the defeatists!

Inattention...or Hello Miss, I have a cold

When Crusader AXE joins the Norwegian Blue, pining for the Fjords and such, it will probably be from someone not paying attention. It may be prosaic, not bothering with a bathmat and falling headfirst into the commode; it may be silly, like some teen driver wetdaydreaming on the interstate at 80 in his Prius and clipping me as I drive by muttering that the kid needs to get off my grass; it may be tragic, somebody in Starbucks not noticing the ground glass in the frappuchino mix. Regardless, some more attention and I'd probably be around longer until some other inattention kills me.

Civilizations tend to go the same way. While there's a revisionist school of thought to the effect that we shouldn't talk about the decline of the Roman Empire and the dark ages, I saw something not too long ago that pointed out that most cities in Europe had running water and indoor plumbing in the third century AD, something that had pretty well vanished by 500AD and was missing again until the 1900s. Even though the Roman sewer system continued to function in a lot of ways, hooking it up just seemed too complicated.

The reason for mentioning this is simple; we've found a similar way to perhaps literally let everything catch fire and all die -- we've ignored the water system for 100 years and now we're shocked, shocked that the fucking thing is falling apart. How could a system of pipes, conduits, basically holes in the ground, pipes, pumps, etc. fail?  Goddamn it, people, heads need to roll. It worked in 1950, why doesn't it work now?

Well, it doesn't work now because we ignored it. We weren't really paying attention, and the maintenance system has consisted of fixing what broke. We're pretty good at handling planned obsolescence and wear and tear in our own lives. I know that the desktop I'm doing this on will probably be obsolete in a couple of years; I know that my shiny new Mustang GT will be kind of clunky in 4 or 5 years. In general, I buy good stuff, try to take care of it -- if I remember to pay attention -- and replace it as I need to. Not a bad way to function as a civilization.

But, tragedy of the commons...water and sewers are cheap and Goddamnittohell, they need to be cheaper. Except that nothing is cheaper. And, here's a thought -- we're dealing with technology not that much more advanced than the Romans in our water systems, installed a hundred years ago, and not significantly upgraded, maintained or even systematically monitored. When a pipe breaks, it either gets noticed or it doesn't. If it doesn't, the road eventually caves in; otherwise, it gets fixed when people complain about lack of water pressure. Or the street floods...

Which makes the current situation in most major cities sort of, well, inevitable...

As city employees searched for underground valves, a growing crowd started asking angry questions. Pipes were breaking across town, and fire hydrants weren’t working, they complained. Why couldn’t the city deliver water, one man yelled at Mr. Hawkins. (AXE comment: Can't you hear it now? Where's Glenn Beck when you need him?)

Such questions are becoming common across the nation as water and sewer systems break down. Today, a significant water line bursts on average every two minutes(!!!!)somewhere in the country, according to a New York Times analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data.

In Washington alone there is a pipe break every day, on average, and this weekend’s intense rains overwhelmed the city’s system, causing untreated sewage to flow into the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers.

One of the issues Crusader AXE has with this situation is the sheer goddamn lack of necessity to the whole thing. Granted, Washington DC has always been the city of Northern Charm and Sudden Efficiency, as JFK put it in 1960. Still, given the number of Federal Agencies charged with things like public health and environmental protection and housing and urban development, you'd think someone might have noticed that the city they've got in kind of a semi-colonial status was falling apart?

If you'll recall all the nonsense about the stimulus package, I keep wondering where the hell the "shovel ready" projects are. Seriously, I had expected to see the President and everybody else down to the DOD third assistant undersecretary for dog catching running around breaking ground and actually doing something with shovels. Water system projects seem like the kind of things that municipalities, states, counties, the Federal Government should have ready to go. Yet, damn all is being done. Look at the economic stimulus...you gotta dig holes, move dirt and debris, lay pipe, fit the pipe, weld, seal, flush, move connect, fill in the holes, pave the roads, re-route the traffic, lay feeder roads, build switching stations. You're looking at 100 years of family wage jobs. Infrastructure...not sexy, but when the faucets produce brown mud followed by air and nothin', people are going to be pissed that we wasted this opportunity on too-big-to-fail banks while our too-critical to fail infrastructure crumbled...and, everything caught fire and, because of no water pressure, those of us not dying of cholera, dysentery and e coli all died from fire. And water. And not paying attention...but, while it's easy to blame the politicians, and the commentators, and the "guv'ment bureaucrats" the people who haven't been paying attention are the people. We get the government we deserve and We've got a doozy...eight years of incompetence and not caring, followed by caring incompetence.

Here's the deal -- no water system, no cities. There is no "we can't afford this!" Seriously, the power grid, the water and sewer systems, the communications network, the roads, rail and air systems are not negotiable in a real civilization. In much the same way, the school systems and health care systems are not negotiable. It's going to be less expensive than the alternative...which is sitting around in caves, eating raw meat and having sex with woodland creatures.

Trying to get inspired...but no luck

Earworm Time.

