More on the auto bailout

"U.S. Treasury Department boosted its estimate of government losses in the $85 billion auto bailout by $170 million.

In the government's latest report to Congress this month, the Treasury upped its estimate to $23.77 billion, up from $23.6 billion.

Last fall, the government dramatically boosted its forecast of losses on the rescues of General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC and their finance units from $14 billion to $23.6 billion.

Much of the increase in losses is due to the sharp decline of GM's stock price over the last six months.

GM was trading at noon today at $24.24. It's down 35 percent over its 52-week-high of $37.23, but the Detroit automaker has rebounded from a low set last year of $19.05.

The Treasury, [that's us, folks] which initially held a 61 percent majority stake in GM, now holds a 26.5 percent share, or 500 million shares in GM. To break even, the government would need to average $53 per share for its remaining stake."

Detroit News

Why is Obama uniting Catholics?

It’s darn near impossible to unite this country’s 77 million liberal and conservative Catholics, but Obama has done this with his mandate through HHS that Catholic health care institutions and colleges (and other religious groups, mostly Christian) must provide contraception and abortifacients (also Plan B, morning after, etc.) in their insurance plans. We’re not stupid, sir. We know requiring them to perform abortions will be the next step—we’ve been watching how liberals do this inch by inch since by the yard it’s hard. And then it will be no prayers in the hospitals because it might offend their non-Christian patients!

Three years ago the liberal Catholics were all kissy face at Notre Dame with him as he assured his Catholic hosts that he would do nothing but respect their religious beliefs. He used the event to promote embryonic stem cell research, even though adult stem cell was the big news in medicine without a single success for embryonic. He used it as an opportunity to thumb his nose at the pro-life movement. Liberals let it slide—they had his promises about their precious institutional authority. Big Whoop! Then the Supreme Court, even with his liberal appointees decided 9-0 in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, that religious institutions have rights, too. The justices ruled that religious workers may not sue on the basis of job discrimination if it’s in the best interest of that institution that they not be employed. (The end result of going the other way would be Christian churches could be required to hire Muslims, and conservatives and Catholics forced to hire women pastors.) The knives have come out.

President Obama isn’t responsible for the declining membership of the churches—that’s been going on since the 60s—and the church has no one but itself to blame for catering to the culture and ignoring the gospel--but he seems to hope to be the one to make the church as helpless and weak as it is in Europe. Now with the rest of us, the liberal Catholics have had to wise up.

From the beginning of his candidacy, I have defended Obama as a Christian. I said he was a convert, not a Muslim; I read his testimony given at a UCC conference long before he became a candidate. It sounded heart felt and authentic. I said he can’t be held accountable for the sins of Rev. Wright. But as pointed out in the Gospel of Luke, even the demons know Jesus is the Christ—they knew before the general public did--they just don’t worship him. This action of the Obama Administration in an election year is so bizarre, so antagonistic to the largest Christian group in America, that it’s hard to any longer cling to this fragile evidence that he has any intention other than destroying Christianity.

Not only is he uniting Catholics, but conservative fundamentalist Christians are with them who’ve probably never stepped inside a Catholic church, and will be joining them in legal cases. So why would he do this, unite Christians against him, in an election year? Is the cost of law suits going to take money away from conservatives running against him? Will it divert attention, even temporarily, about his reelection? Have you got an explanation?

Addiction to pain killers

Overdoses from prescription pain killers result in 40+ deaths a day and 1.2 million emergency room visits a year, a 98.4% increase since 2004. Sales of opiods in 2010 were 4X more than 1999. Unlike users of illegal drugs, these addicted people usually aren't injecting, they are employed, and they have family support. But as with users of illegal drugs, short term treatment isn't very successful. JAMA, Jan. 4, 2012.

Just a wild guess here--I'm not a researcher or doctor--but it would seem that addiction can happen without poverty and societal breakdown (numbers are higher than for cocaine and heroin). It happens even with excellent health insurance. So when creating new government programs to help the addicted- low income, I hope someone looks at this report. Addiction to prescribed drugs according to this report also varies by state--so look for older people with a lot of surgical procedures for knees, hips, back, cancer, etc., to account for an increase as the population ages. States like Florida and New Mexico have a greater problem with this than Illinois and Nebraska. Also, what year was it the drug plan for Medicare kicked in?

Crawling bots

Instead of being "crawled" by Google which allows my blog to be found by others, I've picked up a bot called "Performance Systems International." I don't know what it does, but it definitely bumps the Google crawler.

