Lance Truthhammer

Public schools at all levels, until now - and oh what a change it is. P.S. Satty, I love your Sig. During my year at MU Ohio I had a econ professor that looked and sounded just like that guy. -E.S. Mail

A couple things here. First, you don't get too far in this world treating ladies like that. Second, you don't get fired for being a good neighbor. -E.S. Mail

Clearly, there is nothing to be legitimately worried about at the moment. But, that is not to say that we should not be actively trying to formulate a workable vaccine. I am not sure if I take anything in the article as realistic, a lot of the facts are off and others are speculation. Also, I don't like the notion that "humanity is due for a major outbreak" I think that speaks of outbreaks as a good thing. Still, it is important to look at this in perspective. It has only killed 70 people or so, but it hasn't mutated, and, while we don't know how it will mutate, if it does it may become quite deadly and communicable among humans. And if the attributes remain the same it would be worse than ebola, in the sense that ebola is not "bad" in terms of communicability - it kills its victims too fast - the case would likely be different with avian flu. -E.S. Mail

I think this is great for Cadillac. It attempts (I am not saying it completely succeeds) to combine the best of the Sixteen (in my opinion the third most beautiful concept ever created) with the best aspects of the last Escalade, and at the same time dropping the cheesy overdone nature of the last model. This is what art and science was supposed to be about. - E.S. Mail

Actually, Barack Obama is more center-left than a lot of the more prominant liberals. But, what it is about him that makes him the future of the Democratic party is the hope he exudes in his vision for America. The audacity of hope! He is uniquely able to unite people on both sides, he geniunely believes in the capacity of the American people to think deeply about the issues, and he honestly speaks of the common hopes of all Americans as our highest priorities. No wonder he doesn't seem like a politician, no wonder what he says and the way he says it seems fresh and inspiring - it's been a long time since we've seen a true statesman. Now, he wouldn't win the Presidency by such a large gap as he did in his Senate race, but the fact that he fared so well with even the most conservative of voters in Illinois, having outstanding success across all demographics, shows something peculiar at work - something I think one should acknowledge before writing off his chances. He appeals to our better angels, and we will only be better off as a result. -E.S. Mail

I think it would be quite noble of him to retire if the sentiments expressed in this song were the result of him projecting his own life onto the lyrics. I actually thought the song was good, which is more than I can say about most of his work. -E.S. Mail

