Life

Welcome

Welcome to my blog,  which in the words of Douglas Adams, is about Life, the Universe, and Everything. Blog items include my take on current events, travel, politics, and science.  If you haven't been here before,  you might want to start with my latest take on why we are here.  Thanks for visiting.

Ethan's 2nd Birthday Pix

Ethan had a grand bash to celebrate his second year in this world.  The pix are here.  Since this has a lot of people and kids,  I have password protected it.  The user name and the password are both his last name.  Capitalize the first letter only.

I must apologize for the quality of the pictures.  I am out of practice taking pictures of two year olds (especially two year olds in bouncy castles).  So most of my pictures were of ears and fingers.  This is why I used an analog camera when my own kids were small.

Enjoy

Vancouver, B.C. on Five Dollars a Day

Vancouver, British Columbia is a beautiful city tailor made for the nature/microbrew/sushi lover.   Like Seattle but more so.  My nephew just attended a conference there and recorded his observations and his pictures on his blog, with his usual astute humor.  Jeff is an unusual traveler, with an interest in going off the beaten path in a very low budget way.  His blog also details his trips to such locales as Panama, Peru, Jamaica, Vietnam, Laos, and a host of other locations.  I recommend it highly.

CNN Reports on the Banana Republic of the USA

Senator Gregg, a one-time Obama cabinet pick, states the obvious in this interview.  We can't keep adding two trillion dollars a year to our debt.  The only surprise is that CNN actually covered this lucid indictment on the failure of the current government.

The War on a Free Press

The President of the United States and his White House have declared war on Fox News.  They accuse it of being a "wing of the Republican Party" and "the Opposition."  Therefore, the White House is trying to cut off all access to Fox News.  

A particular complaint last Sunday was the Fox coverage of last year's election. A study by the Pew Research Center, certainly not a bastion of the Republican Party, compared the negative stories on Obama during the election. The various networks broke down as:

 FOX News -  40% negative stories on Obama, 40% negative stories on McCain

CNN - 39% negative stories on Obama, 61% negative stories on McCain

MSNBC - 14% negative stories on Obama, 61% negative on McCain

So who presented fair and balanced coverage of the election? 

Obviously, what prompted the recent attacks is the FOX coverage of the ACORN scandal, the Van Jones fiasco, and the conservative march on Washington.  All three of these stories were ignored by ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, and the Washington Post until the coverage on FOX, talk radio, and the blogosphere made their omissions obvious.

So the President of the United States will do everything possible to cripple FOX news, and his administration is actively seeking ways to muzzle talk radio (the Fairness Doctrine) and the internet.

Is a Free Press in America really at risk?  Is it possible the all the major news media  will let the freedom of the press die,  simply because they believe they're on the winning side?  It can't happen here?

Obama Wins the Nobel Peace Prize

President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.  The natural response of many is "For What?" The answer is "for good intentions."   Throughout the past half century,  liberals have insisted they be rated not for results,  but for good intentions.   So what if the "war on poverty" destroyed poor families and created multiple generations of poor dependent on the government dole,  the intentions were obviously good.  So what if feminism and abortion rights created a society which looks down on the traditional role of housewife and mother, the intentions were good.  Tax laws that destroyed American jobs and drove businesses offshore, they were all intended to make the world more fair.

So Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize,  once reserved for those exceptional human beings who risked all and accomplished much,  for good intentions.  This just shows what a liberal institution the Nobel Prize has become.

A darker view is Barack won as a patronizing encouragement to a black man,  or more likely, as a further slap in the face to America and specifically President Bush.  The 2002 award of the Peace Prize to Jimmy Carter coincided with America's response to 9/11.  Jimmy Carter, you may remember, was the American President who handed Iran over to the Muslim Fundamentalists.  Then the Committee gave the Peace Prize to Al Gore, for Global Warming.  Another obvious slap in the face to Bush policy.

So the Nobel Peace Prize has gone from an award recognizing the likes of Lech Walesa and Mother Theresa to an award given for, at best, good intentions, and, more likely, anti-American accomplishments.

To his credit,  President Obama handled it well,  saying he did not deserve it and will accept it on behalf of America and American Ideals.  That way,  he still will have  the Prize in the history books.

