Random Debt Thoughts – 4/14

A quote from the Wall Street Journal this morning:

According to Internal Revenue Service data, the entire taxable income of everyone earning over $100,000 in 2008 was about $1.582 trillion. Even if all these Americans—most of whom are far from wealthy—were taxed at 100%, it wouldn't cover Mr. Obama's deficit for this year.

That deficit this year is $1.6452 trillion. Within this reality all that can be cut is $38.5 billion (and yes I count the entire thing, those accounting measures are valid) and the President’s only answer is tax increases for the top 2% who already pay the highest rate on their taxable incomes. It appears as though the number of people voting themselves goodies at the expense of others is past half the electorate. We’re doomed.

It seems to have become conventional wisdom that every complaint made by a conservative towards the President’s budget must begin with a two-minute hate of former President Bush. It’s ridiculous on two counts. Most importantly, that ship has sailed. President Bush was no spend thrift and did sign bills in regard to spending that were irresponsible but he’s no longer in office and can’t help with what’s happening now nor change the past. Second, spending under the President has ballooned to unprecedented levels. The table below (Source) examines the debt by time period from 2002-2011 (to be fair, President Bush could not be responsible, because he didn’t sign it, for any budgets before 2002 and President Obama not for any before 2010, for the same non-signing reason).The reason for the split is to account for both houses of congress (they are in charge of creating the budget) changing to democrat control in 2006. The data shows that democrat congresses in 2007 and 2008 appropriated a budget with more debt in it than the prior 6 years combined. And yes, President Bush signed them. Even accounting for the more than TRIPLING of average debt per year following democrat control the average debt over the 8 years attributed to the Bush presidency was $443.49 billion per year compared to $1469.12 billion per year under President Obama. While it may be cathartic for the navel gazing to disown President Bush for spending under his watch; remember that average deficits have increased 69.81% per year under President Obama.

Also up for piñata duty recently has been House Speaker Boehner. Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin have spent the vast majority of their shows in the last week decrying the budget compromise. It’s true that it isn’t enough. But, unfortunately, it’s the best those serious about spending could get. And plainly stating the deficiencies of the compromise is more than enough. Limbaugh and Levin go too far, ridiculing and questioning the fortitude of the Speaker. No matter what they think, shutting down the government would have done no good and encouraging Republicans to act as buffoons (such as some democrats) will do nothing to encourage citizens to support more like them. The most import thing for Republicans in Congress now is to do the best work they can given the current situation and educate the public enough to encourage them to send more people like them instead of those who offer something for nothing. The public must be patient, the 2012 budget will be the first that can be rightly judged within the context of the Republican controlled House’s influence.

As good as it gets?

$38 billion dollars seems like a lot. Compared to $1.6 trillion, it’s almost nothing. The bigger number is the projected deficit the US government would run in the FY2011 budget, borrowed money, and the smaller number is the number of cuts agreed to this past weekend to avert the so-called partial government shutdown. It’s a bit depressing and a popular conservative sentiment today is that it wasn’t enough and that any representative who votes for it isn’t serious.

They’re completely right on the first count and are ignorant of reality on the second. Republicans are in charge of one third of the portion of government that votes for the budget. Their portion the House of Representatives passed $61 billion in cuts while the Senate and the President wanted none. To many, “compromise” would have been $30.5 billion. For a three headed monster, compromise could be considered $20.3 billion. Under this understanding the Republicans in the House of Representatives should have passed a budget with $300 billion in cuts to get $100, but they’re too honest for that.

It’s easy to understand the sentiment behind not approving the final number which is essentially just as unsustainable as the original budget. But hissing about it is of no use. From reports of the President attempting to make the so-called shutdown as hurtful as possible to the promise to veto any continuing resolution that would fund the Department of Defense for the remaining fiscal year there was no way for the shutdown to do any good politically. And the reason why is because of the $1.6 trillion problem.

That $1.6 trillion in borrowed money buys a lot. And it composes the primary source of income for too many in our country. There are too many out there that have no idea what health care, what groceries, what day care, what anything really costs because they receive ‘benefits’ from the government shielding them from those costs. It doesn’t mean that those costs don’t exist; they are just shifted to the taxpayer with a healthy cut consumed by the bureaucratic class. And the promise to veto military pay by the president was a cynical and calculated attempt to turn the military into another democrat constituency similar to unions, punishing them for not voting dem by large margins like other government funded classes.

Bottom line is the government’s broke and it has been getting worse for a long time. $38 billion isn’t much but it is finally a step in the right direction. And as hard as it is to take, as good as it was going to get at this time. One can only hope that there are enough citizens not dependent on the government left to ensure that this direction is only the first step towards a more productive country where clowns only find work in tents and the ever-more educated voter turns them away when they try to escape. Instead of demanding omnipresent government benefits for a growing percentage of the country we can really help those who need it and make them more dependent on themselves so they can be truly successful and enjoy that success instead of being dependent on the just-enough provided by two-faced politicians.

Random Thoughts – 4/8

The federal case against Barry Bonds is a complete waste of resources. Its only purpose is to serve vapid politicians and political appointees by providing them something they can use as a smoke shield to distract us little people. Bonds may be described as any number of things but none of those matters, whatever it is he did, the supposed perjury will be impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and did not do anything that hurt anyone or cover up any federal crime. The justice department should not be allowed to witch hunt public figures for the amusement of the proletariat, no matter how rabid the sheep watching from afar are.

The NFL players association requesting the federal courts to nanny talks between them and the NFL on a new collective bargaining agreement is another complete waste of resources. It’s simply another ploy in the player’s association’s never-ending PR blitz attempting to for the NFL to capitulate to their demands without having to actually negotiate. It is not the federal courts responsibility to referee the negotiations.

All the talk surrounding the Wisconsin “non-partisan” Supreme Court election reminds me of 2004 when John Kerry presumed victory and alleged fraud because of exit polls. Don’t remember that? There was a discrepancy between exit polls (which as statistics are not always accurate and should not be used ever to make definitive points about a population, just make inferences about) and because of statistical polls, Kerry doubted actual return counts. Anyway, the union democrat in the Wisconsin election declared victory after the Associated Press announced unofficial returns showing a lead of about 200 votes. Those totals though did not include all results and upon complete canvassing her opponent was up by about 7,000 votes. Counting chickens before the eggs have hatched and believing what you want to be true doesn’t make it so.

Impending so-called partial government shutdown makes me wonder; what if nobody notices? People that depend on government paychecks (actual employees including the military as government aid recipients will be covered) will certainly notice but what about the rest of us? What happens when Monday morning happens and the sun still rises and the rest of the business world gets to it? No matter the opinion of who’s cheer leading a shutdown (maybe kind-of, me) and who’s trying to kill women (really, this is the kind of crap spouted by democrat legislators) there are facts. The democrat congress did not pass a fiscal year 2011 budget last fall when they should have. The (Republican controlled) House of Representatives passed a FY2011 budget, HR 1, in February. The (democrat controlled) Senate has not passed a FY2011 budget. Most importantly, the US Government is, by any definition, broke. It borrows 40 cents of every dollar spent. This is beyond unsustainable and completely irresponsible. The billions in cuts that were outlined in HR 1 are dwarfed by the deficit outlined in HR 1. Emotional ploys may be therapeutic but ignore reality. There is not enough money to pay for the goodies that vote hungry politicians promised.

Rental Car Review – Chevy Malibu

This week in Maryland I was rented a Chevy Malibu as an intermediate car. I have fond memories of an older Malibu that I rented once in Oregon, the five door version two generations back which my sister and I used to carry us and two mountain bikes up the Oregon coast riding various trails. It was a nice car that felt compact but had lots of room and was reasonably powerful. A few years ago I rented a 6 cylinder version of the previous generation Malibu in Florida which had some serious mechanical issues. It ran but made lots of concerning noises from the engine and transmission and was very lethargic. Reason number 8,789,431 to never ever buy a used rental car, the agency didn’t care when I called, convinced all was well as the car still technically ran and when I returned it the agent checking the car in gave me a “you’re kidding, right?” eye roll when I mentioned the issues.

This rental was the first time I have driven a current generation model. A Silver Ice Metallic 2011 LT1 model with a 2.4L 169HP 4-cylinder engine, 6-Speed automatic transmission, front wheel drive, power moon roof, power windows and locks, 2 stage heated seats, 17 inch wheels, leather trimmed ebony seats and a smidge over 4000 miles on the odometer. As is common of many mid-sized cars, the current Malibu is a larger car than previous generations and this one is so large it seems just about the same size inside as the full size Impala. The dash is large and there is a ton of hard plastic stretching into what could be confused with a dining table in to the front windshield. There is about a one inch sliver of wood and chrome colored plastic loosely applied to the top portion of the dash breaking up the vast expanses of hard black plastic throughout the interior. Like the dash, the driver and passenger seats are big. The exterior is the familiar Malibu shape, the 17 inch chrome wheels and low-profile tires lend it a sporty appearance.

