Values

Chapter 1 - Measuring Value

I've drooled buckets over the nation of Bhutan's paradigm-bursting declaration of measuring Gross National Happiness rather than Gross National Product. And I know most of you will say, yeah, but how else do you measure a nation's worth... that's just pie in the sky crap, Luth.

But let me ask you this: Isn't Gross National Product - a method of determining the "value" of something wherein the dollar value of units produced is divided by the number of people there - a kind of disturbing, even perverse way of calculating the "value" of anything?

Seriously.

Is that how you determine the "value" of your kids? Your memories? Your musical or athletic ability? The last good meal you had? Anything of any real importance to you?

Didn't think so. So it's not just me and my liberal ideas... it's not just pie in the sky. GNP is pretty arbitrary and if the past ten or so years have taught us anything, it's that dollar values don't measure the true value of anything worth having. Dollar values, my friend, are the real pie in the sky. Just ask Lehmann Bros.

Chapter 2 - Family Values

All right, how many more times do we have to hear that a leader from the party of family values is actually a normal human being with normal human instincts, and, like most normal humans, fallible?

I don't care if a senator found a boyfriend in an airport bathroom via his wide stance, or a governor met his girlfriend online... it's none of my business and it's none of yours unless you're that governor or senator's spouse.

No, that doesn't bother me in the least and it certainly doesn't say anything about their ability to govern. The problem with both instances... and any others I've left out, is the hypocrisy of those particular folks. Both criticized a sitting president for the exact same behavior as though it had never occurred to them and could never happen to them... as if they themselves weren't also human.

Why is it that the party who implies that they've got the most authoritative command of Christian values is the first to judge (rather than forgive - very UN-Christian, by the way) UNTIL one of their own gets caught?

I'll tell you why: when that's what you build your platform on, you've got no choice but to pretend you are in fact holier than thou and thus set yourself up for just such a fall. It's simple really, when you espouse moral superiority via standards, etched in stone, which violate your human instincts, you are by necessity, definititon and design establishing standards by which no one can measure up. You then either have to admit that you're just like the other guy and are only saying things that you know sound good and will get you elected (so you're a liar, a panderer and a hypocrite) OR that you're JUST a hypocrite. Time will prove one or the other in every case. What's that you say? They're the same conclusion? Yep, and time has proven them.

So give it up party of values, party of "no." Either get in the game with some alternatives to what you don't like about the majority in power, or jump on the party train and enjoy it, cuz it left the station about 160 days ago.

Chapter 3 - The Value of Free Markets

Why is it that the party of free markets is so opposed to a little government competition in health care? Isn't competition good for the market? To hear them say it, no government organization could ever win such a competition anyway. So why not give it a shot. And I'll head you off at the pass before you whine that such an experiment would be a waste of tax money because there are plenty of folks who said the same thing about the Iraq war, but that sure as hell didn't even slow it down. If we've got two billion a week to blow on experiments, let's at least get something out of it. After all, aren't they quick to say things like: do you really want the people who brought you the post office to provide your medical care?

Let's think about that question for a minute. The one known government entity that generates its own income and will get something delivered from coast to coast in about a day and a half for 40 fricking cents is the one they use as an example of inefficiency?

Yeah, I'd do that. How bad could it be. The USPS has managed to be self-sustaining since they replaced the friggin Pony Express... through all kinds of markets, through all kinds of setbacks, still chugging after the telephone AND the Internet were going to shut them down instantly.

Seriously, offer a friend, or the UPS guy 40 cents to get something to LA or Baghdad for you before next week and watch how they respond. The USPS ROCKS!

I'd say if there was a health insurance company, or a healthcare network that could perform and deliver as efficiently as the USPS does (for 40 cents a pop!) then I'd trade my plan for it in a minute. And you would too... don't lie.

And then there's the Veterans Health Administration, lauded by Fortune reporters, authors, Business Week, Time, and just about every other news organization for being the best healthcare system in the country and among the best in the world. Yep... right here in our own little government. How do they do it? Well, by focusing on lifelong wellness vs. selling profitable treatments until you change jobs and move on to become some other insurance company's problem for one. By establishing the nation's first nationwide electronic health records (with peerless security, by the way) allowing displaced Katrina victims to receive uninterrupted care no matter where they ended up and allowing their new providers access to their complete histories for another.

Sure they make some mistakes - you'll have that in the nations largest healthcare network - but unlike their commercial competition, VHA SHARES its mistakes publicly and immediately in order to remedy and prevent repeats across the country. Private providers surround mistakes with lawyers and you never hear about them until someone you know dies. (Until they call VHA hospital directors and say, "I've got this friend who wants to prevent this thing from happening in HER hospital... I've read you've dealt with it... what can you tell me, I mean, my friend about it?")

Surprise! There's a government-created and managed healthcare model just waiting to be tapped right there under our noses but someone out there doesn't want us to try it. VHA didn't get invited to the table to discuss healthcare reform with the new administration?! Hell, the Clinton administration even got a Republican congress to approve sufficient budgeting to cover EVERY U.S. veteran and their families FOR LIFE through VHA because the facts showed it would save billions compared to providing the far less efficient Medicare and Medicaid for those same veterans currently not covered. Imagine that, the Gingrich House and the Dole Senate actually agreed with a Clinton proposal to spend money on what these days is considered "socialized" healthcare. VHA must have been pretty damned good for that to happen! Of course, W wiped that budget out and pushed VHA back to the antiquated system of prioritizing only battle-injured veterans in spite of the promises made upon enlistment, in order to fund his war. But hey, the Value of Healthcare is another chapter.

The point is, if government is so inefficient, and free markets/open competition is so great, then what's there to lose by allowing the government to enter that competition. Give them a fair shot in the free and open market... or isn't that what you mean by "free" and "open?"

Chapter 4 - The Value of Being the Victim

Charles Swindoll (yes, Ray, I know he was a pastor!) says that life is only 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react - the attitude we CHOOSE to adopt regarding that 10%. I believe that to be fact... though I might suggest the ratio would be even more lopsided.

Not only is attitude THAT important. Not only do we CHOOSE the attitude we wear, but Attitude is THE ONLY thing we choose FREELY. We must die, pay taxes and all of the other inevitabilities in life, but how we feel about all of these things is entirely up to us. We can say, "that guy in traffic pissed me off after a really bad day" but no one can reach inside your head and activate that part of your brain but YOU. If you're pissed as a result of something that guy did, then it's because YOU decided to be pissed... not that guy. He can't decide that for you.

When it comes to values discussion, this fact of life effects everyone regardless of party affiliation, social or economic status... heck, I believe it's what got us into this economic mess (though it was steered a little by the runaway spending of the previous administration).

Here's what I mean: back in the golden age... the Reagan years, Wall Street big wheels were victims of too much regulation. By playing that victim, they pushed to have all that regulation lifted beyond all common sense. I mean, c'mon - blind, naked short selling? Even if you don't know what that is, it just sounds like something that should be regulated if not banned outright. If you do know what it is, then you know it's a little like selling something you've never owned, without any knowledge, consent, permission or proceeds of/to the rightful owner, but you keep all those proceeds. Now, describe for me any place in the world where that would be considered an above board, proper activity... aside from Wall Street since the 80's that is. Example #2: Bernie Madoff, no explanation necessary, I hope.

