Gates Gate - a year hence

Gates gate - the fracas about arresting Henry Louis Gates in Cambridge, MA by a white police officer. They took almost a year to complete their investigation - like there was much to investigate. And the report is an example of the hollow-ness of the Cambridge elite.

We have become a nation of wusses. According to the investigating committee - "there were missed opportunities on both sides". Apparently, the police have the burden of explaining what they are doing. Well, a police officer responding to a 911 call about a burglary should "arrest" the burglar - he can check the credentials after that and read the miranda rights.

Media portrays this as a teachable moment about 'race relations'. Really. In 2009, in a nation (predominantly white) that elected its first black President, in a state with its first black Governor, in a(n elite) city with a black mayor, a routine arrest some how has racial overtones. Come on, isn't there any limit to this nonsense.

Law abiding - only some of the time

Most Americans consider themselves Law abiding citizens. But that is really not the case. There is one law they routinely break - the Speed Limit.

100% of everyone I know, speeds. It does not seem to enter into anyone's conscience that the speed limit is part of the local law and statutes. Speeding clearly violates the local law.

And there is a real consequence of this brazen violation of the law - too many accidents and at times, innocent lives lost.

I have written about this before. Most people, decent people, routinely make fun of speed limits and driving within those limits. I do not quite understand how trivial it is for some of them.

You can not be a law abiding citizen if you choose which laws you want to abide by.

We live in a democracy. And the laws are made on our behalf by the representatives we elect. If we do not like the law, use the political process to change the law. But not break the law.

Drunk Driving

Found out that a co-worker was killed in a head-on collision by a drunk driver over this weekend.

I drink. I drive. But never together in that order - because I know why I drink and that would not go well with the driving part. And for that reason, I limit my drinking to one of 2 places: at home (I do not have to drive at all) or at a restaurant with my family, when I have someone who could drive me home, safely.

May be I am a bit anti-social. I stay out of all after-work drink parties co-workers arrange, primarily because I would have to drive after that and would not want to drink - that would defeat the purpose of the whole party to begin with.

Why this much is not clear to vast majority of the folks out there is a mystery to me. A lot of folks that I know do this as well as speeding - I guess it is the culture.

Ironic that in a liberal state such as Massachusetts, there are no harsh penalties for drunk driving - if it all enforced by the cops. This is not the first such tragedy in the state. Nor is it likely to be the last.

By the way, that drunk driver (in the case of my co-worker) was also high on drugs - survived. And he will live on and drink and drive to kill a few more innocent folks. What a travesty?

Greed

You have been hearing a lot about Greed lately - as to how Wall Street's greed got us into this financial mess we find the world in. Let's examine.

According to Merriam-Webster:

Greed (Noun): A selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed

And yet in the history of human existence, it is greed that has propelled mankind to its current form. (And you can make the case with animals too).

In its simplest definition, it is "a desire for more of something". "selfish" depends on the point of view. It could be just that individual, a group, a class, a race or a nation. "excessive" and "needed" also depends on the point of view - the individual or the one looking at the individual; they are both very subjective.

Our sensibilities prevent us from admitting that "greed" is what motivates most of us. That does not mean that we all value money alone. We are all greedy for different things - fame or fortune. Celebrities try for fame (with it comes fortune too), but most of us would take fortune over fame.

Manny Ramirez's $160 million dollar deal is propelled by his 'greed'. And in return he livened RedSox nation with his bat. There have been many others during the same period in RedSox roster that did not quite have the 'greed', but neither did they entertain the crowd . (This is not a point about highly paid athletes.) 

And on Good Morning America (when she was with NBC), Katie Curic lit into the supposed retirement package GE offered its retiring star CEO Jack Welch. And I am certain she has not appreciated the irony. At that moment, she was the highest paid executive at GE, not Jack; NBC being a fully-owned subsidiary of GE. If it were not for Jack's "greed", GE would not be what it is. And neither would Katie. And there in lies the rub.

