The Great Wall Of Mexico...

So, in light of Thanksgiving, I guess I'll mention one thing I'm thankful for. Specifically, I'm thankful that my family and I are not that bad off. We're employed. Maybe not as well paid as we'd like. But, we've got jobs. And that's not the case for a lot of folks these days.

And, while I'm on that topic, I'd like to ask you a question. Ready? Great. Here it comes:

Do you know anyone…ANYONE at all…who has lost their job because an illegal immigrant was willing to do it cheaper?

Need to think about it a little? Fine. Take your time. One. Two. Three. Okay…pencils down. Do not turn the page.

You haven't, have you? Or, at least, I'd bet that’s the case. I'd bet you don't know a single person who's lost or didn't get a job because some guy named Juan did the frogman routine across the Rio Grande and offered to take that chemical engineering spot (or whatever) for less than minimum wage.

In fact, I'll go further. I'll bet that you have never even MET someone who has lost a job to an illegal immigrant. Ever. I certainly haven't.

But, would you like to know who I HAVE met?

I've met lots, and Lots, and LOTS of people who have lost their jobs because of out-sourcing and off-shoring. I've met them by the score. Men and women whose jobs up and walked away because some MBA in a distant office decided that things could be done cheaper, without regulation, in some place far removed from American shores. I've met them among my friends. Among my former co-workers. Among my students (I teach adult ed). Among my family.

And I'm pretty sure you've met people like that, too. You may be one of them.

But, have you noticed? No one talks about that. Or, at least, very few people in power do.

Oh, we hear an awful lot about those nasty, nasty illegal immigrants. We're going to hear more about them, now that the House is in the hands of its new owners. And we'll probably see new laws written to keep "them" out. Who knows? Maybe we'll even build that Great Wall of Mexico that people like Jan Brewer keep talking about. Maybe it will have fences and guard towers and, someday, land mines. Maybe it will be the great construction project of the century…the one and only public works project that Tea Partiers and Libertarians will support.

But what we won't hear from the new, improved House of Representatives is much talk about the real causes of unemployment—like the fact that American jobs are flowing overseas at a record rate. On that, somehow, our masters and commanders will remain silent.

Why? To answer that, you have to ask another question—i.e., who is to blame for the situation? For the out-sourcing, and off-shoring, and "right-sizing," and all the other reassuring euphemisms for lay-offs and poverty? Who profited from it?

Well, certain members of the American elite, that's who. The people whose profits soared when production was taken offshore to places where wages were tiny and unions non-existent. The corporate managers whose "compensation packages" improved with every layoff and firing. The Wall Street wonders whose portfolios grew yet more morbidly obese each time a plant closed or a city died.

Or, to put it another way, those who benefit from our looming national bankruptcy are the very people who poured vast sums of money into the last election. And who now own the Republicans, manipulate Tea Party activists, have the majority in the House, may soon dominate the Senate, and are already planning to put another George W. into the White House in 2012. (Surely they have already selected the next empty-headed photogenic figure that they shall wheel onstage and automate as our Commander and Chief.)

Is it any wonder that such people are so vocal about "Illegal Immigrants?" It is the classic magician's technique of misdirection. We focus on a few Latinos, and miss the vastly greater harm that our own national elites have inflected upon us. We concentrate obsessively on the paper cuts of illegal immigration, and so don't notice the fact that we are being slowly eviscerated.

And you have to admire their technique. What they are doing is terrible. It may, someday, be classified as treason. But, they do it so very, very well.

But, of course, that brings up yet another question…something else to ponder.

To wit: that Wall? The Great Wall of Mexico that Jan Brewer et al would build? Is it to keep "them" out?

Or us in?


Onward and upward.

Introducing Brother Bacon

Well, today, I'm going to be posting a number of little odds and ends. They're not quite Depth Charges ("the lowest form of explosive-cargo") but they're close. So, let's call them "Brother Bacon's Squibs And Crackers."

(You'll recall that the thirteenth century monk, Roger Bacon, included in his notes one of the first known recipes for gunpowder.)

So, here we go…

*

I saw in the news this morning that Hillary Clinton has ruled out a run for president.

Sad, but inevitable. She would have made a excellent president. But, circumstances ruled against her. Indeed, her greatness is best evidenced by her principled decision NOT to run in 2010. Doing so would have vastly hurt her party.

So, as some let praise her. As some people claimed that her husband was the first "African-American President," so let us remark that she was the first female president of the nation...

