Hannah’s Blog

Have been for a while. Remember the “stress test”? Let’s refresh our memories.

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I think we mostly assume that evil people perpetrate their mayhem in secret so they won’t get caught. Some of us even credit them a sense of shame which, we hope, will prevent a repetition. Along the same line, we may assume that the “power behind the throne” prefers anonymity to the possibility of having his/her error exposed. Letting the figurehead take blame and credit is less risky and might even promote innovative thinking. That, of course, is putting a really positive spin on it. Secrecy as a side effect. But what if it’s actually the main objective?
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Again, there’s much ado about the estate tax, even though a very small number of estates are covered by the requirement that there be an accounting of assets transferred to calculate the tax obligations. The issue, I think, is that family enterprise has been looked to as an escape valve from even the minimal regulation that the SEC provides for private corporations owned by unrelated persons, who purchase or are given shares. The family or closely held enterprise answers the question, “how do you accumulate money without letting the public know how much of their money you’ve got?”
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MECONIUM ASPIRATION SYNDROME
The following information is from the Johns Hopkins Chidlren’s Center. Note how the syndrome just sort of happens as a result of what the fetus does or doesn’t do.
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A visit on the 5th Anniversary of Katrina
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by Phil Specht
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Rains are starting to cool the southern climes and renew growth. It seems it’s more the high temperatures in the desert that stop growth, rather than the lack of moisture. I don’t think we appreciate sufficiently the narrow range of temperatures in which most biological specimens exist. I still think bird migration is primarily a response to temperature. If it gets too hot near the ground, they fly into the cooler altitudes and get caught in the atmospheric air streams, much as the ocean currents carry fish populations to new feeding grounds. Migration is intrinsic motion directed from outside. The prompt is endemic. The response is usually beneficial, because changing environments are good, but not always. When the response is bad, the organisms don’t thrive or even survive. That does not mean another population won’t end up the same way.

Amelia Island Plantation off the north Florida coast is bankrupt, not unlike Georgia’s Sea Island resort. A billionaire from Texas, Robert Rowling, has acquired Amelia Island at a court auction under the aegis of the Omni Hotel chain he acquired in 1996, presumably to spread some of the money he accumulated from selling our oil and gas around. Which is not bad. It keeps the money moving and oil and gas is something Americans like to buy. It makes sense for a fuel dealer to provide a destination for his customers to drive to.
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