Emotional Beings

In Pain

2012-02-18T10:15:00.000-08:00

I hurt my right shoulder seven weeks ago. Pain, as measured on the 10-point scale, started in the 7 to 8 range and has mellowed into 2's and 3's. That's bad enough to wake me several times a night. My medical insurance coverage is OK, though more pricey and less comprehensive than what I had a decade ago. Out of pocket expenses are now a little over $900. In one sense, yes, I can afford it which means that I don't have to choose between physical therapy or groceries, haven't been late on the mortgage in order to pay a doctor bill, and have kept up with utilities and health insurance. But, pain does wonders for focusing the mind and, in my case, for examining ideas about fairness. Here is my radical idea: Mitt Romney should pay my medical expenses. So should Donald Trump, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul; also the Koch brothers, Hunt brothers, and Baldwin brothers. Add Michael Moore, Jane Fonda, and John Kerry. And, my neighbors, cops on patrol, and the county firefighters.

Because, here's the deal. Pain is awful. Cancer and heart disease are worse. And, we the people have a moral obligation to help each other. Sometimes we have to grit our teeth like when a drinker needs a liver transplant or a motorcyclist riding without a helmet requires brain surgery. We may not like their behavior, but that's just too bad. Health care is a human right, not an entitlement. My injured shoulder gets treated and my taxes help pay for everyone else's health care. Anything less is grotesque cruelty.

2012-02-04T16:49:00.000-08:00

Former Senator Rick Santorum thinks heshould be President and tens of thousands – perhaps hundreds ofthousands – of Americans agree. This is Santorum at a campaignstop yesterday or the day before:

Republican presidential candidate RickSantorum told the mother of a child with a rare genetic disorder onTuesday that she shouldn't have a problem paying $1 million a yearfor drugs because Apple's iPad can cost around $900.

Speaking to more than 400 people atWoodland Park, Colorado, the former Pennsylvania senator said thatdemandshould set prices for drugs.

"People have no problem paying$900 for an iPad," the candidate explained. "But paying$900 for a drug they have a problem with — it keeps you alive. Why?Because you’ve been conditioned to think health care is somethingyou can get without having to pay for it."

The mother replied that she could notafford her son's medication, Abilify, which can cost as much as $1million a year without health insurance.

"Look, I want your son andeverybody to have the opportunity to stay alive on much-neededdrugs," Santorum insisted. "But the bottom line is, we haveto give companies the incentive to make those drugs. And if theydon't have the incentive to make those drugs, your son won't be aliveand lots of other people in this country won't be alive."

"He’s alive today because drugcompanies provide care," the candidate continued. "And ifthey didn’t think they could make money providing that drug, thatdrug wouldn’t be here. I sympathize with these compassionate cases.… I want your son to stay alive on much-needed drugs. Fact is, weneed companies to have incentives to make drugs. If they don’t haveincentives, they won’t make those drugs. We either believe inmarkets or we don’t."

I do not know what caused Santorum'semotional disfigurement. Just get him the hell away from me andeveryone else. There aren't enough therapists or enough couches inthis land to repair his twisted psyche. Has Santorum or any of hiscohort ever responded to a question or comment with, “Oh. Wait amoment. You've got a good point there. I may have beenwrong/hasty/ill informed/misguided about that idea. I guess I justdidn't think it through. Thank you.”?

Only this one datum – a family can'tafford extraordinarily expensive medication for seriously ill child –should smash forever the idea that unfettered markets solve allproblems. Anyone who can't understand that or cannot have a sophisticated discussion about expensive on-going treatments should leave politics. They have chosen the wrong career.

More Math

2012-01-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

The tax returns are out. Mitt and Ann Romney received $21,600,000 in 2010. Received is the most neutral verb I've found for the previous sentence. Earned has a moral sense. Collected implies some effort. Acquired doesn't add useful nuance. Income is a noun. I'll stay with received.

And received they did. $59,000 spewed through the Romney spigot on an average day. Every day, for a full year. In 2010, one day of being Romney -- just one day -- brought in more money than the median US household earned in an entire year. Or, think about the four days of Thanksgiving. Mitt and Ann received almost a quarter of a million dollars: $237,000 from the time the turkey was slid into the oven until the last leftovers were eaten. In just those four days, the Romney's got more money than 98% of Americans get in one year.

Ooops. I had to put this post on hold while running an errand. The little trip took 20 minutes and, in that time, Mitt sucked up another $820.

America has reached banana-republic-magnitude income disparity. Our skewed distribution of wealth is the sign of a sick society.

Wrong wrong wrong, again

2012-01-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

America and Europe are running their economies as well as Francesco Schettino steered the Costa Concordia. The financial results are and will be just as predictable. But, Very Serious People demand even more austerity to supplement failed austerity. Why? Because people can believe just about anything:

Evolution is only a theory, global warming is a hoax, the Earth is 6000 years old, homeopathy works, vaccines cause autism, Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons, a mythical magical invisible omnipotent all-powerful being guides holy quarterbacks to victory, women should be subservient to men, the President is a Muslim, Earth Day celebrates Lenin's birthday, Yuri Geller, foreign aide takes a large part of the national budget, Obama is a communist, Iraq helped the 9/11 hijackers, cell phones cause brain cancer, the Laffer Curve, Sylvia Browne, Jonathan Edward, Juan de Dios, The Secret, and Jim Jones,

not matter how strong the opposing evidence.

Cheating Our Children

2011-11-26T06:38:00.001-08:00

Laurie Abraham's long article, Teaching Good Sex, in the Nov 20th New York Times Sunday magazine is a powerful reminder of what we have lost to the right wing's pro-ignorance agenda. Read the article and try to imagine if it described a typical American school. Imagine the tangible results of fewer abortions, less sexually transmitted disease, and fewer teen pregnancies. And, then think of the intangible results of a happier, confident, plain spoken, and less neurotic young men and women.

Instead, we have let conservative crazies have their way for years.

