Rich if you're wrong. Poor if you're right

Radar Online, a site that is new to me, analyzes the current status of pundits who favored the war in Iraq (Friedman, Beinart, Zakaria, Goldberg) and pundits who did not (Scheer, Lind,Schell). Need I tell you that those who favored the war have done much better career-wise than those who did not? The rewards for those who were right will be found in heaven.

Bowen checks in

Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, has checked in again. His latest report is full of the same sad litany of waste of reconstruction dollars as were his earlier reports. The problem is a mix of the wretched security situation there, the rampant corruption and an ineffective government.

Party Perks

The ruling party in Israel is getting acquainted with the Israeli justice system. The Prime Minister is being investigated for his role in awarding a government contract. The President is accused of rape. The Justice Minister was convicted of forcibly kissing a young woman. An ex-Minister is accused of fraud, bribery and perjury.

Do you work for a company or yourself?

The rise of hedge funds and their buying up of public companies has led to several situations where management of a public company has initiated the sale of the company to a hedge fund without telling the board of directors and, indirectly, the stockholders. Some recent examples includes Kinder Morgan and Harrah's. While management gets a very good deal from the hedge fund buyer, no one knows whether the stockholders are getting the best deal they can. By the time the deal is made known to the board it may have attained such a momentum that it can't be stopped.

The Delaware courts are currently looking at such a case. The CEO of SS&C Technologies hired financial advisers to explore the company's sale and signed non-disclosure agreements - all without board knowledge. Now the court is trying to answer the question as to whether the CEO misused company information to feather his own nest and whether he usurped his authority.

A fast moving world

A week ago Sunday there was a lengthy article in the NY Times about a child's soccer team from Georgia. The team was made up of refugees, largely from wars in Africa. The coach was a woman born in Jordan. The article told of the coach's efforts to mix sports and studies and of the team's difficulties in obtaining practice space. It was one of those almost 'feel good' stories.

I guess there was too much feel good in the story for those who produce our movies. That night the coach and team started getting offers from producers who wanted to make a movie of their story. The story went for $2,500,000 up front, with a chance at $3,000,000. A good portion of the money will go for the kids future.

There's been at least one happy result of the publicity.

50 a day

That's the number of people killed a day in South Africa. Only one other country has more murders. The hope that was post-apartheid South Africa seems to be fading with crime and corruption growing daily (60% of the population feel unsafe going out at night, 63% think that their leaders are dishonest).

Another cease-fire

Fatah and Hamas have agreed on another cease-fire. Will this one stick? It may since at least one other prominent Arab country, Saudi Arabia, has started to become active in peace-making by inviting both parties to discussions in Mecca.

Terms of agreement

It looks as though the US government will conclude that Israel violated a weapons agreement with us by using cluster bombs in Lebanon.

What is reality?

Normally, I question most things someone who calls himself 'Bing' says. So, should I question Bing West, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, Vietnam veteran, author, advisor to the Iraq Study Group, when he writes in 'The Atlantic'

There are 500,000 US and Iraqi military and police personnel. The insurgents number 25,000. We spend $320 billion, they spend $200,000,000.
There is no reliable identification system available in Iraq. Thus, we cannot identify the enemy.
Our strict adherence to rules gives the insurgents significant advantages. Most insurgents avoid prison. Those who do wind up in prison are released quite early.
Maliki has not supported his own military, has not cracked down on the Shia militias, nor try to make a deal with the Sunnis.

I may be having a change of heart. Maybe, some guys named 'Bing' know what they're talking about.

A good first step

The first Arab has been appointed to the Israeli cabinet.

Read it if you can

Sabrina Tavernise, a NY Times reporter, is leaving Iraq after four years. She has written a powerful description of how much the country has changed since she first went there.

Numbers

17 months since Katrina
HUD has spent $1.7 billion of the $17 billion authorized
FEMA has spent $25.4 billion of the $42 billion authorized
The Corps of Engineers has spent $1.3 billion of the $5.8 billion authorized.

What's wrong with this picture?

Money well spent?

Every so often a friend of mine raises the question of whether our education system has improved over the years. She argues that we're spending more money on educating our kids but we really don't know whether that money is well spent. A chart in this month's "Atlantic" may have an answer for her.

