Category Archives: View

View 764 Thursday, February 28, 2013

SEQUESTRATION FRIDAY IS COMING

Doom Doom Doom Doom Doom

It is a common axiom in political economics that investments that produce no revenue can lead to disaster. Examples are big stadiums, desert land developments, and the like. The history of Spanish economics is instructive. Under Franco, Spain had a long period of economic growth, including periods in which Spain led the world in economic growth rates. After Franco died the new government indulged in a frenzy of development, producing a bubble and economic collapse. Examples (1) (2). Another example is China, which has managed state capitalism extraordinarily well, but has also indulged in showcase projects: :

The authors cite the city of Loudi, in Hunan Province, which has used CDB’s loans to build a costly 30,000-seat "Olympic" stadium, adorned with the trademark rings, even though the city lacks a professional sports team. Infrastructure loans that produce no cash flows, such as Loudi’s, create the potential for a banking crisis in China. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324445904578286913921668472.html

State capitalism can be effective. Mussolini demonstrated that and garnered the admiration of a good part of the world including that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and did so while remaining a committed Socialist. Some of his projects were for show and glamour, others were genuine infrastructure investments. As von Mises points out, opulence can have economic value, an example being the various cultural institutions of Vienna which made Austria a far more important country than her actual wealth would warrant. Proponents of free enterprise argue that over time state capitalism doesn’t win against freedom, but history shows that it can do pretty well and last generations. The key is the intention of the investments, and the management of cash flow.

Turn now to education. Would anyone argue that spending on education is not an infrastructure investment? Its purpose is to increase economic efficiency, lower the cost of government, and such like. The return on that investment takes a while, but the ultimate intent is to increase the national cash flow.

Infrastructure investments that produce no economic return can be disastrous. You can make a good case for the proposition that the most important infrastructure investment made by any State of this Union is in the education system.

“If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would consider it an act of war,” said Nobel laureate Glenn T. Seaborg in 1983. The system has since received huge investments. It has not improved. The quality of education appears to be independent of the investments made in it, at least to a first approximation. Increases in spending on education don’t produce consistent improvements, and cuts in the system don’t seem to matter much either. Other factors govern.

Meanwhile:

The $85 billion in spending that will eventually be cut after the sequester kicks in amounts to around two cents on the dollar in the overall federal budget. That hasn’t kept Mr. Obama and his team from trying to scare the bejesus out of Americans about the spending reductions.

On Friday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he’d have to furlough 5,000 air-traffic controllers. On Saturday, the president warned in his weekly radio address that thousands of teachers "will be laid off," and "tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care."

On Sunday, the White House released a report for each state detailing how many unsafe bridges would be left unrepaired. On Monday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar threatened to close all National Park campgrounds. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she’d have to sideline 5,000 border agents. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it would release from detention several hundred illegal immigrants.

This is all hogwash. After the sequester, this fiscal year’s federal budget ($3.553 trillion) will still be larger than last year’s ($3.538 trillion). Last year, the border was patrolled, emergency responders arrived when called, and airplanes left on time and landed safely.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324662404578329862541820272.html

The largest single item in most state budgets is education. Instead of thrashing around with concerns about the dire effects of sequestration, perhaps we ought to turn some intention on education that produces a future revenue flow? But in California the governor proposes to take money from the successful schools and put it into the poor schools that need it so much. And there we are.

The plain consequence is (and it is a general maxim worthy of our attention), ‘That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish….’ When anyone tells me, that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself, whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact, which he relates, should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other; and according to the superiority, which I discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle. If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous, than the event which he relates; then, and not till then, can he pretend to command my belief or opinion.

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

I found this in another place in a discussion of the origin of Carl Sagan’s aphorism that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. I have also heard the idea attributed to LaPlace and Descartes. In ESCAPE FROM HELL we have Sylvia Plath comment to Carl Sagan “Descartes, surely?” when he makes his famous claim.

Education

My boss, when I returned to lab work after three years of clinical medicine in 1976, was German, Jewish and had got out of Munich to Britain in 1937. Having lived through hyper inflation, persecution and the rest, one of his aphorisms was "There is only one thing worth investing in and that is the education of your children". Advice that I took to heart without regret.

Robert Forrest

Well said. It refers to my short disquisition on education and the importance of learning to read before going into the school system (yesterday’s View).

