The US auto bailout - yet more evidence of dishonesty

I've written several times before about the monumentally misguided - and mismanaged - US auto industry bailout of 2008-2010.  Amongst other problems, thousands of non-union pensioners had their pensions savagely cut by the bailout, while other (i.e. union) pensioners suffered no loss at all.

It now appears that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had a great deal to do with this disparity, authorizing - perhaps even directing - the loss to non-union pensioners whilst simultaneously buttressing the position of union pensioners.  (The unions, of course, were and are among President Obama's biggest supporters.)

Emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, was the driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company.

The move, made in 2009 while the Obama administration implemented its auto bailout plan, appears to have been made solely because those retirees were not members of labor unions.

The internal government emails contradict sworn testimony, in federal court and before Congress, given by several Obama administration figures. They also indicate that the administration misled lawmakers and the courts about the sequence of events surrounding the termination of those non-union pensions, and that administration figures violated federal law.

Delphi, a 13-year old company that is independent of General Motors, is one of the world’s largest automotive parts manufacturers. Twenty thousand of its workers lost nearly their entire pensions when the government bailed out GM. At the same time, Delphi employees who were members of the United Auto Workers union saw their pensions topped off and made whole.

The White House and Treasury Department have consistently maintained that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) independently made the decision to terminate the 20,000 non-union Delphi workers’ pension plan. The PBGC is a federal government agency that handles private-sector pension benefits issues. Its charter calls for independent representation of pension beneficiaries’ interests.

Former Treasury official Matthew Feldman and former White House auto czar Ron Bloom, both key members of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry during the GM bailout, have testified under oath that the PBGC, not the administration, led the effort to terminate the non-union Delphi workers’ pension plan.

“As a result of the Delphi Corporation bankruptcy, for example, Delphi and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation were forced to terminate Delphi’s pension plans, which means there are Delphi retirees who unfortunately will collect less than their full pension benefits,” Feldman testified on July 11, 2012.

The emails TheDC has obtained show that the Treasury Department, not the independent PBGC, was running the show.

Under 29 U.S.C. §1342, the PBGC is the only government entity that is legally empowered to initiate termination of a pension or make any official movements toward doing so.

There's more at the link.  Bold print is my emphasis.

I hope that criminal prosecutions will result from this . . . but you and I know just how much chance that hope has of being fulfilled.  If President Obama loses this year's presidential election, I expect to see a boatload of executive pardons handed out just before he leaves office, to make sure his henchmen in arranging these (and so many other) illegal and fraudulent acts get away with their crimes.

Back in 2009 I said:

I shall never again buy any new Chrysler or General Motors vehicle or other product, unless and until the issues raised by their bankruptcies have been resolved in accordance with the current (i.e. today's) law of the land, and any and all benefits unjustly accruing or unfairly transferred to political stakeholders have been nullified and withdrawn forever.

I have, as yet, seen and/or heard nothing at all to make me change my mind.





Peter

An equal opportunity offender?

I was delighted to read that Rep. Allen West, for whom I have great respect, managed to outrage the entire Congressional Black Caucus recently.  (Of course, that entire body is outrageous, and frequently produces outrage in me, but we'll let that pass for now . . . ).  Mediaite reports:

Rep. Allen West reportedly offended the entire Congressional Black Caucus when he delivered a selection of Chick-fil-A chicken and biscuits to the members’ weekly meeting. CBC Chairman Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) told The Huffington Post that, despite the incident happening six months ago, it is still fresh in their minds and every member was offended.

Despite that this incident occurred months prior to the public dustup that followed Chick-fil-A’s CEO voicing his support for traditional marriage, Hastings told The Huffington Post that the members of the CBC were offended by West’s choosing that particular fast food chain to cater their meeting.

Hastings says that it is appropriate for each member of the CBC to buy lunch on a rotating basis for their weekly meeting, but West’s purchase was too “in your face” to be tolerable.

There's more at the link.

Considering the number of members of the CBC who've been arraigned on ethics charges in the House, convicted of crimes in the criminal justice system, or been caught in various degrees of flagrante delicto, I'd have thought this was one glass house whose residents dare not throw stones at all!  Clearly, that was too much to expect of them . . . but that in itself is hardly unexpected, is it?  (On the other hand, it's pretty telling that the CBC's claim to respect rests upon its members - and as far as I can tell, the only member actually worthy of respect is Rep. West!)





Peter

Of divers, competition and cameras

Long-standing readers may recall an article I posted back in 2009, showing the faces of some divers at the last Olympics as they concentrated fiercely upon their performance.  Now the Telegraph has published a gallery of pictures of the latest Olympians doing their (facial) thing.  Here are a couple of examples.

There are many more at the link.

I can't help but wonder why coaches don't remind their athletes to think about how they'll be photographically preserved for posterity, and to make more attractive faces accordingly!



Peter

Fred on sexuality

The inimitable Fred Reed, whom we encountered in these pages a few days ago, has published his latest column:  'Fido Reconsidered:  Toward a More Inclusive Sexuality'.  It made me howl with laughter more than once.  Here's an excerpt.

Having read the course listings for several departments of Women’s Studies at places that were once universities, such as Dartmouth, I am considering becoming a deep-sea squid. Many considerations recommend this course. Squids are more dignified than people. They make less noise. Universities run by squids do not have Departments of Lesbian, Gay, Cross-gendered, Transmogrified, Transvestite, and Deeply Puzzled Squid Studies. Lady squids are less infuriated than human females in such courses, and frequently better-looking.

Departmental offerings of fascinating import abound:

WMST488R Senior Seminar: Queering the Global South (D)

Or:

WMST698D Special Topics in Women’s Studies: The History of Drag.  C. Schuler

I can’t imagine anything more appropriate to a college education than the history of drag. Perhaps there is a chapter on Elizabethan Englishmen, who wore brightly colored pantyhose and swords. Where I come from in West Virginia, any man who wore panty hose would need a sword, so maybe it made sense.  I am not sure how one queers the global south, but I believe I will move north and, just in case, get a Kevlar codpiece.

There's more at the link.  Go read for a good laugh!





Peter

Another painful day, but things are improving

I made it to the chiropractor this morning, and I hope an adjustment will help take the kinks out of my lower spine.  Still popping painkillers today, but things should be better by tomorrow.

I'll put up more posts tomorrow morning (the pain levels are lower earlier in the day).  Meanwhile, to keep you amused, here's a racing video with a difference.  Every year, there's a hillclimb event at Matrand in Norway.  These clips are from this year's event.  Talk about mind-boggling!  It's worth watching in full-screen mode.

According to CarBuzz, this was "Produced by Bjorn Michaelsen of Insane Racing and plucked from the 'Formula Offroad Matrand, Norway 2012' movie".  If there's a full-length movie of the event, it might make fun viewing.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #627

A tip o' the hat to reader Merlin, who alerts us to today's winners - two young men from New Zealand.

