Miscellany: 11/30/12

Quote of the Day
The only safe ship in a storm is leadership.
Faye Wattleton

Santa Obama Says "No K'Nex for You"

We already know that Mitt Romney and John McCain weren't going to get Battleships for Xmas.  It's been  long time since I bought Xmas presents for young nephews. I didn't even know what K'nex was. Of course I have to translate Obama-to-plain English: Republicans who don't capitulate to Obama's class warfare terms make it on Obama's cow-pie naughty list: that means they won't get K'nex's grownup infrastructure sets for their district or state. Even worse, given new EPA restrictions on Santa, they won't even get a lump of coal in their stockings.


Follow-Up Odds and Ends

• Hostess Treats Will Live On.  One of the more amusing stories of the Twinkies debacle is singer/actress Jennifer Hudson's fiance and father of her little son,  David Otunga, a Harvard-educated lawyer and WWE professional wrestler. Otunga went on a snack buying binge as soon he heard about the Hostess plant closures, telling TMZ that his son would not go without his Hostess treats. First, Hudson is a well-known spokeswoman for a national weight management company, and Otunga's WWE persona is as a narcissistic bodybuilder. Still, with Hostess Brands bringing in over $2B in sales, and Hostess is well aware the value of the brands could erode the longer products aren't in stores, Hostess has been contacted by over 100 businesses, including supermarkets, interested in acquiring product lines and/or plants.
• It Turns Out GM Can Buy Volt Love. One of the things an IT professional knows is that one of the things software companies long for is more even revenues through a subscription system. You normally have perpetual per-user licenses but you often have a maintenance agreement (my former employer Oracle charges I believe just under a quarter of the cost of the license annually, which includes access to the latest versions/updates/fixes/security patches, and technical support/portal.  An interesting Forbes column points out that for 2 years running, Volt owners/operators rank at the top of Consumer Reports consumer satisfaction surveys. With bargain lease rates starting at under $300/month, fuel savings make the lease terms even more attractive. Among the drawbacks: it takes the better part of a day to recharge from a conventional outlet and passenger space is constrained. Plus, you can buy a conventional compact for several thousand dollars less--which buys a lot of fuel. And it makes sense primarily for those whom commute relatively short distances to work (say, less than 20 miles each way). The car is still bring heavily subsidized by Government Motors, and the American taxpayer cannot afford to pay out thousands to bribe yuppie Democrats into buying the car.

Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective

The Lettermen, Medley
1) The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You)
2) What Can I Give You This Christmas?
3) The Christmas Waltz
4) O Holy Night (Cantique De Noel)
5) Christmas All Alone

Miscellany: 11/29/12

Quote of the Day
What is the use of running
when we are on the wrong road?
Bavarian proverb

Falling Birth Rates: Are We Following the Lead
of Japan, Europe, Russia and China?

According to National Journal:

The U.S. birth rate dropped to its lowest level since the beginning of the Great Depression, led by a drop among immigrants. Overall, the birth rate declined 8 percent from 2007 to 2010.

Hispanic women - both those born in and those born outside the U.S. - experienced larger birth-rate declines from 2007 to 2010 than other groups.In 2010, immigrants represented about 13 percent of the U.S. population while foreign-born mothers accounted for 23 percent of all births. Hispanics also experienced greater percentage declines in household wealth than white, black, or Asian households between 2005 and 2009, according to the report. Latinos also experienced a greater rise in poverty and unemployment than non-Latinos after the Great Recession began.

An aging population has ominous implications for future economic growth. We need  sweeping immigration reform (with reforms of quotas, temporary foreign workers, and a higher emphasis om merit vs. blood ties--including but going beyond the Latino issues): government needs to get out of the way of businesses getting the resources they need to produce goods and services..



Good Overview of Capitalism



The Class Warfare Kerfuffle

The fact that a term-limited President and a Dem-controlled Senate are, for the second time in 2 years, playing a game of political chicken over an economically-counterproductive class warfare tax hike by making the tax hike a nonnegotiable condition is really a calculation that the GOP will pay a political price for failing to renew the rest of the tax cuts (vs. calling Obama's bluff of vetoing a comprehensive renewal: in fact, Obama would pay a stiff price for a veto, and he knows that.)

We know progressives/social liberals are mathematically challenged--the CBO-estimated $82B or so in additional upper class tax revenue of expiring Bush taxes amounts to barely a down payment on trillion dollar deficits,

Let's face it the Bush tax cuts were not enough  to result in robust economic growth. their reversal of course will dampen growth. Moreover, they were never permanent.

But the pressure is on the Dems to keep the 75% going to the middle class. If I'm Boehner, I'm going to make Obama pay for the remaining Bush tax cuts with spending cuts.

Entertainment Potpourri

This short film is available in a short story collection by the original author Elizabeth Silance Ballard from Google Books here; to license Mary Robinson Reynolds' adaption, see here; it is also available for online viewing here (there are several versions of the story on Youtube, and the story is replicated on the Internet (here, in 2 versions)).

Familiar readers may remember some of these anecdotes. My second nephew (sister #2) had grown up in the shadow of two overachieving older siblings, One day I saw him coloring pictures; I enthusiastically commented  on his artwork, and I could tell that he was thrilled with the attention;  he responded by creating and giving me a dozen originals over the remainder of the afternoon.

Then there was the time I as a professor in one of my last classes handed back my students' projects; I diligently graded them (on test essay questions or problems I would rank order responses to ensure grading consistency, and I worked hard on providing detailed, balanced feedback, although I suspected most if not all, would never go past the grade). Until this young man approached me with a look of disbelief on his face. "You read this yourself, not a grader; these comments are spot on. You understood everything." At first, I was annoyed that the student questioned my professionalism, hut I didn't interrupt him. He explained that he had worked so hard on this project and felt his hard work had been vindicated by the time and effort I had taken in reviewing it, that his own work was taken seriously and treated respectfully.

Two incidents in college particularly come to mind. My philosophy professor Sister Mary Christine had a way of ruining one's weekend. For example, if we had an exam scheduled for Monday, at the end of Friday's lecture she might hand out a list of 20-25 essay questions and suggest 3 or 4 of them might appear on the exam. And she rigorously graded essay responses on a 4-point scale. I usually did quite well, but I remember I didn't get rated a 4.0 on one question and I compared my answer with another student's, whom got a higher mark on his or her answer. I complained to Sister Mary Christine that I wrote a better answer, and to my surprise, she readily conceded the point. She explained that I as a gifted  student was being held to a higher standard and she knew I was capable of better work. On the one hand, I thought it was unfair from a competitive standpoint, but it was awesome that she treated me respectfully as a gifted scholar and expected more from me.

Then I remember my saintly dissertation chair, Richard Scamell. (He once said if he hadn't pursued a career as a professor, he would have been a minister. I believe it: somehow he put up with my nonsense. I, of course, tended to be long-winded, and Scamell would tease that it takes me 20 minutes just to introduce myself.) But to give an example before the dissertation, I conceived a form of psychological scaling I called "triads" (I used a legacy scaling method for the dissertation, the semantic differential), and Scamell was openly enthusiastic. I wasn't one of those who published some offshoot of their chair's research program. The autonomy and self-confidence helped me as I started my career in "publish or perish" academia. As I've mentioned before I offered to put his name on my early papers, but he refused to take credit for my work. He is one of the most  respected, popular professors in the history of the university. I only wished that he had prepared me for the Machiavellian politics of academia. I had a false Leibnizian  expectation of  "come, let us calculate" our differences.

[9/3/13: I noticed when I reviewed this post, which got an unusual number of hits yesterday, that the video I originally embedded was no longer on Youtube (copyright/fair use issues?) The original link to the story website still works. There are alternative versions on Youtube, one of which I've substituted below.]



Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective

Charlie Brown/Vince Guaraldi Trio, "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing"

Miscellany: 11/28/12

Quote of the Day
Accept responsibility for your life. 
Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, 
no one else.
Les Brown

Going Beyond Big Bird and Serrano

The chief takeaway in my judgment even a quasi-privatization (through tax expenditures, i.e., tax-deductible charitable donations) is better than government meddling in the sector.  Actually, I'm not a fan of bribing donors through the tax code. Essentially the government is indirectly funding charitable donations. In a free market we do charitable acts for intrinsic purposes.



Follow-Up Odds and Ends

• Intrade Shuts Its Window to US Bettors. I had seen Mark Perry mention Intrade in his Carpe Diem posts, and I subsequently regularly referenced related bets on political races in my Political Potpourri segments leading up to the election (in retrospect most of those winning bets were spot on.) The Irish-based parent to Intrade (which makes its money on transaction fees) did previously petition for CFTC oversight at least as early as 2008. There are concerns about manipulation, e;.g., a political operative makes material purchases or sales of candidate bets to create  the impression something has changed in election momentum, (You can think of a predictive bet as a type of option. Intrade believes that CFTC approval  would actually improve liquidity.) Intrade on its website insists, despite the Monday announcement,  the rumors of the end of its US business are greatly exaggerated, that  it will soon introduce an exchange that will pass regulator concerns.
• Miscellany: 11/27/12: Glenn "Serrano" Beck;  Ebay halts Glenn Beck's charity auction of  'Obama in Pee Pee' on the grounds he was selling urine. (Actually the 'urine' is beer,) The auction was up to $11,300 at the point the auction was interrupted. Beck is receiving bids at his own website--along with selling commemorative $20 t shirts
• One-off Post  Over the Holiday Weekend. I published a Christmas-related essay under an ironic title. If you read the essay, you will find I have a sympathetic viewpoint but I don't believe in moral indictments. I have a fairly novel approach to gift-giving as like solving a problem; I often try to surprise the recipient. I don't like to be predictable but my gifts are based on knowledge of the person with an element of surprise. Just to give an example I don't put in the essay: I don't buy my mom something predictable like flowers or her favorite perfume. But I once gave my mom a present on my own birthday, which she never saw coming.

Before There Was Simpson-Bowles,

There Was Kerrey-Danforth

You would think after two failed Democrat Presidents whom named bipartisan commissions to look at the cown jewels of Democrats' social liberal crown jewels, the New Deal's social security program and the Great Society's Medicare program,  you would hope one of them would have had the testicular fortitude to exercise leadership and not simply hire an All-Pro punter.

Two GOP Congressmen on the Clinton Bipartisan Commission On Entitlement And Tax Reform, Chris Cox and Bill Archer, have penned an important WSJ column:

In 1994 we predicted that, unless something was done to control runaway entitlement spending, Medicare and Social Security would eventually go bankrupt or confront severe benefit cuts. Eighteen years later, nothing has been done. Why? The full extent of the problem has remained hidden from policy makers and the public because of less than transparent government financial statements.

The actual liabilities of the federal government—including Social Security, Medicare, and federal employees' future retirement benefits—already exceed $86.8 trillion, or 550% of GDP. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, the annual accrued expense of Medicare and Social Security was $7 trillion. Nothing like that figure is used in calculating the deficit. In reality, the reported budget deficit is less than one-fifth of the more accurate figure.

As of the most recent Trustees' report in April, the net present value of the unfunded liability of Medicare was $42.8 trillion. The comparable balance sheet liability for Social Security is $20.5 trillion. It becomes clear that to collect enough tax revenue just to avoid going deeper into debt would require over $8 trillion in tax collections annually. That is the total of the average annual accrued liabilities of just the two largest entitlement programs, plus the annual cash deficit. In short, if the government confiscated the entire adjusted gross income of these American taxpayers [> $66K], plus all of the corporate taxable income in the year before the recession, it wouldn't be nearly enough to fund the over $8 trillion per year in the growth of U.S. liabilities. 

Reality check: We are spending $3.7T annually. Actually the position is somewhat understated because they are talking of the need to cover an additional $8T (to the $2.6T the Feds are already collecting). In other words, even if we paid 4 times the taxes we are paying, it's not enough. Plus, we cannot count on foreign investors to bail us out. Fewer buyers normally translates to lower prices and higher yields. Our annual interest payments could explode. Never mind if the economy ever does pick up; the Fed would have to raise interest rates,  sell bonds like crazy or raise reserve requirements to control inflation, which could throw the economy into a tail spin.

As for the blatant hypocrisy of the Demagogue-in-Chief, whom says, when it comes to spending other people's money, "We can't afford to do nothing."...



Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective

Charlie Brown (Vince Guaraldi Trio), "Linus and Lucy"

Miscellany: 11/27/12

Quote of the Day
I can live for two months on a good compliment.
Mark Twain

Lerma's Op-Ed in Pravda: Some Excerpts

Recently, Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society and he is ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them. He gives speeches of peace and love in the world while he promotes wars as he did in Egypt, Libya and Syria....

He is a Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so. How shrewd he is in America. His cult of personality mesmerizes those who cannot go beyond their ignorance. They will continue to follow him like those fools who still praise Lenin and Stalin in Russia.

President Vladimir Putin could never have imagined anyone so ignorant or so willing to destroy their people like Obama much less seeing millions vote for someone like Obama. They read history in America don't they? Alas, the schools in the U.S. were conquered by the Communists long ago and history was revised thus paving the way for their Communist presidents. Obama has bailed out those businesses that voted for him and increased the debt to over 16 trillion with an ever increasing unemployment rate especially among blacks and other minorities. All the while promoting his agenda.

 Lawsuits a plenty against religious freedom and expression in the land of the free. Christianity in the U.S. is under attack as it was during the early period of the Soviet Union when religious symbols were against the law.

First, there is a lot Lerma writes about, quoting Putin on fiscal conservatism, etc., that most pro-liberty conservatives would agree with.  I'm no Obama apologist, but the Arab uprising was more a matter of an an incompetent administration being caught flatfooted by events beyond their control. Whereas an argument can be made about meddling, there have been reprisal attacks against civilian populations by rogue leaders, and Russia has done its fair share of meddling, particularly with respect to Syria.

Russia's government is considered by many to  be rife with corruption and the prosecution, conviction and imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Putin critic, are unconscionable. We have seen a thin-skinned Putin expand treason laws, and the government has even cracked down on a critical feminist punk rock group. I'll also point out Putin favored Obama's reelection.

I do regard the general intolerance in the US  of even the most benign presence of crosses, Nativity scenes, or displays of the Ten Commandments or even casual references to "God" in public speech to contradict the essence of liberty, but at the same time I don't like crony relationships between organized religion and state, such as when leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church de facto endorse the election of Putin.

Lerma, in another column, references Rossiter's 2011 The Liberal Mind, which I have not read. Here's a relevant book excerpt:

The radical left’s efforts to regulate the people from cradle to grave. To rescue us from our troubled lives, the liberal agenda recommends denial of personal responsibility, encourages self-pity and other-pity, fosters government dependency, promotes sexual indulgence, rationalizes violence, excuses financial obligation, justifies theft, ignores rudeness, prescribes complaining and blaming, denigrates marriage and the family, legalizes all abortion, defies religious and social tradition, declares inequality unjust, and rebels against the duties of citizenship. Through multiple entitlements to unearned goods, services and social status, the liberal politician promises to ensure everyone’s material welfare, provide for everyone’s healthcare, protect everyone’s self-esteem, correct everyone’s social and political disadvantage, educate every citizen, and eliminate all class distinctions. Radical liberalism thus assaults the foundations of civilized freedom. Given its irrational goals, coercive methods and historical failures, and given its perverse effects on character development, there can be no question of the radical agenda's madness. Only an irrational agenda would advocate a systematic destruction of the foundations on which ordered liberty depends.

IPPON! Other excerpts are available here.