"They were something we thought we mostly understood by now, the first discovery of the Space Age."

<http://www.space.com/20004-earth-radiation-belt-discovery.html>

Roland Dobbins

We continue to learn how much we do not know yet. Few theories on Earth’s interaction with space are certain.

Dr. Pournelle:

A warning to your readers that may have Hotmail accounts…..Reset your password now!

This is a widespread attack, and lots of Hotmail accounts appear to have been compromised. The result is that ‘you’ will send out a message to all of your contacts, the message will probably have malware attached, or a link to malware. Exploits to Hotmail accounts are widely available.

An article about this attack is here http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/04/27/microsoft-rushes-out-fix-after-hackers-change-passwords-to-hack-hotmail-accounts/ .

If your account has been hacked, then you should

1) Reset passwords on all of your accounts . Don’t use the same password everywhere.

2) Check your computer for malware by doing a full anti-virus scan. Make sure your antivirus is current. If you don’t have an antivirus, the free Microsoft Security Essentials is a good start.

3) Watch your financial accounts for suspicious activity. Change your PIN and passwords to all financial accounts

4) Ensure you have the latest Microsoft updates. Install them now.

5) Remove Java (not Javascript) from your computer. If you must use Java for a legitimate purpose, use Firefox, which will automatically disable Java and require you to manually enable for applications that need it.

6) Ensure all of your software is current. A really good tool is the free-for-personal-use Personal Software Inspector from Secunia (www.secunia.com )

7) Do this for any computer you access.

8) If your Hotmail account is compromised, send a notice to all of your contacts (use BCC, not CC or To; that hides your contact list from others). Suggest they follow the above steps on their computer.

9) Consider an on-line backup solution for your personal and critical files. The cost is affordable; I use Carbonite (www.carbonite.com) which automatically backs up my computer data.

Be careful out there!

Rick Hellewell, a computer security guy.

  This was an old message but one of my advisors who is fairly careful was hit with an attack last night. It’s going around again. 

Major Comet Impact On Mars Possible Next Year

Jerry,

Via Instapundit, this story on a recently discovered large comet that will be doing a close pass by Mars in October 2014. The comet’s diameter and course are still not precisely known – it could hit Mars, and if it does it’ll be a major impact, what would be an "extinction-level event" if it happened on Earth. Even if it does miss, it should be spectacular, at least as observed by the various Mars probes.

http://astronomyaggregator.com/solar-system/large-comet-to-buzz-mars-impact-possible/

Henry

View 764 Wednesday, February 27, 2013

“Do not ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.”

— Napoleon Bonaparte

Mass Release of Immigrants Is Tied to Impending Cuts

Federal immigration officials have released hundreds of detainees from detention centers around the country in recent days in a highly unusual effort to save money as automatic budget cuts loom in Washington, officials said Tuesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/us/immigrants-released-ahead-of-automatic-budget-cuts.html?_r=0

BOB WOODWARD: Obama Is Showing ‘A Kind Of Madness I Haven’t Seen In A Long Time’

The Washington Post‘s Bob Woodward ripped into President Barack Obama on "Morning Joe" today, saying he’s exhibiting a "kind of madness I haven’t seen in a long time" for a decision not to deploy an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf because of budget concerns.

"Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying, ‘Oh, by the way, I can’t do this because of some budget document?’" Woodward said.

“Or George W. Bush saying, ‘You know, I’m not going to invade Iraq because I can’t get the aircraft carriers I need?’" Or even Bill Clinton saying, ‘You know, I’m not going to attack Saddam Hussein’s intelligence headquarters,’ … because of some budget document?"

“The Defense Department said in early February that it would not deploy the U.S.S. Harry Truman to the Persian Gulf, citing budget concerns relating to the looming cuts known as the sequester.

"Under the Constitution, the President is commander-in-chief and employs the force. And so we now have the President going out because of this piece of paper and this agreement. ‘I can’t do what I need to do to protect the country,’" Woodward said.

"That’s a kind of madness that I haven’t seen in a long time," he said.”

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/bob-woodward-obama-sequester-republicans-2013-2#ixzz2M8Ad82th

The New York Times headlines about the early release of 30,000 prisoners in anticipation of the sequester had been out several hours. It caused mutterings about impeachment – after all, this is an illegal act. Congress has mandated the detainments and appropriated the funds, yet criminals are being released into the population. Take care that the laws are faithfully enforced and all that.

