Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Obama the Fighter!
Has he finally realized that the only way he's going to get anything accomlished is by fighting? Being conciliatory only works if you are dealing with parties willing to do the same. Compromise is always possible but only worthwhile when both sides give. Anything else is appeasement.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Cut Expenses AND Increase Revenue. Wow, There's a Novel Approach
Why the political uproar over President Obama's plan to increase taxes coupled with decreases in spending? Is this something new? Hasn't everyone who has tried to balance a budget wrestled with both sides of the ledger: increase income and decrease expenditures.
Isn't that really the only sane approach to any budgetary situation? Oh, wait. I forgot. We're dealing with a American politics. There's no room for sanity..
Isn't that really the only sane approach to any budgetary situation? Oh, wait. I forgot. We're dealing with a American politics. There's no room for sanity..
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Are We Still "America the Beautiful" After 9-11?
My son worked in New York City on 9/11/01. He didn't live in Manhattan. Hadn't yet left for work and fortunately wasn't injured when the Twin Towers fell. He was the one who called us to tell us to turn on the tv and see what was happening. But I can't help but think that part of him was destroyed.
My son had interviewed for jobs in the Twin Towers He didn't get them and, as a result, survived. He had other jobs in "the city". Good jobs. Was doing well, by the standards we usually apply. But after the attacks, he asked himself, "Why am I doing this?" He said, I" am working my ass off so I can get a job like those people in the Twin Towers. What's the point?"
Within a year of the attacks, he left the US and hasn't returned. He's living in Southeast Asia and I doubt that he will return. He seems happy. I hate it because I miss him, but it's his life. If he's happy that's the end of that discussion, but what about the rest of us? Have more of us come to the same conclusion and left the US, at least in spirit.
We are all too well aware of the number of people killed and the terrible losses sustained. We know it has changed our country. Police powers have been greatly expanded and they will never be curtailed. None of us know - or are allowed to know - whether we are being investigated or are suspected of illegal behavior. We don't know whether our conversations or emails are being monitored.
The land of the free really isn't so free anymore. And we accept it because the alternative is too unthinkable.
But there are other changes that were brought by those attacks.
The World Trade Center symbolized the power of capital and the strength of our economy. They were targeted for just these reasons. Is it really a coincidence that our economy has gone down so dramatically since 9/11? How much of the mortgage crisis was triggered by loan officers and mortgage brokers with a WTF attitude. We wound up invading Iraq based on presence of the WMDs that were never found. A pre-9/11 version of America would have condemned such an action. We started the attacks in Afghanistan as a police action to rout out terrorist camps and find Osama Bin Laden, but soon became bogged down in a quagmire where our closest ally turned out to be harboring the target. We now condone torture and assassination as a tool of foreign policy.
How much of what we are now experiencing is the result of that WTF attitude. Are too many of us saying, "what's the point?"
My son had interviewed for jobs in the Twin Towers He didn't get them and, as a result, survived. He had other jobs in "the city". Good jobs. Was doing well, by the standards we usually apply. But after the attacks, he asked himself, "Why am I doing this?" He said, I" am working my ass off so I can get a job like those people in the Twin Towers. What's the point?"
Within a year of the attacks, he left the US and hasn't returned. He's living in Southeast Asia and I doubt that he will return. He seems happy. I hate it because I miss him, but it's his life. If he's happy that's the end of that discussion, but what about the rest of us? Have more of us come to the same conclusion and left the US, at least in spirit.
We are all too well aware of the number of people killed and the terrible losses sustained. We know it has changed our country. Police powers have been greatly expanded and they will never be curtailed. None of us know - or are allowed to know - whether we are being investigated or are suspected of illegal behavior. We don't know whether our conversations or emails are being monitored.
The land of the free really isn't so free anymore. And we accept it because the alternative is too unthinkable.
But there are other changes that were brought by those attacks.
The World Trade Center symbolized the power of capital and the strength of our economy. They were targeted for just these reasons. Is it really a coincidence that our economy has gone down so dramatically since 9/11? How much of the mortgage crisis was triggered by loan officers and mortgage brokers with a WTF attitude. We wound up invading Iraq based on presence of the WMDs that were never found. A pre-9/11 version of America would have condemned such an action. We started the attacks in Afghanistan as a police action to rout out terrorist camps and find Osama Bin Laden, but soon became bogged down in a quagmire where our closest ally turned out to be harboring the target. We now condone torture and assassination as a tool of foreign policy.
How much of what we are now experiencing is the result of that WTF attitude. Are too many of us saying, "what's the point?"
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