Archive for September, 2010
Why Economists Have Zero Credibility (Plus My New Hero)
The big news today was that the National Bureau of Economic Research said that the recession ended in June of last year. Could have fooled me! Ok I know this is the ignorant response to the headline. A recession has a particular definition and by that definition the NBER made its assessment. But when definitions don’t serve reality, what good are they? To be honest, when you look at the facts “on the ground”, why even bother to report a finding like that? It is meaningless. It does nothing so ease the pain of those facing harsh economic realities right now. On the contrary, it just increases the rage of those who feel Washington and the economists upon whom they rely are totally out of touch.
As long as economists make pronouncements like the one made today, I tend to have a Tea Party reaction to them: throw the bums out!
My New Hero (For Now)
On The Rutherford Lawson Show each week we name a Twerp of the Week. On the September 12 edition, I chose Donald Trump for his ham-fisted interference in the “Ground Zero Mosque” fiasco. However, last Thursday night The Donald redeemed himself somewhat in my eyes.
For the past few season’s of Donald’s “reality show” The Apprentice, he has been using celebrities competing for charity. This season he has returned to his original premise and is using real people vying for a temporary position within Trump’s company. On the season premiere, we learned the twist for this latest edition: all of the contestants have been effected in one way or another by the recent economic downturn. One person in particular, David, has a particularly devastating story to tell in that losing his job also lost him his wife (I’m assuming separation not divorce). He has five kids to support. He was flying high until he got laid off. As we watch David dial into the automated unemployment program to qualify for his benefits the voice over details his humiliation and desperation. My regular readers know that I have been surviving through my own layoff triggered financial struggles. This season premiere of “The Apprentice” hit me right in the gut.
Trump gets points from me not only for presenting the reality of what this economic downturn is doing to people’s lives … to people’s self-esteem but also for offering them help. Each and every one of them. If the entire season follows the pattern of the premiere, each winning Project Manager will get a one-on-one with the CEO of a major company. Each contestant eliminated will also get set up for a job interview with someone of Trump’s choosing. And of course, the winner of the entire competition will get to work for Trump for at least a short period of time. Is Trump a publicity whore? Absolutely. But here Trump uses his influence to give folks a hand-up, not a handout.
Trump is proving my biggest theory about our current downturn. Private industry needs to stop hiding behind their “uncertainty” about the future, blamed on Obama of course, and start doing the right thing and hiring when they need to hire. We all agree that public sector jobs alone will not get America working again. We need more Trumps to step up and get these millions of talented folks off the street and back on their feet.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
You Say You Want a Revolution
The little engine that could roared into the station last night stunning all the naysayers. Delaware political fixture Mike Castle was defeated in his bid to be the Republican nominee for Senator by perennial loser Christine O’Donnell. Unlike prior attempts to win state-wide office, this year O’Donnell had the Tea Party and Sarah Palin behind her. The GOP establishment is beside itself convinced that the very odd O’Donnell doesn’t stand a snow ball’s chance in hell of beating Democratic nominee Chris Coons. Karl Rove has been vocal in his opposition to O’Donnell on the grounds she has a checkered past. Sarah Palin is telling the party to grow up.
Liberals might delight at this internecine warfare but I’d be cautious. O’Donnell was not the only strange bird to win a nomination last night. Carl Paladino, best known during this campaign season for forwarding pornographic pictures via email beat the well-known, if not well liked Rick Lazio for the GOP gubernatorial candidacy in New York. When we add this on top of the emergence of Sharron Angle and Rand Paul, we have more than just isolated odd cases. We have a trend. The question is defining the trend accurately.
I think the trend goes beyond throwing out incumbents. I think the trend goes beyond a Republican tsunami in November. I think the trend is evidence of the extreme anger of the American people. They are so pissed that they are deliberately choosing in-your-face fringe candidates. They don’t just want to “throw the bums out”. They want to remake the system. They want to put folks in charge who say things we haven’t heard in decades like Rand Paul’s questioning of 1960′s civil rights legislation or O’Donnell’s stand against … wait for it … masturbation. It is almost as though the more of a crackpot the candidate is, the better this new breed of angry voter likes it.
