U.S./S.Korea Relations Cooling?

Joel Brinkley reports for World Affairs that young people in South Korea take a dim view of the continued U.S. military presence on their border with North Korea. No country loves having troops of another nation garrisoned on their territory, unless the alternative is widely understood to be worse.

That understanding is failing among young South Koreans, creating a temptation among Americans to go home and leave them to their miserable fate.

Reap the Whirlwind

The sad events in Connecticut cause us to remember an even sadder collusion between the civil rights left and the tight-fisted right that occurred many years ago. It resulted in the disappearance of most mental hospitals.

On the left, the ACLU and its fellow-travelers decided that people had every right to be insane if they chose. They believed that such individuals need not, and indeed should not be incarcerated for the protection of society and themselves.

On the right, fiscal conservatives saw the enormous cost of warehousing the mentally ill and chose not to spend those funds. In a truly evil (and very unusual) collaboration between the two, they closed down the mental hospitals and left the mentally ill to wander our streets and live under our bridges and on our park benches.

Now and then, one of these confused individuals decides to work out his (or rarely her) rage on society with mass murder. Then we are shocked, shocked.

We shouldn't be shocked; we are at fault. As a society we've sown the wind and we reap the whirlwind.

Complex Issues

Can we keep firearms out of the hands of the non-criminal mentally ill? Away from those who  are being treated but have not, as yet, done anything for which they can be arrested? In many cases, a sociopathic young man's first criminal act is something horrid, something that should be prevented.

We don't let epileptics drive cars, even though they are have not had an accident. We require physicians to, essentially, rat them out. Why should the mentally ill have rights that the physically ill do not?

The issues are complex - privacy, doctor-patient confidentiality, the historic American right of non-criminals to keep and bear arms. On the other hand, society has rights too - these are difficult issues to parse out. See this article in PJ Media for more. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.

Kerry on the Left

Rumor has it President Obama will appoint Massachusetts Senator John Kerry as the next Secretary of State. For an analysis of Kerry's very leftist positions taken on past foreign policy issues, see this National Review article by Jay Nordlinger.

Single Women and the GOP

The Republican Party has difficulty winning the votes of single women, a growing demographic bloc. Recent GOP candidates have said single women are as concerned about economic issues as everyone else. It appears they were wrong.

In recent elections, the Republican Party has gotten large majorities of the votes of white voters and of married voters. Unfortunately for the GOP, both groups are declining in size.

The Democrats have gotten large majorities of nonwhite voters and of singles. Both of these groups are growing in size.

In politics, demographics is destiny. To continue to be viable, Republicans need to find ways to become relevant to groups which are growing.

See an Associated Press article from the Tampa Tribune which wrestles with this issue. What nobody is saying is that our society teaches women to be more concerned with social issues than are men. 

A Win for New Media

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice has announced that she will not be a candidate for Secretary of State in the second Obama administration. It is likely she wrote the letter taking her name out of contention at the direction of the White House.

The immediate credit for pushing her out of contention goes to a group of Republican Senators. Those Senators' opposition can be credited to the new media which has taken a extraordinarily dim view of Rice's testimony concerning the debacle at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

In that testimony Rice repeated the White House talking points concerning the causes of that attack when she either knew, or should have known, that the talking points were counterfactual, that is to say, untrue.

The Fiscal Cliff, and More

The opening two sentences of this article in Yahoo's The Week pretty much sum up my view of the trouble the U.S. is in with regard to financing government:

Voters overwhelmingly want Washington to solve the country's budget problems. But they reject nearly every meaningful proposition to do so.

We can solve our government financing problems by taxing more or spending less, neither of which is palatable to the American electorate.

We borrow nearly half of every dollar the government spends on us. How long do you suppose that can continue? As we wrote on Saturday, Americans want more government than they are willing to pay for.

Quote of the Day

Bill Frezza, writing for RealClearMarkets about the long-term effects of the population bust, does a lovely paraphrase of the classic criticism of socialism:

The problem with entitlement democracy is that you eventually run out of other people's babies.

