The Center Awakes…

Well…going to be working on this one all day so it may be in pieces as the ideas come to me…had it almost figured out on the bike ride but the other post and lunch kind of took the wind out of my sails. What I want to talk about is the early stirrings of the center of the political spectrum, with more and more articles (even from some of the conservative commentators) decrying the win at all costs mentality of the right and the lack of ideas for true governance that is coming from the shouters. As you know, I’ve called for the return to reasonableness in our political discourse…and yet, I’ve also been a little too strident in my attacks on the tea party and the rest of the right. In the last few days, I’ve had an epiphany of sorts and I now kind of understand where they are coming from…and I can’t blame them for believing the well-oiled propaganda machine that is Fox News. I know that some of them can see what America used to be and I get the power of that nostalgia; I find myself wallowing in the thoughts of my old life at times and wishing those days could come back. But, those days are gone, and to rail about their passing and trying to stop the tide of change is just a waste of energy and time that the US can’t afford.

I see the awakening of the political center in the rallies that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are holding in DC at the end of October, I see it in the One Nation March in DC this Saturday, I see it in the realization that we can’t continue to govern this country for the 10 percent on the fringes of the right and left or the top two percent of of wage earners.

But there is another part of this that we also need to have happen…we need to change the mantra of this country from “I’ve got mine” to “how can I help?” And this is not just aimed at the real flesh and blood citizens of this country but at business who have been granted citizenship by the Supreme court. As I’ve said before, with the granting of citizenship, comes the responsibility of a citizen…to look to the common good, to look past what is good for the next quarter, or the CEO, or the shareholder, to what is good for the society you live and make profit in….but that goes for everyone, every citizen has a responsibility to tamp down the anger, to stop excluding people because they are different from you, and to remember we are all in this together…none of us can be successful unless we all are….

I challenge everyone here in the US to do what I’ve done…I qualify for and have paid for food stamps and other aid through my taxes that I gladly pay, but because I can survive without them, I refuse to take them so the money will be there for the truly needy, I challenge the rich to stand up and stop complaining about the extra 3 percent in taxes that they may have to pay…and to recognize they have it pretty damn good as I do, I challenge American business to stop just taking all they can get, to ask themselves the question “how much profit is enough?” and to start acting like responsible citizens. And, I challenge both political parties to stop the slash and burn, win-at-all-costs, politics is war mentality that is ruining our wonderful country….

Art Prize….

Well…we are into the second year of the local art competition here in Grand Rapids, and while I like the idea of doing more for downtown than just opening a new bar, a commentary I read in the GR Press this morning kind of got me thinking about what art is to me and if that judgment is valid. In the article, Ed Riojas, a local artist, states that he is uncomfortable with the path that the competition is taking; with the emphasis becoming more on process than creativity. But I guess that gets to the question that has been asked since the first art appeared in the caves of France 30,000 years ago: What is art? I really can’t answer that question…I know what I like and that includes the old masters I saw when I was in Las Vegas, the stunningly beautiful work of Picasso, Renoir, and Rembrandt took my breath away the first time I saw their paintings in person. I think we can agree that the works of Alexander Calder and his “La Grand Vitesse” that we have been so fortunate to have here in Grand Rapids these many years fit the conventional view of art, but does a giant penny made up of pennies?

I think this questioning of process over creativity reflects arguments that we’ve had over the years around the world….and there may be a component of these arguments that is just the old guard trying to protect it’s territory, as we saw in the 50′s with music when rock and roll was shattering the accepted style and form that fit into middle America at the time. But, I think we also have to understand that popular does not always mean quality…Jacqeuline Susanne sold millions of books but no one confused their popularity with being great literature. I think this process emphasis just relates to the general dumbing down of American society….I think we can appreciate the work that goes into some of these pieces, but let’s not confuse work with creativity and bringing something new to the conversation.

September 30th

Well..that was not a bad night of sleep…but up early again with nothing to do until I go out to the coffee shop in a couple of hours…I am doing this, so technically, I do have something to do so I guess I’m wrong. Had a nice lunch with T yesterday but that is about all for the rest of the week…maybe out to have a couple of beers with G tonight or with K not sure who yet. Geez…I’m boring…so I’ll not subject you to any more of this right now…

I’ll have some topics for later….

