Roth IRAs/401ks Better?

I told Ham o' Bone years ago that our 401k accounts could all disappear tomorrow given the "house of cards" fragility of the global economy. Specifically I was thinking that after observing how the fall of an obscure currency in southeast Asia almost brought the world markets to their collective knees. Since then, obviously, nothing has led me to believe otherwise.

But another variable I hadn't anticipated was that because so few people fund 401ks in a serious way - I've heard the average balance is woefully inadequate for retirement - that there is not going to be a big enough voting constituency to protect them from the government coffers. Will 401ks get taxed at 75-80% upon withdrawal? Should we fund Roth IRAs/401ks in which money goes in after tax? (Although if the government will sanction the killing of the unborn, what's to stop them from breaking a promise involving money?)

To quote the old line: government will go where the money is. In thirty years, when there is widespread poverty due to the failure of Social Security and pensions, they'll be coming after those few folks who did save. So spend it now while you got it! Buy that Kindle! Smoke a fine cigar! And support your favorite charities before the government takes it and spends it on Planned Parenthood!

No November Surprise...

You can fight city hall, but you can't fight demographics. As I've said before, the Bush years were "pure gift" (although I could've wished for a better gift) in the sense that in the '00 election a then unappealing Al Gore won the popular vote. And in the '04 the incumbent during a war has a huge advantage. Bush was also obviously way overachieving with respect to Hispanic vote appeal, as we see now with McCain's numbers.

But we saw this coming a decade and a half away since as California goes, so eventually goes the nation. When CA went from Republican to Democrat, that should've been a huge wake-up call. Of course, seeing the trend doesn't mean you can stop it. Ancient Rome could've predicted Gibbons's title way in advance without having a way to prevent it from happening. But what if Republicans had become the pro-immigration party instead of merely the anti-illegal immigration party? What if Republicans had pushed for greatly increased immigration quotas from Mexico?

But no sad sacks! We got two justices on the Supreme Court via the magic and luck of a tiny margin in Florida in 2000. The Democrat party can draw from whites, blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Asians, you name it. Republicans can't. When you give away all black and Hispanics and young voters, all the fastest growing groups in the country, it's not if but when you'll fall. The root cause of the Republican fall is not George Bush but demographics combined with a takeover of academia by leftists groomed during the '60s. A biased and flawed education system combined with demographics means you've got troubles. Right here in River City.

The most interesting question is why Hispanics voted overwhelmingly for Obama. It certainly gives lie to the sentimental, nostalgic view among some Norte Catholics that Mexican Catholics will be the new soul of America going forward, at least on the issues concerning the sanctity of life. It turns out they're like us: struggling, sinful Catholics who often treat Christianity as a quaint family custom. Or perhaps the vote was lopsided because all recent immigrant groups seek help from the government and thus tend to vote Democratic. Perhaps there was racism, as Bill Luse's note indicated, against a white. Maybe all of the above. To a certain extent the "Who Lost China?" question feels replicated as "Who Lost the Latinos?" now. On the other hand maybe it's better to lose with dignity and honor than win by playing the whole racial spoils game.

Quotes

Found Thomas Sowell, found here.

"The Clintons had the saving grace of utter lack of principle. Which meant that when they saw which way the political winds were blowing, that's the way they'd go, regardless of what they were saying. This man has been a far-left ideologue for twenty years...I think this man really does believe that he can change the world and people like that are infinitely more dangerous than crooked politicians."

From SocEng blog:

Seventy years ago almost to the day, on November 9th 1938, National Socialists engineered a massive campaign of state-sponsored stealing. It was justified on the basis of economic inequality and an entrenched and growing anti-Semitic sentiment...The astounding thing about the whole event is how everyday citizens seemed to justify the taking as a form of economic justice.

"ExxonMobil announced that it had made the greatest profits of any corporation in the history of the world: $14 billion dollars in one quarter. That's all your money." -Senator Barack Hussein Obama during a campaign rally at the University of Missouri-Columbia 10/30/2008

From a Wall Street Journal editorial last week:

"If the current polls hold, Barack Obama will win the White House on November 4th and Democrats will consolidate their congressional majorities. Though we doubt most Americans realize it, this would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in U.S. history."