Reality -- for nearly everyone -- is sickeningly far from Friends Central School's normalcy. Start with the obvious. An openly gay teacher is a red flag to right wing America; and one who teaches human sexuality to teenagers would bring out the torches and pitchforks. Principals would be forced to resign and school superintendents would recite profound apologies. Then, there's the reality of Friends Central having small discussion classes led by a highly respected teacher when the rest of the country's schools endure increasing class sizes, narrowing curricula, and teacher union bashing.

Enough. True education places critical thinking and intellectual rigor above all else. To hell with worse-than-mediocre bland substitute that is given our children. To hell with the sieves formed by standardized tests. To hell with morons who rank religion above biology. Creationism ain't science no matter how much lipstick you smear on a bible. To hell with all censors and book burners. If Twain's Huck Finn says, "Nigger," then nigger it be.

Cherchez Les Rapports Annuels

2011-11-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks, once again, to Matt Taibbi and to the Professional Left podcast for correcting Republican nonsense about the financial meltdown.

Taibbi took on New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg for repeating the lie that, "It was not the banks that created the mortgage crisis. It was, plain and simple, congress who forced everybody to go and give mortgages to people who were on the cusp." Not only is this a favorite Republican misdirection, but Taibbi points out that everyone on Wall Street knows it to be a big lie.

Driftglass and Bluegal slap down Congressman Joe Walsh for emitting the same blame-Congress nonsense. Walsh deserves the reprimand even though he may not be smart enough, nor mentally balanced enough, to separate truth from Republican battle orders.

Here's one more point. Nearly all of the companies consumed by the mortgage-related conflagration were publicly traded. The list includes Countrywide, Washington Mutual, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America and on and on. Business risks due to Congressional mandates should have been described in their annual reports to shareholders. Yet, none of the reports from all of those publicly traded companies during the decade preceding the implosion mention those risks. Not one damn word.

The next time anyone does a Flip Wilson Congress-made-me-issue-those-bad-mortgages shtick, ask to see the risk assessments in the annual reports.

Kate Smurthwaite

2011-11-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

Kate Smurthwaite spoke truth to insanity on the beeb, and I just love the collective gasp. She actually implied that people who believe in heaven are idiots. Can you imagine? And, she did the math on the Muslim's Jan and Dean heaven that promises two girls for every boy. Where do all those extra women come from?

The clip is great; see for yourself:

As always, the arguments in favor of god are just piss weak. There's the guy claiming that money doesn't really exist. Where's a 16-ton sack of coins when you really need one? His thinking is so polluted by religion that he can't distinguish different meanings of the word "faith." Face it, bro. Would you rather own Treasury bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, or just by the full faith in god?

I also love the pompous boring old fart who pronounced Ms. Smurthwaite's comment rude. OK? Is that supposed to prove the existence of heaven? If so, how? Please explain in 250 polite words, or less.

Envy

2011-10-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

Time to again laugh at the right wing's worthless comments about OWS. CNN set National Review's chump of the month against Matt Taibbi. Shallow, unsubstantiated opinion against facts and research.

NR-Boy accuses the marchers of deadly sinfulness: they are motivated by envy. The 99% want the 1%'s riches. Outrage over illegal Wall Street deals does not resonate with the Boy; nor does money's de facto and de jure corruption of American politics. Envy -- nasty green envy -- is the protesters' driving force. He knows what OWS really wants because... OK, he just knows.

Imagine a group of people protesting because they want to rid their neighborhood of drug dealers. The citizens are outraged. Drug deals take place in the open. Cops are paid off. Politicians blame the protesters for not just moving away. The dealers also shake down local businesses by demanding protection money. Mom and Pop groceries go bust as long-time customers are frightened off. And, on TV, the National Review's chump of the month sneers: protesters, he says, envy the drug dealers' money. Crime is secondary. The rabble wants the fancy cars and fine clothes. The Boy just knows it.

Remembrances of things past

2011-10-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

In space-time it is 2 miles and 40 years from Occupy Wall Street and I am a junior in high school and Nixon has invaded Cambodia and college kids are dead in Ohio and Mississippi and there is a big protest in Union Square and the crowd near me is shaped by cyclone fencing and vertical 4 x 8 sheets of plywood because the streets are torn up for a big subway renovation and a man who looks my father's age but is in blue jeans and a work shirt steps onto the podium as he is introduced. Joseph Heller. I need to tell my friends that Heller is the author of "Catch-22," even though most of them claim to have read the novel. Heller mostly says expected things about Vietnam and Nixon. None of it survives in my memory until he refers to South Vietnam's leaders as, "Those bastards, Thieu and Ky." The word was a surprise. "Bastards" was, in 1970, hard unexpected language to utter in prepared public speech by a middle-aged man of letters no matter his attire nor the content of his great novel.

Then, the follow-up that anchors the strong memory bridge across these 40 years where the crowd images and tone of voice and Heller's head turning toward his right are forever alive, "I call them bastards," he added, "Not because I hate them, but because they are illegitimate."

I am not donating money for pizza today. Instead, this is my gift to the brave ones in lower Manhattan. Think Martin Luther King, jr. Think Gandhi. Non-violence is the only effective path to change. But, you can still call the opposition, "Bastards." Not out of hate, but because they are illegitimate.

Mississippi Squirming

2011-10-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

Mississippi is the 49th or 50th state in damn near every quality of life statistic. Now, a band of freaks -- long on religion and short on common sense -- wants to create one more datum anchoring the Magnolia state to the national cellar. They are campaigning to amend the state constitution:

Be it Enacted by the People of the State ofMississippi: SECTION 1. Article III of the constitution of thestate of Mississippi is hereby amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEWSECTION TO READ: Section 33. Person defined. As used in thisArticle III of the state constitution, "The term 'person' or'persons' shall include every human being from the moment offertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof." Thisinitiative shall not require any additional revenue forimplementation.

