Two Lafayettes In America

Trigger

Just watched a great PBS American Experience on Marquis de Lafayette. However, PBS expired this video from its website. It’s a shame! They do this all the time with great videos.

The French Lafayette

Unfortunately, the Wikipedia article about Lafayette is grossly insufficient, I suspect.

American Experience tells a story of a great love affair between Lafayette and his wife. That Lafayette was an abolitionist and other things.

The Black Lafayette

The other Lafayette is James Armistead Lafayette. A Virginian slave who became an important spy for the French Lafayette and George Washington in the Revolutionary War. He later added the name of Lafayette in honor of the French Lafayette.

American Experience tells the story of both Lafayettes as much as their paths have crossed. French Lafayette helped black Lafayette to become a free man. They later meet again on French Lafayette’s last voyage to the U.S.

From Wikipedia we also learn that the black Lafayette as a free man became a farmer who “owned three slaves”. American Experience did not mention it. If this is true, then this is quite remarkable. How many other free black Americans were slave owners?

The Many Horrors of Dodd-Frank Act

An Act Containing Too Many Horrors

This monstrosity of an Act of the U.S. Congress is so full of horrors that a cabinet would not suffice to describe them.

So I just pick one here from source. This well written article titled “Dodd–Frank Mortgage Rules Unleash Predatory Regulators” (Emphasis added) published by the Heritage Foundation is very recommendable!

It is a great myth that a deregulated financial sector is the cause of the Great Recession or financial crisis of 2008.

“Ability-to-Repay Rule

The cornerstone of the mortgage regulations finalized on January 30 by the CFPB is a lender obligation to “make a reasonable and good faith determination based on verified and documented information that the consumer has a reasonable ability to repay the loan according to its terms.”[20] This ability-to-repay provision is more than a procedural requirement. It is the basis of an expansive new consumer right to sue lenders for miscalculating their financial fitness for a loan.

Under the new regime, a borrower may sue a lender within three years of an alleged violation, such as improperly documenting income or assets, or incorrectly calculating the borrower’s financial obligations. Those who prevail may recover damages equal to the sum of all finance charges and fees paid—potentially tens of thousands of dollars.

A borrower may also assert a violation of the ability-to-repay requirement as a defense against foreclosure—even if the original lender sold the mortgage or assigned it to a servicing firm. (The lawsuit may ensnare an assignee or holder of the mortgage, as well.) If successful, the borrower may recover all mortgage finance charges and fees paid[21] in addition to actual damages; damages in an individual action or class action; and court costs and attorney fees.” (Emphasis added)

Intentional Consequences

Low and modest income People will be denied mortgage loans, because no lender will risk to be sued. Of course, in this scenario federal government will sue lenders on the basis of cooked up charges of discrimination. A beautiful catch 22 situation created by big government.

The costs of mortgage lending will go up paid for by borrowers.

Banks are becoming like utility companies run by big government in Washington

Dodd And Frank

I have said it before, that this law is named after these two jokers is almost poetic justice. Senator Chris Dodd was a special friend of the CEO of Countrywide Financial, Angelo Mozilo. Thus, Senator Dodd preferred not to run again for the U.S. Senate to avoid scrutiny.

Representative Barney Frank was not much better. E.g. his absolute refusal to reign in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when there was still time to prevent the meltdown in the residential real estate market speaks for itself.

Rihanna - Hopeless Love

Trigger

The Saturday (12/14/2013) edition of Wall Street Journal interviewed (Subscription required) a principal ballet dancer (Ms. Maria Kowroski) of the New York City Ballet about a favorite song.

Ms. Kowroski mentioned in the interview that she just had to go through some hard times before she was touched by this song: “A lot of tough things in my life had piled up by 2011. … lost my mom … gone through a series of bad break ups.”

The ballet dancer named Rihanna’s We Found Love (in a hopeless place). The accompanying video is here. This song was released in September 2011 and immediately became one of her most successful songs. The music video won awards.