We are constantly reminded by the anchors about Wall Street's greed. And it is their own greed that got them into that seat in the first place.

And then there are the academics - the arm chair pandits. "Greed" does not even describe them. And all of them got to where they are because of 'greed' - they just don't call it that. They call it professional rivalry or passion or ego. They claim they do it for 'fame' and not 'fortune'. Once again, I am not knocking them down. They deserve richly what they have worked hard for.

Back to Wall Street. So, there were some "greedy" CEOs. And they invested in these shady 'credit default swaps'. Did we as investors stop them? No. Why not? Because of our "greed". And to say that their 'greed' is bad, but our 'greed' is good is down right hypocritical.

We are often told, "they need to give the money back because the company is not doing good now". Fair enough. But what money should they give back? The compensation they received during their good years? How fair is that?

All of us, in our routine jobs make a lot of mistakes. And some of them are costly to our business. Would it be fair then for our employer to want to 'garnish' our wages for our mistakes? If we make too many costly mistakes, we could lose our jobs. And even CEOs do.

And then, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi, Barak Obama, John McCain,.... The list is endless. No, they are not in it for public service. They are in it for pure greed. Otherwise, most, with the exception of Obama (he hasn't been around long enough), should accept term limits and retire after 2 terms. Obama will be constitutionally forced to honor term limits (if and when he becomes the President).

So, I urge the rest of us "Average Joes", to not condemn "greed". But instead have the "greed" for any "thing" you desire. There is no satisfaction in not having the "thing" you desire - unless it can only be obtained through malice.

God Bless America.

$4

I don't think I need a more descriptive title - everyone knows exactly what I mean. But most don't understand its direct message(s).

1. Conserve: No, most people don't get this message. They are quick to lash out at some "greedy" corporation increasing the price at whim. And of course, somehow the Bush administration is to blame. And the media does its round of disinformation.
2. Weak Dollar: Oil is dollar denominated. So, a weak dollar demands more of them for the same gallon. I don't expect general population to understand the economics behind it, what's with the Fed!!!

Conserve: Let's see. This weekend, during the "heat wave" in the north east, I drove to a local Best Buy. In an otherwise empty parking lot, I could find parking upfront. I parked next to a fairly late model Jeep (large) - noticed that the engine was running but no driver. I noticed couple of passengers inside. They must be enjoying music and the air conditioning. I went in, browsed for half-an-hour or so. When I drove off, that Jeep was still running - parked. What a colossal waste? If it is just air conditioning, store was very comfortable. And it wasn't crowded either. Aren't there better ways of generating electricity for that air conditioning than running a Jeep 4x4 (6 or 8 cylinder engine) idling in a parking lot? And I am sure this indigent driver would be happy to mouth off into a microphone if a reporter were to approach him/her about the price of gas - blaming some "invisible" corporation. Why are we so stupid?

And my favorite pet peeve - speeding. Especially, speed up to catch up with the car in front of you. Most modern cars come equipped with Gas Milage display. And it is pretty obvious that you get the most milage when you are driving steady. And yet people are constantly revving up to catch the next car ahead and put the breaks on to slow down. Each time burning more gas than the engine needs to keep the same pace. Most internal combustion engines (what every car has) operate optimally around 60-70 mph. Even if you don't drive a hybrid (I don't), by driving steadily on a highway, you can still get a respectable milage. I get 30 mpg on most days - driving about 60 miles round trip. I am often amazed how few people use cruise control.

Weak Dollar: What's with the Fed? Weak dollar has a huge following domestically - for all the wrong reasons. Its politically very popular. With a weak dollar, our exports are cheaper and hence more in demand overseas. So congressmen pressure both the Fed and the administration - both of which accommodate those popular items. The flip side of this is that all our imports, including oil is more expensive. And as American's are by far the largest consumers in the world, we are net importers of foreign goods. All of which is more expensive due to a weak dollar. Administration thinks that its public statements about "strong dollar" policy is enough to fool currency markets, which are closely monitoring administration's deeds.

