Rebane's Ruminations

About

November 2026
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  

ARCHIVES

OUR LINKS

YubaNet
White House Blog
Watts Up With That?
The Union
Sierra Thread
RL “Bob” Crabb
Barry Pruett Blog

  • NBC – Lamestream’s poster child

    George Rebane

    NBC (National Bamboozle Company), one of the premier leftwing media outlets, has been a main motivator for the widely used ‘lamestream’ label.  Now it turns out they have achieved a new level of sleazebag journalism.  This week’s Congressional contempt citation to Attorney General Eric Holder has the network presenting extended background coverage as they scramble to tell its viewers about the ‘Fast and Furious’ gun-walking scandal.  Otherwise their loyal audience wouldn’t have a clue as to what all the sudden fuss is about between Holder and Congress that now includes President Obama claiming ‘executive privilege’ for Holder’s zipped lip.

    NoEvil
    While consumers of the more comprehensive and professional news outlets – both broadcast and web-based – have known about this disgraceful and inept cover-up for well over a year, viewers of NBC have received just ten seconds of FaF coverage over the last 18 months.  That’s not a typo, Fox News reports research showing NBC‘s TOTAL mention of that ill-conceived and executed DoJ program took an entire TEN SECONDS over the last year and a half, while the rest of the country was being continually updated on the dirtbag tactics, denials, and retractions coming out of the administration.

    As these pages have pointed out over the years, this leads to an extremely uninformed and ignorant constituency of Americans who get their only (credible?) news from lamestream outlets.  It explains away their outrage when they arrive at conservative blogs like RR to discover major happenings and issues that their pabulum purveyors decided to deny them.  I’d be pissed too, and damned ashamed to admit my ignorance.  In those cases a good offense is always the best defense, especially in the eyes of the equally blinded.  But the informed just shake their heads and go on with their lives – timely and accurate information is now another line that divides our nation.

    Posted at

    in

    , , , ,
    62 comments on NBC – Lamestream’s poster child

  • Ackerman to leave The Union

    George Rebane

    I was surprised to read this in the 20jun12 online paywalled edition of The Union.  H/T to RR reader.

    JeffAckermanJeff Ackerman, publisher of The Union, announced today that he will be leaving the newspaper after 10 years of serving the western Nevada County community.

    Ackerman will be taking an expanded scope of responsibilities for Swift Communications, The Union’s parent company for which he has worked for nearly three decades. Ackerman will move north to Oregon as publisher of The News-Review in Roseburg.

    “In addition, Jeff will have the added responsibilities as Swift content development and new revenue assessment leader, a role for which he’s imminently and uniquely qualified,” Swift Communications President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Brown said in a statement.

    Ackerman began his career with Swift 28 years ago and has served as reporter and editor, as well as publisher at North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, Nevada Appeal and The Union; and general manager of Sierra Nevada Media Group.

    Dave Schmall will take over as publisher at The Union in Grass Valley, effective July 2. Schmall joined Swift Communications in February and previous to that, served as publisher of the Marysville Appeal-Democrat.

    For more on this story, see Friday morning’s print edition of The Union.

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    6 comments on Ackerman to leave The Union

  • That droning you hear …

    George Rebane

    These pages have long covered the advances and uses of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or ‘drones’ for surveillance and interdiction.  My usual examination of new technology in such areas includes its portent as a tool to install and maintain tyranny.  I suppose that suspicion is built into my double helix.  Well, apparently that genetic predisposition is shared by quite a number of people across the country, but it is definitely absent in the progressive elites and their local echo chambers.

    UAV_SWATThis has been made clear in the comment streams on this (e.g. here) and other blogs that report the approaching menace of surveillance drones filling the skies over America.  UAV manufacturers are running over each other in the effort to sell their wares to every imaginable jurisdiction and government agency in the land.  What again did Lenin say about ‘the capitalist will sell us the rope with which we will hang them’?  All of this, of course, goes along with the proliferation of armed enforcement capabilities throughout federal and state governments (e.g. Department of Education buying shotguns and arming their ‘agents’).

