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  • RR Administrivia

    George Rebane

    I have removed the indented reply feature from the comment threads.  A reader suggested its implementation, and it seemed like a good idea.  But then it soon became apparent that new comments were suddenly buried 'in the past', attached to some previous comment thread which was invisible to an arriving commenter.  This obfuscation was also picked up by one of my critics who promptly accused me of changing the comment format so as to hide his and other critics' comments.  Finally, it turned out that it is more difficult to manage the comment stream in such threads, especially trying to find comments that have no place here and should be deleted (e.g. this morning's droppings from a 'Mike Smith').

    So we're back to the old format which seemed to work.  I recommend that we maintain responses and comment threads by continuing to address the previous commenter and, perhaps, adding the specific date/time of the previous comment responded to – e.g.  'Harry re YYMMDD tttt, … ' – using the 24 hour clock to indicate the previous comment's time stamp.

    On my part, I will do my best to cull the off-topic gratuitous attacks so that they will not waste the time of readers not interested in such personal vendettas.  Let's see if these efforts will work, and thank you for your patience in all this.

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  • ‘… war for national survival …’ (updated 12may2011)

    George Rebane

    IslamMeetsWest Thank goodness, at last I’m not alone 😉  In these pages my commentaries on the resumed war between (radical) Islam and the West have met with some pretty hard criticism from our progressive brethren.  My assessments have been described as everything from lunacy to racism.  While I have never claimed a sole perch on this tenet, others have bestowed that upon me.

    In regard to the war on Muslim terror, yesterday 3may11 the venerable Wall Street Journal again acknowledged that “we cannot forget that this is a war for national survival against enemies who would annihilate our cities if they could.” (emphasis mine)

    I suppose my detractors will now argue that the WSJ is just playing catch-up with RR, even though I myself would take a more modest stance on such a conclusion.

    [12may2011 update]  The debates in the comment stream to this post notwithstanding, I early on joined with those who saw the conflict between radical Islam and the West as something much larger than fragmented Muslim vendettas against the western countries for their alleged and acknowledged acts of imperialism.  My claim was that I agreed with the declared Islamists and their condoning silent majority.  Among these was the former head of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden.  As reported in the world’s leading journals it was bin Laden who “by framing the fight as a clash of civilizations, he could draw the West into a global war on terror.”  (The Economist, 7-13may11)

    In the meanwhile it has been the constant and conspicuous labor of the left to minimize the scale and scope of this confrontation to the point of attempting to trivialize it into a series of disparate criminal activities.  As the conversation in the sequel reveals, the left is coming around to acknowledging the global import of radical Islam, and instead, is now citing a view of history highlighting the argument that the West had it coming.

    The natural extension of this line of reasoning is that our proper response should be contrition in the extreme, doing everything we can not to aggravate or further irritate Muslims wherever they may be found – in their historical lands or in our midst.  All asymmetries in how the two cultures treat each other’s members should be ignored.  And since our culture is the guilty party, it falls on us to bend, comply, and comport ourselves properly so as to bring the matter to a peaceful conclusion acceptable to Islam.

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  • The Birth Certificate from Hell (updated 16may2011)

    George Rebane

    President Obama posted what he vouched as his genuine Hawaii birth certificate the other day (here).  The intent was to finally put to rest the innuendos, claims, and downright charges that he is not a ‘natural born American’.   But given the image analysis tools broadly available today, along with a remarkable amount of well dispersed knowledge about image processing, the posted birth certificate raises more questions than it answers.

    With some background in the theory and practice of image analysis, I found the arguments in this YouTube video illuminating and at the same time disturbing.  The question that resonates in my brainbone is ‘why would anyone from the White House think that this image of the birth certificate would pass muster?’  This dust-devil just wants to become a tornado.  You be the judge.

    H/T for the email from a reader.