Police have named two teenagers who were seriously burnt as a result of a gas explosion at a Mosgiel house yesterday.

They are Brendon McLeod (17) and Jamie Jury (18), both of Mosgiel.

Mr McLeod has today been transferred to the burn centre at Middlemore Hospital, in Auckland, and Mr Jury remains in Dunedin Hospital's intensive care unit.

Both remain in a critical condition.

Fire investigators have determined a gas heater sparked explosions in a house where two teenagers were allegedly "huffing" yesterday.

The two teenagers, each believed to be sniffing from 9kg LPG bottles, were engulfed by flames when gas in the room became so condensed it was ignited by the heater.

The explosion at the home in Mosgiel blasted a candlestick across the road and through the window of a parked car.

Fire Service East Otago assistant area commander Trevor Tilyard said this morning there were two explosions: first the two cylinders being used for huffing and then the cylinder attached to the free-standing gas heater.

The first blast knocked over the cylinder fuelling the heater, which started "pumping out a huge fire in that room", Mr Tilyard said.

. . .

The third gas bottle exploded about three or four minutes later.

"The cylinder exploded and propelled into the upper reaches of the room and was embedded in the wall," Mr Tilyard said.

He said the explosion happened just as firefighters were entering the house, though none were injured.

Walls were displaced and the part of the roof blown off in the explosions.

Mr Tilyard said the windows were blown out and glass spread as far as the driveway of a house across the road.

There's more at the link.

Of course, these young men may also qualify for Darwin Awards if they don't recover from their injuries.  Let's hope they live and learn!

Peter

When profit trumps the Hippocratic Oath

The New York Times has an interesting article concerning unnecessary cardiac procedures allegedly carried out at a national chain of hospitals at its Florida facilities.  Here's a brief excerpt.

HCA, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the United States with 163 facilities, had uncovered evidence as far back as 2002 and as recently as late 2010 showing that some cardiologists at several of its hospitals in Florida were unable to justify many of the procedures they were performing ... In some cases, the doctors made misleading statements in medical records that made it appear the procedures were necessary, according to internal reports.

Questions about the necessity of medical procedures — especially in the realm of cardiology — are not uncommon. None of the internal documents reviewed calculate just how many such procedures there were or how many patients might have died or been injured as a result. But the documents suggest that the problems at HCA went beyond a rogue doctor or two.

. . .

In a recent statement, HCA declined to provide evidence that it had alerted Medicare, state Medicaid or private insurers of its findings, or reimbursed them for any of the procedures that the company later deemed unnecessary, as required by law.

“When the company becomes aware of a situation in which we might have a reimbursement obligation, we assess, with outside resources, what our reimbursement obligations might be,” the statement said.

HCA also declined to show that it had ever notified patients, who might have been entitled to compensation from the hospital for any harm.

. . .

C. T. Tomlinson [a nurse] said he could not believe his eyes as Dr. Abdul Shadani prepared to insert a stent in a heart patient in the cardiac catheterization lab of HCA’s Lawnwood hospital in the late spring of 2008.

Mr. Tomlinson, a traveling nurse who had worked at more than a dozen cath labs before arriving at Lawnwood, said in a telephone interview that he saw no blockages in the images of the patient’s artery.

“Sir, what are we going to fix?” Mr. Tomlinson recalled asking Dr. Shadani. The doctor responded by asking the nurse if he did not see the 90 percent blockage in the artery. Mr. Tomlinson did not, and looked at the others in the room. They all shrugged, he said, and Dr. Shadani inserted the stent.

Mr. Tomlinson reported his concerns to hospital officials. Shortly after, he was told his contract would not be renewed. An internal memo, however, concluded that Mr. Tomlinson had been retaliated against.

. . .

Cardiology is a lucrative business for HCA, and the profits from testing and performing heart surgeries played a critical role in the company’s bottom line in recent years.

Some of HCA’s busiest Florida hospitals perform thousands of stent procedures each year. Medicare reimburses hospitals about $10,000 for a cardiac stent and about $3,000 for a diagnostic catheterization.

There's more at the link.

I highly recommend reading the whole article.  I'm convinced that this problem extends far beyond the few Florida facilities identified in the report - in fact, I'm willing to bet it may be found in every state in the Union.

Peter

National uprisings in the information age

I've been watching the evolution of popular uprisings in the Middle East with considerable interest.  Whilst in some ways they're the 'same old, same old' as previous revolutions, in other ways they're pointing the way to our integrated, mass-communication future.  You might call them the first 'information-centered' revolutions in history.

• Internet-based social media, particularly Facebook, appear to have played a vital role in the Egyptian revolution.  Wired magazine reported last year that they were used to organize protests, disseminate information, and speed up communications between the various groups involved.
• Last month Wired reported that Syrian rebel groups are using YouTube and Facebook to provide weapons training to inexperienced would-be revolutionaries.  Their sympathizers are posting video clips and other information online, and fighters inside Syria are accessing the material using mobile phones and other equipment.
• The Syrian revolutionaries are also compensating for the lack of independent news media coverage by uploading to the Internet pictures, movies and reports taken using mobile phones.  The Christian Science Monitor has a very interesting report on a young man who's set up an information and media center using only a laptop computer, with 'field reports' submitted on thumb drives.  Ingenious!

Perhaps the most fascinating example of the use of modern Internet communication in warfare comes from Libya last year.  Courtesy of a very interesting link at Information Dissemination, I came across this video (which is worth watching in full, even though it's almost an hour long).  In it, four panelists discuss revolutionary movements and their use of networks, both physical and virtual.  To see the specific portion relevant to this article, use your mouse cursor to move the video's slider to the 27m.25sec. mark for a brief discussion of events involving first, Syrian insurgents, then Libyan citizens and their interaction with a French naval vessel.  The latter is particularly interesting - and amusing!

I can't help but wonder how revolutionary uprisings will continue to evolve in the information age.  I guess in the not too distant future, national infrastructure will be targeted by means of DDoS attacks and other means, instead of blowing them up.  At least that way, they should still be around for use by the revolutionaries when they take over!

Peter

Pain, blogging, and life

I've had a couple of readers ask about the nights I don't blog much.  I guess when you put up four to five posts a day, readers get used to the regularity of it all, and miss their daily 'dose'.  Tonight's another night when I won't be blogging much, so I thought I'd take a little time to explain why.

Back in 2004, I was badly injured in a work-related incident.  That led to two surgeries, and left me with a fused lower spine, permanent damage to the sciatic nerve in my left leg, and in constant pain.  On a scale of 1 low to 10 high, I'm always - 24/7/365 - in a 2-3 state of pain, spiking to 4-5 on bad days.  Occasionally, I'll have a really bad day, when the pain's so bad I just don't want to move at all.  Today was one of those days, probably a 7 out of 10, sometimes spiking to 8-9.

