Dry Socket
Submitted by Willie at 2010-03-28 02:15:05
I just learned another name for Hell: it's called Dry Socket. Holy mother of pearl…. When I got hit by a car years ago I thought I knew what pain was - every toe broken on my right foot, a hematoma on my right butt cheek, deep lacerations on my legs requiring many stitches, and generous portions of road rash – Disneyland.
A few weeks ago I had a problem wisdom tooth extracted and my dentist broke away from his humorous light hearted banter to give me a stern warning on how NOT to get a condition known as dry socket. 'No sucking from straws, spitting, or using tobacco or you my friend will find a new religion that begins and ends with pain.
I don't remember spitting and I consciously passed on straws and tobacco wasn't a problem but still somehow I earned the condition called dry socket.
Trying to describe the pain would be a disgrace and insult to the level we're talking about here. I can however tell you that at it's worse all I could do was close my eyes, rock back an forth while curling into fetal position and moan. During this process I found myself forgetting to breath and having to catch up with quick breaths. Time seemed to stand still as seconds seemed like minutes and I wondered how much I could endure before passing out. I don't drink - in fact it's against my religion but I was seriously considering breaking that rule because the pain was mocking the lortabs, vicodin, and morphine I threw at it. It’s a scary world when your pain is immune to what you once thought were heavy weight drugs.
The relief I found didn't come from the liquor store - it actually came from Wallgreens. My wife researched dry socket online and found this site where everyone was swearing by the Red Cross Tooth Ache kit. It was hard to believe that something so simple as clove oil could provide such miraculous relief but if your curled up like a baby suffering from dry socket and your wife says lets stuff some cotton dipped in clove oil in your tooth hole you’ll muster a barely visible nod and slowly open wide.
Trust me: lock/key fries/ketchup foot/shoe….dry socket/clove oil.
Friday, December 17, 2010
36 Hours in Paris
36 Hours in Paris
Ed Alcock
Copyright by The New York Times
Dupleks is one of the boutiques on the Canal St.-Martin. More Photos »
By GISELA WILLIAMS
Published: December 16, 2010
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/travel/19hours-paris.html?hpw
HAS Paris lost its edge? Mais non! The city’s bohemians are just harder to find. The artsy denizens and creative tastemakers, always on the hunt for cheaper rents, have migrated to the city’s fringes, like Belleville and the former red-light district of Pigalle. There are even fashion-forward hangouts in the postcard-perfect center — a pop-up restaurant here, a taxidermy-stuffed speakeasy there. And, of course, a modern take on the classic Parisian bistro or boulangerie will never go out of style.
Friday
4 p.m.
1) GALLERY GHETTO
The ghosts of Paris’s master artists are everywhere, but if you want to dive into the city’s contemporary art scene, head to Belleville, where the steep hilltop streets are dotted with upstart galleries and cozy wine bars. Among the earliest galleries was Bugada & Cargnel (7-9, rue de l’Équerre; 33-1-42-71-72-73; bugadacargnel.com), which specializes in both French and international emerging artists. Newer arrivals include Gaudel de Stampa (3, rue de Vaucouleurs; 33-1-40-21-37-38; gaudeldestampa.fr) and Marcelle Alix (4, rue Jouye-Rouve; 33-9-50-04-16-80; marcellealix.com). For a mix of art and fashion, swing by Andrea Crews (25, rue de Vaucouleurs; 33-1-45-26-36-68; andreacrews.com), where vintage duds are transformed into fast fashion.
6 p.m.
2) LA BOHèME WINE BAR
Perched above the Belleville park, Le Baratin (3, rue Jouye-Rouve; 33-1-43-49-39-70 ) is an unpretentious and intimate wine bar with antique tile floors and worn wood tables. Despite the local buzz, it has managed to stay low-key, so it’s still possible to walk in at an odd hour, sans reservations, and join the bohemian crowd as they sample the dozen or so small-production wines, scratched on the chalkboard.
8:30 p.m.
3) CHIC BISTRONOMIQUE
Here’s the trick to getting a table at always-packed Le Chateaubriand (129, avenue Parmentier; 33-1-43-57-45-95). Park yourself at the bar around 8:30 p.m. the day of, and fortify yourself with wine and snacks — and people watching — while you wait for a table. It’s first come first served for the 9:30 seating. (Otherwise, you have to make reservations at least two weeks in advance for the 7:30 seating.) The young Basque chef, Iñaki Aizpitarte, serves a five-course menu that changes daily. Recent meals included a foie gras served in miso soup, and a sea bass served with red chicory and lemon crème fraîche. Prix fixe: only 50 euros, or $65 at $1.31 to the euro.
Midnight
4) RED LIGHT SPECIAL
In recent years, the area around Pigalle has drawn Parisian tastemakers looking for a good time — with their clothes on. Start with a drink at Hôtel Amour (8, rue de Navarin; 33-1-48-78-31-80; hotelamourparis.fr), an artsy hotel decorated with disco balls and Terry Richardson photographs that is partly owned by the reigning king of Paris night life, André Saraiva. Then continue to Chez Moune (54, rue Jean Baptiste Pigalle; 33-1-45-26-64-64; chezmoune.fr), a former lesbian cabaret that is now a popular hangout for the city’s polysexual fashionistas.
Saturday
11 a.m.
5) WHERE LADY GAGA SHOPS
By now, you can pretty much find those Lanvin flats and Céline bags back home. But Bambi-shaped shoes? Or a Kermit the Frog jacket? The aristocrat fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac has a new boutique in St.-Germain (61, rue des St.-Pères; 33-9-64-48-48-54; jc-de-castelbajac.com) where fashion inspiration comes from unexpected places, like “Paradise Lost” and Donald Duck.
Noon
6) POP-UP BISTRO
Even jaded Parisians have waited weeks for one of the 12 seats at the pop-up restaurant Nomiya (13, avenue du Président Wilson; online reservations at art-home-electrolux.com), a glass box that floats on the rooftop of the Palais de Tokyo. Instead of dinner, come for lunch, when seatings are easier to come by, and the views are more spectacular. The five-course meal cooked up by Gilles Stassart might include foie gras with eggplant confit and scorpion fish served with a vegetable medley (80 euros for lunch and 100 euros for dinner). Nomiya’s run has been extended until spring 2011.
2 p.m.
7) SHOP THE CANAL
On sunny weekends, stylish young families and boho-chic couples stroll the gentrified Canal St.-Martin — fast becoming a charming little shopping hood of indie boutiques. Dupleks (83, quai de Valmy; 33-1-42-06-15-08; dupleks.fr) sells eco-friendly fashions, Espace Beaurepaire (28, rue Beaurepaire; 33-1-42-45-59-64; espacebeaurepaire.com) carries street-art prints, and La Piñata (25, rue des Vinaigriers; 33-1-40-35-01-45; lapinata.fr) has wooden children’s toys. Style hounds especially like Sweat Shop (13, rue Lucien Sampaix; 33-9-52-85-47-41; sweatshopparis.com) , a funky D.I.Y. collective and cafe with sewing machines to rent by the hour.
4 p.m.
8) SAVORY AND SWEET
One bite, and you’ll understand why there’s a long line outside Du Pain et Des Idées (34, rue Yves Toudic; 33-1-42-40-44-52; dupainetdesidees.com), a cultish boulangerie in the Canal St.-Martin neighborhood. The escargot chocolat-pistache, a snail-shaped pastry filled with chocolate and pistachio, will shatter the will of any dieter. So will the mini-pavés, savory knots stuffed with spinach and goat cheese.
8 p.m.
9) AMERICAN TRANSPLANTS
Paris-obsessed food bloggers will roll their eyes, but Spring (6 Rue Bailleul; 33-1-45-96-05-72; springparis.blogspot.com), an intimate restaurant that moved this summer to the First Arrondissement, deserves the hype. The French-trained American chef Daniel Rose takes something as simple as eggplant and prepares it four eye-opening ways. Dinner prix-fixe menu: 64 euros. If you can’t make reservations months ahead of time, head to the newly revamped Minipalais (Grand Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill; 33-1-42-56-42-42; minipalais.com), a loft-like brasserie with an American-friendly menu that includes a terrific duck burger with foie gras. Or try the new Ralph’s (173, boulevard St.-Germain; 33-1-44-77-76-00; ralphlaurenstgermain.com), owned by Ralph Lauren in St.-Germain, which, believe it or not, is fashionable with a young Parisian crowd.
Midnight
10) LE CHIC ET LE GEEK
Ever since the legendary Le Montana reopened during last spring’s fashion week, le party hasn’t stopped. Resurrected by André Saraiva (yes, him again) and Olivier Zahm, Le Montana (28, rue St.-Benoît) draws an A-list crowd of models and actors. But be warned: getting past the bouncer is harder than squeezing into jeggings. Fortunately, a 20-minute walk away is the geeky hot spot Curio Parlor (16, rue des Bernardins; 33-1-44-07-12-47; curioparlor.com), a speakeasy-style lounge popular with a chic Parisian crowd that sips single malt whiskey.
Sunday
11 a.m.
11) GRASS IS GREENER
Since the historic dance hall and watering hole Rosa Bonheur reopened in 2008 (2, allée de la Cascade, in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont; 33-1-42-00-00-45; rosabonheur.fr), it has brought the city’s party crowd to the great outdoors. By day, middle-aged hippies strum guitars alongside hungover clubkids. By night, it turns into a full-fledged party complete with velvet rope and D.J. This winter the party continues inside with the restaurant Mimi Cantine overseen by the Michelin-starred chef Armand Arnal.
1 p.m.
12) FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Blame it on Wes Anderson movies or an obsession with the cult taxidermy shop Deyrolle, but nothing gets a Parisian bohemian more excited than a room filled with stuffed animals. Get your fix at the Musée de la Maison de la Chasse et de la Nature (62, rue des Archives; 33-1-53-01-92-40), a quirky museum with an eccentric collection of taxidermy and antique weaponry. There is also a room dedicated to unicorns, which adds just the right amount of je ne sais quoi to the intentionally musty space.
IF YOU GO
Give Philippe Starck two years, a jaw-dropping budget and a grand Parisian shell, and you get the new Raffles Royal Monceau (37, avenue Hoche; 33-1-42-99-88-00; leroyalmonceau.com). Steps from the Arc de Triomphe, the 85-room hotel leaves no detail too small to escape the designer’s touch, with rates from 780 euros, or $1,000.
For a taste of the seedy-cool district of Pigalle, book a room at the Hôtel Amour (8, rue Navarin; 33-1-48-78-31-80; hotelamourparis.fr), the brainchild of the graffiti artist turned nightclub entrepreneur André Saraiva and Thierry Costes of the Costes family. Rooms start at 100 euros.
The year-old Hotel Banke (20, rue La Fayette; 33-1-55-33-22-22; derbyhotels.com/banke-hotel-paris), near the Place Vendôme, combines Belle Époque-style architecture with not overly trendy touches, with 94 rooms starting at 260 euros in December.
Ed Alcock
Copyright by The New York Times
Dupleks is one of the boutiques on the Canal St.-Martin. More Photos »
By GISELA WILLIAMS
Published: December 16, 2010
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/travel/19hours-paris.html?hpw
HAS Paris lost its edge? Mais non! The city’s bohemians are just harder to find. The artsy denizens and creative tastemakers, always on the hunt for cheaper rents, have migrated to the city’s fringes, like Belleville and the former red-light district of Pigalle. There are even fashion-forward hangouts in the postcard-perfect center — a pop-up restaurant here, a taxidermy-stuffed speakeasy there. And, of course, a modern take on the classic Parisian bistro or boulangerie will never go out of style.
Friday
4 p.m.
1) GALLERY GHETTO
The ghosts of Paris’s master artists are everywhere, but if you want to dive into the city’s contemporary art scene, head to Belleville, where the steep hilltop streets are dotted with upstart galleries and cozy wine bars. Among the earliest galleries was Bugada & Cargnel (7-9, rue de l’Équerre; 33-1-42-71-72-73; bugadacargnel.com), which specializes in both French and international emerging artists. Newer arrivals include Gaudel de Stampa (3, rue de Vaucouleurs; 33-1-40-21-37-38; gaudeldestampa.fr) and Marcelle Alix (4, rue Jouye-Rouve; 33-9-50-04-16-80; marcellealix.com). For a mix of art and fashion, swing by Andrea Crews (25, rue de Vaucouleurs; 33-1-45-26-36-68; andreacrews.com), where vintage duds are transformed into fast fashion.
6 p.m.
2) LA BOHèME WINE BAR
Perched above the Belleville park, Le Baratin (3, rue Jouye-Rouve; 33-1-43-49-39-70 ) is an unpretentious and intimate wine bar with antique tile floors and worn wood tables. Despite the local buzz, it has managed to stay low-key, so it’s still possible to walk in at an odd hour, sans reservations, and join the bohemian crowd as they sample the dozen or so small-production wines, scratched on the chalkboard.
8:30 p.m.
3) CHIC BISTRONOMIQUE
Here’s the trick to getting a table at always-packed Le Chateaubriand (129, avenue Parmentier; 33-1-43-57-45-95). Park yourself at the bar around 8:30 p.m. the day of, and fortify yourself with wine and snacks — and people watching — while you wait for a table. It’s first come first served for the 9:30 seating. (Otherwise, you have to make reservations at least two weeks in advance for the 7:30 seating.) The young Basque chef, Iñaki Aizpitarte, serves a five-course menu that changes daily. Recent meals included a foie gras served in miso soup, and a sea bass served with red chicory and lemon crème fraîche. Prix fixe: only 50 euros, or $65 at $1.31 to the euro.
Midnight
4) RED LIGHT SPECIAL
In recent years, the area around Pigalle has drawn Parisian tastemakers looking for a good time — with their clothes on. Start with a drink at Hôtel Amour (8, rue de Navarin; 33-1-48-78-31-80; hotelamourparis.fr), an artsy hotel decorated with disco balls and Terry Richardson photographs that is partly owned by the reigning king of Paris night life, André Saraiva. Then continue to Chez Moune (54, rue Jean Baptiste Pigalle; 33-1-45-26-64-64; chezmoune.fr), a former lesbian cabaret that is now a popular hangout for the city’s polysexual fashionistas.
Saturday
11 a.m.
5) WHERE LADY GAGA SHOPS
By now, you can pretty much find those Lanvin flats and Céline bags back home. But Bambi-shaped shoes? Or a Kermit the Frog jacket? The aristocrat fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac has a new boutique in St.-Germain (61, rue des St.-Pères; 33-9-64-48-48-54; jc-de-castelbajac.com) where fashion inspiration comes from unexpected places, like “Paradise Lost” and Donald Duck.
Noon
6) POP-UP BISTRO
Even jaded Parisians have waited weeks for one of the 12 seats at the pop-up restaurant Nomiya (13, avenue du Président Wilson; online reservations at art-home-electrolux.com), a glass box that floats on the rooftop of the Palais de Tokyo. Instead of dinner, come for lunch, when seatings are easier to come by, and the views are more spectacular. The five-course meal cooked up by Gilles Stassart might include foie gras with eggplant confit and scorpion fish served with a vegetable medley (80 euros for lunch and 100 euros for dinner). Nomiya’s run has been extended until spring 2011.
2 p.m.
7) SHOP THE CANAL
On sunny weekends, stylish young families and boho-chic couples stroll the gentrified Canal St.-Martin — fast becoming a charming little shopping hood of indie boutiques. Dupleks (83, quai de Valmy; 33-1-42-06-15-08; dupleks.fr) sells eco-friendly fashions, Espace Beaurepaire (28, rue Beaurepaire; 33-1-42-45-59-64; espacebeaurepaire.com) carries street-art prints, and La Piñata (25, rue des Vinaigriers; 33-1-40-35-01-45; lapinata.fr) has wooden children’s toys. Style hounds especially like Sweat Shop (13, rue Lucien Sampaix; 33-9-52-85-47-41; sweatshopparis.com) , a funky D.I.Y. collective and cafe with sewing machines to rent by the hour.
4 p.m.
8) SAVORY AND SWEET
One bite, and you’ll understand why there’s a long line outside Du Pain et Des Idées (34, rue Yves Toudic; 33-1-42-40-44-52; dupainetdesidees.com), a cultish boulangerie in the Canal St.-Martin neighborhood. The escargot chocolat-pistache, a snail-shaped pastry filled with chocolate and pistachio, will shatter the will of any dieter. So will the mini-pavés, savory knots stuffed with spinach and goat cheese.
8 p.m.
9) AMERICAN TRANSPLANTS
Paris-obsessed food bloggers will roll their eyes, but Spring (6 Rue Bailleul; 33-1-45-96-05-72; springparis.blogspot.com), an intimate restaurant that moved this summer to the First Arrondissement, deserves the hype. The French-trained American chef Daniel Rose takes something as simple as eggplant and prepares it four eye-opening ways. Dinner prix-fixe menu: 64 euros. If you can’t make reservations months ahead of time, head to the newly revamped Minipalais (Grand Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill; 33-1-42-56-42-42; minipalais.com), a loft-like brasserie with an American-friendly menu that includes a terrific duck burger with foie gras. Or try the new Ralph’s (173, boulevard St.-Germain; 33-1-44-77-76-00; ralphlaurenstgermain.com), owned by Ralph Lauren in St.-Germain, which, believe it or not, is fashionable with a young Parisian crowd.
Midnight
10) LE CHIC ET LE GEEK
Ever since the legendary Le Montana reopened during last spring’s fashion week, le party hasn’t stopped. Resurrected by André Saraiva (yes, him again) and Olivier Zahm, Le Montana (28, rue St.-Benoît) draws an A-list crowd of models and actors. But be warned: getting past the bouncer is harder than squeezing into jeggings. Fortunately, a 20-minute walk away is the geeky hot spot Curio Parlor (16, rue des Bernardins; 33-1-44-07-12-47; curioparlor.com), a speakeasy-style lounge popular with a chic Parisian crowd that sips single malt whiskey.
Sunday
11 a.m.
11) GRASS IS GREENER
Since the historic dance hall and watering hole Rosa Bonheur reopened in 2008 (2, allée de la Cascade, in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont; 33-1-42-00-00-45; rosabonheur.fr), it has brought the city’s party crowd to the great outdoors. By day, middle-aged hippies strum guitars alongside hungover clubkids. By night, it turns into a full-fledged party complete with velvet rope and D.J. This winter the party continues inside with the restaurant Mimi Cantine overseen by the Michelin-starred chef Armand Arnal.
1 p.m.
12) FANTASTIC MR. FOX
Blame it on Wes Anderson movies or an obsession with the cult taxidermy shop Deyrolle, but nothing gets a Parisian bohemian more excited than a room filled with stuffed animals. Get your fix at the Musée de la Maison de la Chasse et de la Nature (62, rue des Archives; 33-1-53-01-92-40), a quirky museum with an eccentric collection of taxidermy and antique weaponry. There is also a room dedicated to unicorns, which adds just the right amount of je ne sais quoi to the intentionally musty space.
