The Healing Process

If you’re real quiet you may be able to hear the Palin bedtime stories interspersing death panel myths with warnings of the boogie man. You may also be able to hear the health care lies emanating from Betsy McCaughey’s hollow thoughts. Not even Søren Kierkegaard could handle all this absurdity. We may need a separate health care bill just to deal with the apparent pathological liar epidemic. Let’s try and hit the mute button on all the health care lies.

Our country’s healthcare system will continue to fail because its opponents are savvy. They didn’t like what was being said so they changed the conversation. Our healthcare system will continue to fail because its proponents are lost. And Obama hasn’t been able to get us back on track. A political red herring and a multitude of ad hominem attacks have left this administration scrambling.

My audacity is intact, but my hope is fleeting.

Republicans claim that a private enterprise could never compete against a government-run enterprise. Out of the other side of their mouth they claim that all government-run enterprises are far too inefficient to work and would fail so catastrophically that we would never be able to recover.

Well, that’s quite a conundrum, isn’t it?

Private companies will fail when in direct competition with the more effective government. But the government runs everything so poorly that they are never effective.

What happens when two and two don’t equal four?

My sympathy goes out to politicians that have to deal with these problems while raising children in this mixed-up world. They will have had to choose between public and private schools, all the way from kindergarten to college. Upon completion how will those children ever mail resumes or grad school applications? Will they use FedEx, UPS, or the USPS? How will they ever decide? What if some of those children choose to defend this great country instead of working a nine-to-five? Do they go the private Blackwater route, or the public socialist U.S. military route? How they are both even in existence is a mystery? There is no way they could work in tandem. When their children decide to buy a home they will probably opt for the FHA loans that have made normal bank loans so inconsequential. Wait a second—they may not even need a loan, why pony up the extra coin for a home in a private gated community when they could opt for Section 8 housing—Martha’s Vineyard in New England or Martha’s neighbor in Bed-Stuy? And who will their children choose to represent them in court when they default on that loan, Gloria Allred or a court-appointed lawyer? I hope those children are prepared for this lack of clarity, this uncertainty, the impossibility of private and public enterprise to coexist.

Allow me to further illuminate that light-bulb flickering above your head. The red herring is a mutually exclusive argument. Each piece of that argument is based more on fears and lies than reality.

“If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” ~ South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint

The Republicans view the healthcare debate as a war against Obama, while Obama views it as a war against insufficient health care.

“The person who doesn’t scatter the morning dew will not comb gray hairs.” ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Let’s scatter the dew; let’s ignore the Republican attempt to maintain quo’s status. Let’s perform the will of the people and let Democracy guide. America voted to give the Democrats control of everything, so Democratic ideals are the people’s will. The hope of change got you in, gave you the opportunity to execute that change. You made promises and were elected because of our hopes, because of our desire for that very change. So far we have nothing. You are swimming against the swell of support you earned. You are not doing what you promised, what we entrusted you to do, what we hoped you would do.

The audacity of hope: yeah, now I get it.

Lost Spirits: The Old-Fashioned Way

Let’s face it: people were a lot tougher 150 years ago. Back then, a man could lose his leg to the war, his family to a cholera epidemic, and his savings to a robber baron—and still make it to the pub in time for happy hour. Nowadays we declare a minor emergency if retail clerks won’t honor our expired coupons. Accordingly, drinks were quite a bit tougher 150 years ago as well. (None of this Smirnoff Ice nonsense.) Consider, then, the Old Fashioned—one of the earliest cocktails to be called such.

Any bar in America can mix you up a decent Old Fashioned, more or less. Properly made, it tastes like whiskey with a few other strictly decorative flavors and aromas on the side. It was once frequently made with brandy as well, and I dare say it makes a finer drink. Don’t bother ordering one, though, as the bartender will likely murder it. People seem to have a bit of trouble with brandy these days, so allow me a brief brandy-related digression.

Brandy is an aged, distilled spirit made from grape wine, and I dearly hope you already knew that. Folks have been distilling wine for approximately a thousand years now, and some sources will tell you that brandy is nearly as old as distillation itself. At any rate, it was one of the more useful results of man’s quest to extend the longevity of wine, a connection evident in the etymology of the word: “brandy” is an anglicized corruption of the Dutch word brandewijn, which literally means “burnt wine.”

At any rate, brandy was one of the most popular spirituous liquors in the western world before it was unseated by rum and whiskey in the 1700s. Its downward spiral accelerated rapidly in the late 19th century when France, a leading brandy supplier, was devastated by a phylloxera epidemic, which decimated much of the country’s grapevines. The supply of wine and brandy dwindled, and the French migrated to absinthe instead. Meanwhile, way across the big drink, brandy started disappearing from American drinking culture, and whiskey puffed up its chest and took up the slack.

Incidentally, this is why the Old Fashioned is currently, by default, a whiskey cocktail. Nevertheless, the recipe is pre-phylloxera, and thus can also be made with brandy or gin (Holland’s or Old Tom only, not London dry). According to my own preferences, I’ll be focusing on the brandy variant from here on out.

