Archive for the ‘do well while doing good’ Category

Obama ignores nuclear threat from North Korea

May 21, 2013

Since 2006, North Korea has conducted at least three apparently successful nuclear tests. It has also orbited a satellite. Together, these events fulfill the basic technological requirements for an intercontinental ballistic missile that can deliver a nuclear warhead against mainland United States.

Miniaturizing a warhead to fit on a missile is not an overwhelming technical obstacle. North Korea requires only one ICBM capable of delivering a single nuclear warhead in order to pose an existential threat to the United States.The Electromagnetic Pulse Commission, the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission, together with several other U.S. studies have established that detonating a nuclear weapon high above any part of the U.S. mainland would generate a catastrophic electro-magnetic pulse.

Sucn an EMP attack would collapse the electric grid and other infrastructure that depends upon it. 300 million Americans would be placed in immediate and serious life-threatening jeopardy. An EMP attack would plunge the U.S. electricity-powered civilization into a black-out potentially lasting for several years. The U.S. currently has no missile defense assets devoted to stopping a missile coming from the south. All such assets currently are positioned to intercept a missile strike in the middle or late part of its trajectory coming from the north polar region. The Obama administration indeed has cancelled the only two U.S. boost-phase or space-based defensive systems.

Wake up President Obama while sufficiwnt electricity remains for you to smell the coffee.A surgical strike to prevent North Korean development of an ICBM has never been more urgent.

Hat Tip: R.James Woolsey and Peter Vincent fry, ‘How North Korea Could Cripple the U.S.’, The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2013

Late-term abortions and the Kermit Gosnell vervict

May 16, 2013

The United States is irremediably divided on the issue of abortion. About one quarter of the country wants a complete ban on all abortions. About one quarter wants no limits on abortion. And a half of the population wants a compromise.

The details of the Gosnell case, presented to a Philadelphia jury who sat for weeks listening to every grisly detail concerning how this abomination of a doctor set about murdering late-term babies by piercing and snipping them as they lay helplessly on the delivery table, born alive, are too horrific for many of us to stomach. The jury did the right thing. Kermit Gosnell was reluctantly spared the death penalty. Instead he will serve the remainder of his life in prison without any possibility of parole. He will not be pierced and snipped on death row.

So the law thankfully is now clear in the State of Pennsylvania. If a baby is outside the womb and is alive, and if a doctor performs a procedure on that baby that causes it to die, that is first-degree murder.

That said, in some states, if the baby is alive and inside the womb, late stage, when procedures similar to Gosnell’s are done, that is legal.The Gosnell verdict,nevertheless, has changed the abortion environment. Any doctor in the U.S. who performs abortions past 20 weeks is looking at that verdict and wishes that there was more clarity about what falls along the spectrum between a day at the office and first-degree murder.

The political debate about late-term abortions, inevitably, is about to recommence, following years of uncomfortable silence since Bill Clinton famously stated that ‘abortion should be safe, legal and rare.’

Hat Tip: Daniel Henninger, ‘America’s Second Civil War, The Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2013

Britain should exit the European Union

May 13, 2013

Fortunately for Britain, the European Union does not prohibit member countries from seceding. No Abraham Lincoln sits in Brussels, willing or able to wage a war of continental aggression, should Britain decide to leave an organization that imposes net economic costs upon it.

The economic case for exit is now dominating debate across the Pelagic Isle. The large single market of the EU has brought benefits to Europe’s many small economies,especially those with a relatively large industrial base. It is bringing transfer benefits to the profligate PIIGS who are exploiting the charity of German savers. The UK, however, is a large economy with a small industrial base. It is fully capable of correcting its own fiscal excesses, especially under Conservative Party governance. For the United Kingdom, the regulatory burden of the single market massively outweighs the benefits.

