Maynard James Keenan Economics

Electronic Arts, better known as EA, has been making the Madden video football game since 1988. An annual version has been released every year since 1990 and the company has over three billion dollars in sales. If you Google an inquiry searching for the best football game ever made you will certainly find a large chunk of information about 2K Sports and a game they put out in 2005. I've played it and I will say it was great and way ahead of its time. During this same year EA obtained exclusive rights to the NFL Players Association which granted them exclusive rights to the players, teams, and stadiums. For all intents and purposes 2K Sports was done as a football franchise. They tried to release a game in 2008 using retired NFL players but it was lacking and 2k Sports has never tried football again.

No matter how bad my service might be, no matter how much I want to purchase a better deal from a different provider, no matter if I no longer need the product, I'm locked into a two year contract with my cell provider.

"Is Pepsi fine?" Well, I ordered a Coke, is that too much to ask?

The average premium for a family to have health care coverage is over $500 a month.

Our private banks got so big that when they conducted their affairs in such a way as to sink their business and cause them to go under we couldn't allow them to fail. These same banks are very tied into and connected to other countries around the world and some of these countries are facing bankruptcy and default. Now we can't let these countries fail or it will cause our banks to fail.

OnStar could dispatch emergency services to my location if I were in an accident but they don't because I don't pay them a fee each month. I know I use this one all of the time but the absurdity of this idea just gets me.

You have two choices as to your television service provider.

Every single gas station sets their price based on a future cost of oil and not what they paid for the oil in the ground that you are using. And they all have their prices within cents of each other in any given locality. Very "free market".

Capitalism is an economic system that encompasses, get this, the accumulation of capital. The most important part of this definition is the fact that it is an economic system. It seems to me that we have somehow confused this notion of Capitalism as Americanism and can't ever budge from this position.

I think capitalism is cool for the most part. It seems a pretty good thing when things are going good. However, along with this system comes the real possibility of depression. It is the nature of the system that creates this downturn in the economy. We have been witness to this in the past and are currently dealing with it right now in our present. It would be wonderful if this system could simply correct itself and get back on track without our assistance. But there is no guarantee that will ever happen and it is painful during the waiting period.

One of the core arguments that we constantly engage in as Americans centers around our approach to how we handle this economic system. Now I'm not suggesting that isn't incredibly important, it certainly is. However, I'm offering up the idea that this system isn't what makes us American. But when you talk of tinkering with the system, with adjusting it to make sure we spend more time in growth spurts and less time in depression, then it seems the language turns to patriotism and less about capital. Or is it that capital is the only thing that makes us American?

We find ourselves embracing and constantly trying to reconcile two approaches when it comes to our economic system: A Laissez-faire style where interaction between consumer and provider is free from state intervention at any level and a Keynesian view that introduces regulations and oversight. It's wonderful that we exchange ideas and try to compromise and move forward and implement the best strategy available for our current times, but this is no different than any other platform issue we hold a strong opinion about. Why is it then we find ourselves talking about capitalism as it is the only American option?

We have heated debates about abortion but we aren't "less American" because of our stance (maybe less godly in the view of many). We argue about the role of NASA in our budget and the need for space exploration. We argue about gay marriage. Yet, when one entertains the idea about an approach to tinkering with our economic system to improve it then that view is considered hostile to our freedoms. Seems a giant leap.

Our Founding Fathers were more concerned with our freedoms than they were anything else. I concede the right to earn capital is a freedom but it wasn't the driving force for these men, equality and fairness was their goal. And as noble as their intent was at the time, they weren't perfect. They enslaved blacks and denied women equal status. They laid the framework and knew it would be a constant battle to continually form a more perfect union, a never ending process.

Piero Sraffa was very critical of the Keynesian approach and thought the government shouldn't play a role in the economic system. His formula centered around the idea of social relations between producers and consumers, with a primary emphasis on the demands of production. We are no longer using his formula, we don't place the EMPHASIS ON THE DEMANDS, but we are still using his critique. Not cool.

I opened this piece with some examples of how capitalism doesn't always work out. Sometimes the formula isn't followed and the product isn't really based on my wants. Sometimes providing a service to all of humanity just might be the cool thing to do and it has nothing to do with profit. We have minimum wage laws, child labor laws, safety laws, hours of work laws, overtime requirements, worker's compensation laws, we have tinkered with the system already. Discussing the tax rate is like talking about what temperature to set the heat in the room to make it comfortable for all. It's just a cog in the machine and one that requires maintenance in order to ensure the machine keeps on keeping on. When the machine stalls then discussion about how to make the machine more efficient should be welcomed. However, one camp's idea of discussion is not having discussion about it. Odd.

