March 21, 2012 · 7:17 pm

Was Darwin Wrong?

I know it is said that worrying is like praying for what you don’t want to happen, and to a large extent, I agree. So I am not sure where to file this:

Charles Darwin was a great man, and I am a firm believer that he pretty much nailed it with most of his theories and rhetoric.

Two of my favorite quotes of his follow:

The issue I have, however, is that by everything I see in our world, Darwin’s logic above, and pretty much throughout his oeuvre, seems ironic at best, and flat wrong in our worst case scenario.

My logic, if you will permit me to ascribe it with such a flattering term, is rather simple.

Our world is flooded with intolerance, prejudice, violence and ignorance. Those who hold dear to any and all four of those horrific schools are not a waning minority by any means, but rather a growing scourge on society.

Please consider the following examples of my troubling hypothesis below, and these are all symptomatic of the American populace:

A large and vociferous population refuses to believe in evolution, does not want it taught in public schools and feels that the bible trumps all in terms of the law and basic human rights;

Many continue to subrogate females in our society for no apparent reason other than archaic behavior patterns that evolved in a world that admittedly was once dominated by men, and refuse to wake up to the misogynistic and ludicrous reasoning that continues to cast an ugly pall on society. This manifests itself most egregiously in: a government of men continually trying to stick their hands, minds and influence into the bodies of women; a refusal to enact serious legislation and better educational programs for the far-too rampant plague that is the assault, battery and abuse (physical, mental and sexual) of women; and double standards that still find women earning considerably less than men in most industries, with far fewer women in positions of power than men.

The absolutely mind-boggling fact that homosexuals are treated as second-class citizens in a nation that boasts liberty and justice for all, not some, or most.

That someone with views like Rick Santorum (see all of the above points) can actually get as close as he is to a nomination by arguably the most powerful political party in our nation, and that Sarah Palin did get the nod by the same party, albeit as a running-mate add-on;

The tragedy that is Traymon Martin, and the countless other racially charged senseless murders and crimes that continue to occur way too frequently.

And America is far more tolerant, just and educated than the rest of the world…by leaps and bounds (maybe Americans aren’t more “evolved” than every single nation and society around the globe, but we are among the crème de la crème, overwhelmingly).  Unfortunately, the goal is not to be less awful than everyone else. A child whose hands and face are covered in dog shit still smells, even if less so than a child covered in feces from head to toe.  America still has a long way to go, even if it is mere miles compared to the light-years the disgraceful global populace must journey toward enlightenment.

So what does all of that have to do with Darwin?

Glad you asked.

From my vantage point, the populations increasing most rapidly in our country, and throughout the world, are the ignorant and the religious zealots, many of which, unsurprisingly, overlap.

I realize Darwin’s theory that the fittest will survive rings true in the near term as the poorest people, who tend to dominate the ignorant and zealous populations, do have the shortest life expectancies.

But long-term, these ignorant and zealous peoples will continue to multiply and thrive, further eroding the evolution of our society as a whole as backward ideas become or continue on as consensus by the growing masses. And unlike in prehistoric times or even a few hundred years ago, mankind has made such incredible technological and medical advances (whether the ignorant and the faithful choose to believe it or not), that even the poorest, most ignorant and most fearful of science benefit.

As a believer in democracy, I can’t help but see stormy weather up ahead for those who cling to the hopes that tolerance, justice and enlightenment will eventually win out over ignorance, prejudice, violence and intolerance. As our global population continues to grow, unfortunately, it is the intolerant, ignorant and overly faithful that are multiplying at exponentially faster rates than the rest of us.

And so, the reason I fear Darwin may have been mistaken, at least in terms of our own human society, is that I am not sure the most responsive to change will survive. And it does not seem likely that those who have learned to collaborate or improvise will continue to prevail, either. In fact, our fastest growing populations seem to be those who refuse to change at all and are completely anti-collaboration and/or improvisation. Ignorance, bliss or not, is multiplying like Danny Zuko’s chills.

I am not sure our society will ever evolve in a positive direction toward enlightenment, but rather it seems far more likely to devolve into darkness and anarchy. Or perhaps humanity was never poised to survive long-term in the first place. And if things don’t change on a grand scale, we probably won’t.

I apologize for being so bleak. I really am a cheerful person with a positive outlook on life. Just trying to stir the giant pot of crap that is simmering on the back burner.

Hope you are all well.

Thanks for reading. I promise more upbeat, positive, and likely trivial entries to come.

IDROS

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February 28, 2012 · 10:49 am

Is Anyone Else As Concerned About the Sudden Ubiquity of Chris Brown As I Am?

In the course of two weeks, this troglodyte has virtually usurped the entertainment world spotlight right out from under the Kardashians. He dominated the Grammy’s with not one, but two “live” performances AND walked away from the spectacle hoisting a shiny phonograph statue of his own – for best R&B Album.

He then brazenly used this apparent validating moment to opine via twitter, “HATE ALL U WANT BECUZ I GOT A GRAMMY Now! That’s the ultimate F**** OFF!”

Sure, he later backtracked, deleting the above communiqué and replacing it with this gem, “IM BACK SO WATCH MY BaCK as I walk away from all this negativity #teambreezygrammy.”

The thing is, it is difficult to “watch someone’s BaCK” when they are being forced down your throat at every turn.

Cut to last night’s NBA All Star Game Halftime show, and who joined Miami hip hop native Pit Bull on the main stage? Sure enough, it was that thorn in the side of battered women everywhere – Christopher Brown.

I have no problem with redemption and giving people second chances. But I do have a serious problem with this sudden reemergence of Brown…on many levels:

A)    Some ridiculous “women” (read: infantile ignorant girls) got so caught up in the hoopla surrounding Brown that they literally begged to be beaten by the pop-star via twitter! (I really wish I made this up…but click here to be VERY disturbed);

B)    Chris Brown served no real time for his crime. Community service and probation are hardly paying his debt to society like people such as Michael Vick (super-douche doggie Hitler) and Plaxico Burress (and Ja Rule, Lil Wayne and DMX in the hip hop profession) have done;

 C)   The theory that Rihanna has apparently forgiven her accoster, so perhaps society as a whole should too. Seriously? First of all, there are millions of documented cases of battered women who “forgive,” “love” and “protect” the men who abuse and beat them repeatedly, many times within inches of their lives, and as a result, allow the cycle of abuse to continue and fester for far longer than it ever should. Rihanna may or may not fall into this enabler category, but who says she doesn’t?

D)   Whatever Rihanna’s motivations to forgive and forge a new relationship with the man who bloodied and humiliated her and threatened her life, be they spiritual, sexual, love or business related, they are misguided and appalling. I am horrified at the message this sends to battered and abused women worldwide. Even if this is purely a business play, and it may be – god knows this reconciliation has garnered plenty of attention – it is akin to a family who loses a child due to cancer caused by a company that polluted their neighborhood (think Erin Brockovich type stuff), that then forges a business relationship with that same company for mutual financial gain…sickening;

E)    More to the point above, for the most part, celebrities are role models, whether they want to be or not. Sure, celebrities, for better or worse, must deal with brutal life events in the public eye, and I realize this is difficult and I even sympathize with many celebrities at times (like with instances of domestic violence, funerals and difficult situations arising with their children).

But I absolutely shudder to think of the reaction among impressionable children and present and future women abusers worldwide who are using this sudden rebirth and proliferation of all things Chris Brown as validation and vindication for their own actions and thoughts. To any ignorant or naïve male, and judging by the state of our world right now, there are billions of those, it would seem that what Chris Brown did to Rihanna is no big deal (see A) above);

F)    I will even concede that while the masses hurl slings at Brown and Rihanna for their behavior and criticize the Grammy’s and NBA for showcasing an awful man, our attention and concern would be far better spent focused on raising awareness, money, protection and help for the millions of non-celebrity women who are battered and abused every day. So true!

That said, this is a travesty. People like Brown and Rihanna make millions because of star-worship in our culture. And both of their actions in this nauseating relationship are reprehensible and are being watched and scrutinized by millions of impressionable people;

G)   Apparent ambivalence by our populace and community at large regarding domestic violence and the horrific abuse, assault and battery of women that leads to more than THREE DEATHS DAILY in the USA alone is reflected by an even more terrifying phenomenon – A LARGE FACTION OF OUR GOVERNMENT IS NOW FIGHTING TO ABOLISH THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT, a bill first introduced in 1994 to end violence and abuse against women and to protect all victims that face this senseless and barbaric plight.

Senator Leahy (D-V T), who is from Vermont and obviously supports the VAMA and who is leading a bill to increase the act’s reach, says the act’s opposition, primarily Republicans (go figure), argue that the bill aims to “protect too many victims.” Are you friggin’ kidding me? For more on this disturbing story, please click this link;

H)   Roman Polanski sexually abused and raped a teenage girl thirty five years ago, was arrested and convicted, and subsequently fled to Europe to avoid sentencing. He is no longer welcome in his own country, forced to live a life in exile. Sure he was awarded an Oscar for making The Pianist, a wonderful movie. And that is fine. Talent is talent, whether wielded by good or bad men or women. But Polanski isn’t thrust into my living room three times in two weeks on two of the bigger stages in the world, and he never will be; and,

I)   Chris Brown’s music, by and large, sucks (My own definition of talent is pretty simple…Is our world a better place with Chris’ music in it?).

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading,

IDROS

 

 

 

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February 23, 2012 · 3:58 pm

Movies by the Numbers…

In the spirit of Oscar season and because I love movies as much as the next person, I figured I would take the time to compile a list of sorts for your entertainment. I am sure similar lists and themes have been explored before, but hey, why can’t mine be better? Not every idea has to be original to succeed (go watch most movies or television shows and this will be obvious) – creators, authors, actors, directors and even singers only need to bring a fresh perspective or add value to an old and/or tired premise to breathe new life into it and find an audience.

So here’s my list of the greatest movies of all time, with a numerological bent.

I will count down from twelve, the movies that in my opinion are the best of all time AND include the number on the list to which they correspond – i.e., number twelve must contain the word or number twelve (12) in its title, and number eight must contain the word or number eight (8), etc.