The key assumption that underpins this judgment is that Britain – in the absence of becoming a member of the European Economic Area – Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein – would still enjoy access to free trade with the European Union. This assumption is highly probable, since Germany and the Netherlands – the two best functioning EU economies – would welcome open access to the large British market. A negative trade shock imposed on the UK is in the economic interest of no EU economy, however perfidious, Albion may be regarded by some of its former allies and enemies.

Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, one of the two treaties known together as the Lisbon Treaty, provides the option for an exit. Negotiations would be required between the British government and the various European institutions. Most likely, Britain would secure an exit placing it into a comparable situation with Switzerland i.e. a bilateral free trade deal. This would be a sweet deal for a country that desires to retain the City of London as Europe’s major financial center, and to evade the strangulation of the financial transactions tax and European-style banking regulations that the EU bureaucracy is panting to impose.

So, contrary to the advice given today by President Obama to Prime Minister David Cameron in the Oval Office, my advice is that Britain should exit now, without attempting to reform the EU from within. A country operating outside the euro-zone has precious little leverage to secure a deal that will weaken the social market philosophy that now dominates euro-land. Remember that Britons are still predominantly Anglo-Saxons, Prime Minster Cameron, and that their ties remain closer to North America and other former colonies than to Old Europe.

Hat Tip: Wolfgang Munchau, ‘Lawson is right – Britain does not need Europe’, Financial Times, May 13, 2013

Sir Alex Ferguson: the bagpipes honor a remarkable career

May 12, 2013

As an Englishman residing in the United States, I have retained an abiding love for the beautiful game – soccer – a game that has yet to reach its true status in the United States. Soccer is a game for extremely fit men (and women) who can stay on the field for a full 90 minutes of fast, highly-skilled movement. Soccer players do not retire to an oxygen tent after 5 minutes on the field as do so many American footballers. I doubt if anyone carrying in excess of 200 pounds has ever played for a premier soccer team. No 450 pound body-armor-protected fatties for the beautiful game. Soccer players do not require continuous radio contact so that the manager can tell them which is left and which is right, and where to move on every play. For the most part, they have sufficiently high IQs that they can think for themselves within a general strategy defined by the team manager.

Throughout my time in Virginia the team that I have supported is Manchester United, the Red Devils, a team that has dominated the English soccer scene for the past 26 years. Throughout that time period, Man U has been managed by Alex Ferguson, now Sir Alex Ferguson, who announced his imminent retirement last week at the age of 71 years, after 1,500 games in charge of what has become one of the world’s richest and most popular sports clubs. Few Britons have been more successful, in any sphere, in recent times.

His longevity as manager is a mark of this success. There are twenty clubs in the Barclay’s Premier League. Over the past year alone, 8 of these clubs have sacked their managers. Many others have faced speculation about their imminent demise. Only Sir Alex, a Glaswegian Scot from the blue-collar shipyards of that famous city, has been entirely secure, so secure indeed that he has been privileged to choose his own successor, and has been elevated to the Man U board of directors following his retirement. Sir Alex has earned job security and widespread respect because he is a winner. Under his leadership, the Red Devils have lifted 38 trophies – Premier League, F.A. Cup and European Championship – a record that no future manager is ever likely to match.

How has he achieved such success? Hard bloody work is one answer. Sir Alex is not some Spanish, Portuguese or Italian playboy management consultant, like Jose Mourinho. He is a rough-hewed, gritty, foul-mouthed Scot, prepared to apply the dreaded ‘hairdryer’ to under-performing stars during the half-time interval, even to kick a soccer boot at the head of one of his most famous stars, David Beckham, when the occasion so deserved. Sir Alex controls everything in his club, from brand-management, to talent-spotting, to the players’ tea. When Wayne Rooney experiences the ‘red mist of rage’ on the soccer pitch, he knows that he will be benched by his manager and that he will experience a much more dreadful red-rage from that fearsome Scot, once he returns to the dressing room.

