READ ABOUT DETROIT AND SOLUTIONS TO ITS PROBLEMS. CLICK HERE.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

On The Move

SEARCH BLOG: TRAVEL

Update: finally connect to the internet around 10:00 pm Sunday EST. Adding a few pictures.

In San Francisco helping my oldest son's family move from Pacifica. It's a big change from a hilltop overlooking an ocean to a neighborhood setting with playgrounds, but lifestyles require adjustment when you have a child on the verge of walking. A home built on the side of a steep hill just doesn't work real well.

Publishing this from my iPhone until we can get the cable Internet bugs worked out.


By the way, if you like the view of the ocean and a clear view of San Francisco at night, the home adjacent to the top picture is for sale [no, not my son's and sure it is a nice 7-figure number].




2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Friday, January 29, 2010

George Orwell Predicted Climategate In His Novel 1984

SEARCH BLOG: CLIMATE

The underlying dynamics of the scientific malfeasance with regard to climate science and politics... popularly known as "Climategate"... was foretold in George Orwell's 1949 classic titled 1984. In the tome, the phrase was uttered: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."

For those of you who just thought "huh?", this is what he meant. The "truth" about the past [climate] is the basis for making decisions about future actions to address changes that have occurred moving from the past to the present. If you control the present system of measuring and analyzing climate, you can adjust the past with impunity. Having adjusted the past and controlling the present, then you set the agenda for future actions.

For those of you who have no idea what this is about, I recommend that you go to Watts Up With That? This is a link to the search on "Climategate." Somewhat hidden among all of the posts is this gem which is a fairly long .pdf file that really exposes the doublethink. For those of you who are familiar with Climategate, you will appreciate how Orwell's blueprint for a government and system that declares...

"it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink."
So, if the past was warmer... it is now cooler. If the present is cooler, it is now warmer than ever. And the future... it is whatever we say it is. And you will believe it.


2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Thursday, January 28, 2010

More Climate Politics

SEARCH BLOG: CLIMATE and POLITICS

Recently, while attempting to update 2009 records for statewide, all-time, monthly minimum and maximum records, I ran across the problem that information seemed to be missing from the 1st quarter of 2009. That fact would have passed without notice except that I was looking for the January 2009 all-time record for Maine which had been verified at -50F. Subsequently, it was revealed that the NCDC records were not necessarily complete simply because not all weather stations that are considered "official" are included in the database. Maine's station was one of those.

NOAA did rerun the 1st quarter to include the missing data for the summary reports. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that all of the other reports for 2009 were updated or even needed to be updated since NOAA could not explain why they were missing from the summaries in the first place. It is possible that all of the other analysis for the year was done with all of the records; it is also possible that all of the 2009 analysis might be incorrect because approximately 1/10th of the data from cold periods was excluded. We probably will never know... and that is not reassuring.


Meanwhile, the people at www.icecap.us [scroll down to "Climate-gate Redux"] had prepared a blistering report about the whole "Climategate" fiasco... blaming a large part of it on NOAA. That was followed up by Anthony Watts' reporting how of of NOAA's top managers had misused information about weather station site quality to dismiss the notion that there was a problem with the quality of those site... something that the site survey showed exactly the opposite.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Creating Palestine Part 2

SEARCH BLOG: ISRAEL and PALESTINE

Settlements on West Bank to stay, says Netanyahu

MARK WEISS in Jerusalem

ISRAELI PRIME minister Benjamin Netanyahu planted trees at two West Bank settlements yesterday, vowing that the large Jewish settlement blocs would remain part of Israel forever.

In his first visit to the West Bank since becoming prime minister in March, Mr Netanyahu planted trees in the Etzion bloc, south of Bethlehem, and at Ma’ale Adumim, a large West Bank settlement between Jerusalem and Jericho.

“Our message is clear: We are planting trees here and we are here to stay,” he said, after planting a tree ahead of the Jewish festival of Tu B’shvat, the New Year for Trees.

