slavery
"is
an institution according to the law of nations whereby one person falls
under the property rights of another, contrary to nature."
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Slavery as Stockholm Syndrome
Monday, July 30, 2012
Violence and Immitative Magic
The Colorado movie shooting will raise the usual responses: candlelight
vigils, tearful interviews, the funerals, the gradual closely observed
recovery of the survivors, the debate over the Second Amendment. Why
don't we do something innovative? Why don't we try to make things
better?
There is an obvious if complex target: The national preoccupation with violent entertainment. Since "The Godfather," entertainment violence has become an art form. And it is escalating; the difference between the violence of Connery and Craig in the Bond franchise, in both attitude and intensity, is exponential. Nor is it entirely passive. Interactive games of carnage are commonplace and available to anyone.
Censorship? Freedom of speech? It is absolutely a problem. But so is the gun question. And first amendment concerns are already limited. One can not claim protection if your freedom of speech is a danger to those around you and what could be more obvious?
Proof? The entire mercantile world is based on advertising, on exposing people with pictures and sounds to products and notions on the assumption that people will be influenced by them. Already we have preciously eliminated smoking in films for this exact reason.
Anyway, like global warming, it just feels right.
There is an obvious if complex target: The national preoccupation with violent entertainment. Since "The Godfather," entertainment violence has become an art form. And it is escalating; the difference between the violence of Connery and Craig in the Bond franchise, in both attitude and intensity, is exponential. Nor is it entirely passive. Interactive games of carnage are commonplace and available to anyone.
Censorship? Freedom of speech? It is absolutely a problem. But so is the gun question. And first amendment concerns are already limited. One can not claim protection if your freedom of speech is a danger to those around you and what could be more obvious?
Proof? The entire mercantile world is based on advertising, on exposing people with pictures and sounds to products and notions on the assumption that people will be influenced by them. Already we have preciously eliminated smoking in films for this exact reason.
Anyway, like global warming, it just feels right.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Sunday Sermon 7/29/12
Today's gospel is that of the Loaves and Fishes. It is another of those
incidents where Christ may be toying with us with disparities. Looking
at the up to 5,000 people who have come to hear Him speak, He asks of
the apostle Phillip, "Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?"
Then John in the gospel says as an aside, "And he said this to try him;
for he himself knew what he would do."
I'm not so sure. Was Phillip expected to have a sudden flashback to 4 Kings where Elliseus fed a crowd in a similar way? Was he supposed to imagine Christ would feed everyone when there is no indication that he had ever done that before? What was poor Phillip to think?
Or was it a funny moment to Christ, like that of a great chess master with a novice, knowing well his next move and well the novice had no clue.
Minutes later Christ is managing the clean up so nothing is wasted, just like a regular, careful guy at a barbecue while in the background the crowd is gathering to make him king.
I'm not so sure. Was Phillip expected to have a sudden flashback to 4 Kings where Elliseus fed a crowd in a similar way? Was he supposed to imagine Christ would feed everyone when there is no indication that he had ever done that before? What was poor Phillip to think?
Or was it a funny moment to Christ, like that of a great chess master with a novice, knowing well his next move and well the novice had no clue.
Minutes later Christ is managing the clean up so nothing is wasted, just like a regular, careful guy at a barbecue while in the background the crowd is gathering to make him king.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Cab Thoughts 7/28/12
There is a wind turbine in California implicated in killing 300 golden
eagles. House cats kill over one billion birds a year. Certainly
something, maybe at a cabinet level, should be done.
So using the "You didn't build that" logic, is Romney responsible for the purported errors of Bain Capital or not?
A blind archer has advanced in the Olympics. This sounds like a guy with a political future. On the other hand, maybe he's disqualified because he's too accurate.
I really wish Romney was something more than just alive. Not being Obama can only take you so far. After all, a lot of people aren't Obama.
The Penn State "Pump up" video is moving. "You don't owe these people any more."
But they must not understand. The legal waves will roll here for years, maybe decades. The state oversight will be analyzed forever. The civil suits, the criminal cases that will attack good men.
This will not just end.
"Beginning in 2001, my colleagues and I conducted a number of experiments showing that when someone's level of oxytocin goes up, he or she responds more generously and caringly, even with complete strangers." (From "The Moral Molecule" by Paul Zak.) Oxytocin is a female reproductive hormone responsible for contractions during delivery (available commercially as Pitocin) and is active during nursing. Anyone with any appreciation of the history of pharmacology will cast a cynical eye here but failure in the past never discourages those in the present and sooner or later there will be success in biochemical control of emotion. Then what?
The Greek woman thrown off her team in the Olympics for a joke she made is on the vanguard of a world problem: Non-elected do-gooders who take on assignments not ceded to them. There's a Greek joke code? Armstrong is in a similar fix with his "governing body" volunteers. Armstrong's attackers are contractors. Ditto for the physicians on the Task Force that wants to ban PSA testing. Who are these guys?
A father of one of the kids killed at the Batman movie refused to speak to a newsman unless the newsman referred to the killer as "the killer" and not by his name. It's a good idea. This murderer will prove to be as mad as a March hare but celebrity is a problem in this country and the more careful we are with it the better.
From May 2011 to May 2012, national shale gas output rose another 24% to reach an incredible 25.58 billion cubic feet per day. The Times and Rolling Stone called shale gas a Ponzi scheme. They have not offered to revisit that opinion.
Britain has stronger gun control laws than the U.S., and lower murder rates. But Mexico, Russia and Brazil are also countries with stronger gun control laws than the U.S. — and their murder rates are much higher than ours. Israel and Switzerland have even higher rates of gun ownership than the U.S., and much lower murder rates than ours.
It is interesting that politicians and activists advise individual disarmament when they demand the opposite nationally. No one, for example, would suggest the Israelis or the South Koreans disarm and American disarmament has been an impossible sell.
The demographics of golf and golf courses are in decline. Fewer people are playing golf. And the developments built around golf are feeling it. The golf housing market is crashing. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303703004577474563368632088.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsFifth
Detroit had a sale of properties abandoned or confiscated over the last years. Few of them sold despite starting prices of $500. The sale involved properties with the combined size of Central Park. The total abandoned property area in Detroit is the size of Boston.
"Please and "Thank You" is a relatively recent innovation. The habit of always saying 'please' and 'thank you' first began to take hold during the commercial revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - among those very middle classes who were largely responsible for it. It is the language of bureaus, shops, and offices, and over the course of the last five hundred years it has spread across the world along with them. "Thank you" derives from "think," it originally meant, "I will remember what you did for me" - and "please" is short for "if you please," "if it pleases you to do this". From "Debt" by David Graeber.
Apparently the Olympics will open with "very British" theme. Sheep. Cricket. James Bond. And dancing NHS nurses. Dancing nurses.
Aaaaannnnd a graph:
So using the "You didn't build that" logic, is Romney responsible for the purported errors of Bain Capital or not?
A blind archer has advanced in the Olympics. This sounds like a guy with a political future. On the other hand, maybe he's disqualified because he's too accurate.
I really wish Romney was something more than just alive. Not being Obama can only take you so far. After all, a lot of people aren't Obama.
The Penn State "Pump up" video is moving. "You don't owe these people any more."
But they must not understand. The legal waves will roll here for years, maybe decades. The state oversight will be analyzed forever. The civil suits, the criminal cases that will attack good men.
This will not just end.
"Beginning in 2001, my colleagues and I conducted a number of experiments showing that when someone's level of oxytocin goes up, he or she responds more generously and caringly, even with complete strangers." (From "The Moral Molecule" by Paul Zak.) Oxytocin is a female reproductive hormone responsible for contractions during delivery (available commercially as Pitocin) and is active during nursing. Anyone with any appreciation of the history of pharmacology will cast a cynical eye here but failure in the past never discourages those in the present and sooner or later there will be success in biochemical control of emotion. Then what?
The Greek woman thrown off her team in the Olympics for a joke she made is on the vanguard of a world problem: Non-elected do-gooders who take on assignments not ceded to them. There's a Greek joke code? Armstrong is in a similar fix with his "governing body" volunteers. Armstrong's attackers are contractors. Ditto for the physicians on the Task Force that wants to ban PSA testing. Who are these guys?
A father of one of the kids killed at the Batman movie refused to speak to a newsman unless the newsman referred to the killer as "the killer" and not by his name. It's a good idea. This murderer will prove to be as mad as a March hare but celebrity is a problem in this country and the more careful we are with it the better.
From May 2011 to May 2012, national shale gas output rose another 24% to reach an incredible 25.58 billion cubic feet per day. The Times and Rolling Stone called shale gas a Ponzi scheme. They have not offered to revisit that opinion.
Britain has stronger gun control laws than the U.S., and lower murder rates. But Mexico, Russia and Brazil are also countries with stronger gun control laws than the U.S. — and their murder rates are much higher than ours. Israel and Switzerland have even higher rates of gun ownership than the U.S., and much lower murder rates than ours.
It is interesting that politicians and activists advise individual disarmament when they demand the opposite nationally. No one, for example, would suggest the Israelis or the South Koreans disarm and American disarmament has been an impossible sell.
The demographics of golf and golf courses are in decline. Fewer people are playing golf. And the developments built around golf are feeling it. The golf housing market is crashing. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303703004577474563368632088.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsFifth
Detroit had a sale of properties abandoned or confiscated over the last years. Few of them sold despite starting prices of $500. The sale involved properties with the combined size of Central Park. The total abandoned property area in Detroit is the size of Boston.
