Screeching Liberal

Charles, Charles, Charles. What did I do to deserve such treatment?

The far left is foaming at the mouth.

The near-apoplectic level of agita within the liberal screeching class over President Obama’s tax-cut compromise has exposed a seismic crack in the Democratic monolith — outspoken liberal Democrats on one side and barely audible moderate Democrats on the other.

Screeching Liberal. Wow! Driftglass and Blue Gal had it easy. "Professional Left" could be co-opted proudly. Lucky them. But, Charles, you really did it. Screeching liberal is such a put down. No turnaround is possible. My tonsils hurt from just reading the label. Imagine what will happen when I watch YouTube clips of Bernie Sanders mini-filibuster while shouting, "Screeching liberal. SCREECHING LIBERAL. SCREECHING GODDAMN LIBERAL."

I don't know if I can keep going for all 8 1/2 hours. No matter. The first 13 minutes shown here should get me good and hoarse. Hell, Big Brother only required two minutes a day.


Then, maybe, I could have a meaningful, but whispered, conversation with one of Charles Blow's moderate Democrats. We could pop a couple of brewskies. Sure would be good for my sore throat. I would even be willing to reach across the class divide and drink a Bud Light instead of one of my usual bicoastal, effete snob beers like Ol' Liberal or Screeching Pale Ale or DFH Porter. It would be a two-guy beer summit. And, we could watch Bernie Sanders Senate speech together. It would be fun. We could laugh at his ethnic Brooklyn accent. We could speculate about his need to pee, or wonder what would happen if he let go of the lectern. And, we might just listen the words. And I would ask the barely audible moderate Democrat if he disagreed with the Senator on anything. If he thought it at all reasonable to maintain -- or increase -- the economic divide. Or, how much he would give up so that Sam Walton's family could inherit all of Mr. Sam's money. And, I would ask him to point out the un-American radicals: are they the people who think like Bernie Sanders, or people who support the Republican agenda.

As to Charles Blow, I remind him that screeching liberals have watched the right-wing lie machine grow for 30 years. We have watched real wages in America decline. The middle class hung on by its fingertips. For a while, the shift to two-wage-earner families kept the wolf at bay. Then, the middle class went into debt by extracting the ever-increasing value of their homes to pay monthly bills or send kids to college. All the while, conservatives promised that reducing taxes on the wealthy would benefit everyone. The economy would grow. More jobs would be available. Thirty years of lies. American productivity increased. Nearly all of the gain was extracted as business profits. Almost none was returned to employees. People worked longer hours for less money.

Every careful study showed that Reagan and his ilk were wrong. Cutting taxes for the wealthy benefits only the wealthy. The money is not re-invested. It is saved. The national debt increases; the middle class falls further behind.

Speaking this truth to power -- including to the President of the United States no matter his political circumstance -- is fully justified. I offer this example from Martin Luther King, jr's, letter from Birmingham jail in 1963.

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor. will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied.

Where are the Clergy?

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Mourning Joe

The politburo chose Comrade Morning Joe to begin the anti-Palin attack. Makes sense. Nearly everyone else is on the Fox payroll and Comrade General Secretary Comrade Murdoch will never allow dissension in his ranks. We know what happened when Comrade Political Secretary Comrade Rove lifted Christine O'Donnell's skirt just enough to show her cloven feet to his TV audience. Palin brings in too much hard currency to permit Fox-based criticism. Even a mild tongue cluck in defense of Hero of the Revolution Comrade Ronald Reagan would be inappropriate.

So, the politburo is left with Comrade Scarborough. Maybe they got Peggy Noonan to help hoist him out of the trench. I can see it now: Okay, Comrade, why don't you put down that cup of coffee? Won't be needing it where you are going. Bayonet fixed? Good. Now, big step up and start running toward those Tea-Party-Fox-News guns. Remember, the Politburo will likely cover your back from down here in the trench. We are all very proud of you, Comrade. This heroic action might even win you a Double-Cross.

Oh, Shut Up

The home security company called at 6:24AM. My mother had pressed her medical alarm button. She was in trouble. She needed help immediately.

