WC’s Wishes for 2013

Despite the wretched outcome of his wishes for 2010, wishes for 2011, and wishes for 2012, WC will once again set out his wishes for 2013. While it is tempting to moderate those wishes, WC is not inclined to lower his expectations in the hope of greater success. So here they are: WC’s wishes for 2013:

1. Overpopulation. Yes. Still at the top of the list. The root of much is what is wrong and going wrong on this tired, over-crowded and badly abused planet. Back in 2011, we rolled the odometer over to an estimated  7 billion. To a deplorable extent, especially in the Western world, the rate of population growth is a function of religious teachings. The Catholic church and the Latter Day Saints’ crazed obsession with large families would be two obvious examples. When religious dogma have counter-survival effects, it’s past time to change them. WC calls on those latter day saints and infallible pontiffs to have a revelation: that further growth of human populations is terrible, and must be controlled, that more than two children is a sin by whatever definitions they use.
   .
2. Another repeat from 2011: the second great crisis facing humanity is anthropocentric climate change. The way things are going, to paraphrase Pratchett and Gaiman, we are going to scourge all intelligent life from the planet, leaving nothing but dust, cockroaches and fundamentalists. The time for denying man-caused climate change is past. Can we at least shift the debate about how to deal with it? The Arctic Ocean will soon be ice-free.  Can all the global warming-denying politicians who have sold their small, dark, crabbed souls to the fossil fuels industry have a look in the mirror and ask themselves, “Do I care about my grandchildren?” There will come a day when fossil fuel lobbyists and the politicians they have purchased will be held in the same contempt as Congressmen who defended slavery, or claimed tobacco was harmless. It’s past time to act. Why not now?
   .
3. Our government remains broken. For the first time since the prelude to the Civil War, a political party has set its agenda as obstructing everything a president proposes. Up until the recent past, the “loyal opposition” meant cooperating with the guy who, you know, won the election. No longer. WC wishes that the Republican-controlled House would, just this once, place the interests of the nation above their own failed agenda and  compromise. Obstructionism didn’t work. President Obama was re-elected. Why not try compromise as an alternative?
   .
4. Closer to home, the Republicans have gerrymandered themselves into control of the state senate. Governor Sean “Captain Zero” Parnell is in a position to force through his pet $2 billion tax giveaway to Big Oil. That’s on top of the existing state subsidies of 60-75% of the cost of oil field development. While WC has faint hope that common sense will prevail, it’s extremely likely that some form of change to the current oil and gas tax laws will occur. But if Captain Zero must give Big Oil a break, at least tie the break to the specific avowed problem: insufficient crude in the Trans Alaska Pipeline. Give a credit to the existing tax for crude actually in the pipeline above a 500,000 barrel a day base. Captain Zero needs to understand that simply lowering taxes will only benefit the shareholders; it won’t trigger new exploration.

So there you have it: once again, four modest, sensible and practical wishes. WC cautions against holding your breath while waiting to see if they come true.

Happy New Year, everyone.

2012 in Review: Remembering Those We Lost

We lost a lot of great ones this last year. Too many who were important, in one way or another, to WC. Here are notes and links to a few of them.

President Bill Clinton awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to McGovern at the White House. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)	George McGovern, the first presidential candidate for whom WC actively campaigned. An absolutely decent man. WC still wonders who the other vote for McGovern was in the Aurora Precinct.
Neil Armstrong (NASA photo)	“Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job.” Maybe so, but he was WC’s hero at an age when WC was really too old for heros.
Helen Gurley Brown, c. 1980	Helen Gurley Brown, author, editor, publisher, businesswoman and the very definition of a classy lady. She changed the public perception of women, and women’s self-perception.
Sally Ride (NASA photo)	Sally Ride, another class act among astronauts, she was America’s first woman in space, 20 years after the Soviets. “Ride, Sally, Ride.”
The Original Dillards, c. 1967, Doug Dillard on Banjo	Doug Dillard fused folk music and nascent bluegrass. And he brought a bit of humor to the far too serious genre.
Donald “Duck” Dunn – Photo 2007 by Rick Diamond/WireImage	Donald “Duck” Dunn defined the studio musician. A superb bass player, he laid down the brilliant open licks on Otis Redding’s “Dock of the Bay”
Levon Helm, 1975, from “The Last Waltz”	Levon Helm, perhaps the biggest loss among musicians. The heart of The Band, he changed pop music.
Doc Watson, Chicago, 1979	Arthel “Doc” Watson, master of flat-picking guitar and an authentic voice in Americana music. Endlessly copied, never surpassed. “Just one of the people.”
Donna Summer. Cover of Once Upon a Time	Donna Summer, the Queen of Disco, and the pioneer for many women pop stars today. She worked hard for her money.
Dave Brubeck, 2010	Dave Brubeck, who broke the chains of 4/4 time and was the inspiration for West Coast Jazz. His show in Fairbanks is on WC’s list of ten best concerts ever.
NEWTOWN SHOOTING VICTIMS Charlotte Bacon, 6 Daniel Barden, 7 Olivia Engel, 6 Josephine Gay, 7 Ana Marquez-Greene, 6 Dylan Hockley, 6 Madeleine Hsu, 6 Catherine Hubbard, 6 Chase Kowalski, 7 Jesse Lewis, 6 James Mattioli, 6 Grace McDonnell, 7 Emilie Parker, 6 Jack Pinto, 6 Noah Pozner, 6 Caroline Previdi, 6 Jessica Rekos, 6 Avielle Richman, 6 Benjamin Wheeler, 6 Allison Wyatt, 6 Rachel Davino, 29, Teacher Dawn Hochsprung, 47, School principal Nancy Lanza, 52, Mother of gunman Anne Marie Murphy, 52, Teacher Lauren Rousseau, 30, Teacher Mary Sherlach, 56, School psychologist Victoria Soto, 27, Teacher	We mourn.

