Give me those old-time politicians

Write a short letter or email to a contemporary politician and get back a lengthy position paper that may or may not address the issue that you brought up.  Read a contemporary politician's newsletter and you find that the I's have it.  Both Republicans and Democrats do this.

OK, I'll back off a bit.  Most local politicians in Duluth respond briefly and to the point.

OK, maybe I've been spoiled by two Republican former members of Congress.

I generally agreed with Bill Frenzel, former Representative from the 3rd District of Minnesota, which covered many of the western suburbs of Minneapolis.  He wrote model newsletters that related objectively what Congress was doing, not what he sponsored or voted on.  He was elected again and again, partly with my vote and maybe a small contribution.

I generally disagreed with Rudy Boschwitz, former Senator from Minnesota.  Among his mantras that I didn't like was "across the board cuts".  Yeah, cut the kids' milk budget and Dad's beer budget an equal percentage.  Why not leave the milk budget the same and let Dad do without beer?  Anyhow, Rudy served in the days before the internet and communication with him was by letter.  He answered by returning the letter with a short to-the-point comment on it and a smily face.  I hope I can find at least one of these somewhere in my files.

"Liberal" corporations are no better at free markets than "conservative" corporations

This is a test.  Do you see the free market flaw in the following email from the New York Times?

Dear NYTimes.com Reader,

Because you are a valued reader of the world’s finest news site, we want to offer you the chance to try unlimited access to all of the award-winning news, opinions, videos and interactive features at this special rate of just $5 for your first 12 weeks.*

*New York Times digital subscriptions are sold separately from e-reader editions, Premium Crosswords and The New York Times Crosswords apps. Mobile apps are not supported on all devices. You will be billed $5 for the first 12 weeks upfront which is non-refundable. After the first twelve weeks, all subscriptions will automatically renew and your credit card or PayPal account will be charged in advance of each four-week billing period unless canceled. If the subscription is canceled, refunds and termination of access will follow the Terms of Sale policy. Prices are in U.S. dollars and are subject to change. Other restrictions and taxes may apply.

Did you see the free-market flaw in this email?

Where in this email did the New York Times tell you what your subscription would cost after "your first 12 weeks"?  That is, the New York Times is not providing full information.  You have to go elsewhere to find out what the regular four-week subscription costs.

Sorry, NYT.  I'll just put up with reading a few articles a month.  If you return to the $50/year subscription that you had before you went to free subscriptions, I will most likely subscribe again.

The Russians are coming! I wish most of them would go away.

In "Добро пожаловать в мой русский посетителей" I speculated that many of the Russian visits to this blog may be spammers looking for email addresses.  I may have gotten that partly right.

I read that "referral spam" has become quite common on blogs with small audiences.  The idea is that the little-guy bloggers, like me, are so eager for traffic that they check out some of the linking sites to see what has been written about them.  These sites can be pornography or other traps to suck in users.

Some of these sites are obvious and I couldn't figure out why they would be referring to my site.  Those I didn't even check. Russia is known as a large source of spam, but most of my email spam is Turkish or Japanese.  So I assume that most, if not all, the references to my blog from Russia are spam referrals.

I am certain that none of the Russian visitors know me; the few Russians I know have my email address or can get it from friends.  No Russian sent me email about my blog.

Gosh, I might say the same thing about French visitors.  The readers from France has gone from one or two a week to four or five a day.  None of my friends living in France have mentioned anything.  Claude, Christian, and Birahim, are you reading this?

I also had a recent spike in visits from Italy, but I had an explanation for that.  Our son was in Milan on business.  Thanks, son, for reading your father's ramblings.

Friendly government service

After I wrote "Customer Service Department?" I thought about the courteous service we received after our car was dinged, both from the medical center security and the Duluth Police.  I thought I had mentioned it this in my blog "Premonitions and coincidences", but I hadn't.