I used to be on permanent pain medication to deal with this, but I got off it after I had my heart attack back in October 2009.  You see, after that incident I ended up with a total of 9 prescription medications, which I was taking each and every day.  6 out of the 9 had the documented side-effect of weight gain;  and I guess some of them decided to gang up on me and reinforce that effect.  I put on over 100 pounds, despite serious efforts to control it, and I just can't seem to shake it.  With medical clearance, I'm currently following an extremely restricted diet, but even so I'm struggling to lose more than a pound or so each week.  My metabolism has never shaken off the effects of that combination of drugs.  They really did a number on me.

In a (successful) attempt to stop the weight gain (even if I haven't as yet been able to reverse it), I stopped taking 6 out of the 9 medications prescribed for me, limiting myself to only those essential for heart health.  That's helped to minimize the drug-interaction complications I experienced in 2010-11.  Unfortunately, it also means that on most bad pain days I can't keep things under control as well as I used to.  Today was bad enough that I broke down and took two strong painkillers (I still have some stored from my pain management prescriptions).  They don't necessarily take away the pain, but after a while I stop caring!  Talk about 'warm fuzzies' . . .

So, that's why blogging will be light tonight.  I'll get some sleep (I'm never able to get more than 4-5 hours at a stretch, because my back and leg pain will wake me), then put up more posts early tomorrow morning.

(By the way, please don't think I'm complaining about my lot in life.  I went through many experiences in South Africa - some of which will be known to regular readers - that could have killed or crippled me.  I'm very grateful to have survived them and be alive today!  As for my 2004 injury, I know others who've experienced similar problems who are much worse off than I am.  They have to get around in wheelchairs or mobility scooters.  So far, I can still walk, albeit not very fast or for very long distances.  I have a lot to be grateful for, and I know it.  I'm going to go on making the most out of life, and enjoying the good days as much as I can.  I'll endure the bad pain days as being the other side of the coin.)

That's one reason why Miss D. and I make such a good couple.  She's endured several serious injuries of her own, including being the (pedestrian) meat filling in a two-car sandwich.  When either of us has a bad pain day, the other genuinely understands exactly how we're feeling.  The shared experience of pain helps us support each other.  I'm sure we'd both rather have missed that experience, but you know what they say.  If life gives you lemons - make lemonade!

I'll talk with y'all tomorrow.  Sleep well, friends.

Peter

Well done, that lady!

Courtesy of a link at Powerline, we come across this video report of an armed robbery in California that was foiled by a proverbial 'little old lady' - with a gun!

Well done, Ma'am!  I bet they needed the services of a laundry after that . . .





Peter

30 years of the Commodore 64!

I was startled to read that the Commodore 64 home computer was released 30 years ago, in 1982.  I remember the event very well.  I'd been working in computers for a while already, and in 1982 was a mainframe programmer.  We all laughed at the Commodore 64 at the time, regarding it as a toy, but it produced some very respectable results for its day.

Benj Edwards wrote an article for PCWorld, describing how he tried to use a 30-year-old Commodore 64 (complete with a double-sided floppy disk drive holding 170 kilobytes - not gigabytes, not megabytes, but kilobytes - per side, a cassette drive, and a whole 64 kilobytes of memory!) for his modern computing needs.  He even managed to send a Tweet from it!  It makes fascinating reading, and brought back all sorts of memories for me.

Commodore 64 system (image courtesy of PCWorld)

It's amazing how much we take for granted with our modern computer systems.  Any modern smartphone has much more computing power than a Commodore 64 - for that matter, some of the more advanced digital wristwatches can make the same claim!  As for our larger computers of the day . . . I can remember when a South African oil company where I worked upgraded its IBM System/370 Model 145 mainframe from one to two megabytes of main memory.  Several computer specialists were horrified at our extravagance.  "Why on earth does a mere oil company need an entire two megabytes of memory?  It's not as if you're a university needing it for scientific research, you know!"





Peter

A very useful resource

I recently came across the Grammar pages of the Oxford Dictionaries Web site.  They offer extremely useful tutorials on English grammar and usage, the kind of thing that used to be taught in elementary school, but is today often ignored.  (It's humbling to read a 19th-century US college entrance exam on the English language.  I'm willing to bet that most modern high school students of English couldn't even come close to passing it.  For that matter, I consider myself a better-than-average student and practitioner of English, but I don't think I could answer all of those questions correctly!)

The Oxford Dictionaries adopt a straightforward, easy-to-follow approach to teaching the intricacies of our common language.  Here, for example, is a screenshot from their tutorial on Sentences.

There's more at the link.

Despite having a thorough grounding in English and a University major in the language, I'm going to spend time refreshing my grammatical knowledge using these tutorials.  I think many, perhaps most, of us can benefit from them.  Grateful thanks to the Oxford Dictionaries for including them on their Web site.

Peter

Lessons from Spain for America?

Der Spiegel has a very interesting two part article by a Spaniard living in Germany on what it's like to return to his country of origin, and see how the economic crisis has affected his family, his friends, and the areas he remembers.  Here are a few excerpts.

I watch the news on television in my hotel room. As usual, it consists of two parts: the horror film and the fairy-tale hour. More and more depositors are emptying their accounts, the Spanish autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha is closing 70 schools, unemployment is almost 25 percent -- that's the horror film. In the fairy-tale hour, they talk about the Spanish national football team.

After watching the news in Spain for a while, you understand why half the airtime is devoted to sports. If it weren't, people would go mad. Everything revolves around the crisis. Really everything. A DIY superstore advertises 200 jobs and gets 12,000 applications. Academics conceal their degrees on job applications in order to compete with people with inferior qualifications. There are street battles in Asturias between striking miners and the police. Sales of safes are on the rise.

This isn't news. It's terror.

. . .

Barcelona is a beautiful city, much more so than Berlin, Frankfurt or Munich, despite the "For Sale" signs hanging from balconies and the gold dealers opening up shop everywhere to sell the jewelry of desperate Spaniards.

To me, the city feels like the wife of a factory manager who refuses to believe that the company is bankrupt. She still has her fur coat, her diamond ring and her china -- but everyone knows it'll be over soon.

The unemployment rate in Barcelona rose from 7 to 17.7 percent last year. Barcelona is Spain's richest city, and yet 17.7 percent of its working population is unemployed.

. . .

Castellón built an airport from which no aircraft has ever taken off, an airport that cost €150 million in a city that's only 65 kilometers from Valencia, which already has an airport that's much too big for the region.

. . .

For years, Castellón suffered from the fact that it wasn't as important, rich or well-known as Valencia and Alicante, the other two major cities in the region. Someone hit upon the idea of changing that by building 17 golf courses. Seventeen 18-hole golf courses translate into a lot of golfers, hence the airport. The golf courses never materialized.

There's more at each link.

Note what the author says about Barcelona - that it currently has 17.7% unemployment.  Well, the US unemployment and underemployment rate, measured by the broader U6 index, is about 15%, and according to Shadowstats the true unemployment rate (i.e. not 'massaged' according to the requirements of political correctness by government bureaucrats) is closer to 23%.

