The End Of A Decade:

One decade is ending and another is about to begin. In the nineteen sixties there was a book entitled the Crucial Decade by Eric F. Goldman. The focus of this book was the Cold War and the bipartisan support for the policy of containing the Soviet Union. It was this bipartisan support that provided the continuity of our opposition to the Soviet threat and won the Cold War. I will say to you that the decade now dawning is another crucial decade because the one now ending is a decade of crises. The new decade is crucial not just in regard to the threat posed by terrorists but also in regard to our financial health and our where with all to carry on the fight against those terrorists. Military strength without financial strength cannot be sustained, which is why the Soviet Union collapsed. Our financial weakness will very likely result in our collapse unless we correct it.

In the decade now ending we took a hard turn to the right and wound up in a ditch. The Bush administration gave huge tax breaks to the wealthiest people in the nation, thereby turning a Federal surplus into a huge deficit. He got us involved in two wars, one of which was totally unnecessary and a drain on our diminishing resources. His anti-regulation philosophy contributed greatly to AIG becoming too large to fail, and allowed the risky behavior of our financial institutions that nearly resulted in another great depression. One of the very few things President Bush did right was to listen to the economists and propose a stimulus bill to keep the economy from totally collapsing. Even though we were in the midst of a Presidential election campaign the Democratic Party acted responsibly and provided bipartisan support for that bill. Ironically, John McCain refused to support the stimulus bill, and most of the Republican Party openly opposed it. Their refusal to support the stimulus bill was a failure to grasp the reality of the situation. They simply refused to accept the fact that their enrich the rich, small government, anti-regulation philosophy had failed as surly as it had failed in nineteen twenty-nine.

This failure has made the Republicans desperate and dangerous. They continue to pound the anti-government drum. They are denying that there is a problem the government must take steps to solve. They insist that still more tax cuts for large corporations and the wealthy are all that is needed. They are doing this in spite of the fact that median family income dropped from $63,099 in the year two thousand to $61,521 in the year two thousand and nine. Furthermore, top executives are still receiving obscene compensation even when their companies are failing, and unemployment is teetering at ten percent. The Republican Party has gone beyond the traditional role of the loyal opposition. They are using the filibuster in the senate to block any meaningful reforms. If our businesses are going to compete with foreign companies, we must do something to control the cost of the health insurance they provide to their employees. If we are going to prevent another economic meltdown, we must pass regulations that will prevent Wall Street and AIG from indulging in the risky behavior that caused this meltdown. If we are going to solve the unemployment problem we must provide some incentives for increasing production and hiring more workers.

The Republican Party has made a bipartisan effort impossible. Their use of the filibuster is a cynical attempt to make the Obama Administration fail regardless of how much that might damage the country. They are doing this while serving the special interests that provide them with campaign funds. They are hoping that the failure to get anything meaningful passed over their obstruction and the millions of dollars they collect from the insurance companies, drug companies, and other special interests will allow them to regain power. If they succeed, it will be at your expense. The elections of two thousand and ten are the starting point of this crucial decade. They will decide whether we move forward or whether we sink deeper into a Republican recession that will hinder our ability to provide for ourselves and protect ourselves. The ultimate decision is yours. If you want a government that represents your interests, you must put forth the effort to take your government back. If you cannot campaign, contribute money. Above all, make sure that you vote for Democrats who are loyal to their party and its agenda.

A Government Bought And Paid For.

I cannot believe the arrogance of the insurance lobby. I just saw an advertisement opposing health care reform. Sixty percent of the public favors a public insurance option yet the insurance industry actually listed and showed pictures of the senators who are blocking it. The Insurance companies are touting those senators as heroes. This is, in fact, a list of the insurance industry’s employees of the year. All of those senators are bought and paid for. They are not representing you; they are representing a very powerful special interest. Here is a hint for you. The insurance companies are not your friends. Those companies want to make as much money as possible. They want to provide their top executives with exorbitant bonuses, salaries and perks, and they do not care how many of you die or are forced into bankruptcy because you cannot afford health care. The advertisement I am referring to is a boast. The insurance industry is actually bragging about their ability to buy your government. If you are not outraged by this, you should be!

Everyone seems to be talking about voter disaffection and anger. Well, the voters should be angry, but they should take the time to find out who is to blame. I suggest to you that a good place to start is with the insurance industry’s list of employees of the year. Start with Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Blanch Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and every senator who belongs to the Republican Party. Get on your computer and send them e-mails, tell your friends about them, and make damn sure that you vote against them when they come up for re-election. Let the word go out that you will no longer tolerate elected officials who represent the special interests rather than you. If you do not make an effort to take your government back, you have no one but yourself to blame.

I know many of you are saying there are other things that make you angrier than our broken health care system. I know you are upset about the sluggish economy and high unemployment. I know that the economy and unemployment have a more immediate impact on you unless you get sick, and that you want the economy and employment to be the priority. Unfortunately, the Republican Party is no longer the Grand Old Party. Instead it has degenerated into the party of DOB, which stands for Deny, Obstruct, and Blame. The Republicans are denying that it was their failed policies and the ineptitude of the Bush administration that caused the economy to collapse, and they are using the filibuster to prevent the government from dealing with the crises. The Republicans are hoping that you will forget about the gridlock that they and the blue dog Democrats are creating, and that you will blame the Democratic Party for not solving the problems the Republicans created. In this regard, health care reform is the opening battle in your war to take back your government and make it responsive to your needs. If you let the insurance industry win this battle, the Republicans and the blue dogs will be emboldened. The Republicans already plan to use the filibuster against any effort to further stimulate the economy or provide jobs.

You must make your stand now! The banks are hoping that the Republicans and blue dog Democrats can thwart meaningful reforms that will force them to get back into the business of providing loans to homeowners and small businesses rather than speculating on ventures that involve greater risks and greater potential profits. Investment firms are hoping they can still pass off the losses resulting from risky behavior to the small investors while providing their executives with obscene golden parachutes. Big businesses are hoping they can continue to outsource jobs to places with cheaper labor. The Republicans and special interests are hoping you will join the lunatic conventions called tea parties. They are counting on you losing your focus and joining the dupes who do not have the brains to recognize the real issues. The Republicans do not think you are smart enough to realize that they are to blame for the inability to pass meaningful legislation, and that you will vote against Democratic incumbents simply because they are incumbents. Do not let them get away with this. Direct your anger where it will do some good. You have the ability to determine who is representing you and who is representing the special interests. The ones representing the special interests are making that all too easy by opposing the public option. Now is the time to draw the line in the sand. Now is the time to let the blue dogs know that the threat of joining a filibuster to thwart the will of their party and a majority of their constituents will be punished. Now is the time to let the Republicans know that becoming the party of DOB will result in becoming an irrelevant party that will not have enough elected members to keep the senate from functioning! Do not wait until they defeat the next vital reform or program with a filibuster, make them hear you now!

The World According To Gop

The Republican Party strategist thought it was a wonderful coincident that his parents had named him Gop. GOP is, after all, another name for the Republican Party. GOP stands for grand old party, regardless of the fact that so many people now say the initials stand for “greedy old plutocrats.” The fact that he was named Gop allowed this Republican to name his political encyclopedia “The World According To Gop.” Here are some excerpts:

Articles and Definitions:

Business: The insurance companies, drug companies and other large corporations we really represent as opposed to the small businesses and people who think we represent them.

Deficit Spending: What liberals create with stimulus programs and such as opposed to the deficits we create by giving large tax breaks to the wealthy and getting into unnecessary wars.

Golden Parachute: Lucrative lobbying positions with the businesses we represented before our constituents finally figured out what we were doing to them.

Government Regulations and Programs: Pure evil. The government does not throw money at me. It does not contribute to my campaign or yours. The interests you and I represent do throw money at us, and they do not like regulations or government programs.

Liberal: Traditionally it means anyone favoring reform or progress. Now it means anyone who is more concerned with facts than beliefs. They will drive you crazy with the facts. They also want the rich to pay their fair share for the greater good. The rich do not like taxes, and they are the ones who have the money to support you and me. Always portray liberals as politicians who want to tax everyone to death.

