Thursday, 19 February 2009

Upgrade Complete: Forward

by Harry Haller at 3:15 am | Be the first

A giant grouper.

Image via Wikipedia

For those readers who contacted me wondering whether the fish had not been updated because of illness, depression, or lack of interest, the answer is, “No. The fish hasn’t flopped. We’ve simply undergone major architectural changes.”

But apart from a few minor glitches and some trim work, the project is completed and we’ll be back pixilating your monitors in the morning.

Longtime readers will notice the return of the Pub, our intrepid forum and the home of an amazing assortment of the dead and undead. I’d like to encourage readers to participate. You can also keep us apprised of your online activities by joining taking a room at the Werewolf Inn. You know what we’re doing — we’d like to follow your updates, comments and adventures.

Finally (but certainly not at the back of the bus), Jim has broken silence and joined the Whistle & Fish family as a semi-regular contributor. We look forward to reading his insights and recommendations into the personal Web (a place, in the wide world of blogs, that seems, unfortunately, to be going the way of the dinosaur.

We’re looking for other voices. If you’re interested in writing for the Fish, drop me a note in the Inn.

On we go. It seems the whole world exploded while we were away. Let’s make sense of it together. Forward.

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Saturday, 14 February 2009

Climate Change Will Devastate Fishing Industry

by Harry Haller at 9:43 am | 3 Howls

Consider this: A man is carried to a hospital emergency room with a hemorrhaging wound in his side. He is losing blood. Rapidly.

Two ER doctors are called in to address his injury. One sees the trauma and wants to repair it immediately; the other identifies the damage as an act of God and nature and refuses to act, insisting treatment will be a waste of time and money — money the patient might not repay. The second doctor not only withholds care, he will not permit the first to nurse the wound.

Their disagreement escalates, with both sides gathering experts to argue their point of view, until the argument itself takes center stage. Meanwhile, the patient is bleeding to death.

A sentence in the BBC News story, “Bleak forecast on fishery stocks” brought the analogy to mind: “The world’s oceans are already experiencing changes in temperature and current patterns are changing due to climate change. [Italics mine. HH]”

The world’s climate is warming, regardless of the reason. Altering human behavior may or may not stanch the flow, but it seems better to me that we err on the side of caution and begin preparing now for a worst-case scenario. There is no doubt the fishing industry will be devastated by the change, but most disturbing is the impact global warming will have on the world’s poor. According to the BBC:

Thirty-three nations in Africa, Asia and South America are highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change in fisheries, according to scientists from the World Fish Centre.

Of these, 19 were already classified by the United Nations as “least developed” because of their particularly poor socioeconomic conditions.

“Economically, people in the tropics and subtropics likely will suffer most, because fish are so important in their diets and because they have limited capacity to develop other sources of income and food,” said Edward Allison, director of policy, economics and social science at WorldFish.

Wars over food? Don’t think it can’t happen. More and more I believe the writers of “The Road Warrior” were prophets. Scrod, anyone?

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Friday, 13 February 2009

Stimulus Passes Congress

by Harry Haller at 11:48 pm | Be the first

The stimulus plan passed the Senate tonight, 60 to 38, with three Republican centrists voting ay. Not a single Republican supported the measure in the House, where 7 yellow dog Democrats jumped the fence. So much for bipartisanship.

Paul Krugman worries the effort won’t be large enough to break the economic logjam — at this point the subject is moot.

This is a brief post during a light week of blogging. I’m trying to work through the process of turning Werewolf Tales into more of a community site with greater reader participation. Hopefully I’ll turn the corner this weekend and get back to a regular posting schedule.

In the meantime, chin up, lefties. (You too, Jim.)

UPDATE: Mike Crauderueff believes the bill passed on the strength of one woman: Henrietta Hughes. I’m inclined to agree.

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Grieder Warns of Social Security Scheme

by Harry Haller at 3:29 pm | Be the first

William Grieder’s “Looting Social Security” is essential reading for those who have paid into the system for decades and are interested in receiving a return on their investment.

These players are promoting a tricky way to whack Social Security benefits, but to do it behind closed doors so the public cannot see what’s happening or figure out which politicians to blame. The essential transaction would amount to misappropriating the trillions in Social Security taxes that workers have paid to finance their retirement benefits. This swindle is portrayed as “fiscal reform.” In fact, it’s the political equivalent of bait-and-switch fraud.

