The Light: Hillary

Sleuthy Truthtelling007 — who also runs CheneyWatch.org — spotted this Nightline investigative piece on the huge bonuses that top executives are getting, and which PBO is yowling about. Even Tom Wolfe, the famed novelist who wrote about corporate greed in his “Bonfire of the Vanities,” weighs in. But it is incredibly ironic that Nightline invites Arianna Huffington to condemn the greedy, she who would never be caught dead flying coach! As someone (who shall remain anonymous) wrote me:

Have you seen Arianna Huffington blasting Wall Street for their corporate jets etc. It’s hysterical since she never travels commercial- she married for money (and he was gay)- Only wears the highest of high designers- Remember when she was far right? Guess the money’s on the left now- Hypocrites all!

Then CNN’s Ed Henry takes a look at the defense of these huge bonuses, from the perspectives of Wall Street’s elite … and that poll is at the end …

Embedded video from CNN Video

While Claire McCaskill is not one of my favorites, she was right — if rather inarticulate — in her rant against the bonuses yesterday on the floor of the Senate.

But, let me ask you this? SHOULD the President and Congress be able to determine the salaries and bonuses of top business executives? Is this a road we want to go down?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

This piece is strictly a walk down memory lane and reflects on Wall Street interaction with overseas clients. A little something light for a weekend break. Enjoy!!

As a trader, salesman, and then sales manager, the most critically important factor in growing a business, and ultimately a franchise, was the development of deep, meaningful, and longstanding relationships. While I would try to be very customer friendly in all my roles, ultimately human nature dictates you will not get along with everybody. Simple business logic, along with strict rules of compliance, highlight the necessity to “know your customer.”

While the bulk of our mortgage business in the early to mid 1980s was located here in the United States, in the late 1980s Japanese investors became very active in our sector. This development presented some real challenges including:

1. time differential
2. type and level of engagement
3. impact of cultural differences

Allow me to expound. Given the twelve-hour time difference between New York and Tokyo, as traders we would have our Japanese sales representatives call us at home from 10PM to 4AM. If my memory serves me correctly, most of the calls came after midnight. I am a very sound sleeper, so it was indeed a challenge to orient myself and then ask our rep what the government market was doing so I could price my bid or offering on mortgage securities accordingly. More often than not, the transaction would not occur on the first call but took a few calls over the course of a half hour or so. If we executed the trade, then I would need to hedge myself by executing an offsetting trade in the government market, try to get back to sleep, and unwind the trade in the morning when I got to the office. After a month or so of this pattern, my wife wondered how long this was going to continue. From a business standpoint, I wanted to get woken every night. From the standpoint of marital bliss, hopefully not so much. As fate would have it, the business went in spurts.

As business with our Japanese clientele increased, it became very obvious that when one client entered into a transaction, a herd mentality developed and many clients would look to do the same trade. Certain bonds would get very expensive or very cheap as a result.

In the early to mid 1990s, the market got very volatile. As rates moved in large directions, both up and down, a lot of trading occurred and the business with the Japanese clients got very interesting. In executing trades, the Japanese would request and then mandate that the trade levels be adjusted to off market prices. I distinctly recall questioning management if we could do that. What about our accounting rules and the tax impact? We were then directed to execute the trade with a London counterparty at market and that entity would in turn execute with the Japanese client off market. I inquired what motivated the Japanese clients to do that? I was informed that they did not want to take a loss. Wow!! What a way to run a business.

Two other experiences with Japanese clients stand out in my mind that I would like to share with you.

In one situation with a newer client, they did not perform in delivering securities that we purchased. I informed the representative of the need to perform so we could in turn deliver them to another entity. Speed was of the essence so we could minimize the expense involved with the “fail to deliver.” Despite my beseeching, a few days went by and the incurred loss increased to more than a small amount of money. At that point, our senior representative in Tokyo called me at home and informed me that I needed to get on a conference call with the client and apologize for this issue. I responded that he must be kidding and reviewed the series of events. He informed me that the major issue was not the client’s “fail to deliver” but my degree of “honor” in doing business with them and that I needed to apologize to them. I scratched my head and asked him to explain that to me again. I informed him of the specifics once again, after which he then educated me on the finer points of Asian culture and being honorable. I did not ask him, but I was thinking what kind of honor was involved in doing “off market” trades.