I think I will give it a try. It's been quite a long time. -E.S. Mail

Believe it or not, I don't drink. -E.S. Mail

The world is a changing place, that much is certain, and that is about all that is certain. That said, I am disturbed by the easy solutions both sides see to the problems facing American manufacturers. On the one hand, individuals will argue that the unions should just face reality, the world is a changing place, wages aren't worth more than $10 an hour in the supply industry. I would caution such a way of looking at this for a few reasons. Surely, in the global economy wages in such industries probably aren't worth close to even $10. I imagine if Delphi is taken out of the equation, the average drops, and, perhaps, once union influence ends industry wide, there is more room for decline. In reality, suppliers would probably be forced to compete in the search for cheaper and cheaper labor. So, I think it is important that we understand the wage lowering dynamic in the global economy as a function, not of economic absolutes, but of human choices. Corporations make a choice to exploit workers. I think it is wrong to accept the downward trend in wages as given. I would also caution this view because, in America, $10 an hour won't get you far, especially if that doesn't include health care costs. To say that $10 an hour is a reality that American workers will have to deal with fails to understand the real lives, the real hardships, and the real pain $10 an hour wages translate into. What is needed before blandly accepting such a figure is a fuller understanding of its meaning for human communities. I am sorry to say, I don't think any of us can offer a full understanding, but we can and should try. Another simplification I have encountered in this dialogue is the claim that what this is really about is the laziness of the American worker, the lack of will to improve, and the belief in endless entitlements. This is fundamentally untrue. I think this much is clear when we look at the wider economic realities which influence this discussion. We can see that it is thousands of dollars cheaper to make cars in Canada, just because of government healthcare. Similarly, wages for Japanese autoworkers are nearly equivalent to Americans, but they are more competitive because government pays for their healthcare. I am not advocating America does this, but it is something to consider, and to write it off as a call for entitlement is unfair. Furthermore, I would caution any blanket statement calling American manufacturing workers lazy, inflexible (greedy), and uninspired - as I think some here have done, regrettably. At the very most, this may be true of an extremely limited group of individuals in the manufacturing industry. But, it is just as true for corporate managers and executives. Stay away from generalizations, there are too many false answers in them, and too few questions. The reality, like it is almost always, does not lend itself to generalizations. But I think it is fair to say that most of these workers have dreams for the future, aspirations for themselves and their country, and hope for a better tomorrow. Many have families - dream multipliers. They hope to send their kids to college, give them the best education possible, and give them everything they will need to have in order for their dreams to take them as far as possible. In short, they are no different from you or me, or from my parents or yours. And, they deserve our commitment and understanding. They need us to argue for them, or, at the very least, just to walk in their shoes. I am under no illusion that there aren't real sacrifices to be made. I, again, caution the proposals that demand the sacrifices come from those who stand as the least able to sacrifice. Sure, there is room there, but there is even more room at the top, where our executives are laughably overpaid - other countries we compare ourselves to are astounded by this. Until executives are willing to cut their salaries (which, on average, have gone from 50 times (1980s) to 500 times the average starting employee's wages) I will have a hard time understanding sentiments. This is not the case everywhere, and I do not want to generalize, that is a trap we should all avoid. We must look at the $10 an hour wage for what it means, not what it looks like in economic models. I think it is safe to say it means less opportunity for self-improvement, less ability to send kids to college, more people moving out of houses they should be able to (yet cannot) afford, less attention on healthy living (lower wage groups tend to have less ability to make healthy decisions), and, ultimately, less human flourishing. I think, when we view it as what it means, when we turn our vantage point inward to the moral law written into all our hearts as human beings, when we look to our conscience, then we can tell that this is unacceptable for Americans, given the cost of living in this country. We need to look at the challenges we face through a standard of human rights, not just American rights. We need to judge the actions of corporations, increasingly transparent in accordance with our demands, with regards to how well they uphold the value and dignity of all humans involved in their actions. Sweatshop labor, you could argue, is a "reality" in the globalized economy, as is the downward trend of wages. But, is it really a human reality? The question, I think, isn't so much whether or not American workers will accept lower wages. Nor is the question whether or not we will engage in potentially crippling protectionist policies in order to temporarily increase the longevity of a currently struggling industry. Nor, even, is the question whether or not our government will cover part of this industry's healthcare costs. For me, the question is really whether or not we will engage in serious public dialogue, all the while refusing to allow the debate to decline to the point of the lowest common denominator. Or, whether we will appeal to the better angels of our nature, and put economic "absolutes" aside and raise human rights to the rightful top of our list of priorities. Will we be guided by our conscience, individually and as a nation? I sincerely hope so. I hope in the face of uncertainty. I hope that, together, we will refuse the given of our economic "reality" and together find complex and creative solutions to a not-so-intractable dilemma, and, in doing so, move out of this painful darkness and into a brighter and more hopeful era for all mankind. -E.S. Mail

Any food with artificial coloring, it alters my temperment in small doses and in larger doses has some physical side effects (like breaking out in hives). Seriously. It is one of the wierdest alergies. People will put small amounts of it in my food just to see how mad they can get me. No doubt it has led to some interesting concepts artistically over time. -E.S. Mail

He's talking about the new one. I saw it not too long ago and I loved it. It's an exploration of conflicts in race relations from multiple perspectives, and it really shows how in reality very few things are black and white. There are no good guys in the movie, and there are no bad guys. As for a subtle anti-gun overtone - I am really not sure what you expect - the movie is realistic, and, in reality, people are often too quick to shoot, too trigger happy, and too paranoid (buying a gun for protection). In reality, people's lives are infinitely complicated, not by the existence of guns, but by the mentality surrounding them. In this movie, as is true in real life, these characters would have been better off, and race relations would have been better off, for that matter, had guns not come into play. Truth cannot contradict truth. Subtle overtone or not, what was portrayed is not unheard of. I absolutely loved the movie, although I thought it could have been made a bit more appropriate for younger audiences with a few unnecessary things taken out here and there. I agree, this is a beneficial movie to watch. - E.S. Mail

A few weeks ago, when Notre Dame was visiting Washington to play the Huskies, Charlie Weis visited an young boy named Montana (named after the former college and pro football great, Joe Montana) who was dying of brain cancer. The report I read said that the boy joked around with Weis about his loss to MSU, and that reminded Weis of his own son. The short of it is, Weis decided to let Montana call the first play in the Washington game. Montana said, "pass right." Unfortunately, he died before the game, and never saw what transpired. In the game, Notre Dame stopped Washington after a long drive that took them to the ND 1 yard line. ND forced a fumble. Backed up to their own 1 yard line, any coach knows that you have to run the ball to get some sort of cushon, or you risk a safety. Weis knew this, and so did Montana's mom. Weis called pass right. The pass was made to the right, and I believe that it was Anthony Fassano who made the catch seven yards down the field, lept over a defender and ran six yards to make it a 13 yard pass and a first down for the Irish. The game ball was taken, signed by all the members of the team, and given to Montana's family. I cannot understand why anyone would not like Charlie Weis. This is the type of man he is. He gets choked up when he thinks or talks about this event, and it took a bit of digging for the media to find out about it. Say what you want about his style of coaching. Bottom line about Charlie Weis: he gets the job done, and somewhere a young boy named Montana is smiling. -E.S. Mail

