Recovering. Novelizations. And a Billion Dollar Bond

View 713 Saturday, February 18, 2012

Well, I did a SKYPE interview for BOSKONE this morning and I am told it went well enough. The connection was fairly good, and I could generally hear what was said to me from the audience, so I am hoping the quality of the projection wasn’t too bad. I didn’t have a lot of energy, and I am glad it didn’t go on for much longer. BOSKONE has asked me back for next year, and this time I intend to get there.

I posted one big mailbag, and I intend to put up another today or tomorrow. There are a number of topics, and I tried to comment appropriately, although some of the topics deserve a lot more discussion; perhaps that will happen. And enough excuses. I really do think I have some of the most interesting mail on the Internet.

Today ends the Winter Pledge Drive. It went well, and my thanks to all those who subscribed, and particularly to those who renewed after a lapse of a year or two – in one case eight years! Welcome back. This place can’t operate without subscriptions. Fortunately it gets them. If you have been thinking you ought to subscribe – or renew— now’s the time!

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Apparently I have fallen way behind in what’s going on in the writing business. Many years ago – early 1972 I think – I was asked to write the novelization of the film Escape From The Planet of the Apes. This was while we were writing Mote in God’s Eye but before we sold it so I needed money to live on, and I was offered a couple of thousand dollars to do this as a work assignment – that is, my name would be on the book, but all rights to the novel were owned by the publisher. I did it in a couple of weeks – Alan Dean Foster who had done a number of film novelizations gave me some invaluable tips on how to do it – and shipped it off. I still am asked to sign old used copies of the book several times a year.

I was later asked to write novels in other people’s universes, such as Star Trek and other franchises, but by then Mote had sold well and Hammer was on the best seller list, and I was science editor of Galaxy, so I had no need or interest, and I haven’t paid much attention to that sort of thing.

I gather that it has not only become a fairly large industry, but there are novels based on games now. And we have this

Apparently, fans found so many inconsistencies between the game of MASS EFFECT

and Bill Dietz’s tie-in novel that they’ve raised howls of protest—and Del

Rey has promised to make revisions to future editions:

http://kotaku.com/5882185/bioware-to-patch-error+laden-mass-effect-novel-in-response-to-fan-uproar

One of those links leads here http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9150901/1 where I see in the comments some really interesting avatar pictures. I really know nothing of the Bioware game. I’m way behind in computer games, and I have so little time that I don’t dare try to find out more. I tend to turn-based strategy games anyway, and very few of those are published nowadays.

The whole world of fiction is changing before my very eyes. I understand some authors are filming previews of their novels – actors in costume doing scenes from their upcoming books. The technology has got to the point that almost anyone can make a production quality trailer. Production for Internet quality, that it; theater projection quality movies are still pretty costly even in this electronic era, but that too is changing, and anyone can have a camera and editing hardware and software to do good looking films to be broadcast by Internet. They might not look so good on a large screen high definition set, but I am told even that is changing.

It’s a very different world out there.

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Space Access ’12 Conference – April 12-14 – Phoenix Arizona

SA ’12 will be the next round of Space Access Society’s long-running annual get-together for people seriously interested in the technology, business, and politics of radically cheaper space transportation.

Conference location is the Grace Inn, 10831 South 51st Street, Phoenix, AZ. (For room reservations, call 800 843-6010 or 480 893-3000, and mention "space access" to get our discount $69/night breakfast-included

rate.)

Conference registration is $120 in advance, $140 at the door, student

rate $40 either way. We’re not set up to accept credit cards in

advance – for advance registration you need to paper-mail us a check or money order. Include your name, the affiliation (if any) you want listed on your badge, and your email address. Make the check out to "Space Access ’12", and mail it to Space Access ’12, PO Box 16034, Phoenix AZ 85011.

Stay tuned to http://www.space-access.org for more

I always enjoy Space Access. I wish I could make it this year, but probably I will not.

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$6 Trillion in Fake Bonds

It makes me wonder what other scams are going on; six trillion in bonds? That’s a big transaction.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/02/17/bloomberg_articlesLZJARS6JTSE901-LZJMW.DTL

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

There was a picture of a $1 Billion (in Gold!) printed US Treasury bond with coupons in today’s papers. Astonishing. The US no longer issues printed Treasury bonds, and has certainly never issued a piece of paper worth anything like that – as I understand it we no longer have $10,000 bills. More and more we rely on electronics for large sum transfers. In Asia gold and currency is still transported about for big transactions, but in the West it’s all electronic – and of course vulnerable to hackers, who have become the new counterfeiters.

The counterfeit bonds were marketed largely in foreign countries to be sold at a big discount. I doubt any of our readers would have been tempted…

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I find that I get tired easily: I did the BOSKONE interview, a mail bag, and this rather simple writeup, and I am exhausted. Whatever this infection is – and I hear of more and more of my friends who have it – it may not deserve national attention the way swine flu did, but it’s sure affecting a lot of people. I have no idea of how you can avoid it. In my case I am fairly certain I got it from my granddaughter. For her it was a severe case of sniffles, not the debilitating wracking that I have had, thank heaven.

Anyway I am having a mild relapse. This will have to do.