I pay $308 per year to that private company for 24/7 monitoring. In order to pay their bill, I must first earn $397.29. Here's the breakdown:

Gross salary: $ 387.29
Federal income tax withholding: -45.70
Social security: -21.56
Medicare: - 4.47
State income tax withholding: - 7.56
======
$ 308.00

After getting the phone call I ran next door to my mothers' house. She was having a stroke. Paramedics arrived ten minutes later. Four men. One only slightly smaller than a beer truck. The men lugged backpacks containing oxygen, a portable EKG, an automated blood pressure cuff, and more. They asked me about my mother's medical history. What medication is she taking? Has she been ill recently? Allergies? What is normal for her? Could she walk unaided? Her left side seems weak; is that recent? Lots of questions. Except one: the paramedics never asked about money. Didn't want to know if she had paid some special ambulance fee. Didn't even ask if she was up to date with her property taxes. They focused only on helping my mother.

The county employees put my mother into a county ambulance and drove her to the hospital on county, state, and federal roads. Most of her hospital care will be paid by Medicare, a federal program. Some expenses will be paid by supplemental health insurance that my mother buys.

Here is a tangible result. Cause and effect. We pay taxes; paramedics show up when we dial 911.
And, now I ask all the loud-mouthed, funny-hatted Tea Partiers about their endless anti-tax whining: What is your plan? Seriously. After you innumerate dolts do your masters' bidding, and shrink government to the point where you can drown it in a bathtub, what will be your plan for sweet old ladies who suffer strokes and need medical help quickly? Please tell me.

freedumb of the press

Had a weird experience with a reporter for a local paper. The set-up is too long to explain, but he ended up interviewing me about how science is funded in the US. I explained that the Department of Defense has, since World War II, supported much of the scientific research in the country including fundamental work performed at universities. My point had more to do with public indifference than questions of war-related vs. peaceful applications of the science. In other countries, government support of technology is often clear. For example, Airbus was created with support from the British, French and German government to challenge American domination of the aircraft industry. The intention was made obvious to everyone. In America, much of the commercial aviation industry has received government help through military contracting. The technology developed for defense applications gets transferred to the civilian side of the industry. We don't debate the suitability of the government support. Maybe it would sound too much like socialism. Similar government (often Department of Defense) support has helped American microelectronics and computer industries, etc.

My company, I told the reporter, manufactures test & measurement equipment, and does contract research including work performed for the US government. Some of that Federal contracting comes from DoD. Our work on lasers could, if successful, lead to better clocks for optical computers and medical diagnostics through analysis of trace chemicals in exhaled breath. Yes, the military would like optical computers and fast medical diagnostic methods, but so would many civilians.

I thought I was clear. Then, I received the following e-mail from the reporter:

I have one more question I didn't think to ask you when we were speaking: Despite that the state of research in the US dictates that scientific research is largely funded by defense agencies, and that you are seemingly forced to exercise this only option if you are to do any work yourself, do you still feel any sense of guilt that you're receiving defense money to research products that, even though they may not be directly used in acts of violence, are still ultimately used for purposes of war?

Sigh. I hate the oversimplifications -- that I am "forced to exercise this only option" -- and that products not "directly used in acts of violence" are tainted if used by the military. Here is what I wrote in reply:

Thanks for the follow-up question. First, the facetious answer: I'm Jewish and was raised to feel guilty about everything. Now, a serious reply that requires a long answer because morality is never as clear was one wishes.

I see a direct connection between the Federal taxes that I pay and war. I could withhold some portion of my income tax as a way of clearing my conscience. But, I pay my full share because tax evasion would lead to severe consequences for me and my family, with little chance of altering military action. Is that moral cowardice?

If I came up with a new technology for detecting chemical or biological warfare agents, I would definitely accept DoD money to develop that detection method. It could save peoples' lives. If, on the other hand, I thought up a new method for making chemical or biological warfare agents, I would never tell a soul. If I came up with a new way to detect nuclear proliferation, I would accept DoD money to develop that technology. Imagine what it would have meant to be able to refute Condoleeza Rice's "mushroom cloud" warning prior to the Iraq war. If I invented a fast portable method for analyzing head trauma, I would accept military money to develop the technology knowing that it would likely be used in warfare. It could save the lives of soldiers and civilians. If, in contrast, I invented a way of reading peoples' memories, I would shut down my work and move on to something else.

