American Issues Project Column: The Complicated Economy
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009Is there a simple solution to our complex economic problems? I don’t know, but I see parallels to the complexity of the human body and the United States economy:
The biggest problem with the current financial mess the United States faces is that it’s not simple. The United States economy, the slow, crawling, sprawling recession, makes no sense to the average person.
The U.S. economy makes little sense to experts either. That’s a problem.
When I was up in Chicago for a family gathering, I danced with a relative of my uncle who happened to to be a financial guy and trader. Please explain what is going on, I asked him. He just laughed and said that no one knew what was going on–not even the guys in the business. Why try to figure it out anyway?
How do you respond to that? I was rather stunned and took in the implications of his statement. A smart guy whose whole job was to trade on the stock exchange could not explain what was happening to the U.S. economy. Further, he told me that no one understood it. It’s too big. It’s too complicated.
What does a doctor do when a patient with crazy and varied symptoms comes in that no one can diagnose? Well, the solution might be the same for the U.S. economy. Please go read the whole thing.
No More Americanization
Thursday, May 28th, 2009The impulse is to say Soto-my-er. But that wouldn’t be correct. The proper pronunciation is Soto-may-YOUR and with a opening of the mouth to get the proper fullness and roll of the tongue.
Sigh.
Remember when people Americanized their names? Partly, it made their names easier to say. Mostly, people just wanted to be American. Fully American.
When the in-laws came from Italy, Italian was most certainly not spoken. They were Americans and they spoke English. In the second generation, that would be grandma who is 92, there is not even the remotest hint of Italy in her voice though she is only the second generation here in America.
Not so now with some folks. Oh no. Acculturation is akin to living in the closet and hiding your ancestral glory. Much better to keep the Puerto Rican accent even though you’ve grown up on American soil.
My uncle is of Mexican descent. He speaks Spanish and knows five dialects. When he speaks English it is not Spanglish. It’s English. It is not English with the twang of Spanish hovering over him. I dare say, if I asked him if his Mexican heritage makes his judgment more stellar, he would say no. I’m quite sure he wouldn’t say that being a man makes him smarter. And yet, he finds a way to integrate his Mexican heritage and embrace his history.
Generations of Americans have done this. They know the language of the old country. They keep certain traditions. But they were eager to be American. They were eager to Americanize their name, even. It was symbolic. It was a blessed gift to have this country and people were proud to be a part of it. A shortened name meant becoming new and American.
So, while President Barack Obama can say Pak-ee-stahn correctly and every newscaster is embracing his inner Latina pronouncing Soto-may-YOUR with relish, I just see more of an effort to elevate other cultures in relation to the American culture.
It isn’t about proper pronunciation it’s about putting America in her place. And her place is no better than any other place, including 3rd world racist, sexist, intolerant, nuclear-armed holes like Pakistan. Well, I say America is better. America is better than Mexico. It’s safer. There are more jobs. There is less corruption (for the time being). America is better than pretty much any place in the world I can think of, actually.
People who live here, myself included, are damn lucky to be here by birthright. And those who choose to become citizens are making the best decision of their lives. Their whole future will change.
So, a kid from Puerto Rico can come to America, get educated in the best schools and be put forth as a potential Supreme Court Justice for the best country in the world. That’s America. It’s great. And America is bigger than our collective pasts. She is better than the places we came from. We do well to melt into her beauty and live to rise to her ideals.
Americanization is a good thing. Assimilating and changing to fit America’s mold is what makes this country different from the fractured and racist Europe. So those who are so intent on elevating other cultures might want to consider the outcome of their actions. America doesn’t need to turn into a place where races are Balkanized and marginalized by neighborhoods, language, religion and culture. That would be a destructive place.
America needs to continue to be a melting pot. I’m Melissa Clouthier. It is not Cloo-tee-ay. It is Cloth-ee-er. I’m American and proud of it.
New American Issues Project Column: “It’s Not Fair”
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009I’ve been thinking about the root cause of this bail-out mess and the changes in our American culture. My column at AIP today sums up my thinking about things:
America, in general, and our government in particular, has been consuming more calories than it can afford and grown fat, and rather than cut back, has sought salvation by those who were responsible and by those who lived within their means.
