September 2011 – Page 4 – Chaos Manor

Taxes; will there ever be an England again? Keyhole! Mail 20110919

By Jerry Pournelle | Sep 20, 2011 - 12:01 am | Updated: September 21, 2011 - 11:01 am | Mail

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Mail 693 Monday, September 19, 2011

Jerry,

You often say despair is a sin;

BUT I do get frustrated; reading of President Obama’s newest bids for headlines, I did a Google about “rich paying taxes”; isn’t envy also a sin?

The current taxation system is so complicated and convoluted, rife with social engineering and sweetheart deals. I consider taxes to be a any money that is paid to the government, income tax, property tax, use taxes, estate tax, gasoline and auto registration taxes—seems to me like I pay taxes again and again on the same money I earn.

A value added tax or a use tax seems the most ‘fair’ to me as what I consider a libertarian, why should ‘fair’ mean take away from the successful to fund entitlements? Why should farmers be paid subsidies? Unfortunately it is not easy to make changes to a system that is already in place –[reminds me of a line from ‘Mote In God’s Eye’]

All I see is political grandstanding and divisiveness; most people have their minds set and interpret anything to fit what they want to believe. Surely it’s easy to believe the ‘Rich’ are rich because of an unfair system, not anything they did or didn’t do.

Some of your fiction seems incredibly prophetic; so much in ‘Exile and Glory’ rings true—except where is our Hansen Enterprises?

Take care

Alan

President Obama is open about it now. There are no property rights. There is only “fairness”; the Constitution means nothing, liberty is not important; we must be ‘fair’ and that means that those who now pay most of the taxes already now get to pay even more because the government must continue to grow at 7% exponential. Forever.

Letter from England

We’re going to Canterbury Cathedral this weekend–a friend is becoming an archdeacon there.

Police attempting to use Official Secrets Act to force journalists to reveal sources. http://preview.tinyurl.com/3p6pg4c http://preview.tinyurl.com/6bfcfp7

The General Medical Council considers monitoring of doctors’ private religious beliefs http://preview.tinyurl.com/6ad2kqe

UK will miss legally binding climate targets. http://preview.tinyurl.com/6jbwozd

Evidence dark matter theories may be wrong. http://preview.tinyurl.com/6yac7k3

It’s more complex than we thought: http://preview.tinyurl.com/3bh37uk

What does this say about undergraduate STEM education in the UK, where most programs are even weaker than North American programs? http://preview.tinyurl.com/68gnc9h

Contact time is valued. http://preview.tinyurl.com/65me2fr

This article questions why more PhDs are trained than are needed to cover academic needs. I think I understand why, at least in the UK. Here, there is no advanced post-graduate training, and the first degree is–at most universities–equivalent to a North American associates degree. The only way to produce the people with advanced training needed by a modern economy is via an apprenticeship–the PhD. <http://preview.tinyurl.com/5v2ldns>

—

Harry Erwin, PhD

"If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning." (Catherine Aird)

Subj: Rocket fuels

Your contributor h lynn keith at

https://jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/?p=2050 got a little carried away in his mostly-appropriate tirade.

In particular, the Draco thrusters of the SpaceX Dragon capsule use "monomethyl hydrazine as a fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as an oxidizer – the same orbital maneuvering propellants used by the Space Shuttle.

These storable propellants have very long on-orbit lifetimes, providing the option for the Dragon spacecraft to remain berthed at the ISS for a year or more, ready to serve as an emergency ‘lifeboat’ if necessary."

http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20081209

I’d not want to try to store LOX for any great length of time on orbit without a nice, heavy, energy-sucking refrigeration unit to re-condense it as it boiled off. I also wonder about the mass and reliability issues associated with the ignition system I’d need if I used non-hypergolics for maneuvering thrusters.

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

I probably should have commented on that, but I really hate hydrazine. Yes, hydrazine and red fuming nitric acid work reliably and predictably, and they’re stable over a wide range of temperatures, but lordy those are horrible liquids. I suppose I should just get used to it, because I don’t really have a better idea.

Subj: KH-9 declassified

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/19/declassified-us-spy-satellites-reveal-rare-look-at-secret-cold-war-space/

Hoo Hah! Now we can talk about it.

Gamers Crush Scientists in only Three Weeks

Jerry,

Three weeks for a major scientific breakthrough that had eluded solution previously

Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

<http://scienceblog.com/47894/gamers-succeed-where-scientists-fail/>

"Gamers succeed where scientists fail

September 18, 2011

Gamers have solved the structure of a retrovirus enzyme whose configuration had stumped scientists for more than a decade. The gamers achieved their discovery by playing Foldit, an online game that allows players to collaborate and compete in predicting the structure of protein molecules.

After scientists repeatedly failed to piece together the structure of a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus, they called in the Foldit players. The scientists challenged the gamers to produce an accurate model of the enzyme. They did it in only three weeks…."