The second situation is both memorable and humorous. On one Thursday evening (actually Friday morning), I received a call from our Japanese representative asking me for a quote on a particular swap. After giving him the level, I went back to bed. He called back, not too surprisingly, a half hour later. This went on for another couple of hours. Somewhat bleary eyed at that point, I inquired why he was actually calling me instead of the trader who had the primary responsibility for that sector. The representative said, “John’s wife told me to call you because John’s “loaded.”" I chuckled at that. When I discovered the size of the trade, I realized this would be the single largest transaction that I would price in the course of my career and here I was doing it at 3:30AM from my kitchen table. When the trade was done, my adrenaline rushed like never before. I showered, shaved, and was on a train to the city within 30 minutes. I was at my desk at 5:15AM, knowing we were going to have a very good day. “John” rolled in at 8:30AM. Prior to informing him of the trade, I asked what he thought of the price level between those securities. He asked, “why?” I informed him of the multi-billion dollar trade. He sobered up pretty quickly. In the spirit of friendship, I shared a piece of the trade with him but he realized that for him those Thursday night drinks were VERY expensive.

In summary, the lessons I learned throughout my engagement with Japanese clients were the differences in culture and the need to adapt accordingly. Obviously, for anybody involved in trade of any kind, whether international or domestic, the necessity to “know your customer” is of paramount importance.

LD

As promised, here is the Ugly part of “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.” And it is ugly. Disturbing, actually. In all honesty, I was dismayed to see what some in the GLBT community are now doing. But I am getting ahead of myself. The article I read was this one, “Next Time, They Come For You“.

Now, I imagine that for many that title conjures up the poem by Pastor Niemoller, “They Came First For the Communists…” And I imagine that is no accident by the author, Rod Dreher. The poem concludes, “Then They Came For Me, and by that time, no one was left to speak up.” Powerful piece, but a lesson not yet learned:

If you gave money to the successful Proposition 8* campaign to outlaw same-sex marriage in California, you’d better watch out. Anonymous gay-marriage activists have mashed up public data with Google mapping technology to create Eightmaps.com, an online map to your home. And it’s perfectly legal.

Alarmed Prop 8 backers recently filed a federal lawsuit seeking an injunction against a state law forcing citizens who give $100 or more to campaigns to disclose their names and addresses. We had all better hope they prevail.

“I don’t get the fear,” gay-marriage campaigner Andrew Sullivan disingenuously wrote on his popular blog. “If Prop 8 supporters truly feel that barring equality for gay couples is vital for saving civilization, shouldn’t they be proud of their financial support?”

Andrew Sullivan. Please. He’s being made the voice of the GLBT community?

I certainly hope not, and not just because, as some of you may recall, he continues to nominate me for The Moore Award (not all bad, really - it is the Michael Moore award, and Moore has done some pretty good work in is day). Oh - I don’t know how it ended up - last I heard, I was beating out Gloria Steinem. But I digress. Andrew Sullivan is an HIV+ gay man who advertises for unprotected sex. That used to get you an attempted murder charge. Oh, and he’s an arrogant, pompous, condescending jerk. His quote above pretty much shows how disingenuous he is - he doesn’t get the fear? With gay bashing on the rise in the United States, he doesn’t get it? Right.

The article continues:

Oh, please. This is why people are frightened by Eightmaps:

•Margie Christofferson, a manager of a popular Hollywood restaurant, did not talk about her politics or her religion but quietly gave $100 to the Prop 8 campaign. Activists swarmed the restaurant, with a mob getting so out of hand that riot police had to be called.

•A man who wrote a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle supporting Prop 8 soon found that gay activists posted to the Web personal information about him and, as appalled Chronicle columnist John Diaz noted, urged “in ugly language, retribution against the author’s business and its identified clients.”

•In Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, someone sent mysterious white powder to Mormon temples, apparently to protest the Latter-day Saints Church’s role in passing Prop 8.

