On Veteran's Day...

Some words for the occasion from President Ronald Reagan:

Sometime back I received in the name of our country the bodies of four marines who had died while on active duty. I said then that there is a special sadness that accompanies the death of a serviceman, for we're never quite good enough to them-not really; we can't be, because what they gave us is beyond our powers to repay. And so, when a serviceman dies, it's a tear in the fabric, a break in the whole, and all we can do is remember.

It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives -- the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember.

There's always someone who is remembering for us. No matter what time of year it is or what time of day, there are always people who come to this cemetery, leave a flag or a flower or a little rock on a headstone. And they stop and bow their heads and communicate what they wished to communicate. They say, "Hello, Johnny," or "Hello, Bob. We still think of you. You're still with us. We never got over you, and we pray for you still, and we'll see you again. We'll all meet again." In a way, they represent us, these relatives and friends, and they speak for us as they walk among the headstones and remember. It's not so hard to summon memory, but it's hard to recapture meaning.

And the living have a responsibility to remember the conditions that led to the wars in which our heroes died. Perhaps we can start by remembering this: that all of those who died for us and our country were, in one way or another, victims of a peace process that failed; victims of a decision to forget certain things; to forget, for instance, that the surest way to keep a peace going is to stay strong. Weakness, after all, is a temptation -- it tempts the pugnacious to assert themselves -- but strength is a declaration that cannot be misunderstood. Strength is a condition that declares actions have consequences. Strength is a prudent warning to the belligerent that aggression need not go unanswered.

Read the whole thing here...

Just a Drop of Water...

Muggers Return Wallet to a Soldier...

Just plain weird, but somehow strangely touching:

The 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student said he was walking home from work about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday when he was pulled into an alley and told to lay face down and with a gun to his neck. Four men took his wallet, $16, keys, his cell phone and even a PowerBar wrapper from his pants pockets, he said.

But the hostile tone quickly changed when one of the robbers, whom the reservist presumed was the leader, saw an Army ID in the wallet. The robber told the others to return the items and they put most of his belongings on the ground next to him, including the wrapper, the reservist said.

'Tis a strange world we live in...

Navajo “Code Talkers” Assemble Again...

The story of the Navajo “code talkers” in World War II is one that struck me from the first time I heard it – it was such a clever solution to a tough problem.  The challenge our military faced was this: they badly wanted to be able to communicate between front-line troops (the “grunts”) and the air and artillery support for them.  This communication needed to be near real-time if it was to be effective, and it had to be practical in the chaos of combat.  And, of course, it had to be secure – if the Japanese could intercept the communications, then the communications might be more harmful than useful to our troops.  Back then, in the days of vacuum tubes, there was no such thing as a hand-held encrypted radio.

Someone came up with the idea of using a combination of a uniquely American language (the Navajo Indian language) and a verbal code (“eagle” might mean “airplane”, for example).  The Japanese were unlikely to find a native Navajo speaker amongst their population, and to anyone else the language was completely unintelligible, as it was unrelated to any other language.

So a group of Navajos was formed, and trained both in radio operation and in a self-developed second layer of coding.  Soon these soldiers could talk reliably to each other over a radio – and anyone else listening would have no idea what they were saying.  Perfect!  Members of the group were then assigned to front-line troop squadrons and to air and artillery units, and for the first time ever front-line troops had secure, real-time communications with their support units.  The Navajo code talkers played a key role in the Pacific war, and there are many heroic stories about them.

Some of the Navajo code talkers are still alive, and they're assembling in (of all places!) New York City:

The famed Navajo Code Talkers, the elite Marine unit whose unbreakable code stymied the Japanese in World War II, fear their legacy will die with them.

Only about 50 of the 400 Code Talkers are thought to be still alive, most living in the Navajo Nation reservation that spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Many are frail or ill, with little time left to tell the world about their wartime contribution.

But on Tuesday, 13 of the Code Talkers, some using canes, a few in wheelchairs, arrived in New York City to participate for the first time in the nation's largest Veterans Day parade.

The young Navajo Marines, using secret Navajo language-encrypted military terms, helped the United States prevail at Iwo Jima and other World War II Pacific battles, serving in every Marine assault in the South Pacific between 1942 and 1945. Military commanders said the code, transmitted verbally by radio, helped save countless American lives and bring a speedier end to the war in the Pacific theater.

I wish I could be there to meet them.  Anyone interested in American history will find their story well worth exploring...

Quotes from the Great Communicator...

My cousin Mike D. reminds me of these Reagan gems:

Here's my strategy on the Cold War:We win, they lose.

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.

The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.

Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the  U.S. was too strong.

I have wondered at times about what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the U.S. Congress.

The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.

Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.

No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

Where's that kind of leadership today, when we need it so badly?

The closest I've seen is Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson, and, sad to say, they're not that close...

Unemployment Index...

The chart to the right (click to enlarge) is today's Google Unemployment Index, since 1/1/08.  It just reached an all-time high, which corresponds roughly with the recently announced high in the government's unemployment index (10.2%).

This is a tally of queries for subjects related to unemployment.  More importantly, it is unfiltered and unvarnished, unlike the government's figures. 

No good news for job seekers yet...

20 Years Ago Today...

The Berlin Wall fell:

On Nov. 9, 1989, East Germans came in droves, riding their sputtering Trabants, motorcycles and rickety bicycles. Hundreds, then thousands, then hundreds of thousands crossed over the following days.

Stores in West Berlin stayed open late and banks gave out 100 Deutschemarks in "welcome money," then worth about $50, to each East German visitor.

The party lasted four days and by Nov. 12 more than 3 million of East Germany's 16.6 million people had visited, nearly a third of them to West Berlin, the rest through gates opening up along the rest of the fenced, mined frontier that cut their country in two.

Sections of the nearly 100 miles of wall were pulled down and knocked over. Tourists chiseled off chunks to keep as souvenirs. Tearful families reunited. Bars gave out free drinks. Strangers kissed and toasted each other with champagne.

The WSJ has a good short piece on that wonderful day – for me, the event that marked the end of the Cold War.

The United States played a large role in making this delicious moment happen.  Many individual Americans, myself included, cherish this signature accomplishment – and will remember and ponder it today.

Our President will not.

PelosiCare...

The WSJ's take in The Lords of Entitlement:

Let no one suggest this was the "bipartisan" health reform that Mr. Obama has long promised.

The bill is instead a breathtaking display of illiberal ambition, intended to make the middle class more dependent on government through the umbilical cord of "universal health care." It creates a vast new entitlement, financed by European levels of taxation on business and individuals. The 20% corner of Medicare open to private competition is slashed, while fiscally strapped states are saddled with new Medicaid burdens. The insurance industry will have to vet every policy with Washington, which will regulate who it must cover, what it can offer, and how much it can charge.

Required reading.