An Old Fashioned is nothing more than a recreation of the original, seminal cocktail, which comprised only a measure of spirits, water, sugar, and bitters. If you want to get technical, you can’t call a drink a cocktail unless it contains those four core elements. Feel free to stretch it a bit—gomme syrup for sugar, ice for water, et cetera. Apparently some folks were getting curmudgeony about the direction in which the cocktail was headed, and wanted to do things the old-fashioned way; namely, a drink containing those four elements listed above, and maybe a little garnish or two. (In the true spirit of the drink, I omit the garnish. Frivolous dandyism, if you ask me.)

Today’s Old Fashioned is largely faithful to the original, at least if you want it with whiskey. But a Brandy Old Fashioned? Good luck, mate. I’m told it’s still popular in the Great Lakes region—Wisconsin in particular—but I live in Michigan, the Great Lakest of all the Great Lakes states, and even here most bars won’t mix you a Brandy Old Fashioned worth tippling. I can’t recall if I’ve ever been to Wisconsin (I suspect that I have not), but having seen the typical Wisconsin recipe, I can tell you that it’s no closer to the original than whatever the hell it is that all these well-meaning Michiganders are serving me.

So if you want to be a pedantic ass like me, you should learn how to mix a proper Brandy Old Fashioned. Start with an old-fashioned glass, and then take a moment to consider that you’re finally using it for its intended purpose. You didn’t honestly think that name was a coincidence, did you?

Next, drop about a teaspoon of sugar into the glass, and then just enough water to dissolve the sugar. Add a few dashes of bitters. Angostura is historically accurate—lucky for us, since it’s the only brand of aromatic bitters widely available in supermarkets—but Peychaud’s will work nicely as well.

For the brandy, try using a modest (and inexpensive) French product like Raynal or St. Remy. To be perfectly honest, it’ll taste just fine with something cheap and domestic like Christian Brothers or Paul Masson, too. Refinement isn’t the point here, even if original recipes called for fine Cognac, which in those days wasn’t nearly as expensive.

Anyway, add a measure of brandy (recipes vary regarding how much—about two, two and a half shots is a good place to start) and some ice cubes, then give it a stir. I don’t put too much stock in proportions for this one. I have a heavy pouring hand and tend to apply a bit of English when doling out the bitters, but it’s no exact science. Feel free to exercise some poetic license. Garnish it if you want, but be careful. I’ve seen bartenders try and cram an entire produce aisle in there, and that misses the point of the drink entirely. Lemon and orange peels are historically acceptable options, but that’s a waste of fruit if you ask me. I might drop in a maraschino cherry if I’m feeling anachronistic and saucy.

Nowadays, some folks like to top it off with a bit of soda water or 7-Up. Don’t do that. If you need your liquor that watered down, this drink isn’t for you. Instead, you might try returning to the 1980s and ordering a wine spritzer.

And there you have it. Nothing simpler.

As you toss back your Old Fashioned, consider those Victorian saloon-goers. Maybe they lived through the Civil War, where they saw the country of their youth torn violently asunder. Not even the drinks are as they remember. Imagine their frustration when, after ordering a cocktail, the bartender serves them something all mucked up with dashes of absinthe, layers of Curaçao, frivolous garnishes, and all manner of newfangled tweaks and fixes.

In this dark age of “hard” cider and wine coolers, of simulacra and bureaucracy, I understand their frustration.

The Peaches of Wrath

Mike Gibson

What Michigan's economy has done to my childhood home...seriously.

Like many Michiganders, I’ll soon be packing my bags and strolling off to greener pastures. I’d rather stick around, rather not uproot myself from my family and home, but Michigan’s dishrag economy has given me little choice in the matter. It’s an epidemic problem, and it’s hitting my generation of twenty-somethings the hardest. Anyone living in an abysmal factory town knows that you can get more mileage out of a college diploma by using it for rolling papers than by using it to actually find a job. Around here, reliable employment is purely mythical, something you might read about in a medieval bestiary in between accounts of manticores and basilisks.

And like most societal problems, this one can be found succinctly expressed on a popular bumper sticker: MICHIGAN: LAST ONE OUT TURN OFF THE LIGHTS. This is typical bumper-sticker hyperbole, of course, because the power companies will certainly bail out of Michigan long before the last of their customers will.

A popular destination for all these Great Lakes expats seems to be Atlanta. I can’t imagine why. I assume most folks simply loaded up the minivan and hit the road Tom Joad-style, cruising arbitrarily south down I-75 until stumbling upon Atlanta entirely by accident. Maybe they just ran out of gas or money and couldn’t make it all the way to Florida.

If you ask someone to describe Atlanta, they’ll likely tell you that it’s pretty big and then change the subject. Not because they’re trying to avoid the topic, mind you, but because that’s really all there is to say. Ever since the Civil War, Atlanta has been continually razing and renewing itself at the expense of any unifying identity. It lacks the je ne sais quoi that gives places like New Orleans and Chicago such character. Drive through downtown and you’ll see dozens of monolithic skyscrapers towering pointlessly over the city, all of them sleek and modern, but not quite sleek and modern enough that you’ll remember the skyline after it disappears from your rearview mirror. Sure is big, though.