My smug liberal friends dismiss the Angles and the O’Donnells. I used to also. But when a man whose name was synonymous with Delaware politics, a Gopher thriving in a Dem state, can be sent packing, all bets are off. In other countries when the people get angry, violent revolution is often the result. I am beginning to think that this country might be due for its own revolution and the voters’ insane rage will not take the form of violence but will instead take the form of electing fringe candidates who will lead our country down who knows what path.
Last night
I saw the fire spreadin’ to
The palace door.
Silent majority
Weren’t keepin’ quiet
Anymore.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
Tears for a Twitter Friend
Editor’s note: The following article is adapted from a blog post I made to my professional blog this morning. I felt, with some adaptations, that it was appropriate social commentary for this venue.
The power of social media struck me full force last night in a way I could not have anticipated. After a very long day, I was taking one last look at email before going to bed. I noticed a note sent from Facebook from someone I did not know. Lately I’ve received a number of friend requests on Facebook from spammers simply marketing their affiliate links. However this was not a friend request, it was an actual note so I took the time to read it and to my shock it was informing me that Mike, one of my acquaintances on Twitter, had just died. The young lady was going through Mike’s list of Facebook friends to let them know the sad news.
After the initial shock wore off, I got on Twitter to inform a few of Mike and my mutual acquaintances. As I wrote back and forth with one of them, something surprising happened. Tears started rolling down my face.
This surprised me because I have never actually met Mike. I’ve seen him on webcam and I’ve seen still pictures of him but I honestly doubt I would have recognized him if we passed each other on the street. But when I “met” him in cyberspace about two years ago he was more than a source of electronic messages. He was authentic. He chatted with me on Twitter with no ulterior motive other than to be friends and share. At a time when I was new to the Twitterverse, Mike offered to feature my Twitter handle on his web site as a go-to guy. He asked for my professional opinion of some of his business ventures. He became very real to me. He was kind. He was a good guy. Like many friendships in “the real world”, we got busy and lost touch but the minute I saw his name in that sad note, I immediately thought back to our exchanges. The other powerful aspect to this was how using Facebook, a friend of Mike’s was able to reach out to folks she never knew existed. I have no doubt that before his Facebook account is taken down, Mike’s “wall” will be full of tributes from friends and family, an electronic memorial of sorts.
On this blog, I have encountered a great variety of people. Some popped in and left one comment never to be seen again. Others visit and comment often. Among that set, there are those who prefer to be cartoon characters. They spout platitudes. They really share nothing meaningful from a human level. That is their prerogative. There is no rule within the blogosphere that one has to bare one’s soul. On the other hand, there are many who share just enough of themselves that they cross the line from anonymous commenter (or worse, troll) to a fully formed human being.
Next week I celebrate the third anniversary of The Rutherford Lawson Blog. In that time, I’ve witnessed post-graduate work pursued, past heart attacks, miscarriages and subsequent joyous births, the frustration of assembling an entertainment center, the loss of a loved pet, and modest testimony from someone who has put himself in harm’s way to protect our country. These stories only scratch the surface. I feel in some way that I “know” some of these people. I couldn’t spot them on the street. Heck, I don’t know most of their real names and they don’t know mine. I vehemently disagree with the politics of many of them. Yet these few folks have become real to me and even when I disagree with some of them, I look forward to reading what they have to say.
In fact, if I found out that any one of them had died, I suspect I would shed a tear.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
If Islam is the Problem, What is the Solution?
Nine years ago, 19 men with a perverted sense of righteous martyrdom commandeered four passenger planes in an attempt to take down The World Trade Center, The Pentagon and the White House. Three of the planes reached their target with devastating effect. The fourth plane, the one headed for the White House, crashed in Pennsylvania when the hijackers were overcome by the heroic passengers. The 19 men had one thing in common that has presented the United States of America with one of its most compelling crises of conscience. The 19 men were all devout, radical Muslims. Now, a country whose fundamental principle is freedom of worship is faced with how to evaluate Islam. Recently, we have seen an evaluation that is frightening in its paranoia, a paranoia that seems to grow the further we get from that terrible Tuesday morning.
