Zee Links and Minifeatures: December 2008 Archives

Carnival of Personal Finance

via Michael Barone, an historian compares today not to 1929, but to 1873. I think the data is a much better fit.

Reconsidering Watergate and Deep Throat

A bureaucrat, disgruntled for being passed over for a promotion, using the FBI to make political war upon the President of the United States. Somebody paid to carry out the policies of his superiors sabotaging those policies for revenge. If he'd have been a whistleblower, he would have come forward publicly at the time to make his accusations - and they would have brought down Nixon much more quickly. Instead, he played the game to his personal advantage and continued his career for another decade, keeping his involvement secret, while dragging the pain out for the entire country for more than two years.

Across Mideast, thousands protest Israeli assault

From Lebanon to Iran, Israel's adversaries used the weekend assault to marshal crowds into the streets for noisy demonstrations. And among regional allies there was also discontent: The prime minister of Turkey, one of the few Muslim countries to have relations with Israel, called the air assault a "crime against humanity."

Where were all of these outraged demonstrators when Hamas was using civilian cover to attack Israeli citizens by raining down rockets on their head - sixty per week on average for the past year, during a period of so-called "truce"?

Furthermore, Hamas called off that "truce" and with an open declaration of hostile violance towards Israel and tripled their level of rocket assaults. Where were these people when Hamas was raining death and destruction upon Israel, and Israel was forbearing retaliation?

One demonstrator carried a banner reading, "The aggression against Gaza is an aggression against the whole Arab nation."

"Down with America, the mother of terrorism," read another.

In Amman, Jordan, about 5,000 lawyers marched toward parliament to demand the Israeli ambassador's expulsion and the closure of the embassy. "No for peace, yes to the rifle," they chanted.

How did that work out for you last time? The time before that? The time before that? Has it ever worked? The Palestinian people exist at all because of Israeli restraint. Were the situations reversed, does anyone have any doubt as to what the Palestinians (or Arabs) would do to the Israelis?

Israel is in a situation where they cannot afford to lose once. Given that fact, I do not understand why they have not driven the Palestinians completely out, dispersed them to the four winds, and put an end to the issue, but they haven't. They're more compassionate than I am, and far more compassionate than their opposition - which translates into Palestinian as "enemy"

In Jordan's squalid Baqaa camp for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, protester Yassin Abu Taha, 32, blamed America and Israel for the Middle East's problems.

"The Israelis kill our people in Gaza and the West Bank. The Americans kill our people in Iraq. We're refugees, kicked out of our home in Tulkarem in 1967 and we're still displaced," he said, bemoaning his family's flight in the 1967 Mideast war.

If they're such poor pitiful victims, why don't their fellow Arabs allow the Palestinians to assimilate into their society? Why don't they improve the lot of the Palestinians? The other Arab countries or the UN could permanently solve this issue with the expenditure of about two years budget for the ongoing problem created by continuing to deny the Palestinians the ability to assimilate into the rest of Arab society - but then they wouldn't have a ready made grievance against Israel, would they?

In Iraq, where the government has also condemned the Gaza airstrikes, a suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up amid a crowd of about 1,300 demonstrators in Mosul who were protesting against Israel, killing one demonstrator and wounding 16, Iraqi police said.

We're definitely into Life of Brian territory here...

Private Papers: More California Dreaming

California is a governmental train wreck in progress. Unfortunately, it being a state rather than a country, revolution is impossible.

Carnival of Personal Finance

Bankruptcy Is the Perfect Remedy for Detroit

The bankruptcy code places severe limitations on the compensation that can be paid to a manager unless there is a "bona fide job offer from another business at the same or greater rate of compensation." Given the dismal performance of the Detroit Three in recent years, it seems unlikely that their senior management will be highly coveted on the open market. Incumbent management is also likely to find its prospects for continued employment less-secure.

