Friday, December 24, 2010

Change of Plans - Merry Christmas!

Probably one of the most fascinating exchanges in literature or any sort: Luke 18-27.  Strangely John The Baptist has sent two messengers (an indication of urgency) to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah.  Strange, because by this time John himself had identified Jesus, hailed him from the womb, baptized him, and so on.  Jesus quotes Isaiah regarding the Messiah, listing what Isaiah lists as proof.  Every Jew knew this list: the lame shall walk, the blind see, the dead rise, the poor will have good news.  Jesus left one thing off the list, which any Jew would notice: the Messiah will free the captives.

Now where is John whence he sends his messengers?  Prison.  Even John the Baptist was perplexed, if Jesus was the Messiah, what was John doing in prison?  In his reply, not only did Jesus fail to address the obvious, he added one: And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.  Ouch!


John the Baptist got the message: change of plans.  John went on to be executed first.


Mary said yes to the angel, and she must have been perplexed as well.  it is enough that she should conceive without "knowing man."  About the time she is due, Caesar Augustus obliges her and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem so they can be counted in a census.  There they give birth in the meanest conditions.  Shortly thereafter this girl and her newborn baby are on a donkey fleeing for Egypt, with the powers that be out to slaughter her son.  As Teresa of Avila said, with the way God treats his friends, no wonder he has so few.


If there is a lesson to the Nativity, it is "change of plans."  In a change of plans, God is intervening directly on earth.  Due to free will, and human action, the nativity is a series of change of plans.  The life of Jesus is a series of change of plans, from Cana to Calvary.  But always pushing the good, the true and the beautiful.  We should be so good, whenever there is a change of plans.




Thursday, December 23, 2010

Pension Checks Unilaterally Stop

What if one day your pension check did not show up?  And never did show up.  And you depended on that check for survival?  One town found it simply did not have the money in the account, to pay both city employees and pension obligations, so it decided to pay working city employees instead of retirees.

It will get to that in time, although there will be many possible responses, all essentially the same result.  Either the check will not show up, or the $1500 pension check will only cover one loaf of bread, or you'll get your money, but there will be nothing to buy with it.  There are too many possibilities to predict which path of least resistance the powers that be will take.

Pensioners will complain that it is unfair not to honor the promises that were made to them.  But wait, what about the promises the government workers made to us?  Where is the rule of law regarding the mortgage mess, torture, war, snooping?  Where is the more better cheaper faster medical care we were promised.  The safe food?  The first rate education?  Freedom of speech?  Excellent transportation?  Whatever department a pensioner worked in, did they deliver innovation or more better cheaper faster?  One can say "it's not my fault" or "I was just following orders" or whatever, but you'll get about as sympathetic a hearing as citizens got when they petitioned government over the last 50 years.

There is a call to privatize govt as a response, so that what savings are made can be directed to pensions. That won't work for two reasons: those who would take govt work private need to make money, they would do so, and keep the profits for themselves, not share it.  Big paychecks would make sure nothing was left over for pensioners.

Better is to corporatize.  For example, the Post Office is down some 8 billion a year.  Their front line service, the monopoly on first class mail, the point at which they interact with their customer, is an occasion of trauma.  Not much hope for them to reform.  So instead of selling it to UPS or auctioning it off, in pieces or whole to the highest bidder, corporatize the USPS by adding up the liabilities (accounts payable, pensions, bonds, etc) in dollars,  say 100 billion, and then call those "shares."  Next take the USPS assets, real estate, rolling stock, cash and equivalents, good will (hahaha) fixtures, infrastructure, etc, and total that, say 120 billion dollars.  The one day every claimant gets 1.2 shares for ever dollar owed by USPS.  At that point anyone with shares is now a stockholder.

At the same time, the USPS loses its monopoly in one year thereafter.  Every owner at that point can decide what to do with his shares.  Unload them, buy more up, whatever.  The free market would truly sort it all out.

That would not doubt be a success for all concerned.  So next, we take the US Dept of Education, and run the same plan.  But but but...  the dept of education does not really do anything like the USPS does.  Exactly.

In any event, we need to clear out pointless government as an expense, and increase free markets.  This plan would work, and help get us back to work.

Old joke:

A USMail worker passes a Fedex worker making deliveries in an office building.  They greet each other: "How is it going?" asks the Fedex worker of the USMail worker.  "Terrible..." says the USMail worker, "look at all these packages I've got to deliver..."  "How about you?" asks the USMail worker of the Fedex worker.  "Wonderful..." says the Fedex worker, "look at all these packages I've got to deliver..."


Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Your Kid Is Sick. Not.

