Rebane's Ruminations

Nevada County Tea Party Patriots

[gjr - Just received this email from Kim Pruett.  The Tea Party movement is alive and well, and we're all still searching for the corporate fatcats who are supposed to be guiding and sponsoring this.  If they're out there like the liberals claim, sending a few bucks our way would sure help.  Hell, we'll even take a few contributions from the liberals to make up the fatcat shortfall.]

Hello Friends,

 

I wanted to send you the latest flyer (Download NCteaparty090430) on all of the upcoming Tea Party events.  We are in need of your help to spread the word by forwarding this flyer to as many people as possible and ask that they forward it to as many people as possible to get the word out quickly.  Tell all of your friends, neighbors,family and everyone you know who would like to be a part of this great cause.

 

Please read the attached flyer for more information on how you can get involved with the Tea Party Patriot movement.  We are in need of monetary donations, donations of time and talent to make our next event on June 6th at the Nevada County Fairgrounds a huge success.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  Thank you for your help!

 

Kim

‘H1N1 Influenza A’ nee Swine Flu

George Rebane

The medical mavens in Washington and WHO have again renamed the pony (or is it the pig?) in the middle of the stream.  Following a week of dubious and hard-to-track reports on the progress of the Mexican flu (another interim politically incorrect name), as of today the disease will be known as 'H1N1 Influenza A'.  This is a real mouthful that is sure to please both the world's pig farmers and Mexicans, and throw another curve into the reportage on whatever you want to call it.

During the last couple of days the WHO (not to be confused with those of Dr. Seuss fame) and our own CDC have upped the epidemic alert level from Phase 3 to Phase 5.  In the US we surprised everyone yesterday by skipping Phase 4.  Phase 5 means that we have “Larger cluster(s) but human-to-human spread still localized.”  Phase 6 is the highest alert level and means that we have a “Pandemic: increased and sustained transmission in the general population.”

Today’s WSJ has a page-wide headline “WHO Warns of Imminent World-Wide Pandemic”, and its Director General Dr. Margaret Chan declared “All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparation plans” and be on “high alert” for outbreaks.  President Obama added that the situation is “serious enough to take the utmost precaution.”  Not to be outdone, VP Biden is telling people to stay out of subways and catching hell from NYC Mayor Bloomberg for that prescription.

At the state level, California’s “Gov. Schwarzenegger declares a state of emergency that will allow federal funding to combat an outbreak of swine flu in California, which could be the first state to link a fatality to the virus.”  No doubt his readiness to let federal funds flow into our bankrupt state gives some comfort to us resident full-fledged taxpayers.  Actually, the state has also implemented some command and control plans with local governments so we can at least say that the phones are manned at both ends.

But up here in the mountains, our Nevada County officials are not about to be jacked around and get into a panic about all this “utmost precaution” ballyhoo.  Visiting the county’s website over the last couple of days has restored in one a sense of calm that usually pervades these forest covered Sierra foothills.  When landing on the front page, you have to have a sharp eye to pick out anything that might give you a hint that the world is on the verge of a pandemic.  The national health scare is presented on an equal level with our hoped for share of the ARRA stimulus gettings and the I-80 detour. And to get any real information on the swine/Mexican/A(H1N1) flu, you will have drill down a couple of layers (here and here).

We mountain folk are not easily rattled.

'A Chilling Effect on U.S. Counterterrorism'

 

Read the rest here.

Politics Now Rules 'Man-Made Global Warming'

George Rebane

Science be damned - it’s now only the politics stupid!  With last week’s pulling of Viscount Monckton’s invitation to testify before Congress alongside Al Gore – so Big Al would not be “embarrassed” (here) – the blitz to bamboozle, control, and tax the nation’s sheeple is in full swing.

Yesterday (28apr09) the US Chamber of Commerce announced the release of a study by Charles River Associates, “commissioned by the Coalition for Affordable American Energy (CAAE), exposing the economic consequences of the bill. The data projects broad increases in energy costs that will result in more than 3 million jobs lost by 2030 and a cost of more than $2,100 per household.”  (a link to the study and more here)

Confirming the initial findings of the Congressional Budget Office (here), this is just the latest in a series of reports telling anyone who will listen that the ‘cap and trade’ tax will be a national body blow.  And adding to the insanity, it will be a body blow that we will administer to ourselves and our children.

