If you think things are bad today...

Almost one-third of high school students admit to being thieves; almost two-thirds admit to being cheaters. And 93% are satisfied with their morals. What does this tell us about our future?

Of course, there is no shortage of excuse giving and rationalizing. "Intensified pressures," says one Mel Riddle, account for the widespread unethical behavior. He explains: "The competition is greater, the pressures on kids have increased dramatically. They have opportunities their predecessors didn't have (to cheat). The temptation is greater."

Everything Mr. Riddle says is preposterous. The "competition" is not greater; our declining test scores disprove that notion. Just the opposite is likely the case: so low have our academic standards fallen that many students are no longer equipped to perform at even a mediocre level; they cheat as a way to cope for their lack of basic skills and knowledge. And "competition" in no way explains why almost one-third of students steal from stores, their families, and other students--and don't seem to think that this behavior is wrong. That last point is the crux. It is one thing to do wrong but admit that you are a wrong doer. At least you acknowledge a moral standard even if you do not live accordingly. It is quite another thing to do wrong but not acknowledge the wrongness of your acts and believe yourself to be just as good as everybody else. That is moral nihilism, deadly to both individual and society.

You can cobble together your own hypothesis; it might even have some truth. The stark fact remains: the younger generation accepts stealing and cheating as ordinary ways of life. What will life be like when such people are running the country?

Read the cheerful tidings here

Yet another address to the nation

Mr. Obama has addressed the nation, proclaiming a "new beginning" when he takes the oath of office in January. Apart from the ridiculous gall of this guy--who is populating his administration with Clinton retreads starting with Hillary--claiming to be a new anything, has nobody noticed that he has assumed at the very least the position of co-president without so much as a by-your-leave? Where does this guy get such presumption? Granted that George W. Bush is the human equivalent of a vacant lot, he is nonetheless the official (for that read "constitutional") president of the United States. Mr. Obama has no official (again, read "constitutional") position or authority in the government of the United States. He has resigned his seat in the Senate. He is just like the rest of us--a private citizen. So what's with all these pseudo-presidential addresses to the nation, all these pronouncements on policy and the economy? Why doesn't he just shut up and get on with the full-time work of staffing his new administration? We are not the late Roman empire ruled by co-emperors; we are a constitutional republic governed by law. The Constitution authorizes only one president at a time and no co-presidents. Mr. Obama's disregard for and disrespect of proper constitutional authority say plenty about how he plans to govern. The rule of law is out; the rule of men is in. Just like the reign of George W. So much for the "new beginning."

Deficits do matter

Mr. Obama said today that his recovery plan will take precedence over the deficit--meaning that Mr. Obama intends to spend trillions that the government doesn't have and that he won't give a second thought as to where these trillions will come from. However, Mr. Obama did tell us that he will conduct a "page by page, line by line" review of the budget to make sure that we are not wasting money. He did not tell us how he would distinguish wasteful spending from good spending. We are to trust that he can tell the difference; that's part of the faith-based approach to government first tried by George W. Bush and which has now become the very essence of Mr. Obama's new administration.

Says Mr. Obama:

"As soon as the recovery is well under way, we need to set up a long-term plan to reduce the structural deficit and make sure we are not leaving a mountain of debt for the next generation."

Now for some facts: as of November 25, 2008 at 9:45:57 PM GMT the federal debt is $10,658,119,542,237.24. I'd say that's one big mountain of debt already. And this fiscal year's budget deficit will approach $2 trillion (current business media chatter places it around $1 trillion but simply adding up the actual and proposed bailout plans, the original deficit estimate when the budget was proposed, and the "off budget" spending for our two wars yields a figure of nearly $1.5 trillion and the current fiscal year is only two months old!). The optimistic Mr. Obama thinks he can let the deficit slide because we will have recovery first and that will take care of everything. A spoonful of recovery sugar will make the medicine of the deficit go down.

I want to know who will finance this deficit. Who will loan America $2 trillion and why? Since financing this colossal deficit is absolutely essential to Mr. Obama's spend-until-you-drop recovery plan, why does Mr. Obama think that he has the luxury of time to defer dealing with the deficit, particularly since he soon will lead a government that is technically insolvent? Will Mr. Obama, like Blanche DuBois, depend on the kindness of strangers--in this case the Chinese and the Japanese? Are we really supposed to put our futures and the future of our nation into the hands of Chinese and Japanese central bankers and hope that they'll keep shipping us money across the Pacific? Isn't this what Wall Street and Detroit are begging for--a bailout? Is Mr. Obama's "recovery" plan merely begging the world for an American bailout? Alms, alms for the poor!

Mr. Obama will soon discover the error of his ways when currency markets experience their first run on the dollar early in 2009. The dollar is fatally wounded as a currency precisely because deficits do matter, debt does matter, and high living on perpetually renewed loans is impossible. Mr. Obama is wrecking his administration and he hasn't even taken the oath of office yet!

