May « 2010 « POWIP

23May/102

What Is Heroism?

Not a hero myself, I find it hard to say, but I imagine that a precondition might be embracing the truth regarding oneself. This won't help much, either.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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23May/100

I could bore you with a discussion of the (otherwise fascinating) ancient Greek concept of pneuma, but instead I will reproduce Coleridge's "Eolian Harp," which is likely the most poetical expression of soft-off in English, and possibly a defense of celibacy, as well:

(Composed at Clevedon, Somersetshire)

My pensive Sara! thy soft cheek reclined
Thus on mine arm, most soothing sweet it is
To sit beside our Cot, our Cot o'ergrown
With white-flower'd Jasmin, and the broad-leav'd Myrtle,
(Meet emblems they of Innocence and Love!)
And watch the clouds, that late were rich with light,
Slow saddening round, and mark the star of eve
Serenely brilliant (such should Wisdom be)
Shine opposite! How exquisite the scents
Snatch'd from yon bean-field! and the world is hushed!
The stilly murmur of the distant Sea
Tells us of silence.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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23May/101

D’ye Know Atall What’ld Be The Breakin’ News?

I'll tell yas beforn, tis of IMMEDIATE IMPORT, lads:

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

CAIRO (AP) — Archeologists have unearthed 57 ancient Egyptian tombs, most of them containing a painted wooden sarcophagus with a mummy inside.

Begob, if tisn't teh FIERCE URGENCY OF ANTIQUITY! me boyos, so stop teh presses and Katie, bar the door!

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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23May/102

How Can I Keep From Swinging?

I stretch my arm from vine to vine,
Above earth's lamentations,
Abiding in the canopy,
My leafy habitation.

No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to this branch I'm clinging;
Since Hanuman's lord of heaven and earth . . .

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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23May/105

Ireland’s Draconian Vacation Policy [UPDATED]

Racial profiling:

Each visitor with Irish ancestry will be eligible for a Certificate of Irish Heritage and can use this to make their way around Ireland on less money than those who don't have any Irish heritage.

The proposal suggests that the Certificate of Irish Heritage be a small credit-card style card that visitors can carry in their wallets with them.

Although it won't entitle them to any legal rights or even Irish citizenship it will allow for deep discounts at some of Ireland's top tourist destinations.

Bastages!

UPDATE: Natcherly, t'is set me to thinkin' about dear old Ireland, or "Teh Old Sot," as we like to call her. I'm t'inkin' about writin' a mini-series on how we was shanghaied to Amerikay by teh ginger hairs and enslaved buildin' teh railroads, teh bridges and teh skyscrapers. We'd call it "Tubers," be Jaybus! and t'would croknuckle our imperishable spirits.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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23May/104

Followups – demography and pensions

To followup on a previous demography post, we see that Europe is realizing the party is over:

With low growth, low birthrates and longer life expectancies, Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle, at least not without a period of austerity and significant changes. The countries are trying to reassure investors by cutting salaries, raising legal retirement ages, increasing work hours and reducing health benefits and pensions.
....
In Athens, Aris Iordanidis, 25, an economics graduate working in a bookstore, resents paying high taxes to finance Greece’s bloated state sector and its employees. “They sit there for years drinking coffee and chatting on the telephone and then retire at 50 with nice fat pensions,” he said. “As for us, the way things are going we’ll have to work until we’re 70.”

Yeah, socialism generally isn't that great, but what really isn't great when you don't pump out enough kids to keep the Ponzi transfer-of-wealth from young to old going:

My advice? Death panels. Soylent green. Or encouraging the elderly to take up a more active lifestyle, such as drag racing and meth use.

The numerator of that ratio is pretty baked in, but one can always reduce the denominator. The other choice is, yes, make people work til they're a lot closer to death than 30 years from life expectancy.

Separately, here in the U.S., I see there is some talk of bailing out multiemployer plans, which are situations where a large union of private employees (say, the UAW) has a pension set up for its members, covered by multiple employers (so as to provide some mobility of the workers amongst large employers while holding onto their pension benefit). Thing is, these plans tend to be abysmally funded – many times, worse than the public plans I've been linking:

If these multi-employer lock boxes are underfunded — and they are, obviously — the question, it seems to me, is who is responsible? Who failed to meet its part of the agreement for funding and why?

If it is the companies who agreed in principle to take on the pensions — and they cannot meet that obligation — the unions can either demand the companies be liquidated to meet those obligations (the net result being a loss of jobs but a payment of retirement benefits as promised) or the unions can adjust demands in a compromise that will maintain corporate solvency and so retain jobs.

