Why I can't support private retirement accounts

I'd like to be able to support President Bush in his quest to privatize social security. If the financial securities markets were actually regulated and controlled, I might. But these markets aren't controlled and I doubt they ever will be.

This position I take doesn't even consider the fact that any change in social security would be costly, and that conversion of social security, without a doubt, would have be to paid using money from the social security trust fund, depleting it even more.

President Bush said he would push for medical savings accounts, accounts into which people like me without health insurance could place money, accounts that would be tax-free and untouchable. He hasn't. If President Bush pushed for an ancillary private retirement savings account where I would be able to submit funds greater than $2,500 a year to be used strictly for retirement, tax-free and untouchable, I could support him in that. I could see how that would work. One job pays the bills and keeps me housed, clothed and fed, and the earnings from a second job could be deposited automatically and tax-free into these untouchable separate accounts for my medical needs and for my retirement. I'd rather President Bush stop spending his time on the lost cause of the private retirement accounts as he's defining them now and try to push for something like what I have outlined. Social Security is a safety net and I want that net.

But as it stands, I can't trust Wall Street. And I can't trust government -- Democrat or Republican or Independent -- to keep Wall Street regulated and controlled. The financial scandals of 2001 and 2002 hurt this country far worse than did terrorists flying jets into the World Trade Center. It is said the Osama bin Laden had his suicidal followers target the World Trade Center because it was a symbol of America's financial strength, and he wanted to hit the country in the wallet. All they had to do was get accounting degrees or broker's licenses and they could've accomplished what they set out to do. At worst, they'd get a fine for bringing down the U.S. financial system. The incestuousness that seems to be prevalent between politics and the mainstream media for the Democrats seems to be prevalent between politics and Wall Street for Republicans.

New York's Democratic Attorney General Elliot Spitzer made a big splash two years ago taking down the big guns on Wall Street -- and I'm sure he has plans to run for governor of New York -- but all he did was bitch-slap them a little bit and fine them. And the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission William Donaldson didn't even do that, although he took public credit as some kind of sheriff cleaning up the wild west.

I outlined this confidence job by Spitzer, Donaldson and the Wall Street securities firms on the American capital markets investor in a series of usenet posts in 2003. The hyperlinks to the original articles are inoperative, but the quotes are correct. The mainstream media reported what happened when it happened, but they covered it as a spot news singular event each time. They didn't tie the loose ends together and show that what happened was really no penalty at all.

You can rob a local liquor store for $500, get charged with a felony that prevents you from ever obtaining a decent job for the rest of your life and go to jail for 10 years. (All you to have to do is get arrested on a felony -- not convicted just arrested -- and the State of Louisiana can deny you a right to practice in the state as an Emergency Medical Technician.) But if you steal $20 million from the investment accounts of Joe and Mary America, you pay a small fine and endure a short stint of public humiliation.

The posts follow. They originally appeared on the usenet under the subject line "SEC's Donaldson caught in a lie" and later as "First, admit you have a problem (was: SEC's Donaldson caught in a lie)":

Google hyperlink to original message thread

Mark McBride Apr 28 2003, 3:46 pm
Subject: SEC's Donaldson caught in public lie

Regulators Reach $1.4 Billion Settlement

"When wrongdoing occurs, it must be confronted and punished," said SEC Chairman William Donaldson told a news conference, flanked by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso and other regulators. "Today we are doing just that."

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None of the brokerages will admit wrongdoing under their deal with the stock exchanges, state regulators and the SEC.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&e=17&u=/nm/financ...

What's good for the corporation ought to be good for the individual. So this must mean the sentencing guidelines will be undergoing some changes. Right? So future court verdicts will be, for example, something like the following:

John Q. Brokerfirm, admitted no wrongdoing, but will pay $20,000 for raping little Suzie Homemaker and stealing her piggy bank. Mr. Brokerfirm will not have a felony record and thus will be entitled to all rights and priveleges granted citizens. He will be able to do business with the government. He will be able to obtain low interest federal loans. He will be able to market city, state, municipal and federal bonds if he so wishes. He can even legally buy guns. This agreement Mr. Brokerfirm makes with the federal agency that investigated him in fact does nothing but make his wallet a little lighter. It should be noted that while Mr. Brokerfirm is paying $20,000, he stole some $20 million from little Suzie Homemaker and, under the agreement with the courts, did not have to return it.

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Mark McBride May 2 2003, 4:57 pm
Subject: First, admit you have a problem (Was: SEC's Donaldson caught in public lie)


Investors, shareholders and potential retirees: Expect more of the same from the accounting firms, the brokerage firms, and corporate America.

Why? Because like any addicts, the corporations continue to deny they have a problem. You can't even begin to solve a problem unless you first admit you have one, the first step in any 12-step recovery program.

The politicians call any fines a success, but it'll be as successful as throwing an alcoholic in jail for the weekend. It doesn't solve the problem, and these greedy cash addicts will be back sucking retirement funds dry on Monday.

The headlines scream why any solutions imposed by an expedient financial settlement is only a stopgap measure before the pilfering begins anew.

"None of the brokerages will admit wrongdoing under their deal with the stock exchanges, state regulators and the SEC."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=569&e=17&u=/nm/financ...

"Candie's said that without admitting or denying any of the SEC's allegations, it has consented to the entry of an administrative order to cease and desist from violations of the books and records, internal controls, periodic reporting and certain anti-fraud provisions. Chief Executive Officer Neil Cole will pay a $75,000 fine, the company said. Cole did not admit or deny the SEC's allegations."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030430/bs_nm/text...

Baron Capital issued the following statement: "After extensive discussions with the SEC staff, Baron Capital decided not to contest their view and to settle the matter without admitting or denying the SEC's findings."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ft/20030501/bs_ft/1051...

Citigroup, Merrill and CSFB are also expected to be the only banks accused of outright securities fraud in the settlement. None of the banks will admit or deny wrongdoing.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20030428/bs_u...

United Airlines has agreed to pay the government and a whistle-blower $3.2 million to settle allegations of substandard maintenance work on military transport planes for the Air Force. Under the proposed settlement agreement, filed Monday in federal court in South Carolina, United denies all allegations brought by the whistle-blower, a former United mechanic who worked on the C-17 planes. The settlement must be approved by the South Carolina judge and the judge in United's bankruptcy reorganization case.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/usatoday/20030423/bs_u...

The litigation charge comes as Xerox appears to be emerging from years of troubling issues, including a federal probe into its accounting practices, which it settled by paying a fine without admitting or denying wrongdoing.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030423/bs_nm/tech...

The Dial Corp. agreed Tuesday to pay $10 million to some 100 current and former female employees at its soap plant in Montgomery to settle sexual harassment accusations and avoid a pending trial. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company admitted no wrongdoing, but agreed to a federal consent decree that puts compliance monitors into its plant just southwest of Aurora for the next 2-1/2 years.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cdh/20030430/lo_cdh/di...

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Mark McBride May 7 2003, 10:00 am
Subject: Re: First, admit you have a problem (Was: SEC's Donaldson caught in public lie)


"I believe that the Wall Street culture must change from the top down, and I am not convinced that the (settlement) has done enough to change attitudes at the top" of the big investment firms, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said at a hearing called to examine the accord. "Without holding executives and CEOs personally accountable for the wrongdoing that occurred under their watch, I do not believe that Wall Street will change its ways or that investor confidence will be restored."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030507/ap_on_bi_g...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drugmaker Andrx Corp. (Nasdaq:ADRX - news) on Tuesday agreed to pay $100,000 to settle allegations of improper accounting, the Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) said. The SEC said Scott Lodin, the Andrx general counsel, and Timothy Nolan, the former president and chief operating officer of Cybear, its Internet unit, also agreed to settle the SEC case. The company, Lodin and Nolan settled without admitting or denying any wrongdoing.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030506/bs_nm/heal...

