Christmas Eve, 2009 and New Years wishes, 2010

 

I offer each of you personally this lovely Christmas card, now nearly 140 years after it was first created in the year 1870, as I start to write this essay on Christmas eve, year 2009.

Best holiday wishes to all my friends and visitors, you who are my brothers and sisters, who come here to Alan OldStudent’s Musings.

And Merry Christmas to my Christian friends.

Although I am an atheist, I like that Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr:

God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things that I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.

As one who is in the seventh decade of his life, I have seen some amazing things. I saw how a mass movement in my own country, the United States, defeated and knocked down the infamous Jim Crow laws, America’s home-grown version of apartheid. And I saw how a mass movement ended an unjust war in Vietnam.

These are examples of things that we were able to change, and the American  people are better off because enough of us had the wisdom to know we could change these things, that despite our youth, we had the wisdom to know the difference.

Yes! We had the audacity to try and the gumption to carry it out.

Today, late 2009, so many of us on the American left are feeling demoralized about now, partly because so many of us had put our hopes in the very attractive and compelling Barack Obama. Now we see him pursuing a war we oppose, we see him representing the interests of the plutarchy over our interests, and now we feel let down.

Our mistake on the left has always been the tendency to tie ourselves to those twin parties of capitalism, the Democrats and the Republicans. But all real progressive change in this country has always come about through the agency of independent mass mobilization and mass action, and the politicians have always opposed these mobilizations and mass actions, at least until change became irresistible, inevitable, and irreversible.

Deep within me, I still hold that belief that I had as a youth.

I believed and I still believe, that together, we can change the world. I believed, and still believe, we can fight injustice, war, racism, exploitation, and create a world fit for decent human beings. I believed, and still believe, we can make progress towards that goal, that each of us, though our own lives be tiny in the greater scheme of things, can make a difference and influence history.

My elders said I was naive and unschooled in the ways of the world, that we just had to come to terms with injustice and violence, that understanding and accepting this inevitability was the wisdom to know the difference.

But now I’m an old man. And I still believe we can and we simply must change this world. Both human existence, even life itself, hang in the balance.

To do that, we need, each of us, to educate ourselves. Educating ourselves means so more than just learning a few facts or reading a newspaper. It requires us to develop our sensitivity, to learn to think critically, to learn to think in terms of human history, to look beyond our preconceptions and to examine the evidence, to not be afraid to examine our times, our culture, ourselves, and to be daring enough to leap beyond  our fears and reservations into the world of tomorrow.

The word “educate” comes from two Latin words, “ex” and “ducere.” “Ex” means “out of” or “away from.” “Ducere” means “to lead.” So ex-ducere becomes educere. Education literally means to lead us out of ourselves, out of convention-imposed ignorance, out of superstition, out of our  xenophobia and obscurantism, out of our comfort zone, out of what the poet William Blake calls the “mind-forged manacles, and into awareness—both self awareness and social awareness.

One of the reasons I talk so much about physical fitness on this site (other than it being one of my passions) is that physical fitness is a part of self-education. Physical fitness helps us, if we are lucky enough to be capable of developing it, to lead ourselves into a greater sense of poise, of self-confidence, of dignity and sharpness of senses, spirit, and mind.

But we must also develop our sensitivity to history, to human feeling, to human passion, to the human condition.

For truly, we are all brothers and sisters. We are, all of us, literally the children, the direct descendents, of a very small band of people who lived somewhere in Ethiopia about 160,000 years ago, wandered out of the desert, and crawled all over the face of our mother, the planet earth.

And so we owe it to ourselves and each other to develop a morality that is humanistic, that seeks good for its own sake instead of a fear-based morality. That is our duty as moral beings. That’s why the header of this site has that paraphrase of Thomas Paine, 18th century American revolutionary:

“The world is my country, humankind is my family, and to do good my religion.”

So may this coming year grant us the wisdom to see the necessity for self reliance, of building an independent, peaceful mass movement, so that we can change the things that must be changed, so that we can literally ensure the viability of our planet, for ourselves, for the future of our children and grandchildren—for the human race, indeed for all the life forms that dwell here on our watery planet!

In the words of an old anarchist and socialist hymn

Justice thunders condemnation
A better world’s in birth!

Thus, my brothers and sisters, you have my fervent wishes for a better 2010 for us all, and may your holidays be joyful.

The graphic below is of the first commercially-made Christmas card, circa 1843, by Sir Henry Cole, an Englishman.

 

Regards,

 

Alan OldStudent

[Via http://alanoldstudent.wordpress.com]

Google Suggest: I laughed. I cried.

You know what Google Suggest is.  It is that thing that happens when you start typing in Google and suggestions for possible searches appear as you type.  The way it works is that Google’s algorithms predict the search you most likely want to see using “data about the overall popularity of various searches”  (direct quote from Google).  If you think about it, there is something ethnographically important here.  Google Suggest can tell us what Americans are searching for, what they are seeking – or at least English speakers on the American version of Google.

