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Friday, October 24, 2008

Marc Ambinder explaining "Unbalanced and Fair"

Marc Ambinder has been my "Blogger of choice" for some time now. Not because his views are exactly mine, but because he does appear to be a neutral observer, calling out the blunders, misspeaks, and distortions of both sides of the race. I find no value in reading blogs that are blatantly partisan on either side.
The McCain forces are intensely irritating because they keep explaining to me why people like me are the problem with America. I am over-educated, concerned about the welfare of other people, not "middle class" enough, don't like hockey, and don't own a gun. (even though I was an expert rifleman in my teen years)
The Obama forces tell me what I think I already know, and irritate me when they exaggerate unnecessarily.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

These times remind me of...

... being an undergraduate at the Univeristy of the Witwatersrand in the 1960s. I was learning to play Bridge - the game of intellectuals, and I had to learn it because after all I was a Math and Mathematical Statistics major who was also studying Economics and Philosophy, thus I must be an intellectual, right?

Wrong. I hated it. I was petrified by the need to remember who bid what, and what cards had been played. My hands shook under the pressure of the need to remember trivia of events of the last few minutes.

Math was easy - I could deduce it from first principles. Philosophy was easy, I could deduce what Russel or Plato would say about anything (at least close enough to fake it through a test) because I grokked their view on the world.

Why does this memory of trembling hands holding a bunch of cards surface now?
The South African social situation was a disaster. Police were shooting at protesters in the streets. I was joining with other students in marches. The political situation today in the USA is much milder, but McCain/Palin campaign reminds me of the politics of hate that prevailed in South Africa in the 60s.

My bridge teacher asked - why are we playing Bridge now? Good question, I thought, and stopped learning the game, which seemed totally irrelevant at the time, and continues to appear so to me.

Guilt by assocation...

... could work against you, my few, but esteemed, readers.
The McCain campaign has partially succeeded in painting Obama as "a Marxist" - at least it succeeded with one of my friends who claimed that Obama just that was in an email last night. The fact that the claimer probably does not know what Marx expoused is not relevant.
Marxist is a bad word, even worse than a liberal, which I am.
Well - you, dear reader, and my email friend are associating with me, (either in person or by reading my blog). I am left of Obama, mostly. You are therefore even left of Marxist, by association.
Be wary of embracing the McCain campaign's mud-slinging, and the Palin babbling. It may come back to hurt you.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The presence of my absence...

... has probably not been missed. I have not posted much lately, other rants at the weird politics going on around us. The economic situation has been a distraction, to say the least. I know that I cannot do much to solve the global liquidity problem, so being pragmatic, I am not trying to do so. However, the advice that is being freely dished out along the lines of "Hang in there, it will get better in time" is not really applicable in my case. When the time comes, I may be too old to benefit from it. Living in retirement with no earning power, it is always a concern that the money will run out before I do.
Long running bull markets are nice, and younger people can look at 30 year outlooks and say that mostly they will be fine. However for me a 30-year outlook has me outliving all family members of whom I am aware. So the good news is that I will probably be dead before my assets are depleted.
Or, more likely, the "Right to Life" movement will ensure that so much money is spent on keeping me alive for the last few hours of my life that my assets will depleted about 30 seconds before die, at which point the "Right to Life" folk will decide that health care is available only to those who can buy it in an open market environment, and I should be allowed to expire peacefully with no impact on the bottom line of the hospital in which I am being killed. If I don't like their decision, I can always rip off the oxygen and feeding tubes and go shopping for a different medical insurance policy.
What a beautiful balance between morality and economy.
So, the question posed by the chart below (presented with thanks to the Wall Street Journal, who may sue me for showing this, but I think it is fine to show it with attribution and a comment that while the WSJ's political posture detracts from their journalistic integrity, their presentation of data can be trusted (mostly) to be free of political bias.) is: Is this 1906 (15 years of no growth punctuated by a horrific war), 1929 (13 years of no growth ended by a horriffic war) or 1966 (16 years of no growth for reasons that escape me - this was the era in which computers rose from oddities to essentials)?
The other point to be mentioned that if you can actually understand the deeply nested sentence above, you are clearly a member of the elite, and not be be trusted with a position in government.



Sunday, October 05, 2008

What is it that Palin does not understand?

The cocky kook, Sarah Palin, wants to be treated with respect. She will be so treated when she acts in a manner that deserves respect. After her Katie Couric interview she "has accused Mrs Couric of not asking the right questions - those that
would give her an opportunity to attack the Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama.
"

Palin and McCain are trying to get a job. Their interviews with the press are public job interviews. I have interviewed many candidates for jobs over the course of my career. Not once has anyone felt that the appropriate way to get a job was to talk about how bad the other candidates are. It is generally understood that to get a job one has to demonstrate to the prospective employer (in this case, the American public) that you are the most able candidate.

They do not seem to understand what the job is. The job is not, as they appear to believe:
  • To "shake up" Washington - a task that McCain has already proven that he cannot do after many years trying
  • To cut "earmarks" which are basically irrelevant in the grand scheme of things
  • To win the war in Iraq - which is unwinnable under any reasonable definition of "win"
  • To be unblinking
According to the Constitution, the task of the President is to exercise executive power - i.e. to:
  • Be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United
    States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual
    Service of the United States
  • Make Treaties by and with the Advice and
    Consent of the Senate
  • Appoint Ambassadors,
    other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other
    Officers of the United States
    by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate
  • Give to the Congress Information of the State of
    the Union
  • Recommend to the Consideration of Congress such Measures as he shall judge
    necessary and expedient
  • On extraordinary Occasions, convene either or both
    Houses
  • Receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers
  • Take
    Care that the Laws be faithfully executed
  • Commission all the
    Officers of the United States
The job of the Vice-President is:
  • To be President of the Senate,
    but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided
  • To check the morning obituaries to see if the President is still alive and functioning, and, if not, act as President
The nature and scope of the duties are such that no candidate can ever be expected to have significant relevant experience in more than one of the duties specified by the Congress. In this election the only task in which any of the candidates can claim relevant experience is recommending measures for consideration.
Thus, in course of the job interview with the American public (aka the Campaign), the candidates' task is to convince the public that they (the candidates) have the moral fibre and administrative acumen to establish an administration that will best meet the needs of the public.
Palin will get respect when she begins to treat the American public with respect by getting on with her job interview.
Given the age of McCain, she must show evidence that she can reasonably be expected to capably perform the duties of the President at some time in the future. Her performance to date shows no such indication.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Its marvelous

The "bailout bill" passed by our Congress and signed into law last Friday demonstrates just how smart our congress is. In the short space of a week they managed to cover all the ramifications of the plan to restore stability to our financial system.

The full title of the Act is:
‘‘To provide authority for the Federal Government to purchase and insure certain types of troubled assets for the purposes of providing stability to and preventing disruption in the economy and financial system and protecting taxpayers, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes’’
They have worked though all the details of what it takes to make the law workable and minimize the impact on American people. The Act contains a section entitled:
"Exemption from excise tax for certain wooden arrows designed for use by children."

Who would have thought that some wooden childrens' arrows could have had such an impact on the world financial system. Amazing!

Debate analysis as art

The VP debate - by frequency of word usage by each candidate. Guess who was who, and then click on the image to find out.