Mr. Moderate

Michael Savage is a conservative radio talk show host whose program I listen to and whose web site I link to here on my own blog. First and foremost we must recognize that Michael is an entertainer, with millions of listeners, and it is the job of an entertainer to entertain. Entertainers will frequently use exaggeration to get our attention, and Michael is one of the greatest exaggerators I’ve ever listened to. Last week Michael started a controversy about autism when he exaggerated the over-diagnosis of the disease. Media Matters then picked out his most-overblown statements:

On his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage claimed that autism is “[a] fraud, a racket. … I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’ “

Many people reacted to the above statements with anger and strong complaints against Michael Savage, trying to get his program thrown off the air for those remarks. One conservative blogger even called Michael “the most hated conservative in America.” Well, in some sense I suspect that Michael relishes the label of “most hated” so long as it gains attention for his talk show and increases his base of listeners.
Continue reading ‘Michael Savage and the Autism Controversy’ »

We all know the classic image of the ostrich with its head in the sand while its body is exposed to whatever comes along. In our culture, we interpret this image as a refusal to see the obvious. Well, Lyme Disease exists, but 9,999 out of 10,000 doctors have their heads in the sand when it comes to properly diagnosing and treating Lyme Disease. But anybody can go on the Internet and find a picture of the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria which causes Lyme Disease. It shows that the organism is a spirochete, or “corkscrew-shaped” bacteria. How can Lyme Disease not exist? This gets to be a real mystery, so please read on.

This is the first of a two-post set, the other of which discusses the claims by Michael Savage that the mental diseases of autism and ADHD are vastly over-diagnosed in this country. As I say at the end of that other post, what is totally a mystery to me is this: Why does the establishment (schools, doctors, drug companies, etc.) want to diagnose kids with autism and ADHD and yet they refuse to diagnose kids (or adults) as being sick with the actual bacterial disease of Lyme?
Continue reading ‘Lyme Disease and Medical Ostriches’ »

Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again
…

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss
– Won’t Get Fooled Again by The Who

One of my favorite quotes of all time is by George Santayana (from The Life of Reason [1905 1906], Volume I, Reason in Common Sense, Chapter 12):

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. . . . Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Ronald Reagan came to power in 1981, and a large part of what he pledged to accomplish was to “get government off our backs” by deregulating various industries. One of the deregulated industries was the Savings and Loan industry which, I’m afraid, you need to be fairly old to understand how critical that industry used to be to the American economy. But in its zeal to eliminate government regulations that prevented businesses from seeking profits wherever they could be found, the Reagan administration convinced a Democratic Congress to vote away the governmental controls which ensured that industry remained healthy. However, they did not vote away, but actually increased, the guarantee of health provided by the US taxpayer through the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC). This was, of course, a recipe for disaster as the greedy owners and managers of savings and loan corporations sought vast personal wealth for themselves without one thought for the safety of the federally-insured funds they were using to create that wealth. This led to the Savings and Loan Crisis (or S&L Crisis) of the late 1980s, which was the precursor to the current subprime mortgage crisis. Apparently, we never did really learn our lessons from the S&L Crisis so I’m going to begin with a discussion of what went on with that mess.
Continue reading ‘We’re Getting Fooled Again!’ »

Mr. Moderate is old. In fact, I’m old enough to have supported Barry Goldwater for President back in 1964. In those days, you had to be 21 to vote, and I was younger than that. But I still supported Barry. I watched him give his 1964 acceptance speech live. There were things he might have said but didn’t, because it was only 1964, and the civil rights movement had not yet generated the violence which would force America to examine a whole host of issues centering around what “equality” really means. Barry was unfairly labeled a bigot because he voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In fact, he has a long and distinguished record of advocating for racial equality, including prompting the full and complete integration of the Arizona National Guard long before President Truman issued orders to integrate the regular military forces.

Goldwater’s brand of conservativism was a balance between libertarian ideals and a pragmatic recognition that order was necessary for a civil society, and the purpose of government was to establish the rules that created order and maintained or even enhanced civilization as we know it. The justification for a civil law was to remedy an obvious injustice. But for Barry, the limit of the federal government was established by the Constitution of the United States, and he would not vote for any law, necessary or not, if it would cross over the line of limited Constitutional government as he viewed it. That is why he voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964: he strongly felt that the law, however good it was in the abstract, stepped over the line limiting federal powers from interfering in the rights of the several states to manage their own affairs. In 1964, the view was that the federal government had no business messing in the affairs of local school districts. Since that is exactly what the Civil Rights Act of 1964 proposed to do, Barry wouldn’t vote for it.
Continue reading ‘Confessions of a Goldwater Republican’ »

There is no doubt that right-wing conservatives own the medium of talk radio. The strategy has been quite simple: 1) Elect a Republican President; 2) Get the FCC to gut any remaining ownership limits not already gutted during the Reagan administration; and 3) Buy every radio station possible, while creating advertising boycotts of as many radio stations as possible that are not owned by right-wing conservatives. That last part came to light during the Air America bankruptcy proceeding when a list was made public of those companies which had forbidden their advertising agencies to buy any advertisements on Air America. The list read like a “Who’s Who” of corporate America. They didn’t like any left wing views being expressed anywhere on the airwaves, so they strove to starve the liberals off the air and ultimately purchase all of the stations who dared to run Air America.

