Paul Krugman.
Fred R. Conrad/The New York TimesPaul Krugman joined The New York Times in 1999 as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page and continues as professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Mr. Krugman received his B.A. from Yale University in 1974 and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1977. He has taught at Yale, MIT and Stanford. At MIT he became the Ford International Professor of Economics.
Mr. Krugman is the author or editor of 20 books and more than 200 papers in professional journals and edited volumes. His professional reputation rests largely on work in international trade and finance; he is one of the founders of the "new trade theory," a major rethinking of the theory of international trade. In recognition of that work, in 1991 the American Economic Association awarded him its John Bates Clark medal, a prize given every two years to "that economist under forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic knowledge." Mr. Krugman's current academic research is focused on economic and currency crises.
At the same time, Mr. Krugman has written extensively for a broader public audience. Some of his recent articles on economic issues, originally published in Foreign Affairs, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American and other journals, are reprinted in Pop Internationalism and The Accidental Theorist.
On October 13, 2008, it was announced that Mr. Krugman would receive the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Monday, February 8, 2010
It’s so bad that I miss Newt Gingrich
America Is Not Yet Lost
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 7, 2010
We’ve always known that America’s reign as the world’s greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.
What we’re getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce. Instead of fraying under the strain of imperial overstretch, we’re paralyzed by procedure. Instead of re-enacting the decline and fall of Rome, we’re re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century Poland.
A brief history lesson: In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting “I do not allow!” This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.
Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison.
Last week, after nine months, the Senate finally approved Martha Johnson to head the General Services Administration, which runs government buildings and purchases supplies. It’s an essentially nonpolitical position, and nobody questioned Ms. Johnson’s qualifications: she was approved by a vote of 94 to 2. But Senator Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, had put a “hold” on her appointment to pressure the government into approving a building project in Kansas City.
This dubious achievement may have inspired Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama. In any case, Mr. Shelby has now placed a hold on all outstanding Obama administration nominations — about 70 high-level government positions — until his state gets a tanker contract and a counterterrorism center.
What gives individual senators this kind of power? Much of the Senate’s business relies on unanimous consent: it’s difficult to get anything done unless everyone agrees on procedure. And a tradition has grown up under which senators, in return for not gumming up everything, get the right to block nominees they don’t like.
In the past, holds were used sparingly. That’s because, as a Congressional Research Service report on the practice says, the Senate used to be ruled by “traditions of comity, courtesy, reciprocity, and accommodation.” But that was then. Rules that used to be workable have become crippling now that one of the nation’s major political parties has descended into nihilism, seeing no harm — in fact, political dividends — in making the nation ungovernable.
How bad is it? It’s so bad that I miss Newt Gingrich.
Readers may recall that in 1995 Mr. Gingrich, then speaker of the House, cut off the federal government’s funding and forced a temporary government shutdown. It was ugly and extreme, but at least Mr. Gingrich had specific demands: he wanted Bill Clinton to agree to sharp cuts in Medicare.
Today, by contrast, the Republican leaders refuse to offer any specific proposals. They inveigh against the deficit — and last month their senators voted in lockstep against any increase in the federal debt limit, a move that would have precipitated another government shutdown if Democrats hadn’t had 60 votes. But they also denounce anything that might actually reduce the deficit, including, ironically, any effort to spend Medicare funds more wisely.
And with the national G.O.P. having abdicated any responsibility for making things work, it’s only natural that individual senators should feel free to take the nation hostage until they get their pet projects funded.
The truth is that given the state of American politics, the way the Senate works is no longer consistent with a functioning government. Senators themselves should recognize this fact and push through changes in those rules, including eliminating or at least limiting the filibuster. This is something they could and should do, by majority vote, on the first day of the next Senate session.
Don’t hold your breath. As it is, Democrats don’t even seem able to score political points by highlighting their opponents’ obstructionism.
It should be a simple message (and it should have been the central message in Massachusetts): a vote for a Republican, no matter what you think of him as a person, is a vote for paralysis. But by now, we know how the Obama administration deals with those who would destroy it: it goes straight for the capillaries. Sure enough, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, accused Mr. Shelby of “silliness.” Yep, that will really resonate with voters.
After the dissolution of Poland, a Polish officer serving under Napoleon penned a song that eventually — after the country’s post-World War I resurrection — became the country’s national anthem. It begins, “Poland is not yet lost.”
Well, America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it.
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 7, 2010
We’ve always known that America’s reign as the world’s greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.
What we’re getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce. Instead of fraying under the strain of imperial overstretch, we’re paralyzed by procedure. Instead of re-enacting the decline and fall of Rome, we’re re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century Poland.
A brief history lesson: In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting “I do not allow!” This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.
Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison.
Last week, after nine months, the Senate finally approved Martha Johnson to head the General Services Administration, which runs government buildings and purchases supplies. It’s an essentially nonpolitical position, and nobody questioned Ms. Johnson’s qualifications: she was approved by a vote of 94 to 2. But Senator Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, had put a “hold” on her appointment to pressure the government into approving a building project in Kansas City.
