The false masters of words

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – – that’s all.”
Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

We seem to have lots of Humpty Dumptys in politics, their words mean what they choose, not what most people think they mean.

Take the “Freedom Caucus”.  What do they mean?  It certainly doesn’t mean freedom to govern ourselves according to generally accepted rules.  To them it means freedom to do what they damn well please, to hell with whoever else's freedom they tromp on.

Just what are “conservatives” conserving.  It certainly isn’t resources.  It certainly isn’t careful consideration before making any changes.  To too many “conservatives” it means either conserving the power of large corporations or conserving a very narrow view of religion. ironically, the latter don’t hold the former to “you cannot serve both God and Mammon.” - Matthew 6:24.

As I’ve written more times than some of my readers would like, “free market” means, according to the Humpty Dumptys is again, free for the sellers to do as they please.  To them the free market is not providing buyers with all the information they need and is not avoiding externalities such as pollution and worker safety.  These to them are impediments to “free markets”.

“Liberals” misuse words also, but their goals tend to be more friendly to the general populace.  But sometimes their “liberality” works counter to the general welfare or unnecessarily creates opposition to certain desirable goals: like letting people lead the lives they choose.

I think “gay marriage” has lost a lot of otherwise “liberal” votes because many supporters have a different view of marriage.  I’ve always thought this problem should be dealt with by a “granny rule”.  If two grandmothers choose to live together, is it our business whether they sleep in the same bed or in different rooms?  It is “our business” if one of them dies.  Does the survivor have to sell the house to pay the inheritance of the deceased’s children and grandchildren?  To avoid this situation, any group of people who choose to live together should be able to have a civil contract that protects the interests of each member of the group.

Corporate accuracy?

I've been fiddling around with synchronization problems.  Notes on one device are not being updated on other devices.  While working on this problem, I've had to give a password.  Of course, I used the wrong password.

As part of resetting the password, I've been told by Apple that someone has been using another device to reset my password from such and such location.  On one device, I was told that the location was near St. Cloud MN.  I'm in Duluth MN.  Later, on a different device, the location was near Chicago IL.

Gosh!  What if I lose my iPhone?  Will Find My Phone tell me its in Chicago?

This is corporate accuracy or efficiency???

Paean to true free market holdouts

As my regular readers know (probably too well) that I object strongly to the misuse of the term “free market”.  Too often it means that corporations should be free to do what they damn well please without pesky regulations like providing buyers with full information or air and water pollution reduction.

Well, there are a few markets where there are many sellers, not enough, but they seem to be holding their own.  These are locally-owned

hardware stores,
barbers and stylists
breweries
liquor stores
coffee shops
restaurants
co-op groceries
book stores (only one locally owned new-book store left in Duluth)

We’ve been doing our best to patronize all of the above, but sometimes one has no choice but to patronize the large corporations

building supplies
computers and other electronics,
cell phone service
drug stores
automobiles (but most dealerships are locally owned)
gasoline (but a few stations are locally owned)

Hm!  I know we need a new political party that represents all the people instead of a bunch of special interests.  Maybe it should be called the True Free Market Party!

Trump gives new meaning to "political" science

Trump's staff is toying with taking climate research responsibility from NASA and giving it to another agency.

That is, those with business and law degrees know more about science than those with physics and chemistry degrees.

See "Earth, the Final Frontier", Adam Frank, New York Times, 2016-12-02
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/opinion/earth-the-final-frontier.html.

Corporate inefficiency

“Conservative” politicians and billionaires keep touting corporate “efficiency”, but I keep finding case after case where they are efficient is inefficiently interacting with their customers.  How many times have you received a satisfactory answer with your first call or email?

I dropped my Republic Bank accounts (including VISA) last year because they blamed Consumer Cellular for the errors I received trying to access my Republic account through my iPhone: both the app and the online account.  Republic said the problem was with Consumer Cellular.  Consumer Cellular said the problem was with the bank.  Neither seemed really interested in pinpointing the problem.

My wife had no problem accessing Pioneer National Bank through her Consumer Cellular phone.