Heh!

good stuff

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/generals-dilemma-training-us-reserves-once-wars-end

Cheap energy = prosperity!

Drill here, DRILL NOW!

David Couvillon

Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Retired.; Former Governor of Wasit Province, Iraq; Righter of Wrongs; Wrong most of the time; Distinguished Expert, TV remote control; Chef de Hot Dog Excellance; Avoider of Yard Work

When we get the Legions home we will still need them. Thanks.

Subject: Time lapse flyover of the earth

600 photos taken from the international space station are strung together to create a time-lapse flyover of Earth.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2011/09/19/vo-nasa-space-station-flyover.cnn?&hpt=hp_c2

Tracy Walters

Obama Declares War on Liberty and Property View 2011 0919

By Jerry Pournelle | Sep 19, 2011 - 5:14 pm | Updated: September 19, 2011 - 6:09 pm | View

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View 693 Monday, September 19, 2011

AAAARRRRRRRHH!! This be International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Probably not the appropriate picture, but in looking for the right one I found this.

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

Apologies, I let this get away from me. A discourse on the latest financial plans from President Obama is in preparation and I’ll get that up in an hour or so. Today we had to go looking for American made washing machine and dryer – Maytag is still made in America – and that used up some of the day. And I discovered I had not recorded subscriptions for a while and got way behind; I am not caught up yet but I am getting there. Apologies.

Yesterday I got up a View for last week and a good mixed bag of mail. I’m dancing as fast as I can.

The President of the United States in essence declared war on the traditional understanding of America today. He has put it all in very stark terms: there are people with money. The rest of us need it, for food, clothing, medical expenses, Christmas presents for the children, shelter from the storms of life. We do not have those things. Others have far more than they need. Therefore we shall take what we need from them.

Now of course he did not put this in quite such stark terms, but what he did say is that the rich must pay their fair share; if they do not, then we will not be able to have drug research, Medicare, education, and all those things which we need so much. And therefore we must make them pay their fair share.

There was no discussion of the Constitution or where in that document the Federal government derives either the obligation or the power to collect taxes and distribute largess; and indeed the original Framers of the document would have been horrified at the notion. The Constitution was intended to insure the blessings of liberty on ourselves and our posterity.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Of course it can be said that the President desires nothing more than to promote the general welfare, and the general welfare requires a reduction in the vast disparity between the very wealthy and the rest of us. Perhaps so: but note that the President does not offer the alternative of giving up some of the regulations and rules and the swarms of officers who harass the people and eat out their substance. It is not “raise taxes or we’ll have to fire bunny inspectors,” or “raise taxes or we won’t have all those education experts on the Federal payroll telling all the schools how to be great” (look how well the Federal government does with the DC schools over which it has absolute control)! It is not “raise taxes or the EPA will have to go out of business and leave all that environment and pollution stuff to the states and the local communities”. No. It is raise taxes or you will not get the goodies from the Obama Stash.

This is a fairly stark declaration.

Regarding discrepancy of wealth:

First, I don’t much like the concentration of power into fewer and fewer hands. I have less concern over concentration into the hands of individuals than I do over the creation of huge corporations and entities that are too big to fail. I have often said that an institution that is to big to fail is too big to exist; that there ought not be 5 Enormous Banks, but rather 50 Pretty Good Sized Banks; that the defense industry should never have been allowed to become as concentrated as it is; that the domestic automobile industry was far better off when we had Packard and La Salle and Studebaker and Nash; that companies ought to grow by giving better service or offereing better goods; that a steady profit with steady employment ought to be more important than “growth” and there ought to be enormous obstacles in the way of “growth” by buying up the competition. Were I emperor I would make it much harder to buy up the competition, and I would have tax policies that encourage stability over high flying “growth”. But that’s another story.

If we truly believe that great fortunes ought not exist, then confiscate them in the name of reducing the gap between rich and poor – but do not reward the government for doing it! Don’t pay the robbers for plundering the victims. I would far rather take Warren Buffet’s money and drop it in small bills from airplanes than to use it to pay unionized civil servants.

Of course it could be argued that Mr. Buffet will do more good with the money than if we confiscated his $50 billion and distributed it to everyone legally in the US at, say, $182.47 per person. Or perhaps we could be satisfied with confiscation all but a few million of his money so that we each get onl7 $175 or so. However we divide the spoils, I am quite certain that we would be better off letting him keep the money than we will be if we use it to hire unionized bunny inspectors.

And of course you can only despoil Warren Buffet once. Then you move on, to Bill Gates, and Paul Allen, and the thousand richest people in the US. After a while you discover that you run out of people to despoil. Once we have made it clear that anyone who has more than you is fair game, who’d next? And who is safe? But that too is another story.

