Archive for December, 2008
Generosity Of Spirit
Thursday, December 18th, 2008How often do we do something, say something, share something–not because we will get something in return, but just because we want to give a gift? If there is one trait we value in other people, it’s generosity of spirit. These are the forgiving types. They really truly listen to you, even when you’re telling the same story again. These people emanate kindness. You just want to be around them.
I’ve known a couple people like this. Their goodness just came from some authentic place from within. They have a certain decency. One of these people died this last year from cancer. I didn’t write about him. I just couldn’t. I’ve been too ticked off about it. He was one of the good ones. Sweet-natured, loving and giving. Everyone loved and admired him. I’ve come to believe that the old idea that only the good die young may well be right. (In that case, I can expect to live for a very long time.)
I guess I bring up the whole “generosity of the spirit” thing because it is particularly important during times of economic difficulty to find that generous place–for ourselves. When we live miserly, withholding, stingy lives, we tend to draw that sort of energy into our lives, too. It isn’t about money, either. It is possible to have this spirit with lots of money–Old Ebeneezer Scrooge, right? And it is possible to be generous, charitable, with next to nothing.
It’s something that I’d like more of in myself. I would like to be more genuine and possess the expansive kindness that makes other people feel good about themselves. Too many people and experiences are just difficult and mean, I don’t want to contribute to that world and make another person’s day diminished by my own smallness.
So, in honor of Mark, rather than focus on his passing, I want to focus on what he brought to this world and emulate it. There are too few people like Mark. Maybe he was innately good. I don’t know. But I suspect he had to work to be loving and kind and make choices to be generous like everyone else does. I think he made those choices so often, it became a habit, a way of life, his character. He touched many lives with his generosity of spirit and is proof that good guys do win.
The Wives Of Crook County
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008The Wives Of Crook County
Chicago: Where the men are milquetoast and the women are men.
Long Hair & Men
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008Long Hair & Men
A hair-cut once created relationship misery.
About Caroline Kennedy–UPDATED
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008So, the American Princess desireth a Senate seat. Well, of course she does! She has everything else and what do you get a girl who has everything for Christmas? Barely restrained power, of course. It’s what all the girls want these days.
Aside from the nepotistic, inbred, closed community called leftist Senatorial politics, let’s be real here: It ain’t no big thang to be a United States Senator. If you’re smarter than your Pet Rock, have no real-life experience to speak of, have a vague grasp of world events (aka scan the New York Times Sunday edition), and follow the liberal ideology, what’s to know?
There are only a few things that you have to believe to be a useful Democrat and in their view, a useful American:
1. War is bad.
2. Abortion is good.
3. God is suspect.
4. Government is infallible.
5. Guns kill people.
6. Criminals are victims.
7. Global warming is man made.
8. Corporations are evil.
9. Taxes need to go up.
10. They know what’s best for you
See? Simple. Don’t hassle Sweet Caroline. She’s got all the qualifications she needs to be a Democratic Senator from New York. She’s probably over-qualified.
More here.
Claudia Rosett on New York’s “Banana Republic.”
Mary Katherine Hamm calls her quest not terribly “auspicious”.
THIS Is Why You Own A Gun
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008THIS Is Why You Own A Gun
Missed this link before. Guns are a feminist issue.
The Sky Isn’t Falling Quite Yet
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008So I put up a link that makes it seem like the United States is bankrupt–like bankrupt now. Turns out that the data The DC Examiner reported on is manipulated and essentially crap:
The United States of America is bankrupt. Don’t believe it? Consider this: Federal obligations now exceed the collective net worth of all Americans, according to the New York-based Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Washington politicians and bureaucrats have essentially mortgaged everything We the People own so they can keep spending our tax dollars like there’s no tomorrow.
The foundation’s grim calculations are based on Sept. 30 consolidated federal statements, which showed that Americans’ total household net worth, diminished by falling stock prices and home equity, is $56.5 trillion. But rising costs for unfunded social programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security increased to $56.4 trillion – and that was before the more recent stock market crash, $700 billion bank bailout, and monster federal deficits chalked up in October and November.
