perfidy

This interesting article from the daVinci institute details the ten most important financial/money related inventions of the 1900s. Fascinating read, hat tip to slashdot.

Robert Novak, whose political antennae are unusually acute, is reporting that there may be an announcement of the discovery of WMD in Iraq come september:

"Former international weapons inspector David Kay, now seeking Iraqi weapons of mass destruction for the Pentagon, has privately reported successes that are planned to be revealed to the public in mid-September.

Kay has told his superiors he has found substantial evidence of biological weapons in Iraq, plus considerable missile development. He has been less successful in locating chemical weapons, and has not yet begun a substantial effort to locate progress toward nuclear arms."

Along similar lines, the British government, will soon announce that it has new evidence that Iraq had produced and subsequently concealed biological weapons.

This is welcome news for me, on several levels. First, we know for certain that the Iraqis had WMD of various types back in the late nineties. We don't know where they went, and that is not a good thing. The discovery of a Russian reconnaissance aircraft (derived from the Mig 25) in the desert indicates that the Iraqis were like squirrels, hiding the nuts of their warmaking capacity all over the desert. Given the size of that desert, it will be hard for us to dig it all up.

If we are beginning to discover the scope of the Iraqi WMD development program, there is a decent chance that over time we can assure ourselves that the most has been discovered or destroyed.

Of course, another benefit is that this will silence some of the more annoying criticisms of the war on terror. Not that I am against criticism in general, but this one always irritated me. Perhaps with the WMD issue behind them, Democrats and the left can engage in a more coherent and useful criticism of war policy.

Happy birthday, P-dawg! Ack, that left a bad taste in my mouth. I can't even see hipness from where I live. I wanted to wish you a happy birthday before you posted it, so it wouldn't seem like I forgot, but I am before all things lazy.

Btw, Mrs. Buckethead celebrates her birthday tomorrow. I guess that means I have to get her a gift. Shit. And a card. Damn. And then, JC gets churched up when he gets christened Saturday. And, no that doesn't involve smashing a bottle of bubbly over him.

Go look. People died so that you could read this. Well, only in a very indirect sense. But it's good stuff.

This message from the Minister of Minor Perfidy: Thank you for your cooperation

From the Washington Post

A federal judge Wednesday ordered online auction house eBay to pay $29.5 million to a Virginia inventor who accused the company of stealing his ideas.

But U.S. District Judge Jerome B. Friedman said he would not require the Internet giant to stop using the disputed features in the case, saying lawyers for plaintiff Thomas Woolston failed to show that he would suffer irreparable harm if the court did not issue an injunction.

A Norfolk federal jury decided in May that eBay willfully infringed on Woolston's patents, which presented a way for people to purchase items over the Internet for a fixed price. The jury said that eBay's "Buy It Now" option, which allows auction surfers to do the same thing, infringed on Woolston's patent.

Friedman's ruling is less than the $35 million that the jury recommended at the end of a five-week trial. Because the jury found the violation was willful, the judge could have tripled the jury's award.

It's hard to say which is less able to cope with the effects of technology on society: the law, or the judges that apply it so foolishly.

Because it is.

The last chronological buffer between me and 30 years old has worn down to nothing. Next year at this time, I will turn in my hipster ticket, my punk-rock credentials, and my Funk Express Card and settle down to a dull if pleasant life as a thirtysomething.

But until then I'm still 29, and

You can find me in the club, bottle full of bub
Look mami I got the X if you into taking drugs
I'm into having sex, I ain't into making love
So come give me a hug if you into getting rubbed

I am now reading, for the first time, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? On page 20 of my edition, I read this:

Silence. It flashed from the woodwork and the walls; it smote him with an awful, total power, as if generated by a vast mill. It rose from the floor, up out of the tattered gray wall-to-wall carpeting. It unleashed itself from the broken and semi-broken appliances in the kitchen, and the dead machines which hadn't worked in all the time Isadore had lived there. From the useless pole lamp in the living room it oozed out, meshing with the empty and wordless descent of itself from the fly-specked ceiling. It managed in fact to emerge from every object within his range of vision, as if it - the silence - meant to supplant all things tangible. Hence it assailed not only his ears, but his eyes; as he stood by the inert TV set he experienced the silence as visible and, in its own way, alive. Alive! He had often felt its austere approach before; when it came, it burst in without subtlety, evidently unable to wait. The silence of the world could not reign back its greed. Not any longer. Not when it had virtually won.

Damn. 

[Update]: I originally posted this back in May. When the archives were being moved over, the date didn't get set right. But, it's still true today.

" I have always thought that the criminalization of homosexual acts was both foolish, and inhumane, and un-Christian. I am no longer so sure. Perhaps our grandfathers were wiser than us. Perhaps there are some things that we, the normal majority, SHOULD, deliberately and consciously, disapprove and marginalize."

Dumbass.

An article on CNN.com suggests that Germany's employment woes might be entirely their own dang fault.

