Rebane's Ruminations

Rise of the New Upper Class

George Rebane

[This is the appended transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 30 August 2013.]

In these commentaries we have examined major trends like systemic unemployment, income inequality, and the notion of a Great Divide that may rend America across one of its ideological faults.  In this installment I’ll briefly summarize a schism that may be new to some of you, and is definitely not apparent to most Americans – the emergence of a new cognitive upper class.

The existence of such a class of Americans has been heralded and discussed by some of the country’s leading authors, journalists, and sociologists of all political stripe.   Among them are liberal economist and former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich, New York Times journalist and author David Brooks, and leading sociologist and observer of the cultural scene Charles Murray of The Bell Curve fame.  Murray’s latest best seller to people who follow such trends is Coming Apart – The State of White America, 1960-2010 published last year and updated this year with just released data.

The major thesis of all these authors is that a new class of the cognitive elite has arisen during the last 50 years.  Not only has this class arisen, but it has also pretty much separated from the rest of the country along several important dimensions.  Among these are wealth, income, interests, life styles, locales, and, of course, smarts.  These are the people who manage our businesses and institutions, make up the academic ranks, are prominent in government and shaping public policy, and form the creative cadres of science, technology, and the arts.

This class of so-called “over-educated elitist snobs” came into being in the years after WW2 when the universities became the great cognitive filtering system as they began accepting students on the basis of merit, instead of limiting higher education to the well-to-do or well connected.   The data shows that the big transition took place over the 1950s and was well entrenched in the 1960s.  The fruits of the separation began to be seen in the 1970s.  Then by the 1980s the information age was in full swing with the rapid spread of low cost personal computers.  All of this favored the class of people who were good at manipulating symbols, whether these made up words, numbers, or equations.  Robert Reich named these people “symbolic analysts”.

And with this new class there arose a new kind of segregation.  Since like people like to be with others like themselves, a process called homogamy kicked in to further the separation of classes.  Social scientists use homogamy to describe the interbreeding of individuals with like characteristics.  In the nation’s universities educated students began marrying other educated students which led to a homogamous selection of the best and the brightest offspring, the new cognitive elite.  Since their parents were able to get the best jobs, create the most profitable enterprises, and affect public policies in their favor, their kids went on to repeat the cycle, as the new upper class congregated in communities of residents with like minds and means.

As Charles Murray points out, a moment’s reflection tells us also that today homogamy works on both ends of the cognitive abilities scale.  College grads are more likely to marry college grads, and high school dropouts are more likely to marry other high school dropouts.  So with the information revolution in full swing, newly created wealth poured into the coffers of the new upper class as the ‘cognitive stratification’ that began in the 1950s became established in the nation’s socio-economic landscape.  Data shows that since the 1970s almost all benefits of economic growth have gone to the top half of wage earners.

And since people like to congregate with people they can talk to and who understand them, this class segregation not only continues, but is picking up steam.  The wealth inequality resulting from the last decades of cognitive homogamy will most likely increase as this upper class continues to create more wealth along with public policies that allow them to keep most of it.  This concentration of wealth is abetted by the well-known adage of ‘shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations’ – in other words, not so smart people don’t hang on to wealth very well.

We will revisit this important class division in future commentaries, and examine in greater depth what Charles Murray and other students of the American transition have discovered.

My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on georgerebane.com where the transcript of this commentary is posted with an addendum and relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively.  However my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.

[Addendum]  In Coming Apart Charles Murray emphasizes that America has always been a classed society – the rich have always lived differently from the poor, and both have ‘stuck to their own kind’.  Of course, both classes have been dynamic in the sense that their memberships have been fluid in a land of freedom and entrepreneurship.

But his focus is the “American project” (much discussed here as the Great Experiment) – as envisioned by the Founders was “to demonstrate that human beings can be left free as individuals and families to live their lives as they see fit, coming together voluntarily to solve their joint problems.  The polity based on that idea led to a civic culture that was seen as exceptional by all the world.  That culture was so widely shared among Americans that it amounted to a civil religion.  To be an American was to be different from other nationalities, in ways that Americans treasured.”  Murray's demonstrated thesis is that “that culture is unraveling.”

