3/3/11
3/2/11
Geography of the Mind
Arizona is a state of mind...
It's irrelevant what any urbanist, civic booster, city officials or property developers say. Downtown Phoenix is a ghost town of brand new high rise buildings, condominiums, multi-use projects that have largely been unoccupied or are under occupied. Lots of them. The restored slums sit waiting alongside the new buildings also waiting to be fully peopled. Our historic buildings sit as lonely islands in a sea of steel and glass. The truth is not much is happening in Phoenix, at best we're at a standstill, mostly the core city is deserted. Meanwhile we are ringed by cheaply built but formerly high priced suburbs that one day may rival the desolated developments of the Salton Sea.
There are those who are doing well, the usual suspects, making a buck of what is left but despite attempts to dispel the truth, the average person is economically down. There are pockets of activity and vitality, some of it in the most surprising places and communities of people. For the most part, Phoenix is like a jilted lover, confused and wondering what to do next. As most forsaken ones do, we will find new companions and our way back. People may be down but are not out, the new frontier spirit is alive and well among lots of folks.
The Arizona Legislature is busy thinking of ways to buck the Federal Government, in ways that appall much of the rest of the country, but we have never much cared for what they think. Good on 'em for doing it. Even though I find our Senate President, Russell Pearce and his minions, personally repulsive. We're as broke, if not more so, than any state in the union but we need to rebuild this state our way. We have been like that from the beginning. Before President Taft would even allow us to become a state, he insisted on changes in our Constitution, which our ancestors made and then after statehood put the issues to the voters to reinstate them and they did. Nowadays we have people in Pima County who want to become a state of their own.
Which is laughable to a lot of the rest of the country but you have to be a real Arizonan to understand. We truly don't care what the rest of the United States thinks or does, especially about us. I have no idea how Arizona, especially it's two major cities, Phoenix and Tucson, are going to pull out of this over-development and funny money mess. What I do know is there is something about this place, that you have to be here a long time to fully understand, that always manages to find it's own way back.
It's irrelevant what any urbanist, civic booster, city officials or property developers say. Downtown Phoenix is a ghost town of brand new high rise buildings, condominiums, multi-use projects that have largely been unoccupied or are under occupied. Lots of them. The restored slums sit waiting alongside the new buildings also waiting to be fully peopled. Our historic buildings sit as lonely islands in a sea of steel and glass. The truth is not much is happening in Phoenix, at best we're at a standstill, mostly the core city is deserted. Meanwhile we are ringed by cheaply built but formerly high priced suburbs that one day may rival the desolated developments of the Salton Sea.
There are those who are doing well, the usual suspects, making a buck of what is left but despite attempts to dispel the truth, the average person is economically down. There are pockets of activity and vitality, some of it in the most surprising places and communities of people. For the most part, Phoenix is like a jilted lover, confused and wondering what to do next. As most forsaken ones do, we will find new companions and our way back. People may be down but are not out, the new frontier spirit is alive and well among lots of folks.
The Arizona Legislature is busy thinking of ways to buck the Federal Government, in ways that appall much of the rest of the country, but we have never much cared for what they think. Good on 'em for doing it. Even though I find our Senate President, Russell Pearce and his minions, personally repulsive. We're as broke, if not more so, than any state in the union but we need to rebuild this state our way. We have been like that from the beginning. Before President Taft would even allow us to become a state, he insisted on changes in our Constitution, which our ancestors made and then after statehood put the issues to the voters to reinstate them and they did. Nowadays we have people in Pima County who want to become a state of their own.
Which is laughable to a lot of the rest of the country but you have to be a real Arizonan to understand. We truly don't care what the rest of the United States thinks or does, especially about us. I have no idea how Arizona, especially it's two major cities, Phoenix and Tucson, are going to pull out of this over-development and funny money mess. What I do know is there is something about this place, that you have to be here a long time to fully understand, that always manages to find it's own way back.
Arizona Landscape
The Onion Dome...
JM Evans House: The Arizona State Archives and Public Records Building
photo by Zeff Nelson
JM Evans House: The Arizona State Archives and Public Records Building
3/1/11
Thinking Out Loud
Too late for Blackberry...
Blackberry sent me a promotional email today. I should tell them they're wasting their time. After years of using Blackberry, then being burned by the Storm, I gave mine up today for an Android phone. I stuck with the same carrier, Verizon Wireless, although I was very close to switching to Sprint. It took awhile but I decided on going with a DroidX, the original version with larger memory, not the new one they're selling with lower memory and price. Yes, it's 3G but I don't really need 4G and my VZW Storm 1 was EVDO, so 3G is an upgrade for me.
I'm not an Apple person, I still think of their products as computers for kids and students, although I do use iTunes and have an iPod Touch. An iPhone was out of the question, I don't like walled gardens. For all of the noise about Google and privacy, I'm still a Google fan.