So anyway, those victims got most of the finance regulation lifted by playing the victim and promising that if only that heavy jackboot of basic common sense regulation were lifted from their throats, they could get the nation's economy back on the right foot. And it worked! (while the economic cycle was on an upswing and until the cycle shifted back downward and then until we started dumping unbudgeted billions into Iraq) Then they were victims again and needed more of the jackboot removed cuz even though they were growing richer and richer off of the nation's investments, the investors themselves had experienced a bit of a free market correction - meaning that while the brokers' fees and the house shares remained VERY lucrative, most investors' account values dropped nearly in half.

Now we'll add the investors to the list of victims - oblivious to the cyclical market, and wanting desperatly to earn something for nothing by just dumping some money into a fund and forgetting it until they were millionaires come retirment time at age 50, they too repeated the mantra: lift the regulation... cuz that's what my rich broker said and I want to be rich just like him (or her) and the only way I'll ever get there (according to surveys of Americans during this wonderful era) is to win the lottery or win a lawsuit, or to get ridiculous returns on my 401k that can only be possible through a) miracles and b) total deregulation of the financial industry. For the love of Pete, we can't actually be expected to WORK for a living and SAVE our money for retirement... we're victims here!

As the victims succeeded in relaxing all the rules, new investment strategies followed, like the highly successful junk bond market, the savings and loan industry, and the securitized debt trade. Victims of their own success, the sky became the limit. The first million wasn't enough. Now we need the second. A bedroom and bathroom for every person in my household isn't enough. I now need two for each! 3500 square feet in a 10 year old house isn't enough... I need 5000 in a brand new house! A car that gets me to work and back isn't enough, it needs to take up most of the road and proclaim my status to the world and burn a gallon of fuel for every thousand feet, because I can and I am a victim and I am entitled to that.

Victims all. If that's what we choose to be, then that's what we are, which brings us to...

Chapter 5 - The Value of Perspective

The week before we went on vacation, the brake/shift lever interlock switch on our 6-year old Honda Odyssey went out for good, moments after I'd arrived at work 30 miles away. This $9 part that I eventually swapped out in the dealer parking lot where I bought the replacement, caused my wife to be late for her last day of work before the vacation.

On the third day after our return a piece of metal, consistent with that prevalent in the wife's work parking lot, caused a flat tire on said van that was discovered as my wife came out to leave for work one morning.... moments after I'd arrived at work... 30 miles away. My brother came over and plugged the tire for her, but not until she was late for work again for the second time in about four days of work.

My wife and my daughter both made comments suggesting it might be time to replace said van... as though these two minor incidents costing less than $12 and 15 minutes to remedy (total) were an indication that the quality of the vehicle were somehow suddenly called into question. Mind you, this is a six year-old, completely paid for van that safely carried my family and friends over 130,000 trouble free miles getting 20-25 mpg along the way.

They could have decided that either my wife or I should stop going to work - that's a perspective that's at least as logical as the bad van theory. They could also have decided I should buy a motorcycle since only two wheels reduces the chances of another flat by 50%, but we're not big on statistics.

I don't tell this story to make fun of my beloved wife or daughter - given the situation my wife found herself in twice in a two week span... and a span of only four work days... I can certainly understand her frustration. I tell this story simply to point out how a different perspective changes what we determine to be "the truth."

For instance, when the Bush administration opened up the floodgates of the bailout by handing over the first $700 billion, including $20 billion to GM and Chrylser, the "truth" was that this necessary influx was the right thing to do for such important American industries. But now that we're 160 days into Obama's task of sorting out how to guarantee the conditions of those loans are met, suddenly the "truth" has taken on a slightly different interpretation. What was once a solid move is now a socialist agenda and runaway spending. Nevemind that Bush offering bailout money is kind of like Jose Cuervo paying for alcohol rehab. Nevermind that Obama was handed this mess but is now being blamed for causing it. Nevermind that he's been in office all of 5 months.

Perspective changes the truth - even for people who claim that "situational ethics" is a horrible thing.

Which brings us to...

Chapter 6 (or "Conclusion" if you prefer) - The Value of a Short Memory

I remember W coming in to office with the first federal budget surplus in my lifetime. I remember him telling us first that we invaded Iraq because that's where the 911 terrorists were, then because they had weapons of mass destruction, then because Saddam was an out of control dictator, and then because the Iraqis (apparently more than people in any other nation) sought democracy. I remember him telling the world the mission in Iraq had been accomplished. I remember when we started spending $2 billion a week there. I remember W initiating the bailout. I remember W leaving office with the highest deficit in American history. And I have a vague memory of those same people who support the continued spending of that unbudgeted $2 billion per week suddenly worrying about spending money right here in America.

I wish my memory were as short as the memories of others.

I'd value that.

Then again, who am I?

Luth,

that's who.

ON Cleveland Sports: A championship in my lifetime, AND the WHS music program

Wednesday night of this week, the Tribe FINALLY managed to string together three measley wins in a row with one against the Devil Rays. (At least they didn't wait until June for that!) (And yeah, I still call them that) Their timing couldn't have been better. After all, it sent the message that if this year's hapless Tribe can string three in a row together, then surely the far more capable Cavs can do the same.

The Cavs three game streak began last night. (now they only need to win two in a row... a much easier proposition) I predict the Cavs won't lose another until maybe game 3 or 4 against the Lakers and that will be the final loss of the season for the soon to be NBA champs. That's right, they'll be only the 9th out of nearly 200 playoff teams to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series. They're THAT special. I feel bad for Orlando fans this Saturday night. Life will truly suck for them as they prepare to come back to Cleveland to have their season ended!!

Another, far more interesting note to me:

Wadsworth High School band legend Sam Mayes retires at the end of this school year after 30 years of teaching and directing, 27 of it at Wadsworth, the last 9 at the Central Intermediate School where my daughter plays clarinet in the 5th grade band and sings in the 5th/6th grade choir.

Mr. Mayes came to Wadsworth by way of Coventry, a neighboring district, and there, by way of Indiana University of Pennsylvania(where he played trombone, Ray.) He even joined the "trombone line" last night to play the featured parts of Slip and Slide with about 15 5th grade trombonists? tromboners (no, that can't be it).

I was too dumb to have figured out that I could have passed some of my high school prison sentence playing an instrument for free rather than sitting in class, so I only knew Mr. Mayes from a student's perspective as that goofy new guy with bozo the clown hair. He came to WHS and took over as band director my senior year.

I knew him from a parent's perspective through two daughters in his band. He was the guy who somehow kept the band's population steady at nearly 50% of the class's populations. That's over 150 kids in both the 5th and 6th grade bands. They were so big that neither class/band had any space to practice as one unit except the performance stage, which was only cleared for use during concerts so they practiced in chunks. I also knew him as the guy who created the first 6th grade Jazz band in the school's history, populating it with nearly 50 kids... who always play Louie Louie as part of their Spring concert... and always feature solos from brave students (last year there were 7 solos but only 3 last night... SOLOS, by SIXTH graders in jazz band!!)

5th and 6th grade is a remarkable time for band kids. The school year starts with strange, scary, often annoying noises coming from their instruments, but the CIS band staff somehow manages to pick the right songs and steer the kids into delivering solid, if not occasionally amazing performances. Last night's final concert fell into the amazing category. My wife and I kept assuring ourselves that both the 5th and 6th grade bands weren't just AS good as many high school bands we've heard, they were truly better. I don't know if they kicked it up for Mr. Mayes's last show, or if the program is simply that rock solid, but it has never been a chore to attend these concerts. It has always been a pleasure. Last night was exemplary.