In his dissertation Murray does “not make a case for America’s decline as a world power.  The economic dynamics that have produced the class society (he deplores) have, paradoxically, fostered the blossoming of America’s human capital.  Those dynamics will increase, not diminish, our competitiveness on the world stage in the years ahead.  Nor (does he) forecast a decline in America’s military and diplomatic supremacy.”

The arguments to be made are that the transformed America will not be anything like the one we had fifty years ago when only 18 out of 100,000 were arrested for drug offenses (today that number is 1,284), and Jim Crow still ruled the South.  During this half century the poor did not get poorer, considering their total income, only that they also did not get any richer, and in the interval the first step onto the ladder of self-sufficiency was made more difficult.  And that systemic character of our society will not change as the cognitive elite continue to command the development and benefit of the new avenues of wealth they create.

And why may we expect that kind of future as the alternative to a Mad Max dystopia?  Simply because (as we have argued) the hoi polloi are not and will not be able to command the cognitive and other types of capital to enable them to make such contributions in this age of accelerating technology and global intercourse.  This story unfolds in its data-rich details.

The Reprobate Republicans

George Rebane

This forum has highlighted Obamacare’s atrocities, visited and pending, since before it became law of the land.  Today there are serious rumblings of attempting to defund/delay Obamacare as part of the next continuing resolution Congress will take up on extending national debt.  The Republicans have been the leading rumblers who have received on a silver platter a way to oppose Obamacare that will attract bipartisan support.  But for reasons beyond my ken, they are not stepping up to the plate, and are instead hiding in the weeds with the other political sleazebags who dare not oppose the White House.

The issue is the latest in the stream of exemptions that have become a hallmark of that putrid piece of legislation.  You’ll recall that Congress beseeched Obama to spare them and their staffs having to buy their healthcare policies through the dreaded insurance exchanges as the law specifically prescribes.  Such plaintive begging itself is outrageous since the Executive is supposed to enforce the laws as passed by Congress, and not modify them in their execution.  If Congress wants an exemption, it can pass a law to accomplish that.

So the benevolent Obama showed mercy on his congressional lackeys, and had his Office of Personnel Management announce 1) Congress and staff would continue getting their now illegal subsidies, and 2) the members of Congress could define which of their staff will actually be covered by the law – both of these being illegal ‘remedies’.  All polls show that no one favors Congress getting such special bennies when the rest of us have to pony up to the added costs of this new “affordable care” (more here).

The Republicans should have joined their voices in a loud chorus to denounce this as yet another constitutional end-run by our by now demonstrably rogue president.  This could have served as the basis for starting to unravel Obamacare by broadening the exemptions until the law is finally diluted into vapor.  Instead, here I sit with millions of other like-minded Americans, astounded that the oh so principled Republicans have chosen to let crickets lead their assault on Obamacare.

I don’t know how our Tom McClintock, Doug Lamalfa, and Dan Logue feel about this.  But my recommendation is for them to loudly reject the White House handout, and then proceed from there.

Slap a wrist to extract a foot (updated 9sep13)

George Rebane

As we prepare to launch some sort of punishing strike against the Assad regime in Syria, the question of WMDs comes up again.  We recall that 1) no significant WMDs were found in Iraq after Gulf2, and 2) that our military reported large convoys of trucks headed to Syria in the weeks before Gulf2 started with its ‘shock and awe’.  Now we have evidence that Assad has used chemical WMDs – primarily the Sarin nerve gas – against both rebels and his own civilians.

What has been absent in the lamestream's coverage is the entire issue of how and when did Assad get the reported 1,000 tons of chemical WMDs that he has squirreled away across Syria.  There have been no reports, especially by Israel, of such a massive infusion of these weapons from other suppliers since Gulf2.  All we have is clear historical evidence that numerous convoys of Iraqi military trucks were observed heading for Syria before hostilities started.

The Left then gleefully reported the absence of Iraqi WMDs in their scourging of Bush2 for Gulf2.  In these pages (see comment stream here) we offered the reasonable conjecture that Saddam shipped his WMDs to fellow Baathists in Syria in the ample time he had before we started our last mid-east war.  Today this conjecture is again being picked up on sites like The Diplomad 2.0 (H/T to reader).

So now we are within hours of launching strikes whose only clear purpose is to risk American lives to deliver an inconclusive slap on Assad’s wrist.  And the purpose of that slap?  I believe it is only to extract Obama’s foot from his red-lined mouth.  With the given assurances of no intended regime change, what other interest could this inanity possibly serve?

