Diggapedia

A few weeks back I made the case of when government intervention is proper and when it is not.   A progressive government has brought this nation its greatest advancements in   safe food, water, drug, air, and drinking water; not to mention equal rights, pensions, healthcare, and voting rights.   Yes, when government looks to deepen and broaden society, the nation advances in education, freedom, and wealth. When government tries to regulate or legislate morality, we end up in a bad place.   The Comstock, Mann, and Volstead acts tried to impose a government’s belief of what constituted immoral behavior.   Most recently, DOMA, DADT, and the ludicrously overreaching Terri Schiavo case exemplified a government off the rails.   Yes, government, state and federal, and the courts have often been on the wrong side of dictating and mandating which is morally acceptable based on some religious beliefs.   When a politician starts his justification of some bi...

Business ·          Private property. The number of public companies in the U.S. has dropped 38% since 1997 and 48% in Britain. ·          Show me the money. Between 1980-2000 there was an average of 311 IPO’s/year but dropped to just 81 in 2011. ·          Bursting bubbles. The average life expectancy of public companies has gone from 65 years in the 1920’s to less than 10 in the 1990’s.   Prisons (Locked Up Nation) ·          The U.S. represents 5% of the world’s population but 25% of its prisoners. ·          In 1980 the U.S.’s prison population was about 150 per 100,000 adults.   It has more than quadrupled since then. ·          In 2009, 1.66 million Americans were arrested on drug charges, and 80% of those arrests...

…and it makes me wonder ·          Situation in Syria is growing more complicated as Sunni insurgents have joined the fray against the Assad regime.   This is quickly pitting Saudi Arabia and Turkey against Iran and Syria and possibly an al-Qaeda/Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas versus Hezbollah while Israel sits back and monitors the situation.   The humanitarian crisis has become a geopolitical chaotic free-for-all; of course that won’t stop John McCain from calling for immediate U.S. intervention. ·          I’m no economist, but I am unsure just how synthetic collateralized debt obligations help lead to economic growth. ·          Imagine a plant in Alabama that produces goods for the consume products markets.   The plant employees hate Democrats and President Obama so they will vote for a Republican.   But the demand for consumer products is...

In March 2008 JP Morgan Chase, through some governmental guarantees, purchased Bear Stearns as the investment bank collapsed under the weight of its failing asset-backed securities portfolio.   Six months later Lehman Brothers, the 4 th largest investment bank in America,   filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.   The contagion would spread and claim banks around the globe, and a possible total collapse of the world’s economy was only prevented via strong government action to bolster confidence in the banking sector.   But how did we get so close to the abyss that the failure of one investment bank led to a global crisis?   Suddenly the phrase “Too Big to Fail” was everywhere at once.   The last time that soon-to-be ubiquitous phrase was used with regards to banking was the 1984 near collapse of the banking industry when the then seventh largest bank, Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust, failed after making some risky gas and oil bets.   ...

The Arizona All-Stars: Jan Brewer on the need for SB1070: "Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert either buried or just lying out there that have been beheaded," John McCain on the need to build the dang fence: "We are concerned about, particularly, areas down on the border where there is substantial evidence that some of these fires are caused by people who have crossed our border illegally," Jon Kyl on justifying tax cuts for the wealthy: “ You do need to offset the cost of increased spending, and that's what Republicans object to. But you should never have to offset cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.” Joe Arpaio on sending a deputy to Hawaii to find a birth certificate and Macadamia nuts: “It’s one deputy, so what? We have security issues, too, that I can’t got into. For six months we were not spending any money. When you’re doing investigations sometimes things change, you put more resources ...

I just finished reading Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby.   Over the past few weeks I have Tweeting and Blogging about freethinking and secularism as I read the outstanding Jacoby book and conducted some related research.   The words of Madison, Jefferson, Whitman, Lucretia Mott, William Lloyd Garrison, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,   Robert Ingersoll, and Clarence Darrow were moving and alarming at the same time.   Moving in the passion and power of the word, and alarming that in 2012 the same battles are being waged.   The same battles from the social conservative powered conservative political apparatus that would deny equal rights, that would turn us into a Christian Taliban, that claim love of the Constitution without understanding its beauty.   Yes the more things change, the more they stay the same. The idea of freethinking, the idea of being ABLE to challenge the status quo without fear of reprisal is why America is the ...

