Archive - Sep 2008

Before the most recent Wall Street disaster, a friend sent me a link to a very in-depth NY Times article about Obama's economics views. I recommend it highly - it shows his depth of knowledge, but perhaps more importantly, his depth of thinking about these things.

One of the reasons I really like Obama is that he seems to be beyond partisanship in many cases. He certainly makes partisan points at times, but read the following passage for an example of something I would not hear many Dems say right now.

Earlier this year, when I interviewed Obama during the primaries, he was careful to say that he didn’t think President Bush deserved all that much blame for the stagnant incomes of the current decade. Income growth for most families began to slow in the 1970s, and the causes of the great pay slowdown were complex. Obama didn’t name them all, but a decent list would look something like this: new technologies that have made some blue-collar work obsolete; a slowing in the nation’s educational attainment; the shriveling of labor unions; the increase in one-parent families, which are far less economically secure; and the rise of other countries that have huge low-wage work forces.

In case you only care about taxes and rich people - here is the meat:

He would then pay for the cuts, at least in part, by raising taxes on the affluent to a point where they would eventually be slightly higher than they were under Clinton. For these upper-income families, the Tax Policy Center’s comparisons with McCain are even starker. McCain, by continuing the basic thrust of Bush’s tax policies and adding a few new wrinkles, would cut taxes for the top 0.1 percent of earners — those making an average of $9.1 million — by another $190,000 a year, on top of the Bush reductions. Obama would raise taxes on this top 0.1 percent by an average of $800,000 a year.

It’s hard not to look at that figure and be a little stunned. It would represent a huge tax increase on the wealthy families. But it’s also worth putting the number in some context. The bulk of Obama’s tax increases on the wealthy — about $500,000 of that $800,000 — would simply take away Bush’s tax cuts. The remaining $300,000 wouldn’t nearly reverse their pretax income gains in recent years. Since the mid-1990s, their inflation-adjusted pretax income has roughly doubled.

Hat tip to daddYman

I have long admired Tim Wise - a writer who should be more widely known than he is. I have excerpted the beginning of a provocative piece he recently wrote regarding the role of white privilege and the Presidential contest. Much of it is right on the mark, though I would dispute that some of the jabs are white privilege versus the bullshit of the right-wingers who masquerade as people of principle when many of them merely want to get in line behind their guy regardless of what he does.

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll “kick their fuckin' ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”


When you hit the ballot box this fall in Minnesota, you may be confronted by a decision on a Constitutional Amendment regarding funding for arts and environmental issues.

A co-worker tipped me off to this article on MinnPost discussing why we should vote against the amendment.

More information on the amendment from the MN Daily and MPR.

Here is the text of the amendment:

Clean Water, Wildlife, Cultural Heritage, and Natural Areas

Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to dedicate funding to protect our drinking water sources; to protect, enhance, and restore our wetlands, prairies, forests, and fish, game, and wildlife habitat; to preserve our arts and cultural heritage; to support our parks and trails; and to protect, enhance, and restore our lakes, rivers, steams, and groundwater by increasing the sales and use tax rate beginning July 1, 2009, by three-eighths of one percent on taxable sales until the year 2034?

Ultimately, I fully support raising sales taxes to support these causes. This is a good use of taxpayer money. But these decisions must not be written into the Constitution. They should be dealt with by the Legislature. I encourage you to Vote No though I do so with a heavy heart.

I have just posted photos from the Madison Ironman - where Kimmi, Laura, and Rachel whooped ass. Well done!

Flew into Atlanta today. Took the train downtown and found my hotel. I present in a conference tomorrow morning. I'll stick around at the conference Fri and Sat and fly home Sat afternoon.

My shark fin-less ankles are still a bit sore. The left has been especially tender. Nonetheless, I got up early to swim this morning - first time in a long time. I want to get in the habit now that Mac's pool is open. After 200 yards, my goggles broke! Doh. Swam a couple more, then paddled around with a kick board and quit early. It started off well - I'll get more goggles and dive back in.

While in Atlanta, I hope to get some reading done and get ahead on some work ... but first I have to present tomorrow morning. Woohoo.

Got the results of my MRI today. The right ankle also has a lot of cartilage damage - quite similar to the left. However, I think it is not as bad. Given the annoying potential of surgery, I decided to try a series of injections into both ankles that should help. Got both ankles injected with a goopy substance that apparently has shark cartilage in it.

This should lubricate the joints for awhile - at least that is the theory. I'll have three more injections over the next 3 weeks and the pain should be lessened. They have credible studies showing that this helps but have no idea how or why. Voodoo apparently. If it works, I'll take it!

So for now, I'm going to plan on avoiding surgery unless the pain becomes unbearable. The surgery should raise my quality of life but offers no long term solution. So I'm hoping the shark cartilage helps. Looks like I won't be an Ironman finisher anytime soon. Not that I'm jealous. Much.

Alright. I'm fascinated by the Seinfeld / Bill Gates Microsoft commercials. The second one just came out (first one is below it if you haven't seen it yet).

I don't know what it is, but I'm hooked. I giggled a couple of times. Most of the comments I've seen about them are that they are odd, annoying, and unclear as to what they are selling. I have to agree with the first and last points, but I would add entertaining in the place of annoying.

The first:

Kimmi is now an Ironman. We watched her kick some serious ass as she took 15 hours and nearly 22 minutes to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run a marathon at 26.2 miles. Unreal. Way to go kiddo!