Freedom Summer II, Opportunity vs Outcome

Robert B. Reich: Freedom Summer II [Commentary] - baltimoresun.com:

Today, as then, a group of Americans is denied the dignity of decent wages and working conditions. Today, just as then, powerful forces are threatening and intimidating vulnerable people for exercising their legal rights. Today, just like 50 years ago, people who have been treated as voiceless and disposable are standing up and demanding change.

Yes indeed, millions of people are FORCED to work at Wally ... however, Reich does helpfully inform us "WalMart is no Bull Connor", gee, glad he covered that, I might have been confused!

Blacks demonstrated for equal OPPORTUNITY, current demonstrators want EQUAL OUTCOME  -- independent of their ability of lack thereof to achieve any sort of results at all. Now in theory they say "more equal", but why stop there? If $15 an hour is good, is not $25 OR $50 better? What principle would decide that number?

I've started a "balanced reading" of switching back and forth between Hayak's Fatal Conceit and Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century . Piketty may be against others making a lot of money, but his book is the most expensive I've ever bought on Kindle at $22.

I'll be doing a lot of reading, but basically Hayak's Fatal Conceit is the idea that things like culture, social structures, economics are "human created" and thus human understandable. He argues that they are emergent orders selected because "they work better" over eons of time, and when we meddle with things like "the market", we do so at peril to our economic well being and possibly even our civilization. Social Science fields tend to very much forget tghe "First, do no harm" maxim and assume that they can willy nilly play with the world economy to get their "desired results". Seems so reasonable to me that it is surprising that anyone even thinks of disagreeing.

Adam Smith no more "invented" the Invisible Hand than Newton "invented" gravity -- they both DISCOVERED them, with nearly zero idea of really "why" they work, only that they do.
But of course Piketty has a much higher opinion of his abilities, and KNOWS there is a huge problem with Capitalism called "inequality". Again, I'm mystified right from the start. If one compares me to the WORST brain surgeon at Mayo, or the WORST NFL QB, or the WORST opera singer, I'd assert that all the 1000x, 10,0000k and essentially infinite x comparisons of "inequality" are expressed very well. My contribution in any of those fields and MANY more is and would be even with significant effort so pitiful to defy mathematical comparison.

So why should the area of making money, creating wealth or investing be any different? Is it REALLY that surprising that Warren Buffet is a 1,000x of even a BILLION x better investor than 99.9999% of the population? To me it is not surprising at all.

And why is that bad? If Buffet allocates resources a billion times better than some idiot that say trades a deserter for 5 top notch terrorists (hypothetica), why NOT let Buffet do even MORE investing? His allocation is likely to generate WAY more wealth for the rest of us than we would otherwise have, even if Warren "takes" (a kind of fuzzy concept in a market economy) 90% of it! As long as we can eat, have a roof, buy some beer now and then, why exactly do we care what Warren does with his money or that he has more of it?

So essentially Hayak says that we are all bent on shooting our own feet off in attempt to "even up" economic allocation, and Piketty is INTENT to show us how to accomplish it!

People can write very long books over what seems obvious to me -- but I guess that just proves how stupid the Moose really is!

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Dialectical Freezing

Keep peeing in the pool?! Climate deniers lose their minds after new EPA rules - Salon.com:

BO has unilaterally declared that there will be a 30% reduction in C(2 emissions from coal plants. At least it is consistent with aborting 100's of millions of kids, they emit CO2 as well.

If our entire economy wasn't dependent on energy, and indeed for those of us in the northern climates, life itself, some of this would be of less interest. In this past year of "Real Current Global Warming Effect", even places as far south as Memphis would have had a lot of folks frozen to death without adequate power. Much like being a Veteran and relying on VA care doesn't exempt you from the harsh realities of the disaster of government run healthcare, even climate BELIEVERS turn into Popsicles  when exposed to temperatures below 32 for decent periods of time ... even if you are screaming IT'S GETTING WARMER in their ears!

