Markets, competition and fairness

This entry was prompted by a commentary by former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on the CNN website. Really, this entry was prompted by two sentences in the commentary. You don't have to read the entire commentary to understand my anger over the sentences. You should read the entire Frist commentary but here is the section that got me to write my own opinion:

"Initially, conservatives howled because the prescription drug initiative "cost too much." Liberals hated it because it involved the markets and competition."

I'd be mad at this either as a Conservative or as a Liberal. I can't really classify myself as either of these. Politically, I tend to be more liberal but I am more conservative in religion. I am mixed on many social issues which I won't get right now. But I'm trying to be fair here. I personally respect Bill Frist and I know many Democratic senators say things like this too. But I can't comment on everything. I am going to concentrate on the second sentence, "Liberals hated it because it involved the markets and competition." I can categorically state that liberals do not hate the markets and do not hate competition - whether in the markets or in any other area.

One thing that liberals [and everyone I've ever met] do hate is unfair competition and markets that are not competitive. In any competition there are rules and there are judges or referees of some sort. What liberals [and most reasonable people] hate is when people want to get rid of (or lessen the influence of) the judges and referees or to reduce market competition. We are now living through the results of this. There are a lot of reasons to be mad at government (just as we often get mad at the umpire in a ball game) but one of the great strengths of government is that it acts (or should act) as a fair, unbiased referee. When it doesn't do this, it is time to vote them out! Our federal, state and local governments are made up of people of various backgrounds and they always disagree about how to do something but that all averages out so that they become the fairness factor in our markets. Markets and companies must always make decisions in their own self interest. They can't worry about being fair to their competitors. That is the job of the government.

Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons

I make a pot of tea in the morning when I first arrive at work. It steeps through the day and I pour out a cup as I need it and then walk down to our cafeteria to put in milk (or half and half) and a bit of sugar. If it's late in the day, I'll need to heat up the tea in the microwave. I think tea tastes better when brewed in a pot rather than one cup at a time.

Today, I went through the ritual and, when I went to get the milk, there was none. So, I reached further in the back of the refrigerator to get a new one. I opened it and poured it into my tea and a bunch of lumps appeared. It looked like the stuff had curdled. And it was a brand new container. I knew this because the brand we use has a plastic pouring spout and that has a little plastic stopper you have to separate from the top before you can use it. I was going to have to report this to the folks who buy our supplies - the store must have left this out of the refrigeration unit too long or something. So, to save everyone else the trouble of seeing the curdled half and half, I poured it all down the drain and washed it out (so it wouldn't smell) before putting it in the trash. Then I just got a cup of coffee because I didn't want to walk all the way back to my desk to get a new cup of tea. I opened another new quart of half and half and used that. It was fine.

Just now (it's about 2PM), I went down to have another cup of tea. I put in the sugar and got the half and half and was just about to pour it in when I noticed lumps (of something) in my tea. Good grief. It wasn't the half and half this morning that was the problem. I need to clean out my tea pot. Now I feel guilty about wasting a quart of good half and half. I've also wasted two good tea bags. I should have done a little checking before deciding the half and half was bad. I also need to check my tea pot once in a while.

A quick joke

I cannot take credit for this but I don't remember who told me this one-liner so I can't give that person credit either. I heard this many years ago and it remains one of my favorite quotes. This will be attributed to anonymous:


"The only difference between a two-wheel drive vehicle and a four-wheel drive vehicle is that the four-wheel drive vehicle will get stuck further off the road."


Here's to snow, ice, bad roads and people who have misplaced faith in their cars and trucks.

Happy New Year

It's another new year. How long will I still write "2008" when I'm supposed to write "2009"? That will be my first New Year's Resolution. Last year, I think I still used "2007" until some time in March!

This is the year I cut down on eating Doritos. I eat too many so if I can just cut down, it will be a good thing. I'd like to just stop them entirely but I'm not going to set that as my goal. Last year I cut way down on the coffee I drink and I feel much better for it. Of course, I was able to do it because I switched to tea. My parents both drank tea and it was natural for me to drink it, too. I only started to drink coffee when I worked on construction jobs in the summer between years at college. I wanted to be "one of the guys". Plus, being the youngest and least experienced of the workers, it was my job to get the coffee for the rest of the crew. So, I'd drink a cup during the break. I sort of dropped off the coffee wagon when I got my first real job and switched back to tea. Then, I got a job in the Marine Geology branch of the US Geological Survey and went to sea on research cruises for months at a time. I usually got the 12 - 4 watch (12 noon to 4 PM and then 12 midnight to 4 AM) and it was tough getting through the midnight to 4 AM part without a boost so I started drinking coffee again. After that, I was hooked. I was drinking up to 6 to 8 cups of coffee a day. Not good for sleeping at night. For some reason, even though some studies show that tea has as much or more caffeine as coffee, tea doesn't affect me as much as coffee.

