what if?

Voyage of the Damned

As recently mentioned, I am in San Francisco.  Much about this city is lovely; the gorgeous bays, the dramatic hills, the temperate climes.

Something quite unlovely, though, is the simultaneously heart-breaking and disgusting parade of humanity living on the streets.

I am staying at a modest hotel about four blocks from our playing site.  Though I enjoy a brisk walk prior to playing bridge and to unwind in the evening, my jaunt is restricted in the evening. 

Legions of humans live on the sidewalk.  They range from the vacant-looking people who hold a modest sign:  "Vet; please help" to the amusing "Family abducted by aliens; need money for tae chi" to the grotesque...  filthy, starving humans missing limbs and eyes who haunt you if you forget to keep your eyes focused upward.

The smell of people frequently using the public sidewalks for a restroom adds to the decay of the scene.

My guess is that the vast majority of these people are either seriouslly mentally disturbed, addicted, or both.

What to do about them?

Classy

I'm at a national bridge tournament (San Francisco) - ergo blogging will be sporadic at best for the next 8 days.  When I saw this article today, however, I was reminded of my most recent Travels from Hell for almost four hours.  One passenger, quoted in the article about flying today, had this to say.

“I was just appalled,” Mr. Fesler said. “You pay $500 or $600 for a seat, and you expect it to be functional.” He said he has considered refusing to fly airlines with such poor service, but added that “if you did that with every airline that made you mad, you’d never get anywhere in this country.”

As any of my frequent readers know, I am a True Believer in the free market.  If the airlines can get away with squashing us into metal birds with little or no amenities - more power to 'em. 

I would, however, make one plea to the powers that be.  I can live without hot meals and movies; hell - I can do without my half ounce of pretzels and three gulps of Diet Coke for free.  Yet, when I am stuck in a miniscule amount of space for up to six hours at a time, it really would be lovely if the guy in front of me couldn't lower the back of his seat onto my lap.  My wealthy buddies in first class may have no concept of what I speak.  Trust me, though; little is as excruciating as not even hardly being able to read or use a laptop as some dirty piece of furniture is almost shoved into your neck and torso.

Yes, I realize no one at Northwest, United, American or any of the other major airlines is going to hear me.  Thanks for sitting through my classy rant; now - back to the bridge table!

Happy Thanksgiving

What better way to celebrate the holiday than to link to one of my favorite bloggers, Shay of BookerRising?

Thank you to Shay and President Bush for a message that most could applaud.  Enjoy - and be careful not to overindulge in too much turkey, gravy and mashed potatoes!

"The story of Berkeley [Virginia] reminds us that we live in a land of opportunity. We remember that the settlers at Berkeley came to America with the hope of building a better life. And we remember that immigrants in every generation have followed in their footsteps. Their dreams have helped transform 13 small colonies into a large and growing nation of more than 300 million people. Today, America we're blessed with great prosperity. We're blessed with farmers and ranchers who provide us with abundant food. We're blessed with the world's finest workers; with entrepreneurs who create new jobs. We're blessed with devoted teachers who prepare our children for the opportunities of tomorrow. We're blessed with a system of free enterprise that makes it possible for people of all backgrounds to rise in society and realize their dreams. These blessings have helped us build a strong and growing economy -- and these blessings have filled our lives with hope. The story of Berkeley reminds us that we live in a nation dedicated to liberty. In 1776, Berkeley's owner, Benjamin Harrison, became one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. In the Declaration, we see the founders' great hope for our country, their conviction that we're all created equal, with the God- given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. At times, America has fallen short of these ideals. We remember that the expansion of our country came at a terrible cost to Native American tribes. We remember that many people came to the New World in chains rather than by choice. For many years, slaves were held against their will here at Berkeley and other plantations -- and their bondage is a shameful chapter in our nation's history. Today, we're grateful to live in a more perfect union. Yet our society still faces divisions that hold us back. These divisions have roots in the bitter experiences of our past -- and have no place in America's future. (Applause.) The work of realizing the ideals of our founding continues. And we must not rest until the promise of America is real for all our citizens."

Bush = Hitler?

You be the judge.

First, however, read this.

Decades ago I lived in countries that had been occupied by Hitler, where no one made casual comments about Nazism. Even the most fervent dissidents in pre-glasnost Prague or Moscow never likened the totalitarian regimes of the crumbling Soviet empire to Nazi Germany, because they knew something about history. East Bloc dissenters knew that if they had criticized Hitler the way they criticized Leonid Brezhnev and his flunkies, to paraphrase that memorable line from "The Matrix," they would already be dead.

The problem with history is that we never know where we are in it. Are we in the America of John Adams, who championed the Alien and Sedition Acts? Or in Abraham Lincoln's America, where rights to habeas corpus were suspended? Perhaps Bush resembles Woodrow Wilson, who successfully curtailed free speech here in 1917.

