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Joan, so then, it would appear (beyond the constraints of parochial
semantics) we agree. No? Although you may have "trouble" with the
concept of a dictatorship being a "government", it was, no matter how
corrupt.<br>
<br>
More importantly, I quite understand why you are not a Republican.
Might you explain why you <i>are </i>a Democrat? I am curious. I've
never gotten an intelligent answer to that question in my life. As
Carl would say "I double-dawg dare you."<br>
<br>
I'll get to corporate governance, or the lack thereof, over the
weekend. Actually, I'm a stock broker by trade (please resist the urge
to throw things at me for being a greedy, bottom-feeding, exploitatious
gonnif - my dermas is still quite sensitive and I've got do something
to feed this zipcode I call a family.) <br>
<br>
db<br>
<br>
ps. I enjoyed the history lesson. I knew some. I learned some. The
world's a better place for it.<br>
<br>
pps. I've got another little challenge for you to see how good your
colloquial yiddish is. (and I am summarily meshugginah BTW)<br>
<br>
Translate this (and no using the internet as a resource, we're on the
honor system here.) <br>
<br>
"Bubby kvetched that the moyle was shikker while the mishpucha noodged
to get at the nasherie." <br>
<br>
you'll have to add your own uvular fricatives. <br>
<br>
Joan Opyr wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="midBAY10-DAV1917718F97F4A0E43FD051C5770@phx.gbl">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span
style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><font size="3">Dear Dave,<o:p></o:p></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span
style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><font size="3"> <o:p></o:p></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span
style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;"><font size="3">I must
advise you, my boy, not to teach your grandmother to suck eggs. I'm a
fully-trained Anglo-Saxonist (a graduate student of the eminent
Nicholas Howe, no less) and am hence well aware of the lack of
corporations in early medieval England; I used the term "corporate"
analogously, humorously, sarcastically, and with its original meaning
of "group" firmly in mind. <o:p></o:p></font></span></p>
<p><font size="3"><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia;">The
Magna Carta had many fathers, not the least of which was King John’s
managerial incompetence.<span style=""> </span>As you may know, John
was excommunicated by the Church in 1209 in a dispute over the
appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, </span><span
style="font-family: Georgia;">and -- in a move that predated Henry
VIII’s antics by a good three centuries -- John took this opportunity
to confiscate Church property and sell it back to the bishops at a tidy
profit.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size="3"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">John used the
proceeds of these "sales" to create the English Navy, which he promptly
ordered to invade </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
style="font-family: Georgia;">Ireland</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style="font-family: Georgia;"> (much to </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
style="font-family: Georgia;">England</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style="font-family: Georgia;"> and </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
style="font-family: Georgia;">Ireland'</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style="font-family: Georgia;">s present sorrow).<span style=""> </span>He
fought a few more skirmishes with the French, none of which
particularly stand out in my memory, and, after an unsuccessful and
expensive excursion on the continent, he came back to find a few very
naughty barons in revolt.<span style=""> </span>The leader of these
was a nasty bloke called FitzWalter.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size="3"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Now, I suppose
we could bore everyone sick by talking about the Lusignan affair or the
wicked doings of Henry II's hard-assed Angevin regime, but the most
interesting thing about the Magna Carta is that after its signing, it
lasted all of three months.<span style=""> </span>The rebel barons
refused to surrender </span><st1:City><st1:place><span
style="font-family: Georgia;">London</span></st1:place></st1:City><span
style="font-family: Georgia;"> as they'd promised to do at </span><st1:place><span
style="font-family: Georgia;">Runnymede</span></st1:place><span
style="font-family: Georgia;">, but John managed to work himself into
a position to force them to concede.<span style=""> </span>And so,
out the window went the vast bulk of the Magna Carta.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><font size="3">So, what was
the Magna Carta all about and why is it still important?<span style="">
</span>Because of what it later became.<span style=""> </span>It
initially guaranteed the rights of the Church, and then went on to
concentrate on curbing the king's abuse of feudal custom: it limited
so-called relief payments and scutages and banned some of the abuses
