My oldest brother, who fought in 3 wars, was a gun enthusiast. He owned quite a collection and took care of them lovingly, just as he did his MG convertible, his Dunhill pipes and other possesions. He liked good scotch, sported a slightly dented Zippo lighter and wouldn't have accepted an AK 47 as a gift. He wasn't a member of the NRA, the National Rifle Association, to my knowledge. Got the picture?
Many gun enthusiasts have very different views. They own guns because they're proclaiming their fear and loathing of the federal government, for whatever reasons, and their paranoid determination to protect their gun rights under the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution. When President Obama became president in 2008, they actually believed he would try to take their guns away and they bought as many guns as they could afford, just as they are now, following the Aurora, CO theater massacre. It's astounding. These gun owners are regularly enflamed by Wayne La Pierre and the National Rifle Association, which is the most powerful and aggressive lobbying organization in the country. Members of Congress are terrified of the NRA and will not dispute even it's most outrageous claims against the president or anyone in their way. They have won so much to guarantee people the unlimited ability to own as many guns as they want, the only goal left for them is to have the government give each baby born in America a nice new 45 cal. automatic.
We know that the leadership of the NRA wants to continue to lead their organizatiion as long as poissible, but what about the gun owners they represent? Aside from white militia settlements in the hills of some states, and the people who have moved on from paint balling, I think we are looking at some very angry and bewildered men seeking to deal somehow with the immense social changes they have experienced in recent decades.
The role of men has changed and so has the very definition of what it means to be a man and they don't like any of it. Often passed over because of their educational limitations, income inadequacy inevitably moves into their bedrooms. Their very manhood is threatened and so they carry weapons to improve their self image and seek to return to the good ole, less complicated days of yore.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
$32,000,000,000,000 and Counting
A recent report by a former chief economist at McKinsey & Co indicates that super rich Americans have stashed away some $32 TRILLION in secret foreign bank accounts to avoid paying taxes on their good fortune. It doesn't surprise me much because everyone knows there are two parts to becoming super rich. One is to make the big, big bucks and the second is to avoid paying taxes on them. Each requires special skills.
Last week Mitt Romney was insisting that he would reveal no more than two years' tax returns in his bid for the presidency. His wife, Ann, said "We've given you people (the press) more than enough." Clearly, they don't want anyone combing through their records because former Gov. Romney knows all the tricks of making big money and taking advantage of every option to keep it. Maybe that explains why the Republican reaction was so strong when President Obama (and Elizabeth Warren) commented that all American entrepreneurs benefit from outside, read that government, help in putting their fortunes together.
If someone gets super rich, in his mind, it's because he is a genius, able to struggle successfully against labor unions, hostile environmental regulations, foreign competition and a host of other hurdles put in his way by an out of touch government who won't even let him bribe anyone. He is a super hero entitled to 100% of his winnings and indebted to no one, least of all the government at any level. Corporate welfare is a figment of some lousy Democratic leach who doesn't know what it is to meet a payroll. Highways, railroads, international trade organizations, patent protections, special deals that abound, the Commerce Dept. etc. mean nothing. "I did it my way," like Frank Sinatra, and now it's mine and if you're nice, maybe I'll give some of it away to my college or church. Some of these moguls may not truly understand what the government has done to help them, but most do and chose to take a rather haughty stance on the issue. If anyone doesn't like it, too bad. Billionaires don't need anyone. In fact, what the big dogs fear most is being a sucker or being fooled like some common worker who commutes, no matter how nice his office.
Does this sound about right? Believe me, it is. Many really big shots are very generous. They build hospital wings, college dormitories and endow professorships, the arts and and more. They expect thanks and recognition, but they don't want oversight or inquiries about where they put their hard earned money. Like Mr. Romney, they will pay whatever the law demands, but they will work very hard to keep that amount down (it stifles their creativity, you see) and to hide as much as possible. That's just good business isn't it? The answer is no, if you are anything more than an egomaniac who won't or can't see beyond your own interests. "Think not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," said Jack Kennedy and it was good advice. As for those secret account people and their $32 trillion, let's draft them or force them to do community service, but not until they have been outed and penalized for their lack of loyalty to the country that helped them do so well.