Chapter 11 also provides a mechanism for forcing UAW workers to take further pay cuts, reduce their gold-plated health and retirement benefits, and overcome their cumbersome union work rules. The process for adjusting a collective bargaining agreement is somewhat complicated and begins with a sort of compulsory mediation process. But if this fails a company can (with court permission) nullify the agreement. This doomsday scenario is rarely triggered, however, as its threat casts a large shadow over negotiations, providing a stick to force concessions.

The UAW is paid $25 per hour more from the US "big 3" than the workers at competing plants in the US working for foreign auto workers, plus they have grossly more in the way of benefits. Who pays for this? The customers, of course! No wonder the US automakers can't build a car that competes with the japanese automakers for the same price. We're right on the edge of not being able to save these companies at all. If UAW doesn't wake up and smell the coffee, the US automakers are going to be gone - and whomever buys them is still going to get rid of the UAW contracts - and that's if they're not completely gone, like Sunbeam.

Blame Bush, Obama -- or Us?

When someone screams about a terrible policy of the present administration, just pose four questions:

First, was the controversial decision taken with bipartisan support? Second, were there precedents for such action in prior Democratic administrations? Third, will such polices continue under the newly elected Obama administration? Four, have the media changed their position on the issue since the November election?

Went to the Zoo with the family

My wife loves carousels, so every so often we go on on the Balboa Park Carousel, right next to the zoo entrance. Here she is with our younger daughter

some detail of the carousel

The origin of the term "brass ring": a free ride to the one that pulls it.

In the zoo proper, an Orangutang and a Siamang, which two species seem to get along pretty well, being from the same area.

Argus Pheasant, a kind of peacock

Long view of the big walk through aviary - not Scripps, but I can never remember the name

Half a dozen species of bird in the same tree

I think this is a Collared Lory at the feeder

Panda Su Lin, Bai Yun's third cub, still with the zoo and sleeping on a false tree trunk

Panda Zhen-Zhen, Bau Yun's fourth cub, sleeping in a tree

African Spotted Neck River Otters, one of my favorite animals. There are also Guenons in this enclosure. The monkeys aren't the only thing that climbs - the otters climb also.

A couple of quasi-free flyers from the Lagoon below, sitting on the raptor cages, completely unconcerned because they know the eagles can't get out.

Looking down at the lagoon exhibit

Arctic Diving Ducks - except they weren't diving today

A couple shots of a Turkmenistan Caracal, in the cage where the Pallas cats used to be

Polar Bear nap - it may be a cold day for San Diego, but as far as they're concerned it is warm enough

A different view of the same bear

Female Soemmerling's Gazelle

Carnival of Personal Finance

The Best Santa

My girls have been going to see this guy since 2000, when Hilda was nine months old. He was in the Parkway Plaza Sears for years, then they decided to do something else, but he never had a contract, so he's had trouble landing gigs the last couple years, but we go wherever he is. He is fantastic, and his helper Eilene is a treasure in her own right. They have people who were originally "his kids" coming back with their children.

You can see their website at http://www.santalady.blogspot.com/ They've got all sorts of pictures of people coming back.

He's at Macy's Mission Valley this year. The schedule is at the website.

Here are Brynhilde (my elder - brown hair) and Ramona (my younger - red hair) with Santa this year

Here's two years ago:

Here's they are last year, with Julia as a puppy

And here's one more from this year

An Obama Gift for K Street

The only way to eliminate lobbying and special interests is to eliminate government. The more powerful government becomes, the more lobbying there will be. So, paradoxically, Obama's ambitions for more expansive government will promote special pleading. You need only watch the response to the expected "economic stimulus" plan -- totaling perhaps $700 billion -- to verify this eternal truth. "A Lobbying Frenzy for Federal Funds," headlined a Washington Post story.

On the same general topic, Q and O on Auto Industry Campaign Donations and how they are being spun.

I've been working a lot of hours, and writing new material for this site is about the only thing that can give.

Carnival of Personal Finance

Charles Krauthammer: The New Political Economy

The ruling Democrats have a choice: Rescue this economy to return it to market control. Or use this crisis to seize the commanding heights of the economy for the greater social good. Note: The latter has already been tried. The results are filed under "History, ash heap of."

