Saturday, January 30, 2010

Once More, with Feeling

I am having such a great time going through memorabilia, so, I'll post things here and there, and ultimately, I'll create a Yoshida blog where a lot of this can be archived, shared and commented upon.


Here's a great pic; don't know the year, but my guess is the early 70's, judging by the muscle car windshields that pass for eyeglasses. The setting's probably LA. And too, I wanted to post a pic of Auntie Rosie, since Naomi emailed and told me why she wasn't in the previous ones of them cracking up. The sunset and cityscape give this pic an added dimension, but it's the sweetness of the sisters that comes through. Don't know what happened to Auntie Frances; I think Uncle Joe sent her to make him a sandwich so he could be mackin' with his wife's sisters!


From left to right: Auntie Rosie, Auntie Kathy, Uncle Joe, Ma, and Auntie May.


CLICK ON PIC TO ENLARGE

Friday, January 29, 2010

Legends of Laughter: The Yoshida Sisters Lose It!

As further proof that historical memory is foggy at best, I think given the fact we're talking '89 and I'm an old fart now gives me at least a .300 batting average, considering the following.

So, I got a lot of mail about my post on Ma, and while it was straight from the heart, it was her sad, melancholy boy writing - which is fine, but there was a real reason I made Ma's love of laughter the major portion of her homage. One thing for sure that I would bet the house on; Ma would NOT want anyone moping around feeling sad because she'd gone on. She'd appreciate that there would be a few tears, but at the end of the day she'd want everyone to remember how fun she was and laugh!

Today, Renee, Deb and I were going through Ma's stuff, and of course it was a walk down memory lane. If not for the frequent stops reminiscing, we might have finished, but oh well, it's all good as the youngins say.

So, we kept sloggin' on. And then, BAM! The motherlode...

Here's the setup; I was right about the pics of the Yoshida sisters cracking up being from the '89 Visalia Imoto/Yoshida Reunion. What I got wrong:

1. The Yoshida BROTHERS - Uncle George and Bert - were in it as well.
2. Auntie Rosie/Ross is conspicuously absent. Maybe she knew how crazy her sisters were, and she, being the kind of lady who knew how to comport herself, bowed out... I'm KIDDING, of course.

So here's the setup in pic one, where everyone seems fairly together...

CLICK ON THE PIC TO ENLARGE


...and then, this is obviously after the fuse had been lit and the bomb exploded...

CLICK ON THE PIC TO ENLARGE


I'll let you savor this a bit. Anyone who knows the Yoshida sisters, I defy you to not smile or just plain crack up at this. Aside from Ma losing it, falling on her knees and Auntie Kathy looking like she's tending to her, it was Auntie Francis who was doubled over, not Auntie May, who looks like she's about to anyway.

What also cracks me up is the way Uncle George, Uncle Bert and Auntie Nellie, the elders, are relatively stoic. I think that's Joey's kid Zack frame left.

Now, curiously, the second pic must have been from a different setup (but within a near time frame) because they're standing in a different sequence. Because of that, I have a strong feeling that there are several other pics from this "sitting" that are missing. Anyone have some more of these...? If so, PLEASE let me know. That aside, this has to go down as my all time favorite and is my nomination to be the first in the Yoshida Hall of Fame.

What a classic - and Ma of course leading the way - I can hear her now!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Elizabeth "Beti" Sadako Yoshida

The hospital said Ma was gone as of 9pm, but I know it was sooner than that; Deb and I were on the 405 headed back from UCLA and a strange sound came into my left ear; I thought of Ma...

I can't say it enough, but Ma, her siblings and the extended Yoshida clan are the last of their kind. There's a great quote by Little Richard that by analogy says it better than I can:

I think that when people want joy and fun and happiness, they want to hear the old-time rock & roll. And I'm just glad that I was a part of that. There's only a few of us left: myself, Bo Diddley, Chuck, Fats, Jerry Lee, the Everly Brothers. It's getting thin. So I think this is the last of it, the last of the good days. Soon there'll be a totally new thing. But it won't be the same. Never.


That's EXACTLY the way I feel; glad to have been brought up by her, the one I point to who gave to me one of the greatest gifts - the gift of knowledge.

There's a great picture - somewhere - of Ma, taken of her lying on a couch reading a book, her chin propped in her hand. It's one of the ways I remember her as a kid, always reading. Our den was a testament to her habit with books everywhere; it was a great resource for me.

