Haricot Vert November 5, 2004February 28, 2017 HOUSEKEEPING 1. Sorry about yesterday’s typos and garbles. I cleaned them up yesterday afternoon. 2. Sorry if you’ve me-mailed recently. I have more than 1,000 backed up and may for a brief time have to welsh on my normal practice of reading them all. 3. For those of you who may have come to this column because of the election, and thus not know what it’s about or how it works . . . it started in 1996, when Ameritrade asked me to write a daily comment for their web site. You can read about that here, on the occasion of my 750th and final column for Ameritrade . . . or here, on the occasion of the 2000th. (You don’t see the numbers, but today’s is #2154). I keep the subscription price low because I learn at least as much from my readers as they do from me. I often feel as if I should be paying YOU. (Predictably, the feeling passes.) But in return you have to suffer a lot of bad columns and a great deal of self-indulgence on my part (such as this parenthetical rumination on the topic of: ‘on who else’s part could self-indulgence be than one’s own?’) . . . with, I greatly hope, the reward of, here and there, from time to time, a thought on personal finance that makes you money. Or a thought on a political or economic issue that makes you think. (I particularly value those of you who come here who do not necessarily share my view of the world.) Or a thought that makes you smile. Or a recipe from my ongoing series, Cooking Like a Guy™, so fundamentally appalling that it makes you better appreciate your partner’s cooking. SEA SCALLOPS Sometimes my cooking is so good it dazzles even me. 1. Get rich enough so you can afford sea scallops, at $14 a pound, at the fresh fish counter of your supermarket. (They’re big white lumps, but not slimy. Be a man. Don’t be afraid to touch them.) Get half a pound for each of you. 2. Take your magic pan – everyone needs a little magic Teflon-coated pan – pour in a little olive oil and rub it around with your fingers so it coats the bottom of the pan. 3. Turn on the burner and, after a minute or two, when the pan is hot, drop in the scallops. This is far easier for the squeamish guy than lobster. The scallops are white lumps. They don’t scream little scallop screams the way lobsters do. 4. Sprinkle some interesting salt and ground pepper over top, sing a bawdy song . . . turn the scallops over and push ‘em around a little. Think about the Bears and the Bruins and the Bengals and the date you wish were watching you admiringly from the couch – guy stuff. 5. Stab fork into pan, lift sea scallop triumphantly, allow to cool a few seconds, and eat. 6. Is that not completely delicious? You’re telling me it is! 7. Now look skyward as you lift the pan above your mouth and drain the remaining olive-oily salt-and-peppery sea scallop juice down your gullet. Never in your life have you found a superior happiness. 8. Rinse out the pan and wipe dry with a rag. Elapsed time from commencement through consumption to completed cleanup – 7 minutes. If you do have a date on the couch, serve on plates instead, with some frozen green beans you tell her are “haricot vert” and microwaved before she came. Low light, a candle, and a bottle of Chardonay . . . man, are YOU ever going to score points. BLACK TUESDAY Professor David Kaiser began a blog last month that included this snippet from a long October 30 post, just before the election: The election pits two entirely different philosophies against one another. On the one hand, the Democrat John Kerry wants, essentially, to continue building upon the achievements of Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson, with a nod to Bill Clinton’s remarkable budget-balancing achievements. On the other, George W. Bush wants almost entirely to undo the work of the twentieth century, vastly reducing public services, effectively ending environmental regulation, reducing or eliminating progressive taxation, privatizing social security, and essentially substituting faith for reason as our guide. Abroad, meanwhile, he has already junked 60 years of multilateralism and commitment to international law in favor of a belief in the efficacy of unbridled American force. These changes are so dramatic that many in the major media refuse to believe they are taking place. Richard Cohen of the Washington Post has expressed astonishment at his many friends who see catastrophe lurking if Bush should be reelected, and when Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind told Chris Matthews that many Bush supporters see the President as a messenger from God, Matthews exclaimed, “Oh, come on!” – prompting Suskind to exhort Matthews to get out of Washington and see what was happening in the rest of the country. The wholesale repudiation of the beliefs of our educated elite at the highest levels of our government—amply documented in Suskind’s recent New York Times Magazine article—does come as a shock, but Strauss and Howe’s historical scheme helps understand how it has happened. Nor is it without precedent in western history, as something quite similar happened in Great Britain at the end of the eighteenth century . . . ☞ If you have time, it’s worth reading the whole thing. Happy birthday, Marc!