Causes of Myopia, and Possible Prevention...

Interesting article in New Scientist...

Quote of the Day...

From Ann Althouse:

I'm trying to imagine the political environment that Washington Democrats occupy. A President glibly lays out that analogy, and it is received — without any wincing or taint of disgust — as awesome inspiration. These are the minds that will be making decisions for us for quite a while.

Read the whole thing for the context...

Miss Me Yet?

The InstaPundit posts this image and says:

Heck, some Republicans are missing Bill Clinton. I think before it’s over, even Jimmy Carter will look okay.

As he (Glenn Reynolds) would say: Heh!

And: Ouch!

The Sausage Factory...

So the House has passed a health care reform bill, 220 to 215.  Just exactly what bill they passed is anyone's guess – at over 2,000 pages and with amendments being made right to the last minute, I doubt that anyone who voted for it had any real idea.

Pelosi used a combination of compromise (e.g., removing funding for abortions), threats (e.g., withholding desirable positions, earmarks, or election support), and bribes (e.g., special language directing health care funds to particular districts) to get enough votes.  Many commentators on the right are crowing because the vote was so close – the Democrats have a 70+ vote majority and all they could muster was a 5 vote margin?

But these commentators miss an essential part of the sausage factory of politics...those Democratic “no” votes were carefully calculated and parceled out to at-risk Democrats.  They fought each other for the right to vote “no” without incurring Pelosi's fearsome wrath (and subsequent punishment).  The Democratic leadership isn't completely stupid – they know darned well that Democrats will lose a significant number of supporters over this health care bill (only a bare majority of Democrats support health care reform at all, and less than a majority support this reform).  So those Democrats who don't have very solid support at home are placed at risk by a “yes” vote on this ground pig of a bill. 

So the main thing the close vote really tells us is that the Democratic leadership is indeed very afraid of the impact of Pelosicare on the 2010 elections.  They would rather have the bad PR of a close vote than put too many members at risk.  Insiders report that competition for Pelosi's permission to vote “no” was intense and hard-fought – and a good number who wanted that permission were denied it.  In other words, the number of House Democrats who perceived a risk in voting “yes” was substantially larger than the number who voted “no”.

Here's hoping the voters remember the ground pig bill come next November...

Heat's On...

...in our house, that is.  November 8th is the earliest either Debbie or I can remember lighting off the heater.  The house was down to 53°F (about 11°C), and we were getting uncomfortable.

Must be that “global warming” we've been hearing about...

The Brit's Observe Us...

Toby Harnden of the London Daily Telegraph writes:

A year into his presidency, however, Mr Obama seems a curiously bloodless president. If he experiences passion, he seldom shows it. It is often anyone's guess as to whether an event or issue truly moves him.

He has spent more than two months considering a troop increase but do we know how he really feels about the Afghan war?

In a sign that the Obama honeymoon truly is over, I began to hear this week the first stirrings of a wistfulness about Mr Bush. "I never thought I'd hear myself say it," one Democrat told me. "But Obama makes you feel that at least with Bush you knew where he was on something."

I hear this general sentiment a lot from friends and co-workers.  But that is a biased sample, to be sure (my friends are self-selected, and my co-workers are all professional high-tech workers in Southern California). 

Is the Telegraph accurately reporting a general trend?  I sure hope so...

Potential Net Migration Survey...

Here's a fascinating Gallup poll of over a quarter million people worldwide.  The survey asked people “If you could live in any country you wanted to, which country would that be?”

The results from this poll lead to several interesting results, such as “What's the most popular country people want to move to?” (the U.S.) and “What countries do people most want to leave?” (basically anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa).  But it also leads to some interesting results on net immigration.  By summing up all the people who want to move into a country, then subtracting from that all the people who want to leave that same country, then dividing that result by the number of people currently in the country, you get net migration figures.  The larger the positive net migration, the more people (on a percentage basis) want to move there.

These numbers get distorted a bit by the current population.  For example, tops on this metric is little Singapore, at 260%.  This means that if everyone who wanted to move into or out of Singapore could magically do so, Singapore's population would almost quadruple.  Now Singapore's population is less than 2% of the U.S. population, so this means that roughly 10 million more people would like to move into Singapore than out of it.

The U.S. is 12th from the top on this metric, at 60%.  Because the U.S. population is so much larger, that means that about 180 million more people would like to move into the U.S. than out of it.  Yikes!  That's a lot of people!!

Also very telling are the country-to-country net immigration numbers, where the U.S. is set against other developed countries.  It turns out that in every case, more people want to move to the U.S. from another developed country (the U.K., France, Sweden, Norway, Canada, etc.) than vice versa.

It would be very interesting to see these data trended plotted over the years, to see the trends...

Flying Pig Moment...

In the New York Times, aka “Obama Lickspittle Times”:

But the limits of rhetoric were on display last week when the president could not rescue two foundering candidates in governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia. Has Mr. Obama lost his oratorical touch? Is the magic finally beginning to fade? Does the White House rely too heavily on his skills on the stump to advance his priorities?

The editor who let that through probably ought to be thinking about an alternative career.  Or could it be that even the New York Times is waking up?

Nah...

Another Outstanding Meal...

...at the Descanso Junction Restaurant.  This time it was fish tacos, the $8.99 special for the night. 

These were not the dainty, fussy, tiny little things you'd get from Rubio's.  These were studly fish tacos, with a serious quantity of excellent fish in them – chunks the size you'd get with a generous portion of fish ’n chips.  These were in tasty corn tortillas, drizzled with an excellent sauce, embedded in chopped greens and all the veggie bits you expect with fish tacos.  Rice and refries, of course.  The usual sass from the waitress and smiles and greetings from everyone who works there.  As comfortable as being home, with great food, and someone else does the dishes. 

Simply outstanding!

Happy Tool Valley...

This evening, in the parking lot of our favorite restaurant, we saw “Happy Tool Valley” emblazoned across the doors of a pickup truck.  Took us a few moments to realize what we were seeing: a pun that only a local would recognize.

Because, you see, "Happy Tool Valley" is pronounced very much like Japatul Valley (HOP-a-tool VAL-ee), which we drove through to get to the restaurant!

How's That “Stimulus” Plan Working Out, Oh Wise One?

Not so well.  This chart summarizes it nicely:

The World's Shortest Book...

I wonder what the advance was on this one:

The Things I Love About My Country

by Jane Fonda & Cindy Sheehan, illustrated by Michael Moore

Kimberly Munley, Heroine...

This woman is credited with stopping the shooting rampage of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, by shooting him four times. She was wounded herself, and continued shooting after she was hit. Quite a gal, is Kimberly Munley:

A police officer and mother of one was hailed a heroine yesterday after it emerged that she almost single handedly ended the massacre at America’s biggest military base.

