Posts from — December 2011

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.” Mark Twain

The BBC is reporting that Kim Jong-il, the highly erratic leader of North Korea, has died. His designated successor, Kim Jong-un, is his third son and believed to be in his 20s. The process of making the son the successor was not complete, so there is apt to be internal problems in North Korea, which usually means that they will do something stupid to take people’s minds off of it.

If Congress can keep the government running for a while, I will be getting a raise in my check next year. It is bigger than I thought it would be because the premium for Medicare Part B went down. That’s right, the premium for that “terrible, inefficient government health insurance” came down a bit. It won’t pay for a coffee at Starbucks, but it is better than the increases that everyone else with health insurance is paying.

Why did it come down, well, because the cost of the system came down and it is not a for-profit insurance company, so the savings went to reduced premiums, rather than CEO salary, or corporate profits. This happened once or twice when I originally had Blue Cross / Blue Shield, because they were a mutual insurance company at the time, i.e. the policy holders were the stock holders.

As someone who buys a lot of cat food, I can tell you that the raise doesn’t cover the cost of the price increases I’ve seen in the last year, but it helps.

“Boldly going

where no man has gone before.”

The Wright Brothers make the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina

In 1689 the English Bill of Rights became the law of the land. A couple of people noted that yesterday was proclaimed to be ‘Bill of Rights Day’ in the US. Pretty meaningless and extremely hypocritical with the passage of the latest National Defense Authorization Act that allows the military to throw people into indefinite detention on the word of the President.

This century the Congress has passed multiple ex post facto laws and bills of attainder to punish political enemies, and the government has ignored habeas corpus and due process in the War on Terror™. There have been multiple American citizens ‘deported’ in the War on the Undocumented™, and not the hint of an apology to be found anywhere.

In 1775 Benjamin Franklin wrote: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” He is still right.

This is also the date in 1773 when some citizens of Boston decided to protest a corporate tax break given to the East India Company by dumping the Company’s tea in the harbor – the Boston Tea Party. The “Founding Fathers” had a rather low opinion of corporations. They were right.

New Camera

Where’s the flash?

[Editor: Excise is wondering why there was no blinding light, and the reason is that I have made the mostly unjustified acquisition of a Nikon S9100 that doesn’t need to use the flash as often as my former camera.

Friday Ark

The Census Bureau has confirmed the reality of life in the US, i.e. that half of the country is either in or on the verge of poverty. That is reflected by the fact that 47% of the country doesn’t make enough money to owe income taxes.

In a related note the National Association of Realtors is going to be restating their home sales figures for the last couple of years, because the data they were using was ‘fudged’, like everything else associated with the housing market. If half the country is poor, who was responsible for all of the homes sales that they have been reporting?

The number of new claims for unemployment was down this week, but then there are fewer people who have full time jobs and are eligible for unemployment.

In another of his infrequent snark posts, Dr. Cole says that US Congress Abruptly Passes Resolution Against Dogs, and posts a video about a cat in Italy who just inherited €10 million [$16 million US].

Elayne came up with a gift for the hard to please on your list based on the reviews. 😈

Personally, I think Congress is missing an opportunity to help balance the budget. Given their abysmal approval ratings, I think people would pay for an official “Contempt of Congress” citation to hang on their wall, but it must be official and appear in the Congressional Record, not just something outsourced to Asian children and prisoners. They could charge more if you wanted the names of individual Congresscritters included in the citation. They don’t seem to be doing any actual work, so this would be a revenue generator when they were hiding on the floor of their Chamber to avoid the angry constituents in their offices.

My Dad got into the drone business early, and I grew up watching a lot of unofficial testing of guidance systems on our boat on the bayou.

There are some things that people should know about them to make informed decisions.

First off, drones are built with the assumption that they will crash and may fall into enemy hands. There are steps taken to ensure that isn’t a major problem. The stealth techniques used on the RQ-170 are available from open sources on the Internet. The advanced features used on the B-2 and F-22 are not on the drone. Data is not stored on the drone, it is sent ‘home’ via a communications link. The drone has sophisticate sensors, but Russia and China both have sensors with the same capabilities. The Iranians now have some really nice lenses, but nothing beyond the capabilities of several countries. We expect to lose reconnaissance drones and aircraft, so we don’t put super-secret stuff on them.

It has been suggested that the drones should self-destruct. The people who suggest that don’t work at the bases where drones land. Drones are controlled today via satellite links, so there is a delay between control input and a response by the aircraft. Drones get pranged a lot on landing. because of this problem. You don’t want to blow up your own airstrip by installing a ‘bomb’ on returning aircraft.

Landings are difficult for drone pilots because the video screens don’t provide them with all of the information they would get from actually being in the aircraft. You can’t ‘feel’ the aircraft, and the delay between what you see and the aircraft responding to input is critical during landing. There are many more landing ‘incidents’ with drones than make it into media.