Last week Mitt Romney was insisting that he would reveal no more than two years' tax returns in his bid for the presidency. His wife, Ann, said "We've given you people (the press) more than enough." Clearly, they don't want anyone combing through their records because former Gov. Romney knows all the tricks of making big money and taking advantage of every option to keep it. Maybe that explains why the Republican reaction was so strong when President Obama (and Elizabeth Warren) commented that all American entrepreneurs benefit from outside, read that government, help in putting their fortunes together.
If someone gets super rich, in his mind, it's because he is a genius, able to struggle successfully against labor unions, hostile environmental regulations, foreign competition and a host of other hurdles put in his way by an out of touch government who won't even let him bribe anyone. He is a super hero entitled to 100% of his winnings and indebted to no one, least of all the government at any level. Corporate welfare is a figment of some lousy Democratic leach who doesn't know what it is to meet a payroll. Highways, railroads, international trade organizations, patent protections, special deals that abound, the Commerce Dept. etc. mean nothing. "I did it my way," like Frank Sinatra, and now it's mine and if you're nice, maybe I'll give some of it away to my college or church. Some of these moguls may not truly understand what the government has done to help them, but most do and chose to take a rather haughty stance on the issue. If anyone doesn't like it, too bad. Billionaires don't need anyone. In fact, what the big dogs fear most is being a sucker or being fooled like some common worker who commutes, no matter how nice his office.
Does this sound about right? Believe me, it is. Many really big shots are very generous. They build hospital wings, college dormitories and endow professorships, the arts and and more. They expect thanks and recognition, but they don't want oversight or inquiries about where they put their hard earned money. Like Mr. Romney, they will pay whatever the law demands, but they will work very hard to keep that amount down (it stifles their creativity, you see) and to hide as much as possible. That's just good business isn't it? The answer is no, if you are anything more than an egomaniac who won't or can't see beyond your own interests. "Think not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," said Jack Kennedy and it was good advice. As for those secret account people and their $32 trillion, let's draft them or force them to do community service, but not until they have been outed and penalized for their lack of loyalty to the country that helped them do so well.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Libor, Zoloft and the Good News
Libor is the London Interbank Offered Rate which determines the cost of trillions of dollars of loans banks make to each other every day. It may concern you and me in ways we do not understand.
Zoloft is a drug which many anxious people use as they contemplate the ravages of time upon their minds and bodies and the results, or lack of them, they have achieved during the time period under consideration.
The good news is that neither really matters.
To be more explicit, recent revelations about rigging of the Libor rate reveal business corruption almost everywhere on an unprecedented scale. If you are a crook, Libor is the Triple Crown, the Academy Award, and the Mega Lotto prize combined. Be prepared to hear a great deal about the Libor scandal unless, of course, it all gets swept under the rug as too big to prosecute. In either case, keep your Zoloft handy because it is immensely depressing.
Think for a moment about opportunities almost everyone in business has observed to go bad, about deals proposed that were shady or choices made for fast but improper profit, or accommodation. (Just look the other way, Joe.) They abound in many, even most business and professional careers of every type. Individual people failing to do what they know is right and instead doing something they know is wrong; that's what's sick in America and the entire world today.That's what is eating away at the pillars of our society in America. Do we not realize that when someone proffers such opportunities to us it is actually a personal insult, not a useful collaboration possibility? Men quickly recognize a bar solicitation, but they sometimes miss the full implications of other more subtle choices that wouldn't withstand examination in broad daylight. But wait, here's the good news
Our travails today are just a wrinkle in the fabric of time, a down tick, if you will, in a chart that shows a powerful, even inexorable, upward trend. We have recognized in Democracy a form of government that gives people control of their destinies and what a fight it has been to vanquish kings and empires, etc. to arrive where we now are. Our present government in the United States has been called dysfunctional, but everyone knows how to fix it and it will be done!
Similarly, capitalism has soundly defeated communism and today offers its benefits to millions more yearning to be free and prosperous. Is it perfect? No way, but once again, everyone knows what has to be done to clean it up and make it better and that too will be done!
Lastly, the really Good News! We have in Christianity the religion built on love and redemption that makes people literally new and gives us hope for the life everlasting. Our God will raise up for us new leaders, more skilled and more dedicated than in the past and they will shun Wall Street and persevere in the trenches where the big decisions about right and wrong are made 24/7. Let it be so!
Zoloft is a drug which many anxious people use as they contemplate the ravages of time upon their minds and bodies and the results, or lack of them, they have achieved during the time period under consideration.
The good news is that neither really matters.