Madoff: Originally the name of the man who ran a ponzi scheme that demonstrated the consequences of not enforcing even the most basic regulations. Some Republican senators are ignoring the fact that this lack of enforcement was typical of the Bush administration. Those clever senators are now accusing the Democrats of acting like Mr. Madoff by proposing a public health insurance option that would do the same thing that private insurance companies have been doing all these years. In other words, they are saying a government option would not provide the care consumers are purchasing and that the price of the care that is provided would rapidly escalate. This projection of the insurance industry’s behavior is a classic example of how to turn a double negative into a positive. Way to go guys!

Morality: The standard to which we hold our opponents while trying to hide or justify the transgressions of the members of our party.

Option: Forget the dictionary definition. Your constituents will not look it up or read the proposed legislation. Just tell them that if the government is involved in any way, shape or form, it is a government takeover or socialism.

Party Loyalty: We enforce party loyalty. We will tea party and primary any member of our party that will not join us in a filibuster. The Democrats appear to be too weak to do that to the insurance industry’s gang of four (Sen. Joe Lieberman, Con.; Sen. Blanch Lincoln, Ark; Sen. Ben Nelson, Neb.; and Sen. Mary Landrieu, LA).

Projection: Accuse your opponent of acting like you do. Your constituents believe all politicians are corrupt anyhow, and most people are inclined to vote for the whores they know.

Public Interest: Is whatever you say it is as long as you get re-elected.

Reality: It is only important if your constituents find out what it is. What is important is what your constituents believe or will believe.

Republican Health Care Reform: Allow the insurance companies to move to the state with the fewest regulations and consumer protections. Keep insurance companies exempt from anti-trust laws so they can continue to limit the consumers’ choices, and force everyone who is young and healthy to buy private health insurance coverage.

Republican Economic Solutions: Continue to enrich the rich and insist that they will make everything better.

Rich: The people we represent and hope to be.

Socialism: The bogyman we use to scare the gullible into thinking that any government regulation or program will result in the Government taking over every aspect of their lives.

Special Interest: Any person, company, or organization that supports our opponents.

Supply Side Economics: Tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations who do not need tax relief and will not spend the savings on things that create jobs. They will invest those savings, however, and doing so will artificially inflate the price of stock thereby giving the illusion of prosperity. Appearance is always more important than reality.

MOVING MY BLOG

This is a notice to those of you who frequently visit this blog and to those of who have a link to any of the writings contained herein. I am moving the stories, the entertaining columns and the entertaining essays to http://macsbackporch.foxtail-farms.com. I have already started entering those writings into the new address. I will delete those writings from macsbackporch.blogspot.com on December 29, 2009. My intention is to make the new blog what Mac’s Back Porch was intended to be. Which is to say a blog that simply entertains you. This blog, macsbackporch.blogspot.com, will then become the place where I post political comments and more serious commentaries. I hope this move does not inconvenience you too much. It is motivated by a strong desire to know how many people are reading my fiction.

Preparing For The Holidays

The goblins are gone and the gobblers are in. Our most festive holiday season is about to begin. It is a time when I traditionally entertain. You may have noticed that I have spruced up the place a bit. The old template I used was rather stark. After looking at it for eleven months, I decided that it had all of the appeal of a mud wall. I have chosen a different template and added brighter colors. I think that helps, but it is still unadorned. I am afraid I am not much of a shutterbug, and they left artistic talent out of the mix when they poured me into the mold. I am now looking for some public domain pictures I can use to reflect the holiday spirit.

I never know how many visitors I have over the holidays or any other time. I wish Google would give me a more accurate count. I know that at least one unethical twit found me. This parasite latched onto one of my stories, turned a large portion of it into gibberish, and then treated the garbled version like a suppository by inserting it into his or her worthless blog. My blog is cited as the source of the abomination, thus damaging my reputation as a writer. Fortunately, this despicable creature is the exception. Most of you are good guests, and I value your input. I have recently added a poll to give you an easier way to express your opinions about what I write. I want you to feel welcome here. I want to entertain you. In this regard I am afraid I have violated the rule to avoid politics, religion, and other subjects that might upset you. I would like to tell you I will not do this again, but I know myself too well to do that. The absurd vitriol of the tea bag crowd and the fact that so many legislators are putting the profits of the insurance companies ahead of the health of the nation simply will not allow me to remain silent. I am, however, looking for a way to let you know when a particular post is political. You cannot always tell from the title. “Fickle Winds of Change,” for instance is a fictional story rather than a political statement. Hopefully, I can find a way to mark the political posts without changing the titles and having to re-post what is already there. But enough of that; it is time for a few holiday thoughts.

Thanksgiving is more than a feast. It is a time to count our blessings and think about all of the things that make our lives better. I know this is not an easy thing to do when times are tough, but that is when we need to do it the most. That is why I am starting my list a bit early.

1. I am grateful for my wonderful family and friends.

2. I am grateful that I have a job at an age when most people have retired. I need the money, but of equal importance is my need for activity and interaction with other people.

3. Blogger may not be all that I would like it to be, but I am glad that I have a blog. It motivates me to write on a schedule.

4. I am grateful for you. Particularly those of you who found some of my writing entertaining enough to form links to it.

5. I am grateful for a terrific education that makes me seek out the facts even when those facts force me to change some of my assumptions and beliefs.

6. I am grateful for a political system that allows the majority to challenge the special interests and hold government officials accountable. Although I will concede that it frequently takes something as important as the life and death issues of health care reform to motivate us to do that.

7. I am grateful for the laughter that helps us cope with adversity and is so much a part of how we celebrate overcoming that adversity.

8. I am grateful for the courage and the optimism we need to move forward and come up with solutions to our problems.

9. I am grateful for the decency and kindness of the people I meet.

10. I am grateful for the fact that we can disagree with each other and still be friends.

I will post again before thanksgiving. Thank you for visiting me. Please feel free to search the index for stories and other writings that might entertain you. It would please me to know that I made you smile or laugh.

DAMNING JOE LIEBERMAN

Look at the entire picture. Concentrate on the bottom line. Those gems of advice are not mutually exclusive, but Senator Lieberman is acting as though they were. So here is another piece of advice. Focusing so hard on the bottom line can result in losing your bottom. A few days ago I sent an email to Senator Joe Lieberman. It was a very strongly worded statement in which I expressed my displeasure over his threat to join a filibuster against any bill that includes a public insurance option. The reply I received was a form letter. His reply politely thanked me for my input. He then went on to say that since I do not live in Connecticut he does not care about what I think. Okay, Senator, but you might want to consider the fact that Senator Harry Reid and the other members of the Democratic Party with whom you caucus do not live in your state either. I might add that millions of people who do not live in your state are also very likely to contribute to your next opponent’s campaign. I know I will.

The Democratic Party’s diversity and tolerance of dissent has always made me proud to be a Democrat. We do not want to act like Republicans and start purging our party of dissenters for the sake of ideological purity, but there is a line the dissenters must not cross. Tens of thousands of people suffered an early death this year because they could not afford health insurance. Millions more had to declare bankruptcy because they could not pay their medical bills. A robust public insurance option would solve the problem of cost. And the cost of health care coverage is literally a matter of life and death. Voting against the public option is bad enough. Joining a filibuster to prevent the bill from coming to a vote on the floor is intolerable. The filibuster has always been considered an extreme measure. In this case it means defying the will of the majority of your party and the will of a large majority of the American people. If you are going to do that, you had better be prepared for the consequences. There shall and should be a severe penalty for being an obstructionist, particularly when there is so much at stake.

