Mixed bag

[flexibeast]

Tonight i was supposed to have a catch-up evening with indigowolf; we haven't had an evening together for ages. Unfortunately, the busy-ness of the week finally caught up with me, and i felt so nauseously tired that i had to ask sacred_harlot for a bucket, afraid that i was going to vomit. In the end i didn't; but in the meantime, my plans for the evening were ruined, and i had to cancel the get-together. :-( Hopefully we'll be able to arrange for another get-together in the near future.

In other news, i recently came across a thought-provoking article on Snopes.com about something said by Nazi leader Hermann Goering. When it was pointed out to Goering that in the US, people elect Congress, and only Congress has the power to declare war¹, Goering replied:

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Clearly, our 'democratically elected representatives' in Australia and the US (and, i imagine, the UK) are happy to follow Goering's suggestion. :-P

And speaking of 'democratically elected representatives', does anyone else notice the doublethink that many politicians show with regards to capitalism? On the one hand, elected members of the major political parties will talk about how The Market will fix this and solve that and create Utopia from the other. On the other, we have the following:

• A natural disaster occurs. Suddenly, these politicians stuff their supply and demand curves into their pockets and instead start issuing proclamations against 'profiteering'. So apparently, profiteering is unacceptable during or after a natural disaster, but perfectly acceptable if all it does is wreck people's health, fail to provide a living wage, destroy the environment, etc.


• Oil prices skyrocket, for a variety of reasons. Suddenly, politicans start implying that businesses shouldn't pas son this increase in the price of a particular input to the consumer - despite regularly proclaiming that rising input costs in the form of wages are Evil, and must be combatted at all, er, costs.

:-P

Finally, on a lighter note, those familiar with academia might be amused by an article on How To Write A Scientific Paper :-)

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1. Is this true? i mean, even if it's true in theory, i get the impression that the US Constitution can be interpreted fairly freely in practice . . . .
 

Comments

[jomaraubat.livejournal.com]

Sorry you're feeling blah hon, but "How to Write a Scientific Paper" really cracked me up. Re Congress, I think that's right, but it's been a while since i studied the US Constitution. xx

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Re. the "How to Write", did you see the below comment by the author of the piece, providing a link to other similar stuff he's done?

Re.the US Constitution: Article 1, Section 8 states:

The Congress shall have power . . . To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress

and Article II, Section 2 states that:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States [emphasis mine]

BUT Article II, Section 3 states that the President:

may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper

which seems to me to give the President the ability to shut down Congress until zie gets hir way . . . .

There's a classic story about the naturalisation of mathematician Kurt Gödel - who produced some of the most profound results in 20th-century mathematics - as a US citizen. The night before his citizenship interview, Gödel started having conniptions about what he was about to do: he had read over the US constitution, and had found that a logical loophole that allowed a dictatorship to be created within its parameters. And despite attempts by Einstein and game theorist Morgenstern's attempts to reassure him, he still ended up lecturing the interview judge about the existence of the loophole. He still passed the citizenship interview, but apparently only narrowly. :-)

So i've always wondered what the loophole was; Article II Section 3 seems, on the face of it, to be a good candidate . . . .

[jomaraubat.livejournal.com]

Ah, you always get me thinking. Goering was right. Congress will cede all sorts of power, depending on the circumstances. The Supreme Court has only upheld the Constitutional right of the President to unilaterally declare war in the event that the USA needs to be defended in a crisis, but in practice, don't go to the Supreme Court if you don't want to make waves. Congress had ceded it's power on numerous occassions.

Glad you liked it!

[eric-schulman.livejournal.com]

You might also be amused by some of my other science humor papers (http://members.verizon.net/~vze3fs8i/air/).

Re: Glad you liked it!

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

Cool! i've come across "History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less" before, and was most impressed. :-) Thanks for the link; i'll be gradually working my way through the list. :-)

[weibchenwolf.livejournal.com]

Of course, at the same time as they talk about The Market fixing things, they like things like tariffs, subsidies, regulations and more...

[flexibeast.livejournal.com]

True; and these are often implemented in a way that favours big business far more than small business. Yet - at least as i understand it - in Australia more people are employed in small business than in big business. If that's so, it would seem reasonable to conclude that there needs to be more focus on helping small business operate effectively. It often seems, however, that there isn't consideration of methods of doing this that don't consist of little more than socially destructive attacks on wages and conditions. Are there really no alternatives?

[weibchenwolf.livejournal.com]

There are lots of alternatives. However, to be cynical, none of them involve breaks for those who contribute most to party coffers.

On the other hand, a lot of small businesses could do better with what they do have, in terms of employee management, resource management and more. It comes down to not just treating people as employees and giving them some kind of stake in the business.

I don't mean that they should help own the business, though I have seen that before, but it's more to do with respect. Respect the employess, get rid of those who are merely troublemakers (after talking with them about the issue, and if you see no improvement), give bonuses for various things and so on. Help them invest in the business success, and become part of it, rather than just an employee.

The idea, on the other hand, of just calling people 'associates' or 'team members' doesn't mean jack without some view that it's not "them and us".

Some business have found (shock! horror!) that employees that care about the business are more productive.

I doubt there's much that Government can do at that level. Though introducing the GST pushed small business backwards. Sure, there were a few 'drama queens' who gave up when they really shouldn't have; but the GST does impose a lot more work on a business. However, I don't know the details of most of it, so I can't offer solutions there.

Ahem. Nice night, isn't it?