Favre Saga Continues

Looks like he's back with the Pack. The Packers should allow him back and then not let him take any snaps. Any man stupid enough to walk away from $20M to not play should not be trusted with an offense

Goldberg on Capitalism

Jonah Goldberg of National Review is one of my favorite conservative thinkers, and a recent column of his ranks up there in his best work. Here's a bit worth thinking about...

"People ask, “Why is there poverty in the world?” It’s a silly question. Poverty is the default human condition. It is the factory preset of this mortal coil. As individuals and as a species, we are born naked and penniless, bereft of skills or possessions. Likewise, in his civilizational infancy man was poor, in every sense. He lived in ignorance, filth, hunger, and pain, and he died very young, either by violence or disease. The interesting question isn’t “Why is there poverty?” It’s “Why is there wealth?” Or: “Why is there prosperity here but not there?”

The answer is capitalism....and capitalism is something we should be incredibly proud of.

Federal Aid for Higher Education and Increased Tuition

An excellent paper on the relation of these two variables.

Unemployment at 5.7%; Breadlines Appear....

Breathless reports of rising unemployment reached me yesterday as I dodged growing breadlines in my tiny Maryland community. Everywhere there was talk of a new CCC or WPA, and folks were thinking we might need to exhume FDR to get us through this nightmare.

Not really. The current unemployment rate is low by historical standards, the stock market is high, and inflation is low. Yes, things are not what they were a year ago, but they are clearly not in crisis.

Cost of Higher Education

Ok class, let's talk economics. When consumers have more money to pursue a good, the demand of that good will increase. The shift of the demand curve to the right will result in.....a price increase (in ceteris paribus).

News today of the doubling of Pell Grants, among other goodies dispensed from Washington. If you want to look for one of the culprits in the rise of college costs, look no further than the fact that our government continues to pour money out to subsidize higher education.

Reservations About Reservations

I have reservations about reservations....Indian (or Native American) Reservations, that is. A story in this morning's paper about the potential loss of satellite-based internet service on the Navajo Nation's reservation has me thinking about these anachronisms.

I think the United States needs to figure out a way to move past these enshrinements of socialism. Yes, yes. We took their land (oops, not me, or my people...once again. Maybe another apology is in the offing....). But that is the story of the world...civilizations rise up in places where there previously was a different civilization. People are displaced. Sad, but true.

But it is now 2008. There is no real reason that the US government should spend so much money keeping so many people in what amounts to cantonments of socialism. Life on the reservation is one continuous handout after another from government, or in other cases, handouts from the proceeds of casinos and government. The incentive to leave the reservation, to strike out and join the society that encircles it, is deadened by the incessant drip of government largess into the veins of a population besotted with entitlement.

Reservations may have seemed like a good idea once, but they have outlived their purpose.

Growth Weaker Than Hoped?

Classic case of horrific reporting here. The much ballyhooed "recession" we are in continues to be just one quarter away....it seems that GDP grew (again), doubling in April to June the relatively anemic January to March figure.

We are in a slowdown, there's no doubt about it. But it isn't time to go to the mattresses.

Radley Balko Asks Senator Obama Some Questions

Balko is a pretty effective thinker over at Reason. He puts a few libertarian oriented questions to Senator Obama in this column. I have strong libertarian streak, but one of the problems with libertarians in general is that they have no real policy for actual governing. I like how libertarianism nuances conservativsm, but as an ideology all its own, it is suited only to theoretical situations.

Brazil Moving Out on Nuclear Power

Brazil is a country with a lot of problems....but with problems come opportunities. Proceeding forward with increased nuclearization of their electrical supply, side by side with an enormously effective reliance on sugar cane derived biofuels, puts this growing economy on a glide-slope to continued growth AND energy independence. We can learn from our growing neighbors to the South.

