Monthly Archives: October 2014

View 845 Friday, October 10, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

It is time for me to get the first draft of the October Chaos Manor Reviews column done, so this s a potpourri of stuff dashed off while coming up for air from reviews of Windows 8 and 10, new routers, Surface Pro 3 and lots of other stuff.

Thomas Eric Duncan was cremated in accord with his own wishes. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/texas-ebola-victim-thomas-eric-duncans-body-has-been-cremated-n223206 The CDC dictates that Ebola victims either be cremated or buried in a sealed casket with other precautions. Since no one knows just how long the Ebola virus would last in a sealed casket containing an unembalmed corpse, cremation is obviously preferable from a public health view.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson has suggested that Mr. Duncan was not properly treated because he was an underprivileged black man, and a number of lawyers are said to be offering their services to the family. Mr. Duncan was turned away from the Emergency room on his first trip, and “sent home with antibiotics.” He told the hospital reception worker that he had been in Africa, but not that he had been exposed to Ebola. Given that (to his great credit) he has assisted a pregnant young woman in her vain attempts to enter several hospitals in Monrovia, Liberia, then carried her from the taxi into her quarters where she died of Ebola within hours, he must have at least suspected that he had been exposed and that what was wrong with him was not ordinary flu.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/9/jesse-jackson-dallas-lawmaker-blame-racism-for-ebo/

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Future NASA astronauts will wear skintight spacesuits

http://techgenmag.com/2014/09/20/future-nasa-astronauts-will-wear-skintight-spacesuits/

Long time readers will recall that I worked on Space Activity Suits when I was in the aerospace industry, and I have actually worn one in a test chamber at Litton Industries back in the late 1950’s. My Mars Colony novel BIRTH OF FIRE, uses “skin suits” extensively and their existence is a major plot point. I also used space activity suits in most of my Aeneus McKenzie asteroid colony novels.  The science is good, and they are far more effective than the suits we employ at present.  Three and a half pounds per square inch of oxygen will keep people alive, but twelve pounds of oxygen enriched air is a great deal better for everyone, and if you use 12 pounds of high O2 air you don’t need a long period of pre-breathing it before you go on EVA.  More another time but recall that the current suits were mostly designed for 35 year old experienced astronauts with a Ph.D.  What’s needed to conquer space is some 18 year old riggers to do the physical work.  All officers doesn’t make an effective colony or colony ship.

More http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/12/10/mit-biosuit-system-dava-newman/

RISE OF THE MACHINES: MRI Scanner Disarms Officer And Fires His Weapon

A medical device—apparently developed by Cyberdyne Systems—disarmed an off-duty police officer, took possession of the weapon, fired it, and refused to let it go until it’s power was, um, terminated.

http://bearingarms.com/rise-machines-mri-scanner-disarms-officer-fires-weapon/

We do not contemplate sending Terminators to harass those who do not help pay for this place.

WND EXCLUSIVE

Generals blast Obama’s order of troops to fight Ebola

‘The purpose of our soldiers is to fight a war, not medical battles’

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/generals-blast-obamas-order-of-troops-to-fight-ebola/#mq4Tsbf6mFIBB4q1.99

We are sending 2000 troops into a high disease zone.  In mu experience it will be a miracle if not a single one of the men come down with a fresh dose of one or another STD given six months.  Perhaps no one will contract Ebola, but that’s not really the way to bet it.

Shipment of medical supplies to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone reportedly delayed for weeks

A shipping container filled with approximately $140,000 worth of medical equipment needed to fight the spread of the Ebola virus in the West African country of Sierra Leone has sat untouched on the docks of the country’s capital for nearly two months according to a published report.

According to The New York Times the shipment of hospital linens, protective suits, face masks, and other items arrived in the port of Freetown Aug. 9, but has still not been cleared by government officials.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/06/shipment-medical-supplies-to-fight-ebola-in-sierra-leone-reportedly-delayed-for/

The Iron Law of Bureaucracy rules even in plague zones.

Teacher Carries Plastic Sword on “Talk Like A Pirate Day”, Police Lock-Down 4 Schools
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/teacher-carries-plastic-sword-talk-pirate-day-police-lock-down-4-schools/#cCBksebRvhPVR6u7.99

We are all safer now.

I am working on the October column now. More another time.

This Gun Makes And Fires Paper Airplanes

Yes, you read that correctly.

http://www.popsci.com/article/diy/gun-makes-and-fires-paper-airplanes

Who wants to travel by air for the next couple weeks? NOT ME!!!

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/26757425/breaking-news-plane-quarantined-at-mccarran-airport

At this rate, someone who gets airsick aboard a flight is going to cause interminable delays and possibly quarantines…

Stephanie Osborn

Interstellar Woman of Mystery

http://www.Stephanie-Osborn.com <http://www.stephanie-osborn.com/>

"Hiring Grandparents Only": 230K September Jobs Added In 55-69 Age Group; 10K Lost In Prime, 25-54 Group

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/03/2014 11:00 -0400

• BLS

inShare110

The further one digs into today’s "blockbuster" jobs report, the uglier it gets. Because it is not only the participation rate collapse, the slide in average earnings, but, topping it all off, we just learned that the future of the US workforce is bleak. In fact, with the age of the median employed male now in their mid-40’s, the US workforce has never been older. Case in point: the September data confirmed that the whopping surge in jobs… was thanks to your "grandparents" those in the 55-69 age group, which comprised the vast majority of the job additions in the month, at a whopping 230K.This was the biggest monthly jobs increase in the 55 and over age group since February!

What about the prime worker demographic, those aged 25-54 and whose work output is supposed to propel the US economy forward? They lost 10,000 jobs.