This dubious achievement may have inspired Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama. In any case, Mr. Shelby has now placed a hold on all outstanding Obama administration nominations — about 70 high-level government positions — until his state gets a tanker contract and a counterterrorism center.
What gives individual senators this kind of power? Much of the Senate’s business relies on unanimous consent: it’s difficult to get anything done unless everyone agrees on procedure. And a tradition has grown up under which senators, in return for not gumming up everything, get the right to block nominees they don’t like.
In the past, holds were used sparingly. That’s because, as a Congressional Research Service report on the practice says, the Senate used to be ruled by “traditions of comity, courtesy, reciprocity, and accommodation.” But that was then. Rules that used to be workable have become crippling now that one of the nation’s major political parties has descended into nihilism, seeing no harm — in fact, political dividends — in making the nation ungovernable.
How bad is it? It’s so bad that I miss Newt Gingrich.
Readers may recall that in 1995 Mr. Gingrich, then speaker of the House, cut off the federal government’s funding and forced a temporary government shutdown. It was ugly and extreme, but at least Mr. Gingrich had specific demands: he wanted Bill Clinton to agree to sharp cuts in Medicare.
Today, by contrast, the Republican leaders refuse to offer any specific proposals. They inveigh against the deficit — and last month their senators voted in lockstep against any increase in the federal debt limit, a move that would have precipitated another government shutdown if Democrats hadn’t had 60 votes. But they also denounce anything that might actually reduce the deficit, including, ironically, any effort to spend Medicare funds more wisely.
And with the national G.O.P. having abdicated any responsibility for making things work, it’s only natural that individual senators should feel free to take the nation hostage until they get their pet projects funded.
The truth is that given the state of American politics, the way the Senate works is no longer consistent with a functioning government. Senators themselves should recognize this fact and push through changes in those rules, including eliminating or at least limiting the filibuster. This is something they could and should do, by majority vote, on the first day of the next Senate session.
Don’t hold your breath. As it is, Democrats don’t even seem able to score political points by highlighting their opponents’ obstructionism.
It should be a simple message (and it should have been the central message in Massachusetts): a vote for a Republican, no matter what you think of him as a person, is a vote for paralysis. But by now, we know how the Obama administration deals with those who would destroy it: it goes straight for the capillaries. Sure enough, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, accused Mr. Shelby of “silliness.” Yep, that will really resonate with voters.
After the dissolution of Poland, a Polish officer serving under Napoleon penned a song that eventually — after the country’s post-World War I resurrection — became the country’s national anthem. It begins, “Poland is not yet lost.”
Well, America is not yet lost. But the Senate is working on it.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
move on EliPariser
I really don't think big money can be stopped. You and I have well educated friends who share that opinion. Fascism is a fact of life here in these present United States. If I were as young as Eli Pariser, I'd move to some country in Northern Europe. In retrospect, one wonders why the Jews didn't get out of Germany when they could. The fascists simply shut off my radio microphone. Ten years from now they'll be secure enough to shoot similar sinners and say they're doing it to protect the people.
The good thing about the recent Supreme Court decision is that now corporate dollars will buy legislators from both parties. Because everyone will be on the same side it will save hours of quibbling on the floor of Congress and expedite legislation. With all votes a foregone conclusion, legislators will no longer need to assemble but will simply push a button from wherever they happen to be vacationing.
The humble Farmer
The following By ELI PARISER who I understand was one of my wife's students in Lincolnville, Maine.
Here's the lesson of 2009: Washington's problems go deeper than George W. Bush.
That's not to say that Mr. Bush was anything but a terrible president. He launched us into a disastrous and unnecessary war, ran up the federal deficit and nearly imperiled Social Security by investing it in the stock market. He prioritized politics over policy and ideology over reality. And with Dick Cheney's help, he cultivated a national atmosphere of paranoia not seen since McCarthy.
All of that made it easy to pin our nation's problems on our president. For eight years, "Stop Bush" was a simple and morally compelling rallying cry. It united the progressive and Democratic tribes with a simple praxis: To solve the problem of a bad president, a) block his proposals in Congress and b) replace him.
One year into the Obama administration, it's clear that changing presidents isn't enough. Pundits who argue over how progressive Mr. Obama really is or how well he played his cards miss the larger point. Our problem isn't just leadership, it's also the system we ask our leaders to maneuver. Corporate interests and their lobbyists have hamstrung our politics, making it difficult or impossible to make the change our country needs. Unless we confront this oversized influence directly, it will stymie our best chance in a generation for progress and reform.
The Democratic energy bill is larded with giveaways to the oil and coal industries. Health-insurance companies have declared "we won" on key pieces of health-care reform. And perhaps most infuriating, after nearly wrecking the global economy, the financial industry is poised to kill any hope of fundamental financial reform. Most economic experts believe we're no better equipped now to deal with financial crises without spending billions of tax dollars and creating massive moral hazard than we were before the crash of '08.
Yes, this is business as usual. But it has consequences for real people. More American families are suffering through a winter of unemployment. Kids in too many families won't get adequate health care. We are failing to confront the climate crisis that threatens our national and economic security.