There is plenty of room for disagreement on many topics. I just contend they should take place in reality. We create these fake scenarios and no longer base solutions on facts or analysis, we simply believe whatever we want or whatever we've heard time and time again. Capitalism good, anything else bad. I'm not on a campaign to toss out capitalism as our economic system, I'm more concerned with having honest dialogue so we can find common ground from which to begin our discussion.

This Man Hates Facts

I've been wanting to put together a piece with some fun and interesting Christmas trivia for a few days now. I've visited many different websites and have come across a lot of cool information. The problem is I have no way of knowing what is true and what is totally made up. On one site the author informs me it would cost about $18,000 to purchase all of the gifts in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas", yet on another site I'm told it would run upwards of $200,000. One site tells me 20% of people complete their Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve and another tells me 35% is the number. So instead of doing this impossible legwork to validate these abstract claims and useless trivia, I decided I would just guess as to what I thought the best answer would be.

Percentage of people that believe Santa Claus is circumsized:
89%

Percentage of people that will forget a family member when distributing Christmas cards:
65%

Rudolph is able to turn his nose red by the process of bioluminescence. He produces abnormally large amounts of luciferin and luciferase.

Percentage of people that will be hungover at a family Christmas function:
45%

Jesus was born in May and he had a little baby twin conjoined to his back just like Andy Garcia.

In 1994 Santa Claus was stopped in Iran and held for two months on suspicion of spying. 29 million homes didn't receive a visit that year and were left thinking they had just been too naughty.

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer was created by huge corporations to generate profit. I'm just kidding, I made that up. Actually Rudolph was created by a nice man named Montgomery Ward.

There are six million lights in the photo above. And there are 380,000 burned out lights in the same pic.

Frosty the Snowman lost 56 pounds this year and developed skin cancer but the climate is fine.

Muhammad Ali and Rocky Marciano fought on December 26th, 1969, in Vancouver, British Columbia, and that date has forever been known as Boxing Day in Canada.

Saint Nicholas of Myra's middle name was Richard. This led to a lot of confusion when children were given gifts by this nice man and they had heard others call him Nick the Dick in the past.

Percentage of Americans that would still say "Merry Christmas" to a person they knew was Jewish and didn't celebrate it:
92%

Santa's sleigh would have to reach speeds topping 4 million miles and hour to achieve his one night feat. This is why we don't teach math to kids until after the age of five or six. Pure convenience.

If Barack Obama wins re-election America won't celebrate Christmas in the year 2015.

The Founding Fathers were such believers in Christmas they wrote into the Constitution that by the year 1870 the United States should recognize it as a national holiday.

Percentage of people that will take one of these facts, believing they are true, and use them on someone:
65%

When someone wishes you a Merry Xmas they might not be diluting the day your Savior was born. They might be referring to the fact 'x' is the Greek letter Chi that is the first letter in Christ's name. So go on and celebrate a pagan holiday of cutting down a tree and tell your kids about a jolly fat man that flies around on magical reindeer and gives gifts to all of the children in the world in one night (after monitoring them all year to see if they deserve it) and enjoy the sanctity of your religious day.

It's Gettin', It's Gettin', It's Gettin' Kinda Heavy

Dr. Ron Paul has a lot of opinions I don't share. He seems anchored to his ideology and often makes silly remarks because of his inability to be flexible. He has a strange eyebrow that needs to be shaved or combed. I have been a big fan of his for nearly as long as I've followed politics.

We find ourselves in a very strange times when it comes to American politics. I went into this primary run with the mindset that it was very possible this campaign cycle might be the most unconventional process in quite some time. I even authored pieces about it and have called it a circus show for several months. But, believe it or not, I didn't officially throw out the book of conventionalism until this very week. It would be hard to argue that Newt Gingrich isn't the front runner in the GOP primaries. Even though many others (Trump, Bachmann, Perry, Cain) have all been at the top in polls for several weeks, this time it's for real. Mitt Romney was still considered the man to beat all along, even when he was trailing. Not anymore.

