A Fourteenth Chart Not To Be Missed March 16, 2012March 27, 2017 GOLDMAN SACHS – II Yesterday’s post wasn’t meant to disparage everyone at Goldman Sachs. But here’s a comment that goes further – indeed, too far – yet makes an important point: Lewis: “Having spent 25 years as an investment banker, I can assure you that the only motivator for investment bankers is money. There is not a shred of social conscience amongst any of them. Therefore Government must be very careful not to give them an unregulated free reign, lest we see a repeat of the recent past. The free market economy works only in theory, not in practice. The only real deterrent is shame and prosecution! And it is sad for all of us not to have seen any prosecution so far! It really makes me angry!” Tom Reynen: “Do you have any explanation why, on the day that scathing article was published, Goldman Sachs stock would go up 2%? This is the same stock market that normally dive bombs on the slightest hint of negative news. Have people become so cavalier that they think everything will blow over in a few days? Simply amazing.” TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE – II As I type now, this song has had 20,675 views, up from 860 same time last night – good work, team! If you haven’t already, take a look and consider sending to your list? And ask them to do likewise? If kids come to know that slinging slurs and bullying are telltale signs of being gay, a lot fewer of them may want to do it. A FOURTEEN CHART Del Rickel: “The American dream, Reagan style . . .” ☞ Yes! Don’t miss this one! JFK Stewart Dean: “JFK was a talisman of a dream when I was a teenager. Chris Matthews speaks of the man hidden in the myth. Fascinating – he revives Kennedy’s charisma along with the flaws. Sit down with a beer and listen.” ☞ Chris Matthews’ enthusiasm is infectious. And he’s done his research! Never mind that he’s too hard on our current president (in my view). It’s a great, free listen.
Cries of Conscience Quitting the GOP, Quitting Goldman -- Oh: And Quit Gay Bashing March 15, 2012March 27, 2017 QUITTING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY Brian Gaither: ‘Because I have made myself very publicly known as a Republican, I think it’s appropriate to share with you the letter of resignation I just submitted to the Miami-Dade GOP.’ [Emphasis added. – A.T.] March 14, 2012 The Republican Party claims to support the principles of limited government, individual liberty, fiscal discipline, a strong national defense, and civic virtue. It is a claim many believe, and for most of my life I was a believer. Since 2008 I have been involved with the Republican Party of Miami-Dade, first as a volunteer then as elected District Committeeman, Chairman of the Voter Registration Committee, and Chairman of the Victory 2012 Committee. During this time I have spent many hours considering the best way to defeat Democrats. I was confident that to do so was in the best interests of Florida and of the country. But now I have to say, ‘oops!’ Even kind-hearted and public-spirited Republicans seek to radically reduce the size and scope of government. In so doing, they advocate the benefits of private institutions, the free market, and personal charity. They say it’s good for society when everyone pursues his own goals free of government control. They promise the poor and disadvantaged will benefit (in the end, somehow). However, the public sphere is a dynamic place where the interests of individuals, institutions, and businesses constantly compete. To limit the role of government is to purposefully surrender control to those able to exploit government’s absence. In such a place, the result of Republican policies can only be the consolidation of power among the powerful and of wealth among the wealthy. In such a place, the poor and disadvantaged will always lose. As our society grows ever more complex, we must have a government which grows in equal measure. It must be powerful enough to arbitrate competing interests. It must be big enough to assert its place in the public sphere. And it must protect the weak from predations of the strong. I cannot, in good conscience, support a philosophy of limited government or any organization propagating it. In fact, it is my obligation to oppose them. With this, I am publicly renouncing any and all affiliation with the Republican Party. I am joining the fight against its politics, its messages, and its candidates. With this, I publicly commit my support to the Democratic Party and its candidates. And I specifically endorse the re-election of President Obama. To do anything less is unconscionable. — Brian Gaither, Miami FL QUITTING GOLDMAN SACHS From yesterday’s (indispensable) New York Times: Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs By GREG SMITH Published: March 14, 2012 TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm – first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London – I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. . . . TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE As I type, this song has had 860 views. Let’s take it viral? Seriously – watch and then, if you agree, send to your list? And ask them to do likewise – especially to kids? If kids come to know that bullying is a telltale sign of being secretly gay, a lot fewer of them may want to do it. NABI Guru: ‘They just had a conference call. They have reduced headcount to 14 people – the minimum required to run a public company. They have $96.4 million in cash equivalents, so $2.27/share. They have more than $1/share in NOLs. They have been working with Piper Jaffray on ‘strategic alternatives’ and stated they will announce their plan in the second quarter of 2012. Could include liquidation or a strategic merger.’ So it’s not what we’d hoped – this one didn’t work out. But at last night’s $1.85/share, I’m holding on for what might be a smaller loss. (For someone fortunate enough not to have bought the first time, it might even make an interesting buy here – albeit only with money you can truly afford to lose.)