The former United States

One of the memorable lines in the recent movie "V" occurs in the rant some evil character makes about "the former United States," a play on that well-used phrase of the 1990s, "the former Soviet Union."

Well, a Russian political analyst thinks that "former" status is in the future for these United States. He has been predicting the break-up of the country for more than a decade. His reason: this country is going dead broke with no possibility of righting itself. And he ought to know since he watched his own country--the former Soviet Union--fall apart for similar reasons.

I've long thought that in the continental US there are at least three separate countries, and the recent election confirms my view. There is a northern country composed of New England, the Atlantic states, the region around Philadelphia, mid-West states like Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the northern parts of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and the region around Pittsburgh. There is a southern and central western country composed of the states of the Confederacy, the central mid-west states and the southern parts of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and western Pennsylvania, and the states of the west and southwest. Then there is the Pacific country composed of California, Oregon, and Washington. These divisions have been evolving for at least the last two generations, and they continue to evolve and the divisions become ever more marked.

Within those large divisions are smaller divisions. For example, the Pacific country is really the coastal sliver of California, Oregon, and Washington, and it is only about 50 miles wide. The western areas of all three states differ entirely in culture and politics from the urban coastal areas. Those regions really belong to the southern/western country.

The last election conclusively demonstrates that the United States is dividing into distinct, separate regions that are largely hostile to each other in politics, culture, and economics. These differences, already obvious, will become even more pronounced as we fall deeper into depression and can't find any way to escape it. The federal government is already held in contempt by millions in the southern/western country; its enormous future failures will only aggravate that contempt possibly to the point that secession--a word long reserved for libertarian kooks--will become widely discussed among ordinary people as a realistic solution to their problems. Watch out when authorities in the imperial capital--that Constantinople on the Potomac--issue orders and edicts but nobody listens. The end is not far away.

Increasingly, there are good reasons to think that the phrase "the former United States" is the future. When the national vase shatters, what will be made out of the shards?

Read it here

$24,000 and counting

Do you know that you have personally pledged $24,000 in loans and other "investments" to Wall Street, Detroit, and anybody else you can think of? Yes, you have. So has every man, woman, and child in the country. That is the government's bailout commitment so far. Did anybody ask you about it? And there are bailouts aplenty going on even as you read; today Citibank gets $20 billion. That's $20 billion we taxpayers used to have for roads, defense, schools, medical care--just the minor necessities of life that we will now forgo to bail out Citibank this week, and then next week, and then the week after. You get the picture.

You have pledged your financial resources, your home, your labor, and your future. You must be a very generous person, kind hearted and freely sharing. Perhaps a better description might be "chump." You have surrendered your future so that millionaires and CEOs will enjoy their future. How do you feel now that you've been taken to the cleaners?

Read about your generous pledge here

Why we will win

Apropos the dissent and schism at present vexing the Episcopal church, Frank Kirkpatrick, a professor of religion at Trinity College in Connecticut, says the following:

"I absolutely think there will be a strong and vibrant Episcopal Church left. Look at the number of people in their 20s, 30s and 40s. The vast majority don't (care) about whether someone is gay or straight. ... As the older people begin to die off, the rage and passion will begin to disappear."

And that is exactly why we gays will win full civil rights and why, despite set backs, we are winning even now. Death is the great expunger of bigotry. According to the CDC's morbidity and mortality statistics, slightly less than 1% of the American population dies each year, mostly old people. According to surveys, the strongest anti-gay animus is found among old people. If you look at surveys which track attitudes toward gays in relation to sodomy laws, job protection, hate crimes law, civil unions and marriage over many years, you discover that the decline in animus against gay people tracks almost exactly the 1% death rate: every year as more old people die, the social climate for gays improves. We gays will win simply because the older generations are mortal and soon will be no more.

One hesitates to put the case so bluntly; death is not something to celebrate. And one does understand that when they were young, today's elderly (if they knew anything about gay people at all or even thought of them) knew gay people only as loathsome sinners or as criminal perverts or as mentally and emotionally ill people. So they were told by the church, by the state, and by medical science. I don't forgive their prejudice, but I do understand its origins.

Nonetheless, the fact is this: as older generations dwindle, the better life becomes for gay people. How nice and encouraging it would be to attribute the considerable progress gays have made in the last generation to our ability to appeal to the reason and fairness of our fellow citizens; how nice it would be to have reasonable and fair fellow citizens. But the real truth is otherwise: (1) the older generations (unlike their own parents and grandparents) have failed to transmit their prejudices against gay people to their own children and grandchildren; (2) the older generations have run out of time.

Both a satire and the literal truth

Remember the good old days when you could tell satire from reality? Nowadays when it comes to the lunatics on the religious right, you just can't tell anymore. As evidence, consider this piece from The Onion. The tone of the piece is satire, but the views expressed are solid Christian fundamentalism, the sort of stuff you can find in any fundamentalist church.

Pretty spooky!

