And the beat goes on; plus some site archeology

View 699 Friday, November 04, 2011

Even if I did do breaking news there would be little to write about the Cain imbroglio other than it may serve as a good test for the Republican candidates. Those that pile on to denounce Cain given the actual evidence available so far deserve special attention from conservatives. As things stand now, Obama would lose to nearly anyone of any party; the major Democrat hope now is to divide the voters. Classically that means all out attacks, negative campaigning with the intention of keeping the vote turnout low – who wants to vote for one of those jerk? They’re all adulterers. They’re all thieves. They’re all alike. There ain’t a dime’s worth of difference. Why bother, they all stink. Then win the ground game by turning out your organized voters.

As for me, I find it credible that Cain is dumfounded because he doesn’t know what he’s accused of. He turned the matter over to staff and was no longer President of the National Restaurant Association ended before it was settled. He never signed the settlement. It’s quite possible he never saw it. Why should he? Organizations often settle matters just to get them to go away. Of course it’s possible that Cain is guilty as charged – but before condemning him it might be well to know what he was charged with. Is he supposed to have made a sexual offer to an employee? Was it explicit or implied? What was proposed? Was the proposition accepted? I suppose I am as tempted by gossip as anyone, and in this case I need not seek out the gossip, It will be revealed to me without my having to will it. I can wait until I know what Herman Cain is accused of before I condemn him for it. Meanwhile, I suspect that the real reason that Politico, the Washington Post’s political opinion and gossip blog, is devoting so much time to this “unnamed people condemn Herman Cain of undescribed sexual harassment; specifications not available” “story” is pure fear. Black conservatives scare the hell out of the political establishment, both Republican and Democrat. They can tolerate uppity blacks with the right academic credentials and came up through the chairs with proper obeisance to the establishment, but Cain didn’t do any of that. He is contemptuous of economic theorists (the smart ones who got us into this mess). It doesn’t look as if he would “grow” in office if he became politically important. Have no truck with him! Kill!

And that’s probably enough ramble about a breaking story for someone who doesn’t do breaking stories. Sorry. This whole mess offends me, and I am not proud of how some of the Republican establishment has handled it.

Do I need to comment on this:

http://nation.foxnews.com/air-force/2011/11/04/air-force-academy-retreats-christmas-charity

The Battle for Egypt: The Army Strikes Back

http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/

Of course our government is against the Army’s actions. Since our gov knows no history, why would they understand the Mamelukes?

Phil

We do not seem to have a consistent policy regarding Egypt; and it is a matter of considerable importance. The best Middle East policy for the US is a domestic energy policy, which would make the middle east less important to the US. Let Europe assume its historic and proper role in the region. Territorial disputes in Europe and the Middle East should not be so important in US foreign policy.

Incidentally I do not agree with that article’s assessment of the Shah. The Shah of Iran’s “White Revolution” was explicitly designed to build a middle class and move toward a parliamentary monarchy in which the monarch retained considerable power. It had to be done slowly: the collapse of the regime would lead to —  well, we need not speculate on whither it might lead. We know where it lead, thanks to President Jimmy Carter.

We are the friends of liberty everywhere but we are the guardians only of our own.  But we guard our liberties with jealous fervor.

And the best way to guard our liberties is to develop our own resources. That, incidentally, leads toward prosperity, too. Freedom and energy lead to wealth.

Back when I used FrontPage to do this site – wow do I miss it! – I used to put up poems. Now I find I can’t format them properly. I have to put this up with Windows Live Writer, and it has very limited ability to accept formats copied from Word. I tend to write this stuff in Word, then paste it into Live Writer, then fiddle with the formatting because LiveWriter wants to do all sorts of strange things to what is pasted into it.

Anyway I was reminded of Kipling’s poem MacDonough’s Song, but importing it would require extensive formatting I don’t have time for. You can find it here, and you may enjoy it.

While I was searching I found this statement on Global Warming I made in July 2008. It seems to remain relevant.

I tend to be conservative: deliberately raising the CO2 level doesn’t look like a good idea. I am less afraid of somewhat higher CO2 levels, and somewhat warmer climates, than I am of ice; and until we know more about what engines drive climate change — you can’t warm Earth without warming the seas, and we don’t know a lot about sea temperatures and nothing at all about El Nino La Nina phenomena — until we have more information, it is unwise to spend much in the way of scarce resources in "fixing" what we don’t understand.

The US appears to be headed for a Great Depression, and the incoming administration and Congress seem determined to make that happen, with increased regulations and taxes and "creating jobs" by expanding the bureaucracy. The only way out of all this is increased production, and the only utterly reliable correlation with increased wealth and production is a negative correlation with the cost of energy.

The US has chosen to invest trillions in war in order to continue paying trillions to the Middle East for overpriced energy.

The simple announcement that the US will put America First in energy policies, that we will build new refineries, drill in the Gulf (where Castro is drilling) and build nuclear power plants (as France is doing now) would cause a huge drop in oil futures prices, which would drive many speculators out of the market; but Barack Obama has said that we can do nothing about gasoline prices, and of course He Speaks Truth as Revealed.

We continue to sow the wind.

That caused me to go do some archeological digging for other stuff, and I came across http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2view/view315.html which starts with a live report from the Mojave airport and the X-Prize flight, contains Kipling’s Gods of the Copybook Headings, and thence to what I thought about Digital Rights Management and Intellectual Property in June of 2004. I can’t say I have any regret for my views of those times, but the technology sure has changed. It was an interesting week. It reminds me of just how long I have been doing this day book. Thanks to all the subscribers I have been able to keep it up.