There are plenty of things to worry and concern ourselves with. We live in interesting times to say the least, and one could not be blamed for at times being overwhelmed and anxious, even bitter and outraged at all the goings on in our universe. There are wars being waged without just cause and genocide being perpetrated while the world goes about with reactions ranging from indifference to ineffectiveness. The national economy is in rough shape, possibly on the verge of a major collapse, and so far the best our guardians have come up with is to throw exorbitant amounts of money at the problem, which while it may or may not have the intended effect of averting a financial meltdown, will assuredly, in the short term at least, add to our already massive national debt. Electoral politics, that promised to give us an intelligent and articulate debate on issues of importance and relevance earlier in the year, has devolved into the standard personal bashing and generalities while offering little of importance to potential voters, as evidenced by the first in a series of presidential debates that occurred recently. In short, we are a nation on the descendancy, our economic clout, our military might, and most importantly our moral standing in the world have all taken a hit, not just over the last 7 years of the current administration but over the last couple decades. Whether we continue on a downward arc, and how long it takes for the effects to become more noticeable are open questions, but from a historical perspective we seem to be a civilization that has reached it apex. So with all of this being the case, why not just crawl into a hole and throw up our hands in despair? Because quite simply, what is wrong with our society pales in comparison to what is still great about it.
Life is good indeed, and there is plenty to be thankful for, despite the tendency to focus on the gloom and doom that is often prevalent. History often focuses on the macro perspective, looking at the actions of political leaders and making broad sweeping statements about eras, but life is so much more accurately looked at as a mosaic, a million tiny strokes that while nearly imperceptible individually combine to make up the times of our lives, or of the lives of any age we choose to look at. It is the details, the little things if you will, that affect us so much more than the major policy decisions and events that get most of the focus. And those details are what gives life it's beauty, it's raison d' etre.
Time spent with family and friends, the moments that will stay in our consciousness years from now, the simple and often random thing that happen in our lives, the funny stories and precious experiences that occur no matter who the president is or the current state of the budget deficit. Going to see my daughter perform a musical with her incredibly talented youth theatre group, or watching my son's undefeated freshman football team pound another rival into submission. Having a morning coffee at Starbucks and enjoying excellent conversation with my mom, watching the Sunday morning talk shows and discussing politics with my wife, watching PTI and discussing sports with my son, or just watching Seinfeld reruns while we all eat dinner together and laughing yet again at episodes and lines I know by heart. The smile from a pretty girl that warms your soul, especially if she also happens to be your wife. Long athletic legs and short shorts. A great piece of jazz that blends together perfectly and permeates to the core of your being. A random encounter with a perfect stranger who is then no longer a stranger. A fiery sunrise, and a smooth, mellow sunset. A cool evening breeze at the end of a long hot summer. The smell of freshly brewed coffee at the start of the day, and the rich brown texture of a pint of Guinness at the start of the evening. Learning something new, and then sharing it with others, such as the poetry of a 13th century Persian named Rumi that I recently came across. Life is full of these sort of wonderful moments, and life is full of truth, beauty, love, and hope, which is what sustains us and allows us to reinvent ourselves every day, much like a river, never the same and never static, always moving forward. Rumi writes that love is a river, drink from it. I'm drinking as much as I can, each and every day, because life is too short and just too darn good to do otherwise.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
It's Still the Economy Stupid
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Coming off of an extended period of Republican rule, which saw first an economic boom that was enjoyed much more by the wealthy but which eventually turned sour and hurt those at all levels of the socioeconomic ladder, we are approaching a presidential election that offers a continuation of the policies of the recent past versus a new, albeit as yet truly defined approach to fiscal policy. This is an apt description of the 2008 presidential campaign, but could just as easily be a description of the 1992 campaign with the unproven and mostly undefined ideas of upstart Bill Clinton running against George Bush who represented the continuation of the Reagan-Bush Republican economic policy. For that matter it could also be a description of the 1932 campaign between Republican Herbert Hoover and the inexperienced Democratic challenger, one-term New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Then as now, the choice is stark, and historically the results of differing policies speak volumes. The twelve years of Reagan-Bush, when added to the eight years of Bush II have given us a twenty year record with which to judge the Republican policies of laissez-faire, free-market, trickle-down economics. The theory is quite simple, and quite appealing to our sense of independence as a people, and to our sense of belief in ourselves and our ability to rise up the ladder without assistance or hinderance on the part of the federal government. It also appeals to our desire to pay less taxes, which seems to be engrained in our DNA. Finally, it appeals to our belief that we will be better off economically in the future than we are now, we are constantly chasing the carrot of that next promotion, the sleeker car and the bigger house in the better neighborhood, and buy into the idea that if we just put a few extra hours a week in at the office and sacrifice spending our time and energy on more productive things, like our families and friends, and stuff we actually take pleasure in doing, that it will all pay off down the road. The problem is that the road always seems to have just one more bend to navigate before we get to the pot of gold, and the target keeps moving. The newest model is replaced by one even newer, the houses and neighborhoods keep getting bigger and farther out, and the few extra hours gradually increase to the point where a 40 hour work week seems like an antiquated notion, in the same vein as the two week family vacation, the $1000 mortgage payment, or $2 a gallon gas.
Republican economic policy promises less taxes for the middle class, which is appealing. Who among us wants to give up any more of our hard earned income than we need to, especially when we are giving it to a federal government that is notorious for waste and often corruption and fraud? What we fail to appreciate however is that historically when Republicans lower taxes for the middle class, our benefit is a drop in the bucket when compared to the break that the upper and elite classes get. So why should this concern us, if the upper and elite classes are better off, their wealth will somehow trickle down to the rest of us in the form of increased jobs and so forth. The problem with this trickle down approach is two fold. First off, taxes pay for social services and infrastructure, which generally benefit the middle and working classes the most. The public schools we send our children to, the roads we travel to and from work, the police protection we receive, all of these benefits play a larger role in our lives than they do in the lives of the two upper classes for a variety of reasons. However, when revenues are decreased, spending almost always drops as well, and that spending is on programs that the two lower classes, which make up roughly 95% of the population, use and benefit from the most. So while the upper classes receive the lion’s share of the benefits, the lower classes (that’s right my fellow middle-class citizens, we are one of the lower classes and have much more in common with the working class than we do with the upper and elite classes) are left with a net loss due to decreased government services. It’s not just welfare queens that get less, as the elites would like us to think, consider funding for public education. How many schools have had their budgets for arts programs and sports cut or eliminated over the last two decades? Do you really think that stagnant teacher salaries don’t play a major role in the overall quality of the education your kids receive, from Kindergarten all the way to public universities? Do you think that the increased traffic on over congested freeways isn’t a result of less government spending on needed services and infrastructure?