The auditorium they play in won't hold all of the parents from both grade levels, so they kick the 5th grade parents out after the band is done, then the combined choir sings (over 100 kids, all of whom come in an hour before school for every practice) and then they kick parents out again and then the 6th graders and the Jazz band finish the show. Mr. Mayes and his three bands received three standing ovations last night. They were the first in my memory at these concerts.

For me, being part of all three was a small thank you to him and to all the teachers who put in that kind of effort, that kind of magic over the course of an all too often unforgiving, thankless career. If you watched Mr. Mayes for more than about 30 seconds at a concert, you could instantly see his was a labor of love, but it's still a tough job that never gets the credit it deserves... not in pay and certainly not in respect.

Mr. Mayes is one of many examples of what's great about public education, what's so important that music remain a part of it, and a reminder that most of the people involved with it are VERY good at what they do... even if they don't all achieve his level of success.

Luth,
Out

Taking stock... counting blessings... returning to center.

I know I’ve way overused the “I just read this in Esquire” premise for a post, but you can’t pick on a guy for where he finds his inspiration.  Well, actually you can, and most people do, frequently, but I’m not going to let that stop me.

 

David Granger, the magazine’s editor, writes a column every month called “This Way In” by way of introducing and setting up each issue.  Yes, I actually read them, most of the time anyway, and most of the time they, at the very least, demonstrate why he holds the post he does with that organization.  He is insightful, unafraid of expressing unpopular opinions and an accomplished writer.  His vision for the magazine is clear in its continuous reach for something new while maintaining its traditions.

 

Every now and then though, Mr. Granger exceeds that standard and contributes a piece that outshines, or at least rivals all else that follows that first or second page.  This month’s is one of those times.

 

His was a simple message, to be clear, but in a time when the redundant and pedantic “now more than ever” has been added to every proclamation from Twinkies ads to rationalizations for illegitimate wars, it can’t be stated enough.

 

His message is this:  For most of us it’s not that bad so man up, count your blessings, and quit yer whinin’!

 

He establishes this as an undisputable truth with reasons dear to my heart.  I’ll lay a few of them out here and then add a few of my own as a means of justifying my own existence:

 

1. every generation wants theirs to be the best and the worst of times so we tend to exaggerate our situation – I knew a guy in college who ALWAYS noted this about Buffalo, NY

(Granger invokes HALF of the classic Dickens first line and a hypothesized editorial response to it from the European poor to illustrate the repetitiveness of this truism)

 

2. even if it were as bad as Al Gore says, and we did everything he suggests, we’d only, by the most generous predictions, succeed in reducing global warming by .3 degrees by the year 2100.

 

3. the current economic crisis, while nothing to sneeze at, means it’s easier to:

            - get a seat at great restaurants and most offer value priced specials!

            - unhinge our economy from the volatile futures market where it never should have been

 

…all things that should have happened long ago!

 

To Granger’s list I’ll add:

            - buy cheap real estate

            - catch up on that degree you abandoned

            - change careers (we all need different kinds of motivation, for instance: being fired)

            - buy cheap stock in companies you KNOW will be around in 10 years

            - vacation in Cuba and bring home legal cigars (OK, maybe not quite yet, but…)

 

I guess what hits home most to me about Granger’s advice or observation is how it applies to politics.  Trying times cause us to take stock.  We should do that more often.  While I’m happy that the American political trend seems to be a resurgence of the voice of the largely moderate electorate, I think we should take a little more notice of it.

 

The extremes from both poles have had the floor for far too long.  I truly do not begrudge Rush or Billo for making a career out of this.  In fact, if anything, I’m a little jealous.  Not so much of their “success” as of their ability to fool the rest of the media into believing they matter more than they really do.  Actually, that’s a misstatement as well.  If they didn’t actually matter, the last three elections would have been vastly different.  We would have discussed issues that really matter in a rational, reasonable manner.  WE didn’t, hence Rush and Billo matter.

 

The Air America crew – and I’ll go ahead and put names to them:  Al Franken and Janene Garafolo, (the only ones I can recall) were no better.  Though I obviously lean slightly more in their direction than in Fox’s, I’m just as disgusted with their extremism as I am with that of the other side.  In fact, maybe even more so for their lack of ability to pull off a successful campaign already modeled for them by their polar opposites.  Perhaps they didn’t go extreme enough.  Or, as I like to fool myself into believing on occasion, perhaps it’s just that their FAR LESS extreme/FAR MORE reasonable content simply doesn’t sell (watch the talk shows and the news if you doubt my theory)  But even I have to admit that they tried to be just as extreme, they just weren’t as good at it as the right.

 

The point is, these folks don’t represent US.  They represent extremes and while America might be extremely greedy, extremely shortsighted, extremely forgetful, and a lot of other adjectives to the extreme, as a nation, we tend to chug along with a high degree of stability, which is to say, overall moderation and reasonability.  We’re really not bad neighbors to have most of the time even if we tend to be a little boring once the extremes are ignored.  And in spite of ourselves, we’re still the best hope in the world for the vast majority of Earth’s inhabitants.

 

We provide the best opportunity to rise out of one’s born class regardless of color, creed or even competence.  We take care of our own (most of the time) better than just about any other group of people on the planet and when we falter in that, we’re the first to admit it even if we fight over the best way to fix it.  At least we fight about it and allow for the fight/discussion to happen instead of repressing all opposition!

 

We could get better at that fight and I believe we have in the past year.  Rush and Billo have proven themselves to be exactly what they are: shock value entertainers with no concern at all for what they’re spewing aside from the ratings and cash it gets them.  Al Franken has put his money where is mouth was and opted to do something about it rather than just talk and make money.  Like him, more Americans have taken a true interest in politics than we have in a long, long time, but there still remains a lingering doubt.

 

This doubt is reinforced each time I hear someone say something like “I hate all parties and all politicians.  You just can’t trust any of ‘em anymore.”

 

On the one hand, it’s refreshing to hear this from people who formerly spewed party politics rather than contemplate a thought of their own for more than the time it takes to pop the top on a beer.  On the other hand, this is exactly the attitude Granger is railing against.

 

Opting out is not an option.  Politicians are what they are and have always been.  They’re no worse nor better in our time than they ever were.  Ditto the media, education, communication, technology, the economy, religion, guns, abortion, etc. and so on.   Dropping out of the participatory process that is America in general and our political process in specific is just a lame excuse for your laziness. 

 

It’s the dropouts who allow the extremists to take control in the first place… and only after watching them run away with everything great about our world are we finally drawn back into not just the polls, but the process itself.  Party extremists can get people to the polls, but it took a campaign like Obama’s to actually get folks back into the process.  If he hadn’t mustered up the now famous high-tech grass-roots campaign, pulling people in as volunteers and campaigners, he never would have gotten folks to the polls.  Moderation was his stance.  The only extremism came via his oppositions accusations.

 

Suddenly people are shocked to hear that he, like Clinton, is actually a moderate.  Welcome to mainstream America.  Don’t believe the extremist hype.  Jump in the pool and discover that the water, scarce as it seems to be growing, is actually rather fine.

