Megafeature: A Summary of the Stings

Source Photobucket

One of the more remarkable innovations of the T.E.A. party has been the use of "sting" operations. These sting operations involve a hapless victim that the teamen in question feel is being disingenuous, and a disguise of a figure that they feel he or she will be honest to. Sometimes the plot itself is so absurd that its practicality serves as a lesson regardless of the result, and then even more absurdly, it is vindicated. Such an example was the sting operation against a ground manager of a Planned Parenthood clinic, who has since been fired:

Planned Parenthood Sting Video

The most disturbing part of this video comes at timemark 8:38, when the manager informs a pimp how to avoid being detected by the law, how to avoid arrest, so that he and his enslaved Columbian girls, scared and far from home, can continue violating the states prostitution law and abort the babies thus produced. The most troubling aspect, however, is the callous and unthinking way she talks to one of the most evil kinds of villains that can exist: a slaver, and not just a slaver, but one who violates females through forced prostitution.

Then there's the issue of government waste. For this we get the NPR sting, a sting against an organization that is supposedly a national radio station of the United States but has long been suspected of bias in favor of progressives. The NPR sting demonstrated (sort of, well get to that in a minute) numerous bigoted statements, from comparing conservative Christians to the Taliban, to hating upon gun owners and the federal standards enforced upon NPR that they do a more then good enough job bending already:

This sting is not without controversy, in fact it may be without support. Sources from all across the political spectrum, as far left as the Huffington Post and as far right as the Blaze (Glenn Becks newspaper/amalgamator) have criticized O'Keefes video for its extremely unethical and dishonest editing techniques. Many, in fact, the left-wing Brudowsky praised Glenn Beck for his extremely professional, objective, and powerful dissection of the "NPR Sting," and I am among many whose respect for Mr. Beck, an icon of the Tea Party and the right in general, has greatly increased. While Becks criticism is in general the most thorough and useful to read through, there is one particular quote from the Huffington Post criticism that I find especially potent:

While Schiller does say the Republican Party has been "hijacked" by the tea party and Christian evangelicals -- and is "fanatically involved in people's personal lives" -- it is evident in the full tape that he is not giving his own view but rather quoting two influential Republicans, according to reporter Folkenflik. Schiller does not challenge those assertions, but they are not his.

O'Keefe is also famous for his ACORN stings, including one where, with his girlfriend, he attempted (and nearly did, with extensive assistance offered) to acquire starting funds for a prostitution house that he would pay back on interest that ACORN could use for political campaigns. Before this, he attempted to have Lucky Charms removed from the Rutgers cafeteria because it is "offensive to his Irish heritage" and apparently caught a conversation with the dining chiefs on tape exposing the absurdity of the situation. He stated that he is "still in [his] bunker producing more videos. We're releasing another video in San Diego right now. I'm focusing on doing what I do best." Although congress looked to punish ACORN with a defunding bill, a Federal Court has ruled that such actions would be the exclusive remedy of the Judicial Branch. This is not the first time recently that we have seen our governments dormant constitutional protections awoken from their sleep, and everyone is watching as the American people push for reform and government officials pit "ambition against ambition" in a classic display of democratic, Madisonian magic.

The organization Life Dynamics dialed up 800 calls to Planned Parenthood stating that they needed an abortion for a 13-year-old to cover up impregnation by her 22-year-old boyfriend. This is illegal in all 50 states, but Planned Parenthood did not report any of these incidences. Just for the record, I actually support the actions of Planned Parenthood in this regard, as concealing a pregnancy is, at least in my mind, a good (if not the only good) reason for abortion as it is a case where putting up the baby for adoption is simply not good enough. This said, I know that many disagree with this sentiment, and technically it is against the (stupid) law, which requires all suspected cases of abuse to be reported to authorities by medical professionals.

And then finally, and greatest of all, is ClimateGate, the sting operation that may have fundamentally altered global environmental politics, and that the Democrat Party at large insists on ignoring the ramifications of. The product of a hacker, 1000 emails among staff at the UK's Climate Research Unit have been made public. Although FactCheck.org, in its examination of ClimateGate, disagrees that it disproves anthropogenic global warming, a conclusion a self-interested Saudi came to, it does agree that the emails show scientists "sometimes being rude, dismissive, insular, or even behaving like jerks" while the public has rightly responded to attitudes and interpersonal aggression, such as declaring global warming "settled science" along with the climategate emails, clearly not conducive to good science. While the ClimateGate emails may or may not (I have not read them myself) show the science to be false, they do show the scientists to be false, and with the alternative sources offered all being government entities (NOAA and NASA), we the public are left with little more then a few university degrees on which to trust theories that could fundamentally alter our lives.

Unfortunately, and we see this clearly with ClimateGate, named for the much lesser WaterGate, "operations" like these can only have a true impact (where the much better funded and marketed "Supersize Me!" failed) when a cultural context exists to support them.

To create such, we have a play with many characters. There's an arugula growing, elite talking, Harvard Law-Chicago Cesspool Obama intent on breaking the budget with spending in excess of even Bush. There's an irrepressible lady from California and gentleman from Nevada who seem intent on shattering any popular or political movement against them. There's a lightbulb ban, an "individual mandate" (thou must purchase something, approved by thine bureaucratic overlords, if thou seekest to breathe) and big shot corporations receiving welfare while "99ers" go cold and hungry in the street. There's government destroying cars to make people buy more and a liberal establishment that wants congress to pass a bill so they can read what's in them. There's an American people who do not even understand all the "Hope" and "Change" that their initially lauded leader has brought.

In short, political overreach, and too much game playing, manipulation and intrigue for an American people who know they will be the ones to pay the bill.

Responding to the controversy, Slate commisioned blogger Weigel held a twitter conversation with one of the publishers of the original, edited, NPR Sting video. The exchange is revealing. The actual conversation reveals an NPR chief quoting a top donor for the Republican Party as saying he voted for Obama because he's scared of the xenophobic, gun-toting, racist post-Obama Party. When Weigel challenges him on this account, the publisher responds: "No, it's really not. Go ahead and try to make the argument Schiller isn't CLEARLY agreeing with them. Go ahead. Moron."

To the publishers credit, the actual tone expressed in the original quote does indicate, at the very least, a fear that the Kingmaker may be right. And a Kingmaker is generally held in high esteem. Also to the publishers credit, while this "edit" is not good journalism, username "simon templar" is not a professional journalist, and clearly feels very overwhelmed as this tweet reveals: "nobody likes an access journalist/tweeter. we'll get you the info/emails you asked for eventually, I'm sure." It is also worth noting that every controversial remark attributed, falsely or otherwise, to the NPR head in the sting, is commonly found among liberals on the internet and in IRL, including, of course, the "gun-toting nutjobs" line that is argued over in this article.

"simon templar" is a common man, pushed in to uncommon work. He is, in fact, out of his league, but right now, who IS in their league?