    Now we read that people across the country are beginning to be alarmed about the next step Big Government is preparing to make sure that we will remain docile and under control.  The 19jun12 online Washington Times reports ‘Talk of drones patrolling U.S. skies spawns anxiety’ that details the concern about this arising in Congress.  In the meantime be prepared for our collective cohorts to start pooh-poohing such concerns, and ascribe those concerned to the dimwitted divisions of the political Right.  … while we quietly watch and wonder.

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    93 comments on That droning you hear …

  • Judea Pearl, Turing Laureate

    George Rebane

    Pearl_ACMJudea Pearl, Professor of Computer Sciences UCLA, received the A.M. Turing Award last night at the awards banquet of the Association of Computing Machinery at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco.  He now joins the forty-three previous laureates of the ‘Nobel prize of computing’, of whom twenty-five were in attendance to honor him.

    Jo Ann and I joined the gala celebration as guests of the awardee, and sat with family and friends, most of whom we have known for decades.  (I am a lifelong member of the ACM.)  The awards banquet also honored other contributors to the field and culminated in the Turing Award presentation.  Here is ACM’s official, yet still modest, recounting of Judea’s accomplishments.

    The Pearls became family friends soon after Judea Pearl collaborated on a project with a ‘black studies’ company I was running in the 1970s.  Judea’s wife Ruth (an accomplished software engineer in her own right) is a consummate hostess.  Jo Ann also had (still has) a reputation for putting on mean soirees that, with the passing hours, devolved into impromptu performances ranging from poetry recitations, through heated debates on various arcane and absorbing topics, to planned revivals of long ago salons of the Englightment.

    We were often at each other’s house for such dinners, parties, and special noodling sessions.  These always included music that had us singing with guitars and keyboard for accompaniment.  Judea is an accomplished guitar player, keyboardist, and has a great singing voice.  He’s also a world class choral conductor and has performed numerous times at the LA Music Center.  (I was the less practiced one on both instruments, making up in volume for what I lacked in technique.)

    Pearl_ACM2
    A couple of shared memories from a rich catalog.  For Ruth’s birthday one year Judea invited us and another couple to a small westside bistro in LA.  We knew that something special was going to happen because Judea brought his guitar; but what could that be since we were eating in a restaurant?  Not a problem, soon the main course was finished, and after dinner drinks were in hand.  The lights were low and the atmosphere was perfect as Judea reached behind his chair for his trusty guitar and putting a foot on his chair, he launched into a medley of love songs to his bride of many years.

    The other patrons in the restaurant were enthralled along with those at our table.  I recall Judea ending his special gift to Ruth (and the rest of us) with a rendition of a soulful Spanish adagio for solo trumpet and guitar from a piece I could not place.  It was a night to remember, as Judea kissed Ruth to the applause of the entire restaurant.  (Solo trumpet?  Did I fail to mention that Judea also has a unique gift, the ability to purse his lips, puff his cheeks, and perfectly simulate the sound of a virtuoso trumpet?)

    Another memory is when I got a call late one afternoon from Judea saying that Ed Feigenbaum was in town and could drop by for some dinner and talk; would I care to join them?  (The techie reader will recognize Feigenbaum as a renown giant of AI, ‘father of expert systems’, and Turing laureate who taught for years at Stanford – now professor emeritus.)  Long story short.  After one of Ruth’s ‘oh it’s nothing’ fabulous meals, the three of us retired to the patio and spent the next four (five?) hours talking about the state of machine intelligence, who was doing what, and possible directions the science would take and its impact on society.  At the time Judea had already published his landmark 1986 paper and was working on his 1988 book on Bayes nets (I was one of Judea’s doctoral students doing research in Bayes learning).  It was clear that the torch would soon be passed from Feigenbaum’s expert systems to Pearl’s Bayes nets (with causality soon making its early murmurs).  Truly another memorable night.
       
    So that was the basis for all the fuss this weekend at the Rebane household.   Yesterday morning we dropped off our puppy with the Steeles, and headed through a hot and crowded central valley to San Francisco.  Judea and I were able to spend some quality time together before the band started playing.  (The picture with the other white haired professor catches a debate on who has known Judea the longest – I foolishly thought c’est moi.  I came in a distant second to the good professor who has known Judea since they were playmates on an Israeli kibbutz eons ago while the Brits still ran Palestine.)