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Health Care, unemployment, IPCC, Witch hunts, and much more

Mail 713 Friday, February 17, 2012

3D Printing

Report from the Legions

Snopes

Kaiser

Space Access

 

and much more

 

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Printed jaw lets woman swallow again

Jerry

We knew 3D printing was coming. And now it’s officially here. An 83-year-old woman was given a replacement mandible from a 3D printer. She becomes the first patient ever to be fitted with a printed lower jaw:

http://www.reghardware.com/2012/02/06/3d_printed_jaw_replacement_helps_grandmother_eat_again/print.html

I wonder how soon we’ll see 3D printers making scaffolding for cells, so new hearts and such can simply be built. Avoid the ‘Gift From Earth’ phenomenon.

Ed

The advance of 3D printing to become what Minsky postulated as a “Thingmaker” back in 1975 is astonishing. And it continues. Moreover, the printed plastic model can be used to make a mold which can be used for casting the object in metal or other such media. The potential is enormous.

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‘What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.’

<http://armedforcesjournal.com/2012/02/8904030>

Roland Dobbins

Yeah.

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Snopes

— I am curious about your "Snopes has agendas I do not share" comment. Can you elaborate? I respect you, and I respect Snopes, or at least I did.

M

Nothing special. They take a pretty standard media liberal view when there is any political controversy, and they will sometimes certify as "fact" things that are political assertions, and seem to have a far higher standard of "fact’ when the assertion is conservative while assuming the truth of Keynsian economics and such.

They’re ok on a lot of stuff, and serve a useful purpose, but they do have an agenda one should be aware of. I’m not slamming them. There are far worse “fact checking” outfits that are simply arms of one political view.

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"The danger is that there’ll be winners …"

Dr. Pournelle —

I came across this today and thought it made a good point about "dumbing down" public schools.

Dumbing down of state education has made Britain more unequal than 25 years ago http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/9082053/Dumbing-down-of-state-education-has-made-Britain-more-unequal-than-25-years-ago.html

"Thanks to the wholesale dumbing down of state education, Britain is now more unequal than it was 25 years ago. The progressive custodians of public education have succeeded in entrenching poverty and preserving privilege – all in the name of equality. As an illustration of the law of unintended consequences, it could not be bettered. "

Pieter

The same is true in the United States. We are developing full caste systems. Those who can try to send their children to private schools to shield them from the horror. And the beat goes on.

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Kaiser

Dr. Pournelle-

I pretty much grew up with Kaiser, beginning ca 1954, and in my young adulthood I had a similar vision of turning all healthcare in the country over to them. Later, geographical considerations meant that we couldn’t participate with Kaiser, but my opinion remained unchanged.

When Kaiser opened a hospital locally and again became an option, through my wife’s work, we went back to it. However, through the circumstances of their taking in a very large increase in new membership locally and a rather insensitive administrator, we found our experience quite different than expected and we left as soon as possible. More recently we have returned and are well satisfied now that local growing pains have apparently passed. So, yes, scaling up rapidly would present a considerable challenge.

Paul

We have received a number of views of Kaiser, mostly positive.

Kaiser’s not the panacea

Dr. Pournelle:

I agree that Kaiser-Permanente can offer fine health care . . . if they want you.

I was a Kaiser client for almost 40 years: under my father’s employer we were one of the first families covered when K-P first expanded into Cleveland. I chose K-P when I entered the workforce, then under my wife’s coverage when another employer of mine did not offer its plan.

Later, when she changed employers and was not offered its plan, we were so satisfied with it’s preventive-care that we tried to get individual coverage which we would pay ourselves. After decades of "customer" loyalty, we were told that because we were now trying to join as individuals wth the pre-existing conditions — that Kaiser had diagnosed — they would not offer us coverage.

We are now covered by United Healthcare as the insurer from my wife’s employer and receive healthcare through the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. We find both the care and insurance to be more flexible and somewhat better than K-P.

This isn’t sour grapes, since my father, until his death, had K-P coverage and received excellent and comprehensive treatment. It’s just well to remember that K-P is a business, like other health insurers, and will only cover young healthy people unless you are part of group coverage.

Pete Nofel

"It ain’t fair? Hey pal, ‘fair’ is where you buy funnel cakes."

I am told that the Kaiser organization is different in different places, and I can only say that my experience with the Southern California Kaiser including San Diego and Lancaster has been positive. What most impresses me is that the personnel have been almost universally cheerful, polite, and helpful, and generally competent; and I am pretty familiar with clinical procedures. As to their selectivity, we tried for years to get on with Kaiser before an enrollment opportunity opened up in the 1980’s. At the time we had the four boys as well as Roberta and me. We were accepted and have been there ever since. Given my medical history I am sure I would not be acceptable to any insurance program now, so I am very careful to keep up my copayments and the minimal dues we owe on Medicare Advantage.

Without Kaiser we would probably be dead; I doubt I could afford the treatments I have needed. I also note that they do a pretty good job of using technology to reduce costs and increase productivity, and their preventive medicine courses have proven to be useful – I took the diabetes course with a rather cynical attitude, but I was won over. I learned a good bit and, as Dr. Johnson observed, where I may not have needed education I certainly needed reminding. All my experience has been with Southern California, but after thirty years of my wife and myself, and over a decade of having the boys under the Kaiser system, I have no real complaints, and my few suggestions having to do with small computers and records management have either been adopted or done better.

As to finding a group, that has always been a real problem for free lance writers. Various writer organizations have tried to form medical coverage groups; Science Fiction Writers of America tried over the years starting with before I was President in the 70’s; we never got a large enough group to be of much interest to anyone. The United States system is geared to employer-provided medical insurance. We went from employer to individual memberships by way of COBRA, which was costly, but we thought worth it.