The prime minister said there was a national consensus that these areas were “an integral part of Israel” and this position was “slowly permeating the international community.” An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas criticised the tree-planting as undermining peace efforts.

Read more....

Last June, this post appeared here: Creating Palestine.

The West Bank may serve as a general geography for any future Palestine, but there may be some territorial concession to Israel to swing that deal. Finally, the Gaza Strip is wholly untenable as part of a new Palestine. It is isolated between two forces that have little love for a Palestinian presence: Israel and Egypt. [map source]

It is likely that Gaza will have to become part of Israel and that the present occupants will have to be resettled into the West Bank or agree to Israeli rule. Israel would probably prefer that the Palestinians in Gaza move out. There may be a remote possibility that an agreement can be worked out with Egypt to create a "neutral zone" administered by Egypt with Israeli military rights.

The Golan Heights will probably remain as Israeli-occupied and a separate agreement worked out at some future point when Arab and Iranian actions show Israel that any agreement can be trusted. This would include a repudiation of the "destruction of Israel" mantra by the Palestinians and Iranians.
It may be that Netanyahu is beginning the negotiating dance.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Climate Of Anger

SEARCH BLOG: CLIMATE CHANGE and GLOBAL WARMING

The other day, this post about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change generated a lot of traffic to this site. It is apparent that there is a growing climate of anger that is heating up about the insidious infiltration of politics into science.

The combination of "Climategate" at East Anglia University and "Glaciergate" at the IPCC has created a fierce sense of distrust about these organizations within the scientific community and general population. It is the egregious nature of data manipulation and outright lying that has many wanting to throw out the bath water, the baby, and the bath tub... maybe even the bathroom.

Part of the problem may be the sheer magnitude of the effort to understand climate. It has been seen as an almost chaotic system that defies real modelling. Certainly, many aspects of climate phenomena can be quantified, but it is the old blind men describing an elephant situation with which we are faced.

For the past few weeks, I have been communicating with some of the people at NOAA/NCDC who are responsible for providing the historical data used by many, myself included, for analyzing aspects of this climate elephant. When I noticed that data appeared to be missing for the first quarter of 2009, I contacted NOAA and eventually was connected to the person in charge of the data. He responded very quickly by re-running the data which did bring the number of data records in line with expectation. Still, this was almost a year after the fact and that data could have been used without the knowledge that it was incomplete.

While some might argue this is another case of trying to manipulate or hide information, I'm inclined to believe that it is a matter of an organization flooded with so much information and providing so many views of that data that it is overwhelming at times... at s*** happens.

Yet Joe D'Aleo at Icecap thinks something may be rotten there... and I have a lot of respect for Joe's knowledge.

Climate-gate Redux
By Jane Jamison

Climate-gate part I occurred in early December when a still-unknown person posted thousands of e-mails and documents on a scientific website. The e-mails showed that scientists at the leading “global warming” research institute in the world, East Anglia University’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) had “changed” weather data to prove their climate-warming theories, and squelched dissenting opinions from skeptical scientists to maintain credibility for their fraud.

Climate-gate part II begins now: The scientists with Icecap.us website announced findings late last week that not only was the CRU involved in producing fraudulent weather data, but two United States agencies, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have also been falsifying climate reports for years. NOAA, the report concludes, is actually “ground-zero” for the fraud of global warming, not the East Anglia Institute.

Climate researchers have discovered that government researchers improperly manipulated data in order to claim 2009 as “THE SECOND WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD.”

Meanwhile, there are a number of American Meteorological Society members who are upset about their voices being ignored in a recent survey about climate change. The explanation was basically: email problems. That may or may not be the case, but things may be heating up there as well.

Politics and science are bad bedfellows.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Extreme Temperatures Update Delayed

SEARCH BLOG: CLIMATE CHANGE

On January 10, this post indicated some possible issues with 2009 all-time, statewide maximum and minimum temperature records in the U.S.: 2009 Preliminary All-Time Statewide Monthly Temperature Records.