Why twelve, you may ask? Well because beyond twelve the options become limited, if available at all, and I wanted the list to be cohesive, consecutive and contain films that could actually be included on a list defined with the words “greatest” or “best” and not evoke laughter, ridicule and scorn.

Just to be clear: This is not a list of my favorite movies of all time (or someone else’s).

The rules follow:

Numbers that represent sequels do not count. If they did, The Godfather II and Star Wars Parts IV and V would clearly represent their respective numbers…so allow this example to acknowledge those great films without clouding our list.

Homophones do not qualify – especially nauseating plays on words and puns, ala Look Who’s Talking Too, and yes, I know this particular example also violates the first rule above anyway; but in terms of actual contenders, we cannot consider Hitchcock’s classic, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The WWII epic A Bridge Too Far, nor Clint Eastwood’s For A Few Dollars More.

Numbers that are part of larger numbers are impermissible. This unfortunately disqualifies classics such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1984, 48 Hours, 300 and A Miracle on 34th Street.

Ordinals, or words representing the rank of a number, do count for our purposes, so movies featuring words like “first,” “second” or “third,” etc. are fair game.

Any movie starring Vin Diesel is automatically disqualified (and yes, there were a couple decent movies in his filmography, but none of them had numbers in its title).

So here goes:

12) Ocean’s Twelve was the worst of the Ocean’s trilogy. 12 Monkeys was underrated and almost won my vote. Brad Pitt, who must enjoy movies with numerical titles, was in both. But for my money, Sidney Lumet’s courtroom drama, Twelve Angry Men takes this slot in a split decision.

(I will give props to The Dirty Dozen because it is a great film worth noting and remains one of the best WWII movies ever made. But we can all agree that though dozen is another word for twelve, it is not the word twelve, the number 12 or the ordinal, twelfth, and thus can’t win).

11) Ocean’s Eleven. Maybe I am out of line here, but I prefer the remake to the original.

10) There are really only two candidates worth considering here: Ten and The Ten Commandments. As good as Bo Derek looked in her hair beads, this one wasn’t much of a contest. The late champion of our Second Amendment right to pack heat, and his epic Old Testament tale of Exodus is one of the more treasured American films as is evidenced by its annual run on national television each spring around the celebration of Passover. (Other films that were considered and immediately discarded were 10 Things I hate About You, Heath Ledger RIP, and 10 To Midnight, one of Charles Bronson’s weaker vehicles.)

9) There will be widespread disagreement here. I know it, and frankly, I invite it. There are a slew of movies that could contend here, but not one is jaw-droppingly strong. To me, this quickly became a three horse race between a workplace comedy, an underrated and smartly written science fiction movie and perhaps the sexiest movie ever made.

9 to 5 is a very good movie. I enjoyed it. I am sure you all did too. But after serious consideration, I couldn’t crown it, even with the extra pressure exerted by Dolly’s assets. And 9 ½ Weeks, awesome as it was, really violates our third rule, which eliminates numbers that are part of larger numbers. Without that rule, I think the best soft-porn movie ever made would have nailed down this slot. But alas, rules is rules.

So our winner is District 9. What? You may be thinking. Some of you are seething. The sappy among you might even be singing the praises of 9 Months, or the musical romp 9. But District 9 was a great movie. Sure it was violent, and science fiction is not for everyone. But neither are musicals and Hugh Grant movies. District 9 was a solid metaphor for Apartheid policies and atrocities that plagued South Africa for centuries, and that still linger today throughout the African continent. And it was a funny, poignant and wildly entertaining movie.

(I also considered The Whole 9 Yards for like a second. Very good movie. But after recalling Rosanna Arquette’s awful French accent and Matthew Perry just playing his Canadian dentist role as Chandler, I simply couldn’t associate this movie with the three contenders above).

8) Another three horse race here. This one features three dark, edgy movies: one about our national pastime, one about the hard-scrabble life of a down-on-his-luck gambler, and one about the mean streets of Motor City. 8 Mile was gritty and surprisingly well-acted by Marshall Mathers. But despite being strong enough to contend, Eminem’s free-style rap film should be happy to have even been considered alongside the two other stalwarts.

Eight Men Out masterfully captured the Black Sox scandal and a shocking era of sports and corruption in America. But my guess is that only 50% of our population really appreciates this film. And for that reason…

Hard 8, the coming out party and first full-length feature film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, was and still remains an underrated and underappreciated movie. Glimpses into PTA’s genius bombard us from the moment Philip Baker Hall approaches a downtrodden John C. Reilly outside the diner. Samuel Jackson was still riding his Pulp Fiction high, and Clementine was really the first substantial role for Gwyneth Paltrow, who was dating the numerical movie title king, Brad Pitt, when Hard 8 hit theaters.

(Of course I considered Fellini’s 8 ½, but for the same reason 9 ½ Weeks was disqualified above, Fellini’s opus failed to make our list.)

7) There are five legitimate contenders here, one of which features Brad Pitt. And there is another movie that failed to live up to the top five, but that is good nonetheless, and also features Brangelina’s Y chromosome.

Se7en is awesome. It has the word AND the number seven in its title, and Brad Pitt in its credits. It should win this slot just on those merits. But it doesn’t. At least not in my opinion.

The Seven Year Itch, featuring Marilyn Monroe as the temptress next door, is a very good film with a terrific premise.

The Magnificent Seven AND The Seven Samurai, on which the former is based, are both brilliant films in their own rights. Kurosawa arguably created his masterpiece with The Seven Samurai. I am certain few would argue if I posted either film in this slot.

But I have a soft spot for timeless classics that appeal to the widest audience possible (and Disney movies in general), and so, by the narrowest of margins, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs prevails.

(As previously alluded to, Seven Years in Tibet, starring Floyd from True Romance, was briefly considered, but fell short of the mark.)

6) It’s a shame, really, about our third rule. It would have been nice to get the late John Hughes on this list, and Sixteen Candles would have been tough to beat here. That leaves us with four valid entries, and only two real contenders for the six slot.

Will Smith was eerily compelling in Six Degrees of Separation, but the clear victor here is The Sixth Sense. M. Night Shyamalan, the writer and director of The Sixth Sense has never been able to recapture the brilliance of his first movie. It can’t be easy when your first movie is this good.

(The Governator’s sci-fi non-classic, The 6th Day, and the inexplicably watchable but irritating Harrison Ford and Anne Heche action comedy, Six Days and Seven Nights, were noted…and disregarded).

5) A retread reemerges to contend here, and runs into a weak adaptation of a literary classic, a wild sci-fi thriller and a best picture nominee starring one of Hollywood’s all time leading men.

Slaughterhouse Five was an amazing novel, arguably Vonnegut’s best. But it just didn’t translate well to film. The Fifth Element was fun, offering some memorable scenes and a hilarious role for Dylan McKay, but it simply can’t overtake two better films for this slot.

And once again 9 to 5 comes up a little short, running into an Oscar-nominated film starring Jack Nicholson in his prime. And so Five Easy Pieces nails down the five spot.

(I did consider Five Minutes of Heaven here, which was critically lauded, but I haven’t seen the movie yet, and so really couldn’t put it on my list. Feel free to comment below if you believe this film deserves to be included.)

4) Two Oscar nominated films battle for this slot: Four Weddings and a Funeral, which really was part of the undercard in the incredible 1994 Oscar race, and Born on the Fourth of July, which fiercely contended in a very good 1989 Oscar race.

The nod goes to Oliver Stone and Tom Cruise here as their film took home a lot more hardware. I realize this may not be fair, as the competition in 1994 was far superior to that of 1989, but overall, Born on the Fourth of July is just a slightly better movie with a much more powerful message.

3) This is where the competition becomes clouded with many worthy entries. I narrowed an early seven film race down to a realistic three film contest, which seemed fitting…this being the three slot.

The Three Musketeers has been done to death, occasionally with decent results. Threesome was a surprisingly fun and entertaining college movie, focusing on sexuality, coming of age and experimentation in ways those themes had not previously been explored. Three O’Clock High was as watchable as it was bizarre, becoming a minor cult classic and leaving us with a quintessential ‘80s movie villain in Buddy Revell.

And then there is Three Men and a Baby. As hard as I try, I can find nothing negative to say about what should have been one of the worst movies of all time. I try to think of the production company brass listening to the initial plot pitch, politely nodding with glossed over looks in their eyes and summarily dismissing the writers, and yet somehow having the stones somewhere down the line to say “fuck it…let’s do this.” It even featured Steve Guttenberg…and killed.

But as good as all of those movies were, they can’t hold a candle to the three that ultimately vie for this slot: Three Kings was one of the most underrated movies of the 1990s. Not your typical war movie, David O. Russell’s Gulf War classic injected a high adrenaline and touching plot into a war-torn region and it worked extremely well.

Three Amigos needs its own paragraph. They just don’t make comedies like that one anymore. Martin Short, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase, all still in their comedic primes, took a formulaic and pretty tired plot and simply owned it, milking laughs out of the freaking sand their horses rode upon. And El Guapo, I do know what a plethora means, and there were a plethora of laughs in this gem.

As good as all of those films are, one of Spielberg’s many masterpieces, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, is better.

(An honorable mention to Three Days of the Condor, which my friend Murray claims is a great flick, but that I unfortunately am unable to corroborate. It is high on my list of movies to see.)

2) Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Two Days in the Valley are great movies. If you haven’t seen them, you should.

But this one goes to the middle installment of perhaps the second best trilogy of all time. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers may not have been to this trilogy what Empire was to Star Wars, but it wasn’t what Temple of Doom was to the Indiana Jones saga either. In fact, it was much closer to the former than the latter.

(Just an FYI…I came across this review for LOTR: The Two Towers and felt compelled to share the hilarity.)

1) One Fine Day and Air Force One are both very good, entertaining movies featuring bankable movie stars and that hold up beyond their release dates.

But this is a two horse race between the best two movies on this entire list. Sure, some of you might argue that point, but I will tell you who won’t…Oscar. Both movies won all of what are known as the big five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Adapted Screenplay. Pretty remarkable when you think about it. In fact, to date, only one other film ever achieved that feat: Silence of the Lambs, in 1991.