    [4may2011 update]  The White House presented birth certificate is now becoming laughable.  The above image analysis was expended and explicated in this YouTube video.  To accept the certificate as authentic now requires the suspension of disbelief usually attributed to religious fanatics.  All that remains for the hard left to do is to just talk past this which does happen to be real evidence that the WH posted long form birth certificate is a doctored fake.  H/T to a reader.

    [15may2011 update]  To bring the WH posted birth certificate issue to closure, I sent the following email to our Congressman Tom McClintock on 4 May 2011 with a copy to his chief of staff Igor Birman.

    Hi Tom – I’m sure you’re aware of it by now, but the WH posted pdf of the President’s “scanned” birth certificate is a doctored fake.  I pulled down the image myself, and viewed it in Adobe Acrobat Professional to confirm the analyses available on YouTube.  My own post on the subject is here
    http://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2011/05/the-birth-certificate-from-hell.html

    I don’t know what the politics behind this fakery is or how it should be played, but I would like to know 1) any additional info you have on the posted birth certificate, and 2) what, if any, official reaction will you have toward this latest ‘proof’.

    Thank you the great job, and for hanging in there for us,
    George

    And on 12 May 2011 I followed up with an email to Igor Birman that read –

    Hi Igor – this birth certificate issue must really be one too hot to handle.  I made no birther claim, only corroborated (in my capacity as a registered professional engineer in the relevant technologies) that the WH posted birth certificate pdf is a fake.  If you don’t want to address that blatant fact, can you at least tell me what is the strategy of silence over this clumsy posting on the WH website?  In short, if Tom believes it to be authentic, and that it settles the matter, then please tell us.

    Thanks,
    gjr

    To these emails I received the following reply.

    [16may2011 update]  The subsequent exchange today between Igor Birman and me may put paid to the above developments.

    Hi George:

    First, please forgive the tardiness of my reply. Last week presented far more material than could be digested, so I am writing you back from a United A319 cruising at 38,000 feet over Ohio en route to California.

    Our office never had the time to examine the birth certificate, so your findings concern me. You may have heard this before – we did have the time to send Brittan Specht to the Library of Congress to find the original newspaper bearing Obama's birth announcement in Honolulu. If the conspiracy to make him a natural-born citizen extends that far back, we are in more trouble than we realize.

    The more important point for me is this: there is a finite amount of time between now and the election. We can either spend the next 17.5 months debating where Obama was born, or we can invest every moment of our time and every ounce of our energy into making a case against his reckless monetary policy, bungled bailouts, forcing Soviet-style healthcare on the country, wild spending, naked hostility to domestic energy production, etc. I can assure you that on the latter we have the rapt attention of almost every American. I don't know what percentage is paying attention to the former, but I can also assure you that it is a smaller figure. I am afraid that if we don't focus like a laser on the tangible consequences (present and future) of Obama's misadventures in the White House, we will allow him to skate on through into a second term.

    Let me know what you think!

    All the best,
    -Igor

    To which I replied –

    Igor, thank you for the reply – well formed and to the point.  With your permission, I would like to publish it and my response.  In sum, I agree with your resource allocation decision in the face of ‘limited bandwidth’ that the congressman has at his disposal.  My caveats on the issue are intended to be added arrows in Tom’s quiver should the appropriate occasion arise.  I list them below –

