Monthly Archives: July 2002

When AOL bought Time Warner, for $124 billion, in a transaction that was only completed in January 2001, the Street was abuzz about all the wonderful synergy that would result. Interestingly, this “synergy” was hardly described or even questioned, at the time.

What synergy could there be between a traditional media company and the world’s worst Internet service provider? I suppose that exclusive content could be made available to AOL subscribers on a fee basis, but this idea never got anywhere. How could it? The original idea of the Internet was FREE flow of information. Contrast this with the notion behind a media giant like Time Warner, which is CHARGING for content.

I suppose that licensed, paid mp3 downloads of the extensive Time Warner music catalog could have been proffered. And although some of this is just now occurring, it is far too little and far too late. Piracy of music copyrights is so widespread and CD burning software so good, that a visit to any college dorm room, or high school kid’s bedroom, will reveal more CD-R’s than shrink-wrapped music CD’s. And, they didn’t pay for the content, that’s for sure.

Thus, in fewer than 200 words, common sense and right reason, using facts not hidden at the time, destroy any business rationale for going ahead with the largest merger in history. On the other hand, simple greed, on the part of the deal makers, won the day–temporarily. As it now stands, AOL Time Warner shares have lost an astounding 80 percent of their value, since the two companies combined. Do you think Jack Warner would have signed off on a deal like this?

Maybe, there’s a lesson here.

On October 1, 1993, 12-year-old Polly Hannah Klaas was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom slumber party, in Petaluma, California. Soon after, she was molested and murdered. In 1996, the quite unrepentant perp, Richard Allen Davis, was found guilty, and was sentenced to death. Davis, of course, was a parolee with multiple priors. Public reaction to this horrific crime was instrumental in passing California’s “three strikes” law, prescribing mandatory life terms for those convicted of a third felony. Sad to say, “three strikes” is under attack, but those familiar with the malignant obscenity that is California politics, would not find this surprising.

The Polly Klaas Foundation website makes a big point about protecting your kids by knowing their whereabouts, not leaving them alone, and the like, but does not have a whole lot to say about why human trash such as Davis are on the streets in the first place, or what can be done to remove them.

The celebrated recent cases of Elizabeth Smart, Samantha Runnion, and Casey Williamson, all involve abduction from the home. In Samantha’s case, the perp had been acquitted, by an idiotic jury, in a molestation case just last year. Short of arming every little girl, I have no idea how one can create a safer environment than her own home!

Maybe, there’s a lesson here.

While the AOL Time Warner fiasco exposes blind greed, and the “experts” leading on the sheeple, it’s only about money. Horrendous crimes against children expose something far darker. Common sense and right reason would conclude that it is simply not possible that tens of millions of abortions, and the value of innocent human life could peacefully co-exist.

The people believe the experts, God knows why, and become the sheeple. The late Richard Fariña spoke of the “prey of a foul command” nearly 40 years ago, and his words are depressingly true today.

As a self-described contrarian, I tend to go against the present wisdom, so what, people ask me, are my thoughts these days?

To be sure, there is no end of bad news…

• Huge corporate bankruptcies
• The stock market in free fall
• Accounting fraud
• Congress playing politics with national security
• Absurd legislation being introduced to make it easy for deported felons to get “one more chance”
• Horrific crimes

The conventional wisdom, of course, is that we are going to Hell in a hand basket. Even some nominal conservatives are quietly calling on the Government to “do something.” My take is that we are rapidly approaching a new era of objectivity and reality. It will first take hold in economic matters, but then, it will move into politics and culture, as well.

The pundits who prattled on about the “new economy” a few years ago have all disappeared, as the public searches for traditional economic values. Perhaps, a stock market run-up based on absolutely nothing but hype will be a bit harder to pull off anytime soon. Perhaps, bankers who are loathe to cut any kind of deal with small business, will not be so willing to loan tens of billions to dubious firms like WorldCom and Global Crossing. And maybe, people will start to ask some pointed questions, and demand some clear answers.

As the climate of objectivity and scrutiny develops, it will be high time to examine our failed political system, that only exists to elect D or R, as an end in itself, while those who pay the piper just get screwed worse by the day. The courts would be next. We know that based on the way things are, John Walker Lindh got the worst he could, but we’re left with a sick feeling that true justice was not done. We are sickened that anyone could even debate that kidnapping, torturing, and killing a five-year-old girl would be anything but a capital case.

I think it will ALL be under the microscope, now.