50 Accomplishments [Displaying Weirdly in Firefox Today But OK in Internet Explorer; Hope to Enter the Modern World In the Next Month] March 14, 2012March 27, 2017 50 OBAMA ACCOMPLISHMENTS I’d ask that these be read in the context of an opposition party openly pledged to see his presidency fail – imagine what he could have done with their cooperation – and read with the hope that, if he’s reelected, the opposition party will pledge instead to see the country succeed. It could work to their advantage. A WASHINGTON POST BLOGGER ASKS: Is there any limit to Mitt Romney’s dishonesty? His headline, not mine. ‘Romney,’ he suggests, ‘has crossed into groundbreaking levels of dishonesty.’ See if you agree. I don’t. I think Bush’s refrain that ‘by far the vast majority’ of the benefits of his proposed tax cuts would go to people ‘at the bottom of the economic ladder’ was so blatantly, factually, and importantly false – importantly, because a truthful characterization would surely have cost him the election* – that his dishonesty must be credited as having broken that ground first. *And also because it went a good long way toward wrecking our national balance sheet. STEVE SCHMIDT ON SARAH PALIN You’ve probably seen Game Change by now. Woody Harrelson plays McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt. And if you watch MSNBC, you’ve probably seen Steve Schmidt on lots of talk show by now. But a shocking number of you ‘don’t watch TV’ (what is wrong with you people? Now that it’s all commercial-free, with TiVo or your DVR, television is wonderful), so let me offer up excerpts of his remarks on Monday’s ‘Morning Joe.’ When a result happens that puts someone who’s not prepared to be president on the ticket, that’s a bad result. I think the notion of Sarah Palin being president of the United States is something that frightens me, frankly. And I played a part in that. And I played a part in that because we were fueled by ambition to win. I think there are important lessons to learn. The reality is that both parties have nominated people in the last decade who are not prepared to be anywhere near the Oval Office. John Edwards in the Democratic Party. Sarah Palin in the Republican Party. And we ought to take a pause and understand how that happened, why it happened and hopefully it’ll never happen again in our lifetimes. ☞ Asked whether Palin has a future as a national Republican leader: I hope not. And the reason I say that is because if you look at, over the last four years, all of the deficiencies in knowledge, all the deficiencies in preparedness, she’s done not one thing to rectify them, to correct them. She has become a person who I think is filled with grievance, filled with anger who has a divisive message for the national stage when we need leaders in both parties to have a unifying message. . . . The lack of preparedness was a bad thing and the total disinterest in being more prepared and rectifying that is something that disqualifies. ☞ Good for Steve Schmidt. How many of us long for the Republican Party not of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin but of Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon (absent his darker side) and Nelson Rockefeller and even George H.W. Bush. Not to mention Abraham Lincoln, who would be nothing less than completely appalled. Incidentally, I don’t buy the John Edwards equivalency suggestion in the middle paragraph above. There is no comparison with Edwards’ unreadiness and Palin’s. He is deserving of condemnation, for sure – how dare he run for President and then accept the vice presidential nomination knowing that his private life, if it came to light, could cost us the election? But does anyone imagine that Edwards didn’t know why North and South Korea were too separate countries? Didn’t know what ‘the Fed’ is? Didn’t know that Iraq did not attack on 9/11? Didn’t read newspapers or magazines? Didn’t know who runs the British government? (Hint: it’s not ‘the Queen.’) To those upset with Obama, I’d note that the NASDAQ hit its 21st Century high yesterday . . . I’d note those ‘50 Accomplishments‘ (understanding that not everyone sees things like accelerated stem cell research as positive) . . . and I’d ask that they consider where things might have been three years into a McCain/Palin administration.