It Happened One Night is a great love story starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert and directed by Frank Capra, who delivers one of his trademark feel-good stories. Excellent performances and writing propelled this movie to unparalleled status (the first film ever to sweep the big five Academy Awards).

But the winner here is the second film to ever sweep the big five. The difference is that my choice for the number one slot also garnered four additional nominations (Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Film Editing and Original Score), and is considered among the top ten or twenty movies of all time on most lists that matter (not that this one doesn’t).

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, based on Ken Kesey’s masterful novel, is one of the few examples of a book adaptation which might actually rival the book upon which it is based. Nicholson and Louise Fletcher certainly earned their Oscars and Brad Dourif, Sydney Lassick, Christopher Lloyd, William Redfield, Danny DeVito and Will Sampson (as the Chief) headlined an incredible supporting cast.

(Oh, and for those who want a mention of One Night at McCool’s and The First Wives Club…umm yeah.)

Thanks for taking the time to read this list. I hope it primed those interested for the upcoming Oscars. Go Midnight in Paris, for whatever that’s worth. And please feel free to disagree with any of the above using the comments feature below and to add any films you believe I forgot (or more likely purposely omitted).

IDROS

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February 5, 2012 · 3:15 pm

Without Serious Campaign Finance Reform, We Will Be Entering A World Of Pain, Donny

I couldn’t take it any longer, I thought I was crazy…When this feeling came upon me like a tidal wave…

Thank you, Mr. Loaf, for a perfect intro for what will likely be my most impassioned and serious entry to date. No, it has nothing to do with love or sex or telling lies just to get laid, and Phil Rizutto will not be making a voice cameo, but if what I lay out for you all below does not get properly resolved in a timely fashion, I am fairly certain we will all be praying for the end of time.

Our country is seriously fucked up. There I said it. You are all probably thinking, “duh!”

Sure. I realize that it isn’t just our country. Our entire world is in serious peril, as it has been for most of the past, well, recorded history.

But let’s focus on the good ol’ US of A, since that is where I reside and focus the majority of my attention.

I grew up proud to be an American. Traveling abroad at a young age, fortunate as I was, I noticed that most of the world (other than the French) respected and even seemed to envy or idolize America and its populace. My pride remained through college and well into my young adulthood. It took a significant but not fatal hit during the fiasco that was the election of 2000, where an archaic system with more anachronisms and non-human irrationality than the BCS system in College Football, ultimately was responsible for determining that an unqualified buffoon, the out-of-touch heir to a previous American President would become the most powerful person on our planet.

Still, rules were rules, and crushing as that election was, I didn’t let it quash my faith in what was still an incredible nation. In the wake of 9-11, my patriotism might have reached its all-time peak, as our national morale and general spirit united as a population, determined not to let our invisible radical Islamic enemy feel empowered by their enormous act of cowardice.

But an unjustified war in Iraq began to unravel my conviction regarding America’s morality. Sure, Afghanistan warranted action, as did any other nation or region known to be harboring or supporting terrorists. But Iraq was not. And it was proven that Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction, either. But were our troops brought back home upon that pivotal discovery? No.

My own tipping point came in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina rocked the Gulf region. The egregious and shocking lack of reaction by the Bush Administration embarrassed me. That’s right. I became embarrassed to be an American. A once proud citizen who truly believed in America and nearly everything our nation stood for began to seriously question his government and the very population that empowered it.

I was and still remain embarrassed that homosexuals cannot freely marry in a country that symbolizes freedom, liberty and equality for all of its citizens. And I am also embarrassed that a large segment of our population does not believe in evolution, and even feel such beliefs belong in our schools as part of our children’s education. I shudder at the large population who think it is their right to dictate how other people should treat their own reproductive systems and personal decisions regarding bringing others into our world, whether pregnant or not. And the fact that genocides not unlike the one my own family suffered at the hands of the Nazis a mere 70 years ago are occurring today in multiple parts of the world, with our own military diverted to fight trivial wars over oil and other financial considerations is an absolute abomination…criminal, actually.

And at the time, the largest source of my embarrassment stemmed from the realization that our own government does not give a rat’s ass about the poor and indigent in our country. Ever since Katrina, this once great nation has experienced a massive denouement, an horrific decline and erosion of all goodwill and beneficent glory America had amassed and banked since the end of World War II. This decline was and still is evident across every meaningful facet of American life, from education to employment, from tax laws to infrastructure, from philanthropy to tort reform (the lack thereof), from its banking system to healthcare, from campaign reform (again, the lack thereof) to military deployment and the treatment of its troops when they return from service, from sea to polluted sea.

I can no longer watch and do or say nothing. I am shocked. I am appalled. And I am pissed.

I believe in Capitalism. I do think it is preferable to most if not all other financial paradigms. And as such, it allowed our country and much of the world to grow at an unprecedented pace, to develop technologies and systems and medical marvels and widely distribute them around the globe like never before.

But Capitalism in its truest sense (or at least in the way America seems to define it) will end society as we know it, leading to a world where corporations run our world and all men of all heritages, rich and poor, will be slaves and pawns of the corporate tyrants. In fact, we are pretty much there now.

You see, American Capitalism is based on the principle that those with money make the rules, and that government should surrender all control over financial activity and markets, allowing the markets themselves to determine prices and those with money to dictate the rules to those without means. The philosophy favors those with money. It always has (after all, our founding fathers were themselves privileged and obscenely wealthy men). And that is fine, because Capitalism also mandates that those with money lend it to those who don’t have money. And THEORETICALLY, those without the money can use these loans to fund business initiatives of their own, which will generate money over and above whatever they borrowed plus all interest owed. The lenders will generally recover the money they lend, as well as the associated interest.

But as is often the case, those without are tempted to use money they borrow for more practical and pressing matters rather than investing in a business of their own that will generate profits above their interest hurdle rate. Yep, these un-moneyed people usually need lodging and food and medication and all of the general things that those with money take for granted.

Our government failed its citizens over the past seven years, much like Clark Kent did in Superman II when he chose to become human while superhuman criminals ran amok, nearly destroying our planet.

When Wall Street collapsed and Lehman was hung out to dry in 2008, our government made some ludicrous decisions. Most of its unjustified, irrational and unfair behavior was rooted in the fact that OUR GOVERNMENT IS COMPLETELY UNDER THE CONTROL OF CORPORATE AMERICA.

Yeah, I know. Tell you something you don’t already know.

Except that is not how things should be. Corporations should be free to flourish under general laissez faire conditions. Capitalism should be America’s economic system. But our government cannot allow the corporations to have so much power that they actually come to control our government and all of our fellow men and women.

Our government is not in place to serve corporations. Our government is in place to serve and protect the interests and needs of its citizens. ITS HUMAN CITIZENS.

But as corporations have grown in power and influence and net-worth over the past quarter century to unprecedented levels, our government has also relaxed its policies toward corporate regulation and influence.  Because our politicians are elected by obscene funds provided by corporations, they feel compelled to act in the best interest of their largest donors. However, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS CANNOT ACT IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF CORPORATIONS…

Corporations have one goal:  to increase profits. Human beings, on the other hand, have a number of goals and needs, many of which have nothing or little to do with increasing money in our bank accounts. We need protection, both from criminals and from terrorists. We need health care. We need functional infrastructure. We need to provide quality education to our children. We need help when nature fails to cooperate and acts of God befall us. And so on.

Our government needs to serve and protect us in the most effective, efficient but genuinely sympathetic way possible. By kowtowing to corporate America due to a campaign system in dire need of reform, it cannot properly do so.

Recent watershed action to quash unions – be  it the Teachers’ union in Wisconsin and the UAW in Michigan – was  troubling on many levels. I am conservative in my views toward unions and tacit agreement that there is no place for bad teachers or middle management personnel to coast by on seniority and poor performance, earning ridiculous paychecks for adding little or no value. And yet,  I also understand that at one time unions actually gave the poor and lower income citizens of our nation a unified voice and political influence that could not otherwise materialize effectively.

And every time I see the awful and obviously expensive commercials of various candidates on television, my stomach turns. The massive sum of money wasted on negative,  useless campaign ads is staggering and unacceptable.

The Occupy movement, misguided as it seems, is disjointed and un-unified because there is a great deal to be upset about in America and the world right now. Most of it can be attributed to the rise of corporate power and the failure of our population and our elected officials to do anything about it.

The time has come for change. Big change.

I am not interested in taking hard-earned money away from the rich, but rather to take back and fairly distribute the unfair and undue power the rich corporate cronies have amassed that allows them to stack the deck in their own favor. This is still a democracy, after all, isn’t it? Captains of industry, CEOs, hedge fund managers and all of the other professional 1%ers out there should have no more political influence and access to votes than citizens who teach their children, fight their wars, pull their weeds, clean their toilets and answer their calls. Actually, by the numbers, THEY SHOULD HAVE LESS!

And that is really my point here. I have no interest in taking MONEY away from the rich and giving it to the poor, with being a 21st century Robin Hood if you will. It is just high time to take the overwhelming majority of POLITICAL POWER AND INFLUENCE from what is just a fraction of our populace. It has long been known that money IS power. And it always will be, because the rich can always use their money DIRECTLY to build whatever they want (with proper zoning), help whomever they want, go wherever they want (even outer space) and most importantly, to buy the best education, healthcare, real estate and general opportunity for their families and future generations.

BUT, and this is the biggie here, ladies and gentlemen, our politicians can no longer be bound by promises and favors curried by cash-filled handshakes, tacit agreements, not-so-tacit agreements, and large donations made to fund campaigns, party endeavors and general political logrolling.

How to limit or even eliminate this behavior, so deeply entrenched in the American political landscape is THE singular and most important challenge facing our nation and, in my opinion, the future of humanity.

If corporate greed and power are allowed to continue to grow unchecked, with no viable recourse by the American populace…WE ARE ALL EFFED. EVEN THE RICH!

