Quote of the Day

Your quote of the day comes from a CNNMoney.com article:

When you add up U-3 and all the underutilized workers the official U-6 rate for May 2009 is 16.4%. That’s an official BLS-generated stat that no one really wants to talk about: One out of every six members of the civilian labor force is either out of work or not fully employed.

Note: The BLS is the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics, compiler of the official unemployment figures. "Not fully employed" means those who are working part-time but wish they were full-time.

One out of six unemployed or underemployed - those are some ugly numbers. It won't be long before people start blaming President Obama for their plight.

A "Year Without a Summer"

An AccuWeather.com weather report includes this prediction:

According to Long Range Expert Joe Bastardi, areas from the northern Plains into the Northeast will have a "year without a summer."

Brrrr, those darn sunspots must still be conspicuous by their absence.

Record Cold in Green Bay

The high temperature at Green Bay, Wisconsin hit a record low for June 6, at 52 degrees. That broke the previous low of 53 set in 1943. This all reported by the Green Bay Press Gazette.

Darn, isn't that global warming is just burning us up? Come to think of it, it isn't all that hot here in Wyoming. Our high today is supposed to be 53, with thunderstorms.

Bad News from Latin America

See this article by Mary Anastasia O'Grady for The Wall Street Journal about political happenings in Latin America. The news is bad. The forces opposing democracy are gaining strength. As usual, anti-Americanism is the driving force while continued peonage is the outcome. Sad, sad....

Good News from Europe

In recent elections for the European Parliament, the Socialists did poorly in spite of the weak economic conditions. Sarkozy of France and Merkel of Germany are being given credit by some for leading the successful campaigning on the right. See this article from the Financial Times which provides details of the voting outcomes.

Good News from Lebanon

Preliminary results, reported here by The Washington Post, indicate that the pro-Western alliance of Sunni Muslims and Christians that has ruled Lebanon in the past has won a renewed majority. There was fear that a coalition dominated by Hezbollah and strongly influenced by Iran would win. Keeping Hezbollah out of the ruling coalition is good news for Lebanon and for the West, bad news for Iran.

Progress Is Good

Todd G. Buchholz writes an interesting piece for The Wall Street Journal. His basic thesis is that progress is good, and those who argue against it are simply wrong. He says:

Small is not necessarily better, and there is a difference between a simpler life and the life of a simpleton.

It is a point I've made in lectures to students for the last 30+ years. Buchholz makes the point more eloquently than I do.

My favorite family example: the other DrC's great-grandmother buried five of her children in one week; they died from diphtheria. Grammy couldn't go all dysfunctional because she had another seven children to care for. Progress means nobody fears diphtheria much now, if they are smart enough to be vaccinated, and hardly anybody has twelve children.

Wyoming Pix

The other DrC has some Wyoming photos on her blog, and they are worth your time.
The address is http://cruztalking.blogspot.com/.

I particularly like the Wyoming slogan:
The Way America Used to Be.
That is truer than you know.

Religion and Politics

Mother told you two topics never to discuss in polite society were religion and politics, that was in addition to sex which was an obvious no-no. Let's beg Mom's forgiveness and speak of both religion and politics in one place.

Gary Andres, writing for The Weekly Standard, has an interesting take on the ties between religious preferences (if any) and political orientations in the American electorate. He summarizes several studies of religious orientation as follows:

It turns out the least pious among us are the fastest growing group in the country.

For example, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) found:

The "Nones" (no stated religious preference, or atheist or agnostic) nearly doubled--from 8.2% in 1990 to 15.0% in 2008--a trend consistent with other major studies conducted over the past two decades.

Andres points out that the Republican Party's close association with evangelical Christians in recent decades has tended to push the rapidly growing group of "seculars" away from the GOP. And he notes that many of these "seculars" are concentrated in the blue states: New England and the West Coast. He doesn't mention that this trend is consistent with what has happened in Europe, which is being described as post-Christian.

Quote of the Day

Mark Steyn, writing for the Orange County Register, on the right way to look at the recent "speech in Cairo."

A wealthy nation living on the accumulated cultural capital of a glorious past can dodge its rendezvous with fate, but only for a while. That sound you heard in Cairo is the tingy ping of a hollow superpower.

Ouch! He watched the last days of the British Empire's decline and thinks he sees us taking the same path.

The Warrior Gene

Science geeks, go see this LiveScience.com article about the "warrior gene." The article reports the results of studies which find a genetic basis for aggression and violence. The lead study finds boys with the gene are more likely to join gangs and to be violent members of those gangs.

A wise society provides socially acceptable outlets for the drives of most of its citizens. It takes advantage of the natural skills its gene pool produces. A student of human behavior understands that we are a violent species of primate. Our history is, among other things, a series of wars.

We now route smart kids into GATE (Gifted And Talented Education) programs, and musically talented children into youth symphony. We need to find these violent lads young and route them into combative athletics or military academies and later into programs like Rangers, Marine Recon and SEALs.

E-Verify Immigration Screen

John Kass writes a column for the Chicago Tribune. Here he describes E-Verify, a existing system by which employers could easily determine whether applicants for jobs are or are not eligible to work in this country. So...we have a system and it works but the government is too cowardly to require it. What does that tell you?

Both parties are too fascinated with the future potential of the Hispanic vote to enforce the immigration laws of the land. This, in spite of the fact that something like 80% of today's lawful voters want the immigration laws enforced.

Obama Approval Goes South

Scott Rasmussen, whose Rasmussen Reports poll we favor at COTTonLINE, does a daily Presidential Tracking Poll which consists of subtracting the percentage of respondents who strongly disapprove of the President from the number of respondents who strongly approve. Today, Friday, June 5, 2009, this number has fallen to zero for the first time in the Obama administration (34 - 34 = 0). Rasmussen says of today's findings:

That’s the highest level of strong disapproval and the lowest overall rating yet recorded.