•In Fresno, police said the city’s mayor and a local pastor received death threats over their support for Prop 8. Vandals pelted the pastor’s church with eggs.

There’s more where this came from. Given what gay-rights fanatics have shown themselves capable of – did you see the YouTube footage of a furious gay mob chasing a group of Christians out of the Castro district? – who can blame traditional marriage supporters for being afraid?

This is the video referenced above:

The article continues, and oh, joy - another quote from Sullivan:

In online Eightmaps discussion, gays typically take the line that anyone who would vote to take away their marriage rights deserves what he gets (Sullivan: “Why should you be able to protect yourself from the consequences?”). Extremism in the defense of gay marriage, therefore, is no vice. Let this be a lesson about the tolerance those who do not support same-sex marriage will receive if it becomes legal.

Why should someone be able to protect themselves from the consequences of having their own opinion?? Oh, gee, I dunno - because the CONSTITUTION guarantees it?? We have Free Speech in this country, Andrew. The following clip from the wonderful movie, “The American President,” sums it up nicely:

So, that’s why. You don’t have to like what someone else has to say, but s/he has the right to say it without fear of threat or reprisal (unless what the person is saying is threatening). It is a Constitutional right. The article continues:

Eightmaps.commies are so caught up in their own revenge drama that they don’t understand how this technique can be used against homosexuals. It won’t be long before far-right radicals draw on publicly available data to create an online map to gay-rights supporters’ homes. How safe will gay folks in small towns feel if gay bashers are one click away from a map to their house?

For that matter, anyone who wants to give money to a candidate or cause will wonder if it’s worth taking the risk of being eightmapped by radicals. Would you give to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, La Raza or Planned Parenthood if you thought right-wing goons would eightmap you, as these left-wing goons have eightmapped social conservatives? Could you afford to put your family at risk?

And that’s the only conceivable point of Eightmaps: to intimidate ordinary people into political docility.

Eightmaps is a vicious cultural bellwether. It rips apart a common understanding that makes it possible for us to live together in a diverse democracy. Today, technology makes a great deal of personal information about each of us publicly available. We therefore depend more than ever on the restraining power of custom – such as the shared sense that people have the right to feel safe in their own home – to keep that information from misuse.

And that “political docility” seems to be the hallmark of this recent election cycle. I have never seen this level of thuggery, threat, and intimidation before, certainly not by Democrats. But now we have Black Panthers standing outside polling places, groups going into polling places disseminating political propaganda, groups wearing vulgar hate speech t-shirts, shouting down Congresswomen, destroying private property, and hunting people down for not supporting their candidate. Those of us who have the audacity to speak out against The One have had to guard our privacy jealously for fear of reprisal. Too many have been the recipients of damage done in one form or another, from character assassination to having to spend time and money to counter mischief made against us. All because we did not agree.

As the author says, it comes down to custom:

Recall this memorable exchange between William Roper and Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons:

Roper: Cut a road through the law to get after the Devil? Yes. I’d cut down every law in England to do that.

More: And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned on you where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? … I give the Devil benefit of law for my own safety’s sake.

Substitute the phrase “custom” for “law,” and you have captured the danger of what the Eightmaps people have done. They may believe Prop 8 backers are devils, but they ought to give the devils the benefit of custom for their own safety’s sake – especially given the vulnerability homosexuals have always had to gay-bashers.

When some techno-savvy barbarians turn this technique against them, remember Sullivan’s snide brush-off to Eightmaps’ potential victims: “Cry me a river.”

He’ll regret that one day. We all will.

Rod Dreher is a Dallas Morning News editorial columnist. His e-mail address is rdreher@dallasnews.com.

“Cry me a river.” Yes, typical compassionate Sullivan. What shocks and appalls me is that a community that has long been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment is now engaging in this kind of treatment. Given that gay bashing is already on the rise, what in the world would stop someone from using Eightmaps to target people who give to the Human Rights Campaign? PFLAG? GLAAD? Any number of gay-positive organizations? Or Women’s organizations?