The Next Gen

Well, what follows from Bill Luse is painfully sobering:

I've been taking an informal sampling of students' opinions, and I can assure you that McCain's having been tortured beyond endurance in a Vietnamese prison camp exercises their sympathies in the same way that a yawn enervates the jaws...

"Voting for him would be like voting for Bush all over again." (If you think those media soundbites have no effect, you're wrong. Heads are full of them, and it's easier than thinking.)

But, I point out, you didn't vote for Bush. You were too young four years ago. Well, yeah, but...They're not bothered by an inability to respond. They know what they want. Desire, enthusiasm is all.

My favorite entrance pollees were those who had written research papers against abortion. "Who you votin' for?"

"Obama."

"You do realize that he and you are on opposite sides of this issue."

"Well, I'm not voting for him for that reason."

"But you said here that abortion is murder. Is there some issue more important than that?" Well, no, but...

Some of them are aghast that Obama is one of a very few senators who voted against the partial birth abortion ban (though a few ask, "What's that?"). They actually don't know this about him. And yet I sense no movement.

Another says, "What about the economy? Why does everything come back to abortion?" I say I guess it doesn't, if you consider money more important than life. She gives me a strange look.

Says another, "Oh, I'd never get one myself. Besides which my mother would kill me. But I don't really care what other people do." That, I say, is a prescription for moral chaos. She shrugs.

There was one girl of Latin derivation, Puerto Rican I think, to whom I'd like to pay tribute. All of her friends are voting for Obama. When she tells them she's voting for McCain, they start yelling at her, calling her crazy, insane, a traitor. A traitor to what? she asks. To your race. But I'm not black! she protests. And besides, what's race got to do with it? Well, McCain's white. She stands her ground, but I can tell her feelings have been hurt. I tell her I hope she gets to keep her friends, but if doing so means sacrificing her principles, maybe they aren't worth keeping. She says she's not budging. They won't change her. Man, sometimes you never know what's hiding behind those faces.

As I was working at Requiem Press yesterday, I was thinking about how the urgency of getting this order out and how I had this or that book to finish editing-along with all the other (paying) work I have to do. And I started to think about all the other companies and/or apostolates who seemed overworked, and I wondered about the solution.... then I remembered the words and examples of Blessed Mother Teresa, Fr. Lee Selzer (may his soul rest in peace), and Dorothy Day: all of whom advocated prayer before works...We are so sophisticated we think we can survive without God's constant help (or at least just giving him a nod here and there.) But we must get serious. Look around! - Jim of Bethune Catholic

At the seminary I’m at, we have Adoration all day as the nation goes to the polls. - commenter on Amy Welborn's blog today.

The remolding society through detailed government policies is fundamentally un-conservative....When running against someone whose message is essentially, "Vote for me; I can fix all your problems." This requires that one be a much better communicator and a communicate a much more attractive cultural vision than one's opponent. And right now, the opposing candidate is a very good communicator. - Darwin Catholic

The conversations about [abortion] are, for the most part, serious, although I will say that the pro-Obama Catholics fade in seriousness with each passing day as hardly any of them actually engage the totality of the issue and the reality of their candidates’ position, preferring instead to put their hands over their ears and sing “La-la-la!” in melodious, highly degreed voices when Obama’s own record and promises on the issue are raised. - Amy Welborn

The girls thought it was delightful that I hobbled around on the ball of one foot and the heel of another, and limped cheerfully around the house in imitation. "Does it hurt, mommy?" asked one, jabbing my heel. My voice rose several octaves. Clearly I had underestimated the importance of the bottom of my feet. - Mrs. Darwin on a plantar warts affliction

