傻冒儿 Stupid Hat aka ShaMao'er

Name and Shame

I am really angry with this soon to be passed Farm Bill.  It is really pretty pathetic when a piece of legislation not only does not help, but instead actively harms not only the economy but the well being of the poor worldwide.  Shame on all those below who voted yea.  Double shame on each of our presidential candidates for not having the balls to even take a position.

Akaka (D-HI), Yea              Alexander (R-TN), Yea              Allard (R-CO), Yea              Barrasso (R-WY), Yea              Baucus (D-MT), Yea              Bayh (D-IN), Yea              Bennett (R-UT), Nay              Biden (D-DE), Not Voting              Bingaman (D-NM), Yea              Bond (R-MO), Yea              Boxer (D-CA), Not Voting              Brown (D-OH), Yea              Brownback (R-KS), Yea              Bunning (R-KY), Yea              Burr (R-NC), Nay              Byrd (D-WV), Yea              Cantwell (D-WA), Yea              Cardin (D-MD), Yea              Carper (D-DE), Yea              Casey (D-PA), Yea              Chambliss (R-GA), Yea              Clinton (D-NY), Not Voting              Coburn (R-OK), Yea              Cochran (R-MS), Yea              Coleman (R-MN), Yea              Collins (R-ME), Nay              Conrad (D-ND), Yea              Corker (R-TN), Yea              Cornyn (R-TX), Yea              Craig (R-ID), Yea              Crapo (R-ID), Yea              DeMint (R-SC), Nay              Dodd (D-CT), Not Voting              Dole (R-NC), Yea

Domenici (R-NM), Yea              Dorgan (D-ND), Yea              Durbin (D-IL), Yea              Ensign (R-NV), Nay              Enzi (R-WY), Yea              Feingold (D-WI), Yea              Feinstein (D-CA), Yea              Graham (R-SC), Yea              Grassley (R-IA), Yea              Gregg (R-NH), Nay              Hagel (R-NE), Nay              Harkin (D-IA), Yea              Hatch (R-UT), Yea              Hutchison (R-TX), Yea              Inhofe (R-OK), Yea              Inouye (D-HI), Yea              Isakson (R-GA), Yea              Johnson (D-SD), Yea              Kennedy (D-MA), Yea              Kerry (D-MA), Yea              Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea              Kohl (D-WI), Yea              Kyl (R-AZ), Nay              Landrieu (D-LA), Yea              Lautenberg (D-NJ), Nay              Leahy (D-VT), Yea              Levin (D-MI), Yea              Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea              Lincoln (D-AR), Yea              Lott (R-MS), Yea              Lugar (R-IN), Nay              Martinez (R-FL), Yea              McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting              McCaskill (D-MO), Yea

McConnell (R-KY), Yea              Menendez (D-NJ), Yea              Mikulski (D-MD), Yea              Murkowski (R-AK), Yea              Murray (D-WA), Yea              Nelson (D-FL), Not Voting              Nelson (D-NE), Yea              Obama (D-IL), Not Voting              Pryor (D-AR), Yea              Reed (D-RI), Nay              Reid (D-NV), Yea              Roberts (R-KS), Yea              Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea              Salazar (D-CO), Yea              Sanders (I-VT), Yea              Schumer (D-NY), Yea              Sessions (R-AL), Yea              Shelby (R-AL), Yea              Smith (R-OR), Yea              Snowe (R-ME), Yea              Specter (R-PA), Yea              Stabenow (D-MI), Yea              Stevens (R-AK), Yea              Sununu (R-NH), Nay              Tester (D-MT), Yea              Thune (R-SD), Yea              Vitter (R-LA), Yea              Voinovich (R-OH), Nay              Warner (R-VA), Yea              Webb (D-VA), Yea              Whitehouse (D-RI), Nay              W

Praying for global warming

Today I turned my rental car around in the parking lot of a shuttered Walmart.   Next to the former Walmart was a strip mall of which about 1/3 was occupied.  Next to the strip mall was a shuttered Steak and BBQ restaurant.  The kind of eerie thing about these abandoned properties was that they were not rundown.  This was not a 1960's or even 1970's looking decrepit strip mall.  Both the mall and the restaurant are very 1990's looking in architecture and layout.   As I drove further down this very typical looking suburban four lane road, I found closed down gas stations, convenience stores, and many restaurants.   

I have seen many examples of urban blight in my life and have also seen rural poverty.  But this was the first time I had seen (or perhaps noticed is more honest) very middle class suburban blight.   This vision of one version of America's future is in my home away from home these last two months, Michigan. 