Senator Lieberman has made himself the lightning rod on this issue. The Democratic senators generously took Lieberman back into the fold when he lost the primary and won the general election as an independent. Senator Lieberman showed his gratitude by campaigning for John McCain. He then joined the opposition on such absurd things as criticizing the President for appointing czars to oversee programs and regulations. If Senator Lieberman carries through with his threat to join a filibuster against the public insurance option, it must be his last betrayal! He must be expelled from the party, its caucuses and all positions of leadership in the Senate. The penalty for letting dissent degenerate into the role of the obstructionist must be severe for all other blue dogs as well. A message must be sent. There is a limit to what we can tolerate. Now is the time, and the need is urgent. The days when the top insurance company executives are being paid millions of dollars at the expense of people who have to choose between starving to death and dying of treatable conditions must end now. We must loosen the stranglehold the insurance industry has on the health and well being of our citizens!

Eating Your Own

Halloween is fast approaching. It is a day in which the bizarre is expected and accepted. The Republican Party is apparently starting a bit early. Last year the minority leader in the House of Representatives, John Boehner, called TARP (the bailout) a mud sandwich, but said it still needed to be passed. He and the other conservatives who voted for the TARP bill considered it a bitter pill, but they correctly concluded that they had to swallow it in order to keep the economy from collapsing. Reality, however, is not important to neo-conservatives who prize dogmatic orthodoxy above all else. On October 13, 2009 Mike Huckabee railed against the “…phony Republicans who say they are conservative [but] voted for the TARP bill last year.” Mr. Huckabee came very close to mocking Congressman Boehner by adding: “Oh, TARP, it’s terrible but we’ve got to do it.” Mr. Huckabee called that ridiculous. He said voting for the TARP bill was stupid, and that Republicans have to start acting like “real” Republicans.

One person criticizing another member of his party is not that unusual, but Mr. Huckabee is not the only Republican who is challenging the conservative credentials of prominent members of his party. Ron Paul and other right wingers are becoming increasingly vituperative in their criticisms of conservative Senator Lindsay Graham. At an October 12, 2009 town hall meeting Senator Graham was subjected to the sort of disruptions and outbursts usually reserved for elected officials who favor health care reform. People at that meeting accused Senator Graham of being pro-abortion, a traitor, an anti-Christ socialist, a hypocrite, and worse. The litmus test for being a “real Republican” is obviously becoming far more difficult to pass, and, as Republican moderates who were defeated in primary elections will attest, the penalty for failing the test is severe. Eating your own is too macabre even for Halloween. It is certainly no way to rebuild your political party.

It is not too difficult to figure out why the Republicans are turning on each other. They responded to their fall from power by appealing to the most militant and nihilistic segment of the population, and they embraced that segment as the party’s most loyal supporters. The Republicans even joined the insurance companies in encouraging the disruption of town hall meetings. Not being content with what they riled up at the town hall meetings, the Republicans then tried to tap into the negative energy by encouraging the tea bag demonstrations. In doing so they went beyond stirring up the lunatic right; they actually empowered it. They were and are playing with fire. Attacking moderate Republicans is foolish but understandable. It is a matter of ideological cleansing, and the lunatic right is not bright enough to be concerned about the party’s shrinking base of support. Attacking traditional conservatives like Congressman Boehner and Senator Graham is another matter. It is a clear indication that the lunatic right really is insane or incredibly stupid or both. If those lunatics succeed in toppling Mr. Boehner and Mr. Graham, all traditional conservatives are in danger. Those traditional conservatives raise money for the party by representing the interests of the insurance companies and large corporations. Passing legislation requires the ability to negotiate and compromise. By insisting that there can be no compromises the lunatic right is hindering the ability of those conservatives to represent the interests of the party’s financial backers. This ineffectiveness combined with the shrinking number of Republicans who can get elected will cause the financial backers to seek representation elsewhere. If this happens, the party is over. Without financial backing the Republican Party will become powerless and irrelevant.

I sincerely hope the few remaining Republican moderates and the traditional conservatives can wrest the GOP from the control of the mindless ideologues before that happens. Senator Graham recently said people have to stop listening to the likes of Glen Beck and start concentrating on the real issues. He also said that people who question President Obama’s citizenship and accuse him of being a secret Muslim are crazy. "They do not represent the Republican Party," he said. So far, Senator Graham appears to be the only conservative who is smart enough to try to distance himself from the likely cost of embracing those lunatics and their demons. It is good to see someone of his stature making the effort, but timing is everything. The attacks on him by his fellow Republicans make me think his appeal for reason is probably too late to make much of a difference. As a very wise lady once told me, “If you dance with the devil, he won’t settle for a kiss goodnight.”

Opposing Your Own Interests.

Why are so many people fighting and voting against their own interests? Why do so many of those people listen to the right wing shills of the special interests? Particularly when the most outspoken shills are so paranoid and unbalanced. Here you have Glen Beck. This man thinks the walls of public buildings offer clues of a conspiracy to ruin the country. Of course we all know that anyone participating in such a nefarious plot would want to put coded messages on the walls of public buildings so that someone like Glen Beck can uncover the plot and thwart it. Mr. Beck is obviously not playing with a full deck. But do not worry, loose knobs Dobbs will tell you why companies trying to sell soap should continue to sponsor Mr. Beck’s absurd and often racial rants. Although Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the other right wing extremists draw a large audience, that audience actually comprises a rather small percentage of the population. I am willing concede that most of the people working against their own economic interests probably do not listen to them. But the outrageous rants of extremists like Mr. Beck and Mr. Limbaugh are still instructive because those men clearly state what the, so called, conservatives are actually thinking. That is why the other special interest shills defend those extremists. It is also why the seemingly reasonable shills use less provocative language to echo the thoughts the extremists express so bluntly.

The first word out of the mouths of those who oppose any progressive change is always welfare. Welfare was a part of President Johnson’s great society, and conservatives see it as a product of the turbulent civil rights movement. In other words, they see it as a racial issue! Never mind the fact that a public option will provide the competition needed to keep down the cost of everyone’s health coverage regardless of whether they choose to keep their private health insurance or go with the public option; neoconservatives will still oppose the option. They think that getting gouged by private companies is just a part of the free market system. What bothers them is that the public option will insure people who do not presently have insurance. Neoconservatives do not think about the fact that most of the people who choose the public option will be paying premiums to support it. Nor do they think about the fact that the free emergency room visits by the uninsured probably cost more than the public option would. The primary fear of any neoconservative is that some of his or her hard earned dollars will be used to provide medical treatment to people of a different race! The insurance industry shills, such as Republicans and blue dog Democrats, are well aware of this attitude. That is why they call something like the public insurance option a government run “social program.” Neoconservatives think all “social programs” are designed to provide for the poor. The shills do not have to define the poor in racial terms because neoconservatives automatically think of welfare. In other words, one of the primary objections to the public option is racially motivated, and the insurance company shills are exploiting that racism. That is why they also insist that the public option will be available to illegal immigrants regardless of the fact that the proposed legislation specifically excludes illegal immigrants.

The other motive for opposing the public insurance option is blind ideology. Those ideologues say that it is capitalism and the free enterprise system that made us the most prosperous nation in the history of the world. I agree with them for the most part, but it was the trust busters and the reasonable regulations passed during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration that kept our free market system from degenerating into social Darwinism. The breaking up of the trusts and the New Deal regulations helped to stabilize the markets and provided a level playing field that allowed fair competition. The ideologues, however, refuse to acknowledge that fact. They continue to oppose any meaningful regulations even though it was the repeal of some of those regulations and the failure to enforce the ones still in place that permitted AIG to become too large to fail and permitted the risky behavior that resulted in the economic meltdown we experienced just last year. The reason why I am addressing this extreme free market view is because the opponents of the public insurance option say that it is more than just the health care proposals that have them so upset. They also object to the government’s regulation of businesses and the entire stimulus program. They erroneously insist that the bailouts and other measures are detrimental in spite of the fact that the vast majority of economists say that it was only the swift actions of the Bush administration and President Obama that kept the economy from totally collapsing. The economists obviously learned something from the Great Depression. I am afraid I cannot say the same thing about the free enterprise ideologues.

