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Brrrr!

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Friday, December 08, 2006 1:52:51 AM
If a booming economy is bad for the environment, would an economic depression be good?

Millions of Americans burning tires to stay warm would probably not be a good thing.

At least the scientific community is open to debate. Google "global warming" and every site sans one is about the horrors of global warming. And that one has been inexplicably shut down. Of course the media is open.

No hurricanes this year? So the earth is cooling? Not so fast. Global warming caused the lack of hurricanes. As Don Surber states here, "Remember, everything proves global warming."

Cooler heads are losing a leader in Sen. Inhofe, whose post goes to the moronic, yet powerful Sen. Boxer. We can hope the Dems plan of attack will be limited to hearings and self-ingrandizing speeches (see here for a list of awards she's received from the "please don't sick the IRS on us crowd", notice how many more awards she received in a Pres. election year. Remember Kerry almost won.)
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Unbiased?

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Friday, December 08, 2006 12:00:05 AM
Was James Baker really the best man for the job?

From a November 1st, 2004 article in The Nation...

"But critics expressed grave concern about whether Baker was an appropriate choice for such a crucial job. For instance, one of Iraq's largest creditors is the government of Saudi Arabia. The Carlyle Group does extensive business with the Saudi royal family, as does Baker's law firm, Baker Botts (which is currently defending them in a $1 trillion lawsuit filed by the families of September 11 victims). The New York Times determined that the potential conflicts of interest were so great that on December 12 it published an editorial calling on Baker to resign his posts at the Carlyle Group and Baker Botts to preserve the integrity of the envoy position."

This expose dates back to just before the 2004 election, and therefore is critical of the Bush appointed Baker. It was titled, "James Baker's Double Life: A Special Investigation". Will similiar exposes be printed now?
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Crash Helmets in Church

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Thursday, December 07, 2006 11:39:17 PM
Dan Radmacher sent me this Annie Dillard quote...

“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions.  Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke?  Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.  It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets.  Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.  For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.”

My prayer is that God becomes ever more real for me.
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Fly With US

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Tuesday, December 05, 2006 4:20:06 PM
American Airlines can ban a flyer for flatulence, but six flyers shouldn't be kicked off a U.S. Airways flight for...

1. Buying one way tickets PLUS...
2. Praying loudly to ALLAH at the gate PLUS...
3. Openly criticizing U.S. Policy and praising Sharia law PLUS...
4. Shouting "ALLAH" as boarding plane PLUS...
5. Boarding together, but sitting separately, in unassigned seats, PLUS...
6. Requesting seat belt extenders and not using them, PLUS...
7. Not staying seated, PLUS...
8. Having connections to Hamas (and that's not an airport.)

This video enumerates these points.

If Muslims boycott this airline, then maybe it's time to buy U.S. Airways stock, or at least fly with them.

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Sneakerism

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Tuesday, December 05, 2006 3:04:00 PM
Albert Mohler in a blog post about gender confusion in kindergarten states....

"Tom Little, director of the Park Day School in Oakland, California (where at least one cross-dressing kindergartner has been enrolled) explained that teachers at his school are taught a "gender-neutral" vocabulary and are told to line up children by sneaker color instead of by gender."

One scary echo from the past; they made the kids with the black sneakers sit in the back of the bus.

Not really.
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Name That Decade!

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Monday, December 04, 2006 7:33:56 PM
A hundred years ago we called it the 1900's or nineteen hundred's. How do you say what we are living in now? The 2000's? Twenty hundred's?

I've thought there would be a consensus by now, some William S. Burroughs-type or Timothy Leary-type would have coined nomenclature for this decade.

The two thousands?

Noughties? (Adopted by the BBC)

The zeroes?

The double-aughts?

The oh-ohs?

The United Nations General Assembly declared the decade of 2000-2009 as the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World."

That's precious. But it doesn't really roll off the tongue.

I've tried to come up with something. But it just makes my head hurt. Any suggestions?
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Oil Be Home For Christmas

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Monday, December 04, 2006 6:05:43 PM
If I held my family and friends to lost bets, I'd be getting a lot of free meals about now.