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Mark McBride May 13 2003, 12:55 am
Subject: Re: First, admit you have a problem (Was: SEC's Donaldson caught in public lie)

"No top executive of the fined investment firms -- Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Chase, Salomon Smith Barney and others -- has admitted wrongdoing, accepted responsibility and apologized to the public. Without self-recognition of ethical failures, future propriety on Wall Street cannot be assumed." Houston Chronicle editorial

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/1904058

Reliant Resources Inc. and Reliant Energy settled an inquiry by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, promising never to engage in improper 'round trip' trades nor accounting transactions designed to shift earnings. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it did not impose a fine on Reliant Resources, a Houston-based electricity provider, and Reliant Energy, which in August 2002 became CenterPoint Energy Inc., a Texas utility. The companies settled the matter, an administrative proceeding covering allegations spanning 1999-2001, without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, the SEC said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030512/bs_nm/ener...

US investment house Bear Stearns used an analyst to promote a new stock offering, days after Wall Street had agreed to sweeping ethical reforms.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030512/ts_alt_af...

The stock market is the bread and butter of American capitalism. Its operation reflects directly on the ideals of free trade and full disclosure the United States promotes, internally as well as externally. Enron, Arthur Andersen and their ilk did more to damage the U.S. than the 19 terrorists who flew jets into the the World Trade Center. A warning of "caveat emptor" is not enough. The S.E.C. is tasked with enforcing the regulations against insider trading and fraud, regulations that were passed to prevent another stock market fiasco that sent America into the Great Depression and nearly destroyed the country in the process.

Should the citizens of this country apply "caveat emptor" to the water they buy from their municipal water company? Should they apply "caveat emptor" to the food they buy at the store, food that is stamped and approved by the USDA?

No, you cannot eliminate the dishonesty on Wall Street or in the boardrooms of corporate America, but you can sure as hell imprison those who steal money and break the law and make the penalty of dishonesty bitter, painful and memorable.

The "good ole boys" are letting their friends walk with a slap on the wrist. Old school ties and old fraternity pledges keep them on the street and their sticky little fingers on the wallets of Joe and Mary America. Trillions were lost by investors because of these deceitful brokerage firms who were allowed to scam a deluded public while Clintonista regulators turned a blind eye.

And trillions more will be lost until the problem is acknowledged and solved. A teenager takes $500 from a mini-mart and he's got an NCIC number that will follow him the rest of his life. A yuppy in a business suit cleans out the entire life savings of an elementary school teacher, and he has to skip lunch for one week at Tavern on the Green.

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Mark McBride May 16 2003, 2:54 pm
Subject: Re: First, admit you have a problem (Was: SEC's Donaldson caught in public lie)

If you're concerned ...
A good editorial ...

http://www.ctnow.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-gotojail.artmay12,0,7...

Note to Mr. Donaldson:

No one has ever been toungue-lashed to within an inch of their life. A letter of rebuke and a tongue lashing mean nothing.

*************

Mark McBride May 19 2003, 4:40 pm
Subject: Re: First, admit you have a problem (Was: SEC's Donaldson caught in public lie)

"WorldCom Inc. agreed on Monday to pay a record $500 million fine to settle charges stemming from one of the biggest accounting fraud cases in U.S. history. ... The fine was originally set at $1.5 billion, but it was cut to $500 million because the company is in bankruptcy. ... The company neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in the settlement filed on Monday."

[The fraud perpetrated upon investors is estimated at $11 billion. This fine imposed by the SEC, with no requirement for an admission of wrongdoing, sends the message that downside risk is less than 5% _if_ you get caught in a fraud upon investors.]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030519/ts_nm/worl...

***********

Mark McBride May 20 2003, 11:59 pm
Subject: Re: First, admit you have a problem (Was: SEC's Donaldson caught in public lie)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former senior vice president of HotJobs.com Inc., accused of buying stock in the company before the online job finder publicly announced a merger in 2001, has agreed to settled insider trading allegations, U.S. securities regulators said on Tuesday. David Carvajal, 32, agreed to pay $32,398 to settle allegations of insider trading while knowing nonpublic material information, without admitting or denying any wrongdoing, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030520/wr_nm/tech...

*************

Mark McBride May 22 2003, 10:47 am
Subject: Re: First, admit you have a problem (Was: SEC's Donaldson caught in public lie)

A good editorial from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0503/21mci.html

If Mr. Donaldson and the SEC continue with the wrist-slapping, and the backroom settlements the dishonesty on Wall Street will continue and this thread ought to grow to a few megabytes in a very short while.

Mr. Donaldson, despite the old school ties, the dishonest are not "little lambs who have lost their way, baaa, baaa, baaa" they are wolves who have torn the fabric of the American economic system for their own greed and benefit, doing more damage to the U.S. way of life than any members of al Qaeda ever did flying tin into stone.

***********

Mark McBride May 24 2003, 7:09 pm
Subject: Re: First, admit you have a problem (Was: SEC's Donaldson caught in public lie)


"PricewaterhouseCoopers, the nation's largest accounting firm, has agreed to pay $1 million to settle federal regulators' accusations that the firm acted improperly during a 1997 audit of a telecommunications company [SmarTalk], the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday.

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"In a statement released yesterday, PricewaterhouseCoopers, which did not acknowledge any wrongdoing, said: 'PricewaterhouseCoopers is pleased to have resolved this matter with the S.E.C. The S.E.C. agreement pertains to a matter that dates to 1998. We are fully complying with all provisions of the agreement.'"

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/23/business/23ACCO.html

I'll bet they were pleased: They screwed investors and the S.E.C. gave them the usual "slap on the hand" job and a tongue lashing. But at least the corporate private sectors jobs for former S.E.C. lawyers and accountants will be secure. Don't want to put potential employers out of business, do we?

The federal government and Wall Street still haven't explained the airline stock "put options" or short-selling in the weeks prior to 9/11, do you still believe that Wall Street brokerage firms are trustworthy?

[Update 4/24/2005: The biggest blowjob since Lewinski did Clinton -- "America's investors have been enormously well-served by Steve's keen intellect, superb judgment and abiding sense of justice," SEC Chairman William H. Donaldson said. "He is what every prosecutor should be: tough but fair." Comments by Donaldson on the resignation of the SEC's lead prosecutor, Stephen M. Cutler, 43. In the Washington Post report, Cutler neither admitted nor denied he'd had job offers from firms on Wall Street. The resignation announcement by Cutler came just days before the release of a scathing General Accounting Office report that said the SEC dropped the ball on mutual fund trading abuses.]

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Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

A nar git, a kluger nemt. -- A fool gives; a wise man takes

The high price of college textbooks: Who's to blame?

Since at least as early as 2003, there has been a growing movement in academia to force book publishers to offer lower-priced college textbooks.

The movement is supported by various segments of PIRG, Public Interest Research Group, which claim the average student spends $900 a year on textbooks. Yesterday, reports the Boston Globe's David Mehegan, some 700 math and physics professors at more than 150 colleges nationwide peppered one publisher -- Thomson Learning -- with letters demanding it lower textbook prices and offer its books online or in some kind of e-book format.

The Association of American Publishers believes PIRG is exaggerating the average cost of textbooks. In a press release it obviously put out in response to the action, AAP writes: "No other source is available to support this assertion. Research by Student Monitor says the average four-year undergraduate spends approximately $625 a year on textbooks. Textbook spending equals six cents of the average student's education dollar, according to the College Board."

I don't know where PIRG gets its $900 a year number either. It seems low to me, considering the average undergraduate student buys at least 10 textbooks a year if he or she signs up for at least five classes each in fall and spring semester. Some students, myself included, attend summer sessions. Many classes have more than one book. And textbook prices for graduate students are generally priced higher than for undergraduates as I recall from my graduate school days nearly 20 years ago. The textbook for my Emergency Medical Technician course in 2000 was nearly $100, and the accompanying workbook was $40.

So who's to blame for the high price of college textbooks? On October 25, 2003, the New York Times laid the blame squarely -- and wrongly -- at the feet of publishers. It editorialized:

High-Priced College Textbooks

Many outstanding students do not even apply to college because their families cannot afford the soaring cost of tuition. The most determined students make the leap by borrowing steeply and working long hours. Still, they struggle to pay for textbooks, which can cost nearly $1,000 per year.