Which leads me to my next point, what's become irrelevant. While teamen with camcorders flood the internet with "stings," documentaries by top Hollywood directors like Oliver Stone (e.g. "W") go totally unwatched and unremembered. I can't even remember the last time a story about a Hollywood star, a bigshot CEO, or a Harvard professor made the papers. The only "elites" who still seem to make papers, in fact, are the politicians we're all scared of and a few big media demagogues, like Krugman and O'Reilly, who are little more then highly paid whipping boys for the common citizens. In the words of Scripture: "the last shall be first, and the first shall be last."

And then there's the Middle East. While here at home we break our own elite peacefully, using the full well-oiled machinery of our democracy and a thousand years of Western legal wisdom, the streets of Benghazi are soaked in blood. The alleys of Bahrain lay covered in shell casings, and aircraft streak over the Mediterranean carrying every sort of explosive payload. In Egypt, the army, a traditional symbol of tyranny and distrust, is helping to provide for what the Arab world doesn't have, insisting on all parties respecting each other and disarming those who would hurt the people. That Army has so much to be proud of, and I know I would be proud to carry an Egyptian rifle right now. In this great moment to be alive, the long oppressed show the irrepressible, stubborn, freedom-loving and faithful spirit of humanity. They also almost exactly mirror the tea party, using many of the same methods, and the sheer tinyness of the media involved makes it nearly impossible for the government to stop the word. The government is stopping army ants with an elephant gun.

And then there's Japan, where ordinary men and women, Japanese and others, have volunteered their time by the truckload to rebuild and service the survivors*, and where the nations eyes lay flatly and squarely pointed towards the power plant workers risking their lives to bring a reactor under control. "She said in an entry on social networking site Mixi that her boyfriend, who also works at the plant, had tearfully told her "you go ahead to safety", before she evacuated in a company car." (Hindustan Times)

And in Britain, flash mobs have become a common occurence.

We find a world suspiciously popular and self-driven, where the elites find themselves unneeded and out of touch. This is the world where Obama is trying to force huge, coercive government actions and sweeping reforms led by, you guessed it, the elites. This is the world that Obama, half Harvard and half machine politician, an outdated relic from a time period that mostly ended in 1910, finds himself in. The past meets the future, my friends, and usually, the future wins.

*Source note: You will need to browse to the end of the article to find this information. Here's a quote:

Fumio and her daughter were among the roughly 600 people (men, women and children of all ages) who had taken shelter on the gymnasium's wood floor, beneath the basketball hoops and nets. Evacuees were offered food, such as warm milk and rice — some of which had been taken from a home economics class — and a place to sleep. A flat-panel television was broadcasting news of the unfolding catastrophe, which by then was focused on the potential meltdown of reactors within the Fukushima nuclear plants.

How Egypt can thwart the inevitable

Sherif9282, c.c. s.a. 3.0 unported

"[El Bradei] said a transitional period should take place before the nation prepared for an election." -The Washington Post

This is a disastorously naive sentiment, and frankly must be stopped! Eritrea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and a multitude of other nations all claimed that they needed "time for things to settle down" before elections could be held, the result was elites with power gradually corroding and destroying the system set out to dry too long, and in the case of Eritrea declaring a permanent state of emergency. Right now, it needs to be recognized that no matter what Egypt does, 1) there will be problems, 2) there will be people, like that spokesman for the Islamic Brotherhood, who have a vested interest in screwing things up.

The longer you insist on "settling" is one more day for the elites of the past to ruin the prospects of the future. So how do you get around this problem? The same way you prevent a navy ship from sinking when it's been hit.

It's called compartmentalization, allow one portion of the ship to get filled with water without the rest of it filling up. Egypt CANNOT be a national government, at least not yet. I may not know too much about Egypt, but I know enough to know that, no matter what the situation, that idea can only end in dictatorship when in the hands of the evil, satanic men who lay in wait in every nation for their moment to steal and destroy. For when Egypt is national, only one compartment need fill up for all of it to go under!

Egypt should be run as locally as possible. City and county level in smaller areas, neighborhood level in Cairo and Alexandria. NO Egyptian government, for the moment, should be bigger then 100,000. 100,000 is not worth the trouble of the Islamic "Brotherhood", but 79 million certainly is! If a few 100,000 strong units fall, the rest can react, and the worst that can happen is a small local conflict that progresses towards a great resolution of peace, dignity, and freedom, but if all of Egypt falls all will end up right where they started, and the sacrifices of the brave will be in total vain.

A compartmentalized Egypt is an Egypt of the right scale, cooperation, and economic interest to gradually bring its problem to a resolution before the evil ones reach their seats. A unified Egypt is a big, slow, cumbersome target. Don't ever forget that.

Nihilism and Love

I've been away for the past few weeks, travelling Greyhound and seeing family. This article is partially about Loughner, partially about me, and partially about God.

This may sound bizarre, but I think, to a very small degree, I can empathize with Loughner.

Loughners obsession with Giffords, according to his friend Tierney and Mother Jones, had almost nothing to do with any political movement. In fact, Loughner himself asked Giffords "what is government if words have no meaning?" When she inadequately answered his question, he became very angry at her, often calling her a "fake" in the presence of his good friend Tierney.

Loughner was mostly a loner, living largely by himself. Thus, he tended to encounter the worse side of people, the side that wants to control and push away. He also never really be He himself was a control freak, even keeping a dream journal to look for hints in how to control his mind, which he had faith in as a source of another reality he could conquer for himself. His obsession with words indicate a kind of politicization in its strictest meaning, but not the one we would be familiar with, rather the kind of politicization one would find in office politics or academic politics, the politicization of someone with no ideology and a lot of lust for power. In his safe, according to the AP, was found the name Giffords, next to his signature.

Why do I say I may empathize with him? After encountering someone ironically very similar to many profiles of Loughner, academic, obsessive, paranoid, and having a hard time with a Greyhound bus company where the employees take priviliges paying customers are not entitled to, and being told I wasn't humble enough, and being isolated from nearly everyone, I contemplated a killing spree, just because I felt, after 48 hours on a bus run by a company that had me totally under their control and didn't even permit me to drink alcohol or cuss or be five minutes late for the bus when I'm getting food but finds it quite reasonable to not keep a parts shed for when the windshield motors break down in Montana, like a total slave, and wanted something, anything, for myself. Everyone around me was rude, vicious, and would hurt me over anything. If I got in to an argument with one of these powder kegs, I would be kicked off the bus for making noise. I thought of bombing Greyhound especially, just to put them out of business. Eventually my desire for the blood for others turned to a desire for the blood of myself, when we came to a canyon out in North Dakota for a rest stop, and I looked down and contemplated jumping.

What stopped me from jumping? The thought of my mother crying. What stopped me from contemplating further a killing spree? The thought of my parents shamed. I felt like a marked man, having such horrible, capital thoughts, thoughts of actions that can bring shame to not only me but my loved ones, of such actions that both can and should lead a person to death, and also how easy then it seemed for a person to be totally disposable and hated, and for a long time I cried silently. I called my father, and that made me feel better, but still, the shame of having such an awful thought, the fear of such thoughts, and the realization of just how pointless people suddenly seemed at all levels, combined with an already stressed psyche, brought me nearly to suicide.