Ruminations - 28apr2009 (29apr09 update)

George Rebane

Swine flu preparations in Nevada County are proceeding according to established plans.  Vic Ferrera, Program Manager of the county’s Office of Emergency Services, has outlined to county administration how his office has stepped up operations that include daily meetings with the county’s Public Health Department.  PH has activated 530-265-7258 as the updated public information source on swine flu.  This information is replicated and expanded on the PH web pages here with more information from federal sources available here.  These are good links to put in your favorites as this flu situation develops.  [29apr09 update] Indiana Universtiy pandemic model has hopeful prediction for near-term spread of swine flu in the US (here).

Stan Meckler, along with Chuck Shea and Kim Pruett, are the three local coordinators of the grass roots national tea party movement.  I met with Stan over coffee this morning and got updated on what has happened and what is coming down the pike.  More tea parties are planned over the next couple of months which will be announced when firm.  The national movement now has a name – Tea Party Patriots – and does not seek to connect itself with either of the political parties.  Its message continues to be one of promoting “fiscally responsible” government at all levels.  I urged the TPP leadership to nail down sooner than later what exactly they mean by ‘fiscal responsibility’.  As it stands now, both parties would claim to be fiscally responsible when it is clear that neither is.

Arlen Specter’s defection from the GOP brings on a smile.  The senator claims that the GOP has veered too much to the right for his liking, implying that the Dems have steered a clear and constant course in the interval.  My, my!  Looks like the old Sierra Bravo has noticed that the political demographics of his state are shifting left, and he wants to keep doing the only thing he knows how to do, in the only job that still pays a living wage for that kind of talent.  I’ll bet The Arnold, our local RINO, also catches himself toying with the idea now and then. 

[update] Just in from Kim Pruett - 

Hello Tea Party Patriot Friends,

 

A lot of exciting things are happening with the Tea Party movement across the nation.  Details are being put together right now to host a Tea Party Patriots Rally at the Nevada County Fairgrounds on Saturday, June 6th.  Details will be out in the next few days.  We are looking for monatary donations to make this happen.  If you are interested in donating to the cause so that we can have this great event, please let me know as soon as possible.  If you cannot donate money,  donations of your time and talent are also needed.  We are looking for volunteer's to help make this a fantastic event. For more information or to donate, please contact :

 

Kim Pruett- kim.pruett@att.net

Stan Meckler- stan@mecklermail.com

Chuck Shea- captcshea@yahoo.com   

NUHS Senior Project Evaluators Needed

George Rebane

Lynn McDaniel teaches English at Nevada Union High School and coordinates the Senior Project Presentations.  She sent me the following message for all you local RR readers asking for volunteers to join the project evaluation panels.  Jo Ann and I are planning on contributing an afternoon to help out.

Once again, on behalf of our Seniors, we are inviting local community members to join us as panel members for Senior Project Presentations. The final graduation requirement for our Seniors is the successful completion of a Senior Project.
 
Each Senior Project consists of three major components: a three-five page research paper, a 20-hour project, and a seven to nine minute oral presentation about the project to a panel of adults.

Projects fall in to a variety of categories: Animals, Building/Architecture, Business, Education, Community Service, Fine Arts, Health/Science, Mechanics/Restoration, Miscellaneous, Performing Arts, Recreation, Social Studies/Cultural Issues, and Technology/Electronics.  Our panels are set up accordingly.

If anyone is interested in joining us, the presentations occur on Wednesday, May 20 and Thursday, May 21, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Feel free to contact Lynn McDaniel who is coordinating the presentations.  Contact information:  273-4431 Ext 2097 (School), 273-0569 (Home), cmcdaniel@njuhsd.com (school email), or l.mcdaniel@cebridge.net (home email).

You can simply leave a message, indicating date(s) and category preference(s) or leave a message, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Lynn McDaniel

3% of GDP for R&D

George Rebane

That’s what President Obama has told us today.  As usual, government information is mushy and gives plenty of wiggle room for later waffles.  Given the current GDP at the $14 trillion level, this “investment” comes to about $420 billion annually – at least, we think it’s a long term commitment and not a one shot.  We also don’t know whether this is an additional 3%, or is he planning on increasing the total federal R&D expenditure to the 3% level.  As usual, the announcement is political blather designed to soothe and not inform.

