The difficulties the political world presents to the rest of us is well explained in the ethanol mess. Under President Bush it was decided to develop ethanol from corn to use to supplement petroleum in gasoline. The logic was that it would increase our independence of foreign petroleum producers and it burns to CO2 and H2O--clean, clean, clean. What it has become is a metaphor for American politics at its illogical, self-contradictory, country damaging worst.
The rumored real reason for its implementation was to ingratiate republicans to clean air advocates and to the Iowa caucus--both of whose disproportionate influence over American elections is legendary. What has resulted is a nightmare, perfectly predictable if one believes that what is subsidized, grows.
In 2006, 16 billion bushels of corn--14% of the corn crop--went to ethanol production; in 2011, 4.3 billion bushels of corn--33%--of the corn crop will go to the production of ethanol. Corn production now takes up 10% of American arable land. Worse, the energy that goes into the production of ethanol from corn is greater than the energy retrieved by burning it. And the ethanol production requires huge H2O volumes.
What the democracy has done is to divert a huge area of the farming industry into a project that does not do what it promises but will deliver on food shortages, higher energy usage, higher pollution and increased dependence on foreign petroleum producers.
Moreover it has created an infrastructure that must defend it, an infrastructure that must encourage it and special interests that want to increase it.
It has institutionalized corruption and stupidity.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Quo Vadis, Weiner?
After graduating from SUNY, the esteemed Representative Weiner went to work for then Representative Charles Schumer. The esteemed Mr. Weiner, after six years with Schumer, ran for and won a seat on the New York City Council. When Schumer left to take D'Amato's seat in the Senate, the esteemed Mr. Weimer ran for his House seat and won. He has been there doing what he does since.
A great problem underlies the esteemed Representative Weiner's future: If he resigns, what will he do? He would presumably have to go into the workplace and get a job. This "job" behavior is quite foreign to politicians and it is certainly foreign to the esteemed Mr. Weiner. His entire life has been spent in the pursuit of the political holy grail: permanent political position and its benefits. How would he apply for a job? What qualifications could he bring? And what about his bizarre personal history? What business could seriously consider him?
Somehow, despite liabilities that would stultify the average job seeker, Mr. Weiner will likely prevail. Why do you suppose that is?
A great problem underlies the esteemed Representative Weiner's future: If he resigns, what will he do? He would presumably have to go into the workplace and get a job. This "job" behavior is quite foreign to politicians and it is certainly foreign to the esteemed Mr. Weiner. His entire life has been spent in the pursuit of the political holy grail: permanent political position and its benefits. How would he apply for a job? What qualifications could he bring? And what about his bizarre personal history? What business could seriously consider him?
Somehow, despite liabilities that would stultify the average job seeker, Mr. Weiner will likely prevail. Why do you suppose that is?
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Rising Above Irony
"Candidate" comes from the same word meaning "white", or "pure", implying that candidates are motivated only by their concern for the welfare of the state. Indeed, the ancient Greeks had their government candidates wear white as a symbol of the nature of the position.
Our newest test of Psychological Homogeneity is the esteemed Representative Weiner. We are being asked to believe that a trashy, lying lowlife can, nonetheless, carry on the people's business without difficulty or conflict. And why not? The chairman of Ways and Means is a tax cheat, the head of treasury doesn't pay taxes at all, a former presidential candidate is an accused money launderer and one of the most powerful men in the house has a boyfriend who used to run a prostitution ring out of their house. Moreover, the esteemed Mr. Weiner has shown proclivities of greatness. When he was exposed his response was identical to that of a former president--he ruthlessly counterattacked and tried to discredit and defame the accuser and continued relentlessly to try to destroy him until the proverbial DNA was revealed.
One wonders if there is a link between character and outrage. We tolerate the most outrageous behavior. Syria is on a human rights committee, Saudi Arabia is a member of a women's rights organization. Now Weiner. At some point we must rise above irony.
Our candidates are pedophiles, adulterers, frauds, liars, and, if the company is predictive, probably much worse. Our sign of candidacy is not a white cloak, it is an ankle bracelet.
Our newest test of Psychological Homogeneity is the esteemed Representative Weiner. We are being asked to believe that a trashy, lying lowlife can, nonetheless, carry on the people's business without difficulty or conflict. And why not? The chairman of Ways and Means is a tax cheat, the head of treasury doesn't pay taxes at all, a former presidential candidate is an accused money launderer and one of the most powerful men in the house has a boyfriend who used to run a prostitution ring out of their house. Moreover, the esteemed Mr. Weiner has shown proclivities of greatness. When he was exposed his response was identical to that of a former president--he ruthlessly counterattacked and tried to discredit and defame the accuser and continued relentlessly to try to destroy him until the proverbial DNA was revealed.