Some who let things get away from themselves have cut back and “tightened the belt”. The government, though, seems willfully obstinate about making such challenging choices itself. President Obama put forth scorn-worthy “cuts” in the face of mammoth governmental pigging out. An already obese government is making itself morbidly huge over the next ten years. One wonders if the patient can be saved or if it will end up in a piano box and buried in the ash heap of indulgent world-power history.
And this all began as someone trying to correct an unfairness. It’s unfair that some people have health insurance and others don’t. It’s unfair that one person eats Filet Mignon and another person eats hamburger helper. It’s unfair that one person gets to drive a souped-up SUV and another person rides the bus. It’s unfair that one person has a mansion and another person has a trailer. It’s unfair that one person gets to go to Harvard and another person goes to a technical college. It’s unfair that more boys than girls are engineers. And on and on it goes.
It’s unfair. It’s unfair. It’s unfair.
So, a man who promised to make things fair got elected President. It’s not fair that America is the lone superpower. It’s not fair that there are rich and poor people. It’s not fair that “rich” people get tax breaks. The government then, will be a tool for “fairness”.
It never works out that way. Like Scar’s alliances and forced “teamwork” between natural adversaries, fairness results in depletion, loss of incentive and many more unintended consequences. Moreover, it’s a fundamentally angry and aggrieved way to look at the world.
More here.
I’m Gay! I’m Hispanic! I’m Female! Meanwhile…..
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009So the Supreme Court of California upheld a law thus reinforcing the will of the people and that’s noteworthy only because the court has made such a consistent practice of making laws rather than interpreting them. There will be lawsuits. There will be outrage.
I don’t care.
So President Obama was utterly predictable and picked a Supreme Court nominee driven by identity politics that, SURPRISE!, helps him in his quest to mollify Hispanic voters since sweeping amnesty might be a tough sell since he’s also in bed with the unions–a triangulation that I’ve seen as a Democrat problem for quite some time. He was going to nominate a looney lib and she fits the bill quite nicely. It’s not about the law. It’s about me. Wheeeee!
I don’t care.
North Korea flexing it’s mentally ill muscle and conducting a sophisticated display of weaponry as a sales job on Memorial Day while the President plays his fiddle, I mean, plays a round of golf–now that I care about. A lot.
Iran sending a fleet of ships out while Israel girds herself for war while the President plays a round of golf–now that I care about. A lot.
Yes, I’m concerned that an activist will be on the Supreme Court, but I don’t see what can be done about it. Will the Senate Republicans mount the will to stop this nomination? Maybe.
Yes, the California Supreme Court made a weasely decision that kicks the problem down the road for the time being.
In the midst of this haggling, the world is on the edge of conflagration. Meanwhile, the president plays golf and issues weak statements. Who ever thought that a Supreme Court nominee could be a diversion but damn skippy if that’s not the case today.
When I look at the frenzy swirling around, I can’t help but to wonder about the confusion. It’s like trying to find one’s way in a sand storm. What really is the most important story? What will most likely change the course of history?
I fear that looking back, we’ll see the this time as a steady march toward chaos with the most important concerns ignored.
Don’t look now, but Swine Flu is spreading.
The Baby Boomers: Destroying America
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009The biggest generation is about to be the biggest retired generation. Do you think a generation nicknamed the “Me Generation” will suddenly become the generous generation? No.
The market lost value so the Boomers lost their retirements. They were overmortgaged just as their health declined (it was a shock that they were getting older). Let’s just assume perfect retirement conditions. This is how the Boomers planned:
How bad are baby boomers at financial planning? Extremely bad, according to Annamaria Lusardi and Olivia Mitchell of the National Bureau of Economic Research. They found that more than one-quarter of boomer households thought “hardly at all” about retirement, and that financial literacy among boomers was “alarmingly low.” Half could not do a simple math calculation (divide $2 million by 5) and fewer than 20 percent could calculate compound interest. The NBER researchers also found that, as of 2004, the typical boomer household was holding nearly half its wealth in the form of housing equity. Uh-oh.
