Corporate Oversight

With the current financial hurricane there has been a great deal of talk about the need for greater (I would say "any") oversight of large corporations and some control of executive compensation. To do this without spending taxpayers dollars, do the following:

1. Eliminate all income taxes on corporations.
2. Treat all corporations as Chapter S corporations. That is, pass all profits through to the shareholders so that the shareholders must pay taxes on total profits, not just the dividends.
   
3. Require all corporations to maintain a single set of books - not one for the IRS and one for the shareholders.
4. Limit the amount of executive compensation that can be deducted as a business expense to the salary of the President of the United States. Anything more than that to come out of profits.

Now, with this done you can be certain that the shareholders will exercise effective oversight!

What is the Meaning of Life?

Some time ago I watched a TV interview of a Hollywood notable. One of the questions posed was “What was the most important thing you learned from your father?” I do not recall the response or who the notable was. I do recall my own response to the question:

“It is 5:00am and time to milk the cows.”

This brings to mind the following exchange between an acolyte and a guru:

Acolyte: “Oh wise master, what is the meaning of life?”

Guru: “My son, have you had your breakfast?”

Acolyte: “Why yes, great master, I have.”

Guru: “Then do your dishes.”

Memories of my Great Uncle Louis-In-Law

On a lighter note, here is a short memory from my childhood:

Louis Lausten was married to my grandmother’s sister, Mary. (Grandmother Eunice Caltoft Nielsen) Thus “Great Uncle Louis-In-Law”.

Louis was a slight man, about five feet tall. When I knew him he had white hair, brilliant blue eyes, and a grey Vandyke beard.

Louis arrived in San Francisco from Denmark in the 1880’s. For a time after his arrival he slept in the hayloft in the barn of a wealthy family.

For some years Louis owned and operated a sporting goods/cigar store in San Francisco. Among Louis’ loves in life were horse racing and fly-fishing.

When I was a child living on the chicken ranch in Petaluma in the 1940’s, Louis would visit for a month or two every summer. During the day he would busy himself with a hoe and rake, attacking weeds around the house. Unfortunately he could not distinguish between weeds and flowers. Every afternoon Louis would take a nap in the sun on a chair leaning against the south side of the house. During one of these naps, my cousin, Stanley Willis Mikkelsen, painted Louis’ beard with green paint.

Evenings during Louis’ visits were frequently spent playing pinochle.

One of Louis’ favorite expressions was “The whole world has gone crazy!”

God's Ant Farm

My second posting is perhaps more controversial than the first. It's something that I created a couple of months ago.

For those interested, I was baptized and confirmed in the Anglican Communion. As a boy in high school I joined my father, mother, and brother to form the backbone of the choir at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Petaluma, California. My father was the choir and music director for the church.

I have just finished reading Christopher Hitchens’ “god is not Great” and Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”. They both make valid points, especially concerning the horrors inflicted upon man and beast by adherents to many of the organized religions. However, their arguments (“proofs”, if you like) for the non-existence of God, like those of many arguments for the existence of God that they are trying to refute, suffer from the same, perhaps fatal, flaw. They are based upon faith.

Just one example: The validity of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in no way proves anything about the validity of Creation. It does, of course, strongly support the argument that the story of Creation as described in the Judeo-Christian bible is allegorical. (Personally I believe that almost all if not all of the stories in the bible, Old and New Testament alike, are allegorical.)

Let me pose a version of Creation and ask whether anyone can disprove it with verifiable and provable observation and fact:

A god (let’s call him/her/it George) became bored. (We cannot say “One day…” or “Once upon a time…“ because day or night or time had not yet been invented.) So George decided to create an ant farm for his amusement. George created the universe in which we now live, with chance playing a large part in its evolution. He (please pardon the use of the masculine. The English language does not have a pronoun to replace he/she/it.) sat back to watch what happened with his Creation. Like a boy watching his ant farm, George, on occasion, pokes sticks into his ant farm (Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Mohamed, Hitler, …) to watch his ants scurry around in response to the stimuli.

I assert that the truth of George and his Creation can no more be proved or disproved than can any of the formal religions or atheism without resort to faith.

ps: I have an answer to the age-old question: “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” Clearly the answer is “As many as your faith will allow you to imagine.”

A message to Senator Feinstein

I should like to start out my blog with a somewhat controversial subject, covered by the following message that I sent to Senator Feinstein in 2007:

"From: Robert N. Beatie [rnielb@verizon.net]
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 1:29 PM
To: 'Senator@feinstein.senate.gov'
Subject: Immigrants

Dear Senator:

I have heard that you are in favor of an incremental approach to solving the “illegal immigrant” issue. Let me suggest an excellent place to start:

There are many so-called illegal immigrants who are, indeed documented. They have applied to the IRS for a tax ID and have received one. Thus they have been documented by a branch of the U. S. government and, by implication, received approval to remain in the United States. How many of these folks there are I do not know, but there must be a great many Otherwise the Bank of America would not incur the potential unfavorable publicity by issuing credit cards to them if there were only a few.

Now, why do we not allow all of those people who have a tax ID, who can show evidence of having filed income tax returns for at least three years, and who have passed a criminal background check, to apply for citizenship, if they so choose. There should be no attempt to fine them. They will have demonstrated the intent and ability to participate as contributing members of our society. This simple approach may well resolve a third or more of the reported 12 million “illegal immigrants”.

Robert N. Beatie"