gdp's Comments

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Credit card reform

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:11:56 +0000

Sorry Dr. Veith but I have to agree with Steven. You would be supporting yet another government intrusion into the free market. Just think about it for a minute. Credit cards are unsecured meaning that the bank who offers you the credit is not asking you for any collateral. If you default on the "loan" (which is exactly what a credit card is), there is nothing for the bank to do but right it off. Contrast that with a mortgage loan or even a car loan. If the consumer fails to pay, the bank at least has an asset that they can sell to get back some of its money. The latest statistics show that consumer default on credit card debt is up (I think the number I saw was 4.5% up from 4.25% or something like that). With increased risk of default, the banks raise interest rates and fees. This is how the banks manage their risk. If the government steps in to say they can no longer do that, the banks will need to manage their risk by some other means. Usually that would be withholding credit from the most risky consumers. Bottom line - Dr. Veith, resist the dark side! Take responsbility for your own actions!

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Not letting the Republicans be a "religious party"

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:16:09 +0000

Unfortunately, I have nothing that show statistics or anything like that. I have information that I heard on Issues Etc. and I also know of at least one family who has appeared at my church's door for this reason.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Not letting the Republicans be a "religious party"

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:05:47 +0000

Issues Etc. covered this story early in the week with an open microphone segment. It was quite interesting - several listeners commented that they would leave the party or they would cease to send donations to the party. Personally, I am an independent. There was a time when I was a registered Republican but I think the party has strayed over the years. I think the latest shift away from the standard Republican positions on lower taxes, less government, and strengthening the family started in the late 1980's. This is just another step away from those positions. I don't see any reason to become a Republican today. It may be that this is an issue that wakes up the rank and file (in a similar way that ELCA's position on ordaining homosexuals is waking up the members of that church body). If the Republicans change their platform, I think it will hurt them in 2010 and potentially kill them as a political force by 2012.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Socialism shoots up in the polls

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:31:59 +0000

I think it has more to do with a lack of understanding of what the different systems are as well as a lack of understanding of our sinful state.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : City vs. Country vs. Suburban

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:25:20 +0000

Cities certainly provide a center for culture - the arts, libraries, etc. However, cities also consume vast quantities of stuff. For example, if you look at history - back in the 1800's when homes were heated with wood and wood was also used to cook food, trees would be stripped from the surrounding areas for miles to provide suffient wood. Cities also require vast amounts of food to be shipped in to feed the population. Add to that the materials used for paving and building and you find that many things must be shipped into cities for them to exist at all. I think that cities also promote a sense of disconnection from the source of the things needed in the city. For example, in many cities the people are completely disconnected from the source of food. Certain markets are exceptions to this (Fulton Fish Market in NYC for example) but for the most part, the population is not connected to the source of food and other materials. Cities also concentrate population and therefore gain a larger voice is government. If you look at states with large cities, the politics of the state is often dominated by the politics of the city - look at NY, MD, PA, IL, and MI as examples.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : City vs. Country vs. Suburban

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:17:24 +0000

I have to agree - I see little or no value in suburbia. It tends to be the land of "I am rich enough to live outside of the city." It is very consumer oriented with little sense of community or self-reliance that you find in the country.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : The rebirth of Star Trek

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:24:31 +0000

I have to agree that B5 is the best scifi series. DS9 is second but not a close second. Both show the dark side as well as the light side of culture and I thought both tackled very interesting topics.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Nuclear disarmament

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 14:28:24 +0000

With today's concerns about collateral damage, my fear is that there would be intense pressure not to use such a response and that the pressure would increase as the time between the attack and the response increased.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Nuclear disarmament

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 14:26:52 +0000

Carl, I agree completely that any anti-missile system will not be 100%. But for the most part we are not dealing with a US-Russia exchange. In today's world, it seems that a state with a few missiles is the more likely (hopefully still unlikely) scenario.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Nuclear disarmament

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 13:13:40 +0000

Carl, Yes, the US did that but at the time the US and Japan were locked in a "total war." Cities had already been targeted. Today is a different world. If you had a country that was run by a despot and that despot launched a single missile against the US (or France or the UK) or potentially a close ally, I think it would be very difficult for the US to launch nuclear weapons in response. I think the public outcry would be huge and the personal guilt faced by the US President (or the PM of France or the UK) would be so huge that it would be very hard to do. There are of course many variables. For example, if the decision to respond is made as the missile is in flight, there is a higher likelihood of an actual response but as the time between the nuclear explosion and the response grows, I think that the likelihood of a response grows smaller.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : White House helping companies evade its own laws

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 12:23:28 +0000

I agree with Manxman about putting our trust in the laws of men. That said, if the President knowingly violates the law as passed by Congress and signed by his own hand, he should be impeached.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Nuclear disarmament

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 12:21:14 +0000

Nuclear weapons are very interesting things. Civilized or sane people (maybe well-balanced is a better term?) do not want to use them. However, no having them might allow a country with the weapons to act as a bully. Between the US and the USSR during the cold war, the concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD) kept every one at least a step away from pushing the button. However, now we have countries that have at least one nuclear weapon where the reluctance to use it may not exist. The leaders of these countries may not see a down side - it could be that the leader's personal situation is so bad that he might as well take someone else with him or it could be that the philosophy or religion of the country pushes the leader (or the population) to see the use as a good thing. These folks will not be deterred by their own destruction. It is also unclear that the US (or France or the UK) would use a nuclear weapon against a country where it is a single leader who was really the problem. So why is a missle defense system bad?

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Senate investigating which college football team should be #1

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:02:41 +0000

Well....on the bright side...if they are working on something this stupid, they aren't messing with the economy....

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Leftist patron is cashing in on the economic crisis

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:48:24 +0000

How sad - "the culminating point of my life's work." That's all I can say, how sad.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Remaking the Three Stooges

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:47:04 +0000

I agree completely with Wcwirla - remakes are evidence of a lack of ideas.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : The Power to Seize Firms

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:54:57 +0000

Nationalizing is the term, I believe. And that is what this bill would allow. Good grief! I thought we lived in a country where people had the freedom to fail!

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Virtual and automated prayer

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:58:46 +0000

Ya know...there was a time when computers were installed in large rooms and serviced by a "select few" who labored in lab coats. Sometimes windows were installed in the computer rooms so that outsiders could view the activity within. The "select few" could be likened to monks or priests serving within the holy of holies (where the rest of the great unwashed dared not venture). Perhaps the folks who put together this site are just learning from history....

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Demagoguing the Bailout

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:15:48 +0000

Hi WebMonk, I'm not convinced that it was fraud. Gambling yes (and very high stakes gambling, I might add) but not fraud. This article from Wired Magazine shows a bit more about what happened: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp...

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : Demagoguing the Bailout

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:42:10 +0000

I don't understand the surprise here. Politicians in general respond to their consituents. If the general public is "outraged" by these bonuses, I would expect that the representatives would also be "outraged" and "do something." At this point it is a no lose situation for many of the Congresscritters. The number of people hurt by this law is small and limited geographically (mostly to the NY metro area) so they (the Congresscritters) are unlikely to be hurt in the next election. For some (those who actually care about the Constitution), there may be a calculation that the tax will be overturned by a court case but that will be so far into the future that no one will remember this whole event. The whole bailout is a fiasco and getting worse.

Cranach: The Blog of Veith : The teleprompted president

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:35:54 +0000

It would be nice if the media were consistent but they show their bias when they are not. What was wrong for Bush to do is now perfectly OK for Obama.