FEBRUARY 20, 2013

       The word this time is "sequester" which used to have something to do with keeping one group separate from others.  In today's Washington it is the name for the various predicted catastrophes which will occur if the Congress doesn't do something about cutting the federal budget deficit.

     Do we expect Congress to balance the budget?  Of course not.  No one thinks that's possible.  Just trim it some.

 

    In general Republicans want to do this by cutting spending, though many of them wince at, say, the thought of a battleship sitting idle.  What they absolutely don't want to do is raise taxes, especially on rich people.

     Democrats tend to talk about both raising taxes and cutting spending.  Military spending--that battleship--is a favorite target.  The spending they care about most?  Probably entitlement programs--medicare, medicare, social security, veterans benefits--things like that that help people.  Tax raises?  Sure.  They'd start with the rich.

    No, it's not all clear to me either.  Maybe Congress can figure it out.  If you do, please let me know.  Nobody said it was going to be easy, the old saying goes. Nobody was right.
     

 

FEBRUARY 15, 2013

  There is magic today on the front page of the paper--for me, the Washington Post.  It should be on all of them.  Mankind has invented an artificial eye.  This being Washington, the Food and Drug Administration has approved its use.

   Yes, an eye.  I have an artificial heart valve.  Many do.  They thump, keep a beat.  And many are walking around with an artificial knee or dancing with a manmade hip.  But an eye?  An eye sees shapes, can tell squares from circles, sees colors and speeds and distances--sees in short, the world.  Some patients, the Post says, not all, "will regain the ability to do simple but significant tasks, such as recognizing words on a page, (read Shakespeare?), detecting street signs and matching pairs of socks."

    One man representing an organization involved in the research says, "It's a life changer, to suddenly be able to walk into a room and see where the door is."  The Post says European regulators appoved the eye in 2011 and that more than fifty people are now wearing them.

   Science, sure, with a little science fiction added.  But don't forget the magic.

On a day like this, you can almost see it.

 

 

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

   Well, he gave the State of the Union speech.  Did you notice?  Did anyone? States of the Union are often like that. The phrases we remember…"The only thing we have to fear...;"  "Ask not what your country can do for you..." tend to come from Inaugurals, not States.

     Still, for what it's worth, Mr. Obama promised to concentrate on domestic issues.  A $9 minimum wage, in time, and other moves are meant to help the middle class.  Will they happen?  Well, most Americans are middle class and won't mind being helped, of course.  But the President faces a divided Congress--Republican House, Democratic Senate.  That could make his agenda harder to pass.

     And one other note--on the same Washington Post front page as the speech story is a headline : North Korea's test leaves  U.S. in a bind.  It's a nuclear test and a reminder that there's always some country which can, if it wants to, start a war.

 

 

FEBRUARY 10, 2013

There's an odd controversy in Washington just now--about the
ethics of using drones in our wars. A drone, of course, is an
unmanned plane which carries a bomb. The bomb theoretically lands on
the bad guy or guys, killing them while doing no harm at all to our
forces, who weren't there.

What on earth is wrong with that? Dana Millbank, whose work I
admire, argues in the Washington Post that it's an expansion of
presidential authority, but I don't think so. In any war the object
is to harm the bad guy while keeping your own forces safe. If you
learn that the bad guy is in a new place, why not whack him with a
drone instead of sending infantry?

War sucks, of course, and ought always to be a last resort, but
once you're in one, you play to win.

President Harry Truman no doubt knew that striking Hiroshima and
Nagasaki with the world's first atomic bombs would kill many innocent
Japanese, while it would save American casualties a land invasion
would involve. I've always thought that was wise.

In a war, you look out for your own.

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

A long career as a reporter has convinced me that gun control
usually loses. The District of Columbia passed a tough gun bill some
years ago but the Supreme Court struck it down, citing the Second
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, "...the right of the people to
keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Pretty tough.

So this time the gun control people are pushing milder proposals
which don't as directly involve all guns-- a ban on semiautomatic
weapons or on magazines which hold more than a certain number of
bullets. How are they doing?


The Washington Post has a poll this week that offers some hints.

It asks: Would you support a ban on semiautomatic handguns,
which automatically reload every time the trigger is pulled? Women
support—60 to 35; men oppose, 58 to 40. Would you support a
nationwide ban on assault weapons? Women support, 66 to 30; men
support 50 to 48. Do you or does anyone in your house own a gun?
Women, yes--15, no--81; men, yes--44, no--53.

Straws in the wind, that's all.

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

     No, Monday morning quarterbacking hasn't started yet.  The game is still hours away.  Doesn't mean the flackery couldn't have started yesterday, of course.  We are talking about the Super Bowl.

     I don't know how it got so big.  Back when I was a kid, deep in the previous century, there were two football conferences  and one championship game between the two winners.   But then that was before there was a Super Bowl.  They didn't even have television when I was a little kid.  The most stunning final of my childhood (Chicago--my home town—Bears, 72;  Washington Redskins, 0) I must have heard on the radio.  Hard to imagine all those big men doing all that running.

     Another change from those ancient days--the Super Bowl is a much bigger deal than the World Series.  Wasn't then.  I still remember the Cubs in the Series in, I think, 1945 --lost, of course, but we all paid attention.

     Well, here we are anyway.  My Redskins aren't competing, of course, so I'm for the Ravens--only team in the league more or less named after a poet.

     Go birds!

 

JANUARY 31, 2013

     Do you remember Gabrielle Giffords, the former Congresswoman who was shot in Tucson two years ago?  She came back to Capitol Hill yesterday to testify, as you might guess, about gun control.

     Speaking is not easy for her.  She is partially blind and paralyzed in her right arm.  She spoke, the Washington Post reported, just 72 words, but they were good ones.  Here are some:  "You must be bold, be courageous," she told the committee. "Americans are counting on you."  And "Speaking is difficult.  But I need to say something important.  Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children.  We must do something."

     Will they?  Will we?  I have no idea.  But I have sat here for a long time and watched gun control fail very often.  This time may be different.  We've had Giffords.  We've had the children in Connecticut.  Do we never say--enough dying?

     The optimists this year are predicting little gains--a ban on assault weapons, maybe, or a limit on the number of rounds a magazine can hold.  Chances?  Who knows?  But doesn't killing each other ever get old?

 

 

JANUARY 29, 2013

     This elderly non-economist  is always leery of forecasts, but there have been signs lately that good--not splendid--times are on the way.  President Obama had an okay first term--ended one of two foolish wars he'd inherited from George W. Bush, managed an economy which was stable though not surging.  Now, maybe, the eonomy will surge some.

     Timing, as always, will matter.  Mr. Obama has about two years to work his magic, if he has any.  Then we'll start reading about the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, all that good presidential stuff.  The question will be:  how is candidate X, not the Prez, going to make things better?
                       
     Let's hope the economy booms now.  We could probably all use a lift.