A Catch-22

She's back. That 40ish slender lady in the pantsuit who appears in commercials, telling us how wonderful off-shore oil drilling is. Faithful readers might remember I mentioned how the oil companies pulled their ads off the airwaves last year after the BP rig caught fire, eleven men were killed, numerous others were injured, and an enormous oil spill befouled the Gulf of Mexico.

Now she's back, proof that the oil companies think we all have short memories and are more concerned with the price of oil than we are with worker safety or the environment. Our lady tells us that oil platforms now can tap into many undersea locations and many people are employed by the oil companies. Oil exploration means jobs!

Recently I read Catch-22 again. It's my favorite novel, filled with biting satire and ridicule of the venality and greed that dominates the lives of so many among us. One of the characters in the novel is Milo Minderbinder, a pilot who volunteers for duty as mess officer (thereby getting out of combat) and proceeds to make a fortune for himself supplying best quality food for the army. Alas for Milo, he is overcome by his own cupidity, buys the entire cotton crop of Egypt, and cannot resell any of it. Faced with financial ruin he even goes so far as to coat cotton wads with chocolate and try to palm it off on the men as cotton candy.

It doesn't work of course. The men can't digest cotton in any form, literally cannot stomach Milo's schemes. In desperation, Milo approaches Captain Yossarian for advice. Yossarian tells Milo to sell the cotton to the government, and when Milo explains the government won't buy the cotton, Yossarian simply says, "Bribe it."

Yossarian goes on to tell Milo that he'll need to smooth things over with a public relations campaign. "If you get into trouble, just say a cotton speculating business means a stronger America."

"It does," Milo claimed earnestly. "A strong Egyptian cotton speculating business does mean a much stronger America."

"If that doesn't work, say that many Americans depend on it for income."

"Many Americans do depend on it for income," Milo said haughtily.

"See, you're much better at it than I am," Yossarian said. "You almost make it sound as if it's true."

"It is true!" Milo exclaimed and started off to sell Egyptian cotton to the unsuspecting taxpayers.

I mention Milo's shenanigans as a parallel to the propaganda campaign the oil companies are now launching to help us forget the human and environmental costs of what they do. After all, a strong oil drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico means a much stronger America. Also, many Americans do depend on it for income. (But not as many Americans as depend on shrimp or other seafood caught in the Gulf.)

Next week we'll look at the coal industry.

Corruption?

A story on the UPI wire a couple of days ago claimed that a number of Republican Congressmen have taken large sums of money from banks, insurance companies and oil producers after the recent election. Among the representatives named is Mr. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Majority Leader. Cantor is the recipient of about five million dollars.

As it happens, when I lived in Virginia I lived in the district Cantor represents. I was active, in a minor way, in the Democratic Party there. The Democrats were never able to mount a serious challenge to Cantor, and have not in the years since I moved to Colorado. In the 2010 election, Cantor received nearly sixty percent of the vote, to about 35 percent for the Democrat. It figures that Eric Cantor can be re-elected as often as he wants.

So, why does he need large campaign contributions? As I understand the law, a politician can convert campaign contributions to personal funds if they go unspent for a specified length of time.

Well, young scholars, I've put the problem on the electronic chalkboard for you. Figure out the answer. A hint: Cantor is in the forefront of the effort to repeal the healthcare reform act and will lead Republican efforts to remove consumer protections from the insurance and oil businesses. (He also champions "tort reform" and wants to eliminate inheritance taxes on large estates.)

By the way, in the interest of fairness, Democrats are hardly immune from these same corrupting influences.

Milestones

Today is January 20, marking the inaugural anniversaries of recent new presidents. Notably, it is fifty years since John Kennedy was sworn in, thirty years since Ronald Reagan moved into the White House, and ten years since George "Dubya" Bush took over the oval office.

President Kennedy is remembered, of course, for the signature line in his inaugural address, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." As has been pointed out, the expression is contrary to our cherished concept of democracy - in a democratic country the citizen is entitled to ask what his country can do for him.

