The new Tea Party backed congressmen and women who were elected last month won't take office until January 20th; but the effects of the Tea Party effort have already been felt in Washington.
Today the Democrats gave up on passing a new $1 Trillion dollar pork barrel bill in the lame duck session of congress. And, on other side of the coin, the Democrats failed in their attempt to pass a massive tax increase when the lame duck congress extended for two years almost all of the lower tax rates that have been in effect for the past nine years.
Elections have consequences, and in this case the Tea Party uprising that helped defeat so many long entrenched big spending congressmen and senators has already done a lot of good by forcing the politicians in Washington to realize that they can be defeated if they get too far out of line.
This doesn't mean we can afford to become complacent. We need to keep up the pressure to ensure that the new congress which convenes in January takes action to actually slow the pace of increase in government spending overall and to cut back spending on things the government now does which make no sense.
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
A great video
The next time you hear some idiot commentator or politician talk about the decline of civility in politics remember this video which shows you how viciouslyThomas Jefferson and John Adams attacked one another back when politicians were more polite.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Counting presidents
Today I went down to Blue Bell to attend a rally in support of Pat Toomey who's running for a U.S. Senate seat. Toomey's running against Joe Sestak, who has gained some distinction by managing to advocate positions that are actually to the left of those espoused by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Sestak has been a disaster as a member of the House of Representatives, and he would be a worse disaster as a member of the Senate.
Pat Toomey, of course, spoke at the event, as did Rudy Giuliani who was here to endorse him and campaign for him. They're both very impressive public speakers, as you would imagine. At that level of politics there is seldom room for a candidate who can't give an excellent speech in person to a medium or large crowd. And there is absolutely no room for someone who can't impress a small crowd, impress them a lot.
I've only attended one other political rally in my life, and I went to that one as, ahem, a gentleman of the press rather than as a partisan. It happened that in 1992 I was writing an article and an opinion column each week for The Collegeville Independent and the newspaper got me a press pass to a campaign speech given by President George H.W. Bush at the Uniform Tube factory in Collegeville. Jimmy Stewart, the editor of the Collegeville Independent and I were in the front row of the press section for that speech along with reporters from other local papers. Reporters from the national press were in the second and third rows. Someday I'll find a copy of the rather quirky article I wrote about the event and transcribe it here. Suffice it to say that George H.W. Bush gave a great speech that day. He was not as good a public speaker as President Clinton who beat him in that election; but he gave the most impressive speech I've ever seen in person, and I've seen a lot of corporate speakers.
But that's not what I want to write about today. Today I want to mention that George H.W. Bush (the first President Bush) is the only president I've ever seen in the flesh. I've watched a lot of political speechers on TV; but, as I mentioned, I've never been a big one for going to political events.
The other night during our walk I learned that Linda has also only seen one president in person. In her case it was President Richard Nixon, who gave a brief speech in Hawaii when Admiral John S. McCain Jr. (Senator John McCain's father) retired from the navy in 1972.
All of this got me to wondering who I might know who has seen a lot of presidents; and that led me to call my uncle Bert DeAngelis a few hours ago. I knew that Uncle Bert had been involved in local politics, as a Republican Committeeman, for many years; so I suspected he had seen a few presidents in person and I was not disappointed. It turns out he's been a Republican Committeman for 51 years, so he's naturally attended a lot of political events. But even before he became a committeeman he was attending political events.
He saw President Harry Truman when Truman came to Bridgeport to give a speech. Bert said Truman was presented with a bolt of cloth from a local factory that was to be used in making him a new suit. And he saw President John F. Kennedy when Kennedy came to Norristown to give a speech while he was campaigning for the presidency against Richard Nixon in 1960. Nixon gave a speech in Norristown on the same day; but Uncle Bert went to the Kennedy speech, so he never saw Nixon. Incidently, Uncle Bert mentioned that he voted for Adlai Stevenson when he ran against Dwight Eisenhower, and he voted for Kennedy. So, like Ronald Reagan, Uncle Bert was a liberal in his youth, before he became older and wiser.
But liberal and conservative are relative, of course. Today Truman, Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson would not be welcome in the Democratic Party. Going further than that, those three men could not have imagined how far left the Democratic Party would move and has moved in the past forty years.
But back to Uncle Bert. In addition to Presidents Truman and Kennedy, he also has seen Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. So in the course of his life he's seen five presidents in the flesh.