These hard-pressed students were understandably vexed by the news that publishers who charge $120 for a textbook in this country sell the same book at half that price abroad. The publishers argue that niche books, printed in small lots, are expensive by definition. The publishers also assert that they have to lower prices abroad to sell any books there at all.

The economics of specialized, small-run books are indeed difficult. But a recent article by The Times's Tamar Lewin suggests that the publishers are driving up textbook costs wherever they can, often with the help of colleges and professors. For example, bookstores now sell bundled academic products that include a main textbook and as many as five supplements ­ including study guides and CD-ROM's ­ that are rarely sold separately.

Now that the cat is out of bag, book publishers will have to moderate their prices in this country or risk mass defections to foreign markets. Colleges also have a role to play in keeping book prices under control. Professors should change textbooks only when necessary ­ not just because a nearly identical new edition comes on the market ­ thereby ensuring that students have access to used-book services on campus.

Well ... there hasn't been mass defections to purchase books from overseas markets like the Times predicted. But the problem of high priced college textbooks exists with no obvious solution.

As a graduate student, I took professors to task in a campus newspaper editorial for using textbooks they authored, thus ensuring they'd be getting royalties from some sources. But one professor, who assigned the textbook he authored for his class, defended his use. "Who knows the material in that book better than I do? I don't set the price of the textbook; the publisher does." Good point, and one I hadn't considered.

Professors don't have to assign textbooks. One alternative is that a professor require students to take lecture notes. That's what students had to do years ago when textbooks were few and far between and there were no low-cost mass production techniques. I don't know about you, but I don't take notes that fast. Nor would I want to generate five textbooks worth of notes every semester. I generated enough notes from lectures containing ancillary material as it was.

Some years after leaving graduate school I was named president of a computer software and book publishing company and I found out what really causes the high prices: middlemen, transportation costs and distributors. It's something consumers don't realize. I can understand their frustration paying high prices for college textbooks. As Slick Willie would say: "I feel your pain."

After reading that editorial in the New York Times on textbooks, I penned a response and sent it along to the Times:

This editorial writer certainly did NOT do his homework. The cost of the textbooks is driven by the wholesalers and the costs of distribution, not the publishers or the colleges. I ran a publishing imprint -- now defunct -- and I know.

Bookstores won't buy books unless it is available through a wholesaler. Wholesalers demand and receive discounts of 76 percent off list and want to pay 180 days (6 months!!!) ARO (after receipt of order). That's a tremendous financial burden on a small publisher. The wholesaler also wants the right to return unsold books or unsaleable books damaged by them or their customers. And the unwritten rule is that the publisher has to advertise with the wholesaler in their flyers, paying top dollar for advertising space in a flyer that has an extremely low ROI (Return on Investment).

I would LOVE to have been able to sell our books for $5 or less but we priced it at $19.95 and still went out of business with the top selling computer tutorial on the market (John C. Dvorak's PC Crash Course and Survival Guide). The first President George Bush learned how to use a computer with it, and the New York Times' Larry Shannon raved about how great it was. It was a great product that filled a tremendous need and it was unprofitable from day one.

The solution to the high prices, of course, is cut out the middle men, to have the book available in e-book format downloadable directly from the publisher to an electronic tablet. But publishers won't offer that because of the piracy that would exist. They've seen what happened in the software, video and music industries and they won't make the same mistake. Capitalism doesn't work when you are guaranteed to lose your shirt.

I'm sure the large publishers can take advantage of their size and sell direct to college bookstores. But the college bookstores will still demand a minimum of 20 percent discount off list in small quantities; 40 percent in greater numbers. And if you do that, you have to deal with problems of "equity" -- if the publishers are selling direct to colleges or individuals, the wholesalers or resellers will become unhappy. As a publisher, you see, your job is to create the product, manufacture it, advertise and promote it, ship it and then let someone else come in and take 40 to 76 percent of the cost the book just for being there in the channel.

The cost of publishing our little paperback book on recycled paper was in the vicinity of $3.50 each in the 5,000 unit quantities I was ordering. When we published a tutorial on Windows, the primary complaint was that users wanted the book filled with 4-color pictures of the computer screens. Printing color is expensive, and we would have had to price the book at double what we did.

As I wrote to the Times back in 2003, the obvious solution is to offer the textbooks in a type of e-book format -- my ex-sister-in-law tells me many of her textbooks in her MBA program at the University of Phoenix are e-books -- but publishers won't readily adopt that idea if there's a chance the e-book could be hacked by an enterprising and bright person. And college environments are full of enterprising and bright people.

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Deja Vu All Over Again: The International Monetary Fund warns that fuel prices will continue to spike as the capitalism-adopting nouveau riche Chinese buy fossil fuel powered vehicles, says the Washington Times. The residents of Beijing already are feeling the effect of pollution, says Agence France Presse.

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Angola Marburg Toll at 174: The World Health Organization says the outbreak of the Marburg virus in Africa is not yet under control. WHO officials are warning neighboring countries to be alert and institute quarantine measures if necessary. A variant of the deadly Ebola virus, the virus that causes the deadly hemorrhagic Marburg fever is not airborne. Transference must be via bodily fluids, including blood, sweat and tears but the disease has no cure and has a high fatality rate. This current outbreak is the worst ever.

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I have updated my post: "Fat like me: the new demons of American culture."

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Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

Esse est percipi -- Being is perception

Fat like me: the new demons of American culture

7 April 2005

I'll bet no one will be shocked to hear that large people -- the "obese" to the media -- are more apt to be treated rudely and with disdain when they shop.

I'm betting that because, right alongside the article containing that report from researchers at Rice University in Houston, were hyperlinks to three related stories about large people.

As you can see from the graphic above, each of the headlines is negative about a large person's size.

Zooming obesity rate has chunky price tag

State getting fatter fast, study says, and costs are piling up

... screams the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle

Study: Obesity Costs Calif. $21.7B Yearly

... reveals the Associated Press

Study finds that overweight Californians are costing state

... is the dire warning from the Sacramento Bee

I can just about guarantee you that if the networks or local tv broadcast stations aired this report, the view would be the obligatory file footage of the back end of a large man or woman walking headless down the street. That's what the local tv stations in Baton Rouge do, as do the network news programs. Every once in awhile they zoom in on a belly instead of an ass. And I can just about guarantee you that the Sacramento Bee, the Associated Press and the San Francisco Chronicle do not employ "the obese" -- at least in the editorial section. I doubt if the New York Times does either. Or even SpikeTV.

I wonder how much "small-sized" people are costing the state of California? They must be free. What about so-called "normal-sized" people? How much do they cost the state of California? And just what the hell is normal? I'm 6'4" tall, a white male with blond hair and blue eyes. I'm 50 years old and I weigh 330 pounds. I have size 14 feet. I can easily lift 100 pounds and, with a strain, 150 pounds, and my resting heart rate since I've quit smoking is 54 beats per minute. (I'm slightly pissed after having read the "obese" articles, which has got me thinking about the publicly acceptable discrimination of the kind that led to Terri Schindler Schiavo's condition, so my blood pressure and heart rate as I type this are probably higher than "normal.")

But this is me. And, to me, I'm normal. At 20, I was 185 pounds and boxing in the "light heavyweight" weight class at the U.S. Naval Academy. I was rail thin then and that was normal then. Normal now is me with a belly like Homer Simpson. I'll live longer if I'm thinner? If I live longer, I'll cost the state. The state ought to pay me for being large. I'm descended from Irish farmers, English aristocrats, Scottish warriors, German peddlers and Nordic raiders, among God only knows who else. My parents were large. I'm large. And don't forget APES. My ancestor was a big hairy ape that could kick the ass of the smaller monkeys. (Which may be why their ancestors probably want to get back at me and my "normal" kind today.)