Kennedy clearly was issuing a call to service, not trying to institute any sort of dictatorship. Earlier in the same speech he said we should bear any burden, make any sacrifice to assure the success of of liberty. I think he was keenly aware of the differences between freedom and coercion.

Less is recalled about the speeches of Reagan and Bush. Ronald Reagan had a flair for the dramatic, as evidenced by the "Government is not the answer to our problems - government is the problem," line. His inaugural was a call to lessen the role of government, not increase it.

Can anyone repeat what George Bush said in 2001? What I remember is lingering feelings of rage over the 2000 election. In retrospect, I'm willing to concede that Bush probably did carry Florida and win the election, but there should have been a recount there.

We are also beginning the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. In January 1861 most of the "cotton south" seceded from the United States. By February they had set up their own national government, the Confederate States of America, and inaugurated Jefferson Davis as their provisional president. The president of the United States, James Buchanan, bestirred himself long enough to say secession is illegal, but he was not empowered to stop it, surely one of the the most feeble decrepit utterances ever from a president.

Most of the country was waiting with baited breath for the arrival of president-elect Lincoln, who would take office on March 4. Lincoln was clearly on record, claiming the union is indivisible, but remained silent about what his policy would be in the crisis.

The situation was very fluid. Proposals were floated to create a northwest confederacy, some people went as far as to say the new Confederacy would absorb the entire United States except for New England, and a commission proposed Constitutional amendments to guarantee slavery in perpetuity, thinking that would lure the south back into the USA.

Luckily, none of these ideas went very far. When Abraham Lincoln finally became president, he made one of the truly memorable speeches in American history, clearly stating his policy, firmly, but in a spirit of friendship and reconciliation.

He concluded saying, "We are not enemies but friends. We must not become enemies." That's good advice for us in 2011, as it was in 1861.

My Daughter-in-Law

My newest daughter-in-law posted on Facebook a couple of days ago, saying she is getting fed up with the panhandlers she sees near the restaurant where she works hard to make a living for herself and my son. They are struggling financially as many young marrieds are and it infuriates her to see that some of the beggars are dressed better than she is, and seem to be prospering, taking advantage of the good-heartedness of others.

I share her frustration. It is maddening to think anyone would just make a choice to beg instead of working. We're in a tough economy now, to be sure, but begging should be a last resort, not a first one. (I'll set aside for today the question of substance abuse, emotional problems or mental issues that prompt many people who fall into this situation.)

What makes me much madder than the sight of someone standing around a highway junction asking for money is the television commercials that feature someone who says he owed the government ba-zillions of dollars in unpaid taxes, but with the help of the "Tax Cheaters Relief Company" settled his tax obligation for $2.95. There's never a suggestion that the tax obligation isn't legitimate or that the fellow who owed the money is being persecuted. Instead the whole theme of the ad is that the man got away with cheating on his taxes and the rest of us are just suckers for actually paying our taxes.

As aggravating as those people are, the much less visible but much more pernicious welfare system that has been constructed for parts of corporate America leaves me angry and bitter. For every dollar bilked from generous people by those who find it easier to panhandle than find honest work, there must be hundreds, probably thousands, of dollars that are embezzled, taken by fraud or financial manipulations by what are correctly called corporate pirates. How many investors were cheated by the Bernie Madofs of this world, or the Martha Stewarts for that matter? Madof is quite rightly serving a lengthy prison sentence and Martha Stewart also served time and paid a large fine, but they're the really just the tip of a very large iceberg that remains uncharged and thriving.

Well, that's enough for today. Be sure to tip your wait personnel generously.

Money Makes the World Go 'Round

Lady Gaga made sixty-four million dollars last year. For those of you who are concerned about her welfare, however, don't worry. This year she's expected to make about one hundred million.

