Update no.595

Update from the Heartland

No.595

6.5.13 – 12.5.13

Blog version:  http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/

To all,

With all the Press fascination and consumption surrounding the Boston bombing and aftermath, I would not be surprised if most folks missed the announcement by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that they approved the lowering of the age for the over-the-counter sale of the Plan B One-Step (levonorgestrel) contraceptive to 15-years-of-age, from 17-years-of-age.  In fact, I would probably have paid-no-never-mind to the announcement, either, if it was not for my reading of a recent federal court judgment that sparked my curiosity.

            Five weeks ago, Judge Edward R. Korman, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, issued his ruling in the case of Tummino v. Hamburg [USDC NY ED no. 12-cv-763 (ERK)(VVP) (2013)].  He overruled the FDA and ordered approval of Plan B for females of any age.  The ruling was controversial enough, but it was the judge’s indignation regarding the actions of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) that made this decision noteworthy. On 7.December.2011, Secretary Sebelius issued a memorandum to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, countermanding the FDA’s approval of Plan B for over-the-counter distribution – an unprecedented intervention by the Secretary of HHS.  Judge Korman saw the Sebelius memorandum for what it was, a “politically motivated, scientifically unjustified, and contrary to agency precedent,” and declared the HHS order “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.”  Judge Korman railed against the travesty of 12 years of legal wrangling, subterfuge, obfuscation and outright delay for purely political reasons. 

            When I stand back from this issue, I cannot ignore the intellectual conflict.  Why is the government injecting itself into what should have been a simple decision?  Is this drug safe for its intended usage?  The application to children under 18-years-old (as long as the age of legal majority remains at 18 years) should be a private, parental matter, not a function of the State.  Yet, with so many parents abdicating to the State and politicians seeking to placate the religious-right, the judicial intervention in Tummino is understandable.

            I think we can all appreciate our social heritage whether we agree or accept that history.  The social conservatives among us believe to their core that sexual activity should (must) be confined to adult (>18yo), heterosexual, monogamous-for-life marriage; and, in some beliefs, for procreation only, i.e., use of contraceptive medicines, materials or practices are strictly forbidden.  This is the Judeo-Christian morality regarding private conduct that has been codified in our laws and enforced as the laws can be applied and prosecuted; thus, the prohibitions of prostitution, abortion, contraception, sodomy (intercourse other than vaginal), childhood sex education, ad infinitum.  Freedom means each of us can believe and live as we wish, as long as we cause no injury to other people or property.  At the end of the day, the State has no place in private matters.  Lastly, I prefer knowledge over ignorance.  I appreciate Judge Korman’s frustration, and I think it regrettable that a federal judge had to get involved, but ultimately, I agree with his decision.  The need for or use of Plan B by minor children is entirely a parental matter.  Either parents are accountable for the conduct of their children, or they are not.

News from the economic front:

-- The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has cut its benchmark cash rate by 0.25% to 2.75% – a record low.  The RBA sees a persistent strength of the Australian dollar and reduced demand for credit, as it renews their attempt to boost activity outside of the resources sector and soften the impact of a strong domestic currency on trade-exposed industries.

-- The People’s Republic of China (PRC) had a positive trade differential of US$18.2B in April, rebounding from a slight deficit in March.  Exports increased 14.7%, while imports rose 16.8%.

-- The Wall Street Journal sent out a little News Alert that said, “The nation’s biggest banks are going on the offensive to fend off growing efforts in Washington to rein them in.  The banks have hired longtime, influential Washington hands to deflect regulatory and political pressure to strengthen their finances and to sell assets.”  This is precisely why we must press our congressional representatives for banking reform that is long overdue.  How many more clues do we need beyond “Too Big To Fail,” the LIBOR Debacle, the banking crisis of 2008, et cetera ad infinitum ad nauseum?

-- The Wall Street Journal also reported that small investors are borrowing against their portfolios at an increasing rate, reaching levels of debt not seen since the financial crisis, as a combination of rising stock values and rock-bottom interest rates.  Now this is a really scary little piece of information.  I have no idea whether it is true, but the Wall Street Journal is usually a reliable news source.  If true, we have a growing number of Americans who are borrowing money to gamble against an indefinable risk.

-- The Federal Reserve has indicated they plan to reduce their unprecedented US$85B per month bond-buying program in careful and potentially halting steps, varying their purchases as their confidence about the job market and inflation evolves. The timing on when to start is still being debated.

Comments and contributions from Update no.594:

“On the 747 crash, most experts have opined on the air that was internal cargo shifting- like you said. The plane, among other things, was carrying five MRAPs, each weighing 14+ tons.  One aviation expert noted the plane's gear was still down, which indicated to him that something had gone wrong very early in the take-off.  The pilots' attention was diverted from the normal procedure - to him, the wheels should have been up.