The reason for resisting new taxes is not the taxes themselves, although it is difficult to see how there can be much economic recovery if those who are successful with their investments are to be taxed to subsidize those who are failures. Certainly the tax code it absurd, but this is not an attempt to reform it for rational reasons. This is simply a way to get more money for government.

The main reason to resist those tax increases is to force the government to stop the exponential growth of spending. A 7% exponential means a doubling in under 12 years. It is inexorable: and as government grows, those dependent on government become more so, and soon enough you reach the situation of Greece or Spain, where enough of the population is so utterly dependent on government that the people have no notion of how to get out of the situation: where they have little choice but to riot and make things unpleasant for all in the hopes that it can all continue for a few years more. Does anyone see a graceful way out for Spain? Much less Greece. The President would probably recommend Green Jobs for Spain, but those more familiar with Spanish investment in the Green Bubble know better.

Despair is a sin.

At the end of World War II, much of Germany was in ruins. Large parts of its infrastructure was attacked or bombed by the Allied Forces. The city of Dresden was completely destroyed. The population of Cologne had dropped from 750,000 to 32,000. The housing stock was reduced by 20%. Food production was half the level it was before the start of the war; industrial output was down by a third. Many of its men between the ages of 18 and 35, the demographic which could do the heavy lifting to literally rebuild the country, had been either killed or crippled.
During the war, Hitler had instituted food rations, limiting its civilian population to eat no more than 2,000 calories per day. After the war, the Allies continued this food rationing policy and limited the population to eat between 1,000-1,500 calories. Price controls on other goods and services led to shortages and a massive black market. Germany’s currency, the reichsmark, had become completely worthless, requiring its populace to resort to bartering for goods and services.
In short, Germany was a ruined state facing an incredibly bleak future. The country was occupied by four nations, and soon it would be divided into halves. The Eastern half became a socialist state, part of the Iron Curtain that was heavily influenced by Soviet policy. The Western half became a democracy. And caught in the middle was the former capital of Berlin, which was divided in two, eventually separated by what became known as the Berlin Wall.
But by 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell and Germany was once again reunited, it was the envy of most of the world. Germany had the third-biggest economy in the world, trailing only Japan and the United States in GDP.

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/german-economic-miracle.asp#ixzz1YRwTIuT4

There is a way out of this Depression. Our lands do not lie in ruins. Our fields are not cratered from bombs and filled with mines. Many of our idle factories still exist. Wonderful machine tools and laboratory instruments are sold at scrap value on eBay and at public auction. There is lots of unused productivity in this land, and we know the formula for prosperity. It is liberty. That has always been the secret of American exceptionalism. We had founders whose goal was to insure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free. We have always known this. We know it still.

A Weekly Mixed Bag Mail 20110918

By Jerry Pournelle | Sep 19, 2011 - 12:31 am | Updated: September 19, 2011 - 12:31 am | Mail

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Mail 691 Sunday, September 18, 2011

I have this recommended by a subscriber who did not sign the recommendation. You may find it amusing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=973m9nIQ10k

The Iron Law at NASA

Dr Pournelle

re: https://jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/?p=1992

Amen! Preach on, Brother!

Lessee if I heard ’em right. They want a heavy lifter; the analogy on the highways is a Peterbilt. So what fuel do they choose for this truck? Nitromethane, drag racer fuel. Why? ‘Cause the stuff is tricky to work with and requires beaucoup special staff to transport, load, and unload it. And a safety team to watch every step.

Lessee. Space X’s Dragon uses RP-1 kerosene and LOX. Truck fuel, not dragster fuel. Blue Origin’s New Shepard uses RP-1 kerosene and high-test peroxide. Truck fuel. Bert Rutan’s SpaceShipOne used hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (tire rubber) and nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Not truck fuel, but SpaceShipOne was a one-off vehicle made to win a prize. Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo uses . . . well, Richard Branson ain’t sayin’ but the smart money is on some similar hydride combo. Not truck fuel, but not dragster fuel either.

Mercury Redstone: ethyl alcohol and LOX. Truck fuel. Mercury Atlas: RP-1 kerosene and LOX (the Atlas is still flying). Truck fuel. Gemini Titan: hypergolics — hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4). Nasty stuff; definitely dragster fuel. This is where NASA departed the straight-and-narrow for the seductive attractions of high-ISP sin. Apollo Saturn V: RP-1 and LOX (first stage) and LH2 and LOX (second and third stages). Truck fuel to start and dragster fuel after that. Another step down the path of high-ISP perdition. Space Shuttle: ammonium perchlorate and aluminum (SRBs), LH2 and LOX (main engines), and monomethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide (OMS). Dragster fuel with JATO and seriously nasty dragster fuel. NASA arrived in rocket fuel Hell. (Am I the only one who remembers the BFRC in downtown Santa Barbara? Surely not.)

