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  • Ruminations – 6feb2010

    George Rebane

    – Abdulmutallab – give up the country to defend the party
    – The causes of the Great Recession
    – Singularity and the Great Recession

    When they Mirandized jihadist Abdulmutallab, it was clear to half the country or more that this had been a big mistake by the Obama administration.  Attorney General Eric Holder is currently dangled in the bus lane for that gaffe.  The part that really worries the Democrats is what the independent voters think about criminalizing acts of war against our country.  The questioning of the Islamist was an early issue, what could they squeeze out of him before his lawyers stuck their feet in his mouth.  The resultant scramble to open him up again seems to have worked.  And now the Democrats, eager to absolve the first screw-up, are telling the world what Abdulmutallab is telling them.  Communicating all this to al-Qaida is, of course, screw-up number two.  Peggy Noonan makes a point of this in her 6feb10 WSJ piece.  It seems that the administration is compromising new intelligence gained in order to cover their collective butts.  Community organizing must have been a lot easier.

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  • KVMR Commentary – 5feb2010

    George Rebane

    Today I returned to doing radio commentaries.  I will be doing a new commentary every other Friday on  KVMR-FM 89.5, Nevada County's public radio station.  This was broadcast today.

    ====

    Contending ideologies and ideologues are very much in the news these days.  When people hear either of those words, they usually come up with a negative response.  From the media we receive the daily dose that ideologues are some kind of over-zealous and closed-minded people who promote ideas off the beaten track, ideas that maybe are even inimical to the American way.  Regular Americans are not supposed to be ideologues.

    Hello, my name is George Rebane.  I am an ideologue with an ideology that most closely matches the conservative/libertarian mold.  I am also a retired systems scientist, a local blogger, and a columnist for The Union newspaper.  The management of KVMR has kindly asked me to share some of my thoughts and observations with you from time to time as part of their policy to bring you a diverse, and hopefully stimulating, compendium of opinion and commentary.  You can find out more about me at georgerebane.com.

    In the coming weeks I will talk to you about ideas and issues a bit off the so-called balanced center that you may find thought provoking.  In general, I will be talking about things real, sometimes uncomfortable, and possibly even hackle-raising.  I promise not to feed you pabulum.

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  • Administrivia – oi veh!

    George Rebane

    Dear Readers – I am in the middle of the usual frustrations of going through changing from my old computer system to the super-duper new one I just got.  Over the years (since about 1981) I have upgraded my computer every two to three years because I was in the technology business – all of us had to do it, but that didn't mean we liked it.  We moved to Nevada County in 2002 with new computers, and like clockwork bought new ones in 2005.  But that changeover was a bit more difficult since I had to do it myself instead of having the IT department at my beck and call.  The whole thing was managed with greater pain than ever – our system was now complex with lots of special purpose software and all computers (four) working on our home LAN.

    That episode must have left deep and hidden scars because neither Jo Ann nor I even considered upgrading after two years.  Things worked beautifully (given the vicissitudes of Windows and the Evil Empire) and we were not about to fix what wasn't broken.  Well, the years passed and the boxes started to creak and groan as the software was updated with patch upon patch.  Windows XP was still trying its best - we hadn't touched Vista with a ten footer - but it was getting tired.

    After some unappreciated adventures with our aging system we looked at the calendar and exclaimed 'holy hard drive, these antiques are five years old!'  Long story short, I bought a new HP Envy 15 stuffed to the gills.  It is now out of the box and learning how to live on our LAN.  Like a young colt, it is still bucking and kicking a little bit, and I really don't yet know how to ride System 7 too well.  But I'll soon get the kinks worked out, and then it'll be Jo Ann's turn to go through her own sturm und drang with her new box.

    Full confession – this time I didn't even try to do any of the fancy stuff required to transfer data and software and email accounts and … .  I just called a wonderful gentleman who has been helping out naifs like me for the last twenty years or so.  His name is Ben Hannebrink (ben@hannebrink.com) and he knows the care and feeding of Windows systems forwards and backwards.  Plus he is of the old school and will do what he says he will do and comes when he said he would.  Ben has made the crossing of this river about as easy as it can get.

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  • Bit by Slow

    George Rebane

    NCARRA100205
     

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  • Meanwhile in More Prudent Quarters

    George Rebane

    H/T to a regular RR reader who is in the know about such Nevada County doings.

    NCsalaries NCstaffing

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  • Iran – Simmer Coming to Boil?

    George Rebane

    The Israeli intelligence/news service DebkaFile reports (here) of active preparations for a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities taking place in the offshore waters of that country.  Our ‘friendly’ Arabs are complaining that they have not been apprised.  We recall Ahmadinejad who has been promising that all kinds of hell will break loose around 12 February to punish western countries.  The US Navy has two carrier strike groups within range to support Israeli forces.  Actually one is already on station supporting Afghan ops, and the other one on its way to Thailand from the Arabian Sea can return very rapidly (see map).  Meanwhile Stratfor is putting out a lot supportive but seemingly peripheral reports on Iran.  It is again one of those times when the muffles are coming off the war drums.  Keep an eye on your metals and energy stocks.

