Well do we?
Saturday, May 10, 2008
We Need a McCain-Obama-Clinton Sit-Up Contest
The Web is abuzz with Barack Obama's embarrassing mistake(see John Amato's Crooks and Liars post here and Michael Goldfarb's Weekly Standard post here , hat tip Larwyn). Mr. Obama said that there are 57 states. Just prior to his confused statement he had attempted to smear Mr. McCain by suggesting that Mr. McCain had "lost his bearings", due to his age. But it is Mr. Obama who is less mentally and physically fit.
I am not a wellness fanatic and even wrote a small book years ago attacking the idea of wellness programs in labor-management administered Taft Hartley Plans. But I base my prediction on a 2007 wellness report in Seek Wellness.com, which asks whether as a smoker Mr. Obama is qualified to be president:
For the record, Senator Obama claims to be a "moderate" smoker who wants to quit. That's good. He has stated many times that he HAS quit, often, but tends to lapse, due to insufficient resolve. A member of AA might suggest, "That ain't quitting." The candidate made this statement in an interview published by the Chicago Tribune: "It's an ongoing struggle. I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously." Well, chew on this, Senator: We all have ongoing struggles. Lose the smoking habit!...Americans haven't elected an unabashed, out-of-the-closet cigarette-smoking president since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The matter ought to be resolved with a sit-up and push-up contest. Instead of televised debates that skirt important issues, the three candidates should be lined up to compete to see who is physically younger. Chronological age can be quite different from physical age. My prediction:
Sit ups: McCain: 550, Clinton 80, Obama 14
Push ups: McCain: 40, Obama 18, Clinton 2
Jogging: McCain: 1 hour, Clinton 1/2 hour, Obama, 8 minutes.
Let the contest begin!
I am not a wellness fanatic and even wrote a small book years ago attacking the idea of wellness programs in labor-management administered Taft Hartley Plans. But I base my prediction on a 2007 wellness report in Seek Wellness.com, which asks whether as a smoker Mr. Obama is qualified to be president:
For the record, Senator Obama claims to be a "moderate" smoker who wants to quit. That's good. He has stated many times that he HAS quit, often, but tends to lapse, due to insufficient resolve. A member of AA might suggest, "That ain't quitting." The candidate made this statement in an interview published by the Chicago Tribune: "It's an ongoing struggle. I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously." Well, chew on this, Senator: We all have ongoing struggles. Lose the smoking habit!...Americans haven't elected an unabashed, out-of-the-closet cigarette-smoking president since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The matter ought to be resolved with a sit-up and push-up contest. Instead of televised debates that skirt important issues, the three candidates should be lined up to compete to see who is physically younger. Chronological age can be quite different from physical age. My prediction:
Sit ups: McCain: 550, Clinton 80, Obama 14
Push ups: McCain: 40, Obama 18, Clinton 2
Jogging: McCain: 1 hour, Clinton 1/2 hour, Obama, 8 minutes.
Let the contest begin!
Friday, May 9, 2008
President Michael S. Garrison of UWV Should Resign
The Chronicle of Higher Education (paid access) reports that Governor Joe Manchin's (D-WV) daughter, Heather Bresch, has been busted for having received an MBA degree that she did not earn:
"At around the same time last October that officials of West Virginia University were awarding Heather M. Bresch, daughter of the state's governor, an executive M.B.A. that she had not earned, they were also considering her for appointment to at least two advisory committees whose primary role is to raise money for academic divisions of the university."
The Chronicle states that Ms. Bresch had a high profile on campus and had been treated, according to an independent report, in an "unusual and unique manner".
The story indicates that Ms. Bresch claimed an MBA in a promotion announcement and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette made inquiries. She had been put forward for the two campus committees soon after she received the improper MBA.
The Chronicle writes of President Garrison and Ms. Bresch:
"The two have long been acquainted. Mr. Garrison worked directly with Ms. Bresch a few years ago, when he was a lobbyist representing her company, Mylan Inc. Mr. Garrison also told the panel that Ms. Bresch had called his office several times on the first day that her degree credentials were called into question by the Post-Gazette."
The appearance of impropriety is sufficent to warrant a university president's resignation. As well, there should be inquiries as to whether West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin was aware of the situation. It would seem possible that he did. If so, there should be an investigation of his administration.
"At around the same time last October that officials of West Virginia University were awarding Heather M. Bresch, daughter of the state's governor, an executive M.B.A. that she had not earned, they were also considering her for appointment to at least two advisory committees whose primary role is to raise money for academic divisions of the university."
The Chronicle states that Ms. Bresch had a high profile on campus and had been treated, according to an independent report, in an "unusual and unique manner".
The story indicates that Ms. Bresch claimed an MBA in a promotion announcement and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette made inquiries. She had been put forward for the two campus committees soon after she received the improper MBA.
