Best journalist in December: Derek Kravitz

I have been complaining about journalists quite often, sometimes here (see list on the right) many times while talking to a screen. It is not their fault: their training is atrocious, the money is short, the pressure is inflating their egos and they usually already think that they would do better than Congress (this I think too, but I do not show it on TV). Editors have no idea how exasperating trivia can be when you read them 20 times in a few days. I cant wait to see the end of the holidays and to escape papers on:
- the shoes of President Bush
- the absence of shirt of the president-elect
- icecream cones in Hawaii
- the illegitimate children in the Palin family


I am reading daily the New York Times (I finally forgave them for frauds that I thought were structural), the Washington Post because they are still honest and they have bright people, the Huffington Post because they come elegantly online, and the Los Angeles Times because they are always good on Latin America and the Middle East.

I have been pleased to read Derek Kravitz in the Washington Post recently. Here comes a young journalist that does not annoy me with the daily trivia. He picks up subjects where he has to dig information instead of choosing moody stuff where there is style and no content. The guy works: he has a future!

Derek Kravitz attracted my attention a few month back with a paper on Indian Affairs; I wish more had been done on the subject. There is a lot to tell. But I guess one gets to prove oneself nowadays by jumping through the hoops instead of chewing on a good thing. And today, I read with pleasure a paper entitled Homelessness Official Wins Praise With Focus on Permanent Housing HA! A journalist praises somebody in the Bush administration, it has been a long time! I wish we could find some more, because of course there are more: as a democrat, I keep thinking that a view of government without nuances is not good for democracy. This is the story of a civil servant who keeps trying: give me more. The subject of homelessness, once again, is worth more papers.

And if I could suggest to Mr Kravitz one more topic: there are one million children neglected or abused every year in this civilized country. A bunch of papers would be welcome on that topic too. Is this drug related? Ignorance related? Can we solve it with more daycare? Should we have more education for future parents? Dig this enough, you might change the worrld.

The claim of being honest

Newspapers claim they have to close doors, they "restructure", we all know what that means and still, they spend money to cover the president-elect taking a swim in Hawaii. I first thought it was ridiculous, then I realized that they are waiting for him to get killed. To be fair, that is what they expect when they follow President Bush in Texas too. The no-news today could turn into a national catastrophe at any moment: after all, President Roosevelt died in his Georgia little house. Well, ok then. How many people do you need on that kind of watch? More than two?

What irritates me even more is that, because these journalists are paid and there is nothing to say, I get coverage that enrages me, such as an analysis (in depth) of the political consequences of President-elect Obama going to swim without a shirt and tie. Gee, and you wonder why we do not want to buy newspapers anymore! What a loss for democracy!

On top of it all, there are reports that the President-elect tried to bribe journalists by offering them a beer. Mr Obama was unrepentant because he also offered them ice shavings. Come on! I understand why a journalist politely declines, but I find it unacceptable that a journalist would even think of mentioning it proudly ("none of us accepted") What am I supposed to believe? That the CNN guy who reported this proved to me how honest he is? For refusing a beer? On the contrary, it makes me anxious: I think the guy should be investigated by a district attorney back home.

There is nothing suspicious like claiming that you are so pure that you refused a beer. Either the pool of journalists comprises some very dishonest people or it shines with very stupid ones.
Or both.

The wrong planet

Photo courtesy of photos8.com

"If somehow that's impeachable, then I'm on the wrong planet and I'm living in the wrong place" This is what Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said to a WLS-TV reporter, as reported by the Huffington Post.

It makes me wonder on what planet he is living.

A lot of people ignore that the mind is a pleaser: our mind finds excuses for everything we want to do. You might define this as the original sin, on the Christian side or as some evolutionary safeguard, on the scientific side. We all know that animals cheat (monkeys more than cats and cats more than dogs), so it is human nature to cheat and feel good about it or find excuses for it. It might go back to the necessity to deceive when you hunt. If you do not know this about your own mind, you might wonder indeed on what planet you stand.

Tit-for-tat: "everybody does it"

Murder: "If I had done it, it would have been because I loved her very much" said O.J., never wondering what kind of "love" is that!
He did the same thing recently, going at some people with guns "I did not know it was illegal" he said (really?) and "I did not mean to hurt anybody"(then why use guns to confront his "friends"?)