Sporty, though, it is not. Like other full-mid-size cars the Malibu drives like a parade float. The four-banger and 6-speed auto are adequate for getting through the Baltimore-Washington area freeways but the car doesn’t so much as turn, more lurches between lanes. A trait Inherited from dearly departed Pontiac, it is impossible to turn your neck and look at the blind spot corner from the driver’s seat. Brake feel is squishy and pedal travel is long but the Malibu stops just fine. The seats are mostly comfortable, my only complaint is they feel large and are hard to stay centered in. Seat power controls are easy to use which is great for fiddlers like me who can never stop adjusting. The best seat feature by far is the two-stage heaters which work fast. Radio controls are easy to use and duplicates along with cruise control are conveniently located on the steering wheel. One strange quirk noticed was that the moon roof has one touch open but the button must be pressed down for the entirety of the time it takes for it to close. As with most all GM vehicles the sound system was good.

The Malibu isn’t a bad car. But it isn’t very good either. I have driven a Ford Fusion and it’s a much better vehicle. The Nissan Altima and new Hyaundai Sonata are both better looking and the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord both have extremely loyal customers. There’s little wonder why the Malibu’s sales numbers have steadily declined. If I could characterize the Malibu in one word, I would say meh. Its basic transportation and decent enough for someone who is looking for a full-mid-size car and prefers GM.

But What if it isn’t true?

Former Governor Gary Johnson is set to announce his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination for 2012. Personally I would vote for the former Governor over most any other candidate if not for his position on drugs, specifically for legalizing at least marijuana among others. Comedian Daniel Tosh was first to state that the only good reason to legalize pot is so that so potheads never have anything to talk about ever again.

Proponents of legalizing drugs have many reasons for their stance. Some are honest, it’s because they want use it. Too many insist on righteousness and making statements analogous to curing all of our societal ills by legalization, which to them are apparently caused by prohibition of drugs. These arguments are made up of straw men and are tired as they are unknowable. Let’s examine a few in regard to marijuana.

Why treat pot different from alcohol, they’re similar and alcohol’s even worse because of DWI. Some argue that pot is a “mellow” high and some people insist that they have a heightened awareness when they are high. That’s nonsense. THC, the active ingredient in pot is a psychoactive substance, and in that sense is similar to alcohol. The effects though are different and it is my opinion that alcohol is more readily moderated. DWI’s key component is intoxicated, some are attributable to pot already and it is reasonable to assume that more would be if pot were to be legalized.

The ‘war on drugs’ is a failure. Has there ever been a more misunderstood nebulous term than the ‘war on drugs’? What is it exactly? Its failure is often attributed to the fact that illegal drugs are basically abundant. Which is a fair point but in many districts there is little enforcement for many drug offenses. Education on the dangers of illegal drugs is counteracted many times over in popular culture. When there are no real consequences for casual use for many and it is glamorized in culture, why is it surprising that the ‘war on drugs’, whatever that is, is considered a failure?

Drug legalization has driven market demand higher than if pot were legal. This is just dumb. So dumb that it seems as though I made this one up, but no I’ve heard it many times before. This is just unknowable but in economic terms seems unlikely that the market for pot would shrink if legalized.

It will clear prisons of basically harmless drug offenders. This one may be true, but the prison population is not mostly made up of casual drug users, they typically get a slap on the wrist. Violent drug offenders, dealers and criminals who use their ill-gotten gains to purchase drugs make up the majority of drug-related prisoners. And if pot were legal those in prison for offenses related to it would likely be in there for something else.

It will raise tax revenue. If regulated by the state this one will be true, but the cost of regulation likely will equal or surpass in cost any new intake making this argument essentially null.

People should be responsible enough to make their own decisions in regard to what they ingest and inhale. In a perfect world maybe but unfortunately too many are irresponsible. This is not a perfect world and addiction is a serious problem and as a society we must determine a line in regard to psychoactive substances. I believe that marijuana and other drugs are over that line and should remain illegal. I think that the consequences outweigh the loss in freedom in disallowing some responsible citizens from being able to procure it.

And that’s my opinion. There are others who differ. If they want to use pot, that’s their preference and if they’re honest about that fact, fantastic. I still think they’re wrong. Making up all kinds of reasons and statistics meant to persuade is meaningless PR. Marijuana advocates are often very adamant in the righteousness of their many arguments, they never ask themselves the simple question, what if what they say isn’t true? What is true is that pot is harmful.

But What if it doesn’t Work?

Years ago I read an article reporting on a poll that purported to show that roughly 25% of scientifically selected respondents meant to reflect the general US population believe that the moon landing was a hoax. At this point I came up with a theorem that if this poll was true then 25% of the US population must be easily persuaded to believe most anything. It doesn’t mean that they’re all crazy; just that they can be easily persuaded to believe things that can be argued as plausible coherently but are demonstrably untrue. This theorem is the reason that there really isn’t any usefulness in having more than two large scale political parties and that it can actually be dangerous to have several of near equal size. This is because of that 25%, if you have five political parties close in size, all you need is 25% to win a plurality and those easily persuaded conspiracy minded folks get to pick those whom decide how to govern the rest of us.

After new Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, along with that state’s bi-cameral legislature, was able to pass reforms (real, actual hope and change) limiting collective bargaining for the state’s public sector employees, democrats and “labor” activists (I apologize for the redundancy) promised to get back at the Governor and Republican lawmakers by way of recall elections. In Wisconsin, a politician can be recalled after they have been in office for one year if a petition signed by 25% of voters from their last election seeks it. Currently there are 8 Republican legislators being targeted for this summer with Governor Walker’s turn coming up early next year.

It’s all well and good to pitch a tantrum and gather signatures, but will it work? The hardest part of persuading 25% of voters to sign a petition will be finding them and collecting the signatures. Getting the right 25% to sign will not be a problem. Wisconsin isn’t North Korea, so probably close to 50% of voters didn’t vote for those up for recall anyway. The reason behind the hysteria is that state employees identify any effort to curb their ability to fleece the taxpayer as an affront to liberty, no matter reality. A sizeable portion of citizens in Wisconsin are state employees, and many more are tangentially reliant on state largess and all of them have friends and families which should help them get to that 25% number. Easily persuaded.

But what if it doesn’t work? After all the work required gathering those signatures, 25% isn’t enough to win election in a two-party system. Also, there’s no guarantee that from the time a person signed that they were committed to the defeat of that politician and that they would even vote in the new election if the recall petition were successful. Because of the 25% theorem it’s likely folly to assume that a successful petition will translate to a successful recall election.

That’s not to say that the politicians targeted shouldn’t be concerned. And, the democrat state laborers are not the only ones pulling this shenanigan. There are Republican backed efforts to recall democrat legislators but at least it’s because those legislators abdicated their duties and left Wisconsin for Illinois trying to force the majority’s hand. And, because the Republicans don’t have every state employee union in their back pocket their 25% will be more difficult to obtain. Most of the coverage on this issue is usually set as a warning to Republicans, but I wonder if the democrats have thought through everything, including what if they don’t win the recalls? You know, like how they didn’t win in the last general election.

Corporate Taxation

60 Minutes did a piece on businesses relocating to Switzerland, namely Canton Zug (by the way, it's pronounced "Tsoog"). A wonderful little city and tax haven right on the Zugersee, famous for producing Zugerkirschwasser, aka Zug Cherry Schnapps. Good with fondue. Anyway, I was surprised by the evenhandedness of the 60 Minutes piece. The USA has the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, which is ridiculous for two reasons - 1) we're America, so we're supposed to demand low taxes, and 2) corporate taxation is dumb in the first place because corporations just pass the taxes onto the consumer, meaning we end up paying anyway. I hope they wise up in DC. Europe's ahead of the curve on this one.

Thank you Mr. Edison

Tonight I plan to honor one of the most prolific inventors of modern times, Thomas Alva Edison by lighting my home with perhaps his most important invention, the light bulb. What will differentiate tonight, between the hours of 8:30 and 9:30 PM, from every other night is that I will not only light the parts of my home that are occupied, I will turn on every light I own.

I was inspired in my tribute by the fake WWF’s “Earth Hour”. As notice of conflict, I am predisposed to dislike the WWF because they were able to convince a judge somewhere that anyone could possibly confuse the World Wildlife Fund and the World Wrestling Federation which led to the latter having to change its name to the asinine World Wrestling Entertainment. Anyway, I digress; the WWF’s “Earth Hour” is an effort to bring attention to climate change by having participants turn off all lighting and “non-essential” appliances for one hour during the last Saturday in March.

Besides the fact that climate change has been occurring on Earth for the billions of years of its existence and that there is no definitive (yes, that means scientific) proof of man-made (anthropogenic) climate change, it is of no matter to those faithful to the religion of global warming. “Earth Hour” may seem innocuous and a simple way to show your love for the planet that is both Al Gore and Captain Planet approved, but it is misguided. Turning off appliances is an implicit nod to the idea that humans are responsible for climate change and that their responsibility began with the industrial age.

My preference is to live in modern times and it is my belief that the advances the world has seen since the light bulb make our time miraculous and a blessing. If any of the hippies that participate in “Earth Hour” and faithfully follow the faked research “proving” man-made climate change wish to move to sub-Saharan Africa into a mud hut and be one with the land, they are free to do so. Advocating a meaningless, silly symbolic gesture is one thing and I can retaliate in the immature way mentioned above but the organizers of “Earth Hour”, “green” politicians and the advocate-scientists that have “proven” man-made climate change are attempting to convert new followers to keep their scam going and force the rest of us to live in a way conducive with cave men by taxing us to the point of poverty and banning everything that makes modern life possible.

And modern life was made possible by people like Thomas Alva Edison and I choose to counter “Earth Hour” with a tribute to his brilliance.