For a closer look at the retirement squeeze, consider a study released last month by the Congressional Research Service. Patrick Purcell analyzed the most recent data on consumer finances gathered by the Federal Reserve. He found that for the 53 percent of households that hold at least one retirement account, the median combined balance was a mere $45,000.
For households headed by persons between the ages of 55 and 64, the median value of all retirement accounts was just $100,000. Purcell noted that for a 65-year-old man retiring in April 2009, that $100,000 would buy an annuity that would pay a paltry $700 a month for life, based on current interest rates.
The Fed data used in Purcell’s study were gathered in 2007. With stock market declines since then, the median account balances are probably even lower now.
A scared Boomer is a scary Boomer. That is why I’m concerned about nationalized health care and every other big government program being the wave of the future.
I’m not sure any small government type leader can be elected just because of the demographics of the United States. And unfortunately for future generations, the Boomers have had access to the best medical advances and health care–so they’re probably going to live a long time which means expanding the government to meet their needs until they die which will be in forever.
President Obama is a tail-ender Boomer and look at the spending. He’s not going to have to pay that money back. His kids will. Wheee! No big deal.
The Baby Boomers believe the world will end when they end. Maybe they’re making the world end and fulfilling some subconscious wish–the world can’t possibly exist without them so the solution is killing the world before they go.
On the plus side, the Boomers embraced eugenics–they are after all the biggest proponents of abortion. And the same reasoning can be used, and is being used, when it comes to health care choices. Look at what’s being talked about on the floor of the Senate from Ed Morrissey:
What happens when the state controls all the resources? New resources do not develop, and the government winds up rationing care based on its own priorities, and not the priorities of the patients or caregivers. Professor Altman’s suggestion that the elderly get hospice treatment to save scarce care resources is exactly the kind of decisions the state will make for its citizens, and it won’t be limited to the elderly, either. Anyone whose value does not show a positive “cost-benefit” ratio to the state will also likely wind up without the kind of care necessary to stay alive and healthy.
Rationed, hospice care for the elderly…read, Baby Boomers. Poetic justice, if you ask me. The same people who used utilitarian arguments to kill babies will have an interesting time defending spending money on their “worthless” lives–I mean, it’s not like old, decrepit people produce anything.
Oh, they’ll suddenly get religion and defending the defenseless will become very important and the vast numbers of hanging on Boomers will ensure they have a very loud voice as usual. They’ll bankrupt America, live off their children and demand health care that will extend their lives. It will be their children and their children’s children who will pay for their selfishness–the ones who were lucky enough to be born, anyway.
Even the Boomers will die, but probably not soon enough to save America.
Enlightened Redneck
Monday, April 27th, 2009Save The Redneck
They’re a persecuted lot and deserve respect.
America’s Cyber Command
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009Since America’s infrastructure depends on the safety and stability of our information networks, it makes sense that the government would have a military cyber force dedicated to it’s defense. Here’s why:
According to the official, the program would not be on the level of a separate combatant command. Instead, the likely recommendation would be to create a “sub-unified command” that would focus entirely on combating cyber warfare but exist under the current Strategic Command.
A senior Pentagon official revealed that cyber attacks against military computer networks have “increased significantly … more than doubled” in the past six months. The attacks were said to include “thousands of probes a day” against Web sites associated with the Defense Department.
How important are our information networks? Just ask anyone who endured 9/11 or a hurricane. The first thing to go is communications and the computer systems that control energy distribution, waste management, water purification, etc. Imagine the havoc created by a hacker who can control or disrupt these networks and the services dependent on them.
The downside of the government having their nose inserted into cyber security is that they will inevitably be dealing with independent businesses, state sovereignty issues, etc. The government already knows too much.
Still, as part of national defense, America can’t be brought to it’s knees by a pimply Russian or Chinese kid employed by their governments to gather information, or worse, do economic or physical harm.
Domestic Eco-Terrorist: Third Domestic Terrorist On FBI List, Not First–UPDATED
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009CORRECTION: Turns out that there are now two FBI most wanted lists one for regular baddies and one for terrorists. The lists got split. So technically, this is the first domestic terrorist. Strangely, Osama Bin Laden makes both lists. Why?
The point about this leftist crazy on the list is a diversion, stands.
