Re-living the memories

The great treasure of pictures which appeared over many years in Life magazine are now becoming available to the public thanks to Life and Google. You can visit this web site and see for yourself. You can also put the site on your screen for frequent visiting or put it in your favorites list so you can find it in the future. This will be a great opportunity to re-visit some of the greatest pictures taken in the last century. Truly a cornucopia of images. And remember these were all done with film cameras, many in black and white - the true medium of the art.

Vox Populi

Two days ago I blogged the subject of bailing out the auto industry and asked for comments. Readers responded from across the country (Las Vegas to Virginia, New England to Florida ) to the question asked on November 19, 2008: Should we bail out the big three Detroit automakers? The responses (following) reflect the same ambivalence as currently reported from Capital Hill:

1. No, unless there is a Chapter 11.

2. Yes with restrictions.

3. My vote for the Car Manufacturers is NO BAILOUT. Let them reorganize like all the other big industries, like the airlines etc. etc.

4. I can't believe I'm saying this, but someone should carefully craft a way of letting them hang. There must be a way to chastise them severely, and yet not let the economy collapse. Our railroads exhibited a similar amount of blindness after World War II and they have suffered for it, but they are now surviving and with the energy crunch it's possible they will have a strong re-growth. Glad I'm not the one who has to make these decisions. They are tough, but there are a lot of little guys who if they fail to keep abreast of things they drown. No one bails them out!

5. As a long-time Honda and Toyota fan, I hate that the Detroit guys got themselves into this pickle, but they have a history of getting us into lemons.

6. Yes, but only with caveats -- total change of top mgt. in all 3, commitment to Hybrids, decreased salaries and benefits for workers, markedly lower CEO salaries, and a reduction of dividends to stockholders. If we were in a normal market all 3 should declare bankruptcy and start over

7. No. (Although regardless of what this administration does, Obama will lend them a hand when he gets in.)

8. Not only no but as Albert would have said, hell, no!

9. No bailout for the Big 3.

10. Absolutely NOT!!! I vote NO.

11., 12, and 13. NO.

Auto industry bailout - yes or no?

The only thing more depressing than a man with a cup begging outside a bus station was the sight of the big three auto executives groveling before a congressional committee and seeking a bailout of the auto industry.

GM wants $10 to $12 billion, Ford $7 to $8 billion and Chrysler $7 billion. This is on top of the earlier $25 billion congress earmarked for auto industry loans.

Opinions are like noses, everybody gets one. The nose is the easy part. It already protrudes from the front of your face when you come screaming and kicking out of the womb and grows as it pleases. Opinions on the other hand take an effort to finalize. Conflicting information and data complicate the formation process. So it is with the prospective bailout.

First, we are told the alternative is too horrible to contemplate. Michael Gerson, op-ed columnist, writing in The Washington Post this morning quotes economists' estimates “that a rapid auto industry meltdown could cost up to 3 million jobs – perhaps sending the jobless rate as high as 9.5 percent.”

Even worse is the “bottomless psychology of panic” that would ensue.

Like every coin there is another side to this story. The big three developed, promoted and sold cars and trucks so big they lost sight of the world trend. Americans who bought them because of the dual macho mentality “bigger is better” and “we’re Americans” got caught up in their own hubris and lost interest fast when the vehicles didn’t hold up, gas prices soared, the economy soured and their own incomes took a hit.

I was part of that group at one time. I was going to be the first on my block to get the Lincoln Navigator. I was as excited as a ten-year old at the prospect of a new bicycle at Christmas. When they were delivered I went to the showroom and gradually came to my senses.

But even when I got “too soon smart” I did so only in part. I drive a Lincoln Towncar, like many Americans over 65 to whom the car was heavily marketed in recent years. Known as the OCM (Official Car of the Mafia) the Towncar will soon be used exclusively as a limousine to take rock stars and divas to Vegas openings and championship fights.

Meanwhile every auto maker based outside the fifty states makes cars smaller, more fuel efficient and less troublesome. And they make them cheaper with non-union labor - but don’t blame only the American unions for Detroit’s troubles. It took two sides to negotiate and approve those now expensive labor contracts. The executives also took the big salaries, stock bonuses and other comps and never looked back. Shareholders took the dividends and profits when the sold appreciated stock.

Now these same executives say they have gotten some of that old time religion and are on track to compete with foreign based auto makers…it is, they claim, only the turmoil in the broader economy that threatens them, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Bailout, yes or no? How would you vote? Send your response to arch@archibald99.com.

No to Quantam of Solace

It has been a long time since I watched a movie I liked less than Quantam of Solace, the current James Bond flick which reportedly has already grossed more than $200 million in world-wide release. It is as if dozens of car chases - and ultimately an airplane chase- are strung together and sandwiched around kicking the daylights out of people. When it really gets going God is left with the difficult task of sorting out the corpses.

Early Bond films protected the free world from the evil Communists and other assorted nut jobs who somehow gained control of nuclear weapons. Bond was the star and the American CIA came across as a friend.