Rape: all pedophiles on TV say that "they would not hurt a child" (they "love"children) and most rapists explain that "the bitch deserved it" or "the bitch wanted it"(nothing to do with them, poor guys trapped in this unjust world)

Stealing in a grocery store: "they can afford it"(even though it is never Walmart paying for the theft, it is just you and me)

"The boss is a jerk, so I can do this" (why don't you get another job?)

We don't have to claim that we are the most honest person in the world. We just have to know what is going on. If I was (God forbid) Gov. Rod Blagojevich' mom, I would suggest that he takes a honesty test on the web, just to know where he stands on this planet.

Everybody's brain is a pleaser: tell your kids.

Laugh of the year with Dean Acheson (1893-1971)

Photo from medaloffreedom.com

I found by accident an advice that Dean Acheson gave to Harry Truman in 1960 during the primaries (Truman was not enthusiastic about Kennedy). Some Democrats this year would have been well inspired to listen to the old wise man!

" ABOUT OTHER DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES
" (a) Never say that any of them is not qualified to be President.
" (b) Never say that any of them can't win.
" (c) Never suggest that any of them is the tool of any group or interest, or is not a true blue liberal, or has (or has used) more money than another."

p184-185 of Among Friends. Personal letters of Dean Acheson, 1980

Politics of reconciliation is not reconciliation for politics

Billy Graham, President Nixon, President Obama, Reverend Warren: the temptations of evangelism.

How come people who call themselves "evangelical" are so often deprived of the most elementary compassion? They seem to lack the qualities that make a good Christian: Jesus was open minded, isn't it? I understand that it is the Dalai Lama who said "My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness", but it does not sound foreign to me.
I am all stressed out that after giving us a government of brilliant minds, our president-elect Obama picks up a preacher who is mean spirited and does not understand evolution (see the blog of Thoughts from Kansas and the comments.
Don't we have a good evangelist in this country? I have seen a few on TV that looked perfectly respectable. It is not the case of Rev. Rick Warren, no more than was the pastor Jeremiah Wright, even taking into account his oratory style: jealous and mean. I am mad at them, and I am not even gay.

But you never know how respectable exemplary people are. Many many years ago, there was in Belgium a big evangelical crowd to listen to Billy Graham. The set was a bit theatrical: some church members that I knew (people from my own church) had volunteered to get "converted" suddenly at the end of the preaching, in order to encourage the shy agnostics in the crowd to do the same. It is a small thing, it is not a sin or a crime, but I was not surprised, years later, to see that the same Billy Graham had advised President Nixon so well.

The Wuss Generation

Sex or the Internet.

Domino effect in Savannah, GA

In the relatively small town where I live, Savannah GA, there are more and more signs of recession.

• Like everywhere else, houses stopped selling. We did not get very anxious about it, as housing around here had gone up much faster than salaries: this can only go on for so long.

• The neighbors at the fringe of society in our neighborhood disappeared: the mom who was on drugs, the couple who "worked to drink", the entire household of some freshly installed students that we suspected of selling drugs.

• The new commercial building, pretty and well located, did not rent. It is usual for old business locations to stay empty for a year, but for a new building, it is surprising.

• Places that had little excuse for survival started going, going and were gone. such as the Linen and Things specially designed for people much older than me (I am almost 70 years old: it does not leave many customers of an older generation), the fast food which was always dirty, the fabric store where the manager hated all her customers, the antique shop which was filled with expensive junk, the restaurant where nobody ever greets you. They are gone, it may be sad, but it is healthy.

• We lost the very nice couple next door and their five kids. They both worked in construction, lost their job the same day and could not pay the rent. In six months, unemployment in Savannah has gone from 4.7% to 6.0 %. Construction, manufacturing, leisure and information are hit.
  

• Shops that I really liked disappeared, the nice small Mexican restaurant just slightly out of the way, the great little store of wine and cheese, who went from fair business to loosing money for the last five months.

• Smart places are in trouble like the elegant extended stay hotel nearby, the best restaurant, the gallery owner.

• LOWES sent me a card offering me 10 dollars if I spend $25.
  

• A friend of mine lost his job in the local newspaper... but we made it in the New York Times with a sad story and a beautiful picture.

Spending more to fix the economy?

One one hand, we get called names for using too much credit, and that killed our economy. On the other hand, we are supposed to spend more to support the economy because we do not spend enough and that kills the economy.