ROICW Has Tripled Woof! Woof! March 13, 2012March 27, 2017 AS SEEN ON A BROOKLYN COFFEE SHOP CHALKBOARD: LIFE A sexually transmitted fatal disease. To help you cope have a cup. ☞ A little too dark? Well, how about this: SHOW THIS TO YOUR DOG Seriously. ROICW Some time ago I suggested warrants that now bear the symbol ROICW. For example, here, August 11, 2009 (last item on the page), at 27 cents. Closing last night at 91 cents, they’ve more than tripled. But this from Barron’s suggests it could pay to hold on. The warrants could perhaps even triple again before they expire October 23, 2014. (Still: sell enough to recoup your original investment?) 13 CHARTS And suddenly it all comes clear. Not shown is a chart for the stock market, which has roughly doubled from March of 2009 – a bottom reached just weeks after President Obama took command of the desperate situation he was handed. And I would quibble with inclusion of the “Housing Not Yet Recovered” chart, based on the home price index – as though a goal should be to see housing prices back at their crazy 2006 bubble highs. And some of the other charts are certainly just the starting point of further discussion. (Feel free to hold forth! Your feedback sustains me.) But it’s hard to look at these charts and not get the big picture: despite relentless opposition, we’ve made real progress. Let’s keep it going. Tomorrow: 50 Obama Accomplishments
You Betcha March 12, 2012March 27, 2017 GAME CHANGE HBO just released Game Change. It’s hard to watch without feeling sympathy for both Sarah Palin and John McCain – but also hard to watch without feeling, well . . . oh, my, God. Imagine that the financial collapse – which all but clinched the election for Obama – had begun six months later, in the first months of the McCain/Palin administration. Yikes. Or that, even more eye-widening, something had happened to President McCain. If you think I’m over-reacting, I’d guess you haven’t watched the film. WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN Which brings me to Then Everything Changed by Jeff Greenfield, which sits on my Kindle, patiently waiting for my eyeballs. It is comprised (apparently) of three “how different the world might have been IF” stories from decades past. I can’t wait to read it. But there are so many other IFs that are fascinating to contemplate. What if Charles Lindbergh had run against FDR in 1940 – and won? That’s the premise of Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America. What if I had bought 10 shares of Berkshire Hathaway at $300 when I first wrote about it? That’s the premise of my own forthcoming, Doh! Homer Simpson Is NOT the Dumbest Man in America. Needless to say, if the 5-4 vote in Bush v. Gore had gone the other way . . . well, imagine how controversial that what-if novel would be. And now, watching Game Change, one can’t help wondering what kind of bullet we may collectively have dodged. (Tomorrow: 50 Accomplishments and 13 Charts. But first . . . ) MAC TREASURY DIRECT USERS: BEWARE! Margaret Pearson: “Treasury Direct has served US citizens admirably for years but could it be discriminating against Mac users now? Is there some way to warn Mac users BEFORE they upgrade to Lion, i-Cloud, and OS 5 that there is a danger of being locked out of their treasury direct accounts? And thus be unable to complete their income tax returns? Here’s the deal: If you access your Treasury Direct account with a Mac, the new Mac mail format will link all your Treasury Direct messages together, making it harder to distinguish the latest temporary password from earlier ones. If your computer automatically fills in the password, watch out! You probably have the last one, not the newest. If you get rejected once, pause, scroll through the email string from Treasury Direct to check the date, then try ONCE more. If you use the wrong temporary password three times, you will be locked out, and join a huge group of others in the same position. . . . When I finally reached a human being at Treasury Direct, he said they are understaffed and swamped by the volume of folks with the same problem, and they expect it will get worse as April 17 approaches. They know we are frustrated. He recommends calling them – 304-480-7711 – starting at 6 am eastern time, even before their 8 am official start time. They are pulling people from other areas (his is fraud) to help. Have your account number and driver’s license handy to speed things up.”