Simply the fact Gingrich finds himself controlling his own destiny isn't the sole basis for believing this year is like no other year. The fact that Ron Paul has actually made a blip on the radar is the true indicator for me. Because I've always been a fan of Dr. Paul I have always talked about him when elections roll around. Naturally, there are others that share my views about Paul and like him as well and they join in on the conversation. And inevitably there will always be the news coverage about Paul on how he gets no news coverage. But he's always been the guy we like but can't really win. What strikes me about this year, and specifically this exact time and moment, is Paul has finally gained traction with others outside of the faithful Paul following.

If I had to honestly guess the chance of Dr. Paul winning the Republican nomination I would list it at about 2-3%. This is exciting. If you have been a fan of Paul for any length of time then you would understand the elation. What makes it even more exciting to me is the fact that it is me and the people just like me that will decide the next election. That's nothing that new to me but it is fun to have a horse in the field even if that horse is in his late seventies, three legged, and one and half eyebrowed.

I've been very candid about my disgust of the Republican Party. They have abandoned ideas and dummied down their base to cater to the corporations. There is plenty to point at on the other side of the aisle but I'm not concerned with them. They will run Obama for President and I'm thankful he will be their nominee. I'm concerned about who the GOP will nominate and I hold the power as to whether or not that nominee will win the general. When I say me I'm referring to me and the other ten percent of the GOP that jumped ship in 2008 and turned red states blue.

The Tea Party emerged and dominated the midterms. They took credit for things that were part of the normal cycle. I'll concede they did win in record numbers and that is notable and speaks to their influence and power but the Republicans would have taken over the House anyway. And one could argue they might have won the Senate if the Tea Party never surfaced, that Harry Reid won and continues to lead the Senate is a direct result of the Tea Party.

The Tea Party undeniably controls a portion of the GOP. They proved it to all of us during the debt ceiling debate and eventual decline of our nation's credit rating. And they are again proving it to us during the primary season. It has been the belief of many pundits and followers of politics that eventually "the reasonable" base of the GOP would come to its senses and nominate Romney. I now feel confident arguing that number of "reasonable" members of the base is roughly 25% and no more. That isn't enough to get their choice on the ballot to go head to head with Obama. That this belief (the base will awaken) has lasted this long defies the odds. Just last election the base lost out and McCain won and then slapped the base with a Palin nomination. The base lost in the midterms, successful Tea Party candidates ousted many of the base. Moderate became a bad word. So it isn't that shocking the base will lose again to the Tea Party. I have predicted this for quite some time even though I've never known the exact name other than "not Romney". I have even prophesied about it and went out on a limb and said the short term win and long term obliteration in the general might be the only way the GOP can free itself from the hostage situation it finds itself in.

This is why 2 to 3 percent is so exciting to me. I had a zero percent chance going into this election that anything other than Obama striking down the Tea Party could happen to get the GOP back on track to becoming relevant. Even the slightest raise from zero to three fills me with incredible hope. Akin to the hope I felt when I cast my vote for Obama in 2008, voting for a Democrat for President for the first time in my life.

If you find yourself one of those people that will eventually vote for whomever comes out of the primaries in the Republican field then it isn't the Tea Party that truly holds you hostage at this moment, it is me. Me and my crowd want a true debate of ideas between Obama and his competitor, no one in the field will provide that except Ron Paul. Even if Paul lost in the general it would do this country a service and it would make the GOP relevant, four years ahead of my prediction. It is an enormous opportunity to truly get this country back on track. Not because Ron Paul is the savior, nor Obama, but because we could have meaningful discussion about issues that truly impact our daily lives. The longer we delay from even beginning to discuss and debate serious problems the harder it will be on our future generations. For a party that is quick to claim "patriotism" and proves it by wearing a nice shiny flag pin on all their suits and orgasms every time a country song mentions how great our country is and how we kick ass, I see no greater opportunity to show your love of this nation by demanding your party nominate a candidate that speaks on behalf of the people. If you fail to do that then you have participated in the re-election of Barack Obama. I'm cool either way.

Just Nod If You Can Hear Me

I've had my pickup since 2007 and had never honked the horn in it until last Friday. Oddly enough I honked it twice in a ten minute span. Both times we were stopped at a green light. I'm pretty cool about this occurrence and usually can just wait a few seconds until the driver of the car in front of me zones back in to reality. But after about ten seconds, and fear we might actually sit through the entire green light, I caved and gave the polite short bump on the horn. When it happened the second time a few moments later I just looked at the little sensor on my dashboard that is supposed to gauge when my headlights should automatically turn on and smiled. I'm pretty sure that's one of the places the cameras filming my life are located.