Modern life lived amidst modern technology creates many reasons to feel guilty:

• The first computer network -- the intranet -- was developed by the military, and the armed forces uses the internet now. Should I disconnect my computer from the web?
  
• One of the earliest successful commercial jet liners, the Boeing 707, was a civilian version of a jet developed for the air force for aerial refueling. In fact, much of the commercial aviation industry has benefited enormously from military R&D contracts. Should I fly when I travel?
  
• Technology used for telecommunications satellites and the rockets that launch them also have a military past. Should I disconnect my telephone?
• Laser rangefinders were developed for the military. Should I use one when playing golf?
  

You get paid by a newspaper that runs paid advertising for unproven (and, in some cases, disproved) therapies. Do you feel guilty accepting your paycheck?

I am thoughtful about the research contracts that I accept and the possible long-term consequences of the work. So, no, I do not feel guilty nor ashamed of my DoD-supported research. Filling up my car with gasoline is much more troubling.

I thought it a reasonable answer. A few days later the reporter called. He wanted me to again answer his "Do I feel guilty question," but to do it over the phone. I was perplexed because he did not refer to my e-mail. Yes, he verified, he had received the message, but he had been told to get me to also reply by phone. I repeated that I had answered his question by e-mail. He repeated that he had been told to have me answer over the phone. Too weird. My computer was in the lab taking data. I could not get access to my e-mail to re-read exactly what I had written. I again said that I had answered his question by e-mail. He hung up. Maybe I killed the story! That would be good.

I'm a conservative, but....

The poignant part of this video begins at the seven minute mark. Solid midwesterners talk about their business, jobs, and town all going to hell after Wal-Mart moved in.



The stories are heartbreaking and depressingly emblematic of towns across the country. A generation --sometimes two--of hard work and hometown success are crushed. Success flips to failure within a few months. The cocoon is sliced open. The world outside is ugly, harsh, and brutal.

The people interviewed ruefully express small deviations from Republican ideology:

"I believe in free enterprise, but..."
"I'm not a communist or socialist, but..."

They don't get it. American conservatism and the Republican party exist to protect Wal-Mart and the grandly rich. Nothing else matters. The puppet masters know what to do when the base starts griping about that one inviolate issue. Turn up the propaganda. Make more anger. Create new enemies. Find conspiracies everywhere. Uncover traitors in high places. And, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie.

Rand Paul

Why would anyone vote for Rand Paul? The bozo can't even get the first three words in the Constitution, "We the people." He wants a nation dominated by business interests. The common good doesn't exist. Watch the video.



Paul is scary because he sounds so rational. But, of course, he is not. He is even more of a magical realist than Gabriel García Márquez. Rand Paul believes it OK for a mining company to slice the top off a mountain that it owns as long as it doesn't pollute neighboring property. The neighbors are safe because if pollution does cross the property line, then the local judge will get the mining company to stop. This is where pro-business folks from tea baggers up to Chicago school economists always get it wrong. Let's play it out. Assume some state law or local ordinance applies to property contamination by mine tailings. The mine's neighbor goes to a judge asking for help. The judge may tell the mining company to stop operations, clean up the contamination, or give the neighbor money. So, far, we are following Dr. Rand's prescription. Now, though, the train jumps the tracks. What happens if the mining company ignores the judge or, worse, does a half-assed job of cleaning up? Or, what happens if the mining company appeals the judge's decision?

It's easy to imagine the next part of the story because it has happened before. The mining company has enough money to manipulate the justice system. The lone neighbor does not. I'm not talking about bribery. Nothing that blatant. Reality is more perverse, more frustrating, and more unfair. The company stalls and stalls and stalls. There are appeals and delays. The mining company sues the neighbor for defamation or demands repayment for money lost while the mountain removal was halted. Miners are fired because, the company claims, the nasty mean-spirited, selfish bastard of a neighbor forced the sweet, benevolent, innocent mining company to stop work. The mine is likely in a small rural community. Neighbor turns against neighbor.

