I hope you are as pleased as I at the auspicious beginnings of our new President. He has walked into a raging inferno of domestic and international problems but has somehow kept his cool and measured rationality.
I remember, during the election campaign, catching hell from many friends and even some of my kids about this Muslim radical who would only endanger our country if elected. I kept saying, you are misjudging the man and totally off base. First, he's not a Muslim but a Christian, , and, if you had read anything about him, you'd know that. Second, he is a cool customer, a thinking man who will look at the variety of problems in a rational manner. Third, he is not a wild-eyed leftish radical; yes, he has liberal leanings, but as President he realizes he has to maintain a centrist position.
He's off for the G-20 in a few days, and I don't envy the reception he is going to receive in view of the Anti-American and Anti-Capitalism sentiments internationally. Right now America, whether fairly or not, wears the black hat, thanks to eight years of "the cowboy President", as my British friends frequently referred to Bush. I know Barack Obama will help overcome this perception, for the world instinctively likes him---but he is going to have his hands full, and it will not be easy to get the world powers to fall in line at this point in time.
We can only hope his combination of caring and rationally confronting and analyzing these problems will ultimately carry the day. He can help to restore the good name of America and be the right world leader at the right time.
Lotsa luck, Mr. Cool. Go get 'em!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Poor Little Rich Girl
You really have to feel pity for the sufferings of the ultra-rich. Take the sad case of George David, C.E.O. of United Technologies, and his estranged wife, Countess Marie Douglas-David. The countess is unhappy with her divorce settlement and has opened up the case, with much dirt being shoveled up, to get a better settlement. And how can you not feel sorry for the poor dear who can't possibly exist on a mere $53,000 per week, including a clothes allowance of $4500 weekly and $1000 for make-up? It's enough to make a girl lose sleep at night...
It's the old Marie Antoinetter syndrome: let them eat cake, her response to the public outcries for more bread and food prior to the French Revolution. It is never easy to contemplate the heights (or, more accurately, depths) of pure selfishness and calloused indifference achieved by the ultra-rich as they assess their needs and expected rewards. One begins to understand the old adage, noblesse oblige, a kind of surrealistic syllogism---I am rich and privileged; I have special needs; therefore, I deserve more.
They obviously don't listen to the news or read the papers and aren't aware of the economic crisis most of us are enduring as they nestle in their luxurious egocentric cocoons. Don't you often wish someone could turn a fire hose on that little cocoon and shock them into reality? Scott Fitzgerald summed it up nicely in his great novel. The Great Gatsby, when he stated, "The very rich are very different from you and me." Here, in the Davis case, another bit of living proof.
It's the old Marie Antoinetter syndrome: let them eat cake, her response to the public outcries for more bread and food prior to the French Revolution. It is never easy to contemplate the heights (or, more accurately, depths) of pure selfishness and calloused indifference achieved by the ultra-rich as they assess their needs and expected rewards. One begins to understand the old adage, noblesse oblige, a kind of surrealistic syllogism---I am rich and privileged; I have special needs; therefore, I deserve more.
They obviously don't listen to the news or read the papers and aren't aware of the economic crisis most of us are enduring as they nestle in their luxurious egocentric cocoons. Don't you often wish someone could turn a fire hose on that little cocoon and shock them into reality? Scott Fitzgerald summed it up nicely in his great novel. The Great Gatsby, when he stated, "The very rich are very different from you and me." Here, in the Davis case, another bit of living proof.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Sir Teddy Kennedy
My sister-in-law from England linked me with London's Daily Telegraph a few days ago where I read an article excoriating the decision to give honorary knighthood to Senator Teddy Kennedy. I have to agree---not the most judicious choice.
Now, before all the bleeding hearts tear me apart, let me admit, Teddy Kennedy has developed into an effective Senator, true to his liberal principles, some of which I agree with and many I don't. But a powerhouse he has been in the Senate these last thirty years, no question.
Unfortunately, I have a long memory and I can't quite shake off the memory of some forty years ago and the tragedy of Chappaquidick, resulting in the drowning death of a young lady who, as I recall, had been an aide to Teddy and was doing service above and beyond the call of duty with the young stud by partying one summer night at Cape Cod before their auto plunged into the water. Teddy Kennedy did not report the incident until the next morning, which hardly qualifies him for stars in his crown ---or knighthood. If I had been guilty of this criminal negligence, I would probably only now be getting out of prison due to my advanced years.