Later on, we encountered the little small town of Alexandria, Minnesota. We were only there for ten minutes, but a lady helped me when my coffee cup exploded, the driver kidded me around about my fear that someone would steal my laptop, and overall the warmth and openness touched my heart. I also heard a story, at the register, of a man from Tennessee who was traveling to Seattle by Greyhound and ended up being so sick and tired of the bus that he got off it, and is still living in Alexandria! And that's when I realized just how valuable people were, how complicated, loving, faithful, interesting and all other things people can really be, and why they would be so valued in the eyes of God. "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." (Matthew 5: 13, NIV)

In addition, soon after one of the people who made me feel bad got his! That made me feel even better.

But back to Loughner, whose name could be pronounced "loner" in some languages, he was a very nihilistic man. "If you call me a terrorist then the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem." -Loughner. In High School he engaged in drinking nearly to the point of death, and smoked marijuana nearly every day while talking to friends about conspiracy theories. He believed in very little. He was very atheist, and believed people were essentially sheep herded by government. Not only did he believe that God didn't exist, he didn't even believe the world existed. He didn't like guns until he finally wanted to use them. He apparently did volunteer time at a Book Festival, but his political diatribes were highly incoherent, and his obsession was always with control and meaning. He believed in nothing, and a little rudeness from Gifford was all it took.

Loughner had no one, and he saw only one side of people. According to neighbors and the AP, he "kept to himself and was often seen walking his dog, almost always wearing a hooded sweat shirt and listening to his iPod." He loved nothing but control. And how could he love more? His view of what was important was so small, so limited, so, in fact, meaningless. "The question [to Giffords] was classic Jared: confrontational, nonsensical and obsessed with how words create reality." -Two friends of Loughner and AP.

People have meaning, and are beautiful even though they are also somewhat evil in their actions and thoughts, God looks after even Cain (Genesis 4:15), and soon Loughner will get to find out just how much meaning words can have when the judge passes sentence against him. He will get to see how meaningful government can really be, and maybe some fine day the meaning of that beautiful little girl he shot dead will haunt him in his sleep when he can no longer control his dreams and his "second reality" is filled with images of his tragic and evil past, and he finds all around him that he lives entirely in what he has already done.

11 Amazing Finds

Here is a short list of eleven of the most fascinating and inspiring scientific finds of the last few months:

1 [see update below for serious flaw] - Bacteria use Arsenic as Part of Basic Chemical Makeup - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11886943

2 - US Air Force Constructs Supercomputer from 1760 PlayStation 3's - http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-air-playstation-3s-supercomputer.html

3 - Recent Mathematical Research Exonerates Free Market of Social Inequity Claims - http://www.physorg.com/news198239413.html

4 - New Record for Miniaturization of Fuel Cells - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101123174334.htm

5 - Well Positioned Planet could well be Second Earth - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/100930-new-planet-discovered-first-habitable-earthike-water-gliese-581g-science-goldilocks/

6 - Heat and Cold Resistant Rubber made from Carbon Nanotubes - http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6009/1332.short

7 - Mathematician Discovers Statistical Model to Predict Anemia Risk - http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-11-mathematical-life-red-blood-cells.html

8 - Temperature and Pressure Optimization Achievement for Generating Electricity from Flammable Ice - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090406091232.htm

9 - Mathematics Resolves Important Question of Scotlands Ancient Heritage - http://www.physorg.com/news195367761.html

10 - NYU Discovers Way to Shape Solid Materials with Corn - http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=118084&org=NSF&from=news

11 - Konarka Mass Produces Conductive Plastic Solar Panel - http://www.konarka.com/media/pdf/konarka_technical_sheet_KT800.pdf

Update 12/4/2010 - This list will have to be expanded to 12. A Swiss company has developed rechargable batteries with three times the capacity of lithium ion and no toxic components - http://www.technologyreview.com/business/23812/page2/

Update 12/7/2010 - This list will have to be reduced back to 11:

"When the NASA scientists took the DNA out of the bacteria, for example, they ought to have taken extra steps to wash away any other kinds of molecules. Without these precautions, arsenic could have simply glommed to the DNA, like gum on a shoe. "It is pretty trivial to do a much better job," said Rohwer.

In fact, says Harvard microbiologist Alex Bradley, the NASA scientists unknowingly demonstrated the flaws in their own experiment. They immersed the DNA in water as they analyzed it, he points out. Arsenic compounds fall apart quickly in water, so if it really was in the microbe's genes, it should have broken into fragments, Bradley wrote Sunday in a guest post on the blog We, Beasties. But the DNA remained in large chunks—presumably because it was made of durable phosphate. Bradley got his Ph.D. under MIT professor Roger Summons, a professor at MIT who co-authored the 2007 weird-life report. Summons backs his former student's critique." (Slate)

I may do a blog post in the near future about poorly conducted science and the results it can "create."

Food for Thought

How has your state done at creating a good environment for business? This manufacturing oriented business magazine has ranked all 50 states and the district of columbia based on their business environments. Check it out.

Jerks, Trolls, and Bullies

After my recent tirade regarding the WTC Mosque, I felt obligated to point out a few more Jerks, Trolls, and Bullies to come to our attention in recent days:

Terry Jones - This Floridian Pentecostal preacherly jackass seeks to create a bonfire of 200 Qu'rans this Saturday. He's also written a book entitled "Islam is the Devil," and has succesfully run his church right in to the ground with no more then 50 very unfortunate, but perhaps slightly maladaptive to reality, sheep in his flock. General Petreaus has pointed out that this act will put our men and mission in harms way in Iraq. In the past, he has been expelled from a church in Cologne, Germany, where his former parishoners still recount his "spiritual abuse." There has also been "suspicions of financial irregularities in the church surrounding Jones." "Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13: 10, NIV) We hope Mr. Jones will spend less time burning other peoples books and more time reading his own.

UPDATE 9/9/2010 - According to Al Jazeera, Jones has called off the burning of Qu'rans.

British Petroleum - Assigns blame to everyone, including easy targets Halliburton and Deepwater Horizon, besides themselves. On the rare case that they do take any of the blame, they assign it to the lowest level workers possible, and fail to make any mention of well design and other cited factors by federal authorities. As the article I'm linking to makes clear, they are doing exactly what they did five years ago after the Texas City refinery explosion, seeking primarily to ease panicky shareholders and defend their case in court.

Kay Phaneufs Husband - In Salem, NH, a woman dependent on an electrically-powered respirator died because her husband did not attend to the medical protection and electric bill needs of the home. The power company went above and beyond regulation, sending multiple notices over the period of HALF A YEAR and being in constant communication. I know from personal experience how difficult medical problems can be, so the Jerk/Bully award definitely goes to her husband on this one.