Pro-business, Kool-Aid drinkers insist that marketplace magic will punish companies that behave badly. Rand Paul says so in the video. The mining company, he claims, wouldn't want to pollute its neighbor. How many examples of bad -- even deadly -- behavior will it take before these fools accept reality? There was Beech-Nut selling fake apple juice for kids and babies. A Federal lab analyzed suspicious samples. The Federal government prosecuted the bad guys. Enron manipulated electric prices in California. Utility bills skyrocketed. The Enron guys were recorded laughing about grabbing money from "Aunt Millie."

Then there's Wall Street's biggest floating crap game in the world. If Rand Paul was in charge, the beautifully self-correcting financial markets would boom and bust, and to hell with everyone. We would now be in Great Depression II while Paul cheerfully channeled Herbert Hoover's ghost.

Rand Paul, teabaggers, and libertarians can't imagine government in the public interest. The biggest issue of our time -- global warming -- lies entirely outside their realm. Paul proves that free markets can't solve the problem. Coal will be mined and burned as long as it is cheap. It's true cost is hidden. We need serious government policy. Hey, Kentucky. Keep your blithering idiots at home.


P.S. Rand Paul complains about money flowing from Kentucky to Washington. Ain't true. The spigot runs in the other direction. Kentucky receives about $1.50 for every dollar paid in Federal taxes. Poor states in general benefit more than do the wealthier states. Truth is ironic. States that have voted Republican do much better than the east and west coast states that elect Democrats. Time for the teabaggers to shut up and go home.

Sub Prime

My family took a late-morning, Mothers' Day bike ride with friends in a nearby gated community. Our route passed six golf holes that are part of their two private courses. We saw just two golfers out on a gloriously warm, calm Sunday morning. Only one person was hitting balls on the driving range. I was going to joke about the club members serious devotion to their mothers. Was everyone at brunch eating eggs Benedict and drinking mimosas? But, my friend spoke first: the club's golf finances are not sustainable. Some members advocate abandoning one course. Others, including him, want to admit the public.

I hid my indignation. He expected the public -- me -- to bail out the wealthy who had invested badly. The gated paradise is two golf courses, a swimming pool, exercise facilities, tennis courts, a couple of restaurants, and an equestrian barn. But, there aren't enough residents to pay for it all. Only 1000 houses of 2000 planned have been built. Many are vacant. Some are incomplete haunted houses behind sloppy chain link fence. Rutted driveways hold piles of dirt and sand. A local bank web page lists repos for sale. Six are in the gated community. "As is" prices range from $995,000 to 1,595,000. Who knows how many others are under water. The original development company is in receivership. We were on a bicycle tour of a grandiose real estate disaster. And, the aristocracy might just have to let peasants in to play golf. Schmucks like me will maintain the residents' luxury lifestyle.

Let's talk about the obvious. The rich-folk gated community is an amplified version of the poor bastard sub-prime borrowers. Both bought in to a dream that turned bad. The gated rich, however, deny the similarities. They blame the poor. The upper class perpetrated the big fraud and expected only gains. Losses were for little people. Now, suckers themselves, they are angry and indignant. Imagine the treatment given to the paying public should the golf courses be opened to the world. Our money will be welcomed, and that's it. We will be viewed like the tourists who, for a fee, get to tour stately European estates that remain owned and occupied by nearly broke heirs and heiresses. Every unreplaced divot and unrepaired ball mark will be blamed on the Outsiders. Members will whine about slow play.

I want to see the open golf course plan implemented for one reason: to learn how much the members will charge the public. It will be a great way to measure the rich folks' self image. Several nearby Indian tribes have casino and golf course combinations that include wonderful courses priced around $80. The gated guys will, likely, want to go higher. They think they have more to offer. They don't, except for being nearer to town. Golfers won't pay much extra to save fifteen minutes of time on the road.

More as the story develops.

Cogito Ergo Sum, My Ass

Atheists rejoice! The Pythons were right. Rene Descartes was a drunken fart. Trying prove the existence of god, Descartes came up with pathetic weak 2+2=22 nonsense. Start, he said, by trying to imagine the most perfect being. An existing perfect being is more perfect than a non-existing perfect being. Hence, god must exist. WTF? I see Descartes his perfect imaginings and raise a god who reveals himself to all humans, eliminates poverty, and stops war. My imagined god is more perfect than Descartes imagined god. But, mine most obviously does not exist on three of three uberperfections. Three strikes; yer out! Quare patet propositum. NOT!


