Reverie

"Thinking is the source not of truth but of meaning. It flirts with doubt, perplexity and wonder, and because of this it is the permanent enemy not just of ideological dogmatism but of all forms of intellectual complacency and elitism." -- Finn Bowring

Shakespeare was born in the year 1564 and would have been 46 years old during 1610 when the finishing touches were being put on the King James Version of the Bible. In the King James Version, if you go to Psalm 46, count down 46 words from the top (not counting the title) you read the word “shake,” then, if you omit the word “selah” (apparently a musical notation) and count 46 words from the bottom you find the word “spear.”  To top it all off, William Shakespeare is an anagram of “Here was I, like a psalm.” So, then...

Who are...the Sarmatians?

CAFE mileage standards were not created to fight global warming. They were enacted after the 1973-74 oil shock. CAFE was a political solution to a political problem: soaring oil prices. The standards were premised on the belief that consumers would not pay more for cars that used less fuel even if the reduced fuel use more than paid for the extra initial cost. Instead, CAFE sought to force automakers to produce higher mileage cars and thereby reduce fuel use despite the supposed myopia of consumers. But subsequent economic research has shown that consumers were not myopic. Consumers’ willingness to pay for higher mileage capability approximately equals the expected future fuel cost savings without government intervention.

Even though the original rationale for CAFE has been undermined by the evidence, CAFE lives on with a new purpose: climate change.

The European Parliament accepted a resolution to lengthen consumer goods and software’s longevity. Devices should also be easier to repair: batteries and other components should be freely accessible for replacement, unless safety dictates otherwise. Manufacturers will also need to give other companies access to their components so that consumers can visit those companies for repairs. There is no mention in the legislation about how to do these things or whether the EU will help underwrite whatever cost is involved.

They just wrote the law with the assumption that it would happen. Governments are just wonderful.

California is adding some regulations on to industries that have significant egalitarian effects. Information technology helps equalize consumption. We cannot live in the same house, but we can all benefit from the same information, be it the information on the internet or the network of drivers and short term rental properties that the sharing economy provides. Innovation in information delivery will continue to have important leveling effects , but only if regulation gets out of the way.

Attitudes toward socialism among Democrats have not changed much since 2010, with 57 percent view it positively, according to the Gallup survey. “The major change among Democrats has been a less upbeat attitude toward capitalism, dropping to 47 percent positive this year — lower than in any of the three previous measures,” according to a statement from Gallup breaking down the numbers. Republicans remain much more positive about capitalism than about socialism, with little change in their views of either since 2010. About 71 percent of GOP voters viewed capitalism positively while just 16 percent had a positive view of socialism.
Now, we know the tenets of socialism in it various iterations; where are the tenets of capitalism?

The Turkish lira dropped 14% to 6.46 per dollar, the weakest on record with the largest drop in more than 17 years. The lira ended the week at a record low against the U.S. dollar.[6] Tension between the U.S. and Turkey played a part in the decline as President Trump tweeted plans to double tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum imports. This potential tariff hike followed a stalled conversation between the two countries concerning an imprisoned U.S. pastor who Turkey believes supported a 2016 attempted coup.

It is an interesting notion that knighthood was a Sarmatian creation in England left over from the Roman Mercenaries. I first read about it in Neal Ascherson's book Black Sea, although it may be an old idea I've never heard before.

Guinevere comes from the word meaning "White" or "Pure." Melania actually means the opposite, "Dark." Don't tell the NYTimes. They could run with that longer than Stormy.

AT&T has a new $15 video service. The service, tentatively named WatchTV, aims to use a “skinny bundle” of channels to recapture some of the millions of cord-cutters who dropped cable and satellite television. (wsj)

The Washington Post reports that President Trump signed into law the VA Mission Act which expands veterans healthcare, even though he is fighting a bipartisan plan to fund the law. The article says the measure “authorizes new health care programs for veterans, but the bill does not reserve federal money to pay for those programs.” Several top senators from both parties are working to address this issue “by advancing a separate measure for the new $50 billion law, saying this is the best way to ensure the new programs give veterans access to medical care.” But Trump is urging Republicans to vote against the proposal, instead encouraging lawmakers to pay for the expansion by making cuts to existing programs.

Oregon's government conducted a lottery to enroll a limited number of low-income adults in Medicaid. The results? According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, those in the Medicaid group spent about 35 percent per person more than those in the control group. But, although the increased spending did lead to some improvement in mental health, it "generated no significant improvements in measured physical health outcomes." One comment:  "If Medicaid were a new drug, the Food and Drug Administration would reject it."

So insurance itself does not improve either health or health costs? Uh oh.

Cyrus is a historical Persian king who, in the sixth century BCE, conquered Babylon and ended the Babylonian captivity, a period during which Israelites had been forcibly resettled in exile. This allowed Jews to return to the area now known as Israel and build a temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus is referenced most prominently in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, in which he appears as a figure of deliverance.

While Cyrus was not Jewish and did not worship the God of Israel, he is nevertheless portrayed in Isaiah as an instrument of God — an unwitting conduit through which God effects his divine plan for history. Cyrus is, therefore, the archetype of the unlikely “vessel”: someone God has chosen for an important historical purpose, despite not looking like — or having the religious character of — an obvious man of God.

Zito explains the Evangelicals' acceptance of Trump, whom they dislike personally, as "King Cyrus Christians," people willing to put up with a bad guy because of his presumably better ends.

They are not alone.  An Israeli organization, the Mikdash Educational Center, minted a commemorative “Temple Coin” depicting Trump and Cyrus side by side, in honor of Trump’s decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Two Parkland kids are making the TV rounds and one said this: "We have to get morally just leaders elected that aren’t Democrats or Republicans. "

Now there is a cat I'd like to see belled.

Golden oldie:

http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2016/10/trump-as-richard-iii.html

steeleydock: Trump as Richard III - blogspot.com steeleydock.blogspot.com Stephen Greenblatt is a professor at Harvard and the general editor of “The Norton Shakespeare.” He has an article in the NYT opening "Why, the Bible brooded, was the kingdom of Judah governed by a succession of disastrous kings?

Perhaps rich societies have big governments because it takes a colossal host to sustain colossal parasitism. --Caplan

From the WSJ: President Trump  has signaled his intention to continue pursuing an aggressive trade agenda even if it comes at the expense of U.S. standing in the world.

Starbuck has raised prices between 10 cents and 20 cents on all sizes of brewed coffee in most of the more than 8,000 company-operated stores across the U.S.

Medicare's hospital insurance fund will be depleted in 2026, said the trustees who oversee the program in an annual report. That is three years earlier than projected last year. This year, like last year, Social Security's trustees said the program's two trust funds would be depleted in 2034. Trustees said the changes for Medicare's outlook were due to adverse changes in both program income and cost.

Uh oh. In 2010, physician Joseph W. Stubbs noted: "Experts suggest that only about 20% of preventive measures, such as counseling a smoker to quit smoking, vaccinating against influenza, and screening men for colorectal cancer, actually generate true cost savings."

So preventative care does not save money?

AAAAaaaaannnnnddddd......a graph ( Despite the false narrative of rising trade deficits leading to U.S. job losses, the exact opposite has been true for nearly the last half-century as the chart shows: Rising trade deficits over time have been closely associated with increased levels of employment in the U.S.):