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Supreme Court

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/supreme-court-justice-robbed-by-machete-weilding-intruder-in-carribean/

Wonder if he is a conservative now?

A Conservative is a Liberal who has been mugged.

A Liberal is a Conservative who has been harassed by the police.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was robbed at knife point in his vacation home on the Caribbean island of Nevis Feb. 9,  according to a court spokeswoman, although he’s not the first Supreme Court  justice become a victim of crime. In 2004, Justice David Souter was mugged while jogging, and in 1966, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had her purse snatched.

“Breyer was with his wife,  Joanna Breyer, and guests when an intruder armed with a machete broke into their  home. The intruder  took $1,000 but no one was hurt.” [snip]

B

Reality does have a way of changing one’s opinions. Into each reign some life must fall…

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McMartin Case

Jerry,

I lived in Manhattan Beach during the McMartin case hysteria. It got so bad that I made a decision that if I was alone and children approached me, I would beat a hasty retreat.

In retrospect, even two adults approached by a group of children could still have been caught up in the hysteria of the day.

I hope to never have to live in an atmosphere like that again.

Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

The great child molestation terror extended far beyond Southern California. There was reputed to be a circle of witches and ritual molestations in the State of Washington and a number of people were harassed and jailed over what turned out to be allegations of crimes of which there was no proof other than the allegation. The same happened in New England.

For a long time the voodoo sciences held that children just couldn’t make up stories of being sexually molested, and they often wouldn’t tell you if they had been. This led to “professionals” going over and over stories and gestures and suggestions and imputations until the kids figured out what the adult “professional” wanted the child to say; whereupon lives were ruined. In the McMartin case it got to the point where the police seriously investigated reports of dead horses buried on the school grounds, and it was seriously believed that teachers in the schools transported the children to Forest Lawn Cemetary – in Glendale – from Manhattan Beach, there to witness burials and funerals to show them what would happen to them if they told. Since the children seemed to be terrified, this was taken to be, if not true, then significant. Years later the children, now grown, said that all this was suggested to them by the social workers, and the kids wanted to get out of the interrogation rooms. Videos of some of the sessions showed interrogation techniques that would have been illegal if used on adults. The only way out of the endless harassment was to tell the social workers something awful about someone; when the children realized that, some of them made up stories, often really awful stories.

The witch hunts went on for years, and resulted in union rules for teachers that made it nearly impossible to fire a teacher based on child accusations, and almost impossible even when there was physical evidence. And, as I have said here before, one case came apart when the defense lawyer was able to get one of the accusing children to “remember” being abused by the judge presiding in the case, when the judge had never seen the child before the case came to trial. Over time the with hunts abated, but a number of lives were destroyed in the process –

And after the era of wild accusations, it became more difficult to save children from genuine child molestors, who became quite clever in their techniques. It remains a challenge to our judicial system. The rise of DNA evidence has simplified some of this, of course.

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Space Access ’12 Conference – April 12-14 – Phoenix Arizona

SA ’12 will be the next round of Space Access Society’s long-running annual get-together for people seriously interested in the technology, business, and politics of radically cheaper space transportation.

Conference location is the Grace Inn, 10831 South 51st Street, Phoenix, AZ. (For room reservations, call 800 843-6010 or 480 893-3000, and mention "space access" to get our discount $69/night breakfast-included

rate.)

Conference registration is $120 in advance, $140 at the door, student

rate $40 either way. We’re not set up to accept credit cards in

advance – for advance registration you need to paper-mail us a check or money order. Include your name, the affiliation (if any) you want listed on your badge, and your email address. Make the check out to "Space Access ’12", and mail it to Space Access ’12, PO Box 16034, Phoenix AZ 85011.

Confirmed Presentations as of 2/18/12

Altius Space Machines/Jon Goff

Armadillo Aerospace

Matt Cannella, student, "HySoR Hybrid Sounding Rocket"

Commercial Spaceflight Federation

FAA AST

Frontier Astronautics/Timothy Bendel

Jeff Foust

Garvey Space

JP Aerospace/John Powell

Lasermotive/Jordin Kare

Liftport

Clark Lindsey

mv2space/Max Vozoff

NASA Ames/Bruce Pittman, "Barriers And Opportunities For Reusable Launch Vehicles"

NASA OCT/Dr. Lagudava Kubendran

NextGen Space/Charles Miller

Panel: Newspace Lessons Learned – Gary Hudson, Henry Spencer, Henry Vanderbilt Team Phoenicia/Will Baird Space Frontier Foundation/Ryan McLinko Space Studies Institute/Gary Hudson, President Speedup/Robert Steinke Henry Spencer, "Beyond Chemical Rockets: Overview and Near-Term Options"

and "Lessons From Smallsats for Small Launchers"

Stratofox Aerospace Tracking & Recovery Team/Ian Kluft United Launch Alliance/Frank Zegler Unreasonable Rocket/Paul Breed Ventions/Adam London XCOR Aerospace/Mark Street

Stay tuned to http://www.space-access.org for more as we fill out the

SA’12 program.

I always enjoy the Space Access conferences. I haven’t been to one in a while, and it doesn’t look like I’ll get to this one, but if you’re interested in the subject it’s one of the better conferences to go to. Learn what is going on in private space…

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Epic Film

I am not sure if you’ve seen Excalibur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOqlV4Le9Tk

It was made in 1981; it is an epic film with Shakespearean actors — you would probably recognize many of them, and I am sure you will note Patrick Stewart. This film is more than a film; like many films it contains symbolism from the mystery schools and underlying patterns for the initiate. I highly recommend it.

