What Scares Me

Some people are afraid of heights. Some of snakes. Others cannot stand spiders, cows, or birds. Some people are terrified of crowds, others of being alone. Me, I am afraid of stupid people.

Let me be more specific. It is not just the less than intelligent that disturb me. They are so many that there is no escaping them. Rather it is those who are unable to locate their own state on a map yet are determined to vote. They could not tell you who their representative in Congress is yet are determined to vote. Some are not even citizens but seem to be determined to vote this time.  Many cannot even properly identify the various candidates.

Something about this seems wrong on so many levels.  I work with the public and see those of many backgrounds, economic levels, ethnic groups, and political persuasions every day.  One thing cuts across all those groups.  That is ignorance.  America may not have a monopoly on political ignorance, but we have a very healthy market share.

Take this for example from 20/20
This one small example could be multiplied a hundred times over.

Often in my line of work I am privy to not so private conversations about politics, religion, etc. I rarely though inject myself into these conversations due to the appalling ignorance that I hear spewed from those in the debate. Debate is to strong a word though, it suggests intelligence.

To have an intelligent discussion about politics with the average voter you first have to have basic American history classes with them, then remedial English. Most voters are not even capable of understanding the terms used in the political process, much less the process itself. It is this ignorance that allows these two parties, republican and democrat, criminals that they are, to continue to produce the most mediocre and loathsome candidates as if they were the product of a fine tuned machine.

All in all it is very disturbing. Those who know me know that I am no fan of “democracy”. It is little more than mob rule. I say thank God for the Electoral College. Apparently the Founding Fathers felt as I do that most people are simply unprepared to make the vital decisions on who leads us. I find that we need not more but far fewer people voting. Those who are too ignorant to understand what they are doing should do the country a favor and stay home.

Bitterly,
von Rum

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Not gone.

Yes it has been a few days since von Rum has posted and no von Rum is not gone.  Apologies for the wait.  I will be along tomorrow with more BS and perhaps even a little rum.  I have been busy stocking up on ammunition and have been neglecting my duties otherwise.

Less than a week till the election.  At least the Electoral College can still save us from Marxism if need be.

von Rum

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Diminishing Standards

A good friend of mine recently commented on the terrible service that she had received at a well known restaurant. She described that upon entrance she and her dining partner could not determine the gender of the hostess nor of the wait staff. This was followed by a long wait in and empty section and very poor service that seemed designed to take their money as quickly as possible and usher them out the door. She then told me that a day or two later the same scenario played out at a different but equally well known establishment in another city. She was very irritated with the service and wondered why it was not better.

I asked her if I might wax cynical for a moment and told her the following. If you lower your standards for what it is to be a human being how can you expect to maintain high standards for service. Being unable to determine the gender of those waiting on you or noticing the runway model level of makeup on your male waiter is a pretty sure sign that the bar has been lowered.

In the interest of clarity my family and I have been in a public service business for over 50 years. That being said when it comes to what constitutes good service I know of what I speak. We too have noticed the decline not only in the standards of service in restaurants but also in hotels, stores, and even banks. I suspect that as society at large has become tolerant of a dehumanizing culture on public display many have also decided that tastes are all the same.

I will be honest here, I am by and large disgusted by and disdainful of the human race. Yet I have enough pride in what I do to forget about what I think about these vermin and do my job and treat them according to standards that are higher than I really think they deserve. It is this ability to put aside self to accomplish something as it should be done that I think is increasingly lacking. You don’t have to like people to realize that to treat them and yourself like animals betters nothing.

If this article has a point (sometimes they don’t) it is that we seemed to have reached a cultural critical mass. We have become so over civilized that the only thing left to desire is barbarism. We see evidences of this all around. It manifests itself as gender bending transsexuals and self mutilating goths. It shows up as negligent single parent homes and on college campuses where students dive into a four year orgy of over consumption of just about everything. Moderation is not in these people’s vocabulary. The popularity of extremely violent video games and a nihilistic attitude toward the world that we see in the rising generation are very disturbing.

Do not think thought that I am picking only on those of generation Y (born 1982-2001) it is just as true for those of my generation X (1961-1981) and even many of the baby boomers (1943-1960). Perhaps most of what we are now witnessing is directly attributable to the awful 1960’s and the “counterculture” movement that ripped down much of what was good and decent. Make no mistake, I am no prude. Every day I personally fall short of the standards and ideals that I hold to. It is the fact though that the standards don’t change that I believe makes my view different. Just because someone does not like the game does not mean we alter the rules to soothe their ego. Human beings are basically bad and cannot be good on their own. This being true we must hold ourselves to higher standards if we are to maintain civilization. If we cannot be good we can at least behave.