My favorite Hillerman novel -- one of my favorite mystery novels overall, in fact -- is Coyote Waits. I'd have to reread it before I could call it a Catholic novel -- in particular, to look for that "quality of redemption" Raymond Chandler said is present in everything that can be called Art -- but it certainly has Catholic themes. The titular Coyote is the trickster spirit who, according to Navajo lore, is always on the lookout for the chance to mess with people. In the Christian tradition, St. Peter warns us that "the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." There are, of course, many critical differences between Navajo belief in Coyote and Christian belief in the devil -- for one, the devil has been defeated by Christ and can be resisted through faith by the Christian. But there is a commonality, too: weak men are tempted to perform bad acts. And if we understand that all men are weak men, then we understand why we must always rely on Christ. - Tom of Disputations, on the death of Tony Hillerman

There is an element of emotional experience in the religious--were there not it would fail to engage the full person; however, it isn't usually the entire substance of our faith, and if it is then our house is build on sand anyway. - Steven of Flos Carmeli

At work, I’m surrounded by Obama-fans and I hate to admit that I’ve started saying things like “when he wins” or “Obama will have to deal with …” and so on. It’s pathetic because I seem to be easing myself to this possibility. I even have some sober reasons lined up: eight exhausting and incompetent years of GOP rule, a grinding war that we are finally winning, a tanking economy, a truly head-scratching campaign by a candidate who seems more dedicated to delegate like a maverick than to speak like one. But I still think McCain can pull this off. Obama will win huge in his states but McCain can win in squeakers in Virginia, Florida and Virginia and maybe even Colorado. I do think Palin will bring out the conservatives in droves while Joe Biden brings nothing, absolutely nothing to the ticket. Perhaps voters will look at Obama’s resume — as jam-packed as a fresh sheet of Saran Wrap — and wonder if The One is the right choice right now. The look of horror on the faces of the chatting heads on MSNBC’s will be priceless. - Phil Albinus of "A Musing"

The popularity of the Horror genre makes me think that the same is true for most people today. St. Therese had such saintly parents--'more worthy of Heaven than of earth'--that she didn't need Hell to scare her into sanctity. Indeed, she once longed to go to Hell so that there would no longer be a place where Jesus was not loved! She had no fear of diabolical forces. As a little girl, she dreamed that two demons were terrified at the sight of her.Modern audiences, on the other hand, seem to need Horror on some level. Not Torture Porn, of course, though we'll apparently take it, if it's all that's available. What we really want, however, is a worthy glimpse of Hell. Yes, we want to see Hell. We want a good reason not to sell our souls. - E. at "Sancta Sanctis"

On the question of why we read and write fiction, the works of ancient authors like Homer and Virgil have always struck me as interesting. Both to some extent, I think, believed in the myths they were recording. (Virgil less so than Homer, and neither in a literal sense, perhaps.) Yet both knew they were making up the details of these stories as they went along. And their readers in the ancient world both knew that the stories they were hearing or reading had been composed by human authors, and also believed that they in some sense reflected real stories about the gods and heroes. The key insight here, I think, is that worthwhile fiction describes something that is at root true -- indeed it shows reality in a more distilled fashion than actual observation -- even if the details are made up. When fiction ceases to be seen as describing something true, it ceases to be worth reading. - Darwin Catholic

It was indeed my generation that brought a strain of liberalism to its place of ruinous prominence, and which I thought had found its most publicly admirable apotheosis in the person of the philandering, perjuring, pot-smoking, draft-dodging William Jefferson Clinton. But I was wrong. Clinton was only the storm front. Obama is the whirlwind. It was my generation that made drug use (and contempt for the law) respectable. We made education universal and ideological. We made lust, not war; we made it "free" and children became an annoyance. We liberated women by encouraging them to leave the home, after first enslaving them to birth control and opening their wombs to the executioner's blade. We fulfilled the promise of free speech by rendering religion irrelevant in the "marketplace" of ideas. We loved peace almost to the point of pacifism (unless the violence was being incited by the Chicago 7), and the founding ideals of our country so much that we never tired of exercising our first amendment right to convey the degree of our hatred for it. There's an essay to be written about it all, but it's a very long one. In the meantime, I compensate by condemning in others what I most despise in my own past. You can thank me later for the diagnosis. - William Luse of "Apologia"

Parody time:

America's Long National Nightmare Set to End

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- America's long national nightmare, the presidential campaign, is set to end tomorrow night.