Only, like Tilden a century ago, she was too patriotic to take the White House, knowing it would harm the nation.

*

So, I read in the news that Donald Trump has said that Sarah Palin is a lightweight, that Obama isn't any better, and he's considering running for president in 2012.

Yes. You read that right. Donald ("You're Fired") Trump. For president. That is, of the United States. Running against Sarah ("Moose Killer") Palin.

For some strange reason I'm reminded of a poem. Something about Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Can't imagine why that image is coming to mind.

Must be 'cause I'm just so dang literary.

"Exclusive: Donald Trump Says Presidential Run 'Could be Fun,' Decision by June" at blogs.abcnews.com/george/2010/11/trump-presidential-run-could-be-fun-decision-by-june.html.

*

Oh, here's another one that's fun.

I've read on the U.S. News and World Report site that Wall Streeters, Investment Bankers, CEOs and big corporate business types are running really scared …because of the election.

No kidding.

You see, here's the thing. The top 1% of the American population which owns pretty everything any more spent a whole heck of a lot of money (much of it secretly) to put "fiscal conservatives," Tea Partiers, Libertarians, Ayn Randers, and Laissez Fairies into office. They've done everything they can to cripple the Obama administration short of violence (and I'm not sure that they didn't consider going beyond even that. Remember all the Gun-totting crackpots that showed up in protest marches right after he was elected?)

So, now, they've got what they want…

Except, they're also starting to realize the price of that. They have basically sold themselves to people who, as God is their witness, want to reduce Washington to a broad spot in the road and "free the economy."

Ah, but as the 1%-ers know perfectly well, a completely unregulated economy, without any management what so ever, leads pretty inevitably to things like hyperinflation, Recessions, Depressions, market crashes, violence in the street and…well, all manner of stuff that can just spoil your whole day. Or several days. Maybe your life.

So, folks, you who looted the public coffers, who out-sourced and downsized and deindustrialized and put into joblessness…this is the government you wanted.

I wonder, will you survive it?

Give me your guess.


Source: 4 Fresh Fears About Washington Wrecking the Economy, finance.yahoo.com/news/4-Fresh-Fears-About-usnews-2195640786.html?x=0

*

What's the line in the Bible? Sow the wind?

But, then, 1%ers probably don't read the Bible. Has all those depressing bits. About eyes of needles. And people who just won't fit through 'em.

*

So I see that now President Obama is now being criticized by the Right for writing a children's book that doesn't say Sitting Bull was a terrorist.

For the Right to say such a thing is ridiculous, of course. But, come, let us confess. It was inevitable. The state of political discourse in this country has become so vicious that Obama could not praise motherhood and Apple pie without Fox News announcing that he had a Oedipal Fruit Fetish.


nation.foxnews.com/media/2010/11/15/obama-praises-indian-chief-who-killed-us-general

aolnews.com/politics/article/fox-news-headline-on-president-obama-kids-book-ignites-sitting-bull-controversy/19720203?icid=maing|main5


*

I say a lot of hard things about the 1%ers, and I mean them.

But, I'm not terribly fond of socialism either. I think it tends to come in two forms: Swedish and Soviet.

The first kind is run by bureaucrats, technocrats, social engineers, and other folks who are just so gawdamn smug your wanna strangle 'em. The second kind, at least in its early stages, is run by intellectuals, would-be intellectuals, wanna be intellectuals, and other beard and sandal-types of the sort that show up in college towns and pontificates a lot.

The worst part about the first sort of socialism is that it is damn dull. But you don't have to worry about dullness when you get the other sort. Its leaders tend to be people like Lenin, and Trotsky, and Mao—-people full of energy, with fascinating intellects and enormous charisma.

Though, they do have the unfortunate habit of thinking of other people as abstractions ("The People," "The Workers," "The Proletariat"). And then, once they're power, millions of such two-legged abstract concepts…die, in the gulag, or the camps, or in the Revolution.

So, here's my advice. If you find yourself in a society that seems to be moving toward the first sort of socialism, invest in Prozac.

If you find yourself in the second…keep shooting until you empty the clip. Then, use the rifle butt to club the body until it stops twitching.

*

Onward and upward.






Copyright © Michael Jay Tucker 2010

A sincere apology to obscenely rich people

Today I need to apologize. I need to humbly...oh, so humbly...beg for forgiveness. I mean, beg. Because, you see, I've said something really foolish and utterly wrong.