Celebrities visit the Villages in Florida

It seems the celebrities and political candidates love The Villages, a retirement community of 85,000 residents located 20 miles south of Ocala, Florida on route 441 with a total of 504 holes of golf. Murray recently sent his e-mail list this item about their visitors. "In the past 2 years we've had Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck (twice), Bill O'Rielly, and Sean Hannity visiting us. This week we had Rick Santorum and John McCain with Newt Gingrich tomorrow and Mitt Romney Monday. Also the Tea Party Express bus will be here tomorrow." In fact, he adds, they've even had Occupiers show up to protest.

"One thing you can be sure of and that would be Obama will NOT be coming to The Villages. He already knows that The Villages special interest group is not potential supporters. They consist of the old and wise. He avoids these people plus most of the middle class that he's trying to screw and doing a dam good job of it!"

Pushing the broken, 3 wheel Obama bus over the finish line

"Former presidential candidate Herman Cain has endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. Cain joined Gingrich at a Republican Party dinner in West Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday night to make the surprise announcement.

Cain urged his supporters, tea party members and other conservatives to back the only true conservative in the race, Newt Gingrich." Newsmax source

Google's new privacy rules, March 1, 2012

Google has many products and over 60 privacy policies. It is going to standardize them to create a "beautifully simple and intuitive experience" based on five principles. The "information" referred to in the principles is what we the users have provided the company and what it has collected about us in the years we've been using Google--which is a lot, by the way.

1. Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.
2. Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.
3. Make the collection of personal information transparent.
4. Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.
5. Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.

For instance, Google tracks every search I make using its search engine--I do use some other products, but rarely. Yesterday I read a number of articles in print/on-line newspapers--I can either look at my search history provided by Microsoft or click on a Google feature that will tell me the top 8 sites I visited recently including Facebook, my blog, my site meter, articles about Charles Murray, articles in a Tea Party aggregator of news stories, Glenn Beck TV, electronic health records, and something about the welfare state. This tab is color coded to tell me how actively I've been searching those topics. I can click to the next page, which suggests that since I read the New York Times, perhaps I'd like to visit some other newspapers (I'm pretty sure I visit WaPo more often than NYT, but perhaps the origin of the article is what is counted).

I certainly don't keep my politics a secret since I hit a lot of hot button topics here, but just what does "responsible steward" mean when a huge mega-corporation lobbies and donates heavily to political candidates, has recently lost a court case brought by the government and been fined for illegal activity (pharmacy ads), and it carefully tracks every possible angle I research? I also search a lot of religious and theology sites--is that algorithm suppressed? Is it stewardship of their resources or my privacy that matters? (I know the answer to that!) They do, after all, have a responsibility to their stockholders and employees, their "owners." The fact that I can click on a tab and see just what Google is tracking about me I suppose meets principle 3, transparency.

Always keep in mind that Google is not your servant, slave, or employee--it is a highly sophisticated tool that exists only to sell a product/products to keep its investors happy and well paid. You only have to read to learn this, but because it does such a good job, you can be lulled into believing "Google is your friend."

Knowing a little bit about you can help make Google products better, both for you and for others. By understanding your preferences we can ensure that we give you the search results that you’re looking for, and by analyzing the search logs of millions of users in aggregate, we can continually improve our search algorithm, develop new features, keep our systems secure and even predict the next flu outbreak.

The Obama Generation

The mainstream press on the drug PC

When I first read the story in the Washington Post today of Brittany Norwood brutally murdering her co-worker Jayna Murray in a Yoga store of Bethesda, MD of all things, I thought two things immediately: 1) Yoga--that eastern religion that’s supposed to bring peace? and 2) how can any woman stab another 331 times, then stage her own assault to deflect the guilt, and not have some prior warning that she was evil to the core?

I read the whole thing, and saw the photos of Jayna’s family (for awhile I thought the photo of Jayna's mother was actually a photo of Brittany the killer so I thought the perp was a white woman) without any knowledge that Brittany was black and Jayna was white. If it had been reversed, if the victim was black and the killer white, do you suppose any reader of the Washington Post could have come across that story and not known that?

Another item in this case not reported in WaPo is that the employees of an Apple store next door could hear the screams of the victim, and did nothing.

The mainstream press on the drug PC.

Come on IN!

Let's hope Illinois and Michigan wake up soon. It's not that far a move for business, or for people who want to work without being coerced into joining oppressive, outdated unions.

"The Indiana State House on a 54-44 vote today passed House Bill 1001, paving the way to make Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state in the nation. The vote took place after House Democrats finally attended session Wednesday afternoon, ending their work stoppage over the issue.

Under the legislation, unions would be barred from collecting mandatory representation fees.

HB 1001 will now be sent to the Indiana Senate. If the Senate passes the bill without amendment, it would go the the desk of Gov. Mitch Daniels as quickly as this week. Earlier this week the Senate passed its own right-to-work bill, SB 269, which is currently residing in the House."