If This Is My Last Column, You’ll Know Why (We're Going to Win) September 22, 2004February 27, 2017 COOKING LIKE A GUY™ I am sitting here with the label from a package of “refrigerated EGG BEATERS healthy real egg product” and a USE BY date of July 1. You are thinking that it’s September 22, and I am too late. But I am thinking, “Two thousand and one? This thing has been in the freezer since July 1, 2001?” Now, freezers are remarkable things, although at some point over the summer (but which summer, I wonder?) I apparently transferred this healthy real egg product from the freezer to the fridge. Didn’t they find a frozen 5,000 year old man in a glacier? They warmed him up, stuck a tennis racket in his hand, and he only lost 6-4, 6-2. Still, as I gazed at the USE BY date, two conflicting emotions were at were within me – my deep distress at wasting food (even now, there are children starving in China), and my strong will to live. With all the while a third force pulling at my wee brain – hunger. Or perhaps more accurately – hankering. I just had a hankering for some healthy real egg product. And I also have a frying pan even glue wouldn’t stick to. Nothing sticks to this. It puts Charles’s expensive Calphalon™ pans to shame. I think you could literally mix Epoxy in the pan, let it sit, and then just wipe it all out with a rag. It was hanging from a hook high above the bread section at our supermarket when I snagged it for $12.95. I love this pan. So I figured if there’s anything wrong, I will see it or smell it, and I opened the container, half expecting a healthy real chicken product to jump out, tennis racket in hand. But no . . . just the yellow liquid there always is when, every year or so, I treat myself to Egg Beaters. On with the stove, into the frying pan, toss in some salt and an individually wrapped slice of American cheese (omelet! omelet! I hear you cry) . . . having carefully broken the cheese slice into little pieces for even distribution through the egg product, now quickly turning into a smooth egg pancake if you don’t deftly move it around and fold it over on itself and attempt to give it some texture. Turn off the heat while Egg Beaters still highly runny, keep moving stuff around, and – voila! Eat it right out of the pan. (No muss, no fuss. This is the essence of COOKING LIKE A GUY™.) I am here to tell you it was delicious. If I am not here tomorrow, you will know why. WE’RE GOING TO WIN Senator Kerry’s Iraq speech Monday was a hit. His two speeches at our $4 million reception and dinner that evening were terrific. You can see it happening: The fight is rising in our candidate. The powerful end game for which he is known is building – and, while there will surely be bumps along the way – we are going to win. The latest Zogby poll is now showing Pennsylvania back in our column (we are going to win Pennsylvania) and Florida back to totally tied (we are going to win Florida, also – see last Friday’s column for 10 reasons why). Electoral-vote.com still shows New Jersey (15 electoral votes) tipping to Bush, based on an outdated September 12 poll – but no WAY will the President carry New Jersey. (Gore won it last time 56/40. And that was WITHOUT Springsteen.) With New Jersey and Florida, we’re at 281 to their 241. (You need 270.) We are going to win. I got an e-mail today (well, yesterday, as you read this) from a well known member of a well known conservative think tank. He sat next to one of his colleagues at a wedding the other day, to whom for now, at least, he asks that I refer as “X.” He says that X is “perhaps the premier conservative policy journalist of our time.” And he says that over the wedding cake he learned that X is voting for Kerry. Anecdotal, to be sure, but good to hear if you’re working for John Kerry, as I am. Likewise: I got $10,000 today from a fellow whose only previous presidential contribution since 1992 – you can look these things up on opensecrets.org – was $500 to Bush. And I got $25,000 today from an entrepreneur I’ve never met WHO HAD NEVER MADE A POLITICAL CONTRIBUTION BEFORE. People are getting it. This isn’t business as usual. President Bush went to the UN today, and – lost in all the understandable focus on Iraq – he affirmed that the United States wants to shut down stem cell research . . . worldwide. The President called it cloning, which is easier to decry; but the Costa Rican resolution he supports explicitly includes not just reproductive cloning – which almost all agree should be banned – but also therapeutic cloning, the stuff of stem cell research. Last time, we lost the vote – thankfully – but by the barest of margins, 79-80. The President has every right to want to impede stem cell research . . . and we have every right not to reelect him. So if you know any independent voters who worry about things like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, let them know about this. It’s not just Nancy Reagan and Ron Reagan who are concerned – everyone should be. And if your skeptical friends brush off the threat that President Bush will actually manage to seriously impede this research (“Oh, pshaw – that will never happen!”), remind them, first, that by using the expression “pshaw,” they show they are of an age ripe for such afflictions, so they’d best not dismiss this issue too lightly. And remind them, second, that President Bush has already made considerable progress in impeding this research . . . and that “assault weapons” happened against the wishes of almost everybody, so why not this? We are now taking cops off the streets and putting a wider variety of assault weapons back ON the streets, and as improbable as that seems, there you have it. Remind them that a disastrous war happened, that the never-to-be-touched Social Security surplus was spent, that judges like Pickering and Pryor were forced through, that . . . well, before I lose control and turn this ramble into a screed, let me conclude by telling you just one quick fundraising story: A dear old friend sent me $500 months ago — seemingly HIS first political contribution ever, too. I sent it back marked “NSF.” Being a financial guy, he would know, I knew, that NSF is bank shorthand for “Insufficient Funds.” It was the first time in nearly six years as treasurer I had done that, but this was just not right. He and his wife are as eager as the rest of us to win, and he is a man of good humor, good heart, great intelligence and significant means. Five hundred dollars? The law allows each