For some reason, the culture pundits of today -- hoping to sell diets, fashion, infomercial snake oil and exercise machines -- want us all to be the same size. Different sexual preferences are okay, just so long as we're the same size. The airlines love that approach, because they can make the seats smaller and sell more seats. Who cares if a passenger dies of a blood clot. Detroit loves it because then they can make a smaller car, use less materials and make a bigger profit. The Japanese are small. Caucasian Americans are not. FACT OF LIFE. FACT OF GENETICS. And don't get me talking about toilets. A toilet built for a 10 year old child is NOT built for a 50 year old man -- and why they put them in truck stops with the assumption that everyone who uses the toilet will be a 10-year-old in a wheelchair is beyond my understanding.

Now I could get out and exercise after I get back from driving at 3 a.m., but I live in the poorer section of Baton Rouge. There is no YMCA in north Baton Rouge. You could drive the Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway, connect in to Scenic Highway and travel it all the way to St. Franscisville 35 miles up the road and not find a YMCA. All the Y's are in south Baton Rouge where the money is. But if there were a YMCA in north Baton Rouge, it wouldn't be open at 3 a.m.

I could jog. But no one jogs in my neighborhood. I've got bars on my doors and windows for a reason. Even Slick Willie Clinton wouldn't jog in my neighborhood without a phalanx of security. Chances are that if you run in my neighborhood -- at any time of the day -- someone will think the cops are after you, someone else is after you who thinks you just stole their dope, or there's a pit bull chasing you seconds from taking your leg off. Any of which could be correct. Baton Rouge Recreation has a number of great parks for exercise, not any of which are near my neighborhood. Yep. Right again. South Baton Rouge. That's where all the cellular towers are as well.

Diet would help. But the less you get, the more it costs you. Ask anyone who's purchased Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, or any of the other myriad "diet" meals. Carbohydrates are the sustenance of the poor. Rice. Spaghetti. Potatoes. Loaves but not fishes. But it's also sustenance I like, which is a good thing my tastes and budget merge. Thanks to Atkins, I can get 20 pounds of rice for $5. Chicken is cheap because everyone loves wings and that leaves the rest of the bird. It's filled with growth hormones to make the chicken grow faster but that doesn't have any effect on humans ... or does it? It must not, I haven't read it in the New York Times. I could eat salad. A lot of salad. I actually love salad. But I'm telling you now that if you drive a truck for a living in Louisiana where Democratic Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has closed nearly all the rest areas and you eat salad, you'd better bring several pairs of "Attends" or "Depends" undergarments with you and leave your shame at home. Because what goes in, must come out. Tourists be warned.

Drugs. I could do drugs. Cocaine maybe. Or Heroin. Nah. Too expensive. Then I'd have to get a better job, get more drugs, get a better job, get more drugs. All one vicious circle. Ask Hunter Thompson. That was one skinny man. He cost the state nothing. Right? The kids can find on the web just how many Sudafed tablets they need to take and get high. I could do the same thing. Because it's like legal amphetamines. In fact, pseudoephedrine is a main ingredient in making methamphetamine. I'd have no finger nails because I'd chew them off. Not a problem. I'd cough up loogeys constantly. Coughing up loogeys is cool, right? I'd be up until all hours of the night and manic. But I'd be thin. And then I wouldn't cost the state anything, right? Right? RIGHT???

If you believe the mainstream media, only the "obese" cost the state anything.

Someone in Terri Schindler Schiavo's life convinced her she wasn't normal. The tv? Her magazines? The hometown newspaper? Her friends at school that got the lead from the tv, magazines, hometown newspaper that the "obese" cost the state? Whatever it was, and there were probably several culprits of culture, they convinced her she had an eating disorder problem. They probably repeated it often enough that she eventually believed the criticism and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Comments some unknown editorialist from the Boston Globe writing about (shhh!) "Terri Schiavo's affliction":

"Schiavo was an overweight kid who reportedly wept when she bought clothes, fearful of being teased about her size. After high school she lost weight, dropping from over 200 pounds to 150. When she was 26 she weighed 110 pounds. On Feb. 25, 1990, less than three months after her 26th birthday, she collapsed. Her heart stopped, depriving her brain of oxygen and causing severe physical damage. Doctors say the cause was a chemical imbalance that had been triggered by an eating disorder."

Well, maybe the medical cause was linked to low levels of potassium. But the real cause of her death was something else entirely.

Some kids take automatic weapons to school and terminate their tormentors with extreme prejudice. Terri Schindler Schiavo was so convinced she was a demon, she turned the weapons of fad diets on herself.

Michael Daly of the New York Daily News says Terri Schindler Schiavo "learned looks can kill":

Your straphanger's eyes go from a grim newspaper report about Terri Schiavo and the feeding tube to a subway ad for TrimSpa diet pills featuring an ebulliently slim Anna Nicole Smith.

"Be envied," reads the slogan.

The ad has pictures of Smith before and after she began taking the TrimSpa pills that enabled her to lose 65 pounds. You had read that Schiavo used another diet, NutriSystem, to shed 60 pounds toward the end of high school.

Tell me again, liberal America, that you don't judge others by the size of their wallets, by their station in life. That you're open and love to meet people of different cultures. Rich people, for the most part, aren't "obese" -- or hasn't it yet dawned on you that when you discriminate against the fat, the toothless, the people who live in trailers, the men who drive trucks and the women who serve you fast food or ring up your gasoline at the mini-mart you are, in fact, discriminating against the poor.

Let me repeat that in case you missed it. The "obese" are, in fact, poor.

Of course, I could move to south Baton Rouge. Or get a better job. People are finally starting to employ veterans around here. At least that's what they're telling me at the labor office. But then if I did, who the hell would tell you the truth from my side of the tracks?

Peter Jennings? Dan Rather? Tom Brokaw? Give me a break! They made too much damn money! And that's why you won't hear the truth from their successors. Priests? Rabbis? Imams? Preachers? Politicians? Lobbyists? You're killing me! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

I was sitting on the bench for 50 years, learning the game, going through hell and I couldn't figure out why. And I was driving the truck one night down a lonely stretch of road and I said to God, "God, I am sick and tired of sitting on the bench damnit! Play me or lose me!" Now I know why I was sitting on that bench going through nine kinds of hell and abuse from the evil and greedy and the corrupt of this world. God was waiting for the internet and I was learning. One aunt wanted me to be a teacher. Another wanted me to write. One uncle thought I was a warrior. One uncle taught me to fish. My grandmother was a tough cookie who didn't back down. I'm all of those and none. And all my mother wanted was for me to be me. Thanks to my cousin Dan, I'm a truck driver. He taught me how not to tip a truck over. And I'll fight for the afflicted. And I'll wage war on the comfortable. And I'll write for you. And hopefully I'll reel you in and teach you what it's like to not be you, to be less than you, to have less than you. To live from paycheck to paycheck. To not have benefits and to have false teeth because of it. To not be rich or live in a nice house in the suburbs and yet still, still be able to love what the founding fathers wanted for this country and for the world.

Had Saddam Hussein weighed 600 pounds, maybe President Bush could've gotten the liberal mainsteam media support he wanted for the war in Iraq. If you're a mercilous, violent, blood-thirsty, genocidal dictator, you can be forgiven. But if you're "obese," you can't. Because you cost the state.

[Update 4/7/2005: Tell me something I don't know -- A unit of the Federal Reserve says it has completed a study showing "It helps to be tall, slender and attractive." People with those characteristics were more likely to earn more money and get better jobs. Writes the AP: "Jean Seawright, a human resources consultant from Winter Park, Fla., said the analysis backs up what she sees in the workplace. ... 'It hurts employment in the long-run because there are talented people out there who are not tall, blond, slender and attractive,' Seawright said."]