I have been in contact with people at NOAA who have been very responsive about this and they are taking a look at the reporting system for what might be behind the apparent problems. Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr., among several others, has been helpful in facilitating this effort through his personal contacts and previous position as president of the American Association of State Climatologists.

One issue has already jumped out and that is not all of the recognized statewide records may have occurred at NOAA system stations. This was the case for the January 2009 all-time minimum record for Maine.

There will be a new reporting site for all-time records... possibly in a few weeks. It is possible that previously reported records may change. If that is the case, we hope to have the reasons behind the changes and the methods used to make any changes.

This is a large effort and NOAA should be commended for their willingness to retrace any steps in the record that were faulty.

UPDATE: After NOAA reran their data, the NOAA/NCDC database now shows the number of records for the first quarter 2009 that would be expected. The update does not change the all-time statewide monthly records, nor does it include the January 2009 all-time minimum record from Maine which should be included in a new reporting site.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Debt

SEARCH BLOG: ECONOMY

The Forbes magazine came the other day with a special report on debt... yours, mine, everyone's.... You need to take time to read this.

It's not a pretty picture and the current Administration and Congress are simply creating a greater potential for debt disaster.

When you spend more than you make, there is only one result... and it isn't good. When states spend more than they receive in taxes, the result isn't good. When the Federal Government spends more than it receives in taxes, we call it "stimulating the economy."


2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Monday, January 25, 2010

Pachauri Only Part Of The Problem

SEARCH BLOG: CLIMATE

Marc Morano at climatedepot.com has a series of headlines about the falsification of data at the UN's IPCC:

While this is all well and good, I think it tends to miss the point that ... all along ... this effort was a United Nations political effort that simply made use of scientific claims to achieve political ends.

The real headlines ought to be focused on disbanding the IPCC altogether as a fraudulent organization and return climate science back to the world of scientists and science. The whole IPCC effort has caused legitimate scientists to abandon scientific principles for the sake of personal notoriety and government money thereby leading to the East Anglia subversion of science.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Existing Home Sales Plummet

SEARCH BLOG: ECONOMY

The Wall Street Journal reports:

JANUARY 25, 2010, 2:57 P.M. ET

Existing-Home Sales Tumble

Existing-home sales plunged in December, dropping lower than expected after three straight increases that were fed by a fat government tax credit.

Home resales fell by 16.7% to a 5.45 million annual rate from an unrevised 6.54 million in November, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.

Monday's data said inventories shrank, and prices rose year over year for the first time in more than two years.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected an 11.6% decrease in sales ...

This is precisely the patterned experienced by automotive sales after the Cash for Clunkers program. Anyone in sales knows that you simply can't build demand on a one-time incentive program. What you get are pull-ahead sales... robbing the future to pay the present.

There seems to be a lot of that going on in Washington these days.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Social Security Obamacare Style... And Vice Versa

SEARCH BLOG: HEALTH CARE

What does a 92-year old woman who lives alone do when the Social Security Administration decides to change her personal information which results in a change in her coverage status?

It's difficult enough for most people who are used to dealing with bureaucracies... corporate or governmental... but almost impossible when an elderly person is faced with that daunting task. There are no ombudsmen to work through the problem for them. Most of the time the elderly do not understand why there is a problem or how to get someone to address the problem. It becomes doubly difficult when the government cannot decide if the person is one person or another and then provides forms in Spanish instead of English and then routes them through an automated answering system that requires a masters degree to understand or expects them to use a computer they don't have and never learned to use.

I learned today that this is what has happened to my mother who lives more than 1,000 miles away in a retirement home. Apparently, the Social Security Administration must think that places her in a family of more than one Social Security recipient or some similar category that translates into "you're going to lose coverage." So her coverage somehow gets reduced and her insurance payments get increased. That leaves her with a prescription cost deductible that is equivalent to 1/5 of her Social Security income.

She tried to work through the governmental maze, but just gave up. We're going to try to work this out long distance, but we're not sure if that can be done.

Oh, and the Social Security information she has been receiving is, from time to time, for another person with a similar name... one letter off. That must be her fault. The Social Security Administration could not have a problem... a problem... a problem....