    USnavy100203 

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  • Public Sector Unions on the March (Updated)

    George Rebane

    Membership in public sector unions keeps growing, while private industry union membership is declining.  The crossover has occurred and public union membership now dominates.  I am among those who strongly believe that public sector unions are a clear and present danger to a democratic republic.  Early 20th century liberals were of the same mind.  Political icons of the Democratic Party like Mayor LaGuardia and FDR “believed fervently in industrial unions. But they believed public employees had a special social obligation and could too easily exploit their monopoly position.” (2feb10 WSJ)

    When these obvious truths are voiced today, it elicits a predictable chorus of denouncements from the progressives.  To the rest of us this response illuminates their more deeply held hopes and intentions for the future of our republic.  The WSJ continues –

    In private industries, union workers are subject to the vagaries of the marketplace and economic growth. Thus in 2009 10.1% of private union jobs were eliminated, which was more than twice the 4.4% rate of overall private job losses. On the other hand, government unions offer what is close to lifetime job security and benefits, subject only to gross dereliction of duty. Once a city or state's workers are organized by a union, the jobs almost never go away.

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  • Packin’ Heat

    George Rebane

    Minuteman Our friends at the CABPRO Report published ‘A Novel Idea. Register non-gun owners’, a report on the latest 2nd Amendment doings in Vermont.  Well, there’s more to be said about that.

    We recall that our collectivist friends (currently again calling themselves ‘progressives’) firmly believe that all power grows out of the barrel of a gun.  That is why they are busier than squirrels in September working every which way to get guns out the hands of law-abiding citizens.  They want the state to be the only ones with the guns because then such things as individual liberty, personal security, and private property can be dealt with properly by those who know what is best for all of us.  It’s them pesky guns spread all over the country side that keep slowing things down.

    When that world-class Numero Uno arch-killer Chairman Mao succinctly summarized what our Founders knew and practiced, everyone said, ‘Oh yeah, that makes sense.’  Well, not everyone.  Some good-hearted people continue to think the pen that scribbles a powerful argument or turn of phrase on the side of goodness and light would carry the day.  They are students of ‘The pen is mightier than the sword.’

    I recall that around WW2 the Pope belonged to the same group and came out with a devastating declaration against totalitarianism and for human rights.  When Stalin was informed of this, he asked how many divisions did the Pope have.  Pius went back to sprinkling holy water on the Vatican visitors.

    I happened to believe our Founders as summarized by Mao, and am a bit dumbfounded that otherwise straight ahead conservatives like Glenn Beck reject the notion of prime power blooming from barrels.  Beck and think-alikes nobly argue that the pen of the First Amendment is the most important of the Bill of Rights.  They are dangerously mistaken.  On the other hand, I side with those who know that it ALL depends on the Second Amendment.  Been there, seen that.  (Please spare the EU gun rights experience.)

    If the progressives thought that the pen is mightier than the sword, then they would attempt to first ban our pens instead of our guns.  A better dictum to guide and keep us free –

    The pen is mighty only to the extent that it can inspire the sword.

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  • Treasury: ‘TARP tanked’

    George Rebane

    AP reported that Treasury’s Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky ran some numbers, and has now informed the Administration that TARP has tanked.  The bank bailouts, started under Bush and continued by Obama, have not increased bank lending, nor have they stimulated jobs, and will “almost certainly” result in a loss to taxpayers.  And Barney Frank has already fessed up (here) that the new bank tax is exactly what I called it on the 12jan10 RR post after it was first announced (pat, pat).  The government is just trying to pile on and get a cut of the profits from continuing risky investments that they have publicly decried.  The wink-wink under the table to the banks is that ‘Go do it again.  And, like last time, we’ll cover your backside if you fail.’  Shame?  The scumbags inside the Beltway never had any, don’t have it now, and don’t hold your breath.

    Anybody out there willing to make book on how history (written by anybody but the SEIU) will judge the benefits of ARRA?  ‘Do Nothing, Sooner!’  Old Ludwig’s advice to government sounds better every day.

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  • “I am not an ideologue” ??!!

    George Rebane

    ObamaIdeology This guy gets more unbelievable by the hour.  Obama claims not to have an overarching ideology that informs his decisions??!!  An ideology is a coherent and cohesive set of tenets that comprise the socio-political part of a well-formed belief system.  And according to the dictionary, an ideologue is one who has such an ideology.  A reasoned ideologue is one who will modify any of his tenets when presented with compelling evidence that his current ones are wrong.  Recall Keynes’ famous reply to a reporter, ‘I change my mind when presented with new evidence, what do you do?’

    Are we to believe that the community organizer got to be President without having an ideology that he uses as the basis (or utility function for you decision analysts) for making the hard decisions that are called for by his office??  What kind of BS is that to feed to the nation via yesterday’s meeting with Republicans?

    Does this make him doubly stupid or does it elevate him to the pantheon of gods where his decisions from Olympus come down to us in their purity, and to us mortals their basis is a mystery hidden in the mists.  He has behaved as the most ideological President since FDR, and if he now claims to have done it without benefit of a stable and defendable ideology, then what does he do, use that eight-ball with the little round window?

    (Full disclosure – Dear reader, I do my best at being a reasoned ideologue.  But you knew that.)

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