Tom Faranda's Folly

Even the NY Times says the Chevrolet Volt is a dog

Wow. This is just a devastating op ed.

G.M.’s Electric Lemon

... G.M.’s vision turned into a car that costs $41,000 before relevant tax breaks ... but after billions of dollars of government loans and grants for the Volt’s development and production. And instead of the sleek coupe of 2007, it looks suspiciously similar to a Toyota Prius. It also requires premium gasoline, seats only four people (the battery runs down the center of the car, preventing a rear bench) and has less head and leg room than the $17,000 Chevrolet Cruze, which is more or less the non-electric version of the Volt.

In short, the Volt appears to be exactly the kind of green-at-all-costs car that some opponents of the bailout feared the government might order G.M. to build. Unfortunately for this theory, G.M. was already committed to the Volt when it entered bankruptcy. And though President Obama’s task force reported in 2009 that the Volt “will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term,” it didn’t cancel the project.

******

... some suspect that G.M. and the Obama administration decided against selling the Volt at a loss because they want the company to appear profitable before its long-awaited initial stock offering, which is likely to take place next month. For taxpayers, that approach might have made sense if the government planned on selling its entire 61 percent stake in G.M. But the administration has said it will sell only enough equity in the public offering to relinquish its controlling stake in G.M. Thus the government will remain exposed to the company’s (and the Volt’s) long-term fate.

So the future of General Motors (and the $50 billion taxpayer investment in it) now depends on a vehicle that costs $41,000 but offers the performance and interior space of a $15,000 economy car.

Incredible. But you do get a $7,500 tax credit for buying the Volt.

By large majority, people support Arizona immigration law

59-32%.

59% Support Arizona Law; 53% Trust States More than Feds To Enforce Immigration Law

"The View" from the point of view of the Daily News

A good column, by Michael Daly

President Obama and the U.S. focus on triviality, not real issues like the Afghanistan war

The leaking of 91,000 secret documents about the conflict in Afghanistan was met with yawns by people who did not even bother to ascertain whether there was anything really new.

******

A military draft would be one way to counter such indifference, particularly among the better-off if there were no college deferments.

Imagine if those parents had to sweat not whether their kid gets into Harvard but whether he or she ends up in Helmand.

You can be sure they would have been asking yesterday why Obama was not focused on the war, why he was instead making another visit to a working-class eatery and then choppering into New York to tape an appearance on "The View" and attend a couple of fund-raisers.

For myself, I found it a touch surreal that at a time when other Marine pilots are dying, four Marine helicopters and a small army of cops and secret service agents were being mobilized so Obama could dish with Barbara Wawa and then hit some fat cats up for more than $30,000 a plate.

Even so, we ultimately have only ourselves to blame. You can be sure that Obama would act accordingly if we stayed focused on what is most pressingly important, if we did not act as if the whole war were some secret we had no desire to know.

Catholic Bishops of Arizona and New Mexico comment on temporary injunction on Arizona immigration law

UPDATE: Less then 30 minutes after I posted this, some troll posted the first comment below. I decided to leave it up for all to see.

Off Zenit.com -

Bishops Praise Court Injunction on Arizona Law

Urge Legislators to Fix Broken Immigration System

PHOENIX, Arizona, JULY 29, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The bishops of Arizona and New Mexico are calling on legislators to put aside their political differences and work together to mend what they call the "broken immigration system."

The prelates of the border states said this in a statement issued Wednesday in response to the temporary injunction that U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton placed on some provisions of SB 1070, more commonly known as the "Arizona Immigration Law."

The four signatories of the letter -- Bishop James Wall of Gallup, New Mexico; Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, Auxiliary Bishop Eduardo Nevares of Phoenix, and Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson -- commended the decision of Bolton.     

"As bishops in our respective dioceses, we know that in practically every parish there are families that have been living with the fear and anxiety generated by SB 1070 that they might be torn apart," the prelates stated. "The situation of these families might be that one parent is a citizen and that the other is not in our country legally. Or, the situation might be that some children in the family are citizens and that a brother or sister is not here legally.

"Our hearts go out to these families. We know them to be good people who work hard and who contribute to the economy and to the quality of life of their communities."

The bishops said they would continue to oppose the problematic provision of the "Arizona Law," without giving specifics, and that they will "monitor the implementation of the provisions allowed by the ruling."

Additionally, the letter asserted that the bishops will also advocate for "comprehensive reform of our nation's immigration laws," based on several principles: illegal immigration cannot be allowed, the borders of the nation need to be secure, there must be a process for those who are in the United States illegally to pursue legal status (that is not amnesty), and that those who wish to work in the United States should have a pathway to enter the country legally.

Secure borders

"Illegal immigration is bad for our nation. It is not good for us to not know who is entering our country," they stated. The bishops also noted the need to "be protected from drug smuggling, weapons smuggling, human trafficking and violence."

Regarding the legalization of those who already in the country illegally, the bishops said they are not advocating amnesty: "This process must have proportionate consequences for the act of illegal entry, consequences that would include fines, learning English, and going to the 'back of the line' to seek citizenship."

