How to create jobs: just create them.

See this post:


Monday, March 7, 2011
Most American workers are not needed and should stay home.


Economists and politicians have not realized this.  That's why they continue to fail.  They're fighting the last war.


After Labor Day President Obama will present his jobs creation program.  It will be the usual mess of incentives, re-education, blah, blah, blah.


If an American citizen needs a job that person should simply show up Monday morning and be assigned to something that needs to be done such as cleaning up or infrastructure work.  Forget about unemployment payments.  Even re-educating the unemployed is mostly a waste of money.


We simply have too many people for the work that needs to be done.  Face it and stop wasting time and resources.  Technology has made it so.  For those with jobs that are needed, pay them between $250,000 and $500,000.  For those with federal government fill-in jobs, pay them $50,000; that's plenty to get by.

Three word answer to a question for presidential candidates.

I won't tell you the question but the answer is three words and only three words.  It will tell a lot about how a candidate's mind works.  The answer will also provide a glimpse into that person's view of history and government.


If the candidate cannot provide the three words or tries to supply many more words, be very concerned about that person's capacity to lead and to be honest with him/herself and with the American people.

Obama's problem: too much like Lincoln.

Similarities:
- tall
- athletic
- big ears
- born elsewhere but elected from Illinois
- attorneys
- no previous executive experience
- limited electoral experience
- very good writers


Unlike most on this planet I have a dim view of Lincoln.  I've long thought that had he truly been great there would have been no civil war. At worst the Confederate states would have seceded and Lincoln would have have just let them go.  Think how much better the rest of us would be today without those states.


The Confederacy would have failed.  It's economy was not only based on slavery but was agrarian and without diversity.  It would have opposed a strong central bank as it opposed a strong central government, one of the reasons it lost the war.  Texas contributed very few soldiers, Virginia bore the brunt of the war and South Carolina instigated and started the war dragging the others along and then did not contribute its fair share.


The only country in the Americas which had slavery after the United States was Brazil, which abolished it in 1885.  No developed nation could have entered the 20th century as a slave nation.


The American Civil War was unnecessary.  Lincoln did not prevent it and mis-managed it throughout.  What salvaged Lincoln's legacy was his assassination, which because of the intense religious feeling at the time turned him into a martyr: father Abraham, the biblical figure with the biblical name, writing with biblical flair.  It also spared Lincoln from the drudgery of managing the reconstruction era in the confederate states, which he no doubt would have mis-managed as he had the war.  Charity for all is a nice sentiment but it's not policy.


I don't know how much President Obama fancies himself an ironic Lincoln, a black successor to the emancipator of black Americans, but he seems to share many of Lincoln's weaknesses.


Obama is mis-managing wars that do not need to be fought.  Obama relies on Congress to develop policy.  Obama hesitates, equivocates, disappoints.  Most of us who voted for him don't want to admit that he has been a disaster ... like Lincoln.

New York State Assembly: pass the damn National Popular Vote legislation!

National Popular Vote: compromise reform of the Electoral College.  Friday, October 31, 2008

I posted that almost two years ago.  August 8, 2011 I received an e-mail message from the bumblers who are promoting this indicating that with California the "Plan Has Now Been Enacted by 9 States Possessing 49% of Electoral Votes Need to Activate Bill".

That sounds pretty good, maybe even good enough to take effect in time for the 2012 presidential election.  The media seems to have no clue that this movement even exists much less that it may be activated, changing all their boring conventional wisdom.

However, the proponents confuse the issue by being incredibly unclear:

"The National Popular Vote bill has now passed 31 legislative chambers in 21 jurisdictions, including ... New York.:

Say what?  Where the heck does it stand in New York state?  I had thought that it passed the legislature but maybe it was only one house.  I decided to send a message to the most recent Gov. Cuomo, which I did by filling out one of those forms on the state web site.  Here is my message:

Push it through the legislature and sign it.  California Governor Jerry Brown has signed the National Popular Vote bill.  What are you waiting for?


What the heck?  Maybe the National Popular Vote web site has some clue hidden?

http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/pages/states.php?s=NY

Ah.

ALBANY, June 7, 2011  The Republican-controlled New York Senate passed the National Popular Vote bill by a 47-13 margin, with Republicans favoring the bill by 21-11 and Democrats favoring it by 26-2. Republicans endorsed by the Conservative Party favored the bill 17-7. The bill now goes to the New York State Assembly. The bill passed the New York Senate in 2010 when the chamber was controlled by Democrats and has now passed with the chamber controlled by Republicans.