After that, the focus may be on our dubious popular culture, with its political correctness so ingrained that San Diego State University is afraid to pick a mascot, and every TV series has a gay character. Who knows, we may even take a second look at diversity, which has deteriorated into nothing more than a back door quota system, expressly designed to weaken all institutions. By all means, hire the person, regardless of background, if he’s qualified!

In short, the bad news is the good news, since it is shock treatment for a change.

It has been said that had the British soldiers who landed on the Normandy beaches on D-Day seen what their country would become 50 years later, they would not have stepped out of the boats. We’ll never know if that’s true, but we do have a chance, in our own time, to fix some of what is broken.

History will surely judge us. What will we do with this opportunity?

Readers of the July 4th edition of the Los Angeles Times were treated to a front page story on how disgraced Global Crossing chairman Gary Winnick is currently spending $30 million to fix up his elaborate Bel Air mansion. Undeterred by the sobering revelation that Global’s January bankruptcy filing wiped out $54 billion in shareholder wealth, and put thousands out of work, perhaps Winnick takes comfort in the employment his restoration project is creating, or maybe he really believes all that hype about his philanthropy. Check out this adoring article. You’ll especially enjoy the last line.

Yes, he has given more than $100 million to charity–a nice ploy he picked up from mentor and fellow scam artist Michael Milken. A good deal of the “charity” was donations to political organizations, mostly to Democrats. In typical LA Times fashion, what could have been a hit piece on Winnick morphed instead to a strangely out-of-place essay on architectural history. That way, they didn’t have to mention how Winnick turned a $100,000 investment into $18 million, for Democratic National Committee bagman Terry McAuliffe.

Winnick is still rolling in the dough, of course, since he knew when to sell millions of his shares.

If he had bothered to study the history of the first undersea cable ventures, he would have noticed that several companies got involved, worked themselves into a lather about the potential profits, and then mostly disappeared. Since at least half of the traffic (telegrams) in those days was for stock trading, the stock market guys thought that it was a wonderful investment, somehow not considering that the vast majority of people would probably never send a transatlantic telegram. Growth, therefore, was limited.

Fast forward to 1997, and Internet fever. Winnick raised $400 million in Global’s initial public offering, with the help of Mc Auliffe and other co-conspirators. He borrowed billions to run more fiber under the sea. Happily ripping off AT&T and MCI, things looked good for Global Crossing, until AT&T and MCI ran their own undersea cable. At this point, it was all downhill via foolish acquisitions, shady deals, and just plain fraud.

In 1999, Winnick hired expensive lobbyists to regulate away his competitors, but it didn’t work. Then, with the help of (you guessed it) Arthur Andersen, Global cooked the books. In the bankruptcy filing, it listed assets of $22.4 billion and liabilities of $12.4 billion. Unfortunately, that didn’t represent $10 billion in value, since most of the assets were worthless goodwill from overpaying for all those acquisitions. Expect the plaintiff’s lawyers and publicity junkie senators to hound Winnick until his dying day. Not that too many tears will be shed on his behalf.

Which brings us to the story of Maria Goretti, the sainted humble Italian country girl, who chose death rather than being raped alive. With the centennial of her death occurring this week, we are reminded of this virgin martyr. When her father died of malaria, she, her brothers, and her mother Assunta joined the household of Giovanni Serenelli. Although not even 12, Maria’s beauty awakened the lust of Serenelli’s son Alessandro, who, after repeatedly trying to seduce her, finally demanded sex at knife point. Maria fought him off saying, “No. It’s a sin. God does not want it. You’ll go to Hell.”

Unimpressed with her pleas, Alessandro stabbed her 14 times. As she lay dying, she forgave her murderer, while taking the Last Rites. Many years later, still imprisoned, the formerly unrepentant killer had a vision of Maria, and was converted. This was only one of the many miracles attributed to her. When he was released, a life term being avoided because of his youth when the crime was committed, he went straight to Assunta, begging her forgiveness, which she gave. “If my daughter can forgive him, who am I to withhold forgiveness,” she said.

Then, on June 24, 1950, Maria was canonized by Pope Pius XII. During the mass, an old man helped an even older woman up to the altar. It was Maria’s mother and Alessandro Serenelli! Rare enough that the mother of saint be present at the canonization mass; rarer still that the one who martyred her be present as well.

Gary Winnick, the consummate salesman with everything but virtue, and St. Maria Goretti, the little farm girl with NOTHING but virtue. Conflicting role models for our conflicted age.