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Afghanistan - Humbler of Empires

How can Afghanistan cause so much trouble?  The Soviet Empire crumbled after its failure to conquer Afghanistan.  The British Empire had no better luck. Even Alexander the Great, who took only six months to conquer Iran, took three years to subdue Afghanistan.  He wrote his mother, "I am involved in the land of a 'Leonine' (lion-like) and brave people, where every foot of the ground is like a wall of steel, confronting my soldier.”

Now America leads a coalition of nations in trying once again to subdue Afghanistan.  Will we succeed?  History says no, and perhaps gives us the reason.

Niccolò Machiavelli,  in his masterpiece The Prince, made the point that Western countries are easier to conquer but harder to hold.  The Eastern countries, he said, were harder to conquer but easier to hold.  His rationale was that in the feudal West, one could always find a duke to betray the ruler which made the country easier to conquer.  But by the same rationale,  a duke will be waiting to betray you.  The East, on the other hand, had such absolute rulers that the population was conditioned to total obedience to the ruler.  This makes the initial conquest harder,  but once conquered, the population will shift their obedience to the conqueror.

Okay,  so why is Afghanistan so hard?  The key word here is “country”.  Neither Afghanistan nor Pakistan have ever been countries in the sense Machiavelli, or we today, use the word.   Rather, they are a loose federation of local tribes with the primary loyalty of the people to the local tribe.  In both countries, the central authority has never held sway over the entire country.  This fact is particularly disturbing when you consider that Pakistan is a nuclear power,  thanks to the Western education of many of its elite.

So the basic problem with conquering Afghanistan, or subduing Afghanistan, or liberating Afghanistan, is there is no “Afghanistan”.  The country is an artificial construct conceived in the West.  Conquering the capital and replacing the central government does not give you control of the country.

This is a more general problem.  As the West confronts the Third World,  it will face this problem in many countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.  Many people forget nationalism is a recent phenomenon in history.  Spain unified into one country in 1492.  Italy and the Germanies unified in 1871.  Before that, the world was made up of a number of much smaller countries.

Yet our modern concept of warfare has been based on large nations fielding large armies, as happened from the 18th through the 20th centuries.  But throughout this time,  the larger nations engaged in wars against tribal areas,  such as with the French Foreign Legion in Algeria and the British Empire throughout the world.  These “brush wars”, long a thorn in the side of the high commands,  have now become the norm.   Artillery, tanks, and all the strategy and tactics that accompany them have become useless against powerful man-portable weapons, IEDs, and a worldwide arms industry that supplies guerrilla band and nation alike.

The Senate, in an unprecedented move,  has now given 45 days for President Obama to sit and twiddle his fingers while our soldiers die in Afghanistan.  He would do well to look to history and make a decision soon.

 

Jessie is Fine.

Let me start this post by saying my daughter Jessica is just fine.  For those who haven't heard,  she was hit by a car while crossing at a crosswalk on the University of Florida campus.  The driver was texting (yes, texting) and didn't see the group of eight kids in the crosswalk.  All the kids got out of the way,  except Jessica and one other.  Jessica got hit first, was thrown up into the windshield,  broke the windshield, and flipped over the heads of her friends.  The second kid was clipped and thrown into another one of the kids.

The story I heard was Jessie jumped to her feet and said something to the effect of "whoa, what was that?  Is everybody OK?"  By the time the EMT's arrived, she was comforting the driver who was distraught over plowing a borrowed car into a bunch of kids.  So much so that the EMT's at first thought it was the driver that had been hit.

I rather feel sorry for the father of the car that hit her.  How would you like to hear your kid leant a car to another kid who was texting when she plowed into a bunch of kids in a crosswalk.  But then I thought that probably wasn't the version he heard, so best leave well enough alone.

As I said,  Jessie is apparently fine.  Just a mild concussion and some bruises.  And for the record, this happened the two days before Tebow's concussion, so he is having a sympathy concussion for her,  and not the other way around.

For those of you who remember,  Jessica is the child that was run over by a dogsled during a whiteout on the Mendenhall Glacier a few years back.  (She survived that one too.  I hope she isn't graduating to larger vehicles.) She is a skydiver, scuba diver, and spelunker.  I have been criticized as a father for letting her do all those things (as if I had a choice),  but I have always worried more about her crossing the street, apparently with justification.