"Please and "Thank You" is a relatively recent innovation. The habit of always saying 'please' and 'thank you' first began to take hold during the commercial revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - among those very middle classes who were largely responsible for it. It is the language of bureaus, shops, and offices, and over the course of the last five hundred years it has spread across the world along with them. "Thank you" derives from "think," it originally meant, "I will remember what you did for me" - and "please" is short for "if you please," "if it pleases you to do this". From "Debt" by David Graeber.
Apparently the Olympics will open with "very British" theme. Sheep. Cricket. James Bond. And dancing NHS nurses. Dancing nurses.
Aaaaannnnd a graph:
Friday, July 27, 2012
Intimations of Immortality
The Pirates have been living with some tension in left field. They have
been playing journeymen there, more recently Tabata who has been
serviceable but below the level that such a power position demands and
there have been rumors to trade a prospect for another journeyman to
help this year's team's surprising run. One option, a minor leaguer
named Starling Marte who led Double A in batting last year, could be
brought up.
They brought him up last night and he started his first major league game last night in Houston. On the first pitch of the game, his first major league pitch, he homered.
111 men have homered at their first major league at bat, including Hoyt Wilhelm. 29 hit their home run on the first pitch. 4 hit grand slams. Only 18 of these players went on to hit 100 or more home runs in their career.
It takes a long time before a man knows he was born under a star. After homering on his first pitch, it takes a longer time to learn you were not.
They brought him up last night and he started his first major league game last night in Houston. On the first pitch of the game, his first major league pitch, he homered.
111 men have homered at their first major league at bat, including Hoyt Wilhelm. 29 hit their home run on the first pitch. 4 hit grand slams. Only 18 of these players went on to hit 100 or more home runs in their career.
It takes a long time before a man knows he was born under a star. After homering on his first pitch, it takes a longer time to learn you were not.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Gamboling, Gambling and Ludomania
Part of the ludicrous political process in the nation is the traveling
of candidates to areas to give focused or symbolic speeches, kiss local
babies and move on. Obama's recent "bus tour" had a theme: "Betting on
America." This was reminiscent of his demand last year for businesses to
"step up" and "bet on America."
"Betting" is actually not the job of business or investors--or government. In fact, "betting" and taking goofy risks are part of the reason we are in this trouble. A balance sheet is unforgiving and there is no part of it that states "bets".
Words can be indicative, sort of a short-hand "thought content." It is no accident that "blitz," "attack," "trenches," "bomb," "formation," "gunner," and the more recent "red zone" are applied so easily to football. So it is unsettling to see gambling terms emerging in politics.
Perhaps this is just political drivel but it is disconcerting to those few of us who are paying attention. But, as in all of politics, if it is useful the politician will just double down.
"Betting" is actually not the job of business or investors--or government. In fact, "betting" and taking goofy risks are part of the reason we are in this trouble. A balance sheet is unforgiving and there is no part of it that states "bets".
Words can be indicative, sort of a short-hand "thought content." It is no accident that "blitz," "attack," "trenches," "bomb," "formation," "gunner," and the more recent "red zone" are applied so easily to football. So it is unsettling to see gambling terms emerging in politics.
Perhaps this is just political drivel but it is disconcerting to those few of us who are paying attention. But, as in all of politics, if it is useful the politician will just double down.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
All Data Aspires to Relevance
During World War II, [Nobel laureate, Ken] Arrow was assigned to a team
of statisticians to produce long-range weather forecasts. After a time, Arrow
and his team determined that their forecasts were not much better than pulling
predictions out of a hat. They wrote their superiors, asking to be relieved of
the duty. They received the following reply, and I quote "The Commanding
General is well aware that the forecasts are no good. However, he needs them
for planning purposes."
– David Stockton, FOMC Minutes Sep 2005
I once attended a meeting chaired by a man who became the CEO of one of the largest and most successful insurers in the nation who shouted during a discussion, "Bad data is better than no data at all!"
No popular discussion of scientific data or opinion should be undertaken without this in mind.
This is a technological society but not a scientific one.
– David Stockton, FOMC Minutes Sep 2005
I once attended a meeting chaired by a man who became the CEO of one of the largest and most successful insurers in the nation who shouted during a discussion, "Bad data is better than no data at all!"
No popular discussion of scientific data or opinion should be undertaken without this in mind.
This is a technological society but not a scientific one.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
"The Price of Electricity Will Necessarily Skyrocket"
According to the International Energy Agency, the world oil demand
growth rate is approximately 1% per year. The
upward trend is real and cumulatively even repeated 1% growth makes a
difference over a decade. Those results are estimated for the world in
stagnation. And if global economic growth quickens, world oil demand
will quicken too. This has the look of a serious problem. Nations need
energy and energy sources. Japan once went to war over oil reserves.
The Americans have a number of responses but one is probably not to decrease exploration. Another would be to be picky about the type of energy they develop. Natural gas looks like a Godsend but seems to be off the current administration's moral radar because it produces carbon, an evil element and on the Index.
As the pie shrinks, manners decrease.
The Americans have a number of responses but one is probably not to decrease exploration. Another would be to be picky about the type of energy they develop. Natural gas looks like a Godsend but seems to be off the current administration's moral radar because it produces carbon, an evil element and on the Index.
As the pie shrinks, manners decrease.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Bastiat and Lions
"There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.
- From an essay by Frédéric Bastiat in 1850, "That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen
"Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil."
- From an essay by Frédéric Bastiat in 1850, "That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen
(picture by Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates via John Mauldin)
- From an essay by Frédéric Bastiat in 1850, "That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen
"Yet this difference is tremendous; for it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. Whence it follows that the bad economist pursues a small present good that will be followed by a great evil to come, while the good economist pursues a great good to come, at the risk of a small present evil."
- From an essay by Frédéric Bastiat in 1850, "That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen
(picture by Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates via John Mauldin)
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Sunday Sermon 7/22/12
There is a sadness in today's gospel. Christ, seeing the fatigue in His
disciples, suggests a holiday from their ministry and moves them to a
deserted area for a rest. But the populous of the several towns where they
have been preaching anticipate the move and are waiting for them when
they arrive; so desperate are they. Christ is moved. The people are so hungry for Him, so needy. And the people know this is important, they know this spiritual question is a part of them and must be answered. There is almost a whimsical quality here, with
the imbalance of spiritual supply and demand.
We poor people don't look much better than in this gospel.
We poor people don't look much better than in this gospel.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Cab Thoughts 7/21/12
Last year 50% of iron and cement in the world economy was used by China.
Now with 7% annual growth they would double the size of economy. Now
how will this play out in the availability and value of resources? And
China's growth is not isolated.
"if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own."--Obama
So...if all achievement is earned by all, are failures earned by all? So...does everyone deserve a little jail time?
This quote above, from Obama in Atlanta this week, was a repeat of his Kansas riff and is as weak. http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2011/12/obama-in-kansas.html and http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2011/12/obama-in-kansas-2.html and http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2011/12/obama-in-kansas-3.html. Interestingly, I tried to find a copy of the Atlanta speech in the press and could not. Not even a reference until FOX began to make a big deal of it. This was a big speech for Obama, the President and the Presidential candidate. Why was it uncovered?
So no one earns anything on his own, since communal contribution makes individuals excel. So we all build roads for the general welfare. So, should some people be allowed to use those communally built roads more than--or to the exclusion of--others? Should everyone have a car? Or should we eliminate private abuse of communal roads completely in favor of complete public transport?
When a successful local athlete returns to "give something back" what is it that he is giving back? What is it that he took?
For the first time in history, a major nation — Canada — has surpassed the U.S. in household wealth. The average Canadian household net worth in 2011 was $363,202, surpassing by $40,000 the $319,970 U.S. average.
“I’ve never seen anything as egregious as this in terms of overall conduct and behavior inside of a university.” --Mark Emmert, president of NCAA, on the Penn State disaster. Well, then...
I'm sure Condoleezza Rice is an able public servant but if Romney picks her as VP it will prove he is too cruel to be president. It will open us poor electorate to months more of anti-Bush campaigning, so much so they may revolt and demand a dictatorship just to put us out of our misery.
"if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own."--Obama
So...if all achievement is earned by all, are failures earned by all? So...does everyone deserve a little jail time?
This quote above, from Obama in Atlanta this week, was a repeat of his Kansas riff and is as weak. http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2011/12/obama-in-kansas.html and http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2011/12/obama-in-kansas-2.html and http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2011/12/obama-in-kansas-3.html. Interestingly, I tried to find a copy of the Atlanta speech in the press and could not. Not even a reference until FOX began to make a big deal of it. This was a big speech for Obama, the President and the Presidential candidate. Why was it uncovered?
So no one earns anything on his own, since communal contribution makes individuals excel. So we all build roads for the general welfare. So, should some people be allowed to use those communally built roads more than--or to the exclusion of--others? Should everyone have a car? Or should we eliminate private abuse of communal roads completely in favor of complete public transport?
When a successful local athlete returns to "give something back" what is it that he is giving back? What is it that he took?
For the first time in history, a major nation — Canada — has surpassed the U.S. in household wealth. The average Canadian household net worth in 2011 was $363,202, surpassing by $40,000 the $319,970 U.S. average.
“I’ve never seen anything as egregious as this in terms of overall conduct and behavior inside of a university.” --Mark Emmert, president of NCAA, on the Penn State disaster. Well, then...
I'm sure Condoleezza Rice is an able public servant but if Romney picks her as VP it will prove he is too cruel to be president. It will open us poor electorate to months more of anti-Bush campaigning, so much so they may revolt and demand a dictatorship just to put us out of our misery.
The
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has recommended that PSA screening
for prostate cancer be ended. Interestingly, prostate cancer deaths have
dropped 40% and the finding of metastatic disease at the time of
diagnosis has dropped 75%, all the direct result of PSA testing
according to Dr. Catalonia, the head of Northwestern Urology. All the
Urological publications have dismissed the Task Force's conclusion as
nonsense. But wouldn't most people consider the Task Force's opinion a
consensus? How could this disagreement exist?