 

Does this mean we shouldn’t strive for that .3 degree reduction in global temperatures Al Gore’s less optimistic critics say we can achieve?  No.  Does it mean we should continue to artificially inflate rapidly self-destructing American companies rather than letting the market run its course?  No.  Does it mean we should abandon the workers through whose efforts those company’s helped establish American dominance and make it the great place it is and continuously tries to be?  Of course not.

 

What it means is it’s time to STAY involved.  It’s time to remember to count our blessings and realize it’s not that bad, or at least that we can make it better.  It’s also time to remember that it’s worse for some, better for others.  It’s time to do what we can for ourselves and for others so they can make it better for themselves as we strive to make it better for ourselves.  These goals aren’t mutually exclusive and the vast majority of us are glad to share them as common goals.  That’s not socialism, it’s America.  There will always be folks content to do the labor, earn the meager wage, buy the products and live their lives firmly in a comfortable, anonymous middle class.  Without them, the big wheels have no customers, no one from whom to make massive fortunes and remain or arrive among the elite, no one to build or deliver their products.  But those elites must also remember the contributions everyone makes along the way.  Elite (in terms of wealth) does not equal better or worse.  The measure of one’s success or contribution isn’t always monetary.

 

Granger points this out expertly with his “unhinging our economy from the banks” idea.  The nation of Bhoutan takes it even further by dropping the notion of Gross National Product in favor of Gross National Happiness – wherein they spend the nation’s cash not on that which returns the most cash, but on what returns the most happiness for their citizenry.  Now that’s extreme, but somewhere between what they do and what we do, there’s a far more acceptable and realistic solution.

 

Now that those of us who comprise the middle of the bell on that famous curve have come back into power, let’s keep it that way by vowing to never return to those extremes again.

 

Expect more from your government by remaining an active participant in and customer of it.  Don’t give up and let the extremes on either side shape the future for you.  Don’t be the “no voter” who never proposes any solutions but rather constantly criticizes the solutions someone else proposes.

 

 

 

 

  

Limbaugh's Assassin Logic and Lapsed Memory

It's no surprise that Rush Limbaugh's memory is short. In his battle against our "welfare state" he forgets that he once received public assistance. In his battle against Obama's "bastardization of the Constitution," he quotes the Declaration of Independence but cited the (either misquoted or paraphrased) words (depending on whether you think he’s a gas bag or a genius) as part of the Preamble to the Constitution, and in his battle against anything Democratic, he seems to have quickly forgotten that the President of the United States is OUR president, the nation's president, not just the president of the people who voted for him.

It wasn't too long ago that Rush was reminding liberals of this. Rush seems to have forgotten that outside of the campaigns very few but those who are as extreme in their views as Rush, ever want any president to fail.

Rush seems to have forgotten that while many of Bush's policies seemed doomed to failure from their inception, simply pointing that out is a far cry from actually rooting for them to fail. I'm not telling anyone anything new when I say I wasn't a big fan of the war in Iraq. It's never been justified. It's never accomplished anything and the cost will never be recouped. BUT not only did I, a card carrying liberal, NOT want it to fail, I actually participated in it at MY commander in chief's request even though I thought it was a stupid idea and I didn’t vote for that commander in chief. That’s what Americans do. I hoped, with that eternal optimism that many Americans have, that I’d discover something in Iraq that aligned with what Rush and Cheney and Bush were telling us back home… that some shred of logic might make it all clearer to me. I was disappointed, but I did my job and made it home.

What did Rush do? He ran his mouth in support of the war, forgot that it hasn’t panned out as predicted, then quickly abandoned his false patriotism to publicly wish for the failure of the man elected by Americans to lead America.

In my weakest moments, I too was pretty disrespectful to my commander in chief. I regret that I let my frustration get to me to that extent. I have no excuse. Unlike Rush, I was never under the influence of prescription pain killers that weren't prescribed to me. While I voiced my opinion about who the NEXT president should be, often invoking the actions of the current administration's all too public failing policies as evidence in support of what I believed, I never hoped that the current president would fail at anything. I simply wanted to replace him the next time around because of the failures no one else could even conceive. That’s what Americans do.

Unlike Rush, I realize that our leaders, as representatives of our nation, set the course of our nation. Though Rush tried to mitigate this throughout his 90 minutes of blather to C-Pac last week, there's no getting around the basic idea: root for the nation's leaders to fail and you're rooting for the nation to fail.

It doesn't surprise me that Rush feels this way. He's supported failed national policy for most of his working career. In fact, if it weren't for applying false logic, oversimplification, and yelling louder than anyone else in the room in defense of failed policy, he wouldn't have a job. No one would know who he is.

What surprises me most about the speech is how closely it ties the Rush mentality with the American presidential assassins described in Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation. In this humorous travelogue/autobiography of all sites associated with three president killers, Vowell provides a glimpse into their lives, their thoughts (through diary entries and other museum displays) as well as the lives of the presidents these men killed, the lives of the presidents that took over, their opponents and supporters, and the stereotypical American. (You know by now that I’m no history buff, but this is the kind of book that is an interesting character study that just happens to make the history come alive in the process only because its subjects just happen to be historical figures. You know what, that’s not even entirely accurate since Vowell and her many traveling companions are not historical. OK, so I’m not a literary critic.)

Anyway, two weeks ago, comparing Rush to America’s presidential assassins would have been purely to elicit response... nothing more than my own, misinformed opinion spread over the Web as the Web allows and begs, but Rush has given my comparison teeth with this latest media charade. Using not only a well covered semi-political event, but also Fox TV's coverage of it as his forum, Rush made clear that he is an ungrateful, childish, disrespectful and extremely arrogant hypocrite... just in case anyone was still wondering… who actually believes his own dogma. He demonstrated that the only thing he even pretends to honor from the greatest nation in the world is his ability to pull large amounts of cash out of its bleating lambs. This is all to say, somewhat more frighteningly, that he seems to have an awful lot in common with John Wilkes-Booth, Charles Guiteau and Leon Czolgolsz.

Jealousy, you say? Perhaps a tinge on the surface, but Rush is actually my motivational example that money and fame generally aren't worth what one has to give up for them.

There was a time when Elvis was a hero of mine, but the fat sweaty guy in bedazzled, oversized collared, fringed jumpsuits who eventually died on his toilet was a quick lesson for me about what a hero is. These days, when someone famous shows up on an infomercial, or on one of those "Where are they now" or "Celebrity Rehab" shows, that same lesson is learned all over again. But good old Rush has saved us the trouble of wondering when it will happen to him. Instead, he's made the leap on his own with one last dying gasp broadcast on his beloved cable channel. Naysayers might argue that he's always spewing attention-worthy drivel clearly intended to capitalize on the "there's no such thing as bad publicity" theory for achieving fame, but this new low has "grand finale" written all over it.

Even I didn't believe he would ever sink this deep into the smelliest mud... actually voicing his desire for the nation that made him rich to fail. I'm surprised he didn't offer himself up as an example of what's wrong with us these days. That would have been the final nail... the Kool-Aid stains on his chin.