Tolkien said it best: "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to."

Thank you, Lord, for assigning such a good guardian angel to my daughter.

Parenting by Aphorism

In the good old days,  children had copybooks or slates in school which they used to practice their handwriting.  They did this by endlessly copying aphorisms from sources such as Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac and the New Testament.  This accomplished two important educational goals: students had much better handwriting than students do today, and they thoroughly memorized these tidbits of wisdom and common sense which would serve as guidelines for their entire life.

This practice is no longer part of our children’s education.  In fact, teaching many of these sayings in school would probably bring lawsuits from the ACLU.  Nevertheless,  I’ve tried to use certain aphorisms as a basis for my children’s education.  Here are a few that I think I’ve gotten through.

“The difference between poverty and wealth is being on the right side of compound interest.”

I would often simplify this one as “Never go into debt.”  This probably seemed like an oddball one to the kids, who were surrounded by the greatest debt-based consumer economy in the history of the world.  I know they were confused when their friends’ families would constantly buy new houses, new cars, home theatres, and everything they wanted with no noticeable income to cover it.

I’m hoping recent events may justify me in my children’s eyes,  although federal government policy is still aimed at getting everyone to be good consumers and go deeper into debt.

Charles Dickens said it best in David Copperfield: “if a man
had twenty pounds a-year for his income, and spent nineteen pounds
nineteen shillings and sixpence, he would be happy, but that if he spent
twenty pounds one he would be miserable."   I didn’t use his quote with the kids.  Compound interest was hard enough to explain to the young ones. 

“The most important thing Mom and I can give you is a good education.”

Not really an aphorism,  just a simple truth.   The government, the legal system, or fickle fate can take away your money and all you possess,  but it can’t take away (barring head injury) your education and skills.  You will be competing in a global environment with billions of other people.  Your education and good character are what will carry you through.

A corollary to this is “inheritance is bad.”  I had seen so many lives ruined by families waiting around for someone to die,  I wanted to emphasize to my kids that this was a terrible way to spend their lives.  My family has a long tradition of each generation making their own way, usually in a different field than the previous generation. 

Trust,  once lost,  takes a very long time to rebuild.

This was a big one.  As the kids became teenagers, they saw many cases of children who betrayed the trust of their friends, their parents, and their teachers.  I’m very proud that my children haven’t betrayed our trust,  and, from everything I’ve heard,  they are loyal and trustworthy companions to their friends.

You haven’t failed until you blame someone else.

Children see this every day.  The important lesson is to look to yourself for success and failure,  and not compare yourself to others.  “It was Charlie’s fault,” is just as bad an excuse as “but everyone else in the class flunked too.”  You’re going to have to deal with the obstacles caused by other people for your entire life,  so you need to succeed in spite of them.  Citing them as the cause does not justify your failure to accomplish your goal.

Again,  recent events help show the children the truth of this aphorism.  Every day,  we have the loquacious President Obama and his administration blaming all their failures on the admittedly inept Bush administration.  I only wish their teachers had taught them more about the Reagan administration,  when Ronald Reagan came into office after the disastrous Carter administration.  Unemployment was in the double digits, Interest rates were up near twenty percent, and American prestige in the world was at a hundred year low.   Looking back at Reagan’s speeches,  I find very little blame placed on the previous administration,  arguably one of the worst in American history.  Instead,  there was a message of optimism and a clear path forward.  The result was a tremendous economic boom for America.

Life is tough and then you die.

Children grow up with an innate sense that life should be fair.  Life isn’t fair,  and the earlier children understand this the better.  For many of the problems in the early teen years are caused by this deeply held belief,  and, if they never get over it,  they may become liberals.

I recommend the “life isn’t fair”  or  “ the fair only comes once a year” versions of this saying that many parents use.   I once received a call from my son’s preschool teacher.  It seems she had complained to him about something and he had responded, “life is tough and then you die.”  (This was the same preschool whose teachers once predicted Pieter would either become a master criminal or the CEO of a major corporation,  apparently not realizing at the time that one could be both.)

Family is all important.

This is just a basic core value for us.  The children have grown up with a large extended family, and it has been a wonderful experience for them. 