If you enter a nice restaurant only to be seated by a purple haired Marilyn Manson lookalike and are waited on by a set of junkyard chains wearing a human being and wonder about our future you wonder correctly. It has often been stated of young people that these things were passing fads. Perhaps once but no more. No more and more we see the same lack of regard for self and culture in people in their late 20’s through their 30’s in increasingly into their 40’s. Many older baby boomers at least outgrew their ways if not their opinions. I am not sure if that is going to be the case for the generations we see now.

von Rum

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Worth the Read

I urge you to read this post by Neal Boortz. It is worth every second.

von Rum

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Rambling Morning

Some mornings are good for little but loafing around and daydreaming.  Sometimes those daydreams make it into print.  Which is unfortunate.

With that in mind here are some thoughts;

First on the election a fortnight from today; either way we are screwed.  On the one hand we have the disaster of a democratic dominated government that is but two degrees removed from Marxism lite.  On the other had we have the specter of a republican administration with absolutely no clue as to how to move forward on economic issues and which has already come out hell bent to head butt Russia.  The simple fact that no member of either party has taken the lead or offered a single creative suggestion in this crisis means that in practical terms for averting a depression, it does not matter who wins.

In other ways of course it does matter.  These include the direction the tax codes take and the nomination of Supreme Court Justices (the most long term affect).  Beyond that it is two heads of the same beast.  It is not that they cannot see the solution.  It is that they cannot see the problem.

I have been accused in recent days of wavering support for the candidate that I had endorsed.  That is both true and untrue.  It is untrue because the one I will personally vote for has not changed at all and will not.  I simply view the Marxist as far to dangerous for our future to elect.  (I use the term Marxist rather than socialist because like it or not, we are all socialists of one form or another.)  It is true that my enthusiasm has waivered because the acme of mediocrity is the candidate.  To be excited about McCain is like going to a five star restaurant and being served meatloaf.

Something else.  Even though everything about Hollywood and the celebrity cult sets my teeth on edge I do understand the fascination.  I suspect it only grows in times like these.  Stress is rising, incomes falling and the future is not so bright.  To look to something glamorous and utterly unimportant for entertainment is safe, easy and available.  No doubt the stock of those who bathe in the camera flash will go up.  Which makes the whole thing even more revolting.  If you have ever seen some teenage star gushing over the joys of her unwed pregnancy and then go blind with rage over the rash of similar pregnancies in your school or neighborhood you understand my disgust.

Speaking of nausea.  I have noted more public despair and disgust over this election than I ever have before.  For so many that I have talked with, even the very partisan democrats and republicans, they feel as if they have a choice between the gas chamber and the electric chair.  A sentiment lacking in hope I might add.

Enough for now, I have effectively ruined my own day.

von Rum

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Autumn Chill and Cockspur Rum

Well it is time for this blog to return briefly to its rum soaked origins.   Autumn is here and after a brief summer like warm streak in the Carolinas there is a chill in the air this morning and the rain is coming down.  It is time for something to warm us up and brace us for the cooler days ahead.  A break from all this political and economic talk is in order and in that spirit I will order up a rum.

The latest is the widely available Cockspur Fine Rum from Barbados. This rum is also marketed as Five Star under the Cockspur name as indicated by their website. Barbados is widely regarded as the home of rum and this product does not dampen that reputation.
It is an amber rum, the hue of sourwood honey. In fact on opening the bottle you do get a sense of honey and vanilla aromas. Strangely I noted an unusual marine note in there as well. I cannot explain it but hidden in back of those sweet notes you get the sensation of standing on a dock by the sea. Maybe the rum is getting to me.

On tasting this rum much of the honey and vanilla disappear as they are overpowered by the American oak the rum is aged in. Still it has a smooth taste with little spice and a not unpleasant warmth going down. The aftertaste brings back some of the vanilla notes.

Overall Cockspur is a solid golden rum. The aromas are very good, the taste solid if a little one dimensional. It would make a good on the rocks rum and a very good mixing rum. Not the greatest after dinner rum but by no means a bad choice for everyday and cocktails.

Three out of Five Cigars.

von Rum

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Comforted

It sure is a comforting thing to know that the people at the top of our economic and financial systems are on top of things.  This statement from Janet Yellen, head of the San Francisco Federal Reserve branch on Tuesday: “Growth in the fourth quarter appears to be weaker yet, with an outright contraction quite likely,” she said. “Indeed, the U.S. economy appears to be in a recession.”