Also, I think he lent his name and support to all those Boston Irish whose monetary support gave such credence to the I.R.A. and "the troubles", extending unnecessarily that bitter warfare that eventually sickened both north and south in Ireland. I recognize that England, in its shabby treatment of Ireland for over 200 years, has to take its share of blame in creating "the troubles", but the Boston Irish deserve a good share of blame for helping extend this nasty bitter struggle between Catholics and Protestants much too long.
So, let Teddy garner his shares of kudos here for long service, but don't ask me to call him "Sir Teddy". As the Brits are wont to say, that's a bit "O.T.T."!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
THEY SIMPLY DON'T GET IT!
Just like a bad penny, our old friends from AIG keep turning up, and you have to note their consistency: they screw up eternally. They really have it down to a fine art, learning how to really piss us off.
It's not enough that we have to bail them out twice (so far), which in itself keeps our blood boiling. but now the latest ---the bonuses.
What don't they understand about getting money from the government (which is really reaching ultimately into our pockets) because they are financially hemorrhaging due to the fact that they screwed up and are in a toxic mess and paying bonuses? From the wonderful folks whose investments are in freefall, we get bonuses to their executives? Ah, I think I'm beginning to understand: if you really fuck up long enough and hard enough, then you should be rewarded. It's getting to be an American mantra---really mess up long-term , the good fairy in Washington rewards you. Like GM and Ford and Chrysler.
What kind of insensitivity or just plain we-don't-give-a-shit-what-you-think attitude do they have? That's easy. They simply don't care. I'm a high-powered executive, and I deserve to be paid for my efforts. Just because my firm is bleeding crimson numbers doesn't have a thing to do with me---I have a lifestyle to maintain and I need it now!
It is hell being old and remembering how hard work and honesty used to be virtues in business---and life. I'm too old to get it, the new philosophy of I-want-mine-now, But I have to say, the boys from AIG don't understand those old-fashioned virtues. They don't want to get it.
Monday, March 16, 2009
my maiden voyage
With fear and trepidation, I launch into terra incognita, this brave new world of blogging. As a computer semi-illiterate, I am flying by the proverbial seat of my pants, but Ican't resist the opportunity. There is so much today in this chaotic world inspiring commentary, and I cannot resist adding my fuel to the fire.
A good friend has a wonderful blogspot that inspired me (grumpy-old-dog@blogspot.com). He tells it like it is with rip-roaring ribaldry but philosophically right on the mark most of the time.
One of his commentaries a few weeks ago about the world economy got me going, and I wrote the following to him and a few friends. It'll be my first blog:
TO GRUMPY AND OTHER GOOD FRIENDS
I have a good friend, a former business associate who recently retired and, now that he has the time and inclination, has developed his own blogspot and writes some wonderful, if frequently ribald, philosophic observations. The state of the world must have been too much with him of late, and a recent offering was dark, to say the least, concerning the state of our economy and future prospects. So, Grumpy, let me add a few comments regarding that line of thought for you and other good friends.
We are all besieged these last few months with ever-increasing dire news of the domestic and world economy, of the terror-filled wars and other confrontations---it’s all pretty bad, let’s face it. Since I have always been a member of “the-glass- half-filled-not-half-empty-school-of-thought”, a philosophy which has been sorely tested by recent events, I try to spy a light ahead in the distance.
Our interim Episcopal priest, John Corbiere, in a recent sermon, following the Gospel reading from St. Mark describing Jesus curing the lepers, made the apt connection that our modern form of leprosy is greed, a malady all of us have suffered from in recent years, which has been a major cause of many of our problems of today.
We Americans---and a lot of Europeans and Asians, as well, I might add---have become so caught up in our creature comforts, our own insulated lives and our pure selfishness that we started worshipping the wrong gods. Thomas Carlyle used to refer to this kind of materialism as “Mammon”, so you might say we’ve been devout followers of Mammon while professing that we Americans live in a democratic society and worship the Christian GOD, or the Jewish YAHWEH or Islamic ALLAH or fill in the religion of your choice. In short, we have screwed up---big time.