IF YOU GO
Give Philippe Starck two years, a jaw-dropping budget and a grand Parisian shell, and you get the new Raffles Royal Monceau (37, avenue Hoche; 33-1-42-99-88-00; leroyalmonceau.com). Steps from the Arc de Triomphe, the 85-room hotel leaves no detail too small to escape the designer’s touch, with rates from 780 euros, or $1,000.
For a taste of the seedy-cool district of Pigalle, book a room at the Hôtel Amour (8, rue Navarin; 33-1-48-78-31-80; hotelamourparis.fr), the brainchild of the graffiti artist turned nightclub entrepreneur André Saraiva and Thierry Costes of the Costes family. Rooms start at 100 euros.
The year-old Hotel Banke (20, rue La Fayette; 33-1-55-33-22-22; derbyhotels.com/banke-hotel-paris), near the Place Vendôme, combines Belle Époque-style architecture with not overly trendy touches, with 94 rooms starting at 260 euros in December.
Friday, December 10, 2010
A glowing adventure in Puerto Rico
A glowing adventure in Puerto Rico
By Eileen Ogintz
Copyright © 2010, Tribune Media Services
December 10, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/sns-travel-taking-kids-to-puerto-rico,0,6066565.story
Thank goodness for the glow sticks!
It is pitch black and we are kayaking through red mangroves, trying to dodge the roots. The glow sticks on each kayak and on the backs of our life jackets are our only light.
We are in Puerto Rico on our way to the bioluminescent Bay Laguna Grande at Las Croabas, Fajardo -- one of only three bioluminescent bays on the island, according to our GSI Adventures guide, Joel. Who says Puerto Rico is only about sun and surf?
This bay is home to a large colony -- more than a million -- of dinoflagellates that light up, producing the glowing waters. We let water slide through our hands and it glows. Crazy!
So cool!" says my kayak partner Kate Boyce, here from Syracuse, N.Y., to celebrate her mom's 60th birthday and her sister's 30th. "Girl's trip," Kate said happily, adding they wouldn't let their dad come. I was here on a girls' getaway, too, with two of my oldest friends and we met two other moms from Seattle who scored a deal on www.hotwire.com for their annual getaway.
By the end of our excursion, we are soaked and chilled but glad for the unique adventure. After a quick shower at our casita nearby at The El Conquistador Resort (www.elconresort.com/), we head down the road for an authentic Puerto Rican meal at the well-known Pasion por el Fogon (www.pasionporelfogon.net). We feast on Asopaito de camarones -- delicious delicate soup, fresh conch salad, fresh snapper and Mofango, which is green plantains fried and mashed, molded in a bowl and then stuffed with whatever you like -- chicken, fish, seafood -- and covered by a tomato-based sauce. We drink homemade Sangria and toast old friends and a terrific vacation day.
You're missing a lot if you ignore easy-to-reach Puerto Rico (www.seepuertorico.com) in favor of more exotic islands. And you're still in the United States here -- Puerto Rico, of course, is a U.S. territory -- yet you have the opportunity to explore a rich culture that dates back more than five centuries. (The kids will love exploring Castillo San Felipe del Moro Fort in Old San Juan. And they can practice their Spanish in a place where everyone is friendly ... but also speaks English.)
Take your pick of places to stay, from the 23 small family-owned Paradores to the historic Hotel El Convento (www.elconvento.com), built in a centuries-old convent in the heart of Old San Juan, to family and budget-friendly resorts like the Wyndham Rio Mar Beach Resort & Spa (www.wyndhamriomar.com/) with the rain forest on one side and the beach on the other. (Check out rates starting at $99 a night. Call 800-474-6627 and mention the DIS88 rate.)
"Five minutes of serenity," says Maria Arocho, sitting poolside at the Wyndham as her three boys played happily in the water, glad for a place her family could afford. The Arochos, who live in Puerto Rico, had checked in for a weekend. "We come for the pools and room service," she said.
Many families, meanwhile, return again and again to the deluxe 750-room El Conquistador Resort that reminds me of a cruise ship on land with its own Coqui Water Park (www.elconresort.com/coqui_water_park/). Coqui offers water slides and a lazy river, a private offshore island, the Caribbean's largest spa (moonlight yoga, anyone?), Camp Coqui, golf and tennis, a casino, 14 restaurants and even its own excursions operation that can send you kayaking on the bioluminescent bay or out fishing. (Ask about the Coqui Water Park package, which includes airport transfers and breakfasts.)
If you're traveling with grandparents (or girlfriends), consider Las Casitas -- a resort within the El Conquistador resort offering 157 villas with killer views, pools, restaurant and butler service. I love that the resort will stock your kitchen for you for just a $25 stocking fee, or have the chef cook for you.
"There is so much to do we haven't even left the resort," said Brian Keenan, vacationing with his family from Syracuse, N.Y. The Keenans, in fact, had to persuade the kids to leave the pools to head 10 minutes offshore to the resort's Palomino Island for snorkeling, mini golf, jet skiing and horseback riding.
Wherever you stay, there are no worries if it rains. Explore Rio Camuy Cave Park, one of the world's largest underground cave systems, tour Old San Juan's historic sites or head to El Yunque rain forest, like we did, the only rain forest in the U.S. National Forest System and a U.S. World Biosphere Reserve. (Vote for El Yunque to be one of the new 7 Wonders of Nature, www.new7wonders.com.)
Our guide, Wilfredo O'Neill, tells us the 28,000 acres attract more than a million visitors a year who come for the chance to swim under a waterfall, picnic and hike miles of trails amid 1,000 species of plants and animals. (There are no poisonous snakes we're glad to hear.) Listen for the tiny tree frogs with voices as large as opera singers. Tell the kids the tiny frogs don't drink water but soak it up through their skin. Eleven of the 16 species unique to Puerto Rico can be found in this rain forest along with 1,000-year-old trees, flowers and tropical birds.
Back at the El Conquistador, kids snap photos of the beautiful blue parrots that grace the lobby -- Biggles and Giggles -- before racing to the pools. Their biggest decision of the day? Which pool to choose.
There was just one downside to my weekend here -- it was way too short.
I need another day at the beach.
(For more on Eileen's trip to Puerto Rico, read her trip diary at www.takingthekids.com and also follow "taking the kids" on www.twitter.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.)
(c) 2010 EILEEN OGINTZ DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
By Eileen Ogintz
Copyright © 2010, Tribune Media Services
December 10, 2010
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/sns-travel-taking-kids-to-puerto-rico,0,6066565.story
Thank goodness for the glow sticks!
It is pitch black and we are kayaking through red mangroves, trying to dodge the roots. The glow sticks on each kayak and on the backs of our life jackets are our only light.
We are in Puerto Rico on our way to the bioluminescent Bay Laguna Grande at Las Croabas, Fajardo -- one of only three bioluminescent bays on the island, according to our GSI Adventures guide, Joel. Who says Puerto Rico is only about sun and surf?
This bay is home to a large colony -- more than a million -- of dinoflagellates that light up, producing the glowing waters. We let water slide through our hands and it glows. Crazy!
So cool!" says my kayak partner Kate Boyce, here from Syracuse, N.Y., to celebrate her mom's 60th birthday and her sister's 30th. "Girl's trip," Kate said happily, adding they wouldn't let their dad come. I was here on a girls' getaway, too, with two of my oldest friends and we met two other moms from Seattle who scored a deal on www.hotwire.com for their annual getaway.
By the end of our excursion, we are soaked and chilled but glad for the unique adventure. After a quick shower at our casita nearby at The El Conquistador Resort (www.elconresort.com/), we head down the road for an authentic Puerto Rican meal at the well-known Pasion por el Fogon (www.pasionporelfogon.net). We feast on Asopaito de camarones -- delicious delicate soup, fresh conch salad, fresh snapper and Mofango, which is green plantains fried and mashed, molded in a bowl and then stuffed with whatever you like -- chicken, fish, seafood -- and covered by a tomato-based sauce. We drink homemade Sangria and toast old friends and a terrific vacation day.
You're missing a lot if you ignore easy-to-reach Puerto Rico (www.seepuertorico.com) in favor of more exotic islands. And you're still in the United States here -- Puerto Rico, of course, is a U.S. territory -- yet you have the opportunity to explore a rich culture that dates back more than five centuries. (The kids will love exploring Castillo San Felipe del Moro Fort in Old San Juan. And they can practice their Spanish in a place where everyone is friendly ... but also speaks English.)
Take your pick of places to stay, from the 23 small family-owned Paradores to the historic Hotel El Convento (www.elconvento.com), built in a centuries-old convent in the heart of Old San Juan, to family and budget-friendly resorts like the Wyndham Rio Mar Beach Resort & Spa (www.wyndhamriomar.com/) with the rain forest on one side and the beach on the other. (Check out rates starting at $99 a night. Call 800-474-6627 and mention the DIS88 rate.)
"Five minutes of serenity," says Maria Arocho, sitting poolside at the Wyndham as her three boys played happily in the water, glad for a place her family could afford. The Arochos, who live in Puerto Rico, had checked in for a weekend. "We come for the pools and room service," she said.
Many families, meanwhile, return again and again to the deluxe 750-room El Conquistador Resort that reminds me of a cruise ship on land with its own Coqui Water Park (www.elconresort.com/coqui_water_park/). Coqui offers water slides and a lazy river, a private offshore island, the Caribbean's largest spa (moonlight yoga, anyone?), Camp Coqui, golf and tennis, a casino, 14 restaurants and even its own excursions operation that can send you kayaking on the bioluminescent bay or out fishing. (Ask about the Coqui Water Park package, which includes airport transfers and breakfasts.)
If you're traveling with grandparents (or girlfriends), consider Las Casitas -- a resort within the El Conquistador resort offering 157 villas with killer views, pools, restaurant and butler service. I love that the resort will stock your kitchen for you for just a $25 stocking fee, or have the chef cook for you.
"There is so much to do we haven't even left the resort," said Brian Keenan, vacationing with his family from Syracuse, N.Y. The Keenans, in fact, had to persuade the kids to leave the pools to head 10 minutes offshore to the resort's Palomino Island for snorkeling, mini golf, jet skiing and horseback riding.
Wherever you stay, there are no worries if it rains. Explore Rio Camuy Cave Park, one of the world's largest underground cave systems, tour Old San Juan's historic sites or head to El Yunque rain forest, like we did, the only rain forest in the U.S. National Forest System and a U.S. World Biosphere Reserve. (Vote for El Yunque to be one of the new 7 Wonders of Nature, www.new7wonders.com.)
Our guide, Wilfredo O'Neill, tells us the 28,000 acres attract more than a million visitors a year who come for the chance to swim under a waterfall, picnic and hike miles of trails amid 1,000 species of plants and animals. (There are no poisonous snakes we're glad to hear.) Listen for the tiny tree frogs with voices as large as opera singers. Tell the kids the tiny frogs don't drink water but soak it up through their skin. Eleven of the 16 species unique to Puerto Rico can be found in this rain forest along with 1,000-year-old trees, flowers and tropical birds.
Back at the El Conquistador, kids snap photos of the beautiful blue parrots that grace the lobby -- Biggles and Giggles -- before racing to the pools. Their biggest decision of the day? Which pool to choose.
There was just one downside to my weekend here -- it was way too short.
I need another day at the beach.
(For more on Eileen's trip to Puerto Rico, read her trip diary at www.takingthekids.com and also follow "taking the kids" on www.twitter.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.)
(c) 2010 EILEEN OGINTZ DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
36 Hours in Fort Lauderdale
36 Hours in Fort Lauderdale
By Michael McElroy
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: November 24, 2010
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/travel/28lauderdale-hours.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a210
FORT LAUDERDALE continues to mature beyond its spring-break days, with posh resorts now rising along the beach. Meanwhile, Las Olas Boulevard, the lively commercial strip that links the beach to downtown, has welcomed an array of new boutiques and restaurants. Sure, a smattering of raucous bars still dot the beach, and the rowdy clubgoers of Himmarshee Village can be three deep in the middle of the week. But at the end of a sunny, water-logged day, the resort town now offers a sophisticated evening that doesn’t involve neon bikinis and syrupy daiquiris.
Friday
5 p.m.
1) SEASIDE DUSK
There are a slew of beachfront spots where you can have a drink, watch the clouds roll over the ocean, soak up the sea air and catch the parade of sun-soaked tourists and residents going home in suits and ties. Two of the more welcoming places are Margarita Cantina Crab and Seafood House (201 Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard; 954-463-7209), where you can sip a chardonnay and listen to the steel band, and the H2O Café (101 South Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard; 954-414-1024; h2ocafe.net) next door, if you prefer a bit more quiet.
7 p.m.
2) WATERFRONT WAHOO
Fort Lauderdale’s dining scene is alive and well inland as well as on the water. The local hotshot Steve Hudson bought the Bimini Boatyard Bar and Grill (1555 Southeast 17th Street; 954-525-7400; biminiboatyard.com) in 2008 and spent $1.2 million to snazz it up. It now evokes a New England-style boathouse, with its crisp blue and white décor, enormous cathedral ceiling, gleaming oak floors and portal-style windows. A new outdoor bar is on a marina, bringing in a nautical mix of young and old who dine on fresh seafood like wood-grilled wahoo ($19) and yellowtail snapper ($22).
9 p.m.
3) NICE AND COOL
For a cool nightcap, slide over to Blue Jean Blues (3320 Northeast 33rd Street; 954-306-6330; bluejeanblues.net), where you can sit at the bar and listen to live jazz and blues bands. The club has a tiny stage and a dance floor, should the mood strike. The music can go from jazz to Caribbean depending on the evening.
Saturday
8 a.m.
4) DAWN PATROL
Take an early morning stroll along the wide, white beach. It is open to joggers, walkers and swimmers, and is surprisingly clean. For a leafier, more secluded adventure that is a favorite with resident runners and walkers, try the two-mile loop through the woods in the Hugh Taylor Birch State Park (954-468-2791; floridastateparks.org/hughtaylorbirch; fee, $6 for a car with two passengers; $2 for joggers). Its entrance is only steps from the beach at the intersection of A1A and Sunrise Highway. If you are not a jogger, take a drive through anyway.
10 a.m.
5) SUNNY NOSH
Finish off the jog at the beachside Ritz-Carlton (1 North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard; 954-465-2300; ritzcarlton.com/fortlauderdale). The company bought the former St. Regis and put its own stamp on the property. For a relaxed breakfast (served until 11 a.m.), either indoors or out, go to Via Luna, the hotel’s restaurant, where you can choose from a $28 buffet with omelets, smoked salmon, cereals and fruits.
1 p.m.
6) ECCENTRIC ESTATE
Bonnet House (900 North Birch Road; 954-563-5393; bonnethouse.org) was the vacation home of the artists and art patrons Frederic Bartlett and his wife, Evelyn, whose first husband was the grandson and namesake of the founder of Eli Lilly and Company. They created an eccentric, brightly painted retreat, now a museum — more Caribbean mansion than Florida estate — near a swamp where alligators thrived. Window bars protected the house from the panthers that once roamed the estate, and the monkeys that still live there.
3:30 p.m.
7) CRUISING THE PIER
If you want to go a bit off the beaten track, drive up A1A to Commercial Boulevard and hang out on Anglin’s Pier. There is a little shopping area for swim gear, and you can rent fishing poles for $16. Or just sit and have a coffee. They close the area off from 7 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays for free musical entertainment.
7 p.m.
8) CRABS AND PIZZA
One of the trendier new restaurants is Truluck’s by the Galleria Mall (2584A East Sunrise Boulevard; 954-396-5656; trulucks.com). An elegant room with dark woods and red leather upholstery, the year-old restaurant adds a bit of glamour to the popular mall and has a busy bar where a piano player entertains all evening. It has a surf-and-turf menu, but is perhaps best known for stone crabs. Dinner for two, about $75 to $100. For lighter fare, try D’Angelo (4215 North Federal Highway, Oakland Park; 954-561-7300; pizzadangelo.com). Opened in March, the modern Tuscan-style restaurant attracts a fashion-aware young crowd with its meatball tapas ($10) and Napoletana pizzas ($11).
9 p.m.
9) MALL PARTY
It may not be spring break, but you would never know, looking at the huge crowds at the Blue Martini by the Galleria Mall (2432 East Sunrise Boulevard; 954-653-2583; bluemartinilounge.com). But the patrons are decidedly more upscale. By 8 p.m. when the band is playing, the bar is packed with young professionals and snow birds, schmoozing and dancing. A newer spot is SoLita Las Olas (1032 East Las Olas; 954-357-2616; solitalasolas.com), which opened this year and has a lively bar. Fort Lauderdale also has a booming gay night-life scene, including the ever-popular Georgie’s Alibi (2266 Wilton Drive; 954-565-2526; georgiesalibi.com).
Sunday
11 a.m.
10) SOUTHERN COMFORT
The Pelican Grand Beach Resort (2000 North Ocean Boulevard; 954-568-9431; pelicanbeach.com) offers a Sunday brunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The plantation-style restaurant overlooks the beach, with a big veranda with white wicker tables and rocking chairs that catch the sea breezes. The Sunday prix fixe menu ($33.95) includes eggs Benedict, rice pilaf, bloody marys and mimosas.
12:30 p.m.
11) SUPER SWIMMERS
Water enthusiasts should stop in at the International Swimming Hall of Fame (One Hall of Fame Drive; 954-462-6536; ishof.org). Did you know that both Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin experimented with swim fins? Or that Polynesian swimmers used palm leaves tied to their feet? That and other swimming trivia are lovingly displayed at the sleek white building on the Intracoastal.
2 p.m.
12) LAS OLAS STROLL
In an era when shopping in new cities can remind you of every mall back home with the same stores lining the streets, Fort Lauderdale has kept its streak of independence: nothing fancy but fun. East Las Olas Boulevard has a rash of one-off stores like Kumbaya (No. 1012; 954-768-9004), which carries colorful T-shirts ($20) and equally colorful straw bags (from $20). Seldom Seen Gallery (No. 817; 954-527-7878; seldomseengallery.com) has a riot of wall clocks (from $35) as well as brightly painted walking sticks ($20). If you want to take edible gifts home or you can’t resist them yourself, drop in at Kilwin’s Ice Cream, Chocolates and Fudge Shop (No. 809; 954-523-8338; kilwins.com). Its motto is “Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.” Ponder that with a bag of caramel corn ($4.75), as you explore the rest of the shops.
IF YOU GO
Opened in 2004, the Pelican Grand Beach Resort (2000 North Ocean Boulevard; 954-568-9431; pelicanbeach.com) is situated north of the main strip, directly on the beach. The Southern plantation-style hotel has 156 rooms, from $169.
The Ritz Carlton Hotel (1 North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard; 954-465-2300; ritzcarlton.com/fortlauderdale) opened in 2008 in the former St. Regis hotel. It has a sleek pool on the seventh floor overlooking the water, a full-service spa and a wine room with more than 5,000 bottles. The 192 spacious and elegant rooms start at $269.
W Fort Lauderdale (401 North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard; 954-414-8200; whotels.com/ftlauderdale) is a sleekly modern hotel that opened last year along the beach with 517 rooms. It has a Bliss Spa and two pools, one with a D.J. who plays from noon to 6 p.m. on weekends. Rooms from $289.