Leave a comment if you have ever seen a president in person. It doesn't have to be while they were president.
Pat Toomey, of course, spoke at the event, as did Rudy Giuliani who was here to endorse him and campaign for him. They're both very impressive public speakers, as you would imagine. At that level of politics there is seldom room for a candidate who can't give an excellent speech in person to a medium or large crowd. And there is absolutely no room for someone who can't impress a small crowd, impress them a lot.
I've only attended one other political rally in my life, and I went to that one as, ahem, a gentleman of the press rather than as a partisan. It happened that in 1992 I was writing an article and an opinion column each week for The Collegeville Independent and the newspaper got me a press pass to a campaign speech given by President George H.W. Bush at the Uniform Tube factory in Collegeville. Jimmy Stewart, the editor of the Collegeville Independent and I were in the front row of the press section for that speech along with reporters from other local papers. Reporters from the national press were in the second and third rows. Someday I'll find a copy of the rather quirky article I wrote about the event and transcribe it here. Suffice it to say that George H.W. Bush gave a great speech that day. He was not as good a public speaker as President Clinton who beat him in that election; but he gave the most impressive speech I've ever seen in person, and I've seen a lot of corporate speakers.
But that's not what I want to write about today. Today I want to mention that George H.W. Bush (the first President Bush) is the only president I've ever seen in the flesh. I've watched a lot of political speechers on TV; but, as I mentioned, I've never been a big one for going to political events.
The other night during our walk I learned that Linda has also only seen one president in person. In her case it was President Richard Nixon, who gave a brief speech in Hawaii when Admiral John S. McCain Jr. (Senator John McCain's father) retired from the navy in 1972.
All of this got me to wondering who I might know who has seen a lot of presidents; and that led me to call my uncle Bert DeAngelis a few hours ago. I knew that Uncle Bert had been involved in local politics, as a Republican Committeeman, for many years; so I suspected he had seen a few presidents in person and I was not disappointed. It turns out he's been a Republican Committeman for 51 years, so he's naturally attended a lot of political events. But even before he became a committeeman he was attending political events.
He saw President Harry Truman when Truman came to Bridgeport to give a speech. Bert said Truman was presented with a bolt of cloth from a local factory that was to be used in making him a new suit. And he saw President John F. Kennedy when Kennedy came to Norristown to give a speech while he was campaigning for the presidency against Richard Nixon in 1960. Nixon gave a speech in Norristown on the same day; but Uncle Bert went to the Kennedy speech, so he never saw Nixon. Incidently, Uncle Bert mentioned that he voted for Adlai Stevenson when he ran against Dwight Eisenhower, and he voted for Kennedy. So, like Ronald Reagan, Uncle Bert was a liberal in his youth, before he became older and wiser.
But liberal and conservative are relative, of course. Today Truman, Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson would not be welcome in the Democratic Party. Going further than that, those three men could not have imagined how far left the Democratic Party would move and has moved in the past forty years.
But back to Uncle Bert. In addition to Presidents Truman and Kennedy, he also has seen Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. So in the course of his life he's seen five presidents in the flesh.
Leave a comment if you have ever seen a president in person. It doesn't have to be while they were president.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
A couple of questions for the president
I've been trying like hell, fairly successfully, to avoid listening to political ranting on the TV shows for the past couple of weeks. But, as a patriotic American, I was compelled to watch the president spout amazing nonsense for much of the 48 minutes that he addressed the joint session of congress earlier this evening.
So here I am, wondering if President Obama is the smoothest liar I've ever seen or heard of, or whether he managed to get through Harvard and several highly profitable years in Chicago and Illinois politics without learning anything about how government bureaucracies work.
For instance, he very forcefully said, several times, that he can pay for his entire massive health care program by saving more than a hundred billion dollars each year that's currently consumed by waste and fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Now, as it happens, I'm very cynical about the competence of government bureaucracies, so I believe Medicare and Medicare are paying for quite a bit of fraudulent care; but even I don't believe they're being defrauded for over a hundred billion dollars a year. And if they are being defrauded for that much money, I fail to see why President Obama hasn't already done a wholesale shakeup of the management of those bureaucracies. If they're really wasting more than $12 Billion per month there should be bureaucratic heads rolling all over Washington, DC.