Romney On Iran March 9, 2012December 29, 2016 He may or may not be your first choice with whom to have a beer (I’d say he got a bad rap of that as on most other things), but as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry’s views have some standing. And they are these: Romney’s wrong-headed assertions about Iran Washington Post // John Kerry I have little interest in inserting myself, as a former nominee of my party, into this presidential campaign season. But as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has a vital role in issues of national security, I feel compelled to respond to the ways that, in pursuit of the Republican nomination, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has put himself front and center in debates that have serious consequences. In 2010, Romney inserted himself into Senate consideration of the New START Treaty and sharpened his newly minted conservative credentials on this page by authoring a series of blisteringly inaccurate assertions about the treaty. In so doing, he separated himself from former Republican secretaries of state James Baker, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice; discarded the wisdom of former Republican defense secretaries such as Robert Gates; and pitted himself against former president George H.W. Bush. Fortunately, a third of Senate Republicans disagreed with him and voted to make America safer. Americans will ultimately decide whether 71 senators and so many Republican foreign policy hands were right – or whether Candidate Romney knew something they didn’t. Today Romney’s goal remains winning the acquiescence of his party’s base – but his target is different: Iran. It is deja vu. While wise Republicans stress the perils of loose war talk and the value of engagement to isolate Iran, Romney seeks to create political division with an attack on the Obama administration’s Iran policy that is as inaccurate as it is aggressive. I join this debate because the nuclear issue with Iran is deadly serious business. It should invite sobriety and thoughtfulness, not sloganeering and sound bites. The stakes are far too high for it to become just another applause line on the stump. Idle talk of war only helps Iran by spooking the tight oil market and increasing the price of the Iranian crude that pays for its nuclear program. Creating false differences with President Obama to score political points does nothing to move Iran off a dangerous nuclear course. Worse, Romney does not even do Americans the courtesy of describing how he would do anything different from what the Obama administration has already done. Case in point: He calls for ever-tightening sanctions on Iran. What exactly does he think we’ve been doing for the past three years? When Obama took office, Iran was in the ascendancy. Its reach through proxies such as Hezbollah threatened the United States, its allies and the region. The international community was divided; diplomacy was stalled. But in June 2010, with a decisive push from Obama, the United Nations put in place the most comprehensive sanctions the Iranian government has ever faced – with restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities, banks and financial transactions, and the Revolutionary Guard Corps. In coordination with allies, the administration has imposed additional measures on Iran’s petrochemical, oil and gas industry and its financial sector. Europe’s recently announced ban on Iranian oil imports will further pressure Iran’s economy. Obama also worked closely with Congress to pass legislation that strengthened existing unilateral sanctions, and he signed an executive order enforcing tough new sanctions on Iran and its central bank. Iran is virtually cut off from large parts of the international financial system. Almost $60 billion in energy-related projects have been put on hold or discontinued. It has started to lose oil sales to key customers in Europe and Asia; those losses could reach up to 40 percent of its daily sales, according to the International Energy Agency. Banking sanctions have prevented several customers from paying for Iran’s petroleum products, leaving the central bank short of hard currency and driving down the unofficial foreign exchange rate by 40 percent in a single month. No one need take my word for it. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said last fall, ‘Every day our banking and trade activities and our agreements are being monitoring and blocked. . . . Our banks cannot make international transactions anymore.’ Iran is divided internally and isolated diplomatically like never before. The regime of its most important ally, Syria, is facing collapse. And Obama has provided record amounts of security funding to help Israel maintain its qualitative military edge. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, ‘Our security cooperation is unprecedented . . . and [President Obama] has backed those words with deeds.’ Why does it matter that Mitt Romney would distort the administration’s policy to drive a wedge in our politics? Because the stakes are gigantic, not for the president’s reelection but for our security: We have to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. That is why President Obama keeps reiterating that all options are on the table, even as he builds pressure for a diplomatic solution. Every word on this subject is scrutinized by our allies and our enemies. There is no room for misinterpretation. We decide big issues in the United States through debate. But let’s have an honest debate, not a contrived one. Romney should take on the man in the White House instead of inventing straw men on op-ed pages. He should depend on facts instead of empty rhetoric. If we are to avoid a nuclear Iran then at some point we must all act like statesmen, not candidates. We need to be clear-eyed about what we have accomplished and what we have yet to do. Americans deserve no less from their commander in chief. ☞ Have a great weekend.