Multnomah County - About a week ago, county health inspectors from this Portland Metro County shut down a 7-year-olds lemonade stand because she failed to acquire a $120 temporary restaurant license. The 7-year-olds mother however, probably not wanting her daughter to get disappointed, periodically reminds her that the health inspector was "just doing her job."

SPD Officer Ian Birk - Yet another example of why some people should not be police officers. A partially deaf Native American man named John T. Williams was crossing the road peacefully with a piece of wood and a legal knife. Not one witness has testified otherwise. This officer bizarrely tries to pull him over, yelling at him to drop the knife. At 9 to 10 feet away, or more then enough distance to handle the situation responsibly, he shoots several shots from his gun, killing the man instantly. "Grey added that no one from SPD contacted the Chief Seattle Club or members of Williams's tribe until two days after the shooting." If Birk himself was worthy of the badge at all, one would think he would do it himself.

Mayor McGinn - Also hailing from Seattle, Washington, this young political bully intends to break a deal with a vital city institution to deny them any real ability to relocate after the city demolishes their current structure to expand 520 Freeway. The 47 million they previously negotiated would allow the Museum of History and Industry, one of the best in Seattle, to find its new place in a good neighborhood that probably needs it, but with up to 7 million of its dollars taken away, it will likely have to relocate to a less utilized, less strategic neighborhood where it will barely see the light of day. Thankfully, it appears that Seattles' city council is a bit more sensible in this regard, and does not sound ready to jump off the Philistine bridge with Biking Mike.

Eugene Robinson - Argues in the following editorial that anyone who does not agree with him is a spoiled brat having a temper tantrum. Argues that he can discard all journalistic traditions of not attacking the common voter because it's "the obvious" and that the American People, in rejecting exorbitant quantities of government spending and taxing the rich, are seeking a "quick fix."He also is convinced that everybody else should be forcibly mandated by law to join him in his personal crusade to save the planet and gain "modern infrastructure" like the kind that Obama has supposedly been building with the stimulus and none of us have yet noticed exists or is under construction.

As you can see, one need not follow the teachings of Muhammad to be a jerk, troll, or bully. And now for something completely different.


Photobucket.

Three Cheers for the Huffington Post!

First of all, we would like to thank the Huffington Post for so successfully scamming so many dozens of liberals of large amounts of their money. With less money to use for all purposes, they will be having less fun, and may perhaps be unable to send their kids to college in the near future, leading to more right-leaning university campuses. In addition, it reminds us once again which animal the Democrats picked as their symbol, and advances the cause of Social Darwinism through starvation.

Second, we would like to thank the Huffington Post for being extremely preoccupied with Glenn Beck. Not only does it make the fellow seem more important then he is, but it wastes large amounts of liberal time that could instead be devoted to rational arguments, political activism, or eventually learning to be Republicans. Then again, we would say time with family, but the extremely high levels of support for Abortion seem to indicate that Social Darwinism will score our finally victory for us! Haazaa!

Third, we would like to thank the Huffington Post for not paying their writers. It makes me feel great to know I am not the only unpaid blogger on the internet. I can just think of all the 1000's of writers that Arianna Huffington refuses to pay every day over my coffee, and go, "Ahhhh!!!!" It just makes me feel warm inside. Plus, I know that with the extensive hours they work rather then lazy bums like me who hardly ever update the site, they'll probably STARVE to death from too few paid workhours anyways! MORE SOCIAL DARWINISM!

So Hip-Hip-Hooray for the Huffington Post, Darwinian defeater of the Democrat Party! Haazaa!

(I'm not totally sure why I wrote this, but it's fun.)

Darwin Caricature from London Sketchbook 1874, by Faustin Betbeder. Copyright Expired

The Dangers of Bandwagons, or The Future of Haiti's Oil Industry

I was reading an op-ed in the New York Times today suggesting that Haiti become like every other country in the Carribean. Why do people never seem to learn?

A lot (though admittedly not all) of what caused the recent US economic crash was the inductive tendency. This is the belief that trends continue forever. Because the Dominican Republic has successful garment producers, lets build garment producers in Haiti! Because LA has seen its housing increase in price, lets build even more housing there. Because that other guy got rich (and served the poor) off of subprimes, I can get rich (and served the poor) off of subprimes too. There's this bizarrely inadequate idea that if we do exactly what the other guy did, it will work for us too. Did it ever occur to them that the need for garments is limited?

Further, demand for the most profitable kind of garment making for small manufacturers, luxury and designer label, is severely hurt by recessions, for the simple reason that people don't like spending outlandishly large amounts of money on a single dress when they don't have a job! It will be a long time before Americans are spending the same amount on designer clothes that they were in 2006, and I doubt it will be much faster for the rest of the world.

The Gulf of Mexico has signifcant crude deposits in it, as do Mexico, Venezuela and Texas. America has insufficient refining capacity to handle all its oil needs, and refuses to build more, and already has to ship some oil a much further distance to Japan. Haiti could also use the Panama Canal to bring in oil from (and send to) Southern California, Argentina, Western Venezuela and Chile. Brazil could also benefit from a Haitian oil terminal.

Oil Refineries would also create support services for other kinds of chemical industries, including Ammonium Producers, Cosmetics makers, Cement plants, Sulfuric Acid producers (which are neccesary for eveyr kind of heavy industry), and perhaps even Steel Mills and Metal Smelters. This could in the end allow Haiti to become the industrial motherland of the Carribean, much as Japan was in the West Pacific.

So why Haiti? Simple. Haiti's not a tourist destination, and even if it was, the tourists were good far to the North, to see the Citadel, Tortuga, and other valuable World Heritage sites and NOT Port-Au-Prince, except maybe the Airport, along with beaches facing open ocean with comparatively few people living near them, in the far North and South. There are some nice(looking) neighborhoods in Port-Au-Prince, but centuries of poverty have destroyed most of the neighborhood businesses that make such places more then a photo moment. As such, there is no economic cost to putting up NIMBY-type industry, of the kind that would kill half the economy in the Bahamas or Saint Thomas.

Further, the destruction in Port-Au-Prince has cleared massive amounts of land. Now, massive amounts of land having nothing in them does nothing good for light industry, which requires a lot of support services, but how many places left on earth are there that have large tracts of available land AND several million unemployed people available to work in your plant in the exact same point on earth. And by the coast too. Likely large enough, in fact, to build a 100-acre Oil Refinery!

Further, Oil Refining would also help repair Haitis infrastructure, both by creating, as a waste product, large amounts of asphalt, good for every kind of pavement including roads, sidewalks, ports, and airport tarmacs, and by using pent-up demand from eco-regulators in Western countries to create a mammoth industrialization involving every kind of support service and industry for these refineries as, building at nearly (but not past) break-even cost is still better then not building at all. This industrialization would also create a large demand for track-laying by railroad companies, in a landscape destroyed by quakes and thus with easilly clearable (and usable at little cost) right of ways.