The second problem with the trickle-down theory is that the wealth generally doesn’t trickle down. Wealthy elites didn’t get that way by accident, they spend much less proportionally of their income than do the working and middle class. They keep much more for themselves, and while some do create businesses and invest in the economy, most simply keep accumulating wealth and keep score against other elites in a big game of Monopoly where our houses and jobs are often the game pieces. When is the last time a bigwig at the company you work for offered to pass on their fat bonus check so that the rank and file worker could share in the wealth? What does effect us however, is the general price inflation in everything from a restaurant meal to a dress shirt that is caused not by a real increase in the cost of the raw materials or transportation costs of these goods and services, but by the fact the ultra wealthy can afford to pay exorbitant prices for such things, which does trickle down to the prices that the rest of us pay. Just take a look at the ads on pages 2 and 3 of the New York Times next time you’re in Starbucks and you can pick up a copy of the paper. You will find watches and handbags in the thousands, dress shirts in the hundreds, and real estate that is too ridiculous to even comprehend. The upper and especially the elite classes keep most of their money for themselves, that’s how they, or their predecessors got wealthy in the first place for the most part.
So if tax breaks and trickle down are losers, what about the free market laissez-faire philosophy practiced by pro-business Republicans? Surely this is as American as it gets, we don’t want to be tied down by our government, our ingenuity and creativity stifled by Big Brother. In theory it sounds good and it appeals to our sense of personal liberty and responsibility. If we work hard enough and play by the rules, we’ll get our fair share, and those that advocate for more socialism are just apologists for the poor, who are mostly shiftless and lazy ignorant fools undeserving of living in dignity according to this way of thinking. Pick yourself up by your bootstraps if you don’t like your station in life and work your way up the ladder the old-fashioned way, by earning it, not by handouts and government welfare programs. Socialism is equated with nations that many perceive to be weak and effeminate, like the French or other European countries that don’t boast of a giant economy and military (not to mention the enormous budget deficit) that we have in the U.S. Worse, it is associated with Communist regimes in the former Soviet Union and China, as if the two are inseparable and all socialist systems will inevitably lead to a communist government, which is simply not the case even though it obviously can and has ended up that way in certain nations, the two mentioned above being the most noteworthy. Mention socialism to the average American and you might as well say that you don’t support the flag and apple pie, or even worse, that you don’t want to follow the terrorists to the gates of hell. You might as well wear a sign that reads namby-pamby liberal apologist who wants to lose the war and who doesn’t put America first. I suppose that would need to be a pretty big sign, but I think the point has been made. While I am not arguing in favor of a Marxist economic system, I do believe that we need less laissez-faire, and more of a hands on approach that would redistribute wealth and level out the playing field. I do believe that we need less unfettered free-market capitalism and more sensible regulation in order to prevent situations that we currently find ourselves in. And would it be the worst thing ever if we weren’t such a giant economic and military power? Does France really have it that bad?
To be honest, I’m not really sure what the new guy’s economic policy would be, he either hasn’t articulated it well enough, or the media hasn’t given it the coverage it needs, probably some of both. But I would be willing to bet that it will be more sensible and humane than what twenty of the last twenty-eight years have given us. I believe that it would lead to a more just and equitable society as opposed to one with a wealth gap as great as at any time since the 1920’s, a period known as the Gilded Age, which of course preceded the Great Depression of the 1930’s. We are already teetering on the verge of a serious economic recession, and have been for the last year or so. The current crises, which will be the topic of my next political column, is taking us dangerously close to crossing the economic Rubicon, and it seems to me that another four years of Republican economic policy will almost assuredly take us over the edge. There are many issues on which this election will hinge, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, foreign policy in general, the increasing national debt, the environment, energy policy, and health care to name some of the most pressing issues. Yet the economy arguably affects the greatest number of people in the most direct way, and that remains the same, be it 1932, 1992, or the current election cycle. Let’s hope that the American people and the American media can stop their obsession with an obscure and mostly irrelevant remote governor and all the other distraction issues that get tons of coverage, and start focusing on the issues that matter the most, mainly the economy and how government policy is likely to impact it. If not, we really will be the stupid ones.
Then as now, the choice is stark, and historically the results of differing policies speak volumes. The twelve years of Reagan-Bush, when added to the eight years of Bush II have given us a twenty year record with which to judge the Republican policies of laissez-faire, free-market, trickle-down economics. The theory is quite simple, and quite appealing to our sense of independence as a people, and to our sense of belief in ourselves and our ability to rise up the ladder without assistance or hinderance on the part of the federal government. It also appeals to our desire to pay less taxes, which seems to be engrained in our DNA. Finally, it appeals to our belief that we will be better off economically in the future than we are now, we are constantly chasing the carrot of that next promotion, the sleeker car and the bigger house in the better neighborhood, and buy into the idea that if we just put a few extra hours a week in at the office and sacrifice spending our time and energy on more productive things, like our families and friends, and stuff we actually take pleasure in doing, that it will all pay off down the road. The problem is that the road always seems to have just one more bend to navigate before we get to the pot of gold, and the target keeps moving. The newest model is replaced by one even newer, the houses and neighborhoods keep getting bigger and farther out, and the few extra hours gradually increase to the point where a 40 hour work week seems like an antiquated notion, in the same vein as the two week family vacation, the $1000 mortgage payment, or $2 a gallon gas.