I did send a thank you to the Duluth Police Dept. naming the officer who wrote the report.  A few days later I received a personal thank you from the police chief, Gordon Ramsay.

I did not send a thank you to the medical center.  I did that before I finished writing this.

Customer Service Department?

The Star Tribune box near our house in Duluth is often empty by eight o'clock or even earlier.  Once this week it had three or so copies after eight, but it was back to empty by 7:30 this morning.

Earlier this week I sent email to the customer service department and received no reply.  I thought maybe more copies yesterday was the action the Star Tribune took in response to my email.  When it was empty today, I sent another email.  I received a reply that included:

"Thank you for contacting the Star Tribune. I would be happy to assist you with your inquiry. Please call our single copy department at 612-673-4313."

Excuse me, but shouldn't customer service route complaints to the relevant department rather than ask the customer to call that department.

And people complain about being routed from one government department to another.  Bureaucracy is found in all economic models.

To be or not to be a government employee

…or to have been or not to have been a government employee.

Many so-called conservatives constantly complain about government employees, especially those at lower levels who are "feeding at the public trough".  If government employees can do nothing right, why are so many Republicans clamoring to be government employees?  Or their large corporation bedfellows clamoring for government contracts?

Now we have an interesting attack from so-called liberals on former government employees who have taken jobs in large corporations.  See "EXPOSED: Fox News, BP, And Goldman Sachs Don't Want You To Know About This" http://www.upworthy.com/exposed-fox-news-bp-and-goldman-sachs-dont-want-you-to-know-about-this, Sara Critchfield, Upworthy, 2012-04-23.  The article shows overlapping circles  of government employees moving to corporate jobs, whether appointed or elected officials.  People in both parties have done this.

These moves sound fishy and maybe some are fishy.  On the other hand, if you are, say a geologist, who is most likely to hire you - an oil company.  Does every government expert in every field start out as a government employee for life?  No, they often build up credentials in corporations or academia, serve for a few years in government, often at lower pay, and then go back to a corporation or a university.

This is the problem with taking sides on political issues.  Too much is at stake to open oneself to a broader view of issues.  As a result, sound bites become the "facts" and few look at a problem thoroughly.

Fun with computer translations

To make some small improvement in our Italian skills, we go to a monthly conversation group.  Each month, the organizer emails a reminder, and this last time she asked us to let her know if we'll be coming.

I can read Italian books and newspapers with so-so comprehension, but I have trouble coming up with the simplest everyday phrases, especially if they are not in the present tense.  So, I called on the friendly, knowledgable folks at Google Translate.

"We will be there" -> "Ci saremo"

That's OK, but do I want to make a statement of certainty?

"We plan to be there" -> "Pensiamo di esserci"

But that seems to me to mean "we're thinking of being there", implying we haven't made up our minds yet.

"We hope to be there" -> "Speriamo di esserci"

Naw! Hope is not as certain as plan.  I guess I'll go with "Ci saremo" and hope that our plans work out:)

Interestingly, Google translated "Pensiamo di esserci" to "We plan to be".  My goodness, we plan to be lots of places for many years to come!

Oh yeah!  Since May 1 is Labor Day all over Europe, I asked Google to translate "labor day" into Italian.  It gave, I kid you not, "Labor day", and pronounced it "lahbor die".  However, if I put in "festa dei lavoratori" it gives "labor day".

Ciao!

A repair cost too little!!

Several weeks ago I "fried" my compact camera.  As usual, I had it on my hip as I drove to Brimson.  But that hip was also sore, and so I put a hot pad on it.

When I got to our cabin, I decided to take a picture from the same place as a week or two before.  I had taken a nice picture through some pines of our sauna with snow on the ground.  Now I wanted to take a picture without snow.

When I turned the camera on the screen showed "Lens error".  I turned it on and off but nothing improved.  When I got back to Duluth I checked the manual.  Turning the camera on and off was the suggestion.  If that didn't work, the camera would require service.