Read it here

Confirmation of impending catastrophe

If you thought that electing Barack Obama president would set the country back on the right track, we now have absolute confirmation that nothing of the sort will happen. From his speech today:

"I have already directed my economic team to come up with an Economic Recovery Plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011 – a plan big enough to meet the challenges we face that I intend to sign soon after taking office. We’ll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jumpstart job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels; fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead."

In other words, the federal government will use money that it does not have to create jobs out of thin air. Who will be hired, why, on what qualifications? What specific positions will be created, why, for what purpose? Who will choose, on what basis, for what purpose, to accomplish what goals? Not a word about that. Just a plan is in the works, hang on, the good times will roll eventually.

Does Mr. Obama not know that the federal budget deficit for this fiscal year will be $2 trillion? Only a few years ago this sum was the entire budget for the federal government; now it is only the deficit. Who will finance this deficit? Not Americans because we have no savings. The Chinese? The Japanese? They have that kind of money just lying around unused? Will they hand us $2 trillion just because they like us? Does Mr. Obama not know that somebody has to pay for all his dreams and promises? Why do we keep listening to this nonsense?

Do you want to know what is really going to happen in the next four years? Then go here and listen to podcast 72 with Peter Schiff of Europacific Capital. He'll tell you what's really going to happen in a dead-broke country with an insolvent government. It doesn't sound anything like Mr. Obama's dreamworld.

Feed them to the lions (as if!)

Apparently a group of kooks shows up in San Francisco's Castro district (a.k.a. downtown Gaytown) every Friday night to deliver a message of hope and love: God hates queers and plans to send them all to hell. Last Friday, with emotions raw from the Proposition 8 fight, the little group of kooks bumped into an angry bunch of gays who basically ran them out of the Castro. Good, it's about time.

Nero supposedly had Christian pyromaniacs doused in tar and set aflame as punishment for setting fires during the great fire of Rome in 64 A.D. (or so claims Tacitus in a now much doubted passage in "Annals"). Christians have milked this tale for martyrs beyond counting, including St. Peter and St. Paul (remember "Quo Vadis" and all that?). Nowadays serious historians doubt that any of this happened, but the need to be a martyr (known in secular precincts as "professional victimhood") remains strong among certain kinds of Christians--and our little group of Castro kooks is queuing up for martyrdom as word of their escapade spreads among the faithful.

The kooks were driven off with taunts of "Shame on You" and loud whistle blowing. Sadly, none of the gays had any banana cream pies handy. The kooks are telling lurid stories of suffering threats and terror; visions of Jesus and the Virgin cannot be far behind. Wingnuts galore are warning about "violent gays." The great grasp of unreason tightens.

Watch the fun here

One reason why we're doomed

Here's a glaring example why the American economy is going, going, soon to be gone: house prices in Southern California have fallen by more than 40%! And worse, they won't ever be going back up. What are families going to do? "We bought a house for $500,000 and now we're stuck in a neighborhood full of empty, foreclosed shanties and our house is worth only $300,000 but nobody wants to buy it and we're still stuck with a $500,000 mortgage!" Does any rational person believe that homeowners are going to keep making payments on mortgages for homes worth only 60% or 50% or 40% of those mortgages? For the next 30 years? The sub-prime crisis was just the beginning; now it is the turn of previously solid middle-class homeowners to walk away. More bank failures are just around the corner.

Read it here

But the crook does have a sympathetic heart

Alaska senator and convicted felon Ted Stevens recently said: "I wouldn't wish what I'm going through on anyone, my worst enemy. I haven't had a night's sleep for almost four months."

Things got worse yesterday when, with almost all votes now counted, Mr. Stevens lost his seat, which he would have lost anyway had he won since the Senate would certainly have expelled him.

It's nice that Mr. Stevens wouldn't wish his travails on his worst enemy, but why did Mr. Stevens wish them upon himself? Everything bad that has befallen him was caused by his own hand. He was convicted on seven counts of lying by failing to report gifts. These weren't "whoops, I forgot" boo-boos; he got some $250,000 in gifts (absurdly insisting that just because someone put something in his house which he subsequently used and enjoyed for years didn't mean that he had received a gift--he actually said this on the witness stand under oath!).

Were these gifts worth your career, Mr. Stevens? You'll have a lot of free time in your cell to ponder that question. Now at 85, this sad, old man gets to see everything he ever achieved, every good deed he ever did, obliterated by the fact that he is a convicted felon on his way to prison where he may spend the last years of his life. A lifetime lost to greed. What does it profit a man...?

These are the sort who did the evil deed

Although this video was made by people obviously hostile to Barack Obama, it is instructive about one thing: these are the sort of people who in California voted for Obama for whatever reason and voted against the basic human right of marriage for gay people. Does anyone think that any of the people in the video could articulate logical, fact-based reasons why they voted for Obama? How many of these people could possibly express a coherent, rational opinion why gay people should not get married or why as voters they believe themselves empowered to deprive a class of people of fundamental rights? Did you read that piece by Chris Hedges about the vast and growing class of illiterate and nearly illiterate Americans who simply cannot think reasonably about their world and respond only to images and emotions? These are some of the people he was talking about. And lest you think I am partisan, the results would have been exactly the same had twelve supporters of John McCain been interviewed. That is the frightful state of political life in this democracy.

