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Monthly Archives: February 2011

Taliban Tactics Being Used on Women in South Dakota

February 19, 2011

Midwest style of Sharia Law in the “Mount Rushmore State”?

Conservative Christians are quick to condemn Muslim law that suppresses the women in Afghanistan and other Muslim nations around the world, but when they seek to enforce similar heavy-handed measures they are seen as serving the spiritual needs of their community and “a need to protect the pregnant mother’s interest in her relationship with her child and her health”.

Anti-abortionist legislators in South Dakota are pushing a bill, HB 1217, that requires a woman to be counseled at a religious affiliated center before a doctor is allowed to perform a state approved abortion.  Creating the illusion that women may be coerced into having an abortion, fundamentalist activists have pressured their state representatives to side step the existing law that allows limited abortions and impose a restriction that they hope will prevent choices women make regarding unwanted pregnancies

“In search of an answer to a non-existent problem, anti-choice legislators are proposing that before all women undergo an abortion, they need to be evaluated for signs of coercion” reports Robin Marty in a recent AlterNet article And according to the anti-choice politicians, the best person to make the final decision about the woman’s mental state isn’t a physician, a psychologist, or even a certified counselor.  No, instead she should be evaluated by a paid employee or volunteer at one of the state’s anti-abortion, primarily Christian-based crisis pregnancy centers. (Will Draconian South Dakota Force Women to Visit Religious Pregnancy Centers Before Abortions? by Robin Marty, AlterNet.com, 2/18/11)

One similarity between South Dakota’s HB 1217 and restrictions on women in Afghanistan  is where women in Afghanistan are “not allowed to be treated by male doctors unless accompanied by a male chaperone”, an inconvenience for many men that would lead to illnesses remaining untreated for the women.  Check out the full list of restrictions imposed on Afghani women here.  Is the hypocrisy missed on conservatives who support this bill by coercing young ladies to attend these “counseling” centers to make sure they aren’t being coerced to have an abortion?

The Taliban impose their rule through their interpretation of Sharia law which is part of the Muslim’s religious faith.  The South Dakota bill HB 1217 that requires women seeking an abortion to first attend a christian-based counseling center before a doctor can approve an abortion is a weak attempt to disguise a religious connection between the law and the views of many fundamentalist Christians.

HB1217 was preceded by an even more draconian bill that opened the door to make murder justifiable homicide for anyone who “killed” a fetus, a law clearly aimed at abortion clinics and the doctors who served them.  Fortunately that effort was defeated but only, some think, to propose what supporters view as the less offensive HB 1217 bill.

There of course is a world of difference between what the Taliban impose on their women and what is going on in South Dakota but I would suggest, as do conservatives when they fear any attempts to alter their traditions or conventions, that one small change can become a slippery slope to further changes.

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Posted by in Religion/Science, Society and Politics Tags: , , , , , ,

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Youth, Old Age and Time

February 18, 2011

Viewed as a gift, time is rewarding when not treated like yesterday’s left overs.

At 62 I am at that point that some people kindly refer to as “the autumn of our lives”.  My health for the most part is still sound, at least that’s what my physician said at my recent check up.  I do have a high cholesterol count that I’m treating with a prescription mix of Zetia and Niaspan.(Stetin drugs like Lipitor and Zocor induced symptoms of fibromyalgia with me).  Other than that though my blood pressure remains stable and my weight, though heavier than I want it to be, is controllable.

I walk at least 30 minutes everyday, even in most weather that others wouldn’t.  I am so religious with this routine that a much younger neighbor who sees me out walking frequently commented what “an animal” I was as she saw me on her way to work as I was trudging through some of the frigid snowy weather we’ve had recently.

I was forced into retirement back in October 2009 but had a healthy 401k to fall back on.  So, at my age, instead of dealing with the futility of job searching I cleared all my debt, rolled the rest over into an IRA and generated a monthly allotment that contributed to our income along with my wife’s RN paycheck from the school district here.  I consider myself fortunate than most people who have found themselves out of work at this time with no savings to fall back on and no access to “reasonably” priced health insurance.  Knock on wood that my wife doesn’t get laid off too with all the state budget cuts that are being threatened.

So I now I use my time doing something I have had an itch to do for years – write.  Writing comes easier for older folks I think who now see time as friend rather than a competitor as many young people seem to.  Most of us have accepted where we are at and are comfortable with the reality that we never acquired great wealth or fame.  But I got here after wasting too much time in my young adult life because, like many kids today, I didn’t have a plan, thinking I would figure it all out before it was too late.  For the most part I succeeded, albeit much later than I would have it; but many like me didn’t.

I dropped out of high school to join the military.  My stint in the Marine Corps fulfilled my desire to travel, seeing the lush environmental jungles of Southeast Asia with a short R&R visit to Kuala Lumpur.  The Malaysian getaway allowed me to satisfied my curiosity about other cultures while satisfying my need for the company of young women.  Hey! I was nineteen at the time with testosterone levels that were peaking.

I had the good fortune to live during the socially transitional period of the 1960’s and 1970’s with pretty much all that it had to offer.  Too much of it I think was associated with drugs, with a few occasions while under its influence could have proven dangerous.  One in particular that now seems funny (having survived it) occurred on a weekend when I accompanied my brother and friend to a remote country area south of Dallas in Ellis county.

The friend had a home there that was literally isolated from most of his neighbors.  There was a large crowd there and after a night of beer drinking and a couple of doobies I popped a quaalude tab to bring me down from the pot high.  As a result of the combination of drugs I had taken I soon found myself in a field with a herd of cows nearby.  I plunked myself down a short distance away from them and was sure I was hearing the grass grow and the insects chattering to each other.  It’s a whole ‘nother world when you’re stoned.  And though it was late evening, there was a full moon that illuminated the entire area so I could see quite clearly.

I was having this enlightened conversation discussing the wonders of the universe with the female bovines until the herd’s bull appeared and made it clear  that I was not welcome.  I stumbled out of there as fast as I could manage, becoming lost at first (you think?) but I had the good fortune of finding my way back to the party.  I crashed in the back seat of someone’s automobile where I found myself the next morning, amazed at how I had survived the previous night’s lunacy.

This was but one of too many days I wasted time in a world created by mind-expanding drugs.  Like many young adults today, I was missing the point that there’s more to life than seeing how many social rules you can break, associated with violating the chemical limits of your body.  To any young adults who might listen to what older people like me have to say who have survived, I’d offer this – get it behind you quickly and as cautiously as you can, then move on.  I would tell you not to do it at all but you wouldn’t listen and would always probably feel like you really missed out on something.

