Just when OS suspects he might be able to assemble a few memorable words in sequence, along comes the urbane Jesse, dashing his hopes yet again.
Jesse introduces a wonderful essay in his own wonderful way.
Read this bit first.
Then read the whole essay he references.
Wonderful stuff, in the Hunter Thompson tradition.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Whoops!: Katie Couric As Katie Couric (So Much For Feminist Sisterhood, Ya'll)
Somebody at CBS, beginning with Ms. Couric, gots a whole-lotta-'splainin'-to-do, Lucy.
At the same time, OS is most grateful no cameras were running at the worst moments of his last ten years or so.
Play nice out there, ya'll. It's better for everybody.
A Conversation With Steve Fincher: TN District 8 GOP Congressional Primary Candidate
OS enjoyed lunch today at the diner in his small town. He especially enjoyed the company of Mrs. OS across the table, ever amazed that she still tolerates him after all these years. It must be love. No other explanation fits.
Along strolls an enthusiastic gent, handing out a candidate flyer for Steve Fincher, candidate for Congress. OS barely looked up from his plate, until he noticed that the enthusiastic gent was Mr. Fincher himself, who graciously sat down and allowed himself to be questioned.
He's thirty-seven, with three kids, a farmer, gospel music singer and Methodist from a small town in the center of the district. He's been well-coached, perhaps over-coached, and Heaven knows the man must be weary of talking to strangers who interrogate him.
We tried to convey a couple of ideas to him, and it's not certain we were successful.
1. The 1994 GOP Freshman Class of House members absolutely blew it. They simply muscled the Dems away from the trough and began their own feeding frenzy. Our disdain for George Bush the Younger was unmistakable. We were hostile in tone when speaking of this. He agreed, and agreed, and agreed, but we're not sure he understood the import of what he was hearing. OS asked him point blank if he was willing to look that horse's-patooty John Boehner in the eye and say 'NO'. He said he would.
2. Mrs. OS posed a more crucial question (she's a lot wiser than her husband). When push comes to shove, and you have to prioritize between your social conservatism and your fiscal conservatism, which way will you go? What's the more crucial question in your mind? He began to talk about his core conservative values, 100% pro-life, etc. Again, he's really been coached. She was attempting to find out if this nice man has been so captured by the Religious Right that he doesn't see the Bigger Moral Question, that the government is in danger of collapsing the culture itself, making other arguments moot. The Religious Right types are a biiiiig part of the problem, with real tin-foil-hat wing-nuts scattered liberally throughout their ranks. They tolerate no differences of opinion, and take no prisoners. He did say that he was running because he thinks the country is about to burn down, and that he is concerned about his children's futures. He is sincere and earnest, but we were looking for a more measured quality of mind. Perhaps in time, he'll develop that.
3. We asked him his age (37), and where he plans to be at age 50. He plans to be home by that time, no more than six terms, if memory serves correctly.
This primary is a very close call, and OS will likely vote for this gent. John Tanner is thankfully departing, a member of the YellowDog Democrat crowd that has treated this part of the world like a plantation. Mr. Fincher has some real appeal, because with young children and a family business to run, he still has some true existential and emotional skin in the game. He also would have enough energy to juggle all those conflicting responsibilities. His opponents create much, much more serious misgivings in OS's mind. But it will not be an enthusiastic vote.
OS hopes someday to talk with him again, post-primary. Fincher didn't adequately answer the culture-forms-economy questions, and perhaps OS needs to phrase them more clearly.
Roy Herron, his likely Democrat opponent, is someone OS has known in the past. He is a thoughtful man of real character, but sadly has hitched his wagon to the wrong team of horses, like AlGore, Clinton, Obama, and company. OS would be very aggrieved to witness ad hominem attacks upon the man, because it would be more indicative of the GOP candidate's character than Mr. Herron's. OS can't vote for Roy, but doesn't think he ever deserves to be trashed. It is likely that the typical RNC down-and-dirty approach would doom the GOP candidate.
Ya'll play nice out there.
By the way, OS's comment board is still open for the OS Candidate Challenge, TN 8 GOP Primary:
50 words or less from each candidate, explaining positively why he would serve the district best, and no circular firing squads allowed. No attacks, no name-calling, no nothing like that. If you do, your post will stay up, be memorialized, and OS will personally throw verbal rotten eggs at the candidate.