Watch it here

A slimy Newt speaks

Newt Gringrich talking to Bill O'Reilly: "Look, I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence, to use harassment. I think it is prepared to use the government if it can get control of it. I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact. And, frank -- for that matter, if you believe in the historic version of Islam or the historic version of Judaism, you have to confront the reality that these secular extremists are determined to impose on you acceptance of a series of values that are antithetical, they're the opposite, of what you're taught in Sunday school."

So Newt Gringrich believes in historic Christianity? Like the part that forbids adultery and divorce? Mr. Gringrich is on his 3rd wife (having dumped the first while she was fighting cancer and having dumped the second by announcing his divorce to the news media before he ever told her) and goodness only knows how many mistresses (recall that he was dethroned as Speaker of the House because his adultery and mistress were made public at exactly the same time that he was leading the impeachment attempt against that notorious adulterer Bill Clinton). This man genuinely has no conception how vile and hypocritical he is. Everybody else does. The idea of a serial adulterer pretending to defend the sanctity of traditional marriage! Yet still he gets a public platform and dimwits buy his BS.

Who says there isn't a God?

Proposition 8 may have temporarily halted gays getting married in California, but James Dobson playing sugar daddy to the pro-Prop 8 mob is now costing employees at Focus on the Family their jobs. Sounds like karma to me. In gay parlance, that would be "what goes around, comes around."

Karma at Focus on the Family

A sane man in a crazy world

Paul Craig Roberts is a sane voice crying in the wilderness. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the early Reagan administration and one of the most important advocates for "supply side" economics, which was a correction of the tax system that was penalizing business and causing stagflation. He was right, and America put an end to stagflation for nearly 30 years until our glorious leader, George W. Bush, and his agents of evil in the Treasury and the Federal Reserve inadvertently revived stagflation by financing Bush's wicked wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and now Pakistan with unlimited borrowing and the printing of dollars. We are back to the dismal world of the 1970s, its rising inflation and falling employment and economic stagnation, without a clue how to escape.

Mr. Roberts was a darling of the conservative Republicans and was published in all the best journals--the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Baron's, etc. But when Bush started his crazy wars, Roberts objected clearly and strenuously. For doing so, he quickly became an unperson. Strangely now, he is welcome among left wingers and is regularly published in Counterpunch.

He has been warning us for years and years that the American economy is being hollowed out, that we are bleeding to death with a vast trade deficit, that reckless deficit spending for wars and the military/industrial complex is bankrupting the government, and that borrowing trillions from foreigners with no hope to repay them will destroy the dollar. The grim realities of today's headlines prove him right.

In this column, he warns America that the bailout billions flowing from Washington will result in a budget deficit this year alone of $2 trillion, all of which must either be borrowed from foreigners or printed up at the Federal Reserve. We can't finance such colossal debt, so resorting to the printing press will be the government's only option. Want a peek at America's future? Look at Zimbabwe today--inflation without limit. You say that it can't happen here? Yes, it can; and, yes, it will.

Read "The Crisis Has Hardly Begun"

Now you ask the question?

Evidently Commerce Secretary Carlos Guiterrez has been tasked by his employer to oppose giving the American Big-3 automakers bailout loans. Says the good secretary: "If you start that, where do you stop? There's a line of companies of industries waiting at Treasury just to see if they can get their hands on those $700 billion."

My dear Mr. Secretary, shouldn't you have asked this question before your employer OKed the $700 billion bailout? And instead of asking a rhetorical question, shouldn't you have addressed your question to your employer and waited for a genuine answer? Now that the bailout is in progress, isn't it too late to be so fastidious about who get the bucks and who doesn't? On what logical, consistent basis can you refuse anyone? Since you have thrown away any principles to stand on, on what basis do you make this stand?

Inspiration and determination

Yesterday's nation-wide protests against Proposition 8 and in favor of full civil rights for gay people were an inspiration. Nothing like this has ever occurred in the long struggle we gay people have made for our civil rights. There have been passionate outbursts before (e.g., Stonewall in 1969, which is commemorated every year in Gay Pride), but this mass movement is different. It was proposed spontaneously on-line, spread by word of mouth and email, and organized entirely by ordinary people. This is real democracy--the demos, the people, speaking as one to the entire nation. That is the difference. Not an elite or a band of self-chosen "leaders." The people, gays and straights, are running the show now. We will win in California soon; that foul stain on the state's constitution will not endure. Then other states, one by one. No one will give us full equality; in the true American rough-and-tumble way, we will claim it for ourselves, we will fight for it ourselves, and we will obtain it for ourselves. And unlike our enemies, we will fight with every honorable means at our disposal to win the hearts and minds of honorable Americans.

