Are they still starving in Ireland?

Former UN chief mulls 'phenomenal' Obama presidency

A US presidential poll victory for Barack Obama would be "phenomenal," former UN chief Kofi Annan said Thursday, adding that whoever wins needs to learn the lessons of the last eight years.

Speaking at a conference on hunger in Ireland, he underlined the need for the United States to work in "partnership" with the rest of the world.

A conference on "hunger in Ireland?" Apparently we have to send food to the Irish -- again. Will they accept Franken food? I guess the lesson of the last eight years was: store grain. We'll need it for the next Eight years.

McCain losses the election yet again!

I only got to see the tail end of the debate -- the part where they are running to be The National Superintendent of Schools. Sen. Obama said that as president he would personally oversee the functioning of the preschool in Walnut Creek, Ohio. Apparently, the Mennonite Vote is still up for grabs.

During the after words afterwards, David Brooks, the PBS token conservative, said that we should just skip right to the Inauguration: Is there a supreme court justice in the House to swear the him in? We'll even accept one from a foreign court. Mark Shields seemed subdued. He wondered what really moves Sen. Obama, he seems so unflappable (what will he be like in a crisis?). I only watched 35 seconds of the after debate fish wrap-up, so I won't claim I'm being accurate (not that I ever do).

Apparently, they don't like that plumber guy -- he's become an effective competitor. He might unstop the election.

Now, back to the Campaign.

One lumps or two?

WSJ.com:

What Paulson Is Trying to Do: Banks need a capital injection before they take their lumps.

I thought the Feds were just making up money lumps as they go along. You look at a bank's bank account and say, "stick a couple more zeros behind that one, will ya?" Presto change-o. And this before the Socialist take over.

A trillion here. A trillion there. I'm gonna check under my bed: maybe money appeared.

Remember when they washed their hands of Rwanda? Well, now they're done with Darfur.

BBC NEWS |UN hand-washing day

Therese Dooley of Unicef explains how to wash your hands properly.

There. We no longer need to teach reading.

Spaced Out Government

There was a good Nova episode tonight about the Space Shuttle. I remember its gestation back in the early seventies. At first it sounded like a good idea -- a way to lower the cost of getting into orbit. But as they cut back on the size of the Space program after the moon landings, I remember getting into a discussion with a friend who was a physics teacher. I argued that it made no sense to spend a vast sum of money on an expensive new launch system when we were cutting back on the manned space program. It was fast becoming obvious that by the time the shuttle was operational, there would be no where for it to go and no money left to send it there. It seemed to me that we should just use the Saturn V "moon" rocket to put the heavy stuff up and a smaller rocket to put the manned element up.

Around that time NASA got rid of all the specialized jigs and equipment used in making the Saturn V. The conspiracy minded thought it was done so there would be no going back as the Shuttle ate up more and more of the space budget. Perhaps NASA needed to keep the rocket scientists and engineers busy. In any case, the imperative for the shuttle was no longer "space exploration." Apparently massive bureaucracies put in motion tend to keep going that way.


Well, after two space shuttle tragedies -- disasters designed into the system, as Nova pretty much put it -- and gazillions spent, guess what? To replace the Shuttle they'll build a heavy lift vehicle (even resurrecting much of the Saturn V design) as well as a smaller vehicle for putting humans into orbit.

Interestingly, they managed to blame private contractors who "turned the shuttle around" for part of the failure but never explained what it was they did wrong or forgot to do right. In fact, they failed to show any connection with the private contractors at all. This came from the folks who were hands on responsible. It's just a bureaucratic reflex, I guess -- just stupid blind prejudice at work: it's those cost cutting contractors, I tell you! Actually, complacent and sloppy inefficiencies were more likely the cause (and was that an "ozone friendly" insulating foam that fell of the shuttle in large junks during the launches?) .

In the near future our likely next President, Barack Obama, will launch many new and massive Federal Programs. But he does not appear to believe in The Doctrine of Unintended Consequences. Or perhaps he believes the bad consequences -- whether intended or not -- won't show up until he is gone. But the "bads" should be obvious to all non-journalists by 2016.

The Evils of Capitol-ism

The other day an old friend asked , "What are we going to do about that party they got going on down in Washington? It don't matter who you send there!"

Yup. What about affordable government?

What's clearly on Display in our financial crisis are the evils of Capitol-ism.