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I saw Excalibur when it was first run, and I have seen it several times since. It does a very good job with the Arthurian legend, which is one of my favorite stories.

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Women in combat —

I read many years ago the account of a Marine unit in Desert Storm that marched a long way with heavy packs in a short time and then fought – and defeated – an entrenched unit of Revolutionary Guards. The exact figures – distance, time and load – have flown from my memory and may have been exaggerated anyway. The point is that any male Marine would have been expected to be able to do that.

The Corps can take any young man who is not physically disqualified – meaning most any average young man – and turn him into a Marine who can do that kind of thing. There are, no doubt, some women who can be so trained, but no one suggests that the average woman can, no matter how healthy and fit.

Richard White

Austin, Texas

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

–Plato

I find it curious that it is a matter of equality and equity that women be considered by fiat fit for any military position that a man can hold. We don’t often think of men as having a right to conceive and bear children. My daughter was a very good intelligence officer, but she will be the first to tell you she wasn’t up to many of the field exercises of line combat units. Why should she be? But she could run a Hawk company well enough.

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Unemployment

In reference to the question of what claim an unemployed person has on the income of other people, it might be relevant to note the difference between base unemployment benefits and extended unemployment benefits. For at least the base period the term used is unemployment insurance (UI). Here in for 2011 Ohio, as in most states, the employer pays a tax {premium) equal to between 0.7% to 9.6% based on the unemployment experience of their employees of the first $9,000 in wages for each employee. Also there is a Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUCA) tax of 6.2% (6.0% after 7/1/2011) on the first $7000. of each employees wages. The FUCA payments can be reduced from 6.2%(6.0%) by a credit of up to 5.4% if the employee has timely pay his state unemployment taxes and the State has not borrowed money from the Federal government unemployment trust fund. Currently employers 21 states have the credit available reduced from between 0.3% to 0.9% since they owe the federal unemployment fund.

In good times the Federal and state unemployment taxes tend to bring on a surplus, and there is usually political pressure from businesses to reduce the unemployment tax rate rather then build up a surplus for poor economic times. In bad economic times the funds run a deficit and often require the states to borrow form the federal trust fund.

The states generally set the maximum weeks of coverage usually between 24 and 26 weeks based on employment history and the benefit amounts. Normally being terminated for cause, quitting or being involved in a labor dispute would make a person ineligible for benefits. In Ohio, the benefits are set at 50% of earning up to $400 per week with no dependents and $529 per week with 3 dependents. So even given the fact that unemployed person does not have to pay Social Security and Medicare on these payments, he is going to see reduction of about 40% in his income. Probably the person is going to have to dip into his savings or reduce his life style by cutting expenses. That would not encourage lingering in the system.

The programs are involuntary in the same way that Social Security and Medicare taxes are involuntary. While the employer pays the tax, like the employer part of the Social Security and Medicare taxes, economists generally treat these costs as being borne by the employee, since the employer reduces what he is willing to pay in wages to the employee.

In this insurance sense, the unemployed has a claim in the same way someone would if he paid his fire and hazard insurance premiums, and then his house was destroyed. Of course, there is room to disagree on whether unemployment insurance should be an involuntary program. However, the base program is managed mainly by the states and backed up by the federal government. This is opposed as to Social Security and Medicare that are Federal programs.

Unemployment benefits and taxes tend to help automatically stabilize the economic. In good times as wages raise, they take additionally money out of the system help keeping inflation in control and keeping the economy from overheating. In poor times as wages drop the taxes drop, and as unemployment increases benefits feed money into the economy helping to stimulate the system. All without Congress or any state legislatures having to take action.

Now the federal extended benefits that can last up to 52 or even 99 weeks are a difference matter. Those cannot be considered insurance, and it would be a stretch to claim any entitlement to receive them. The base design of the system does not coverage the cost of those extra benefits. The extended benefits should be considered more of a economic stimulus measure trying to improve the economy. One way the costs could be covered by increased FUCA and state taxes on employers after the economic downturn ends. Similar to the way insurance premiums on homes might increase after a region has suffered a natural disaster. This would maintain more of an insurance aspect. Or they could be covered by general federal tax receipts similar to the way a natural disaster might be handled. This would make it more of an emergency response to a economic disaster. Political arguments of course can be made over the necessity of a stimulus and the correct form. Keynes once argued that paying to bury jars of money and letting people dig them up or get paid to dig them up would be a good a stimulus system as any other.

If you grant that economic stimulus is necessary, the extended unemployment benefits do take advantage of an existing system to distribute the money so a new bureaucracy does not have to be created. It also passes the money to people that are likely to need to spend the money on goods and services creating additional demand rather than to someone who would save the money or pay down existing debts. On the negative side, it may keep people unemployed longer than they normally would be as they might continue to hold out for higher paying jobs instead of taking a lower paying job that might be available. The 40% cut in income while on benefits may help to minimize this.

Kenneth Klute

Unemployment insurance is entirely different from “extended” unemployment benefits. Winston Churchill was a strong advocate of “insurance, insurance, insurance” as have been many conservative theorists and politicians. That kind of insurance is a form of compulsory savings of course, and is often rejected by many libertarians as an interference with freedom of action, but the notion of unemployment insurance is sound enough.