The perfection-must-exist argument is the best pro-god reasoning that philosophy has produced, and it is flawed, irrational, and -- OK, say it -- just plain stupid.

The Masters

My warmest congratulations to Phil Mickelson on his third Masters victory. Well done, Lefty!

The Masters embodies all of my golf ambivalence. The tournament is played on an absolutely gorgeous course where I am not welcome except, perhaps, as a paying spectator. I feel both envy and disgust. The Augusta National membership list published in 2002 contains an appalling group of oil men, Wall Street con artists, and captains of failed industry. I have nothing to offer them, and they don't interest me. I can't imagine relaxing over a beer with Crawford Troy Johnson, III, the Coca-Cola king of Birmingham, and talking about rates of type II diabetes. What would Lee Raymond and I discuss? The weather? How about ExxonMobil's money paid to crackpot global warming deniers?

Clubs like Augusta exist for people with money and power to mingle with other people of money and power with expectations of gaining more money and power. Women are not invited to join because the men do not want to share. They see no benefit. There aren't enough women who can provide sufficient money or power to balance the equation.

So, I laughed when Billy Payne, Chairman of Augusta National, issued his carefully crafted critique of Tiger Woods that included:

''It is simply not the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here,'' Payne said. ''It is the fact that he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids. Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children.''

What crap! Payne as the front man for the Augusta National membership was not admonishing Tiger the golfer nor Tiger the father and husband. No. The big boys were upset with Tiger Woods the corporate entity. He was, for many, a meal ticket who, like Fredo Corleone, had been disloyal to the Family. The Men of Augusta were not pleased.

Though I laugh at Billy Payne, I feel comfortable giving Tiger advice because it pertains to behavior on the golf course:

Tiger, please stop the sullen pouting and head hanging hole after hole. I care not what you do off the course, but this on course stuff is teenage behavior and a bad habit. Hogan-up. Remember, you actually get paid to play golf. Get paid a lot of money to play golf. Imagine the rest of us who work indoor jobs, sitting in offices decorated with golf calendars, looking at computers displaying golf course screen savers. We read magazines with your picture on the cover hoping that some of the magic will transfer from the printed page. Our families have no trouble selecting our birthday and Fathers' Day gifts. They hand over beautifully wrapped golf balls, a dozen at a time, for us to top into ponds, pull-hook deep into the trees, and bounce into scrubby rough labeled "Rattlesnake Habitat." We keep our clubs in our cars hoping for days when our schedule permits a long lunch at the driving range and to be prepared for sudden-onset, fair-weather, golfers' sick day disease.

So, enough with the spoiled kid behavior. In every round of golf, only 18 shots end up in the hole. The other roughly 75% (for you; a much higher percentage for average golfers) do not. That's just basic math, not some kind of tragedy, and no reason for the self-pitying reactions.

Blog Against Theocracy 2010

Anyone trying to insert his or her bible among the articles and amendments of the Constitution of the United States must explain why our founding fathers -- nearly all professed to be devout men -- wrote a purely secular document.

America's theocrats ignore what is written in the Constitution and, instead, see the authors' religious uniformity as evidence for a United States of Christianistan. How laughingly absurd. Read the document. It's obvious that the authors left their religion at the door. God is nowhere in our Constitution. The word religious appears just once. It is in Article IV, "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." The word religion is found only in the establishment clause of the first amendment. Jesus, divine, divinity, Christ, Christian, holy, pray, prayer, hymn, psalm, crucifix, and cross are all, like God, excluded from the basic law of the land.

Imagine a group of believers for whom God is a constant part of their lives. These men see God's hand in everything from the magnificent to the mundane. Then, they gather to create the fundamental guiding law for a new nation. The men argue, cajole, and compromise. They pray for guidance and inspiration. They write, argue, and edit. They pray some more. Finally, the Constitution is completed and signed, and it is a godless document. Do not for an instant believe that God and religion are omitted by accident. These religious people have chosen to create secular government.


Theocracy usually implies to me Muslim mullahs or America's wannabes. This week, just in time for the Blog Against Theocracy, the Vatican demands its seat at the table. I have to respond with a forehead-smacking, "Of course!" How could I have so long overlooked the west's richest and most respected theocracy? Silly me. Because the Vatican screams out that religion and politics should not mix. Both get hurt. Both are degraded. Both are compromised. I give to you the Pope and his minions as this year's poster boys for the Blog Against Theocracy.