So, you want Obamacare? This is your preview.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Minnesota Won Everything Except The Game

SEARCH BLOG: FOOTBALL

Watching the Minnesota Vikings play today was almost as painful as being Brett Favre. Despite an offensive line that seemingly could not block a defender, Favre kept Minnesota rolling up and down the field amassing far more yards than the New Orleans Saints. But when it came to key plays, the Vikings were all thumbs and literally gave the game away.

Maybe the Vikings' ball was teflon coated to make fumbling easier. It didn't seem to matter who had the rock, they dropped it like one.



We lower peninsula Michigan residents have little love for the Vikings, but it would have been nice to see Favre versus Manning in the Super Bowl.

Judging from the less-than-stellar offense and fair-to-middling defense the Saints displayed against the Vikings, it would seem that Indianapolis should be the profound favorite for the big one.


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Glacier Typo Causes Climate Cackling

SEARCH BLOG: CLIMATE CHANGE

The bandwidth is being burned up at an alarming rate because of an admission that the 2035 demise of the Himalayan glaciers was kind of sort of made up... for example here.

But my sources at the IPCC tell me that all of this was caused by a typographical error at the printers. The phrase should have been HiMichigan glaciers. Here is proof of the rapid melting.

We also refer to it as a January Thaw.


2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Collectible Cars

SEARCH BLOG: AUTOMOBILES

The names Barrett and Jackson are in our close family circle, so when I told one of my sons how on occasion I enjoyed watching the Barrett-Jackson auctions just to see some of the old vehicles, he said that his wife had just noticed the listing on the local cable guide. So, we spent a little time yesterday just watching the proceedings. It's quite fascinating, even if you are not a collector. The amount of money spent on restoring... and buying... these vehicles is astounding to most of us who go to a dealer and try to buy something we want for less than $30,000.

Today, this little piece appeared at CNNMoney.com:

Dillinger's getaway car sells for $165,000

dillingers_get_away_car.top.jpg

by Peter Valdes-Dapena, senior writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A 1930 Ford Model A used by bank robber John Dillinger to evade federal agents sold at auction Saturday for $165,000.

The car, sold at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., had a cameo role in the 2009 movie "Public Enemies" starring Johnny Depp.

Kind of gets you to wondering which vehicles might be today's "collectibles" in the future.

I just checked the garage and it's still there... no one has "collected" it yet.


2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Saturday, January 23, 2010

More Or Less Employed

SEARCH BLOG:

If you believe the data, Michigan's depression is moving toward a recession:



Data Series Back
Data
July
2009
Aug
2009
Sept
2009
Oct
2009
Nov
2009
Dec
2009

Labor Force Data


Civilian Labor Force (1)

Jump to page with historical data
4,857.1 4,844.7 4,833.0 4,850.0 4,843.9 (P) 4,812.7

Employment (1)

Jump to page with historical data
4,126.9 4,108.7 4,093.9 4,116.9 4,131.6 (P) 4,111.7

Unemployment (1)

Jump to page with historical data
730.2 736.0 739.1 733.1 712.4 (P) 701.0

Unemployment Rate (2)

Jump to page with historical data
15.0 15.2 15.3 15.1 14.7 (P) 14.6

This is one of those quirks where employment drops and unemployment drops. Either people are rapidly leaving the state after successfully selling their homes... or the statistics are somewhat less than complete. What do you think?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides this alternative view for the total U.S. [click image for larger view]:

This, dear readers, "is the rest of the story".... Now you know why doublethink and doublespeak from Washington, D.C. just do not ring true in your communities.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Jobs Made In USA

SEARCH BLOG: GOVERNMENT

Here's a wacky and way-out idea: any company receiving government subsidies or grants for new products must manufacture them or have them manufactured in the United States with components made in the United States. That might create some jobs to put a dent in the 10% unemployment.