Voters wearied by robo-calls, push-polling and blitzkrieg ads will finally get a rest.

"I'm sure glad it's over," said one retiree. "I even got a call from Pat Boone! I hate to say this, but I thought he'd passed!"

The campaign, which lasted just over three years but only felt like twelve, will finally allow us to put away our rhetorical flourishes.

The mainstream media, which now prefers to be called the Obamastream MediaTM, is also relieved that poll numbers suggest all their efforts were not in vain.

Election Day Novena

Beginning tomorrow, Monday October 27th...

UPDATE: Changing the date on this post to keep it at top.

Quenching The Accountability Thirst

Until yesterday, I felt a bit like the Manhattan socialite who expressed shock after the Nixon-McGovern contest by saying "But no one I know voted for Nixon!"

No one I know was voting for Obama I'd thought, until I learned that all my aunt's kids were (my cousins), and that my a co-worker who'd always voted Republican had now switched parties.

I guess I can see how if the pro-life issue isn't crucial for you, you might be tempted to switch. The Republicans are known for being the gold standard on foreign policy and yet there was Colin Powell, offering the U.N. what turned out to be false intelligence. No matter how one feels about the Iraq War, there were undeniably mistakes and the American people are very unforgiving with mistakes.

I think the reason is frustration over the lack of accountability in Washington which is related partially to unrealistic expectations of federal government. We are upset when a war isn't run smoothly. We are dismayed when the feds don't have a natural disaster recovery plan in the event of Katrina. That Bush could be held responsible for the irresponsbility of state and local government seems proof of our skewed view of things.

Adding to that, we return incumbent congress members with Politburo-like regularity. But it's not all our fault because the members have rigged the system by gerrymandering very safe districts. But even Mayor Nagin got re-elected in New Orleans. "Fire the President!" overlooking our corrupt local congressman. It reminds me of how some were blaming the Pope for the priest sex abuse scandal while coddling their own pedophiliac pastor.

If you'll recall back in '93 & '94, Bill Clinton wasn't yet poll-driven. He didn't worry too much about his popularity, much as Bush hasn't. This was all before Dick Morris came on the scene. Clinton was leading for good or for ill, as George Bush has done, for good or ill. Clinton's made what he has since acknowledged to be a mistake, in designing a health care system (dubbed "Hillarycare") that went far beyond what the nation was ready for. It created, needless to say, a huge backlash.

Americans punished his (& her) mistake by electing the first Republican congress in something like fifty years. The Democrats were so used to owning the House that they hadn't even bothered to gerrymander ridiculously safe seats, so they were vulnerable even though they didn't know it. Bill Clinton was chastised to the point of having to say, "The era of big government is over" (proving that he's no prophet).

But the point of this is that there is a frustration in the electorate such that it uses a hammer when it needs a scalpel. We use a bomb when a scissors would do. A co-worker is voting against the party of Bush this time because he wanted to send a message against Bush. Well that message was received loud & clear in 2006 when the Congress flipped. Hasn't accountability for Bush's failure to attend to his own popularity been received yet?

Part of this angst is that people expect way too much of the federal government. It's a huge, inefficient, bureaucratic institution that almost by definition can't be held accountable except in the most generalized and unfair ways. The best way to make government accountable is to produced mixed government since Republicans have proven that they can't run the congress while owning the presidency. And Democrats have proven the same. And yet, in this election, we appear to have not learned that lesson.

Kudus to Zmirak

Given how John Zmirak feels about John McCain - i.e. very negatively - and given Zmirak's uber-paleo milieu, it was a bit surprising to see him endorse McCain. Good to see.

___
At the American Catholic blog, it's been noted that Catholics are polling at 51-38% towards McCain over Obama. It seems unbelievable Obama could lose the Catholic vote by that margin and still be highly favored to win the election. I must be missing something.

My Nomination...