One wonders if there is a link between character and outrage. We tolerate the most outrageous behavior. Syria is on a human rights committee, Saudi Arabia is a member of a women's rights organization. Now Weiner. At some point we must rise above irony.
Our candidates are pedophiles, adulterers, frauds, liars, and, if the company is predictive, probably much worse. Our sign of candidacy is not a white cloak, it is an ankle bracelet.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Too Evil to Live
Everyone should watch "Too Big to Fail" on HBO, the movie version of The Time's writer Andrew Sorkin's book. Then everyone should read "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis. In both, grotesque, self-centered, destructive but good hearted politicians confront grotesque, self-centered, destructive and rapacious money changers. If there are any two books that are more discouraging about the future of western liberalism, they must have been burned by politico-economic censors.
In "Too Big to Fail" a compelling Henry Paulson walks through the carnage created by these politico-economic vandals like a stricken benumbed survivor of some huge natural disaster. But it is not natural. No natural force is as evil and dismissive of its damage as the combined effort of a superficial, posturing politician and a percentage-hungry financial predator. In "The Big Short" petty, stupid well educated people in both government and finance make error after error to aggrandize or enrich themselves at the expense of every possible innocent they can find. These two works are as profound an argument for benign dictatorship as has been made. It is astonishing that the financiers and politicians from New York to Malibu are not hanging from lampposts from sea to shining sea.
Paulson won an extraordinary victory against overwhelming self-interest but the battle is still is an early round. If the politicians and their incestuous financiers have anything to say about it, this battle will have no time limit.
Strangely we, the noncombatants, will be the eventual knockout victim.
In "Too Big to Fail" a compelling Henry Paulson walks through the carnage created by these politico-economic vandals like a stricken benumbed survivor of some huge natural disaster. But it is not natural. No natural force is as evil and dismissive of its damage as the combined effort of a superficial, posturing politician and a percentage-hungry financial predator. In "The Big Short" petty, stupid well educated people in both government and finance make error after error to aggrandize or enrich themselves at the expense of every possible innocent they can find. These two works are as profound an argument for benign dictatorship as has been made. It is astonishing that the financiers and politicians from New York to Malibu are not hanging from lampposts from sea to shining sea.
Paulson won an extraordinary victory against overwhelming self-interest but the battle is still is an early round. If the politicians and their incestuous financiers have anything to say about it, this battle will have no time limit.
Strangely we, the noncombatants, will be the eventual knockout victim.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
What Israel Means 2
Western efforts in the Middle East has been a triumph of hope over experience. The basic concern for the West--indeed for all the developed world--is stability. True, the motive is the predictability of oil production and the maintenance of cheap power throughout the world, but the policy to achieve that is simple stability. To that end the West--and the rest of the developed world tacitly--has aligned itself with thugs, tinhorn dictators, religious posers and the leader-du-jour to suppress/smooth/inspire the Middle East populous to accept the status quo and, above all, maintain production. With the apparent understanding of this area's importance and fragility and despite the cynical need to maintain the oil flow, the world inserted into this region Israel, a newly minted nation made up of foreigners and infidels, displaced the people who had lived there for two millennium and then watched, amazed, as the region deteriorated. The U.N. peacekeeping troops were meaningless, the posturing ineffective but the hope flowed unstaunched.
We now have a new flag in the Middle East: The Arab Spring. We know it's new because we have never heard of it before but if it's new, it must be good. The West will now hang its stability hat on this new hook. Obama apparently in an effort to inspire this new Arab Spring has change American policy to insist Israel roll its borders back to 1967. What will happen is any one's guess.
What is not a guess is the astonishing mishandling of the world's most important resource site. If treason had been on the minds of the people involved it is doubtful we would be facing a worse problem. The arrogance of the U.S., the British and the U.N. in believing they could control this complex land, in inserting unsuspecting Jews into this cauldron with the belief we could and would always help them, the cynicism of their coddling despotic psychopaths and religious maniacs, their pompous periodic rewriting of policy should serve as a caution for anyone optimistic about our bathetic leadership.
We now have a new flag in the Middle East: The Arab Spring. We know it's new because we have never heard of it before but if it's new, it must be good. The West will now hang its stability hat on this new hook. Obama apparently in an effort to inspire this new Arab Spring has change American policy to insist Israel roll its borders back to 1967. What will happen is any one's guess.