You can extrapolate from Barcelona's experience to see how such unemployment is bound to affect this country.  It's already doing so in many areas - it's just that the mass media aren't publicizing most of them.  Only big, in-your-face problem areas that are too big to cover up are being discussed, such as Detroit or the bankrupt cities of an equally bankrupt California.

There are lessons for America in the Spanish experience.  I highly recommend reading both articles in Der Spiegel and considering your part of this country in the light of what they reveal.

Peter

Awwww!

Here's your cute overload for Sunday.

Peter

Recall on Winchester .40 S&W duty ammo

I know I have a number of readers who are current or former law enforcement personnel.  Many of them carry Winchester duty or defensive ammunition.  For their benefit, I pass on this warning about an FBI recall of some Winchester .40 S&W duty ammunition.

The FBI is working with Winchester on a potentially serious condition affecting all recently produced .40 S&W, Winchester, Q4355, 180grain, Bonded SERVICE ammunition. Some of the cartridge casings were produced without a flash hole. This condition completely eliminates the ability of this Service cartridge to fire.

This is a silent killer in that no visual inspection by FBI personnel can detect this manufacturing defect and it would only be known at the time the Agent attempted to fire their handgun. A limited number of problems have been reported:  however, this is such a dangerous condition [that] immediate action across the FBI is necessary.

Affected ammunition will have a four character 'day code', two letters, two numbers, i.e., FA 42. All Q4355 with day codes beginning with the letter F and any Q4355 with the two letter combination of EN are included in this recall. This ammunition must be removed from FBI service weapons and magazines IMMEDIATELY.

Again, boxed ammunition with the following codes must be removed from service IMMEDIATELY:

• Product Code: Q4355
• Day Code: Any code beginning with F or EN

You'll find the announcement here, along with comments from other users.

Peter

The mind-boggling superstitions of Africa

I've written several times in the past about witchcraft and superstition in Africa.  A recent article in the Zimbabwe Herald illustrates this reality better than I could ever describe it.  Here are a few excerpts.

A 62-YEAR-OLD Gokwe man has come out in the open and claimed ownership of a goblin which has been terrorising women in his village by taking off their panties at night while they were asleep.

The man, Mr Lameck Ncube of Village Charisekera, under Chief Njelele, made the startling revelations at a cleansing ceremony in the village on Wednesday.

The cleansing ceremony, conducted by a n’anga from Hwange District in Matabeleland North and a prophet from an apostolic sect, was attended by Chief Njelele, hundreds of villagers and journalists from different media organisations.

. . .

Mr Ncube ... confessed that he owned the “menacing” goblin, which he claimed to have acquired long ago to enhance his luck.

Mr Ncube told the puzzled crowd that the goblin had, however, turned “hostile and weird” to a point of going around sleeping with women. A police officer who had been invited to the occasion to maintain order at one time moved in to restore order after some villagers whose wives fell victim to the goblin’s “sex” escapades threatened to beat up Mr Ncube.

The n’anga, who was accompanied by six aides, was forced with his team to temporarily stop the witch hunting ceremony as they accompanied Mr Ncube to his homestead to “capture” the goblin which shared a bedroom with one of Mr Ncube’s sons.

There was more drama as the villagers jostled to have a glimpse of the decorated goblin after the tsikamutanda brought it before the crowd. The goblin, which looked like a living creature, was wearing a pair of blue female panties, which village head Charisekera’s wife, Ms Silvia Marumbe, claimed to be hers.

Ms Marume claimed during the event that she lost her panties in mysterious circumstances in 2004.

The goblin was later burnt before the crowd.

In an interview after the burning of the goblin, Mr Ncube said he was happy that he was now a free man, saying the creature had been giving him sleepless nights for a long time.

Mr Ncube said he bought the goblin in Chakari near Kadoma in 1983 when he was still working in Kwekwe.

“When I bought this goblin, my purpose was to try and have luck in my life. I also wanted to get promoted at my work as well as acquiring wealth but when I later retired, I then learnt that the goblin had not performed to my expectations,” he said.

There's more at the link.  Go read it for yourself . . . and ask yourself:  how can any society where this sort of crap is taken seriously ever hope to integrate itself into the modern world?





Peter

Ann Barnhardt warns about IRA's, 401(k)'s and pensions

Readers will remember Ann Barnhardt's blunt warning in November last year about the rampant dishonesty, corruption and fraud in US markets.  So seriously did she take it that she closed down her company, Barnhardt Capital Management, and advised her clients to exit the markets immediately.

She's getting even more blunt about the current situation.  Unfortunately she doesn't make it possible to link to specific posts on her blog, but if you follow the link and scroll down to the entries for August 3rd and 4th, 2012, you'll find all the details.  In order to make it easier, I'm going to copy some highlights here.

The 401k Confiscation: The Ghilarducci Plan Part 1
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - August 4, AD 2012 1:23 PM MST


Teresa [Ghilarducci] is a member of the faculty at The New School in New York City, which is a Socialist University. Now, you might say, "Ann, ALL universities in this country could rightly be called "socialist" nowadays". True dat. But the New School makes Berkeley and Columbia look like Oral Roberts University and BYU by comparison. No, the New School is LITERALLY a socialist university. It was originally called the "University in Exile" and was begun by a bunch of Neo-Marxist scholars who were thrown out of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the early 1930s. Yeah. Remember my post about how Marxists purge intellectuals? But the other, somewhat humourous angle is that these guys were such extreme Marxists that they made Hitler and Mussolini UNCOMFORTABLE. Wowzer. So, they emigrated to NYC, where they would Fit. Right. In. Dude.


So, Teresa is now a big-wig at the "Too Freaky For Mussolini" (that kinda rhymes) New School. She writes this paper called "GUARANTEED RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS: Toward Retirement Income Security" ... Nutshell? Federal government seizes all 401(k)s and IRAs and replaces them with US Treasury Bonds. In other words, you would be FORCED to effectively loan all of your retirement accounts to the government, and continue loaning 5% of your income to the regime MANDATORILY. This would now be called a GRA, or Government Retirement Account, administered by the Social Security administration. Your "contributions" to your GRA would be automatically deducted from your paycheck, just like SocSec. Participation would be mandatory, but in the purely voluntary sense of the word, you understand. (I haven't found the muslim exemption yet, but I'm sure they'll write that into the final bill. The government employee exemption is already there on page 17 of Teresa's paper.) You would not be able to tap your contributions under any circumstances. No early withdrawal, no loans. When you die, only a tiny fraction of your GRA balance would go to your heirs, and even then, it would be transferred into THEIR GRA accounts, which they could then not touch until retirement.


But the real point of this can be found on the top right of page 12 under the header "Why not simply expand Social Security?"


"If subsidies for 401(k)]style plans and IRAs can be reallocated to Guaranteed Retirement Accounts, why not use this money to shore up and expand Social Security? This is certainly an option."