Every once in a while something comes along that reminds you that you know nothing about what other people are thinking.  Google Suggest is just that thing.  Let’s see what I found.

Let’s start with “should I”…

…if you are asking Google, the answer is “probably not”.  “Should I worry” gives the opposite result…

…if you are asking Google, the answer is “definitely”.

The common searches for why things are the way they are…

Mail on Columbus Day.  Honestly, hadn’t crossed my mind.

What are Americans thinking of buying?  Not what I would have expected…

Same goes for a query about where is…

…the GEICO gecko – seriously?  C’mon, pull it together.

Things get interesting for searches on famous figures such as the President…

No, Obama is not literally Hitler.  I am not a big fan, but he’s not figuratively either.  If you read a book, you might know that – don’t search, books can be found by following the link here – www.amazon.com.

Other famous people with interesting results include God.

People are invoking God all the time in their searches.  In America, God has wives covered, but apparently not husbands, so we turn to the next best thing – Google…

What do American’s like?  All sorts of things.

I like turtles too.  I had a pet turtle growing up, but it probably would not have been at the top of my list.

What are Americans afraid of?

…Chinese people and pre-pubescent women.  Not my first guesses.

What do people think about ethnic groups in America?

I have to wrap it up, but I thought I would finish up with what Americans think about fat people.

Isn’t that God’s truth?

[Via http://newtome.wordpress.com]

Democrats Face Challenge in Merging Health Bills

WASHINGTON — Even as the Senate took a significant step toward passing its version of a sweeping overhaul of the health insurancesystem before Christmas, Democrats were grappling Monday with deep internal divisions over abortion, the issue that most complicates their drive to merge the Senate and House bills and send final legislation to President Obama.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/health/policy/22health.html?_r=1&hp

[Via http://ilovebenefits.wordpress.com]

D.C. Democrats fail us!

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Neb, talks to the press.

Now that the Senate has passed their version of “Healthcare Reform”, it seems the House is our only hope in receiving real reform.  The Senate bill is substantially different from that which was passed by the House.  No more public option and a bunch of sweatheart concessions to the turncoat Democrats in the Senate.  For example, Sen. Bill Nelson of Nebraska managed a deal that allows his state to no longer have to share the burden of Medicaid with the federal government.  Great for Nebraska, but what about the rest of us?  This is disgusting. 

We finally get a chance to pass our agenda and Obama and the spineless Democrats in D.C. have waffled so bad that they look like fools.  58% of the country wants a public option! 

I don’t get it.  Bush had, at most, 55 Senators during his eight years, yet he was able to pass everything on his agenda with the exception of privatizing social security.  Why can’t the Democrats get anything done with 60 Senators and a super majority in the House?

At this point, this lifetime Democrat will not be voting for a single Democrat for federal office unless we get a public option.  And, I fear, neither will many other progressive Democrats.

[Via http://tanoury.wordpress.com]

Quick Thoughts On Obama

It’s been close to a year into Obama’s presidency and it has been a turbulent time.  As people who have read my blog know, I have tended to focus more on the economy and what political actions have been done to change it.  I will definitely agree that Obama has inherited an economy in very very poor shape (understatement) – though we must ask ourselves what has he and his self appointed team of economic advisers done so far to strengthen our future prospects.

It’s not easy to predict the future and what might be the outlook for the upcoming year and beyond, thus we must look at what has been done to change the corroded structure of our economy.  Sad to say but not much if anything has been done from the white house to secure a better future for our nation.  Even before Obama was elected the economic crash was under way.  After being elected one would think the first problems to tackle would be our banking system, rampant fraud, and under funded social programs.  I will say our status-quo  health care system is without a doubt not sustainable, though neither is our economy.  Both are inter-connected but one is just a subset of the other.  So why not tackle the bigger more relevant problem?  The answer to this question still eludes me and the many discouraged Americans today.

It is great to have a leader that is very well spoken and seemingly intelligent.  Also it was a relief to see someone emerge as relatively unknown in the political world and become president.  I and many others would like nothing more than our president succeed in his job on helping America prosper.  Though it is our duty as citizens to witness what is being done to us, our neighbors, and our country and then express our views either negative or positive.   It is not healthy for us to behave as giddy fans to the new ‘cool’ president – unlike a sporting event if we as a country ‘lose’ we do not have the opportunity to go home without it effecting us.  This epidemic, apathetic, fan mentality must stop immediately.

What we have seen in this past year is very disappointing to say the least.  The health care debate has proven that big Pharma and insurance companies can effectively buy our off government preventing effective reform.  Also an even bigger scene currently underway is Wall Street and big banks are now winning the ‘reform’ battle.  This is not the sign of a strong leader who ran on ‘changing’ our country.  Congress is at fault also, but that will be up for debate in the 2010 elections.  Americans left, right, and moderate voted for Obama to ‘change’ our country.  As recent polls point out (presidential approval rating has dropped the fastest in history in the first year) we have not seen any change but just endless political rhetoric with a kind face behind it.