I am not a professional counselor and what I’ve been through personally is not the measure by which one can judge what’s best for others.  But if I was able to do it, here’s what I’d really offer to the latest generation.

It’s not important that you be the world’s best or first at things.  Competition is a good thing to a point but too much of anything becomes unhealthy.  Savoring each and every moment may not seem like much when you’re young but take it from someone who has been there – there are no re-do’s.

Search yourself and try to determine what one thing – only one – is most important to you.  Then spend the next few years achieving it.  Once you’re satisfied that you have gone as far as you can, start over with something new.  Don’t stay stuck to that one thing if it’s fulfilled everything you expected it to.  It’s the quality of life you experience and engage in when doing one thing that has lasting value.  The multiple experiences you encounter as you explore a single passion will fill the senses and memories that will stay with you forever.

Don’t wander aimlessly into a field of false illusions. Having dreams and fantasies are okay provided you are grounded in reality and are able to distinguish between fact and fiction.  Learn to know the difference between hyperbole and honest assessments.  Ultimately you have to be true to yourself, not others; not even those close to you.  This however is not a license to totally disregard the emotional needs of the significant others in your life.

Don’t be afraid to let go of your past if you feel the urge and the need.  Losing this connection to some degree doesn’t always entail ignoring the good things about it.  Don’t try and bring it all with you because it can become an anchor.  You’ll find yourself doing mundane things that revolve around being a loyal consumer of junk just to distract you from the weight of that past.

Time is a gift that we often forget is finite, especially when you’re twenty-something.  It’s not something you can store away and pull back out at will.  When you’re young you think you have plenty of time but it’s only when it’s too late that you realize that there is never enough of it.

I’ve had a pretty good life overall.  I have only myself to blame for the time I lost foolishly.  I think myself fortunate though, despite my lapses, that I can approach life’s end time feeling that I have gained more than I have lost.  I’m not sure everyone can say that, especially if they waste what little time they have.

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Who Really Represents “The Will of the People”?

February 16, 2011

The din and clamor of conservatives in Congress, state legislatures, the Tea Party and other political rallies, supposedly wants “the will of the people” to be addressed.  But what is that “will” they so vigorously allude to?

“The will of the people …” is a refrain that has been heard from time immortal.  It was behind much of the energy that sparked a revolution in the American colonies in the 18th century as it did in Egypt recently.  Here in America the popular mantra was revived at town hall meetings by Tea Partiers following the election of Barack Obama.  Somehow the will of the people, from which this outcome resulted from, was not the “real” will of the people, or so it was expressed by those in the minority who saw their candidates lose.

This outrage by those on the Right seems to confuse a general population that was just beginning to feel the pain of the awful recession we found ourselves in.  The anger that was festering from job losses and corporate bailouts got assimilated into the right-wing anger of those who were apparently shocked that a black man could be elected to the office of President while losing their majorities in both houses of Congress and many state offices as well.  The shock that conservatism was not the dominant force many thought, somehow created a delusion by fringe elements within the GOP that the will of the people had been hijacked by a “leftist conspiracy”.

If the “will of the people”, as defined by the Right, is to be believed however, then one would expect most people to agree that we need to cut taxes for the wealthiest 2%, slash spending that invests in jobs and our children’s education and reduce the deficit by eliminating Social Security and Medicare.  Yet most polls leave us with the opposite impression.

Now if you’ll remember, I stated before that polls are only as good as the people who initiate them, the way the question is framed, and the sample population used in the poll.  Clearly those polls funded by Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers or George Soros would be suspect by those on opposite sides of the ideological divide these people represent.  But even mainstream polls can be held up to ridicule by wing nuts  if they don’t like the outcome of that poll.

HOW MUCH DO AMERICANS UNDERSTAND ABOUT PUBLIC POLICY?

That being said let me use one recent mainstream poll that seems to show the difficulty in determining exactly what the will of the people is or is not.  In a CBS poll that was taken just last week there are three questions that address the issue of health care reform.

The first question asks “Do you think all Americans should be required to have health insurance, or don’t you think they should?”, with 50% saying they should.  Yet in the next question one becomes puzzled when those polled were asked “From what you’ve heard or read, do you approve or disapprove of the health care law that was enacted last March?”, with only 33% saying they strongly or somewhat approve of it; the very same law where more people indicated they liked the worst part of that bill – the individual mandate.

What is revealed in the next question brings into to focus why the “will of the people” as those on the Right would have you believe is anything but what they present it as.  When asked, “In the next few years, do you think the reforms in the current health care bill will make the health care system better, make it worse, not change the health care system one way or the other, or don’t know you know enough about the reforms yet to say?”, nearly half (47%) answered that they “didn’t know enough” or were unsure.  22% felt the bill would make things better and 23% felt it would make things worse.   Let me repeat that:  NEARLY HALF WERE UNIFORMED ENOUGH TO MAKE A RATIONAL DECISION ON THIS LEGISLATION.

However, to listen to John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan  and the rest of the GOP caucus, the will of the American people is expressed as something that conveys they do not want this health care reform bill.  The sad fact of the matter is, as this poll shows, that the American people are clueless when it comes to knowing enough about health care legislation to have a will that is based on knowledge of the facts.

Thanks to right-wing pundits in the media, their listeners and viewers think this reform is similar to “socialized” medicine, that it authorizes “death panels”, allows federal funding for abortions, covers illegal aliens, is a “job killer” and will raise the deficit over the next ten years.  Along with some corrections to Democrat’s assertions, FactCheck.org has debunked pretty much all of these myths here, here and here.

THE WILL OF THE MINORITY

So if most Americans really don’t oppose government programs across the board, especially those social safety nets that help keep most American’s heads above water like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, who are these people whose wills are claimed to be violated?

Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the Americ...

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The answer that will lead to the likely suspects of Libertarians (many Tea Partiers) and corporate millionaires and billionaires, is one that expresses a philosophy espoused by social and fiscal conservative Ayn Rand which uplifts an idealized notion of one’s self-interests.  Libertarians are pretty much a throwback to the 18th and early 19th centuries when being able to “make it on your own” was more a truism than it is now.

Our new country was in need of adventurous types to go and populate the frontier and make it productive.  Much land was literally given away as late as 1893 in the great Oklahoma land rush and the gold rush in Alaska later that decade.  These hardy pioneer-types developed the land with their blood and sweat and created the imagery of self-sustaining individualists that are memorialized today in the Libertarian political view.  The fact that social conditions no longer resemble the wild and rugged frontier seems to get lost on these people today who easily disregard the plight of crowded, polluted cities and their indigent poor.

