A Mind is a Terrible Thing

It’s already 10:20am January 1st over here in southeast India.  So happy new year!

Hilzoy writes in The Washington Monthly:
“What Do You Mean ‘We’, White Man?”

Robert Samuelson has an infuriating op-ed in today’s Washington Post. It’s called “Humbled By Our Ignorance”:

“It’s the end of an era. We know that 2008, much like 1932 or 1980, marks a dividing line for the American economy and society. But what lies on the other side is hazy at best. The great lesson of the past year is how little we understand and can control the economy. This ignorance has bred today’s insecurity, which in turn is now a governing reality of the crisis.

The entire column is devoted to explaining all these things that “we” were ignorant of. But who, specifically, are “we”? It’s hard to say. Mostly, it seems to be the nameless subject of the passive voice… (snip)

There were very smart people who did predict this. Their writings were not arcane or hard to find — I mean, I found them, and this is not my area of expertise. Nor was their basic point that hard to grasp. If I could grasp it, as I’m sure many of our commenters did, then anyone remotely worthy of having an economics column in the Washington Post should have.

Hell, a lot of us knew this was coming.  The only thing we didn’t know for sure was how bad it’d be, else my partner and I would’ve moved our investments entirely out of quasi-safe funds and into cash and/or gold bullion.

As it stands, I remember well a day in November 2007 when we sat in our investment broker’s office and told him, “We want to be out of anything even remotely connected to mortgages or those phony instruments derived from them.  We also know that investment ratings have become total junk — what we want is to be in areas generally thought to be safe during economic turmoil.  A storm is coming and we want to be ready.”

We still took a pretty good soaking…but it could’ve been far, far worse.  Nevertheless, I’m with Hilzoy and outraged by the “who could have ever foreseen?!” handwringing from so-called experts who should know better.

…as Lawn Darts (aka ‘Jarts’), but this here is just plain nuts.  ‘Sky Lanterns’?

I mean really — launching un-steerable aerial fiery balloon devices?  Oy.

A quote from the website:

Each flame-retardant Sky Lantern can glow for as long as 20 minutes, traveling for miles and rising up to 1500 metres. For a truly magical effect, why not get a group of friends to light several Sky Lanterns simultaneously?

This product is one catastrophe away from massive civil negligence lawsuits…

Just imagine a “what-if” scenario:  Some folks go all-out and buy a hundred Sky Lanterns, and launch them at a Great Auntie Myrtle’s “100 Years Young!” birthday party.  It’s next to a big lake, so no problem, right?  What could possibly go wrong?  Released all at once, they waft skyward, all pretty and glowing, drifting like ethereal dandelion puffs across the mirror-glass water.  It’s breathtaking.

20 minutes later, the first one alights (pun intended) in the middle of the national forest across the lake and sets the tinder-dry underbrush ablaze, with the ensuing wildfire responsible for millions of dollars in property damages.  Not to mention a rare woodland owl is made extinct.  Two more Sky Lanterns continue beyond and drop onto the freshly tarred roof of a shopping mall.  Several make it as far as the Interstate highway, and the spectacle distracts a number of drivers, causing a massive chain-reaction pile-up, with fatalities.  Another  handful of these Balloons ‘o Death arrive at the city airport where one is responsible for a number of aborted jet landings…and alas, one Sky Lantern is sucked into the engine intake of a plane taking off, causing it to crash into an apartment building.  And the remainder drift all the way to the petroleum refinery — you know, the one next to the chemical plant…

Well, you get the idea.

and Happy Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Gurnenthar’s Ascendance.

(See ref.)  Alas, no aluminum poles to be had here, so I guess we’ll have to make do with bamboo.

…the Palin family saga couldn’t get more ‘hillbilly’¹, we have this:

Palin soap opera: Drug in Levi’s mom’s case is oxycontin

WASILLA, Alaska (Anchorage Daily News) — Wasilla resident Sherry L. Johnston, mother of Bristol Palin’s boyfriend, faces a Jan. 6 court date for an oxycontin-related arrest at her home by Alaska State Troopers.

————————

1) Cf: Oxycontin is sometimes known as ‘hillbilly heroin’, as it’s considered the euphoriate drug of choice for backwoods addicts who’ve reached the point where meth just ain’t got enough kick anymore.

Pretty much recovered here from the jet-lag after a decidedly gruelling non-stop dash from the SF Bay area, all the way to India and straight to the Penukonda ashram.  (It was thought not to be so wise to hang in Bangalore for now.)

I know I haven’t really posted much in the way of meaningful monologue, and still intend to get to it ASAP.  In lieu of that though, I thought I’d at least comment on whatever shiny bits attract the attention of my rabid little brain hamster:

First, okay, yes, security over here in India is noticeably up and things are more tense.  When we changed our hired car booking to take us directly to Penukonda rather than to Bangalore for our usual stay, there was no surprise on their end of things.  On the other hand, the Indian people here are pretty much as they always are–whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jain or something else–they continue to be among the most friendly, personable, and solicitous people I’ve ever known.

