Goodbye 2007

This year may not have qualified as a total Annus Horribilis but it did come powerfully close for those of us here at Rearden Industries.

Of course, many great people are no longer counted among we the living but few in the hand-staring, short attention span generation looked up long enough to notice. Marcel Marceau quietly lead them out.

The chickens began the long trek back from the orient to roost on the shelves of American stores bedecked in lead paint and sporting melamine as an active ingredient for food and consumables. The McMansion crowd was cheek-clasping and totally aghast at the number of holiday presents filling the back seats of their Cayennes that were made in...er... China! What happened to good old American products? they asked. Shareholder value, we answered.

Still, the 'enlightened' among us keep banging the drum slowly for a global economy where incredible profits are not sullied by environmental or social responsibility. The loudest banging we hear at Rearden is that of the window shutters of industrial buildings nearby left empty for the love of more immediate earnings offshore.

In 2008 environmental activists will still be hiding their anti-capitalist agendas behind insolent, arrogant and intellectually lazy arguments calling for the end of fossil fuels as an energy source while bothering little to offer any options outside the usual cast of passive energy non-answers. I really hope that the coal industry finally decides to make itself available for a dialogue on this subject in 2008.

Oh, a funny one from 2007: remember the concert to save the planet from the ravages of fossil fuels? You know, the one where rock musicians staged yet another incarnation of 'Live Aid' using megawatts of energy to deliver their performances worldwide to 30 million television sets, all of which were sucking down kilowatts of energy produced mostly by fossil fuels around this planet? A new meaning to the word 'hypocrite'?

And, for those who have innocently asked these questions, I will answer now:

Yes, Hank Rearden is a nom de plume.
Yes, the name was taken from Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged'.
Am I a Rand Moral Objectivist? No.
(The banner of the blog offers a hint.)
No, Rearden Industries is not a real corporation.
Yes, I live in Philadelphia.
Yes, I am filthy rich. Aren't all industrialists?
Am I joking about the above? Yes, of course.

Peace to all in this new Year- Annus Mirabilis.

And I hereby resolve to tone down my relentless criticism of the scoundrels and snake oil salesmen who populate the IT industry.

Hank and the Gang at Rearden Industries.