They’re not a greedy lot like some of their wealthy corporate partners in crime.  They simply believe that opportunities are still abundant today and anyone who applies themselves will make their fortune.  Apparently unaware that this doesn’t hold true for most people and that they view anyone who still lives in poverty as deadbeats who just don’t try, they are repulsed at the notion of paying taxes that offsets the social inequalities contemporary societies now have to contend with.

This unwillingness to help the least of us who struggle to make ends meet has a following in a relatively small group of people who perpetuate the continued myth about a “land of plenty” and “a land of opportunity”.  What makes their numbers seem larger today than they are in actuality and thus extol the notion that THEY represent the will of the people, is they have convinced many poorly informed apolitical types who have lost their job or fear of losing what they have, that the government is the cause of it and they are here to take more.

Distortions of reality abound on right-wing TV and radio talk shows and stoke that fear by aligning it with racial and religious biases that have traditionally existed amongst low-income people and those whose education doesn’t always include a high school diploma.

A REALISTIC VIEW ABOUT  ”THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE”

The facts are that most people have very little to be taken away and many today are in need of assistance now until they can once again stand on their own feet.  This assistance doesn’t come free but many are misled to believe that the debt that will occur from this tax-payer assistance will not only worsen but is in fact a worse consequence than waiting for trickle down economics to relieve their plight; that view that unregulated wealth will find its way down to the rest of us if we just don’t overtax the wealthy and allow them to run things that serve their best interests.

This is where Ayn Rand’s philosophy, popular with Libertarians, comes in because it is felt that the wealthy will create a productive society since it is in their self-interest to do so.  Sadly, Ms. Rand’s idealized vision of the wealthy people dismissed the human component of greed.  The reality is that the disparity between the haves and the have-nots is greater now than it ever has been.  It was also recently discovered that Ms. Rand herself was a beneficiary of those social benefits she was so often critical of.

For Republicans to presume as they do that they not only know what the will of the people is but that it is somehow steadfastly attached to what the wealthiest 2% want, is a deception that has weaved itself deep into the social fabric of our culture.  They have steadily cultivated this belief and the associations of wealthy interests to the detriment of most Americans.  Sadly, too many working class families often side with them thinking that they share a common belief whose value had merit two centuries ago but has since died with the agrarian culture it began in.

Posted by in Health Care Reform, People, Society and Politics Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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Push Big Business, Not Congress, To Create Jobs

February 14, 2011

Perhaps working Americans need to join with the millions still unemployed and create their own Tahrir Square at the corporate entrances of record profiting Fortune 500 companies.

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The notion struck me recently that many of us have been pressing the wrong people to create jobs.  Congress really doesn’t work for the people any more, or so it seems.  Most legislation, especially that presented by conservatives, is always aimed at improving Big Businesses’ financial leverage with the belief that fewer restraints on their ability to produce profits will create jobs and sustain and energize a healthy economy.  It’s called trickle down economics and has been presented by every Republican administration and GOP congress for decades as the only solution to our economic woes.

Deregulation, healthy tax cuts for corporations and federal subsidies have been generously laid on the corporate powers in this country by conservative politicos excessively since the end of WWII.  The notion that this has somehow made everyone’s life better was clearly debunked following the collapse of our economy in 2008.  Following the failure of large financial institutions and then their rise again with the aid of federal bailout money, Wall Street is now posting large profits for corporate America; profits so large they have actually set records.

According to a Commerce Dept. report late last year “American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter.   That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago.”  According to  a piece in the NY TImes last year, these profits are in large part the result of productivity rates that are on pace with levels prior to the economy tanking in 2008 but with fewer workers.(Corporate Profits Were the Highest on Record Last Quarter, by Catherine Rampall, NY Times, 11/23/10)

In other words, when the banks were failing and credit markets were drying up, businesses had to lay people off.  However when credit started flowing again as a part of the tax payer bail outs, the crisis was over for most businesses but it wasn’t for the American worker.  The jobs didn’t come back when the credit crunch ended.

Naturally there is a lull in job recovery when economies are trying to get their footing after spiraling downwards for many months.  There is also some understandable reservation on the part of businesses to re-hire people before the economic signs indicate that all is okay.  But it appears the green flag has been given based on the healthy profits mentioned above, yet businesses, especially the very large and wealthy ones, are reacting as if the red flag is still out.

It appears to be business as usual for corporate America.  “The mega-banks have been emboldened to resume the dispensing of handsome bonus checks. Publicly traded companies have rewarded shareholders with dividends.” But Peter S. Goodman with the Huffington Post notes that “working people — or would-be working people — are still waiting for a slice of the spoils, confronting a bleak job market. Hiring remains scarce.”

All the while, Congress was worried more about the 2010 elections, with Democrats concerned about losing seats and Republicans hoping to win back majorities in  the House and he Senate. Both sides attempted to play the voter with the promise to restore the American worker who has all but been forgotten by them.

The GOP did sweep to victory in the House and made some gains in the Senate with the aid of an angry populace that was getting tired of waiting in unemployment lines and competing with 5-6 other people for the same job.  Yet it seems the results of these GOP gains has affected their memories and rather than jobs being priority one, the Republican-led House is doing what they always do, covering the backs of big business.

They started by refusing any tax breaks for most working class Americans unless the wealthiest 2% were assured that their rates would not fall back to the Clinton-era rates, a time when corporate profits and the American economy was booming.  Then they gave a head nod to the health care industry by attempting to repeal the health care reform bill.  They have already refused to eliminate the annual $4 billion subsidy to the oil industry and their next goal is to prevent Progressive Democrats from creating any safeguards to prevent the financial disaster that almost tanked this economy just 3 short years ago.

Clearly the GOP and many other conservatives in Congress do not have the American worker’s needs at the top of their lists.  If past behavior is any indication too, there will be little substantive efforts to push legislation that serves the general welfare of those Americans who not only have lost their jobs but those who were lucky enough to keep them yet who now work longer hours for the same wages.  All while record profits are celebrated with high-fives in boardrooms across the corporate landscape.

It’s time to refocus our efforts at restoring the American worker by going to the source rather than the mouth-piece.  Wealthy businesses who have done exceptionally well need to step up to the plate and start rehiring laid off workers.  Likewise they need to start re-directing most of those profits away from the pockets of wealthy stock holders and invest it instead into new job growth areas, specifically renewable energy sources and related jobs.

We need to quit wasting our time and complaining to unresponsive elected officials who only pander to the public while catering to the interests of corporate lobbyists like the oil and coal industry and the financial trusts on Wall Street.  Trickle down economics is a deception and only when we start letting corporate boards and their CEO’s know we’re not buying into it anymore will we be able to influence those power brokers in this country that really run the government.