And, why is it that these GLBT thugs seem to have isolated a select group of people for their ire? Why not the African American community, or the Hispanic community, both of which voted in large numbers for Obama, and FOR Proposition 8? Why don’t they hold Obama accountable for placing someone like Doug Kmiec, a Pro-Prop 8 supporter, head of his Faith Outreach Team? Oh, I am sure most of those people still bow and scrape before Obama, denying to their core his own stance against gay marriage, his numerous insiders against gay marriage (Rick Warren, Tim Kaine), but they’ll target a restaurant owner who gave $100 bucks? Seems to me they have their priorities a bit skewed.

And their morals. While it may not be illegal to post online directions to people’s homes, it is immoral and unethical when the intent is to harass them, and that is clearly the intent of these thugs. How is it that they think this is going to help our cause? Do they honestly think that terrorizing these people is going to make them MORE willing to support LGBT marriage? Really? And do they not see how very much alike they are to gay bashers with these actions? They are targeting people with intent to intimidate (at the least), and possibly do harm just because they disagree with their stand, and they don’t see the irony?

Well, I do. And I am disturbed by it. No one wants gay marriage more than I do, but not by threats of violence and intimidation. This is wrong on so many levels, and I am sickened by their behavior. They do not represent our community well with their actions. They are acting rashly, and without a care to the long term consequences of their actions. They may get some short-term thrill or victory from it (in their minds), but they are causing long term harm to the community, and to our cause.

And they need to stop. Now. Just because other thugs on the Obama bandwagon got away with this kind of action does not make it right or acceptable. Violence begets violence, and if we start targeting people, they will just target us right back (more). Bottom line, it will do nothing but set back our cause, and will damage the entire community in the making. It is the wrong way for civilized people to conduct themselves, and it is the wrong way to get what we want - equality.

* Just out of curiosity, why does NO ONE ever mention Amendment 2 in Florida, which also passed this past election? It is always Prop 8 that gets the attention, even though Amendment 2 was pretty much the same. Doesn’t make sense to me…

(bumped up from early morning . what a glimpse at history!)

My friend, truthtelling007, has done yeoman’s work and loaded up some VHS videos of my TV punditry starting on the morning of 9-11 and continuing for the ensuring week back in 2001. When Osama Bin Laden’s crew hit America on 9-11 I was at National Airport waiting to fly to New York City. I was on air with Katie Couric and the Today Show when the plane hit the Pentagon. The attacks that morning started a media frenzy that put me in a position to comment on what had happened, what it meant and what we needed to do.

The following clip from CNN’s Crossfire features me with L. Paul aka “Jerry” Bremer. I still like and respect Jerry, although he bungled completely the job in Iraq. I find it useful to go back and look at what we were saying about terrorism and policy eight years ago.

What do you think?

Here are a couple easy rules for posting comments at NoQuarterUSA.net:

(1) You must provide a legitimate e-mail address in your comments. No one but the administrators sees the address. We need it in case we need to contact you about your comments. If your e-mail bounces, that’s grounds for immediate banning. This morning, an e-mail I sent bounced, but I but the person (Bazooka) on moderation in the hopes that he/she sees this and responds to susanunpc at gmail dot com.

(2) We need to avoid personal attacks, and stick to the subjects. Now, ahem, Larry and I are imperfect this way; I’ve “gone off” on a reader whose remarks irritated me, but I’m trying to change my ways because it’s not conducive to good, rational discussion where we can all learn from each other. We do NOT require that you agree with each other or the writer’s POV. In fact, we encourage disagreement. But let cooler heads prevail!

NOW, a video from the UK, via CNN, on more unrest among workers due to the worldwide recession. Of note: This protest has spread across the entire nation, including Scotland and Wales. (Story below.)

Embedded video from CNN Video

If you missed it, be sure to check out all the videos from France, Iceland, and other countries where economic unrest is hitting the streets: “Recession Sparks Protests Across the World, from Iceland to Paris to Latvia to China.

There were over one million protesters in France yesterday. Iceland has had days and days of riots in front of its parliament building. And WorldFocus.org’s worldwide bloggers are reporting in on more protests and riots around the world.