...for title you'd only see on a Catholic blog:

Newman’s Relic Translation Mass Is on EWTN Today

Photos I Took 'round Town

Aisle 14's got a new entry:



The babyboomers are aging.
_____

This was taken at the drive thru of a Tim Horton's. You can't really make it out, but it says "Any Donut" under what is obviously a chocolate donut. A chocolate donut is not just any donut!



_____

They say the first step is always the hardest but rarely is it as literal as this. "Watch the step!" it says under the second story doorway although the helpfulness of that is questionable since you'll be exiting from the other side:



And one from the Columbus Dispatch, untouched by photo-editing software, of someone holding a sign in support of yours truly:

Couple Thoughts

Archbishop Chaput’s exposition on St. Thomas More is inspiring and so well-written in “Render Under Caesar”. Chaput's is one of the best books with spiritual theme I’ve read in a while. He perfectly expresses why More is so revered in our age – it’s not because he was a martyr but because he was an unwilling one. We can relate, to the unwilling part I mean.

I love St. Paul’s writings and always have because he presumes upon his listeners, giving them (us) the benefit of the doubt and reminding us that we are capax Dei. St. Paul, in his generally optimistic and merciful tone, is a figure of the Church.

This Tuesday: Vote the Common Good!

Inspired by an impressive piece of crapaganda (crap + propaganda) heard on the radio today (sponsored by this group), I offer the following retort that hopefully doesn't quite rise to their level of pompous, self-righteous transparently partisan non-partisanship -- oh who am I kidding, in order to respond to it I will have to rise to that level of pompous, self-righteous transparently partisan non-partisanship for purposes of illustration only. (Please, don't try this at home.):

Education is one of the most important contributors to the common good and though powerful teachers' unions exist there are no students' unions. If not sympathetic to the plight of individual students trapped in poor schools, think of the common good and how American would be improved if those same students were given good educations and were thus able to better contribute as adults to the common good. Vote the common good.

We want a sustainable, solvent health care system that does not crush our children's children in debt nor mire future generations in another pyramid scheme. Vote the common good.

Cynical politicians may pit classes of Americans against each other even though we're all in this together. Don't deny the poor and middle class their dignity by disallowing their contributions to the common good.

Children are America's future so let's stop killing them in the womb. If unmoved by their individual plights then think of all the inventors and scientists, entrepreneurs and teachers denied the chance to serve America. Vote the common good.

Our communities and states express the great diversity of this nation. Let's strengthen them by respecting the principle of subsidiarity and not allowing too much power and influence to be centralized. Vote the common good.

Economists say that businesses create jobs and pass on any taxes to consumers. Raising taxes on impersonal corporations feels good but does not contribute to the common good.

A society cannot long survive if it doesn't know what the word 'marriage' means. Vote the common good.

Many would prefer to appease enemies and allow rogue nations to bully the weak. Some would stand passively by while great evil occurs such as when over a million Rwandans were killed. Vote the common good.

A famous past president who will not be identified since that would be partisan, needlessly prolonged the misery of the Great Depression by his liberal economic policies. Vote the common economic good this time.

Our Founding Fathers gave us a jewel in our Constitution; let's not squander it by electing those who would appoint judges who would rather re-write it than respect it. Vote the common good.

To identify most of the above positions with Catholicism would be wrong. They are conservative, not Catholic positions just as Common Good promotes liberal, not Catholic positions. (Note also the implicit self-righteousness of the 'common good' tagline.)

Spare me organizations attempting to influence naive voters by presenting one-sided presentations under the banner of the Catholic Church while pretending not to be presenting a one-sided presentation. And anybody who thinks there's any sort of moral equivalency between Catholic Answers and this Common Good group ought to have their head examined. Catholic Answers makes an effort to treat Church teaching in their voter's guide the way strict contructionists treat the U.S. Constitution, while Common Good manipulates the emotions of the ignorant and completely ignores church teaching on pro-life issues. The barf-inducing ad I heard on the radio today makes Catholics for Obama look good by comparison if only because at least the latter are honest and upfront about who they are supporting and at least they don't employ the subterfuge of impartiality while being as impartial as my ass.

