1) Souter to leave SCOTUS. Silly sibilant seance soon seeking suitable Supreme.
2) MEMO to hedge fund managers: The party is over. You want twenty percent of the operating profit your fund makes? That's OK, but you'll pay real taxes on it now.
3) EPOS MISLUKKEN!
4) And it only took seven years and a Democratic administration to accomplish!
5) Interesting, until you give a thought to the whole Cradle of Humanity thing.
6) This bill should have passed, but the banking lobby got to it first. This stinks. I blame the Bush bailout, because banks know they can always come back for more, but what about we, the people?
7) And now for something completely different: a dancing parrot!
Poor taste in music, however.
8) The Kentucky Derby is tomorrow. Looks like a wide-open field. I'm probably going to put a bet down on Friesan Fire, tho.
9) Apparently, they take road rage seriously in the UAE.
10) Brings a whole new meaning to "Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Staying alive, staying aliiiiiive!"
Friday, May 01, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Reframing The Propaganda
From the formerly reliable newswire service now owned by Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the Second Coming of the Messiah:
Things that make you go "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm," indeed.
Draw the battle lines, and Katie, bar the door, the Republican Civil War has formally begun!
This could be a doozy, since both sides have deep pockets and both sides have deeply dogmatic beliefs about the direction the Republican Party needs to go in.
Unlike the Democrats, who underwent their soul-searching change thirty years ago when the deep divide between liberals and moderates coalesced after Jimmy Carter's defeat in 1980 (and look how long that lasted and that was a polite falling out!), this one has all the earmarks of being rancorous and nasty.
One the one side, you have Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and all the other numbnuts and yahoos whose only claim to fame is a loud voice and someone dumb enough to pay them to speak (Richard Mellon Scaife).
On the other, the line up is pretty impressive, and is clearly an attempt to staunch the bleeding that is likely to occur now that Arlen Specter has jumped ship. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Richard Lugar will be targeted by the more conservative wing of the party for dismantling, and could follow suit. Included in the list noted above is the force majeure of the Republican Party, Sen. John McCain.
McCain's candidacy, as pathetic as it was, almost singlehandedly saved the Publicans from instant obscurity, attracting independents and even some moderate Democrats (PUMAs, mostly) to his cause. Based strictly on numbers, McCain should have done much worse, and any other Publican would like have been crushed under Obama's wheels.
This is a problem the GOP has had coming for decades. The strident and aggressive attitude and enforcement (Remember Tom "The Hammer" DeLay?) has bubbled up ever since they caught a lucky wave in the timing of the Reagan presidency, and have taken credit for the policies that dealt long-term damage to the American economy.
Thirty year old ideas, which is all the Publicans have been able to dish up for, well, thirty years, have holes in them. The world moves past them quickly. You need to catch up.
I'm not sure who to root for, to be honest. Part of me sees a chance to have a Democratic hegemony for the bulk of this century and thinks that's a good thing, so wants the Rushians to win. Part of me remembers that thirty year old ideas get stale for both sides and that Bill Clinton was most successful when he co-opted some obscure Publican ideas and gave them his own spin, so I'd like to see McCain wrest the party back.
Either way, we're witnessing the end of conservatism.
WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- Republican leaders say they're planning a new effort to revive the party's image and rebuild after the loss of Sen. Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party.
The new initiative, to be called the National Council for a New America, will involve an outreach by GOP officials including John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former national GOP chairman, CNN reported.
Others on the "panel of experts" will include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, younger brother of former President George W. Bush; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Things that make you go "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm," indeed.
Draw the battle lines, and Katie, bar the door, the Republican Civil War has formally begun!
This could be a doozy, since both sides have deep pockets and both sides have deeply dogmatic beliefs about the direction the Republican Party needs to go in.
Unlike the Democrats, who underwent their soul-searching change thirty years ago when the deep divide between liberals and moderates coalesced after Jimmy Carter's defeat in 1980 (and look how long that lasted and that was a polite falling out!), this one has all the earmarks of being rancorous and nasty.
One the one side, you have Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and all the other numbnuts and yahoos whose only claim to fame is a loud voice and someone dumb enough to pay them to speak (Richard Mellon Scaife).
On the other, the line up is pretty impressive, and is clearly an attempt to staunch the bleeding that is likely to occur now that Arlen Specter has jumped ship. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Richard Lugar will be targeted by the more conservative wing of the party for dismantling, and could follow suit. Included in the list noted above is the force majeure of the Republican Party, Sen. John McCain.
McCain's candidacy, as pathetic as it was, almost singlehandedly saved the Publicans from instant obscurity, attracting independents and even some moderate Democrats (PUMAs, mostly) to his cause. Based strictly on numbers, McCain should have done much worse, and any other Publican would like have been crushed under Obama's wheels.
This is a problem the GOP has had coming for decades. The strident and aggressive attitude and enforcement (Remember Tom "The Hammer" DeLay?) has bubbled up ever since they caught a lucky wave in the timing of the Reagan presidency, and have taken credit for the policies that dealt long-term damage to the American economy.