The July 24, 2006 issue of Fortune, featuring ...

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Every corporate headquarters whose company was fortunate enough to see record profits this last year needs to experience the wrath of an angry protest like those that so-called grass-roots Tea Party members displayed in Washington in 2009.  While Congress is working to increase corporate dividends to stock holders by cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits, Americans need to be marching on Exxon/Mobil, General Electric, Bank of America, AT&T and JP Morgan; just 5 of the top ten fortune 500 companies in 2010.  Another well deserved corporate target that gobbles up profits like jelly beans is Koch Industries who “owns a diverse group of companies [like Georgia-Pacific] and is one of the largest private companies in America according to Forbes magazine”

These are the people who own the vast wealth in this country and effect policy that determines the direction the economy heads,  not their puppets in Congress or state legislatures.  We need to start talking to one another on the social networks like the Egyptian people did recently and get motivated to meet in makeshift Tahrir squares in this country; in front of luxury office suites of corporate magnates and demand they start using those profits we enabled them with to make job creation happen.

They can afford to take a hit from paying out dividends or inordinate bonuses for a while until we can get this recovery moving on a faster pace.  Waiting for John Boehner and Harry Reed to do the right thing is a waste of time.  Taking “four to five years for the job market to normalize fully” as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has recently suggested may be an over optimistic assessment but it is still too long for many families to endure.  Making things happen sooner is only going to happen if we vigorously act on it ourselves.

The only people who will make that correction are a nervous bunch of CEO’s who know  they can no longer hide behind their “corporate citizenship” they finagled with the help of their conservative cronies on the Supreme Court.  Nothing cuts into bonus checks and share holder dividends as much as negative campaigns from irate consumers and likely voters whose purchasing power feels threatened.

SOURCES:

Corporate Profits Were the Highest on Record Last Quarter

Corporate Profits Hit New Record, U.S. Workers Still Struggling

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Sexual Infidelity: When is Relationship “Cheating” More Than the Just the Act of Sex

February 13, 2011

Today more than ever we see a need to revisit and incorporate an age-old practice that could well eliminate a syndrome of cheating between partners that many marriages and relationships fall victim to.

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A friend and associate of mine at Yahoo AC, Donna Cavanagh, recently wrote a humorous anecdotal piece on a serious issue – relationship cheating.  As usual Donna was in rare form addressing a topic in a way that only she can giving it a lighter side a’ la Erma Bombeck.  This comical depiction of Donna’s was praised in the comments section of the article but I found myself stepping into territory that addressed an aspect of the article at a more serious level.

In so doing I may have been misunderstood by some and a later effort of mine in the comments section perhaps did little to rectify that.  Thus I found material to write on today that was not there before and an opportunity to not only clarify where I was going with my comment but to in fact do a little soul-searching that is always helpful and healing.  So thanks Donna for being my muse today.

In her article entitled “The Ultimate Cheating Excuse: the Devil Made Me Do It” Donna reveals a cheating incident with a girlfriend of hers whose boyfriend (now an ex) used as silly an excuse as any person can employ – “the devil made me do it”.  Obviously he was channeling Flip Wilson but the girlfriend was having none of it, and rightfully so.

In my comments on the article I pointed out that the sex drive with many people is a strong one and often overcomes any personal commitment we may make.  It’s a necessary urge that promises to perpetuate the species and is every bit as strong as urges to quench our thirst and feed ourselves.  But in any relationship, sealed by a wedding contract or not, there is an understanding that this sexual urge must be constrained.  When it’s not we are guilty of cheating in its foremost meaning of violating one’s trust.

Where I was trying to go with my comments however is that cheating in such relationships doesn’t alway occur just with the physical responses of our urges.  It also includes emotional cheating that fails to make our partners aware of our true feelings and acceptance of any real or unwritten code in that relationship.

LOL Just divorced. And no, that's not my car.

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In Donna’s witty tale the relationship was not between married partners and there were no children involved.  Obviously there are degrees of cheating where more is at stake than hurting the feelings of those we profess to “love, honor and cherish”.  Donna’s friend did not have to go through the agony and expense of a legal divorce and custody battles for kids did not result.

In such examples as Donna’s friend, the cheating perhaps started with the perception  of the boyfriend’s that he would be a sexually faithful partner yet not fully realizing he was incapable of restraining a strong innate drive we are all born with.  Later in the relationship when this became apparent to him he began to cheat on his girlfriend by not confessing this to her and cheated further even still before committing the physical no-no by conceiving of having sexual relationships with another partner.

Now some may think this is less harmful than actually following through with our cheating weakness but I would argue that the physical act is only the ultimate manifestation of an attitude that is less than honest.  By not fully contemplating that a relationship is more than an amorous experience between two people at a given time is a failure on our part to later deal with sustaining a bond that will endure hardships we little anticipate.

In the old school of marriage, long before my generation came along there was an understanding by our ancestors that marriage was a life-long commitment and one that would be tested over the length of that relationship.  That’s why the words of our marriage vows still contain the mandate, “for better or worse”.

This is not a legal obligation to endure abuse of any kind from one spouse over another but it is a sincere statement that recognizes youthful romances evolve into substantive necessities apart from sexual pleasures to make a marriage last, like getting and holding on to a job, having kids (if that is a goal) and raising them in all the good and bad experiences that entails and planning for a retirement; all with the same individual over the entirety of our lives.

Clearly the thought that we would not feel as strong about our mates over the duration of a lifetime was never seriously contemplated and the exceptions to this reality are rare.  In their wisdom our elders established a system to prevent marriages from failing by overlooking this object lesson.  Pre-marital rituals were established where men would court their “betrothed” for lengthy periods of time in order for both partners to better understand their true feelings, warts and all, before plunging into a legal arrangement that in earlier times would become sinful and unacceptable to break under most circumstances.  “Irreconcilable differences” was not an allowable premise for divorce at this earlier time.

Such rigid applications of marital agreements are no longer the norm and women now have as much cause to break the bonds of marriage today as men; something they did not have in older times.  But had both parties conceded to a courtship period of reasonable time, these irreconcilable differences would have been meted out and determined whether a relationship had a viable future.

I don’t know Donna’s friend well enough to suggest that she and her boyfriend rushed head-long into their relationship but clearly a timeout period between them before exchanging keys and sharing the bathroom may have discovered the boyfriend’s inability to control his sexual urges.  It turns out she endured four other violations of trust with this dude and one has to wonder if she did so because she had committed herself to him; a commitment that may never have occurred had she got to know him a little better.

