Another song based on Carly Rae Jepsen’s hit and inspired by this video. You know the tune, and you know the President’s voice. You can see similar work here and here.  Enjoy.

Hi Barack is my name
Politics is my game
At my job I’m just lame
The Constitution’s in my way

I sold hope and change
But my methods they are strange
The US I’ll rearrange
The Constitution’s in my way

I ran guns down south
Told Eric Holder
To shut his mouth
What, you thought I loved this country?

You’re a bitter clinger
And I think you’re crazy
But I know better
So don’t dis me baby

If you don’t get right
With what you do write
I’ll cut off access,
So don’t dis me baby

Obamacare
Is a train wreck
But I got elected
So don’t dis me baby

Global warming
Is my ticket
To make you poorer
So don’t dis me baby

Covered up Benghazi last Fall
Then I lied to you all
Hillary followed my call
The Constitution’s in my way

I wage war on the rich
Having money’s a bitch
With 11 mill I should know
The Constitution’s in my way

You’re a bitter clinger
And I think you’re crazy
But I know better
So don’t dis me baby

If you don’t get right
With what you do write
I’ll cut off access,
So don’t dis me baby

Obamacare
Is a train wreck
But I got elected
So don’t dis me baby

Global warming
Is my ticket
To make you poorer
So don’t dis me baby

The country’s in the tank
But I don’t care
But I don’t care
I really don’t care

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a stirring speech today, President Obama praised the American worker, slammed obstructionists in Congress, and called for sweeping domestic policy changes. After the Rose Garden appearance, the President graciously allowed the press to ask a few questions.

When asked how his proposals would affect the average American, the President replied:

” I think it’s important to remember that American’s sent a message in 2012; that most people maybe prefer security to some of the freedom’s we’ve traditionally had. Real freedom comes from not having to worry about things like food, housing, or health care.  This is especially true for women, children, and protected minorities.

 I’m working  hard to ensure that those who are best positioned to make decisions about these basic services, the tens of thousands of dedicated government workers, have the resources they need. I encourage as many Americans as possible who need government services to meet basic needs to take advantage of them. “

The President clarified his suggestion that Republicans shouldn’t be allowed to hold office:

“Well, the Declaration of Independence says that all people are created equal, and I believe that. But I also know that some folks have a better view of what’s going on. Democrats, in particular, have the best interests of the average American at heart. We’ve been there; we’re down with the struggle. Folks should just let us do our job, and not worry so much about things.”

Some suggested that perhaps the President’s term hasn’t been as successful as he would have liked:

“Look, I’m working five days a week, 45 weeks a year to help the American people. It’s not my fault that some folks elect representatives whose attitudes are not optimal for what I’m trying to do. I can’t do it all by myself. I need a Congress, House and Senate, that supports my policies. Folks are going to have to step up and elect the right people.”

The most surprising parts of the President’s speech were his call for a Federal Police force, and the establishment of a ‘guest worker’ program.

“Part of my job is to defend this country against enemies foreign and domestic. I think recent events have shown that we haven’t been paying enough attention to the domestic side. I’ve directed the head of Homeland Security to establish a Federal Police agency that will have broad jurisdiction to arrest and detain suspected terrorists. There will be a toll-free hotline for use by any citizen to make anonymous tips. We’re also going to use surveillance drones over most cities and during public events to ensure public safety.

I’ve also directed the State Department and the Labor Department to establish a guest worker program that will allow our unemployed citizens to work overseas. Some of our trading partners, like China, have expressed an interest in having American workers, the most productive in the world, boost their labor force. If someone is collecting government benefits, they’d have the opportunity to go overseas, all expenses paid, and do useful work. Of course, the benefiting country would choose what work is done. It’s a win-win; they get productive workers, and our trade deficit is lowered.”

Some media reports that the ‘guest worker’ program was nothing more than indentured servitude were quickly retracted on pressure from the White House.