"The tragic consequences of the failure of our nation's political leadership to enact reform of our immigration system have included the deaths of thousands of people," the note concluded. "Migrants -- women, men, children in desperate circumstances -- have died trying to enter our country. U.S. citizens have died because of crimes committed by drug smugglers, people smugglers and weapons smugglers.

"We pray for those who have died and for their grieving families. And we pray that our senators and representatives will put aside their partisan divisions and go to work immediately to fix the broken immigration system."

--- --- ---

The Rangel mess

Too bad. I heard Republican Congressman Peter King, from Long Island on Imus Wednesday. He refused to go after Rangel, saying he was was a friend of his, an upstanding guy, and a war hero (from The Korean War, which I didn't know).

Panel hits Rangel with 13 alleged ethics charges

New York State; no one even knows how many state employees there are

Amazing. With thanks to Ellisblog for pointing toward this -

... the state has not one but two public payrolls.

One is controlled by the governor, encompassing about 131,000 employees, who toil for agencies like the Health Department, the parks department and the Department of Motor Vehicles. That payroll has shrunk by about 25 percent in the last two decades — so has the much smaller legislative payroll — and usually shoulders the brunt of layoffs.

The other lies beyond the direct control of the governor and includes perhaps 163,000 more workers employed by independent public authorities and agencies — though that number is an estimate, because not all authorities have been reporting their payrolls to a central state registry. And projections of state employment by the federal government do not always match the state government’s figures. The work force beyond the governor’s control has largely bucked the statewide retrenchment, according to a review compiled by The New York Times.

That is particularly true of some of the largest public employers. The State University of New York has grown by 14 percent over the last two decades, while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which serves a dozen counties, has seen its work force rise by about 5 percent. The state judiciary has increased by 31.6 over that period.

Meanwhile on the left west coast -

The two parties are staging stunts as the state's unpaid bills pile up heading into the fifth week without a spending plan.

California! 

Here's a sex abuse case that received no coverage

A Catholic League press release from a few days ago. It speaks for itself.

WOMAN BISHOP QUITS OVER SEX ABUSE CASE

July 23, 2010

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on media reaction to an interesting case of religion and sex abuse:

One week ago today, AP ran a story about a German female bishop, Maria Jepsen, who was forced to resign amidst accusations she was involved in a cover-up of a Protestant priest who reportedly abused as many as 20 children in the 1980s. She initially said that she became aware of these cases in March of this year, but then it was disclosed by the German magazine Der Spiegel that she knew of them in 1999.

Maria Jepsen is not just any Lutheran cleric: in 1992, she became the world's first female Protestant bishop. The real story here, however, is not Jepsen—it is the media blackout of this story.

I told our staff last week that we will track this story to see how many newspapers pick up the AP article. Now we know the grand total: nine. By the way, the longest of these articles was 211 words. The New York Times, which is obsessed with priestly sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, said nothing about it.

Why the blackout? First, the media have no interest in discrediting mainline Protestant clerics, most of whom share elite secular opinion on matters sexual: the mainline religions are champions of abortion rights and are not known to fight gay marriage. Second, the cultural elites like to blame men for sexual abuse; women, we are told, would never act the way male clerics do.

It is definitely true that sexual abusers are mostly male, but there is no evidence that when it comes to handling such issues, women in positions of authority do a better job than men. Mothers of abused youngsters, along with nuns, female teachers, social workers, counselors, lawyers and law enforcement agents have acted just as badly as men. But don’t tell that to Maureen Dowd—it would ruin her day.

 

More on drone attacks: Nat Hentoff

I posted about the morality of drone attacks a week ago.

Now here's Nat Hentoff's take on a certain aspect of the attacks. I am conflicted about drone attacks - I don't think they are per se immoral, but there are problems ...

An impressive exception to the inattention to Obama's favorite weapon is investigative reporter Adam Entous of Reuters. In "How the White House learned to love the drone" (May 18), he quotes two administration officials (who, of course, refused to be named) saying that killing wanted terrorists is simply "easier than capturing them."

Rugby: Third Tri-Nation match; South Africa vs. Australia

Played in Australia

Exercise and heartburn

Full disclosure - I take prilosec for acid reflux/heartburn. Works well for me. I exercise a lot more then indicated in this article. The article says exercise helps primarily because it reduces BMI (body mass index). In other words keeps you thinner.

It's a short column. 

Moderate exercise, with the right precautions, can reduce reflux.

Latest in bumper stickers and t-shirts

Perhaps you'd already seen these? I hadn't.

About the President, of course.

Here's the sticker -

And this saying, on a t-shirt

I Was Anti-Obama Before it was cool
 

Radiation, the band, at it again!

My friend Paul Novotny's band - featuring daughter Alison as lead singer - another gig at Paulies in Pleasantville, NY this past Saturday, the 24th.

Good crowd, great sound.

Brigid, enjoying herself -

Four musketeers - Greg, Matt, Marisa, Mike

Crowd control

 

AND Radiation! This is with flash - as you can see on the video at the end, it was pretty dark - atmospheric

 

Here's two and a half minutes of Radiation, doing Jimi Hendrix. It's amazing the decent level of audio you can pick up on a small canon digital camera. No flash lighting here ...