After I opened my Pioneer accounts, I transferred all my funds from Republic Bank to Pioneer.  I wrote Republic to close all my accounts including my VISA account.  I no longer receive monthly statements from Republic.

However, this week I received a notice of a statement from VISA for my Republic card.  Oh, boy!  Did I forget to notify somebody that automatic payments should no longer go to Republic VISA?

When I finally looked at the statement, it was to notify me of my renewal fee!  $0.00!!

I did find a “Contact Us” button that allowed me to call this unneeded statement to somebody’s attention.  I also stated that I had requested Republic Bank to close my VISA account.

Earlier in the week I received from AT&T “Exciting news - your wireless bill from AT&T is now on video.”  Who is it exciting new?  The producers of the video and the advertising department.  It was just a bother to me.  The email didn’t say whether the data for the video was to be charged to my account or was free.  I didn’t bother to find out.

However, I did open up MyATT account, saw the current bill, and paid it, also asking that all future bills be automatically be billed to my credit card.

Imagine my surprise to receive an email today that my bill was ready!  i double checked and the online balance was zero.

I tried to send a message to AT&T and found a page:

Contact Us
AT&T Support - quick & easy support is available 24/7.

I looked and looked for an email form, but I only found two choices: call an 800 number or Online Chat.  I don’t want to wait for “the next available operator",  and I don’t want to wait for the next chat person, type what I noticed, and “hang up”.

I wonder if AT&T uses one of the reputation services, and if so, will the service find this blog post and will AT&T act on it.

Don’t stay tuned!  We may never know if AT&T even read this post.

I think it was the New York Times that had an article this past week that said most telecommunications companies really don’t want to solve your problems: just pass you from one person to another.

“Hello, Melvyn Magree.  My name is ______ and I will be glad to assist you.”  This is generally followed by some generalized gibberish that doesn’t even address the problem, like completely reset your device.

An exception that we’ve found is Apple if you have a device under an Apple Care warranty.  My wife’s iPhone either wouldn’t come on at all or would only get up to 30% charge.  A search of the Apple Support Community came up with over 23,000 topics on this problem.  The only advice seems to be to hold the home and lock buttons together for quite a long time.  For us and others, this did and did not work.

The 23,000 figure does not indicate an efficient corporation, especially when the number of users who have this problem could be ten or more times greater!!

Fortunately my wife’s IPhone was still under warranty.  The Apple Care people walked us through a few steps, and it would work for a while.  After a few calls, they sent us a new phone.  Of course, we didn’t have a backup and had to manually enter phone addresses.  I did manage to print a list from the old phone before we sent it back.

Oh!  And we could never erase the old phone.  It kept asking for a re-something passcode.  It would never accept the phone passcode and we could find no workable answer in the Apple Support Community.  We had to return the problem phone with only the assurance that Apple would erase the data.

How did we get into this mess?  I remember when it was a big deal to have direct-dial long-distance.

What do conservatives conserve?

It seems to me that they only want to conserve two things; their view of the world and the power of large corporations.

They don’t want to conserve resources including clean air and water, the right of people to have needed information, and good, free education for all.

Once upon a time conservatives were those who carefully considered any change but didn’t stand in the way of change.  And there were many flavors of conservatism.

Now, “conservatives” must be in lock step on all issues and cannot question any of the official stances.

Ironically, these “conservatives” are liberal with funds for the military and are liberal with sending people to fight all over the world without any understanding of the countries they are sent to.  A real conservative would be cautious about military engagement and strive to know what the risks are.

If we have smaller government…

...will smaller corporations follow?

I thought a recent article in the New York Times had a headline linking Jeb Bush and “small government”.  At the time, I only saved the link.  When I revisited the link, the article didn’t have that headline but one about his emails as Governor of Florida.  (“Emails from tenure as governor of Florida show Jeb Bush’s agenda and goals”, 2014-12-25).

He did campaign on promising to make Florida state government smaller. He did set a goal of cutting the number of state employees in half.  “And while he did not slash the number of state employees by half, he did privatize thousands of public jobs.”

