Gain the name of being a gentleman, for it is enough to make you loved.  Courtesy is the stem of culture, a species of sorcery, and so gains the affections of everybody, just as discourtesy wins scorn, and universal hatred.  Baltasar Gracian #118

George Rebane

China commissioned its first carrier to begin projecting power far beyond its borders.  The ship will anchor the first of its carrier task groups that will be similar to the eleven that are now the backbone of the US Navy, and which comprise the prime means of stiffening American diplomacy when so used by our President.  Since it will take a few years for the Chinese to learn how to land on and operate such ships, we have some time to consider how we will respond to China’s increasing nationalism and presence in the western Pacific.  Watchword – in international affairs, power talks, bulls**t walks – a not very progressive thought.  More here.

President Obama gave a speech at the UN today that was directed at the American electorate in order to shore up his foreign policy credentials (full text here).  In studying its text, I saw nothing there that would cause international Islam to increase its respect for America.  It was another kumbayah effort similar to Lyndon Johnson’s invitation to ‘come, let us reason together’ which fell flat during the Vietnam era.  From Obama there was no takeaway of ‘if you mess with our legitimate interests, we’ll whump you.’ – a message understood by all bad actors since biblical times.  More here.

As if on track with Team Obama’s ongoing obstinacy about recent riots, National Propaganda Radio continues to report that it was “the video that prompted the killing of the US ambassador” to Libya.  This is part of a more comprehensive lamestream anti-Romney effort that includes the recent developments at Soros funded trumpet Media Matters.  Evidence now surfaces that MM is another government shill outlet coordinating its anti-Fox, anti-conservative messages with the Dept of Justice.  More here.

Prominent prognosticator Nate Silver has written a new book ‘the signal and the noise’ in which he takes us down the alleys and byways of the prediction business and shows how fallacies can crop up and one can fool and be fooled by statistics.  His bottom line message appears as a more breezy, yet extensively footnoted, repetition of Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow that includes Bayesian decision making long promoted and explained in detail in these pages (here and here).  Silver’s advice to those entering the forecasting business echos my own and is to “become Bayesians”.