So what’s up with the congressional websites?

Believe it or not, I’ve been trying to “email” (*) my congress people, and their websites not accepting the provided webform.  So what’ up, for all we pay to run Congress (billions and billions), can they not keep their websites up?  Do they not know?  Do they not care?  Looky here, I’m sure willing to listen to my elected employees.  But they darn well better be willing to listen back.

So what brough on the rant?  Senator Cantwell of Washington.  She was on CNN (John King) with Senator Hatch, and proceeded to insist on sharing with the Nation an extraordinarily shaky opinion, consisting primarily of talking points, uninformed hypothesis, and the natural elected politicians imperative to HAVE AN OPINION, whether it’s worth a cup of warm spit or not.   Her website “email form” is down, so here’s what I had to say:

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I’m not from Washington state, thank God, but since I’m a well known and generous taxpayer, I consider myself entitled to bless you with my thoughts.

I just saw you on CNN/John King with Sen Hatch, wherein you voiced your opinion that “it’s not about being timid, it’s about being effective.” Ma’am, with every possible due respect, your opinion would have much greater credibility if you’d actually done the job and come back sthe field to report on your experience. Right now, the problem is that our elected officials are questioning things with which they have no experience upon which to based a judgment.

The federal government has achieved a level of amateurishness unmatched since Louis XVI. The Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves. I most strongly urge you to excuse yourself from this circus and jealously guard your credibility.

The country knows not whether to laugh or cry.

Most respectfully,
(Captain) Chuck Becker

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Suck it up, Senator Cantwell, pull on your big girl pants, challenge assumptions, and speak truth to power.  You will make your constituents proud.

Taking the day off

Gotta take a day off here.  My wife and I are writing letters to our people in Congress.  It’s hard to stay on message when all you want to do is throw a FIT.

I’ll be back to work here tomorrow.  In the meantime, enjoy whatever it is you can, and tolerate whatever it is that you must,

How to fix what’s really wrong with the federal gov’t

As I stated yesterday, what’s really wrong with the federal government is their obsession with passing a bill, measuring success by getting the bill passed, and paying no attention whatsoever to he aftermath.

We cannot stop this from happening, whether at the federal level, the state, or the local level.  They are all politicians, they live for winning elections, and for passing laws.  Clearly winning an election is a matter of political survival, unfortunately that attitude carries over and undermines the process of governing.

Left unchecked, worse yet encouraged, this is a fatal flaw that will make every American poorer, less well, less happy, less secure, weaker and more vulnerable.  So what to do?  The answer is simple, yet counterintuitive to anyone who approves of the federal government controlling events.

Decentralize.   It is a fact that when dealing with big, complex problems, no one solution will be best.  The best approach would be to choose the best solution for each circumstance.  At the most granular level, this would be each individual or family deciding for themselves.  When practical to get to that level, it should be done, but of course sometimes it’s not practical.

So next best is to push governance out and down to the lowest level where it can effectively be accomplished.  Sometime this is the local level, but for much of what is being done in Washington today, it is the state houses around the country.  That is why the Founders set up a federal system of government and imposed severe restrictions on Federal power.  Much to our cost, that has come undone and is coming more undone with each Admininstration.  This is a mortal threat to the Union.

There is no sense to the Federal government collecting taxes and then returning those taxes to the states from whence they came.  Bureaucrats never handle funding without a levy.  The very act of local funds flowing to Washington, only to be returned to the state houses results in 2 or 3 or 5 percent stuck to fingers in Washington, completely unproductive and to the benefit of no one.

It is imperative that we change course, to head in the direction of decisions and legislation being made where they can best be made.  Except in the case of Federal duties and responsibilities, that is not Washington.  But try to pry that power from our Federal government, Good Luck!

Two things that are wrong with the fed govt…

One minor yet annoying problem with the federal government is that the elected officials don’t hold themselves to the same standards that they hold eveyrone else to.  California has a budget problem?  They need to balance that budget!  General Motors is losing money?  Those executives need to stop flying in those corporate jets!  American industry is too slow and inflexible to meet the challenges of the 21st Century?  Get flexible, get quick, transform yourselves!

The real, basic, unrecognized problem is that the elected officials of the federal government measure success in absolutely the wrong terms.  ”Getting the bill passed” is the measure of success.   That right there is just plain stupid, far too stupid for the people who run the federal government.

The corollary to this is measuring success in terms of winning elections.  You won the election, now can you do the job?  You got the bill passed, now what will the effect be?

Someone got Medicare passed, and now it is going bankrupt as it bankrupts the Nation.  Someone got Social Security passed, and now it is going bankrupt as it bankrupts the Nation.  Ditto for program after program, and we have learned nothing from this.  We still think that passing a law will improve the situation.  What we should have learned is the obvious: any given law will achieve 10% of what it intended, at 1000% of the cost, and spin off 100 totally unpredictable yet invariably costly unintended consequences.