The problem with promises of smaller government is that often little discrimination is made between what government services are important and what services are superfluous.  It reminds me of Senator Rudy Boschwitz and his call for “across the board cuts”.  Are we going to cut understaffed court systems as well as grants to the arts?  Many people will step in with increased donations to the arts, but how many are willing to donate to the court systems?

What services did Gov. Bush cut?  Could these cuts have resulted in longer wait time for developmentally disabled individuals to receive assistance?  Did he cut law enforcement?  Would this have resulted in more traffic crashes because irresponsible drivers had more chances to hurt other people?

What about the privatizing of public services?  Who are these companies responsible to: the people or the shareholders?  If prisons are privatized, do the companies have an incentive to help inmates re-integrate with society?  Or do they have an incentive to maximize profits and feed and house prisoners at the lowest possible cost without any concern about recidivism?

What is it that makes some people automatically assume corporations will always do better than government?  Have they considered that both corporations and governments are run by people?  And what do people do too often?  Make mistakes.

Deadly mistakes like air bags that kill people and brakes that don’t work.

People lie too often.  Government officials tell us about weapons that don’t exist.  Corporations tell us that their projects will create jobs and will not harm people or the environment.

Two of the favorite punching bags of government critics are the Departments of Motor Vehicles and the Postal Service.  Sorry, but my experiences with either have been almost always positive.  Sure, I have to wait in line sometimes, but I console myself that the clerks will treat me as if I were the only customer.  And the last words of a postal clerk are “Anything else?”  Our usual postal carrier trudges through the snow and cold, and she can still greet us with a cheery smile.

Most of my interactions with large companies are generally positive, but the number of things that go wrong is far too many.

I have accounts with several corporations for various services from online newspapers to cell phone service.  I make payments to many of these by automatic payment through my credit card. Some of these have been sending me emails that my card has expired!

This was beginning in December and into this month.  Strange!  My card has an expiration date of 01/15!  My bank verified that means 1/31/15.  I’ve called or emailed a few about this.  I said I would probably not receive a new card until mid-January.  How can I update it without an updated card?

My new card arrived this past week!  Hurray, I won’t be receiving these messages for another three years.

But…

I spent half a morning updating half the auto-pay accounts.  I wrote some of this while waiting for Virgin Mobile to give me the next page of ???  I lost count.  Each took over a minute to load.  This is corporate efficiency?

Ah, Virgin Mobile accepted my card.  No, it did not!  It doesn’t like the old card number that is displayed with mostly asterisks.  I replaced that with 16 digits all jammed together.  It didn’t like that.  I can’t remember all that happened but finally I had a screen that had the updated info.  Except my choices now are to cancel or pay now.  I would pay automatically on the due date.  I cancelled.  When the next page finally came up it looked like I was all set, but the expiration date wasn’t included.  Then I was waiting  for the page “Edit info”.  The expiration date was NOT updated.

Then I was watching the wait circle go round-and-round for “Contact Us”.  Ah, it finally loaded.

I received an email from Virgin Mobile a couple of hours later.  The representative listed five straight-forward steps.  Why didn’t I see the first step?  Did I go off to another page where that step was not shown?  I don’t know, and I’m not going to double check now.  I do know that all was not peaches and cream.

“Terms and agreement” had a check-box for acceptance, but it was not obvious.  It was partially hidden by text.  I finally got all the steps done, and was told that it would take fifteen minutes to reflect the change in my account.  I bet it wouldn’t take them fifteen minutes to notify me if I had run over the limit on my credit card.

I could rant on about some of the other problems of two days updating only a few accounts.  Some went smoothly; other were almost as bad as the Virgin Mobile experience.

I do know some people who would not even attempt this task.  They would find an expert to do it for them.  With all the research in the last thirty years that has gone into human interface and ease of use, one would think that large corporations with their “efficiency” would be experts in this field.

Mel wonders if there is a Moore’s law for software bugs: every 18 months, the percentage of errors doubles.

Why?

Why?  Of the reporter’s “who, what, when, where, and why”, why seems too often used and too often not used enough.

“Why can’t I stay up?”  “Why do I hafta eat…” are among the persistent questions of children.

“Why don’t they …” is one of the persistent questions of adults who absolve themselves of any responsibility for actions of governments and corporations.