“Attached is a video of a Vietnam era crash of a C-2 COD from the RANGER.  It was in late 1970 and off Vietnam.  The plane was taking a jet engine/large engine part to the PI for intermediate-level maintenance.  The engine or large engine part was packed inside a packing box which was secured to the deck. The problem was that the engine/engine part was not adequately secured inside the box.  On the launch, the engine shot out of the back of the box-killing two crew standing in the aft of the plane.  You can see the C-2 wobble from side to side as it climbs steeply.  About 7 were lost.

URL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlDmMwI9cik

My reply:

Jan,

            I noticed the gear as well – an indicator of how busy the crew was, trying to recover.  I suspect the load shift occurred at or near rotation, or perhaps second segment given what was presumably a tactical takeoff.  If it occurred prior to VR, the crew should have had indications something was wrong and been able to abort the takeoff.

            I had not seen the C-2 accident before.  Inertia and momentum are powerful forces.  Thx for the clip.

Another contribution:

“Why ban guns, but not pressure cookers?

“Because it takes an enormous amount of extra effort, additional hazardous materials and skill to make a pressure cooker deadly, whereas a gun is deadly as purchased. Also, the primary purpose of pressure cookers is to cook food, the primary purpose of guns is to shoot people.  The pressure cooker is not the instrumentality of death, the explosives are and those explosives are restricted by law, more so than guns are. If you have enough high explosive you could make a trash can, a soup pot, a water bottle or virtually any container a deadly bomb vessel. Whoever decided the physics of a pressure cooker made it an enhanced explosive device did not study their physics well.  While a pressure cooker does require a certain level of internal pressure to explode, delaying the explosion until the internal pressure is high does not enhance the explosion, it contains it and keeps the explosive force from being omni-directional. Lives and limbs were probably saved by the pressure cooker being the bomb container. Instead of directing the shrapnel in all directions through the crowd, the pressure cooker shape limited some level of side explosion and used much of the bomb's energy to propel the pressure cooker lid high into the air and two buildings over to the rooftop of the neighboring building where it was found. The husk of the pressure cooker bodies were found semi-intact, so they did not add to the shrapnel effect appreciably. A heavy glass bottle or a earthenware "moonshine" jug would have been much better bomb containers than a pressure cooker. Also, the fireworks they used for the Boston explosive mix was very primitive (and low yield) and no justification for further limitations on fireworks, other than the existing safety issue with fireworks. It is a well-known fact that a trip to buy two everyday items at a garden supply store and a camping equipment store can produce a much more efficient and deadly explosive than the fireworks powder used in Boston. But, I bet the manufacturers like Vigoro and Coleman are not quaking in their boots waiting for their products to be restricted.”

My response:

            Thank you for articulating the differences between a gun and a pressure cooker bomb; no argument.  Nonetheless, there are also similarities.  They are both instruments (like many others) used by bad men and evil do’ers to cause injury to persons and property.  One may be more convenient or readily usable; however, they are still the same in this context.  The root cause of these tragic events remains within the demented and disturbed brains of bad men, not the instruments they choose to do their dastardly deeds.

            There were clues – signs – especially with the older brother, and actually even with the younger brother.  Three young men are in serious trouble today because theychose friendship over citizenship.  We even had specific notice from the FSB.  Yet, our threshold of awareness or tolerance was apparently set a little too high in this instance.  We must find the will to focus on the root cause(s), to engage the community to look for the signs, and we need a domestic intelligence apparatus with appropriate safeguards to filter out the chaff.  Law enforcement cannot, and I will argue should not, try to do it all, and government can never do it all without the support of a vigilant, engaged and determined citizenry.

 . . . follow-up comment:

“Once again we seem to be in synch on this issue. As to the threshold of awareness issue, I think political correctness will continue to obfuscate a realistic level of intelligence gathering. And, I think America's threshold of awareness for our own domestic mentally ill who lead, repeatedly, to mass killings is as significant a problem as our view of political terrorists.”

 . . . my follow-up response:

            Spot on, brother.  Freedom entails certain risks, and as such, there will occasionally be those individuals who pass the filters as in the case of the Tsarnaev brothers – a regrettable price of freedom.  Our best protection is the vigilance of every citizen.

Cheers,

Cap

Comment to the Blog:

“The reasons pressure cookers are not regulated as firearms may eventually be regulated are that firearms serve the primary purpose of killing people and because firearms do that with ease of operation undreamed of in other weapons. Yes, the choice of tools does count.

“It seems the Congress can actually pass laws efficiently when their own interests are at stake. In one-way or another, allowing Congressional staffers and other senior government officials to abuse insider information will benefit members of Congress financially.

“We have discussed earmarks and other pork-barrel spending at some length, but I still find it hypocritical when those claiming patriotism overrule the military leadership in order to serve their campaign contributors and/or obtain votes by bringing a few jobs to their districts.

“Various leaders have begun to stand against austerity, which is the idea that we can bring about growth by cutting back. That does not work for business either. The notion comes from a deliberate distortion of Adam Smith’s economic ideas, which were specifically geared to economies not including corporations, as we know them. Other economic news continues to confuse everyone, probably including the experts who make and present such news.