An Unfortunate Introduction

In marketing one acknowledged form of advertising is differentiation from the competition. This can be done in two ways, by stating the benefits of the advertised brand as being superior to another for the given purpose or by identifying shortcomings of the other. In politics it’s the latter tactic that is most often utilized. In many campaigns no one really knows anything about the real, actual stances of a candidate, just that their hobbies include clubbing baby seals while farting pure carbon into the fragile atmosphere and laughing. Personally I find this kind of campaign annoying because I abhor irrelevant gossip and because of the prevalence of these kinds of ads it’s incredibly difficult to really feel comfortable with any candidate.

With US Senator Jeff Bingaman retiring there are already two mostly-officially announced candidates from the Republican side with more likely coming. In a perfect world I think that the more candidates the better because it provides for a wide range of experience and opinions and can ensure that the best candidate will win and is well prepared for the general election. Unfortunately, because much of candidate advertising is negative it’s usually the candidate who is most unobjectionable to the majority of undecided voters, and it seems they don’t really care about policy and are too often swayed by gossip.

My preference at this time is for the fire-breathing former gubernatorial candidate Doug Turner to run, but he isn’t at this time and I have no objections to the current candidate and former US Representative Heather Wilson. Already though I find myself irked by candidate Lt. Governor John Sanchez.

The Lt. Governor was in D.C. recently to discuss his “likely” candidacy and was featured in an article on the D.C. Caller titled “New Mexico’s John Sanchez: The Next Marco Rubio?” For those in Tierra Amarilla, Rubio is the freshmen senator from Florida who was the speaker of the Florida assembly and is a frequent writer in which he illustrates very conservative ideals. He’s awesome, basically.

In this article, the only thing about Sanchez that is considered similar to Senator Rubio is their Hispanic sounding last names. Other than that it is basically an attack on Heather Wilson. In it, Sanchez is quoted as saying that Wilson represents “the politics of the past” and then cites her record in congress as being “moderate”.

Most people don’t really know John Sanchez yet. Yes he is the Lt. Governor and had run for Governor in the past but likening yourself to a high profile conservative based on delightfully pronounced last names and assailing a political opponent because they’re a known quantity is not the way to introduce oneself. Who are you and why should I vote for you Mr. Lt. Governor? Why are you picking on former Representative Wilson instead of telling me what you would do besides using generic terminology? That’s what I want to know. It’s neat that you are an accomplished Hispanic (I consider myself in that same category) but it’s irrelevant.

Random Thoughts – 3/22

One reason (of many) no one ‘likes’ their health insurance (no matter the President’s opinion); because of the fact that the state regulates which prescriptions must be covered by any plan, if something you need isn’t something that has been regulated, it is likely not included and you will be stuck with the entire, likely comically priced bill. I run into this problem due to allergies. Twice a year for several weeks at a time the earth turns on me, robbing me of my ability to speak, breathe comfortably and think clearly. Once available by prescription over the counter medications, Zyrtec and Allegra, offer minimal relief but often lose effectiveness very quickly. My only relief comes from an inhalant that is only available in prescription form and I only learned of its effectiveness when given a sample. I had been prescribed this inhalant in the past but it was not covered by my insurance and I scoffed at the $100 bill for a month’s supply preferring to wait Mother Nature out no matter how miserable I was. Upon receiving the sample sweet relief was mine several days in. What to do about the bill once my sample runs out? The maker of the inhalant offers a $50 discount card which makes the price finally palatable to me. It’s strange though, smelling somewhat of shenanigans. Why would the manufacturer offer such a discount instead of just lowering the damn price by the same amount? Since no one cares what I think I’ll never know. But at least a solution is found in light of my worthless to my own ailments prescription coverage.

New Mexico Governor Martinez was supposedly dealt a blow when a bill not stopping the practice of giving state driver’s licenses to illegal aliens was not passed in the latest legislative session. Some self identified non-partisan group is making noise about some ‘compromise’ bill that would have made everyone happy and shot jelly beans into the air. This ‘compromise’ bill’s aim was to make it slightly more difficult for illegal aliens to receive driver’s licenses. Madness. In the end no bill was ever passed ‘compromise’ or otherwise so there was really nothing the Governor could have done with no bill to sign or veto. And no compromise should be made. 80% of the state is against giving driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and the practice is in violation of federal law. This stalemate just proves that there are more legislators that need to be retired for others willing to do the people of New Mexico’s business.

I saw two movies this weekend. “Ninja”, the first, was released quite a while ago and was delightful fluff. The story was silly and the plot lines were conveniently zoomed past to ensure that the viewer would have no questions. There were tons of well choreographed action scenes and everything was wrapped up in a nice package. The second movie I saw was “The Switch” about a dude stuck in the friend zone who ends up figuring a way out, by sneaking in as the surrogate donor for his friend’s pregnancy. Hilarity did ensue. And while the ending was sudden it kind of made sense if you’ve ever been in the friend zone. It was by far the best movie that Jennifer Aniston has been in since Office Space. As if the unwatchable “The Bounty Hunter” provided any kind of hurdle. And I don’t care that Jason Bateman plays the same character in every movie. That character is awesome and applicable to just about any situation.

“Big Love”, HBO’s fictional series of polygamists ended this past weekend and my review is mostly bleh. The final two episodes of the show seemed to be housecleaning, attempting to tie up loose ends and answer a ton of questions in regard to the point of the show. Much of this last season has been adding layers to an already complicated storyline and as with a lot of stuff being ignored in any hasty housecleaning, much of those layers and characters that made up the show were apparently forgotten. Taking a lesson from the supposedly controversial ‘Soprano’s’ finale, HBO apparently took a “if in doubt, take them out” approach with “Big Love” and finished off the main character. Or was he the main character? In the end a ton of plot lines seemed to beat the viewer about the head with the idea that a ton of stuff = woman’s empowerment and all that stuff starts with polygamy and the wives were really the center even though they never were that in any episode prior to the last two minutes. Kind of a weird ending, but couldn’t be thought of as boring.

Why Support “Public” Broadcasting?

When one side of an argument resorts to dismissing the other by defining the other side’s position as an easily disparaged straw man it’s a clear indication that that side has no valid argument. A recent example of this type of posturing has surfaced recently as congress has moved to defund the corporation for public broadcasting (with the house already voting in the affirmative). The conservative side as defined by liberals seems to be two-fold. First, conservatives are too stupid to understand the high class, and therefore necessary, content of NPR and second that conservatives are “getting back” at NPR in defense of their colleague, Fox new contributor Juan Williams with momentum for defunding being driven by embarrassing comments coaxed out of NPR fundraising ex-personnel by an outfit called “Project Veritas”.

Let’s knock out these straw men in reverse order. I nearly spit out my coffee when the whole Juan Williams NPR firing fiasco was going on when he was described by many as the most conservative commentator on NPR. I’ve only listened to NPR briefly and have always been nearly instantly turned off by its programming either by boredom or being offended by their liberal commentary. All of my exposure to Williams has been on Fox news and if he’s a conservative then I clearly have no understanding of the term. To label Williams as conservative because of his employment at Fox news is silly nonsense. I believe that Williams is completely liberal, not that there’s anything wrong with that, and his new 7 figure contract (congratulations to him on that by the way) with Fox news after being dismissed by NPR hardly makes him a charity case.

On to the high class, indispensible content provided by NPR, and from PBS. If it’s so popular, so indispensible, why can’t it survive in the public sector? When I go to the toy store there are rows and rows of PBS branded toys sold at premium prices. The whole parents rioting and shortages of a popular toy at Christmas time was in large part originated by Tickle-Me-Elmo, a Sesame Street character toy. NPR supposedly has 35 million listeners, more than supposedly fat-cat Rush Limbaugh. Why in the world should I in addition to 88% of citizens in this country be forced to pay for something that none of us consume? Because only 10% of their listeners care enough to contribute to their unsustainable business model?

To pretend that NPR has no ideology is to pretend that no one does and to force supposedly free citizens to contribute to a network that they have no use for is asinine. If NPR really has so many listeners and provides such high brow content they should be able to lure advertiser dollars in the open market or be able to solicit some kind of subscription from listeners. If Sesame Street, Arthur and others can make many millions of dollars from toy sales they should be able to support PBS. When there were only three channels over the air and a dearth of radio perhaps the corporation for public broadcasting served an actual purpose. That is no longer the case. If they add value to society, let them prove it in the open market. Making the excuse that they can’t survive without subsidy is to insult their audience, and to the rest of us.

More NFL Mess

Last Friday the NFL Players Association (the NFL players union) decertified effectively closing negotiations and resulting in the current lockout of players from NFL facilities. News up to that point stated that the NFL had been active in providing new offers while the “union” demanded “the books” on the financial specifics of all NFL teams as a condition of continued negotiations. The decertification of the “union” was immediately followed by a class action lawsuit attempting to disallow the lockout led by popular NFL players Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Additionally, the “union” is actively discouraging this year’s draft class from attending NFL draft festivities.

The timing of the lawsuit, being announced at the same time as decertification and the show of the lead plaintiffs proves that the “union” is not interested in negotiations. They want to force the NFL to do their bidding by forming public opinion and playing on the sympathies of the court system. Taking a page from actual unions, they are forming a virtual picket line and attempting to intimidate future players from participating in an event that they have earned invitation to and may have been looking forward to for many years, the NFL draft.