Borealis and Buttkick Portfolio Pair or a New Comic Strip? March 8, 2012March 27, 2017 WHEELTUG First, El Al, now Jet Airways: March 6, 2012 MUMBAI: Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, and WheelTug plc announced today the execution of a Letter of Intent under which Jet Airways, subject to all financial, technical and operational feasibility checks and necessary regulatory approvals, has the right to lease WheelTug Aircraft Drive Systems for installation on its Boeing 737NG aircraft . . . ☞ Wheeltug is owned by Chorus Motors which is owned by Borealis. Borealis shares remain at $3.20 (or $16 million for the whole thing), about where it was in 1999 when I first began writing about it. In case it pans out – which the laws of psychics render all but impossible because I by now own so many shares – the stock should be worth a great deal more. (WheelTug could save an airline $500,000+ per year per plane. If it earned $50,000 a year from 4,000 planes – and why wouldn’t every commercial jet not ultimately have this? – that would be $200 million in earnings a year. Valued at 5 times earnings, and throwing in all other applications of this and the company’s other technology largely for free, you’d have a company worth more like $1 billion, or 60 times its current valuation.) So I guess I should say a thing or two about the laws of psychics. The first thing to say is that these are quite distinct from the Laws of Physics. Forget apples falling on your head. Though little known, the laws of psychics have to do with intuition, delusion, and superstition – not inertia, mass, and force. The First Law of Psychics is that if you really want a bet to pay off, it won’t; especially if you really need it to (I don’t) or if (like me) you feel undeserving of the windfall. And yet . . . well, this was the reasoning by which I knew Bill Clinton could never win the presidency. Forget Jennifer Flowers or President Bush’s 85% approval rating. Governor Clinton could never be president because: I knew him. If anything was truly a given in life, it was that I was not someone who knew presidents. But he did win. So if someone I knew could actually be elected president, is it impossible that El Al and Jet Airways will someday be piloting their aircraft around Heathrow like golf carts? I don’t know. The laws of psychics do not conform to reason and are not well understood. (The laws of sidekicks, by contrast, are as old as time.) Aviation Week seems to be taking the prospect of electric wheel-drive systems seriously, as summarized here. BKUTK Chris re-makes the case for a $600 valuation here. I bought a few more shares at $365.
The Winning 3-Minute Film March 7, 2012March 27, 2017 PINEAPPLE Chris B.: “In India, folks like their pineapples partially rotting (i.e. light orange on the outside). The guy trying to sell me pineapples was like, “Pick one of these two,” and I thought, “Ha! Try to sell a rotting pineapple to the stupid gora, eh?” So I picked the one that was perfect by American standards (yellow on half, nice smell), and when we brought it home to Aparna’s parents’ house, I thought it was great, but all the Indians thought it was not ripe, and though I ate half of it, there was still some left. Back here in the states, Aparna made us get a somewhat orange pineapple at Kroger a month ago (the “ripest” i.e. rottenest one in the store), and I have to admit, it was delicious. Now I am hooked on orange pineapple. The texture is a little less hard, and it doesn’t have that acid sting quite as much. There are certainly many foods that are better with a little fermentation – for example, bread and idli. Pineapple, at least to some people’s tastes, may be one of those foods as well. PS – It would be great if some botanist or myxologist reads your blog and writes in to tell us what that white/gray fungus is that grows on the bottoms of pineapple. It almost seems commensal to some extent, like it makes them yummier.” ☞ I love it when I have to look up not one but two words in a me-mail. I have the smartest, most interesting readers ever. WOW Jim Reed: “British film director Sir Ridley Scott launched a global film making contest for aspiring directors. There were over 600 entries. The film could be no longer than 3 minutes, contain only 6 lines of narrative, and had to be a compelling story. The winner was ‘Porcelain Unicorn’ from American director Keegan Wilcox. You’ll see why it won.” WHY WE’LL NEED TO RAISE TAXES The short form: because, with rates at historic lows, we’re not raising enough revenue. Here’s an overview (thanks, John Leeds). See if you agree.
Food Tips March 6, 2012March 27, 2017 FOOD TIP: MIMOSA GRILL You will love the roasted mussels, the stuffed Georgia hushpuppies, and the crispy BLT sliders at Mimosa Grill in Charlotte. North Carolina. (I know. But it’s not inconceivable you will find yourself there one day.) They have entrees, too – here’s the full menu – but why would you bother? As at almost any restaurant, it’s better to have a second appetizer instead. FOOD TIP: PINEAPPLE about.com: “Once the fresh pineapple is cut from the plant, it will not ripen any further, so forget about letting it ripen on the counter. Without any starch reserves to convert to sugar, it will simply begin to rot and ferment.” I did not know that. FOOD TIP: WALDEN FARMS Have you ever tried Walden Farms “zero calorie” salad dressing? Or mayonnaise? Or ketchup? (“Honey,” Charles moans affectionately from a better place, appalled as ever by my culinary direction.) Only a few of their products are available in most stores, and ordering on-line is anything but cheap (this source claims to be 30% cheaper). And there are other caveats, like . . . zero-calorie, no-fat, no-carbs peanut butter? Are serious? (“Honey!”) I haven’t tried that one, but I have a few things to say about it anyway: The first law of Newtonian physics is that nothing edible can have zero calories. (Fig-Newtonian physics, anyway.) Yes, celery may take more energy to chew than it