Update from the
Heartland
No.626
9.12.13 – 15.12.13
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
Well,
unfortunately for my cousins and our brothers-in-arms from the Hilton on the
Hudson, another year was added to the winning streak, as the midshipmen of the
Naval Academy beat the cadets of West Point, 34-7. The 114th match-up resulted in 12th
year of Navy’s winning streak. I
am beginning to feel sorry for my Army cousins . . . but not enough. One day, I shall have to eat crow, but
until then . . . Go Navy, Beat Army!
The follow-up news items:
-- On Tuesday, all five, federal, financial, regulatory agencies
– Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation, Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and National
Credit Union Administration – voted to approve the stricter Volcker rule [625], heralding in a new era of more
intimate oversight that drills to the core of Wall Street's markets and trading
businesses. The rule will put in
place new checkpoints for banks that buy and sell securities on behalf of
clients, known as market making, and will restrict compensation arrangements
that encourage risky trading.
-- The nomination of Patricia Millett to a judgeship on the
DC Circuit of Appeals sparked the Senate Majority Leader’s invocation of the
“nuclear option,” eliminating the filibuster for most presidential nominations
[623]. The Senate finally confirmed Millett on Tuesday [PN527:
56-38-0-6(0)] – the first nomination to be confirmed under the revised Senate
Rule XXII procedure. The
ludicrous, foolish, logjam has finally been broken.
Eight of the leading U.S. technology
companies – Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn – submitted a joint letter to the U.S. Government (USG), asking the
leadership to stop spy agencies from collecting huge amounts of telephone and
Internet data, and to seriously curtail the use of legal means compelling them
to comply with USG collection orders.
This
little news flash is quite rich and enormously hypocritical. After all, let us not forget these
companies created and extensively use cookies and other data collection media
for commercial purposes and who knows what. They carried out a comprehensive campaign to convince us
cookies are innocent, meaningless – perhaps for them but not for the USG . . .
kinda like the pot & kettle, doncha think? Further, it is notable the companies that did not sign the
letter, e.g., IBM, Cisco, Oracle, AT&T, among many others. I surmise these tech companies are
publicly objecting because they do not want any USG surveillance backlash to
deny them their tracking (spying) data, which has become a vital part of their
commercial operations.
I
strongly urge the USG and all good citizens to resist the temptation to blind
our intelligence apparatus to assuage our political sensitivities.
Parental accountability has been and
remains a prime topic of mine. I
truly wish more citizens thought this issue through and came to similar, if not
the same, conclusions. Bad
children are taught, raised and often encouraged by BAD parents. When juveniles commit crimes, it is a
direct failure of the parents.
When children commit crimes that injure other citizens and cause damage to
the property of other citizens, the child should pay the community price for
his crime, but more importantly, the parents of that child should be comparably
punished for their failure to the child and to the community. Here we have the perfect, graphic
example.
On
Saturday, 15.June.2013, Ethan Anthony Couch, 16, was driving a huge, red, Ford
F-350 pickup truck, owned by Cleburne Metal Works (his father’s business), down
a residential street in the 1500 block of Burleson-Retta Road outside Burleson,
a suburb of Fort Worth, Texas, with six (6) other teens in the cabin and bed of
the truck. He hit four (4) adult citizens
on the side of the road, changing a flat tire. Couch was traveling at 70 mph at impact. The speed limit on that section of road
was 40 mph. All four innocent
citizens were killed instantly.
Two teens riding in the bed of the pickup were thrown out by inertia;
one of those teens is a quadriplegic.
Couch left the scene of the accident and was found by police and
arrested several blocks away. Three
hours after the accident, his blood alcohol content was 0.24 g/dL – three times
the legal limit for an adult.
[FYI: as a juvenile, his limit was 0.00 g/dL.] Couch was seriously drunk on beer stolen from the local
Walmart store.
On
Tuesday, this week, Judge Jean Hudson Boyd of the 323rd Family District
Court, Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Texas, accepted Couch’s guilty plea. She sentenced him to a US$450,000
private behavior treatment at a posh coastal California facility and 10 years probation
– for killing four innocent people and injuring two others. Judge Boyd accepted his defense that he
(Couch) was a victim of “affluenza.”