If you ever tell someone you don't like people that "play games" (meaning like emotional head games where you don't communicate well and have some sort of mechanism that tries to accomplish your desires by manipulating situations, even if it's at the subconscious level) no one will ever admit to being one of those people. Just once I would like to say, "I don't like people that play games," and have someone reply, "Well, you're not going to like me because I come from a dysfunctional family and we learned to fight for what we want in life and use any means possible and we were horrible at communicating and never said 'I love you' to each other and I hate my brother and my sister is a hooker." I'm not holding my breath though.

All this week the sports commentary was about the "lack of meaning" for the majority of college football games that were taking place this weekend. Because the number one and two ranked teams were pretty much solidified and the national championship pairing was all but a lock, most pundits didn't see the meaning of all of the other games. By the end of the evening I was completely exhausted from watching all of the wonderful games. I would even go as far as saying it was probably the most exciting weekend in college football this year.

New Rule: If your retro NFL uniform looks better than your year 2011 regular uniform then you have to fire the person who has the job of making this decision and wear your retro jerseys the rest of the year.

When I worked in the jails there was a law that prevented too many inmates from being housed in a unit. Someone must have understood that if too many inmates were placed in an area together that it would be impossible to perform business as usual. It wouldn't be good for the officers, it would make administering to the needs of the inmates difficult, it would be dangerous, and even though it might COST more money, we still had to bite the bullet and build more jails and hire more staff to make this accommodation. Strange how in the public education system there is no such reasonable and practical law to the classroom. Every single study shows the smaller the classroom size (the number of students) the more optimal the environment for learning. The National Education Association suggests the number of students in each class should be 15. However, most school teachers would feel blessed if they had a room with ONLY 25. Even crazier is a large chunk of classrooms have over 35 students. I'll beat this drum every single day of my life even if nothing ever changes. This is child neglect and I challenge you to argue otherwise.

During the last major election cycle 93% of House of Representative and 94% of Senate winners were the ones who spent the most money ~ The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. It just can't be this way.

Do you have a favorite color? Did you choose it? Could you choose a different one?

Rorschach Test: Bill, Tom, Larry, John, Dave, Adam, Steve, Mike, Ken, Frank.

"A duck's quack doesn't make an echo." Bullshit.

Humans can't agree on an exact definition of "smart" when it comes to identifying this trait in other humans. So it shouldn't be a surprise that humans can't agree on what makes other animals smart. For years our standard for deeming other animals "intelligent" was their ability to recognize the self. I'm no scientist but I've always taken objection with this determination. When an iguana is on the same branch as another iguana and they come face to face heading in opposite directions the smaller yields the right of way and retreats to the bottom of the branch, allowing the bigger one to continue unimpeded. I concede this isn't looking into a mirror and saying, "Hey, I'm an iguana," but it is still self awareness. Just like everything in the universe things are based on degrees. For many years we believed dogs weren't truly that bright based on our scale of judging intelligence in other animals. It wasn't until the last several years that we discovered dogs have the ability of "fast track learning", which is only found in humans and other language learning apes. The average dog can learn over 150 words, they can count up to five, have a basic understanding of simple arithmetic and can even notice errors in easy computations such as 1+1=3. Dogs demonstrate the ability to deceive and perform this learned trait on other dogs and even humans. On a personal level, I can truly discipline my dog simply by words and never actions. I can literally hurt her feelings, not denying her a reward or inflicting physical pain. I can convey to her she has disappointed me and that disappoints her. Isn't that the ideal form of parenting and teaching?

Rorschach Test: LaTron, Jamal, Xavier, LaToya, DeShon, Deja, Trevon, Terrance, Darius, DeAndre.

There is no "right" or "wrong" on a Rorschach Test. They are designed to help learn about what and how another person thinks. Here is my question ... Did you notice a different type of "thinking" during the two different tests?

Ties, the small piece of material you tie in a knot and wear around your neck to display success, are a weird concept to me. I feel more successful when I'm sitting around in my PJ's, unshaven for a week, and wondering when I'm going to have the energy to take a shower.

If we really did decide to make English our official language would we change Christmas to Christmore?