Right answer, wrong thinking

So Republican Senators Shelby and Kyl oppose a $25 billion loan to the Big 3 American car makers. Why? Says a man who knows nothing about the car industry, Mr. Shelby, "They're not building the right products. They've got good workers but I don't believe they've got good management. They don't innovate. They're a dinosaur in a sense." Of course, all of this is preposterous. The market (not the ignorant Mr. Shelby) determines whether or not GM builds the right products, and GM has been selling millions of its products every year. Obviously somebody thinks that GM builds the "right products." Regarding management, did GM's management just suddenly go sour? Hardly. They don't "innovate?" Every year GM produces more and different products and, again, sells millions of units all across the globe. Thus trashing the Big 3--a.k.a. argumentum ad hominem--is not a proper response to the question on the table: whether to bail these companies out or not.

So why should the government not give the Big 3 a $25 billion loan? For these two simple reasons: (1) Nothing in the Constitution allows the federal government to loan tax dollars to private companies; (2) The federal government--certainly including Senators Shelby and Kyl--is not competent to decide whether or not GM, Ford, and Chrysler should survive as independent companies. The government has no knowledge, insight, or wisdom by which it could arrive at a reasonable conclusion either way, for or against. Survival or failure are market events to be decided by the market alone.

Our two glorious senators should tell the truth: they are not allowed to loan tax dollars to private concerns, and they are not competent to impose their opinions on the market. In other words, the very question of a tax dollar-funded bailout should never have been considered by the government in the first place because by its very nature the government lacks both the authority and the competence to consider the issue.

Read it here

The Great Depression of 2009

Like scary tales that make your spine tingle? Like to read graphs and economic data? Then here's some scary geek reading combining the best of both. Call it "Oswald Spengler Redux: The Decline of the West, American Style." The Crash of 2008 precedes the Catastrophe of 2009. The misery has just begun. John Williams of ShadowStats estimates real unemployment (that is, unemployed people who want work but cannot find any or part-time workers seeking full-time work but cannot find any) at about 15% today! That's an unemployment rate equal to that of circa 1931 and then later circa 1937--years in the depths of the Great Depression. In terms of unemployment, we are in a depression right now. And unemployment will just get worse and worse. What are we going to do? And why don't we recognize our peril? Are we so totally lost in playing make-believe, so utterly incapable of confronting the real world as it really is, that we are paralyzed and unable to respond? Are we just going to sit around and hope that somebody, some where, will tell us what to do?

Read the grim stats here

Next stop: The Inquisition

American Catholic bishops are "warning" President-elect Obama against the Freedom Of Choice Act, a proposed federal law that would guarantee women full access to abortion and other reproductive services by canceling any state-based attempt to interfere with such access. The bishops, who of course want to impose their theology on America whether we citizens want it or not, are up in arms. They claim that "Aggressively pro-abortion policies, legislation and executive orders will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans."

Really? Alienate tens of millions of American from what? The Constitution? The law? From Mr. Obama? From Congress?

The bishops also claim that "It [FOCA] would deprive the American people in all 50 states of the freedom to enact modest restraints and regulations on the abortion industry." First, the "abortion industry" is known in normal, non-sanctimonious language as medicine and medical services, which of course are well-regulated by the states. Second, as for "modest restraints," the bishops lie by euphemism. They want to eliminate abortion, period. Their idea of restraint is any and all legal obstructions that prevent women from controlling their own bodies; they want to keep piling on the "modest restraints" until access to abortion is thwarted by a legal network of exceptions, procedures, and protocols that women cannot penetrate or surmount.

The real threat here is to the bishops: FOCA puts the anti-abortion crowd out of business, thus curtailing a source of funding for the Religious Right and their cronies. Abortion and gay rights are the two cash cows of the Religious Right, which has been milking them for every penny for the last 30 years. If abortion goes, then the Religious Right goes belly up for want of money; they know it, their friends the Catholic bishops know it, the right to choice folks know it. That's the real reason why the Catholic bishops are threatening Mr. Obama: money makes religion go around, so don't mess with the money!


Read it here

Terrific sites for economics

Here are two terrific sites for anyone who wants to understand why the American economy is going down the crapper.

First, a site dedicated to the only rational economics around, the Austrian school. The Mises Institute is the sole place savants need to find the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about economics.

Second, a fine vantage point from which to watch the American economic train wreck is Economy In Crisis. If we're all going down (and we are), at least a few hardy souls will want to know why. Here's the place to find out.

And it will just keep getting worse and worse

What is worse than graduating from college only to face the prospect of no job and no income? Being $22,000 in debt from college loans! The upheaval in American higher education is just beginning, but the writing is on the wall for all to see: No money, no students, huge cutbacks, unemployed professors, bankrupt colleges and universities.