Even Russian leftists despise Obama. Consider Jamie Wendland here:

[The move to a repressive regime is] actually a subtle process that is done with popular public support and under the guise of complete legality, justification, democracy and to the greater good of the society.

It is, in other words, the road to fascism present day America is taking and it's only being accelerated by a delusional love affair with President, Barack Obama.

While Democrats and Obama Loyalists ride their rainbows and unicorns in celebration of the re-election of the messiah, we on the left, are shaking our heads, wondering how Democrats could support four more years of failed Bush policy. 

Democrats therefore, are left grasping for straws for any liberal distinction, drawing attention to Obama's alleged progressiveness, by pointing to gay marriage, possible legalization of marijuana, or contraceptives... It has been the states and the courts, not the president, taking the lead in case after case. 

During his first term, Obama not only completely embraced virtually all Bush doctrine, he expanded it. Social, domestic and environmental policy has by and large, also remained a continuation of the Bush administration. 

Wendland argues that Obama has co-opted Congressional progressive Democrats into supporting policies they would never accept under a GOP President. (There are "all-important" nuances--e.g., Obama micromanages kill lists.) I will simply point out here a number of pro-liberty conservatives, including me, opposed Bush/Obama policies, and I repeatedly pleaded with Romney during the campaign to throw Bush under the bus. However, I completely disagree with the left's meddling with economic liberty and preoccupation with centralization of authority and stealth takeover. He criticizes charter school expansion--which is still a public-funded option. There are private schools, but parents are forced to pay for their children's education twice.

Glenn "Serrano" Beck

Courtesy of Michael D’Antuono,
"Truth"

I am so sick and tired of hearing clueless progressives buy into the excuses of failed passive leadership: this guy was cheerleading noxious partisan sausage making and spurned compromise saying "Elections have consequences." For all the whining over Senate filibusters, let me point out  dozens of bills were passed during the 111th Congress, and the primary reasons others didn't pass is because of unwillingness to compromise  The 111th Congress greatly expanded spending; when the GOP tried to get modest spending cuts year over year last year, Obama held the line: nothing like state and local governments which were slashing workers, operations, selling assets, etc. Obama never put forward a viable budget. Obama has never been exposed to the nature and extent of ridicule and abuse that Bush went through.  This doesn't mean there hasn't been incivility on both sides of the political divide. Even though I personally dislike the man (I don't like political spin, finger-pointing, excuses, etc.), I don't really publicize what I consider to be over the line.

Very recently there have been a couple of Obama supporters whom have implied a comparison of Obama to Jesus Christ, very offensive to myself and other Christians. The first is a piece of art (see above) which shows Obama wearing a crown of thorns and his arms outstretched in a crucifixion pose.Then there is an overrated entertainer, Jamie Foxx, whom said at an awards show:  “It’s like church over here. It’s like church in here. First of all, give an honor to God and our lord and savior, Barack Obama."

This sets the stage for Glenn Beck's inspired  parody, channeling his inner Serrano, instead of a crucifix in urine, puts an Obama bobblehead in "pee-pee"...

Glenn Beck's "Obama in Pee-Pee":
Obama Bobblehead in "Urine"

Who will be Time's "Person of the Year"?

I was subscribed to the now defunct  US News and World Report print edition, which was converted to a Time subscription. We are about 2 weeks away from Times' Person of the Year. Last year's selection of the Protester was laughably absurd.

This year's selection is from another odd selection of candidates, including athletes, politicians, other government or business leaders, pollsters entertainers, even physics characters etc. Even 15 minutes of fame personalities like Sandra Fluke, whom made having people other than her significant other and herself pay for their contraceptives (why not add their meals and hotel bills to the tab?)

Faithful readers know I write one-off annual awards (worth no more than a few bytes in cyberspace): Man of the Year and Jackass of the Year. I have not finalized my lists or selections (which will likely be posted on or just after Christmas: I want to see what is done on the fiscal cliff and/or European crisis ).

I have posted nominees for JOTY, but I haven't listed MOTY candidates. I share only one selection with Time: the first. Keep in mind I might choose someone I disagree with or not listed here:

• John Roberts: his mixed verdict on ObamaCare will have an effect on all Americans
• Ron Paul: his swan song from politics 
• Angela Merkel: the German chancellor whom has to put up with Hollande and the PIIGS, arguably the most important person dealing with the European crisis
• Speaker John Boehner: just having to put up with the nonsense of pieces of work like Pelosi, Reid and Obama should qualify him for sainthood. 

Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective

Charlie Brown (Vince Guaraldi Trio), "O Tannenbaum"

Miscellany: 11/26/12

Quote of the Day
The highest reward for man's toil is 
not what he gets for it 
but what he becomes by it.
John Ruskin

The Eagles
little sister #3, Nephew #3, #4, #5 (new Eagle Scout), #2, #1,  niece (youngest)
(off platform) brother-in-law (also an Eagle Scout)

I once asked my little sister (a gift from God), whom I can still remember playing with dolls, how different it was being a real mom. She thought for a second and said, "When you're tired of playing with them, you can't put them away." A truly great family and diverse, Texas-style, i.e., 3 are or will be Aggies and one (#4, like 2 uncles and a cousin) a Longhorn. (I came close to doing both; the Air Force was planning to send me to graduate school at A&M for training in meteorology , but I was twice  passed over in the officer candidacy pool.) Oddly enough, one nephew has an MIS (my PhD discipline) degree and another plans to major in meteorology (I never had related discussions with either nephew).

Follow-Up Odds and Ends

• Miscellany: 11/25/12: Minimum Wage. There were a few points raised by the authors in the aticles I cited: for instance, most minimum-wage jobs are starter jobs and worker wages increase as their training and experience make them more productive. The vast majority of minimum-wage earners are not principal household heads. Also, what is relevant is total compensation, including benefits not formally listed, like paid holidays, vacations, the employer matches to payroll taxes, any relevant employer-paid share of benefits, etc. 

Mandated compensation increases do not help unemployed or inexperienced people in the labor force.  Say, for instance, state or federal law requires $8.50/hour, my wage for more productive workers, I am less likely to develop new workers but opt to cherry-pick more experienced or qualified (e.g., college degree) applicants. Boudreaux uses an an example what if public policy established a half million per year for economics professors. (Just FYI: I never got paid as much as $50K a year as an MIS prof in an in-denand disciple; granted the Fed has watered down the dollar since then, and my highest salary offer was in the twilight of the Clinton Administration with a consulting company whose venture capitalists shortly thereafter pulled the plug, firing the CEO days before I was laid off. I have not done better during  the anemic growth Bush and Obama Administrations, even with a decade more experience.)  Boudreaux says most people would think that he would be thrilled by his salary going up by a multiple. But he notes that his employer would have to downsize the faculty, using unfavorable criteria to afford remaining faculty.

Boudreaux does a followup post here, referencing a  Henderson text. The first example involves a trade-off between between technology and labor. Henderson points out how a producer for automated elevators pushed for a higher minimum wage, not because of empathy  for low-paid elevator operators, but high elevator operator expenses made the case for selling his products, designed to eliminate the need for operators.

Then there was Senator JFK whom worried without a robust minimum wage employers would outsource plants from the Northeast to the South where unemployed African Americans would be willing to take  lower-paying jobs.  By raising the minimum wage, JFK wasn't worried about unemployed African Americans in the South: he wanted to manipulate wages to lower the business incentive to relocate to more business-friendly states.

Early Signs of the Pricking of the College Cost Bubble?

 Peter Wood has written an interesting piece which provides a good framing of context. I'll probably expand in future posts  (Ironically the last college to talk to me (unsolicited), a nationally-advertising university, was only willing to discuss an adjunct opportunity, not a full-time role. I cannot afford to tie myself down into a limited-role, low-paying appointment; I have to consider road warrior gigs in a tough market.)