Here it is: as you know, I've been writing a lot about how America is now basically owned by and governed for about 2% of the population, the "mega-rich" who got Ronald Reagan & Co. to transfer vast amounts of the nation's wealth from us to them.

Well, I'm wrong.

I've looked at the numbers and discovered that it isn't 2%. It is more like 1%.

That's right. About 1% of Americans own pretty much everything. (Here's a site you can go to see some of the numbers in question http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/. And while you're cursing... I mean, cruising, look at this column by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/opinion/18kristof.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a212).

So, to the top 1%...the mega-bankers and mega-lawyers and mega-CEOs who have vacuumed every penny out of the public's pocket...the Wall Street Brokers who "broke" the economy and then used bail-out money to give themselves obscene bonuses...the Off-Shorers and Out-Sourcers who plunged us into a "post-industrial, service-based economy" of mass unemployment and national decline...

I'm sorry.

I'm terribly, terribly sorry I grossly underestimated just how rare and strange you are.

Can you ever forgive me?

In Alaska

And lastly for the day...

The news is that Lisa Murkowski has won the Alaska Senatorial race as a write-in candidate.

To which I say, Oh, Lord, Thank You, Jesus.

Conservative, Liberal, GOP, or Dem-donkey...you gotta admit that the idea of Joe ("Nuke A News-Reporter For Christ") Miller in the Senate was just about as chilling and slightly less fun than an ice water enema...

...with a fire hose.




Onward and upward.

More on the 2%

While we're at it, here's another fun little news item.

You know how the Fed is bending over backwards (and then some) to make cheap money available to big corporations so that they'll finally start spending and investing and hiring and maybe get Americans back to work?

Well, according to a recent article on Bloomberg, the aforesaid big corporations and are (wanna guess? Huh? Wanna?) investing it outside of the US. The cash is flowing in a major gauge pipe right overseas.

Right.

Is it just me? Or does that feel a little like somebody just shoved a knife between our shoulder blades?

But, of course, it is a well-made knife, with an excellent bone handle, and a blade of the finest Swedish steel.

Nothing but the very best for the 2%.


The article: Not Made in America Prevails as Fed's `Cheap Money' Finds Its Way Overseas

To Top 2%

I've heard it said that most of the nation's resources are now controlled by about 2% of the population. (Yes, the middle class, as you knew it, is gone. We're all peons, now.)

Well, here's an interesting an article by Robert Scheer on someone in that top 2%, Sandy Weill, former head of Citigroup and the man credited with arranging the legislation that deregulated the banking industry....and got us into our present kettle of fish.

So, if you're wondering what to expect from our new masters, read the piece to which I've linked below. It's all about Mr. Weill's nifty new mansion, purchased while people all over the country are being kicked out of their homes by robo-signers.

Makes me feel just all warm and fuzzy.

Or maybe that's nausea. Hard to tell. Well, six of one.


Here's the piece: The Man Who Shattered Our Economy

Scary...and yet reassuring

Here's an interesting article.

Bad news...this is scary.

Good news...well, at least we know we're not the only nation in the world with its share of Fred Phelpses and Terry Joneses.

Everyone's got a heaping helping of crackpots. Reassuring really. Proves that God's generosity knows no national boundaries.

Fate of Mideast talks in hands of polarizing rabbi (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians)

hit counter

Added a hit counter to my blog. Kinda disconcerting, though. I've run the Blog for years, and the mailing list before it even longer. But, since I've just started recording hits, it looks like my page has been viewed only 90 times.

Sigh.

Please visit and make me feel better ;-)

mjt

.3%

More thoughts on energy ....


I want to draw your attention to an advertisement.

It's not a bad ad. It's not misleading. I'm not about to launch off into another tedious tirade about Lies-From-Madison-Avenue.

But it is an ad that concerns me all the same.

You've probably seen it. It's been in a lot of the glossy print publications. At the top there is a large photo of a number of women—I believe they may be of the Tuareg people, but I'm not sure. Below that there is, on the left, the name of the sponsoring company, and, on the right, the following: "0.3% of Saharan solar energy could power Europe."

And that's what worries me.

Here's why. It lends itself to a kind of thinking that I encounter a lot among our decision-making elites. Specifically, it suggests that the energy crisis is a simple problem with a simple cure. All we have to do is [insert preferred solution here] and everything will be fine.

But there's the rub. That's not true.

