A little light reading…

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 21:56:29

I was at a neighborhood meeting tonight to get in my two cents, or two minutes in this case, about various projects being built nearby. About seventy-five percent of the proceedings is repetition of what someone else has said. So I keep half-an-ear on the proceedings, and grind through articles and docs I’ve printed out for such an occasion. Yea, I know, ‘print out’? No, I’m not a Luddite, more of a ‘late adopter,’ living in an area where the lathe-and-plaster of the California bungalows and the concrete and steel of the public buildings often defeat 3G, 4G and wi-fi all at once. Besides, I have a red pen and like to use it on the articles, underlining things of interest, and writing my own thoughts down.

For example:

Reuters is doing a series on corporate secrecy, not in the Caymans or Switzerland, but here in the good ol’ USA

Specifically, Delaware, Nevada and, focus for this article, Wyoming. The small brick house at 2710 Thomes Ave, Cheyenne, Wyoming is corporate headquarters for Wyoming Corporate Services…and over 2000 other corporations. I learned about ‘shelf’ companies, which are paper companies that have been sitting on a shelf, gathering a credit history, bank account history, and tax history, doing nothing but waiting for someone who needs to look long-standing and respectable to come along. The older the shelf company, the higher the price to buy it.

Almost none of this is regulated, and only three states require companies to disclose who owns them. Sen. Levin keeps trying to get a bill passed, but lobbyists, and the Nat’l Assoc of Secs of State keep getting it killed. Watch for the ‘Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Act’ to come around again.

Meanwhile…

The Berkman Center has published an exhaustive analysis of the state of Broadband in the 19 countries in the OECD. An excellent analysis of where it’s been and how it got to where it is now, and where various nations are trying to take it. Bottom line: American exceptionalism strikes again: once you get away from DSL, America has the least penetration, and the highest prices for the lowest speeds. We get beaten by almost every country in Europe, and we either are or will get our asses handed to us by Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Yet (does this sound familiar?) we spend more per year per person in infrastructure than any others.

I recommend reading the executive summary. It’s only seven pages, and the one color chart says a lot.

While you’re watching ‘Congressional DebtMatch 2011’ on TV, you might take a look at the CBO’s economic outlook for the next few years. Granted, I just read the summary, but they boil it down pretty well. After they get done waving their hands about how much they can’t know in advance, and how things will undoubtedly change, they project three economic paths.

The ‘extended-baseline’ scenario assumes Congress essentially does nothing new…so the ACA kicks in, the Bush tax cuts finally expire, and the AMT starts hitting more people. GNP might go down 2% by 2035, and revenues would climb to as much as 23% of GDP, significantly higher than recent decades. Which would reduce the rate of debt increase significantly, but not reverse it.

The ‘alternative fiscal’ projection is much bleaker, assuming the Bush cuts continue, and more tax changes would keep revenues at or below the usual 18% of GDP. I call this the Republican plan. Note the CBO’s use of the word ‘bleaker.’ Debt skyrockets, to almost 200% of GDP by 2035. Frighteningly, the CBO says that many budget analysts think this is the more realistic scenario, given the current policy situation. (See: Republicans hate America.) This scenario results in GNP plunging almost 6% by 2025, and by between 7 and 18% by ten years later.

There’s lots more detail just in the three and a half pages of the Summary. I got a perspective on the ‘run the nation’s budget like you do your own’ meme the GOP is selling. Our national debt, that’s everything the US owes, was about 40% of GDP when Bush left, and almost 70% now. That’s total debt versus annual production. If you total up your car loan, your credit card debt, and the balance on your mortgage, is that less than your annual gross? If we should run the national budget like our own, America’s got a lot of debt to rack up yet. Let’s (Democratic) Party!

746 ~ Wednesday, June 29, 2011 22:48:17

The First Amendment: The Best Friend Religion Ever Had. So Shut Up About It.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011 10:41:15

Now that the second most populous state in the union, New York, has joined five other states and DC in recognizing the rights of all their citizens, thus more than doubling the number of people covered, the right is going batshit. Tony Perkins' FRC is almost literally up in arms, demanding constant prayers to strike down this law, while Rep. Akins (R-Goatf**ker) has announced that all liberals hate God.

They've got a perfect right to say these things. Says so right there in the Constitution they claim to defend while wanting to rewrite it or ignore it. Right there in the First Amendment, the very first change that was made to the Constitution, by the same guys (yea, guys) that wrote it. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" is how it begins. It lists four more rights, but this is the very first thing. It was important to them.

Much as they hate the Amendment that allows me to say I think most of them are full of crap, it is that same Amendment that allows them to sell their line to anyone who'll listen, without fear that the state will intervene, as it does in China, Russia, and most Islamic countries.

As much as the Christian Right whines about how marriage equality will force them to do something unsanctioned in their churches, that's just crap. No government agency anywhere in the United States can force anyone to get married, or force any religious institution to perform or recognize a particular marriage. I know Jewish couples that aren't married according to a panel of rabbis in Israel, even though the state of California says they are. And while the Greek Orthodox catholic Church recognizes my marriage, the Roman one probably doesn't. (We didn't have it at one of the Roman-sanctioned facilities. We had it outdoors.) Regardless, the state still recognizes these marriages, and gives certain rights, responsibilities and sanctions with that recognition, by issuing its own marriage licenses.

When I read that certain religious exemptions had to be carved out of the New York bill for it to become law, I know we're dealing with people who, despite their muskets and tri-cornered hats, have no idea of this nation’s history, or the foundation that it stands on. Hint: it ain't the Bible.