 

 

 

 

 

Let me tell you how it will be

There’s one for you, nineteen for me

Should five percent appear too small

Be thankful I don’t take it all

‘Taxman’

The Beatles

It’s That Day once again in the US, when the bill for living here comes due. Unless you work under the table, or your income comes from capital gains and you’ve had previous offsetting losses, or you just decide that you aren’t going to pay income tax. We haven’t – yet- reached the point where there’s a 95% tax bracket, although if you make enough, and live in a high tax state, you could pay upwards of 53% of your income in state and Federal taxes. Only Denmark, Sweden, and Portugal are higher, and not by much. On the other hand, the minimum personal income tax in Denmark is nearly 37%, compared to 0% in the US. Most of the Middle Eastern oil states don’t levy a personal income tax. Of the places you might actually want to live, Switzerland has a 13% maximum rate.

I paid my annual taxes last week, and didn’t get bitten as hard as I had feared, but paying my Q1 taxes today was a far different story. I’ve owned several cars that cost less than the amount on the check I wrote to the Feds. Yes, I had a good Q1, and I did make the money, but sending it all in at once was still painful. This is exactly why Federal payroll withholding was introduced in 1943. There was a war to pay for, and instead of having people write increasingly large annual checks to the government, it was rightly decided that people wouldn’t object so much if a little bit was taken out every pay period.

I was actually thinking ahead to next year, when most people in the US will have to indicate whether they have health care insurance on their Federal tax forms. I find this extremely objectionable, and don’t plan on doing so. I know that there are penalties for not complying with the law, but I wondered what the penalty was for not filing a tax return.

There may be a loophole.

The penalty for failing to have health care insurance will be $96 for an individual in 2014. This rises to $235 in 2015 and tops out at $695 in 2016. As best I can determine, the penalty for not filing a tax return, assuming the taxpayer isn’t in arrears, is $135.  The IRS is focused on collecting unpaid tax, so most penalties are some percentage of the unpaid amount. If the tax payments are current, then they can have the $135. Starting in 2015, it’ll be cheaper than the insurance penalty.

I’m not in any way a tax or legal expert, so if you elect to go this route, you’re on your own. Note that I advocate paying the taxes owed, I just don’t think it’s anyone else’s business whether I have health insurance, and I resent being told I have to buy a product as a condition of drawing breath. I expect to have a major medical policy this year, and we’ll see if that satisfies the Feds. If not, then that’ll be an interesting day.

Today  in History

1738 – Bottle opener invented

1850 – City of San Francisco incorporated

1861 – Federal army (75,000 volunteers) mobilized by Pres Lincoln

1865 – Pres Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater

1900 – An early 50 mile race is won by an electric car in over 2 hrs

1910 – Taft is 1st pres to throw out a 1st ball at a baseball game

1912 – Titanic sinks at 2:27 AM off Newfoundland as band plays on

1947 – Jackie Robinson goes hitless in his major league debut

1952 – Franklin National Bank issues 1st bank credit card

1955 – Ray Kroc starts McDonald’s chain of fast food restaurants (Illinois)

1997 – Baseball honors Jackie Robinson by retiring #42 for all teams

The local paper employs a columnist whom I rarely read, because he’s a professional whiner. Most of his columns focus on ‘the little buy’ getting screwed in some fashion, but if you read the column, most of the time the people he writes about are where they are due to poor decision making. The column Sunday is no different.

The column, titled Fifty pounds of grease and sugar in the print version, describes a high school freshman who gained fifty pounds between August and February while enrolled in a fitness program sponsored by a locally – headquartered sneaker manufacturer. It seems the high school attended by this child has a number of fast food outlets nearby, and a couple of donut shops. I have to admit that the prices quoted in the column would be attractive to a teenager: $1 for a box of six day-old donuts, or $5 for a bucket of day-old baked confections.

When the lad’s mother noticed his weight gain, she took action. She changed his diet, talked to a school PE teacher, hired a personal trainer, and forbade him from going to the donut shop. All reasonable actions, and all ineffective, as he continued to gain weight. His mom found a ‘smoking gun, an empty donut box, in his backpack after the bakery ban was in effect. Now that she has evidence that her son ignored her directive (he’s a teenager), his weight gain has morphed into other people’s responsibility.