A popular player, Adrian Peterson wasn’t being helpful to the “union” when he made incredibly short sighted comments in an interview on Yahoo sports:

Peterson called the NFL’s arrangement with his players "modern-day slavery" and a "rip-off." He added that players "are getting robbed"

What a mess. Peterson can attempt to walk back his comments but he said what he said and he comes off very badly as a result. Perhaps he did not mean for what he said to be made public but if it is what he truly thinks then it’s perfectly reasonable for it to be out there. His statements create a line where other players who desire to can choose to agree or disagree. As a statement it really demonstrates Peterson’s understanding, or lack thereof, of slavery.

Will the NFLPA’s tactics be successful? It seems likely as most of the sports media is complicit in force-feeding the public the “union” good, fat cat owners bad narrative. The “union’s” actions are very cynical and should be hurting their image but are being shielded by this narrative. Without the owners there would be no NFL and without the players there would be no league either but the league had to be there first for players to play. Millionaires comparing themselves to slaves demonstrate a stark separation from reality and excusing silly behavior because the owners are wealthier is a red herring argument without merit. For me personally the antics of the NFLPA and its unreasonable demands (for financial specifics) drown out their reasonable demands (not wanting an 18 game season). The owners are not sympathetic but at least seem to be acting in good faith while attempting to negotiate instead of the theatrics of the other side.

A lack of Responsibility

Following five hours of debate Wednesday evening the New Mexico state senate approved a bill to require fingerprinting, two documents to prove residency and license renewals every two years for those in the state illegally. Because there is not enough support in the state senate for an initiative that is supported by 80% of New Mexicans it seems likely that those in this state illegally will continue to be granted drivers licenses. Before considering the merits of either side, this issue must be framed within a simple truth. This discussion involves this state providing a benefit to people here illegally, as in, they have broken a law. For all the rhetoric one way or another we are talking about the allotment of a state benefit to non-citizen law breakers. For those who disagree with the law concerning who is and is not illegal, that is peripheral and irrelevant. The law is and state governments simply are not allowed to circumvent it at their convenience.

The two primary arguments presented in support of conferring driver’s licenses to those here illegally are first that because obtaining a drivers license requires insurance our roads will be safer because of more insured drivers and second that we are all generally safer from criminals who take advantage of this law because they are now in the license database and can be tracked.

Is there any data that proves that there are fewer uninsured drivers on New Mexico roads? A NMSU study looked at numbers provided by the New Mexico MVD and the Insurance Research Council (IRC, a consortium of industry) showing wildly different results. While both show similar numbers starting in 2002, the IRC number remains close to an average of 29% while MVD data steadily declines to 10% in 2008. MVD’s data is related to registered vehicles with no insurance while the IRC’s is related to car accident data. Basically the study was inconclusive, as stated it its executive summary.

The second point is confusing. Why would the government need to use the driver’s license database to track criminals? Is it possible to obtain a license as a criminal? And if these criminals have obtained licenses prior to becoming actual criminals how exactly is it helpful to know that they were able to obtain legal documents in New Mexico? And, as a democrat initiative is it even believable that democrat lawmakers would support using the MVD database for this ill-defined purpose?

The biggest proponent of the second argument is democrat state senator Eric Griego of Albuquerque who is best known for being a perpetual failed candidate for mayor in Albuquerque and for calling every listener of 770KKOB AM news radio and every supporter of ending the practice of giving driver’s licenses to those here illegally racist. This basically means that Griego is a pandering politician without an actual argument, instead retreating to caricaturing those who disagree with his nonsense position with cries of ray-cesss.

New Mexico’s driver’s licenses are in violation of the federal REAL ID Act and the only reason lawful residents of our state can travel to and through the rest of the United States is because a do-nothing U.S. Congress continues to grant postponements to the law’s implementation. Criminals from other countries are making New Mexico their first stop to take advantage of well meaning idiocy to travel freely to commit crimes all over the United States. There is no justifiable reason to continue this practice and it all starts with one simple word: illegal. New Mexico should not be providing a state form of identification to those who are not here legally.

The German Mindset

One of my best friends here is a German guy, who I've known since NJ and is now here. One of the things I've really enjoyed is getting to know the German mindset from him - he's in his 40s, so he was born right after the German "Wirtschaftswunder" (economic miracle) postwar and has lived a varied and interesting life. I've found a lot to admire in the German mindset, which gives me a little pride, as I've got a Germanic last name anyway. Just a few bullet points that you might find interesting:

• It is impossible to overestimate the level of national shame the Germans as a people feel about the Holocaust and the Nazi regime's crimes. In fact, it was only until the World Cup in 2006 that public displays of the German flag and other sorts of nationalism that are common everywhere else became widely accepted. I occasionally see the German tricolor on display in (gasp) Switzerland, even. Anyway, the guilt and shame still are raw to many, even though they had nothing to do with it (because they were born after it happened). I'm paraphrasing a quote here, but a guy said it "felt like being the son of a criminal". I find this tragic.
• It's not just Germany, it's also Austria. I met an Austrian girl and asked her what they did for their National Day - she said maybe sing the national anthem before class, and that was it. No fireworks, no nothing. In Switzerland, it sounds like a freakin war zone. But the Swiss didn't produce Hitler and engage in genocide, so it's ok for them.
• Germans are a very conservative people, in the sense that they are very calculated risk takers. They tend to manage their money very well, which is probably why the Deutsche mark was so strong before they were forced to convert to the Euro. They have insurance for everything.
• Children are EXTREMELY important in German culture - I mean, they imported kindergarten to the US. Just as an example: in Berlin, if you jaywalk or cross against a "Don't Walk" light, you will get chastised, even if there is no traffic. Why? Because a child might see you and follow your example.
• I find Germans and German speakers to have a better sense of personal responsibility than Americans, which is sad given our founding principles. I've had people here tell me that they hear about ridiculous lawsuits in America all the time, that it seems that people can sue you for anything...I can only nod in agreement. Here it's not the case - they figure if you are a stupid jackass, then you suffer the consequences for it. For that reason, fun semi-dangerous stuff doesn't abruptly end due to some idiot.
• Germans like Barack Obama, just like all Europeans. But I think it's only because they despised Bush. I don't think they have much respect for Obama, but are afraid they will seem racist if they say so - plus, they don't want to offend any Americans.

Anyway, just a few things. I think a lot of our mindset is shaped by our language, so I'm sure the German language has something to do with how they think. I wonder if someone has done that kind of research...

Switzerland

The 2011 Index of Economic Freedom was published a while back, and I got around to checking it out earlier this week. As one can see by looking at the top ten, the USA - supposedly the beacon of freedom and individual liberty for the world - continues to drop, and is close to falling out of the top 10. My current country of residence, Switzerland, held strong at number 5 and is the top country in Europe. Here's a short summary of my relevant experiences regarding this.

The Swiss have 4 national languages (and really, English is an unofficial national language). There is a sharp political divide between the more liberal French speaking cantons (similar to US states) and the more conservative German speaking cantons. In a continent in which political, religious, and ethnic differences have led to bloodbaths, how do they manage to build wealth that is the envy of Europe?

For one thing, they stay out of wars. I was a big time war hawk on Iraq/Afghanistan at one point, now I've rethought that for the past 5 years or so. Death and destruction are not effective tools for economic growth. Sure, there's a time to fight, but staying out of war is best - maybe later I can expand on this.

However, in my opinion, the major reason is that Switzerland is the federalist country that the USA wishes it was. The cantons hold much more power than the federal government. As an example, my federal taxes here are very low, on the order of 3%. The cantonal and communal taxes (yes, we pay local taxes too) are probably about 10-12%. This, to me, is preferable for two reasons - communes and cantons have to compete for taxpayers (individuals and businesses), and therefore adjust their rates accordingly. The federal government would feel no such pressure. Canton Schwyz, for example, would probably tax me at less than 5%! Nice canton too, maybe we should look into moving... [added later, forgot to add this] The second reason is that taxes paid locally and on the cantonal level are far more likely to benefit the taxpayer than the taxes paid to Bern. This reduces the likelihood of government waste, because it essentially places the product (taxpayer funded crap) closer to the customer (taxpayer). It creates a high level of civic engagement too, which I find refreshing.

This is just one example. Sure, the Swiss have some economic quirks I find irritating - for example, they are highly protectionist and therefore meat prices are unbelievably high. But overall, it's a great example of how federalism should work. The Swiss are a people proud of certain uniting characteristics - Alpine culture, banking secrecy, neutrality - and use these to unite their federation of cantons in spite of the enormous differences that exist, particularly language.

I'll try and post more on observations from Europe. I think I've gotten to know, in particular, the German (and German speaking) mindset. Till then - Tschüss!

Finders Keepers and Cold Hands

Where was my head yesterday afternoon? Not anywhere that could be considered functional. It started following an hour-long session on the elliptical at the gym. As I entered the locker room to change I realized that I had left the key chain containing my membership card and padlock key in the tray attached to the machine. Fortunately it was still there when I went back, only costing me a couple minutes. It continued on my way out. After changing I made it all the way to my motorcycle before realizing that I had left my jacket in the gym, in the front right pocket of which was my driver’s license and credit card. I then put my gym shoes and clothes into my trunk bag and went back in with my gloves in my pants pocket to retrieve the jacket which was still there. Then things got somewhat interesting.