The corporate influence in politics isn't good for people, it's not good for democracy, and it's not even good for capitalism. The housing bubble's growth, securitization, and collapse hurt everyone—businesses, communities, and individuals alike. Rather than opening up new markets, lobbying typically helps incumbent industries prevail over start-ups. Huge subsidies for oil companies mean that American solar and wind companies are less competitive than those in other nations. In this context, a genuinely free market, without lobbyist-induced favoritism, would be a step in the right direction.
These giveaways are as offensive to many people on the right as the left. And libertarians, Tea Partiers and MoveOn members can find common cause in reforming this corrupted system.
Mr. Obama, to his credit, has done more than any sitting president in a generation to counter the influence of lobbyists. But it's not enough. And of course it's not just his problem—Congress is more beholden to corporate interests than the executive branch.
We urgently need to restore our ability to govern for the common interest. That's the overarching task of 2010 (and beyond) for progressives. Here are three places we can start:
• Public financing of congressional elections. The Supreme Court is busy dismantling the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance act, which makes it all the more urgent that candidates who don't have a powerful industry backing them can get heard. Public financing for all federal elections would cost less than $1 billion a year, compared to the hundreds of billions that oil companies alone make as a result of sweetheart tax breaks.
• Eliminate our current corporate subsidies, and start with a clean slate. No more subsidies for oil drilling. No more subsidies for pharmaceutical companies. In theory, progressives and conservatives ought to be able to align on this one. And if we do it, the payoff is enormous—billions that we can return to taxpayers and invest in real economic growth.
• Apply to Congress the new lobbying restrictions that the president has established for the executive branch and the stimulus. Too many elected officials cash in on their time in office by becoming lobbyists for the industries they used to regulate.
Fix the System
Enacting these changes won't be easy. But there's one big thing working in favor of real reform: It's clear to just about all of us that the current system doesn't work. We live in the shadow of a decade of lobby-rigged markets and see the results every day in the unemployment numbers and food-stamp counts.
And we're angry about it. If we put that anger into action, we might just see the era of reform and change President Obama promised. As he said on election night, "This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were."
— Mr. Pariser is president of MoveOn.org and blogs at elipariser.com.
The good thing about the recent Supreme Court decision is that now corporate dollars will buy legislators from both parties. Because everyone will be on the same side it will save hours of quibbling on the floor of Congress and expedite legislation. With all votes a foregone conclusion, legislators will no longer need to assemble but will simply push a button from wherever they happen to be vacationing.
The humble Farmer
The following By ELI PARISER who I understand was one of my wife's students in Lincolnville, Maine.
Here's the lesson of 2009: Washington's problems go deeper than George W. Bush.
That's not to say that Mr. Bush was anything but a terrible president. He launched us into a disastrous and unnecessary war, ran up the federal deficit and nearly imperiled Social Security by investing it in the stock market. He prioritized politics over policy and ideology over reality. And with Dick Cheney's help, he cultivated a national atmosphere of paranoia not seen since McCarthy.
All of that made it easy to pin our nation's problems on our president. For eight years, "Stop Bush" was a simple and morally compelling rallying cry. It united the progressive and Democratic tribes with a simple praxis: To solve the problem of a bad president, a) block his proposals in Congress and b) replace him.
One year into the Obama administration, it's clear that changing presidents isn't enough. Pundits who argue over how progressive Mr. Obama really is or how well he played his cards miss the larger point. Our problem isn't just leadership, it's also the system we ask our leaders to maneuver. Corporate interests and their lobbyists have hamstrung our politics, making it difficult or impossible to make the change our country needs. Unless we confront this oversized influence directly, it will stymie our best chance in a generation for progress and reform.
The Democratic energy bill is larded with giveaways to the oil and coal industries. Health-insurance companies have declared "we won" on key pieces of health-care reform. And perhaps most infuriating, after nearly wrecking the global economy, the financial industry is poised to kill any hope of fundamental financial reform. Most economic experts believe we're no better equipped now to deal with financial crises without spending billions of tax dollars and creating massive moral hazard than we were before the crash of '08.
Yes, this is business as usual. But it has consequences for real people. More American families are suffering through a winter of unemployment. Kids in too many families won't get adequate health care. We are failing to confront the climate crisis that threatens our national and economic security.
The corporate influence in politics isn't good for people, it's not good for democracy, and it's not even good for capitalism. The housing bubble's growth, securitization, and collapse hurt everyone—businesses, communities, and individuals alike. Rather than opening up new markets, lobbying typically helps incumbent industries prevail over start-ups. Huge subsidies for oil companies mean that American solar and wind companies are less competitive than those in other nations. In this context, a genuinely free market, without lobbyist-induced favoritism, would be a step in the right direction.
These giveaways are as offensive to many people on the right as the left. And libertarians, Tea Partiers and MoveOn members can find common cause in reforming this corrupted system.
Mr. Obama, to his credit, has done more than any sitting president in a generation to counter the influence of lobbyists. But it's not enough. And of course it's not just his problem—Congress is more beholden to corporate interests than the executive branch.