Wikipedia
seems to have the best definition of affluenza = a portmanteau of affluence and
influenza, “a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload,
debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.” Except, in the Couch instance, he has
pursued nothing, he has nothing; his negligent parent’s have given him
everything material and yet given him nothing from a discipline, citizenship,
respect and moral perspective. In
essence, Judge Boyd apparently bought the argument the poor boy was a victim of
being born into a rich family – he knew not what he did . . . cuz he was just
doing what rich people do.
Oddly,
I am a lot closer to agreement with Judge Boyd, but only if we recognize the
REAL culprits in this tragedy – the parents, Fred and Tonya Couch. They should be tried, convicted and
sent to prison for a dozen years for negligent homicide or manslaughter. It is the parents who committed this
crime by their negligent parenting of their son. Young Ethan deserves more punishment than an extended,
expensive vacation. Yet, I do hope
Ethan can recover his life and exceed the deficiencies of his parents. One of these days, we will recognize
the responsibility and accountability
of the parents. If affluenza even
exists, it is not an illness or a disease; it is a CRIME! If we believe we can rehabilitate a
teenager and achieve a productive, respectful citizen, I am good with that . .
. as long as we punish the real perpetrators for their crime against the
community.
In a surprising act of bipartisanship,
the House of Representatives passed H J Res 59, Continuing Appropriations
Resolution, 2014 [House: 332-94-0-7(2)] before the deadline established by
Congress – 15.January.2014 [PL 113-046 §106] [618]. The bill has
gone to the Senate, which is expected to vote on the measure next week, before
the Christmas recess. The House
bill extends the extension of the extension, of yet another extension. It is NOT a proper appropriations bill. If the pork is in there, it is well
hidden so far, but I keep searching for the usual graft. An interesting twist in the latest
House bill is: §141, which moves the PPACA enrollment deadline from 2014 to
2015; and §142, which amends the PPACA [PL 111-148; 124 Stat. 119] to require
participation by “Members of Congress, congressional staff, the President, the
Vice President, and political appointees”; the section also prohibits any
government contribution to or subsidy for the health insurance coverage of such
officials and employees. As
indicated earlier, a large, bipartisan majority of both political parties approved
the bill, including these last two sections. It will be interesting to see how the Senate votes and
whether the President signed the bill into law. Perhaps most significant about the House passage of H J Res
59 was the reaction of Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio to Tea Party
groups; the House Republican leadership has apparently had enough of being
threatened by Tea Party groups and members. I would like to think we are witness to a fundamental
political shift, and hopefully a more productive Congress. Yet, I do not hold my breath.
The Wall
Street Journal discovered a cache of USG documents that chronicle the
medical use of prefrontal lobotomy on World War II veterans for what we know
today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The documents show that Veterans Administration (VA) doctors
performed lobotomies on 1,464 veterans at 50 hospitals between 1.April.1947 and
30.September.1950. According to
the WSJ article, the originating memorandum from VA Assistant Administrator
George E. Ijams dated 26.July.1943, requested approval from the VA
Administrator – approval that was given the next day by the Administrator. This episode joins others of rather
desperate medical procedures during the era – syphilis, radioactive isotopes, lysergic
acid diethylamide, nuclear fallout, et cetera.
“The Lobotomy Files”
by Michael M. Phillips
Wall Street Journal
The USG moved closer to approving the use
of cellphones on commercial airplanes.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) claimed they are only
concerned with the technical compatibility, which is an off-handed means of
deflecting the political baggage to the FAA. The Department of Transportation is considering a proposal
that would ban voice calls outright, despite the technical clearance by the FCC.
Passengers might be allowed to use
their data plans on smartphones and tablets, to surf the Web or to send e-mails
and texts. To me, this is a community
peace situation. One
disrespectful, intoxicated, or inconsiderate citizen should not be allowed to
disrupt the peace. This situation
is not particularly different from a rowdy teenager playing loud heavy metal
so-called music in a residential neighborhood at midnight. Citizens cannot impose their choice,
their moral values on other citizens.
I trust the FAA will do what must be done and save us all from the misery
of some idiot.
News from the economic front:
-- The Wall Street
Journal reported that a proverbial “person close to the case” indicated J.P.
Morgan Chase is expected to pay more than US$1B in penalties to end a criminal
probe into allegations the bank did not provide adequate warnings about
convicted felon Bernie Madoff.
Continuation from Update no.624:
“I will continue our discussion while noting that other
readers of your blog may have difficulty keeping up.