Kimberly Munley does not look as if she would be much of a match for a heavily armed US soldier on a murderous rampage. But the slightly built 34-year-old civilian officer was first on the scene after Major Nidal Malik Hasan began firing on comrades at Ford Hood in Texas as they prepared to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. The 39-year-old psychologist killed 13 and left 31 others with serious injuries.

May she recover quickly and without permanent effect...

Cultural Relativism’s “Happy Face”

Roger Simon has an interesting discussion...

Spelling and Comprehension...

I've seen variations of this several times over the years:

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

I have no trouble reading the above, and I've been unable to find anyone who did.  Today I decided to go on a search to find the origin of the story, and the associated research.  I soon discovered that there was no such research.  The story above is a hoax.

But it is nonetheless interesting, and a very clear demonstration of the remarkable capabilities of our brain.  I found a short, readable paper that explained a bit of the above phenomenon.  It didn't take me long to convince myself (by constructing my own scrambled or substituted passages) that this paper was onto something...

Genuine Caring...

There are many things I don't miss about George W. Bush.  But one thing I do miss is the man's genuine, selfless caring and warmth:

Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, visited wounded soldiers and their families near the site of the worst mass shooting on an Army post in the United States.

The Bushes made their private visit to Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center on Friday night. Bush spokesman David Sherzer said in an e-mail that the couple thanked Fort Hood's military leaders and hospital staff for the "amazing care they are providing."

No cameras, no publicity.  Just showing up and offering comfort...

PelosiCare: the Bureaucratic Chart...

Click to enlarge.

I do believe that no further discussion is required...

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan...

This is one of those moments when I sincerely hope there is an afterlife of some kind.  And that Hasan is suffering for this act, endlessly.

Everything else about this event seems to still be uncertain.  First Hasan was dead, then he was alive.  First he was a convert to Islam, then he was raised as a Muslim.  First there were three shooters, now there is one.  First all the gunshots were fired by the terrorists, then comes reports that some of the casualties may have been from friendly fire.  I have no idea what the truth is.  Hopefully the truth will emerge, and political correctness will not obscure it.

Meanwhile, President Obama (acting like a President, for once) said it well:

It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It's horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.

Indeed.  Those brave Americans are much in my thoughts this morning...

Rain!

Ok, time for all you non-Jamulians to start laughing.

We've had our first measurable rain of the season, breaking our usual months-long dry spell.  Last night we had 0.08" (about 2mm) of rain.  That's about equal to a flock of pigeons flying over and spitting when they see my weather station. 

But it's enough to wet the ground, and (most importantly) raise the moisture content of the enormous amount of formerly tinder-dry fuel in the dead brush, twigs, and branches of the chaparral.  For us out here amongst the spotted towhees and California quail, that's a big deal – for it drops our risk of wildfire significantly.  I can't quite call it the end of the fire season yet, because it's possible for a few weeks of dry weather to get that fuel moisture back down.  But there's a good chance that we've dodged any major fires this year...

Now that the rainy season is officially declared “open” (by me, the self-proclaimed weatherman of Lawson Valley), I've added the rainfall widges to the sidebar at right...

Mr. Sensitive Strikes Again...

Good thing he likes golf a lot...

Quote of the Day...

From Scott Adams, in today's Dilbert strip, said by Catbert (the evil HR Director).

“Wrong” is one of those concepts that depends on witnesses.

Sounds like a Congresscritter, doesn't it?

A Doctor's Take on the AMA's Endorsement of PelosiCare...

Dr. Joy Bliss, posting at Maggie's Farm:

The AMA backs the PelosiCare monstrosity? Fine.

1. The membership was never consulted.
2. I quit. And I will not be alone.

You tell 'em, doc!

Time to get angry, folks...

Let Your Voice Be Heard...

One of the best messages I've read or heard on Obamacare.

Listen.

Write your Congresscritters.

Don't be afraid to show your frustration and anger.

Don't neglect to let them know that your vote, when they come up for re-election, depends on how they vote on this bill.

Jamul Casino Update...

All good news, if you oppose the Jamul Casino.  From the latest Lakes Entertainment quarterly report:

The net unrealized gains in the third quarter of 2009 consisted of $0.7 million related to the project with the Jamul Indian Village ("Jamul Tribe") near San Diego, California and $0.2 million related to the project with the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma due primarily to improvements in the credit markets. Lakes also recognized impairment losses of $0.6 million during the third quarter of 2009 due primarily to continued uncertainty surrounding the completion of the Jamul project. Unrealized gains in the prior year period related primarily to the notes receivable related to the Red Hawk Casino project due to the recognition of a gain associated with the continued progress toward a fourth quarter 2008 opening of the Red Hawk Casino, partially offset by unrealized losses associated with a decrease in probability of opening the casino project for the Jamul Tribe. 

...

The net unrealized gains in 2009 consisted of $2.8 million related to the project with the Jamul Indian Village and $0.4 million related to the project with the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma due primarily to improvements in the credit markets. Lakes also recognized an impairment on long-term assets in the amount of $2.9 million during the nine months ended September 27, 2009 due primarily to continued uncertainty surrounding the completion of the Jamul project. Unrealized gains in the prior year period related primarily to the notes receivable related to the Red Hawk Casino project with the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians near Sacramento, California due to the recognition of a gain associated with the continued progress toward a fourth quarter 2008 opening of the Red Hawk Casino, partially offset by unrealized losses associated with a decrease in probability of opening the casino project for the Jamul Tribe.

Lakes Entertainment is the financial backer of the Jamul Casino project.

Translated into plain English, the above essentially says that Lakes Entertainment is continuing to lose a significant amount of money on its investment in the Jamul Casino project.  At some point, they'll say “enough is enough” and pull the plug on the whole thing...

The Biggest Loser?

Michael Barone in the Wall Street Journal, making an interesting observation about yesterday's elections:

But you missed seeing the guy who may have been the biggest loser of all—a man who according to recently released White House logs has been a guest in the White House 22 times since Barack Obama became president, more than any other single individual.

That man is Andy Stern, who has boasted that the Service Employees International Union, which he heads, ponied up something like $60 million for Barack Obama and other Democrats in the 2008 campaign cycle. Altogether, Mr. Stern and other labor union leaders reportedly gave Democrats some $400 million last year.

This was, to borrow a word from Mr. Obama, an audacious gamble. Unions these days represent only 8% of private-sector employees (and that's counting General Motors and Chrysler as private sector) and some unions went into debt to make these contributions. Public employee unions of course are financed by taxpayers, who pay the salaries from which dues are extracted, but even so their resources are ultimately limited.

What have the unions gotten in return? Some not insignificant things. The Obama administration bludgeoned General Motors and Chrysler bondholders, in what I called an episode of "gangster government," and effectively turned over the two auto companies to the United Auto Workers. The building trades got project labor agreements—i.e., plenty of dues money flowing to their coffers—in the $787 billion stimulus package.