We urgently need to restore our ability to govern for the common interest. That's the overarching task of 2010 (and beyond) for progressives. Here are three places we can start:
• Public financing of congressional elections. The Supreme Court is busy dismantling the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance act, which makes it all the more urgent that candidates who don't have a powerful industry backing them can get heard. Public financing for all federal elections would cost less than $1 billion a year, compared to the hundreds of billions that oil companies alone make as a result of sweetheart tax breaks.
• Eliminate our current corporate subsidies, and start with a clean slate. No more subsidies for oil drilling. No more subsidies for pharmaceutical companies. In theory, progressives and conservatives ought to be able to align on this one. And if we do it, the payoff is enormous—billions that we can return to taxpayers and invest in real economic growth.
• Apply to Congress the new lobbying restrictions that the president has established for the executive branch and the stimulus. Too many elected officials cash in on their time in office by becoming lobbyists for the industries they used to regulate.
Fix the System
Enacting these changes won't be easy. But there's one big thing working in favor of real reform: It's clear to just about all of us that the current system doesn't work. We live in the shadow of a decade of lobby-rigged markets and see the results every day in the unemployment numbers and food-stamp counts.
And we're angry about it. If we put that anger into action, we might just see the era of reform and change President Obama promised. As he said on election night, "This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were."
— Mr. Pariser is president of MoveOn.org and blogs at elipariser.com.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The wisdom and foresight of Abraham Lincoln
This passage appears in a letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.
"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. .. . It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching hat unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
The passage appears in a letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.
For a reliable pedigree, cite p. 40 of The Lincoln Encyclopedia, by Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY). That traces the quote's lineage to p. 954 of Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait, (Vol. 2) by Emanuel Hertz (Horace Liveright Inc, 1931, NY).
A final Lincoln tidbit, although it pertains to one very specific case:
"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."
speech to Illinois legislature, Jan. 1837.
See Vol. 1, p. 24 of Lincoln's Complete Works,
ed. by Nicolay and Hay, 1905)
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I want to thank Harvey for calling this quote to my attention.
Your Neighbor humble
"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. .. . It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching hat unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."
The passage appears in a letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.
For a reliable pedigree, cite p. 40 of The Lincoln Encyclopedia, by Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY). That traces the quote's lineage to p. 954 of Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait, (Vol. 2) by Emanuel Hertz (Horace Liveright Inc, 1931, NY).
A final Lincoln tidbit, although it pertains to one very specific case:
"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people's money to settle the quarrel."
speech to Illinois legislature, Jan. 1837.
See Vol. 1, p. 24 of Lincoln's Complete Works,
ed. by Nicolay and Hay, 1905)
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I want to thank Harvey for calling this quote to my attention.
Your Neighbor humble
Monday, January 25, 2010
Radio friend Mike sent me this. It turns up on another blog.
The primary indication and responsibility of citizenship is the right to vote. While a citizen may choose NOT to exercise that right, corporations don’t even HAVE a right to vote, at least not in the legal way of a citizen. In a sense, they DO vote. In the Middle East this form of voting is called “baksheesh” or bribery, and though it’s widely practiced, even there it’s illegal. In the US, it’s called “corporate campaign contributions,” but unlike the Middle East, it’s legal, mainly because these contributions have bought laws that make them legal. This is the same as Alice’s Red Queen saying that a word means what she wants it to mean. However, to mix a metaphor, A rose by any other name is still bribery.
Money is NOT free speech. Money is legal tender and it says so right on the bills. Legal tender, of course, means the money legally can be offered (tendered) as a medium of exchange. When corporations tender money to a political candidate, what is it that the political candidate can offer in exchange? The only thing any politician does is create legislation, therefore, ipso facto, the corporation tenders money in exchange for legislation. Of course, this would be legislation favorable to the corporation. In other words, this is bribery. And here, too, the bribees have seen to it that the word no longer means what it means.
I’d like to start a campaign of rebranding our political heritage in view of this miserable situation into which the Supreme Court has just put us. This falls in line with the strategy the far right has used so effectively in the past: “Obama is a Muslim;” “The single payer plan is Socialism;” “Global warming is a liberal plot.” A grassroots movement that would be the liberal internets’ equivalent of the tea-baggers but with a less deviant symbolism.
So, I suggest everybody start calling our country “The United Corporations of America.” The term “Citizen” should become “Minion;” we should incessantly insist that in light of this new ruling, we no longer can call our form of government a Democracy, but a Corporatocracy; let’s worry that the Bill of Rights will be reworked and then renamed the “Bill of Indenture;” let’s reveal that the House of CEOs and the Board Chairmen’s Senate plan to rewrite the Preamble to the Constitution to read, “Government of Corporations, by Corporations and for Corporations.”
In addition, we should claim that a manifesto will soon be published that eliminates a citizen’s guarantees of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and in its place will be the corporations’ guarantees of Bonuses, Freedom from Regulations and the Pursuit of Unlimited Profit.
The primary indication and responsibility of citizenship is the right to vote. While a citizen may choose NOT to exercise that right, corporations don’t even HAVE a right to vote, at least not in the legal way of a citizen. In a sense, they DO vote. In the Middle East this form of voting is called “baksheesh” or bribery, and though it’s widely practiced, even there it’s illegal. In the US, it’s called “corporate campaign contributions,” but unlike the Middle East, it’s legal, mainly because these contributions have bought laws that make them legal. This is the same as Alice’s Red Queen saying that a word means what she wants it to mean. However, to mix a metaphor, A rose by any other name is still bribery.