Here’s the accompanying CNN story on the UK unrest:

Oil refinery dispute spreads across Britain

Photo Caption: “Protesters gather outside the Total Lindsey oil refinery in north-east England on January 30.”

LONDON, England (CNN) — Hundreds of energy workers across the UK have taken strike action Friday in protest over the use of foreign workers on a multimillion-dollar oil refinery project on the northeast coast of England.

The dispute surrounds the decision by oil giant Total to award Italian company IREM a contract to build a new hydro desulphurization facility at its Lindsey Oil Refinery in North Lincolnshire.

The British Press Association reported that several hundred demonstrators had gathered for a third day outside the plant, following a walk-out by contractors on Wednesday, but the unofficial action has now spread to other parts of the UK, including Scotland and Wales.

In Scotland, hundreds of workers at the giant Grangemouth oil refinery walked out following an early morning meeting Friday. According to PA, the mechanical contractors, who work for BP and INEOS, said they were supporting their colleagues in Lincolnshire.

Elsewhere, PA reported that police were called to the Aberthaw power station near Barry in South Wales after workers staged a protest, while around 400 workers staged a demonstration at the Wilton oil refinery in Teesside, north-east England. ….

Right up front, let me say I am having a bad knee day. I had plans to write another piece altogether, but best laid plans and all that. But, I do want to share this recent news: Iceland has elected the first lesbian world leader (despite the fact that EVERY freakin’ news source keeps using the word, “gay”). That’s some good news, though she is stepping in at a very difficult time.

Why is it that the coldest countries are the ones that seem to be the most forward thinking? Is it that they figure if you can find someone with whom to spend your time during the long, cold, winter months, more power to ya? Maybe they are just built to be more open minded and less judgmental. Whatever the case, once again, they are leading the world in the arena of GLBT rights. Good for them! And good for the world.

Here’s the story:

World Gets Its First Gay (sic) Leader: Former air hostess to be sworn in as Icelandic premier after economic collapse

The first government collapse of the global economic crisis is about to yield the world’s first openly-gay leader. Johanna Sigurdardottir, a former air hostess, is expected to be sworn in as Iceland’s Prime Minister by the end of the week.

Her moment in the international spotlight comes at the most horrendous moment in her nation’s recent history. As the global meltdown began, the collapse of Iceland’s grossly over-leveraged economy was followed smartly by the implosion of its banks and currency. Now its government has gone the same way, the first to succumb to the backwash from the crisis.

Ms Sigurdardottir’s party, the Social Democrat Alliance, was asked to form a new government but its leader is taking a leave of absence to recover from treatment for a benign tumour. And so, “Saint Johanna”, as she has come to be known, has been propelled from the social affairs ministry – which she has presided over for a decade – to take centre stage in a choice hailed as “unexpected but brilliant”.

The 66-year-old politician lives with her partner, Jonina Leosdottir, a journalist and playwright. The couple were joined in a civil ceremony in 2002. Don’t expect them to show up togetherfor photocalls, however – that’s not the Icelandic way. Though she is famous across the island, having been a top politician for years, her lesbian union was no big deal in this calmly progressive nation of only 300,000 people.

“Johanna is a very private person,” said an Icelandic government source. “A lot of people didn’t even know she was gay. When they learn about it people tend to shrug and say, ‘Oh’. That’s not to say they are not interested; they are interested in who she’s living with – but no more so than if she was a man living with a woman.”

Ms Sigurdardottir has two grown-up sons. She entered politics via the labour movement, was first elected to parliament in 1978 and was given her first ministerial office in 1987. She will be Prime Minister of a minority caretaker government composed of her Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Greens, with outside support. It is only expected to hold office for two or three months, until fresh elections are called.

“In opinion polls Johanna has repeatedly been chosen as the most popular politician in Iceland,” said the government source. “She is a good choice, because one of the problems the government is facing is lack of trust. Getting Johanna to become Prime Minister was a way of saying trust is an issue. Politicians want a fresh mandate from the electorate and, before they get it, they need to rebuild trust. Choosing Johanna is a way of saying, ‘Let’s bridge this gap, let’s have peace to be able to implement the emergency measures’.”