Facts are such a distraction to this administration. And pesky. Just to set the record straight, folks. The doofus who bombed buildings in San Francisco for doing scientific testing on animals is NOT the first domestic guy to ever make the FBI terrorist watch list. He’s at least the third.
Confederate Yankee says:
I have to ask—by what standard is San Diego the first domestic terrorist added to the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list?
Ted Kaczynski was a high-profile left-wing domestic terrorist that went on a 17-year bombing spree that put him on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list as the Unabomber.
Eric Robert Rudolph was on the “Most Wanted” list as a right wing domestic terrorist when he was captured in 2003.
Those are just the first two domestic terrorists that were on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list that immediately come to my mind; I strongly suspect there were others.
If I didn’t know better, I might suspect that the addition of an obscure left-wing terrorist who planted two bombs that caused no injuries and only minor property damage to “Most Wanted” list was a political calculation, perhaps made specifically to help take the heat off a DHS Secretary under fire for supporting the release of a controversial report that labeled mainstream conservative values as those belonging to extremists, and who more or less stated military veterans were too stupid to keep from being duped into joining extremist groups.
No way! I was thinking the same silly thought! Imagine–the government trying to deflect attention from their bias’ and real focus. They would never, ever, ever do that. Not. Ever.
Cross-posted at Right Wing News
Margaret Thatcher’s Modern Message
Monday, April 13th, 2009I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand”I have a problem, it is the Government’s job to cope with it!” or”I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!” “I am homeless, the Government must house me!” and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and[fo 1] there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations, because there is no such thing as an entitlement unless someone has first met an obligation and it is, I think, one of the tragedies in which many of the benefits we give, which were meant to reassure people that if they were sick or ill there was a safety net and there was help, that many of the benefits which were meant to help people who were unfortunate—” It is all right. We joined together and we have these insurance schemes to look after it” . That was the objective, but somehow there are some people who have been manipulating the system and so some of those help and benefits that were meant to say to people:”All right, if you cannot get a job, you shall have a basic standard of living!” but when people come and say:”But what is the point of working? I can get as much on the dole!” You say:”Look” It is not from the dole. It is your neighbour who is supplying it and if you can earn your own living then really you have a duty to do it and you will feel very much better!”
There is also something else I should say to them:”If that does not give you a basic standard, you know, there are ways in which we top up the standard. You can get your housing benefit.”
But it went too far. If children have a problem, it is society that is at fault. There is no such thing as society.[fo 2] There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate. And the worst things we have in life, in my view, are where children who are a great privilege and a trust—they are the fundamental great trust, but they do not ask to come into the world, we bring them into the world, they are a miracle, there is nothing like the miracle of life—we have these little innocents and the worst crime in life is when those children, who would naturally have the right to look to their parents for help, for comfort, not only just for the food and shelter but for the time, for the understanding, turn round and not only is that help not forthcoming, but they get either neglect or worse than that, cruelty.
Meanwhile, the collectivist bent seems to be gathering steam.
Americans have traded bootstraps for bailouts.
Tea Parties And Liberal Angst
Monday, April 13th, 2009On the same day I had a Twitter conversation with Jane Hamsher, who is absolutely convinced that a nefarious plot by shadowy right-leaning organizations backs the Tea Party movement, I received this email from the actual people doing the Houston organization:
Anyone having any meetings the next two days? Would like to stop by and maybe help coordinate. I don’t know everything, but can try to make it where I can.
Merchandise, We’re needing a status on the shirts, please tell Felicia if anyone knows.
Also, if any of you can donate, we’re really hurting for cash at this point.
Click here to Donate Or use Pay Pal to donate to the info@houstontps.org account.
-Josh
Okay, so this is a young conservative guy that I’ve met once at a local conservative meet-up. For the leftists out there….Do you understand what he’s saying? He’s saying to the other INDEPENDENT organizers over the parts and pieces of the Tea Party protest that he’d like to help and how’s it going. Pretty decentralized, I’d say.
Little Miss Attila noted the conversations and has this to say:
Unless the argument here is that every center-right organization or individual is somehow one large lump of protoplasm that cannot quite make up its mind about marijuana, gay marriage or what constitutes separation of church and state, but knows that it wants lower taxes. In that case, the reason that Tea Parties are so much better-attended than ANWF events is that . . . the right commands more robots than the Soros-funded left does! (This leads us to the conclusion that we threw the last Presidential election, in a further attempt to confuse the left.)