Read the whole thing.

The Reregulation Mantra

Is deregulation is the culprit? It can't be. There was no relevant deregulation in the last 25 years. Meanwhile, highly regulated institutions eagerly bought risky government-guaranteed mortgages, stimulating excessive housing construction and an unsustainable price bubble.

Deregulation wasn't the problem, and reregulation isn't the solution.

Part of the problem was the government failing to enforce existing regulations aimed at protecting investors, while another part was that same government pushing hard on regulations meant to expand lending to those who did not meet lender's regular criteria. If you haven't figured it out yet, anytime the government mandates economic distortions, there will be problems.

Read the whole thing. Especially if you're a politician.

Anti-Prop. 8 Mob Watch: A new blacklist published

So now it's legitimate to strike at companies for their employees private donations?

I look forward to the debate when churches start blacklisting companies for their owners political causes? Or for the contributions of their employees. If it is legitimate for the Anti Prop 8 mob to blacklist companies for employees political contributions, then both of these are certainly legitimate activities - and yet I remember churches being attacked by gay activists for precisely that.

Or perhaps companies will forbid employees from making political contributions? I strongly suspect that doing so is unconstitutional. Hurting a company for not doing something unconstitutional, and getting themselves sued any number of times for such deed (not to mention the ever present "creating a hostile work environment"). By this logic, gay employees would be prohibited from making contributions to pro-gay causes.

I have really had it with this month long temper tantrum on behalf of the Anti-Proposition 8 forces. Their tactics and methods of operation are causing me to consider if perhaps I shouldn't reconsider my support of gay rights. After all, I'm not exactly eager to fight on behalf of the Nazi Party or KKK, and definitely not of intimidators or extortionists anywhere. Why should I support people who have taken to intimidationist and extortionist tactics?

There are positive outlets for this frustration at losing. Most obvious is to take it to the people again at the next election. To those who have been holding this month long (so far) temper tantrum, I say: Grow up. Be adults. Or at least act like adults. Rational, reasonable adults, who can tolerate opposing points of view, not bratty children or sociopaths who feel the need to punish those who disagree or argue against them. Martin Luther King, like Gandhi before him, won in large part because he demonstrated that he and those who followed him were responsible, desirable citizens who were making a valuable contribution to society - and left it to observers to infer that the opposing forces were considerably less valuable, considerably less law-abiding, and considerably less respectful of the will of the people.

It's a pity that the people throwing the temper tantrums are becoming what the average person identifies with the gay rights movement, as opposed to the relatively few gays I know who mostly sighed in frustration, accepted the outcome, and figured they had more work to do. I hope that the children throwing the temper tantrum realize soon that they are making things more difficult.

With an attitude like this, he doesn't need commiseration. More like heralds crying "Watch out world, here he comes!"

One thing about showing a lot of property is I get a lot of radio listening time while driving. This started getting popular on the independent alternative station, and now it's made the leap onto the corporate stations. I heard it just before a couple of rock classics I always like to hear the other day, and I kept wanting them to play this one again.

Yes, I have issues with most of today's so-called music. They don't apply to this one. If you haven't heard it, click the embed. You're in for a treat. This isn't a boy band or a pop tart. This one, and a few other artists I've been exposed to the last few years, are a reason to always keep seeking out the new.

Puppies save three-year-old boy lost in freezing Virginia woods

I'm a dog person from way back. You can't fool me. Those puppies wanted to snuggle for mutual warmth and mutual protection. That's what dogs do. Dogs are our oldest partner species precisely because each of us has advantages the other lacks. Yeah, the 3 year old probably wouldn't have survived without the dogs - but what they did was not only natural, but lessened the risks and costs of survival for those dogs, also.

Get a dog (I recommend dachshunds, of course) and treat them well. It's the cheapest investment you'll ever make that will likely pay off in huge ways - maybe even when you least expect it.

Ill. Gov. arrested in Obama successor probe

Federal authorities arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich Tuesday on charges that he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder.

What a surprise /sarcasm

Private Papers: Parallel Lives