The better infrastructure would aid in the development of Haitian agriculture and tourism to the North, and allow Port-Au-Prince to grow in to a major port, carrying much of the cargo for the Dominican Republic as well. Port-Au-Prince could build a passanger railway station, allowing for easy and cheap transportation of people throughout Hispaniola. This is especially possible because Port-Au-Prince is located centrally on a large bay that digs deep in to the Island, thus being the shortest railroute to the ocean on average for the entire island. PAP could easilly be the Chicago of Hispaniola, and we all know how much Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco grew after their great fires, with the destruction as their benefactor, clearing way for better design and more profitable businesses like Chicagos great stockyards.

Oil refineries are also much higher profit margin factories then garmentmakers, allowing higher wages and lower unemployment for the Haitian working man in the near future, and gearing Haiti away from heavilly servile low-margin industry that can only lead to poverty for their workers. In the end, oil refining could help not only put Haiti back to work, but put it on the path to wealth and prosperity. After all, it's only been a few centuries since Scotland went from being the poorest nation in Europe to the third wealthiest in a very short period of time.

So why aren't people suggesting this? Because they've already seen the garment factories, and all they can think is, another Carribean Banana Republic.

What's next for Haiti?

John R. Chapins "The Rush for our Lives over Randolph Street Bridge", an image of the Great Chicago Fire, Copyright expired.

When four square miles of Chicago burned to the ground in 1871, many were killed, but it also led to a massive redevelopment of the city that made Chicago among Americas mightiest centers. Further, the wisdom of insurance executives and reformers like Arthur C. Ducat reworked the laws so nothing like Chicagos fire would ever happen again.

A friend of mine who is a civil engineer pointed out that in Port-Au-Prince, a lot of the buildings were 10-stories. If you notice, in most parts of the world 10-story buildings aren't built, and the reason is resonance. If structures are built in a way to aid the natural vibrations of their material, then when severe winds or earthquakes hit them, their vibrations will be magnified to the point of destruction.

Quakes like the one that hit Haiti have hit many other parts of the world without causing that degree of damage. For instance, the 6.7 magnitude Northridge quake in San Fernando killed well under a 100 (out of a population of over 3.8 million affected) in the Los Angeles Area. Not a fair comparison, okay, but even in the third world, the 2009 Honduras Earthquake, out of three countries affected (further away, but 7.3 magnitude in scale) killed "at least 7." The difference is preparation.

Now, everybody feels sorry for Haiti, and a lot of people have been killed or made homeless, but Haiti is not helpless anymore then Chicago was. Sure, they're poor, but the world was poorer in 1871, and technology less sophisticated so wealth didn't even go as far when you did have it. If Haiti takes this opportunity to rebuild Port-Au-Prince, enact the right legislation, and make Haiti a great center of commerce and industry, they will cease being the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and perhaps become among the wealthiest. If they do not, this WILL happen again, maybe next year, maybe the year after, just as many other disasters have routinely killed thousands in that country.

Now, in addition to preparing for future earthquakes, Haiti's transportation should review PAP's transportation systems to see if any improvements would be beneficial. They should also take an opportunity to, in order to raise money for reconstruction and provide work for those who need it, find large plots of relatively uncentral, but well-connected to railway, demolished land to sell to Industrialists, who can build up industry to bring Haiti in to a more prosperous future and provide better work for Haitians. Among other things, any good coastal land could be valuable for a shipyard.

If Haiti is open to construction of things, like nuclear plants and oil refineries, that are difficult to build in other nations, these private projects, built with private money, could bring Haiti a high-level of prosperity. If it cuts down on its corruption, much of the benefit could go to the Haitian working man. In particular, Haiti, if it gets on the ball, could end up reprocessing America's nuclear waste and selling it back to us, since our own government has already shot us in the foot on nuclear waste disposal and reprocessing. This would provide good work for the average Haitian at a high-profit margin, which helps gear a countries working people to higher standards of living by making it possible for them to be paid better. After all, no worker can be made more then he makes for his business, and most will be paid well less.

There's only one nuclear reactor shell foundry in the world night, Haiti would really reduce the price of nuclear energy if they built a second, and they would be among the largest beneficiaries (and benefactors.)

I hope the Haitian government will take this as an opportunity to learn, and if they don't I hope the Haitians will find a chance to ask for a new government, perhaps prepare a very special bowl of chili for the starving...

The Copenhagen Post

Looking at many articles pertaining to Climate Change (and many of the stories revolve around Denmark), I have found a rare gem.

This quality Danish newspaper is concise, informative, intelligent, and has a wonderful English language edition. Very few of their newstories are over half a page, and yet they give you five pages worth of information. I especially loved this gem on public opinnion related to Nuclear power: "'Nej Tak' to nuclear after all".

They started by mentioning the two polls and their collosally different results. They then briefly mentioned the question that one of the polls asked versus the other. Then they gave a simple and clear reason - "did not ask respondents about the actual placement of nuclear power plants in Denmark" (4th paragraph, last sentence) - for the discrepency. It followed this up with a one-sentence explanation (without making it clear that it was an explanation) for why they looked in to this to begin with, and finished with the status (in the last paragraph) of Danish political parties on the issue.

I also found a wonderful article there about an accounting scandals involving carbon credits and a VAT carousel. It involves a classic conflict-of-interest scenario, where registering the VAT you paid to buy your goods for resale, you drop the VAT Receivable of the “cooperating” businesses without collection, and run off to a foreign country before you have to pay the VAT yourself. The "chum" businesses who "sold" you the goods also disappear, leaving no complete recursion for the collection of the tax.

Look at it yourself any time:

http://www.cphpost.dk/index.php

Guest Post - The Irate Dog

This logo is exclusive property of "The Irate Dog," authorized for use ONLY on this site. Use this image, and I will kill you, with my own two hands.

Our guest, who is also a regular reader and a follower of this site, has chosen to speak about health care, and in particular, health care in the UK. The name of his blog is "The Irate Dog."

After talking at lengths on BlogCatalog, Jeremy and I decided I should write a guest post for his blog. After flicking through his posts and editorials I landed on one particular post that caught my eye; “Healthcare Co-ops - The Third Option”.

We all know that healthcare has been the subject of heated debate over in the USA in recent months - coming to a peek at Obama/Hitler posters being brandished (that scene still confuses me. How can Obama be compared to a fascist when his idea for national healthcare takes him to the left...in the opposite direction ideologically?). Unfortunately a lot of public outrage at the idea of a national healthcare system is based on a distinct lack of knowledge. For example that classically ignorant argument that came out of the US that said that if Stephen Hawking were treated by the NHS he would be dead - a case clearly made in the heat of the moment because Stephen Hawking was and is in fact treated by the NHS and has said himself that he owes them his life.

I’d like to take this opportunity to explain my own country’s healthcare system. For me it is the crowning jewel of the post war Labour government. It is not, as apparently many Americans would describe it, an institution of Death Panels and inferior-quality healthcare. It is not a last resort. It is not an example of a Communist or Socialist victory.

