Thursday, July 31, 2008

Excellent Article About Capitalism and Ingratitude

NRO
This is the irony of capitalism. It is not zero-sum, but it feels like it is. Capitalism coordinates humanity toward peaceful, productive cooperation, but it feels alienating. Collectivism does the opposite,at least when dreamed up on paper. The communes and collectives imploded in inefficiency, drowned in blood. The kibbutz lives on only as a tourist attraction, a baseball fantasy camp for nostalgic socialists. Meanwhile, billions have ridden capitalism out of poverty.

And yet the children of capitalism still whine.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Oil Reality Making Progress

IBD

Even some members of the old "reality" based party are beginning to face, well - reality.
For the last four weeks, Abercrombie and Rep. John Peterson, a Republican from Pennsylvania, have coordinated on legislation that now has the support of about 25 other House members, many of them Democrats. It would repeal federal land leasing restrictions and get rid of the 125-mile moratorium on gas and oil production in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as gut prohibitions on the development of oil shale.

Nuclear Needs to Replace Natural Gas

IBD

This article answers my earlier question about the supply of natural gas, and it's limited, like oil. It also reinforces the need to switch to nuclear energy.


Disagreement in the Ranks (Democrats)

Gateway Pundit

I wonder if this is the beginning of a backlash?

Follow the link in the article to I Own My Vote.
Every person I have talked to who worked at the Law Review at Harvard with him, or in the later part of his career, said the same thing: he was arrogant and self-centered. One person laughed, saying Obama wanted to be King of the World, that he was always running for something, never staying in one place long enough to amass accomplishments or be held accountable.

Interesting Energy Chart

Perot Charts
Serious consideration needs to be given to the idea now being promoted by T. Boone Pickens to switching from gasoline to liquified natural gas as a substitute or partial substitute for automotive transportation. To do this, alternative energy sources, including both nuclear power and renewable energy need to be developed to take the place of natural gas as a fuel for Industrial applications, Residential and Commercial uses, and Electric Power generation.
Some interesting information here. You need to look at it a while to absorb it. I thought T Boone's latest idea was wind energy.

It is interesting to see natural gas raised as a source of energy for transportation. I wonder why we rarely see this in the general discussion? The technology is currently available and for a few hundred dollars, any vehicle can be converted. The basic distribution system is in place - it would need to be expanded. I don't know how much natural gas we have available. However, the article tells us we could use expanded nuclear energy production to replace natural gas in its current uses and shift it to the transportation sector. I like this idea.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

New and Improved McCain Team?

Instapundit

Let's hope this is true. I have not been happy with what we have seen so far. We are seeing some movement in the polls - closing the gap slightly so perhaps this is beginning to make a difference.
The arrival of ex-Bush campaign wiz Steve Schmidt has breathed new life into the candidate's moribund efforts.

Making Progress Against Homelessness

Gateway Pundit
The number of chronically homeless people living in the nation’s streets and shelters has dropped by about 30 percent

401(k) Debit Cards Can Put Retirement at Risk

SmartMoney

No, actually, stupid people put their retirement at risk. It's not the card that is the problem, it's the idiot swiping the card. Where have I heard something like this before? Maybe "it's not guns that kill people, it's the idiot pulling the trigger". In both cases, the nanny state wants to relieve you of your own responsibility to act rationally or better yet, prevent you from ever having to make a tough choice by enacting more laws to protect you from yourself. Yeah, we need more laws.





US Influence Not Declining

Newmark's Door
The United States does contend with serious problems at home and abroad, but these prophecies of doom, which spread like a computer virus, hardly reflect a rational appraisal of where we stand.

Monday, July 28, 2008

More Friends of Obama

Red State

Corrupt Unions love the liberal left. I wonder why?

More Friends of Obama

Weekly Standard
Greg Craig, senior foreign policy adviser to the Obama campaign, went on MSNBC this afternoon to defend his candidate's decision to skip a visit with wounded U.S. troops in Germany.
Keep reading to find out who this guy really is.

Nuclear Energy a Good Option

Townhall
Fortunately, there has been available for more than half a century a form of energy that is substantially infinite, ecologically inoffensive and readily available. It is nuclear power, and it is the obvious -- indeed, the only -- solution to mankind's problem of producing more energy.