Along strolls an enthusiastic gent, handing out a candidate flyer for Steve Fincher, candidate for Congress. OS barely looked up from his plate, until he noticed that the enthusiastic gent was Mr. Fincher himself, who graciously sat down and allowed himself to be questioned.
He's thirty-seven, with three kids, a farmer, gospel music singer and Methodist from a small town in the center of the district. He's been well-coached, perhaps over-coached, and Heaven knows the man must be weary of talking to strangers who interrogate him.
We tried to convey a couple of ideas to him, and it's not certain we were successful.
1. The 1994 GOP Freshman Class of House members absolutely blew it. They simply muscled the Dems away from the trough and began their own feeding frenzy. Our disdain for George Bush the Younger was unmistakable. We were hostile in tone when speaking of this. He agreed, and agreed, and agreed, but we're not sure he understood the import of what he was hearing. OS asked him point blank if he was willing to look that horse's-patooty John Boehner in the eye and say 'NO'. He said he would.
2. Mrs. OS posed a more crucial question (she's a lot wiser than her husband). When push comes to shove, and you have to prioritize between your social conservatism and your fiscal conservatism, which way will you go? What's the more crucial question in your mind? He began to talk about his core conservative values, 100% pro-life, etc. Again, he's really been coached. She was attempting to find out if this nice man has been so captured by the Religious Right that he doesn't see the Bigger Moral Question, that the government is in danger of collapsing the culture itself, making other arguments moot. The Religious Right types are a biiiiig part of the problem, with real tin-foil-hat wing-nuts scattered liberally throughout their ranks. They tolerate no differences of opinion, and take no prisoners. He did say that he was running because he thinks the country is about to burn down, and that he is concerned about his children's futures. He is sincere and earnest, but we were looking for a more measured quality of mind. Perhaps in time, he'll develop that.
3. We asked him his age (37), and where he plans to be at age 50. He plans to be home by that time, no more than six terms, if memory serves correctly.
This primary is a very close call, and OS will likely vote for this gent. John Tanner is thankfully departing, a member of the YellowDog Democrat crowd that has treated this part of the world like a plantation. Mr. Fincher has some real appeal, because with young children and a family business to run, he still has some true existential and emotional skin in the game. He also would have enough energy to juggle all those conflicting responsibilities. His opponents create much, much more serious misgivings in OS's mind. But it will not be an enthusiastic vote.
OS hopes someday to talk with him again, post-primary. Fincher didn't adequately answer the culture-forms-economy questions, and perhaps OS needs to phrase them more clearly.
Roy Herron, his likely Democrat opponent, is someone OS has known in the past. He is a thoughtful man of real character, but sadly has hitched his wagon to the wrong team of horses, like AlGore, Clinton, Obama, and company. OS would be very aggrieved to witness ad hominem attacks upon the man, because it would be more indicative of the GOP candidate's character than Mr. Herron's. OS can't vote for Roy, but doesn't think he ever deserves to be trashed. It is likely that the typical RNC down-and-dirty approach would doom the GOP candidate.
Ya'll play nice out there.
By the way, OS's comment board is still open for the OS Candidate Challenge, TN 8 GOP Primary:
50 words or less from each candidate, explaining positively why he would serve the district best, and no circular firing squads allowed. No attacks, no name-calling, no nothing like that. If you do, your post will stay up, be memorialized, and OS will personally throw verbal rotten eggs at the candidate.
OS Is A Fan Of Michael Schrage: Two Recent Essays To Consider
So much economic writing makes the readers' eyes glaze over, as so many writers labor to appear even-handed and fair. Rather like the hamsters on the Kia ad: 'You could give this, or you could give her that!.' Ennui soon sets in.
Michael Schrage, in his musings on the Harvard Biz Review site, does not fall for that stuff. He actually has a point of view, and seeks to make sense, instead of impressing the reader with his erudition and ability to fabricate charts. OS, simple mind that he is, appreciates that approach.
So, two recent posts to share, and hopefully this will encourage the vast and swelling hordes of OS's loyal posse to read more Michael Schrage.
First: Higher Education Is Overrated; Skills Aren't
Thanks, Mr. Schrage, for stating the obvious, pithily.