It is this stubborn refusal of the ideologues to acknowledge any facts that might contradict their assumptions that makes it so difficult for them to realize that they are now working against their own economic interests. You would have to be living on another planet in order to deny that the runaway cost of health insurance is a serious problem. It increased by 30% during the period of 2001 through 2005 while income only rose by a mere 3% during that time. The cost of health insurance rose by another 15.9% just last year. Furthermore, nearly 50% of the bankruptcies declared are now due to medical expenses. Yet the people opposing the stimulus package and the public insurance option still insist that there is nothing wrong with our health care system. I am assuming that most of them have health insurance that is provided by their employers. In which case, the people opposing health care reform are simply not bright enough to realize that they are only a layoff away from being uninsured and only one or two price increases away from their employer canceling the coverage they presently have. Even more perplexing is the fact that everyone knows the insurance companies use flimsy excuses like preexisting conditions in order to deny coverage for any costly or prolonged treatment regardless of whether those preexisting conditions have any relationship to the malady requiring treatment. The people opposing medical reform are aware of the many denials of claims and coverage; yet they are still naive enough to think it will not happen to them. The bottom line is that they refuse to look beyond what they are presently experiencing.

How do we get people to look beyond what they are presently experiencing? How do we tell them they are working against their own interests when they are so busy shouting “Socialism” that they cannot hear us? Forget about the racists and the ideologues whose views are so extreme that they would even dismantle Social Security and Medicare. Those racists and those extremists are beyond hope. Getting them to listen to facts or reason is impossible. You would stand a better chance of teaching your dog how to do calculus. Fortunately, a large number of the staunchest free enterprise proponents would still preserve Social Security and Medicare, and they are the ones we must reach. We must find a way to break through the emotional bearers they have erected long enough to get them to listen to reason. I think they will listen to arguments about the need for regulations forbidding insurance companies from using flimsy excuses such as preexisting conditions in order to deny coverage. I think they will also be open to the argument that the competition they so highly prize is the only thing that can stabilize or reduce the price of medical coverage. Clearly, the private insurance companies are not providing that competition. If they were, the price of medical coverage would have stabilized or decreased a long time ago. This means that we must introduce a new factor to provide the needed competition. The surest way to do that is with a public insurance option, which is no more socialistic than Social Security or Medicare.

The argument that a public option will drive the private carriers out of the health insurance market is inconsistent on its face. We are not talking about a single payer system that will eliminate the coverage offered by private companies. People who want to keep their present insurance rather than buying the public coverage will be perfectly free to do so. If the private insurance companies offer a better benefits package than the public insurance offers, I am sure many people will buy the policies offered by the private companies. They will do this even if the premiums are a bit higher than the ones charged by the government. Furthermore, the private carriers will probably find a market for coverage that supplements the public insurance. It is a win, win situation. The only reason why the insurance companies and their shills oppose the public option is because the insurance companies will have to do something they have not been doing. They will actually have to compete! I believe that competition is the American way regardless of what we have to do to bring it about.

To you super patriots out there I say: The true patriots are not the ones waving the flags and screaming America is great while ignoring the very real challenges we face. True patriots dedicate themselves to meeting and overcoming those challenges. It is not the public option and other stimulus programs that are un-American; rather it is the refusal to support or come up with any reasonable solutions. Make no mistake about it, the health care crises is threatening to overwhelm us. The soaring cost of medical insurance greatly decreases the goods and services the average American family can purchase. By reducing the cost of health care coverage the public insurance option will make American families healthier and more prosperous. This, in turn, will help to stimulate our sluggish economy. Doing nothing is not acceptable. The best medical care in the world does not do you any good if you cannot afford it. This is a problem we know how to solve, and we must solve it. We did not become a great nation by ignoring reality.

Campaign For The Public Option!

All right, this blog has become political. I cannot help it. We are in a hell of a mess. It is about jobs and health care. The greatest obstacles to correcting our economy are the knee jerk reactions, and the outrageous exploitation of those reactions by a party that is now intellectually and morally bankrupt. Their policies have failed, and they simply cannot make the adjustments necessary to deal with the crises. They had the same problem during the Great Depression. People are understandably afraid and angry. But rather than dealing with the real problems the Republicans are exploiting the fears and the anger. They who say the leaders of our present government are behaving like Nazis are indulging in what psychologists call projection. The Nazis blamed all of Germany’s problems on the Jews, the Gypsies, and every other ethnic or religious minority. They also blamed the democratic government set up by the treaty of Versailles, and they talked about restoring the Germany they knew. We all know where that led. Do not overreact to what I am saying here. I am not accusing the Republicans of being Nazis; nor am I suggesting that they would ever set up a fascist state. What I am saying is that they are encouraging such vilifications. They are doing this to avoid the real issues, and their behavior is both hypocritical and dangerous!

This is where the knee jerk reactions kick in. “Socialism” is a word the Republicans frequently use to trigger such responses. Socialism is seen as being the opposite of capitalism. Since capitalism is good socialism must be evil. Many will even mistakenly say that there is no difference between socialism and communism. What those people are looking at are the extremes. They are thinking of socialism as an all or nothing proposition, and they are portraying every regulation and government program as evil socialism. When the government broke up the trusts and monopolies that had a stranglehold on our economy John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan and others screamed “Socialism!” When Franklin Roosevelt took office the opponents of his New Deal did not confine themselves to calling the work programs and Social Security socialism; they also called the regulation of the stock market and the banks socialism. When some of those bank and stock market regulations were repealed and others were no longer enforced we wound up with the AIG debacle, banks failing, brokerage firms failing, and companies that depended on credit failing. All of which created the worst economic situation since the Great Depression. Another example of the failure of deregulation can be found in California. When that state deregulated the electrical utilities the result was Enron and extreme hardships for the citizens of that state. What this tells us is that there is a reason for the regulations. They are not there because the government has this great desire to take over everything. They are there to prevent the abuses and problems that have become all too apparent.

Mr. Obama’s health care reforms call for some strict regulation of the health insurance industry. I agree that those regulations are needed, but they are not enough. We can never be sure that those regulations will not be repealed or that another George W. Bush will simply fail to enforce them. Furthermore, what is being proposed does not include any caps on the premiums the insurance companies can charge their customers. This is why we need a strong public insurance option. We have to provide a competing system that will keep the insurance companies from gouging us. This Republican nonsense about creating competition by allowing consumers to shop for insurance in other states is utterly ridiculous. The insurance companies will do the same thing large corporations did when they incorporated in New Jersey; they will all migrate to the state with the fewest regulations and consumer protections. The Republicans can scream “socialism” until they are blue in the face, but the word has lost much of its sting. The majority of Americans realize we must have reasonable regulations and that programs such as Social Security and Medicare are desirable even if they are socialistic. Perhaps that is why the Republicans are pandering to the nut cases who attend tea parties and disrupt community meetings. Those nut cases are the ones that are the most gullible.

Unfortunately, it is not just the nut cases we have to deal with. There is a sizeable minority that is not convinced that we need a public option. That minority actually comprises a majority in the states of blue dog senators. Unlike the nut cases, this minority is comprised of honest conservatives who can be convinced. To do so we need to get the young people who supported Obama to actively campaign for it. We need them to help sell the public option and to write their senators. To get those young, healthy people to take action means that we have to show them why the health care issues have an immediate impact on them. They need to know that the reforms are an important part of the economic program. This comes down to jobs. People with jobs pay taxes and buy things. The reason why John F. Kennedy’s tax breaks for the middle class did not increase the deficit as his critics had predicted is because the people receiving those tax breaks used the additional money to buy more goods and services. This increased demand. Businesses responded to the increased demand by increasing production. This resulted in the creation of more jobs. The increase in the number of people who were employed then increased the tax revenues and the demand for goods and services. This in turn added even more jobs. If the average person can save a significant amount of money on their health insurance premiums because of the public option, it will increase the amount of goods and services they can purchase. This will increase the demand for goods and services and add the jobs those young people need in order to enter the job market. In other words, the young people do not have to wait until they need health care to benefit from the reform.