of us to invest $57,500 in this enterprise – he was missing, at the very, very least, one zero. Well, after many further entreaties, he sent $5,000 and came to Monday night’s dinner – and left saying it was a terrific night he would never forget. And that was even before the deep-dish apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. (As usual with these things – and it kills me – everyone leapt from their seats the minute Senator Kerry finished speaking to go try to say hello to the next President of the United States. So we had 380 desserts left over . . . even after allowing for the several that I, and a handful of other stalwarts who have already met Senator Kerry and who hate to see even a penny of our contributors’ money go to waste, did our patriotic best to consume.) My point: when people let themselves get involved, and realize they are part of something REALLY IMPORTANT, as my friend ultimately did, it goes from being something they seek to avoid to something they are really proud of having been able to do. The purpose of this site is not to cost you money. (Note that the Anadarko Petroleum suggested here June 14 at $56.50 broke $64 yesterday and that the NTII re-recommended at $2.60 August 16 now sits around $3.80 – not that this is a fair sampling.) So if you have credit card debt on which you pay interest, stick to your plan to pay it off. Read no further. And if you agree with President Bush about stem cell research, or about running large deficits to fund giant tax cuts for the best off . . . if you think invading Iraq in the manner we did was well thought out and has discouraged terrorism, then you, too, should read no further. I annoy you enough as it is! And I appreciate your willingness to read my point of view!) But if you actually could afford to renovate your bathroom – or, dare I dream it – your kitchen . . . and if we do share some of the same concerns . . . then consider putting the renovation off for a year and saving your country instead. Go crazy. Dig deep in these critical last few days. Click here. Or if it really is a renovation-size contribution you are considering, click “Me-Mail” up top. When we win, you will know for the rest of your life that at a crucial moment in your country’s history, you helped make the difference in a really tight race. Many of you already have. Thank you! As for E.L. Doctorow, I have to put him off until tomorrow.
Your BCCI Account Has Been Closed August 27, 2004February 27, 2017 GOOD QUESTION Joe Cherner: ‘Can you please explain to me why the people buying Google at 110 weren’t interested a few days earlier at 85?’ ☞ The Google IPO was done so quietly, with so little fanfare, they just didn’t know about it? THE CONSUMER Prices are up 3% or so in the last year, while wages are up just under 2%. The Associated Press reported yesterday that ‘the number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year, while the ranks of the uninsured swelled by 1.4 million.’ We are now about 7 million jobs shy of the number President Bush predicted in the 2002 Economic Report of the President, submitted months after the 9/11 attack. (He predicted a gain of 6 million new jobs, versus a loss of more than 1 million.) One sign consumers are stretched is the car loan. You, dear reader, wouldn’t know about this, because you know ‘that new car smell is the most expensive fragrance in the world’ and that it is far wiser to buy a used car – for cash – than to borrow to buy a new one. Or if you do buy a new one, to take the ‘$1,500 cash back’ rather than to finance. But there are actually people who do borrow to buy cars – well, in truth, most people do – and what was the standard three-year auto loan when I bought my first one . . . a brand new $2,411 Acapulco blue 1968 Mustang hard top with an 8-track player and yellow blinker lights in the hood winking back at me (the toodela-toodela-toodela horn I would install later) . . . I am told has now become a standard SEVEN-year car loan, with, frequently, if I have heard this right, a mere 4% downpayment. (As the car loses 20% or 25% in value the minute you drive it off the lot, the car loan is already significantly under water from day one.) So I worry about the economy. More and more tax cuts for the richest among us don’t seem to have lifted children out of poverty after all. Just the reverse. President Bush told us that ‘By far the vast majority’ – which is surely more than half – of the benefit from his tax cuts would go to ‘people at the bottom end of the economic ladder.’ This was wildly, factually, patently – knowingly – untrue. Amazingly, the press let him get away with it and almost half the country fell for it. WATERMELON Paulo: ‘Yellow watermelon is not a new fancy creation, as you imagine; just something new to Americans. I’ve been eating it for nearly 24 years – since I first had it in Taiwan and then elsewhere in a long stay in Asia.’ Brian: ‘In Vietnam, yellow watermelon was traditionally reserved for the emperor.’ ☞ But enough of Vietnam for a few minutes. Let’s talk about the Senate. This article will appear in the September issue of the Washington Monthly. Follow the Money: How John Kerry busted the terrorists’ favorite bank by David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin Two decades ago, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) was a highly respected financial titan. In 1987, when its subsidiary helped finance a deal involving Texas oilman George W. Bush, the bank appeared to be a reputable institution, with attractive branch offices, a traveler’s check business, and a solid reputation for financing international trade. It had high-powered allies in Washington and boasted relationships with respected figures around the world. All that changed in early 1988, when John Kerry, then a young senator from Massachusetts, decided to probe the finances of Latin American drug cartels. Over the next three years, Kerry fought against intense opposition from vested interests at home and abroad, from senior members of his own party; and from the Reagan and Bush administrations, none of whom were eager to see him succeed. By the end, Kerry had helped dismantle a massive criminal enterprise and exposed the infrastructure of BCCI and its affiliated institutions, a web that law enforcement officials today acknowledge would become a model for international terrorist financing. As Kerry’s investigation revealed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, BCCI was interested