Playlists…

Well…as you know, I joined the digital music age with the purchase of an 8 gig mp-3 player a couple of years ago…and I still marvel at the fact that I have my entire music collection stored on the thing and still have about 3 gigs of space left…all that for 79 bucks…oh, nope, not an Apple..it’s a Sony. But that’s not the topic that I wanted to deal with here, this hit me while I was out on the bike..the place that these things usually float into my consciousness…and that is the playlists I have on the player and how it appears that the lists reflect the mood I was in when I made them. That’s not the whole story, though, the other part is the name of these lists; I’ll bet mine are weirder than yours….well…some of them are…the others are kind of self-explanatory..

1. 4Way Street album two…had to make this one since WMP decided to break up the album into chunks…
2. 56 Miles….made this one for the 56 mile ride I did on my 56th birthday last year…
3. Led Zeppelin….pretty much what it says…
4. Lee Michaels….and obscure performer from the 60′s that was part of my growing up…
5. Mixed songs…the first one I made that was not one performer or group..
6. More other songs….just another mix but of second tier songs that didn’t make the first list…
7. More songs….this one was really done before the last one….but alphabetically, the machine put it here…
8. Mountain….another one group list by what I consider one of the best bands of the 70′s…
9. Newest one….I did this one after being in Chicago and getting a bunch of music from my daughter…
10. Obscure….started this one with some David Bowie and then went deep into some less known artists..
11. Others…was just bored and getting bored with the other lists so I made this new one…
12. Steely Dan….if you’ve been here before….you know how I feel about the Dan….

Without breaking them down to further the point…I’ll just give one example of the mood thing I talked about earlier…there are some of these lists that most of the songs are played in a minor key, what I call “lonely music” like “Doctor Wu” and “Black” by Pearl Jam, and I know that I favor this type of music when I’m at one of the low points that hit occasionally….

See…I told you I was trying to lower the outrage quotient some….but don’t let this fool you…it’s still there and bubbling and I know it will come out later today or tomorrow…

September 29th

Well…did the Ada thing with Tom yesterday…it was okay to change up the schedule and it works out well for me since I have lunch with T today and it will be nice to not be rushed….and I think it is just too hard to get started before Tom…puts me at a disadvantage shooting pool…well…still win a lot but I just can’t go from 1 in the aft until after 6…just too much like work. Oh, I did win at pool but my Keno ticket was screwed up and I won’t know if I won until next week. Not a lot to do today, as always, but I think I have a couple of topics that I want to deal with but the ideas are still forming right now…and who knows, they may be pushed aside by something new in the newspapers…

So, that’s about it for now…more later….

Let’s lighten the mood a little…

Well….I do recognize I’ve begun to slide back to a certain stridency that I have been trying to overcome for some time now…but I think there is a place for outrage and I’m going to keep some of it since people are just not paying attention to what is going on. But, right now…let’s take it down a notch, to borrow from Jon Stewart. I was going to issue a caterpillar alert from observations on the ride today but the density was just not there yet…only 18 per hundred feet when the acceptable national standard for an alert is 20. But, stay ready for tomorrow since the trend over the past week has been upward….should I include the graphs here? Probably not….

Oh, did the math wrong and, in the interest of accuracy, need to report that I haven’t equaled last years’ record of 1700 miles on the bike….about a hundred miles short as of today…but I do get to celebrate again later this week when I really get there so that is something to look forward to…and I know you are waiting and holding your breath for the milestone to be reached…don’t worry, I’ll let you know…you can go back to work now…more later…

Okay, a little outrage…

Well…there is this cloud of things that are in my head that I’m going to try to make sense of in a kind of stream-of-consciousness post that I really don’t know will work. It strikes me as stunning the complete abdication of a large part of our society to the cause of the know nothings who are still advocating “going by the gut” and ignoring the math of income inequality; preferring to continue the attack on the census that they believe is a political tool and as such, is not to be believed. This was not the case when they were in power in congress for the last census..at that time it was your civic duty to fill it out accurately and the data derived from it were important tools for governance, but the ignorance of the current leaders on the right and their concerted effort to make ignorance a political litmus test has resulted in a new generation that facts don’t mean anything to. This is a breathtaking cynicism whose only purpose is to regain political power on the backs of their followers who wear their ignorance and bigotry as a proud badge of “real Americans”.