Shortly after that, the White House announced that the releases were not due to the President, nor even to the Secretary of Homeland Security. They were the actions of career bureaucrats in ICE, and the President only learned about them by reading it in the newspapers. Neither he nor his cabinet were aware that this was coming. I am astonished that the President would admit that this sort of thing can go on with no one held responsible for it.

I don’t usually follow breaking news, but this did seem unusual. Doubtless you will hear more as the story unfolds.

The fact remains that the Federal Government will spend $15 billion more this year than last, and 30% more than was spent in 2007.

Phil Gramm: Obama and the Sequester Scare

Governing isn’t about blaming someone else. It is about choosing.

. . .

The first Gramm-Rudman sequester took effect on March 1, 1986. It cut nondefense spending by 4.3% and defense spending by 4.9%.

The most recent estimate by the Congressional Budget Office for this year’s sequester is that nondefense spending will be cut by 4.6% and defense spending will be cut by 7.9%. While the sequester will reduce spending authority by $85 billion, the actual cuts that will occur in 2013 will be $44 billion. That is a mere 1.2% of total federal spending this year.

The first round of cuts under Gramm-Rudman weren’t so devastating that Congress and the president rushed to repeal them. In July 1986, Congress had the opportunity simply to stop the sequester after the Supreme Court invalidated its triggering mechanism. Instead it voted overwhelmingly to reaffirm the across-the-board cuts. The vote in the Democratic House was 339 to 72, and the Republican Senate approved it by acclamation, not deeming it worthy of a roll-call vote.

In 1987, Congress fixed the triggering mechanism and restored the sequester in Gramm-Rudman II. That deal would have cut nondefense discretionary spending by 8.5% and defense spending by 10.5%, far greater cuts than will be triggered this year. Yet a Democratic Congress and a Republican White House came together to replace that sequester with spending cuts in fiscal years 1988 and 1989 that were larger than those called for by Gramm-Rudman II.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323384604578327792209356054.html

The Kabuki Theater continues as the President threatens to cut park rangers, first responders, border guards, food inspectors, and air traffic controllers. Bunny inspectors are safe.

Senator Gramm continues

While history shows that a divided government can enact significant spending cuts as an alternative to sequesters, that doesn’t appear to be the path Mr. Obama intends to follow. Instead of protecting civilian defense workers, the president will continue to force the Pentagon to buy biofuels at $27 per gallon to promote his green agenda. Instead of protecting children from cuts in nutrition programs, the president will continue to allow $2.7 billion of fraud and mismanagement he has identified in the food-stamp program. Instead of protecting Medicare from a 2% cut, the president will ignore $62 billion in annual waste that his administration has identified in Medicare and Medicaid.

I can’t wait to see what happens next.

I am persuaded that the use of the phrase “Big Sister” in my comments on Madam First Lady’s Oscar presentation was inappropriate and denigrates the office. Of course “First Lady” (“First Spouse”?) is not a constitutional office but I understand the point. The Royal Consort holds an important place in the American social system and rightly so. When she appeared on that enormous screen with troops in the background I was reminded of Big Brother in 1984. I won’t apologize for thinking it, but it was not an appropriate thing to say. I have considerable mail including some exchanges of views on this subject and they’ll be in an upcoming Mail. I will agree that Mrs. Obama added glamor to the Oscar ceremony.

The education crisis continues and no one seems interested. Smart people avoid the school system entirely, or inoculate their children against incompetent reading teachers who don’t know that if a child can’t read by the end of first grade something is very wrong by teaching them to read themselves before they get to school. One way is with Mrs. Pournelle’s Reading Program. I wrote a discussion of what it is and does some time ago, and it is still available. Obviously children can learn to read without any program at all, but this one works and is easy to use even if it’s a bit old fashioned looking. If this program or something like it were used in Head Start a lot of the US education crisis would be ameliorated. I realize that sounds like an outrageous claim, but I have good reason to make it. In my discussion I say

We know of no case in which a student (who knows spoken English) has completed all the lessons of any version of the program and remains unable to read English.

We know of no other software that can repeatedly show a year’s growth in reading ability in four months and under.

The first statement remains true. I am not aware of any contradictions to the second, but I said it many years ago and I have not followed what is now available out there.

Amazon warns iOS users to not update Kindle app due to glitch

A bug in the e-reader app update erases users’ Kindle libraries from their Apple devices. Amazon says it’s working with Apple to release a fix.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57571544-94/amazon-warns-ios-users-to-not-update-kindle-app-due-to-glitch/

View 764 Tuesday, February 26, 2013

I am apparently in a distinct minority in thinking that the participation of Madam First Lady Michelle Obama in the Oscar ceremony was a partisan political act. It has been pointed out that Hollywood movie exports are important to the American balance of trade, and she made the event more important. Her appearance added to the glamour of the event and she was very right to do that, and if that was also a political advantage, well, having the office of President has its advantages and this was one of them.

I may still have some reservations, particularly about having military personnel participate as background, but I’ll keep them to myself.

The Los Angeles Times has an important article, “Report: Gaps in learning start early” by Teresa Watanabe in today’s issue, and it presents a number of disturbing facts. I recommend it to your attention because it raises issues that must be dealt with.

It starts with a stark statement:

“African American public school students in Los Angeles County demonstrate significant learning gaps by second grade; those gaps widen with age and lead to the highest school dropout rate among all races, according to a report released Monday.

Black students are far less likely to take the rigorous college preparatory classes required for admission to California universities and miss more school days because of suspensions than their white counterparts, according to the study by The Education Trust-West, an Oakland-based nonprofit advocacy group.

Only one of every 20 African American kindergartners will graduate from a four-year California university if current trends continue, according to the report, which compiled data on academic achievement, suspensions and the psychological conditions of 135,000 black students in 81 public school districts in L.A. County.”

The rest of the article is largely a frantic effort to explain these results without bringing up the IQ gap (a gap of means and medians) between African Americans the mean IQ’s of Whites in America, Asians in America, Chinese in China, and other populations that don’t have many people of African origin. Of course we have become so sensitized that even mentions of this well known IQ gap are considered politically untouchable and are generally labeled as crude racism. Any mention of poor performance by African Americans in anything generally must be accompanied by a plethora of explanations without resort to heredity.

“The report, for instance, cited research findings by the Rand Corp. and Children Now that found African American toddlers were less likely than their white peers to have books at home or be read to everyday. The report also cited 2004 Rand findings that only 13% of black children attended preschools with teachers who have degrees in early childhood education, compared to about 41% for whites and Asians.

Nearly 150,000 children under age 6 are on county waiting lists for child care, according to Children Now, a nonprofit advocacy group. And $1.2 billion in cuts to state funding for those services since 2008-09 budget year has reduced the number of child care spots by 110,000, according to Sydney Kamlager, district deputy director for Assemblywoman Holly J. Mitchell (D-Culver City).”

Other cultural factors are invoked. The one thing that can’t be tried is color blindness.

“Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president of the nonprofit Community Coalition, was a bit more upbeat, saying that although only 20% of African American students in L.A. County take college prep courses, that percentage has nearly tripled in the last decade.

He said the federal government’s move to provide student-achievement data by race in 2001 was a key factor in raising public awareness about the needs of African American students. Last year, a state Assembly committee held hearings on minority males and the academic, economic and health challenges they face.

"As a rule, things get better when people are willing to fight over it," he said.

He added that his organization would continue to push for lower class sizes, courses linked to careers, better college preparation and more effective discipline policies.”

Now we have known for a very long time that throwing money into classrooms and doing conventional things like reducing class sizes and paying teachers more does not do much to improve schools; while courses linked to careers and better college preparation are generally conflicting goals. As to more effective discipline policies, any attempt to impose discipline in classrooms which results in more black students being punished than their statistical numbers would predict will bring about investigations fo racism. Any intimation that disorder in the classroom is generally due to minority students is likely to get the teacher investigated.

The result of this is not good for minority students. California’s policy of requiring Algebra for high school graduation is not good for any of the students in the lower half of the class, minority or majority, Black or White or Asian or Maori: half the students in the school system are below average, and of those the number who will thrive in studies or careers requiring proficiency in Algebra is not likely to be high.

Any attempt to reform education must start with the facts: most of the students will not profitably go to college, and requiring them to take a college prep curriculum will give them less of importance to their lives than would a curriculum devoted to more practical aspects of life. Learning the addition and multiplication tables by rote is not very exciting but it has more practical value for those not college bound than analytical geometry. (Yes: I know that courses derived from algebra and geometry can be very useful for non-college-bound students; there are lots of practical applications to math, but knowing them generally won’t help with college or university physics.)

It seems to me that the first task of those designing an education system is to have a good appreciation of what can be taught to all, and a better understanding of the needs of those who are and who are not going on to what used to be called “higher education.” As an example, nearly all children can be taught to read. When I see statements like:

“The report found that African American students are doing well in some school districts, particularly those with higher concentrations of other races. In the diverse Culver City Unified School District, more than two-thirds of African Americans are at grade level in reading and math, and 88% graduate. Officials there credited more counseling support, a culture of high expectations and targeted actions to support African American students, such as focus groups and teacher training on diversity.”

it scares me. Only 2/3 read at grade level? This means that at least 30% are illiterate, can’t read, have had English words drilled into them the way the multiplication and addition tables ought to have been drilled into them but probably were not. In a school that understands how to teach reading, well over 90% of the students, Black, White, Asian, Maori, Malay, or Hispanic ought to be able to read English at any grade level including high school senior before they reach fifth grade. Granted, they won’t understand all the words they encounter. Polymorphic and antidisestablishmentarianism are not words most would have encountered outside school and probably not within it; but they ought to be able to read them. I grant you that antidisestablishmentarianism is a tough one, but everyone in Capleville school could read it in fourth grade because the teacher thought it a good joke that we should be able to read it. She even explained it to us, although few of us understood what she was saying about the Reformation and its consequences.

If the Culver City Unified School District took this seriously it would see to it that every student could read, and stop keeping racial statistics. All the students ought be able to read, and that particularly includes those who don’t yet speak English. English is easier to read than all its words are to understand.

I also suspect that treating African American students from others – “focus groups and teacher training on diversity” is no favor in the long run to the students, but it probably earns the teachers more money and thus serves its true purpose. The purpose of schools is to pay teachers, as the purpose of government is to pay government workers; it doesn’t start that way but the Iron Law makes it certain given time.

I stubbornly insist that the best way to help students of any background is to be colorblind. But I have thought that since I was about ten years old in the legally segregated South where I was thought a dangerous radical.

Enough. The way to improve schools is to think what they are for. They are to make good citizens of their pupils and students. To do that some need to be prepared for college, but most ought simply to be prepared for a productive life. To accomplish those goals one must first recognize that trying to stuff a world class university prep education into a kid who is far more qualified to be a carpenter is just cruel no matter what race that kid may be.

The horror at the sequestration continues. We will spend more money this year after the sequester than we did last year, and we will spend more next year than we do this year. The drastic cut will in fact cut no budgets, only in the planned increases to the budgets. The Bunny Inspectors will continue to go to stage shows to be sure magicians are not using rabbits without killing them, and that kids don’t sell a pet rabbit to their neighbors without a federal license. Pension funds will continue to be funded and pensions will rise. Government workers “laid off” will most likely get the money back for the days they missed and thus will be tortured by paid vacations.

There will be show items, such as TSA agents working to the rules to increase the lines and others will work to make life painful so that we won’t dare do this again.  And all this over $60 Billion in a Trillian dollar budget.

The drumbeats for increased attention to minority children, particularly black, continues.  It is now well known that Head Start doesn’t work, in the sense that it gives no head start.  Perhaps in all that money there might be found some to look for ways to teach teachers to teach children to read.  We know that some people can do it.  We know that in rural Florida, and Tennessee, in the 30’s all the children, black or white, who got through third grade could read: we have the conscription data. There were both white and black illiterate conscripts, but they hadn’t been to school; those who had been to school read well enough to get past the Army’s literacy tests for conscript soldiers.

What did those teachers of old know that we don’t know now?  (Actually, what they knew was that the kids could learn to read, and since they knew that, they taught it.) If we taught children to read in Head Start that would proof them against the condescending teachers they will get later who think that since they, the teachers, can’t teach the kids to read, then there is something wrong with the kid; it can’t possibly be because the teachers don’t know what they are doing.

We know how to teach kids to read. My wife has been doing it all her life. It’s a matter of assumptions and goals and being systematic about it. Her program has been working for decades.  There is plenty of other evidence, but her experience alone covers students from all backgrounds and of all age and all linguistic abilities, and we can safely say: all children of reasonable intelligence (say from dull normal up) can be taught to read the English language in under a year of systematic instruction.  That includes all races, and children with poor English. The large one’s English vocabulary the less time it will take to learn to read, but once learned then one’s speaking vocabulary and reading vocabulary are connected. There’s no such thing as knowing a word you can read.  But it’s dinner time and I have rambled enough and it’s discouraging to see that after all these years the only “solution” they can think of to a bad education system is to keep doing the same thing but spend more money on it.