Jacket now on I made it to my motorcycle again only to realize that I had dropped my gloves somewhere along the way. I started to walk towards the gym again with my gaze fixated on the ground. Looking up again I could see about fifteen yards ahead a woman briskly walking towards her car with a pair of black Alpinestars motorcycle gloves, my black Alpinestars motorcycle gloves. She was about to try them on. Yes, this person was planning to take my gloves home, finder’s keepers.

I called out to inform her that I believed that she had found my gloves. Seemingly startled by my calling out she replied, “Oh, I was surprised that no one was looking for these” to which I said, “yeah, it just happened a second ago and I was walking back towards the gym to find them, thank you for finding them”. She handed them over and looked to be a little embarrassed (or was it disappointment in the loss of her new gloves, I’ll never know). I thought about a clever retort but didn’t much feel like it. It might have been momentarily satisfying to call out this person but in the end I was just glad that I had found them and didn’t have to ride home without any hand protection having to spend an appreciable amount on a replacement pair.

This situation reminded me of a recent post by one of my Facebook friends. Their small child had lost a camera on an outing and was never found so they were wondering what their friends would do if they had encountered a lost camera. My reply was that I would leave it where it was. I wouldn’t take it but I wouldn’t try to find the owner or attempt to find a lost and found or anything either. Learning after the fact that the question was in regard to a child’s lost toy I was somewhat embarrassed by my response as I remember what it was like to lose something. I revised my response to taking them to some place of authority wherever it is that the item is found, in anticipation of some kind of lost and found.

Finders keepers is a term referred to above and it may seem justifiable, but really, finding my gloves outside of a gym and that person didn’t think that someone would be looking for them? That person didn’t have to do anything with them. They didn’t have to take them inside and hand them to the staff at the front desk; it would have been perfectly acceptable to leave them and continue walking. But to just pick them up, assume ownership and rush to her car is disappointing. At least I got there in time.

Random Thoughts – 3/7

There is no worse non-life-threatening affliction in my opinion than allergies. I have been fortunate in my life to suffer nothing more than the occasional cold or flu or fever and nothing worse than some assorted broken bones. I left New Mexico and lived in Arizona from 2001-2005 and when I returned to the Albuquerque area I was met with severe allergies that I never before experienced. My reactions have returned this weekend and have been quite crippling. I have not been able to breathe through my nose, have a sore throat and headache. Zyrtec, Allegra and Zicam, nothing has helped. I hope that I can get this taken care of in a Doctor’s appointment I have scheduled later this week.

Heather Wilson is running for U.S. Senator next year. I still prefer the not as of yet running Doug Turner but Wilson is definitely candidate 1a and will make an excellent Senator if elected. Congressman Heinrich is supposedly running and would be a horrible Senator if elected and we can only hope that he abandons his House seat to run only to lose in the end.

All the talk about potential 2012 presidential candidates huddling in Iowa or New Hampshire makes me very politically grumpy. It is asinine that these two states effectively determine the general election candidates for president. The voting rights act, a relic from a much different time and place, is renewed even though it’s only purpose is to allow meddling lawyers in the justice department to micro-manage imaginary problems while two states get to pick from the full palette of candidates forcing their preferences on the rest of the country. I don’t care what ridiculous reason is given; no state should be allowed to have their primary so much earlier than other states. If these states want to hold their primary incredibly early they should be barred from releasing results until the rest of the states can.

When ever, in a business sense, is it acceptable to answer a question with a repeated statement that has nothing to do with the question or with the response ‘I guess’? I spent almost an hour today on the phone asking what I thought was a simple question and receiving an irrelevant statement containing information that I already know as a response. So I had to restate and re-wrap and finally restated what I thought and when I sought agreement was told ‘I guess”. I already knew what I already knew and didn’t know what I didn’t know so I asked the question and belligerent responses containing what I already know was all I got. Maybe it’s the allergies causing me to not say what I think I’m saying, making it so that I am asking something that is basically incomprehensible. Being allergic certainly does make me even grumpier in my dealings with people who absolutely refuse to write anything down or answer what should be a simple question definitively.

On the NFL inanities

I blame scripted entertainment, movies and television specifically. Earlier this week I watched the movie Wall Street in anticipation of watching the recently released sequel as if the first were a prerequisite. It is a perfectly entertaining pile of dreck that follows the typical narrative of corporate bad and unions good. Viewers have been allegorically beaten senseless by this narrative in just about every work related to either subject. In Wall Street corporate raider and general scumbag Gordon Gecko exploits the son of the uber-sympathetic everyman union representative Carl Fox. The problem with this narrative is that the characters are nothing more than fictional representations only useful for caricaturing a reality that cannot possibly be explained in 100 minutes. In the end this narrative shapes the perceptions of viewers causing them to view real-people as cheap, simple to characterize cartoons.

The current caricature of the moment is the “labor dispute” in the NFL with Commissioner Roger Goodell, 31 team owners and Green Bay’s shareholder representative as Gordon Geckos and Charlie Batch as the loveable Carl Fox union representative. Don’t believe me that this is the basic template? What about a poll on the Mike & Mike page showing 60% support for the players versus the owners? How do you explain a highly trafficked sports website’s resident columnist vomiting by keyboard the following:

Make no mistake, if you don't get to watch football next fall, it will be because 31 rich a******s (and whatever cheese-and-sausage co-op owns the Packers) have decided that they aren't rich enough. Period.

This type of opinion is nothing more than a reflection of the decades old narrative that has been spoon-fed to the public in television and movies. As if the NFL players association is in any way similar to any other union that has ever existed. As if the NFL as an enterprise is similar to any other company. Neither is and whatever division that exists between the NFL and the players association exists between those two entities and any agreement amongst them must be accepted by both parties as they decided to create a reality where both symbiotically exist. In a sense public opinion is important because they are after all the customer of the product and after years of subsidizing stadiums via tax dollars deserve to understand what’s going on. But as a private enterprise, the two parties must be allowed to negotiate in private. And as a symbolic stadium landlord (if your current municipality is so lucky to have subsidized such a thing) unfortunately you get to pound sand as your rent-seeking politicians are the ones who directed your contributions to building very large buildings that you have to pay ever increasing amounts to step inside of.

Perhaps it’s the contrarian in me but all this prototypical thinking; owners bad, players good makes me root for the owners. In truth I don’t blame nor do I cheer either side. The end result of no NFL is no good but at this point it is what it is. There was an agreement and in that agreement there was the ability to opt-out at a certain time. The party who could opt-out decided to do just that and now they have to re-negotiate the agreement. Both sides understand that there is a likelihood that prolonged negotiations could pre-empt sales of their product which could lead to angry customers doing considerable damage to the brand that is responsible for both side’s lucrative being. It seems reasonable to assume that in the end cooler heads will prevail and agreement will be reached. And if not, then they will face the consequences of their actions. But why think intelligently about it, when the sides can be split into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ based on fictional caricatures?

The Stale Situation

While the entire world as presented by the news media seems to be singularly obsessed with the incoherent ramblings of an actor, the consequences of his actions may lead to the dissolution of a genre of television that can be referred to as the all-too-literal situation comedy. There was once upon a time that I would have been disappointed to learn of the demise of the comedy, Two and a Half Men, but for more than a while it has served as nothing more than background noise in the absence of anything better on in the vetes household. But now The Cape airs opposite and something better is indeed on.

When it first aired it was funny, interesting and different. And many years later after changing nothing, it is the complete opposite; unamusing, boring and derivative. What went wrong was that the show outlived its usefulness after a few years, addicted to high ratings which seemed to have made the creators resistant to any meaningful change. It’s impossible to blame the creators for their adherence to a strict formula as the show continues to garner top scripted comedy ratings year after year.

Sitcom is a compound made up word short for situation comedy, which is typically referred to as a group of recurring characters in a common environment who find themselves in farcical situations. Hilarity ensues. Rinse, lather, syndication. The failure of Two and a Half Men is in that it is an all-too-literal sitcom meaning that the entire show is predicated on a very specific situation that for the purposes of the title can bear no variance whatsoever, therefore the characters can never change and nothing different can occur. This can work in a cartoon, like the Simpsons, but not for long in a live action show.

CBS, the network which airs Two and a Half Men is a master of this genre, their half-hour comedy offerings are littered with examples. How I met your Mother, a decent show is so stale and riddled with false starts related to the show’s premise that if Henry Winkler guest starred for some shark jumping off the Hudson River, no one would be surprised. It might have already occurred. Mike and Molly and Mad Love, two shows about the romance of a specific couple are basically interchangeable minus the settings and specific characters and can never veer from that romance. Rules of Engagement stars a perpetually engaged couple whom are always talking about a wedding that never comes. All rubbish.

The only comedy on CBS that is currently watchable is The Big Bang Theory which follows a group of Physicists, an Engineer and one Physicist’s actress object of affection as they mostly do nothing. It will grow stale as well, but after a longer time and for normal reasons, the characters will get old. Being a physicist is a career and not a situation. And it’s plausible that a socially awkward group of friends would likely be long-term roommates. And that hilarity will often ensue. Friends and Seinfeld proved in the 90’s that shows based on basically nothing have the longest shelf life and one can only hope that the demise of Two and a Half Men will lead to more shows based on generalities rather than the hyper specific.

