Chinese Drywall and What's Wrong With America

Chinese drywall is drywall made in China that has poisonous ingredients and makes anybody putting it in their house very sick.  So sick you would have to vacate the house entirely.

 

What has gone wrong with America is that we have all fallen victim to the myth that globalization is best.  So we get our clothes from China, our technology built in Pakistan and the call centers relocated to India.  And our drywall from China.  Of course, China doesn't have the quality standards we do in the United States and has even less of a concern for human life, especially American human life.

 

Globalization is best for large corporations.  It is not best for Americans.  Large corporations can avoid labor laws, safety requirements, lawsuits for avoidable workplace deaths and pollution restrictions in third world countries.  They can't do that in America.

 

Another problem is that America no longer manufactures what it uses.  That means Americans that make things are pushed out of work, which is a big problem.

 

If most of the products Americans used were made in America, it would be an automatic hedge against the kind of recession we are having now.  When the American economy is based on betting against stocks and mortgages, there's not much to hold it in place when optimism sours.  When American workers are making what Americans buy, a reverse in the financial poker game won't devastate people and families.

The Gaza Blockade and the Gaza Solution

I don't know what most people expect when they jump in a ship and decide to ram a blockade, but it probably includes some confrontation with armed men in uniforms.  Although the loss of life is regrettable, it is hardly surprising.  Especially if you attack armed soldiers with clubs and knives.  You notice they don't feel inclined to do the same thing to North Korea.  And if they did, no one would be shocked at any loss of life, or even at total loss of life.

 

The activists were trying to highlight how unjust the Israeli blockade of Gaza.  Sure, it seems like overkill to me, too.  But years of having rockets lobbed at you will make someone a little rigid in their thinking.  And I never hear Palestinian sympathizers talk about that issue.  Never once is someone acknowledging the anti-peace impact of rockets landing on your neighbor.  Nor do they explain what they would think was just if it happened to them.

 

Aside from blame, there is a larger issue here:  what is this to us?  Why should the United States of America be asked to solve this intractable problem? 

 

Enough of those people.  Solve it your damn selves. 

 

Why are we always having to step in and force people to behave?  My mind immediately goes to the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia that only stopped because former President Clinton sent in troops.  If he had not, the Europeans would have sat around picking their noses until everyone in Kosovo was dead.  So that is an argument in favor of US intervention.  However, this conflict is distinguished by the length of time it has been going on, the many attempts at peace agreements made at the behest of the United States and there being no genocide.

 

The United States should step away from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict immediately.  Haven't we done enough?  At what point do we make the parties involved responsible for their own peace?  How about right now.  This global expectation that the United States needs to create a solution is misplaced.  It is actually up to us, as Americans, to decide what role we play, and pay for.  Each side is invested in its own failure in peace.  They draw money out of us, promising this time to act like reasonable people this time.  And each time the peace fails.

 

The United States cannot afford to run all over the globe solving conflicts for people, mostly by throwing money at them in exchange for agreements and compromises.  We are not fighting the Cold War anymore.  We are not competing for our way of life.  We are not opening markets for our goods.  There is no need for the United States to be involved in the Gaza conflict.  The bribes up until now haven't worked.  Let's cut our losses.

Look! President Obama Pretends to Care

President Obama announced the appointment of five new people to a commission to study the oil spill. 

 

If that doesn't speak to the heart of the American public on the BP oil spill, nothing will.  All that emoting stuff is just so hard for him.  You can tell.

 

Now, I'll be the first one to tell you that my interest in dark, oily birds is eclipsed by my interest in the people of New Orleans who are still without homes.  So I am not one of these people who are going to cry over a turtle but tell people to go eat dirt.  That's the feeling I get from all these "Join the Facebook group to support the Gulf wildlife" types.  It is heart-breaking to see the little guy squirming around covering in oil for me, too.  But let's face it, people are more important than animals.  Or they are supposed to be, anyway.

 

What we've got on our hands is an ecological disaster, which has been clear from the beginning.  And no matter what your opinion about President Clinton, he knew a large part of his job was to be on the scene and on top of things in the event of disaster.  The man cared.  He looked like he cared and he acted like he cared.  President Obama does not.

