Michigan: Right to Work State?

My home state of Michigan is in many ways ground zero of the modern industrial labor union movement. Even as unions have lost ground nationwide and been all but outlawed in the South, unions in Michigan have persevered even though they have but a shadow of their former strength and militancy. Roughly 18% of Michigan workers belong to a union. In some respects the union movement is on life support. But if there's one thing the Republican establishment agrees on it's dislike of unions. So the Republican dominated House and Senate passed bills that would establish Michigan as a "right to work" state. Michigan governor Rick Snyder, who had previously cast himself as a moderate technocrat and said that he thought such legislation was divisive and not very useful to the Michigan population, has done a 180 and said that he could sign the measures into law as early as today.

So what brought us to this point? Well a lot of different things actually. You can't just point to one item. There has always been a struggle between labor and capital simply because the interests are different. If capital could go back to the bad old days of the 1920s or before when they had no unions, compliant politicians, non-existent worker protections and virtual immunity from legal consequences they would do so. If labor could get back to the 1950s when they had strong large popular unions they would do that as well. But the proximate cause of this fight is strangely enough not something in Michigan at all. Michigan unions, and their supporters, deeply worried about labor rights in the wake of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's successful trimming of labor protections in his state, backed an amendment to Michigan's Constitution. This Proposal 2 would have enshrined labor rights in the Constitution by guaranteeing public and private sector employees the right to organize and collectively bargain for wages and benefits. This was decisively rejected at the polls.

Well as the saying goes, elections have consequences and payback is a muyerfuyer. Republicans saw the Proposal 2 amendment failure as a shot across their bow that had to be responded to, proof of union weakness or as the excuse they needed to implement long desired ideas. So that's how we arrived at this point. Republicans are in the majority. Majority writes the rules. It's been called a lame duck majority because when the new members arrive in the next session there won't be quite as many Republicans and/or possibly not even the support for "right to work" legislation. But just as Scott Brown's election didn't stop the PPACA, Republicans similarly intend to work with the numbers they have while they have them. Ironically Scott Walker says he has no interest in "right to work" legislation.

So what is "right to work" legislation? It's quite simple. It plays on people's financial incentives and uses the free rider problem to destroy unions. When a union is established in a given arena it has to represent everyone in that workplace, whether they joined the union or not. It can't restrict higher wages and better benefits only to union workers. It can't force union membership.It would be a good thing if the union could restrict better wages to those who joined the union but that's against the law. Certainly no employer would ever go for that. So as a result unions have to have a method by which to ensure that there is some ability to ensure that everyone in the workplace has some skin in the game. For union members this is where union dues come in. For non-union members this is where "fair share" provisions come in. These monies are part of what allow the union to continue to exist and have the wherewithal to fight back against management overreach, whether that is in court or simply by organization and communication among workers.

"Right to work" legislation strips unions of the ability to obtain monies from people in a shop where there is a union. This sounds good no? It's expanding the worker's choice no?

Not really. This means that everyone, union worker or not, then has a MASSIVE incentive to withhold dues or fair share provisions because they get the benefits of union representations without the costs. Over time the union can't economically function with all the free riders and can't legally or politically function with smaller and smaller membership. So goodbye union. In other arenas people understand the free rider problem.

This is no different from giving someone like me the option to withhold taxes from the US government because I am bitterly and profoundly opposed to its foreign policy. I have no intention of leaving the US and going to live in another country. I just don't want to pay taxes. If everyone did that the US could not continue to exist. Now unions aren't nation states but the concept is exactly the same.

Do "right to work" states have better economic outcomes as companies that were avoiding the state because of grasping, overreaching unions, come flooding into the state?

The evidence seems to say no those "right to work" states aren't better off. "Right to work" states are associated with lower income and higher numbers of uninsured people. If you want a low wage state with fewer worker protections, then by all means support "right to work" legislation.

And this soon to be law can't be overturned by referendum because the Republicans were smart enough to add appropriations to the bill. Under Michigan's constitution, doing that means that the law is not subject to referendum of the people. Assuming that Governor Snyder signs the legislation, the only way to overturn it would be to replace Snyder and a sizable number of Republicans in 2014. So we're living in interesting times in Michigan.

Questions

1) Do you support Right to Work legislation?

2) Do you live in a Right to Work State?

3) If Snyder signs the bills, what should the response of the labor movement be?

Fat Women in Stockton Offended at Being Called Fat

Obesity is a serious societal problem that is rising in America. All else equal, being morbidly obese puts you at higher risks for a number of life threatening diseases and conditions including but not limited to Type 2 diabetes, cancer, hypertension, higher infant mortality rates and cardiac disease. I've seen obesity and related illnesses kill people that I cared deeply about. So it's no joke. The unpleasant fact about obesity is that you can't hide it. Well you can hide it for a while with different types of clothing or a really good tailor, but generally speaking if you're really fat, everyone knows it. This is not necessarily the case if you happen to have an extremely bad temper, are a sexually jealous paranoid, are a horrible spendthrift,  are incredibly bossy, are a stone cold bigot, are as lazy as can be, have an allergy to sexual fidelity, are dumber than a box of dirt or have other ugly internal personal flaws that may only become apparent over time to people who know you intimately. You can cover up those things from the general public. But, if you're WAY past a BMI of 35 or so that's immediately evident to everyone who sees you. People will judge. And many people will make unpleasant judgments about your willpower, sex appeal, health and ambition.
There are all sorts of reasons which might explain why you're so heavy but the mechanics are very simple. You're eating too much and not exercising enough. You're storing the excess as fat. End of story.