unscrupulous guardians had been able to exercise over their wards.<span
style=""> </span>But what interests people today about the Magna
Carta was the piece that was least important to King John and the rebel
barons: <span style=""> </span>the recognition that there was such a
thing as English Common Law.<o:p></o:p></font></span></p>
<p><font size="3"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Thus endeth the
history lesson.<span style=""> </span>(And thank God for that sigh
voices all over the Palouse</span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">.)<span
style=""> </span></span></font></p>
<p><font size="3"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">On, however, to
your point C: I heard on NPR yesterday that some 50% of Americans are
now invested in the stock market.<span style=""> </span>Having lost
the bulk of my own retirement in said market shortly after Mr. Bush
took office, I find this alarming.<span style=""> </span>If I'd taken
that money down to Vegas and put on Black #9, I might have gotten
exactly the same result as I got with Global Crossing, but at least I'd
have had the consolation of a free gin & tonic from a scantily-clad
barmaid.<span style=""> Now, all I get </span>are empty letters from
Charles Schwab & Co. Nothing sexy there.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><font size="3">You speak
briefly, Dave, of egregiously high CEO salaries and add that you don't
have time to address this issue more fully at the moment.<span style="">
</span>I hope that you will make time as I'd like to hear what you
have to say.<span style=""> </span>It seems to me that one of the
reasons CEO salaries are so high -- and seem to bear so little relation
to actual CEO performance -- is that corporate boards of directors are
simply log-rolling operations.<span style=""> </span>CEOs serve on
the boards that set the salaries for other CEOs, who in turn sit on the
boards that set the salaries of the CEO members of their boards.<span
style=""> </span>It's an endless circular big-money back scratch.<span
style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><font size="3">[Or, if I were
still channeling the spirit of my grandfather, I'd call it a great big
Mongolian Clusterf---.<span style=""> </span>But I'm not.<span
style=""> </span>I'm being polite today. Getting ready, you see,
for a visit from my mother. Ironically, I can't talk like Ranny
Watkins *and* kiss his daughter on the cheek with that mouth. She
won't stand for it.]<o:p></o:p></font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><font size="3">Joan
Opyr/Auntie Establishment<o:p></o:p></font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Georgia;"><font size="3">PS: I have a
difficult time with the concept that "stealing" from Norman barons was
in fact stealing from "the government."<span style=""> </span>To me,
government implies some kind of recognized legitimacy -- but then, I'm
a democrat, both with a big "D" and a small "d."<span style=""> </span>I
would say that Robin Hood's "stealing" was repatriating to the poor the
ill-gotten gains of a corrupt dictatorship.<span style=""> </span>Unelected
land-holders, who collected taxes from the workers, skimmed off the
top, and then passed the rest on to the Church and the King do not
constitute a legitimate government.<o:p></o:p></font></span></p>
<p><font size="3"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Which is why I
say down with </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
style="font-family: Georgia;">Saudi Arabia</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style="font-family: Georgia;">!<span style=""> </span>What the hell
are we doing in bed with that feudal nightmare? Tell us, George! I
dare you!</span></font></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span
style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;">-----
Original Message -----<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial;"><b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;">From:</span></b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;"> David M.
Budge<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;">Sent:</span></b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;"> </span><st1:date
month="2" day="11" year="2005"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;">Friday,
February 11, 2005</span></st1:date><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;"> </span><st1:time
hour="10" minute="54"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;">10:54 AM</span></st1:time><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;">To:</span></b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;"> Joan Opyr<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;">Cc:</span></b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;"> Vision2020
Moscow<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;">Subject:</span></b><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Arial;"> Re:
[Vision2020] Re: Robin Hood<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Joan, <br>
<br>
Thanks for refreshing my memory on the plot and character development.
There's just some <b>major problems</b> with your analogy i.e.