The big problem is that as productivity goes up, the need for unskilled labor falls. Since this is not Lake Wobegon, half our children are below average. Jobs for the below average become more scarce. One traditional job for the dull normal members of the population is personal domestic service – making life easier for the employed and productive (as well as for the idle rich). We have built a number of social restrictions on domestic service as a career. Given the way the economy and technology are going, we may well have to rethink that.

I would think it more dignified to be a scullery maid than simply to be on the dole. Clearly that is not a majority opinion.

poverty and unemployment

Dear Dr Pournelle,

I was astonishingly moved by the clarity and straightforwardness of your discussion of poverty and unemployment. Yes, if you make something easier or more profitable, then all else equal you will have more of it, and conversely. How is it that so many people fail to see that? I’ve always been inclined to give my liberal friends a break and assume that they are thinking with their hearts and not their brains, but what about those in positions of responsibility, who one would think would have reality rubbed in their faces every day?

It saddens me to wonder if they *do* see it, but cynically pretend they don’t because keeping the populace dependent enhances their own importance. This thought smacks of paranoia, and I hate it, but how else to explain their ongoing blindness? Our leaders are not stupid people, but if they were sincere about public service they would surely not act the way they do.

David Wall

One of the characteristics of Gnosticism is that Gnostics – such as American Liberals and American neo-conservatives – insist that they be judged on their intentions, not on the results of their policies.

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Regulated Insurance Benefits =/= Entitlements….

Your commentary,

The position he “retreated” to allows him to mandate that insurance companies must now provide free contraception to anyone who asks for it. No copayment, no increase in premium: just free. Of course this is going to be challenged, but the President has just asserted a right to command private companies to give out entitlements. Women can demand The Pill.

Isn’t quite accurate, is it. We’re not talking about, as you say, "anyone who asks for it", we’re talking about premium paying insured customers, being assured of a minimum benefit.

I’m sure you understand that *ALL* insurance companies are regulated, and it’s confusing why this particular regulation would be of any interest, other than to those who would interject themselves in the *private* relationship between a patient and their physician. And I’m kind of tired of the busy-bodies who think that other people’s healthcare is their business. I believe in the past, the common reaction would be to tell them to "Mind their own business", but today we put them on TV…

Regards,

Mike Lieman

Come now. If I say that I am an insurance customer and therefore I am entitled to a whole bunch of benefits that were not in the package I bought, or that you cover some conditions that you specifically exempted when I bought the policy, and that you do not raise the premium nor drop me, how is that not demanding a gift? As to minding one’s own business, I am with you in spades, but tell me, when I am taxed to pay for the benefits has it not become my business?

Of course insurance companies are and should be regulated, but when they are told what premiums to charge for which service and who must be admitted, that is no longer insurance regulation.

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Subsidizing Behavior

Has anyone evaluated the cost of the behavior subsidy against smoking? I imagine that the pension overhang that threatens almost every big public and private employer has been impacted by the legions of Americans that have quit or never started smoking cigarettes.

P.S. Love your "fiction".

scott brown

We have not got that cynical yet, have we? Clearly if we gave booze and cigarettes away at the fire stations, we would have fewer people live to old age and thus fewer to support in their last years; but I do not think we have got there yet. When we do get to that point, I doubt we will go to the expense of providing them the means for self destruction. There will be more direct action.

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Dr Pournelle,

Regarding “this respiratory thing that is so severe I don’t want to call it a cold, but I don’t have a better name”, Ogden Nash’s Common Cold comes to mind:

A common cold, gadzooks, forsooth!

Ah, yes. And Lincoln was jostled by Booth;

Don Juan was a budding gallant,

And Shakespeare’s plays show signs of talent;

The Arctic winter is fairly coolish,

And your diagnosis is fairly foolish.

Oh what a derision history holds

For the man who belittled the Cold of Colds!

Wishing you a speedy recovery,

—Joel Salomon

Thanks

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‘I don’t claim that I know precisely whether the sun is responsible for a 40, 50 or 60 percent share of global warming. But it’s nonsense for the IPCC to claim that the sun has nothing to do with it.’

<http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,druck-813814,00.html>

——

Roland Dobbins

Precisely. I do not know why it was warmer in the Viking period, or why it got colder after 1300, or why the current warming from 1800 took place, but it is pretty clear that the IPCC doesn’t know either, which is why some of the IPCC leaders tried to hide the Medieval Warm period. Their models don’t allow it to have happened.

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What Did People Do in a Medieval City?

<http://www.svincent.com/MagicJar/Economics/MedievalOccupations.html>

Roland Dobbins

Cool!

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Cool Idea

Jerry–

You and I have corresponded on updating the story in some of your classics (like Lucifer’s Hammer)…Cringely has a great idea (link below); allow the original and update to exist side by side in the eFormat! Considering I own a copy of the Hammer (about a 1980 paperback edition, purchased for $1.69 at a used book store), and just bought it (again) in Kindle format…You could now easily give it a tune-up: Russians still work; the venerable International Harvester TravelAll probably gets updated to be an Explorer, Durango, or Suburban; IBM Printouts on desks get turned into *something else*– especially since I believe my 22 year old son (who loved the book, btw) probably has no idea of what a fan-fold green-bar print out looks like, so the mental image is lost on that generation.

Again, my kudo’s for an exceptional book, that I continue to enjoy in multiple formats!

http://www.cringely.com/2012/02/what-the-dickens-accidental-empires-rebooted/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ICringely+%28I%2C+Cringely%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Steve Walbrun

Thanks for the kind words. Alas we have no plans at all to update Hammer; it stands as written. I just reread it and it is still a pretty good story. Think of it as alternate history…

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Aspirin and Eugenics

View 713 Friday, February 17, 2012

The web is abuzz. Rick Santorum has a friend who thinks Bayer Aspirin is a contraceptive pill! The horror!