It's been my experience that no one likes being singled out for doing something wrong. I certainly don't.  It's difficult enough to do this with loved ones because the person doing the calling out may not want to hurt the other person's feelings. This seems to be less the case with parents though.  My parents, had no problem telling me what I was doing wrong and how I needed to fix it. But in the world outside of familial relations no one expects to hear criticism, implied or not, from someone they're doing business with and/or don't know from Adam. So recently, three women in California, who look to be somewhat larger than a healthy norm, were offended when they received a bill that said "fat girls".

Insult was on the menu at a California restaurant where three women say they were identified as “fat girls” on their bill. Christine Duran, Christina Huerta and Isabel Robles say their enjoyable meal at Chilly D's Sports Lounge in Stockton, Calif., ended painfully Thursday when a waiter plopped down the offensive receipt on their table. "I got the bill, and I was like ‘Why does the receipt say 'fat girls'?’" Duran told News 10.

Her friends refused to believe her.

“I was laughing at her, and she was like ‘I'm serious.’ I'm like ‘No, it does not say fat girls. Let me see it,’” Huerta said.

The women confronted their waiter, who denied any involvement. He said the slur was likely entered by Jeff, the server who had taken their order. The women demanded to see a manager, who then offered the ladies 25 % off their bill – a move that provoked further outrage.

"He had like a smirk on his face, like if it was funny, but he was trying not to laugh,” Huerta said. “He was like ‘Well, I can do 50 percent,’ and we were just like ‘Are you serious?’”

The bar manager at Cameo Club Casino, which owns Chilly D’s, later said he was “appalled” by the incident.

Link

At the time of this writing it appears that Jeff has been suspended. If you are in the business of serving the public then one of the top rules to live by is not to upset the customer. So to that extent Jeff, if indeed he did enter the words "fat girls" on the receipt, was wrong. I'm not sure it's an offense for which he should be fired but it's not my business. It's not Jeff's job to point out to these women that they are fat. I'm betting they know that every time they look in a mirror or go shopping for clothing. Mirrors don't lie. Does Jeff do that to every fat person that comes in to order some food or just the ones that he feels are not really a risk to kick his a$$? Cause fat or not some large people can throw down and aren't the type of people you want to needlessly enrage.

It is however the women's doctor's job to point out to them that they are apparently WAY past a healthy weight range and are increasing their risks for the types of conditions I mentioned before. And if we accept the premises underlying the PPACA (Obamacare) or from Mayor Lord's Bloomberg's jihad against sugar, fatty food and pop, then we're all in this together. Fat people, just like smokers, are willfully engaging in behavior which costs all of us money. So just like smokers, morbidly obese people need to have a little shame and opprobrium thrown their way. Perhaps we should have taxes on second helpings or fast food outlets with starchy menu items. Maybe having it pointed out to them that they are indeed, fat, will help these women start on a process to change their behavior patterns and embrace a healthier lifestyle? Maybe. Or maybe it's just a rude act of social bullying that will do nothing to change any one's behavior patterns. Maybe one of these women will eventually become so fat that she will be unable to fly and end up dying from renal disease. 

Unfortunately obesity is very tied up with ideas around beauty, desirability and discrimination. But that doesn't change the fact that rude servers or waiters aside, human beings are not designed to be so heavy. It's ultimately a medical issue and one that we as Americans in particular, need to deal with head on. I don't like rude people and would not have done what Jeff allegedly did. But I also think obesity is a real problem. And we do no favors to anyone by trying to be "fat-positive" or ignoring the fact that Americans are getting fatter and fatter every year.

Questions

1) Should the server be fired? Did he have any business calling the women out for their weight?

2) Is it a slur to call someone fat or is that merely descriptive?

3) Did the women deserve anything other than a discounted bill and an apology?

Music Reviews-Felix and Jarvis, Mingus: Blues and Roots, Van Halen: 1984, Steely Dan, David Ware, Mickey Baker

Felix and Jarvis

There was a glorious time back in the post-disco early eighties in which people didn't care about what you called music, they just wanted to dance. Disco had temporarily spent itself; hard rock had gotten flabby and soft; funk had lost its way but new wave and rap were just getting started. Out of Detroit, came a group that combined elements of all of the above and then some. That group was Felix and Jarvis.

