There’s nothing radical about going to work every day.

Of course, that presupposes that you have a job to go to. An increasing number of us do not. For me, that’s the whole point of the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

People are not radical – especially as we get older and take on more responsibilities. That’s just the way it is. It’s hard to imagine carrying a sign, chanting slogans, and risking arrest when we are busily running as fast as we can to keep that hamster wheel spinning.

JP Morgan Chase doesn’t care if the social fabric of the country is disintegrating; your mortgage payment is due on the 1ST. Your boss expects you to keep your focus on the bottom line. Your children need things that you must provide.

Who has time to protest?

We are overworked, overwhelmed, and scared to death of falling off the wheel.

We leave the risk-taking to the young. They have nothing better to do, right?

It’s okay to admit it. Most of us are not cut out to be heroes. It’s easier to turn a blind eye to the suffering of the few while we try to make our own way. Unemployment is just a number to those who are employed – it holds no more importance than a batting average or a Neilson rating. We hear the number, we shrug, and we move on.

But to the unemployed, it means everything. When millions are looking for work that isn’t there, the future looks bleak.

For years, there has been a whittling away of the social safety net. It’s a net whose first strings were strung when the country was at its fiscal worst. We learned what can happen when the economy goes to Hell, so we took steps to avoid a repeat in the future.

Good idea.

Then it happened. The rich began to feel that they weren’t rich enough. They used their wealth to game the system. Too many politicians have a price, and Wall Street was able to meet it. How else can one explain the repeal of laws that were enacted to keep the greed of bankers in check? It’s commonly believed that banks took too many risks which led us into a recession. Bullshit.

There was no risk involved in what they did – at least not to them. They were golden from the start. It was an ingenious plan:

• Lie, cheat, and steal from investors as you package bogus mortgages and sell them as if they were bonds.
• Get the ratings agencies to bless your offerings with AAA ratings and collude with insurance companies to cover your butt when the crap hit the fan.
• Call in your markers with all of those politicians that you “carry in their pockets like so many nickels and dimes,” by lobbying for and getting huge bailouts. (Apologies to The Godfather.)
• Gouge consumers, toss them from their homes by the millions, hoard cash, and continue to devise new schemes for ripping people off.

Do we really need more reasons to be angry before we actually do something about it?

I’m not headed to downtown Manhattan today. I’m not proud of that, but there are other things that we can do to support the activists and it begins by paying attention.

There are no excuses for being uninformed. Even the media is slowly recognizing the movement. There’s something happening here. You don’t have to go to Liberty Square yourself, but you can Tweet it, blog it, or spread the word with some good old-fashioned talking.

My thoughts are with the activists and my check is in the mail.

They are fighting the good fight. If they are successful, society will benefit. If they are bullied into submission, or starved out from lack of support, each of us who chooses to stay on the sidelines will own a part of the blame.

Nero may have had it right when he fiddled while Rome burned.

Once the die is cast and calamity is upon us, there’s little that an individual can do – even an emperor.

The historical accuracy of Nero’s actions notwithstanding, the scenario is a perfect description for what has been going on in Washington. 536 people (members of the Senate, the House, and the President) can choose to put an end to this self-induced crisis, or they can fiddle for a few more days until the deadline, when we can all see what happens.

I used to write about politics much more often. I thought it was important and I’ve always tried to look at the positive aspects of politics. I don’t rant and rave, resort to name calling, or turn those with opposing views into caricatures.

None of those things are helpful.

Politics is more important than that because the issues that our elected officials are supposed to address affect us all, so a more serious approach is warranted.

But ever since last year’s midterms, I find that I have no words to describe the paucity of positive activity that has taken place since those elections. I predicted as much last September in my A One-Term President post, where I wrote:

I don’t think that Republicans will gain enough seats to wrest control of the Senate, but whether or not they are in control, the next two years will bring few improvements. The margin of votes in the Senate will be razor thin, so neither Party will be able to muster a 60-vote super-majority.

Gridlock in the Senate is a foregone conclusion.

This prolonged debt ceiling melodrama has even gotten the attention of people who do not usually track what goes on in Washington, mainly because the entire fiasco is asinine at its core. The immediate concern is the raising of the debt ceiling. Without passage of this formerly routine bit of legislation, the lives of every citizen will be negatively impacted in one way or another. The idiotic idea of linking the debt ceiling and the deficit has created a problem of their own making.

This is exactly what a struggling economy does not need.