The number of allowable radio stations is an extremely limited number, reflecting the fact that the design of radios means that radio frequencies allocated to use by radio stations are very scarce indeed. Most markets have their full allotment of radio stations, and most stations in each market are owned by right-wing conservatives affiliated in some way with one of the main right-wing radio networks like Clear Channel.
Continue reading ‘Fairness In Media’ »

The politicians in Washington are now preaching that, because the American people persuaded their elected representatives to kill the “grand compromise” bill (which was neither grand nor a broad compromise, having been hammered out in secret by a small group of senators) we must now accept that nothing will be done about illegal immigration until 2009.

Says who?

Secretary Chertoff said that “some necessary tools … were left on the floor of the Senate” when the Senate killed that bill. Who says that those tools cannot be enacted one by one? Who declares that it is “all or nothing” with respect to the bill that was just killed (for the second time)? Can’t the people demand that Secretary Chertoff receive all of the “necessary tools” without enacting any of the highly-objectionable aspects of this huge piece of legislation?
Continue reading ‘Immigration - What Next?’ »

… “no man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”
Judge Gideon J. Tucker, Final Accounting in the Estate of A.B. (1866) [1 Tucker 248 (N. Y. Surr. 1866)].

Congress has reopened the can of illegal immigrant worms many thought had been buried a couple of weeks ago. It seems that more than 60 senators have agreed to go forward with the current bill provided two dozen amendments are considered before a final vote is taken. It isn’t the least bit clear what all is in the two dozen amendments or what chances of passage any of them or the bill itself might actually have. During the last go-around, one significant amendment was enough to get a majority to refuse to go any further with consideration of the bill. If it gets through the Senate, it will move to the House, where the Democrat leaders can use any number of tricky rules to ram the mess through without any real input from an extremely upset American public. So, for those of us who oppose this stinky diaper of a bill, this week’s prospective set of votes in the Senate is somewhat “do or die.”
Continue reading ‘Immigration Redux’ »

I hate to harp on the housing crisis but several new articles came out today and if you didn’t know what the underlying story was you might tend to believe that everything was well here in America. The housing market will not be cured for many months, and perhaps years to come. However, that does not mean that certain local markets might not experience a short-term boom on occasion. If you are “flipping houses,” there may yet be some room to maneuver if you are in the right market. But sooner or later, if you are not careful, you will get caught holding the bag and one bad deal can destroy all of your profits.
Continue reading ‘Denial Is Not A River’ »

Back on May 6 (Don’t Get Your Bubble Burst!) and again on May 16 (Housing: Whistling Through The Graveyard) I wrote about the ongoing collapse of the housing market in the United States. On Tuesday, June 19, USA Today wrote a length piece which verified what I had said earlier: the optimistic statements were wrong and things were settling in for a long decline (Subprime storm winds will keep blowing). The scope of the problem is clear from that article:

Home foreclosures in Minneapolis doubled in 2006 and are on pace to double again this year.

…

The Mortgage Bankers Association predicts that adjustable-rate subprime foreclosures, already at a record, will rise into 2008, …

If I can give any prospective homeowner a word (or two) of advice, it is this: be conservative!
Continue reading ‘Housing Nightmare Settles In’ »

I am just a poor boy.
Though my story’s seldom told,
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocket full of mumbles, Such are promises
All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.
– The Boxer by Paul Simon

If you want to understand religion, just ponder the first verse lyrics for The Boxer a bit. It is the perfect allegory of mankind against the universe, and man’s inhumanity to our fellow creatures.

The preacher class always serves the political ruling class. If they don’t, then one or the other is rapidly discarded. A few centuries ago, the habit among the ruling classes was that the eldest son was trained to be the heir to the ruler (or “landlord” in some sense of that word), the second-eldest was trained for the priesthood (to become, eventually, a bishop of a rank befitting of his father’s status), and the third-eldest and any subsequent sons were trained for the army (officers, of course; and again, the ultimate rank achieved and the rapidity of promotion would frequently depend upon the rank of the father). Thus did the ruling classes of Western Civilization perpetuate their values to subsequent generations.
Continue reading ‘Understanding Religion’ »