What is not a guess is the astonishing mishandling of the world's most important resource site. If treason had been on the minds of the people involved it is doubtful we would be facing a worse problem. The arrogance of the U.S., the British and the U.N. in believing they could control this complex land, in inserting unsuspecting Jews into this cauldron with the belief we could and would always help them, the cynicism of their coddling despotic psychopaths and religious maniacs, their pompous periodic rewriting of policy should serve as a caution for anyone optimistic about our bathetic leadership.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
What Israel Means
For much of the last several centuries, Jews have wandered back, disorganized but hopeful, to Palestine and the land of the Old Testament. As part of the settlement after the first world war the British, still locked in their fading struggle with France, took control of this area called the British Mandate and, in July of 1922, divided Palestine into two administrative sections, east and west, where Jews were allowed only in the west. (The Balfour Declaration in November 2, 1917 to "establish a national home for the Jewish people" was a hope, not a policy.) November 29, 1947 the General Assembly of The United Nations voted 66% to partition western Palestine into two separate states, one Jewish and one Arab. (The Arabs rejected it.) Israel became a recognized separate state and Egypt, Iraq, Jordan Syria and Lebanon invaded it, fought a war, and lost. About 600,000 Jews left Arab lands for Israel, 720,000 Arabs left Israel for Arab lands. An armistice was signed in 1949.
In 1966-67 Syria began shelling Israel from parts of the Golan Heights, Egypt expelled the UN peacekeepers from the Israel border and attacked in the "Six Day War' and lost again. When the dust cleared Israel held the Gaza Strip, The Sinai Desert, Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights.
In 1970 a civil war broke out between Arafat and King Hussein in Jordan. Arafat ended up with better control of the West Bank but no control over the rest of Jordan.
In October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt again attacked Israel and lost. To get peace, Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt and signed an agreement with Jordan.
What are we to conclude from this history? Debate continues over the Arab handling of Arab refugees, of Hamas and Hezbollah, of bombing schools and strapping bombs to children. But as important as these points are individually there are some overwhelming truths here. One, Israel was created out of whole cloth; there were people there whom the British displaced to create the state. Britain can claim the land was gained as a spoil of war but the circumstances are still the same. Two, the Arabs will continue to throw themselves at Israel forever. They are not deterred by defeat--regardless how humiliating. They will come back. And each time they are better armed and better prepared. Two Arab states have nuclear capability. Three, Israel will, with its last breath, destroy all her enemies. There will be no TKO with Israel led bleeding to the side to decline in a new Palestine state; Israel, at its end, will take all of its tormentors to hell with her.
This brings us to the fourth point: This nightmare--which could easily blow the industrialized world back to the steam age--is a direct result of political arrogance and stupidity. The political leaders--from the British to the U.N. to the Americans now--have guided this area through one devastating, homicidal period to another without any apparent second thoughts or guilt about the destruction and death they have unleashed or the clear danger to all the world that lies ahead. This homicidal fine-tuning, this murderous good will, this apocalyptic optimism is repeated and repeated by administration after administration, state after state, until now we are faced with real Arab power staring back at the West and their feckless leaders while we poor souls wait and wonder how much the dead and wounded will be expanded this time and whether we will be included.
In 1966-67 Syria began shelling Israel from parts of the Golan Heights, Egypt expelled the UN peacekeepers from the Israel border and attacked in the "Six Day War' and lost again. When the dust cleared Israel held the Gaza Strip, The Sinai Desert, Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights.
In 1970 a civil war broke out between Arafat and King Hussein in Jordan. Arafat ended up with better control of the West Bank but no control over the rest of Jordan.
In October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt again attacked Israel and lost. To get peace, Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt and signed an agreement with Jordan.
What are we to conclude from this history? Debate continues over the Arab handling of Arab refugees, of Hamas and Hezbollah, of bombing schools and strapping bombs to children. But as important as these points are individually there are some overwhelming truths here. One, Israel was created out of whole cloth; there were people there whom the British displaced to create the state. Britain can claim the land was gained as a spoil of war but the circumstances are still the same. Two, the Arabs will continue to throw themselves at Israel forever. They are not deterred by defeat--regardless how humiliating. They will come back. And each time they are better armed and better prepared. Two Arab states have nuclear capability. Three, Israel will, with its last breath, destroy all her enemies. There will be no TKO with Israel led bleeding to the side to decline in a new Palestine state; Israel, at its end, will take all of its tormentors to hell with her.
This brings us to the fourth point: This nightmare--which could easily blow the industrialized world back to the steam age--is a direct result of political arrogance and stupidity. The political leaders--from the British to the U.N. to the Americans now--have guided this area through one devastating, homicidal period to another without any apparent second thoughts or guilt about the destruction and death they have unleashed or the clear danger to all the world that lies ahead. This homicidal fine-tuning, this murderous good will, this apocalyptic optimism is repeated and repeated by administration after administration, state after state, until now we are faced with real Arab power staring back at the West and their feckless leaders while we poor souls wait and wonder how much the dead and wounded will be expanded this time and whether we will be included.
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