Let's just take this ad. Again, I have no quarrel with the company that ran it. But that "0.3 %" which seems so quick and easy, is troubling.

There are a lot of unanswered questions behind that little number three. First, three tenths of a percent of the "solar energy" which falls on the Sahara might indeed power all of Europe, but can we catch it? What sort of collectors are we talking about? Are these solar cells? Mirrors focusing light on a boiler? Either way, what sort of efficiency is involved? Are the solar cells capable of turning 100% of all the energy that falls on into usable electricity? Last time I checked, the best of them does about 10%. That's good, but it isn't 100%.

But, let's say for the sake of argument that we can capture .3% of all the light that falls in the Sahara. Or that .3% is all we need even given the efficiencies of current technologies. If so, what does that mean in terms of construction? Do we put flat panel collectors or mirrors over .3% of the whole desert? The Sahara is about 3.3 million square miles. My math isn't good, but I believe that translates out to being about ten thousand square miles. For comparison, Rhode Island is about a thousand square miles.

Okay, let's say we are really going to cover all that territory with mirrors or panels. How are we going to pay for it? And, once we've done it, how are we going to keep them upright in a sandstorm? How are we going to maintain them? How are we going to keep them clean? Each time they get dusty, after all, their efficiency drops. Are we going to employ millions of Berbers to dash about the desert with squeegees?

Let's say we've got those problems licked. There are still lots of others to worry about—like, how do we store the energy we get? How do we transmit it? How do we protect the installations from sabotage? Particularly given the political instability of the region?

And on, and on, and on.

Now, this is not to say that these problems couldn't be dealt with. In fact, I notice that European scientists have indeed looked at all the issues and pronounced a Saharan solar facility "the size of Wales" quite feasible.

But it won't be a quick fix or a cheap one. And the same is true for any solution to the energy crisis that we can conceive. Clean nukes, controlled fusion, wind turbines, tidal power, rooftop solar…whatever.

But no one in power seems to be saying that. What we hear instead is that oh-so-seductive "all we have to do is X…" and everything will be just ducky.

Which is scary.

We are going to have to deal with the energy crisis. It isn't going to be easy. It is going to cost us big money. It is going to take a long time. Our standard of living is going to decline until we're finished. But it has to be done…for our children's sake, if not our own.

And having our leaders pretend otherwise is dangerous if only because it lulls us into the belief that we can delay action until some convenient time in the future.

But there will never be a convenient time.

So, let us act. Let us demand that our leaders confront reality and be honest about it. Let them know that they must speak the hard truth, or we will find someone who can.

We cannot survive anything else. We cannot again descend, again, into the delusions…the pleasant but deadly dreams…of a .3% solution.

Cruises and Bruises

So I've been watching the news story about the Carnival cruise ship that ended up floating helplessly for three days (see below). Believe it or not, I have a slight connection to this story.

Years ago, my parents took my family and me on a Carnival cruise. They wanted to give us something we would always remember.

We did. The cruise turned out to be a disaster. The food was bland, the staff unfriendly, the toilets worked but not well, the entertainment was crude, and there was very little to do other than smoke, drink, or gamble...none of which we did.

You couldn't even see the ocean. The ship was set up to focus all your attention on the casino. There were translucent plastic shields between the decks and the outside. That meant there was no place where you could sit and simply watch the waves.

My poor parents were aghast. And, I must confess, I've never had warm feelings about Carnival again.

*

Source: Cruise passengers endured stench, cold food

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101112/ap_on_re_us/us_cruise_ship_fire

robots on film

A friend of mine saw my recent "rant" 'bout industrial robots and sent me a link to a great video on Brazilian robots.

This is what we could, and should be doing, y'all.

mjt


http://apps.detnews.com/apps/multimedia/player/index.php?id=1189

The Dagger Quick

Hello, Everyone,

Time out from my usual blogging to push a friend of a friend's book. The Dagger Quick by Brian Eames is just about to be published by Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books. You can see it here: http://www.amazon.com/Dagger-Quick-Brian-Eames/dp/1442423110/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289078510&sr=1-1

This is a very cool young person's novel by a very talented writer. It's only available for pre-order as of this date, but if you're looking for a gift for a son, daughter, nephew, niece, whatever, then I'd say that you'd be hard pressed to go wrong with this one.

cheers
mjt

A few words about robots

Hi, Everyone,

Well, I'm going to post here another one of the oped pieces I'm submitting to newspapers around the country. It's kind of a fool's errand 'cause, let's face it, newspapers are in pretty deep trouble at the moment. They've got way more pages than they've got ad revenue to support them, so farming out a few hundred words to a non-staffer (even if the aforesaid non-staffer is giving his stuff away for free) is a non-starter.