We have a huge branding issue. Pundits and policy-makers jabber about the need to educate people to compete in knowledge-intensive industries. But knowledge doesn't represent even half the intensity of this industrial challenge. What really matters are skills. The grievously undervalued human capital issue here isn't quality education in school but quality of skills in markets. Establishing correlations, let alone causality, between them is hard. (Michael Polanyi's classic "Personal Knowledge" brilliantly articulates this.) A computer science PhD doesn't make one a good programmer. There is a world of difference between getting an "A" in robotics class and winning a "bot" competition. MIT's motto isn't Mens et Manus (Latin for Mind and Hand) by accident. Great knowledge is not the same as great skill. Worse yet, decent knowledge doesn't guarantee even decent skills. Unfortunately, educrats and eduzealots behave as if college English degrees mean their recipients can write and that philosophy degrees mean their holders can rigorously think. That's not true.
Second: The Hireless Recovery
Pick any recovery-shaped letter you like. Economic policymakers would still be wondering: Where did the jobs go?
Alas, that's exactly the wrong question. The better question: Where did the employers go?
America doesn't have a jobless recovery; it has a hireless recovery. Don't confuse them. After all, you first have to get hired to have a job. Organizations may be desperate to grow, but they overwhelmingly lack the desire to hire. Fewer people are working longer, harder and (presumably) smarter hours. So many firms have proven so productive even after several rounds of layoffs, that serious economists wonder if, in fact, large slices of the workforce actually offer ZMP — Zero Marginal Productivity — to their enterprise. In other words, the Great Recession reveals many employees not just to be worth less but economically worthless. Ouch.
[he continues....]
For most organizations, people are a means and medium to an end. They're not hiring employees, they're hiring value creation. If they can get that value — or most of it — from contingency workers, outsourcing, automation, innovative processes or capital investment, why wouldn't they? If tweaking a process or program empowers three people to do the work of five, then tweakonomics is the way to go. The profound difference between today and 2005 is that good hires looked like better investments than great tweaks back then. In 2010, good tweaks look like better bets than even great hires.
He tells us stuff we don't gladly hear. But, it's stuff we need to hear.
HT Mr. Schrage.
Michael Schrage, in his musings on the Harvard Biz Review site, does not fall for that stuff. He actually has a point of view, and seeks to make sense, instead of impressing the reader with his erudition and ability to fabricate charts. OS, simple mind that he is, appreciates that approach.
So, two recent posts to share, and hopefully this will encourage the vast and swelling hordes of OS's loyal posse to read more Michael Schrage.
First: Higher Education Is Overrated; Skills Aren't
Thanks, Mr. Schrage, for stating the obvious, pithily.
We have a huge branding issue. Pundits and policy-makers jabber about the need to educate people to compete in knowledge-intensive industries. But knowledge doesn't represent even half the intensity of this industrial challenge. What really matters are skills. The grievously undervalued human capital issue here isn't quality education in school but quality of skills in markets. Establishing correlations, let alone causality, between them is hard. (Michael Polanyi's classic "Personal Knowledge" brilliantly articulates this.) A computer science PhD doesn't make one a good programmer. There is a world of difference between getting an "A" in robotics class and winning a "bot" competition. MIT's motto isn't Mens et Manus (Latin for Mind and Hand) by accident. Great knowledge is not the same as great skill. Worse yet, decent knowledge doesn't guarantee even decent skills. Unfortunately, educrats and eduzealots behave as if college English degrees mean their recipients can write and that philosophy degrees mean their holders can rigorously think. That's not true.
Second: The Hireless Recovery
Pick any recovery-shaped letter you like. Economic policymakers would still be wondering: Where did the jobs go?
Alas, that's exactly the wrong question. The better question: Where did the employers go?
America doesn't have a jobless recovery; it has a hireless recovery. Don't confuse them. After all, you first have to get hired to have a job. Organizations may be desperate to grow, but they overwhelmingly lack the desire to hire. Fewer people are working longer, harder and (presumably) smarter hours. So many firms have proven so productive even after several rounds of layoffs, that serious economists wonder if, in fact, large slices of the workforce actually offer ZMP — Zero Marginal Productivity — to their enterprise. In other words, the Great Recession reveals many employees not just to be worth less but economically worthless. Ouch.
[he continues....]
For most organizations, people are a means and medium to an end. They're not hiring employees, they're hiring value creation. If they can get that value — or most of it — from contingency workers, outsourcing, automation, innovative processes or capital investment, why wouldn't they? If tweaking a process or program empowers three people to do the work of five, then tweakonomics is the way to go. The profound difference between today and 2005 is that good hires looked like better investments than great tweaks back then. In 2010, good tweaks look like better bets than even great hires.