So I have a couple of questions that I hope some reporter will ask the president.
"Mr. President, you've said you can pay for your health care program by saving over a hundred billion dollars a year in fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid payments. And you have been in office for almost nine months. Why haven't you already done something to to stop such an outrageous amount of fraud?"
And here's a follow-up question:
"Mr. President, who is the great manager that you plan to put in charge of Medicare and Medicaid to stop all that fraud? Will it be the same sort of genius you put in charge of the cash for clunkers program that can't seem to pay it's claims within the two weeks that the law explicitly promised? Or will it be the kind of genius you put in charge of the stimulus program that has given hundreds and hundreds of billions of tax dollars into the care of the same executives who ran the huge banks that made a mess of the mortgage market with their bad decisions.
So here I am, wondering if President Obama is the smoothest liar I've ever seen or heard of, or whether he managed to get through Harvard and several highly profitable years in Chicago and Illinois politics without learning anything about how government bureaucracies work.
For instance, he very forcefully said, several times, that he can pay for his entire massive health care program by saving more than a hundred billion dollars each year that's currently consumed by waste and fraud in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Now, as it happens, I'm very cynical about the competence of government bureaucracies, so I believe Medicare and Medicare are paying for quite a bit of fraudulent care; but even I don't believe they're being defrauded for over a hundred billion dollars a year. And if they are being defrauded for that much money, I fail to see why President Obama hasn't already done a wholesale shakeup of the management of those bureaucracies. If they're really wasting more than $12 Billion per month there should be bureaucratic heads rolling all over Washington, DC.
So I have a couple of questions that I hope some reporter will ask the president.
"Mr. President, you've said you can pay for your health care program by saving over a hundred billion dollars a year in fraudulent Medicare and Medicaid payments. And you have been in office for almost nine months. Why haven't you already done something to to stop such an outrageous amount of fraud?"
And here's a follow-up question:
"Mr. President, who is the great manager that you plan to put in charge of Medicare and Medicaid to stop all that fraud? Will it be the same sort of genius you put in charge of the cash for clunkers program that can't seem to pay it's claims within the two weeks that the law explicitly promised? Or will it be the kind of genius you put in charge of the stimulus program that has given hundreds and hundreds of billions of tax dollars into the care of the same executives who ran the huge banks that made a mess of the mortgage market with their bad decisions.
Monday, March 2, 2009
A little light reading, especially for young people
It's hard to believe that I've never before read the entirety of one of Warren Buffet's letters to shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway even though I've often read praise of them. Having read his 2008 letter (just released with the annual report) I now know that the praise has been well deserved. If all business executives acted, talked and wrote as straight as Buffett the world would be a much better place. If any one politician ever did the same we would all have to pinch ourselves to be sure that we hadn't died and gone to heaven.
The 2008 letter to shareholders is complicated but by the time you're done he's explained a lot of things about markets and investing very clearly. As a bonus he does a great job of explaining derivatives and their risks. It's also worthwhile to click on the "owners manual" and read that.
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
The 2008 letter to shareholders is complicated but by the time you're done he's explained a lot of things about markets and investing very clearly. As a bonus he does a great job of explaining derivatives and their risks. It's also worthwhile to click on the "owners manual" and read that.
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/
Monday, December 1, 2008
A few thoughts
1. I'm not a great big fan of Jeff Bezos; but here's a reason to give him some business by shopping at Amazon. He's actually trying to do something about those plastic packages that are impossible to open. The most interesting thing in the article is the fact that 6,000 people end up at the emergency room each year as a result of the various schemes we all come up with to try to open those packages.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/technology/internet/15packaging.html?_r=1&em
2. There is a problem with pirates off the West coast of Africa, and there is a problem with shoppers rampaging like barbarian hordes and trampling store clerks to death up on Long Island. It seems to me we could solve both problems by giving cutlasses to the berserk shoppers and then telling them there are bargains aboard the pirate ships.
3. There was a time, not so long ago, when it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire. For you youngsters that meant Great Britain had colonies stretching all the way around the world. Back in that time the British were renowned for their stiff upper lip. That stemmed from the time when Francis Drake didn't let a little thing like the reported arrival of the Spanish Armada interrupt his game of lawn bowling. Drake finished his game and then went to his ship to fight the armada. That's a stiff upper lip.