Thirty year old ideas, which is all the Publicans have been able to dish up for, well, thirty years, have holes in them. The world moves past them quickly. You need to catch up.
I'm not sure who to root for, to be honest. Part of me sees a chance to have a Democratic hegemony for the bulk of this century and thinks that's a good thing, so wants the Rushians to win. Part of me remembers that thirty year old ideas get stale for both sides and that Bill Clinton was most successful when he co-opted some obscure Publican ideas and gave them his own spin, so I'd like to see McCain wrest the party back.
Either way, we're witnessing the end of conservatism.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Hump Day Humour Blogging
Candle 2: Nostradamus's New Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)
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Idiots Write The News
Today's example: Whistling Past The Graveyard
You keep believing that, Count of Mounting Crisco. After voters have had a taste of national healthcare and a revivified economy, the GOP will be lucky to maintain 30 seats in the Senate.
You keep believing that, Count of Mounting Crisco. After voters have had a taste of national healthcare and a revivified economy, the GOP will be lucky to maintain 30 seats in the Senate.
H1N1, Anyone?
I've deliberately stayed away from the swine flu story this week because frankly, apart from the Mexico crisis, it doesn't seem to be that virulent.
Already, 70 cases have been reported in the US, with the first death in Texas, a toddler, the typical fatality in a flu epidemic.
Although the WHO and the US are taking steps to treat this as a pandemic, and there's evidence to believe that while they are being cautious, they are not being alarmist, there are reasons to think that this is being blown a little out of proportion by the global media.
For one thing, this is not the first swine flu outbreak in the US. And like that epidemic, there are strains of the avian flu mixed in the virus. It will be bad (I had that flu) but it should be a fairly short-lived matter, perhaps two or three months for it to work its course.
So of course, I urge you to stay healthy, wash your hands frequently, and if you know someone from California or Mexico or New York City (or live there), be extra careful in keeping yourself from catching anything.
And cross your fingers.
Already, 70 cases have been reported in the US, with the first death in Texas, a toddler, the typical fatality in a flu epidemic.
Although the WHO and the US are taking steps to treat this as a pandemic, and there's evidence to believe that while they are being cautious, they are not being alarmist, there are reasons to think that this is being blown a little out of proportion by the global media.
For one thing, this is not the first swine flu outbreak in the US. And like that epidemic, there are strains of the avian flu mixed in the virus. It will be bad (I had that flu) but it should be a fairly short-lived matter, perhaps two or three months for it to work its course.
So of course, I urge you to stay healthy, wash your hands frequently, and if you know someone from California or Mexico or New York City (or live there), be extra careful in keeping yourself from catching anything.
And cross your fingers.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Healthcare: A God Given Right
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Framers of the Constitution relied heavily on their own prior declarative thoughts when devising the laws of our land, yet were curiously silent with regard to the "life" portion of our rights.
We ought to fix that.
We have guarantees that, no matter how destitute you are, your liberties will be protected. We have an army and police forces that will protect, serve, and defend your property, no matter how meager. We guarantee you access to an attorney should you run afoul of the law or your neighbor.
We don't provide the same protection for your life, however. We don't guarantee you a doctor. If we guarantee you any care, it's emergency room care and the hospital will still sue you for money until they've bled you dry.
Why?
I could get into the whole "well, you know, back in those days the doctor was the local chap who applied leeches and leeches were free" argument, and accept that the Founders were men without vision.
Not impossible. Just unlikely.
I don't think the Founders, as they could not with the Second Amendment, could foresee a day when we'd have advanced diagnostic tools, nuclear medicine, the ability to delay death for decades.
In the 1700s, you were lucky to live until forty if you were a man and fifty if you were a woman. Why worry about maintaining your health if all it would do is give you a few weeks?
They didn't have antiseptics (Joseph Lister wasn't born until the 1820s). They had pain-killers after a fashion...basically, rum... microscopes were a relatively new thing as was the concept of microbiology and bacteria and viruses causing human diseases (remember the whole "leech" thing?). Antibiotics weren't even on the horizon. Sterilization and pasteurization were half a century in the future.
Who needed healthcare coverage?
Well, now we do. And as the Delcaration of Independence requires government "to secure these rights," the only solution to this perplexing problem is the most obvious and simplest one. As well as the most patriotic.
National health care.
Monday, April 27, 2009
A Dream Realized
It's too early to open the champagne or to even assess the package, but we've taken a big step as a nation:
If we can ignore Sununu's posturing and calling for a whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaambulance, on balance what this means is that some form of national health coverage will be in place within the next few weeks.
Undoubtedly, it will piss everyone off, which means either it is stellar piece of legislation or a complete bonehead bill.
National health care is long overdue in this nation. For too long, health insurance and healthcare has been both overpriced and underservicing the needs of the people of this country, unless you were rich enough (or worked for or with a large enough organization, which is diametrically opposed to American capitalism) to afford premium coverage.