"Germany's education system, like its economy, was once considered the pride of Europe. Worries about the stagnating economy have recently preoccupied Germans, and now they are realizing their schools are also in trouble. . . .

The real wake-up call came last year when an international test of 15-year-olds ranked Germany 21st out of 32 leading industrialized nations in reading, mathematics and science. . . .

[T]ypically, German pupils are home by early afternoon -- after three hours of classes in elementary school and less than five hours at middle and high schools. . . .

Ultimately, the problems in Germany's education system translate to young people poorly prepared for the job market, while companies complain they can't find qualified graduates.
Despite more than 11 percent unemployment, Germany has to attract highly trained immigrant workers to fill an estimated 100,000 high-tech jobs.

What the heck is going on over there? I don't mean to bash on Germany-- I love the nation, its people, its cars and beer-- but I'm just a little surprised that so much is going wrong in a nation that was until recently a powerhouse. (Of course, some of this may well be regional, as NDR pointed out yesterday in the comments. But still...)

Under a recent decision by the Supreme Court, the Office of Homeland Security is detaining all legal immigrants with convictions for crimes in their past. No problem?

Riiiight.

The Boston Globe today profiles 22-year old Edna Borges, a resident of the US since age 2, who was busted for shoplifting clothing back in her teenage years. She is now a responsible mother of two, with a job. She is also a prisoner.

Edna Borges thought it would take just a few minutes to check in with officials at the Bureau of Homeland Security last Friday, as she has been doing voluntarily every three months. Instead, Borges ended the day in a Bristol County jail, separated from her 10-day-old infant daughter and 2-year-old son, with no idea when she might be released. . . .

Immigration officials said Borges was detained because of a recent US Supreme Court ruling that mandates the jailing of immigrants facing deportation because they have committed crimes. The ruling affects immigrants even if they have already served a sentence and are considered to pose no threat. It stems from a California case involving South Korean native Hyung Joon Kim and is expected to affect about 15,000 immigrants a year.

''The law says mandatory detention,'' said Amy Otten, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Homeland Security. ''Anyone who falls under the Kim decision has to be detained.''

Borges, who is scheduled for a hearing before an immigration judge this morning, got her first glimpse of her two children on Wednesday through closed circuit television in a courtroom, said her lawyer, Susan Church of the law firm Salsberg and Schneider.

Borges, who was born in Portugal to a Cape Verdean family, was facing deportation because of a 1999 shoplifting conviction, for which she has served six months probation. Borges was 17 when she shoplifted the clothing on two occasions, Church said. In one incident, the clothes were worth less than $150. In the other, the items were worth more than $150, the lawyer said.

I'm so glad the Office of Homeland Security is on the case! Otherwise this hardened menace would be stalking the streets of Dorchester, raising children, working, and going to church! Kudos to the Office of Homeland Security for helping to keep our country safe from working mothers with wild teenage pasts.

Buncha craven, pencil-headed morons.

I started this post as a comment to Ross' statements in the comments to Pythagosaurus' "You Think We Got It Bad? or, Ambling into Mediocrity" post of yesterday. It got a little long, so here it is:

Ross, your anti-Americanism seems to have taken over your brain. While the United States is not home to two-dozen languages and cultures, it is home to a melange of hundreds of languages and cultures. The diversity of this country is remarkable, in landscape, traditions, music, food and unique turns of phrase that can be found in the small nooks and crannies.

I agree with Pythagosaurus completely on the cultural issues - there is diversity, albeit within a larger American cultural frame. One of the reasons for this is that America is not an ethnic culture, one that grew up out of one people sharing history, language, and the rest. America is different; in that there is an American culture that anyone can join simply by accepting a (very) few core ideals. And then, they are part of the history of America, share its culture, while retaining many aspects of their own. And the rest of us benefit from this as well. Even you could Ross, though you are a Canadian.

So you think traveling within the United States is going from one Walmart to another? I think you need to twist the little knob on your head. Sure, there are Walmarts and the chain restaurants. Americans appreciate efficiency. But there are also the little diners, with the old guys at the lunch counter smoking Pall Malls and trying to decide how much of an asshole the local mayor is. There are festivals, fairs, monuments to civil war veterans, local historical societies running museums devoted to the story of pumpkin horticulture in a three county area. 

There are Ethiopian restaurants in Columbus. Vast numbers of ethnic restaurants everywhere. Sporting events, bitter rivalries, local beers, roadside attractions like the world's largest ball of string, just because some weirdo thought it'd be a good idea. The beautiful and the strange, the ugly and the wonderful, and more scenic landscapes than you can imagine. If many people don't see the value of hopping on a plane and ending up in Trondheim it's because you can hop on a plane in Indianapolis and end up in New York, Boston, Washington, San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans or Chicago with equal ease, rent an apartment and get a job. You have been able to do that in the United States for over two hundred years, and it is nice that the Europeans have finally caught up.