It does not make sense. Ah, wait a minute! The US Gross Domestic Product is about 14 trillion dollars a year, about the same as the European Union and twice as much as China. But most of it is made of services (79% compared to 19.8 for industry and 1.2 for agriculture). What is services? Everything not included in the two other categories: transport, health care, finance, retailers, etc). It means that over three quarters of the economy is built on our capacity to spend: buy or rent houses, dresses and books and go to the movies and end up in a restaurant. It has been decades now that businesses look for more stuff to put in our hands, from hoola hoops to cell phones. They calculate a shorter and shorter lifetime for everything we buy to force us to buy the same thing again, be it a house, a computer, a car or a refrigerator. then of course we need credit to buy the stuff. And businesses outsource and import to make more profit. So our industrial capacity disappears.

Unhappily, the more unemployed and poor retirees like me, the less we spend and the economy shrinks. This US economy: the one that is more built on spending than on building.
So the real solution is not for the government to throw a trillion dollars around, it should be to get more industry in the US. Let us get back to a 30% industry and agriculture: that is the real wealth of a country. Working and creating before spending.

On a new verb: to bleep

- And bleep you too!

The bleeping has been started this week by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. His report on the conversations of the Governor of Illinois was filled with "bleeps that were not bleeps". The press has not stopped bleeping since.

Disclosure: I might have occasionally let go of "merdre" if I inadvertently drop something in the house. I try to stay polite at all times, because I want to be a good example for my dogs. Merdre is the equivalent, I think, of "Shite!" an insult invented by the French surrealist author Alfred Jarry.But I think that from now on I might replace it by BLEEP when I get a bad moment.

That many bleeps is not a good sign. It was very disturbing to hear it in the White House in President Nixon's days. It says how much you are going to let yourself go, how much above the rules you are. Not a good sign at all.

Moneywise

This is Ben our cat. He usually follows the movement of the tickers on CNBC. But this morning, he insisted on watching a discussion about stocks on MSNBC. You got to wonder.

Something you don't know about Blagojevich

He did not have a father like mine. My dad used to pose me ethical questions all the time. It would start like: "Suppose that you are buying police cars for the city" or "Now you are the director of the Central Bank" and it would be about bribes and corruption. "You cannot take that gift from the car company, he would say, you have to ask for a better price for the city instead". And if I asked why, he would say:"Because it is tax money. The price of the gift has to be deduced from the price of the cars, because the city is paying for it." All the time, I got these problems to solve, and some of them were not easy at all.

The worst came when I started going out: my dad would drill my would be boyfriends as well and send me warning signals if they did not have the right answer. Most of them did not. Nevertheless, I was a tad ungrateful for the advice.

I am not saying that Blagojevich is not responsible for what he did: every adult is, and it is his own greed. I am just saying that if he had had a dad like mine, brazen he would not be: there is no way that you could deny knowing right from wrong in our home.

The next terrorist

This nice-looking, highly educated young man, Jean Bastien-Thiry tried to kill President De Gaulle and was executed. When I was in France, some colleagues of mine, to my surprise, brought flowers to his tomb years and years after his death.
Many people tend to view terrorists as inflamed Muslims: it is a dangerous view. Terrorism always starts at home. Indeed terrorists have one thing in common with pedophiles: they recognize each other, communicate with each other, help each other and commit crimes together. They grow up at home, in a family who defines itself as "victim" and has "enemies". Look at the Balkans, at the IRA, at Palestine, at Serbia, at Kashmer, at Mumbai, and look at Timothy McVeigh. These guys all reason the same way: it is a community of minds.

They are now linked together, thanks to technological progress and globalization. It does not take much for a big hit:
- an intellectual leader and fund provider (remember the Marx-Engels team? Engels, who was of a well-off family was paying all of Marx expenses: terrorists thrive of that kind of alliance).
- a clique of poor and poorly educated idealists trained to be ready for anything.

Terrorism is ancient: the best description of a terrorist was written in 1885 by Emile Zola in Germinal The most instructive movie on the subject is still probably The Day of the Jackal: you got to see Edward Fox in a very impressive interpretation. I met some terrorists, I know what they look like, and they look just like that.

In a way, it is a blessing that they are so wired towards taking lives and getting headlines, because it limits the damage they do. But don't count on it to remain this simple. At Mumbai, they tried to start an Indian-Pakistan war with fake messages. It is interesting, because it goes further than "kill and get the press".