So, here's hoping that eating fewer Doritos (with their salt and spices) will help me feel even better in 2009. May we all have a better year this year than last year.

More snow on New Year's Eve

We got some more snow today. We were going to go out to lunch and then take in a movie in a town about 10 miles away (the closest theater now - there was both a movie theater and a drive-in theater in town when I first moved here 30 years ago). We brushed off the car and got to the Chinese restaurant for a nice lunch buffet. After lunch, we had a tougher time clearing off the car to head to the movie. It took about fifteen minutes to get about two miles down the road so we decided it wasn't worth it to see the movie. We'll just go another time. The snow wasn't really that bad but people must have been rushing home early from work (I'm still on vacation) and caused the traffic back-ups. We only got about 4 - 6 inches but it came down heavy for a while and scared us a bit.

I feel sorry for the folks who had parties to go to tonight or who were hosting the parties. I don't think a lot of folks ventured out. The road in front of our house was pretty empty after the "rush" hour. Here's another picture of our house in the new snow. I'm looking forward to the new year. I'm hopeful that we'll have a better year than last year. I pray for those who suffered hardship this past year that they will have a better year coming up. We had a pretty good year - especially compared to the people in war zones or who lost homes or money or loved ones.

"The True Meaning of Christmas"

The title of this post is in quotes because I'm quoting one of the stories you always see on TV and in newspapers this time of year. Every year around this time, every TV station and newspaper I have ever seen or read has a story about people helping other, less fortunate, people. It's nice to see or read these stories. I like the fact that people go out of their way to help other people. I like the fact that people in need are being helped. I like the fact that we see right then that peoples' lives can be improved - if only for a short time. Then comes the part I disapprove of - the announcer or writer states that, "This story illustrates the true meaning of Christmas."

No, this is not the true meaning of Christmas. What it illustrates is something we should all be doing all year long. What it illustrates is people in need being helped who may be back in bad shape the next day. What it illustrates if that, in a country as rich and capable as ours, there are still people in need and they can only be helped by individuals or small groups who, at this particular time, are willing and able to help those people. The unfortunate people being helped at this time of the year have probably needed help for a long time and will need steady help for a while before they can get back on their feet.

There are other people who are against any kind of organized help for the unfortunate people other than by private groups or individuals. There are people who think that any organized help by a government is bad and a waste of time or money. Unfortunately, many of the people who object to this organized (government in this case) help are Christians. They either feel that the unfortunate people are in their situation because they aren't working hard enough or are being punished for being bad. If the government helps the unfortunate people, they are taking money away from all the hard working people and giving it to people who are lazy or choose to be homeless. I know one guy who, being against any government aid to the unfortunate, said he was more likely than most to put money in the cup of some poor beggar than most other people. Does he think that is really enough? Does he not see that to really help someone, it takes a concerted, continuing effort - something that is organized and not based on the whim of someone passing by?

Well, the true meaning of Christmas is that a baby was born of a virgin in a stable. That baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was God with us (Immanuel). His name was Jesus and he was born to give us hope and to show us that God would forgive our sins (we are all sinners, by the way). He was, and is, God incarnate. He said the greatest commandment was to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind (Matthew 22:37). He also said that the second commandment was like it: to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). For the passage in context, see Matthew 22:36-40 NIV. If we truly believe that this country and its government were founded on Christian principles, we as a country need to repent of our sins and start loving our God and our neighbors. We need to be helping our neighbors in an organized way. We can do great things if we can work together. If we insist on doing everything our own, disorganized way, we cannot accomplish the things we are capable of.

First big snow of the season

I'm dating this post December 20, 2008 because that's when we got the snow (actually starting December 19) but this really loaded on December 26.

I know this isn't much snow (6 - 8 inches) in other places but it's a lot to us. Here is a picture of our house with the snow framing it. It wasn't bad shoveling it - until you got up near the road. That's where the snow plows throw all the heavy, watery, salted and sanded snow from the road. It takes as long to shovel the last six feet of the driveway (near the road) as it does the rest of the driveway because the snow is so heavy and there is so much more of it.

You can't see our Christmas tree in the front window in this picture. I'll try to get one at night and add it to the this post later.

[Updated, December 28 with a picture of our house with the Christmas tree "visible" through the front window. Unfortunately, it's not very clear. One of these days I'll learn to take good pictures. You can see that in the eight days since the original post, all the snow has disappeared.]