Money is NOT free speech. Money is legal tender and it says so right on the bills. Legal tender, of course, means the money legally can be offered (tendered) as a medium of exchange. When corporations tender money to a political candidate, what is it that the political candidate can offer in exchange? The only thing any politician does is create legislation, therefore, ipso facto, the corporation tenders money in exchange for legislation. Of course, this would be legislation favorable to the corporation. In other words, this is bribery. And here, too, the bribees have seen to it that the word no longer means what it means.
I’d like to start a campaign of rebranding our political heritage in view of this miserable situation into which the Supreme Court has just put us. This falls in line with the strategy the far right has used so effectively in the past: “Obama is a Muslim;” “The single payer plan is Socialism;” “Global warming is a liberal plot.” A grassroots movement that would be the liberal internets’ equivalent of the tea-baggers but with a less deviant symbolism.
So, I suggest everybody start calling our country “The United Corporations of America.” The term “Citizen” should become “Minion;” we should incessantly insist that in light of this new ruling, we no longer can call our form of government a Democracy, but a Corporatocracy; let’s worry that the Bill of Rights will be reworked and then renamed the “Bill of Indenture;” let’s reveal that the House of CEOs and the Board Chairmen’s Senate plan to rewrite the Preamble to the Constitution to read, “Government of Corporations, by Corporations and for Corporations.”
In addition, we should claim that a manifesto will soon be published that eliminates a citizen’s guarantees of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and in its place will be the corporations’ guarantees of Bonuses, Freedom from Regulations and the Pursuit of Unlimited Profit.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Commentary for The humble Farmer's Radio Program May 3, 2009
1. You know that many lives are controlled by the computer and email and my life is one of them. I admit that I am addicted to email. If you email me and don’t get back at least a “Thank you,” I probably didn’t get it and you should try again and then call me to find out what went wrong. Yes, I admit it. I am weak, I am addicted, and answering your email and commenting on what you and other friends send me, dictates what I think and what I do for a good part of my day. Yes. You knew I was going to give you an example. Because I’m 73 years old you can believe I opened this particular email with a great deal of eager anticipation because --- it said, “Boost your night experience.” I thought I was going to learn something that would help me get more sleep.
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2. You have heard me confess that I am addicted to email. And although email does not direct the course of my life, I very often get something in my email that warrants our attention. Here's an email I got about the swine flu last week that said, "Read my ten page special report on this vital topic so you can avoid deception and manipulation by the conventional media." Of course, what the sender of that email might well mean is, "Read my ten page special report on this vital topic so you can avoid deception and manipulation by the conventional media and be deceived and manipulated by me instead." Do you think that after going through all the bother of writing up a ten page report that this person is simply going to tell us to thoroughly wash our hands with hot, soapy water? Wouldn't you sooner suspect that this person is going to try to sell us a pill or some kind of body-building food supplement?
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3. Can you believe that when I googled cold fusion, I turned up an ad for a tempering valve? The computer gremlins knew that I was out there on the Internet pricing tempering valves last week. And, no, save yourself the time of sending me an email --- I was not planning to attach a tempering valve to my wife.
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4. Bev, who is a long time radio friend in Belfast, sent me a You Tube link to Britain’s version of American Idyll which introduced me to the great voice and personality of Susan Boyle. Susan’s singing was so good it made me cry. While drying my tears, I listened to Susan over and over, and while fumbling around I also found the opera singer Paul Potts who was discovered on the same show. I was raised on Paul's kind of music, and tears came to my eyes when I first heard Paul Potts sing. And it still happens. It has to do with --- I guess you would call it soul, rather than technical mastery. Only a few greats can make me cry with their music. Dick Cash was one. Dick Cash died in 1988 with ALS. My sister Marta can make me cry with her singing. Over 50 years ago Dick's sister, Rita Cash, could raise the hair on the back of my neck with her singing. If Rita Cash had sung professionally in clubs, she would have needed several bodyguards to get home. Although I am not a fan of American Idyll, I applaud the caustic Simon for discovering great talent --- the likes of Susan Boyle and Paul Potts --- that would otherwise never be heard.
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5. May I quote for you a ditty that you will immediately recognize from the writings of Mark Twain?
Conductor, when you receive a fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare,
A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare,
A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
CHORUSPunch, brothers! punch with care!
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
You will remember from Mark Twain’s story that once anyone got that insipid rhyme in their heads, it stayed there. Punch, brothers! punch with care! Punch in the presence of the passenjare! No matter what you did --- eat, socialize, try to sleep --- the Punch, brothers! punch with care! Punch in the presence of the passenjare kept running through your head. It was maddening, and the only way to free oneself from the grip of the rhyme, was to teach it to someone else. What brought this poem to mind? Susan Boyle on You Tube. My radio friend Bev in Belfast told me to listen to Susan Boyle on You Tube and I did. There was something about Susan Boyle that made me listen to her over a dozen times. She was singing a song I’d never heard before and now I can’t get it out of my head. I hear it morning, noon and night. Would you mind if I sang it for you?