Sugar Sugar - Wilson Pickett

Seriously, Crusader AXE is trying to care but just can't get inspired. Everything that Fox and Friends -- Mitch McConnell, Boner-Boener, and the rest of the idiots -- say about health care is wrong. David Brooks once again proved that he's brighter than most conservatives when he compares the Tea Party movement to the New Left of old...ideological purity reductio ad absurdum combined with slaphappy ignorance. Deranged people doing violent things are seen as "tied" to political parties. You heard it hear -- this guy is driven by the forces of the tea party; that guy is driven by the Obama family...bullshit. Son of Sam was driven by the Science Diet brand of dog food; Mark David Chapman was driven by the New York Philharmonic.


Michael Steele is the real Son of Sam.

Internationally, we read that Iraq is blowing up simultaneously with the exercise of democracy. We are banding together with the Somalis to help them re-take their capital. And, the new government chief for Marjah spent several years in a German prison for sticking a knife in his son. Yup, Democracy is on the rise.


So, rather than provide AXEian cogent analysis and anger, I'm just uninspired and tired of the futility. While I expect to be gone before we get tossed, probably by the Canadians who will conquer us through subliminal messages encoded in Trailer Park Boys and bacon, tossed on the ash heap of history where we belong, it is just hard to get up for the fight. Maybe tomorrow. We'll see...Meanwhile, I recommend reading the Time Op-Ed page. Dowd, Rich, and the editorial board have done themselves proud.

Irony abounds, arrigato Mr. Roboto...

The Toyota Manufacturing system is not all that dissimilar to the way they run Wal Mart. They slap down competitors, suppliers and the like and are able to get away with it because, well, they're Toyota and "Oh what a feeling..." Except, obviously, they're not. Hyundai is probably Toyota...or Ford.

Lean systems -- whether in logistics, manufacturing, services or government -- are based on a set of assumptions. The primary one is that if you do things right the first time, you don't need quality control because you have built quality into the system. Why add cost? Works great, until the accelerator sticks and the brake fails and the bastards start suing. Toyota's defense probably was along the lines of we're Toyota, we wouldn't do that? Ah, but you did, and do.

Part of this lies in the inevitable path of entropy. Things generally get worse until the system either crashes or a visionary comes along with a new idea that starts a new system. It's the difference between a cleansing fire versus a controlled burn. Toyota has had neither...they've been able to figure it all out pretty well over the years, and have become complacent.

Also, of course, racist. The other Japanese automakers probably have similar tendencies, but Nissan, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Subaru -- to a lesser extent --have all had significant in fluxes of American, British, and French gurus and fixers. I'm struck by the most recent Infiniti commercial which harkens back to the late 90s rebirth of the Maxima, with the American design guru swinging for the fences talking about the power of a curve...If you wanted an interesting, fun dependable car, Nissan and Subaru were your best choices; Mitsu and Suzuki were a bit more cutting edge. If you wanted dependability, you bought a Toyota or a Honda.

The stories of the xenophobic Toyota or Honda management teams are an interesting open secret. An acquaintance of mine from Alabama's Workforce Development Agency told me right after Hyundai had its plant opening for the first Alabama plant that their experience with Mercedes versus Honda had made them worry about Hyundai, but that the Hyundai approach was almost interchangeable with Mercedes. At the Honda plant, there was a very strict hierarchy, and a Japanese manager who saw a piece of paper on the floor would go find an American employee to pick it up. At the Mercedes plant, everybody wore the same overalls or lab coat, everybody used first names, and the plant superintendent made a point of picking up every piece of trash he saw. Jobs for Honda were going begging, but there were wait lists for sweepers and laborers at Mercedes and Hyundai.

However, I think that both Honda and Toyota ought to revisit the history of GM. Their comeuppance will probably be a lot like the one GM has faced. The reason that GM got to be the biggest car company was that it made the best cars for the money which resulted in its growth. As quality declined, it stayed the biggest because of ennui and thermodynamics -- things in motion stay in motion, things at rest stay at rest and entropy increases.

Ford and GM and Chrysler have had periodic disasters to shock them from their slumbers. Hasn't happened for Toyota or Honda; has happened for Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Suzuki and Mitsubishi, and I seem to recall a hiccup or two with Subaru. It will be interesting to see how Toyota responds. So far, their pattern appears to have been similar to the Ford-Bridgestone who made the tires debacle over the Explorer. Let's see where this goes...but, have you driven a Ford lately? Or a Caddy? Their brakes and accelerators work...as do the ones on Nissan and Hyundai and the rest.

I'm leaning toward impeaching Obama and having Michelle and the kids take over...

Old Dad AXE told me in the mid-70s that, "Kid, nothing ever happens until somebody gets off their damn ass, stops talking and does some goddamn thing about whatever it is that needs to be done. All the rest of it is just friggin' around." Events this week have made me think the old man was prescient. When the old bastard was wrong, he was very wrong. But, 75% of the time, he was right on.