CapCon story

Decrease honors courses to increase Advanced Placement for minorities

Fairfax, VA had decreased its honors courses in high school in order to push minorities into enrolling in the more difficult Advanced Placement courses. That seems counter productive to me. What about minority and non-minority students who aren't ready for Advanced Placement? Wasn't this policy hurting them in order to reach some imagined administrative goal for a small minority of blacks and Latinos (higher percentage in AP) which probably gets the superintendent a prize? Apparently parents felt as I do.

"Honors-level courses are a middle track between standard-level and college-level Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes. The school system began phasing out some honors courses several years ago to encourage students — especially low-income, black and Latino students — to choose more rigorous courses.

That appears to have made a difference. The number of students taking AP and IB tests has risen somewhat, and so has the proportion of black and Latino test-takers.

But eliminating honors courses provoked criticism from some parents, who argued that it forced students to decide between standard-level courses that are too easy and college-level courses that are overly demanding."

The school board voted 11-1 to add back in five additional honors courses in the fall. Don't you just hate it when kids are the lab animals in social engineering theories?
Washington Post story

Laptops and sperm count in men

On someone's Face Book page I saw a photo of a lecture hall where everyone had a laptop on knees or lap. I was pretty sure I'd seen something years ago about heat killing sperm or reducing sperm count. I know my laptop can create heat even through a thick pillow on my thighs, so I looked it up. Here's what was at the bottom (no pun intended) of advice on taking a laptop to college classes.

Guys: if you put the laptop on your lap, please also be aware that the increased temperature can reduce your fertility. The effect is not so strong that you can count laptop use as a contraceptive, but it’s something to think about. You might also think about the effect of elevated temperature on spontaneous mutation rate in those little gamete vehicles you have on board.

How bundling helps the bundlers as well as the candidate

Obama has used 357 bundlers in 6 months during the current campaign. 81 of the bundlers work at law firms--what a surprise there. He’s raised 56 million. Bundlers often receive special treatment because of their ability to raise big money. Obama, in fact, elevated some two dozen bundlers from his last campaign to serve as ambassadors during his first year in office.

Ron Paul has used zero; Mitt Romney eight. However, no one is actually required to say how many, so we only know what’s been offered--and that includes the Obama campaign. Obama provides the information because he sponsored legislation on it when he was a Senator (it failed).

Open Secrets Blog

The six agency consolidation

Remember the big deal Obama made about asking for power to consolidate executive agencies? Big Whoop!

The savings, as reported in NYT, is $3 billion and change over 10 years. . . 2/3 of one day’s interest on the national debt.

But it gets better. No one will loose his job. It will all come through retirements. (We’ll still be paying the benefits, however, which I’m sure are very generous.)

So this is Obama's version of a smaller government. Was this gratuitous slop for his followers and the press, or what?

Obama cuts the government

Newt and Bill

Who you going out with tonight?

"Newt and Bill, as 1960s generation self-promoters, share the same duplicity, ostentatious braininess, a propensity for endless scrapes with propriety and the law. They are tireless hustlers."

American Spectator

The generic candidate

According to a Fox News report this morning, Mitt Romney more closely resembles the "generic candidate" who can beat Barack Obama.

Good.

Dwindling oil supplies

"The impact of dwindling oil supplies on the economy is a persuasive
argument for shifting away from fossil fuels, write James Murray and
David King in a Comment piece in Nature this week."
An e-mail announcement from Nature Magazine

No surprise here. Restrict fossil fuels by not building refineries, don't allow deep water drilling leases and send the business to Brazil and stop pipelines and let Canada sell to China who can restrict our energy, and you have the perfect excuse (dwindling supplies) to dump more money both federal and private into alternative fuels. The crazy smart thing is, I think the same mega-conglomerates control both the fossil and the green fuel. Sort of like when the investors in railroads bought up the canal land, and then let the established canal system die.

Siemens Energy which has about 88,000 employees worldwide, generated total revenue of €25.5 billion and profit of €3.6 billion, uses the same phrase in its PR material--"dwindling oil supplies."

http://www.energy.siemens.com/entry/energy/hq/en/

Don't blame President Obama

1. The law schools were adrift before he was born. Jurists were substituting opinion and passion for knowledge and precedent before he was an implanted embryo in his unmarried, teenage mother's womb. Whether it’s the 9th circuit or the Supremes, don’t blame the President for the mess lawyers have made. He’s a “constitutional lawyer” who’s been taught only what his professors knew.