Republican economic policy promises less taxes for the middle class, which is appealing. Who among us wants to give up any more of our hard earned income than we need to, especially when we are giving it to a federal government that is notorious for waste and often corruption and fraud? What we fail to appreciate however is that historically when Republicans lower taxes for the middle class, our benefit is a drop in the bucket when compared to the break that the upper and elite classes get. So why should this concern us, if the upper and elite classes are better off, their wealth will somehow trickle down to the rest of us in the form of increased jobs and so forth. The problem with this trickle down approach is two fold. First off, taxes pay for social services and infrastructure, which generally benefit the middle and working classes the most. The public schools we send our children to, the roads we travel to and from work, the police protection we receive, all of these benefits play a larger role in our lives than they do in the lives of the two upper classes for a variety of reasons. However, when revenues are decreased, spending almost always drops as well, and that spending is on programs that the two lower classes, which make up roughly 95% of the population, use and benefit from the most. So while the upper classes receive the lion’s share of the benefits, the lower classes (that’s right my fellow middle-class citizens, we are one of the lower classes and have much more in common with the working class than we do with the upper and elite classes) are left with a net loss due to decreased government services. It’s not just welfare queens that get less, as the elites would like us to think, consider funding for public education. How many schools have had their budgets for arts programs and sports cut or eliminated over the last two decades? Do you really think that stagnant teacher salaries don’t play a major role in the overall quality of the education your kids receive, from Kindergarten all the way to public universities? Do you think that the increased traffic on over congested freeways isn’t a result of less government spending on needed services and infrastructure?
The second problem with the trickle-down theory is that the wealth generally doesn’t trickle down. Wealthy elites didn’t get that way by accident, they spend much less proportionally of their income than do the working and middle class. They keep much more for themselves, and while some do create businesses and invest in the economy, most simply keep accumulating wealth and keep score against other elites in a big game of Monopoly where our houses and jobs are often the game pieces. When is the last time a bigwig at the company you work for offered to pass on their fat bonus check so that the rank and file worker could share in the wealth? What does effect us however, is the general price inflation in everything from a restaurant meal to a dress shirt that is caused not by a real increase in the cost of the raw materials or transportation costs of these goods and services, but by the fact the ultra wealthy can afford to pay exorbitant prices for such things, which does trickle down to the prices that the rest of us pay. Just take a look at the ads on pages 2 and 3 of the New York Times next time you’re in Starbucks and you can pick up a copy of the paper. You will find watches and handbags in the thousands, dress shirts in the hundreds, and real estate that is too ridiculous to even comprehend. The upper and especially the elite classes keep most of their money for themselves, that’s how they, or their predecessors got wealthy in the first place for the most part.
So if tax breaks and trickle down are losers, what about the free market laissez-faire philosophy practiced by pro-business Republicans? Surely this is as American as it gets, we don’t want to be tied down by our government, our ingenuity and creativity stifled by Big Brother. In theory it sounds good and it appeals to our sense of personal liberty and responsibility. If we work hard enough and play by the rules, we’ll get our fair share, and those that advocate for more socialism are just apologists for the poor, who are mostly shiftless and lazy ignorant fools undeserving of living in dignity according to this way of thinking. Pick yourself up by your bootstraps if you don’t like your station in life and work your way up the ladder the old-fashioned way, by earning it, not by handouts and government welfare programs. Socialism is equated with nations that many perceive to be weak and effeminate, like the French or other European countries that don’t boast of a giant economy and military (not to mention the enormous budget deficit) that we have in the U.S. Worse, it is associated with Communist regimes in the former Soviet Union and China, as if the two are inseparable and all socialist systems will inevitably lead to a communist government, which is simply not the case even though it obviously can and has ended up that way in certain nations, the two mentioned above being the most noteworthy. Mention socialism to the average American and you might as well say that you don’t support the flag and apple pie, or even worse, that you don’t want to follow the terrorists to the gates of hell. You might as well wear a sign that reads namby-pamby liberal apologist who wants to lose the war and who doesn’t put America first. I suppose that would need to be a pretty big sign, but I think the point has been made. While I am not arguing in favor of a Marxist economic system, I do believe that we need less laissez-faire, and more of a hands on approach that would redistribute wealth and level out the playing field. I do believe that we need less unfettered free-market capitalism and more sensible regulation in order to prevent situations that we currently find ourselves in. And would it be the worst thing ever if we weren’t such a giant economic and military power? Does France really have it that bad?
To be honest, I’m not really sure what the new guy’s economic policy would be, he either hasn’t articulated it well enough, or the media hasn’t given it the coverage it needs, probably some of both. But I would be willing to bet that it will be more sensible and humane than what twenty of the last twenty-eight years have given us. I believe that it would lead to a more just and equitable society as opposed to one with a wealth gap as great as at any time since the 1920’s, a period known as the Gilded Age, which of course preceded the Great Depression of the 1930’s. We are already teetering on the verge of a serious economic recession, and have been for the last year or so. The current crises, which will be the topic of my next political column, is taking us dangerously close to crossing the economic Rubicon, and it seems to me that another four years of Republican economic policy will almost assuredly take us over the edge. There are many issues on which this election will hinge, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, foreign policy in general, the increasing national debt, the environment, energy policy, and health care to name some of the most pressing issues. Yet the economy arguably affects the greatest number of people in the most direct way, and that remains the same, be it 1932, 1992, or the current election cycle. Let’s hope that the American people and the American media can stop their obsession with an obscure and mostly irrelevant remote governor and all the other distraction issues that get tons of coverage, and start focusing on the issues that matter the most, mainly the economy and how government policy is likely to impact it. If not, we really will be the stupid ones.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Friday Night Column-Emptying the Notebook
Well, here I sit at Starbucks on Friday night for the sixth or seventh consecutive night, hanging out while my daughter Chloe is at rehearsal for her show which will be running next weekend. I'll miss this spot, although she will be starting rehearsal for the next show in a few weeks so I won't be away too long. It's interesting how quickly we get into and then out of routines, this has become my home away from home on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons, it is a comfortable spot to write, read, and grade papers, and the coffee is pretty darn good as well. I've been busy with school and life and haven't been able to write as much as I like to, but I have made a decision recently to slow down and stop working so hard because life is too short, and they just don't pay me enough to bury myself in work. Don't get me wrong, I will continue to pour my heart and soul into my work as it truly is a labor of love, but I believe strongly in balance, in keeping work in perspective, and in taking the time for my family, for my personal relationships, and for myself. Whatever work doesn't get done today will still be there tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. Spending precious time worrying about the load won't make it any smaller, and there are too many other important things in life to spend time and energy on. My goal for my writing is to get into a routine, I seem to work best when I set myself a schedule and adhere to it come rain or come shine, as I do with my exercise routine, and as I have been doing recently with my reading routine. So I am planning on writing a Friday night column, a Sunday morning column, and a Monday night sports column, and work will just have to fit into my schedule, not the other way around.