For all that you are claiming that the United States has suddenly rushed to set up a fascist state to ensure its security from strange and disturbing Europeans, even the Patriot Act doesn't even come close. Johno and I have criticized it here, and we have not been arrested. Nor are we likely to. Despite the clear threat from Middle Eastern men between the ages of 20 and 40 hiding in our midst to prepare attacks on innocent civilians, how did we react? Vast expulsions, internment camps, beatings and lynchings? I don't remember that happening. Our president, in the wake of the most horrific attack we have ever experienced encouraged everyone to be nice to Arabs. And everyone agreed.

The EU is making a deliberate set of choices when it comes to personal freedom. And I fear that they are the wrong choices. Unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels make regulations that affect almost 300 million people. Those people have no choice in selecting those bureaucrats. And those regulations decide whether you can form a business, publish a paper, what you say on the internet, and ten thousand other things. And there is no equivalent in the EU constitution of the Bill of Rights. The list of rights in the proposed EU constitution lists the rights of government, not of people. There is little real difference between personal freedom and freedom from regulation. The relationship between government and people is one that Americans appreciate more than anyone else. We argue about it constantly, and reprove our representatives when they overstep the bounds that we have set. We do not complacently accept dictates from elites. (At least, not all of us.)

The relative strengths of the European and American economy are related to this freedom. The more that the EU superstate layers the European economy in regulation, the more protectionist it gets, the weaker they will be. Chronic unemployment has been a feature of European economic life for decades. That we have unemployment now, in a recession, is unremarkable. The policies of Japan and Europe have kept them in the doldrums for well over a decade, during a period that America and to a lesser extent Britain were experiencing unprecedented growth and prosperity. This recession will end, likely soon by all indications. But where will Europe go? We prosper because we are free.

Ross, I resisted saying this in the last comment I made, but: if American sucks so completely; if we are a nation of provincial rubes who can't understand the wonders that the rest of the world has to offer; and have lost and forgotten freedom of expression and are busily setting up a police state; why are you living in Northern Virginia, and having this argument with two Americans on their website? And I don't mean this facetiously, in an "America, love it or leave it!" way. You are often hyper critical of America, which is your right. Obviously something compelled you to leave the country of your birth to come here. If America is as bad as you say, what are the reasons you came here?

Now this, this is effing crazy.

This is just sad, and I'm sorry to do this, but from Ananova comes this reason why bureaucracy is not efficent as government.

German penises 'too small for EU condoms' Germany has demanded a rethink on EU guidelines on condom size after finding its average penis did not measure up.

Doctors around Essen were ordered by the government's health department to check out the average size suggested by Brussels.

They reported the EU has overestimated the size of the average penis by almost 20% and insist other countries will discover the same.

Urologist Gunther Hagler, head of the team compiling the research, said: "By checking hundreds of patients we found German penises were too small for standard EU condoms.

(I like the bit about insisting "other countries will discover the same." Even though it's a fair point, it comes off a little bit sheepish.)

Why is the EU in the business of setting condom size-standards?
 

As usual, Lileks hits it straight off:

Only in America. And I say that as a good thing. Which reminds me: like all typical examples of American craziness, this will just horrify the Europeans.

I like the Idea of the terminator running for office. If successful, he will be the second cast member of the movie Predator to attain high office. Does anyone know where Carl Weathers lives?

On the idea of American craziness, I am all for it. The only predictablility in our foriegn policy should be steadfast loyalty to allies. As for the rest, some judicious twitchiness should have only positive effects.

In a Washington Post article, Rev. Al says that he is being dismissed because reporters are white males.

"I think when you look at the lack of diversity in the newsrooms, when you look at the lack of diversity from the editors and those in power, then you see them as automatically dismissive of anything that is not like them, which is white males," said Sharpton.

"I think we've seen some very blatant racial insensitivity in the coverage of this race so far," said Sharpton, in an interview with The Associated Press.

Jeez, I thought he was dismissed because he's an inveterate race hustler, responsible for a deadly riot, and because he manufactured the Tawana Brawley hoax. And, generally, he's a wacko.

For our collective edification, via Fark (the source of all hard news) comes this editorial from the Taipei Times about the differences between the US Constitution and the proposed European Union Constitution. Money quote: "Madison is a better guide to an effective constitution than is Descartes."

Food for thought, and plenty to disagree with too.
 

Like Buckethead, I decree Queer Eye For The Straight Guy excellent. It's edu-tainment!

Did you know that Carson (the queeny fashion guru) graduated Summa with a degree in Finance? Holy crow! All that and fashion sense too!

George Will has condemned the misbehavior of both parties, giving an extensive list of both democratic and republican offenses. In describing one outrage, he says, "Nothing this undignified has happened in American politics for, well, two weeks."

Will fears that the overturning of established custom - such as the custom that district boundaries are reset only once a decade, after each census - causes permanent damage to civil society. When custom is overturned, "it is replaced either by yet more laws codifying behavior that should be regulated by good manners, or by a permanent increase in society's level of ongoing aggression."

