“Great events never have minor omens. When great evil occurs, great good follows.” So says Nichiren, founder of the largest sect of Buddhism practiced in the United States. While it would be an overstatement to characterize the entirety of the Bush administration years as great evil, there certainly has been plenty of it. Greed, lies, [...]
I am getting impatient. I want the election to be over so I can stop watching Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Larry King, Nightline and local news. What else is there to blog about right now but the election? Plenty of stuff; the same stuff that I used to blog about. But I am consumed [...]
Once upon a time, John McCain was a Maverick. At least as late as 2000, he still behaved like one. Unfortunately for him, that helped seal his doom in the contest for the Republican nomination for President. The sad truth he took from defeat is that in order to fulfill his Vietnam POW-era dream of the [...]
What news will come from the MastersButtheads of the Universe today, a continuing fall in the global economy perhaps? Maybe the MBAs should have “learned to play the guitar,” as Mark Knopfler suggests, instead of learning to play the market. At least then the suffering we are enduring would have been limited to our ears [...]
It could be the slogan that was, “let capitalists be capitalists.” It likely will be again, soon enough. But the “bailout” is coming soon with restrictions that Wall Street and others haven’t seen for awhile. Don’t hold your breath that the pending legislation will reverse much of the effects of deregulatory fervor that swept the Congress [...]
Obama will tell you it’s Bush and his buddy McCain that helped make the current money morass happen. He is not entirely wrong but he is not entirely right either. Congress facilitated the mess by repealing the Glass-Steagal Act that kept the insurance, investment and banking businesses firewalled from one another. Institutional investors, including the [...]
Treasury Secretary Paulson and Republicans in Congress object to tying limits on executive compensation (especially “golden parachutes”) to bailouts in the legislation now pending. Even with such limits, a taxpayer revolt may be in the offing. Freemarket conservatives jump up and down, stamp their feet and scream “class warfare!” whenever anyone talks of raising taxes [...]
Traveling through Texas on several occasions, it came to my attention that there is a serious shortage of porcelain conveniences in the Lone Star State. In many restaurants, gas stations and other businesses one stops in, there is only one bathroom–rather than a men’s and women’s restroom. But that’s not the real problem. In most [...]
An odd sort of faulty economic impact analysis keeps leaving the lips of TV and radio talking heads. I suppose it is part and parcel of the often observed herd behavior of mainstream media’s first line reporters. High gasoline prices are keeping people home. Vacations will be shortened or limited to local travel. In the end, [...]
Continue reading about Gas Prices–The Real Harm Is NOT Vacations
I can’t resist, having seen a recent ad featuring the candidate himself, talking about his attitudes toward war. In it, John McCain refers to the five years he spent as a POW in Vietnam. For all that time spent there and his vaunted foreign policy experience, why can’t he pronounce the name of the country [...]
Continue reading about McCain Foreign Policy Advantage? Listen Closely