Day: June 18, 2008

Professor’s Classroom

I have been posting this weekly event on my other blog and have decided to move it here.  I have always thought that there was not enough education on history and politics, so I started doing this several years ago and hope that all my readers will play along.

Damn Monday already? Where did the joy and pleasure of the weekend go? Let us not speak of that again, but instead, move on to the quiz of the week.

In 1912, the Congress was afraid that the workers in the Federal government would try to join a union for better hours, pay, benefits and such and they were afraid that if the employed the strike then the government would have to shut down. The Congress enacted this legislation to prevent this from happening.

This should keep the class busy for awhile and I can get some sleep. You may begin!

Someone Is Profiting From The Slow Economy

While you are struggling with high gas, high food, foreclosures and a completely dysfunctional economy, there are some that are doing well regardless of the dark days to come.

Average CEO compensation grew by 3.5 percent last year despite slowing economic growth, falling profits and mass layoffs, according to an Associated Press review published Monday. The review found that the S&P 500 CEO received an average yearly compensation of $8.4 million, up $280,000 (an average raise that is the equivalent of six times the US median household income) during 2006.

The data render ridiculous those apologies for social inequality resting on the idea that CEO pay is linked to ‘performance’ in some meaningful way. The Associated Press review found that “CEO pay rose or fell regardless of the direction of a company’s stock price or profits.” The report also notes that half of the 10 best paid CEOs—who collectively hauled in half a billion dollars last year—presided over companies whose profits shrank “dramatically.”

John Thain, the CEO of Merrill Lynch, ranks first on the list. He received $83 million in compensation for the year, despite presiding over a company that posted a $9.8 billion loss in the fourth quarter. He replaced former CEO Stanley O’Neal on December 1, 2007. O’Neal left the bank with a compensation package worth over $161 million, despite his direct oversight of the bank’s gambling with mortgage-backed securities that ultimately exploded in 2006-2007.

Likewise, John Mack of Morgan Stanley, also in the top 10, received a compensation package worth $41.7 million, even though his firm announced the writing down of $9.8 billion worth of loans and a loss of $3.61 billion in the fourth quarter.

And what have been the social consequences of all this? Who has paid the cost of this enrichment of a tiny layer at the top of the social ladder? According to the latest estimates, one in twenty Americans will soon have negative equity in their homes, and millions already face foreclosure. Energy prices have shot up by 17 percent in the past year alone. Real wages have fallen by about 1 percent during the same period, with far steeper declines threatened.

Now do you feel better?

How To Fight The Afghan Narco-State

First they were gonna use some chemical that would probably have an adverse effect on the population.  Then there was an idea of torching the fields.  And now they want to pay the farmers not to grow a crop, kinda like the deal agri-business gets in the US.

Here is the idea:  a farmer would get 2 bags of rice, 2 bicycles and 2 years of cash for the crop he would not grow.  Then he would be told to find another way to earn a living.  Is this the best plan that all well paid experts can come up with?

A similar program was tried in Colombia and it failed miserably, so why would it work in Afghanistan?  Ask your self, why would a farmer grow turnips and make $200 a season or grow poppies and make $2500 for the same season?

The truth is that a farmer will grow what will make him the most money–after all there is a living to be had and the extra cash just makes that living a little more bearable.  Surely, somewhere in the administration, maybe in a dark corner of the State Dept basement, is a person that has a good idea.  But the ones they have now are proven failures.  Why keep trying the same failures time and time again?

Coffee! Caffeine!

I knew there had to be something good in all that coffee that I drink by the gallon.

Drinking buckets of coffee a day — up to six cups — may reduce your risk of death from heart disease, if ever so slightly, according to a new report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Or not.

Analyzing data culled from 84,214 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study from 1980 to 2004 and 41,736 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study from 1986 to 2004, researchers found that:

  • Women who consumed two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day had a 25% lower risk of death from heart disease.
  • Women who consumed two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day had an 18% lower risk of death caused by something other than heart disease or cancer.
  • Men who consumed two to three cups of caffeinated coffee a day had no change in risk.

Moral of the story is that coffee is a great thing, something we insomniacs have known for years.

OMG! Is Peace Breaking Out In The Middle East?

Peace between Israel and Syria will usher in a new era of prosperity and allow people to travel freely throughout the Middle East, Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad told the Chicago Tribune Tuesday.

“When people can move freely between Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt, a great change will take place,” Mekdad told the U.S. daily in an interview. “Our people will enjoy life without bad dreams of the martyrdom of their children, we will improve living conditions and we will open up to the international community. The impact of peace will be bliss for the entire region.” Riad Abrash, an aide to the government in Damascus, was quoted as saying that Syria would like the U.S. to participate in further talks with Israel. “We would like America to be the caretaker of the whole thing. We don’t expect them to do it under this administration but we have high hopes for the next administration,” Abrash said.

Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said yesterday that indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria held in Turkey over the past few days were a success, and two more sessions have been planned for July.

Appears that war has finally made all players see the need for a peaceful settlement of the hostilities.

CEASEFIRE!

An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip that could ease a crippling Israeli blockade of the coastal territory will begin Thursday, an Israeli official has confirmed.

The announcement of the ceasefire came on a day when Israel killed six militants in air strikes in Gaza. The ceasefire aims to end rocket and mortar bomb attacks on Israel from the coastal enclave and Israeli raids and air strikes in the territory.

Confirming details provided to Reuters by a Palestinian official in Gaza on Tuesday, Zaki said the truce would go into effect at 6 a.m. (11 p.m. Wednesday ET) on Thursday.

Hamas leader in Gaza Mahmoud al-Zahar told a news conference in Gaza City that the truce was intended to last six months. Israel has said it would continue preparing for possible large-scale military action should a truce fall apart.

Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said his group believed the ceasefire would hold and help those living in the coastal enclave: “We believe that what was agreed upon will last and the Palestinian people will see the fruits of their endurance.

U.S. officials, who reject contact with Hamas because they view it as a terrorist organization, dismissed suggestions they were being eclipsed as peace brokers

The White House had no comment on reports of the truce.

About Had Enough Of McCain

I have been reading on the stuff that legends are made, one John mcCain. He has been called by some as a “national hero” or a “patriot” and then others have not been so kind. I understand the idea behind the legend thingy—it is to get him elected. But I want to know what makes him a “national hero? Because he was a prisoner of war? Then what about those that were held with him in the Hanoi Hilton? Are they national heroes also? If so, without Google, name two of those who were released at the same time as McCain.

Now let us move on to the “patriot” title. What makes him a “patriot” where others are not? Could it be that he was in the military? If he wore a uniform, then he was a soldier, not necessarily a patriot. Is it because he serves in the Senate? That only makes him a politician, not patriot. With all the drama that has come out of Washington in the past and probably the future, I would say that they, Senators, are self-serving individuals; none I would consider patriots.

The hero thingy! Whenever we start labeling everyone as a hero, then you diminish the “real” hroes, who do heroic things. No one calls a trash man a hero for doing his job. So to label anyone performing a service for what they are paid for is nothing more than a PR campaign. Do not get me wrong, there are many people who do heroic deeds, but few are ever recognized. The soldier that dives onto a grenade to save his fellow soldiers, is definitely a hero. But because a person wears a certain uniform does not make them a hero.

McCain is a politician trying to win an election—nothing more than that. To imply anything else is just a lame attempt to create a cult of personality around him. But unfortunately, many Americans are prone to the worshiping at the alters of false “patriots and heroes”.

NOTE: Before I get a wealth of hate mail, let me say that I am not belittling McCain; I am however, belittling the use of labels to sell a person to the public. Peace! Out!