To be more explicit, recent revelations about rigging of the Libor rate reveal business corruption almost everywhere on an unprecedented scale. If you are a crook, Libor is the Triple Crown, the Academy Award, and the Mega Lotto prize combined. Be prepared to hear a great deal about the Libor scandal unless, of course, it all gets swept under the rug as too big to prosecute. In either case, keep your Zoloft handy because it is immensely depressing.
Think for a moment about opportunities almost everyone in business has observed to go bad, about deals proposed that were shady or choices made for fast but improper profit, or accommodation. (Just look the other way, Joe.) They abound in many, even most business and professional careers of every type. Individual people failing to do what they know is right and instead doing something they know is wrong; that's what's sick in America and the entire world today.That's what is eating away at the pillars of our society in America. Do we not realize that when someone proffers such opportunities to us it is actually a personal insult, not a useful collaboration possibility? Men quickly recognize a bar solicitation, but they sometimes miss the full implications of other more subtle choices that wouldn't withstand examination in broad daylight. But wait, here's the good news
Our travails today are just a wrinkle in the fabric of time, a down tick, if you will, in a chart that shows a powerful, even inexorable, upward trend. We have recognized in Democracy a form of government that gives people control of their destinies and what a fight it has been to vanquish kings and empires, etc. to arrive where we now are. Our present government in the United States has been called dysfunctional, but everyone knows how to fix it and it will be done!
Similarly, capitalism has soundly defeated communism and today offers its benefits to millions more yearning to be free and prosperous. Is it perfect? No way, but once again, everyone knows what has to be done to clean it up and make it better and that too will be done!
Lastly, the really Good News! We have in Christianity the religion built on love and redemption that makes people literally new and gives us hope for the life everlasting. Our God will raise up for us new leaders, more skilled and more dedicated than in the past and they will shun Wall Street and persevere in the trenches where the big decisions about right and wrong are made 24/7. Let it be so!
Monday, July 9, 2012
Events, Deah Boy!
Back in the fifties when Harold MacMillan was prime minister of Great Britain, someone asked him what would determine the success of his tenure. "Events, deah boy," he replied, in his richest Oxford accent, which in this country is known as Long Island Lockjaw.
And of course he was right. At this moment we have in America several major events pending, the return of some troops from Afghanistan, the Republican and Democratic conventions, the continuation of the Bush tax cuts, raising the debt ceiling, and so on. Will there be an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear bomb making facilities, or some move against Syria? The timing is really bad for such matters, but that's the way the cookies crumble.
Our national discourse these days is only a step away from brawling. Congressmen call the president a liar and raise money as a result of their rudeness, or they state with impunity that dozens of Democrats are actually Communists. Others say the President is not even an American citizen and should be impeached!Still others call for the resignation of the Attorney General and claim that liberty will die in America if the president is re-elected. Against this background, a ship sunk or an attempted assassination of any person with name recognition might have powerful and unimaginable consequences.Literally anything is possible today and that's why I don't think anyone knows what might throw the election one way or another. We have created a toxic environment almost anyone can use for mischief and mischief at the wrong time can sway voters. Sliming your opponent pays, lying and misrepresenting facts is as normal as apple pie and it those tactics fail, go after spouses, children, anyone with ties to your enemy.
If things get any worse, let's just sit down for a moment and have a spot of tea.
And of course he was right. At this moment we have in America several major events pending, the return of some troops from Afghanistan, the Republican and Democratic conventions, the continuation of the Bush tax cuts, raising the debt ceiling, and so on. Will there be an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear bomb making facilities, or some move against Syria? The timing is really bad for such matters, but that's the way the cookies crumble.
Our national discourse these days is only a step away from brawling. Congressmen call the president a liar and raise money as a result of their rudeness, or they state with impunity that dozens of Democrats are actually Communists. Others say the President is not even an American citizen and should be impeached!Still others call for the resignation of the Attorney General and claim that liberty will die in America if the president is re-elected. Against this background, a ship sunk or an attempted assassination of any person with name recognition might have powerful and unimaginable consequences.Literally anything is possible today and that's why I don't think anyone knows what might throw the election one way or another. We have created a toxic environment almost anyone can use for mischief and mischief at the wrong time can sway voters. Sliming your opponent pays, lying and misrepresenting facts is as normal as apple pie and it those tactics fail, go after spouses, children, anyone with ties to your enemy.
