Grown Ups Talking

Think of all those poor Norwegians shivering away in the icy fjords and midnight sun. All year round they live in a peculiar alcoholic daze first waiting for the sun to rise for six months, then waiting for it to set for the next six.

Then the Nobel Prizes roll around. Suddenly they are the people on everyone’s lips. Attention resounds and they get to have their own version of an Oscar moment, handing out prizes, ecstatic achievers on the other side of the dinner table, generally being patrician benificence dolers.

But its all a little passive. People who have already done something magnificent, for instance Paul Krugman who “for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity", are celebrated and clapped on the back and given modest lottery-sized checks. They are the ones who have achieved something, the Norwegians are just clapping.

I think this time round they wanted to be more of part of what’s going on. Catch them young, point them in the right direction. Obama is just an innocent young president, set him on the right path and the Nobellers can give an encouraging shove along the way to salvation.

I mean face it, the U.S. President still has more power to affect more peoples’ lives than anyone else on the planet, why wait to see if he screws it up before giving him a prize?

Why not, gulp, help him out? I mean that’s what it’s about isn’t it? This human existence we have? This human existence that could very well come to a watery end if we can’t move as a species to change our habits and preserve our planet?

I think it’s great they gave his the prize. And I think we should all help him too.—Pomerol

French food has laid me low for longer than is reasonable. I’m now gingerly back in the saddle, though beer may be out of the question for a while.

Work has been thin on the ground, but a new class may be in the offing, nothing groundbreaking, but a further small hedge against economic collapse.

Being in France, all the news tends to be Brit-o-centric, and occassionally Paddy-o’centric. News in French seems to come in short bursts on the radio, in between nonsensical studio banter and truly anodyne French “Rock". So we veer towards BBC Longwave and a newly-found Irish station that mysteriously broadcasts this far.

But the New York Times website has been coming to the fore for checking out the latest Yank-o-centric follies. Most of it seems taken up with Sotomayor’s hearings. They have “How Will This Affect Future Possible Judges”, “Don’t Mess With The Judge”, and an almost plaintive, “Is This A Big Waste Of Time?” among others.

A bit of overkill, yes, but nice to know a gal is dominating the news, particularly since she isn’t Sarah Palin.

Happy July. — Pomerol

With Fox News behind them every step of the way, Republicans continue their political posturing on the stimulus package. Now that the bill has become law and states can take a chunk of money and start moving in the right direction (and by the right direction I mean job creation), a handful of Republicans refuse to break with party lines for the greater good. They are grandstanding–running around the country telling all who will listen that they refuse to take the money.

Fine. Shut up, go home, and try to piece together your states with no help.

It seems they are having a problem figuring out how to spend the money wisely, and admitting that Obama has done a good thing. As our president said yesterday, “If we agree on 90 percent of this stuff, and we’re spending all our time on television arguing about 1, 2, 3 percent of the spending in this thing … that starts sounding more like politics.” Amen.

Republican governors like California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, Florida’s Charlie Crist, and Indian Mitch Daniels, all support the president’s efforts and plan on taking the money and running their state.

Loud mouth opponents, who insist on channeling Ronald Reagan, such as Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, Mississippi’s Haley Barbour, and South Carolina’s Mark Sandford, are whining about deficit spending. Funny, I don’t remember this trio feigning indignation about deficit spending when Cowboy Bush was in office.

Louisiana and Mississippi regularly rank as two of our nation’s poorest states, with median household incomes of $39,337 and $34,473 respectively. South Carolina is somewhere in the middle with a median household income of $43,508. The lower numbers represent about half the household income of our three richest states Maryland ($65,144), New Jersey ($64,470), and Connecticut ($63,422).

Furthermore, the governors of those states, O’Malley (Maryland), Corzine (New Jersey) and Rell (Connecticut), plan to accept and use the funds to stimulate their state economies. Well, isn’t that a novel idea.

To the governors that continue to fiddle political tunes while their states burn, I say, governors heal thy states. I know I am mixing metaphors, idioms, and Bible quotes, but it can’t be any worse than the Republican hogwash, I mean rhetoric, that we have to endure this week. – Chianti.

I was never a big fan of A-Rod (New York Yankees slugging third baseman Alex Rodriguez), and I feel no need to drone on about his status as a fallen hero. I think the guy did the right thing by coming clean about his steroid use between 2001 and 2003. He has nipped all the controversy in the bud. It is hard to keep the rumor mill pumping when the truth is out there quickly.

Instead, I’d rather address the issue of hero worship. My thoughts: Stop it.

If you need a hero, don’t pick the athlete that makes the most money or the one with the most trophies or endorsements. Look up to someone because they give their time to charity (Roberto Clemente), have a formidable work ethic (Cal Ripken), come to the ball park everyday for the love of the game (Joe Jackson), or do their job with quiet grace and toughness (Joe Dimaggio).

Professional athletes may be super human on the playing field, but they are human, with all the blemishes and faults the rest of us have – only they are in the spotlight. Remember, Ty Cobb was a bastard; Mickey Mantle was caught carousing drunk in public, a lot; and the 1919 White Sox threw the World Series.

Do they have a responsibility to young people who may idolize them? Sort of. It’s just decent to be nice to kids and if you are in the glare of the spotlight, it’s probably a good idea for your career to try to do the right thing.

But ultimately, kids need a bit of guidance when hanging all their hero hopes on one superstar that most adults can clearly see is sending the wrong message. We all might just do better to look around at the people we work and play with every day, and find the hero in them.

In that way, we can leave all the hype created around pro athletes where it belongs: in the world of entertainment, somewhere between American Idol and Survivor. – Chianti.

If I hear one more word about how it is UnAmerican to cap executive salaries my head is going to explode. I am talking about, of course, President Obama’s new rules to limit executive compensation at the financial institutions that took government bailout money.

As you know, one of my pet peeves is the claim that America is a free market. It is not. It may be the closest thing the world has to a free market, but it is not the Real McCoy. If it was, we would have let dozens of big banks – and hundreds of little ones – fail. But we did not.

No, the great free market cheerleader, Cowboy Bush, rushed to rescue the banks, which was probably a good move. Then yesterday, President Obama placed rules around executive compensation for any company that took taxpayer money to prop up their bank.

That too is a good move. Until the company pays the taxpayers back, they have to be responsible with their money.

The big outcry over the cap – including all the jabber coming from Fox Watchers (my friends and relatives that watch Fox News and somehow think the reporters and commentators have something valid to offer) – is that these financial institutions will not be able to retain competent managers if they cannot use golden handcuffs. In other words, if the banks don’t offer huge pay and perk packages, these captains of the banking industry will walk away from their jobs.

That argument falls flat on its face. If these guys were so competent in the first place, then why did their banks nose dive as soon as the economy got shaky, and insist on a government handout to survive. You say it’s the economy? Well, not exactly – big banks like the Royal Bank of Canada and little banks like Kearny Federal Savings and Loan – are doing just fine. That’s probably because some banks had competent managers.

Let’s face it, paying someone a lot of money was never a true measure of competence – it was just a measure of bold deal making and aggressive negotiations. And that’s what got banks into trouble in the first place.

If the bigwigs don’t like the salary cap, let them leave; within 5 minutes of their departure, 100 more bank executives will be lined up to take their place. After all, that’s how the free market works. – Chianti