Health insurers knew they have a captive audience and treated us all monopolistically. You went to work for an employer: take it or leave it.
Healthcare decisions effectively became the domain of your employer, who picked and chose coverage not based on what was best for you, but for his or her bottom line. By extension, your health care plan was next determined by the actuaries and bean counters at the insurer, not the doctor you saw. Their decisions guided not only his courses of treatments, but in some cases even forced him to tailor his diagnosis to get you out of his office faster, not necessarily healthier.
Doctors are not innocent in this scam, to be sure, although their guilt is not one of conspirator but of expeditor. The doctor or hospital must look to their own bottom line, knowing that their revenue stream is determined by two factors: limited time (who can work 25 hours a day?) and limited reimbursements.
Therefore, the faster they can churn patients out, the more money they can earn. This is not conducive to good healthcare, much less preventive healthcare. What doctor is going to waste precious revenue-earning time with you, discussing diet alternatives or recommending a good heart monitor? "You're fat, lose weight, next?"
Sununu's problem is two-fold: one, he sees national healthcare as socialized medicine (as if somehow our free enterprise model is helping anybody), and two, he's watching a parliamentarian trick used against his party.
Here's how that works: normally in the Senate, a bill must pull a supermajority. Sounds stupid and it is, but because of the filibuster rule, a simple majority is no longer sufficient to determine the will of the people.
The filibuster is the subject of a very long post in its own right, and I can't do justice to it here. Suffice it to say I feel it is necessary when something as controversial as committing the resources of this nation to a foreign objective is at stake, but quite unnecessary when 51 Senators determine, after 218 Representatives, that something as fundamental to the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" of the American people is at stake.
And there's the rub. Rather than letting health insurance stand or fall on its own merits, in the conference to resolve discrepancies in the annual budget Democrats can slip it in as a budget resolution, and it passes with a simple majority.
Tricky, to be sure, but whatever it takes, this is necessary. To delay this vital need of the nation a year longer or more until even the most hard-headed conservative "gets it" is both deadly and economically dangerous.
So John?
Shut up.
Late last week President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders agreed to use "budget reconciliation" if necessary to jam a massive health-care bill through Congress.
Most Americans probably greeted this news with the glazed eyes and yawns that should rightfully accompany any discussion of "the federal budget process" longer than 30 seconds. But this decision is a deeply troublesome attempt to circumvent the normal and customary workings of American democracy.
It's a radical departure from congressional precedent, in which budget rules have been designed and used to reduce deficits, not expand the size of government. And it promises bitter divisiveness under an administration that has made repeated promises to reach across the partisan divide.
If we can ignore Sununu's posturing and calling for a whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaambulance, on balance what this means is that some form of national health coverage will be in place within the next few weeks.
Undoubtedly, it will piss everyone off, which means either it is stellar piece of legislation or a complete bonehead bill.
National health care is long overdue in this nation. For too long, health insurance and healthcare has been both overpriced and underservicing the needs of the people of this country, unless you were rich enough (or worked for or with a large enough organization, which is diametrically opposed to American capitalism) to afford premium coverage.
Health insurers knew they have a captive audience and treated us all monopolistically. You went to work for an employer: take it or leave it.
Healthcare decisions effectively became the domain of your employer, who picked and chose coverage not based on what was best for you, but for his or her bottom line. By extension, your health care plan was next determined by the actuaries and bean counters at the insurer, not the doctor you saw. Their decisions guided not only his courses of treatments, but in some cases even forced him to tailor his diagnosis to get you out of his office faster, not necessarily healthier.
Doctors are not innocent in this scam, to be sure, although their guilt is not one of conspirator but of expeditor. The doctor or hospital must look to their own bottom line, knowing that their revenue stream is determined by two factors: limited time (who can work 25 hours a day?) and limited reimbursements.
Therefore, the faster they can churn patients out, the more money they can earn. This is not conducive to good healthcare, much less preventive healthcare. What doctor is going to waste precious revenue-earning time with you, discussing diet alternatives or recommending a good heart monitor? "You're fat, lose weight, next?"
Sununu's problem is two-fold: one, he sees national healthcare as socialized medicine (as if somehow our free enterprise model is helping anybody), and two, he's watching a parliamentarian trick used against his party.
Here's how that works: normally in the Senate, a bill must pull a supermajority. Sounds stupid and it is, but because of the filibuster rule, a simple majority is no longer sufficient to determine the will of the people.
The filibuster is the subject of a very long post in its own right, and I can't do justice to it here. Suffice it to say I feel it is necessary when something as controversial as committing the resources of this nation to a foreign objective is at stake, but quite unnecessary when 51 Senators determine, after 218 Representatives, that something as fundamental to the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" of the American people is at stake.
And there's the rub. Rather than letting health insurance stand or fall on its own merits, in the conference to resolve discrepancies in the annual budget Democrats can slip it in as a budget resolution, and it passes with a simple majority.