Free Markets Working Again

IBD
In short, free trade has become a major boon to American makers of everything from jetliners and earth-moving equipment to movies and financial services.

An Upside to High Oil Prices

Counterterrorism Blog
There are very few silver linings to the current record oil prices, but increased stability in Iraq is likely one of them.

Investing Against Congress

Chronicle of the Conspiracy

Will it work? Wait and see. Wouldn't this be hilarious if it really worked?

The State of Feminism Today

Vox Popoli

Queens of the liberal left - the perpetual victims. Read the source article.
Like other "progressive" ideologies, feminism is implacable. There is no fixed objective, no ultimate goal. Rather, feminist is rooted in a culture of complaint. It seeks out grievances to protest and, because there will never be a world without grievances, the protesting never ends. As soon as one concession is granted, another will be immediately demanded, and the specifics of the grievance are essentially irrelevant to this process.(emphasis mine)


Also see this earlier post:

Feminism Increasingly Harmful

A Primer in Guvmint Intervention

The Beacon

In the heart of San Francisco - the most "liberal" of all American cities. Dovetails nicely with the earlier article on the downside of welfare.

The great urban journalist Jane Jacobs probably had New York City in mind when she wrote about the potentially devastating effects of government-sponsored “redevelopment” on the inner city, but her lesson applies in many cities across the world. San Francisco’s Fillmore District is a prime example of an “urban renewal” disaster.

Attack Iran?

Newmark's Door
And that's because, frankly, nothing else seems to be working.

The Downside of a Narcissistic President

Newmark's Door
If Barack Obama is elected President, he'll be far more warlike than President Bush, and far more warlike than his pre-election rhetoric suggests.

Welfare Doesn't Work

Newmark's Door
Foreign aid provides a windfall of resources to recipient countries and may result in the same rent seeking behavior as documented in the “curse of natural resources” literature.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

More On Oil

Outside the Beltway
Just for the record my preferences are to increase domestic production, stop subsidizing ethanol production, and stop subsidizing gasoline consumption.
I can agree with the increased domestic production and stopping the subsidy of ethanol. Simply, none of the new technologies will have a serious impact in the next 10 years. If that is the time frame to get domestic production on line then we must start now. Ethanol is a boondoggle supported by the "green" crowd. It has no economic viability with current technology. The fact that it will take generations to shift the vehicle fleet away from gasoline makes it imperative to drill now. In addition, there are other parts of our economy that are based on oil. It is not only a problem of fueling our automobiles.

He did not mention nuclear as a provider of electricity. I support nuclear energy to help reduce the use of oil and coal and to provide the electricity needed to shift to plugin hybrids when they become viable.

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years!

THE YEAR 1908
This will boggle your mind, I know it did mine!
The year is 1908.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!

Here are some statistics for the Year 1908 :
  • The average life expectancy was 47 years.
  • Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
  • Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
  • There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
  • The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
  • The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower
  • The average wage in 1908 was 22 cents per hour.
  • The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year .
  • A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year,
  • A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
  • More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME
  • Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which Were condemned in the press AND the government as 'substandard. '
  • Sugar cost four cents a pound.
  • Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
  • Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
  • Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
  • Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
  • Five leading causes of death were:
  • 1. Pneumonia and influenza
  • 2. Tuberculosis
  • 3. Diarrhea
  • 4. Heart disease
  • 5. Stroke
  • The American flag had 45 stars.
  • The population of Las Vegas , Nevada , was only 30!!!!
  • Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea Hadn't been invented yet.
  • There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.
  • Two out of every 10 adults couldn't read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
  • Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind,regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.' ( Shocking?)
  • Eighteen percent of households had at least One full-time servant or domestic help.
  • There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE ! U.S.A. !
Now I forwarded this from someone else without typing It myself, and sent it to you and others all over Canada & U.S.A Possibly the world, in a matter of seconds!
Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years!

Afghanis Hold Their Own Against the Taliban

The Long War Journal
The Afghan National Police manning the outpost held of(f) the attack and radioed US forces for backup.

Immigration Experiment

michelemalkin

My gut wants to believe this but I wonder if they can show a statistical correlation.

Fairfax county is an immigration sanctuary:
Overall crime in Fairfax County increased by nearly 22 percent for the first quarter 2008 compared to first quarter figures from last year.
Prince William county is pro immigration enforcement:
Recently, Prince William County reported a 19.3 percent decline in crime, with chairman of the Board of County Supervisors Corey Stewart attributing the downturn to the hard line the county has taken toward illegal immigrants.