[Update 4/8/2005: The Bell Curve Strikes Again -- Maybe I was a little too ready to slam liberals as being the only ones who discriminate against large people or who enjoy making light of the larger than "average." Maybe I just assumed that just because large conservatives Rush Limbaugh and William Bennett don't mind being in the public eye or because it was traditionally liberal newspapers and wire services that were yelling "Boo!" to the public in their efforts to demonize the "obese" and place fiscal woes on their shoulders. It apparently is a cultural phenomenon that crosses all political affiliations, or at least the newsletter of the Wall Street Journal's "Best of the Web Today" in James Taranto's report on "The Case of the Corpulent Cop." There's another instance where the size, age and sex of a cop might have been a factor, but Mr. Taranto didn't reference that in his dig at the "obese." When the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control develop a Color-Mass Index and a Sexual-Preference Mass Index to tell me what color I should strive for or if I should lean more toward sheep instead of women, I'll follow norms and averages he believes should be followed. Until then, I'll be who I am tall, blonde, toothless, poor, damn good looking and larger than life. Sorry Mr. Taranto, you can strive for average if you wish but the mold in which you seek to place large people like me won't fit. We tend to break the mold, and it's something other than size and weight that does it. And despite what you may have heard, the conservative label doesn't require one to be a bigot.]

[Update 4/8/2005: Marketing 101 -- Find a minor problem, magnify the problem in the eyes of the customer even if it means demonizing a class of people, sell a costly solution, try to sleep nights counting your loot. From the New York Times: "From pharmaceutical giants to tiny start-ups, the industry is spending billions of dollars developing obesity drugs. An estimated 200 possibilities are now in the research pipeline or under test among patients at dozens of clinics like L-Marc, according to MedMarket Diligence, a health care research firm. ... 'Everybody is just foaming at the mouth to make money' from obesity drugs, said Dr. Donna Ryan, an obesity researcher affiliated with Louisiana State University, which has received millions of dollars in government and drug-industry grants. Industry forecasters say that an effective weight-loss drug could have annual sales far surpassing the current best-selling drug, the cholesterol treatment Lipitor, which reached $12 billion last year, especially now that Medicare says it will pay for "effective" obesity treatments.]

[Update 4/11/2005: The Associated Press quotes Scott Krugman, spokesman for the National Retail Foundation in Washington, D.C., as questioning the validity of the Rice University study that indicates retail clerks tend to be rude to shoppers who happen to be large. "He doesn't think the study clarifies whether the store employees were actually discriminating against the obese shoppers or whether they were just rude across the board," the AP report says. "Krugman said the women carrying drinks might have been treated poorly because the store may have forbid food or beverages." It's probably about time someone put Mr. Krugman in a fat suit and sent him into a few stores.]

[Update 5/1/2005: Wow. Reporters are now writing that it's been known all along that "obesity" afflicts mostly the poor. "It's paradoxical, but for years doctors have known that the people most likely to be overweight have the lowest incomes. That's because fresh produce and other healthy fare are more expensive and less accessible in low-income neighborhoods than are fast food and other high-fat options," reported AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard. If doctors have known this for years, why hasn't your educated, elite journalist reported it? I guess the poor can't afford Slimfast and Thigh Masters.]

[Update 8/4/2011: A new study finds healthy eating is a privilege of the rich and that the poor may not have access to stores that offer fresh fruits and vegetables. Big surprise? Nope. Not to anyone who read this blog post.]

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Blog posts of the Day:

1. Late Nite Whale(?) blogging
2. Additional Whaleblogging

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Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

Haec trutina errat - There is something wrong with this scale

And I won't forget the men who died ...

When someone asks you who had the right stuff, you tell them Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith, U.S. Army, did. He believed in what he was fighting for, believed in who he was fighting with, and he paid the ultimate price, with his life.

If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I’d worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with just my children and my wife.

Because of him, say his fellow soldiers, 100 American fighting men and women are alive today and able to hug their loved ones. And 50 Iraqi insurgents are dead, many the recipients of hot lead from the smoldering steel barrel of a .50 caliber machine gun manned by SFC Smith as he protected his soldiers from an assault in Iraq two years ago. When the smoke cleared and the assault was pushed back, the 33-year-old patriot and father of two lay dying in the dust, his life and future ebbing away in the heat of the Iraqi desert from a fatal head wound.

I’d thank my lucky stars,
to be livin here today.
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can’t take that away.

In an unsent letter found on his laptop, SFC Smith wrote his parents "There are two ways to come home, stepping off the plain and being carried off the plain. It doesn't matter how I come home because I am prepared to give all that I am to ensure that all my boys make it home."

And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

SFC Smith Monday was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Bush in ceremonies at the White House Monday. It was the first Medal of Honor to be awarded in the Global War on Terrorism and the 615th to be awarded posthumously in the 144 years since the first such medal was awarded.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

"The Medal of Honor is the highest award for bravery a President can bestow," said President Bush. "It is given for gallantry above and beyond the call of duty in the face of enemy attack. Since World War II, more than half of those have been awarded this medal gave their lives in the action that earned it. Sergeant Paul Smith belongs to this select group."

From the lakes of Minnesota,
to the hills of Tennessee.
Across the plains of Texas,
From sea to shining sea.

"Scripture tells us," continued the President, "that a man has no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. And that is exactly the responsibility Paul Smith believed the Sergeant stripes on his sleeve had given him."

From Detroit down to Houston,
and New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart,
and it's time we stand and say.

"On this day two years ago, Sergeant Smith gave his all for his men. Five days later, Baghdad fell, and the Iraqi people were liberated," the President said. "And today, we bestow upon Sergeant Smith the first Medal of Honor in the war on terror. He's also the first to be awarded this new Medal of Honor flag, authorized by the United States Congress. We count ourselves blessed to have soldiers like Sergeant Smith, who put their lives on the line to advance the cause of freedom and protect the American people."

That I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.

"Like every one of the men and women in uniform who have served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Sergeant Paul Smith was a volunteer," said the president. "We thank his family for the father, husband and son and brother who can never be replaced. We recall with appreciation the fellow soldiers whose lives he saved, and the many more he inspired. And we express our gratitude for a new generation of Americans, every bit as selfless and dedicated to liberty as any that has gone on before -- a dedication exemplified by the sacrifice and valor of Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith."

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

SFC Smith's wife Birgit and daughter Jessica agreed that SFC Smith's 11-year-old son David should accept the Medal of Honor, on his slain father's behalf, from the President.

Thank you vets. God bless you. Welcome home.

Lyrics courtesy of The Lyric Archive. "God Bless the USA," by Lee Greenwood.

Save the world; learn CPR

Just about everyone has an opinion about the Terri Schindler Schiavo case. But this post isn't about any opinion; it's about who could have prevented Mrs. Schiavo's health problems in the first place -- someone just like you but with a knowledge of CPR, Cardio Pulmonary Resusitation.

It's been reported that Mrs. Schiavo's heart stopped and her brain was deprived of life-giving oxygen for 10 minutes before paramedics arrived to begin CPR and get Mrs. Schiavo's heart working. As you must know now, 10 minutes is a lifetime to the human brain deprived of oxygen rich blood.

But had someone been standing by who knew how to perform CPR, Mrs. Schiavo would be vibrantly alive today. They would have been able to keep the oxygenated life-giving blood flowing to her major organs. CPR should be a prime topic of conversation among the pundits who have an opinion on Mrs. Schiavo, and it's not.

Anyone aged 11 years or older is eligible to take a CPR class. These classes normally will instruct you how to perform CPR on an adult, a child and an infant. You'll learn techniques how to stop someone from choking, including the Heimlich maneuver. And you'll also learn how to use an Automated External Defibrillator, AED. These are machines you see on tv where the EMT, nurse or physician yells "Clear!" It won't start a non-beating heart, but it will use electricity to shock a rapidly beating heart pumping no blood and return it to a normal rhythm that is able to pump blood.

Classes are usually only a few hours long and are relatively inexpensive. The American Red Cross chapter here in Baton Rouge offers a basic first aid and CPR course for $45. You may find a less expensive class if you call around. You can also call your local chapter of the American Heart Association, your local hospital, or your state Department of Emergency Services. All firefighters know CPR, and you can stop by a fire station and ask them where you can learn the skills.

If you think you can't spare the time, think of how much time you'd spend mourning, knowing that you could have saved someone's life. How can you claim to want to save the world if you don't know the first thing about saving just one person in that world, or care about obtaining those skills?