And the Fed's easy money spigot. Is there any adult supervision going on over there? And everyone is defending the indefensible - the link between easy money and the weak dollar. All you need is common sense. But these guys are economists for crying out loud.

$4 gas is better than $10 that the Europeans pay. And our commodity markets do work. And prices do come down eventually. Not quite so in many other parts of the world.

Guilt

Our society these days is full of guilt complexes. White guilt (or slavery guilt), western guilt, wealth guilt and the list goes on. But if you look under the covers, it is all guilt about things done by past generations. And none of the folks feel any guilt about things that they do every day.

Some level of guilt of ones own action is warranted and is healthy for the society. But guilt about the actions of the past generations is unnecessary and accomplishes nothing. In fact, it is counter productive.

Let's take White guilt. This is mostly an affliction of the liberal elite. And yet this guilt has not advanced any positive outcome in either race relations in America or the uplifting of the blacks.

On the contrary it has advanced a sense of entitlement. There are no slave holders nor slaves alive today. So, how is a government handout achieved through general taxation, fair to the current generation. Providing an equal opportunity is fair and available to one and all. This is after all the land of opportunity. Anyone who claims otherwise are ignoring the countless immigrants to this country that have succeeded.

And western guilt. This is a more global phenomenon afflicting the European elite. And it is the basic belief that their occupation of Asian and African countries resulted in their widespread poverty. Where is any evidence of that? British laid millions of miles of rail lines across much of Indian subcontinent - much of it for their own gain. And yet they did not rip it all off when they left (scorched earth policies of most vanquished armies). India wasn't even a single nation until the British rule. And then there are all these African nations. Their infighting is to blame for their current state. Assuming that the British plundered India and the African nations equally (and left around the same time), India is not remotely as bad as majority of sub-Saharan African nations today are. Once the Europeans left the scene, fate of Africa remained their own. And why does west agonize about that. And yet their actions now, with their farm subsidies really matter to poor African countries. That is what they can do to remedy. Not express guilt about a past generations actions.

And then there is guilt about being rich. If you earned every one of your dimes honestly, it does not matter if you have billions. There is nothing to be guilty about. Poverty exists no matter what you do. Because if you are not rich, then you are poor. And making it even worse for others. At least, with you being rich, we don't have to worry about you. Your personal philanthropy is great, but don't recommend socialist principles for the rest of us. You see this with Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. I don't have a problem with their success - just what they profess for us, high taxes.

And finally, the rest of us - the average Joes. Get rid of those guilt feelings about what your grand father may have done - either willfully or ignorantly. Think and feel guilty about things you do everyday, every little thing indeed. Did you speed today? Did you beat a red light? Ultimately, these things matter you know.

Culture of Speed

Not sure if this happens everywhere. But where I live (Bluest State), I see people either zipping past me on the highway or impatiently tailgating me on local roads. It is not like I am a slow driver. I always drive at the speed limit - no matter what the speed is or what my situation is. And I am not hogging the left lane either. So, here I am going at 65mph on the right lane and everyone else is zipping by me on the other lanes. And then there are all these impatient guys who want me to go fast - just so they can get off their exist at their pace. And it is not just the young. Everyone alike. And then there are those that don't even let you get into the right lane after safely passing someone who is slower (this does not happen often, but it still does).

And of course, there is the school zone. Teachers and parents with kids are flying by to the school. And here I am - not much to do with that school or its safety, but simply obeying the speed limit. Gosh, wonder what these teachers do teach!!

And the guys zipping past me when they see a cop is to SLAM their brakes and start going at 50mph. I am sure they have no idea what the speed limit is.

My question is this: Does any one realize that 'Speed Limit' is one of the most basic "laws" of a civil society? And it is not just when a cop is near by. Even if you have never been caught speeding, your civic duty is to not speed even when the cop is not around.

Car commercials don't help - it is all about zoom, zoom.