The public option is a win, win proposition. Believe me, the insurance companies will not go broke. They will still have all those people who keep their present coverage, and they might add many people who buy coverage to supplement their public insurance policies. Best of all everyone will finally be able to pay for the medical treatments they need.

To All U.S. Senators:

I do not need to tell you our health care system is broken. I do not need to tell you about the soaring medical costs, the denial of insurance coverage at the very time people need that coverage the most, or the obscene profits being made by the insurance companies and the drug industry. You already know those things. For fifty years we Democrats have been trying to reform the system to provide affordable health care. Important interim steps have been taken in spite of the opposition of powerful special interests who fought to defend an outrageously profitable status quo. I applaud the Congresspersons and the Senators who supported that legislation. But interim steps are half measures, and half measures are not acceptable when so many people are losing their health care coverage. We need the public insurance option now! Waiting will only mean more suffering, and it will not improve the odds of getting the public option. Regardless of how long we wait the companies that are raking in the profits from our broken health care system will fiercely oppose any meaningful change. Those companies and their allies will still tell the big lies, and they will still whip up the fears of the gullible. Furthermore, they will still use their considerable resources to reward the Senators who oppose the public option and to punish the Senators who support that option.

Today the Democratic Party has a large enough majority in the Senate to pass a bill that contains the public option. You Democrats who are dragging your feet on this issue should hang your heads in shame, and so should you Republicans. You hold the health of millions of Americans in your hands. The vast majority of your fellow citizens are just one catastrophic illness away from bankruptcy. What you do now will be judged by them and by future generations. Do not oppose the one measure that will provide them with affordable heath care!

This is Profiles In Courage time. This is the time to spend whatever political capital it takes. This is the time to thwart the lies with the truth, to address the fears with calm reason, and to defy the threats with determined action. They who serve long do not always serve well. If you do not stand up and do what is right, your longevity in office means nothing. You do not want to be on the wrong side of history regarding this issue. You do not want people to say that you acted like a tool of the special interests or that you cowered behind a locked door when opportunity knocked. This is the most important domestic issue of our times. Stand up to the lies and the threats. Become one of the heroes supporting the public option. A mere five or six years from now people will thank God that you had the courage and the wisdom to do what we so desperately need done!

P.S. I encourage anyone who is so inclined to print out a copy of this letter and send it to your Senators.

Wolffe On Obama

It was not my intention to post book reviews on this blog, but I have just finished reading RENEGADE by Richard Wolffe. The promotion said it is in the tradition of Theodore White’s, Making Of A President, books. “In the tradition of …” is an accurate description. This book is not merely an imitation. Mr. Wolffe has his own style and his own experiences to draw upon. In many ways his book is more than an account of the campaign; it is also a brief biography. Because of Mr. Obama’s background, his race, and what many people will call his improbable rise to political stardom, the biographical material is fascinating and necessary. Few candidates, if any, will be able to emulate his strategy of building a grass roots campaign. The first thing required to make such a strategy work is timing. The worst President in the history of our nation was finally leaving office. I am tempted to say that anyone with more than a beer soaked peanut for a brain desperately wanted change, but that would be too harsh. Suffice it to say that a vast majority of the people recognized the need for change. That was not much of an issue. At issue were the proposed changes and the ability of the respective candidates to bring about those changes.

The next thing required in building a grass roots campaign is a candidate who has the charisma to excite prospective volunteers and make your grass roots organizations attractive to them. Even that is not enough. You still have to find local people who know the community and have the ability and dedication to do a lot of very hard work for very little in the way of monetary compensation. It takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to recruit volunteers and make them effective. It is a risky strategy that burns up a lot of resources. Mr. Wolffe did a good job of describing the grass roots efforts and the charisma of the candidate. He also did a good job of describing the campaign staff, its organization, and the role Mr. Obama played in the planning and the development of the strategies employed.

Finding the right balance in a book that concentrates so much on one candidate can be difficult. If your focus is so narrow that you ignore the campaign strategies and actions of the other candidates, some of the nuances of the strategies and reactions of the candidate you are covering will be lost. I thought Mr. Wolffe achieved a pretty good balance in regard to the primaries and Hillary Clinton, but I would like to have seen more about John McCain’s strategy, his steps and his missteps. At the beginning of the general election campaign the economy went into a tailspin. This added a sense of urgency to the desire for change. Mr. McCain simply did not get it. He said the economy was fundamentally sound, and he continued to advocate still more tax cuts for the wealthy. I thought that one of the more telling moments of the Presidential debates was when Mr. McCain said Mr. Obama was not running against George W. Bush and Mr. Obama replied that it was difficult to distinguish between the policies of Mr. McCain and Mr. Bush. This exchange is not in Mr. Wolffe’s book, but that is a very minor complaint.

Mr. Wolffe never intended to write an in depth analysis of the election. While covering Mr. Obama’s campaign for Newsweek, Mr. Wolffe was given unprecedented access to the candidate. He then used the information he gained from that access to provide us with a portrait of an extraordinary man. The focus is on that man and the events that shaped him as an individual and a candidate. This word portrait shows us Mr. Obama’s personality and his management style. It shows us how Mr. Obama dealt with the stress of a grueling campaign, and how he reacted to the setbacks and the triumphs. It is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to know more about Barrack Obama. It is also a valuable source of information for anyone who wants to research the election in greater depth. Best of all, RENEGADE is a very good read. Enjoy the ride!
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God bless Ted Kennedy. Even his staunchest critics are praising his congeniality and ability to work out compromises. They are not doing this to be polite. They are not simply eulogizing him. They really mean it. He will be missed!

Unfortunately, compromise has become a thing of the past. The filibuster has always been considered an extreme measure that was rarely used. Not now. It is estimated that the Republicans used it 72 times in February 2008 and 56 times in April 2009. This recalcitrant partisanship and breaking of Senate tradition is destructive to the Senate, the nation, and ultimately to the Republican Party. The Democrats should forget about even trying to compromise on health care reform. They should skirt the filibuster rule and ram the legislation through anyway they can because the Republicans have made it clear that they will block any meaningful reform. In regard to other legislation the Democrats should try to work out reasonable compromises whenever possible. If the Republicans refuse to cooperate, ram the legislation through. Let the Republicans become the party of irrelevant as well as the party of no. The people of his nation deserve and want a government that functions. Hopefully the Republicans will think of Ted Kennedy and start behaving like the loyal opposition rather than performance robbing sludge.

Say No To Change!

From the Commentaries of Salamander Pingrich:

Change is dangerous! We do not need it now and have never needed it. It is time to get back to the original intent of our founding fathers. Our Constitution was perfect as first written. Get rid of all the amendments, including the first ten. The first ten amendments set the dangerous precedent of changing our government. They were not in the original Constitution, and we all know they were propagated by the liberal Democratic-Republicans. Hell, those damn liberals were not even bright enough to figure out whether they were Democrats or Republicans. How dare they tell us we have to let folks with strange ideas pray however they want and worship cows or whatever else they feel like worshiping. We do not need any of those other, so called, rights either. Well, except for the right to bear arms, but we have the NRA to protect that right and the guns to enforce it. It is a good thing too. Because of that right hostile Indians have not attacked us in centuries. And what is wrong with only white, property owning males having the right to vote? It seems to me they did pretty good. It was when we allowed all those other people to vote that we started down the wrong path. It was after that that we got all the socialistic things like public education, Social Security, Veteran’s Administration hospitals, bank depositor’s insurance and such. None of which would have been possible if the Federal Government did not have the power to tax us.

Now that I think about it, the original Constitution was not so perfect after all. Having a federal government that can tax people is dangerous. We should go back to the original intent of our founding fathers. We should go back to the Confederation. No, not the Confederation created just before the War Between the States. I mean the one that did not have the power to tax anyone. I mean the one that won our independence. If it was good enough to do that, it is good enough for me.
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I know I said I would try to keep this blog non-political. I obviously blew that, but I have tried to provide some balance to my own views by presenting the above excerpts from Mr. Pingrich’s Commentaries. What I have written below is simply the truth.