What is next? An alliance with Mexican drug dealers and an attack of the Internet.
Why the Internet? If we get no computers, we cant even go to war. The Internet remains our weakest spot. Yes, the Bush government has spent money on Gov sites' protection, but it is a short view. We need to protect the communication network per se and have banks and businesses protected too.
Why Mexico? 1) It is the closest country with major corruption, it is the easiest way to snuggle in, and there is a lot of cash around. 2) 30 milions Americans are on drugs. Who needs a Muslim terrorist? The pie is here, and it is ready.


How did I form this bizarre opinion? With a bunch of fun information. Here it is.

An old book by Cliff Stoll The cuckoo's egg. This is the true story of a young astronomer from Berkeley making some money as a computer assistant manager. Cliff is in charge of finding the origin of a 75 cents discrepancy between the two systems allotting computer time and billing at Berkeley. This 75 cents error is the astonishing start of the discovery of an international spy network. What you got to remember from the book is that almost nobody takes security at heart for a long time. Since the book, the technology has changed, people have not changed: we all have sloppy records on security.
In Vernon Vinge's Rainbows' end, a man recovering from Alzheimer has to learn new technology. It is just the start of a complex plot. The book deals with augmented reality and virtual worlds and all kinds of exciting concepts.
George Alec Effinger mixed humor, dark thoughts and dark visions in a very unique way. When Gravity Fails is set in a time where the Arab world dominates a decadent western civilization. All kinds of gadgets appear in the book that can modify one's brain.
On the dangers of all this technology to freedom, I thought that The net (1995, with Sandra Bullock) presented a good case. Some people thought that it was too far-fetched: all the stolen info in the movie comes from a popular program. Guess what? It is just what the Russian internet thieves did."A Russian company that sells fake antivirus software that actually takes over a computer pays its illicit distributors as much as $5 million a year." Source:John Markoff, NYTimes, Dec 5, 2008.
As for Mexico, go buy the last Newsweek (Dec,8,2008, Bloodshed on the border) and the last Counter Terrorism (winter issue 2008 Welcome to hell: the mexican drug war).
You add the money that drugs lords make and the money that internet thieves make, you got to conclude that we are more rich than we think. We can afford to lose $100 billion a year (see Markoff paper above) in internet fraud and 65 billions a year in illegal drugs (see drugcaucus.senate.gov). We could buy cars with all that money!
In the meantime, where does the drug money go? To friends of the US? Not a chance.
Time to ask yourself and your kids what we asked after 9/11: "Are you funding terrorism?"

The beauty of coincidences

Cerberus had three dogs heads and the tail of a dragon. It was keeping the gate of hell. The image comes from a beautiful French site about antiquity: remacle.org

On one hand, Chrysler has been asking for "A $7 billion secured working capital bridge loan by December 31, 2008."ref from Time.com
On the other hand, Chrysler was bought last year at 80% by the private firm Cerberus "for $7.4 billion from the German carmaker Daimler" ref from the NYT

Huh! I do know it is just a coincidence. But it reminds me (something or other does every morning) that I am not just as smart as I thought yesterday night.

Bizarre, bizarre all over again.

Bailing out Detroit

Yesterday, I was all in favor of bailing out the car industry because 1) I am worried about Detroit and 2) I am old and sentimental.
I should not have listened to the debate today; I changed my mind. I am so naive even in my advanced years that I thought they would come with a plan. They did not: they came with justifications for their need of money. With a few billions more, they cant even innovate, they are going to produce the same misunderstood cars and promote them through the same crooky advertisers.
I really thought yesterday, and that tells you how stupid I am, that they would come back and say stuff like:

- look, the average car price has been 40% of the median American salary every year since 1990: we are going to change that. Refrigerators and TV prices went down, we should do the same.
- We realize that hybrid cars are too expensive for now, we are going to propose a totally electric subcompact at a very low price and get into the low car rental with our unsold big cars. We are even going to offer a 10-days free rent of a big car to anybody who buys a small one. Most people buy bigger cars just to visit their mother once a year: let them do that for free.
- With all the battle for more electronics in everybody's car, we have forgotten that there is a market for cheap cars. We are going to look back at the Bug and the 2CV Citroen and produce an elegant go anywhere, cheap, robust little car with low gas consumption and low price for parts.
- We want to invest in a woman's car with stuff like a place for driving shoes.
- We are sick and tired of watching people take a buggy at the grocery store, fill it up, get everything out to pay, put everything back in, go to the car, put everything in the car and go to the house and take everything out again.From now on we produce our cars with a sliding buggy that stays upright, with a mechanism like ambulance beds. Furthermore, we are going to buy the patent to read the prices of the produces you buy directly in the buggy without putting them on a counter.