That also might force companies to decide whether government handouts are worth the while. That might also force the government to decide whether picking winners or losers in the marketplace is worth the while.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Too Big To Fail

SEARCH BLOG: GOVERNMENT

Perhaps is it just me, but doesn't anyone find it ironic that a government so out of control in spending and debt wants to limit the size of businesses so that they don't have an inordinate impact on our economy?

Just a thought....

Just who gets to decided which business needs government control? And once the process is started... oh, wait, the government already owns companies with taxpayers' dollars.... Forget that. No, seriously, just ignore government takeovers. We're just talking about government control here.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Why Massachusetts Really Won

SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS

In 1984, a family in Massachusetts ran a successful daycare business. The whole family was pretty much involved and it was fairly successful. Then the world came crashing down on their heads. They were accused of sexually molesting the children in their care.

After a contentious trial, the jury convicted them. Their business was gone. There lives were in ruin. 15 years later, "The Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly—which had never in its 27 year history taken an editorial position on a case—published a scathing one directed at the prosecutors "who seemed unwilling to admit they might have sent innocent people to jail for crimes that had never occurred.""

Now read the full article and find out why Massachusetts really won on Tuesday.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

New Political Strategy For Democrats

SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS

The loss of the "Senate-lock" seat... also known now as "the People's Seat" in Massachusetts... means an eventual change in the way the Democratic Party controlled Congress must deal with Republican opposition... or hindrance, depending on your viewpoint.

In the short term, look for Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi to try to rush through whatever they can before the new Sen. Scott Brown is seated. Also look for whatever delaying tactics the Democratic Party can dig up to delay Sen. Brown from being seated.

The writing is on the wall and the Democratic Party knows it. Losing Massachusetts is like Illinois repudiating Lincoln. The 2010 elections look bleak from the ruling party's viewpoint. The problem is that the Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda is not the agenda of the majority of the American people... it never was. The 2008 election was a rejection of what was seen as George Bush's incompetence, but never the embracing of a far-left, power-grabbing agenda that has the potential to cripple the economy into the next century.

The payers are standing up and saying that the spenders need to stop their spending and must jump through hoops to get permission to spend more in the future. Disregarding the Massachusetts warning ensures that 2012 will see far more change than President Obama ever dreamed about....

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Massachusetts... The Winner Is...

SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Climate IQ

SEARCH BLOG: GEOGRAPHY and CLIMATE

Take a brain break and answer these questions:

  1. What is the world's largest desert
  2. How many square miles is this desert
  3. What is the highest temperature recorded in this desert
If you answered:
  1. The Sahara
  2. 3.5 million square miles [approximately the same size as the United States - extra credit]
  3. 136°F [recorded September 1922... before global warming - extra credit]
You are absolutely incorrect!



The answers are:
  1. Antarctica
  2. 7°F
  3. 5.5 million square miles
Although it is covered in frozen water, it is the driest place on earth with less than 2" of precipitation annually [source].


Not everything about climate is obvious.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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"Massachusettes" Dirty Tricks

SEARCH BLOG: POLITICS

And you expected different from the party that refuses to prosecute those black thugs in pseudo war gear at polling places? From Gateway Pundit:

Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 12:27 AM

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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You May Not Be A Real Scientist If...

SEARCH BLOG: CLIMATE

The world of climatology has been ... shall we say... "testy" for some time now. The media has conveniently delineated climate scientists into two "camps:" believers and alarmists or skeptics and deniers. Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr. puts it another way... although not exactly in these terms ... "real scientists" and "others."