Geir Haarde, the former prime minister, endured months of angry protests over his poor handling of the economy; demonstrators pelted his car with eggs and police were forced to use tear gas on the streets for the first time in 50 years. Compare that to a poll in November that gave Ms Sigurdardottir a 73 per cent approval rating, she was the only minister to improve on the previous year’s score.

“She is often described as the only politician who really cares about the little guy,” wrote Icelandic journalist Iris Erlingsdottir in a blog this week.

She did stand for the leadership of her party back in 1994 and lost badly, but in her concession speech she predicted “my time will come”. And some 15 years later, it truly has.

Congratulations, Prime Minister Elect Sigurdardottir! I wish you great success in your new position.

Now for the bad. Remember this woman, Samantha Power? Here’s a little reminder for you (along with more hooey from Obama on the Iraq War, and more negative crapola from people on his staff):

Wanna guess who is about to become Obama’s Senior Policy Adviser? You got it - Samantha Powers (H/T to Andy). Oh, that cannot possibly make Hillary Clinton’s job any more difficult. Just like making UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s position equal to Hillary’s won’t make her job as Secretary of State any harder.

Show of hands - how many of you just KNEW this was going to happen?? Yeah, exactly.

Obama will always find a way to hamstring Clinton. And insult her. We have Rice competing with her, a woman who insulted her on an international stage, and don’t forget Obama’s boy, Favreau, also insulting her on an international stage. I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so! Good thing Clinton is a tough, smart woman. She’s going to have to be to accomplish anything with people like that around her (oh, and let’s not forget how much OBAMA insulted her throughout the campaign - the number is legion). Just shaking my head at all of this…

Like I said, bad knee day, so The Ugly will have to wait. I’ll give you a hint, though. It has to do with Prop 8. And it is truly ugly. So for today, I’ll end on a good note: Congratulations again, Prime Minister Elect! Well done!

(bumped up from yesterday, about the historic legislation for women!)

As Lilly Ledbetter approached her retirement after working as a Goodyear plant supervisor for many years, someone slipped her a disturbing fact. Her male colleagues had been making far more than she was. She sued.

A jury found Goodyear guilty, but the Supreme Court threw out the case. Why? The reason will astound and disturb anyone who works for a private company.

According to enough Bush Supreme Court appointees to reach a 5-4 decision, Ledbetter should have filed her suit within 6 months after the first discriminatory paycheck was issued.

Huh? How’s that again? Exactly how would Lilly have known that fact way back then, given that private companies are still under no obligation to supply salary information to their employees?

President Obama spoke of Lilly Ledbetter’s plight during his campaign, and today he put his pen where his mouth was. (We at No Quarter are watching for what he actually does and give credit when credit is due.) The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act has been signed into law.

Amy Goldstein deftly puts the bill in its proper perspective:

The legislation …essentially rewrites the rules that specify the time within which workers may sue under a part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that outlaws discrimination based on gender, race, national origin or religion. Under the bill, workers may bring a lawsuit for up to six months after they receive ANY [emphasis added] paycheck that they allege is discriminatory.

The high court had held that such cases could be brought only within six months of the discrimination’s beginning, rejecting a long-held interpretation by lower courts and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that each paycheck represented a fresh act of discrimination.

Republicans and others have said this is simply a victory for litigators. Perhaps it is one more income source for trial attorneys because a new law can now be broken. But as Congresswoman Barbara Mikulski (D-RI) put it, “If you don’t want to be sued, don’t discriminate!”

So, in the end did Lilly Ledbetter become rich as well as famous? Well, no. Now 70 and recently widowed, she will not receive restitution and her case cannot be retired. As Gail Collins puts it, “She’s now part of a long line of working women who went to court and changed a little bit of the world in fights that often brought them minimal personal benefit.”

A friend sent along a quote by Mary Ann Radmacher that well characterizes the Lilly Ledbetters of the world.

Courage does not always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
“I will try again tomorrow.”