This post is kind of a part 2 from my February post on comparative advantage.  I am having a very hard time envisioning a very bright future for Michigan.  At least New Bedford, the town in Massachusetts I wrote about in my Feb post, is near the ocean and surrounded by more prosperous regions.  Michigan has crappy weather a good half of the year and seemingly nothing very compelling around it either.   Those with the skills and education to get new jobs as the manufacturing continues its exodus will largely move to nicer climes.  Those left will perpetuate the blight.  Their only hope may be global warming.

Gratitude

Sea Alarms set

The final two buoys for a tsunami alert network are deployed

Another little gift to the world from the American taxpayer.  I wonder how much thanks we'll get?
That much you think??

The Candidates

I spent some time over the past weekend looking into our Presidential candidates a bit more. 

McCain:  I have been a McCain supporter for many years (I even gave him a small contribution back last summer when he was essentially written off), but some of his recent (pandering to the Right) speeches and the like had bothered me so I wanted to go back to the basics.  I can say that I had never given John McCain a second of thought before I heard an interview with him maybe 10 years ago on an NPR show.  The interview lasted for a full hour and was entirely devoted to a discussion of Ernest Hemingway novels and characters.   Suffice it to say that I was both very impressed and very intrigued.  Here was a US Senator talking in a very intelligent and passionate manner for an hour on a relatively esoteric subject without, as far as I recall, any mention of current events or anything else that could be used for campaign purposes.  After hearing that, I began to pay some attention to Senator McCain and the more I learned of his positions the more I liked him.  I was an enthusiastic supporter in 2000.   I have done some Googling but am unable to find a link to that NPR show, I would really like to hear it again.  However, I did find this interview, done in 2002 when he was not campaigning for anything, that I think gets at his character as well. 

Senator John McCain

Obama:  Enter Barack Obama.  I don't think I knew anything of the man until maybe a year or so ago when his name entered the media mainstream.  I had no intention of even thinking of supporting him until I began to see him speak.  There are two main reasons that I would now consider voting for him. 

One, the man is truly an inspirational speaker.  The power of the presidency is largely that of the bully pulpit and here is a man who may be able to inspire enough of the American public (doesn't need to be too many) to begin to care that members of Congress will need to move on many issues in larger steps than would normally be the case.  Now, I am pretty much a conservative on most issues, but I do think that it may be necessary now and then to have a progressive liberal type consensus take charge for a short period and push the country a little bit harder in the general direction it needs to go to protect and enhance America's unique society.  I think of some of the domestic policies of the Johnson administration as an example.  After that hard nudge in the right direction, more conservative leaders can hopefully guide the ship in a responsible fashion until it has once again strayed off course to far.

Second, having lived for some time outside of the US, I am particularly sensitive to America's image abroad.  While America's soft power in many ways is not eroding at all (in fact I think it might be said that the 21st century will truly be America's century in that the emerging global culture seen in so many places around the world is essentially American in character), I do believe that some of the more beneficial aspects of that soft power have been diminished over the past some years.  It is depressingly common to see foreign tyrants, corrupt politicians, evil businesspeople, religious zealots, and a host of other deprave characters try to justify their actions by pointing to superficially similar actions by America and its leaders.  Of course, in most cases a few minutes of research will demonstrate the the scale of the evilness (whatever it is) is not comparable, these facile comparisons made in sound bytes on overseas media to have an effect on how America is perceived.  The election of someone of the background (both racial and personal history) of someone like Barack Obama is about as powerful a pro-American visual soundbyte (can u say that?) as I can think of.

I found this nice talk with Obama from a few years ago.  I would encourage anyone interested to watch it.  By the way, the website is just great too.

Conversation with Barack Obama

Clinton:  I do not support Hillary Clinton.  Though I do not deny her obvious intellect, I simply feel her to be too inauthentic and divisive to support.

So where does this leave me?  I am happy to still have another 6 months before the November election to think on it some more.  Right now, I am concerned about McCain's age.  When I see him recently he often seems like an old man, repeating himself and perhaps becoming a bit more close minded.  When I see Obama, I am concerned that he may be a bit too liberal for me (by too liberal I mean does not appreciate the role of personal responsibility to the extent I consider appropriate).  I am also concerned that he simply does not have enough relevant experience to adequately prepare him for the job.  I would be much happier if he had at least a full Senate term under his belt.

In any event, Americans are fortunate to have the opportunity to choose this year between candidates of a higher quality than I think has been seen in some time.   

Comparative advantage

As I've mentioned in some previous posts, the ShaMao is concerned about globalization, particularly since his job involves facilitating the process.  I understand both the macro-economic forces behind it and the micro-economic business factors that drive individual companies.  Proponents of unrestricted free trade will talk about comparative advantage and argue that the rising tide caused by efficient allocation of resources will lift all boats.  That is where my problem comes in, is this really true?  Will the short term pain of job loss lead to long term benefit?