Jonathan Marks...has posted an important article,,, admonishing conservatives for their seeming eagerness to see the higher education establishment collapse under the weight of excessive costs, insupportable student loans, and graduates ill-prepared for the workforce... Marks lays out the case that "the old alliance between Buckley and Bloom is still possible today," and urges conservatives to resist temptation.  The temptation he has in mind is a too-eager embrace of that younger woman with the come-hither look: online education.

This does seem to be a moment when conservatives are giving more than usual consideration to the "creative destruction" view of American institutions.  The reelection of President Obama has sweetened the fantasy of just walking away from the mess and starting over. 

Just an initial point here: I think first of all, most universities have a top-heavy administration structure, and there are ways for smaller colleges to virtually merge. I remember my schedule at OLL was locked in because with limited numbers of majors I had to take whatever upper-division offerings were available. I could easily see opportunities to leverage faculty (e.g., recorded lectures for self-directed studies, cross-university course enrollments, etc.)

A tough job market for lawyers (which I see as a positive thing since lawyers do not add a single widget to the GDP--maybe we could do with fewer lawyers if we stopped prosecuting victimless crimes, started  streamlining convoluted tax laws, excess regulations, etc.), plummeting enrollments at the University of Vermont Law School are leading to staff reduction buyouts, likely to hit faculty soon...

Entertainment Potpourri

I normally would not touch the Nicki Minaj-Steven Tyler kerfuffle with a ten-foot pole, except for Minaj absurdly deciding to call Tyler a "racist" over his critique of the replacement judges. I'll simply point out that Tyler's comments did not reflect on former colleague/judge (African American) Randy Jackson. For some reason, Tyler feels the replacement judges are harder on new talent and suggests that the replacement judges would have passed on Bob Dylan, unlike past judge panels which would have given Dylan more of a shot. Minaj is insulted because she thought the comment was presumptuous and feels it's a putdown based on her rapper background.

I know there was an incident between Mariah Carey and Minaj; I don't know specifics. In a country where half the country voted for a Vice President they couldn't pick out of a lineup, the idea that a younger artist may not be be familiar with Dylan is not racist. And for Tyler's benefit, Bob Dylan is an amazing songwriter, but a lousy singer with a highly nasal sound--at best, an acquired taste (and I own at least a handful of Dylan albums). And I don't think Perry could have trained Dylan to be a five-octave Roy Orbison. Cohesion among judges is not necessarily a good thing. I'm disappointed that instead of hiring music producers, songwriters or critics as judges, they are settling for prima donna celebrity performers. I think the show has lost its mojo since Cowell and Abdul have left. (I am not an X Factor fan.)

One final thing: I absolutely loathe rap music (I already have a parody in mind loosely based on Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham), and if AI starts experimenting with rap, I'm done with it. It has nothing to do with being "racist": I equally dislike white rap, and I'm a big fan of Motown.

Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective

Charlie Brown, "Christmas Time Is Here"

Miscellany: 11/25/12

Quote of the Day
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions 
which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. 
Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.
Albert Einstein

73% Top Marginal Tax Rate? NO!

A key concept behind progressive tax nonsense is diminishing marginal utility;consider eating. After consuming a minimal  and nutritionally sufficient diet relative to your metabolism and activity level, there is little benefit to eating surplus calories, which may simply get stored as fat. Now consider income. You have living expenses--food, shelter, clothing, utilities, transportation, etc. Taxes are another expense. Lower-paid households may barely make enough to cover their essential bills, never mind discretionary purchases or saving towards a house  college or retirement, while higher income people really don't need--but which would be immediately spent by lower-income households.  Hence it is preferable to assess tax dollars from those with the lowest need for discretionary dollars.

The second point I want to make has to do the Laffer curve.  Let me use Wal-Mart's low-price model. (I'm making simplifying assumptions.) Higher prices and margins unfortunately mean lower  sales volume (supply/demand). Selling at or below cost is mot a long-term business model. There is some price/margin where aggregate profitability is maximized.  A similar consideration takes place with government taxes income. What that optimal rate is the matter of much controversy. A couple of Nobel laureates Diamond and Saez argue that rate is 73%. There are a couple of  things to keep in mind: (1): economist models are not good approximations of the real economy; (2) short-term effects are easier to model  than long-term effects.

The tax change will have two effects. The first is the mechanical effect of additional revenue flowing to the government as a consequence of the higher tax rate.Holding all else constant, a higher tax rate results in more money going to the government. The second is the behavioral effect. Holding all else constant, the higher tax rate lowers taxable income for several  reasons, which reduces the revenue flowing to the government. The mechanical effect is easy to understand. In our example, the government collects 10 percent more of every dollar of income earned in excess of. $400,000 from every person who earns that much. So mechanically, the government will see its revenue rise. If the government redistributes the additional revenue, then middle- and low-income earners will see their consumption increase as a result of the tax change.

The behavioral effect captures how the behavior of top earners changes in response to the new tax regime. When faced with higher taxes, some wealthy people may work less, some may substitute earnings for other forms of income that are taxed at lower rates (like capital gains), some may move activities overseas, and some may engage in tax evasion. Because all those behavioral changes reduce the amount of taxable income that wealthy people report to the government, they can be summarized by looking at how much taxable income varies with the top tax rate.

Let me be clear where I stand: the primary  issue is not maximizing tax revenue but minimizing statist spending  because surplus revenues mask inefficiencies in statist spending and starve the real economy of resources for economic growth. Raising taxes imposes unproductive extra costs to increasing income. It's obvious to me the flatter the tax rate, the more certainty and  fewer distortions to individual and business decision making.

The Minimum Wage

I've mentioned in the blog I visited my maternal grandfather/godfather while the rest of my family was at an air force base in Germany. My grandfather never drove, so he had me take a taxi from the Providence airport to his house in east Fall River. The cabdriver kept badmouthing Fall River all ride long thinking I must be moving there and thinking of trying to find work; the economy was dead, no jobs, no future, etc. For those who don't know, Fall River once had a thriving textile industry, probably a big reason luring my ancestors and other French Canadian immigrants.

What happened? The South decided to diversify their economies with lower cost labor, closer proximity to supplies (like cotton), etc: lower cost mills FDR and Massachusetts politicians  introduced a minimum wage which did not affect higher paid Northeast textile workers but served to undermine emerging Southern textile mills. This did not help unemployed workers willing to work at lower wages--and it certainly didn't help consumers. Forget the high-sounding rhetoric:it was pure crony labor protectionism. (HT Cafe Hayek)

Walter Williams. a George Mason economist of color, explains how minimum-wage laws were used to undermine black employment prospects in South Africa:

Minimum wages can have a more insidious effect. In research for my book "South Africa's War Against Capitalism" (1989), I found that during South Africa's apartheid era, racist unions, who'd never admit blacks, were the major supporters of higher minimum wages for blacks.

Gert Beetge, secretary of South Africa's avowedly racist Building Worker's Union, in response to contractors hiring black workers, said, "There is no job reservation left in the building industry, and in the circumstances I support the rate-for-the-job [minimum wages] as the second best way of protecting our white artisans." Racists recognized the discriminatory effects of mandated minimum wages.

Entertainment Potpourri

More Favorite Cable Holiday Flicks (an Annotated Selection). For earlier segments, see my "Christmas Favorites' tag to the right. (Last minute edit: Lifetime presented one of the most compelling Christmas romances ever: "Love at the Christmas Table", a unique movie that traces a lifelong relationship from childhood, complete with arguing with each other. The last half hour includes a moving, unusual proposal involving Kat's father. But Sam has a unique proposal of his own.)