Those days are over, for it turns out the English Cricket Team ran from India like cowardly dogs with their tails between their legs just because of a few little terrorist attacks in Mumbai last week. Courage and fortitude are vanishing virtues. Perhaps western civilization deserves to collapse.
4. There is a new news and opinion website that I just learned about. It seems to take a very mature attitude toward the results of the recent election. I haven't done much more than skim down to get a sense of what they have to say; but I like the concept.
http://getdrunkandhope4thebest.com/
5. Speaking of running dogs, Barry Obama is running from his campaign promises faster than an English cricket team runs from commitments. His supporters and voters may not notice; but I will notice if he fails to release all the terrorist killers from Guantanamo immediately after he's inaugurated. I'll also notice if he fails to take away the right to a secret ballot from working people in union elections. And I'll notice if he doesn't withdraw all of our troops from Iraq within 18 months of his inauguration. And I'll notice if he doesn't raise taxes on the rich like he said he would. And if he doesn't send troops to invade Pakistan to catch Osama Bin Laden.
Promises are promises, even stupid promises. I'll be soooo disappointed if Barry turns out to be just another lying politician.
And what's with those terrorist attacks in India anyway. I thought the world was going to love us once Barry was elected.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/technology/internet/15packaging.html?_r=1&em
2. There is a problem with pirates off the West coast of Africa, and there is a problem with shoppers rampaging like barbarian hordes and trampling store clerks to death up on Long Island. It seems to me we could solve both problems by giving cutlasses to the berserk shoppers and then telling them there are bargains aboard the pirate ships.
3. There was a time, not so long ago, when it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire. For you youngsters that meant Great Britain had colonies stretching all the way around the world. Back in that time the British were renowned for their stiff upper lip. That stemmed from the time when Francis Drake didn't let a little thing like the reported arrival of the Spanish Armada interrupt his game of lawn bowling. Drake finished his game and then went to his ship to fight the armada. That's a stiff upper lip.
Those days are over, for it turns out the English Cricket Team ran from India like cowardly dogs with their tails between their legs just because of a few little terrorist attacks in Mumbai last week. Courage and fortitude are vanishing virtues. Perhaps western civilization deserves to collapse.
4. There is a new news and opinion website that I just learned about. It seems to take a very mature attitude toward the results of the recent election. I haven't done much more than skim down to get a sense of what they have to say; but I like the concept.
http://getdrunkandhope4thebest.com/
5. Speaking of running dogs, Barry Obama is running from his campaign promises faster than an English cricket team runs from commitments. His supporters and voters may not notice; but I will notice if he fails to release all the terrorist killers from Guantanamo immediately after he's inaugurated. I'll also notice if he fails to take away the right to a secret ballot from working people in union elections. And I'll notice if he doesn't withdraw all of our troops from Iraq within 18 months of his inauguration. And I'll notice if he doesn't raise taxes on the rich like he said he would. And if he doesn't send troops to invade Pakistan to catch Osama Bin Laden.
Promises are promises, even stupid promises. I'll be soooo disappointed if Barry turns out to be just another lying politician.
And what's with those terrorist attacks in India anyway. I thought the world was going to love us once Barry was elected.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Violence, passion and politics in Collegeville
Linda woke me this morning to see the end of a battle between two bucks down toward the creek. It was easy to tell who won because one of the bucks departed the field; but now they're both back and chasing the herd of does around. They were too far away and the action was too violent for me to notice earlier; but now I see that one buck is missing his right antler and the other buck is missing his left. Furthermore the left antler buck is a mere stripling with a couple of prongs, while the right antler buck has a much bigger half rack.
Talk about symbolism. They've both chased one of the does down into the woods where I can't see them now, so who knows how the contest will end.
That left antler upstart may have cleared the field and thus won the right to chase Lady Liberty around to his heart's content down in Washington for the next four years; but up here in Collegeville hope is still alive.
Update: 85 90 80 79 ;<)
Update 2: This morning we saw the right antler buck limping after the does; so apparently he drove the left antler buck from the field of eros. Something is wrong with his right rear leg. Here's hoping he was able to score while we were at work because the battle apparently cost him pretty dearly. He's half crippled just as winter approaches; not a good thing. The world of the wild is tough on the weak.
Talk about symbolism. They've both chased one of the does down into the woods where I can't see them now, so who knows how the contest will end.