Who appointed this Task Force, anyway? Was it the same guys that appointed the commission that is investigating Armstrong?
75% of U.S. Senators have Dynasty Trusts
IKEA and Walmart have installed hundreds of millions of dollars of solar at
their stores so that they have become power companies.
In Topsail, N.C. several multimillion dollar beach homes have been condemned because of beach erosion.
Last year, 14.5 million cars were sold in China. Only 5,655 of them were electric vehicles, while 2,713 were hybrids.
A funny line about wind turbines:
the rule of thumb is the bottom blade of a wind turbine should be at
least 50 feet above the nearest obstruction within 500 feet radius to
get laminar flow. In turbulent flow, you have kinetic sculptures with
absurdly low effectiveness.
Bill
Gross of the bond monster PIMCO predicts growth of American GDP will be
1.9% annually for the next decade. Historical growth from
1947 to 2012 has averaged 3.25% with an all time high of 17% in March
of 1950 and a low of -10.4% in 1958. This low growth is a disaster and
will stain, rightly or not, whoever is in office.
Chuck Schumer called the Fed "the only game in town" and told Bernanke, "get to work" to fix the economy.
So
a powerful member of the most powerful legislative body in the world
thinks the economy is out of his control. Taxes, regulations, debt and
laws are all ciphers in the face of the economy and our only hope is the
Fed making money more available. Lord knows what we did for leaders
before the Fed was formed.
Should we get somebody better? Or at least maybe a second opinion?As of 2012-06 there were 111,145,000 in the private workforce.
·
As of 2012-06 there were 56,174,538 collecting some form of Social
Security or disability benefit. 8.7 million are on permanent disability.
·
The ratio of SS beneficiaries to private employees just passed
the 50% mark (50.54%).
Friday, July 20, 2012
The Pleasure of Making Do
Hedonic technique (from "pleasure") is an accounting effort to
incorporate quality changes into evaluation of pricing. This is done by
breaking everything--product, labor--into its constituent parts and
evaluating their values individually. A refrigerator with an improved
heat exchange system, a better motor and a more efficient lighting system
could be seen as a cheaper product despite being technically more
expensive because it offered more. So an engineer making 100K when
transferred to a less advanced country
who finds he is able to live better for less would be seen by the
hedonic method to have received a raise.
Wonderful things can happen when both components being analyzed are variables.
While this seems as modern "angels on the head of a pin" navel gazing, there might be some aspects here worth considering on a larger scale: How do people see their comfort and does it change over time? My parents had some specific aims in their financial life. They wanted a house they liked, a car and maybe a second used car, a decent education for their children and some promise of a comfortable retirement that would not necessitate a large decline in their lives. Succeeding in those hopes would be seen as comfort.
How about their grandchildren? Maybe in the future they will rent and not own a house. Maybe they will send their children to trade school and not college. Maybe they will feel real enjoyment with a good tv, cable and a great phone so that their lives, while smaller than their grandparents, will be at least as fulfilling.
So the older generation would see a decline in living standards the younger generation does not see.
Wonderful things can happen when both components being analyzed are variables.
While this seems as modern "angels on the head of a pin" navel gazing, there might be some aspects here worth considering on a larger scale: How do people see their comfort and does it change over time? My parents had some specific aims in their financial life. They wanted a house they liked, a car and maybe a second used car, a decent education for their children and some promise of a comfortable retirement that would not necessitate a large decline in their lives. Succeeding in those hopes would be seen as comfort.
How about their grandchildren? Maybe in the future they will rent and not own a house. Maybe they will send their children to trade school and not college. Maybe they will feel real enjoyment with a good tv, cable and a great phone so that their lives, while smaller than their grandparents, will be at least as fulfilling.
So the older generation would see a decline in living standards the younger generation does not see.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
If One Small Thing Is True Then ....
"They know they
didn't -- look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on
your own. You didn't get there on your own."
"I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because
I was just so smart," Obama continued. "There are a lot of smart people out there."
"It must be because I worked harder than everybody else," he went on. "Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there."--President Obama
This, again, is the strange Obama, the Obama of Kansas. http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2011/12/obama-in-kansas-3.html And the lesson is what? That all smart people should be rewarded? Since we build roads in common our cars should be? That all hardworking people should be rewarded? That we should set up a Commission on Luck and Breaks to make sure no one is getting an unfair share? Is this the other side of the sub-prime mortgage disaster where if everyone can't own a home no one can?
This is peculiar stuff, not because there are inequities or inexplicable successes and failures but that someone in this uncertain world has the hutzpa to think they can manage it. It's not that these bulletins are being handed out by Steve Jobs or Mother Teresa so that there was a history of success or good will to fall back on. These organizational volunteers are from the same sort that decided on the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Washington National Center of Graft and Influence, the promise-now-pay-later social programs that are failing all over the globe.
There are certainly huge problems. What is missing is a coherent approach that doesn't depend on wishing or proven failures.
"It must be because I worked harder than everybody else," he went on. "Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there."--President Obama
This, again, is the strange Obama, the Obama of Kansas. http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2011/12/obama-in-kansas-3.html And the lesson is what? That all smart people should be rewarded? Since we build roads in common our cars should be? That all hardworking people should be rewarded? That we should set up a Commission on Luck and Breaks to make sure no one is getting an unfair share? Is this the other side of the sub-prime mortgage disaster where if everyone can't own a home no one can?
This is peculiar stuff, not because there are inequities or inexplicable successes and failures but that someone in this uncertain world has the hutzpa to think they can manage it. It's not that these bulletins are being handed out by Steve Jobs or Mother Teresa so that there was a history of success or good will to fall back on. These organizational volunteers are from the same sort that decided on the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Washington National Center of Graft and Influence, the promise-now-pay-later social programs that are failing all over the globe.
There are certainly huge problems. What is missing is a coherent approach that doesn't depend on wishing or proven failures.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Where Discretion Meets the Road
Sometimes the rule-making busybodies accidentally have to make real decisions as a result of their rules.
In 1990 a federal law called the Clery Act, named for a 19 year old girl raped and murdered at Lehigh University, was enacted. It mandates American schools keep records of crimes committed on campus. Schools are required to create a program to collect and manage crime information including crime logs, an annual security report, periodic warnings as a result of crime information and statistics. Compliance is monitored by the Department of Education, which can impose civil penalties (up to $27,500 per violation) against institutions for each infraction and can suspend institutions from participating in federal student aid programs.
Penn State did not report any of the Sandusky violations, of course. Moreover, it actually has never created any of the infrastructure required by the law 12 years ago.
The University's vulnerability is more than that of the NCAA. This is a huge federal violation and Penn State seemingly violated every aspect of The Clery Law. The possible penalties are gigantic and it appears that some leeway, some discretion, will be involved in how the administrative bodies respond. And how should they? For example, no school could survive the elimination of student aid should it be withdrawn. As a state university, Penn State is also supported by state taxes. The citizens of Pennsylvania might well be outraged at this behavior with virtual any response possible. Federal grants are another problem; Penn State gets over 400 million dollars in research grants. What if they are moved?
The problem is intense for the university. As these laws are written with some latitude, a number of possible responses are allowed. But wouldn't one expect the maximum response? After all, what could possibly be worse than what this school did? Concentration camps? Affiliation with al Qaeda? Doing human trials for Biopreparate?
The original intent behind the NCAA's rules are not to protect athletes, they are to keep the competitive field fair. Penn State's athletic programs were protected--and advantage gained--by their silence on Sandusky. But the problem is vastly bigger than that. The NCAA has inadvertently become involved in a terrible problem and their response should be savage. But what about the other laws and responsibilities? If these laws were written to be taken seriously then some very serious results should be coming Penn State's way and the NCAA's decisions should be the least of their worries.
In 1990 a federal law called the Clery Act, named for a 19 year old girl raped and murdered at Lehigh University, was enacted. It mandates American schools keep records of crimes committed on campus. Schools are required to create a program to collect and manage crime information including crime logs, an annual security report, periodic warnings as a result of crime information and statistics. Compliance is monitored by the Department of Education, which can impose civil penalties (up to $27,500 per violation) against institutions for each infraction and can suspend institutions from participating in federal student aid programs.
Penn State did not report any of the Sandusky violations, of course. Moreover, it actually has never created any of the infrastructure required by the law 12 years ago.
The University's vulnerability is more than that of the NCAA. This is a huge federal violation and Penn State seemingly violated every aspect of The Clery Law. The possible penalties are gigantic and it appears that some leeway, some discretion, will be involved in how the administrative bodies respond. And how should they? For example, no school could survive the elimination of student aid should it be withdrawn. As a state university, Penn State is also supported by state taxes. The citizens of Pennsylvania might well be outraged at this behavior with virtual any response possible. Federal grants are another problem; Penn State gets over 400 million dollars in research grants. What if they are moved?
The problem is intense for the university. As these laws are written with some latitude, a number of possible responses are allowed. But wouldn't one expect the maximum response? After all, what could possibly be worse than what this school did? Concentration camps? Affiliation with al Qaeda? Doing human trials for Biopreparate?
The original intent behind the NCAA's rules are not to protect athletes, they are to keep the competitive field fair. Penn State's athletic programs were protected--and advantage gained--by their silence on Sandusky. But the problem is vastly bigger than that. The NCAA has inadvertently become involved in a terrible problem and their response should be savage. But what about the other laws and responsibilities? If these laws were written to be taken seriously then some very serious results should be coming Penn State's way and the NCAA's decisions should be the least of their worries.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Penn State and Aesop
The Penn State disaster is beginning to take on symbolic qualities.