Entitled Will Aging Childless Voters Enslave My Future Grandchildren?, this article is worth your time.

Suppose Britain Left the EU

The Economist takes a look at the growing sentiment in the U.K. for bailing out of the EU. Their analysis is that the outcomes would be largely negative.

However, they believe if there were a referendum on the question today Britain would leave. One major question would be the status of guest workers from the EU working in the U.K., and vice versa. That question sounds familiar, as we grapple here with the question of the forward status of illegal aliens in the U.S.

Is It Humor?

Gene Weingarten writes in the Washington Post of a dialog with feminist Gina Barreca about why Mitt Romney lost big among single women. It is hard to determine whether his main drive here is to be funny, or to be serious.

I suppose my favorite line from the article is this one attributed to Ms. Barreca:

The real big issue is that Mitt Romney is a terrible, terrible date, and single women, who are forced into the perpetual ghastly state of potential date appraisal, sensed that immediately.

Asked to elaborate, Gina replies:

All you had to do was watch Romney discussing “binders full of women,” and you understood, intuitively, where women stood with him: We’re a category of thing to be held in containers and accessed when needed, roughly the same as pistachio nuts or lock washers.

I think political humor is the intent, or is it maybe serious commentary disguised as wit?

Travel Blogging VIII

Hey, Harry Potter fans, if you want to see photos of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, go to the other DrC's website: cruztalkingtwo.blogspot.com. She has posted some good 'uns.

After getting way too tired yesterday, today I hired an electric chair and drove around both parks. It made a world of difference; instead of stopping every hundred yards to rest I was good to go all day. The other DrC goes walking most days so she can handle the extreme walking a theme park demands.

Fear of Religion

Check out this Breitbart News article which reports that the irreligious voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Unchurched voters were more common than formerly thought; this group is growing.

Although the article doesn't say so, the GOP's obvious association with the religious right - the evangelicals - makes them anathema to the irreligious. I fear there isn't much can be done about this reaction, the GOP needs the votes of the social right.

Here is National Public Radio's take on the same story. Conservative leaders need to think about what this means, and how to deal with the changes in the demographic profile of the electorate.

Travel Blogging VII

Orlando, Florida: The DrsC are checking out the Universal Studios Orlando theme park, particularly the Harry Potter section there. In two words it is Nicely Done. And breakfast at The Three Broomsticks was also good.

As big Harry Potter fans, the DrsC might have been expected to have visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter before now. We've held off because the lines have been too long, the crowds too intense.

In this period between Thanksgiving and Christmas Universal expected a lull and I think we've gotten one. The park has custom to be sure, but not the mobs we wanted to avoid.

We have spent one full day here and have two more before we head back west. What I'd forgotten is just how tired the feet get walking all over a theme park, and not just the feet. I find myself sitting down to rest with some frequency, fortunately there are places to do this. A water taxi takes us back and forth from our hotel.

There is a food and entertainment area called City Walk as a sort of entryway to the two separate theme parks that make up the Universal operation here. This afternoon we ate coconut shrimp at Bubba Gump's - I recommend it.

We also saw the new James Bond film, Skyfall, at the IMAX theater in City Walk. It is non-stop action, as we expect Bond films to be. Daniel Craig portrayed an aging Bond, and SPOILER ALERT a major continuing character (other than Bond) dies.

Singles Si, Hispanics Not So Much

Jonathan V. Last writes about demographics for The Weekly Standard. Here he focuses on two trends active in the last election: the increase in Hispanics, and the increase in singles.

Last makes the point that the increase in Hispanics is real but its long-term importance has probably been overrated. See his analysis for why this is so. On the other hand, he views the dramatic increase in singles as being of particular importance.

As we know, Democrats' programs appeal to singles more than they do to married people. What if anything the GOP might do to counter this trend becomes an issue for discussion. Last suggests that Republicans try to get more people to marry, rather than to offer goodies to singles.