During the August 16, 2009 edition of Meet the Press the panel was asked about all the apparent threats made by people who are opposed to health care reform. Tom Colburn of Oklahoma said it was not just health care reform that had people so upset. He said people were upset about a wide range of changes, and he implied that the threats were justified. Dick Army also seemed to be making excuses for the threats. We Democrats follow the Constitution and say it with ballets rather than bullets. We did so even when George W. Bush was throwing our economy into the toilet and getting us into an unnecessary war. The people of this country have spoken, and they have voted overwhelmingly for change!

WHO’S A NAZI?

Glen (Dreck) Beck and Rush (Limbo) Limbaugh are in a contest to see who can sink the lowest. By calling President Obama a fascist and inciting the lunatic fringe on behalf of the insurance and drug companies both men have sunk so low that they are in danger of setting their hair on fire. In fact, one of the judges of this contest seriously suggested that singed head hair might be a good way to determine the winner. Another judge objected, saying this would give the dreck man too much of an advantage over the follicley challenged limbo man.

The other judges promptly chastised the objecting judge for trying to be politically correct. “He’s not follicley challenged,” they said. “Saying that is like saying both men are intellectually and ethically challenged, and we all know they failed to meet those challenges a long time ago.”

“You should have said Limbaugh is nearly bald.”

The judge who had made the follicley challenged comment laughed. “As in bald faced liar. I like it!”

“Now, hold on there,” the other judge said. “Your comment makes me think you’ve already decided in favor of Limbaugh.”

“Well, Beck did say we should stop calling Obama Hitler.”

“But this contest is far from over. We can’t pick a winner yet. Beck is so good at ignoring anything resembling a fact that Fox will eventually have to do what Limbaugh’s employer did; they’ll have to say Beck is an entertainer whose job is to amuse rather than inform or report.”

“You make a good point. Beck’s an upstart, but he tells terrific lies about euthanasia and such.”

And so the contest continues. Other conservatives, inspired by our two media dregs, are trying mightily to please the insurance and drug companies by adding to the deception, and they are encouraging the gullible to react to the outrageous rumors. Saying that the Democrats are acting like Nazis is a classic example of what psychologists call projection. By inciting the gullible to disrupt town hall meetings the fear mongers are using the same tactics Hitler’s Brown Shirts used to disrupt meetings and stifle debate. Sarah Palin’s lies about the health care bill containing a euthanasia proposal and “Obama’s death panel” also indicate that she is following Hitler’s advice about telling the big lie rather than a small one. In fact, most of the opponents to health care reform are telling the big lies. Mien Kampf, anyone?

I am afraid that reasonable people, who have this strange, un-Republican notion that facts matter, are going to have to hold their noses and suppress their gag reflexes until this contest is over. Unfortunately, such contests will outlast the health care issue and most of us. Even when Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh finally leave the stage there will be others who will seek fame and fortune by exploiting the irrational fears and anger of people who are sitting on the thin edge between sanity and insanity. Those fear mongers may not be Nazis, but they are certainly despicable.

I realize that what I have just written is political, derisive, and scornful. I do not apologize for that. My fictionalized account of this, how low can you go, contest is far too real. The American people are both the judges and the victims. People who make their case responsibly and civilly deserve our respect and attention regardless of whether we agree with them. People who use sleazy tactics, tell outrageous lies, and depend on recklessly dangerous vitriol to create fear and anger deserve our scorn and contempt. The first amendment protects their right to free speech, but it also protects our right to mock them for misusing it. We should laugh at those irresponsible people, and we should do whatever is legally and ethically permissible to make them irrelevant. Fearful, angry reactions are dangerous and frequently disastrous. We must seek and demand objective reporting on what the proposed legislation actually contains. Our whole political system is based on the precept that an informed electorate will make rational choices. We must be informed rather than misinformed.

US AND THEM

One of our more endearing characteristics is our ability to bond with each other. We bond with our family members and our friends. We identify ourselves as being a part of our neighborhoods, our states, our nations, our races, our religions, our ethnicities, and our socio-economic classes. Our first loyalties are to our families and our friends. The other people who inspire our loyalty are the people with whom we associate. Which usually means people of the same race, religion, ethnicity, and socio-economic class. We think of those people as being like us. When a bigot waves the flag in celebration of our nation he or she is really celebrating white, Anglo-Saxon, America. As you can see, the people who we identify as being us can be rather exclusive. The more bigoted you are the more people you will define as being them. Defining them is antithetical to bonding. It is the other side of the coin, and we all know that coins have two sides. Two things have brought this to mind. The first thing was the arrest of Professor Gates by officer Crowley. The other thing was Ken Burn’s documentary on Mark Twain. I will explain the connections in a moment. First I want to tell you something about my background.

I was born and reared in Pasadena, California. It was a racist society, and there was de facto segregation. The target of the bigotry was not restricted to race. Believe me, I heard many anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic comments as well. If bigotry can ever be called polite, it was that in the Pasadena of my youth. What I mean is that bigoted comments were never made in front of the people who were being discriminated against. This was rather confusing when the discrimination was based on religion. It was not like the children in my elementary school carried signs identifying their faith, and my parents never told me not to play with this kid or that. The other kids attending my elementary school became my friends regardless of their faith.

Discrimination was an abstract concept until I reached junior high school. It was an incident in my gym class that first changed that. Jerry and I got into a dispute. The shouting escalated into insults, followed by shoving. It might have resulted in fisticuffs if another boy had not interfered. We were studying Shakespeare in our English class, and this boy told me to call Jerry a Shylock. Frankly, I was stunned. Jerry was not a Jew, which is to say he was not one of the bad Jews people talked about. For the first time the target of anti-Semitism had a face, and it was the face of a friend. All the fight went out of me. Whatever Jerry had done to make me angry did not matter. I dropped my guard. Jerry gave me half-hearted shove, and he looked into my eyes. He then turned and walked away. I really dreaded seeing him the next day. I should have said something to that other boy. I should have called out to Jerry and apologized. The next day Jerry acted as if nothing had happened. We should have talked about it, but we did not do it. I guess neither one of us knew what to say. I will never forget the hurt in Jerry’s eyes when that boy made the anti-Semitic comment. It was a wakeup call. My youthful innocence was replaced by the realization that prejudice hurts good people.

This brings us back to the arrest of Professor Gates. I have been following the reports of the incident, but I cannot say I really know what happened. The best I have to offer is a bit of food for thought by telling you what I think is likely. I can well imagine that Professor Gates has been the victim of racial prejudice and profiling in the past. I think we also have to bear in mind the fact that he was in his own home. I can also imagine Officer Crowley behaving the way cops behave. Police officers are taught to take control of the situation, and they are quick to react to any perceived challenge to their authority. I do not know if race was a factor in the arrest, but I suspect that it was.

My suspicion brings up the subject of Mark Twain because he had something very instructive to say about racism and slavery. The Ken Burn’s documentary included a discussion of Huckleberry Finn. What struck the people discussing this book in the documentary was the same thing that struck me when I first read it. We thought about how horrible it was for Huck Finn to actually believe that he would go to hell if he did not tell the master where the master’s slave had gone. The thing is that a child will believe the things he hears adults saying.

The prejudicial statements and actions a child witnesses or is taught during his or her formative years form a toxin that lodges itself in the unconscious mind. This poison then dulls reason and manifests itself in the form of ugly emotions. I am going to get personal about this. Because of de facto segregation I did not know any African-American children during my formative years. This meant that I did not have the face of a friend to serve as an antidote for the racial poison I was being fed. There were some African-American kids at the junior high school I attended, but this was after my most impressionable years. Furthermore, forming close bonds with people of other races was discouraged. The result was not pretty. To this day the statements of African-American leaders will occasionally trigger an adverse emotional response in me. I then have to take a deep breath and let the logical part of my mind kick in. I have to take into account what those leaders have experienced, and I have to carefully consider what they are saying. I think my adverse emotional responses have become less frequent and less severe over the years, but they are still there. I really hate to admit that. I am doing so because I think it is important for us to understand and help each other. We cannot do that if we are not being honest.