By Michael McElroy
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: November 24, 2010
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/travel/28lauderdale-hours.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a210
FORT LAUDERDALE continues to mature beyond its spring-break days, with posh resorts now rising along the beach. Meanwhile, Las Olas Boulevard, the lively commercial strip that links the beach to downtown, has welcomed an array of new boutiques and restaurants. Sure, a smattering of raucous bars still dot the beach, and the rowdy clubgoers of Himmarshee Village can be three deep in the middle of the week. But at the end of a sunny, water-logged day, the resort town now offers a sophisticated evening that doesn’t involve neon bikinis and syrupy daiquiris.
Friday
5 p.m.
1) SEASIDE DUSK
There are a slew of beachfront spots where you can have a drink, watch the clouds roll over the ocean, soak up the sea air and catch the parade of sun-soaked tourists and residents going home in suits and ties. Two of the more welcoming places are Margarita Cantina Crab and Seafood House (201 Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard; 954-463-7209), where you can sip a chardonnay and listen to the steel band, and the H2O Café (101 South Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard; 954-414-1024; h2ocafe.net) next door, if you prefer a bit more quiet.
7 p.m.
2) WATERFRONT WAHOO
Fort Lauderdale’s dining scene is alive and well inland as well as on the water. The local hotshot Steve Hudson bought the Bimini Boatyard Bar and Grill (1555 Southeast 17th Street; 954-525-7400; biminiboatyard.com) in 2008 and spent $1.2 million to snazz it up. It now evokes a New England-style boathouse, with its crisp blue and white décor, enormous cathedral ceiling, gleaming oak floors and portal-style windows. A new outdoor bar is on a marina, bringing in a nautical mix of young and old who dine on fresh seafood like wood-grilled wahoo ($19) and yellowtail snapper ($22).
9 p.m.
3) NICE AND COOL
For a cool nightcap, slide over to Blue Jean Blues (3320 Northeast 33rd Street; 954-306-6330; bluejeanblues.net), where you can sit at the bar and listen to live jazz and blues bands. The club has a tiny stage and a dance floor, should the mood strike. The music can go from jazz to Caribbean depending on the evening.
Saturday
8 a.m.
4) DAWN PATROL
Take an early morning stroll along the wide, white beach. It is open to joggers, walkers and swimmers, and is surprisingly clean. For a leafier, more secluded adventure that is a favorite with resident runners and walkers, try the two-mile loop through the woods in the Hugh Taylor Birch State Park (954-468-2791; floridastateparks.org/hughtaylorbirch; fee, $6 for a car with two passengers; $2 for joggers). Its entrance is only steps from the beach at the intersection of A1A and Sunrise Highway. If you are not a jogger, take a drive through anyway.
10 a.m.
5) SUNNY NOSH
Finish off the jog at the beachside Ritz-Carlton (1 North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard; 954-465-2300; ritzcarlton.com/fortlauderdale). The company bought the former St. Regis and put its own stamp on the property. For a relaxed breakfast (served until 11 a.m.), either indoors or out, go to Via Luna, the hotel’s restaurant, where you can choose from a $28 buffet with omelets, smoked salmon, cereals and fruits.
1 p.m.
6) ECCENTRIC ESTATE
Bonnet House (900 North Birch Road; 954-563-5393; bonnethouse.org) was the vacation home of the artists and art patrons Frederic Bartlett and his wife, Evelyn, whose first husband was the grandson and namesake of the founder of Eli Lilly and Company. They created an eccentric, brightly painted retreat, now a museum — more Caribbean mansion than Florida estate — near a swamp where alligators thrived. Window bars protected the house from the panthers that once roamed the estate, and the monkeys that still live there.
3:30 p.m.
7) CRUISING THE PIER
If you want to go a bit off the beaten track, drive up A1A to Commercial Boulevard and hang out on Anglin’s Pier. There is a little shopping area for swim gear, and you can rent fishing poles for $16. Or just sit and have a coffee. They close the area off from 7 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays for free musical entertainment.
7 p.m.
8) CRABS AND PIZZA
One of the trendier new restaurants is Truluck’s by the Galleria Mall (2584A East Sunrise Boulevard; 954-396-5656; trulucks.com). An elegant room with dark woods and red leather upholstery, the year-old restaurant adds a bit of glamour to the popular mall and has a busy bar where a piano player entertains all evening. It has a surf-and-turf menu, but is perhaps best known for stone crabs. Dinner for two, about $75 to $100. For lighter fare, try D’Angelo (4215 North Federal Highway, Oakland Park; 954-561-7300; pizzadangelo.com). Opened in March, the modern Tuscan-style restaurant attracts a fashion-aware young crowd with its meatball tapas ($10) and Napoletana pizzas ($11).
9 p.m.
9) MALL PARTY
It may not be spring break, but you would never know, looking at the huge crowds at the Blue Martini by the Galleria Mall (2432 East Sunrise Boulevard; 954-653-2583; bluemartinilounge.com). But the patrons are decidedly more upscale. By 8 p.m. when the band is playing, the bar is packed with young professionals and snow birds, schmoozing and dancing. A newer spot is SoLita Las Olas (1032 East Las Olas; 954-357-2616; solitalasolas.com), which opened this year and has a lively bar. Fort Lauderdale also has a booming gay night-life scene, including the ever-popular Georgie’s Alibi (2266 Wilton Drive; 954-565-2526; georgiesalibi.com).
Sunday
11 a.m.
10) SOUTHERN COMFORT
The Pelican Grand Beach Resort (2000 North Ocean Boulevard; 954-568-9431; pelicanbeach.com) offers a Sunday brunch from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The plantation-style restaurant overlooks the beach, with a big veranda with white wicker tables and rocking chairs that catch the sea breezes. The Sunday prix fixe menu ($33.95) includes eggs Benedict, rice pilaf, bloody marys and mimosas.
12:30 p.m.
11) SUPER SWIMMERS
Water enthusiasts should stop in at the International Swimming Hall of Fame (One Hall of Fame Drive; 954-462-6536; ishof.org). Did you know that both Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin experimented with swim fins? Or that Polynesian swimmers used palm leaves tied to their feet? That and other swimming trivia are lovingly displayed at the sleek white building on the Intracoastal.
2 p.m.
12) LAS OLAS STROLL
In an era when shopping in new cities can remind you of every mall back home with the same stores lining the streets, Fort Lauderdale has kept its streak of independence: nothing fancy but fun. East Las Olas Boulevard has a rash of one-off stores like Kumbaya (No. 1012; 954-768-9004), which carries colorful T-shirts ($20) and equally colorful straw bags (from $20). Seldom Seen Gallery (No. 817; 954-527-7878; seldomseengallery.com) has a riot of wall clocks (from $35) as well as brightly painted walking sticks ($20). If you want to take edible gifts home or you can’t resist them yourself, drop in at Kilwin’s Ice Cream, Chocolates and Fudge Shop (No. 809; 954-523-8338; kilwins.com). Its motto is “Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.” Ponder that with a bag of caramel corn ($4.75), as you explore the rest of the shops.
IF YOU GO
Opened in 2004, the Pelican Grand Beach Resort (2000 North Ocean Boulevard; 954-568-9431; pelicanbeach.com) is situated north of the main strip, directly on the beach. The Southern plantation-style hotel has 156 rooms, from $169.
The Ritz Carlton Hotel (1 North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard; 954-465-2300; ritzcarlton.com/fortlauderdale) opened in 2008 in the former St. Regis hotel. It has a sleek pool on the seventh floor overlooking the water, a full-service spa and a wine room with more than 5,000 bottles. The 192 spacious and elegant rooms start at $269.
W Fort Lauderdale (401 North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard; 954-414-8200; whotels.com/ftlauderdale) is a sleekly modern hotel that opened last year along the beach with 517 rooms. It has a Bliss Spa and two pools, one with a D.J. who plays from noon to 6 p.m. on weekends. Rooms from $289.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
How to Make the Dollar Sound Again
How to Make the Dollar Sound Again
By JAMES GRANT
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: November 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/opinion/14grant.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a212
BY disclosing a plan to conjure $600 billion to support the sagging economy, the Federal Reserve affirmed the interesting fact that dollars can be conjured. In the digital age, you don’t even need a printing press.
This was on Nov. 3. A general uproar ensued, with the dollar exchange rate weakening and the price of gold surging. And when, last Monday, the president of the World Bank suggested, almost diffidently, that there might be a place for gold
Let the economists gasp: The classical gold standard, the one that was in place from 1880 to 1914, is what the world needs now. In its utility, economy and elegance, there has never been a monetary system like it.
It was simplicity itself. National currencies were backed by gold. If you didn’t like the currency you could exchange it for shiny coins (money was “sound” if it rang when dropped on a counter). Borders were open and money was footloose. It went where it was treated well. In gold-standard countries, government budgets were mainly balanced. Central banks had the single public function of exchanging gold for paper or paper for gold. The public decided which it wanted.
“You can’t go back,” today’s central bankers are wont to protest, before adding, “And you shouldn’t, anyway.” They seem to forget that we are forever going back (and forth, too), because nothing about money is really new. “Quantitative easing,” a k a money-printing, is as old as the hills. Draftsmen of the United States Constitution , well recalling the overproduction of the Continental paper dollar, defined money as “coin.” “To coin money” and “regulate the value thereof” was a Congressional power they joined in the same constitutional phrase with that of fixing “the standard of weights and measures.” For most of the next 200 years, the dollar was, in fact, defined as a weight of metal. The pure paper era did not begin until 1971.
The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 — by coincidence, the final full year of the original gold standard. (Less functional variants followed in the 1920s and ’40s; no longer could just anybody demand gold for paper, or paper for gold.) At the outset, the Fed was a gold standard central bank. It could not have conjured money even if it had wanted to, as the value of the dollar was fixed under law as one 20.67th of an ounce of gold.
Neither was the Fed concerned with managing the national economy. Fast forward 65 years or so, to the late 1970s, and the Fed would have been unrecognizable to the men who voted it into existence. It was now held responsible for ensuring full employment and stable prices alike.
Today, the Fed’s hundreds of Ph.D.’s conduct research at the frontiers of economic science. “The Two-Period Rational Inattention Model: Accelerations and Analyses” is the title of one of the treatises the monetary scholars have recently produced. “Continuous Time Extraction of a Nonstationary Signal with Illustrations in Continuous Low-pass and Band-pass Filtering” is another. You can’t blame the learned authors for preferring the life they lead to the careers they would have under a true-blue gold standard. Rather than writing monographs for each other, they would be standing behind a counter exchanging paper for gold and vice versa.
If only they gave it some thought, though, the economists — nothing if not smart — would fairly jump at the chance for counter duty. For a convertible currency is a sophisticated, self-contained information system. By choosing to hold it, or instead the gold that stands behind it, the people tell the central bank if it has issued too much money or too little. It’s democracy in money, rather than mandarin rule.
Today, it’s the mandarins at the Federal Reserve who decide what interest rate to impose, and what volume of currency to conjure.
The Bank of England once had an unhappy experience with this method of operation. To fight the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century, Britain traded in its gold pound for a scrip, and the bank had to decide unilaterally how many pounds to print. Lacking the information encased in the gold standard, it printed too many. A great inflation bubbled.
Later, a parliamentary inquest determined that no institution should again be entrusted with such powers as the suspension of gold convertibility had dumped in the lap of those bank directors. They had meant well enough, the parliamentarians concluded, but even the most minute knowledge of the British economy, “combined with the profound science in all the principles of money and circulation,” would not enable anyone to circulate the exact amount of money needed for “the wants of trade.”
The same is true now at the Fed. The chairman, Ben Bernanke, and his minions have taken it upon themselves to decide that a lot more money should circulate. According to the Consumer Price Index, which is showing year-over-year gains of less than 1.5 percent, prices are essentially stable.
In the inflationary 1970s, people had prayed for exactly this. But the Fed today finds it unacceptable. We need more inflation, it insists (seeming not to remember that prices showed year-over-year declines for 12 consecutive months in 1954 and ’55 or that, in the first half of the 1960s, the Consumer Price Index never registered year-over-year gains of as much as 2 percent). This is why Mr. Bernanke has set out to materialize an additional $600 billion in the next eight months.
Related
Times Topic: Gold Standard
The intended consequences of this intervention include lower interest rates, higher stock prices, a perkier Consumer Price Index and more hiring. The unintended consequences remain to be seen. A partial list of unwanted possibilities includes an overvalued stock market (followed by a crash), a collapsing dollar, an unscripted surge in consumer prices (followed by higher interest rates), a populist revolt against zero-percent savings rates and wall-to-wall European tourists on the sidewalks of Manhattan.
As for interest rates, they are already low enough to coax another cycle of imprudent lending and borrowing. It gives one pause that the Fed, with all its massed brain power, failed to anticipate even a little of the troubles of 2007-09.
At last week’s world economic summit meeting in South Korea , finance ministers and central bankers chewed over the perennial problem of “imbalances.” America consumes much more than it produces (and has done so over 25 consecutive years). Asia produces more than it consumes. Merchandise moves east across the Pacific; dollars fly west in payment. For Americans, the system could hardly be improved on, because the dollars do not remain in Asia. They rather obligingly fly eastward again in the shape of investments in United States government securities. It’s as if the money never left the 50 states.
So it is under the paper-dollar system that we Americans enjoy “deficits without tears,” in the words of the French economist Jacques Rueff. We could not have done so under the classical gold standard. Deficits then were ultimately settled in gold. We could not have printed it, but would have had to dig for it, or adjusted our economy to make ourselves more internationally competitive. Adjustments under the gold standard took place continuously and smoothly — not, like today, wrenchingly and at great intervals.
Gold is a metal made for monetary service. It is scarce (just 0.004 parts per million in the earth’s crust), pliable and easy on the eye. It has tended to hold its purchasing power over the years and centuries. You don’t consume it, as you do tin or copper. Somewhere, probably, in some coin or ingot, is the gold that adorned Cleopatra.
And because it is indestructible, no one year’s new production is of any great consequence in comparison with the store of above-ground metal. From 1900 to 2009, at much lower nominal gold prices than those prevailing today, the worldwide stock of gold grew at 1.5 percent a year, according to the United States Geological Survey and the World Gold Council.
The first time the United States abandoned the gold standard — to fight the Civil War — it took until 1879, 14 years after Appomattox, to again link the dollar to gold.
To reinstitute a modern gold standard today would take time, too. The United States would first have to call an international monetary conference. A chastened Ben Bernanke would have to announce that, in fact, he cannot see into the future and needs the information that the convertibility feature of a gold dollar would impart.
That humbling chore completed, the delegates could get down to the technical work of proposing a rate of exchange between gold and the dollar (probably it would be even higher than the current price of gold, the better to encourage new exploration and production).
Other countries, thunderstruck, would then have to follow suit. The main thing, Mr. Bernanke would emphasize, would be to create a monetary system that synchronizes national economies rather than driving them apart.
If the classical gold standard in its every Edwardian feature could not, after all, be teleported into the 21st century, there would be plenty of scope for adaptation and, perhaps, improvement. Let the author of “The Two-Period Rational Inattention Model: Accelerations and Analyses” have a crack at it.
James Grant, the editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, is the author of “Money of the Mind.”
By JAMES GRANT
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: November 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/opinion/14grant.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a212
BY disclosing a plan to conjure $600 billion to support the sagging economy, the Federal Reserve affirmed the interesting fact that dollars can be conjured. In the digital age, you don’t even need a printing press.
This was on Nov. 3. A general uproar ensued, with the dollar exchange rate weakening and the price of gold surging. And when, last Monday, the president of the World Bank suggested, almost diffidently, that there might be a place for gold
Let the economists gasp: The classical gold standard, the one that was in place from 1880 to 1914, is what the world needs now. In its utility, economy and elegance, there has never been a monetary system like it.
It was simplicity itself. National currencies were backed by gold. If you didn’t like the currency you could exchange it for shiny coins (money was “sound” if it rang when dropped on a counter). Borders were open and money was footloose. It went where it was treated well. In gold-standard countries, government budgets were mainly balanced. Central banks had the single public function of exchanging gold for paper or paper for gold. The public decided which it wanted.
“You can’t go back,” today’s central bankers are wont to protest, before adding, “And you shouldn’t, anyway.” They seem to forget that we are forever going back (and forth, too), because nothing about money is really new. “Quantitative easing,” a k a money-printing, is as old as the hills. Draftsmen of the United States Constitution
The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 — by coincidence, the final full year of the original gold standard. (Less functional variants followed in the 1920s and ’40s; no longer could just anybody demand gold for paper, or paper for gold.) At the outset, the Fed was a gold standard central bank. It could not have conjured money even if it had wanted to, as the value of the dollar was fixed under law as one 20.67th of an ounce of gold.
Neither was the Fed concerned with managing the national economy. Fast forward 65 years or so, to the late 1970s, and the Fed would have been unrecognizable to the men who voted it into existence. It was now held responsible for ensuring full employment and stable prices alike.
Today, the Fed’s hundreds of Ph.D.’s conduct research at the frontiers of economic science. “The Two-Period Rational Inattention Model: Accelerations and Analyses” is the title of one of the treatises the monetary scholars have recently produced. “Continuous Time Extraction of a Nonstationary Signal with Illustrations in Continuous Low-pass and Band-pass Filtering” is another. You can’t blame the learned authors for preferring the life they lead to the careers they would have under a true-blue gold standard. Rather than writing monographs for each other, they would be standing behind a counter exchanging paper for gold and vice versa.
If only they gave it some thought, though, the economists — nothing if not smart — would fairly jump at the chance for counter duty. For a convertible currency is a sophisticated, self-contained information system. By choosing to hold it, or instead the gold that stands behind it, the people tell the central bank if it has issued too much money or too little. It’s democracy in money, rather than mandarin rule.
Today, it’s the mandarins at the Federal Reserve who decide what interest rate to impose, and what volume of currency to conjure.
The Bank of England once had an unhappy experience with this method of operation. To fight the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century, Britain traded in its gold pound for a scrip, and the bank had to decide unilaterally how many pounds to print. Lacking the information encased in the gold standard, it printed too many. A great inflation bubbled.
Later, a parliamentary inquest
The same is true now at the Fed. The chairman, Ben Bernanke, and his minions have taken it upon themselves to decide that a lot more money should circulate. According to the Consumer Price Index, which is showing year-over-year gains of less than 1.5 percent, prices are essentially stable.
In the inflationary 1970s, people had prayed for exactly this. But the Fed today finds it unacceptable. We need more inflation, it insists (seeming not to remember that prices showed year-over-year declines for 12 consecutive months in 1954 and ’55 or that, in the first half of the 1960s, the Consumer Price Index never registered year-over-year gains of as much as 2 percent). This is why Mr. Bernanke has set out to materialize an additional $600 billion in the next eight months.
Related
Times Topic: Gold Standard
The intended consequences of this intervention include lower interest rates, higher stock prices, a perkier Consumer Price Index and more hiring. The unintended consequences remain to be seen. A partial list of unwanted possibilities includes an overvalued stock market (followed by a crash), a collapsing dollar, an unscripted surge in consumer prices (followed by higher interest rates), a populist revolt against zero-percent savings rates and wall-to-wall European tourists on the sidewalks of Manhattan.