You see? That is a plan. Maybe not the best, but it is a plan.

Not only I am dangerously naive, I am also dangerously disappointed: let them die. Cut them in chunks and let a new generation of CEOs deal with each chunk.

With 10 billion dollars, you can pay and train 200,000 people for one year. Get 10 billions in reserve for pension plans(but it is not enough), 5 billions as a stimulus to small, bolder car makers. Who needs the old fusspots?

We need a car to love.
PS They are getting some money, thanks congress for that, but I still hope they will make better cars.

A grumpy fish

Some people just make your day. I was this morning at Petsmart and a lady complained about her fish. She said that it was a very nice fish for the last six years, and now it becomes aggressive and misbehaves. The assistant told her that maybe it was because the fish was getting old.
Can you believe this? It made me think of the journalist who complained that Senator McCain looked on TV like an old guy shouting at the squirrels.

Now you cannot cope with an old fish? The fish probably needs something simple like a mate or a bigger tank. The lady wanted to exchange her fish.
After six years?
If you cant handle a grumpy fish, how do you handle your job?

What kind of a world is this?

New definition of the tragicomic

Just look at this:
2006 pundits

Anti recession feast for two ($15, 5 minutes)

With all this talk about a big depression, I had a need for a little feast. Not much money does not have to be not much fun.

Candlelight dinner for two:

$ 7: unpeeled shrimps (here in GA in this season, you get a lot for that price). I heat moderately a spoon of olive oil in a pan, add a lot of garlic and a pinch of paprika (you may use some pepper if you prefer; this is not to be done with peeled shrimps of course, it would kill the taste), I throw in my shrimps and cover. Turn them over once. Cut the heat as soon as they are red, leave in covered pan.
$ 3: CA chardonnay Bay Bridge not too cold, excellent for the price.
$ 2 to 3: Two cups of jasmine rice served with half a lemon (If you have any, you may add a touch of saffron, but it is beautiful white). Or a pack of Traders Joe multigrain pilaf: it heats in its pack for two minutes in the microwave and it is splendidly flavored.

$ 1: a chocolate bar cut in two with a cup of good coffee or excellent tea.

And before you ask me, no I do not spend that much money every day, but I always eat well.

Beer, the recession and the great depression

The economy is on life-support said Mike Whitney in Global Research (globalresearch.ca) six months ago, on June 2, 2008. But the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has been waiting until today (Dec 1st) to declare us in a recession and estimate that the recession is in fact celebrating its first birthday today. It is very nice to hear that on the news because now a lot of people think that they are so much smarter than the NBER itself and we all need a little morale boost.

I think that this group is much too serious: they look at so many complex indicators that they get confused. They should follow the beer market. Even for somebody who has little passion for the economics of beer, it is obvious that the beer market has been in trouble. And if people start buying less beer, isn't it a sure sign of recession?

At random, from the news feed that fall on my desktop, here are a few signs:

1.- Anheuser-Busch has an early retirement program for 1,000 employees (Jeremiah McWilliams, Retirement day at Anheuser-Busch,12.01.2008)

2.- The company that distributes Budweiser to downtown Kansas City, went on strike Monday. (James Dornbrook, Kansas City Business Journal,12.01.2008)

3.- Heineken's S&N hit by consumer downturn (Latest Business News from Times Online,UK, 8.22.2008)

4.- Cobra put on sale by beer peer Bilimoria (Times Online,UK, 11.24.2008)

5.- Some small brewing company had to close its doors in Spain (I cant remember where I read that); I also know that small breweries complain in Texas.

All this, if you pardon the pun, has been brewing for a long time. The signs were there on Wall Street.

So I propose that we get a beer composite index, we call it BCI to look serious and it will tell us early that we are sliding into a real depression.

PS Please look at my list of uplifting movies (Dec on the right or click movies), I gave it my best.