Still, because I'm stubborn, and not too damn bright, I keep trying.

This week I'm showing you something that I've been sending around only to newspapers in New England. That's cause I've given it a New England slant. But, frankly, that's a bit of a scam. What I say about New England here is true for the whole country.

Here's my schitick: I'm convinced that America is in serious trouble. I mean, BIG time trouble. I think that if we don't do something, and something dramatic, then we're in for very hard times.

I think MOST of our problems (but not all) stem from the economy. I think that we have basically lost the capacity to pay for our own needs.

Why? Two major reasons. Energy is number one. So long as we keep importing oil, and so long as oil keeps going up in price, everything gets a little more expensive every day. We are, in effect, slowly bleeding to death.

But problem number two, every bit as bad, is "de-industrialization"—that is, the process by which our economic elites moved all our industrial production overseas, and left the rest of us to rot.

I'm very serious about this. I am convinced that de-industrialization was the worst thing to happen to us as a society since the 1930s. Oh, we've had foreign wars that have been more destructive in terms of loss of life. But, if we restrict ourselves to just internal developments, then the loss of our industrial capacity (and the pay checks that went with it) is pretty darn awful. I'd say that in recent history, only the Great Depression can match it. And before that? Perhaps the Civil War.

Oh, and by the way, if things keep going as they are now, I'm not sure that the last Civil War will be the only one we'll ever fight.

So, I'm writing articles and oped pieces in which I try to encourage people to do what I think needs to be done to save the country. I know that sounds alarmist and fantastically arrogant, but…I'm saying it all the same.

And in particular I'm saying that we need to develop new, cheap forms of energy. I don't know what those will be (I'm a big fan of fusion myself, but I could be wrong), but whatever it is, we need them, and we need them very soon.

The other thing I think we need to do is re-industrialize. We need to build factories again.

Yes, I know that sounds insane. And I know also that when and if we build them, they probably won't employ as many people as the old, smokestack industries did. In fact, I suspect they won't employ many people at all. They'll be automated. We'll invest heavily in industrial robots.

But even so, automated industries will give us something to stand on. They'll provide the foundation on which the rest of our so-called "post-industrial" businesses will base themselves.

At least that's what I believe. For more of my logic and my arguments, I offer the piece I've pasted below.

Once you've read it, if you like, tell me what you think.

mjt




[head] The New New England and the Post-Post-Industrial Economy

[by] Michael Jay Tucker



I'm about to say something crazy.

Here it comes: New England can and should lead the nation in re-industrialization. Moreover, we should automate and invest massively in robots.

I warned you it would sound crazy. But, bear with me.

Everybody knows that America was once the leading industrial nation of the globe. Everybody also knows that it isn't any more. It was cheaper and easier to offshore. Which was fine because we thought we'd still have employment via service-based businesses. We thought everyone could be a white-collar worker in the post-industrial economy.

Except…now, it looks like we're in the post-post-industrial economy. Service businesses aren't hiring much and those that are aren't paying particularly well. Worse, as anyone who has ever called tech support can testify, we've found that service-based employment can itself be offshored.

So what do we do about it?

Answer: Re-industrialize. We build factories again…automated factories…using as many industrial robots as possible.

Why? First, because the technology is now available. Where, before, there was something a little bit science fiction about it, now we know how to automate plants to the nth degree. Japan has been using industrial robots to compensate for its aging workforce for decades.

Second, robots provide the ultimate in low-cost labor. They don't take raises and they don't want benefits. They would allow the nation to successfully compete with any labor force on earth, no matter how underpaid.

Third, because every time a robot manufactures something here, that's an item that's not manufactured overseas. So, the money required to produce it stays here, in the United States. That's a little mercantilist, yes, but, at the moment, we need every dime we can get.

Fourth, because while it is true that automated factories do not hire many people, they do hire some. More, they provide a foundation for the rest of the economy. They become or create clients for service-based businesses—everything from PR firms to design shops.

And, finally, now is the perfect time for it. A generation ago, mass automation would have been impossible. Unions would have quite rightly objected. But, now, most of our factories are already gone. The people who worked in them are already unemployed. We have nothing left to lose.