Already, the past few years have demonstrated some behavior patterns and generally unacceptable practices by corporations, and those who manage them that make me sick  every time I even think about them:

1)      Fighting a war in Iraq over “WMDs” when we all know it was about one thing and one thing only…OIL;

2)      Fuck You Bonuses paid by the Wall Street investment banks standing in the wake of Lehman’s collapse, which only survived due to an enormous influx of taxpayer money, and then turned around and paid ridiculous bonuses to their employees while the rest of us struggled to make ends meet. If we had jobs at all. Enjoy the Hamptons you pretentious pricks. Even if there were employees who generated profits and merited bonuses, 2008 was not the time to pay them. Use the funds to fix the financial system, to clean up the fraudulent activities running rampant throughout your shady firms and then GIVE BACK to the taxpayers who made your bailouts possible, through philanthropic endeavors and such. JEEZ, is that behavior so difficult to muster from you stuffed shirted, Tribeca and Greenwich-living, super model-dating, divorce-riddled, cocaine-blowing ignoramuses?

3)      MONSANTO and the death of farm-grown, organic foods and perhaps humans, too. SWTF? How our government can allow this to happen is beyond me. This goes hand in hand with the government decision that the tomato paste in pizza suffice as a serving of fruits and vegetables for our children. Not that obesity is a problem in America. With the information we know today about diet, hormones in our food and the fact that Monsanto’s genetically engineered crops kill all non-genetically engineered crops around them, I just can’t believe we actually elect officials to office that HAVE TO ENACT POLICY in Monsanto’s favor because it gives money to election campaigns of these ass-puppets;

4)      Unfair labor practices and child labor law breaches by many nations housing American factories and sub-companies go unmonitored, unregulated and worst of all, IGNORED, by the likes of Nike and even current corporate “darling” Apple;

5)      New bank and ATM fees rolled out by the very banks taxpayers bailed out in 2008. You took our money to survive, and then turned around and stabbed your clients  in the back; The very  clientele that allowed you to survive crisis, no less. We all know your clients with certain balances will not be affected by these fees anyway. So really, as always, the people who get screwed are the very people who cannot afford to get screwed; and,

6)      All the asinine fees Airlines now charge for everything. Next time I fly, I am sure I will need to swipe my ATM card just to take a piss.

And so on. Insider Trading violators. BP and its gaffe in the Gulf. The cowardly Captain of the Costa Concordia. Bernie Madoff and the rest of you shady Ponzi Scheme runners. The SEC for all of its failures to find and curb fraud. Congress spending ridiculous sums of money to try Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. The Kardashians. All of the participants in the 2011 NBA Lock Out. TO and the rest of pro athletes and celebrities who make and subsequently squander more money than entire towns will earn in their collective lifetimes. Shame on all of you too.

So I ask all of you out there to join in what will be no easy task, but a task that must be carried out just the same. If we don’t nip this in the bud now, I fear corporate power will only get stronger, and our ability to curtail it will be lost forever. We all witnessed the incredible power social networking has to enact change with the amazingly expedient reversal by the Susan G. Komen Foundation who tried to pull their funding of Planned Parenthood. (Those in charge at SGKF are complete IDIOTS by the way, clearly led by the same out-of-touch hacks that thought jacking subscription prices at Netflix during the greatest economic meltdown since the Great Depression would be a good idea).

We can do this. Our collective power is the only way to circumvent the existing catch-22 that would have Joseph Heller turning over in his grave: the fact that under the firmly entrenched current political system and campaign finance laws, we would need a great deal of corporate money to get the requisite number of candidates elected to the various branches of government to effectively amend and enact campaign reform legislation.

We owe it to our parents and grandparents, and great-grandparents and those ancestors before them, who risked everything to immigrate to a foreign land offering a fresh start for all and a world of opportunity. We owe it to those who marched and protested and shaped the course of our nation’s history and legal system. And most of all, we owe it to our troops, who, despite sometimes being pawns in very unpopular and unnecessary wars, have fought to preserve the freedoms we all have, and the great country we all know the USA can be.

We need campaign finance reform. We need it now. Our political system cannot go on like this. Elected officials must not just be able to do what is right for their citizens, but must actually do what is right for all of us, all the time, without owing anything to corporate brass. And they can’t ever feel like there is a conflict of interest.

We are blessed with tools that empower dialogue. Instead of protests, let’s demonstrate our concern by developing and suggesting genuine ideas and plans to affect change and make a difference. Just like we owe it to those who came before us, we owe it to our children and the generations ahead. I look to all of you for inspiration and ideas to stop the horrifying trend that is world dominance by corporations.

Thanks so much,

IDROS

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December 15, 2011 · 11:35 am

Five For Fixing, Part IV

So here is my long-awaited fourth installment in a growing list of issues and frustrating cluster-f*#ks that if eliminated or amended, would help improve the world we all live in…sure, I offer opinions and recommendations on how to best resolve and/or eradicate the issues at hand, but other than to type and edit, I seldom lift a finger in an effort to enact change. I know my strengths, and I am definitely a better complainer and instigator than I am a doer. I campaign for and champion change, but as an idea man rather than as a front-line warrior. So without further ado:

1)      Recent legislation requires minors (read: girls under the age of 17) to have a prescription from a doctor in order to purchase “the morning after pill” known as Plan B at a pharmacy.  Sure, I can see both sides of this debate, and am actually somewhat sympathetic to those who agree with this legislation. But the double standard with regard to other contraception sold in pharmacies – and make no mistake, Plan B is contraception; nothing more and nothing less – as well as the fact that we do not live in a perfect, “Green Acres” world has me shaking my head much in the same way I shudder at pro-life activists who cannot see any possible scenario where their philosophy wouldn’t hold water (rape, incest, extreme poverty, illness, etc).

For those of you who haven’t been following this story, the FDA approved over the counter sales of Plan B, which was then quashed by Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius last Wednesday, December 7. In fact, last Wednesday marked the first time EVER that a scientifically backed FDA decision was publically overruled by a HHS secretary.  This decision by Sebelius was clearly made based upon political (and perhaps religious) beliefs, and is another in a long line of attempts at government trying to dictate how its constituents, and particularly women, should choose to live their lives and treat their bodies. 

Parenthood is a decision for the parent(s), not our government; particularly when the often difficult decision is made not to have a child. Even if the government is offering the parent(s) in these cases the going rate of surrogacy inclusive of all health care costs during pregnancy and childbirth and then is willing to foot the entire bill for raising and educating the child (and beyond should prison, mental health issues and/or unemployment enter into the equation), the parent(s) should still have the ultimate decision. And the government makes no such offer, and even if it did, the true financial burden then falls on us, as taxpayers. So for crying out loud, reverse this ludicrous legislation and allow Plan B to be sold over the counter. I am not happy to give our immature, ignorant and often misguided youth such omnipotent free reign to act foolishly and without responsibility for their actions, but unfortunately, it is the better alternative in this case.

 

 

 

2)      When ordering in a restaurant and a dish comes with a predetermined number of pieces (i.e. –  5 dumplings, or 3 chicken strips, or 4 chocolate beignets, etc.), your server should automatically ask the table whether everyone will be sharing, and if there will not be enough of a sharable dish to accommodate everyone at the table, the server should let his or her table know the situation, and offer a solution. This solution is simple: If there are four people at the table and the dumplings come 3 per order, let the table know that fact and recommend getting a fourth dumpling for 2 dollars more, or whatever makes sense. This is a simple solution and does not create that awkward moment when you are forced to splitting bite-sized pieces into smaller and unappetizing pieces in order to allow everyone at the table to taste everything. This lack of service is particularly vexing at higher end and pricier restaurants, where frankly, for the prices charged, this should be done automatically for no additional charge, but is no less frustrating at your neighborhood Chinese restaurant. People go out to eat for the food and the service – so to all of you restaurant owners and managers, please get a clue regarding service. And to all you servers out there, 20 percent gratuities are expected on your end…please earn them.

 

 

 

3)      We all know the BCS system needs fixing. Most people would like to see some sort of playoff among the top four or eight teams. The NCAA and BCS proponents champion their current system based upon the monopoly they have and the fact that, as far as the most popular collegiate sport is concerned, they are the only game in town. But remove the “C” and it is clear that the BCS is total BS. And this year in particular, when we all get to behold a rematch of one of the most boring games in recent college football history, a 9-6 bore fest between colossal SEC stalwarts Alabama and LSU, the demand for systemic change is as strong as ever. There is only one unbeaten team (LSU), and countless one-loss teams behind them. There is no doubt LSU deserves to play for the national championship, but why should they have to play a team they already have defeated on the road again?

I am not going to explain how and why the system should be fixed. That has been done to death, and frankly, I do not want to bore you all with the thousands of words it would take to effectively debate the merits of a new system. However, my recommendation for this year to all of you fans and non fans out there is rather simple. DON’T WATCH THE GAME. Don’t go to the game in New Orleans and don’t watch it on television. I guarantee if Madison Avenue feels the pain of only getting true Crimson Tide and Tiger fans to watch their pricey ads on Tuesday night January 9, 2012 (and we all know advertisers coveted demographic are the large and sophisticated populations of backwoods Alabama and bayou country Louisiana), there will be widespread ramifications, not the least of which will be a push by the deep-pocketed sponsors of the BCS for change.

So will it be that difficult for all of you to just ignore the game this year? Spend time with your family, or on work, school or a hobby. Just don’t turn on the TV. If you must, check the score on your iPhone or laptop. But judging from the prior meeting this year in Tuscaloosa, you will not be missing much. And your ambivalence may very well be the pivotal factor to bring about much needed change.

 

 

 

 

4)      Recent sex abuse scandals are dominating our headlines, and clearly change is necessary as it relates to sex crimes across the board, from education of society as a whole to finding and helping victims of such heinous acts to making it more difficult for situations like what allegedly occurred at Penn State and Syracuse Universities to transpire. But among the long and growing laundry list of things that piss me off and bewilder me beyond words about both scandals is a fact that leaves me shaking my head in disbelief.