One can’t help but get the impression,

I can almost smell the peach cobbler.

when driving through, that Atlanta is just another also-ran metropolis, a city where every park, fountain, statue, and museum were created simply to keep pace with places like Dallas or Phoenix, which suggests a sort of “me too!” approach to urban renewal.

But perhaps I’m being unfair. I find most large cities superficial and frivolous, and their citizens equally so. If you live in such a place (and are still impressed by bright lights and tall things), your life is probably a contest: the nightlife in X-opolis is better than that of Y-opolis, Z-opolis has better-looking women than either, A-opolis has better food, B-opolis has a prettier skyline, and your city is better than all of them. It’s not unlike a group of young boys arguing over who’s oldest, who’s tallest, or who has the most Star Wars action figures, except that we’re expected to outgrow those things. Such posturing is rather ill-tailored for adults, and I can only assume that those who engage in it are trying to rationalize the fact that they pay two-thousand dollars a month to live in an apartment the size of a broom closet. And all these major cities exploit that attitude by pouring millions of dollars into revitalization projects that look good in travel guides but have no redeeming social value.

For all its superficial efforts to keep up, though, Atlanta never tries to convince you of its own greatness. This earnestness, this unpretentiousness, is the city’s crowning irony, and also its chief blessing. As a result, Atlanta is hard to stereotype or pigeonhole. Of course, that’s not to say Atlantans aren’t proud of their city’s history or attractions. Quite the contrary; as soon as you step into town, you’ll be relentlessly hounded by advertising that insists you visit the city’s many tourist spots, including Centennial Olympic Park, the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, Ted Turner, the High Museum of Art, Atlanta Underground, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. (I understand they also have sports teams, but that may be a rumor.)

Once you’ve exhausted these possibilities, there’s not much else to do stand about and talk. Perhaps it’s this sense of boredom that makes locals so sociable and friendly. Spend enough time there and maybe you won’t even mind the crowds.

I first visited about three years ago. Even though I’d planned my trip well ahead of time, it was still mostly accidental. I came to Atlanta with little money, no hotel reservations, no map, and not much of anything but a change of clothes and a toothbrush. I had to depend entirely on the hospitality and mercy of strangers for food and shelter. In any of Michigan’s violent third-world piss-gutter cities, this would likely have gotten me killed, battered, or worse. 

At any rate, I’d grown rather fond of Atlanta by the time I left. Perhaps not with the city itself—such large metropolises are interchangeable—but with the people. Despite the nightmarish traffic and unthinkable crowds, it’s easy to get sucked into the milieu and feel at home there. Even if the locals call you a “Yankee invader” when your back is turned.

So I’m going to live there, at least until Michigan ceases to be a Steinbeck novel. It’s as good a place as any to ride out this economic storm, and despite its many flaws, it’s still nicer than Detroit. Maybe that should be the city slogan: ATLANTA: IT’S NOT DETROIT. SURE IS BIG, TOO. I think I have an idea for a bumper sticker.

The Audacity of Hops

When did the first wheel fall off the healthcare bus?

When a self-important Harvard Professor met a self-important Cambridge police officer.

I love talking and writing about race relations. I believe that the more we study the topic the more equipped we are at dealing with it. But this is not a topic of race. This is a topic of self-importance and arrogance. The Harvard prof views himself as too important, too revered to be treated like a common crook – when his actions said otherwise. The officer feels the same because he spends his days and nights protecting ungrateful citizens from common crooks. The officer is self-righteous and arrogant because his profession requires it for survival. The professor is self-righteous and arrogant because his profession requires it for advancement. It is not always an issue of race when a black man is arrested by a white officer. Crowley is not a racist. He gave dying Boston Celtic Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth when Lewis, who happened to be black, collapsed and died on a court in Boston. For Professor Gates to claim racial profiling as he was breaking into a million-dollar Cambridge home that he happened to own is careless and reeks of the same vanity that he claims Crowley was displaying. Black police officers stood with Crowley and white Harvard profs stood with Gates because this was not an issue of race. Indeed, this was barely an issue at all.

And, finally, the pièce de résistance: Barack Obama decides to fuel the fire by calling the entire Cambridge police force stupid. My head fell into my hands as I watched these stupid words escape his mouth. He was making an issue of a non-issue. A man breaks into a house and the police went over and above the call of duty. Leave it at that. It was nothing more than a series of unfortunate events. What’s worse is that now Gates’ community is the best neighborhood in America to burglarize; who in that neighborhood is going to call the cops now? Then, to add to the lunacy, Obama has both men over for a beer. Genius! Let’s add alcohol to an already volatile situation. As a country we watched and waited with feigned alacrity until the weird beer meeting ended.

While Obama’s actions were sophomoric, that’s not what really upset me. What upset me was that Obama’s normally accurate foresight was blinded by his desire to come to the aid of his buddy Gates. As he was selling the country on his new and very needed healthcare reform he decided to tackle this non-issue. He diverted attention from healthcare to race and beer. By transmogrifying the issue of healthcare into Crowley-Gates-gate he diminished and tarnished the health care issue. All the steam he had was now quelled, so much so that healthcare reform is now pushed to the next session of congress. We as a country have too much to fix and accomplish for you to personally deal with a tête-à-tête between your friend and a cop doing his job.