Don't these people know anything about female icky bits? At least 50% of fertilized human eggs fail to implant in the uterus. Those eggs have, typically, divided several times to form a hollow ball of about 150 cells called a blastocyst that is between 0.1 and 0.2 mm in diameter. Or, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

Obvious segue: all of those loser, non-implanted blastocysts become part of the woman's menstrual flow. If Mississippi's nutcases get their amendment, the outflowing blastocysts are legally stillborn babies. Deaths must be recorded, micro-corpses buried or cremated, and death certificates issued. It gets ickier. Lots ickier. Every tampon and sanitary napkin used by every fertile, sexually active woman in Mississippi will need to be examined for dead blastocysts. After all, you can't allow women to toss 'persons' in the trash or flush them down the toilet. The old needle-in-a-haystack metaphor will be replaced by something like finding-a-period-in-a-period.

Mississippi morons may say they can implement personhoodness without, "requir[ing] any additional revenue for implementation." Right. Funding the Mississippi Tampon Police (MISSTAMPOL) and the testing laboratories is gonna cost a bundle. Maybe the new agency will be paid by a tax on feminine hygiene products which will, in turn, create a black market as entrepreneurs truck in cheaper products from neighboring states. More work for law enforcement in a state that can barely afford its public servants.

Can these zealots think at all?

Never happy

2011-09-25T15:07:00.000-07:00

Nothing makes me happy. Last week I complained because mainstream news outlets were not covering the Wall Street protests. Yahoo blocked email messages about the event. Searching "Wall Street protest" on the New York Times web site turns up four entries in the newspaper's City Room blog. Rupert Murdoch's NY Post dismissed the first day of the rally as a "fizzle," then followed up with a small photo gallery.

Today, I'm annoyed because the NY Times is finally covering the protest. The article emphasizes the protester's lack of knowledge about the system they oppose. The demonstrators are better at street theater than history or economics. And, that's why I'm pissed off. The article is, I suspect, correct. I was hoping for Abbie Hoffman or Tom Hadyn; lower Manhattan, instead, got Wavy Gravy.

Too bad that Ms. Ballafante didn't make the obvious connection: the protesters despite their shortcomings all sound like fucking geniuses compared with the participants in last week's Republican presidential debate.

Let 'em die

2011-09-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever forget. The Tea Party has forever been with us. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Bin Laden Determine to Strike in US

2011-09-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

Bin Laden determined to strike in US.
The British government has learned that
       Saddam Hussein recently sought
       significant quantities of uranium from Africa.
We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.

Bin Laden determined to strike in US.
Aluminum tubes.
Mobile biological warfare labs.
Stuff happens.
We don't do torture, we never have.

Bin Laden determined to strike in US.
They are, if you will, just a bunch of dead enders.
Pain accompanying serious physical injury,
     such as organ failure,
     impairment of bodily function,
     or even death.
Bin Laden will be taken dead or alive.
I truly am not that concerned about him.

Bin Laden determined to strike in US.
Bring 'em on.
I don't remember.
I forget.
Bin Laden determined to strike in US.

Vindication and Vindictiveness

2011-09-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Ed Schultz did his MSNBC show from Toledo, Ohio.

Toledo lost 39% of its manufacturing jobs in the last decade. I assume that's on top of a gizzillion blue-collar jobs lost prior to 2000. Although Ed's guests included the head of the steelworkers' union, it seemed, that most of the crowd were not factory workers (or ex-factory workers), but were teachers, cops, firefighters, and other unionized government employees targeted for impoverishment by Ohio's Tea Partying guv, John Kasich.

I, too, despise the third world trajectory plotted by Kasich and his fellow members of the Koch Brotherhood. I support the unions. But, I also want an apology. I want all those macho schmucks and angry women to admit their role in bringing America to this awful point. All of them -- who voted for Reagan then shrugged off his firing of the air traffic controllers, who voted for W (probably twice) and waved oversized Old Glories when we invaded Iraq and raged at "traitors" criticizing that absurd war, who claim a moral high ground but are silent on torture, who have been suckered by anti-gay and anti-immigrant dog whistle distractions -- owe the rest of us a big apology.

Admit it; the liberals were right, and you were wrong. You should follow the AA example by making amends to the millions of people you harmed during your forty year conservatism binge. Admit that the broken furniture, smashed windows, and depleted checking account are your goddamn fault. Your fault; the booze and the coke and the Republican whores are not to blame. You are.

Centrists

2011-07-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

Krugman is worth reading, today. But, I find the best part of his column is the italicized sentence at the very end: David Brooks is off today.

An Abundance of Caution

2011-07-28T14:34:00.000-07:00

Chris Christie, Governor of NJ, had trouble breathing earlier today:

“Out of an abundance of caution," the governor, who suffers from asthma, went to be checked out at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, the statement said. "In line with someone dealing with asthma, he is being given routine tests as a precautionary measure."

How many of the governor's constituents enjoy such abundance? CC not only gets an abundance of money, abundance of privilege, abundance of food, abundance of idiotic ideas, abundance of repugnant cruel thinking, abundance of Tea Party bird droppings, and abundance of press coverage, the Governor gets to have an abundance of caution. Praised be.

A Different Charlie

2011-07-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Last year, an Argentine cab driver gave me his definition of a third world country. "It is a place," he said, "Where you cannot plan six months ahead."

Sound familiar?

Plus c'est la meme chose

2011-07-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Here's Steinbeck:

She wore a ferocious smile and pushed her way through the milling people, holding a fistful of clippings high in her hand to keep them from being crushed. Since it was her left hand I looked particularly for a wedding ring, and saw that there was none. I slipped in behind her to get carried along by the wave, but the crush was dense, and I was given a warning, too, "Watch it, sailor. Everybody wants to hear."

Nellie was received with shouts of greeting. I don't know how many Cheerleaders there were. There was no fixed line between the Cheerleaders and the crowd behind them. What I could see was that a group was passing newspaper clippings back and forth and reading them aloud with little squeals of delight.

Now the crowd grew restless, as an audience does when the clock goes past curtain time. Men all around me looked at their watches. I looked at mine. It was three minutes to nine.

The show opened on time. Sounds of sirens. Motorcycle cops. Then two big black cars filled with big men in blond felt hats pulled up in front of the school. The crowd seemed to hold its breath. Four big marshals got out of each car and from somewhere in the automobiles they extracted the littlest Negro girl you ever saw, dressed in shining starchy white, with new shoes on her feet so little they were almost round. Her face and legs were very black against the white.

