Ecconomic Freedom

The importance of Economic Freedom. It's worth a minute of your time.

Raise the debt sealing?

Do I understand this right? President Obama wants to raise the debt sealing so that he can keep spending? After all the complaining that "the people" have been doing about too much spending in Washington, isn't he just ruining his chances for re-election by doing exactly the opposite. You would think he would be trying to cut the spending, not raise the debt sealing so that he can spend more. Or am I understanding this issue incorrectly?

Blog Activity

It is tremendously difficult to keep a blog active with only a few posts and only a few commenters. We are busy, we pretty much know where everyone stands on the issues, and little variety makes for a dull page. (It seems to me that when we split the family news off from this blog, activity slowly declined and until today, it was pretty much dead.) I changed the look of the page, but what really needs revamping is the content, and we also need greater participation. The election season is ramping up and there are many discussion-worthy topics to blog about, but we are not limited to politics, of course. I know some of my siblings are afraid to post or comment because they fear that someone will disagree and that somehow that disagreement will hurt family relationships. We are all mature adults and we have family bonds that go beyond differences of opinion, so please don't fear such an outcome.

Herd Mentality

If there is anything that firmly demonstrates the herd mentality of the media, it is all these news stories about an 89-year-old crank's prediction that the world would end today. People often predict the end of the world. They are always wrong and always will be. Was there something about this particular prediction that was newsworthy? The today there are news stories that the world still exists. Really! Did reporters expect their readers to be surprised? Why was this inanity a major news story?

Too close for comfort

"The diplomatic staff of all NATO countries are our targets," said Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Taliban spokesman, told Reuters via telephone from an undisclosed location. "We will continue such attacks. Pakistan is our first target, and America is our second." Article printed on Friday, May 20, 2011

Unfortunately my family and I are in close shooting range being just 900 miles away from where Bin Laden was killed. We are on the highest alert we can be here at the Embassy in India. We are a NATO country Embassy and we are diplomatic staff. We are asked to vary our routes, and keep a low profile. We kind of do that any way. Although I don't live in fear...I do ask for your prayers of safety for us here. I will be leaving the country next week with Ganae and Jeshua for our two month summer break. Leonardo will stay a while longer with Elise, who is also working as a student summer hire at the Embassy and they will leave in Mid-June. Any way...I look forward to being home. If any of you need to get a hold of me during the next two months, you can reach me on Jonathan's old phone number which is 512-297-5757, or Leonardo's parents home number which is 512-448-2871 beginning June 1.

Teresa

Random Thoughts on the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

First of all, Yumi's family is safe. They live near the X marked on the map below, whereas the main damage of the quake and tsunami are noted by the circled area.


The U.S. Geological Survey lists earthquakes in which 50,000 or more have died. In 2004, an earthquake comparable to the recent Japan earthquake killed over 200,000 in Sumatra. Last year's quake in Haiti killed 210,000, and since the Richter scale is a logarithmic scale, it had only around one percent the destructive power of this week's earthquake in Japan. In 2005, 86,000 were killed in Pakistan. In 2003, more than 30,000 were killed in Iran by an earthquake that was tiny compared to Japan's. This was mostly due to poor construction and countless buildings collapsed needlessly, killing those inside.

There are news reports stating that the earthquake itself caused most of the damage, but I think that is ignorance about the danger of tsunami, and if you saw any video footage, you could see that the tsunami cleared out everything in its path as far as six miles inland. Most of those buildings were undamaged from the quake, but were washed away like a house of cards. This quake was the strongest in Japanese earthquake-recording history, but the damage from the tsunami was heavier by far. The power of water is unbelievable. There are 10,000 missing from one small town of 17,000 people.

All modern buildings built to very strict earthquake building codes remain standing and mostly undamaged. Tsunami damage is another matter entirely, but based on the physical evidence, I am amazed at the technical prowess of the Japanese. I see this in my work translating patents and technical documents and as a consumer of their products. Japan will recover more quickly that most think and will likely be stronger than they were before.

Four Globetrotters: My Letter to Congress Regarding Overseas Comparabi...

Four Globetrotters: My Letter to Congress Regarding Overseas Comparabi...: "Below is a letter sent to Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner, and Congressman Gerry Connelly from another Foreign Service officer (FSO). I only post this to show you the complexities of serving in the FS abroad and the sacrifices that many of the FSO's and their families make to live and serve abroad. We too have been through some interesting situations that I would love to write about someday. But...I thought many of you might find her story interesting reading.

The devil..not in disguise

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Gaddafi is so the devil himself. He is a crazed lunatic that cannot concieve that his people don't want him. I can't beleive he would rather burn Libiya alive than relinquish his power. He is absolutely a nut case.

Egypt in Crises

History repeats its self. Long time rulers just are not good for society. That is one good thing about democracy...it usually stipulates a limit of term in office. It's time for Egypt to consider at least that point of democracy when reforming takes place. I hope they can work it out with out a lot of turmoil.

Interaction of Sciece and Culture in Music

Many of my favorite songs relate to the interaction of science and culture. There were two recent events that reminded me of that interaction.

It was recently reported in the news that Kodak is no longer manufacturing the chemicals to process Kodachrome film. The last processing lab closed up shop at the end of 2010. Although there are other film development processes, Kodachrome was a favored process because it produced very brilliant colors. Color photography that was available to the commoner was a technological revolution to our grandparents just as computers and the Internet are to us. So here is Paul Simon singing Kodachrome.



The other event was the new year. I always think of this song around New Year.

3rd Annual College Bowl Pick'em Contest

I sent out invitations for the email addresses that I have, but I have lost the email addresses for:
Shawn
Dallin
Russell
Lawrence
Tito
Let me know what those addresses or anyone else you think would like to participate and I will send out invitations right away. That includes friends, spouses, partners, relatives, etc.
1st Annual Contest Winner: Alan
2nd Annual Contest Winner: Alan
3rd Annual Contest Winner: ???

Study: NBA referees’ whistles not entirely colorblind

"Economists Joe Price of Brigham Young University and Justin Wolfers of the University of Pennsylvania found that players get called for 4 percent fewer fouls by officials of their same race."

I am not convinced of this because there are so many mitigating factors, and if there is only "4% racial bias," then I think we are doing quite well. Most researchers accept a +-5% error in their stats anyway, so I think it's safe to say that there is essentially no racial bias in NBA refereeing.

What really needs to be studied is if there is star-power bias in the NBA. That is, do star players get called for fewer fouls than do lesser players? I am convinced that there is star-power bias. Many game announcers suggest that there is and I perceive the same in the games that I watch. The star-power bias is the main reason I don't much care for NBA basketball.

It reads like Science Fiction

If you ever wondered like me why Iran was simply allowed to thumb it's nose at the IEAE and other western nations, this article seems to explain it. Super secret stuff was going on, and I doubt the article covers everything. I know some of you are allergic to Fox News, but it's a fascinating read anyway!

Another article here describes the James Bond type of stuff going on.

Printing Money

The Federal Reserve has been quietly printing money (well, not so much printing as issuing electronic credit) and buying US debt, which is the equivalent of me printing money to pay for my wife's spending. However, the Fed is going to sharply increase quantitative easing (a nice euphemism for 'printing money'') with a planned outlay of $600 billion dollars. This is angering out creditors, which is just about everybody (China, Japan, UK, South Africa, Germany,...). The reason of course is that printing money without a corresponding increase in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) results in a devalued dollar, which not only devalues the debt owned by other nations, but also devalues the dollars in our own pockets. In addition, I learned something shocking that I never knew before. While the US Government pays interest on the money it borrows, it doesn't pay anything to reduce the principal. In other words, we pay interest only! No principal. The idiocy of that needs no explanation.

So what is the answer to our problem? Bring spending under control. No more bailouts, no more too big to fail (too-big-to-save should be our policy), no more handouts to political constituency groups. In fact, I advocate a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. It's been tried before, but the politicians lacked the political will to finish the job. We need it now more than ever.

Addendum: As I have previously stated, no matter the type of government each of us desires or envisions for this country, it must be founded on sound fiscal principles to survive or to succeed in its goals. One cannot defy gravity forever.

Here we go, here we go!

How high will the tidal wave be on Tuesday?

Republicans will take back the House, the Senate is in flux but probably will remain in Democrat hands (barely).

But when the dust settles, what will change?

What to you think?

Minnesota Governor Pawlenty just explained on Face the Nation that the battle would be over reducing government via, of course, reducing entitlement programs.

George Will's Sunday column encourages us to watch carefully certain races in order to fully appreciate the depth of the revolution of 'less' government that is upon us.

Ummm...less, continually less, less and less spending. I get it. But few specifics. Nearly never any explanations of how to spend a lot less. Just what do the Republicans agree among themselves to reduce? Will representatives and senators from Arizona and Florida, two hubs of retirees, dare to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security? How about reducing military spending in states that have major military installations? How about closing down federal agencies? Which ones? Will repeal of Obama's health care plan bill be a safe effort for them?

I don't fear the Republican wave because they will be just as inefficient, just as unwise, just as unwilling to cross the aisle as the Democrat and Republican majorities that preceded them.
And ultimately, it is unclear what, if anything, will change for the better in our lives.