Nobody in the federal government today is nearly intelligent enough to be allowed to write laws, much less even think of amending the Constitution.  Over the past 220 years we have gotten dramatically dumber.  The only thing that today’s elected officials should be allowed to do is to repeal laws, until we get to the point that the smartest people in the world can begin to comprehend the interactions.

You may think there are a lot of lose ends to this plan, but that view is the result of being limited to the conventional.  Tomorrow I will provide the alternative to the Grand Central Committee approach to government.  Please don’t read the Constitution between now and then, it might spoil the drama and surprise.

Stop saying we’re the wealthiest country on Earth!

This is a very fine line to walk, between speaking truth without context, or simply restating a fantasy.  Are we the wealthiest nation on Earth?  The only right way to answer that is to neither ask nor answer the question.  Would you claim that you’re the wealthiest person in town?  If someone asked you, would you answer?  It’s a stupid thing to say, but it gets worse than that.

If you say you’re the wealthiest person in town, it will influence your behavior and your view of others.  In both cases, for the worse.  It simply is a very bad way to think and a worse way to speak.

Now, to the reality of the situation.  We are not the wealthiest nation on Earth, not even close.  Not in terms of per capita income, not in terms of sovereign wealth, not in terms of life expectancy or infant mortality or literacy.  And certainly not in terms of crime and incarceration, which as I explained yesterday is a very bad harbinger.

But if we say we’re the wealthiest nation on Earth, we will compare ourselves to other nations who we perceive are less wealthy than us.  And we will expect to have at least what they have if not more.  Yet the reality is that we are deeply in debt, and getting deeper every day.  We would have to confiscate the entire national output for a year, from ourselves, to repay out debt.  Compare that to nations that have huge “sovereign wealth” funds.

Who is wealthier, the person who lives in the most expensive house in town? Or the person who has the most equity in their house?  The second choice is correct, but it takes discernment to understand that.  I know many people who are past their 21st birthday who have no comprehension of this fact.

We are living in the most expensive house on Earth, but we are badly upside down in our mortgage (debt) and our income cannot begin to cover even a restructured mortgage (deficit).  We are losing money 10X as fast as General Motors at their worst, and on an unimaginably larger scale.  Yet it takes a public outcry to get our government to cancel a grandiose corporate jet upgrade.  That is what is wrong with making the claim that we’re the wealthiest nation on Earth.  May God help us.

Poverty and lawlessness

Sometimes there’s a culture of respecting the law, and sometimes there’s a culture of lawlessness.  This has predictable results.  Not all law abiding cultures are prosperous, but all prosperous cultures are law abiding.  This is not because God or the government reward a culture’s respect for the law.  To understand this, we must first understand what the law is.

Law is society’s way of insuring respect for everyone’s rights.  Laws well done result in everyone being able to get on with whatever productive activity they engage in without having to divert their own resources to protect life, limb, or property.  It gets a lot more complicated than that, yet in the end even a lot of the convoluted legal gobbledygook comes back to the same idea.  This is one reason that perjury is so frowned up; it not only creates inequities in the present, but it also attacks the foundation upon which the system of laws is built.  Same with misconduct by those who are part of the legal system.

So in cultures where respect for the law is commonplace, people are free to be productive, and that freedom is attractive to other people who have material possessions, and the whole thing just builds upon itself.  As I said, there are other elements to prosperity, and there are extremely law abiding cultures that are poor.  But it is vanishingly rare for a culture to prosper without an inate respect for the law and legal institutions.

At the other end of the scale is the lawless culture.  Laws are enforced corruptly, or not at all.  Laws themselves are corrupt.  Or the people simply choose to disregard good laws, laws that work for other people.  This creates an environment where the citizens despair of acquiring wealth because every time someone starts to prosper, it seems, their possessions are taken.  Or they are attacked, and injured or killed.  So the citizens spend effort on unproductive occupations (eg; forming up into defensive groups) instead of productive work.  And the environment is repulsive to people who have material goods and wealth, because the lawlessness threatens the accumulated fruits of their labors.  So less wealth flows in, steepening the dive.

Break time.  OK, we’re back.  There are differences and exceptions.  I didn’t make these rules, I’m only reporting them.  Take the case of two jaywalkers.  Streets, traffic laws, and crosswalks are intended to expedite the movement of people and goods.  Done in an orderly, lawful way, this enhances productivity, wealth, and welfare.  Done badly, it does little or none of that.

So we have two jaywalkers.  Fellow #1 walkes up to the curb, looks both ways, picks his moment, and dashes across the street well clear of any traffic.  He has respected the intent of the law, and therefor caused no disruption.  He has demonstrated concern for others’ rights and has not impinged on their “space”.  This is an innocent crime.

Fellow #2 strolls out into the street without regard for position or timing.  He moves in his own direction, at his own speed, with careless and obvious disregard for traffic.  Now, this fellow here has done some bad things.  He has not respected the rights of others.  He has impinged on the safe and efficient operation of the transportation system.  He has put himself first, and others are left to accomodate, he is well inside their “space”.  This is not an innocent crime.