in more than just enriching its clients–it had a fundamentally anti-Western mission. Among the stated goals of its Pakistani founder were to “fight the evil influence of the West,” and finance Muslim terrorist organizations. In retrospect, Kerry’s investigation had uncovered an institution at the fulcrum of America’s first great post-Cold War security challenge. More than a decade later, Kerry is his party’s nominee for president, and terrorist financing is anything but a back-burner issue. The Bush campaign has settled on a new strategy for attacking Kerry: Portray him as a do-nothing senator who’s weak on fighting terrorism. “After 19 years in the Senate, he’s had thousands of votes, but few signature achievements,” President Bush charged recently at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh; spin that’s been echoed by Bush’s surrogates, conservative pundits, and mainstream reporters alike, and by a steady barrage of campaign ads suggesting that the one thing Kerry did do in Congress was prove he knew nothing about terrorism. Ridiculing the senator for not mentioning al Qaeda in his 1997 book on terrorism, one ad asks: “How can John Kerry win a war [on terror] if he doesn’t know the enemy?” If that line of attack has been effective, it’s partly because Kerry does not have a record like the chamber’s dealmakers such as Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) or Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Though Kerry has been a key backer of bills on housing reform, immigration, and the environment, there are indeed few pieces of landmark legislation that owe their passage to Kerry. But legislation is only one facet of a senator’s record. As the BCCI investigation shows, Kerry developed a very different record of accomplishment–one often as vital, if not more so, than passage of bills. Kerry’s probe didn’t create any popular new governmental programs, reform the tax code, or eliminate bureaucratic waste and fraud. Instead, he shrewdly used the Senate’s oversight powers to address the threat of terrorism well before it was in vogue, and dismantled a key terrorist weapon. In the process, observers saw a senator with tremendous fortitude, and a willingness to put the public good ahead of his own career. Those qualities might be hard to communicate to voters via one-line sound bites, but they would surely aid Kerry as president in his attempts to battle the threat of terrorism. From drug lords to lobbyists Despite having helmed the initial probe which led to the Iran-Contra investigation, Kerry was left off the elite Iran-Contra committee in 1987. As a consolation prize, the Democratic leadership in Congress made Kerry the chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations and told him to dig into the Contra-drug connection. Kerry turned to BCCI early in the second year of the probe when his investigators learned that Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega was laundering drug profits through the bank on behalf of the Medellin cartel. By March 1988, Kerry’s subcommittee had obtained permission from the Foreign Relations Committee to seek subpoenas for both BCCI and individuals at the bank involved in handling Noriega’s assets, as well as those handling the accounts of others in Panama and Colombia. Very quickly, though, Kerry faced a roadblock. Citing concerns that the senator’s requests would interfere with an ongoing sting operation in Tampa, the Justice Department delayed the subpoenas until the end of the year, at which point the subcommittee’s mandate was running out. BCCI, meanwhile, had its own connections. Prominent figures with ties to the bank included former president Jimmy Carter’s budget director, Bert Lance, and a bevy of powerful Washington lobbyists with close ties to President George H.W. Bush, a web of influence that may have helped the bank evade previous investigations. In 1985 and 1986, for instance, the Reagan administration launched no investigation even after the CIA had sent reports to the Treasury, Commerce, and State Departments bluntly describing the bank’s role in drug-money laundering and other illegal activities. In the spring of 1989, Kerry hit another obstacle. Foreign Relations Committee chairman Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.), under pressure from both parties, formally asked Kerry to end his probe. Worried the information he had collected would languish, Kerry quickly dispatched investigator Jack Blum to present the information his committee had found about BCCI’s money-laundering operations to the Justice Department. But according to Blum, the Justice Department failed to follow up. The young senator from Massachusetts, thus, faced a difficult choice. Kerry could play ball with the establishment and back away from BCCI, or he could stay focused on the public interest and gamble his political reputation by pushing forward. BCCI and the bluebloods Kerry opted in 1989 to take the same information that had been coldly received at the Justice Department and bring it to New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who agreed to begin a criminal investigation of BCCI, based on Kerry’s leads. Kerry also continued to keep up the public pressure. In 1990, when the Bush administration gave the bank a minor slap on the wrist for its money laundering practices, Kerry went on national television to slam the decision. “We send drug people to jail for the rest of their life,” he said, “and these guys who are bankers in the corporate world seem to just walk away, and it’s business as usual… When banks engage knowingly in the laundering of money, they should be shut down. It’s that simple, it really is.” He would soon have a chance to turn his declarations into action. In early 1991, the Justice Department concluded its Tampa probe with a plea deal allowing BCCI officials to stay out of court. At the same time, news reports indicated that Washington elder statesman Clark Clifford might be indicted for defrauding bank regulators and helping BCCI maintain a shell in the United States. Kerry pounced, demanding (and winning) authorization from the Foreign Relations Committee to open a broad investigation into the bank in May 1991. Almost immediately, the senator faced a new round of pressure to relent. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Democratic doyenne Pamela Harriman personally called Kerry to object, as did his fellow senators. “What are you doing to my friend Clark Clifford?,” staffers recalled them asking, according to The Washington Post. BCCI itself hired an army of lawyers, PR specialists, and lobbyists, including former members of Congress, to thwart the investigation. But Kerry refused to back off, and his hearings began to expose the ways in which international terrorism was financed. As Kerry’s subcommittee discovered, BCCI catered to many of the most notorious tyrants and thugs of the late 20th century, including Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the heads of the Medellin cocaine cartel, and Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist. According to the CIA, it also did business with those who went on to lead al Qaeda. And BCCI went beyond merely offering financial assistance to dictators and terrorists: According to Time, the operation itself was an elaborate fraud, replete with a “global intelligence operation and a Mafia-like enforcement squad.” By July 1991, Kerry’s work paid off. That month, British and U.S. regulators finally responded to the evidence provided by Kerry, Morgenthau, and a concurrent investigation by the Federal Reserve. BCCI was shut down in seven countries, restricted in dozens more, and served indictments for grand larceny, bribery, and money laundering. The actions effectively put it out of business what Morgenthau called, “one of the biggest criminal enterprises in world history.” Bin Laden’s bankers Kerry’s record in the BCCI affair, of course, contrasts sharply with Bush’s. The current president’s career as an oilman was always marked by the kind of insider cronyism that Kerry resisted. Even more startling, as a director of Texas-based Harken Energy, Bush himself did business with BCCI-connected institutions almost at the same time Kerry was fighting the bank. As The Wall Street Journal reported in 1991, there was a “mosaic of BCCI connections surrounding [Harken] since George W. Bush came on board.” In 1987, Bush secured a critical $25 million-loan from a bank the Kerry Commission would later reveal to be a BCCI joint venture. Certainly, Bush did not suspect BCCI had such questionable connections at the time. But still, the president’s history suggests his attacks on Kerry’s national-security credentials come from a position of little authority. As the presidential campaign enters its final stretch, Kerry’s BCCI experience is important for two reasons. First, it reveals Kerry’s foresight in fighting terrorism that is critical for any president in this age of asymmetrical threats. As The Washington Post noted, “years before money laundering became a centerpiece of antiterrorist efforts…Kerry crusaded for controls on global money laundering in the name of national security.” Make no mistake about it, BCCI would have been a player. A decade after Kerry helped shut the bank down, the CIA discovered Osama bin Laden was among those with accounts at the bank. A French intelligence report obtained by The Washington Post in 2002 identified dozens of companies and individuals who were involved with BCCI and were found to be dealing with bin Laden after the bank collapsed, and that the financial network operated by bin Laden today “is similar to the network put in place in the 1980s by BCCI.” As one senior U.S. investigator said in 2002, “BCCI was the mother and father of terrorist financing operations.” Second, the BCCI affair showed Kerry to be a politician driven by a sense of mission, rather than expediency–even when it meant ruffling feathers. Perhaps Sen. Hank Brown, the ranking Republican on Kerry’s subcommittee, put it best. “John Kerry was willing to spearhead this difficult investigation,” Brown said. “Because many important members of his own party were involved in this scandal, it was a distasteful subject for other committee and subcommittee chairmen to investigate. They did not. John Kerry did.” One could do an equally long story on what George W. Bush was doing during those same years. The contrast would not be flattering to the President. Have a great weekend.
Why We’re Gonna Win August 19, 2004February 27, 2017 But first . . . YELLOW WATERMELON Let me say this about yellow watermelon: there are improvements we need to make in the world before we start changing the color of watermelon. LASER-GUIDED IRIDIUM-PLATED FERMAT-THEORIZED NANOROBOTIC TRIPLE-BLADE MACH 3 GILLETTE RAZORS Gerard: ‘I saw your post on buying Sensor Blades cheap on eBay. I just thought that I should point out that expensive drugstore commodities are popular items for organized theft rings to steal and re-sell. I’m not saying that the eBay sellers are thieves, but the provenance of the goods is something to think about, as with all on-line sales.’ FREE SPEECH ZONES The President tells us he doesn’t read the newspaper. And we know that protestors are kept far from his sight. One wonders whether he’s getting the full picture. Steve Holmes offers this snippet from a CNN transcript: PRESIDENT BUSH: ‘When I travel the country, and I’ve been traveling a lot, there are thousands of people who come out and wave, and they are — you know, they respect the presidency. Sometimes they like the president, but I have this — I don’t have a sense that there’s a lot of anger.’ THE MEDIA Doug Jones: ‘Thanks for [yesterday’s Paul Krugman] column [about how the media reports on hairstyles but not giant health care proposals]. Disgustingly, this is the FIRST I’ve really heard about Kerry’s health care plan here in conservative Spokane. He had my vote anyhow, but now I can start saying useful things to the doubters.’ ☞ So Krugman is right. Bright people like Doug who are open-minded and keep up with the news can be unaware of really important things. I don’t think this was quite as much the case when I was growing up. Be that as it may, everyone should subscribe to the New York Times. Or read it for free, on-line. And now . . . Kathryn Lance: ‘You say, It’s going to work out. We’re going to win. Really? Do you truly think so? I’m so depressed at all the negativity and lies about Kerry, and all the scary stuff about untraceable ballots, that I feel sure that they will steal the election again. And if they do, I truly wonder if this country, or indeed the world, will survive another four years. Why do you think we will win?’ ☞ Because of turnout. In October of 2000, voters were asked whether they were ‘unusually excited’ about the upcoming election. And now, in 2004, they’ve been asked again: Are they unusually excited about THIS upcoming election? Among Republicans, the number is up – 51% are ‘unusually excited’ versus 48% last time. Among Democrats, the number is up from 36% to 68%. That is not a typo. When we were complacent and unexcited last time, we won by 537,000 votes. Now we are wide awake, fighting mad, and determined to win. You can see the energy in the massive primary turnout this past winter. You can see it in the huge crowds Kerry and Edwards attract. You can see it in the jaw-dropping response to our tens of millions of pieces of direct mail – like nothing direct mail marketers have ever seen before. People recognize this is not business as usual. But if the rank and file on the other side is only marginally more energized than before, up from 48% to 51% (could some of them, in their heart of hearts, be disappointed that we’ve turned massive surpluses into massive deficits? had a net job loss for the first time since Herbert Hoover? advantaged the rich at the expense of everyone else? turned much of the world, which was so ready to be with us after September 11, against us?) . . . the leadership of their party – the guys orchestrating the campaign – are hugely motivated to keep, indeed to extend, their control over all three branches of government (and, increasingly, the press). So we’re going to win, but it’s going to be a very, very tough fight. And speaking to those of you who want to see it happen (and I know not all of you do, and am particularly grateful and impressed that you come to listen anyway) – please spend the next 76 days making sure that it does. Visit JohnKerry.com for ways to help. Why are going to win? Here’s the blah-blah-blah answer – and I completely believe it: We’re going to win because John Kerry’s domestic policies favor the vast majority of voters, who are not rich and powerful. And because people sense we need to rejoin the world if we are to succeed in our war on terror, as we unquestionably must. Help is on the way.
Apples and Corn June 9, 2004February 25, 2017 APPLES Not to inject even the faintest note of personal finance here, but the Apple LEAPS suggested on November 25 had a little more than doubled by March 31, when I suggested you might sell half, taking your own money off the table and playing with the ‘house’s money’ from there on out. Well, if you failed to do that, now’s another good chance to do so – they have about tripled. CORN Stephen Willey: ‘Raw corn is fine, except I think you left out the part about thoroughly washing the corn to remove pesticides and, especially, e coli and other bacteria.’ Fred Whitmore: ‘OK so raw corn is good. It is even more amazing first thing in the morning, right off the stalk, and it is the Silver Queen variety.’ Mike Wallin: ‘After your nauseating corn story, and many previous equally disgusting recipes and aversion to spending money on decent clothes, I just had this question for you: ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE GAY?’ ☞ Trust me. AS CORNY AS APPLE PIE Monday I ran the ‘What Is an American’ essay. We can use a little corny patriotism every now and then. But as I tried to suggest in a general way, we may not be quite so good as that essay suggested (though we’re good!). Rajesh Jayaprakash ‘generally agrees’ with the essay except for the following points: 1. It is a bit disingenuous to think that America poured arms and supplies into Afghanisthan to help the Afghans to win their freedom. 2. The fact that people from developed countries are admitted freely into America with minimal immigration restrictions while people from third-world countries are not puts to the lie the claim that America is ready to open its arms wide to ‘your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, the tempest tossed.’ This may have been true some fifty years ago, but not today. 3. The point that is being missed is that, to the rest of the world, Americans are synonymous with the American government. The sooner Americans wake up to the fact that, as Van Halen put it, their government is right now doing things that they think only other governments do, the better for everyone. IF ONLY AN APPLE A DAY HAD BEEN ENOUGH Peter L. DeWolf: ‘When I pointed out Monday’s ‘Reagan and AIDS’ letter to somebody, they called it ‘one of those big lie’ letters and said that this report lists the following as annual Federal spending on AIDS research . . . In 1982, $8 million was spent on AIDS. In 1983, $44 million. In 1984, $103 million In 1985, $205 million In 1986, $508 million In 1987, $922 million In 1988, $1,625 million In 1989, $2,322 million. …which doesn’t look like the Reagan administration was just ignoring the problem. Not that I liked Reagan, particularly, but what am I to believe?’ ☞ One prominent AIDS activist I asked replied, ‘I wouldn’t argue with the figures. I haven’t had a chance to look them up. I do know that the big increases came from Congressional pressure, ACT UP pressure, and the sad reality that gay men were dying by the thousands (hard to ignore). But, there is NO question that the Reagan Administration ignored the AIDS crisis for years. There is NO question that he did not specifically address the crisis until 1987. Yes, he did use the “word” before that – including in a press conference where he essentially launched the abstinence-only campaign (fit in well with Nancy Reagan’s ‘just say no’ anti-drug work). The notion that the administration was responsive is complete revisionist history. I don’t have to rely on others, we lived through it. ACT UP’s Silence=Death poster came out in 1987 and it was specifically focused on Reagan’s silence and the lethargy/resistance of the CDC and FDA. Yes, funding from the Ryan White Act did start, but who can forget that it was all about Ryan and other ‘innocent victims’ – not the community being decimated? I could go on and on.’ He suggests, diplomatically, that ‘the best way to respond to the emails you received’ might be something like this: Thanks for bringing another viewpoint to the conversation. Many people I know and respect worked tirelessly during the 1980’s to fight the growing epidemic before it even had a name. They were people from both parties and worked on the inside and from the outside. With nearly one voice, they believe that the government’s response was slow and hindered by anti-gay animus within the Reagan administration. That is not to say that everyone thinks the president was anti-gay or that programs implemented toward the end of his term (e.g., the Ryan White Act) were bad. Well said.
