Thursday, March 25, 2010

Outraged over the outrage

ARGH. I’ve been home sick for the past few days which has allowed me time to stew not only in my flu-like symptoms, but in my outrage over the outrage coming from (to borrow from M. Colbert) the Teaparty Foxpublicans.

Part of what makes this country great is that we do have a free and unfettered public forum for debate. It’s a big diverse country and we have principled ideological differences in how it should be run. All this is messy, but healthy and good. I’m a liberal, but I truly believe that real conservatives have a lot of good ideas about fiscal and personal responsibility and the importance of ensuring free markets to create growth.

However, these are not the loudest arguments coming from the right anymore. What’s coming from that camp is not reasoned debate, but fear mongering and hyperbole tinged with racism or fear of the “other.” And it’s increasingly being regurgitated and amplified by even the main stream media. I’m not an historian, but I can’t think of another time when such a vocal and sincerely angry political group has been so blatantly misinformed.

Let’s take some of their major fears/criticism:

1. We’re mortgaging our future to an unsustainable fiscal path. Here is their strongest point. In fact, I agree. We are on an unsustainable fiscal path – largely because of Social Security and Medicare. Fair enough. What I don’t understand is why there is such vehement outrage about this now? Bush started his tenure with the first surplus we’ve had in decades and then ran record deficit for most of his years in office. Where was the outcry from these supposed fiscal purists then?

True, we’ve increased spending during the current economic crisis, but that’s because the two levers you have at the federal level to spur economic growth is cutting interest rates and spending. We couldn’t cut rates any lower than zero, so were left with only the option of spending. Economics from the left to right agreed on this point. So, while concern over fiscal unsustainability is a fair point, the timing and vehemence from this group is suspicious to say the least.

2. Health care (“Obamacare”) entails a government takeover. Hardly. There are valid criticisms of the bill from all sides. It’s long, complicated and the result of a highly contentious parliamentary process. But a “government takeover” is far from the truth. Here’s a newsflash: This bill closely is pretty much what the Republicans proposed in 1994 as an alternative to Clinton’s attempt at health care. There is no public option, but a free market “exchange” of health insurance plans. These mischaracterizations and lies started with “death panels” and just kept spinning out of control until the whole conversation was poisoned and serious criticisms were lost in the shuffle.

3. Obama is a Socialist who wants big government and is soft on terrorism. This one really raises my hackles. Let’s just look at the facts. He increased our presence in Afghanistan. He has kept military commissions and extraordinary renditions to the ire of human rights activists on the left. Despite promises to close Guantanamo it remains open. He implemented a large tax targeted finally to the middle class. In fact, unlike his predecessor, he risked alienating his base in many of these decisions. He has taken unpopular but pragmatic decisions and sought consensus on a range of issues. Any reasoned analysis of the guy would find the “socialist” moniker laughably preposterous. But, still, there’s a broad swath of the population that seems to sincerely believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that Obama has some secret plan for a Socialist takeover. The extent of this misinformation and the fury it inspires is plain dangerous for our democracy.

And these people are seriously spitting mad. Just this morning I heard that at least 10 Democrat Congressmen have received threats from people filled with rage over the passing of health care reform.

What did Congress do to inspire this venom? Did Congress decide to send your children to war? To take away your precious guns? To even raise your taxes? No. They passed a watered down health care bill that requires insurance companies to do what most have long wanted and to eventually require everyone to enter the risk pool to lower costs. There’s no public option. There’s even an effort to contain costs and control the deficit. So, yes. I can see why you’d want to shoot your Congressperson over such a thing.

This is serious insanity.

I hope you’re proud of yourself Roger Ailes.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

St. Patty's Day in Beantown

St. Patrick’s Day forces you to contemplate such questions as, “Who was St. Patrick, and what should we learn from him?” and “Why do we celebrate St. Patrick’s day on March 17th?” to which Boston loudly answers “Who the hell cares? Pass the Guinness!”

