Thoughts and questions by a lake dweller

Author: Jonathan Cooper (Page 3 of 3)

I am 50ish, married, a father and a lawyer. I live in a wonderful community on Lake Erie in the City of Cleveland. Life is really good.

My Mom

Mom died on the 14th. It was not unexpected. It is something that I have no handle on yet. Some part of me is just processing. I know this because I am distracted, but not by anything I can name. I want to feel better. Things are just sort of bland at the moment. All of the things I like are sort of tasteless. Tomorrow is the funeral. I hate to say it,  buy I would rather grieve with Rebecca and Andrew. I am comfortable with them. It is not that I don’t emote, I just don’t want to pick up other people’s emotion. I am susceptible to their emotional difficulties. I sort of absorb them and I worry about their effect on my own equilibrium.J

Things I am thinking

1. The governments, federal state and local, spend too much. Locally, government is very careless with our money – The Ameritrust Project, the “new” voting machines, the various instances of corruption that are being investigated by the FBI, Earle Turner, the list goes on. Nationally, look at the “stimulus package”and its pork. Look at the sweet deals to unions. Look at the fact that 40% (this is CNN’s number) of people in the US who  pay no taxes. How do we feel the need to give so many things to people who are willing to do nothing to help themselves.2. The thing that backs money in the short term is finite. There is only so much “value” at any given time. So, when the US Government borrows vast sums, it has to borrow that money from somewhere. That means, unless the government, or some government prints money, there is no more to lend. That means that there is no money, or there is only very costly money, available to borrow to build that new plant or to start that new business. So when the government sucks money out, unless it is building plants that employ people, it is not going to be useful to growing the economy.3. Governments are poor managers. Their incentives are all wrong. The John Murtha Airport was not built because the area needed another airport. It was a bone thrown by Murtha to his constituents. When the Government essentially nationalized GM, every Senator and representative was ready to pounce when a dealership was to be closed in his district. Never mind that this could be the worst dealership in the world and sold no cars. That representative had every incentive to pretend that he was protecting jobs. The nature of the job breeds short term thinking directed at a small geographic area.4. The government answer to  raising revenue is to raise taxes or fees. Are tax rates going down? Are fees going down? The federal local and state governments now take over 40% of every dollar produced. Federal government employment numbers are not going down.  This is systemic and knows no party label. But, back to the point on value, to the extent that money goes to the government, it is not otherwise useful. It will not be invested in that new plant, that new idea or that new dishwasher. Governments do buy dishwashers, but not in great numbers and seldom efficiently.5. So what do we do? Insist on fiscal responsibility. Insist on competence.  Ask questions and if you don’t get answers that make sense, vote for someone else. Insist on better candidates. Write letters. Be pissed off. It is your money and your world. This country does not belong to illegal aliens, welfare mothers, Chairmen of Wall street investment houses or gang bangers. It belong to all of us who vote and pay our  taxes. Lets insist on being served.

The current political climate.

Why don’t members of congress have real email addresses? Members have these “contact pages” where you fill out a form to send a message. Every time I write to my congress person, the estimable Marcia Fudge, she sends me an email response. I think she has five or six canned responses. She never seems to actually address anything I wrote; mostly it is pablum that rambles on about the general topic. The same is true of the clueless Sherrod Brown. But if one hits “reply” to a member’s  message the reply does not get delivered. You have to go back to the “form” and send another message. What are these people trying to insulate themselves from? Dialogue? Interaction with constituents? Does this seem screwed up to you?In Ohio, as in a number of midwest states, we need to have a really serious debate about “cap and trade” and what this will do to the state’s economy. It is all well and good to want to create “clean” energy and to decrease the amount of soot going into the air. It is also laudable to want to decrease our dependance on oil that is so often under the control of wackos or potential wackos.However, do we need to kill the coal industry right now? Do we need to impose an additional layer of tax on a section of the country that is in a rough place before there are good alternatives.This is what M. Fudge and S. Brown ought to be  to be having dialogue about this with their constituents, but they have avoided the most potent method. Why?

Rain in Vermont.

The first vacation in two years. We are in Vermont with the Montgomerys. The remnants of hurricane Bill are pelting us. It is not bad to be forced inside. we play games, we play on our computers. There were great naps had. I can hear several playing “pick up sticks” in the kitchen. Our six year old is having fun. I am relaxed. I wish we had better sleep. The Saxton’s River Inn in near the alarm for the volunteer firemen. So far the alarm has sounded every night. Last night it was 2:30 am. ugh. At least it did not wake Andrew.Vermont smells good. I had forgotten how damp it is. Many a bug is out and about. We have had some great bike rides, at least Andrew and  I have. It is really wonderful to ride with a six year old. He loves it, but he is very earnest. We got about 5 miles in today.

Write your congressman

Wrote to all three of my congressmen. I wanted to express my feelings on the alleged “bail out bill.” I got a response from one of them, Sherrod Brown. Can you believe that any of the folks who want to spend a trillion dollars of taxpayer money on a risky scheme that has no real basis in history is not bothering to respond. 

Who will stand for this city?

Is there a leader in Cleveland who can actually be trusted to do something good for the city? For the county? Do you trust any of them? Mayor Jackson? The county commissioners? Sam Miller? Scot Wolstein? Don’t we deserve better?So let me get this straight. We are going to have a new Medical Mart and it is going to be on the Mall. Why there? Why was this decided so suddenly? Why is the Port intent on moving? Why is that a good idea? 

Colder than a well digger’s A**

It is supposed to go into the “aughts” tonight. It  will stay there for the rest of the week. We have this every year. It has been pretty much that way since I was a kid. I am strangely comforted by it while (as I mentioned this morning) slightly freaked by the loss of freedom (don’t say “control”). I wonder whether we will have another cold snap a little later. Has anyone else noticed that we are seeing more articles form scientists about the lack of a scientific consensus on Global Warning and its causes?  

Cold is coming

January in Cleveland has always, as long as I can recall, had a week of temperatures near zero or at zero. Our time is coming later this week. It will hit 4 on Thursday night. Unlike some years, we will have a lot of snow. I remember lots of snow as a kid, maybe with advantages. This kind of cold always generates a vague disease: what if we need to be outside? 

Windy

What a wind! What is left of Ike has blown through Cleveland, bringing 30 to 50 mile per hour wind. It was a lot of fun to sit outside and read a book while the wind just kept blowing.photo.jpg

Newer posts »