Seat 30E

The plane, Dallas to Albuquerque, was about 20 minutes from landing. 30E looked down at the snow on the ground, "Sure has been a cold winter."

"Yes it has." He and I would not agree on much again.

"At least, it stops all this bullshit about global warming."

I tried to follow my wife's recommendation. Don't challenge people directly. Instead, ask them questions about their opinions. I hoped my voice was calm. Neutral. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, it's all bullshit."

"That's not what I read in the scientific literature."

30E's eyes widened a bit. Global warming deniers don't talk about scientific work. "My grandfather was -- he named a Plains Indian tribe -- and told me that only white men think they can change the planet."

"Yeah, I bet he did."

30E put a quarter in the Fox slot machine and pulled the lever. Cherry, lemon, and, "Do you know that Al Gore bought six houses all in a row, tore 'em down and built himself a 35,000 square foot mansion?"

"I don't care about Al Gore. He doesn't publish in the scientific literature."

"But he's such a hypocrite. Just shows all these guys spout bullshit. I worked in the medical field for twenty years. Those guys who publish stuff. They're nothing but big egos."

Big egos! 30E had set up such an easy shot at the broadcast no-nothing blatherheads. Yet, I wanted to stay on the gentle path, "Scientists have egos just like everyone else. They like to see their work published. That's true. But, peer review is the best system we've got. Not perfect; but, in the long run it works pretty well."

Time for another random walk step within the right wing nut house. "Why," asked 30E, "Did they change the name from 'global warming' to 'climate change'?"

"Oh, I'm not sure. It happened during W's administration. I think Bush's people thought 'climate change' sounded like less of a problem."

I had said a magic word. Groucho's duck dropped down. "I bet you think Bush is an idiot. Well, I think that guy in there now is a real idiot."

"That guy." Voldemort. The unmentioned. "No. I don't think Bush is an idiot. He's cruel -- very cruel -- and shortsighted. Obama is extremely intelligent. " I then tried to head off digression into birth certificates, Islam, and Karl Marx, "You know that science deals with probabilities, not certainty. Global warming creates a paradox. By the time we can be 100% sure of serious consequences, it will be too late to do anything. So, what odds would motivate you to action?"

We agreed again momentarily as 30E said, "That's how science is done."

"Right. What if the science showed a 50% probability that sea level would rise by 30 feet by the end of the century? That would mean Florida under water and most coastal cities flooded. 50% odds. Look, I'm going to use a seat belt when I drive home from the airport. That's not because I expect to get into an accident. I don't. It's because there is a small probability that I will, and I am trying to protect myself against those low odds. At what point -- what odds -- would you take the climate science seriously?"

The tone and cadence of our exchange changed, I thought, to signal real conversation. 30E looked as if he were thinking about the odds of global warming consequences.

In the words of the great golfer Roberto De Vicenzo, "I am such a stupid!" 30E is a right-wing, tea bagging, tin soldier. There are no conversations, only regurgitations. There are no "what if" questions. 30E shook his head and cleared away any ambiguity. Our plane had landed. He was, literally and figuratively, back on solid ground. "They always get it wrong."

"Who?"

"Those scientists. That 'Silent Spring' woman. Because of her, DDT got banned and now 3 million African kids die each year from malaria. I did the math. She's responsible for 50 million dead children. I think it's great that she died from cancer. Served her right. All that bullshit about birds eggs. When I think of all those little black babies..." He was close to Glenn-Beckian tears.
I was unprepared. 50 million deaths seemed outrageous as did the blame heaped on Rachel Carson's grave.

My reply, "I can't imagine one environmentalist having so much power." But, 30E could. The story fit his world view. Then he moved on to condemn Paul Ehrlich's "Population Bomb." Another example he said of scientists being alarmist -- the sky is falling -- and wrong. I couldn't remember Norman Borlaug's name. The father of the green revolution, the man who revised Ehrlich's timetable.