And sometimes we can’t really do much about many activities except ask, “Why?”  Here are a few of my annoying why’s.

Why do so many people complain about city workers standing around doing nothing but so few people complain about private contractors standing around doing nothing?  I often see more of the latter than the former.  In both cases they are generally doing one of three things.  One, they have to wait for more trucks to arrive to deliver or take away things.  Two, they have to discuss the next steps.  Three, like all of us, they need a break.

Why do people in dark cars speed through parking garages without lights and ignore people who are backing out of spaces?  Why do they think the backing drivers can see through the other parked cars?  When I was a bus driver, one of the “yard rules” was that backing buses had right-of-way.  There is no way that a driver backing a 30 or 40 foot vehicle could see through all the intervening buses.  Think of the driver of a compact car trying to see through a pickup truck while backing out.

Why do people insist on talking on cell phones while driving?  A few days ago I was walking across a parking lot and a driver was so busy on his cell phone that he didn’t even notice me.  Had I said “Boo!” he might have swerved into a parked car.

Why do drivers turning left stay behind the crosswalk, but drivers turning right go over the crosswalk?  The first may keep others from turning left on that light cycle.  The second never look to their right for pedestrians.

Why do people have to have car stereos so loud that they can be heard a block or more away?  I have been stopped alongside driver’s whose radios drowned out the sound from mine.

Why do sound systems have to be so loud that the words are distorted?  I didn’t enjoy the excellent singing of “Les Misérables” because the distortions of the over-amped sound system garbled words.

Why do sound systems have to be so loud that they can be heard a mile or more away?  Anybody with a car stereo that loud might get a ticket.

We can hear the Chester Bowl concerts over a half-mile away.  Years ago we enjoyed concerts by Willowgreen and by the Downbeats within a few dozen feet of the stage.  Then somebody decided to crank things up.  The last time I tried to go to a Chester Bowl concert, I wouldn’t even enter the park.  The sound was so loud that my ears hurt at the entrance on the Skyline Parkway.

The Bayfront concerts are even worse.  I could understand some of the words of a recent performer while standing in front of Darland Hall at UMD!  What’s that, about two miles away?  I gave up going to Bayfront concerts years ago.  I think the last time I went was when a friend was playing, and even his music was too loud.

Why do so few people show up to vote?  Don’t they realize that by not voting they get us farther from a democracy and closer to an oligarchy?  That is, “rule” of the people gives way to rule of the few.  Even if your favorite candidates are not favored by the polls, if you show up at the polls, the “winners” will have a smaller margin of “victory”.  There wouldn’t be so much talk of “landslides” if candidates won by 100,000 votes to 95,000 votes instead of 100,000 votes to 50,000 votes.  Also remember polls can be very, very wrong.  Jesse Ventura was predicted to come in third for governor, but enough people didn’t pay attention to the polls that he came in first.

Why do so many people complain about large corporations and then clammer to buy their products?  I know, I know, we need large corporations for our cars, computers, and cell phones, but we can at least get our coffee at locally-owned coffee shops.  I am amazed at the number of liberals who get their books at Amazon when they can get those same books at a locally-owned bookstore.

Why do so many people complain about government inefficiency and mistakes but ignore corporate inefficiency and mistakes?  If corporations are so good why are there so many complaints on customer support blogs?  Why are there warranties other than a revenue source?  Why are there so many typos in books and newspapers?

Finally, why do so many writers keep writing columns to change the world?  Far better writers than they have tried changing the world, but very few of them succeed.  Even then, things still go badly again.  Why?

Mel asks why is he getting older but not wiser.

Also published in Reader Weekly, 2014-08-07 at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/08/07/3861_why.

God and fossil fuels

If God put all the fossil fuels in the ground, which of these two might have been his will.

1) God put the fossil fuels in the ground to help people prosper when they developed the skills to use those fuels.

2) God put the fossil fuels in the ground to keep people from squandering them and thus destroying his creation.

The spinning beach ball and private enterprise

If private enterprise is so efficient, why does it waste so much of my time?