So let the games begin...The presidential campaign is entering new levels of silliness, my hope is that it is darkest before the dawn, the light being represented by the upcoming debates which bring with them the hope that this will turn into a discussion and debate on the issues. You know, those little things like economic and tax policy, the federal budget and spending, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the environment, health care, that kind of stuff. Instead we have been treated to a steady dose of Sarah Palin and more information on Alaskan state politics and geography than anyone should have to be exposed to in one lifetime. If she decides to recreate the famous land bridge trek across the Bering Strait to meet with Putin and Medvedev on the other side with her husband tagging along for the journey then let me know, otherwise enough already. It's something how someone nobody had ever heard of a month ago is all of a sudden the number one news maker. I saw on the TV at the gym the other night that Dr. Phil was on one of the bobble head cable shows discussing the Palin effect and the thought occurred to me that this probably isn't what the ancient Greeks did on the acropolis in Athens. But then again, they didn't have cable so maybe that's not a fair comparison to make.
Not to be outdone, the two actual candidates, Obama and McCain, you remember them, are engaged in a back and forth shouting match that makes you think if they made a movie based on this campaign, Michael Douglass and Kathleen Turner could play the lead roles. So much for a new kind of politics and a campaign that stayed out of the mud, we are being treated to a tit for tat, charge-counter charge that rivals the best of 'em. I know that many say that Obama needs to take off the gloves and he certainly has, unfortunately he also runs the risk of alienating many of his supporters who are losing faith and interest in his message as he continues to relentlessly pound on John McCain. There are also those who say that the media only covers the mudslinging and that is very true, but don't they pay suits crazy money to manage the media message, and why are those advisers not doing a better job of getting the positive, inspiring, hopeful, and issues oriented message out there? Last time I checked, the Obama camp was on the right side on all of the major issues, the economy, the war in Iraq, the environment, health care, taxes, and the list goes on. So why would you allow yourself to get bogged down in a schoolyard shoving match with an obviously inferior candidate. Memo to Obama, we know McCain is basically a joke as a candidate, and the people that don't realize that by now probably aren't gonna catch the train before it leaves the station, they're either died in the wool conservatives who are voting on principle, which I respect by the way even though I disagree with many of their assertions and beliefs, or they are just too simple or lazy or in some cases racist to see what time it really is, and in that case you're fighting a losing battle. I've said it before and I'll say it again, dance with who brung ya' and stay on message and this election should be a cakewalk. Keep up with the anti-McCain rant and you can start planning for your next Senate election in two years while the rest of us get treated to more trickle-down economics and rah rah America first nonsense and an inane foreign policy that weakens our standing in the world and further bankrupts our treasury, not to mention getting more of our soldiers killed for no particularly good reason.
The other big issue of course is the stock market crash, the sky falling on Wall Street. I have to admit that I really don't care too much about all of this, and I must also admit that I even take a perverse pleasure in seeing it happen. Not that I want to see people hurting, but when most of them are rich, greedy, soulless corporate types and financial tycoons I can't say I'm losing any sleep at night. If it does trickle down to the common man I suppose I'll pay attention, but that is still many steps away and I'm too old and life is too short to worry about what may or may not come down the pike, especially when I don't have a lick of control over it one way or another. I made the brash prediction back when the market was approaching 14K around this time last year that it was bound to come crashing down, I set the number at 12K by the Super Bowl, or February of 2008. We are well past that date but also well past that number, in fact I would think that 12K on the Dow would be looking as good to many as $3 a gallon gas right about now. Too many people have been getting too rich off of doing nothing more than shuffling paper around for way too long, and if those same people are taking a bath now so be it. My sympathies lie with the peasant who struggles to pay his bills on time and keep his family afloat, not with the elites who benefit off the toil of others without contributing anything to the betterment of our society. For all I care, the whole thing can burn to the ground, I stopped believing in the stock market and unfettered capitalism awhile ago, and the financial industry, along with the mortgage industry are simply unnecessary layers that produce nothing of real value to our economy, while the insane amounts of money that these people make only contributes to price inflation that is felt most by the majority of us that are in the middle and bottom of the pyramid whose labor keeps the whole thing propped up.
Lest I end this on a bitter note, and since I'm not religious nor do I own a gun so I have nothing to cling to, I'll bring the focus back to things that matter so much more than politics and stock indexes. My daughter is about to perform in her first school concert playing her bass, and then will be singing and performing in the musical revue "100 years of Broadway" next weekend with her musical theatre group. My mom will coming out for the shows and so I will get to spend time with my three favorite women, my daughter, my wife, and my mom. My son Jake is on an undefeated freshman football team at O'Connor High, they just defeated perennial powerhouse Peoria in a nail biter, 15-14 to get to 3-0. Jake is excelling on both sides of the ball, as an offensive guard and as a defensive tackle, and he is also pulling straight A's at the mid-quarter which includes two honors classes. My wife is as charming and beautiful as ever, and continues to put up with me despite all of my quirks and idiosyncrasies. I have gotten my 5 mile run under 8 minute pace, which is a big deal for me, and the weather here in the desert is showing some ever so slight signs of finally cooling down, which is a good thing because the a/c in my classroom has been out for the past two days. The baseball playoffs are almost here, the football season is in full swing, and the weekend is upon us, so all in all I'd have to say that life is good. No matter who gets elected president and what happens to the stock market, or for that matter to the price of tea in China, I'll continue to enjoy every day and to be thankful for the opportunity to do what I do and to be around the people that I am blessed to have in my life. If I can work a little smack talk into the equation, all the better, so I'm signing off until Sunday morning and we chat again.