She tried to get the bakery outlet to close during the school’s lunch hour. The bakery staff may have been tempted to laugh in her face, but I imagine they were a little more respectful, and just said no. My favorite quote from the column comes from the bakery’s marketing director, who noted that the proximity of a cut – rate donut store next to a high school put them in ‘a sticky situation’.

The columnist trots out the Person with a Cause. That would be Linda McLellan, the director of the school’s fitness program. Between her and the columnist, they don’t miss a trick. Comparing cheap, fatty foods to drugs? Check.

“We have drug-free zones within 1,000 feet of schools,” McLellan said. “But cheap, high-fat, high-sugar, processed foods are legal and available only blocks away.”

Misusing the concept of  ‘addiction’? Yep.

The majority of these items, I might add, aren’t baked on the premises. They’re just addictive to the neighborhood kids.

When De La Mare asked Franz to stop fueling her son’s daily doughnut fix, . .

Tag – teaming on indicting society for an individual’s choice? You betcha.

And McLellan is asking the hard questions: “What community responsibility are we willing to take to help kids be healthy? Are we targeting areas of poverty with reduced prices on day-old items?

I’d say the community is taking more than it’s share of responsibility by funding an extra – curricular school fitness program, helped along by a grant from a local company, that, by the way, donated some pricey equipment to the program.  Then there’s the usual health classes taught in school,  funded by the community. And then there’s your job, Ms. McLellan, also funded by the community.  To suggest that the community isn’t taking sufficient responsibility for what is ultimately the parent’s concern sounds more than a little disrespectful. Taking care of some else’s child isn’t my, or anyone else’s, responsibility.

‘Targeting areas of poverty’? Really? Does she imagine that some old, fat, white dudes are sitting around in a smoke – filled room going “Hey, let’s target areas of poverty by selling day – old donuts for a buck!”? I understand that as a public employee, Ms. McLellan may not entirely grasp the purpose of business. Businesses are in business to make money. Baked goods have very limited shelf life, and if bakeries can sell day – old stock rather than throw it away, that’s what they’re going to do.

Nowhere in the column is there any mention that this kid’s problems might possibly stem from his decisions. Yes, he’s a kid, and kid’s don’t make good decisions. And to his mother’s credit, she’s done everything she can reasonably do, short of having the store ban him from the premises. But this is a family problem, not the result of nefarious forces conspiring against an innocent child.

As a society we have failed people by removing negative reinforcement. A few decades ago, fat people were uncommon, because fat kids were shunned and laughed at. Sure, it wasn’t great if you were fat, but there was great social pressure not to be fat, so there was powerful incentive to lose weight, or not gain it in the first place. Like many societal norms, it was simple, effective, and didn’t require a government program. Western society has removed the connection between actions and consequences, so most social normative  behavior has been eliminated. Now if someone has problems, they’re taught that it’s due to the actions of some evil ‘other’.  This has led to a society that gives lip service to certain ideas, but has no effective way to implement them, short of an overbearing nanny state that requires increasingly restrictive and expensive methods to do what used to be done for free.

FuelBand

Nike is one of the sponsoring companies for the fitness program at the school, and donated a device called a FuelBand, which looks to be a high – tech pedometer. On the official page, Nike notes that:

The Nike+ FuelBand uses a sports-tested accelerometer to measure your movement in NikeFuel, a universal metric of activity.

All I could find in a search for ‘activity metric’ was a summation equation from an Irish government agency, and general discussion of business activity metrics. Neither used ‘NikeFuel’ as a unit of measurement. It may be that the term is specific to physical activity, but I’ve never heard anyone say “Man, burned 150 NikeFuels on my run.”

The Cuban ‘Hood

Rapper Jay – Z and his wife Beyonce generated some controversy when they took a trip to Cuba. Travel to Cuba is restricted for most Americans, and people were wondering if Mr. Z’s friend Barack Obama may have greased the wheels for the trip in direct violation of regulations. I took a moment to write a rap verse about the kerfuffle.