A lot of that stimulus money went as well to state and local governments. The goal was to spare public employee union members from the vicissitudes of the recession to which the rest of us are subject—and to keep that dues money flowing in.

But the union leaders have been frustrated on their No. 1 goal, the card check bill that would effectively abolish the secret ballot in unionization elections. A couple of bulky guys in varsity jackets visit your home and, um, persuade you to sign a card, and later the union—with the help of a mandatory arbitration clause—impose contracts on employees and rake in the dues money.

With all the healthcare bill noise I'd completely forgotten about the damned “card check” (aka “union takeover plan”) bill...

Rationing Begins in the Healthcare Bill...

Does this sound like the hopey-changey stuff we were promised?

You're afraid your cancer is back, and a health insurance company just turned you down.
Under the health care bills in Congress, you could apply for coverage through a new high-risk pool that President Barack Obama promises would immediately start serving patients with pre-existing medical problems.

Wait a second. Read the fine print. You may have to be uninsured for six months to qualify.

"If you are a cancer patient and have cancer now, you can't wait six months to go into a plan because your condition can go from bad to death," said Stephen Finan, a policy expert with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. He called the waiting period in the Senate bill "unacceptable."

Advocates for people with serious health problems, as well as some insurance experts, are raising questions about one of the most important upfront benefits in the Democratic health care legislation: a high-risk pool for the medically uninsurable.

Socialist healthcare necessarily means rationed healthcare.  This is such a simple and unassailable fact, but so many people don't understand it, or don't want to believe it.

The reality is this: if all the people of this country were entitled (by law) to all healthcare services, there would be more demand for healthcare than there was supply.  Nobody is proposing changing that by radically increasing supply (depending on whose estimate you believe, increasing supply to meet unconstrained demand would require somewhere between a 175% and a 450% increase in healthcare capacity, most of which would be unused most of the time).  Human society has only ever come up with two fundamental ways to “manage” such a supply/demand mismatch.

One way is by government dictat, as socialized medicine would be.  In that sort of a system, political bureaucrats use the criteria important to them (e.g., getting re-elected) to decide how much supply there should be, and then those same bureaucrats decide how to ration the limited supply to meet the much larger demand.  That's Sarah Palin's death panels, the Senate bill's waiting period, etc., etc.

The other way is by market forces.  The amount of supply is determined by our collective willingness to pay.  What healthcare you have access to is determined by what you or your employer is willing to pay, which in turn depends on what kind of a job you have and how much society values your work.  Thus as a software engineer, I probably have access to better healthcare than the guy sweeping out the offices at our local retail nursery.  There may also be a “safety net” healthcare plan, as we have today in the U.S., that provides basic healthcare for everybody.

Both of these ways provide a way to allocate scarce healthcare resources to a much larger demand.  I know which one I prefer.  How about you?

“Oh”!

From the one and only Michael Barone:

I cannot imagine that Congressmen Nye, Perriello, Connally and Boucher have not already accessed the websites which have shown the position of their constituents in a contest which, while like all governorship contests has its own specific features, was also in its contrast on issue positions reasonably congruent with those prevailing on national issues. And I can certainly respond with sympathy if any or all of these incumbents responded to these numbers with a two-word comment of which I will relay only the first word which is, “Oh.”

Read the whole thing.

I haven't felt this good about the political state-of-play for a couple years...

Every Day...

Via my lovely wife.  Click to enlarge, and read the fine print...

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!!!

The Republicans took the New Jersey governor's race.  That's kind of like a Southern Baptist minister running for pope, and winning.  The fix was in on this race, and the Republican (Christie) won anyway.

I'm going to guess that the usual New Jersey Democratic shenanigans were worth 5 to 10 points in the election.  Christie won over Corzine by 49% to 45% according to the official results – so I'd guess that if that election could somehow have been held fairly, the results would have been something between 52/43 and 54/40.  Those are big margins considering the context.  Corzine was an incumbent Democrat, well-supported by the DNC (not to mention personally by Obama and Biden), very wealthy and free with his own money in the campaign.  As of late October, the Corzine campaign had spent a whopping $28m.  On top of all that, Corzine had the full-throated support of New Jersey's legendary “machine” – from thugs to dirty tricks, all was available to him.  Christie, on the other hand, was a relative unknown.  He'd been a U.S. Attorney, a Freeholder (a local NJ political position), and a private lawyer.  He got modest backing from the RNC, no big-name personal visits, and as of late October his campaign had spent just over a quarter of what Corzine spent: about $8m.

But Christie won anyway.  Wow.

You can bet on this: every incumbent Democrat is looking at these results and is reconsidering their commitment to the Obama/Reid/Pelosi wing.  I'm not saying that every one of them is going to change their behavior – but I am saying that a lot of them will.  These results – not just in New Jersey, but in all the off-year elections yesterday – are just too clear to ignore.  Only the most ideologically driven politico will bull ahead without thinking this through.

By the way, the news wasn't all rosy from New Jersey.  I went through all the results, and except for the governor's race, it is all business-as-usual.  The Virginia races were quite different: the Republicans took virtually every contested seat there.  Every incumbent New Jerseyian who ran won their race, and no seat changed party affiliation.  So Christie is walking into a lion's den of rapacious machine politicians – most of whom have every reason to feel completely secure.

But still I have a smile on my face.  The voters, bless their pointed little heads, sent a message last night that I believe will have immediate impact.  Watch what happens with the healthcare bill this week.  Pelosi promised a vote on Thursday (tomorrow!).  My bet is that it gets delayed, probably until next year.  Reid is already signaling that the Senate bill will be delayed to January at the earliest.  After last night, Pelosi and Reid are going to have much more trouble getting votes for that beast from their own party, much less the Republicans...

Momentum and Messages...

Today's elections for governor (Virginia and New Jersey) and Congressman (in upstate New York) are going to be more important for the messages they send to policitians outside those districts than they will be to the people in those districts.

New Jersey's politics are so hopelessly screwed up that electing Mr. Incredible would probably have little effect.  Sorry to sound so pessimistic, but I did grow up there...

Virginia's new governor will almost certainly be Republican, and will almost certainly be unable to make any radical changes there.  That's good, but not important in the long run.

The new Congressman from upstate New York will have no impact at all on a House that's overwhelmingly Democratic.

But...if two or three of these races go to the Republicans, that does indeed send a very clear message to the incumbent Democrats facing reelection next year. It says, loud and clear: tying yourself to Obama and his policies is not the way to win an election.  And there is nothing those Congresscritters care more about than their job-for-life.  They will hear and pay close attention to that message.  And their defensive, back-tracking reactions will build a conservative-leaning momentum that would be quite welcome right now, especially in fiscal terms.

So here's hoping that the voters in those districts take the opportunity to smack Obama upside the head.  Unless the polls are completely wacked out, Virginia is already decided for the Republican candidate.  New Jersey and New York are still too close to call, and could go either way.  Knowing New Jersey as I do, it's easy to predict that every shenanigan you've ever heard of, plus 14 you never heard of before, will be used to lie, cheat, and steal the way to a Democratic victory – and in the past, 99% of the time, those methods have worked just fine.  Probably will again.  In update New York, I have some hope that Acorn and it's ilk haven't yet incorporated themselves into the semi-rural society's fabric – so it's possible that something like a fair election might be held there.

Here's hoping for some Republican success at the polls today!

Huh? of the Day...

Our Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton, if you've forgotten) had this to say on her recent trip to Pakistan:

“Maybe that’s the case; maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know... As far as we know, they are in Pakistan,” Clinton told senior Pakistani newspaper editors in Lahore, AFP reported. “The percentage of taxes on GDP (in Pakistan) is among the lowest in the world... We (the United States) tax everything that moves and doesn’t move, and that’s not what we see in Pakistan,” she said.

What the heck is she saying?  That first sentence is, I believe, referring to Bin Laden and al Qaeda.  The rest of it is slamming the low tax rates in Pakistan.

First, you gotta love the frank admission of the Democratic strategy: tax it, whether it moves or not.  No wonder our wallets are getting lighter.

But then she seems to be implying that the reason Pakistan is suffering from terrorist attacks is the low tax rates there.  Is that really what she means?  If so, she's even wackier than I thought (and that takes some doin', if you know what I mean)!

Question of the Day...

From an editorial yesterday at Investor's Business Daily:

What are we to make of a White House visitors list that includes 22 swiftly scheduled appointments with a union boss at a time when Gen. Stanley McChrystal can't get face time with the commander in chief?

Indeed...

Looking Forward to that Recovery!

Via my mom...

Unexpected Joys...

Got this email from my mom today:

Dad and I had an errand today at Lowe's and on the way home on the back road near our house we saw something completely unexpected.  Just as we were getting ready to turn the car I spotted in front of us a man about 10 feet tall.  I knew immediately it was a teen on stilts and along side of him was walking a young lady.  I started to laugh and instead of turning onto our road, I continued on and came along side - laughing and telling him how great it was to see him and how much we were enjoying the view.  He told us he walks around at the football games (in this location I am assuming he meant the college games) and that today their church was having a trick or treat time for the children and he was going to walk there.  We kept smiling and had a nice chat with them until cars started to come then we let them get on their way.  Very neat this experience.   Just wanted to share a grin.

How cool is that?

eBay Listing of the Month...

This listing ends in two days, so you'll have to look quickly if you want to see the real deal.  Meanwhile, for the future amusement of us all, here's the complete text of the listing:

I have a reputation for not putting enough effort into describing items I sell on ebay, so this time I'm going to be very clear in describing the item.

The pictures above appear to be of some type of small child's motorbike, possibly a minibike, yes, that's what it looks like. However, this is one of those very rare Chinese made miniature motorcycles of which only about 56,785,920 were distributed world wide last year. The total lack of spare parts for these things has now convinced me that each child born in China was tasked with producing one of these; from a roll of aluminium foil and an empty ice cream container. That explains why each one is different. Not just different colours, but every single one is unique in its dimensions and spirit. Some have even been made inside-out.

Some of them have wheels which are almost round, mine doesn't. The frame appears to be made of bamboo, painted silver to make it look stronger. When they gave the Chinese made boats the name Junk, I can now see why. Surely, one of the five year old kids tasked with building these things could weld. Every weld on the frame of this thing looks like a passing sparrow has splattered semi metallic poo on it, badly. Every bolt is a different size and the fact that it doesn't change shape if left in the sunlight has amazed me.

I rode it once, that was enough. It was about as comfortable as pouring a cup full of leaf-cutting ants down my undies. Even though I'm so short that my feet are actually above my head, somehow riding this thing saw me wearing my ankles as earrings and trying to steer at the same time. Making things even worse was that it was like riding a chainsaw with wheels. The motor can rev like a cat with a clothes peg on its tail, making this little bike go faster than standing still - which is already a stretch of its safety envelope.

Before I took it for its one and only ride, I had to fill it up with fuel. I couldn't understand how such a small machine could need such a large fuel tank, but then fifteen minutes after I'd put the fire out, I worked out why. The fuel leak from the carby was that severe that by the time I'd travelled 12 metres with my feet behind my head, the grass behind me was on fire. The leaking fuel had some how caught alight and although I was hoping it was a trail of burning rubber from its tyre shredding power, it was merely a small fire, not unlike a burning pipeline in Iraq. Fortunately, the fuel leak was so bad that by the time the fire caught up to the bike, there was nothing left to burn.

The bodywork on the bike isn't even attached. I don't know how it ever could be. There must have been a fight at the child labour factory when this thing was made, obviously the stronger five year old stole the bits that allowed this bike's bodywork to be attached to its silver bamboo frame. So it just sits there making this thing even more ridiculous. You would expect that motorcycle bodywork would be made of plastic, true. But given the fact that this stuff a) didn't burn and b) is as flexible as a Viagra induced erection, tells me that it is something from another planet, possibly China. I suspect that it may be some super organic, self regenerating rice paper or something.

Starting this bike is about as easy as getting a table of six for Yum Cha at 12pm. Despite the fuel gushing from the poor excuse for a carby, this thing has a pull start which has a cord about as long as a primary school play lunch. With the amount of fuel flooding from the carby, it requires full throttle to start. The first time I got it going it rode off with only the ghost of Chopstick Creek at the controls. I later learned that the best way to start it was by holding it under your arm and acting out an ACDC guitar riff before putting it back down, placing your ankles behind your ears and hoping that the thing stayed upright long enough for someone to get a photo.

On the bright side, this thing would make a fantastic garden ornament, because it has a miraculous ability to convert itself to important soil nutrients, like iron oxide, very quickly. You will notice that one of the front fork stanchions is all rusty. I didn't do that in photoshop, it really is rooted. You will also notice that the steering is out of alignment, but what do you expect from child labour?

When the Trike of Death saw this little bike, it turned around in a very large circle and looked the other way. You have to feel sorry for this little machine, it's like a puppy in a pound. Surely someone out there must have a good home for it? Lets face it, you can now buy something that has trodden the same ground as the legendary Trike of Death for less than the cost of a Trike of Death T shirt. You may even be able to convert this little thing into a candle, a hearing aid, a belt buckle or something else useful.

This monstrosity needs to go. Even if you buy it just for something to kick your toe on it would be worth it. You could paint it black and leave it on some stairs one night. You could create an artificial reef out of it, for one small and selfish fish. Whatever you do with it is your own business, just don't tell anyone where it came from.

In response to some anticipated questions, here are the answers:

No, I don't have a buy it now price, but if you can convince ebay to refund my listing fee, you can have it.

No, it doesn't have a seat, the manufacturer didn't design it to last long enough for your arse to make it to the where the seat would normally be.

No, it ran out of warranty on the third day, which was when it was somewhere in the middle of the Sea of China, on its way to infest the world with a good dose of unquality control.

Yes, I will deliver it to Anaheim California, it will only cost a return airfare ex Sydney and a Disneyland pass.

No, the brakes don't work. It wasn't designed to make it that far.

Yes, it is crap.

True, it does look good. So too do most celebrities until you see them in the flesh.

No, it wouldn't be a nice gift for a six year old, or any other number between 1 and 1000.

No, there isn't any spare parts available for it. They were designed around the same concept as disposable razors and toilet paper, not much good after the first use.

Yes, you are welcome to take it for a test ride – after you buy it and then sell it to someone else who advertises it for sale and offers you a ride of it.

Quote of the Day...

From Scott Adams, in Dilbert.  This is the punchline to today's Dilbert strip.  Adams uses it in an entirely apolitical way, but it occurred to me that it must be how most Obamites are feeling right about now...

Computers Suck at Math...

Well, not really.  But they do make mistakes that surprise most people, including most professional programmers.  The basic problem is the way that computers usually represent numbers internally – with something called “binary floating point numbers”.  This article does a reasonably good job of explaining the problems in laymen's terms.

The most common place that errors in computer math show up is in financial calculations, where it's not unusual to need 15 or more digits of precision, and where calculations are often done repetitively (as in adding a large column of numbers).  Just to give a simple example, if the computer represents $0.01 as $0.0999934821, and you add enough of those pennies together, your result will be off by more than a penny.  Even though a computer did the math.

There are other ways that computer math can go horribly wrong, too.  All of these are well-known and covered by extensive literature, yet programmers keep making the same mistakes over and over again.  The basic error is to choose binary floating point to represent money (or other critical values).  Other representations exist.

So why do programmers keep doing this?  I've asked that question of programmers working for me on numerous occasions.  The most common response, by far, is something along the lines of “These errors only show up because the incorrect rounding was used, and I'm using the correct rounding.”  That's just plain wrong, though most programmers appear to be unaware of this.  But probably the most important reason programmers keep using binary floating point numbers is because it's easy, and often the problems with that choice don't show up until after a software system has been in use for a while.

The fact is that binary floating point numbers cannot represent all real world numbers with sufficient accuracy for all uses.  It's not a rounding problem, it can't be “worked around” – they're simply not up to the job.  There are many alternative ways to represent numbers in a computer that do not have any of the problems of binary floating point.  These methods are a teensy bit harder to use in most programming languages, and not at all harder in some.  There is, in most cases, a small performance penalty – irrelevant in all but the most compute-intensive algorithms.

So be careful with those binary floating point numbers, y'all...

I Don't Know How I Missed This One...

...but I did.

This summer our Sacremento-based criminal class approved a so-called “balanced budget”, along with a slew of sleazy, shaky accounting tricks to support it.

One of them, it turns out, is direct theft from the taxpayers: without raising the income tax rates (which determine the actual amount you will owe, come April), they increased the tax withholding (the amount actually withheld from your paycheck) by 10%.  This is exactly the same thing as the state holding a gun to my head, stealing money equal to 10% of my withholdings, and then promising to give it back on April 15 (without interest, of course).

I only see three solutions to this.  The first solution involves 51% of the voters acting in unison to throw the Sacremento criminal class out of office, replacing them with law-abiding citizens.  The second is a Constitutional Convention that make it impossible for the corruptocrats to continue making victims of the citizenry.  The third involves a much smaller number of people and a few hundred pieces of high-velocity lead.

Which sounds most feasible to you?

Hydrogen Barackside...

Fun Times in Cleveland...

I'll Never Understand...

This woman won a $60,000 prize for her art ... which is the rock behind her.

The other winners are nearly as wacky to me...

Quote of the Day III...

This time from Escort81, posting at TigerHawk, and talking about the latest failure of talks with Tehran to accomplish anything at all:

This is turning into a high-stakes real-life version of the movie Groundhog Day, except I don't think anyone gets to sleep with Andie MacDowell at the end.

Then there's the old joke, "Why do you keep hitting yourself in the head with a hammer like that?"

"Because it feels so good when I stop."

The difference being, I am not sure talks ever stop, even (or especially) after Iran tests its first nuclear weapon.

Sober up, “diplomats”, will ya?

Quote of the Day II...

From Neo-Neocon, while she was pondering the way European officials have begun to be critical of Obama:

One can almost smell the whiff of fear across the Atlantic at the dawning realization that Obama is exactly what the despised Right said he was: an empty suit, whose flowery and uplifting rhetoric consisted of mere empty words to match it. Europeans are finding that, although they chafed at the previous leadership (much as children do towards firm parents), now that they are leaderless they’re feeling more than a bit nostalgic for those olden days (Dad wasn’t so bad after all, now that he’s gone and you’re on your own).


A rudderless free world might not remain free for very long.

Word.

Stopped Clock...

This morning I noticed that the clock in our laundry room (at right) had stopped.  The second hand was wiggling once per second as the clock tried to advance, but failed.  Clearly the battery needs to be changed.

But this brought to mind a question I asked myself some years ago, and figured out: Why do most battery-powered clocks seem to stop at a particular time (generally either around  8:45:45 or 7:45:45)?

The answer lies in the unbalanced hands, especially the second hand and the minute hand.  By “unbalanced” I mean that if those hands were free to rotate they'd rotate so that the heaviest portion was pointing straight down.  Some clocks are made with balanced hands (this was particularly common on old-fashioned wind-up or weight-driven clocks) – either by making the short side of the hand wider, or by putting added weight on the short side.

When the hand is unbalanced, as in our laundry room clock, the tiny electric motor in the clock has to work harder while the hands are on the left side of the clock than it does when they're on the right – it's fighting gravity in one case, and gravity is helping in the other.  This effect is most pronounced for the second hand, which takes about 60 times as much force to move as does the minute hand.  The hour hand takes about 60 times less than the minute hand, or 3600 times less than the second hand.

The force required to move the second hand is at it's absolute highest when it's pointing directly to the left.  When it's pointing in this direction, the force of gravity has the most leverage with respect to the shaft that the motor must turn.  So...as the battery gradually discharges, the motor can produce less and less force.  As the second hand sweeps around the clock from the 12 o'clock position, at first little force is required (because gravity is helping).  As it passes the 6 o'clock position, more and more force is required (because the motor is lifting the hand and gravity is making it harder).  So as the battery discharges, the force required to move the hand is most likely to exceed what the motor can provide when the second hand moves to the 9 o'clock position.