It is, in short, magnificent. It is, excluding dentistry and some prescriptions, free at the point of use. You go in, you see a personal General Practitioner, you go out. Not a penny has left for wallet, your bank account or your insurance company. This means two very important things. 1)Diseases can be caught earlier and 2) Poorer people can get the same healthcare as everyone else.

Think about it. In a country where there is an economical dis-incentive to seek medical attention people will tend to leave things be and see if they get better. If they don’t get better, they then go to the doctors and find out they have something “that wouldn’t have been a problem if only you’d come to us sooner”. Here in the UK, you can have a slight sniff, maybe a cough, and go straight to your GP without any monetary worries at all. That means serious diseases, cancer etc. are caught much earlier and things can be done about them much more easily.

People say the NHS is a Socialist, even Communist idea as if that was supposed to be insulting. Well, if it was so terrible, wouldn’t the various right-wing political parties in the UK want to get rid of it? The Conservative party (who are likely to gain power again next year) are doing no such thing - just like always. They have in fact pledged to fund it better and make it more efficient. Even the BNP (the most right-wing party we have) isn’t talking about getting rid of the NHS. Why? Because it is a genuinely genius idea and there would be public uproar if it were taken away.

Here in the UK you see a lot in the news about long waiting lists and patients having to wait on trolleys for days on end before they get a bed. But the fact is, at least those instances are unique enough to warrant their own news headline. It is not a trend but a hot topic that sells newspapers. Like all teenagers being anti-social and a terror to society - yes, a great story, but totally inaccurate and frankly insulting.

That’s all from me. I hope Jeremy and I continue to trade posts like this. It’s been a very good experience.

Bye!

Tom

Visit my blog at http://theiratedog.blogspot.com

(For your personal convenience, the post that caught Tom's interest can be found here.)

Ahn Cao (R - New Orleans)

Image Courtesy of the Office of Congressmen Ed Royce, public domain

There was exactly one Republican congressmen who voted in favor of Obama's healthcare bill. Ahn "Joseph" Cao of Downtown New Orleans, a district more liberal, on average, then Seattle, Washington - populated almost entirely by African Americans and hyper-urbanites who live in 500-square-foot lofts and go to parties all the time. The devil-may-care attitude of his hometown has led at once to a brilliant and sophisticated culture, utter extravagance and excess, and monstrous levels of poverty, crime, general sleaziness, and finally, corruption. He was elected as a pro-business, moderate, no-nonsense, relatively innocent and squeaky clean Vietnamese immigrant Republican against a Democrat who had been caught with 85 grand in his freezer.

His district probably has a lot of people without medical insurance. We know his district is generally very economically liberal, and so his conservative votes on the Stimulus and Cap-and-Trade likely had serious repercussions for him back home. His election was entirely the product of a two-party system and the lack of competition it creates. In short, something had to give.

I know a lot of conservatives are very angry at Mr. Cao, but they should realize that if he does not occasionally throw his constituents a bone - especially one that, from the special interests viewpoint alone, would be so delicious to them - he WILL lose this seat. If he keeps this seat, the GOP may have the opportunity to expand its presence not only in New Orleans, but in Inner City America in general, the kind of frontier expansion that Republicans have not really engaged in for a long, long time. May I remind you that we are not in the majority right now.

Beyond this, it may indeed have been a vote of conscience. Follow this link to see for yourselves. In particular, he used his bargaining power to arrange for an amendment, Stupak-Pitts, that will prevent federally funded plans from covering elective abortion, producing an effective abortion tax. Consider also that this fellow is VERY Vietnamese, and as such probably has a more collectivist view of life then is normal here in America. To him, denying some people medical freedom to protect the vitality of the whole probably (though I will emphasize probably, as I cannot see in to the mans head) does not seem quite so bad, and if he can get an anti-abortion amendment doing it, well that's just twice as good now isn't it?

So no, I do not believe Ahn Cao is a "traitor." Reagan himself said "you only have to vote with your party 80% of the time." I continue to follow his career with special and keen interest and to recognize the unique constraints on his power as a legislator as a result of his district. Like it or not, America is a democracy. Ahn Cao continues to provide a more clear and business friendly and hardwork oriented path for the people of New Orleans and to promote Conservative interests across America through his cooperation from a group of people (the inner-cities) that so far no other Republican has really reached out to. He voted with us on the Stimulus and the Cap-and-Trade, and this is a vote (Downtown New Orleans) we normally wouldn't have.

Who cares?

White House Photo of Bush 43 courtesy of EO-POTUS, public domain

I won't be posting much for a little while, as a major round of exams at GT just came in to study for, but before I head off to glory I wanted to post about something I've noticed in political discussion lately.

A lot of democrats, including at least one commenter on this site, continue to obsess about what Bush 43 did and how it screwed over America. My response is simple: "No one cares!" Bush doesn't have power anymore.

Regardless of who started the fire, there are people out there who believe Obama is pouring gasoline on the flames. I'm not going to say whether he is or he isn't - I'll leave that for you to decide - but what's happened with Bush is over and honestly, it is quite intelligent of the American people to disregard such quibbling in their reasoning. It doesn't matter how bad things were when Obama got them, everyone is asking, is Obama making them better?

Not everyone will answer yes.

Why didn't Boris get it?

Image Courtesy of Executive Office of the President of the United States, Public domain, accessed from Wikimedia Commons

To take one last jab at the end of the Nobel Prize hanogver, I would like to suggest that the next Nobel Peace Prize go to Boris Yeltsin. He should've won it this year. After the fall of the USSR, amidst domestic terrorism, missile threats, a hurt national pride, a collapsed economy, and a nuclear security crisis that shook the spirit of the world to its core, he kept the ship sailing smooth. He even handled himself coolly and effectively when, in 1994, a Norwegian meterological research team stupidly made their weather rocket from Spitzbergen appear on radar in the likeness of an American ICBM headed towards Moscow.

Unfortunately, Yeltsin died 2 years ago, so he would not be alive to accept the prize. It is sad that he was not honored in his lifetime.

Many nations split off from Russia after the fall of the USSR, taking their own political and economic trajectories and sometimes, a little government assets from Mother Russia. Two of these, the Ukraine and Kazakhstan, took with them a part of the USSR's nuclear arsenal. It took years to disarm them. Several others were involved in civil wars, and monstorous levels of inflation.

Yeltsin created the CIS, or Commonwealth of Independent States, to give Russia a remaining feel of empire, and give the new countries a forum to unite for military protection, negotiate trade conditions, coordinate nuclear security and counterterrorism, and allow states like Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan with important former Soviet government functions to continue their business for Russia, keeping employment in the country and saving Russia from having to build new facilities. Also allowing all millitary forces common training facilities, so that all of them may be measurable millitary powers beyond their size and prosperity. He kept these nations stable, kept his own nation stable, and prevented at least one possible horrifying nuclear action in 1994.

