![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Dec. 5th, 2008 10:01 pmFun news day:
*OJ gets jail for, perhaps, the rest of his life. I wonder if his NFL pension will accumulate, if his kids can access it, or if it goes straight into the jail commissary account.
*On October 20th, 1973, Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal, was fired by President Richard Nixon, as Cox wouldn't drop the subpoena for certain audiotapes which might implicate Nixon in the Watergate cover-up. By firing Cox, Nixon bought himself some time before almost certain impeachment. Nixon flubbed his chance, and eventually resigned in disgrace. Looks like Canada may have had a Nixonian moment today, as the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper actually pulled off a suspension of Parliament, just before an almost certain no-confidence vote (and this coming two months after the election). There are big differences between the two, of course, not the least of which was Harper requiring, and obtaining, the permission of the Queen of England through Her Spokeswoman in Canada (and exactly why does a modern democratic republic like Canada still have such an archaic link to a distant monarchy?) Nixon merely had to fire/force resignations from the head of the Justice Department and their chain of inheritance until someone (Robert Bork of all people) would actually pull the trigger on Cox. In any case, it was a bold, power-preserving move, and it'll be interesting how this plays out. There are nuances I don't pretend to fully understand -- for example, I understand the political surprise of the Bloc Quebecois suddenly becoming a key player, but I don't have the visceral understanding of how the average Canadian feels about this. In other words, I understand the implications in a purely political sense, but not the man-on-the-street emotion of it.
*Meanwhile, in the United States of Recession, the automakers are begging for several tens of billions of dollars to keep themselves out of bankruptcy. The main argument: if, say, GM goes into bankruptcy, no one will buy GM anymore, because they will worry their 3/36 warranty won't be covered, so they'll be liquidated and disappear. I'm sorry, but I really believe this is a dumb argument. Almost every airline flying these days has been in and out of bankruptcy, and people still fly them. I was worried my Delta frequent flier miles would disappear if Delta went under, but I still flew them and Delta came out leaner than when they went in. The big untold story (at least in MSM) is the fate of the auto unions. Bankruptcy would negate any union contract agreements. The airlines went through bankruptcy, and came out again with many of the airline unions losing their pensions and a chunk of their salaries. This sucks royally for the union employees (and there's at least one friend on my friends list whose family was strongly affected by that), but the pensions would still be lost if we bailed out these companies and they still failed down the line. I don't care about retooling the auto industry toward green autos -- given a choice, people will buy them or they won't. There are too many options for people to buy something else. Look at Great Britain, which is arguably more green, and more free with government involvement in private industry, than the US is. How many electric cars have Britons purchased this year? 150. Forcing Detroit to make green cars may make them die even faster if American citizens just turn around and buy Volkswagens. As bad as it is, I think the automakers need to go into bankruptcy if they want to survive. They need an impartial judge (or series of them) to tell them what to cut and what to keep. It saves the face of management, it saves the face of labor, and maybe (50-50 maybe), two out of the three auto companies might actually survive another decade.
*Like many Americans, I am a believer in the rule of law, and the power of pioneer-like self sufficiency. Like many Americans, I also love a good heist. $101 million in jewels stolen from a Paris jewelry store by four men, two disguised as women. A little less subtle than some heists, but still. Yeah, yeah, rule of law and social contracts, but as the SF author Harry Harrison said in his Stainless Steel Rat series (about a high-tech thief from the future), assuming no one is hurt, everyone wins with a good heist. The store is insured (or deserves the loss if not). The newspapers and TV and movies all sell out, capitalizing on the story and boosting their circulations. People are entertained. Money gets dumped back into the economy by the free-spending thieves, usually in the service industry. Most likely, they get caught and some of the money goes back. Jewelry store insurance rates go up a fraction of a percent, but the boost to entertainment and the economy in monetary value is almost greater than the heist.
*OJ gets jail for, perhaps, the rest of his life. I wonder if his NFL pension will accumulate, if his kids can access it, or if it goes straight into the jail commissary account.
*On October 20th, 1973, Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal, was fired by President Richard Nixon, as Cox wouldn't drop the subpoena for certain audiotapes which might implicate Nixon in the Watergate cover-up. By firing Cox, Nixon bought himself some time before almost certain impeachment. Nixon flubbed his chance, and eventually resigned in disgrace. Looks like Canada may have had a Nixonian moment today, as the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper actually pulled off a suspension of Parliament, just before an almost certain no-confidence vote (and this coming two months after the election). There are big differences between the two, of course, not the least of which was Harper requiring, and obtaining, the permission of the Queen of England through Her Spokeswoman in Canada (and exactly why does a modern democratic republic like Canada still have such an archaic link to a distant monarchy?) Nixon merely had to fire/force resignations from the head of the Justice Department and their chain of inheritance until someone (Robert Bork of all people) would actually pull the trigger on Cox. In any case, it was a bold, power-preserving move, and it'll be interesting how this plays out. There are nuances I don't pretend to fully understand -- for example, I understand the political surprise of the Bloc Quebecois suddenly becoming a key player, but I don't have the visceral understanding of how the average Canadian feels about this. In other words, I understand the implications in a purely political sense, but not the man-on-the-street emotion of it.
*Meanwhile, in the United States of Recession, the automakers are begging for several tens of billions of dollars to keep themselves out of bankruptcy. The main argument: if, say, GM goes into bankruptcy, no one will buy GM anymore, because they will worry their 3/36 warranty won't be covered, so they'll be liquidated and disappear. I'm sorry, but I really believe this is a dumb argument. Almost every airline flying these days has been in and out of bankruptcy, and people still fly them. I was worried my Delta frequent flier miles would disappear if Delta went under, but I still flew them and Delta came out leaner than when they went in. The big untold story (at least in MSM) is the fate of the auto unions. Bankruptcy would negate any union contract agreements. The airlines went through bankruptcy, and came out again with many of the airline unions losing their pensions and a chunk of their salaries. This sucks royally for the union employees (and there's at least one friend on my friends list whose family was strongly affected by that), but the pensions would still be lost if we bailed out these companies and they still failed down the line. I don't care about retooling the auto industry toward green autos -- given a choice, people will buy them or they won't. There are too many options for people to buy something else. Look at Great Britain, which is arguably more green, and more free with government involvement in private industry, than the US is. How many electric cars have Britons purchased this year? 150. Forcing Detroit to make green cars may make them die even faster if American citizens just turn around and buy Volkswagens. As bad as it is, I think the automakers need to go into bankruptcy if they want to survive. They need an impartial judge (or series of them) to tell them what to cut and what to keep. It saves the face of management, it saves the face of labor, and maybe (50-50 maybe), two out of the three auto companies might actually survive another decade.
*Like many Americans, I am a believer in the rule of law, and the power of pioneer-like self sufficiency. Like many Americans, I also love a good heist. $101 million in jewels stolen from a Paris jewelry store by four men, two disguised as women. A little less subtle than some heists, but still. Yeah, yeah, rule of law and social contracts, but as the SF author Harry Harrison said in his Stainless Steel Rat series (about a high-tech thief from the future), assuming no one is hurt, everyone wins with a good heist. The store is insured (or deserves the loss if not). The newspapers and TV and movies all sell out, capitalizing on the story and boosting their circulations. People are entertained. Money gets dumped back into the economy by the free-spending thieves, usually in the service industry. Most likely, they get caught and some of the money goes back. Jewelry store insurance rates go up a fraction of a percent, but the boost to entertainment and the economy in monetary value is almost greater than the heist.