It is an illustration of a generation gap. Recall that in 1953 Arthur Clarke’s Childhood’s End, in keeping with the various theories derived from the voodoo sciences of Freud and Jung about sexual repression, postulated that technology would someday develop a reliable contraceptive pill, and that, together with an infallible means of identifying paternity, would bring about a sexual revolution in which sex would be decoupled from marriage and families. No one would be repressed or suffer from psychological disorders due to sexual frustrations. The human race would enter an new era, and the childhood of the race would end. This was all incorporated into a story with benevolent aliens and flying saucers. A thoroughly New Age story.

In those times, there were two means for contraception: condoms and abstinence, and the only 100% reliable one was abstinence. Condoms were advocated widely but mostly for prevention of sexually transmitted disorders, and they didn’t always work, either for that or for contraception – particularly since it was fairly common to forget the condom in the heat of the moment. The best way for a girl to avoid pregnancy was to keep her knees together. Using an aspirin pill as a reminder to do that was optional. Foster Friess, a wealthy supporter of Rick Santorum, was astonished when he had to explain that joke. It’s another illustration of the generation gap.

In a startling outburst Thursday, the multimillionaire who’s given most to a super PAC supporting former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) for president remarked that universal contraception coverage for women shouldn’t be needed because, “Back in my day, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives.”

“The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly,” he told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell.

The comment comes by way of Foster Friess, the 71-year-old multi-millionaire former investment manager who’s become the largest donor to the Red, White and Blue fund, which supports the Pennsylvania Republican.

Aspirin is a painkiller, not a contraceptive. It’s not clear exactly what Friess meant, but the seeming implication is that women should just keep their legs closed to avoid pregnancy, instead of using modern contraceptives.

After which the press calls for Santorum, who wasn’t part of the interview and certainly said nothing of the sort, to apologize to women, because Friess used a high school joke about abstinence. What he is to apologize for is not clear.

One presumes the horror is over the notion that getting pregnant or not getting pregnant is a matter of individual responsibility and choice. Or perhaps the implication of a double standard – that chastity is the responsibility of women, not men.

Perhaps the apology ought to be demanded from the universe, or evolution, or from the Almighty for having made men and women different? Men don’t get pregnant and thus have far less to lose from indulgence in random acts of sex. This has been known to nearly everyone on Earth for several thousand years. This may be unfair, but whether by design or by evolution it is built into the structure of the human race. Changing this ‘unfairness’ is likely to be expensive, and it is difficult to discern the source of any moral imperative to do so: why is it the responsibility of the successful to pay for contraception.

Another argument is economic: it is in the interest of the productive and the successful to limit the number of people born to the irresponsible. Population control is important. The rich and successful are capable of personal responsibility, but the masses are not. Their numbers must be controlled or we are all lost. The stupids are outbreeding us, and we must do what we can to limit their numbers. Contraception is a useful and effective means for doing this. Those of a less cynical bent will go further and say that we must all limit the numbers of our offspring. Overpopulation threatens everyone’s quality of life.

Carried far enough this leads to policies like China’s “One Child” regulations. Larry Niven postulates something of the sort in his Known Space stories, in which the militia periodically engage in “mother hunts” for unlicensed pregnancies. In China enforcement is largely in the hands of local Party cadres, who are reported forcibly to have aborted mothers who got pregnant while raising a living child. There are also the usual stories of how high party officials and the rich evade those restrictions, and no one is surprised by that. The rich and powerful will always find ways around such policies. They always have. Eugenicists can even take heart: those smart enough to get away with having multiple children are probably the ones who ought to have them.

Incidentally, the early eugenicists such as Sir Francis Galton did not discourage the lower classes from having children: instead they founded organizations to encourage bright people to marry early and paid young married couples stipends to allow them to continue their education. They wanted the smart and educated to multiply. Galton’s Eugenics Society still exists, now under the name of The Galton Institute.

There were others concerned with the twin problems of overpopulation among the ‘unfit’ and over time eugenics societies transmogrified to the point at which some encouraged and carried out sterilizations of the unfit, the notion being to cull the human herd and remove defective genes from the gene pool. No one admits to such sentiments now, but in 1927 the Supreme Court decreed:

This is a writ of error to review a judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeals of the State of Virginia, affirming a judgment of the Circuit Court of Amherst County, by which the defendant in error, the superintendent of the State Colony for Epileptics and Feeble Minded, was ordered to perform the operation of salpingectomy upon Carrie Buck, the plaintiff in error, for the purpose of making her sterile. 143 Va. 310, 130 S. E. 516. The case comes here upon the contention that the statute authorizing the judgment is void under the Fourteenth Amendment as denying to the plaintiff in error due process of law and the equal protection of the laws.