In my new video I look at the way the Emperor’s Clothing Syndrome has dominated the arts and humanities over the past half century, with the help of academic practitioners looking for theories to build on, trying to carve out some academic territory for themselves and becoming the high priests or priestesses of their chosen domains. In music, it ended with meaningless and very irritating noise.

Now I make some sweeping generalizations in this video, and may be overstating my case for effect, but that does not necessarily dilute the reality of what I am saying.

As I said at the beginning of the top ten composer series, we saw the Emperor’s Clothing Syndrome ( a tendency to pretend to see or believe something out of fear of being thought of out of step with others, or out of fear that you might be attacked or ridiculed if you show your true feelings) running rampant during the elections.

“It’s the kind of pseudo-liberal academic milieu that produces people like the Beast with No Name, who is a Rhodes scholar and yet one of the most narrow-minded and bigoted people you can find. One of the problems is that lot of people who excel academically are people who are able to absorb and reflect back what their tutors want them to,” I wrote then.

“They are the kind of people who try to impose their narrow and very theoretical world view on others and become blinkered in their focus, doing their best to beat down anyone who doesn’t agree with them. (Now what does that remind you of?).”

Academia can provide you with the tools and techniques of art, but the academic process cannot make you an artist, or even an art critic.

From a broader perspective, Academia can provide you with a framework for examining things, but to get close to the true nature of anything you have to examine it through a number of different frameworks from a number of different angles. If you keep using the same theoretical frameworks, they become blinkers.

Many branches of academia, particularly in the field of arts and humanities, strive to create a single framework or model of things and academics fight to have their models adopted as the only ones that are valid. That is what gives them power.

Art and life in general cannot be confined by academic theories or opinion. The essence of art is that it must be transcendant, and to be transcendant it has to be organic. It has to be able to grow beyond prescribed boundaries to achieve new perspectives.

As in art, so in life.

Obama and Bush are birds of a feather. Oh, I have written numerous times before regarding ALL of the similarities these two have HERE and HERE, with connections all along the way. And now we have this story to aid us with a visual, Hey Bam, That’s Not The Door!:

It looks like President Obama hasn’t gotten acquainted to his White House surroundings. On the way back to the Oval Office Tuesday, the President approached a paned window, instead of the actual door — located a few feet to his right.

Uh, yeah. That would be a window, as evidenced by the fixed nature, lack of hinges, and a doorknob. Ahem.

As a reminder:

Doors didn’t open automatically for Obama’s predecessor either. While making a hasty exit from a 2005 press conference in Beijing, former President George W. Bush tugged on the handles of a door, only to find it locked.

Bush laughed off the blunder, but the pictures still live on as part of Bush’s lame duck legacy. However, there was little note taken of Obama’s rookie mistake.

Really? The media is going to ignore yet another “mistake” of Obama’s? What a new and different approach for their treatment of Obama! Cough. Ahem.

C’mon, already - this is pretty damn laughable. How can they ignore this? Shoot, at least Bush was somewhere unfamiliar - this was at the freakin’ Oval Office!! You better believe if this had been ANYONE else, ANYONE, it would be leading all of the news stories. Oh, well, I guess I should be thankful SOMEONE is covering it. The article finishes up with a bit of an excuse (again, oh what a surprise):

Obama, who was returning from meeting with Congressional leaders, may have been distracted by Republicans’ icy reception to his $825 billion stimulus package, which is poised to pass on Wednesday even without a groundswell of Republican support.

Yeah, that’s the ticket. He was thrown off his stride by those schmucky Republicans! What is their problem not wanting to hand out even more money for things like, oh, $600 million more for its fleet of 600,000 government cars? So what if the US Government is already spending a cool $3 BILLION a year on these cars? Sheesh! Skinflints.

Anywho - let’s just see if this photo has the shelf life of the Bush photo. I, for one, am not holding my breath.

Oh, but WAIT, there’s more that just came out!!! (Major H/T to Andy for this story.) It seems that before Obama tried to enter through the window at the Oval Office, he tried to take the wrong elevator after meeting with Republican Senators. He was a bit “disoriented,” it seems. Wow. This stuff practically writes itself. Though that was not as much of a faux pas, since he was trying to use the Senators’ elevator. Come to think of it, consider how little he did while in the Senate, it’s kind of a surprise he even knew about that elevator! Ahem.