The National Science Foundation tells us that the country’s R&D investments have been going up and down.  Overall, in 2007 the nation’s total R&D expenditures were $368.1B with the feds spending $24.7B or about 6.7% of that.  From this we can conclude that the feds intend to put at least $400B of new money (literally!) into government R&D programs annually.  And since our President and Congress will attempt to cut back the present $3.6 trillion budget by less than a nat’s butt (see graphic here), this promised spending spurt will quietly bring next year’s budget up to $4 trillion.  (BTW, if you’re losing track of all this, you’re doing exactly what government wants – the desired response is for you to roll your eyes, forget about it, and go about your day’s business.)

Chicago Tribune - 21 April 1934

 

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.  George Santayana

We Zig While They Zag

George Rebane

We are heading back to the barn after spending the better part of this week in San Diego.  My old Army unit – 2nd Battalion 5th Artillery – had its latest reunion there.  These affairs involve our wives who all know each other from the days in Germany when we were young with new babies in strollers and more on the way.  In the early 1960s our unit was the 175mm gun battalion in Europe capable of firing long range nuclear rounds in the attempt to stop the Soviet tank divisions poised to enter the west European plain through the Fulda Gap. 

In reality, all of us front line combat units knew we would serve only as a speed-bump for the tens of thousands of Soviet main battle tanks on their way to Frankfurt, the Ruhr, and then Paris.  We were the expendable elements to buy time until the main force would arrive from America to push the Soviets back.  At least that’s what the plans said which took up the better part of three file cabinet safes that were in my charge as the battalion S-2.  In those days the proverbial ‘balloon’, whose going ‘up’ would signal the start of WW3, was on a very thin and frazzled tether.

A Socialist Budget "Cutback"

George Rebane

Can you see it?

Ruminations - 20apr2009

George Rebane

Here’s one that should cause a little sanitary problem in your shorts.  For those not afraid of multiplying big numbers, our 2008 GDP was $14,330,000,000,000.  The $64 Trillion question is - in what kind of dollars is this debt - tripled in 2019 by Obama's predictions - going to be repaid?  The Chinese and others holding Treasuries know, and are quietly dumping their dollars to buy stuff like industrial metals for their strategic store.

Regarding the frantic pumping up of Obama’s recent foreign forays, there are some critics of the Southside Organizer.  When a country that is your declared enemy and whose leader has insulted you in the last week subsequently jails one of your citizens on a trumped up charge, and you say nothing – then, yes, you Mr President and our country are being rolled in the eyes of the world.

How again do you spell NATIONALIZATION?  If the government controls your bank because it forced you to borrow its money, and government regulators will not let you pay it back, then you’re in government control until they decide you are again a free enterprise.

Some good intentioned local pilgrims are harping that our county should really make a play for the green subsidies promised by Washington and use it to shore up our manufacturing base.  NC Media Watch disputes their wisdom.  RR readers know my arguments for the case that manufacturing in Nevada County is toast – especially after this economic downturn.

Illegal Aliens – check out this drop in the bucket  that I received from a RR reader.  The total cost in California is over $10 billion (here).  And if you don’t like what you see, you’re a racist.

Network Access Nevada County (NANC) may have gotten a boost as reported by Steve Monaghan, the county's Chief Information Officer.  The NANC post was updated with Steve's email here. 

 

Torture - An Analysis of the Issue

George Rebane

STRATFOR, the globally respected geopolitical intelligence and analysis company, just published 'Torture and the US Intelligence Failure' by George Friedman.  RR readers are familiar with the insightful and prescient material that is the work product of this firm.  With express permission this report is made available to non-subscribers and it can be accessed here as a pdf.  Given the partisan politics that has already clouded the torture issue in the media, I recommend reading this piece by Friedman for some light on thinking about the subject.  Friedman asks us to interpret the issue within the obligations and events which framed the use of torture, and how we should look at its possible use in the future.