“Given more recent developments, it’s clear that America now owes more than its citizens are worth,” said Foundation president David M. Walker, the former Comptroller-General of the United States who has been trying to warn Americans of the coming financial tsunami for years, to no avail. So, after Uncle Sam bails out bankers, Wall Street gamblers, carmakers and over-their-head homeowners, who’ll bail out Uncle Sam?
They palmed a card, actually two cards: the first one is they’re using household net worth … but that leaves out corporate net worth, so they’re ignoring, eg, Exxon. The second is that they’re comparing future obligations to pay with current assets, so it’s like saying you’re “bankrupt” because the total of your expected future living expenses exceeds your net worth.
I wrote about the same comparison in PJM early in the year — can’t link it usefully, PJM has hosed something — making the correct comparison of total US assets per person versus total US obligations per person, and it was about $300K assets vs $160K obligations, or over the whole population, about $90 trillion versus $48 trillion. Most of that wealth is real stuff — land, houses, factories, etc — and hasn’t gone away in the last year.
You know, things are bad enough right now. Much of the economic stall these days is because companies are just sitting and holding. That is, they aren’t taking risks to grow, expand and innovate because they don’t want their cash tied up if the whole shebang is going to implode. Well, it starts to become a self fulfilling prophecy.
There is no question that people have lived beyond their means and some have gone so far that they can’t get it back. It is going to take some time to correct this cultural problem. People are going to have to cut back and pay off debt.
There is no question that the banking industry and the people on Wall Street played with funny money and in some cases outright defrauded people. It is important to remember that stocks and funds are only as good as the businesses they back and the people who are in those businesses. The pressure to perform and profit at all costs creates an environment ripe for fraud.
Even with these problems, it does not help the economy or the American psyche to find problems where there aren’t any. This behavior causes more problems and its irresponsible.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
Tamm The Traitor
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008You know the NSA’s wiretapping permission? They get to listen in on foreigners blabbing about killing Americans and plotting badness. It’s how the Indian government knew about the Bombay bombing plot ahead of time but did nothing about it (small detail).
There are government agents sitting around listening to these inane conversations and they have to sort through the general infidel talk and find credible threats. Sometimes these terrorist jokers call an American citizen.
People concerned about civil liberties (and who isn’t) don’t like the idea of some government guy listening in on their scintillating conversations. On the other hand, there won’t be civil liberties to protect if there is no civilization because freaking death loving jerks obliterate it.
Well, a dude inside the NSA didn’t like the secret wiretapping of anyone, forget Americans, and “blew the whistle”. And by blowing the whistle, I don’t mean that he went to another agency big wig. He went to the ethical arbiter The New York Times and now, he’s explaining himself in Newsweek. From Wired (via Glenn Reynolds):
Opinions are divided on whether Thomas Tamm, the original source for The New York Times 2005 story on the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping, should be prosecuted for revealing classified information. Tamm is a former justice department prosecutor.
You know what? Tamm belongs in jail. He’s no patriot. He’s a traitor. His actions tipped terrorists and put soldiers in harms way. Screw him. This whole thing just angers me to no end. When you’re at war, and America and the whole of the democratic world is at war, you use what technology you can to help your side win.
I know there are complexities here and it I’m not tone-deaf to the concern over an individual’s right to privacy. Still, I don’t give a hot damn about a terrorists right to privacy. And if he calls America to talk to brother Hussein Mohammed, I want to know that too. When you’re buddies with a terrorist, you become suspect. Associations do matter (note to Barack Obama) and they can be leads to preventing crime.
Do Americans think that we’ve been attack-free for lo these many years because threats don’t exist? They exist. And they’re stopped. And they’re stopped by means such as the warrantless NSA programs. And I’m sorry it offends Mr. Tamm’s sensibilities. Too. Damn. Bad. This is a s time when you go through the proper channels or you shut the hell up. Newsflash Mr. Smartypants, this isn’t theoretical constitutional law here, lives are involved.
