dinsdag 22 mei 2012
Robin Hood
American mythology doesn't have a Robin Hood. Instead, the United States has Robber Barons. They are America's heroes, theirs its inspiriting social myth.
Richard Nixon was a minor thief, but his bragging about his wealth--"I am now a millionaire," he said as president--was what got Woodward and Bernstein sniffing. He was only pursuing the American Dream in a minor way, but it did him in.
But stealing a million is nothing these days. And in moral terms, greed is theft: theft from the idea of community, of society. Bill Gates--a Great American, by current standards--could fund St. Martin, St. Francis, Don Quixote, Pablo Escobar, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and several thousand other Robin Hoods, and provide food for all the millions of starving people in the world on nothing but the interest he earns on his $90,000,000,000 fortune. So could the Catholic Church, of course.
And. . . .
I am reminded of all this by a 245-page pamphlet I received in the mail today from Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, the organisation which manages most of America's teachers' retirement programs.
The pamphlet was offering TIAA investors "a tax-deferred variable annuity option." The prospectus warns would-be investors that they may lose money by investing in ths program, and it notes that the expected annual administrative costs are one percent of the amount invested; it also notes that TIAA guarantees that the annual administrative expense deductions will not exceed two and a half percent of investment funds.
What the prospectus calls "TIAA's total statutory admitted assets" in 2011 were $225,900,000,000. One assumes that "admitted assets" means TIAA has more--perhaps considerably more?--assets than $225,900,000,000. So it charges its investors at least $2,500,000,000 for administration, and maybe as much as $6,500,000,000.
And the good people at TIAA are helping teachers all over America--few of them, even in 2012, who will ever earn, in all their working lives, $1,000,000. But these hard-working teachzers will not get rich from their investments in TIAA.
And part of their retirement funds will go to the president of TIAA, who takes home more than $7,000,000 each year. That's $7,000,000 of the money that America's teachers invest for their retirement. He is small potatoes in the greed market,of course, a very minor Robber Baron. But he IS a Robber Baron. Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., born in 1951, has been president of TIAA for four years this month.
Richard Nixon was a minor thief, but his bragging about his wealth--"I am now a millionaire," he said as president--was what got Woodward and Bernstein sniffing. He was only pursuing the American Dream in a minor way, but it did him in.
But stealing a million is nothing these days. And in moral terms, greed is theft: theft from the idea of community, of society. Bill Gates--a Great American, by current standards--could fund St. Martin, St. Francis, Don Quixote, Pablo Escobar, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and several thousand other Robin Hoods, and provide food for all the millions of starving people in the world on nothing but the interest he earns on his $90,000,000,000 fortune. So could the Catholic Church, of course.
And. . . .
I am reminded of all this by a 245-page pamphlet I received in the mail today from Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, the organisation which manages most of America's teachers' retirement programs.
The pamphlet was offering TIAA investors "a tax-deferred variable annuity option." The prospectus warns would-be investors that they may lose money by investing in ths program, and it notes that the expected annual administrative costs are one percent of the amount invested; it also notes that TIAA guarantees that the annual administrative expense deductions will not exceed two and a half percent of investment funds.
What the prospectus calls "TIAA's total statutory admitted assets" in 2011 were $225,900,000,000. One assumes that "admitted assets" means TIAA has more--perhaps considerably more?--assets than $225,900,000,000. So it charges its investors at least $2,500,000,000 for administration, and maybe as much as $6,500,000,000.
And the good people at TIAA are helping teachers all over America--few of them, even in 2012, who will ever earn, in all their working lives, $1,000,000. But these hard-working teachzers will not get rich from their investments in TIAA.
And part of their retirement funds will go to the president of TIAA, who takes home more than $7,000,000 each year. That's $7,000,000 of the money that America's teachers invest for their retirement. He is small potatoes in the greed market,of course, a very minor Robber Baron. But he IS a Robber Baron. Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., born in 1951, has been president of TIAA for four years this month.
zaterdag 19 mei 2012
HELPFUL INFORMATION FOR TOURISTS
Surviving in a world of strange and foreign languages can be difficult. The following vocabulary may be helpful.
Ad valorem=the price for tourists.
A la carte=all you can carry.
Al dente=with a few dents and scratches.
Antipasta=we don´t like pasta or skip the pasta.
Auto bahn=self-discipline.
Buona notte=without bones; filleted.
Carpe diem= fish of the day.
Chemin de Fer=pajamas for the sleeping car.
Corpus delicti=what a beautiful corpse!
Crepe du chine=dog-shit.
De gustibus non est disputantem: there is no doubt that this
is a windy day.
Dejeuner: Of or about young people.
De rigeur=concerning the dead man.
Dimanche=lunch for two.
Donnerstag=gift certificate.
Et tu Brute=Champagne with dinner.
Frutti di Mare=horse shit.
Gazpacho=bloated feeling.
Hors d’oeuvres=horse hooves (a delicacy in France).
Hund in de Gut=Dutch pickpocket.
In hoc signo=in debt; i.o.u.