In response to my [Dr. Pielke's] post

Professional Discourtesy By The National Climate Data Center On The Menne Et Al 2010 paper

I have [been] alerted by Forrest M. Mims III to a National Academies Press book titled

On Being a Scientist: Third Edition: 2009. ISBN-10: 0-309-11970-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-309-11970-2. 82 pages

Excerpts from the book include

“……..researchers have an obligation to honor the trust that their colleagues place in them’. Science is a cumulative enterprise in which new research builds on previous results. If research results are inaccurate, other researchers will waste time and resources trying to replicate or extend those results. Irresponsible actions can impede an entire field of research or send it in a wrong direction, and progress in that field may slow. Imbedded in this trust is a responsibility of researchers to mentor the next generation who will build their work on the current research discoveries.” (page 2)

“Research is based on the same ethical values that apply in everyday life, including honesty, fairness, objectivity, openness, trustworthiness, and respect for others.” (page 3)

On treatment of data, the report writes on page 8

“Researchers who manipulate their data in ways that deceive others, even if the manipulation seems insignificant at the time, are violating both the basic values and widely accepted professional standards of science. Researchers draw conclusions based on their observations of nature. If data are altered to present a case that is stronger than the data warrant, researchers fail to fulfill all three of the obligations described at the beginning of this guide. They mislead their colleagues and potentially impede progress in their field or research. They undermine their own authority and trustworthiness as researchers. And they introduce information into the scientific record that could cause harm to the broader society, as when the dangers of a medical treatment are understated.”

Climate scientists, and the public and policymakers, would benefit by rigorously following the guidelines in this report.

That's "scientific talk" for "ZING!"

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Monday, January 18, 2010

U.S. Military Morale

SEARCH BLOG: MILITARY and NAVY SEALS

From MSNBC.com:

U.S. Army: Troop morale falls in Afghanistan

Military also points to shortage of mental health workers to aid soldiers

NBC News and news services


updated 12:44 p.m. ET, Fri., Nov . 13, 2009
WASHINGTON - Morale has fallen among soldiers in Afghanistan, where troops are seeing record violence in the 8-year-old war, while those in Iraq show much improved mental health amid much lower violence, the Army said Friday.
Soldier suicides in Iraq did not increase for the first time since 2004, according to a new study.
Wasn't this guy one of those mental health workers?

Accused Fort Hood killer Nidal Malik Hasan, in a 2007 photo.

This appeared in usmilitary.about.com regarding DoD Directive 1015.2 concerning military morale:
When you click on the "View Publication" link, this is what appears:

Well, what do you expect?

But, one Congressman [who may not be considered a current Washington insider] wrote to the military expressing the sentiments of most Americans.
January 4, 2010
Major General Charles T. Cleveland
Commander, Special Operations Command Central
U.S. Central Command
7115 South Boundary Boulevard
MacDill AFB, FL 33621-5101
Dear General Cleveland:
I received your letter of December 15, 2009, regarding the pending courts-martial of Petty Officers Huertas, McCabe and Keefe; and I appreciate your office’s attempting to set the record straight and clarify what you describe as the “incomplete and factually inaccurate” press coverage of the situation. Having reviewed all of the material you provided, I still have to strongly disagree with the decision of your officers to pursue punishment of these Navy SEALs.
Ahmed Hashim Abed was one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq; responsible for the murders of innocent American civilians and numerous attacks on American and coalition forces. The injuries to Mr. Abed were, as you readily admit, relatively minor and certainly pale in comparison to the brutality of the crimes he helped perpetrate. While Petty Officers Huertas, McCabe and Keefe may have been wrong to not fully cooperate with investigators, it seems to me that the punishment still far exceeds the crime. In my opinion, prosecutorial discretion should have been exercised.
Beyond the fates of the three individual sailors, I have some general concerns about this case that are only reinforced by your letter. First, the fact that fellow U.S. service personnel initially raised the accusations against Petty Officers Huertas, McCabe and Keefe strongly suggests that we have created a culture within our Armed Forces where our military personnel are now more concerned about protecting themselves from legal jeopardy for every action or statement, than they are about fighting the enemy. Our troops and these SEALs need to be bold and decisive in combat; not hesitant and over-thinking every action for fear of prosecution. We are in a war that we must win against a determined, patient enemy who already believes we do not have the will to do what is necessary to defeat them.
Second, because of the intensive media coverage of this case – even if it is incomplete and factually inaccurate as you describe, this is the public’s perception of the case – the American people are outraged by the courts-martial of individuals who should be hailed as heroes. In fact, over 30,000 Americans have signed my online petition calling for an end to this prosecution. Perhaps even more alarming than the decline in morale this case has caused the country is the boost in morale and confidence that this case gives to Al Qaeda terrorists, who as I said, already believe America does not have the will or stomach to do what is necessary to defeat them.
General Cleveland, you are a distinguished soldier and former Special Forces operator yourself. I have the utmost respect for you personally. In this case the American people’s perception is that you are unfairly prosecuting three heroes based, at least in part, upon the word of an inhumane monster. Al-Qaeda’s own handbook instructs their operatives to allege detainee abuse if detained by American forces. In fact, al-Qaeda operatives are trained to self-inflict injuries for the sole purpose of accusing U.S. forces of abuse. We've seen repeated cases of this since the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan began. In my opinion, carrying forward these courts-martial will do our Nation and our Armed Forces more harm than good. I respectfully and strongly urge you to exercise your leadership authority, stop the impending trials and drop the charges against these American heroes.
I await your prompt response.
Sincerely,
Dan Burton
Member of Congress
CC: Hon. Barack Obama, Hon. Robert Gates, Adm. Mike Mullen
I think the train has left the station on this one Rep. Burton.
Common sense is not so common -- Voltaire