Requiescat in pace.

2012 in Review: Nature Bats Last

However much humankind may injure and maim the planet, we don’t control nature. Nature bats last. WC continues a category of year end reviews introduced last year, noting instances in this calendar year when we’ve had to be reminded of that lesson once again.

One of WC’s all-time favorite books is John McPhee’s The Control of Nature (Amazon link). McPhee examines three instances of man’s interactions with nature: the massive volcanic eruption at Vestmannaeyjar, near Iceland, and the efforts to protect the harbor there from advancing lava flows; the efforts by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep the Mississippi River from changing its course at the Atchafalaya Channel; and the City of Los Angeles’s efforts control the massive mudflows coming down out of the San Gabriel Mountains. McPhee’s message is that mankind may have short-term successes, but can’t win in the long haul. Nature bats last.

Each year, mankind gets a fresh set of reminders that for all out vaunted science, engineering and technology, we’re here at sufferance. Here are some of the lessons for 2012.

This year, the list could begin and end with Superstorm Sandy.

.
But despite the incredible damage wrought by Sandy, it wasn’t even the worst storm of 2012. That honor goes to Typhoon Bolaven. As ocean temperatures rise from climate change, the consensus is that the severity of tropical storms will worsen. As ocean levels rise, the consequence will be more and worse flooding.

But there were other reminders in 2012 beyond hurricanes and typhoons that nature bats last. The worst disaster in 2011, the March 11, 2011 Tohoku ML9.0 earthquake and 40-foot high tsunami, spread massive amounts of debris in the pacific, and that debris is starting to wash up on the shores of North America. That debris is starting to wash up on the north and east shores of the Pacific, including amazing quantities of junk on Kayak Island in the Gulf of Alaska.

Tsunami Debris Cleanup, Yakutat, Alaska

In the Midwest, in a band from South Dakota to Texas, drought conditions are expected to continue, with the drought particularly acute in Nebraska. Georgia and Alabama, too, remain in severely dry condition. Episodes of extreme weather are one the feature of global climate change that essentially all of the climate models agree upon. Senator Inhofe (R, OK) continues to deny the existence of climate change, calling it a “hoax.”

The world set a new record for minimum arctic sea ice. Only 24% of the Arctic Ocean was covered by ice by mid-September, shattering the record of 29% set in 2007. The absence of ice increases the amount of heat absorbed by the water; white ice reflects far more light than deep blue open water. So the rate of warming is expected continue to accelerate. The Northern Hemisphere is losing its air conditioner.

We continue to run a series of uncontrolled experiments on the habitability of the only habitable planet we know. And remember, nature bats last.

2012 in Review: Examining WC’s Wishes for 2012

Once again, WC opened the year with wishes for the upcoming months. And once again, WC’s wishes and hopes were mostly dashed. But with just a week or so left in 2012, let’s look at the specifics (Predictions in bold face; outcomes indented below):

1. Overpopulation. Among the crises facing the planet is human overpopulation. During 2011, we rolled the odometer over to an estimated  7 billion. To a deplorable extent, especially in the Western world, the rate of population growth is a function of religious teachings. The Catholic church’s and the Latter Day Saints’ crazed obsession with large families would be two examples. When religious dogma have counter-survival effects, it’s past time to change them. WC calls on those latter day saints and infallible pontiffs to have a revelation: that further growth of human populations is terrible, and must be controlled, that more than two chldren is a sin by whatever definitions they use.

Not. Zilch, zero, nothing. Another 180,000,000 babies were born in 2012, more or less. More than half of them will never have enough food to eat. The closest thing to good news is that we didn’t elect as president someone who thinks their god wants them to breed big families.

2. A second great crisis facing humanity is anthropocentric climate change. The way things are going, to paraphrase Pratchett and Gaiman, we are going to scourge all intelligent life from the planet, leaving nothing but dust, cockroaches and fundamentalists. The time for denying man-caused climate change is past. Can we at least shift the debate about how to deal with it? And can all the global warming-denying politicians who have sold their small, dark, crabbed souls to the fossil fuels industry have a look in the mirror and ask themselves, “Do I care about my gtandchildren?” There will come a day when fossil fuel lobbyists and the politicians they have purchased will be held in the same contempt as Congressmen who defended slavery, or claimed tobacco was harmless. Why not now?

Not. Zilch, zero, nothing. The single glimmer of good news was some movement by U.S. energy consumers from coal to natural gas, an accident of the fracking epidemic. But fracking carries its own, very serious environmental consequences. Some wind turbines are installed, but the tax credit that encouraged them appears to be a victim of the fiscal cliff. More importantly, the climate change deniers haven’t shut up. Did WC mention we set a new record for minimal sea ice in the Arctic Ocean in 2012?

3. The health care crisis facing facing America threatens to sink the economy of our country. The Affordable Care Act remains the only half-way comprehensive solution presented. The need for health care is not going to magically vanish if Medicare and Medicaid are repealed. Passing a reduced amount of money out as vouchers isn’t going to reduce spending or lower costs. It is absolutely clear that traditional capitalist solutions are an abject failure in controlling costs. We’ve been trying it for the last 50 years and it has gotten us where we are. The neocons have to come up with  specific, functional proposals to fix a real crisis, or shut up. Not more of the same. Real solutions.