Suddenly an entire “industry” has arisen around being “non-Muslim experts on Islam”. I won’t use the word Islamaphobe which carries too much baggage. Let’s just call them self-professed experts. They would have us believe that Islam is not even a religion, but rather a vile social movement disguised as a religion. They cherry pick the Koran to prove how evil the “religion” is.
As they warn us about the evils of Islam, the experts are short on solutions. Let us buy their perspective wholesale. Let’s say that Islam is on the same level as the Nazi party and the KKK. What are we to do about it?
Convene a cross denominational panel to publicly draft a declaration that Islam is not to be further recognized as a religion.
Have the United Nations prepare sanctions against every predominantly Muslim country on the planet, to outlaw the practice of Islam or face penalty.
Engage our ground forces and air force both within the United States and around the world to destroy every existing Mosque, since they are terrorist incubators.
Arrest and detain every practicing Muslim in the United States with conversion to one of the “sanctioned” religions being the only condition for release.
If Islam is the problem my friends then what is the solution? If Islam destroyed the World Trade Center as many would have you believe, then how can we allow Islam to exist?
If the proposed solutions I have laid out are repugnant to you, then perhaps you should reevaluate your attitude toward Islam.
We either believe that religion is a force for good in the world and that only individual men are evil or we commit ourselves to the dangerous exercise of defining the good religions vs the bad ones and then take the necessary steps to root out “evil”.
The next time you go quoting Newt Gingrich, think about what you’re willing to do to solve the problem as Newt has defined it. I say the solutions make it crystal clear that you have defined the problem incorrectly.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
The Media’s Role in the Media Circus
An Imam, a Pastor and Donald Trump walk into a bar.
No, that is not the beginning of a joke. With the exception of the bar part, these three unlikely characters all played a role in what can only be called a media circus this evening. The place to be to see how insane things have become was Twitter where the Tweets flew fast and furious with each revelation more bizarre than the previous one.
“Jones won’t burn Korans on assurance that Ground Zero Mosque will be moved.”
“Mosque developers say no deal.”
“Donald Trump buys mosque site.” (Trump’s offer was summarily dismissed.)
I got as wrapped up emotionally as many other folks in the Twittersphere. I was livid at the notion that some quid pro quo was being suggested between the Koran burning and the location of the NYC Islamic center. Tuning into MSNBC didn’t help as Chris Matthews’ coverage started to hit all my “hot buttons” (as Ed Schultz would say). But then Mr. Hot Button himself, Ed Schultz came on and set me straight in two ways.
His opening rant concerned our government’s reaction to this threatened Koran bonfire. He felt President Obama was ill-served by his advisers and he was right. We as a nation don’t negotiate with terrorists, whether they be the physically violent kind or the rhetorical kind. The notion that General David Petraeus, Robert Gates, Hillary Clinton and the President himself either directly or indirectly asked Pastor Terry Jones to control himself was akin to negotiating with a terrorist. Jones should have been ignored and if he went through with his ill-advised act, let the consequences speak for themselves. Instead we had the leader of the free world addressing the possible actions of a small-time nutjob who no one ever heard of until this week. But for Terry Jones to be ignored, the media itself would have to ignore him.
That brings me to the second way in which Ed Schultz set me straight, that is in Ed’s own hypocrisy. While he felt that this Pastor was beneath being dignified with a response from our government leaders, Ed didn’t seem to have a problem with the main stream media running this story non-stop all week. What would have happened if every news editor in the country looked at this story and passed on it? Jones is obviously an unbalanced attention whore. The media gave him exactly what he wanted, fifteen minutes of fame plus a bit more. “How will the Muslim world react when they see this on TV?” That was the concerned cry heard all over the dial. Well, how about if they turned on CNN and didn’t see any stories about Jones? How about if they opened the paper and didn’t see any coverage of Jones. What if Jones remained as anonymous as he was at the week’s outset?