Tricky, to be sure, but whatever it takes, this is necessary. To delay this vital need of the nation a year longer or more until even the most hard-headed conservative "gets it" is both deadly and economically dangerous.
So John?
Shut up.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Nobody Asked Me, But...
1) Apple has been criticized by app developers in the past for how tightly they regulate both the platform distribution and apps, as well as the long slow process of approving apps for its computers and especially the iPhone. This is what happens when Apple listens to a bunch of mealymouthed babies.
2) "The Party Of No". I like it! It sums up the patrician attitude of the GOP to a T.
3) Just when you thought bird flu might be the problem...
4) Myrtle Beach is burning. And it's not even Spring Break. I get the sense there is going to be a massive drought along the eastern seaboard this summer.
5) The infighting on the marginalized right wing is ramping up. When you have the acknowledged pioneer rightwing kook calling another rightwing kook(ier) a "Eurofascist", all hell is breaking loose. (WARNING: right wing link)
6) Randi Rhodes returns. Ladies, bounce your boobies!
7) If I had written a novel about a major political party so marginalizing themselves, they ended up battling just to stay on the ballot in all fifty states, I would definitely include this chapter.
8) But I would ABSOLUTELY include this!
9) Hey, look...good babysitters ain't cheap, you know!
10) It looks more and more like we are not alone.
2) "The Party Of No". I like it! It sums up the patrician attitude of the GOP to a T.
3) Just when you thought bird flu might be the problem...
4) Myrtle Beach is burning. And it's not even Spring Break. I get the sense there is going to be a massive drought along the eastern seaboard this summer.
5) The infighting on the marginalized right wing is ramping up. When you have the acknowledged pioneer rightwing kook calling another rightwing kook(ier) a "Eurofascist", all hell is breaking loose. (WARNING: right wing link)
6) Randi Rhodes returns. Ladies, bounce your boobies!
7) If I had written a novel about a major political party so marginalizing themselves, they ended up battling just to stay on the ballot in all fifty states, I would definitely include this chapter.
8) But I would ABSOLUTELY include this!
9) Hey, look...good babysitters ain't cheap, you know!
10) It looks more and more like we are not alone.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The Rest Of The Iceberg
It should come as no surprise to anyone who's read my pieces for even as little as a year that the real economic crisis is still to come: credit card debt:
The trouble is this. People ran up their credit cards, secure in two pieces of information. First, they could always get a home equity loan to pay off the credit cards, which would also allow them to deduct mortgage interest. Second, the price of houses would always go up, so there would always be more room to refinance the house, and gather in more cash to pay off bigger credit card balances.
Keep in mind that a lot of the problem with the mortgage industry was that people who simply shouldn't have had mortgages got mortgages because banks wanted to throw money at them.
Why? It's not just the interest income, you see, but the fees a bank can charge. Late with a payment? We'll tack on $50. Missed a payment? That's $100.
And then they tightened the rules about when a payment was late and when it was missed. It used to be, if your payment was postmarked before the due date (like when you file your taxes, still) you were presumed to have made a payment to an agent of the company (e.g. the post office).
Now, payments have to physically be received in the office of the lender, and usually by some arbitrary time (say, 2 PM). Doesn't matter if your payment is in the office, so long as they haven't recorded it, they didn't receive it.
You can imagine what that's created.
And that was mortgages. For credit cards, it gets even worse.
A decade or so ago, I held a Fleet Bank Mastercard. I had a really nice rate, 4.9%, and made payments faithfully. One day, I dunno, it was raining or maybe we had a blackout, anyway, my payment was delayed in the mail and was late.
My 4.9% rate climbed up to 26.99%! Now, I was lucky. I had a good record, good credit history, and was able to point out it was a one time occurence, so they dropped my rate. The only reason I noticed it, to be honest, was that on my next statement the late payment fee was charged and as I was disputing that, I looked at the rate information.
Now, banks can do that to me even if my payment record is perfect. Even if ALL my payments to all my cards and on all my loans is perfect.
How? I could be late paying my phone bill. Or electricity. Or cable, even.
Here's a pro economic tip: when a bank starts tacking on fees like there's a sale on them, you can bet your boots that sector of their business is hurting badly. Which means credit card defaults are alarming the hell out of the guys in the pinstriped suits.
There's roughly $1 trillion in credit card debt out there. There's $6.5 trillion or so of mortgage debt.
The rub is, the $6.5 trillion is secured by a house. A piece of property. Something of value. The total losses if every loan collapsed might be something on the order of $500 billion (assuming all the houses eventually get sold).
That $1 trillion in credit card debt is unsecured. If every credit card suddenly became a bad debt, that's a trillion bucks out the door.
You see the problem, I'm sure. In fact, credit cards are even riskier than mortgages because every and any damned fool was offered one, even college kids.
The banks will not give this up easily, and certainly not without a fight.