Carrie Buck is a feeble-minded white woman who was committed to the State Colony above mentioned in due form. She is the daughter of a feeble- minded mother in the same institution, and the mother of an illegitimate feeble-minded child. She was eighteen years old at the time of the trial of her case in the Circuit Court in the latter part of 1924. An Act of Virginia approved March 20, 1924 (Laws 1924, c. 394) recites that the health of the patient and the welfare of society may be promoted in certain cases by the sterilization of mental defectives, under careful safeguard, etc.; that the sterilization may be effected in males by vasectomy and in females by salpingectomy, without serious pain or substantial danger to life; that the Commonwealth is supporting in various institutions many defective persons who if now discharged would become [274 U.S. 200, 206] a menace but if incapable of procreating might be discharged with safety and become self-supporting with benefit to themselves and to society; and that experience has shown that heredity plays an important part in the transmission of insanity, imbecility, etc. The statute then enacts that whenever the superintendent of certain institutions including the abovenamed State Colony shall be of opinion that it is for the best interest of the patients and of society that an inmate under his care should be sexually sterilized, he may have the operation performed upon any patient afflicted with hereditary forms of insanity, imbecility, etc., on complying with the very careful provisions by which the act protects the patients from possible abuse.

The superintendent first presents a petition to the special board of directors of his hospital or colony, stating the facts and the grounds for his opinion, verified by affidavit. Notice of the petition and of the time and place of the hearing in the institution is to be served upon the inmate, and also upon his guardian, and if there is no guardian the superintendent is to apply to the Circuit Court of the County to appoint one. If the inmate is a minor notice also is to be given to his parents, if any, with a copy of the petition. The board is to see to it that the inmate may attend the hearings if desired by him or his guardian. The evidence is all to be reduced to writing, and after the board has made its order for or against the operation, the superintendent, or the inmate, or his guardian, may appeal to the Circuit Court of the County. The Circuit Court may consider the record of the board and the evidence before it and such other admissible evidence as may be offered, and may affirm, revise, or reverse the order of the board and enter such order as it deems just. Finally any party may apply to the Supreme Court of Appeals, which, if it grants the appeal, is to hear the case upon the record of the trial [274 U.S. 200, 207] in the Circuit Court and may enter such order as it thinks the Circuit Court should have entered. There can be no doubt that so far as procedure is concerned the rights of the patient are most carefully considered, and as every step in this case was taken in scrupulous compliance with the statute and after months of observation, there is no doubt that in that respect the plaintiff in error has had due process at law.

The attack is not upon the procedure but upon the substantive law. It seems to be contended that in no circumstances could such an order be justified. It certainly is contended that the order cannot be justified upon the existing grounds. The judgment finds the facts that have been recited and that Carrie Buck ‘is the probable potential parent of socially inadequate offspring, likewise afflicted, that she may be sexually sterilized without detriment to her general health and that her welfare and that of society will be promoted by her sterilization,’ and thereupon makes the order. In view of the general declarations of the Legislature and the specific findings of the Court obviously we cannot say as matter of law that the grounds do not exist, and if they exist they justify the result. We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 , 25 S. Ct. 358, 3 Ann. Cas. 765. Three generations of imbeciles are enough. [274 U.S. 200, 208] [snip] [ emphasis added]

The opinion was given by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, one of the most respected justices of all time, and one of the liberal justices who helped change our notion of the Constitution. Holmes greatly expanded the power of legislatures and the powers of government. This particular opinion was widely applauded at the time it was delivered. Note that it does not expand the power of the Federal government; this is purely a state matter.

It is no surprise that the offhand remark about a Bayer Aspirin tablet being an effective contraceptive has sparked such wide attention. It reminds us of a time when people were considered to be responsible for their actions, and for the consequences of their actions; of a time when the power of government to insert itself into people’s lives was quite different from what it is now, and seen to be quite different.

It challenges the notion that it is the responsibility of the state to provide the means for contraception. What Foster Friess did not ask but might have is whether, given that it is the responsibility of the state to provide the means of contraception and those paying for it should not quibble because it is in the interests of society that people not have unwanted children, why not take the next step and make use of contraceptives compulsory for all those who have not shown themselves worthy of having descendents? It would certainly make for lower taxes, and for that matter, for a larger treasury to be distributed as largesse to the voters.

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I am not fully recovered from my weeks of this virus infection, but I am able to do a bit more work. I regret having to miss BOSKONE (a Boston science fiction convention) where I was supposed to be an honored guest this weekend, but it is clear that I made the right decision in not going. I’m still coughing, and I’d still be far more a burden than an asset – as well as contagious.

My thanks to those who have chosen to subscribe or renew subscriptions during this week’s Pledge Drive. This place operates on the Public Radio model – it’s free, but it needs subscribers in order to stay open. I do periodic subscription drives rather than continuously bugging people about it. I do my pledge drives when KUSC does theirs. That’s this week.

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For those alarmed by an announcement that cell phone numbers are about to be released to telemarketers, before you decide to register with the national DO Not Call Federal Trade Commission number 888-457-8378 you might want to check the story. I am no great fan of Snopes (Snopes has agendas I do not share) but they can be useful. It does no harm to register with the FTC Do Not Call number, but it may not do much good, and there seems to be no urgency in the matter. http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/cell411.asp

I bring this up because recently I have been getting emails warning me that I am about to be spammed on my cell phone. You probably have too.

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Gnostics and good intentions; the school lunch legend

View 713 Thursday, February 16, 2012

Liberalism and neo-conservatism share some key elements; in particular, while their specific beliefs differ, each is convinced that they have the gnosis, the key knowledge that allows them to manipulate society to their benign ends, They also share the notion that when they do take action they ought to be judged on their intentions, not on the outcome. When things don’t work as planned – and usually they don’t – there are always good reasons.

I was reminded of this by a short article by Gene Callahan in the February issue of The American Conservative magazine. Entitled “Know Your Gnostics”, it is a short exposition on the concept of modern Gnosticism, with emphasis on the work of Eric Vogelin.