So let the games begin...The presidential campaign is entering new levels of silliness, my hope is that it is darkest before the dawn, the light being represented by the upcoming debates which bring with them the hope that this will turn into a discussion and debate on the issues. You know, those little things like economic and tax policy, the federal budget and spending, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the environment, health care, that kind of stuff. Instead we have been treated to a steady dose of Sarah Palin and more information on Alaskan state politics and geography than anyone should have to be exposed to in one lifetime. If she decides to recreate the famous land bridge trek across the Bering Strait to meet with Putin and Medvedev on the other side with her husband tagging along for the journey then let me know, otherwise enough already. It's something how someone nobody had ever heard of a month ago is all of a sudden the number one news maker. I saw on the TV at the gym the other night that Dr. Phil was on one of the bobble head cable shows discussing the Palin effect and the thought occurred to me that this probably isn't what the ancient Greeks did on the acropolis in Athens. But then again, they didn't have cable so maybe that's not a fair comparison to make.
Not to be outdone, the two actual candidates, Obama and McCain, you remember them, are engaged in a back and forth shouting match that makes you think if they made a movie based on this campaign, Michael Douglass and Kathleen Turner could play the lead roles. So much for a new kind of politics and a campaign that stayed out of the mud, we are being treated to a tit for tat, charge-counter charge that rivals the best of 'em. I know that many say that Obama needs to take off the gloves and he certainly has, unfortunately he also runs the risk of alienating many of his supporters who are losing faith and interest in his message as he continues to relentlessly pound on John McCain. There are also those who say that the media only covers the mudslinging and that is very true, but don't they pay suits crazy money to manage the media message, and why are those advisers not doing a better job of getting the positive, inspiring, hopeful, and issues oriented message out there? Last time I checked, the Obama camp was on the right side on all of the major issues, the economy, the war in Iraq, the environment, health care, taxes, and the list goes on. So why would you allow yourself to get bogged down in a schoolyard shoving match with an obviously inferior candidate. Memo to Obama, we know McCain is basically a joke as a candidate, and the people that don't realize that by now probably aren't gonna catch the train before it leaves the station, they're either died in the wool conservatives who are voting on principle, which I respect by the way even though I disagree with many of their assertions and beliefs, or they are just too simple or lazy or in some cases racist to see what time it really is, and in that case you're fighting a losing battle. I've said it before and I'll say it again, dance with who brung ya' and stay on message and this election should be a cakewalk. Keep up with the anti-McCain rant and you can start planning for your next Senate election in two years while the rest of us get treated to more trickle-down economics and rah rah America first nonsense and an inane foreign policy that weakens our standing in the world and further bankrupts our treasury, not to mention getting more of our soldiers killed for no particularly good reason.
The other big issue of course is the stock market crash, the sky falling on Wall Street. I have to admit that I really don't care too much about all of this, and I must also admit that I even take a perverse pleasure in seeing it happen. Not that I want to see people hurting, but when most of them are rich, greedy, soulless corporate types and financial tycoons I can't say I'm losing any sleep at night. If it does trickle down to the common man I suppose I'll pay attention, but that is still many steps away and I'm too old and life is too short to worry about what may or may not come down the pike, especially when I don't have a lick of control over it one way or another. I made the brash prediction back when the market was approaching 14K around this time last year that it was bound to come crashing down, I set the number at 12K by the Super Bowl, or February of 2008. We are well past that date but also well past that number, in fact I would think that 12K on the Dow would be looking as good to many as $3 a gallon gas right about now. Too many people have been getting too rich off of doing nothing more than shuffling paper around for way too long, and if those same people are taking a bath now so be it. My sympathies lie with the peasant who struggles to pay his bills on time and keep his family afloat, not with the elites who benefit off the toil of others without contributing anything to the betterment of our society. For all I care, the whole thing can burn to the ground, I stopped believing in the stock market and unfettered capitalism awhile ago, and the financial industry, along with the mortgage industry are simply unnecessary layers that produce nothing of real value to our economy, while the insane amounts of money that these people make only contributes to price inflation that is felt most by the majority of us that are in the middle and bottom of the pyramid whose labor keeps the whole thing propped up.
Lest I end this on a bitter note, and since I'm not religious nor do I own a gun so I have nothing to cling to, I'll bring the focus back to things that matter so much more than politics and stock indexes. My daughter is about to perform in her first school concert playing her bass, and then will be singing and performing in the musical revue "100 years of Broadway" next weekend with her musical theatre group. My mom will coming out for the shows and so I will get to spend time with my three favorite women, my daughter, my wife, and my mom. My son Jake is on an undefeated freshman football team at O'Connor High, they just defeated perennial powerhouse Peoria in a nail biter, 15-14 to get to 3-0. Jake is excelling on both sides of the ball, as an offensive guard and as a defensive tackle, and he is also pulling straight A's at the mid-quarter which includes two honors classes. My wife is as charming and beautiful as ever, and continues to put up with me despite all of my quirks and idiosyncrasies. I have gotten my 5 mile run under 8 minute pace, which is a big deal for me, and the weather here in the desert is showing some ever so slight signs of finally cooling down, which is a good thing because the a/c in my classroom has been out for the past two days. The baseball playoffs are almost here, the football season is in full swing, and the weekend is upon us, so all in all I'd have to say that life is good. No matter who gets elected president and what happens to the stock market, or for that matter to the price of tea in China, I'll continue to enjoy every day and to be thankful for the opportunity to do what I do and to be around the people that I am blessed to have in my life. If I can work a little smack talk into the equation, all the better, so I'm signing off until Sunday morning and we chat again.