An absurd judicial ruling; Stolen Valor Act ruled unconstitutional

I've been meaning to put up a little post about this. The Stolen Valor Act is a bipartisan bill passed in 2005 that made it a misdemeanor crime (punishment up to one year in prison) to claim you have, or you wear any military decorations or commendations or medals. For example you wear a stolen or fake Medal of Honor, which you haven't earned.

Ahhh, but that's a violation of your free speech rights!

Real heroes need to be distinguished from the fakes

Judge Blackburn, in a case before the District of Colorado over faux Marine Rick Glen Strandlof, ruled that the government lacked a compelling interest in abridging speech rights when it came to warrior impersonators. This is no G.I. Joke.

The Stolen Valor Act made it a misdemeanor for people to falsely claim "verbally or in writing, to have been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces of the United States." Congress thought the law was necessary because "fraudulent claims surrounding receipt of the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Air Force Cross, the Navy Cross, the Purple Heart, or any other medal or decoration awarded by Congress or the Armed Forces damage the reputation and meaning of these medals."

Counterfeiting is an apt analogy. The counterfeiter turns paper into wealth he did not earn, and in so doing dilutes the value of legitimate currency possessed by others. Service medals are akin to currency, but they are backed by blood, sweat and sacrifice.

A nutty ruling.

My birthday is today, Joe's was two days ago

52 again (always subtract seven years) while Joe turned 17, a couple of days after getting his drivers license.

Here's Joe slicing his birthday giant cookie, with a honey stick hanging out of his mouth.

Uh oh. Me this morning - this is a set-up - an ambush by Brigid! I never don't usually have a donut breakfast.

 

Like most teenagers, Joe just loves having his mother take his picture - can't you tell. He's about to drive off (with me) to his job assignment at Byram Hills HS in Armonk.

And here's an old picture Brigid scanned in this morning. The back of it says "Playing for Essex, we beat so. jersey 15-0. I think in fall '73." So, a rugby match in Branch Brook Park, Montclair, NJ. It may have been '74 or '75, so at least 35 years ago. If you can't tell, I'm the only guy in stripes, flicking the ball away (to Chris Galvin, I bet).

 

35 years ago - YIKES!

All righty, this was coffee, Tuesday morning last week

About once a week I join some parishioners who have coffee after the 8:00AM Mass at Holy Name of Mary (which is about four doors from my office) at the deli in bustling downtown Croton.  

I borrowed Judy's camera last week and took this quick video.

Good article on investment company PIMCO, the biggest bond investor

Of some interest if you care about your money. Bill Gross, the founder of PIMCO, manages PIMCO Total Return Fund.

I'm in broad agreement with the "new normal" point made by El-Erian -

In the new normal, investors will be faced with anemic returns and they'll seek alternatives, said El-Erian, who's embracing several new asset classes.

As smartphones take over, what to do?

All right. I don't have a smart phone, only a dumb phone, that a can make calls and send text messages with. I realize that makes me a dinosaur ("You're in the investment business and you don't have blackberry?").

And in fact, in the next several months I'll probably get a droid - might as well be cutting edge. I'll feel bad no longer using my PDA, which is a Palm Z22. In it's vaours incarnations - I've gone through about four of them - it has served me well.

Anyway, here's a good article on not getting snookered with a smartphone purchase, from the Washington Post tech columnist.  

As smartphones flood the market, here's how to avoid falling for the flavor of the month

Know your upgrade options. You should know upfront whether your particular smartphone will allow an update to its manufacturer's next operating system. 

******

Battery life counts, if you can define it. More is better, but in what scenario: standby time, talk time, Web browsing, music playback, GPS?

******

App selection only goes so far.

******

Don't buy by the camera. The cameras in phones now offer multi-megapixel resolutions on par with many point-and-shoot cameras, but they continue to yield blurry, foggy shots, especially if you're dealing with too little or too much light. 

And there's more - a good column. Hit the link above.  

The oil spill investigation - "series of iffy decisions"

A good brief analysis of the federal investigation, and where it stands. As suspected, a series of small mistakes, and miscalculations, put together, led to the disaster. And the lawyers for the major players - BP, Transocean, etc - point fingers at each other.  

The Washington Post -

No single decision or misstep in isolation could have caused the blowout, but any number of decisions might have prevented it had they gone the other way.

The calamity, the evidence now suggests, was not an accident in the sense of a single unlucky or freak event, but rather an engineered catastrophe -- one that followed naturally from decisions of BP managers and other oil company workers on the now-sunken rig. 

******

So many potential missteps are now part of the narrative that it is difficult to know where the pivotal points lie. What's clear is that no one took the extra step that might have saved the day. Government oversight by what was then the MMS proved ineffectual. People on the rig who might have sniffed out an imminent blowout were so complacent that in some cases they went to bed just minutes before the fireball.

******

Even as the oil companies point fingers at one another, they remain intricately bound by the disaster: BP is drilling the relief well, the main hope for permanently killing Macondo, with Transocean's Development Driller III. Among those who have been helping to drill the new well: Sepulvado, the Deepwater Horizon company man.