    Jo Ann and Ruth picked up where they left off (top picture).  Ruth also sits on the board of the Daniel Pearl Foundation which is dedicated in memory of their son and has as its mission statement –

    The Daniel Pearl Foundation has been formed by Danny’s family and friends to continue Danny’s mission and to address the root causes of this tragedy, in the spirit, style, and principles that shaped Danny’s work and character. These principles include uncompromised objectivity and integrity; insightful and unconventional perspective; tolerance and respect for people of all cultures; unshaken belief in the effectiveness of education and communication; and the love of music, humor, and friendship.

    (Full disclosure: Jo Ann and I are ongoing supporters of the foundation, especially its work in bringing greater mutual understanding between Islamic and western cultures.)

    Posted at

    in

    , , , ,
    6 comments on Judea Pearl, Turing Laureate

  • ‘Whose fault?’ and ‘market morality’

    George Rebane

    CollectivismOn Russ Steele’s NC2012 there is a comment stream in which people are groping for some middle ground.  I have contributed to it by asking what would one do with such a middle ground, were one to be discovered.  The point being that it’s highly likely that there is no profitable middle ground to be had between today’s historically polarized ideologies.  By ‘profitable’ I mean one that suggests a consensus in adopting a plan forward.  Historically we are now beyond that point.

    To the body of evidence that supports this proposition, I add Edward Lazear’s 14jun12 WSJ essay, ‘Whose Fault Is Today’s Bad Economy?’  He summarizes his excellent development with his starting paragraph –

    Picture this scenario in baseball: Pitcher Smith replaces a starting pitcher in the fourth inning, when his team is down by three runs. The team scores two runs in the next inning, almost tying the score. But in the sixth inning, Smith gives up five runs, putting his team hopelessly behind. After the loss, Smith tells reporters that he did not pitch well in the sixth inning because the team was behind before he entered the game in the fourth.

    It’s worth a read and makes an excellent case for stopping the endless exchange of pointing at the actions and policy maneuverings of pre-2009 Republicans and Democrats.

    As another measure of the gulf that divides us, take a look at a succinct and extremely revealing description of what the self-described progressive faction characterizes as proper morality within which markets must be “framed”.  Recall, that collectivism always marches under the banners of morality which, for a bunch of atheists, is surprisingly always an absolute that emerges from God(sic) knows where.  In ‘Economics and Morality: Paul Krugman’s Framing’ Lakoff and Wehling of truthout.com argue –

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , , , , ,
    25 comments on ‘Whose fault?’ and ‘market morality’

  • Stratfor’s Geopolitics of the United States

    George Rebane

    The well-respected geo-strategic intelligence service Stratfor recently updated another one of its landmark essays on major regions and countries of the world – this one on the United States.  The free two-part report is both a review and an education in itself.  Most of us were not taught to see our country from such an extensive, detailed, and lavishly illustrated geopolitical perspective.  I recommend it to RR readers since it does allow us to get more or less on the same page as a start point for the national and international issues that we discuss and debate.  Enjoy.

    The Geopolitics of the United States, Part 1: The Inevitable Empire

    The Geopolitics of the United States, Part 2: American Identity and the Threats of Tomorrow

    Posted at

    in

    , ,
    1 comment on Stratfor’s Geopolitics of the United States

  • Ruminations – 12jun12 (updated 13jun12)

    George Rebane

    The situation in Europe is coming to a head, and Angela's got the whole world in her hand.  Now it’s definitely Spain’s and Italy’s turn in the barrel.  The remarkable news is that most likely there will be another €100B thrown at Spain’s banks intended to bail them out of bad sovereign debts that Spain’s government doesn’t have the money to repay.  But this money can serve no other purpose than to delay the inevitable; there is nothing Spain is doing to kick-start its economy and stop its descent.

    From the prices of Spain’s government bonds today, the markets are saying that there is one chance in 23 that Spain will default within a year.  For Italy that likelihood is one out of 25 in the same period.  Tomorrow these odds will be less favorable.  What’s in your portfolio?  (Put in other numbers here.)

