Congress outlawed the sale of heroin and cocaine in 1914. Prior to then, drugstores sold narcotics as popular cures and tonics. "Heroin" was actually Bayer’s trade name for its over-the-counter cough medicine. Coca-Cola, a fountain drink, was invented by an Atlanta druggist; its kick came from the coca leaf.
In ninety-three years, narcotics have gone from quaint drugstore notions to ubiquitous small-town evils. For all of the drug wars that our government has fought and lost, we might as well never have quit selling them over-the-counter. At the least, addicts could buy pharmaceutical-quality drugs before Congress weighed in.
The news from Afghanistan is telling of our drug war failures. Our army and air force have occupied that desert fiefdom for five years. This year, Afghani poppy farmers will reap a record opium harvest. The acreage under poppy cultivation has risen to 370,000 acres since our armed forces have been in country.
To understand what has happened since we invaded Afghanistan, recall that the Taliban had effectively eradicated poppy growing by 2000. Last year’s harvest of 250,000 acres was estimated to have provided 90% of the world heroin supply. The 2006 crop is half again as big.
With such a glut, the price of heroin is certain to slump to modern lows. The dope dealers will likely drop the street price to hook even more addicts. Heroin could easily become America’s drug of choice. And down the road, we should expect increased business for methadone clinics as addicts seek treatment.
The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) discussed several areas of public policy in his 1996 book, "Miles To Go". He reserved a chapter ("Drug Wars") to write about America’s love of alcohol and drugs.
Moynihan is best remembered for his intellect. He may very well be the last true intellectual elected to the U. S. Senate, given the prostitutional manner to which we have stooped when selecting senators.
Moynihan, a master lawmaker, was also fond of alcohol, and it is therefore no coincidence that he wrote such a lucid, balanced essay on government’s effort to control drug use. In his conclusion, he tells us: ''Thus, it may be that drug addiction is one of the problems government simply cannot solve.''
The Rolling Stones went platinum with, "You can't always get what you want, but … you get what you need." Huey Lewis topped the charts with "I want a new drug." The popularity of these songs directly correlates to modern society’s addiction to narcotics. And therein is the problem. When Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby ruled the airwaves, drug use was comparatively non-existent.
The Sixties, however, brought out a culture that embraced drugs as a form of escape and recreation. Whether it was the bored housewife who chose Valium or the acid head who popped LSD, our society changed overnight, from top to bottom, and for the worse.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan perfectly captured the degradation of our society in his essay "Defining Deviancy Down." Because America has allowed its mores to decline over the last fifty years, defining deviant behavior has continually narrowed toward the most egregious crimes.
As a practical way of explaining this, consider that Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry have all said that they have smoked marijuana. George W. Bush has admitted his bout with alcoholism and a DUI arrest. These facts barely raise an eyebrow today. But how would these political candidates have fared at their respective 1956 nominating conventions? Do you really think either political party would have considered one of these men to lead the ticket?
We are living out an unbelievably cruel joke. Our government made it harder for cold sufferers to buy Sudafed and has proclaimed that act as a victory in the drug war. At the same time, our military is fighting a real war in Afghanistan, but our government has opened the door for Afghanis to inundate the world with cheap heroin.
If you gave every Arab terrorist a flying carpet with a fully-loaded bomb bay, they could not muster a threat to the American way of life that even comes close to the havoc that heroin will do to our neighborhoods in the coming year. We are destroying our empire from within, one fix at a time. And what’s insane is that we’ve used our own armed forces to overlord a cheap, plentiful stash.
Government cannot solve the problem. Legalization of narcotics cannot solve the problem, either. Only the American people can. But I doubt that we have the will to do so.
Friday, September 8, 2006
Friday, August 11, 2006
We Won't Make Tough Calls On Higher Education
August has arrived. And with it comes the payment deadline for parents who must fork over a tidy sum to their children’s chosen colleges and universities. College costs in West Virginia have increased by 30% since the 2001 school year. And it is all but certain that college costs in future years will gallop along at a fast pace.
I say the cost will continue to gallop because the general inflation rate averaged 2.5% per year from 2000 through 2005. Think of the increases that will come after a few years of 4-5% inflation.
The state and federal governments have contributed to these runaway costs by legislating easy money policies. Subsidized loans, Pell grants, and PROMISE scholarships are all noble gestures. However, easy money begets wasteful spending. Had higher education been made to live off what its customers could afford to pay, then college campuses would look downright Spartan by comparison.
But we cannot let market forces dictate admission to higher education. After all, we live in a quasi-socialist society where unionized public schools give A’s to C students. Parents tolerate this sham because no parent will freely admit that his or her kid is not college material.
As Garrison Keillor wryly observed of Lake Woebegone, "All of the children are above average."
Nationally, only 50-60% of entering college freshmen will graduate within five years. We can conclude from reading graduation rate statistics that one-third of any college class should never have walked onto campus to start with. But how do we determine who falls in that group? We can’t because of the way the education system has been corrupted by easy grades and easy money.