He tells us stuff we don't gladly hear. But, it's stuff we need to hear.
HT Mr. Schrage.
Static Kill Achieved: Louisiana Oil Spill
The Wall Street Journal reports that BP may have achieved a static kill of the well.
By GUY CHAZAN
LONDON—BP PLC said it has scored a "significant milestone" in its efforts to plug its blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well as a procedure to subdue it with heavy drilling mud appeared to be working.
BP may now move to seal the well for good by cementing it shut, if it gets the go-ahead from government scientists and officials. But the company has stressed that the only permanent solution is a relief well, which will be completed by the middle of this month.
BP said that over the course of eight hours on Tuesday, its engineers pumped hundreds of barrels of heavy drilling mud into the runaway well from vessels on the surface, pushing the oil back into the reservoir.
And, interestingly, this bit ends the announcement:
BP last week posted a loss of $17.15 billion for the second quarter, stemming from a pretax charge of $32.2 billion to cover future and current costs from containment, cleanup, compensation and fines relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
In other words, BP has already taken its hit on its books, out front, unlike the creative accountants at firms like GM, Chrysler, most US banks, and the US Federal Government. Thirty-two large. And they're selling stuff off to raise money to pay for the mess they admit they created.
Unlike the creative types listed above--especially the last one on the list.
Blessedly, the damage, although bad, could have been much worse.
And, it is noted, there have been other bad oil spills, and the world did not come to an end.
OS has a prediction to make:
There is a competition underway to decide which party is competent to address this sort of disaster, repair the damage, and survive long into the future. Who will emerge from this piece of history with their credibility intact?
OS thinks BP, with all its many failings, will be around and thriving long after Obama and Company are out of office and public favor.
And justly so.
Update:
BP's press release regarding the static kill, dated 4 August.
BP's technical update, delivered by Ken Wells on 3 August.
By GUY CHAZAN
LONDON—BP PLC said it has scored a "significant milestone" in its efforts to plug its blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well as a procedure to subdue it with heavy drilling mud appeared to be working.
BP may now move to seal the well for good by cementing it shut, if it gets the go-ahead from government scientists and officials. But the company has stressed that the only permanent solution is a relief well, which will be completed by the middle of this month.
BP said that over the course of eight hours on Tuesday, its engineers pumped hundreds of barrels of heavy drilling mud into the runaway well from vessels on the surface, pushing the oil back into the reservoir.
And, interestingly, this bit ends the announcement:
BP last week posted a loss of $17.15 billion for the second quarter, stemming from a pretax charge of $32.2 billion to cover future and current costs from containment, cleanup, compensation and fines relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
In other words, BP has already taken its hit on its books, out front, unlike the creative accountants at firms like GM, Chrysler, most US banks, and the US Federal Government. Thirty-two large. And they're selling stuff off to raise money to pay for the mess they admit they created.
Unlike the creative types listed above--especially the last one on the list.
Blessedly, the damage, although bad, could have been much worse.
And, it is noted, there have been other bad oil spills, and the world did not come to an end.
OS has a prediction to make:
There is a competition underway to decide which party is competent to address this sort of disaster, repair the damage, and survive long into the future. Who will emerge from this piece of history with their credibility intact?
OS thinks BP, with all its many failings, will be around and thriving long after Obama and Company are out of office and public favor.
And justly so.
Update:
BP's press release regarding the static kill, dated 4 August.
BP's technical update, delivered by Ken Wells on 3 August.
Chicago, Chicago, Obama's Hometown: Murder Rate 2x LA, 3x NYC
Sorta' makes you want to stand up and cheer, knowing we got us a whole passel of Chicago pols installed in the White House, knowhuddImean?
It’s a shame that the public has to be reminded of this from time to time, but any cop can testify to this inescapable fact of police work: Where there is no punishment for criminal behavior, crime will flourish.
Nowhere has this been demonstrated with greater clarity lately than in Chicago, where the Sun-Times has taken notice and sounded the alarm. In a three-part series that concluded Tuesday, reporters Mark Konkol and Frank Main examined the violent incidents that occurred over a single weekend in Chicago two years ago. During that 59-hour period, from April 18 -20, 2008, forty people were shot in the city, seven of them fatally. Stop and consider that for a moment: one city, one weekend, seven people murdered, and 33 others shot but still alive.