That left antler upstart may have cleared the field and thus won the right to chase Lady Liberty around to his heart's content down in Washington for the next four years; but up here in Collegeville hope is still alive.
Update: 85 90 80 79 ;<)
Update 2: This morning we saw the right antler buck limping after the does; so apparently he drove the left antler buck from the field of eros. Something is wrong with his right rear leg. Here's hoping he was able to score while we were at work because the battle apparently cost him pretty dearly. He's half crippled just as winter approaches; not a good thing. The world of the wild is tough on the weak.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
The sun will come out tomorrow
I didn't get all teary eyed like Jesse jackson or Oprah Winfrey; but after watching Barack Obama's touching and inspiring victory speech late last night I experienced a road to Damascus moment and went to bed sure that the sun would shine bright today.
Just like The Little Engine That Could, I fell asleep chanting, "Yes we can," "Yes, we can," "Yes we can."
Imagine my surprise when I woke up to the gray clouds of a typical fall day rather than to the brilliant sun of a perfect future. And then, later today I got another surprise when the stock market dropped. Apparently, those perfidious foreigners who were all excited about Obama last week didn't rush in and buy up U.S. stocks in celebration of his elevation.
Very disappointing; but I plan to chant my "Yes we can"s again tonight. The One was very clear about that in his speech. We all have to do our part to create heaven on earth.
I'm very confident that the sun will do its part and come out tomorrow.
And - Speaking of Heaven on earth:
I keep reading more and more about the simple fact that there has been no (No!) global warming since 1998. So this earth, which was supposed to be irreversibly warming up, has not been warming up as Nobel Prize wiener Al Gore and all his acolytes told us it would. "The science is settled," they told us; but the earth has actually been cooling for the past couple of years.
Was it all a lie? Or was it just an, ooops!, mistake. If so, its been a very expensive mistake for the taxpayers and consumers in the European countries that have disrupted their energy markets and paid tens of billions to Russia and other sources of "carbon credits" which is a technical term for protection money.
This subject came up on my radar screen again the other day when an audio book I'm listening to mentioned that Vikings used to live in Greenland when it was a lot warmer there back in the period from about 900 AD to about 1500 AD. Who was generating the CO2 that warmed Greenland up that much back a thousand years ago? Who was generating the CO2 that warmed up Nova Scotia enough so that Leif Erickson found grapewines growing there, so many grapevines that he called it Vinland? Who was generating the CO2 that made England and Germany warm enough to have big wine producing regions in that era?
I think Al Gore has been trying to pull off the biggest investment and political corruption scam in the history of the world. He's made tens of millions off of it, but now he has gotten unlucky. If he had been lucky enough to have a few more years of warming he could have completed the scam and made tens of billions trading in carbon credits. But now it's falling apart. Al is desperately trying to change the terms of the debate by calling it "climate change" so he can claim any kind of weather, or any level of world temperature proves his case; but it isn't going to work.
Here's an interestingly written article that gets at some of this.
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=310695037962525
Just like The Little Engine That Could, I fell asleep chanting, "Yes we can," "Yes, we can," "Yes we can."
Imagine my surprise when I woke up to the gray clouds of a typical fall day rather than to the brilliant sun of a perfect future. And then, later today I got another surprise when the stock market dropped. Apparently, those perfidious foreigners who were all excited about Obama last week didn't rush in and buy up U.S. stocks in celebration of his elevation.
Very disappointing; but I plan to chant my "Yes we can"s again tonight. The One was very clear about that in his speech. We all have to do our part to create heaven on earth.
I'm very confident that the sun will do its part and come out tomorrow.
And - Speaking of Heaven on earth:
I keep reading more and more about the simple fact that there has been no (No!) global warming since 1998. So this earth, which was supposed to be irreversibly warming up, has not been warming up as Nobel Prize wiener Al Gore and all his acolytes told us it would. "The science is settled," they told us; but the earth has actually been cooling for the past couple of years.
Was it all a lie? Or was it just an, ooops!, mistake. If so, its been a very expensive mistake for the taxpayers and consumers in the European countries that have disrupted their energy markets and paid tens of billions to Russia and other sources of "carbon credits" which is a technical term for protection money.