As for interest rates, they are already low enough to coax another cycle of imprudent lending and borrowing. It gives one pause that the Fed, with all its massed brain power, failed to anticipate even a little of the troubles of 2007-09.
At last week’s world economic summit meeting in South Korea
So it is under the paper-dollar system that we Americans enjoy “deficits without tears,” in the words of the French economist Jacques Rueff. We could not have done so under the classical gold standard. Deficits then were ultimately settled in gold. We could not have printed it, but would have had to dig for it, or adjusted our economy to make ourselves more internationally competitive. Adjustments under the gold standard took place continuously and smoothly — not, like today, wrenchingly and at great intervals.
Gold is a metal made for monetary service. It is scarce (just 0.004 parts per million in the earth’s crust), pliable and easy on the eye. It has tended to hold its purchasing power over the years and centuries. You don’t consume it, as you do tin or copper. Somewhere, probably, in some coin or ingot, is the gold that adorned Cleopatra.
And because it is indestructible, no one year’s new production is of any great consequence in comparison with the store of above-ground metal. From 1900 to 2009, at much lower nominal gold prices than those prevailing today, the worldwide stock of gold grew at 1.5 percent a year, according to the United States Geological Survey and the World Gold Council.
The first time the United States abandoned the gold standard — to fight the Civil War — it took until 1879, 14 years after Appomattox, to again link the dollar to gold.
To reinstitute a modern gold standard today would take time, too. The United States would first have to call an international monetary conference. A chastened Ben Bernanke would have to announce that, in fact, he cannot see into the future and needs the information that the convertibility feature of a gold dollar would impart.
That humbling chore completed, the delegates could get down to the technical work of proposing a rate of exchange between gold and the dollar (probably it would be even higher than the current price of gold, the better to encourage new exploration and production).
Other countries, thunderstruck, would then have to follow suit. The main thing, Mr. Bernanke would emphasize, would be to create a monetary system that synchronizes national economies rather than driving them apart.
If the classical gold standard in its every Edwardian feature could not, after all, be teleported into the 21st century, there would be plenty of scope for adaptation and, perhaps, improvement. Let the author of “The Two-Period Rational Inattention Model: Accelerations and Analyses” have a crack at it.
James Grant, the editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, is the author of “Money of the Mind.”
Saturday, November 13, 2010
God Interviews George Bush on the book tour By John M Conley
God Interviews George Bush on the book tour
By John M Conley
Let's imagine for a moment that George W. Bush is being interviewed by God while on his book tour.
(and George's replies are actual quotes from Bush.)
God: Okay, George, you’re out peddling your book, let’s talk …
Bush: Okay, Lord. Shoot! Hallelujah.
God: In 1989 you made the following comment: "You know I could run for governor but I'm basically a media creation.
I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But that's not the kind of profile you
have to have to get elected to public office."
Bush: Did I say that?
GOD: Yes, you did, George.
BUSH: If you say so.
GOD: What caused you to change your mind?
BUSH: About what?
GOD: About your decision to run for Governor of Texas! You really don't pay attention.
Bush: "I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself,
about why I do things."—Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003
God: And you didn't have much interest in keeping up with current events, do you?
Bush: "I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get
briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves." (Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003)
GOD: But, you ended up running for Texas governor. Why?
Bush: "When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. It was us vs. them,
and it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there."
—Iowa Western Community College, Jan 21, 2000
God: What's that supposed to mean?
Bush: What?
God: Never mind. Let's move on. What was your priority as Governor of Texas.......the number
one problem you wanted to see solved?
Bush: "[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling." (Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004) "Rarely is the question
asked: Is our children learning?" (Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000)
God: Well, do you believe your own daughters did well learning within the Texas school system?
Bush: "Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis."
(CNBC, April 15, 2000) "Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy level of our
children are appalling." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004
God: Hmmmm. Ok. Can you summarize the job you feel you did as Governor?
Bush: "One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
God: And you believe your judgements were fair?
Bush: "I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future." ''I know what I believe.
I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe—I believe what I believe is right."—Rome, July 22, 2001
God: "Only I know the future, George.
Bush: "The future will be better tomorrow."
God: I wouldn't say that's true for the 152 people you executed as Governor.
Bush: "The only things that I can tell you is that every case I have reviewed I have been comfortable with the innocence
or guilt of the person that I've looked at. I do not believe we've put a guilty ... I mean innocent person to death in
the state of Texas." All Things Considered, NPR, June 16, 2000
God: Oh, but you did George. Based on your own human statistics 16 or 17% of all people executed are actually innocent.
Out of 152 people, do you know how many innocents you've allowed to die?
Bush: "I'm the master of low expectations." (Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003)
God: And are you aware that the vast majority of those on death row are too poor to hire an attorney
who can represent them adequately?
Bush: "First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich
doesn't mean you're willing to kill." (Washington, D.C., May 19, 2003)
God: My, my. How good of you. As a Christian, are you aware that even a sparrow cannot fall
to the ground without my notice?
Bush: "Just remember it's the birds that's supposed to suffer, not the hunter." (Advising quail hunter and
New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici, Roswell, N.M., Jan. 22, 2004)
God: There are several you've executed at this very moment living here in my Kingdom and they've been
interested in visiting with you.......if you make it in, that is.
Bush: "My answer is bring them on." (On Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003)
God: One of them is Karla Faye Tucker. Remember the one you taunted when she asked you for mercy?
Bush: Oh, yeah....her. What a whiner. But, God, with all due respect, should I have pardoned her just
because Pat Robertson asked me to?
God: Who?
Bush: Pat Robertson.
God: Doesn't ring a bell. Let's move on....... Tell me, George, in your heart of hearts, what do you think of war?
Bush: "I think war is a dangerous place." (Washington, D.C., May 7, 2000)
God: Do you believe you worked for piece?
Bush: "The second pillar of peace and security in our world is the willingness of free nations, when the last resort
arrives, to retain aggression and evil by force." (Bush, speaking in London, England, Nov. 19, 2003)
God: What about the families of those who have fought and died in Iraq so that you, Cheney, Rimsfeld,
and Wolfowitz could get control of their oilfields?
Bush: "Obviously, I pray every day there's less casualty." (Fort Hood, Texas, April 11, 2004) But, we went there to
free the Iraqi people from Sadaam Hussein! [my words]
God: George, George. This is God you're talking to, remember?
Bush: "The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were president of the
United States, and we’d be a lot better off." (Bush at the second presidential debate in St. Louis, Oct. 8, 2004.)
God: Say, what?
Bush: "The world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership." (Source: The Boston Globe, Oct. 29, 2003)
God: What are your feelings for those families who have lost loved ones in the war?
Bush: "There's only one person who hugs the mothers and the widows, the wives and the kids upon the death
of their loved one. Others hug but having committed the troops, I've got an additional responsibility to
hug and that's me and I know what it's like." (Source: ABC News Transcripts, "President Bush and First Lady Bush
'20/20' Year-End Interview," Dec. 13, 2002
God: Let's move on. Do you believe you did a good job with the economy as president?
Bush: "By making the right choices, we can make the right choice for our future." (Bush, sharing insights into improving
Americans' health and fitness Source: The White House, "President Bush Highlights Health and Fitness Initiative: Remarks by the
President on Fitness," July 18, 2003)
God: But, did you bring experts in to consult about the best economic path to take for the country?
Bush: "We don't believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans." (Scranton, Pa., Sept. 6, 2000)
God: Okay, but you do have a budget, right?
Bush: "It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."- (Reuters, May 5, 2000)
God: Having an MBA degree from Harvard, I need to know your economic philosophy once and for all.
Bush: Okay. "Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits
are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases.
There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers,
affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be
— or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's
a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed
to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed
to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast
benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red."
—George W. Bush, explaining his plan to save Social Security, Tampa, Fla., Feb. 4, 2005
God: There's a talking ass in the Old Testament that made more sense than you, but let me take a stab at it.....
Are you talking about Social Security?
Bush: Over your head a little?
God: Way over my head. Why didn't you listen more to the Democrats?
Bush: "They want the Federal Government controling Social Security like it's some kind of Federal program."
(ST. CHARLES, MO., NOV. 2, 2000)
God: But........never mind. You gave huge tax cuts to the absolute wealthiest Americans, George. Why?
Bush: "We ought to make the pie higher." (SOUTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN DEBATE, FEB. 15, 2000)
God: You want the pie higher?
Bush: "See, without the tax relief package, there would have been a deficit, but there wouldn't have been the commiserate—
not 'commiserate'—the kick to our economy that occurred as a result of the tax relief."
God: But, George, all the money you gave away is the main reason for the deficit! It kicked the economy alright. Right in the ribs!
Bush: "Let me tell you my thoughts about tax relief. When your economy is kind of ooching along, it's important to let people
have more of their own money." (Boston, Oct. 4, 2002) "It's very important for folks to understand that when there's more
trade, there's more commerce." (Quebec City, Canada, April 21, 2001)
God: That's not a smart answer at all. And you actually graduated from Harvard with an MBA degree?
Bush: "I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating [me]." (U.S. News & World Report, April 3, 2000)
God: You're forgetting, George. I'm God. Anyway, let's try foreign policy. What was the driving force behind your foreign policy?
Bush: "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." (as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002)
God: Yeah, tell me about it. But, what is your general theory to solving the problems of mankind?
Bush: "[W]hether they be Christian, Jew, or Muslim, or Hindu, people have heard the universal call to love a neighbor just like
they'd like to be called themselves." (Washington, Oct. 8, 2003)
God: Okay.....I guess. What else?
Bush: "We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
God: What?
Bush: "It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
God: You are in the solar system, George.
Bush: Well, I guess you oughta know! (henh, henh, henh, henh, henh)
God: (I should have given him a different laugh) Listen carefully. Give me something specific that you've done that
showed you cared for my people around the world.
Bush: "We had a good Cabinet meeting, talked about a lot of issues. Secretary of State and Defense brought us up to
date about our desires to spread freedom and peace around the world." (Washington, D.C., Aug. 1, 2003)
God: Were any decisions made?
Bush: "Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace." (Washington, D.C., July 25, 2003)
God: What!?
Bush: I don't chew my cabbage twice.
God: Do you know who you're talking to?
Bush: "I don't bring God into my life to—to, you know, kind of be a political person." (Interview with Tom Brokaw
aboard Air Force One, April 24, 2003)
God: And I'm not "kind of a political person." I'm neither Democrat or Republican. But, you've convinced so many people
on earth that you were such a moral, Christian man of God who only wanted to follow my instructions and do the
right things, I just think it's fair that you convince me, too....especially if you think you're going to park your butt
inside these gates for eternity!!
Bush: Okay, okay......don't get your robes in a wad. What is it you have to know, God? No offense, but I'm in
a bit of a hurry. Laura's waiting, you know.
God: What is your idea of justice, George?
Bush: "Justice ought to be fair." (speaking at the Whitehouse Economic Conference, Dec 15, 2004)
God: I'm really concerned about you. Do you have any concept at all about the huge problems on earth?
Bush: Yes, I do. "In 2000, alone, obesity costs totaled the country an estimated cost of $117 billion."
(Bush, promoting his Health and Fitness Initiative)
God: I see no purpose in pursuing this any longer. I may as well let you in with the others.
Bush: "Do you have blacks, too?" (Bush, speaking to Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
Source: Salon.com, "Bushed," Jake Tapper, June 20, 2002)
God: Yes, George. And guess what? There are gays here, also!
Bush: Seriously?
God: Is there anything else you want to know before you go in? Any question you've had all your
life that you knew only I could answer?
Bush: Yeah, as a matter of fact.
God: Okay, what is it?
Bush: "Will the highways on the Internet become more few?" (CONCORD, N.H., JAN. 29, 2000)
God: Let me get back with you on that, George.
Bush: Okay. Do you have any questions for me?
God: Yeah, Have you ever been bitch-slapped?
By John M Conley
Let's imagine for a moment that George W. Bush is being interviewed by God while on his book tour.
(and George's replies are actual quotes from Bush.)
God: Okay, George, you’re out peddling your book, let’s talk …
Bush: Okay, Lord. Shoot! Hallelujah.
God: In 1989 you made the following comment: "You know I could run for governor but I'm basically a media creation.
I've never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But that's not the kind of profile you
have to have to get elected to public office."
Bush: Did I say that?
GOD: Yes, you did, George.
BUSH: If you say so.
GOD: What caused you to change your mind?
BUSH: About what?
GOD: About your decision to run for Governor of Texas! You really don't pay attention.
Bush: "I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself,
about why I do things."—Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003
God: And you didn't have much interest in keeping up with current events, do you?
Bush: "I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get
briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves." (Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003)
GOD: But, you ended up running for Texas governor. Why?
Bush: "When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. It was us vs. them,
and it was clear who them was. Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there."
—Iowa Western Community College, Jan 21, 2000
God: What's that supposed to mean?
Bush: What?
God: Never mind. Let's move on. What was your priority as Governor of Texas.......the number
one problem you wanted to see solved?
Bush: "[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling." (Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004) "Rarely is the question
asked: Is our children learning?" (Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000)
God: Well, do you believe your own daughters did well learning within the Texas school system?
Bush: "Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis."
(CNBC, April 15, 2000) "Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy level of our
children are appalling." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004
God: Hmmmm. Ok. Can you summarize the job you feel you did as Governor?
Bush: "One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
God: And you believe your judgements were fair?
Bush: "I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future." ''I know what I believe.
I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe—I believe what I believe is right."—Rome, July 22, 2001
God: "Only I know the future, George.
Bush: "The future will be better tomorrow."
God: I wouldn't say that's true for the 152 people you executed as Governor.
Bush: "The only things that I can tell you is that every case I have reviewed I have been comfortable with the innocence
or guilt of the person that I've looked at. I do not believe we've put a guilty ... I mean innocent person to death in
the state of Texas." All Things Considered, NPR, June 16, 2000
God: Oh, but you did George. Based on your own human statistics 16 or 17% of all people executed are actually innocent.
Out of 152 people, do you know how many innocents you've allowed to die?
Bush: "I'm the master of low expectations." (Aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003)
God: And are you aware that the vast majority of those on death row are too poor to hire an attorney
who can represent them adequately?
Bush: "First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarily killers. Just because you happen to be not rich
doesn't mean you're willing to kill." (Washington, D.C., May 19, 2003)
God: My, my. How good of you. As a Christian, are you aware that even a sparrow cannot fall
to the ground without my notice?
Bush: "Just remember it's the birds that's supposed to suffer, not the hunter." (Advising quail hunter and
New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici, Roswell, N.M., Jan. 22, 2004)
God: There are several you've executed at this very moment living here in my Kingdom and they've been
interested in visiting with you.......if you make it in, that is.
Bush: "My answer is bring them on." (On Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003)
God: One of them is Karla Faye Tucker. Remember the one you taunted when she asked you for mercy?
Bush: Oh, yeah....her. What a whiner. But, God, with all due respect, should I have pardoned her just
because Pat Robertson asked me to?
God: Who?
Bush: Pat Robertson.
God: Doesn't ring a bell. Let's move on....... Tell me, George, in your heart of hearts, what do you think of war?
Bush: "I think war is a dangerous place." (Washington, D.C., May 7, 2000)
God: Do you believe you worked for piece?
Bush: "The second pillar of peace and security in our world is the willingness of free nations, when the last resort
arrives, to retain aggression and evil by force." (Bush, speaking in London, England, Nov. 19, 2003)
God: What about the families of those who have fought and died in Iraq so that you, Cheney, Rimsfeld,
and Wolfowitz could get control of their oilfields?
Bush: "Obviously, I pray every day there's less casualty." (Fort Hood, Texas, April 11, 2004) But, we went there to
free the Iraqi people from Sadaam Hussein! [my words]
God: George, George. This is God you're talking to, remember?
Bush: "The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were president of the
United States, and we’d be a lot better off." (Bush at the second presidential debate in St. Louis, Oct. 8, 2004.)
God: Say, what?
Bush: "The world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership." (Source: The Boston Globe, Oct. 29, 2003)
God: What are your feelings for those families who have lost loved ones in the war?
Bush: "There's only one person who hugs the mothers and the widows, the wives and the kids upon the death
of their loved one. Others hug but having committed the troops, I've got an additional responsibility to
hug and that's me and I know what it's like." (Source: ABC News Transcripts, "President Bush and First Lady Bush
'20/20' Year-End Interview," Dec. 13, 2002
God: Let's move on. Do you believe you did a good job with the economy as president?
Bush: "By making the right choices, we can make the right choice for our future." (Bush, sharing insights into improving
Americans' health and fitness Source: The White House, "President Bush Highlights Health and Fitness Initiative: Remarks by the
President on Fitness," July 18, 2003)
God: But, did you bring experts in to consult about the best economic path to take for the country?
Bush: "We don't believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans." (Scranton, Pa., Sept. 6, 2000)
God: Okay, but you do have a budget, right?
Bush: "It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."- (Reuters, May 5, 2000)
God: Having an MBA degree from Harvard, I need to know your economic philosophy once and for all.
Bush: Okay. "Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits
are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases.
There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers,
affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be
— or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's
a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed
to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed
to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast
benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red."
—George W. Bush, explaining his plan to save Social Security, Tampa, Fla., Feb. 4, 2005
God: There's a talking ass in the Old Testament that made more sense than you, but let me take a stab at it.....
Are you talking about Social Security?
Bush: Over your head a little?
God: Way over my head. Why didn't you listen more to the Democrats?
Bush: "They want the Federal Government controling Social Security like it's some kind of Federal program."
(ST. CHARLES, MO., NOV. 2, 2000)
God: But........never mind. You gave huge tax cuts to the absolute wealthiest Americans, George. Why?
Bush: "We ought to make the pie higher." (SOUTH CAROLINA REPUBLICAN DEBATE, FEB. 15, 2000)
God: You want the pie higher?
Bush: "See, without the tax relief package, there would have been a deficit, but there wouldn't have been the commiserate—
not 'commiserate'—the kick to our economy that occurred as a result of the tax relief."
God: But, George, all the money you gave away is the main reason for the deficit! It kicked the economy alright. Right in the ribs!
Bush: "Let me tell you my thoughts about tax relief. When your economy is kind of ooching along, it's important to let people
have more of their own money." (Boston, Oct. 4, 2002) "It's very important for folks to understand that when there's more
trade, there's more commerce." (Quebec City, Canada, April 21, 2001)
God: That's not a smart answer at all. And you actually graduated from Harvard with an MBA degree?
Bush: "I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating [me]." (U.S. News & World Report, April 3, 2000)
God: You're forgetting, George. I'm God. Anyway, let's try foreign policy. What was the driving force behind your foreign policy?
Bush: "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." (as quoted by the New York Daily News, April 23, 2002)
God: Yeah, tell me about it. But, what is your general theory to solving the problems of mankind?
Bush: "[W]hether they be Christian, Jew, or Muslim, or Hindu, people have heard the universal call to love a neighbor just like
they'd like to be called themselves." (Washington, Oct. 8, 2003)
God: Okay.....I guess. What else?
Bush: "We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
God: What?