You may never use these skills but maybe you will. And you can mean the difference between someone's life or death. Make it a mother's day present to your wife, mother, daughter or grandmother, or a father's day present to your husband, father, son, grandfather. Make it a "Family, I love you" Day present. Find any excuse you need to shell out the cash and spend the time. As the poker players say: Put up or shut up.

(In case you're wondering, yes, I know CPR. I learned CPR first, wanted to learn more and then took several months of classes part-time to become a Registered EMT-Basic. I took the class in 2000-01 when I was 46 years old. You are eligible to take an EMT class if you're as young as 17. Taking the class was one of the neatest things I've ever done in my life. And I know that if someone needs basic emergency medical help, I can provide it. Talk about empowerment! If you're reading this, thanks Miss Barbara for teaching this old dog those new tricks and skills! You're aces!)

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Bright idea: I've been toying with an idea to help alleviate traffic congestion and reduce fuel costs. Suprisingly enough, it came from a child's toy, a toy train. It was a pre-schooler's toy train set. The little cars on the train set were made of wood. They hooked to the car in front of them and in back of them with a magnet. What if an automaker designed a car that had an electro-magnet in the front and one in back. Currently, you get caught in a traffic jam and the car's moving slowly, it's wasting a lot of fuel just sitting there or creeping along inch-by-inch, as well as sending a lot of pollutants in the air. Many scratch and dent bumper-thumpers occur in traffic jams because people get bored and don't pay attention, and that slows things down even more. Or there's a breakdown because a car overheats sitting so long in traffic. There's always a delay between the time the drivers in front of you start moving and you start moving, and that millisecond hiccup for each car in the jam turns into minutes overall when there are hundreds of vehicles backed up. The electro-magnet, I believe, would allow all the cars to move along at the same speed with no hesitation and no accidents. I think this would reduce fuel consumption as well. Probably better suited to a hybrid or electric vehicle, it's something to think about anyway until my George Jetson air car is available or Paul Gilster gets us to Alpha Centauri.

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That might help explain things: Just got some startling information from some folk at National Defense Committee in the mail. About 25 percent of military personnel who try to vote are unable to do so because they receive their absentee ballots too late or not at all. This might explain why veterans, reservists and active duty military personnel have been getting the short end of the stick from politicians who've never served this country. Believe me, I know firsthand the negative attitude that some companies and organizations have toward veterans and reservists. Let me digest the info and I'll post some more on this in a separate post later. Sounds like a call to arms!

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Great videos on the street: Maybe you're old enough to remember the old CBS television show, "You Are There." Maybe not. It doesn't matter, because these shows are starting to show up on DVD and everyone now has a chance to see this wonderful series from the golden age of television. And you'll see many young actors who later made it big. Imagine if the Boston Tea Party were held today how it might be reported on the evening news, interviews with participants on both sides, etc. That's the concept of "You Are There." Each show was a black-and-white historical docudrama of a real historical event, reported by CBS's correspondents and anchored by Walter Cronkite. I don't care how old you are, buy these DVDs!! They're inexpensive and worth every cent you spend. (I found them for $6 each at DeepDiscountDVD.com -- and shipping's free.) You won't regret it! (And if you buy them, I'll be happy because they'll make more episodes. The only drawback is that the manufacturer didn't spend the extra money to have the programs closed-captioned or subtitled ... yet. One of their employees told me cost is the primary issue. Their toll free number is 800-356-0944. You might want to call and voice your opinion if you'd like to see their videos closed-captioned. A third volume of shows is planned for release around June/July.)

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The Voice of NEWS4A2, blood-sucking journalist: If you think I sound like Bela Lugosi but weren't sure, tonight you're in luck. If you want to hear what I sound like, listen to Marketplace tonight on your public radio station. I e-mailed them a comment about their recent report on closed-captioning and they called and asked me to record my comments for national broadcast. They didn't know when they asked me that I wrote this blog or wrote a post in the blog about their report. Hmmm ... I've told them and now they know ... wonder if they'll run the comments anyway? Why not? All the world loves a fool, right? We'll see ... or hear as the case may be. In case you miss it, not to worry. If they run it, I'll find a link on their website once the program has aired and on the web, and post it as an update to my original commentary of March 30, 2005. I'll make sure there's a transcription of it as well, at least of my words of wisdom.

I have updated my post: Here's my report on clo*(*($@#$%^@#

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Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

A child is a person who can dismantle in 5 minutes the toy it took you 5 hours to put together

The liberal double standard

It continues to amaze me how the liberals happily accept double-standards, especially when it saves their bacon from the frying pan.

As you might have read, Sandy Berger, former National Security Adviser to President Clinton, finally admitted culpability to what he was caught on camera doing -- stealing and destroying classified documents in an obvious effort to impede an investigation of "What did the Clinton administration know about al Qaeda, when did they know it and what the heck were they doing instead of protecting the country against terrorism?"

Berger copped a plea to a hand-slap misdemeanor charge -- "unauthorized removal and retention of classified material" -- will pay a $10,000 fine, serve no jail time but surrender his security clearance for three years. This, conveniently, means he will get it back just in time for the next election. Just as he conveniently managed to delay this admission and to hold onto his security clearance while advising Democrat candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election. And despite insider Democrat knowledge of his actions with classified documents in the National Archives building, Berger was being discussed as possible Secretary of State if Kerry had won.

Some ex-military folk I know quickly point out that had Berger been a member of the military and performed similar actions, regardless of whether it was deemed incidental, an oversight, or intentional, Berger's document-stuffing in pants and socks and destruction of evidence -- would be a fine of $100,000 and 10 years in military prison.

No wonder people flock to politics instead of the military.

As you might have guessed, I have my own suspicions on what kind of documents might have been of interest to the Clintonistas to the point their destruction must be ensured prior to any investigation. I wrote about it in my post "What the 9/11 widows never knew ..." but neglected in that post to add some salient information I had posted on the usenet in 1997 about some other missing classified documents ferreted out of the Department of Commerce over to the Small Business Administration:

Google hyperlink

CIA SEIZES FILES OF CLINTON FUNDRAISER

PAPERS INVOLVE U.S. TRADE MISSIONS
By Mary Jacoby and David Jackson, Washington Bureau, Chicago Tribune
Web-posted Saturday, November 2, 1996; 6:01 a.m. CST
Dateline: WASHINGTON

Amid a growing controversy over political contributions, authorities Friday continued to inspect contents of a safe with files that were apparently kept for a top Democratic Party fundraiser by an official in the Small Business Administration.

The inspection came a day after 25 of at least 40 files reportedly kept for fundraiser John Huang were taken by a representative of the Central Intelligence Agency, and are being held by that agency, according to congressional sources.

The CIA move raises questions as to what the agency is looking at and why. Some of the materials may be classified Commerce Department records involving trade missions. The confluence of foreign trade and campaign contributions is at the center of the current campaign finance controversy.

Meanwhile, as campaign finance took center stage in the waning days of the presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee filed a formal spending and contributions report Friday after initially deciding to withhold the information. It did not appear to confirm suspicions of political skullduggery voiced by Republicans.

A day after the CIA took possession of the 25 files, 15 others remained in the custody of the Small Business Administration's inspector general.

A detailed inventory of those 15 files shows they concerned a broad range of topics and appear to be briefing and background papers for trade missions. It is not clear if they were all collected by Huang, formerly a Commerce Department official, or relate to topics he was working on while at Commerce.

Several of the files detail efforts by U.S. computer companies to sell "encryption" software overseas. Those are programs that allow computer users to block their electronic files from espionage.

Efforts to sell the software have sparked a clash between Commerce officials, who want U.S. companies to profit from the sales, and the National Security Agency, which monitors international data traffic for law enforcement purposes.

The NSA fears that the spread of the most complex programs will hamper its ability to monitor terrorism, as well as illegal narcotics and weapons sales.

Other files concern the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the U.S. law that governs bribery of overseas officials. Some files appear to include classified Commerce Department papers, according to the inventory.

An official familiar with the investigation said Ira Sockowitz, special assistant to the SBA's deputy administrator, has kept the files in a 600-pound safe that he had installed on Aug. 2.