Fellow #1 gets a warning, or maybe jumps slick.  Fellow #2 gets arrested, cuffed, taken downtown, and ends up with 120 days in the county farm.  This result is not arbitrary, it reflects society’s interest in respect for the law.

If a culture wants to prosper, it will begin by respecting the law.  If a culture fails to respect the law, if will not prosper.  I didn’t make this up, this is just the way the world works.  I only hope I’ve explained it well enough.  Because your prosperity enhances my prosperity, your welfare enhances my welfare, your happiness enhances my happiness.

A Hannity kind of day

Jeebus, Sean, you are providing a treasure trove of stupidity on the Right.  Believe me, the Left will come next, but right now you are being a retard on TV.

Caroline Heldman: Where in the Constitution does it guarantee privacy?

You: SputterSmirkChokeGagBlahBlahBlah.

Retard!  Have you ever heard of the Fourth Amendment?  Just in case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

For a professor, it is astonishingly ignorant for Heldman to ask that question. For a conservative talk show host to not be able to explain to Her Ignorance that the right to privacy is guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment is inexcusable.  Sean, you are NOT GOOD at your job.

Heldman should have her tenure revoke for public stupidity.  You shoud have your show revoked for lack of depth and substance.  This Nation is in deep trouble, you are a Champion, get with the program, Man.

Good night, all.

Sean Hannity, you turd!

Good going, Sean.  Wrack the Administration over the coals for taking the Nation socialist.  Here was your rant today:  They own the banks!  They own the brokerages!  They own the insurance industry!  They own the auto industry!  Now they want to own the health care industry!

I hate to repeat myself, but you’re a turd.  You not only accept advertising from General Motors, you speak the commercials yourself.  Sean, if you believe a single thing you say, take your advertising revenue from Ford.  Reject government welfare, dont’ take GM (taxpayer) money.

Here’s what I’m doing: I’ve driven Chevies since my first pickup in 1966.  I’m now a Ford man, GM can go suck eggs.  Mustang rules!  Camaro sucks!  Go F-150!!!

Sean, when you stand behind what you claim to believe, I’ll stop calling you a turd.  But for now, good night, turd.

Ideology or pragmatism?

A few days ago I wrote about the stupidity on both sides of the political debate ongoing.  Ideologues (people who see every solution in a given ideology) are idiots.  They may get their ideology, but they will break the culture and society in the process.

Give me pragmatism any day.  I’m not in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it’s “right” or “just” or any other stupid ideological reason.  I’m in favor of the CRA64 because it eliminates the wasted effort of justifying the unjustifiable, contributes to prosperity, enhanced diversity (an ecologically desirable trait) and enhances the chance of reducing internal social stresses.  I don’t give a flying crap about how people feel about it, or whether they think it was overdue, or any other idiotic ideological reason.

Go right down the line, choose the pragmatically favorable solution.  Do NOT give in to common sense, reason things through for your own.  Certain things don’t work, there are plenty of examples of failed experiments we should learn from.  Don’t EVEN think about a position that begins with “it doesn’t (or does) make sense!”  I’m not interested in your uninformed opinion, only the lessons of history and empirical evidence.

Example: Preventing disease costs more than treating disease.  Well, I heard that professed very emphatically and believably, and now I have to go check it out.  If, in fact, office visits and diagnostic tests cost more than treatment, then we need another argument premised on our ability to pay.

Well, I’m on the verge of becoming a dumbass here, so I’ll sign off.  But I will recommend to you that you look at results, question authority, and speak truth to power.  God Bless the pandemonium that is America.

Why protest when someone is trying to give you something?

I was recently asked the question, “Why would they protest against something that will make their lives better?”

Wow, okay, several questions there.  How much do ‘they’ value freedom (independence) versus how much do ‘they’ value security?”  One of those smart guys in the old days said, “Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither”.  It has been lost somewhere along the way, but this Nation was founded on freedom being foremost.  Oh, you may say, “Freedom to what? Die in poverty?”  No, not really.  I refer instead to the same freedoms that our Forefathers put it all on the line for.  The freedom to not be beholden to a government or agency, the freedom to do what we see will benefit us most.

One point is clear, if a person accepts the gift of something he has not earned, that person has sacrificed the freedom to change that circumstance.  Is getting something that makes our lives “better” worth the cost of our liberty and freedom?  The American Revolution was not led by those in poverty, it was led by the wealthy for the simple reason that those in poverty have to focus on survival and don’t have the luxury of philosphizing.  Yet it was that philosophizing that gave us our Constitution, and has led to the Union being continually perfected.  Decisions on the shape of a Nation should never be based on one’s personal experience or interest.  These decisions are far too big and enduring to be framed by what happened to me or Grandma.

Okay, we got nowhere with this, but I sort of enjoyed it.