Some people criticize Boris for the instability in Russia's economy, but Russia's economy was ruined long before Boris took the helm and decades of Communist abuse would not be healed overnight. Although I'm no expert on Russia's economy, I do know that Boris did raise hell in the Aluminum markets, bringing home massive profits, exports and employment for Soviet military related aluminum plants at the expense of virtually every developed country with cheap electric power.

Barrack Obama does not live up to names like Theodore Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King Jr in ANY aspect of his sacrifices, efforts, or results achieved. Maybe he will someday, but he has not yet. I don't know about sacrifices, but in terms of results, Boris certainly lives up to them.

But then again, we were too late anyways. Rest in peace Boris. How I regret that no one was there to give you the recognition that you deserve.

Healthcare Co-ops - The Third Option

On healthcare, the debate is set on extremes. Do we continue a private healthcare system with EVEN LESS regulation to drive down cost, or do we create public healthcare, either by edict, by government advisory board, or by trojan horse. Is it going to be for-profit businesses, or a theoretically non-profit (though the very nature of democracy would seem to suggest otherwise, the "profit" should be different but equally self-serving) public health board/organization/government corporation/service. But why must it be one or the other?

Why not do for healthcare what groups like the BECU (Boeing Employee Credit Union) have done for banking? Have non-profit heatlh NGO's that sell premiums, administer care, and have their guidelines, procedures, rationing (if any) and exact benefits dictated democratically through the election of "board members" by the people who own the plans? Why must, to avoid for-profit business, we resort to government rationing and tyranny? Why must it be either a corporate beaureacracy or a government beauracracy that manages our care? Why not put it in the hands, to the maximum extent possible, of the premium holders?

People flee countries like Canada and England to nations like the United States that have private healthcare when they become truly sick. Some folks will try to fool you in to believing that our healthcare sector acheives worse results then those of other nations using statistics like life expectancy as indicators. Problem is, those "indicators" are indicative of forces outside of the system, forces like genetics, cultural habits like eating and transportation, and our large immigrant population, that affect life expectancy by way of the entire general public more then the occasional cancer victim. Fact of the matter is, most Americans (85% insured in 2006, US Census, probably dropped a little since then but likely [unemployment 4% -> 10%, 6% change] still above 75%) do very well under our current system, and because of existing regulations, if you have the insuracne, most things will be covered.

Now I understand the problem of the other 25%, and yes, we do need competition for the corporations to bring prices down and hold them accountable. But why does it have to be the almost always tyrannical hand of government? Why not more charitable, credit union type organizations, that can still receive some government start-up funds to compensate for their lack of size (just as the BECU received funds from Boeing) and then be governed not by some far away beaureacrat but instead by the very people who hold the plans? And if you're not pleased with your group, you can find a new coop. We could have a different coop for every kind of need!

Cap-And-Trade Roll-Call - Naming the Guilty

In this weeks house roll call vote to push through Cap and Trade, the democrats passed the bill 219-211. But 8 GOP congressmen defected! Now, this is still considerably less then the number of Dems who defected (hence the margin being narrow) but nonetheless, it is clear that some of our conservative friends should have a guilty conscience. If only four of those GOP congresssmen had stuck to their side of the aisle, the vote would have been a tie. Three of these GOP congressmen are from New Jersey.

Well, one truly guilty face is Seattle's own Dave Reichert. Representing the 8th District, and the only Republican congressioanl district West of the Mountians in Washington State, Reichert has long been known to be considerably more environmentalist then is normal for a Republican. In a previous life, he was awarded Sheriff of the Year in 2004 for his exceptional conduct as King County Sheriff, including catching the Green River Killer, but has since held few significant policy stands or achievements.

Another guilty face is Matt Kirk in his district to the north of Chicago. Like Reichert, he too has been known to support environmentalism. His agenda, however, is much more clearly suburban. Both Reichert & Kirk's districts are Obama Republican, meaning that despite a Republican congressman, they voted for Obama in the Presidential election.

Mary Bono Mack's district in Southern California also voted for Obama, but by only 51%, unlike 60% for each of Reichert & Kirk's districts. The district used to be clearly Republican, but in recent years has slid more and more liberal. She is a fiscal-environmentalist conservative who has won simultaneous awards from both Sunline Transit Agency & Americans for Tax Reform.

Our fourth fiend is Mike Castle from Delaware's At-Large district. He's mostly a social conservative anyways, representing a state that is liberal to the bone, a district even more liberal then those previously mentioned.

Chris Smith of New Jersey's 4th has considerably less of an excuse. His district voted a comfortable 52% for McCain in 2008 and 56% for Bush in 2004. He, however, is primarilly a social conservative, being a major figure in the pro-life movement and the author of several antiabortion bills. He has strong ties to ORGANIZED LABOR, and as such can be considered a member of the Christian Left.


Congressman John McHugh represents the 23rd District of New York as a Republican moderate. He recently received several earmarks in a defense appropriation bill that he celebrates on his website...

Representative Lance of New Jersey's 7th votes with his party 88% of the time, making this particular exception somewhat odd. On his website, he justifies this vote with his strong commitment to renewable energy. Overall, however, he has very little policy information (total: 10 long sentences, though 4 on the environment) on his website (circa 06-27-09) and so one finds his sincerity of intent questionable. His district is obviosly very gerrimandered, like an ameoba on his district map, and has not had a Democrat representative since 1980. Its' median income is 75 grand.

Lastly, Representative Frank LoBiondo of New Jerseys 2nd (includes Atlantic City) voted in support of this bill. LoBiondo is a member of Newt Gingrich's freshmen class, having taken his seat in the 1994 congressional sweep after a failed 1992 run. He is a member of the moderate "Republican Main Street Partnership." Unlike Lance, his policy stands are very detailed, almost too detailed, and his "news" section on his website holds very candid and angry stands on almost every detail of Economic, Energy, Defense, Veterans, and legislation related to local beaches.

Ahn Cao, interestingly, did not vote for it, despite being a moderate republican from an obscenely liberal district (Downtown New Orleans, voted 85% for Barack Obama, 65% African American). He also did not vote for the stimulus, and, according to Orange Juice, may be facing a recall attempt as a result. This immigrant came to America as the son of a former South Vietnamese army officer, attended law school after almost becoming a Catholic Priest, and built his own law firm in New Orleans.


CONCLUSION

Of the 8 who did vote for Cap and Trade, Smith, Bono Mack, Lance, and McHugh would probably have been the easiest to persuade. Reichert is a maybe, as is Kirk. The other two could not have been persuaded, as one district was too liberal.

The Almighty Dollar -- or Why we SHOULD spend more on Healthcare

From InvestorBizDaily, "The Attack on Doctor's Hippocratic Oath":

Ezekiel Emanuel sees the Hippocratic Oath as one factor driving "overuse" of medical care. He is a policy adviser in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and a brother of Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff.