The test after you thought you were done

George Rebane

The higher education bamboozle continues.  “Only one in four employers think that two- and four-year colleges are doing a good job preparing students for the global economy, according to a 2010 survey conducted for the Association of American Colleges and Universities.”

So what to do?  A new non-profit is offering a post-graduation test called the College Learning Assessment or CLA+ test that will confirm what learning and critical thinking skills the newly minted graduate has.  It is supposed to cut through all the grade inflation and other funny business that is being passed off as a college education these days.  It is also supposed to give employers a useful yardstick to measure the cognitive skills of prospective employees whose grade point averages have become suspect.

Taking this ‘post-college SAT’ appears to be a desperate approach from one perspective for it indicts the remaining pride of the US educational system.  Worse than that, the CLA+ doesn’t have to be given only to college grads.  In principle anyone can take it to demonstrate their mental acumen, even people who have taken any number of MOOCs in any number of subject areas.  (more here)

So what happens when employers find an alternative reliable yardstick to a sheepskin from the halls of ivy?

I’ll have more to say about the new upper class of over-educated elitist snobs later this week as we explore the real separation of classes.  But so far it has all hung on the acknowledged functioning of our tiers of institutions that form our overpriced higher educational system.  If that breaks, …

Ruminations – 20aug13 (updated 21aug13)

George Rebane

The nation’s insanity continues unabated.  According to the Chicago Fox affiliate (you maybe expected a lamestream outlet?) a group of illegal aliens are on a hunger strike protesting that they haven’t been put on the list for government subsidized organ transplants.  Instead of a quick ticket back to Mexico – they are Mexican nationals – we are now going through a gasping ‘what to do, what to do?’ ordeal.  Why? well, the organ transplant protocols at certain hospitals don’t include a codicil about whether to qualify for a transplant you need to be an American, or at least a legal resident.  Whoda thunk?

The question for our morally superior progressives is moot; their answer being ‘Damn straight, do the transplant and have the US taxpayer foot the bill.  These people are also contributing to America.’  For the rest of us, the answer is to shell out for a ticket back to their homeland where the Mexican government can deal with their grievances.  These aliens even use the progressive-approved argument that resonates with the dufus parade – “local hospitals are discriminating against immigrants here illegally.”  Lord, I hope so. 

Meanwhile elsewhere in the Windy City, where else, five people were shot in a gang war ambush in front of a church serving meals to the needy on a street that is identified and maintained as a ‘Safe Passage’ way for kids to get between home and school (more here).  The street is manned by over 600 good-hearted, ‘trained volunteers’ to make sure the kids make it through there alive.  Of course, there is not a slingshot to be had between all these volunteers, and the gangs don’t give a big rat’s ass about safe passage streets.  They know that until the cops get there, they rule.  And they also know – courtesy of the specter of Chapter 9 - that the thin blue line is getting thinner by the day.  But Chicago’s job one is to keep guns from the hands of law abiding citizens while prohibiting the police from conducting those oh so racial search, question, and frisk exercises.  And according to established custom, nobody demonstrated to protest these daily shootings.  You see, it don’t matter none if you shoot those po’ black folk, as long as yo’s not a racist.  Progressive government in peace and war. 

(Coda – consider all hot buttons pushed.)

[21aug13 update]  The record wouldn't be complete without noting the most recent murder of a white athlete by three blacks in Oklahoma.  The 'just for fun' drive-by killing of the Australian baseball player occurred on a country road near the town of Duncan (more here).  No screaming headlines.  No charges of racism.  No mass demonstrations by whites across the country.  Same ol' same ol'.

‘We know what you really said/thought/meant’

George Rebane

One of the prime indications of radical Islam’s victory is the retreat of free speech in the west.  In the US we are unaware of the intimate connection between the Fourth and First Amendments.  Having given up our privacy on all fronts in the false expectation of guaranteed security, our government now monitors, collects, and stores every possible action that we perform in public or in what used to be the privacy of our homes.  Our houses are no longer our castles, but closely watched dormitories from a bygone era renewed.  And tomorrow it will be worse.

Stalin, Mao, and other mass murderers of their own citizens made no pretense of operating under laws, they argued that state security trumped consideration of such niceties.  And the state was ever insecure.  In those times, times which are now returning, the state was always that ultimate arbiter of what a citizen really said, thought, and intended.  The actual record of spoken word or written speech was of no use to a citizen wishing to defend himself against the state intent on his destruction.