I like to listen to James McMurtrey's song, We Can't Make it Here Anymore.  It is a powerful song, even if the understanding of economics is clearly lacking.  A few lyrics from the song:

That big ol' building was the textile mill
        It fed our kids and it paid our bills
        But they turned us out and they closed the doors
        We can't make it here anymore

See all those pallets piled up on the loading dock
        They're just gonna set there till they rot
        'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
        Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
        Empty storefronts around the square
        There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
        You don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
        We can't make it here anymore

Now I come from Southeastern Massachusetts, so when I heard those lyrics I thought to myself, he is talking about Georgia or Alabama or somewhere in 2004, but he could just as well be talking about New Bedford, MA in 1935.  That's where all of those textile mills that he is crying about came from.  They all moved to the South in the 1930's-1950's for the exact same reasons that they have moved from the South to overseas in the last 25 years. 

I found a book the other day (in my mother's inventory at the book fair again), called A Study of 81 Principle American Markets published in 1925.  It is basically a survey of retail activity in larger cities throughout the US at the time.  Here is an excerpt from the section on New Bedford:

It is the center of the largest group of fine textile mills in the world and includes such varied manufactures as fine tools, silverware, cut glass, cordage, shoes, soap, and biscuits. 

New Bedford's prosperity may be judged by the fact that in telephone installations it is the third largest in percentage  in the world. 

This city is, from the point of view of population, prosperity, home owning, rapid growth and industrial activity one of the most worthwhile markets in the country.

Now I grew up about 30 miles away from New Bedford and I can tell you that the reputation of city is absolutely nothing like the above.  It is thought of as a model of urban decay, economic stagnation, drug abuse, crime, and general nastiness.  Just 3 years after the above was written, a large, long lasting, worker strike took place in the mills. The next year, the Great Depression hit and these factors, combined with logistical improvements in the South, resulted in the relocation of the vast majority of manufacturing to the South over about a 20 year period.

This movement of jobs to the South made perfect macro-economic sense as a trend, and made perfect business sense to the corporations involved.  So what happened to New Bedford?  Did its economy readjust itself to leverage its own comparative advantage?  No, it became a shithole.   The city lost about 1/4 of its population since the above blurb was written in 1925.  Its unemployment rate over the past 10 years has consistently been about 25% higher than Massachusetts as a whole; crime rates in most categories are more than double national averages; test scores are far lower than state averages, etc...

Maybe some places just don't have a comparative advantage? 

Civic duty

I went and voted in the Super Tuesday Primary this morning.  The whole process took maybe 3 minutes and was extremely satisfying.  Democracy.... a wonderful thing.

Irresponsible journalism

I am getting really tired of reading of Iran's intent to "wipe Israel from the map" as expressed by Iranian President Ahmadinejad.  Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but contempt for the Iranian regime
(or any theocracy for that matter) and I have nothing against Israel per se (though I would not have agreed with its creation back in 1949).  The issue here is one of responsible journalism. 

If one reads the actual words of Mr. Ahmadinejad one will see from the context of the remarks that when he speaks of "wiping Israel from the map" he is speaking in a literal context.  He is not talking about nuclear or other violent annihilation as Americans will often use the phrase "wipe off the map" colloquially.  He is referring to instead to the removal of the state of Israel from the map of the world because of its ineligibility to be a state.  Or more precisely, he is arguing that the state of Israel was imposed upon the Palestinians by the victorious Allied powers and that the Arabs are in effect paying for the sins of the Germans.  He says why not establish the independent Jewish state in Germany or France or America?  This is an intellectual  historical argument that is not entirely without merit though of course irrelevant to current reality.  Again, though I have no doubt that there are many Iranians who would probably love to erase Israel in a mushroom cloud perhaps including the President himself, this is not the context of what he said and it is irresponsible of the media to portray it as if he did.

Wisdom from the Blitz

I was searching my home computer today for an old file I needed and I came across The Lion & Unicorn, an essay written in 1940 by George Orwell, that I had downloaded maybe a couple years ago.  Although his overall point, that capitalism could not compete against either communism or fascism, has clearly proved wrong, there are some wonderful points inside and the phrasing is just great.  A few exerpts:

First, the first couple sentences of the essay:

As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.

They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor I against them. They are ‘only doing their duty’, as the saying goes. Most of them, I have no doubt, are kind-hearted law-abiding men who would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it. He is serving his country, which has the power to absolve him from evil.

You just don't see great writing like that these days.  Unless I'm reading the wrong things.

This next one is just as true for America today as it was for England in 1940.  And it is something for all of the apologists to remember.