Ruminations - 17apr2009

George Rebane

“At heart (Obama) is a European socialist.” was the considered opinion of Dick Morris yesterday on the Fox News Hannity program.  Such pronouncements from a the former President Clinton campaign manager and White House staffer (now a Democrats’ reprobate) cause more than a little discomfort to our friends across the aisle, especially those who continue to see every new stimulus and government growth spurt from Washington through their ‘it’s only just wee bit left of center’ glasses.

And it's clear from the now notorious Department of Homeland Security memorandum that they have an active and ongoing program of monitoring political speech in the US.  This all comes under the broad category of keeping tabs on “rightwing chatter” (such as you’re reading right now).  The DHS concludes that right wing extremism is the number one threat to homeland security and safety.  The unclassified ‘For Official Use Only’ 9-page report (here) is worth reading.  And remember this is just the tip of the iceberg that fortunately has come into public view – I’d like to see the classified versions of these communiqués.  The scary thing is that the report calls out no extremist organizations or provides any specifics in the government’s “rightwing extremist” appellation, other than labeling those who hold broad-based conservative/libertarian views, and, of course, combat-trained veterans (seems I'm guilty on both counts).  Even for conducting class warfare, that’s a pretty broad brush to apply to our backsides.  If you’re one of them extremists, don’t sit down until the paint dries.

It’s fun to see the little dust devil kicked up hereabouts by the news that The Union has invited two conservative commentators to up and commentate in their print edition.  Some of our self-declared ‘middle of the road, balanced view’ stripe locals already have their undies in a large and prickly bundle.  The Lord only knows how many minds yearning for garden club news will be mangled when Russ Steele and I kick things into high gear in the pages of our local newspaper.  Today the dangers from uninvited new ideas and arguments are everywhere, and they can getcha before you know it.

Finally, if you're also one of them scoundrels who exhale, you are now a public health hazard.  Our government in its headlong rush into idiocy has declared CO2 among the gases that cause all kinds of bad things and must now come under a slew of draconian regulations.  Russ Steele has the necessary details here.  The Chinese and other major developing countries would be laughing their collective butts off if they weren't so worried that now the destruction of our economy will become endemic, and who will then buy all the stuff that they have been selling to us.  Have you checked out the reports (here) that China is now getting rid of their dollar reserves by stockpiling industrial metals (e.g. copper, zinc) for future use - how do you say 'two birds with one stone' in Chinese? 

Reunion with The Union

George Rebane

Wow, news really travels fast in the Internet Age.  This morning we met at The Union offices with Jeff Ackerman, Publisher, Zuri Berry (“Sports Writer”, but also website content editor), and Tom Harbert (IT Manager) to trade some thoughts about the evolution of newspapers from ‘print only’ to an expanded and transformed online presence, and also to talk about some specific ideas about how The Union might configure itself in its ongoing evolution to a truly multi-media (print and online) information service.  Some time ago Russ Steele and I, together and individually, had shared some ideas about ‘reverse publishing’ local blogs, and how our newspaper’s website might become the One-Start home page for Nevada County residents.  And last week Jeff decided it was time for another sit-down with his online managers, and invited us over for coffee this morning.

At the Sacramento Tea Party

George Rebane

 

The scene that greeted us on the west lawn of the Sacramento Capitol was a little spooky.  We got off the bus with our signs and camping chairs, and the first thing we saw was a phalanx of mounted police in the shade of some trees.  It kinda reminded me of the scene from ‘Doctor Zhivago’ when the czar’s mounted police quietly prepared to charge the peacefully marching communists coming down a cold winter street.  Nearby and through out the park-like setting were groups of two or three armed law enforcement officers making themselves very visible to the arriving people.  It sure appeared that they got the Department of Homeland Security message about all of us right-wing extremists fixin’ to foment right there on the steps of the Capitol.

Going to a Tea Party

George Rebane

Well, our signs are made (manila folders on yardsticks) and we’ve also made a list of stuff to take (backpack chairs, water bottles, camera, chapstick, …) on the bus to our first demonstration tomorrow at the State Capitol in Sacramento.  These anti-tax increase demonstrations are being held across the land according to reports that are now even being picked up by the MSM.