Maybe. A mixed result. The Affordable Care Act was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, to the horror of the Act’s critics and gnashing and wailing of Fox News. But the SCOTUS gutted some critical Medicaid provisions, and the largely Republican governors are slow-rolling the health care exchanges that would help implement the law. They don’t have a good reason. They just don’t want President Obama’s law to work.

4. Despite the Republican presidential wannabes’ lies, distortions and self-deception, President Barack Obama as a national leader is vastly superior to Mitt Romney and all the Not-Mitts. Despite the protracted and concerted efforts of the Republicans to blow up the economy rather than allow him to effect reasonable repairs, the economy has improved. He has done more to slap down Islamofacsist terrorism than his predecessor managed with two land wars in Asia, up to and including the assassination of bin Laden and the liberation of Libya. He has gotten us out of George W. Bush’s disastrous, ill-conceived and unnecessary war in Iraq. He has stopped and repudiated the use of torture as an instrument of national policy. He has enacted the first real health care reform in the United States since Medicare. He has saved the plutocrats from their own greed and folly. And he has done all this is the face of an unscrupulous U.S. House that would tear the country to shreds if it had its way. Re-elect him. And while we are at it, pitch the Teabaggers out of the U.S House.

 Maybe. President Obama was re-elected, whatever Dick Morris may think. Integrity still matters. Yes, the House is still dominated by teabaggers who refuse to come to grips with reality. Or learn from their mistakes.

So it’s another disappointing year. As was the case for 2011, none of WC’s wishes came completely true, but as of year end perhaps two are partially so. Two failed completely. Better than 2010, but still a disappointment to WC. Maybe next year.

2012 in Review: Politics as Usual

As WC did in 2009, 2010 and 2011, WC will undertake a brief review of politics in 2012 before we mercifully leave the poor, maimed calendar year behind.

Mitt Romney won something, anyway. Poltico gave Romney’s Jeep political spot, claiming Chrysler jobs were to be exported to China, its “Lie of the Year” award. Interestingly, Romney’s political ads swept the top five spots in Politico’s poll. The Mitt ran that kind of campaign. WC isn’t a huge fan of Politco, although its fact checking can be interesting. Politico, in its zeal for balance, gives time to fools, poltroons and liars. Paul Krugman’s criticisms are dead-on.

Fox News surrendered its last pretense to objectivity and journalistic integrity when it announced the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned the Affordable Care Act. Craig Silverman awarded the epic flub the Worst Media Error of the Year. Fox’s refusal to admit it had made an error may be the single most egregious blunder since the Chicago Tribune headlined that Dewey had beaten Truman.

Late last year, WC predicted:

Because the Republican Party and the conservative movement generally has been entirely captured by Teabaggers and Christianist theocrats, the very characteristics that will get a Republican candidate the nomination will lead to that candidate’s defeat in the general election. Barry Goldwater redux.

It took no particular skill to make the prediction. WC is pleased the presidential election turned out as it did. But it did take most of the excitement out of the race.

The U.S. House set out with only one goal over the last two years: keeping President Obama from being re-elected. To that end, they accomplished nothing substantive because it might, you know, help the President. So they failed at absolutely everything they attempted. The Supercommittee failed, too, because of Republican teabagger obstructionism. And now they have acute buyer’s remorse over the sequestration they overwhelmingly adopted. But not having any replacement strategy for their failed Master Plan, they are now leading the charge over the fiscal cliff. What was that definition of insanity again?

Closer to home Governor Sean “Captain Zero” Parnell’s efforts to rush the Alaska Legislature to a $2 billion give away to Big Oil failed. The Republican solution, a classic of its kind, was to gerrymander reapportionment, dealing the voters a deck that was frozen solid. It worked and, to WC’s considerable horror, Tammie Wilson is now his duly elected state representative, which is even more horrible than having John Coghill as your state senator. Say, Captain Zero, did you know that the State of Alaska already pays 60-75% of the exploration costs on the North Slope? Can you explain again why you and your custom Legislature want to give Big Oil another $2 billion a year?

And still closer to home, we choke on record and near-record bad air as a series of atmospheric inversions trap bad air and worse pollution at ground level. Thanks to Tammie Wilson’s cherished Borough initiative, the local government has been rendered powerless to do anything about it. The State Department of Environmental Conservation, which is charge as a result of the Borough’s political neutering, seems to have no answer beyond hand-wringing. ADEC has punted the deadline for submitting a remediation plan to the EPA. And now every dime of federal highway funding is in serious jeopardy. WC wonders at exactly what point adults will arrive to supervise the kiddies in the playground?

So, as you can see, nothing has really changed. Real issues, like firearms carnage, our decaying infrastructure and man-made climate change, are too controversial, too expensive or too complicated to address. So they are left as-is, with increasingly dreadful consequences. The Neocons in charge of the U.S. House obsess on income tax pledges and deficits, but don’t offer a meaningful solution to any of the real problems. Note to Paul Ryan: the fantasies of the late author Ayn Rand don’t count as “meaningful.”

And so, with hope but perishingly little optimisim. we move to 2013.

2012 in Review: Sports

The Big News in sports for 2012 was the NFL’s sudden realization discovery that football is bad for you. Specifically, that serial concussions work terrible damage to the brains of its athletes. Not that the NFL is actually admitting anything; there are lawsuits, after all, and we can’t have any damaging admissions. The NFL is overwhelmingly America’s favorite professional sport. But the cost turns out to be much higher than the extortionate tickets. Suetonius is still apt: Ave, Caesar, morituri te salutant. But you’d think we’d outgrown death sports.