Meanwhile, the government keeps ‘respecting an establishment of religion’ by allowing these religious restrictions on abortion. Every time a law further restricting access, forcing indoctrination, or permitting the intervention between a doctor and a patient, (something that has never been done in the United States until this subject came up,) that government is violating the First Amendment.

A side note: Isn’t government telling you or your doctor what you can or can’t talk about, and when, and for how long, exactly what the teabaggers falsely accuse Democrats of including in the Affordable Care Act? Just asking…

I can see not forcing catholic hospitals to perform abortions. I can also see not giving tax dollars to entities that don’t do what needs to be done, just as No Child Left Behind, the right-wing’s baby, cuts off money for schools that don’t perform, and just like states that don’t raise the drinking age to 21 are cut-off from federal highway funds.

If an entire organization, Planned Parenthood, can have its Medicaid funds cut-off because, of its 24 locations in the state of Indiana, 3 perform abortions, then why continue to provide subsidies to catholic schools and catholic hospitals for any of their other functions? Not talking tax exemption here, talking actual tax dollars that buy school books, and send buses, provide hot lunches and special needs equipment, and that’s just at the schools.

Cause they’re all run by the same organization, the catholic archdiocese of wherever. And, even if some Supreme Court ruling have said these state contributions respecting an establishment of religion are legal, they can, as was done to Planned Parenthood in Indiana, just as easily be made illegal, and using the same logic.

Don’t get me started on using the same logic to justify making illegal all political donations, from any government contractor or recipient of an industry-specific tax deduction, to any politician who approved that program, because at least some of the funds donated came from the money that politician ‘gacve’ to that corporation. “Because it’s all fungible, and can’t be separated,” at least according to the Indiana legislature. Where the ends always justify the means.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 11:45:54

Back to bicycles behaving badly...

Monday, June 27, 2011 20:48:19

Things are happening in the world of bicycles. The law of unintended consequences plays a part. So does the same ‘poverty as culture’ that gave the world coq au vin, haggus and the Volkswagen. And then there’s both sides of generic male arrogance, the ‘gotta tinker’ inventiveness in the shop, somewhat offset by the ‘No Rules’ approach to traffic.

Unintended Consequences

George Bush Sr, back in ’91, was forced to sign the Americans With Disabilities Act. WTF has that got to do with bikes acting badly? Observe any intersection. The infirm and the wheelchair-bound once had to negotiate the step down and back up at either end of the crosswalk, making crossing the street an impossibility for many, leaving them confined to the block they lived on. The more desperate dared going into the street at driveways, and tooling along the gutter until they could cross. The ADA changed all that, mandating curb cuts at the corners. The rest is history. Now, in addition to the infirm and the wheelchaired, every pedestrian takes their life in their hands on the new bicycle freeways. No longer restrained by that same up-and-down curb challenge, bikes of all types, with their riders of various skill levels, fly along sidewalks, launch into crosswalks and traffic, and scatter crowds on the other side. Notice the use of the verb ‘walk’ in the nouns ‘sidewalk’ and ‘crosswalk’? Just wanted to point out that explicit preference for the pedestrian over the wheeled. Duly noted, duly ignored.

Since these skill-deficient cyclists ride in any direction, besides being a hazard for the folks on foot, they present a new blind spot to the driver. If they are traveling the same direction as traffic, their very existence is often hidden by the cars parked at the curb. And no driver thinks there’s another lane of traffic to consider on the sidewalk, certainly not one moving at car speeds. So when a bike suddenly vaults off the curb into a crosswalk from the right as a driver takes that right turn, I have no sympathy for the rider’s sudden transition from living being to hood ornament.

Riders coming the other direction on the sidewalk are at least more visible at the intersection, since they are coming straight at the driver as the car turns right. Who has the right of way? Well, the bike is riding against traffic, and so, by definition, is in the wrong. But the argument in court, as the parents try to get the driver to pay for the damage done to their young one, suddenly in different need of those curb cuts, is the question of who had the last chance to avoid the accident.

Poverty As Culture.

The question of who had the last chance to stop is made simpler if the bicyclist was riding a fixee, since the ‘real’ fixie, fashion ride of the fixie pixie, is not only gearless but brakeless. These are made cheap, by stripping all the hardware and cables off an old 5- or 10-speed, then slapping on a coat of paint and a chain. No coaster brake, no caliper brake, no brake at all except the incredible ability to make the feet on the pedals suddenly stop going forward. These bikes are meant only for banked closed-oval racing, where all bikes are similarly non-equipped, so the bike in front of you can’t stop any faster, or with any less warning than you can. And where there are no pedestrians, no cross traffic, and no cars. Technically, this is a legal configuration on the street, since the law requires that the bike can be stopped, but does not specify how.

Some small number of fixees, for girls I suppose, have a single caliper brake on the front wheel. Appropriate, since 70% of stopping power of the usual two-wheeled brake configuration is at the front wheel. But these are anomalies, a training-wheel-type configuration the rider aspires to outgrow on his way to permanent injury. A cop can make any rider demonstrate a bike’s braking, but no city wants its civil servants requiring citizens to injure themselves, since most of these cyclists haven’t got the skill level, or the attention span, to perform a controlled skid as a braking maneuver, certainly not in a panic before the SUV’s grill bounces the rider off the bike and onto the asphalt head first.

Speaking of head-first. Helmets, anyone? Apparently not. EMTALA anyone? Look it up. If you don’t wear a helmet, you’ll need it.

To be continued…

750 (minus the ‘Tbc’) ~ Monday, June 27, 2011 21:48:17