I believe there are too many people who have the same emotional responses I admit to having. I believe those responses are the last and most difficult barriers to making our society what it must become. President Obama was correct when he told the NAACP there are no excuses. This holds true for all races. It particularly holds true in regard to our relationships with each other. I have really struggled with the terms of African-American and black. Any term we use, no matter how polite it may be, is still making a distinction. It still indicates that we are thinking in terms of us and them. We must work to eliminate the concept of them. This is not something the government can do for us. It is the responsibility of each and every person to work on it individually and collectively. It does not help when there are people who will try to use the racial divide to their own advantage. It really makes me angry when I hear them call President Obama a racist. The people who are doing this should examine their own hearts and what passes for their minds. I know I said I would try to avoid politics in this blog, but racial issues transcend politics. If one of the major political parities does not realize that, then it is time for that party’s demise. Hopefully, another party will emerge to offer reasonable alternatives in regard to solving the other problems facing us.

CONFESSIONS OF A SMOKER

I am a grumpy old man. I am a grumpy old man who really wants a cigarette. The addiction to tobacco is insidious, alluring, and demanding. When you start smoking you can easily go for hours or even days between cigarettes. You think you can take them or leave them. That is the insidious part. The alluring part comes when the addiction is more apparent. It occurs when you have smoked frequently enough to establish an addiction level. When the nicotine in your system drops below that level you feel uncomfortable. When the nicotine in your system rises to that level you feel good. Your unconscious mind then makes the correlation. Nicotine equals comfort and pleasure, and cigarettes quickly and efficiently deliver the nicotine. The addiction becomes psychological as well as physical. If you are feeling stress, you seek comfort by smoking a cigarette. Cigarettes become part of your good times as well, and you soon find yourself lighting one up after sex or a good meal. Smoking also becomes a feel good pause between tasks, and it gives you something to do while you are waiting for your car to warm up on those cold winter mornings. If you are doing something that takes a lot concentration, such as writing, you will automatically reach for a cigarette. The point is that the physical addiction prompts a psychological addiction that causes you to smoke more, thereby increasing the physical addiction. I reached the point where it was difficult to imagine myself doing anything without a cigarette in my hand.

I am sure people knew about the addictive nature of tobacco when I started smoking, but it was not something they talked about. The truth about tobacco was concealed in a cloud of smoke. Now the truth is buried in a shroud of political correctness. Court cases and anti-smoking advertisements have made the manipulations and lies of the tobacco industry so apparent that here is no need to discuss the deceptions here. The falsehoods perpetrated by the anti-smoking crowd are another matter. The first studies the government cited regarding second hand smoke actually stated that the data does not support the conclusion that second hand smoke poses a significant health risk. Our government manipulated the data from those studies to reach a different conclusion. The manipulation was so blatant that the government’s own scientists said: “The dangers of second hand smoke are greatly exaggerated.” In other words, the governmental agency that is supposed to rely on science to provide us with the best health information lied to us. This fact taints all subsequent studies. The government provides the researchers with funds, and the government wants the research to support the contention that second hand smoke poses a serious health threat. The studies that the government cites must be considered as advocacy rather than science for the same reason that we consider the studies by the tobacco industry to be advocacy rather than science. As someone who wants to be informed, I think I deserve better. Regardless of whether the facts can or cannot be used to justify coercing smokers into quitting, the country should demand the truth. Unfortunately, determining the truth at this point would require an organization that receives no funds from the government or the tobacco industry, and that organization would have to conduct double blind tests to eliminate any biases the researchers might have.

The other thing I find very annoying about the smoking controversy is the hypocrisy. Arguments supporting the exorbitant taxes on tobacco are nothing more than sanctimonious justifications for getting something for nothing by foisting the cost of pet programs off onto people who are too weak to kick their addiction to a heavily advertised substance that was subsidized by our government throughout most of my lifetime. Saying that those taxes will encourage people to quit smoking is hypocritical because the people saying it are depending on the addiction to force smokers to fund programs the general population is not willing to pay for.

It is only natural for smokers to resent the hypocrisy and the deliberate deceptions being used to justify the taxes and the coercion. It is also natural for smokers to resist the coercion by continuing to smoke. I am giving up cigarettes in spite of the resentment I feel. I am quitting because of the one thing I do know about smoking. It has terrible health consequences for the smoker. People I love depend on me. I owe it to my family to try to avoid a catastrophic illness and a premature death. I hope the next generation does not react to the exaggerations about the dangers of second hand smoke the same way that my generation reacted to the exaggerations about the dangers of marijuana. If they do, far too many of them will suffer the consequences for ignoring the real reason for not smoking.

Two days ago I gave in to the temptation. I bought a pack of cigarettes, and I have been rationing them. Fortunately, my family has not given me any grief about that. They know there is no argument they can make that I have not heard. They are smart enough to realize that my addiction to tobacco is my demon, and that I am the only one who can defeat it. My struggle is not a single battle; it is a war. I cannot let a setback dictate the outcome. There are three cigarettes left in the pack. I threw them into the trash this morning. The urge to retrieve those cigarettes is pretty strong right now. Smoking has been such a large part of my life for so long that I am feeling almost as lost as I felt when I was divorced. I have to deal with the psychological addiction as well as the physical addiction. I have to develop new responses to events and situations. It is not an easy thing to do. The logical part of my brain is telling me to ignore the urge and to put some distance between myself and the cigarettes in the trash. I never thought it would come to this. I never thought I would be tempted to suffer the indignity of digging through the trash for a cigarette. I am going for a walk. I am going to think about how much better I feel when I am not polluting my lungs and irritating my sinuses. They tell me the struggle becomes easier after a while. I hope that happens soon!

Best Sports Coverage Ever

California was booming. Millions of immigrants from the Midwest and East Coast were making Los Angeles the place to be. Businesses were flourishing and new houses, schools, hospitals, and other structures were being built at a frantic pace. But it was not all work and no play. With the arrival of the Dodgers and the Lakers our city of angels was also becoming a sports Mecca. We were blessed with Vin Scully, Chick Hearn, Mel Durslag, and Jim Murray. They were more than just sports broadcasters or sports reporters. They were artists. Their vivid word pictures put us on the scene and drew us to the action. They made us want to witness the events they so brilliantly described. The personality, style, and professional excellence of each of those gentlemen made their broadcasts and columns experiences to savor. They set the standard by which all others are measured. Although worthy successors, such as Joel Meyers of the Lakers, are making their own contributions, no one will ever replace Vin Scully, Chick Hearn, Mel Durslag, or Jim Murray.

Vin Scully is still doing the play by play from Dodger Stadium, and he is as sharp and brilliant as ever. I envy anyone who is hearing him for the first time. Enjoy him while you can. He has been working his magic for over fifty years, and he will retire someday. I am reminded of this because a new baseball season has started, and I am enjoying his descriptions and his almost boundless knowledge of the game. Bless you, Vin Scully! I think I speak for all fans when I say listening to you, particularly while watching a Dodger game, is one of life’s great pleasures.

Don't Blame The Idiots; They Are Us!

Nothing is idiot proof. It cannot be done. Idiots are far too clever. No matter how foolproof you think you have made something someone will find a way to mess it up. If you do not believe me, just look at the warning labels on many of the products you own. Almost every aerosol can displays a label warning you not to spray that product into your eyes. Most electronic products have a label warning you not to get the product wet. Ladders are notorious for warning labels. There is one warning you not to use the top of the ladder as a step. There is another warning you not to step or stand on the fold out paint can tray. Many ladders also have a label warning you to set the ladder only on flat, even surfaces, and metal ladders usually have a label stating that the ladder will conduct electricity. Many people collect such warning labels, and there are web sites and blogs displaying them. The labels often seem humorous because they state the obvious. Yet each label is the result of someone doing what the labels now warn you not to do.