    1. As pointed out by several other commentators, the Honolulu newspaper birth announcement is not a validation of anything per se.  Newspapers don’t vet the accuracy of classified ads.  Such ads have been placed regularly for decades, and for a number of reasons by people who think ahead.  As concerned collectivist thinkers and activists, Obama’s parents most certainly had the ability and motive to think and act strategically in this manner.  Many illegal entrants do so regularly.
    2. The posted birth certificate (pdf) is represented by the WH as definitive proof of Obama’s birth.   Americans should take at its face value the WH declared objective, production pathway, and intended function of publishing this pdf in resolving the birth issue.
    3. Given #2, the FACT that the pdf is a modified document that could not have gone through the claimed production pathway – original paper document, file of scanned paper copy, conversion of file to pdf, posting pdf on WH website – makes the posted birth certificate a fake, and its representation to the American public a lie.
    4. None of this is proof, per se, that Obama’s birth situation violates the constitutional provision for the country’s presidency.  But, at a minimum, it sustains the proposition that Obama has yet to offer proof that he does satisfy the Constitution.  And the more, that for TBD reasons his administration (he?) has behaved fraudulently in the posting of the pdf.
    5. Any member of Congress can vet the authenticity of the pdf (for much less cost than sending someone to Honolulu to read newspaper archives) by asking a government funded unit such as the NSA or JPL to have their imaging experts look at the file for fifteen minutes, and report back on its purported authenticity viz its stated production pathway.  Or simply hire one of a legion of available private technical consultants to do so (I have already done it pro bono).  BTW, since we are dealing with a reproduced digital image, why the administration has not provided such accompanying bona fides is an additional mystery.

    I hope this at least helps clarify my position on the matter.  Thanks again, and let me know when you’re next in town or striking distance.

    gjr

    Finally, my error in implying that Congressman McClintock's office sent someone to Honolulu instead of to the Libraty of Congress in Washington DC.

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  • Fox News Adds to the Confusion on Debt Limits

    George Rebane

    Fox News does a fairly reasonable job on news and commentary, way beyond what the lamestream produces, but Fox also has its weak moments.  Yesterday, on their major Sunday talk show with Chris Wallace, the anchor replayed the Democrats’ shibboleth that the choice Congress faces is to either raise the debt limit, or default on our debt service payments and cause worldwide financial chaos.  That is patently bullcrap.

    RR recently presented the situation in the most clear assemblage of points that even a progressive could almost understand (here).  And we should not forget that Senator Toomery (R-PA) along with our own Rep Tom McClintock (R-CA4) have corresponding bills – The Fiscal Integrity Act and the Full Faith and Credit Act - in the chute to guarantee that Congress would prioritize spending programs to cut so as to never have to worry about America’s defaulting on our debt service payments.  About the possibility of this flotsam Sen Toomey corroborated the arguments in my RR post and stated in a 19jan11 WSJ article  –

    … if Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling, the federal government will still have far more than enough money to fully service our debt. Next year, for instance, about 6.5% of all projected federal government expenditures will go to interest on our debt, and tax revenue is projected to cover about 67% of all government expenditures. With roughly 10 times more income than needed to honor our debt obligations, why would we ever default?

    Perhaps Fox News could do a little house cleaning or remediation in their research department so that its on-camera talent don't wind up sounding like those yokels on MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, CBS, … .  Attempting to be "Fair and Balanced" doesn't mean that you have to also insert an equivalent share of night soil into your news and commentary. 

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  • Nailed the Sumbich

    George Rebane

    Number One Raghead Osama bin Laden is dead – RIH.  On to the next ones.

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  • You would? Really?

    George Rebane

    Would you lend money to someone who already owes you more than he can repay, wants you to loan him more so he can use some of it to pay you the interest on what he currently owes (a la Madoff), and owns a printing press that is already printing his debt to you into oblivion?

    HelicopterBen 

    (If YES, then when would you stop?)

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  • ‘Sunk Costs Don’t Count’

    George Rebane

    This is a truism in the world of financial decision making, why?  Because sunk costs are just that, irretrievable.  So any decisions about what to do in the future should only consider costs that you have yet to incur; in short, things you can still influence.

    How many times in political debates have we heard, ‘Well, where was (Bush1/2, Clinton, Reagan, Carter, …) when (an event similar to one confronting us now) happened?’  The referenced event was evidently a screw-up, and the blame for its occurrence is laid squarely at the feet of the designated politician.  The argument is presented as some type of a self-adulatory winning stroke in a debate about a current politician who has just committed or is about to commit a similar screw-up.