The bishops have pretty consistently emphasized there's a difference (duh!) between supporting the continuation of the Iraq War and supporting unlimited access to abortion. Common Good plays into the perception that Catholics on the left are - ironically - less interested in the common good as they are partisan politics. After all, "common good" is an oxymoron when you're talking about support of abortion while it's not necessarily one if you're talking about differing with 99% of the left's agenda, from pulling out of Iraq to universal welfare.

How utterly shameful that Catholic leftists would attempt to use the Church in order to further their pet political ends. It's no different than the way many Nigerian scammer emails begin with "Blessings of Jesus Christ to you", though at least the scammers want only money and not the lives of the most defenseless.

Our Date with Destiny

Once upon a time, in a Midwestern state said to be politically competitive, I received a voice mail that began with a stirring rendition of the U.S. Marine Corp hymn:

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli;
We will fight our country's battles
In the air, on land and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
of United States Marine.

It was Ham o' Bone, a good singer, who is full of fine capers including his latest: camp out overnight at the site of Obama's Sunday afternoon rally in Columbus so that he (Bone) could get a sign on camera behind the candidate and thus on television and in the paper and thus change the course of the Ohio election, possibly effecting the national one.

I signed up at least to the extent of meeting him at the rally. I felt like a Merry Prankster on Ken Kesey's bus.

So what would the sign say? Ah now there's the rub. For best results, he argued, the 10 by 12 foot sign ought have few words and say something new. His first choice, "Barack 'Animal Farm' Obama", met with generally unfavorable reviews from friends and spouses. Next up was "WEAK", which had a pithy brevity in its favor and would certainly stand out from the others.

Ham does nothing half-assed and so went to a sign store prepared to spend the quoted $112 which, in Bone money, is nearly $1000. (To call Ham frugal is to call Richard Dawkins unfavorably disposed to theism, or Idi Amin too inclined towards the use of force, or Sarah Palin telegenic.)

At a brainstorming breakfast at Bob Evans (alliteration unintended), my wife and I plotted the downfall of Obama's Ohio campaign over blueberry pancakes. We wanted to provide Bone plenty of alternatives to "WEAK", including:

LAME
Divider Not a Uniter
IRS Agents 4 Obama
Risky
Robbin' Hood
Marxism Rules! Obama '08
Liar
Monsieur Obama
Eurobama

The list was politically explosive and I wasn't sure if the waitress could be trusted nor whether the salt shaker wasn't bugged. It obviously couldn't wait till after breakfast so I called Bone's cell just as he was on his way to the sign-maker whom, we hoped, was Republican enough to offer a gratis "sign over a sign" such that an Obama '08 (or some such nonsense) could be removed at the proper time in order to reveal one of our slogans. Since sign-makers are often small businessmen it seemed a good bet.

But something occurred to me on the way to our date with history: what if signs weren't allowed? He was the revolutionary and I was the implementer, the Thomas Paine to my Paul Revere. A quick Google showed Obama had banned signs in Virgina, much to the chagrin of conservative patriots out east. I tried to call the local newspaper without success before practicing my best NPR, latte-drinking voice and dialing the local chapter of the culture of death. All lines were busy at three of the four campaign headquarters, but the 4th time was the charm. I spoke to a young woman who repeated my question to a co-worker and who relayed the bad news: "No signs will be permitted." This on public property, namely the lawn of the State house building. Our plan foiled, I called Bone.

He had suggested before the possibility of carrying the sign in small pieces on his person and then assembling it at the rally but was worried about snipers taking him out due to mistaking his McGyver-like moves for bomb-assembly.

We briefly explored the possibility and effectiveness of a sign outside the cordoned off areas, and whether we should dump the sign idea altogether and just wear our "Nobama" shirts.

Instead we settled on having a beer at his house should I gather the requisite energy to drive the hour there. After all, planning a coup takes a lot out of a guy.

All Saint's Day


(photo via Dylan)