The scientists always get it wrong. We had flown over a thousand miles in an aluminum can and arrived safely. The plane's wing tips curled up, showing a recent aerodynamic improvement that saves fuel. 30E turned on his cell phone. All of this taken for granted technology that started, for the most part, with scientists who got it right. The nearest equivalent to global warming is ozone destruction by chlorofluorocarbons. Sherry Rowland and Mario Molina, the scientists who got that right, were at first attacked personally just as 30E and his cohort attack today's climatologists. The campaign against Rowland and Molina was organized by an industry lobbying group just as the oil and coal industries fund today's anti-science campaign.

I used teh Google when I got home to learn the details of DDT and malaria in Africa. Scientific American covered the issue last May. Guess what? 30E got it wrong. Are you surprised? DDT was not banned in Africa. The UN reported at least 3950 tons of the pesticide was spray in Asia and Africa in 2007. Most was used for mosquito control. Malaria is epidemic in spite of DDT use. There are 880,000 malaria deaths a year. Most victims are children in sub-Saharan Africa. A horrendous death rate, but about 1/4 of 30E's claim. What a worthless bastard.

Correction

I erred in my previous post by taking a narrow view of business response to Colorado Springs' financial disaster. Stephen Bartolin, Jr., who runs the Broadmoor resort, e-mailed the Springs mayor and city councilors with budget saving recommendations. Cutting payroll was his top priority:

* Contract out everything that is practical with sharply negotiated pricing which gets you out from under the overtime, benefit and pension costs paid to City employees.

* Restructure your benefit and retirement plans to something more comparable to what is available in the private sector.

More specifically:

* 70% payroll cost – No matter what business you are in, for profit or non-profit, the game is pretty much over if you are running a 70% payroll cost. We do approximately half the revenue the City does and we run a 30% payroll cost with 1800 plus employees, near the same number as the City.

* Per employee cost of $89,196 – It is doubtful you can find any private employer for 500 or more people in the state of Colorado or practically the nation that has a per employee payroll cost that high. Our per employee cost is $24,460, which includes seasonal and part-time people which we use a great deal as there are no benefit costs associated with these.

* The number of people it takes to get things done -

It's called class warfare. Bartolin presents a recipe for America as a third world country. His e-mailed advice would create a caste of have nots useful for keeping the city functioning but financially unable to enter the Broadmoor's lobby. If a couple wanted a golf weekend getaway in early May, Bartolin's Broadmoor would charge them $560 for two nights in a standard room plus $155 for each round of golf on the Mountain or West courses. East Course greens fees are higher: $195. Eating is also expensive. The Penrose Room offers a piker's prixe fixe 3-course meal at $72 per person not including wine. Real gastronomes might pick the chef's tasting menu plus sommelier's wine selections for $158 each. Sunday brunch is $38 a head. The weekend would cost at least $1400 before tips and taxes. Who can afford this? Certainly not Bartolin's ideally impoverished city workers.

Even now, after the Wall Street grifters flushed everyone's investments down the toilet, Bartolin damns defined-benefit pensions as budget busters and advocates that Colorado Springs, "Develop a generous matching 401K plan and have people take responsibility for their own retirement planning." Who gets to take responsibility for what? Imagine someone who followed Bartolin's prescription for a self-directed, defined-contribution retirement plan and now approaches retirement age. Let's assume the best. She paid in the maximum allowed each year and received generous employer contributions. She invested wisely, had the wisdom to switch from stocks to cash right at the market's peak, and is ready to retire with a one-million-dollar 401(k) account. Now what? A 10-year treasury bond pays about 3 1/2% interest, or $31,500 per year on a million dollar investment. That's not much. Shorter term paper is at 1% or less. She just might need a seasonal or part-time job at the Broadmoor to supplement the retirement income. This hypothetical woman did everything right -- as Bartolin sees it -- but ends up screwed.

Bartolin and his cohort are too busy pushing America into the 19th century to observe the obvious. Their ideas are awful. They don't work. The supposedly no nonsense, tough guy, uberpractical businessmen are motivated entirely by right wing anti-labor zealotry. They run from the facts. Everything they say and write oozes self-interest. Here is another one of Bartolin's recommendations: It occurs to me Police Officers and Firefighters who risk their lives for this community should be excluded from the ideas being advanced. And, it occurs to me that police and fire protection are the city services most important to the Broadmoor. Hotel guests don't care about Colorado Springs parks, buses, libraries, and swimming pools. Pot holes and dark street lamps probably don't matter either. The hotel is 3 miles of state highway from I-25. The city doesn't take care of those roads; the state does.