• The Christmas Hope:.This is the final segment of the Christmas Shoes trilogy (if you recall, the Newsong Christmas classic (below), Nathan Andrews is the young boy whom desperately wants to buy special shoes for his dying mother. Nathan is inspired by his mother's passing to become a doctor.. In this story, Nathan plays a minor but significant role: he and his wife are expecting their first child; Nathan was an attending physician when the Addisons (an airline pilot Mark and his social-worker wife, Patty) lost their only child, a college-age young man, Sean, in a tragic accident. Nathan recovered an object that was dropped as Sean was rushed to the operating room, Years later Nathan meets but doesn't immediately recognize Patty as she brings in the baby daughter (with health problems) of an addict; Nathan's wife is arguing that he must return he object to Sean's parents. The Addison's marriage is on the rocks as Patty seems to blame Mark for Sean's death because Sean had timed his trip home to accommodate his dad's flight schedule

Traci Adams is the struggling waitress single mother of adorable 9-year-old Emily; Traci is an aspiring singer-songwriter whom is planning an American Idol audition and has promised Emily a very special Christmas gift. Traci has to leave Emily alone while she runs an errand but promises to come back soon so they'll decorate the tree together. While Traci is walking across an unplowed street, the vehicle apparently hits a patch of black ice and hits Traci, whom dies soon thereafter.

Patty brings Emily, in an initial  state of shock and denial, home with her. Mark and Emily almost immediately bond, and it breaks your heart when  Emily hopefully asks Mark  if the Addisons will adopt her. (Among other things, Traci had a surviving brother whom is not a good person but holds preemptive rights in Emily's adoption.) You just want to hug, kiss, and comfort the little sweetheart. I won't summarize the rest of the movie here. My favorite of the trilogy; I usually don't watch movies other than musical or certain classics more than once. I've probably watched this one a dozen times.

• The Christmas Card. Cody Cullen is an unattached military vet serving in Afghanistan whom gets a remember-the-troops card written by a church volunteer in Nevada City, CA, Faith Spelman, the daughter and accounting clerk of a lumber mill operator, Luke Spelman. After a close buddy is killed, his superior orders him to take leave back in the States. After returning his buddy's dog tags to his widow and lured by the Christmas card, Cody finds himself in Nevada City and meets Faith in passing at a diner. Luke, a military vet himself, befriends Cody at an after-church social. After Cody rescues Luke from the path of an approaching vehicle, he agrees to work the balance of his leave at the mill for room and board at the Spelman home. Cody is smitten with Faith, but there's a problem: she already has a serious boyfriend. I won't summarize the rest of the movie.

 I will slightly criticize the storytelling here At one point, Faith needs to find Cody, and Luke suggests that Cody, the son of a Vietnam War veteran, probably was at the local war memorial before leaving town. It seems unlikely that Cody would be dawdling at a memorial long enough for Faith to find him there. I probably would have written a chance encounter.

A similar credibility problem is in another favorite "Farewell, Mr Kringle". Mr. Wilson, 50 years earlier, became a young widower when his wife, a nurse named Betty, was in a fatal auto accident rushing home in bad weather, Wilson decided to honor his wife' memory by celebrating her favorite  holiday Christmas; he legally changes his name to 'Kris Kringle' and plays the local town Santa  This is his golden anniversary year; in any event, nobody can figure out why Kringle didn't show up one day, the anniversary of his wife's death. Blogger Annabelle realizes the occasion and finds him  at his wife's graveside finishing up paying his respects. Again, this coincidence comes across as contrived

• "Dear Santa". 24-year-old unattached  heiress Crystal, whose parents are on the verge of cutting her off, in window-shopping when a gust of wind grabs 7-year-old Olivia's letter to Santa, asking him for a new wife for her dad Derek. Derek has a snow-plowing business but he is continuing to run his late wife's soup kitchen, where Crystal volunteers in an attempt to meet Derek.

Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective

Scrooge (the Musical), "Thank You Very Much"

Miscellany: 11/24/12

Quote of the Day
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, 
Or what's a heaven for?
Robert Browning

Larry Hagman: RIP

Courtesy of www.larryhagman.com

As a young man growing up, who was cooler than Major Anthony Nelson (played by the son of legendary Mary Martin (Peter Pan))? Not only was he in the coolest, most selective profession (an astronaut) but he was desperately loved by his gorgeous, shapely blond genie (Jeannie/Barbara Eden).

As a writer I knew it was a mistake for them to get married in the storyline, just like having Gilligan rescued from from that deserted island. Then Hagman landed the role of a lifetime: the greatest antihero in the history of television, J.R. Ewing. Of course J.R. was ambitious, ruthless, a womanizer, amoral,  manipulative and controlling, but he relied on his wits not brute force and in his own way fiercely loyal to his family and homestead.. I thought TNT's limited season revival of the series this past summer was brilliantly done (the next sequence starts in 2 months, and I'm not sure if the second run  was in the can or whether Hagman's passing will require some rewriting. To be honest, I wanted to see more JR in the first run, but I was struck by how physically frail both Hagman and Duffy looked although in Duffy's (Bobby Ewing's) case, that may have been part of the storyline.

Larry Hagman didn't seem to mind viewers identifying him with his character and could easily slip into character (what sports entertainment calls 'kayfabe'). Larry has had serious health issues over the years and reportedly died from cancer complications. My thoughts and prayers are with Larry's surviving friends and family.

I Dream of Jeannie Theme


Dallas Theme


Rahm Emanuel / Washington Post, 
"How to Rebuild America"  Thumbs DOWN!


I would not be surprised if Chicago Mayor "Dead Fish" has had dreams of succeeding Obama in the White House.You might think this is nonpartisan, but you would be wrong:

 There is nothing in this year’s election returns that guarantees Democrats a permanent majority in the years to come. President Obama and the Democratic Party earned the support of key groups — young people, single women, Latinos, African Americans, auto workers in the Rust Belt and millions of other middle-class Americans — because of our ideas. So, instead of resting on false assurances of underlying demographic advantages, the Democratic Party must follow through on our No. 1 priority, which the president set when he took office and reemphasized throughout this campaign: It is time to come home and rebuild America.

First, a reality check for His Dishonor the Mayor. First, Obama was decisively beaten in the first debate, which focused on domestic issues. Second, polls repeatedly showed Romney beating Obama on the economy. Third, despite the natural advantage of incumbency (including high-profile favorable coverage in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy playing Santa Obama), a  superior ground game, an inept opposition campaign, and a summer of unanswered negative campaign ads funded by full campaign coffers, Obama barely beat Romney in a number of states, including Ohio, Virginia, and Florida.

Next, it was hardly because of ideas: only about 1 in 5 voters identify themselves as progressives, i.e., national Dem policies. Obama underperformed in total votes and margin of victory from the 2008 campaign. Part of the GOP problem was that Romney underperformed both Bush and McCain, immigration reformers, with Hispanics. The Democrats are facing their own demographic challenges--a declining percentage on unionized workforce--plus conflicts among their coalition members, e.g., union opposition to certain immigration reforms and to environmentalist hostility to fossil fuel development, transport and refining (including well-paying jobs).

Emanuel is, in a sense, correct: the Democrats can't count on Republicans continuing to shoot  themselves in the foot on policies or running inferior, under-organized, technologically  deficient campaigns or rerunning the 1980 campaign; the Dems cannot continue rerunning the 1972 campaign.  pushing unsustainable expensive, ineffective, morally hazardous programs, running divisive class warfare campaigns and bashing the GOP over attempts to reform the Ponzi scheme entitlements.

"To come home and rebuild". This appears to be code for taking the roughly $100B a year we are frittering away nation building (which, by the way Clinton also did) and meddling in the Middle East and Gulf Region and instead of applying it against ongoing trillion dollar deficits, throwing good money after bad on crony interests and bailing out spendthrift state and local governments, which, among other things,  refuse to address unsustainable pension obligations.

Chicago is making one of the nation’s largest coordinated investments, putting 30,000 residents to work over the next three years improving our roads, rails and runways; repairing our aged water system; and increasing access to gigabit-speed broadband. We are paying for these critical improvements through a combination of reforms, efficiencies and direct user fees, as well as creating the nation’s first city-level public-private infrastructure bank. Democrats should champion these kinds of innovative financing tools at a national level.

