Let’s Move to France

The clock radio came on as usual this morning, tuned to NPR. I let it play for a while before facing up to the awfulness of getting out of bed. The commentator was waxing lyrical about the French health care system. He talked and talked, and he made France sound like the most civilized and humane place in the world.

Except he failed to mention a single number. Such as the life expectancy and infant mortality rates in France, as compared with other places. Such as the cost of health care. The US is spending 16% of gross national product on health care. This is a shameful amount of money going to drug companies, insurance companies, hospitals and doctors. Hell we only spend 4% of GNP on defense. The medical community is sucking up four times as much money as the old military industrial complex.

The Europeans only spend 8% of GNP on health care, half what we spend. But NPR didn’t mention this fact, and said nothing about any possible restrictions upon expensive treatments this might cause. This reporter was convinced the French have it right and the Americans have it wrong without bothering to explain to us listeners why he felt this way.

Aviation Week calls for Air Force Cleanup

This is Aviation Week, the old time, highly respected, very well informed trade journal of aerospace, airlines, and the Air Force. We have a serious industrial player bashing the military part of the famous military industrial complex.
They mention the recent Boeing-EADS tanker procurement fiasco, the not-so-recent Boeing tanker lease problem, the two protests over the award of the combat search and rescue copter, the loose nuclear weapons blunder, serious cost overruns on satellite programs. Then there is crony linked contract to promote the Thunderbirds, and charges of religious proselytizing at the Air Force Academy. And footdragging in supplying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) support to the ground forces in Iraq. The iceing on the cake was lobbying Congress to fund more F22 fighters after the Administration had decided to put the money into things of real use in the real war we are fighting.
That last got the Defense Secretary to fire both the Chief of Staff, and the Secretary of the Air Force. Aviation Week is calling for more blood, namely firing the officers responsible for the other screwups.

How to save GM?

GM is close to doomed. The stock is down around $10, which makes the entire company, once the biggest corporation in the world, worth only $5 billion. Sales are down, they don't have cars that people want to buy, the price of gas has destroyed demand for SUV's and pickup trucks. They will burn through the rest of their cash in a year or so.
The Wall St Journal opined that only the development of desirable bread and butter sedans would save them. There's something to that, if you are going to be a car company, you have to have cars that people like. But better is to invent a new car type. Lee Iacocca did this repeatedly in his career. He fathered the Mustang, the K cars, the the minivan. GM needs someone like Iacocca who has a feel for the market and creates things that sell. Rick Waggoner ain't that guy, he barely knows where the ignition key goes, let alone what makes a hot selling car.
GM ought to try making a two seat micro Corvette. Do a very small, low cost, two seat sports car. Figure out some way to get surfboards, snowboards or skis into it, or onto it. A roof rack, a fold down rear window , a pass through from the trunk to the cockpit, something. Make it light, offer a 5 speed manual, a 4 cylinder engine, get the gas milege up over 30, get the front rear weight distribution 50-50, give it the pizazz of the 'Vette at a third the price point.
Second new car, the micro hauler. A car in the Cobalt class that somehow allows the owner to get 4*8 sheet goods back from the lumber yard or furniture back from the auction. Doesn't have to seat more than two, but must handle the cargo, and be cheaper and less thirsty than a minivan.

Real Solar Energy (as opposed to imaginary solar)

The don't drill, no nukes, conservationists get all excited about "Solar" with out ever explaining what "Solar" is. For most of us, in the lower 48, real solar energy comes from home heating or cooling. Shining in through windows the sun pours a lot of heat into a house. In the winter, this is all to the good. In the summer, it makes the air conditioner draw more expensive electricity. Every window needs a sun shade, positioned to let the low winter sun shine in, and shade the window from the high summer sun. The sunshade needs no moving parts, and in fact properly designed eaves do the job very well.
Here in New Hampshire, I have enough solar gain through the windows that my furnace stays off during the winter day. With the solar gain, my furnace gets through the winter on about the same amount of fuel as my car uses all year. Without the solar gain, my furnace oil costs might double.
Home buyers ought to check the sunshade/eaves/awnings situation on the windows before falling in love with the house. In heating country, a good house faces south to get more sun. In air conditioning country, the house ought to face north for more shade. If buyers cared about these things then builders would furnish them.
The technology of building to take advantage of the sun has been well understood since the days of the Roman Empire. Where as solar electric technology still lacks decent batteries to give you electric lights after the sun goes down.

So where do the pundits stand on Iraq?

Listened to the Sunday pundits, Stephanopolis on ABC. The talking heads spent a lot of time explaining how Barack Obama was changing, or must change, his position on Iraq. Last firm word from Obama himself, broadcast on TV a couple a days ago, was, (paraphrased) "I will withdraw the Army from Iraq as soon as possible (ASAP)".
It's pretty clear the talking heads. even democratic talking heads, are calling for Obama to change his policy, and keep enough troops in Iraq to win the war. So far, I haven't heard Obama himself say this, but it's clear the pundits want him to.

Words of the Weasel, Part 7

"Flip Flop" a derogatory term applied to any any policy statement made by any politician. Rather than summarize the policy statement, and perhaps muster reasons for and against it, the reporters simply brand the statement a "flip flop", implying the speaker is a slippery customer who has gone back on his sworn word.
This shows ignorance, and partisan bias on the reporters part. Few reporters actually understand policy issues. Or any other issues for that matter. Most reporters are political partisans who view their job as supporting their politicians and badmouthing the other side's politicians. So, when at a loss for anything real to say (the usual case) reporters simply brand the policy statement a "flip flop".
Question: would you like a political leader so narrow minded that he never changed his mind on anything?

Barack Obama called for "service" from high school and college students. Quoted in the Rocky Mountain News.

"Just as we teach math and writing, arts and athletics, we need to teach young Americans to take citizenship seriously. Study after study shows that students who serve do better in school, are more likely to go to college, and more likely to maintain that service as adults. So when I'm President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you'll have done 17 weeks of service."

Service? Such as providing food, fuel, transportation, communication, manufactured goods, raw materials and entertainment to society? People who perform these real services hold "jobs" and they even get paid to do so. Is Mr. Obama suggesting students hold part time jobs? Or join the Armed Services part time?

In my youth I participated in American Friends Service Committee work projects in Philadelphia. At the time it seemed like a worthy cause, but looking back on it, I doubt that anything we did on work weekends was as helpful as real paying jobs for those people would have been.

Real service is a paying job.