Like many of her generation, she grew up very poor, with the twin shadows of the Depression and post WWII sentiment about Japanese. Race was something the Nisei never really addressed openly, at least to us Sansei, but given how crazy America's racial melting pot was and is, this silence shaped us in ways too numerous to list. But you can imagine.

As a kid she lived briefly in Iowa with Uncle George, her eldest brother, but I'll always associate Ma with Lindsay. In many ways, Lindsay is the heart of the Yoshidas; I think I'll scatter her ashes there.

Her stories about being young at that time still paint vivid pictures. They didn't have it hard like the pioneers, but they had it hard. Recently, Auntie Kathy told me she hated that time, which is sad given the way our youth is romanticized in this country. When I asked her why, she said simply that they were so poor....

Ma told me: One day I was sooooo hungry, and Frances or May was cooking. But all we had was cabbage. So when the food came, it was just cabbage and some kind of white sauce made from flour or something. And even though I was hungry, I couldn't eat it.

We are descended from farmers, plain and simple, and if you want to get down to it, country livin'. It's not Alabama, but just because Cali has LA and Frisco doesn't mean it isn't country out here.

Ma again: Mama would tell George, "We need something for dinner," and he'd walk out the door and grab his rifle on the way out. He'd come back with maybe a couple of rabbits, and I'd sit there transfixed, watching him string them up, skin and clean them.

Now that's country.

That wave that Tom Brokaw calls "The Greatest Generation," would go on to create the greatest middle class in history, and Ma was right there in the thick of it. Here're some snippets:

-I remember the drama in her voice when she told me about being at UCLA and the fear struck into everyone because of McCarthy. It was like a cloud over everything.

-I found out about one of the greatest, most extensive mass transit systems in America, right here in LA, the red car, from Ma. It was great; my girlfriends and I would catch it downtown and ride all the way to the harbor, eat lunch, have some fun, then ride it all the way back. For a nickel.

-She seemed to know who everyone in old Hollywood was.

But by far, her greatest asset was her sense of humor, and that was most definitely one zillion percent genetic. Plainly, the Yoshida sisters were legendary for busting up at family gatherings. Whenever we had a large family get together, it was just a matter of time before the fuse was lit and the bomb would explode.

That would prompt everyone else to stop what they were doing and look on in bemusement, as if some new show were on TV. As a kid, I remember the uncles playing cards, and a Yoshida sisters bomb went off, prompting Uncle Mack to hoist his jigger and matter of factly remark, Those Yoshida girls, there they go again.

The Yoshida sisters and their penchant for laughing till it hurts. And I thank heaven I'm descended from that stock, because if you can't laugh with others, at life and yourself then the party's over. And don't worry, Renee has the Yoshida laughing gene in full effect.

There's another great series of pics from our reunion that cousin Judy organized in Visalia back in '89 or thereabouts. I had grouped the Yoshida sisters for a photo, and then, yup, someone lit the fuse. As the photos go on, Ma finally ends up on her knees and Auntie May is doubling over while Auntie Frances looks like she's crying. Auntie Ross, prim and proper, would always laugh along heartily but she was too much the lady. Auntie Kathy, nutty like Ma, would crack up too but I remember her looking on at her big sisters with bemusement. And Auntie Nellie, the matriarch, seemed pretty entertained by the den of young hens beneath her.

That was the best of Ma, fun loving and not a mean bone in her body.

When Beti Yoshida laughs the mountains shake.

I'm glad that I had her as a mother, from a special generation and breed - tough as nails. Truly American.

And to paraphrase Little Richard:

There's only a few of the Yoshidas left... It's getting thin. So I think this is the last of it, the last of that special breed. And I'm just glad that I was her son. Soon there'll be a totally new generation and time.

But it won't be the same.

Never.

See you later, Ma. I love you.

TWEAK: Citizen's Brigade


"Tweak" is going to be a series of articles where I archive my ideas. These can be original or augmentations of existing things. This tweak was instigated by the Haitian earthquake; the idea I have is called "The Citizen's Brigade."



Our Day Will Come: The Citizen’s Brigade

A vision for how unemployed Americans can do great things


One of the greatest tragedies of our species is the untapped energy of human potential. Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus cites this when he speaks glowingly about the effects of microfinance, how it unleashes the entrepreneurial spirit, the energy that was ALWAYS there but never before had a vehicle to express itself.