“The Senkaku situation has yet to escalate. China has a very
long history of calculation in its actions, so I find it difficult to believe
the Chinese will do anything rash. The situation remains unpredictable.
“You clearly have done more research into Adam Lanza’s
history than I have, and I commend you for that. Based on that and on my
personal knowledge, we can reasonably make two statements. (1) The mental
health/illness system suffers greatly from lack of funding, and (2) the ‘state
of the art’ of mental health studies has far to go.
“The lack of funding results from cutbacks in government
beginning in the Reagan era. I find it truly bizarre that economists whose
ideas are long disproven continue to set priorities not just in economic
matters but in social priorities. One outcome of that affects a close friend of
mine who works in a library. Some of the patrons there apologize in advance if
their actions that might be unacceptable. It seems that some bureaucrat who
does not have a mental-health background has decided that their medication would
be cut in half to save money. Of course, those clients need the dose prescribed
to them, but nobody can override the bean counter. If Mr. Lanza needed
institutional care, it probably was not available.
“The other factor affecting the Adam Lanzas of the world is
the state of mental health understanding. It seems today that much of human
behavior has biochemical or genetic foundations, but that understanding is in
its infancy. Almost every facet of the field requires further study. Many of
the diagnoses placed on mass shooters and other dramatically dangerous people
are the same labels that could be and occasionally have been placed on people
whose conditions have led them to dramatic ‘success’ in the outside world. We
have a long way to go.
“Probably the best way to proceed, other than funding
research and treatment at far higher levels, is to study other countries that
have lower levels of violence. I would begin with Canada and other nations that
have relatively high rates of gun ownership in order to disarm arguments over
guns unless and until that is shown to be an important factor.
“Have you ever tried to stop a fistfight between two other
people? I have, and they both turned on me. That usually happens. So we have
interfered in the Middle East. Any of the many players there gets the idea that
we support their enemy, and we wind up with multiple enemies until we get out
of the way and let them continue what they have done for millennia.
“As far as the Ukraine, I agree with you. Russia has long
been the loose cannon in European affairs. Putin certainly continues that. What
makes it worse is that, unlike the Chinese, the Russians sometimes act from
emotion or from some bizarre internal motivation.
“We are in agreement on the ultimate status of corporations.
They are a device for making
money, invented and controlled by people. They are not themselves people. I
support a death penalty for them, much like putting down a rabid dog.
“This reply has gone too long to fit in the blog’s reply
box. Please advise if I need to trim it.”
My reply:
Sometimes
it is hard to keep up a multi-Update thread, but a simple request will
stimulate me to do a specific reconstruction for clarity for anyone who wants
it.
Re:
Senkaku Islands. Oh, I’m certain
the PRC is calculating. Yet, they
are not infallible. They seem to
be playing a game of chicken; in doing so, only a very slight miscalculation
can produce a disaster. They are
removing the margin of error, just as is done in “chicken.”
Re:
Lanza. I try to absorb everything I can to understand why? It is through those assessments that we have any hope of
getting to the root cause. We need
more than just treatment of the mentally ill; we need a complete system of
identification, triage, filtration, review, adjudication and treatment. As I write this, we apparently had
another mentally ill shooting incident at Arapahoe High School in Littleton,
Colorado. And so it goes; when
will we learn.
Re:
mental health. The removal of
funding certainly dismantled what we had, but I will say it is a lack of a
comprehensive mental health detection, triage, treatment and maintenance plan
that keep this means of preemptive intervention from working to prevent
disturbed people from hurting other citizens. The fact that health issues are the state’s domain does not
make it easier.
Re:
friend. I believe that is
precisely the predominate fear of most folks regarding PPACA – some insurance,
bean-counter bureaucrat making medical decisions for citizens based on
statistical outcomes. I hope your
friend found a way to get the treatment she needed.
Re:
diagnosis. I’m not sure what those
common diagnoses are. I suppose
there has to be some amount of crazy in any hyper-ambitious person. However, the commonality must be
coincidence or happenstance rather than pathological.
Re:
study. I’m all for deeper
study. I would prefer mental
health centered rather than gun-centric.
I continue to maintain guns are instruments of projection preferred by
disturbed people; they amplify their acting out their frustration with
invisibility or being ignored.