As I look back, the past year has been a real downer. While I don't think the Massachusetts thing was as universal as some people seem to believe, I've been getting steadily more tired of where we are compared to where we should be, and how unlikely it is that we're ever going to get any goddamn place except further down the wormhole...which is ultimately full of worms. Frank Rich provides a great analogy and perspective this morning in the Times.

The president is no longer seen as a savior but as a captive of the interests who ginned up the mess and still profit, hugely, from it.( AXE Commentary. There. Somebody finally said it whom other people will listen to. Makes you sort of understand how frustrated the Birchers were that the whole "Ike is a commie!" thing never caught on. Ike never did anything to make anyone not in the throes of a psychotic break think he was a commie. The administration has done nothing to make the American people think that this is not Tweedily-dumb replacing Tweedily-dee, just that T-dumb is a lot bright than T-dee.) That’s no place for any politician of any party or ideology to be. (AXE Comment: Well, no successful politician...)There’s a reason why the otherwise antithetical Leno and Conan camps are united in their derision of NBC’s titans. (AXE Comment: Seriously, the only reason anyone gives a damn is because the drama is such an allegory for what everybody else is going through. The difference is that Conan O'Brien is rich and could tell NBC to fuck off with impunity. Bob the welder or Karen the personal banker don't have that freedom) The TV network has become a handy proxy for every mismanaged, greedy, disloyal and unaccountable corporation in our dysfunctional economy. It’s a business culture where the rich and well-connected get richer while the employees, shareholders and customers get the shaft. And the conviction that the game is fixed is nonpartisan. (AXE Snark: Why not bi-partisan? It would be nice the guy could achieve it someplace...on the leading edges of insanity, we are one people.) If the tea party right and populist left agree on anything, it’s that big bailed-out banks have and will get away with murder while we pay the bill on credit cards — with ever-rising fees.  Politically, no other issue counts.

And yet they still don't get it. Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Joe Biden and others  have a clue, while everybody else is wandering around trying to take the temperature of the marble statues and issuing prognostications. Roll out the "malefactors of great wealth speech 24/7, and make something positive happen. Now, real and that will affect the majority of Americans who are hurting. By the way, most Americans are hurting.

Rich goes on to discuss the healthcare debacle. Citing the ever-increasingly interesting Howard Fineman of Newsweek, he quoted Fineman's line during the post-election coverage of Brown's march to victory when he said on MSNBC, “Obama took all his winnings and turned them over to Max Baucus.” Fineman had one of the great lines on MSNBC about the Supreme Court Decision to open up to what is in effect the deregulation and privatization of American government by allow companies to spend as much as they want to on political contributions, when he told Obermann something to the effect that sometimes he thought Keith gets "turbo-charged" on issues but in that case, he wasn't really displaying the necessary passion and concern.

Rich points out that health care has turned from a simple issue -- affordable coverage for all -- into a giant hairball. If you remember those silly "if roadies ran the airports, if firemen ran the government" commercials, unless your internal Hobbit has taken over to the point that you can no longer wear shoes or use the higher urinals, you have to admit that they made sense. Fuck the insurance companies -- throw a few CEOs, CFOs and COOs in jail for price fixing and exploitation, and dismantle the whole fucking system. Rich points out the absurdity of what's going on.

Ask yourself this: All these months later, do you yet know what the health care plan means for your family’s bottom line, your taxes, your insurance? It’s this nebulousness, magnified by endless Senate versus House squabbling, that has allowed reform to be caricatured by its foes as an impenetrable Rube Goldberg monstrosity, a parody of deficit-ridden big government. Since most voters are understandably confused about what the bills contain, the opponents have been able to attribute any evil they want to Obamacare, from death panels to the death of Medicare, without fear of contradiction.

Rich issues a somewhat nuanced but passionate call to arms -- "It’s too late to rewrite that history, but it may not be too late for White House decisiveness. Whatever happens now — good, bad or ugly — must happen fast. Each day Washington spends dickering over health care is another day lost while the election-year economy, stupid, remains intractable for Americans who are suffering." Frankly, he's so right that it isn't funny.

Nuance really has limited place for leaders of mass organizations when they are engaged in leading. If nothing else, we should be able to agree that if only by default Obama is the leader with the bully pulpit and these United States are in fact a mass organization, although one that may be moving toward being fatally conflicted. The British parliamentary system really shows an advantage here -- the cabinet secretaries and various Lords this and Chancellor that's are serving members of the legislative and they are required to run their departments so that they work. The civil servants are respected technocrats who know their shit and try to make the policies work. If you dick up, on you're watch, you're gone.  There are problems in the UK, it's not ideal -- but, while you have people like Michelle Bachmann and Jim Demint in parliament, they just have no impact. There really is a need for constitutional reform in this country, but that's another rant entirely. 

While I think that the Rich may be underestimating the pent up demand in this country for results -- jobs, interest rates, reductions in fees paid to banks and long distance carriers and everything else -- as well as intangibles like, oh, that whole hope thing, he is right when he says that Obama has to reconnect. Where does it say that the economists and the bankers get to run things? Ultimately, they are technocrats, and that's fine. Don't let technicians with high salaries run your business, in this case, run your country, your party and your future. Provide goals to go with the vision, set a timetable with non-negotiable deadlines, preach the vision and the goals and kick ass/take names/and take the fuckers to the wall who get in the way. Make it personal for them like they do for you, and for us.