To drive this point home, and in the words of the late, great Stephen Jay Gould:

I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.

Right now, we have millions of Americans out of work while so-called "stimulus packages" are winding their supposed ways through "the system." And so, we tap our collective feet and wait….

But what if there were a way for ordinary citizens to pick up and go, get some training in specific skills, then deploy to Haiti and directly pitch in and help? Everyone I know that is out of work has said upon hearing this idea that they'd go without hesitation.

Look at the enormous costs expended to train, transport and house troops for our current two wars. What if we could take a fraction of that and deploy our unemployed in Haiti for a good cause?

Why is it that we can have a similar structure - the National Guard - when it comes to militaristic/martial operations, but not in the service of helping our fellow brothers and sisters? Why is it this way?

Think of the benefits a Citizens Brigade could bring:

1. Discouraged, unemployed citizens could gain valuable skills, earn a wage, travel, and most importantly, help.

2. Enormous good will would be spread.

3. Ordinary Americans would be exposed to "the bigger picture" firsthand, and their "war stories" for their children will not involve killing but helping.

4. Citizens Brigade members become much more valuable citizens in the event an emergency happens at home.

5. People in other countries will learn about America in an entirely different manner than before.

6. New bridges will be built not based upon politics and economics, but human need and help.

7. Specific but not restricted to Haiti, CLEAN WATER is paramount, even before food! Citizens Brigade members can be trained in how to dig wells, how to purify water and basic plumbing. There must be thousands of out of work carpenters - think about what a valuable skill that is at a time like this for Haiti. General laborers to do set up and then clean up. Food service members to prepare and serve food. First aid workers! In fact, all CB members will have basic first aid training.

8. Jobs are created domestically; plumbers, carpenters, medics... all can find work helping train up CB members. That's stimulus money I'd like to see spent.

9. More contracts are given to transportation, housing/barracks, communications, oversight, evaluation....

These are only some of the benefits that will come as we unleash our human potential, but it requires a vehicle. For all of our talk about “innovation,” let’s just stop that now, because innovation is standing right in front of us.

And besides, Haiti isn’t interested in our talk.

Friday, January 22, 2010

And Now a Word from our Sponsor







This is your country on oligopoly.




Some common misconceptions have people buying into uncle scam's hard sell of democracy = capitalism while others also misconstrue capitalism as democracy when it comes to globalization. The elementary reading would be the former is a domestic perception and the latter foreign. This topic will rest here but is ripe for future picking.

I like comparative history and think it's a useful tool, particularly when in the hands of someone as eloquent as Wolfgang Schivelbusch (trusting Jefferson Chase's translation), in his Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany 1933-39. Schivelbusch shows how in considering fascism - it itself a term up for revision - vs. capitalism vs. socialism, how we are conditioned to look at differences. On another note, it's interesting to consider the possibility that the model itself - or as it's been conditioned - has a tendency toward difference, and that similarities are a very viable mode of comparative analysis.

I'm reminded of an old Polish proverb;

Under capitalism, man exploits man.
Under communism, it's the reverse.


Fighters say that only they can know the special bond they have. This is a timeworn dimension of the sweet science, and recently drawn out very poignantly in the great documentary, Facing Ali, which I plan on writing about soon. In it, Ali's adversaries, now gray and rounder, speak with reverence about The Greatest. Despite their differences, they all recognize the common bond they share.

If nothing else, Schivelbusch's analysis exposes - among other things - one of the great fallacies of our age; the belief in our twin systems of capitalism and democracy rolled into one as being the Gemini of perfection. Americans love to put the pedal to the metal, and they believe, with all of their patriotic god fearin' hearts, that "the American System" stands wholly apart and even diametrically opposed to fascism, communism, socialism. In other words they take a fundamental error and proceed to blow it up to worldwide proportions.

It's this kind of conditioning that interprets 50 varieties of dry cereal on the shelves of their supermarkets into "freedom" - yet another fundamental error - and then proceeds to impose it on to the world. This level, keep in mind, is the foot soldier level. This is the war of the mind, ideology. The oligarchs, well, let's just say I'm cynical that they actually believe all of the "God and Country" BS. Their motives are all about fixing power in their favor. Whether via economic hitmen, jackals or neo-colonization, it's all about controlling resources, and that includes people, perhaps most of all.