I say 'may' because there is no indication of the source of the data underlying the chart. If the data is reliable, then the answer is that our money is not well spent. We've increased our spending (in constant dollars) per pupil by almost two-thirds since 1970. We've halved the student-teacher ratio. Twice as many of our teachers have advanced degrees. But, as measured by 'standardized' tests, the performance of our students is just about the same today as it was more than thirty years ago.

Of course, student performance on standardized tests is not the be-all and end-all of academic competence. It is, however, one factor. Perhaps a more important factor is whether we have raised better citizens. If we judge our citizenry by the people they elect, it does not appear that we are getting a good return on our investment. Also to be considered is our position in the world. Clearly, we are not as competitive in innovation, science and math as we used to be. The decline of the middle class, one of the hallmarks of a democracy, has occurred in the past thirty years when we have been spending more on education.

Money well spent? I think not.

Follow the money

One of the banks involved in the Refco scandal was Bawag PSK. In following the connection between Refco and Bawag, investigators discovered that Bawag had been covering up its own chicanery. It seems that the son of a Bawag CEO had bilked the bank out of more than $1 billion back in the late 1990s, but the bank was hiding the fact. Now with new management the bank has sued the son for $1.4 billion. The son also is facing criminal charges in Austria. It's too bad that he will be tried in Austria. Otherwise, he could have shared a cell with the Refco chairman.

An Audience of Children?

When I was a child, once in a while my mother would tell me to make sure that I wore my mittens, hat, scarf and, very seldom, my earmuffs. She had to tell me this only rarely because I grew up in a New England where winters were usually cold and snowy.

Now that my mother is gone, it's comforting to know that the National Weather Service has taken over her job. In these cold days, the weather report issued by the Service usually concludes with a request to wear a hat and gloves. It is looking after me and giving me sound advice, for, I guess, in its eyes I am still a child. I am thankful for their concern.

Despair can make you do strange things

While I'm not a stranger to hospitals and operating rooms, I've been lucky in that I've never been on the verge of death. I don't know what I'd do if I had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and conventional treatments were not helping. I would hope that I would enter a hospice program. But you don't know until you're there.

Despite my recognition of the difficulty of really knowing how you'd act when in extremis, I was surprised to read in yesterday's Wall Street Journal of the patients of Dr. Christine Daniel. They were portrayed as reasonable people, one was a nurse. However, they decided to pay Dr. Daniel a heck of a lot of money for bottles of a liquid concoction the doctor had created. This sounds like the medicine man of old Western movies. The difference here is that the doctor mixed her potion with religion; she appeared on Christian radio and television shows claiming cure rates of 60% and above, some of which were 'miracles'. And, her customers apparently believed that Jesus blessed her medical credentials in some way; they believed this enough to pay $6,000 a week for the magical elixir.

Death will come to us all. The question is how we act when Death comes to us. I would hope that I would not believe that eternal life was in a bottle.

Is this the 21st century?

It doesn't seem that way if you read what supposedly serious Malaysian newspapers offer their readers Within the past few months the papers have written of miracle healers, a giant ape, a crocodile-whisperer, someone who hypnotized snakes and ghoulish human-looking remains, which are vampires according to Malay folklore.

Now the hot story is a young woman who secretes gem-stones out of her big toes.

An interpretation of Iran

Foreign Policy interviews Ali Ansari, a history professor at the University of St. Andrews, with regard to this week's state of the union speech. Some excerpts:

So it’s a simplification to say that the Iranians are directly, in a sense, the Shiite militias. In fact, they’ve been by and large a force for restraint and moderation.
With his speech, Bush is heading down the route of saying they’re (i.e., Shiites and Sunnis) basically all the same and they all hate us, which is an awkward argument to make. It’s going to lead to more problems.

In Iran, the more sober voices are saying they’d actually like it much better if the Americans stayed and provided a much more stable structure, rather than leaving, creating a vacuum, and letting Iraq disintegrate into a sort of non-state in the middle of the Middle East. And you’d have the Syrians, Turks, Iranians, Jordanians and Saudis all seeking to influence the outcome of any struggle there. I think it’ll be fairly vicious. Whether it’s an epic battle on the scale Bush is saying is a different matter.