Read it here

It can't happen here!

"No, it can never happen here. Why? Because it just can't, that's why! Cased closed. Finito. There, I told you so."

When Martin Hennecke makes some sobering comments on the worsening economic crisis and mentions the possibility that the colossal bailout debt the US is developing may lose the government its AAA bond rating, you'd think he was talking crazy or so says a fellow guest commentator. According to this eternal optimist, economic laws don't apply to the USA. Everything will be fine in the end. Pollyanna couldn't have said it better.


Watch it here

Can Americans think straight?

According to a new poll:

"Eighty percent say trimming personal tax rates should be a goal when the new president takes office in January, but only 36 percent say the cuts should [be] a very top priority, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll."

We are in the throes of a recession that is very rapidly devolving into a depression worse than that of the 1930s, yet 64% of Americans have a completely wrong idea how to cope with the situation. Tax cuts (with corresponding spending cuts) are the only way to repair the crashing economy. People and businesses must retain more of what they earn, save it, and reinvest it; the government--which is the biggest consumer, not a producer or investor--must restrain its appetites in favor of rebuilding savings and capital in the private economy. As for the ostensibly sensible 36%, I'll bet a dollar that most of them want only half of the necessary remedy--tax cuts but not a dime in spending cuts. That's been Republican gospel for the last 30 years, and we are paying a terrible price for that foolishness.

Consumption and spending and borrowing and inflating will impoverish us, not restore us. When your assets and wealth are diminishing, you must save, not consume whatever you have left. Why can't Americans figure this out?

Read it here

Reason, decency, and human rights in Conn.

Congratulations to the people of Connecticut for enlarging their understanding of human rights to include gay couples wishing to be married. On election day, the citizens of Connecticut turned away an attempt by the theocons to call a constitutional convention for the purpose of overturning the ruling of the state's supreme court that equality before the law means equality for gay people, too. As of today, gays are getting married, and "equal" in Connecticut really does mean "equal."

Looking ahead to 2009, we can look expect more advances in New York and possibly New Jersey. In Vermont, public hearings have been examining whether to extend marriage rights to civil unions. And of course, the battle continues in California; 43 legislators have just signed their names to a friend of the court brief urging the state's supreme court to stay Proposition 8.

What a different time for American gays A.D. 2008 is compared to just 10 years ago when even civil unions were anathema to just about everybody in the country. Now civil unions are the Religious Right's compromise position! Full equality before the law will belong to gay people in this country very soon.

Read the happy news here!

A ray of sunshine

As ominous as the new Democrat ascendancy is for the economic future of America (a future which the Republicans--let me give credit where credit is due--pretty much flushed down the toilet), the Democrats will doubtless advance the liberal social agenda, and I'm all for that. In particular, Roe v. Wade is now secure forever. All the Religious Right's scheming and planning and conniving for the past 30 years have come to nothing. They came within a hair's breadth of stacking the Supreme Court with Scalias and Thomases, but Justice Stevens proved to be too tough an old bird for them and beat the theocons by living to see their ruin. Obama's appoints to the court will upend a generation of wingnut hopes and dreams. The finger of fate has written, and all the regrets and tears will not cause it to erase even half a word: Roe v. Wade is and will remain the law of the land.

And no more abstinence-based BS, no more twisted anti-sex pseudo-education, no more fantasy about breast cancer is God's revenge on abortion, or any of the other preposterous nonsense we've heard from the Bush administration, the previous Bush administration, and the Reagan administration. No more lying for Jesus in Washington, D.C. Further, the Democrats are getting ready to pass the Freedom of Choice Act, which will override state laws that have been obstructing women from exercising their reproductive rights.

The Catholic bishops are aghast. Watch them go after Catholic Democrats--especially Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi--with the only tools they have left--denial of sacraments at mass and maybe even excommunication. American theocracy takes a giant leap backward, but it won't go quietly or even with a bit of dignity.

Second thoughts in Utah

The great grasp of unreason loosens a bit in the Kingdom of the Latter Day Saints, a.k.a. the state of Utah. One suspects that high Mormon shamans, startled by the very sharp anti-Mormon reaction following Proposition 8, are trying to figure out how to head off a PR mess by making happy talk about the church having "no opposition" to gay civil unions and domestic partnerships. That's the story today. Of course, the story yesterday and the day before yesterday and the day before that was adamant opposition to gay civil unions and domestic partnerships. I'm sure the story will change tomorrow. However, strike while the iron is hot, so politicians in Utah are preparing various gay-friendly bills for the new legislative session in January that will grant many domestic partnership-like rights to Utah gays. They claim they are taking church elders at their word. Certainly they know, we know, and everybody knows that there is no point taking Mormon church officials at their word because they will deny that they ever said anything in the first place. But maybe this time the Proposition 8 backlash will keep PR pressure hot and heavy enough for Utah gays to exploit an awkward public relations moment for the Mormons. Don't hold your breath, but keep your fingers crossed.