What this allows the right to do is to discount any poll, study, or even peer-reviewed research that doesn’t agree with their ideology and is manifest in the “belief” that any and all scientific theory has an opposite belief system that has just as much validity. I blame a lot of this nonsense with the strange propensity of modern media give time and space to the opposition of settled science…it would be the same if the righties started to question gravity as a construct of the left and have the media treat these nuts the same as true scientists. When I was growing up, stupid ideas were painted as stupid ideas and were never given the validity they get today in the guise of “fairness”; back then, the cause of the truth was paramount and people died for it…today the truth has lost it’s value and we are the worse for it….geez…

No outrage today…

Well…I have really been trying to work up some outrage today but I’ve covered a lot of what is bugging me and I don’t want to be seen as a one dimensional writer..that’s not quite true….there are days when I AM one dimensional and if you’ve read any of these you’ve seen that. All I can do is try to make these interesting so you’ll come back….but I don’t write for that reason either…I really don’t know why I write other than I feel better when I do. I did submit a new one to the Washington Post today for the competition they are having to find the next great American pundit…don’t have any illusions that I’ll be selected but it did brighten my day some when I hit the submit button….

One thing that has been bouncing around in my head lately (or should I say again) is the fact that the huge world that I used to inhabit is steadily shrinking as time goes on. I used to have something to do every day; someone to hang out with every day…but lately that has been reduced to Mondays and Wednesdays and even those days are becoming intermittent. I know some of you that read this stuff are around my age…what do you do to keep the shrinkage at bay? There is a seductive component to spending more and more time alone..it allows the ultimate in freedom if you have no plans for a day, but it also makes it easier to allow yourself to fall deeper into the trap of being alone. I guess this whole bout of introspection was triggered by getting my hair cut this morning, looking into the mirror and seeing an old guy sitting there that I almost don’t recognize anymore…where did I go?

September 28th

Well…it’s strange how 5 o’clock has a different feel than 6 or 8…the exterior noise from M-6 hasn’t ramped up to where it becomes overwhelming and the construction equipment hasn’t started beeping and banging yet. Stayed in last night since G had a long day at work and hasn’t been feeling well so she needed a night off…which was really okay since I saved some cash and rested the liver. Don’t know if I’m coming down with something but I have been really worn out over the past few days…It could be that I’m back in the cycle of not eating enough but I think part of it is still not getting enough good sleep…I can remember what sleep is like but can’t remember the last time I didn’t toss and turn all night….

Not much to do today…as always…I need to try to spread the few things that I have to do out longer than 6 am…more later…

Let’s blow up some myths…

Well…an interesting article in the times this morning by Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winning economist, addressing the myth of structural unemployment in regards to the current recession. Before you righties start bitching that Krugman is liberal leaning so his ideas are not credible…let’s see your Nobel prize winner who disagrees with J. M. Keynes (hey, this could be the Keynes one that I promised you) and who has a credible history of being right…..ok, still waiting…..still waiting…yep, thought so…you don’t have one.

In an economy with structural employment driven by a lack of skills, you would have at least a few industries who would be running ads looking for workers; looking to expand but not being able to because of the shortage of skilled workers. But, that is not the case in this economy, there is no demand for labor since the demand for goods and services is not rising. No matter what their skill level. Can the right truly believe that an industrial worker trained in Kaizen, The Toyota Production System, or JIT, no longer has a use and that is why they are out of work. If that is the case, then the billions and billions of dollars spent on training and equipment for these programs by management was one of the greatest scams ever perpetrated on American industry. When did managing an American company change completely so that someone with a Masters degree in Management and 30 years in industry no longer is qualified to manage? The skill deficit of the American worker is a myth that needs to be exploded and not used by the right as an excuse to do nothing to get people back to work…but, that’s what they want…they don’t care about workers; only their rich buddies that can reward them with enough money to get re-elected so they can maintain their income redistribution scheme that will take 3.7 trillion dollars over 10 years from you and me and give it to the rich. That’s the first one…going to look at some news and come back for the others…

Okay…had lunch and wanted to get back to one other thing…the complete disdain that the right has for conventional economic thought that traces itself back to Reagan and his embrace of Arthur Laffer and his “Laffer curve theory” that cutting taxes will increase government revenue by stimulating growth in the economy. This kind of baloney has been discredited long ago by the CBO and other economic organizations and analysts that have shown that all the cuts did was to explode the deficit. Something that is conveniently forgotten, or deliberately forgotten so the right can pursue the radical agenda of giving away America to the rich. But the point I wanted to make was that while the repubs are railing against government intervention in the economy and discounting Keynesian theory, they propose an even larger government intervention by the continuation of the Bush tax cuts that would dwarf the 800 billion stimulus program of the Obama administration. Again, intellectual dishonesty disguised as cutting edge political thought…geez…