Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Buy From Government Motors - Or Else

There is an ongoing discussion at Classical Values about whether the Federal Government can force you to buy a product. Like heath insurance say. Or a car from Government Motors.

I just came across an interesting mp3 from the Volokh Conspiracy on that very question. It is a discussion by the Attorney General of Colorado of the subject. The Government Motors question comes up about 17:50 into the discussion. The Attorney General of Colorado is filing suit against the Federal Government over the law and discusses his reasons - and he has a number of them. The whole audio is about 23 minutes and well worth your time.

And for some background: here is a link to the Tabor question.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Down By Half

The demise of the Pravda and Izvestia media is in full swing.

CNN continued what has become a precipitous decline in ratings for its prime-time programs in the first quarter of 2010, with its main hosts losing almost half their viewers in a year.
But the news is not all bad for them. Some of it is much worse.
Fox News had their best year of all time in 2009. Now that we’ve finished the first quarter of 2010, it’s clear FNC is showing no signs of letting up –they just finished their best quarter ever, in total day total viewers.

It was also the second highest rated quarter ever in prime time total viewers.
First the viewers go. Then the advertisers. The fact that Fox news is rising proves it is not the media. It is the message.

And that is not the only place where the message is ruining the media. The newspaper business is also troubled by a Death Watch. Time is not on their side. Well maybe the magazine is. But - No Fear. There is a magazine Death Pool too.

Think of my little magazine here. Depending on how you count it I gather 140,000 eyeballs a year. Or take the other place I blog, Classical Values. About 1,100,000 eyeballs a year. Nothing special really. But time is limited. And every minute a reader spends here is a minute not available for other media. After a while and with enough alternatives it is going to hurt. And hurt big.

I'm reminded of the Marxist long march through the institutions.
To few Americans is Antonio Gramsci a familiar name. That is to be regretted because the work of the late Italian Marxist sheds much light on our time. It was he who first alerted fellow revolutionaries to the possibility that they would be able to complete the seizure of political power only after having achieved "cultural hegemony," or control of society's intellectual life by cultural means alone.
Well they gained control of the culture all right. In fact they have strangled it to death. Good for them. They now control a corpse. And if you have watched Weekend at Bernie'syou know just how much trouble it is trying to keep a corpse animated.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Obama Scam Compensation

I just got a wonderful e-mail promising $500,000 for victims of Obama's scams.

On behalf of the Obama's Foundation and UNITED NATIONS, we wish to notify you as a beneficiary of $500,000 USD in compensation of scam victims.This is to bring to your notice that we are delegated from the Obama's Foundation and UNITED NATIONS in Central Bank to pay 150 victims of scam $500,000 USD (Five Hundred Thousand Dollars) each. You are listed and approved for this payment as one of the scammed victims to be paid this amount.

According to the number of applicants at hand, 114 Beneficiaries has been paid, over a half of the victims are from the United States, we still have a pending of 36 compensations left to be paid. Your particulars was mentioned by one of the Syndicates who was arrested as one of their victims of the operations, you are hereby warned not to communicate or duplicate this message to him for any reason what so ever as the U.S. secret service is already on trace of the other criminals. So keep it secret till they are all apprehended. Other victims who have not been contacted can submit their application as well for scrutiny and possible consideration.
Tens of millions of victims of Obama's scams and only 150 are going to get a payoff? Sounds like just another scam to me.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The No Cuts Rule

Thanks to the government no employee will be required to take a pay cut to pay for the new health care they will be getting.

Also of interest is the fact that Section 313 states that an employer hasn’t satisfied the contribution requirement if they simply cut the employee’s salary by the amount of the contribution. This is best illustrated with an example: Let’s suppose Employer A has an Employee X who makes $10.00/hour and Employer A doesn’t offer a ‘public option’ for his employees. By law, the employer is now required to pay an 8% tax on payroll (let’s assume Employer A is in the highest bracket). If the Employer simply reduces Employee X’s wage by 8% to $9.20/hour, the Employer is in violation of the statute and is deemed to not have made a contribution. While on the surface this appears good since it forces the employer to effectively increase total employee compensation, this will be a job-killer. Employer A might very easily choose to reduce the workforce by 8% to keep costs the same.
The government has been very kind to those who can keep their jobs. You will be working 8% harder to maintain your job. To the rest?

Enjoy your new freedom (from work) suckahs. You wanted a government controlled by one party. You got it.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Senate Operations


The public scenes (Senate hearings) are pretty faithful to the record according to what I can tell. Very few words have been changed or left out. Compare the movie version to newsreel clips of them.

This came up because of Congressional hearings threatened against companies revealing material losses caused by the Health Care Bill. And you know what else amuses me? Such revelations are required by law when a bill passes.
It’s been a banner week for Democrats: ObamaCare passed Congress in its final form on Thursday night, and the returns are already rolling in. Yesterday AT&T announced that it will be forced to make a $1 billion writedown due solely to the health bill, in what has become a wave of such corporate losses.

This wholesale destruction of wealth and capital came with more than ample warning. Turning over every couch cushion to make their new entitlement look affordable under Beltway accounting rules, Democrats decided to raise taxes on companies that do the public service of offering prescription drug benefits to their retirees instead of dumping them into Medicare. We and others warned this would lead to AT&T-like results, but like so many other ObamaCare objections Democrats waved them off as self-serving or “political.”

…Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment “appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs.”

excerpted from the Wall Street Journal
Who ever bought Senator Waxman didn't get his money's worth.

The link to the newsreel version was found in the comments at Gateway Pundit. I found the movie version on my own.

Here is a book about one of the accusations thrown at Hughes. That he was a Playboy. He was.

Howard Hughes: The Untold Story

As Mark Twain was reputed to have said: "It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress."

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Forces Of Drug Prohibition Won Big

The forces of drug prohibition won a big case that will reverberate in the fight against the health care bill. They won it in 2005 in the Supreme Court. Read it and weep.

Lawsuits from 14 states challenging the constitutionality of the new national healthcare law face an uphill battle, largely due to a far-reaching Supreme Court ruling in 2005 that upheld federal restrictions on home-grown marijuana in California.

At issue in that case -- just like in the upcoming challenges to the healthcare overhaul -- was the reach of the federal government's power.

Conservative Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy joined a 6-3 ruling that said Congress could regulate marijuana that was neither bought nor sold on the market but rather grown at home legally for sick patients.

They said the Constitution gave Congress nearly unlimited power to regulate the marketplace as part of its authority "to regulate commerce."

Even "noneconomic local activity" can come under federal regulation if it is "a necessary part of a more general regulation of interstate commerce," Scalia wrote.

The decision throws up a significant hurdle for the lawsuit filed last week in federal court by 13 state attorneys -- all but one a Republican. The Virginia attorney general filed a similar, but separate suit.
Which just goes to show you that Liberty is indivisible. You start denying it to people you don't like and pretty soon it will be denied to you.

This would be hilarious if it wasn't so funny.

Here is a nice little ditty.
First they came for the crack users; but I said nothing. I was not a crack user.

Then they came for the heroin users. But I said nothing - I was not a heroin user.

Then they came for the cannabis growers. But I said nothing - I was not a cannabis grower.

Then they came for the Antisocial Youth. But I said nothing - I was not young or antisocial.

Then they came for me. And there was no-one to speak out for me.