This is an admission that there is no "lock-box" in effect on the GRA money, and it would be a FLIPPING FREE FOR ALL. The 401(k) and IRA assets in the United States are currently pegged at over SIX TRILLION DOLLARS. The Obama regime would instantly "borrow" against that money and burn through it in the blink of an eye in the Ponzi Scheme method of SocSec. It is widely thought that the first group to be bailed out by GRA siezure money would be . . . wait for it, wait for it . . . unions. SEIU is massively underfunded on its retirement obligations. So, yes, the Obama regime would seize YOUR retirement money and redistribute it to Andy Stern and the kids over at the SEIU to bail their corrupt, lying, cheating, scheming, communist butts out. No wonder Andy Stern is the most frequent visitor to the White House.

____________________

The 401k Confiscation: The Ghilarducci Plan Part 2
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - August 4, AD 2012 1:22 PM MST


The bill for this is already being written, and TRUST that it isn't being written by anyone ACTUALLY in Congress. No, it is being written by flaming Communist Teresa Ghilarducci and her orcs over at The New School (too Freaky for Mussolini).


. . .


My advice? Simple. GET YOUR MONEY OUT, OUT, OUT OF 401(K)s and IRAs NOW. Take the penalty. Pay the tax. Whatever. Just get your money home. Because if the regime gets its hands on it, YOU WILL NEVER SEE A SINGLE PENNY OF IT AGAIN. It will be gone forever. I have actually been preaching this for over a year now, but since I have lots of new readers, you need to hear this. I am dead serious when I say that the safest place for your wealth right now is in gold and silver coins buried in a mayonnaise jar in your back yard. DEAD SERIOUS. No joke. No funny-ha-ha. Dead. Serious.


Spread the word.


Here is Teresa Ghilarducci herself explaining her scheme. She starts out claiming this is voluntary and then states at the 14:15 mark that it is mandatory. Remember, these are exactly the same people who said that ObamaCare would drop insurance premiums and that everyone could keep their existing insurance and doctor. These people are evil Marxist liars who will say ANYTHING in order to impose their fascist will. This is what Marxists do. They lie without conscience or hesitation.


If you can't stand to listen to this witch, fast-forward to the 13:50 mark. Listen from 13:50-14:18.

____________________

On 401ks
Posted by Ann Barnhardt - August 3, AD 2012 7:26 PM MST

401k plan of attack:

1. STOP MAKING CONTRIBUTIONS if you haven't already.

2. Liquidate it. Pay the "penalty". Would you rather pay a penalty or have it all stolen? Or possibly replaced with a "government savings account" comprised of Treasury paper which will probably default or be confiscated long before you are ever allowed to "tap it", and will NOT be able to be passed to your heirs should you croak, but will instead be resorbed back into the collective?

. . .

3. If you can't liquidate it, take out a loan on the balance. Take out the maximum possible loan, and then set up the repayment schedule on the longest possible term.

There's more at the link.

I don't agree with all Ms. Barnhardt's opinions:  but anyone who's honest enough to counsel her clients to get out of the market, then close down her company, essentially doing away with her own income in the process, is worthy of respect.  I strongly advise readers to give careful attention to what she says, then research the matter further before drawing your own conclusions - and acting on them.  I certainly shall.

Peter

The best library prank I've ever seen!

Courtesy of a link at Dark Roasted Blend, we find this video clip of a wonderful library practical joke.

'Candid Camera' would have been proud of them!



Peter

Congratulations to the USAF's 9th Bomb Squadron

In a display of tremendous efficiency and mutual support, the USAF's 9th Bomb Squadron dispatched nine B-1 Lancer bombers, their air- and ground crew, and support infrastructure to Afghanistan in a recent deployment.  Dyess AFB reports:

The Airmen of the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron and 9th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Unit provided more than 25 percent of the total fixed-wing close-air support coverage for coalition ground forces in Afghanistan every day by launching the most B-1 sorties executed on a single deployment in more than 10 years of sustained conflict.

Over the course of the six-plus month deployment, the squadron flew more than 770 combat sorties, encompassing over 9,500 hours, to provide 24 hours of coverage every day.

They also responded to more than 500 troops-in-contact situations, with the enemy as close as 300 meters from friendly forces, and another 700 priority air requests, delivering more than 400 weapons on target.

"We were able to achieve these great stats through pure hard work," said Lt. Col. Matthew Brooks, 9th Bomb Squadron commander. "Our squadron flew 130 more sorties than any B-1 squadron had flown in any other six month deployment. You don't accomplish this by luck. It's pure hard work and dedication from the aircraft maintainers, weapon builders and load crews, B-1 aviators, and the rest of the 7th Bomb Wing who deployed with us."

. . .

"There wasn't a single moment during our deployment that we did not have a B-1 in the air over Afghanistan," Brooks said. "It's really hard to put it in words how proud I am of these Airmen. Despite extremely difficult conditions both on the flightline and in the air, they gave everything they had to support the mission. I'm honored to have served with them."

There's more at the link.  Bold print is my emphasis.

Of course, the 9th Bomb Squadron has had a lot of experience in the Afghanistan theater of operations.  Here's a USAF video report from 2007, showing something of their operations during that period.

Congratulations to the 9th Bomb Squadron on an amazing feat.  I haven't heard that any other squadron (or detachment of similar size) has been able to match this during the entire Afghanistan war.  To have a plane in the air 24/7, for a full deployment, available to support Allied forces on demand, is a heck of an achievement.

Peter

Does 'DEA' now stand for 'Don't Even Ask'?

I'm not only disgusted, but frankly horrified from a law enforcement perspective, by the behavior of the Drug Enforcement Administration in a recent Texas incident.  The Houston Chronicle reports:

The phone rang before sunrise. It woke Craig Patty, owner of a tiny North Texas trucking company, to vexing news about Truck 793 - a big red semi supposedly getting repairs in Houston.

"Your driver was shot in your truck," said the caller, a business colleague. "Your truck was loaded with marijuana. He was shot eight times while sitting in the cab. Do you know anything about your driver hauling marijuana?"

"What did you say?" Patty recalled asking. "Could you please repeat that?"

The truck, it turned out, had been everywhere but in the repair shop.

Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty's knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers.

At least 17 hours before that early morning phone call, Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers - all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot.

. . .

But eight months later, Patty still can't get recompense from the U.S. government's decision to use his truck and employee without his permission.

His company, which hauls sand as part of hydraulic fracturing operations for oil and gas companies, was pushed to the brink of failure after the attack because the truck was knocked out of commission, he said.

Patty had only one other truck in operation.

In documents shared with the Houston Chronicle, he is demanding that the DEA pay $133,532 in repairs and lost wages over the bullet-sprayed truck, and $1.3 million more for the damage to himself and his family, who fear retaliation by a drug cartel over the bungled narcotics sting.

"When you start a new business, there are obvious pitfalls you go through, a learning curve," said Patty, who before buying his two trucks worked in the pharmaceutical industry. "But who would ever be ready to deal with this?