In the final analysis, college graduates and taxpayers are paying through the nose for this system that caters to the masses. Two out of three West Virginia undergraduates borrow money through the student loan program, and the average West Virginia graduate now finishes college with an $18,000. IOU. This number does not include the debt that many parents incur by taking out home equity loans. Nor does it estimate the consequences for the parents’ retirement incomes because their savings accounts were drained to pay for little Johnny’s tuition.
Pell grants pay for a significant amount of the higher education bill. But realistically, the money to fund these grants comes from federal deficit borrowing. It’s not free money as the politicians would have us believe. It’s just another form of debt.
Society needs to stem this exorbitant rise in higher education costs. There is only one way to do that, given the current education system. Colleges must stop teaching "bonehead" English and other such remedial courses to freshmen. The freshman year should be a difficult one with a strict core curriculum (minimum 16 credit hours each semester) of college-level English, math, and science. The freshman year should be what it was intended to be-a weed out session.
There is no other way to rein in these costs. Even private giving cannot offset college inflation. West Virginia University recently raised $360 million which is almost meaningless. The investment income on that money will never keep pace with the higher education inflation rate. Although $360 million is a commendable sum, the university didn’t even have to wait a year to start begging money to pay for new band uniforms.
Because the public school system has failed to prepare students for college, the higher education system has been forced to teach 12th grade to incoming freshmen. That wasted year has diluted the value of a bachelor’s degree to the point where graduates waste two more years pursuing their masters. That’s two more years of being a non-productive adult, and two more years of debt to add to the bill.
Of course, if colleges do follow my advice, then that necessarily means that college enrollments will shrink considerably. That would force some colleges to close up for good. West Virginians will never let that happen. We will continue to prop the system up with the wallets of gamblers before we give up socialized education.
I say the cost will continue to gallop because the general inflation rate averaged 2.5% per year from 2000 through 2005. Think of the increases that will come after a few years of 4-5% inflation.
The state and federal governments have contributed to these runaway costs by legislating easy money policies. Subsidized loans, Pell grants, and PROMISE scholarships are all noble gestures. However, easy money begets wasteful spending. Had higher education been made to live off what its customers could afford to pay, then college campuses would look downright Spartan by comparison.
But we cannot let market forces dictate admission to higher education. After all, we live in a quasi-socialist society where unionized public schools give A’s to C students. Parents tolerate this sham because no parent will freely admit that his or her kid is not college material.
As Garrison Keillor wryly observed of Lake Woebegone, "All of the children are above average."
Nationally, only 50-60% of entering college freshmen will graduate within five years. We can conclude from reading graduation rate statistics that one-third of any college class should never have walked onto campus to start with. But how do we determine who falls in that group? We can’t because of the way the education system has been corrupted by easy grades and easy money.
In the final analysis, college graduates and taxpayers are paying through the nose for this system that caters to the masses. Two out of three West Virginia undergraduates borrow money through the student loan program, and the average West Virginia graduate now finishes college with an $18,000. IOU. This number does not include the debt that many parents incur by taking out home equity loans. Nor does it estimate the consequences for the parents’ retirement incomes because their savings accounts were drained to pay for little Johnny’s tuition.
Pell grants pay for a significant amount of the higher education bill. But realistically, the money to fund these grants comes from federal deficit borrowing. It’s not free money as the politicians would have us believe. It’s just another form of debt.
Society needs to stem this exorbitant rise in higher education costs. There is only one way to do that, given the current education system. Colleges must stop teaching "bonehead" English and other such remedial courses to freshmen. The freshman year should be a difficult one with a strict core curriculum (minimum 16 credit hours each semester) of college-level English, math, and science. The freshman year should be what it was intended to be-a weed out session.
There is no other way to rein in these costs. Even private giving cannot offset college inflation. West Virginia University recently raised $360 million which is almost meaningless. The investment income on that money will never keep pace with the higher education inflation rate. Although $360 million is a commendable sum, the university didn’t even have to wait a year to start begging money to pay for new band uniforms.
Because the public school system has failed to prepare students for college, the higher education system has been forced to teach 12th grade to incoming freshmen. That wasted year has diluted the value of a bachelor’s degree to the point where graduates waste two more years pursuing their masters. That’s two more years of being a non-productive adult, and two more years of debt to add to the bill.
Of course, if colleges do follow my advice, then that necessarily means that college enrollments will shrink considerably. That would force some colleges to close up for good. West Virginians will never let that happen. We will continue to prop the system up with the wallets of gamblers before we give up socialized education.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Thomas Jefferson Provided the Real Fireworks
Independence Day came and went without much mention of the man who made the date memorable. Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence were seldom mentioned on July 4, 2006. Instead, this year’s holiday morphed into a 4-day weekend that featured fireworks every night.
Boston’s extravaganza highlighted this year’s holiday-a pyrotechnics rendition of "shock and awe" choreographed to the orchestral strains of Aerosmith and the Boston Pops, and hosted by the feel-good psychologist of our times, Dr. Phil.
Though I missed it, National Public Radio’s "Morning Edition" correspondents read the Declaration of Independence. Bravo for them for preserving this tradition. At one time in our nation, the reading of Jefferson’s words inspired audiences much more so than a fireworks display could ever hope to.