Monday, September 8, 2008
NFL Week in Review-First Edition
Just a few words about this column, which I am hoping to do as a weekly on Monday nights, once the eggs are cooling and the butter is getting hard on the Monday night game, which as I write this, the refrigerator light is certainly out on the Oakland Raiders, my beloved silver and black as they take another shellacking on opening night. I will try to recap the week that was in 500 words or less, my version of the old two minute highlight show that used to run at halftime of Monday Night Football, back in the days when Howard Cosell still manned the booth and before Sportscenter ran highlights on a seemingly endless loop, backed up by countless and mostly irrelevant opinions by a bunch of former players that rarely enlighten us, but prove the validity of hindsight being 20-20.
A word of caution, I don’t actually watch most of these games, and I only watch the highlights in passing, but I have watched plenty of sports and certainly enough football over the years to be able to get the important stuff from what I do take the time to check out. You won’t read about player stats, passer ratings, and if I even mention fantasy football somebody take out a gun and shoot my laptop right out from under me. I don’t gamble anymore so point spreads are irrelevant to me, and the only over/unders I’m interested in is my word count and my hours of sleep I get at night. This column is for my dad, who doesn’t watch the games but likes to keep up with what is going on, and for all of you out there like him, who want to be able to carry on a conversation around the proverbial water cooler without giving up your entire Sunday watching all the action on DirecTV, where you can now apparently not only get all the games for an exorbitant fee, but you can watch them all at once on a single channel. But I digress, and my word count for this innagural recap column may exceed 500 words, but this will be the last time I exceed my limit, I mean it. Just like I am now officially done betting on football, after now having to pull double lunch duty next week while my smug Bronco fan colleague gets a week free of manning the courtyard. No more betting on football, I mean it. Oh by the way, the word count limit is going to 1000, and I’m only going to bet on division games, and I mean that!
So here goes: Tom Brady is out for the season, and with him go the hopes of the six state New England region, not to mention all of the 21st centruy Patriot fans who will now be seen scraping the window stickers off of their cars and looking for a new bandwagon to jump on. The Patriots narrowly beat the woeful Chiefs but lost their franchise QB, the epitome of winning the surge but losing the war. The team that I have winning the Super Bowl this year, the San Diego Superchargers went down as well, at home no less to the Carolina Panthers. For now I’m staying on the bandwagon, I hear that Carolina may actually be decent so this loss may not prove as devastating to the lightning bolts as it may seem at first glance. The other AFC favorite, the Indianapolis Colts also lost at home, to the Chicago Bears, and to me this is the beginning of the end for the Colts. While star QB Payton Manning is recovering from injury and getting his timing and rhythm back, I sense a team that has had a nice run for the last 4-5 years, but has not made any substantial upgrades, which is about to catch up to them. The team that I like to usurp them is Tennessee, and my favorite young QB Vince Young, the Terry Bradshaw of his generation in that his stats are nothing to get the fantasy geeks fired up about, but he just knows how to win games, which to my old school way of thinking is all that matters.
For the NFC, the defending champion Giants are 1-0 and look poised to continue the run they began in January of last year that carried them all the way to the promised land, and the Cowboys won handily and look poised to challenge the Giants for conference supremacy in what should be a coming of age year for Tony Romo, much as last season was for Eli Manning. The Green Bay Packers got off to a rousing start in the post-Brett Favre era as Aaron Rodgers got the Pack back in the win column by defeating division rival and expected contender Minnesota.
Speaking of Favre, he won his opener with the Jets, but hold the celebrations as he merely beat the Miami Dolphins, last year’s worst team in football. This year’s worst team may be a battle between the former LA duo of the Rams and Raiders, both of whom got or are getting completely waxed by teams that probably won’t end up better than 8-8 by the time it is all over. 8 wins combined may be a stretch for these two teams however, I’m only hoping that I get to wear my new Jamarcus Russell jersey a few times before it becomes as obsolete as the Matt Leinart jerseys that are moving from the malls to the park and swaps here in AZ. Speaking of AZ, the always lowly Cardinals are actually in first place alone after a week one win, led by Kurt Warner, and while that may or may not hold, they are in probably the worst division in football and could actually become the first 7-9 team to make the NFL playoffs. Which would be fitting since the Arizona Diamondbacks could become the first 80-82 team to make the MLB playoffs, but we are getting into a different topic here.
All in all it was an interesting first week, and although I didn’t actually watch more than a few minutes of game action, I feel like I’ve got a handle on what went down and am looking forward to next week’s action. Hopefully you are as well, and hopefully there will be some decent games on the tube this weekend, which might prompt me to plant myself in front of the TV on Sunday, at least for a half or so. I’m just glad that I don’t know any Chiefs fans at work yet, because the last thing I want is to end up pulling double study hall duty next month after the Raiders-Chiefs game. Lastly, I’m taking the over on the word count and the under on my sleep count, and then I’m done gambling. That’s right, I really mean it.
A word of caution, I don’t actually watch most of these games, and I only watch the highlights in passing, but I have watched plenty of sports and certainly enough football over the years to be able to get the important stuff from what I do take the time to check out. You won’t read about player stats, passer ratings, and if I even mention fantasy football somebody take out a gun and shoot my laptop right out from under me. I don’t gamble anymore so point spreads are irrelevant to me, and the only over/unders I’m interested in is my word count and my hours of sleep I get at night. This column is for my dad, who doesn’t watch the games but likes to keep up with what is going on, and for all of you out there like him, who want to be able to carry on a conversation around the proverbial water cooler without giving up your entire Sunday watching all the action on DirecTV, where you can now apparently not only get all the games for an exorbitant fee, but you can watch them all at once on a single channel. But I digress, and my word count for this innagural recap column may exceed 500 words, but this will be the last time I exceed my limit, I mean it. Just like I am now officially done betting on football, after now having to pull double lunch duty next week while my smug Bronco fan colleague gets a week free of manning the courtyard. No more betting on football, I mean it. Oh by the way, the word count limit is going to 1000, and I’m only going to bet on division games, and I mean that!