Today’s youth seem to sense a need to revisit the traditions of our ancestors, if not in real form then in the spirit of it all.  As an example of this I found on the Stronger Families website, one twenty-something individual who conveyed a fear of divorce being “very real in the minds of Generation Y/Millennials. Many have seen their parents, friends’ parents, and/ or close family members go through divorce—adults they look up to, admire and trust. The inevitable question is “If they couldn’t do it, what makes me think I can?”

In a study by the The National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia (NMP) it was found that “the number of adult women aged 35-44 who are married has decreased 23% since 1960–from 87.4% to 67.3%. For men, the numbers are similar, with a decrease of 25%.”  An article on this went on to report that this  “doesn’t mean people aren’t ‘settling down.’ The [NMP] report goes on to say:

“The decline in marriage does not mean that people are giving up on living together with a sexual partner. On the contrary, marriage is ceding ground to non-marital unions.”

To wit, the number of cohabitating, unmarried adult couples has increased a whopping 1,414% since 1960! (from .4 million to 6.7 million)

To my surprise and delight, the remedy for lasting relationships as stated on the Strong Families site was something in the form of a courtship ritual.  “Talk openly about some of the major reasons people get divorced and how those things can be avoided and/or overcome. [W]e have to realize that marriage isn’t about getting/taking, it’s about giving/exchanging. It’s not anchored in what you feel; it’s anchored in what you believe and who you are committed to. It’s not self-focused, it’s self-sacrificing. By doing this, we can really improve the chances of successful marriages for Generation Y.”

Laughing couple.

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I think once this practice is realized fully, cheating may become significantly less of a reason for divorce and relationship break-ups than it is today.  My friend Donna, may she and all of us live long enough to see this occur, could well find herself writing humorous anecdotes about relationships that last for a lifetime instead, with all the bumps and grinds that accompany the joys that two people live out when they have consented to become one.

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Hard Times Force Some to Take Drastic Measures

February 12, 2011

In a real life incident played out recently in my home town, the effects of the recession are made clear to a store clerk who was confronted by a desperate father.

As I have done in the past, I have reported on real life situations here in my North Texas town of Denton as they are reported in “The Blotter” section of the Denton Record-Chronicle.  The Blotter provides small pieces of information about mostly mundane and normal occurrences that the police department responds to.   On occasion there are some that go beyond this definition.  One in today’s newspaper is both disturbing and reflective of the economic times we are experiencing.

As it was conveyed here, a man apparently tried to rob two local convenience stores with nothing more than “a small knife”.  The first attempt failed after the would-be thief was told there was no money and was told to leave by the clerk.  He did.  “The man ran out of the store”, the report said.  After police were called following this incident they checked around at other convenience stores and found that another attempt had been made on the other side of town that fit the description of the failed thief earlier.

The details of this encounter are minimal but striking, so I will convey them in a manner that will undoubtedly embellish the sequence of events but do so without trying to stretch such an outcome beyond the realm of possibilities.  I know the owner of this second store from doing business with him on occasion.  He is most likely of Indian dissent but could be Mid-eastern.  He is always courteous and pleasant and his store is located in a part of town where he seldom experiences much traffic, even though it is located off of a main artery into Denton from Ft. Worth.

It appears that after the alleged thief entered the store he “demanded cash”  but was told “there was no cash in the register.”  Based on the earlier instance where the man fled in haste I’m sure the hopes of the thief were shattered at this point.  He was told by the clerk to “get a job” and at the point it appeared the man broke down crying and told the store clerk that “his kids were hungry”.

A job would have been nice but because many are out of work due to the recession some have been forced to compete with at least 5 other people for pretty much every job out there that is available.  I’m not saying I know what this particular man’s situation was but it may be safe to assume that he is one of the many unfortunate ones who come out on the losing end of this agonizing effort to “get a job”.  It may also be safe to assume that he has been out of work long enough to be ineligible for any further unemployment benefits from the state.

I don’t condone this man’s attempt to steal in order to provide basic essentials for his family under these tough economic times.  I don’t know if he even tried the area food banks to feed his children.  But even if he had the news is gloomy here too because food banks run out of supplies long before they can accommodate all those who come to them in need.

With such dire prospects some may muster the misdirected courage to take extreme measures and turn to criminal behavior to survive.  It’s clear this situation didn’t go unnoticed to the store clerk.  I’m sure his business struggles to make ends meet and even more so following the bad weather we’ve had of late that perhaps even prevented him from opening his doors for three to four days as streets were treacherously iced over for that long.

Yet the pathetic condition that his assailant became overcome with touched the heart of the store clerk and he pulled out “a few bills from his own pocket” and gave it to the man with the small knife.  The would-be thief left and the police are doing what the law requires and making an attempt to find him.

This small display of both the decency and the frailty of the human condition surely goes on everyday yet we are often led to believe that we are not our brother’s keeper by those who are comfortably well off and view any efforts by a representative government to intervene at some level as “socialism”.  How easy it is to pass judgment from those whose giving falls way too short to meet the needs of the working poor and the vast new numbers on the unemployment rolls.

We should never condone crime of any kind that forces someone to steal but neither should we condone behavior that ignores the causal effect to some who take such drastic measures.  We can only hope that this poor man is both scared and remorseful that he took such drastic actions and that the police efforts are restrained in their attempts to catch him.  We can also hope that some of those hardened hearts who read the Blotter account of this crime will get out of it what I have here and become a bit more flexible in reaching out to those in need, even if it is a part of the social safety net implemented by government sources.

Posted by in Social Discourse Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

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Could Elder Financial Abuse Become the Crime of the 21st Century?

February 11, 2011


a repost from my AC Yahoo site

It seems reasonable to assume that as people age their trust factor diminishes over time as life experiences teach them that much of what we presumed about people and our way of life are not all that we thought and hoped they were. Too many times we have read about or been victim to scoundrels whose self-interests have cost us our treasure, our good health and valuable time. From the incompetent person who handles our payroll at work to the individual who makes a career of deception with the sole purpose of stealing from others, little room is left in our lives to allow trust to take up much space.

Becoming skeptical is a healthy response when dealing with certain unknowns. Not everyone is out to rip us off and we could miss some great experiences and financial opportunities if we shut out trust completely. But if we allow ourselves to go pass the stage of “trust but verify” we are on a downward spiral that isolates us from friends and relatives that we will come to need as we grow old.

Time unfortunately doesn’t teach all elderly people at this critical time in their lives how to measure and restrain their trust for some. Now more than ever they are dependent on others as their bodies deteriorate physically and mentally to the point where they can no longer take care of routine necessities themselves. Hands and legs no longer function at the level they did when you could do a day’s work in the field or at the office. Cognitive skills have also been lost to some degree where making rationale decisions prove more difficult than it ever was.

