9/20/11 Miscellany

I'm going to try something new here. In my efforts to absorb as much information as possible, I read a lot and stumble across a lot of great material. My tendency in the past has been to either share full articles via Facebook/Twitter or try to develop one particular thought into a full essay for this blog. Unfortunately, that allows a lot of interesting stuff to slip through the cracks. I would like to try compiling excerpts and miscellaneous personal thoughts into posts and see where that leads. Let me know what you think... 


First, a few interesting tidbits from the October 2011 issue of Harper's: 


Harper's Index 
Percentage of the current U.S. debt that was accumulated during Republican presidential terms: 71
Portion of debt-ceiling elevations since 1960 that have been signed into law by Republican presidents: 2/3
Percentage of profits American corporations paid in taxes in 1961: 40.6 
Today: 10.5


Findings
Narcissists appear to be good leaders but aren't.
That finding was not sourced, but I did a little digging and found this study which says:

Those who love themselves and have vast self-confidence often impress others with their self-belief, dominance and authority, leading them to climb the career ladder effortlessly.

However, scientists have discovered that while narcissists are convincing leaders, they are so consumed by their own brilliance that it actually cripples their creativity and often causes them to make bad decisions.

Pennies From Heaven
There's also a terrifying essay by Chris Lehmann on the influence of the Mormon church on GOP economic policy, particularly with regard to the worship of precious metals. It includes this reality check:

By 1992, in fact, the economy was in a deep recession. In response, the Reagan Administration taxed and spent its way out of that slump via Keynesian-style deficit outlays for ballooning defense budgets and a 1982 tax increase - measures that would make hard-money conservatives woozy with acute cognitive dissonance, if they could bring themselves to acknowledge that they ever took place.

Nausea
An excerpt from Jean-Paul Sartre's seminal novel:

Something is beginning in order to end: adventure does not let itself be drawn out; it only makes sense when dead. I am drawn, irrevocably, towards this death which is perhaps mine as well. Each instant appears only as part of a sequence. I cling to each instant with all my heart: I know that it is unique, irreplacaeble - and yet I would not raise a finger to stop it from being annihilated. This last moment I am spending - in Berlin, in London - in the arms of a woman casually met two days ago - moment I love passionately, woman I may adore - all is going to end, I know it. Soon I shall leave for another country. I shall never rediscover either this woman or this night. I grasp at each second, trying to suck it dry: nothing happens which I do not seize, which I do not fix forever in myself, nothing, neither the fugitive tenderness of those lovely eyes, nor the noises of the street, nor the false dawn of early morning: and even so the minute passes and I do not hold it back, I like to see it pass. 

All of a sudden something breaks off sharply. The adventure is over, time resumes its daily routine. I turn; behind me, this beautiful melodious form sinks entirely into the past. It grows smaller, contracts as it declines, and now the end makes one with the beginning. Following this gold spot with my eyes I think I would accept - even if I had to risk death, lose a fortune, a friend - to live it all over again, in the same circumstances, from end to end. But and adventure never returns nor is prolonged.
...
I wanted the moments of my life to follow and order themselves like those of a life remembered. You might as well try and catch time by the tail.

Questions
And now a few of my own thoughts:


There was an uproar this week over Dr. Oz's revelation on his show that there is arsenic in apple juice. First, millions of moms all of over America who no longer have Oprah to turn to in the afternoons freaked the hell out and swore to never buy apple juice again. (Kids rejoiced at the replacement drink: Mountain Dew.) Then, the FDA struck back and said they'd been testing apple juice for years and that there is no danger to anyone from drinking the stuff, whether it be from China or the U.S.


This seems to me a striking inversion of the typical government vs. free market debate. After all, Dr. Oz may well, in his capacity as a capitalistic television personality and entrepreneur, have unnecessarily hurt the juice industry, which could easily cause financial harm and job losses. It was the FDA - a government agency - that rose to the defense of the industry, possibly staving off those losses. So what say you, conservatives, to this interesting little switcheroo? Is the government always the bogeyman? Can it, on occasion, do some good and actually help the economy? Can the free market sometimes shoot itself in the foot without the guiding hand of government regulation and oversight?


Also...I was thinking about patents. I can't pretend to understand the system well, but I know that patents do expire, at which point generic imitators are free to storm the barricades and start reaping profits from the ingenuity of others. I'm sincerely wondering how capitalists justify this. Do all of you tea partiers out there refrain from saving money by buying generic products? Ayn Rand would certainly frown upon such looting. Still, it is probably good for the economy, in the sense that jobs are created and money is made by the plagiarists. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the capitalists behind these mimicking corporations are died-in-the-wool fiscal conservatives, in direct contravention of their actions. In any event, I think that all Ron Paul-style conservatives should immediately cease purchasing any product that is not manufactured and sold by the originator of that product.