…sweet land of subsidy…

Forgive me if this isn’t totally coherent – I just finished banging my head against the desk after reading a news item about rising milk prices, and my head is spinning just a little bit.

The fact that the price is going up doesn’t surprise me. It is the rationale of those in Congress who continue to grant subsidies that drives me bonkers. Consider the following from an AP story posted this morning:

…Costs have surged for fuel and petroleum-based products and for the corn used to feed dairy cows, a side effect of increases in the production of ethanol.
Bower said he now pays about $180 a ton to feed his 500 dairy cows, up from $115 a ton a year ago, an increase of more than 50 percent.
…
“The result is that domestic supplies of these milk protein products are limited and global market prices are rising,” he said. “That feeds back to the farm price of milk.”
Federal legislators recently have drawn up bills seeking relief.
Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., earlier this week introduced an amendment that would pay Pennsylvania dairy farmers a subsidy for milk produced over the past six months.
Casey said the amendment would provide about $125 million in aid to help dairy farmers deal with higher energy, feed and other production costs.
“Without relief, more dairy farms may join the 250 to 350 dairy farms that go out of business every year in Pennsylvania,” he said in a statement.

Here’s a thought – why don’t we focus on keeping the costs lower instead of covering for the increases? How, you ask? Here’s a starter. Stop the subsidies.

Huh?

See, here’s how it works. Give me a dollar and let me spend it. I will spend it; I’m horrible at saving, as are the vast majority of my countrymen. I spend my dollar and it keeps the wheels of the economy greased and rolling cleanly.

Now start taking away pennies at a time from that dollar for taxes. Those taxes do some valid things – roads and military – and a lot of pet projects (a.k.a. pork) that are more questionable. But every penny I don’t get to spend is a little less grease on the wheels of the economy. And every penny that goes to subsidies means I have a penny less to spend as I see fit.

Pretty soon, as a person who offers services or goods to the rest of the good consumers around me, I have to raise what I charge my customers or employer in order to maintain the lifestyle my pennies used to support – and nobody likes a lifestyle reduction.

When I raise my prices, those who buy from me also have to start charging their customers more. Eventually, the prices that somebody is charging that farmer will go up.

And there the cycle starts all over, and it only gets worse over time. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the economies (and tax rates) of most of Europe.

You can argue emotionally about the effects of cutting taxes, but you can’t argue with the facts. Any way you measure it, the tax cuts given by Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush all had a tremendously positive effect on the economy. And the new Congress has just proposed a budget that is by far the most expensive in our country’s history – $2.9 trillion. In five years, the life of the proposed budget, that means my family will never get to see an additional $2,500 of my earnings which will go directly to others who didn’t earn it.

That adds up to a lot of pennies.

“sorry” seems to be the most contentious word

The Georgia legislature is closing their session, and they haven’t apologized.

Oh, perhaps it should be explained what apology some were expecting.

You may not be aware of this, but seven generations ago there were people around here who owned slaves.  Mr. Lincoln declared holding the slaves to be illegal, then Billy Sherman cut a swath through the heart of Georgia to drive the point home, and then Bobby Lee gave up his sword up in Vir-ginny to seal the deal.

You might not be aware because it did happen oh so very long ago.

And it was perpetrated by people who are oh so very dead.

But there are some who feel that the state should apologize.

I’m all for apologizing when I’ve made a mistake. I go out of my way to avoid hurting others (although I am less considerate when it comes to politicians), and will gladly apologize when I offend.

But the offense must be mine in order for me to apologize.

An example: We went to Paris for our first anniversary (two incomes, no kids – we did things like that back then), and had a great time. But one day we seemed to be following in the wake of a woman who was the perfect picture of The Ugly American. Museums weren’t open when it was convenient for her, everyone was rude to her, and why didn’t anyone speak English?

(You were in France, ma’am; maybe you should have learned some of their language.)

Anyway, we were right behind her at one of the museums, she left a restaurant just as we were going in…and I kept trying to think of how to say something like “We’re from Canada, eh?” just to distance us from her. But I can not apologize for others’ behavior and choices.

I can say, “What a shame that some people are so ignorant;” but an apology is not mine to give if I am not the offending party.

Most of us have suffered some loss imposed by others. Unless your bloodline is wealthy British, somebody oppressed your folk at some point. Where possible, people should repent and apologize; but we can’t force people to apologize for that which they did not do.

By the way, I come from a family whose heritage includes those from the hinterlands of Indiana, who volunteered to fight the South as Abolitionists even before Lincoln made the abolition of slavery  a plank in the Civil war platform. I’m not writing this as one stuck in a romanticized view of the glory days of the Confederacy. My people had a cross burned in their front yard because they refused to discriminate in the store they owned. I’m proud of that heritage.

And I won’t apologize for it.

captain’s log…supplemental…

We were internet-less this morning at the office for a period of a few hours. Should that be net-challenged? Whatever you want to call it, it was unpleasant.

Those who live by chat were typing away to nobody.

The sports junkies had to talk about last weekend’s games and old stats – like from Tuesday.

I couldn’t blog.

I wonder – does this have anything to do with me dissin’ the Father of the Internet, his Gore-ness, early this morning?

I guess it’s not nice to fool with Father Nature.

if a picture paints a thousand words…

sectarian violence in southern ireland

 From my brother, heard as he visited the motherland years ago:

A young lad was being attacked one day by a dog in the streets of Killarney. A businessman, seeing the attack, rescued the boy by shooting the dog.

A newsman came over to interview the hero and said, “Aye, I kin see the headline now, ‘County Kerry Man Saves Boy from Rabid Dog’.”