Trust is often the only thing most retired individuals have when it comes to financial choices. Few actually do the serious leg work to research investments and unique “business offers” that promise increased fortunes. During economic hard times the retirement savings of many elderly are depleted by downward trends in a volatile market. But many of their funds are actually robbed from them through “scams” by the people they trust, and that includes family and close friends.

As we age many elderly people become “susceptible to people looking to defraud or deceive them.” It is estimated that seniors are ripped off each year to the tune of $2.6 billion and that’s with only 1 in 5 cases being reported. In a report issued by MetLife Mature Market Institute (MMI) last year entitled, Broken Trust: Elders, Family and Finances, we find older citizens are often taken advantage most often by family members and caregivers.

Of all the abuses the elderly are subject to (neglect, physical, emotional, sexual), more than 1 in 10 is a victim of financial abuse (12.3%). It is a crime however that affects all Americans of upwards to $10 billion a year in the form of health care, social services, investigative and legal costs, and lost income and assets; a crime that goes largely unreported and is under-prosecuted.

 

Elder financial abuse could become the crime of the 21st Century, thinks journalist J.F. Wasik, as more and more baby boomers retire and look for way ways to spend their retirement savings while also looking for new ways to add to it. Here are some areas where seniors are financially abused and steps that can be taken to reduce the risk:

IDENTITY THEFT - In one year alone (2001-02) 3 times as many people older than 60 were victims of identity theft.

- Never give a stranger your personal information like social security number and bank account number, over the phone or in person unless you can confirm who they are and how they are serving you.

- Make sure any website you purchase goods off of with a credit card is a secure website. The best way to determine this is to check the URL address at the top of your browser. If it is a secure website it will begin with the letters HTTPS. The “S”, for SECURE, following HTTP means you can trust it for financial transactions.

- Shred all documents that have your personal information on them like monthly statements from banks and other creditors. Criminals who have been surveying you will go through your trash.

- If you or a trusted relative suspect financial abuse it should be reported to appropriate agencies such as Adult Protective Services, a law enforcement agency, or compliance department of a suspected financial institution.

FRIENDS AND FAMILY – Not all friends and family are dependable and honest. It is incumbent for seniors to establish early which friends and family are most likely to defend their best interests before their condition deteriorates to a point where they have to rely on another’s assistance in most if not all matters. Make a list of each so that in the event one moves away or passes away, you will have the next best person for the job lined up.

For what it’s worth, in the MetLife study, “Broken Trust: Elders, Family and Finances”, findings suggested that grand-daughters that you have a good relationship with would be the least likely relative to take advantage of you and your finances, while conversely, females in general from ages 20-59 are more likely than males in this age category to exploit your assets. (p.13) Friends and non-relative care takers would fall into this category.

Clues that should keep certain friends and family members off this list will consist of the following:

1. How often do they do things for you without expecting rewards?

2. Do they discuss too frequently what your financial status is and what arrangements you have made for these assets when you’re deceased?

3. What is their financial status like? Could they benefit from your demise or absconding some of your funds on “lucrative opportunities” they claim they’ve come across and present to you?

4. What’s your relationship been with them over your life? Have they all of a sudden gained new interests in you as you’ve become dependent on others? Do they or have they had problems with alcohol and drug abuse? Widows and widowers are subject to “new loves” in their life who take advantage of a person’s loneliness.

5. Do they seem concerned about how your estate will be handled when you’re gone, asserting some sense of “entitlement” while frequently pointing out what little other friends and relatives have done for you?

6. Do children prey on motherhood instincts to provide for them in “their hour of need”.

Though some or all of these indicators could truly be virtuous ones, they must be weighed in terms of your historical relationship with them. People’s vices in the past do not always get better, especially when it is aimed at someone who is less capable of fending for themselves as the elderly are.

MEDICARE/MEDICAID FRAUD – Billions are stolen each year from the Medicare and Medicaid Funds by the acts of unethical doctors, care facilities and medical suppliers who over-charge these federal funds for services and equipment never used by the Medicare/Medicaid recipient.

U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Image via Wikipedia

$60 billion alone gets stolen from Medicare says Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who along with fellow congressperson is co-sponsoring the Medicare Fraud Enforcement and Prevention Act (H.R. 5044). Medicare and Medicaid fraud hit you with any out-of-pocket expenses and will ultimately affect what seniors receive in benefits as efforts are made to offset these costs in the form of reduced payments to doctors, providers and suppliers.

- If you suspect fraud from a doctor, care giver or supplier after reviewing your monthly Medicare Summary Notice (MSN) contact those that appear to have over-charged for services rendered to get a clarification. If they are unresponsive call the number on your MSN to report your suspicions.

- Have information available before you call such as the provider’s name and any identifying number, the item or service you are questioning, the date of the incident and the amount approved and paid by Medicare.

- For other pertinent information in handling such claims you can go to Medicare.gov website at www.medicare.gov/fraudabuse/howtoreport.asp or call 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477).

 

BUSINESS RIP-OFFS – Aggregate dollar amounts lost through commercial elder abuse are the highest of all forms of elder financial abuse.

- Never succumb to business deals or monetary charity requests over the phone. Call your local Better Business Bureau (BBB) or State Attorney General’s office to validate that any business you are considering investing in or paying for services is registered and licensed to the extent such businesses can be. Always ask home repair vendors for three references.

- Common kinds of commercial theft, fraud, and embezzlement include life and health insurance scams, predatory lending practices from credit card debt, home loans and “once in a life time” schemes. Avoid unknown “professionals” who claim to they can enhance your wealth through annuities, stocks and bonds or set you up with an “unbelievable” property purchase.

- High-pressure telephone solicitations, especially for charities, magazine book publishers’ solicitations and Internet scams dealing with social networks, medications and make-up and age reduction remedies should be avoided. To be sure, employ the impulsive-buying deterrent of waiting 24 hours and adhere to the wisdom that if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.

 

CARRY VERY LITTLE CASH - Use bank debit and credit cards on all your purchases that will allow it. What income you do receive in the form of Social Security benefits, IRA payouts, or periodical payments from

investments like stock dividends can be direct-deposited into your account. The added benefit of statements that can be accessed on-line with a security password helps you and your legal proxy keep track of all expenditures and income and out of sight from those who would take advantage of you.

 

PRECAUTION AND PREVENTION ARE KEY: A REPRISE

Key points to consider when trying to protect yourself from fraud is to establish early who you can trust while you are still mentally able to. If your finances allow, find a licensed attorney who can assist you with a trust and create a budget that can be monitored by an independent 3rd party.