The chilling institutional ‘we know what you really said/thought/meant’ is an unanswerable charge against an autocracy, especially one that has a deep archive of records and recordings of every expression you ever allowed yourself, no matter in what context or environment.  With an abundance of data on every citizen, a case can be cobbled together to support any and every conceivable indictment the state needs to control or contain an individual – the ‘what you really…’ gambit is the state’s trump card.

The Fourth Amendment reads, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

The abrogation of the Fourth – now having been admittedly violated regularly “thousands of times” by our state security apparatchiks – means that ALL expressions during our waking hours will be a matter of permanent, searchable record.  In past years, we know how differently we have behaved when we were told that we were being recorded.  The communicated rate of information instantly slowed down and became deliberate, guarded, and more ambiguous (to give us wiggle room in the future should we be called to account).  Lawyers and politicians have excelled in this kind of communicating, the rest of us have despised it.  Being a ‘straight talker’ in America has always been an admired attribute.

But can we continue to be straight talkers if we are always thinking about the words and actions coming back at us within the context of someone else’s interpretation of ‘what we really said/thought/meant’?  And that someone is always a person or agency, more powerful than we, that does not have our best interests in mind.

The result is that the violation of our privacy – within the intent and context of the Fourth – means that our freedom to express ourselves, to talk straight in order to communicate with appropriate clarity and get things done, has been compromised.  In short, our First Amendment rights will have been constructively abrogated when all of our past is a matter of record to be interpreted by others in the service of their agendas.

Finally, we again come to the asymmetry between the Left and Right in these matters.  The Left are the promulgators, monitors, and enforcers of politically correct speech.  It is they who have worked hard to enshrine these interpretations into laws under labels such as ‘hate speech’.  It is they who know what are ‘dog whistle’ phrases that carry the meanings only they may assign.  It is they who in the media invoke the ‘what they really …’ rule, and then go on to lambast ad nauseum these homebrewed infractions.  It is they who, for example, can ruin a career of person who honestly admits to having used the word ‘nigger’ in their distant past.  (And in their small part, these pages have also been witness to numerous invocations from the Left of ‘what they/you really meant …’.)

Having already made enormous strides in academe, the lamestream, and public offices everywhere, this is how autocracy starts on the road to a society that conforms agenda with realization.

Nevada County’s Collaborative Technology Center

George Rebane

[This is the transcript of my 16aug13 KVMR radio commentary, plus a couple of snapshots.]

Last Tuesday I attended the opening of the Nevada County Library’s Collaborative Technology Center or CTC.  The ribbon to the new 2,000 square foot facility was cut by country librarian Jessica Hudson after a few attending dignitaries had a chance to speak.  The CTC is designed to support up to 70 people who will operate computers, laptops, tablets, printers, and even a 3D printer while learning everything from becoming computer literate to actually manufacturing a physical object described in a computer file.

The affair at the Madelyn Helling main branch was well attended by a large crowd of locals wanting to see what all the fuss was about.  Among the notables were Supervisors Nate Beason, Hank Weston, Ed Scofield, and County CEO Rick Haffey.  Supervisors Weston and Beason contributed to the opening remarks.  Major credit for developing this technology learning center goes to Ms Jessica Hudson and director of the county’s information technology services, Mr Steve Monaghan.  With the supes blessings it was they who corralled all the cats and herded them in the right direction to get the job done.  (Left photo - R to L SteveM, JessicaH, NateB, HankW)

RR hacked (updated 16aug13)

George Rebane

This afternoon I discovered that somehow a piece of malware called Delta Search took over my computer.  I'm working to get rid of this piece of crap, but it is still doing stuff like inserting extra links (the green ones) into my posts and also some comments.  I will not post again until my PC is clean.  Thanks for your patience. :(

[16aug13 update]  Apparently the green links only appear on my browser and are added by the malware as the displayed page is composed.  All other computers (PCs and Apples) appear to be clean.  Would appreciate reports of any anomalous behavior readers experience.