And in response, our big government’s Department of Homeland Security has already identified Jo Ann and me as “right wing extremists” without being too specific about it, and notified all the police and sheriff’s departments across the land.  (More here and here)  Talk about asymmetrical propaganda warfare.

We may not look too ‘professional’ when compared to your typical left-wing demonstrator, but we’re going to show up with our Nevada County neighbors on the state house lawn, and listen to some barnburner speeches from our representatives who are scheduled to whip us into a frenzy – God only knows what we might do after that.  I may even wave my yardstick with the manila folder back and forth energetically, I don’t know.

Here’s a good YouTube video that sums up a lot of what the Peters across the country are feeling – the Pauls are staying home (except possibly the folks from Acorn).  This will be our first protest, but given the way things are going, it won’t be our last.  And now we’re formally under a DHS blanket suspicion of being ‘enemies of the people’ with law enforcement agencies warned to keep an extra eye peeled when we gather.  I started my days with my parents as designated ‘enemies of the people’ hiding in an Estonian forest evading Soviet patrols who summarily executed people like us.  Now after all these years, who’d a thought?

 

Who Works? Who Pays?

George Rebane

The American workforce is in crisis, and no one wants to talk about the real nature of that crisis.  Perhaps the established news outlets and commentators consider the issue too hot to handle; then again, maybe very few see the problem.  Today, this is often where the itinerant blogger enters unannounced, and shouts his vision to an audience uncertain, and most likely unbelieving.

The un-debated national problem is that a large and growing fraction of our adults of working age can no longer sell their labor at wages that will support their current lifestyle.  Today’s recession may be seen as a blessing that hides this reality for another year or two.  We are assured by the media and government pundits that all the jobs and more will return when the recession is over, but they most certainly will not return through the same companies that are now using the financial crisis to permanently pare back the unproductive labor component of their businesses.  In this series of posts I will attempt to make the case for the dimension, causes, and direction of this national crisis as I believe it will unfold.

Let’s start the whole thing off with the bottom line.  Automation fueled by radical advances in cheap machine intelligence, robotics, and globalization (that makes available equally or better trained workers) is relegating the overpriced American worker to the hinterlands of human capital.  The short form is that the natural dispersion of human intelligence (recall that half the people have two-digit IQs) combined with a catastrophic educational system has produced an exploding population of under-qualified workers, the larger fraction of whom are simply untrainable to compete in the global job markets of which the United States is now but a part.  And that same educational system continues undeterred on its well-worn path.

He Is Risen!

 

Obama Absent on Another Vote? (12apr2009 update)

George Rebane

With the heroic Captain Richard Phillips in a lifeboat full of armed pirates surrounded by US Navy warships with no orders on how to proceed, we see the media interviewing retired generals on what to do.  One of these guys – he must have gotten his star by passing a multiple choice test – sagely advised the anchor that we should let the people there on site (i.e. monitoring the lifeboat) make the decisions and not second-guess them.  That is exactly NOT what we should do.

This is a geo-strategic matter involving so many more dimensions than any destroyer captain has purview over or is trained to handle.  What is needed is a clear statement of purpose and mission objective given to the naval personnel on the scene.  Since this involves a multi-national situation and its solution has a long shadow into the future, the White House should be visibly involved.  We as Americans don’t need to know the details of the national solution to this situation, but we and the world need to know that our President has given the Navy orders on how to proceed as this situation continues to develop.  Looking like he’s absent from yet another vote is not the way to take the high ground on this.  And the high ground must be taken.

[12apr2009 update]  Redemption!  Captain Phillips was freed unharmed by the US Navy "after a brief firefight in which three of the four pirates were killed."  This will happen again, and our government needs to quickly tell the world that our forces are competent, are present, and have received orders on how to deal with the situation as it develops.  We don't need to display 'tangled in our own underwear' pieces like this one in yesterday's Washington Post.  Happy Easter! 

Hang on to Your Wallets!

George Rebane

As investment guru Porter Stansberrry (Stansberry & Associates) reviews the Obama onslaught with historical levels of printing money, raising taxes, and legislating new productivity killing laws into place, he summarizes with –

… these fears ought to apply equally to Democrats or Republicans. If you were trying to devise a political plan to destroy the country, this is the route you'd take: make it harder than ever before to produce anything, devalue the currency, and raise taxes by 50%.