The fact is, the people at these events are mad as hell at Washington. Republican Senators, at least, seem to get this, as NONE but Jim DeMint is showing the intestinal fortitude to show up to one of these conspiratorial gatherings. They’re afraid they’ll be skewered. And if the response to my questions on Twitter as to what their involvement should be, they are partly right.
As an aside, though, I think Senators are making a political miscalculation by hiding in Washington or wherever and avoiding the gatherings. It would be good for them to wander among their constituents, handler-free, and just talk to them. This is the point of the protests: It seems like no one is listening to the average voter and it seems like a vote doesn’t matter anymore because politicians do what they damn well please. By not attending, the Congress people reinforce that notion.
Back to Leftist angst. I’m smelling more than a little jealousy, fear and loathing from my leftist brethren. Protests over the last eight years were nonsensical, anemic affairs with screaming meemees in pink T-shirts. Or they’re naked hot chicks for PETA. Or they’re naked bicyclers protesting war and Israel and the new world order. In short, the Leftists come across as unstable whack-jobs with no job and time to burn who had no purpose in life but their thinly veiled America-hate. Plus, they just don’t have many numbers.
Oh, the press likes to make these little mews of discontent seem like roars, but let’s be serious. Thinking people are embarrassed to see what passes for a protest these days. No one wants to hang with a bunch of smelly hippies still living the halcyon days of the early bell-bottomed 70s.
Plus, the Left’s protests ring hollow. For all the talk of supporting troops, actions like defacing recruiting stations or liberal Senators, including Barack Obama, making reference to our soldiers as killers, doesn’t sound so supportive. Not to mention the Truther movement believing 9/11 was an inside job.
In stark contrast, the Tea Party movement is being organized by regular old people. Thousands of citizens will come to these events. And people like me, are trying to figure out how to get to Washington, D.C. over July 4th because that’s the next step.
And the next step is laying out for our leaders what we want policy-wise.
And the next step after that is getting people elected who will embrace what made America great to begin with.
The Left hopes, hopes, hopes the Tea Party movement is a flash-in-the-pan, impotent action. Heck, some on the right do, too.
My sense is that they’re all very wrong.
People feel disenfranchised from the government generally. The Republican party once stood for small government, fiscal responsibility, and freedom. The Democrat party once stood for the common man, the worker. Both party members seem to stand for one thing: PERSONAL GAIN.
Being a politician, like Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of the fetid lot, is very lucrative. These people, without irony, can vote themselves raises while unemployment heads toward 10%. These people, without shame, can make income tax “mistakes” and not be charged interest and penalties, while the common citizen would pay and probably be prosecuted criminally. These people, can cry out against regulations they passed and blame others for an economic collapse of their own making.
Anyone with a frontal lobe is sick of the lot of them.
So what is a citizen to do? We vote for candidates we think will follow principles and then they sell out. The Tea Party protests are a way to let the government know that it has got to stop.
Maddy Pamilia, a 17 year old citizen journalist reported from the Pasadena protest:
Basil said that we had a “tyrannical congressional majority.” He added that this tea party would “make Samuel Adams proud” and “we have something he didn’t have.”
John Ziegler started out laughing that it took a lot to get him to miss the Masters, but this tea party was a good cause. He got the crowd to cheer when he called Arnold Schwarzenegger Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger and said he should be punished. He ended with, “Never stop fighting for truth and never stop fighting for America.”
Teresa Hernandez said the government right now is like “crazies running the insane asluym” and the government is “spending money like drunken sailors.”
Again, I say to the Left, what do you object to? This is what I heard about why it was important to elect Barack Obama–that he’d bring responsibility back. Really? Is that what’s happening, because the multiple trillion dollar deficits don’t seem responsible.
If the Left had any principles whatsoever, they’d be joining these protests and making their voices heard. Really, this sentiment isn’t Democrat or Republican. It’s about freedom. It’s about the individual. It’s American.
Cross-posted at RightWingNews