Back in August with gas prices at record highs (over $3.50 a gallon) I speculated often to those around me (sometimes if only to get a reaction) that gas prices would be closer to two bucks by Christmas than three. Bets were made. Dinner was my chip of choice. My sanity was questioned.

History was on my side. But even I was surprised at how quickly I was right. My step-brother-in-law who lives in Charlotte has seen a nice drop in fuel costs. As low as $2.19 today. $1.70 in Oklahoma! Are there any good restaurants in Charlotte?

I'm no economist, I'm just a guitarist. But I pay attention. I saw it coming. Increased oil reserves and production up. Unsold SUV's. Emotional speculators at the reins. People changing habits. Lack of hurricanes. All added up to a reduction in the pump price.

Most people see the price go up and assume it's not going to come back down. But oil is a commodity. It's not a cut and color at a salon that's gone up $10 every year. Or college tuition. Or healthcare. Though those aren't always doomed follow upward trends. Columbia University might not continue to be able to get top dollar if parents find out what their kids are studying.

Disclaimer: I bought Chevron stock as a hedge when gas started going up in 2003. (I'm up over 55%)
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Ow! That Hurts! Thank You!

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Monday, December 04, 2006 3:21:45 PM
My mom not so recently had rotator cuff surgery. (note: under universal healthcare she might still be waiting for the surgery.) The surgery went well, but the physical therapy afterwards was quite literally a pain. Everyday she went in and was forced to lift her arm over her head in such torment that she would cry. This went on with less frequency for weeks.

One time while talking with her on the phone, she lamented that her therapist never once said "sorry". I thought for a moment and said, "could you imagine if the therapist said sorry every time he caused someone pain? How many times a day would he apologize? 100? 200? More? It wouldn't be long before he began to hate his job. One that helps so many people. The therapist would begin to think of his work in a negative light. It would be difficult to get up everyday if you thought your job was to hurt people. Therapists are probably taught in therapist school not to say "sorry" to prevent job dissatisfaction."

Today I talked to her. It's been several years since the surgery and she has no pain in that shoulder and greater mobility in it than her "healthy" one. She said, "I can scratch itches on my back with that arm better than my good one." She admitted. "I guess it was worth the pain."

Conservatives are like physical therapists, except they haven't learned to stop apologizing. They want the best for America. It just may hurt a little in the short run. Social security reform. Limited social safety nets. Free market competition. Free trade. Social responsibility. All may hurt initially, but make for a stronger electorate in the long haul.

Republicans began "apologizing" after the 2000 campaign. Republican reparations often take the form of "working with Democrats" towards a nonconservative end. The Gang of 14, comes to mind, Medicare Prescription drug plan, amnesty for illegal immigrants, campaign reform, the list continues to grow.

The problem is: American's don't like to see societal "pain", much less experience it. The main stream media reports on misery all day long. If it was up to my mom, she never would've lifted her arm over her head but her therapist forced her to. Until America see's the gain in the pain they will keep voting for those (Democrats) who espouse short term fixes.
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15,000 Minutes of Fame

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Sunday, December 03, 2006 2:17:00 AM
A Reuters article on Yahoo today reminds us that "there is no such thing as bad publicity".

Danny Devito, Michael Richards and Mel Gibson are heralded as examples of the rule. While O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson are held up as exceptions to the rule. (hmmm, is columnist Belinda Goldsmith a closet racist?)

Duly noted: the masses tend to look down on murder and molestation. They do however have a soft spot for drunkenness (Devito), anger (Richards) and drunken anger (Gibson).

The evidence?

"Actor Danny DeVito's drunken jokes about President George W. Bush on a morning television show was the most viewed clip on online video site YouTube on Friday with more than 1.6 million clicks -- but the show's host shrugged off his behavior."

And...

"DVD sales of the television sitcom Seinfeld were robust, 12th on Amazon.com's best-seller list on Friday, after actor Michael Richard's racist rant in a comedy club and his contrite public apologies alongside various black leaders."