I don't know much about Felix and Jarvis other than they started out as either dancers or producers for The Scene. The Scene was a mid seventies to mid eighties Detroit dance show that everybody in Detroit watched in order to know all the latest dances and styles.  Along with local DJ's like The Electrifying Mojo, The Scene was instrumental in helping to introduce Detroit to then unknown people like Prince or The Time. The Scene was a little raunchy for the times but certainly not compared to what goes on today. About the worst thing ever heard on The Scene was the signoff line "Sugar is sugar and salt is salt / If you didn't get off it's not our fault!".

Detroit humor.

Anyway I mention Felix and Jarvis because for the longest time I had been trying to find a song they they did. However I had of course forgotten they they were the group that did the song. Completely out of the blue a cousin of mine put a selection from Felix and Jarvis on his FB page, not even knowing I was looking for a song. That jogged my decaying brain cells and all sorts of fun music memories came flooding back.

As mentioned you could call Felix and Jarvis' music electro-funk or rap or proto-House or rock-n-roll or new-wave or whatever you wanted. It was always danceable though no matter what you called it.
The song I was looking for was Make it Rise. The lyrics "...you know I'm not that kind of girl/There's part of me that wants to get down but my mama told me to keep my feet on the ground" always make me smile. Felix and Jarvis also did Flamethrower Rap Flamethrower Rap (Live at The Scene) Jam the House and Bounce.


Blues and Roots
by Charles Mingus

Rather unfortunately today blues has come to mean either decrepit old black men moaning about my baby done left me or white singers doing their best to sound like decrepit old black men while playing the guitar much louder and faster than the next person trying to play the guitar louder and faster than the next person trying to play the guitar louder and faster and so on.

For better or worse the electric guitar has become the signature instrument of the blues while the blues has become extremely formalized and ossified. This obviously wasn't always the case. There was a time when both the range of instruments used in blues music as well as the actual types of music understood to be blues were MUCH wider than is currently the case. Charles Mingus was best known as a jazz virtuoso bassist, composer and pianist, though he was not overly fond of the word "jazz". In fact he didn't like that word applied to the music that he created and enjoyed. Not one bit.

It made sense to pay attention to what Mingus did or didn't like as not only was he a genius level intellect who could verbally rip you a new one but he was also an extremely demanding bandleader and a psychologically and emotionally disturbed bully who could and did throw public beatings to musicians who weren't performing up to standard. He once beat up his trombone player, knocking out the man's teeth. He was fired from Duke Ellington's band (Mingus' hero) for fighting. You could say that waking up Mingus' temper was always a mistake. Of course you could also say that working with Mingus was always a mistake but like a lot of disturbed people when he wasn't actually kicking you in the a$$ he was apparently a pretty nice guy. As you know all that stuff is less important to me than his musical talent though to be fair I'd probably feel somewhat differently if I had been the one getting punched in the mouth. Like a lot of talented people Mingus had personal demons. The more open racism of the time didn't help matters. Mingus is one of the most prolific composers of any genre and definitely someone you should know about. In Mingus there's not only every jazz musician who came before him but a fair amount of classical influence as well. Mingus took his music very seriously and saw himself in the same light as Van Cliburn, Glenn Gould, Beethoven or any other classical icon. Talking during his concerts was not something he enjoyed or tolerated.

Blues and Roots was Mingus' backhanded response to critics who complained that he had become too intellectual and lost the blues feeling in his music. I say backhanded because not only is the album dripping with blues feeling but it has more than a few avant-garde stylings contained within that are far far beyond what Mingus saw as more simple blues that he had surpassed. Mingus required constant improvisation from anyone in his band and that's what you hear in Blues and Roots. I guess his soloists decided they didn't want to get punched in the mouth. Whatever the reason might have been, this is a great introduction to Mingus if you haven't heard him before. "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" sounds EXACTLY as it's titled. It's something I listen to over and over again. Despite Mingus' contempt for fatuous fans and musically ignorant critics this album does have a rootsy, bluesy sound. And of course the bass is EXTREMELY well recorded and mixed.

My music is as varied as my feelings are, or the world is and one composition or one kind of composition expresses only one part of the total world of my music... This record is unusual—it presents only one part of my musical world, the blues. A year ago, Nesuhi Ertegün suggested that I record an entire blues album in the style of Haitian Fight Song (in Atlantic LP 1260), because some people, particularly critics, were saying I didn't swing enough. He wanted to give them a barrage of soul music: churchy, blues, swinging, earthy. I thought it over. I was born swinging and clapped my hands in church as a little boy, but I've grown up and I like to do things other than just swing. But blues can do more than just swing. So I agreed.

Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting  Moaning  Crying Blues   E's Flat and Ah's Flat Too



1984 
by Van Halen

This album was the last by the original incarnation of Van Halen with wild frontman David Lee Roth. It was probably the perfect balance between a pop sound and the earlier heavy metal/hard rock sounds of Van Halen. It was also the album in which Eddie Van Halen insisted upon having his keyboard playing more upfront than had previously been the case, over the objections of Roth and producer Ted Templeman, who had desired that the guitar virtuoso stick to playing guitar.