As computers have gotten faster they seem to have longer response time.  I wrote somewhere Magree’s Law:

As computers become more powerful, the software expands to meet or even exceed the capacity of the fastest computers available to run it.

So many times I watch the spinning beach ball or the non-moving progress bar.  It seems Excel takes over a minute to open, even Apple’s Numbers takes time to open.  To start my iPad I have to watch the white apple for more than a minute.

Too often I try to load a page and all I get to see is the spinning gear in Firefox.  Too often nothing happens until I click the x in the URL bar and then click the circular arrow again.  Many, many times, the desired page comes up immediately.  What was the page waiting for before?

Too often, the software designers change the rules without warning.  In February or March I downloaded several IRS PDF forms.  I wanted some of the directions on my iPad so that I effectively had two screens as I updated my income tax spreadsheet.  In iTunes I clicked on “Add to Library” under the File menu, a finder window opened, I navigated to the folder I wanted,  selected the file I wanted, and clicked “Open”.  Poof! The file was in my book list.

Yesterday I tried that with the PDF of a magazine article.  Nothing happened after I clicked “Open”.  The file list was not in my library!!!  I was finally able to load the file via iBooks instead.

Was this the doing of the latest OS, Mavericks, or the latest iTunes, 11.1.5?  I don’t know.

The directions I was following are in the iPad…  Oops! I was using the iPad iOS 6 manual.  I checked the iPhone iOS 7 manual and it says to download the manual from iBooks.  I downloaded the iPad User Guide for iOS 7.1 and it states:

“Read PDFs
Sync a PDF. In iTunes on your computer, choose File > Add to Library and select the PDF. Then sync.”

That ain’t the way it works!

The manual writers aren’t keeping up with the programmers or the programmers aren’t telling the manual writers what they have changed.  Sounds like bureaucracy is not limited to government.

Enough wasting of your time with my gripes (and mine writing this).

Republican Party and community

In 2009, David Brooks chided the Republican Party for learning the wrong lessons from Hollywood Westerns.

"Today, if Republicans had learned the right lessons from the Westerns, or at least John Ford Westerns, they would not be the party of untrammeled freedom and maximum individual choice. They would once again be the party of community and civic order."
"The Long Voyage Home", New York Times, 2009-05-04.

It seems with their obsession with gun ownership and worship of large corporations, they haven't heeded David Brooks who is called a conservative by many.

On how movie Westerns are not a reflection of life in many western communities, see "How the Gunfighter Killed Bourgeois America" by Ryan McMaken.

Corporations: sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander

"But now critics are pushing back [at proxy advisers], accusing the firms themselves of conflicts of interest and secrecy. Corporations are aiming to limit what they see as inappropriate influence."
– "Proxy advisers face challenge from corporate critics", Jim Spencer, Star Tribune, 2013-11-30.

Proxy advisers are firms that advise large institutional shareholders about voting for or against the management and boards of corporations.

I think the irony of this push back is that the large corporations don't consider being members of ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) or any of their own lobbying efforts or political contributions as "inappropriate influence" on "the government of the people, by the people, and for the people".

Corporate assumptions or is it presumptions?

Based on the credit card I didn't ask for ("Corporate efficiency - unwanted, unreceived new card"), Visa is emailing me certificates for "FreeMonee Gifts".  "These Gifts are matched to your interests, allowing you to shop at hundreds of stores and restaurants."

The current offer is for $5 off for an online order of Omaha Steaks.  Where do they get the idea that I want to buy steaks online?  That I used my previous card at some restaurants?  How would they know I ordered steak?  More likely I had fish or chicken.  But I started a plant-based diet two-months ago; see "Serendipity leads to weight loss".

Allowing me "to shop at hundreds of stores and restaurants"?  Do I need their permission to shop at any of these stores and restaurants?  If I wanted to, would I need their "gift" of five dollars off to do so?  What it really means is enticing me "to shop at hundreds of stores and restaurants" that I might not visit otherwise.  Oh yes, using my credit card so Visa can collect more fees from the hundreds of stores and restaurants.  Adam Smith is correct again about deceiving the public.

