Writing The Long Song (September 26, 2011)

Posted in Journalism, Language, Society, Writing on September 26, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

2          “So you’re suggesting that Bill Shakespeare is sleeping off a bender on someone’s davenport.  We just need to give him a few more hours to resurface.”

1          “Bill is dead.  And alive.  In a way.  Mortal and immortal.  Not breathing but still singing.”

. . .

2          “So you say that a jour-nalist doesn’t quite achieve immortality, yet a jour-nalist adds, like, seven years to the actuarials.”

1          “As long as they don’t drink and smoke.  Jour-nalists contribute too.”

2          “Could they just drink or just smoke?  They are jour-nalists, they do need a smoke or an adult beverage or two.  Or at least a bad habit or two.”

. . .

2          “What if you write for a weekly or a monthly?  What if you are more than a jour-nalist yet less that a novelist?”

. . .

1          “The grim reaper has been on the back swing since we skidded across the maternity room floor.  Yet, the good song can reverberate long after we sign off and move on.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

“After publication of [Magnum Opus], [Celebrated Writer] achieved immortality for all time and died seventeen years later.”

“Unknown during his life, [Writer’s] three unpublished manuscripts found among his papers three years after his death establish his immortality among his peers.”

Mortality does stink; immortality would stink.

September 17 – Constitution Day (September 19, 2011)

Posted in Congress, Constitution, Law, Taxation on September 19, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “We celebrate America’s Protest Poem on July 4 yet don’t celebrate adoption of America’s Owners Manual on September 17.  Last Saturday was Constitution Day.”

B          “After proclaiming ‘Enough’ and declaring their independence, they spent almost a dozen years debating ‘Now what?’  Must admit they did an admirable job admixing a little British brewed due process and rule of law with French fueled separation of powers.  And providing for taxation with representation.”

A          “The fellows endeavored to check and to balance interests, although some curmudgeons allege they advanced their financial interests to balance their checkbooks.”

B          “They probably didn’t retreat from pursuing their financial interests.  Even if they were motivated by mixed interests, the final product is workable and works.  And is not a bad start.  Limiting participation and protection to well-to-do white boys was not the best start, yet look at the plight of mankind to that point.  Man was not very kind.”

A          “Too many hucksters today are so certain they know what was happening then and what was meant by the founding fellows.  Every Owners Manual is supplemented and modified over time as our understanding and insights grow and develop.”

B          “Still contend we should celebrate with a bar-b-que and a few fireworks.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “One Gun Per White Adult Male? A Flintlock Musket? The “One Man, One Gun” Decision (October 4, 2010).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The Founding Fathers were fans of taxation?  Since when?

The Founding Fathers created a government rather than destroying one?  Since when?

The Constitution was written by geniuses so that it could be interpreted by fools, but nothing commands that it be interpreted by fools.

“the greatest of all reflections on human nature.”

September 11 – Patriot Day (September 12, 2011)

Posted in Society on September 11, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

P          “Know thyself.”

B          “To thine own self be true.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

Dissent is Patriotic

Doctorin’ And Lawyerin’ And Laborin’ (September 5, 2011)

Posted in Health Care, Law, Medicine, Society on September 5, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

D          “After the team gives the usual heroic effort and pulls off a miracle, the patient and family proclaim ‘Thank God’.  When God decrees a different but ultimately inevitable outcome, the family always wonders whether I could have done more.”

L          “If the outcome is favorable, the client takes credit and says that he should not have to pay.  If the outcome is unfavorable, the client assigns blame and says that he should not have to pay.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Ernesto “Che” Guevara, M.D.; Fidel Castro, J.D.

“How can I ever repay you?”  “You can pay my bill?”

“What do lawyers use for birth control?”  “Their personalities.”

The Federal Labor Standards Act of 1938 intended in part to increase the cost of working an employee more than eight hours a day so that others would be hired and put to work.  Employers now hire workers for less than eight hours a day so as to avoid the requirements of the statute and thus pay fewer benefits to those few individuals who are hired.

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

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?

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

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.

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

Is College Worthless? (July 25, 2011)

Posted in Economics, Education, Pogo Plight, Schooling, Society on July 25, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

_          “Kinda.  In the past, a college graduate acquired more money and flashed a brighter smile.  For most kids today, it is four years of fun and play.  A sheep skin really only signals that the bearer attended a summer sleep-away camp during the fall, winter and spring seasons for a few seasons.”

_          “Employing a generous standard, perhaps ten percent of the kids actually acquire something tantamount to a “college education” in college.”

_          “The economy has upped the bar.  Ninety percent of the college graduates are not employed in college-level jobs because they are college graduates but not college-level employees.  Viewed with some perspective, everything is in balance except our unreasonable expectations.”

_          “When you think about it, wouldn’t you party all night if you had no tomorrow?”

. . .

_          “When the federal government began making college loans freely available, the cost of college schooling exploded.  A college may aspire to liberate one’s mind, but it enslaves one’s body and spirit.  The lucky graduates leave as indentured servants, the unlucky ones as debt serfs and slaves.  The only out is to enlist in the military.  Is that the plan?  Think about it.”

_          “And by statute, a student loan obligation is not a dischargeable debt when one files bankruptcy.  But doesn’t a constitutional provision trump a conflicting statute?”

_          “That’s what they say.”

_          “What about the 13th Amendment prohibition on slavery?”

. . .

_          “The greatest constitutional challenge in academia today is dealing with the cohort of male applicants who are significantly less prepared and talented than the cohort of female applicants.  Can a university elect to maintain an equal number of boys and girls and accept a marked disparity in abilities and possibilities within a class?”

_          “The most talented and most desired female applicants may elect to matriculate at a university that maintains a balanced portfolio of males and females.  To attract the elite women, a university may be compelled to admit even more less qualified males to maintain a balance in the entering class.”

_          “Remember in the old days when there were single gender schools and an opposite single gender school situated down the road.”

. .  .

_          “Why not award every citizen a Ph.D. in any field upon reaching the age of 18.  And of course award everyone a Selective Service card.”

_          “The Adult Entitlement Act of 2012 will save billions.  In the legislation, the Department of Education can be renamed the Department of Schooling or the Department of Credentialing.”

_          “We need a little something for everyone.  Academia is more interested in credentials than ideas.  Double the number of degrees currently sported by each professor by fiat.” 

. . .

_          “Society does not have the resources to indulge the current college extravaganza.  No one should be admitted to college until the age of 20.  Everyone should work at something for two years as an intern, in the civilian conservation corps, even in the military or at some other endeavor.  At that time in their lives, kids need a more productive emancipation from home and a swifter introduction to the real world at less social cost.  By the age of 20, both males and females have much more perspective and maturity.  They can use their earnings or learning chits for education or for some other endeavor.”

_          “Kids must learn how to get out of bed on time before they can learn.”

_          “And learn to cease texting while at the morning staff meeting.  Traditional college attendance would decline.  The dorms could be used to house a mix of college students and kids pursuing their Big Transition and senior citizens and others in need of housing.”

_          “And perhaps the number of qualified males will balance the number of qualified females.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Go College

Phil O. Sophistry, B.A., B.A., M.A., M.A., Ph.D, Ph.D., B.M.F., B.M.F.