So there is a bit of tension throughout this album but it's good tension. Van Halen had four members but even more so than normal, on this album bassist Michael Anthony is buried deep in the mix. On a few songs he's almost inaudible. Eddie Van Halen has strong beliefs about the proper role (secondary) of bass in a rock band. And since the band's name is Van Halen, not Anthony, Eddie's ideas tended to win out. It's something of a shame since Michael Anthony is not a bad bassist but merely playing very limited simple parts. But this album is still full of catchy riffs, amazing guitar work, loud clean drums from Eddie's brother Alex and Roth's raunchy braggadocious vocals.

This album was full of hits. My favorite was Drop Dead Legs which defines bada$$ but the really big hit here was Jump. Panama is a fun driving song while Hot for Teacher is actually built from an insistent boogie riff that slowed down wouldn't sound out of place on a John Lee Hooker or Slim Harpo release. And to be honest the video sold the song at least as much as the music did.  I'll Wait (co-written with Michael McDonald) is a great power ballad or at least as close as Van Halen could come at that time. It also has great synth sound combined with trademark Eddie Van Halen guitar. Top Jimmy combines technical fireworks with rhythm guitar playing far beyond that of your average metal player.  1984 is a creepy little synth number that sounds like a missing track from a Death Wish or Miami Vice soundtrack. House of Pain and Girl Gone Bad round out the album for those metal/hard rock fans worried that Van Halen had gone too pop.

I wasn't a metal fan when the album was released and am not really one now. But this album was all over the radio and MTV and for folks of a certain age was almost impossible to avoid. This is full of melody and hooks. I still wish that Anthony had been turned loose a little more on bass but other than that this remains an album I enjoy listening to and a reminder of better times.



Steely Dan

When you name your music group after a literary euphemism for a woman's sex toy it's a pretty good bet that you either have an incredibly dry sense of humor or you're just gonna be downright nasty. Steely Dan mostly leans to the former. Even when they are nasty their command of lyrics means you might not even know it until you've thought about it for a while. It's rare that they are explicit.
Steely Dan is basically a rock band that actually knows a little bit about jazz. Actually they know quite a bit about about jazz as many of their classic seventies albums featured rock or R&B players who were familiar with jazz or actual jazz musicians who were slumming. Steely Dan is currently a two man show that is run by Walter Becker (bass, guitar, vocals) and Donald Fagen (piano, synths, vocals). Other group members either left or were pushed out depending on whose story you believe. In any event Becker and Fagen always hired a lot of studio musicians and did almost all the writing* themselves so they had no real need for an actual "band".
When people like Michael McDonald sing backup for you, you know that you're in the big leagues. Fagen's voice is quite nasal but it sort of grows on you I think.

The first thing that I always noticed about Steely Dan is how clean and pristine their music sounds without being sterile or lifeless. Infamously Becker and Fagen are obsessive studio perfectionists who know exactly what they want and won't stop until they get it. That might take 20 minutes or it might take 365 days. Either way. You get to hear every single instrument but no single instrument dominates. It's similar to some Motown recordings. It's very radio friendly music. I don't know how well it comes across live because I've never seen Steely Dan live. Fagen and Becker stopped performing live when I was just a kid and only started performing live again in recent years.

The second thing I noticed about Steely Dan (and this is true of a lot bands from before the video era) is that they weren't exactly the most handsome dudes in the world. It was a simpler time, when musicians were judged a little bit more by what they could play and somewhat less by what they looked like. All things considered I think that was a good thing and something that's missing today in our more visual age.

My favorite Steely Dan songs are almost all from their debut album, Can't Buy a Thrill. I like some of their later work but to me the first cut is usually the best. Unfortunately "Dirty Work" describes a few women I've known over the years. To be fair I'm sure women might recognize a few men in those lyrics. "Reeling in the Years" was supposedly one of Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page's favorite songs. Although Steely Dan got radio play on some pop-jazz or smooth jazz radio stations, it wasn't really a jazz band. I grew up with relatives who were fierce jazz fans and inherited many of their tastes. So I don't see Steely Dan as a jazz group but more of a light rock group with some jazz stylings.

Dirty Work  Reeling In The Years Hey Nineteen Reeling in the years (live) Black Cow   Do It Again Peg Cousin Dupree Kid Charlemagne Midnite Cruiser Rikki Don't Lose That Number Deacon Blues The Royal Scam

*Rikki Don't Lose That Number borrowed heavily from the jazzman Horace Silver's work "Song for my father" while Gaucho was a total steal from the jazzman Keith Jarrett's creation "As Long as you know you're living yours". As we've discussed before, whatever you create , SOMEONE may try to steal it. I believe Garrett sued successfully for writer's credit.



David Ware

David Ware just recently passed away from kidney disease. He was an avant-garde post-bop tenor saxophone player working in the jazz tradition but with a foot firmly placed in gospel and blues worlds as well.