[after Pastor Niemoller]
Well I have been screaming my lungs out about the Drug War for decades. And my conservative friends have been putting their fingers in their ears and screaming "La La La I can't hear you."

Can you hear me now?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Waste Fraud And Abuse

Remember a few days back when I posted about the trouble with police crime labs? Well I have more evidence.

San Francisco prosecutors told judges Friday that they could not "ethically go forward" with 46 narcotics trials because of evidence problems arising out of the scandal at the Police Department's drug-analysis lab - signaling that the district attorney is likely to dismiss nearly all 750 pending drug cases in the city.

"Based on what the district attorney's office knows about the issues within the narcotics division of the crime lab, we cannot ethically go forward with this prosecution," Assistant District Attorney Nancy Tung told a judge overseeing a case that was serving as a test of how much police and prosecutors had to disclose to defense attorneys about problems at the drug lab.

Prosecutors dropped that test case, a cocaine-sales trial, after having been deluged with 1,500 pages of police files about the lab that a spokesman for the district attorney called "troubling" and said pointed to possible larger problems in the Police Department.
As if you needed more evidence of what a waste the drug war is.

But it gets worse.
The exact contents of the 1,500 pages of police files have not been made public, but Buckelew said the documents hinted at problems with police and the drug lab that go beyond Madden's conduct. Buckelew called the files "troubling."

"At the very beginning this was a case about Debbie Madden and isolated incidents that could have been resolved by retesting," Buckelew said. However, he added, "the face of this has changed."

Bell's attorney said he believed the material included audits of the crime lab at Hunters Point, and its drug-testing section, going back at least six years.

Among the questions raised since the suspicions about Madden were made public is why the Police Department took more than two months to open a criminal investigation into her actions after her sister said she had found what she believed to be a stolen lab vial of cocaine in Madden's home. Documents contained in the files could help answer that question and reveal who in the Police Department knew what and when.
If you have been a libertarian as long as I have you know what a waste government is in general. So what will be the outcome? Most likely the government will ask for more money to fix the mess the government caused. The bigger the screw up the more government will take from citizens. Heads we win and tails we win bigger. You'd almost think the game was rigged.

The government has no interest in fighting drugs per se. That is incidental to emptying your wallet. I can't wait for the marks to wise up.

H/T Pete Guither at Drug War Rant

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, March 26, 2010

Repeal It Or Feel It

Repeal It Or Feel It

I saw this at Vanderleun's American Digest. Dymphna at Gates of Vienna whose mate Baron Bodissey did the artwork says steal it. Post it far and wide.

Dennis The Peasant has this to say:
...because Obamacare incentivizes non-coverage by imposing employer fines for non-coverage that are far less than the cost of offering health insurance, there's an excellent chance (in this economy of roughly 17%-18% actual unemployment) that companies will be dropping health benefits rather than adding them. Employers can afford to; they have highly skilled workers waiting in line to beg for a job with or without health insurance.

Now ask yourself this question: If you were a Congressional Democrat, do you really think Mom and Dad and Little Billy and Katelyn are going to thank you for the job you've done once they realize you have decided they aren't going have vacations and college funds and retirement savings because you have decided their freedom to choose how they spend their money isn't important enough for you to honor?

Ignore the above at your own risk, Democrats. I've been dealing with people and their money on a professional basis for over 25 years. The fastest way to enrage the average American is to try to force them to reduce their standard of living. People will lie, cheat, steal, and kill to continue to live in the manner to which they are accustomed. That's just the way it is. And that is the fatal flaw in The Plan... When it comes down to it, the political will to force the electorate to be poorer will not be there.

The mandate will never see the light of day.
I think the recent rash of Reichstag Fires (you racist spitting bastids) is due to our "betters" feeling the heat.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Clearing Up Misconceptions

Rick Nebel who is in charge of the Polywell Experiments at EMC2 comments on Alan Boyle's article on progress in Fusion Power on MSNBC's Cosmic Log.

As usual, I seem to have created some misconceptions by my comments. First of all, what we said on our website is that the work on the WB-7 has been completed. We did not discuss the results. If you would like to conjecture what those results are, let me suggest that you notice the fact that we are working on the WB-8 device. The WB-8 was not a part of Dr. Bussard’s original development plan. This device came about as a result of the peer review process which suggested that there were issues that needed to be resolved at a smaller scale before proceeding to a demo. This was a conclusion that EMC2 heartily concurred with. I don’t want to leave people with the impression that everything on the WB-7 is identical to the WB-6.

Secondly, in our contract with the DOD, EMC2 owns the commercialization rights for the Polywell. However, commercialization is not something that we can do with our DOD funding. That is what we would like to look at with any contributions from the website. This will enable us to:

1. Design an attractive commercial reactor package.
2. Identify the high leverage physics items that most impact the design (i.e. how good is good enough).
3. Give us a base design when we are ready to proceed to the next step.

rnebel (Sent Wednesday, March 24, 2010 9:12 PM)
I think it is evident that the Polywell people are making progress. Will it actually lead to a viable fusion power machine? There is no way to know for sure until the experiments are done. I am hopeful. It seems like Rick is hopeful as well and with better reason. He has the data.

Some of my more recent articles on the subject:

Rick Nebel has a few things to say:
Polywell - No BS - No Excuses

Pictures of past and future Polywell efforts:
WB-D

Where the money for commercialization will come from:
Venture Capital Likes Fusion

H/T DeltaV at Talk Polywell

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Change Prohibition Policy



The Wall Street Journal interviews a Drug War observer who says that changing our policy of Prohibition is a viable alternative to the Drug War.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Voting For Socialism



If the audio wasn't exactly clear this should make it plainer:
Reverend Al Sharpton told Fox News: “I think that this began the transforming of the country where the President had promised. This is what he ran on.” When the interviewer interjected that many view the vote as a step towards socialism, Sharpton didn’t skip a beat, responding:
the American public overwhelmingly voted for socialism when they elected President Obama.
Well it looks like vote or no vote we are going to get it good and hard.



Short version:

The variant of socialism where the government doesn’t nationalize the means of production but controls it through law and regulation is called fascism.

H/T The Foundry

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Commonsense Conservatives

Sarah Palin has a new Facebook up.

We’re going to reclaim the power of the people from those who disregarded the will of the people. We’re going to fire them and send them back to the private sector, which has been shrinking thanks to their destructive government-growing policies. Maybe when they join the millions of unemployed, they’ll understand why Americans wanted them to focus on job creation and an invigorated private sector. Come November, we’re going to print pink slips for members of Congress as fast as they’ve been printing money.

We’re paying particular attention to those House members who voted in favor of Obamacare and represent districts that Senator John McCain and I carried during the 2008 election. Three of these House members are retiring – from Arkansas’s 2nd district, Indiana’s 8th district, and Tennessee’s 6th district – but we’ll be working to make sure that those who replace them are Commonsense Conservatives.
I sure hope so. Because I'm so tired of Culture War Conservatives and the Cultural Socialism they bring with them.

I think it is past time to retire the "Tax and Spend but I'm against Abortion" Republicans. A party that favors fiscal sanity and other wise leaves the people alone to make their own (good and bad) choices is the American way. Unless you believe government can make people moral. And how is that Drug War working out for you?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sometimes The Science Is A Crime

An interesting report on bad science in crime labs.