Because there are multiple, parallel investigations being conducted by government agencies, academics, the oil industry broadly and BP itself, not to mention a Justice Department criminal probe, the grim narrative of the Deepwater Horizon disaster will take many months or even years to put together. Any conclusions right now remain preliminary.

But the picture that has emerged so far raises questions about whether the cutting-edge technological venture of deep-water drilling, one that involves multiple companies, an elaborate decision-making network, the foibles of human judgment, and powerful geological forces, can ever be managed with zero risk of catastrophe.

 "Zero risk of catastrophe."? In any complex undertaking, for example getting an airplane full of people up in the air and back down again, there's always a risk of catastrophe. ... The human condition ...

Since 1964 oil has steadily been being spilled into the Gulf

That's the gist of this very interesting Washington Post feature from yesterday.

Federal records show steady stream of oil spills in gulf since 1964

When I lived in Jamaica in the late 70's oil on the beaches was not so noticeable; perhaps because I lived inthe interior of the Island and didn't spend so much time on the beach.

BUT, from 1979 to 1981, when I lived on Grand Cayman (which is west of Jamaica and south of Cuba), literally on the beach the first year we were there, and near the beach the scond year, tar balls were very evident.

The story was that the oil was from ships when they pumped their bilges and spilled the muck out into the sea, but in hindsight I bet lots of it was from the seepage of oil, from nature and out of damaged pipelines.

Judging two not-young people in bathing suits

You have to go here - kind of cute. I voted the second choice.

Sergio Armani and Jerry Hall

They both beat me -and Armani is in his 70's.

Canadian pilot has a close call.

Whew. Real close, literally three or four seconds.

A Canadian pilot had the closest of close escapes on Friday when he ejected from his fighter jet just moments before it crashed and exploded in an enormous ball of flame.

Youths turn on the President!?

From the NY Post. Must be biased - doesn't the evil Rupert Murdoch own the Post?

Obama is losing in a match-up against a generic Republican challenger by 37 percent to 34 percent among voters in the 18-34 age group, according to a stunning Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday.

In March, voters in this group approved of Obama by 54 percent to 37 percent.

"The youngest age group may be the most impatient and the most easily disillusioned among all age groups," said Molly Andolina, a youth-vote expert and DePaul University political-science professor.

For many young voters in 2008, "it was the first time they'd been really been involved, really paying attention. This is someone telling them, 'Yes, you can,' " she said.

Even more important (my opinion):

Critically important independent voters continue to drift away from Obama, and disapprove of him by 52-38 percent.

A year ago, independents backed Obama 52-37.

But the election is 28 months away, so anything is possible.

 

Ralph Houk

Yankee player and manager. I remember him because I'm old as manager in the early 60's - he took over after Casey Stengel. Yanks won two World Series ('61 and '62) while he was manager. He played for them in late 40' until 1954, so he was a player on several World Series winning Yankee teams.

Houk served in the army during WW II in the Battle of the Bulge - he was a major.

Yankees recognize and honor the passing of Ralph Houk

Breast cancer and pathology error in the quest for early detection

Here's an in-depth look at a particularly difficult situation - diagnosing ductile carcinoma in situ. (D.C.I.S.). A nurse finds out she never had cancer, after undergoing a partial mastectomy and radiation therapy. This despite three pathologists (but none specialists in breast cancer) reviewing her slides.

As another physician mentions late in the article "medicine is not an exact science." Right. I know that. After I had six chemotherapy sessions, spread over four months, the physician who took over my treatment to do the final high dose chemo + stem cell transplant (my own cells, not someone else's) insisted on having the biopsy slides reviewed again (the fourth time!) to be sure I had mantle cell lymphoma. I remember thinking, criminy, after all this, what if I find out I never had cancer? I'm not sure if I'd have been relieved or PO'd about the whole thing. But, the fact that he required the review, does tell you that maybe that kind of error has been made in the past!? ...

Anyway, this is an absorbing read, from the NY Times Health section. And there's a video embedded in the article.

Advances in mammography and other imaging technology over the past 30 years have meant that pathologists must render opinions on ever smaller breast lesions, some the size of a few grains of salt. Discerning the difference between some benign lesions and early stage breast cancer is a particularly challenging area of pathology, according to medical records and interviews with doctors and patients.

 Diagnosing D.C.I.S. “is a 30-year history of confusion, differences of opinion and under- and overtreatment,” said Dr. Shahla Masood, the head of pathology at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville. “There are studies that show that diagnosing these borderline breast lesions occasionally comes down to the flip of a coin.”

For $35 you can have what looks suspiciously like an iPad. Made in India.

India unveils world's cheapest laptop

Race-baiting and the "Sherrod affair"

I wasn't going to post anything about the fiasco with Shirley Sherrod, but one of my good friends started querying me about it in the comments section here and in an email, so I did some investigating.

The "conventional wisdom" is that it was all a FOX news set-up, they trashed the lady, etc. But according to Howard Kurtz, who covers the media for the Washington Post, as well as hosting CNN's weekly media program "Reliable Sources", this is not the case.

Here's his full article, published Thursday -

Finger-pointing at Fox in Shirley Sherrod firing

Of course, read the whole thing, but here are key points:

But for all the chatter -- some of it from Sherrod herself -- that she was done in by Fox News, the network didn't touch the story until her forced resignation was made public Monday evening, with the exception of brief comments by O'Reilly. After a news meeting Monday afternoon, an e-mail directive was sent to the news staff in which Fox Senior Vice President Michael Clemente said: "Let's take our time and get the facts straight on this story. Can we get confirmation and comments from Sherrod before going on-air. Let's make sure we do this right."

So they had nothing to do with her resignation. Here's what Kurtz says Sherrod says triggered it - 

Sherrod may be the only official ever dismissed because of the fear that Fox host Glenn Beck might go after her. As Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack tried to pressure her into resigning, Sherrod says Deputy Undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her Monday to say "do it, because you're going to be on 'Glenn Beck' tonight." And for all the focus on Fox, much of the mainstream media ran with a fragmentary story that painted an obscure 62-year-old Georgian as an unrepentant racist.

Wow. Glenn Beck, who I never watch, but occasionally listen to on the radio (funny guy) must be a powerful dude!

Here's what Beck said -

The administration's concern about Beck stems in part from his campaign last year that prompted the resignation of White House environmental official Van Jones over divisive remarks -- a controversy that some news organizations acknowledged they were too slow to cover. Ironically, Beck defended Sherrod on Tuesday, saying that "context matters" and he would have objected if someone had shown a video of him at an AA meeting saying he used to pass out from drinking but omitting the part where he says he found Jesus and gave up alcohol.

Not exactly a trashing. It looks like FOX was actully more circumspect then the NAACP or the Administration.

Meanwhile Sherrod plays it for all it's worth - again from the Kurtz piece -

Sherrod ripped Fox in an interview Wednesday with Media Matters, saying the network would "love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person."

Unjustified, but FOX played it cool -

Clemente, the Fox executive, said in an interview that Sherrod "certainly could be forgiven for being confused." As for other critics, he said that blaming Fox is "a comfortable reflex for some people."

The whole Kurtz article is very revealing with more detail, and quotes from left and right wing pundits on the situation.

Representative Rangel tangles with Tim Russert's son

This is funny. Luke Russert asks a sensible question: is Rangel is worried about losing his job and Rangel tries an intimidation tactic.

Rangel is clearly surprised when Russert tells him he's from "NBC, MSNBC" since I suppose Rangel expects t-ball questions from those stations ...

Massachusetts healthcare reform as precursor to Obamacare results

I have probably posted a dozen times about the Massachusetts healthcare reform in the last four plus years. I have both a professional and personal interest in the issue of health insurance. Here is the first post Massachusetts mandates health coverage dated April 6, 2006.  

In it (quoting myself, which my friend Damian finds pretty outrageous - even though my blog is all about me ...) I said:

Legislation in Massachusetts, awaiting the governor's signature, could possible break the logjam of how to provide insured healthcare to all citizens. The legislation is modelled on the principle underlying car insurance - you own a car, you must have insurance.

then extensively quoted the NY Times as to how it was supposed to work, and finished saying:

Now the devil is in the details, and the details on how they're doing this have not been worked out. Nevertheless, I am sure that this program will be closely watched over the next few years. The bill was bi-partisan - passing unanimously in the MA. state senate and with only 2 no votes in their house.

Now on several occasions the President referenced the Massachusetts plan, suggesting his plan was similar. As I said above, I have closely followed what is going on with the Massachusetts plan since it's inception.

The results have been, ugh, not great, as in fiscal disaster mess. Here's a Washington Post op ed by Robert Samuelsen, who has been spot-on about so many fiscal and economic issues in the past 18 months.

If you want a preview of President Obama's health-care "reform," take a look at Massachusetts. In 2006, it enacted a "reform" that became a model for Obama. What's happened since isn't encouraging. The state did the easy part: expanding state-subsidized insurance coverage. It evaded the hard part: controlling costs and ensuring that spending improves people's health. Unfortunately, Obama has done the same.

People have more access to treatment, though changes are small. In 2006, 87 percent of the non-elderly had a "usual source of care," presumably a doctor or clinic, Long and Stockley note in the journal Health Affairs. By 2009, that was 89.9 percent. In 2006, 70.9 percent received "preventive care"; in 2009, that was 77.7 percent. Out-of-pocket costs were less burdensome.

But much didn't change. Emergency rooms remain as crowded as ever; about a third of the non-elderly go at least once a year, and half their visits involve "non-emergency conditions." 

******

Aside from squeezing take-home pay (employers provide almost 70 percent of insurance), higher costs have automatically shifted government priorities toward health care and away from everything else -- schools, police, roads, prisons, lower taxes. In 1990, health spending represented about 16 percent of the state budget, says the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. By 2000, health's share was 22 percent. In 2010, it's 35 percent. About 90 percent of the health spending is Medicaid.

... Facing a tough reelection campaign, Gov. Deval Patrick effectively ordered his insurance commissioner to reject premium increases for small employers (50 workers or fewer) and individuals -- an unprecedented step. Commissioner Joseph Murphy then disallowed premium increases ranging from 7 percent to 34 percent. The insurers appealed; hearing examiners ruled Murphy's action illegal. 

Attacking unpopular insurance companies is easy -- and ultimately ineffectual. The trouble is that they're mostly middlemen. They collect premiums and pay providers: doctors, hospitals, clinics. Limiting premiums without controlling the costs of providers will ultimately cause insurer bankruptcies, which would then threaten providers ...

******

Similar forces will define Obamacare. Even if its modest measures to restrain costs succeed -- which seems unlikely -- the effect on overall spending would be slight. The system's fundamental incentives won't change. The lesson from Massachusetts is that genuine cost control is avoided because it's so politically difficult. It means curbing the incomes of doctors, hospitals and other providers. They object. To encourage "accountable care organizations" would limit consumer choice of doctors and hospitals. That's unpopular. Spending restrictions, whether imposed by regulation or "global payments," raise the specter of essential care denied. Also unpopular.

Obama dodged the tough issues in favor of grandstanding. Imitating Patrick, he's already denouncing insurers' rates, as if that would solve the spending problem. What's occurring in Massachusetts is the plausible future: Unchecked health spending shapes government priorities and inflates budget deficits and taxes, with small health gains. And they call this "reform"?

  

The current "Great Recession" and future economic issues

Columnist Matt Miller is a political liberal who has written for a number of outlets, is a member of a left wing thing tank, and has an NPR show.

This is a sensible and realistic column getting to the root of what our near and long term economic problems are.

No politician will talk about the prospect of declining living standards. Business leaders who know what's afoot abroad talk privately about it all the time.

Broadly speaking, there are two big things we need to do. The first, put well (if not in a sexy slogan) by economist Michael Spence in the Financial Times recently, is "to create capital-intensive jobs that have labor productivity levels consistent with advanced country incomes."

The second big thing is to make sure Americans have the skills to perform these jobs.

How are we doing on this agenda? Dismally. For starters, U.S. elites simply don't think in terms of a national economic strategy of the kind Spence states so simply.  

The whole brief column is very good. While Miller doesn't outline any specific answers to the problems in this  particular essay, in other op eds he has (unfortunately) offered the usual politically liberal answers - more government, higher taxes.  

An interesting take on Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston

A marketing opportunity and big bucks. Funny - I just saw their picture on the cover of some glossy magazine at 7-11.

Ruth Marcus is a Washington Post columnist and this is the current top-emailed article on the Post website.

For Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston, Celebrity Cures All

Forget tradition. Forget privacy. In our celebrity-drenched culture, Bristol and Levi quickly figured out what Sarah and I both failed to understand: Bristol's out-of-wedlock pregnancy was not an embarrassment. It was a marketing opportunity.

Think about it. A teenage single mom with a high school diploma. A father who dropped out of high school in his junior year. These are not the makings of a stable economic path.

If Sarah had followed my advice and told McCain "thanks, but no thanks" about the vice presidency -- as she claimed to have done with federal funding for the bridge to nowhere -- Bristol would have had a future to nowhere. Levi, too.

Instead, Palin did Bristol and her boyfriend an unintentional, lucrative favor. 

Rugby: Second Tri-Nations match; South Africa vs. New Zealand

Played in Wellington, New Zealand. Six good tries. Go here for the first match.

The morality of drone attacks: "Unmanned attack planes may be effective weapons, but moral implications of their use are under debate"

A balanced article online at OSV. And it's not just a traditional question of just war, collateral damage, civilian casualties...

Catholic scholars weigh ethics of military drones

The development of drones and other military robotics have also led to questions regarding the implications of using ever-evolving technologies in warfare. 

The ease of killing with unmanned vehicles creates the danger that far-away operators may become desensitized to the violence, believing that it is the doing of the drone and not the operator. 

And then there's this, which applies to more then just drones:

“We are using [this new technology] frequently but have not yet understood what law and morality require respecting it,” she said. “We’re behind where the technology is.” 

 Our technical ability has outpaced our moral sensibility.

Good news from Farandaville

Joe passed his driver's test today. Aced it - no points off.* He was very pleased with himself, of course. He immediately started lobbying to drive to work. We'll see about that.

* Second try.

Desmond Tutu - not impressed with Obama

A NY Times op ed this morning. "President Obama is showing less commitment to treating AIDS in Africa than George W. Bush had."

"As the 18th International AIDS Conference is held this week in Vienna, President Obama should reconsider his commitment to fighting the disease."

President Obama added only $366 million to the program this year — well below the $1 billion per year he promised to add when he was on the campaign trail.

Less commitment than George Bush - what a cutting remark.

NY Times publishes a rambling, bizarre editorial on the commerce clause of the Constitution

Worth a read -

The Republicans and the Constitution

Here's what constitutional lawyer Ann Althouse had to say -

The idea that constitutional law stands apart from political preferences is nowhere to be found. I guess NYT readers aren't supposed to notice that.

First negative ad linking the President to a Democratic candidate

As the economy continues to (very predictably) go  nowhere, they'll be more ads like this -

At 36, is Yankee Derek Jeter slowing down?

Maybe. His batting average is 63 points below last season's average of .334. His lifetime average is .315.

... Jeter called his recent hitting struggles “unfortunate.”