As it happens, not a single suspect in any of those shootings has been convicted of a crime. One accused shooter, says the Sun-Times, awaits trial for killing his boss. The other six murders remain unsolved, as do nearly all of the non-fatal shootings that occurred that weekend. In 2009, Chicago detectives “cleared” 30 percent of the murders and 18 percent of the non-fatal shootings they investigated. But, as in any city, a “clearance” in Chicago does not necessarily mean a suspect was arrested, charged, and convicted, but merely that one was identified to the satisfaction of investigators. In some cases detectives are reminded of one axiom of big-city police work: today’s suspect is tomorrow’s victim. Police sometimes come across evidence identifying someone as a murder suspect only to discover he himself has been gunned down, either in retaliation for the earlier murder or merely as a consequence of his engaging in a high-risk lifestyle.
In response, this essay has been making the rounds in Chicago, penned by a officer in the police force. It is not, shall we say, a flattering assessment.
Everyone in Chicago knows it. Almost everyone in America knows it. In fact, a lot of people throughout the world know. Chicago is a city at war with itself - fast tracking to anarchy.
Leading us there have been two major root causes - public violence and public corruption. While Chicago has been under attack with its people fearful and hiding, its police department was twisted into paralysis by organizational decimation, incompetent leadership, self-serving politics and corruption.
After three dead cops in less than 60 days, the men and women of the Chicago Police Department are saying, "Enough!!!" We are sickened that our world-class police department has deteriorated into ruin in only a few short years. We are tired of a leaderless department. We are angry at an unsupportive mayor.
We must rise up together to take this city back from the thugs, gangs and rogues that infect our city. The good people of Chicago must also take a stand against the corrupt politicians and their cronies that have bled our city and police department dry.
And that's just the beginning of the essay!
Weren't we assured of the competence, vision, and moral clarity of The One, so successful in transforming the rough neighborhoods of Chicago as a community organizer?
It’s a shame that the public has to be reminded of this from time to time, but any cop can testify to this inescapable fact of police work: Where there is no punishment for criminal behavior, crime will flourish.
Nowhere has this been demonstrated with greater clarity lately than in Chicago, where the Sun-Times has taken notice and sounded the alarm. In a three-part series that concluded Tuesday, reporters Mark Konkol and Frank Main examined the violent incidents that occurred over a single weekend in Chicago two years ago. During that 59-hour period, from April 18 -20, 2008, forty people were shot in the city, seven of them fatally. Stop and consider that for a moment: one city, one weekend, seven people murdered, and 33 others shot but still alive.
As it happens, not a single suspect in any of those shootings has been convicted of a crime. One accused shooter, says the Sun-Times, awaits trial for killing his boss. The other six murders remain unsolved, as do nearly all of the non-fatal shootings that occurred that weekend. In 2009, Chicago detectives “cleared” 30 percent of the murders and 18 percent of the non-fatal shootings they investigated. But, as in any city, a “clearance” in Chicago does not necessarily mean a suspect was arrested, charged, and convicted, but merely that one was identified to the satisfaction of investigators. In some cases detectives are reminded of one axiom of big-city police work: today’s suspect is tomorrow’s victim. Police sometimes come across evidence identifying someone as a murder suspect only to discover he himself has been gunned down, either in retaliation for the earlier murder or merely as a consequence of his engaging in a high-risk lifestyle.
In response, this essay has been making the rounds in Chicago, penned by a officer in the police force. It is not, shall we say, a flattering assessment.
Everyone in Chicago knows it. Almost everyone in America knows it. In fact, a lot of people throughout the world know. Chicago is a city at war with itself - fast tracking to anarchy.
Leading us there have been two major root causes - public violence and public corruption. While Chicago has been under attack with its people fearful and hiding, its police department was twisted into paralysis by organizational decimation, incompetent leadership, self-serving politics and corruption.
After three dead cops in less than 60 days, the men and women of the Chicago Police Department are saying, "Enough!!!" We are sickened that our world-class police department has deteriorated into ruin in only a few short years. We are tired of a leaderless department. We are angry at an unsupportive mayor.
We must rise up together to take this city back from the thugs, gangs and rogues that infect our city. The good people of Chicago must also take a stand against the corrupt politicians and their cronies that have bled our city and police department dry.
And that's just the beginning of the essay!