The news for professional hockey, another brain-damaging recreation, would be equally bad, except that there isn’t any professional hockey. The NHL is on the verge of losing its entire season over greed. Again. If you are asking yourself, didn’t we just do this, the answer is that the lessons of 2005 are lost on players and management. You can’t blame that failure to learn on concussions.

Major League Baseball was badly embarrassed when the National League’s Most Valuable Player tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. He got off on a technicality – the chain of custody on the sample tested was flawed – but it’s not what you can call a “clean” result. Oh, and the Cubs lost. Again. 104 years since winning the World Series. But who’s counting? Luckily, the Astros were epoch-class awful, and spared the Cubs the additional ignominy of the worst record in the National League. Unluckily, the Astros jump to the American League next season.

This was a summer Olympics year, officially the XXX Olympiad, hosted in London. 204 countries participated, with 85 of them winning one or more medals in the 26 sports and 39 disciplines. WC didn’t watch them.

Another hero bit the dust when seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong was busted for cheating and using performance enhancing drugs. He was stripped of all of his trophies and banned from cycling. He maintains his evidence through a kind of passive-aggressive jujitsu. by which he refused to fight but denied everything.

And America’s obsession with professional reports remains just short of criminal. The average salary for an NFL quarterback is $15 million. The average NBA basketball player makes $5 million. The average MLB baseball player made $3.4 million. The average school teacher, a far more important and consequential job, makes a little over $40,000 a year. Think about that when you are watching the Super Bowl this year.

Maybe next year.

Happy Holidays Everyone

Pine Grosbeak Male

All the best to you in the holiday season and the new year.

WC’s Fourth Anniversary

According to the automated features of WordPress, this is the fourth anniversary of Wickersham’s Conscience blog. We’ll take a brief intermission to examine the statistics.

• 1,338 Posts
• 4,100 Comments approved
• 360,000 Views
• From 154 countries
• Most popular blog post
• Most popular search term
• Most continuous days with at least one post: 322 (and counting)
• First blog post

Certainly, there are mysteries here. What is it with trolls? Why is someone in Bangladesh reading this blog? Who is JellyAK and why has that person been emailing WC about gerbils for two years?

Thanks to each and every one of you who have spent your precious time reading Wickersham’s Conscience.

And we’ll now return to the regular maundering.

WC’s Wishes for 2012

Despite the wretched outcome of his wishes for 2010 and wishes for 2011, WC will once again set out his wishes for 2012. While it is tempting to moderate those wishes, WC is not inclined to lower his expectations in the hope of greater success. So here they are: WC’s wishes for 2012:

1. Overpopulation. Among the crises facing the planet is human overpopulation. During 2011, we rolled the odometer over to an estimated  7 billion. To a deplorable extent, especially in the Western world, the rate of population growth is a function of religious teachings. The Catholic church’s and the Latter Day Saints’ crazed obsession with large families would be two examples. When religious dogma have counter-survival effects, it’s past time to change them. WC calls on those latter day saints and infallible pontiffs to have a revelation: that further growth of human populations is terrible, and must be controlled, that more than two chldren is a sin by whatever definitions they use.
2. A second great crisis facing humanity is anthropocentric climate change. The way things are going, to paraphrase Pratchett and Gaiman, we are going to scourge all intelligent life from the planet, leaving nothing but dust, cockroaches and fundamentalists. The time for denying man-caused climate change is past. Can we at least shift the debate about how to deal with it? And can all the global warming-denying politicians who have sold their small, dark, crabbed souls to the fossil fuels industry have a look in the mirror and ask themselves, “Do I care about my gtandchildren?” There will come a day when fossil fuel lobbyists and the politicians they have purchased will be held in the same contempt as Congressmen who defended slavery, or claimed tobacco was harmless. Why not now?
3. The health care crisis facing facing America threatens to sink the economy of our country. The Affordable Care Act remains the only half-way comprehensive solution presented. The need for health care is not going to magically vanish if Medicare and Medicaid are repealed. Passing a reduced amount of money out as vouchers isn’t going to reduce spending or lower costs. It is absolutely clear that traditional capitalist solutions are an abject failure in controlling costs. We’ve been trying it for the last 50 years and it has gotten us where we are. The neocons have to come up with  specific, functional proposals to fix a real crisis, or shut up. Not more of the same. Real solutions.
4. Despite the Republican presidential wannabes’ lies, distortions and self-deception, President Barack Obama as a national leader is vastly superior to Mitt Romney and all the Not-Mitts. Despite the protracted and concerted efforts of the Republicans to blow up the economy rather than allow him to effect reasonable repairs, the economy has improved. He has done more to slap down Islamofacsist terrorism than his predecessor managed with two land wars in Asia, up to and including the assassination of bin Laden and the liberation of Libya. He has gotten us out of George W. Bush’s disastrous, ill-conceived and unnecessary war in Iraq. He has stopped and repudiated the use of torture as an instrument of national policy. He has enacted the first real health care reform in the United States since Medicare. He has saved the plutocrats from their own greed and folly. And he has done all this is the face of an unscrupulous U.S. House that would tear the country to shreds if it had its way. Re-elect him. And while we are at it, pitch the Teabaggers out of the U.S House.

So there you have it: four modest, sensible and practical wishes. WC cautions against holding your breath while waiting to see if they come true.

Happy New Year, everyone.

2011 in Review: Chart of the Year

The following chart, from New York Times reporter Teresa Tritch’s editorial of July 11, 2011, is WC’s pick as Chart of the Year. It demonstrates that the deficit that Neocons whine about so incessantly is overwhelmingly a Bush issue; the Bush tax cuts, which the Republicans refuse to repeal, amounted to $1.8 billion, larger by themselves than the entire $1.4 in new deficit spending arising in the Obama administration.

