Lee Geiger

All right, you sons-of-bitches. You know how I feel.

George C. Scott (“Patton” 1970)

One of the few economic formulas I can recall from my undergraduate days at that conservative Petri dish known as Claremont Men’s (now McKenna) College went as follows: B=f(P,E), which states that behavior (B) is a function(f) of personality(P) and environment(E). With that as a backdrop, my cultural, societal, economic, and political views of the world are filtered through the following lenses:

1. I am 57 years old and was born when Eisenhower was calling the shots.
2. I have lived on the Left Coast of California (both NorCal and SoCal) most of my life, but I’ve also lived in Chicago, New York City, Atlanta, and enjoyed an Ivy League pit stop in Hanover, NH.
3. I have supported myself since high school.
4. I’ve worked on a Wall Street trading desk since 1986, not including time off for good behavior.
5. I’ve done a bit of overseas travel, mainly in Europe.
6. I have been married to the same woman for over thirty years, and have raised two adult sons.
7. Lastly, and I can’t emphasize this enough, I was educated upon the altar of Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize winning economist. Uncle Miltie, a monetarist, once said, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there would be a shortage of sand.”

As the great Jackie Gleason used to say, “And awaaay we go.”

First and foremost, I have one overriding principle that forms the foundation of my belief ecosystem:

• I believe every person has a story to tell.

And now, in no particular order, allow me to introduce to you the fundamental convictions that would compel me to climb up on a soapbox wearing nothing but a pair of cement shoes:

I believe…

• I am lucky to call myself an American.

• The Godfather is the greatest movie ever made.

• Today’s Republican Party leadership is dispassionate and shamefully spineless.

• Today’s Democratic Party leadership is elitist and unjustifiably arrogant.

• Presently, neither major political party speaks for me.

• Paris is the finest city in the world.

• The French know how to live.

• In individual opportunity…every person should live where they want, marry whom they want, and worship what they want.

• In individual responsibility…every person should be held accountable for the choices they make in life.

• Two things make the United States the special place that it is: the rule of law, and constructive diversity. To keep the U.S. special, both must adapt and change with the times.

• Red wine produced in Napa Valley’s Stag’s Leap District is the nectar of the gods.

• Tuscany is the greatest place on the planet to savor wine.

• Bix on Gold Street is the best bar in San Francisco.

• The economic principle of scarcity, that society has insufficient productive resources to fulfill all human wants and needs, is sacrosanct.

• The genesis of most issues can be boiled down to some aspect of scarcity.

• Divisive political climates are as much about economics as culture.

• When people have no hope, they can be susceptible to every version of prejudice that can be conceived.

• Barry Bonds, Pete Rose, and Roger Clemens all should be elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.

• Richard Nixon was a flawed president but a great writer.

• Spring unofficially arrives on Thursday of the Masters.

• Fall unofficially arrives during Week One of the NFL regular season.

• The federal government is enslaving future generations of Americans to massive debt.

• Ceaseless government deficit spending poses the greatest risk to the American way of life.

• There is no such thing as a free lunch.

• Milton Friedman’s “A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960” should be required reading of every elected official.

• You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted a Double-Double hamburger from In-N-Out Burger.

• Women are the smarter and stronger sex.

• In everything Katherine Hepburn.

• The federal government’s right to legislate what an individual can and/or cannot do with their body is equivalent to an individual’s right to have unfettered access to America’s nuclear arsenal.

• Jim Valvano got it right when he said a day spent with laughter, tears and thought is a good day.

• Winning isn’t everything, but playing not to lose is worse.

• There is no more powerful narrative in American society than that of race.

• If I could share a meal with anyone from history, it would be Jackie Robinson.

• There is no place for the “n” word in a civilized society.

• Referring to someone as “African-American” makes as much sense as referring to me as “European-American.”

• I have a complicated relationship with political correctness.

• Seinfeld is the best television sit-com ever, with Cheers a close second.

• Being a parent is the most rewarding life experience one can have.

• Humility is the quality I admire most in a person.

• I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative.

• The political center is not devoid of ideology.

• There is a need for a political party that embraces the economics of Milton Friedman, the foreign policy of Ronald Reagan, and the welfare policy of Franklin Roosevelt.

• Cutting carbohydrates from your diet is the best way to lose weight.

• Voting for president of the United States based on a single issue is unwise.

• The National Rifle Association doesn’t get it.

• If I were president of the United States, the first thing I would do is reverse the educational pay structure in America. Kindergarten teachers should be paid more than college professors.

• A little revolution now and then is a healthy thing, don’t you think? (kudos to Sean Connery in The Hunt for Red October)

• Fantasy Football should be a year-round sport.

• Bandon Dunes is a better golf experience than Pebble Beach.

• God exists, but I am wary of organized religion.

• Accepting the Christian precept of forgiveness has reduced the stress in my life.

• You can never have too much gelato.

• When it comes to assessing political party platforms, I prefer to select a ’la carte versus prix fixe.

• The political doctrine of “if you’re not with us, then you must be against us” is inane.

• You can’t shake hands with a fist.

• If everything is an outrage, then nothing is an outrage.

• Every golfer holding a valid AARP card should be given any putt inside of two-feet. Especially if they’re my partner.

• Populism is equivalent to mob rule, where calm persuasion and evidence-based inquiry is sacrificed for purity of will.

• If Americans want less social injustice, people need to cease labeling those who disagree with them as bigots, sexist, and racist.

• People who only rely on facts spun from hyper-partisan political echo chambers such as Brietbart, Drudge, Daily Kos or Occupy Democrats are people I’m not interested in discussing politics with.

• When it comes to assessing the truth, too many people today are looking for confirmation rather than information.

• There are too many self-indulgent award shows in Hollywood.

• People from Fruit Loop, California live in a bubble, as do people from Duck Dynasty, Mississippi.

• Both major political parties deserve equal amounts of credit and blame for leading America to this point in history. In the 240 years of its existence, America has had 45 presidents and 115 meetings of Congress, and at no point in time did a single political party have all the answers nor deserve all the blame.

• When it comes to solving problems, it is better to sell than tell, and preferable to be sold than told.

• Technology and institutions will continue to evolve, but basic human emotions such as fear, greed and lust will forever dictate the course of history.

• People who don’t appreciate history are doomed to repeat it.

• I could survive for the rest of my life eating nothing but Mexican food.

• The difference between a job and a career is twenty hours a week.

• Money is a lousy way of keeping score.

• Animals have rights, too.

• American democracy cannot survive the delegitimization of a free press.

• Attacks on the First Amendment by anyone elected to public office should be considered acts of terrorism or treason. Or both.

• My time spent at Caves Valley Golf Club is the closest I’ve ever been to heaven.

• The role of government is to assist, not enable.

• When it comes to government, less is more.

• When it comes to taxes, more is less.

• When it comes to national defense, enough is enough.

• Law and Order is the best television drama ever made, with Breaking Bad a very close second.

• In my next life, I want to come back as Bob Segar.

• Too many people in America have become too soft, too sensitive, and too easily offended, and spend too much time searching for any plausible reason to label themselves as victims.

• Political correctness, participation trophies, collegiate “safe places,” reality shows and social media are eating away at traditional American values.

• I am quickly succumbing to “GET OFF MY LAWN” syndrome.

• Life is too short not to take a few walks on the wild side.

• Every person has taken some kind of walk on the wild side.

And now, just for emphasis, please allow me repeat this one last time:

• I believe every person has a story to tell.

That’s a wrap, folks. I sincerely hope this post hasn’t offended anyone. If I did, I’m sorry. But not really.