Not sure how much money Danny Devito gets from all those views of his rampage on The View. He's probably  more concerned about the reviews of "Deck the Halls" than the view count on YouTube. Or if Seinfeld's 7th season DVD set might be doing better than 12th (no,....wait, now 13th) a week after it's release, had it not been for Mr. Richard's unraveling. I'm a Seinfeld fan, but the last couple of times I've caught the sitcom Kramer was just that much less funny. Too much "sit" and not enough "com", I guess. And no, not so much because of his tempest at The Laugh Factory, but mostly because of his phony contrition. I can see him acting now, where I couldn't before.

Youtube.com is a fascinating phenomenon and an amazing instrument. It allows the unkown to become known through massive exposure. And the unwashed to become appear washed by massive desensitizing.

One added note. In a transparent attempt to land bespeckled, acned, twenty-something Google "search parties" to her article, Ms. Goldsmith floats the "B"-word.

"Even the appearance of Britney Spears without underwear has got people talking about whether or not people should wear underwear," said Min.

If you were wondering. Yes, you should.

Um, wear it.


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My First Campaign Contribution

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Saturday, December 02, 2006 4:58:58 PM
After reading a news story about the “clever” Left “Google-Bombing” Republican candidates, I decided to test the results of the reported trickery. I innocently googled “Santorum” and was disturbed to find that two, including the first, of the top five results were a reference to a 2003 attempt to redefine the term “santorum” as, and I quote here, “The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.”

Now I am unaware of any word, if googled, contains within the first five results a definition page of that word. Obviously this was the work of “Google-Bombers”. Though I’m sure that while the largess of Google’s executives probably don’t share Rick Santorum’s political or religious views, they are none too pleased that their crown jewel of the internet, the Google search engine, is thus manipulated, resulting in less accurate, if not polluted, search outcomes.

Now this sophomoric and rather sinister attempt to turn a man’s name into a word that could potentially be forbidden by the FCC, (a kind back door Orwellian consequence) has had one positive by-product, I did for the first time contribute to a candidate. Though a life long Republican, I have also been a life long musician, and therefore often low on resources for that unrelated to my job or the supporting of my family of five (no small feat in Southern California). Not any longer. I contributed $100 to Rick Santorum’s campaign.

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Employ! Employ!

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Saturday, December 02, 2006 4:32:53 PM
Check this out.

CEO Salaries.

Professional athlete, actor/actress, rock star salaries.

How many people do entertainers employ? A dozen? 50? 100?

How many mortgages are they responsible for?

And the top five paid CEOs (according to the AFL-CIO list) are...

Lee R. Raymond ($8.2m) - Exxon/Mobil - 83,700 employees
Henry A. McKinnell ($6.5m) - Pfizer - 106,000 employees
Edward E. Whitacre Jr. ($5.5m) - AT&T - 189,950 employees
William W. McGuire ($5.1m) - United Health - 55,000 employees
Robert L. Nardelli ($4.6m) - Home Depot - 289,800 employees

At $30 million dollars total salaries for the five top paid CEOs last year that's still less then that of Number 35 on the celebrity list, the retired Michael Jordan!

According to Barney Franks shareholders should set CEO compensation. (With the given eventuality that if the socialists in Washington don't like the numbers they'll fix'em.) Does he also champion letting fans set Kobe's salary? Or movie goers determining Tom Cruise's pay scale?
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Barney and Business

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Saturday, December 02, 2006 4:25:18 PM
I saw Barney Franks last night on PBS's Nightly Business Report (full transcript here). Starting in January he will chair the House Financial Services Committee. He is somewhat vague on CEO pay...

"I don't think the government should be telling people what to pay. I think the shareholders should. The point I would make is this. With regard to CEO in particular, I do not think the boards of directors work as effective independent checks. They are not the fox guarding the hen house. They are the hens guarding the rooster. And I think the time has come to say we need the shareholders to do this. What we're proposing is not one size fits all, one uniform rule. We're saying let the people who own those companies go for it. It seems to me a distinctly non-radical idea."