"How am I — a small businessman, father of three, American Joe from Texas — supposed to make a claim against a federal agency that has conveniently shrouded itself behind a red, white and blue cloak of confidentiality and secrecy?"

Copies of letters and emails from Patty's insurance company state that it won't pay for repairs because the truck was part of a law-enforcement operation. Patty drew from his 401K retirement fund to repair the truck, which was out of operation for 100 days.

"I was not part of this," he said. "I had absolutely no knowledge of any of it until after it happened."

There's more at the link, including photographs.

I'm stunned that any law enforcement officer or agency could think this was in any way either legal or appropriate.  Quite apart from federal, state or local laws and regulations, they blatantly ignored the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which "proscribes unreasonable seizure of any person, person's home (including its curtilage) or personal property without a warrant. A seizure of property occurs when there is 'some meaningful interference with an individual's possessory interests in that property'."

I just can't imagine how they thought they could get away with this - and I'm completely at a loss to understand how they think that stonewalling in court is going to help them.  I think heads should roll en masse for this.  Any agent who was part of this operation, any supervisor who exercised control over it at any time, and any manager who approved it, isn't fit to hold a badge, and has shown that they hold their oath of office in contempt.  Fire the whole damn lot of them - and then put them on trial for their criminal conduct!

(And yes, I write from the perspective of a retired Federal officer.  The difference between those DEA officers and myself is, I meant my oath when I took it - and still do, because the oath of office doesn't retire.  Clearly, they didn't mean theirs at all!)





Peter

In Memoriam: Sir John Keegan

I was saddened to read today of the death of Sir John Keegan, defense correspondent for the Telegraph in London, former lecturer at Sandhurst, the British Army's officer training academy, and prolific author on military history and strategy.  He was probably the pre-eminent authority in the English-speaking world on those subjects over the past two to three decades.

The Telegraph writes in its obituary:

Whatever the subject before him, Keegan wrote with close knowledge of the military arts and a personal acquaintance with many senior serving officers who had been his pupils; above all, he demonstrated a deep awareness of the human aspects of warfare, which was cruel, confusing and frightening, if occasionally glorious.

. . .

[As a young man, he] ... obtained a post as a lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. It was Keegan’s first proper job.

The academy had some similarities with an Oxford college, including beautiful grounds and buildings as well as good company. But while Oxford encouraged debate, Keegan found himself, as a civilian, lecturing on Military History to motivate young men who were part of a chain of command, trained to accept orders.

The rebellious streak that lurked within him meant that he did not always find this easy; nevertheless, he discovered how liberal and open-minded the Army could be (as long as its core values were not undermined). It tolerated the Keegan family donkey, Emilia, which kept breaking into the student officers’ quiet room. But while writing half a dozen 40,000-word potboilers for “Ballantyne’s Illustrated History of the Violent Century”, he was constantly aware that neither he nor his charges had any personal experience of war.

As a result, his first major book, The Face of Battle (1976), asked: what is it like to be in a battle? Instead of adopting a commander’s perspective, seeing every conflict as an impersonal flow of causation, currents and tendencies in the way favoured by contemporary historians, Keegan concentrated on the experience of the common soldier.

After elegantly discussing why history is usually written by victors and the limitations of survivors’ accounts, he examined three battles: Agincourt in 1415, Waterloo in 1815 and the Somme in 1916. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, including priests’ eyewitness accounts of the first, a post-conflict questionnaire sent out by an officer after the second, and the flood of letters, diaries, poetry and official reports written during the last, he described what in the past had all too often been skated over: the deep fears, the lust for killing, the willingness to risk one’s life for a comrade — characteristics common to the soldiers of all three battles. He evoked the sights, sounds and smells of war, vividly bringing home the experience for both veterans and civilian readers.

The book was an immediate success, and has never been out of print. It marked out Keegan as the most sparkling writer among the talented lecturers of the Sandhurst war studies department. This led to some jealousy, but he was able to use the vital addition to his income to educate the two sons and two daughters born to him and his wife Susanne Everett, later the biographer of Alma Mahler and Oscar Kokoschka.

. . .

With his ability to touch souls and stir consciences, Keegan found himself being offered large publishing contracts for writing on ever grander themes . The Mask of Command (1987) concerned the ability of leaders such as Alexander the Great, Wellington, Ulysses Grant and Hitler to weave a spell over their troops with a combination of energy, tenacity and ruthlessness. The Price of Admiralty (1988) took him into less familiar waters with an account of the evolution of naval warfare from Trafalgar to the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War.

Critics responded favourably to A History of Warfare (1993) — which was awarded the Duff Cooper Prize — in particular admiring the vastness of the book’s scope (it ranged from Genghis Khan, the Romans and the Japanese samurai to the soldiers of the 19th century).

. . .

John Keegan was knighted in 2000, and among the professional honours heaped on him, he was made a visiting fellow at Princeton and a member of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. He was invited to give the Lees Knowles lectures at Cambridge and the Reith Lectures for the BBC, which were published in 1998 as War and Our World. Perhaps the most remarkable recognition came during the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Normandy campaign, when he was invited to brief President Bill Clinton at the White House.

He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Historical Society.

There's more at the link.

I finished reading Mr. Keegan's last book, 'The American Civil War' (2009), only a few weeks ago.  It's an interesting overview of that much-described conflict, benefiting from an external perspective and, above all, from an emphasis on the geography of North America, which shaped the conflict to an extent seldom recognized by other military historians.  It's been criticized for many minor flaws, which are perhaps attributable to Mr. Keegan's prolonged ill health and advancing years.  Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it, and feel that it's a useful addition to the Civil War canon.

I feel a personal sense of loss at Mr. Keegan's death.  I've been reading his books for so long (from shortly after 'The Face Of Battle' was published in 1976) that I feel as if a hole has been left, both in my library and in my mind, knowing that he won't be writing any more.

May he rest in peace.

Peter

A criminal 'flash mob' at work

We've discussed the dangers of criminal 'flash mobs' before.  This CBS news report shows one such mob at work.

Fortunately, this particular 'flash mob' didn't degenerate into indiscriminate violence . . . but others like it have done so.  I'd hate to be caught in the middle of a group like this, because effective self-defense would be almost impossible if they tried to rob you.   There would be too many of them, and they'd be right on top of you.  You'd have no chance to establish a safe distance between yourself and their contact weapons (and don't tell me at least some of them didn't have such weapons on their persons!).

Forewarned is forearmed, friends.  Stay away from places and cities where such mobs are now common.  That includes Chicago, Milwaukee and Philadelphia at least.

Peter

Big Brother plans to force another housing crisis upon us

Readers may remember that we discussed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last year, and again in April this year.  I said of it in 2011:

If you believe any Government agency can be trusted to set its own agenda, appoint its own personnel, determine its own budget and operate from day to day without legislative oversight, there's a bridge in Brooklyn, NYC that I'd like to sell you. Cash only, please, and in small bills.