Dr. Emanuel argues that "peer recognition goes to the most thorough and aggressive physicians." He has lamented that doctors regard the "Hippocratic Oath's admonition to 'use my power to help the patient to the best of my ability and judgment' as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others."

Of course, that is what patients hope their doctor will do.

But President Barack Obama is pledging to rein in the nation's health care spending. The framework for influencing your doctor's decisions was included in the stimulus package, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Now, I, being a fallible human being like most other Americans, do not understand completely Obama's health care plan. This is very suspicious, especially since, while I may not like the man's policies, I would generally accredit him with being a decent communicator. But, there is one particularly disturbing aspect of Obama's plans, the algorithms.

Although not quite as sinister as the SkyNet from Terminator, it too may terminate you. If your care is found to be too expensive, your cancer too aweful, you not worth it, it will let you die, not even granting you the dignity of a bullet to the head, another blood offering at the altar of balanced budgets in a manner of cruel neglect.

This is being done in the name of economic progress. Although Obama does not even have the certainty that this will work, he has bet his presidency, his country, and the lives and dignity of many vulnerable people on the idea that through reducing health care expenditures, we can save our "economy." But what is an economy anyways? Why is it so sancrosanct? Why are we willing to sacrifice ourselves and our loved ones for the sake of dollars? And why do we even trust this fellows plan?

In fact, why do we even have an economy? Why do we even have wealth? If we're not even going to take care of our own people, why are we even trying? Why don't we just go home?

Look, I know of fewer better spendings of our wealth on this earth as human beings, our petty dollars, then saving peoples lives and keeping them well. Why are we calling medical research and cutting-edged treatments "waste?" Because they don't make us more money? And is that even true...

The really sad thing is how many people seemed to have jumped aboard this bandwagon. I, as an American, have never felt this discouraged at my own people. That my own fellow citizens cannot seem to see what they are creating through their desire for, I don't even know what, is one of the most striking blows I have ever received when looking back at my own country.

And further, even from the practical side, what happens if we face a new threat? What happens if there's a big virus outbreak, like the Spanish flu, and this entire society we have sacrificed so much for crumbles before us, disgracing us and spitting on our name for our own lack of foresight.

For the sake of the fourth most basic human economic need (after clothes, shelter, and food), 20% (about where it lies) is not unreasonable. But I fear many people do not even realize what they've done. I don't think they even see that it could be their loved one, or themselves. I support making coverage more universal, but this is not the right way to do it. We just need to accept that a little more money to cover the remainder of our population is both right and justified, and seek other, more worthy, places to scratch out a balanced budget.

The Problem with Nuclear Disarmament

Photo: Trinity Test, 1945, US D.O.E. (Mannhattan Project)



In 1945, not long after testing this atomic bomb, America dropped dual nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, bringing to a swift end a war that the Japanese were planning to draw out for years. With these same bombs, it held down an expansionist and empowered Russia through the 40's, and created a culture of meek innocent dependency among all the other powers of the world, even England. When stable-headed Russia acquired it's own atom bomb, however, it was finally able to regain steam and act quickly to advance itself across the globe.

Now, America did not have the worst intentions. For the most part, after 4 long and bloody years of war, we just wanted peace. We were even willing to concede a little to both independence oriented peoples like the Fillipinos and expansionist empires like the Soviets, just so long as they realized we had Mr. Bang-Bang and thus fighting us was worthless; we did not wish to overuse this power, however.

And when the Soviets did acquire their own bomb, they were led by a bloodthirsty but levelheaded and slightly paranoid dictator named Joseph Stalin who realized -or at least agonized- that, even if he won a nuclear shell game against the US, he would be weakened by the fight and risk rebellion or China.

Now, let's switch roles here. Let's say that, instead of the US acquiring an atom bomb, it had been Germany. They would've tested it over Isreal, London, Moscow or New York and then imposed their will on the nations they were fighting. Even if some of the Western powers continued to fight, one of them submitting would have guaranteed a much bloodier, lenghtier conflict at the least, and chances are that the additional length would have made it possible for Hitler to build yet more bombs.

Let's switch another role. The US still made the atom bomb, but instead of cool as gun-steel Stalin at the helm, you had a hot-tempered dick like Ahmnehjahd. The US finds out that they have atom bombs, and instead of standing back and saying, "yeah, they figured us out, it's time for round two," he says, "start the countdown."

The best possible outcome of no nuclear weapons is exactly what happened before, with a single, selfish or desperate nation (preferably desperate) acquiring a nuclear weapon to threaten another nation, and a cool-headed second competitor outrunning them cooly and successfully.

The most likely outcome is global oppression. Nations willingly submit, just as they did to the US, but this nation is not as kind and had intentions far worse then anything in FDR's heart. A kind of globlal slavery ensues. The only separation between this and the best possible outcome is intention.

The worst possible outcome is the competitor acquires their competing weapon, is found out, does not react smoothly, and both nations launch, creating at the very least destruction of innocent life on a level beyond Darfur or Rwanda, at the worst, nuclear ahnillation of our species, all hinging on the effectiveness of production.

Mankind has already cheated nuclear death once. Please, Mr. President, don't put humanity through this again.

Foamy-mouthed taxpayers

Dear AIG, I quit!

Re: Dear AIG, I quit!

Now in the bible, when a rich man does nothing to help the leprosy and starvation suffering beggar Lazarus as he jollily feasts, he loses his name, and all we know about him is "a rich man" and he went to hell. It seems that many taxpayers, seeing VP and AIG in the same sentence, have decided this man is exactly the same, a "rich man" not even worth considering. While I can understand the anger, it seems very misplaced, as a contract is a contract, government legislation is government legislation, and anyways, this VP didn't pick his pay:

Geithner, an Obama crony and public official, did.

He is also helping Lazarus right now with how that pay will be used.

And he didn't partake in the destruction of his company. Those folks are already gone. We are taking away the rights of an innocent man under the excuse of "I have it so hard." We are allowing our morality to be corrupted by the hardship of the world, and are thus ourselves like the seeds that Jesus spreads which fall on vines and are devoured. Reminds me of this old shrapnel of wisdom:

"If you are starving, which will you take first, your vote, or a bag of grain?"

But in a world of "Hope" and "Change" any kind of dilligent study and analysis or even using your common sense is discouraged. See, anger makes you predictable, makes you stupid, makes you like a little cow that can be brought to the stockyard and slaughtered for meat, and by allowing the government to impose penal taxes on a small group of people after the fact, a clever way of getting around the rule of law and the rights of it's citizens, the government has done exactly that. They've served the public hide hot and spiced, with a liberally applied maranade, and a side dish of US constitution.

I'm all for the common man, I know how capable he is and how much he has to offer this world. But that only makes me more angry that 1) our government wants to take away their freedom and thus their abillity, 2) people are allowing themselves to be corrupted and enslaved without even a promise of a better life for themselves. So who are we? Are we the men who built this country, or are we the "Here we are now, entertain us" (Kurt Kobain) crowd?