Here I am in the worker’s paradise
Smokin’ a stogie and drinkin’ rum on ice
Average dude can’t sample the local flavor
But homie in the White House did me a favor

I ventured out to Reed College to take in an exhibition of Civil War drawings at the school’s Cooley art gallery. Given Reed’s reputation, I expected to see students stumbling around campus in a drug-induced stupor, but everyone I saw looked pretty normal. The exhibition is a collection of some 140 drawings made by ‘Special Artists’ for the illustrated newspapers of the day. The artists were embedded with various units of the Union army, and they were tasked with creating a visual record of the war for popular consumption.

The gallery was smaller than I expected, but there was enough wall space to allow each drawing enough space to be appreciated, and there was room for informational placards that included the drawings provenance and in most cases, some context. The gallery thoughtfully supplied magnifying glasses at the entrance so visitors could better appreciate the work. The magnifiers also helped overcome the dimmer than expected lighting and my aging eyesight.

The collection features a cross section of drawings, both in content and in execution. Some are rough sketches done on the field in the heat of battle, while others are highly detailed works of art.

Most of the work displays an astonishing level of detail. Even many of the first drafts are well-detailed.  I had to keep reminding myself that these weren’t copies of photographs; at a time when photography was in it’s infancy, these were the photographs of their day. Besides a trained memory, the artists had some professional tricks to aid them. Some of the drawings are sketches with notations for the artist and engraver, along with keyed numbers scattered around the work with corresponding notations at the bottom. The artist could then go back and flesh out the details.

The care taken with most of the drawings is all the more impressive when you understand that the artists knew that their work would be altered to some degree by the engraver. According to the notes, this was most prevalent when Black soldiers were portrayed. Several of the drawings featured Black subjects, and their faces would be drawn in a neutral manner. It seems it was the practice of  newspapers at the time to substitute less than flattering features in the final product.

I was very impressed by the use of light and shadow in the drawings of night scenes. The artists effectively conveyed a nighttime feel through the use of negative space, and made the drawings that much more effective. These folks could flat draw.

It was a pleasant surprise to see then – contemporary drawings of Civil War sites I’ve visited. Charleston, Ft. Sumter, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg were all represented. One drawing features a panoramic view of Charleston done on a 10-foot strip of paper. Some of the landmarks then are still there today.

In this age of instant high-quality communication, it’s hard to fathom how important the work of the Special Artists were to the American public, especially those living north of the Mason Dixon line where comparatively little fighting took place. These drawings were the only visual record most of the general public in the North had of the war. The drawings are part of the Becker Collection at Boston College, and well worth seeing.

Reed College

As I alluded above, Reed has a mixed reputation locally. If you mention Reed to most people, the three words that would come to mind would be brains, drugs, and money (four years will blow a big hole in a $250,000 bill). Reedies also have a reputation for living on the far left side of the political bell curve, so I was surprised to see a big American flag on a tall pole at the entrance. Unexpected as that was, it wasn’t as interesting as this:

Yes, those are sticks jutting out of the ground. The ground is firm enough to walk on, yet these dead branches fell from high enough to embed themselves in the dirt. I didn’t tarry long under those potentially lethal trees.

And speaking of dead wood, there is a memorial tree in one of the traffic circles and the plaque says the tree was planted in 1988. But the tree is dead, and from the size of it, died not long after it was planted. It’s possible this is a replacement tree that didn’t do well, but in any case a dead tree hardly makes a fitting memorial.

On The Road

Coming back home, I was passed by a car that had a sign lettered across the rear window. The message? “Let me guess, license and registration”

 

For the Christian, there are no more uplifting words than “He is risen” spoken at the start of Easter service. The four Gospels have slightly different takes on the Resurrection, but all agree on  the main point: after death by torture and three days in the tomb, the Son of God walked again among the living. All passages are from the King James version.

Matthew 28

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

² And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

³ His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:

⁴ And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

⁵ And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

⁶ He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

⁷ And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.

⁸ And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

⁹ And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

¹⁰ Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

Mark 16

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.

² And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

³ And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?

⁴ And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.

⁵ And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.

⁶ And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.