His masterpiece as far as I was concerned was his composition Godspelized  (this is a severely shortened version) which just as it sounds combined gospel with free jazz. This is an acquired taste of course but again if you want to go beyond blues cliches, take the red pill and listen to David Ware. Glorified Calypso is just a beautiful tune, just beautiful. I love the drums on that piece. Peace Celestial is basically a prayer given through the saxophone. David Ware was very interested in eastern forms of music, worship, and philosophy. This came through in much of his music but especially in things like Ganesh Sound.

Ware's mastery of circular breathing (he was a practitioner of yoga and meditation) was on display in the piece Flight of I. His deconstruction of Ellington's Autumn Leaves is awe inspiring but even I have to admit that his tone is a bit harsh here. You kind of have to be in the mood for it. That's sort of the same with the song Astral Earth. So tread carefully if you're not familiar with this music genre but if you are open to new things David Ware was the musician to show them to you.



Mickey Baker

If Mickey Baker wasn't quite a founding father of rock-n-roll he was certainly an important uncle. Arguably he was just as important a guitarist as Ike Turner, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley or any of the other greats. He was definitely as talented. For a variety of reasons Baker didn't get the press they did. He should have. Baker didn't do as much initial recording under his own name but was a very in-demand session guitarist for various rock-n-roll, blues, R&B or jazz bands. Baker came to greater prominence with his partnership with Sylvia Robinson and their smash hit (co-written with Bo Diddley) "Love is Strange". The man-woman guitar playing duo was popular at the time in part because of the success of Les Paul and Mary Ford.
Mickey Baker was originally from Kentucky. He was mixed. His black mother was the victim of what would have been statutory rape had laws on such things been enforced for black women's benefit at that time. His mother was twelve when Mickey was born. I don't think Mickey ever knew his father. Mickey was sent to an orphanage when he was eleven for theft. He escaped that place and bounced around St. Louis and Chicago for a while as a musically minded hoodlum before putting crime behind him and moving to New York where he became a budding jazz guitarist. After working in a club and seeing Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie play he had wanted a saxophone but a guitar was all he could afford. 

Playing jazz wasn't very lucrative, then or now and after seeing bluesman Pee Wee Crayton on a West Coast tour, Baker decided to move more into blues and R&B. As he had no name for himself yet that was only marginally more lucrative. Struggling around New York however, Baker played everything from bar mitzvahs to calypso, blues to R&B. This hard won talent attracted notice and Baker became first call session guitarist for big names like Ruth Brown, Louis Jordan, Ray Charles, Little Willie John, Wynonnie Harris, Screaming Jay Hawkins, The Drifters, Big Joe Turner, The Coasters and many more.
Baker was something of an entrepreneur. Not only was he working as a session guitarist and slowly starting to record under his own name but also he was writing guitar instruction books (one such caught the eye of a young Frank Zappa) and giving guitar lessons to make money on the side. Sylvia was a previous student who decided that she wanted to be a rock-n-roll star. So the two joined up and Mickey and Sylvia was born. Baker remembered it this way:

"Finally I would go out on little gigs with her and get her to stand up with the guitar in her hand. It took time to do that but finally when she got that courage, she could really gyrate with that guitar man. I'd be up there on that damn stage man and no matter what theater it was or what club it was-and I could do anything. Here I was supposed to be one of the most famous guitar players in the world. No matter what I did with the guitar, nobody would pay any attention. They were looking at Sylvia gyrating. She had those sequined dresses. She'd be gyrating the guitar!!"

Baker usually had a very sharp biting tone with just an edge of distortion. Rhythmically he could and did play almost anything and with some of his instrumentals you could call them rock or jazz and you'd be correct. NO ONE did better rock guitar instrumentals. Fed up with the music industry and with American racism he left the US for good in 1962 and moved to France, where he recently passed away. "Love is Strange" was used in the movie Dirty Dancing and also used for Pitbull's "Back in Time". It is one of the greatest songs of all time. Their duet "Dearest" is pretty good too. Do men and women even sing to each other like that anymore? I also like the song "I'm Tired". "Whistlestop" was funk before its time. Check out Baker's use of reverb, echo and doublestops. He also used overdubbing and doubletracking and other studio tricks that were ahead of his time. "No Good lover" is nasty rock-n-roll with a light feminist touch. It sort of reminds me of the song "These boots are made for walking". Love it. It's a song I keep on repeat...

Love is Strange Third Man Theme No Good Lover Dearest   Mickey Baker with Memphis Slim (Live)  Spinning Rock Boogie I'm Tired  Blue Jazz Rock  Riverboat  Whistlestop Do what you do  What Would I Do?

Trucks, Carbon Taxes and Global Warming

There have been a few unfortunate financial setbacks of late but nevertheless if all goes according to Evil Overlord plan I intend to purchase a new vehicle in the next few months. And the vehicle won't be a hybrid. It won't be a small car. It won't be an electric car. It will probably be a large American truck that MIGHT get 18-23 MPG on a good day. Dedicated environmentalists may gnash their teeth and cut sharp looks at me but on this issue I don't care. I want what I want and I'm not interested in other people's opinions on the matter. I drive a minimum 50 mile daily commute, sometimes more, and I would like to do so in a vehicle that is large, safe, comfortable and actually has some extras that I like. If the rest of you want to drive Priuses that is just fine with me but don't expect to see me in one. And someday soon when I get real money then I would ditch the modern truck and get a gas guzzling classic car from the 40s to 70s period. But that's just me-frustrated lowrider and occasional blogger.