This is not an argument over entitlement reform; it’s about conducting government in the light of day and making its players accountable to the public.

More than ever I feel, regardless of political alignment, the United States is operated by a monied minority that has no interest in the middle class majority. Though professional politicians and the prestige media would label my thinking “class war,” maybe the time for a little war on the wealthy is in order. When the political class argues we should bail out the financial industry, favor the investor class with enormous tax breaks, and open up Social Security to the same individuals who mishandled their own funds and brought down the financial empire on their ears, I’m beginning to wonder whether we don’t live under a form of democracy known as total plutocracy.

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Thursday, 12 February 2009

Gregg Is Out as Commerce Nominee

by Harry Haller at 5:52 pm | 4 Howls

Dennis Kucinich, member of the U.S.
Image via Wikipedia

In a move that apparently took President Barack Obama’s administration unaware, New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg has withdrawn his name from consideration as Commerce secretary, citing “irresolvable conflicts” with the administration.

Fellow reptile Mitch McConnell called the decision “principled” and said, “It’s great to have him back.” I’d be willing to bet he cackled demonically afterward.

I say good riddance. The cabinet already reeks of brimstone; the time has come to let in a little fresh air.

Mr. Obama, if you’re listening, two words: Bernie Sanders. He’s smart, principled, and socialist. Sure, the Democrats would be one step farther from cloture, but the tactic would likely give a few Republicans Senators heart attacks and remove them permanently from the picture.

If that is too risky, how about Dennis Kucinich? He loves the nation, loves the Constitution, loves unions, and is one of the bravest, most tenacious progressives in the House of Representatives.

You’ve thrown enough bones to a gang of Republican recidivists who will never going embrace your policies. Why not consider your supporters for a change?

[UPDATE: Kos is much more direct.]

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Wednesday, 11 February 2009

Williamson Should Look to Fellow Priest

by Harry Haller at 9:27 pm | Be the first

photographed by Mariel Caliandro
Image via Wikipedia

Catholic bishop Richard Williamson, the ultraconservative, Holocaust denying, defrocked priest who was recently reinstated by Pope Benedict XVI, spoke with Der Spiegel recently and justified his anti-Semitism with the words of a Christian apostle: “St. Paul put it this way: The Jews are beloved for the sake of Our Father, but our enemies for the sake of the gospel.” He agreed he would apologize for his “errors” if evidence proved him mistaken.

Zoopolitik suggests he examine the work of fellow priest Patrick Desbois of France, who has discovered hundreds of mass graves in parts of the former Soviet Union:

“Shoah,” French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann’s documentary, stands as the 20th century’s epic visual record of the Holocaust. Now another Frenchman, a Catholic priest named Patrick Desbois, is filling in a different part of the picture.

Desbois says he has interviewed more than 800 eyewitnesses and pinpointed hundreds of mass graves strewn around dusty fields in the former Soviet Union. The result is a book, “The Holocaust by Bullets,” and an exhibition through March 15 at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage.
>Brought to Ukraine by a twist of fate, Desbois has spent seven years trying to document the truth, honor the dead, relieve witnesses of their pain and guilt and prevent future acts of genocide.

Some 1.4 million of Soviet Ukraine’s 2.4 million Jews were executed, starved to death or died of disease during the war. Another 550,000-650,000 Soviet Jews were killed in Belarus and up to 140,000 in Russia, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Most of the victims were women, children and the elderly.

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One for the Broads

by Harry Haller at 6:48 pm | Be the first

Batwoman
Image via Wikipedia

Although Salon’s “Broadsheet” blog ranks among my favorite reads, I seldom have the opportunity to link it except in passing. Today’s entries are the exception that proves the rule.

First, Lynn Harris takes a look at how the economy is affecting the bedroom in “Sex-cession.” (Hint: Apparently romance statistics are falling about as rapidly as the Dow Jones Industrials average.) As Harris quips, at least “the White House won’t be hosting any Purity Balls.”

Next, Tracy Clark-Flory unveils a hot, crimson-haired, latex-suited Batwoman. Oh. Incidentally. She’s a lesbian. Not that it plays into my post-adolescent, Beavis and Butthead fantasies or anything. (He-he. He-he-he-he-he.) Methinks the evangelical community and a lot of teenaged fanboys are going to have a field day with this one.