Thomas Jefferson has fallen into disfavor in recent times because he was a slaveholder. Had the world produced a man of Jefferson’s intellect and accomplishment since his death in 1826, then I could understand society’s willingness to remove the man from his pedestal. But this world, now 6 billion strong, has yet to conceive anyone even close to matching the Sage of Monticello.
By my estimation, only six men in all of history can be compared to Thomas Jefferson-Sir Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare, Socrates, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Alexander the Great. In deference to readers of the "State Journal", I would also include the woman who invented breast feeding. Were it not for her, none of us would be here. But beyond this pantheon, even the most talented are just specialists in their respective fields.
Jefferson did more than just create the United States of America on parchment in 1776. His vision of America recognized that the nation needed to be larger than thirteen coastal colonies hemmed in by the Appalachians. Long before he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson had already planned the great expedition that his personal secretary, Capt. Meriwether Lewis, would make.
Jefferson doubled the size of our foundling country with the Louisiana Purchase. In doing so, he began the chain of events that would stretch our country from coast to coast and free us from meddling by European states.
Jefferson also projected American influence when he dispatched our navy to the Mediterranean. The Moslem states of North Africa had long terrorized sailing ships, stealing cargoes and imprisoning sailors of any country refusing to pay tribute. The Barbary Pirates were quelled in relatively short order. The pirates had taken an estimated 2,000,000 sailors into slavery and were known to work men to their deaths.
America, as we know it, a continent-wide nation able to project its power around the globe, happened only because of Jefferson’s vision.
In the late 18th century, smallpox was as common as heart disease is today, though its primary victims were infants and children. Thomas Jefferson made smallpox inoculation the nation’s first public health program. Using cowpox vaccine developed by Dr. Edward Jenner of England, Jefferson inoculated his family and the slaves on his staff. He also sent the vaccine with Lewis and Clark to offer its protection to the Indian tribes they would meet.
Jefferson corresponded with Jenner and opined that smallpox could be wiped out with widespread use of Jenner’s vaccine. Jefferson was proved correct, but not until 1980.
We know nothing about smallpox in 2006. We cannot imagine an unmapped, undiscovered Louisiana Purchase. We do know of Moslem hijackers, but would we have approved sending an untested navy to rout them from their hideouts? We say that slavery is wrong, but we never pass up bargain sales on goods made in foreign sweat shops.
It is fair to say that we have a poor perspective from which to judge this man, Thomas Jefferson. Especially so, if we are wont to negate his accomplishments solely because he was a Virginia slave owner.
A man of Thomas Jefferson’s letters will not be forgotten by history. I, for one, am glad that I had the time to read his biography before history necessarily forgets me. Believe it or not, his life story was much more inspiring than Dr. Phil’s fireworks show.
Boston’s extravaganza highlighted this year’s holiday-a pyrotechnics rendition of "shock and awe" choreographed to the orchestral strains of Aerosmith and the Boston Pops, and hosted by the feel-good psychologist of our times, Dr. Phil.
Though I missed it, National Public Radio’s "Morning Edition" correspondents read the Declaration of Independence. Bravo for them for preserving this tradition. At one time in our nation, the reading of Jefferson’s words inspired audiences much more so than a fireworks display could ever hope to.
Thomas Jefferson has fallen into disfavor in recent times because he was a slaveholder. Had the world produced a man of Jefferson’s intellect and accomplishment since his death in 1826, then I could understand society’s willingness to remove the man from his pedestal. But this world, now 6 billion strong, has yet to conceive anyone even close to matching the Sage of Monticello.
By my estimation, only six men in all of history can be compared to Thomas Jefferson-Sir Isaac Newton, William Shakespeare, Socrates, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Alexander the Great. In deference to readers of the "State Journal", I would also include the woman who invented breast feeding. Were it not for her, none of us would be here. But beyond this pantheon, even the most talented are just specialists in their respective fields.
Jefferson did more than just create the United States of America on parchment in 1776. His vision of America recognized that the nation needed to be larger than thirteen coastal colonies hemmed in by the Appalachians. Long before he negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson had already planned the great expedition that his personal secretary, Capt. Meriwether Lewis, would make.
Jefferson doubled the size of our foundling country with the Louisiana Purchase. In doing so, he began the chain of events that would stretch our country from coast to coast and free us from meddling by European states.
Jefferson also projected American influence when he dispatched our navy to the Mediterranean. The Moslem states of North Africa had long terrorized sailing ships, stealing cargoes and imprisoning sailors of any country refusing to pay tribute. The Barbary Pirates were quelled in relatively short order. The pirates had taken an estimated 2,000,000 sailors into slavery and were known to work men to their deaths.
America, as we know it, a continent-wide nation able to project its power around the globe, happened only because of Jefferson’s vision.
In the late 18th century, smallpox was as common as heart disease is today, though its primary victims were infants and children. Thomas Jefferson made smallpox inoculation the nation’s first public health program. Using cowpox vaccine developed by Dr. Edward Jenner of England, Jefferson inoculated his family and the slaves on his staff. He also sent the vaccine with Lewis and Clark to offer its protection to the Indian tribes they would meet.