The proper reform is for the public sector to give up its anti-competitive inefficient, ineffective public monopolies. The public sector needs to mitigate risk, not take on private sector risk. I abhor the concept of crony private-public sector partnerships, and I oppose government involvement in banking, beyond its core competencies and mandate.

 Chicago has adopted its own Race to the Top for early childhood education, allowing public schools, Head Start, charters and parochial schools to compete for dollars by improving the quality of their pre-kindergarten programs. In addition, this year Chicago Public Schools put into effect a 30 percent increase in class time.

First, the studies I've seen that head start programs only provide short-term gains often attenuated by middle school. The Chicago teachers are among the nation's highest paid  despite poor objective achievement and graduation rates. We've seen little progress on even minimal  necessary reforms like delegating authority to the principal level, streamlining teacher removal,  limiting collective bargaining, outlawing strikes, converting from defined-benefits to defined-contributions, market-based compensation,  outlawing seniority-based layoff schemes, and putting an end to public school monopolies and giving parents tax credits/vouchers applicable to private schools. The solution to school problems is competition. Whereas more school time is a step in the right direction, it is important to detect learning performance failures early through standardized testing and bar dysfunctional social promotion and  related policies and accommodating the parents' right to know their child's  teacher's performance record.

 While Republicans are likely to become less intransigent on immigration, Democrats need to push for comprehensive immigration reform to ensure that, true to our history, we continue to be the party of opportunity and inclusion. Democrats in Congress should follow Chicago’s lead and develop a national “Citizenship Initiative” to provide the 8.5 million people eligible to become citizens with the information and resources they need to achieve the American dream. 

First of all, the Democrats sabotaged the 2007 reform by striking concessions  on temporary visiting worker programs The idea that Democrats pandering to Latinos constitutes the moral upper hand is laughably absurd. Free marketers like myself hate government getting in the way of  employers securing the low- or high-skill resources they need. We want to see improved quota systems, expedited green card programs for new in-demand higher degree professionals or entrepreneurs, more balanced merit-based immigration, fairness where those who play by the rules are rewarded.

The idea that the Democratic Party was/is the party of opportunity and inclusion is delusional. The GOP did not support slavery or establish Jim Crow laws. The GOP has two Latino senators (Rubio and Cruz), a Latina Governor (Martinez), two Indian-American Governors (Jindal and Haley) and in 2010 ran 3 former female CEO's for governor or senator. One of the stars of the GOP convention was a black Utah Congressional candidate, Mia Love. The GOP has consistently fought to limit the government footprint in the affairs of small business.

 We balanced the budget in the [Clinton] second term, cutting spending while lowering taxes for working families, to lay the groundwork for a decade of prosperity.

 Emanuel is knowingly distorting the record. He knows that the Dems had controlled the House for decades without balancing the budget, and it was the GOP Congress, not Clinton, which balanced the budget. The 1997 tax relief act was passed by a GOP-controlled Congress and included investment tax cuts, which drew in unsustainable revenues  during the stock market bubble.

 If Democrats develop innovative policies that help Americans compete in a global economy, we will outperform Republicans on Election Day. It’s that simple. 

No, if the GOP can liberate the free market from the yolk of counterproductive government meddling (high taxes, obscene spending and regulatory burden), the rising tide will lift all boats. Government is the problem, not the solution. Notice that Emanuel hasn't accepted partisan responsibility for the mismanagement of Chicago for decades--not the fault of the GOP.  The Democrats will be banished from power, possibly for decades. It really is that simple.

Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective

  Scrooge (Musical), "I Like Life"

Miscellany: 11/23/12

Quote of the Day
First say to yourself what you would be; 
and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus

Revisiting the Akin Kerfuffle

I have to admit  one of the surprises of the election was not that McCaskill won;   the last few polls consistently showed her in the lead, but I thought Akin had a shot with a general tightening of the polls. Romney easily won the state, but the highly unpopular  senator won going away by 15 points.

I didn't know what happened in the campaign after the kerfuffle it's hard for me to understand; the incidence of rape pregnancies is statistically insignificant. Moreover the Senate almost never votes on abortion matters. How in the world did a single politically incorrect gaffe trump McCaskill's atrocious voting, out of touchwith Missouri's voters?

If I hear one more clueless progressive ask about what Akins meant by "legitimate rape"....The Boston Globe notes "The wording of the GOP’s call for a “human life amendment” is no different from what the party approved in 2004 and 2008".Let's be clear: almost no Dem in Congress will  support a human life amendment even with commonly accepted exceptions of  rape, incest and life of the mother. Enough pro-abortion choice Democrats  exist in either chamber of Congress  block any human life amendment. So this has always been a phony issue.

So the whole interview with Akin was disingenuous from the get-go. Its sole purpose was to "prove" Akin was an "extremist". Now what was the 'legitimate rape' reference about? Pro-life forces have always been convinced that unethical doctors would use any exception as a loophole. So I believe that he was suggesting that just as in the time before Roe v. Wade (or say exceptions for ongoing state-regulated late-term abortions), some women would shop for an accommodating physician (e.g., unreported rapes).

I don't think  that elaborating this obvious interpretation of  "legitimate rape", i.e., that some women would lie about an alleged rape experience, would have helped Akin. There would have been a new politically incorrect dispute over the credibility of rape victims which would  have prolonged the kerfuffle to McCaskill's political benefit. The bottom line is no male  politician should discuss rape (other than to sympathize with victims, condemn the crime and/or reaffirm its vigilant prosecution), especially when his opponent is a woman.

As for the theory that women's bodies have some natural  defense against impregnation as the result of traumatic incidents like rape, it is a dated one expressed in past centuries but, to the best of my knowledge, not consistent with existing data. (In fact, I believe that Akin acknowledged rape pregnancies happen but are rare; that is true, but Akin's unnecessary elaboration was an unforced error--it also begs the question: what do you do in those rare circumstances? Rape is a special problem: the vast majority of pregnancies occur under consensual circumstances, and one can argue that consensual partners share responsibility for the consequences of their actions  (or inaction on preventive measures like sterilization or contraceptives).)

UBL Death Conspiracies

One of my blogroll entries (Daily Bell) I just noticed is floating the idea that UBL was not killed, that the whole thing was staged in an elite attempt to reelect Obama president (e.g., here). In short, this is based on things like few witnesses of UBL's burial at sea, redacted emails, confusing eyewitness testimony (saying the soldiers were not speaking English but the local dialect), etc.

I believe that shifting accounts of the incident, including whether UBL was reaching  for a weapon, are suspicious, but I see these things as more indicative of an inept bureaucracy (Ockham's razor!) We know UBL's surviving family members and witnesses were at the scene  A helicopter with secret technology was downed and left behind. The raid  embarrassed the Pakistan government which saw the raid as a violation of its sovereignty. I think capturing UBL was never an option--an imprisoned UBL could have motivated attempts to force his release. Too many witnesses could have exposed service members or their families to reprisal attacks. Al Qaeda itself verified UBL's death.

I don't disagree that Obama's UBL operation and expanding on Bush's meddling and drone attacks in a volatile world region made it more difficult for Romney to posture himself as a military conservative. But to be honest, Romney held his base; Romney's loss had more to do with fighting an incumbent, noncompetitive  ground game, and his campaign's failure to counter a predictable  negative campaign. Actually Obama could have sat on the UBL mission until last month to maximize the political benefit.

Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective

Scrooge (Musical), "Happiness"

One of My Pet Peeves: Annual Complaints About Christmas

Yes, as someone who once considered the priesthood  (and haven't entirely ruled it out), I am well-aware of the commercialization of Christmas. In fact, as I mentioned in a recent entertainment segment on holiday films, I dislike the legend of Santa Claus.