Let us consider something we used to teach our sophomores - lead smelting and refining. Almost all lead occurs as sulfide ores that contain lesser amounts of other metals. Smelting removes the sulfur and refining removes most of minor elements, notably gold, silver and copper. The composition of the refined lead may be easily and inexpensively determined by, for example, spectrographic analysis.

Someone at the FBI decided that if the compositions of two bullets “matched” well enough the two were from the same box of ammunition. Then if the box of ammunition was tied to the defendant, so was the subject bullet.

My reaction to the claim is “HUH?” One crucible of refined lead could make millions of bullets, and the molten lead is not necessarily of uniform composition. A composition match does not prove a darned thing.

This erstwhile expert was clearly working far above his pay grade, but sold the idea to superiors who really should have known better. For the next two decades, thousands of innocent people were convicted on the basis of totally hokum bullet matching. The FBI was the only lab in the country that was using the technique, which should have been a warning that something was wrong.

Finally someone in a high position got the National Academy of Science to address the lead-matching issue. They turned thumbs down and the FBI stopped matching bullets to a particular box.

Recently the Academy performed an extensive study of the nation’s crime labs. Law enforcement agencies resented the intervention of mainstream science in the courts and an arm of the Justice Department tried to block the study. It failed and the resulting report decried the lack of science and the use of shoddy practice.
One thing the labs are really good at is producing convictions because you know - it's science. Good for mystifying the rubes. And you wonder why lawyers don't like engineers and scientists on juries.

Just round up the usual suspects.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Viagra For Sex Offenders?

The Republicans are getting really diabolical. I mean besides Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. They are going to make Democrats vote in favor of dick stiffeners for sex offenders.

On Tuesday, the GOP put its strategy into action, with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okl.) introducing an amendment beyond agreeable. Titled “No Erectile Dysfunction Drugs To Sex Offenders” it would literally prohibit convicted child molesters, rapists, and sex offenders from getting erectile dysfunction medication from their health care providers.
Penis politics at its best. I can see the campaign adds already.
“Why does Harry Reid want to give rapists erections”?
The best answer to that question in the comments will get an honorable mention on the front page. And if I get more than one really good answer? Well electrons are cheap. Anything else you can come up with that is really witty will also get a mention. Like getting the Democrats to vote against Mom, Motherhood, and Apple Pie (and no that one is already taken, although effective embroidery on the theme will be considered). The Decision of the Supreme Judge is final. However, individuals are allowed to come to their own conclusion.

And just for fun I think it is time to reprise the Blue Pill / Red Pill controversy.



This Republican proposal sure gives new meaning to what Mr. obama was proposing. And you will notice Mr. obama favored the Blue Pill. Oh. The irony.

I can see the ads now - "obama says sex offenders should pay half price for the blue pill."

And do we have reading material (not that kind) for you? Yes we do:

The Viagra Myth: The Surprising Impact On Love And Relationships

From a review:
"a firm erection cannot solve deeper problems."
I'll say. For that you need a Penis Extension Kit.And just to be perfectly clear. The link is to something that is clearly racist. Just in case you were wondering.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Raising The Roof Over Raising The Rates

Alternative Energy seems to be raising electric rates in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to conduct a review of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposed package of electric rate hikes, and took the mayor to task for suggesting that defeat of the plan would plunge the city into bankruptcy.

On a 15-0 vote, the council asserted jurisdiction over the Department of Water and Power board's decision to approve the first of four increases over the next year to help pay for renewable energy and other expenditures.

Several council members said they were especially disturbed by Villaraigosa's warning, sent to them in writing the night before the vote, that a failure to let the rate hikes stand would cause the DWP to renege on its plan to provide $73 million to the city's strained general fund, which pays for basic services such as public safety and parks.
Public Utilities owned by government were supposed to be about preventing gouging by private corporations. It looks like gouging by government was not contemplated.

As we used to say back in the heady days of my communist youth. "What is mine is mine. What is yours belongs to the people." That should probably be amended to add "and the alternative energy companies."

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Polywell - No BS - No Excuses

Alan Boyle's Cosmic Log has a new article up on Polywell Fusion.

You won't hear Rick Nebel talking about fusion as a challenge requiring billions of dollars and decades of experimentation. For the past couple of years, Nebel heads up a handful of researchers following the less-traveled path to fusion at EMC2 Fusion Development Corp. in Santa Fe, N.M. That path involves creating a high-voltage chamber to sling ions so energetically at each other that at least some of them fuse and release energy.

EMC2 recently created a buzz in the fusion underground by reporting on its Web site that a series of experiments was able to "validate and extend" earlier results reported by the late physicist Robert Bussard. The company is now using a $7.9 million contract from the U.S. Navy to build a bigger test machine, known as WB-8. (WB stands for "Wiffle Ball," which refers to the shape of the machine's magnetic fields.)

What's more, Nebel and his colleagues are now seeking contributions to fund the development of what they say would be a 100-megawatt fusion plant - a "Phase 3" effort projected to cost $200 million and take four years.

"Successful Phase 3 marks the end of fossil fuels," the Web site proclaims.

Success isn't assured. The WB-8 experiment could conceivably show that the approach pioneered by Bussard, known as inertial electrostatic confinement fusion or IEC fusion, can't be scaled up to produce more power than it consumes. And if Nebel's team comes to that conclusion, he doesn't plan to pull any punches.

"No B.S. and no excuses," Nebel told me over the weekend. "If it looks like we have a problem with this, we're going to tell them."
Now that is a really different attitude from what has gone on in ITER. It was obvious to me a few years ago that the program was in trouble. But only in the last year have they admitted it by slipping the schedule by almost three years. So far.

You can read my earlier post on what I learned from EMC2 at WB-D which has some nice pictures of experiments and their proposed 100 MW device.

From time to time there are people reading here who need to be brought up to speed on fusion I'm reposting my usual: You can learn the basics of fusion energy by reading Principles of Fusion Energy: An Introduction to Fusion Energy for Students of Science and Engineering

Polywell is a little more complicated. You can learn more about Polywell and its potential at: Bussard's IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained

The American Thinker has a good article up with the basics.

And the best part? We Will Know In Two Years or less.

I'm a big fan of small fusion projects. Especially after hearing what Plasma Physicist and author of Principles of Plasma PhysicsDr. Nicholas Krall said, "We spent $15 billion dollars studying tokamaks and what we learned about them is that they are no damn good." And they seem really hard to build even. And who knows, if the Polywell experiments being done by the US Navy are successful the ITER project may just wind up as a big hole in the ground in France.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Laugh While You Can

Bill Whittle is up to his old tricks. And good ones they are.

And so now we have it.

I thought I might need to try my small part to cheer people up and calm them down, but for once I have underestimated the American people. People, by and large, seem not only calm but absolutely determined. Everywhere I have looked this morning the reaction seems to be more or less the same: a nation of steely-eyed missile men. These Marxist bastards have no idea what is coming for them. No idea.

Laugh while you can, Monkey Boys.
There is no doubt this is going to be painful. But I do believe we can wind up a much better country for it. With a much better medical system. We need to get to a system where the consumer pays for regular medical expenses and not insurance companies or government. This will put downward pressure on costs. Catastrophic coverage is the way to go.

Free standing MRI Clinics charge 1/4 of what hospitals charge for an MRI. And Doc In A Box type services are popping up all over. Cash at the door eliminates a LOT of hassle for the doctor and the patient.