So, the time is now for America to become, again, a manufacturing nation.

And New England is where it should start. We already have expertise in the profitable production of robots, as witness I-Robot, Kiva Systems, and dozen recent startups in the field. And, we have the brainpower necessary. There are robotics labs in schools from Maine to Rhode Island. Given all of that, New England can and should take the lead.

Besides, it's fitting. New England was where industrialization began in America. And it was here, too, where America first de-industrialized, as mills fled to cheaper climes.

Now New England should guide the nation back…to industry, and to prosperity.

We've got a tradition to uphold.



#



Author's Bio



Michael Jay Tucker has been writing about science and technology since the early 1980s. He was on the staffs of such magazines as Mini-Micro Systems, Computerworld, UnixWorld, SunExpert, and Datamation. Today, he teaches English and History at Northeastern and Cambridge College.



Copyright © 2010 Michael Jay Tucker

The Tea Party's Gift

America owes a great debt to the Tea Party, conservatives, and the Right in general. They have given us the greatest gift of all— i.e., laughter.

Let us confess it…let us say it loud…they are greatest comedians of the century. Slapstick, low comic, pratfall, Three-Stooges-style, pie-in-the-face buffoons admittedly…. but comedians all the same.

Consider, just this week we had Joe Miller, that clown prince of Alaska, the man who's got a million of 'em, hold a public forum which he then announced was private and so his security detail jumped a local reporter and held him against his will, even though that was about as illegal as peddling methamphetamine lollipops and hash brownies down at your local PTA bake sale.

Then we get full-color pix and vids on youtube of the whole skit. And, by golly, there's Miller's goon-squad looking like a bunch of stubble-headed Matrix dwellers from Planet Zork. I mean, the costuming alone was brilliant!

But that wasn't all. Next we learn that the Death Star Storm-troopers are from a private security firm, Drop Zone Security Services, which…it turns out…doesn't have a license.

Ah, but hold on, that's not the punch line. 'Cause then we discover Drop Zone is owned by William F. Fulton, who also happens to be a local commander of the Alaska Citizens Militia, an ultra-right strong arm group. And, oh, by the way, the Alaska Citizens Militia's founder is Norm Olson, who previously founded the Michigan Militia…which, in turn, hosted a meeting which happened to be attended by Terry Nichols, the guy who helped the late Timothy McVeigh kill all those people in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Amazing! You'd need half a dozen sit-coms plus several years' worth of soap operas to come up with a plot this convoluted. Yet the Right invents it all without even breaking a sweat. I stand in awe.

But, mind you, we're not talking any one hit wonder. These people manage this kind of comedy consistently. Every day! Why, think about Christine O'Donnell, Delaware's Tea Party/Republican/Nutcase candidate for Senate. Consider how she proclaimed in the middle of a debate, "Where in the Constitution is separation of church and state?" And, oh! The way she said it! With that utterly adorable little look of absolute bewilderment! You could almost think she really meant it. Not even the great female comedians of the twentieth century, like Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot, did it any better.

And there are so many others—Sharon Angle and her "Dearborn's Dominated By Muslims" shtick (which I think is every bit as good as Jeff Foxworthy's "You May Be A Redneck"), and Jan Brewer with her sure-fire "Illegal Aliens Are Going To Get Your Mama."

So, all in all, I adore these people. They just keep getting funnier every time. But, I do have a small critique. I think their acts could use just a little tuning.

So, here's my message to 'em: Guys and Gals on the Right…you know I love your work…but pull back, just a little, from complete craziness. Because, if you don't, well, you come off as a total maniac. And that's not funny.

In fact, it's damn close to terrifying.

What Isn't Being Said

Hello, Everyone,

I'm shopping a shorter version of the material below to op-ed pages at various newspapers. So far, no one has taken the bait. But, you never can tell…

In the meantime, here it is, submitted for your approval.



[head] What isn't being said

By Michael Jay Tucker





It is what they don't say that freaks me out.

I mean the debate in Washington (and everywhere else) on the current Recession. Like you, and probably like everyone else in America, I've been watching while Right, Left, and Center battle about it. It's rather awe-inspiring, really. Economists and scholars and pundits and people who look really, really good on Fox TV are slugging it out big time, and all of knows exactly What Is To Be Done.