Random Thoughts - 3/1

Albuquerque Public Schools commissar Brooks is looking to institute random drug testing for extra-curricular students at La Cueva high school, in response to problems with drugs and misbehavior within the school’s athletic programs. Unfortunately this effort is nothing more than a “we must do something” response that avoids actually dealing with the problem. Random drug testing is a stupid response imposed as it is supposedly a “fairer” way to deal with drug problems. All random testing does is harass innocents and only applying it to one school and one section of students within that school ensures that pot-smoking athletes will just quit and blend back in to the general student population. It is not profiling to apply probable cause to test those suspected of using illegal substances and it is not reasonable to only test only some students in one school. If drugs are that much of a problem testing should be widespread. So-called ‘random’ tests are very much akin to frisking elderly women from Topeka at airports as if they were terrorists, pointless. Tepid measures like this is the reason why the so-called war on drugs is so often cited as a failure.

I have been reading the ESPN the magazine fiction issue in recent days and while some of the stories are somewhat entertaining they are mostly incomplete, incoherent or just not very good. The best story in my opinion was about a 40ish recreation league basketball player who decides to stop being a bum. I had o imagine my own ending though because the story just sort of veers off a cliff where an ending could be, isn’t clear and makes no sense. What’s striking is how monolithically liberal any political mentions are. There is a what-if scenario involving former President Bush being chosen as MLB commissioner paving the way for a diplomatic President Gore, a first-person story of Giant’s pitcher Brian Wilson’s beard reminiscing its days changing the world with Castro. How juvenile and ridiculous. It will always be wishful thinking unfortunately to imagine a world with sportswriters that stick to sports.

Donald Trump was interviewed today on the Rush Limbaugh radio program because of his recent speech at CPAC as a perspective Republican nominee for president in 2012. What a train wreck that would be. Trump meandered for about twenty minutes making generic fear mongering arguments without offering any solutions outside of blaming China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, etc for everything and anything without really explaining why. Fortunately he has less than a sliver of a chance in a GOP primary.

Red light cameras have come to Rio Rancho. The first’s at Unser and Northern Blvd and the other at Unser and Southern Blvd. Drivers have 30 days to get their speeding in, remember to wave at the camera boxes, before they start to count and sending tickets. Citations will be made for those driving 11mph or more over the speed lime or running a red light as programmed into the boxes.

Overturning an odd statute, the New Mexico state senate has approved a bill allowing the sale of alcohol before noon in restaurants and bars. Well, sort of overturning. The noon requirement will still be in effect for stores that sell liquor for purposes of off-site consumption. Proponents of the noon requirement state that it aids efforts to crack down on drunk driving, which while happy thinking is nonsense. It would have been better to lift any restrictions based on time as they are essentially worthless. The only way to curtail drunken driving entirely is to completely eliminate alcohol consumption. Which is impossible. A nonsensical law like the noon requirement is only another “we have to do something” response that does nothing to help.

An old excuse

It was ten til seven in the morning and I was at the store to pick up some repair items for a toilet in my house needing its lever and flapper replaced. As I walked past the toy aisle towards hardware a voice came over the PA system from a supervisor. At that time customers were outnumbered by preparation employees and the supervisor was making an announcement in regard to the time and a goal that was to be met by seven. In the distance the announcement was met by an employee stating “shut up already”.

I rolled my eyes at the disgruntled employee and it reminded me of a similar event the day before. We took our nineteen month old son to a restaurant with activities for children to meet a friend and their son who is about the same age whom because of where they live, doesn’t get to that kind of place too often. We thought arriving in the late afternoon, well past lunch and a bit before dinner, would spare us from the typical crowding. We were wrong; apparently there is no good time to visit that place on a Sunday. Every unoccupied or unreserved table, and there were few, was absolutely disgusting and in desperate need of cleaning. My wife went to find some help and we camped out at a table large enough to seat our party. Ten minutes later the one employee charged with cleaning at this place packed with several hundred people stopped by. He quickly wiped over the table with dirty water. After a decidedly subpar effort this employee informed us that that was all he was going to do and mumbled some excuses inaudibly under his breath.

After they left I remarked to our group, “Well, obviously his level of give-a-crapness is lacking.” To which one of our group exclaimed, “What do you expect, he probably makes minimum wage.” I rolled my eyes again, gathered my thoughts momentarily and replied, “With that attitude, why should anyone ever pay him a cent more?” My heckler was forced to concede my point.

Today we all too often use compensation or lack thereof as excuse for an utter lack of effort. It is an old and completely irrelevant excuse. Chris Rock was right when he said that when someone pays you minimum wage that they would pay you less but they can’t because it’s against the law. But that doesn’t excuse doing a job poorly.

In this country jobs are applied for and chosen, not assigned. Certain jobs can be done by more people and the more applicants available the less that an employer can offer them in terms of compensation. Either at the department store or the restaurant, if the disgruntled employee did not agree to work for a given wage they could have refused to apply and looked for something else. It’s reasonable to assume that their respective skill sets are commiserate with their current positions, which means at this time that’s the level of compensation which they can expect.

Of course, how they perform at that level of compensation and the skills, both job and employment related, that they acquire there are meant to serve them later. The whole point of a market economy and what is known as the American dream is to strive to and work to success. It takes time to learn and then master the types of skills that employers are willing to pay more for. Complaining over menial tasks and blaming a lack of performance on low compensation will only lead to one never learning enough to do anything else.

A new Senator

For third time in my 32 years, New Mexico will have a new senator with Jeff Bingaman retiring as his term expires at the end of 2012. Bingaman happened to be the first new Senator New Mexico has had during my lifetime and when his term expires, will have served in the US Senate for 30 years. The announcement came last week, just before Bingaman’s kabuki theatre grilling this week of the New Mexico Gas Company following delivery problems stemming from recent freezing temperatures not seen in New Mexico in more than two decades. What was most striking of the announcement was the initial response of shock expressed by local and national news agencies. It could be surprising to learn that an entrenched senator would budge from such a lofty perch but one should not be shocked that someone approaching their 68th birthday would elect to retire. Anyway, the only sentiment that I can attribute to Senator Bingaman is that he helped to solidify my positions that direct elections of senators was a mistake and the lack of term limits for any elected office is an atrocity.

To Bingaman’s eventual replacement the state democrat party sanctioned a survey with a ton of candidates resulting in a lot of support for US Representative Martin Heinrich, who has proven to be worthy as Bingaman’s intellectual and political heir, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. Heinrich is ambitious and regarded as a good fund raiser, but these are not positive attributes when discussing political creatures. Heinrich’s positions, statements, votes and responses prove that he is a liberal, progressive, whatever-they-use-next, democrat politician who represents the interests of those whom he agrees with or is beholden to for financial support.

In New Mexico politics, name recognition is an immense factor and if the democrats don’t nominate from the recent retread trio of Martin Chavez, Bill Richardson (laugh) or Diane Denish it seems a good chance that Heinrich could win the nomination as the congressman from the State’s single largest urban area. This could be a good thing if he proves to be unelectable to statewide office or a bad thing if he proves to be electable. Electing Heinrich would be a mistake and ensure more of the same patronage spending tied to the perpetual money machine made up of public sector unions, the state’s large federal presence and the democrat party, ensuring a senator that represents the narrow interests of Nob Hill.

Truth is, any democrat selected to run for senator would be the same, leaving it to the Republican’s to nominate a responsible legislator, able to represent New Mexico’s interests in the US Senate instead of lobbying for handouts that benefit their paymasters. Former representative Heather Wilson would be an excellent senator as an intelligent and accomplished person who had a great record as a house member and was heralded by her constituents when they contacted her whether or not they agreed with her positions. Unfortunately for Wilson, she was almost constantly attacked by political hacks for personal reasons and after five terms in the house there may be a fatigue factor.

While Wilson holds the edge over other candidates in regard to experience our recent gubernatorial race has provided a candidate who has useful experience and has the stage presence that could lead to election. I stated on this very blog that Doug Turner should have run for US House against Heinrich last year instead of running for Governor and an open senate seat provides an opportunity for another chance at public office. Turner works in the private sector. He was a part of Governor Gary Johnson’s campaigns and administrations. He is a clear conservative and excellent speaker. Jon Barela, who ran unsuccessfully against Heinrich last fall, is also mentioned and proved to be a worthy candidate, but he just did not do well enough to expect that he could succeed in a statewide race.

If anything is going to change, both in our state and in our country then we need responsible lawmakers. Governor Martinez has started moving things in the right direction for New Mexico; Mayor Berry has done the same for Albuquerque. Former Senator Domenici was a nice enough person but in the last 18 years of his 36 year reign in the US Senate became a creature of Washington politics, ‘doing’ things for New Mexico is not bringing home the pork, it was past time for him to retire in 2009 and likewise it’s past time for Jeff Bingaman to retire. The democrats will treat the seat as their birthright and the only way to win will be to nominate a conservative with thick skin and an ability to effectively convey ideas, that person should be Doug Turner, if he desires to run that is.

Random Thoughts – 2/17

Albuquerque’s fire chief has banned a sticker that has been appearing on the helmets of firefighter helmets as of late. The sticker reads “FMB” and it has been peddled by union president Diego Arencon to stand for “forever my brother”. For those who pay attention and don’t swallow when fed bull, the sticker is most certainly a nod to Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, think F Mayor Berry, whom the union is currently suing over a contract dispute. I wonder if the president of the union would believe it if I addressed him as M. Arencon, and that the M. was simply an innocuous substitute for Mr. Doing so would be incredibly disrespectful and so is the childish action taken by the firefighters and the dishonesty exhibited by their union leader. They have shamed themselves and it should make any citizen nervous in the event they require their services. The chief should be commended for being an adult.