Where Did the Deficit Come From?

There’s a deficit. It’s a very serious problem. But let’s not blame the wrong guy.

You say it is unfair because it compares Bush’s eight years against Obama’s four years? Okay, double Obama’s spending. Oops, it’s still just over half of Bush’s.

WC’s runner-up for Chart of the Year is the Plutarchs of Congress.

2011 in Review: Nature Bats Last

However much humankind may injure and maim the planet, we don’t control nature. Nature bats last. WC introduces a new category of year end reviews, noting instances in this calendar year when we’ve had to be reminded of that lesson once again.

One of WC’s all-time favorite books is John McPhee’s The Control of Nature (Amazon link). McPhee examines three instances of man’s interactions with nature: the massive volcanic eruption at Vestmannaeyjar, near Iceland, and the efforts to protect the harbor there from advancing lava flows; the efforts by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep the Mississippi River from changing its course at the Atchafalaya Channel; and the City of Los Angeles’s efforts control the massive mudflows coming down out of the San Gabriel Mountains. McPhee’s message is that mankind may have short-term successes, but can’t win in the long haul. Nature bats last.

Each year, mankind gets a fresh set of reminders that for all out vaunted science, engineering and technology, we’re here at sufferance.

The list might both begin and end with the March 11 Tohoku ML9.0 earthquake and 40-foot high tsunami, which devastated northeastern Japan and wrecked the Fukushima nuclear power plant.   The tragedy has so far resulted in 15,842 deaths, 5,890 injured, and 3,485 people missing across eighteen prefectures, as well as over 125,000 buildings damaged or destroyed. Radiation contamination has resulted in a 20km exclusion zone, likely to last for decades. The engineering that went into the reactor and safety design was woefully inadequate for a foreseeable disaster.

The drought in the southwestern United States continued. From 2010-11, Texas experienced its driest August–July (12-month) period on record. Wildfires, crop failures and animal deaths are the worst since the Dust Bowl. Droughts also afflicted places as far flung as China, East Africa and Tuvalu, Micronesia. To some extent, they are probably the result of the extended La Niña in the Pacific Ocean, but the devastation, particularly in East Africa, is horrific.

In Joplin, Missouri. a devastating EF5 multiple-vortex tornado struck late in the afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011:

May 2011 Path of Tornado Through Joplin

There’s an estimated $3 billion in damage, and 161 people were killed.

Hurricane Irene caused 56 deaths and $7 billion in damages, with the worst of the damage from flooding in Vermont, which experienced its worst flooding in centuries. A fairly modest Category 1 hurricane when it came ashore in the northeast, it carried enough water and was moving slowly enough that it caused catastrophic problems. We think of hurricanes as a disaster afflicting the southeastern states; we’re wrong.

Earthquakes, particularly big quakes, are consequence of living on a geologically active planet. But there’s increasing evidence that some quakes are man-made, with fracking -– hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas – as a primary cause. The near-unprecedented weather extremes in 2011 – flood, drought, heat waves, tropical storms – may be the result of anthropogenic climate change. Warmer air carries more water, contains more energy and could generate more violent weather.

Death rates and property damage levels aren’t a particularly good analysis tool. There are more people and more improvements to land every year. But if you measure weather by the number of hurricanes, the energy level of hurricanes, the number of tornadoes and the intensity of tornadoes, then it does appear that nature is batting last.

2011 in Review: Religion

As WC did in 2009 and 2010, WC will undertake a brief review of religion in 2011 before we mercifully leave the poor, maimed calendar year behind.

Reverend Harold Camping predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011. Oops. Oh, a math mistake. Reverend Camping predicted the world would end October 16, 2011. Oops again. Is it fair to ask why these folks are so eager to have their End Times?

God and Hate - Westboro Baptist Church members picket outside the Oscars (Photo by SnapShot Boy, used with permission)

The Westboro Baptist Church – which seems to be mostly members of Fred Phelps’ extended family – in its desperate attempts to gain public exposure, continues to act out hate speech at funerals for slain service members, celebrity events and any other occasion where they can show their hate. The U.S. Supreme Court conlcuded in 2011 that their activities were protected speech. Hateful speech, but protected.

Over 250,000 good Christians signed a petition to boycott “Homo Depot” stores. Of course, Home Depot wasn’t exactly singled out. The same group had pledged to boycott 7-Eleven, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Airlines, American Girl, Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Calvin Klein, Carl’s Jr., Clorox, Comcast, Crest, Ford, Hallmark Cards, Kmart, Kraft Foods, S. C. Johnson & Son, Movie Gallery, Microsoft, MTV, Mary Kay, NutriSystem, Old Navy, IKEA, Pampers, Procter & Gamble, Target, Tide, Walt Disney Company and PepsiCo.

A Gallup Poll conducted May 5-8, 2011 revealed that 30% of Americans interpret the Bible literally, saying it is the actual word of God. The good news (note the lower case) is that the numbers are actually down from the last decade. The bad news is that leaves nearly a third of Americans denying evolution, physics, geology and astronomy.

Muslims killed Christians. Christians killed Muslims. Muslims killed Hindus. Hindus killed Muslims. Catholics killed Protestants. Protestants killed Catholics. It’s a special kind of ecumenicalism, WC supposes. Oddly, all of these religions forbid killing.

WC is making his slow way through the first volume of Mark Twain’s autobiography – it’s not as much fun as you might expect – but came across this quote, which will serve as a coda for this post:

So much blood has been shed by the Church because of an omission from the Gospel: “Ye shall be indifferent as to what your neighbor’s religion is.” Not merely tolerant of it, but indifferent to it. Divinity is claimed for many religions; but no religion is great enough or divine enough to add that new law to its code.