How can a Statute of Limitations be placed on a crime as heinous as the rape and molestation of a child (or children)? I understand the need for statutes and/or periods of prescription (the equivalent term used to describe statutes of limitation in civil courts or proceedings) for non violent or horrific crimes. After all, over time, evidence can be corrupted or disappear, memories fade, crime scenes are changed, and companies dispose of records. The best time to bring a lawsuit, clearly, is while the evidence is not lost and as close as possible to the alleged illegal behavior.

But unfortunately, because the crimes in question are all committed against children, who are seldom mentally equipped to handle the stress of questioning and scrutiny under normal circumstances, a time limit to bring charges seems ridiculous. After the life-changing experience of being raped and/or violated, youths often do not have the courage to even come forward and speak to their own parents, friends or trusted loved ones about the ordeal let alone strangers in a courtroom setting.

There are no statutes of limitations for murder. There should not be for rape or child molestation/abuse either. Syracuse (and any other city, state or municipality that has a similar statute) ought to be ashamed of itself right now, and may have the lives of many children on its hands.

5)      I realize it isn’t baseball season right now, but pitchers and catchers report on Sunday February 19, 2012, just 66 days from now, in case you were wondering. Anyway, I was at a game last year and a play occurred that left everyone at the stadium absolutely dumbfounded as to what happened. No replay was shown, no scoring decision was posted on any of the many digital screens throughout the stadium and no announcement was made.

I love to attend a live sporting event, particularly a baseball game on a nice day or night. But there is no excuse for the paying fans to be left on their own to decipher the occasional complex umpiring decisions and rulings on the field with no recourse. I was forced to call home to figure out what just happened at a game I was at, for a play I watched live. Read that sentence again and you will begin to crack the surface of the absurdity of this phenomenon.

Is it so much to ask that someone on the stadium staff gets the ruling from an umpiring official, either by direct communication or through an umpiring official upstairs and posts the scoring decision or on-field ruling on the giant screen for the fans? Furthermore, on weird plays, a replay or two should always be run. Finally, an announcement could be made on certain occasions where a play was unclear or bizarre, with some sort of explanation. Even if the play is so obscure and bizarre that a formal ruling can’t be posted until a few minutes later, please humor us paying fans with some sort of acknowledgement that the people who actually forked over the dough to see the game may actually care what they are watching.  

Thank you.

IDROS

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November 9, 2011 · 6:03 pm

Eight Year Olds Dude

That classic quote from the character that spawned my blog’s name is one of many lines of dialogue and images born in the hilarious and off-center minds of the Coen Brothers for their opus, The Big Lebowski. Somehow, they even found a way to make pedophilia and perversion funny by creating and perfectly humanizing a grotesque, slimy, purple jumpsuit and hair-net wearing caricature named Jesus Quintana. And we all know now that “nobody fucks with the Jesus.”

But let me be clear: John Turturro’s Oscar-worthy performance notwithstanding, THERE IS NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT PEDOPHILIA, CHILD MOLESTATION AND CHILD ABUSE. EVER.

I feel a great number of awful adjectives today, and have ever since this story broke over the weekend. I am disgusted, disheartened, disappointed, frustrated, bewildered, angry and sad. But mostly I am sick. Fall to my knees, grab the sides of the bowl and turn my insides out sick about this whole tragedy currently gripping “Happy Valley,” and shocking the world around it.

I am not entirely sure where or how to begin, but for crying out loud, I know all of this should begin with the victims, however many there were, of this horrific and despicable crime and subsequent cover-up (and/or at the very least, lack of action and responsibility that allowed such heinous crimes to continue for nearly a decade and to affect and ruin the lives of countless other precious and innocent children and their families).

Imagine if you will the most shame and embarrassment you have ever felt (in a singular moment or for an extended period of time) in your entire life. Then do the same for the most frightened or fearful you have ever been. Then take those feelings and multiply their intensity by ten, or a hundred, or a million. Still, you have likely fallen short of the mark. I am not sure, if you have never been physically assaulted, violated nor had your innocence stolen from you at an early age (or any age, frankly), that you could possibly understand the intense shame, fear and self-loathing you would feel in the aftermath of such a traumatic event.

For some, that feeling might be able to be quashed, or at least tempered, gradually, with good therapy, loving friends and family, a strong foundation and sense of self and most importantly, with the passing of time. Those are the “lucky” few. For most, the nightmares will never ever end. The self-hatred, shame, fear and general depression will remain through the years, possibly even intensify, and certainly negatively affect their lives in every way imaginable, from performance in school and later work, to relationships with friends, family, boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses and possibly even their own progeny. Sexual abuse and trauma often creates or intensifies a number of mental health issues, including but not limited to depression, aggression, OCD, problems with authority, control issues (including eating, cutting and behavioral disorders), and certainly suicidal and even homicidal thoughts and tendencies.

Not only do we not know how many other young lives were affected and derailed by the perpetrator of these crimes (Mr. Sandusky), both before and after he was witnessed in the shower with a ten year old, but unfortunately we never will. Because one thing is for certain in situations such as this: For every brave child who comes forward, there are two, or three, or four or twenty, who can never muster the strength to do so. Furthermore, and this may be difficult to even process, but there may unfortunately be a few people who were abused and who are no longer with us today to come forward at all. These may have been the weakest of those victimized, and subsequently could not continue to live with the shame, guilt and fear. Their parents, god help them, probably wondered what could possibly have driven their precious children to such a horrible and “selfish” demise, not even realizing that a scenario as awful as this scandal may have stacked the deck unfairly against their children living a normal life, or living a life at all.  But also consider that Sandusky was 58 when he was “caught in the act” nine years ago. Predators of this nature rarely begin these deviant behaviors so late in life. It is certainly possible, and in fact, probable, that Sandusky was committing similar treacherous acts for decades prior to being seen in the showers in 2002. So it stands to reason that there may have been victims of his perversity who would be in their 50s today, or at least close to 50. Some of them, unfortunately, who lived with that kind of pain, shame and fear for so long, may simply have passed on rather “naturally” by now as well.

I realize that is awful to read about or even think about, but to me, the victims, all of them, at any age, whether dead or alive, must be remembered here and more to the point, measures need to be put into place to prevent similar predators from hurting more innocent children in the future. This is true in Athletic departments from little leagues all the way up through the NCAA system. It is also true in our religious organizations, our public and private schools, summer camps, scout troops and any other institution or organization where adults have unlimited and unsupervised access to children.

Casting blame here seems premature. There are an overwhelming number of people who deserve some serious blame and who have a great deal of explaining to do over the next few weeks. But there are a few things that cannot be said enough, and a few people involved, that really have no shot at coming up with an explanation that will satisfactorily remove any guilt from their defense nor blood from their hands.

We (and by we I mean society) must be careful in child abuse cases not to quickly come to judgment in favor of the children because lives can be ruined forever in the other direction by falsely accusing someone of such heinous crimes when in fact they were innocent. There have been cases of authoritative figures being unjustly accused simply because their students or parishioners or campers, et al, didn’t like them. There have also been plays and movies and books written on the subject: think Doubt. So there are dangerous and slippery slopes in both directions that must be navigated in these awful situations.

But this case is clearly not one of those “we can’t be sure if the allegations are true so we need to take our time” scenarios. An adult witnessed the accused of raping a minor in a shower. Furthermore, at least nine people, most of whom did not know one another at all, have come forward with additional accusations. I have no idea how or why charges were not brought against Sandusky nine years ago, and why he has not seen the inside of a jail cell yet to date. Something is clearly wrong with not only the people associated with the Penn State Football Program and University, but also with the process in general to bring child molesters to justice in the first place. Our children are not even safe once an offender is caught red handed, because of a number of factors, but the slow pace of our justice system certainly is among them.

Now let’s talk about Mike McQueary. Again, I do not want to rush to judgment until I have all of the facts. But from the facts that have leaked out thus far, it seems to me that we have a young man (28 at the time) who stumbled across a horrifying and gruesome scene in 2002, when he witnessed Sandusky anally violating a ten year old boy in a shower. There are very few of us who can honestly say for certain what we would do if we were ever in a similar circumstance. Sure, we would all like to believe we would act the hero, run into the showers and forcibly remove the perpetrator from the child, punch him out and say something macho like, “if I ever see you around here again, or even catch wind of you touching another child so help me god, I will kill you.”

The morally correct thing to do is to make sure of the safety of the child you witness being abused, whether by force or by vocally yelling for the criminal to leave. Then, any sensible and reasonable code of ethics mandates even further action, which is to do all you can to prevent such abuse of minors to take place ever again. That is to say, one should notify the police of what was just witnessed, and together with the victim you just rescued, a case should be made to ensure Sandusky or his likeness spends the remainder of his (or her) life behind bars.

It is not easy to do the right thing. That is why society respects heroes and do-gooders of all walks of life, and even celebrates them. Captain Sully, who despite all odds landed that plane in the Hudson and saved the lives of all of his passengers; those brave souls on United Flight 93, who prevented additional terrorist acts and saved the lives of countless people in Washington DC on 911; the first responders in New Orleans following Katrina, or in Haiti after the earthquake, or Indonesia after the tsunami; Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman and countless others in the fight for civil rights; Oscar Schindler and myriad others who defied the Nazis (and other tyrannical leaders) to help those being terrorized and systematically killed; the students in Tiananmen Square who stoically stood before the oncoming tanks; and all of the fire and policemen who courageously charged into the towers of the World Trade Center on 911; and too many others to mention, but all of whom deserve high praise and gratitude.

Ironically, hero-worship and near deification is why Joe Pa, of all people, was so revered – it wasn’t just his 409 wins on the field, but rather everything he did and represented off the field that made the man such a legend in the once happy valley that is State College, PA, as well as all over the rest of our nation. I will come back to this point later.

Right now, I am focused on McQueary, who had a chance to be a hero and failed. Not all of us are cut out to be heroes. Most of us aren’t wired for it. It is impossible to say what we would do in situations like that McQueary found himself in nine years ago. And it is also impossible to say what the same man may have done in a totally different make or break scenario under different circumstances. Actions (or non-actions) make the man, so they say. None of us can choose the situations that may befall us in life, but all of us control how we react to them, and it is in those reactions that our true character shines through.