    Today we see this kindergarten coup de grace being frequently used in broadcast debates, and most certainly in the printed media that includes the blogs.  The basic message of the retort is that it’s OK for my guy to screw up now, since under similar circumstances your guy screwed up then.  With such irredeemable logic there can be no debate about what correctives could be applied today using what we learned from yesterday.

    But if we do want to decide on a better path for tomorrow, then dredging up a sunk cost to justify the intentional payment of one more is just plain idiotic.  Let’s learn from the past, and start with the understanding that, going forward, sunk costs don’t count.

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  • Atlas Mugged (Addended)

    George Rebane

    Yesterday afternoon we, along with the Steeles, went to see the movie ‘Atlas Shrugged – Part 1’ that I described in ‘Shrugging Atlas is Back’.   The movie, based on Ayn Rand’s novel of the same name, lived up to its expectations.  The casting, acting, production values, and fidelity to the original were well executed.  I look forward to Parts 2 and 3 of this trilogy.

    Reflecting on what I had seen in the movie, especially how it depicts what we are living through today, I was struck by the thought that the trilogy will communicate little to the meager number of progressives who will see it.  Heralding its early demise, they simply do not understand the point of the movie.  Its dystopic message for the rest of us will be seen as a necessary waypoint to their new world order.

    In that order there is little need for individual risk, initiative, and enterprise.  All problems will be solved by state committees for the common good.  'Excess funds' will be siphoned out of the population through higher tax rates and redistributed.  All progressives know that higher tax rates will not harm the economy, in fact, they cite the post-war years as evidence that higher taxes will even stimulate the economy.

    Unfortunately, the conditions of the fifties are misinterpreted by the left.  Then the US was the technology, agricultural, and manufacturing leader of a world mostly under-developed and devastated by war.  As long as international trade was allowed, and appropriate set-asides and subsidies were in place, the imposed tax rate did not matter much.  Money still came pouring in from all sides because we could make and sell stuff that the world could get from nowhere else – competition was non-existent, and demand was found under every overturned rock.  Not any more – Atlas mugged.

    [Addendum]  The above does not make explicit what I want to relate as the major takeaway from the movie and the book.  In 1957 Ayn Rand published Atlas Shrugged as a warning to us that if we kept looking to government for solutions and allowing it to grow into a megalith surrogate for our personal responsibilities, then we would wind up with the world she depicted.  That same megalith would hang around the neck of every productive citizen in the land.

    The truth of the matter is that Rand's described world is now upon us and much more.  We are past the point she depicted.  In her warning, she still allowed for a way back to sanity.  Today, the added burden of massive debt and deficits has put us beyond the pale – we are beyond the precipice like Wiley Coyote.  And like Wiley, we will not be able to walk on air back to safety.  Even Atlas cannot lift from our backs the trillions upon trillions we have senselessly allowed to accumulate there.

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  • ‘Thanksgiving 2022’

    George Rebane

    [This came in email, and reading it I immediately began looking for some hyperbole.  But given this administration’s stated goals, established direction, and ongoing ‘progress’ thereto, I couldn’t find any.  Perhaps you can dear reader.]

    "Winston, come into the dining room, it's time to eat," Julia yelled to her husband. "In a minute, honey, it's a tie score," he answered.  Actually Winston wasn't very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington.

    Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its "unseemly violence" and the "bad example it sets for the rest of the world," Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be.  Two-hand touch wasn't nearly as exciting.

    Yet it wasn't the game that Winston was uninterested in.  It was more the thought of eating another Tofu Turkey.  Even though it was the best type of Veggie Meat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes, cranberry sauce and mince-meat pie), it wasn't anything like real turkey.  And ever since the government officially changed the name of "Thanksgiving Day" to "A National Day of Atonement" in 2020 to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims' historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster.

    (more…)

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  • ‘He is Risen!’

     

    HeIsRisen 

    Happy Easter from our family to you and yours.

    George and Jo Ann

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3 comments on RR Administrivia