So here goes: Tom Brady is out for the season, and with him go the hopes of the six state New England region, not to mention all of the 21st centruy Patriot fans who will now be seen scraping the window stickers off of their cars and looking for a new bandwagon to jump on. The Patriots narrowly beat the woeful Chiefs but lost their franchise QB, the epitome of winning the surge but losing the war. The team that I have winning the Super Bowl this year, the San Diego Superchargers went down as well, at home no less to the Carolina Panthers. For now I’m staying on the bandwagon, I hear that Carolina may actually be decent so this loss may not prove as devastating to the lightning bolts as it may seem at first glance. The other AFC favorite, the Indianapolis Colts also lost at home, to the Chicago Bears, and to me this is the beginning of the end for the Colts. While star QB Payton Manning is recovering from injury and getting his timing and rhythm back, I sense a team that has had a nice run for the last 4-5 years, but has not made any substantial upgrades, which is about to catch up to them. The team that I like to usurp them is Tennessee, and my favorite young QB Vince Young, the Terry Bradshaw of his generation in that his stats are nothing to get the fantasy geeks fired up about, but he just knows how to win games, which to my old school way of thinking is all that matters.
For the NFC, the defending champion Giants are 1-0 and look poised to continue the run they began in January of last year that carried them all the way to the promised land, and the Cowboys won handily and look poised to challenge the Giants for conference supremacy in what should be a coming of age year for Tony Romo, much as last season was for Eli Manning. The Green Bay Packers got off to a rousing start in the post-Brett Favre era as Aaron Rodgers got the Pack back in the win column by defeating division rival and expected contender Minnesota.
Speaking of Favre, he won his opener with the Jets, but hold the celebrations as he merely beat the Miami Dolphins, last year’s worst team in football. This year’s worst team may be a battle between the former LA duo of the Rams and Raiders, both of whom got or are getting completely waxed by teams that probably won’t end up better than 8-8 by the time it is all over. 8 wins combined may be a stretch for these two teams however, I’m only hoping that I get to wear my new Jamarcus Russell jersey a few times before it becomes as obsolete as the Matt Leinart jerseys that are moving from the malls to the park and swaps here in AZ. Speaking of AZ, the always lowly Cardinals are actually in first place alone after a week one win, led by Kurt Warner, and while that may or may not hold, they are in probably the worst division in football and could actually become the first 7-9 team to make the NFL playoffs. Which would be fitting since the Arizona Diamondbacks could become the first 80-82 team to make the MLB playoffs, but we are getting into a different topic here.
All in all it was an interesting first week, and although I didn’t actually watch more than a few minutes of game action, I feel like I’ve got a handle on what went down and am looking forward to next week’s action. Hopefully you are as well, and hopefully there will be some decent games on the tube this weekend, which might prompt me to plant myself in front of the TV on Sunday, at least for a half or so. I’m just glad that I don’t know any Chiefs fans at work yet, because the last thing I want is to end up pulling double study hall duty next month after the Raiders-Chiefs game. Lastly, I’m taking the over on the word count and the under on my sleep count, and then I’m done gambling. That’s right, I really mean it.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Election 2008-The View From the Cheap Seats
From where I sit, things are starting to shape up nicely for Obama supporters, for the Democratic Party, for the nation, and for that matter for the world as a whole. I can feel the 8 year run of incompetence, corruption, and complete disdain for everything from the constitution to good old-fashioned common sense nearing an end, and we will all be the better for it. Not that I expect things to drastically change overnight, just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither will America be rebuilt in a few bold strokes, the hole is too big and the task too difficult to accomplish with quickness or with ease. But just as FDR’s election in 1932 didn’t immediately lift the nation out of the Depression, Obama’s election in 2008 will at least lay the groundwork for helping us to get out of our funk. Just knowing that someone with intelligence and understanding of the basic causes of our problems is on the job will be enough to get this great nation back on its feet, and that is not only good for us, but for the rest of the West as well, as we are still the leader of the free world as the saying goes, and despite our diminished standing, I still believe that the rest of the West, and in many cases the non-Western world is looking to us to get our act together.
Why the optimism you may ask, when the media and the pundits and many polls show this to be a close election, with the candidates seemingly running neck and neck, down to the wire, and all the other great horse racing analogies you can think of. The answer is simple, I don’t believe in the media, the pundits, or the polls. What I do believe in is the common sense and sound judgment of the American voting public. Of course only time will tell, but for what it’s worth two months before the election, this is how I am handicapping the horse race.
I see Obama in a landslide, winning 35-40 states, including most of the big electoral prizes. I see traditional Democrats, whose registration numbers far outpace those of registered Republicans, showing up on November 4 to cast their votes for Obama. I also expect that young people, while traditionally unreliable, will prove to be a different lot and will realize that we are in a different time. I believe that this generation will prove to be the most politically active since the 60’s, and may end up being the most effective generation in our nations relatively brief history, and that they will show up in record numbers and cast their votes for Obama. I also think that the independent voters will see through the McCain façade of maverickism and realize that this would-be emperor indeed has no clothes, that what he is offering is simply more of the same ideas and policies that have put us in such dire shape. Lastly, I believe that Hillary supporters will see the election for what it is, a choice between two people, one who is squarely on the right side of most issues of importance to women, the other clearly on the wrong side of these issues. Sarah Palin may be a pit bull with lipstick, but she is also a social conservative, anti-abortion, right-wing hard-liner who will not appeal to the majority of voters who supported Clinton’s candidacy.
The polls are an indicator of what the people who are polled think, and nothing more or less than that. I do not put much credence into the idea that you can poll a couple thousand people and extrapolate that to a voting population that numbers in the many tens of millions. There are too many leaps of faith required to buy into that notion. As for the media, I will simply pose this set of questions. Is it not in their best interests for this to be a close race? Will that not produce better TV ratings and sell more papers? Isn’t it then easy to see how they would make the race appear to be closer than it is? When watching a football game, you don’t hear the announcers claim just before halftime that the game is pretty much a done deal, you all might as well flip the channel or go out and do some yard work. Can you really expect the corporate owned and profit driven mass media to do likewise? As they say on the Fox News Network, we report and you decide, so you tell me, is the mission of today’s media to serve as the fourth estate, to watch over and report on the workings of the government, to thoroughly and objectively investigate and report, or is it simply to find, and often times to create controversy because that is what has the biggest impact on the bottom line? I propose, you decide.