Mike Flynn reminds me

The following quote seems apropos:

The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

– John W. Gardner

View 764 Monday, February 25, 2013

Still catching up. We went out for brunch after mass yesterday, and then I watched the Oscars from Red Carpet arrivals to the end. I like to see the red carpet arrivals, so I was watching when the Oscars opened with host Seth MacFarlane showing me why I have not and won’t see his movie “Ted”, then a skit with William Shatner as an aging Kirk in Star Fleet uniform, followed by the Los Angeles Gay Men’s Chorus singing an interminable skit song called “We Saw Your Boobs,” illustrated by the camera seeking out the women in the audience who have managed so show a bare breast or two at some time in the past. Some giggled. Some were clearly annoyed.

Eventually they got to the awards themselves, along with some activities that actually seemed to have been chosen to be compatible with the “theme” of “as celebration of music”, although it did that by among other things not performing many of the songs nominated for Oscars. Odd show planning. All done professionally. The Kodak Theater – oops, Hollywood and Highland Center – oops, Dolby Theater – is a great plant with the latest in lighting and stage mechanics, and that always helps. But why Hollywood can’t manage to do a better show than the Hollywood Foreign Press Association isn’t obvious. Probably more internal politics in the Academy.

They did manage to have Adele sing “Skyfall” and the whole darned cast of Les Miserables. And I had not known that Charlize Theron could dance so well; I much liked her dance number with Channing Tatum. Fred Astaire he may not quite be, but they sure are good together, and her high heels were higher than Jeanette MacDonald ever tried. There was a minor wardrobe failure during the act – something tore – but I didn’t notice anything. She did all her later appearances perfectly. Class act all around.

And indeed, the awards ceremonies themselves were well done. It was the host and the ‘enhancements’ then went on too long and were often irrelevant. They’d have done better to have more cut scenes from nominated pictures and performances, and perhaps give the presenters a little more ad lib time.

But it all went pretty well until it was time to present the Best Picture award, when they suddenly cut to the White House; and there, on a gigantic screen, was Madame First Lady Michelle Obama, with an entourage of military in full dress uniforms. Mostly officers, but for the first time in my life I saw a buck private (happened to be female) in full dress. I never knew any buck privates who bought full dress. Most officers can’t really afford them. I bought dress blues for my daughter when she was commissioned, and career officers generally manage to acquire them when they reach field grade, but unless things have changed a lot in the military since I last paid attention, most career officers and enlisted troops don’t buy the full dress regalia until later in their careers than the ones I saw in the ceremony.

It looked for a moment like a patriotic moment, but in my judgment it didn’t turn out that way. She gave a talk that was more political than Hollywood. Then back to the Dolby Theater where the nominees were read off, then – then back to Big Sister smiling down on us as she opened the envelope and gave the award to Argo.

Now I find it hard to believe that she didn’t know who the winner was before she opened the envelope, but perhaps it was so. Anyway it was then back to the Dolby, and Ben Affleck getting the Oscar along with two other producers, although everyone knew it was really the general Academy membership giving the shaft to the Directors’ Guild members who had not nominated Affleck for Best Director. One suspects that if Zero Dark Thirty had won, the President himself would have crashed the party. As it was, the movie celebrates how Hollywood saved the Americans who had escaped from the Iranian sack of the US Embassy. In the real world most of us – including me – celebrated the Canadians who risked having their Iranian facilities sacked and their people captured back when the story was revealed. But Hollywood can take some of the credit for the script. The climactic scene was really when the actress with the thick horn rimmed glasses did the pitch for the movie the Iranian security guy. She managed her makeup for the part so well I can’t pick which actress played that part, but it staged well. The rest of the ending with the car chase on the tarmac never happened, and was added for dramatic effect as Affleck has said several times. I enjoyed Argo. It was a good story to watch, unlike Lincoln which seems more like a duty than entertainment. For some reason I am not tempted by Pi. The one movie I hoped would not get awards was Silver Linings Playbook. I tried to watch that, but gave up before I saw Jennifer Lawrence’s first scene. All the people seemed to be losers trying to double down, and I saw no one I cared much about; but as I say, I gave up early while the lead actor was wearing a garbage bag while resisting his meds. It must have got better somewhere along the line, and I am sure that Miss Lawrence added a lot to the picture. Someone must have.