The big marshals stood her on the curb and a jangle of jeering shrieks went up from behind the barricades. The little girl did not look at the howling crowd but from the sides the whites of her eyes showed like those of a frightened fawn. The men turned her around like a doll, and then the strange procession moved up the broad walk toward the school, and the child was even more a mite because the men were so big. Then the girl made a curious hop, and I think I know what it was. I think in her whole life she had not gone ten steps without skipping, but now in the middle of her first skip the weight bore her down and her little round feet took measured, reluctant steps between the tall guards. Slowly, they climbed the steps and entered the school.

The papers had printed that the jibes and jeers were cruel and sometimes obscene, and so they were, but this was not the big show. The crowd was waiting for the white man who dared to bring his white child to school...

No newspaper had printed the words these women shouted. It was indicated that they were indelicate, some even said obscene. On television, the sound track was made to blur or had crowd noises cut in to cover. But now I heard the words, bestial and filthy and degenerate. In a long and unprotected life I have seen and heard the vomitings of demoniac humans before. Why then did these screams fill me with a shocked and sickened sorrow?

...Here was no principle good or bad, no direction. These blowsy women with their little hats and their clippings hungered for attention. They wanted to be admired. They simpered in happy, almost innocent triumph when they were applauded. Theirs was the demented cruelty of egocentric children, and somehow this made their insensate beastliness much more heartbreaking. These were not mothers, not even women. They were crazy actors playing to a crazy audience.

The full title of the book is, "Travels with Charley in Search of America." The event occurred in New Orleans in 1959 or 1960. It has taken me two sittings to copy Steinbeck's words because I cannot stop crying and cannot unclench my teeth.

I first read Travels thirty-five years ago. Some scenes -- including the one I copied and abridged for you -- have stayed with me. But, it was not until last night when I again opened the book did I recognize the power and prescience of these old words to define oh so clearly America's great divide. Steinbeck wrote the Tea Party: crazy actors playing to a crazy audience.

We shall overcome.

Plus ca change

2011-07-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

Today, a three-way confluence of history and politics. I traced a link from Hullabaloo to this item from the Douglas County Oregon News-Review:

A small political gathering of about 18 liberal thinkers at River Forks Park Sunday afternoon erupted in conflict when about 35 members of the conservative tea party intruded upon the meeting, waving flags and holding signs accusing the rival group of being communists, Marxists and socialists.

The liberal group — organized by MoveOn.org — decided to leave the park and move its potluck to a nearby home. Members of the conservative group followed, parking at the entrance of a private lane leading to the home to continue their protest.

Roseburg Democrats Dean and Sara Byers said Monday they told tea party members who followed that they were not welcome to drive down the lane to their home.

The Byerses said they got out of their car to stop vehicles from entering the driveway and one tea party member almost ran them over.

Sara Byers said she was so shaken she called 911. She said a Douglas County deputy called about an hour and a half later and said he had been unable to respond because of other incidents. Byers said she was still considering filing a criminal complaint against members of the tea party for harassment.

A leader of the tea party group, Rich Raynor of Roseburg, disputed the liberal group's version of events.

“They are liars,” said Raynor, director of Douglas County Americans for Prosperity. “That is what communists do.”

Members of the smaller group said Monday they were intimidated by the tea partiers, whom they accused of violating their constitutional right to peacefully assembly.

Roseburg resident Lillen Fifield, 70, called the group's actions an “act of domestic terrorism” and said she was appalled that a peaceful gathering — mostly of women older than 65 — was interrupted.

“It is not OK to go around and intimidate and threaten people. That is not acceptable in a polite society,” Fifield said.

Conservative organizers defended their actions and said they will continue to protest similar gatherings.

“We were there to find out what they had to say and to bring a notice to the public that this kind of thing was going on. Quite honestly, if they have it again, then we are really going to make it well known,” Raynor said.

Raynor said the group believes MoveOn.org is a communist front and said he would not stand for America becoming a fascist nation.

Then, I glanced at the opening of a Calvin Trillin piece in this week's New Yorker. He describes an encounter at a meeting in Santa Fe with a woman who, when five-years-old, integrated a New Orleans public school. That was fifty years ago. Trillin covered the story for Time. He was on the “Seg Beat” as the civil rights movement gained momentum. In the New Yorker piece, Trillin describes standing among jeering protesters as they spewed hatred towards the young black children escorted into school by US marshals. “Black ape,” was one of the most memorable epithets.

The New Yorker article, in turn, triggered my memory of “Travels with Charlie.” Near the end of that book, Steinbeck describes watching a similar (the same?) scene. I think he was in New Orleans, but it could have been Little Rock. Steinbeck was fascinated by the women in the screaming mob. He noticed that most lacked wedding rings and were, he assumed, childless as well as unmarried. Their hatred and vile rants were all the more surprising because they had no direct role in the dispute.

There is a straight, unbroken, 50-year-long line from screaming southern segregationists to Oregon tea partiers. Nothing new. Just reblended ignorance, fear, anger, and stupidity. Who else could label MoveOn.org as communists and, at the same time, inveigh against fascism? What a bunch of losers.

The fire this time

2011-07-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Here in New Mexico, June was a hideous month of smoke and fire. The mountains -- mostly National Forest land -- burned. I could see from my back yard aerial tankers flying low over rugged terrain and through blinding smoke to drop fire-stopping slurry. Helicopters carrying vast water buckets flew circuits all day from lake to fire and back. Athletic fields at the edge of Santa Fe were tent cities housing firefighting crews brought in from other states.

I tried to imagine the response to wildfires in a Randian/Tea Party world. Surprise! What they call freedom becomes a country dominated by insurers and litigators. The Las Conchas fire – which is now the largest wildfire in New Mexico history – is a good example. The blaze started on a privately-owned ranch when a power line was pulled down by a falling tree. Fire spread quickly across public, private, and tribal land. In Randworld, of course, all of the involved land would be privately held and all firefighting privately paid. The ranch owners where the fire started would need insurance against damage to their own property plus coverage in case their fire spread to neighboring property. The bank holding the mortgage would also insist on coverage against fires due to uninsured neighbors. This would be similar to auto policies covering uninsured drivers. Insurance premiums would skyrocket in times of drought – meaning now – as fire risk increased. And, there, once again, is the big hole in Randite logic. Why would any private insurer risk catastrophic losses from large wildfires? Expect them, instead, to cancel existing policies outright or indirectly by demanding exorbitant premiums. Think of a cancer survivor trying to buy health insurance.