So Iran would rather have stability and order. At the moment, Iran has this slightly incoherent strategy, but the broad thrust of it is, “We can irritate the Americans enough to get them out, but we don’t want them to go too quickly—not until they’ve given us a bit more stability. It’s in our interests to have a peaceful western border and not to allow the Saudis, Jordanians, Syrians and perhaps others to move in a big way.

Ultimately, the United States is going to have to get to grips with the reality of Iran. Whether talks will happen in the future or not is another matter, but I don’t see it happening in the near term. It’s a great pity. The United States missed a great opportunity with the Iraq Study Group’s report. At the moment it seems that, given a choice between a simple roundtable and ignoring Iran, the United States has opted for the choice of ignoring Iran. And it’s a great pity, because it’s going to make life more difficult.

Also, it’s actually Ahmadinejad’s political and economic incompetence that is causing the problems in Iran.

It would embolden some groups in Iran. Their view is that they’ve got the United States on the run, and one more push and Iraq will fall in their lap. In many ways it’s just as fanciful a notion as what you get from any in the conservative movement in the United States. So, you’ve got two particular groups of people, one in Washington and one in Tehran, thinking along the same lines.

Where have you gone Ayad Allawi?

He's in London, not attending the Iraqi Parliament to which he was elected. He is not unique. It's been a rare day when there have been enough members of Parliament to make a quorum. Can you blame them? The Parliament meets in Baghdad, the most dangerous city in the world.

Of course, not attending parliamentary sessions hasn't stopped most of the members from collecting their compensation of close to $120,000 a year.

Warner and other Republicans say 'no'

John Warner, Susan Collins and Norm Coleman don't think the surge will work and have said so publicly. They are introducing a proposal whereby the Senate will say 'no' to another surge in Iraq.

Part of Warner's comments:
“The American G.I. was not trained, not sent over there — certainly not by resolution of this institution — to be placed in the middle of a fight between the Sunni and the Shia and the wanton and just incomprehensible killing that’s going on at this time. We don’t lessen the importance of that mission, but it should be performed by the Iraqi forces and not the coalition forces.”

Not really news

The BBC has an update to a poll they've conducted in twenty-five countries for the past few years. The poll seeks to measure the attitudes toward us of 26,000+ people in those countries. Need I say the results show us on a down track with these people. The respondents are questioned in six foreign policy areas - Iraq, Gitmo, Israeli-Hezbollah war, Iran, North Korea and global watming - as well as overall.

Local station makes good

Here's a link to a series that appeared on the local radio station (WCAI) last year. It just received a Peabody Award. Our local Habitat affiliate here on the Vineyard was the subject of one episode in the series.

Kidnapped in Baghdad

Here's a view of a family whose aged father was kidnapped. It's just a depressing story that concludes with the statement that none are ever returned even after a ransom has been paid. It's a heck of a dilemma to face.

Funnier than the Daily Show

Listen to Nina Totenberg reporting on jury selection in the Libby trial.

Remind you of someone?

Anita Kunz in the current New Yorker magazine

Just not enough volunteers

Today's Boston Globe carries an article entitled, "The Failure of an All-Volunteer Military", which argues that the volunteer army came about because, after the Cold War, we "came to see war as something other than a human enterprise; the secret of military superiority ostensibly lay in the microchip. The truth is that the sinews of military power lie among the people, who legitimate war and sustain it." But, in the opinion of the author, Andrew Bacevich, because of our approval of the volunteer military, we have forfeited our right to legitimate this war and are unwilling to make the sacrifices that are necessary when a nation, not its mercenaries, is at war.

I disagree with Bacevich about the people's ability to legitimate a war. I don't think that has ever happened. Our leaders have declared war and we had little say about it. My WWII childhood has embedded the idea in me that war means sacrifice for all of us. But Bush's idea of sacrifice is not the same as mine.

The article also caused me to think about whether enough people want to spend their career in the military so that the country is truly capable of defending itself in a variety of hostile situations.