- Never give out private information, like SS number, bank account numbers, license number or credit card information that can make you a victim of identity theft.

- If you do make loans to friends or family or make investments with unfamiliar risks, do so in partial amounts.

- Never lend out better than 10% of your total assets over a short period (1-3 months) and never turn over all your assets to anyone while you are still alive if economic conditions allow.

- You should have a will in place to reward those who you feel truly had your best interests and well-being in mind while you were alive.

 

For more information about fraud and financial elder abuse, visit AARP’s Fraud Fighters website.

 

RESOURCES:

Broken Trust: Elders, Family and Finances

National Center on Elder Abuse

 

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Posted by in seniors/aging Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

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Yearning For the “Good Old Days” That Really Weren’t Always Good.

February 10, 2011

Fond recollections of the past often seem to overlook that much of those by-gone eras were not as pleasant as some imagine

I get a kick out of reading comments from what I can only consider to be “good but simple-minded” people who reflect back on earlier times as the “good old days”.  A time when “men were men and women were glad of it” (I want to attribute that quote to Groucho Marx but I’m thinking it was Moe Howard of 3 Stooges fame).

The refrain from such people also tend to muse about how it was a time when life was simple and each person carried his own weight, lifting himself up by his bootstraps and knew who his neighbors were.  I think to myself when I hear this, “did such a world exist in my lifetime”?  To be honest I’m pretty sure it didn’t.  Perhaps it may seem like it to some now when there is more demand for our time in a more technically advanced culture; where the news cycle changes in seconds rather than days and weeks back when.

And if you thought I was being chauvinistic for using the male gender to describe this bygone era, its only because males were the dominant character in a time that must surely be when these “good but simple-minded” people reflect back on.  Constant references to what our founding fathers intended comes from people who seem oblivious of the fact that these great men were essentially white aristocrats that maintained traditions where only the landed gentry could vote (women were not granted this right for better than another century) and blacks were only counted as three-fifths of person as a compromise for Southern plantation owners who for the most part didn’t recognize their slaves as human at all.

If such an idealized time truly did exist it was long before I or my parents’ parents time was upon us.  For such a condition to exist would had to have been in a time when this country was first being settled.  People in those “good old days” pulled themselves up  by their bootstraps or went to the aid of their neighbors, not because they were god-fearing humanitarians as much as it were that they were isolated out in frontier regions where other human contact was minimal at best and failure to address your needs or help a neighbor was out of necessity.

There is this romantic notion out there by many conservative-oriented people who bemoan the fact that things have changed for the worst over the last half century.  Much of this can be heard in the conversations, or shouting, from the right-leaning Tea Party crowd who are always wondering aloud where their America has gone to.

Most of these folks are no older than I am and some are considerably younger, so I’m confused as to what America they are referring to.  Now, granted it seems like kids are more disrespectful to their elders today than when I was a kid but you wouldn’t have gotten that impression from my Mom back when I was a teen.  Not that I was disrespectful towards her (at least I didn’t think so) but none-the-less, that was the expressed sentiment I heard from her frequently AND from my grand-mother.

It’s true too that the pace was a bit slower then but I can also recall hearing complaints about how it took forever to do this and forever to do that.  Standing in line longer may have been accepted back then or waiting for an order to arrive but it was never found to be something we would look back fondly on.  Yes, the years of our youth do seem happier and carefree but that may have had something to with the fact that we were youths, not responsible adults who had to worry about getting a pay check and providing for our families.

There is also the notion by this sentimental crowd that your neighbors were always there to help you when you needed it instead of looking for assistance from the government as many are accused of doing today.  There is an element of truth to that in more rural communities and small towns but that would depend on the extent of the help needed.

There is only so much others can do to help their neighbors, friends and family when there is a crisis.  Not everyone had the resources and time to disrupt their own life and put things back in order for individuals who just happened to occupy an area in close proximity to them.  These needs usually went unmet and either people somehow managed to suffer through their ill-fate, occasionally coming back into their own, or where many perished or simply disappeared from sight after languishing so long.

One writer to the “Letters to the Editor” column in my local paper recently ruminated over how weak we have become as a people who rely too heavily on the government to “address and solve” our problems today.  “In 1920” the writer opined, “if it came a heavy rain and washed out a culvert, folks would get together and fix it. Today, in the same situation, the media, political leaders and individuals begin hollering immediately to FEMA and begging publically(sic) to the governor, the president, and every politician between here and there to ‘declare this a federal disaster’.”  (You can read his letter here)


 

I’ve never known any federal agency to get involved fixing someone’s culvert, especially if it only affected their property.  Somehow this “good but simpleminded” person equates the damage a “heavy rain” does to a small culvert to that of the massive damage a force four Hurricane does to an entire city or region.  Little did it seem to dawn on this writer that back in the 1920’s there were no federal or even state agencies to help citizens address the damage done by natural disasters.

People then were forced to help each other just as they are today in the immediate aftermath of destructive forces that overcome us.  But long-term help either came from government assistance that was created to meet that special one time circumstance or it didn’t come at all, especially for many families whose income was inadequate to rebuild.  Flood and natural disaster insurance wasn’t available to most people then just as it isn’t now in the private sector.

FEMA seal (old)

Image via Wikipedia

The National Flood Insurance Act passed in 1968 was a reaction by our government to cover this deficiency.  Those independent types that “good but simple-minded” people today harken back to were not always bright enough to realize they had built in a flood plain and there were no local regulations to prevent them from doing so if city fathers were even aware of this condition.  So, the belief that neighbors were always there to help rebuild a man’s culvert was probably less likely to happen if the fool who built it lived in a flood zone and didn’t have the common sense to use structurally sound materials.

Information of this sort became part of what is now just a fraction of the services our government provides to its citizens.  Those taxes we all think are being taken from us may be a form of socialism but not all so-called “socialist” practices are undesirable.

From someone who hasn’t a clue what it was like to live in the world of the 1920’s, that “good but simple-minded”  writer to the Letters column never considered I’m sure that those bucolic types he yearned for were likely to have beseeched their government during these extreme conditions for some assistance.  The fact that such agencies with assistance programs exist today to use our tax dollars to help such victims get back on their feet is likely the result of much wishful thinking back in the good old days.  Many of those in that by-gone era who are romanticized today would most likely have taken advantage of this opportunity had such beneficial programs been in place at the time.

So, next time you hear that tired old yarn about the good old days, take note to who is saying it and what time period they are referring to.  If they are white and male they probably do miss a time that they primarily benefitted from.  I’m sure most women, blacks and other minorities don’t have equally fond recollections.