I don’t want to paint a characterture of the place, but outside of Ireland, Boston is a pretty swell place to celebrate the Irish (or whatever it is we’re meant to be commemorating on St. Patty’s day). Coming from Chicago, where we literally paint the river green and have an epic annual parade immortalized by Ferris Beuller (thank you John Hughes), I’m accustom to a bit of a celebration. But Bostonians seem to take this a bit further, and a bit more personally.

It’s not the city-sponsored events, but the general “spirit” of the holiday expressed by a steadily drunker population. By 9 AM the larger of the Irish bars had already opened the taps, and by noon stray celebrants could be seen stumbling into the street. And this is in the normally quite staid business district, so I only imagine the scene in the more “fun” parts of town.

Almost to a person, my entire office donned at least one green item of clothing, the purists were green head to toe. There was a leprechaun loose in Caleb’s daycare who had been leaving little green footprints all over the tiny tables and chairs for days, and for whom the pre-schoolers excitedly set an elaborate trap. Boston natives warned me that the afternoon T trains were sure to be full of liquored up party-goers (and comers), and one person told me she was opting to just walk home to avoid the ruckus.

For some reason all of this reminded me of a Simpsons episode that parodied the typical St. Patrick’s day parade as a day where we pay homage to the Irish by getting drunk and fighting (an ironic “Irish Need Not Apply" sign hangs subtly in the background of the celebration).

Monday, March 15, 2010

Rantings of an old coot

Having a baby forces you to think a lot about all the ways that the world they will inhabit will differ from the world you grew up in. I was looking at Caleb’s toy telephone complete with a banana-shaped receiver resting on a large box and attached with a long cord, baring no resemblance to the cell phone that now covers its duties. I’m sure when he learns to talk he’ll ask me what it is. When he gets older he may even shake his head pityingly at the thought of his young parents carrying on conversations strapped to that corded instrument like some kind of leashed animal.

But while our corded phones kept us to a 10 yard radius, they also kept us from multi-tasking and allowed us to cultivate an ability to focus and pay attention. Cell phones, easily used while doing just about anything – shopping, driving, or (thank you Paris Hilton) even having sex – contribute to our shrinking attention spans.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how amid all the increased convenience, we are losing some of the “soft skills” we used to have when navigating the world wasn’t so easy. At the risk of sounding like an old coot, here are some of the things our world taught us, but that Caleb may not know as well how to do:

1. Wait. This one is obvious. Our modern world is practically defined by attention grabbing conveniences that promote multi-tasking and instant gratification. Fast answers, fast friending, fast news cycles, fast forward through commercials… I recently heard that today’s 5 year old has the attention span of a 3 year old from the 1970s.

2. Not know something. How many conversations meander their way to some question that no one seems to know the answer to. (When did daylight savings start? Where did the expression “mind your ps and qs come from?...) only for someone to whip out an ipod, link to Wikipedia, and declare the response. What on earth did we do when questions hung out there unanswered? Were we more comfortable with not knowing? More creative in finding the answers or remembering them ourselves?

3. Fold an awkwardly sized newspaper to a readable size or wash newsprint off his hands.

4. Know how to get anywhere. With the advent of GPS and mapquest, we really don’t need a mental map of our surroundings anymore. I was always astounded when, as a kid, we took family vacations to places my parents visited years before and they would correctly remember that Broad Street cuts the city in half and the numbered streets go north to south, while the tree-named streets go east to west.
We spent a good part of our driving vacations gazing into Rand McNally maps of the United States and figuring out that we had just crossed to the half way point in Ohio. No longer. Whether on foot or in a car, GPS can tell us how many miles and minutes to go and we scarcely have to look away from whatever else we are doing.

5. Use Wite-out. Ah, the acrid smell, the tiny bristles, the tap tap tapping of your index finger to test for dryness. All a thing of the past, along with typing anything or writing anything formal by hand. No need.

6. Stare out the window. I have fond memories of staring out the window on a Sunday morning, contemplating my young life, while I waited for mom to scramble some eggs. But between hyper-scheduled childhoods, interactive toys and video games, multi-paned internet explorers and ubiquitous TV screens, we’re simply becoming less comfortable with doing nothing. The other day I got in a taxi looking forward to some unadulterated zoning out, only to find that a small screen had been installed to run cable news shows, heaven forbid we find ourselves with nothing to do.

7. Make small talk with adults. Growing up when I wanted to talk to my friends I would have to pass a gatekeeper, “Hi Mrs. Berger. Is Melissa there?” Cell phones cut out the middle man and the practice in politeness it created.

8. Get mail on the weekends. See http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2010/0302/US-Postal-Service-no-more-Saturday-delivery

9. Memorize phone numbers. In high school knew the telephone numbers of my ten best friends as well as I knew their eye color. Today I barely know my own cell phone number. That responsibility lies with my cell phone itself.

10. Fix things. Our parents grew up around a thriving industry of repairmen. You could have your shoes resoled, your camera fixed, your vacuum cleaner repaired. Today, if something breaks, we just replace it with an equally destructible alternative.
Also, our “stuff” is a lot less intuitively fixable. You used to be able to tinker with things like radios and cars and, through trail and error, figure out how they work. Try that with an iPhone.

I fully appreciate that each generation laments the losses that the changing world brings, glorifies the past and disparages the new. I’m sure the advent of the TV, radio, and even butter churner were cause for similar hand wringing. And I’m sure there are unseen and unappreciated benefits to the new. I just want to pause, stare out the window a bit, and contemplate my own small family’s transition into the new….

Monday, March 8, 2010

Stayte

With a small baby at home, little disposable income for babysitters, and the nearest relative a plane ride away, Colin and I spend most of our weekend nights at home. We do the bulk of our socializing during the day and have the occasional dinner party after Little C goes to sleep, but romantic dinners out are a thing of the past. Or so we thought….

Taking inspiration from the recession-inspired “staycations” Colin and I have instituted our own new necessity-inspired ritual: a stay at home date, or “stayte.” Now, this is more than just ordering a pizza and cuddling on the couch while watching a movie. We did that, but it started to feel like both of us relaxing at the same time in the same room. It did little to inspire romance. So, we instead decided to recreate the whole going out experience.

Instead of ordering pizza or Chinese food, we pick up food from a bonafide date-y restaurant, the kind that uses caramelized onions and exotic cheese to good effect. We dress in flattering attire, not pre-bed sweats. We clean the living room and do the dishes to avoid distractions of jobs left undone. We dim the lights, light a candle, set the table and the ipod, and eat our dinner in actual courses. We make horrible jokes about the service being slow and the waiter rude and laugh despite ourselves. After dinner we play games, make out, and even dance if we’re inspired. No one’s looking.

Baby or no, chez nous has some obvious advantages over a dinner out. There’s never a wait, parking and braving the elements are non-issues, no one will stare if you have heated debates or make out sessions, the music is always good, no one rushes you out, and you can have a long luxurious dinner and still be in bed by 10 AM (a definite advantage these days). Granted, there’s a bit clean up involved, no one brings you your plate, and there’s always the threat of a cry from Caleb bursting our well crafted romantic atmosphere. But the advantages greatly outweigh, and so the stayte is here to stay.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Free range organic packaging

You can’t be a citizen of the modern world or a consumer in modern markets without being constantly reminded of the sheer volume of “stuff” we use and, more importantly, then throw out. Every time I lean into an awkwardly sized box to squeeze it into my overstuffed garbage and puzzle over how to fit the pile of cardboard boxes into my recycling bin I wonder at the sheer volume of stuff my small family is adding to the growing pile of waste on earth. I hear there is a floating pile of our garbage the size of Texas bobbing around the ocean. And with each of my contributions, it’s only getting bigger.