Back in my professor days I assigned Eric Vogelin’s New Science of Politics as one of the books to be read by my senior political philosophy students. Vogelin thought the world threatened by modern Gnostics, and predicted much from that analysis. As for example, when an economic policy, such as TARP, or the Keynesian economic stimulus program doesn’t work; or when the invasion of Iraq freed the people from Saddam Hussein but did not build the stable democracy of free men, there are always good reasons, and the blame must not fall on those whose honorable intentions failed in their noble missions. These are the men of action, who march in step with the flywheel of history. They are the midwives of the new and beautiful world – and when their actions fail, they must not be blamed. They meant well, and the world didn’t cooperate.

Of course there is another view: that we don’t understand the world all that well, and that our social sciences are mostly voodoo rituals. Neoconservatism grew out the Trotsky interpretation of Marxism, and modern Liberalism has deep roots in Fabian Socialism which was once known as Marxism with a human face – but which was able to overlook many of the horrors of the Soviet campaign to build a great society to transform the human condition. Young people now don’t remember that at one time communism was the hope of the world. Marx truly understood the world, and that knowledge was available to guide the actions of the Party as it sought to make a more beautiful world.

And when things didn’t work, there were always good reasons.

“The gap between intended and real effect will be imputed not to the Gnostic immortality of ignoring the structure of reality but to the immorality of some other person or society that does not behave as it should according to the dream conception of cause and effect.”

Eric Vogelin, The New Science of Politics

Of course Vogelin himself was the first to say we did not have a true science of politics. Gnosticism is alluring, but no one has ever discovered the gnosis; and many of those who, like Lenin and Mussolini thought they had, produced results they would not have chosen.

If you want more examples, you can find them among the architects of our current economic policies; or among those who sent the Legions to Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Many have called my attention to this story:

Why are the food police inspecting school lunches?

It makes a great story – or at least a great headline:

  • Food Inspector Confiscates Kid’s Homemade Lunch
  • Preschooler’s lunch rejected by official
  • Food police reject preschooler’s homemade lunch… in favour of chicken nuggets
  • Food police confiscate 4-year old’s lunch, bill parents
  • Preschooler’s Homemade Lunch Confiscated by Food Police
  • Nanny state report: NC school officials confiscate preschooler’s homemade lunch

Another version

A North Carolina elementary school forced a preschool student to eat cafeteria chicken nuggets for lunch on Jan. 30 after officials reportedly determined that her homemade meal wasn’t up to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s standards for healthfulness, according to a report from the Carolina Journal.

The newspaper reported that the four-year-old girl brought a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana, potato chips and apple juice in her packed lunch from home. That meal didn’t meet with approval from the government agent who was on site inspecting kids’ lunches that day.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Child Development and Early Education requires that all lunches served in pre-kindergarten programs must meet USDA guidelines. Meals, the guidelines say, must include one serving each of meat, milk and grain and two servings of fruit or vegetables. Those guidelines apply to home-packed lunches as well as cafeteria meals.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/14/nanny-state-report-nc-school-officials-confiscate-preschoolers-homemade-lunch/#ixzz1mcE8ofvg

I have other versions, and lots of mail.

I was first told that an official inspected the child’s lunch, found it defective, forbade her from eating it, and instead provided her with a lunch of “nuggets” in the name of nutrition. If this all sounds vague, it is indeed, because the story had no details I could find. I searched but found no definitive account. We are told that the inspector was a “state agent” or a “federal agent”. If Federal there is often detail of which office of the Department of Agriculture except there is a variant in which the agent is from the Department of Education. We not only do not know the name of the agent, but the sex of the agent.

The story went viral, and a number of talk show hosts of different political opinions were outraged, but I still couldn’t find details, although I did get a lot of mail drawing it to my attention. Then, a few minutes ago, I found:

RALEIGH, N.C. — It was a tale of government meddling that outraged radio talk show hosts and a pair of Congress members: A 4-year-old was forced to dump her packed lunch and eat a state-dictated cafeteria lunch of chicken nuggets. Now school officials are blaming a teacher’s error in making sure the child had a nutritious meal.

The incident happened two weeks ago at an elementary school in Raeford, near Fort Bragg. The girl’s parents anonymously tipped off a Raleigh TV station and a conservative blogger after the girl brought home her packed lunch uneaten.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/nc-school-teachers-mistake-at-school-lunch-led-to-upset-calls-of-government-overreach/2012/02/16/gIQAof8NIR_story.html?tid=pm_national_pop

Alas a tempest in a teapot. A teacher or teacher’s aid at a local school was overly zealous, and those who first heard it were eager to find another example of the horrors of the nanny state.

Alas, while this one was blown up, horrible examples are not that hard to find. The bunny inspectors are real – and I note that no budget of any kind looks for silliness to eliminate. The budget is always larger, all the departments get more money, and the deficit grows. And the beat goes on.

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I am still recovering from my afflictions. I should be in Boston for BOSKONE, but I am here at home. And I still owe you some mailbags. Perhaps I’ll get up a bit more energy before I go to bed.

Thanks to all those who subscribed or renewed subscriptions. The Pledge Drive continues. This place operates on the public radio principle. It’s free, but you should subscribe if you like it. And I only bug you about it when KUSC, the Los Angeles good music public radio station, has its pledge drive. That will end in a couple of days, so here’s your chance. Subscribe now. It’s easy.

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