Refusing to ever let a catastrophe remain an infant, America takes this to another level and compounds the foregoing error by not educating its citizens in much more than rote memorization, and the ones who do have a functioning analytical brain are devalued in monetary ways so as to dissuade critical behavior. Or, conversely, they are incentivized toward "dry analysis." Indeed, some of the most prized minds on Wall Street in the recent derivatives gold rush bubble were quantitative number crunchers. These are the other breed of economic hitmen charged with running the numbers and either creating the "financial products" - complete with structured finance traunches containing toxic mortgages rated AAA by CRAs - or doing the calculus to check the validity of "models." Those who do well are, of course, promoted, thus, never gaining any insight outside of their world and if anything, having their cosmology vise-tightened.

These are the minds that can run a right side analysis of Credit Default Swaps and weep at the thought of regulating derivatives, without the slightest awareness of dialectical materialism which, if nothing else, tells us in perfect Newtonian symmetry that for every action....

Just yesterday, Mikey and I were citing Chomsky's classic, Manufacturing Consent, in regards to American style capitalism/democracy, and how dissidence actually bolsters the illusion that it works, simply because if it weren't working, then Chomsky wouldn't even be able to function. The problem is that the articulation of Chomsky's non-relevance in the greater society goes unstated, not his ideas, but the way he is allowed to openly function and yet is ghettoized via discrimination. Thus, the solution to the puzzle is, and should be, a structural critique.

Z Mag and John Pilger are vets of this war, and Chomsky has a long history with Z Mag, as do all the old lefties. I came across this particular article by chance (with a wink and a nod to the great "Black Looks"), and, lo and behold, in 2005, Pilger was saying these words that are so apropos, given the devastation in Haiti and Dambisa Moyo's recent book criticizing western aid to developing countries.

Last, a personal note; my brotha Rom, stay up. We'll talk Sunday.

Z Magazine, at:
http://www.zmag.org/zspace/commentaries/2311

June, 11 2005
Sleeping With The Enemy

By John Pilger

The National Union of Journalists and the Blair government are planning a "launch" ceremony, at which they will announce their "partnership". According to John Fray, the NUJ's deputy general secretary, this collaboration will "promote awareness among journalists of the issues that surround the struggle against poverty on a world scale... We want to help the media to tell it like it is."

In a glossy letter to NUJ members, Fray says that joining hands with the government is "enhancing the understanding of the need for a positive approach to international development amongst those who report and comment on the issues...". For this "positive approach", the government is paying the journalists' union 80,000 pounds. What a bargain price for the principle of independence from power.

A "partnership" with the NUJ is a master stroke for a rapacious British government whose "aid" and "debt relief" are intended to mask, as Gordon Brown put it, an "obligation" on the poorest countries to "create the conditions for [business] investment". The chief civil servant at the Department for International Development wrote, "We are extending our support for privatisation in the poorest countries from the power sector in India to the tea industry in Nepal."

Since when did privatisation have anything to do with "the struggle against poverty"? Privatisation is about control of markets and profit. Period. Britain's "new global deal" for the poor is one of those brilliant propaganda illusions that enjoy widespread sycophancy among courtier-journalists who, like rock stars, prefer to think of their government as benign, regardless of its record of exploitation, lying and violence. That's how Blair got away with his WDM lies for as long as he did and how he's getting away with "aid" tied to extremist free market World Bank and IMF policies that have devastated the poorest countries.

For example, Zambia was pressured to sack thousands of teachers if it wanted to qualify for "relief". As Caroline Pearce of the Jubilee Campaign says: "Debt is used as a tool of control."

Now in the pay of the government, will the NUJ tell this truth about aid,"like it is"? Will John Fray publish another glossy newsletter, this time describing how the Department for International Development, his new "partners", have handed out millions of pounds of "aid" money to the far right-wing Adam Smith Institute, and Halcrow and KPMG, to push privatisation, such as water? And what will be the NUJ's new "positive approach" to the Blair government's impoverishing arms sales to 14 of Africa's most conflict-ridden countries?

The NUJ, of which I have been a life-long member, has done excellent work highlighting abuses against fellow trade unionists around the world, as in Colombia. I asked Jeremy Dear, the general secretary, about his new "partners". He, too, cited the NUJ's work in Colombia, "the most dangerous country for journalists in the world, where the British government fund the murderous Uribe regime." He then disclosed that the union was taking money from the Foreign Office in order to establish in Colombia "the first independent trade union for journalists so they can expose what is going on in their country."