I can’t help but be reminded of the grim basement scene in Tarantino’s opus, Pulp Fiction, when Marsellus Wallace is being sodomized by Zed and Maynard while Butch is in the room next door, frantically trying to escape the ropes they had tied him up with and listening to the barbarism taking place through the wall. When Butch finally frees himself and gets away from the gimp, he charges upstairs and is seemingly liberated from the nightmare he had been part of. He was on his way out to rendezvous with his girlfriend and live the rest of his life in total happiness with the money he had scammed from Marsellus Wallace when his conscience grabs hold of him. He grabs a samurai sword off the wall and coaxes himself back downstairs into the horrifying basement rape scene that was still underway. Butch sliced and stabbed Maynard with the sword and eyed Zed, forcing him, at sword point, off of the large black man who had been Butch’s sworn enemy just minutes earlier. Then Butch teases Zed, almost begging him to make a move for the shotgun that leaned against the table beside them.

“Step aside Butch,” said Marsellus.

Marsellus blows a whole in Zed’s abdomen as Butch moves away.

After a long pause, Butch finally asks, “You okay?”

To which Marsellus replies, “Naw man. I’m pretty fuckin’ far from okay.”

And in that scene, Quentin Tarantino basically encapsulated our collective problem with Mike McQueary, by showing the exact opposite reaction to a similar scenario. Making matters worse, Butch hated Marsellus Wallace, and minutes earlier was trying to kill the man. But seeing and hearing these two perverts rape the man, Butch simply had to do the right thing, even for his sworn enemy, and so he reentered the house of horrors and freed Marsellus from his assailants.

When asked if he was okay, Marsellus’ brutally honest response seemed oddly tame, but we all knew exactly what he meant. And he was a 40 year old 250 pound crime boss who looked like he would win a fight with an entire football team. Imagine what a ten year old boy must feel like in a similar situation. And that is why we all demand more from McQueary here. I am not sure exactly what he did or said in the moment, but it obviously wasn’t correct or enough. Maybe he thought going to his boss and father with his troubling eyewitness account was enough. And maybe he was then misled by those who outranked him on the food chain to speak no further of the incident, and that it would be handled by others from here on in…either way, McQueary has some serious explaining to do and clearly dropped the ball, but perhaps other than his missed opportunity to do the right thing in the moment, we will come to see that while Mike was wrong, others may have prevented him ultimately from doing the right thing later, to protect themselves, their jobs, their program and their once esteemed University…we shall see.

Which brings us back to Joe Pa. And I will once again hold full judgment until I hear the entire explanation and course of action taken in 2002 following the incident as well as for all of the years since that date. But from everything I have read and heard so far Paterno really dropped the ball. He seemingly took the account of Sandusky to his “boss,” the AD, and left it at that. I have the following thoughts:

A)     Joe Pa has no boss at Penn State…he was the boss and final authority on everything in State College, PA, and not just for things concerning football…everything.

B)      I cannot say this for sure as I do not have all of the facts, but it does not sound like Joe Pa followed up with his AD or any other higher up at PSU after delivering his account to his AD in 2002.

C)      Based on his ridiculous message to those camped out on his lawn last night, where he referred to the victims as “victims or whatever they are” and then added this gem: “I think we ought to say a prayer for them because you know … tough life when people do certain things to you.” Tough life? That doesn’t even scratch the surface. And then he had the unmitigated temerity to start a pep rally chant. Seriously? How out of touch can a man get. Sure he is 84 years old, but he is ostensibly running a major college football program, right?

D)     I grew up a big-time Nittany Lions fan. My mother and many other family members and close friends went to PSU. I loved Joe Pa just like so many others out there. He was seemingly incredible on so many levels: a great coach, a great mentor, ran a clean program in an increasingly difficult environment to do so, placed education above all else, did so much for his community and those less fortunate. He is and has been a great man, and though a single moment or event can often define a man, I will do all I can to remember Joe Pa for the vast good he has done over a six decade career.

E)      But I cannot and will not ever forgive Joe Pa for this if it is confirmed that he found out anything untoward went on with Sandusky and a minor (graphic account or not) and all he did in the aftermath was deliver the news to his emasculated and un-empowered AD. Frankly, even if he did a little more than that (like maybe had a conversation with Sandusky, and even told him not to come around campus anymore, particularly with any children…which by the way, sickens me even more if Joe Pa knew enough to say something like that, which would mean he tacitly permitted such deviant behavior off campus). Joe Pa was deified on that campus and in that whole region of Pennsylvania. He was the law, the moral fiber and the pulse of that University. All eyes and ears were on him. For him to pass the buck, turn a blind eye and refuse to follow up to ensure appropriate action was taken in a situation like this with little children’s lives hanging in the balance is reprehensible, and frankly, almost as vile as the acts themselves. As a molder and shaper of young men, he had a moral and general responsibility to always do the right thing when it came to children, whether on his team or not.

F)      I can’t help but remember yet another classic movie relating to this ordeal, particularly the Joe Pa/Curley-Sandusky-McQueary dynamic which evokes the Jessup-Kendrick-Dawson/Downey hierarchy in A Few Good Men. (Again, I don’t yet know what, if anything Joe Pa said to Sandusky or McQueary following the incident in 2002, or whether he and/or Curley ordered McQueary to remain silent). But anyway, at the end of the movie, when Jessep is found guilty, young and naïve PFC Louden Downey asks why he and Dawson are being discharged when Jessep admitted to ordering the code red. Dawson’s response is chillingly fitting here: “We did nothing wrong,” said Downey. “Yeah, we did. We’re supposed to fight for people who can’t fight for themselves. We’re supposed to fight for Willy.” I hope I don’t need to draw the parallel here for you.

G)     And that about sums it up in my mind.

My final thoughts center around this “scandal” as a far more profound, but generally similar statement on the current state of collegiate athletics in our country. While the rape and subsequent cover up of child molestation is far worse according to the moral code of society than many of the other scandals that have rocked college campuses in the past few years, they all highlight a troubling trend that is becoming increasingly prevalent on campuses throughout our nation. The fact is that as more and more money is thrown at collegiate athletics (particularly football and basketball), these programs become way too powerful to be properly managed and overseen by their schools in general. And the leaders of these programs, who often earn more money per year than all other college officials and professors put together, often become power-driven ego maniacs who care only about winning and are willing to sacrifice their entire moral code to that end. Whether it is trading tattoos for money and sports memorabilia, providing or turning a blind eye to extravagant yacht trips and strip club misadventures, allowing shady Ponzi-scheme operators to have training room and on field access to team members, overlooking petty crimes, drug use, and date rape scandals, arranging for sexual escorts during recruiting parties, ignoring or tacitly approving improper pay-for-play scenarios with boosters and countless additional improprieties that clearly occur on many if not all major college campuses with competitive division one athletic programs, college coaches and their programs are increasingly corrupted amid a failing system.

One thing is certain, a culture exists not just at Penn State, but at major division one Universities across our nation, that fosters an atmosphere where winning is more important than anything…including morality. And for this, we all suffer.

My hope is that something positive comes out of this tragedy. That serious money is donated not just by Penn State and the Big Ten, but by all of college athletics, to develop and strengthen the protection of our nation’s youth, through outreach programs, education and better systems for bringing deviants to justice…systems that make it easier for victims to come forward as well as to educate and motivate the families of those affected. I also hope the game on Sunday is cancelled altogether, because it just isn’t the right thing to do to play a game in the face of this awful scandal. This isn’t the aftermath of 911, where our nation is grieving and needs a distraction from what seemed to be the end of days. This is a contained tragedy that has plagued a community and shocked a nation, and while I realize that the players on Nebraska and Penn State are not to blame for this fiasco, and therefore should not be penalized when they work so hard all year to play football, we should all remember that LIFE IS NOT FAIR. It is one game. And playing football and cheering in that stadium is so wrong on so many different levels at this time.

Questions need to be answered. People need to be brought to justice. And the victims, those poor, brave tortured souls need time to air their grievances. Call off the game Penn State and the NCAA. For once, do the right thing here.

We all need time to digest this horrific turn of events. We all need time to heal. Eight year olds dude. They’re pretty fuckin’ far from ok. We need to fight for people who can’t fight for themselves.

God help those victims. God help their families. God help us all.

IDROS

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October 29, 2011 · 1:42 pm

My Blog Has Moved….

In order to cater to my throngs of fans, I have relocated my blog to WordPress. Please check out my new link at:

https://idontrollonshabbas.wordpress.com

You can now follow my blog without being given the third degree by an archaic and frankly, poorly conceived blog site heretofore not to be mentioned again.

Thank you to my loyal readers for your diligence and patience as I find my best online solution to quench my thirst to write.

Thank you also to those of you who will now join my journey to find and comment on truth, justice and humor.

All the best,

IDROS

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October 11, 2011 · 2:28 pm

Open Letter to Jeff Lurie (Big Red Must Go)…

Dear Mr. Lurie:

Happy New Year. I write this letter about 4 years too late, but Andy Reid must go, and this isn’t a “let’s see how the season shapes up and we will make a move at the end based on the results.” No, this is a long overdue move that must be done as soon as possible, if not sooner.

I realize that I am reopening the door for potential dark ages to descend upon my beloved Birds, much like they did after Buddy Ryan was fired in 1990, ushering in unmentionable coaching stints that yielded losing season after unwatchable losing season, and even included laughably regrettable decisions like promoting Rich Kotite to head coach after Buddy left…sure, RK had winning seasons in each of his first two seasons, but after the incredible defense that Buddy and Bud Carson built in the late 1980s, it would have been difficult not to win. But I digress.

Andy Reid has been a good coach. He has been at the helm of a team that has won far more games than it lost under his watch, and maybe even overachieved a few seasons. Hell, Andy Reid resurrected a franchise that was dead in the water, a team that finished the 1998 season 3-13, the worst record the Eagles had posted since 1972 when they won only 2 games. But sometimes records do not tell the whole story, and this is definitely one of those instances.