So anyway, how does this link Rush to the likes of Wilkes-Booth, Guiteau and Czolgolsz – killers of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley - you ask? On the most basic level, they, like Rush, they truly believed they would be greeted as heroes for their courageous acts by a grateful nation. They were arrogant SOBs who believed they were divinely called to right the wrongs under which the entire nation suffered. Wiles-Booth thought himself a pillar of the Republican party. Guiteau believed that as well and that he deserved, and was even qualified to be the U.S. Ambassador to France. Czolgolsz, well, he was just an anarchist so maybe there’s no real link… no, wait, anarchists want government to fail so that in its absence, life will be beautiful. That’s more like Rush than I thought. Isn’t anarchy just the logical extension of the notion “that government is best which governs least?”

It’s also no coincidence that Roosevelt, who stepped in for McKinley, was a centrist who brokered revolutionary deals that, while not necessarily pleasing to both labor and industry, addressed both of their needs in a rational manner void of politics and partisan patronage. It’s almost as though, as Vowell puts it, he stopped being a Republican. (her words, not mine) I’m sure the pundits of the day felt Roosevelt was driving the nation to ruin with such revolutionary ideas as rational discussion, compromise, and trying to understand several perspectives before pronouncing policy.

But back to the arrogance of the assassins…

In the context of a joke, Limbaugh actually told his C-pac audience that God is jealous of him. Even in his attempts at self-deprecation, Limbaugh redefines arrogance. The only thing those assassins had over Limbaugh is their willingness to fully commit their egos, and their lives to the final task. Limbaugh, comfy in what he takes from our nation – at least until his wish comes true and the nation is no longer, won't go that final step/bite the hand that feeds him/prove his hypocrisy, but what he told his audience and the Fox viewers, was that he fully supports the thinking.

Wilkes-Booth believed that he spoke for both the North and the South and that his actions would not only heal a bleeding nation, be lauded, seen as justified, praised even, but, more specicically, that he could save the Republican Party from what Lincoln had done to it. He was shocked and almost suicidal when he learned this was not the case.

Czolgolsz must have been shocked when, while standing in line to shake President McKinley’s hands/shoot McKinley at the World Fair in Buffalo, he was actually tackled and beaten by a cop and a citizen who had been in line behind him. McKinley, bleeding on the floor of the convention hall, actually told the cop who joined the citizen to go easy on his assassin. Proving that those who actually rise to leadership rather than just lobbing arrows at their leaders from behind, can put personal desires aside and do what’s right rather than what will make them rich and famous. That’s a hard job to have. Rush’s job is much easier… so much so in fact, that I do it for free!

Charles Guiteau's trial was known for the entertainment value provided via Mr. Guiteau's nonsensical tirades. Though he made it clear with the speeches that he had lost his grip on reality, he undermined his own defense team's insanity plea by actually putting together entertaining speeches, even poetry about how wonderful he is and how God told him to kill President Garfield... that, in fact, the murder would save the Republican party.

The only difference seems to be that back in those days, folks had enough sense to laugh at Guiteau, not with him. They came to the trial to hear what kind of goofiness he would spew next, NOT to hear the "truth" about what's best for our nation.

Luth,
Out

Milestones and stumbling blocks

Finally!  America has, once and for all, put behind us that ugly racism that has held us back, distracted, disrupted, halted progress, shed blood and generally drained energy and resources since our very beginnings.  

With the election of the first black president, it has finally dawned on ignorant boneheads that the self perpetuating crap they've believed all their lives is just that: crap.  People all over this great nation are starting to realize they've been lied to by their friends and relatives about stereotyping and generalizing. People finally realize they no longer have any excuses for their lots in life outside of their own performance.  Women suddenly own land and a majority of seats in leadership commensurate with their numbers of the population.  People of colors and cultures different from our euro-blanco norm finally are judged not by their accent or skin color, but by their individual traits, character and ability.

Finally after eight years of President Bush being caricatured as a monkey in weekly political cartoons, the guy can get out of the spotlight and rest and the new president can safely be caricatured as a monkey without any hidden agendas or underlying meanings being associated with it other than pure, journalistic license invoking the close relationship between humans and apes... humans of any color, of course.  The subtle joke being, obviously, that while we have evolved from, and share the vast majority of genes with that slightly lesser species, we still share many many traits.   Thank goodness we've left race behind us so we can get on to the real problems that face us even if we still share too many of those lesser traits.

After all, we do still resort to violent outbursts on innocent victims even if those victims are close friends of the ones who have cared for and fed us all our lives.  Sometimes these outbursts are the results of unrestrained emotion and pass as quickly, and without permanent damage as a mild spring storm.  Sometimes the outbursts are the concerted effort of an entire nation resulting from fear, intolerance and ignorance, and the damage is ongoing and irreparable.

We still succumb to the innate drive to reproduce, sometimes at irresponsible and alarming rates even though we've eliminated most of the threat of predators and competition for food and shelter that used to justify having twice the amount of offspring that we expected to survive.  In fact, we succumb to that particular instinct even with no intention of reproducing or, more often, with the clear intention of NOT reproducing.  In fact, there's another milestone:  thank goodness that in our present state of evolution, we've managed to disassociate the myths, traditions, emotions and even the biological purpose from the pleasurable act that can, but doesn't have to result in reproduction!! Separating out the baggage from the process will surely lead to more responsible behavior like longer lasting marriages, more responsible parenting, and an overall awakening when it comes to relationships and sex.

We still willfully deceive each other for little more reason than because we can, and we still, perhaps rightfully, are suspicious of each other because, after all, as the higher species, we are not only capable, but all too ready to use these distinguishing traits simply because we can... as if to prove that we have taken that step beyond the last, less developed form of ourselves.  Many of us have even evolved to the point of being able to justify these deceptive behaviors as a practice in a skillful art that were it not practiced might be lost, as though we might DEvolve if we don't cheat, lie, steal and manipulate regularly... or better still, that the cheating, lying, stealing and manipulating is justified as a means to some end that better serves all of humanity... you know, like Blago was trying to do for the people of Illinois... by any means necessary.

But at least we've left the racism behind us.  On Abe Lincoln's 200th birthday (and the state of Ohio's 206th!!), nearly 150 years after the Civil War, almost 50 years after the Civil Rights Act was signed, and after a history of sacrificing our sons to defend the basic rights of others around the globe we have finally arrived at a point where nothing is valued higher than ensuring those basic rights, freedoms, and fair treatment for every citizen in our own nation.  We have evolved beyond race.  We have turned the page on that dark chapter and left it behind us once and for all.  As our first black attorney general so eloquently pointed out, America is ready to move on now that we've fully, completely addressed and left behind the "awkward, painful" race issue.  Man, am I glad that's over with.

Luth,

Out.

I got yer stimulus package right here!

I don't really have a stimulus package, but as you may have guessed, I have an opinion on the president's and here it is:

I'm as mixed about it as I was about Super Bowl XLIII.

I was raised better than this, but I just couldn't commit to hating the Steelers.  During the Browns' missing years I gained a new respect for the Steelers.  I began rooting for them just to spite Art Modell but in the course of that it occurred to me how similar the two towns and the two teams really were...or are...or were. Whatever.  Once I got over my upbringing (a deeply ingrained hatred of the Black and Gold and all they represented) it got easier and easier to root for this hard-nosed team built around The Bus, one of the last true franchise players in pro sports, and a lot of other pretty cool guys who played Browns-style football (only Pittsburgh was actually good at it). 