⁷ But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.

⁸ And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.

 

Luke 24

Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.

² And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.

³ And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.

⁴ And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:

⁵ And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?

⁶ He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,

⁷ Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

⁸ And they remembered his words,

⁹ And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.

¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.

¹¹ And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.

¹² Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.

 

John 20

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

² Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.

³ Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.

⁴ So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.

⁵ And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.

⁶ Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,

⁷ And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

⁸ Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.

⁹ For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

¹⁰ Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.

¹¹ But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,

¹² And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

¹³ And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

¹⁴ And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.

¹⁵ Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

¹⁶ Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.

¹⁷ Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.

 

And Just in Time for Easter . . .

We had our first warm and sunny days of the year this weekend, although a little hazy (only a three – volcano day). As I’ve maintained since I first moved to the Northwet Northwest, the first warm, sunny day of the year should be a holiday, much as the first good snow is in ski country. Alas, I had to admire the days from a distance (i.e. while working). Being self-employed sometimes means less control over your time than working for someone else.

This Person Can Vote

I’m thinking of making this a regular category. There was a story in the news about a young man trapped on a rock at the coast by the tide. When asked how this could happen, he explained that “I don’t know much about the tides (do tell!)” and that he thought the tides had something to do with the Moon (points for accuracy), so he thought that the tide only rose when the Moon was visible (?!).

I can see how someone unfamiliar with the coast might be ignorant of tidal oscillations, and there’s nothing wrong with that, unless, you know, you’ve got to be rescued. Most tidal variations in the US amount to around two feet between high and low tides, and the tides exchange every six hours, so the tide will be rising (or falling) about 4 inches per hour. As anyone who’s spent time at the ocean knows, this is very visible. Did he not notice that he was slowly but steadily being cut off from land?

I’ve lived in Beaverton, OR, for nearly seven years, and have spent a fair amount of time looking for a bar I liked. This isn’t exactly high on the absolute priority list, certainly not in the same league as finding a physician or barber (don’t be fooled, ladies, men also like a styling professional they’re comfortable with), but I do like to have a good ‘local’. A place where I can have a reasonably priced beer, order some reasonably priced food, watch the local pro sports teams (Trailblazers, Mariners, Timbers, and Seahawks), and have some social engagement, within a couple miles of where I live, and ideally on a transit line. This doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

Except in Beaverton, apparently, it is.

There is a Buffalo Wild Wings franchise that fits the sports and distance requirements, but I’m not a big fan of paying $6 – $8 for a beer, and the menu is limited. And, on the weekends, there’s no place to sit at the bar. There are a number of other establishments that fit the requirements, but they don’t have Comcast, and Comcast has a monopoly on Trailblazers and Mariners games. Comcast is universally reviled, but any bar that doesn’t show Trailblazers basketball or Mariners baseball is a bar in trouble.

The only bar I’ve liked, the Marathon Taverna, is in Portland. It’s 40 minutes away on transit, or 15 minutes away by car, but I’m not a big fan of DWI, either. A ‘dive’ bar, the Marathon has a copper-topped bar, cheap bear, good and cheap food, a number of TV’s, and a reasonably friendly and efficient staff. After you’ve been there a couple of times, the staff knows who you are. It’s great, but it’s not my neighborhood.

Early last week I was looking for a bar showing the Blazers game and coming up empty. I ended up at The Pit Stop in Beaverton. I’d been there a couple of times to eat and they have a decent bar. I was bitching about how hard it was to find a good local bar in Beaverton (like, showing Blazers games) to the guy sitting next to me (disclaimer: he initiated conversation) when he suggested The Peppermill Lounge in Aloha. When he told me the location, I recognized it as a shopping mall I’d been to dozens of times. I’d never seen the lounge, as it’s around the corner from a grocery store I frequent.

So I tried The Peppermill. GOAL! Within two miles of residence: Check. On a bus line: Check. Show the local teams: Check. Reasonably priced food: Check (and the portions are large). Reasonably priced beer: Check (and Guinness on tap). I’ve only been there twice so far, but people are friendly, and I have no complaints about the service. And they have a copper-topped bar. It’s a bar for locals; the bartenders greet most folks by name, a privilege I don’t yet enjoy. But I expect that to change.