Sockowitz worked at the Commerce Department with Huang, and was detailed to the SBA from the Commerce Department in late May. He began working officially for the SBA on July 7.

Sockowitz could not be reached for comment at his home Friday evening. Rep. Jan Meyers, a Kansas Republican who heads the House Small Business Committee, on Friday asked the SBA to disclose more information about Sockowitz's responsibilities and background. The agency said it was doing its best to comply.

The request for the documents came in response to a lawsuit from a conservative advocacy group called Judicial Watch, which is investigating Huang as part of a two-year-old lawsuit that contends the Commerce Department failed to release documents on trade missions led by late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.

The group says the department used trade missions improperly to raise funds for Democrats.

The fact that the DNC reversed itself Friday after arguing it was not legally required to disclose the information is a sign of heightened sensitivity to the political consequences of appearing to flout campaign finance laws.

"The filing today is a purely voluntary act that was taken under political pressure," Democratic Party attorney Paul Smith said Friday during an emergency federal court hearing requested by the GOP.

Questions about contributions to the Democrats from foreign sources has sparked an uproar over campaign finance issues, with President Clinton giving a major policy speech on the subject Friday.

Last month, the DNC suspended Huang, a former Commerce official-turned-Democratic Party fundraiser. Huang was responsible for raising more than $4 million in donations, including a controversial $1 million from the Riady family of Indonesia and their associates.

The DNC has returned some of the contested donations, including $250,000 Huang raised from the recently established American arm of a Korean company.

Contributions from foreign nationals who do not hold green cards and from foreign companies are barred by law.

And in a bizarre twist, administration officials announced Friday that there were two men named John Huang who had regular access to the White House. The disclosure came after reports that Huang had visited the White House at least 71 times in the last two years.

The other John Huang is an employee of Vice President Al Gore working on the administration's "reinventing government" project, officials said.

The DNC spending and contribution report, meanwhile, illustrates a cash-strapped party that had to take out a short-term $4 million bank loan on Oct. 16, but lists no direct spending on the election efforts of Clinton or House or Senate candidates.

The DNC had argued that it was not required to file the report because the party had not made such direct federal campaign expenditures, but it reversed itself after an outcry from Republicans and government watchdog groups.

The report showed the party with $6.7 million cash on hand and debts of $4.1 million. And in a move suggesting a cash-flow problem, it took out a short-term $4 million loan from Nation's Bank on Oct. 16.

If the Democrats had not filed the report, it would have been the first time since post-Watergate campaign disclosure laws were enacted in the 1970s that a national party had failed to do so.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(C)1996 Chicago Tribune

[It should be noted that Sockowitz eventually was cleared of any wrong-doing.]

10b-5 is the subparagraph of 17 C.F.R. 204.10b-5 which governs insider information as it relates to the trading of securities. It also happens to have been the primary topic of a research paper of mine in graduate school. And who says graduate school is a waste of time! ;)

The perfect insider scheme is the trading of secret information for stock profit. Tips are passed from the CIA/NSA to corporations regarding technologies, methods, competitive intelligence, etc.

How could General Dynamics/Electric Boat build a better submarine if it did not have information of surveillance technology employed by enemies/friends of the U.S.? Etc.

The secrets aid the defense preparedness of the U.S. but it also increases the value -- and therefore the stock value -- of the concerned corporations. It would be treasonable to transfer that specific information to persons or foreign governments (See Pollard, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg cases et al), but not to transfer information on the company receiving that information to those who could then profit from investing in such corporations. E.G. One doesn't have to have access to the secrets to profit, just access to the information on the companies that _do_ receive the secrets and _will_ act upon them.

For instance, what if one were to have access to knowledge as seemingly innocent as the passenger list of the Dubrovnic flight? Those 12 CEOs from American corporations were being set up by Ron Brown to obtain rebuilding contracts. When the war ends and the bidding on the infrastructure rebuilding begins, which companies would have the inside track? And if you invested in those companies, would not your investment pay off when the contracts were let?

That's minor. Suppose you knew that the secrets of german rocket scientists were going to be given to Westinghouse to build better ICBMs? Or that Lockheed would receive information for its highly secret "skunkworks" so it could develop, build and sell to the U.S. government the U-2 and the SR-71?

Not saying this is party specific, but what if you were a financier from Indonesia or some other FOB ("Friend of Bills"), wouldn't you want that kind of inside information that would be almost impossible to trace and certainly impossible to prove? It'd certainly warrant a commission on the tip, don't you think?

Let's say you were the chairman of a large computer software company who receives such tips. You knew that such tips would increase the value, and therefore the stock value of your company, but the secrets acts would bar you from disclosing such materially sensitive information, such duty being required of you under 10b-5. In this case, the requirement of the secrets laws take precedence over the securities laws. And it's perfectly legal.

For background information:

In SEC v. LUND, 570 F. Supp. 1397 (CDCA 1983), the court ruled that information is "material if there is a substantial likelihood that a reasonable investor would consider the information important in making an investment decision."

In Financial Industrial Fund, Inc. v. McDonell Douglas Corp., 474 F.2d 514 (10th Circ. 1973), the court noted: "Undue delay by a corporation in revealing facts, not in good faith, can be deceptive, misleading or a device to defraud under the SEC securities fraud rule."

In Dirks v. SEC, 463 U.S. 646 (1983), the court held: "In determining whether a tippee is under an obligation to disclose or abstain, it thus is necessary to determine whether the insider's 'tip' constituted a breach of the insider's fiduciary duty. ... Whether disclosure is a breach of duty therefore depends in large part on the purpose of the disclosure. ... Thus, the test is whether the insider personally will benefit, directly or indirectly, from his disclosure. Absent some personal gain, there has been no breach of duty to stockholders. And absent a breach by the insider, there is no derivative breach."

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Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

A spy with flatulence will always blow his cover.

Coattailing on the pope's death

I can understand how the teachings of Jesus, Mohammed and Moses might easily have been misconstrued from their original meanings despite a written account of their beliefs. To see how this might have occurred, one need only watch the reports interpreting the life of Pope John Paul II and the maneuvering that follows in the wake of his death.

To hear the news reports, Pope John Paul II was an enigma. He was instrumental in stopping the spread of communism or he wasn't. He pushed issues of humanity and poverty or he didn't. Everyone has their view and will interpret the life of the pope to serve that view, regardless of how the pope actually lived his life or the views he espoused.

The death of a pope is big business and, like with any change in C.E.O. at businesses everywhere, there is an immediate movement by splinter groups of thought to bring their ideas to the forefront in hope of influencing a successor, to say how much that late pope approved of their ideas, to sell something papal-related or to let potential voters know that -- despite any indications to the contrary -- they are in fact piously religious.

Such is the case with the passing of Pope John Paul II. The press release venues of U.S. Newswire and PR Newswire continue to be filled with statements by organizations with one agenda or another to promulgate. The organzations paid the press release news wire companies to distribute their information to the mainstream media, business, politicians and consultants. The web now lets you view many of the same releases only the reporters used to see.

One of the first organizations to issue its condolences and agenda was an organization named Call To Action, which labels itself "the largest Catholic church reform group in the U.S., composed of 25,000 laity, religious, priests and bishops and 40 local chapters." The group said:

"It advocates reforms in the Catholic Church such as the ordination of women; optional celibacy for priests; change in birth control teaching; Church financial and leadership accountability; equality for homosexuals and minority groups; clergy sex abuse reforms; and focus on the church's peace and social justice teaching."

If there's only 25,000 of them and their group is "the largest Catholic church reform group in the U.S." it's no wonder their agenda hasn't been adopted by the Catholic church, which is comprised of an estimated one billion followers worldwide, a great many of which are not located in the U.S. Then again, one of the goals of the press release is recruitment because it contains information on how to find a local chapter.

One of the more dysfunctional press releases was issued by Catholics for a Free Choice. The organization's leader, Frances Kissling, wrote: "I have found Pope John Paul II's last year or so of public suffering more profoundly moving than any other aspect of his papacy ... As a Catholic who disagreed with the pope on many aspects of theology, I am grateful that he has given me something spiritual I can remember and learn from."