In addition to that, I get pretty annoyed with the typical Browns fan's hatred blinding them to the logic of rooting for one's own division in the big game.  If a neighboring high school team knocks your team out of the state semi-finals, don't you root for the neighbor in the championship?  Don't you still want your region to represent? C'mon!  How far do you have to go to prove your loyalty/hatred of the rival?  Besides, that hatred should be reserved for the Ravens these day anyway.  I just can't buy the escalating hatred for Pittsburgh long after the Browns season was over.

OK, now that I've cleared that up, I have to admit that I, like most of America, have fallen for Kurt Warner's story as well.  What a guy, even more so for disproving F. Scott Fitzgerald's "no second acts in American lives" theory.  And the Cardinals?  One of the original NFL teams, still owned by the orignal family (who arguably has held the team back for most of those years) and with the longest running drought since a championship second only to that of the Chicago Cubs. (and thank God for that or what would Browns fans have to prop us up?!)  That was American Hero Pat Tillman's team, for the love of Bob!!  It was Cuba Gooding Jr's team in Jerry McGuire. These poor guys probably still don't know where they'll be playing next season.  How can you not love 'em.  AND they were the underdog.  What's more American than rooting for the underdog?  Unless, of course, you have to put money on the game, and then we're back to the Steelers.

So anyway, yeah... I was a little torn about that game.  As it turned out, I solved the dilemma by rooting for offense.  Even here I was a little torn.  I love watching Akron native and NFL defensive player of the year, James Harrison,  as well as the throw-your-body-into-the-train-wreck antics of Troy Palomalu.  Offense may sell tickets, but I LOVE defense.  Still,  I had to do something so I just rooted for offense and so I was thrilled when the Cards managed to grab the lead late in the fourth.  Then I was pushed to the limits of football ecstasy when Ohioan Big Ben Roethliswhatever engineered that last drive throwing not just one, but two perfect passes to both corners of the end zone for Buckeye alum Santonio Holmes to catch.  (NOTE for the record that Holmes only managed to catch ONE of those perfect touchdown passes!! and was still named MVP over the guy who threw both of them - and they were both PERFECT passes)

Torn... that's how I feel about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 too.  I can't quite bring myself to argue against education funding.  (or anything else in the package for that matter but...) It truly disgusts me how much Americans expect out of public education but how little we're willing to give for it.  Worse, how we sacrifice class after class's education experience to shave a few cents off our tax bill year after year.  Only in public education do we expect folks to work for near-poverty wages but be more educated than the majority of the working population, take over most parenting responsibility, be the model of integrity and professionalism, subject matter experts, counselors, cops, cheerleaders and friends.  How is it that the business model doesn't apply to teachers wherein the best and the brightest are attracted to the job with the biggest salaries? We talk about teacher accountability all the time, but rarely about accounting for their services, devotion and professionalism the way these traits are accounted for in almost every other profession - with cash!  Ditto for administrators who run some of the most efficient corporations in the nation with the smallest budgets in existence.  Think of the Superintendent of a large city's school system.  This guy (or gal) is the CEO of an organization with hundreds of facilities and thousands of employees.  Name one other corporation in American like that where the CEO doesn't make MILLIONS and yet we argue that low six figures is too much to pay the suprintendent and we expect far better results.  Nope, I won't argue against finally spending a tiny fration of what education is worth...

BUT, there's a time and a place for everything and I'm just not sure now is the time to finally deploy the long overdue funding help that public schools need from the state and federal level.  I can't help but wonder if that part of the package shouldn't be put on hold for a year until some other parts of the plan have begun to work their magic.

Speaking of that magic, wouldn't it be great if part of this package provided needed goods and services while at the same time creating jobs, upgrading the nation's aging infrastructure or even converting the nation to more sustainable power, fuel etc.  Now that's stimulus.  Even if you're among the minority of economists who don't believe that increased government spending at a time when the rest of the country has finally decided to save/not spend acts as a stabilizing force, you have to realize that putting people and companies to work across the country repairing those bridges before they fall into rivers, upgrading the power grid before more rolling brownouts, and building new sources of energy and alternative fuel infrastructures so we never have to worry about OPEC price adjustments ever again is not only a great idea, but one that also supports the mom and pop diners near the construction sites, the Red Wing shoe stores, the materials suppliers, the banks, the Caterpillar factory and dealerships, the gas stations on the way to work... and on and on and on.  That's stimulus.  Those are the kinds of investments that should top the list of spending in any stimulus package.

But alas, the biggest part of the Obama plan doesn't go to that kind of stimulus.  Nor do the second or the third or even the fourth biggest chunks.  The true "stimulus" portion of Obama's proposal comes in fifth among the categories of spending, after tax cuts, education funding, healthcare and welfare programs.

I will say this again:  I cannot bring myself to argue against increased federal education funding. And I'm not suggesting there will be no return on investment from educational spending - there will, exponential return... over time...

BUT, shouldn't we maybe generate a little revenue first? Get some people back to work? In fact, I'd even argue that the tax cuts should fall lower on the list, after all, taxes are one of the few things that have remained stable in this economy!  We're all used to paying them at the current rates and if you're unemployed now, your taxes are cut anyway, so why cut 'em... but that's another argument for later.  

So here's my plan:  We keep the spending categories Obama has proposed, and we keep his numbers, but we put the numbers to the categories like one of those matching tests from high school where you have to draw lines to connect the word with the definition.  Take the biggest chunk - the $275 billion in tax cuts - and connect it to the Upgrade the Infrastructure category... after all, this one is the one that will literally put people back to work and better still, they'll be working on fixing shit that's been falling apart due to lack of funding for far too long.  I'm willing to give in a little on some mortgage tax breaks to help homeowners and (groan) the banks, but not much.

Then let's take the second biggest chunk o cash - the $142 billion for education -  and connect it to the alternative energy/fuel/power transmission infrastructure improvements which also immediately puts people back to work and better still they'll be working on breaking the Middle East's grip on us and creating sustainable, clean sources of energy allowing us to remain rugged individuals each with our own 4wd vehicles and air conditioned homes with heated driveways well into our grandkids' and their grandkids' generations.  

After that you can rearrange the remaining categories - the healthcare spending, the welfare spending, and the tax cuts - however you want... hint: I'd connect the next biggest chunk o cash with education, but that's just me.  I could be swayed to move it to healthcare too.  In fact, if we'd fix healthcare, just about everyone with employer-paid insurance would probably see a $500 to a $1000 per month raise right away anyway.

I could even be persuaded to leave education off the first-year phase of the plan as long as it appears again in next year's phase with similiar numbers... adjusted UP for inflation, of course.

So anyway, yeah, I'm critiquing the Democrat now, but I'm a little torn about it.

Next dilemma:  Who's the bigger menace to society: 

A) a pot-smoking Michael Phelps or 

B) a woman with no partner in her life with 7 kids already and no way of supporting them who then takes fertility drugs and has 8 more ?

Luth

Out

Gross National Happiness

In Eric Weiner's The Geography of Happiness he talks of the nation of Bhutan, its efforts to maintain its history and culture, but mostly of its policy of Gross National Happiness.

 

The first two words in that phrase should sound familiar enough.  Even if you don't know what  they mean, Gross National Product or Gross Domestic Product should be phrases you've heard before.  Often, the terms are used to describe not just the wealth, but the overall health of a nation. Bhutan has a different take on this.  Instead of measuring their worth, their government's worth, and their national policies by measure of what they produce (and, of course, by association, what they consume) they've chosen to rate themselves on a policy of national happiness.