 

President Obama has acted like President Bush during Katrina:  no initial signs of awareness, late to get into action, and late to get in a plane and just take a look at the problem.  I've heard from many people who represent Federal employees that this Administration is just like the last one.  I'm inclined to believe it.  You just get the feeling he thinks he's got bigger things to think about.  He does not.

Leisure Lad on Nutrition:

In a new low in compulsive overeating, I had slices of deli cheese with mayonnaise and mustard between them. Though perhaps that is the South Beach Diet, or something. So either I am eating whatever I find or a brilliant nutritionist.

From Liesure Lad

My drinking was like a poem-- I went from jocose to amorous then to bellicose, then lachrymose and finally comatose.

"An NPR Investigation Shows" ...

The oil spill in the Gulf has done more than cause the U.S. voter to rethink "Drill Baby, Drill." It has allowed public radio's NPR to slide into the ranks of major news outlets in the United States.

NPR's ascendancy dovetails with the widespread firing of seasoned reporters in major newspapers across the nation. NPR has the resources to actually investigate, as well as report. And this oil spill crisis has shown that.

The information that oil rig workers were held for nineteen hours, before being allowed to see their families, and asked to sign liability release documents came from an NPR report. Critical information, that.

So all the worry about the Fox echo chamber are a little misplaced. There is now a strong voice on the left. Hooray.

Love Those Goldman Sachs Photos!

It's great vindication to see fabulously wealthy people cringe. Goldman Sachs executives are being grilled and made to cower for stealing from their clients and the American taxpayer. We love it!

My favorite part is the dim realization - I always loved dim realizations - on the part of Goldman Sachs executives that this nightmare isn't over. The American people want blood and they can see it in the eyes of the electronic lynching mob. And we can tell every time we see one of those pictures!

I can't be the only person daydreaming about throwing things, messy suit-ruining things, at Goldman Sachs executives. Maybe an attack with Silly String would be just the thing.

We may be losing our homes, going to food banks, making our children's clothing out of curtains, but we have the satisfaction of seeing the powerful grovel. And there promises to be much more. Hooray!

Truth on Danziger Bridge

Mainstream media is now reporting the massacre by police officers one week after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans. The story was originally reported by the Workers Daily, the Communist newspaper. For years, this story sat there, ignored by media outlets because two of the eyewitness reporters were Communist.

So while we are all clucking about the tragedy, let's remember to hold the media accountable as well.

Karzai's Conundrum

Afghanistan leader Karzai has threatened to join the Taliban if everybody doesn't get off his back about corruption and voter fraud. Nobody believes him, of course, because even he knows the Taliban would kill him in a New York minute if they get near him.

Karzai is in the very uncomfortable situation of needing all these foreigners in his country in order to have a country at all. There's no question that he needs them to restore order, establish infrastructure, etc. He can't muster the resources on his own to do any of it.

But guess what? We also need him. That's what he's saying with his rants. We do need him. So stop dropping in with demands and thinly veiled insults about integrity. He's getting sick of it. That's all he's saying.

The Editor of Russian Newsweek Should Take His Clothes Off More Often

Hey, Mikhail Fishman looks pretty good without clothes. As editor of the Russian Newsweek, you normally wouldn't expect videos of yourself doing cocaine with hookers to be all over the Internet. But the critics of the current regime in Moscow are experiencing this all the time these days.

But maybe "hey I'm naked and on YouTube because I criticized the Russian President" should become a trend. Of course they are being set up. You'd expect that, seeing what's happening to the other guys, they'd be a little more careful. Alas, that is not to be.

The best inoculation for this is indifference. So what? He did a little recreational use of drugs and cavorted with hookers. Be more careful next time, Mikhail. Better yet, get a girlfriend.

I believe the Mikhail Fishman could really make something of this incident. He should go to popular magazines and offer to pose half-dressed for the cover. Maybe start a web site for his fans, or a Facebook page. The sky is the limit and we are allowed to define ourselves in the digital media age.

I guess the final roundup is that hookers and cocaine isn't that shocking anymore, not with the Vatican accused of covering up for child-molesting priests. And Mikhail Fishman still looks good without clothes.