If you haven't noticed from the ridiculously mild winter we've been having so far in the US there is a serious problem with human caused climate change.

The amount of heat-trapping pollution the world spewed rose again last year by 3 percent. So scientists say it's now unlikely that global warming can be limited to a couple of degrees, which is an international goal.

The overwhelming majority of the increase was from China, the world's biggest carbon dioxide polluter. Of the planet's top 10 polluters, the United States and Germany were the only countries that reduced their carbon dioxide emissions.

Last year, all the world's nations combined pumped nearly 38.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, according to new international calculations on global emissions published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change. That's about a billion tons more than the previous year.

The total amounts to more than 2.4 million pounds (1.1 million kilograms) of carbon dioxide released into the air every second.

There, also either fortuitously or perversely, was recent news that the US may be sitting on more oil than even Saudi Arabia possesses. This was of course attacked and arguably debunked by experts in the field. 

On Nov. 12, the International Energy Agency’s annual World Energy Outlook report caused quite a stir by asserting that by 2020, the United States would overtake Saudi Arabia as the world's top oil producer. Mainstream journalists eagerly repeated this claim. 

But the truth is that it relied on a very loose definition of "oil." Saying that the United States will surpass Saudi Arabia in oil production is a bit like saying that a 12-ounce latte contains more caffeine than 12 ounces of espresso. It might make for an exciting headline and be useful as political fodder, but it's simply not true.

I can't call it. But I do know this. Despite the current US Administration's enthusiasm for green energy, super high CAFE standards and neutral to negative outlook on fossil fuels the reality is that neither the internal combustion engine or our reliance on oil, coal and natural gas is going away anytime soon. There doesn't look like there's anything yet to replace the big three in terms of cost, reliability, and efficiency. Perhaps a physicist or engineer can chime in on the efficiency question.

That hasn't stopped some more impatient environmentalists from proposing a carbon tax, something the Administration has hinted support for, even as it has refused to follow a EU carbon tax that would have impacted American airliners in Europe. Since pollution is a negative externality (the cost of an activity is not borne solely by those in the market) theoretically a carbon tax would more closely approximate the true cost of using fossil fuels which means people would be less likely to use fossil fuels and thus contribute less to climate change. So everyone wins. Or at least the planet wins.
The issue though is not only would a carbon tax slightly reduce economic activity and hurt the economy but obviously a carbon tax in the US is no good if other countries don't also impose one. Otherwise industry would just move to the areas without carbon taxes. China, India and Brazil are the big new contributors to climate change. They, historically have been less than enthusiastic about the idea of limiting their economic growth because of what the United States or Europe wants to do. It is easy to tell someone else don't do the bad things you did when you still have the benefits of doing those bad things. And if you did bad things to those people (imperialism, colonialism, slavery) you can't really blame them if they aren't eager to listen to your ideas about their economies. It's only when people see a personal/national benefit to taking steps to control climate change that they do so. This is slowly starting to happen. Maybe too slowly.

The big problem of course is that there are a tremendous number of things that contribute to warming the planet. Everyone finds it easier to point fingers at people doing things that they don't like or do while finding excuses for activities they enjoy-thus my example of getting a new truck. If you happen to live in a densely populated urban area with all sorts of mass transit you may say to yourself why shouldn't we discourage single passenger transportation, create outrageously unrealistic CAFE standards and force auto companies to produce carbon friendly vehicles. Someone who lives in the large interior or rural areas of our country may have a different point of view. If you are a vegetarian or vegan you might look at the massive cattle farms and their issues with runoff and deforestation or the horrible overfishing that's occurring and honestly suggest that meat usage needs to be reduced, forcibly or not, as part of a First World diet. 

If you are in the First World, you might cast a worried eye at the massive populations of China, India and Africa, and mutter about planet carrying capacity. You may agree with Agent Smith and point out that the best solution for climate change is that those populations get incentives (or be forced) to stop their growth. Obviously your POV might change were you in the Third World. Then you might become an expert on the incredibly wasteful lifestyle that we take for granted in the US. You might think that Americans needed to lose some weight, drive less and move towards a more "natural" lifestyle, one that may be more common outside of the US or Europe.
So there's the problem. Most people agree that human caused climate change is real and something ought to be done about it. The question is what are you willing to give up? How do we balance economic activity and reduction of carbon emissions?  If someone wants a 4000 square foot home are we going to tell that person he can't have it because heating it is wasteful? And since this is a global problem, how do we get everyone on board? Theoretically the US could twist people's arms raise people's consciousness within our borders. But we can't tell other nations what to do. And their calculations of national or corporate interest may not be what we would like them to be.