This subject came up on my radar screen again the other day when an audio book I'm listening to mentioned that Vikings used to live in Greenland when it was a lot warmer there back in the period from about 900 AD to about 1500 AD. Who was generating the CO2 that warmed Greenland up that much back a thousand years ago? Who was generating the CO2 that warmed up Nova Scotia enough so that Leif Erickson found grapewines growing there, so many grapevines that he called it Vinland? Who was generating the CO2 that made England and Germany warm enough to have big wine producing regions in that era?
I think Al Gore has been trying to pull off the biggest investment and political corruption scam in the history of the world. He's made tens of millions off of it, but now he has gotten unlucky. If he had been lucky enough to have a few more years of warming he could have completed the scam and made tens of billions trading in carbon credits. But now it's falling apart. Al is desperately trying to change the terms of the debate by calling it "climate change" so he can claim any kind of weather, or any level of world temperature proves his case; but it isn't going to work.
Here's an interestingly written article that gets at some of this.
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=310695037962525
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Maybe The One is as good a pilot as this guy
If Barack Obama is elected on tuesday the country will be flying with one wing, the left wing. The congress is already firmly in the hands of the left, and it will be more so after the election. The courts are arguably middle of the road; but within a couple of years of Obama making appointments they will be firmly in the hands of the left as well. And, of course, with Barack in the White House there will be no counterbalance for the loony ideas that congress will pass and the courts will approve.
So the country will be flying on one wing.
We can only hope that The One is as good a pilot as this fellow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY6LjeAEPJk
So the country will be flying on one wing.
We can only hope that The One is as good a pilot as this fellow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY6LjeAEPJk
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The sky has fallen! Not!
For months I've been reading that the sky has fallen. For months we've been in the midst of a great depression if you go by the news media.
But I'm having trouble understanding something. Yesterday when I stopped by the Wawa for a lunch sandwich I found a help wanted sign on the door, and a few days ago I saw a help wanted sign for about five jobs on the door of the supermarket. And every time I go to a Wawa near lunchtime I find myself in the midst of a congregation of neatly dressed young working men who could have stepped right out of a novel about the Aztecs or Mayans if you go just by their faces. They're all buying lunch, just like me, so presumably they're working at reasonable paying jobs despite the fact that most of them probably have the equivalent of a grade school education.
And it's not just manual workers who are employed. I have a friend, a sophisticated and highly paid computer programmer, who was given notice in August that he would be laid off by his long term employer effective September 9th. He was settled in a new job at something at least reasonably comparable to the same pay level before the layoff date rolled around. And then my Florida cousin who is sixty-two years old told us a couple of weeks ago that he had decided to leave his mid-level Human Resources job effective December 12th; but Saturday morning he told us that he had to move up his resignation date because he found another mid-level HR job that starts late this month.
And then there is me. I started seriously looking for work in early September; and I started on a reasonable paying job in late September; and I'm no spring chicken. Also, I happen to work in a field - recruiting - which is as exquisitely sensitive to general economic conditions as any that exist. All of my professional acquaintances in recruiting are working as well, and I would know if they're not because I'm as networked as any.
So where's the depression if everybody is finding jobs when they want them? Where are the bread lines? Where are the old pickup trucks loaded with families of Joads migrating across the country to find work and food? Where are the jobless recruiters in threadbare suits selling apples on street corners?
Could it be that a big scare about a depression is a clumsy transparent lie manufactured out of whole cloth because it fits in nicely with the news media's almost comical bias in favor of the great messiah that they want to see elected in a couple of weeks?
But I'm having trouble understanding something. Yesterday when I stopped by the Wawa for a lunch sandwich I found a help wanted sign on the door, and a few days ago I saw a help wanted sign for about five jobs on the door of the supermarket. And every time I go to a Wawa near lunchtime I find myself in the midst of a congregation of neatly dressed young working men who could have stepped right out of a novel about the Aztecs or Mayans if you go just by their faces. They're all buying lunch, just like me, so presumably they're working at reasonable paying jobs despite the fact that most of them probably have the equivalent of a grade school education.
And it's not just manual workers who are employed. I have a friend, a sophisticated and highly paid computer programmer, who was given notice in August that he would be laid off by his long term employer effective September 9th. He was settled in a new job at something at least reasonably comparable to the same pay level before the layoff date rolled around. And then my Florida cousin who is sixty-two years old told us a couple of weeks ago that he had decided to leave his mid-level Human Resources job effective December 12th; but Saturday morning he told us that he had to move up his resignation date because he found another mid-level HR job that starts late this month.