“The administration — which scheduled the meeting at the request of some issuers — has promised to address credit card practices that Summers recently blamed for coaxing consumers ‘into paying extraordinarily high rates that they wouldn't have paid if they knew what they were getting themselves into.’”
The trouble is this. People ran up their credit cards, secure in two pieces of information. First, they could always get a home equity loan to pay off the credit cards, which would also allow them to deduct mortgage interest. Second, the price of houses would always go up, so there would always be more room to refinance the house, and gather in more cash to pay off bigger credit card balances.
Keep in mind that a lot of the problem with the mortgage industry was that people who simply shouldn't have had mortgages got mortgages because banks wanted to throw money at them.
Why? It's not just the interest income, you see, but the fees a bank can charge. Late with a payment? We'll tack on $50. Missed a payment? That's $100.
And then they tightened the rules about when a payment was late and when it was missed. It used to be, if your payment was postmarked before the due date (like when you file your taxes, still) you were presumed to have made a payment to an agent of the company (e.g. the post office).
Now, payments have to physically be received in the office of the lender, and usually by some arbitrary time (say, 2 PM). Doesn't matter if your payment is in the office, so long as they haven't recorded it, they didn't receive it.
You can imagine what that's created.
And that was mortgages. For credit cards, it gets even worse.
A decade or so ago, I held a Fleet Bank Mastercard. I had a really nice rate, 4.9%, and made payments faithfully. One day, I dunno, it was raining or maybe we had a blackout, anyway, my payment was delayed in the mail and was late.
My 4.9% rate climbed up to 26.99%! Now, I was lucky. I had a good record, good credit history, and was able to point out it was a one time occurence, so they dropped my rate. The only reason I noticed it, to be honest, was that on my next statement the late payment fee was charged and as I was disputing that, I looked at the rate information.
Now, banks can do that to me even if my payment record is perfect. Even if ALL my payments to all my cards and on all my loans is perfect.
How? I could be late paying my phone bill. Or electricity. Or cable, even.
Here's a pro economic tip: when a bank starts tacking on fees like there's a sale on them, you can bet your boots that sector of their business is hurting badly. Which means credit card defaults are alarming the hell out of the guys in the pinstriped suits.
There's roughly $1 trillion in credit card debt out there. There's $6.5 trillion or so of mortgage debt.
The rub is, the $6.5 trillion is secured by a house. A piece of property. Something of value. The total losses if every loan collapsed might be something on the order of $500 billion (assuming all the houses eventually get sold).
That $1 trillion in credit card debt is unsecured. If every credit card suddenly became a bad debt, that's a trillion bucks out the door.
You see the problem, I'm sure. In fact, credit cards are even riskier than mortgages because every and any damned fool was offered one, even college kids.
The banks will not give this up easily, and certainly not without a fight.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Big Question
I suppose every generation believes two things about itself:
1) It is the culmination of all generations preceding it, and
2) It will be the last generation on this planet.
I'm not sure why humanity has this fatalistic obsession with finality. Perhaps it is our mortality. Perhaps we just don't want to miss the parties that will take place after we're gone. Or perhaps we truly are that monstrously egoistic that we believe nothing and no one could possibly top us.
Like the one immediately preceding this, our generation has the option to end things. Unlike the generation before this, we have the awareness that things actually can end and without a mushroom cloud.
This week, today, we celebrate Earth Day. Earth Day, like Christmas, is the one day every year people get to remind themselves that they should behave nicely. And others. Nevermind that the other 364 days, most will likely litter to their hearts' content, today, people will take the extra two steps to the trash can.
Yippee! Now, what will we do tomorrow?
I've been involved in environmental concerns since the early 70s, since I was a Boy Scout and involved in setting up the first recycling program in NYC. It was fun. It felt good. As nasty as some of the things we had to do were, like cleaning up an empty lot that had turned into a dog run for the neighborhood, somehow we managed to have a sense of satisfaction from it.
Mother Earth is sick. She's running a fever and all kinds of toxins are rampant in her veins and arteries. And it's our fault. If you want an idea of just how painful birthing the race of man has been for her, I suggest you watch the series Life After People. Watch how the remnants of our civilization crumble as no one is around to maintain them.
The Second Law Of Thermodynamics in action. Entropy is the natural state of things. It is only man in his hubris that tries to circumvent the law as if it was a speed limit and we were in a hurry to go nowhere.
I'm not suggesting a Ludditic existence, or that we abandon clothing and housing and live off the land in caves. What I am suggesting is that each of us can slow down a little. Drive 55 instead of 65, even if the speed limit allows. Walk more. Buy local produce when possible. Wash clothes only when the laundry bag is full. Wash dishes by hand or only when the washer is full.
Buy a water bottle instead of bottled water. Use a canvas bag.
The list goes on and on of ways to cut back even just a little without inconveniencing yourself too much.
And this is a good time to practice these habits, in a time when belts are being tightened anyway, since many of these practices will save you money on your energy costs.