Thoughts?

What are you prepared to do?

Is there a global solution?

HBO Boardwalk Empire Season 3 Finale

I haven't discussed HBO's Boardwalk Empire on the blog very much nor have I written any recaps. Recaps take a lot of time to write and edit before the next morning so I'd rather save that energy for when Game of Thrones starts up again on March 31, 2013 (if you haven't heard me mention that 10,000 times already).
But Boardwalk Empire is nevertheless a favorite show and one that you should check out. I'm not sure yet if I will write reviews of previous seasons. On Sunday, December 2, HBO aired the season 3 finale. This saw a tidying up of quite a few different storylines but also left a few things open and unresolved for future seasons.

So what's this series about? A lot of different things actually. The dominant thread is actually the quintessentially American spirit of making money and not looking too closely at how that money is earned. On the simplest level Boardwalk Empire tells the story of 1920's Prohibition and its impact on a variety of people in three cities-Atlantic City, New York and Chicago. Enoch "Nucky" Johnson was a real life Atlantic City, New Jersey political leader, who despite avoiding more prominent elected roles, was understood by everyone to be the political boss of New Jersey and the man to see if you wanted to get business done, legal or illegal. Johnson was a corrupt facilitator of bootlegging and somewhat "half-a gangster". There is no evidence he ever murdered anyone or ordered anyone's murder, though he certainly rubbed shoulders with men who did.
Boardwalk Empire has cannily fictionalized Nucky Johnson as Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi). This allows HBO to explore more than the bare facts of Johnson's life and create an intoxicating mix of real life events with purely fictional occurrences. In this time period such men as Al Capone, Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano are not yet the powerful mob bosses they would become but struggling young hoodlums with big ideas who have to defer to older men. They're young puppies with big paws, to use a reference from The Wire. Speaking of The Wire, if you liked that show you may enjoy seeing "Omar" reimagined as Chalky White (Michael K. WIlliams), the crime boss and godfather of the Atlantic City black community. He steals every scene he's in.

It's hard to discuss everything without detailing spoilers for past seasons or making this post about three times longer than it should be. Let's just say that for most of Season 3, Nucky took his eye off of business and missed the fact that a few people, namely the sexy MILF (and that's a literal definition) Gillian Darmody (Gretchen Mol), a madam with delusions of grandeur, and a stereotypical NY Italian hothead mafioso, Gyp Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale), each decided that the world would be a better place if Nucky weren't in it. Nucky asked for help from New York gangsters, especially Arnold Rothstein, but was rudely rebuffed.

By the finale, Nucky was on the run for his life. Rosetti has eliminated many of Nucky's men and taken over his hotel and casino. Rosetti has also moved into Gillian's brothel over her muted objections. Her objections are muted as Rosetti is the sort of man who takes everything personally and can find deadly insults in the most innocuous of comments. Saying "Good Morning" to him can be hazardous to your health. He combines an inferiority complex with a dangerous and sadistic temper. The heavy lidded Cannavale pulls this off perfectly. Rosetti exponentially raises the testosterone level of a room just by entering.

The acerbic, profane and generally unpleasant Nucky finds that he must rely on people whom he had previously overlooked and insulted, including a loyal aide-de-camp Eddie Kessler (Anthony Laciura), Chalky White and his crew of black gangsters and Nucky's younger brother Eli (Shea Wigham) the former sheriff, who previously plotted against Nucky out of familial resentment at being passed over (shades of Fredo from The Godfather).

But Nucky's (and to a lesser extent his brother's) power doesn't just come from gunmen but from the ability to outthink rivals and quickly determine the best way by which to corrupt someone. As a political boss, Nucky has an unparalleled ability to give people what they want or in some cases seem to give them what they want.  Nucky's brother Eli makes a deal with Al Capone (Stephen Graham). Capone is looking to make moves of his own as Torrio gives him more executive authority. Capone brings in squadrons of gunmen and together with Chalky and his men they strike back at Rosetti's forces.

As the war rages on Rosetti's patron Joe "The Boss" Masseria (Ivo Nandi) tires of the waste of resources and tells Rosetti to finish it or else. Everyone is double dealing on this show. There are double crosses within triple crosses. Meyer Lansky (Anatol Yusef) and Lucky Luciano (Vincent Piazza) were looking to invest in a heroin shipment but their boss Arnold Rothstein (Michael Stuhlbarg-he was also in Lincoln) disapproved. So Meyer and Lucky went to Masseria for the money. To prove their good faith they shared what they knew of Nucky's plans, thus allowing Masseria's men to surprise and kill Nucky's top assassin, Owen. Now Lucky thinks he's found a buyer for the heroin. Meyer gets cold feet as he doesn't know the buyers. The buyers prove to be police. However not only are they police but they're on Rothstein's payroll. Rothstein and Masseria split the money and drugs, leaving Meyer and Lucky with nothing. Luciano is infuriated and threatens Rothstein and Masseria while the calmer Lanksy counsels patience, recognizing the danger he and his friend are in.