Bits of Tid

Lou Dobbs’s act has become tired. He is old and irrelevant. His tirades against Mexico and Mexican immigrants became so insidious that the CNN brass had to rein him in. He then moved to China (not literally, though that would have made me happy). He attacks and attacks, foaming at the mouth as the next hate-filled idea ferments in his head. He is what is wrong with the news media. We have the ideologues in Olbermann and O’Reilly, the extremists in Limbaugh and Maher, but what about the unbiased middle? Dobbs claims he is exactly that, except he spends 70% of his air time requesting Obama’s birth certificate. Obama has released his birth certificate, but not the long version that Dobbs is looking for. He believes that questioning Obama’s citizenship is the most important news story in the world, apparently.

Has he even watched CNN? Is he not aware of all the other more pressing and realistic issues going on? Dissect Obama’s views, his policies, his stance on abortion. Do something that is worthy of your position as journalistic arbiter. Some claim that our society has become jaded and disinterested in relevant news, which may certainly be valid, but even the most devoted news junkies would be turned off by the frivolous crap that our “news” organizations churn out. If Walter Cronkite was the embodiment of “journalistic integrity” and “unbiased reporting,” then Lou Dobbs is the diametric opposite, a roadblock diverting viewers from accessing any relevant insight into current events.

Using the nom de guerre Adam Tait, a 17-year-old autistic boy from Yorkshire, England convinced airline execs that he was a multimillionaire airline tycoon in his twenties with a fleet of jets and a team of associates. His shockingly accurate memory of every arrival and departure at all the major airports in the U.S. and U.K. gave credence to his claims. The 17-year-old not only played the part of Tait, but also fellow execs David Rich and Anita Dash; great fake names by the way. British aviation executives wanted to form a partnership with Tait geared towards servicing most of Europe with his low-cost/high-quality fleet of jets. Airliner World finally figured out the ruse and contacted police when the 17-year-old was looking over the 93-seater jet he was in the process of leasing. The police are not pressing charges and Tait’s real name is not being released. I am extremely pleased that he is not getting into any serious trouble, but I am hoping that somehow his incredible skills are harnessed for the greater good. He could take over for another conman like the U.S. car czar and actually help the dying industry. Better yet, he could become the Detroit Lion’s GM, tricking good players to move to Detroit. Or he could take over for Lou Dobbs on CNN. The possibilities are endless for this kid. He could accomplish so much more than the ephemeral success he earned with this prank, but he’ll probably just end up in an Oasis cover band regaling groupies with tales about the time he took over the airline industry.

Do we really need all the legal posturing that is for sure to come with Philip and Nancy Garrido trial? I am torn on the morality of the death penalty. A murderer sentenced to death is not the only murderer in that court room. It is easy to go on and on about the morality of the death penalty when you are so far removed from the subject matter that it appears blurry. That being said, I would completely support the death penalty if someone close to me were victimized. Admittedly, my stance has a hypocritical hue. However, there are some cases so horrific that no amount of separation could ever arouse compassion. There are some cases that should immediately supersede a state’s standing on the death penalty. Philip and Nancy Garrido shouldn’t be allowed to spend a night in jail. They should be put to rest before I can summon enough anger to write this 201-word paragraph. Who would be against this? I don’t want these people interviewed. I don’t want any television specials about their motives or their lives. I want justice for the victim and her family. I don’t think that is too much to ask.

Cash for Clunkers is a better version of the Bush rebate checks. The Bush checks were cut with the hope that people would spend them on goods and services leading to a stimulated economy. That stimulation would then raise consumer confidence in the market and the economic torpor we were stuck in would slowly disappear. The problem was that the checks were either saved by the recipients because of the lack of market confidence or spent to pay off existing debt. In other words, zero stimulation. The Cash for Clunkers program is the upgraded version of Bush’s rebate checks. It was a resounding success in Germany, and if we learned anything from Vince Offer (of ShamWow fame); it’s that the Germans are pretty innovative. People had the opportunity to cash in as much as $4,500 dollars towards a purchase of a new car. This money can only be used towards a good – a new car. This stimulus program picks up where Bush’s failed. The money is geared to stimulate the struggling automakers by providing financial incentives for new car purchasers and in turn improving the current state of the economy. Regardless of your position on government attempts to stimulate the economy, the juxtaposition of the Cash for Clunkers program and the tax rebates shows the hypocrisy of our government. Republicans that currently bemoan the program praised the Bush rebates, even though the only difference was the party affiliation of the head honcho. The Dems did the same thing, except in reverse. They support Obama’s plan but derided Bush’s. If we look behind the curtain a bit we can see that not many political officials actually officiate, they just politic.

Emerging Markets

Anastasiia Rykunich

How can a U.S. economy slumped in a recession be salvaged?  How can investors gain proximity to bigger target markets, a lower waged workforce, and low cost raw goods?  How can investors reduce risk by diversification of funds?  How can investors gain access to a world with lower environmental regulation thresholds?  How can an investor exploit the rule of reciprocity leading to political incentives like lower tax rates, subsidies, and grants? 

By investing in emerging markets!  Savvy investors will be able to use the free flow of capital across international borders to seek out and earn the highest rate of return. 