The Eagles, since 2000, have actually UNDERACHIEVED more seasons than they overachieved. And while I grant critics that Donovan McNabb (and his occasional replacements at times of injury, such as AJ Feeley, Jeff Garcia and Kevin Kolb) was not the most accurate quarterback in the league (nor was he ever in the top 20 in that category…EVER), he was certainly competent and athletic enough during his prime to win a Super Bowl with the talent he had around him, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. During McNabb’s prime, he was better than Jeff Hostetler, Mark Rypien, Brad Johnson, Trent Dilfer and possibly even Eli Manning.

During the past 13 seasons, Andy Reid has had 4 extremely awful attributes that worked against our team…

1)      He is stubborn as a mule, and not in a good way – he refuses to admit he is wrong and to make the necessary adjustments to win or close out a game;

2)      His clock management is the worst I have ever seen – this includes his incredible mismanagement of time-outs – and is vividly and repeatedly reflected in his field generals (QBs) having equally awful clock-management skills and awareness;

3)      His lack of understanding of and refusal to use the challenge flag, an important coaching tool that came to be during his coaching tenure and that often can decide games – this point is actually closely tied to point 2) above, and often affects the number of time outs the Eagles have at the end of games, and he clearly doesn’t realize that challenges can be used AS time outs, giving his team a breather and an opportunity to talk things over while the refs watch video and confer during crucial moments in games. Unsurprisingly, Andy has challenged fewer calls than any other coach in the NFL; and,

4)      His refusal to run the freaking ball, even and especially in games where our running backs (not QBs, who skew the ypc) average more than 4, and often more than 5 or 6 yards per carry – this is particularly vexing when we are winning games late and need to run the ball to eat clock

Even in seasons where we made the post-season (which I will concede was most seasons), Andy’s negative characteristics listed above cost us games during the regular season that created situations where we had to play post season games on the road (in 2006 and 2008, where we lost close games to the Saints and Cardinals respectively, that we might have won had they been played at home). And in 2009, ridiculous losses in Oakland to a hapless Raiders team and at home to the Cowgirls in a game the Eagles held a lead heading into the 4th quarter. Moreover, this was a team the Eagles had pounded into the ground, 44-6, in their previous meeting to end the 2008 season. It was infuriating to watch, and that loss and/or the mind-boggling gaffe in Oakland forced the Eagles to travel to DallAss, where they lost a wild card game.

But the thing most people will remember about the Andy Reid era was during the Eagles’ dominance over a very weak NFC in the early 2000s, the Eagles lost two pivotal HOME playoff games (both NFC Championships) against inferior opponents that the Eagles had MANHANDLED in each respective regular season (20-10 at home vs. the Bucs in 2002, and 25-16 IN CAROLINA in 2003), because Big Red was outcoached. Andy has been outcoached by Belichick and Vermeil, and for those I will give him a pass, because who hasn’t? But he has also been out-classed by Jim Fassel, overmatched by John “Chuckie” Gruden, out-foxed by John Fox (sorry for the much-too-easy and cheesy pun), punched in the mouth by Sean Peyton, bested by Ken Whisenhunt, shellacked by WADE PHILLIPS in the ONLY playoff game the son of a Bum and Tony Romo EVER won, and out-smarted by a injury-plagued but game Mike McCarthy.

Now I grant you that 6 of the 9 coaches mentioned above (the Reid-beaters) won at least one Super Bowl, and five of them won the whole thing the year they beat Fat Andy, with two more reaching the Super Bowl by virtue of knocking off the Eagles (obviously Wade is the odd man out here), but some of those Championships should have been ours. We were a better team for many of those match-ups and yet lost due to, well primarily the four attributes outlined above that renders Andy Reid a very good head coach, but never a great coach.

I am so sick and tired of hearing media members, sports radio hosts outside of Philadelphia (some nationally syndicated), sports writers and other self professed experts in all things football defend Andy Reid, constantly bringing up the fact that he has taken the Eagles to the playoffs in 9 of his 13 season (he has), that he took them to 6 NFC championship games and 5 in a row (he did), and led them to their first Super Bowl appearance in 23 seasons and second in franchise history (I concede this as well). They also love to discuss how Andy is perhaps the greatest quarterback coach of all time, pointing to McNabb’s struggles in his post-Eagles career as irrefutable evidence that Andy was the one who made Donovan the perennial pro-bowl field general that he was. They also all overhype the success the Eagles’ back-up quarterbacks had whenever McNabb was injured as further evidence to Andy’s systemic genius and incredible way with anyone and everyone who takes snaps crouching behind a center.

I buy some of these arguments, but I am guessing that like most of you, I am stewing in my seat, silently muttering foul language under my breath as I drive to and from work and listen to people I generally respect tarnish their reputations by ignorantly defending Andy Reid, espousing that Big Red can do no wrong in their eyes and that any problems the Eagles and the fans of Philadelphia have certainly have little or more often nothing to do with Fat Andy.

These national personalities, with no real team affiliation, neutral bias, or at least no connection to our Eagles, have no idea what it is like to bleed Kelly Green, how infuriating it is to watch Andy’s post-game pressers as a true Eagles fan or what it is like to watch an obese man with no real personality or likeability (at least to his fans), and who makes more money in one year than most members of his fan-base will make in their lifetime (and their entire family’s lifetimes put together) to make the same goddamn mistakes every fucking Sunday and Monday of every season. We fans even get pissed at the man when the Eagles win, knowing that many Sundays the team won IN SPITE of Andy, not because of him. But the losses always get us the most, and these talking heads just don’t get it.

What coach in pro sports lasts 13 seasons these days? Hell, the Red Sox just let Tito Francona walk this year and he led them to 2 championships in the past 7 seasons after that same team went 86 seasons with ZERO championships. It just doesn’t happen. And especially not in the highly critical, highly knowledgeable (at least as it relates to sports and its hometown teams) and highly volatile market that is Philadelphia.

Two weeks ago, after the late-game collapse at home against San Francisco, I read an article about what is wrong with the Eagles. After reading the article, my feelings regarding Big Red were confirmed and even strengthened. After halftime, when the Birds led 20-3, coaches called 6 running plays…total. That is inexcusable, but pretty typical for Andy Reid. More ludicrous: Alex Smith, over the course of his career, is the absolute WORST-RATED quarterback in the HISTORY OF THE NFL when blitzed. The numbers are as poor as they are astonishing. So you would think Andy Reid would know something like that and use it to his advantage. But the Eagles blitzed on only 6 of Alex Smith’s 36 drop-backs. Just fewer than 17% of all pass plays, for an entire game. Sure, the Eagles had a comfortable lead for much of the game, so calling off a blitz so as not to give up big plays may be a strategically sound tactic. Against any average quarterback against the blitz. BUT NOT WHEN YOU ARE PLAYING THE WORST QUARTERBACK IN THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE WHEN HE IS BLITZED. One thing a head coach must know is that there are few leads that are safe in the pass happy, big-play, make-it-easy-on-the-offense NFL of today. And after guiding his team to what could only be described as a miraculous comeback victory against the GINAs (pronounced in the most disgusting way your mind permits) just last season, when the eagles erased two 21 point leads in the second half, on the road.

Now part of this might be the mind-boggling “genius” decision Andy made to promote his Offensive Line Coach to DEFENSIVE FRIGGIN’ COORDINATOR. Are you serious? And not only that, but based on the shitty offensive line the Eagles had last season, Juan Castillo wasn’t even a very good Offensive Line Coach. But any way you look at Castillo’s dubious and unmerited promotion, Andy’s decision making never seemed sound, and now has proven to be just as stupid as we all thought.

And the mental mistakes our players have made in four consecutive weeks all reflect their ass-clown laden coaching staff. Sure, I will grant everyone that the lack of a full pre-season as well as a myriad of new faces in the Birds’ locker room should deservedly warrant a grace period to allow a team to fully gel and learn some new roles, but for the money everyone makes on this team, the lengthy tenure of the man at the top and the expectations our fan-base has(d) for our beloved E-A-G-L-E-S, five weeks is far too long a grace period, especially at 1-4 and watching our playoff hopes fade into the horizon like the setting sun. And there is NEVER an excuse for Ronnie Brown’s inexplicable lateral at the goal line against San Francisco, nor Juqua Parker’s brain-fart offsides last week in Buffalo. These are mistakes poorly coached teams of rookies make, not well-polished veterans under the watch of a pedigreed and highly-praised 13-year coach like Andy Reid.

Sure, at the end of the day the players have to make plays, and our ridiculous 1-4 start this season when expectations were so high after what seemed like a free-agent bonanza unlike anything we Philadel-fans had ever seen has been chock full of player-fueled hubris (VY’s dubbing the team “the dream team”), simple first-year player succumbing to pressure (Henery missing two easy field goals in San Fran), non-mastery of a new system (Nnamde’s misplay of Cruz vs. the Ginas), and situational errors (Jason Kelce’s failure to block Bills LB Kelvin Sheppard mid-way through the second quarter in Buffalo, leading to Vick’s pick-6 gift to Nick Barnett and creating a 2-TD deficit on the road), and key-moment butterfingers (Jason Avant’s 2 key fumbles in Buffalo, and Jeremy Maclin’s final drive killing fumble in Atlanta).

But this team should not be 1-4, even with the mistakes highlighted above. At worst the Birds should be 3-2 right now, but more likely they should be 4-1 or even 5-0. And the NFC is not the league of ineptitude that it was when Andy Reid and the Birds dominated it a decade ago. Green Bay, Detroit and New Orleans are heavyweights and Super Bowl contenders. Washington and San Francisco are much improved. And DallAss and the Ginas are never push-overs, no matter how poorly their quarterbacks play. The Birds find themselves in a sizable hole, looking up at nearly every team in our conference for a change. Furthermore, they still must face DallAss twice, Washington twice, the Ginas in New York, The Patriots and the Jets. And I am guessing even the teams we all once thought would be cupcakes (like Miami, Seattle and Arizona), now seem ominous to both the fans and the Eagles coaching staff.