I took it to the camera store where I bought it and left it with $25 for an estimate from the manufacturer.  I might have to wait 4-6 weeks for the estimate.

So, I start dreaming.  If the repairs were too much, then I would buy a new camera.  Let's see, more zoom, brighter view finder, Canon instead of Nikon because I prefer Canon's software, my finger wouldn't cover part of the lens, …  How much would too much be? $200-250?

About three weeks ago the estimate came in - $117 and some cents.  That's a lot less than $200 or the $350 for the kind of camera I would like next.  OK, fix the camera.

Yesterday I received a call that the camera had been returned, and today I picked it up.  Still, I couldn't resist the techno-lust and the salesman showed me a nifty Nikon with a 14x zoom.  Gosh, that would make it easier to get a picture of skittish woodpeckers than my 5x zoom.

Sigh, maybe some other year!

Adam Smith didn't care for the ALECs of his day

I received an email from a group that asked people to thank Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton for vetoing a tenth ALEC-sponsored bill.  ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council.  Adam Smith predicted the problems of working against such groups.

I sent the following to Gov. Dayton via web form:

Thanks for vetoing ALEC created and sponsored bills.  Who elected them anyway?

"The member of parliament who supports every proposal for strengthening this monopoly, is sure to acquire not only the reputation of understanding trade, but great popularity and influence with an order of men whose numbers and wealth render them of great importance. If he opposes them, on the contrary, and still more, if he has authority enough to be able to thwart them, neither the most acknowledged probity, nor the highest rank, nor the greatest public services, can protect him from the most infamous abuse and detraction, from personal insults, nor sometimes from real danger, arising from the insolent outrage of furious and disappointed monopolists." - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

Find more interesting excerpts from Adam Smith at http://magree.blogspot.com
- End of email to Gov. Dayton

If you live in Minnesota, you can send your own comments to Gov. Dayton at http://mn.gov/governor/contact-us/form/.  Also, wherever you live, be sure to vote in each and every election.  Groups such as ALEC depend on voter apathy.  Or they even work to reduce the number of eligible voters.

Pizza no longer delivered in Florida

Several pizza shops have closed in Florida, especially those who depended on home delivery.  Given Florida's "Shoot First" law, many delivery people have resigned because they didn't want to get shot when they went to the wrong house or when they were trying to read address numbers in the dark.

Treyvon Martin - other truths

Some are defending George Zimmerman claiming he shot Treyvon Martin in self-defense and that his action was covered by Florida's "Shoot First" law.

Let's look at another way.  Treyvon Martin felt threatened by George Zimmerman who was stalking him.  Eventually Treyvon Martin "pushed first" in self-defense.  Zimmerman and Martin may even have had a shoving match.  Eventually Zimmerman fell down, pulled his gun, and fatally shot Zimmerman.

Under the old rules, Martin might have been guilty of starting the fight.  Given the new rules, he was acting in self-defense and pushed first.

Now, what if Martin was a neighborhood watchman in his own neighborhood?  He saw a suspicious white person looking at house addresses.  What if he acted exactly as Zimmerman had acted?  Would Martin be considered as acting in self-defense or would he be considered as committing a murder?

As with all violent actions, we can only speculate on all the possible causes and results.

Premonitions and coincidences

Last week my wife and I were in the parking ramp returning from the fitness center.  I had a feeling that our car might have been damaged and asked my wife if she had her camera. She replied that she did not.

When we got to our car, sure enough there was a big depression behind the tire.  We could even see tire tracks of the truck that had been parked next to us when we arrived.  At least I had my cell phone and called security.

Within a few minutes a security guard came and took notes.  She called a colleague who had a camera.  He came took a few pictures and promised to email them to me.  They both recommended that we also call 911 to report it.

I called 911, said it was a non-emergency, and gave the details.  Some minutes later a squad car arrived and that officer filled out a form and gave us a case number for our insurance company.  We are now waiting for a claims adjuster to look at our car.