+
6. Here’s your humble Farmer question of the week. Are you ready? If I have heard of Susan Boyle and the singing contest in England you certainly have. Now you have heard that Susan Boyle might have some competition from a young boy named Shaheen Jafargholi. No matter who wins the singing contest in England can there be any doubt in your mind but what within a year both Susan and Shaheen will be able to pay off the mortgages on their homes? You and I have followed the careers of enough singing stars to know that a lot of money is going to immediately pour in upon both of them. So, your humble Farmer question for this week is --- which one do you think is most likely to die from a drug overdose before the age of 22?
+
7. Dear humble. I am at my aunts house in France, we came by way of a small town in Spain called Barcelona. On the way I met an older traveler, with a Slovakian girlfriend, in Tossa de Mar, an ancient village by the sea, we got to talking and it turns out he had been to Maine some twenty years ago. He told me of a great radio show he had heard while there, some Jazz and humorous wisdom, of course he was speaking of your show, in those days it wasn't even on at a reasonable hour! I told him you had been censored because of your brilliant war rant and he was amazed at such nonsense. The Slovak too shook her head in disgust. Anyway …My Aunt and her companion have fixed up a formerly abandoned 400 year old Manganerie, that is a big house they used to raise silk worms in, (Nations as old as these take a lot of maintenance) we'll be home soon, if your sailing past Green's Island stop in for a mussel salad sandwich bonne chance, Au revoir john. Thank you for this John. Isn’t that amazing? A man visits Maine and the thing he remembers about Maine 20 years later was a great radio show with jazz and humorous wisdom. Isn’t it nice that Maine excelled at something? I think there is a lesson to be learned here if you are young and thinking about entertaining your friends on the air. ---Make a good radio show --- only if you dare. Mediocrity is a lot safer.
+
8. We are losing our enemies at an alarming rate and America’s washed up politicians who once ruled by fear are justly alarmed. Enemies are necessary if one wants to consolidate power by circumventing the US Constitution with overnight panic legislation --- which is why you now see on television these has-beens with their prognosis of doom, as the leaders of several countries approach a cheerful, intelligent man who is willing to listen. What do you think? Should the present administration have the option to choose its own enemies? You don’t need to be reminded that our enemies change about once every ten years, as dictated by economic/political expediency. In 1972 Nixon befriended communist China, and everyone now knows what an inundation of dirt cheap products have done to almost every American employer --- and their employees. The obvious goal: one step closer to our O. Henry economy of a century ago where hungry store clerks and scrub girls would gladly settle for $4 a week. Another president had a low tolerance level for any country with oil reserves. He tried to either blow them back to the stone age and put their economy and infrastructure in the hands of American corporations --- or put them in a position where a smile and shaking hands would be considered an act of aggression. Thanks to your vote, America is presently on the right track, and as long as our children are not deprived of a broad education America will continue to prosper: A child who reads science and technology will become respected and prosperous. A child who reads history will become a democrat.
+
9. Here’s another letter, this one from Dave who says, “your show is great. whenever my lady or i hear a django tune now we both shout "DJANGO!" at the end. i like old four banger fords too. thanks for having ears, a heart and a spine. - dave & tricia, in somerville massachusetts
+
10. You saw it on television. A polar bear attacked a woman at a Berlin Zoo after she climbed a fence and jumped into its pen at feeding time. No one seems to know why the woman jumped into a pen with a bear, but it might help explain why some people vote for republicans.
+
11. You’ve seen the first lady holding President Obama’s hand when they get off an airplane. This worries me, because when my wife Marsha and I get off an airplane she always holds my hand. She’s afraid I’ll either get lost or fall down.
+
12. I am going to talk about Compact Florescent light bulbs. Perhaps you know what I’m talking about. CFL bulbs look like a large white corkscrew and we are told they have mercury in them. When I heard that these bulbs would last a long, long time, I bought a bushel basket full of them and replaced all the old bulbs in my house. As I recall, a couple didn’t work when I first screwed them into the socket but I figured that was par for the course. Then I heard from several other sources that a few were duds and that they don’t last if you keep turning them on and off. What good is a light bulb if you can’t turn it off? Are we going to have the same problems with the presently touted LED’s?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kdvHUUDsJ0&NR=1
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread431043/pg1
+
13. Did you see the 60 Minutes story on cold fusion and Martin Fleischmann? He is the man who was hounded out of science after introducing cold fusion to the world 20 years ago. The way I understand it, cold fusion is nuclear power without the unpleasant waste that will forever contaminate the planet. The crusty, old experts tell us that cold fusion must be junk science because neither its exponents nor anyone else can experimentally replicate the results. But I like the looks of what I’ve seen of cold fusion so far and I’ll tell you why. Although I know nothing about physics or science, one of my favorite bedside books --- that I have read and reread for years, is Dampier’s A History of Science. So --- although I know nothing about physics or science, I am more than passingly conversant with the history of physics and science. Hardly any great discovery has ever been eagerly accepted by the experts. You know that Ignatius Semmelweis not only lost his job for suggesting that doctors wash their hands, but also came to a bad end. Most scientists are just like everybody else in that they have to look around and see what their neighbors are doing before they’ll take a stand on anything. It might take learned scientists 20 years to finally accept something like Quantum Theory. Which really puts scientists on the cutting edge when you consider it might take society at least 40 years and the church over 400 years to finally do the same thing. Here’s an ancient quote I found which might apply to the cold fusion controversy today: the statistical theories hide a completely determined and ascertainable reality behind variables which elude our experimental techniques.