To be clear, the debt ceiling concerns money that has already been borrowed and spent. It has nothing to do with deficit reduction, so it is being used as a bargaining tactic – nothing more. Using it this way is not surprising, but bringing us this close to the deadline because of it is.

If the US defaults, borrowing will become more expensive for everyone. Businesses will pass along the added cost to consumers, who as usual, will get shafted. No surprise there. They can argue about budgets and deficits all that they want, but they should not be playing this dangerous game with the debt ceiling.

For those who see all government as bad, you are being proven right — even if it is an inside job.

Congratulations.

To those who cheer on the conservative Right in their efforts to curtail spending on the backs of the least well off, your short-sightedness will cause pain to your families.

Congratulations, again.

Congress and the President have brought us to an unhappy place. So much time and effort has been wasted and nothing has been gained. Whatever the outcome, it’s a certainty that we will all be worse off. The only real question is by how much.

Today, I’m not going to call my Representative, my Senator, or the President to complain.

They are not listening.

Instead, I’ll do some fiddling of my own as I try to enjoy this last weekend of pre-default America by ignoring the shenanigans of the fiddling 536. Like everyone else, I will just have to deal with the fallout because we have ceded all of the power to five hundred and thirty six individuals who cannot seem to agree on anything.

Just a few months ago, the idea of a US default seemed like crazy talk. It doesn’t seem so crazy now because it’s the crazy people who are doing the talking.

How embarrassing for us to have chosen these 536 to lead.

If Alabama state lawmakers were trying to get rid of killer bees or roving packs of rats I could better understand their urge to take action. But the “illegals” that are squarely in the sights of these elected officials are people – not vermin.

The spate of immigration laws that are making their way through state houses across the country will have unconsidered consequences that will do more harm than good. They include: separating families, forcing a large segment of our population to live in fear, encouraging the expansion of an underground economy, and hurting businesses that rely on cheap labor – thereby hurting consumers by driving up prices.

“The law, which goes beyond an immigration enforcement bill Arizona adopted last year, requires public schools to determine the immigration status of all students starting in kindergarten and makes it a crime to knowingly give a ride in a vehicle to an illegal immigrant. It requires police officers to inquire about the status of anyone they stop if they suspect the person might be an illegal immigrant.”

NY Times: Alabama: Tough Immigration Measure Becomes Law, By JULIA PRESTON Published: June 9, 2011

P1000055 by Bebopsmile, on Flickr

Really? Denying children of the undocumented an education will make things better?

Comprehensive immigration reform is often talked about, but never acted upon in earnest by the federal government. Instead, we allow states to dictate the agenda and some are doing so in the most radical ways possible.

Deport as many people as you want, America. More will come.

Blame the undocumented for all of your troubles, America. Still, more will come.

Marginalize people instead of finding a way to make the system work for everyone, America.

And of course, more will still come.

Our parents were the first to teach us not to do it, but there would be many reminders. Teachers, coaches, classmates, and friends concurred.

Don’t call people names.

Despite the reinforcement of this simple precept, many have forgotten it or chosen to ignore it – especially in politics. Whether we’re talking about Boehner’s skin tone, Obama as a Kenyan-Muslim-Socialist in Joker face paint, or Glenn Beck as king of the crazies, the list is endless. Welcome to political discourse at its worst.

Nancy Pelosi probably holds the distinction of being the most caricatured Speaker of the House in US history. The cartoonish portrayals of her are likely more recognizable to the public than her actual picture. This is despite her record of achievement which the current Speaker, Boehner, can only hope to match.

But what do we end up with after all the name calling? Does it bring us any closer to knowing who these people are?

Of course not!

It actually keeps us from focusing on the issues.  You may get the top tweet of the day by buying into the orchestrated distractions, but not much else.

For those who seek to hold positions of power at all levels of government, this is probably the way that they prefer the electorate to behave. With all of the nonsense taking center stage, all that a politician needs to do is continually repeat a few catchy phrases and wait for them to be turned into sound bites and they’re practically in.

Politicians are laughing at us.

If you were one of them, wouldn’t you?

In 2006, President George Bush walked into my bedroom, shot me a snide grin, and pulled the plug on my computer.

Even though the former president hasn’t actually ever been in my home, his signing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act effectively did just that. Party Poker, which had served as an occasional diversion for me and millions of other online poker players, was instantly turned into a play money site. As anyone who has ever gambled knows, it’s not really gambling if there is no real money on the line.

Yes, I know that the President’s signature was only the final step, as “The Act” had many supporters, but I’ve always blamed George Bush for taking away my fun. After all, he did dub himself “The Decider”.

