As IF Times

link Fraud case targets grants awarded by President Obama’s friend – Chicago Sun-Times.

 When little Johnny or little Suzy are asked what they want to be when they grow up, it’s likely they will give the usual expected responses.  For boys, it’s policeman, fireman, doctor etc.  For girls, it may be nurse, teacher or lawyer.  For the really starry eyed, sports star or entertainment personality will also be options.  How quaint that sounds.  Kids these days have no idea where the big money is made.  The really precocious youngsters may aspire to be investment bankers or hedge fund managers, but nobody really knows what those jobs entail at that age.  Come to think of it, it’s not really clear to me what they do and I’m almost an adult.  According to MSN.com, the list of top 10 paying careers are as follows:

 But apparently, the really high paying jobs aren’t even on the radar for most kids.  Let’s take the example of Mr. Whittaker, the person mentioned in the linked article.  His job is “executive vice president for strategic affiliations and associate dean for community-based research” – a job which pays $670,833, at least in 2009.  Now in 2011, 3 years later with COLA it’s probably a few ticks higher.  Hey, inflation affects the rich too!  Why are the teachers of today not prepping their kids for these kinds of jobs?  What kind of schooling qualifies someone to be eligible for a nearly $700,000 a year public service job?  If you read the title of his job again, it says ” associate dean”.  I’m guessing the real dean gets paid a few ticks more. The President of the United States is paid a nominal $400,000 a year.  Of course that doesn’t include a modest expense account and living allowance.   But  a person who is an assistant dean for strategic affilliations makes almost 75% more than the President.

 Makes you wonder though, would it be possible to get someone to do this obviously important job for a slightly lower salary, say $500,000? or $400,000? Or perhaps even $200,000 without materially affecting the tasks at hand?  At some point, you’d have to think that many other competent people who are also experts in “strategic affiliations and community based research” would be eligible to fill the post, saving the taxpayers some serious dough.

 Ah, but the requisite item on their resume would have to include friendship with certain politicians.  For this reason, courses should be offered at all stages of children’s education to include “friendship of potential politicians” – how to identify them, how to maintain contact and how to capitalize on them.  Clearly, this has more bearing on earning potential than a genuine skill set.  Once you gain access to this circle of people, their future livelihoods are ensured.  They will not be subject to the vagaries of the business cycle nor of any supply and demand dynamics.  Once they are in the sufficiently connected circle, it’s only a matter of finding a bank large enough to hold their regular hefty deposits. 

 This is hardly a partisan observation since this dynamic has been going on since somebody invented the idea of government.   But in this time when there are those expressing the need to have fairness in the tax system, where the “rich” have to pay more in taxes to support the infrastructure to support the  less affluent, it’s a jarring affront to common sense.  On the other hand, if you follow the logic of those in office now, why not make everyone a high paid civil servant and then hit them all with a higher tax rate?  As usual, the elegantly simple solutions are the best.

link Scarlett Johansson Threatens to Sue Over Nude Photos – UsMagazine.com.

Of course, the FBI is all over this one.  Apparently dozens of agents have volunteered their own personal time to work on this case.  The amount of time spent poring over evidence will be astronomical.   Staff will be pulled off cases looking for terrorist bombers in order to solve this pressing case.  Removing nude pics from the Internet.  Good luck with that. 

Poor Scarlett is obviously aghast that someone would hack into her telephone and steal private photos of her.  Living as she does in fairyland, she was unaware that just recently, Congressman Anthony Weiner had also suffered the fate of having his tighty-whities displayed on the world’s biggest billboard.  Of course in Weiner’s case, he was targeting a specific audience. but unlike Scarlett, the only ones who may have been interested were probably gay men.

The philosophical issue is that pictures stolen from Scarlett’s phone are equivalent to having them stolen from a locked drawer in her house.  I suppose that makes sense in theory and we won’t argue with the principle.  But here is the essential seam which separates principled types from common sense types: theory is not reality.  I can bake a pie and place it on my window to cool, but if it’s on a busy street, certain unprincipled types are going to take my pie.  If I want to park my convertible on Chicago’s south side, it may not be a good idea to leave the Nikon in full display on the car seat.  

Celebrities who need exposure to further their careers are often the ones to bleat about privacy issues when they know that their lives are lived under a microscope.  At least Oprah and Joy Behar are smart enough not to take nude pics of themselves on their phones.  Imagine the audience for that.  Anyone who thinks cell phones are private are plain delusional.  If Wikileaks can hack into top military secrets, what makes anyone think their Verizon account is safe?   In real life, people regularly have things stolen from their cars, their homes, they may even have nude pics of themselves circulating without their consent, but those are the hazards of real life.  Years and years of indifferent applications of punishments for law breaking has resulted in expectations of a certain amount of criminal behavior in our society.  How many people these days don’t lock their car or house when they leave?  What does it say when years ago, in many cities, it was common to see “no radio” stickers on car windows?   Most petty crimes aren’t even prosecuted any more for the time and effort involved. 

Celebrities should not live under the delusion that they are immune from the vicissitudes of life that normal people deal with.  Celebrity status does not entirely insulate them from the society they choose to live in.  They only benefit is that they get to publicize their moral outrage.