Steve's Humor Politics and Writing Blog (live from Las Vegas)

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I don't mean that free speech was threatened and that the Supreme Court just came down on the side of burning your underwear as a form of protest or something. Heck, go ahead, but I digress. I'm talking about the President of Iran, who made a speech at Columbia University, a speech opposed by a great many but allowed to happen by the President of that institution. In his speech, the President of Iran looked like pretty much a complete idiot, not to mention a lunatic. That's why I like free speech, and why I'd favor letting any wacko talk who wants to. The freer the flow of information, the quicker the, uh, stuff floats. The cream rises, interestingly, a bit slower, but it does make it up eventually.
I have to wonder what would have happened had we listened to a few more dissenting voices in 2002 and 2003, when the case for invading Iraq was being made. No harm no foul? Too bad we'll never know, isn't it?

I started putting reviews in with my review of "Wild Hogs," which says, and I can quote, "Wild Hogs is a funny movie." I was trying to be funny myself and also to avoid the usual pompous ass type of review. Turns out I've put enough in that I thought that 'reviews' should be a category, so it is, and it includes this one. I also added it to a couple of reviews that are more traditional (yeah, pompous etcetera) because, well, fair's fair, innit?

Labels: Info, Reviews

Recently I was thinking that they just don't make good, classic, high-quality Westerns any more. Turns out I was wrong.

Labels: Reviews, Writing

I was looking up quotations from some founding fathers for a different purpose when I noticed that quite a few of the quotes from those folks seem a tad surprising, given what "everybody knows" these days. So, I says to meself, what the hey, let's post a few of them and let the chips fall where they may. Right, Chip?

Some Quotations from a Few of Our Founding Fathers:

The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body. -- John Adams

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. -- John Adams

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. -- Thomas Jefferson

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. -- Thomas Jefferson

Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor - over each other. -- Thomas Jefferson

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. -- Thomas Jefferson

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. -- Thomas Jefferson

He who knows best knows how little he knows. -- Thomas Jefferson

I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature. -- Thomas Jefferson

I have sworn upon the alter of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. -- Thomas Jefferson

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one. -- Benjamin Franklin

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world. -- Benjamin Franklin

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. -- Benjamin Franklin

Beware the hobby that eats. -- Benjamin Franklin

Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others. -- Benjamin Franklin

He that speaks much, is much mistaken. -- Benjamin Franklin

If you would be loved, love and be lovable. -- Benjamin Franklin

No nation was ever ruined by trade. -- Benjamin Franklin

Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later. -- Benjamin Franklin

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree. -- James Madison

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. -- James Madison

Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government. -- James Madison

I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment. -- James Madison

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -- James Madison

I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property. -- James Madison

In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority. -- James Madison

Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad. -- James Madison

Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government. -- James Madison

The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science. -- James Madison

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home. -- James Madison

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries. -- James Madison

Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents annot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense. -- James Madison