We need a trucking company. Trucks use diesel fuel. NASA wants to give us a truck with a NHRA engine. Why? You nailed it, Brother. Jobs for the boys. Can I get an ‘AMEN’? Hallelujah!

The solution to the personnel problem at NASA was articulated by the Papal legate at Beziers.

Live long and prosper

h lynn keith

Heh.

And another, if unrelated, instance of the Iron Law at work:

“Orphanages had gotten used to getting money for international adoption, and all of the sudden they didn’t have healthy baby girls unless they competed with traffickers for them.”

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/nyregion/chinas-adoption-scandal-sends-chills-through-families-in-united-states.html?&pagewanted=all>

Roland Dobbins

An exception to the Iron Law

Dear Jerry,

I know of at least one exception to the Iron Law of self-perpetuating bureaucracies, because (I am proud to say) my father engineered it.

My father, John Edward Robb, was a crusty old, politician- and bureaucrat-hating, career Army Colonel, who was kicked off the fast track to multiple stars because he told the truth at an inopportune moment. He was the head of our training and logistics operation in Vietnam from 1959-1961, reporting directly to the commanding general of MAAG, and when his initial Pattonesque boss, Lieutenant General "Hanging Sam" Williams, with whom he got along well, was replaced by a misbegotten, self-inflated, ass-kissing toady, Major General Alden K. Sibley (later convicted of misappropriating military funds), and the program deteriorated, my father told the truth about it in his change-of-station report. That was the end of his military career, although he spent several years subsequently in San Francisco, first as the exec of the Overseas Supply Agency, responsible for tracking all Defense Department shipments from stateside bases to the west of the Pacific Coast, and then as exec of the Pacific Coast Terminal command.

Anyway, he then went to work for the state department, as the head of something called the Far East Regional Logistics Office (this was in the immediate post-Vietnam War years). The mission of this agency was to clean up the hardware left over from all our Pacific Wars, dating back to WW2 (my father finished that war as an an artillery battalion commander in the Philippines). Based initially on Okinawa, and then in Tokyo, he spent about six years flying all over the Far East investigating, demobilizing, and in some cases re-allocating military hardware to our regional allies. Then he concluded that the mission was accomplished and recommended its dissolution. Naturally this was strongly resisted, but he flew back to Washington, fought the good fight, and got FERLO laid to rest. I think he was as proud of that as he was of the work he did for its last six years.

I suppose that the moral of this parable is one of your favorite mottoes: despair is a sin.

John B. Robb

The moral of the story is that projects not set up as a bureaucracy can accomplish a lot. Then they go away. We won the Moon Race by building an Army. One can disband an Army, or one can convert it into a bureaucracy. The Iron Law applies to all bureaucracies.

Canada schools broken, too

http://www.forbes.com/sites/leapfrogging/2011/09/15/want-less-inequality-stop-subsidizing-schools-and-universities/

Calvin Dodge

Subject: Creator of TSA Admits Wants to Dismantle It

Ah, the Iron Law at work. The Congressman who wrote the law creating the TSA wants to dismantle the TSA. Guess what happened? The bureaucracy grew like a monster. Who could have possible predicted such a thing? Sigh.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110913/10465415931/guy-who-created-tsa-says-its-failed-its-time-to-dismantle-it.shtml

—

Dwayne Phillips

I recall everyone saying that TSA would be temporary. Das Buros stehen immer.

‘So even though America exports excess dollars to China, China sends them back to finance the U.S. budget deficit — much like marionettes walking off one side of the stage, merely to reappear unchanged on the other side.’

<http://spectator.org/archives/2011/09/13/china-american-financial-col/print>

Roland Dobbins

Jerry,

Subj: The successor to the Attilla the Hun Chair

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/17/hacker-makes-conan-barbarian-college-professor/?test=faces

The Lay of Horatius

Dear Jerry,

Thanks for your publishing work and comments on the Roman Lays. I will be presenting the Lay of Horatius to my sixth grade homeschoolers starting their second week of Roman history.

Best,

Barbara

There was a time when all educated people were familiar with Macauley’s Lays of Ancient Rome. Alas, what we have as common knowledge is more likely to be scenes from the Emmy ceremonies.

LA Porn Studio Begins Construction On ‘Post-Apocalyptic’ Underground Bunker « CBS Los Angeles

Jerry,

At least will still have pornography on the day after!

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/09/14/la-porn-studio-begins-construction-on-post-apocalyptic-underground-bunker/

This of course raises questions about the intellect of mainstream studios, the US Govt and the general public. Is this an example of evolution in action?

Jim Crawford

Now there’s a relief.

NASA Unveils Plans For Deep-Space Rocket

http://space.flatoday.net/2011/09/nasa-unveils-plans-for-deep-space.html

Same old over priced components. SSME’s, SRB’s (segmented of course), and stretched external tanks. Returning to a Saturn 5 type heavy lift vehicle, is great, but what they have proposed is not better than Saturn 5, just more expensive. I guess we can say it’s a step in the right direction.