It mystifies me how Blackberry could blow the advantage they had in the smartphone market by not upgrading their browser experience. I recognize they're technically a more secure device but that's still not enough for the user who wants a richer mobile phone experience without hauling around even a tablet.
My laptop has basically been a desktop PC for awhile now, I don't haul it along when I travel around, an Android device obviates that for certain. Even so, as tablets get better, I will probably consider one within a year or so. I'm still a sucker for wireless technology, being a former Bellhead after all.
Blackberry sent me a promotional email today. I should tell them they're wasting their time. After years of using Blackberry, then being burned by the Storm, I gave mine up today for an Android phone. I stuck with the same carrier, Verizon Wireless, although I was very close to switching to Sprint. It took awhile but I decided on going with a DroidX, the original version with larger memory, not the new one they're selling with lower memory and price. Yes, it's 3G but I don't really need 4G and my VZW Storm 1 was EVDO, so 3G is an upgrade for me.
I'm not an Apple person, I still think of their products as computers for kids and students, although I do use iTunes and have an iPod Touch. An iPhone was out of the question, I don't like walled gardens. For all of the noise about Google and privacy, I'm still a Google fan.
It mystifies me how Blackberry could blow the advantage they had in the smartphone market by not upgrading their browser experience. I recognize they're technically a more secure device but that's still not enough for the user who wants a richer mobile phone experience without hauling around even a tablet.
My laptop has basically been a desktop PC for awhile now, I don't haul it along when I travel around, an Android device obviates that for certain. Even so, as tablets get better, I will probably consider one within a year or so. I'm still a sucker for wireless technology, being a former Bellhead after all.
2/28/11
Economic, Social and Geopolitical
We're in for a long, hot summer...
The forgotten man is preparing to say and do something though.
Those of the boomer generation who complain of "political correctness" in the rewriting of textbooks and education curriculum ought to study history themselves. We were also sold in schools a whitewashed history that was written to suit the purposes of the mood of the country facilitated by government, educational institutions and the private sector.
One of the biggest lies goes something like this: There was a stock market crash one day in 1929 and President Hoover was oblivious to it and did little about the economic condition the country was in. There was an election in 1932 and Franklin Roosevelt won and saved the country from the Great Depression by instituting work programs, allowing unions to bargain fairly for a fair wage and created Social Security and things got better. Except that it is all a big distortion of truth.
In fact almost everything FDR did made the Depression worse and created the "Depression Within A Depression" that caused another stock market crash in 1937 and what actually ended the Great Depression was the US entering WWII in 1941. There had been a brief respite for some people due to WPA, CCC, RA, TVA and other projects but when the work was done, those people were out of a job and angry enough about it that they went on strike. In other words they went on strike against a temporary welfare program. (This should remind people of the "99ers" demanding unemployment extensions.) Not only that, since FDR had the Wagner Act passed liberalizing union organization, people began striking against employers, inside their very place of employment by having 'sit ins.' (This should remind people of public employees, school teachers in particular, ranting in New Jersey and rallying in Wisconsin that they should be immune to the economic crisis, occurring today.)
What Roosevelt's war against business caused companies, since they had no idea what Roosevelt, the Fed, the Treasury and Congress over-regulating and arguing over taxation and budget restraint would do next, they hoarded cash and did not reinvest in the economy to create new industry, new business and real jobs. They also had passed retroactive tax laws, with the Justice Department then pursuing people and companies for doing what was perfectly legal at the time they did them, with criminal charges for acts that had been made illegal after the fact.
Does any of this sound familiar to what has been happening in recent years? It should. The Political Class would have you distracted by the big bonuses (that is not a good thing) corporate executives are getting, frightening you the government is going to shut down (maybe not a bad thing) and anything that will keep the mainstream media busy.
In Muncie, Indiana a newspaper editorialized in 1936:
"Who is the forgotten man in Muncie? I know him as intimately as my own undershirt. He is the fellow that is trying to get along without public relief...In the meantime the taxpayers go on supporting many that would not work if they had jobs." (excerpt from Amity Schlaes "The Forgotten Man")
The contagion had already spread from Wall Street prior to the 1937 crash to Main Street, just as this current economic crisis has.
Much like the respite from 1934-1936 during the Depression that things were getting a slightly better, we have experienced a similar respite from 2009-2010. The stock market has reached ridiculously inflationary highs that have nowhere to go but down. Meanwhile Main Street is still experiencing high unemployment, highly leveraged consumers, a financial institution and mortgage/foreclosure crisis with attendant real estate deflation, alongside consumer product inflation, higher gas and food prices being the prime examples. Additionally national and international problems are entering into the picture, affecting the average person. The Middle East problems will not be resolved quickly or easily, affecting our oil supply, our national and state governments are technically insolvent and for all practical purposes most of the European Union countries are bankrupt. A currency crisis looms of epic proportions, so complex even the experts really don't have solutions to offer for it.