+
Robert Karl Skoglund
785 River Road
St. George, ME 04860-4818
207-226-7442
humble@humblefarmer.com
Hear humble's radio show on his web page
http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/ThisWeek.html
See and hear humble tell stories on his web page:
http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/
Hear dozens of humble's rants and even his radio show on PRX:
http://www.prx.org/Enjoy humble's music/humor program on Maine cable television stations:http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/TvTowns.html
Did you know that Robert Skoglund, The humble Farmer, stands on stages and tells funny stories?Ask humble to entertain you and your friends with dry stories like these:http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/PortlandA.html
You can visit humble and Marsha at their Bed & Breakfast on the coast of Maine.http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/BaB.html
+
2. You have heard me confess that I am addicted to email. And although email does not direct the course of my life, I very often get something in my email that warrants our attention. Here's an email I got about the swine flu last week that said, "Read my ten page special report on this vital topic so you can avoid deception and manipulation by the conventional media." Of course, what the sender of that email might well mean is, "Read my ten page special report on this vital topic so you can avoid deception and manipulation by the conventional media and be deceived and manipulated by me instead." Do you think that after going through all the bother of writing up a ten page report that this person is simply going to tell us to thoroughly wash our hands with hot, soapy water? Wouldn't you sooner suspect that this person is going to try to sell us a pill or some kind of body-building food supplement?
+
3. Can you believe that when I googled cold fusion, I turned up an ad for a tempering valve? The computer gremlins knew that I was out there on the Internet pricing tempering valves last week. And, no, save yourself the time of sending me an email --- I was not planning to attach a tempering valve to my wife.
+
4. Bev, who is a long time radio friend in Belfast, sent me a You Tube link to Britain’s version of American Idyll which introduced me to the great voice and personality of Susan Boyle. Susan’s singing was so good it made me cry. While drying my tears, I listened to Susan over and over, and while fumbling around I also found the opera singer Paul Potts who was discovered on the same show. I was raised on Paul's kind of music, and tears came to my eyes when I first heard Paul Potts sing. And it still happens. It has to do with --- I guess you would call it soul, rather than technical mastery. Only a few greats can make me cry with their music. Dick Cash was one. Dick Cash died in 1988 with ALS. My sister Marta can make me cry with her singing. Over 50 years ago Dick's sister, Rita Cash, could raise the hair on the back of my neck with her singing. If Rita Cash had sung professionally in clubs, she would have needed several bodyguards to get home. Although I am not a fan of American Idyll, I applaud the caustic Simon for discovering great talent --- the likes of Susan Boyle and Paul Potts --- that would otherwise never be heard.
+
5. May I quote for you a ditty that you will immediately recognize from the writings of Mark Twain?
Conductor, when you receive a fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare,
A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare,
A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
CHORUSPunch, brothers! punch with care!
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
You will remember from Mark Twain’s story that once anyone got that insipid rhyme in their heads, it stayed there. Punch, brothers! punch with care! Punch in the presence of the passenjare! No matter what you did --- eat, socialize, try to sleep --- the Punch, brothers! punch with care! Punch in the presence of the passenjare kept running through your head. It was maddening, and the only way to free oneself from the grip of the rhyme, was to teach it to someone else. What brought this poem to mind? Susan Boyle on You Tube. My radio friend Bev in Belfast told me to listen to Susan Boyle on You Tube and I did. There was something about Susan Boyle that made me listen to her over a dozen times. She was singing a song I’d never heard before and now I can’t get it out of my head. I hear it morning, noon and night. Would you mind if I sang it for you?
+
6. Here’s your humble Farmer question of the week. Are you ready? If I have heard of Susan Boyle and the singing contest in England you certainly have. Now you have heard that Susan Boyle might have some competition from a young boy named Shaheen Jafargholi. No matter who wins the singing contest in England can there be any doubt in your mind but what within a year both Susan and Shaheen will be able to pay off the mortgages on their homes? You and I have followed the careers of enough singing stars to know that a lot of money is going to immediately pour in upon both of them. So, your humble Farmer question for this week is --- which one do you think is most likely to die from a drug overdose before the age of 22?