And after that maybe we can go after the Drivers License Scam.
“Personal liberty – or the right to enjoyment of life and liberty – is one of the fundamental or natural rights, which has been protected by its inclusion as a guarantee in the various constitutions, which is not derived from nor dependent on the U.S. Constitution. … It is one of the most sacred and valuable rights [remember the words of Justice Tolman, supra.] as sacred as the right to private property … and is regarded as inalienable.” 16 C.J.S. Const. Law, Sect.202, Pg. 987
You can find a rather long discussion of this starting here. And how does this relate? Well the requirement to buy insurance comes up at the very start of the discussion (13 pages earlier).

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, March 22, 2010

Steal This Flag

Times's Up




H/T DullHawk.com

Cross Posted at Classical Values

What To Do?

The Health Destruction Bill has passed and Americans are up in Arms. So the question is "What to Do? Well that is obvious. Throw the Democrats out in November.

The great imponderable in American elections is the 30% to 50% (more or less) that don't vote in elections. My guess is that a lot of them will be motivated. Say we can get just 1/2 of that 30% to the polls.

No seat is safe. Not one.

What to do? Voter registration drives. Massive voter registration drives. Starting now.

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Rockford Is Improving

According to our local paper, fondly called The Red Star, only 25% of house sales in the area are foreclosure sales. Except that I know for a fact that the banks are putting off foreclosure as long as possible so as to avoid as long as they can booking the losses.

In Boone, Ogle and Winnebago counties in February, just 62 of the 243 recorded sales were from bank, mortgage or government agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs.

That was the lowest number of bank-owned property sales in a month since December 2008.

The flood of foreclosures in the country has been largely to blame for falling prices, because the homes are usually sold at steep discounts. Real estate experts think prices won’t rise with any regularity again until we cycle through the millions of distressed properties in the U.S.

Unfortunately, February’s decline in foreclosure sales is most likely an anomaly. The number of new foreclosure cases being filed continues to rise.
And we haven't even started to tear into the commercial real estate bubble. It is only a matter of time. And then the housing market will re-collapse.

Good times? Only if you like breaking records. Take unemployment in the area.
Local economists weren’t the only ones shocked by the jump to the Rockford area’s January unemployment rate.

It was the highest year-over-year increase in the nation.

The metro area’s unemployment rate was 19.7 percent, a 5.8 percentage point increase, higher than all 372 metro areas in the country, according to an analysis released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Two other Illinois metros made the list of top five biggest increases: Peoria tied for second with a 5.5 percentage point increase, and Decatur was close behind with a 5.2 percentage point increase.

Rockford also had the fifth-highest unemployment rate of all metro areas, outpacing rust belt mainstays such as Flint, Mich., Elkhart-Goshen, Ind., and Detroit.
As far as the statistics go I'm not counted. I'm retired on Social Security. And my mate? She works for the school system so her job will be one of the last to go.

And what is one of the biggest problems our city faces? Public employee pensions.
The debate over how to balance the city budget without cutting services has now zeroed in on the budget’s ticking time bomb: pensions.

Mayor Larry Morrissey, in his State of the City address earlier this month, got everybody’s attention with one example:

A 25-year-old police officer hired today at base pay and receiving an annual 3 percent wage increase and required step and longevity increases, with no promotions, will pay $304,506.25 toward his or her pension throughout a 30-year career. If the officer or the officer’s spouse lives 30 years after retirement, he or she will receive a total of $5.8 million, from employee and city contributions and investment returns to the pension fund.

Now, multiply that by the number of police officers and firefighters the city expects to employ in the next 30 years. Right now the number is 549.

The city’s annual pension obligation — the amount the state says it must pay into three separate state-mandated retirement systems for its union employees — jumped from $11.3 million in 2009 to $12.8 million this year to a projected $16.3 million in 2011.

But at the same time, money coming into the city’s general fund fell from $112.4 million in 2009 to $110.1 million in 2010.
Let me do the multiplication for you. And to make it easy we will say the obligation is $5 million for 550 people. That would be around $90 million a year in a city whose budget is $110 million a year. A total 30 year obligation of $2.75 billion. Roughly.

That is unsustainable. And that which can not be sustained will not be sustained. I see bankruptcy in the city's future. Some improvement.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, March 21, 2010

An Old Soviet Proverb





There is No News in the "News"papers.





Saturday, March 20, 2010

Atmospheric Fusion Reactions

My friend chrismb at Talk Polywell alerted me to this Russian paper on atmospheric fusion reactions caused by Deuterium - Deuterium (heavy hydrogen) reactions in lightning.

To produce thermonuclear reaction it is necessary, firstly, to have nuclei with a large quantity of neutrons available, for example, deuterium nuclei, and secondly, these nuclei should possess sufficiently high velocity and merge together upon collision, having overcome the Coulomb barrier. It turns out that all these conditions are observed in the course of a stroke of lightning - such a conslusion is evident from calculations by B.M. Kuzhevsky, Ph.D. (Physics&Mathematics), head of the neutron research laboratory, Skobeltsin Scientific Research Institute of Nuclear Physics (Moscow State University).

Deuterium is always present in water: on average, a molecule of DHO (water, where one of hydrogen atoms is replaced by deuterium) falls to 6,800 molecules of H2O. That means - taking into account the quantity of water vapour available in the atmosphere (i.e. 5õ10^-4 g/cubic centimeter) - there will be 10^15 deuterium atoms per cubic centimeter. In lightning, these atoms turn into ions and are capable of gathering speed up to considerable energy. With the lightning canal diameter varying from 2 millimeters to 5 centimeters, and discharge duration making the ten-thousandth of a second, it proves that billions of deuterium atoms will have time to start reacting with each other and to generate precisely two times less atoms of helium-3 and neutrons. These neutrons already possess enormous energy - 2.45 MeV. However, in the atmosphere of our planet they are capable of living at most for 0.2 seconds, during which they will inevitably meet with nitrogen atoms and be absorbed by them. This time period is sufficient for neutrons to fly a distance of one or two kilometers.

The calculation has been also confirmed by experimental data. The DYAIZA facility developed at the Institute and installed in Moscow at the Vorobyevy Hills repeatedly recorded neutron emission peaks during thunderstorms, their magnitude exceeding that of the background by hundreds of times.

Several important conclusions can be drawn from the above effort. Firstly, this helps to solve a long-standing puzzle: why cosmonauts on board the MIR space station observed high neutron background in the area of the equator. Keeping in mind that thunderstorms permanently burst out in this region, it is easy to guess where high neutron background comes from. Secondly, the same mechanism should also work in the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter where thunderstorms are also frequent and sporadic neutron streams should arise there.
In effect the atmosphere has been running its own fusor experiments for billions of years.

Friday, March 19, 2010

My Computer Died

Blogging will be on an as able basis until I get it fixed. My boot disk will not bring it back. I do have a data backup hard drive but I have been unable to check it. Maybe tomorrow.

Hits to the tip jar most appreciated.

Originally posted at 3/07/2010 11:56:00 PM. It will stay at the top until I get my computer fixed or replaced.

Update:

I was able to check my backup drive and it seems intact. I will post more about my backup system once everything is restored to its last known good state.

Update:

My son is home from college and I was able to prevail on him to let me use his computer. I still need some help even though posts will be a little more frequent until he goes back to school.

Update:

I took my machine to Best Buy and had them do an instant check. I watched while it was done and came to the same conclusion they did. Dead. Recovery not likely. So I'm looking for a new machine at under $400. I want to get one from a local store so if there are problems in the first 90 days I can get local service. My choices are an HP machine with a 500 GB HD with a single core processor and an e-machine. Any other suggestions welcome. Very much welcome. And if you can help out it would be very much appreciated. I live on a fixed income and even at $400 this is going to be very, very, hard to do. And to all those who have donated so far. THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!

And on another related note: I have to stay home to help my ill son. Any work I can do for you from home would be much appreciated. Obviously I can write. I can also do electronic design. And I am more than willing to charge by the project milestone with guaranteed delivery dates or no charge.

Update 20 March 2010 0130z

Thanks to the help of all my friends here at Power and Control (and my Mom) I was able to go out to Best Buy tonight and get a Gateway DX4831-01e. My geek friends tell me it is a very good machine for the price.

I haven't started setting it up yet. When I do get online with it I will tell you how I like it. Thanks to all your help I was able to go from a barely adequate box to one that should serve my needs for quite some time. i.e. 64 bit instead of 32.

And to the person who sent me a monitor when mine died a while back - thanks again. I will be using it with this new machine. And to those who helped with donations back then: the gas company thanks you and I do too!

And finally - this post will drift away and you won't be bothered with it any more. Yipeeee!!!!

Get It Legal Tour

My friend E. J. Pagel advises me via e-mail that the Cheech and Chong Get It Legal tour is coming to the Rockford Coranado Theater on March 27th. Tickets are $35 and $50 per person.



I have a former police officer friend who says that pot prohibition will end in America about 5 years after the first state legalizes. That first legalization could come as early as this November in California.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

We Will Keep Stealing



Congressman Tom Perriello tells what is bad about Congress. "If you don't tie our hands we will keep stealing."

And the difference between Republicans and Democrats? Republicans generally steal less. Faint praise indeed.

From Real Clear Politics.

H/T Jccarlton at Talk Polywell

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Idaho Will Sue

If the Health Care Destruction Bill passes Idaho will sue the Federal Government to prevent implimentation of the individual mandate.

Idaho took the lead in a growing, nationwide fight against health care overhaul Wednesday when its governor became the first to sign a measure requiring the state attorney general to sue the federal government if residents are forced to buy health insurance.

Similar legislation is pending in 37 other states.

Constitutional law experts say the movement is mostly symbolic because federal laws supersede those of the states.
Well maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. It sure means enforcement is going to be difficult.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

WB-D

WB-8

EMC2 (Polywell Fusion) has updated their site with an image of WB-8 shown above. The Drawing is labeled as "with diagnostics".

And then there is this picture:



Labeled:
WB-D 100MW Polywell Demo Device

Your Contributions Will Help Us Design The WB-D Polywell Device

Send your supporting contributions to:

New Mexico Community Foundation

Contact Energy Matter Conversion Corporation

1202 Parkway Drive Suite A
Santa Fe, NM 87507
Phone: 505-471-2050
Email: Rick at Emc2fusion dot com
There is considerable speculation at Talk Polywell as to what it all means.

And since from time to time there are people reading here who need to be brought up to speed on fusion I'm reposting my usual: You can learn the basics of fusion energy by reading Principles of Fusion Energy: An Introduction to Fusion Energy for Students of Science and Engineering

Polywell is a little more complicated. You can learn more about Polywell and its potential at: Bussard's IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained

The American Thinker has a good article up with the basics.

And the best part? We Will Know In Two Years or less.

I'm a big fan of small fusion projects. Especially after hearing what Plasma Physicist and author of Principles of Plasma PhysicsDr. Nicholas Krall said, "We spent $15 billion dollars studying tokamaks and what we learned about them is that they are no damn good." And they seem really hard to build even. And who knows, if the Polywell experiments being done by the US Navy are successful the ITER project may just wind up as a big hole in the ground in France.

Update:

Here is the progress report given so far by EMC2:
EMC2 Fusion Development Corporation has been formed as a charitable research and development organization in frontier energy technologies with emphasis on fusion.

Fusion R&D Phase 1 - Validate and extend WB-6 results with WB-7 Device: 1.5 years / $1.8M, Successfully Completed

Fusion R&D Phase 2 - Design, build and test larger scale WB-8 Polywell Device: 2 years / $7M, In Process

Fusion R&D Phase 3 - Design, build and test full scale 100 MW Fusion System: 4 years / $200M, In Design Phase

Successful Phase 3 marks the end of fossil fuels
Good luck and happy fusing to the EMC2 folks and Rick Nebel who is leading the project.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Use It Or Lose it


I love the American tie. There were always some Brits who supported the American Revolution. Good to see that the supply hasn't dried up. And here is hoping we can return the favor.

Here is a bit from the page this video was posted on.
The case for a climate treaty is in tatters. We've seen the Climategate emails expose scientists who adjusted their data to suit their politics. We've seen Glaciergate in which we've learned that the famous IPCC climate change report falsely stated that Himalayan glaciers will melt by 2035 and based this not on science, peer reviewed or otherwise, but on the unfounded claims of the WWF, an environmental campaigning organization. Now we're learning about Nasagate – that climate researchers at the American space agency concede that their temperature data was inaccurate and inferior to the data used at the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia which is the very data that the Climategate emails reveal has been tinkered with. These days we can't seem to go a week without witnessing some further aspect of the climate charade collapsing into a new “gate.”

Well all this has the bureaucrats of the U.N., left-wing climate organizations and the businesses planning to cash in on the climate change scare, racing to restore their position before the gate closes for good on the entire climate change scare.

Polls tell us that the public has seen through the climate scare, but that their governments are not yet listening to them. People of good sense and good intentions need to make their voices heard. Let your elected representatives of every party know that they will pay a handsome price at the ballot box unless they withdraw their support from unwise climate change treaties and legislation and actively oppose them. Tell the U.N. Representatives meeting in Bonn that there must be no new climate change treaty.
For more information here is the CFACT home page.

And here is the contact info for the American Government:

House of Representatives

The Senate

The President

Light up their tails.

H/T The Air Vent

The American People Are Getting Tired Of This Crap



About 1:22 into the video.

H/T Stephen Green at PJTV

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Some Random Drug War Notes

Well not so random actually. They are the working notes of anti-Drug War Lobbiest and retired Detective/Officer Howard Wooldridge.

De Nile is also a river in Egypt:

At a House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting this week our Deputy Secretary of State for the Americas, Mr. Valenzuela was asked by the chairman about the murders of 16 school kids at a birthday party in Mexico. His response was ‘the murders were a sign of success’ of the policy of Mexican President Calderone. I did not believe my ears. After the hearing I asked 2 others if I had heard correctly. Yes. I reviewed the tape at home. Yup. Like body counts in Vietnam and Iraq, dead students are a sign of success. Who knew?
Unsurprisingly a modest search of the Internet turned up nothing about those remarks.
Hell froze over:

On Tuesday I attended a press conference in the Capitol. The IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) endorsed the Webb Commission bill. 17 of my colleagues in full dress uniforms stood behind four Senators asking the Congress for a speedy passage* of the bill. The IACP represents 20,000 Top Cops. It is the only major group to endorse the Webb bill. The rest are fighting it for all their worth.

I never thought the IACP would support this bill. I was wrong. On this occasion it is good to be wrong.
More about IACP support.

And why are the rest of the top police opposing it? Follow the money.
Last month in the hallway of the Heritage Foundation, I ran into Ron Brooks, chief lobbyist for the nation's 69,000 narcotics officers (one cop in 12 is a narcotics officer). He smugly stated that my organization only had a few thousand members vs his 59,000 strong organization. I countered that a solid poll had just shown that 22 percent of all active duty cops would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana. This percentage meant about 225,00 cops feel like I do. Per the same poll, a majority of cops felt that marijuana should be just a ticket, not an arrest. I told him that he and the narcs favored prohibition because it was a big, overtime check and job security. He became upset and stormed off.
That is not the only corruption going on in the Drug War. Ever wonder how all those drugs get across the border?
Worse than we thought:

Senator Pryor (D-AR) had the courage ( no other Senators attended the event) to call a hearing on the ‘Corruption of federal officers by the Mexican Drug Cartels.’ One witness stated that the polygraph exam was washing out 60% of the applicants. The audience was stunned at such a figure.

Then came the bad news. The Border Patrol only polygraphs 15% of applicants. The witnesses testified further that the Drug Cartels are hiring people who then apply to the Border Patrol. Why receive only one paycheck? And you wonder how drugs flow across the border like beer in a German bar?
Well not to worry. We are winning the Drug War. In fact we have been winning it for 40 years. Or would that be 96 years - since the passage of the Federal anti-cocaine and heroin laws - or for 73 years since the passage of the Federal anti-marijuana laws?
YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE TIME AND ALL OF THE PEOPLE FOR THE PAST 40 YEARS

“So what numbers can you ‘hang your hat on?” asked Wooldridge. “In 2005 our federal government reported these sobering numbers: One – 110 million Americans had tried an illicit drug at least once. Two – 35,000,000 had used an illicit drug the previous year. More importantly, ask yourself what is the most crucial question for you and your children. Is it how much has drug use has gone up or down or how easy is it for your kids to buy drugs from marijuana to heroin. Of course it is drug availability which is the crucial question and that is why the Prohibition Crowd never, ever wants to discuss that aspect.

“Drug Prohibition will be repealed when a majority understand its destructive effects AND tell their politicians. Help your family by re-directing police time towards public safety, not personal safety. Going after Willie Nelson smoking marijuana on his back porch is NOT making America safer. Silence here means politicians will keep voting billions to feed the police drug machine.”
Which just goes to show you how long failure can be maintained if you are spending other people's money to support it.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Monday, March 15, 2010

An End To The Culture War?

Michael Barone thinks the Republicans may be giving up on the culture war. Finally.

The Republicans for the last two decades have been a party whose litmus tests have been cultural issues, especially abortion. The tea partiers have helped to change their focus to issues of government overreach and spending. That may be a helpful pivot, given the emergence of a Millennial generation uncomfortable with crusading cultural conservatism.
I am glad the Republicans are being forced by the turn of events to give up on Cultural Socialism. I have thought for some time that Cultural Socialism was a losing strategy because it did not lead to smaller less intrusive government and fewer black markets. The Tea Party people are forcing the issue because their only (or at least by far their main) issue is taxes and spending. Americans are a cantankerous independent lot who do not take well to government herding. If cultural issues can't make headway on their own, no government force is going to improve their position. In fact such force will be resisted and the culture warriors will in fact be working against themselves. Alcohol Prohibition being a case in point.

It is more than evident that those who pride themselves on a knowledge of history would rather avoid inconvenient history. A documented case in point is the slighting of Thomas Jefferson in Texas' American History books because he was the author of the words:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State. -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802
Obviously a wall like that would be a problem for those who want to use government to ram their religious views down our throats. Fortunately Texas is only one part of America. And the denial of history in the Internet age is going to be difficult. Because, you know, we can fact check your ass. And not just the Internet. We have books too:

Quotations of Thomas Jefferson

If you want to do something about taxes and spending and are not too concerned about Culture Wars may I suggest Tea:

Tea Party Difference

Click on the above image and learn how to spread it around.


H/T Eric at Classical Values

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Visit To A Trade Show

Jeff Id visited a trade show in St. Louis and brings back a report.

First, there is a definite but slight recovery in in industry at this moment. Good news.

The second, is that industry is absolutely angry at what BHO and the extremists in charge are doing. Now understand, these include rank and file union and non-union workers, equipment builders, sales people, engineers, corporate heads and owners alike. The warriors of capitalism who provide and feed the world. This IS your food, it IS the funding which drives your banking jobs, health care and the rest. These are the people who know what it takes to get a job done, how to build a power line, what is required to move product, plumb a building, fill a pothole, how proper equipment is made.

They are universally afraid, and have learned a lesson from this economy which is unstated in media.

Recently the Tea Party movement has been marginalized by the MSM, however the extreme political hacks of the MSM haven’t figured out what the movement is OR why they have lost nearly all their viewers. The point is that the ‘tea party’ movement is not a group, it is a symptom. They don’t need a new party to divide them as the media is trying to sell. They are America, and the politicians had better start listening.

The same industry which has powered the world has been pushed right to its limit by both the wall street Republican and somewhat more culpable Democrat power brokers. It’s at the brink of collapse and there is a palpable fear in industry. We are right at the edge of loosing America. It’s far closer than you think, and these bankers and socialists owe humanity a greater debt for their blatant corruption than any humans have ever owed to a population.
Read the rest to find out why he says that.

And if you want to help out add this to your blog:

Tea Party Difference

Click on the above image and learn how to spread it around.


Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Rice Tag Plot

A certain commenter named Frank at Classical Values has been complaining about my inattention to the burning of the Reichstag and instead giving my attention to the Drug War. Eric, the host at Classical Values, rightly makes fun of Frank at the above link. But I have been giving it some thought and maybe Frank has a point.

My problem is that I have been thinking too much about burning natural gas to consider burning Reichstags. Or should that be rice tags? Is it a Chinese plot disguised as a German plot which was disguised as a Communist plot? Well the Chinese are communists so it is possible.

Maybe the Japanese are behind it and running a false flag operation to blame the Chinese. Now there IS a plot.

A graveyard rice tag plot.

If there are head stones involved, for sure the dopers are behind it. Japanese dopers. Who are planning to invade from Mexico.

I know the Germans once planned to invade from Mexico so it all fits.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

GM Foods

From what I understand a lot of Genetically Modified (GM) food has been introduced into my diet in the last few decades.

I do notice over the years that I have been getting older.

I blame GM foods.

Inspired by the comment thread at Watts Up With That

Friday, March 12, 2010

It Is Just A Matter Of Time

High Country News has an interesting article on how Mexico is becoming a failed state. All because of the Drug War.

The man talking on the screen was recruited by the drug industry in Ciudad Juarez, sent to the state police academy, where he got around $150 a month as a student and around $1,000 a month from the drug industry as their sponsored law enforcement person. He was also trained by the FBI in Tucson, Ariz., (he told me the training was very good) and headed an anti-kidnapping squad in Juarez. And he also kidnapped people, almost all of whom died once their families were drained of money.

I helped make the film the man is watching, and he knows this. He is mesmerized by the man talking. And he is angry at me, because I know such a man, someone like the killers who took his son and sold him back for some money. Fortunately.

If the press reports this sort of thing, it is framed as part of a War on Drugs that must be won. These stories are fables at best. There is no serious War on Drugs. Rather, there is violence, nourished by the money to be made from drugs. And there are U.S. industries whose primary lifeblood comes from fighting a war on drugs. The Department of Homeland Security, for example, has 225,000 employees and a budget of $42 billion, part of which is aimed at making America safe from Mexico and Mexicans. Narcotics officers in the U.S. cost at least $40 billion a year. The world's largest prison industry would collapse without the intake of drug convicts, and, in recent years, of illegal Mexican migrants. And around the republic there are big new federal courthouses rising that would be cobwebbed without the steady flow from drug busts and the Mexican poor coming north.
It is just a matter of time until this sort of thing crosses the border and becomes an American problem. Of course considering the cost it already is an American problem. And we are financing this with our War On Some Drugs. Some day we will surrender the fight. And then we will have the aftermath where the drug gangs turn to other "opportunities" for profit. The aftermath of the War On Alcohol lasted some 20 or 30 years. The sooner we can get over the war on drugs the sooner we will get over the aftermath.

You can read more about it in:

Bad Trip: How the War Against Drugs is Destroying America


Cross Posted at Classical Values

Venture Capital Likes Fusion

If you read my post Investing In Polywell you would know that venture capital seems interested in funding fusion start-ups. We now have more confirmation in this Finance Business article.

A prominent venture capitalist, Wal van Lierop, of Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital, has begun to invest in companies (such as General Fusion) who are providing patents and technologies for economical fusion power. in a recent interview at the Clean Tech Investor Summit (which we're very sad we're not attending), van Lierop said that he expects large energy companies to start thinking about building fusion plants within the next five years.

As we've noted before here at EcoGeek, the best way to track down that technologies are going to (very shortly) change the world is to watch what the venture capitalists are doing. these are people who basically make ridiculous sums of cash by predicting the future...and investing in it. and since they've got so much riding on their bets, they like to do a lot of research.

Often this is research that people like me (because I don't have billions of dollars to invest) can't do. So I follow the VCs, and pay attention to what they're saying.

And what van Lierop is saying seems almost crazy, on the surface. But dig a little deeper, and things start looking exciting. despite sounding like a comic book hero, General Fusion's technology is very realistic. in a world where we're all used to hearing that "Fusion power has been twenty years away for twenty years" hearing that it's five years away is pretty remarkable.
Yes. It does seem remarkable. Except if you have been reading articles of mine like: We Will Know In Two Years or less. Or one of my more recent ones like: Advanced and Delayed.

Let me also say that I have been approached several times over the last few years to personally develop a project that would reach the fusion goal faster than any government project. One of these days I will connect either with my own project or as an assistant to some one else's project.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Advanced And Delayed

Famulus at Prometheus Fusion has raised enough funds through Kick Starter to get the funds released for his amateur Polywell Fusion Reactor experiments. We look forward to the results in three months or so.

Small fusion is doing well. Big fusion not so much. The roughly $10 billion ITER Project in France is being delayed again. By almost another year. Yeah. I know. Cue up the jokes.

The scheduled start-up date for the ITER fusion reactor project looks set to slip again by 10 months to November 2019. The new date comes less than a year after the start-up was shifted from 2016 to 2018. William Brinkman, director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science, said at a meeting of fusion energy advisers on Monday that the schedule was changed at a meeting of ITER heads of delegations in Paris in late February.

ITER, an enormous research fusion reactor which is shortly due to begin construction in France, is a collaboration between China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States and is due to cost somewhere between €5 billion and €10 billion. (The cost is a current bone of contention.) Over the past couple of years, the funding partners have become alarmed about the rapidly escalating cost estimates and delays in getting the project moving. The ITER council ordered reviews of the costing system and the project management. Sources say that the European Union, which, as host, is shouldering 45% of the construction cost, has been calling for more construction time because of concern that pushing ahead too fast could lead to unacceptable technical risks. Although Brinkman does not name the E.U., he says that a delay until 2020 was requested but after objections the meeting settled on a start date of late in 2019.
I can tell you from practical experience that fudging the dates like that means the project is in way more trouble than the people involved are letting on.

And since from time to time there are people reading here who need to be brought up to speed on fusion I'm reposting my usual: You can learn the basics of fusion energy by reading Principles of Fusion Energy: An Introduction to Fusion Energy for Students of Science and Engineering

Polywell is a little more complicated. You can learn more about Polywell and its potential at: Bussard's IEC Fusion Technology (Polywell Fusion) Explained

The American Thinker has a good article up with the basics.

And the best part? We Will Know In Two Years or less.

I'm a big fan of small fusion projects. Especially after hearing what Plasma Physicist and author of Principles of Plasma PhysicsDr. Nicholas Krall said, "We spent $15 billion dollars studying tokamaks and what we learned about them is that they are no damn good." And they seem really hard to build even. And who knows, if the Polywell experiments being done by the US Navy or Famulus are successful the ITER project may just wind up as a big hole in the ground in France.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Investing In Polywell

Famulus at Prometheus Fusion had a close encounter with an angel investor from Europe. He gives an account of his interactions. Famulus was kind enough to ask me for some assistance with his proposal. I also got one of my physicist friends (Dr. Mike) to help out.

Famulus needs to raise funds to continue his experiments. He is getting close to his goal.

Donate Here.

Cross posted at Classical Values

On Capitalism

From American Thinker on business and capitalism:

If government run business was better than privately run business, then Communist Russia would have won the Cold War.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

The Natural Order

The natural order of things is for the rich to steal from the poor. Any other order is unnatural. So how do you maintain an unnatural system where the poor have a chance?

The only way is that no one steals from any one else. Once you allow stealing into the system the rich get their usual extra advantage. Which is why our founders stated that the system they designed can only be maintained by a moral people. And the morality was not about who was having sex with whom but the morality relating to property.

Socialism is a system for stealing from the rich in the hopes of advantaging the poor. But once you allow theft into the system it reverts to the natural order where the poor have no chance. Which is why socialism always fails.

So the trouble with socialists is that they mean well but have no understanding. Which is why I am no longer a socialist.

==

And note: when you take into account the incentives for production socialism comes out even worse. If you can't keep a very large portion of what you earn the incentives for production decline and we are all worse off. The rich and the poor alike. Of course for the rich it makes less difference.

The moral of the story is that socialism leads to feudalism (anther name for a system where warlords rule) and the people are then reduced to serfs. And serfs are held in place by force. And force came into the system through government as a way for the poor to steal from the rich.

It may be why F. A. Hayek called his book on socialism:

The Road to Serfdom

And it gives added meaning to what George Washington said:

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

They Kill Patients Don't They?

Government run medicine in Britain strikes again.

A man of 22 died in agony of dehydration after three days in a leading teaching hospital.

Kane Gorny was so desperate for a drink that he rang police to beg for their help.

They arrived on the ward only to be told by doctors that everything was under control.

The next day his mother Rita Cronin found him delirious and he died within hours.

She said nurses had failed to give him vital drugs which controlled fluid levels in his body. 'He was totally dependent on the nurses to help him and they totally betrayed him.'
An isolated incident you say?

Don't bet your life on it.

Hospital bosses received huge pay rises as up to 5,000 patients in their care died needlessly

Three thousand needless deaths every year in hospital as watchdog fails to spot poor standards

Patients were 'routinely neglected', says most savage indictment of NHS trust

And that is not all. It seems the hospitals in Britain have a cockroach problem. And a rat problem. And mice too. Did I mention maggots?

British Hospitals Overrun With Rats, Bed Bugs, Maggots, Cockroaches

Hospital maternity unit closed after cockroach infestation

NHS hospitals report thousands of pest infestations

At least 30,000 patients were starving in NHS wards in 2007

Evidently the Brits don't need death panels. They let individual staff decide on a case by case basis who lives and who dies. Of course if we get government health care in America things will be different.

H/T JLawson Talk Polywell

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Saturday, March 06, 2010

An Inconvenient Question

I missed this video when it first came out. It is reporter Phelim McAleer asking Stephen Schneider some questions. Check out the totalitarian response to an inconvenient question.

And just who is Stephen Schneider? He is the academic who said:

“To do that we need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. This “double ethical bind” we frequently find ourselves in cannot be solved by any formula. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest. I hope that means being both.”
Ah. So honesty is no longer the best policy. Nice to know where he stands. If he is talking he is lying. Unless conclusively beyond a reasonable doubt proved otherwise.

And Mr. SS has written a book:

Science as a Contact Sport

Evidently the contact has been a bit too much for him.

Schneider is also a member of the Club Of Rome. Here is a bit on The Club of Rome along with a cast of characters.
"We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries."

David Rockefeller
Well on to the video.



And these folks wonder why there is a Tea Party movement? It seems like a rational response to their plan for world domination.

Tea Party Difference


Click on the above image and learn how to spread it around.


Cross Posted at Classical Values

The War On Coal

Could Climate Alarmists be dupes in the

WAR ON COAL

Consider. When it was global cooling - coal plants were the enemy. Now with warming - coal plants are the enemy. I'm beginning to detect a pattern. Perhaps James "Coal Trains are Auschwitz Trains" Hansen can tell us more.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Friday, March 05, 2010

Ranting And Raving

The Tea Parties have gotten a lot of people's shorts in a knot. Check out this video:



And this response to it:



Just another day in the slow hari kari of our media elites.

Tea Party Difference


Click on the above image and learn how to spread it around.

Note: the above videos are a fine addition to Eric's post So little time! So many dots to connect! And so much blood on my hands... at Classical Values. You should go and read the whole thing.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Treasurer's Treasury Will Fail

Fox News is reporting that the bank owned by the family of Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias will fail.

Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias says things don't look good for the struggling bank his family owns.

Giannoulias told the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board Wednesday that it's likely the bank his father founded 30 years ago will fail.

Broadway Bank entered into a consent decree with regulators in January and has 90 days to raise about $85 million in new capital. The bank also has to deal with bad assets and improve its management.
Ah. Yes. Most unfortunate. But there is a kicker:
Giannoulias touted his banking experience when he was elected Illinois state treasurer in 2006.
I'll bet he doesn't do that again.

Unfortunately for Giannoulias it looks like it is already too late.
Democratic Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias spent 10 hours on Wednesday in eight interviews with Chicago print and broadcast outlets, taking questions about his family owned Broadway Bank. Giannoulias, 33, was a loan officer at the bank before he was elected treasurer in November, 2006.
A loan officer? Aren't those the banking guys who decide who is credit worthy and who is not? Yes they are.

If it is Illinois (and especially Chicago) the boyz at Hill Buzz have the best rumors around. Check this one out:
The rumor today in Chicago is that Alexi Giannoulias is going to be forced to step aside as the Democrats’ nominee for the Senate race to fill Roland Burris’ seat upon retirement. Not to “spend more time with his family”, as slimeballs like this usually say, but because the criminal enterprise his family runs, the mob’s bank, Broadway Bank, is collapsing.

It’s coming out the Giannoulias family siphoned more than $70 million from the bank, to pay their back taxes, and to pretty much recreating the HBO series “The Sopranos”, all around Chicago.

There is absolutely nothing good we can say about Alexi Giannoulias, except that it’s nice he’s not a twin, and great he’s fathered no children. Perhaps, dare we dream, his genes will end with him.

Former Senator John Edwards is going to be indicted soon, for misappropriation of campaign funds. We wonder if an indictment of the Giannoulias Family is all that far away: how can they just take $70 million out of a bank? That has to be illegal.

How can Democrats think they can run this man for the Senate when the mob bank his family runs is going under, and all its secrets will be revealed once the government seizes it?

Things sure will get messy, once taxpayers realize government funds will be going directly to Giannoulias, to bail his family out…with tax dollars also going to mobsters, since those are Giannoulias’ clients…and they will be the ones the government bails out when it takes over Broadway Bank.

Not only will the White House own General Motors, but it could end up running the Chicago mob, too.
Which just emphasizes the substance of a bit I wrote a while back, Government is a Criminal Enterprise.

So other than the mob how is Illinois doing? Not so good.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has proposed cutting spending and raising taxes to deal with one of the biggest state budget crises in the nation, but his plan will likely be unpopular with some voters and lawmakers during a tough election year.

Illinois's deficit through mid-2011 is estimated at $11 billion to $13 billion—close to 50% of the expected $26.7 billion in available revenue for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. That is among the worst such percentages among states. Health-care and social-service agencies routinely wait three months or more for the state to pay its bills.

The state pension system also is the worst-funded in the U.S. Illinois borrowed nearly $3.5 billion last year to make its annual pension payment. State auditors estimate that the pension systems are underfunded by $62 billion.
Jeeze. It looks so bad that Illinois may go down before California. And raising taxes on business? Swell. Illinois already has too many businesses. And no doubt too many jobs.
The unemployment rate in Illinois is back over 11 percent. New data released today by the Illinois Department of Employment Security shows that non-farm payroll fell for the 23rd straight month and the jobless rate jumped to 11.1 percent, the highest it's been since 1983.
That report was from late January. I haven't heard of much improvement since then.

Fortunately The Madam who is speaker of the house (see Parliament of Whores) says the Democrats are not in crisis.
- Obama has to buy a Congressman's vote by appointing his brother to the Federal Apellate Court

- Charlie Rangel (D-Ghetto) has to step down from Ways and Means due to bribe taking

- Mary Landrieu (D-Mardi Gras) is the poster child for "Buy My Vote Please" on ObamaCare

- Congressional approval rating (Pelsoi's leadership) is lower than the outside temperature at the North Pole

- One DEM Congressman changed parties

- Congressman Massa (D-Blow Job) is leaving office having sexually harrassed a MALE employee
Not in crisis? OK maybe the crisis is over and we can all attend the burial in November. Sadly the Jefferson/Jackson Day dinners they used to hold will be sparsely attended. But they haven't honored the frugality and limited government of Jefferson and the militancy of Jackson for a very long time.

When Ali Babba is the Treasurer of Illinois and wants to be governor you can see a party that has lost its way. And it is not like we won't have other thieves to contend with. As my grand pappy Max used to say about politicians, "they are all crooks". The question is are they bringing 40 thieves with them or 40,000?

I think this video is an excellent illustration of the errors of the Illinois crooks. "Never underestimate the mark." Or as William Burroughs liked to say: The Marks Are Wising Up.



H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Classical Values