Weren't we assured of the competence, vision, and moral clarity of The One, so successful in transforming the rough neighborhoods of Chicago as a community organizer?
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Even NPR Won't Propogandize Anymore
If they wish to keep their listeners, with donors writing checks to local affiliates, they must eventually tell the truth. Even liberals notice the smell, when you lie to them long enough.
And they report: No economic growth in June.
The pace of consumer spending stalled in June and personal incomes failed to increase, further evidence that the economic recovery slowed in the spring.
Personal spending was unchanged in June, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. It was the third straight month of lackluster consumer demand. Incomes were also flat, the weakest showing in nine months.
The lack of growth for spending and incomes shows the economy ended the second quarter on a weak note. Many analysts believe growth will slow further in the second half of the year as high unemployment, shaky consumer confidence and renewed troubles in housing weigh on the year-old economic recovery.
Americans appear to be preparing for tough times. The personal savings rate rose to 6.4 percent of after-tax incomes in June, the highest reading in nearly a year. The savings rate is now about three times the 2.1 percent average for all of 2007, before the recession began.
Consumer spending is closely monitored because it accounts for 70 percent of total economic activity.
Note to The One: If you ram through outrageous federal takeovers of entire portions of the economy (like health care), demonstrate your incompetence and venality when an oil well blows up (by not picking up the phone to call the oil company...), put 39 million people on food stamps, and generally create anxiety about the Brave New World you have planned for us all, guess what?
People lose faith in the future, and sit on their cash. Given events of the past sixty months, what sane person would finance a car for the next sixty?
Even NPR, lead cheerleader for The One, can't keep up the pretense anymore.
You on yoh' own thea, Missah Prezident.
And they report: No economic growth in June.
The pace of consumer spending stalled in June and personal incomes failed to increase, further evidence that the economic recovery slowed in the spring.
Personal spending was unchanged in June, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. It was the third straight month of lackluster consumer demand. Incomes were also flat, the weakest showing in nine months.
The lack of growth for spending and incomes shows the economy ended the second quarter on a weak note. Many analysts believe growth will slow further in the second half of the year as high unemployment, shaky consumer confidence and renewed troubles in housing weigh on the year-old economic recovery.
Americans appear to be preparing for tough times. The personal savings rate rose to 6.4 percent of after-tax incomes in June, the highest reading in nearly a year. The savings rate is now about three times the 2.1 percent average for all of 2007, before the recession began.
Consumer spending is closely monitored because it accounts for 70 percent of total economic activity.
Note to The One: If you ram through outrageous federal takeovers of entire portions of the economy (like health care), demonstrate your incompetence and venality when an oil well blows up (by not picking up the phone to call the oil company...), put 39 million people on food stamps, and generally create anxiety about the Brave New World you have planned for us all, guess what?
People lose faith in the future, and sit on their cash. Given events of the past sixty months, what sane person would finance a car for the next sixty?
Even NPR, lead cheerleader for The One, can't keep up the pretense anymore.
You on yoh' own thea, Missah Prezident.
Alexis De Tocqueville, 1840: Organized, Peaceful, Gentle Enslavement
Following upon OS's previous post, and with a large and grateful bow in the direction of the Acton Institute, the words of de Tocqueville, published in 1840:
Thus, the ruling power, having taken each citizen one by one into its powerful grasp and having molded him to its own liking, spreads its arms over the whole of society, covering the surface of social life with a network of petty, complicated, detailed, and uniform rules through which even the most original minds and the most energetic of spirits cannot reach the light in order to rise above the crowd. It does not break men’s wills but it does soften, bend, and control them; rarely does it force men to act but it constantly opposes what actions they perform; it does not destroy the start of anything but it stands in its way; it does not tyrannize but it inhibits, represses, drains, snuffs out, dulls so much effort that finally it reduces each nation to nothing more than a flock of timid and hardworking animals with the government as shepherd.
I have always believed that this type of organized, gentle, and peaceful enslavement just described could link up more easily than imagined with some of the external forms of freedom and that it would not be impossible for it to take hold in the very shadow of the sovereignty of this people.
Does this sound familiar?
Thus, the ruling power, having taken each citizen one by one into its powerful grasp and having molded him to its own liking, spreads its arms over the whole of society, covering the surface of social life with a network of petty, complicated, detailed, and uniform rules through which even the most original minds and the most energetic of spirits cannot reach the light in order to rise above the crowd. It does not break men’s wills but it does soften, bend, and control them; rarely does it force men to act but it constantly opposes what actions they perform; it does not destroy the start of anything but it stands in its way; it does not tyrannize but it inhibits, represses, drains, snuffs out, dulls so much effort that finally it reduces each nation to nothing more than a flock of timid and hardworking animals with the government as shepherd.