I find it hard to disagree. In my lifetime, stretching all the way back to the chaos of the late sixties, political discourse has become progressively more polarized and acrimonious. "Each vandal seems to think that his or her passions are their own excuse for existing. As Santayana said, such thinking is the defining trait of barbarians."

Oh well, the world must be coming to an end.

You think we've got it bad in the US? Think our economy's moribund? Well, unemployment in Germany's above 10%! Germany! Powerhouse of Western Europe!

I'm sure I don't need to go into the many and sundry examples of inefficiences and graft within the E.U. When that bureaucratic nightmare is laid on top of the demographic, economic, and political transformations currently afoot in Europe, you get this: 10% unemployment in an economy that not long ago was the star of the continent.

The E.U. is (or was) an interesting idea. As a layman, I can see why it is attractive to its participants. In the wake of two world wars caused by belligerence on the part of one or two member states, it makes sense that Europe would seek a super-national body to make sure that such a conflict does not happen again. Moreover, it was not too long ago that the modern European nation-states emerged as conglomerations of hundreds of petty feifdoms-- a process we can watch in reverse as some nations disintegrate. For this reason too it makes sense that Europe would seek a collective road to regional stability.

Of course, big solutions create big problems. One of the advantages of the US state system, for example, is that Michigan's economy can be in the crapper while California's zips along. The problems of one state, in general, stay within that state. But the EU's governing bodies have a hand in everything-- trade, criminal law, measures and standards, economics-- and as a result suck the vigor (vigah) out of hot sectors while funneling money (inefficiently!) into poor sectors.

All in all, and again I'm speaking as a layman, but it's not a good sign when nations who have not yet adopted the euro-- Sweden, the UK-- are reluctant to do so, especially when their economies are performing better than the EU. That's what we call a "sign."

Maybe the EU would be better off breaking up, or at least getting the hell out of the economies and internal affairs of its member states. Things aren't THAT bad now, but if it stays on the present course the EU is doomed to a slow amble into mediocrity. Maybe it's time for the EU experiment to end, before it grinds to a halt like a mealy-mouthed and stultifyingly dull version of late-stage Soviet Communism.

Dan Simmons, author of Hyperion, has a new book out. Ilium, which I just finished, is the first of a two part series that involves little green men, robots, Greek gods, Shalespeare and Proust, post human evolution, the wandering Jew and a middle aged classics professor from Indiana. Sweet.

Joe Bob says check it out!

Seeing as how gnomes proved to be completely unmotivated workers, the Ministry was forced to rely on pixies. While pixies do indeed work harder than the gnomes, they are less reliable. Some of the posts may be out of order. Rest assured that while we will make no effort to go back and correct the mistakes, the pixies were dealt with most severely.

You will notice that there are even some comments transferred over. Given the number of pixies that were sacrificed to transfer even one week of comments, even the Ministry blanches at doing it again.

Well, that is the problem, isn't it? The new prescription benefit program will actually help some people, but at the cost of doing enormous damage elsewhere. Including these nuggets of goodness is what allows these abominations to become law. Because some disingenuous senator can point to the one nice bit and say, "but look, we're helping old people get the meds they need and not have to eat cat food! You don't want old people to eat cat food, do you?"

I don't oppose helping people. I do oppose helping people who don't need to be helped. But the AARP and others oppose means testing tooth and nail. And the sad fact is that if a benefit becomes available, people will use it regardless of whether or not they "need" it. Soon after, they will feel entitled to that benefit, and will scream bloody murder if some cold hearted conservative tries to take it away. Every beneficiary of one of these vast entitlement programs becomes an instant, permanent constituent for whoever says they'll continue or expand these programs.

When we create these programs we have to limit the eligibility, and everywhere possible build in mechanisms that encourage people to leave the program. It should never be just a handout. It should never provide everything, otherwise there is never any incentive to provide for yourself. A safety net is just that - something to catch you if you fall. It shouldn't be a place to live permanently. Benefit programs have to be set up with an eye toward personal responsibility. The responsibility to work, to provide for your own retirement, etc. Privatizing Social Security would go a long way towards allowing people to actually provide for their own futures.

Instead of blindly paying a huge chunk of your earnings (matched by your employer, remember) to the government, imagine that that money went into your own account. Every quarter you'd get a statement showing how much money you had. If you die, your family would inherit the cash - unlike the current system where the money largely just disappears into the government black hole. In this scenario, everyone would actually be providing for their own futures, and we wouldn't have to worry about SS going bust, and we'd worry far less about providing for the needs of seniors.

It occurs to me that the question of medical benefits for older people is thornier than I thought. I stand by my comments of yesterday, but a conversation with my sage and oracular wife has reminded me that the Medicare bill will do some concrete good. Namely, it will allow poorer senior citizens without many assets or good insurance to afford and gain access to the drugs that keep them alive. If they're taking say 6 pills a day, and don't have decent coverage, the expense can be crippling. Importation from Canada can help that group of seniors afford BOTH food AND medicine. Unless you are a true Social Darwinian, you cannot fail to see that this is good for them.