The counter argument is that we live in a YouTube age and if the Koran burning proceeded, it would no doubt go viral over the Internet. I’m still not sure that lets the media off the hook for fanning the story. As angry as I am at John Boehner and Sarah Palin for voicing this Koran bonfire/GZ Mosque equivalence, I must admit they had a ready and waiting bullhorn to shout into. After the media reports their ignorant comments, they then play innocent pretending not to be promulgators of the bigotry.
We live in dangerous times my friends. The media should, I think, consider the Hippocratic oath to first do no harm. I am not sure they are doing that this week.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
Two Epiphanies
Over the holiday weekend I had two epiphanies concerning those two topics my mother told me never to discuss in polite company, religion and politics.
The first revolved around religion. Highly regarded physicist Stephen Hawking announces in his new book that God is not an essential ingredient to creation. Indeed the Big Bang can be explained without God in the equation. It is possible, according to Hawking, for something to come from nothing. I’d estimate there were three types of reaction to this finding. Atheists rejoiced. Polite Christians said Hawking was mistaken at best and spiritually lost at worst. Impolite Christians told Hawking that God had some choice words for him upon his imminent death from Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS). I was in none of these three camps. I’ve never called myself an atheist because I find most atheists to be as dogmatic in their disbelief as the most obnoxious Christian. In fact, a conservative friend of mine recently remarked that for folks who don’t believe in God, atheists manage to talk about Him almost more than the average religious person. I tend to agree. I’ve always maintained, I don’t know if there is or is not a God. I don’t find His existence relevant to my everyday life. I also don’t believe that anyone else knows for sure that there is a God.
The epiphany occurred when I thought about Hawking’s comments about gravity. He said something, which I admittedly don’t understand, about gravity being the foundation of something arising from nothing. Have you ever seen gravity? I haven’t. Yet every night we go to bed 100% sure that we will awake the next morning to find our bed firmly on the floor. We are equally sure that when we emerge from bed, we will not float up to the ceiling or for that matter that our entire neighborhood won’t be hovering in mid-air. I’m sorry but this is not science. This is faith. We have faith that gravity, the force that keeps us grounded, will not suddenly disappear. Now most folks would tell me “I believe in gravity” is not equivalent to “I believe in God”. I’m not at all sure.
A Klein Bottle
When I studied advanced mathematics in college, one of the things that really bothered me was when we started discussing concepts that defied my notion of reality. An example is the Klein bottle which I would call a three dimensional version of the Möbius strip. You can construct a Möbius strip by simply taking a strip of paper and gluing its ends together but first twisting the strip once before you glue. The circle you have created has the following quality. A fly walking on the outside of the circle will find itself on the inside of the circle once it gets beyond the twist. In a sense this represents the fly moving from a two dimensional space, momentarily into a three dimensional space as it moves from the “outside” of the circle to the “inside”. In the Klein bottle, a fly walking along the handle of the bottle can conceptually, go into a fourth dimension and then wind up on the inside of the bottle. Although rational to any competent mathematician, it was to me totally preposterous and it was the point at which mathematics started to resemble religion to me and I became disenchanted. Mathematics scholars would simply call me ignorant. Perhaps they are right? But let’s get back to the gravity example. I take gravity for granted. I have often heard believers in God say “how can you not see evidence of Him everywhere you look?” Indeed, if one has faith in God as I have faith in gravity, then He is evident everywhere around us.
This brings us to the next epiphany, related to the first one. I spend a good amount of time arguing with folks on the Internet about politics. We live in such polarizing times that I often encounter folks who say things like:
“Obama wants to destroy this country.”
“Our government wants to make slaves of us all.”
“We have abandoned our Constitution.”
“We will have Sharia law here any day now if we’re not careful.”