Okay, rant over. At Wired, they have a survey to decide which side is right. Go vote.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews.com
The Day Of Reckoning?
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008The Day Of Reckoning?
When the chips are called in…..
Sarah Palin’s Real Accomplishment
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008How did Barack Obama claim power in Chicago? Why, the old-fashioned way, of course! He used connections, ingratiated himself with power brokers, became part of the machine and was hand-picked for the seat. And then the machine helped make it happen, including by nefarious means. In short, he got his job using “politics as usual”.
What strikes me is that the Chicago mess demonstrates how remarkable Sarah Palin’s success has been.
In every state of the union, a cobweb of power networks string together. Money, influence and elections are all tied. Oh, it’s not as horrible as it sounds. Networking happens in all businesses. We tend to trust friends of friends based on our friend’s judgment, etc. The only problem is that the circle can become insular, exclusionary, closed minded, paranoid and entitled. People start doing immoral and then illegal things to get and retain power.
This happens in every state. It happens within the national political parties. It can happen wherever two or more are gathered and form a group. In Alaska, Ted Stevens and a bunch of other guys controlled the state, the gas companies and the policy. There are these “machines” just about everywhere.
Sarah Palin managed to find a way around this system and speak right to the people. No wonder the powers that be are terrified of her. She is inspiring the same sort of hate Ronald Reagan endured and that ought to tell you something. From Front Page News:
After recently reading a remarkably unfair Newsweek hit on Sarah Palin, I thought of a piece in Time magazine in December 1986, titled “How Reagan Stays Out of Touch,” by reporter Richard Stengel—a product of a leak by one of the “pragmatists” in the Reagan White House. Stengel wrote this on the dawdling old fool in the Oval Office:
Reagan’s] briefing with his senior staff, which mainly concerns his daily schedule, lasts only about 30 minutes, and Reagan usually remains quiet, except for his trademark [bantering. It is followed by a briefing from his National Security Council staff that is usually even shorter. When National Security Council staffers prepare Reagan for a full-fledged meeting of the NSC, the president typically does not ask any questions about the topic at hand; instead he inquires, “What do I have to say?”….
Reagan’s reading is not heavy…Old friends and cronies have access to a special private White House post office box number and they can send him clippings that they think might strike his fancy. That box number is the source of many of Reagan’s familiar “factoids,” snippets clipped from obscure publications.
Reagan is not notably curious. His aides say he rarely calls them with a question and that he knows in only a vague way what they actually do. He does not sit down with his advisers to hammer out policy decisions. He is happiest when his aides form a consensus, something they try awfully hard to do….
[Reagan] can work only if he is supported by a competent and active staff. During his first term, Chief of Staff James Baker protected Reagan from his woollier notions and helped put many of his ideals into practice.
The article added that when a suffering, heroic James Baker tried to save the Reagan administration by reshuffling the Cabinet, the “typically detached Reagan look[ed] on like a bemused bystander.” The president was confused.
This story was a leak by a moderate Republican, a Reagan aide, trying to impress liberal journalists by embarrassing his president.
Conservatives nostalgic for Reagan have forgotten the problem their favorite president faced with leaks. Judge Bill Clark was brought into the White House in January 1982 in part to try to stem what Reagan called “a virtual hemorrhage of leaks,” which had become “a problem of major proportions,” particularly in foreign and defense policy.
Sarah Palin inspires the same sort of fear and loathing and will have to manage the shark-infested waters of the political hierarchy. The only thing: money talks and the woman can bring in money. Even the good old boys have to pay attention to that.
Sarah Palin’s rise in Alaska and now nationally is nothing short of remarkable. She is a woman who came to power through her ideas and effective communication and with all the power systems working against her.
Barack Obama, for all his talk of being a “new” politician, got his jobs the old-fashioned way. Sarah Palin has been a new politician. No spouse coattails. No press adulation. No machine power brokers. She got her job by hard work.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews