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Sunday, January 17, 2010

U.S. Mystery Unit To Combat Nuclear Terrorism

SEARCH BLOG: MILITARY

From the Times Online [UK]:

The US army is training a crack unit to seal off and snatch back Pakistani nuclear weapons in the event that militants, possibly from inside the country’s security apparatus, get their hands on a nuclear device or materials that could make one.

The specialised unit would be charged with recovering the nuclear materials and securing them.

Read more....

They can't be Navy SEALS or Army Rangers.... Who's still left to send in against terrorists and then punish?
Fighting terrorism by making them eat SOS.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Obama Can't Play Hockey

SEARCH BLOG: OBAMA

My wife is old school. She believes a man should be a man and woman should be a woman. What that means is they should play to their strengths... not play some roles. So she sent me this via email:

The best defence is a good offence, according to ancestral lore; and as Canadians we understand the principle in hockey. Play the game in the other team's zone and they won't be scoring many goals on you.

...

Among the most urgent requirements of our moment in the "evolution of western society" is to halt the progress of emasculation. An effeminate society will never withstand the challenge of psychopathic masculine aggression -- in the form of, exempli gratia, contemporary "Islamism." We need men who are men, to defend us; men who are not merely shrill, from the pain of their gelding.

Hockey is itself a surrogate for warfare, and if you doubt it for a moment, listen to the crowd. (Including the women. Especially the women.) And while I might think professional sports in general a circus for the masses, and a lure into couch potatodom -- real men don't watch, they play -- hockey in particular has become valuable as a museum exhibit of many forgotten virtues.

Read more...
As our fearless leader sends men into the battlefields of Afghanistan, he admonishes them to play fair and be considerate and never, never do anything bad to your enemy... or we will have to punish you.
Oh, oh... penalty! Penalty!




2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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Use the SEARCH BLOG feature at the upper left. For example, try "Global Warming".

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There is always an easy solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong.
Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956)
“The Divine Afflatus,” A Mencken Chrestomathy, chapter 25, p. 443 (1949)
... and one could add "not all human problems really are."
It was beautiful and simple, as truly great swindles are.
- O. Henry
... The Government is on course for an embarrassing showdown with the European Union, business groups and environmental charities after refusing to guarantee that billions of pounds of revenue it stands to earn from carbon-permit trading will be spent on combating climate change.
The Independent (UK)

Tracking Interest Rates

Tracking Interest Rates

FEDERAL RESERVE & HOUSING

SEARCH BLOG: FEDERAL RESERVE for full versions... or use the Blog Archive pulldown menu.

