September 22nd, 2008 — Opinion
Fannie Mae ’s former CEO, Franklin Raines has actually been called to the carpet as recently as 3 years ago for manipulaitng financial reports, and was eventually had charges brought against him to reclaim some of the money that he obtained as a result of this intentional misreporting. The end result was his dumping a bunch of then worthless stock options, and for him and some of his colleagues to pay roughly 3 million dollars in fines and restitution. In 2003 alone, Raines’s compensation was over $20 million.
Why is it that we, as a country, continue to allow people who deliberately break the law to keep the bulk of their riches even after they’ve destroyed the company they were trusted with? Why should these compensations be any different than cars, houses, and money seized from drug dealers? Both are breaking the law on a very large scale and both are damaging communities in the United States.
This latest bailout/purchase of Lehman, sullied by Golden Parachutes once again, is symptomatic of the assumption of entitlement for CEOs and high level management all across the country. At the very best, these men allowed their institutions to fail, and should not be rewarded. At worst, they allowed the largest economy in the world to be placed squarely into danger of collapsing. This kind of activity should not be accepted, and in my opinion the damage caused by the willful profiteering of these men and others like them is much more harmful to many more people than many crimes which are prosecuted much more harshly.
These men need to be held accountable for their actions within the corporation. As much as the corporation exists to protect the individuals within it from liability, we need to ensure that when there is wrongdoing, there is punishment. These men do not care about the institutions they ruined, they did not care for the American people (and people all over the world!) who invested in them, they only cared for themselves. They were able to take this position, because they knew that they would not be punished. Their powerful and well connected legislators, bought and paid for, would never allow anything to happen to them…and surely the “government” would bail them out. In this case, and in ALL cases, the Government IS the people. We are forced to pay for a mistake that we never made but there are people responsible. These people ought to face the American people in court and have an appropriate punishment given to them.
More and more, it seems that there really isn’t equal protection under the law. If I am one day late paying my car registration, I am forced to pay a hefty reinstatement fee, and I will be under the threat of being pulled over and more fully punished. If these men bankrupt a company that is of International significance they are given enormous bonuses. Is that fair, to anyone?
If we have the resources to enforce jaywalking laws, we certainly have the resources to audit these companies, and not just management, but employees all the way down to loan officers, and even home buyers who lied about their income.
September 20th, 2008 — Journal
One of my favorite authors of all time, the man who changed my mind about post modernism and showed me that commentary and opinion could be funny and tragic and beautiful and unbelievably complex died last week. His opus, Infinite Jest, changed my life :
If you haven’t read it, please do yourself a favor and check it out. The man was profound and playful and the best sort of intellectual. His other writings are similarly impressive and he will be missed by many. This generation has lost one of its most brilliant artists.
September 20th, 2008 — Cool Links
Please check out my new RSS feed at http://feedproxy.google.com/DbaWill if you like RSS!
This will help me to see who is reading my blog, if anyone is at all. I would appreciate it if you could update your RSS if you’re using my feed.
If anyone needs help setting up RSS, let me know in the comments.
September 20th, 2008 — Opinion
I have been a Republican since I was a child, but only in theory. True Republican ideals can be beautiful. Republicans are supposed to be the party for small government and responsible economic policies. I normally don’t agree with Republican social policy, but am willing to accept it given that the party runs the country with good Republican economic principles. They have not been doing this for decades.
At this point, I feel that the choice is limited to two parties who both prefer big government and fiscal irresponsibility. The soul of the Republican party is gone, and I’m forced to vote only based on social policies, which is very sad to me…but I think that if I am voting based on social policy the Democrats are the more sensible party if we are excepting the Constitutionalists.
I will be voting third party this year, even though I know it won’t matter, I feel that I need to send a message to the Republican party that compassionate conservatism and big government are not the path back to America’s real soul. The Republican party has lost its way.
Of course at this point all politicians, with very few exceptions, are not in office for the people, they are bought and sold by campaign contributions and corporate interests. All of this despite the fact that the Internet has enabled the power of the people through small donations and grass roots mobilization of the voters. Washington needs to get it through their heads that the people are the ones fueling their campaigns through their donations, and in the end the will of the people should outweigh the influence of the well connected corporations. Is this a lesson that they can learn before it is too late?
Approval for the congress and the executive branch is at an all time low, and the reason is that we’ve been on the path we’re on for far too long. The parties have clear directives philosophically which neither party is following. The veil has been lifted by the information age, and the idea that getting into politics is a vehicle to get yourself and your friends rich is one that will only lead to exposure and the unhappiness of the American people. We see what the politicians are doing, and we don’t need the traditional media to show us. The men and women in office now have been exposed as liars and cheats.
When the Democrats were given a majority recently, America was giving them a mandate for change. They did not take hold of this opportunity because they were far too busy chasing pork legislation and fulfilling the promises made during their campaign. This was more acceptable when the compaigns ran on large donations from large donors. In this era, though, the PEOPLE are able to finance a compaign.
Below is a message, from one of the people financing your compaigns, to all politicians :
Bring the balance back. Make government smaller if you’re a Republican. Enact powerful legislation to help people if you’re a Democrat. Keep each other in check. Don’t allow the center stage of American discourse to be dominated by social policy. Don’t cheat the American people by wasting all your time on pork legislation just because everyone else is doing it. Do something good for the entire country, not just your constituency, once in a while. Do something you can be proud of while you’re in office. Leave office with less money than you came in with. America needs help.
September 14th, 2008 — Opinion
It isn’t worth more than one playthrough. I could possibly accept getting 8 hours out of a $50 game, if it were as satisfying as, for example, Fable. Spore feels…incomplete. It feels more like a technical demonstration of an engine that may be used to build games.
Any game must have one(or more) of three basic qualifications to be a successful game :
1. competetive or cooperative multiplayer
2. an engaging storyline
3. repetetive skill based gameplay with the option of possible advancement of character or avatar
For examples, MMOs tend to have 2, racers and fighters 3, MMO 1, RTS 1 and 3…etc. Spore is a sandbox game, like GTA3, or the Sims. GTA3 had #1, the Sims had #3. Spore does not really have advancement beyond the minigame nature of the eras, and all advancements and customizations are effectively erased upon entry to the next “level.” You are able to tend towards a societal type, such as agressive, or militaristic, but this does not affect the game enough to make it worthwhile to explore all paths.
There is no depth to Spore. The game is incredibly broad and encompasses RTS, turn based, and exploratory sandbox styles…but it does none of these even acceptably well. There is no replay value, no skill required, and no cooperative or competetive online play.
Simply put, the game is meant for 5 year olds, and beyond a graphic overhaul from recent Maxis offerings offers nearly nothing new or interesting. It crowning achievement seems to be the creature creator, which really could (and maybe should) have been written as a free flash game to play on cell phones. I’m pretty disappointed.