To be fair to Obama, this number fluctuates and there have been higher ratings within the last few days. Go here to see the historical data.

My guess: Obama making nice with the Arabs isn't popular with most Americans. The public seems to have the more realistic view of "the long war."

Quote of the Day

Osama ben Laden, speaking on tape and being quoted by Reuters:

We either live under the light of Islam or we die with dignity.

We need to be certain he and his followers experience choice b, sooner rather than later.

Obama in Egypt

The war between Islam and the West has been going on, sometimes fitfully, sometimes full-throttle, for nearly a thousand years. And you can make an argument that the West started it with the Crusades, beginning in 1096.

Imagine the hubris, the arrogance of Obama believing he could stop a thousand-year war with a speech he delivered. I am reminded of Neville Chamberlain talking to Adolf Hitler, then coming home to Britain and announcing "peace in our time."

Rarely is sucking up to one's enemies an appropriate thing to do. When did it ever help?

Brooks: GM Bailout Misguided

David Brooks, who writes for The New York Times, is sometimes on target. Here he writes about the government bailout of General Motors and he is not optimistic. This is a taste of what he sees:

The Obama plan dilutes the company’s focus. Instead of thinking obsessively about profitability and quality, G.M. will also have to meet the administration’s environmental goals. There is no evidence G.M. is good at building the sort of small cars the administration demands. There is no evidence that there is a large American market for these cars. But G.M. now has to serve two masters, the market and the administration’s policy goals.

Serving two masters is a notorious recipe for failure. How long before we are federally subsidized to buy one of Government Motor's little eggshell enviro-cars? The 18-wheelers won't get any smaller, just the passenger cars; imagine the results. The domestic highway carnage will dwarf what the left whined about in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Environmentalists will drive tiny cars and die in substantial numbers while those who avoid small cars survive in greater numbers. Over time something like the Roe Effect may occur, I find it positively Darwinian.

I'm going to keep driving a full-size pickup truck.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

An associate professor of physics at the University of Rochester may have developed a way to make incandescent bulbs competitive, energywise, with the new fluorescent bulbs that we are being urged to use. Daily Tech reports that Chunlei Guo, working on a U.S. Air Force contract, has made old-fashioned 60 watt bulbs produce the amount of light normally produced by 100 watt bulbs. He does this by zapping the tungsten filament briefly with a laser.

This is good news because the supposedly "green" fluorescent bulbs contain mercury and therefore can only be safely disposed of in very special HAZMAT (hazardous material) facilities. Unfortunately, many end up in the normal landfills and are therefore an environmental hazard. Guo's zapped tungsten filament bulbs would apparently be non-toxic and safely disposable in the places we use for most of our trash. The other plus is that they produce the more pleasant incandescent light.

Peters is Pissed

Ralph Peters, who writes about military and foreign affairs for The New York Post, is really upset with President Obama. Here is a sample:

While everything else is falling down around our president, the Obama Doctrine stands: Every enemy is a friend, or can be made into one. Let's talk about it.

I mostly think Peters has it right, so you may want to take a look at his latest list of horrors. It is not pretty.

Another View of the CA Mess

Richard Reeves writes a syndicated column which appears on Yahoo News. He gives a liberal's view of what is wrong with California, and he makes a good argument. I don't agree with his conclusions but he accurately lays out the various elements of the issue.

Reeves believes that California is developing what I call the "Argentinian problem": taxpayers who demand more government services than they are willing to pay taxes to support. In Argentina the result has been vast inflation as the hapless government prints money to meet voter demands. California doesn't have this option; states in the U.S. cannot operate on unending deficits nor create money as the federal government can.

I think California taxpayers need to learn how much government their current tax burden will purchase, and then decide whether they are happy with that level of services. It may turn out that they are okay with less government-provided services. Or, they may decide to raise taxes to pay for more government.

In the longer term, states need to find revenue sources which are less tied to the economic barometer than are state income taxes. Alternatively, they need to save money in good times to carry them through bad times - a thing that is difficult politically.

Movie Review: Angels and Demons

The other DrC and I saw Ron Howard's Angels and Demons on Saturday afternoon. We saw it in a heavily Mormon town in eastern Idaho, which may explain why the theater wasn't especially full.

The other DrC reports that her evangelical Christian girlfriend said something like "I'm not Catholic so why would I be interested in this film?" I didn't find being a non-Catholic was a problem in understanding the film.

We had been in Rome for a few days last fall and the film gives you a nice view of this amazing city, albeit much of it at high speed since the main characters are trying to identify four locations with Bernini statuary that are also significant to the Illuminati, an anti-church group of angry scientists. They only have four hours to do this which means there is much high-speed maneuvering through legendary Roman traffic aided by flashing lights and sirens. However, the film gives you a better view of the Sistine Chapel than you'll ever get as a tourist.

Rome has been the "headquarters" of the Catholic Church for most of the last two thousand years. As such it is very much a company town; there are churches everywhere and many priests, brothers, nuns and lay employees can be seen on its streets.

Does the film hang together plotwise? Only if you don't ask too many questions of it. There are many fortuitous coincidences some of which aid the bad guys and others which aid the good guys. The suspension of disbelief required by the film is considerable.

Elaborate things happen such that it is hard to see how the bad guys could have organized them in the available time. This particularly bothered the other DrC. There is a very nice plot twist right at the end of the film, which I will not reveal. Angels and Demons is a pleasant film but will not, I think, end up on your all-time favorite list.