One of the folks I used to have the privilege of managing for GINORMOUS could not get her arms around Obama. Part of it was the whole Democrats are bad for defense mythology, I suspect part of it might be racist although I never saw any other signs of it, and part of it was fear. However, she would say, "I don't trust Obama...I just can't trust Obama." Linda's instincts are generally good. You know, if he wants to get the Linda's of the world to trust him even a little, he needs to do some goddamn thing besides shoot hoops for photo ops and occasionally pass out soup to the poor. He needs to produce something...any goddamn thing. In a finite space, and 18 months is not a finite space in politics with the 24/7 news cycle. Take some chances, make some mistakes but get things done. One reason the Bush administration was able to get so much done was that they cut through the bullshit. If this is a contest between who does management better, lawyers or MBAs, we're screwed. The left today should appeal to the people on the basis of its ideas. We have some, they have t-bags and lapel pins. Put the damn things to work. Use the Reagan approach -- are you better off now than you were in 1999? What do we need to do to get everyone back to 1999? Everyone, not just the bankers and the lawyers and the lobbyists.

Rich cites Obama's examination and review of policy decision making leading up to the Vietnam war as a positive. I tend to think we learn more from disasters than from successes, but deciding not to repeat the failures of the past can lead to sheer entropy. He suggests that Obama pay attention to the things that Kennedy did that weren't disasters. Vietnam was a long, unfolding disaster, and the whole Bay of Pigs thing was a short-fused disaster that was running out of control prior to January 20, 1961. He just didn't stop it. However, in other issues, the Kennedy team had ideas, balls and did what needed to be done within a finite space in time and with damn little doubt as to what the possible results were going to be. While the Cuban missile crisis comes to mind, and the Civil Rights Movement has to be a factor, I'm thinking of economic populism, the Steel crisis.

If it seems hard to imagine a time when manufacturing could threaten the stability of the country's economic and political system, well, we just saw what happens when banking breaks the rules. Basically, there was an agreement in place that kept the market for steel relatively stable and productive, but the Chairman of US Steel decided he wanted to have a better "ROI" and unilaterally decided to change the rules. JFK and his team went berserk. He raised so much hell and started so many things in motion that Big Steel caved in two days. 

While Kennedy slammed his fist on the bully pulpit, his team was backstage negotiating but from positions of strength. "You just did something unacceptable, there will be consequences if you don't undo it, so where do you want to go from here?" JFK didn't have the kind of majorities in the House and Senate that Obama has, but he didn't hesitate to take action. Government was much more bi-partisan then, and he could assume some common sense from the Republicans. Well, there is no common sense available to appeal to today, so Obama really ought to leave the door open but govern like he has a pair. Bush kept the door closed unless he wanted a photo-op. Rich points out something intriguing to me although I'm not sure what it means. As an Irish American and Catholic by culture if not belief, I wonder if subconsciously Obama is as confident as he seems. The issue of class and readiness to lead strikes me as a concern that may limit him. Obama is not, of course, the typical African-American. Nor were the Kennedy's typical Irish Americans. But, their roots and background were definite...laughing Micks with a touch of the crazed Celt warrior. Who's Barrack Obama besides someone who can dance well and talk better? Still, that's for another time.

Here's Rich:

The incident unfolded in April 1962 — some 15 months into the new president’s term — when J.F.K. was infuriated by the U.S. Steel chairman’s decision to break a White House-brokered labor-management contract agreement and raise the price of steel (but not wages). Kennedy was no radical. He hailed from the American elite — like Obama, a product of Harvard, but, unlike Obama, the patrician scion of a wealthy family. And yet he, like that other Harvard patrician, F.D.R., had no hang-ups about battling his own class.(AXE commentary: In fact, both JFK and FDR reveled in discomforting the comfortable. On race, religion, class, economics, justice, they had a ball doing just that. If you have to be stern all the time, where's the fun in fighting the might for the right? )

Kennedy didn’t settle for the generic populist rhetoric of Obama’s latest threats to “fight” unspecified bankers some indeterminate day. (AXE commnetary: Finite time, finite space. Not mistakes were made, but "he's trying to undermine the economy!" I can see the fat cat, I can get a picture, I can envision his life. When you're in a fight, you need to know whom you're fighting. Composites don't work...)He instead took the strong action of dressing down U.S. Steel by name. As Richard Reeves writes in his book “President Kennedy,” reporters were left “literally gasping.” The young president called out big steel for threatening “economic recovery and stability” while Americans risked their lives in Southeast Asia. J.F.K. threatened to sic his brother’s Justice Department on corporate records and then held firm as his opponents likened his flex of muscle to the power grabs of Hitler and Mussolini. (Sound familiar?) (AXE commentary: Why, yes.The hysteria thing would be hilarious now...part of the charm for this approach, for me,  is the thought of Michelle Bachmann, Glen Beck and Anne Coulter having on the air aneurysms over the loss of "freedom." Without economic justice, there is no liberty. ) U.S. Steel capitulated in two days. The Times soon reported on its front page that Kennedy was at “a high point in popular support.”