This is a perceived golden goose for the Democrats. A populist concern. And yet, "distinctly non-radical". Careful what you ask for. When shareholders are ask about CEO salaries, they generally endorse the existing compensation by voting to retain the Boards. If it were up to me, the CEO's of companies I own would be paid as much as posible so as to attract the best of the best.

Barney's top priority?

"Affordable housing is the single biggest one. We have a terrible housing crisis in this country and I think we now understand that housing is not simply a social good, but it's an economic practice (ph). The biggest difference people will see when we take over from the Republicans is we will reverse their policy of basically letting any affordable housing stock dwindle and not building any new stock."

Affordable housing? "Terrible housing crisis"? Isn't home ownership at an all-time high? Isn't minority home ownership also at an all-time high? As the speculators start getting upside down on their many adjustable mortgages we might actually see a glut of affordable homes. Is $1500 for a home in Detroit affordable? Is this really going to be the top concern of the Financial Services Committee?

When asked about the "grand bargain", Barney shows who's backpocket he is in.

"The business community, which has been in control pointedly (ph) for a long time with its allies has blocked our efforts to do anything about equity. They've frustrated the National Labor Relations Act."

And here comes Universal Healthcare...

"I want to say to the business community, look, help us get health care out of the workplace and have a good universal health care system. Let people join unions without being harassed (INAUDIBLE). Raise the minimum wage. Help more people get higher education partly through public spending."

...am the only one who remembers that fear of Universal Healthcare was part of what drove the Republicans to power in 1994?

I don't really have a lot of confidence in Barney's ability to understand economics, let alone manage an expanding economy. Time will tell.
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Free Hugs for Infidels

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Saturday, December 02, 2006 4:20:08 PM
Great video and music! I just couldn't help thinking that while we are hugging (and I'm all for hugs) there are evil people who (in spite of receiving many hugs in their life I'm sure) plan to be hugged by a coat of explosives (and rat poison tipped nails, so survivors are sick for the rest of their lives), walk into a mall/cafe/nightclub etc. & detonate it. There are others stoning/hanging homosexuals for being gay, women for being raped, and Christians for wanting to share story of God's Hug.
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In Vino Veritas

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Saturday, December 02, 2006 4:16:52 PM
Danny Devito tells America what he really thinks...

...And shows who he really is.
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Minimum Wage at Target?

Posted by Contrarian Guitarist on Saturday, December 02, 2006 4:13:58 PM
I thought WalMart was the only big box store that paid minimum wage. Not the socially lofty Target....

"Two months into her minimum wage job at Target Corp., Tara Dennis realized she and her three children would be better off if she was unemployed and on food stamps. So she quit."

Read full article here.

Three children, no father, at 23? Why no question as to where is the father? I guess that's not what this story is about. If it were about delinquent fathers then maybe. This story is on those who would be affected by the Democrats "New Direction" Minimum Wage proposal. But the article later states...

"But the proposed increase "is not a solution to poverty," said Matt Fellowes, a scholar at the Brookings Institute. "This is, for the most part, a symbolic effort," he said."

Ah, symbolism.

But the article has a tacit endorsement for nuclear families in the following admission...

"A jump to $7.25 would make a two-bedroom apartment affordable to families with two minimum wage earners in all but 19 states, said Danilo Pelletiere, research director at the National Low Income Housing Coalition."

But you'd have to read the whole article for this factoid. A skill lost on most people.

The groundwork is being clearly laid here for a living wage, ala Santa Monica.

But seriously $10.50 an hour in LA is not a living wage. At forty hours a week that at best is $1600 a month before taxes. Seen the rents in Santa Monica?

It actually saddens me to go to my local supermarket and see the cashiers giving their lives to a $10 an hour job because it pays $27.50 per hour, twice that on holidays. Would they have gone on to bigger and better things if it only paid the minimum instead of the artificially, union adjusted rate. Would they have stayed in school? Become a doctor? Cured cancer? We'll never know, because they are getting paid enough to keep them flush in flat screen TV's, a new car every five years, barely make their mortgage. Yes, keep the masses down by giving them what we tell them they want. All the while thinking that we saved them from evil corporations.
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