The World Bank lists an emerging market as a country having low to middle income levels per person, or, as being a country with an underdeveloped stock market.  Emerging market countries produce around 20% of the world’s goods and services and represent over 80% of the world’s population. More than two-thirds of global growth is occurring in the countries of these emerging markets. These countries also account for a rising share of world trade.

The following countries are considered to be the emerging markets offering appealing low-cost environments: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, India, Mexico, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Middle East, and parts of Africa.  According to the Forbes International Investment Report, a $10,000 investment in these emerging markets in 1999 would be worth more than $18,000 today, even after the terrible crash in many of these markets last year. That same investment in the U.S. would have dwindled to $6,500. This troubling investment market has not changed as the outlook for U.S. stocks and the U.S. dollar aren’t much better today.

Establishing joint ventures and partnerships in economically emerging regions like Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and Latin America is one of the most promising ways for a company to create revenue streams. That’s because, by outsourcing goods in the local market, a company can compete more effectively and expand its business. Additionally, low-cost country manufacturing can yield reduced costs for a company’s global factory network as well. In fact, a company outsourcing materials or products from a low-cost region can improve its bottom line by reducing its purchase price up to 40 percent.  At the same time, forming joint ventures helps to reduce the costs of dealing with local governments, since the local producer knows the rules of the local game.

However, there is always a risk of technologic and business spillover that foreign producers can obtain. In order to prevent that potential threat a parent company should ensure that key contributors to its competitive advantages are not wholly disclosed to the foreign partner. For example Coca-Cola presents its formula as a closely held trade secret known to only a few employees, mostly executives. 

Sensible tax policies are an attractive feature of many emerging markets. The highest tax rate in Brazil is just 27.5%. Flat-tax structures have become the norm in places like Russia, the Czech Republic, and numerous other countries that were once behind the Iron Curtain.  Dynamic Asian markets like Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan have long since done away with capital gains taxes.

One industry example is Brazil’s Net Servicos (NETC – news – people), the country’s largest cable TV and broadband Internet provider. Despite Brazil’s economic growth, only 10% of its 199 million citizens have access to these services. As disposable incomes rise, cable and broadband penetration rates will rise over time. Emerging-market telecom companies like Turkey’s Turk Cell ( TKC – news – people ), Mobile Tele Systems ( MBT – news – people ) in Russia, and China Mobile ( CHL – news – people ) are all direct plays on increased consumer cell phone service spending. Once an unaffordable luxury in emerging markets, mobile devices are fast becoming the primary means of communications for millions of consumers.

Developed countries are already benefiting from these emerging markets. German investments abroad, specifically by the automotive and chemical industries, have flourished by moving production out of the country. Both cars and chemicals have seen continuous growth abroad since 1994 and the profits have boosted the bottom lines of German-based companies as a result.

Japanese investors are using their unusually strong yen to buy high yielding/high growth emerging market currencies, emerging market stocks, and emerging market bonds.  With government support, French nuclear energy (Areva) and aerospace (EADS (Airbus)) giants are investing in joint ventures with China, Eastern Europe, and The Middle East.

Emerging markets still have a lot of room to improve in key areas like corporate governance, transparency, quality of management and entrepreneurship.  However, the future has never been brighter for the emerging-market businesses and there are plenty of ways to invest and take advantage of this growth.

Lessons on Leadership from Honest Abe

Jordan Summers

For the past few months Doris Kearns Goodwin’s meticulous record of our nation’s 16^th President’s journey from the circuit court in Illinois to the fateful night of April 14^th, 1865, has served as a supplement to my studies at the DeVos Graduate School of Management. As I absorbed Goodwin’s Team of Rivals I have found a number of great lessons which can be broadly applied to the subject of leadership. 

It was reported that in the time leading up to his inauguration President Obama consumed Team of Rivals as he contemplated the construction of his cabinet.  Lincoln’s decision to build a cabinet filled with professional rivals, some of whom came to Washington with their own personal agendas and others still reeling from his shocking nomination and subsequent election which had squelched their own ambition for the Executive Office, is the central theme of the book.  However, it does a great disservice to Goodwin’s extensive work as well as to Lincoln’s life to ignore the many other lessons that can be drawn from the book.

Timing is an often overlooked element of leadership. Lincoln was able to use his ability to read the pulse of an entire nation to allow him to optimally time some of his most important actions.  Nowhere is this more evident that in his timing of the Emancipation Proclamation.  In Goodwin’s account, it is clear that if Lincoln had given into the pressures of abolitionists and members of his cabinet, and made his intention to emancipate slaves too early on in the war, public support for the war efforts would have waned.  However, if Lincoln had waited too long, the boost in support provided by the proclamation, as well as the ability to recruit black soldiers, would not have come soon enough to turn the tide in the war.  The issue of timing is particularly important in the context of the present-day; as leaders face the challenge of maintaining functioning organizations, communities etc., in the face of necessary layoffs, budget cuts, etc.

