Corporate Sludge Dumping

We have lived in rural, agricultural areas for more than forty years, in Texas, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. We never encountered farmers desecrating their land with sewage until it happened in our area of Shrewsbury Township beginning in 2007. Sewage sludge has poisoned the wells of surrounding land-owners, caused illness and bacterial infection among nearby residents, reduced property values, and taken from people the normal use and enjoyment of their homes. Unless you have experienced nearby sludge dumping, you cannot possibly know how bad it is. The DEP calls sludge application a normal farming practice. It is not. The Attorney General, taking the side of the polluters, strikes down any attempt by local governments to protect their citizens from the dangerous results of sludge dumping. The current situation is intolerable, and citizens will continue to oppose the collusion between politicians and corporate interests that allow violation of our rights.

Let the bastards fail

The Congress should not use taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street.

This bill does nothing to fix the root causes of the current problem. The bank liquidity crisis is caused by a decade of lack of effective regulation and oversight in the banking, mortgage, and securities markets. Rampant deregulation and lax enforcement has allowed greedy and even criminal speculators to profit from unsound and deceitful business practices.

The current Senate proposal uses taxpayer dollar bills to cover up the problems temporarily. This is like using paper dollars to smother a bonfire. It may block the flames for a short while, but will eventually be fuel for an inferno.

The notion that taxpayers will profit from the 700 Billion dollar “investment” into worthless Mortgage-backed securities is as ludicrous as the claim that the Iraq war would pay for itself.

This bill is a bad law. Let the market work to kill off incompetent bankers and speculators. We will endure the tough times ahead and emerge a stronger economy without the incompetent gamblers the bailout would preserve and cause to prosper at taxpayer expense.

Bailout Mistake

There may be a few problems with the proposed taxpayer bailout of the equity markets.

Aside from the immorality of rewarding already rich Wall Street weasels for their malfeasance in bringing the economy to ruin, the prospect of a taxpayer bailout only postpones the problem, and saddles the next administration with a huge debt and the prospect of continuing to prop up a fragile economy led by insolvent financial services giants.

If the intent of the bailout is to restore investor confidence in the market, as stated by the Secretary of the Treasury, then it has already failed. Investors are evacuating from the market like from a burning building, and are not likely to return soon. After the current debacle, the equity markets will not likely recover for many years if ever.

Indeed, the equity markets may never return to past levels, because the bailout sets a precedent of government intervention in equity markets that completely changes the economic principles of the markets. The precedent shifts risk from investors to taxpayers. Once that precedent is established, who knows what new investment dynamics will apply? Marx and Lenin would be saying “I told you so.”

The gutless Congress, with an eye on elections in a few weeks, will bluster and posture for the cameras, but will eventually roll over and agree to the bailout to avoid blame for the eventual and unavoidable economic crash.

A hasty bailout extends the legacy and flawed philosophies of the current presidency into the next administration. The needless rescue inflates the federal deficit to the point that the incoming administration will have very little opportunity to make significant change. The additional 700 billion will be borrowed from mostly foreign sources at unavoidably higher interest rates. The huge deficit and interest payments will cause the value of the dollar to further decline, thus increasing inflation as the cost of oil and other imports increases in lock step.

In the Senate hearings yesterday, the spokesmen for the Executive branch reminded me of snake oil salesmen, whose basic pitch was “give us the money, or bad things will happen”. They have a concept. They have no plan, no strategy, no tactics, and few specific actions they are willing to share in public. They offered only vague ideas of how the bailout funds would be spent. The administration has already authorized $300 Billion for the bailouts of Wall Street investment bankers and AIG. Now the request is for another $700 Billion, with no end in sight. Put in perspective, the cost of the six year Iraq war is $560 Billion.

This vague approach is not surprising, since this administration generally has a shoot-from-the-hip approach to major issues. They just seem to careen from disaster to catastrophe without learning that preparation, planning, and follow up are necessary for any major activity.



Remember some of the high points of this presidency:
“We know where the weapons of mass destruction are located.”
“The war will pay for itself.”
“Mission Accomplished”
“Good Job Brownie.”
“The Economy is strong (last month)”

We, the taxpayers, are in for tough times ahead, regardless of what the economic “experts” predict. The bailout does not fix Wall Street. It will only slow down the probable crash past the next election. At best, we can hope for a long and deep recession with a lot of belt-tightening all around.