The Chronicle writes of President Garrison and Ms. Bresch:
"The two have long been acquainted. Mr. Garrison worked directly with Ms. Bresch a few years ago, when he was a lobbyist representing her company, Mylan Inc. Mr. Garrison also told the panel that Ms. Bresch had called his office several times on the first day that her degree credentials were called into question by the Post-Gazette."
The appearance of impropriety is sufficent to warrant a university president's resignation. As well, there should be inquiries as to whether West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin was aware of the situation. It would seem possible that he did. If so, there should be an investigation of his administration.
Spreading Shortages Due to Greenspan-Bernanke Federal Reserve Policy--Woodrow Wilson Turns in His Grave
My wife just returned from a Food Emporium supermarket on the upper west side of Manhattan. She tried to buy light bulbs but all the light bulbs had been sold except for two packs in which one light bulb was broken each. Likewise, her best friend just returned from her house in Hawaii and said that there is rice rationing there. As well, my wife has repeatedly been unable to purchase spa and beauty products at our health club in Ulster County, New York and has been told by the sales people that there are backlogs on orders across the board. Suppliers have not been shipping. This is the first time that we have seen a shortage of light bulbs in the supermarket.
These shortages are directly attributable to Fed policy, specifically of the Greenspan-Bernanke Fed. Across the board shortages and price inflation result from malinvestment attributable to excessively low interest rates that fund Wall Street and the commercial banking industry. Thus, the public has subsidized Wall Street to build houses that no one can pay for. The inflationary consequences of the Greenspan-Bernanke policy over the next 30 years will cause many headaches. Although a shortage of spa products or light bulbs are inconvenient, and I can hedge by buying commodities indexes and the like, the Greenspan-Bernanke Fed's three decade-long Christmas for Wall Street, hedge funds and real estate developers has resulted in the death of children in the third world and significantly lower incomes for the average American worker.
It distresses me that double talk--e.g., blaming the results of the Fed's decades-long inflationary stance on third world trade--that characterized discussions about the inflationary recession of the 1970s is again appearing, this time among "conservatives". Social-democratic conservatives seem eager to claim that the interventionist Fed policies of the last three Republican and Clinton administrations have not caused across-the-board inflation in commodity prices, flat wages of workers, wealth transfers to speculators, and child starvation in the third world. They are the friends of big government.
The only solution to flat earnings, reduced wages, inflation and shortages is to get government out of our money supply. That means establishing the kind of gold standard in which Woodrow Wilson believed when he established the Federal Reserve in the first place in 1913. Wilson had voted as a "Gold Democrat" for the New Democratic (Gold) Party in 1896. He did not anticipate that the New Deal coupled with the social democratic (Roosevelt-Rockefeller-Nixon-Bush) wing of the Republican Party would declare against the gold standard. And who would have thought that following Richard ("We are all Keynesians now") Nixon, so-called conservatives have become bigger apologists for government control, regulation and debasement of our money supply than their left-wing social democratic colleagues.
These shortages are directly attributable to Fed policy, specifically of the Greenspan-Bernanke Fed. Across the board shortages and price inflation result from malinvestment attributable to excessively low interest rates that fund Wall Street and the commercial banking industry. Thus, the public has subsidized Wall Street to build houses that no one can pay for. The inflationary consequences of the Greenspan-Bernanke policy over the next 30 years will cause many headaches. Although a shortage of spa products or light bulbs are inconvenient, and I can hedge by buying commodities indexes and the like, the Greenspan-Bernanke Fed's three decade-long Christmas for Wall Street, hedge funds and real estate developers has resulted in the death of children in the third world and significantly lower incomes for the average American worker.
It distresses me that double talk--e.g., blaming the results of the Fed's decades-long inflationary stance on third world trade--that characterized discussions about the inflationary recession of the 1970s is again appearing, this time among "conservatives". Social-democratic conservatives seem eager to claim that the interventionist Fed policies of the last three Republican and Clinton administrations have not caused across-the-board inflation in commodity prices, flat wages of workers, wealth transfers to speculators, and child starvation in the third world. They are the friends of big government.
The only solution to flat earnings, reduced wages, inflation and shortages is to get government out of our money supply. That means establishing the kind of gold standard in which Woodrow Wilson believed when he established the Federal Reserve in the first place in 1913. Wilson had voted as a "Gold Democrat" for the New Democratic (Gold) Party in 1896. He did not anticipate that the New Deal coupled with the social democratic (Roosevelt-Rockefeller-Nixon-Bush) wing of the Republican Party would declare against the gold standard. And who would have thought that following Richard ("We are all Keynesians now") Nixon, so-called conservatives have become bigger apologists for government control, regulation and debasement of our money supply than their left-wing social democratic colleagues.
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