Somehow I don't think Bush's liberal critics will be comparing him to Lincoln, Adams, or Wilson. Hitler makes for a better headline.

Blue Moon

It's a blue moon when Maureen Dowd and I agree about something.

Welcome to today's Moon in Indigo......

Free Markets, Circa 1623

If you wish to give thanks this holiday, give thanks that our nation understood early the psychology of people and free markets.

What Plymouth suffered under communalism was what economists today call the tragedy of the commons. But the problem has been known since ancient Greece. As Aristotle noted, "That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it."

When action is divorced from consequences, no one is happy with the ultimate outcome. If individuals can take from a common pot regardless of how much they put in it, each person has an incentive to be a free rider, to do as little as possible and take as much as possible because what one fails to take will be taken by someone else. Soon, the pot is empty and will not be refilled -- a bad situation even for the earlier takers.

What private property does -- as the Pilgrims discovered -- is connect effort to reward, creating an incentive for people to produce far more. Then, if there's a free market, people will trade their surpluses to others for the things they lack. Mutual exchange for mutual benefit makes the community richer.

Secure property rights are the key. When producers know that their future products are safe from confiscation, they will take risks and invest. But when they fear they will be deprived of the fruits of their labor, they will do as little as possible.

That's the lost lesson of Thanksgiving.

My biggest beef with socialism?  It doesn't work, and ergo, is a turkey.

Happy thanksgiving to you and yours!

Searching for Perfection

Thoughts from a couple of Republican contenders about Obama's frank talk about his past.

Given my earlier comments, I'm sure you're not shocked to know I commend Rudy for his words.

“I respect his honesty in doing that. I think that one of the things we need from our people who are running for office is not this pretense of perfection,” Giuliani said. “The reality is all of us that run for public office, whether its governor, legislator, mayor, president–we are all human beings. If we haven’t made mistakes don’t vote for us cause we got some big ones that are gonna happen in the future and we wont know how to handle them.”

The former NYC mayor has been forthright about admitting his own mistakes during the campaign–most recently dogged by his connection to indicted former NYC Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik–even noting in two recent television ads that he is not perfect.

If we wait for those candidates who achieve perfection to represent us - we will be waiting for you-know-what to freeze over!

The Best Policy

Barack Obama holds political beliefs which mostly do not match up with those of my own.  Very unlikely I would vote for him.  (I never say "never" though.  It all depends upon the circumstances of any given election!)

That being said, however, I find this article about Obama quite refreshing.

Obama stopped by a study hall at Manchester Central High School and answered students' questions about the war in Iraq and his education plan. But when an adult asked about his time as a student, Obama spoke bluntly.

"I will confess to you that I was kind of a goof-off in high school as my mom reminded me," said Obama, an Illinois Democrat who grew up in Hawaii

"You know, I made some bad decisions that I've actually written about. You know, got into drinking. I experimented with drugs," he said. "There was a whole stretch of time that I didn't really apply myself a lot. It wasn't until I got out of high school and went to college that I started realizing, 'Man, I wasted a lot of time.'"

I don't know about everyone else.  When it comes to my own life, however, more than a few errors, misjudgments, and bad behavior can be found.  I try as best to own up to it when necessary.

The notion that our politicians must be humans perfected, without blemishes or missteps, is simply false and harmful.  My hat is off to Obama for "coming clean" about a less than steller performance as a student, and for admitting that his drug and alcohol use was harmful.  Frankly, I find that an admission like this is more powerful in attempting to get younger people away from such activities, than strict admonitions like "It's terribly wrong and destructive; just do not do it."

Obama is not "my guy."  He may not have my vote, nevertheless, he does have my respect.

Risk and Reward

Free markets are to me what gravity is to physics.  It just "is."

But - this seems to me to be one more example of people attempting to "defy gravity."

Shareholders in the securities industry are having their worst year since 2002, losing $74 billion of their equity. That won't prevent Wall Street from paying record bonuses, totaling almost $38 billion.

When those in the private sector perform well, compensate them.  Do what you have to do to reward them and keep them.

When they underperform?  Less compensation.

Yes.  It is that simple.

Cretin Spotting

Professor Burgess-Jackson spotted this spot-on essay.

I always say that there's no one more dangerous or poisonous to a family than if one of the kin turns out to be progressive, or a Village Voice reader. He will tell you, over the course of many hours, how important it is to have proper irrigation in Third World countries, and he will tell you how he is going to make that happen -- probably by running a workshop at the Learning Annex. But then, of course, back home -- he's late on his rent, he doesn't buy butter, and he eats all of his roommates' food. He continues to borrow money from friends (and never repays), while spending it on pot -- and hasn't cleaned the bathroom in years. But if you ask him, he'll describe himself as "selfless." He'll say he only thinks of others, i.e., those he's never met. The other "others" -- those who actually have to deal with him -- want to dismember him with a dull butter knife.