Apparently Ms. Kissling really appreciates public suffering because there was little else about the pope she says she appreciated:

"On the temporal level, this papacy was a profound disappointment for those who believe that Christ's message of liberation, human freedom and more democracy should apply not just to the world, but to the church itself. In the light of the pope's personal embrace of suffering, it is hard to reconcile his seeming lack of compassion for those in the church who have suffered so much at the hands of his administration: for married priests, for women who have lost their lives and fertility and health in botched abortions, for women who cannot feed the children they have, for theologians who struggle with many aspects of church teaching, for those who minister to people with AIDS, for gay Catholics who long to be welcomed at the altar, for those sexually abused by priests, for women who are called to ordination.... The list is almost endless.

These blind spots, where charity, compassion and justice are concerned, were not overshadowed by his public commitment to the transformation of unjust systems in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, nor by his episodic and selective commitments to human rights throughout the world.

He was a pope, but he was a man. He was human; he did good things and bad things. He had glorious achievements and abject failures. God has finally taken him home and, I am sure, welcomed him with love and compassion."

Anyone who issues a press release and pays to have it distributed on a press release newswire is paying to get some attention paid to them, their organization, or the product or idea they are trying to sell. Maybe Catholics for a Free Choice wants to increase its membership and grow into a humongous organization like Call To Action.

Of course then there is the release issued by the "Rainbow Sash Movement," an organization said to be composed of gay and lesbian Catholics. You can pretty much guess what their position is on the pope's passing. And if you see folk walking into church on May 15 wearing a "Rainbow Sash" you'll know what agenda they're trying to promote using their press release of condolence.

Many folk who issue press releases, including pious pronouncements of public grief, usually issue them from a personal standpoint, from their organization's standpoint or from the standpoint of the entity they seek to control. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California took the reins as spokesman representing something slightly larger than the House Democrats: "The world mourns the passing of one of the great spiritual and humanitarian leaders of our time, Pope John Paul II." I wonder if she has greater aspirations in mind than just controlling House Democrats.

Organizations that claim affiliation with the major religions issued their own pronouncements.

The Anti-Defamation League used to be called "The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith" until someone obviously decided that name sounded too Jewish for media and public consumption, but you'll still find that name under the meta keywords tag used for search engines on the organization's home page:

[META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="Anti-Defamation League, ADL, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry, hatred, prejudice, bias, Holocaust, Israel, democracy, terrorism, militia, Jews, Jewish, diversity, anti-Semitic incident, racist, discrimination, Holocaust denial, neo-Nazi, Nazi, Nazis, tolerance, civil rights, Black, extremism, extremist, hate crimes, skinheads, Middle East, Islamic Extremist, education, White supremacy, minority, bias, religious freedom, Constitution, religious right, Christian, free speech, war criminals, school prayer, religion, justice, hidden children, Internet, World Wide Web"]

The ADL issued a statement on Friday, the day before the pope died, that organization's national director, Abraham H. Foxman, would be available for comment. The statement said: "Foxman who has had seven audiences with the Pontiff was saved from the Holocaust by his Polish nanny who had him baptized and raised as a Catholic until his parents reclaimed him at the end of the war."

Maybe it's just my cynical view, but it sounds here the ADL is sending a not-so-subtle reminder that Catholic children survived Nazi death camps and Jewish children did not unless they were baptized Catholic against their will by their Polish nannies. I wonder how statements like that help heal any rifts between the religions, although I guess the answer to that depends on how often a scab should be ripped from a wound before it's allowed to heal of its own accord.

Most people believe in their own free speech but not the free speech of their opponent, which then falls into the category of "hate speech." They seek tolerance of everything and everyone but for those who they oppose. Some of the animals are more equal than others, George Orwell noted in his book "Animal Farm," a not-so-subtle allegory of communism and totalitarianism.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations stated simply:

''Muslims worldwide respected Pope John Paul II as an advocate for justice and human rights. His message of international peace and interfaith reconciliation is one that will reverberate for decades to come. We offer our sincere condolences to members of the Roman Catholic Church and to all those who seek a more peaceful world.''

CAIR describes itself as "America's largest Muslim civil liberties group" and said "its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding."

Many organizations must see the death of the pope as a windfall of sorts, to cash in on an expected renewal of faith or trinket sales, because many of them are offering messages of condolence along with hawking their wares. Ignatius Press, which calls itself the "largest Catholic publisher in the U.S." put out a press release offering "expert" commentary from its employees:

With the urgency of the Pope's health situation, media will be looking for reliable spokespersons available to comment and be interviewed on various facets of this breaking news, as well as on the comprehensive background and notable points of Pope John Paul II's pontificate. Ignatius Press has several prominent authors, researchers and experts poised to help in this regard.

-- Philip Lawler, editor, Catholic World Report magazine (published by Ignatius Press). Lawler has covered John Paul II's papacy widely, and has numerous connections in the Vatican.

-- Mark Brumley, president, Ignatius Press, and author on Pope John Paul II. He's written extensively on the Pope and has lectured widely on his teachings.

-- Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., founder and editor-in-chief, Ignatius Press. Fr. Fessio is a close friend of several highly placed Vatican officials, including Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.

-- Carl Olson, editor of IgnatiusInsight.com, and author of two recent Ignatius Press bestsellers, Will Catholics Be 'Left Behind'? and The DaVinci Hoax.

The press release from Ignatius Press also noted that the company "is exclusive distributor in the U.S. of a brand-new book on the extraordinary, epoch-making pontificate of Pope John Paul II, entitled John Paul the Great: Maker of the post-conciliar church (by William Oddie). In addition, Ignatius publishes a number of books written by Pope John Paul II, including Love and Responsibility, Springtime of Evangelization, The Jeweler's Shop and Mary: God's Yes to Man."

These are just a few of the press releases folk have put out for public consumption. I urge you to browse the press release wires yourself. You can't be a good consumer of news and information until you understand the forces at work promoting their agendas to the mainstream media and understand why you see what you see on tv, read what you read in the newspapers and hear what you hear on the radio.

People are going to read this post and claim I'm anti-Catholic, homophobic, chauvinistic, anti-Semitic, anti-Democrat, intolerant and anti-whatever-cause-they-espouse. And really, all I am is just a cynic when I read such things. I didn't go to church; I wondered what Jesus, Mohammed or Moses would've thought and I wrote this.

Remember I'm one who believes the world religious and non-religious should join together to find a solution to the causes that lead to abortion. I realize that's pretty audacious to suggest that folk might consider the life of the unborn children and the impoverished and starving orphans of the world more important than a particular agenda or pressing the superiority of one religion over another.

I can understand why Jesus might have gotten angry at the money lenders in the temple and at the zealots of his time, who he likened to "whitened sepulchres filled with the dead men's bones." I pray at night not to be a cynic but it is a sin I have yet to overcome and I make note that Jesus never turned his other cheek to the pharisees or the temple money lenders.

I'd like to offer a suggestion. The next time a pope dies, the Vatican should put out this announcement:

"In lieu of flowers and messages of condolence that really are designed to promote your agenda and sell your products rather than honor the memory of the dead, the family of man requests that you love yourself and that you love one another as you love yourself. Seek truth and freedom for all; peace will follow. Be charitable. Forgive as you would seek forgiveness for your own wrongs. Be a friend to strangers, your family and your friends. Strive to make friends with your enemies. If you fail, strive some more until you succeed. And remember when you drive down the street in your Mercedes with a fish symbol on the trunk and a bible in your back window that you might be blessed but it's still easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. It's a fact of life we all die."

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Score a coups for CBS; blood helps: CBS was able to collar Polish-born diplomat and former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski for a discussion at Bob Schieffer's Face the Nation on the death of the Polish-born Pope John Paul II. Dr. Brzezinski, who knew the pope and was NSA under Pres. Jimmy Carter, is father to Mika Brzezinski who works for CBS News as a correspondent and sometimes anchor. Do you think that family connections can help one get and maintain a post in the mainsteam media business?

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Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.