I suppose that is enough chatter about the Oscars. And of course impending doom comes this Friday when the sequestration takes place. We’ll still spend more money this year than we did last year. Nothing will be cut. We’re merely not spending as much more than we had sort of planned to. Why that requires layoffs of park rangers isn’t clear. Perhaps a better way would be to abolish some offices. Start with Bunny Inspectors. Then go on to whoever was in charge and everyone who participated in the Waco massacre. We can’t jail them – statute of limitations and all that – but do we really want people who fired automatic weapons blindly, spray and pray in the general direction of the house, to stay on the Federal payroll? Surely they can get jobs in concrete breaking.

I can think of ways to save money – oops. Since we are spending more this year than we did last year, why is anyone being laid off? But of course it’s government.

And next month comes the next act in the Debt Limit Drama. Ground Hog Day.

More Nanoracks

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/11/21/nanoracks-is-making-space-science-affordable-for-everyone/

Dan Steele

Port Ludlow, WA

NASA and private enterprise cooperate. That worked back when we were developing the aviation industry. It seems to be working again.

You wrote:  "when they suddenly cut to the White House; and there, on a gigantic screen, was Madame First Lady Michelle Obama, with an entourage of military in full dress uniforms." 

Those are actually mess or evening mess uniforms; not the dress blue, class A uniform, which looks similar but is much less elegant.  Dress mess is normally worn for a dining in or a dining out and has a modified version of the civilian tail coat — making it, arguably, the most elegant dress uniform a soldier can wear for a formal occasion.  On a non-formal occasion, a dress blue is the best and, normally, dress greens are worn.  As an aside, the fabric of the dress greens is also important.  I paid for the nicer wool rather than the standard issue polyester bs, but I took more pride in my appearance than your average soldier. 

The easiest way to tell the difference between your class A dress blues and your dress mess — for men who lack a sense of formal attire — is to look at the medals.  The dress mess uniforms will sport miniature medals vs. the full sized medals worn on class A dress blues or class A dress greens. 

I find the U.S. Army dress mess uniform to be the most elegant of any I’ve ever come across.  Even Hermann Goering — admittedly a monster but with good taste in uniforms and soirees — never wore anything as elegant and majestic as the U.S. Army dress mess uniform. 

I also found found myself amused at the picture you posted.  The soldier on Obama’s right has this smile of "wow, I’m on TV", the one on her left has this look of "really?" and everyone else has this look of "WTF, over?"  As you may remember, you say "over" on the radio when you are done speaking and await a reply to what you’ve said or asked. 

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Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

Thank you. I never had any form of dress uniform in my days in the Army, and I’m sure what I bought my daughter was the dress blues.  I know in civilian life there is a difference between black tie and white tie with tails and I presume that’s the case here. Why a buck private is wearing full dress formal is still unclear to me; I am pretty sure that’s the first time I have ever seen anyone wearing one, and for that matter, for all that I’ve been involved in reasonably formal events with the military for fifty years, I have rarely seen the outfits worn in the Oscar ceremonies; surely they were more formal than the people in the Dolby Theater.

One reader has decided that my observations about FLOTUS (his term) demonstrate that I have “completely lost it” and in fact he suspects I have lost my mind and competence.  Perhaps so but if so I am not alone: I am reliably told that the Hollywood Press in the Press Room at the Dolby were taken in surprise by the sudden appearance of Madame First Lady with a military entourage, and then made rude remarks and expressed displeasure; and I see by the Internet that I was not the only one to think her speech was political.  Since President Obama has made it clear that he is in continuous campaign mode I suppose no one should be surprised to find that they have plans for Hollywood as well. Had it not been for the speech this might have passed for a national unity event, one of the ceremonial functions of the office of the President, but the speech was not a national unity speech, and was less appropriate than some of the winner speeches which have been condemned.

Then there is the use of the military. They were hardly guards, as if the President’s family needs military guards during a White House broadcast event. What were then doing then? And who paid for the uniforms, because I just don’t believe that many buck privates need or have full formals or many opportunities to wear them. 

If this were intended as an event of national unity, then I have misjudged it.