My wife is disgusted about it but I'm amazed by it.  But not that amazed.

I'm taking a class at University for Seniors called "Religious Thinking and the Evolution of Christianity".  For the first half of the class we've watched a video by Lloyd Geering on Karl Jung's ideas about religion, basically that it arises out of archetypes in our brains.

A few members told about their own experiences of prayer and their belief that it had helped.

I was going to tell about the time that I woke in the middle of the night certain that a friend had died.  This was at least ten years ago and he is still alive.  On the other hand, my mother, my stepfather, my father and many other relatives died and I didn't know about their deaths until I got a phone call or a letter.  Some even I didn't know about until I found their names in the Social Security Death Index.

Similarly, I've many other premonitions of something being not right. For example, a garage door being left open.  Well, a few times we did leave it open.  But many other times we've come back and found it closed.

So, the incident above is a worry that I often have, but generally nothing had happened.  In other words, it was a coincidence that I had the worry and I was right.

Another coincidence happened after I talked with a friend who had been a nuclear submariner.  He said when they turned the key in drills they never knew if the missiles would stay put or be launched.  Now as a father, he is concerned about all the nuclear weapons that exist.

When I got home I found out that somebody had read my parody of nuclear proliferation, "New spear proliferation" from nearly two years ago.  I had given my friend my blog business card, but I doubt that he had had time to look at my blog by the time I saw the reference.

There have been a few times that I have thought of something, and something happened that had a connection to that thought.  But time after time I've thought of something and absolutely nothing related has happened.  What a coincidence!

Look who's engaging in voter fraud!

The Republicans in Wisconsin are putting fake candidates into the Democratic primaries.  Oops, sorry, they are "protest candidates" according to Republican Party of Wisconsin Executive Director Stephan Thompson.  The primaries are to replace elected officials who have been recalled.  To me, the placing of these "protest candidates" is fraud, and the Republican Party claims voter ID will prevent fraud and protect the "integrity" of elections.

It is bad enough that those who support one party will cross-over to vote in a primary for the "weakest" candidate in the other party, but for a party to choose that "weakest" candidate for the other party is fraud, pure and simple.

See "Wisconsin Republicans name fake Democrats for recall primaries", The Republic, Associated Press, 2012-04-04 and "Attorney: Fake Democrats in Wisconsin committing criminal election fraud", The Raw Story, Eric W. Dolan, 2012-04-05.

State secret: Ronald Reagan changed his mind

Ronald Reagan had a heart attack at his California ranch.  Nancy called 911 and within five minutes the local Fire Dept. EMTs arrived.  They said, "We are from the government and we're here to help."  Both Reagans replied, "Thank goodness!"

Hope for RINOs in getting their party back

Coffee Party Radio interviewed Michael Charney, a New Hampshire Republican, who started an on-line social media experiment to counter Glenn Beck.  You can find the link to the show, commentary, and more links at http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/chasing-beck.

Some of the interesting comments are electile dysfunction, big money doesn't buy votes but only expensive advertising, Beck and others created illusions but they are not having the impact that they did in 2010.

The more you dislike the attack ads, the more important it is that you vote in 2012 (and all the other elections to come).

The kleptocracy of corporate boards

Many corporations fight vigorously against unions, claiming that they would ask too much in pay.

But executives and board members of these corporations never seem to recognize that they have a union that determines their own pay.  I just checked the executive pay of Radio Shack - over $11 million for seven current and former executives for 2011.  The board of ten grants each of its members $150,000 in stock each year.  Talk about the foxes guarding the chicken coop.

Oh, yes, Radio Shack's stock dropped by a half over the past year.  The above compensation is not pay for performance but kleptocracy - rule by thievery.

I single out Radio Shack because its proxy statement is the latest that I read.  Corporation after corporation rewards their top executives and board members quite well regardless of how well the corporation fared.