Read it here

Just a quick thought

I was reading a bit about the new National Socialist experiment America is conducting during the last months of the Bush administration (without all the Aryan superman stuff that so fascinated the German mind of the 1930s, of course), when this thought occurred to me:

The $850 billion bailout plan just passed by Congress now allows the government to acquire part ownership of the financial institutions it is bailing out (for example, it owns some 80% of AIG). But the government also regulates these institutions--that is, the government regulates the businesses it partially owns. Isn't this the very definition of "conflict of interest?" Isn't this a crime? How can the regulator honestly regulate himself? Shouldn't the government begin a criminal investigation of itself? Maybe it will indict itself, try itself, convict itself, and sentence itself to federal prison where, in yet another conflict of interest, it will guard itself.

Wow! Essential reading from Chris Hedges

Read this piece by Chris Hedges and despair. What a world we have made for ourselves!

Chris Hedges is one of the wisest people writing today. His books on war are indispensable--because as a 20-year war correspondent he lived on the front lines and saw, heard, felt, and smelled war daily. Despite its frivolous title, his "Losing Moses on the Freeway" is one of the profoundest treatments of morality I can recall reading. Powerful and, again, indispensable.

And he is above all a man of genuine courage. He gave a commencement speech at Rockford College in May, 2003, that came within a hair's breadth of setting off a riot. Why? Because he dared say that war was wrong and disastrous to an American audience enraptured by Bush's glorious war of liberation in Iraq. Would to God we had listened to him then!

Read his piece here:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_the_illiterate/

It's come to this?

You know things are truly bad when the Post Office expects to layoff 40,000 employees. If it happens, it would be the Post Office's first layoff ever. Holy cow!

Read it here:

http://www.ksla.com/global/story.asp?s=9247633

Three cheers for Mr. Olympia!

Governor Arnold does what craven Democrats won't do: He encourages California gays to keep fighting because they will win eventually. Can you imagine any Democrat anywhere in California (except possibly San Francisco) going on the record with unequivocal support for the right of gays to marry? And he's Republican! That spineless oyster Dianne Feinstein wouldn't do it. She made an ostensibly anti-Prop 8 TV ad in which she opposed "discrimination." Girl, opposing "discrimination" takes as much courage as opposing bad smells. Gays getting married, not "discrimination," was the issue on the table. And don't let her sister senator/oyster, Barbara Boxer, off the hook, either; she didn't even bother to make a TV ad because "she wasn't asked." Oh please, woman, even you can think of a better lie than that!

Goodness knows that the schmuck Arnold replaced, Gray Davis, never let such words pass his lips. Gays got domestic partnerships out of Davis only because he was in the throes of fighting the recall and desperately needed every vote he could buy; in calmer times Gray Davis would certainly have thrown gays under the bus and vetoed domestic partnerships because that conniving bastard had his eyes on a run for the White House and didn't want any gay baggage to weigh him down. Liberal Democrats--they are men and women of principle, each and every one of them (and they will go hoarse telling you so), right up to the very moment when they have to risk voter displeasure, and then down the toilet go the principles--and until now, the gays as well.

Arnold gets my respect. Screw the religious right before which every other Republican politician bows and scrapes; he's siding with gays and human rights. If the Republicans have any hope to save their shattered party from dissolution, they'd better model themselves on Arnold's example and boot the holy rollers and Elmer Gantrys out on their fat butts. The Republicans must reorient themselves as the party of modern secular conservatism and quit being the party of the bronze age, Yahweh, and the book of Leviticus.

Read here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-protest10-2008nov10,0,4939340.story

We should have listened better

Just in case you thought all that "socialist" talk during the campaign was just partisan noise, please read this report about Congressional Democrats holding hearings on how the government may (will!) seize IRA and 401k accounts--for the protection of the account holder, of course. Is this the way the government will try to stave off the inevitable bankruptcy of Social Security? Spread the wealth around, said Mr. Obama, and millions envisioned themselves fingering the billions of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Who knew that it would be your wealth being spread around? Want to rerun the election yet?

The article:

http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=5081

A party of cads

The trashing of Sarah Palin continues. Embittered McCain operatives tell any preposterous lie about her, and the media happily report it as "news." Mr. McCain remains silent while his thugs mug her in an alley. What a noble fellow! Not only are reason and principle extinct among Republicans, but so are gallantry, courtesy, and chivalry. How long will this vile spectacle continue? To her credit, Governor Palin is fighting back (but alone since no Republican "leader" will stand with her). I thought she was ill-qualified for the federal executive, but she didn't doom the Republicans; John McCain, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et. al. doomed their party by their wicked wars, their lying, their reckless disregard of the Constitution, and their fiscal madness. Sarah Palin is showing that she's more of a man than all these wimps strung together. She's tough and resilient. I like that, and I'm starting to like her.