So, what's it going to be? Jimmy Carter or the unfulfilled promise of the once and future King? Given my belief that Mizer was right and life is 60/40 against, I need to point out that those are not bad odds. Not bad at all. I'd take that bet, especially in context. In the current situation, given the liklihood of success without change in direction, substance, tone and texture, I'd put it on black and roll the damn dice. But, obviously, I'm not a serious person, dealing with serious problems here. We need studies, Czars, maybe a commission...well, fuck that. Audacious hope without action is seriously a form of negative masturbation. Not interested...do some goddamn thing.

I've been trying to not raise my blood pressure, but...

This goddamn woman is going to kill me.

 I kept thinking I should comment on the speech in Oslo, but I couldn't think of much to say.  I pretty much agreed with Obama, who pretty much agreed with everybody except the occasional mad pacifist-philosopher on the just war argument. From Aristotle through Ricoeur, the just war argument gets restated and retitled, but rarely changes -- there is evil and you have the right as a person/group/nation to defend yourself and the responsibility to try and prevent it from eating you and the rest of the world alive. Broughhahahaha about Toby Keith aside, 9/11 provided the justification for Afghanistan and possibly the necessity. Sorry. Bridge in the song sucks, but it was still an honest statement. And, Toby Keith is a moderate Democrat, so go figure.

So since my brothers are finding ways to plug Gary Busey's face onto everything imaginable and the world is turning as per normal, I gotta say, I was doing really well. Staying calm...and then, I read this bit of absolute bullshit and degradation of the sacred by the illiterate/insane/and deranged crone from Minnesota, Michelle "I can see aliens from my house" Bachmann. Tiffany call her home!

Bachmann's argument is fallacious and stupid -- everyone tried in the United States, its territories and possessions including all the ships at sea, military bases, military tribunals and in captivity by a board of court martial in a POW camp is entitled to a fair trial. Including the little green men who obviously have taken over Michelle's mind and body. I mean, Minnesota has excellent public schools. I know she's from Lake Woebegone country, but still they have fantastic schools. She has to have taken civics...I think.

More to the point, Crusader AXE believes in American Exceptionalism. Although Ronald Reagan was a 30 year disaster for this country through his influence on law, thought, foreign policy, his reference to the beacon like a city on a hill from John Winthrop's sermon to the Massachusetts Bay Colony has always struck a note with me. Winthrop more than Ronnie, but then, I was better educated than Ronnie, or for that matter, Michelle Bachmann. Anyway, America is special not because of the water and our superior body fluids, but because of the idea of America. Truth, Justice and the American Way. Bachmann is supposedly a Christian, although we all know that in itself means nothing. But, we have a big statue in New York harbor that celebrates the American idea. The door is open to anyone. Goering got a goddamn fair trial! Jesus...didn't this woman swear to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies domestic and foreign? I did. Anyone who ever served in the military, the Federal Service, and any of a number of state agencies has done the same thing. She was sworn into office in the Capitol.

I know that politicians don't have to know how to read and certainly there is no requirement that they know how to use logic. But, the Amanda Knox trial ought to give Bachmann pause. The gal is guaranteed a lot of time in prison because people don't like America as much in Italy, and all the things that occurred in that trial, from never cautioning the jury, to allowing hearsay, to letting the goddamn jurors give interview during the trial are contradictory to the very concept of a fair trial. Under the Napoleonic code. Where Ms. Knox and her attorneys face the duty of proving the negative...which cannot be proven. Guilty until proven innocent, so that the state and the "homeland" are protected first, and then the Rights of the Individual. The goddamn Napoleonic code is a heritage of tyranny in much of Europe. We are a common law nation, and along with the British Commonwealth, have other expectations.

Then, the fact that she refers to the Bill of Rights as "perks," that only Americans have just makes me cringe. They are rights and responsibilities. As a member of Congress, she has a special responsibility to "preserve, protect and defend" those rights. Instead, she giggles and fingers her erroneous zone lasciviously.

So, this menopausal bimbo who shouldn't be allowed to be on a goddamn zoning panel or school board -- damn, especially a school board --has a bully pulpit and adoring fans. Yet, she is truly ignorant, and truly anti-American. Seriously, I can picture Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Hamilton staring at her, bemused, taking a pinch of snuff and then walking away sadly. Especially if their shades still walk...

Eagle probably tastes like chicken...just like snake, gator and lizard

Ah, Thanksgiving. Gail Collins of the NY Times does a marvelous job skewering some of our traditions as she mocks Courage, the Grand Marshall of The Disneyland Thanksgiving Parade, and ponders the cosmos. Courage is of course, a turkey. Obama seems to be becoming more ironic as the year wears on, commenting at the National Turkey Pardoning that “There are certain days that remind me of why I ran for this office. And then there are moments like this, where I pardon the turkey and send it to Disneyland." For Dispheet de la Dweeb, this was always the high point of his year.

