Archive for August, 2011

On Loyalty (August 29, 2011)

Posted in Military, On [Traits/Characteristics], Pogo Plight, Society on August 29, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

S          “Loyalty is the dutiful younger cousin of love.  Related to agape and unrelated to eros.  You only find it among those with a secure sense of self esteem and magnanimity.”

D          “I also find it among those individuals who subscribe to a disciplined sense of duty.  In boot camp, the military breaks down the individual and builds up the unit based on discipline and loyalty.  Society breaks down the individual and boots him out.  Loyalty is basically confined to the military and to mutts and to a few other strays.  My dog is the only loyal person I know.  Loyalty is a rare and endangered animal.”

. . .

S          “Too often loyalty is defined as a willingness to lie to cover for someone or to cover up a situation for someone.  True loyalty requires you to be loyal to a Code that is greater than the person and to be loyal only to those who don’t even ask you to challenge the Code.”

D          “Fidelity may be so rare because it does not derive from self interest.  We are acculturated to buying what passes for allegiance for a period of time.  We rent it when necessary with no expectation that it otherwise exists or endures.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

Let me be the person my dog thinks I am

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A Taxing Explanation (August 22, 2011)

Posted in Pogo Plight, Taxation on August 22, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

R          “We paid no taxes and ate one meal every three days.”

L          “I like the no taxes part.”

R          “We didn’t pay taxes because we didn’t have income.”

L          “I don’t like the no income part.”

R          “Then during the Eisenhower administration – he was a Republican – taxes were as high as ninety percent.”

L          “Taxes shouldn’t be even ten percent.”

R          “We paid beaucoup taxes and ate three meals every day.”

L          “I don’t like the taxes part.”

R          “An empty stomach can fill the brain.  I learned a simple lesson in life.  If you get to pay taxes, you get to eat.”

L          “You WHAT?”

R          “When I get up in the morning, my consuming ambition is to find a way to pay taxes so that I can break my fast.”

L          “YOU WHAT?”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

YOU WHAT?

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Carefully Courting “Romney – O’Bama Care” Through The Courts (August 15, 2011)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Constitution, Crime/Punishment, Health Care, Kleptocracy, Law, O'Bama, Supreme Court on August 15, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

Y          “I don’t really like it either.  But it is constitutional, isn’t it?”

X          “Yup.  No big deal, really.  The Constitution does not create a likeability test.  The Constitution establishes a constitutional test.  Governments have been requiring individuals to acquire automobile and other insurance and to undertake duties for decades without whining.  No one opts out of fire protection and thus we all pay for it.  If each of us is left to obtain private fire insurance, all of us must be compelled to obtain and pay for fire insurance.  At its core, health insurance policy clearly involves interstate commerce.”

Y          “It really is about personal liberty and property.  If you don’t have health coverage, I must pay for your health coverage because other laws not challenged as unconstitutional mandate that you receive health care.  Making me pay restrains my liberty and deprives me of my property.  And you know me, a proud taxpayer.  Why all the fuss?  And why all the rampant litigation?”

X          “Someone observed that we are dealing with judges trained in American law schools who want to play legislator without running for the legislature.  More judicial arrogance.  More judicial activism.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

– 11 + 6 = 5:  The Eleventh Circuit says NO*; the Sixth Circuit says YES; the Five Supremes will enact health care policy

A 207 page decision?  Not even 207 words are required.

What are all the state attorneys general doing pursuing the legal challenge to Romney-O’Bama Care while capitulating to the Big Banks and surrendering the major legal issues?

There is no law, there is only ideology

I hope laughter is the best medicine – it is all I can afford

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Is The New Standard Poor? (August 8, 2011)

Posted in Economics, Pogo Plight, Rating Agencies on August 8, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

S          “We live not in the Age of Iron but in the Age of Irony.  For years, the three blind mice – Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and Moody’s – affixed their gold seal (AAA rating) to pyrite and made a fortune off the alchemy.  Then Standard & Poor’s announced this Spring that it might just downgrade America’s credit rating in the near future.  Then they fulfilled their threat this Summer and downgraded America’s credit rating because the hired help was not playing well with others.”

P          “And after downgrading American debt, Americans and others fled in a great panic to security and stability . . . to American debt.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Larry, Moe and Curly; Manny, Moe and Jack; Standard & Poor’s, Fitch and Moody’s

The rating agencies don’t rate.

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From e-con-omics to eco-nomics? (August 1, 2011)

Posted in Bankruptcy, China, Economics, Economics Nobel, Education, Energy, Environment, Pensions, Schooling on August 1, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

(           “The Keynesians are using a screwdriver to hammer a nail.  The monetarists are using a hammer to drive a screw.  The wrong tool is selected because the challenge is not understood.”

)           “So we are screwed and hammered?”

(           “E-con-omists do not even recall the central tenet of economics.  Resources are scarce.  Not enough resources are available today to provide the growth needed to provide everyone with a first-world life style.”

)           “You know that observation is politically unacceptable.”

(           “The department of e-con-omics today should be merged with the department of religion.  The e-con-omists are marketing voodoo.”

)           “What about the department of psychology?  Or the department of environmental sciences.”

(           “What about creating a department of 3Es – energy, economics, and the environment?  What about adding a class in Mega-eco-nomics to the traditional classes in Microeconomics and Macroeconomics?”

. . .

(           “Economics is laden with rich irony.  The use of the word ‘gross’ in ‘gross domestic product.’  The products and services often are gross.”

)           “Look at the felicitous term ‘trickle down’ in ‘trickle down economic policies.’  The theory posits that all the money should be given to the wealthy and very little will trickle down to the populace.  Should anyone be surprised that very little trickles down to the populace.”

(           “And the Laffer Curve was worth a laugh but not much more.”

)           “We need more eco-nomists who recognize and accommodate limits to growth even though the realization is anathema in today’s political climate.”

(           “Very few are going to go quietly.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

You are stronger than the tool; the tool is smarter than you are.

Central Falls falls

The Senate confirmed Gary Locke as Ambassador to China by unanimous consent on July 27, 2011

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