Creeping Socialism

BBC News

The grandfather decried the on-the-spot penalty as the "Big Brother state going too far".

He added: "I respect anyone who chooses not to smoke, but I would also ask for the same respect to have the freedom to smoke in my own private vehicle."

Can We Find What Really Matters?

Brutally Honest

This article seems a bit disjointed to me at first but it gets really good when he starts quoting comments from Steve Schipert.

If we are incapable of rediscovering that which Constitutes us and what distinguishes America form every other nation on this planet, and acknowledging that America, her people, our liberty and our unequaled charity are indeed good and our values just, then what does Iraq or Afghanistan matter?

Technological Evolution?

Neatorama

Happiness

Neatorama

Happiness is not linked to material possessions? Get outta town!!!
Consider this bit of startling finding: once people have an annual income of about $10,000 per capita, more money doesn’t go far in making them happy. (We’re talking about worldwide per capita income, not US).

Economic Good News

Greg Mankiw's Blog

Sounds like the glass is half full.
The paradoxical thing about today's economy is its strength. No kidding. Consider all the hand grenades lobbed at it. Higher oil prices. The housing implosion. Large layoffs in affected industries: autos, airlines, construction, mortgage banking. The "credit squeeze" triggered by losses on "subprime" mortgages. Despite all that, the economy hasn't collapsed. It's merely weakened. Output in the first quarter of 2008 was actually 2.5 percent higher than a year earlier.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

A Judeo-Christian Nation?

Positive Liberty

You see, our first four or five presidents believed in the Bible more or less, but didn’t believe Jesus was God or died for our sins or is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, whatever that is. But they believed that the Bible wasn’t total bunk and that man was created in God’s image like it says in Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 9:6.

That meant that man was endowed by his Creator with certain unalienable rights, blah, blah blah. But it was still a statement that the human race, for all its intellectual fortitude, hasn’t managed to get around yet. Whether truth, myth, or illusion, the idea founded the greatest nation in history [IMO], and is imitated around the world through the present day.

20,000 terrorists in the US?

Sweetness and Light

Is this really true? Can anyone corroborate this?
That still pencils out to at least 20,000 people living in this country right now — at large and on the streets — who have “some relationship with terrorist activity,”

More AGW Debunking

QandO

Testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Bottom line:
"you politicians need to sit back and relax until the science is is complete on this, but there are indications enough to doubt the initial take on all of this and policy shouldn’t be implemented that may be both costly and unnecessary".

More Space Photos

NASA Photos

Impact Lab

Awesome!!

Common Sense From a Former Ford Technologist

Autoblog
Basically, Ford's former CTO says that current market conditions will sort everything out and the governments should allow the automakers to pick and choose what technologies are the most promising. In the meantime, Parry-Jones suggests not burdening the industry with crippling standards, which, he argues, is a short-sighted, knee-jerk reaction to climate change.

Socialist Agenda?

Newsbusters
accurately depicted environmentalists as political and social activists who use
green rhetoric to "cloak agendas that actually have more to do with
anti-corporatism, anti-globalization, anti-business, and very little to do with
science and ecology
."

Some Basic Rights At Risk

Instapundit
Representative government will remain the enduring feature of American
democracy, but the initiative process is a valuable safety valve. So
long as elected officials gerrymander their districts and otherwise
make it nearly impossible for voters to oust them, direct lawmaking
will be popular. That's why attempts to arbitrarily curb the
initiative, or to intimidate people from exercising their right to
participate, must be resisted. It's a civil liberties issue that should
unite people of good will on both the right and left.

More on Obama's Speech in Germany

davidwarrenonline

I like David Warren. He looks at deeper meanings.
It is summer. Then comes the fall. We cannot yet know how the U.S.
presidential campaign will unfold, and the party conventions have not
even been held yet. But we can know that we are witnessing a deeply
disturbing spectacle.

Germans should be quite disturbed by the
spectacle of a demagogue who communicates with the public almost
exclusively through mass rallies. Americans should be disturbed by what
should disturb the Germans.

I am disturbed that with the
general decline of public standards in education, morals, and
reasoning, we have come to the point when a candidate like Obama can
elude any serious cross-examination, and actually get himself elected
President.


Obama's Pap For Those Who Can't Make Choices

Commentary
Obama has risen to power by using a soothing cloud of meaningless words to conceal displeasing truths and avoid difficult choices.
Also see this prior post

My Latest Poll Numbers

I have been keeping track of the polls. I add the RCP average, the Intrade and the Pollster average together and then run the spread. Nothing too sophisticated but interesting. It seems McCain has been holding steady and Obama is beginning to lose ground causeing the spread to reduce.

The poll averages are virtually tied while Intrade shows a large margin for Obama. Like the prior post from Belmont Club and others, it is difficult to put too much trust in these numbers yet except to note how they move in response to the news of the day.

Poll for President (Adding RCP Avg, Intrade, PollsterAvg)

More News about Polls

Belmont Club

I don’t think it tells us anything about how the election might go in November,
other than that the current betting odds still favor Obama, but there might be a
clue or two about what drivers are providing impetus — or not providing impetus
— to BHO’s campaign.

Victory In Iraq

Newmark's Door
It is time to reconsider whether President Bush or Barack Obama was
right on whether to fight. Obama has had a good political run on the
early and inconclusive evidence. As victory starts to emerge in Iraq,
more persuasive data begin to fall on President Bush's side of the
argument. This is a debate worth having before November.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Good Economic News

More Unhappiness From the Left

Power Line

Rush Limbaugh nails Obama.
The change is: America sucks, America's deficient, America's guilty, but America
is now willing to pay the price because we have a Messiah who understands the
faults, the egregious errors made by the United States and her people. We are
racists, sexists, bigots, homophobes. We discriminate against people who worship
differently than we do, have skin color different from ours, and we have not
always behaved properly in the world. And we torture. And we, of course, are
biased against people who want to get into our country illegally. We have a lot
to pay for. Not to mention that we are primarily the country responsible for
climate change, shrinking the Atlantic coastline, melting the Arctic ice. This
is the change. You want change? This is the change.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Another Sign of Backbone From the GOP

Newsbusters
It's amazing that you can skew things that far. Senator Obama has been
dead wrong when it comes to the policy in Iraq. He opposed the surge and he is
now in a situation where he's trying to deny that the surge was successful. I
don't think that's particularly presidential.

Where is Our Moral Compass

No Left Turns
demands that we pass judgment on the faith and the culture of people who live this way.
We have lost our ability to make moral judgments a la Dennis Prager. The PC crowd has lost its perspective when it comes to the idea of being non-judgmental. It should not mean that I can't label something wrong or bad. It is a moral obligation to make these distinctions. Our culture will not last if we are banned from labeling evil as evil.

M ore Good News From the Polls

Gateway Pundit

Still early in the fight, but good news nonetheless.

Congressional Energy Shenanigans

Instapundit

More dysfunctional behavior from the congressional democrats.


Change You Can Believe In


The
Story of Change . .

Years
ago, there was an old tale in the Submarine Force about a lieutenant who
inspected his Sailors and told the Chief Of the Boat that they smelled
bad. The lieutenant
suggested that they change their underwear. The Chief responded, 'Aye,aye,
sir, I'll see to it immediately'.He
went into the barracks and said, 'The lieutenant thinks you guys smell bad,
and wants you to change your underwear. Smith, you change with Jones,
McCarthy, you change with Witkowskie, Brown, you change with Schultz.
Get to it'


The
moral:A
candidate may promise change in Washington, but don't
count on things smelling any better.

The Power of Information

Instapundit

From an Instapundit reader:
"To win elections the Republicans are going to have to defeat the
media...not co-opt it. That they can't figure that out is a sign that
their judgement is dangerously suspect."
The GOP has simply not been able to grasp the power of information. Bush has done a terrible job at it. So has the Pentagon. I have been wondering about McCain's campaign and this article reinforces my concerns.



Energy Straight Talk

Instapundit

No matter what Barack Obama and Al Gore tell you, alternative energy sources cannot meet demand.
We have a short term gap that must be filled with clean coal and nuclear.

gg

Senate Republicans Find a Pair of ........

Hot Air

Finally, they confront Reid and force the energy issue. This is good news on the energy front and good news on the state of the republican party in the senate.

Conservatives More Happy??

Dissecting Leftism
both lower average happiness and leftism have a common link to a weaker sense of personal control and optimism.
This has been true for me. I used to be much more left. I was also unhappy and depressed by "everything that was wrong". I finally realized, after reading a Ben Stein book (Can America Survive), that I was acting like a victim. I'm doing much better today, looking at the world from a conservative point of view.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Good News From the Polls?

The Strata-Sphere

As the article notes, it's still early. But, it is nice to see this.

Feminism Increasingly Harmful

RWN
"feminism has morphed from being pro-woman to anti-male."
The harm cause by the anti-male attitudes today far outweigh any good the original pro-woman movement accomplishment.


Socialism Creeping

IBD
Sadly, however, illusion is often sweeter to human taste than reality.



"The American people will never knowingly
adopt socialism," said Norman Thomas, a U.S. Socialist Party
presidential candidate in the 1940s. "But under the name of
'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program,
until one day, America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how
it happened."

A Fascinating Look at Obama

davidwarrenonline
In Obama’s case, I flinch at the opposite. He’s a candle in the wind, a
leaf on the breeze. He has no “vision” whatever, of his own or of
America’s place in the world. He is good at writing “charisma”
speeches, and even better at delivering them. ...

Obama’s deeper appeal is also to people who are “looking for
themselves,” obsessively; who have little or no “formation” (as the
Catholics call it), no hard core of tested beliefs, forged in
confrontation with the world; no beliefs to go to the Wall for. Instead
he lightly holds the transient opinions of his progressive milieu, like
a chameleon. Which is to say, absolutely consistent in colouration,
until the background changes.

I preferred Bush in the 2000
Republican primary, chiefly because he was not John McCain. Now I find
myself preferring McCain for President, chiefly because he is not
Barack Obama.

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Brutally Honest

Like the Wizard of Oz, Obama is all about manipulation.

This article is interesting on two levels.

One, the fact that Obama is manipulating the information you see to an extent not seen before.

Two, the reminder of how Obama has manipulated race in an attempt to silence his critics.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Wars End with Victory or Defeat, Not Staged Withdrawal

American Digest

We will have war whether we wish it or not. It will continue to be brought to
us as it was brought for many years before we could see it in a pillar of flame
by day and a pillar of smoke by night. We will be long in this wilderness,
perhaps as long as forty years, and it will take a terrible toll from us,
soldier and civilian alike; a toll we have not yet begun to see. Like all global
wars in the past century, the war upon us will rise in violence until such time
as we either capitulate, or find the will to kill our enemies wholesale. This is
not what we would choose, but it is what we shall have.


We could, if we wished, withdraw every soldier from every inch of soil that
is not American territory and leave them here inside our borders rusting for a
decade. War will still come because war is already upon us, and wars do not end
in staged withdrawals, but in either defeat or victory. The lessons of Vietnam
and the Cold War teach this to us if we have the eyes to see and the ears to
hear.


... It is who we are and who we shall become as a people that will decide. ...

Wars End with Victory or Defeat, Not Staged Withdrawal

American Digest

We will have war whether we wish it or not. It will continue to be brought to
us as it was brought for many years before we could see it in a pillar of flame
by day and a pillar of smoke by night. We will be long in this wilderness,
perhaps as long as forty years, and it will take a terrible toll from us,
soldier and civilian alike; a toll we have not yet begun to see. Like all global
wars in the past century, the war upon us will rise in violence until such time
as we either capitulate, or find the will to kill our enemies wholesale. This is
not what we would choose, but it is what we shall have.


We could, if we wished, withdraw every soldier from every inch of soil that
is not American territory and leave them here inside our borders rusting for a
decade. War will still come because war is already upon us, and wars do not end
in staged withdrawals, but in either defeat or victory. The lessons of Vietnam
and the Cold War teach this to us if we have the eyes to see and the ears to
hear.


... It is who we are and who we shall become as a people that will decide. ...

Remember How This Financial Mess Got Started

Capitalism Magazine

The control freaks and purveyors of victimhood pass the buck.

Space Trash




I wonder when we will start having collisions?

Shades of the WPA

Economist

Goodness knows wee need to refurb much of our infrastructure. The cost will only get worse if we continue to let it slide.



Citizenship Test to Vote?

