Autism & The Debate

As the father of a 12 year-old with autism I think I know a bit about the issue. Yes, Senator McCain autism is on the rise but what are you going to do? Sarah Palin's son is only a few months old and in that time she's done little on the issue. I heard no program or solution

As for Senator Obama, I'm glad that you think we need to do more. However, research is not going to solve the problems that real people face trying to help their children while the insurance companies reject claims for therapies that work.

IMHO, neither politician gets it and clearly cannot articulate a solution for anything.

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Lightness of Being

I wrote about particle physics not too long ago. In that time, I bought a book on the subject and am about half way through. Lightness of Being is written by a Nobel Prize physicist who attempts to lay out the state of physics just before the LHC changes everything we know. This book is the first time that the nucleus of an atom are described as simply as electro-magnetism (electrons and light) is elsewhere. The only problem is that the science is less complete and the nature of the nucleus is far more complex. For those who dare to do something geek, I highly recommend this book.

Wow!

What a week to be an observer of the financial markets. The Dow looked like a WWII dive bomber letting loose a torpedo only the torpedo seemed to go off before release. Today was downright scary. I looked at the stocks app on my iPhone about the minute that the market opened. With the number down over 600 points I figured that it was yesterday's total and the feed didn't start yet. WRONG! It was down, big. Then up, bigger. Up and mostly down all day until another rally that faded at the end.

My brother correctly pointed out that we're towards the end of all of this nonsense. First, the housing bubble went. The next domino was the credit bubble linked to housing. We're in the last phase - the hedge bubble. With all of the loses taken by hedge funds they had to liquidate or risk failing. So a few more volatile days ahead and maybe the Dow can go back to some sort of old normal - up or down a few points a day. Then maybe we'll go back to being an investor nation not a trader nation.

While the economic situation is scary it's not as scary as the political situation. Money is logical. People place bets with their money in situations where they know where they will win. If there's a chance of losing, they take their ball (cash) and go home until they can make money. That's what we're seeing now. Trades are being undone because money is not being made. When risk is not rewarded then not risking is the smart play.

The politics this past week have been far from assuring. The administration is showing no signs of leadership. Every time that President Bush talks during market hours the ticker shows up next to him in media coverage. Almost on cue, the market tanks while he's talking. Better to sit this one out in Crawford, or Dallas because I guess that's where he's going to retire to. The stooges that want to replace him have no clue either. Why people are openly for these guys is beyond me. We had a non-debate this week in which new questions were answered with old answers. If this were not bad enough neither candidate makes much sense in their responses. There is absolutely no continuity. One minute they want to cut taxes. The next they want to tax oil companies but forget that while the stock market is tanking oil is dropping like a rock too. So what are they going to tax if the oil companies can't turn a profit? Finally, they're adding programs and buying up all of our mortgages. A whole lot of programs with no coherent plan and a lot of misrepresenting how our economy works. Ayn Rand would say that we have two looters running for president because they are.

It's pretty clear that the only thing running this country is fear. The old Franklin Roosevelt line about there's nothing to fear but fear itself line of government assuring us all that things will be good if we trust them has given way to a new approach. People only fear things. We fear terrorism, financial ruin, what we eat and the weather. We fear and we vote but instead of going to the one who puts our fears to rest they go to the ones who make us fear what's going on the most.

This week we saw anger. In all honesty, I'm a bit shocked that we have not seen more if it sooner. But we're seeing it now and McCain is tapping into it. If we could run our cars and power plants on anger we'd be a bigger energy producer than 10 Saudi Arabias. So the final month of the campaign is going to be fear versus anger instead of solutions. In the past, we deserved the government we elected. This time around we can't afford it but are bound to get what we deserve anyway. If asked a right track or wrong track opinion of these choices I can't choose because they're both the wrong track. Right about now a Perot/Stockdale ticket is looking pretty good.

Did We Really Need This Debate?

Different questions from debate 1, different format and venue but the same answers. If we're not good enough to be new answers in a debate how are we going to get new answers to big questions like the economy.

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Changing the Subject to the Keating 5

Now that the McCain campaign is going to use Ayers as their main attach for the week the Obama campaign is coming at McCain hard with the Keating 5. The point that they are making is that McCain went to bat for failing banks in the past and today we'll see more of the same so McCain cannot be trusted.

The substance of this attach is weak. McCain was involved in some meetings with federal regulators but did nothing corrupt. The public records shows he made a bad decision and showed poor judgement but was cleared of any wrongdoing. And the bottom line is that his actions did not cause the S&L's to fail.

The tactic may work because both were bank scandles and the current one is not over yet. Not with world markets tanking this morning. But the Obama campaign's quick change of subject deserves more scrutany. The Ayres connection should be examined a little more closely. While the campaign is accurate in saying that Ayers is not part of the campaign and he and Obama are not close. But they served on a board together and spent a large sum of money on education. The results did not better education in Chicago and is a microcosim for what is wrong in education today - too much nonsense and not enough of the 3-R's. So, the Obama campaign fights hardest to prevent people from finding out what happened during this phase of the man's life. They send e-mails to supporters asking that phone lines be flooded when critics are on talk radio shows. And now they're putting out an 18 minute video on the Keating 5.

If Obama is a new kind of politician he's not showing it. And if he's as successful as he wants us to believe he needs to speak about this time in his life rather than hide from it. Otherwise, how can we trust?

Saving Our Economy: What Next?

Just watched the aboved titled special on Fox News. Very good analysis of how this happened. Highly recommended if you want to understand how this fiasco developed over time. An interesting fact is that the US had 6 mortgage meltdowns between the Civil War and WWII. Clearly, none to this order of magnitutude.

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A Shift in Strategy.

So now, after the debate, the McCain campaign is going after Barak Obama on character. It's about time but may also be too late. The focus should have been about the economy. McCain's campaign let Obama set the tone on the economy discussion. There are folks in congress doing a better job of countering the bashing of Supply Side economics by pointing out that the Keynsian economics advocated by Obama is vintage 70's and should stay there with the Leisure Suit.

I hope that McCain has something to follow up with - something of substance because this line of attack is not going to change too many minds. My advice is to go after Obama's economic meassage hard but with humor to belittle the view that his plan is credible and he has a grasp on economics. The re-cast tax policy as being about 1 thing - to raise money for government operations not for social justice. I don't see that happening but miracles do happen.

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