Nutty Stocks, Corn for Guys on the Go, Jogging in Iraq June 4, 2004February 25, 2017 BOREALIS Well, this stock that I’ve written about for so many years – that is surely going to zero, but I own a ton of it – has lately been trading just under $6, giving the entire enterprise a market cap of $30 million. (Five million shares at $6 each.) Its symbol is BOREF, and if you think it is lightly traded, you should see the stock of its ‘publicly traded’ subsidiaries. They barely ever trade at all. Each Borealis share represents ownership of approximately one share of: CHOMF (Chorus Motors, last reported trade at $6) . . . COLCF (Cool Chips, last reported trade at $10) . . . PWCHF (Power Chips, last reported trade at $6) . . . and RCHBF (Roche Bay, last reported trade at $7). So each $6 Borealis share supposedly represents about $29 worth of its subsidiaries. This is not for an instant to declare that the market prices of the subsidiaries mean a lot. Their true value is either zero (which I have to assume) or many times the current prices (which is my dream). Only time will tell whether any of this is real. But I’d rather own $29 ‘worth’ of the subsidiaries for $6 than for $29. SPEAKING OF NUTTY STOCKS Steve: ‘Actually, the price of SVNX never reached $2400, it reached $240. The quotes you’re getting are inflated by an adjustment for a 1-for-10 reverse split last year. But the 99.9% percentage loss is correct, as an unadjusted original share would now fetch only about 30 cents, down from $240.’ MY SUMMER CORN RECIPE FOR GUYS ON THE GO It has been a while since I’ve shared a recipe from my work in progress, Cooking Like a Guy™ (remember to slam your open palm on the table for manly emphasis as you say it). So, with summer in the air, here’s one: Quick Corn: 1. Buy some really nice young sweet corn. 2. Shuck. 3. Serve. I know this would seem to skip the “cook and slather in butter and salt” steps, which if you have time I would encourage you to take. But I have discovered, at considerable personal risk to myself by trying it out for you, that if you’re in a hurry, this works fine. Tasty, crunchy, with no untoward aftereffects. “Corn Aldente” I call it. “Eating Like a Rodent,” my partner calls it. To each his own. Just try to avoid the little poison pellets roommates may leave out for you around the baseboard. SPEAKING OF FRESH CORN James Redekop: “We use an online grocery delivery company up here in Toronto called Grocery Gateway. Just thinking about Karen Collins’ complaint about the waste of boxes: Grocery Gateway will take the boxes from a delivery back on the next delivery, to reuse (or recycle if they’re wearing out). Very efficient.” JOGGING AROUND THE GREEN ZONE Click here for a really interesting Iraqi-American’s account.
Scoobie – Don’t! January 22, 2004February 24, 2017 EMERGENCY CASH Did you know you can get cash for your miles? Well, if they’re American Express points you can. Just go to the web site and cash in points at a rate of $100 for every 20,000 points. They’re worth way more than that to most people – to me, they’re worth at least 2%, or $400 per 20,000 points – which is why Amex is happy to make the trade. MORE ON THE MEATRIX George Berger: ‘Your link to the Michael Pollan column on humane treatment of farm animals got me searching for alternatives to factory-farmed products. The one I found that I liked best is a program called “Free Farmed” run by the American Humane Society. They’re the people who monitor the film industry and certify ‘No Animals Were Harmed.’ Farms that pass their inspection get to display the Free Farmed logo on their products. I’m very happy to have a grocery nearby here in Phoenix that sells dairy products with the logo. I’m looking for more, but in the meantime I search out products that at least claim to be free-range or somehow indicate that they care about the welfare of their animals.’ AND WHILE WE’RE EATING Starbucks Low-Fat Latte ice cream. Run, do not walk. LOOK FOR SCOOBIE IN GUANTANAMO ‘Whenever I have a five dollar bill,’ writes blogger Scoobie Davis, ‘I draw a speech balloon for Lincoln with the caption that reads, ‘The GOP is no longer my party.” ☞ It is illegal to deface U.S. currency. I doubt a lot of folks have been prosecuted for this, but then I wouldn’t have expected the Justice Department to prosecute the South Carolina man who held up a sign (NO WAR FOR OIL) in what turned out not to be a free speech zone.