Accountability, Navy Style

News this morning of the firing of the Captain and XO of the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON, one of our nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. There was a fire onboard recently, one that caused upward of $70M worth of damage. I know little about the details of this story, only what I've read in the open press. Apparently, poor engineering housekeeping practice (stowage of flammable materials, unauthorized smoking areas) contributed to this fire.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of the things I love most about the Navy. The organization holds people accountable like no other (ok, maybe the Communist Party in China is better, but I digress). Anyone who has ever commanded a ship knows that you are inescapably responsible for everything that happens on your watch. There is no such thing as "I was asleep", or "I was ashore". With the benefit of unquestioned authority comes indivisible accountability and ultimate responsibility. It often seems unfair, and I have seen the lives of friends wrenched in the jaws of this harsh sanction. It is however, what distinguishes the Navy from other pursuits, and when on occasion, the Service deviates from this sanction, it weakens itself in an effort to appear more human.

In the early '50's, the USS HOBSON and the USS WASP collided with the loss of 176 lives. The Wall Street Journal offered the editorial below in an effort to explain why the Navy must act as it does. I reproduce it here to remind myself of its stirring words:

"One night past some 30,000 tons of ships went hurtling at each other through the darkness. When they had met, 2,000 tons of ship and 176 men lay at the bottom of the sea in a far off place."

"Now comes the cruel business of accountability. Those who were there, those who are left from those who were there, must answer how it happened and whose was the error that made it happen."

"It is a cruel business because it was no wish to destruction that killed this ship and its 176 men; the accountability lies with good men who erred in judgment under stress so great that it is almost its own excuse. Cruel, because no matter how deep the probe, it cannot change the dead, because it cannot probe deeper than remorse."

"And it is even more cruel still because all around us in other places we see the plea accepted that what is done is done beyond discussion, and that for good men in their human errors there should be afterwards no accountability."

"Everywhere else we are told how inhuman it is to submit men to the ordeal of answering for themselves; to haul them before committees and badger them with questions as to where they were and what they were doing while the ship of state careened from one course to another."

"This probing into the sea seems more merciless because everywhere else we have abandoned accountability. What is done is done and why torture men with asking them afterwards, why?........"

"We are told men should no longer be held accountable for what they do as well as for what they intend. To err is not only human, it absolves responsibility."

"Everywhere else, that is, except on the sea. On the sea there is a tradition older even than the traditions of the country itself and wiser in its age than this new custom. It is the tradition that with responsibility goes authority and with them both goes accountability."

"This accountability is not for the intentions but for the deed. The captain of a ship, like the captain of a state, is given honor and privileges and trust beyond other men. But let him set the wrong course, let him touch ground, let him bring disaster to his ship or to his men, and he must answer for what he has done. He cannot escape...."

"It is cruel, this accountability of good and well-intentioned men. But the choice is that or an end of responsibility and finally as the cruel scene has taught, an end to the confidence and trust in the men who lead, for men will not long trust leaders who feel themselves beyond accountability for what they do."

"And when men lose confidence and trust in those who lead, order disintegrates into chaos and purposeful ships into uncontrollable derelicts."

More on the HOUSING CRISIS (oh my!)

Robert Samuelson is a very smart man, and probably one of the better editorial writers on the scene today. His column this morning echoes something I've been pounding home here lately--that America's obsession with home ownership is not a great thing for our economy. Sure, owning a home is a great thing and generally speaking, a good investment. But not everyone should own a home, and not everyone should own as much home as they do. But further to the point, we should never forget that most of the people who are defaulting on their mortgages NEVER OWNED THEIR HOMES--THE LIEN HOLDER DID! The suggestion that someone "owned a home" who made 12 of 360 payments (or 24, 0r 36....) is loony.

We don't have a housing crisis in this country. A housing crisis would occur if there weren't enough housing. We've got plenty. What is in short supply is common sense and the strength of character to let people who have made unwise decisions suffer the consequences.

Trade Talks Crumble

A story probably not getting the press it deserves (what with a HOUSING CRISIS and all) is the failure of the Doha Round of trade talks. We're going to keep running into issues with China, India, Russia and Brazil as their economies grow and ours takes up a smaller share of the world's total. Not content to be told what to do, these developing nations are not content to sit idly by and have their economies yoked while the big, industrialized nations reap the benefits of their previous dominance. Energy, trade, defense, diplomacy. We'll see these countries over, and over again disagreeing with us. The only saving grace here is that we and the Euros generally agree....