What nonsense.

Schadenfreude, CO

The good, friendly, generous Christian folk of Colorado Springs are experiencing the results of too much right-wing blather and too little imagination. Colorado's second largest city is broke. Years of anti-tax rhetoric shrunk the local government to almost nothing and drowned it in a bathtub. Who could have expected the collateral damage to include parks, swimming pools, street lights, and pot hole repairs, plus police and fire protection? Only fools, atheists, commies, Marxists, socialists, and liberal fascists would have connected taxes (dot A) to community (dot B).

The gunnies must be thrilled. They can now cast themselves as the not-so-thin, not-so-blue line separating good guys from bad. They itch for the chance to sneer, "Make my day," before blasting a cowed perp into bloody paste. How often do grown men (and women?) get access to such widely admired and potentially deadly fantasies?

I try to imagine the small steps in the journey of delusion that transformed bland, western sprawl into a self-generated, stop work order. I wonder, as well, about the moneyed string pullers. Will they finally try to re-direct the anti-tax zealots? Is it too late? Don't get me wrong. I know that the wealthy don't give a damn about public libraries and buses. They might, however, worry about businesses unable to survive in failed cities. Who is going to move their business to Colorado Spring? The city is now as financially attractive as Detroit. And, how long will the taint last? Municipalities often try to lure companies by promising tax breaks. Not an option for Colorado Springs now, and not likely possible for many years. Anyone trying to sell their house must be apoplectic.

One more question: How will the wing-nuts manage to blame the problem on liberals?

More Wrong Stuff

I've been thinking about a global-warming-is-a-hoax speech given by Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) on the senate floor in January, 2005. Here is my favorite part:

"In addition, last month, popular author Dr. Michael Crichton, who has questioned the wisdom of those who trumpet a "scientific consensus," released a new book called State of Fear, which is premised on the global warming debate. I'm happy to report that Dr. Crichton's new book reached #3 on the New York Times bestseller list."

Crichton wrote fiction. "State of Fear" is fiction.

I took a quick look back at some of Crichton's other books. Andromeda Strain (1969) is about a deadly pathogen that hitchhikes to earth on a military satellite. Forty years after that alarmist fiction was published, we have yet to find any extraterrestrial microbes. Hasn't happened. Jurassic Park (1990) describes living dinosaurs created in a laboratory by cloning DNA taken from blood in amber-preserved prehistoric mosquitoes. Exciting premise. Hasn't happened. It's fiction. Rising Sun (1992) is a murder thriller as soap box for Crighton's warning about economic warfare by Japan against the United States. The book's publication coincided with the start of Japan's lost decade; ten years of economic decline, real estate busts, and price deflation.

Clown Car

I wish I could draw. Palin's pickup by Fox News suggests a political cartoon derived from the old circus visual cliche where a stream of clowns get out of a tiny car. The new version shows a television tuned to Fox with a line of clown-attired pundits spewing from the screen. Palin leads O'Reilly, Rove, Hannity, Beck, the Cheneys, Perino, Goldberg, and the rest. I see them all Munchkin-sized, in polka dots, orange bozo wigs, white gloves, huge shoes, and red globe noses. They strut into some poor bastard's living room, arms bent and elbows swinging in exaggerated happy self-importance.

Fool me twice...

(h/t driftglass)

No wonder the neocons did such a great job selling the Iraq war. Rummy, Cheney, and Wolfie had practiced combining delusion and fear thirty years earlier during the Ford administration:


Those clowns rolled the CIA in the mid-70's. Cheney learned how to bully and cherry-pick until the facts fit his expectations. The neocons got away with it then, and used the same script beginning September 11, 2001.

I have often wondered why our spies were seemed so wrong about the Soviet Union. Reagan and his cronies described the Russians as massively powerful and fearsome while the Soviet Union was withered and destitute. Now, I know. The neocons ignored reality. It was an overlimit credit card notice hidden unopened at the bottom of the in basket. Much better to pull every piece of information inside out until war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.