That's the definition of modern progressiveness: thinking globally, but screwing over everyone else locally.

Are all "progressives" like this?  Absolutely not.  Are some?  Absolutely!

Saturday LOL

They made me literally laugh out loud!

Q: Why did Adam and Eve have a perfect marriage?
A: He didn't have to hear about all the men she could have married, and she didn't have to hear about the way his mother cooked.

Q: How does a Jewish wife cheat on her husband?
A: She has a headache with the postman.

Q: What business is a yenta in?
A: Yours.

Q: What is a Jewish nymphomaniac?
A: A wife who has her hair done and sleeps with her husband on the same day.

Q: How do Jewish wives get their children ready for supper?
A: They put them in the car.

Q: What is the technical term for a divorced Jewish woman?
A: Plaintiff.

Q: What does a Jewish woman do to keep her hands soft and her nails
long?
A: Nothing at all.

Q: Define 'genius'
A: An average student with a Jewish mother

Q: If Tarzan and Jane were Jewish, what would Cheetah be?
A: A fur coat.

Q: What do you call someone who enjoys work and refuses to retire?
A: A meshuggener.

Q: What do you call the nipple on a Jewish wife's breast?
A: The tip of the iceberg.

Q: What mechanical device causes the most arousal in a Jewish woman?
A: A Mercedes Benz 500SL convertible.

Revolutionary Liberals

Sometimes you read something and an "aha" moment occurs in your brain.  "This is just what I was thinking myself!" you say to yourself.

Today I found something like that.

The President is challenging the world with a new order. There is always passionate opposition to change. Have grievous mistakes been made? Yes. But just as Wilson, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, and Reagan laid the foundations for fighting and prevailing in the Cold War, Bush has responded to 9/11 with a foreign policy revolution of similar magnitude: a reorganization of government institutions and appropriate legislation to meet the emerging threats.
Containment and deterrence are ineffective in this brave new world. There is no containment if you can’t see the enemy; there is no deterrence if the enemy desires death.

I believe the President’s critics are profoundly mistaken. I believe they misunderstand how he’s trying to protect us. I believe they misunderstand the nature of the threat. I believe they misunderstand history. If they succeed in dismantling what President Bush has set in motion, the results may well be catastrophic and history will never forgive them.

George W. Bush: a revolutionary liberal internationalist? History may so decree. Let’s wait and see.

Thank you, Ron Silver.  Not all actors are merely pretty faces.

Chocolate Chip, Bill?

Maybe she should have stayed home and baked cookies.

On Tuesday, a top aide to Hillary Clinton indirectly warned moderator Wolf Blitzer not to be too hard on her in Thursday’s debate. The warning was issued via the Drudge Report, an influential Web site that has received numerous leaks from the Clinton campaign on such topics as her fundraising prowess.

“This campaign is about issues, not on who we can bring down and destroy,” a senior Clinton aide told cyberjournalist Matt Drudge. “Blitzer should not go down to the levels of character attack and pull ‘a Russert.’ ”

Blitzer, who said he had not been directly contacted by the Clinton campaign, called the New York Democrat “a sophisticated, strong politician.” But he also issued his own veiled warning.

“If she can’t handle the heat during a Democratic contest, wait until the Republicans really start going after her,” he told TV Newser. “If she’s the nominee.”

Blitzer also defended Russert against criticism by Bill Clinton.

“I think Russert was doing his job,” he said. “He was trying to follow up and be Tim Russert. He asks tough questions. That’s what people want. I admire him.”

Finally, Blitzer took issue with Bill Clinton’s complaint that six “boys” — a reference to the other Democratic presidential candidates —ganged up on one “girl,” his wife.

“Hillary Clinton is the front-runner,” Blitzer said. “No matter if it’s a boy or girl, there’s a tendency to gang up on that person. It’s a natural phenomenon.”

If there is one thing that irritates me, it is women who want to play with the big boys - but then want Daddy to protect them from those Nasty Meannies when it gets rough going.  If you want to play in the sandbox, expect to get some sand in your eyes.  If you're too delicate for it?  Stay home and bake cookies.**

**Not intended to slam all the women who did stay home and bake cookies.  I personally believe in Free Choice for women!

Two Too True

Cartoons for vous.

Forced to Type

Like all kids, my parents forced me to do, and not do, a bunch of stuff.  I had to clean up my room.  (Well, at least every few weeks or so.)  I had to eat lima beans.  I couldn't wear nylon stockings - until every little girl with whom I was friends showed up at my 12-year old birthday party wearing nylons... and I was the only "anklet" girl there.  Mercifully, one girl had given me a pair of those beloved silky socks, and I was saved from a fate worse than death; a budding teenager who was not identical to all the other 12-year olds.