Nucky has previously made a deal with Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon (James Cromwell) to run a distillery that Mellon owned. Now, desperate for assistance and cash Nucky makes a deal with Rothstein for Rothstein to run the distillery. In return Rothstein will have Masseria pull his support from Rosetti. But the greedy Rothstein demands 99% of the profits. Reluctantly, Nucky agrees.

Meanwhile Gillian is unhappy with letting Rosetti setup shop in her brothel. She is starting to realize just how dangerous Rosetti is. She doesn't like having it thrown in her face that she is a madam and a whore. She doesn't like that her grandson Tommy is witness to rough language and public sex. But the black widow like Gillian is infuriated when she discovers her grandson's bodyguard and protector Richard (Jack Huston) making plans to take Tommy and go live with his girlfriend. She has Rosetti's men escort Richard from the brothel. This is a mistake. It's mostly backstory which is not important here but the mild mannered quiet disfigured war veteran Richard was in business with Jimmy Darmody, Gillian's deceased gangster son. Richard is a soldier with a very strict (albeit warped) code of right and wrong and the single most dangerous killer on the show, bar none. By separating him from his friend's son, Gillian tripped his wire and trigged a killing spree that gives shout outs to both Shane and Taxi Driver. (Martin Scorsese is an executive producer so the Taxi Driver reference was especially nice). Richard returns to the brothel with guns up the wazoo and coldly eliminates over a dozen men. He was a wartime sniper. Murder does not bother him and he never misses. He takes Tommy to go live with his girlfriend's family. Just an aside here, Huston likely does the best acting in the show as he can only use about half his face and has to speak in an gravelly monotone. Other than killing people Richard is an intensely moral person who does not like bullies. He will kill and die to protect Tommy. He finds it very difficult to connect with other people. He was painfully shy even before his injuries. Some of the show's sweetest moments involve Richard trying to engage with his girlfriend Julia (Wrenn Schmidt)

Masseria is good on his word and removes his men. But Capone and Chalky gun down all of Masseria's men as they leave. No survivors. Chalky and Capone had previously been at each other's throats but it looks like this could be the start of a beautiful relationship.
Nucky and his brother Eli enter the brothel looking for Rosetti. Rosetti had been involved in kinky sex games with Gillian which ended when she tried to kill him and Richard went on his rampage. Rosetti escaped. Nucky and Eli find the drugged Gillian rambling and one of Rosetti's men hiding in a closet. Andrew Mellon calls a prosecutor to talk about the distillery he owns. Supposedly he has discovered that it's fallen into the hands of the gangster Arnold Rothstein. He wants the full force of the federal government to be brought down on Rothstein. As Nucky told his brother, sometimes you have to use big bait to catch a big fish. Nucky set Rothstein up.

Rosetti is relaxing with his men on a beach making plans for his next moves. When he's not actually torturing or killing people Rosetti is a nice guy, a real man's man, someone you'd like to hang out with. Rosetti is philosophical about his setbacks. He's singing when his right hand man stabs him in the back, killing him. This is the same man who Nucky and Eli found in the closet. They send him back to Masseria with a message that if Masseria wants peace he can have peace, but if he wants war they're ready for that too. Stay out of Atlantic City. Finally Nucky tries to make amends with his estranged wife Margaret (Kelly MacDonald). I don't like Margaret. Nucky saved her from an abusive marriage and impoverished existence by having Eli kill her husband. Nucky has brought her wealth, safety and social status.
She however has never stopped judging Nucky for his crimes or her guilt. She even gave away his property to the Catholic Church. Nucky is raising her children as his own. Margaret has cheated on Nucky with his bodyguard and just had an abortion. 

The show leaves it up in the air as to whether the two will get back together. Although Margaret had little to do in the finale, believe me the show spends a LOT of time, too much in my opinion, on her storyline through the seasons. If I were Nucky I would not have listened to her whining or moral judgments more than twice. I would have just opened the door and told her "Sorry it didn't work out. Here's your old life back!". But that's just me. I would not care to hear financial, moral or spiritual lectures from someone that without me had no money, no home and would have been beaten to death by her ex. At the end Nucky tells Eli that they must work in the shadows even more. When recognized on the street he turns away in disgust and throws away his signature red carnation. The main difference between Nucky and Margaret is that Nucky is accepting of human evil. He did not kill his brother even though his brother was involved in a plot to kill Nucky. Nucky uses evil for good and thinks it all works out in the end. Margaret doesn't appear to be able to accept the existence of evil though hypocritically that didn't stop her from taking Nucky's money, using his name and power for her own interests (an interesting subplot around women's rights and women's health), or making whoopie with Nucky's bodyguard. The finale was heavy on action, a little too heavy actually. The yet to occur St. Valentine's Day Massacre shocked Americans and yet only saw seven deaths at once. But this series actually intelligently and sympathetically shows how attitudes in America grew and changed, or didn't change around everything from race, women, wealth, child abuse (Nucky could not forgive his abusive father) immigration, etc. Give this show a look see.