Jefferson corresponded with Jenner and opined that smallpox could be wiped out with widespread use of Jenner’s vaccine. Jefferson was proved correct, but not until 1980.
We know nothing about smallpox in 2006. We cannot imagine an unmapped, undiscovered Louisiana Purchase. We do know of Moslem hijackers, but would we have approved sending an untested navy to rout them from their hideouts? We say that slavery is wrong, but we never pass up bargain sales on goods made in foreign sweat shops.
It is fair to say that we have a poor perspective from which to judge this man, Thomas Jefferson. Especially so, if we are wont to negate his accomplishments solely because he was a Virginia slave owner.
A man of Thomas Jefferson’s letters will not be forgotten by history. I, for one, am glad that I had the time to read his biography before history necessarily forgets me. Believe it or not, his life story was much more inspiring than Dr. Phil’s fireworks show.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Immigrants Helped Shape West Virginia
Immigration policy has become an emotional issue in the post-9/11 era. Americans in every state advocate building a wall from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. We want every in-bound cargo container inspected for stowaways before it’s loaded on a ship in a foreign port. Our policy towards Cubans remains to turn them back to Castro. We want barriers to immigration. We want America to be a gated community.
It does surprise me that most West Virginians parrot Pat Buchanan when it comes to closing the borders. In the last five years, how many times have I heard disparaging remarks about Mexicans taking "our jobs"? Although many West Virginians entrust their lives to physicians who were born in the Middle East or India, few of them bother to learn to correctly pronounce their doctor’s surname. I guess that Rajiv and Ahmed can stay but Juan and Arturo must leave.
Before West Virginians get too high and mighty about their American heritage, I would suggest that everyone read "Transnational West Virginia" published by WVU Press. This collection of essays is an eye-opener for folks who always thought that the Mountain State was a homogenous English-German colony. It turns out that we are more diverse than you think.
Were it not for iron puddlers from Wales, Wheeling would never have become a steel town. Were it not for glassworkers from Belgium, Clarksburg would never have had a glass industry. Immigrants made our industries hum.
Immigration was considered so important to the economic development of West Virginia that the state appointed Joseph Diss Debar as Immigration Commissioner in 1864. Diss Debar, a native of Switzerland who lived in Doddridge County, is best known for designing the state seal. But in his role as commissioner, he was charged with soliciting immigrants to come to West Virginia.
In the closing chapter of "Transnational West Virginia", the circle is completed when 750,000 West Virginians leave the state between 1940 and 1960 for jobs in Akron and other industrial towns. Our out-migration continues to this day and is one of the main reasons for the state’s dismal economy.
Though it represents just a sliver of American immigration since 1864, "Transnational West Virginia" makes two salient points about immigrants. First, immigrants are drawn to areas where opportunities to make a living exist. And second, immigrants do assimilate into the American culture, just not necessarily in the first generation. In most every situation, their children are Americanized by the public school system.
On a national scale, we need to tailor our immigration policy to optimize these two facts. We need unskilled laborers to clean hotel rooms as well as highly skilled software engineers for our tech industry. We need to make sure that our newly-arrived immigrants understand that they can still appreciate the ways of their old country, but that their ultimate goal in coming here is assimilation into American society.
Allowing immigrants to forego learning English as their primary language is nothing but politically correct folly. Since Day One, second-language ghettos have bred crime and criminals. Requiring English literacy has been and remains the pathway to assimilation and good citizenship.
The last time I checked, America was not a labor union with a seniority system. Our system thrives on competition; nobody gets points for the date of entry of his ancestors. If you believe a Mexican is going to take your job, then work harder or get smarter. America has consistently rewarded productivity and ingenuity, not seniority.
America will probably be the land of opportunity for most of this century. As such, we will continue to be a magnet for immigrants. And that is a good thing. Immigrants who thirst for the American dream will only make our country more vibrant. Closing the borders, on the other hand, will only speed our downfall.
When our leaders debate immigration policy, they should hold a picture of the Statue of Liberty with one hand and a picture of Elian Gonzalez being held at gunpoint with the other. These images represent the bookends of the debate, and they leave plenty of latitude for a sensible immigration plan.
"Transnational West Virginia" is available at www.WVUPress.com
It does surprise me that most West Virginians parrot Pat Buchanan when it comes to closing the borders. In the last five years, how many times have I heard disparaging remarks about Mexicans taking "our jobs"? Although many West Virginians entrust their lives to physicians who were born in the Middle East or India, few of them bother to learn to correctly pronounce their doctor’s surname. I guess that Rajiv and Ahmed can stay but Juan and Arturo must leave.
Before West Virginians get too high and mighty about their American heritage, I would suggest that everyone read "Transnational West Virginia" published by WVU Press. This collection of essays is an eye-opener for folks who always thought that the Mountain State was a homogenous English-German colony. It turns out that we are more diverse than you think.
Were it not for iron puddlers from Wales, Wheeling would never have become a steel town. Were it not for glassworkers from Belgium, Clarksburg would never have had a glass industry. Immigrants made our industries hum.
Immigration was considered so important to the economic development of West Virginia that the state appointed Joseph Diss Debar as Immigration Commissioner in 1864. Diss Debar, a native of Switzerland who lived in Doddridge County, is best known for designing the state seal. But in his role as commissioner, he was charged with soliciting immigrants to come to West Virginia.