You know, I wonder if the inspiration for DEVO, and certainly the best example of the justice behind the concept of devolution might not be the turkey. Franklin, who was probably drunk, advocated the American Wild Turkey as the national bird. Collins has some thoughts on it...

The National Turkey Federation named the bird Courage, perhaps in memory of Benjamin Franklin’s contention that the bald eagle was a bird of bad moral character while the turkey was “though a little vain and silly, a bird of courage.” If Franklin’s argument had prevailed and the turkey, rather than the bald eagle, had become the national symbol, would we still be eating them? Would the turkey farmers still be in business?

Now, they are just silly, stupid and held upside down to be de-blooded while Sarah Palin cheers. Oh, the AXE dislikes turkey. At the Catholic West Point, we had turkey a lot. Also, tuna fish. I had more than enough of the stuff. Mrs. AXE one year decided that capon would be a nice compromise. Nope. It was awful in its own way. I do prefer a nice bit of hobbit, with some fava beans and San Pelligrino...

Playing Palin, she thinks she freaking Madonna...

Divas do not make good politicians. I know people who have worked in the Senate, for example, and behind the scenes guys like Chris Dodd and Chuck Schumer are total dickweeds. Teddy Kennedy, except for the drunken Irishman schtick and the cockhoundness before his remarriage, was a fairly decent guy. The Alaska delegation seemed to have a fixation on assholes, although Begich has yet to offend anyone the way Ted Stevens offended all sentient beings. Bill Frist was supposedly a fairly nice guy; Trent Lott was charming; Bob Dole had an extraordinary sense of humor. In fact, I suspect Dole could join the Defeatists as Cato and make all our stuff here and at the outlier sites -- or sites of which we are outliers -- a lot better. His wife, on the other hand, makes dildoes look warm and cuddly. However, they were all invariably polite to people who demonstrate that they love them. Until now...



So, Sarah Palin is showing her true colors. Not that anyone needs to be surprised but...the AXE figures that she'll blame her self-induced flashing of the true Sarah on the liberal media somehow.

"We gave up our entire workday, stayed in the cold, my kids were crying," one man was quoted saying. "They went home with my wife. She was out here in the freezing cold all day. I feel like I don't want to support Sarah."...Another woman told Indy Channel, "We bought two books from Borders to have our receipt and our wristband to get it signed tonight. My books are going back to Borders tomorrow." The angry crowd turned on Palin as she returned to her "Going Rogue" tour bus. (Emphasis added)

First of all,  The Typepad is not recognizing Palin as a proper noun as I draft this, which means Michael Palin should sue. Next when a crowd of ignorant assholes turns from cheering and orgasmic moaning to booing and catcalls, that's pretty tame behavior. Wonder how many of these twits were carrying guns? If they'd shot the tires out and torched the goddamn bus while making her sign the books and their various body parts, and then barbecuing the kid, then they would have turned. Here, some dipshits got a comeuppance...delivered by the Moose-slaughterer Profundis herself...

This makes the John Stewart bit even more relevant. Seriously, if the candidate for whatever is this oblivious, this tone deaf, then all I can say is that Mitt-Plastic-Fantastic-Romney might have a chance. Huckabee is supposed to actually care about people, even though he gets his economic theory from Malthus. The more Palin shows that she's just a self-centered, baby-popping, ignorant cunt from the backwoods, the better their chances. However, neither MPFR nor Huckleberry can get the crowds riled up and the base enthralled. If I were the Dems, I'd stockpile this footage and play it often.

Damn, damn, damn...where's the remote?

Tolerance is an end in itself. The elimination of violence, and the reduction of suppression to the extent required for protecting man and animals from cruelty and aggression are preconditions for the creation of a humane society. Such a society does not yet exist; progress toward it is perhaps more than before arrested by violence and suppression on a global scale. As deterrents against nuclear war, as police action against subversion, as technical aid in the fight against imperialism and communism, as methods of pacification in neo-colonial massacres, violence and suppression are promulgated, practiced, and defended by democratic and authoritarian governments alike, and the people subjected to these governments are educated to sustain such practices as necessary for the preservation of the status quo. Tolerance is extended to policies, conditions, and modes of behavior which should not be tolerated because they are impeding, if not destroying, the chances of creating an existence without fear and misery. This sort of tolerance strengthens the tyranny of the majority against which authentic liberals protested. The political locus of tolerance has changed: while it is more or less quietly and constitutionally withdrawn from the opposition, it is made compulsory behavior with respect to established policies. Tolerance is turned from an active into a passive state, from practice to non-practice: laissez-faire the constituted authorities. It is the people who tolerate the government, which in turn tolerates opposition within the framework determined by the constituted authorities.    Tolerance toward that which is radically evil now appears as good because it serves the cohesion of the whole on the road to affluence or more affluence.
                                                        Herbert Marcuse, Repressive Tolerance

A few weeks ago, I walked into my office and started working. Guy walks in and tells me I need to resign or they'll fire me. I then got to spend the next several hours telling people who worked with me that I'd resigned, I'd be fine and it wasn't their fault, and they'd be ok. I miss the folks, of course; but I don't miss GINORMOUS. At some point, sometime, I'll be working again doing something somewhere else. And, to quote Bokonon, so it goes

So, I have been busy. But, the Fort Hood thing and a few other things require comment. The voices in my head are getting louder, and I probably need to let them out.