Economy is another answer. Soccer management is about squeezing out more performance per salary pound than one’s highly competitive rivals. This Sir Alex has done, season after season, spending a lower proportion of the club’s revenues on wages than any other Premier League club. This achievement has attracted the attention of businessmen and political leaders, especially from those within his beloved Labour Party.In particular, Sir Alex and Tony Blair bonded deeply, each recognizing the leadership qualities of the other. Although Gordon Brown is a fellow-Scot, Sir Alex despised his shambolic leadership, though he was never tempted to cross party lines.

Sir Alex may be a committed Labour Party supporter, but that does not mean that he is anti-capitalist. Far from it. He embraced New Labour long before Tony Blair invented the name. English soccer would become the best, during his 26 year reign at Old Trafford, because it pays the most. The average weekly wage in the Premier League rose by 1,500 per cent between 1992 and 2010. Sir Alex accepted his fair share of the rewards. He named his mansion Fairfields, after the dockyard where his father once labored.

Most of all, Sir Alex’s success was based on an enthusiastic embrace of globalization. He inherited a squad that contained two Danes, four Irishmen, and 18 Britons. He leaves a squad with players from a dozen countries, including Serbia, Ecuador, and Japan. In this respect, the politician whom Sir Alex most resembles is not Tony Blair, but rather his Tory nemesis, Margaret Thatcher. Of course, Sir Alex claims to detest the Iron Lady, for her blue rather than his red color. Yet, in truth they are very similar. Both won global success through a combination of simple truths and relentless drive. Both revered aspiration and opportunity. Both made Britain great.

The man that I honor today is no Red Alex but rather he is the Iron Man.

Hat Tip: Bagehot, ‘The socialist international’, The Economist, May 11, 2013

College students should wake up to market signals

May 10, 2013

In general it is better from a job-seeking perspective to earn a college degree rather than a high school diploma. Unemployment is much more significant for the latter than for the former graduates. However, earning a college degree is no sure way to obtaining a job with good prospects in the post-2008 U.S. economy.

Unfortunately neither U.S. students nor U.S. colleges are well-tuned into the market-place that awaits those who work their way to a baccalaureate degree. One remarkable statistic indicates how far out of tune they are.

Over the next decade, American colleges will mint 40,000 graduates with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. The U.S. economy is slated to create 120,000 computing jobs that require such degrees. No one has to be a math major to do the math. The economy will create three times the number of jobs as we have people qualified to fill them. No wonder employers hunger for all those Asians from India and China who have a better grip on the U.S market-place.

Any youngster who grew up and went to school in the U.S. will have been educated in a system that has eight times as many high-school football teams as high schools that teach advanced placement computer science classes. How many of those students expect to make a lucrative career in sports? Do college students realize how many more graduates there are in languages, literature, history, sociology, and other liberal arts disciplines than there are jobs available relevant to those specialisms? A ratio of 100:1 would not be at all excessive. Yet still so many students come, like moths to the flame, unaware of the heart-break that lies ahead.

The American market-place is increasingly dependent on information technology. Employers are looking for hires who know enough about how these information systems work to function effectively in such an environment. Such hires are not restricted to engineering and programming functions. Suppose that you are in sales and a customer asks you how long a certain digital project is slated to take. Unless you understand the principles and machinations of coding you can only guess an answer. And guessing will not promote your career.

So canny students who want a job in media, technology,or a related field would do well to forego time on the sports field in order to learn a basic computer language. Teach yourself just enough of the grammar and logic of computer languages to be able to see the big picture. Become acquainted with APIs. Dabble in a bit of Python. Immediately you have opened the door to lucrative job opportunities. Once you can claim familiarity with at least two programming languages, start sending out those resumes. And you will receive a great deal of interest from would-be employers, excited to find a nugget of gold among all that worthless ore.

Hat Tip: Kirk McDonald, ‘Sorry, College Grads, I Probably Won’t Hire You’, The Wall Street Journal, May 10, 2013

Obama-Clinton BS on Benghazi

May 9, 2013

In pursuit of two presidential victories – Barack Obama in 2012 and Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016 – President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton manipulated their puppet-on-a-string, Susan Rice to spread a false message to the American public following the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

U.N. Ambassador Rice blanketed the Sunday talk shows to deny that a terrorist attack had occurred. Rather, what happened on September 11, she span, was a spontaneous protest in response to a video insulting Islam. Well, there are lies, damned lies and Benghazi lies, and there can be few superiors to Susan Rice in the relaying of White House and State Department whoppers. Susan Rice looks like a witch, walks like a witch and sounds like a witch. Pretty much, that identifies her as an apparition that would not relish a bucketful of water.

At yesterday’s hearing before the House oversight committee, three witnesses – Gregory Hicks, Mark Thompson and Eric Nordstrom – corrected the lies that emanated from the twisted lips of Witch Rice. Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Tripoli recalled his last conversation with Ambassador Christopher Stevens who told him: ‘Greg, we’re under attack’. At that moment Mr. Hicks knew that Islamic terrorists were behind the assault. Mr Hicks personally briefed Hillary Clinton that night on the nature of the attack. Yet Clinton advised the father of Tyrone Woods much later that the YouTube video maker ‘would be prosecuted and arrested’. Trustworthy couple, those Clintons over matters appertaining to their political futures.

After Stevens and an aide were killed at the mission, the terrorists turned on the CIA annex nearby. On the advice of the military attache in Tripoli, Mr. Hicks asked for U.S. fighter planes to fly over the complex in an attempt to scare the attackers away. He was advised that no fighter planes were available. Early the following morning, two Americans died in a mortar attack on the CIA compound.

The Pentagon says that no F-16s were on call that night. Why not? Had Hillary Clinton gone to bed without requesting them? Was she asleep in bed instead of on alert for that crucial 3 am call?

The saddest part of yesterday’s hearing was the warning that had to be repeatedly administered by Republican members of the oversight committee against any attempt by the administration to seek career-damaging revenge against the three brave whistle-blowers who exposed the lies of Obama, Clinton and Rice on the eve of the 2012 elections. What kind of country is the U.S. when such warnings are required? And what kind of country is it when Democratic Party members worked not to reveal the truth but rather to protect Obama and Clinton from the cleansing power of the truth?

Hat Tip: Elliott Abrams, ‘Benghazi Truths vs. Washington Politics’, The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2013

Cyprus should reunite

May 5, 2013

Greek Cypriots confront a grim economic future following banking collapse and bail-out by the euro-zone. Gross domestic product will decline by 15 per cent in 2013, by another 15 per cent in 2014 and perhaps by another 5 per cent in 2015..That is comparable to the decline over 1974-1975 following a failed Greek-led coup followed by a successful Turkish invasion and a Turkish-Cypriot-controlled north.

It will take many years for Greek-Cyprus to return to its pre-crisis level of gross domestic product. A more vibrant north currently rivals the lowered living standards of the south.

The island as a unified whole, however, would enjoy two promising sources of growth. One is the recently discovered Aphrodite gas field in the Easfrern Mediterranean. The other is tourism, an underdeveloped industry with plenty of scope for foreign investment.

Without reunification, both sources of wealth are unlikely to be tapped Both governments lay claim to the gasfield while the cheapest route for exporting the gas would through Turkey. Tourists shy away from unstable regions.

Whether Cypriots will respond to strong economic signals is far from certain. Cyprus, it is said, never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. However the combination of a Greek-Cypriot meltdown and the Aprhrodite gasfield may just suffice to return the crazy Cypriot people to to a modicum of rationality. Sometimes even irrational peoples recognize win-win situations.

Affirmative action should be terminated

May 4, 2013

Above the entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court four words are carved: Equal justice under law. The message is perfect for a people that pursues inalienable rights to life and liberty and an imprescriptible right to property – even a society that once pursued such objectives very unevenly across the races.