I do honestly believe that our two party political system will be best served when it is no longer merely a two party system. However, before that occurs, the reality is that we are stuck with what we have, and in that system, I assert that it is in the best interests of the nation that we have two strong and competitive parties. Unfortunately, we don’t have that now, what we have is a Republican party that is near bankrupt when it comes to big ideas. We have a party that has exhausted its energy on appealing to social and religious conservatives, that has squandered its reputation as the party of small government and fiscal discipline, that has run out of chances to show that trickle down economics benefits anyone but the economic elites, and that has made a shambles out of foreign policy to the extent that the architect of peace through strength, Ronald Reagan, must be doing summersaults in his grave.
We also have a Democratic party that has failed miserably at the Congressional level to bring about any significant reform in the last two years on the economy, the environment, or education, and has steadfastly refused to address the war in Iraq in a serious matter, preferring to hide behind a thin majority and seeming to prefer an election issue to the pursuit of moral and ethical public policy.
So we are left with an individual in Barack Obama that offers us one last hope for helping to start the long and arduous process of digging out from the hole we have been put in, and in many ways have put ourselves in. One man can’t do it alone, but the hope is that he can inspire and motivate and lead countless citizens to step up to the plate and do their bit for the good old U.S. of A, and that in doing so maybe we can not only extricate ourselves from a major mess, but that we can rediscover our national soul in the process. In answer to the question posed by JFK nearly 50 years ago, what we can do for our country, for starters, is to elect as our next president the most intelligent, articulate, and inspiring leader since Kennedy. This will by no means solve our problems by itself, but if we continue to answer Kennedy’s call to serve our country, we just might be amazed by the results we get.
Why the optimism you may ask, when the media and the pundits and many polls show this to be a close election, with the candidates seemingly running neck and neck, down to the wire, and all the other great horse racing analogies you can think of. The answer is simple, I don’t believe in the media, the pundits, or the polls. What I do believe in is the common sense and sound judgment of the American voting public. Of course only time will tell, but for what it’s worth two months before the election, this is how I am handicapping the horse race.
I see Obama in a landslide, winning 35-40 states, including most of the big electoral prizes. I see traditional Democrats, whose registration numbers far outpace those of registered Republicans, showing up on November 4 to cast their votes for Obama. I also expect that young people, while traditionally unreliable, will prove to be a different lot and will realize that we are in a different time. I believe that this generation will prove to be the most politically active since the 60’s, and may end up being the most effective generation in our nations relatively brief history, and that they will show up in record numbers and cast their votes for Obama. I also think that the independent voters will see through the McCain façade of maverickism and realize that this would-be emperor indeed has no clothes, that what he is offering is simply more of the same ideas and policies that have put us in such dire shape. Lastly, I believe that Hillary supporters will see the election for what it is, a choice between two people, one who is squarely on the right side of most issues of importance to women, the other clearly on the wrong side of these issues. Sarah Palin may be a pit bull with lipstick, but she is also a social conservative, anti-abortion, right-wing hard-liner who will not appeal to the majority of voters who supported Clinton’s candidacy.
The polls are an indicator of what the people who are polled think, and nothing more or less than that. I do not put much credence into the idea that you can poll a couple thousand people and extrapolate that to a voting population that numbers in the many tens of millions. There are too many leaps of faith required to buy into that notion. As for the media, I will simply pose this set of questions. Is it not in their best interests for this to be a close race? Will that not produce better TV ratings and sell more papers? Isn’t it then easy to see how they would make the race appear to be closer than it is? When watching a football game, you don’t hear the announcers claim just before halftime that the game is pretty much a done deal, you all might as well flip the channel or go out and do some yard work. Can you really expect the corporate owned and profit driven mass media to do likewise? As they say on the Fox News Network, we report and you decide, so you tell me, is the mission of today’s media to serve as the fourth estate, to watch over and report on the workings of the government, to thoroughly and objectively investigate and report, or is it simply to find, and often times to create controversy because that is what has the biggest impact on the bottom line? I propose, you decide.
I do honestly believe that our two party political system will be best served when it is no longer merely a two party system. However, before that occurs, the reality is that we are stuck with what we have, and in that system, I assert that it is in the best interests of the nation that we have two strong and competitive parties. Unfortunately, we don’t have that now, what we have is a Republican party that is near bankrupt when it comes to big ideas. We have a party that has exhausted its energy on appealing to social and religious conservatives, that has squandered its reputation as the party of small government and fiscal discipline, that has run out of chances to show that trickle down economics benefits anyone but the economic elites, and that has made a shambles out of foreign policy to the extent that the architect of peace through strength, Ronald Reagan, must be doing summersaults in his grave.
We also have a Democratic party that has failed miserably at the Congressional level to bring about any significant reform in the last two years on the economy, the environment, or education, and has steadfastly refused to address the war in Iraq in a serious matter, preferring to hide behind a thin majority and seeming to prefer an election issue to the pursuit of moral and ethical public policy.
So we are left with an individual in Barack Obama that offers us one last hope for helping to start the long and arduous process of digging out from the hole we have been put in, and in many ways have put ourselves in. One man can’t do it alone, but the hope is that he can inspire and motivate and lead countless citizens to step up to the plate and do their bit for the good old U.S. of A, and that in doing so maybe we can not only extricate ourselves from a major mess, but that we can rediscover our national soul in the process. In answer to the question posed by JFK nearly 50 years ago, what we can do for our country, for starters, is to elect as our next president the most intelligent, articulate, and inspiring leader since Kennedy. This will by no means solve our problems by itself, but if we continue to answer Kennedy’s call to serve our country, we just might be amazed by the results we get.
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