 

And for those who are betting on the recent “glimmer” in Obama’s eye, financial academic and blogger Adam Levitin of Credit Slips reminds us of the mortgage reset tsunami still heading for us.

… it's worth remembering that only 14% of mortgages outstanding are subprime. Most mortgages aren't subprime. To be sure, a disaster in 14% of the market is a huge problem in and of itself. But this graph from Credit Suisse is the most sobering thing I've seen in a while. It shows that most of the interest rate resets ahead aren't subprime, but are instead Alt-A and option-ARMs. Alt-A is the category of loans made to consumers with FICO scores just above the subprime threshold. Option ARMs give borrowers several payment options, including making a minimum payment that does not even cover the interest that accrued in the last month. This means it's pretty easy for an option ARM to end up underwater, even in a market where prices are holding steady. If real estate prices are dropping, it is even more likely that an option ARM will end up upside down, which makes refinancing near impossible. The bulk of the Alt-A and option-ARM resets are coming in 2010-2011. A lot of things could change before then. But we might just be seeing the tip of the iceberg in the housing market.

And from the graph you can see that here in 2009 we are in the relatively calm eye of the storm.

 

I-80 Project Update

George Rebane

Thought this might be worth a post for the locals, and all others taking I-80 over the Sierras.  Nevada County announced that "starting 4/10 Caltrans will be piloting all truckers during detour:

Senior Civil Engineer, Steve Castleberry forwarded your concerns about the I-80 detour and got a call back from Caltrans yesterday regarding the I-80 detours. They wanted to report a couple of changes they are making in their detouring of trucks onto Highway 20. First, starting today, they will be piloting all the trucks on Highway 20 to insure slow speeds are maintained. This, coupled with the truck holding described in the attached flyer, is intended to encourage trucks to schedule their trips during non detour hours. The second activity they reported is Caltrans additional maintenance activity near Bear River to clear trees that are keeping the road in shadow and therefore icy during the day.

They are planning to include these activities in their presentation to the Board next Tuesday. I am not sure this is an indication that everything will be all right from here on out. However, they responded unusually quickly to Steve’s e-mail so I think they are at least aware of our concerns. For questions, contact Steve Castleberry – Public Works at 530-265-1718."

Tall in the Saddle No Longer

George Rebane

Our government’s reaction to Somali pirates and the Saudi king says it all – by our own hand we are a changed and diminished nation.

In days of yore our government would have acted fast and with finality against pirates – especially those in shirtsleeves and small open boats on the high seas.  Merchantmen were all armed and could repel such ragtag boarders, and our navy laid waste to ‘safe havens’ that harbored the scum.  Now in this age of sensitivity, we don’t even want to arrest the sumbiches because we don’t know to what jurisdiction to take them for a fair trial.  How about a fair trial right there in the water with the sharks (the swimming kind, not the litigation kind)?  Thus arrives the Mad Max world when civilization refuses to defend itself.

And let’s cut the crap on Obama and the Saudi king.  Bowing is an act of obeisance, usually offered during arrival and parting, that involves the bower lowering his head and eyes in front of the bowee (new word, feel free to use it).  And most certainly it’s a bow when your head goes lower than the other guy’s head (see around 50-55 seconds into the video).  Now Obama feels that the changed US must do more than a little bowing to our creditors, benefactors, and campaign contributors, especially since he and his crowd don’t have a clue on how to pull us out of this recession, but need to keep selling bogus bonds to the Arabs and Chinese.  We do what we must.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, one now has to conclude that Sec Treasury Geithner is either evil or butt stupid – for the moment let’s give him the benefit of doubt and consider him just a butt stupid tax dodger.  The man has identified the nation’s venture capital firms as being like hedge funds, and a new source of ‘systemic risk’ to our financial structure.  Our VC firms are one of the brightest jewels in the country’s entrepreneurial crown.  Their record in financing start-up innovators that have grown to world giants – Intel, Apple, Cisco, Google, Amazon, … - and kept us in the forefront of technology and commerce is bright and blazing.  Their financial dealings are miniscule while the risk in their investments is transparent and well understood by the investors.  Nevertheless, the pace of government running amok quickens.  James Freeman in today’s WSJ describes this piece of bizarre news from Washington.