In the closing chapter of "Transnational West Virginia", the circle is completed when 750,000 West Virginians leave the state between 1940 and 1960 for jobs in Akron and other industrial towns. Our out-migration continues to this day and is one of the main reasons for the state’s dismal economy.
Though it represents just a sliver of American immigration since 1864, "Transnational West Virginia" makes two salient points about immigrants. First, immigrants are drawn to areas where opportunities to make a living exist. And second, immigrants do assimilate into the American culture, just not necessarily in the first generation. In most every situation, their children are Americanized by the public school system.
On a national scale, we need to tailor our immigration policy to optimize these two facts. We need unskilled laborers to clean hotel rooms as well as highly skilled software engineers for our tech industry. We need to make sure that our newly-arrived immigrants understand that they can still appreciate the ways of their old country, but that their ultimate goal in coming here is assimilation into American society.
Allowing immigrants to forego learning English as their primary language is nothing but politically correct folly. Since Day One, second-language ghettos have bred crime and criminals. Requiring English literacy has been and remains the pathway to assimilation and good citizenship.
The last time I checked, America was not a labor union with a seniority system. Our system thrives on competition; nobody gets points for the date of entry of his ancestors. If you believe a Mexican is going to take your job, then work harder or get smarter. America has consistently rewarded productivity and ingenuity, not seniority.
America will probably be the land of opportunity for most of this century. As such, we will continue to be a magnet for immigrants. And that is a good thing. Immigrants who thirst for the American dream will only make our country more vibrant. Closing the borders, on the other hand, will only speed our downfall.
When our leaders debate immigration policy, they should hold a picture of the Statue of Liberty with one hand and a picture of Elian Gonzalez being held at gunpoint with the other. These images represent the bookends of the debate, and they leave plenty of latitude for a sensible immigration plan.
"Transnational West Virginia" is available at www.WVUPress.com
Friday, May 26, 2006
Dead Cows Don’t Wear OSHA Orange
The state that boasts it is "Open for Business" recently made headlines in national and regional newspapers for giving the "business" to its citizens. The laughable folly that is known as West Virginia state government proves once again that it cannot solve even the simplest problem.
In late April, a dead cow floated down the West Fork River and got snagged at the West Milford dam in Harrison County. Had Elsie died a week earlier, when the river was higher, she’d have floated through unnoticed. After a few days in West Milford, however, Elsie began to smell. And that’s when the town of West Milford called for help.
The town found out quickly that no office of state government wanted the job of removing a dead, bloated cow from the West Fork River. Every agency that the town called had its reason for not being able to help.
The Clarksburg Water Board owns the dam. But since the cow was actually stuck on a tree snag upstream of the dam, they weren’t the responsible agency.
The Department of Natural Resources said it was responsible only for wild animals.
The Department of Environmental Protection said the dead cow did not pose an environmental issue and declined to help. (Pray tell. What is an environmental issue?)
Experts proclaimed that the decaying carcass wasn’t a threat to the drinking water of downstream cities. (Translation: We’re adding extra chlorine instead of removing the stinking beast!)
The governor was busy practicing NASCAR flagging, but his aides referred the town to the Department of Agriculture. The Department of Agriculture said that dead cows were a local issue. Apparently, this agency only regulates livestock!
Finally, in desperation, the town called the Treasurer’s Unclaimed Property Division. But they said that the only unclaimed properties they handled were cash, bearer bonds, and fenceable jewelry.
This is West Virginia-the state that shuts down elevators in state-owned office buildings rather than inspect them according to state law. This is West Virginia-the state that financed a movie piracy studio run by state employees in the capitol basement. This is West Virginia-the state where you can embezzle tax dollars at will!
Good grief, West Milford! What did you expect?
Fortunately for West Milford, their volunteer firemen were up to the task. With help from the Nutter Fort VFD, the firemen pulled the dead cow to shore. The Division of Highways (an agency with absolutely no reason to be involved in the matter) then hauled the carcass to the landfill.
The national government is telling us to expect a bird flu pandemic in the near future. The national government has spent millions of homeland security dollars for the protection of drinking water supplies. In spite of the fact that we are facing threats from a natural disaster as well as a terrorist attack, West Virginia is not even up to the task of removing a dead cow from one of its major rivers.
We laugh about a dead cow rotting in a river. Even West Milford’s Fire Chief punned, "Someone had to take the bull by the horns." But our fellow Americans laughed at us all the harder as the cow rotted for three weeks while state leaders passed the buck.
There is a valuable lesson to be learned from this latest fiasco by state government. In the end, it was a group of volunteer firemen who had enough pride in their community to get the job done.
To this end, we all need to volunteer. We need to hold our noses and clean up state government once and for all. Otherwise, we’ll continue to get nothing but "West Virginia excuses" for our tax dollars.
In late April, a dead cow floated down the West Fork River and got snagged at the West Milford dam in Harrison County. Had Elsie died a week earlier, when the river was higher, she’d have floated through unnoticed. After a few days in West Milford, however, Elsie began to smell. And that’s when the town of West Milford called for help.
