Nuclear Submarines: Israel's Got 'Em
While the recent talks over Iran’s nuclear status have proceeded cordially and so far have failed to spike gasoline prices upwards, several things have shown up in the periphery of the news that really deserve closer attention and scrutiny: Israel has nuclear submarines, Iran has really been working hard on developing nuclear weapons, and that development was done in conjunction with Russia.
Some statements move from ending with a question mark to a period to an exclamation point. We used to say, “War with Iran?” Now it’s time to say “War with Iran.” The exclamation point will come into usage once the actual attacks begin.
Iran has no allies that aren’t using it as a bargaining chip. If the USA makes the right concessions, Iran can be diplomatically isolated. Therefore, a war can happen. I’m not going to get in too deep about what the US would have to do to get Russia and China to step away from Iran, but the US would do what it takes to make that happen.
I don’t know where you are on the government health care debate, but we all have to take note of the declining quantity and quality of employer-funded health care and privately-purchased health care. The US Census Data show that, as a nation, over the last 10 years we’ve seen a steady decline in people receiving health care from their employer. The poorest Americans get picked up by programs designed to serve the very poor: the not-so-poorest wind up without any coverage at all.
Those with coverage are paying more for their insurance and/or receiving fewer benefits. Premiums are getting so huge, regular care is cheaper without insurance to get that $10 copay. And if you opt for a standard pay-as-you-go insurance system, watch out for the increasing deductible.
Honestly, the whole system is broken. If anyone so much as posts a blind comment that the market is always right, I’m going to shove his head into the subprime debacle, beat him with a rolled-up newspaper, and say “Bad Market! Bad Market!” over and over until he gets the big picture. The totally free market gave us snake oils and poisons in the early 1900s. Regulation got rid of most of the crooks: thank you government for protecting the citizens from bad guys.
And this isn’t about public health care, anyway. This is about private health care. It’s going away. Prices are consistently increasing at around 7% per year. As prices increase, employers are dropping coverage. Leave Obama’s plan out of the picture. Right now in America, the insurance companies, the hospitals, the doctors, the patients… NONE of them are getting the best of things, as a whole. Some are getting lucky, but most everyone complains about how awful things are. I hate to have to employ one of Dr. Phil’s brickbats, but the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results.
If Obama’s plan isn’t the answer, what is? And if there is no other answer, why aren’t all the rabid anti-Obama pit bulls not spinning a few cycles on coming up with a solution? Or are they just that deep in the back pockets of the few big corporations that are making huge profits by arbitraging the sick people of America?
I’ll say that again: If you don’t like Obama’s plan, then where is your plan? I’d like to hear it. Honestly. I have my doubts about Obama’s plan, but I don’t see anything else but empty blowhard rhetoric from crybaby namby-pamby spoilsports that are either consciously or unconsciously serving a very limited and very powerful interest that would sell you out in an instant if it made them another dollar in profit.
Think hard before you post a reply, because I’ve got plenty of rolled-up newspaper and that subprime pile of whatsit is pretty ferocious.
Suppose two-thirds of the members of the national House of Representatives were dumped into the Washington garbage incinerator tomorrow, what would we lose to offset our gain of their salaries and the salaries of their parasites? — H.L. Mencken
And anyone that thinks he’s talking only about one particular party is completely off his or her rocker.
I miss guys like Sam Rayburn in the Congress. That guy actually died poor. The rest? Perhaps it’s time for the quote from Bismarck on laws and sausages…
In the October Vanity Fair, Levi Johnston, Bristol Palin’s baby daddy, talks about what it was like living in the Palin household. I read over the excerpts and couldn’t help but think, “Mercy, but she sounds like L. Ron Hubbard…”
This is what is wrong with American politics today. A major party was so obsessed with appearances, it didn’t bother to vet a VP candidate properly. In 1796 and 1800, when we realized there was a problem in the way with electing the president, we fixed it. The problem then? The president got a VP he didn’t want and that really messed up his administration.
While I’m all for weakening the executive branch somewhat, I don’t want it so weak that it gets someone with a Tom Cruise grin a heartbeat away from the presidency. We need to have primaries for VPs, too. If it’s a matter of just taking someone who’s already gone through the primary process, that’s easy enough to do. If we want someone from outside that arena, we need to insist on someone with more experience and not just some Tina Fey glasses with a perky can-do voice.
The Nixon Shock was a fascinating period in American economic history. Basically, the USG had way overspent on its budget and the rest of the world was suspicious about the value of the US dollar relative to its gold reserves. When France called us on it and demanded gold in payment for goods and services, Nixon decided – unilaterally – to take the US off the gold standard.
He didn’t do it in consultation with anyone else. He just did it. It caught the Congress, banking community, and the world by surprise. Since then, the dollar has gone through severe inflation and the price of gold has gone significantly upward from $35 per ounce.
There is some speculation about the US possibly returning to a gold or bimetallic standard. If it did, it could do so with a stroke of the president’s pen. However, given the massive deficits we have here, that would not be a good idea: lenders might demand payment in the form of precious metals, and we’d be right back where Nixon was in ’71…
How much money goes toward the wars?
How many people are employed because of the wars?
What would be done with all that money and manpower instead?
Discuss.
What happens when a nation gets tough on crime in a state that hasn’t recently had its prisons run by a federal judge? Massive overcrowding. In budget-strapped California, its prisons are running close to double their designed capacity. The Chino riot last August 8th was a consequence of such overcrowding, and more such riots may be on tap in the future.
Federal judges are making a move to correct California’s prisons – the worst overcrowded in the nation. California has 45 days to figure out how they’re going to get their prisons to 137% of capacity. If someone had a time machine, maybe that could produce a fix. Back in 1976, California switched from indeterminate sentencing to determinate sentencing. The big difference there is that indeterminate sentencing allows for leeway – time off for good behavior, that sort of thing. Determinate sentencing means tossing ’em in the slammer and not fetching the key until the sentence is up, giving prisoners no incentive to change their ways. California went from having one of the lowest recidivist rates in the nation in the 70s to one of the highest recidivist rates in recent years – around 70% when the national average is 40%.
Politicians wanting to gain brownie points with voters for being tough on crime haven’t helped the situation. Longer sentences and harsher sentencing rules led to the overcrowding. California also spends $49,000 per prisoner per year, double the national average. Given the recidivist rate mentioned above, it’s clear that the prison system in California isn’t working as intended. If it’s there to deter criminals, it shouldn’t be so dang crowded with criminals that wound up back in the system.
Then the budget crisis hit. California looks set to cut $1.2 billion from its prison budget, but lawmakers don’t necessarily want to do it by releasing 27,000 inmates. So it’s got a budget cut, but no way to implement it… well, if there are more riots like the one in Chino, maybe the prisoners will solve the crisis for the state by burning down the prisons and the survivors releasing themselves on their own recognizance.
Good luck with those prisons, California.
It deals with more than routine traffic stops and – WARNING: ILLEGAL DRUG USE DEPICTED. Therefore, this isn’t required viewing for any of my students who object to such depictions or whose parents object to such depictions. Be that as it may, this is America, and we still have rights of free speech when discussing our rights. If anyone wants to make the headline, “Teacher Fired for Discussing Civil Rights,” be my guest. Have mercy on me, but that does sound like a juicy headline, possibly with some suspension with pay for me and a termination settlement of an undisclosed amount.
At any rate, this is a discussion of the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments to the Constitution. When we talk about fighting for freedom, these are several of those freedoms we fight for. I know the kids in the videos are guilty, guilty, guilty (maybe not the second kid, but he may have been). So what? We have rights to defend ourselves against an excess of executive power. If there is cause for a search, it should be articulated by the officer in question. We do not have to testify against ourselves, and it’s tricky how we can waive that right by confessing to breaking a law. And no deal an officer can give us will ever be as good as what a lawyer can work out.
In light of the Gates affair, we all need to take some time to reflect on our rights and how to express them – and how not to express them. NEVER get angry with a police officer. Don’t even raise your voice or get snarky. Same with a teacher, private security guy, TSA screener, or ANY authority figure. That’s just inviting tough times to befall you. Gates shot his mouth off when he dealt with the officers. When the blues are in your living room responding to a possible breaking and entering 911 call, it’s not a good time to discuss racial profiling, let alone in a harsh or excited tone.
The thing with racial profiling – which may have also been a factor in the second incident in the video – is that if the officer isn’t using racial slurs it’s almost impossible to prove. It’s much more easy to prove a search was without consent, for example. As a teacher, I’ve been accused of being a racist by kids trying to get out of trouble and that only makes me madder. That leads to an escalation of the situation. It’s the same with police, and it’s why the video presenter makes such a strong point about being polite to whoever’s stopping you.
By the way, on the racist thing… when I point out that there are plenty of students of all makes and models in my classes that don’t get into trouble, the kid that’s calling me racist then accuses the other kids not in trouble of “acting white.” Way to stay classy, kid accusing me of racism.
Some of the officers portrayed here were aggressive in their tone. In my experience in dealing with police, that’s more the exception than the rule. However, they do exist, as do outright bad cops. If a police officer is already in a bad mood, verbal or physical escalation is not going to improve the situation. Running is the worst thing to do: it’s the universal admission of guilt. To paraphrase Chris Rock, if you run, the police are going to bring a beating with them.
As for the kids in the incidents… they really wouldn’t have had anything to hide if they weren’t doing anything illegal. In the second take on the third incident, the party host had to police her own party and be a bit of a jerk to the guy that wanted to use marijuana. Self-policing is an important thing to do. But even if the kids weren’t doing anything wrong, a really bad cop could have chosen to plant contraband on the scene and make an arrest from it. It’s happened before, and that’s why even if you have nothing to hide you need to assert your rights. Moreover, if you’re following the law – not speeding and keeping the party noise down – the police typically won’t even get involved.
Simon Johnson’s testimony to the House Committee on Financial Services.
This is a must-read for anyone and everyone. I’ll preface it with a few comments.
First off, yes a free market is best for handling just about everything. However, when players in a market collude with government to change said market so that it is no longer free… when players in a market take steps to perform actions that are injurious to their customers… that’s a market failure. We have one such in the USA in our banking and financial services industries and this article describes the interplay of the market and government and how it resulted in the mess we’re in.
What do we need to do to get out of this mess? Mr. Johnson details some steps to follow, but it’s up to Congress to accept or reject them. My guess is that if we don’t have some political courage in our Congressional leadership, we’ll see them rejected, with the ominous consequences to follow later.