Music And Imagery

Curious as I can be, I looked up this song on the Internet since I never really heard any music by Rihanna before. What is it about this song?

Personally, I am quite familiar with the R&B (soul and funk) music of the 1970s and 1980s. But trying to keep up with current music has faded for many years.

I heard about Rihanna’s domestic violence situation.

The video is quite disturbing not for suggestive sex scenes, but for drug addiction and violence and in total contrast to the title of the song.

The voice of Rihanna is certainly no match for the great female singers of R&B of the 1970-1980s like e.g. Whitney Houston or Roberta Flack or Chaka Khan or Aretha Franklin and others whose name I cannot remember at this moment.

A Well Crafted Product

If it is not the music, then Rihanna is perhaps a well managed, marketed and designed product.

Pentagon Has Become An Obese Paper Tiger

Update As Of 12/23/2013

The American Enterprise Institute just published “US Air Force pilots fly less than China's do”. Top Gun would have to spend more time chasing ladies.

Trigger

An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled “John Lehman: More Bureaucrats, Fewer Jets and Ships/More than half of our active-duty servicemen and women serve in offices on staffs.” (Subscription required) if true, makes this abundantly clear.

U.S. Military Is Anything But Lean And Mean

If the Pentagon were a private business it would be soon out of business.

Combat ready soldiers and weaponry were drastically reduced since the Iron Curtain fell, but not the pencil pushers in the Pentagon. Most of this reduction is well known.

“Instead of a 600-ship Navy, we now have a 280-ship Navy”

“The Air Force has fewer than half the number of fighters and bombers it had 30 years ago … fighter planes today average 28 years old. Although they have been upgraded to keep pace with the latest aircraft of their potential adversaries.”

“There are currently more than [1.5 million] full-time civilian employees in the Defense Department - 800,000 civil servants and 700,000 contract employees.” This compares to 1.4 million active duty personnel.

The claim that today’s weapons are more effective than those of 20 or 30 years ago according to this author is incorrect. Plus, he points out that the mere numerical or quantitative advantage is sometimes enough to make a potential adversary reconsider.

According to the author, the suffocating and bloated Pentagon bureaucracy causes significant runaway cost increases and enormous delays in several years in the procurement and deployment of new weapons systems.

Overdue Staff Reductions To Save Money

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is reported to have announced his intention to cut the bureaucracy of uniformed and civilian by at least 20%. A step in the right direction!

Pemex No Longer Untouchable

Progress In Mexico

Even though President Enrique Pena Nieto (age 47) is a member of the long ruling and for decades the only party of Mexico, the PRI, he appears committed to bring Mexico into the 21st century.

Last week, Mexican Congress passed by a vote of 354-134 what may turn out to be the greatest economic reform in decades by exposing the state owned, very inefficient oil company Pemex to face more free market competition in exploration and production.

A Constitutional Change Is Required

Pemex is enshrined in the Mexican constitution like a national patrimony. Perhaps, finally a new, younger, more open minded generation of politicians has arrived.

This is great news for the Mexican people!

President Obama's Abuse Of The IRS Continues

Trigger

WSJ just reported “IRS Targeting: Round Two/The first time around, targeting conservatives was a secret. Now, not so much.” dated 12/13/2013.

Targeting Political Opponents

The IRS aims to recategorize specific activities of 501(c)(4) groups as political activity thus denying e.g. tea party organizations their tax exempt status.

Liberal groups registered as 501(c)(3)s are exempted from this recategorization.

Labor unions,, registered as 501(c)(5)s, the by far biggest donors to the Democrats, are exempted from this recategorization.

Lessons Learnt

The IRS code with its bewildering array of 501 organizations should be either repealed or completely rewritten.

This pure public works for tax advisers and IRS federal employees!