La Gioconda=joker (in a deck of cards).
Laus tibi=insect causing tuberculosis.
Pas de deux=two free tickets.
Pate de foie gras=fat-head.
Pax tecum=May you die of syphillis!
Place Concorde=Paris airport.
Plat du jour=your hotel.
Prei dieu=please do.
Pour boire=American-style sandwich.
Quid pro quo=how much is this?
Sic transit gloria mundi=I’m sick of travelling—thank God
we fly home tomorrow!
Sortie à droit=medium-dry.
Vin du pais=the end of the war.
Vin du table=spill the beans.
vrijdag 24 februari 2012
With the Republicans ready to go to war against the poor, women, and anybody who isn't a mock-Christian hate-monger, Mitt Romney seems almost like a good guy: even if he isn't interested in or doesn'tcare about the poor, and (with the assistance of his wife) drives four Cadillacs.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, is a much worse war-monger that Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon ever thought of being. He cares less for the U.S. Constitution than William Penn did--and there wasn't a U.S. Constitution when Penn was stealing land from Native Americans. With the exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt, no American president has ever openly operated concentration camps. And with the exception of George W. Bush, no American president has ever condoned torture. And no American president--without exception, until we get to Barack Obama--has ever proposed that men kidnapped and imprisoned but never charged with a crime must be kept in prison for the rest of their lived because after ten or eleven years of torture at Guantanamo they must now hate the United States. One of those prisoners, by the way, was twelve years old when he threw a rock at a U.S. Marine who was carrying an AK 47; that little boy is now twenty-four years old.
So for whom do you vote?
Away back in history, in 1968, we should have elected Robert Kennedy president--and had we been able to do so, the world would be a better place today, and the United States a different country. But Robert Kennedy was murdered. And when Lyndon Johnson's toad Hubert Humphrey became the Democratic nominee, we weren't allowed to write in the name of Eugent McCarthy--so Richard Nixon became president. In 2000 and 2004 I didn't matter whom anybody voted for; George W. Bush was "elected" president.
It doesn't really matter this time for whom you vote. It's a lose-lose situation. Obama has betrayed every promise he made, and can't be trusted. The Republican candidates can all be trusted, of course, but trusted to do hideous things.
Anybody want to pledge allegiance? If so, he or she had better leave out the "under God" bit, lest (if there is a God) he or she get so offended by the blasphemy as to hot-squeeze our little union into a cinder.
Barack Obama, on the other hand, is a much worse war-monger that Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon ever thought of being. He cares less for the U.S. Constitution than William Penn did--and there wasn't a U.S. Constitution when Penn was stealing land from Native Americans. With the exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt, no American president has ever openly operated concentration camps. And with the exception of George W. Bush, no American president has ever condoned torture. And no American president--without exception, until we get to Barack Obama--has ever proposed that men kidnapped and imprisoned but never charged with a crime must be kept in prison for the rest of their lived because after ten or eleven years of torture at Guantanamo they must now hate the United States. One of those prisoners, by the way, was twelve years old when he threw a rock at a U.S. Marine who was carrying an AK 47; that little boy is now twenty-four years old.
So for whom do you vote?
Away back in history, in 1968, we should have elected Robert Kennedy president--and had we been able to do so, the world would be a better place today, and the United States a different country. But Robert Kennedy was murdered. And when Lyndon Johnson's toad Hubert Humphrey became the Democratic nominee, we weren't allowed to write in the name of Eugent McCarthy--so Richard Nixon became president. In 2000 and 2004 I didn't matter whom anybody voted for; George W. Bush was "elected" president.
It doesn't really matter this time for whom you vote. It's a lose-lose situation. Obama has betrayed every promise he made, and can't be trusted. The Republican candidates can all be trusted, of course, but trusted to do hideous things.
Anybody want to pledge allegiance? If so, he or she had better leave out the "under God" bit, lest (if there is a God) he or she get so offended by the blasphemy as to hot-squeeze our little union into a cinder.
zaterdag 11 februari 2012
donderdag 26 januari 2012
A Thought for the Day
Newt Gingrich and Barack Obama agree about one thing. Both believe that the U.S. president is an absolute ruler. Gingrich thinks that the president can overrule the Supreme Court--which means that he can scrap the U.S. Constitution. Obama is even bolder: he has announced that the president can order a military strike any place in the world at any time.
One might think that Americans might object. But after Gingrich's announcement that he would void Supreme Court decisions that he didn't agree with, he rose to the top among the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. And when Obama "rescued" an American and a Dane from captivity in Somalia--and killed nine Somalians--nobody objected.
Of course not. Gingrich didn't threaten to turn the Congress out to pasture. And Congress certainly wouldn't object to what Obama did: after all, Congress had almost succeeded in passing a bill that would have made it legal for the U.S. military to take anybody anywhere hostage--even U.S. citizens in the United States--and hold them indefinitely, without being charged with a crime. We could all have had careers in the U.S. concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay had Senator Rand Paul not intervened.