provides – roughly the same problem as with today’s nuclear fusion reactors – but that doesn’t mean it has zero calories. “Can you connect me with someone who handles consumer questions,” I asked the operator at Walden Farms, expecting to be passed on to public relations. “Anything under 5 calories per serving is zero,” she shot back. With Finality. And where someone else might have challenged her, or been confused by her math, I was satisfied. From some prior related experience I knew the FDA allows companies to round down, per serving, in various ways. My 12-ounce jar of chipotle mayonnaise (and my like-sized bottle of ketchup) contains 24 servings, so we may safely assume that’s just under 5 calories per half ounce – “zero,” as the operator explained – or 120 calories for the full jar. Yet it still compares favorably with the 300 calories in 12 ounces of my beloved Heinz ketchup – I put ketchup on everything (“Honey!!!”) – or 2,160 in 12 ounces of Hellman’s real mayonnaise (which, being more vain than suicidal, I have not eaten in 30 years). To my tongue, the ketchup actually tastes good. The mayonnaise . . . well, it’s probably better than a heart attack. Dipping carrots into the chipotle-flavored variety has actually grown on me. The balsamic salad dressing is pretty good, too. “He’ll eat anything,” Charles used to explain, apologetically, to guests. SELL KERX Guru: “If you’re still holding, you should sell today or put a stop at 4 to make sure to sell if it goes below 4. The last event in their Phase III trial in colorectal cancer will occur in March and data will be out in March or April. I completed an analysis yesterday and finally saw why the Phase II data looked so good: they didn’t stratify for the status of metastases, number and location. Metastatic status is a major prognostic factor in CRC. Meanwhile, I also reaffirmed that Perifosine (their drug) and Capecitabine (the control drug, in both arms of the trial) are inactive in the kind of patients being recruited into this Phase III. In fact, nothing works for these patients – just that if you lined up all the things you think could work and ranked them, Perifosine and Capecitabine would be at the bottom based on published data. I have to admit I have not seen one quite like this, where there was an imbalance at baseline NOT reported in the published Phase II. I’ve seen quite a few cases where when you read the published paper you see immediately the imbalance that produced the result that favored the therapy. This one required a lot more investigation. The stock has been strong the last couple of days because of bullish articles in Seeking Alpha. If it is approved, the stock goes to 8 or 10. But I highly doubt it – in which case, it drops to under 1.”
Appeals to the Better Angels of Our Nature And a Free Privacy Download March 5, 2012March 27, 2017 THAT NOBEL PEACE PRIZE Sue Hoell: “The Secretary of the Nobel Committee explains why President Obama was selected.” THAT YOUNG WOMAN John Critchlow: “Below is a statement from Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. [Georgetown is the nation’s oldest Catholic University.] We all need to read this.” Dear Members of the Georgetown Community: There is a legitimate question of public policy before our nation today. In the effort to address the problem of the nearly fifty million Americans who lack health insurance, our lawmakers enacted legislation that seeks to increase access to health care. In recent weeks, a question regarding the breadth of services that will be covered has focused significant public attention on the issue of contraceptive coverage. Many, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, have offered important perspectives on this issue. In recent days, a law student of Georgetown, Sandra Fluke, offered her testimony regarding the proposed regulations by the Department of Health and Human Services before a group of members of Congress. She was respectful, sincere, and spoke with conviction. She provided a model of civil discourse. This expression of conscience was in the tradition of the deepest values we share as a people. One need not agree with her substantive position to support her right to respectful free expression. And yet, some of those who disagreed with her position — including Rush Limbaugh and commentators throughout the blogosphere and in various other media channels — responded with behavior that can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student. In our vibrant and diverse society, there always are important differences that need to be debated, with strong and legitimate beliefs held on all sides of challenging issues. The greatest contribution of the American project is the recognition that together, we can rely on civil discourse to engage the tensions that characterize these difficult issues, and work towards resolutions that balance deeply held and different perspectives. We have learned through painful experience that we must respect one another and we acknowledge that the best way to confront our differences is through constructive public debate. At times, the exercise of one person’s freedom may conflict with another’s. As Americans, we accept that the only answer to our differences is further engagement. In an earlier time, St. Augustine captured the sense of what is required in civil discourse: “Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.” If we, instead, allow coarseness, anger — even hatred — to stand for civil discourse in America, we violate the sacred trust that has been handed down through the generations beginning with our Founders. The values that hold us together as a people require nothing less than eternal vigilance. This is our moment to stand for the values of civility in our engagement with one another. DO NOT TRACK PLUS Jim R: “Is your web activity being tracked? This free download will keep advertisers and others from knowing what sites you visit. BTW: it tells me that your site has four trackers on my Safari browser.”