Of course, most Boomers and Greatest Generationers are already set up with good insurance and prescription coverage, and probably won't bother with the extra bother of mail-ordering drugs from Canada. A good insurance plan gives you $5/$10/$15 coverage on perscriptions, and there is no conceivable benefit to going to Canada instead of Rite Aid. So, it's possible that the effect of drug importation will be less than I thought, but it remains to be seen how many people take advantage of it.

The damnedest thing about healthcare legislation is that even the most venal and grasping bill contains a nugget of good intentions that will concretely help people that need it badly. Makes it kind of hard to work up a white-hot denunciatory rage, I tell you what. Why can't people just be evil and motives clear? Dang!

The benighted gnomes in the archive department have died of exhaustion after only finishing the transfer of archives for the second half of June. Needless to say the Ministry is displeased with their total lack of dedication.

When we find more lackies, more archives will be posted.

While I'm on a roll, commenting on everything Pythagosaurus posts (I'll get my own brain soon, I promise) I thought I'd throw in my thoughts on the whole health care thingy:

The interesting thing about the prescription drug benefit is that it was intended as leverage to get certain elements of Congress to agree to reform Medicare. There is a certain crunchy political compromise sort of goodness to that - in exchange for enacting a hideously expensive piece of crap legislation, we will excise the worst parts of a grotesquely expensive, double-plus crappy abomination of a legislation. Instead, we now have both, which is more stupendously expensive crappiness than you can shake a stick at, plus the stick.

The prescription drug benefit program's only saving grace is that it might not kill the goose that lays the wonderful, groovy new drugs. In every other way, it is an immoral, bald faced, long term mandate for thievery from the younger generations. But the drug benefits are really a side show in the larger catastrophe.

There are three elements that form the center of my perception of the problem:

• The health "industry" constitutes as much as a seventh of the total US economy.
• Old people represent a growing percentage of the whole population. Not as bad as Europe or Japan, but still…
• The Byzantine and corrupt nature of the industry as a whole compromises the effectiveness of the system.

Starting from the bottom, why does it cost $12,000 to get your arm repaired after your neighbor jumps up and down on it? Assuming that your mom drives you to the hospital, what kind of costs are we talking about? A few minutes for the receptionist. A half hour each for a nurse and a doctor, fifteen minutes for the radiologist and the cost of running the x-ray machine, the broken bone kit in the nifty sterile packaging, some overhead costs to keep the nice hospital open, and some powerful narcotics to dull the existential angst of realizing what a dumbass you were to let your neighbor jump on your arm.

I added that up, and came up with about $500. And that was assuming that doctors were charging $300/ hour for their time, and nurses half that. Even assuming that my perception of the costs was off by an order of magnitude, that still leaves you $7,000 short of $12,000. Where does the extra money come from?

Malpractice insurance to protect doctors from the ridiculous lawsuits we as a people are prone to. Also, extra tests as an added safeguard from lawsuits. The bloat of the insurance industries, which encourages doctors to overcharge. And the labyrinthine regulatory hairball that surrounds the entire industry.

I have no problem with doctors making money. They studied far harder and longer than I ever did, and they perform a vital service. I have no problem with drug companies making money - it costs billions to develop and especially get FDA approval for a new medication. They should be able to recoup their costs, and make a little folding money.

I do have a problem with jackholes making millions because they convinced a jury of their jackhole peers that they deserved to get $20 million in punitive damages because of something that no doctor could have prevented, or came up short on the odds. Nothing in life is certain. (Now, if the doctor was drunk, sue away....)

I do have a problem with government setting prices for the whole industry, and for all other kinds of intrusive regulation. My cousin used to work for a hospital, and the nightmare stories he told were unbelievable. The hoops that every part of the industry must jump through are staggering.

There has to be someway to straighten and simplify the whole thing. And tort reform would be a great start, eliminating one of the biggest costs for medical care for everyone.

The second point is the demographic change that will hit full force as the boomers start retiring in large numbers. This single fact dooms every old age entitlement scheme already in existence or merely in the planning stages. Entitlement means that those eligible get their money regardless of whether of any other needs the government or the rest of the country have. When the old reach a certain percentage of the population, the system will as a matter of course bankrupt itself because it will cross the threshold where the working population contributes enough in taxes to fund the outlays to the old.

Unless these programs are fixed, we are screwed. Privatization is one option. Raising the age of eligibility is another idea. Means testing is necessary. But something has to be done, or we will end up by 2050 paying all of our money right into the pockets of the old. Because it is damn certain that the boomers will be there with their hands out.

And we need to do something soon, because of point number one - seeing as the health industry is such a huge part of the economy, if it gets screwed up, the whole effect on the rest of the economy will be, I don't know, large. There are many ways that it could get screwed up: panicky regulation could either regulate it into stagnation or nationalize it. Increasing inefficiency and corruption could bankrupt key parts of it, leaving the system in ruins. Or, there could be piecemeal collapse, for example if malpractice insurance becomes to expensive, there will be no doctors - they will move to where they can practice and make a living.