Germany's Unsustainable Energy Policies

Trigger

Holman W. Jenkins from the Wall Street Journal recently (11/9/2013) wrote a nice article on the Opinion pages titled “Germany Reinvents the Energy Crisis/A love affair with renewables brings high prices, potential blackouts and worries about 'deindustrialization.'” (Subscription only, which is a petty!).

Mr. Jenkin’s sarcasm is on target. Sometimes other authors said it better than yourself.

Salient Excerpts

Excerpts (Emphasis added):

“Like Mao urging peasants to melt down their pots, pans and farm tools to turn China into a steel-producing superpower, Germany dished out subsidies to encourage homeowners and farmers to install solar panels and windmills and sell energy back to the power company at inflated prices. Success - Germany now gets 25% of its power from renewables - has turned out to be a disaster. As Germans rush to grab this easy money, carbon dioxide output has risen, not fallen, because money-strapped utilities have switched to bruning cheap American coal to provide the necessary standby power when wind and sun fail.”

“But more important is their subscription to resource-depletion ideology, which convinced them they’d picked a political winner ...”

“Because the bills are paid by households and businesses, electricity rates are triple those in the United States.”

“Europe’s energy crisis is a lot like ours of 40 years ago - self-inflicted.”

“Fascinating too will be the fate of Europe’s [enormous reserves of] shale. In Europe, government, not landowners [unlike the U.S.] controls and benefits from mineral resources, creating the zero-sum resource politics that have made the Mideast a paragon of stability and civil progress.”

Mr. Jenkins is also mocking some of German chancellor Angela Merkel’s naive advisers. Ms. Merkel has a P.D. in physical chemistry, but she is inept and way too opportunistic. Her and Margaret Thatcher are worlds apart.

Second Opinion Is Not Enough In Medical Cases

What Is A Second Opinion?

Just asking another specialist in the same medical field before making a critical decision? Is this enough?

Why not ask for a third opinion? Your life or your future well being or your remaining life expectancy may depend on it. Don’t hesitate!

Common Sense Falls Short

Physicians are so specialised that they either do not know or they ignore what is going on in neighboring disciplines/specialties although it might be very relevant to your medical condition.

Second, a physician of one field will usually hesitate to advise on other medical fields not least to avoid future liabilities or reprimands from his own profession. This is a serious shortcoming of our medical profession!

Beyond Second Opinion

It appears to be highly recommendable to instruct doctors what procedures you want to have done before any major treatment where the patient may be incapacitated to decide.

Do Your Homework!

With the Internet today, there is no excuse not to do a comprehensive research about your medical condition.

Be prepared for your next doctor’s appointment.

Choose a specialist from another discipline if your research leads you in this direction.

An Example

For illustrative purposes and for brevity sake, I will keep it very simple.

If you have a fibroid and you visit a gynecology doctor who is also a surgeon, this doctor will most likely recommend a myomectomy. This is a standard treatment which has been applied over many years.

If you have a fibroid and you visit a radiologist, this doctor will likely recommend a uterine artery embolization (a.k.a. uterine fibroid embolization or UFE). This is a fairly new treatment which could still be perceived as being rather experimental and it somewhat still lacks long term track record.

If you choose the myomectomy you may wake up with a hysterectomy performed instead, because during the actual surgery the doctor had to make last moment decisions based on new discoveries. Hence, it is recommendable to instruct the surgeon to desist from a hysterectomy, because it is irreversible.

If you choose the UFE, a myomectomy could still be performed later, if the UFE was not effective or the UFE could be repeated.

North Korea Supplies Natural Resources To China

Trigger

In a recent article about the show trial against an uncle and accused counter revolutionary of the current dictator of North Korea, I also learnt that North Korea supplies important natural resources to china.

Unfortunately, this article did not provide any details as to the extent and importance of this trade of natural resources from North Korea to the People’s Republic of China.