Mathematically, the additional force required to move an unbalanced clock hand imposed by gravity can be described as:

-k sin(θ)

where k is determined by the degree to which the hand is out-of-balance, and θ is the angle of the hand (where 0 is the 12 o'clock position).  At 45 seconds after the minute, the second hand is at 270°.  One second before that, it's at 264°.  The sines for those angles are -1 and -0.99452, so there's about a half-percent more force required to move the second hand between the 45th and 46th second than between the 44th and 45th – and that little bit of extra force is why cheap battery-powered clocks stop at around the same time...

On thinking about this from an engineering perspective, it occurred to me that there are two very simple ways to extend the battery life of these clocks:

1. Balance the hands.
2. Remove the second hand.

Of course, the batteries last for years any way, so it probably makes no practical difference...

Over Thirty Congresscritters are Under Investigation for Ethics Breaches...

Every one of them belongs to a single party: the Democrats.

We only know about this because the Washington Post obtained an internal committee document accidentally exposed on a file-sharing system.

Pelosi is leading Congress out of the swamp, all right.  Leading us to someplace even worse, that is...

Why Do People Seem to Hate Math and Science So Much?

Interesting comment by “grumblebee” on an interesting MetaFilter thread:

I don't think the main cause has anything to do with Math or Science per se. Someone upthread said that there's a profound anti-intellectual trend in America. I agree, but I think it specifically takes the form of A DISDAIN FOR PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS IN ACADEMIC SUBJECTS. This is just as true when it comes to Shakespeare as when it comes to Math.

The life-goal in America seems to be to get a well-paying job in which you don't need to think very much. I doubt this is a conscious goal, and it sounds so insulting that I doubt most people would admit to pursuing it. But in my experience, it is what people pursue -- and our education system trains people for it.

I became very aware of this when I started teaching computer classes. I was teaching applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. Most of my students were upper-middle-class, educated, "smart" people. The majority were middle-aged.

Over and over, I heard people say, "I can't do this stuff. I'm just not a computer person." Now to some extent, this is true. These people were born before the Internet and the PC revolution, and their fear of the technology WAS a stumbling block. But the bigger stumbling block seemed to be that these folks couldn't handle basic problem solving.

The apps I taught mostly didn't hold your hand. For instance, if you want to make a photo look a certain way in Photoshop, there generally isn't a button to press. You have to think through the various tools and figure out how to combine them to create the look you want. That said, it's far from rocket science. I found that the moment I stopped giving people a formula that they could learn by rote, their brains turned off. It soon became clear to me that the problem wasn't new technology; the problem was that I was expecting people to use their brains in a way that no one else expected of them.

I started thinking about what these people did all day at their jobs. Gently, I asked some of them about what they did in their jobs. Many of them hand distinguished careers. How could they perform well at work without problem-solving skills? Answer: they don't need problem-solving skills.

It's not always obvious that these people don't solve problems (or puzzles), because many of these people are experts -- meaning that their brains are crammed with obscure facts. Our schools do very well at training people to learn facts*. At least when I went to school, memorization was pushed as a major intellectual virtue. We memorized the multiplication tables; we memorized the periodic tables; we memorized speeches form Shakespeare... Cultural literacy was pushed, too, though not as hard as memorization. No one was expected to really get into Shakespeare, but you were expected to know who he was and to have read one or two of his plays.

(*true, in America shocking number of people can't tell you the name of their congressman or the capital of North Carolina. But these people DO know the facts needed to get their specific jobs done.)

Pop-culture values reinforce fact-based intellectualism. A couple of years ago, if you'd asked people who was the smartest man in America, many would have said "the guy who won all that money on 'Jeopardy.'" (When I was a kid, there were many game shows on that actually required some problem-solving skills. These are almost non-existent. The shows are all about trivia now.) A "smart person" on a drama or sitcom is usually a guy who knows a huge number of facts.

I grew up around (humanities) academics, supposedly the ultimate smart-set. In my experience, they were coasting on memorized facts just as much as people in the corporate world. A professor would read every major German novel written in the 19th Century and all the critical writing about 19th-century German literature. Then he would spend his career passing on facts to his students. His "intellectual" work mostly involved keeping up with academic journals (learning new facts).

(From what I can tell, most G.P. doctors and most lawyers don't have to do much problem solving either. I do know that my doctor seems to be able to make a good living by doing the same formulaic tests over and over.)

Let me be clear that I'm not anti fact or memorization. Facts and rote learning are important. Facts are the building blocks you need. The are the tools you use when you problem solve. Problem solving is the next step. But it's a next step that most people don't take and don't need to take.

I don't think it's laziness. One can get by in our culture without problem-solving, so why bother with it? By get by, I mean that one can make a good living, have a big house, kids, etc. without having to solve intellectual problems.

And -- most important -- one can be a "smart person" (as our culture defines it) without solving problems. Most people want to be smart. They want to be seen as smart by others. Our culture sends a really strong message to them, which is "memorize a lot of facts and you'll be smart." My guess is most people think they ARE doing rigorous problem solving when they see something that needs to be done and have to search through their mental database to find the right fact or the right formula. I guess this IS a kind of problem solving, but it's the easiest kind. It's similar to solving a problem by searching on google until you find the answer.

When I was a kid, there was almost no problem solving in school. How often did the teacher just present us with a puzzle and say, "Here are some tools. Solve the puzzle!"? Almost never. One would think that MOST of education should be about solving puzzles, but in my experience, almost none of it is.

The exceptions (to a point) were Math and Science. But unless you're going into specific fields, you can quit taking Math and Science pretty early on in life. The other courses are easier and it's pretty clear you won't need Math and Science to get by in life. So why waste your time on it?

Meanwhile, the few people who stay in problem-solving fields move further and further from the intellectual norm: I program computers for a living. Which means I solve puzzles eight hours a day. I constantly have to create something from nothing, and I constantly have to learn new skills. Sometimes, I am so mentally exhausted that I can't do my job.

It was when I started discussing this with friends that I realized how different my career was from most of theirs. Sure, they often are exhausted at work. But they CAN get their work done. They say things like, "I was SO sick of filing today" or "Uh. If I have to grade ONE more paper!" But they don't say, "My brain just shut down and I was unable to figure out..."

I know this sounds snobbish. But I am not trying to diss other people or their jobs. My doctor may not do much problem solving, but I am grateful for his help. I am just saying that most jobs involve little or no problem solving. Mathematicians are from Mars.

I have been talking mostly about corporate and academic jobs. In reality, I think there's a lot of problem solving going on in America. It's just outside of the intellectual world. And it follows a long tradition. In America, our main problem solvers are farmers, football players, carpenters, etc. People who build things and who play games MUST solve problems or they fail. It's really weird, because most such people can't talk the intellectual talk. They don't know Shakespeare from Euler. So we don't consider them smart, and they aren't smart in the limited way we tend to define the world.

