The Illusion of the Fiscally Responsible Republican Party

I have heard this shit so many times, I almost started believing it myself. But here is the deficit data in a time series, from the Federal Reserve website. As I remembered from my childhood, there really weren't deficits in the 60's by our present standards. Both parties were fiscally conservative from WWII on. Until about, 1980.

Let's see, what happened then... Oh yeah, Reagan, the well-known fiscally conservative talker-not walker took office. The deficits doubled and eventually tripled under Papa Bush, reaching 300B in FY1991. Bitchin'. Way to go guys. Party of Goldwater, right?

Under Clinton, we had a ramp to a surplus of over 200B at its peak. Nice going Bubba. Oh wait, he was a democrat, never mind the stain on the dress. We should have made him king.

Then let's see what baby Bush did. Oh yeah, the least fiscally responsible human being ever. What do we have here? A legend, a myth, pure bullshit. They have not been fiscally responsible in my lifetime in their stewardship of the national coin. Pure bullshit. Reagan gets a pass to this day from these chumps we call pundits. Can they not read a bargraph? The democrats have been the poster-children of fiscal responsibility in our lifetimes. Good god, cease the bullshit!

Hagakure

I am only going to explain this once. A few years back there was a film from Jim Jarmusch called "Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai", very quirky, violent, and maybe pointless. Right up my alley. Each larger scene was introduced from a black screen with an obscure, sort of zen quote from a mysterious reference, the Hagakure. The words were written in the 17th century by an aging retainer of the last of the rebellious Daimyo that struggled against the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate. His name was Yamamoto Tsunemoto. He was not a particularly distinguished swordsman, or poet, or any of the traditional samurai skills, by then samurai was becoming an executive secretary class, warring arts were in decline by legislation. He said a lot of cool things, and many that are now dated and strange...

I will throw out some of my favorite of both types for comment. This is one of my absolute favorites.

There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything. - Hagakure, Chapter 1

Just digest that one for a minute... If that does not move your mind or your spirit, take me off your email list. :^)

Do they miss me at least?

So, I was laid off from ReliOn on November 17th, from a position I thought was pretty important to the health of the company. I was the only remaining systems engineer, senior by title; my friend Matt had been laid off around July, he had been my junior. He got picked up by another fuel cell company in Portland OR, Clear Edge Power. They are developing fuel cell systems for residential use, natural gas-fired.
Systems engineers, in this context are about 1/3 scientist, 1/3 engineer, and 1/3 communicator/leader. We help evaluate market demands, figure out architecture for products to meet the market demands, develop specifications for the products, develop maps of the internal functions required of the product design, develop detailed subsystem requirements (such that they all fit together perfectly), communicate and negotiate the subsystem requirements with the "normal" Dilbert types that have to do the detail engineering, design tests to evaluate the subsystems and the overall product, write specifications for the tests so that "anyone" can do them, perform the testing when I could, analyze the data and develop reports, communicate the reports, evaluate gaps with the team, determine corrective actions, lead corrective actions, think about the next product...
Seems like I was a pretty busy guy? Maybe...
My boss had started doing a lot of the more interesting parts of my job for a few years, not very well, because I think he did not know how to do the leadership thing required of his position, VP Engineering. I try not to be too ego-driven, it doesn't work well with my head, my heart or the group. But if you are going to do my job, dammit, do it better than me, or at least equal.
So, I had been doing other stuff, largely things that were below his radar or interest level, for a couple of years, just to remain vital mentally. I had designed electronics, for sensors, for data acquisition, for fun. I had basically earned my electrical engineer equivalency by doing. It was a lot of fun, living under the radar, getting important (but not to my boss) work done for the company ( I thought). And doing as much of my real job as my boss would tolerate.
So, what I have to wonder, mostly just as a human being at this point, not as an engineer, or geek, is do they miss me three months later?
Do they recognize the lost value of my talents, skills, spirit, chi, whatever?
Is my name mentioned with reverence or scorn at the water-cooler?

These are ego questions, I know. But they are important to me. I am not so fully evolved as I would wish, that I have stopped caring whether I matter to others. Maybe some day when I am breathing from a 3rd eye I will stop needing these things. Not there yet.