One might think that Americans might object. But after Gingrich's announcement that he would void Supreme Court decisions that he didn't agree with, he rose to the top among the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. And when Obama "rescued" an American and a Dane from captivity in Somalia--and killed nine Somalians--nobody objected.
Of course not. Gingrich didn't threaten to turn the Congress out to pasture. And Congress certainly wouldn't object to what Obama did: after all, Congress had almost succeeded in passing a bill that would have made it legal for the U.S. military to take anybody anywhere hostage--even U.S. citizens in the United States--and hold them indefinitely, without being charged with a crime. We could all have had careers in the U.S. concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay had Senator Rand Paul not intervened.
woensdag 21 december 2011
GOD BLESS AMERICA
One of my former friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan, says he "respectfully disagrees" with what I say about the US government's treatment of Bradley Manning. If it were his son--or his grandson--being held illegally for 18 months, tortured, charged with OBEYING the law in making felony offenses public information, public knowledge, I am sure he wouldn't disagree with me.
But at least he answers what I say. Most of my former friends don't answer, or they tell me to shut up.
But I can try to talk about other things. Or maybe I should propose that I will talk about the same things, using different particulars.
The US spends a billion dollars--$1,000,000,000--a day on Obama's wars. We bomb civilians, claiming that they are "Taliban." But the US vice-president says that the Taliban is not the enemy. (By the way, the US createdthe Taliban. The same way it created Ayatolla Khoumini to run Iraq--thank you, Central Intelligence.)
But we spend nothing on schools in the US, and our schools are terrible. We allow families to live in abject poverty--and even Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, works to prevent that! We don't provide medical care for the poor.
And what do the rich Americans do? The millionaire rich look for tax loopholes. The billionaires either sit on their obscene wealth, letting it grow like an anal cancer, or they give bits of it away, or the spend it on self-glory. Most billionaires are in the first category: they just greedily grow their wealth. The second group give away a few billion--or even tens of billions. But of course Warren Buffet could afford to give away fifty billion--$50,000,000,000--and still be obscenely rich. So could Bill Gates.
I teach now at the Universitat des Saarlandes in Germany. Students and a few faculty here, and some Dickens scholars from Britain and the United States, and an Irish diplomat gave $5,000 this month to buy Christmas presents for 500 poor, orphaned, or abandoned children in Moldova. A billion dollars from Mr. Buffet or Mr. Gates would have have made it possible for "Aktion Oliver" to do a lot more!
The billionaire who wants to invest in a new space craft--to replace the shuttle--will do nothing for this world. Why doesn't he give his billions to the poor--in America or elsewhere?
President Obama buys Christmas presents (for his daughters--and his dog) at a discount store. Should we applaud? HELL NO! We should demand that he quit his wars, and give $1,000,000,000 every day to the poor.
Am I being unreasonable? Of course not--except to unreasonable people:honi soit qui mal y pense.
Cordially yours in this charitable season when good Christians nod with pennies at the poor, and offer up their greed to be blessed.
Bert Hornback
But at least he answers what I say. Most of my former friends don't answer, or they tell me to shut up.
But I can try to talk about other things. Or maybe I should propose that I will talk about the same things, using different particulars.
The US spends a billion dollars--$1,000,000,000--a day on Obama's wars. We bomb civilians, claiming that they are "Taliban." But the US vice-president says that the Taliban is not the enemy. (By the way, the US createdthe Taliban. The same way it created Ayatolla Khoumini to run Iraq--thank you, Central Intelligence.)
But we spend nothing on schools in the US, and our schools are terrible. We allow families to live in abject poverty--and even Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, works to prevent that! We don't provide medical care for the poor.
And what do the rich Americans do? The millionaire rich look for tax loopholes. The billionaires either sit on their obscene wealth, letting it grow like an anal cancer, or they give bits of it away, or the spend it on self-glory. Most billionaires are in the first category: they just greedily grow their wealth. The second group give away a few billion--or even tens of billions. But of course Warren Buffet could afford to give away fifty billion--$50,000,000,000--and still be obscenely rich. So could Bill Gates.
I teach now at the Universitat des Saarlandes in Germany. Students and a few faculty here, and some Dickens scholars from Britain and the United States, and an Irish diplomat gave $5,000 this month to buy Christmas presents for 500 poor, orphaned, or abandoned children in Moldova. A billion dollars from Mr. Buffet or Mr. Gates would have have made it possible for "Aktion Oliver" to do a lot more!
The billionaire who wants to invest in a new space craft--to replace the shuttle--will do nothing for this world. Why doesn't he give his billions to the poor--in America or elsewhere?
President Obama buys Christmas presents (for his daughters--and his dog) at a discount store. Should we applaud? HELL NO! We should demand that he quit his wars, and give $1,000,000,000 every day to the poor.
Am I being unreasonable? Of course not--except to unreasonable people:honi soit qui mal y pense.
Cordially yours in this charitable season when good Christians nod with pennies at the poor, and offer up their greed to be blessed.
Bert Hornback
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