So, I need to contact my member of the New York State Assembly, a person who has never responded to an e-mail message from me: Amy Paulin.  Another online form to fill out.  Here goes nothing.

Letter to my former high school: Xavier magazine summer 2011.

I very much enjoyed this edition.

The cover photo really captures the essence of Xavier as I remember it.

Page 2 mentions that military science is now taught by retired Army people.  I hadn't known that.

I'm guessing that fewer applicants was the reason that the military was made optional forty years ago but that was always a factor.  I agree with Justice Scalia that all Xavier students should be members of the regiment but for different reasons.  Now the regiment is an extra circular activity.  For us it was the norm.

I've been thinking about 50th anniversaries such as grammar school graduation, Yankee games and especially Xavier.  In a couple of weeks we'll be reporting for freshman orientation.  I turned 13 in April.  I didn't know anything but I learned fast.  Xavier made me tough.  Other than physical pain nothing intimidated me since then.

I respect Justice Scalia and take pride in his being an Italian New Yorker and especially that he is a fellow Xavier alumnus.  I often mention that as a distinguishing fact about Xavier.  His address was interesting despite his gratuitous remarks about the Viet Nam era and his repeated allusion to the high calling of military service, which he himself did not embrace any more than his hunting buddy former Vice President Dick Cheney who sought and received multiple exemptions.  Chicken hawks is a term sometimes applied to such men.

Scalia also mentioned Cardinal Spellman whom I do not recall favorably:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Spellman#LBJ_and_Vietnam

Spellman was an outspoken supporter of the Vietnam War, to the extent that the conflict became known as "Spelly's War" and the Cardinal as the "Bob Hope of the clergy"...  When Paul VI visited the United States in October 1965, he indirectly rebuked Spellman's hawkish stance by pleading for peace before the United Nations. A group of college students protested outside his residence in December 1965 for suppressing antiwar priests, and he later spent that year's Christmas with troops in South Vietnam.[1] While in Vietnam, Spellman quoted Stephen Decatur in declaring, "My country, may it always be right, but right or wrong, my country".[1] He also described Vietnam as a "war
for civilization" and "Christ's war against the Vietcong and the people of North Vietnam".[1] One priest accused Spellman of "[blessing] the guns which the pope is begging us to put down".[12] In
January 1967, antiwar protesters disrupted a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral.[21] His support for Vietnam, along with his opposition to Church reform, greatly undermined Spellman's clout within the Church and country.

Xavier needs to be more cognizant of differing views even from such a distinguished alumnus as Antonin Scalia.  Scalia's snide remarks about The New York Times also did not serve him or his audience well.  I hope dissent is taught at Xavier as well as obedience, conscientious objection as well as military service.  For some historical perspective consider a Jesuit of that Viet Nam era which Justice Scalia remembers so differently than I: Daniel Berrigan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Berrigan

Kenneth Matinale, class of 1965

Break up the United States of America.

It wasn't worth commenting on the debt ceiling hysteria.  Two things were clear:

1, President Obama should have stuck to his original position: bring me a clean bill, one that only increased the federal debt ceiling.  He should have emphasized his point by stating that he would veto anything else.  Unfortunately he engaged in negotiations at which he may be the worst president of all time.  His skills and inclinations are much better suited to being president of a college where he could try to reason with other really smart people.

2. Both major parties should have completely ignored the so called tea party members of the House of Representatives.  On the final vote they voted no, which means that no concessions needed to be made to them.

Break up the United States of America.

It's obvious that we have two incompatible views of governance: central v. decentralized.  This is the cleaned up version of what we are.  Then each of the new components can create a government to their liking.

Geographically, the good old USA does not lend itself to this divide, so three, maybe, four new nations could spring from the grand old 50 states.

1. Dumb States of America (DSA)  See post Wednesday, February 24, 2010.

2. Northeast States of America (NSA): New York, New England, maybe New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland.

3. Pacific States of America (PSA): California, Oregon, Washington.

4. Mid-western states would need to choose between #1 and #2 or form their own land locked country (MSA): Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, ... did I omit any?

NSA and PSA belong together philosophically but the geographic divide is too great.  We don't need east and west Pakistan circa 1947.

It makes a lot more sense than the mess we currently have.  On to the constitutional conventions!