While the economic and societal challenges that leaders face today are significant, many of these challenges seem much more manageable in comparison to the life and times of Abe Lincoln.  From an early age Lincoln became accustomed to struggle and pain.  By the age of seven Lincoln had already experienced tumult as his family became impoverished, and at the age of nine Lincoln became accustomed to tragedy with the death of his young mother.  Young Lincoln dealt with these challenges with a humor and resolve that would prove vital to his existence further in his career.  Through failed political campaigns and professional pursuits Lincoln maintained his steady and relentless pursuit of his goals.  For example, in 1855 Lincoln was hired by a prominent attorney from Pittsburgh to help represent the defendant in a patent case which had generated national attention.  Hired for his low hourly rate and his connections in the Illinois’ legal community Lincoln saw the case as a tremendous opportunity for career advancement.  However, when the case was moved to Cincinnati, Lincoln was frozen out of the case after months of extensive work by the lead attorney Edwin Stanton.  After experiencing an understandable level of disappointment, the Reaper Trial served to further solidify Lincoln’s resolve to achieve professional growth.  As a testament to Lincoln’s ability to put aside personal gripes, Stanton would later become Lincoln’s Secretary of War, and one of his most trusted companions.

The most gripping example of Lincoln’s toughness and resolve came in the midst of the Civil War, when his young son died.  While his wife was stricken with uncontrollable grief, Lincoln was forced to reserve his grief for the few private moments he had.  Beyond the loss of his son, Lincoln was faced with the overwhelming challenge of overseeing the bloodiest war in our nation’s history.  Through it all he was able to look beyond his earthly suffering as he led the nation through its most trying times.

After reading Team of Rivals I would ultimately say that what I see as the single most important element of Lincoln’s leadership is his commitment to the anti-slavery cause.  For what truly drives an effective leader is purpose.  As Goodwin states in regards to Lincoln’s commitment to the anti-slavery movement – “Once he committed himself… (Lincoln) demonstrated a singular tenacity and authenticity of feeling.  Ambition and conviction (were) united…”  Lincoln set his mind on an objective and used his God-given gifts which were honed through the fires of life to change the course of our nation’s history.

A Kennedy/Reagan Style Stimulus

A Kennedy/Reagan Style Stimulus Package
By Dr. Timothy G. Nash and Dr. Keith A. Pretty

Earlier this year the Obama administration pushed through Congress its $787 billion stimulus package amid dire predictions for the US economy. The package was designed to get America working and keep unemployment below 8.5 percent. Now, with unemployment at 9.5 percent and predicted to go higher, Vice President Biden has seemingly opened the door for another round of government spending, stating he believed the White House underestimated the severity of “the worst economy since the Great Depression.” Yet President Obama’s own Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, said recently that much of the stimulus money was moving slowly, especially construction projects. The glacial pace of approval has led to only 10% of the stimulus package being spent to date. At this rate, it will be three years before the entire package makes its way into the economy. Meanwhile more than 3.4 million jobs were lost to the U.S. economy so far this year. U.S. Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA.), stated that the purpose of the Obama administration stimulus package was to preserve, protect and create jobs and “it has failed miserably.” Considering the above, why has the president’s stimulus package had less than intended results?

The Problem
The problem is not, as Mr. Biden would have us believe, that the government didn’t spend enough, or that government bureaucracy is slowing the pace of stimulus spending, which it is. Instead, failure rests with a package that didn’t cut taxes enough or in all the right places. People have little confidence in government spending as a catalyst for economic growth and long term prosperity. They know that business creates jobs, and that the government largely creates taxes and regulations, and spends. The U.S. economy is burdened by onerous regulations, the third highest corporate income tax rate (39.27%) in the world, and a personal income tax rate that can reach 35 percent.
Despite all the money coming in, the U.S. national debt is now $11.2 trillion dollars, or 78 percent of U.S. GDP, and will likely be above 100 percent of GDP by the end of next fiscal year, surpassing the 1949 level of 97.5 percent which included costs associated with World War II and post war reconstruction. Many key U.S. competitors have much lower national debt-to-GDP ratios with China at 21 percent and Russia at 10 percent. By comparison, the next stimulus package this economy needs is not more of the same but a massive incentive-based tax cut to allow the U.S. to be competitive globally—currently we are not! The Russian economy has out-performed the U.S. over the last 5 years with a smaller national debt-to-GDP ratio, often friendlier regulations, a corporate income tax rate of 24 percent, and an average personal income tax rate of 13 percent. The U.S. has higher corporate and personal income tax rates than Canada and Mexico, as well as much of the industrialized world. The accounting firm KPMG reported that the global average corporate income tax rate for all countries in 2008 was 25.9 percent with the EU average at 23.2 percent, the Latin American average at 26.6 percent, the Asia-Pacific average at 28.4 percent and the OECD average at 26.7 percent.