The health industry must continue to make money in order for it to be the wonderfully effective thing that it is. It must continue to attract the best and brightest. What we need to fix is not the doctors and nurses, or even the drug companies. In principle, health insurance is a viable prospect. What we need to fix is the government side of the beastie, both in terms of regulation and heath related entitlement programs.

Buckethead: two points I query:

1) You seem to suggest that the current administration is not especially pro-business. Am I reading too much into your comments, or are you on crack?

2) I am well aware that you are by and large a reasonable person, your views on the perfidousness of certain labor laws being a shining example. But if that is the case sir, how do you justify your enthusiasm for the film "Van Wilder"? I mean, it's pretty good, but a shrine to Ryan Reynolds? Come now...

In reference to Pythagosaurus' recent post, I have this to say:

There is a list of many things that this administration (or any, for that matter) could do that would be good for business. This item strikes me as being very, very low on that list, if it's on it at all.

I work in the tech industry; and I and many people I know have been screwed by the comp time thingy. Since many techies are salaried, they are already exempt from most of the regulations regarding overtime. If you are an hourly worker, then by all means you should get overtime.

The only way that this suggestion would make sense is if the worker in question could opt between the two, and if he took the comp time, could take the time on his rather than his employer's discretion.

Contrary to received opinion, I am not some sort of conservative robot who automatically says "Labor bad! Business good!" Worker rights are important to me, if only because I'm a worker myself. While I have often complained about unions, especially the teacher's unions (sorry, Mike) it's mostly because they have made nuisances of themselves in recent times. I would certainly not begrudge the labor movement its utility and victories back more than a half century ago, but nowadays they seem to act more as purely special interest groups, lobbying for gains at the expense of the rest of society. Like the AARP.

So, I agree - this proposal is a pile of horseshit.

I love it when Ross gets on a tear .

I went on a little screed a few weeks ago about this very issue of senior citizens voting themselves any benefit they wish, looting the store at the expense of future generations (e.g. yours truly). It's shameful and foolish. But there's another victim which we have not yet explored: the drug companies themselves.

I have long harbored the suspicion that health insurance is mostly a huge vicious scam, feeding alternately on doctors, patients, and medical care facilities and manufacturers. Even factoring in the hideous r&d costs that are required to come up with a new heart pump, the fact that an uninsured person can go into the hospital with a broken bone and come out with a $12,000 bill is unbelievable. The web of mutual back-scratching, rebilling, and cooperative deals is the best built house of cards ever.

But there's a weak side. The Medicare reform proposal before Congress now would allow older Americans to get their drugs from Canada, where prices are cheaper. Well, great, except that Canadian drugs are so cheap because American patients and insurance companies are footing the drug R&D bill for the entire world!

Other nations, including the EU and Canada, have enacted price controls to keep the cost of drugs lower than the cost of production. Despite this wish-based economic policy, there is no way around the high cost of creating, testing, and approving a new medication. If innovation is to continue, that money has to come from somewhere, and currently it is coming from American insurance premium payers, period. The Medicaid reform package would in effect take senior citizens out of the game, further shrinking the R&D money pool and leading to higher drug prices for the rest of us. This is especially galling because seniors typically need far more regular medical care than your average 29-year old nonsmoking yoga enthusiast.

I don't claim to cry for Pfizer and Merck. They can take care of their damn selves. But their expensive American drugs are part of the Great Wheel of Graft that keeps the American medical establishment functioning. By legislating themselves a way out of the great Ponzi scheme of drug research and insurance, senior citizens and their allies in Congress are about to kill the goose that lays the little golden pills. As with Social Security, they will be taking out of the system far, far more than they ever put in, leaving us high and dry. Wonder what will happen then?

Thanks guys. Greatest generation my shiny metal ass.

Diamond John Kerry has begun stumping for an issue with actual, real value! The Boston Globe/AP is reporting that Kerry is attempting to launch a petition against the Bush Administration's changes to overtime regulations.

Whoopee. A damn petition. But it's a good cause, and one that the Democrats have utterly failed to capitalize on in their bumbling assault on Castle Dubya.

In short, the changes to overtime policy allow businesses to reclassify a large chunk of workers (how large? wisdom varies--some say a little over half a million, big labor says 8 million) as exempt from overtime pay. Basically, the new rules would give employers greater latitude in determining whether workers making between $22.1K and $65K per year are vital enough to the function of a business to be exempt from overtime pay.

Instead, employers could choose to issue comp time to workers who work over 40 hours per week.

Though the Department of Labor insists it is not fundamentally changing anything, in separate discussions spokespeople have admitted that it would make it easier for employers to deny lower-paid rank and file workers overtime.

Not such a big deal, right? Weeeeel, I dunno. The 40-hour week plus overtime was one of the great victories of the labor movement in the United States, and any attempt at revising that standard will be naturally met with skepticism. Furthermore, having worked for my share of grasping, greedy, and utterly perfidious employers, I am well aware of the many ways in which business may legally deprive you of your own time. The new rules just make it easier to do so.

