Search This Blog

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Temporary Hiatus

Your correspondent is taking a temporary break while recovering from a broken right arm.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Headed to Europe

Your correspondent is headed to the Netherlands today and will have only limited access to e-mail and the Internet. There will, therefore, be a ten day hiatus before commentary resumes.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Corporate Immunity

$75 million dollars is currently the limit of liability for damage caused by oil spills. To describe this as a trivial sum, compared to the size of the corporations involved and to the actual damage that is being caused as a result of BP's Macondo well blowout, is not an exaggeration.

Carol Browner, formerly Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and now White House energy and climate advisor, says that there should be no cap on damages from oil spills. While "no kidding!" is a suitable response to her blindingly obvious remarks, changing the law will require hard work in the Congress to overcome the lobbying efforts of the oil industry.

Given that big oil's reputation is now even worse than that of politicians, peddlers of complicated derivatives, and used car salesmen, its lobbying efforts will likely result in little. Perhaps no more than the purchase of additional designer suits, and custom made shoes, for the denizens of K Street.

There are, however, real challenges to the passage of a properly reformed law on oil spill damages. Specifically, objections are already being heard from companies that are small in terms of the oil industry but really quite large by any objective standards. Their position is that, if they face unlimited liability, they will not be able to afford to drill in deep water and so should be spared full responsibility for their actions

Tough. Why should such smaller - but not small - companies receive special treatment at the expense of all of us?

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell's formulation of the [actually non-existent] Pottery Barn rule 'You broke it, you bought it' must apply to all offshore drilling regardless of the water depth. The size of the corporation is irrelevant while the grant of a permit to drill must, among many other things, be conditional upon adequate insurance to cover the possibility of very substantial damage to the environment, to infrastructure, and to the livelihoods of bystanders. Your correspondent does not have the knowledge to specify an adequate amount of insurance but suspects that it should be several billions of dollars.

A positive side effect of very large insurance policies would be that insurance companies would soon acquire significant expertise in the evaluation of such risks. Steam boiler explosions, common one hundred years ago, are now rare. Much of that can be attributed to the development of safety procedures and practices by The Hartford which was, and remains, the largest insurer in that field. There is no reason why the same process would not operate to reduce drilling risk.

There are bigger questions, however, posed by the present pathetically low limits on liability for damages caused by oil spills.

Why was the limit set so low? Who is running our country?

Are we, as citizens, and as contemplated by the Constitution, in charge? Or does the money wielded by Corporations, Unions, and other large associations such as the National Rifle Association or the Sierra Club provide the sort of control over our elected representatives that, were they to know about it, would set the Founding Fathers spinning in their graves.

Perhaps words once written by that A.J. Liebling will provide food for thought: "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." It is surely a certainty that more money equates to a larger press and, thus, to more influence.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Canada Day

There are still some Americans who wonder why Canadians celebrate the 4th of July on the 1st of July.

Could it be that they believe that the results of the War of 1812 were misreported?

Your correspondent offers his best wishes to our northern neighbors. May freedom and prosperity endure on both sides of our border.