Here is a lovely video, less than two minutes long, that anyone with a admirable child should see. It has a link at the end, which is useful.  If your kid has ADD, he is not ill, he is important.  If you want to get a solid consumer's guide to psychiatry, read Szasz, anything by him, but Coercion As Cure is a good start.

Keep in mind, when you read of some horror committed by some deranged individual, you'll hear "he was off his meds."  The problem is never he was off his meds.  Meds only work for a short period, and then they are no good.  So everyone put on meds is at some point "off his meds."  The problem is they put someone on meds to begin with.  Of course, many peoples introduction to meds is as kids with illegal substance abuse, but then again, those drugs were designed by highly trained, highly motivated scientists, to have an effect in the market. Read Szasz for real medicine and mental illness.

Szasz is hard to take: we excuse behavior, we deny personal responsibility.  But he can be funny too:  So what if your dog tells you to kill the president?  Would you do it if I told you to?  No?  Then why would you do it if your dog told you to?

Brilliant:  he does not get into whether your dog spoke to your or not, he gets into your responsibility given what circumstances you find yourself.  So what if your dog talks to you?  You are still responsible for your actions.


False Economy and Taxes

Liberals make the excellent point that the economy is of their devising, they pick the winners and losers, if you are a winner, then it is because of their policies, and thus you should pay out to them for their good work on your behalf.  Conservatives claim if they win it is because of their rugged individualism, and no one has claim on their just compensation.  Of the two, of course the liberals are correct, since being marxists, they always get their facts straight.  Conservatives are considered selfish for not sharing, and that is about right.  Anyone rich today, whether liberal or conservative, can trace his wealth back to a government program, whether subsidy or regulation, of some sort.  The system is good because it works for them.

There is a youtube video popular among the right showing state workers in Illinois chanting "raise our taxes!"  An expensive charade is govt collects taxes, passes it to govt workers, who then give some back in taxes.  Therefore govt workers pay taxes.  Ummm... wait a minute...  hundreds of millions in costs could be eliminated if we paid govt workers net, that they paid no taxes, their incomes were tax exempt. For them voting a tax increase is to vote a net gain for themselves.  They throw elections.  The system is good, because it works for them.

this closed, false economy leaves an awful lot of people outside the system.  The liberals want to share a lot more of the wealthys' resources to help the poor, never mind that it is largely due to the false economy that we have poor.  While the two winning sides squabble over who is more insensitive, vast swathes of time, talent and potential remains in lockdown.

Anyway, back to false economy:  since we are in a false economy, why not pay taxes, it is about as significant as a fine in a game of Monopoly.   It is all funny money anyway.

Well, since conservatives are bought off by the warfare system upon which their weal depends, they are not going to state the obvious: we need to end taxation, because it is wrong.  The entire system is wrong, and we need to reinstate free markets.  That is not going to happen either way: no truth telling, no changes.

So let's ask "What would Jesus Do?"  When faced with a tax, the only time it is recorded he did so, Jesus makes clear it is unjust, explains why in natural rights/free market terms, and then performs a miracle.  He pays the tax, in order not to offend the powers that be.

Christians of course, have no right to either collect nor pay taxes, but what are you going to do if and when they do?  Well, expect a miracle.

Matthew 17,  22.27


24After Jesus and His disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
25“Yes, He does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” He asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own sons or from others?”
26“From others,” Peter answered.
“Then the sons are exempt,” Jesus said to him. 27“But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”


It Is Not Different In The Military

There have always been homosexuals in the military, from Alexander to the Spartans and soldiers are as aware as to who is gay as anyone else.  Don't ask don't tell was silly posturing, and now it is being phased out, with Obama saying people in the military will no longer be obliged to lie, which is a pretty silly statement since don't ask don't tell meant no one had to lie.

But there is a time when soldiers are obliged to lie, and this has far greater urgency than don't ask don't tell. But as the fellow in the video says, "they don't care."

I am always a little mystified why right-wingers (except for the decision makers) so encourage their young to enter the military, or do a tour.  The military is heavy on porn, dope, drinking, prostitution, and then extreme violence.  It is a hell of a place to send a 19 year old.  We need to get rid of our standing army, but arm everyone to fight.  Safer that way, for the whole world.


Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Licensing Vs Intellectual Property

I find the term and concept of "intellectual property rights" objectionable, but I am a big believer in artists being justly compensated for their work.  Licensing, that is a contract between a artist and mechant, is the proper way to do this.  IPR I have criticized elsewhere on this list.  In Hong Kong they know the difference, but the mainlaind is tending toward IPR...  sigh.


Hong Kong Embraces Innovation

To the extent and young woman from Switzerland can find an opportunity to launch a business.


Opportunities In A False Economy

The bailouts were about preserving A system, not THE system.  The worst parts of the false economy are the financial system and the warfare/welfare state.  The reform groups such as the Tea Party do not want to change anything, they simply believe they would do better at war and welfare if they were in charge. They would not.