[later]  Well, it looks like my little box is clean again.  What finally cured it is resetting both (Firefox and IE) browsers.  That took a tromp through a part of the jungle I was unfamiliar with, and in certain places the malware fought back, it didn't want to be ripped out.  Thanks for your patience, and on with the show ;-)

Ruminations – 13aug13

Do not engage with him who has nothing to lose.  It is to fight at a disadvantage, for the other enters without encumbrance, because unaccoutred even of shame; and having auctioned off everything, he has nothing more to lose, and so may allow himself every insolence; ...  Gracian #172

George Rebane

As we continue our tailspin, here are a couple of milestones just passed (pardon the mixed metaphors).

The 13aug13 WSJ reports that “Federal judge Shira Scheindlin ruled on Monday that the New York City Police Department’s 'stop and frisk' policy violates the constitutional rights of minorities.”  The basis for her ruling was the now institutionalized and insane litmus test for detecting “racism”.  The judge and the plaintiffs simply pointed to “the large number of minorities stopped relative to their representation in the overall population”.   That was the sum and substance of what passes for liberal logic.   Never mind that blacks compose the overwhelming proportion of perps – e.g. almost 4 out 5 shooters – on the city streets (more here).  Mayor Bloomberg and most of the city’s residents are enraged at the prospect of the return of high crime rates, and we will track this case as it is appealed to higher jurisdictions.

(BTW, the graphic in ‘The Liberal Mind – Expendable Dead for More Votes’ illustrates the situation of population and perpetrator proportions.  Moreover, it suggests the utter innumeracy (insanity?) of allocating remedial resources according to wrong population proportions – here the fraction of blacks in NYC vs the fraction of black perps in NYC.)

Distinguished author – Bell Curve (with Herrenstein), Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010 - and former liberal scholar Charles Murray points out in his latest – War on Poverty – that the national pathology being promoted by progressives is creating additional legions of dependent Americans through welfare programs like SNAP (food stamps).  He makes the strong case that such pathologies are now becoming mainstream, as in these cadres also morphing into dependable Democrat voters.  A compelling piece of evidence for this is that poverty rates kept decreasing after the Great Depression, and then started increasing after the launch of the War on Poverty in the mid-1960s.

“Liberal pension excesses are now jeopardizing liberal priorities.” reports the 12aug13 WSJ.  The only leftwingers still denying the ravages of union impressed pensions, both public and private, on the cities and states across the nation are the local know-nothing echo chambers and nationally prominent Democrats.  The latter no longer deny the fact, but remain conspicuously silent on the matter.  The cogent summary of all that is –

“Many people (including RR since 2007) have been predicting this crack-up for years, the inevitable result of a political alliance in which unions elect Democrats who pad benefits for unions, which then spend to re-elect Democrats, who repeat the cycle. The music stops only when the taxpayers are tapped out or the city and state can't borrow any more. Detroit had its reckoning last month, and Chicago may be headed the same way unless its liberal politicians decide that a crisis of their own creation is a terrible thing to waste.”

With the loss of the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) that was decommissioned this March, we are now down to ten nuclear super-carriers.  Recall that it is through these ten carrier task groups that the US projects force throughout the world and puts backbone into its (recently abandoned) diplomacy.  We note that it takes twice as many carriers to field a given number on active operations - the other half is being maintained and/or in training exercises.  It was not long ago that our force level was at twelve such carriers.  I note again that the power of the pen depends entirely on the sword that backs its scribbles.

Oh, those damn Republicans! (updated 15aug13)

George Rebane

My friend RL Bob Crabb, a man with a considerable trumpet hereabouts, put up this cartoon in today’s (10aug13) Union.  As I’ve opined in the past, Bob is a self-declared middle roader who nevertheless has a pronounced list to port, as is evident from his excellent double entendre offering during our county’s elephant ride contentious fair.


So here we see a number of ideological positions all cleverly wrapped up into a recalcitrant pachyderm that doesn’t want to budge from ground zero.  Now way back when, humorists and keen social scene observers like Will Rogers and Mark Twain thought it a great benefit to the country when Congress was deadlocked or in recess.  And most folks across the land had the same thought, since they all knew that ‘do nothing’ legislatures could also do to meddle in their affairs and lighten their pocketbooks.  Those days are gone with almost half of Americans paying no federal and most state taxes, and at least one in seven getting regular care packages from Uncle Sam.  When it comes to government, bigger is better.