Politics: The Fast and Furious charge by the gun owners could not possibly be true because no one is that heartless or that irresponsible.
PSU Counter: Oh yeah? What about the leadership at Penn State? Could anyone have imagined that?
Politics: No one could possibly take these tiny political arguments like Bain Capital seriously when these huge economic and diplomatic problems are facing us.
PSU Counter: Oh, yeah? The Penn State disaster should probably result in closing the entire football program and what are they debating? The Paterno statue.
Politics: Every single time an investigation is concluded, the loser wants to hire an independent investigation.
PSU Counter: The Paterno family has rejected the Freeh report and want to commission their own. Perhaps they could link up with O.J.
Politics: Every single major problem facing this problem could be solved by grownups taking charge and accepting responsibility for hard decisions that will result in damage to some people. Tick. Tick. Tick.
PSU: The Penn State disaster demands, at some point, a judgment and a decision. There are countless bodies who have responsibilities here. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Politics: The Fast and Furious charge by the gun owners could not possibly be true because no one is that heartless or that irresponsible.
PSU Counter: Oh yeah? What about the leadership at Penn State? Could anyone have imagined that?
Politics: No one could possibly take these tiny political arguments like Bain Capital seriously when these huge economic and diplomatic problems are facing us.
PSU Counter: Oh, yeah? The Penn State disaster should probably result in closing the entire football program and what are they debating? The Paterno statue.
Politics: Every single time an investigation is concluded, the loser wants to hire an independent investigation.
PSU Counter: The Paterno family has rejected the Freeh report and want to commission their own. Perhaps they could link up with O.J.
Politics: Every single major problem facing this problem could be solved by grownups taking charge and accepting responsibility for hard decisions that will result in damage to some people. Tick. Tick. Tick.
PSU: The Penn State disaster demands, at some point, a judgment and a decision. There are countless bodies who have responsibilities here. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Higgs and Us
There is an interesting sidelight to the Higgs discovery made by the
mostly European team and announced, provocatively, on the Fourth of
July. The Superconducting Super Collider built at the Franco-Swiss
border near Geneva, Switzerland was, in the 1990's, funded by American
money and the decision to withdraw the money delayed the advances and
removed Americans from prominence there. More, Fermilab, built outside
of Chicago in 1967, was one of the original potential sites for the
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) but federal funding was withdrawn and the
new collider was awarded to Geneva. The Fermilab collider was closed
down for lack of funding in 2011.
University of Michigan physicist Gordon Kane says that had the funding
been maintained, the Higgs would have been an American discovery with
its eventual collateral advances.
I know that sounds a bit wistful--and regressively nationalistic--but cultures that don't aspire don't achieve. With all the talk about "government investment," this looks like a good one not done.
If you search Fermilab now you get articles about local bison.
I know that sounds a bit wistful--and regressively nationalistic--but cultures that don't aspire don't achieve. With all the talk about "government investment," this looks like a good one not done.
If you search Fermilab now you get articles about local bison.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Sunday Sermon 7/15/12
The epistle today is the opening of Paul's letter to the Ephesians. It
is a summary of the essence of early Christianity. It has been the
subject of intense scrutiny and debate, indeed many argue that Paul
expanded much of the message of Christ beginning with this letter.
One compelling aspect of the epistle is its breadth. It starts with the beginning of creation and sees the entire sweep of history in light of Christ and His message. This places man in a huge but defined context, a universe with man as an understandable part in an overall divine vision.
One may believe this or not but it must be seen as the basic question of man: What is his purpose? Where does he fit? And when one decides not to believe Paul's summary, one needs to provide an alternative. This search has been the self-appointed tasks of philosophers since. The ancient Greeks, with a real but disjointed theology, tried to create an understanding of the world on the basis of rational thought alone. The philosophers of the time tried to make sense of the world but also wanted to provide guidelines for man towards a life of contentment. Indeed, there is an argument that the rise of Christianity distorted philosophy and subjugated it to theology. Now, with the decline of Christianity, philosophy must re-shoulder the burden of explaining man and the life he should lead.
The is an undeniable malaise abroad. All peoples--except for the very religious groups--are struggling for meaning in their lives and the number grows. As an example, in Italy it is estimated that in the next thirty to forty years, sixty percent of children born will have no brothers, sisters or cousins. They will be born into a world alone. The reason? The notion is that Italy, indeed all of the West, have lost its sense of purpose and that family and children are the result of optimism that has been lost.
Paul's epistle is one of the most important statements ever written because it summarizes the Christian alternative to the ancient search of Man for Man.
One compelling aspect of the epistle is its breadth. It starts with the beginning of creation and sees the entire sweep of history in light of Christ and His message. This places man in a huge but defined context, a universe with man as an understandable part in an overall divine vision.
One may believe this or not but it must be seen as the basic question of man: What is his purpose? Where does he fit? And when one decides not to believe Paul's summary, one needs to provide an alternative. This search has been the self-appointed tasks of philosophers since. The ancient Greeks, with a real but disjointed theology, tried to create an understanding of the world on the basis of rational thought alone. The philosophers of the time tried to make sense of the world but also wanted to provide guidelines for man towards a life of contentment. Indeed, there is an argument that the rise of Christianity distorted philosophy and subjugated it to theology. Now, with the decline of Christianity, philosophy must re-shoulder the burden of explaining man and the life he should lead.
The is an undeniable malaise abroad. All peoples--except for the very religious groups--are struggling for meaning in their lives and the number grows. As an example, in Italy it is estimated that in the next thirty to forty years, sixty percent of children born will have no brothers, sisters or cousins. They will be born into a world alone. The reason? The notion is that Italy, indeed all of the West, have lost its sense of purpose and that family and children are the result of optimism that has been lost.
Paul's epistle is one of the most important statements ever written because it summarizes the Christian alternative to the ancient search of Man for Man.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Cab Thoughts 7/14/12
Is the argument going to be made that Penn State Football is too big to fail?
Last month Geo. Washington's annotated copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights sold at Christie's for over 9.8 million dollars.
A lot of the Democrats are suggesting subtly that Romney may be a felon. If that's the case, can't they just pardon him like they did Marc Rich?
If the Sandusky events at Penn State are not enough to shut the football program down, what would be required?
Tim Weiner has written a book called Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. The description of Wm. Donovan, a.k.a. Wild Bill, is surprising. He had a reputation of being tough, unpredictable and romantic; this makes him sound like a ditz. An in house investigation from the White House revealed not one project of the OSS revealed anything of substance, they were constantly infiltrated by foreign agents, and it seemed as if the bizarre was seen as the prerequisite for innovative. (One project was to attack Japan with bomb-carrying bats.) More evidence of your government at play.
The U.S. budget deficit for the first 9 months of this budget year is 904.2 billion dollars. It is on track to be the fourth deficit in a row to exceed one trillion dollars. Is that OK?
So there will be 1 billion more consumers competing for all goods in the next few years. Will that drive prices like energy up so that the more modern and inefficient energy sources will become competitive? Or will it demand the increased use of cheaper sources on the elite index like coal?
According to a recent McKinsey study, "Resource Revolution: Meeting the world's energy, materials, food, and water needs," the planet supports 1.8 billion middle class consumers. Over the next 20 years that number will increase to 4.8 billion, a gain of almost 270%. This means competition for land, water, fuel, and mineral resources. Decreasing our use of available resources like coal is so unreasonable it may be pathological.
Two guys named Tayannah Lee McQuillar and Fred L. Johnson III, PhD have written a book on Tupac Shakur. Merit may not be involved here but pathos is. This poor child had the upbringing of disliked stray animal. His mother abandoned him (and his sister) to an alcoholic woman located on the other side of the country whose sole connection with her was a loose relationship with the old Black Panthers. Both the presumed responsible adults here were destitute addicts. The young Tupac existed, not lived, and grew up in a sewer of desperation and despair. And survival existence does not bring out the best in children. And not an adult within pistol shot showed the least bit of concern or responsibility. This in a nation awash in hand-wringing concern for its citizens, all sorts of heavily funded social service programs and deafening platitudes.
A new Duke study concludes brine contamination of water sources unrelated to Marcellus drilling. http://today.duke.edu/2012/07/marcellus
It will be of interest to see if this makes any of the popular newspapers. (Update. It did make the papers with the headline qualifier "So Far.")
The hated Coulter raises a very worrisome question. The current explanation on the Right of the weird Fast and Furious error is that it was created to implicate American gun suppliers as sources of the guns in the Mexican Drug wars so that public opinion could be manipulated in favor of American gun control. If that is the case then the purpose of the program was to get innocent people killed. This is a world where people take on a persona to stake out public niches but you can't fake smarts long.
Her Bio: Coulter graduated with honors from Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences, and received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review. Coulter clerked for the Honorable Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and was an attorney in the Department of Justice Honors Program for outstanding law school graduates.
In the Middle Ages in England, a large naval warship, known as a ship of the line and constructed almost entirely from wood, weighed over one hundred tons. The bodies of such vessels required about two thousand mature oaks, which meant at least fifty acres of forest had to be stripped. While oak supplied the timber for much of the ship, it was too inflexible and heavy for ship masts, the poles that supported the canvas sails. Instead, these required lighter and more shock-resistant softwoods, such as pines and firs. The largest masts were more than three feet wide at their base and over one hundred feet tall -- roughly one yard in height per inch in width. ..(From "American Canopy" by Eric Rutkow)
Where the Spanish saw the New World as a gold source, the Brits saw wood. The revolution in manufacturing and naval building in Britain started with Elizabeth and turned England into a net wood importer. The poor had no wood to burn and froze in the winter.