The intersection of reliable birth control with the declining importance of religion has 'legitimized' cohabitation, or at least reduced its illegitimacy. Speaking of newlyweds, "How long did they live together?" is the new equivalent of "How long were they engaged?"

Gridlock Explained

Jay Cost, who writes analysis for RealClearPolitics, has a nice piece looking at why gridlock continues in Washington, particularly with respect to the so-called "fiscal cliff." His conclusion, it will continue.

My conclusion: the American people want more government than they are willing to pay for. They want somebody else to pay for their government services. Naturally, "somebody else" doesn't want to pay up either. See this Washington Times article for more.

Travel Blogging VI

Princess Cay, Eleuthera, The Bahamas: It seems every major cruise line has a "private" cay or key to which they bring pax. Princess has the rights to a piece of Eleuthera, a hundred mile long island in the Bahamas. This group of islands sits just east of Florida but is independent,

The DrsC have not gone ashore here this time, we visited it on some earlier cruise. The private cays are hot stuff for beach people, not much for non-beach people. We're in the second category. Beaches are picturesque, but put off-limits for fair-skinned people by their dermatologists.

Travel Blogging V

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands: Today there were six (6) cruise ships in this port. These ranged in size from the huge Oasis of the Seas to the relatively small Maasdam, our Emerald Princess being in the middle.

I have no idea what the population of this island is normally. If each of these ships brought, on average, 3000 pax to this sunny isle, we cruisers briefly added 18,000 souls to the total.

The hope is that each of these 18,000 spends loads of money here. I believe this is a hope that is not fulfilled.

For reasons unknown to me, the marketing of jewelry is a big deal anywhere cruise ships land. Perhaps cruise pax are concentrations of people who’ve demonstrated having spare thousands of dollars to spend on themselves.

Jewelry marketing is particularly big in the Caribbean and along the Alaskan coast. There are jewelry firms which have summer-only outlets in Alaska cruise ports in addition to outlets down here in the islands and they move personnel back and forth.

Don’t believe cruise ship TV ads, the view around the ship’s pool is not pretty. Cruise pax are not slender or trim; overweight or obese describes most of us. Recreational eating is the major entertainment offered aboard.

We pax aren’t young, either. The question around the dinner table isn’t “What do you do?” Instead it is “What did you do?” The presumption is that one is retired, although a few are still working. Heck, most of us are spending our kids’ inheritance, if we even had kids.

Something I notice about islands where the British colonial heritage persists. It is nice to be able to read the signage. It is surprising how much friendlier that makes a place feel.

Of course when you try to converse with locals, you discover that their version of English is heavily accented. They understand you from watching thousands of hours of American and Brit TV shows, you may not understand their island patois.

During supper our ship captain made a tannoy announcement about our course and speed over the next 24 hours. His native tongue is Italian and we could understand roughly one word in three of his heavily accented English.

All official announcements on this ship line are made in English, often heavily accented. I wonder how well crew members understand each other?

The other DrC and I joke that someday soon the whole world will communicate (badly) in broken English. I suppose the Roman empire had the same problem – thick regional accents messing with the Rome version of Latin.

Travel Blogging IV

Roseau, Dominica: This is a beautiful island, with terrain like that of Oahu or Maui. It even has volcanic features, we are told of a boiling lake and geysers. These make sense as the island is clearly of volcanic origin.

The island has had both French and British colonial pasts, and the names reflect both. The main cruise port is virtually at the foot of downtown Roseau, you walk off the ship and you’re on the “main drag.” This isn’t true at most ports.

I say “main cruise port” because after the Emerald Princess tied up at the foot of downtown, a Holland America ship arrived and had to tie up a mile up the coast at a less convenient location. I’m guessing their pax (cruise biz slang for “passengers”) had to take shuttles to town, not terrible but less convenient.

Some thoughts about Grenada, yesterday’s port. First, it is properly pronounced “gre-NAY-da” instead of the Spanish “gre-NAH-da” as our ship’s captain mispronounced it. Second, it is a hilly rascal. The roads are about a lane and a half wide, have no center line, and often head up or down hill at an alarming slant. Creating parking for hillside homes is a real issue, and expensive.