All the politically correct fake self-esteem exercises in the world can’t hold a candle to having a big family that loves you.  By the age of five,  all of my children realized that getting a trophy after losing a soccer game was a joke,  but that the love they received from their family after the event was real.

You are having a wonderful childhood.

This is a great one.  Tell your child this at least once a day.  We usually would tell our children this at bedtime.  They were,  so why not remind them of the fact.

You are much loved.

And, of course, the most important message of all.  Surround your children with love.  We loved them unconditionally.  They were surrounded by a family that loved them no end.  Many of their teachers loved them.  God loved them.  (A fact that you should remind your children of frequently, no matter what name you use for God.)

In summer,  when school was out,  I would write up lists of aphorisms and have the children write out what they meant.  This is a great exercise to keep your kid’s writing and analytical skills sharp,  and it is a great basis for discussions and open communication.

Aphorisms are pithy bits of wisdom that help guide us in our lives.  Choose the ones you believe in and teach them to your children. Aphorisms are not a way to close communication,  but a way to open it.  Communicate with your children.  Teach your children.  Learn from your children.

 

 

Why is Medical Malpractice Reform not part of the Health Care Debate

President Obama and the Democrats are refusing to even discuss Medical Malpractice Reform as part of the health care debate.  Why?  For the same reason they gave G.M. to the unions.  Trial lawyers are the biggest contributors to the Democratic party.  So unless you believe that trial lawyers have your interest more at heart than your doctor does, and unless you believe trial lawyers buy billions of dollars of radio, television, billboard, phone book, and parkbench ads as a public service to you,  you have to wonder if Democrats are the least bit interested in making health care better.  Or do they just want more power?

Check out Common Good's website.

And contact your Representative and Senators to ask how they can justify not even looking at Medical Malpractice Reform.

The Failure Of Capitalism

Watching the G-20 protests, I cringe when I see signs like "No bailouts for Capitalism."  This is exactly right, although I doubt the protestors meant it that way. In a capitalistic system, there should be no government bailouts. 

AIG should have never been bailed out.  One hundred and eighty billion taxpayer dollars went to paying off AIG debts to the rest of Wall Street, and much worse, hundreds of billions of dollars went to foreign banks.

The banks should have never been bailed out.  Lending taxpayer dollars to bad banks at zero percent interest so that they can lend money back to taxpayers at 15%.  That can only make sense in Washington.

General Motors should have never been bailed out.  Our entire legal system was compromised when the Obama Administration handed GM over to the labor unions over the rightful and legal claims of bondholders such as pension funds and retirement accounts. Millions of people's retirement accounts were illegally gutted so that Obama could fulfill his campaign debts to the labor unions.

Capitalism is brutal in its allocation of resources.  If you have a company that doesn't make money, resources are allocated to new companies that make money.  The old companies die, and the new, more efficient, more competitive companies come to the fore.  This evolution provides better jobs and a higher standard of living to all.

The current economic crisis wasn't caused by capitalism, it was caused by government intervention and guarantees.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were forced by the government to make risky loans.  Banks were threatened by the likes of Barney Frank to make risky loans or else.  When Bush Administration officials warned of the dangers, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd jumped to the defense of the faulty, soon to be failed, government policies.  The vultures on Wall Street came in to take full advantage of the government mess, and the vultures were indeed unfettered capitalists, in the same sense bank robbers and con men are capitalists (when not running for office).

Now, after more than a year of massive government intervention, what has changed.  We still do not know what the toxic assets are worth,  we just have taken them on the taxpayer's balance sheet.  We don't even know what banks are being bailed out.  A few high profile executives have lost their job,  but the basic machinery that caused this whole mess is still in place.

So let capitalism prevail.  Forget the bailouts.  Let the system work itself out.  The argument against this is that people will suffer.  People are going to suffer.  The dollar is going to continue its decline into worthlessness. (It has already declined 98% in purchasing power since the Federal Reserve was created.)  As the famed hedge fund manager Julian Robertson said yesterday, we are looking at 15% inflation if the Chinese and Japanese stop lending us money. 

Government is not the solution.  Government is what caused the problem.  Printing trillions of dollars will not get us out of the problems we are in.  Only the forced evolution of capitalism will.  So no more bailouts, no more printing money.  Let the system work.