Re:
fist fight. No, I have not, but I
recognize the phenomenon. There is
some balance out there. It is like
so many things, I am far more interested in preventing collateral damage or injury,
although I must say the fairness of the fight is of some concern. I saw the Taliban as vile, disgusting
barbarians, using religion for dominance and oppression, but that was not
sufficient for intervention. Their
direct, substantive support of al-Qa’ida’s worldwide violent jihad was
sufficient to intervene.
Re:
Ukraine. Late news, apparently the
protests have had some effect. The
government publicly announced they would sign the agreement with the EU. I’m not quite sure that will stop
Putin, but it is a positive step if actually executed. As always, time shall tell.
Re:
corporations. Yes, agreed!
Please
write what you are thinking; don’t worry about length. Blog submittals can be split up as
needed. So, please don’t trim what
you are thinking and contributing.
Public debate is too important.
Comments
and contributions from Update no.625:
Comment to the Blog:
“The article to which you referred us on the Senkaku Islands
China versus Japan issue is long, technical, and just not my kind of reading.
In any case, it refers to a battle simulation, not to the repercussions that
might or might not result from such a battle if it happens. I still hope that
neither the battle nor the repercussions will occur.
“You continue to present the spy community as a “good guy”
in l’affaire Snowden. I see no good guys here, as is usual in my view of spies.
We must balance Snowden’s violations of his commitment against the government’s
larger violations of Americans’ and others’ right to privacy, just as in cases
where the violations concern sexual or other personal conduct. Indeed, we have
learned that some of the violations concern spies’ spouses or lovers. We have
no way to know what the rest of the violations might have as their foci.
“I am glad on a personal level that your industry has
received some Federal help at last. Surely you are more deserving than the Wall
Streeters who led us into the crash.
“I forwarded the article on the Office of Technology
Assessment (OTA) partly on the considerable merit of the OTA and partly to
point out the law of unintended consequences. In the OTA instance, the
consequences seemed obvious to many of us out here in the flyover, but those
politicians who passed the Contract on America will surely claim they never
understood what they were doing when they eliminated so many useful parts of
government.
“I will note that the article on the triad civil union in
Brazil appeared in August of 2012. I have been unable to find any follow-up
reports. That may very well mean that the civil union has stood without
opposition. I would like to know.
“A toughening of the Dodd-Frank proprietary trading rule and
related activities will be very welcome if no last-minute obstacles prevent
that. I still want officers and specific employees of trading companies to be
held criminally liable for their fraudulent or otherwise illegal actions, but
any progress is welcome.
“The fines in the LIBOR mess are disappointingly small for
world-scale banks. We may hope that criminal prosecutions make a bigger and
better point.”
My response to the
Blog:
Re:
Senkaku. The islands are just the
object of the historic confrontation between Japan and China. Rather than military or potentially
violent confrontation, I would prefer commercial competition. Like you, I hope the PRC backs off and
takes a more neighborly approach to international relations. Just in writing this, another
confrontation between a PLAN ship and a USN cruiser in the South China Sea.
Re:
Intelligence Community (IC). I am
sorry that you see the IC in such negative terms. They are no different from the military or law enforcement;
they are agents of the USG who are genuinely trying hard to perform their
mission. Like any other group of
human beings, they are mostly good, honorable, diligent citizens, but there are
bad folks in every group. The IC,
by its nature, has not been so good at filtering out the bad guys. But, a few bad guys does not condemn a
whole community.
Re:
aviation industry help. Thx
mate. Aviation, especially
business aviation, has NOT been served well by this administration. Oddly, POTUS has the ultimate biz jet,
and yet he condemns those who use biz jets. At least small aircraft manufacturers will eventually see
some benefit, but it will not be in my working lifetime.
Re:
OTA. Thank you again for the
article. As I said,
penny-wise-pound-foolish . . . we are heading down the same road again. Bean-counters are very rarely
insightful or imaginative. They
are notoriously focused on the moment, not the future.
Re:
triad. Yes, I was well aware of
the publication date. I had not seen
the article before. I have not
found any follow-up either.
Re:
Dodd-Frank. I understand the new
regulation were accepted and published.
Now, the next test will be enforcement. I agree, I want these deviant executives to be prosecuted
and punished. Progress by jerks,
as they say.
Re:
LIBOR fines. I agree! Far too small for banks that make
billions in PROFITS, not just revenue, but PROFITs after expenses & what
miniscule taxes they pay.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
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