We only get this one Mother Earth, despite what astronomers are discovering daily it seems. She's sick. She needs our help.
She's provided for and carried you for all your life. Give a little bit back, please.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Someone Needs To Check Their Facts
Talk about Epic Fails:
I'm guessing the American standard of living, according to the Wall Street Journal, now hovers somewhere around the wages Nike pays in Indonesia.
Now, I'm sure there is a small number of people who can actually be prolific enough and charismatic enough to make a go of blogging full-time. You can sell ad space, after all, and its possible the statistics the WSJ includes in their article are skewed by revenues people make who sell their own shit on their websites like their own books and stuff.
But nearly every blog I visit, and I visit many of the largest ones, right and left, is practically begging for donations. Even The Corner, which is sponsored and funded in part by the odious "National Review" magazine, has had to hold two online fundraisers to defray costs.
And Pajamas Media, which was supposed to be the Life Magazine of blogging right-wingers, only without the pictures...or intellect...or snappy prose...or, hell, not even the Life Magazine of the dung pile!...folded unceremoniously.
So I think, WSJ, you messed up here.
In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers. Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers or firefighters.
I'm guessing the American standard of living, according to the Wall Street Journal, now hovers somewhere around the wages Nike pays in Indonesia.
Now, I'm sure there is a small number of people who can actually be prolific enough and charismatic enough to make a go of blogging full-time. You can sell ad space, after all, and its possible the statistics the WSJ includes in their article are skewed by revenues people make who sell their own shit on their websites like their own books and stuff.
But nearly every blog I visit, and I visit many of the largest ones, right and left, is practically begging for donations. Even The Corner, which is sponsored and funded in part by the odious "National Review" magazine, has had to hold two online fundraisers to defray costs.
And Pajamas Media, which was supposed to be the Life Magazine of blogging right-wingers, only without the pictures...or intellect...or snappy prose...or, hell, not even the Life Magazine of the dung pile!...folded unceremoniously.
So I think, WSJ, you messed up here.
Hanoi Hilton
Y'know, I was all set to let this go when I first read about some bizarre contretemps at the Miss USA pageant this weekend.
I figured one stupid insignificant person asking another stupid insignificant person a loaded question on a stupid insignificant made-for-TV event (produced by Donald Trump, the king of all things false and plastic) was nothing to care about.
And then I saw this on the Today Show:
Uh. Yea. Suddenly I gave a crap.
I found myself in the odd position of feeling empathy for the person whose views I found more odious.
Both people are in the wrong here, but it's Perez Hilton....um, who?...who has gotten my dander up the more.
Carrie Prejean carried herself admirably and so far has carried herself admirably in what has to be a particularly uncomfortable instant. Nobody expects a beauty pageant...a beauty pageant!...to turn into a political debate.
I'm surprised Tom Brokaw didn't appear and grab a judge's mic and turn into Instant Moderator.
She spoke her heart and as offensive as her opinion is to me, it was refreshing to hear someone put on the defensive on national television not hem and haw and calculate an answer, altho she clearly gave herself enough time to decide that was what she had to do, altho she admits later that she had prepared for that question.
As Voltaire said, "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." And having been in front of large audiences and live on national TV, I can assure you, no matter how much preparation you do, when you know the moment you dread is coming, you can guarantee your answer won't be as smooth as you rehearsed it.
She did this likely knowing full well her answer would cost her one judge's vote and therefore, the title. Kudos for balls, babe.
Now, onto Perez (who?) Hilton.
There was a time when confrontational activism in the pursuit of gay rights was called for, a time when getting in the face of ordinary people to wake them up to oppression.
That time is long past. As your own question demonstrates, four states have already passed a gay marriage law. Another two states have one in or ready for the legislative hopper.
Gay marriage is progressing.
If Arnold Schwarzenegger had been on that stage, your question would have been appropriate. If Rick Warren, the odious pastor who gave the invocation at Obama's inauguration had been up on stage, your question would have been appropriate.
Hell, if Obama, who opposes gay marriage, had been on that stage, your question would have been appropriate.
But to single out some poor kid from California?
Ms. Hilton, the self-proclaimed "queen of all media", you set the cause of gay rights back about a decade.
Fucking idjit. Fucking FUCKING idjit! The idea is to make homosexuality plausible to the large number of Americans who pretend they don't know a gay man or a lesbian.
The idea is ACCEPTANCE & TOLERANCE, you fucking idjit, and that means it HAS to work both ways. And if you can't deal with the fact that a significant number of Americans are uncomfortable with who you are, well, get the fuck out of this nation, son, because it's going to be long after both you and I are dead before gay marriage is not only accepted, but commonplace.
To bully some kid just because you have the spotlight is idi-fucking-otic! The "all about me" trope is something Republicans engage in. Our side is better than that. Or maybe you're not really on our side? There's an awful lot of Bible-thumping red state right winger in you, isn't there?