Holiday Joy December 24, 2003February 24, 2017 Behold! The magnificent pomegranate. Its icy rubies are a treat too many have never even experienced. If this is you, hie thee to the produce department! Thence to your refrigerator! Thence, after a suitable cooling off period, to your first experience trying to remove the seeds! (Unless, that is, you can hie yourself to a Korean market in New York that – wonder of $4.98-cent-a-tray wonders – has done all the work for you.) Thence, at last, and worth it, to enjoy – pondering, as you mash the succulence twixt teeth and tongue, whether to ingest or discard the mealy seed cores that remain. (It’s okay to do either.) Hey, it’s Christmas Eve. Live it up. If you can, find a camel and a palm tree to complete the scene. And if you get the hang of it, consider ice cold pomegranate seeds with your champagne for New Year’s Eve. Behold! Operacast.com! Looking for Handel’s Messiah tomorrow? Check this site any time to see what’s playing – free, through your computer speakers – anywhere in the world. Okay, okay, so I’ve only been to the opera once in my life, if you don’t count Tommy and Sweeney Todd, and am not rushing to go back. But this! This is so easy! And who cannot enjoy Aida in the comfort of his own recliner? Behold! PCG, suggested here February 3, has doubled! And stodgy old PCL, suggested here August 15, is up 14%! O, joy! And look at this! Borealis isn’t zero yet, either! I am just filled with holiday spirit and hope you are, too.
Unprecedented November 7, 2003February 24, 2017 THE NEW GOOGLE DESK BAR Roy Gilbert: ‘You may be interested in the latest addition to the Google labs: http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/index.html. It’s like the toolbar, but you don’t have to open your browser to use it.’ LEFTIES John Mandeville: ‘Did you know there is a larger percentage of lefties in the scientific community than there is in the overall population? I am a retired engineer and it was not unusual to have 3 or 4 of us in a meeting of 5 engineers. Remember when Clinton, Bush, and Perot ran for president…..all left handed.’ RADIOACTIVE Alex: ‘Broccoli is just as radioactive as bananas.’ Bill Baron: ‘Here‘s a link to put the banana radioactivity risk in perspective. It shows that living in Denver exposes you to about 14 times more radiation than eating a banana every day. So you can keep feeding that contented little chimp within.’ WATCH THIS! Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election airs on the Sundance Channel over the next week. It’s so hot it’s radioactive. The scandal is that it has not aired more widely, and long ago. Could this be part of the same climate that led CBS to drop the Reagan documentary? It’s worth your taking the time to figure out where the Sundance Channel is on your cable line-up – most cable systems carry it – and taping it, in case you decide you want to show friends. It airs: > Saturday afternoon Nov 8, 1:15 PM > Sunday afternoon Nov 16, 12 noon > Wednesday evening Nov 19, 9 PM > Friday evening, Nov 21, 12:45 AM (technically, Saturday morning) Watch it tomorrow, and if you think it’s important, pass the rest of the schedule on to your list.
Bananas – and Another Radioactive Topic November 6, 2003February 24, 2017 DUCK AND COVER – IT’S BANANAS! Michael Axelrod: ‘Yes, bananas are wonderful. I generally eat a banana after vigorous exercise to replace the lost potassium. And yes indeed that potassium makes those bananas radioactive, but not so radioactive as granite. If you stand near the granite statutes in the Capitol rotunda, say six hours a day, you will come close to the allowed exposure for radiation workers. A cargo container full of bananas will look like someone is trying to smuggle a nuclear weapon into the country. And this is a problem for the homeland security folks.’ EVERBANK John Lemon: ‘I’ve had an internet checking account with them since 2000. If I keep a $1500 balance, the checking is free, is interest bearing (insignificant now but it paid a promotional 6% when I opened the account) and the on-line bill pay is free. The only down side is that they take five days or so to post deposits of over $1000. Totally legit.’ PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTION President Bush, surrounded by proud male legislators (no females) – who feel they know best about motherhood and medicine – signed what is loosely known as the partial birth abortion ban yesterday. A friend who has performed one writes: Ken Ahonen: ‘As an emergency physician, I once took care of a 20-year-old woman (a girl, really) who was pregnant. Because of her pregnancy, she developed uncontrollable seizures that threatened her life. She, her husband, and her parents were informed that the only way to save her life was to stop the seizures. The only way to stop the seizures was to deliver the baby….right away. ‘The problem is, the baby was too young to live on its own, even if put on life support. If delivered, the baby would surely die, but the young mother would live. So everyone decided to terminate the pregnancy and save the life of the 20 year old woman. It was a decision that was made by the woman, her husband, her parents, me and the obstetrician, not the government. ‘The delivery went smoothly and quickly, and the woman lived. The obstetrician said that she most likely can have a normal pregnancy in the future, should she choose it. ‘Now here is the good part of the story: the government had no part in this decision. It was all decided by the woman herself, along with advice from her husband, her family and her doctors. ‘The anti-abortionists have termed this procedure ‘Partial-Birth Abortion’ to generate public support against abortions and to empower the government to make these all-important decisions for women. This procedure should rather be called Life Saving Termination of Pregnancy, because that is what it is. ‘The baby in this case was delivered by C-section, as they usually are in late terms, since this is the safest way for the mother. The suction and skull crushing thing is another wrong dramatization created by anti-abortionists. Though the procedure exists, it is basically not ever done like that. (Ew!) After C-section, the baby is never deliberately killed. If the baby is less than 24 weeks and therefore ‘non-viable’ it is placed in a bowl and sent to the pathology lab to look for abnormalities. If 24 weeks or more, then resuscitation is attempted and often successful.’