There has been much discussion lately in regard to the sham of a budget that was submitted by the president for FY2012. Many recognize the so-called cuts as gimmicks, continued deficits alarming and the complete avoidance of entitlement reform as negligence. At first it was the cynical and conservative who diagnosed the budget as a work of politics, with the president effectively daring the Republican house majority to submit a more realistic document leading to a legislative standoff that could lead to a government shutdown that the president could blame on Republicans and use as a 2012 campaign platform plank. More recently Democrat commentators have advanced the same diagnosis, but instead of being repulsed laud the action of the president as a brilliant political maneuver. This is all based on the presumed benefit to Bill Clinton when a similar showdown resulted in a shutdown in the mid-nineties. It would benefit us all if this false and massaged history doesn’t repeat itself.

School teachers in Wisconsin have taken to calling in absent, during the school year, in order to protest the Governor of Wisconsin making necessary changes to an unsustainable system that has led to current and projected budget deficits that will eventually cripple that state. It is unsettling that many school teachers have, at the direction of unions, have taken leave of their work in order to protest something that will have to be done sometime. Enough teachers have followed this path that the schools there have had to cancel school, forcing parents to scramble and leaving those teachers who did not neglect their duty to miss work. All of this over the Wisconsin governor’s plan attempting to remove the ability to collective bargain from the teachers unions. A plan that would eliminate the ability of teachers unions to hold the public they are to serve hostage and ensure that more teachers are paid in line with their abilities and achievements instead of by how long they have existed and because of what a union decided was best for them.

I have heard a lot of radio advertisements for a security company offering the arrival of an armed response team in contrast to traditional firms who just notify the authorities and can't guarantee the cops arrival. I wonder if even these armed response teams can even arrive in time.

Is email confusing or something?

So, last week I was finishing up some paperwork for something important by asking all kinds of questions of people that were supposed to be able to answer them. I received a response for an important question in a reply that ignored other questions and had no identifying information anywhere, like a signature. I could identify the person from the email address but that was it. The person who had to then take action in response to that reply did by sending another email to the first person, to which there was no reply. A week later I received another email from the original responder stating that my paperwork was missing the response that the action taker had sent to the person seeking it. Again, the sender sent the email with no identifying information whatsoever. I replied by re-sending the response by the action taker and asked if there was anything else and requested a reply stating whether or not my paperwork was complete. It has been several days and I have received noting.

This kind of occurrence is much more common that I care for. For whatever reason there has always been some type of taboo surrounding email in professional interactions for certain people. I was in high school in the mid-nineties and then college in the late-nineties, graduating in 2001 so email has almost always been a part of my life. When I started to work full-time email was my basic method of communicating with co-workers and contacts when I needed to discuss anything. In professional engagements I prefer email to phone conversations or impromptu meetings because there is a written record and I assume is actually the product of some kind of real, actual thought, more so at least than an off the cuff statement.

For others email seems to be this great barrier to effective communication. I have worked with many people who prefer direct conversations over the phone or in person to email and are even somewhat hostile to the use of email. Do these people imagine that everything they discuss is akin to a state secret and can’t be written down? What’s the problem with having an actual written record of what was said so that the same discussion can be avoided over and over again? Others can’t seem to answer more than one item in an email reply, never get back to other questions and never identify themselves in one. I often wonder if these people can only read forty words or so at a time and can’t bother with more and why it’s such a bother to at least include a name at the end of a message, is it really so difficult to type a dozen or so more letters? Or to use an automatic signature that can be applied to every email after setting it up just once? Those who take a very long time to reply or don’t at all are the worst. Are they so important that my inquiry is inconsequential to their world? Why should I have to re-send emails or manage my messages to include actual deadlines just to receive a timely response or even any response?

Email has been around for a long time and has been common in the workplace in most desk jobs for at least a decade. It can be an incredibly useful tool; unfortunately too many obstinate people refuse its practical use preferring instead to use company resources to spam me with none-too-funny jokes passed from others. I actually was scolded recently, yes scolded, by a coworker who stated that they couldn’t possibly remember everything that had been said in previous meetings, of which notes were taken and sent via email and could be referenced from. So I’m the jerk because I remember and don’t want to have the same discussion multiple times. Give me a break; get with the times you people who can’t or won’t use email effectively. It’s not my fault that you suck.

Random Thoughts – 2/14

There’s a lot of praise of late for President Obama’s latest speech on the situation in Egypt. And some of it was good, someone with dozens of speechwriters on staff should be able to get one out there that will be at least inoffensive. The trouble is that it was a speech making all kinds of grandiose statements about an event that has not yet played out and inserted person who had nothing to do with those events (Obama) into the middle of it. The president seemed to wait things out, making squishy statements as the tides changed and in the end came out supporting the protesters. Which ones (remember there were pro-Mubarak demonstrators out there) exactly he didn’t say. Mubarak wasn’t a voice for freedom but when things went down, he didn’t shoot protestors like in Iran or run over them with a tank like in China. My point is that there are worse out there. When did the president ever support the most recent uprising in Iran after that “election”? When has he said anything about the similar events now taking place in Tunisia? There is something unsettling about the administration’s fence sitting and opportunistic statements. Good luck to the people of Egypt and may their road to self-governance actually exist.

President Obama’s budget proposal for FY2012 features a whopping 2% in cuts from the post stimulus baseline of 2008. Meaning that after saying that it was a onetime thing, the White House is attempting to include the failed, so-called stimulus (because it didn’t stimulate anything of lasting value) in future budgets. And much of what is being advertised as savings is coming in future years from raising taxes in multiple ways. This will fail for many different reasons. There is less revenue this year than previous years but is mostly due to the high levels of unemployment under this regime. Paying extended unemployment benefits and not collecting taxes from those being paid does not increase revenue. Attacking higher earners is only a distraction peddled by the administration and is no excuse for spending more than we have on too many things that we don’t want or need.

Vice President Joe Biden was known as a booster of Amtrak when he was a Senator from Delaware because he often spoke of his commuting by train. And now, because of the Vice President’s personal preference we are being forced to spend billions of dollars on nonsense high speed rail projects all over the country. Delaware and Washington DC are so close that travel by rail might make sense for those who don’t like to drive the sparse and low speed limited roads of Delaware. For everyone else, traveling by train is miserable. And even where it is more prevalent, it’s expensive. The Amtrak route from New York City to Washington DC costs more and takes longer than taking an airplane. New Mexico has had to learn the hard way that rail travel is just not that great. Who cares if France’s and Japan’s passenger rail systems work better than ours? That just means that it works for those countries. Our rail system works best at freight transport, which will be hurt by increased passenger train enthusiasm because they have track priority and will lead to delays and lower capacity of shipments.

Ron Paul won the presidential straw poll for 2012 at CPAC. Congressman Paul is a good legislator but would not make a good executive. While there is much to admire in Paul’s positions many should also be questioned. Putting him out there only makes CPAC seem to be out of touch.

Valentine’s Day

As my poor wife would attest, I am bad at Valentine’s Day. And as anyone who knows such things, disappointing someone who is into Valentine’s Day is not conducive to a peaceful existence. I try and will continue to try but in the end the unfortunate bottom line will be that I’m not good at it because I just don’t care to. I’m not sure what it is and where my ambivalence comes from. And that’s because I don’t care to really think about.

I’ve never really been into the day and it’s not as though there is some kind of traumatic event in my past that drives it. I remember once when I tried to do something that could be considered a romantic gesture for someone that I had an interest with and that failed. But I didn’t care so much that it failed than the fact that a so-called friend effectively stabbed me in the back.

What I often wonder is what exactly is the point of the day and to me I’m just never sure. Certainly the commercial side is more than evident but it just never really gave me much motivation to care. Of course the only real motivation for someone that doesn’t really care is to deal with it in a way that doesn’t contribute to their own misery.

So for today, bleh. And to those that find themselves to be miserable due to this day for whatever reason, don’t take it too seriously. In the end it’s just a day and there’s much more to be said when something you want occurs when it’s best for you and not just because it’s supposed to be on that day because someone no one remembers said so.

Shortness of Days

Back when he used to be funny Chris Rock made a joke where he mentioned that the old assertion that life was long was indeed false. His retort, life is long. It is. As a whole, it is the days that are short. A couple of days last week really reminded me of this.

I just happened to not accomplish much. Thinking about it, the truth is that I did not happen to goof off all day or anything, it just seems that there was much left for me to do that I couldn’t get done and the sum total of things that I had indeed accomplished just didn’t seem to amount to anything. Come to think of it, I’m often familiar with this kind of situation.

Sometimes there are tasks that just take longer than you could ever imagine. Everything seems to be alright when you start but once you start to make progress the time just flies and it’s easy to wonder whether or not I’m incompetent or something. It’s markedly similar to playing a video game that takes up a whole lot of time and you’re left wondering where the time went just after realizing that you don’t remember what exactly happened.

In a sense it was confusing and it seems to be one of those things that are to be expected as my career continues to shift more and more away from the work of doing real, actual things. When I first started working full time there were tangible things to be done in a day and as things were done or not, there was a real sense of accomplishment.

It’s not necessarily that I no longer have a sense of accomplishment, just that often the days seem short and when there is a lot of waiting and tons of paperwork that needs review or small edits. It’s a change for sure.