The Randite market may be wise, but it is not stable. Without insurance, property values plunge. Banks will call in mortgages. Land owners may abandon their holdings, but can not escape their responsibilities. Coping with fires – whether due to lightning, felled power lines, or carelessness – remains the land owner's responsibility. Neighbors, who likely also hold canceled insurance policies, can try to help put out the flames or can help pay professional firefighters. What if that's not enough? The Las Conchas fire went from start to 43,000 acres in half a day. Imagine a raging fire three times the size of Manhattan. It is now close to 150,000 acres. The firefighting costs tens of millions of dollars. Will the newly destitute sue the newly destitute? Will land owners turn over their mutually charred property to the bank or firefighting company? How many Mediterranean Avenues can anyone want?

Try a different scenario. Your privately-owned mountain paradise is parched by drought. Fires are demolishing thousands of acres of similar land near home and in adjacent states. You are like a rancher whose cattle are dying of thirst, or a farmer tending withered crops. You have been a conscientious steward of your property. You cleared tinder-dry underbrush from the forested areas. But, that's not enough. Living trees are so badly desiccated that fire can jump easily from crown to crown. In the Las Conchas fire, trees tops burned so fiercely that fist-sized burning embers were blown up to half a mile ahead of the fire line. Yes, you must destroy your land in order to save it. Cut down the trees and haul the logs away. (To where?) Cool mountain forest is transformed into rocky, sun-blanched high desert. The fire, if – or when – it comes, will rage around or over whatever remains. Breathe a sigh of relief. But, what happens when the rains come or winter's snow piles high? The water you craved in fire season is now the enemy. Nature serves up erosion, avalanches, and mudslides. Your fate – and bank account – are again entwined with your neighbors' after run-off from your property floods a neighbor's house, or barn, or buries their pick-up truck with sixteen tons of muck.

In the Randian United States, e plurbus unum is replaced with Go Fuck Yourself. Unrestricted selfishness generates endless bickering, threats, and counter-threats. Limited-imagination Randites believe that guns and more guns can maintain peace. They don't get it. The big problems will start when routine commerce operates without the guarantees now provided by government. Every Main Street transaction will needed to be hedged against the newest, ugliest economic catastrophe. If libertarian bozos complain now about lawyers getting in the way of everyday life, just wait until all buying and selling requires hold-harmless agreements, arbitration requirements, and specifications for a myriad of other contingencies. Insurance companies and litigators will inherit the earth.

Open Letter to Meghan McCain

2011-05-15T16:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Ms. McCain,

What did you expect? Really. You are a Republican party shill. A conservative hack. You have criticized the obviously criticizable. That's your shtick. An inherited dollop of maverickism. You remain, however, the obvious product of your privileged upbringing. Your mother's inherited family fortune -- always huge -- has grown and grown and grown under 30 years of voodoo economics that has punished 90% of Americans. Have you complained about this inequity? No. Instead, you blast Wisconsin's unionized public employees and their supporters in the state legislature. Quelle surprise!

Republicans -- and you are one -- have been consistently wrong about the economy, taxes, the environment, global warming, energy, education, civil rights, women's rights, abortion, separation of church and state, Iraq, terrorism, Osama bin Laden, labor, the President's birthplace, the President's religion, unions, regulation, workplace safety, and Wall Street. You try claim a distinct identify by tugging at the edges: Sarah Palin and her clones, DADT, and California's Proposition 8. We get an ounce of sanity among a ton of crazy. Big deal.

Now, you have been burned by a right wing bomb thrower. Welcome to the club. Beck, Limbaugh, and the rest are the Republican party's brown shirts. Your crowd has long benefited from their lies and bullying. So don't expect us to share your outrage and indignation until you first speak up for every other victim of Glenn Beck's cruelty. I am waiting

How Much Is Enough?

2011-04-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

Robert Greenwald has created a Facebook page asking for answers to, "What would Abbie Hoffman do to stop the Koch brothers?" Hoffman had a terrific sense of guerrilla theater. I don't; but, I can do math and am trying to create imagery and understandable statistics that compare the Koch family to the merely rich. Maybe someone else can find Abbie-Hoffmanesque inspiration from the grotesque size of the Koch family fortune.

Forbes reports Charles and David Koch's combined wealth at $43,000,000,000. How much money is forty-three billion dollars? It is a stack of $100 bills that is 29 miles tall and weighs 474 tons. Moving that much weight would require 18 tractor trailers. The next time you see a truck roll by try to imagine it loaded with $100 bills. Then include another truck and another and another until you have a fleet of eighteen tractor-trailers.

Now, take a standard airline carry-on bag and fill it with fresh, crisp $100 bills. The bag will hold four million dollars, or less than one hundredth of one percent of the Koch family fortune. Yet, $4 million would rank your wealth among the elite top 10% of all Americans. If you invested the money conservatively, you would collect $180,000 every year for the next 50 years and have a million dollars left for your children to inherit. You would not have to work. Just walk to your mailbox and pick up $15,000 every month for 50 years. Thanks to George Bush and his cronies, your money would be taxed at only 15% after one year.

What's that? You're worried about inflation? One-hundred eighty-thousand bucks a year is a lot of money today, but might not be worth much in 50 years. I agree. So, as long as we are playing imagination games, assume that you have ten airline carry-on bags each stuffed with $100 bills. Now, the Koch brothers are only a thousand times wealthier than you are. You may feel poor next to David and Charles, but, you've hit the big time; you get $1,800,000 a year without having to work. Every single day including weekends and holidays someone puts $4,900 into your pockets. Your earnings put you among the top 1% of all Americans. After a half century of high living -- champagne, caviar, first class travel, fast cars, slow horses, your kids in private schools -- you or your heirs will still have $10 million to play with.