In England, such concepts as justice, liberty and objective truth are still believed in. They may be illusions, but they are very powerful illusions. The belief in them influences conduct, national life is different because of them. In proof of which, look about you. Where are the rubber truncheons, where is the castor oil? The sword is still in the scabbard, and while it stays there corruption cannot go beyond a certain point. The English electoral system, for instance, is an all but open fraud. In a dozen obvious ways it is gerrymandered in the interest of the moneyed class. But until some deep change has occurred in the public mind, it cannot become completely corrupt. You do not arrive at the polling booth to find men with revolvers telling you which way to vote, nor are the votes miscounted, nor is there any direct bribery.

Here's one the old CCP would be wise to remember.  I have often thought along these lines myself.

At this moment, after a year of war, newspapers and pamphlets abusing the Government, praising the enemy and clamouring for surrender are being sold on the streets, almost without interference. And this is less from a respect for freedom of speech than from a simple perception that these things don’t matter. It is safe to let a paper like Peace News be sold, because it is certain that ninety-five per cent of the population will never want to read it 

Another one for the apologists:

One knows in advance more or less what they will say. They will start by refusing to admit that British capitalism is evolving into something different, or that the defeat of Hitler can mean any more than a victory for the British and American millionaires. And from that they will proceed to argue that, after all, democracy is ‘just the same as’ or ‘just as bad as’ totalitarianism. There is not much freedom of speech in England therefore there is no more than exists in Germany. To be on the dole is a horrible experience; therefore it is no worse to be in the torture-chambers of the Gestapo. In general, two blacks make a white, half a loaf is the same as no bread.

Actually, I think that all this really goes to show is that human nature just doesn't really change.  Probably I could find some ancient Roman writers saying basically the same things two thousand years ago.

Back to the future

China appears to confront US defense of Taiwan

Wow, interesting stuff.   Two things strike me right away on this:

1) I have recently been listening to The Teaching Company's History of the United States (recommended by the way) and listened to the part about Pearl Harbor the other day.  Some of the text of that history lecture and the text of this article is nearly identical.  Who says the past doesn't repeat itself?

"A weakened initial U.S. response to a Chinese assault on Taiwan, for example, could result in the collapse of Taiwan's military resistance," said a Rand Corporation study for the U.S. Air Force published late last month. "The island might therefore capitulate before the United States could bring all its combat power to bear.

"If that were to happen, it seems unlikely that the United States would continue the conflict, even though U.S. military power would largely be intact," the study said

The Japanese in 1941 made the miscalculation that a quick initial overwhelming strike against the US Navy would undermine the US will to fight, particularly since US interests in the Pacific were perceived by the Japanese as tangential.   The Japanese likewise believed that the strident isolationist rhetoric of the US Congress during the 1930's indicated a fundamental lack of martial spirit, of the willingness to engage in any foreign action at all.   Similarity is quite striking really.  Guess we all know they were kind of wrong on both counts.

2) The high technology weapons the Chinese are deploying that the article gushes about are largely the result of purchases from Russia and some European nations.  However, a good portion are also the result of US companies selling "dual-use" goods to China; that is goods that have both civil and military use.  Although there are export control laws designed to prevent this from happening with sensitive technology, they are quite easily circumvented.  Additionally, organizations such as the American Chamber of Commerce in China and the US-China Business Council are actively lobbying the US gov't to liberalize trade in such goods.  In the event of an actual conflict with China over Taiwan or any other issue, I can only hope that these traitors will receive the traditional punishment for treason.

Tyranny of the minority

I was watching the Democratic party presidential candidates debate on CNN this morning while in the gym.  As is typical, the format and the questions were intended to generate sound bytes rather than any kind of meaningful dialogue or exploration of issues.   

I only watched about 1/2 hour of the debate, during which they spent at least 5-10 minutes discussing gays in the military and gay rights in general.   Now I don't really have anything against gay people as such (despite what CM might think).  It is a genetic variation that is beyond their control and so any sort of discrimination or hatred is just dumb.   In any event, I imagine the variation will be genetically altered/removed in most cases in future and so the population will diminish.   

The thing that I have a problem with is devoting a meaningful slice of time in the presidential debate to such a topic.  Who cares, other than gay people?   The gay population statistics are about as politically sensitive as they come but i guess the range is something like between 2% and 10%.   The 10% figure I believe was Kinsey's and has since been discredited and I haven't heard any serious higher figures tendered.  In any event, lets assume for the sake of argument that it is true; that 10% of all Americans are gay. 

So that would mean that conceivably 1 of 10 people watching the debate would care about this issue.  Can you imagine the incredibly wide range of issues facing the US which would effect more than 1 in 10 of the population?   The list would be very long and filled with issues that may fundamentally determine the shape of the next century and America's place within it.   

But no, instead they want to talk about gays in the military.   This is a giant misservice to the American people by the 4th estate (the media).  Even if the media has a much greater gay population than the population at large, even if the media was 100% gay, in a forum such as a presidential debate they should focus their attention on the giant issues that face the majority of the population, not a rather insignificant minority.