Zoom, Zoom... zoom

Memorial Day has 3 big car races: (1) the prestigious Monte Carlo Grand Prix, (2) the “greatest spectacle in racing”, the venerable Indianapolis 500 mile race, and (3) the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, an outlier in terms of history, spectacle, and prestige. Indy reaches the Century-plus/minus mark this year depending on how you calculate it (years or races), Monaco has been going on for about half that time, and it is a relatively new Coke. The two American races mix a sort of commercial patriotism that has grown perfunctory in the years following 9/11 and the “up close and personal” stories that are supposed to interest us in one or another driver or team or cause. An east coaster can have breakfast watching Monaco, lunch watching the Indy 500, and dinner watching the Coke 600.

And how did they go?

Monaco was a morning parade, albeit a quick one, with practically no on-track passing and the only position changes occurring during pit stops. The tight street circuit has little room for the cars to go side-by-side. The best parts were watching fast cars snap around corners improbably quickly and dance impossibly close together, albeit nose-to-tail and never side-by-side, and seeing the 6^th winner in the first 6 races of this F1 season.

Indy started and ran safely, always welcome at a track where many have died, with some excitement and time for a couple naps in between. There was more passing on lap #1 than during the entire Monaco Grand Prix. The race has lost relevance since the days of A. J. Foyt and Mario Andretti but even then it was more grind than flash. A couple former F1 drivers competed and one, Japanese Sato, challenged for the lead on the last lap but lost to a now 3-time winner Scotsman Franchitti.  The traditions are the best part of the afternoon, including the command “Gentlemen, start your engines” (now with “Ladies and” appended), and the singing of “Back Home Again in Indiana”.

The Coke 600 is really just another weekend NASCAR race, lengthened to try to eclipse the fame of the “500”. The longest race of the day is at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a slightly-elongated skid pad, 400 laps that ensure monotony even for tolerant (or oblivious) fans. A few foreigners compete, including former F1 and Indy winner Montoya, but they never threatened the American dominance of this series.  Little "tradin' paint" tonight, unfortunately.  Almost all is preparation: you can usually tune in for the practically guaranteed restart with 3 laps to go, at 99.5% distance, and green-white-checker finish. But not tonight, when the last 50 or so laps were raced under the green flag.

Only a few weeks to the 24 hours of Le Mans.  

I chose to write this!

All choices must fall somewhere on the spectrum from the extreme of compulsion, being a wealth of reasons that amount to a “no-brainer”, to random, being a complete lack of reasons. Where do our free will's choices fall on this spectrum? Frankly, there is no attractive place for “free will” on this spectrum.  I choose to answer the conundrum with “nowhere”, because free will is an illusion.

Ok, I gotta go.  I mean I want to go.

Lord Biden

Vice President Joe Biden shut down air travel in Washington DC smack dab in the middle of the Friday evening rush. Or at least that was United Airlines’ excuse for our sitting at the gate for nearly an hour, cabin door shut (no personal electronics for you!). After having dutifully emptied, stripped, and bared for TSA, sorted and queued in the correct sub-flock among the dozen boarding classes, hoisted and stuffed and stowed our gear, and hurriedly seated ourselves, hoping for an on-time departure, the delay was deeply frustrating and disruptive.

The absurdity of this is at least twofold: (1), we commercial air travelers pose no realistic threat to Air Force 1 or 2 or Air Force anything. Why not just give an extra wide safety margin to the VP and continue normal operations? Any threat scenario should be subjected to a credibility test, e.g., United flight 631 threatens Air Force 2… somehow… ok, folks, ah, this is high concept, ya gotta work with me here…. (2) how does the Vice President – or even the POTUS – rate this sort of disruptive power? When dozens of flights carrying thousands of citizens are swept up in absurd security theater, the deference is excessive and smacks of an imperial presidency. New unis for the White House guards (Nixon) or shredding the Constitution (bush jr), fine, but lemme fly! Even conceding that “security” is theater, and that it is important to make people feel secure, we need to re-balance toward practicality (less drama, more box office please).

I missed my connecting flight but my biggest disappointment is Joe; I thought he was a railroad guy.

