Cultural Limbo - first in a new series "How low can we go?"

Epitaphic tweets from mini-starlets about a micro-starlet, republished by Time magazine.

Winter Solstice 2009

Beware Stores Bearing Gift Cards

Gift cards are attractive to givers who don't know exactly what the recipient wants. Problem is, many gift cards are worth what was paid, the face value, for only a few months. After that, a 'service charge' can quickly erode the value, often reducing the card to worthless within a year or two.

Can you imagine if your bank charged you for your savings account? That is the equivalent to a gift card. Instead, we quite reasonably expect banks to pay us for the use of our money. It's called interest, and as low as it is, it's way better than losing money.

'Tis the season... for fraud and abuse. Where is an eager young lawyer who wants to get rich and (coincidentally) do a good deed by filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of the millions of people who have lost money to these gift card schemes? Please put the Simon gift cards at the top of the guilty list. The Simon Grift Card would be a better name. Please note that Barnes and Noble does not charge a service fee, so that card your sister gave you (thanks!) 5 years ago and you just found in the drawer is still full value.

My advice (since you asked): give your loved ones hugs and your time to be together. Or give to Heifer or Oxfam in their name so that a family in desperate poverty can benefit. If you must give something material, give cash. Trust them to know where to spend it, or save it.

Health Care Reformation

Millions around the world die from lack of very basic needs. In the US, more people die from too much 'want' (overindulgence) than from too little 'needs'. The Institute of Medicine estimates that over 100,000 Americans die every year from mistakes in US hospitals. Reform must do more than simply ensure that more people can be subjected to the same broken system.

Better yet, let's ban health care, save a bundle and encourage a fitter population. God's will be done. Got a problem with either word: "Christian Scientist"?

No TIME for Responsibility

The Sept 21 TIME magazine had a section on "Responsibility". Typical of this halfwit rag, the TIME poll claims a deceptively-precise 46% think government should "require stores to charge for plastic bags". Of course stores do charge for bags; the real question is who should pay. My grocery store credits 2 cents for each bag brought in, effectively charging the same for new bags but avoiding complaints.

My grocery store also sells me Fair Trade coffee, because nobody should wait until 2015 for Starbucks to 'pioneer' ethically sourced coffee, as touted within the section entitled "25 Responsibility Pioneers". Questioning Starbucks' commitment to corporate responsibility would risk ad revenue, so it was cheaper for TIME to abdicate its editorial responsibility.

Beer: Red, Light, & Blue

Prof: Red Stripe
Pres: Bud Light
Cop: Blue Moon

Red, Light, & Blue. I’ll drink to that kind of patriotism.

Exxon Mobile Idiocy

You know those commercials where an Exxon-Mobile scientist talks earnestly about how committed s/he is to the environment? While they speak , complicated mathematical formulas and molecules swirl around, intending to convey the ideas (1) this is hard, (2) we are smart, (3) maybe you aren't, and so (4) don't even think about questioning us. Pretty typical corporate propaganda.

Well, a new commercial just came out that is simply idiotic and exposes the core deception. The 'scientist' says Exxon is committed to remove the carbon dioxide 'contaminant' from natural gas, and explicitly states their intention is to reduce greenhouse gasses. But 'pure' natural gas, when burned, produces nothing but carbon dioxide, and water. The primary constituent of natural gas is methane (CH4). It is simple in equation form:

CH4 + 2 O2 → CO2 + 2 H2O. [Bean counters: 1 C, 4 H, 4 O]

Worrying about the trace carbon dioxide 'contaminant' is like worrying about speeding at the Indy 500. It would be laughable if it weren't so deceptive, destructive, and worst of all, deeply, insultingly stupid.

Once and Once-future Veeps Go Into the Woods

Republicans might halve their troubles by encouraging Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney to go hunting, together. They will both have plenty of time now, in retirement. There can be only one Lord of the flies. My money is on lipstick over dead-eye.

Summer Solstice

You say "gut"...

Obama at Notre Dame

President Obama accepted an honorary doctorate and spoke at the Notre Dame commencement yesterday. 14,000 enthusiastic supporters far outnumbered a handful of rude protesters. As usual, he was graceful, witty, serious, and engaging in his comments, directly addressing the "elephant in the room" by calling for serious dialog and action on the shared goals of reducing the number of abortions and unwanted pregnancies. He echoed the valedictorian's call to challenge our preconceptions, maintain and raise our standards, and apply our ideals even if it is uncomfortable or risks failure. Despite the difference that the protesters highlighted, there was also evident a fundamentally similar world-view, insistence on civility, and mutual respect.