A few years later, I opened an account with PokerStars on a whim and discovered that I could play Texas Holdem once again. I didn’t think that “The Act” was repealed, so I didn’t understand how they were doing it. In reality, I didn’t really care how.

Game on.

The fun ended again yesterday when the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office took over the domains of several online poker sites.

Whatever side of the internet gambling debate you fall on, I suspect that we can all agree that there is a great deal of hypocrisy in determining what type of gambling is bad vs. what type of gambling is acceptable. Lotteries, church bingo, sports betting, March madness office pools, casinos, race tracks, etc. are all forms of gambling, yet only some are considered criminal.

Why is that?

In 2007, the Mount Airy Lodge Casino near my home opened as a slot parlor. By mid-2010, table games were added to the mix. This means that I can take a 10-minute drive and gamble as much as I want. The difference? Tax revenue.

Pennsylvania began granting casino licenses in 2006, with the first venue, Mohegan Sun, opening in November of that year. Revenue from slot parlors is taxed at a 54.5% rate which is divvied up as follows:

Total tax revenues through February 2011 exceeded four billion dollars ($4,053,826,712). This phenomenal windfall has occurred during years in which the economy has been depressed (2006-2011). Imagine the size of the “take” for the government once the economy improves. Mount Airy alone has been taxed nearly $300,000,000 in 41 months.

I can own a gun, but I can’t play an online game and go all in with the nuts (bet all of my chips while holding the best possible hand). In my view, the ease of availability of a handgun is far more dangerous than doubling down on an online blackjack table.

There are social ills that accompany access to gambling, just as there are with the accessibility of alcohol and tobacco. I’m not debating that point. But when the government places the rules in opposition: good vs. bad gambling – which are essentially the same thing, the hypocrisy is transparent.

If the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office are acting on the behalf of legislators who are interested in getting a piece of the online gambling pie, they should just say so and spare us the charade of acting for “the public good”.

The money grab is on.

Care to bet on what happens next?

____________________

The tax revenue source data for my charts was obtained from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
____________________

Detective Benson would have had to restrain her partner had they been the arresting officers in any of the Jesuit abuse cases that were just settled in Seattle.

Each week, the TV drama pulls at our heartstrings as they dramatize the many types of victims of sexual abuse. The most heinous abusers are those who select children as their prey. Their cowardly acts stir an anger within us that is unmatched by any other type of crime. When these horrible people are caught and imprisoned, I know that I don’t lose any sleep over the jailhouse justice that hopefully awaits them.

According to the Associated Press:

“The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus has been accused of using its schools in remote villages and on reservations as dumping grounds for problem priests.”

Four hundred and fifty victims – some having waited nearly 50 years for justice – will receive $160 million dollars (less attorney fees, which I am guessing are substantial).  Six million will be held aside for future claims. Two hundred prior claims of abuse were settled by this Province in 2009. They have been in bankruptcy proceedings since making the 2009 settlement.

These cases have become so frequent that the crime has come to define the clergy in the minds of many. If you don’t believe me, turn to your neighbors and play a game of word association. If the response to “catholic priest” is not “child molester” more than half of the time, I will be very surprised.

Having been raised a Catholic who attended parochial schools and a Jesuit high school, I have always known priests to be kind, caring, and deeply religious people. My personal experience with priests, however positive, cannot outweigh the mountain of evidence to the contrary. There is a problem in the priesthood and an even bigger problem in The Catholic Church.  Neither are being addressed with these settlements.

I’ve written before about separating faith from religion. I can believe in a higher power without swallowing whole some of the nonsense that comes from the leaders of organized religion. For serial rapists to be shielded from prosecution by the Church’s hierarchy, who often chose to reassign the guilty to new environs where they could continue their wicked deeds, is a sin that cannot be adjudicated away. The number and scale of these cases reveal a structural failure within the Church.

While reading about this case, two aspects of its resolution troubled me greatly.

First, one of the priests in this case, who is alleged to have molested 100 children, will not be charged with any crimes because of the state’s statute of limitations. How can this be? Is there also a statute of limitation on the complicity of those who enabled this priest’s behavior?

And second, the ability of this Province to limit the compensatory damages that they must pay by filing for bankruptcy is bewildering. There should be no corporate veil behind which they can hide. If the Province cannot pay, then the next level up the hierarchy should, up to and including the Vatican.

I’m a believer, but what I can’t believe is that my Church has done the best that it could do.

____________________

Society of Jesus Oregon Province letter from the provincial, dated February 25, 2009

Society of Jesus Oregon Province Q & A About Chapter 11

It’s impossible to make sense of the numbers.