“Pretty Woman”, Ugly Lie

“Oh Pretty Woman” was a great song by Roy Orbison and a shallow, superficially attractive (albeit fundamentally disgusting, and ludicrous) 1990 movie. The song is about a “pretty woman walking down the street, pretty woman, the kind you'd like to meet”; the movie is about a “streetwalker”, the kind you'd have to pay to "meet".

The movie tells about an LA hooker (Julia Roberts), improbably innocent and fresh, who is swept away by a rich, attractive, young, corporate raider (Richard Gere). Think “Officer and a Gentleman” but substitute a jerk and a whore and add a large cast of “Johns” off screen and uncredited. It is a twisted perversion of the princess and knight in shining armor. Nothing beats a prostitute as a healthy role model for young women idolizing Julia Roberts. That this movie became iconic speaks volumes about modern America, none of them good.

Both the song and the movie were a long time ago, so who cares? Well, what once-upon-a-time was dirty and essentially embarrassing – pornography – has somehow now gone entirely mainstream. The “industry” amounts to over $10 billion annually, more than the professional football and baseball combined! The magazine “Playboy” and it's associated clubs went from aspirational in the 1960s, to pitifully outdated in the 1980s & '90s, to an miraculous rebirth as a prime time TV show. Stripper poles are now exercise equipment. Snoop Dog and Howard Stern are considered good businessmen, instead of perverts.

I don't say make pornography illegal, but stop justifying, stop legitimizing it, and put it back where it belongs – in the darkness.

US Debt Deal

The Senate should take “Cut, Cap, and Balance" (catchy title… the Democrats could use buzzier titles), which they narrowly defeated, modify it a bit (add defense cuts, restore some cuts to the poorest & neediest, remove the Bush-era tax breaks for incomes >$250k… ok, modify it a lot) and send it to a reconciliation committee. They did much more finagling to pass the health care bill. There is nothing wrong with a balanced budget amendment if it has exceptions for recessions (like now) and prohibits the drunken-sailor-with-a-credit-card spending seen in the previous admin.

This is looking ugly for the country. But if your explicit goal is to deprive the President of anything resembling a success, and thereby ensure his defeat in the next election (and if the economy crumbles, call it collateral damage and drive on), well, then sadly it’s looking pretty good.

Call it the “Cut, Cap, Balance, and Back-Slap” act. (DC works better with a little B-S).

Tax Derivatives to Reduce the Debt & Improve the Economy

The gross domestic product (GDP), the sum of all economic transactions in the US, is roughly $15T, which is roughly comparable the national debt. Sounds big and bad (respectively) but they pale in comparison to the derivatives market, which is over 20-times larger!

Derivatives can be used to reduce risk by betting on a future price. This is valuable in particular situations, such as farmers planting crops, but the total market has grown to a size that causes dramatic volatility in currency and energy (oil) markets, increasing the risk to economic stability. These trades are largely unregulated and entirely untaxed. I propose we tax derivative trading at the trivial rate of 1%. I don't predict that we would raise all $6T annually, because some trades would not be done, some might go further undercover, and some will go 'offshore'. But NY State Pensions won't deal with entities in the Caymen Islands or Geneva as freely as they would Long Term Capital, or Lehman, or Solomon. We will raise significant amounts of 'revenue' (money) and reduce to some degree the silliness and scariness of the market.

Voting Guide

There seems to be some confusion 'out there' about the reason and rational for (a) voting and (b) voting for somebody in particular. This handy pocket guide is intended to help dispel confusion and is suitable for writing on your hand for cribbing inside the sanctity of the voting booth.

1. Vote.

If you don't vote, don't complain. The saying “I don't vote; it only encourages them” is funny but stupid, because it leaves the choice in the hands of the zealots. Don't think you have to read all their position papers to vote intelligently; the public persona is what will guide the policy. Before the 2000 election, George W Bush said he believed in controlling greenhouse gasses but talk is cheap and his whole campaign was laissez faire capitalist, which dominated post-campaign.

2. Vote for the better candidate.

Don't expect a saint because they rarely appear on the ballot. If you are a ecologically minded, you may be disappointed if the incumbent hasn't made, or the candidate doesn't promise to make, the US more sustainable. But if the opponent denies climate change, scoffs at greenhouse gasses, and doesn't value increased efficiency over “drilling and burning”, then you should vote for your guy despite the disappointment.

Think of a long journey. It is better to head in the correct general direction and fine-tune later that not start at all, or head in the wrong direction.