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. -- James Madison

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

Common stock ownership is a wonderful thing, and I truly mean that. It allows for risky undertakings to be, well, undertaken by ordinary people by spreading the risk across a spectrum of shareholders. Of course, if you take your company common stock, or public as they say, you are required by law and simple ethics to do what you can to provide good value for your stockholders. That’s good sense and good business. Providing good value means generating enough profit that you can share that profit with your shareholders in the form of dividends, which are traditionally paid out on a quarterly basis, although you, the corporation, can pay a dividend any time you want to, of course. These dividends, not the current price of the stock, are what keep people wanting to buy companies like Microsoft, Coca-Cola, and ATT. You may be a Mac lover who only drinks Pepsi and uses T-Mobile exclusively, but if you’ll look at the history of dividend payments of those companies, you’ll see why you might want to own a piece of each of them whether you use their products or not. Each of those companies does what it can to provide value to stockholders, and the result is generally happy stockholders, for some of whom the dividends add up to a nice chunk of change. This is what’s good about common stock companies, and it’s the engine that’s driven the United States’ economy to being the dynamo it is today. However, . . .
However, that is, not all efforts lend themselves all that well to being common stock owned. One such effort is transportation, for example. True, some railroads, bus companies, and most airlines are common stock corporations, but each and every railroad, bus company, and airline takes advantage of huge government subsidies. This is a historic trend: even the Romans, who as a people were noted for letting individuals do whatever they could manage to pull off, built their transportation system at government expense. I don’t mind the current trend in highway privatization, because for one thing it won’t last. In twenty years, probably less, the companies currently bidding on running toll roads in cities or whatever will abandon the effort and let whatever government wants the highway take over. This has happened repeatedly in the history of this country, and it’s okay to do it over and over because it doesn’t really hurt anybody, and it lets people fantasize about making a fortune running a toll road. It’s kind of like the lottery, but less damaging to individuals.
Another effort not well suited to common stock ownership, this one with potentially very damaging consequences, is health insurance. This is because of the very thing that makes common stock ownership attractive in the first place: dividend payments. If you are required by law to provide value to your stockholders, and ethically there is nothing wrong with that requirement, then you will be continually looking for ways to pare expenses in order to maximize the value to your stockholders. That’s what Coca-Cola does, you may be sure, and so should you, if you head a public corporation. Unfortunately, the best health care decisions sometimes involve a lot of expense. If you’re an actuary working for a public health insurance company, you’ll get ahead if you are able to pare things that might be seen as “borderline.” It will be to your advantage to make any exceptional claim drag on long enough to, as it were, go away. That’s not an uncommon practice in any business, of course, but in this case, ‘go away’ can mean simply “die.” As a business decision that would be ethical, practical, and sensible. To the relatives of the deceased things will look different. There are grievance and complaint channels, and sometimes they work out in the business sense, but it would be much better if such decisions were never taken in the first place. An insurer not responsible to an anonymous group of shareholders might be able to take a longer term view and reason that paying the outstandingly high claim, even if the company might be able to find a way out of paying, might be best for corporate image and long-term customer loyalty. In that case, the relatives of the patient will be grateful, not litigious, telling all of their friends how helpful and understanding the insurance company was. This is an unlikely result if the corporation has to provide “value for stockholders.”
Stockholders are a fickle lot. Just watch the price of stocks for a month sometime and notice how volatile they can be. If a bit of bad news comes along about a particular industry, the price of the stock in that industry will drop. Since one of the easiest ways to prove that you’re providing value for stockholders is to point to a rising share price, a dropping share price is also an easy way for a detractor, or a regulatory agency, to find an excuse to meddle in your corporate affairs. Since nobody wants that, it becomes imperative to keep stockholders happy enough to at least not want to sell, and ideally happy enough to want to buy more. The best way to do that is to provide a steady stream of dividends, year in and year out, no matter what is happening in the business world. And that is what leads to the sort of decision that can leave Grandma dying of cancer when a new operation might have saved her life. As an actuary, you know that statistically you were in the right. As a grandchild, you know that you lost Grandma and the nasty old insurance company is the reason why. If you’re not common stock you don’t need to provide dividends, you can take the longer view, and maybe even save Grandma. Failing that, at least you tried. See the difference here?
My point is simply that we might go a long way toward solving our “health care crisis” if we simply outlaw public for profit companies from entering into the business. Maybe the result will be a field too fraught with risk for privately held companies to enter, in which case we may need to do what we’ve done with things like the FHA, the Postal Service and other corporations. That’s not socialized medicine. It’s just a way to pay for our health care that works.

Labels: Politics, Social Commentary

Adding Clouds Can Make It Worse

Okay, I live in the Mojave Desert, not a location noted for fine weather, not a place where anyone but the tourists actually volunteers to spend the day sunning ones self. It's not always hot here, but the summers can be amazingly over warm. Still, most people who live here don't complain much. For one thing, there's no point. For another thing, just as it is for people who live in Minneapolis during the winter, the truth is that nobody really feels the weather all that much in the first place. In Minnesota you watch the ice form on your neighbor's eaves from the comfort of your heated living room. In Vegas you watch the mirage form in your neighbor's driveway from the comfort of your cooled living room. Either way, you're comfortable, the weather gets to the point where you can impress friends who don't live here with how awful it is, and nobody is much inconvenienced, really.
However, every so often when I lived in Minneapolis the winter would get truly, amazingly, unbelievably god-awful, and then, and only then, would you hear locals telling each other "damn, it's cold out there!" When it's what most sane people would call cold, say ten below zero, we'd say "a bit nippy, eh?" Around here, in the height of summer, when it's 110 in the limited shade, we say, "kind of warm today isn't it?" See? Same sort of attitude. Once in a while it gets really hot, and I mean really hot, to the point where someone from Phoenix will want to go home to cool off. Then we say, "damn, that's just too hot!" and duck back into our refrigerated houses.
This year, as every year, we've been enjoying a monsoon type wind that brings clouds and occasional rain in the afternoon. That's the very phenomenon that makes Denver, Colorado livable: just when the summer starts to get unbearably hot, it starts clouding up in the afternoon. Around here it's the same story. So instead of 120, we get maybe 105 degrees. In the last week it's been a few degrees warmer, around 108. Not so awful compared to 120. Except that the humidity has been running as high as sixty-two percent. Usually not quite that bad, but one day that's what it was, and I was out running in it. The monsoon season brings that, but this year, unlike most years, it's been a steady, unremitting monsoon season, with no break for over six weeks. Sunday was the most brutal training our local training club has ever done. It was in the nineties, and forty something percent humidity. For a big guy like me, it was a case of switching to walk-run at six miles, and at twelve miles abandoning all pretense of running. Most times when I have to walk for some reason I can say, "well, it's a nice day for a walk," but the fact is that it was an absolutely lousy day for a walk. It was hot, muggy, overly sunny and nasty. Oh, well.
Above it says that I do this blog to get my rants out of the way. So, here's a sample. Sorry about that, but that's life in the big valley. Later . . .

Labels: Social Commentary