Indiana Senator Richard Lugar was crushed in the GOP primary by Tea Party candidate Richard Mourdock.   Lugar’s downfall: he voted for both Supreme Court Justices Sotamayor and Kagan, voted for the DREAM Act, voted for nuclear disarmament, and worst of all: he compromised.   Here is a man who pressed for a balanced budget amendment, cuts to social safety net programs, opposed healthcare reform, and opposed the debt limit increases.    Conclusion: The Club for Growth that bankrolled Mourdock’s campaign and other alleged fiscal conservative Tea Party-aligned organizations are really concerned about race, the white race and threats from minorities.   This fiscal conservative mantra is hoax. A vote in the Colorado legislature to allow civil unions never came to pass as Republican Speaker Frank McNulty stalled long enough so that a midnight deadline could be reached to end the legislative session.   If passed, this law would have made a Colorado the 1 st s...

The House voted 299-120 to pass a new defense authorization bill with 77 Democrats voting along with all but 16 Republicans.   This vote was a purely political stunt with many voting in favor to help their own re-election bids as nothing says strong defense like approving spending for weapons and bases we do not need.   In fact the budget exceeds the what the Pentagon even asked for.   Some specifics: ·          In clear opposition to the President’s plans and budget, the House defense bill calls for funds to keep a force of 68,000 troops in Afghanistan through 2014.   Neither the DoD nor the American people support this measure.   ·          The bill calls for development of an East Coast missile defense system on top of the additional funds to the $30Billion spent on the West Coast missile defense system.   To date, $150Billion has been spent and the House wants anothe...

Greece is the battered wife in its Eurozone marriage.  Everybody will be better off in the long run if they separate sooner rather than later. The GOP presidential candidates tried to outdo each other in describing how tall and wide they wanted their border wall with Mexico while simultaneously talking about tearing down Jefferson’ and the other Founding Fathers’ wall between church and state. Why do I think in the coming months we will be hearing about the failure of Spanish and Italian banks severely impacting US banks?  Perhaps because I have seen this move before. Speaking of movies, when will Hollywood learn to leave classic cult favorite TV shows like ‘Dark Shadows’ alone?  Tim Burton failed miserably with his flat reboot. Mitt Romney and his economic team believe we have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.  Not sure how you can say that when corporate tax revenues were $188,677,000 in 1998, $370,243,000 in 2007, and $181,085,000 in 2011. ...

Excerpt from Mitt Romney’s speech at Liberty University last week: The protection of religious freedom has also become a matter of debate. It strikes me as odd that the free exercise of religious faith is sometimes treated as a problem, something America is stuck with instead of blessed with. Perhaps religious conscience upsets the designs of those who feel that the highest wisdom and authority comes from government. But from the beginning, this nation trusted in God, not man. Religious liberty is the first freedom in our Constitution. And whether the cause is justice for the persecuted, compassion for the needy and the sick, or mercy for the child waiting to be born, there is no greater force for good in the nation than Christian conscience in action. Religious freedom opens a door for Americans that is closed to too many others around the world. But whether we walk through that door, and what we do with our lives after we do, is up to us. I am struck by Romney’s words. ...

Ina Drew, Chief Investment Officer at JP Morgan Chase, and her 15.5Million salary are out.   The 30 year employee could be getting another $14million as a severance package.   Yes because nothing says pay for performance like getting a $14million bonus following a $2Billion and rising loss. 'I'm fine = I wish I could tell you how I really feel.'   The words of 13 yr old   seventh grader Rachel Ehmke who hanged herself after repeatedly being harassed and tormented by her classmates.   The latest ‘Mean Girls’ episode shows that while right wing social conservatives like Arizona’s Cathi Herrod try to portray bullying as a gay problem, this current bullying is neither gender nor sexual orientation specific.    Today’s social media makes the ordeal of bullying a 24/7 hell that goes beyond the classroom.   Parents, school officials, law enforcement agencies, social services, and healthcare specialists need to snap out this lackadaisical approach. ...