Of course, don’t expect any of this to be mentioned on any financial entertainment outlets: it would spoil the party of today’s "surging" jobs day.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-03/hiring-grandparents-only-230k-september-were-added-55-69-age-group-10k-lost-prime-25

 

How ISIS Is Using Us to Get What It Wants

 

"Everyone it seems, is seeking to use ISIS for its own ends."

Everyone it seems, is seeking to use ISIS for its own ends. Raghida Dergham, senior diplomatic correspondent for Al-Hayat, writes of the serious outbreak of schizophrenia that has struck the Gulf in regards to what it wants from the United States: "What is remarkable… is the sudden candor in expressing radical differences, for example between the fact that Gulf governments have characterized the ISIS threat as an ‘existential’ one, and the fact that a large segment of the public sympathizes with ISIS and its motives, and sees it as something necessary in the balance of power and the balance of terror."

"The Gulf," she continues, primarily sees ISIS as "a necessary instrument to confront the Islamic Republic of Iran and its regional ambitions, especially in the war in Syria" — and not as terrorists.

The Gulf governments’ tepid "dive" into this new "war" — in contrast to their rhetoric — may be judged by the scale of their contribution to the start of the air campaign in Syria: Four F-16 fighter jets from Saudi Arabia, four warplanes from the UAE, two from Bahrain, and one Mirage jet from Qatar "which did not drop any bombs, or take an ‘active part’ in the attack."

And just as "the Gulf’ wishes to leverage the "war" primarily against President Assad, Russia and Iran, by contrast, insist in doing the converse: they want President Obama to leverage the "war" precisely (and only) at ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Indeed Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has encouraged U.S. air attacks on ISIS in Syria, but with the proviso that they are indeed targeted on ISIS — and not the government — and are directly or indirectly coordinated with Damascus.

And in response to Obama’s threats against any Syrian targeting of U.S. aircraft (President Obama threatened to take out Syria’s air defense system in retaliation), Russia has moved its own piece on the chessboard, precisely to checkmate Obama. Russia has threatened in response, to escalate weapons supplies to the Syrian government (including the means for it to defend itself against U.S. air attack) were U.S. planes to attack Syrian government positions — either deliberately or accidentally. It is unlikely, too, to be a coincidence that we hear reports of Russian "Sumoum" ships specialized in air defense arriving recently in Latakia. Russia and Iran will cooperate with the U.S. in the Syrian war theater, but only if defined air-corridors, agreed targets for U.S. air assaults, and guarantees that the U.S. will not attempt to use the situation to create "safe havens" for the Syrian opposition are given.

At a million dollars a missile, Tomahawks are an expensive way to kill infantrymen. And if you do not occupy the land you take you will not keep it.  We could liberate Mosul and give it to the Kurds.  We could liberate all of Kurdish Iraq, which would make a positive gain.  Firing million dollar missiles at a pickup truck full of riflemen seems a rather expensive way to show determination.

If you have no objective for your actions, it is hard to accomplish your desires.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View 845 Tuesday, October 07, 2014

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

Frederick and Kimberly Kagan have a very relevant essay in this morning’s LA Times.

The Times title was “The wrong way to fight a war”. It has other titles elsewhere.

Op-Ed

U.S. strategy against Islamic State is too much air, not enough boots

By Frederick W. Kagan and Kimberly Kagan

Air operations in Iraq and Syria have not stopped the advance of Islamic State. Despite the bombing, the Al Qaeda splinter group has launched a series of offensives in Iraq, gaining new ground in Anbar Province, and it has continued its offensive in Syria.

The desultory bombing mission — far too limited to merit being called an air campaign — has no chance of enabling local allies to eliminate Islamic State sanctuaries. It may not even be enough to keep Islamic State, also known as ISIS, from expanding. After 50 days of obvious failure, it’s time to consider an approach that might work: Get American special forces on the ground with the Sunni Arabs themselves. The only other alternative is to resign ourselves to living with an Al Qaeda state and army.

Islamic State seized the Iraqi city of Mosul on June 10 with a multipronged assault supported by military vehicles. The offensive continued over days, destroying two Iraqi army divisions and driving on Baghdad.

The Iranian military responded at once — reports indicate that Quds Force Commander Qassem Suleimani was in Baghdad with advisors on June 12. Iranian advisors and proxies began flowing into Iraq immediately. The U.S. took no action until Aug. 8, nearly two months later, dropping a small number of bombs aimed at opening a corridor to allow besieged Yazidis to escape from certain death on Mt. Sinjar.

The U.S. has hit about 334 mostly tactical targets in both Syria and Iraq in the intervening 50-odd days. To put that number in perspective, the 76-day air campaign that toppled the Taliban in 2001 dropped 17,500 munitions on Afghanistan. Those bombs directly aided the advance of thousands of Afghan fighters supported by U.S. special operators capable both of advising them and of identifying and designating targets to hit. There are no U.S. special operators on the ground in Iraq or Syria, no pre-planned or prepared advance of Iraqi security forces, and no allies on the ground in Syria. This is not an air campaign.

Islamic State is an adaptable, smart enemy, and its fighters are dispersed through population centers, with an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 of them controlling an area the size of Maryland. Hitting a series of fixed targets such as bases and destroying small concentrations of vehicles will not defeat it. Rather, enabling the air campaign to do meaningful damage to the Islamic State army requires putting some U.S. troops into the Sunni Arab areas that Islamic State now holds. Special forces serving as forward air controllers can direct airstrikes to meaningful targets that are not observable by satellite and overflight.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-kagan-war-islamic-state-20141007-story.html

[Emphasis added. JEP]

The entire article is worth your attention. It doesn’t specifically say that the next objective ought to be Kurdish occupation of Mosul, which is my choice of what we ought to do next. The Kagans advocate support of Sunni Iraqi, which is both reasonable and required.