Granted many think we should give Obama some time to prove himself.  I on the other-hand judge politicians on performance.  What I have seen is more status-quo and bailouts for the rich.  The majority of the populace has been left to soak up the failed banks and corporate losses.  We are in dire need of reformist leadership and of new voices that will speak the truth.  A national purification so to speak – hopefully Obama can prove himself to be that person but our nations time is winding down and I for one will not sit around silently hoping for this ‘change’ to come around.

[Via http://americasos.wordpress.com]

Healthcare Bill is Still a Budget Buster

The Heritage Foundation has an excellent post concerning exactly how the Senate’s healthcare bill will actually add to the federal budget deficit. The post states the following:

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the amended Reid plan would reduce the federal budget deficit by $132 billion over the period 2010 to 2019, but that is a mirage.

For starters, as CBO notes, the bill presumes that Medicare fees for physician services will get cut by more than 20 percent in 2011, and then stay at the reduced level indefinitely. There is strong bipartisan opposition to such cuts. Fixing that problem alone will cost more than $200 billion over a decade, pushing the Reid plan from the black and into a deep red.

Then there are the numerous budget gimmicks and implausible spending reductions. The plan’s taxes and spending cuts kick in right away, while the entitlement expansion doesn’t start in earnest until 2014, and even then the real spending doesn’t begin until 2015. According to CBO, from 2010 to 2014, the bill would cut the federal budget deficit by $124 billion. From that point on, it’s essentially deficit neutral — but that’s only because of unrealistic assumptions about tax and Medicare savings provisions. By 2019, the entitlement expansions to cover more people with insurance will cost nearly $200 billion per year, and grow every year thereafter at a rate of 8 percent. CBO says that, on paper, the tax increases and Medicare cuts will more than keep up, but, in reality, they won’t. The so-called tax on high cost insurance plans applies to policies with premiums exceeding certain thresholds (for instance, $23,000 for family coverage). But those thresholds would be indexed at rates that are less than health-care inflation — forever. And so, over time, more and more plans, and their enrollees, would bump up against it until virtually the entire U.S. population is enrolled in insurance that is considered “high cost.”

Similarly, the Medicare cuts assume that hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies and others can survive with a permanent annual cut in their payment rates for presumed productivity gains. Medicare’s chief actuary has already signaled that this reduction could push one in five hospitals into insolvency, thus forcing them out of the Medicare program.

What’s more, the benefit promises are sure to expand well beyond what CBO has assumed. There are 127 million people living in households with incomes between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty line, but CBO assumes that only 18 million of them will get the new subsidized insurance under the Reid plan by 2015 because of rules that make most workers ineligible for assistance. But, if enacted, employers would find ways to push more workers into subsidized arrangements, and Congress would loosen the rules to make more people eligible. Costs would grow much faster than CBO currently projects. In addition, the Reid plan continues to include a new entitlement program for long-term care that every actuary who has looked at it says is a financial disaster waiting to happen. If passed, it would only be a matter of time before another federal bailout would be necessary.

[Via http://iwilly.wordpress.com]

Obama orders US missile strike on Yemen?

I thought I would get an early start posting this morning before the global warming induced huge snowstorm knocks out our rural cable!   I came across this story at Gateway Pundit, one of my regular morning reading stops.  If you are thinking how does this involve RRW, remember that I’ve reported a couple of times lately that Saudi Arabia (with its state of the art border fence) was trying to keep the riff-raff Shia Muslims from Yemen out of their country and that Saudi Arabia had recently apprehended Somalis helping the Yemenis, here.

Holy cow!  Now Peace-prize Obama is bombing Yemen!  Here is the story Fox News is reporting:

The U.S. has launched two missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Yemen, two U.S. officials told Fox News, signaling an escalation of the Obama administration’s fight against the terrorist organization.

The politically sensitive strikes Thursday, first reported by ABC News, supplement efforts already under way by the government of Yemen to go after Al Qaeda in the country, the officials told Fox News, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the operation.

Such an operation is particularly sensitive in Yemen. “It’s very difficult for Yemen to ask the U.S. for help given the nature of their population and its views about the West,” one official said. “And the U.S. doesn’t want to compromise their ability to ask for help.”

Is this about protecting Yemen and the US or about protecting Obama’s friends, the Saudis?

By the way, one commenter at Gateway Pundit suggests Obama is ‘wagging the dog’ after his failure to achieve anything at Copenhagen, or on health care reform.

Endnote:  I wonder how Yemeni Jihadi sleepers, like this guy in Knoxville, TN, are going to be taking this?

[Via http://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com]