The #10 ranked book on Amazon.com, and #1 in three different book categories, is ObamaCare Survival Guide. There is some irony that a law sold as simplifying health care delivery should generate it’s own cottage industry in teaching people how to navigate it. This industry is driven in no small part by developments like these, and the law doesn’t fully implement until 2014. The item at the link details things like skyrocketing health care costs, lost jobs, massive tax increases, and health care rationing. I posted on some of these items prior to the March 2010 passage of the law, and many, many people warned of the entirely predictable effects of socialized medicine. Entirely predictable, because there were any number of decades-old examples around the world. The warnings were dismissed by Obamacare supporters as so much right-wing fear-mongering, and the legacy media completed the journey to Democratic Party propaganda arm.

My experience is that when change occurs, it’s almost never as good as people hope, nor as bad as people fear. It’s becoming evident that in this case, the effect on society is going to be standard deviations to the negative. With most legal remedies exhausted, and the law’s supporters re-elected, most people have resigned themselves to the burdens of the law.

I’m sorry, I can’t do that.

I’m an American, and Americans don’t ‘resign’ themselves to oppression. Lest you think  ‘oppression’ is too strong a word, recall that when the Affordable Care Act was passed, the majority of Americans didn’t support it. Even now, approval for the law struggles to reach 50%. The law was passed by a few hundred people in DC who voted in direct opposition to what the majority of their constituents wanted. A representative government is supposed to represent.

Given that my representatives are working in opposition to my (and the society’s) interests, and the courts have been unresponsive, I’ve come up with my own Obamacare Survival Plan:

1. Finding and using medical providers that deal in cash only. This isn’t exactly easy: I was lucky enough to find a physician who started a health clinic on that basis, but I’d bet that a lot more health care providers will be going to that model starting in 2014.
2. Realizing that at some point you will (hopefully) grow old, and require increased medical attention, then making a commitment to save something every month for that eventuality. You can help this along by
3. Taking reasonable care of yourself, and not engaging in high-risk activities. If you want to free-climb alpine peaks, that’s your business, but don’t come to me for your medical bills.
4. Buying only catastrophic medical insurance with a very high deductible, typically on the order of $10,000.  Having this type of insurance makes sense, as no matter how risk-free your life may be. There’s always the possibility of  accident or debilitating illness. Whether this will satisfy Federal health insurance requirements is problematical, but then you can
5. Decline to file Federal tax returns, or refuse to check the ‘Do you have health insurance?’ box. Note that I’m not advocating refusing to pay taxes, just not filing a return. If you file a return and don’t have medical insurance, and the Feds come calling, just say ‘no’. Yes, this is illegal, but requiring a free people to purchase a product as a condition of citizenship is unconscionable. Pick your poison.  You can argue that it’s the law, but history is overfull of immoral laws.

So how am I doing on this plan? I’ve got #1 and #3 covered, have started on #2 (a bit late, but saving nonetheless), and am shopping for #4. For #5, see me next April.

Oz Understatement

While noodling around on the Web, I came across this story from the end of 2008 about an Australian kayaker menaced by a shark. Nothing much happened, if being chased by a Great White without incident counts as ‘nothing much’. My favorite (favourite?) quote is:

“I’m not really shaken up at all. At the time I was, but now I’m just having a few beers.”

Riiight. Aussies are a tough bunch, but if you’re in a very small and frail craft in close proximity to an apex predator in it’s native environment, that’s going to stick with you.

Vernal Equinox

I can tell when the equinoxes are near by an accident of design. Around the Vernal Equinox the sun gets high enough in the sky to clear the building in front of my office window, and in the late afternoon shines right through the window. Around the Fall Equinox, it sinks low enough to make drawing the blinds unnecessary. I could put my computer screen on the other corner of my desk, but that just feels weird.