We know that the tragic loss of a single life has a ripple effect on the lives of many. The immediate family is the epicenter where the loss is felt most severely, but extended family members, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances are also affected. This shared feeling of loss, no matter the degree, binds us together. We feel the pain of others even when we don’t know the person who has passed away.

The death tolls from natural disasters can be so high that they are beyond comprehension. The 2004 tsunami caused the deaths of 230,000 people in fourteen countries. Last year, there were 200,000 victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

Regrettably, there is no shortage of examples of these large-scale disasters.

The numbers are just too high to grasp.

As when we hesitantly approach a grieving relative at a wake, we don’t know what to say. “I’m sorry,” seems so inadequate.

The immediate response of many is to pray. I’m certain that the people who do the praying mean well, but I fear that to those who are suffering, those prayers seem as feeble as the awkwardly uttered “I’m sorry”.

We feel helpless.

We can’t comprehend the suffering that is occurring. We recognize the fragility of life as we grapple with the sorrow.

It’s just too much.

There were vast outpourings of support for the quake victims in Indonesia and Haiti. People sent what they could and governments made pledges. Time passed and we learned that people were not being helped. Aid was slow to arrive and governments reneged on their pledges, so many survivors continued to suffer.

They still do.

And now the people of Japan are suffering.

No one could blame us for feeling disgust at the way the responses to previous tragedies have played out. Nor could we be blamed for being skeptical of the organizations to which we entrust our offerings. We can even be fearful that politicians will break today’s promises of support. None of these things should keep us from helping now.

We are not helpless.

We must rely on those organizations that tell us that they will do what is needed. This is one of them, The American Red Cross, but there are many. I hope that you choose one and that you send what you can.

Contributing to the relief effort for Japan won’t make it any easier for us to wrap our minds around the numbers, but our ability to comprehend makes no difference to those on the ground.

We should send money and pray that it gets to those who need it.

Let’s be real, folks. Most of us have no clue about what life is like in Egypt, Tunisia, Iran or any of the other countries where revolt has been in the air of late. We know little of the existence of these countries until there is news of upheaval by its citizens.

We follow the coverage and are drawn in to the real-life dramas that are being played out on our televisions, iPhones, and Twitter streams.

Defiant protesters rage against entrenched regimes. In these countries, protesters risk everything and are promised nothing. They put their lives on the line for just the chance to experience freedom.

It’s really quite amazing, if you stop to think about it.

In America, the poor are not defying our government; the disenfranchised have not taken to the streets in large numbers and for sustained periods of time. Yes, Americans protest often, but those demonstrations are sporadic and short-lived. The people who march in them risk little, if anything. For some activists, like the Tea Party, it’s a chance to play dress-up. We live in a free society where dissent is expected, even if the grievances are imagined or overstated.

There have been sustained and effective protests here over heated issues like the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War.  The danger was real for the proponents of change during those very volatile periods of our history.

This is why I can’t help but share in the excitement of people who struggle for freedom – whether or not I know anything about them. If those who live under the rule of a despot find the strength within themselves to take a stand to change that reality, they deserve the support of peoples and nations who claim to share those aspirations.

Some have found ways to downplay what has happened in Egypt. They worry about instability in the region and the motives of the protesters. They worry about how this will affect Israel. But mostly, they worry about “radical extremists” filling the power void, thereby, threatening America.

It’s never too early to trot out the boogeyman.

People are allowed to worry about such things, of course, but the underlying presumption that this can only turn out badly for both Egypt and America is ludicrous.

Have a little faith people!

Americans are supposed to love democracy. Hell, we’ve gone to war because we love it so much that we want to force others to love it too. In Egypt, we have an instance where the people themselves have initiated a step toward freedom. No one knows what their next steps will be and what form of government they will eventually have.

What we do know is that they want a voice. They want a voice in choosing their leaders, in how they live their lives, and in how they shape their destiny — they have told us so.

Many Americans can hear them.

Can you?

No one should be surprised by the revelation that another politician has placed himself in the crosshairs of a rabid media, to the delight of legions of reality show enthusiasts who lap up every titillating drop of scandal that this story secretes.

It’s actually refreshing that there doesn’t seem to be a video tape to go along with the unforgivably dreadful and career self-destructing photo.  I couldn’t bring myself to post it here, but I’m sure that you’ve seen it.

By now you know that the most recent person to hitch a ride on the “how stupid are you?” carousel is, now former, Representative Christopher Lee of New York. Once the story broke, it took him only a few hours to recognize the futility of trying to hang on to his Congressional seat, so he resigned.