In Solace, the gig is about finding the man who killed Bond's early love and who will contol the water supply in Bolivia. I like water as much as anyone else, but who controls it in some far off land is not high on my list of prime items of interest. Unless Bond ceases his efforts against the bad guys, it is said, "the Americans will take him out."

The film reportedly has at least two dozen factual and continuity flaws, although I did not spot all these during my two hours of boredom. There was a time when a scene ended Hollywood took a still picture of the actors and made sure when the next scene was filmed the actors were dressed exactly as they were earlier. This was especially important to the flow of the finished film. This must be a lost art.

Pigeon-brained espionage

With the election over I turned my attention to other news to catch up on the important, the mundane, the inconsequential and the weird. The Israel News (ynetnews.com) had a report that in late October Iranian security forces had seized two “spy pigeons” near two nuclear enrichment facilities in Iran. Reportedly “metal rings and invisible strings” were attached to one of the birds. (Iranian sources did not clarify how the “invisible strings” could be seen.) Iranian sources say it is possible these birds were being used to spy on the nuclear facilities. They have been turned over to defense officials.

This in itself is not evidence of paranoia in Iran or of a breakdown in mental health or over indulgence in Columbian pharmaceuticals. Last year Iranian police commander Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam reportedly confirmed that 14 squirrels were arrested for espionage and found equipped with the spy gear of foreign agencies. They were stopped before they could act; another triumph for Iranian intelligence services.

I have no first-hand knowledge of spy pigeons, metal rings, invisible strings or squirrels equipped with spy gear. But, in a book* earlier this year, Robert Wallace and Keith Melton told of a CIA plan years ago to use a cat to eavesdrop on an Asian head of state during strategy sessions with his aides. Cats wandered in and out of the rooms and were so common in the region they were usually ignored. The Agency came up with a plan to put a microphone in the ear of the cat, run an antenna wire through his fur and down his back and implant the transmitter and power supply in the base of his skull. A veterinarian’s skillful hands made all this feasible, but after testing and recognizing that the cat handler in the area would have no control over the cat, the project was judged impractical and closed. Maybe the Iranians are reading this book. (*Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s spy techs from communism to Al-Qaeda, Dutton, The Penguin Group, New York.)

Mr. President: Another something to work on

As if we needed another reminder of the terribleness of Alzheimer's, The Wall Street Journal today published the story of a 45-year old man, father of three and former chief financial officer of a hedge fund, who was "diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, capping nearly five years of uncertainty and fear about his increasing forgetfulness and difficulty with language."

Yesterday, in a discussion with a Mt. Pleasant, SC, dermatologist, he told me years ago he suspected a connection between patients' reactions to injections and surgery and the likelihood of the onset of Alzheimer's. He suspected patients who openly expressed themselves in often vulgar language about the pain and discomfort were likely to eventually be diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Years later his continuing experience in his practice supports this early assessment.

Earlier this year a retired minister at an Alzheimer's conference said when his wife came down with the disease she often uttered words which shocked him, their family and close friends. This was the release of inhibitions exhibited by some Alzheimer's patients.

After the Journal article appeared I looked at the WSJ web site for comments. I was not unduly surprised. Alzheimer's " is the worst disease to which I have ever been exposed, " wrote one daughter whose mother was stricken.

Another wrote, "It destroyed my father who fell into isolation, alcohol and depression at the loss of his life partner and died a year later believing he was being punished by God. What could he have possibly done to deserve this?" Alzheimer's is "a thief of the present and works backward taking your life one grain of sand at a time."

A third said "always keep your eye on the spouse because it takes a horrible toll. We focus on my dad and are helping him move to “Act II” of his life without mom."

After the onset of my wife's Alzheimer's, I spoke with a care giver's advocate. She told me the most important thing for me to do was "to take care of" myself. There is no cure for Alzheimer's - although the search goes on in limited ways. "If the caregiver goes down, everyone goes down," she said. "

So it is in the Journal story today. The wife's life has been turned upside down; she has had to return to the work place; her children's lives have been affected (no one can accurately know the short and long term effects); her husband takes cabs to the golf course and hitches rides home from strangers thereby threatening his own security.

(A friend of mine was found one day more than 100 miles from home and did not know how he got there or where he was. His Alzheimer's diagnosis came shortly thereafter.)

We need a national effort to unlock the secrets of Alzheimer's and discover a cure. The Journal estimates there are more than 500,000 people living with the disease and other forms of dementia "at an atypically young age." We ought not to dress it up with the language of war (e.g. war on poverty, drugs, crime, illegal immigration, etc.) but we need fresh eyes on the disease and potential preventatives or cures.

I hope this will become part of the new administration's efforts to restore America to humane greatness.

The Week That Was

UpDate: Click on either picture to see a larger image.

Today at Franke at Seaside the active lifestyle community held its weekly forum to discuss current events and comment on the past week. The election was a major feature today and the many Republicans in the forum were treated to a Democratic demonstration by myself.

Time to Saddle Up

Barack Obama is the President-elect of the United States of America. Let us all saddle up and ride with him to make our country again the greatest in the world in all respects. Senator John McCain ran a decent and honorable race; he has pledged his support to the President-elect; who can do otherwise?