What I really use my credit card for is recurring donations or subscriptions so that I don't get caught with an overdraft using my debit card.  I also use it for expenses that I didn't expect, like a big car repair.  Otherwise, I use cash, check, or debit card, preferring the first two because they save local businesses the card fees.

Second quote of the day - health care

"[W]ho do you trust more, the company that is answerable to a few shareholders or the government all citizens can choose to elect or choose to fire?"
- "Real Doctor Smacks Down Koch Brothers Obamacare Ad (Video)", Egberto Willies,

Another thought, who elected the Koch brothers or Grover Norquist to make public policy.  Aren't they among those who "live by profit" and "deceive and oppress the public."

Big corporations hinder little corporations

Not quite always, some little corporations do grow into big corporations and some big corporations buy from little corporations.  But think how hard it is for people to start a company in many fields.

When I grew up in Cleveland, there were many grocery stores in walking distance of one place we lived and there were many drug stores and grocery stores in another place.  By walking distance, I mean less than ten minutes, more like five minutes.  Since we moved to Duluth fourteen years ago, a state-wide drug store has closed, a city-wide drug store has closed, and only two independent pharmacies are left.  All the others are in large chain stores and medical centers.

Now suppose you start a small company that makes a skin medication.  How are you going to get it into all those chain stores?  Will the local managers of those stores have the authority to buy local products on their own, or will they have to get corporate approval?  It depends on the company.  But if you had access to locally-owned stores, you would have a greater chance of getting in the door.

I'm only writing based on observation and not personal experience.  I know people who know people who are active in such a small company, and I have observed their marketing results.  The company is Apolonia B, a maker of a skin ointment.  When it first came out, it was available at the city-wide pharmacy, Falk's Pharmacies.  Falk's closed all of its stores rather than compete with the big chains.

As my own jar was getting low, I wondered where I would get a refill.  I checked Apolonia B's web site and found one retailer listed - Whole Foods Co-op (not to be confused with the national chain Whole Foods Market).  Bias warning: we are two of many owner-members and we shop at Whole Foods Co-op regularly.

I can only surmise that being a locally-made natural-ingredient product, Apolonia B was an easy sell to the buyers at Whole Foods Co-op and was probably too time-consuming to try to sell to the big chains.

Our choices for buying locally are dwindling.  At least we have a great choice in locally-owned restaurants and even locally-produced beer, many local hair salons, several locally-owned coffee shops, three or four locally-owned hardware stores, and one locally-owned camera shop.

Insecure corporations

Ring! Ring!

Hello!

This is XYZ Corporation.  Would you like to take a survey about your recent experience with us?

No, thank you! Click!

Bing!  You have email!

Please take a moment to answer a few questions about your recent visit to our site.

Delete!

Do you have enough fingers to count the surveys you've been asked to take in the last month?  Maybe even the last week?

Your car repair garage wants to know what you thought after you had an oil change.  If you are regular customer, isn't that enough?

After you report a problem to Netflix, the truly friendly folks want you to hang on for a brief survey.  After you told them how helpful and friendly they were!

You visit a doctor for a preliminary visit before some minor surgery.  The clinic calls you to ask if you would take a brief survey about your visit.  Can't the clinic wait until after the post-op visit?  Even then, I'll tell the doctor whether I was pleased or not.

The big, bureaucratic insurance company I've been using for several years mailed me a survey about its service.  I just answered everything in the middle and sent it back.

It seems like the large corporations measure everything and know the value of nothing.

Just what are conservatives conserving?

Just what are conservatives conserving?
Melvyn D. Magree
Originally published in
Reader Weekly
August 8, 2004

Conservative – another sweeping term that is used as a pejorative by some and as a badge of honor by others.  In many ways both views are wrong, conservatism is not necessarily a bad idea and is not necessarily the best idea.  The problem is that the term conservative is used to describe a grab bag of conflicting ideas and to pretend that all who call themselves conservatives will adhere to all these conflicting ideas.