The Big Comp Time Scam

Although comp time has been presented as a reasonable alternative to overtime, as it turns out, it isn't such a great deal for workers at all. Although in theory one is able to save up days worked and redeem them almost at will in lieu of spending a vacation day, there are two problems: 1) comp time disappears if an employee is laid off, meaning employers are not obliged to pay for comped hours in severance packages; and 2) comp time is taken at the will of the employer, not the employee.

An example of how this can go wrong: I know of a computer tech at a nonprofit who gives comp time instead of overtime. Currently, he has worked more than 40 hours per week every week for a year straight, and has banked more than 50 days worth of comp time accordingly. But, although he wants and desperately needs time off, his employer will not allow him to use this comp time, arguing "we need you here too badly." They also consistently deny his vacation requests. The upshot is that they employer has gotten an extra ten weeks of work out of this worker for free, and is under no real future obligation to compensate him for this time.

Subheadline #2: obligatory centrist flailing

I'm completely fine with Bush being pro-business-- business makes the world go 'round. But he needs to be verrry careful when making changes to the American work week. Not only is the 40 hour week one of the finest fruits of the labor movement, in more concrete terms a lot of people rely on overtime to survive and raise their families. Changing overtime rules is hitting these good working Americans right where it hurts. Most of the people affected aren't blue-collar workers, but the new-style lowly bluish-white collar administrators and middle managers who are the new Joe Sixpack of the American workforce.

Subheadline #3: a strong stand!

All in all, I don't like the proposed changes because I don't trust business not to exploit the regulations to the limit of the letter. Companies exist to make money, and with few exceptions, there is tension between the need to be far in the black, and the need to retain and treat well good employees. Like in most things, give them an inch and they'll take a mile.

But more importantly, this is the kind of issue the Democrats could really score points on if they could stop drooling on their shirts for a while. If the damn Dems could give up on the "Bush Lied" thing-- which is as endearing now as when the Republicans tried it on Clinton-- and actually got to work on attacking Bush where he's vulnerable, this could turn into an ugly issue. Just harp on the "they're coming for your paycheck" meme a little, and Labor could swing more decisively Democratic than it has for a while.

Not that this will happen. Most of the Democrats presidential contenders are idiots, and even the ones I like (Howard Dean) are silver-spoon babies with no actual affinity for working Americans. Which is why we need Jim Traficant for president!

From the "Free Traficant" site linked below, some pearls of wisdom from the mouth of The Don Of Youngstown, cast before ye swine:

"When I get out I will grab a sword like Maximus Meridius Demidius and as a Gladiator I will stab people in the crotch."

"Think about it. While 60 percent of taxpayer calls to the IRS go unanswered, the IRS agents were watching Marilyn Chambers do the Rotary International. Beam me up here. It is time to pass a flat 15 percent sales tax and abolish this gambling, porno-watching IRS completely. I yield back the internal rectal service of the United States of America. "

"The Pentagon just did not waive the Buy American Act, the Pentagon waved Old Glory the wrong way. Mr. Speaker, I suggest that these Chinese berets be made into suppositories and be used on Pentagon brass. Madam Speaker, I yield back the need for Congress to hire a proctologist to train Pentagon procurement officials on the buy American laws."

"They are officially called unisex restrooms. Unbelievable. What is next? Unisex locker rooms with thong/jock support dispensers? How about Maxipad vending machines in locker rooms? Beam me up. I yield back this higher education business as yet simply getting high."

"If you don't get those cameras out of my face, I'm gonna go 8.6 on the Richter scale with gastric emissions that'll clear this room!"

"I want you to disregard all the opposing counsel has said. I think they're delusionary. I think they've had something funny for lunch in their meal, I think they should be handcuffed, chained to a fence and flogged, and all of their hearsay evidence should be thrown the hell out. And if they lie again, I'm going to go over there and kick them in the crotch. Thank you very much."

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! [pumps arm exultantly like Kirk Gibson]

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- James A. Traficant, a former Ohio congressman in prison for bribery and racketeering charges, has given his approval to supporters to form a presidential exploratory committee."

"The battle to free James Traficant and to evict the Socialists and 'free traders' from the Democratic Party is now under way," campaign spokesman Marcus Belk said. "Someone buy the Washington establishment a bottle of Maalox." Belk said the group, which announced Friday that it had gotten Traficant's approval by letter, has raised $10,224 in cash pledges made on Traficant's campaign Web site. The average contribution was $71, he said.

"Traficant, a Democrat who represented northeast Ohio in the House for nine terms, was expelled from Congress in July 2002 after being convicted in a federal court of racketeering, bribery and tax evasion. He is now serving an eight-year prison sentence at the minimum-security Allenwood federal prison in White Deer, Pennsylvania. "

Never mind that in an election between a trained goat and Jim Traficant, I'd go with the goat every time, this is wonderful! Just what this country needs: a corrupt, venal slippery populist demagogue with a talent for making the insane sound reasonable as long as he keeps talking. And an Ohioan to boot!