But, have you noticed? They all disagree with one another, very loudly. Some of them invoke Ayn Rand, others Baron Keynes, but no matter what their ideological orientation, they are united on a single premise. To wit, they hold the Recession is (for lack of a better word) a managerial issue. Their underlying assumption is that the crisis was brought about by unwise policies on the part of someone in office—the Republicans under George W. Bush by failing to properly police Wall Street, or the Democrats under Barack Obama through deficit spending (which seems somewhat improbable, given that Recession began before Obama's election, but that's beside the point).

But, this is followed by an equally fascinating corollary—i.e., that having been created by one set of policies, the Recession can be made to go away again by the imposition of another, wiser set. Once we reduce taxes or increase them, introduce more regulation or less of it, things will "get back to normal."

In other words, everyone in the debate—everyone!—seems to hold that our current crisis is subject to bureaucratic pressure, and that the proper group of experts could end it by changing the regulatory environment of the economy.

That's comforting, because it seems to give us the power over our situation. We just keep trying to various solutions on offer—Republic, Democratic, Tea Party, Socialist Workers, whoever—until one of them works. And surely, they can't ALL be wrong. Can they?

But…what if they are? All wrong, that is.

What if the Recession has nothing to do with policy? What if it in fact reflects material, structural problems in the nation as whole? And nothing we can do—no matter who's Chairman of the Fed, no matter how much we fiddle with capital gains or impose new regulations on Wall Street—is going to change things? What if, in short, we're screwed?

For instance, let's talk about energy costs. There are other problems as well (like de-industrialization) but, for the moment, let's just stick with energy.

It doesn't take a genius to notice that energy costs have been going up consistently for the last half century.

Which is a problem, because our society is based on fuel. Consider food. Any time you eat, you eat fossil fuels. You were able to ease your hunger because our society has the oil, gas, coal, or whatever to power the pumps that irrigate our fields, the tractors that harvest our crops, the trucks and trains that carry that food to our cities, and the freezers and stoves that we use to preserve and cook it. Oh, and by the way, once we've eaten it, we need still more pumps, and still more energy, to carry it all away again…or else we drown in our own sewage.

Which means, in turn, that each time energy costs go gone up, so too does the cost of everything we use that energy to produce, refine, transport, or prepare. Which is pretty much everything. And, so, every time energy costs go up, we get a little poorer.

And, it has only just begun. You can argue about whether we've reached "peak oil production," but what is undeniably true is that we've pumped out all the oil that was easy, safe, and convenient to get. From now on, we're going to get our fuels from places that are hard to reach, politically unstable, or just flat out dangerous. Oil is going to go get more expensive, and everything else is too.

And there's absolutely nothing we can do about it.

Not…that is… until we can push energy prices back down.

I'm not sure how we're going to do that. Maybe we'll invent a 100% efficient solar cell. Maybe we'll get clean nukes. Maybe we'll finally get fusion power up and running. But, until we do, things are going to be hard. We will only know the sort of prosperity we knew in the 1950s and the 1960s when the cost of energy is, again, measured in fractions of cents, rather than multiples of dollars.

Which is what scares me. Nothing I've said here is a secret. We all know this.

But, have you heard anyone say it? I mean, among the People Who Know Best? Our Leaders? Our elites? Have you heard any of them say, "Here's the grim reality: if we are to survive, we must invest in alternatives to fossil fuels. It is going to take time and money. We will have to develop basic technologies and build considerable infrastructure. We will solve the problem eventually, but it may be twenty years before we even start to see results, and over that period there were be far fewer resources to do other things. It isn't going to be pleasant, but that's the choice we've got."

No. We haven't heard them because they haven't said it.

I certainly haven't heard them say this. And that scares me to death. Because someone…some man or woman among them…needs to say these things to us, and needs to say them soon.

The alternative, and I fear it is all too likely, is that we awaken one morning to discover that the sun, in fact, has not arisen. And we are condemned, forever, to that famous darkling plain, wondering only which ignorant army will claim us next.







Copyright © Michael Jay Tucker 2010

Out Of My League

You may have noticed that I've not commented on Christine O'Donnell, the Republican –qua-Tea Party– qua anti-masturbation-qua-witchcraft candidate for Senate from Delaware.

Perhaps you've wondered why I've been so silent.

Well, because…blush, stammer…I'm outclassed. She's already so weird that, um, well, there's no way I can make fun of her. She's already delivered, and exceeded, any punch line I could invent.

Sigh.

Guess she's just WAY outta my league.