I never really liked the add-on legend of rewarding kids for doing the right thing, never mind the fact that Santa Claus was much mote generous with kids from more affluent families. I had neighborhood friends whose parents had a $150 budget per kid  {the dollar was worth a lot more back then). I wasn't envious of the others, but kids often compare notes on what they got on special occasions.

I may have written in the past of how I found out there wasn't a real Santa. I don't remember when I figured it out myself--I probably realized that packaged toys weren't handcrafted at the North Pole (although the folks did label some gifts as being from them, not Santa). I didn't ponder metaphysical aspects, e.g., how did Santa physically deliver billions of presents overnight? It wasn't discussions with other kids, but by fourth grade I was already an agnostic on Santa; I didn't share those doubts with my siblings; it was more like 'go with the flow': I get presents--who cares about the specifics?

But one day my first-grade brother came to me and raised a question about Santa:who did I think it really was. It was important for the big brother not to lose face by admitting  I didn't know. So I did what any all-knowing big brother would do--I bluffed. Process of elimination--one man in the house. I stroked my chin and told him, "I thought I saw black stubble under that fake beard." My wide-eyed brother knew one person with black stubble. "Mom! Dad! Ronald said that Dad is Santa!" Technically not true--I did realize my brother would make the inference. but my parents weren't  about to quibble over what the definition of 'is' is. My Dad was super-pissed; he whacked my bottom a few times. "Just because you know doesn't mean you have to spoil it for the others!"

Several years later the family of one of my sisters (#3) was visiting  my folks for the holiday and talked me into playing Santa (My nephews didn't realize Uncle Ronald disappeared. They sat one of  nephews on my lap, and he started screaming. (He liked Uncle Ronald, but Santa Claus terrified him.) That was my first and last time of playing Santa.

Gift exchanges became more difficult and expensive as I got older with 6 siblings and 21 nephews and nieces; in tough times, it narrowed down to my folks and my younger goddaughters. I didn't have kids and have been reasonably well-paid during my career; I just go out and buy things; my mom hasn't visited, doesn't know what I have and don't have. I normally held off discretionary spending near year-end and sent Mom a list of ideas.

Dad is a tougher person to buy for, but, for example, he likes beer and had always talked of brewing his own batch. A Dominican brother at UH Newman was familiar with "The Village" shops  near Rice University, one of which sold kits with buckets, a capper and mixes (I remember getting bottles, of all things. was a hassle). Dad seemed pleased, but I remember the stuff had disappeared by a year or two later; maybe Dad decided it was a lot easier to grab a six-pack at the supermarket. Epic failure! Mom is easier since she collects things and is very religious. One Christmas I sent a collection of classic Catholic  movies DVDs. I've bought her a multiple-disk music box with movable figures, collectible plates and figures, some items from the Vatican Library Collection, and some inlaid semi-precious sone artwork from an eBay vendor. More recently I've sent volumes from St. John Bible calligraphy project (see below). But the point here was to pick out a rather unique gift, not so much the cost. Some gifts were more of a hit than others; my folks with 21 grandkids have limited wall space; on the other hand sister #3's daughter LOVED the music box.

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As for the nonsense of say, gift exchanges at work, I hate that stuff with a passion. Not to mention holiday parties where some people get a little too drunk. I don't shop on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. And I never understood  why my grandfather and uncle exchanged boxes of cigars. (They smoked one every Sunday afternoon.) Isn't that a wash?

 But to be honest, I get tired of the predictable nonsense:

•  the annual court battles over Nativity scenes: I don't know which is worse: the people who feel threatened enough by liberty of religious expression or those whom seem to think religious liberty is at stake (you can set up Nativity scenes on house lawns, at churches, inside homes, etc. ) Atheists love to jerk the chains of  Christians this time of year: don't give them the publicity they want,
• The importance of Christmas is disproportionately emphasized. Easter is far more important from a doctrinal perspective. 
• I dislike the Santa legend.  I don't like the sense of entitlement, a God-like judgment, and rewarding kids for doing the right thing, and  an unrealistic business model.
• So help me if I hear one more holiday movie bashing successful businesses or businessmen as greedy, heartlessly shutting down factories just in time for Christmas...

But I realize the season is a cultural tradition. I still remember singing  carols in the car when my dad worked at a military base on Cape Cod visiting our relatives in the Fall River area. I used to watch the annual Macy's parade on TV, the annual specials (Charlie Brown, Grinch, Frosty, Rudolph, etc., plus Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, ..  I had VHS or DVD Christmas movies, over a dozen holiday LP's or CD's.  Plus, I usually went home for Christmas until the final decade or so.

When did it change for me? I may have previewed the story in past posts. After leaving Oracle Consulting in late 1998, I joined a now-defunct consulting company in DC. I had just started  working at a client site in Glen Burnie (a Baltimore suburb). The prior DBA consultant  hadn't worked out, and so I was obsessed with getting getting the project back on track. The company agreed to let me fly to Texas rather than back home to Chicago. My flight to Texas went through Atlanta. I did go to the CEO's house for the company annual holiday party (I hate these things with a passion but one needs to be part of the team). But it suddenly dawned on me I hadn't done one of my annual rituals--it was work as usual, no TV specials or movies, no Christmas music. It seemed as it really wasn't Christmas. What surprised me was how ambivalent I was about it. My outbound flight to Texas from Atlanta was grounded overnight ; I got a hotel room and headed out early the next morning Christmas Eve. Except for Christmas music from muffled loudspeakers and a few people wearing holiday clothes or silly (reindeer) hats, it didn't even feel like Christmas. Faith Hill's song  perfectly expresses my feelings.

Miscellany:11/22/12 Happy Thanksgiving!

Norman Rockwell's Freedom from Want
Courtesy of  Incredible Art 

It has been a few years since I've gone home (Texas) for Thanksgiving. Turkey has always been one of of my favorite foods; Dad would typically  prepare the stuffing and the rutabagas, and Mom would bake pies. Mom would always talk about looking forward to travel to one of her kids' homes for the holidays on some sort of rotation, (Three of the siblings live in Texas and the others in Missouri, Kansas and Colorado; today they're visiting sister #3; her youngest son is to be awarded his Eagle Scout this weekend.)

I went to one of these I think while at UTEP: sister #2's in-laws in east Texas were hosting, and her mother-in-law went around with a camcorder catching me in the act of chomping down on a drumstick (really attractive) and asking me questions (fishing for compliments?) They raised some animals on their ranch (I don't think they raised the turkey we were having).

I think I got involved one Thanksgiving with my middle brother, whom got his engineering degree at UT, and 3 in-laws (including the spouse of sister #3, whom initially attended at cross-state rivals A&M but later transferred to San Marcos where my sister was earning her teaching degree). They had scored tickets to the annual Thanksgiving  tradition. (The Aggies left the Big 12 after last season to join the SEC; so no game for the first time in decades.  This year's rival is TCU; are you kidding me?)  I grew up when the annual battles against Oklahoma, Arkansas and A&M were must-see.  I don't understand why they load up their non-conference schedules with weak teams instead of former rivals. Yes, I know OU is still on the schedule, but there were rumors UT was looking to leave the Big 12 and go independent like Notre Dame or possibly the PAC-10. I was hoping for maybe a revived Southwest Conference with UT, A&M, Texas Tech, Houston, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and LSU.) Anyway the in-laws scored tickets in the A&M  cheering section near one of the goals (lousy viewing angle.) My folks warned us they wouldn't wait for us and we would have to settle for leftovers. The Longhorns were fielding one of their lousy teams before the Mack Brown era. UT got whipped on their own turf and if you don't know, the Aggie cheerleaders aren't exactly eye candy: they are like big guys with crew-cuts yelling "Gig 'em" and performing weird arm motions. My folks' house was maybe an hour's drive away, and we're hungry, looking forward to leftovers from the feast, except for the brother-in-law married to sister #1. He whined all the way back wanting us to find an open hot dog stand. When we get back, he gets a nice slice of turkey breast and instead of covering it it with savory giblet gravy available, he douses it with ketchup! That's a sacrilege. (My beautiful nieces do the same...) If I wasn't libertarian, I would have charged him with a crime against Thanksgiving dinner!