The town found out quickly that no office of state government wanted the job of removing a dead, bloated cow from the West Fork River. Every agency that the town called had its reason for not being able to help.
The Clarksburg Water Board owns the dam. But since the cow was actually stuck on a tree snag upstream of the dam, they weren’t the responsible agency.
The Department of Natural Resources said it was responsible only for wild animals.
The Department of Environmental Protection said the dead cow did not pose an environmental issue and declined to help. (Pray tell. What is an environmental issue?)
Experts proclaimed that the decaying carcass wasn’t a threat to the drinking water of downstream cities. (Translation: We’re adding extra chlorine instead of removing the stinking beast!)
The governor was busy practicing NASCAR flagging, but his aides referred the town to the Department of Agriculture. The Department of Agriculture said that dead cows were a local issue. Apparently, this agency only regulates livestock!
Finally, in desperation, the town called the Treasurer’s Unclaimed Property Division. But they said that the only unclaimed properties they handled were cash, bearer bonds, and fenceable jewelry.
This is West Virginia-the state that shuts down elevators in state-owned office buildings rather than inspect them according to state law. This is West Virginia-the state that financed a movie piracy studio run by state employees in the capitol basement. This is West Virginia-the state where you can embezzle tax dollars at will!
Good grief, West Milford! What did you expect?
Fortunately for West Milford, their volunteer firemen were up to the task. With help from the Nutter Fort VFD, the firemen pulled the dead cow to shore. The Division of Highways (an agency with absolutely no reason to be involved in the matter) then hauled the carcass to the landfill.
The national government is telling us to expect a bird flu pandemic in the near future. The national government has spent millions of homeland security dollars for the protection of drinking water supplies. In spite of the fact that we are facing threats from a natural disaster as well as a terrorist attack, West Virginia is not even up to the task of removing a dead cow from one of its major rivers.
We laugh about a dead cow rotting in a river. Even West Milford’s Fire Chief punned, "Someone had to take the bull by the horns." But our fellow Americans laughed at us all the harder as the cow rotted for three weeks while state leaders passed the buck.
There is a valuable lesson to be learned from this latest fiasco by state government. In the end, it was a group of volunteer firemen who had enough pride in their community to get the job done.
To this end, we all need to volunteer. We need to hold our noses and clean up state government once and for all. Otherwise, we’ll continue to get nothing but "West Virginia excuses" for our tax dollars.
Friday, May 5, 2006
In 1984, Tom Brokaw Smiled At The Telescreen
When he closed the last NBC Evening Newscast of 1984, toothsome Tom Brokaw smiled and told his audience that Orwell’s prediction for 1984 had not happened. Though he never said it, his subliminal message to viewers on that New Year’s Eve was: Party like it’s 1999! And then the peacock did its thing.
In the minds of peacocks and anchormen, Brokaw’s observation was true. In practical terms, Big Brother was already firmly in charge of the American public’s behavior.
George Orwell began writing "1984" in 1947, the same year that commercial television broadcasting began in America. In this classic novel, human behavior is controlled by the telescreen which functions not only as a television but also as an all-seeing camera. Telescreens were located everywhere, and the denizens of Oceania could not escape surveillance.
On this side of the pond, and almost simultaneously with Orwell, Marshall McLuhan offered his concern about the power of television. McLuhan, however, stressed that television need not have camera capability to control the public’s behavior. He predicted that televised images would be so powerful that behavior could be controlled just by programming options.
McLuhan was right. Within a decade, Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Recently, the History Channel selected Elvis’ impact on American youth for one of the episodes in "10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America." I do find it ironic that the History Channel would say that Elvis Presley’s television appearances "unexpectedly" changed America. Did they not read Orwell or McLuhan?
A week or so ago, my local television newscast ran a story about a man who claimed that his car had been burglarized while parked at a shopping mall. Like Oceania, the mall’s parking lot is saturated with surveillance cameras. The police watched the videotape and determined that no burglary had taken place.
You might be quick to approve of the surveillance cameras in this instance because they solved a case of insurance fraud. But have you given any thought to the fact that the shopping mall is collecting huge volumes of demographic and economic data about its shoppers? It does not take a genius to decipher the tapes and determine when the rich people shop and when the poor people shop or the ratio between the two.
As it stands now, one television ad can persuade one thousand random shoppers to line up at 5 a.m. on Black Friday to vie for 100 computers being sold for $99 each when the store opens at 6 a.m. In the future, the combination of data from surveillance cameras (indoor and out), the data on your personal "store" card, and targeted television ads will have a powerful manipulative effect on each class of shoppers. And the price of goods will change throughout the day and on each weekday to maximize sales to the rich, the poor, the bargain hunters, and the always-desirable impulse buyers. Technology will make it so, but you will only be aware of the targeted ad that persuaded you to shop at a certain time or on a certain day.
Your car’s computer chip might well hold the entire driving history of the vehicle. If your car has a GPS locator, you can be tracked everywhere you go. And if it doesn’t, your cell phone is a beacon. If you were to go on the lam, you’d be tracked by your credit card or ATM swipes. Your credit history is a secret only to you. You have to prove who you are to get a copy of your birth certificate. Will the new border fences hold us in? Or as we are told, keep them out?