This on Tuesday 14 October 2008. It sure is good to know that the people in charge are ahead of the curve on this.

How can cynicism not become the national philosophy in a time like this.

von Rum

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Batten down the hatches.

It is easy to get overjoyed at the Monday “Bailout Rally” on Wall Street and in markets around the world.  To make that kind of recovery in one day is remarkable.  What is even more remarkable is the naivety of large numbers of people, especially talking heads, who are suddenly ready to forget last week and the real scope of the mess we are in.

I suppose it is in their nature these poor souls.  Television pundits giving an honest thought are as rare as Sahara snow.  Unless there is political capital to be made by exposing how bad something really is,  they have an overreaching tendency to downplay everything.  Including how you and I are being screwed.

By nature I am a historian and not a prophet.  On this though I will venture to say that we will look back at 2008 as a disaster on nearly all fronts.  Nearly all because the one area that was supposed to be the worst, Iraq, has turned out to be the least newsworthy.  Politically and economically though nothing positive can be gleaned from all this.  Neither party has given us a serious choice.  You will have to hold your nose to vote either way.  Economically we have seen the end result of an orgy of leveraged buying and spending for a decade or more.  Stock up on rum, you are going to need it.

When someone asked me what stocks they should buy my response was “ATF”.  They asked what that was and I said, “Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.”  Not the government agency, the manufacturers.  They asked why those and I said, “Because they never go out of style, especially not in hard times.”

The markets may rally for a while, though few are predicting full recovery soon.  Things have not yet hit main street in the way they might in the near future.  Most of us have yet to feel the full brunt of this storm.

The great question remains though, who and how?  Who will pay for this and how?  And when?  Some freakishly out of place souls on business networks have had the wherewithal to ask these questions.  The typical response from current and former Treasury and Federal Reserve functionaries is that “we need the bailout, we have to free up credit, we had to do something, we were facing a meltdown”.  None of them answers the questions of who will pay for this or when or how.  They change the subject.

It appears as though the “fix” to this crisis is of the same nature as the business practices that got us into it.  Those are to borrow the money or inflate it to spend now on all the goodies and worry about paying it later or just write it off.  It is like asking the man who robbed you to act as your attorney when you sue him.

Anyone with children, or anyone who knows someone young had better take the opportuity now to drill into their heads the concept of living within their means.  This does not mean never go in debt.  It does mean always having the means to pay off that debt completely and timely.  Future generations and those who are still a decade or more from retirement now are going to foot this bill one way or another.  Tightening our finances and getting our ship ready for a long nor’easter right now is the best means of getting through this.

von Rum

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The Pope, Palin and the Purse.

There has been little good news in the last two weeks regarding the world’s economy.  As shades of 1929 rise from the grave to haunt even the most stout hearted investor or broker, we missed a prodigy.  That was the fact that two major figures made statements that make utter economic sense, yet are almost universally ignored.

The first came in an arena that is about as far removed from the ups and downs of economic cycles as can be.  It was in Pope Benedict XVI’s opening statements to a synod of bishops in the Vatican.  In his address he read from the Gospel of Mathew concerning the futility of building on sand.  He said, “He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand.”  Later he added that, “We are now seeing in the collapse of major banks that money vanishes, it is nothing.  All these things that appear to be real are in fact secondary.  Only God’s words are a solid reality.”

The Pope was conveying a spiritual message that has echoed true for millennia and yet is ignored even among the faithful.  That is that what we perceive to be of value in our hurried lives is most often of the least permanence and worth.  Regardless of what your personal faith is, if any, it is fair to say that no faith or creed which espouses the material or wealth as the ultimate goal has long survived the trials of human experience.

It was during the Vice Presidential debate that Governor Sarah Palin threw out an easily overlooked statement that rung just as true as those words of the Pontiff.  They are also as widely ignored.

In response to a question about the subprime mortgage meltdown and who was at fault Palin inserted the following. “Let’s do what our parents told us before we probably even got that first credit card. Don’t live outside of our means. We need to make sure that as individuals we’re taking personal responsibility through all of this.”

We have all most likely heard this same advice from family many times.  The problem is that it was about the only time I recall hearing such a sentiment from a politician throughout this whole debacle.  Remember George Bush’s statement after September 11 to go out and shop?  How about the “Ownership Society”?  The whole smorgasbord of easy credit that has been available up until now has been based on the opposite premise of what the governor is talking about.  Our system is based on living beyond our means and it is not sustainable.