“I do not see improvised explosive devices (IEDs) such as the pressure cooker bomb as living up to the label of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ (WMDs). How about if we make a simple distinction where a WMD must be capable of killing an arbitrary number of people (say, 1000 or more) in one instance of its use?

“Speaking of definitions, can you define the ‘War on Islamo-Fascist Terrorists’ or whatever we call it in such a way that (a) the enemy force is clearly defined and (b) an observer will know when the ‘war’ has been won or lost? Unless and until that definition comes to me, I will treat the war as an excuse for manufacturing war goods and taking away Americans’ Constitutional protections.

“What is the DHS agency referred to in the comments from the prior posting?

“I still contend that aside from the many moral/ethical arguments about ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ (a.k.a. EIT or torture), the ultimate point against them is the simple fact that they produce poor-quality information. That is a known, well-studied result, and it pretty much invalidates the reasons given for using EIT.

“You state that the Boston bombers acted ‘on behalf of an enemy of the State, i.e., Islamo-Fascism.’ You are on thin ice, Cap. ‘Islamo-Facism’ is a concept, not an organization. The bombers’ apparent motive is Chechen nationalism, and from all I’ve heard they were not in touch with any specific organization and thus not representing anything but their own views. Let us prosecute our criminals, including the Boston bombers and those responsible for the West, Texas, fertilizer plant.

“The discussion of a 5-year-old boy killing his sister reinforces the ‘ease of operation’ argument above. I’ll say it again; the choice of tools does indeed matter.”

My response to the Blog:

            Re: pressure cooker vs. gun.  As with most things in life, it is all about attitude.  If we want to see the negative in anyone or anything, we can always find them.  In the flying biz, we always say any pilot worth his salt can ground an airplane anytime he does not want to fly.  There are negatives with guns without question or doubt.  It’s all about perspective and perception.

            Re: Congress.  Spot on, brother!

            Re: pork-barrel spending.  Again, spot on!  Spending is spending regardless of object.  In troubled times, we must be extra strict on squashing wasteful spending.

            Re: austerity.  The opposite of austerity is more spending.  If the government spends too much and cannot borrow more, then they print more money (well those nations that can).  When government’s print more money, it inevitably causes inflation.  Unfortunately, human inclination is to spend excess revenue.  In good times, government’s tend to spend more, which conditions citizens to that spending.  Then, when times turn bad, there is inherent resistance to cutting spending that should not have been going on in the first place.  I do not think, in the light of all the earmarks, pork-barrel spending, and other unnecessary spending, we are not in balance, and we have not been in balance for decades.  Too much austerity is just as damaging as too much spending; there must be balance.

            Re: WMD.  If we wish to define WMD as causing 1,000 deaths or casualties per event, I am good with that.  The definition in common use today has no threshold – only intention and potential.

            Re: War on Islamic Fascism.  We have been around this loop many times.  If it is not a war, what is it?  I do not believe the present war is an excuse for anything.  I also disagree with Smedley Butler, despite his prominence as a Marine.

            I do not know what specific agency the contributor was referring to in last week’s comments.  My assumption was ATFE = Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; but, they are under Justice rather than DHS, and used to be under Treasury.

            We will continue to argue and disagree on the product of EIT.  Interrogations of any form, by any means, are very rarely used as singular rationale; they are always suspect.  I think the movie “Zero Dark Thirty” did a reasonable job of portraying the use of EIT as well as the complexity of placing any information obtained by interrogation into a proper context.

            Whoa dawgy.  I believe I have been very careful to say that they “may have” acted on behalf of Islamo-Fascism, but there was insufficient evidence so far available to establish that motive beyond a reasonable doubt.  If they did act on Chechen nationalistic interests, then I would put their actions in the category of an act of war.  The available evidence supports your position – actually our position; my current impression: Tamerlan was a disgruntled young man, who was rejected for naturalization due to his own actions, and sought a reason to lash out, make a statement, and unfortunately sucked his younger brother into his crime.  If that state continues to hold up, then yes, they are criminals just as McVeigh was, and Dzhokhar should be tried and punished accordingly.  My point was also, given the known circumstances, they should have been held as battlefield combatants until we understood their motive, and they should have been subjected to extended national security exigency interrogation until we were satisfied they were just common criminals.  It is a very thin line and quite slippery, but I would err on the side of national security.  It is easier to go from combatant to criminal than vice versa.

            Re: choice of tools.  Perhaps we are at loggerhead.  The tools matter little to me; it is the decision to kill that is my focus.  In the case of the 5yo boy, a handy, loaded gun is no different from an unprotected pool; it is ultimately the parents who should be held accountable for their negligence and complacency leading to injury, in this case death.

   “That’s just my opinion, but I could be wrong.”

Cheers,

Cap

My very best wishes to all.  Take care of yourselves and each other.

Cheers,

Cap                        :-)