I have always believed that this type of organized, gentle, and peaceful enslavement just described could link up more easily than imagined with some of the external forms of freedom and that it would not be impossible for it to take hold in the very shadow of the sovereignty of this people.
Does this sound familiar?
Right On Target, And Missing The Point: Krugman's 'Defining Prosperity Down'
Paul Krugman, that Lion of The Left, The One's Personal Homeboy, Never Saw A Gubbermint Spending Program Too Lavish--that guy--has contributed a well-written essay to the current debate on OS's favorite subject--the culture that shapes the economy.
And, to lead off, he is exactly on point:
I’m starting to have a sick feeling about prospects for American workers — but not, or not entirely, for the reasons you might think.
Yes, growth is slowing, and the odds are that unemployment will rise, not fall, in the months ahead. That’s bad. But what’s worse is the growing evidence that our governing elite just doesn’t care — that a once-unthinkable level of economic distress is in the process of becoming the new normal.
And I worry that those in power, rather than taking responsibility for job creation, will soon declare that high unemployment is “structural,” a permanent part of the economic landscape — and that by condemning large numbers of Americans to long-term joblessness, they’ll turn that excuse into dismal reality.
He is dead-on, and expresses so well OS has been attempting to verbalize in his halting fashion. (That's why Krugman gets paid well for his words, and OS still writes as a hobby...craft matters.)
OS spent a week on business in Northern Kentucky and Louisville, which are favored places in his world. Heartbreakingly beautiful is the description that comes to mind about the scenery and small towns on the south side of the Ohio River. And yet, there is another sort of hearbreak that overtakes him as he visits: It is evident that these towns were once profoundly prosperous, and have been gutted over time, by one recession after the other, each one playing a cruel game of musical chairs with the souls that inhabit them. The music stops, and another slice of people become the 'structurally unemployed', living in subsidized housing or trailers, shopping at the Walmart and Dollar Tree-type stores with their SNAP cards, because no new businesses arose from the ashes of the ones that died. They raise children who eke by in the public school, and seem adrift. OS had to make a late-night trip to Walmart, and was struck by the number of kids just 'hanging out', at their poor physical and mental condition. Depressing. One town on the route in particular, Carrollton, featured lovely Victorian homes with dismal trailers next door, empty storefronts in a downtown that had once obviously thrived. The connector road to the interstate completed the scene with trailer parks, a closed car dealership, weedy lots, etc. It's like the wind just died in the sails.
Krugman is right. The powers-that-be may have decided this is just the way things will be, with a very prosperous layer shopping-til-they-drop at St. Matthews Mall on Louisville's east end, and a vast semi-underclass huddled together in neighborhoods not too far removed, hanging on for dear life, hoping the music doesn't stop for them as well.
But then, bless him, he proposes that the solution is to have the gubbermint increase the pace of its borrowing and spending, as if much more of the same policy since January '09 will put the economy back up on its feet.
What's needed are businesses. In order to have businesses, entreprenuers are required, willing to risk. If they turn profits by meeting needs, they create wealth, which is distributed to the owners.
Gubbermint can't do that. It's not set up to do that. It can't be in the wealth-creation business. It's in the taxing and making rules business. That doesn't create wealth, and tends to destroy it over the long haul.
Still, Mr. Krugman is well worth the time invested, if for no other reason than to see how the liberal mind functions.
And, to lead off, he is exactly on point:
I’m starting to have a sick feeling about prospects for American workers — but not, or not entirely, for the reasons you might think.
Yes, growth is slowing, and the odds are that unemployment will rise, not fall, in the months ahead. That’s bad. But what’s worse is the growing evidence that our governing elite just doesn’t care — that a once-unthinkable level of economic distress is in the process of becoming the new normal.
And I worry that those in power, rather than taking responsibility for job creation, will soon declare that high unemployment is “structural,” a permanent part of the economic landscape — and that by condemning large numbers of Americans to long-term joblessness, they’ll turn that excuse into dismal reality.
He is dead-on, and expresses so well OS has been attempting to verbalize in his halting fashion. (That's why Krugman gets paid well for his words, and OS still writes as a hobby...craft matters.)