February 3, 2006
Go back to 1999-2000 and see what the Fed did. They are following the same pattern for 2005-06. If it ain't broke, the Fed will fix it... and good!
August 29, 2006 The Federal Reserve always acts on old information... and is the only cause of U.S. recessions.
December 5, 2006 Last spring I wrote about what I saw to be a sharp downturn in the economy in the "rustbelt" states, particularly Michigan.
March 28, 2007
The Federal Reserve sees no need to cut interest rates in the light of adverse recent economic data, Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.
The Fed chairman said ”to date, the incoming data have supported the view that the current stance of policy is likely to foster sustainable economic growth and a gradual ebbing in core inflation”.

July 21, 2007 My guess is that if there is an interest rate change, a cut is more likely than an increase. The key variables to be watching at this point are real estate prices and the inventory of unsold homes.
August 11, 2007 I suspect that within 6 months the Federal Reserve will be forced to lower interest rates before housing becomes a black hole.
September 11, 2007 It only means that the overall process has flaws guaranteeing it will be slow in responding to changes in the economy... and tend to over-react as a result.
September 18, 2007 I think a 4% rate is really what is needed to turn the economy back on the right course. The rate may not get there, but more cuts will be needed with employment rates down and foreclosure rates up.
October 25, 2007 How long will it be before I will be able to write: "The Federal Reserve lowered its lending rate to 4% in response to the collapse of the U.S. housing market and massive numbers of foreclosures that threaten the banking and mortgage sectors."
November 28, 2007 FED VICE CHAIRMAN DONALD KOHN
"Should the elevated turbulence persist, it would increase the possibility of further tightening in financial conditions for households and businesses," he said.

"Uncertainties about the economic outlook are unusually high right now," he said. "These uncertainties require flexible and pragmatic policymaking -- nimble is the adjective I used a few weeks ago."
http://www.reuters.com/

December 11, 2007 Somehow the Fed misses the obvious.
fed_rate_moves_425_small.gif
[Image from: CNNMoney.com]
December 13, 2007 [from The Christian Science Monitor]
"The odds of a recession are now above 50 percent," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "We are right on the edge of a recession in part because of the Fed's reluctance to reduce interest rates more aggressively." [see my comments of September 11]
January 7, 2008 The real problem now is that consumers can't rescue the economy and manufacturing, which is already weakening, will continue to weaken. We've gutted the forces that could avoid a downturn. The question is not whether there will be a recession, but can it be dampened sufficiently so that it is very short.
January 11, 2008 This is death by a thousand cuts.
January 13, 2008 [N.Y. Times]
“The question is not whether we will have a recession, but how deep and prolonged it will be,” said David Rosenberg, the chief North American economist at Merrill Lynch. “Even if the Fed’s moves are going to work, it will not show up until the later part of 2008 or 2009.
January 17, 2008 A few days ago, Anna Schwartz, nonagenarian economist, implicated the Federal Reserve as the cause of the present lending crisis [from the Telegraph - UK]:
The high priestess of US monetarism - a revered figure at the Fed - says the central bank is itself the chief cause of the credit bubble, and now seems stunned as the consequences of its own actions engulf the financial system. "The new group at the Fed is not equal to the problem that faces it," she says, daring to utter a thought that fellow critics mostly utter sotto voce.
January 22, 2008 The cut has become infected and a limb is in danger. Ben Bernanke is panicking and the Fed has its emergency triage team cutting rates... this time by 3/4%. ...

What should the Federal Reserve do now? Step back... and don't be so anxious to raise rates at the first sign of economic improvement.
Individuals and businesses need stability in their financial cost structures so that they can plan effectively and keep their ships afloat. Wildly fluctuating rates... regardless of what the absolute levels are... create problems. Either too much spending or too much fear. It's just not that difficult to comprehend. Why has it been so difficult for the Fed?

About Me

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Michigan, United States
Air Force (SAC) captain 1968-72. Retired after 35 years of business and logistical planning, including running a small business. Two sons with advanced degrees; one with a business and pre-law degree. Beautiful wife who has put up with me for 4 decades. Education: B.A. (Sociology major; minors in philosopy, English literature, and German) M.S. Operations Management (like a mixture of an MBA with logistical planning)