And for what it’s worth, I still think Chris Rock is kinda funny. Just not like he used to be. And that joke works with a lot of comedians that are no longer funny. Lewis Black, George Lopez, Dane Cook, etc.

The “Wealth” Trope

Today listening to the Rush Limbaugh program a caller offered their explanation for the situation in Egypt. The caller’s diagnosis was due entirely to the now widely reported average daily income of a typical Egyptian in dollars. The solution to the problem, as stated by the caller, was the transfer of “the wealth” to the people who needed it. The caller described herself as being at the bottom and took the occasion to veer into a criticism of the President, stating that he does not visit “the hood” and does not “do enough” to transfer “the wealth” in our country where all of its problems, like Egypt
s, could be solved by the transfer of.

I remembered President Obama’s somewhat infamous campaign statement in regard to the transfer of “the wealth” and found it amusing that the caller did not think the President was doing enough even though through his words seems to be on the same page. A page that I cannot even comprehend because of the utter lack of understanding required to believe in this abstract concept of “the wealth” and then to believe that all of the world’s problems are indeed due to this “the wealth” not being spread evenly.

I can sympathize with the caller and anyone who is truly in need. From those who really can’t take care of themselves all the way to those that find themselves in difficult straits due to unfortunate circumstances that are beyond their control. The caller was very passionate, they said as much, and staked their righteousness on that passion. Unfortunately they were completely off-base and quite inappropriate.

Inappropriate in that this caller did not state any qualifications for understanding the needs, wants, desires and dreams of a faraway country. From the news it appears that no one really comprehends the situation in Egypt coherently and with a population of 70 million, it is folly to even pretend that the entirety of their people’s plight can be stated within a single argument. Beyond that, it seems almost certain that the caller has no comprehension of what that loose dollar translation means in Egypt and exactly what kind of life that amount can afford there or even if every person’s needs in that country can be characterized within any currency.

The caller is off-base because they apparently do not recognize the multitude in ways that “the wealth” continues to be transferred within this country. There exists thousands of government programs as the federal and state level that function exactly as the caller desires, many of which concentrate on the hood. Further, the caller’s misunderstanding of wealth and assumption that the government, in this country, creates and manages it demonstrates ignorance.

Much is written about the failure of the war on drugs and its many failures but never is anything mentioned in regard to the much worse failure of the war on poverty. Many scholars have written about the ill effect on communities that many of these wealth transfer programs have. The failure of our education system leading to the idea that passion serves as a substitute for real, actual knowledge is more of a problem than the imaginary hoarders of “the wealth”.

More Governor Martinez annoying the right people

Unfortunately the link that is in this post is part of the problem, at least as it pertains to my opinion. And it starts with an unfortunate logo on a News page.
Look at that logo. And think about the story that is being commented on and how it relates to that logo and to the section of a supposedly reputable news organization that felt that this story belonged in this section adorned with that logo.

The crux of the story is as follows:

Immigrant rights groups are planning to rally at the Capitol in protest of the Republican governor's immigration policies.

What these self-fashioned immigrant rights groups are protesting specifically is an executive order signed by Governor Martinez that requires state law enforcement to check the immigration status of arrested criminal suspects. This order is similar in nature to one signed in 2010 by Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry, doing the same thing in the city.

These suspects have already presumptively broken some law and what is not at all mentioned in this article or in any literature proffered by immigration rights groups is that being in this country illegally is also against the law and that many residents of New Mexico’s prison system are in our country illegally.

What these immigrant rights groups really advocate are two things, illegal immigration, which they don’t accept as illegal because second, they also disregard legal borders. Because of the fact that almost all of the illegal immigration in this part of the country comes from one place and is made up of a certain designated ethnic group these rights groups obfuscate the real issue in order to make it based completely on emotion. This reliance on emotion is dangerous because it separates us as a country while doing a disservice by hiding the actual issue.

Which gets me back to the logo. As a member of the ethnic group which makes up most of the illegal immigration in this part of the country, though an American, it is disheartening to witness the continued separation that is advocated by these so-called immigrant rights groups. What is being discussed is an illegal activity in this country and Governor Martinez, like Mayor Berry first, has bent over backwards in order to maintain equal protection in taking baby steps towards solving a very real problem that must be confronted sooner rather than later. That logo on the Fox News “Latino” page is just another reminder that our country is rapidly dividing into disparate groups rather than uniting as the United States of America.

Our New Mexican ancestors left a rich history of adapting to the culture of colonial times, combining their own experiences of the past and learning from those they came into contact with. Our ancestors have done this many times and would teach us how to live together if we would only listen. Instead we bicker over nonsense while our real culture, our country and our way of life is steadily destroyed.

Rental Car Review – Nissan Altima Coupe

A few weeks ago I was sent to sunny San Diego for a business trip and as a result rented a car. My intermediate car furnished by the Avis counter was a late model Nissan Altima Coupe with a bit under ten thousand miles on the odometer. It was a 2.5 S model in ocean gray metallic paint. The car was typical of midsized rental cars with an automatic transmission, power everything and cloth seats. The 2.5 S is the lowest end of the model line for the Altima coupe and is front wheel drive, powered by a 2.5 liter DOHC variable valve timed four cylinder engine with 175 horsepower at 5600 rpm and 180 ft-lbs. torque at 3900 rpm which is plenty of power for a car that weighs just over 3100 pounds and is being driven at sea level.

The Altima Coupe is easy to get into even though it is a coupe though the rear seats look small and I didn’t bother to try to get back there after having a difficult time putting bags there. Even though the car is relatively small it rides larger and just feels like a big car from the front seat. It is equipped with 17 inch wheels but that doesn’t make much of a difference in the ride character of the coupe which drives similar to a typical family oriented sedan when a sporty ride is expected. The mirrors are acceptable and they need to be as rearward visibility is nearly non-existent without the ability to turn one’s head all the way around.

Engine drone from the four cylinder is noticeable when accelerating to freeway speed but is not too much of a bother when cruise control is on at about 70 mph. The Altima Coupe accelerates well in traffic with its peppy feeling CVT automatic transmission; I didn’t bother with the manumatic feature that allows for simulated manual shifting via a secondary gate below D which forces the transmission to hold a gear ratio.

Entertainment is provided by a six speaker stereo with 24 station settings and an in dash CD player plus an in-dash MP3 player auxiliary input. The stereo face is orange on black and easy to see with glare. It is easy to operate with auxiliary controls for preset selection and volume on the steering wheel. Dynamics are limited to treble and bass and audio quality is acceptable though no one will praise the quality of the sound.

As a Nissan owner it is easy to compare other models to my own and this car is similar in layout to the front cockpit of my Infinity G37 with a lower quality of materials. Striking about the Altima Coupe in comparison is that it seems larger inside and rides like a larger car than the G37. Because it is a coupe and looks sporty, it’s easy to be taken aback by how similar it is to any other 4 door sedan in presentation from the driver’s seat.

Overall, the Altima Coupe is a full featured, nice, decent, sporty looking car with good gas mileage (EPA 23/32) and an affordable price (starts at $23,460) that serves as a good alternative for a typical sedan buyer who doesn’t need the extra room, prizes a nice looking two door and doesn’t like adult passengers much.

An Unsolicited Observation...

Vindication was on the menu his morning. If I cared, that is. Allow me to explain. A couple of years ago when I was shopping for a new car the manager of my office at that time advised me to get the all wheel drive option. And this wasn’t some kind of passing mention either. This guy was adamant and even belligerent about it. When I first received the unsolicited advice I thanked the person for it and tried to move the conversation on from there. Of course, this guy wasn’t done. He went on and on about how he knew everything about driving in weather because he was from the northeast part of the country or some such place. I basically discarded the advice because while I’m not from the northeast, I am from this part of New Mexico, and since I still live here figured my experience was more relevant. And that experience is that we just don’t get a lot of bad weather here. If it’s bad enough I’d rather just stay in.

Anyway, I bought the car, with rear wheel drive, in early fall 2009 and in a year and a half of ownership it hasn’t really met inclement weather. Until today, of course. The city of Albuquerque woke up this morning to roads of ice and sleet with precipitation and fog limiting visibility. While I could have stayed home and it was tempting to do so, I decided to head in to the office. Taking it slow I made it into work without much issue at about 6:30 in the morning. My traction control came on more than a few times and ensured that my car remained in the direction I intended. That’s why I feel vindicated.

Could the all wheel drive option have made my drive in easier? Probably. And would I enjoy the speedier 0-60 time that AWD has? Likely. But, would I even notice that slightly faster acceleration and would I like a heavier car that gets slightly worse gas mileage. No, I would not.

The entire reason I mentioned all of this was to bring up an observation. And that is it seems every single gentleman of at least middle age and older who moved to Albuquerque from the northeastern part of the country believes that they know everything about everything and like to share it with everyone. Seriously, I was driving with an older gentleman from Chicago recently and they were an even worse back-seat driver than me. Every turn he would tell me to turn AS I WAS TURNING. Every time I would accelerate I WAS GOING TOO FAST. He explained to me MY CULTURE and why things are the way they are, NO MATTER IF IT IS THE OPPOSITE OF ALL OF KNOWN NM HISTORY and AS IF I KNOW NOTHING.

But I digress. If you don’t believe me, hang out with an older dude from the northeastern part of the country sometime. You’ll be cringing in no time. I guarantee it, double your money back.