The stage is set for stagflation as bad as, if not worse than the 1970s. Obama can do a fake out to becoming a centrist, but for all his trying he's not fooling the average person who still recognizes him for what he is, a collectivist. His regulatory policies are harming business and not helping consumers. The Republicans can bellow all they want and the tea party coalition can rant but most people have figured out they are in collusion and their tune hasn't really changed. We're in for a long hot summer of an economic Double Dip quake of high magnitude on the Richter Scale. A real good shaker and the powers that think they are in control will have no idea what to do about it.
The average person, the modern day "forgotten man" isn't without backbone and not finished yet. He (and she) are quietly standing by, saying little at the moment, my bet though is that will not be the case by the end of the year. Much like Bill Wilson, founder of AA and Dale Carnegie, founder of self improvement courses, started the mutual and self help movements during the Great Depression, many Americans are already following similar paths. They recognize government intervention and dependence has had little results of value to them. They still have faith in individual effort, being achievement oriented and believe in the American ideal of a strong work ethic and people pulling themselves out of difficult situation. They've figured out that the whitewashed history that has been sold is just as much a lie as collectivist politically correct revisionism is. Government and politics can do little for them.
Look out for a revival of the real American hero who still believes in the American Dream by no later than early 2012. Decide what you want to be and go do it.
The forgotten man is preparing to say and do something though.
Those of the boomer generation who complain of "political correctness" in the rewriting of textbooks and education curriculum ought to study history themselves. We were also sold in schools a whitewashed history that was written to suit the purposes of the mood of the country facilitated by government, educational institutions and the private sector.
One of the biggest lies goes something like this: There was a stock market crash one day in 1929 and President Hoover was oblivious to it and did little about the economic condition the country was in. There was an election in 1932 and Franklin Roosevelt won and saved the country from the Great Depression by instituting work programs, allowing unions to bargain fairly for a fair wage and created Social Security and things got better. Except that it is all a big distortion of truth.
In fact almost everything FDR did made the Depression worse and created the "Depression Within A Depression" that caused another stock market crash in 1937 and what actually ended the Great Depression was the US entering WWII in 1941. There had been a brief respite for some people due to WPA, CCC, RA, TVA and other projects but when the work was done, those people were out of a job and angry enough about it that they went on strike. In other words they went on strike against a temporary welfare program. (This should remind people of the "99ers" demanding unemployment extensions.) Not only that, since FDR had the Wagner Act passed liberalizing union organization, people began striking against employers, inside their very place of employment by having 'sit ins.' (This should remind people of public employees, school teachers in particular, ranting in New Jersey and rallying in Wisconsin that they should be immune to the economic crisis, occurring today.)
What Roosevelt's war against business caused companies, since they had no idea what Roosevelt, the Fed, the Treasury and Congress over-regulating and arguing over taxation and budget restraint would do next, they hoarded cash and did not reinvest in the economy to create new industry, new business and real jobs. They also had passed retroactive tax laws, with the Justice Department then pursuing people and companies for doing what was perfectly legal at the time they did them, with criminal charges for acts that had been made illegal after the fact.
Does any of this sound familiar to what has been happening in recent years? It should. The Political Class would have you distracted by the big bonuses (that is not a good thing) corporate executives are getting, frightening you the government is going to shut down (maybe not a bad thing) and anything that will keep the mainstream media busy.
In Muncie, Indiana a newspaper editorialized in 1936:
"Who is the forgotten man in Muncie? I know him as intimately as my own undershirt. He is the fellow that is trying to get along without public relief...In the meantime the taxpayers go on supporting many that would not work if they had jobs." (excerpt from Amity Schlaes "The Forgotten Man")
The contagion had already spread from Wall Street prior to the 1937 crash to Main Street, just as this current economic crisis has.
Much like the respite from 1934-1936 during the Depression that things were getting a slightly better, we have experienced a similar respite from 2009-2010. The stock market has reached ridiculously inflationary highs that have nowhere to go but down. Meanwhile Main Street is still experiencing high unemployment, highly leveraged consumers, a financial institution and mortgage/foreclosure crisis with attendant real estate deflation, alongside consumer product inflation, higher gas and food prices being the prime examples. Additionally national and international problems are entering into the picture, affecting the average person. The Middle East problems will not be resolved quickly or easily, affecting our oil supply, our national and state governments are technically insolvent and for all practical purposes most of the European Union countries are bankrupt. A currency crisis looms of epic proportions, so complex even the experts really don't have solutions to offer for it.