Amen.

2011 in Review: Politics As Usual

As WC did in 2009 and 2010, WC will undertake a brief review of politics in 2011 before we mercifully leave the poor, maimed calendar year behind.

Politics this year involved less “hiking on the Appalachian Trail” and more Republican presidential wannabes. But it was depressingly the same as the last few years. Some low points:

• The Teabaggers controlling the House of Representatives demonstrated there is nothing – absolutely nothing – they won’t do in their efforts to defeat President Obama.
• Kill the economy so it can be blamed on the President? Check.
• Accuse the President of treason? Check.
• Refuse to tax the super rich who have bought their small, miserable dark souls? Check.
• Refuse to extend tax cuts to the middle class? Check.
• Refuse economic recovery bills because of the deficit? Check.
• Refuse to compromise in an effort to reduce the deficit? Check.
• The candidates for the Republican nomination have done themselves more injury than their avowed opponent ever could as they cycle through the Not-Mitts.
• Michelle “Crazy Eyes” Bachman clings to ignorance as a virtue, and by her claim that vaccinations cause mental retardation has made the single most irresponsible statement by a candidate for national office of 2011. After a brief stint as the not-Mitt of the Month, she fades to a footnote.
• Serial sexual harrasser and motivational speaker Herman Cain tries to substitute one-liners for knowledge. After a brief stint as non-Mitt of the Month, he “suspends” his campaign and withdraws in disgrace.
• Governor Rick “I’m from Texas” Perry briefly dons the Non-Mitt of the Month mantle, before demonstrating that ignorance combined with abject debating skills are too much even for Teabaggers.
• Serial adulterer, ethically challenged and Eye of Newt Gingrich dons the Not-Mitt Mantle, but fades as his congenital foot-in-mouth disease and voters’ memories trip him up. Shame on whoever it was that lifted up a rock and let this thing crawl out.
• The Republican situation is so grim that libertarian and Ayn Rand worshipper Ron Paul begins to look attractive, despite offensive racist newsletters and worse cluttering his past. WC supposes he is a Not-Not-Mitt, at least by his calculation.
• Then there’s Not-Mitt Romney himself, who dons and removes the mantle as it serves his convenience and the wishes of his current audience. This candidate’s only scruple is his belief he should be elected. Every other principle – no exceptions – is sacrificed to that Prime Directive.
• Because the Republican Party and the conservative movement generally has been entirely captured by Teabaggers and Christianist theocrats, the very characteristics that will get a Republican candidate the nomination will lead to that candidate’s defeat in the general election. Barry Goldwater redux.
• Congress is so far out of touch with the American public that Congress is at an all time low in public opinion polls.
• Democrats – progressives generally – are so politically inept that they cannot take advantage of the situation.

All of this, and there hasn’t been an actual, you know, primary election yet.

And five-sixths of 2012 will be given over the the 2012 elections. Shudder. And you know, you can be certain, that no matter who wins the presidential election, before 2012 is over someone will declare themselves a candidate for president in 2016.

So, yes, 2011 was politics as usual.

2011 in Review: Sports

As WC did in 2009 and 2010, WC will undertake a brief review of sports in 2011 before we mercifully leave the poor, maimed calendar year behind.

The Chicago Cubs finished 25 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central, in next-to-last place. Nine games worse than last year. Sigh. Bless the Houston Astros. The Cubs were truly awful. One hundred three years and counting. Some other National League team from the Central Division ended up winning the World Series. The American League continued to play some other game where the pitcher doesn’t bat. And yet another MLB star – this one the National League MVP – was outed as a user of performance enhancing drugs. On the brighter side, Major League Baseball survived another year with Bud Selig at the helm.

Ron Santo was selected to the Hall of Fame – the year after he had died. The Hall of Fame and its bastard selection process are despicable, as WC has argued before. But belated recognition of a great baseball player is fractionally better than a continuing exclusion.

Apparently there are other sports besides baseball?

American football, at all levels, was revealed to be a cumulative long term hazard to the health of the players. Repeated concussions, even symptom-free concussions, can cause very severe brain damage. Amazingly, this continues to be news to the National Football League.

Hockey, at all levels, was revealed to be a cumulative long term hazard to the health of the players. Repeated concussions, even symptom-free concussions, can cause very severe brain damage. Amazingly, this came as news to the National Hockey League. “I went to a hockey game and watched brain trauma occur.”

The National Basketball Association players and owners demonstrated that, no matter how many billions are available, it’s not so much that you can’t fight over it, killing the first third of the regular season. But it’s all right, pro basketball fans, playoffs once again will last into mid-summer. Presumably, some folks watched in 2011 and will watch in 2012 to see who won. WC didn’t and won’t.

Apparently auto racing, and specifically NASCAR, remains the most popular sport in the U.S. WC has never understood sitting in stands for hours, damaging your hearing and watching internal combustion engines waste fuel. Is this a southern thing? Is it a white thing? WC still doesn’t get it.

ESPN, the Eastern Sports Network, continues to believe there are no college football teams worth noticing west of the Rockies except Southern California. The Oregon Ducks didn’t help by choking in the BCS Championship Game. Boise State finally lost a game and, in sharp contrast to other 10-1 teams, was relegated to something called the MAACO Bowl, administering an object lesson to Arizona State. Yet EPSN continues to pretend the west doesn’t exist.

And despite the buckets of ink, petabytes of digital content and the passionate beliefs of a depressing high percentage of Americans, including WC when the Cubs are involved, none of it really matters. It’s entertainment. Sometimes farcical. In the case of the Cubs, almost always farcical. But passion is unrelated to importance in the real world. Despite what LSU fans may think.