Then to go on and call her a "dumb bitch," just because she didn't recognize the magnificence that is Ms. Hilton? (Hilton goes on later to apologize, altho my suspicion is the apology ran along the lines of the famed Republican "If I hurt her feelings, I'm sorry" kind)
Ms. Hilton, your fifteen minutes are calling. They're up.
I figured one stupid insignificant person asking another stupid insignificant person a loaded question on a stupid insignificant made-for-TV event (produced by Donald Trump, the king of all things false and plastic) was nothing to care about.
And then I saw this on the Today Show:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Uh. Yea. Suddenly I gave a crap.
I found myself in the odd position of feeling empathy for the person whose views I found more odious.
Both people are in the wrong here, but it's Perez Hilton....um, who?...who has gotten my dander up the more.
Carrie Prejean carried herself admirably and so far has carried herself admirably in what has to be a particularly uncomfortable instant. Nobody expects a beauty pageant...a beauty pageant!...to turn into a political debate.
I'm surprised Tom Brokaw didn't appear and grab a judge's mic and turn into Instant Moderator.
She spoke her heart and as offensive as her opinion is to me, it was refreshing to hear someone put on the defensive on national television not hem and haw and calculate an answer, altho she clearly gave herself enough time to decide that was what she had to do, altho she admits later that she had prepared for that question.
As Voltaire said, "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." And having been in front of large audiences and live on national TV, I can assure you, no matter how much preparation you do, when you know the moment you dread is coming, you can guarantee your answer won't be as smooth as you rehearsed it.
She did this likely knowing full well her answer would cost her one judge's vote and therefore, the title. Kudos for balls, babe.
Now, onto Perez (who?) Hilton.
There was a time when confrontational activism in the pursuit of gay rights was called for, a time when getting in the face of ordinary people to wake them up to oppression.
That time is long past. As your own question demonstrates, four states have already passed a gay marriage law. Another two states have one in or ready for the legislative hopper.
Gay marriage is progressing.
If Arnold Schwarzenegger had been on that stage, your question would have been appropriate. If Rick Warren, the odious pastor who gave the invocation at Obama's inauguration had been up on stage, your question would have been appropriate.
Hell, if Obama, who opposes gay marriage, had been on that stage, your question would have been appropriate.
But to single out some poor kid from California?
Ms. Hilton, the self-proclaimed "queen of all media", you set the cause of gay rights back about a decade.
Fucking idjit. Fucking FUCKING idjit! The idea is to make homosexuality plausible to the large number of Americans who pretend they don't know a gay man or a lesbian.
The idea is ACCEPTANCE & TOLERANCE, you fucking idjit, and that means it HAS to work both ways. And if you can't deal with the fact that a significant number of Americans are uncomfortable with who you are, well, get the fuck out of this nation, son, because it's going to be long after both you and I are dead before gay marriage is not only accepted, but commonplace.
To bully some kid just because you have the spotlight is idi-fucking-otic! The "all about me" trope is something Republicans engage in. Our side is better than that. Or maybe you're not really on our side? There's an awful lot of Bible-thumping red state right winger in you, isn't there?
Then to go on and call her a "dumb bitch," just because she didn't recognize the magnificence that is Ms. Hilton? (Hilton goes on later to apologize, altho my suspicion is the apology ran along the lines of the famed Republican "If I hurt her feelings, I'm sorry" kind)
Ms. Hilton, your fifteen minutes are calling. They're up.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Transciency
These tulips will likely be gone before the end of the week, such is the nature of New York City weather.
Columbination
No doubt you have heard by now that this is the tenth anniversary of the day when two self-indulgent, twisted, infantile right-wing psychopaths shot up a high school in Colorado.
Much has been written over the weekend with respect to the lessons learned from the Columbine massacre. How can American culture produce this kind of behavior on a regular basis?
Much of it, from both the left (guns!) and right (culture!) has been both simplistic and flat out wrong.
It goes far deeper than that, I fear. It goes all the way to our national psyche.
For example, Canada has a comparable number of guns per household to the USA. It also has as its national sport one of the most physical, violent games played, ice hockey. Guns. Culture. Yet...
You don't hear about Canadians shooting up busloads of people as regularly as you hear about Americans doing it. Why?
The words of the former Premier of the province of Alberta will speak volumes to you:
A few years ago, former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed astonished us by denouncing what he called “the decline of collectivity” in Canada. “We are becoming increasingly Americanized,” he warned, “and this imposes an un-Canadian individualism on our ethic.”
Individualism.
It says so much about this nation.
People only mature when they are exposed to other people on a regular basis, when they can learn to empathize with the plight of others, when the culture around them demands that attention be paid.
If this isn't learned from an early age, immaturity sets in, and you have the fertile grounds for the self-indulgence that sees everything from mass killings to subprime mortgage markets, all in the pursuit of the Material Me.
We used to teach Civics in school, but budget cuts imposed by the Republicans, the very fount of self-indulgence and immaturity, have forced schools to decide whether to raise citizens or drones.