There were 950 million acres of forested land in America when the Europeans came, almost 50% of land. Now it's about 30 percent of the 2.3 billion acres of land area (745 million acres).
And the graph of the day:
Last month Geo. Washington's annotated copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights sold at Christie's for over 9.8 million dollars.
A lot of the Democrats are suggesting subtly that Romney may be a felon. If that's the case, can't they just pardon him like they did Marc Rich?
If the Sandusky events at Penn State are not enough to shut the football program down, what would be required?
Tim Weiner has written a book called Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. The description of Wm. Donovan, a.k.a. Wild Bill, is surprising. He had a reputation of being tough, unpredictable and romantic; this makes him sound like a ditz. An in house investigation from the White House revealed not one project of the OSS revealed anything of substance, they were constantly infiltrated by foreign agents, and it seemed as if the bizarre was seen as the prerequisite for innovative. (One project was to attack Japan with bomb-carrying bats.) More evidence of your government at play.
The U.S. budget deficit for the first 9 months of this budget year is 904.2 billion dollars. It is on track to be the fourth deficit in a row to exceed one trillion dollars. Is that OK?
So there will be 1 billion more consumers competing for all goods in the next few years. Will that drive prices like energy up so that the more modern and inefficient energy sources will become competitive? Or will it demand the increased use of cheaper sources on the elite index like coal?
According to a recent McKinsey study, "Resource Revolution: Meeting the world's energy, materials, food, and water needs," the planet supports 1.8 billion middle class consumers. Over the next 20 years that number will increase to 4.8 billion, a gain of almost 270%. This means competition for land, water, fuel, and mineral resources. Decreasing our use of available resources like coal is so unreasonable it may be pathological.
Two guys named Tayannah Lee McQuillar and Fred L. Johnson III, PhD have written a book on Tupac Shakur. Merit may not be involved here but pathos is. This poor child had the upbringing of disliked stray animal. His mother abandoned him (and his sister) to an alcoholic woman located on the other side of the country whose sole connection with her was a loose relationship with the old Black Panthers. Both the presumed responsible adults here were destitute addicts. The young Tupac existed, not lived, and grew up in a sewer of desperation and despair. And survival existence does not bring out the best in children. And not an adult within pistol shot showed the least bit of concern or responsibility. This in a nation awash in hand-wringing concern for its citizens, all sorts of heavily funded social service programs and deafening platitudes.
A new Duke study concludes brine contamination of water sources unrelated to Marcellus drilling. http://today.duke.edu/2012/07/marcellus
It will be of interest to see if this makes any of the popular newspapers. (Update. It did make the papers with the headline qualifier "So Far.")
The hated Coulter raises a very worrisome question. The current explanation on the Right of the weird Fast and Furious error is that it was created to implicate American gun suppliers as sources of the guns in the Mexican Drug wars so that public opinion could be manipulated in favor of American gun control. If that is the case then the purpose of the program was to get innocent people killed. This is a world where people take on a persona to stake out public niches but you can't fake smarts long.
Her Bio: Coulter graduated with honors from Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences, and received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review. Coulter clerked for the Honorable Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and was an attorney in the Department of Justice Honors Program for outstanding law school graduates.
In the Middle Ages in England, a large naval warship, known as a ship of the line and constructed almost entirely from wood, weighed over one hundred tons. The bodies of such vessels required about two thousand mature oaks, which meant at least fifty acres of forest had to be stripped. While oak supplied the timber for much of the ship, it was too inflexible and heavy for ship masts, the poles that supported the canvas sails. Instead, these required lighter and more shock-resistant softwoods, such as pines and firs. The largest masts were more than three feet wide at their base and over one hundred feet tall -- roughly one yard in height per inch in width. ..(From "American Canopy" by Eric Rutkow)
Where the Spanish saw the New World as a gold source, the Brits saw wood. The revolution in manufacturing and naval building in Britain started with Elizabeth and turned England into a net wood importer. The poor had no wood to burn and froze in the winter.
There were 950 million acres of forested land in America when the Europeans came, almost 50% of land. Now it's about 30 percent of the 2.3 billion acres of land area (745 million acres).
And the graph of the day:
Friday, July 13, 2012
Practice works! Film at 11! Sort of Book Review of "The Genius in All of Us"
A recent book, "The Genius in All of Us" by David Shenk, examines the increasingly examined relationship between preparation and results. It turns out circumstance is not so much of a factor in life; practice trumps genetics in learning a skill.
Eleanor Maguire's studies of 1999 brain scans of London cabbies revealed greatly enlarged representation in the brain region that controls spatial awareness. Repeated work causes neurological changes. The same holds for any specific task; the relevant brain regions adapt accordingly. The work enhances the ability--not just physically--but neurologically. "Fit for a task" becomes more than a physical comment; the task increasingly fits you.
Some nuggets from the book:
1. Practice causes changes in your body: Researchers have recorded a constellation of physical changes (occurring in direct response to practice) in the muscles, nerves, hearts, lungs, and brains of those showing profound increases in skill level in any domain.
2. Learned skills are specific. Individuals becoming great at one particular skill do not necessarily become great at other skills. Chess champions can remember hundreds of intricate chess positions in sequence but can have a perfectly ordinary memory for everything else. Physical and intellectual changes are very specific responses to particular skill requirements.
3. Changes in the brain are greater than in the body: Even among athletes, changes in the brain are arguably the most profound, with a vast increase in precise task knowledge, a shift from conscious analysis to intuitive thinking (saving time and energy), and elaborate self-monitoring mechanisms that allow for constant adjustments in real time.
4. The type of practice is crucial: Ordinary practice, where your current skill level is simply being reinforced, is not enough to get better. It takes a special kind of practice to force your mind and body into the kind of change necessary to improve.
5. Duration trumps intensity: Many crucial changes take place over long periods of time. Physiologically, it's impossible to become great overnight. Practice style and practice time -- emerged as universal and critical. From Scrabble players to dart players to soccer players to violin players, it was observed that the uppermost achievers not only spent significantly more time in solitary study and drills, but also exhibited a consistent (and persistent) style of preparation that K. Anders Ericsson came to call 'deliberate practice.'
A certain approach must either be present or developed. (This has some real implication for coaching.) This type of practice regimen requires specific emotional criteria and behavior: a constant self-criticism, a pathological restlessness, a passion to aim consistently just beyond one's capability so that daily disappointment and failure is actually desired, and a never-ending resolve to reload and try again and again and again so that hour after hour must be sacrificed in the pursuit of improvement. A number of separate studies have turned up the same common number, concluding that truly outstanding skill in any domain is rarely achieved in less than ten thousand hours of practice over ten years' time (which comes to an average of three hours per day). From sublime pianists to unusually profound physicists, researchers have been very hard-pressed to find any examples of truly extraordinary performers in any field who reached the top of their game before that ten-thousand-hour mark.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Adult Questions and Government Answers
The Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article on health care cost, centering on an unfortunate man who had extensive surgery at Hopkins, was hospitalized for almost a year before dying. They used this story to focus on health care costs. Some results:
In 2009, the top 10% of Medicare beneficiaries who received hospital care accounted for 64% of the program's hospital spending. So individual outliers do a lot of general financial damage to the overall system.
Medicare patients create disproportionate costs in the final year of life. In 2009, 6.6% of the people who received hospital care died. Those 1.6 million people accounted for 22.3% of total hospital expenditures. So, while specific outliers damage the system, the general group of Medicare patients who die, 6.6% of the Medicare group, make a tremendously disproportionate demand on resources. And people over the age of 65 consume 76% of total hospital costs.
Nor is this nightmare static. The program's net expenditures totaled $486 billion last year, according to the Congressional Budget Office, or 13.5% of all federal expenditures. In March, the CBO projected that Medicare expenditures would grow an average of 5.7% per year through 2022 and equal 16.2% of all federal outlays.
Jonathan Blum, deputy administrator and director for Medicare, had some opinions. As for...(the patient in Hopkins)..., "A lot of the costs were driven by complications that could have been avoided." So the program, a program the government volunteered responsibility for, is beset by horrific financial problems and a government representative's answer is a glib, unsubstantiated criticism of one of the world's best medical institutions.
Behind this inane thesis lies a thinking that is more and more apparent in government planning from health care to energy to education: Wishing makes it so.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Modern Performance Art
Forbes Magazine had a recent article on "Aftershock," a book of anxiety and despair regarding the modern financial markets. The three co-authors, brothers David and Robert Wiedemer, and Cindy Spitzer (whose last book was "Sex for Grownups"), are making a lot of money by advising people to sell their homes now, cash out their life insurance policies, and dump their stocks ahead of what they predict will be 50% unemployment, a 90% stock market crash, and 100% annual inflation. Aftershock argues that a succession of bubbles (dotcom, housing) have set the country on the path to ruin. Now Federal Reserve market "manipulation" make banana republic inflation levels inevitable starting in 2012. Their advice: Sell everything, buy gold and inflation-linked securities.
But the $800,000 or so in book royalties the authors may receive pales in comparison to the trio's ancillary businesses. David Wiedemer told Forbes Magazine the book is responsible for $100 million in assets flowing into Absolute Investment Management, a Bethesda, Md.-based money manager with whom the brothers partnered and where they are now managing directors. On top of that, 1,000 people have paid an annual fee of $399 to receive the Wiedemers' investment advice, a number that is growing faster as more people read the book.
A new book is coming but David is thinking bigger. "I'd really like to do a mutual fund," he says. (Forbes)
There is something about doomsday advice, some flame to the investor moth. Somehow even optimistic people can not stay away. They crowd in like a disaster movie. Global warming has a similar feel, the threat of chaos and the perhaps insane arrogance that regardless of the degree of disaster, we can take charge.