There are other stories in this section (up one level). The "Liberty" crew resupply vehicle is built by the same old folks (ATK) and is a segmented SRB, of course.

Quote from the first article:

"Senior administration officials say the heavy-lift development program will cost $3 billion per year. That’s about the same amount NASA spent to run the space shuttle program in 2009."

and

"Administration officials said the heavy-lift development program would provide a “stable future” for KSC, Johnson Space Center in Houston, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss. – NASA’s four major human space flight facilities."

Pretty much says it all. Please understand that some of my best and oldest friends work there and are very good troops. They would love to innovate and do new things. You can always tell the good folks from the rest, they spend a lot of time trying to work around the system and actually get work done.

If they would give Space X a 3 billion a year contract….

Phil

la Niña

Jerry,

http://wattsupwiththat.com/reference-pages/enso/

a very strong La Nina is forecast for this winter.

Jim

But surely the models all take account of such things?

Snitch Society

The latest, laughable bill demands an email. I quipped about a snitch society at other points; the latest attempt is here:

<.> A new piece of legislation being backed by the National Association of Security Companies (NASCO) would encourage Americans to frivolously snitch on each other by providing legal protection for people who report “suspicious behavior” to the authorities.

“The National Association of Security Companies (NASCO) today endorsed the See Something, Say Something Act (H.R. 963), by Congressman Lamar Smith (R—21st District Texas), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, calling it sensible policy that expands protections against lawsuits for individuals who provide good faith reports of suspicious terrorist-related activity to an authorized official. The legislation will further encourage citizens to take an active role in reporting suspicious activity without fear of legal retribution,” reports PR Newswire.

The bill (PDF) seems designed to do little else than encourage Americans to frivolously report each other to the authorities for any reason. If someone was certain that they were witnessing suspicious behavior that was likely related to the commission of a terrorist attack, the knowledge that they would have legal protection for reporting the incident would be the last thing on their mind.

In addition, since the threat of being killed by terrorists is less common than being killed by accident-causing deer, intestinal illness or peanut allergies, the government’s aggressive promotion of the See Something, Say Something campaign has no basis in reality.

The campaign is designed to manufacture the myth that terrorists are everywhere and that any kind of mundane behavior could be characterized as suspicious. This is why the federal government constantly needs to reinforce the hoax through enlisting the general public as the eyes and ears of the Homeland Security surveillance state.

The law would provide immunity for anyone who reports “any suspicious transaction, activity, or occurrence indicating that an individual may be engaging, or preparing to engage, in a violation of law relating to an act of terrorism,” which judging by DHS standards and those set down by federal agencies and law enforcement bodies over the last decade, could be classified as almost any behavior whatsoever, including political activism, owning gold, being a Ron Paul supporter, or displaying a political bumper sticker.

So-called “suspicious behavior” as defined by the Department of Homeland Security includes talking to police officers, using cell phones and a myriad of other normal activities. Moreover, the DHS has gone to great lengths to portray white, middle class Americans as the primary terror threat.

By encouraging Americans to frivolously report anything as “suspicious behavior,” the federal government is mimicking the policy of some of the darkest dictatorships in history.

One common misconception about Nazi Germany was that the police state was solely a creation of the authorities and that the citizens were merely victims. On the contrary, Gestapo files show that 80% of all Gestapo investigations were started in response to information provided by denunciations by “ordinary” Germans. </> http://www.infowars.com/law-would-encourage-americans-to-report-on-each-other/

The article has links — I suggest people go to the source and click the blue links (especially if readers believe any content sounds outlandish). One would do well to google the MIAC Report, the DHS Extremism Lexicon, and other documents that the writer of the article assumes readers are familiar with in making statements about Ron Paul support, etc.

—– Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I recall being taught in grade school that German children were taught in school to snitch on their parents. I believed it then because Sister told us so; I later learned it was quite true. “Everything for the State; nothing against the State; nothing outside the State.” Mussolini taught that to Hitler. Hitler learned it well.

Your article might have been better titled, “The 2013 Tax Tsunami,” a tidal wave that will likely sweep away what’s left of the private sector by then. Which won’t be much, if current policies are not mitigated soon.

I’ve been a small business owner since 1988, and am now a retired high-tech management consultant turned novelist (God’s House). I’m still a small business, and, hence, in the sector both parties profess to be “helping.” It’s remarkable to me how hostile America has become for business, and how Congress and large firms have shifted to Cronyism — approaching Chinese “State Capitalism” (aka, communism) for the socialist/progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Children’s lemonade stands are being shut down and paperback books are being asked to comply fully with the Consumer Product Safety Act of 2008 (CPSIA). Books!!!