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But I am kinda mad at her. I mean, she's just soooo easy.

I wanna snarl at her something like, "For Christ's sake, woman. Stop handing it out for free. At least make Jon Steward work a little bit for his money."

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Darker thoughts.

I also haven't commented on her, and a lot of other stuff, partly because everyone else already had. She'd been all over the blogsphere, and more important, she'd been all over the mass media.

Which meant that by the time I could get something written and posted, the rest of the world would have moved on to some other concern. Anything I said would already be old news.

But, increasingly, that's true for all of us. In the age of the Internet and cable TV, ordinary people (that would be me) can no longer really comment on major events or issues. By the time we become aware of them, the video pundits, the sponsored bloggers, the Think Tank Op-Eders, and Others Who Know Best have already swarmed over it, stripped it to the bone, digested it, and excreted their so opinions thoroughly that we don't have a ghost of a chance.

Any ideas we might had have on our own…well…sorry. Individual opinion is obsolete.

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This shouldn't be news to any of us.

When the net first came out, it took the media by surprise, and a number of writers, bloggers, filmmakers, etc. could slip into the gap. But, now, the networks have gotten their Internet act together and moved in. For any ordinary blogger, like thee and me, there are a hundred others with high profile sites supported by established media outlets and content producers.

Thus the reality of American discourse. Our elites happily give us free speech…because, of course, they know no one will listen.

finished draft of three chapter

Just finished the next-last-draft (probably) of the New Mexico section. It is now three chapters and about 90 pages long.

Argh.

I'll try to post some of it later for comments.

A moment of silence

I didn't post about 9-11. I won't post now about it.

I won't because I feel sometimes that the whole, horrible thing has been lost from public view. We no longer discuss the event itself, if we ever did. Instead, we use it. The Right uses it to demonize Muslims (and thus, in the process, strike at their real target, American Liberals). The Left uses it to object to America's Middle East policy (and thus, in the process, strike at their real target, American Conservatives).

Only the Middle makes no sound.

Which is very much to the credit of the Moderates (and increasingly, I admire them). After all, someone must remember the dead…and observe a minute of silence…when, it seems, no one else will bother.

First they came

I have recently become aware of the movement led by some hard right Republicans and others to make being a Muslim a crime in America. I had not heard of this one until I caught it on TV.

I was stunned—it is, after all, a direct assault on freedom of religion in America. But, what I found fascinating was that some of the people behind the movement are Jewish.

That seems odd. Oh, I can understand it, what with the threat to Israel and all, and the more or less open incorporation of crude, Nazi-style anti-Semitism in Jihadist ideology. Yet, even so, to make a religion illegal in America…? Do we really want to set that precedent? And who would be next?

First they came for the Muslims…

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Another thing that fascinates me is how many of the most energetic leaders of the current anti-Muslim movement are, in fact, young, conservative women. By that I don't mean the old faithfuls…Palin, Ann Coulter…but rather a harder edged bunch, people like blogger Pam Geller, who combines Ayn Rand with anti-Islamic activism, and Laurie Cardozza-Moore, who led the opposition to that mosque in Tennessee. (Carodozza-Moore later got her fifteen minutes of fame, and more, by appearing in the Daily Show's coverage of the story.)

Note to feminists.

You've worked for decades to get women into politics…to "feminize power."

Well…

Was this really what you had in mind?


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BTW, you can see more on Carodozza-Moore's time on the Daily Show here:

huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/26/the-daily-show-mosque_n_695329.html

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I suppose I'll take some heat for my comment on the move to make Islam a crime in America. It is, after all, fairly unlikely. It is the kind of thing that a few fringe figures suggest to get a few headlines…and then gets promptly and properly forgotten.

Yet, I do worry. You see, at least some reports seem to suggest that similar ideas are reasonably common in the theoretically mainstream Tea Party Movement (see, for example, here: www. huffingtonpost.com/ahmed-rehab/tea-party-official-corres_b_693579.html).

Which, as I say, makes me worry. Fringes are not fixed. They tend to move about at the gentlest puff of wind. I feel some real terror that I may some morning awaken to find this baring down on me, like the Flying Dutchman, or the ghost ship in The Ancient Mariner…

Cursed, inexplicable, crewed by wraiths and furies…and impossible to escape.

teaching

I start teaching again this week.

Argh.

Note to students: you dread the end of summer. I've news for you. We're just as blue about it.

Least it gives us an interest in common.