This is the same Foreign Office that is "fund[ing] the murderous Uribe regime". Such is the familiar game of having it both ways: a game at which governments are well practised.

He also revealed that, in the Ukraine, "dozens of NUJ activists" had taken British government money to set up "an independent union for journalists". How independent is it? The Ukraine is, of course, a Washington/Whitehall "showcase project". He also said the union was taking British government money for its work promoting press freedom and journalists' safety in Iraq and Palestine. "There is not one single example of the NUJ compromising its independence as a result of securing outside funding," he said, "... and no government or individual can buy it."

Accepting tainted money - money from the same source that "funds a murderous regime" - is itself a compromise, and a dangerous one. Why should a government, which has a clear, ideological world view and a proven record of warmongering, give money to a trade union whose members should be exposing not collaborating with its manipulations? I urge my fellow NUJ members to take up that question urgently, remembering that the current US government also funds journalists who also protest their innocence.

What this "partnership" promises is harm to the union's credibility abroad, because it will be seen as yet another example of "embedding". It also lowers a threshold, demonstrating just how insidious "embedding" has become, as if it now has a certain legitimacy. In Iraq, the BBC, embedded up to its ears, has all but lost its credibility, because it broadcasts the occupiers' news - rarely spelling out that 80 per cent of the deaths are caused by the Americans and their clients. Read the instructive exchanges between the editors of MediaLens (www.medialens.org) and Helen Boaden, the head of BBC News, about why the BBC has remained silent on American atrocities in Fallujah and the use of Napalm, and why it suppresses independent eye-witness reporting.

Another form of embedding was clear in most of the reporting of the "shock" rejection of the European constitution. The French were caricatured as haters of change, ratting on the "European dream". On 29 May, the Observer, once a celebrated liberal newspaper, published a cartoon headed "The Completely Bonkers Frog". The image of a huge farting frog might have been lifted from an especially grotesque Sun front page.

That a spectacular majority in two European nations voted against the market fundamentalism that has torn the very fabric of British life was not the news. Neither was the fact that 80 per cent of working class people and 60 per cent of those under 25 voted against the greed of the European rich and the autocracy of the central banks: against poverty, unemployment, war and the betrayal of post-war social democracy once proclaimed as a mainstay of Europe's post-fascist ideal of "never again". (How desperate the true right are; with the contortion of intellect and morality that distinguishes New Labour, Denis MacShane, a former Blair minister, smeared the voters with the absurdity they were beckoning fascism and anti-Semitism).

It was also a vote against media-ism. Almost the entire French media had demanded a "yes" vote, and the "shock" was theirs. There is a lesson in all this for journalists who care about their craft. Millions of people across the world no longer credit the "global" (western) media as independent or truthful. This is especially so of young people. In Korea, during the last general election, a majority turned to the internet for their political news, dismissing the likes of CNN and their own establishment media, just as people in Stalinist countries used to.

For most human beings, the evidence of their lives is that consumerism is not democracy and "globalisation" is a vicious war against the poorest, a form of terrorism, and millions of them are taking action. The National Union of Journalists should not collaborate with their enemy.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Cuts for Cooky: Betty Mabry-Davis - They Say I'm Different

Of all the unsung badazzez from my day, I'd have to say Elaine Brown, Ericka Huggins and David Hilliard are at the top of my list. But this list is incomplete without Betty Davis.

A complete unknown to those under 50, I suspect with time she'll be co-opted. It's just a matter of time before Quentin or some other hipster "soundtracks her" in yet another self-conscious, self aware, self-referencing scene.

YAAAAAAAWN.

As for Ms. Davis, those who dug funk know she laid it down head to head with Funkadelic, Sly, Zapp and the best of them. Why she's unknown is one of those mysteries of the cosmos, because she is thoroughly bad. I think she also arranged and produced in addition to her writing and singing, making her a legit quad threat.

Married to Miles for a year - and supposedly influential in Miles' legendary turn toward rock/fusion, with Tribute to Jack Johnson and the better known Bitches Brew (both with a young John McLaughlin) - and thus the "Davis" surname, she's only in her early 60's, but lord knows where she is now, much less if she even has an interest in music.