If things get any worse, let's just sit down for a moment and have a spot of tea.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
The Chief Justice and the Pope
Chief Justice John Roberts sided with liberal members of the Supreme Court last week in an historic vote largely upholding Obamacare. He did so for many cogent reasons that Pope Benedict XVI might do well to ponder.
First, Chief Justice Roberts took a positive, expansionist view of his leadership role. He was looking for a way to preserve Obamacare rather than demolish it. He was thinking about what was best for Americans and the Supreme Court that he leads. He did not wish to give the Republicans still another enormous 5-4 victory and further diminish the court's reputation for objectivity and fairness.
Chief Justice Roberts is almost as isolated from public pressure as the Pope and both men, of course, have life tenure. Surprisingly, it would appear that the Chief Justice is capable of seeing the big picture better than the Pope. The court that will forever bear his name is in serious trouble, deeply divided and increasingly bitter with each other and the public. (Justice Scalia went out of his way recently to dis President Obama and the president recorded his displeasure with the third branch of government and the Citizens v. United case in a recent State of the Union message. Moreover, I thought Justice Scalia's derisive reference to reading the 2,000 page Affordable Health Care law was truly tasteless and offensive. I do expect supreme court justices to read legislation. That's what we're paying them to do.)
As for the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church is in abysmal shape, stricken as it is with doctrinal division, pedophile priests and incredible myopia. With the greatest respect, the Pope needs to search his heart and move to change errant policies and ease the agony of his flock. People of good will everywhere suffer for their catholic friends and pray for their well being.
It's pure fantasy, I imagine, but what an opportunity there is now for healing! What if Pope Benedict XVI were to come to Yankee Stadium in the sack cloth of a penitent, barefoot, no golden garb, no regal trappings, and humbly express his most abject contrition for his sins and those of his bishops in the performance of their sacred duties. What if he apologised for persecuting American nuns, and abandoned some of the dumb orthodoxies of his church, like permitting only men to be priests. Oh, what rivers of grace would flow down, what glory would shine upon Yankee Stadium as the Holy Spirit rushed through the crowd as it did on Pentecost. The whole world would know that the Pope was thinking about the needs of his people and the sacred image of the Roman Catholic Church. That's what the Pope is supposed to do, kind of like the Chief Justice of the world's most powerful nation - a veritable city on a hill that, with God's help, has led the world in the past and now needs a little refurbishing.
First, Chief Justice Roberts took a positive, expansionist view of his leadership role. He was looking for a way to preserve Obamacare rather than demolish it. He was thinking about what was best for Americans and the Supreme Court that he leads. He did not wish to give the Republicans still another enormous 5-4 victory and further diminish the court's reputation for objectivity and fairness.
Chief Justice Roberts is almost as isolated from public pressure as the Pope and both men, of course, have life tenure. Surprisingly, it would appear that the Chief Justice is capable of seeing the big picture better than the Pope. The court that will forever bear his name is in serious trouble, deeply divided and increasingly bitter with each other and the public. (Justice Scalia went out of his way recently to dis President Obama and the president recorded his displeasure with the third branch of government and the Citizens v. United case in a recent State of the Union message. Moreover, I thought Justice Scalia's derisive reference to reading the 2,000 page Affordable Health Care law was truly tasteless and offensive. I do expect supreme court justices to read legislation. That's what we're paying them to do.)
As for the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church is in abysmal shape, stricken as it is with doctrinal division, pedophile priests and incredible myopia. With the greatest respect, the Pope needs to search his heart and move to change errant policies and ease the agony of his flock. People of good will everywhere suffer for their catholic friends and pray for their well being.
It's pure fantasy, I imagine, but what an opportunity there is now for healing! What if Pope Benedict XVI were to come to Yankee Stadium in the sack cloth of a penitent, barefoot, no golden garb, no regal trappings, and humbly express his most abject contrition for his sins and those of his bishops in the performance of their sacred duties. What if he apologised for persecuting American nuns, and abandoned some of the dumb orthodoxies of his church, like permitting only men to be priests. Oh, what rivers of grace would flow down, what glory would shine upon Yankee Stadium as the Holy Spirit rushed through the crowd as it did on Pentecost. The whole world would know that the Pope was thinking about the needs of his people and the sacred image of the Roman Catholic Church. That's what the Pope is supposed to do, kind of like the Chief Justice of the world's most powerful nation - a veritable city on a hill that, with God's help, has led the world in the past and now needs a little refurbishing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)