Yeah, I was there, in the student section, so that's why I was really disappointed when we started rushing the field and they told us we would be penalized if we didn't get off. I was like, okay well why did you let the clock run out? I mean, I saw the ball go out of bounds; everything was called fairly, but man...way to toy with our emotions... Still it was a great game, and kudos to you guys. -E.S. Mail

I'm sure Charlie Weis takes all the fun out of the games...losing to him isn't fun...well, be ready for it, that's all I can say. -E.S. Mail

I sooooooo hated that. They let the clock run down. So we started to rush the field and they make us turn back. USC won fair and square, but what a bunch of garbage. This is it for USC, they dynasty ends now. From here on it's all about the Gold and Blue. Charlie Weis is a genius...and God is on our side too, so that helps. -E.S. Mail

While I understand the complaints of many in this forum about the UAW asking for too much, something about the way it is said bothers me. Something about the way these detractors often rant about how the UAW needs to conform to the demands of the “Global Economy” or “DIE” strikes me as too simplistic. Something about a person saying “the numbers will decide” sounds alienated and out of touch to me. In these debates the common tendency is toward finger-pointing, creating artificial enemies, and holding tight to an abstract theory to prove others wrong. This lends itself to too many answers and too few questions. We tend to forget that we are talking about real people with meaningful human lives and true consequences for the vitality of larger human communities. When we speak of wage reductions/benefit cuts the theoretical solution is far easier than the results. Real lives are impacted. People speak of the UAW as a faceless, heartless, mindless organization when in reality the people it is composed of are no different than you or me. They have dreams, hopes, and aspirations that their children may live in a world with less violence, less disease, more opportunities, and more hope than the world they grew up in. And they make serious choices, rightly or wrongly, that lend themselves, in their eyes, to these ends. The reality is far too complex to assign labels to. Countless faces, hearts, and minds make up the UAW – not numbers. Reality does not accept one-size fits all theories of economics – look no further than free market experiments in Russia, Africa, and much of Eastern Europe, or the state-led development failures in much of post-colonial Africa, the Soviet Union among others. Reality demands more complexity, more trial and error than many experts are willing to afford it. We do know that economies have done well if they have mixed both. I do not, for one, pretend to know what the correct path to follow. I do realize though, that the path we are on does not appear to have any easy solutions, and that, right now, things don’t look so hot for American manufacturers. I do know, for my very conscience tells me so, that we cannot let numbers guide us. Numbers have no feelings; they are unnatural. Numbers are abstract; they are unsympathetic. Numbers are oversimplifying and cold and dishonest. Humanity has feelings; it is governed by Moral and natural law. Humans have practicality; they can show sympathy. Humans are complex and capable of warmth and truth. I have a feeling that if we look at the human side of the Global “Free-Market” economy, we will see guiding principles more meaningful than any “Dependency Theory” or “Comparative Advantage Theory.” We need to reconnect with our brothers and sisters, and learn to walk in their shoes. We need to understand that we are more connected than we think we are, that individualism has its great strengths and its great weaknesses, and that just because a GDP increases somewhere does not mean people there are better off. I know, in my heart, that if my neighbor loses a job to a foreigner who will receive unfair wages, nobody is better off even if I can buy a cheaper car. I know that if my neighbor cannot afford needed medical treatment, I am that much less healthy. I know that if my neighbor has to retire to a life of abject poverty due to the lack of a pension and Social Security, the days of my old age are that much darker. We are connected in our destiny, more than we realize – that is, until we turn our attention to the human subject. I see the treatment of workers by manufacturers in China, and I know that something about it is out of touch with the core principles of humanity. The concept of justice is tangible in this world. Where there is a lack of respect, a lack of freedom, and a lack of hope there is a corresponding degradation of the larger human community. There is injustice. I cannot help but be hurt when I read the finger-pointing, hear the name calling, and watch the bland acceptance of some far away injustice. How falsely secure some feel. How encapsulated some can be into their imagined “I got here on my own, no thanks to nobody” histories. When someone says the UAW will be viable or it will die, I cannot help but look at what it is up against. How much do we demand they concede? Can we accept wage slavery over here if the market demands it? Should we accept wage slavery anywhere if the market demands it? Does the market have children? Does it have dreams? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, I don’t mean them rhetorically. I am as new to this as anyone in this world. Globalization is real and it is as foreign to me as it is to anyone. Nobody has the answers. We only have trial and error, for better or worse. But, if I may, I would like to suggest, as a guiding principle, that the only proper way forward is one that originates from the heart, not a calculator. Even if it appears we are losing now, can standing up for what is right really be losing? Are not the only causes worth fighting for the lost causes? I don’t know. But, I am drawn to the famous words written by Dr. King years ago from within a Birmingham jail cell. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” My conscience tells me it is true. E.S. Mail

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