    “It is not clear whether the expanded testing regimen boosted student learning.”  So opines a Reuters journalist reporting on the backlash to standardized testing that appears to be increasing across the country.  Parents of poorly scoring students are chanting that their “kids are not a test score”, and are demanding “more teaching and less testing.”   Apparently all these anti-testing factions – from teachers, unions, parents, … – are not concerned about assessing how their little darlins are doing in school as the test scores are heading south.  The journalist’s wonderment is probably shared by the multitudes who don’t know that learning and testing are necessarily independent efforts.  The clear conclusion is that the best way to address junior’s poor performance in reading and math, and all the subjects that require proficiency in reading and math, is to turn a blind eye to the matter by eliminating or dumbing down standardized tests.  (more here)

    Many pundits are telling us that this or that faction will sit out the November election because their candidate is not exactly on the mark with certain facets of ideology or promises made.  Most of the discontents and vexed seem to be on the left side of the aisle.  I think they are flat wrong.

    But no one who has been paying attention is going to sit out this election.  We are a nation too vehemently polarized to let others decide which of the two ‘evils’ facing us will prevail.  The only ones who won’t vote are the usual double dummies who don’t recognize the fork in the road and keep running into the road sign.  Unfortunately, too many of them are smug conservatives who tell you that it doesn’t really matter who wins, the whole thing is corrupt and rigged, they’re too busy working to pay taxes for those who don’t, …, or they just mumble ‘smurglemurf’ (for you of appropriate vintage, that’s how you pronounce the Lil’ Abner eternal jinx Joe Btsfplk’s name.)

    [update]  Jo Ann forwarded a piece from Senator LaMalfa wherein he alerts us that the Democrats audacity to rape the taxpayer is going up another notch.  Gov Moonbeam has a bill in the state legislature that would penalize you 20% of any tax overpayment refund you would request that the Franchise Tax Board considers “excessive”.  Many of us overpay during the year so as not to incur and underpayment penalty when taxes are due.  Now the sumbich wants to dunn us for giving the state the use of our excess payment until refund time comes around.  I think these people know no shame.  Now they want you to pay them for restocking your wallet with your own money.  If you want to bitch and moan about this one – and you should – then here is some contact info.

    Office of the Governor (voice mail): (916) 445–2841
    Assembly Member Bob Blumenfield, Chair, Assembly Budget Committee (916) 319–2040
    Senator Mark Leno, Chair, Senate Budget and Fiscal Review (916) 651–4003

    [13jun12 update]  Now we hear that the total of unfunded pension liabilities across all jurisdictions in the country has exceeded $4,000,000,000,000 – yes, that four TRILLION dollars.  And no one has a clue on how to make good on those obligations.  The only solution still is to stiff the retired public service workers.  I hope everyone has pictures and videos of the celebrations that took place after the unions got the members of NASP (National Association of Scumbag Politicians) to authorize all those contracts.  That's about the most that they'll have to look at besides very tiny retirement checks in their mailboxes.

    Mark Meckler of tea party fame reported today that people who track what the media – including the lamestream – cover, now tell us that it was only four days ago that NBC first reported on 'Fast and Furious', the months old gun walking fiasco that the Dept of Justice authorized along the Mexican border.  This aspect of liberal journalism at work goes a long way to explain why progressives have little clue on what's happening in the world, and respond in outrage to presentations of blatant and well-aged facts.  On RR we do what we can.

    Posted at

    in

    , , , , ,
    100 comments on Ruminations – 12jun12 (updated 13jun12)

  • For the record: public service unions and national security leaks

    George Rebane

    Among other more far seeing mavens, RR and its selected cohort of commenters deserve a little chest thump and back slap or two for being years ahead of what has now emerged as national wisdom on the destructive force that is the public service unions operating at ALL levels of government.

    Now we have both Democratic and Republican electeds pointing out that the opulent benefits of public sector compensation packages need to be rolled back.  In San Jose, San Diego, Wisconsin, Vallejo, Stockton, Indiana, … the people have spoken, and these people are not only made up of conservatives or tea party members.  I don’t think that this infection of eye opening revelations is going to stop with these jurisdictions.  There is a sea change happening and people are hearkening back to the historical warnings from FDR and George Meany, not exactly rightwing opponents of the labor movement.