OS spent a week on business in Northern Kentucky and Louisville, which are favored places in his world. Heartbreakingly beautiful is the description that comes to mind about the scenery and small towns on the south side of the Ohio River. And yet, there is another sort of hearbreak that overtakes him as he visits: It is evident that these towns were once profoundly prosperous, and have been gutted over time, by one recession after the other, each one playing a cruel game of musical chairs with the souls that inhabit them. The music stops, and another slice of people become the 'structurally unemployed', living in subsidized housing or trailers, shopping at the Walmart and Dollar Tree-type stores with their SNAP cards, because no new businesses arose from the ashes of the ones that died. They raise children who eke by in the public school, and seem adrift. OS had to make a late-night trip to Walmart, and was struck by the number of kids just 'hanging out', at their poor physical and mental condition. Depressing. One town on the route in particular, Carrollton, featured lovely Victorian homes with dismal trailers next door, empty storefronts in a downtown that had once obviously thrived. The connector road to the interstate completed the scene with trailer parks, a closed car dealership, weedy lots, etc. It's like the wind just died in the sails.
Krugman is right. The powers-that-be may have decided this is just the way things will be, with a very prosperous layer shopping-til-they-drop at St. Matthews Mall on Louisville's east end, and a vast semi-underclass huddled together in neighborhoods not too far removed, hanging on for dear life, hoping the music doesn't stop for them as well.
But then, bless him, he proposes that the solution is to have the gubbermint increase the pace of its borrowing and spending, as if much more of the same policy since January '09 will put the economy back up on its feet.
What's needed are businesses. In order to have businesses, entreprenuers are required, willing to risk. If they turn profits by meeting needs, they create wealth, which is distributed to the owners.
Gubbermint can't do that. It's not set up to do that. It can't be in the wealth-creation business. It's in the taxing and making rules business. That doesn't create wealth, and tends to destroy it over the long haul.
Still, Mr. Krugman is well worth the time invested, if for no other reason than to see how the liberal mind functions.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Sunday Night In Louisville
End of the business trip drawing nigh, and Mr. and Mrs. OS hosted a dear friend from distant parts to dinner in Jeffersonville, across the river from Louisville. It was lovely to see the lights on the Ohio, good food and friendly servers at the Montana Grill. Breathtaking huge portions. Memo to self: Order from the 'modest portions' menu next time.
Just to let our guest see downtown a bit, OS took the Clark Bridge into across the river after dinner. A few blocks in, we're at a corner light. Liquor store on the left, a car pulls up in front of it, blocking lanes both ways. That fight-or-flight reaction kicked in--get out of there before the guns get pulled. Thankfully, the way forward was clear, and as we hot-footed it out of there, OS was relieved to not hear gunfire.
One reaction could be: Well, what does one expect, driving through the city late at night?
Another reaction could be: Wait a second. Why shouldn't we be able to drive through the city on Sunday night without fear of violence? We're the good guys, the solid citizen types. Why should we surrender the street to the thugs?
Yes, it is an idealistic and self-righteous position to take. But the thought did run through OS's mind as he floored the accelerator...
Please, don't misunderstand. Louisville is one of OS's favorite places on the planet, for a long long list of reasons. He loves it when he gets to visit, and has even explored moving there. It is a wonderful place, for so many reasons.
He just wants it to stay that way. That's all.
Just to let our guest see downtown a bit, OS took the Clark Bridge into across the river after dinner. A few blocks in, we're at a corner light. Liquor store on the left, a car pulls up in front of it, blocking lanes both ways. That fight-or-flight reaction kicked in--get out of there before the guns get pulled. Thankfully, the way forward was clear, and as we hot-footed it out of there, OS was relieved to not hear gunfire.
One reaction could be: Well, what does one expect, driving through the city late at night?
Another reaction could be: Wait a second. Why shouldn't we be able to drive through the city on Sunday night without fear of violence? We're the good guys, the solid citizen types. Why should we surrender the street to the thugs?
Yes, it is an idealistic and self-righteous position to take. But the thought did run through OS's mind as he floored the accelerator...
Please, don't misunderstand. Louisville is one of OS's favorite places on the planet, for a long long list of reasons. He loves it when he gets to visit, and has even explored moving there. It is a wonderful place, for so many reasons.
He just wants it to stay that way. That's all.
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