Significance

Some time ago I speculated in a blog post (here) why the two Koreas are still not unified like Germany. Well, this piece of information buttresses my suspicion that it is China and Russia that prevent the long overdue reunification of both Koreas.

Amazon Germany Fights Labor Unions And Negative Propaganda

Trigger

The chief executive officer of Amazon.de (i.e. Ralf Kleber; the last name which means glue) gave recently an interview titled “Interview mit Deutschlandchef Ralf Kleber/’Amazon ist nicht asozial’”.

In Germany, Amazon has to contend with the typical German perception that its business is “asozial” (asocial, translation is difficult, but it means not in the common good, egoistic, self-centered etc.) . Jobs offered by Amazon are perceived in Germany as akin to those offered by sweatshops.

Resistance To Labor Unions

Amazon is to be congratulated that it is making the tremendous effort to resist powerful German labor unions. It is certainly a difficult battle for Amazon against these entrenched, powerful organized interests.

About The Interview

Mr. Kleber points out that the new business of online retail upsets or is disruptive to historical structures and businesses.

He reminds his audience that many false propaganda was launched against Amazon.

Echoing his boss, Mr. Jeff Bezos, pioneers will encounter resistance and engender misunderstandings.

Amzon.de pays Euro 9.55 minimum plus other perks including shares.

Amazon.de has created new seasonal jobs for construction workers etc.

Instead of labor unions, Amazon.de prefers to cooperate with so called work councils (Betriebsrat, a special German labor law provision to allow workers/employees to have a say like corporate boards).

Mr. Kleber voices that the German anti-competitive authorities and regulations are outdated, which is probably true.

Mr. Kleber is particularly proud of creating new jobs in regions of Germany, which are laggards in economic development.

In Germany, the retail in books is a holy cow which has been protected by government and publishers since World War II by outdated price controls and other restrictions. Amazon is a long overdue and welcome challenge to this cozy market.

Mercy Killing Of Children In Europe

Update 2/17/2014

Last week, the Belgian parliament indeed passed this law!

Here is a selection of German language articles about this event:

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/belgien-parlament-erlaubt-sterbehilfe-fuer-kinder-12800960.html

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/belgien-abgeordnete-entscheiden-ueber-sterbehilfe-fuer-kinder-12799403.html

http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/international/auslandnachrichten/sterbehilfe-fuer-kinder-1.18242659

http://www.nzz.ch/meinung/kommentare/nie-ein-leichter-entscheid-1.18243037

I also heard a comment on radio along the lines that we do not allow children to vote or drive cars nor can they be found guilty in criminal court etc., but the Belgian representatives see it fit that children at any age can choose to die. Of course the detractors will say that a child’s decision is not the decisive or final one and that there are sufficient safeguards in place.

Belgian Legislators Approved By A Wide Margin

The Belgian senate just passed a bill with a vote of 50 to 17 that would allow assisted suicide of children as young as 15 years old (see here). A socialist senator (i.e. Senator Philippe Mahoux) was instrumental again to bring about this kind of legislation.

Socialism is famous for atheism and utter disregard for human life! Who voted for this nut!

Netherlands Leads

In the Netherlands assisted suicide of children is possible at an age of 12 years or older.

Irresponsible!

Such legislation is incredibly irresponsible for several reasons:

1. We are in the midst of a revolution in medicine. Any day a cure could be found for ailments afflicting these children
2. We do not allow our children to drive cars or smoke or drink alcohol before adulthood, but they may commit suicide with their parents consent? This is perverse!
3. Doctors commit to a 2.5 thousand year old Hippocratic oath to preserve life above everything else. This oath has served humanity very well. Mercy killing is a totally incompatible and outrageous violation of this oath.
4. If a competent adult seeks to commit suicide, because of a severe, hopeless long-term situation this may be all right. If such an adult asks a doctor to provide him or her with a poison, which the adult then voluntarily consumes after the doctor offered any advice or consultation without the doctor applying the poison that might be OK.