The list goes on and on. I defy anyone to take these comments out of context and not identify their speaker as a paranoid schizophrenic. I’m sorry but taken on the face of it, these comments constitute the ravings of a nutjob. However if we factor in the prism of perception that bends the clear light of day and distorts it, then these comments are not so crazy. The folks who say these things interpret the signals around them in a way completely different from me. Perhaps I’m the nutjob? The bottom line is that debate with people who say extreme things like this is futile. How can I possibly convince someone that Obama does not want to destroy this country if every signal they absorb convinces them otherwise? It is like trying to convince a believer that God does not exist or convince an atheist that He does. Everything Obama says passes through this prism of perception that makes me believe in him and makes radical conservatives think he is the anti-Christ.
For those who really believe the United States is fundamentally in danger of collapsing from within, there is no changing minds. Will this stop me from debating? Not likely. I enjoy the exchange of ideas, even when I am confronted with what I believe are irrational ones. Perception is reality. It is true in religion as well as politics and it accounts for intractability from both ends of the belief spectrum.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
Colbert: Effective on so Many Levels
When I awoke Friday morning I did not expect to spend the better part of the morning watching a congressional hearing on migrant farm workers. Call me ignorant but the topic held zero interest for me. While eating breakfast, my wife alerted me that one of my favorite satirists, Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” would be testifying to Congress, in character. This was a potential train wreck that I just could not resist watching. To my surprise, I was fully drawn into the hearing with Colbert’s appearance ending up only incidental to the attention I gave.
So for starters, Colbert’s presence was effective at the most base level. It caused me to watch and learn something I would otherwise have ignored. Secondly, by Colbert playing his faux Conservative role to the hilt, he highlighted the most ignorant aspects of conservative social policy. One of his best lines was “I don’t want a tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American, then sliced by a Guatemalan, and served by a Venezuelan, in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian.” He closed with “I trust that following my testimony, both sides will work together on this issue in the best interests of the American people as you always do.” The digs were a pleasure to watch as the idiot Congressional panel looked at him dumbfounded. One Democratic Congresswoman from California is seen reading her smart-phone. Republican Congressman Steven King looks on not the least bit amused. Some pundits from both the right and left were apoplectic. Congress had jumped the shark by inviting Colbert, snorted MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. Some accused Colbert of trivializing the plight of migrant farm workers. The only thing Colbert trivialized, and rightfully so, is the posturing bull crap that passes for the legislative process in Washington.
After a few Congressmen asked Colbert dumb questions to which he supplied dumb answers, California Congresswoman Judy Chu gave Colbert a chance to get serious and he finally did.
When asked why the plight of immigrant farm workers interested him, Colbert replied that he is always interested in those without power. In a nation supposedly guided by Christian principles such as caring for the least of our brothers, why do we allow immigrant farm workers both legal and illegal to be taken advantage of? Why do we encourage “illegals” to work our farms but then yell and scream about how they should be deported?
Personally it incenses me that in a country with a real unemployment rate of about 15% that farm owners are hiring illegal aliens and not hiring unemployed Americans. This brings us however to the crux of the problem. Are we Americans so snobby that there are certain jobs that we simply will not do? When a “Take Our Jobs” program was announced in order to attract legal immigrants and citizens to farm work, only six people wound up permanently employed. The argument then goes, with no Americans willing to work the fields, farms will go under if they do not employ willing labor and that willing labor is substantially illegal.
When Mexicans come to this country to work, and not to attack us, we end up looking xenophobic when we protest their presence here. Yet it is equally true that we must control our borders. We must, in the best interests of our country employ our own people. There are few easy answers and the easiest answer is one that no one seems to want to enforce, particularly the GOP. That answer is to demand better working conditions and wages from farm owners and substantial penalties for hiring illegal immigrants. I believe for the right money, Americans will do any job you give them. As long as farm owners and the rest of corporate America insist on cheap labor, we will reap what we sow.
In 2002, the Sesame Street character Elmo “testified” before Congress on school music programs. It wasn’t the least bit controversial. Perhaps that is because unlike Stephen Colbert, Elmo didn’t shine a light on our nation’s hypocrisy and our government’s inanity.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance
September 26, 2010 at 1:11 am Rutherford 199 comments