Finally (and this is a bit of a cheat, because I hadn’t yet found a good link to this day-old story), Clark-Flory addresses the “genuinely heartwarming” story of Salma Hayek breast-feeding an African infant. In this case I’ll put my adolescent sensibilities away, as I have been a fan of Hayek, her brilliant work, and her decidedly left-leaning politics for a good many years. Her response to the situation — and the story she told afterward — were indeed heartening. (I’ll be exercising totalitarian control over comments concerning this item.)

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Addiction to Sticks

by Harry Haller at 4:52 pm | Be the first

I have long been a proponent of alternative housing, and have had an interest in prefabrication for decades. Postmodern prefabricated houses are greener, less costly, and generally better built than stick houses, and in a long review of architectural trends for The New Republic, Sarah Williams Goldhagen makes a convincing argument for their adoption.

Why do we continue to settle for residential litter in ever-more-degrading landscapes? That is the question these exhibitions fail to address. But of course it is not an architectural question. In social policies, better ideas by savvier architects will change little. For quality affordable mass-produced housing to be built, we need to create different conditions for a mass market. A new legislative structure must clear away the obstacles presented by non-standard, municipally controlled building codes and create enforceable national standards for prefab-friendly, environmentally responsible manufacturing and construction practices. Incentives must be offered so that the entrenched and intransigent construction industry, which has made plenty of money on its poorly conceived, shoddily built, environmentally toxic houses, will re-configure itself.

If the necessary legislation were passed and new market incentives put in place, and the designers and manufacturers of prefabricated homes made all the real innovations in quality and reduction of price that the automobile industry has made since the Model T, who would walk away from a better designed and better built home for less money? Given the current housing crisis, and the new administration’s commitment to environmental responsibility and progressive social policies, it seems reasonable if not exactly realistic to hope that some of tomorrow’s homebuyers might be offered the opportunity to purchase products that are worth their price.

It bears noting that IKEA has begun manufacturing living spaces. Clearly, Buckminster Fuller was a man light years ahead of his time.

Still, I have one question: With thousands of existing houses sitting empty after the burst housing bubble, isn’t the construction of even a prefabricated living space wasteful?

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Geithner’s Dog and Pony Show

by Harry Haller at 3:58 pm | Be the first

In three paragraphs Dean Baker makes about as excellent an argument as I’ve read for nationalizing failed banks:

Fortunately, we don’t have to follow the individual trades to know whether the taxpayers are being ripped off. We just need to ask some more basic questions like “How much will this thing cost?” If the answer is anywhere much more than zero — as Geithner suggested it will be — and we still see that bank stocks carry significant value and bank executives continue to hold on to their high-paying jobs, then we will know that we have been had.

The basic point is extremely simple. We have a large number of bankrupt banks. We have a public interest in keeping the banks functioning, but we have zero public interest in giving taxpayer dollars to bank shareholders or to the executives that wrecked the banks they ran.

Geithner can design as complex a dog and pony show as he wants, but if his plan takes up hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars and does not involve wiping out the shareholders and sending the bank executives packing, then he has ripped us off.

When the Constitution talks about promoting “the general welfare” it doesn’t mean providing obscene payments to the rich.

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Obama, Day 21: Timmy’s in Trouble, Lassie

by Harry Haller at 10:41 am | 1 Yowl

A picture of the Entrance to the NSE on Wall S...
Image via Wikipedia

On Sunday, when the Obama-Geithner economic plan was but a gleam in the eyes of its formulators and a series of carefully planted leaks on the Beltway, I wrongly suspected Wall Street would welcome it and Main Street would loathe it. Today, with the plan unveiled, the Dow (perhaps we should rename it the Down) nosedived, losing 381.99 points, or 4.6 percent, to close at 7,888.88. So I was wrong, Lassie, it looks like Timmy is in trouble after all.

The reason, according to a number of sources, was a lack of detail. The Times cited Ryan Larson, head equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management, “We’re not impressed, and I don’t think the market’s impressed either. It’s clear the administration is still trying to work on something concrete. I think the market sensed that, too.”

The Washington Post quoted Randy Bateman, chief investment officer and president of Huntington Asset Advisors, “It seems like the investment public is just fed up with on-again, off-again programs and there has been no manifestation of an impact on any of the problems, so I think there is a wait-and-see attitude.”

Mark A. Coffelt, president and chief investment officer of Empiric Funds in Austin, was more adamant: “I wish the government would stop speaking. Why did you even call a press conference?”

Continued after the jump

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