Stabilizing the MCP (Again)

I have spoken before about the Miscellaneous Crap Pile near my desk, comprised of tidbits of information that I found enlightening, interesting, or simply bizarre that I hadn't yet managed to find a use for. The MCP however, is as much mental as physical, requiring periodic review in a mostly useless though never-ending attempt to maintain both stability and storage capacity, both of which appear to be woefully limited around here.  These periodic purges allow me to take on a variety of subjects in a form whose brevity is as welcome by JBS readers as it is unusual for me.  Since the unusual has long been something that we embrace here at JBS, I am therefore happy to oblige.


The French threatened yesterday to pull their forces out of Afghanistan after four of their ranks were killed and fifteen wounded in what has been deemed an attack by a 'rogue Afghan soldier'.  Apparently the fact that the French are out of practice in the act of surrendering, means that in spite of their threat, they're still there today.  Of course France's contribution of 4,000 of the 130,000 NATO forces currently stationed in Afghanistan, troops which were scheduled to leave next year anyway, will probably not end either NATO or US involvement in an area that cries out for a lack of involvement.  Afghan President Karzai (speaking of both 'rogue' and 'lack of involvement') is due in Paris in a week, and has already offered his condolences to the families (and here many of us thought that President Obama was the only world leader to travel around the world apologizing).  Maybe while he's visiting he can also explain how bad guys keep apparently infiltrating the ranks of his army, or how to tell the difference between a rogue soldier and any anyone else in the Afghan army (other than not being ineffectual of course).


For those of you who have somehow missed it, the Costa Concordia is still lying on its side on the coast of Islo del Giglio.  To say that no ship's captain has made more mistakes since 'The Skipper' took some folks out for a purported three hour tour with Gilligan is an understatement.  I don't mean to make light of a situation in which human life was needlessly lost, but one cannot help but see a certain 'gallows humor' in this tragic example of the vaunted technology of Mankind failing on an epic scale.  That one of these floating islands managed to crash into a real one is ironic on a scale seldom seen in fact or fiction.  That the circus currently surrounding the circumstances of this maritime disaster involves a ship that's part of a cruise line named 'Carnival' only adds to the incongruity.  The concept that environmental scientists are as concerned with the food stored in the ship making contact with the local environment as they are that the fuel will speaks volumes about environmental scientists and what we stuff in our pie holes.The pathetic excuses of the ship's captain in shirking his responsibilities and abandoning his charges to their own fate cannot help but make one believe that this miserable example of humanity has a lot of time to look forward to in prison ... or in politics.  In Italy, perhaps both.


Speaking of miserable examples, last week's self-serving announcements by two former Mayors in Toledo about how the current office holder is doing his job is apparently a plot that's thickening.  While these lamentable examples of alleged political leadership only sought to take the stage after a story reported in the Glass City's daily paper, we now see that rather than it being a shining example of that institution's fading star of investigative journalism, the facts of the tale were fed to the Blade based on the investigations of a member of City Council.  Fortunately, the Toledo Free Press is on the case, and there is little doubt that the facts of the case will now come out. 


As for lauding the stalwart former detective / politician / investigative reporter's channeling of Columbo (or was it Woodward and Bernstein), one may want to look a little closer before awarding the laurel wreath.  D Michael's legislative aide is a former well-known Toledo blogger whose talent for sniffing out facts, knowing who to talk to in getting them confirmed, and gathering them into a consistent narrative are far more likely to deserve the actual credit than the Councilman.  Lest one seek to deride the man in question for taking all the credit for the detective work involved, for failing to first approach the Administration with its results of the investigation, or for handing the story over to the daily in the hopes of embarrassing the Administration; one should first listen to his smug attempt to present his case at a City Council meeting a while back.  It seems that his false attempts at humility (he thought he would accused of political grandstanding) and his failures to live up to Peter Falk's portrayal of the intrepid cigar chewing detective are only exceeded by his even greater inability to channel the late Raymond Burr's portrayal of Perry Mason (as well as his failure to distinguish the difference between a hypothetical and rhetorical questions).  


The Republicans had another debate this week (yawn) as a prelude to the South Carolina primary (yawn).  It was somewhat easier to bear, as with the withdrawal of Rick Perry we were down to a number of candidates on stage that didn't require a wide angle lens.  Unchanging however, is the fact that the debate moderators still haven't managed to get most of the contestants of this political version of 'American Idol' to hand out more than political standards and show tune sound bites that the pundits can later congratulate them for.  Along the way however, all seemed to have added a number to their repertoire that includes a healthy dose of ridicule for the media themselves, whose feeding frenzy for irrelevancy is only equaled by the candidates willingness to chum the waters for them, and whose inclusion guarantees them a standing 'O'.  