Wisconsin Congressman and Chair of the House Budget Committee recently released a Federal budget proposal that would balance the Federal budget by 2023.  Mr. Ryan says that his motivation for presenting this budget is the precarious state of US Federal finances, and his budget takes a cleaver to most entitlement programs and discretionary spending. The budget also projects reduced interest payments as a result of decreased borrowing. Social Security and Defense, a combined 41% of the Federal budget in FY2012, remain largely unaffected. The reactions by the opposition party have been hackneyed and predictable.  From Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed (D-NV):

“The Ryan Republican budget will call for more tax breaks for the wealthy and an end to Medicare as we know it, and draconian cuts to education and other programs to help America’s economy grow and prosper,”

Mr. Reed may want to note that ‘Medicare as we know it’, and other entitlement programs, are bankrupting the country. It’s interesting to note that the last phrase in his quote can be construed as support of  Mr. Ryan’s budget.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) weighed in with:

“While House Republicans are doubling down on the extreme budget that the American people already rejected, Senate Democrats are going to be working on a responsible pro-growth budget that reflects the values and priorities of middle class families across the country,”

That’s a meaningless statement, and would that be the budget the Senate is required by law to deliver, but has failed to do so for four years?

White House spokesman Jay Carney:

“While the House Republican budget aims to reduce the deficit, the math just doesn’t add up. Deficit reduction that asks nothing from the wealthiest Americans has serious consequences for the middle class.”

This is the same White House that has had  every one of the President’s budgets rejected. The budgets coming out of the Oval Office are so unpopular, no Democrat has ever voted for one.

Whatever the specifics of the GOP budget proposal, it achieves much of it’s savings by cutting Federal spending growth 30%, from 5% annually to 3.4%. The key is that Mr. Ryan expects the GDP to grow faster than the Federal budget increase. The record provides no such grounds for that projection, as we can see from charting GDP growth over the last decade:

The trendline shows the GDP growth rate declining, in large part from the contraction between 2008 and 2010. Even so, the last two years have shown considerably less than the 3.5%+ growth the Ryan budget requires. I’m not alone in thinking that when Obamacare fully implements in 2014, GDP growth is going to take a nosedive, as individuals and families find themselves on the hook for thousands of dollars in health care expenses or penalties they aren’t spending now.

So it’s unlikely that even if the Ryan budget were enacted in its entirety, we’d find ourselves with a balanced Federal budget in a decade. But Mr. Ryan has at least proposed something, which is more than Senate Democrats can claim. And it would be helpful if someone disabused those same august individuals of the notion that bitching and moaning about someone else’s efforts demonstrate leadership and competence. It doesn’t. The people disparaging this effort are once again exposing themselves as the petty, arrogant, incompetent oxygen thieves they’ve always been. Better they should realize that as a nation we’re in a lot of trouble, and re-election be damned, they need to step up and put national interests over personal ones.

 

The big national financial story this year has been the threat and implementation of ‘sequestration’. If you only get your information from the news, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a sudden crisis that sprang unforeseen out of nowhere. Sequestration is a consequence of the 2011 Budget Control Act passed on 2 August of that year, so Congress has had a year-and-a-half to come up with a budget plan. Now some of the very same people who voted for the Act, and the person who signed it into law, are falling all over themselves crying about the terrible effect of the required budget cuts.

“Is this the deal I would have preferred? No. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need, and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year.”

President Obama, 2 August 2011

“It’s just dumb. And it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt individual people and it’s going to hurt the economy over all,”

President Obama, 1 March 2013

The $85 billion in the initial round of sequestration represents a whopping 2% of the FY2013 Federal budget. For comparison, the Federal budget grew by 5% between FY2011 and FY2012, and by 190% over the last ten fiscal years. In fairness, managers have only had 18 months to plan for this.

The striking feature of the current brouhaha is how one-sided the reporting is. Every single news item I’ve seen, across a variety of media, speaks of how bad cuts in government spending are: both for people individually and for the country at large. Huh? No media outlet could find a single person who thinks cuts in Federal spending is a good thing? This homogenous narrative gives rise to some thoughts.

Any society impacted to this extent by government spending is a society where government is way too large.