Bob’s graphic reminds us that the more common mind today blames Republicans for causing the problems and then impeding the fix through higher taxes on the wealthy (and the rest of us taxpayers).  Republicans are standing in the way of continuing our relentless borrowing binge that is making the US into a world class bargain basement economy.  The dimwitted Republicans are pushing for growth as our country’s salvation, instead of appreciating those exquisitely placed and soon-to-stimulate trillions (honest Injun!). It’s the Republicans who are throwing sand into that smooth running, well-oiled machine called Obamacare.  Then the mean-spirited Republicans are even trying to get the newly enrolled millions of SNAP devotees to snap out of it.  And to put a bow on it, we all know that if anything goes awry in the coming months, the Republicans are to blame.

Guilty as charged!  Next case please.

[15aug13 update]  Louisiana state senator Elbert Guillory recently switched parties.  His reasons for doing so are edifying.  Let him tell you in his own words (here).  I think we'll send him a contribution.

 

Common Core Test Results – ‘Schools Get an F’

George Rebane

My 21jun13 KVMR commentary ‘Common Core is Coming’ invited an intense and long debate in the comment stream of its transcript posted here.  Well, time has passed and the early results of Common Core testing are beginning to come in, and the results aren’t pretty.  The kids are scoring markedly lower on the new standardized tests.  First, Kentucky reported that its elementary and middle schools performance dropped by about a third.  And now New York result is that only 31% of its students test proficient in math and reading.  (Here’s more in the 7aug13 WSJ and from the Daily Caller.)

In other states where Common Core is being implemented, education administrators and officials are telling parents to brace themselves for lower test scores.  And now the national debate will be launched as these test scores come in.  CC proponents argue that we will finally get a true picture of our kids’ academic achievements from these nationalized tests, and to do better in the future we should turn to and spread CC across the land to bring our kids academic performance up to par.  CC opponents are pointing out that the results reflect the application of a dysfunctional ‘one size fits all’ misdirected curriculum that is destined to fail our students during the coming years – another federal education program that doesn’t perform.  Meanwhile, the unions are worried that the teachers will be held to account for their students’ poor showing.

Ah, the joys of central planning.

War on Terror in Perpetuum, Amen (updated 12aug13)

George Rebane

Right after 9/11 when we declared war on something mislabeled terrorism, I pondered about that new war and how it would be fought, and more importantly how could/would it be won.  Being of the analytical bent, I came up with an effective metric and communicated it to the editors of the Wall Street Journal (more here).  The metric was based on the established notion that when your enemy resorts to terror, his objective is to cause you to defeat yourself through the self-infliction of internal defenses (regulations, liberties removed, checkpoints, searches, etc) that would grind down your abilities to communicate, travel, conduct commerce, and, in general, carry on a normal productive life style.  Over the last twelve years we have all come to know the drill on how our lives have changed as the ragheads count victory after victory.

My metric was essentially a thermometer that would go up with the number of all the restrictions, laws, prohibitions, … that the state would pass in the name of assuring our security against these then unidentified terrorists.  (Since then the DHS has identified American veterans and tea partiers as the most likely terrorists, and anyone yelling ‘Allahu Akbar!’ before killing/maiming dozens of Americans is just committing “workplace violence”.)

Anyway, the metric would similarly record the deleted number of such anti-terror prohibitions, laws, agencies, etc.  These would be easy enough to keep track of since our benevolent and protective government has announced each of these so-called measures before chucking another bucket of sand into the gears of our modus vivendi.

Clearing our forests of unwanted biomass

George Rebane

This has been a longstanding problem as we wait for the next big wildfire.  The econuts have done everything possible to delay and derail solutions.  Now they have another one in their sights – micro refineries for biomass conversion.

This new technology allows the set up of numbers of temporary refining facilities in the hinterlands that convert forest biomass and trash into excellent fuels for vehicles and heating.  And by the accepted carbon accounting methods these micro refineries produce what are known as “carbon negative fuels”.  The big deal is that they can be located anywhere, and when the biomass is brought from within a 30 mile radius, these facilities solve the transportation cost problem that was said to shut down plans for plants near places like Loyalton in the Tahoe National Forest.

Alan Weiner of the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels is ecstatic about this new technology since Colorado is filled with dead, bug infested forests that need to be cleaned up.  Micro refineries seem to be the exact solution we have been waiting for, but Weiner’s fear is that the econuts will find a way to also kill this solution.