Make no mistake; this is hard funk and this album kicks out the jams. The arrangements, the mix, the farfisa (?), the wah wah, the funky bass playing, shit, the funkiness.... This, the title joint, displays her knowledge of history, goin' all the way to the root down by the crossroads. That in itself is remarkable for a then young 20 something.

So hipsters and posers please, leave us old boomers something unsullied by your oh so smart britches, and we'll just slink off into the sunset, leaving you to your post-post-post... modern earful!

Damn, she was the nuts!

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

High and Low

A word of advice; if the owners of this country and their soldier minions don't want you to have something, you should probably want it. Socialized health care is a great example. Consider, if it's such a terrible thing for our supposed free market capitalist system, then why is it that everyone in congress, the judicial and executive branch has socialized healthcare - for life - but they refuse to give it to you?

In fact, the so-called public option had to be eliminated, because it was perceived to be the crack in the dam that could have led to - gasp - competition! UNFAIR competition, the insurance companies - and I'm sure the HMOs and pharmas behind them - cry, based upon the rationale that if a public option has goverment funding then it has an unfair advantage.

The biggest welfare mothers on Wall Street aside, let's talk about advantage then. Who has the advantage when it comes to millions spent in lobbying and campaign contributions which translates into their politics becoming policy as well as taking calls and office time? In other words, why is "advantage" only brought up in relation to when it potentially impacts their bottom line?

IF there were true free markets and real capitalism, we'd have any number of healthcare scenarios available in front of us. For instance, if the privatized healthcare industry is so confident about what they deliver, then let's stop all the talking and pontificating about pros and cons, of which there seems to be an endless supply of mouths on either side. Instead of wasting energy and resources endlessly chasing our tails on this debate, let's follow scientific method and do some testing, some trials.

Take California, the biggest state in both economy and population. Let's try a test run of a hybrid system - private vs. socialized. Like any good marketing professional, such as Frank Luntz, put out the call for focus groups. In Cali, there must be several hundred thousand uninsured to pool from. This recruiting, screening and administering process alone would create jobs that could be drawn down from the stimulus - you hear me Arnold?

Between LA and Frisco alone, you would have tremendous marketing data from a large subject pool and could draw across many demos. Even if a public option does not come out as a positive option, this marketing data on a very particular segment - the uninsured or near the brink - will be very valuable toward re-thinking other strategies. Why? For the simple fact that the onslaught of baby-boomers are soon going to be impacting the system like at no time in history, and many of them have fallen through the privatized healthcare cracks, or are teetering on the brink of disaster. Instead of going all in on a system that's past broken and a money pit - except for those who have a capital interest in it - we should be hedging our bets based upon RESEARCH, TESTING and DATA GATHERING, not endless chasing our tails through politicized debate and filibustering which only serves the status quo. In fact this latter point is one of the prime reasons why we have politicized debate and filibustering in the first place. Whether Democrat or Republican, if we look at the root word of "conservative" then we see what all of this intellectual clutter is for, or at least results in.

One important outcome; marketers are interested in what the market says, regardless of the "experts' opinions." Do you really think producers of any number of boy bands or teen girls who have been sexualized for music tv consumption really care about their anti-critics, so long as deals are made and profits roll in? The point is, once a focus group has finished testing, exit surveys, interviews and polling are culled, providing a basis for deciding whether or not a public option should be instituted at least on a hybrid basis.

One last go at the privatized healthcare industry constituents - again, insurers, HMOs and pharma - cry about unfair competition. If government is SOOOOOO incompetent as conservatives love to wail, then what are they afraid of? (and, more to the point, why do they continue to grow government???)

The post office is a perfect example of a government sponsored, socialized service. But the private sector in the form of UPS seems to have figured it out, DHL came online (and has left) and of course, FedEx took delivery and tweaked it to new heights - and profits. The po needless to say got hit hard. Libraries are another socialized service, but that hasn't stopped Borders and Barnes and Noble, let alone Amazon from competing. The issue is innovation and customer satisfaction. If the privatized industry is confident in their abilities insofar as those criteria, well then, let's run some trials. Let's give the public a voice outside of their bought off republic shills.

There's much more to be said, of course, than in this blog piece, but I think the germ is there for a platform to be thought out, a real plan that could at the very least yield us some very valuable data. For all of our mouthing off about free market capitalism in this country, we should at least allow a hybrid private/socialized system in a testing and research phase.

Last, think about the possibilities for hybrid systems in finance! Public banking....

The bottom line is: Let's get some data, then let's talk.