Senator Stevens Should Resign

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Innocent until proven guilty...I know, I know. But Stevens has always rubbed me the wrong way, with his bullying bantam cock personality. I am very much against term limits for any office (including President, by the way), but I sure wouldn't have minded seeing one take this guy out long ago. He gives the Republican Party a terrible name.

We're Sorry About Slavery; Can We Move On Now?

It appears as if the House of Representatives, in their capacity of representing us, have apologized for the institution of slavery. To whom their apology is made, I find myself without answer, as anyone actually living at the time of emancipation is no longer with us.

On whose behalf they are apologizing is an interesting question also, as my relatives hadn't yet made it over from Europe when the Civil War ended.

But I am willing to accept that as a gesture, this has symbolic meaning to some Americans, and I am genuinely happy that those who sought such an apology have now received it. But can we move along to other subjects now?

A man is running for President who is half-black. Institutionalized racism is a thing of the past (if anything, the racial disparity in the "housing crisis" would point to the lending world's falling all over themselves to lend to minorities). Ain't no way in hell reparations are going to be paid, so what do you say we just move on as a society, huh?

Housing Crisis (cont.)....Extreme Makover Family Facing Foreclosure

Yes, our housing "crisis" rages on. It seems a family....basically handed a $450,000 house in ABC's "Extreme Makeover", used the house as collateral for a "business" loan. Now they are going to foreclosure.

All those people who volunteered, all those people who donated...screwed by people who never should have been trusted with an asset of that magnitude in the first place.

Home ownership is not a human right.

What Would Al Gore's World Cost

I don't think anyone who looks at energy closely is surprised by what it is going to cost us to ween ourselves from dependence on foreign oil and domestic coal. Ronald Bailey of Reason has done some calculating to guess at what Al Gore's Carbon-Free energy plan would cost...and the costs are staggering.

Why? Mostly because wind, solar and geothermal simply cannot yet scale to the capacity of our coal and natural gas electrical plants. Nuclear can, and it can do so for significantly less than Gore's favorites (Al's not much for nuclear power).

Bailey does a good job in this article pointing out how moving to alternative sources of producing electricity both benefits the environment and lessens our dependence on oil. As we become better at producing power cleanly, more reliance on electric cars will make much more economic sense. Less gas in cars equals less money in the pockets of folks who want to kill us or who want to fund people who want to kill us.

Deadbeat Businesses

The GAO says American businesses have underpaid over $58 Billion in payroll taxes (that's right folks, that was a "B"). Now I'm as pro-business (and especially pro-small business) as the next guy, but this is a scandal. The representative of the US Chamber of Commerce sounds a note of warning, urging caution that the interest and penalties could "sink" some companies.

Good. That's what should happen. If you can't pay the basic obligations of your business (and meeting payroll is one of them), perhaps you really don't have a "going concern".

Senator (Dr.) Tom Coburn

Apparently, Harry Reid believes Tom Coburn is a bit of an obstructionist in the Senate. Coburn apparently has the temerity to wish to see programs evaluated and analyzed before money is spent on them, needlessly. I wish we had more fiscal conservatives like Coburn in the Senate. The problem I have with Coburn though, is his social conservatism, which I am less thrilled about. More on this in another post.

China and Energy

Great article in the WaPost this morning describing the growing car culture in China. The true scope of the energy challenges before us comes into sharp relief when one considers that even if only ten percent more of China's citizens move into the middle class, we're talking about 130 million people. We cannot drill our way to energy security, we cannot conserve our way to energy security, we cannot blow our way to energy security, we cannot shine our way to energy security and we cannot radiate our way to energy security. We can however, achieve energy security by pursuing a balanced portfolio of energy alternatives. Reliance on foreign oil in the face of huge increases in demand in the developing world is a plan doomed to fail, a plan that will hobble our economy, and a plan that will certainly result in a decline of American influence in the world.

Oil as a GOP Issue

I think the WaPost has it right with this story. Tying Senator Obama to the Speaker of the House's objections to increased drilling is a two-fer. You get to hammer the Dems on lacking a solid, executable energy solution at the same time you remind the Republican base who President Obama's best friends would be.