As Charles Hugh Smith pointed out earlier this year:

“Despite the vast power vested in the hands of the director, there are no effective checks on the director’s authority,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on Banking Committee.

“When you set up something that is outside the control of the elected branches, when you set up something that doesn’t require the appropriations by Congress to make sure they can continue their work only on the basis of their complying with the constitutional requirements, then you have essentially set up the potential for a rogue agency which does not have any controls and therefore you’re affecting the liberty of the people.”

There's more at the link.

Our worst fears appear to have been realized.  The CFPB has just proposed a new scheme that's almost guaranteed to produce a housing crisis worse than that which began in 2007.  The American Spectator reports:

Last week Richard Cordray, who is serving as a disputed recess appointee without the consent of the Senate, announced that not only will CFPB be going after banks but will also target the credit rating agencies that evaluate people's creditworthiness based on past performance in paying debts. They too will be vetted for racial discrimination.

. . .

... credit ratings are pretty accurate. Banks rely heavily on them and say that, if anything, the agencies tends to underestimate the rate at which minority buyers will default on mortgages.

So guess what happens next? Under the pretext of "regulating" the agencies, CFPB will hammer away, forcing them to upgrade the scores of blacks and Hispanics. Standards will be diluted or abandoned entirely and within a few years the banks will be flying blind with no reliable information on who is a good credit risk and who isn't. Does that sound like the formula for another mortgage meltdown? It sure does to me.

. . .

I think what we are witnessing is the looting of America on behalf of minorities in a way that better end soon or we are going to bring the whole system down upon our heads.

With the current administration in power, the perception is growing among minorities that everything in the economy can be had for free and that President Obama and his administration are going to provide it for them.

. . .

It is symptomatic of a rising tide of dependency and the growing sense that nobody has to be responsible for anything anymore and we can all live off "the rich." If we don't get these people out of office soon, there isn't going to be much left to pick over in the American economy.

More at the link.

Draw your own conclusions, friends.  Mine is that the author's last line quoted above is pretty accurate.

(A tip o' the hat to The Smallest Minority for drawing my attention to the American Spectator article.  I think his concluding thoughts are pretty appropriate, too!)





Peter

Hope And Change - firepower edition!

I'm still laughing over a South Carolina firearms manufacturer's latest project.  They've metaphorically lifted a finger in President Obama's direction after his comments about assault rifles.

In Celebration of our dear leader's historic presidency, we are proud to announce the pre-sale of a very limited edition commemorative [AR-15] lower.

Crafted from Forged 7075 T6 aluminum, anodized and hardcoated black per mil-spec, these feature a special rollmark and a serial prefix of "YES WE CAN." In addition, the safe and fire positions are labeled "Hope" and "Change".

There's more at the link.

Hmm . . . if I bought one for anti-gun activist and Obama supporter Rosie O'Donnell, I wonder if she'd shoot it?





Peter

The Chick-Fil-A brouhaha

I've tried to keep my peace over the Chick-Fil-A imbroglio, but the triumphalism and/or bitterness displayed on both sides has finally got to me.  I've had more than enough of this crap.  Both sides need to sit down, shut up, take a deep breath, and grow up.


To gay activists:  So you want to be free to indulge/celebrate/express your sexuality.  Good.  Go for it - in private.  I don't care what you do, or who you do it with, in the privacy of your own homes.  You have as much right to free choice as I do - in fact, according to the Christian faith, free will is one of God's primary gifts to us.  If you choose to exercise your free will differently to how I exercise mine, that's your privilege.  However, I do get fed up when you insist on making a public display of your sexuality, whether verbally, coitally, or whatever.  Get a bloody room!


To anti-gay Christians:  You have the right to believe what you please, and practice your beliefs - but you do not have the right to condemn others who do not share your faith when they believe what they please, and practice it.  Come to that, you don't have the right to condemn even those who do share your faith!  Have you forgotten Matthew 5:48 and Matthew 7:1-5?  If you've got those instructions right, then - and only then - you can talk to me about how others are failing.  Until then, shut up!

Don't tell me what you believe.  Show me.  Prove to me by example - by your actions, not by your words - that you believe.  Live a sexually moral life yourself, including no lustful thoughts, words or actions (including masturbation, pornography, etc.).  Keep that up for a meaningful period - I'm talking years, not days, weeks or months.  Only when you've walked the walk do you have the right to talk the talk.  As St. Francis of Assisi put it:  "Preach the Gospel at all times.  If necessary, use words." That says it all.


My apologies if I've offended anyone by being blunt . . . but I think it needed to be said.  For myself, I'm a Christian.  I don't accept the gay lifestyle as Godly.  On the other hand, I'm forced to confess that I'm a sinner too - at least as great a sinner, and possibly a worse one, than many, even most gay people.  I need God's mercy and forgiveness myself;  and if I want him to forgive me, I must forgive others.  (Remember the 'Our Father' [Matthew 6:9-13]?  "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."  It's that basic - and that important.)  I can't judge or condemn gay people for their lifestyle.  I must forgive them - and I need their forgiveness for my sins, too.  If I believe there's a better lifestyle for them, I need to show it to them by example, so that they can see Christ in me, and be converted by his lived reality.  Bashing them over the head with the Bible isn't exactly helpful.

We're all equally in need of God's mercy.  May we all seek it humbly, and help each other to find it in the end.

Peter

Wasp overkill?

It seems a giant nest of wasps near a Chinese village was becoming a major danger.  One man was reportedly stung to death, whilst many others had been injured.  The Chinese Army was called in to deal with the problem - which they did in true military style.

Can anyone say 'overkill'?  I suspect they've been borrowing ideas from the original 'boys and their toys', the US Marine Corps . . .





Peter

Name that carrier!

As many readers are aware, China has refurbished the hulk of the former (and never completed) Soviet aircraft-carrier Varyag, and sent it to sea to conduct preliminary trials.

The name China will give to its first aircraft-carrier is still unknown.  At first it was reported that the ship would be christened Shi Lang, after a famous Chinese admiral.  GlobalSecurity reports:

Jane's Fighting Ships states that Varyag may have been named Shi Lang (hull No. 83), a name reported in 2008. In the summer of 2007, it was commissioned into the PLAN. There is no corresponding official statement.

Shi Lang (1621-96) conquered Taiwan for the Kangxi emperor in 1683, previous to which it was under the sway of a Chinese chief named Koxinga. Admiral Shi Lang served as commander-in-chief of the Qing fleet of 300 warships and 20000 troops. In the 1662-64 period, the Qing government, in order to realize national reunification, had conducted peace talks 10 times over a period of 22 years. However, due to neglect of the construction and use of naval force and under the circumstance of the lack of necessary military pressure and effective military attacking capability, the first nine peace talks all ended in failures.