Sounds a lot like the hubris of certain politicians.
Years ago there was a guy named Joe Granville who was a very popular, very bearish investment adviser. At financial conferences he would come dressed as Moses or emerge from a coffin on stage. Sometimes he had animals on stage that did tricks. The Hulbert Financial Digest that reviews investment advisers' performances always rated his performance as low but I don't think Glanville was so concerned with the financial end of the performance.
He, like Barnum, knew what his audience was really interested in.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
World Competition on the Consumer Side
There is a belief that television and the internet have created a new awareness across the
globe. 6 billion people will want the life they see that 1 billion people
already have.
This will cause unrest and dissatisfaction but will also cause financial pressure. It is estimated that in the next ten years 1 billion people will have the ability to enter the consumer market with the financial resources to compete with the established 1 billion. That's a lot of new paddles in the life-style auction. Theoretically there should be tremendous upward pressure on prices. And the absurd notion of declaring by governmental fiat more expensive products as desirable for communities, like energy, will become more absurd.
This will cause unrest and dissatisfaction but will also cause financial pressure. It is estimated that in the next ten years 1 billion people will have the ability to enter the consumer market with the financial resources to compete with the established 1 billion. That's a lot of new paddles in the life-style auction. Theoretically there should be tremendous upward pressure on prices. And the absurd notion of declaring by governmental fiat more expensive products as desirable for communities, like energy, will become more absurd.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Dating the Candidates
An Obama ad attacks Romney for outsourcing jobs to China and India when
he worked with Bain Capital. While this may be just the usual political
nonsense it does raise a real question: How does a citizen show he is
prepared to be President? Certainly there are differences between the
regular world and the rarefied political one. Obama's main achievement
has been the murder of bin Laden; how does Romney show he is of similar
stuff? Does he have to kill a national enemy? Or just order it?
The unspoken truth of the matter is that we pick a President based on appearance, acting ability and debating skills. Reagan wasn't an aberration, he was the fulfillment of the system. We used to be so rich that it did not matter who we elected, as long as he was sane.
We now may have to be more discerning.
The unspoken truth of the matter is that we pick a President based on appearance, acting ability and debating skills. Reagan wasn't an aberration, he was the fulfillment of the system. We used to be so rich that it did not matter who we elected, as long as he was sane.
We now may have to be more discerning.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Sunday Sermon 7/8/12
In today's gospel, Christ returns to His home of Nazareth and a number
of profound questions are raised. The first is the nature of belief.
Here the people who know Christ from his youth can not accept Him as a
teacher or a miracle worker. There is more to it than just "familiarity
breeds contempt." Christ is presented here as a working member of the
community for years before His ministry. There is no agent the locals
see for His specialness. They have no context for Him. He is fresh from
great success among the Gerasens and with Jairus and still they can not
believe in Him. And they are "scandalized." They are more than
unbelieving, they are indignant.
More, this disbelief seems to restrict Christ. His influence over Nature seems limited by the faith of the people. As on the road to Emmaus, God seems to demand an interaction, a participation by us, before all things come together.
And Christ "wondered at their disbelief." This seems like surprise, a difficult notion if Christ is God. (He reacts similarly to the faith of the Centurion, the only other place in the gospel where this response is seen.) But Christ is man as well; it makes His eventual sacrifice meaningful only if He is.
We are fascinating. The scientific community announced this week the Higgs boson had been discovered. This finding is elemental to quantum physics and the world cheered the advance.
The famed physicist Richard Feynman said in 1967, "Nobody understands quantum theory."
Yet we believe.
More, this disbelief seems to restrict Christ. His influence over Nature seems limited by the faith of the people. As on the road to Emmaus, God seems to demand an interaction, a participation by us, before all things come together.
And Christ "wondered at their disbelief." This seems like surprise, a difficult notion if Christ is God. (He reacts similarly to the faith of the Centurion, the only other place in the gospel where this response is seen.) But Christ is man as well; it makes His eventual sacrifice meaningful only if He is.
We are fascinating. The scientific community announced this week the Higgs boson had been discovered. This finding is elemental to quantum physics and the world cheered the advance.
The famed physicist Richard Feynman said in 1967, "Nobody understands quantum theory."
Yet we believe.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Cab Thoughts 7/7/12
The Carolinas signed Staal for 10 years; my explanation of the trade is now officially out the window. (http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2012/06/staal.html)
Still staggered by Roberts' decision--or lack of one. It sounds very close to "Do not expect us to rescue you from bad law." But I do expect them to rescue us from unconstitutional law.
It is curious that people who are opposed to borders, who favor open immigration and the general decline of nationalism, do not laud the advantage brought to emerging countries by outsourcing.
Anyone pretending that equality is anything other than a spiritual notion need go no further to the Higgs discussion to have their revelation. http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2012/07/06/which-boson-do-you-work-for
As many as two out of every three Europeans who came to the colonies were debtors on arrival: they paid for their passage by becoming indentured servants. There was a tremendous labor shortage in the New World and an Englishman named Oglethorpe created Georgia as a place to send debtors from England's overburdened prisons.
Re. Roberts: a very suspicious man said recently that when you see a politician reverse his position--especially when the new position is tortured--think....... blackmail! A mystery writer is born every minute.
Golden Oldie: http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2010/12/mi6-times-one-hundred-and-fifty.html
When the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (a powerful woman, Empress of Russia and perpetrator of the savage Madame Lapouchin affair) died she was succeeded by her reviled nephew Peter -- "the most imbecile prince that ever ascended the throne of a vast empire" according to the astronomer Jean-Baptiste Chappe. He was married to the German born princess Sophie--an ambitious woman who learned Russian and converted Orthodox after her marriage. While on a trip to Paris, friends of Sophie murdered Peter and Sophie returned to Russia to become.....Catherine the Great.
American coal imports are down, consumption is down and exports are way up. This is all a function of the rise of natural gas but there will be no applause from The-Powers-That-Be because, while vastly cleaner, gas is still a carbon and carbon is made by Voldemort.
The historian John K. Fairbank called the opium trade in which American merchants took part 'the most long continued and systematic international crime of modern times.' The opium trade made the high-minded British rejection of slave-trading much easier. Opium was originally controlled by the British because they controlled the Indian source but, when Turkish opium became available, the Americans joined. (Franklin Roosevelt's family made their fortune there.) Many historians believe the opium trade in China ruined the country, undercutting its culture and collapsing the infrastructure to be controlled by warlords and criminals. If true, Mexico is a serious threat.
There is a new book called "Fooling Houdini" that discusses many popular occult notions. One is palmist and astrologers who are rated by their customers very highly. There are some fascinating studies that show some basic human characteristics. One, generic information is accepted by such customers as very insightful, even when those generic descriptions are random. Secondly, the customer is always rates the experience more highly if they give more information to the psychic, even if the generic return is unchanged. So people will embrace stock personality sketches as unique portraits. Psychologists have since given a name to this. They call it the Barnum effect, after P. T. Barnum's famous dictum 'We've got something for everyone.'
A fascinating graph on PE ratio over time. The wheel spins. Outliers lose. Nothing is new under the sun. The lower the PE, the harder the times and the more the eventual return. Patience is rewarded. And it's hard to buy and hold and succeed unless there is growth on the "E" side. Everyone forgets the "E" part of the equation. You can not siomply buy and hide in the weeds.
Still staggered by Roberts' decision--or lack of one. It sounds very close to "Do not expect us to rescue you from bad law." But I do expect them to rescue us from unconstitutional law.
It is curious that people who are opposed to borders, who favor open immigration and the general decline of nationalism, do not laud the advantage brought to emerging countries by outsourcing.
Anyone pretending that equality is anything other than a spiritual notion need go no further to the Higgs discussion to have their revelation. http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2012/07/06/which-boson-do-you-work-for
As many as two out of every three Europeans who came to the colonies were debtors on arrival: they paid for their passage by becoming indentured servants. There was a tremendous labor shortage in the New World and an Englishman named Oglethorpe created Georgia as a place to send debtors from England's overburdened prisons.
Re. Roberts: a very suspicious man said recently that when you see a politician reverse his position--especially when the new position is tortured--think....... blackmail! A mystery writer is born every minute.
Golden Oldie: http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2010/12/mi6-times-one-hundred-and-fifty.html
When the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (a powerful woman, Empress of Russia and perpetrator of the savage Madame Lapouchin affair) died she was succeeded by her reviled nephew Peter -- "the most imbecile prince that ever ascended the throne of a vast empire" according to the astronomer Jean-Baptiste Chappe. He was married to the German born princess Sophie--an ambitious woman who learned Russian and converted Orthodox after her marriage. While on a trip to Paris, friends of Sophie murdered Peter and Sophie returned to Russia to become.....Catherine the Great.
American coal imports are down, consumption is down and exports are way up. This is all a function of the rise of natural gas but there will be no applause from The-Powers-That-Be because, while vastly cleaner, gas is still a carbon and carbon is made by Voldemort.
The historian John K. Fairbank called the opium trade in which American merchants took part 'the most long continued and systematic international crime of modern times.' The opium trade made the high-minded British rejection of slave-trading much easier. Opium was originally controlled by the British because they controlled the Indian source but, when Turkish opium became available, the Americans joined. (Franklin Roosevelt's family made their fortune there.) Many historians believe the opium trade in China ruined the country, undercutting its culture and collapsing the infrastructure to be controlled by warlords and criminals. If true, Mexico is a serious threat.