And if the time is closer to colonial periods then we can probably say with some certainty that if they were to find themselves in that time when health care was still, to a large degree, medieval in practice and toilet paper was unheard of, the future would be what many of them would be yearning for, not “the good old days”.

Posted by in History, Society and Politics Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

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Making the Tough Choices: Overcoming the Fear That Holds American Energy Policy in Neutral

February 9, 2011

There’s some tough choices we face as a nation as we struggle to create job growth and find sustainable energy sources to keep our economy moving.  For some of us the choice is a no-brainer.

We are at a point where our traditional sources of energy – coal and oil – are not only shrinking as finite sources will, but in our efforts to meet growing demand it takes greater efforts to remove them from their buried locations in the earth and below the seas, effecting rising costs while their toxic agents pollute our air and water.  They also contribute to the green house effect that is global warming.  We clearly need to find a substitute for these sources if we are to advance our civilization and prevent the disastrous consequences of increased CO2 in our atmosphere.

 

Worldwide Renewable energy, existing capacitie...

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On the other hand the renewable sources that can meet this challenge have yet to be developed to a level that can handle the current payloads and steady supplies that coal and oil give us.  The infrastructure for 21st century energy sources of wind, solar, geo-thermal, wave, hydro-power and bio-mass are only now being developed but confront obstacles posed by the fossil fuel industry and to a small degree, some  environmentalist.

 

Current figures show that these renewable sources of energy provide only about 13% to the nation’s energy grid.  Logistics of delivery capabilities and storage are still not at a level that can supply large amounts during peak demand periods of very hot and very cold weather.  But these problems and conditions are surmountable once we get the nation and our political leaders behind this effort.

The other issue that confronts us as we work towards converting dirty, limited sources of energy to cleaner, renewable ones is how this conversion process will impact consumers and jobs.  An economic transition this massive in scope cannot happen over-night and will to some degree disrupt markets that impact jobs and prices.  The question that isn’t being presented cogently to the public is to what degree this conversion will negatively affect us and for how long.  Let’s see if we can put a little light on this in as brief a statement as possible.

Rates of oil production around the globe have already been cut simply because of growing global demands.   Some of the world’s “best paid, most widely respected geologists, physicists, bankers, and investors in the world” have already concluded that “peak oil” has been reached and we will start seeing further rates of production dropping in short order.  Increased shortfalls not only from limited supplies but from “above-ground factors” like wars, terrorism and massive climate change conditions of drought and floods will further effect production and could conceivably cut the total supply by 50% within the next few years, according to Jeff Vail, a Colorado business litigation attorney who writes frequently on systems theory, complexity, and geopolitics, and is actively involved with The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future.

Coal, the more abundant base supply of energy in the U.S. is also scheduled to peak soon.  Data supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) show the U.S. coal reserves could peak as early as 2032 and by the end of this century our coal-producing capacity will be nil in terms of need.  Similar outcomes are in store for our natural gas supplies.  This means we have at best a generation to be on-line to supply our children and grand-children with ready sources of energy if they are to live in a world that comes anywhere close to our heydays of the last century.

But in so doing what will happen to the jobs in the coal, oil and natural gas industries.  Well despite the bogus shrill by industry friendly politicians, these jobs will disappear anyway by default because their product is disappearing.  To create an overly scary scenario that job losses will occur because the EPA or some other federal agency is over-regulating the fossil fuel industry is a red herring that is promoted by industry executives trying to hold on to one of the most profitable businesses in history.

They know that return of investment (ROI) will increase as supplies dwindle and they are not ready to forgo this increase in their wealth to simply prepare for our future needs.  Thus they have paid millions to corporate-friendly scientist and politicians to spread an alarming message of increased fuel prices and job losses resulting from anything that blocks their path to achieve financial excesses.  Exxon/Mobil, Koch Industries and their political lobby front, the American Petroleum Institute (API) have initiated well-orchestrated campaigns to undermine the science that not only challenges their fear-mongering about jobs and price increases but also to subvert the science that speaks to climate change effected by man-made conditions attributable to fossil fuel use.

Today, the Republican controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee headed by Fred Upton will challenge the EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases via the Clean Air Act, with many already swearing to neuter the agency to prevent what they feel will “cost jobs and raise prices on consumer goods”.  No doubt the industry will have to pass on expenses to consumers to improve their facilities that currently contaminate our air and drinking water as well as add to anthropogenic global warming.  To offset these price increases some industries will eliminate jobs, not a popular action in lieu of our current unemployment crisis.

But such needed changes are essential to the health and economic well-being of our future and our children’s future.  The sacrifices that have to be made now will be paid back in spades down the short road of recovery.  As  senior fellow of the World Resources Institute Ruth Greenspan Bell points out here:

“When EPA promulgates regulations, industry often expresses concern that the regulations will cause extreme economic hardship. Now this argument is being made regarding EPA regulation of carbon pollution using existing legal authorities like the Clean Air Act.

In fact, there is extensive literature showing that the costs of environmental regulations are more than offset by a broad range of economic, public health and jobs-related benefits. Additionally, initial cost estimates are consistently found to be exaggerated. Economists and researchers who have compared actual costs with initial projections report that regulations generally end up costing far less than the dire predictions from industry and even, as an RFF study shows below cost projections by the Environmental Protection Agency.


As I mentioned earlier, the renewable sources that can meet our future energy needs have yet to be developed but this is in part due to the obstructionist efforts of oil and coal friendly legislators who constantly block needed funding and tax incentives to promote green technology.  The GOP Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Hal Rogers, recently announced a partial list of spending cuts they will be presenting for consideration.

In it is a request to cut $899 million from the office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy whose total 2009 budget was only about $1.2 billion.  The mission of this agency is to “develop and deploy renewable energy sources and conversion technologies, as well as identify efficiency best practices, regulations and technologies that collectively strengthens our economy, protects the environment and increases national security.”

With an eye to the past rather than the future, the U.S. is lagging behind China and the EU to find ways to overcome our dependency on fossil fuels and stave off the dire consequences that our current energy policy is taking us.  The last thing we need are cuts in areas that promote development of clean, renewable energy if we are to remain competitive in world markets.

Despite the efforts of pro-oil and coal forces, the public is clearly ready to fully restore America’s economic strength by making long-term investments that will lead to new jobs and new industries that renewable sources will provide.  We can only hope that common sense and foresight will ultimately affect our representatives in the U.S. Congress

RESOURCES:

Peak Oil

Peak in U.S. coal production

national atlas.gov

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Posted by in Climate Science/Global Warming, Energy Tags: , , , , , , ,

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