Remembering Those We Lost: 2011

As WC gets older, he finds death is claiming more and more of those he respects and admires. As we head in to a new year, WC wants to pause and note the loss of those who in one way or another, enriched WC’s life. In no particular order:

Ronnie Gaubert, Self-Portrait	Ronnie Gaubert: WC posted earlier on Ronnie’s work and life. A remarkable artist and man, and a model for us all. WC misses him.
Vàclev Havel, 1936-2011	Vàclev Havel: WC studied one of Havel’s plays, The Garden Party, when WC was an undergraduate student. It was a brilliant send-up of Soviet society, sort of Mikhail Bulgakov meets Albert Camus. The play earned Havel his first prison term.Havel emerged as an unlikely non-violent political leader in the Velvet Revolution that overthrew the communist rule in Czechoslovakia, and in 1989 became the president of the country.
Cover of Steve Jobs Bio	Steve Jobs: WC has posted earlier on Steve. But will repeat here Steve’s words on death: Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
U.S. Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, 1935-2011	Geraldine Ferraro, U.S. Representative and first woman to be a candidate for Vice President of the United States for a major political party. She was also a successful prosecutor, tireless advocate for the protection of women and children and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. If Sarah Palin had an exact opposite, it was Ferraro.
Christopher Hitchens Lecturing	Christopher Hitchens: WC has posted on Hitch. Twice. Once on his death and against focusing on his Ten Commandments. An extraordinary man, and extraordinary life and an extraordinary body of work.
Jerry Lieber, 1933-2011	Jerry Lieber, the lyrics half the the songwriting duo, Lieber and Stoller. His songs included “There Goes My Baby,” Stand By Me” and “Hound Dog.” A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987), his lyrics and Mike Stoller’s melodies got in your head and stayed there. If the sky that we look upon Should tumble and fall And the mountains should crumble to the sea I won’t cry, I won’t cry, no I won’t shed a tear Just as long as you stand, stand by me
Clarence "Big Man" Clemons, 1942-2011	Clarence “Big Man” Clemons, tenor saxophonist in the E Street Band, and the heart of Bruce Springsteen’s band. His tearing sax solos helped define Bruce Springsteen’s music. Born to be wild, indeed.
Angie Ertter, 1924-2011	Angela Ertter, German war bride, godmother to Mrs. WC, mean harmonica player (she’s playing the harp in that photo) and unrepentant singer of German folksongs. Her family was everyone Oma could hug. And her love could fill a big room.

Others WC might name include James Arness,  whose television show “Gunsmoke” was one of the few televisions shows WC could stand when WC was a pup; and Gerrie Rafferty, whose “Baker Street” would be on WC’s list of all-time top ten rock and roll songs.

Correction: 26 Dec 11 – As reader Paul Eaglin points out, Geraldine Ferraro was a member of the U.S. House, not the Senate. Corrected.

Holiday Card #2

The late Carl Sagan created this, which captures pretty well WC’s view on such matters. It seems especially appropriate for December 25.

A tip of the hat to Gryphen at Immoral Minority for the idea.

Holiday Card #1

Happy Holidays

All the best in 2012 from Wickersham’s Conscience

2011 in Review: WC’s Wishes

Once again, WC opened the year with wishes for the upcoming months. And once again, WC’s hopes were mostly dashed. But with just a week or so left in 2011, let’s look at the specifics:

1. WC wishes that the Republican House and the Democratic Senate recognize that health care reform isn’t a political football, or a springboard to electoral success in 2012, but the best solution so far to the looming health care crisis facing our nation. 

NOT. If the Republican presidential wannabes are any indication, the hate is actually higher now than when the bill was signed into law. Not that any of them have a better idea. Representative idea: Ron Paul would abolish Medicare and Medicaid. If the patient has a fever, put him in the freezer. That’ll fix him, youbetcha.

2. The Department of Defense today is the largest single part of the federal budget. If the budget is to be balanced, it must be reduced. Unlike social security, which is funded, defense spending is a direct drain on taxes and the biggest contribution to the deficit. WC wishes Congress would recognize and address the problem.

MAYBE. A by-product of Congress’s shameful failure to deal with the deficit itself, either directly or through the not-so-Super Committee, is a pending, significant across-the-board reduction in the defense budget. The predictable pissing and moaning is already under way, and there are strong indications Congress will recant. But as of year end, an accidental modest success.

3. WC wishes that the Gods imagined by shepherds, nomads and farmers could see fit to adapt their edicts to a world with finite resources, doomsday weapons and horrific overcrowding. And that those Gods’ followers would then listen.

NOT. You need look no further than the sorry horde of Republican presidential wannabes, all of whom compete to be more zealous than the others in clinging to a pastoralist religion in a post-industrial society. Worse, they insist, on threat of citizenship, that the entire country give its unqualified embrace to doctrine that has the sun circling the earth. Iran remains a theocracy. And, with the death of Christopher Hitchens, our culture has lost one of its remaining voices of reason in this circle of absurdity.

(The next wish requires discussion of former half-term governor, Sarah Palin. Wickersham’s Conscience is a Palin-free zone. But to address those January 1 issues, WC has to make an exception. WC promises to be brief.)

4. Her ambition will force her to run for president, even though she doesn’t want either responsibility or the accountability that would come with the job. WC wishes that Palin would develop enough self-awareness, sufficient insight, to recognize Machiavelli is right.

MAYBE. Palin announced she was not a candidate for president in 2012. The world breathed a collective sigh of relief. Comediennes and a few Palinbots blinked back tears. WC suspects she still harbors dreams of deadlock at the Republican convention, and that she is somehow begged to step in. But, as of the year end, that nightmare scenario hasn’t occurred. Self-awareness and insight? Not so much.

So it’s another disappointing year. None of WC’s wishes came completely true, but as of year end perhaps two are partially so. Two failed completely. Better than 2010, but still a disappointment to WC. Maybe next year.

WC’s Wishes for 2011

Despite the wretched outcome of his wishes for 2010, WC will once again set out his wishes for 2011. While it is tempting to moderate his wishes, WC is not inclined to lower his expectations in the hope of greater success. But to offer some additional inspiration, WC will frame his wishes for 2011 in the great words of others.

If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”

- John F. Kennedy, 1960

WC wishes that the Republican House and the Democratic Senate recognize that health care reform isn’t a political football, or a springboard to electoral success in 2012, but the best solution so far to the looming health care crisis facing our nation. An imperfect solution, but the best Congress has been able to enact to date. Tearing it down will not solve the crisis.

---

  

Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

If the political power of the military-industrial complex was a problem in 1961, it is a nightmare today.

U.S. Federal Spending - 2011 Budget

The Department of Defense today is the largest single part of the federal budget. If the budget is to be balanced, it must be reduced. Unlike social security, which is funded, defense spending is a direct drain on taxes and the biggest contribution to the deficit. WC wishes Congress would recognize and address the problem. Sure, some defense-related industry in Congresssman Bushmat’s district will take a hit, but the alternatives are worse.

---

  

In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed”? Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.”

- Carl Sagan, 1994

The ongoing horrors committed in the name of God and what He has Told us are surely one of the greatest problems facing the world. Whether it’s a Muslim deciding his God has ordered him to kill innocents, a Catholic Pope inveighing against birth control or a fundamentalist Christian calling for superstitions to be taught in the public schools; the list of religious offenses against the world is endless. WC wishes that the Gods imagined by shepherds, nomads and farmers could see fit to adapt their edicts to a world with finite resources, doomsday weapons and horrific overcrowding. And that those Gods’ followers would listen.

---

  

For whenever men are not obliged to fight from necessity, they fight from ambition; which is so powerful in human breasts, that it never leaves them no matter to what rank they rise. The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that the desire being always greater than the acquisition, there results discontent with the possession and little satisfaction to themselves from it.

- Niccolo Machiavelli, 1517

Sarah Palin, Alaska’s very own half-term governor, is no longer obligated to fight from necessity; she has enough money and enough fame to be comfortable the rest of her life. As Machiavelli points out, she is now motivated solely by ambition. But Palin cannot see that she doesn’t want responsibility or accountability; it’s largely the reason she quit as governor. Her ambition will force her to run for president, even though she doesn’t want either responsibility or the accountability that would come with the job. WC wishes that Palin would develop enough self-awareness, sufficient insight, to recognize Machiavelli is right.

---

  

None of this is likely to happen, but it’s a new year, the occasion for hope. Happy New Year, everyone.

Sarah Just Keeps Winning!

Certain nattering nabobs of negativism[1] have pointed out that The Quitter actually won her Big Lie Award WC described in late 2009.

But WC is happy to report that even as late as December 22, 2010, our ex-governor was proving she still had what it takes to draw the derision of her intellectual superiors.[2] Mario Almonte, writing in The Huffington Post, awarded Sister Sarah Hubris of the Year Award for 2010. At one level, the ex-gov’s shocking, breathtaking arrogance kept it from being much of a contest. At another, there are an amazing number of arrogant politicians running loose right now, and some of the Tea Baggers among them could have made this a contest. Nor is Palin’s attitude hubris, exactly, although the flavor is definitely present.

Here are some quotes, with WC’s comments, from the citation that went with this award:

Last year, Palin’s assertion that President Obama’s health care reform plan would create government-sponsored “death panels” that could kill her down-syndrome baby helped fan the flames of opposition to the complex bill. She actually knew nothing about the bill – it is doubtful she had ever even read a single passage from it; yet, even while a barrage of experts came forward to systematically disprove the claim, she continued to proudly stand by her comment.

The point is not whether the bill was a good one or not – but that she maliciously promoted a blatant lie for the simple fact that she enjoyed the attention she got. She did not care to find out if the firestorm of controversy she caused was a positive or negative thing to the people the bill would supposedly impact.

WC would regard this as being as much utter selfishness as hubris. It was undeniably outrageous, and like most pathological liars, Palin probably believes what she was saying, even if it was patently false. In another sense, it comes down to that arrogant, invincible ignorance that she flaunts.

Successfully pandering to that fan base, she is now, increasingly, portrayed as a viable presidential candidate. Yet, rather than feeling the humility of such a possibility and being humbled by the enormous weight of responsibility the job entails, she has become emboldened and more ambitious, more crafty and strategic in her words and action. We’ve had other equally calculating and unqualified people in the White House before, but what makes her dangerous is that she does not seek the highest power in the land to change the world for the better, but to wield the power and to even scores.

That’s an exact and precise explanation of Caribou Barbie’s motives, but, again, it’s not classic hubris. Vengefulness is not a quality WC looks for in a president (think Dick Nixon here). It makes The Quitter exactly the wrong person to choose as President.

Still, it’s not WC’s award to give. And apart from possibly mischaracterizing arrogant ignorance and selfishness as hubris, Mr. Almonte’s description of her conduct and her motives is exactly right.

So congratulation, Madam Ex. The awards and trophies just keep coming in.

Notes:
[1] Vice President Spiro Agnew, vice William Safire.
[2] WC thanks one of his readers for bringing this tidbit to WC’s attention.