Meanwhile, the "intellectuals" are barely using their intellects.

I think there's a lot of truth in there.  Unfortunately...

The Sizes of Little Things...

Very nice interactive graphic (slide the little bar under the picture) from the University of Utah...

The Jewish Service Heard Round the World...

Sixty four years ago, the first Jewish service was broadcast from Germany since Hitler's ascent.  I first came across this event (which happened before I was born) referred to in one of Stephen Ambrose's books.  Since then I've read about it elsewhere as well.  All sources agree: at the time it was a famous, widely-known event that moved a great many people.  Sixty-four years later, very few people seem to know it ever happened.  There's relatively little material about it on the Internet, even.

To place this in just a bit of context: this service took place less than a week after the bitter, bloody Battle of Aachen.  Watch the video:

One-Tier Health Care in Action...

Saskatchewan, Canada has North America's showplace “public option” health care system.  It's the system that both Pelosi and Reid have repeatedly offered up as the model for their bills. 

Today I read this little piece (by a frustrated Canadian) about one effect of Saskatchewan's health care system: the delivery of the flu vaccine.  A little googling brought much more detail.

It seems that the politicians and bureaucrats that run Saskatchewan's health care system have chosen “fairness” as their ultimate measure of success (not health, recovery, wellness, survival, or anything pedestrian like that).  So for the flu vaccine, they've decided that fairness can only be achieved by having everyone receive the vaccine at the same time.  What is explicitly not allowed is having doctors or pharmacies delivering vaccinations, as that would be unfair – some people would be vaccinated before others, simply because they chose (gasp!) a different doctor or pharmacy.  Can't have that!

So, for example, in the city of Saskatoon, if you want the flu vaccine you'll have to join the crowd at Prairieland Park.  In that crowd will be those who are already infected, those who are infectious, and those who are about to be infected.  But it will be fair!

Quote of the Day...

Our congresscritters, apparently not having enough to do, pass hundreds of “ceremonial statements” every year.  Each of these requires a vote, and usually it's an automatic “yes” vote for these essentially meaningless exercises.  Presumably the congresscritters believe it gathers votes for them, else I'm sure they wouldn't bother either.

On the 28th (this past Wednesday), Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona's 6th district voted “No” on a ceremonial statement honoring the 2560th birthday of Confucius.  If I were in his shoes, my no vote would be explained by something like “I will not waste my time on such utter trivialities when there are lots of things I should be doing for my constituents!”.  Congressman Flake explained his vote this way, in our quote of the day:

“He who spends time passing trivial legislation may find himself out of time to read healthcare bill.”

Awesome!

Political Perspective...

Via my mom:

Are you a liberal, a conservative, or a redneck?  Here is a little test that will help you decide:  

You're walking down a deserted street with your wife and two small children. Suddenly, an Islamic terrorist with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, praises Allah, raises the knife, and charges at you.  You are carrying a Glock 40, and you are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your family.

What do you do?

Liberal's answer:

Well, that's not enough information to answer the question! Does the man look poor! Or oppressed? Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack? Could we run away? What does my wife think? What about the kids?Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand? What does the law say about this situation? Does the Glock have appropriate safety built into it? Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children? Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me? Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me? If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me? Should I call 9-1-1? Why is this street so deserted?  We need to raise taxes, have a paint and weed day and make this a happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior. This is all so confusing! I need to discuss with some friends over a latte and try to come to a consensus.

Conservative's answer:

BANG!

Redneck's answer:

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! Click.....(sounds of reloading) BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! click

Daughter: 'Nice grouping, Daddy!  Were those the Winchester  Silver Tips or Hollow Points?'

Wife: 'You are not taking that to the taxidermist!'

Don't Read This...

Can you believe this?  My own mother tortures me with an absolutely awful Halloween-themed pun:

A man is walking home   alone late one foggy Halloween night,  when behind him he hears:

BUMP...BUMP...BUMP...

Walking  faster, he looks back and through the fog he makes out the image of an  upright casket banging its way down the middle of the street toward  him...

BUMP...BUMP...BUMP...

Terrified, the man begins  to run toward his home, the casket bouncing quickly behind  him.

FASTER...FASTER...BUMP...BUMP...BUMP....

He runs up to  his door, fumbles with his keys, opens the door, rushes in, slams and  locks the door behind him.. However, the casket crashes through his door,  with the lid of the casket clapping.

clappity-BUMP...clappity-BUMP....clappity-BUMP...

on his heels, as the  terrified man runs.

Rushing upstairs to the bathroom,  he locks himself in. His heart is pounding; his head is reeling; his breath is coming in sobbing gasps.

With a loud CRASH the  casket breaks down the door.

Bumping and  clapping toward him.

The man screams  and reaches for something, anything, but all he can find is a bottle of cough syrup!  Desperate, he throws the cough syrup at the casket...

and the coffin stops.

Repair California...

The folks at Repair California issued a press release yesterday.  It starts:

Today, Repair California, a group of everyday Californians, reformers and advocacy groups turned in ballot language to call the first Constitutional Convention in California in more than 130 years.  Citing a broken system of governance, the measures would call a limited Constitutional Convention to reform four areas of the constitution: the budget process; the election and initiative process; restoring the balance of power between the state and local governments; and, creating new systems to improve government effectiveness.  The Convention is specifically prohibited from proposing tax increases or from considering changes to social issues such as marriage, abortion, gambling, affirmative action, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, immigration, or the death penalty.  Voters will decide on calling the Convention on the November 2010 ballot, the Convention would be held in 2011 and its proposed reforms would require voter approval in one of the three scheduled statewide elections in 2012.

I'm intrigued by this.  I've no idea what the probabilities are that a Constitutional Convention could actually be pulled off, and that it could make substantive and useful changes – but it's the only idea I've heard that could even plausibly fix the things that are so badly broken in California.  Most especially, it's the only idea I've heard that could break the iron grip of incumbency in Sacremento.

Besides, it sounds like a huge amount of fun – with one action, we can irk and irritate every parasitical special interest, every public sector union, and (best of all!) every insincere, posturing politician in Sacremento.

Woo hoo!

Cool!

Oh, lovely, lovely cool weather!

But it won't be with us for long, says the forecast.

Not that the forecast is actually reliable or anything...

When Grandma Went to Court...

Via my lovely wife:

Lawyers should never ask a Mississippi grandma a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly, woman, to the stand. He approached her and asked, 'Mrs. Jones, do you know me?'

She responded, 'Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a boy, and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you'll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.'

The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, 'Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?' She again replied, 'Why yes, I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him.'

The defense attorney nearly died.

The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice, said, 'If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I'll send you both to the electric chair.'