Never forget, though, that even with $40 million in the bank, the Kochs make your family look like pikers, poor relations, chumps, schnorers, Beverly Hillbillies, fly specs, and people directed to the servants entrance. Your wealth is Koch brothers rounding error. The stuff they toss to mean-streaked tapioca-brain teabaggers like Scott Walker and Chris Christie.

Ask the question. Not the one about Abbie Hoffman , but the bigger question: How much is enough? The Kochs are not an example of the American dream. Far from it. They have created an American nightmare in which wealth and political paranoia bring all of us down. It is enough to make this Jewish atheist turn to the New Testament, "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." (1 Timothy 6:10)

Dog Bites Man!

2011-01-26T07:52:00.000-08:00

From the newspaper of record:

The 2008 financial crisis was an “avoidable” disaster caused by widespread failures in government regulation, corporate mismanagement and heedless risk-taking by Wall Street, according to the conclusions of a federal inquiry.

What a big surprise! We needed a 10-person elite Federal panel to figure it all out. In this modern age of incompetence and conservatopian fantasy, only a six panelists could see what was written in big bolded text. The others, meaning the Republicans, are doing the cockroach scurry blaming everyone except Wall Street's giant vampire squids.

Why Liberals Are Wrong

2011-01-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

There are false equivalences and then there are false equivalences. "Both sides do it," is widely known. Less so -- but equally wrong -- is the idea that conservative thought or morality is a mirror image of liberal ideology.

Krugman falls into the trap here

One side of American politics considers the modern welfare state — a private-enterprise economy, but one in which society’s winners are taxed to pay for a social safety net — morally superior to the capitalism red in tooth and claw we had before the New Deal. It’s only right, this side believes, for the affluent to help the less fortunate.
The other side believes that people have a right to keep what they earn, and that taxing them to support others, no matter how needy, amounts to theft. That’s what lies behind the modern right’s fondness for violent rhetoric: many activists on the right really do see taxes and regulation as tyrannical impositions on their liberty

Lawrence Davidson of Reader Supported News fails here (my italics):

The United States is, once more, increasingly a house divided. It is not divided by "slavery agitation" though some of the issues have their roots in that era. It is divided over fundamental differences in the meaning of the nation's Constitution and the very nature of government. These differences bring with them feelings that are just as emotional and inherently divisive as was slavery.

There are a growing number of Americans who no longer believe in the modern interpretation and application of US Constitution. They insist that the way Constitutional interpretation has evolved over the past half-century is a betrayal of true American principles. Many of these Americans are apparently enamored of the 19th century outlook that the only government that is legitimate is that which sees to the police, the military and the law. Everything else should be a private concern. If you tax them for programs that have to do with social equity or economic justice (even in its pitifully weak form), or even to maintain public functions such as education, transportation and social services, they consider it theft and imagine that they are subject to a new tyranny. In addition, many of them are not willing to go along with any election that might run counter to their outlook. Some are very close to advocating sedition, and a few are obviously already gunning for their imagined "tyrants."

Krugman and Davidson are looking down into a cesspool and think they see dirtied reflections of themselves. No, they are looking at a cesspool.

Let's start with Prof. Krugman who says that conservatives have a moral code different from liberals. Well, he is correct only in the sense that nothing is different from something. Morality requires thought. An ability to evaluate different ideas. Training a dog to behave politely -- to sit on command, come when called, and walk without tugging at the leash -- does not make the dog moral. It just makes the dog behave as its master chooses. The same dog could next be trained to snarl, bark, and bite, and would do so without contemplating moral distinctions between the two types of behavior. So goes American conservatism.

Davidson also assumes too much. Have you ever talked to Tea Partiers? They are indiscriminate ignoramuses unable to answer the simplest questions about their beliefs. Remember, they are the same people who are frightened of government involvement in Medicare and Social Security. The same people who can't understand that investing excess Social Security funds in government securities is good and reasonable. Self-righteous patriots who enthusiastically support our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but can find neither country on a map. Think of all those polls showing American's staggering lack of knowledge about history, science, politics and geography. The worst of the worst, the most ignorant of the ignorant, are the conservative base.

For years they have tried to make legitimate their gun fetishism by shouting "Second amendment. Second amendment." Knowing one-half of one tenth of the Bill of Rights is not constitutional scholarship. Nor is expanding their parroted phrase list to include "original intent." These are people who are wrong by a full century when asked to put the Civil War on a time line. People who confuse the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution. People who can't name the three branches of federal government, and can't explain how the US government differs from that of Britain. Michele Bachmann -- congresswoman, Tea Party call girl, and Presidential aspirant -- goes deep stupid when talking about slavery's legal history.

The right wingers can't tell the difference between intellectual conversation and speaking in tongues. Enough.

Madness

2011-01-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

Yo, Republicans!

This is one of yours, not one of ours. He is a registered Republican. He really believes the right wing blather about returning to the gold standard and government mind control and self-protection through grammatical absurdities.

Forget all the pundits debating vitriolic talk, climates of hatred, and nudge-nudge wink-wink incitements to violence. We must instead realize that ideology built entirely of lies and cruelty can succeed only by attracting this guy and thousands like him. Who else is going to buy that crap? Who else can be goaded into sputtering apoplectic rage about a heath care law that guarantees insurance coverage to children despite pre-existing conditions, allows parents to keep their children insured until they are 26, and repairs the "doughnut hole" in Medicare drug payments? For crying out loud, the designated hitter rule is more controversial. Except to this guy and his Play-Doh-brained ilk.

Screeching Liberal

2010-12-18T13:28:00.001-08:00

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?

2010-12-02T15:12:00.000-08:00

Here is a headline from a recent New York Times article: Disappointing Job Growth in U.S. as Jobless Rate Hits 9.8%. Over 15 million people are out of work. That's about 50 million people affected directly. American families are in crisis. Yet, religious organizations with "Family" in their name are quiet. If they care so much about families, why haven't they been screaming at the President and Congress to extend unemployment benefits and increase the amount of Federal stimulus spending?