The stage is set for stagflation as bad as, if not worse than the 1970s. Obama can do a fake out to becoming a centrist, but for all his trying he's not fooling the average person who still recognizes him for what he is, a collectivist. His regulatory policies are harming business and not helping consumers. The Republicans can bellow all they want and the tea party coalition can rant but most people have figured out they are in collusion and their tune hasn't really changed. We're in for a long hot summer of an economic Double Dip quake of high magnitude on the Richter Scale. A real good shaker and the powers that think they are in control will have no idea what to do about it.
The average person, the modern day "forgotten man" isn't without backbone and not finished yet. He (and she) are quietly standing by, saying little at the moment, my bet though is that will not be the case by the end of the year. Much like Bill Wilson, founder of AA and Dale Carnegie, founder of self improvement courses, started the mutual and self help movements during the Great Depression, many Americans are already following similar paths. They recognize government intervention and dependence has had little results of value to them. They still have faith in individual effort, being achievement oriented and believe in the American ideal of a strong work ethic and people pulling themselves out of difficult situation. They've figured out that the whitewashed history that has been sold is just as much a lie as collectivist politically correct revisionism is. Government and politics can do little for them.
Look out for a revival of the real American hero who still believes in the American Dream by no later than early 2012. Decide what you want to be and go do it.
2/26/11
Music Break: The Avett Brothers
Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise...
Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWakav29dBs
(c) 2010 The Avett Brothers and AR LLC
Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWakav29dBs
(c) 2010 The Avett Brothers and AR LLC
2/25/11
2/24/11
Writing: Fact and Fiction
Much of life is like fiction...
If there is anything I can say about my somewhat routine life, it is not boring, rather it's quite interesting most days. Not always in a way I care for but most of the time at least one interesting thing happens, I learn something new or a connect-the-dots moment occurs and mostly it's enriching. Sometimes all of that happens, when it does it's usually at my humble job, which I'm just fine with because it is the most likely place for an engaging event to happen. Almost always it involves the carousal of people that cross over the threshold. Not the predictable ones but those that dare to live in the pale of what many consider "irregular."
I do think it's in the way you approach and perceive your daily life. It is what you make of it. I notice things and have a keen perception of what many people, even seemingly unpredictable ones, are likely to do. It's a highly honed sense developed from a lifetime of people watching and interaction with a variety of souls from all walks of life. I think it's important to absorb that and turn it into something useful. For me it manifests itself in two ways, the first is I learn how to understand and interact with a cornucopia of human behaviors. That enriches me and as well as other people if they have something that I can help them figure out. A two-way interaction.
The second is I jot a lot of it down in bits and pieces. I would hardly call this note-taking a journal or a diary, merely a memory jogger. It's because in order for me to wrap my head around the still-cryptic-to-me world around me, having never really been regular enough to resolve the perplexities of life, I make sense of it by creatively expressing myself. Out of the second thing I do, jotting down ideas that come from experiencing life, I turn into writing. When I was younger I turned these notes and sliced them into fiction stories. In the past few decades I would use them as examples in the non-fiction I was writing. Nowadays I've rediscovered fiction writing and these memory joggers are spliced into parts of short stories.
There is truth that much of life is like fiction and that fiction is a lot like life; which is not so strange as we think.
If there is anything I can say about my somewhat routine life, it is not boring, rather it's quite interesting most days. Not always in a way I care for but most of the time at least one interesting thing happens, I learn something new or a connect-the-dots moment occurs and mostly it's enriching. Sometimes all of that happens, when it does it's usually at my humble job, which I'm just fine with because it is the most likely place for an engaging event to happen. Almost always it involves the carousal of people that cross over the threshold. Not the predictable ones but those that dare to live in the pale of what many consider "irregular."
I do think it's in the way you approach and perceive your daily life. It is what you make of it. I notice things and have a keen perception of what many people, even seemingly unpredictable ones, are likely to do. It's a highly honed sense developed from a lifetime of people watching and interaction with a variety of souls from all walks of life. I think it's important to absorb that and turn it into something useful. For me it manifests itself in two ways, the first is I learn how to understand and interact with a cornucopia of human behaviors. That enriches me and as well as other people if they have something that I can help them figure out. A two-way interaction.
The second is I jot a lot of it down in bits and pieces. I would hardly call this note-taking a journal or a diary, merely a memory jogger. It's because in order for me to wrap my head around the still-cryptic-to-me world around me, having never really been regular enough to resolve the perplexities of life, I make sense of it by creatively expressing myself. Out of the second thing I do, jotting down ideas that come from experiencing life, I turn into writing. When I was younger I turned these notes and sliced them into fiction stories. In the past few decades I would use them as examples in the non-fiction I was writing. Nowadays I've rediscovered fiction writing and these memory joggers are spliced into parts of short stories.
There is truth that much of life is like fiction and that fiction is a lot like life; which is not so strange as we think.
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