Janus

Janus is the God of beginnings and endings after whom January is named. As January approaches and the old year winds down it seems appropriate to ponder our own endings and beginnings.

The end is thankfully near for the Bush Administration while, ever hopeful, the world awaits the begining of the Obama era. Seldom has there been such optimism surrounding an individual as that which surrounds Obama. This despite the early indications that rather than delivering change he is opting for continuity.

The end is at hand for 2008, yet the damage done to the markets over the past several decades appears likely to continue to arrive for the forseeable future. A recent prediction in the Wall Street Journal based on a mathmetical analysis of 27 million mortgages asserts that the 60 day deliquency rate for mortgages will almost double before the end of 2009, which has yet to begin.

The end appears to be beginning to arrive for the misadventure in Iraq, while the next surge is being launched into Afghanistan. The end of the war began on 9/11/01 appears illusive. Already this is the longest war in the history of America.

Each of us has our own endings and beginnings to ponder as 2008 withers and 2009 approaches. May your endings be happy ones and may your beginings bring you succdess as well as pleasure!

The Three Mysteries of Partisan Politics

We are 50 days (plus or minus) from the next election. It is mysterious to The Rainmaker how so much "Sound and Fury" could signify so little. The political communication seems empty, meaningless and without value.

Consider just these two examples:

First: The financial markets seem to be imploding and the candidates are AWOL, failing to even mention the $50 trillion dollars of current debt on the books, which doesn't begin to account for unfunded liabilities such as Social Security, Medicare, pensions and such.

Second: The candidates abhor the failure of the health market but basically pander to voters promising universal coverage and affordability to all while somehow missing the fact that Medicare is going cash flow negative at some point within the first term of the winning candidate.

Those two examples merely typify the disconnect between the candidates and reality. This disconnect can be attributed to the lust for power and glory silencing any meaningful dialogue while we debate the meaning and significance of lipstick, pigs and lipstick on pigs.

The three mysteries are even more troubling.

The first mystery is the Democratic Mystery. While the Democratic Party champions personal freedom of speech, association, sexuality and religion it cares little for economic freedom and property rights. In other words you are free to do whatever you want but what is yours is ours if it is necessary to win a few votes.

The second mystery is the Republican Mystery. While the Republican Party champions economic freedom it stifles individual liberty in most respects. In other words, your ownership of property is sacrosanct but your body is not your own.

The final mystery is the Statist Mystery. The slavish and rabid devotion to the health, well being and primacy of the State is totally incomprehensible. The founders believed the individual to be sovereign. But while both major political parties purport to celebrate individual liberty, both seem to have forgotten two pillars of limited government included in the Bill of Rights.

The 9th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says:

"The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says:

"The Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people."

Over the past couple of centuries we have ceased to be personally sovereign and have become chattel of the State. How else can one explain the reality we experience in our day to day lives.

Imagine Ben Franklin being forced to remove his shoes and coat and subject his luggage to search in order to travel, foregoing his right to be secure from search and seizure guaranteed to him (as well as to you and me) in the fourth amendment to the Constitution.

Indeed it was Franklin who said, "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Consider this the next time you transit an airport. Do the buffoons of the TSA really accomplish anything beyond making a silly show of officious pseudo security?

Enough of the digression, the Rainmaker will return to the underlying point.

The bottom line is the current reality is nonsensical to the point of absurdity. The government of the United States of America does a poor job of securing the inalienable rights invoked in the Declaration of Independence that include "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

What exactly are you going to do about that? Probably not enough!

A Slow Day in Arlington, Virginia

Today while walking to the market to provision for the weekend your faithful Rainmaker witnessed a fascinating episode. Wilson Blvd. is a one way street passing through the Roslyn neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia. Some poor soul had apparently gotten discombobulated and driven the wrong way on that street. Her car headed east on the one way west bound bound Wilson Blvd., was pulled over to side of the road at about the 1600 block of Wilson adjacent to the Red Hot and Blue restaurant. Obviously this was a major infraction for the driver who appeared to be a soccer Mom (sans lipstick) had the attention of two police cars, a fire truck and ten "public safety employees" who parked their vehicles helter skelter across the street slowing rush hour traffic. While one of their number, obviously the one with the least seniority, wrote the hapless soccer Mom a ticket the other nine guardians of public order and fire protection stood around having an obviously grand old time discussing who knows what but probably "life, love and the neon rainbow."

Walking back from the market almost 25 minutes later the situation remained unchanged. The Rainmaker recognizes that in the wake of the 9/11 events it is impossible for local governments to rein in these police and fire fighters, heroic paragons of America's first line of defense in the neverending "War on Terror." Nevertheless the deployment of resources witnessed in the 1600 block of Wilson Blvd. this afternoon gives pause. Obviously there wasn't much going on. If 10 public employees respond and nine spend at least 30 minutes watching the tenth write a ticket then there must be a lot of excees capacity in the system.

The Rainmaker focused on this minor traffic accident for two reasons. First, the dissproportionate resource allocation, sending 10 officers/firefighters to deal with a non injury traffic infraction. It must have been a slow day in Arlington, Virginia. Second, this seemed a perfectly good example of what in part caused the typical small town such as Vallejo, California to declare bankruptcy last year.

It turns out that Vallejo has a police and fire force that can earn (or rather collect) over $300,000 each in a give year for keeping the city safe for democracy, truth, justice and the "American Way." In Vallejo, 74% of the city budget was devoted to providing "fair" compensation to the public safety sector of teh town's budget. A police officer or fire fighter can earn $300,000 annually in Vallejo.

The Rainmaker wonders how much longer these inequities can continue before the system finds itself in a state of collapse.

Trivial Pursuits

Who cares who John Edwards slept with? Why do I need to know about Dick Cheney's daughter's sexuality?

Somehow Barack Obama's "rock star status" makes a difference one way or the other regarding his qualifications for the Presidency, but not to me. And somehow Paris Hilton's assessment of John McCain is relevant, but I don't get it.

Oh yes, don't forget that Jackson Browne is an expert on nuclear power...right! Bono is a proverbial paragon of virtue and an authority of all manner of public policy issues from AIDS, to hunger as well as economic development in Africa...and I've got this great bridge in Lake Havasu, Arizona I'd like to sell you!

Although I hasten to point out I have no problem with celebrities who have political opinions when put their money where their mouth is and run for office. People like Ronald Reagan, Jesse Ventura and "The" Arnold--whose last name I can't spell and don't want to look up, because you will all know who I mea--are fine by me. For the record, if I had lived in Texas last election I would have supported Kinky Friedman for Govorner. I am still disappionted that he lost.

Here's a news flash for you, Elvis and Princess Di are still dead. Yet every year we have to endure another meaningless retrospective on their lives. Well both Elvis and the Princess have left the planet and I don't need to read about or watch another television special on his excesses at Graceland or whether the Royal Family had her killed. Geez.

My favorite was this past Sunday in the Washington Post when what must have been two full pages in the newspaper were devoted to a meditation on Madonna's observance of her 50th birthday and what that means not only to you and me but also to modern civilization.

And, please...if I ever hear the name Monica Lewinsky again it will be too soon!

In the immortal words of Rhett Butler, "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn!"

And so it goes.