It is tempting for some to request unequal treatment under law designed to benefit those treated badly in the past. Such indeed is a current occurrence in the United States with respect to certain ‘minority groups’. But what may be popular and widespread is fundamentally wrong.

Once equal justice under law has been established, it should never be violated again. For to violate the rule is to suggest that there is a better rule, which is untrue. No society can pursue the goals of life, liberty and property effectively in the absence of the rule of law. And those four words carved above the entrance to the U.S Supreme Court perfectly express the essence of the rule of law.

Hat Tip: Time to scrap affirmative action’, The Economist, May 4, 2013

Illinois at last moves to control state pensions

May 3, 2013

Illinois has the dubious reputation of the worst state pension deficit in the United States: $98.6 billion.In part because of this, Standard & Poor’s gave Illinois the lowest credit rating in the nation.

Democrats, of course, control both the House and the Senate and the Governorship. So it is to their credit that the House has passed a bill to cut state pensions and to increase contributions. The Governor also supports the bill. The Senate is wobbling but may well endorse the bill.

Do not hold your breath readers, that commonsense is sweeping through Illinois. An 800 pound gorilla lurks in the shadows. The public sector unions threaten to sue the state for breach of contract should legislation go through. It is a truly hard battle to take down these dinosaurs who are the principal cause of such budgetary headaches.

Still there is a chance and that is much better than another roll-over by the state,

In policing against domestic terrorism, probabilities matter

April 21, 2013

The United States is committed in principle to the rule of law. The rule of law rests in part on the principle that justice is blind to the color, ethnicity and religion of the individual. All individuals are presumed to be equal under the law. I am a supporter of the rule of law, most assuredly as it reaches out to conviction and punishment of those who trasngress before the law.

However, with respect to apprehension of potential criminals, I am much more equivocal, as in practice are a large number of Americans. Although, for sure, the future is uncertain, and some events may not easily be categorized in terms of probabilities, most individuals do form subjective Bayesian probabilities over important potential events. It is human nature so to do, especially when’s own safety is at stake.

Suppose, for example, a young white woman is walking down a street in Washington, DC, and she spots a group of individuals idling together on one side of the street. Would she be more confident of proceeding if that group consisted of well-dressed middle-aged white women, or of roughly dressed young black males, or of pony-tailed young Hispanics? Unless the woman was witless, of course it would matter, matter indeed a great deal. Why? Because past history signals to that young woman very different probabilities in walking closely past such variant groups. Should the police be more vigorous in patrolling in areas where middle aged white women tend to congregate? Or should they conserve their resources for the other groups? Common-sense offers a clear-cut answer to those questions.

The same issues arise with regard to policing against prospective terrorist attacks in affluent Western nations, including the United States. The radicalization of young Muslims in the West, in particular, but not exclusive to the children of the relatively well-off, is by now a familiar story.The London bombers of 2005 were middle-class Pakistani immigrants from Birmingham. Faisal Shahzad, the failed Times Square bomber was a naturalized citizen from Pakistan. The numbers are not large, and statisticians may claim that probabilities cannot be effectively drawn from such few instances. Instinct, however, advises differently.

Subjective Bayesian priors advise thoughtful people that authorities concerned to minimize future terrorist attacks within the United States are well-advised to concentrate their limited resources on monitoring foreign Muslim groups in the United States, to monitoring specific immigrant communities that have produced jihadists in the past, and to infiltrating mosques and other Muslim venues where fiery Imams are known to preach and rant. Such focused monitoring does not infringe the rule of law as long as due process is maintained in determining whether those apprehended indeed constitute a threat to society.

Some civil libertarians may beat their chests in rage at such a policy. If so, perhaps they should locate their own families in the middle of such communities and expose their own loved ones to limb dismemberment and violent death when a preventable act of terrorism eventually occurs, as occur it assuredly will in the absence of vigorous surveillance.

Hat Tip: ‘The Brothers Tsarnaev’, The Wall Street Journal’, April 20, 2013


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