I've never listened to Lady Gaga, and have no idea if she's a talented singer or the beneficiary of some sort of elaborate artificial publicity campaign. I mention her just as an example - one of the most famous examples - of the celebrity culture that has erupted in our country in the last half century.

When I'm feeling cynical I think we have organized our society deliberately to reward most the people who do what is least useful to us. Lady Gaga makes more in a day than the woman who teaches our kids will make in a lifetime, more than the garbage collector who comes to my house once a week, more than the firefighter I hope never comes to my house, more than . . . . It goes on and on.

Lady Gaga makes us feel a little better about ourselves. Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez might hit my beloved Red Sox back into the World Series this year but (Here comes the blasphemy!) who cares really. I'd much rather have my trash collected reliably every Wednesday than watch professional athletes jump all over one another late in the month of October.

The star or celebrity culture rewards people at the very top of their professions out of all proportion to what they actually do for us. It's a product of mass communications, I suppose. Years ago people would go to hear their local singer, or comedian or watch their local sports team. Now it's all about what's happening nationally or globally, meaning again that we all hear the same singers, admire the same batters and pitchers, marvel at the same magicians and so forth. Meanwhile, our teachers, garbage collectors, firefighters, and other people who do provide meaningful services and products find their share of the commonwealth shrinking every year.

Let me cite a quick personal example of what is happening in our country right now. At the end of 1997 I took an early retirement option from the National Park Service, where I had worked for 25 years. I knew that taking the option would require that I get another job but what I didn't anticipate is that my health insurance premiums would grow almost as fast as my cost of living adjustments would. In thirteen years my net monthly payment has grown by about ten percent. During that same time inflation has eroded my purchasing power by about twice that amount. In other words, my pension is worth about ten percent less now than it was thirteen years ago. This year my actual annuity amount has decreased because the health insurance premium went up more than my COLA. I'm sure I'm not the only person with this problem, in fact am far from it.

What I'm trying to say in all of this is that our middle class is being eliminated bit by bit in favor of a culture that awards incredible amounts of money on a very few people while the rest of us are just supposed to watch and applaud. So best of luck to Lady Gaga, I don't really begrudge you the millions of dollars that are being thrust at you, but I wouldn't mind if the country I love took better care of the rest of us.

And now a word or two about the horrible events of last weekend in Tucson. People are right to feel despair that such a terrible act could befall Congresswoman Giffords, the other victims, and especially a little girl who never hurt anyone in her short life. Let us not rush to judgement concerning the shooter and his motivation, however. He will tell his own story in his own time. It does little good until that happens to sail into one another with accusations about inciting or fostering the killer's mindset.

I wrote about the death penalty a few weeks ago. If the perpetrator in this case is found to be sane and if he knew the consequences of his actions, then I'll just say, if we don't execute this man we should never execute anyone.

Starry-Eyed Dreamers

Henry Potter: "Now take this Ernie Bishop. . . you know, the guy who sits around all day on his brains in his taxi. I happen to know the bank turned down his loan, but he comes here and we're building him a home worth $5000. What does that get us - a lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class. And all because a few starry-eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey fill their heads with a lot of impossible ideas."

George Bailey: "Now just a minute, Mr. Potter. You say a workingman has to wait and save until he has $5000 before he can even think about buying a house. Do you know how long it takes a workingman to save. . . Wait? Wait for what? Until their kids are grown and gone? Until they're so bent over from years of work that. . . Just remember this, Mr. Potter. That rabble you talk about, they do most of the working and playing and living and dieing in this town. Is it too much to ask that they work and play and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? My father didn't think so. To him, human beings were people. But to you, a warped frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well in my book he died a richer man than you'll ever be."

Potter: "Sentimental hogwash!"

Call me a sentimental dreamer, and I'll bet all my readers are too. In the last few years over a million homes have been foreclosed and several million people have been cast out off the homeowners class and fallen into renting again. Undoubtedly, many are in the clutches of the Henry Potters of this world. And it's an American tragedy.

(I shortened the lines from "It's a Wonderful Life" here.)