Benedict XVI now seventh oldest Pope in history

Justice Department admits - Obamacare is a tax

Of course this was denied in the campaign to enact Obamacare. Hit link for the whole story.

White House Admits Obamacare’s Individual Mandate is a Tax

The New York Times confirmed Friday that in preparation for defending constitutionality of the Obamacare individual mandate in court, an Obama Justice Department legal brief argues that the penalty used to enforce the mandate is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes. Mr. Obama’s own Justice Department further repudiates the President’s earlier statement by noting that the penalty is imposed and collected under the Internal Revenue Code, people must report it on their tax returns, and that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will cost Americans $4 billion a year. Yale Law School professor Jack Balkin told a meeting of progressive activists last month that President Obama “has not been honest with the American people about the nature of this bill. This bill is a tax.”

And there's more

... the mandate does not purport to regulate or prohibit commerce of any kind. To the contrary, it purports to “regulate”—and penalize—inactivity. If the Supreme Court allows the Obamacare individual mandate to stand, then Congress could do anything it wanted. They could: require us to buy a new Chevy Impala each year to support the government-supported auto industry; require us to buy war bonds to pay for the Iraq and Afghan wars; or force us to eat our vegetables.

But even if the Obama administration is now admitting the individual mandate is a tax, that still does not make the law constitutional. Rather than operating as a tax on income, the mandate is a tax on the person and is, therefore, a capitation tax. Therefore the 16th Amendment’s grant of power to Congress to assess an income tax does not apply. The Constitution does allow Congress to assess a capitation tax, but that requires the tax be assessed evenly based op population. That is not how the Obamacare mandate works. It exempts and carves out far too many exceptions to past muster as a capitation tax. The Obamacare mandate is still unprecedented and unconstitutional.

But perhaps more importantly, what does the episode say about the integrity of the White House? The President went on national television and insisted in unequivocal terms that his individual mandate was not a tax. Now his administration is saying the exact opposite. At what point do the American people lose all faith in this President’s word?

Excellent: On turning 70 - and how to act your age

Not me turning 70! A rather good pair of articles, passed on to me by my friend John T., from the NY Times on July 11th.

The first posting with a graphic display of very, very interesting stats -

Who’s Joining the 70+ Club, and What Membership Brings

Some examples for men and women age 70-79:

67% of men and 65% of women have high blood pressure.

18% of women and 23% of men have cancer.

Only 6% of women and 7% of men are free from a "major chronic health condition." (No definition of major chronic health condition is given)

Hit the above link for the full story, including a listing of well-known people (Ringo Starr, Pete Rose, Raquel Welsh) who turn 70 in the next two years.

Here's the main article - despite the title, the point is that while you can still be active, you are NOT your grandchild's age!

Turn 70. Act Your Grandchild’s Age.

Joining Mr. Starr in his 70s next year will be the still-performing Bob Dylan (“May you stay forever young”) and Paul Simon (“How terribly strange to be 70”). Following soon after will be Roger Daltrey (“Hope I die before I get old”) and Mick Jagger, who is reported to have said, several grandchildren ago, “I’d rather be dead than singing ‘Satisfaction’ at 45.”

******

But as much as Dr. Butler would have cheered an aging Beatle onstage, his colleagues said he would have also cautioned against embracing the opposite stereotype — the idea that “aging successfully,” in his phrase, means that you have to be banging on drums in front of thousands — or still be acting like you did at 22 or 42.

That stereotype is almost as enduring as ageism itself.

“The stories that we hear tend to pull us toward the extreme,” said Anne Basting, the director of the Center on Age and Community at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. “It’s either the stories of young-onset Alzheimer’s, or it’s the sky-diving grandmas. We don’t hear enough about the huge middle, which is the vast majority of folks.”

 

Sign of the times: Amazon e-book sales exceed sales of hardcovers

From the Wall Stret Journal, so link may not work unless you are a subscriber.  

Amazon.com Inc. said it reached a milestone, selling more e-books than hardbacks over the past three months. But publishers said it is still too early to gauge for the entire industry whether the growth of e-books is cannibalizing sales of paperback books, a huge and crucial market.

Amazon painted a picture of accelerating growth in sales of e-books, which can be read on the Kindle and through software on a host of other devices, including Apple's iPad and iPhone. The figures don't include free e-books.

Over the past month, the Seattle retailer sold 180 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books it sold, it said.

"That is dramatic evidence of how powerful the e-book is now," said Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney. "What the iPad and other book reading devices have done is just raise the overall e-book market—and Amazon is extremely well positioned to take advantage of it."

Airpost security solution

From humor consultant Ellen:

The Airport Solution
Here's the solution to all the controversy over full-body scanners at the airports.  Have a booth you step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on you.
It's a win-win for everyone, and there would be none of this crap about racial profiling. It eliminates a long and expensive trial.  Justice will be swift.
Case closed!  This is so simple it's brilliant.
I can see it now: You're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion, followed by an announcement over the PA system, "Attention standby passengers. We now have a seat available on flight number ..."
Works for me

Putting the "Bully" in Bully Pulpit

I stole the title from some email I got.