The Solution
It seems that the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Ronald W. Reagan serve as strong cases for the effectiveness of tax cuts in stimulating economic growth during difficult times. Recall what President Kennedy said about his own tax-cut based stimulus package in 1962: “In short, to increase demand and lift the economy, the federal government’s most useful role is not to rush into a program of excessive increases in public expenditures, but to expand the incentives and opportunities for private expenditures.” President Kennedy’s tax cut was implemented after his death by President Johnson in 1964, with personal income tax rates declining 23.1 percent for the top income earners and 30 percent for the lowest. Corporate income tax rates were reduced by 9.6 percent the same year. The economy responded with an average annual real growth rate of 4.65 percent in U.S. GDP from 1963 to 1968, and unemployment dropped from 6.6 percent in 1961 to 3.7 percent in 1968. President Reagan’s across-the-board tax cut of 25 percent was phased in from 1981-1983 and helped bring the U.S. economy out of the severe economic recession of 1981-82 which saw the prime interest rate peak at 21.5 percent in 1981 (the highest since the Civil War), real GDP decline by 2.2 percent in 1982, and unemployment reach 10.8 percent also in 1982. The economy responded with an average annual real GDP growth rate of 3.87 percent from 1982 – 88, unemployment declined to 5.4 percent by 1988, and real tax revenue grew by 25.5 percent from 1983 to 1988. Finally, it should be recalled that average government spending exceeded average tax revenue growth by 4.22 percent for most of the 1980’s, thus creating the budget deficits of the Reagan years and hopefully providing a lesson for today’s policymakers?

Dr. Keith A. Pretty is president and CEO of Northwood University in Midland, Michigan.

Dr. Timothy G. Nash is vice president for Strategic and Corporate Alliances and holds the David E. Fry Chair in Free Market Economics at Northwood University.

Bashing Back

Muaz Halees

This is not the subject matter I usually write about. I am a writer that writes about random subjects at random times throughout the day. I write about my life and my opinions. I avoid throwing stones because my house has many windows, but I have a stone in my hand now. This article is not meant to be inflammatory, it is meant to highlight how baseless and divisive some of our leadership has become.

We are our brother’s keeper, whether that brother is gay, black, Cuban, man, woman, Arab, Christian, Jew, Mormon, or any other incarnation of the human spirit. I believe that a witness to a murder has blood on his hands by way of inaction; well, we are all witnesses now, and it is time to act. We have witnessed hate and vitriol spew from the mouth of a leader, the mouth of a woman whose job is to represent Oklahoma in the most positive and unifying manner possible. Because of Mrs. Kern, District 84 of Oklahoma is now known as a prejudice district that spits on the lives of individuals that have done no wrong.

E Pluribus Unum—out of many, one. District 84 is not one of us. That one that has hate in her heart and power in her hands. Hitler was elected and he mongered hatred without any castigation. It is our responsibility to come to the defense of our gay and lesbian siblings. Prejudice starts small and grows; if left untouched hate festers and contaminates; if left alone hate overtakes and kills. The weight that crushed the bigotry of Don Imus, Michael Richards, and Mel Gibson must come down on Kern. She is more than a celebrity, more than a radio host; she is a leader in these United States. She is a leader that must be dethroned and reprimanded. As a writer I am a proponent of free speech and free thought, but as Oliver Wendell Holmes stated, “The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.” Sally Kern has just punched all of us in the nose. Do we have the bravery to react, the bravery to stand up for what is right?

Representative Sally Kern’s words will not be forgotten and must not be forgiven:

“I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.”

I don’t recall a group of crazed homosexuals hijacking planes on September 11. I don’t recall a group of homosexuals blowing up the Oklahoma City federal building and ending 168 lives. The thinly veiled hatred against Islam is not unnoticed, either, Mrs. Kern. Hatred propagates hatred.

“Studies show, no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted for more than, you know, a few decades” -Sally Kern

Really, Mrs. Kern, really… Hitler had the same proclamation regarding Jews, and the KKK used this same rhetoric regarding African-Americans. Men used the same hate speech trying to quell the suffrage movement. Hatred had to be overcome for Mrs. Kern to become a State Rep. As you rise you must pull up, not step on the throats of your fellow citizens.

“It’s, it’s, it’s not a lifestyle that is good for this nation” -Sally Kern

Hatred is not a lifestyle that is good for this nation.

“And this, this stuff is deadly, and it’s spreading and it will destroy our young people, it will destroy this nation” -Sally Kern

Hatred destroys nations. Homosexuality is deadly? Mrs. Kern, you are such a misguided and damaged individual that I have no words that will accurately convey my feelings of frustration over these malicious statements.

Mrs. Kern uses the Bible as a defense of her hatred, to proselytize her malice. Okay, that is fine, Mrs. Kern, but Hitler followed the same tactic.

“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: ‘by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.’” -Adolf Hitler

We have a responsibility to stand united. This is not a political issue. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. This is a humanitarian issue. We must remember the name and face of Matthew Shepard. We must remember the name and face of Emmett Till. We must remember the name and face of Anne Frank. We must remember that these three lives and countless others were lost because of hate, a hate that started out with words and became action. We must remember that backing down to hatred leads to loss of freedom, liberty, life.

Representative Kern has the right to believe and say anything she wants, just as I do to lament her actions. But she does not have the right to propagate her hatred while employed by the citizens of this country to carry out their best interests. We must speak up; we must write and make our voices heard. We must make sure that the GLBT community knows they are not alone in their struggle. If we don’t, we may be the next targets of Mrs. Kern. I urge you to write to Mrs. Kern, in a peaceful manner. Inform her that her words hurt, that her words are untrue, that her hate has not gone unnoticed, and that these wounds will not heal through time.