How did we get to such a disposable culture? Sure, everything is more convenient. Diapers no longer require scarily sharp safety pins and now have NASA-quality water absorption that promise dry sheets and bums, but they now take 500 years to decompose in a landfill. Cameras and kitchen appliances use to boast lasting from your wedding until your kid’s college graduation, but now gadgets change so quickly that a digital camera is outmoded in a matter of years. The constantly changing seasons of fashion have always spurred consumption, but with cheap labor from globalized markets, even our clothes are disposable. We literally can’t get rid of them fast enough. Clothing donation bins are now ubiquitous on urban street corners and poorer countries are balking at the flood of clothing donations, which are undercutting their homegrown textile industries.

And even though these thoughts of environmental responsibility and guilt about over-consumption ring in my head, there’s really no disincentive to keep creating more waste. Sure, we recycle, and our municipalities help us do so by carting away and sorting for us our recyclables. But there’s no systemic incentive to create less waste overall.

Switzerland has attacked this problem squarely and quite cleverly. While visiting a friend in Zurich, I learned that their plastic garbage bags – which citizens are required to use if they want their garbage hauled away – are incredibly expensive. But their recycling is free. It’s such elegant and basic economics. Put a cost on creating waste and people will be more judicious and careful with their decisions. They’ll look for lighter packaging and buy more recyclables. I haven’t researched the outcomes of this strategy, but Zurich sure is clean and pretty.

So, here’s another proposal: Consumers – at least wealthy consumers in wealthy countries, who create most of the waste – are coming to increasingly care about the environmental and social costs of their purchasing decisions. We look for hormone-free locally and organically produced food. We buy things with various seals of approvals that assure our products are free of toxins like BPA. But when we go to buy something, we often cart home with us a gratuitous and even alarming amount of plastic and cardboard packaging.

Cereal is sealed in a plastic bag, and then enclosed in a cardboard box. We buy toys in shiny non-recyclable boxes that double as display cases in which the item is held in place by hard bits of plastic and wiring. If it weren’t so toxic, I would have a big cathartic bonfire with the mountains of excess packaging that have accompanied all my son’s birthday gifts. We all complain about this packaging and frustrate ourselves getting rid of it. It seems we don’t want it. So, why do the markets produce so much of it?

Sure, businesses make a profit-minded determination on the minimal amount of packaging required to protect their products from damage. But there has to be some slack, right? Isn’t some of this packaging designed simply to attract and entice consumers? To display the item in the most attractive light?

Well, I think enough consumers would be attracted to an item that brings with it the least amount of packaging waste. Such items could be stamped with a “responsible packaging” or “earth friendly packaging” label potentially enticing a consumer indifferent between the myriad similar product choices flooding our shelves. There could be some standards and labeling body. Maybe some federal agency overseeing the whole process.

If enough consumers express their preferences this way, businesses will have to figure out how to use the minimal amount of packaging to get their product safely attractively to market. They’ll wring out the packaging slack that isn’t doing anyone any good.

OK. This idea is not exactly going to solve the coming train wreck of environmental ruin, but it may slow it down and at minimal cost. So, go ahead, powers that be, and recycle this idea.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Ga ga = Arf

In an inadvertent defense of those people who get dogs to serve as a trial run before having a baby, here are all the ways in which my one-year-old actually does resemble a loveable puppy dog.

1) Even when it is in arms reach of his little pincers, he will face plant and eat food directly out of my hand.

2) His favorite activity: chasing after balls.

3) He gets excited when I put on my boots and coats, since he knows it means we’ll be going outside.

4) He pees on the kitchen floor (Ok. It’s in his diaper, so this one is a stretch).

5) He must be taken outside at least once a day.

6) He plays tug-of-war over toys with other little babies.

7) He pants excitedly when he sees something he wants.

8) He whines when he’s hungry.

9) Today on the train, he actually licked my face.

10) My personal favorite: When he’s feeling affectionate, he lays my head in his lap.