Is that about right?

What shouldn’t happen is that taxpayers be asked to make up the difference — in a move that serves as de facto welfare both for corporations AND union workers. Or at least, that’s how it appears to me at first blush.

Well, Jeff, yes, there's the PBGC, and sure, we, the taxpayer =may= get to be on the hook for these pensions. But it's not like public pensions in a very big difference: PBGC has a cap on the benefit it will pay out to any pensioner. None of these >$100K pensions for plans taken over by the PBGC.

Thing is, there are too many losses trying to be soaked up right now, and while monetizing debt looks attractive, it would take a hell of a lot to cover everything.

But to give you an idea of how likely the MEP members will get their payments, whether it's the eensy-weensy amount currently guaranteed by the PBGC, or a beefed-up amount to at least single employer coverage, take a look at the pension plans of the union leaders – these are very much well-funded plans. They're not planning on getting bailed out (and they sure as hell don't want to be limited to the modest amounts allowed by a PBGC cap for a bankrupt plan).

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

Tagged as: demography, life expectancy, pensions, Unions 4 Comments

22May/106

I Just Wanted To Tell You, You’re Beautiful

As you may have realized, I've become precociously curmudgeonly. It's nothing that I'm proud of, I don't think. I just lay it out there as a fact. I think the moment that started to turn me that way may have been when I was attempting to frolic and play the Eskimo way, and was told that I was doing it. all. wrong.

One of the great things about working from home is that I don't have to shave or dress up, except on Sunday morning before heading off to church. So I view my annual mandatory attendance at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School fundraiser as a burden, even though I enjoy it every time. It occurs on Grandparents' Weekend, when they're invited to sample the delights of the school, culminating with the concert and auction. They get flattered and soaked, and they take it good naturedly, and even with pride, considering the quality of the music their grandmonsters emit. The maestro, Steve Olson, does a great job every year. This year, it being the 25th anniversary of the founding of the school, the programme was comprised of works by Vermont composers, and it was . . . excellent.

I've mentioned once or twice that I set Steve up with his lovely wife, Katelyn. Actually, I badgered him into meeting her through a series of drunken phone calls, insisting that he did, first, because I'm obnoxious, and second because The Spirit moved me. Well, after a couple of false starts, Katelyn and Steve finally have their baby, Natalie Lauren; and a little bit sad, too, because Steve's mom died a couple of weeks before she was born. But, oh, I think it's clear that she loved the girl even before she arrived. We only wish she could have held her in her corporeal arms because we don't know any better . . . I suppose.

Naturally, there was a lot of emotion. Naturally, everyone there would have cut Steve some slack if the performance hadn't been of the quality we've come to expect. But it was. And the kids in the choir were on, on, on. Looking out over that "sea of faces," most of them beautiful, I recognized that there were some who don't feel that way, though I believe the Waldorf system is a lot more supportive than most. I thought, oh, but you are beautiful, all of you, and I wish that I could let you see yourselves through my eyes. But then I thought, well, that's kind of creepy, I suppose. And then I thought of you, reader, and I thought, I just want to tell you that I think you're beautiful. Some of you think you aren't, or that you're small potatoes, or that you're deranged cat ladies, or whatever, but you've enriched my life a lot, and I wish to thank you for your kindness, your generosity, your consideration, your attention.

Sometimes, I don't respond because I'm busy, or because, even though I have the reputation of being . . . glib, I don't know what to say. I don't know whether I love you as I should; I imagine I don't love you as you deserve; I am a tiny being, so I don't care as I ought, sometimes; but thank you for giving my puny life more meaning.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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22May/101

NJ: Fat-Assed Public Employees Demonstrate

Wonder where the money's gone.

While you cut expenses, President Nero cuts a rug.

Don Surber has this, related story:

Economic Policy Journal reported that 32 states borrowed a total of $37.8 billion from the federal government to meet their state unemployment insurance obligations.

More than a third of the money — $13 billion — went to three states that supported Obama in the 2008 race: California, Illinois and Michigan.

Obama carried 28 states. 21 of them — 75% — had to borrow money from the federal government to meet this basic obligation of the government. Only 11 of the 22 states that McCain carried — 50% — had to borrow.

Bop on over to his pad to dig the list, baby.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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22May/101

Liberals Parsimonious Only With the Truth

I'm going to highlight a couple of key characterizations in this Politico story:

A McMahon campaign source boasted to POLITICO that if McMahon finishes this weekend’s convention ahead of her chief rival for the GOP nomination, former Rep. Rob Simmons, “a big part of the reason will have been our strategic decision to put our fingerprints on this story – a story that we were involved with.”