I am not gay. I am a straight man that understands his responsibility to come to the aid of his fellow man or woman, regardless of race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. I am a promoter of unity, freedom, and equality. I am an American that understands what America stands for. I am an American that understands that Mrs. Kern does not represent me, or the America I love.

Representative Sally Kern’s contact information as reported on the OK State House Website:
(405) 557-7348
sallykern@okhouse.gov
2713 Sterling Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73127

Lost Spirits – Grog

Mike Gibson

My ancestors lived far more interesting lives than I’ll ever hope to. They were lumberjacks, voyageurs, bootleggers, French royalty, Union soldiers, war heroes. In some small way, many of them impressed their mark on history and helped forge this nation. Meanwhile, it’s a Saturday evening and I’m sitting here in my underwear drinking rum, using most of my available effort to prevent the condensation on my glass from falling onto my stomach. Clearly, I’m living the dream.

The only one of these ancestors I’ve ever actually known was my grandfather, a sailor, war veteran, and all-around badass. He joined the United States Navy when he turned eighteen—an age at which I was still struggling to learn how to cook a frozen pizza.

Duly inspired, I frequently find myself diving down a bottle of rum and dreaming about the sea, dreaming of an alternate reality where I can look at a lake freighter without getting violently seasick.

And since a life at sea is obviously not in my future, I eventually settled upon the next closest alternative—grog, the mixed drink that everyone’s heard of yet no one knows how to make.

But before I get to that, a brief historical rundown is in order. The English Navy customarily served rations of French brandy to its sailors while at sea, since fresh water is traditionally hard to find in the oceans, and during the 17th century no one had yet thought to found Aquafina.

At some point during the 1600s, England managed to snatch up a bevy of islands in the Caribbean, and some bloke discovered that sugar cane grew pretty well there. The sugar industry exploded, and in a few years the islands were saddled with molasses, an industrial byproduct that no one had any idea what to do with. Eventually some other bloke thought it would be a fine idea to ferment and distill it, and thus rum was born.

Soon the Royal Navy was serving rum to its sailors instead of French brandy. Remember, of course, that the English and French weren’t exactly good mates at this point in history, and this dietary transition makes perfect sense.

Consider the insurmountable complexities of sailing on an old tall ship. Have a few shots of rum and consider it again. If piloting a sailing ship suddenly seems like a bad idea, the Royal Navy probably would have agreed with you. Eventually they decided to dilute sailors’ daily rum rations with a bit of water.

If this doesn’t sound very potable, those sailors probably would have agreed with you. To compensate, they started mixing in their rations of lime and sugar as well. (A fun fact for all you ethnic slur hobbyists out there—this daily lime ration is why the rest of the world started calling Englishmen “limeys.”) They started calling this concoction “grog,” in honor of one Admiral Vernon, whose nickname was apparently “Old Grogrom.”

More than any other drink, grog has become emblematic of the sailing life, though in the last century it’s been overshadowed in this regard by rum, its primary ingredient. This may be because most bars these days can’t mix a drink that hasn’t featured prominently on Sex and the City.

Bearing that in mind, it looks like you’ll have to make it yourself. And since I suspect you’ll do it wrong, let me offer some advice.

As far as rum goes, you’re going to need something full-bodied and aged. This means no white rum, and no spiced rum. (Captain Morgan and Sailor Jerry can stay below deck for this one.) If you’re shooting for historical accuracy, use Pusser’s Rum—if you can find it. If you can’t, Mount Gay Eclipse will do. I’ll keelhaul you if you try using Bacardi.

As for the sugar, keep in mind that the white, refined variety that we’re used to didn’t come along until the close of the 19th century. Use brown sugar instead. Its slightly richer flavor profile complements the rum much more nicely than does modern superfine sugar, but it’s a lot more difficult to mix into the water. If you’re having problems, just use Splenda. I won’t tell anyone.

And of course you’ll want to use the juice of a real lime, so keep that little plastic lime-shaped bottle in your fridge where it belongs.

Grab an old-fashioned glass and add a couple ounces of water. Mix in a teaspoon of sugar and half an ounce of lime juice, stir vigorously. Add two ounces of rum, stir vigorously. Make the sure the sugar dissolves; otherwise, your drink will be depressingly tart. And although I can’t imagine that 18th century sailors had much access to ice, you’ll likely find this more refreshing on the rocks.

These instructions are all approximate, of course. In the nascent days of the drink, the sailors were likely adjusting the ingredients (sans rum) to taste, and so should you.

My more cocktail-savvy readers are surely remarking that this sounds an awful lot like a rum sour. And maybe it is, but it’s a rum sour with an anchor tattooed on one arm and a hula girl on the other. Make one or two for yourself and you’ll understand. It’s the closest you’ll ever come to having the ocean in a glass short of a dram of seawater.

Drink up, and you’ll be one step closer to understanding what it was like to see the world from the prow of a rickety old schooner, what it was like to be an oceangoing transient who saw whole lunar cycles pass without a glimpse of land, what it was like to have one’s memory of home and family recede from the mind’s eye like an already forgotten harbor town.

I sometimes wonder if that’s what it was like for my grandfather, who, by my age, had seen more of the world than most of us will in our entire lives. I’ll never know, at any rate, so I’ll stick to my grog. I’m feeling a bit seasick anyway.