First of all, the idea that the loonie in the hospital at Fort Hood was a terrorist is intriguing, and helps the demonization that will prevent reasonable discussion of the issues surrounding post traumatic stress and the issues of ethics, diversity and safety. Next, so much for the vaunted government email intrusion; appears they knew everything this guy was doing and corresponding with and so on. FBI and the Army concluded he was harmless; they got it wrong. Or, they were more interested in trying to trap Charlie Rangel in a bad deal with real estate developers in Harlem, and punted. Joe Livermann of Connecticut and the Homeland Security Committee don't need to look at this in a public forum; the FBI/DOJ IG and the Army IG need to look at it, and figure out what the fuck they're using for criteria for taking action when they have a commissioned officer sending mash notes to radical assholes of any stripe, let alone militant Islamists in Yemen.

Actually, I think this is another form of repressive tolerance, Herbert Marcuse's concept of liberalism's ultimate moral bankruptcy, as well as why the Tea-baggers don't get their own idea of untrammeled liberty. Maybe a better simile is the Arsenic and Old Lace moment; this guy's praying five times a day and passing out Korans is as harmless as taking in borders and giving them a hot cup of tea, laced with arsenic and then burying them in the basement. It's odd behavior, but until your recognize the bodies for what they are, the coin doesn't drop.

Eccentricity is as American as fried squash and rhubarb pie, and is something we should tolerate. But, we generally do not tolerate eccentricity in the workplace. The Army is not only a workplace, but also a home, an extended family. If weird cousin Hasan want's to sit in living room and jack off by rubbing  a Randall Fighting knife up and down his wee-wee while watching DVDs of Love Boat, it has crossed the line from eccentricity into "gee, maybe we ought to do something." There are indications that they didn't really want this guy treating soldiers...so, send him to Afghanistan? Exactly what purpose would that serve? Another loser to pass out basketballs? Be in charge of paperclips?

So, a tragedy of errors.  ready to be exploited by the world of the loonies on both sides. And, a crazy guy is going to go to court martial and be locked in a padded cell for a long time. And families will temporarily have a lot of money from the GI life insurance policies; and everyone will forget. Except those who were there, and the families, and the friends, and the obsessives and the historians. And me, and hopefully a few others.

And the whole thing is futile. The men and women who were killed were there as part of an effort to ensure that people have the right to think, and write, and feel the way they do. And most of the time, that's fine, everything works great. And sometimes, it doesn't work for shit. This is one of those cases. And so it goes...and so it goes...no damn cat and no damn cradle.

 

"Church leaders did not respond to Raw Story's requests for comment, but the website notes they will be providing "bar-b-que chicken, fried chicken and all the sides" at the book burning."

Banner day for religious right wingnuts over at the Faith-based community.

Church leaders deem Good News for Modern Man, the Evidence Bible, the New International Version Bible, the Green Bible and the Message Bible, as well as at least seven other versions of the Bible as "Satan's Bibles," according to the website. Attendees will also set fire to "Satan's popular books" such as the work of "heretics" including the Pope, Mother Teresa, Billy Graham and Rick Warren."I believe the King James version is God's preserved, inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God," Pastor Marc Grizzard told a local news station of his 14-member parish.

Dear singularity, where to begin. Since Catholicism pre-dates Protestantism, it's hard for Ratzinger to be branded a heretic, especially since in his pre-Pope role he was the equivalent of the Witch-hunter Profundis, charged with keeping heresy at bay. Mother Teresa was certainly oriented towards works righteousness, but heretic is kinda harsh. Billy Graham a heretic...ok. He was a conservative Baptist, and if you use chronology as a basis for going forth, he's a heretic. From Catholicism. Rick Warren? Really? Mr. GottahaveGodtohavePurposeinYourLife Rick Warren? Makes this Irishman wonder what they put in their barbecue sauce.

Ok, these are snake-handling troglodytes. Notice no barbecued (or barb-be-cued) (barbi-cued would just be crass) snake on the menu. There are other logical problems; besides the whole bookburning thing that makes me think of both Nazis and Disco Inferno Night at Comiskey Park, the King James Bible? Hey, the King James Bible is the best-written poetry amongst the various versions, but, yea verily, that doesn't make it the most authentic. Hardly. The bible is a collection of texts that were in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek and who knows what dialectical variations thereof. It's a translation, and probably from a lot of Latin texts. Translations of translations of translations. Confusion of vernacular over centuries by scribes recording stuff, at least from the old testament, handed down from a verbal tradition to a proto-literate civilization. Translated by scholars influenced by the Reformation, the Renaissance and traditions. Under the rule and guidance of the wisest fool in Christendom...who was bi-sexual. Go for it. If you're going to be wrong, be all wrong.