There is a new book called "Fooling Houdini" that discusses many popular occult notions. One is palmist and astrologers who are rated by their customers very highly. There are some fascinating studies that show some basic human characteristics. One, generic information is accepted by such customers as very insightful, even when those generic descriptions are random. Secondly, the customer is always rates the experience more highly if they give more information to the psychic, even if the generic return is unchanged. So people will embrace stock personality sketches as unique portraits. Psychologists have since given a name to this. They call it the Barnum effect, after P. T. Barnum's famous dictum 'We've got something for everyone.'
A fascinating graph on PE ratio over time. The wheel spins. Outliers lose. Nothing is new under the sun. The lower the PE, the harder the times and the more the eventual return. Patience is rewarded. And it's hard to buy and hold and succeed unless there is growth on the "E" side. Everyone forgets the "E" part of the equation. You can not siomply buy and hide in the weeds.
Interesting
little stat from the NL All Star Team. Several teams are grousing that
their fine starting pitchers have not been chosen. Why? How many closers
were picked? 5. That's because the game means something now: the 7th
game in the series. Now the game will feature a starter or two for an
inning or two...then 98 mile an hour pitchers for an inning.
Friday, July 6, 2012
A Single Point on a Long Line
Bill McKibben wrote a satirical article on global warming in The Daily
Beast recently. The crux of it was that the rising temperatures were
engineered by global warming fanatics and CGI. Satire being difficult to
do this was only ok, but it serves as a good illustration of the
problem in current popular debate: "It is really hot, therefore..."
No one would argue over the weather being hot. And no one would argue that the heat is being artificially manufactured by extremists. The point of argument is over what it means.
There is very good evidence that the earth has undergone warming and cooling periods repeatedly over time. Dinosaurs have ended up in Pennsylvania museums after being trapped in steaming swamps in Montana. Fifteen thousand years ago there was an Ice Age that sent glaciers into southern New York. The Middle Ages had a mini-ice age starting around the end of the 1200's and extending well into the millennium, officially ending in the end of the 1800's. Nova has a program on global temperature saying we are in "the midst of the third major cooling period that began three million years ago" with an uptick in temperature starting about ten thousand years ago.
We are, at present, living in a moment in time, a blip on a huge sine wave curve of temperature change extending out over billions of years. Is our current temperature permanent? Is our current direction permanent?What do temperature measurements mean in days, years or generations when compared to the earth's eons? Anyone with the confidence to answer these questions should be carefully handled; they are either prescient or naive.
Or they are manipulative. Coincidentally, many people who see a huge pattern in this one moment in time are morally opposed to the internal combustion engine, the engine of Western growth. The people who would have us pursue the anti-carbon course point to energy options that do not yet exist and none of us use. Ending that period of human economy would necessarily cause a lot of disruption. Economic decline, loss of wealth, decrease of farm production and transportation---all of these events would be inevitable were we to dial back our use of fossil fuel to the level of the nineteenth century. This would require a lot of top down governmental management, probably done by volunteers from the same group of people who want to cause the destruction.
The history of man is a history of the gradual revelation of error. "The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong....The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant..... His culture is based on 'I am not too sure.' "(H.L. Mencken)
It is the primitive who see the lightning flash and is certain the gods are angry.
No one would argue over the weather being hot. And no one would argue that the heat is being artificially manufactured by extremists. The point of argument is over what it means.
There is very good evidence that the earth has undergone warming and cooling periods repeatedly over time. Dinosaurs have ended up in Pennsylvania museums after being trapped in steaming swamps in Montana. Fifteen thousand years ago there was an Ice Age that sent glaciers into southern New York. The Middle Ages had a mini-ice age starting around the end of the 1200's and extending well into the millennium, officially ending in the end of the 1800's. Nova has a program on global temperature saying we are in "the midst of the third major cooling period that began three million years ago" with an uptick in temperature starting about ten thousand years ago.
We are, at present, living in a moment in time, a blip on a huge sine wave curve of temperature change extending out over billions of years. Is our current temperature permanent? Is our current direction permanent?What do temperature measurements mean in days, years or generations when compared to the earth's eons? Anyone with the confidence to answer these questions should be carefully handled; they are either prescient or naive.
Or they are manipulative. Coincidentally, many people who see a huge pattern in this one moment in time are morally opposed to the internal combustion engine, the engine of Western growth. The people who would have us pursue the anti-carbon course point to energy options that do not yet exist and none of us use. Ending that period of human economy would necessarily cause a lot of disruption. Economic decline, loss of wealth, decrease of farm production and transportation---all of these events would be inevitable were we to dial back our use of fossil fuel to the level of the nineteenth century. This would require a lot of top down governmental management, probably done by volunteers from the same group of people who want to cause the destruction.
The history of man is a history of the gradual revelation of error. "The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong....The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant..... His culture is based on 'I am not too sure.' "(H.L. Mencken)
It is the primitive who see the lightning flash and is certain the gods are angry.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
The Greatest Inequity
There has been an upsurge in concern over disparities among citizens, particularly
income disparities, in the Western nations. It certainly is nothing new,
it certainly is inevitable in a free society but it has a nice populist
ring to it and one can always find something people can grab with
outrage--as long as it's not politicians, musicians, sports figures or
movie stars. But, with the many disparities in life, it is curious we
would focus so on the disparities that are so common, so much a function
of the production we all enjoy and so dependent upon luck. Certainly no
one begrudges Pujols his hand eye coordination and his tremendous
wrists or Gwyneth Paltrow her everything. No one wants to cripple him or
scar her. Certainly no one wants to rein in Steve Jobs. And no one
wants to substitute a bureaucrat for an entrepreneur. And so many of
life's inequities--beauty, health, speed, coordination, grace,
intelligence, drive, ambition, self-restraint, vision and
three-dimensional visualization, continence, sensitivity, prudence,
steadfastness, on and on--can not and should not be neutralized.
But there is a shameful inequity we can right: Soldiers and their families. There are certain members of society that fight our conflicts and certain members that do not. Indeed, while wars are raging, the American society seems purposefully trying to minimize the conflicts' effects among the noncombatants. Wolff points out that after Korea there was one Congressional Medal of Honor winner in the Greater New York area; in DeKalb County there were 23. Soldiers in this country come mostly from the South, mostly from soldier families, have strong family backgrounds. Most are religious, most are rural, some are racists, some are creationists, some are poorly educated. All of them and their families are self-sacrificing, poorly paid, subjected to danger and, generally, are not representative of the rest of the nation. And, in many segments, they are held in disregard, particularly because they are so different.
The soldier's experience is special; the regular community cannot duplicate it. But the soldier is more than an agent of the society, he is its extension, its reach. The society should rejoice in his success, mourn with his failures but, most importantly, be as much a part of him as it can. The members of the society must recognize the soldier as them.
The rest of the nation should do something to balance the inequity. Of all the inequities in American life, this is the least excusable.
But there is a shameful inequity we can right: Soldiers and their families. There are certain members of society that fight our conflicts and certain members that do not. Indeed, while wars are raging, the American society seems purposefully trying to minimize the conflicts' effects among the noncombatants. Wolff points out that after Korea there was one Congressional Medal of Honor winner in the Greater New York area; in DeKalb County there were 23. Soldiers in this country come mostly from the South, mostly from soldier families, have strong family backgrounds. Most are religious, most are rural, some are racists, some are creationists, some are poorly educated. All of them and their families are self-sacrificing, poorly paid, subjected to danger and, generally, are not representative of the rest of the nation. And, in many segments, they are held in disregard, particularly because they are so different.
The soldier's experience is special; the regular community cannot duplicate it. But the soldier is more than an agent of the society, he is its extension, its reach. The society should rejoice in his success, mourn with his failures but, most importantly, be as much a part of him as it can. The members of the society must recognize the soldier as them.
The rest of the nation should do something to balance the inequity. Of all the inequities in American life, this is the least excusable.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Fourth of July
Jay Leno has a recurring skit where he asks questions to passers-by on
the street--questions most people think are rather simple and obvious.
This week he asked several people what the Fourth of July celebrated,
when independence was declared and who the country separated from. Of
course the results were embarrassing to most of those interviewed. One
was particularly interesting. A college instructor knew nothing about
the Revolution at all, thought it occurred in the 1920's and thought
China might have been involved.
A survey published recently said that 27% of people questioned did not know the American Revolution was waged against the British.
When I was a child in the 50's, the Fourth of July was a great event. The kids decorated their bikes, small local parades were held--every community had some commemoration and the larger communities had fireworks. It was unlike other secular events like Thanksgiving which were delightfully family oriented; this was a commonly held social event. It was a birthday party. And it was heartfelt. Everyone felt that years ago something of value had been accomplished, something special in the world created. There was a glow.
When Obama was first campaigning he was asked about American Exceptionalism. (The phrase was de Tocqueville's, from Democracy in America, 1835: "The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. Their strictly Puritanical origin, their exclusively commercial habits, even the country they inhabit, which seems to divert their minds from the pursuit of science, literature, and the arts, the proximity of Europe, which allows them to neglect these pursuits without relapsing into barbarism, a thousand special causes, of which I have only been able to point out the most important, have singularly concurred to fix the mind of the American upon purely practical objects. His passions, his wants, his education, and everything about him seem to unite in drawing the native of the United States earthward; his religion alone bids him turn, from time to time, a transient and distracted glance to heaven. Let us cease, then, to view all democratic nations under the example of the American people."
The phrase has been used since by those who saw America as a point of reference in man's search for freedom and liberty. It was also used by Stalin as a slur, decrying America's self-held belief that it was somehow excluded from the Marxian class warfare generality.) Obama saw a trap--it would not do to talk of"exceptionalism" when we want all people to be the same, all nations indistinguishable. So he hedged and said, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." He, unlike those Americans of just a generation or two ago, does not think that America is unique.