Meanwhile, the Times reporters and editors behind the story have stood by it and seem to be doubling down, publishing a follow-up Friday afternoon detailing a 2007 speech unearthed by the weekly Milford (Conn.) Mirror in which Blumenthal appeared to suggest he served in Vietnam. And Times executive editor Bill Keller asserted in a Thursday response to the paper’s ombudsman, public editor Clark Hoyt, that the firestorm generated by the first story proves its significance.

“The leading candidate for the United States Senate seat from Connecticut embellished his military record, and admitted it,” Keller wrote in an email to Hoyt’s office. “That seems to me a pretty important piece of information — and everyone, including the Blumenthal campaign, has certainly been reacting to it as such,” read Keller’s email, which was provided by the Times to POLITICO.

Hoyt is expected to publish a column Sunday detailing the findings of his investigation, for which he has reached out to the Blumenthal and McMahon campaigns, as well as Jean Risley, the chairwoman of Connecticut Vietnams Memorial, Inc. and a Blumenthal ally who alleged the Times misquoted her saying that Blumenthal had claimed to have served in Vietnam.

One of Dick Blumenthal's "How dare you question my patriotism?!" defenses is that the NYT did not mention all the times he truthfully characterized his service. We understand that perhaps this is the man bites dog aspect of politics, but for some reason it's still the lies that get one in trouble, at least during the election campaign. And it's fascinating, too, that Kenneth P. Vogel characterizes a defense of truth-telling as "doubling down," under these circumstances. Why doesn't Dick sue for defamation, and let a jury decide?

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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22May/103

Your New Guardians

There are the rules for you, and the rules for them.

A friend sent me a little something he saw on Neal Boortz’s site, and I couldn’t help but wonder at the chutzpah of Barack Obama, his administration, and their supporters in Congress and the media.

In fact, chutzpah doesn’t even begin to describe the hypocrisy encapsulated in this little tidbit.

President Obama is planning on attending the graduating ceremony of Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan, next month. He intends to shake the hand of every graduating senior. No big deal; politicians love this sort of “mingling with the commoner” PR moment.

But there’s a catch for those seniors who want the honor of pressing flesh with The One:

Seniors are being asked to provide their birthdates, Social Security numbers and citizen status to the Secret Service so background checks could be performed.

Huh.

What about those Kalamazoo Central High School seniors who might be in our nation illegally? What if they don’t have Social Security numbers and cannot prove their citizenship status? Will the Secret Service give them a pass?

Doubtful. But Obama himself has criticized the state of Arizona for passing a law that would enable law enforcement officers to inquire about the citizenship or green card status of individuals who are stopped for a lawful reason.

That's only fair, I guess, considering that Barack Obama has had several Social Security numbers, the most often used having been set aside for residents of Connecticut, where he would seem to have had little reason to apply for one, seeing as he's never had any close tie to the state.

As part of Financial Regulatory Reform, just passed, there will be a new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, which will be able to monitor your bank accounts, balances and transactions, and will be able to report that information to any entity to whom it sees fit. Meanwhile, Congress' disclosure rules are a joke. Barry proposes that anyone arrested---whether charged or not, much less convicted of anything---should have to yield up a DNA sample for a national database, while withholding his own medical history. Never mind official identification documents in Arizona, though, or at the polls. Even if illegal aliens are referred to the ICE, they're saying they won't enforce the law. In Liberaland, asking a voter for official ID is intimidation, but DC Police escorting 14 buses of SEIU thugs to protest on a private lawn in Maryland is understandable.

Laws are for undesirables, like American citizens. Well, some American citizens, anyway.

Then, of course, he'd like to establish a national biometric identification card . . . after providing a blanket amnesty for illegals.

Cass Sunstein, as I've noted before, believes that the government should use deceptive techniques to counter what it designates "conspiracy theories." "Progressives," who would have screamed bloody murder had any of these ideas been promoted under Boooosh! don't seem concerned that these same measures will naturally provide extraordinary powers to subsequent governments whose interests might not align well with their own. Of course, Obama also dreams of an internal security force that's just as powerful as the US Military. What could possibly go wrong?

Meanwhile, in Chicago, Obama ally Richard Daley is hypothesizing sticking a gun barrel up a reporter's ass for having the temerity to suggest that Chicago's gun ban hasn't been effective. Chicago politicians, though---law abiding citizens one and all---are deputed to carry. Tasers apparently didn't work well enough to kill Tom Bennett.

Oh, yeah: we're just this side of Paradise.