I wonder how Boner Bohener looks at that one, in the light of this one ...

You were born a Christian, not born gay. Religion is not a choice. Or so the spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) would have you believe. Questioned about why the House's top Republican opposes a hate crimes bill penalizing violence against gays, his spokesman said he "supports existing federal protections (based on race, religion, gender, etc) based on immutable characteristics," just not protections for things like being gay -- which conservatives occasionally claim is a choice.

Seriously, do these idiots listen to themselves? Mary Cheney is about to have her second child with her partner who sure appears to be a woman, the child conceived how? Adultery? In vitro? Turkey baster? Is Mr. Spray Tan even marginally aware of his surroundings? Most guys in my own limited, straight experience, cringe at the thought of sexual contact with another man. We're not wired that way. Most women I've talked to who aren't gay have a similar reaction about lesbians. (Interestingly, women don't get the male fascination with lesbians, the Elaine-equipment episode aside.) It isn't like rooting for the Cleveland Browns instead of the Cincinnati Bengals.. . And, how exactly is the practice of religion not a choice? The significant other used to complain that I was too Catholic...except for the whole God, religion, Jesus thing. This is just stupid...What really bothers me is that the guy was educated at Jesuit Schools during the day when logic was part of the curriculum. He kinda doesn't get that that the syllogism doesn't work in this case. Or, and this wouldn't bother me so much as confirm what I really think, the logic or correctness or honesty of his opinion doesn't matter.

And, of course, this piece...from a crazy canary in the coal mine...

"The scary thing is that there are a number of pastors on record as saying they are praying for the President’s death. Can you imagine what some gun-toting paranoid who hears that in a sermon is thinking and might do? And to them the fact that 'the world' likes this black man is reason enough to hate him. You wait. The reaction to Obama winning the Nobel Prize will be entirely negative from the far Religious Right. 'See the world, all those socialists like him that just proves he’s a -- fill in the blank -- communist, secret Muslim, the Antichrist, whatever.'"

Well, we have a well-known and documented history of what Marcuse called repressive tolerance in this country. Except it isn't exactly inclusive. We tolerate violence and insanity, not debate and discussion. I wonder if the gun-toting paranoid succeeds, will Boehner and Cheney and Bush and Steele and Limbaugh and Beck crow or cower? My guess is crow, cower and incite more of the same...in the name of true Americanism...eine Volk, eine Vaterland und eine Gott. Then when the Mary Cheneys and the Michael Steeles and the Becks are being dragged to the pits for execution, maybe they'll remember Pastor Niemoller...probably not.

Fuck people. Incrementally.

Nothing says false comfort like a minimum wage rule. Tying a minimum wage rule to inflation seems like the way to keep it helpful to the average employee who is at the minimum wage, but it really is not. So, the Colorado decision to knock three cents an hour off the minimum wage is kinda, sorta a gratuitous insult. Legally it is definitely what they have to do, but as that great legal scholar, Charles Dickens, had a character put it in the UK version of The Federalist Papers, "The Law is an ass..."

Assuming a 40 hour week, which is more than a lot of minimum wagers get, the decrease will amount to  a roaring $1.20 a week. Roughly $64 a year Before taxes, which are probably irrelevant, except payroll taxes like FICA and Medicare. The impact on income in real terms, a can of coke a week from the vending machine down the hall next to the furnace where they shovel the coal to drive the engines of industry.

Merle Haggard - Mama's Hungry Eyes

Jeffery Allen Cropper - ( Personal Friend Page )|MySpace Videos
Now, I have been privately speculating about salary freezes and rollbacks for a while. This particular issue is probably a sign of something, and not being Paul Krugman , I'm not sure what. (By the way, the post I've linked to is pretty arcane, but take the time to do the math and think. Not a bad motto...) However, if wages drop then demand drops for shit because people have less to spend on shit; if demand drops, production drops; if production drops, people get laid off. Getting that flushed down the toilet of economics feeling yet?

Here's my thought: Mandate a living wage which will be based on the local median minus 20%. The only way to get out of this downward spiral is to sell stuff; the only way to sell stuff besides food and minimal housing is getting more, not less money into disposable income which largely comes from wages in the spending as opposed to the investment class. Bill Gates net worth decreases by 10%, he's still fucking wealthy; increases by 10%, he's still fucking wealthy, and I doubt that it'll have that much of an impact on his spending patterns. Give me a 10% negative swing, and I slow down and do little except pay down debt; increase it by 10%, and some of that will go to spending. Granted, some of that will go to paying down debt, but if I increase my after tax income by $5K, I probably won't buy another car, but I might buy a new Amp and maybe a better layout of office furniture for my home office. Just a thought; but, that would keep struggling musicians, the Line 6 company, furniture stores and Weyerhauser going a bit longer. Just doing my part...

Now, for gratuitous, unwarranted optimism...


Were that it were so, but as former Rosicrucian adept and car salesman Crispin Sartwell once plagarized, "Life is 60/40 against."