I’m being invited to do book signings for desperate small businesses who don’t even sell books or want a cut, they just want the foot traffic. The house of my neighbor has been empty, in foreclosure, and bank-owned for years. He had a thriving business, but went bankrupt when he could no longer get financing for the expensive equipment he configured into systems for his customers.

Except for cronies, little about the expensive Federal programs (e.g., TARP, cash for cars, Stimulus I, or Stimulus II) is helpful to small businesses, who are dying under the weight of oppressive bureaucracy and lack of capital access. The legislation itself is increasingly lethal. I’m reliably informed that Obama’s “Jobs Bill” contains explicit provisions to create a new protected class, “the unemployed.” If this passes into law, should an employer hire someone, but pass over someone who’s unemployed, they potentially violate Federal Law and are subject to being sued for discrimination against the unemployed. What capitalist would dare try hiring someone? Not me. Marx is laughing.

You might want to check this out. “If Obama gives a speech and no one listens, is he still a socialist?”

Sincerely,

John D. Trudel

The easiest way to kill all incentives to hire new workers is to forbid firing them once hired.

9/11 Boatlift 500,000 carried over the water,

Jerry

I don’t know if you have seen this. Worth watching.

Ed

“I never seen so many boats coming together that fast.”

Here, in its entirety, is the incredibly moving, just-released, Tom Hanks-narrated, 11-minute documentary of the largest-ever evacuation by boat in history:

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/cities/moving-documentary-of-911-evacuation-by-boat-shows-resilience-of-cities/881?tag=nl.e660

In nine hours, boats streaming in from all over the Northeast evacuated 500,000 people trapped on Manhattan Island by the complete shutdown of all trains and bridges in the wake of the fall of the twin towers. (Compare that with history’s second-biggest evacuation, of 339,000 soldiers and civilians from Dunkirk, in WWII, which took nine days.)

One of the things this event illustrates is that in cities present and future, redundancy is one of the keys to resilience. New York has long neglected its waterfront, and in the face of rising seas it is even occasionally seen as a liability <http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/cities/video-3d-rendering-of-new-york-city-flooding-during-hurricane/813> . And yet without access to the water, a half million New Yorkers would not have made it home on 9/11.

This documentary was produced by Road2Resilience <http://www.road2resilience.com/about-us/> , part of an effort by the Center for National Policy to “build the reflexes and instincts necessary at every level of American society to respond quickly and wisely to future crises.”

Tocqueville would not have been astonished.

New Medical Codes Provide Precision – WSJ.com

Jerry

Now they’ve done it. A medical code for everything! For example, “burn due to water-skis on fire.” I’m not making that up:

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424053111904103404576560742746021106-lMyQjAxMTAxMDEwMzExNDMyWj.html?mod=wsj_share_email

Someone had to have slipped that one in as a joke, right? If not, the alternative is worth a shudder. Think of how much of our healthcare dollar will go to coders now.

Ed

Isn’t that wonderful!

The headline says it all.

Regards,

Jim Riticher

Exclusive: Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Who Endorsed Obama Dissents! Resigns from American Physical Society Over Group’s Promotion of Man-Made Global Warming <http://www.climatedepot.com/a/12797/Exclusive-Nobel-PrizeWinning-Physicist-Who-Endorsed-Obama-Dissents-Resigns-from-American-Physical-Society-Over-Groups-Promotion-of-ManMade-Global-Warming>

Barbarians

Dr. Pournelle:

"A barbarian is beating a woman. A citizen intervenes so that the woman gets away…"

This contravenes the Machiavellian maxim "Never do an enemy a small injury."

The barbarian in question should have been disposed of.

I realize this is not always feasible in the present gentle times.

Jim Watson

Nor was it an option in the situation described. And dispatching a member of the barbarian tribe – read street gang – would be a declaration of war. Never do an enemy a small injury, but one ought to understand the consequences of one’s actions.

Interestingly the police wish to disarm the citizens, saying that we should leave our protection to the professionals, but they are the first to go to court pleading that they have no obligations to defend the citizens, and to defend a policy that puts the safety of the police ahead of that of the public. I understand that there are individual police who do not believe or act that way. I speak of policy, and particularly policies that come up in collective bargaining sessions.

It is certainly possible that the American middle class form a Committee of Vigilance and deal with local gangs. It has happened before in American history. Robert Mitchum and Dana Andrews starred in such stories. But that was in another Century. And of course even barbarians have civil rights.

Jobs and Education: we need a national debate

By Jerry Pournelle | Sep 18, 2011 - 4:33 pm | Updated: September 19, 2011 - 12:02 am | View

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View 692 Sunday, September 18, 2011

Summarizing the week: President Obama wants to spend a lot more money. His advisors tell him that the reason TARP and Stimulus failed is that the Recession he inherited from Bush was just a lot worse than everyone thought it was, and the stimulus just wasn’t big enough. Time to top it off with another round of stimulus spending, which will spark an economic recovery.

The Republicans observe that the Democrats claimed the Bush Recession ended over two years ago in June, 2009 and this is the Obama Depression, brought on by Obama’s economic policies following July 2009. Conservatives claim that the problem has always been that government spends too much money while keeping taxes high and multiplying regulations, and more spending will never get us out of an economic hole. The Tea Party repeats that we are Taxed Enough Already, and we have got to stop spending so much money.

I do not believe the Obama American Jobs Act has been introduced into Congress; a Republican from Texas introduced a three page tax cut bill under that name after the Democrats failed to come forward with a specific act. The leaked details of the 153 page Bill that President Obama has shown during some of his speeches indicate that it is a tax and spend bill with no outstanding features, and with some features rejected by the Congress when the Democrats held veto and filibuster proof majorities in both Houses.

The news tonight says that the Obama proposal is now over a trillion dollars in new spending. Stimulus Indeed.

This coming election appears more and more to be on the fundamental question: are we citizens or subjects? Is the primary responsibility for your life yours or your government’s? A long time ago there was a saying about Uncle Sam: “He’s your Uncle, not your Dad.” It was denounced by the left as a right wing extremist notion. We now expect the Federal government to pay our bills for us whether it can afford to or not; and few seem to feel an obligation to take care of themselves or their family. That’s a fine sentiment in good times, but when things go bad, someone else should step forward.

There was a time when local associations did that.

A reminder of Tocqueville’s associations

Reminds me of Tocqueville’s associations. I’d have to call this "doing the work of the angels."

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/09/15/cnnheroes.keatley.nutrition/index.html

Gary

But we don’t read Tocqueville in high school, or in college, or indeed anywhere else now. Ask your kids’ teachers how many have read Tocqueville. Many will not even have heard of him. http://www.tocqueville.org/

There have been several new articles about new handicap diagnoses and education. This raises again the question of the purpose of public education. I suggest that for a start we have a law that reserves at least half the money expended on education for students of average and above intelligence who do not have any handicaps. That might or might not be enough to turn education from a useless entitlement into a meaningful public investment, but it would at least be a step in the right direction.

Is public education an entitlement or an investment? If an entitlement, who is entitled to what? And why is the public obligated to pay for it? If an investment, then allocation of education resources ought to have some resemblance to payoff. If the goal is to educate a flexible job-ready work force, then perhaps there are better investments than paying for home tutorial education for young people unable to go to public schools, either because of physical handicap or because they have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and just can’t bring themselves to go to school classes.

“Investing” in expensive training of those unlikely ever to be in the work force is probably not an optimum investment. If we have the money to spend on making them feel better about having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or Attention Deficit Disorder, or Down’s Syndrome, or muscular dystrophy, then perhaps that is a good thing to do: but it is not an investment. If it be an entitlement, then surely there must be a debate about who is entitled to what, and who is obligated to pay.

The notion that intensive training of an IQ 85 student to enable that student to get a D instead of an F is a good investment of educational resources is certainly not obviously true. The notion that educational resources would be better spent on those of normal and above normal abilities seems quite intuitive.

The result of this entitlement mentality is that anyone who can afford to give their children a Head Start by getting out of the public school system entirely will do so; this makes for a hereditary caste system. Is that what we are investing in?

But of course one can’t say these things. Do we not live in Lake Wobegon, where the men are strong, the women are all good looking, and all the children are above average?

Wave of New Disabilities Swamps School Budgets

Christina Gustavsson says she loves school. But her teachers have had a tough time educating her.

In her freshman year at Kennett High School, 15-year-old Christina racked up five months’ worth of absences and never completed a full day of school. Sometimes, she had difficulty remembering assignments, completing homework or even waking up in time for school. Other times, she didn’t.

Christina has chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition whose symptoms have long confounded many medical professionals and now pose peculiar challenges for educators as more adolescents are diagnosed with it. In a time of tight budgets, public schools must consider how far to go to accommodate students with CFS and a range of so-called hidden disabilities that are difficult to observe, evaluate or understand.

By federal law, public schools are required to provide a "free appropriate public education" in the "least restrictive environment" to children with special needs. Interpreting those terms is a thorny task often left to the courts. But with CFS, there’s an added challenge: "It is very difficult to assess what the need is," said Sharon S. Bennett, director of special education for the Kennett Consolidated School District near Philadelphia. <snip>

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904103404576558730329067142.html

Why is there a federal law dictating entitlements to eduication resources? Precisely where in the Constitution is there any grant of power over education to Congress? Of course Congress is sovereign in the District of Columbia and can deal with these problems as it will – as if it were a state. And perhaps Congress can show the rest of us how to set up schools that deal with the situation. But it has no right so far as I can tell to dictate education policy to Tennessee or Texas or California…

Right to Bear Arms

California has had an “open carry” law for a long time. At one time that insured one’s right to carry loaded firearms. In the wake of some demonstrations by the Black Panthers that was changed to the right openly to carry unloaded firearms – pistols, rifles, shotguns, whatever. I was against the change at that time, but many Republicans in those days were more concerned with suppressing the Black Panthers than they were with preserving the right to self defense, and they went along with the change.

There is now a law on Governor Brown’s desk removing the right openly to carry an unloaded firearm. I don’t know if it applies to gun racks in the back of a truck, or to carrying a firearm on your own property. I do know that it is of a piece with the move to convert citizens into subjects. Citizens are armed. Subjects have been disarmed.

Not that the protection was all that good to begin with. Long Beach police some months ago shot a man seated on his friend’s porch because the man aimed a garden hose nozzle at them. The nozzle looked like a firearm. The police had not told him of their presence, and so far as I can see the incident is quite accurately described as “the police snuck up on him, watched him a while, and shot him without warning when he aimed what they thought was a gun in their general direction.” To the best I can tell no one has been charged or even reprimanded, and it isn’t likely that anyone will be. His right to bear arms turns out not to have been very meaningful.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/12/man-killed-by-long-beach-police-was-holding-a-water-nozzle.html

What he was brandishing looked a bit like a gun. The police said he aimed it at them, but it turns out that he was entirely unaware that there were any police – or anyone else – in his immediate vicinity. He was just sitting there playing with a toy gun. Subjects are not permitted to do such things, lest they offend their protectors, whose first concern is self defense.

In any event, California will shortly forbid its subjects from openly carrying even an unloaded weapon. Concealed weapons permits in California vary from easy to get – I had one when we lived in Buena Park because the permit is discretionary with the local Chief of Police and he was very reasonable about such things – to nearly impossible in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco. (Permits are also discretionary with the County Sheriff, which is an elected position in California, and it is said that sufficient campaign contributions plus an arrest-free record will get you a carry permit in Los Angeles; I wouldn’t know how accurate that rumor is.)

Salve, sclave.

It’s ugly in Libya. Qaddaffi has abandoned Tripoli and taken to the desert. He probably took much of his stash of Kruger Rands and other gold coins with him; it is likely that he has enough to pay for a mercenary army capable of holding portions of Libya for years to come. He can hire people to conduct guerrilla warfare including assassinations of rebel leaders, use IED’s to create terror and unrest anywhere he likes, and generally keep Libya in a state of unrest. A Rebel attempt to dislodge him from his latest stronghold were repulsed, and the rebel forces fled in disorganized array to regroup.

The question now is whether the rebels can induce NATO to continue air strikes to aid their war of liberation against area increasingly less willing to be liberated? NATO can break things and kill people. Its UN mandate is to break things and kill people in order to prevent Khadafi from slaughtering civilians. It is not clear that the US or NATO understands how to use air and sea power to prevent a desert-based guerrilla force from terrorists acts. Our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan may be relevant here. Perhaps the SAS, the Foreign Legion, and the Italian special forces will do better in Libya.

Left to themselves, things will probably go on about as they have. Most of Tripolitania has been freed of pro-Khaddaffi organized forces; covert Khaddafi terrorists remain. Do recall that he was able to recruit agents for international terrorist actions before the uprisings began.

Historically the outcome of situations like this has been the rise of a Caesar who will come as the Friend of the People to Restore Order. Or Caesar’s son, or nephew. Or an adopted son. Or anyone who can command the allegiance of the arms bearers.

It’s ugly in Egypt. Egypt was “liberated” by huge crowds in Cairo and smaller demonstrations in the rest of the country, aided by the Egyptian Army which was receptive to the notion that Mubarak should step down without automatic succession by his sons, but is increasingly uncomfortable with the view of their former leader on display helpless on a gurney in a cage. They of all know that the uprising wasn’t a genuine act of the Egyptian people. Many of those camped out in the public squares were there because they could afford to be there – they didn’t have to work. And someone else was feeding them. And while they were there the tourist industry was dead. The bizarre incident of the camel drivers and others mounted on horses attempting to drive the insurgents out of the square was a desperate attempt by the bankrupted tourist workers to end the madness so their livelihood could be restored.

The Lara Logan incident was precursor to the recent sacking of the Israeli Embassy. The Egyptian Army doesn’t want a new war with Israel. It is unknown what most of the Egyptian people want. The Cairo mobs want a war with Israel. The Mamelukes do not, but don’t quite know what to do now. The Israelis are quietly mobilizing while the UN debates the notion of granting statehood to Palestine. Perhaps the US and Britain will veto the notion. Perhaps not. Israel quietly mobilizes, which is prudent.

We live in interesting times.

We have a lot of interesting mail. I’ll see how much of it I can put together. I have been a bit under the weather for the week and I have fallen far behind. Apologies.