Some people do make it into the 1% based on their own creativity and hard work. Creativity is the key, i.e. they create something that people want to buy.

A case in point is JK Rowling. She has made it into the ranks of billionaires, the first writer to do so, with her Harry Potter books. Her success has created thousands of jobs, and made a lot of people much richer than they were.

Along the way she has created or supported multiple charities, and isn’t running around complaining about her tax rate, but does complain about the Conservative policies of the current British government and their effect on the poor.

When you compare Ms Rowling with the Wall Street Whiners it becomes clear that Wall Street isn’t creating anything, they are merely moving money around, but they think they are vital to the economy. Where is the magnum opus of Goldman Sachs that justifies the salaries of its executives and adds real value to the American economy? Causing a global financial meltdown is a liability, not an asset.

Angry Black Lady at Balloon Juice really gets annoyed with the author of a Forbes magazine article, Gene Marks, who presumes to tell poor black kids in Philadelphia how to succeed.

Among his suggestions are to use technology, like the ‘Net and the resources of the schools and public libraries. Maybe Mr. Marks lives in an area where all of these things are available, but at last report the cities are in financial trouble – there are no frills in the schools, and the libraries are shrinking in hours and resources.

Poor people can’t afford Internet access or cable, when they are working to put food on the table and keeping the lights on in the house.

Another point that is lost, is that the largest group of poor children are not black, nor are they found in cities. Rural white children are an extremely under-served segment of the population. When the support programs are gutted, they are ones taking the biggest hit as a group.

Over at Digby’s a basic truth is resurrected: Income inequality policy is the key to education policy. Economic status is the key factor in the success of children in school. This has been known and ignored for decades.

How do you fix the schools? Jobs! How do you fix Social Security? Jobs! How do you fix the economy? Jobs! Anybody else see a pattern developing?

The ABC notes that the ‘War on Science’ continues apace: Howard launches ‘anti-warmist manual’ for kids

Former prime minister John Howard has lent his support to a book aimed at school children which argues the theory of human-induced global warming is a scam.

Last night, the former prime minister launched the publication, the latest from controversial geologist Professor Ian Plimer.

The book, called How to Get Expelled From School, rejects the predominant scientific opinion on climate change.

The book is billed as “an anti-global warmist manual for the younger reader”.

Yes, no reason for children to bother their minds with the causes of all of the violent weather events that have been occurring in Australia and throughout the world. I mean, everyone knows that facts have a liberal bias and should be ignored.

This is Saint Lucia’s Day for Scandinavians.

It features special treats that are handed out by a girl wearing a crown of candles, Lucia coming from the Latin for light, LUX.

Saint Lucia was an early Christian martyr from Syracuse on Sicily, but her official feast day, December 13, fit perfectly with the local pagan celebration of the Lussi on December 13, which was the Winter Solstice at the time. Yep, more cover to continue the fun mid-winter celebrations by pretending they are associated with Christianity to get the Church off everyone’s case.

Elayne’s daily Silly Site includes a PAC name generator. If you are going to set up a Political Action Committee and don’t want to take the time to create a name, especially if you don’t want people to identify who you are, the ‘Net provides. The sad part is that it was obviously used by people doing just that, i.e. they took their name from the generator.

Two things to read in police news:

Charlie Pierce is upset with the military equipment going to the police. I would note that there are tear gas rounds for the 40mm grenade launcher, and it is tougher and more accurate than the standard 37mm flare gun that most departments use for the purpose. OTOH, it is significantly heavier and the rounds are much more expensive.

Over at Naked Capitalism Maureen Tkacik writes about the ‘private’ group that has been coordinating the police response to the Occupy movement. The Police Executive Research Forum [PERF] is supposed to be about finding and disseminating the best police practices, but goals change. The important change was when PERF became an executive search service for the top law enforcement jobs in the country, meaning that they get to pick the police chiefs of all the major US cities. That is a lot of power.

In the foreign news:

The BBC reports on some of the fall out of the EU veto: Coalition partners seek to lower tensions. The junior partner in the British government, Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg, decided not to be present when Prime Minister David Cameron explained his action to Parliament.

Meanwhile the CBC reports that Canada pulls out of Kyoto Protocol. Two hours after arriving home from the Durban conference, Environment Minister Peter Kent announced that Canada was beginning the process of withdrawing from the treaty. Stephen Harper will never be confused with a tree-hugger.

Via Lambert at Corrente, from here.

Not a neighborhood skirmish caused by someone doing this on the block without warning anyone, no, real threats of a shooting war if South Korea lights up an observation post on the border with North Korea.

The North claims the lights, visible from a large North Korean city, would constitute a violation of an agreement against ‘cross border propaganda’ and they would take measures in reaction.