The premise of "progressivism" is that the ends justify the means and that the means can be effectively ignored because of the wondrousness of the ends -- massive debts, no energy, shrinking economy, dwindling labor force and aging population, masses of non-working younger people, all of it makes no difference next to the majesty of the "progressive" vision.

All the government sponsored studies and "real science" (the kind funded by the government rather than folks that produce something) tell the "progressives" they are right. Not that they need to be told, they KNOW in the way that only those that ignore history, deny God, eschew results vs models,  and go to all ends to say "the vast majority of people agree with us" can be confident.  Hey, 97% of scientists agree with them, they MUST be right!

So we bray back and forth and call each other names, and even the little kid in the picture HIMSELF is "fouling the pool", since we too emit CO2. Meanwhile, the planet returns to a cooling trend and we set ourselves up for an energy crisis that is actually life threatening if you live in the center of the nation N of say Arkansas -- but no matter, the "progressives" have a wonderful vision of the future!

The title is a little snark at "Dialectical Materialism" the core of Marxism and Communism ... "mumbo jumbo"  is an adequate translation in the real world.

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Problems With Atheism

Paul Wallace: The Real Problem With Atheism:



I don't hugely disagree with much in the linked column, but it also isn't really aligned with my primary problems with Atheism:

1. Hubris -- There isn't a more narcissistic hubristic bombastic statement that a tiny, mortal, stupid, smelly human can make than "there is no God".  Death will certainly fix all those problems, and even a momentary reflection on that level of hubris makes one understand the sad reality of why Hell exists. Freedom is never free, and free will has ultimate consequences. 
2. Hopelessness -- We and all those we love die. There is no way to prove or disprove an afterlife. I believe that without God there is no love, and the desire of Atheists to do away with the hope to see those that they supposedly love in an afterlife comes close to a proof that without God there is no real love. 
3. Purposelessness -- Without a creator there can be no purpose. We and all we see happened through complete random chance and is utterly without purpose. As Shakespeare said in Macbeth: “Life ... is a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” In such a universe, nothing ultimately matters -- which calls trusting an Atheist into question. 
4. Truthless -- One of the names of Christ is Truth. We humans are never trustworthy, even under pain of death and hell, BUT, there is some pretty good historical evidence that a belief in a higher power and ultimate punishment improves the odds of truth and trust SOME (and in this life, that is as good as it gets). Even if it doesn't, the humility, the hope for an ultimate future, the belief that this really does all have reason for being and we are part of that plan helps make believers better bets to trust (still sorry bets, but BETTER). This is one reason that I sincerely hope that we never sink so low as to even consider an Atheist for president! 
5. Destructive -- Human civilization clawed it's way up from the Hobbesian swamp of "Nasty, Brutish and Short" over thousands of years at great cost. What we see in the West is a direct result of Judaeo - Christian Religion melded with Greek Philosophy. The 20th Century saw the breakout of the great Atheist Humanistic "isms" --- Communism and Fascism, resulting in the killing of hundreds of millions of people. Without God there is no "Natural Law", there is no "These truths are self-evident" ... there is no Truth, no Purpose, no Meaning, no Love.
   
   But death, there is LOTS of death because Atheists tend to attack and destroy. One doesn't need to spend much time reading or listening to them to hear their nasty sneering derision of believers, often times directed even more strongly at (soon to be former) friends or family members that they know will be hurt especially badly by it. Why not? It is a hopeless, purposeless, truthless, loveless nasty universe in which all that ultimately counts is the hubristic and narcissistic view of the atheist. There will be no ultimate judgment of their actions in their view, so why not try to beat the "false" hope, truth, love, etc out of those  "believers"? 

We humans always worship something. God is the worship of "that greater than which can not be imagined" -- truth, love, wisdom, hope, beauty, kindness, humility.

Atheism is very sad, but perhaps even sadder are the prayers of believers for those they love lost to this spiritual cancer. 

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US WILL Negotiate and Trade Hostages With/For Known Terrorists!