Bush: "It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
God: You are in the solar system, George.
Bush: Well, I guess you oughta know! (henh, henh, henh, henh, henh)
God: (I should have given him a different laugh) Listen carefully. Give me something specific that you've done that
showed you cared for my people around the world.
Bush: "We had a good Cabinet meeting, talked about a lot of issues. Secretary of State and Defense brought us up to
date about our desires to spread freedom and peace around the world." (Washington, D.C., Aug. 1, 2003)
God: Were any decisions made?
Bush: "Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace." (Washington, D.C., July 25, 2003)
God: What!?
Bush: I don't chew my cabbage twice.
God: Do you know who you're talking to?
Bush: "I don't bring God into my life to—to, you know, kind of be a political person." (Interview with Tom Brokaw
aboard Air Force One, April 24, 2003)
God: And I'm not "kind of a political person." I'm neither Democrat or Republican. But, you've convinced so many people
on earth that you were such a moral, Christian man of God who only wanted to follow my instructions and do the
right things, I just think it's fair that you convince me, too....especially if you think you're going to park your butt
inside these gates for eternity!!
Bush: Okay, okay......don't get your robes in a wad. What is it you have to know, God? No offense, but I'm in
a bit of a hurry. Laura's waiting, you know.
God: What is your idea of justice, George?
Bush: "Justice ought to be fair." (speaking at the Whitehouse Economic Conference, Dec 15, 2004)
God: I'm really concerned about you. Do you have any concept at all about the huge problems on earth?
Bush: Yes, I do. "In 2000, alone, obesity costs totaled the country an estimated cost of $117 billion."
(Bush, promoting his Health and Fitness Initiative)
God: I see no purpose in pursuing this any longer. I may as well let you in with the others.
Bush: "Do you have blacks, too?" (Bush, speaking to Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
Source: Salon.com, "Bushed," Jake Tapper, June 20, 2002)
God: Yes, George. And guess what? There are gays here, also!
Bush: Seriously?
God: Is there anything else you want to know before you go in? Any question you've had all your
life that you knew only I could answer?
Bush: Yeah, as a matter of fact.
God: Okay, what is it?
Bush: "Will the highways on the Internet become more few?" (CONCORD, N.H., JAN. 29, 2000)
God: Let me get back with you on that, George.
Bush: Okay. Do you have any questions for me?
God: Yeah, Have you ever been bitch-slapped?
THE SENIOR ALPHABET
THE SENIOR ALPHABET
A is for Apple, and B is for Boat,
That used to be right, But now it won't float!
Age before Beauty is what we once said,
But let's be a bit more realistic instead:
Now A's for arthritis; B's the bad back,
C is the chest pains, perhaps cardiac?
D is for dental decay and decline,
E is for eyesight, can't read that top line!
F is for fissures and fluid retention,
G is for gas which I'd rather not mention.
H is high blood pressure--I'd rather it low;
I for incisions with scars you can show.
J is for joints, out of socket, won't mend,
K is for knees that crack when they bend.
L for libido, what happened to sex?
M is for memory, I forget what comes next.
N is neuralgia, in nerves way down low;
O is for osteo, the bones that don't grow!
P for prescription's, I have quite a few,
Just give me a pill. I'll be good as new!
Q is for queasy, is it fatal or flu?
R for reflux, one meal turns to two.
S for sleepless nights, counting my fears,
T for Tinnitus; there's bells in my ears!
U is for urinary; big troubles with flow;
V is for vertigo, that's "dizzy," you know
W is for worry. Now what's going 'round?
X is for X ray, and what might be found.
Y is another year I'm left here behind,
Z is for zest that I still have in my mind.
I've survived all the symptoms, my body's deployed,
And I've kept twenty-six doctors fully employed
A is for Apple, and B is for Boat,
That used to be right, But now it won't float!
Age before Beauty is what we once said,
But let's be a bit more realistic instead:
Now A's for arthritis; B's the bad back,
C is the chest pains, perhaps cardiac?
D is for dental decay and decline,
E is for eyesight, can't read that top line!
F is for fissures and fluid retention,
G is for gas which I'd rather not mention.
H is high blood pressure--I'd rather it low;
I for incisions with scars you can show.
J is for joints, out of socket, won't mend,
K is for knees that crack when they bend.
L for libido, what happened to sex?
M is for memory, I forget what comes next.
N is neuralgia, in nerves way down low;
O is for osteo, the bones that don't grow!
P for prescription's, I have quite a few,
Just give me a pill. I'll be good as new!
Q is for queasy, is it fatal or flu?
R for reflux, one meal turns to two.
S for sleepless nights, counting my fears,
T for Tinnitus; there's bells in my ears!
U is for urinary; big troubles with flow;
V is for vertigo, that's "dizzy," you know
W is for worry. Now what's going 'round?
X is for X ray, and what might be found.
Y is another year I'm left here behind,
Z is for zest that I still have in my mind.
I've survived all the symptoms, my body's deployed,
And I've kept twenty-six doctors fully employed
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Panel Seeks Social Security Cuts and Tax Increases
Panel Seeks Social Security Cuts and Tax Increases
By JACKIE CALMES
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: November 10, 2010
WASHINGTON — The chairmen of President Obama’s bipartisan commission on reducing the national debt outlined a politically provocative and economically ambitious package of spending cuts and tax increases on Wednesday, igniting a debate that is likely to grip the country for years.
The plan calls for deep cuts in domestic and military spending, a gradual 15-cents-a-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax, limiting or eliminating popular tax breaks in return for lower rates, and benefit cuts and an increased retirement age for Social Security.
Those changes and others, none of which would take effect before 2012 to avoid undermining the tepid economic recovery, would erase nearly $4 trillion from projected deficits through 2020, the proposal says, and stabilize the accumulated debt.
“It’s time to lay it out on the table and let the American people start to chew on it,” said Alan K. Simpson, the former Republican Senate leader who is one of the co-chairmen, along with Erskine B. Bowles, who was White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton.
Their outline will be the basis for negotiation within the commission, which has a Dec. 1 deadline for submitting a final plan. It represents a challenge to both parties: to Mr. Obama and the Democrats, to show in the wake of the midterm election that they are serious about their pledges to address long-term deficits, and to Republicans, who for the most part have ruled out consideration of tax increases even as they have promised new adherence to fiscal responsibility.
Liberal groups immediately condemned the plan when news of it broke, for its Social Security and Medicare changes and for the scope of the spending cuts. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, in a statement called it “simply unacceptable.”
The furor on the left was not matched — yet — by a similar outcry from the right to the draft’s proposed revenue increases, cuts to the military or other options.
The plan has many elements with the potential to draw intense political fire. It lays out options for overhauling the tax code that include limiting or eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit. It envisions cutting Pentagon weapons programs and paring back almost all domestic programs.
The plan would reduce cost-of-living increases for all federal programs, including Social Security. It would reduce projected Social Security benefits to most retirees in later decades, though low-income people would get higher benefits. The retirement age for full benefits would be slowly raised to 69 from 67 by 2075, with a “hardship exemption” for people who physically cannot work past 62. And higher levels of income would be subject to payroll taxes.
But the plan would not count Social Security savings toward the overall deficit-reduction goal that Mr. Obama set for fiscal year 2015, reflecting the chairmen’s sensitivity to liberal critics who have complained that Social Security should be fixed only for its own sake, not to help balance the nation’s books.
Mr. Obama created the commission last February in the hope it would provide political cover for bold action against deficits in 2011. His stance now, in the wake of his party’s drubbing, will go a long way toward telling whether he tacks to the political center — by embracing such proposals — or shifts to the left and leaves them on a shelf.
For Republicans, the chairmen’s proposals and a similar report coming next week from a private bipartisan group will challenge their contention that the budget can be balanced by spending cuts alone. That is a claim that many conservative economists and budget analysts reject, given the scale of projected debt as the baby boom generation retires and begins claiming costly federal benefits, after a severe recession.
Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson said their plan was “a starting point” as members of the commission met behind closed doors to consider it.
That was clear from the initial reactions of the members, nine of them Democrats, seven Republicans. None embraced the package and several made clear they would not support it without big changes.
“I think every member of the commission would agree that this is not the plan,” said Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, who is perhaps the panel’s most liberal member.
The group had made no decisions before the midterm elections, to avoid politicizing the painful options. Even so, the election results — by emboldening victorious antitax conservatives and having led to the defeat of many fiscally conservative Congressional Democrats — are widely seen as having reduced the already slim chance that a supermajority of the commission could agree to a package of proposals by Dec. 1.
Under Mr. Obama’s executive order creating the panel of 12 members of Congress and six private citizens, 14 of the 18 commissioners must agree in order to send any package to Congress for a vote in December. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and Ms. Pelosi, who will remain the speaker until January, have promised in writing that the Senate would vote first and, if it approves a plan, the House would vote.
“I think it’s possible” that 14 members will agree, said Senator Tom Coburn, a conservative Oklahoma Republican who worked closely with the chairmen on proposed reductions from the military and in so-called tax expenditures, the myriad tax breaks for individuals and businesses that cost more than $1 trillion a year. “You don’t know until you see what the final plan is.”
In five hours of deliberations on Wednesday, the commission did not discuss the plan’s particulars much but instead talked at length about whether a lame-duck Congress would have time to write specific legislation and then vote, members said in interviews. It was unclear, they said, whether that was a sign other members thought the commission actually could reach agreement, or whether they were hiding behind concerns about legislative procedures to avoid tough policy decisions.
“At least people stayed in the room,” Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union, said in an interview, recalling his concerns and others’ that Republicans would walk out if taxes were on the table and Democrats if Social Security and other spending programs were.
Right now the biggest issue facing the lame-duck Congress is whether to extend the Bush-era income tax cuts, which expire Dec. 31, for all taxpayers, as Republicans want, or for income below $250,000, as Mr. Obama and Democrats want. The Bowles-Simpson plan includes one option that assumes only the lower-income rates are extended and another that ends all Bush tax rates and replaces the tax code with simpler, lower rates and many fewer tax breaks.
Extending all the Bush tax cuts through 2020 would add more than $4 trillion to the debt — coincidentally, about the same amount that the chairmen’s painful options are designed to cut in the same time frame.
Their proposed simplification of the tax code would repeal or modify a number of popular tax breaks — including the deductibility of mortgage interest payments — so that income tax rates could be reduced across the board. Under one option, individual income tax rates would decline to as low as 8 percent for the lowest income bracket (it is now 10 percent) and to 23 percent for the highest bracket (now 35 percent). The corporate tax rate, now 35 percent, would be reduced to as low as 26 percent.
But how low the rates are set would depend on how many tax breaks are reduced or eliminated. Some of them, including the mortgage interest deduction and the exemption from taxes for employees’ health benefits, are political sacred cows.
The 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax would rise by 15 cents between 2013 and 2015 so that transportation spending no longer requires money from the general treasury.
The plan would cut $2 from spending for every $1 in new revenues. Total spending would be about 22 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, and revenues would be held to 21 percent.
Cuts in annual discretionary spending, domestic and military, would be the largest in recent decades. Farm subsidies would be reduced. To further reduce growth in the fast-growing entitlement programs, the plan would expand on the hard-won Medicare cost savings in Mr. Obama’s health care law. And it would limit malpractice awards, long a Republican goal.
David M. Herszenhorn contributed reporting.
By JACKIE CALMES
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: November 10, 2010
WASHINGTON — The chairmen of President Obama’s bipartisan commission on reducing the national debt outlined a politically provocative and economically ambitious package of spending cuts and tax increases on Wednesday, igniting a debate that is likely to grip the country for years.
The plan calls for deep cuts in domestic and military spending, a gradual 15-cents-a-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax, limiting or eliminating popular tax breaks in return for lower rates, and benefit cuts and an increased retirement age for Social Security.
Those changes and others, none of which would take effect before 2012 to avoid undermining the tepid economic recovery, would erase nearly $4 trillion from projected deficits through 2020, the proposal says, and stabilize the accumulated debt.
“It’s time to lay it out on the table and let the American people start to chew on it,” said Alan K. Simpson, the former Republican Senate leader who is one of the co-chairmen, along with Erskine B. Bowles, who was White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton.
Their outline will be the basis for negotiation within the commission, which has a Dec. 1 deadline for submitting a final plan. It represents a challenge to both parties: to Mr. Obama and the Democrats, to show in the wake of the midterm election that they are serious about their pledges to address long-term deficits, and to Republicans, who for the most part have ruled out consideration of tax increases even as they have promised new adherence to fiscal responsibility.
Liberal groups immediately condemned the plan when news of it broke, for its Social Security and Medicare changes and for the scope of the spending cuts. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, in a statement called it “simply unacceptable.”
The furor on the left was not matched — yet — by a similar outcry from the right to the draft’s proposed revenue increases, cuts to the military or other options.
The plan has many elements with the potential to draw intense political fire. It lays out options for overhauling the tax code that include limiting or eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit. It envisions cutting Pentagon weapons programs and paring back almost all domestic programs.
The plan would reduce cost-of-living increases for all federal programs, including Social Security. It would reduce projected Social Security benefits to most retirees in later decades, though low-income people would get higher benefits. The retirement age for full benefits would be slowly raised to 69 from 67 by 2075, with a “hardship exemption” for people who physically cannot work past 62. And higher levels of income would be subject to payroll taxes.
But the plan would not count Social Security savings toward the overall deficit-reduction goal that Mr. Obama set for fiscal year 2015, reflecting the chairmen’s sensitivity to liberal critics who have complained that Social Security should be fixed only for its own sake, not to help balance the nation’s books.
Mr. Obama created the commission last February in the hope it would provide political cover for bold action against deficits in 2011. His stance now, in the wake of his party’s drubbing, will go a long way toward telling whether he tacks to the political center — by embracing such proposals — or shifts to the left and leaves them on a shelf.
For Republicans, the chairmen’s proposals and a similar report coming next week from a private bipartisan group will challenge their contention that the budget can be balanced by spending cuts alone. That is a claim that many conservative economists and budget analysts reject, given the scale of projected debt as the baby boom generation retires and begins claiming costly federal benefits, after a severe recession.
Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson said their plan was “a starting point” as members of the commission met behind closed doors to consider it.
That was clear from the initial reactions of the members, nine of them Democrats, seven Republicans. None embraced the package and several made clear they would not support it without big changes.
“I think every member of the commission would agree that this is not the plan,” said Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, who is perhaps the panel’s most liberal member.
The group had made no decisions before the midterm elections, to avoid politicizing the painful options. Even so, the election results — by emboldening victorious antitax conservatives and having led to the defeat of many fiscally conservative Congressional Democrats — are widely seen as having reduced the already slim chance that a supermajority of the commission could agree to a package of proposals by Dec. 1.
Under Mr. Obama’s executive order creating the panel of 12 members of Congress and six private citizens, 14 of the 18 commissioners must agree in order to send any package to Congress for a vote in December. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and Ms. Pelosi, who will remain the speaker until January, have promised in writing that the Senate would vote first and, if it approves a plan, the House would vote.
“I think it’s possible” that 14 members will agree, said Senator Tom Coburn, a conservative Oklahoma Republican who worked closely with the chairmen on proposed reductions from the military and in so-called tax expenditures, the myriad tax breaks for individuals and businesses that cost more than $1 trillion a year. “You don’t know until you see what the final plan is.”
In five hours of deliberations on Wednesday, the commission did not discuss the plan’s particulars much but instead talked at length about whether a lame-duck Congress would have time to write specific legislation and then vote, members said in interviews. It was unclear, they said, whether that was a sign other members thought the commission actually could reach agreement, or whether they were hiding behind concerns about legislative procedures to avoid tough policy decisions.
“At least people stayed in the room,” Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union, said in an interview, recalling his concerns and others’ that Republicans would walk out if taxes were on the table and Democrats if Social Security and other spending programs were.
Right now the biggest issue facing the lame-duck Congress is whether to extend the Bush-era income tax cuts, which expire Dec. 31, for all taxpayers, as Republicans want, or for income below $250,000, as Mr. Obama and Democrats want. The Bowles-Simpson plan includes one option that assumes only the lower-income rates are extended and another that ends all Bush tax rates and replaces the tax code with simpler, lower rates and many fewer tax breaks.
Extending all the Bush tax cuts through 2020 would add more than $4 trillion to the debt — coincidentally, about the same amount that the chairmen’s painful options are designed to cut in the same time frame.
Their proposed simplification of the tax code would repeal or modify a number of popular tax breaks — including the deductibility of mortgage interest payments — so that income tax rates could be reduced across the board. Under one option, individual income tax rates would decline to as low as 8 percent for the lowest income bracket (it is now 10 percent) and to 23 percent for the highest bracket (now 35 percent). The corporate tax rate, now 35 percent, would be reduced to as low as 26 percent.
But how low the rates are set would depend on how many tax breaks are reduced or eliminated. Some of them, including the mortgage interest deduction and the exemption from taxes for employees’ health benefits, are political sacred cows.
The 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax would rise by 15 cents between 2013 and 2015 so that transportation spending no longer requires money from the general treasury.
The plan would cut $2 from spending for every $1 in new revenues. Total spending would be about 22 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, and revenues would be held to 21 percent.
Cuts in annual discretionary spending, domestic and military, would be the largest in recent decades. Farm subsidies would be reduced. To further reduce growth in the fast-growing entitlement programs, the plan would expand on the hard-won Medicare cost savings in Mr. Obama’s health care law. And it would limit malpractice awards, long a Republican goal.
David M. Herszenhorn contributed reporting.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
THE TEABAGGER
THE TEABAGGER
The Teabagger gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning pot of tea. He fills
his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for
minimum water quality standards.
He takes his daily psychotropic medication with his first swallow of tea.
His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure
their safety and work as advertised.
All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employer's (FOX News)
medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for
paid medical insurance reform, now The Teabagger gets it too.
He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. The Teabagger's
bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the
meat packing industry.
The Teabagger takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle
is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents,
because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on
his body and how much it contained.
The Teabagger dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he
breathes is clean because some tree-hugging liberal fought for laws to stop
industries from polluting our air.
The Teabagger begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay,
medical benefits, sick days, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because
some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards.
The Teabagger's employer accepts these standards, because The Teabagger's
employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.
If The Teabagger is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a
worker compensation or unemployment check, because some liberal didn't
think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.
It's noon time.
The Teabagger needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills.
The Teabagger's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC or FDIC because
some liberal wanted to protect The Teabagger's money from unscrupulous
bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.
The Teabagger has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his
below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided
that The Teabagger and the government would be better off if he was
educated and earned more money over his lifetime.
The Teabagger is home from work. He plans to visit his father this
evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the
drive to dad's; his car is among the safest in the world because some
liberal fought for car safety standards.
He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live
in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration, because bankers
didn't want to make rural loans.
The house didn't have electricity until some big government liberal
stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.
(Those rural Republicans would still be sitting in the dark)
He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social
Security and his union pension, because some liberal made sure he could
take care of himself so The Teabagger wouldn't have to.
After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.
He turns on a radio talk show, the host keeps saying that liberals are
bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn't tell The Teabagger that
his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit
The Teabagger enjoys throughout his day)
The Teabagger agrees, “We don't need those big government liberals
ruining our lives.”