Yep - I’m thinking there are going to be a whole lot more of these kind of episodes. As my buddy, Divine Democrat reminded me, we’ve already had his “57 states” thing, and I know he’s made a ton of gaffes while on the campaign trail. At least that’s something toward which we can look forward, right? Ahem.

What are some of the ones Obama made that stand out to you?

Growing up as one of eight kids, seven boys, dinnertime was always interesting. More often than not, milk was spilled, vegetables were hidden, and you better not be late because the food went quickly. Every week to ten days, get ready for leftovers.

In a similar vein, today’s market activity, economic news, and financial stories felt like one of those “leftover” dinners. There is still plenty of juice in the meat, but we have already seen some of these items. Let me put some ketchup, A-1, black pepper, and worcestershire out here to spice things up.

The stock market on Thursday totally reversed Wednesday’s upward move. Does that mean investors are discounting the concept of Bank Transition that we discussed the other day? Not at all. In fact, I still have “reason for optimism” because an entity like Bank Transition is critically important to rebuilding the financial foundation of our country. If anybody wants to reread that piece, though, don’t overlook the fact that I said we will still experience serious economic pain for an extended period.

That said, if we want to come out on the other side of this, sooner rather than later and in better shape, we need Bank Transition. Hopefully, readers can understand the context of my writing. I am not a day trader. I still think we will likely see the lows seen on November 20th. The mere fact that Bank Transition will likely be launched gives me reason for optimism. I hope that clarifies things. If not, please don’t be bashful.

The best performing sectors of the market on Thursday were focused on renewable energy and gold. The worst performing sectors were in recreational products and real estate services.

The longer maturities within the government bond market continued to sell off hard. The 10-year government bond is now back to near 2.9%, while the 30-year government bond is near 3.6%. Each of these rates is up approximately 1% in the last 3 weeks. Why?? Massive deficit spending and the resulting enormous government demand for money, both here and around the world. This demand will likely drive these rates even higher and “crowd out” private borrowers thus keeping corporate, consumer, and municipal rates at elevated levels, as well.

A loyal reader shared a piece with us yesterday on the consternation within the Chinese investment community over the financial issues within our country and the resulting underperformance of Chinese investments in our markets. This consternation caused the Chinese to sell a fair amount of assets and move into lower yielding Treasury securities. The Chinese economic minister speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland was not overly enthused about our new Treasury Secretary taking them to task about the value of the Chinese yuan. This “dilemma” continues to evolve. We’ll be watching and we thank our reader for sharing that article.

Mr. Soros commented that the Euro may not survive without a global plan for dealing with toxic debt. This is the same financier who has made massive bets across a wide array of markets over the course of his career and then proceeded to talk his position. Not that many financiers do not do the exact same thing, but prior to any news source asking him his opinion, they should ask him his “financial position” so that his opinion can be taken with the pound of salt it deserves.

President Obama called Wall Street bonuses recently paid out “shameful.” Congressman Christopher Dodd indicated that he is looking for every legal means to reclaim bankers’ bonuses. I will grant you that the manner in which certain firms and certain executives have handled bonus payments is shameful. However, for both President Obama and Congressman Dodd to issue blanket statements like that is the height of pandering.

Let me remind both of them that certain firms did not want government money but were compelled to take it. Let me also remind them that they were the two single greatest recipients of money from Freddie and Fannie. Yes, the same Freddie and Fannie that have come back for more and more money as their mortgage portfolios sink deeper into oblivion because their colleague Barney Frank wanted to “roll the dice.” Let me also remind Mr. Dodd that he STILL owes the American public an answer about the VIP mortgage he received from Countrywide under the “friends of Angelo” program. Please keep the pandering to a minimum and be honest with the American public on those issues. In doing so, perhaps some greater credibility may be gained.

As President Obama said in his inaugural speech, those who handle the public’s money “will be held to account.”

LD