day before New Year’s Eve which communicated that the fairly recently acquired news and technology information arm of the company that still employs him, was among the first to have journalists “provide the first reports on the situation [in Gaza].” This news arm “also published the first reports that Israeli missiles had destroyed Hamas police compounds, that the death toll from the strike was at least 50 and that Israel was ready to expand its campaign if necessary.” How proud they must be to be the first to report on death, even of the hated and feared members of the Hamas community. I couldn’t be happier for you, not even if the Hamas compound is plural for an amalgam of medicinal products made of mashed chickpeas, garlic, and olive oil, when applied to the conscience allows corporate decision-makers to forget all about the types of business entities and people who have helped make the company millions for decades upon decades. I also particularly like how a corporation can report on the extreme financial health of the company/earnings one week, and tell 1700+ employees that their job level has been earmarked for eventual redistribution overseas, and still give an incredibly expensive copy of their corporate earnings report to each of their more than 10,000 desk jockeys who file it under D for disgusting the morning they find it in their cubicle. Talk about a misappropriation of funds. Imagine how much a company could save by making only 500 copies, distributing it to only the highest ranking personality-less whorish suits, and making it available on-line where people can ignore it, or be disgusted by its contents electronically as opposed to in physical form.
One final note: An article********* I will probably quote from when I get to the sub-topic of taxation includes this website- http://www.recovery.gov- which has been created by congress, that has acknowledged “concerns about potential government waste . . . [and will] allow the public to track stimulus spending and file complaints.” This is likely just a pacifier for the masses to chew on, an empty electronic scroll to be filled with concerns that goes largely ignored, but you don’t have a governing body like congress even consider a move like that if you never speak of concerns about a lack of governmental transparency; clearly they've been perusing my over 300 page equivalent blog material. This is at least as likely as someone finding a bichon, even a male of the breed, that looks like it could beat up an area rug. I am probably being a bit naive in my appreciation of such a website, but it is better than the complete political nihilism offered by the Zen apathists. Sure, the website is mindful of when the priests sold indulgences during the dark ages; the supposed sinner’s final refuge . . . is hope. Hope can be very indulgent, some might say, self-indulgent, not unlike the contents of some people’s websites.
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* This disease bears no relation to the Harley Davidson Disease or the Yamaha Fever. Note: there is actually a disease named the Kawasaki Syndrome.
** A basilisk is a small lizard, and I have learned, via the Leap Frog National Geographic Tag learning activity cards my son got for christmas that the male basilisk has a crest on his head meant to impress females (the card reads). I would imagine they have in mind that it could impress females of the basilisk species and not human females, but if size matters (and not species) some chicks might be into that, even though the basilisk shown has a crest that looks like something that might be used to play Tiddlywinks.
*** I distinguish esoteric problems from technological, mathematical, or more scientific solutions that might exist. The narrator in the novel mentioned had identified technology as a force to be feared by a couple of the other characters. Examples of a technical problem to resolve- a motorcycle doesn’t fire right and does not start, or the notion that Os-Cal is proven to help reduce the risk of hip fractures, among the dune ant population, by 29%; esoteric examples- investigating the likelihood that just one finger has the flu or determining in what ways the middle class might begin to find itself subjected to the will of other economic classes and the politicians which energize this will and boring five people by chronicling the struggle over the course of 24 months.
**** I often opt for the occasional Captain Morgan and Coke instead.
***** Granted- he was referring to the volume of scientific hypotheses, which will always attack that truth which is most widely accepted (such as- that one should not look to elect a candidate other than one from one of the two major political parties, the argument that this is a wasted vote belies the notion that electing candidates from the two major parties has thus far been the answer. There is no proof that doing the same thing over and over again is the answer to resolving middle class woes, though perhaps it was at one time, for “truth [may be] a function of time”).
****** I do not see that Will acknowledges where the auto bailout money is coming from in the article, (perhaps from Auto Bailout Santy Claus), but launches his anti-government involvement in private industry tirade without having indicated that those paying for the bailout might want to see an equitable return on the investment. This is not unlike a CEO, who was guaranteed in his departure deal, prior to having financially run a company into the ground, $20 million in assets. Psst, this is another thing my favorite echo narcissist admitted. He supports the idea that the CEOs of the major corporations that were bailed out be given the money they were promised, because a deal is a deal, and not include a provision in the bailout which necessitates where the money they have been granted is to be dispersed. Sorry, but I never shook on that.
******* Remember when I wrote about unemployment being low (parts 9 and 30) and that at least was a saving grace of the current economic conditions? Yeah, neither do I. “. . . in a speech Thursday [January 7, 2009] Obama painted broad outlines of the kinds of programs he wants Congress to approve as part of his plan to ‘create or save’ 3 million jobs.” But, he probably won’t be allowed to see this through with conservatives and liberals alike who may decide to play politics with jobs. I've heard a number of times how leary conservatives are about Obama favoring F.D.R.'s New Deal reincarnation approach (with its Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC] and Works Progress Administration [WPA]), or Eisenhower's mid-twentieth century infrastructure building. See- in an economy that heavily depends on the consumer to spend their money, that (playing politics with jobs) might be a bad idea, because people are going to need jobs in order to earn money and they’re going to want to feel secure enough in their job to part with the thousands of dollars each household needs to inject into the economy. Unfortunately, the government has made the denizens of this country so nervous with their antics that most people will not even buy an Obama commemorative plate. Incidentally, the U.S. unemployment rate was at 7.2 percent in December 2008 (according to the Grim Job Outlook article), a total of 2.6 million jobs for the year were lost, the most since 1945. If Obama can save me my job I might buy a couple of commemorative plates, and they’ll be worth more if he follows up his position as president with successful leadership.
******** I might except those who might be foreclosed upon from this equation if it is true that a large number of those rescued previously from the government’s foreclosure rescue plan are still being foreclosed upon. I could waste money at least as well as that. Public works projects, to the disgust of conservatives, may be the best way to get some better results. This means that the relief would go to state governments; a chief economist thinks that for “every dollar spent on state aid would generate roughy $1.36 in benefit to the economy.” There may not be a great answer out there, but Buddha be damned, seeking around for one in the rubble is the easiest way to prove we’re not apathetic sinners.
********* “House Offers $825 Billion Stimulus” Shailagh Murray and Paul Kane, Washington Post, January 16, 2009.