Let's review: the current headline-making political figures in Ohio right now are Dennis "Burning River" Kucinich, Sideshow Jerry Springer, and James "Beam Me Up!" Traficant. Makes me proud. Those fat cats in Washington better circle the wagons... 2004 is the Year Of The Buckeye!

Right here and now, I am announcing my support for former Representative James A. Traficant for President of the United States in 2004. But first things first... Free Mumia!Traficant

The Ministry of Minor Perfidy is moving to a better place. (And no, we're not dead.) Our crack team of commando net researchers determined that the perfidy.org domain had left the bizarre purgatory of the .org registrar's "pending delete hold" status and become available; and our lawyer minions were dispatched forthwith to secure the rights to the Ministry's proper home on the interweb.

That they were succesful certainly increased their life expectancy, but also freed the Ministry from durance vile in the decidedly low rent .biz realm. Over the next several days we will make the switch, generously providing a redirect from perfidy.org to the new digs so as to avoid confusion among the unwary. But note! You must learn to stand on your own two feet, because the redirect will not be there forever.

Not only was Stalin the head of the second most murderous regime in world history, responsible for reppression, famine and countless other crimes - that son of bitch Uncle Joe tried to kill the Duke.

CBS news reported this morning on the tube that in the late forties and early fifties, Stalin ordered multiple hit attempts on John Wayne, the outspoken anti-Communist actor.

If anyone had any doubt that Communism is evil, evil, evil, right to the bone, well there's your proof. You don't try and kill the Duke. Apparently, once Kruschev came to power, he stopped the assassination attempts because he was a big fan of the Duke. Go figure.

Buckethead has been dominating this forum of late, and with good cause. "Real life" has intruded on my behalf, and posting will be light.

Company. . . Right Face! March!

Yahoo is showing a report that the economy is surprising the economic powers that be with its health.

US economic growth shot to an annual pace of 2.4 percent in the second quarter, shattering sluggish expectations.

Defying forecasts for growth closer to 1.5 percent, the US economy gave the clearest sign yet it is shaking off Iraq (news - web sites) war-inspired shock and gathering speed, with business investment finally back.

The return in business investment, a 52-year record surge in defense spending, robust consumer spending, and a red-hot housing market powered growth, early Commerce Department (news - web sites) estimates showed.

Other good news included:

Gross domestic product, which had grown at a sickly 1.4-percent pace in the first quarter, appeared to be responding to a double dose of tax cuts and 45-year record low interest rates.

Businesses, long cowed by the Iraq war uncertainties, lifted non-residential fixed investment by 6.9 percent, with spending on structures such as factories up by a 43-year high of 4.8 percent and equipment/software expenditure up 7.5 percent. "The economy truly does look to be on the mend," said Naroff Economic Advisors president Joel Naroff, noting that investment in buildings had climbed for the first time since 2001.

Consumers stepped up spending 3.3 percent despite lingering agony in the labor market.

On the jobless front, although the jobless rate is still high, at 6.4% (still far lower than most of Europe) new jobless benefits claims dropped by 5,000.

Good news all around. 
 

Reuters is reporting that Poindexter, in charge of the DARPA department that brought us the aborted Total Information Awareness Agency and the recently deceased Policy Analysis Market, is on the way out, according to anonymous sources.

This over here made me spurt Diet Dr. Pepper (pH 3) out my nose:

Took Mosquito to the Savannah Mall so we could mock the Windows losers obviously out of their league in the Apple Store. Showed her how to get free porn on the game sites. This was my old routine, even though the BC got her ass fired, and that sweet salary went south, along with my easy living. I know the bitch did it on purpose because she's about to leave me for that Phoenician shithead at her office and wants to glom onto MY salary at the divorce. I told Mosquito not to grow up into a twat like that.

Which reminds me that I haven't seen SeaLab 2001 or Aqua Teen Hunger Force for months. Months! My second favorite SeaLab episode was the one where the Bizarro crew took over. And a weird creature with the voice of Shake from ATHF kept saying, "Bizarro, bizarro, bizarro, bizarro" for fifteen minutes. Exquisitely painful and hilarious even though I wasn't high.

(My favorite episode is where the captain and Erik Estrada get locked in the closet, and the Captain punches everyone. Humor pared down its basics. A formula that can't help but win. I laughed, I cried.)

While I'm babbling, (58 oz of Diet DP and a cup a joe so far today, in case you want to know. Actually, regardless of whether you want to know.) My favorite episode of ATHF was the one where Shake sells meatball to the circus for a buck-two-ninetyfive. The leader of the circus is actually the son of the King of Jupiter, of course, and in a moment of weekness, tells meatball of his original plan to invade the Earth and steal all our women. Meatball's response after this long soliloquy:

Meatball: "Did you do it?"

Prince of Jupiter: "What?"

Meatball: "You know, invade the Earth."

Classic. You may now return to more productive activities.