"(involuntary) corporate profit-sharing scheme".<br>
<br>
A) There were no "corporations" in 12th century </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;">England</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;"> or
private property for that matter. All land was owned by the King and
franchised, if you will, to members of the realm (Dukes, Barons, Lords,
etc.), who "owned" no real property (real estate) either. The land's
productive proceeds, minus an allowance for a piggishly lavish
lifestyle, were ultimately due to the monarch. Accordingly, all
business was owned buy the state. We actually have some holdover to
that construct in Common Law called "escheatability" where one's
estate is remanded to the government if one has no heirs upon taking
the "big dirt nap."<br>
<br>
B) Historically, it was not just Prince John who placed an unfair
burden of taxation on the working stiffs, but King Richard as well. In
fact, the war in </span><st1:State><st1:place><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Normandy</span></st1:place></st1:State><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;"> put such
a financial burden on the crown that a general protest by the nobility
and serfdom alike caused the birth of the Magna Carta, which provided
for private property and then some, in thirteen short years after the
death of King Richard. This, the first major step towards liberal
democracy in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;">England</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: black; font-family: Verdana;">. <br>
<br>
C) If, in fact, we make allowances for your assertion that money was
returned to "ownership of the company by those who built the company",
in contemporary terms, you entirely discount for ownership's risk of
capital - which is no inconsequential building block of any
enterprise. Today, stealing from "Archer Daniels Midlands, McDonalds,
and Dell Computer moguls" would be stealing from the likes of the
millions of citizens who have a vested interest in things like the
California Public Employees Retirement System, etc. That is not to say
that modern corporate chiefs earn their egregious salaries, but that is
primarily caused by a lack of accountability created, in large part, by
tax incentives (now there's an oxymoron for ya) that drive money to
institutional money managers thereby removing voting privileges of the
actual "owners." But I've not the time nor the inclination to begin
that discussion in this writing.<br>
<br>
So, in fact, Robin was repatriating taxes, not ownership, as stealing
from any nobility was actually taking from the government. Taxes, I
might add, that stuffed the ruling class to obese proportions like the
retirement benefits that congress has voted for themselves in the
current era. (John Kerry wants to give us congress's health care
system, I'm hoping he'll give us his retirement plan - well except for
the ketchup loot from his beaudacious sugar mama of course.)<br>
<br>
Thinking about my little dear one. I will remain ever vigilant Joan,
but I worry much more about really hard "street literature", full of
impurities and historical reconstruction, like Katrina Vanden Houvel at
The Nation, Cornell West, and the really scary ghost of Stalin; Noam
Chomsky (hey, anybody who ever endorsed Pol Pot qualifies as "really
scary.") <br>
<br>
I too have l<b>ittle use for the modern GOP</b>, but I've <b>equally
"little use" for Democrats</b>. Their party platform (with notable
dessenters like Barney Frank) has an official position against gay
marriage ironically via federalism and civil unions <b>-</b> endorses
drug interdiction programs that continue to fail ($20 Billion alone to
Columbia plus another $30 billion hidden in the Defense budget <b>-</b>
we can buy a sh_t load of ketchup with that dough) <b>-</b> the
insanity of not coming to grips that Social Security will ultimately
have to be means tested at a minimum, lest we hand to our heirs a
stinking pile of rotting economic fecal matter that they won't even be
able to grow mushrooms in<b> -</b> the insane changes at the FDA made
by Clinton that allows big pahrama to extend patents ad nausium with
minor changes in drug formulary thereby nullifying an otherwise
reasonable system of patent protection <b>-</b> the ridiculous
entitlement of Medicare that sets price controls thereby forcing higher
prices and screwing the boots off the uninsured, the working poor and
the self-employed <b>-</b> the whole damn notion of "hate crimes"
legislation where the arbiters of thought control will be determined by
a tyranny of the majority <b>-</b> the obnoxious push for federalizing
the payroll of incompetent cretins who perform proctological exams in
search of box cutters every time someone gets on an airplane (but I
have a serious problem with that entire bi-partisan body of law)<b> -</b>
the continuous insufferable conclusion that the law is not just for
protecting me from getting screwed but from being stupid as well (I
contend that being stupid is a constitutional right and is the
underlayment of the entire Bill of Rights) <b>-</b> and all the rest
of the twaddle that implies that I don't know whether to sh_t or go
blind. And this is just the beginning. <br>
<br>
In fairness, I have an equally long list for the GOP, but I'm thinking
you're probably willing to wait for that. I say, as did the the Queen
of Hearts, "off with their heads!" I'm ecumenical that way.<br>
<br>
Oops, I got a little screedy there. Must be the I.V. bee venom.<br>
<br>
Sorry, I'll return to my warm (but smarmy) self after the venom wears
off. Didn't mean to offend. Better call my psychiatrist, I've
forgotten my mantra...<br>
<br>
Dave Budge<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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