+
7. Dear humble. I am at my aunts house in France, we came by way of a small town in Spain called Barcelona. On the way I met an older traveler, with a Slovakian girlfriend, in Tossa de Mar, an ancient village by the sea, we got to talking and it turns out he had been to Maine some twenty years ago. He told me of a great radio show he had heard while there, some Jazz and humorous wisdom, of course he was speaking of your show, in those days it wasn't even on at a reasonable hour! I told him you had been censored because of your brilliant war rant and he was amazed at such nonsense. The Slovak too shook her head in disgust. Anyway …My Aunt and her companion have fixed up a formerly abandoned 400 year old Manganerie, that is a big house they used to raise silk worms in, (Nations as old as these take a lot of maintenance) we'll be home soon, if your sailing past Green's Island stop in for a mussel salad sandwich bonne chance, Au revoir john. Thank you for this John. Isn’t that amazing? A man visits Maine and the thing he remembers about Maine 20 years later was a great radio show with jazz and humorous wisdom. Isn’t it nice that Maine excelled at something? I think there is a lesson to be learned here if you are young and thinking about entertaining your friends on the air. ---Make a good radio show --- only if you dare. Mediocrity is a lot safer.
+
8. We are losing our enemies at an alarming rate and America’s washed up politicians who once ruled by fear are justly alarmed. Enemies are necessary if one wants to consolidate power by circumventing the US Constitution with overnight panic legislation --- which is why you now see on television these has-beens with their prognosis of doom, as the leaders of several countries approach a cheerful, intelligent man who is willing to listen. What do you think? Should the present administration have the option to choose its own enemies? You don’t need to be reminded that our enemies change about once every ten years, as dictated by economic/political expediency. In 1972 Nixon befriended communist China, and everyone now knows what an inundation of dirt cheap products have done to almost every American employer --- and their employees. The obvious goal: one step closer to our O. Henry economy of a century ago where hungry store clerks and scrub girls would gladly settle for $4 a week. Another president had a low tolerance level for any country with oil reserves. He tried to either blow them back to the stone age and put their economy and infrastructure in the hands of American corporations --- or put them in a position where a smile and shaking hands would be considered an act of aggression. Thanks to your vote, America is presently on the right track, and as long as our children are not deprived of a broad education America will continue to prosper: A child who reads science and technology will become respected and prosperous. A child who reads history will become a democrat.
+
9. Here’s another letter, this one from Dave who says, “your show is great. whenever my lady or i hear a django tune now we both shout "DJANGO!" at the end. i like old four banger fords too. thanks for having ears, a heart and a spine. - dave & tricia, in somerville massachusetts
+
10. You saw it on television. A polar bear attacked a woman at a Berlin Zoo after she climbed a fence and jumped into its pen at feeding time. No one seems to know why the woman jumped into a pen with a bear, but it might help explain why some people vote for republicans.
+
11. You’ve seen the first lady holding President Obama’s hand when they get off an airplane. This worries me, because when my wife Marsha and I get off an airplane she always holds my hand. She’s afraid I’ll either get lost or fall down.
+
12. I am going to talk about Compact Florescent light bulbs. Perhaps you know what I’m talking about. CFL bulbs look like a large white corkscrew and we are told they have mercury in them. When I heard that these bulbs would last a long, long time, I bought a bushel basket full of them and replaced all the old bulbs in my house. As I recall, a couple didn’t work when I first screwed them into the socket but I figured that was par for the course. Then I heard from several other sources that a few were duds and that they don’t last if you keep turning them on and off. What good is a light bulb if you can’t turn it off? Are we going to have the same problems with the presently touted LED’s?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kdvHUUDsJ0&NR=1
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread431043/pg1
+
13. Did you see the 60 Minutes story on cold fusion and Martin Fleischmann? He is the man who was hounded out of science after introducing cold fusion to the world 20 years ago. The way I understand it, cold fusion is nuclear power without the unpleasant waste that will forever contaminate the planet. The crusty, old experts tell us that cold fusion must be junk science because neither its exponents nor anyone else can experimentally replicate the results. But I like the looks of what I’ve seen of cold fusion so far and I’ll tell you why. Although I know nothing about physics or science, one of my favorite bedside books --- that I have read and reread for years, is Dampier’s A History of Science. So --- although I know nothing about physics or science, I am more than passingly conversant with the history of physics and science. Hardly any great discovery has ever been eagerly accepted by the experts. You know that Ignatius Semmelweis not only lost his job for suggesting that doctors wash their hands, but also came to a bad end. Most scientists are just like everybody else in that they have to look around and see what their neighbors are doing before they’ll take a stand on anything. It might take learned scientists 20 years to finally accept something like Quantum Theory. Which really puts scientists on the cutting edge when you consider it might take society at least 40 years and the church over 400 years to finally do the same thing. Here’s an ancient quote I found which might apply to the cold fusion controversy today: the statistical theories hide a completely determined and ascertainable reality behind variables which elude our experimental techniques.
+
Robert Karl Skoglund
785 River Road
St. George, ME 04860-4818
207-226-7442
humble@humblefarmer.com
Hear humble's radio show on his web page
http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/ThisWeek.html
See and hear humble tell stories on his web page:
http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/
Hear dozens of humble's rants and even his radio show on PRX:
http://www.prx.org/Enjoy humble's music/humor program on Maine cable television stations:http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/TvTowns.html
Did you know that Robert Skoglund, The humble Farmer, stands on stages and tells funny stories?Ask humble to entertain you and your friends with dry stories like these:http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/PortlandA.html
You can visit humble and Marsha at their Bed & Breakfast on the coast of Maine.http://www.thehumblefarmer.com/BaB.html
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