A balanced budget amendment

The Congress critters are talking this up. But does it really do anything? A balanced budget occurs when authorized spending is less than estimated revenues. An ancient method of "balancing" a budget is simply to estimate more revenue. Presto, chango, look we have a balanced budget, on paper.
Then there is the "off-budget" scam. Like the post office. USPS is really a government operation, but since it was "privatized" it doesn't show up on the federal budget. Lots of other things could be moved off budget too.
And then there is the emergency escape hatch. In times of dire emergency it will be OK to go in the red. And somehow every year has a dire emergency, and therefore we can spend more than we take in for "just that year".
Polls show that 72% of voters are in favor of a balanced budget amendment. But the same polls show that only 30% of voters are in favor of a balanced budget amendment if it cut their benefits or raised their taxes.
Translation, the voters are in favor of reduced spending, but they don't want to talk about bad things like cuts and tax hikes. Understandable.
Politicians can curry favor with voter by talking about balanced budget amendments rather than bad things like cuts and tax hikes.
We will go down the same drain the Greeks are going down if politicians won't talk about cuts and tax hikes.

Private sector jobs create wealth

And government jobs consume it. NHPR was talking about employment this morning, after a dismal jobs report for last month. The economist doing the talking was full of gloom and doom, there is no sector of the economy with any hiring going on. He thought it was just dreadful that 400,000 government employees had been laid off.
In actual fact, private sector workers, farmers, miners, factory workers, truck drivers, telephone linemen, loggers, salesmen, create real wealth which pays for all the government workers. Government workers don't produce wealth. In fact those 400,000 government workers were costing $400 million in pay and benefits, all if which comes from taxes on the private sector workers.

Lying to the cops is a crime?

Didn't used to be. But it is now. As everyone in the universe must know, the jury refused to convict Casey Anthony on the charges of murder and child abuse. They did convict her on charges of lying to the cops. In short, the prosecution lacked enough evidence to convict on the serious charges, but after three years of investigation and interrogation they found some inconsistencies in her answers and heh presto, we got something we can pin on her.
If, God forbid, the prosecutors came after me and grilled me for three years, and kept notes, they would be able to catch me on something I said. As a defendant, your best bet is never to say anything to the cops. With or without your lawyer present.
If the prosecutors cannot get the jury to convict on serious charges, the defendant ought to go free.

All teachers are education majors.

And education is the belief that there is an art or science of education, and more over, that art or science is teachable. And that teachers need to be taught it.
I don't believe in the art or science of education. Any competent adult can teach effectively. I saw that in the Air Force. We would take 20 year old sergeants right off the flight line and put them into the Field Training Detachment teaching classes of teen age airmen. I went thru a number of these training sessions. These instant teachers were good, as good as any of the teachers I ever had in grade school, high school or college. The subject matter, jet engines, radar, instruments, auto pilot, hydraulics, missiles, radio, nav aids, was complex and difficult. The sergeants, who knew their subject matter cold, had no trouble teaching it, and teaching it to classes of teen aged boys. Who paid attention, took notes, and asked questions. It helped that the subject matter was interesting and relevant, all the students knew that mastery of the material was key to peer group respect and official promotion.
Given this, I think we would do better hiring teachers who majored in English, US history, mathematics, foreign languages, chemistry, physics, biology, and music rather than education majors. The secret to teaching well is a solid knowledge of your subject.

Making a super power

The secret of becoming a superpower is simple, be big, big in population, big in land area. In this respect the United States has done well. In population we are one of the biggest, only China and India are in our class. Every other country is smaller. In land area we are also in the top, only Russia is decisively larger. Canada, China, Brazil and Australia are in our class, followed by India.
The secret of reaching large size, also simple, it takes a political cultural and economic system that makes the population want to become and stay citizens. The United States had two historical turning points that set us on the road to superpower status.
One was right after the Revolution. The 13 colonies came out of the Revolutionary War as mini-nations, with governments, court systems, colony employees, armies and navies, and populations loyal to, and enthusiastic about, their home colony. The 13 colonies might never have come together to form the Union. An alternate history would have North America divided into 50 independent sovereign nations, much like Europe is today. Fortunately, the American establishment of the time, the Founding Fathers, were able to create the Constitution and get it ratified. This was a near run thing, it might have failed.
The second was the Civil War in 1860. The south could have won, or the bitterness could have split the nation. Neither happened, the north put forth incredible military effort, and accepted the terrible costs of a four year war. After Appomattox, the Union offered reasonable peace terms which the south accepted.
Had either of these historical turning points gone the other way, there would be no American superpower today.
In short, the road to super power lies in a political system that can unite and keep united vast territories. The United States appears to have mastered this trick.
Other countries are not on board yet. The Soviet Union broke up, and the surviving Russia is a third smaller than the old USSR was. Czechoslovakia broke in two. Yugoslavia broke into half a dozen pieces. Canada came close to having Quebec secede.
So on this, the fourth Independence Day into Great Depression 2.0, let us hope that we Americans have not lost the the ability to pull together, cut the necessary deals, and keep things moving forward.

Fukushima

The Wall St Journal ran an article critical of the design of the Fukushima reactors. According to the journal, the oldest reactors (first one installed in 1962) consisted of two buildings, a very rugged one to house the reactor, and a lesser building to house the steam turbines. In the oldest reactors, a crucial electrical panel, and the backup diesel generators were housed in the less rugged turbine building. Those reactors lost electrical power when the backup generators and electrical panels were drowned in seawater by the tsunami. Without electrical power for the coolant pumps, those reactors melted down.
The later Fukushima reactors had both the electrical panel and the backup generators inside the more rugged reactor building. The juice stayed on, the coolant pumps ran, and those reactors didn't leak radioactive materials into the local area.
The Journal criticizes the owners (TEPCO) for failing to upgrade the earlier reactors to the later design standard. A valid point methinks, although it takes advantage of 20-20 hindsight.
Just in case a reactor looses electric power, would it not be nice to have reliable gasoline or diesel engines next to each crucial coolant pump? With a clutch to couple the engine to the pump? When the juice goes out, plant operators walk down the plant floor and start each pump engine, and the reactor stays cool.

What's Fourth of July without a Parade?

I dunno. Franconia ran off a Fourth of July parade today. Heh, it's Saturday. We had floats, antique cars, WWII veterans marching, bands not marching (they ride on trailers), Ray Burton and his yellow 60's convertible, and a horde of little kids wearing orange T-shirts and carrying Stop Northern Pass signs. There will be a duck race this afternoon, a tuba concert on the Dow Academy field and fireworks when the sun goes down.
The fire trucks are enormous. All built on ten ton Mack or International Harvester truck chassis, they tower over the one story buildings along Franconia's main drag. And there are a lot of 'em. Like ten, from Franconia, Sugar Hill, Easton, and Bethlehem. All glittering in good paint, freshly waxed. In the up country, we are prepared, perhaps overprepared, for Armageddon.
A good time was had by all, Contrary to recent items on Fox News, Democrats were out in force and enjoyed the festivities.