Put it on My Carbon Credit

“Cap and trade” is an approach to reducing greenhouse gasses, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), wherein the total amount released is capped and industries are allowed to trade the right to release them. If a company can reduce CO2 emissions, it can sell a carbon credit to another company to allow it to release more CO2. The idea is to assign a cost to releasing CO2 and impose marketplace discipline to reduce release. It may work, but why limit this to industry? Why should Exxon-Mobile and other massive polluters inherit a windfall of carbon credits that practically rewards them for their past misdeeds and inaction?

Shouldn't every human being have a certain carbon credit? We should credit commuters who take mass transit or walk or bike instead of driving to work. We should credit individuals whose carbon footprint is tiny. A Bangladeshi whose carbon footprint is nonexistent should have the credit to lend or sell to industrial polluters.

If you cap me, do I not breath? If you trade me, do I not drive? Carbon-based units unite! You have nothing to lose but your breath!

Euro Trash Talk

The G20 Summit meeting was a success, providing world leaders, especially the Europeans, a bigger stage to complain more loudly about Americans. The Euros take the world economic downturn as proof that the US is too free-market, too innovative, like these were bad things. Makes you wonder, if the Euros were so sober and responsible, then why are they suffering from the woes of AIG and the US banking system? In fact, they were near the front of the line to buy the risky financial 'products'. Lord, save me from temptation, but not just yet.

The real divergence on economic matters is not in regulation but openness. Compare the information available about companies on the NY Stock Exchange to those on the German DAX or the English FTSE or the French Bourse, etc. The US Securities and Exchange Commission ensures that the information is reliable, up-to-date, and not misleading. In contrast, most other world stock markets are obscure and much more biased in favor of insiders. Swiss banks specialize in protecting the privacy of tax cheats, drug lords, dictators, slavers, and arms merchants. Prescriber, heal thyself.

Though he was the newest leader at the meeting, President Obama, as usual, mastered the occasion by treating it as what it really is: a meet-and-greet, grip-and-grin among politicians for consumption by the home town papers. By reducing the tension, mastering 'detente', he won more leaders to his ideas on stimulating the economies and helping in Afghanistan.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Taxes

The selfish rich and their delusional hoi polloi 'tax cut' tools have a favorite statistic: the wealthiest 20% pay 67% of the taxes. You are encouraged to 'think' that it's unfair for one-fifth of the population to pay two-thirds of the taxes. But consider this fact: the wealthiest 20% own over 50% of everything, according to the Economist magazine. The picture is even starker when you compare income and wealth (figure, 2007 data from the Federal Reserve), which shows that the upper 10% own practically everything. Taxing the rich is like robbing banks, you have to go where the money is.

The politician with a credible plan to get all of us into that upper 20% has my vote. ;-)

Meet the FCCCERs

According to a summary in the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes a new Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (FCCCER). Thank goodness they passed on the alternative name: Federal Oversight Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research.

It's a great idea, way overdue, but can we come up with a better acronym? How about the Pan-American National Association for Comparative Effectiveness Analysis (PANACEA)?

OMG! Emphasis on “My”

A story this morning on NPR's excellent show “On the Media” argued that reporters do not have sufficient knowledge of the Bible to accurately report on current politics, because they too often miss politicians' subtle invocation of scripture. The major example given was G. W. Bush's suggestion that critics remove the “log” from their own eye before attempting to remove the mote from another's, a reference to the Gospel of Matthew which was missed by a NY Times reporter in a front part article. (Oh, how embarrassing for those well-schuled NYers!) Obama avoided that risk in his inaugural address by explicitly attributing to scripture his call to “set aside childish things” (Corinthians).

There is no question that the Bible, the “book”, both new and old testaments, should be a shared cultural reference that does not require explicit citation, much as nobody should feel obliged to cite Shakespeare for any of the dozens of common phrases attributable to him. Public schools should teach the Bible as fundamental to understanding practically all Western literature (and art) for the past few thousand years. The new testament is relatively short, and so much of the 'new' testament knowingly cites the 'old' testament that it's a little surprising that even the echo isn't readily recognized.

The NPR story also told of a reporter for the LA Times who 'found religion' a few years ago during a personal crisis then lost it when reporting on sex abuse court cases. (Oops! where did I leave that faith?) More accurately, he lost his faith in religion and confused that with his faith in God. You don't have to belong to a religion to have faith in God. Indeed, if history and personal experience teaches anything, it is that an intercessor, a priest, a minister, a guru, can obscure the voice you should be listening to: your own beliefs of right and wrong.

Israeli Intervention

Israel denies Palestinians their human rights and regularly attacks their settlements with armed force. As with a bully who beats his wife or abuses his children, it's long past time for friends of Israel to intervene. Rocket attacks on Israel and suicide bombers will stop only when the Palestinians want to stop them. Israeli air strikes and military incursions only provide justification to the militants and make the Palestinian population more sympathetic to, if not supportive of, the militants. "Vengeance is mine saith the lord", because humans don't seem to know how to handle it.