In 1683, Shi Lang, the navy military governor of Fujian, led more than 20,000-men to wipe out the bandits in Taiwan by employing the strategy for the use of force of "first taking Penghu and then Taiwan" and "residing invitation to surrender in annihilation". The Manchus took possession of the island and made it a district of Fukien Province, which it remained until ceded to the Japanese in 1895. Shi Lang's military and social influence carried on growing in the decade after his conquest of Taiwan. Shi Lang in his Memorial to the Emperor on Taiwan Issue analyzed the geographical situation of Taiwan, emphasized its strategic importance to the security of the southeast coast and the whole country and expressed his determination to safeguard it and keep it within the territory of China.

There's more at the link.

However, that name is apparently now in disfavor for some reason.  Journalist James Holmes had an idea - why not ask The Diplomat's readers to contribute suggestions for a new name for China's first carrier?

What kind of name should the ship have? Should it overawe all who behold it, sporting a name like Indisputable Sovereign of the Sea? Should it emphasize the cuddly side of Chinese sea power, with something like Panda Bear or Hello Kitty? Or something else? Please tell us! Enter your response in the comments below. Our crack editorial team will judge the responses and publish the winner next week. The prize will be … a date with editor Harry Kazianis!! (Editor's Note: What?)

Again, more at the link.

Needless to say, many of the suggestions submitted so far are anything but serious!  They include (but are not limited to) 'American Perfidy', 'Big Bully', 'White Elephant', 'Russian Junk' and (hilariously, clearly from an irritated Chinese reader) 'Kick Jim Holmes the Racist in the Shins'!

Why not click over to The Diplomat and leave your suggestion(s) as well?  This is fun!



Peter

Here's one in the eye for the anti-frackers!

All sorts of people are more or less violently opposed to 'fracking' or hydraulic fracturing, the process that releases crude oil, natural gas and other resources from deep rock formations.  Amongst other things, opponents claim that the process contaminates ground-water, making it undrinkable or even poisoning those who use it.  (The fact that even the EPA doesn't agree with them hasn't stopped them, of course.  Extremists are seldom easily deterred.)

Now comes news that should put the cat firmly among the pigeons.  Gizmag reports:

Chimera Energy Corporation of Houston, Texas, has announced that they are licensing a new method for extracting oil and gas from shale fields that doesn't contaminate ground water resources because it uses exothermic reactions instead of water to fracture shale.

. . .

The Chimera process ... eliminat[es] any working liquid. Details of the process have not been made public yet due to patent concerns, but Chimera Energy uses what is called “dry fracturing” or “exothermic extraction.” First developed in China, this involves using hot gases rather than liquid to fracture the shale. This was originally intended for wells in arctic regions where water used in fracking freezes, but Chimera Energy has developed it for general use.

In dry fracturing, metal oxides, ultra-expansive evaporants and pumice are pumped into the well. The metal oxides react with one another to form an exothermic reaction. Extremely hot gases are generated that expand and crack the shale. Meanwhile, the pumice shoots in and reinforces the fractures, keeping them from closing and allowing the gas or oil to flow.

Chimera Energy claims that not only is the technique environmentally safe, but that it is compatible with any existing well in the world.

There's more at the link.

Now what will the anti-frackers say?  If there's no fluid being injected deep underground, there won't be anything to seep up through layers of rock (sometimes many miles deep) to contaminate natural water supplies.  If they honestly concede this, my respect for them will increase.  If they try desperately to find something - anything! - else to use as an argument against dry fracking too, then they'll reveal themselves as nothing more than enviro-weenies in another guise . . . and then we'll know how to respond to them.

Peter

So much for the climate change catastrophists . . .

British writer James Delingpole fisks climate change catastrophists in a delightfully snarky look at their latest panicky cause for hysteria.  Here's an extract to whet your appetite.

Catastrophic Man Made Global Warming is a hoax. There is no real-world evidence whatsoever to suggest that the modest warming of around 0.8 degrees C which the planet has experienced since 1850 is in any way dangerous or unprecedented. Even the suggestion that it is mostly man-made is at best moot, at worst long since falsified by real world data and superseded by more plausible theories

So next time you hear the BBC (or similar) spouting some unutterable crap about some amazingly shocking new event/piece of research/paper showing that the glaciers or Greenland are melting faster than before, that polar bears or coral reefs are becoming more endangered, or that there's anything remotely worrying about the possibility that the planet has warmed by 1.5 degrees C since the Industrial Revolution, don't just take it with a huge pinch of salt. Treat it with about as much respect as you would a report from North Korea radio telling you that this year's bumper grain harvest has been more gloriously plentiful than ever before and that workers are now at severe risk of expiring due to an excess of nourishment, plenitude and joy.

There's more at the link.

Word.





Peter

Congratulations to Scouting, and all Eagle Scouts!

Today, August 1st 2012, is the 100th anniversary of the day the first Eagle Scout completed all 21 merit badges to earn the title.  The Wall Street Journal reports:

One hundred years ago on Aug. 1, Arthur Eldred, a 17-year-old Boy Scout from Long Island, became the first person to earn the Eagle Scout rank.

. . .

Eldred's initial accomplishment was to complete the requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout only six months after that supreme award in American scouting was announced in April 1912. The leaders of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), assuming it would take several years for any boy to earn the required 21 merit badges, hadn't yet devised a final review system for Eagle candidates; they hadn't even settled on a design for the medal.

Unsure how to proceed after Eldred qualified for all the badges, the BSA ordered him to come down to its headquarters in Manhattan and put him through what had to be the most intimidating board of review in scouting history—led by the BSA's founders themselves. Eldred apparently passed with ease. And then, as an indication of what kind of remarkable person scouting would now have, while awaiting his award that summer Eldred saved two of his fellow Scouts from drowning.

Eagle Scout insignia (image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Out of the more than 115 million boys who have passed through the Boy Scouts of America in the last 102 years, approximately two million have become Eagle Scouts, a 2% rate that has climbed to about 4% of all scouts in recent years. Some may have excelled in outdoor challenges and troop leadership, or while earning merit badges for oceanography and entrepreneurship. Yet all have been changed by the experience of what has been come to be called "the Ph.D. of Boyhood." And these Eagles in turn have changed the face of American culture in ways both obvious and unexpected.

Many went on to notable careers and distinguished service to the country. The list of famous Eagles over the last century includes movie and television stars, six Medal of Honor recipients, Nobel Prize winners, novelists, a number of astronauts (including most Shuttle astronauts), Tuskegee airmen and Japanese-American internees, congressmen, senators and governors, an endless number of corporate CEOs and university presidents, a U.S. president (Gerald Ford), and the first man to walk on the moon (Neil Armstrong).

. . .

Those numbers likely make the Eagle Scout service project the single greatest youth service initiative in history, and one that has touched every community in America in an important way.

There's more at the link.

Hearty congratulations to the Boy Scouts of America for this very successful program, and to each and every Eagle Scout for achieving that distinction.  As a former Cub Scout in a faraway country (where Colonel Baden-Powell first conceived of the idea of Scouting, as a matter of interest) I'm proud to be a distant (and far more junior) cousin in spirit!

Peter