Face it: We have fallen a long, long way since we voluntarily gave up our constitutional protection from unreasonable searches at the airport thirty years ago.
It will only get worse, this technological totalitarianism. Today’s grade-schoolers have been conditioned to surveillance cameras, metal detectors, and searches by the K-9 corps. Unlike you and me, they will never know any different life.
If the future depresses you, just remember Tom Brokaw’s smile in 1984 and his reassuring assessment that none of this ever happened. That’s pretty much what Winston Smith did in "1984."
In the minds of peacocks and anchormen, Brokaw’s observation was true. In practical terms, Big Brother was already firmly in charge of the American public’s behavior.
George Orwell began writing "1984" in 1947, the same year that commercial television broadcasting began in America. In this classic novel, human behavior is controlled by the telescreen which functions not only as a television but also as an all-seeing camera. Telescreens were located everywhere, and the denizens of Oceania could not escape surveillance.
On this side of the pond, and almost simultaneously with Orwell, Marshall McLuhan offered his concern about the power of television. McLuhan, however, stressed that television need not have camera capability to control the public’s behavior. He predicted that televised images would be so powerful that behavior could be controlled just by programming options.
McLuhan was right. Within a decade, Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Recently, the History Channel selected Elvis’ impact on American youth for one of the episodes in "10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America." I do find it ironic that the History Channel would say that Elvis Presley’s television appearances "unexpectedly" changed America. Did they not read Orwell or McLuhan?
A week or so ago, my local television newscast ran a story about a man who claimed that his car had been burglarized while parked at a shopping mall. Like Oceania, the mall’s parking lot is saturated with surveillance cameras. The police watched the videotape and determined that no burglary had taken place.
You might be quick to approve of the surveillance cameras in this instance because they solved a case of insurance fraud. But have you given any thought to the fact that the shopping mall is collecting huge volumes of demographic and economic data about its shoppers? It does not take a genius to decipher the tapes and determine when the rich people shop and when the poor people shop or the ratio between the two.
As it stands now, one television ad can persuade one thousand random shoppers to line up at 5 a.m. on Black Friday to vie for 100 computers being sold for $99 each when the store opens at 6 a.m. In the future, the combination of data from surveillance cameras (indoor and out), the data on your personal "store" card, and targeted television ads will have a powerful manipulative effect on each class of shoppers. And the price of goods will change throughout the day and on each weekday to maximize sales to the rich, the poor, the bargain hunters, and the always-desirable impulse buyers. Technology will make it so, but you will only be aware of the targeted ad that persuaded you to shop at a certain time or on a certain day.
Your car’s computer chip might well hold the entire driving history of the vehicle. If your car has a GPS locator, you can be tracked everywhere you go. And if it doesn’t, your cell phone is a beacon. If you were to go on the lam, you’d be tracked by your credit card or ATM swipes. Your credit history is a secret only to you. You have to prove who you are to get a copy of your birth certificate. Will the new border fences hold us in? Or as we are told, keep them out?
Face it: We have fallen a long, long way since we voluntarily gave up our constitutional protection from unreasonable searches at the airport thirty years ago.
It will only get worse, this technological totalitarianism. Today’s grade-schoolers have been conditioned to surveillance cameras, metal detectors, and searches by the K-9 corps. Unlike you and me, they will never know any different life.
If the future depresses you, just remember Tom Brokaw’s smile in 1984 and his reassuring assessment that none of this ever happened. That’s pretty much what Winston Smith did in "1984."
Friday, April 7, 2006
The U. S. Chamber Should Encourage Clarity
On March 27th, the Institute for Legal Reform issued this press release: West Virginia Rates Last in Legal Fairness. The ILR (a unit of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce) also began running ads showing a man whose mouth is filled with cash. The caption reads: Please Don’t Feed The Trial Lawyers.
I think this ad and the accompanying survey results that formulate the Chamber’s claim about West Virginia’s legal system are disingenuous at best. Big businesses’ cheap shot portraying trial lawyers as money-eaters reminded me of a one-time candidate for Harrison County Sheriff named Raymond Richards who answered a reporter’s accusation by saying, "Pot called Kittle, ‘Blackie!’"
Mr. Richards, one of the dimmer bulbs in the stagelights of political theater, was unsuccessful in his run for sheriff. But his unique way of saying, "The pot called the kettle black." has forever been recorded in my collection of West Virginia euphemisms.
In this matter of a legal fairness survey, the Chamber’s Pot is tarnishing the Trial Lawyers' Kettle.
I could not have arrived at this conclusion without the aid of our state Supreme Court of appeals. For on March 29th, the court (split 3-2 as expected) voted against hearing an appeal of the award of legal fees in a Putnam County case involving a defective car.
A Mr. and Mrs. George purchased their 2000 Dodge Intrepid from Nitro Dodge and later claimed there were problems with the car. To make a long story short, they sued the dealership and the manufacturer, Daimler Chrysler. Upon hearing the case, the jury awarded the couple $6,950 in damages. But that was just a small tip of the iceberg.