We have simple statements here from two very different people with utterly different tasks.  One is spiritual, one temporal.  One from a mother of five from a frontier area in a political role.  The other from a celibate church leader in the Eternal City in a theological role.  Yet the messages are of a common theme.

From the Pope we have the everlasting wisdom that wealth is not everlasting.  The pursuit of endless gain in this world is rarely successful in the ways we think it might be.  Of course there are plenty of people who do very well, make a lot of money and keep it.  Many of them do well by their families and leave them in better conditions than they found them.  When those goals though become more for the sake of more something is lost.  A blindness to what matters most and, more importantly, what will last longest sets in for those who’s greed becomes their driving force.

On the same tone is Palin’s simple reminder of what we have all already heard.  When we attempt to gain it all right now, before we have earned it we are in more danger of loosing it than ever.  Young people are the most commented on about living beyond their means.  They are not alone however.  You do not have to look far to see individuals and families nearing retirement age that have lived beyond their means for so long, and owe so much that retirement becomes and ever fading dream.

When we make wealth the core of our world, and demand it all now so that we live on the high wire of a thin credit line, disaster looms.  For years examples of individuals or families that suffered tragedy from this mindset have abounded.  Now however, we have the phenomenon of businesses, corporations, governments, even whole societies living according to these flawed precepts of more and more now.

The results are all around us.  We live in a world that functions on what it does not yet and may never have.  Our economy is a paper empire.  Is it likely to change due to this downturn?  I doubt it.  The habits are far too ingrained and far too much is invested in keeping us all out on a limb and running just to stand still financially.  As long as we base all success on wealth and demand that wealth before we have earned it we are stuck in this cycle.  I just found it refreshing for someone to stand up and say it, even if no one was listening.

von Rum

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Neighbors and Elections.

In the interest of full disclosure let it be known that von Rum is not a people person.  I have no real interest in meeting new people nor do I enjoy crowds in any form.  I find most people repulsive.  This is not hypocrisy though for my opinion of myself is not much better.  I sympathize with Joseph de Maistre’s statement that “Man in general, if reduced to himself, is too wicked to be free.”  That being said though I do attempt to be cordial to strangers.  It is the people I get to know who truly disgust me.

Having in recent months moved to a new neighborhood I have tried to be as friendly as nature allows me to my neighbors.  A few days after we moved in a tree in my next door neighbor’s back yard hard came down in a windstorm.  I went out and helped him clear it all our of our yards.  We agreed to cut up the bulk of it this fall.

Things were going swimmingly all summer.  We did not frequent each others homes by any means but usually spoke to each other outside and carried any misdelivered mail to each other.  The normal sort of suburban middle class neighborhood.

Then came the campaign season.

Elections rarely bring out the best in people.  Instead they reveal the base passions, prejudices, and irrational fears common to us all.  An intellectual event an election is not.  Especially a presidential election.  This one is no different, and perhaps in many ways worse.  I know of friends separated and old loyalties split over this farce.

Still in the context of being free to express an opinion I saw no problem with my neighbor’s yard sign supporting a presidential candidate.  My only thought was that my neighbor is probably not as bright as I thought he might be for supporting that phony.  Still it would not have varied my treatment of my neighbor one bit.  Everyone is free to support who they will, despite the stupidity of the decision.

With that in mind I foresaw no problems when a few days later I put up a sign in my yard supporting the candidate opposite my neighbors.  I was wrong.

Heading out to work one morning after the sign was up a few days I saw the neighbor’s wife in her front yard.  She was looking at me so I waved my hand and said, “Good Morning.”  She stared right through me, turned and went into her house.  I was amused.  It was later that night when relating the event to my wife that she told me that a day earlier the husband next door had refused to respond to her in a similar manner.

Personally I thought it was hilarious.

Do we take this that seriously?  I know at times I do, and have real reasons for who I vote for.  I also have real concerns about the future should the other candidate win.  Still, in the end we are, at least the majority of us, going to be screwed by whichever party wins because they are equally corrupt.  Their corruption only slants in slightly different angles.  A rotten red tomato and rotten turnip are both still rotten.

This reaction of my neighbor is probably not all that uncommon.  How many out there have had a similar experience due to an expressed opinion?  Some of it boils down to party loyalty handed down in families like fine china or the secrets of the crazy old aunt.  Much of it though stems from different views of the world and the nature of man.  Still there is no need for rudeness.  Even a misanthrope like me can be friendly to someone I profoundly disagree with.  If you have to kill a man the least you can do is be friendly about it.

Some see it differently.

von Rum

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