The President excoriates the mean-spirited Republicans for not approving additional extensions of jobless benefits. No mention of their rationale for current opposition:

In recent weeks, Republicans have blocked three attempts to pass the extension of jobless benefits until November, saying that without a way to pay for it, it would simply add to the soaring national deficit.

So duh, the Republicans say pay for the benefits by cutbacks in other areas of government. What's wrong with that?

Here's the whole article

President Obama slams Republicans on jobless relief

Now Available! The Obama bumper sticker removal kit!

Very good.

"Even works on a prius." "Does not get rid of ... high unemployment."

Fascinating article on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

Thanks to Ann Althouse for posting this link - I don't normally read the Salt Lake Tribune.

One of the criticisms of Thomas is that he doesn't ask the lawyers questions during oral arguments. This is Frequently presented by certain Thomas-haters (like the NY Times, because he's black and conservative) as a demonstration of his weak intellect.

Thomas lifts veil on life as a Supreme Court justice

Thomas, 62, defended his approach Saturday, saying oral argument was an opportunity for attorneys to tease out their case.

When he first arrived on the court, members “actually listened to lawyers,” Thomas said. “We have ceased doing that. Now it’s become a debate or seminar. I don’t find that particularly helpful. It may be entertaining, but I am not there to entertain anybody.”

“There can be some questions to clarify things, to challenge it, but you don’t need 50 questions per case,” Thomas said. “That becomes more like “Family Feud” than oral argument.”

Here's another interesting bit:

Thomas said he came to the court with a view that it would be as contentious as the rest of the Beltway, with factions, incivility and little real work being done by the justices.

Instead, he found it to be a warm, professional and dignified place, where even the most senior justices were vitally engaged in the enterprise of judging. The court “actually is a family,” he said, and the members come to love and regard each other as people, who are not defined by their opinions.

Lastly -

One audience member asked Thomas about Chief Justice John Roberts’ reported push for more consensus decisions.

“I would equate trying to get the members of the court to do what you want them to do with herding gnats in a hurricane,” Thomas said.

"Mad Men": My brother Phil extensively quoted in Journal News, about Ossining TV series

Mad Men, the hit, "award winning" AMC drama/soap opera (which I have never watched), and which I now find out is set in Ossining. That's where the Drapers - Mad Men family - live.  

My brother, being a big wheel on the internet, was extensively interviewed and is both quoted in the article - which is actually pretty interesting - and is on the accompanying video, which is also embedded in the newspaper article.

Faranda says, being celebrated for "Mad Men" surely beats being notorious for Sing Sing. "I'm going to buy a headboard off Craig's List," he adds. "And the (seller) says to me, 'So, where are you from?' I say, 'I'm from Ossining.' He says, 'Oh, you know the Drapers?' "

And here's the very amusing video.  Rather doubt if Dr. Mendelowitz delivered "tens of thousands" of babies, though.

Study: Which is better after exercise, beer or water? (Subtitle: Further proof there is a God)

Rugby players always knew this -

Researchers at Granada University in Spain have come across a discovery that will undoubtedly please athletes and sports enthusiasts - a pint of beer post-workout or match is better at rehydrating the human body than water.

... subjects in the study were asked to run on a treadmill at temperatures of 104F (40C) until they were close to exhaustion. Once they had reached the point of giving up, researchers measured their hydration levels, motor skills, and concentration ability.

Based on the results of the study, researchers recommend moderate consumption of beer as a part of athletes' diets. ...

So that explains why Babe Ruth was so good. His method of training was nearly 100 years ahead of its time.

Lawrence Kudlow: "Business knows more than Obama"

Stating the obvious -

The clash between business and the administration has become the high-drama news story of the summer. Business leaders have slammed the White House over policies they regard as hostile to jobs, including taxes, trade and all manner of new regulations. And amidst a subpar and virtually jobless recovery, their grievances have resonated with the electorate.

The fact is, major corporations are sitting on a near $2 trillion cash hoard that along with rising profits could become the greatest private-sector stimulus plan ever. Banks are also stockpiling cash -- about $1 trillion in excess reserves that could finance the greatest job-creation program in history. Three trillion dollars of private money dwarfs the piddling $50 billion in deficit-creating taxpayer money being debated on in Congress.

But all business is asking for is some clarity and certainty regarding government intentions, especially on taxes and regulation. Take, for example, the new 2,300-page bank-regulation bill, which spreads 243 new regulatory provisions across 10 agencies. No one really knows what's in this document, or what the unintended consequences will be. Until people figure this out, it could freeze bank lending for years.

Divorce vs Murder

From humor consultant Ellen

DIVORCE VS. MURDER

A nice, calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, 'I would like
to buy some cyanide.'

The pharmacist asked, 'Why in the world do you need cyanide?'

The lady replied, 'I need it to poison my husband.'

The pharmacist's eyes got big and he exclaimed, 'Lord have mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband. That's against the law!
I'll lose my license! They'll throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!'

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife.

The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, 'Well now, that's different. You didn't tell me you had a prescription.

Showering and sleeping

A little blurb -

To sleep like a baby, you should shower at the same time each day. Research shows that older adults who stick to a routine when it comes to personal care tend to fall asleep faster and enjoy better sleep quality compared with folks who have erratic schedules.