The Teabagger gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning pot of tea. He fills
his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for
minimum water quality standards.
He takes his daily psychotropic medication with his first swallow of tea.
His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure
their safety and work as advertised.
All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employer's (FOX News)
medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for
paid medical insurance reform, now The Teabagger gets it too.
He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. The Teabagger's
bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the
meat packing industry.
The Teabagger takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle
is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents,
because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on
his body and how much it contained.
The Teabagger dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he
breathes is clean because some tree-hugging liberal fought for laws to stop
industries from polluting our air.
The Teabagger begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay,
medical benefits, sick days, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because
some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards.
The Teabagger's employer accepts these standards, because The Teabagger's
employer doesn't want his employees to call the union.
If The Teabagger is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a
worker compensation or unemployment check, because some liberal didn't
think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.
It's noon time.
The Teabagger needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills.
The Teabagger's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC or FDIC because
some liberal wanted to protect The Teabagger's money from unscrupulous
bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression.
The Teabagger has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his
below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided
that The Teabagger and the government would be better off if he was
educated and earned more money over his lifetime.
The Teabagger is home from work. He plans to visit his father this
evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the
drive to dad's; his car is among the safest in the world because some
liberal fought for car safety standards.
He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live
in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration, because bankers
didn't want to make rural loans.
The house didn't have electricity until some big government liberal
stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification.
(Those rural Republicans would still be sitting in the dark)
He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social
Security and his union pension, because some liberal made sure he could
take care of himself so The Teabagger wouldn't have to.
After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home.
He turns on a radio talk show, the host keeps saying that liberals are
bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn't tell The Teabagger that
his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit
The Teabagger enjoys throughout his day)
The Teabagger agrees, “We don't need those big government liberals
ruining our lives.”
Saturday, November 6, 2010
36 Hours in St. Martin/St. Maarten
36 Hours in St. Martin/St. Maarten
By JEREMY W. PETERS
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: November 4, 2010
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/travel/07st-martin-36hours.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha29
AMONG the accolades awarded to Caribbean islands (most beautiful beach, easiest on the budget, most relaxing), the award for most densely developed probably goes to St. Martin/St. Maarten — the half-Dutch, half-French island in the West Indies. That is not to say the island’s natural beauty is ruined. It remains a stunningly picturesque place with some of the Caribbean’s most arresting scenery (here it could win a prize, too). But all that development — boutique hotels, casinos, marinas, high-rise resorts — means visitors are never short on options. And thanks to a seemingly endless construction boom, those options keep multiplying.
A Weekend in St. Martin/St. Maarten
Friday
5 p.m.
1) FOR WINE LOVERS
Conventional wisdom holds that the Dutch side of the island (St. Maarten) operates at a faster pace than the French side (St. Martin). In truth, both are bustling — the main difference being that the Dutch side has more branded full-service resorts, while the French side has more mom-and-pops. For a warm introduction to the island, head to the French town of Grand Case and the bar at the Love Hotel (140 Boulevard de Grand Case; 590-590-29-87-14; love-sxm.com), which sits on stilts over the sand, offering an idyllic perch to watch the sun dip into the sea. Opened last year by a young French couple, the hotel has a stellar wine list (5 euros, or $6.80 at $1.36 to the euro, a glass), and predinner appetizers like a beef carpaccio (11 euros).
8 p.m.
2) ANDES ON THE CARIBBEAN
You’ll have plenty of time to sample the buttery-rich French cuisine. Opt for something a little less conventional at Patagonia (Plaza Puerta del Sol, Simpson Bay Yacht Club; 599-544-3394; www.patagonia-restaurant.com), an Argentine steakhouse that opened this summer on the Dutch side. No Caribbean kitsch here: the atmosphere is modern and sleek, with dark gray slate and stone walls. The tenderloins and rib eyes, grass-fed and flown in from Argentina ($25 to $38), come with your choice of sauce (criolla, chimichurri or malbec), a salad and a side dish.
10 p.m.
3) ROLL THE DICE
Gambling is one of St. Maarten’s biggest draws. And aside from the blare of a yacht horn or the squeak of a tree frog, the synthesized ping of the slot machine might be the island’s most recognizable sound. Near the French border, the Princess Casino at Port de Plaisance (Cole Bay; 599-544-4311; princessportdeplaisance.com) feels removed from the ceaseless drumbeat. In addition to the usual blackjack, poker and roulette tables, the casino is known for its colorful floor shows with dancers in feather headdresses and billowing gowns gliding across the stage.
Saturday
10 a.m.
4) PRIME BEACH
Few experiences are as uniquely St. Martin as a stroll down the beach at Orient Bay, known for its pulsing beach bars at one end and a naturist resort at the other. You’ve been warned: this is a clothing-optional beach. It faces east, so get there early and rent a chair and umbrella from one of the dozen or so bars that line the beach. The going rate for two chairs and an umbrella is about 15 euros, and a couple of drinks are usually part of the deal. Kakao Beach (on Orient Bay; 590-590-87-43-26; kakaobeach.com) has one of the biggest spreads on the water and some of the nicest scenery, offering not only chairs in the sand but also thatch-canopied tables spread out in a small grove of palm trees.
Noon
5) SEAFOOD RIVIERA
The small town of Grand Case, on the French side, is the island’s culinary center. Elegant French bistros line both sides of the main street, which hugs the beach. Talk of the Town Too (Boulevard de Grand Case) won’t win awards for refinement. Its open-air dining area consists of little more than picnic tables, a grill and a chalkboard menu. But there is a satisfying sea breeze, and you can haggle for your meal. Tell the servers what the competition is charging for a grilled lobster, and they might cut you a deal. For about $20, expect a decent-size lobster tail with a couple of homemade sides like rice and beans and corn on the cob. For dessert, just a minute on foot down the street is La Crepe en Rose (Boulevard de Grand Case), a pink-and-white food cart that serves crepes with a variety of flavors, including strawberry and apricot jam and Nutella, for 3 or 3.50 euros.
2 p.m.
6) JUST A LITTLE FARTHER
Some of the island’s natural beauty is hidden behind artificial eyesores. Case in point: the hike through the nature preserve known as the Wilderness on the island’s northernmost tip. To get there, you have to first walk past a landfill. But once you clear the trash-strewn first leg of the trail, you will be rewarded with some of the island’s most sweeping vistas. The trail hugs a steep hill through fields of cactus and then deposits you on a rocky beach. Keep going, and you will shortly reach your reward — the pristine, secluded Petites Cayes beach.
5 p.m.
7) JET BLAST
The signs — they say “Danger” in bright red letters and depict a man getting blown off his feet by a landing jet — could not be clearer. Yet that doesn’t seem to deter people from lining up on the beach at the foot of the runway at Princess Juliana International Airport to jump up as if they could touch the approaching aircraft with their fingertips. This spectacle poses several confounding questions: Don’t they realize they can’t jump high enough to reach the planes? And don’t they realize what would happen to them if they did? Save your dignity and watch from a safe distance at nearby Sunset Beach Bar and Grill (Caravanserai Resort; 599-545-2084; sunsetsxm.com). The rumble from the approaching aircraft will still rattle your table as you savor a bottle of beer ($3) and snack on their pizzas ($11 to $15).
8 p.m.
8) QUAY-SIDE DINING
One of the most ambitious and pricey new developments to land on St. Maarten is the Porto Cupecoy (portocupecoy.com), a marina, condo, retail and restaurant complex built by Orient Express Hotels. Everything is immaculate, like the neatly arranged beach tables with umbrellas, and the carefully manicured landscaping. The same goes for its restaurants. Maximo Cafe (Porto Cupecoy; 599-554-0333), a seafood-heavy French restaurant, is gaining a reputation as one of the island’s top spots. Pastas include tagliatelle with scallops ($22); main courses include a filet of turbot with a riesling sauce ($55).
11 p.m.
9) RED RUM
Bars with traditional Caribbean flair — life preservers on the wall, an umbrella in your drink — are easy enough to find on the island. For something decidedly lacking in tropical flair, head to the Red Piano on the Dutch side (Pelican Resort; 599-544-6008). The piano, along with the walls and tabletops, is, indeed, red. Live bands play many nights, and the action goes well into the early morning hours. Try the guavaberry rum, a local specialty, made from, you guessed it, guavaberry ($8).
Sunday
9 a.m.
10) PAIN ET CHOCOLATE
A decent, and decently priced, breakfast can be hard to come by. But along the waterfront boulevard in Marigot, the capital of the French side, are dueling bakeries that serve up fresh croissants (chocolate and plain), tarts (a variety of assorted fruits like strawberry and pineapple) and éclairs: La Sucrière (Boulevard de France; 590-590-51-13-30) and Sarafina’s (Boulevard de France; 590-590-29-73-69). Five euros is about as pricey as anything gets.
Noon
11) FRENCH DIP
Some beaches are overdeveloped. Some are untouched. For something in the middle, head to Baie Rouge on the island’s French side. The beach is a wide, gradually sloping crescent of pillowy, straw-colored sand. A natural jetty juts out at one end, offering views of the soaring cliffs that bookend the beach. Access is simple. The beach lies right off a main road and there is a parking lot a few steps from the sand, another sign that on the island they build wherever there is suitable land.
IF YOU GO
A rental car is recommended for getting around the island.
The Hotel L’Esplanade (Grand Case; 590-590-87-06-55; lesplanade.com) is a charming boutique hotel on the French side, overlooking downtown Grand Case and the beach. All rooms have private terraces and kitchens, with rates starting at $245 through Dec. 19.
The Love Hotel (140 Boulevard de Grand Case; 590-590-29-87-14; love-sxm.com) is right on the beach in downtown Grand Case. Its seven rooms were recently renovated with dark-wood furniture and bright white walls; from 105 euros ($142).
La Samanna Resort & Spa (Baie Longue; 800-957-6128; lasamanna.com) is the place to be on St. Martin if you want friends to gasp with jealousy. The entry price is high: rooms start at about $495 this month. But this is as full-service as resorts come, and on one of the island’s prettiest stretches of beach.
By JEREMY W. PETERS
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: November 4, 2010
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/travel/07st-martin-36hours.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha29
AMONG the accolades awarded to Caribbean islands (most beautiful beach, easiest on the budget, most relaxing), the award for most densely developed probably goes to St. Martin/St. Maarten — the half-Dutch, half-French island in the West Indies. That is not to say the island’s natural beauty is ruined. It remains a stunningly picturesque place with some of the Caribbean’s most arresting scenery (here it could win a prize, too). But all that development — boutique hotels, casinos, marinas, high-rise resorts — means visitors are never short on options. And thanks to a seemingly endless construction boom, those options keep multiplying.
A Weekend in St. Martin/St. Maarten
Friday
5 p.m.
1) FOR WINE LOVERS
Conventional wisdom holds that the Dutch side of the island (St. Maarten) operates at a faster pace than the French side (St. Martin). In truth, both are bustling — the main difference being that the Dutch side has more branded full-service resorts, while the French side has more mom-and-pops. For a warm introduction to the island, head to the French town of Grand Case and the bar at the Love Hotel (140 Boulevard de Grand Case; 590-590-29-87-14; love-sxm.com), which sits on stilts over the sand, offering an idyllic perch to watch the sun dip into the sea. Opened last year by a young French couple, the hotel has a stellar wine list (5 euros, or $6.80 at $1.36 to the euro, a glass), and predinner appetizers like a beef carpaccio (11 euros).
8 p.m.
2) ANDES ON THE CARIBBEAN
You’ll have plenty of time to sample the buttery-rich French cuisine. Opt for something a little less conventional at Patagonia (Plaza Puerta del Sol, Simpson Bay Yacht Club; 599-544-3394; www.patagonia-restaurant.com), an Argentine steakhouse that opened this summer on the Dutch side. No Caribbean kitsch here: the atmosphere is modern and sleek, with dark gray slate and stone walls. The tenderloins and rib eyes, grass-fed and flown in from Argentina ($25 to $38), come with your choice of sauce (criolla, chimichurri or malbec), a salad and a side dish.
10 p.m.
3) ROLL THE DICE
Gambling is one of St. Maarten’s biggest draws. And aside from the blare of a yacht horn or the squeak of a tree frog, the synthesized ping of the slot machine might be the island’s most recognizable sound. Near the French border, the Princess Casino at Port de Plaisance (Cole Bay; 599-544-4311; princessportdeplaisance.com) feels removed from the ceaseless drumbeat. In addition to the usual blackjack, poker and roulette tables, the casino is known for its colorful floor shows with dancers in feather headdresses and billowing gowns gliding across the stage.
Saturday
10 a.m.
4) PRIME BEACH
Few experiences are as uniquely St. Martin as a stroll down the beach at Orient Bay, known for its pulsing beach bars at one end and a naturist resort at the other. You’ve been warned: this is a clothing-optional beach. It faces east, so get there early and rent a chair and umbrella from one of the dozen or so bars that line the beach. The going rate for two chairs and an umbrella is about 15 euros, and a couple of drinks are usually part of the deal. Kakao Beach (on Orient Bay; 590-590-87-43-26; kakaobeach.com) has one of the biggest spreads on the water and some of the nicest scenery, offering not only chairs in the sand but also thatch-canopied tables spread out in a small grove of palm trees.
Noon
5) SEAFOOD RIVIERA
The small town of Grand Case, on the French side, is the island’s culinary center. Elegant French bistros line both sides of the main street, which hugs the beach. Talk of the Town Too (Boulevard de Grand Case) won’t win awards for refinement. Its open-air dining area consists of little more than picnic tables, a grill and a chalkboard menu. But there is a satisfying sea breeze, and you can haggle for your meal. Tell the servers what the competition is charging for a grilled lobster, and they might cut you a deal. For about $20, expect a decent-size lobster tail with a couple of homemade sides like rice and beans and corn on the cob. For dessert, just a minute on foot down the street is La Crepe en Rose (Boulevard de Grand Case), a pink-and-white food cart that serves crepes with a variety of flavors, including strawberry and apricot jam and Nutella, for 3 or 3.50 euros.
2 p.m.
6) JUST A LITTLE FARTHER
Some of the island’s natural beauty is hidden behind artificial eyesores. Case in point: the hike through the nature preserve known as the Wilderness on the island’s northernmost tip. To get there, you have to first walk past a landfill. But once you clear the trash-strewn first leg of the trail, you will be rewarded with some of the island’s most sweeping vistas. The trail hugs a steep hill through fields of cactus and then deposits you on a rocky beach. Keep going, and you will shortly reach your reward — the pristine, secluded Petites Cayes beach.
5 p.m.
7) JET BLAST
The signs — they say “Danger” in bright red letters and depict a man getting blown off his feet by a landing jet — could not be clearer. Yet that doesn’t seem to deter people from lining up on the beach at the foot of the runway at Princess Juliana International Airport to jump up as if they could touch the approaching aircraft with their fingertips. This spectacle poses several confounding questions: Don’t they realize they can’t jump high enough to reach the planes? And don’t they realize what would happen to them if they did? Save your dignity and watch from a safe distance at nearby Sunset Beach Bar and Grill (Caravanserai Resort; 599-545-2084; sunsetsxm.com). The rumble from the approaching aircraft will still rattle your table as you savor a bottle of beer ($3) and snack on their pizzas ($11 to $15).
8 p.m.
8) QUAY-SIDE DINING
One of the most ambitious and pricey new developments to land on St. Maarten is the Porto Cupecoy (portocupecoy.com), a marina, condo, retail and restaurant complex built by Orient Express Hotels. Everything is immaculate, like the neatly arranged beach tables with umbrellas, and the carefully manicured landscaping. The same goes for its restaurants. Maximo Cafe (Porto Cupecoy; 599-554-0333), a seafood-heavy French restaurant, is gaining a reputation as one of the island’s top spots. Pastas include tagliatelle with scallops ($22); main courses include a filet of turbot with a riesling sauce ($55).
11 p.m.
9) RED RUM
Bars with traditional Caribbean flair — life preservers on the wall, an umbrella in your drink — are easy enough to find on the island. For something decidedly lacking in tropical flair, head to the Red Piano on the Dutch side (Pelican Resort; 599-544-6008). The piano, along with the walls and tabletops, is, indeed, red. Live bands play many nights, and the action goes well into the early morning hours. Try the guavaberry rum, a local specialty, made from, you guessed it, guavaberry ($8).
Sunday
9 a.m.
10) PAIN ET CHOCOLATE
A decent, and decently priced, breakfast can be hard to come by. But along the waterfront boulevard in Marigot, the capital of the French side, are dueling bakeries that serve up fresh croissants (chocolate and plain), tarts (a variety of assorted fruits like strawberry and pineapple) and éclairs: La Sucrière (Boulevard de France; 590-590-51-13-30) and Sarafina’s (Boulevard de France; 590-590-29-73-69). Five euros is about as pricey as anything gets.
Noon
11) FRENCH DIP
Some beaches are overdeveloped. Some are untouched. For something in the middle, head to Baie Rouge on the island’s French side. The beach is a wide, gradually sloping crescent of pillowy, straw-colored sand. A natural jetty juts out at one end, offering views of the soaring cliffs that bookend the beach. Access is simple. The beach lies right off a main road and there is a parking lot a few steps from the sand, another sign that on the island they build wherever there is suitable land.
IF YOU GO
A rental car is recommended for getting around the island.
The Hotel L’Esplanade (Grand Case; 590-590-87-06-55; lesplanade.com) is a charming boutique hotel on the French side, overlooking downtown Grand Case and the beach. All rooms have private terraces and kitchens, with rates starting at $245 through Dec. 19.
The Love Hotel (140 Boulevard de Grand Case; 590-590-29-87-14; love-sxm.com) is right on the beach in downtown Grand Case. Its seven rooms were recently renovated with dark-wood furniture and bright white walls; from 105 euros ($142).
La Samanna Resort & Spa (Baie Longue; 800-957-6128; lasamanna.com) is the place to be on St. Martin if you want friends to gasp with jealousy. The entry price is high: rooms start at about $495 this month. But this is as full-service as resorts come, and on one of the island’s prettiest stretches of beach.
Friday, October 29, 2010
36 Hours in Venice
36 Hours in Venice
By ONDINE COHANE
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 27, 2010
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/travel/31venice-hours.html?hpw
WITH its picture-perfect canals and waterside palazzi, Venice is a romantic idyll. No wonder 18 million tourists pile onto the floating city each year. But what is surprising is that the embattled residents still manage to carve out a hometown for themselves — a pastiche of in-the-know restaurants, underground bars, quiet piazzas and calmer, outlying islands. And that’s not counting all the cultural offerings that Venetians take full advantage of. The cool art scene now goes beyond the Biennale. And instead of sinking, architectural icons have re-emerged as new landmarks.
A Weekend in Venice
Friday
4 p.m.
1) MODERN INSTALLATION
Venice’s artsy side is on display at the new Punta della Dogana (Dorsoduro 2; 39-041-523-1680; palazzograssi.it), the city’s former customs house that was transformed into a museum to hold part of the sizable art collection of the luxury goods magnate François Pinault. Completed last year, it was designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who left the bones of the stunning landmark intact but created light and airy galleries for the heavyweight contemporary work. The view from the sidewalk is just as impressive, looking back onto the Grand Canal and across to Giudecca — keep an eye out for Charles Ray’s sculpture “Boy With Frog,” his first outdoor installation.