And then there is me. I started seriously looking for work in early September; and I started on a reasonable paying job in late September; and I'm no spring chicken. Also, I happen to work in a field - recruiting - which is as exquisitely sensitive to general economic conditions as any that exist. All of my professional acquaintances in recruiting are working as well, and I would know if they're not because I'm as networked as any.
So where's the depression if everybody is finding jobs when they want them? Where are the bread lines? Where are the old pickup trucks loaded with families of Joads migrating across the country to find work and food? Where are the jobless recruiters in threadbare suits selling apples on street corners?
Could it be that a big scare about a depression is a clumsy transparent lie manufactured out of whole cloth because it fits in nicely with the news media's almost comical bias in favor of the great messiah that they want to see elected in a couple of weeks?
Thursday, September 4, 2008
My last word on Sarah Palin
Before last night Hillary Clinton was the most likely woman to become President of the U.S.
Last night, with that speech, Sarah Palin became the most likely woman to become President of the U.S.
She's not a lock, mind you, there is a lot of campaign ahead before she can even become vice-president; but you can be sure nobody in the media or among the political types will be taking her for granted or petting her on the head and saying she's just a token woman after her speech last night.
Which puts Hillary in a tough situation. In order to become the Democratic Party nominee in 2012 she needs to make sure Barack Obama loses to John McCain this November. But if Barack Obama loses her toughest rival becomes vice president.
Last night, with that speech, Sarah Palin became the most likely woman to become President of the U.S.
She's not a lock, mind you, there is a lot of campaign ahead before she can even become vice-president; but you can be sure nobody in the media or among the political types will be taking her for granted or petting her on the head and saying she's just a token woman after her speech last night.
Which puts Hillary in a tough situation. In order to become the Democratic Party nominee in 2012 she needs to make sure Barack Obama loses to John McCain this November. But if Barack Obama loses her toughest rival becomes vice president.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
A great motto
In the season of politics I'm always reminded of one of history's great quotes. It's more melodious in French than in English:
"Il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace!"
"We must be audacious, and again audacious, always audacious."
Georges Danton, who said it, never lost his way with words - or his attitude. Just before they cut off his head he said, "Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing."
Impossible not to like a wiseguy like that. He went out with style.
"Il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace!"
"We must be audacious, and again audacious, always audacious."
Georges Danton, who said it, never lost his way with words - or his attitude. Just before they cut off his head he said, "Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing."
Impossible not to like a wiseguy like that. He went out with style.
Monday, August 18, 2008
The most important issue in this election
This news video spells out the most important issue facing us as we decide how to vote in November. It's worth watching two times, once for the audio and once to read the scroll at the bottom. Hat tip to John Derbyshire, the crankiest poster on The Corner, which is one of National Review Magazine's blogs. Mr. Derbyshire did the investigative journalism to uncover this important information.
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/poll_bullshit_is_most_important
Update - just after I posted the link to the election video above I came upon a post by Jonah Goldberg at National Review that made me scratch my head until I realized how obviously true it is.
It seems that someone ran a poll that showed pet owners tend to prefer McCain while people who don't have pets tend to prefer Obama. It sounded unlikely at first but then I realized that my brother Sam, who has a stouthearted dog, prefers McCain, while my brother Jas, who doesn't have a pet, prefers Obama. I have a loyal frog, and guess what, I prefer McCain. My son Alex, who doesn't have a pet, prefers Obama.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDA2MDEyOTgwYzhjY2UwYjVjZDk4MTQyYTQyZTdkNjA=
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/poll_bullshit_is_most_important
Update - just after I posted the link to the election video above I came upon a post by Jonah Goldberg at National Review that made me scratch my head until I realized how obviously true it is.
It seems that someone ran a poll that showed pet owners tend to prefer McCain while people who don't have pets tend to prefer Obama. It sounded unlikely at first but then I realized that my brother Sam, who has a stouthearted dog, prefers McCain, while my brother Jas, who doesn't have a pet, prefers Obama. I have a loyal frog, and guess what, I prefer McCain. My son Alex, who doesn't have a pet, prefers Obama.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDA2MDEyOTgwYzhjY2UwYjVjZDk4MTQyYTQyZTdkNjA=
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