Bottom line, Andy needs to go, and he needs to go soon. Before this season really gets away from us. There is still time to salvage a winning record and even a playoff berth if a strategic hire is made to replace Andy that the players all respect and could rally around. So I believe I am speaking for the entire Eagles’ fan base when I beg of you, Jeff Lurie, to do the right thing and cut bait while there is still a faint trail of light visible in the crack of the rapidly closing door that is the Eagles 2011 season. Let Big Red go, hire someone like Bill Cowher or even John Gruden, and give us fans something to cheer about after being devastated by our Phillies last weekend and by our Eagles for the past month.

Thanks for listening and for restoring our once-proud franchise to glory.

Best regards,

IDROS

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October 1, 2011 · 2:22 pm

I know, I know…politics and religion are tough topics on a first date…

Or a second or third date. But this isn’t a date, and I couldn’t resist. I came across a great quote from Elizabeth Warren, an attorney and Harvard Law School professor who is running for Senate on the heels of her role (as chair of the Congressional Oversight Committee) in the clean up and bailout of the American financial system following the economic crisis that began in 2008. Time magazine dubbed her in May of 2010 as one of the “New Sheriffs of Wall Street.”

She said: “There’s nobody in this country who got rich on his own. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did.”

She continued: “Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

Elizabeth Warren

Any way you look at it, Elizabeth Warren’s words make sense and are difficult to debate, from any perspective or party affiliation. Her quote is rational, and full of American pride, evoking sentiments of famous essays and speeches made by the likes of Thomas Paine, and more recently, John F. Kennedy.

I agree with her words and the meaning behind them. To disagree would be ridiculous, ignorant and just plain silly. Elizabeth Warrant is right; no matter how far “left” her platform leans.

But to truly evaluate the merit of Warren’s quote, one must understand why she made it in the first place. Political strife and disagreement is dominating our headlines as our nation drifts deeper into one of its most difficult economic recessions in its history. Our nation is divided on every issue imaginable, across party lines, and in order to motivate all branches of our government to act to help solve the economic problems, which pose the most immediate and salient threats, our president and most of our populace are forced into making unfathomable and deal-breaking concessions and compromises that challenge our moral fiber to its core and could have lasting negative effects for our children and all future generations of Americans that are, well, unacceptable.

An overwhelming majority of noise, on both sides of our economic debate, centers on raising taxes on the very wealthy (the top 1% of annual incomes in the US) as well as eliminating loopholes and increasing the net tax income from corporations. This debate is the impetus for Elizabeth Warren’s quote, and how the debate and subsequent tax revisions play out will shape the economic landscape of our nation for years to come.

While Warren’s words are 100% true, and should be taken to heart by all Americans, I urge people to recognize that just because something is true and meaningful, does not mean that there are not valid and important arguments regarding the spirit of said quote that must be considered as well. I define and discuss two “theories” below that may help explain some of the more complex hot-button issues in terms easier to understand.

Our government as a landlord theory – In any real estate project, such as an office building, an office or industrial park, a shopping mall or lifestyle center or even a residential community or apartment building, the property owner or landlord tries to maximize revenues by minimizing vacancies and bringing in as much rental revenue as possible. To do so, landlords employ a number of incentive-driven programs and policies in order to maximize profitability. These include: giving tenants free rent for a period of months and even years when signing long-term leases; lowering rents, providing visibility (through signage, preferred location and advertising efforts) and increasing allocated fit-out dollars to high-profile or anchor tenants, with the idea that these tenants will attract additional, credit-worthy tenants that would be willing and able to pay higher rents as long as those high-profile anchors remain in place; and adding state-of-the-art amenities to attract residents, employees and customers to the site.

Our government wears the hat of a landlord or property manager when trying to attract or maintain corporate headquarters, manufacturing plants and distribution centers on American soil. A lot of criticism has recently been raised by the “Tea Party” and the conservative right as a whole, pointing out that the U.S. is losing many of its companies and a large number of jobs due to management decisions to move companies, facilities and most importantly, JOBS, overseas. These decisions include actual physical relocation as well as outsourcing. The right argues that America’s corporate tax rates are among the highest in the world, and raising taxes on these corporations and their rich C-level employees and management would serve to de-incentivize them even more.

It is unfair to expect companies, whose management makes decisions solely based on the bottom-line and shareholder expectations, to act any differently than prospective apartment renters, retail stores or law firms do when looking for a new home, storefront or office space. All try to maximize benefits while minimizing their rent payments. Our government must act to incentivize corporations to remain on American soil, and also lure foreign companies to open plants, facilities and offices here as well. Existing jobs need to remain and new jobs must be created here, for our citizens, not shipped or outsourced overseas. Our government must do all it can to ensure companies want to do business here in America, maximizing job opportunities and revenues from taxes, both at the individual and corporate level. Incentives are one of the keys to finding a balance that is best for everyone.

Funds put away for a rainy day theory – Be it a coffee can, a cookie jar or just under a mattress, everyone is familiar with the idea of socking away money for a rainy day. That rainy day may play out as a loss of employment, an unforeseen accident, a death in the family, an illness or a natural disaster. Or a rainy day may take the form of something good that was simply unexpected, such as an unplanned second or third child, an educational or cultural opportunity too good to pass up but that costs a great deal more than expected, or a celebration (marriage, graduation, rite of passage, anniversary, second honeymoon, etc.)

It is clear that our government has failed to put any savings away for a rainy day. And for nearly four years, it has been pouring out there…everywhere. Our financial system is broken, and the world financial stability around us is crumbling as well. For perhaps the first time since the Great Depression, our citizens have very little faith in our government’s ability to manage our national finances – a sentiment echoed loudly by Moody’s unprecedented lowering of our nation’s credit rating.

Rich people such as Warren Buffett and many celebrities have publicly pleaded for our government to raise taxes on the rich, which selflessly includes themselves. That sentiment is good, and should be appreciated. But the larger, more pressing problem that actually exists in our nation’s capital right now is not HOW to bring more money into its coffers (it has an abundance of options there, beginning with its omniscient and unique power of printing more money) – our governments biggest challenge is the fact that it clearly has no clear plan of what to do with the money once it gets it. Our government has grown way too large and bulky in the past 60 years, and does not have the ability to be nimble and flexible at times of crisis, or when multiple threats or challenges emerge simultaneously. Moreover, the bi-partisan nature of our government has grown into such extremist caricatures of what two parties should actually represent, that it is highly unlikely that compromise can ever take place in a manner that will actually solve any problems without creating 3 more in their place.

But perhaps the largest challenge of our time is the fact that our nation has arrived at a very critical and unhealthy point it its development and maturation cycle.  Our citizens, from the top down to the bottom, are unwilling to get our hands dirty and perform the often painstaking tasks of driving progress, rather than the much easier road we have slipped onto, the road of least resistance, where we coast off of the hard work, difficult decisions and life-risking actions taken by the generations that came before us. We all figure that the incredible technological developments of the past ten or twenty years are enough for us to sit back and watch the world around us as we become more and more physically detached from reality and what it really takes to make our world prosperous once again.

We live in a world where people would much rather criticize than actually lead from the front. It is so much easier to find fault in something, and then write or blog or squawk or tweet or argue or go on a reality show and demean it and everything we stand for than it is to come up with a better way, find some passionate people who agree in principle and then invest the 15-20 hour days required to make it happen, to effect positive change.

Social Security IS a Ponzi scheme. Not in theory, but in the way it actually has evolved, because of horrible decisions and mismanagement of the system by our leaders of today, yesterday and those before them. If we can’t find a way to bring back the confidence of our own citizens, who worked their whole lives and paid a tidy sum into the government kitty so that their retirement from living the American Dream would not become an American Nightmare, then all is lost. Washington is and has always been full of some of the best and brightest America has to offer, many of whom make more money annually than the average US citizen will earn in 10 or 20 years. These people knew that the average lifespan of Americans was rising, and would continue to rise steadily as medicine and technology and basic COMMON SENSE (about smoking and fatty foods, for example) improved. It is no excuse that people are living longer and getting sicker and we just don’t have the money to cover it. The truth is, we would all have plenty of money if the funds were invested and secured properly in the first place.

Bottom line, our government’s rainy day fund is empty, and the jar that housed it is broken beyond repair. Furthermore, the discipline necessary to implement the fund in the first place has eroded long ago, and every new “regime” that gets elected to office spends more time, energy and money UNDOING the efforts of those before them than actually solving the problems we face today. And those who disagree with how to solve today’s problems simply filibuster and create enormous barriers to all efforts made by our elected officials. The system is broken, and we all are paying the price, with our retirement funds, our pensions, our Medicare, our health care system, our financial system, our housing market, our ability to borrow money, the number of years we need to work in order to retire, and the value of our dollar when we travel or conduct business overseas.

And don’t even get me started on our system of unions, which in theory, again, are an incredible and indispensable innovation to American labor. But like our government itself, they have grown fat, inefficient and lazy over the years, and currently cause far more problems than they solve in today’s economy.

These are trying and difficult times for our government and the American people. Elizabeth Warren fired a salvo off the bow of The American Right. Her words should not be ignored. But they must be heeded with care, as there are mitigating factors to the spirit of her message. I urge everyone to educate themselves as best they can on the challenges facing our country. Though I do find merit in Orwell’s message that Ignorance is Bliss, we are all responsible for what comes next, be it through action, inaction or ambivalence.

I apologize for getting political, and for being so verbose. But if I am going to write, I might as well discuss important, difficult and polarizing topics every now and then.

Til next time,

IDROS

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September 21, 2011 · 2:17 pm

One Million Dollars….

The hikers’ release

For half a million a piece

Brings joy to our nation and friends;

But my logical fear

Which should loom loud and clear

When viewed through a pro-Israel lens:

Iran gained global cred

Just one day ahead

Of Mahmoud’s scheduled UN address;

He’ll use his goodwill

To slander Israel

And help out with Palestine‘s quest.

So congrats Josh and Shane

For an end to your pain

But your freedom is reason for pause;

The million we spent

Almost certainly went

To fund an undeniable cause:

To buy ammunition

And deadlier weapons

To point at Iran’s Jewish neighbor;

And the ransom, you see

Came from taxes and fees

Paid from American labor.

 

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