We used to teach ethics & compassion in society, but the greedy bastards who decided that the Fairness Doctrine was unprofitable saw to it that we raised a culture where your opinion doesn't count because you can't raise the money for it to be heard, to ennumerate just one of many hits to ethics we've witnessed in my lifetime.
We used to teach community in our cities and towns, but that was before the word was modified with the adjective "gated".
We used to have neighbors, and now we have co-tenants.
We used to invite the world to our doors, now we make them stand behind fences, gazing in on us, and when we do allow them to enter, we make them jump through so many hoops while dangling the dream of prosperity in their faces, so is it any wonder that after all that effort and time, folks get a little upset when they aren't lottery winners?
We encourage individuality, unless you want to have sex or be married, which is the very essence of individuality. And heaven forbid you need to have an abortion! There, you have to conform!
What the hell do we expect when we insist on conformity in others' behaviors but demand individuality when it comes to our own useless peccadilloes?
Freedom isn't free. It comes with its own long list of demands in exchange for releasing you from captivity. Among these are the responsibilities inherent in any free society best summed up by the saying, "If one man is not free, then I am not free."
Collectivism, in this area, is individuality. If you take care of others, you will be free to be whom you want, whom you need to be, because the responsibility is on them to help you when you need it.
Won't work, you say. True. This is America, and no one trusts anyone else. THe Colonial motto should have been, "I got mine, Jack, now you go get yours," instead of "Don't tread on me."
Which means we have to change America, or we will not survive. No man is an island, and that goes double for a nation of wannabe islands. We have to learn to give a damn about everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, else.
We fake it. We pay attention when Madonna falls off a horse. We geet into a tizzy when some woman in Arizona has fourteen children. We throw a fit when our President tries to fix the problems of this nation.
And we spend trillions on a war in a land where people hate us, where most of us will never visit, and will soon be useless to us for any potential natural resources, but to spend a few thousand here to bail out a neighbor who is losing his house?
And there's the rub.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Happy Orthodox Easter!
This is an actual sign on my morning walk. It's for a commercial bakery that relocated from Red Bank, NJ.
But face facts, that sign as a frontispiece for the power plant in the background? That sums up America in a nutshell.
But face facts, that sign as a frontispiece for the power plant in the background? That sums up America in a nutshell.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Nobody Asked Me, But...
1) In fairness, her blowdryer DID look like a gun.
2) Rush Limbaugh. Like a fruitcake, he's the gift that keeps on giving, even tho you really don't want it.
3) I'm sorry, did I say "like a fruitcake"? He IS a fruitcake! Just ask any of his two, err, three, errr, four, errr, five? Four...four wives!
4) JammieWearingFool lives up to the last part of his name. Maybe he ought to buy a suit and get a job? Quoting a blind item about NBC worrying about being Obama's opposition network in the NY Post then claiming Fox News is the opposition network-- when the Post is OWNED by News Corp. and clearly this blind item was made up out of whole shit-- is like me quoting the Democratic Underground about, well, right wing terrorism. Or worse, me quoting Paris Hilton about how awful Obama's tax hikes will be.
5) One final funny note on the Teabagging on Wednesday: The DC protestors forgot to secure permits to dump a million teabags in the DC park they were authorized to protest in, thus missing the opportunity to have at least a decent visual for the nightly news. Instead, a conservative think tank funded in large part by the RNC offered the use of their conference room. On the twelfth floor. Of a building with tiny elevators. Meaning it took two people a few dozen trips up and down to take all those tea bags up, dump them in the conference room, take some pictures, then leave them for the non-union undocmented cleaning crew to cart out later that night!
6) One final UNfunny note on the Teabagging on Wednesday: If ur calling a President wif a 60% approval rating "fascist" on th' nashunal teevee, ur doin it wrong!
7) You are one of two major league baseball teams in the largest city in America, both opening a brand new stadium in the middle of the worst depression since World War II. Your stadium was paid in large part with public funds and one of the two team's field is named after a de-facto bankrupt multinational bank. Who do you get to sing your national anthem? A legendary singer associated with New York City, like Billy Joel (who has played both former stadiums), or Paul Simon, maybe even Tony Bennett? No. A legendary opera singer, like Renee Fleming or Placido Domingo? No. A famous Broadway performer like Sutton Foster or even Glenn Close who lives here and is a big baseball fan? No.
You get the ensemble cast of a failed revival of West Side Story or a near-washed up former American Idol winner.
Excuse me? YOU'RE FUCKING NEW YORK TEAMS! Why in the hell are you humping a Broadway show done worse than a high school production and a barely-tolerable singer humping her new album??? This is Yankee Stadium! This is the new home of the Mets! It's no wonder karma bit you both on the ass and made you embarass yourselves in the home openers!
9) It's just pork and beans!
10) Mr. President, it's not just about turning the page. It's about justice and human rights. If we truly want "Never Again," we have to make sure it happens never again, no matter what the cause or reason.
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