The George’s attorneys filed a motion to recover legal fees and submitted their bill of $143,026 to the court. In order to determine the "fairness" of the claim, the judge asked defense counsel to submit its fees for services so that he could make a comparison. If you think $143,026 is exorbitant, then hold on to your hat-Chrysler’s legal bill was actually higher!
My advice to the Chamber of Commerce is twofold. First, quit wasting your money on pseudo-scientific surveys about legal fairness. And second, change the caption of your ad to: Please Don’t Feed The Lawyers-Theirs and Ours.
As for the lawyers involved in this case, I do not fault them for their excessive billable hours. They played by the court’s rules and billed the parties for $300k. If big corporations and insurance companies are stupid enough to wage Pyrrhic wars when a can of STP might have fixed the problem, then so be the outcome.
The members of the jury in this case should be applauded. They decided that the car did have problems but chose not to make the plaintiffs whole by awarding them a new car or a carload of money. They only awarded the repair bill ($4,500) and some money ($2,450) for the George’s aggravation. The jury did its job. And most likely, the jurors felt insulted after listening to five days of courtroom claptrap when they could have been home or at work.
The U. S. Chamber of Commerce wants to make a statement about the high cost of litigation in our nation. They have quoted a 2004 study that estimates the tort system cost $260 billion or $886 per citizen. There is a better way to determine the true and actual cost of litigation as well as a better way to give that number real meaning.
The Chamber should push for a change in accounting rules and seek to have product liability costs and claims included in Cost of Goods Sold instead of being classified as General and Administrative expenses. This change would let Daimler Chrysler shareholders know right away how much the Putnam County litigation has added to the cost of manufacturing each new 2006 Dodge automobile.
When shareholders are given a line item under Cost of Goods Sold that clearly defines product liability litigation costs and product recalls, then management will either respond with better products and better service or the shareholders will change management.
When consumers and shareholders have accurate information, the marketplace will settle the question of legal fairness faster than any other mechanism.
I think this ad and the accompanying survey results that formulate the Chamber’s claim about West Virginia’s legal system are disingenuous at best. Big businesses’ cheap shot portraying trial lawyers as money-eaters reminded me of a one-time candidate for Harrison County Sheriff named Raymond Richards who answered a reporter’s accusation by saying, "Pot called Kittle, ‘Blackie!’"
Mr. Richards, one of the dimmer bulbs in the stagelights of political theater, was unsuccessful in his run for sheriff. But his unique way of saying, "The pot called the kettle black." has forever been recorded in my collection of West Virginia euphemisms.
In this matter of a legal fairness survey, the Chamber’s Pot is tarnishing the Trial Lawyers' Kettle.
I could not have arrived at this conclusion without the aid of our state Supreme Court of appeals. For on March 29th, the court (split 3-2 as expected) voted against hearing an appeal of the award of legal fees in a Putnam County case involving a defective car.
A Mr. and Mrs. George purchased their 2000 Dodge Intrepid from Nitro Dodge and later claimed there were problems with the car. To make a long story short, they sued the dealership and the manufacturer, Daimler Chrysler. Upon hearing the case, the jury awarded the couple $6,950 in damages. But that was just a small tip of the iceberg.
The George’s attorneys filed a motion to recover legal fees and submitted their bill of $143,026 to the court. In order to determine the "fairness" of the claim, the judge asked defense counsel to submit its fees for services so that he could make a comparison. If you think $143,026 is exorbitant, then hold on to your hat-Chrysler’s legal bill was actually higher!
My advice to the Chamber of Commerce is twofold. First, quit wasting your money on pseudo-scientific surveys about legal fairness. And second, change the caption of your ad to: Please Don’t Feed The Lawyers-Theirs and Ours.
As for the lawyers involved in this case, I do not fault them for their excessive billable hours. They played by the court’s rules and billed the parties for $300k. If big corporations and insurance companies are stupid enough to wage Pyrrhic wars when a can of STP might have fixed the problem, then so be the outcome.
The members of the jury in this case should be applauded. They decided that the car did have problems but chose not to make the plaintiffs whole by awarding them a new car or a carload of money. They only awarded the repair bill ($4,500) and some money ($2,450) for the George’s aggravation. The jury did its job. And most likely, the jurors felt insulted after listening to five days of courtroom claptrap when they could have been home or at work.
The U. S. Chamber of Commerce wants to make a statement about the high cost of litigation in our nation. They have quoted a 2004 study that estimates the tort system cost $260 billion or $886 per citizen. There is a better way to determine the true and actual cost of litigation as well as a better way to give that number real meaning.
The Chamber should push for a change in accounting rules and seek to have product liability costs and claims included in Cost of Goods Sold instead of being classified as General and Administrative expenses. This change would let Daimler Chrysler shareholders know right away how much the Putnam County litigation has added to the cost of manufacturing each new 2006 Dodge automobile.
When shareholders are given a line item under Cost of Goods Sold that clearly defines product liability litigation costs and product recalls, then management will either respond with better products and better service or the shareholders will change management.
When consumers and shareholders have accurate information, the marketplace will settle the question of legal fairness faster than any other mechanism.
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