This however, is apparently a truly sorry bunch of candidates.  Mitt Romney is sorry he made so much money in the private sector (which leaves one questioning why failure should be more laudable in a candidate for this nation's highest office).  Newt Gingrich is sorry that he got married so many times, but happy that he paid a higher tax rate than Romney (which leaves one questioning why paying more taxes is good).  Rick Santorum is sorry that he can't reconcile his supposed Conservative credentials with his Statist pronouncements and voting record (not that we've ever demanded logical consistency of Presidents).  Ron Paul is sorry that no one took him this seriously 20 years ago, that he never learned to speak 'soundbite' well enough to play at this level, and that no matter what he says they're still going to treat him like a crazy relative with turrets syndrome that everyone hopes will leave.  The ponderous political process continues however, with all of faux drama of a poorly written reality show, and all of the excitement of the Tic-Tac-Toe championships.


OK, that's enough natural fertilizer for one sitting (though it is a miscellaneous CRAP pile after all).  I've cleared enough of the pile away to show me the many other useless writing assignments that I need to work on, so I'm going to get to work.


Smoke em if you got em. 

Ideology And Vaclav Havel

"Why bother with a ceaseless and in fact hopeless search for truth when truth can be had readily, all at once, in the form of an ideology or doctrine?  Suddenly it is all so simple.  So many difficult questions are answered in advance!  So many laborious existential tasks from which our minds are freed once and for all!"

- Vaclav Havel

Havel is notable for being the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic; and I find this quote from the noted essayist, poet, and politician occasionally poking out its ugly head as I watch both the political left and the right participating in Washington's 'business as usual'.   

The endless puppet show of the Republican debates goes on, as the mainstream media continues to tell us that Mitt Romney is the presumptive candidate; ignoring anyone else in the field, unless it's to speculate on when that current challenger will implode certainly seems to fit the bill.  Perhaps they feel that by the power of repetitive suggestion that non-Democrats will stop paying attention, accept their shrill and dismissive rhetoric as gospel, and stop questioning those seeking the highest office in the land on the Republican side. 

Meanwhile, any candidate questioning the pre-existing national party doctrines as defined by political pundits is marginalized to the point of non-existence.  Caught up in what Thomas Sowell would call 'Stage One Thinking', and ignoring the potential risks of sound-bite solutions that candidates are forced to give in the debate format they are handed, they refuse to accept anyone and anything beyond per-established political doctrine.  If this is what party politics and the electoral process has come to, maybe it's time to leave the party.  

The President continues a speaking tour that's little more than campaign to swing states at taxpayer expense to promote a plan that has already turned into a carcass picked more cleanly than last week's Thanksgiving turkey.  Some less cynical than I, might even find it strange that he feels he can do more good promoting it in stump speeches than working in Washington with legislators already caught up in their own ideologies.  Perhaps this is what leadership has come to mean (though I highly doubt it); though one cannot help but question how the oft heralded spirit of compromise is supposed to work when what we're handed is little more than strictly adhered to ideology from the bully pulpit of the White House.  

This however, is how the current resident of the White House got to reach that exalted position (as did many of those before him), and it's no doubt the way he intends to maintain 'the last job he will ever have'. This too is a well-known doctrine of politics.

Meanwhile the 'dance of the dead' (well, brain dead at least) goes on in Washington, where 535 legislators can't agree on the what a budget is or how to pass one, don't seem to know what constitutes a spending cut and can't agree on when such a cut will happen even when they agree that in fact it must, and attempts to operate the nation's economy on a principle of 'Wimpy Economics' that says we can pay for spending cuts tomorrow with tax increases today.

And while most agree that closing some of the loopholes in the tax code that Congress itself created is a good idea, ideology (and the 2012 elections) prevent them from doing so.  While most likewise agree that we cannot continue to spend and increase our national debt at current rates, ideology again prohibits them from doing anything to address this problem as well.

They ignore common sense and the basic principles of math including addition, subtraction, and the calculation of percentages; all the while telling us that they do so in the name of an ideology that's either inconsistent, contradictory, or both.  And while both parties attempt to tell us that this debate is all about holding firmly to such ideology, we all know that it's more about political expediency and not throwing away a gig that pays in excess of $165k in tough economic times.  Even those as apparently ignorant as those we hired as 'public servants' know better than to do anything that might lead them to having to look for a new job in this economy.

Adding insult to injury, we watch in stunned silence as information is released that the Federal Reserve lent over $7 trillion dollars to banks around the world (and plans to lend more).  Of course why we would expect a group of unelected bureaucrats who are nothing more than independent bankers to do otherwise is a mystery to me.  After all, who better than the financial experts who either participated in or blithely sat by and watched as the world's economy went to hell should we trust to act in our best interests rather than their own (or that of their brother bankers)?  

And while we prop up the world's financial system with electronically printed money that our grandchildren's grandchildren will be paying for, we have the comfort of knowing that those running the banks will continue to receive the exorbitant bonuses promised to them by contract, as those in charge simply play the game by the rules that they created, following the time honored ideology that got us where we are today.


I wonder if Mr. Havel chuckles or cries as he recognizes the terrible truth he has taught us?

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