Proposition 8 in California

I'll be writing a lot on this topic in coming days, but I want to deal with one facet of this issue right now. As exit polls indicate, some 70% of blacks voted against the equal rights of gay people. The vote of no other ethnic or racial group was so lopsided. This deplorable vote highlights a well-known but largely ignored fact: anti-gay bigotry is rife among blacks. This bigotry is not limited to the marriage issue; a similar number of blacks opposed civil unions in California. This bigotry blights the lives of black gays and lesbians. It is deep and ugly, and it roils and festers almost entirely because of the anti-gay hostility that permeates black churches and that is kept alive by black clergymen.

For far too long gays have kept quiet about this locus of anti-gay prejudice. The aura of victimhood has shielded blacks from just and proper scrutiny on this issue. Well, after Proposition 8 there should be no more free rides for bigots. Anti-gay bigotry should be exposed and stigmatised wherever it is found--and there's a huge load of it in black homes and churches. America has risen above its shameful past and elected a black man on his merits as a man. It is now time for black Americans to confront their anti-gay prejudices, rise above them, and accord gays and lesbians their human rights as men and women--including the right to marry.

That Didn't Take Long

You may recall that during the recent uproar over the $700 billion bailout that grew to $850 billion before it finally passed the Congress and was quickly signed into law by our Sultan, George W., at the behest of his Grand Vizier, Hank Paulson, the Congress also passed a $25 billion loan package for the "Big 3" US automakers to "retool" for the future--a future they are not likely to enjoy considering that all three are bleeding cash at unimaginably high rates and recording colossal losses. $25 billion corporate welfare checks just don't go very far these days, so they're back for more--$50 billion at last count! Presumably our new Sultan-to-be will graciously bestow his favor upon these deserving subjects; for as my lord Obama instructed the nation yesterday, "The automobile industry is the backbone of American manufacturing." He urged Sultan George W. to find some accommodation for the automakers since how could the nation survive if it lost its backbone? Dare I say that politicians thrive without backbones? Well, yes, but that's a matter for experts in invertebrate biology, not economics. So now in the new world of freebie finance--"a bailout for me, for you, for everybody!"--the not-so-big-3 will get lots more money coming in one end so they can bleed it out the other end. Where our insolvent government will get the bailout cash is anybody's guess.

And it is about time, too!

In his press conference today, Mr. Obama said the following:

"Immediately after I become president I’m going to confront this economic crisis head-on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity."

Don't we all feel reassured now? Mr. Obama knows all the "necessary steps," and he'll get cracking right after taking the oath of office in January. Our Blessed Redeemer knows how to "restore growth and prosperity." He'll just saunter on down to the growth and prosperity store and get some for us. Why didn't we think of that? What have we got to worry about now? Everybody now sing, "Happy Days are here again/The skies above are clear again/So let's sing a song of cheer again/Happy Day are here again!"

The Pruitt Chronicles (Episode 1)

When I was small I used to watch a sitcom called “The Pruitts of Southampton” starring Phyllis Diller as a bankrupt socialite who tries to keep up the appearance of affluence despite being broke. I contend that America today is a giant, real life version of this comedy, but nobody’s laughing this time. This post is the first of no doubt many installments of what I am calling “The Pruitt Chronicles,” the saga of life in America gone bust.

Let’s start with California. The deepening recession/depression is playing havoc with state finances. The state’s budget deficit is now $11.2 billion dollars and counting. What does Governor Schwarzenegger propose to do? To begin with, he wants $4.5 billion in various cuts. OK, so far so good, but what about the $6.7 billion you still want to spend, Arnold? Where are you going to get it? A bright idea occurs to the governor: since we want to spend more money, we must raise taxes! Problem solved. Yes, indeed, the governor wants to raise $4.4 billion in new taxes so California can keep up the appearance of affluence even though California taxpayers will be going broke in the recession. And still that wizard of finance is $2.3 billion short! Where will that money come from? Borrowing? Begging? MasterCard? Renting rooms in the governor’s mansion? Says the governor: other “revenue generators.” Oh, I get it, counterfeiting.

Needless to say, the not-a-dime-in-new-taxes crowd is armed and ready to do battle with the equally well armed not-a-dime-in-new-cuts crowd. They will fight it out in a special session of the legislature. I imagine that the legislators will jigger a fix that fools nobody and fixes nothing but buys a bit of time until festering financial problems force them to jigger yet another fix. The eventual winner will be the Specter of Insolvency. But for a while longer, Californians can pretend that they are still affluent and that the person knocking on the front door isn’t the repo man or the sheriff with an eviction notice.

And isn’t playing make-believe what life in these United States is all about now? That’s a right guaranteed somewhere in the Constitution, isn’t it?

Hello, world!

This is my first blog entry--just a quickie trial to see how things look...

And I just took a gander, and it looks pretty good to me! So now I join the countless hordes emitting obiter dicta all day long. Maybe money, money, money makes the world go around, but opinion, opinion, opinion makes the internet twirl on its toes--so let's start twirling!