8 p.m.
2) LAGOON TO TABLE
Dismayed by the city’s reputation for high prices and mediocre food, a consortium of restaurants formed Ristoranti della Buona Accoglienza (veneziaristoranti.it), or the Restaurants of Good Welcome, with a pledge to offer transparent pricing, full disclosure of ingredients and a commitment to culinary traditions. Among the outstanding members is Alle Testiere (Castello 5801; 39-041-522-7220; www.osterialletestiere.it), a nine-table establishment owned by a group of young Venetians that serves seasonal and local seafood like gnocchi with calamaretti and fresh grilled sea bass. Pair with a regional wine like Orto, a grassy white made in Sant’ Erasmo, an island in the Venetian Lagoon. Entrees run from 25 euros, or $34 at $1.36 to the euro, pastas from 19 ($26). Be sure to make a reservation.
10 p.m.
3) BAR SCENE
New hotel bars have woken up the city’s once-sleepy night life. Among the current hot spots is the PG, a restaurant and bar at the recently opened Palazzina Grassi (San Marco 3247; 39-041-528-4644; palazzinagrassi.it), a 16th-century palazzo that was transformed by Philippe Starck into a design hotel. Johnny Depp held court there when filming “The Tourist,” and a pop-up of Amy Sacco’s Bungalow 8 relocated to the lobby during the Venice Film Festival this year.
Saturday
10 a.m.
4) MODERN NOOK
Carlo Scarpa, the architectural godfather of Venetian modernists, is back in vogue. See why at the Fondazione Scientifica Querini Stampalia (Santa Maria Formosa Castello 5252; 39-041-271-1411; querinistampalia.it; 10 euros), where he transformed the garden and ground floor into a modernist haven in the early 1960s. Upstairs a quiet library is a great spot to read a newspaper with locals on the weekends or to see the painting “Presentation of Jesus in the Temple” by Giovanni Bellini, one of the city’s underappreciated masterpieces.
11:30 a.m.
5) SET IN STONE
In another example of the city’s new artistic drive, the Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art (Santa Croce 2076; 39-041-524-0695; museiciviciveneziani.it), housed in a white marble palazzo from the 17th century, is showcasing 40 works in steel, glass and stone by Tony Cragg, a sculptor from Liverpool. The contrast between the 21st-century work and the Baroque interiors is striking, and a recently restored second-floor gallery showcases Mr. Cragg’s pieces alongside those of Rodin. Afterward take a walk on the winding streets behind the museum, a residential enclave away from the tourist fray.
1 p.m.
6) NOTHING FISHY
Seafood doesn’t get much fresher than at Pronto Pesce (Pescheria Rialto, San Polo 319; 39-041-822-0298; prontopesce.it), a tiny street-front bar that sits next to the city’s fish market. Specials change daily, but seafood couscous, tangy anchovies under olive oil and marinated mackerel make regular appearances, along with more substantial primi like gnocchi with squid ink. Glasses of house white or bottles like Brigaldara’s Garda Garganega round out a delightful meal. Grab a stool and watch the market close up shop for the day. Appetizers from 1.50 euros, pastas from 15.
4 p.m.
7) HANDSOME ATELIERS
Forget kitschy masks and imitation Murano glass. The streets radiating off bustling Campo Santo Stefano as far as the Grand Canal are lined with one-of-a-kind galleries and small boutiques. Galleria Marina Barovier (San Marco 3202; 39-041-523-6748; barovier.it; by appointment) carries hard-to-find vintage glass pieces and items by contemporary artists that end up in museum collections. Chiarastella Cattana (San Marco 3357; 39-041-522-4369) makes tablecloths, cushion covers and duvets from luscious fabrics of her own design. Nearby, Cristina Linassi (San Marco 3537; 39-041-523-0578; cristinalinassi.it) has silk lingerie and gossamer nighties that look straight out of Sophia Loren’s closet circa 1950.
7 p.m.
8) CICCHETTI CIRCUIT
The debate over the city’s best cicchetti, or old-style tapas, is as fiery for Venetians as is politics or religion. The good news is you don’t have to choose just one. A tour might start at the bar of Trattoria da Fiori (San Marco 3461; 39-041-523-5310), where artists and residents nibble on polpette di carne (meatballs) and sip glasses of tocai. At the sleeker Naranzaria (San Polo 130; 39-041-724-1035; naranzaria.it), try the light spinach pie with a glass of wine (many of the wines offered come from the owner Count Brandolini’s own vineyards). Nearby, Cantina do Mori (San Polo 429; 39-041-522-5401) is an atmospheric old-school spot that attracts a well-heeled crowd. And Al Merca (San Polo 213; 39-346-834-0660) is the preferred choice for a Venetian spritz — prosecco, Aperol or Campari, sparkling water and a slice of lemon or orange. Cicchetti rarely exceed 2 euros a piece.
10 p.m.
9) PARTY AL FRESCO
After dinner, the large Campo Santa Margherita becomes the city’s meeting point where students grab a spritz or beer at Il Caffè (Campo Santa Margherita 2963; 39-041-528-7998), and an older, fashionable crowd meets at Osteria alla Bifora (Dorsoduro 2930; 39-041-523-6119). On warm nights the piazza becomes one big multigenerational party.
Sunday
10 a.m.
10) ITALIAN DOUGH
Join residents at Pasticceria Tonolo (Dorsoduro 3764, Calle San Pantalon; 39-041-523-7209) for the cream-filled fresh doughnuts known as krapfen. You may have to jostle Italian-style for the beloved pastry (1 euro) that sells out by noon, but it’s worth the wait.
1 p.m.
11) ISLAND IDYLL
If you’re planning a spring trip, do as the Venetians do and head to the outlying islands that dot the lagoon. Among the gems is Mazzorbo and its six-room inn and restaurant, Venissa (Fondamente di Santa Caterina, 3; 39-041-527-2281; venissa.it), which is open from March to November. Opened this year by Bisol, an Italian prosecco company, the resort has given new life to a walled vineyard dating from the 1800s. Paola Budel, the chef, who used to run the restaurant at Milan’s Principe di Savoia, serves fish from the lagoon and upper Adriatic, vegetables from the restaurant’s own orchard or adjacent islands; and wines from the nearby regions of Friuli, Veneto and Trentino. Recent dishes included figs from a nearby tree and snapper caught in the lagoon that morning. Lunch, about 70 euros. Afterward wander the main pathway along the waterfront, where a bridge connects to the more-visited island of Burano, with its vibrant pastel-colored buildings. The two islands capture what Venetians know well: you can escape the crowds in the blink of an eye if you are willing to cross the water.
IF YOU GO
Delta and Alitalia are among the airlines that fly to Venice from New York, from $663 in November. You can make your way around town by foot or vaporetto.
Opened in 2007 near the Rialto Bridge, Ca’ Sagredo (4198 Campo Santa Sofia; 39-041-241-3111; casagredohotel.com) is housed in a restored 15th-century palazzo, with 42 luxurious rooms starting at 300 euros, $408 at $1.36 to the euro.
The Novecento (San Marco 2683; 39-041-241-3765; novecento.biz) in San Marco has nine small rooms but also a fine staff, a charming garden and an excellent breakfast that’s included in the price; from 160 euros.
Outside the main island’s fray, the new Venissa (Fondamente di Santa Caterina, 3; 39-041-527-2281; venissa.it) on Mazzorbo has six nicely furnished rooms and makes a great base for exploring the lagoon. It closes Nov. 7 for the season but will continue taking reservations for spring. Rooms from 110 euros.
By ONDINE COHANE
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 27, 2010
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/travel/31venice-hours.html?hpw
WITH its picture-perfect canals and waterside palazzi, Venice is a romantic idyll. No wonder 18 million tourists pile onto the floating city each year. But what is surprising is that the embattled residents still manage to carve out a hometown for themselves — a pastiche of in-the-know restaurants, underground bars, quiet piazzas and calmer, outlying islands. And that’s not counting all the cultural offerings that Venetians take full advantage of. The cool art scene now goes beyond the Biennale. And instead of sinking, architectural icons have re-emerged as new landmarks.
A Weekend in Venice
Friday
4 p.m.
1) MODERN INSTALLATION
Venice’s artsy side is on display at the new Punta della Dogana (Dorsoduro 2; 39-041-523-1680; palazzograssi.it), the city’s former customs house that was transformed into a museum to hold part of the sizable art collection of the luxury goods magnate François Pinault. Completed last year, it was designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who left the bones of the stunning landmark intact but created light and airy galleries for the heavyweight contemporary work. The view from the sidewalk is just as impressive, looking back onto the Grand Canal and across to Giudecca — keep an eye out for Charles Ray’s sculpture “Boy With Frog,” his first outdoor installation.
8 p.m.
2) LAGOON TO TABLE
Dismayed by the city’s reputation for high prices and mediocre food, a consortium of restaurants formed Ristoranti della Buona Accoglienza (veneziaristoranti.it), or the Restaurants of Good Welcome, with a pledge to offer transparent pricing, full disclosure of ingredients and a commitment to culinary traditions. Among the outstanding members is Alle Testiere (Castello 5801; 39-041-522-7220; www.osterialletestiere.it), a nine-table establishment owned by a group of young Venetians that serves seasonal and local seafood like gnocchi with calamaretti and fresh grilled sea bass. Pair with a regional wine like Orto, a grassy white made in Sant’ Erasmo, an island in the Venetian Lagoon. Entrees run from 25 euros, or $34 at $1.36 to the euro, pastas from 19 ($26). Be sure to make a reservation.
10 p.m.
3) BAR SCENE
New hotel bars have woken up the city’s once-sleepy night life. Among the current hot spots is the PG, a restaurant and bar at the recently opened Palazzina Grassi (San Marco 3247; 39-041-528-4644; palazzinagrassi.it), a 16th-century palazzo that was transformed by Philippe Starck into a design hotel. Johnny Depp held court there when filming “The Tourist,” and a pop-up of Amy Sacco’s Bungalow 8 relocated to the lobby during the Venice Film Festival this year.
Saturday
10 a.m.
4) MODERN NOOK
Carlo Scarpa, the architectural godfather of Venetian modernists, is back in vogue. See why at the Fondazione Scientifica Querini Stampalia (Santa Maria Formosa Castello 5252; 39-041-271-1411; querinistampalia.it; 10 euros), where he transformed the garden and ground floor into a modernist haven in the early 1960s. Upstairs a quiet library is a great spot to read a newspaper with locals on the weekends or to see the painting “Presentation of Jesus in the Temple” by Giovanni Bellini, one of the city’s underappreciated masterpieces.
11:30 a.m.
5) SET IN STONE
In another example of the city’s new artistic drive, the Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art (Santa Croce 2076; 39-041-524-0695; museiciviciveneziani.it), housed in a white marble palazzo from the 17th century, is showcasing 40 works in steel, glass and stone by Tony Cragg, a sculptor from Liverpool. The contrast between the 21st-century work and the Baroque interiors is striking, and a recently restored second-floor gallery showcases Mr. Cragg’s pieces alongside those of Rodin. Afterward take a walk on the winding streets behind the museum, a residential enclave away from the tourist fray.
1 p.m.
6) NOTHING FISHY
Seafood doesn’t get much fresher than at Pronto Pesce (Pescheria Rialto, San Polo 319; 39-041-822-0298; prontopesce.it), a tiny street-front bar that sits next to the city’s fish market. Specials change daily, but seafood couscous, tangy anchovies under olive oil and marinated mackerel make regular appearances, along with more substantial primi like gnocchi with squid ink. Glasses of house white or bottles like Brigaldara’s Garda Garganega round out a delightful meal. Grab a stool and watch the market close up shop for the day. Appetizers from 1.50 euros, pastas from 15.
4 p.m.
7) HANDSOME ATELIERS
Forget kitschy masks and imitation Murano glass. The streets radiating off bustling Campo Santo Stefano as far as the Grand Canal are lined with one-of-a-kind galleries and small boutiques. Galleria Marina Barovier (San Marco 3202; 39-041-523-6748; barovier.it; by appointment) carries hard-to-find vintage glass pieces and items by contemporary artists that end up in museum collections. Chiarastella Cattana (San Marco 3357; 39-041-522-4369) makes tablecloths, cushion covers and duvets from luscious fabrics of her own design. Nearby, Cristina Linassi (San Marco 3537; 39-041-523-0578; cristinalinassi.it) has silk lingerie and gossamer nighties that look straight out of Sophia Loren’s closet circa 1950.
7 p.m.
8) CICCHETTI CIRCUIT
The debate over the city’s best cicchetti, or old-style tapas, is as fiery for Venetians as is politics or religion. The good news is you don’t have to choose just one. A tour might start at the bar of Trattoria da Fiori (San Marco 3461; 39-041-523-5310), where artists and residents nibble on polpette di carne (meatballs) and sip glasses of tocai. At the sleeker Naranzaria (San Polo 130; 39-041-724-1035; naranzaria.it), try the light spinach pie with a glass of wine (many of the wines offered come from the owner Count Brandolini’s own vineyards). Nearby, Cantina do Mori (San Polo 429; 39-041-522-5401) is an atmospheric old-school spot that attracts a well-heeled crowd. And Al Merca (San Polo 213; 39-346-834-0660) is the preferred choice for a Venetian spritz — prosecco, Aperol or Campari, sparkling water and a slice of lemon or orange. Cicchetti rarely exceed 2 euros a piece.
10 p.m.
9) PARTY AL FRESCO
After dinner, the large Campo Santa Margherita becomes the city’s meeting point where students grab a spritz or beer at Il Caffè (Campo Santa Margherita 2963; 39-041-528-7998), and an older, fashionable crowd meets at Osteria alla Bifora (Dorsoduro 2930; 39-041-523-6119). On warm nights the piazza becomes one big multigenerational party.
Sunday
10 a.m.
10) ITALIAN DOUGH
Join residents at Pasticceria Tonolo (Dorsoduro 3764, Calle San Pantalon; 39-041-523-7209) for the cream-filled fresh doughnuts known as krapfen. You may have to jostle Italian-style for the beloved pastry (1 euro) that sells out by noon, but it’s worth the wait.
1 p.m.
11) ISLAND IDYLL
If you’re planning a spring trip, do as the Venetians do and head to the outlying islands that dot the lagoon. Among the gems is Mazzorbo and its six-room inn and restaurant, Venissa (Fondamente di Santa Caterina, 3; 39-041-527-2281; venissa.it), which is open from March to November. Opened this year by Bisol, an Italian prosecco company, the resort has given new life to a walled vineyard dating from the 1800s. Paola Budel, the chef, who used to run the restaurant at Milan’s Principe di Savoia, serves fish from the lagoon and upper Adriatic, vegetables from the restaurant’s own orchard or adjacent islands; and wines from the nearby regions of Friuli, Veneto and Trentino. Recent dishes included figs from a nearby tree and snapper caught in the lagoon that morning. Lunch, about 70 euros. Afterward wander the main pathway along the waterfront, where a bridge connects to the more-visited island of Burano, with its vibrant pastel-colored buildings. The two islands capture what Venetians know well: you can escape the crowds in the blink of an eye if you are willing to cross the water.
IF YOU GO
Delta and Alitalia are among the airlines that fly to Venice from New York, from $663 in November. You can make your way around town by foot or vaporetto.
Opened in 2007 near the Rialto Bridge, Ca’ Sagredo (4198 Campo Santa Sofia; 39-041-241-3111; casagredohotel.com) is housed in a restored 15th-century palazzo, with 42 luxurious rooms starting at 300 euros, $408 at $1.36 to the euro.
The Novecento (San Marco 2683; 39-041-241-3765; novecento.biz) in San Marco has nine small rooms but also a fine staff, a charming garden and an excellent breakfast that’s included in the price; from 160 euros.
Outside the main island’s fray, the new Venissa (Fondamente di Santa Caterina, 3; 39-041-527-2281; venissa.it) on Mazzorbo has six nicely furnished rooms and makes a great base for exploring the lagoon. It closes Nov. 7 for the season but will continue taking reservations for spring. Rooms from 110 euros.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
America’s degraded public debate
America’s degraded public debate
By Jurek Martin
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010
Published: October 27 2010 01:22 | Last updated: October 27 2010 01:22
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/16424890-e15c-11df-90b7-00144feabdc0.html
Contrary to majority opinion in the US media, National Public Radio was perfectly within its rights – and was right – to fire Juan Williams for last week’s comments that Muslims made him nervous on airplanes, delivered on the Fox TV network. It is less a question of what he said than where he said it.
I would go further. NPR should have fired him years ago, on the grounds that running off at the mouth in the putrid kitchen that is talk media is inconsistent with the higher standards of objectivity practised at the station.
NPR should also tell Mara Liasson, another staffer who appears regularly on Fox (as a liberal punching bag for the conservative heavies) that she has a choice to make; stick with her employers, or change partners for the (fleeting) fame and fortune that Rupert Murdoch is accustomed to dangling. (Williams was rewarded with a $2m contract on Fox.)
This reveals me as arguably liberal but, much more, as anachronistically old school. In the US writing journalists seem to spend more time in the TV studio spouting off than they do sticking to their reporting last for their employer. This has contributed to the declining quality of newspaper shoe leather political reportage most evident this year.
A good reporter lets his readers in on the story, but not on the thought process. In late 1975, Johnny Apple disappeared from the pages of the New York Times for several weeks, resurfacing with an exquisitely detailed story that the presidential candidate registering at 2 per cent in the national polls (Jimmy Carter) was showing real strength on the ground.
These days, sadly, only the polls would matter, along with what the reporter thinks, but does not necessarily know. There are exceptions to this (Joe Klein’s recent 6,000 mile odyssey for Time Magazine, for example) but not many. It is mostly in-and-out once-over-lightly quote-a-poll stuff, for which the parlous state of newspaper finances is as much to blame as any reportorial deficiencies.
The Williams incident also served to remind how degraded political debate has become. In conservative demonology – exemplified by, but not confined to, Fox – NPR stands as a redoubt of the “far left,” a bastion of political correctness and guilty of closet racism, all accusations now laid at its door by the once progressive Mr Williams.
In reality, it is the closest America comes to the BBC, wielding its liberal tendencies with a small stick. It is also a bit smug and boring and, fair enough, politically correct.
It had long been made clear to Mr Williams that public radio was uncomfortable with his appearances on Fox. It had required him to remove his NPR affiliation whenever he mouthed off on the Murdoch network. But, as a star in the star-struck world of media-land, he felt free to say with impunity whatever he felt like saying (last year equating Michelle Obama with the old black radical Stokely Carmichael, for example).
It is predictable that NPR should be more criticised than supported for what it did. Nor should it surprise that the usual rightwing political suspects – such as Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina – should revive the Newt Gingrich ploy of the mid-’90s and demand that non-commercial media lose its federal funding, in NPR’s case about 2 per cent of its total budget.