The morning after the big party has arrived, and most of us have one big hangover, and all we can feel is the big pain right now. But it has started us thinking---and that certainly is a novelty. We are questioning a lot of what we believed in the past and seeking a new direction for the future. Whether you voted for him or not, the election of Barack Obama is, at least to me, a manifestation of that yearning after a different direction, a searching for a new course of action. Out with the old values, in with the new.
Do we really need that new Hummer, or that grand marble palazzo with eight bedrooms and bathrooms, or the Kiton ready-made suit costing $7000 (soon to be offered by Saks, I read in the “N.Y. Times”)? Couldn’t we learn to recycle even more, to try to economize and save a little money, to share more of what we have with those who don’t have? I note in the paper that Americans used to save about 9% in the eighties, down to 5% in the nineties and now it’s maybe 1% for the few lucky ones.
I think we’re starting a new revolution, a quiet one, but one building momentum in which the credo will be, “Less is More”. Put your money and your faith in the good things, the lasting values like love, generosity and sharing and expend your talent and your treasure where it builds these values.
Yes, I think that light is dim at the moment, Grumpy, but it’s there---if we go out and really look for it.
FLESHPOT
A good friend has a wonderful blogspot that inspired me (grumpy-old-dog@blogspot.com). He tells it like it is with rip-roaring ribaldry but philosophically right on the mark most of the time.
One of his commentaries a few weeks ago about the world economy got me going, and I wrote the following to him and a few friends. It'll be my first blog:
TO GRUMPY AND OTHER GOOD FRIENDS
I have a good friend, a former business associate who recently retired and, now that he has the time and inclination, has developed his own blogspot and writes some wonderful, if frequently ribald, philosophic observations. The state of the world must have been too much with him of late, and a recent offering was dark, to say the least, concerning the state of our economy and future prospects. So, Grumpy, let me add a few comments regarding that line of thought for you and other good friends.
We are all besieged these last few months with ever-increasing dire news of the domestic and world economy, of the terror-filled wars and other confrontations---it’s all pretty bad, let’s face it. Since I have always been a member of “the-glass- half-filled-not-half-empty-school-of-thought”, a philosophy which has been sorely tested by recent events, I try to spy a light ahead in the distance.
Our interim Episcopal priest, John Corbiere, in a recent sermon, following the Gospel reading from St. Mark describing Jesus curing the lepers, made the apt connection that our modern form of leprosy is greed, a malady all of us have suffered from in recent years, which has been a major cause of many of our problems of today.
We Americans---and a lot of Europeans and Asians, as well, I might add---have become so caught up in our creature comforts, our own insulated lives and our pure selfishness that we started worshipping the wrong gods. Thomas Carlyle used to refer to this kind of materialism as “Mammon”, so you might say we’ve been devout followers of Mammon while professing that we Americans live in a democratic society and worship the Christian GOD, or the Jewish YAHWEH or Islamic ALLAH or fill in the religion of your choice. In short, we have screwed up---big time.
The morning after the big party has arrived, and most of us have one big hangover, and all we can feel is the big pain right now. But it has started us thinking---and that certainly is a novelty. We are questioning a lot of what we believed in the past and seeking a new direction for the future. Whether you voted for him or not, the election of Barack Obama is, at least to me, a manifestation of that yearning after a different direction, a searching for a new course of action. Out with the old values, in with the new.
Do we really need that new Hummer, or that grand marble palazzo with eight bedrooms and bathrooms, or the Kiton ready-made suit costing $7000 (soon to be offered by Saks, I read in the “N.Y. Times”)? Couldn’t we learn to recycle even more, to try to economize and save a little money, to share more of what we have with those who don’t have? I note in the paper that Americans used to save about 9% in the eighties, down to 5% in the nineties and now it’s maybe 1% for the few lucky ones.
I think we’re starting a new revolution, a quiet one, but one building momentum in which the credo will be, “Less is More”. Put your money and your faith in the good things, the lasting values like love, generosity and sharing and expend your talent and your treasure where it builds these values.
Yes, I think that light is dim at the moment, Grumpy, but it’s there---if we go out and really look for it.
FLESHPOT
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