2. Don’t blame Obama or any of the Presidents since Wilson for the failures of American education. John Dewey who pioneered social outcome, progressive education was born over 100 years before Obama. Progressive education was incubated and thrived at America’s universities, and then was passed on into the general education system to meet social and political goals. That social goals are more important than math or science or even western civilization can‘t even be put at the feet of Presidents Bush, Clinton or Carter, who created the Department of Education, not even Eisenhower who ordered the schools desegregated, so don‘t lay that expensive, overfed turkey on Obama‘s plate.

3. Don’t blame the President for moral and ethical failures of the church and family. The churches, pulpits and Sunday Schools began buying into 19th century scholars at seminaries and universities challenging the truth, history and moral teachings of the Bible well over 100 years before his grandparents who raised him became agnostics and Jim Wallis‘ grandparents were probably still Bible thumpers. And those academicians and theologians were pointing back to theories and challenges centuries before them cooked up by Germans.

4. You can give him credit for the rise of the Tea Party movement--but even most of that credit goes to Glenn Beck and the Libertarians who birthed it and are now struggling over who’s going to raise the mischievous active toddler. With the infusion of the youth of the Libertarian party, the average age of a Tea Party group (there is no actual political party) is dropping a bit. But it did have a lot of appeal for my generation. People raised during the 1950s have a clearer view (although part fairy tale in my opinion) of the 1950s and pre-Vietnam 60s than they do what they had for lunch yesterday. When they heard candidate Obama talk in 2008 about “fundamentally transforming society” or “transferring wealth,” they had enough time in retirement to reflect on just where the trillions on social engineering since LBJ’s War on Poverty went. Younger business people paid attention too, so that after July 2008 they virtually stopped investing and hiring for expansion. Would more never be enough? And it was a recession, those born in the 30s and 40s were retired, and had time to attend town halls, rallies, and participate in social media. The Tea Party is grass roots. It will evolve and become more main stream. But right now it’s the only American political movement with any blood, guts and brains.

The cost of the stimulus

"Last week, President Barack Obama refused to allow private citizens to spend $7 billion improving America's energy infrastructure. Three years ago, he insisted that taxpayers spend more than 100 times that amount on an outlay that also addressed the nation's energy needs, among other goals. But while the Keystone XL pipeline that Mr. Obama rejected was certain to deliver a product that people want, the benefits of the president's 2009 stimulus program are harder to discern.

Sold as a way to create jobs while building infrastructure and an environmentally sensitive economy, the stimulus plan was drafted in haste by Democrats in Congress and then signed by Mr. Obama on Feb. 17, 2009. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was priced at $787 billion when enacted; the official estimate is now more than $800 billion."

From the WSJ book review of "Money Well Spent?"

This sounds really scary!

Using a person's social network information instead of a resume? Based on the remarks, jokes, and opinions I've seen on blogs, Twitter and Facebook, some people ought to be more cautious about building a different profile! And that list of friends? And family? The future employer just might decide the person is too social, or not social enough and not even know she might be in a book club, or volunteer at a hospital, or belong to a bowling league, and therefore doesn't socialize on-line.

Companies are increasingly relying on social networks such as LinkedIn, video profiles and online quizzes to gauge candidates' suitability for a job. While most still request a résumé as part of the application package, some are bypassing the staid requirement altogether.

A résumé doesn't provide much depth about a candidate, says Christina Cacioppo, an associate at Union Square Ventures who blogs about the hiring process on the company's website and was herself hired after she compiled a profile comprising her personal blog, Twitter feed, LinkedIn profile, and links to social-media sites Delicious and Dopplr, which showed places where she had traveled.

The world of technology is just getting too strange and scary. I just learned today that even if your cell phone is "off" you are being tracked. Also, if you have any sensitive financial or political data, do not keep it on a computer that is hooked to the internet.

Insofar as tracking phones, if you believe yourself or the person you are with is a target worth tracking, and that the opponent has the ability, best is to not carry any phone. Smartphone or not. The phone is constantly tracked by the company. Your travel habits can be mapped retroactively or in realtime. Think of the cell phone as a strobe light that's always blinking. We can't see them blinking, but the phone company can.

Insofar as smartphones, iPhones for instance have a battery that cannot be removed. With a BlackBerry you can pop off the back and take out the battery. When I was with certain units on the Iraq/Iran border, everyone with a phone was to take out the battery. An officer said that if you leave the battery in, you can practically watch it drain as the Iranians ping the phone. If they see thirty phones travelling together in a remote area on their border, they likely would take notice. But imagine ten people have phones. If one guy doesn't take out the battery, that's enough to track the unit and even hit you across the border with rockets, artillery or an airstrike. Michael Yon, Iraq war reporter