Library of Economics

You mean one would need to prove they have some knowledge about the system they are participating in? Kinda like a drivers license? One is expected to be able to drive in order to have a license - well that is usually the way it works. Oh - and you need to bring a legal from of identification to prove you really are a citizen and that you are who you claim to be?

Get outta town!!! What an intrusion into my privacy and freedom!!!

NOT!!!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Really Good Coffee?

Wired

Or a rip off?


Energy IQ

A Shifting of the Elite Left

The Strata-Sphere

This is certainly interesting. Are some of the liberal thinkers beginning to re-evaluate their version of reality?

Where Would You Rather Live?

Economist

While I can agree that medical costs are rising and there are things we need to fix, we still have the best care in the world. Where would you rather live?

Conservative Overhaul

Economist

I can agree that we need an overhaul but hoping for defeat never seems like a good idea. Even when it is a short range goal of a long term strategy. Things like this have a way of getting out of control.

The Monster From Serbia

Pat Dollard

This is good news. Another monster slain.

Diplomacy = Weakness

PajamasMedia

We keep wanting to assess the situation using our yardstick. This enemy does not think like us and does not have similar values. Our yardstick will not work. We must get past this erroneous viewpoint.

Israel's Trade

IBD

What a disaster for Israel and the free world.

Jarry Pournelle Nails It

Instapundit

Regardless of all the ecological considerations we must stop transferring our wealth to the Middle East. I rarely hear this argument used when discussing energy policy. The idea that we are funding the guys who want to kill us trumps all other considerations.




A Strategy for McCain

NRO

I'm not getting a warm a fuzzy feeling about the McCain camp. So far they have not shown to be the winning team.


Our "special" Political Class

Instapundit
"In any other business, Mr. Dodd would be begging forgiveness." Or facing indictment.
Between corruption, ignorance, arrogance and treason our political class has embarrassed this great nation. Did I miss any appropriate adjectives?

The MSM Influence

Instapundit

I wonder how this affects their voting choices?

Let's get on With Nuclear Power

Instapundit

What is going to provide the power for those new electric cars coming on online in a few years?

Support this

Dispatches from the Culture Wars

a law that would forbid any court in the United States from recognizing or enforcing any foreign court judgment concerning "defamation of religion."

The Inside Election Track?

danieldrezner

If this is true, let's forgo all the crap and the spending of millions and move on.

It would be hard to get folks to agree to this even if one can prove a highly significant statistical correlation.

This is one area I can definitely find fault with Bush. He has done a terrible job at communicating with the American people and allowed his opponents to drive the information cycle. Although I like him for the fact that he is not personally concerned about his rating, the low rating is political suicide and not an astute move.




DOD Common Sense?

Strategy Page

Is the Navy finally getting some common sense? Refurb a ship for $300M and get a lot of the new technology or build a new ship for $3B. Hmmmmmmmm................

I wonder if this will nudge the AF in the same direction? Maybe the Army could think about it also although it tends to not have single, large ticket, items like these others.


Creeping Militarization?

DOD Buzz

QandO

danieldrezner

SWJ Blog

I can agree that this is an important topic in the relationship between the military and the civilian. However, it seems most of the problem is due to inadequate and political civilian agencies that can't get anything done. The military turns out to be the single most successful organization.


Information Security?

Defense Tech

I am beginning to wonder if there really is a successful way to manage all this portable information. I don't suspect our system is any more porous than it used to be, just that the consequences are so much greater for each event.
I wonder how big this problem is in the United States?

Seems Like a Win Win

Super Sucker

I can support this kind of ecological behavior. Although, there is always the question of the efficacy of human intervention into to complex systems.


Perfectionism

Research Blogging

Interesting insight. Having struggled with the anxiety and self-criticism part I can appreciate this.
part of the reason for the disagreement is that there are actually two
aspects to perfectionism: one is striving for perfection, the other is
having negative reactions to a less than perfect performance

Is Nothing Sacred?

Autoblog

Not in the car world. There is something way cool about this Silver Shadow sitting on 1000+ horsepower.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Misunderstanding Competition

Economist.com

Capitalism can seem rather cut-throat affair at the microcosm. It inherently creates winners and losers. This guy seems to want to protect the losers from that risk. That reduces the incentive for the others to win (gain profit).

Der Spiegel and Maliki

HT Instapundit

The LSM sure jumps to conclusions based on their inherent bias.