I have read accusations that the Palestinians have no homegrown economy except bomb building and UN handouts.
This is obviously not true and we have the video to prove it.
Enjoy.
Archive for June, 2008
Who says there is no Palestinian industry ?
Sunday, June 15th, 2008No judicial activism here !
Saturday, June 14th, 2008
This Ohio judge ruled the new death penalty law was unconstitutional and ended executions once again in Ohio. I wonder why he would do such a thing ? It couldn’t be his politics.
Why do corporate CEOs have such high incomes ?
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008The subject of CEO income, salary and stock options for example, has become a big subject and not just on the left. John McCain has criticized hedge fund managers, for example. Why are those CEO incomes so high compared to 30 years ago ? Maybe this is the answer.
the sixfold increase in American CEO pay from 1980 to 2003 is almost wholly explained by the roughly sixfold increase in market capitalization of big U.S. companies over the same period. (Asset values have increased sixfold because both corporate earnings and the price-to-earnings ratio investors are willing to tolerate have increased by factors of 2.5.) The trend lines of market capitalization and executive payouts rose and dipped in near-perfect tandem.
That may explain it but it will always be controversial.
Why I worry about my daughter’s college experience
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008This fall, my fifth child will begin her college career. She will attend the University of Arizona and we have discussed her choice of major. The Humanities are not a good choice these days, I fear. My oldest son entered the University of Southern California in 1983. He and I were both happy that one of his first semester courses was on the democracy of Athens. I wonder what such a course would be like today after reading this account of a present day History class at Northwestern University. For a while, after returning to USC to complete my pre-medical courses, I was an English major. I still recall those classes with affection for the interpretation of English LIterature they left me with. That, of course, was before the “Critical Studies” movement gutted the study of actual literature. Consider this example of such material being promoted at the University of Iowa, and tell me you are comfortable about your child’s college education.
The Air Force is losing out
Monday, June 9th, 2008I have previously posted about the future of flight and the role of UAVs. The recent shake-up in the Air Force apparently, has a connection to the UAV issue. The F 22 was a terrible waste of resources on a plane that will never have a role. It is so expensive that we cannot afford it and there is no enemy for which we need it. The future lies with unmanned flight and the Air Force is losing its role as CIA and Army controllers assume larger and larger roles flying UAVs. In fact, the Air Force Academy turns out more potential pilots than the service has cockpits for. The fighter mafia that has run the Air Force since the SAC bomber lost its role cannot seem to accept this.
Oh Oh Bush didn’t lie. What now ?
Monday, June 9th, 2008Today, we have a look at the famous Rockefeller Intelligence Committee Report. The Democrats took over after the 2006 election and now the Chairman revealed that….What ?
Baghdad is strengthening a relationship with al Qeada ? You mean one existed ?
Does Obama know about this?
Then there’s this:
A spokesman for Senator Bond this morning told me that the July 2004 report blamed flawed intelligence. The previous bipartisan report did not distort the facts on prewar intelligence unlike last week’s report that blamed the Bush Administration.
The 2004 report gained unanimous support from the committee members. Last week only 2 Republican senators signed on to the report.
The Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee had the same prewar intelligence as President Bush. In this latest Phase II report, the minority was entirely shut out of the process. The Demorats willingly distorted this intelligence report.
The type of partisan gamemanship displayed in the report is disgraceful.
The intelligence committee was sure that Al-Qaeda was operating in Iraq before the war.
Energy politics
Monday, June 9th, 2008We now see gasoline at four dollars per gallon. In the 1970s, Jimmy Carter advocated a domestic oil production program using oil shale and other alternate sources of energy. With gasoline this expensive and with the research developments of the past 30 years, this is now a realistic goal. What has happened? The Democrats have changed their minds. They no longer want domestic oil production. They want to stop the use of carbon-based fuels of all kinds.
Last month, the U.S. Senate’s Appropriations Committee voted 15-14 to kill a bill that would have ended a one-year moratorium on enacting rules for oil shale development on federal lands (which is where the best oil shale is located).
Why ?
Fortune: Has oil shale development always been a partisan issue or is this something new?Sen. Allard: It is something new. The issue with the Democrats now is they want to cut off any source of carbon. And there are those in the Senate who believe the more expensive you make gasoline, the less driving people do and you force conservation by making driving so expensive people can’t afford it.
Is it possible that Republicans are smart enough to take advantage of this foolishness ?
Let’s hope so.
Do something for somebody who needs it.
Thursday, June 5th, 2008I just learned today about an organization that helps wounded service people at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. They have a wish list on Amazon.com for the electronic library of movies and TV shows. I just ordered some videos to send. Why don’t you do something, too ?
Munich all over again
Thursday, June 5th, 2008American young people are famously ignorant about history. They are also enthusiastic about Barack Obama who promises to talk to every enemy of America without preconditions. That combination probably stimulated a somber column by Thomas Sowell today. I supported John McCain with enthusiasm in 2000 and was disappointed when George Bush defeated him in the primary elections. I thought Bush was minimally qualified, as exemplified by the abysmal interview he gave as a candidate when he could not name the president of Pakistan. Compared to Barack Obama, however, Bush was a master at governance.
I have read extensively in the history of the 1930s. When we read those accounts of well-meaning men and their efforts to keep the peace, we know the outcome. Today, we see the possible election of a well-meaning man with no credentials for office and I wonder if enough people will think about the future.