Grenada has lots of very up-scale homes but very few obvious ways to earn a living, raising the question of from whence its residents’ incomes arise. I’m certain that like most islands, people try their darnedest to get good government jobs.

Island governments see job creation as their main function. This was true on Guam, why not on Grenada? Ex-colonies try to milk the former colonial power for every dime they can get, but it cannot ever be enough.

Grenada has a university – more jobs - and thus tuition money incoming. And they earn tourism money – our ship was an example.

I’m guessing some of those upscale houses are vacation homes occupied but a few weeks a year –guarded the rest of the year – again more jobs. A friend has a place like this in Costa Rica which she occupies six months of the year and has guarded 12 months of the year. In CR the issue is “ladrones” which is Spanish for thieves, in other words, burglars.

Whale watching off Dominica is not a sure-fire thing, we went today and saw zip, nothing but sea birds. It was a nice cruise on calm water off a picturesque island but no whales or dolphins. Minus the sea critters, it was too long and many got sleepy, including yours truly.

For actually seeing whales, I recommend Lahaina Roads, off Maui. As to why it’s called “Roads” I’m not entirely certain. The usage dates back to sailing ship days, and is I believe, an abbreviation for “roadstead” meaning shallow place where many ships drop anchor.

Travel Blogging III

At Sea, between Bonaire and Grenada: Some thoughts about Bonaire, after today’s visit. First thought: I like it. Bonaire is uncrowded, devoted to The Netherlands, and less “Caribbean” than A and C – all good things.

Bonaire has only three exports: salt, suntans, and memories. There are extensive salt pans at the south end of the island, and piles of harvested salt ready for export. Everything else the island imports, at some cost, although local fishermen provide a reasonable share of the diet. People come here for the diving, said to be very fine.

It has become a “winter mooring” spot for a good number of live-aboard yachts home ported in the States. They pay, we’re told, $10/day for mooring privileges - no boat or ship “anchors” in Bonaire as hooks damage the coral.

I wonder where the yacht’s sewage and garbage are taken? Boats that size don’t have treatment facilities aboard. Perhaps ten bucks buys a weekly “pump out” of their black water tank and access to a dumpster? It would be to the advantage of Bonaire to provide such facilities, to keep their legendary water clear.

We were shown two resorts virtually side by side, one charging $100/night and busy, the other charging $800/night and deserted. What I saw was the market in action, reasonable prices = customers, unreasonable prices = no custom.

The expensive, unoccupied resort was described as a money-laundering scheme of a Venezuelan oil baron. That may have been rumor.

Travel Blogging II

Kralendijk, Bonaire: This cruise we visit only A an B of the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao). Yesterday was Aruba, today Bonaire. They were a former Dutch colony that still maintains close ties with the Netherlands, Bonaire more so than Aruba.

Tomorrow we are on to Grenada, site of a minor U.S. invasion some decades ago. Today Grenada is mostly known for hosting a medical school for would-be doctors who can’t get into the extremely selective med schools in the States. Hitting the books when hitting the beaches is nearby has to be hard.

We flew south from Pittsburgh to Ft. Lauderdale a few days ago, and have been cruising the Caribbean Sea since. The contrast between late autumn Pennsylvania and the same period in the Caribbean is dramatic.

That contrast is much greater than we’d experience going from northern CA to HI at the same time, nearly as much as the contrast at this time between WY and HI. Understanding the area’s draw on chilled northeasterners is a no-brainer – it's thawing out.

Having seen Aruba not long ago, we stayed aboard the ship when most folks went ashore. It is like having this large ship to ourselves, our own giant “yacht.” Actually, I like the “sea days” better than the “port days.”

We were on this ship two months ago for a Baltic Sea cruise plus trans-Atlantic crossing and in that two months the “feel” of the ship has changed substantially, for the worse. Same ship, different “feel” – go figure. Many of the personnel have turned over, gone home on leave or gone to other ships in the fleet. Of course it’s a different passenger “consist” too.