Focus on the Family has enormous political clout. James Dobson was part of weekly conference calls with the Bush White House. His unterfeuhrer, Jim Daly, attended a 2009 Fathers' Day get together hosted by President Obama. Yet, go to the FotF web-site and enter "unemployment" in their search box. The box is easy to find; it's just under the big green "Make a Donation" button. The search engine links to strategies for coping with unemployment, but nothing about the political scene. Searching "unemployment policy" or "unemployment insurance" give similar, apolitcal responses. For comparison, enter "Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy" into the FotF search. In that case, the top link is a video clip of, "Focus on the Family President Jim Daly talking with several public policy experts about current issues affecting the family. They address topics like the federal government's health care bill and changes to the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy." Priorities, priorities.

Don't even ask about the Family Research Council. You know, the people who are called a hate organization because they spend so much energy gay bashing. And, yes, you probably remember correctly: founder George Akers is the family values guy caught traveling with a male prostitute hired from rentboy.com. Akers gives us plenty of material for jokes about employing handsome young men, but that's all. Unemployment, the failing middle class, and a comatose economy are not family issues to the Family Research Council.

Pastor Rick Warren? Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Warren is yet another clergyman who cares more about endless self-promotion and power than about people in need. He is probably still high from the publicity coup of yapping at Obama's inauguration.

Most of America's clergy are conservative propaganda machines just like Fox News. Money and power dominate. Call it the religion-industrial complex. They should all go to Hell.

Mourning Joe

2010-12-01T08:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-10-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-07-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-07T14:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-11T19:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

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

2010-02-22T16:15:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-12T13:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-15T09:35:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-14T10:52:00.001-08:00

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...

2010-01-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

(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.

Justice Scalia Has No Robe

2009-10-09T13:24:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week, "conservative intellectual" joined its half-brother, "compassionate conservatism," on the official list of oxymorons. The two terms are working hard to displace "military intelligence" from the top of the list.

Fat Tony Scalia is often cited as a great example of conservative intellect. He is articulate, witty, and crowned with a mind like a steel trap. On Wednesday, however, the Justice played buffoon during oral arguments in Salazar v. Buono. No excuses. He wasn't being flamboyantly provocative during a lecture or at a dinner party. Scalia was on the job; one of nine appointed as the final line of protection for our Constitution.

JUSTICE SCALIA: The cross doesn't honor non-Christians who fought in the war? Is that -- is that --

MR. ELIASBERG: I believe that's actually correct.

JUSTICE SCALIA: Where does it say that?

MR. ELIASBERG: It doesn't say that, but a cross is the predominant symbol of Christianity and it signifies that Jesus is the son of God and died to redeem mankind for our sins, and I believe that's why the Jewish war veterans --

JUSTICE SCALIA: It's erected as a war memorial. I assume it is erected in honor of all of the war dead. It's the -- the cross is the -- is the most common symbol of -- of -- of the resting place of the dead, and it doesn't seem to me -- what would you have them erect? A cross -- some conglomerate of a cross, a Star of David, and you know, a Moslem half moon and star?

MR. ELIASBERG: Well, Justice Scalia, if I may go to your first point. The cross is the most common symbol of the resting place of Christians. I have been in Jewish cemeteries. There is never a cross on a tombstone of a Jew.

(Laughter.)

MR. ELIASBERG: So it is the most common symbol to honor Christians.

JUSTICE SCALIA: I don't think you can leap from that to the conclusion that the only war dead that that cross honors are the Christian war dead. I think that's an outrageous conclusion.

MR. ELIASBERG: Well, my -- the point of my -- point here is to say that there is a reason the Jewish war veterans came in and said we don't feel honored by this cross. This cross can't honor us because it is a religious symbol of another religion.

An "outrageous conclusion?" One of conservatisms leading lights lacks the imagination to see any part of the world, any other people, as existing differently from his experience. No wonder the Republicans went bonkers over Sonia Sotomayor's wise Latina comments and Obama adding empathy to the SCOTUS job description. Conservatives have locked themselves inside their gated communities of a white Christian nation. Everyone different is a threatening enemy including, as Scalia sees it, vocal decedents of dead Jewish war veterans.

One by one, the great conservative thinkers parade naked through the streets, thrilled by the cheers of the few, but naked all the same.

Hijacked Republicans

2009-10-06T04:10:00.000-07:00

Pundits including Paul Krugman and Rachel Maddow tell us that the Republican party has been "hijacked" by conservative crazies. When was the party different? Maybe in Abe Lincoln's time. The GOP has long been an assembly of sociopaths worshiping the flag and stomping on the Constitution.

Who among Republicans publicly choose principle over right wing orthodoxy? I can only think of two events. Both are now distant history: Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock to enforce court-ordered desegregation and Rep. Pete McCloskey opposed the Vietnam War. Anything else? How many Republicans spoke out against Joe McCarthy or Richard Nixon when it mattered? No; they acted like vultures hovering in the distance until time to feast on the carrion. How many Republicans admitted that Bill Clinton's impeachment was an obvious, unwinable, mean-spirited distraction from the nation's problems?

Look, I'm too old to expect magnificence in politics. There are no more profiles in courage. But, the Republican farm system produces a unique stream of craven dullards without capacity for self-reflection. They only know a three-page playbook: false piety, fake indignation, and manufactured fear. Reality is an enemy. Craziness is normal.

Ronald Reagan preached against Social Security and Medicare. He forecast socialism and doom. Has any Democratic president made such outrageous claims? Conversely, have any conservatives apologized for their idiot decisions? Instead, they Winston Smith history to convert failed right wing nuttiness into victory: the United States could have won in Vietnam, Joe McCarthy was correct all along, and Franklin Roosevelt prolonged the Great Depression.

Once again, I advocate a simple strategy. Every response to every conservative statement needs a preamble, "You were wrong about Iraq, wrong about financial deregulation, wrong about torture, wrong about civil rights, wrong about global warming, wrong about Terri Schiavo, wrong about sex education, wrong about energy conservation, wrong about tax cuts for the wealthy. Why should I believe you now?"

Surprsing New Poll Result

2009-09-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Despite criticism from the left, a new Harrass Poll shows Sarah Palin getting a large boost in popularity from coverage of her Hong Kong speech.