The Caliphate is a danger to the Middle East, but it is also an implacable enemy of Iran. The Kurds are more interested in a greater Kurdistan, but they are nominally Sunni – the saying among Sunni is that Kurds are Moslem compared to infidels – and have a reasonable claim to Mosul, along with a record of tolerance of non-Kurdish and non-Muslim inhabitants. Saddam changed the ethnic composition of the city in his Arabization program. Turkey has a residual claim to Mosul dating from the World War One Armistice date, but I have heard no recent claims. Turkey will not much care for strengthening the Kurds, but Turkey is no longer a reliable ally of the West, now that the constitutional guardians has been nullified and the old Ataturk brotherhood control of the Turkish Army eliminated.

Elimination of the Caliphate is not really the business of the United States. Establishing a stable base for our Kurdish allies arguably is. We destroyed the Baathist rule in Iraq, and allowed it to be replaced with militant Shiites bent on obtaining revenge for generations of Sunni repression dating back hundreds of years. The result was the rise of the Caliphate movement. That will no go away simply because we wish it would.

As American energy resources are developed and our dependence on Middle East oil falls, we need to reassess our foreign policy objectives in Mesopotamia and Syria. At one time it would have been axiomatic among the American people that we would be in favor of tolerance, particularly of Christians and Jews. We have hard and fast treaties of alliance with Israel, and strong political support for that alliance in the United States, possibly to the point of placing Israeli interests above those of Christians in the region.

Establishing an independent and reasonably strong Kurdistan with strong ties to the United States on condition that it continue its past and traditional policies of tolerance would seem to be a reasonable interest, both emotionally and realistically.

Bombing the Caliphate without any final objective does not appear to have much of an upside: we make enemies without making friends either foreign or domestic. This does not seem to be a reasonable policy.

The Midas Plague

We live in puzzling times. There is much that needs to be done, and no money to pay for it. Everywhere we look, our old infrastructure is decaying, children and old people need baby-sitting – for practically anything you can think of that needs doing, there is not enough money. We used to have money to make things. Where did it all go?

We pay people to sit around and do nothing. That’s where the money goes.

So I have a modest proposal: put everyone to work. Abolish welfare, long-term unemployment payments, disability pensions, and all the little bits of monetary aid that so pervade our economy. You want our money? You work for it. Disabled? There are very few people who are fully disabled: most of us a partly “disabled.” “Disabled” people actually can do a lot; consider a short guy who is “disabled” from playing basketball, for example. Most “disabled” people can do something, if only a little. So, the reigning theory is that there are No Disabled: you do what you can do

Let people do stuff for four days a week. The fifth day, they can look for a paying job. Or goof off <shrug>.

One of the reasons it costs so much to do road repairs is that the machinery is expensive – trench diggers and so forth. But we can make shovels in the US. And you can get twenty people to dig a trench that maybe one guy with a backhoe could do. But it’s cheaper this way, and uses lots more people. The only people who would not be called upon to work are people who need to be watched. Well, Watching is a low-skill occupation that can absorb the time of otherwise unemployed people; and you can be “disabled” and still act as a Watcher. Child care? Lots of free labor to do that. Maybe we could use the childrens’ own mothers to provide childcare in child care centers, instead of being paid to sit home. Don’t want to work at a child care center? Marry someone with a job that pays well enough for you to stay home. Now there’s a thought. Cognitively disabled people can work in sheltered workshops. And to coach them? Well, sociology majors . . .

Maybe, instead of government-run press gangs, we would have companies bidding on jobs with corvees of free labor. In either case we would have a huge need for low-level managers – more free labor.

The difference between a neighborhood of poor working people and poor unemployed people is profound. There is no reason we should have neighborhoods of unemployed people.

Just a modest proposal. Before we bankrupt ourselves.

[anonymous]

‘Ebola jihad’: How terrorists could sicken thousands

Jerry:

This is painfully obvious.

http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/ebola-jihad-how-terrorists-could-sicken-thousands/

No "weaponization" is needed.

James Crawford

To paraphrase Mel Brooks (who undoubtedly knows better himself in this case), "We don’t need no stinkin’ quarantine…"

EBOLA: Obama Quietly Scrapped Quarantine Regulations 4 Years Ago http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/10/06/ebola-obama-quietly-scrapped-quarantine-regulations-4-years-ago … <http://t.co/gvehorJ1g5>

When Incompetence Morphs To Malice, What To Do?

Jerry,

To address my own question, when incompetence among our political leaders becomes indistinguishable from malice, what should we do?

It seems a common theme across much of the internet this Monday that public trust in the currently-ruling faction of our political elite is evaporating faster than free beer at a frat party. (The out-of-power faction, deservedly, isn’t exactly wallowing in public respect either.)

It looks to me that we’ve reached a perception cascade. The bad results are now going beyond mere encroachment on our freedoms and constriction of our incomes. Immediate dangers of horrible death, whether via Middle-Eastern throat-cutting or West African plague, are concentrating minds. The US public, now that we’re having our noses rubbed daily in elite incompetence, is finally catching on.

For a while now the reality has been that advancement among our elites is far more a matter of pedigree, ideology, and self-congratulatory mutual back-scratching than it is of competence. Particularly in the case of the current ruling faction, politically correct progressive ideology now demonstrably trumps everything, even reality in the form of virulent and deadly plagues. (Ebola aside, Enterovirus d68, apparently imported from Central America with this summer’s unscreened illegals, is now paralyzing and killing US children.)