The powers that be see none of this is sustainable.  Trouble ahead.  Governor Christie of New Jersey is talking sensible reforms, which will leave public union pensioners with little to look forward to.  After 40 years of paying off cops and firemen and other government workers, it is time to burn the beneficiaries, according to the powers that be.  As much that has gone into telling us what wonderful and selfless people government workers are, we are now hearing how awful and undeserving they are.  Here is a video of a police officer casually murdering a man on a pleasant summer day.  He immediately lies to a witness about what he has done, and the first back up officer, seeing he has killed a man, says "good job...you did the right thing..." having absolutely no idea what transpired.  Such video before would never see the light of day, but this is the 4th or 5th police outrage video in Seattle alone in the last year or so.

Believing that the powers that be would never turn on cops and fireman is to ignore history.  USA left countless POWs behind in Vietnam, abuses citizens in secret medical experiments, abandons disabled vets from the current war and falsely accuses people for political gain.  The most celebrated "keepers of the peace" in the last millenium, the Samurai, woke up one day to poverty in the Meiji restoration.  Never mind all that honor and duty stuff, get a job.

Just do without cops?  No, something else. It was no problem switching from constabulary to paramilitary force in policing over the last 50 years...  it is clear the next phase is soviet style snitching, with local, state and feds advertising heavily pro-snitch attitudes.  Between the mandatory facebook page, google communications, and your ID/debit smart card, it will take almost no cops to keep our society in lockdown.  There are smartphone apps for snitching.  There will be no-knock surgical night raids to complement the system.

Something that makes this inevitable, indeed necessary, is the false economy we have.  More people work for government than make things.  Those who do make things, such as software and pharmaceuticals or cars, make then in support of a government program, to busy government workers, or are subsidized by government.  And lots of lawyers sorting squabbles, they too government workers. Education is geared to supply workers for this economy, as any kid seeking student aid learns war or welfare award big right now. Then it takes a lot of coffee to keep this crowd going, hence Starbucks.  Then there are gyms to meet people. Restaurants, airlines, travel destinations all live off the government worker economy, since the elimination of that segment would bankrupt their operations.

But it is what they want. The atty general warns us of domestic terrorists who want changes.  (He says "radicals" when he means extremists, he speaks of 3 past false flag operations to make his case, proving he has no idea what is going on.) No doubt plots are afoot, but only by people who think they can do a better job if they were in charge.  Again, they can't.  And no one has the right to take this system away from those who clamor for it, although it will come crashing down of its own accord someday, or slowly if not over decades

Regulation and taxes, if not outright assault, such as on small farmers, make it difficult for anyone to offer goods or service outside of the mass merchandise channels.  It can be done, there is still enough market left, but it is harder.  We are the salvation of this country, but too few want that right now.

There are the powers that be that want to keep things going, not that they believe in anything except themselves, and will burn the segments that so supported them.  Industrial labor for 30 years has been famished, while govt unions, religion, academia, law, medicine, you name it, are blind, like a pig that cannot open its eyes for how fat is its face.

How to do good while doing well in this environment?  Get edgy.  One reason we are descending so fast is the law is failing, they being govt workers too.  IN particular judges throw out warrants like confetti.  A real service would be to create a database of judges, the warrants they issue, and then the results of the police raid.  Voters would have a new metric by which to judge a judge, the website would sell ads to the eyeballs visiting, not to mention the political ad revenue.

Look at who is making big bucks: those taking the jobs of soldiers, cops, teachers, govt workers...  blackwater mercenaries, charter schools, public works.  It is not enough to just provide the same govt work at a lower cost, design services that actually serve the people.

For example, I met a statistician once.  He worked for the ambulance companies hired by the cities.  Through statistics they got ambulances to trouble spots faster and at less cost than when the city handled it.  Full moon, park closer to the saloon district.  Holidays?  Closer to the interstate exchanges.  Fewer ambulances, lower costs, better service, more profits for the private companies. But since the system is built around the centralized hospital, with its outrageous overhead, go one step better - figure out where to post doctors in community clinics so they can respond on the spot faster to trouble.  Or better yet, deregulate medicine so "doctor" lives in a neighborhood, knows and sees everyone, and an ambulance is a rare event.

It all looks so overwhelming, but narrow your focus on what you can do.


Monday, December 20, 2010

Sticky Business

USA has heavy anti-dumping duties on Chinese honey.  It is silly, since it makes no economic sense to sell something for less than it costs you to produce.  If it in fact were happening, and unlikely event, then one ought to just buy the cheap honey and distribute it, especially if you are a USA honey producer.