Her popularity bounce also showed up in this week's Fantasy Presidential Voting League. The former Alaskan governor and beauty queen trounced Thomas Jefferson in head-to-head polling. Participants favored Palin's directness and plainspoken qualities. Jefferson had the advantage in experience, but that wasn't enough to overcome a long list of negatives. At the top was Jefferson's sexual relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings, who bore him six illegitimate children. His numerous writings questioning God and religion were also a strong negative issue for the voting group. Charges of elitism came up because of Jefferson's admitted enjoyment of expensive French wines and his long-winded oratorical style. That caused some of Palin's supporters to liken him to John Kerry. A few said they were uncomfortable with the third president because he used Bill Clinton's middle name as his own.

When told about the results, Palin said she had great respect for Mr. Jefferson, despite his age, but favored changing the US twenty-five cent piece to show Ronald Reagan's likeness instead of Jefferson's. She added, "It's OK to keep him [Jefferson] on the three-dollar bill."

Creationist science fair

2009-08-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Creation Museum is organizing a science fair. The web site says, "Put your knowledge of science to the test." I would say "a test." And, not a very good one. Here is the third item in the list of guidelines:

"All projects should be clearly aligned with a biblical principle from a passage or verse. The student should be able to explain why the verse or passage selected relates to their project. (Students should read the article “God and Natural Law” by Dr. Jason Lisle for an explanation of this concept.)
Students should consider the context of the verse(s) they are using.
The verse chosen does not have to directly apply to the project topic (e.g., Scripture does not directly address radio waves), but may simply relate the project to the Creator of the universe.
Students should read the article 'God and Natural Law.' "

Dr. Lisle's essay is pure tautology and silly sophistry. He infers that natural laws required a supernatural source. The next logical step is untenable: What created the supernatural laws that allowed creation of a god who could then create natural laws? And, what created that creator and the creator before and the creator before that? Nonsense.

Despite the fallacy of Lisle's essay, I have been trying to think of science fair projects that fit the creationist constraints. Some ideas:

Compute the enthalphy required to change one liter of water into wine.
Determine the Q-factor of the walls of Jericho and the number of horses needed to make the walls tumble down after seven circuits of the city.
Compute the size and displacement of an ark holding two of every species and sufficient food for 40 days afloat. Assume only baby dinosaurs were collected.

I imagine a creationist science fair version of the Monty Python Cheese Shop skit:

CLEESE: This is a science fair?
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes, sir. Finest in the district!
CLEESE: How can you say that?
CHAPMAN: It's so pure.
CLEESE: Well, it certainly is uncontaminated by science.

I most pity the little buggers who think they are getting an education and then make a break for the real world. It's gonna hurt.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again

2009-06-03T06:23:00.000-07:00

Every response to every conservative comment must begin with a list of right wing failures. The Republicans got it wrong about the economy, wrong about deregulation, wrong about Iraq, wrong about torture, wrong about taxes, wrong about civil rights, wrong about global warming, wrong about Medicare, wrong about Social Security, and wrong about the environment. Why listen to them now? Why give them air time? Why imply any credibility?

Dick Cheney is a chronic liar. Nothing he says can be trusted. Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel at McClatchy describe some of his recent lies here. Yet, Cheney goes unchallenged in interview after interview. Why?

2009-04-20T04:37:00.000-07:00

Frank Rich in Sunday's New York Times sees the conservative, anti-gay movement fizzling as fast as the economy. There is a connection, though different from Rich's explanation. Right wing propagandists are institutional investors. It's all about the money. They hold a position while prices rise, then sell off at the first sign of decline.

The wealthy crazies funding wingnut media don't care about the message. They only want to protect their money. One tactic has worked again and again. Create and market fear; then sell conservative politics as the only possible response. Blacks, Jews, Catholics, communists, socialists, feminists, gays, liberals, and Muslims have all been advertised as the Big Threat to America. When one begins to fade, another is brought out, and new hysterics begun.

Now, Gay Marriage has run its cycle. Republicans used the issue to get out the conservative vote in the 2004 election. California's bigots won big the first time the state voted on gay marriage. But, Proposition 8 was a squeaker despite a wagon train of Mormon money. The trend is obvious. Gay marriage no longer generates enough fear. The wingnuts have moved on to tea bags.

Blog Against Theocracy

2009-04-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

America's religious leaders are the best reason for separation of church and state. Listen to them. Robertson, Warren, Dobson, Roberts, Donohue and the rest are cruel, hateful louts. They despise American freedoms and envy the Taliban's theocratic madness. They condemn abortion, but won't help promote birth control. They are apoplectic when in vitro blastula are used for science but indifferent when other fertilized human eggs are washed down the drain. They will spew hours of television and radio rage about the fate of one brain-dead woman, but ignore hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed in America's unnecessary war. Life is sacred, except when it isn't.

Should we give power to clergy who are indifferent to torture? Rick Warren has waffled on the issue. He signed a letter condemning torture, said, "I'm totally against torture," yet ignored the issue when meeting with President Bush. Gay marriage and abortion are Warren's higher priorities.

James Dobson, founder and head of Focus on the Family, participated in weekly telephone conferences with George Bush's White House staff. Dobson had the clout to make torture into a mainstream political and moral issue. He chose not to. Take a look at the Focus on the Family web site. A drop down menu on social issues includes links to abstinence, bioethics and the sanctity of life, education, gambling, pornography and others. Torture is not included. The web site's search utility brings up links comparing abortion to torture and commentary on tortured Christians. Torture of Muslim prisoners by the US military and CIA has been Winston Smithed.

The Family Research Council's web site is also torture free. Ditto William Donohue's Catholic League. Abortion and perceived bigotry against Catholics dominate the League's press releases. Comedians Jon Stewart and Bill Maher are the real threats to America.

Identifying America's theocrats was easy. I just turned on my television. There they were broadcasting hatred, misogyny, fear, and lies. One of the biggest lies is the claim to any part of the Constitution. No. The men who carefully wrote that sacred text omitted all reference to God. The word "religious" appears only once: no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. "Religion" is confined to the first amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...