What to do? For starters, go out a month from now and vote for whichever local members of the out-of-power faction are most likely to actually displace a ruling Dem. Hold your nose if necessary, but do it.

Yes, in many cases they’re not much better, but it’s the most important corrective vector our system provides: Throw the bums out.

It’s not a precise corrective vector, no. Yes, pursue perfection over the long term. But steer away from the rocks NOW, we’re almost upon them.

The nature of our government is two competing broad coalitions. Next month, transfer as much power as possible to the one currently less delusionally incompetent. Yes, "currently less delusionally incompetent" is hardly a stirring prospect. Certainly you should also work to push that coalition in a better direction.

These coalitions are designed to evolve under pressure over the long term – apply that pressure! But first, make sure we’ll have a long-term.

Another part of what to do: Work on local solutions to the obvious dangers. If you can’t count on the Feds doing anything timely and sensible when one of their stupidities hits the fan near you, start working to get your state and county and neighborhood and household ready to cope.

One last thing NOT to contemplate is armed insurrection. Only a moron seeks revolution. Anyone who’s read and understood even a bit of history understands revolution is a desperate last resort that almost always destroys much if not all of what it sets out to save. Passive "Irish-democracy" foot-dragging in the face of official stupidity, sure, but forget revolution. Throw the current bums out, then keep the pressure up on the new bums to steer a better course.

grimly

Porkypine

PS – it is Porkypine with a "y", after the Pogo character. A cynic and curmudgeon, and one of the two wisest characters in the strip (Pogo is the other.)

[Emphasis added. JEP]

Porkypine Goes A-courtin’

I am well aware of Porkypine, and I suspect a spell checker got the name wrong when I was in a hurry last week.

Napoleon Bonaparte once observed that one should never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. I agree that this premise can strained unduly by modern political liberalism, which seeks to liberate very little, and almost always ascribes to malice any opposition to its policies. Fortunately the United States has more than once awakened in time; perhaps Bismarck was correct. And our technology helps bail us out of many sticky situations: we had Detroit in 1939, and were able to convert a civilian economy into a war economy in months, astounding the experts in Germany and Japan (as well as those in England and Russia for that matter). Our ocean boundaries have also served us well.

We will endure this test, and Mr. Obama will go to his grave convinced that he was correct and opposed by malicious enemies.

My greatest concern is the absolute destruction of what was once a magnificent system of education, now reduced to a bureaucracy hell bent on defending its least competent members without regard to the effects of the worst teachers on the schools and their pupils. It has been true since 1983 that if an enemy had imposed our national system of education on the United States we would rightly consider it an act of war. Things are far worse now than in 1983 because Congress and the Courts have allowed more Federal control over education. Union campaign donations dominate school and city council elections, and teachers who don’t agree are still required to pay dues collected by the government to be turned over to the unions.  This will never cease short of abolishing the school system entirely.  That is unlikely to happen.

I dearly hope that technology can help bail us out of this: really bright kids will find a way to get access to the Internet, and learn something. They won’t learn as much as they would if there were competent supervision to encourage them to learn a framework into which they can insert what they are learning, but those were fairly rare throughout the history of the US school system. (Rare, but they were allowed to exist; now the education bureaucracy seeks to eliminate the best schools lest they make the rest of the system look bad. THAT, I put it to you, really is malice.) The vast majority of our citizens will just have to put up with the mediocrity that we now consider normal.

L.A. schools police will return grenade launchers but keep rifles, armored vehicle

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-schools-weapons-20140917-story.html

WORKERS OF THE WORLD, GOODBYE

http://takimag.com/article/workers_of_the_world_goodbye_jim_goad/print#axzz3ExnG3d7T

Hm wet foot dry foot and the White House

We have had a policy to allow Cubans who make it to the US with "dry feet" to stay here. Others are shoved back to Cuba.

We also seem to be adopting an attitude that if you make it to the US you can stay here indefinitely in a quasi-legalized illegal alien status for the fence jumpers.

Why not apply that to the White House. We recently had a veteran of our most recent quasi-wars (we pulled too many punches for them to be real wars) jump the White House fence, make it to the front door, open the front door, and enter. He was promptly tackled at that point.

He made it into the White House. Should be not be allowed to stay there until we start deporting other aliens, again?

Story:

Petition Urges Obama To Let Border-Jumper Stay In The White House http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/20/petition-urges-obama-to-let-border-jumper-stay-in-white-house/

Petition:

reform White House access and grant Comprehensive Executive Amnesty & residency to migrant Omar J. Gonzalez & his family https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/reform-white-house-access-and-grant-comprehensive-executive-amnesty-residency-migrant-omar-j/q8xjkLqj

{^_^}

Bezos to Set The Washington Post on Fire

Jeff Bezos is planning to bring together two separate but equally important projects under his control: the Amazon Kindle Fire and The Washington Post. The Amazon CEO bought the paper slightly more than a year ago as a personal investment.

Now the twain shall meet in Project Rainbow, a pilot project that has been under way at the Post for the past few months, according to reports.

The project is a new application that will offer a curated selection of news and photographs from The Washington Post in a tablet-friendly format. Of course, many publications offer such an app with the goal of reaching a deeper subscriber base.

Providers such as Flipboard have made their mark with apps that aggregate news content from multiple sources and display it in a magazine-like layout for the tablet.

What makes the Post app different is that it reportedly will come preinstalled on Kindle Fire tablets that are expected to launch later this year sporting an 8.9-inch screen.

A Marriage of Sorts?

If these expectations are fulfilled, it will be the first hint that Bezos’ acquisition of The Washington Post was more than just a private endeavor.