Taliban becomes our latest enemy to play Obama for a patsy | Power Line:

It is a great time to be an enemy of the US! Seize a "US Serviceman" (in name only, see some of his statements on the US and fact he likely deserted here) and trade him for FIVE big time terrorists from Gitmo!!! Man, I wonder what you could get for a busload of American school kids these days ... or maybe a planeload of US citizens headed to Disney ... BO in the WH for terrorists is basically a GEICO commercial "Happier than a witch in a broom factory"! Time to get some "chips" and reel in some goodies from the US!

The MSM is treating this with the kind of fawning admiration that one would expect for a TP administration in complete disarray, shedding the head of the VA in hopes of nipping that scandal in the bud and having jettison Carney the press secretary on the same day in hopes of keeping down VA disaster coverage.

A "helpful press" is VERY helpful to a bumbling idiot of a president, but it is very UNhelpful to the poor Americans that will pay the price for the establishment of the US as a great target for selective kidnapping.

Although perhaps it only works if the person taken has politics that agree with BO?

Bergdahl, "solider" released quote: "I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools. I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting."

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TP Propaganda In Action

The Most Epically Hypocritical Democratic Party Smear Ever! This Is One for the Record Books | Power Line:



I've documented a lot of examples of how TP (The Party - Democrat) uses it's near total media dominance to manipulate the public. What TP hates about Fox News is that it does similar ops on the conservative side on a much smaller scale and that should NOT be allowed! TP can ultimately only rule when there are NO ALTERNATIVES -- meaning the people who think differently are in the gulag or dead!



 If there are alternatives, then things like the VA, the ongoing tragedy of BOcare, the Climate Hoax, etc will be pointed out and it will  be clear to far to many people that TP is like the Wizard of Oz ... a fake and a humbug, and unlike the wizard, actually BAD!



The Koch brothers REALLY ARE demons! Pay no attention to the fact that the guy taking time out to castigate them and the Ordway  for putting on a children s theater day was not that long ago trying to do a couple million of business to point out how environmentally responsible they are!



Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!



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Economy Down 1% First Quarter

The Economy: Don’t Look Now, But . . . | Power Line:

So now we find that 1Q 2014 was negative growth -- if BO was an R, that would be a RECESSION! It used to be 2Qs of negative GDP for either party, but TP decided that the new rule is apparently AT LEAST 2 quarters if TP is in power, and 1Q of "something like negative growth" in the unlikely case of an R in the WH!

Not that it makes much difference, what counts for "growth" under BO is so tepid and so weighted to a few states that have economic policies in direct opposition to BO, that we have been basically in a recession all along.

Apparently, some are blaming the cold winter. I suppose that can be marked down as an example of "climate disruption"?

I heard on the news this AM that consumer spending was DOWN in April -- a normal sign of recession under way, so we will see. I'm sure that the general media will be doing all they can to minimize people's knowledge of the state of the economy as much as possible, as they have been doing since BO took over.

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Private Space Capsule Looking Good

BBC News - SpaceX unveil 'no runway' Dragon V2 space capsule:





NASA is one more giant government agency to flame out spectacularly ... it got us to the moon, which was amazing, but it only gives one more example of what government CAN do, all be it usually quite inefficiently and often with GREAT expense in both money and lives.



Single focus, TIME LIMITED projects --- War, Building a nuclear weapon (Manhattan Project), "Getting to the moon by the end of this decade" ...



When the project is open ended and less than PRECISELY defined -- "have a space program", "make people happy", "end poverty",  "provide health care",  the result is always disaster ... slow expensive crushing embarrassing disaster.



The NASA shuttle was a damned impressive thing in that it was huge and it worked at all, but it was obviously flawed from the start -- tiles and giant solid boosters tacked on the side ... both of which caused catastrophic failures with total loss of crew and craft. From the POV of any engineer, those items were "hacks" at best.



How good will Dragon be? No idea, this is the marketing release -- of course it looks good! But it does look very cool. Being able to land vertically sure sounds wonderful -- but having to carry enough fuel to do it back through the atmosphere at re-entry temps still makes me wonder if given chemical propulsion, parachutes aren't good enough ... maybe a parasail with some control and some thrusters to make a ground landing at a more predictable location and softer.





But at least it is private -- which makes the chances that they know what they are doing better.



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When TP (The Party) Attacks, You Are to SHUT U{P!

Reporters Shocked When Their Targets Talk Back | Power Line:



What TP (The Party, Democrat) hates the WORST about the Koch brothers! When you are slandered and attacked you are to SHUT UP! and the Koch brothers have the unmitigated gall to FIGHT BACK!



Our education and media system works long and hard in "the public service" to make it ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that if you don't tow the party line they will take your NBA team, your job and your reputation! You will be friendless and ostracized -- the IRS, NSA or other agency will be forced to go after you! You MUST SHUT UP!



Are people daft? If TP can't control people by "civil means", the US will be FORCED to go the same way as every other totalitarian government in history -- people like the Kochs are a THREAT TO AMERIKA! Are people too foolish to realize that if this "Fascism with a smiley face" doesn't work, TP is going to have to put some people down by "stronger means" .... clearly for the good of "all of us"!



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Support for Norms Is Not Exceptional

Obama’s insulting version of American exceptionalism | Power Line:

BO likes to SAY that he is for American exceptionalism ... we know he is not, and if it wasn't for the MSM, his attempts to claim that he is would be a laughing stock of the highest order.

In short, LIMITED GOVERNMENT is what once made America exceptional ... liberty that released  unprecedented human energy, innovation, prosperity and unprecedented wealth for a huge middle class!

America WAS once both Exceptional and GREAT! Now what we have is "history" ... and a strong case of BO.

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Another HUGE Antarctic Ice Melt! (9-19K Years Ago)

Antarctic Ice Sheet - It's Never Been Very Stable:



So why is it that the closest we can pin down a PAST event is within a 10K year window, but we have SETTLED a future event knowing that global temps will rise so many tenths of a degree in a century and a sea level rise of so many feet is CERTAIN in the next two centuries?



If there were "skeptics" in science or the public these days, one would think that a HISTORICAL event hitting a 10K window would be nigh on embarrassing. Could it be that the scientists that make OBSERVATIONS based on DATA have a lot less confidence in their infallibility than the ones that look at MODELS on their computer screens?



One almost wishes some of the latter would head out on the road armed with a google earth model and no windshield and see how that worked out for them!

The study in Nature documents that the Antarctic ice sheet is unstable and can abruptly reorganize Southern Hemisphere climate and cause rapid global sea level rise. 

Ya don't say! So much for "climate stability"! 



So sea levels abruptly rose 4 METERS in 100 years due to cave men lighting fires one can only assume! 



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Freedom = Inequality of Outcome

bob lonsberry dot com:


Nothing new here for readers of this blog ... just better said!

a teaser ...

And in a free society, free choices will lead to different outcomes.

It is not inequality Barack Obama will take away, it is freedom.

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Lake Superior Memorial Day Ice

Sometimes pictures are worth more than lots of reports and words.

The Mystery of BOcare Continues

I.R.S. Bars Employers From Dumping Workers Into Health Exchanges - NYTimes.com:

I can't understand what this article really says and I'm not sure that anyone can ... thus the continuing saga of manufactured uncertainty that craters business operations and individual planning in the current BO States of Amerika.

Many employers had thought they could shift health costs to the government by sending their employees to a health insurance exchange with a tax-free contribution of cash to help pay premiums, but the Obama administration has squelched the idea in a new ruling. Such arrangements do not satisfy Recent and archival news about healthcare reform.">health care law the administration said, and employers may be subject to a tax penalty of $100 a day — or $36,500 a year — for each employee who goes into the individual marketplace.

It seemed a certainty the way that the law was written that business would have little choice BUT to "dump employees onto the exchanges" since it would exchange a known fixed cost for a completely UNkown but growing future liability.  This was assumed to be the main reason that "the employer mandate" was delayed until late this year in hopes that the fallout of the 75% of Americans that have been covered under their employers finding that they no longer had coverage would be unhappy and vote accordingly ... the "other shoe" of the "if you like your healthcare you can keep it" lie of the year last year.