Both George Will and William Safire have catalogued the factions contained in the Republican party – economic, social, libertarian, idealistic, and cultural (1).  Safire wrote that the economic conservative is against “enforced redistribution of wealth” and for reduced taxes; the social conservative doesn’t like the violence in entertainment and opposes partial-birth abortion; the libertarian “is pro-choice and anti-compulsion”, the idealistic conservative believes it is America’s role to extend freedom, and the cultural conservative prefers traditional to avant-garde and the thoughtful to the emotional.  He offered more complex descriptions but space and copyrights limit my explaining more.  He also offered some stands that “liberals” would agree with – consumer protection from monopolies, right of counsel, and keeping “fundamentalists out of schoolrooms.”

I would make a slightly different catalog: pro-business, religious right, libertarian, and militaristic.  Pro-business is more pro-CEO of larger companies; religious right is enforcing one’s religious views on others; libertarian is as Safire described, and militaristic is projecting power more than defense.  They are all mixed up in a weird dance of support and conflict.  Some very large businesses provide the violent entertainment that the religious right opposes; businesses like military contracts but they don’t want to pay the taxes to pay for the contracts; the religious right supports the militaristic because they believe it is bringing on Armageddon, the battle to end all battles; the libertarians resent actions of the religious right; and the militaristic play on the desires of all to promote “freedom and democracy” even as they run roughshod over “freedom and democracy” here and elsewhere.  Please note: I did not write “military” but “militaristic”.  The members of the military may be behaving honorably  but the “militaristic” have designs beyond “defense”.

The classical definition of conservatism is holding on to what is traditional and making change gradually.  It is hard to find fault with this view, we all have a bit of conservatism in ourselves.  The business owner who doesn’t alter his plans until he has looked thoroughly at what change will bring about.  The religious person who prefers the King James Bible rather than reading the newer translations.  The person who prefers older music or art to the latest trend.  Or the person who eats the same thing for breakfast every day.

However, much of what passes for conservatism is more radicalism – the abrupt change of how things were.  Large businesses destroy smaller competitors or businesses that are in the way of their expansion.  The religious right takes small parts of the bible literally and ignores the larger truths accepted by more traditional churches.  The militaristic ignore traditional international relations in order to act on their own worldview.  It seems to me that what these conservatives are attempting to conserve is their power over others.

One way they attempt to conserve power is to wrap themselves in the flag and proclaim that they are promoters of freedom and democracy.  Freedom is not promoted by telling people how to conduct their private affairs, what they must believe, and what rituals they must perform.  Democracy is not promoted by hiding information in the name of security or by taking checks and balances from voting to promote sales of technology.

One of the characteristics of current conservatism is unquestioning promotion of “approved” beliefs.  Have you noticed that no matter how many news quotes from “conservative” sources, no matter how many letters from “conservatives”, and no matter how many opinion pieces by “conservatives”, if a newspaper or broadcaster has any news or opinions outside of this set of views, it is “liberal”?  Very interesting because many newspapers and broadcasters are owned by “conservative” businesses.

A slogan that captures this mind set is RINO – Republican in name only.  One of the supposed attributes of having only two political parties is that they each will cover a wide range of views – the so-called “big tent” parties.  However, conservatives are increasingly demanding orthodoxy – a strict adherence to a set of beliefs.  You can see this is the writings or hear it on radio shows of conservatives.

Rush Limbaugh is supposedly the master of not allowing anyone to contradict him with a different interpretation of facts.  Ann Coulter hammers away with a repetitious call for orthodoxy.  I’m having a tough time making it through her book Slander because of all the generalizations and selective quotes she makes to show how bad “liberals” are.

This orthodoxy carries over to support for President George W. Bush.  About the only conservative commentators who might question Bush’s actions are William Safire and George Will.  They may point out an inconsistency in something Bush said or did.  Otherwise the President can do no wrong, unless it is not going to the right far enough.

Maybe George Bush doesn’t see himself as the Roman Emperor that Garry Trudeau depicts him as in “Doonesbury” (the empty helmet), but many of Bush’s supporters treat him as if his actions should no more be challenged than those of early Roman Emperors.

Remember, the Roman Republic fell when a general overstepped the limits the Senate set for him.  Could the American Republic fall when a Commander-in-Chief reinterprets the Constitution and oversteps its limits?  If so, conservatives will not have conserved freedom and democracy.