So who are the people who do such foolish things? In most cases they are not certifiable idiots. They are the frustrated and the harried. They are the people who are distracted or preoccupied. They are the people who are so driven to quickly complete the task or a number of tasks that they lose sight of the details. As much as I hate to admit it, they are you and I!

Jim had painted a small cabinet he had made. He had used a paint that came in an aerosol can. He let the cabinet sit all night after painting it. When he looked at the cabinet the next morning it was obvious that it needed another coat of paint. He pointed the can at the cabinet and pressed the button. Nothing happened. He could not have run out of paint so quickly. The nozzle must be clogged. He found a sewing needle and inserted it into the nozzle. He then removed the needle, shook the can, pointed it at the cabinet and pressed the button. Nothing happened. He inserted the needle again, thinking that if he pushed the needle in a little farther and wiggled it a bit, it would unclog the nozzle. He had just removed the needle when his cell phone rang. He inspected the nozzle as he talked on the phone. At this point he must have lost his presence of mind because he pressed the button, thereby spraying the paint in his eyes.

Mary was under a lot of pressure. She was a single mother who worked long hours to provide for her children. The stress was constant and cumulative. She was running late that morning. She had to drop her children off at day care and get to work. She had already been warned that she could not be late again. She knew she should not let her hair dryer get wet. She took it into the shower thinking she could keep it away from the spray. She was dead serious about multitasking, and the result was fatal.

John knew he was more likely to fall off the ladder if he stood on the top of it, but the paint had cost him so much that he would have been hard pressed to come up with the money he needed to buy a longer ladder. Compounding his problem was the fact that his yard sloped. He was not going to grade his yard to paint his house, and he did not know how to build a scaffold, even if he had thought about building one. Needless to say, he fell.

Then there is the frequently cited case of the lady who spilled McDonald’s coffee in her lap. She knew there was a chance she would spill it, but nothing in her experience told her that coffee purchased at a fast food place would be scalding hot rather than unpleasantly hot. There is risk and then there is risk!

With the exception of the McDonald’s coffee, none of the products mentioned above were inherently unsafe. To many people it must seem as though our courts have gone insane. There are even people who collect and display what they consider to be dumb lawsuits. The people who are most critical about our laws and courts, however, have not put in the time and effort to find out what is really happening. They are usually the same people who complain about all politicians but never vote. There are many instances when the courts apply the reasonable man test and recognize assumed risk.

One such case involved a barrel of solvent that had the following warning label in big bold letters: CAUTION: HIGHLY FLAMMABLE. KEEP THIS BARREL OUT OF DIRECT SUNLIGHT AND DO NOT EXPOSE IT OR ITS CONTENTS TO AN OPEN FLAME! The man filing the lawsuit had tried to open the barrel with a blowtorch. This is not something a reasonable person would do, and that is what the court ruled.

Another example is a suit a cowboy filed against a rancher because the cowboy was injured while trying to rope, brand and castrate calves. In its decision, the court said in part: “It is obvious that calves do not like being tied up, branded and castrated, and they will do whatever they can to prevent that from happening.”

“All right,” I hear some you saying, “but what about the suits that prompted all those warning labels?” I attribute them to our broken medical system and to our inadequate system for providing for those who are in dire need of help. On one side the jury sees a business that is bound to have insurance. On the other side is a severely injured person who is seriously incapacitated. Most people are aware that they are just one catastrophic illness or injury away from bankruptcy. If the injured person has insurance at all, it is unlikely that the policy limits are high enough to provide for his or her needs. The business is far more likely to have a policy with limits that are high enough to provide the care that is needed. The jury probably will be sympathetic to the plaintiff even if his or her actions caused the injury. After all, jurors occasionally do stupid things too. They probably will not be sympathetic to the companies that insure the business. Let’s face it most of us think an insurance company has screwed us sometime, and it probably has.

The complaints of the insurance industry are disingenuous. The truth is that the insurance companies themselves file many of the suits they complain about. Think about it for a moment. Insurance companies are businesses, and they want to make as much money as possible. Claims cut into their profits. They will deny coverage, make low ball settlement offers, and pass the claims off to someone else whenever possible. If the injured party files a claim against his homeowner’s insurance or his medical insurance, that insurance company is very likely to file a suit against the manufacturer of any product involved in the incident.

Right or wrong, social concerns as well as legal concerns play a role in our courts. Since we do not have anything in place to adequately provide for people who are incapacitated, the courts have stepped in to fill some of the void. The law does not overtly make manufacturers the insurers of the people who purchase their products, but the result of the verdicts and awards effectively do that. I think it is unfortunate that we have to ascribe blame in order to help someone who desperately needs help. Do not misunderstand what I am saying. I do not advocate a no fault system. There are too many companies who would knowingly sell defective and unsafe products, and ascribing blame is essential in those circumstances. What we need is a system that provides adequate assistance and treatment to those who suffer a catastrophic injury or illness. Hopefully someone who is a lot smarter than I am will come up with a reasonable way to do that. Juries can then concentrate more on the merits of the case and hold off on their concerns about the needs of an injured person until it is time to reach a decision about how much to award a plaintiff who has prevailed in the suit.

As it now stands, there are far too many people who are working the system. I think we can do better, but I do not believe our laws and courts will ever be foolproof. There will always be the human element, and we humans are far too fallible.

OBAMA V. THE DIXIECANS

I vowed to make this blog non-political, but we live in such extraordinary times that I cannot resist commenting on what is happening. I will do my best to make this the last political statement I post here.

Never has the intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party been more apparent than it is now. Their idea of an intellectual is the self-proclaimed leader of their party, Rush, how low can you go, Limbo. He is a man who has never let a thought change an opinion or a fact interfere with a belief. In other words, he is the quintessential spokesman for the Republican Party’s current tactics. Rather than helping to cure the economic malaise, the Republicans have dusted off their credo from the days of the Great Depression: “If you can’t sit at the head of the table, piss in the soup!” The obstructionist tactics they employed at that time helped President Franklin Roosevelt get elected to four consecutive terms. And what did the Republicans learn from that? Well, they introduced the Constitutional Amendment that now prevents any President from getting elected to more than two terms.

It is no surprise that so many of the obstructionists are from the South. Although their bitterness over the Civil War would not let Southerners vote for a Republican, they were never comfortable with the economic theories or programs of the New Deal. In 1948 some very prominent Southern politicians formed a third party to oppose big government and desegregation. Those anti-government, socially conservative Dixiecrats won three Southern states in the Presidential election of that year. Harry Truman won the election in spite of them, but they had served notice that the South could no longer be taken for granted. The civil rights movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s finally caused the South to do the unthinkable and join the party of Lincoln. By the year 2000 George W. Bush could count on the solid support of the states in that region. During the last Presidential election, however, the vote in the South was surprisingly close, and the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, actually carried Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. Obviously, economic issues can trump social issues.

The governors who refuse to participate in the stimulus program are doing so at the expense of their constituents. Many of their constituents will realize that and vote accordingly. Whether this results in the Democratic Party winning more Southern states remains to be seen. Frankly, it does not matter. A Southern strategy simply will not work. The Republican Party will not gain any traction by insisting that the rest of the nation join them in embracing the fallacious economic theories that crashed in 1929 and are failing now. In fact, they will be committing political suicide. They might as well rename their party the Dixiecans.

The Republicans should remember that it took all of the prestige and popularity of General Dwight Eisenhower to bring their party to the center and make it viable after the Great Depression. Then, as now, their anti-regulation philosophy and trickle down economics had failed, and they had to accept many of the regulations and programs of the New Deal. The longer the Republicans continue to pander to the extreme right wing and obstruct the economic recovery the more important and difficult it will be for them to find an extraordinarily popular moderate who can move them to the center and convince a skeptical America that the Republican Party has become intellectually solvent.

One last comment: Them good old boys had two beers with George W., and he wrecked the car. They gleefully joined him in a ride that ended with a crash. The car will not fix its self. It is time for the Republicans to give some serious thought as to how they can repair it! They must learn from their errors and put the country first. They must act responsibly enough to assure the nation that they are a part of the solution rather than the problem.