Administrivia - Mr. Gary Zimmerman, Senior Economist at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, sent me the PowerPoint he presented at the recent Nevada County Economic Development meeting.  It is available from the post on the meeting here. 

Ruminations - 8apr2009

George Rebane

The French socialists and communists are really tuning up their anti-capitalist protesting methods.  You see, the market demand for getting properly trained in the skills of laying down in the streets, assaulting police lines, etc is getting so high that a new start-up will now teach you these skills over a weekend course that will cost $67.  Mr. Xavier Renou, the entrepreneur, has started this business to do his conscientious part to protest encroaching capitalism in France.  … how’s that again?

Now that President Obama has finished his trip abroad with a swing through the mid-east, we see that he can reel off the litany of US accomplishments to the Iraqi people as well as any Republican from the last administration.  Of course, he isn’t about to credit Bush with any of this.  From a careful perusal of his remarks to our troops, it is clear that they, on their own recognizance, decided to invade the country and do the dirty work of setting things right – and for that they were commended.  And since the surge worked so well in Iraq, Obama and Gates are going to apply it in Afghanistan with similar hopes.  Well, we can’t exactly call it a surge, now can we?  That’s why in Democratic circles it will henceforth be known as a “tactical demographic enhancement” – only from Washington DC.

The early harbingers of national healthcare are popping up here and there.  In today’s WSJ Drs. Groopman and Hartzband of the Harvard Medical School write that government imposed ‘quality’ care is dangerous (here).  It seems that if the socialist bureaucrats have their way, the government will establish the standards of care which must be uniformly applied across the land.  The only problem is that the tested application of such standards has never resulted in lowered mortality rates, but has proven to increase your chance of dying under this new form of the state’s embrace.

Idiot’s Corner.  And finally in the same healthcare vein, one of our local worthies – calling him a socialist would be an insult to the rest of them – writes in our local newspaper The Union that ‘Government needs to put America on a diet’.  To wit (or lack thereof)

Nevertheless, genetic factors, overeating, with a sedentary lifestyle play a significant role in causing obesity. But, the government should be playing the lead in reducing America’s extra-large sizes. Government needs to get people to eat less and exercise more. Where did government go to, that it abdicated its authority to promote healthy lifestyles?

“… abdicated its authority to promote healthy lifestyles?” my, my, my!  And the woods hereabouts are full of them.

Income Inequality and Education

George Rebane

Most of our neighbors continue to believe that liberty and equality can always increase in tandem.  Unfortunately, as our Founders and these posts have pointed out, liberty fosters inequality as the natural order of life – attempting to raise one always lowers the other.  Even as we all line up equally on the starting line, those who are most free to use their individual skills and natural capabilities will quickly pull ahead of those who lack the skills and capabilities.  Equal opportunity has never guaranteed equal outcome.

These thoughts arise again in the wake of TechTest2009 which was given last Saturday (4 April) at Nevada Union High School to a small cadre of seniors from all the county’s high schools.  The interested reader can download the nine question test here to see what these young people had to deal with during the four-hour merit scholarship exam.  Only their test scores will determine how this year’s $15,000 of scholarships will be awarded.  The checks will be handed out in the upcoming countywide scholarship awards convocation that is held every May.

The young students who took TT09 are all headed for technical careers, an extremely discriminating line of work which has not been properly recognized nor rewarded by the people we have elected to govern us during most of the last forty years.  Today this bias against people who can create wealth that benefits all is at its historic height, and the future of our technology lead is rapidly eroding as skilled youngsters all over the world enter the field to compete with the United States.

Two years ago I wrote a short piece on income inequality and education that is even more relevant today than it was then, and, given our current course, promises to be more so tomorrow.  (Download 'Income Inequality and Education')

Taxpayers, Listen Up! (7apr2009 update)

George Rebane

   Download Rally flyer 6 (Final general flyer) for a more readable version.  [7apr09 update] Kim Pruett emailed that "If you still want to ride the Patriot Express buses contact Patti at the Parsonage B&B at 265-9478 to reserve your seat.  There are only a few left!"