 

"But," you think to yourself,  "you can't measure happiness." 

 

"Why not?" says Weiner and a growing number of phsychologists, sociologists, magazine editors and jounalists.  In a recent Business Week survey, Bhutan was rated the eighth happiest nation in the world.  It made Weiner's list of places to check out because he had seen the survey and was familiar with the work of a psychologist from the Netherlands who spoke of it, and because he wanted to find a place that was relatively poor by most standards but still made everyone else's lists of happy places.

 

What intrigued me about Weiner's description of the place was the fact that the underlying idea behind Bhutan's otherwise VERY idiosyncratic methods of achieving Gross National Happiness was the idea that living within one's means virtually guarntees the policy's success. Before having a local explain this to him directly, Weiner notices a road sign on which the following is hand painted:

 

When the last tree is cut

When the last river is emptied

When the last fish is caught

Only then will Man realize that he can not eat money

 

Ok, ok, so they're all tree huggers?  Well, not really.  Some of their dedication to preservation, at least in the form of preventing littering, comes to them much more honestly... via superstition or faith, if you prefer.  Weiner relates the story of three hikers walking past a lake into which they've thrown their trash.  Without warning a dense fog enveloped the area and caused the hikers to get lost.  Only one of them was ever found.  Legend has it that the spirit of the lake took the other two hikers as punishment for their "sins."  Folks in Bhutan don't litter now.  And sure, they're not above animism, but it's not the ONLY reason they believe in sustainability.

 

When he finally manages to track down a government official who is initially "too busy" to be interviewed for the book, Weiner asks him why he has just seen graphic footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at a presentation the official has just hosted.  The official's response sums up the policy:

 

"I truly believe that a country that is committed to happiness cannot be bellicose; if we don't pursue a sustainable way of life, we will be fighting for resources.  Not just for oil and not necessarily between nations.  It might be a fight for water between San Diego and Los Angeles."

 

While this official's answer doesn't exactly address the footage about which Weiner inquires, it does represent the essence of Bhutan's policy:  they're frickin nuts!

 

Just like every era-marking idea in the history of man.

 

Only when someone, somewhere, has the balls to say or think or try something totally nuts is history made.  Only when the common thinking is challenged in a way that allows a new idea, a new way of thinking, a completely different view of the world to gain some traction are problems we've never foreseen on the verge of being solved.

 

In the case of Bhutan, an entire nation has bought into this madness.  According to Weiner, they owe much of their current thinking to an ancestor who came along about 500 years ago named Drupka Kunley.  Natives sometimes call him the Divine Madman.  Weiner compares him to Woody Allen and Howard Stern.  He was a bit of a drunk, a womanizer, apparently had what some might call a flatulence problem, and he laid down the ideals for a nation that now places the happiness of its people above the wealth of its people.

 

The Bhutanese have done this in some strange ways, not all of which sound all that great, but doesn't every plan run into some roadblocks?  While they still keep a very strict limit on tourism, forgoing potential millions, they have added cable TV, hospitals, schools, and even a few "roads" if you use the term loosely.  Men are advised (but not forced) to meditate at some point in their lives for three years, three days and three months and not too long ago, the government ran power lines up into the Himalayas to provide a village just for this meditation.  There's no profit involved.  It doesn't cost anything to go and meditate there, and there's little financially to be derived from any phase of the ordeal, but that wasn't a consideration.

 

I'm leaving out many of the details, but you can read Weiner's book (it really is interesting and it looks at  a lot of other places in the world while doling out digestible chunks of data driven "happiness research" along the way) or you can just Wiki Bhutan for yourself.  My point, and I do have one, is that regardless of how nutty this particular nation of people may be, the fact that they still exist, and by most standards are doing just fine, seems to indicate that the time has come for their crazy idea to be recognized by others.

 

This means a shift in thinking.

 

Nietzche says something like this in Daybreak: 

 

"It is not enough to prove something, one also has to seduce or elevate people to it.  That is why the man of knowledge should learn how to speak his wisdom: and often in such a way that sounds like folly."

 

Plenty of smart people have told us for a long time that money can't buy happiness, that it's not a true measure of wealth or health.  That nations cannot be measured solely by it and yet, for the last twenty years of my life and long before, I suspect, every indication of where we are and where we are going as a nation has been in terms of the mighty dollar.

 

Weiner poses a riddle early on in his chapter on Bhutan.  It's as if he's having trouble wrapping his brain around the nation's crazy ideas even though he went there for the sole purpose of grasping them.  The riddle goes like this: 

 

What do the following have in common:  The War in Iraq, The Exxon Valdez, and the rise in the U.S. prison population?  The answer, of course, is that they all contribute to... favorably contribute to our Gross Domestic Product.  In pure economic terms, that makes all three of these items "good."

 

Now look, I'm not saying that Bhutan has all the answers, nor does Weiner.  In fact, he bemoans the lack of a good cup of coffee just about everywhere in the country and notes that many of the "cafes" his tour guide drops him in serve only instant... bad instant. And I'm not saying we could suddenly drop the economy that currently has our nation chugging along so briskly and wonderfully overnight.  But I am saying that the staying power of this idea is a sign that we're ready to evolve as a species into a higher form of managing ourselves and our world.

 

Though plenty of people WAY smarter than me have told us many times before that money isn't everything, we've never been seduced to any alternatives.  We've never been elevated to any new way of thinking about it.  Eric Weiner's book has thrown some sand under our wheels as they spin on the financial ice.  Dr. Ruut Veenhoven, Professor of Happiness Studies and his World Happiness Database in the Netherlands, Positive Psychology programs popping up at Clarmont University in California, and now Penn State, surveys by Business Week, and a whole lot of searching for a better way HAVE elevated us to this idea.

 

It is rarely enough to prove something.  We must be elevated to it.  It must be presented to us as folly, so we are forced to consider it over and over until something about it strikes us as real.

 

The Geography of Happiness speaks this truth as though it were pure folly.  It is entertaining in its most biographical purposes,  pleasantly enlightening  in its dissemination of research, but most importantly, it elevates us to an entire shift in thinking.  It introduces us to guests standing at our doorway who appear a little scary compared to the guests we're used to, but dammit, I think it's time we let them in, offer them something to drink, some good conversation, and just see if we can't enjoy what we have to learn from them for a while.

 

What have we got to lose?

By the way, while cleaning up the 'blog, I found an old post lying around in draft form, realized how overdue a new post was and though it's probably too late, I thought maybe this might remind us all, on the day after a historic inauguaration, that it is in fact time to move on... that and I'm pissed I never got around to posting it when the time was right (when Mary Tillman's book came out almost a YEAR ago!! ) so if you're like the three other regular readers of HorsePoup, and you're jonesing for something else to read while waiting for the paint to dry, click on May 2008 and check out another "new" post full of piss and vinegar over the different treatment of two grieving mothers who lost sons in OEF/OIF.

Luth,

Out

Bailouts

I was digging around the archives looking for a post I thought I'd created, but it must have just been an email I sent to the die hard fans on my mailing list.  It was my proposal for the banking industry bailout and it went something like this: 

If you want my money, these are the rules: (for PUBLICLY OWNED/TRADED COMPANIES)

1.  Salaries of all "c-level" employees (CEO, CFO, CIO...) are not to exceed 20 times the average salary of your full-time employees, or, if you prefer, not to exceed 30 times your lowest paid employee including part-timers.