The conventional wisdom is that the cover-up is usually worse than the crime, so Lee’s quick resignation should have earned him some time away from the media spotlight, during which he could concentrate on explaining it all to his wife.

Good luck with that one, sir.

But the speedy resignation has not worked to his benefit – at least not yet. His story remains front page news and interest in the story shows no signs of ebbing. Everyone has an opinion on his behavior. Comedy writers are busily crafting tonight’s punch lines for Leno and Letterman.

The guy screwed up. There’s no question about it.

As a result, he has lost his job, damaged his reputation, and towed his family into a cesspool of ridicule.

He had a very bad day, yesterday.

The inevitable comparisons to Bill Clinton didn’t take long. It’s unfortunate that Hillary has to be reminded, once again, of her time in the swirl of media madness as a result of her husband’s misdeeds.

For Bill, no lasting stain of any significance has been left on his legacy. (Pun intended).

The differing levels of accountability that people who get into trouble are held to has long been a sore point with me. Most reasonable people would agree that the punishment should always fit the crime, but that almost never happens.

If you are an actor, like Charlie Sheen, who enables CBS to generate $3.1 million in revenue, per episode of his sitcom Two and a Half Men, you can binge on drugs and alcohol and bang as many porn stars as you can get your hands on. If you are a second-term Congressperson who behaves badly on craigslist, you become a pariah.

It’s that whole sanctity of marriage thing that gets people riled up, isn’t it? Perhaps the 40% to 50% of first marriages that end in divorce provides us with a strong indication that “sanctity” does not mean what people think it does.

Lee should have hung in there. His constituents could have booted him from office in 2012 if they choose to, so he shouldn’t have just given up. Not for this level of offense.

This too shall pass… maybe.

Message boards are active with Conservatives battling Liberals over which political party produces the most sleaze. This is a battle that cannot be won by either side because it’s a ridiculous discussion to be having in the first place. There is no correlation between political affiliation and lasciviousness.

This guy was on top of the world and he felt, or acted like he felt, exempted from the rules. This is not an uncommon phenomenon among successful and powerful men.

It’s not an uncommon phenomenon among unsuccessful and powerless men either, but no one seems to care about them.

Since the November elections, I’ve not felt like writing blog posts, as the results shook my belief in the capacity of the electorate to sift through the malarkey of campaign ads to arrive at a sound conclusion.

In other words, the results were disappointing to me, at best.

House Election Results 2010 - Source: NY Times

Still, I wasn’t compelled to take to the streets to vent my outrage, nor did I disparage the victors or the voters who gave them their victories. Rather, I resigned myself to the outcome and hoped that I was wrong about these new legislators, and that the economic problems of the country would be resolved over the next two years.

That’s something that we all should want.

So, I’m in “wait and see” mode, for now, since the new Congress will not convene until next year, but that doesn’t mean that there’s not a lot of stuff going on as we near the end of 2010. Much of the maneuvering, deal-making, and legislative work that the Senate has undertaken during this lame duck session has been fascinating to watch. Some good things have been accomplished, but there have also been some frightful concessions made in order to achieve those legislative wins.

That’s the nature of politics.

Obama signs DADT Repeal - Source: CBC News

It’s worth noting that the characterization of these legislative accomplishments as having been “rammed through” by the Democrats during this lame duck session is inaccurate. A cursory review of the vote counts for any of these new laws shows that some Republicans are casting “Yea” votes as well.

As the old adage goes:

“If neither side is entirely happy, they must be doing something right.”

Of all the issues that have been addressed during this session, last weekend’s passage of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) pleased me the most. To me, this has always been a basic human rights issue, so the repeal was enough to shake me from my writing doldrums.

I’ve written about the absurd nature of the DADT law before, and it’s amazing to me that it ever became the law of the land in the first place. The arguments against this law were never about special rights or promoting homosexuality. The arguments against DADT always had everything to do with basic fairness. Now that the law has been repealed, being true to oneself – for many of our brave, dedicated, and patriotic military personnel – is no longer illegal, as gay and lesbian service people now have the same rights that are afforded other American citizens in the workplace.

1968 Civil rights bill - Source: civilrightspictures.com

As has been the case throughout our history in America, social wrongs are eventually righted. It often takes longer to get there than many of us would like, but we do get there.

In the end, reason trumps irrational fear, diversity challenges bias, love conquers hate, and our children get to live in a better world than we do.

God bless us, everyone.

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I wish all of my readers a very happy holiday season.

Ray

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