(1) William Safire, “Inside a Republican Brain”, New York Times, July 21, 2004 (Page may be available online only to subscribers)


©2004, 2007, 2013 Melvyn D. Magree

Lying with the truth

Several times Republicans have stated that 250,000 small businesses closed last year, the implication being that President Obama's policies were responsible for each and every small business closing.

But why have these small businesses closed?  Let me list the ways.

The owner died or retired.
The owner tried doing too much with too little resources.
The owner did not have enough potential customers.
The owner located in a low traffic area.
The owner did not have the personality to attract and keep customers.
The owner's business model was all wrong.
The owner's landlord would not renew the lease or changed the terms too drastically.
A large corporation moved in too close and drained the small business's customers.
A large corporation provided a service that outmoded the small business's service.

I have no idea what percentage of businesses closed for any of these reasons, but I see examples all the time that have no relation to Obama's policies.

Where are all the DVD stores?  Netflix, RedBox, and streaming have taken many customers away.

Where have all the local pharmacies gone?  Replaced by Walgreens, CVS, Target, and Walmart.

Where are all the camera stores?  Replaced by Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.

I don't care which candidate or party makes some sweeping generalization, but I try to ask at least myself what is the bigger picture.  Are things as bad, or as good, as this or that politician proclaim?

Can't corporations live within their means?

Many complain about government borrowing and say that government should live within its means.  But few complain about corporate borrowing.  Shouldn't corporations live within their means?

From the semi-annual report of the AllianceBernstein Income Fund (Ticker AWF):

AT&T, 6.50%, due 2037
Ford Motor Co., 7.45%, due 2031
Citigroup, 8.50%, due 2019
Pacific Life Insurance Co., 9.25%, due 2039
Weyerhauser Co., 7.375%, due 2032

Borrowing does have its purposes, among other things having the capital for expansion or to smooth out cash flows.  But how much borrowing is too much?

For example, Citigroup as of June 2012 had a debt to equity ratio of 3.024, that is, it owed bondholders three times as much as the value of shareholders' stock.  See http://ycharts.com/companies/C/debt_equity_ratio.  On the better side, General Motors had a debt to equity ratio of 0.3555.  See http://ycharts.com/companies/GM/debt_equity_ratio.  On the worse side, Ferrellgas Partners has a debt to Equity Ratio of 25.36.  See http://ycharts.com/companies/FGP.

But why is Citigroup paying bondholders 8.50% when it pays savers 2% or less?  See "Taking a Look At Citigroup's Latest Fixed-Income Prospectus", Rajiv Tarigopula, Seeking Alpha, 2012-07-11.  Remember when savings and loans were required to pay 5% by law (which they used to justify not paying more)?  And this 2% is not being paid for demand deposits, but three-month notes.

It gets even a bit screwier.  Citigroup does offer a fixed-rate 15-year mortgage at 4.375 percent.  So, it is borrowing at 8.50% to finance mortgages returning 4.375%.  That doesn't sound like it's living within its means!  See "Who Are the Best Mortgage Lenders for Bad Credit", Beth Lytle, eHow Contributor, no date.

Always throw away unidentified mail?

Last week we received a letter that only had my name and address and something like "Important Update Inside" on the envelope.  Normally such mail goes straight to the recycle box.  But my curiosity got the best of me.

It was from a regional manager of Frontier Communications, the telephone company for our cabin.  It was about a recent 13 hour outage because a fiber optic cable was cut in Duluth.  The cable was not Frontier's but supplied lots of its traffic.

The letter said that Frontier was working on (or had installed) a second fiber optic cable to provide redundancy.

Well, that was nice to know.  I sympathize with Frontier with a problem outside its control and that it has taken steps to reduce the possibility of future outages.

The letter did have the name and email of the manager, and I did send him something about identifying mail.

This really comes under the third point of a free market - complete information (see "GMO producers don't want free markets").  Was Frontier trying to hide something by not identifying itself on the envelope?  Was it outsourcing the mail to a firm that used a standard envelope for "hidden purpose" mass mailings?  I'll probably never know because the Frontier manager never responded.  We do know that this is another example of corporate "efficiency" at the expense of effectiveness.