2.  C-level benefits packages must be available to all full-time employees at similar proportions of their incomes.  

3.  No other form of compensation (options, parachutes, trusts) may be provided to C employees that are not also available to and resonably attainable by all other full time employees.  

4.  You can return to your ridiculous pay structures as soon as you've paid back all principal and interest.  

If you don't like these terms, don't take the money.  Four rules.  Simple as that.

Remember,  it's you bastards who got rich while the rest of us lost our homes and our jobs over the last seven years.  Don't wait too long for us to come to your rescue.

These rules were part of my proposal for publicly-owned and traded companies, but especially for those financial companies who sit at the top of the funnel, up through which all of America's money passes.  

To that I'd like to add that it's time the people on top of that funnel, where the entire nation's wealth is concentrated should be subject to THE MOST scrutiny and REGULATION of any other industry in America.  That's ALL of OUR money up there.  They skim the most of it off and keep it for themselves as it is, and that's fine as long as their practices are sound.  You don't have to be a financial genius to know that naked short selling isn't sound and shouldn't even be legal.  WTF!?

But what pissed me off the most about the whole deal was that these are the same people who call welfare, adequate public education funding and universal healthcare "socialism" but when the money goes the other direction it's "vital to our economic stability."

These bailouts are welfare.  Plain and simple.  The only difference is that the tax money is going straight to the top... as if even the welfare must now trickle down to save us.  Our money just wasn't getting funneled up fast enough -  Bush's plan to sell out middle Amercia to Big Corporate wasn't working fast enough, so now we'll print more money than we have, hand it directly over to those at the top of the chain and put the bill on the middle Americans who actually manage to keep their jobs... and their kids and grandkids.  The dollar goes down, the debt goes up and the guys who got us into this mess walk away with fat wallets, as usual.  That's the only "economy" we're saving.  The pressure and the deadline (fear tactics) for the billions we handed over to the banks came straight out of the "we must invade Iraq" playbook.  And though raising taxes is a horrible idea, every man, woman and child in America is now strapped with an additional 3-grand to pay back at some point... but it's not a tax, so that's cool.  We don't want to raise taxes 'cuz it would kill the economy!

So now we're contemplating bailing out the auto industry as well.  There are certainly a lot of perspectives from which to approach this.  As an Ohioan, whose household income has been comprised in parts varying from 2/3 to 1/2 from the auto industry over the years, it's a tough line to walk.  The funny thing is, the employers providing that income have been either German or Japanese since the early 90's.  Those German and Japanese employers' biggest customers have been Ford, GM, and Chrysler, but they've also made parts for Honda, Toyota, Nissan and a few others here and there.  My wife and my brother both currently work for German companies whose primary customers are the Big Three.  Fortunately for both of them (and me) their companies also supply the OTHER American auto industry, so while their business has slowed with the economy, their fates don't rest solely with the Big Three.

Having lived in the shadow of the Honda Engine plant in Anna, OH, I'm amazed at how many large companies and mom and pop shops spring up to support that operation.  What's so amazing is how so many jobs can be ignored by so large a segment of America.  Whenever I hear someone tell a Honda driver to "buy American" I wonder what they're talking about.  I don't know if it's true anymore, but the Ohio-built Honda Accord was for a number of years the MOST American of any car "made in America."  Show me a car company that has invested more in Ohio jobs in the last 20 years than Honda?  Show me a plant newer than the Marysville assembly or Anna engine plants.  My point is, the auto industry in America, and especially in Ohio, isn't dead, there are just a few new names.

There are plenty of viable automotive manufacturers employing thousands of Americans across the U.S.   They don't need bailed out and sales of some of their models have even increased.  Their business model is slightly different than the Big Threes' models. They anticipate and build to the market (what a novel idea to let the market dictate) rather than just building cars that won't be bought to satisfy ill-advised union contracts accepted when times were good. They pay decent wages in a clean, safe environment, and best of all, they pay taxes.  Their employees pay taxes, and they and their employees are likely to survive this recession. That union part is a whole other post, but the business model is a key part of my plan for the auto industry bailout... so now that I've told that story, I can tell this one:

I will add only one modification to my bank bailout rules for the auto industry and it is this:  auto industry execs need not apply.

Don't patronize me with your $1 annual salary offers.  And don't bother telling me you'll now do what Jimmy Carter warned you about in 1977.  We probably shouldn't have done it for the banks either, but two wrongs won't make it right.

Ford says they can weather this storm, having finally acted on Carter's pleas about 28 years later.  Yep, they started building a more fuel efficient product line about three years ago.  They can meet payroll and suffer through until about 2011 according to them, so they don't need it.

Chrysler already had their chance.  I don't know what their prospects are and I've given up trying to understand how much of it belongs to Mercedes, so someone will have to enlighten me on that, but they're out anyway.

The best thing that could happen to GM is to declare bankruptcy and start over.  I'm not sure what effect that will have on the entire U.S. economy, but it's a long time coming.  This is a company who had a production electric car on the market more than ten years ago.  Do you know how many of those they could have sold had they continued to work on that and have, say 100,000 of them perfected and ready to go last spring when gas prices topped $4 a gallon?  Gas will cost that much again, and how much closer to having that old idea ready to go will GM be? They put their money into Hummers, full-size trucks and SUVs not because that's what they predicted the market would bear next year or five years from now, but because that's what was profitable right here and right now.  Now that moment has passed and they find themselves in a bit of a pickle.  Well, you get what you pay for... and what we've paid for all this time.  Don't ask us for more.

My advice to GM is to stick to the small government manifesto that they preached to congress 30 years ago:  let the market run its course.  (actually, they said what's good for GM is good for the nation, but the point was "leave us alone")  So we should heed that point now.  If your business plan accounts for that market, you'll be just fine.  If not, the market will correct itself and you and in the long run we'll all be better for it.  Maybe they should ask their buddies in Big Oil for some extra cash.

I'm sure it will cause quite a ripple if the big G really fails and I'm not sure how comfortably my household will survive it, but like the evil drill sergeant always said during PT, "you can pay me now or you can pay me later."  Might as well pay him now cuz it sure looks like we're all screwed anyway.  Why prolong it?

It doesn't make much sense to offer loans to a company we know can't pay us back when we can buy a majority stake in that company for about 10% of what they seek in loans.  I was an English major, but that's not tough math.  I have to agree in part with Michael Moore - Detroit born and raised, former UAW employee - when he says the best plan for GM would be for the gov't to take it over, convert its facilities to start retrofitting America for mass transit, and when it turns a profit, pay ourselves back and sell it off the highest bidder.  (I know, I know, his arguments are usually just the left version of Rush Limbaugh's... oversimplified, etc. but hey, why not start up a New Deal kind of CCC - Obama's been talking about it anyway.  As soon as we're done in Iraq, we've got a couple a billion a week to pour into it!)

I've heard the argument that cities like LA, who needs it most, were built before true, efficient mass transit was a real concern and that it just won't work there, but I have only one thing to say to that: Rome.  It may not have been built in a day, but it was around a long time before the first commuter train ever appeared.  There's no reason we can't line every major commuter path in American with light rail, skyrocketing the economy and reducing our dependence on so much oil all in the same public works/GM project.  How many frickin jobs will that create?

All right, it's way past my bed time and I've covered more than enough topics for one post.

Laters

Luth