We should just take our lumps now and let the markets sort things out. Congress should not saddle taxpayers with a huge additional debt. Let the incompetent and greedy financial companies fail. Let those responsible for bad loans fail, both lenders and borrowers. Let the Congress establish adequate regulation in the wake of the wreck. Wall Street and Main Street will survive, and will go on, poorer and wiser, but ready to rebuild.

Thankfully, there is an election soon, which affords the only glimmer of optimism in the shambles that the current bunch of incompetents has left us.

Bush is such a tool

Words cannot express my sense of powerless rage at what George Bush and friends have done to my country. He has a true genius for destruction.

"An aide to the prime minister of Canada called President Bush a moron. Well that's not fair. Here's a guy who never worked a day in his life, got rich off his Dad's money, lost the popular vote and ended up president. That's not a moron, that's genius!" —Jay Leno

Airline Insecurity

I am not so rash as to suggest that we put guns into the hands of your typical airline passenger, who is typically already on edge from having to show photo ID every ten steps on the way to the airplane, and ticked off about having his shoes searched for explosives, and may have steadied his insulted nerves with several adult beverages before boarding. No, no, I would suggest a much more basic form of self protection, and one which many Americans learned to handle as boys and girls. I am speaking of course of the venerable Louisville Slugger. As a weapon, it is simple to operate, very safe (how many accidental beatings do you hear about ?), and requires minimal training for an operator. I suggest that, upon arriving at the airport, each passenger be issued a baseball bat (hickory, not aluminum), and allowed to carry this handy utensil throughout their trip.

Imagine a group of terrorists standing up and announcing that they are taking over the plane only to be met with a rustling sound as bats were removed from their handy canvas covers, and the peculiar clanking sound of bats knocking together as passengers take a few practice swings in close quarters. In the confined space of the economy class passenger cabin, the swing of the bat would be limited to say, a drag bunt; still painful and intimidating; and with enough people pecking away at the terrorist, eventually disabling. The real action would be closer to the cockpit, in First Class, where there is almost enough room for a full swing. The bad guys would never make it to the cockpit door.

In addition to the obvious deterrent to terrorists and hijackers in the passenger cabin, this solution has many attractive side benefits, including the probability of drastically improved airline customer service, with ticket agents serving passengers with alacrity and new-found courtesy; with every effort being expended to ensure customer satisfaction. Likewise, the boarding and security screening processes could be reduced to a simple walk through metal detectors as in the old days. There is also no doubt that cabin service would also improve, with stewardesses sprinting down the aisles to insure customer needs are met. With a cabin full of bat-wielding passengers, I bet the incidence of unscheduled layovers, and long delays on the runway will almost cease to exist. This change might even improve airline food.

Dinner Conversations - Cat wrappers

Around our dinner table, conversations sometimes take bizarre excursions. The other night, the discussion turned to allergies, then specifically allergic reactions to cats. My two daughters and my wife are all susceptible to allergic reactions from cat dander. Why they do this, I do not know, since the result seems akin to handling rattlesnakes, but when any of the ladies pick up, carry, or even pet any one of our six cats, within mere minutes, they develop itchy red watering eyes, asthma-like breathing difficulty, and itching skin (the ladies, not the cats).

Now it was never my vision to own six cats, but they accumulated gradually over the years, like scum in a sewer pipe. I used to like cats, when we had one, or even two, before I was subjected to an overabundance. I have learned during my cat-owning tenure that not only are felines adept at avoiding mortal situations, but their longevity can be extended practically forever by the application of increasingly expensive diets, supplements, and medical procedures. We have established quite a portfolio of dietary and medical investment in our cats. An elderly orange tabby specimen we recently snatched back from the brink by the leaving large monetary offerings at the vets office showed her appreciation by promptly disappearing. She probably found one of the neighbors provided meals more to her liking.

In any case, as we were winding dinner down, I suggested that a good way for the ladies to reduce their cat dander reactions would be to encase the cats in plastic; either a reusable Saran wrap-like leotard, or a more permanent application of clear Krylon spray. My suggestion was met by loud and indignant reactionary rejection. I still think it has some merit, if marketed properly, perhaps as a raincoat, or a flea and tick asphyxiator, or other application purported to protect the precious cat.

I am going to work on this idea, and will probably need some test subjects, if you have any stray or surplus furry candidates to offer. I will also need a lab assistant, since I for one never touch cats except with my shoes.