Carl from Chicago

Business executive interested in history, economics, taxation and energy policy.

“Are You The Man That Turns Off The Power?”

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When I first started working after college I was an auditor for a “Big Six” public accounting firm. Through the (bad) luck of the draw, I was assigned to work on utilities and government institutions. Since utilities are distributed across the United States geographically (unlike finance which is concentrated in New York, for example) I had to travel across the midwest in order to serve my clients.

On one of my first trips I sat next to a couple, a mother and a young son. After a while we started talking a bit on my way to Sioux City Iowa (to see Iowa Public Service, which has since been bought up by Berkshire Hathaway as part of MidAmerican Energy). They asked me why I was traveling to Iowa (a good question, actually) and I said that I was an accountant working for the local power company. The child piped up and said:

“Are you the man who turns off the power?”

The mother was embarrassed and we immediately changed the subject but clearly their family had their power cut off for non-payment at some point in the past and that is how the child knew of the power company. We had some stilted conversation from then on but the encounter has stuck with me for years.

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Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Interviews Ralph Nader

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I just got around to watching a few Conan O’Brien shows on my tivo and I saw this amazingly hilarious interview that Triumph the Insult Comic Dog conducted with Ralph Nader.

I love the moment when Triumph pans the camera around to the “media” that is there to interview Nader… some guy from Madison (Dan?) of course, and Triumph asks if they are going to compare their “Pure Prairie League” album collection.

Willie Brown On Sarah Palin

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As far as a partisan democrat, no one is more dyed-in-the-wool than the former mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown.   I saw this article today in which Willie was whispering to the faithful (those in San Francisco, the most left-wing major city out there) about Palin and Obama.   He is telling dems that this is a big deal, despite what the high-profile media heads are saying.   From the article:

“And notice how everyone is calling her Sarah Palin – not Gov. Palin. That’s not good for the Democrats. It shows a certain familiarity that goes beyond just issues”

Another line

“Then there is the question of how to boost the turnout in key states.   Palin has become an instant heroine with the Wal-Mart crowd in Ohio, Nevada, Pennsylvania and other critical states. And Wal-Marters are a lot more likely to volunteer or show up at the polls than the younger people Obama has attracted.

Right now, the best shot Obama has of winning is to get out and register 12 million or so unregistered blacks, especially in the South. But he has got to do it without anyone noticing.

Palin will have no problem signing up new voters in her group. She can go to the Mountain Dew 250 in Talladega, Ala., and pitch for votes, and no one will bat an eye.   But Obama can’t go to a meeting called by Al Sharpton to get out the black vote, because if he does there will be a backlash.   He’s got to do it under the radar.”

I think Mr. Willie Brown is giving Palin a lot of credit as a democratic party elder of long standing.   He is telling them to watch out.   Also interesting is his note that the “Wal-Marters are a lot more likely to volunteer or show up at the polls than the younger people Obama has attracted”.   You don’t hear that kind of reality out in the media, either.

Art and the Left

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I am not an artist but I do try to appreciate art where I can find it. I visit museums and particularly like the Milwaukee Art Museum, with its famous rooftop “wings”. The site is almost as interesting as the art inside its walls.

Much art, however, is aimed at a strange insular world of elitists. The arbiters of taste for art are generally on the coasts and inevitably extremely liberal. To say that their tastes are out of the mainstream is a vast understatement.

This article, which I clipped from the Chicago Tribune book review about 6 months ago (sorry, it sat in my “blog folder” and I recently found it) inadvertently captures this elitist gap with a non-ironic subtitle:

“Photographer Gregory Crewdson’s America is filled with people and places that reflect life at its most hopeless”

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