I've long thought that the Democrat Party, the National Media and the Federal Bureaucracy are knotted together by self interest and a shared belief in their own importance. Republicans, too, can join them in the knot and often do. Today they form their own political party, the Washington Party, that works to move ever more power to the capital and to the "national centers" -- be it information centers (New York, D.C.), financial centers (New York, Chicago), or entertainment (LA). Basically, for the Washington Party, all problems are national and all problems have a national solution -- and they use the media to bring you along. Your kids go to a lousy school? Look to Washington for the answer, not your local community. This is the platform of "The Washington Party."

The ideology of the Washington Party is Capitol-ism. For a Capitol-ist, both state power and economic power are centered on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, where the inhabitants of the corridors of power meet and bargain. Their preferred form of economic organization is the cartel, sometimes organized by government but always controlled by members of the Washington Party. These new Cartels function much like the old ones -- except they focus on shielding mediocrity (by emphasizing credentials over performance) as well as creating abnormally large benefits for the members.

Of course Cartels are illegal, but only when non-members of the Washington party try to organize them. As we "fight" global warming the Washington Party will organize Carbon Cartels that will dominate the entire economy. These will be promoted as life-saving "Cartels of Caring": it is not about screwing you and benefiting them, it is about saving the planet.

All the institutions at the Center of the Washington Party have scandals connected to them where the national "watchdog" media is late to the scene. When they arrive they start tampering with evidence, and then issue reports with mistakes and omissions that point to conclusions that lie in one direction -- a direction favorable to the Washington Party and the system of Cartels it creates.

If there is a problem with the free market the answer is regulation. If their is a problem with the regulations the answer is more regulation. Problems with the additional regulations require yet more additional regulations. It's a one way ratchet -- at least until the whole rickety structure is about to collapse. Then there is a half-assed deregulation, followed by a collapse which is then blamed on the Free Market. In California ten years ago they "deregulated" the electricity market but kept the price controls in place. This was not an example of deregulation. This was an example of stupidity -- or brilliant bureaucratic strategy. When the doo-doo fell into the wind tunnel and the lights went out in California there was someone else with poo-poo on their face.


The Federal Fannie and its spawn, Frantic Freddie are at the Center of the subprime mortgage mess. Congress constructed a Fun House at the corner of Broadway and Wall Street where low showmanship and high finance meet. Fannie and Freddie were the host, and they brought the good faith and credit of the American people in there to play. In those mirrors everyone looked fat and solvent. The Fat and Frantic Feds were the center of the "Cartel of Caring" which screwed the people it was alleged to help and greatly enriched members of the Cartel. Even now rule one is: protect the Washington Cartels.

So naturally it is reported as if the fault were in the private economy. The Mainstream Media is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Washington Party. The Federal Fannie is already sitting on health care -- another Cartel of Caring. They want of feed it a much bigger slice of the pie -- in fact, the whole banana cream pie -- so if you think it is heavy now, just wait.

Belmont Club » Just so

Western civilization is dying a death by a thousand cuts. The quest for perfection has become such an obsession that it is sought even at the cost of basic functionality. A friend who works at big name consulting firm said that so much attention is focused on ensuring compliance — checking off boxes, making sure that everything is gender-friendly, green, non-racist and whatever else — that sound business is almost an afterthought. In this modern world it’s alright to have something that doesn’t work, as long as it’s perfect.

The Heart and Soul of Capitol-ism is "The Caring Cartel." The business of the Cartel is not the general welfare, but the welfare of the Cartel. In the Cartels of Caring the clerks who run them are king. Barney Frank is an alpha clerk. Clerks cut free of their middle class masters ( and resentful of them) now run government, finance and Eduction. They give Western Civilization the soul of a Clerk.

Check the box.

The Second Presidential Debate

Senators McCain and Obama must have agreed in advance that since they couldn't calm the volatile financial markets, they would try to put them to sleep.

I gave Obama a slight edge at the start and McCain a slight edge at the end. Of course Sen. Obama seems to change his position at will (on off shore oil drilling, for instance) but he is still right, both times! As usual, spending is called investing and tax increases become spending cuts and free money to folks who don't pay taxes is a tax cut. Sacrifice is accepting more from government while insisting someone else pays for it (this is also "living within our means"). The Usual hokum. Obama should win.

Biggest lie: Obama said he would cut more spending then he would add. Granted, he will call his tax increases "spending cuts" (we spent the government's money on tax cuts, remember). Even so, creative math and all, I don't think it is "true."

Goodnight.