For more on what micro refineries are and how they work, go visit Cool Planet, the company that has developed and is marketing the technology.

Finally, the reason the econut fear is a real one is that micro refineries will remove a major reason to deny access to forested public lands, a prime Agenda21 objective.  Reclaiming overgrown and dying forests for human enterprises and recreation is definitely not a part of their plans for our sustainable stack-and-pack future.

Postscript:  Did anyone else hear the developing story that presidential aide and close confidant Valerie Jarrett may be the one to have issued the stand down order to our military response teams in Italy and Tripoli?  We recall President Obama’s whereabouts during that fateful time in Benghazi are still a top level state secret; he told his team, which included SecDef Panetta and our ‘what difference does it make?!’ SecState Hillary, to “handle it” and then evaporated the area.  Now I'm not sure yet that there is anything to Vallerie's stint as acting CinC.  But I will wager that if it is true, the wheels will finally come off this adiministration.

Approaches to Effective Education (updated 7aug13)

George Rebane

Our long lament with America’s education systems continues.  I was reminded of it again by a report on the entrepreneurial approach to teaching students that is rampant in South Korea.  There kids go to school during the day, and at night after coming home they go back to school, alebeit of a different type.  South Korean students are world class top performers (#2 after Shanghai), and are nudged into that status by parents who pay extra for extra tutoring for their little darlings.

South Korea is full of private tutoring academies (hagwons) run by entrepreneurs and master teachers.  Because of that South Korea is a literate and numerate nation – 93% high school graduation rate, ours is 77% - this means their high schoolers can read and cypher, while a good half of ours fall short.

The hagwons are highly competitive, they advertise and publish their students’ test score averages and college admission rates.  Private teachers are continually rated by their students whom they correctly treat as their customers.  But even with higher ratings, most private teachers still strain to make as much as public school teachers, however many of them do make goodly fortunes.  The outstanding teachers are treated as we would treat rock stars, using online technologies they know how to leverage their talents.

The country’s leading private teacher is Mr Kim Ki-Hoon who runs a 30 person teaching and publishing company.  Most of Mr Kim’s lectures are delivered online, and he supplements these lectures with his own texts that he self-publishes.  His personal income is about $4M annually.  Neither Mr Kim nor his thousands of colleagues/competitors are certified by the state.  The hagwons are run as a pure meritocracy in a free market with the non-performers being ruthlessly weeded out.  (more here)

Ruminations – 2aug13

George Rebane

The surface calm during our cool summer is beguiling and more than misleading.  Over the years RR readers have had an early heads up on a number of national and international issues affecting us that are now coming home to roost, and several of them are already here.  All of them were pooh-poohed by the local Left, taking the cue from their national leadership.  Here’s a short list.

Greece is still in the tank and sinking deeper.  Now the IMF is trying to quietly muscle in ahead of other creditors as it sees Greece hitting the bottom next year despite the Eurozone bailouts which have had no impact on Greece’s GDP growth.  There simply is no there there; Greece is a country that could economically disappear from the world scene with no impact save a haircut to those who lent it money.  Some time ago RR readers received a formula with which compute the probability of default; it worked in spades.  Other countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, and even Belgium are standing in the EU’s default line.

Incipient financial ruin of America’s cities and states is acknowledged worldwide.  Again our light thinking Left denied for years the role of public service unions and their pension planning with sleazebag politicians.  Now we have witnessed a quiet pivot by progressives who are quietly trying to fix the unfixable without ever uttering things like SEIU.  For a snoot full of how obvious the problem is to all but the national liberal chorus and, of course, the oblivians, read ‘The Unsteady States of America – Why the pensions nightmare is only just beginning’ in the 27jul13 Economist.  Again, RR reported on this inevitability almost seven years ago when the SESF report presented to the local Board of Supervisors was risibly ignored.

The current poster child of municipal malfeasance and corruption is Detroit whose 700K citizens have been characterized by Michigan’s governor as innocent “good people” on whom this financial disaster has come like an unpreventable act of nature.  Never mind that it is these same people who have continued to vote for the most corrupt collection of politicians decade after decade.  Now they all are looking with expectant faces toward Washington for what could become the first of a national avalanche of bailouts and bondholder haircuts as at least 100 more cities are stewing in their own versions of such Chapter 9 fiscal fiascoes.