If corporations are sending work to lower wage countries, why not send CEO jobs to countries like Sweden, Norway, France, or Belgium?  CEOs in these countries average a third of less the total compensation of U.S. CEOs.  See "CEO Compensation: US and other countries", Ben Lorica, last updated Oct 2011.  Better yet, why not export the CEO jobs to India or China?  I haven't checked, but I bet CEO pay is a lot lower than in Europe.

But things are changing.  Citigroup shareholders voted no on the CEO's compensation.  The shareholders of three other companies did likewise.  As of today, a search of "Executive Pay" yields many articles about the ongoing revolt against CEO pay - from unions to church groups to large investors.

P.S. See "Director pay: how high can it go?", footnoted*, Michelle Leder, 2012-04-13.

Save money by spending?

I just received a message from AbeBooks about saving money by buying now.  Um!  Sorry, but I don't see how buying books now will save me money when I already have several unread books.  The best way to save money is to not spend it.

That makes me think of Menard's slogan, "Save Big Money".  Same argument about spending.  The next question is saving from what.  If all the retailers of building supplies and hardware are large corporations, how can I "save big money" from what the now-mostly-gone local building suppliers and hardware stores would have had to charge to stay in business?

We as communities probably lost a lot of money by saving big money.  We have to drive further to the store.  We have lost the taxes that the small retailers would have paid.  We have lost control of how our communities function, their having been made "all the same" by corporate interests, interests who consider any restrictions as "anti-business" and "job-killers".  These interests forget how they themselves have destroyed businesses and jobs.

We have lost communication with the owners; the big box folks may be friendly and helpful, but how many of our suggestions will go up sufficient corporate levels to bring about change?

Добро пожаловать в мой русский посетителей

Не понимаю русский язык.

Welcome to my Russian readers.  I don't understand Russian.  I forgot most of what I learned in summer school over 45 years ago.

I am a bit surprised about a sudden spike in visits to my blog from Russia.  Generally most visits are from the U.S. with a scattering of six or seven other countries.  Often, the second largest number of visits are from Russia.  But for the past few days there have been over 40 visits per day from Russia. 

What is happening?  I don't think many of my blogs have a specific Russian interest.  Are a bunch of spammers trying to mine my entries for email addresses?  Have a bunch of friends told each other about this blog because they find it interesting.  We hosted a Russian from Petrozavodsk last year and I did give her my card.  Irina, did you pass it along to your friends?

Whatever!  I hope you find some interesting commentary here.

ALEC takes a licking, sheds crocodile tears

In response to several large corporations withdrawing their membership or promising to withdraw from the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC has issued a press release "…on the Coordinated Intimidation Campaign Against Its Members".  The truly ironic statement by an organization that behind a well-funded, expertly co-ordinated intimidation campaign of manipulating public policy is "Today, we find ourselves the focus of a well-funded, expertly coordinated intimidation campaign."  See http://www.alec.org/2012/04/alec-responds/

For commentary on how ALEC does not believe in the free market it promotes, does not really want small government, and definitely does not want free speech see "As Donors Flee, Corporate Front Group ALEC Whines That Critics Are Trying To 'Eliminate Discourse'", Zaid Jilani, Republic Report, 2012-04-11.

The Republic Report gives its purpose as "Investigating How Money Corrupts Democracy".  One of the articles featured in today's issue (2012-04-15) is "Corruption Responsible for 80% of Your Cell Phone Bill", Matt Stoller, 2012-04-09.  However, if you think the Republic Report is a left-wing rag trying to discredit Republicans, see "The Real Hilary Rosen Scandal: Does Her Firm Sell Access To The White House To Powerful Corporations?", Lee Fang, 2012-04-13

Quote of the day: pollution

"Pollution is a symbol of design failure", William McDonough, co-author with Michael Braungart of Remaking the Way We Make Things, quoted in Plan B 4.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown.