4-30, Monday

Dry, Dry Dry

Another dry and smoky day. We hover in the high 80s and already have had our first 90-degree day. But it remains cool in the early morning and humidity has not yet been oppressive. But soon.

Looking at the National Weather Service I see that we had a cool April with really warm weather only the last week of the month. We had some really cold weather in the middle of the month that brought down the monthly average. But our average temp over the last year remains above average. And dry. Rainfall is 70% below average for 2007 so far — half a foot deficit after just 4 months. NWS offers a cheery summer forecast:

SEASONAL OUTLOOK… THE OFFICIAL FORECAST FOR THE MONTHS OF MAY THROUGH JULY CALLS FOR A GREATER CHANGE OF ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND A NEAR EQUAL CHANCE OF ABOVE OR BELOW NORMAL RAINFALL. SINCE THERE IS A LOW CHANCE OF INCREASED RAINFALL OVER OUR AREA…IT IS LIKELY THAT PROLONGED DROUGHT CONDITIONS WILL PERSIST ACROSS THE AREA INTO THE EARLY PART OF SUMMER.

Something to look forward to. Just how bad it is can be seen in this Jeff Gammons photo of Lake Okeechobee

Actually, they are closer to normal rainfall totals than we are.

Another World

The Wall Street Journal, a stimulating and responsible paper outside of its editorial pages, looks at real CEO compensation. That is, what is paid beyond salary. The numbers and perks really are beyond imagination for we mere mortals making 5- or low 6-figure salaries. At the top of the WSJ list is the Merrill Lynch CEO at $91.38 million. Looks more impressive when you include all the zeros: $91,380,000. If you just look at his salary of $700,000 you would think it a reasonable sum. But he gets so much more: a cash bonus of $18.5 million, $1.95 million for his pension plan, and stock options worth more than $68 million. And these worthy amounts do not include his car compensation of $212,000 and his aircraft allowance of $149,000. Should he retire at age 55, the present value of his retirement plan is more than $24 million.

Yeah, sure, he brings value to his company and, in turn, to the American economy. Yeah, sure, we need rewards commensurate with talent and success. But the Democrat in me leads me immediately to think of this when I see these kinds of salaries:

In 2005 we saw GDP growth of 3.2% and productivity gains of 2.1%. Yet the bottom 90% of workers actually lost income (-0.6%). That is, when you add up the income of everyone who made less than a six-figure salary in 2005 and calculate the effect of inflation on that figure, the total salary is less than it was a year earlier.

Only those in the top 10% ($125,000 and up in household income) and especially the top 1% ($1.8 million and up) saw substantial gains. To find a CEO on the WSJ list merely in the top 1% of income earners you’ll have scroll all the way down to the bottom where dwells those for whom income is just the slightest contribution to their wealth.

You can see as well how skewed the growth is as well. The 95th-99th percentile group (starting at $166,000) saw double the growth as the 90th percentile, 99th+ percentile nearly double the growth of the group below and the top .5% enjoyed income growth more than double the high flyers just below them and 8 times higher than those making a mere $125K/year.

Where is the Vast Wealth the U.S. Generates Going?

A good question. Recent data from Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Congressional Budget Office reveals the answer to this question.

Figure A shows that a larger percentage of corporate income is going into profits and interest. A firm must spend less on employee compensation to allot more to capital income. A smaller percentage goes into employee compensation even though each dollar spent on compensation produces more value for the corporation than that same dollar yielded only the year before.

Since the top 1% of earners own a disproportionate share of capital assets, this redistribution of corporate income disproportionately benefits the richest of Americans. We can see that in Figure B.

Capital income is not just concentrated in the top 1% of earners, but is becoming increasingly so. Note the rise of the angle of growth. The increase in the concentration of capital income between 2000 and 2004 grew as quickly as it did in the preceding 11-year period (1989-2000). And look at the percentages. Nearly 6 of every 10 dollars in capital income goes to 1% of American citizens.

Who needs unions when we have our CEOs looking out for our best interests?

Where Are You?

—From U.S. Census Bureau via JEC Democrats

You can find an excellent discussion of income distribution at VisualizingEconomics.com

4-28 & 4-29, Saturday & Sunday

Fiddler on the Roof

Betty Anne told us a story of a Baptist church in her hometown doing Fiddler on the Roof.

We laughed at the idea of this.  A musical about a Jewish shtetl resident who actually was a milkman rather than a fiddler, per se.  But what would Baptists see as attractive in a musical play that takes as a significant plot device the threat of annihilation by their protestant neighbors? In this the characters lament the outcome of their protestant countrymen’s murderous rage, fleeing their village as the only way to avoid Christian murderers.

Soon I’ll be a stranger in a strange new place,
Searching for an old familiar face
>From Anatevka.

I belong in Anatevka,
Tumble-down, work-a-day Anatevka.
Dear little village, little town of mine

Not to mention a Baptist congregant leaping around singing “If I Were a Rich Man”.

The most important men in town would come to fawn on me!
They would ask me to advise them,
Like a Solomon the Wise.
“If you please, Reb Tevye…”
“Pardon me, Reb Tevye…”
Posing problems that would cross a rabbi’s eyes!

A common Baptist expression, “that is a problem that would cross a rabbi’s eyes!”

A Pentacostal’s explanation of Fiddler’s attraction focuses on her own rejection of sectarian tradition amongst Christians. A Google search shows hundreds of Baptist churches and schools doing Fiddler.  And a Christian cinema site promoting Fiddler as

hauntingly beautiful. And despite the serious subject matter, the film is quite comedic in parts.

Focusing on the more universal aspects of this musical, obscuring the more disturbing details.  Which I suppose is why audiences are able to entirely bypass the nastier bits of this musical.

Fire

The 68,000 acre Sweat Farm Road fire continues to blanket northeast Florida with smoke. You can see in this satellite photo just how far smoke from this fire travels.

Very nasty indeed.

Here is a picture of smoke at the site of the fire.

The Week of 4-23, Oklahoma City

This week I headed out to Oklahoma City to do some consulting work. It is good work with a good team of three people. My flight left at 6:15 AM so I could work half a day out there and you should have seen the people at the airport.

Took me thirty minutes to get through the security line and flight to Houston and to OKC both were packed. Times are getting better for the airlines but at the expense of passenger service and comfort.  I decided to check no luggage just to not stress their baggage handling capabilities beyond their breaking point.

I didn’t want this to be me and my bag.

I got there in time to get some of the seasonal bad weather.  A tornado went through El Reno on Monday afternoon, just west of where I was staying.  A nasty day of storms on Tuesday with an incredibly strong line of storms sweeping through in the afternoon.  Heavy duty winds and big booms heard through several layers of ceilings and walls. I worked reasonably long hours (past 6pm both days) and finished a day early.  Not much time for exploring the mysteries of OKC, such as they are.  But I have spent quite a bit of time in OKC over the years  — probably 8 or 9 months when you add it all up — and know the town pretty well.  I went to my favorite restaurants and enjoyed the mild weather when the tornadoes and destructive storms weren’t around.

Alas, I missed the OKC marathon.  No, that isn’t me in this picture.

4-27, Friday

The Magic of Travel 

I made it back home again from Oklahoma City.  I changed planes in Atlanta on the way back and look at these people waiting for their connection in Atlanta.

Do these travelers look absolutely whipped or what?  Of course, this is 9 AM and probably everyone already took a flight to Atlanta.  Getting up at the crack of dawn to get through security, walking sideways down narrow plane aisles, squeezing into tiny seats, barely enough time to wolf down your biscottis before the attendants are back through whisking up your snack remains. Then you single-file your way off the plane and wait around on seats with no backs for the connecting flight and repeat the process over again.

Commuting Again

Well, I’ve decided I will take this job offer to work for a business downtown.  So my blog title is no longer entirely accurate. I have mixed feelings about it, I must say.  I am torn between the freedom and flexibility I’ve enjoyed over the past 5 months but I also realize that if I had taken on volunteer responsibilities I also would have lost some measure of the freedom I have now.

Luckily I don’t really need the salary but it will be a nice extra.  I can always leave should I find it intolerable.  My schedule will not always be Monday through Friday administrative hours so I’ll be able to do a lot of things that need to be done during the week.  I attracted by the return to the work world and reattachment to that world but ambivalent about the time commitment.  Well, I can always leave should I find myself longing for my current freedom.

I decided to check on the commute downtown.  I checked parking garages downtown and our Skyway, built with millions and millions of federal dollars but never quite caught on with the commuting public.

Here is the station by which I entered the Skyway system.  You’ll notice the jostling crowds.

But it is lovely and clean.

We stop at Central Station where the two routes join.  Here the commuter should expect to see many people, at this matrix of commuters.

No one here either — at Central Station. There were several riders loitering around, including a couple of kids who were supposed to be in school.

I get off here for the 4-minute walk to my job.  This is smack-dab in the middle of downtown. Surely, lots of people here.

Some people out in the plaza, a man sitting in his wheelchair. But no one else.

This route does provide some scenic vistas.  Here the train crosses the river, affording a very nice view of downtown.

Some elements of this ride are immune to my caustic comments.

On the way back to my car and out of downtown I did actually enter a car with other riders.

Tourists, however, rather than commuters.

Good, I’ll always be able to find a seat.

4-19 Through 4-22, Thursday Through Sunday

Uniformly good weather through the weekend. We were busy entertaining a friend visiting from Chesapeake. She was down to attend another friend’s 60th birthday party. Got the carpets cleaned on Thursday. The cleaner mentioned that there was a lot of cat hair in the carpet. “Why” I asked him, “do you think you are cleaning our carpet?”

On Friday Betty Anne arrived and we attended our friend’s party. Supposed to start at 8 but Freida didn’t show up until after 9. Already we were approaching my bedtime. We didn’t leave until 11:30 — way past both our bedtimes. Betty Anne is a night owl and was just getting started as Marian and I were pooping out. So much for the social fast lane for us.

Before we went to the party we had dinner at a local restaurant.  The weather was so nice we sat outside.

Betty Anne and Marian pose for my phone camera as they peruse the menu.

On Saturday after our walk Betty Anne and Marian went shopping. In between stores they stopped at Betty Anne’s favorite fast-food restaurant.

Krystal has not yet invaded Betty Anne’s hometown.  She has to satisfy her pent-up demand when she comes here.

Movie We Saw

On Saturday night we saw In The Land of Women.

Written and directed by Laurence Kasdan’s son, this movie attempts to deliver big ideas about relationships between men and women but cannot rise above the perspective of the young and confused male lead.  The director does not seem to know any more about relationships than a typical 25 year-old.  So while the scenery is pretty and Meg Ryan’s house appears to be decorated in colors that compliment her eyes. But the dialogue reaches for meaning but never rises above platitudes and obvious truths.  Too bad.

On Sunday we had brunch at a great urban restaurant. Kathy joined us for lunch.

My, don’t I look old compared to my fellow diners!  After this we spent a little time in Fernandina Beach.

No, we are not riding the carriage.  Nice place to visit when there aren’t 10,000 tourists trying to find something to do and the temperature isn’t 93.  Then Betty Anne was back on the plane heading back home.

4-18, Wednesday. Emerging From Beneath The Rocks

In the wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech, a number of ideologues intent on scoring PR points at the expense of everyone involved in this tragedy have attempted to further their own arguments on looser gun control laws.

The editors at National Review Online suggest that

perhaps Virginia’s gun rules should be even looser, and permit licensed persons to carry concealed guns on campus. We understand the squeamishness many people feel toward this notion, but past school shootings have been stopped by armed citizens. In January 2002, a gunman at Appalachian Law School was subdued by two students who had run to their cars to get guns. If someone else had been armed in Norris Hall, perhaps Cho Seung-Hui wouldn’t have been able to roam it for as long as 20 minutes, methodically murdering defenseless students.

Some reports after the incident suggest the Appalachian Law shooter had gone through all his ammunition magazines.  He had no more ammo.  The two citizens confronting him were brave, certainly, but did not know he had already expended all his ammunition.  As a result, their brandished weapons did nothing to stop the shootings at Appalachian.  The editors know the contrary news reports but go ahead and claim the shooter still had ammo because they have an ideological point to make.  They only have to sacrifice truth to do it.

Still at National Review Online we have John Derbyshire posturing as if he was talking about computer game strategies

Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn’t anyone rush the guy? It’s not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness’ sake—one of them reportedly a .22.

Everyone can note that Derbyshire is not out on the streets confronting every street thug in his own personal quest to live up to the ideals of Rambo.

Ed Isler at Conservative Voice argues that

“Isn’t it interesting that Utah and Oregon are the only two states that allows faculty to carry guns on campus. And isn’t it interesting that you haven’t read about any school or university shootings in Utah or Oregon? Why not? Because criminals don’t like having their victims shoot back at them,” Pratt said. “That’s why the American people want an end to this ineffective gun ban.”

Of course, the majority of states that do not allow faculty to carry guns on campus also have not had any university shootings either.  But a full-blooded discussion does not project a clear, ideological argument so we leave this vital bit of the discussion unspoken.

Meanwhile Michelle Malkin, always the reliable incendiary commentator, puts the tragedy in the hands of liberal university faculty. She suggests that there is

 no polite way or time to say it: American colleges and universities have become coddle industries. Big Nanny administrators oversee speech codes, segregated dorms, politically correct academic departments and designated “safe spaces” to protect students selectively from hurtful (conservative) opinions.

Try this in a conservative college where students are not mollycoddled and, by golly, anyone even thinking about harming students better find themselves some more liberal university willing to facilitate their violent impulses.

At the bottom of this, of course, are the opposite narratives of liberals and conservatives.  Liberals construct a laissez-faire  attitude in society while conservatives are more likely to construct and react positively to narratives of strict parents and proscribed penalties for transgressions.  Mollycoddled students results in powerless adults with no reasonable standards, passively allowing violence without reaction.  Traditional values reinforced and practices results in limits and reasonable (from their perspective) rules that foster individual decision-making and positive actions for one’s own success and proctection, suggest the conservatives.

So we have ideologues promoting that narrative, oblivious or even contemptuous of this incident’s survivors.  Though they survived they exposed the impact of their liberal professors’ teachings or revealed their own learned helplessness, I interpret from these conservative reactions.

The cruel opportunism of these commentators disgusts me.

4-17, Tuesday

I haven’t mentioned the books I’ve been reading.

Returning to Earth 

I just finished Returning to Earth by Jim Harrison.  This book is hardly the stuff of Top Ten lists.  It is the telling of Donald’s life as he reaches death, suffering from Lou Gehrig’s Disease.  The narrative is divided into four parts, the first being Donald reciting his life’s memories to his wife.  Harrison is interested in characters living authentic lives, wrapped in the geography and culture of Michigan and, in in this book, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  The characters are influenced not only by those around them but by the weather, the smell of the soil, Indian lore, the bears and foxes and mice roaming the woods.  The New York Times Book Review does a good job summarizing the lessons of Harrison’s books.

1. Eat well, of course, avoiding the ninny diets and mincing cuisines that demonize appetite and make unthinkable a tasty snack of hog jowls.

2. Pursue love…no matter discrepancies of desire and age. Romance is worth the humbling.

3. Welcome animals, especially bears, ravens and wolves, into your waking and dream life.

4. Rather than lighting out for territory, we ought to try living in it.

5. And finally, love the detour.

The  Book Review also published a very unflattering photo of Harrison.  I would think this photo would chase people away rather than invite readers to pick up his book.

Not rakish, not inviting, not the photo of a reflective author.