Unique. If that element is lost in this country a lot has been lost. So, buy a small flag. Decorate your bike.
A survey published recently said that 27% of people questioned did not know the American Revolution was waged against the British.
When I was a child in the 50's, the Fourth of July was a great event. The kids decorated their bikes, small local parades were held--every community had some commemoration and the larger communities had fireworks. It was unlike other secular events like Thanksgiving which were delightfully family oriented; this was a commonly held social event. It was a birthday party. And it was heartfelt. Everyone felt that years ago something of value had been accomplished, something special in the world created. There was a glow.
When Obama was first campaigning he was asked about American Exceptionalism. (The phrase was de Tocqueville's, from Democracy in America, 1835: "The position of the Americans is therefore quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. Their strictly Puritanical origin, their exclusively commercial habits, even the country they inhabit, which seems to divert their minds from the pursuit of science, literature, and the arts, the proximity of Europe, which allows them to neglect these pursuits without relapsing into barbarism, a thousand special causes, of which I have only been able to point out the most important, have singularly concurred to fix the mind of the American upon purely practical objects. His passions, his wants, his education, and everything about him seem to unite in drawing the native of the United States earthward; his religion alone bids him turn, from time to time, a transient and distracted glance to heaven. Let us cease, then, to view all democratic nations under the example of the American people."
The phrase has been used since by those who saw America as a point of reference in man's search for freedom and liberty. It was also used by Stalin as a slur, decrying America's self-held belief that it was somehow excluded from the Marxian class warfare generality.) Obama saw a trap--it would not do to talk of"exceptionalism" when we want all people to be the same, all nations indistinguishable. So he hedged and said, "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." He, unlike those Americans of just a generation or two ago, does not think that America is unique.
Unique. If that element is lost in this country a lot has been lost. So, buy a small flag. Decorate your bike.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Dupree and Sandusky
Marcus Dupree has been the subject of a recent ESPN television short
biography. It is a terrible tale of stupidity, fraud, exploitation and
failure revolving around Marcus Dupree, one of the nation's most
extraordinary athletes ever. (He ran the 100 yard dash in 9.5 seconds,
was 220 pounds and as a freshman for Oklahoma's football team ran for
over 200 yards--while playing a half a game because of an
injury--against the best defensive college team in the nation that was
averaging a little over 64 yards a game rushing against them.) The
story, however, is less about this elite young athlete than the craven
and incompetent adults whom he had the misfortune to encounter.
He grew up in Philadelphia, Missippi and I doubt he was ever out of the tiny town except when traveling for a sport. When he was seventeen he became a national sports figure as a high school athlete. Bigger and faster than Jimmy Brown and still growing. He developed a vampiric collection of "friends and advisers", ended up going to Oklahoma to play ball and ran afoul of the coach, Switzer, got hurt, became disillusioned (and overwhelmed) and began a long spiral culminating in injury, failure and a return to Philadelphia as a truck driver. There was, however, considerable collateral wealth absorbed and disseminated among his "friends and advisers." Barry Switzer called it his greatest failure as a coach.
This is a terrible story of individual misjudgment, stupidity and avarice. But despite its breadth, it is individual. And hopefully we can learn from individual error. But the Penn State scandal is not individual; it is cultural and it teaches no lessons. It has become an entity, an evil entity. The basic reason that Sandusky was allowed to continue on in his behavior was the institution of Penn State football. It was the cause and the effect, a self feeding black hole of felonious corruption. Sandusky and his protection became integral with the football program, as integral as two-a-days.
Madness and evil teach no lessons. The program must be destroyed.
He grew up in Philadelphia, Missippi and I doubt he was ever out of the tiny town except when traveling for a sport. When he was seventeen he became a national sports figure as a high school athlete. Bigger and faster than Jimmy Brown and still growing. He developed a vampiric collection of "friends and advisers", ended up going to Oklahoma to play ball and ran afoul of the coach, Switzer, got hurt, became disillusioned (and overwhelmed) and began a long spiral culminating in injury, failure and a return to Philadelphia as a truck driver. There was, however, considerable collateral wealth absorbed and disseminated among his "friends and advisers." Barry Switzer called it his greatest failure as a coach.
This is a terrible story of individual misjudgment, stupidity and avarice. But despite its breadth, it is individual. And hopefully we can learn from individual error. But the Penn State scandal is not individual; it is cultural and it teaches no lessons. It has become an entity, an evil entity. The basic reason that Sandusky was allowed to continue on in his behavior was the institution of Penn State football. It was the cause and the effect, a self feeding black hole of felonious corruption. Sandusky and his protection became integral with the football program, as integral as two-a-days.
Madness and evil teach no lessons. The program must be destroyed.
Monday, July 2, 2012
The Arbitrator Defers
The Supreme Court decision on the national insurance bill will remain a source of papers and
discussion for years but one of the undercurrents seems to be that
Roberts wants to decrease the influence of the Court, feeling it is an
entity further away from the will of the people than the elected
representatives.
If true, he personifies that distance. The ebb and flow of governmental power in this nation is constant but actually occurs among a minority in the population. Most people are not hard constitutionalists or hard progressive governmental activists. Most people are more passive in their politics and more victims of the debate than participants. They need protected; they need a referee. That's what the Court is supposed
to be.
A referee can not be above it all. Nor, if the inkling some are getting over the historical "Commerce Clause" discussion, can he be afraid.
If true, he personifies that distance. The ebb and flow of governmental power in this nation is constant but actually occurs among a minority in the population. Most people are not hard constitutionalists or hard progressive governmental activists. Most people are more passive in their politics and more victims of the debate than participants. They need protected; they need a referee. That's what the Court is supposed
to be.
A referee can not be above it all. Nor, if the inkling some are getting over the historical "Commerce Clause" discussion, can he be afraid.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Cab Thoughts 7/1/12
Penn State's football program should be discontinued. But the president of Penn State during the Sandusky period has some serious
concerns as well. His bio is curious. He is a psychologist and a family
therapist. He is now working for the feds on an unnamed national
security project. How did a guy with that background end up where he did
and is?
This Fast and Furious thing is becoming a worry. The President says that there is no connection between the administration and the program but then invokes executive privilege. That can only mean two things: one, he was involved and was lying or, two, he was not involved and is covering for Holder. But he cannot use privilege in a crime. Nor can he use privilege if he is not involved. Both of these scenarios are very Nixonian and his administration looks bad here. Good thing no one is watching.
No one protected anyone from Sandusky and no one will be able to protect him from himself.
One of the real sorrows of current affairs is that people go to that vampire Soros for opinions. How anyone can criticize Romney for his business dealings and have any tolerance for Soros who has made a living ruining currencies is beyond me. I do not object to shorting the currencies of inept politicians and citizens but presenting it as a moral act is quite too much. Our culture seems to be able to parse predatory speculators into the good and bad now, really a sign of popular creativity.
The gloom and doom guys are really flocking around the body politic. Many have progressed beyond newsletters to books and some have started mutual funds. Joe Granville, call your office. Maybe this is a sign that things are turning.
Sandusky is something of a metaphor for the state of affairs, laughing and confident but shallow and vulnerable and guilty as sin.
The Supreme Court decision shows several things. First, there are a lot of informed commentator opinions out there that are really wrong. These "experts" show that work is easier to get than it seems. These people are much like stock advisers. Secondly, you know that your opinion is a little off base when the people who agree with you write a scathing dissent on what you said. Third, politics is filled with deception. The one crucial point the administration argued about the Mandate during its debate was that it was not a tax. The reason it was approved was that it was a tax. Now one of our esteemed leaders is wrong about a really important law.
The experience in an airport solidifies that the perpetrators of the 911 atrocity, among other thinks, created the worst public relations act in history. Tens of thousands of people every day curse them. It will never stop.
We have a lot of federally subsidized programs to help people in this country, how about subsidizing Game of Thrones to help me? Make them produce it every week.
This Fast and Furious thing is becoming a worry. The President says that there is no connection between the administration and the program but then invokes executive privilege. That can only mean two things: one, he was involved and was lying or, two, he was not involved and is covering for Holder. But he cannot use privilege in a crime. Nor can he use privilege if he is not involved. Both of these scenarios are very Nixonian and his administration looks bad here. Good thing no one is watching.
No one protected anyone from Sandusky and no one will be able to protect him from himself.
One of the real sorrows of current affairs is that people go to that vampire Soros for opinions. How anyone can criticize Romney for his business dealings and have any tolerance for Soros who has made a living ruining currencies is beyond me. I do not object to shorting the currencies of inept politicians and citizens but presenting it as a moral act is quite too much. Our culture seems to be able to parse predatory speculators into the good and bad now, really a sign of popular creativity.
The gloom and doom guys are really flocking around the body politic. Many have progressed beyond newsletters to books and some have started mutual funds. Joe Granville, call your office. Maybe this is a sign that things are turning.
Sandusky is something of a metaphor for the state of affairs, laughing and confident but shallow and vulnerable and guilty as sin.
The Supreme Court decision shows several things. First, there are a lot of informed commentator opinions out there that are really wrong. These "experts" show that work is easier to get than it seems. These people are much like stock advisers. Secondly, you know that your opinion is a little off base when the people who agree with you write a scathing dissent on what you said. Third, politics is filled with deception. The one crucial point the administration argued about the Mandate during its debate was that it was not a tax. The reason it was approved was that it was a tax. Now one of our esteemed leaders is wrong about a really important law.
The experience in an airport solidifies that the perpetrators of the 911 atrocity, among other thinks, created the worst public relations act in history. Tens of thousands of people every day curse them. It will never stop.
We have a lot of federally subsidized programs to help people in this country, how about subsidizing Game of Thrones to help me? Make them produce it every week.
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