    What is not surprising is that the local leftwingers have seen none of this, and today remain as blind as ever.  To them last Tuesday’s elections were a victory which they continue to celebrate as the resurrection of the Purple People Eater that is turning all voters into their leftwing version of ‘middle roaders’.  I think that is wonderful.  How can anyone not like an election in which everyone wins.  Most certainly the conservatives want the progressives to hold that warm thought, and continue doing what they have done so far.  Those kinds of ‘victories’ are bankable.

    What now is also in the national discussion is the recognized fact that our elected officials sit at least on both sides of the table during negotiations with the public service unions.  And many of them sit only on one side – guess which.  How can you tell on which side your electeds sit on?  Simple, when they all swear on a stack of bibles that they only represent you the voter, and to boot act huffy that you even brought up the subject, you need look no further.  Those officials who understand the problem and their manifest involvements are now beginning to show a smidgeon of contrition here and there.

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    ,
    43 comments on For the record: public service unions and national security leaks

  • What recovery? (updated 12jun12)

    George Rebane

    [This is the submitted form of my regular Union column that was published on 9 June 2012.  Remarkably, The Union published its print and online versions without the inclusion of the figure.]

    How’s that recovery working out for you?  It’s seems like we’re watching molasses flow uphill, and we know that is not going to last.  There is no indication that anyone has a plan that would let us catch up with our historical growth curve, and the mavens in Washington and Sacramento are applying every trick they know to destroy the incentives for businesses to create jobs and the unemployed to find work.

    GDPfigureAll the numbers that drizzle out of the various government bureaus and agencies are confusing and so much hooey.  Harvard economist Robert Barro advises us to keep it simple by just gluing our eyeball to the gross domestic product (GDP) – if that’s not going up at a good pace, nothing else matters.  To give you an idea of a good pace, GDP went up at an average of 3.1% a year since recovering from the post-war recession in 1948.  And to put a bow on it, in the 1982-89 years GDP growth spurted up to average 4.3% a year.

    In this so-called recovery we have averaged 2.4% annually since 2009, and that rate has been slowing.  Last quarter it dropped to 1.8%, and the per capita rate has dropped about $1,000 since 2009.  The reason all this is doubly troubling is that historically recession recoveries have enjoyed GDP rates significantly above the 3.1% average when supportive economic policies have been followed.  The bigger the recession, the stronger has been the recovery.  Not this time.

     
    Most folks don’t pay much mind to GDP; it’s just another number they hear on TV that’s supposed be something like a speedometer, or fuel gauge, or gas pedal, or some other thing to do with America’s economy.  But as things keep going downhill – and make no mistake, we are now going downhill – all of us who vote should know a little something about what GDP is and what goes into its make-up.  The nearby figure helps us understand GDP’s important inputs and outputs – it’s really a simple arithmetic problem that sums a few fairly straightforward parts as shown.

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , , ,
    54 comments on What recovery? (updated 12jun12)

  • Silencing and Suppressing the Right

    George Rebane

    [This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary that will be broadcast early next week due to this week being the station’s regular late spring pledge week.]

    The debate about who is trying to silence whom continues.  Over the past decades the evidence has favored the Right since McCarthy was accused of blacklisting half of Hollywood sixty years ago.  But during this election year of intense emotions and strong political positions, it’s good to consider some updates of what our progressive cadres are doing in and out of government.

    Have you heard of SWATing?  That’s SWAT like in Special Weapons and Tactics, you know, all the guys in black combat gear with assault weapons descending on armed desperados holed up somewhere.  Well SWATing is when you go in front of someone’s house, dial 911, and report that someone was just killed or is about to be done in.  Very quickly the police with SWAT team in tow arrive and assault the house.

    The Washington Times reports that this has now happened to three prominent conservative bloggers across the country who reported on the doings of a leftwing activist Brett Kimberlin.  The encounters have been pretty dramatic, and surprised the hell out of the victims.  Fortunately no one has yet been shot.

    (more…)

    Posted at

    in

    , , , ,
    15 comments on Silencing and Suppressing the Right

RR FUNDAMENTALS

About the Bastiat Triangle

Glossary & Semantics

A Conservetarian Credo

Commenting Rules

RECENT POSTS

RECENT COMMENTS

CATEGORIES

62 comments on NBC – Lamestream’s poster child