The First Survivors of Any Disaster Are the Bureaucrats

As we stop to count our blessings over the past year, let's remember in our thoughts and prayers the ongoing  victims of Hurricane Sandy and the ongoing economic victims of the Great Recession for which incompetent politicians of both parties are principally responsible





What Happens When a Pregnant Woman Reads My Blog

According to Reuters

Growing into a fully formed human being is a long process, and scientists have found that unborn babies not only hiccup, swallow and stretch in the womb, they yawn too.

Fallible Doctors: A Lesson From Personal Experience

I recently read a related blurb in a health email and found this post:

Blood pressure readings taken in clinical settings may lead to inaccurate diagnoses as much as 81% of the time, according to research presented at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) 2010 Scientific Assembly....Steve Burgess, MD, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Amarillo, Texas, headed the study.

Regular readers may recall that I ended up being dropped by my first doctor in Maryland for showing up late (being caught in stop-and-go driving on Baltimore Loop 695) for his appointment to discuss blood test results. (Like most doctors, he had a round robin system of concurrent appointments--I typically had to wait 15-20 minutes to get 5 minutes of face time.) I was supposed to have a minor procedure done on a Wednesday but had not received certain paperwork by Monday and tried calling her assistant. I later found out that the surgeon who my doctor had referred me to contacted my doctor, whom told her he was no longer my physician. She scratched me from her schedule without bothering to alert me to the problem (not the sharpest scalpel on the tray), self-righteously saying she didn't operate on a patient without a personal physician).

At the time I had been prescribed a generic diuretic to deal with a certain unrelated condition I had months earlier (a strip mall clinic had referred me to the doctor after an initial prescription). The symptoms had largely disappeared.  I had run out of my existing prescription; I knew I had to find a new personal doctor but contacted him about getting a refill. And here's the point of the story: he wasn't willing  to renew the old prescription but was willing to put me on a prescription for high blood pressure. I declined.

When my new doctor got a copy of my records, he measured my blood pressure with over-sized cuffs--and concluded my blood pressure was normal. The prior doctor used standard cuffs; the new doctor wasn't surprised that the former doctor got a  false reading. The new doctor was concerned about my weight and diagnosed a thyroid deficiency (which slows metabolism).

It reminds me that Don Boudreaux of Cafe Hayek felt uncomfortable when a recent correspondent addressed him as "Dr.", thinking its use rather pretentious by "mere Ph.D's". I disagree;  unlike Barbara Boxer, I really had to work hard to get that title. As a Catholic, I am well aware of the title "Doctor of the Church", and these were no mere physicians: "Doctor of the Church (Latin doctor, teacher, from Latin docere, to teach) is a title given by a variety of Christian churches to individuals whom they recognize as having been of particular importance, particularly regarding their contribution to theology or doctrine."

According to Wikipedia, "The doctorate (Latin: doceō, I teach) appeared in medieval Europe as a license to teach. The Ph.D. was originally a degree granted by a university to learned individuals who had achieved the approval of their peers and who had demonstrated a long and productive career in the field. The Ph.D. entered widespread use in the 19th century at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin as a degree to be granted to someone who had undertaken original research in the sciences or humanities" Whereas I do not doubt the hard work that goes into obtaining a professional doctorate in the US, I am unaware of comparable qualifications suitable for a career of distinguished teaching and original research. The same article points out the British title of MD has comparable higher level requirements.

I'm sure most people know 'Dr. Phil' McGraw is not an MD. I think it depends on context; I don't expect its use outside academia but a sign of respect is always appreciated. The  issue I have with Don or Dr. Boudreaux is that I've found that there is a certain anti-intellectual element in America. After I left academia because of a very bad job market; I typically found listing my PhD considered as a liability than an asset. People have stereotypes about academics. Plus, I had a number of very disrespectful students; it was unthinkable of me to do the same as a student. The issue is one of civility, and Boudreaux's using a civil recognition as a whipping boy is pushing on a string: speak for yourself, Don.

But I do understand problem solving and logic (degrees in math and philosophy) and an IT career. I've seen doctors whom ignored what I had to say, whom jumped to conclusions and misdiagnosed things on multiple occasions. I am critical because I exercise due diligence in my own professional work. Don't get me wrong; there are a number of very smart people whom are physicians. But I'm very patient with my clients, even when I know for a fact they are wrong; after all, they're paying for my services.

Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective

Scrooge (the Musical), "I Hate People"

Miscellany: 11/21/12

Quote of the Day
The little things, I can obey. 
But the big things
how we think, 
what we value
those you must choose yourself. 
You can't let anyone
or any society
determine those for you.
Morrie Schwartz

Political Potpourri

Congressman Jackson, who was just reelected and once had Senate ambitions, resigned today, the timing of which may cost the state millions for a special election. There was some earlier speculation that his wife, a local politician, would run in his place. Jackson has not been at work for months. I'm sure that a conservative won't succeed him but I think his putting his political ambitions ahead of his constituents is unethical and thus has earned a nomination for my Tongue-in-Cheek JOTY award.

I am somewhat amused by the ludicrous pundit analyses of the election--I've already dismissed the talking point of the Obama "landslide"--the last I checked Obama's margin of victory was a little less than Bush's reelection and not even pro-Bush forces characterized his victory as a landslide.

The concept of a mandate is also not respectable. The idea that Obama in 2008 was elected on the basis of 2000-page laws on health care and finance, never mind massive government spending dressed up in stimulus, is preposterous.Whereas some supporters (maybe 1 in 5 voters) wanted progressive policies, the moderates and independents who carried Obama to victory certainly did not sign on for Reid's corrupt wheeling-and-dealing putting the future of their own favorably appraised health insurance at risk. In fact, Obama has been a passive leader, basically taking credit for noxious agreements between super majority partisans in the Congress. As for a 2012 "mandate" for an election campaign largely based on personal attacks on Romney, Obama not only didn't run on his record (except in opaque terms) but didn't even attempt to introduce a plan  until around the final debate and even that was little more than warmed over rhetoric about spending "investing" on infrastructure, education, green energy, et al. Romney won the debate on the economy, and polls continually showed a preference for Romney on the economy. The voters already rebuked the progressive Obama agenda--in 2010, and they reconfirmed that by keeping the House in the hands of the GOP.

As for a second-term agenda the House is in firm control of the GOP and given mid-terms usually go against the incumbent. In any event, the Senate GOP can also hobble any hope of a spendthrift activist agenda  And the Senate will be back in play in 2014 with most of the seats up for grabs Dem with a few in red or purple states.

Ann Coulter, a key conservative Romney supporter, scoffs at a typical ideological conservative like Judy Beth Martin bashing Romney. She points out that Reagan did not run an ideological campaign and even attempts to argue that Romney was the most libertarian GOP Presidential candidate since Coolidge (there is not a single libertarian conservative or libertarian I know who considers Romney a libertarian or free market guy).





What Romney Didn't Say To Address the Gender Gap



Define Central Planning: For Me, A Single Point of Failure



Entertainment Potpourri

NBA players get into the spirit of the  season with "Carol of the Balls"



Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups

The Carpenters, "Goofus". This song, a remake of a 1930 tune, is not a  favorite although Karen's singing prowess makes a vocally difficult song sound effortless. Although it hit #4 on the A/C chart, it broke a string of #1 or #2 released singles starting in 1970. The group would hit the A/C Top 10 only 5 more times  and #1 once more.

I'm going to resume the Carpenters series after New Year's,  I've usually had an end-of-year holiday theme under my miscellany format. I hate to repeat myself or prior year themes. This year starting tomorrow  I'll call it 'Christmas Retrospective', including relevant  movie, TV or nostalgic hit tunes.