It wasn’t so long ago that most people’s contact with the Federal government was pretty much limited to the Postal Service and paying income tax. Now it’s hard to turn around without running into some Federal program or law. Note the increase in the size of the Federal budget over the last ten years referenced above. There are many reasons for this, but mostly they boil down to politicians buying votes, giving us a Federal Government nearly twice the size we had in 2002.

Many, perhaps most, Americans have little idea how government get its money.

If asked, most people would probably say that government raises revenue through taxes; some might mention debt. Given the hue and cry over the minimal spending cuts mandated under sequestration, a disturbing percentage of the population seems to think that government has its own pile of money in a warehouse somewhere. Politicians reinforce this idea by presenting the opposition as evil gatekeepers preventing people from getting ‘their’ money. Given that nearly half of Americans pay no Federal income tax, and that same group represents most of the government assistance demographic, it’s easy to see why there’s such a disconnect. For those of us paying taxes, especially those paying taxes quarterly, we’re all too aware of how government raises money.

The percentage of the population dependent on government programs is far too high.

In the process of using the people’s money to buy votes, politicians have created a dependent underclass that effectively has no future, because to have a future, they’d have to give up their government benefits. The 2012 election marked an inflection point in American society where more people were interested in voting for things than for freedom. The flip side of ‘help’ is ‘control’, and if you’re dependent on government welfare for some or all of your livelihood, you cannot be free. Yet politicians continue to sell the idea that assistance beneficiaries are free people while controlling their lives. This is politically useful, as any cuts to government programs will unleash a predictable fury from those who might possibly maybe be affected.

Short-term pain will lead to long-term gain.

It’s entirely true that budget cuts will cause short-term economic problems, but like any dynamic system, the economy will adjust. Or it would, if the politicians and bureaucrats would let it. But as soon as people start screaming, politicians will feel duty-bound to ‘fix’ the problems, thus leading to a situation worse than the original. Unfortunately, but predictably, politicians are using this situation to feed their constituents base impulses rather than as an educational and leadership opportunity.

There has been a complete and utter failure of leadership.

The whole purpose of the Budget Control Act was to force the very action that lawmakers don’t have the guts to do themselves. They even gave themselves 18 months to pass a budget that wouldn’t trigger the Act, and failed to do so. It’s a recurring and fatal pattern that the candidate will speak of cutting the Federal budget, but the officeholder will seek ways to curry favor with constituents by perpetuating the status quo. There seems to be an operating perception among the elected that just because there has always been money, there always will be. This mindset is either willfully ignorant, or willfully duplicitous. History is replete with examples of failed states doomed by financial overreach; indeed, one need look no further than contemporary Europe.

Not only have politicians and bureaucrats failed to lead, they’ve often acted in the most petty, vindictive ways possible. Whether at the local or national level, the first items offered up for cuts are core services. This is complete bullshit. Heads should roll over these types of actions. It has been slightly amusing to watch politicians backtrack their rhetoric as their scare tactics have failed to produce the desired results.

We finally get some actual reductions in Federal spending, and all anyone can talk about is how various victim groups are going to be affected. I’d like to see some representation from those of us paying the bills.

Calling 911

I was walking around downtown Portland last night when I came upon a man laying on the street bleeding from the mouth and head. It looked like he’d been in a fight. He wasn’t making any noise, just hunched over and bleeding while holding his mouth. I asked the two other guys there if he was with them, and they said no. I asked if they’d called 911. No. OK. So I called 911. I could have rendered aid, but I didn’t know anything about this guy, or what was swimming in his blood.

While I was on the phone, the guy got up and started washing himself off in the bubbler (public water fountain). By this time about a half-dozen people had gathered around, just watching this guy. Just before I got off the phone, he started walking off, still without making a sound, and leaving a fair amount of blood on the sidewalk. I gave the operator a description and direction of travel, and hung up.

About ten minutes later, I got a call from the responding police, informing me they couldn’t find the person. I don’t know what happened to him, but I did wonder why I was the first person to call in. Did everyone else think that staring at the man was somehow going to help him? “But, I was really empathetic.” Please.