Bezos already has ushered in a number of positive, albeit occasionally controversial, changes at the paper. He has hired more reporters — but he also trimmed reporters’ benefits and pensions. He has encouraged the paper to continue its tradition of deep-dive reporting — but he also dismissed the longstanding publisher Katharine Weymouth.

Bezos plans to make The Washington Post a national paper with coverage that’s not limited to the local community or political developments at the White House and Capitol Hill, he has said.

– See more at: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/81160.html#sthash.yomS0sOU.dpuf

– See more at: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/81160.html#sthash.yomS0sOU.dpuf

This will be interesting.  Possibly VERY interesting. 

Eric was over all day and we worked on upgrading the networking at Chaos Manor. Interesting, and full report in the October column which I am writing now.  John C. Dvorak was over for tea and dinner. I’m now working on the October column. I took a couple of pictures with the iPhone and this is the first time, oddly enough, that I have connected it to this Windows computer; that’s interesting too.  Usually the iPhone connects to the iMac. All’s well, but it takes a while.

And we had a minor panic when the Network stopped connecting to the Internet, but that can all wait for the column.  And I am for bed.

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View 845 Sunday, October 05, 2014

John Quincy Adams on American Policy:

Whenever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

Fourth of July, 1821

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

Bismarck is reported to have said, off the record but more than once, that The Lord looks after fools, drunks, and the United States of America. It is an old saying although in its original form children substitute for the USA, but more than once American policy has made sense only if you believe in Bismarck’s version.

In this case we seem to have got past the Ebola threat, at least for now, although given our lax enforcement of even common sense restrictions on people coming here after recent travel in the midst of the African Ebola epidemic, that maxim apparently continues to hold. Or so it appears, and we should know for certain in a week or so how many people, if any, Mr. Duncan managed to infect. Whether we will take advantage of this good fortune and change our policies is another story, but at least we have the opportunity.

Nothing seems to have changed in Syria-Iraq-Kurdistan. We continue to break things and kill people, but without any discernible objective. The Kurds want to take back Mosul, and if we have given our forces in that part of the world any power of choice in what missions they will support, I can imagine both Navy and Air Force agreeing that retaking Mosul for the Kurds is an achievable and desirable objective. Better to choose one’s own strategic objectives, but this one will do. Apparently Bismarck was right…

The Man Worth While

It is easy enough to be pleasant
   While life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is the one who will smile
   When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
   And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth,
   Is the smile that shines through tears.

                    Ella Wheeler Wilcox

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LZ7PB7E/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=chaosmanor-20&camp=14573&creative=327641

Ebola

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/09/22/world-health-organization-ebola/16076067/

Got this from a poster on ‘Free Republic’:

"Just so you appreciate what Ebola really is.. It is a Biosafety Level 4 agent! <http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3211125/posts>

Posted on October 3, 2014 at 11:27:21 PM EDT by Enlightened1 <http://www.freerepublic.com/~enlightened1/>

When dealing with biological hazards at this level the use of a positive pressure personnel suit, with a segregated air supply is mandatory. The entrance and exit of a level four biolab will contain multiple showers, a vacuum room, an ultraviolet light room, and other safety precautions designed to destroy all traces of the biohazard. Multiple airlocks are employed and are electronically secured to prevent both doors from opening at the same time. All air and water service going to and coming from a biosafety level 4 (or P4) lab will undergo similar decontamination procedures to eliminate the possibility of an accidental release.

The reaction of the administration to this disease has been to send three thousand unprotected troops into the center of infection and announce that it would impose no restriction on travel into or out of infected areas.

The ‘stupid incompetence’ of the graduates of our most prestigious universities who are responsible for our Ebola policy (and our energy policy, our medical policy, our foreign policy, our immigration policy, ad infinitum) grows more obvious every day. I’m sure that ‘Porcupine’ would agree.

Bob Ludwick

Ebola Screening failure

Jerry –

A question much on some people’s minds has been the question of why Thomas Eric Duncan was sent home the first time he went to the ER. The answer seems instructive on several levels.

Per the NBC news site, http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/texas-hospital-makes-changes-after-ebola-patient-turned-away-n217296 it seems that the nurses and doctors do not, necessarily, talk to each other (or at least their data bases don’t). Patient history when taken by the nurses is handled by software originally intended to allow nurses to decide if they can administer flu shots, or whether a physician needs to be consulted. Apparently the examining nurse did flag Duncan’s travel history, and he was flagged as high risk and popped up a level to physician examination.

But the nurse’s software doesn’t talk to the doctor’s software, so the physician who examined him was unaware of it. Then, when the physician independently asked Duncan if he’d been exposed to any illness recently, he lied.

“When Mr. Duncan was asked if he had been around anyone who had been ill, he said that he had not,”

So, the software did not behave the way people expected it to, and the patient lied to his doctor. A good explanation for a bad situation.

Regards,

Jim Martin

God looks after fools, drunks, and the United States of America….

Ebola deployment

The main objective of sending the 101st is to test various vaccines and treatment methods on a larger sample size of varying genetic heritage. South and North American native of a much reduced immune genetics than either Northern Europeans an Asiatics, much less Africans.

Just My opinion.

T

Hi Jerry,

I think I know why they aren’t increasing restrictions on travel from Ebola-infected nations. A disproportionate portion of those impacted by the restrictions would be black. Therefore, it’s racist. At least that’s what the ‘Disparate impact’ folks in the civil rights division of the justice department would say. I thought political correctness was a slow-motion suicide for an integrated society only by hyperbole. Now maybe it’s actually literal.

One other thought – why on earth would they send the 101st instead of USAMRID from Fort Dietrich? That’s the biowarfare unit that would have the knowledge, equipment, and training to handle an outbreak like this.