Some creatures are hard to kill

A 'dead' duck scared a hunter's wife when she opened the refrigerator. Although the duck had been shot a couple of times and had spent two days on ice, it refused to die.

Then, there's Joshua Hansen. He fell 17 floors and lived to tell the tale. Sure, he has some broken bones, but he is still here.

Is another UN scandal brewing?

It looks that way if you believe an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about the UN Development Program (UNDP) in North Korea. The article claims to be based on an exchange of letters between the US and UN as well as previously undisclosed documents. It sounds to me as the Journal report is probably fairly accurate.

Here's what our Ambassador of the US Mission to the UN, Mark Wallace, wrote about the UNDP program in North Korea, it "has for years operated in blatant violation of UN rules, served as a steady and large source of hard currency and other resources for the DPRK government with minimal or no assurance that UNDP funds and resources are utilized for legitimate development activities."

What are some activities UNDP money and resources have been used for?

• Paying the government in cash the salaries of UNDP employees selected by the government and about whom the UNDP knows virtually nothing.
• Paying government vendors in cash. By 'cash' I don't mean checks. I mean greenbacks or whatever hard currencky North Korea will accept.
• Project audits performed by government employees, whose efforts they are themselves auditing.

And then the head of UNDP refused to provide copies of internal audits as they are confidential.

It certainly smells fishy.

Going after #1 in sports

It looks to me from this recent BBC article that China will soon be as dominant in sports as we were in the last half of the 20th century.

A little more than a million minutes

That's 'all' that's left in George Bush's last term as President. Can America and the world make it? You can tolerate incompetence only so long before it will devour you.

A different war

I've spoken about this issue a couple of times but here's a comment from a military man relative to the idea of sacrifice in war.
From Philip Carter at Intel Dump:

We will not win this "long war" so long as our enemies want victory more than we do, and are willing to sacrifice more to achieve victory than we are. We are asking for tremendous sacrifice from our all-volunteer military today. But though the burden of military service is heavy, it is not broad. I believe this is problematic in its own right, because such a division between those who serve and those who don't has serious political and social consequences. However, there is an operational implication here as well. Our lack of national sacrifice telegraphs a very clear message to our enemies, not unlike the message which President Clinton sent to Slobodan Milosevic when he said "I do not intend to put our troops in Kosovo to fight a war." Wars are a contest of will, and they are won in the mind. We cannot afford to tell or show our enemies that we want victory less than they do. Unfortunately, that is precisely the message that our current attitude on national sacrifice is sending.

Keeping the family line going

The Israeli courts have ruled that the sperm of a dead person can be used to impregnate a woman who was a stranger to him. Okay, I can agree with some of that, but the details of this case make me wonder about some people.

A soldier was killed in one of the Gaza episodes in 2002. His parents had his semen extracted at the morgue. You've got to assume that the dead soldier was an only child. But, you've also got to believe that the parents were totally committed to continuing their line. Why they did not have more than one child if they had such a strong commitment escapes me. The article does not mention whether the parents had living male relatives. They may have, they may not have. I just can't understand people having the presence of mind to even think of a dead son's possible offspring when the son is lying there dead before them. It really boggles my mind.

A new 'lifestyle' product

by Ondo Creation

Who's this guy, Hawking?

Apparently, someone from England called Stephen Hawking claims that "we are on the precipice of a second nuclear age and a period of exceptional climate change, both of which could destroy the planet as we know it." Yeah, the article says he's a scientist who was speaking to something called the Royal Society. Funny thing, he based his warning on the rise of global warming and the growing movement towards nuclear weapons.

Do you think he may know what he is talking about? He's not an expert in either nuclear weapons or climate technology.

Stregthening the revolution...

or consolidating power? The Venezuelan Assembly has once more given Hugo Chavez the right to bypass it and issue decrees which become law. Among his plans are more nationalization and an elimination of presidential term limits.

I suspect that Chavez, like Castro, will go down in history as a dictator.

A change?

Iraqi and coalition forces arrested the media director of the Sadr Brigade yesterday. Does this mean that Maliki will actually try to shut down Sh'ite militia activity? Or, is it window dressing?

He said it

He added that tax cuts may be beneficial to the economy but that they “usually” do not pay for themselves by generating more tax revenue than they drain from the treasury, Ben Bernanke appearing before a Senate hearing.

Upping the ante

China tested a device to destroy space-based satellites. This was the first test by any country in over twenty years. Bush has frowned upon an arms treaty with regard to space. Will this cause him to change his mind?

He's a believer

Ed Brown and his wife have not paid taxes since 1996 simply because they don't think the government has the right to tax them. They owe $625,000. They were convicted today of tax evasion and fraud. Mr. Brown, who walked out of the trial, is barricaded in his house along with some supporters; everyone in the house is armed. They are determined to protest this injustice, perhaps even use weapons to do so.

Time marches on

The scientists behind the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have concluded that the world is getting closer to annihilation and have moved their doomsday clock from seven to five minutes before midnight.

You have to pay attention to domestic matters

And it looks as though Ahmadinejad is not. Despite his election promises of a chicken in every pot (a slice of oil revenue for every Iranian family), the domestic economic world of Iran has seen some nasty things recently - the price of vegetables has tripled, house prices have doubled, unemployment could be as high as 30% and inflation is running at least as high as 11%.

His trips abroad may play well in the international press. Not so at home because the average Iranian is likely worse off now than he was a few years ago. Supporters of Ahmadinejad are starting to grumble publicly.

Finally

After three trials Walter Forbes, chairman of Cendant, a '90s accounting scandal, was sentenced. He'll receive 12+ years in prison and have to pay $3.275 billion in restitution. Of course, he's out on bail - a paltry $1,200,000 - while he appeals. If his appeal fails, he'll spend his time at a minimum security prison.

A game of chance or skill

An English court is trying to decide whether poker is a game of chance or skill. If they decide it is a game of chance, then the owner of a London gambling club will be convicted of the crime of not having a license to host games of chance.

Why the owner did not get such a license is unknown. Was such a license hard to get? Too costly? Or, was he just stupid?

9 was his lucky number

So, Ne Win, leader of Burma in the early 1960s, decreed that all currency should be issued so that the denominations were divisible by 9. You had a 90 'dollar' bill rather than 100. Maybe, he even issued an 81 'dollar' bill. The things that some leaders worry about.

Appeal for Redress

Over 1,000 soldiers asked Congress to stop funding the Iraq war. They filed an Appeal
for Redress which reads, "I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq. Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price."

keith olberman special comment

A parsing of the speech

Stephen Zunes really goes through Bush's speech last week with a fine tooth comb.

Carter gets flack

Jimmy Carter's new book about Palestine and Israel has caused a lot of commotion in the Jewish community. Now, members of the Carter Center's advisory board have resigned. Fourteen of 200 have resigned because of the book. I wonder how many of them are Jewish.

Do they have a sense of humor?

A magazine in Casablanca published an article on "How Moroccans laugh at religion, sex and politics". As you would expect, the article included jokes about religion, sex and politics. For this article the two reporters received suspended sentences of three years for defaming Islam and breaching public morality.

"I'm visiting my babies' grave."

That's a quote from a cat owner when visiting the graves of her two cats, as reported in yesterday's NY Times.

I've written a number of times about the big business pet care has become. It's to be expected that pet burials would also become popular; estimates are that it now brings in $150,000,000 annually and is growing faster than the general pet care business. Most cremate their pets. But, some inter them in mausoleums costing over $100,000. I've never understood the deep connection some have with their pets. Many owners are buried in the same plot with their pet. I buried our cat in our yard.

The Pet Cemetery of Tucson seems to have taken the lead in what I consider the humanizing of pets. At this cemetery you can choose a closed or open coffin for viewing, a horse-drawn cart to bring your animal to the grave, a soloist to sing at the service, memorial candles, perpetual care and a catered buffet for the guests at the funeral.

I suppose that if people derive comfort and joy from their pets I should not carp about their devotion to them. I guess it's a lot easier to live with or raise a pet than another human being.

A toilet for fish lovers

For only $299 you can buy a toilet which replaces the toilet tank with an aquarium.

Should a lawyer defend only 'good' people?

That's what Charles Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, apparently thinks. He's upset that lawyers from many white-shoe law firms are defending the prisoners at Guantanamo, who come under Mr. Stimson's purview. He is upset to such a degree that he named these firms and suggested that companies should stop hiring them. Perhaps, Mr. Stimson is worried that some of the prisoners may be found innocent.

Scientific Independence

Can mold be really bad for you? In a widely referenced paper the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine says "No". The paper published by the College was written by people who earn a fair amount of money as expert witnesses for companies against whom suits have been brought by people claiming to have been injured by mold. Did their work as defense witnesses influence their opinion?

China moves against terrorists?

You have to take most reports from China with a grain of salt, but it appears that they raided a camp supposedly run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which is on our list of terrorist organizations, and killed eighteen people in the camp.

The raid took place in the northwest, where there is a colony of Muslims who don't like the central government to such a degree that they have been involved in almost 300 incidents in which 160 were killed over the past ten years. Was the current raid also an attempt to tamp the fires of independence?

Nursery school scandal redux

Dorothy Rabinowitz of The Wall Street Journal has been a strong supporter of the Amiraults, operators of a nursery in the Boston area who were convicted of child molestation in the early 1980s. They were convicted on trumped-up 'evidence' by aggressive prosecutors. Rabinovitz was very active in trying to secure the Amirault's release.

In a recent article she compares the Duke lacrosse team case to that of the many unjust prosecutions of supposed child molesters. Beyond hearing of the prosecutor's claims every so often, I have not followed this Duke case very much so was surprised to learn of the following:

• a march of protest against the players
• 88 faculty members signed an ad praising this ad
• the lacrosse team was suspended for a season and now operates under different rules than other Duke teams.

In some cases we - including our legal staff - seem to have a penchant for wanting not to need proof in order to punish people who are accused of violating our norms.

Does Maliki want them?

Last night John Burns of the NY Times said Maliki does not want the increased troops. Bush said otherwise. What is reality? Burns' argument is based on the Shiites feelings that they are still not in charge of their country; we are calling the shots. It's a good sign that Maliki wants to be in charge. Whether he should be is a question.

You've got to dig...

but you will find this in the Financial Report of the United States Government

Given these and other factors, it seems clear that the nation’s current fiscal path is unsustainable and that tough choices by the President and the Congress are necessary in order to address the nation’s large and growing long-term fiscal imbalance.

Translating our deficits, debt, social insurance costs into the debt burden per citizen - be he one month or 50 years old - is $170,000. Our net operating loss has grown from $7,909 billion to $8,916 billion in two years.

Hey, enjoy today. Tomorrow may not be as much fun.

Peace is just around the corner

In a Washington Post op-ed Jackson Diehl reminds us of recent post-Cold War history:

Iraq, however, doesn't operate on Washington's clock -- something Iraqi leaders have repeatedly tried and failed to explain to the ambassadors and generals who demand benchmarks and timetables. And why should it? In historical context, the country is not much different from others that have emerged from decades of dictatorship and tried to sort out a new political status quo among multiple competing ethnic groups. Yugoslavia began to break down in 1991; despite repeated Western interventions, the bloodshed continued until the end of the decade. The wars over Congo's future began in 1994 with the end of the Mobuto dictatorship and didn't end until 2003. Lebanon's civil war began in 1976 and ended in 1989.

Yet, some are convinced that with just a few more troops all the boys will be home soon. We've been at this for almost four years. Each year a new plan is tried. Each year the plan fails. When do we say we've failed? It's tough to admit it, but every day it's more and more obvious.

Madness

The Pop Warner Football League offers national championship events. Teams who have won regional competitions gather at DisneyWorld to compete for the national championship. It can cost a team more than $50,000 to compete. Some teams pay more as they bring along their cheerleaders, who have a four-minute competition with other cheerleaders. Many of the teams are from the inner city and the parents of these kids really can't afford it but, if fund raising among their neighbors is inadequate, go into debt so their kids can go.

The deal that the Pop Warner organization signed with Disney requires the teams to stay at DisneyWorld (which is not cheap) and buy tickets to the Disney parks.

Some people need to have their head examined.

Medical Luddites?

Perhaps the most significant change in my lifetime has been the advances in medicine. However, despite these advances, most of us still experience pain and discomfort. When I was growing up these minor pains and aches were considered a normal part of life. Now we worry that today's pain might be a sign that tomorrow we'll develop a serious illness. So, we visit the doctor who, using advanced diagnostic procedures, may conclude that we are at risk for a particular condition somewhere down the line. And, so you change your status from normal person to patient.

It is the number of people who change that status that is at the heart of an argument made by three doctors in yesterday's NY Times that we are over-diagnosed. In their view, over-diagnosis is what puts many people - who would have been considered normal years ago - into the medical system, creating the over-burdened medical system we have today.

Obviously, the authors are not arguing against modern diagnostic techniques. However, they do make the point that these techniques can discover conditions which may or may not lead to a particular disease. It's the 'may not' that worries the authors; many of us in our lifetime will not get a disease for which a diagnosis indicates we are at risk, we'll die from something else.

Interestingly, they claim that the thresholds for diagnosing certain diseases has dropped considerably over the years. In fact, they've dropped so far that diseases can now be diagnosed in more than half the population. If that is the case, less than half of us would be considered normal relative to illness.

Over-diagnosis may be greatest relative to our children. For example, the authors claim that 40% of summer campers use one or more chronic prescription medications.

One could argue that I'd rather be safe than sorry. But does such an argument apply to society at large? It applies in Lake Woebegone where all the children are above average. I don't think it applies in real life.

A shifting military?

At least politically it seems that way. The LA Times reports on a survey done by the Military Times relative to the political party affiliation of servicemen. The survey shows a fairly significant drop in Republican affiliation between 2004 and 2006. In 2004 60% of the respondents considered themselves Republican, in 2006 that number was down to 46%. Further, only 35% of the respondents approved of Bush's management of the war.

Some, as usual, question the validity of the poll. But I think it's as valid as most polls.

Is the world really better off without Saddam?

Slovoj Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher, expands the question to "Is it better if we include into the overall picture the ideological and political effects of this very occupation" (i.e., the Iraq war). It's not the easiest article to read, but Zizek brings up some other interesting questions.

I didn't realize that Zizek was such a celebrity. There was even a movie made about him.

It's a very big market

That is the market whose customer is your pet, especially your canine pet. Pfizer, a major drug company for humans, apparently wants to become a major drug company for dogs. Who knows how many millions they spent on developing Slentrol, a diet pill for dogs? The FDA approved the drug yesterday. Surprisingly, it's fairly cheap, $1 - $2 a day. Of course, there are possible side effects, such as loose stools, vomiting and diarrhea.

You have to wonder how much money people are willing to spend on their pets. Our government is willing to spend money reviewing drugs for pets. So, the pet lobby has to have a fair degree of influence.

He took a cut in pay for this job

Nick Saban has just been hired as the University of Alabama's football coach. Saban was hired away from the Miami Dolphins, who paid him $4,500,000 a year. Saban loved Bama so much he took a cut in pay - to $4,000,000. This is seven times what the university's president makes and more than 100 times the median income of Alabama.

Priorities?

More protection for us

Part of the signing statement that Bush appended to the latest postal reform bill included these words:

"The executive branch shall construe subsection 404(c) of title 39, as enacted by subsection 1010(e) of the act, which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection, in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection."

Do these words mean that postal inspectors or other government agents can open our mail because of their need to 'conduct searches in exigent circumstances'?

Supplement what?

We've funded the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan via supplemental budgets, which, because of their nature, get less scrutiny. The military budget people are not unobservant. Hence, this latest $99 billion supplemental budget has been packaged to fund the military's "overall efforts related to the global war on terror".

What this means is that they are asking for money to spend on ballistic missiles which have not been used in the wars or in anti-terrorism activities. Or, two Joint Strike Fighters, which will not be ready for years. Or, more money than needed to replace worn out equipment. In short, it's 'get it while you can'.

And the wheels of the bus go round and round.

The problem is that the wheels were not on the bus. This is not the first time Fung Wah has had the same problem

Today it's the Department of Justice...

whose Inspector General has found fault with the way DOJ spends or doesn't spend our money. The IG looked at 61,000 grants made between October 1998 and December 2005 for policing work. Some of the issues found:

• More than 8,000 grants had yet to be closed two years after their expiration date.
  
• $554 million was paid to programs after the grants expired.
  
• 129 grants were given to agencies that ultimately did not comply with program requirements.
  
• In all, the delays tied up more than $726 million that could have been spent elsewhere, the audit concluded.

Arrogance gets its comeuppance

Bob Nardelli, the arrogant CEO of Home Depot, is no longer CEO. He 'resigned' today. Of course, he will not have to find another job as his severance agreement will pay him $210,000,000 plus who knows what perks. In his six years running CEO, he will have received almost a half-billion dollars. Not bad for him, but the stockholders saw no gain in the six years he ran the company.

Makes sense to me

Another tale of Katrina stupidity

New Orleans had 18,000 people in the waiting list for public housing before Katrina. The need now is even greater. But, HUD, in its wisdom, has decided to reduce the inventory of available housing.

They are doing so by demolishing 4534 apartments for low income residents and rebuilding far fewer in total and far, far fewer for low income residents. For example, in one project which had 1400 apartments for low income, there will only be 160 if HUD has its way. This rebuilding will cost a pretty penny, much more than repairing the existing apartments. At first, HUD said it would be cheaper to demolish and build new rather than repair. But their own data shows otherwise.

A sad part of the story for architecture buffs is that some of the projects to be torn down are not at all what you imagine the typical housing project to be. The buildings are not more than a few stories tall and contain at most eight apartments. In the words of an MIT architecture professor, new buildings would be of lower quality and have a shorter life than the existing buildings.

Maybe part of HUD's reasoning is that the new construction will be by private developers, who will split almost $100,000,000 in Community Development Block Grants and be eligible for $34,000,000 in tax credits.

A gain for net neutrality?

AT&T's acquisition of Bell South came with a clause that, for at least two years, requires AT&T to allow equal access to its Internet network. The FCC chairman, Kevin Martin, is, as you would expect, opposed to this but there is little he can do now. The clause probably limits other telecom companies to also maintaining net neutrality as the customer uproar should the company try to charge varying prices would probably be massive.

#3

It looks as though China will have moved up to the #3 spot in terms of annual auto production. They will produce more than 7,000,000 cars this year.

They are also moving beyond the domestic market. It's not a large number of exports - only 340,000 - but it's double last year, which was double the previous year.

Another sign of an empire's end

You can have your dog massaged at the Sarasota Ritz Carlton for $120. The massage is not performed by a vet or even in a veterinary clinic. There is nothing wrong with the dog. The owners have enough money to indulge their whim. Of course, you can spend even more on your dog at the hotel. "For another $220, the Ritz throws in gourmet dog biscuits, an in-room pet massage, a choice of nail buffing or nail polish, a souvenir photo, a brisk walk over Sarasota's scenic Ringling Bridge and a gourmet meal of organic stew and designer water served on a silver tray."

I wonder what a poor or even average person in Sarasota could do with $340. Buy groceries for a month? Pay for a doctor's visit?

More than China and India

Antoine van Agtmael argues in the current issue of Foreign Policy that there are a considerable number of companies in emerging markets that deserve world-class status, largely because of their skills in innovation. Some examples:

• Samsung spends more on R&D than Intel and made more money than Dell in 2005. It is now the market leader in semiconductors and flat-screen monitors
  
• Cemex from Mexico is the second largest cement company in the US and the third largest in the world.
• Gazprom has a larger market capitalization than Microsoft and has more gas reserves than all the major oil companies combined.
• Our steel companies have turned to South Korea to modernize their plants.
• New drugs, rather than generics, are now being produced in Slovenia and India.
• Fifty-eight of the Fortune 500 call an emerging market country home.

He makes his point. The question is what are we going to do about it?

After all, it will be almost 3 months...

since Comcast took over Adelphia here. The customer service has been so good that they will be increasing their rates in February. Those who read this blog know that I do not have a high regard for the company. I've found another group of people who have similar feelings because of their experiences with the company.