It is wrong to falsely label or adulterate anything, both of which this fellow did.  But the Honey Association goes to far with this statement:

Troy Fore, ABF government affairs director, wrote Judge Bucklo, "Our member beekeepers have been victimized by Mr. Fan and other individuals and companies. It is disheartening to read the documents that have been filed in the case. While our members and other American beekeepers toil to earn a living for their families and employees, Mr. Fan and his cohorts around the world schemed and planned to cheat them of the fruits of their labor.

The free market would ruin this fellow faster, without the wild overhead it costs the Feds to prosecute these cases.  Why should we pay to "save" beekeepers, why should we be forbidden to buy honey at a price the Chinese will sell?


Why We Need To End Charity Foundation Exemption

News out of a legal newspaper tells us Paul Allen has finished a ten year commitment to Radio Station KEXP, as agreed.  KEXP was once a UW student station called KCMU.  For a few million, they moved off UW campus, got free rent from Allen, and changed their name to KEXP to tie in with Allen's Experience Music Project theatre at the Seattle Center.  With deca-billionaire Allen's support, KEXP gained a 4 times increase in listeners at a cost of 16 times the budget.  Read the article, do the math.  Now, isn't is supposed to be you increase the budget 4 times to get 16 times the listeners?

I do not think there has been a single enterprise since Microsoft that Allen has succeeded at, except buying an election, literally, to overcome taxpayer resistance to funding a stadium where the taxpayers pay the billionaires, and Allen takes the profit.  Next, he managed to get the taxpayers to pay outrageous sums to build a little trolley car from his properties north of downtown to the retail core.

With his untouchable Charity Foundation, he can pay off the powers that be and have his wealth unmolested, protected at taxpayers expense, as long as the billions are invested in securities blessed by the powers that be. If tax exemption of the 501c3 and such innovations were eliminated, the foundations would disappear, their political influence evaporate, and soon their wealth would be spread around to those who are better at providing benefits to customers.  We would rebalance to that degree in favor of business covering consumers needs, instead of "charities" advancing political ends.


Henry VIII's Last Victim

I suppose one just notices these things when one is attuned to them.  Henry the VIII left his son a mess of a kingdom as he died, because he had debased the currency to pay for optional and unnecessary wars.  Jessie Childs rehearses very well what any casual student of Henrician England already nows.  But her book, out some 4 years, may be a very good introductory book.

First, Henry's last victim, the Earl of Surrey, was among the younger set of important players in Henry's reign, only coming to be a player himself in the last years of henry's reign.  But his biography, and tale from the center of the action, shows the essence of life in Tudor England.

Second, we esteem the advances in art and science of renaissance England, and this Earl as a latin scholar invented the sonnet and other literary innovations that Shakespeare and Milton etc used advantageously.

The Earl's family, the Howards, were deep in the intrigues of the wives of Henry the VIII, so we get inside views on all of that.  Later in his life the Earl advances the Kings private wars in France paid by public money, hoping to gain honor for himself and his family name.

This part is terribly interesting, for failing to work out, but also for how tenuous everyone's life was in Tudor England.  If not from diseases (largely bubbling up in times of elective wars) then for intrigues and false charges.  It is astonishing how quickly people turn their power over to another, and then scheme to gain power for themselves.  Heads roll.

Henry declared himself head of the Catholic Church in England, and the details of this are fascinating.  Henry was schismatic, not heretical. He believed all the Catholic Church taught, indeed was awarded a Defender of the Faith title by a pope for his defense of the Church against Lutherans.  FD (Latin initials) is still on every coin the British produce.  So you have this strange thing where the king likes neither those Catholics allied with Rome, nor protestants.

In overthrowing the Church rights, Henry wiped out monasteries and abbeys, and thus the social welfare system of his country.  The people in these institutions were cousins and siblings, and provided mediating entities who well knew their local circumstances.  All charity resided in these institutions, but once they had been seized and converted to private use, anyone in a jam had no where to turn.  The power elite is relentlessly uncaring about the masses of poor and working, something that eventually was addressed by Marx and others. Thus it was for centuries thereafter, feeding the destitute into seeking their fortune in war outside of England....

One pleasing aspect is the powers that be actually engaged in their follies. The cream of English society was wiped out one day in Boulogne in a battle gone bad.  Can you imagine hearing the news, that in taking on the Taliban in a direct attack, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Max Boot and Bill Kristol, breathed their last, with only Geo Bush making it back to tell the tale?  Somehow our system evolved to where those who would advance war take zero risk themselves.  Quite the contrary, failure increases power.  In those days failure increases Henry's power... everyone else trembled.  It may have been better under that system.

In any event, From ancient Rome to today, the game is the same... debase the currency to pay for war, disaster follows.