Secondly, about the Cali Prop 8 mess:  My partner and I were gonna get married during our last trip (we’ve been domestically partnered for as long as that provision existed…about five years?  Not sure.  been together for 11 years).  But we chose not to wed (again) because we didn’t like the idea of being pushed into it for electoral reasons.  We also said at the time we didn’t want our status then being called into question.  I even commented, “The Prop 8 people will not be satisfied with just stopping ongoing marriages.  They will challenge the validity of all those performed.”  Well, guess what?  I could get very, very wealthy betting on the craven mendacity of some.  One of the three cases before the CA Supreme Court specifically seeks to invalidate the 18,000 marriages that were certified during this past summer.  There was one ad running where two young men intended to portray Latter Day Saint missionary types invaded the home of two women (married), took their wedding rings and tore up their marriage certificate.  Much uproar at how unfair that accusation was.  Turns out that’s almost exactly what they had in mind.  Just my opinion, but given the stated legal basis for the original CA Supreme Court decision, I don’t see how they’ll allow a simple majority vote strip a protected minority of their civil rights.  However, if the restrictionists (I just made up that word) win, look for them to go after the domestic partnerships very soon after.  If that works, they’ll go after same-sex couple adoptions, living wills, and anything else ‘purporting to convey marriage-like legal rights’.  Anyway, this is going to sound crazy, but in a way I’m glad Prop 8 passed, so that it could be put to the ultimate judicial/constitutional test.  Why?  Because if it had not passed, the restrictionists would have tried again at the next special or general election.  And again and again.  Remember, they didn’t need an actual majority, but just a majority of voters in a given election.  I’ve also said that if this sort of thing stands, look for more civil rights outrages to appear as ballot props.  No minority group would be safe from majority mob persecution.  Thus, it’s essential this practice be put before the Supremes, and I’m more hopeful than not that they’ll do the right thing.

Third up, the auto company loans.  $700 billion (and more) thrown at banks, insurance brokers, and investment firms — no questions asked, no repayment required.  The auto companies?  Asking for about $25b in loans.  The first props up a grotesque system of enriching the already obscenely wealthy, the kind of people who are pitching a fit because they won’t get their now-customary multi-million+ year end bonuses and ‘golden parachutes’.  The second proposal keeps millions of Americans employed, and gives hope for decent, yet modest wages and benefits.  My IronyMeter broke, so instead I’ve had to substitute the old Hypocrisy Scale SlideRule, which is reading 10e67, whatever that means.

Fourth:  Having lived mostly abroad for most of the last three years, I know for a fact that the health care system in America is fracked up beyond redemption.  You people have NO idea how bad off you all are — well, except for those who’ve been driven into bankruptcy or denied essential life-saving treatment or had to decide between food or insurance premiums…  Want to really fix the auto industry?  Transfer the healthcare for all of its workers and pensioners into an expanded Medicare.  Want to give a huge boost to the entire economy (excepting for the bloated parasite of for-profit medicine)?  Stop saddling employers with mandated or expected health insurance.  I’m not saying employer-provided health benefits should be eliminated — but it shouldn’t be the only option for the average citizen.

Fifth:  The US Presidential Inauguration really does need to be moved up about 3 weeks, to the beginning of January.  That’s plenty of time to deal with any electoral and/or transition planning issues.  A post-election lame duck president is about the most useless thing there is–plus it invites way too much potential mischief.

Sixth:  It’s really nice to see rational adults coming back into charge in the US.  The only caution I have is they really, really need to assure us all that those crimes which were committed will be prosecuted.  There is plenty of evidence of war crimes, including violations of US criminal law, the Constitution, and ratified treaties such as the Geneva Conventions.  If this all is swept under the rug, it’ll fester and one day poison us all.  (Sorry for the mixed metaphor.)

On a concluding personal note:  When I’m here in India, life over there in America seems like a half-remembered yet vivid dream.  When we were in California and New Mexico this last trip, it seemed the opposite, where India was the dream.  Strange…

Okay.  Back in Penukonda.  The experience of going straight through from SFO to Heathrow to Bangalore, then drive directly to the ashram was exceedingly gruelling.  Allayed only perhaps in the “yank the band-aid” sense of getting it all over with in one throw.

Time to zombie-fy myself.  Write more when I’m not so badly jet-lagged.

Found a free wifi spot here at Heathrow, so I thought I might as well put up the obligatory “I’m elsewhere” post.

We’re doing okay, Stephanie and me…both tired, as our brains think it’s 4am.  In a few hours, it’ll be back onto the 2nd plane for the 2nd half of our journey.  Ugh.

I’ll say this much:  The new Terminal 5 building is pretty nice.  The public walking areas could be wider though.

My next post’ll likely be in India, but probably not for a few days, as I expect we’ll be badly lagged.

Joe the Plumber: McCain “Appalled Me,” Made Me Feel “Dirty”
“I honestly felt even more dirty after I had been on the campaign trail and seen some things that take place. It was scary, man,” Wurzelbacher said. He told Beck he asked McCain “some pretty direct questions” about the bailout, and wasn’t pleased with the response. “They appalled me, absolutely. You know, I was angry. In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.

Also, your 15 minutes were up…oh, about four weeks ago.