Yet the debate has centred on three issues; whether he was out of line in saying he was nervous about Muslims on planes, which plays into the Fox mantra that all terrorists are Muslims; why his other qualifying remarks on the fateful Bill O’Reilly programme were not taken into consideration; and whether NPR was justified in summary dismissal by telephone, rather than after a face-to-face hearing.
I have sympathy for none of them. The first two are all about parsing, when everybody knows that talk television is all about being outrageous and outspoken and not about being contained and logical, which will not get you invited back. And, to quote Rhett Butler, frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn how Williams was shown the exit.
Corporations have rights, including that of hiring and firing. I suspect that, in taking this hard line, I am perpetuating America’s destructive and false ideological wars. So be it. You would not get me on Fox for love, or money (probably).
onohana@aol.com
By Jurek Martin
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010
Published: October 27 2010 01:22 | Last updated: October 27 2010 01:22
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/16424890-e15c-11df-90b7-00144feabdc0.html
Contrary to majority opinion in the US media, National Public Radio was perfectly within its rights – and was right – to fire Juan Williams for last week’s comments that Muslims made him nervous on airplanes, delivered on the Fox TV network. It is less a question of what he said than where he said it.
I would go further. NPR should have fired him years ago, on the grounds that running off at the mouth in the putrid kitchen that is talk media is inconsistent with the higher standards of objectivity practised at the station.
NPR should also tell Mara Liasson, another staffer who appears regularly on Fox (as a liberal punching bag for the conservative heavies) that she has a choice to make; stick with her employers, or change partners for the (fleeting) fame and fortune that Rupert Murdoch is accustomed to dangling. (Williams was rewarded with a $2m contract on Fox.)
This reveals me as arguably liberal but, much more, as anachronistically old school. In the US writing journalists seem to spend more time in the TV studio spouting off than they do sticking to their reporting last for their employer. This has contributed to the declining quality of newspaper shoe leather political reportage most evident this year.
A good reporter lets his readers in on the story, but not on the thought process. In late 1975, Johnny Apple disappeared from the pages of the New York Times for several weeks, resurfacing with an exquisitely detailed story that the presidential candidate registering at 2 per cent in the national polls (Jimmy Carter) was showing real strength on the ground.
These days, sadly, only the polls would matter, along with what the reporter thinks, but does not necessarily know. There are exceptions to this (Joe Klein’s recent 6,000 mile odyssey for Time Magazine, for example) but not many. It is mostly in-and-out once-over-lightly quote-a-poll stuff, for which the parlous state of newspaper finances is as much to blame as any reportorial deficiencies.
The Williams incident also served to remind how degraded political debate has become. In conservative demonology – exemplified by, but not confined to, Fox – NPR stands as a redoubt of the “far left,” a bastion of political correctness and guilty of closet racism, all accusations now laid at its door by the once progressive Mr Williams.
In reality, it is the closest America comes to the BBC, wielding its liberal tendencies with a small stick. It is also a bit smug and boring and, fair enough, politically correct.
It had long been made clear to Mr Williams that public radio was uncomfortable with his appearances on Fox. It had required him to remove his NPR affiliation whenever he mouthed off on the Murdoch network. But, as a star in the star-struck world of media-land, he felt free to say with impunity whatever he felt like saying (last year equating Michelle Obama with the old black radical Stokely Carmichael, for example).
It is predictable that NPR should be more criticised than supported for what it did. Nor should it surprise that the usual rightwing political suspects – such as Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina – should revive the Newt Gingrich ploy of the mid-’90s and demand that non-commercial media lose its federal funding, in NPR’s case about 2 per cent of its total budget.
Yet the debate has centred on three issues; whether he was out of line in saying he was nervous about Muslims on planes, which plays into the Fox mantra that all terrorists are Muslims; why his other qualifying remarks on the fateful Bill O’Reilly programme were not taken into consideration; and whether NPR was justified in summary dismissal by telephone, rather than after a face-to-face hearing.
I have sympathy for none of them. The first two are all about parsing, when everybody knows that talk television is all about being outrageous and outspoken and not about being contained and logical, which will not get you invited back. And, to quote Rhett Butler, frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn how Williams was shown the exit.
Corporations have rights, including that of hiring and firing. I suspect that, in taking this hard line, I am perpetuating America’s destructive and false ideological wars. So be it. You would not get me on Fox for love, or money (probably).
onohana@aol.com
Can’t Keep a Bad Idea Down By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Can’t Keep a Bad Idea Down
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/opinion/27friedman.html?th&emc=th
I confess, I find it dispiriting to read the polls and see candidates, mostly Republicans, leading in various midterm races while promoting many of the very same ideas that got us into this mess. Am I hearing right?
Let’s have more tax cuts, unlinked to any specific spending cuts and while we’re still fighting two wars — because that worked so well during the Bush years to make our economy strong and our deficit small. Let’s immediately cut government spending, instead of phasing cuts in gradually, while we’re still mired in a recession — because that worked so well in the Great Depression. Let’s roll back financial regulation — because we’ve learned from experience that Wall Street can police itself and average Americans will never have to bail it out.
Let’s have no limits on corporate campaign spending so oil and coal companies can more easily and anonymously strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its powers to limit pollution in the air our kids breathe. Let’s discriminate against gays and lesbians who want to join the military and fight for their country. Let’s restrict immigration, because, after all, we don’t live in a world where America’s most important competitive advantage is its ability to attract the world’s best brains. Let’s repeal our limited health care reform rather than see what works and then fix it. Let’s oppose the free-trade system that made us rich.
Let’s kowtow even more to public service unions so they’ll make even more money than private sector workers, so they’ll give even more money to Democrats who will give them even more generous pensions, so not only California and New York will go bankrupt but every other state too. Let’s pay for more tax cuts by uncovering waste I can’t identify, fraud I haven’t found and abuse that I’ll get back to you on later.
All that’s missing is any realistic diagnosis of where we are as a country and what we need to get back to sustainable growth. Actually, such a diagnosis has been done. A nonpartisan group of America’s most distinguished engineers, scientists, educators and industrialists unveiled just such a study in the midst of this campaign.
Here is the story: In 2005 our National Academies responded to a call from a bipartisan group of senators to recommend 10 actions the federal government could take to enhance science and technology so America could successfully compete in the 21st century. Their response was published in a study, spearheaded by the industrialist Norman Augustine, titled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future.”
Charles M. Vest, the former M.I.T. president, worked on the study and noted in a speech recently that “Gathering Storm,” together with work by the Council on Competitiveness, led to the America Competes Act of 2007, which increased funding for the basic science research that underlies our industrial economy. Other recommendations, like improving K-12 science education, were not substantively addressed.
So, on Sept. 23, the same group released a follow-up report: “Rising Above the Gathering Storm Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5.” “The subtitle, ‘Rapidly Approaching Category 5,’ says it all,” noted Vest. “The committee’s conclusion is that ‘in spite of the efforts of both those in government and the private sector, the outlook for America to compete for quality jobs has further deteriorated over the past five years.’ ”
But I thought: “We’re number 1!”
“Here is a little dose of reality about where we actually rank today,” says Vest: sixth in global innovation-based competitiveness, but 40th in rate of change over the last decade; 11th among industrialized nations in the fraction of 25- to 34-year-olds who have graduated from high school; 16th in college completion rate; 22nd in broadband Internet access; 24th in life expectancy at birth; 27th among developed nations in the proportion of college students receiving degrees in science or engineering; 48th in quality of K-12 math and science education; and 29th in the number of mobile phones per 100 people.
“This is not a pretty picture, and it cannot be wished away,” said Vest. The study recommended a series of steps — some that President Obama has already initiated, some that still need Congress’s support — designed to increase America’s talent pool by vastly improving K-12 science and mathematics education, to reinforce long-term basic research, and to create the right tax and policy incentives so we can develop, recruit and retain the best and brightest students, scientists and engineers in the world. The goal is to make America the premier place to innovate and invest in innovation to create high-paying jobs.
You’ll have to Google it, though. The report hasn’t received 1/100th of the attention given to Juan Williams’s remarks on Muslims.
A dysfunctional political system is one that knows the right answers but can’t even discuss them rationally, let alone act on them, and one that devotes vastly more attention to cable TV preachers than to recommendations by its best scientists and engineers.
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 26, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/opinion/27friedman.html?th&emc=th
I confess, I find it dispiriting to read the polls and see candidates, mostly Republicans, leading in various midterm races while promoting many of the very same ideas that got us into this mess. Am I hearing right?
Let’s have more tax cuts, unlinked to any specific spending cuts and while we’re still fighting two wars — because that worked so well during the Bush years to make our economy strong and our deficit small. Let’s immediately cut government spending, instead of phasing cuts in gradually, while we’re still mired in a recession — because that worked so well in the Great Depression. Let’s roll back financial regulation — because we’ve learned from experience that Wall Street can police itself and average Americans will never have to bail it out.
Let’s have no limits on corporate campaign spending so oil and coal companies can more easily and anonymously strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its powers to limit pollution in the air our kids breathe. Let’s discriminate against gays and lesbians who want to join the military and fight for their country. Let’s restrict immigration, because, after all, we don’t live in a world where America’s most important competitive advantage is its ability to attract the world’s best brains. Let’s repeal our limited health care reform rather than see what works and then fix it. Let’s oppose the free-trade system that made us rich.
Let’s kowtow even more to public service unions so they’ll make even more money than private sector workers, so they’ll give even more money to Democrats who will give them even more generous pensions, so not only California and New York will go bankrupt but every other state too. Let’s pay for more tax cuts by uncovering waste I can’t identify, fraud I haven’t found and abuse that I’ll get back to you on later.
All that’s missing is any realistic diagnosis of where we are as a country and what we need to get back to sustainable growth. Actually, such a diagnosis has been done. A nonpartisan group of America’s most distinguished engineers, scientists, educators and industrialists unveiled just such a study in the midst of this campaign.
Here is the story: In 2005 our National Academies responded to a call from a bipartisan group of senators to recommend 10 actions the federal government could take to enhance science and technology so America could successfully compete in the 21st century. Their response was published in a study, spearheaded by the industrialist Norman Augustine, titled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future.”
Charles M. Vest, the former M.I.T. president, worked on the study and noted in a speech recently that “Gathering Storm,” together with work by the Council on Competitiveness, led to the America Competes Act of 2007, which increased funding for the basic science research that underlies our industrial economy. Other recommendations, like improving K-12 science education, were not substantively addressed.
So, on Sept. 23, the same group released a follow-up report: “Rising Above the Gathering Storm Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5.” “The subtitle, ‘Rapidly Approaching Category 5,’ says it all,” noted Vest. “The committee’s conclusion is that ‘in spite of the efforts of both those in government and the private sector, the outlook for America to compete for quality jobs has further deteriorated over the past five years.’ ”
But I thought: “We’re number 1!”
“Here is a little dose of reality about where we actually rank today,” says Vest: sixth in global innovation-based competitiveness, but 40th in rate of change over the last decade; 11th among industrialized nations in the fraction of 25- to 34-year-olds who have graduated from high school; 16th in college completion rate; 22nd in broadband Internet access; 24th in life expectancy at birth; 27th among developed nations in the proportion of college students receiving degrees in science or engineering; 48th in quality of K-12 math and science education; and 29th in the number of mobile phones per 100 people.
“This is not a pretty picture, and it cannot be wished away,” said Vest. The study recommended a series of steps — some that President Obama has already initiated, some that still need Congress’s support — designed to increase America’s talent pool by vastly improving K-12 science and mathematics education, to reinforce long-term basic research, and to create the right tax and policy incentives so we can develop, recruit and retain the best and brightest students, scientists and engineers in the world. The goal is to make America the premier place to innovate and invest in innovation to create high-paying jobs.
You’ll have to Google it, though. The report hasn’t received 1/100th of the attention given to Juan Williams’s remarks on Muslims.
A dysfunctional political system is one that knows the right answers but can’t even discuss them rationally, let alone act on them, and one that devotes vastly more attention to cable TV preachers than to recommendations by its best scientists and engineers.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Falling Into the Chasm By PAUL KRUGMAN
Falling Into the Chasm
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/opinion/25krugman.html?ref=opinion
This is what happens when you need to leap over an economic chasm — but either can’t or won’t jump far enough, so that you only get part of the way across.
If Democrats do as badly as expected in next week’s elections, pundits will rush to interpret the results as a referendum on ideology. President Obama moved too far to the left, most will say, even though his actual program — a health care plan very similar to past Republican proposals, a fiscal stimulus that consisted mainly of tax cuts, help for the unemployed and aid to hard-pressed states — was more conservative than his election platform.
A few commentators will point out, with much more justice, that Mr. Obama never made a full-throated case for progressive policies, that he consistently stepped on his own message, that he was so worried about making bankers nervous that he ended up ceding populist anger to the right.
But the truth is that if the economic situation were better — if unemployment had fallen substantially over the past year — we wouldn’t be having this discussion. We would, instead, be talking about modest Democratic losses, no more than is usual in midterm elections.
The real story of this election, then, is that of an economic policy that failed to deliver. Why? Because it was greatly inadequate to the task.
When Mr. Obama took office, he inherited an economy in dire straits — more dire, it seems, than he or his top economic advisers realized. They knew that America was in the midst of a severe financial crisis. But they don’t seem to have taken on board the lesson of history, which is that major financial crises are normally followed by a protracted period of very high unemployment.
If you look back now at the economic forecast originally used to justify the Obama economic plan, what’s striking is that forecast’s optimism about the economy’s ability to heal itself. Even without their plan, Obama economists predicted, the unemployment rate would peak at 9 percent, then fall rapidly. Fiscal stimulus was needed only to mitigate the worst — as an “insurance package against catastrophic failure,” as Lawrence Summers, later the administration’s top economist, reportedly said in a memo to the president-elect.
But economies that have experienced a severe financial crisis generally don’t heal quickly. From the Panic of 1893, to the Swedish crisis of 1992, to Japan’s lost decade, financial crises have consistently been followed by long periods of economic distress. And that has been true even when, as in the case of Sweden, the government moved quickly and decisively to fix the banking system.
To avoid this fate, America needed a much stronger program than what it actually got — a modest rise in federal spending that was barely enough to offset cutbacks at the state and local level. This isn’t 20-20 hindsight: the inadequacy of the stimulus was obvious from the beginning.
Could the administration have gotten a bigger stimulus through Congress? Even if it couldn’t, would it have been better off making the case for a bigger plan, rather than pretending that what it got was just right? We’ll never know.
What we do know is that the inadequacy of the stimulus has been a political catastrophe. Yes, things are better than they would have been without the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: the unemployment rate would probably be close to 12 percent right now if the administration hadn’t passed its plan. But voters respond to facts, not counterfactuals, and the perception is that the administration’s policies have failed.
The tragedy here is that if voters do turn on Democrats, they will in effect be voting to make things even worse.
The resurgent Republicans have learned nothing from the economic crisis, except that doing everything they can to undermine Mr. Obama is a winning political strategy. Tax cuts and deregulation are still the alpha and omega of their economic vision.
And if they take one or both houses of Congress, complete policy paralysis — which will mean, among other things, a cutoff of desperately needed aid to the unemployed and a freeze on further help for state and local governments — is a given. The only question is whether we’ll have political chaos as well, with Republicans’ shutting down the government at some point over the next two years. And the odds are that we will.
Is there any hope for a better outcome? Maybe, just maybe, voters will have second thoughts about handing power back to the people who got us into this mess, and a weaker-than-expected Republican showing at the polls will give Mr. Obama a second chance to turn the economy around.
But right now it looks as if the too-cautious attempt to jump across that economic chasm has fallen short — and we’re about to hit rock bottom.
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/opinion/25krugman.html?ref=opinion
This is what happens when you need to leap over an economic chasm — but either can’t or won’t jump far enough, so that you only get part of the way across.
If Democrats do as badly as expected in next week’s elections, pundits will rush to interpret the results as a referendum on ideology. President Obama moved too far to the left, most will say, even though his actual program — a health care plan very similar to past Republican proposals, a fiscal stimulus that consisted mainly of tax cuts, help for the unemployed and aid to hard-pressed states — was more conservative than his election platform.
A few commentators will point out, with much more justice, that Mr. Obama never made a full-throated case for progressive policies, that he consistently stepped on his own message, that he was so worried about making bankers nervous that he ended up ceding populist anger to the right.
But the truth is that if the economic situation were better — if unemployment had fallen substantially over the past year — we wouldn’t be having this discussion. We would, instead, be talking about modest Democratic losses, no more than is usual in midterm elections.
The real story of this election, then, is that of an economic policy that failed to deliver. Why? Because it was greatly inadequate to the task.
When Mr. Obama took office, he inherited an economy in dire straits — more dire, it seems, than he or his top economic advisers realized. They knew that America was in the midst of a severe financial crisis. But they don’t seem to have taken on board the lesson of history, which is that major financial crises are normally followed by a protracted period of very high unemployment.
If you look back now at the economic forecast originally used to justify the Obama economic plan, what’s striking is that forecast’s optimism about the economy’s ability to heal itself. Even without their plan, Obama economists predicted, the unemployment rate would peak at 9 percent, then fall rapidly. Fiscal stimulus was needed only to mitigate the worst — as an “insurance package against catastrophic failure,” as Lawrence Summers, later the administration’s top economist, reportedly said in a memo to the president-elect.
But economies that have experienced a severe financial crisis generally don’t heal quickly. From the Panic of 1893, to the Swedish crisis of 1992, to Japan’s lost decade, financial crises have consistently been followed by long periods of economic distress. And that has been true even when, as in the case of Sweden, the government moved quickly and decisively to fix the banking system.
To avoid this fate, America needed a much stronger program than what it actually got — a modest rise in federal spending that was barely enough to offset cutbacks at the state and local level. This isn’t 20-20 hindsight: the inadequacy of the stimulus was obvious from the beginning.
Could the administration have gotten a bigger stimulus through Congress? Even if it couldn’t, would it have been better off making the case for a bigger plan, rather than pretending that what it got was just right? We’ll never know.
What we do know is that the inadequacy of the stimulus has been a political catastrophe. Yes, things are better than they would have been without the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: the unemployment rate would probably be close to 12 percent right now if the administration hadn’t passed its plan. But voters respond to facts, not counterfactuals, and the perception is that the administration’s policies have failed.
The tragedy here is that if voters do turn on Democrats, they will in effect be voting to make things even worse.
The resurgent Republicans have learned nothing from the economic crisis, except that doing everything they can to undermine Mr. Obama is a winning political strategy. Tax cuts and deregulation are still the alpha and omega of their economic vision.
And if they take one or both houses of Congress, complete policy paralysis — which will mean, among other things, a cutoff of desperately needed aid to the unemployed and a freeze on further help for state and local governments — is a given. The only question is whether we’ll have political chaos as well, with Republicans’ shutting down the government at some point over the next two years. And the odds are that we will.
Is there any hope for a better outcome? Maybe, just maybe, voters will have second thoughts about handing power back to the people who got us into this mess, and a weaker-than-expected Republican showing at the polls will give Mr. Obama a second chance to turn the economy around.
But right now it looks as if the too-cautious attempt to jump across that economic chasm has fallen short — and we’re about to hit rock bottom.
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