Of course, I bore it all as if I had the weight of the world on my shoulders.  And, when my mother insisted that I learn to type, I rolled my eyes into the back of my head - then marched off to typing class. 

Something horrible happened.  My mother was actually right:  learning to type was a very valuable tool to have.

Very strangely, the older I got, the smarter my parents got.  They were correct that I would more appreciate my youth.  It was true that years would zip by faster than weeks did when I was a kid.  I actually did learn to like aspargus and Swiss cheese.

And they were right about fidelity and marriage.

I grew up in the "free love" era, and outmoded notions like staying faithful to the same person forever, marrying someone instead of shacking up - well; it was just prehistoric.  What was the point?

Today, however, I see the point.  And although I and literally millions and millions of my peers haven't gotten much of it right, many of us now appreciate that there is value in having a commitment to one person, a stable home, and someone you can "count on" through thick and thin.  Particularly if you have children, all this is critical.

Thus, when I read this, I am perplexed and saddened.  I don't know how to change this.  All I know is that for those segments of our society who shun marriage and commitment, life will be tougher and less pleasant.

Just like my mom told me.....

The Sign

Earlier at what if?, I congratulated the U.S. players who performed admirably during international play in Shanghai.  And I regretted that some players failed to demonstrate thoughtful manners by parading their own political expression during an awards ceremony.

Well, most people on the planet don't pay much attention to what happens in my little bridge world. Now, perhaps, we will get a bit more attention.

You might also be interested in a statement from the bridge organization that oversees high level competition.

No Free Lunch?

Maybe not.

Now, however, there is free Wall Street Journal!

Yay!

Forget "Free" Health Care

Won't be.  Isn't in Europe.  Impossible dream.

Yet, if you believe in free markets, then you might think about this - and remember it when you go to the voting booth.

The Minute Clinic is a great thing. They take care of a respectable list of minor problems, and they post the fees outside the door. Sooner or later, doctors are going to start doing this, unless Hillary Clinton messes things up. The free market is the answer to our health care troubles, and thanks to insurance and price-fixing by doctors, we don't have a free market. Places like The Minute Clinic and ER Urgent Care Centers are changing that. I hope they proliferate fast enough to make a difference.

People say cheap health care can't be good. That's a load of crap promoted by scared doctors and nurses. The free market makes things cheaper AND better. Look at Japanese cars. We are over-treated, at great expense, by an inefficient system. For example, there is no way I needed a four-figure-priced CAT scan for my tiny kidney stone in 2003. That stone should have cost me five or six hundred bucks, instead of six thousand. It was uncomplicated and required no treatment other than five dollars' worth of antibiotics and some cheap painkillers. In fact, my antibiotics were free. My doctor tossed me some promotional foils a drug salesman had left with him. That shows you what they're worth. But when Americans buy health care, we act the same way we do when we overpay for funerals. We say, "Only the best!" So we end up using a pile driver to drive a tack. It's a giant con job. Sometimes overtesting and over-frequent exams uncover serious problems, but generally, they're a waste of money. And a good doctor should know when to do a full-court press and when not to.

Wal-Mart meets health care. 

The Guy in the Dress?

Or the pathological liar?

Remember the news story about Hillary stiffing the wait staff in Iowa?  Well.  Hill's crew claims they left a $100 tip.  But...

The now familiar pattern of pathological dishonesty and inability to deal with criticism is shown in the ever shifting story of the staffer talking with the waitress. First, it was left on the credit card. But, when it is pointed out that they don't allow tips on the credit card bills, the payment is then said to have been cash, but the campaign can't name anyone who actually left the money. Then when the accuracy of this is questioned, the staffer still insists that a tip was left. Unsaid is the presumption that the waitresses are dishonest backstabbers who screwed their colleagues out of their fair share of tip money.

I'm going with the guy in the dress.

Correcting Lies

That some wish to cling to lies, despite strong evidence that what they believe is a lie, continues to confound me.  Not long ago, I sent a link to the speech that Ronald Reagan gave in Philadelphia, MS, when he began his campaign for president.  My friend was convinced that the speech was a racist rant, appealing to base instincts in southern voters.  Yet, if you listened to the speech, clearly that was not the case.  I was certain that after listening to the speech, my friend would realize that his views were incorrect.

I was mistaken.

My friend was unwilling to even listen to the recording!  He was certain that if the recording didn't have those injurious phrases in it, that it must have been doctored by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

I wish I were kidding.  I am not.

Today, in the New York Times, David Brooks again tries to change the minds of those who believe in lies.  Perhaps Brooks will change some.  Sadly, I fear that many who desire to cling to their web of lies won't even listen.