“Well and I thank you,” said the businessman, “but I’d be from County Cork. I’m just here in County Kerry doing some business.”

The next morning the man picked up the paper and read the headline “Cork Resident Kills Local Family Pet.”

harry hoodontknow

“Rather than making all the threats that he has, let’s work with him and see if he can give us some ideas how we can satisfy the wishes of a majority of the Senate, the majority of the House and move forward,” Reid said.

Harry doesn’t understand. He needs to go back and watch the Schoolhouse Rock titled, “I’m Just a Bill.”

You see, Harry, in our system of government, the President has this thing called a “veto,” which is provided so that the Legislative Branch doesn’t run the country without some check on it’s power. I know, you believe the previous bunch in the Legislative Branch were too much of a rubber stamp; that’s debatable, but it is a red herring.

And Harry, no matter how you play it, most of us aren’t really so stupid as to accept what you’ll be claiming after the veto – that the President withheld funding for the troops. I know your team will do their best to keep the two versions of the bill at odds with each other (and tied up in conference) until the last minute, so the President feels pressured to sign it…but that won’t be his fault, Harry. That will be yours.

Oh, last thing, Harry. You said something about ‘working with him’ – do you think anyone with an IQ higher than that of a rock thinks you have any intent of working with the President on anything? You have spent the last four years doing nothing but try to assassinate his character; why would he ever want to work with you?

bullies

Through sixth and seventh grade I was terrorized regularly by Greg G., a guy whose parents had held him back a year so he would be big enough to play football competitively. He was a discipline problem and never got to play much, so he took out his frustrations on the geeks, i.e. me.

He started it in the spring of ’76, and for that year I took a punch in the chest or stomach on every encounter.

He never took anything tangible; he just wanted to make me cry. He got what he wanted, most of the time.

Somewhere in the fall of ’76 I tried something new. When he yelled my name, I just kept walking. That didn’t go over well at first. He ran up from behind me and knocked me over, face first. I got a nose bleed.

But I did the same thing the next day, and when I heard him running up behind me, I stopped at the last minute, and leaned backwards.

That may have been the start of my back problems, now that I think of it, but that day he ran into a “blocking dummy” that wouldn’t move. He fell over and cursed at me. He got back up, ready to try to punch me; I just kept my back to him, stepping away when he was not ready, then bracing myself when he got close.

That one afternoon seemed to last for days, but I suspect the encounter lasted only ten to fifteen minutes. He tried and tried to get me to fight; I just showed him my back.

His final gesture was a flying kick to the middle of my back, which did manage to knock me over; but I just picked up my books and papers and walked on.

It wasn’t fun to pick on me after that, I guess. He left me alone.

I wish I knew where he is today. The last update I have is from four years later, when I was a senior in high school: I was president of the student body; he was sent to reform school.

those who live by the sword…

Following a wave of car bombs in Iraq, Iraqi policemen joined militiamen in a shooting rampage yesterday. Depending who you believe somewhere around 50 were shot, most execution-style. The cycle of violence that was their birthright continues.

So what should be done?

I say give ‘em a Smackdown.

No, don’t nuke ‘em into the Stone Age – that would be an urban renewal project for some of the country.

What I’m suggesting is that the people who coordinate wrestling events in the US organize an Iraqi Smackdown.

Here’s the promo…

Got a beef with that Sunni scum? Ready to take revenge on some Shiite slime? Ready to go to Paradise, or die trying?
The WJE (World Jihadi Enterprises) presents “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.” Bring an Uzi, bring a car bomb, bring your RPGs, but you don’t want to bring a knife to this gun fight.

After “Sunday, Bloody Sunday,” the last man standing gets 30 virgins in this life.

No rules, no weapons barred. Let’s get it on, and let’s get it done.

Not sure who you’d get to tape the thing for Pay-Per-View, but I’ll bet you can think of one or two journalists you’d like to see really close to the action.

las vegas, iran

The Revolutionary Council is rolling the dice in Tehran again. They did this by trying to mine the Straits of Hormuz back in the 80’s, which lost them a couple of ships and oil rigs. The difference was that they were testing the mettle of that buckaroo, Ronald Reagan, who was itchin’ to pull the trigger. Today, they are shooting rubber bands at Tony Blair, knowing Britain is even less enthused about the war in Iraq than the U.S. is.

My guess is this is act one of a high-school musical gone bad, in which the next act would include an attempt to take an American crew hostage. Iran is slowly ratcheting up its intervention in Iraq, and (were I a betting man) I would put big money on increased pressure to push the U.S. and Britain out of the region.

Whether you liked “The Gipper” or not, his immediate, strong response set the Iranians back on their heels for a while. The old men in Tehran have let their heads get a little large for their baseball caps; take the gloves off, and watch ‘em retreat.

For all the bluster about virgins in paradise, these old men are not eager to meet their reward. They will blink.

careful with that axe, eugene

(Title shamelessly stolen from Pink Floyd)

Investors in citigroup are upset. The banking conglomerate only saw an increase of 6% in profits last year, while costs rose by more than double that amount. The commercial banking side of the company saw costs increase by 22%, so citigroup is, naturally, going to cut ten to twelve thousand jobs from the consumer operations side of the business.

As it is, I can’t get a human being there to talk to me about my home loan; now I’ll need to open a commercial account with them to get the time of day.

People are concerned about the future of our economy. I’m generally optimistic, but the investment community seems intent on killing anything that doesn’t make short-term profits. Focus on the short-term will lead to disaster. A long-term view leads to steady growth. True, I can’t buy that condo as quickly; but my kids get to live a lot better.

That used to matter to people.