Andrew R. Biebl, a tax partner at CliftonLarsonAllen, a large accounting firm based in Minneapolis, said the ruling could disrupt arrangements used in many industries.
“For decades,” Mr. Biebl said, “employers have been assisting employees by reimbursing them for health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs. The new federal ruling eliminates many of those arrangements by imposing an unusually punitive penalty.”
When an employer reimburses employees for premiums, the arrangement is known as an employer payment plan. “These employer payment plans are considered to be group health plans,” the I.R.S. said, but they do not satisfy requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

Ok, so what has been working for 75% of the people for decades is now "not allowed", but what is?? At least I think we can all understand the following:

In a new regulation, the Department of Health and Human Services said it would provide financial assistance to certain insurers that experience unexpected financial losses this year. Administration officials hope the payments will stabilize premiums and prevent rate increases
 that could embarrass Democrats in this year’s midterm elections.

Certainly "The Party" (TP -- Democrat) doesn't want anything "that could embarrass Democrats in this year’s midterm elections." !! THAT we DO understand!! So there should be some major league payola to "do whatever it takes" to keep TP in as much power as possible! No matter what the costs to business and the 75% of folks that were doing just fine with healthcare prior to the BOcare fiasco!

So as near as I can tell, business and the rest of us are supposed to be left enough in the dark so that we don't discover the BIG LIE of BOcare screwing up healthcare for 75% of the people that used to be covered under their employers plans!
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BO Outs ACTUAL Covert CIA Agent

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-mistakenly-identifies-cia-chief-in-afghanistan/2014/05/25/ac8e80cc-e444-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637_story.html

The disclosure marked a rare instance in which a CIA officer working overseas had his cover — the secrecy meant to protect his actual identity — pierced by his own government. The only other recent case came under significantly different circumstances, when former CIA operative Valerie Plame was exposed as officials of the George W. Bush administration sought to discredit her husband, a former ambassador and fierce critic of the decision to invade Iraq.

Well, slight differences: 

• Plame was in US driving in to CIA HQ at Langley every day, she was NOT undercover!
• She was NOT "exposed"  at all, she was NOT undercover!! Her name coming out was completely unrelated to any "attempt to discredit her husband". Not that it would take any work to "discredit him", his "report" to the CIA was 180 degrees at odds with what he published in the New Yorker!  The whole "discredit / punish his wife" was a media / TP fabrication that was in fact proven false by all the Special Council crap ...  the person that "inadvertently gave her  name"  was Richard Armitage, State Department  --

Somehow I'm absolutely positive that we can count on .00001% the interest in the BO link to ACTUALLY outing a covert CIA agent (a Federal Crime, 10 years in the slammer!), but it is clear that we can count on them for the same factual level of reporting!

Republicans Aren't American

More on “Republicans Aren’t American!” | Power Line:

This latest screech from Dean the Scream hasn't got all that much coverage -- likely so that the next time some Republican says something "uncivil", THAT can be reported to show how nasty the "right wing" is.

A couple points:

• Roosevelt points out "fascist", which of course is LEFT wing (National SOCIALIST Party, aka Nazi). He would have been more accurate having found himself a mirror, not that accuracy was ever one of his considerations. 
• None of the modern Republicans, even the Tea Party, are all that "right wing", meaning "small government". Sure, they don't want all healthcare to be less desirable than current VAcare, they would like to do something about yearly deficits of  close to $1T and they would like to see some sort of plan to make the current unfunded liability of $60T+ for FICA and Medicare square up eventually. Yes, that is what one calls "radical" these days, but it is FAR from anything that could even be imagined as "limited government".

So the latest Dean Scream will be mostly ignored in the press and the next time a Republican says anything less then fully worshipful of his holiness BO, they will be labeled "racist and reactionary" ... or just plain crazy.

Welcome to what used to be "America", 2014 edition.





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