Cheers,

Doug=

Jerry,

Here’s a coined word that’s been kicking around for a bit. In view of the way that the government is currently handling the economy, ISIS, and now the Ebola pandemic scare, this word may be quite appropriate: Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) – a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

As you have said, despair is a sin – but how not to sin in these times?

Regards,

B

– The Liberian-American who started Nigeria’s spot outbreak (since contained, after seven died) lied about his Liberian exposure and also pulled political strings to get to Nigeria. Dallas Patient Zero also lied about his exposure – he filled out a form affirming that he’d had no Ebola contacts before getting on the airplane in Liberia, but since admitted that he helped carry an Ebola-stricken woman into her house before leaving.

People are going to lie like rugs to get out of the hot zone, and our travel procedures need to account for this.

– There was the Dallas EW staff that ignored Dallas Patient Zero’s answer that he’d just come from Liberia and sent him home for two days.

Now there’s an aerial image on the internet purporting to show apartment complex staff hosing DP0’s vomit off the sidewalk out front, with no protective gear and bystanders walking past.

People in the US are mostly still in the "it can’t happen here therefore it isn’t happening" stage of understanding. We need to get past this and take this seriously before people die, or many will die unnecessarily.

As for what we should do about this White House apparently being foremost among the "therefore it isn’t happening" crowd, the most likely answer seems to be the same one that eventually got them off the dime over the Islamic State crisis: Bi-partisan public and Congressional pressure. I just hope we can light a fire under them on this one before the results are as obviously bloody awful as it took in Iraq.

stay healthy

Porkypine

We have been experimenting with Windows 10; so far I like it a lot better than Windows 8. Note that there will be no Windows 9. All this will be in the column I am preparing now.

I see that parts 1,2, and 3 are up on Chaos Manor Reviews. The editor has decided to post it that way,. I write it all at once, and I am working on the October issue now.

In the old days at BYTE I wrote the April issue in January due to print delay times…

“Our device isn’t meant to make employees more efficient. It’s meant to completely obviate them.”

<http://takimag.com/article/workers_of_the_world_goodbye_jim_goad/print>

Roland Dobbins

As in Humans Need Not Apply. Those who strike for higher minimum wages should take heed. Even if we outlaw robots for simple jobs, our international competitors need not do so. We can price ourselves out of the world markets. Perhaps we can be a self-sufficient North American Technocracy?

Starbucks for Spooks

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-cia-starbucks-even-the-baristas-are-covert/2014/09/27/5a04cd28-43f5-11e4-9a15-137aa0153527_story.html

But of course barista is a job that definitely can be done by a robot. Plugging his leaks might be easier, too.

Iron Law Sighting

In John Lukacs’ book <i>The Future of History</i>, we read:

There are, alas, innumerable other instances when a person’s desire for the status of historianship amounts to more than his very interest in history. There is a difference between two aspirations: one authentic ("I am interested in history, I want to pursue this interest of mine"), the other bureaucratic ("I am interested in historianship, I want to be recognized as a professional historian"). These two aspirations may occur within the same person: but we ought to recognize their differences. …. There is the still prevalent idea of professional history being a kind of science, with its certified professionals taking comfort in the belief that they are practitioners of methods and the possessors of arcane subjects of knowledge that are beyond and unachievable by common men and women. That such a belief is undemocratic is obvious; that it is bureaucratic should be obvious too.

One result of the increased bureaucratization of the profession is the rewarding of mediocrity. This occurs now in many occupations, including the management of corporations and of institutions…

— John Lukacs, The Future of History (2011)

This seems to touch on the subject of credentialism as well.

M

Talk like a pirate day…

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/teacher-carries-plastic-sword-talk-pirate-day-police-lock-down-4-schools/

The Nanny state seems to be running amok. Last month we reported the story of a middle school being placed on lockdown for a student wearing a military-style jacket. <http://thefreethoughtproject.com/middle-school-student-military-style-jacket-sparks-police-action-school-lockdown/> A few weeks before that, an entire campus was shut down and SWAT descended on Cal State San Marcos <http://thefreethoughtproject.com/swat-team-descends-college-campus-response-man-carrying-umbrella/> in response to a man carrying an umbrella. After witnessing these reactions to such minuscule and irrelevant matters, is it any surprise that police are so quick to shoot first and ask questions later?

You just can’t make this stuff up!

Charles Brumbelow

You sure can’t!

Subject: Re:New Boeing Defense Weapon…..Awesome

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/ic/des/hel_md_0514_vid.html

We did concept work on something like that when I was at Boeing a long time ago, but the laser science people said you would never get lasers to be more than 90% efficient, and thus they’d burn themselves up if used for anything important. That was its status when I left Boeing in 1964: not feasible with existing technology, and thus a concept weapon only.

Russians working on space based kinetic weapons platforms?

Hi Jerry,

While reading a Washington Times article "Russia’s Black Sea build-up: 80 new warships expected by 2020" there was an interesting quote from a Russian Admiral about half way through the article:

"Military space exploration continues, the issue of the use of non-nuclear strategic weapons is being studied…"

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/23/russias-black-sea-build-up-80-new-warships-expecte/

I immediately recollected what you’ve written about kinetic energy weapons launched from space-based weapons platforms. And here the US is without a usable spacecraft for the foreseeable future…

-Blair S

I did a fairly heavy duty analysis of THOR – kinetic energy weapons from space – when I was at Boeing. It was dependent on the cost of getting 30 tungsten telephone poles into orbit, and still is. Expensive weapons, but then so are Tomahawk Missiles ($1.5 million a round, as I understand it).

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

View 844 Thursday, October 02, 2014

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009

It was an interesting experiment, trying to follow breaking news about Ebola in Dallas, and a salutary lesson confirming that I have been well advised not to attempt that. Breaking news takes a while to become stable, and is easily subject to misinterpretation – or even to outright errors.

CNN is now reporting that Thomas Eric Duncan did not answer truthfully to airline questions about whether he had been recently exposed to persons suffering from Ebola, or corpses of those who died from Ebola. He stated that he had not, but it has been known for a day or two that he definitely was exposed to Ebola patients, at least one of whom died shortly after being rejected from a Monrovia hospital because they had no more beds. Mr. Duncan was transporting the patient in a taxi at the time, and helped carry her back into her apartment after they left the hospital; and there she subsequently died. Shortly after that he travelled to America.

The woman identified yesterday as Mr. Duncan’s sister is now said to be his fiancé, and the mother of one of his children. It is assumed that one of the five children living in the apartment Mr. Duncan returned to after being released from the Dallas ER Thursday night as not having Ebola (although he had a temperature and intestinal discomfort along with other signs consistent with Ebola, and of course knew he had been exposed to Ebola) – it is assumed that one of those children is his. All five have now been, not quarantined, but ‘restricted’ .

U.S. Pursues Contacts of Ebola Patient in Texas

Officials Look for Symptoms in at Least a Dozen People Who May Have Come Into Contact With Liberian Man

Health authorities are monitoring for symptoms of Ebola in at least a dozen people who came into contact with a Liberian man before he was hospitalized in Dallas, moving to contain the deadly disease before it can spread further in the U.S.

Among those who had contact with the sick man, Thomas Eric Duncan, are five children, ranging from elementary to high-school age, as well as a small group of adults, state and local officials said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Mr. Duncan is believed to have traveled "every so often" to the U.S. from Liberia in years past to visit family members, and this was to be his longest visit yet, according to an acquaintance of the sick man. He arrived on this latest trip Sept. 20, traveling through Brussels from Monrovia, to visit a Liberian woman who lives in Dallas, according to a friend of the woman. He started feeling unwell four days after his arrival, and was hospitalized in an isolation unit with suspected Ebola on Sunday. (Further reading: Number being screened for Ebola in Texas grows to 80).

http://online.wsj.com/articles/us-monitors-contacts-of-ebola-patient-in-texas-1412188681

Mr. Duncan was apparently not required to have a visa to visit the United States, and, as noted above, while he was questioned about his exposure to Ebola, and had no visible symptoms at the time of boarding the flight to Brussels (thence to Dulles, and then to Dallas), no other precautions were taken. Apparently US Immigration Officers at Dulles did not ask him about recent exposure to Ebola prior to coming from the United States; it may be that they were unaware that his flight originated in Monrovia, not Brussels.

We have no other information about the five children in the apartment of the woman now described as Mr. Duncan’s fiancé, and so far it is not claimed that he is the father of more than one of them.

The Governor of Texas has proclaimed that Dallas is a civilized city and thus Ebola will not spread there. Given Mr. Duncan’s activities it is also clear that the city enjoys diverse life styles, some of which have only recently been included in the definition of civilized.

The clean up in Dallas does have some problems.

Delay in Dallas Ebola Cleanup as Workers Balk at Task

By KEVIN SACK and MARC SANTORAOCT. 2, 2014

DALLAS — More than a week after a Liberian man fell ill with Ebola and four days after he was placed in isolation at a hospital in Dallas, the apartment where he was staying with four other people had not been cleaned and the sheets and dirty towels he used while sick remained in the home, health officials acknowledged on Thursday afternoon.

Even as the authorities were reaching out to at least 80 people who may have had contact — either directly or indirectly — with the patient, Thomas E. Duncan, while he was contagious, they were scrambling to find medical workers to safely clean the apartment.

Continue reading the main story

The four family members who are living there are among a handful who have been directed by the authorities to remain in isolation, following what officials said was a failure to comply with an order to stay home. Texas health officials hand-delivered orders to residents of the apartment requiring them not to leave their home and not to allow any visitors inside until their roughly three-week incubation periods have passed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/us/dallas-ebola-case-thomas-duncan-contacts.html

White House Says No Ebola Travel Restrictions

"The White House said Wednesday it will not impose travel restrictions or introduce new airport screenings to prevent additional cases of Ebola from entering the United States.

"Spokesman Josh Earnest said that current anti-Ebola measures, which include screenings in West African airports and observation of passengers in the United States, will be sufficient to prevent the “wide spread” of the virus."

Full story:

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/219492-white-house-no-ebola-travel-restrictions

As for further non-"wide spread" non-epidemic (so far) spot outbreaks (so far) like the one in Dallas, we peasants should understand there are Higher Considerations involved, shut up, and die if need be, serene in the knowledge that our betters in DC will be protected even if we demonstrably won’t.

They’re up to a hundred post-symptomatic contacts to trace and rising now, many occurring AFTER the Dallas hospital mistakenly turned US Patient Zero away for two days, after he’d flown here from Liberia after massive known exposure but still asymptomatic.

My confidence in our "current anti-Ebola measures" is, to say the least, limited. Good enough to prevent an outright epidemic here? Probably so, let us pray. Good enough to prevent some significant number of deaths plus once the first few are reported huge economic disruption?

That’s looking like a very poor bet indeed.

Thirty days symptom-free outside the hot zone documented before they can come here is looking pretty reasonable around now. Except, for no explained reason, to our betters in the White House.

How do we tell the difference between incompetence and outright hostility to our national well-being? That’s rapidly becoming the wrong question, with the right one being, since we can’t tell the difference, what do we do about it?

Porkypine

CNN is claiming that the latest Ebola scare is a mixed blessing, with a positive upside.

The upside of Ebola in Dallas

By John D. Sutter, CNN

(CNN) — There’s one possible upside to the saddening news that an Ebola case has been discovered in Dallas: It might catalyze the world to help stop this crisis.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/02/opinion/sutter-ebola-donations/index.html

U.S. troops head to Africa for Ebola mission

Andrew Tilghman, Patricia Kime and Michelle Tan, Military Times

About 1,400 soldiers will head to Liberia this month to help support the fight against the Ebola virus that is spreading across West Africa, a Pentagon official said Tuesday.

The Army’s 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., will provide about 700 of those soldiers, while the other 700 will be mostly combat engineers culled from Army units across the force, Defense Department spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said.

The soldiers will be among the total 3,000 U.S. troops whom the Pentagon plans to send into West Africa this fall.

About 300 of the troops from the 101st Airborne will come from the division headquarters, and they will serve as the Joint Force Command for the mission. They are expected to arrive by the end of October.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/01/military-goes-to-africa-ebola-mission/16526873/

Last night’s news reported that their first mission will be to figure out what it is they can do in Liberia, including studying the feasibility of constructing a 100 bed Ebola hospital; it was not clear who would actually man the hospital and do the treatments.

Doubtless someone will remind the White House of the Principle of the Objective. On the other hand I doubt many of those Airborne! soldiers expected to be sent without mission to equatorial Africa without any definite objective when they volunteered for military service. Undoubtedly there are people willing to so volunteer, but I would not think they are the same as those we need for our elite military striking forces. But it has been a long time since I was in the military, and perhaps I no longer understand what is the purpose of a professional soldier.

Porkypine asks an interesting question: what do you do when incompetence becomes indistinguishable from malicious intent? To professional soldiers the answer is clear. Shut up and soldier. Semper fi. It is not so clear to the people of the United States.

Toxic Assets and Recession

We are currently recurring, or trying to recover, from a recession brought about by a 10% default on mortgage payments. Nine hundred billion dollars were pumped into saving the economy.

The total student loan indebtedness is about a Trillion Dollars, and is expected to top $2 Trillion in 2020. The current default rate on payments is about 44% — that is only 56% of those owing the money are current in their payments.

Student debt is growing. The money goes to the schools, whose tuition rates continue to rise. In general, as long as the rise is met by increases in the amount of money pumped into the system by loans, they will continue to rise. This is very good for the unionized employees of the educational system.

The Trillions owed by students are carried on the US books as assets, and thus deducted from the national debt. The chance that all of them will be repaid is approximately zero.

Student-Loan Debt: A Federal Toxic Asset

Only about 56% of borrowers are making payments. At the peak of the mortgage crisis, 10% fell behind on payments.

By

Joel Best And

Eric Best

http://online.wsj.com/articles/joel-best-and-eric-best-student-loan-debta-federal-toxic-asset-1412204612

One note of good news: expect a sharp rise in American and Canadian real estate as wealthy Hong Kong citizens flee China.  The last big upset in China brought an enormous rise in real estate prices as wealthy Chinese fled.  There are more wealthy Chinese in Hong Kong than there were in China in those times.

Some principles of a Middle East Strategy…

Really liked this piece of yours – kudos. It’s kind of astonishing that our government can go running around like a lunatic, arming jihadists and then when they turn on us we drop bombs at random with no obvious plan or objective and seemingly no understanding of the history in that region… And the public so-called debate is, at best, somewhat removed from reality as we know it. Are there any adults left in our government? (Jerry Pournelle for Secretary of State!)

I would however like to point out another factor at work in that part of the world, one that you yourself have written powerfully on. I am referring to the ‘cycles’ of the Moties in your Mote in God’s Eye books. The middle east has a very high sustained fertility rate. Forget post-1970’s propaganda that population growth is always good: the reality is that (at least without an open frontier) societies with sustained high fertility rates are always wracked with poverty. When people are starving, when young men can’t earn a living and support a family, there cannot be anything stable, there is only chaos. You can’t govern chaos, you can’t manage it, you can only wipe it out or (my choice) wall it off. Anything else you try in a place like that will inevitably be worn down under the pressure of constant misery and corruption.

The low daily high record for Mount Rushmore was broken by 25 degrees Fahrenheit!

Subj: 1695 Low Max Records Broken or Tied

http://www.climatedepot.com/2014/09/27/noaa-1695-low-max-records-broken-or-tied-from-sept-11-to-sept-20-one-record-broken-by-25f/

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."

Thomas Jefferson

‘Neoconservatism’s founding fathers abandoned the radical left, but many of them (though not all) retained radical characteristics when looking abroad, such as a faith that longstanding constraints can be transcended by reason and action, a belief in the universality of rationally constructed rights and the ultimate desirability of democracy in all societies, and, when they’re in a good mood, a belief that “an end to evil” is possible.’

<http://nationalinterest.org/feature/realisms-home-the-right-11384?page=show>

———————————————————————–

Roland Dobbins

Subj: The Moral Imagination of Russell Kirk

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/388944/moral-imagination-russell-kirk-m-d-aeschliman

>>It was a brave or foolhardy man who would so thoroughly expose and harshly criticize academic nominalism and neophilia — the tendency “to know more and more about less and less,” to prefer exceptions to rules, to eschew all general views for specialized knowledge only, and to reject the great heritage of “metaphysical realism,” including hallowed “self-evident truths,” for nominalist and neoterist detail. <<

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

Did Marco Polo discover America?

<http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/did-marco-polo-discover-america-180952765/>

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Roland Dobbins

And of course there is Longfellow’s Skeleton in Armor. (included in the California Sixth Grade Reader, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LZ7PB7E/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=chaosmanor-20&camp=14573&creative=327641

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.