Chris Christy, governor of New Jersey, front running Republican candidate for 2016, has a nasty scandal simmering on his front burner. Back in September, someone ordered three lanes on the George Washington bridge closed, creating horrendous traffic jams. Christy stands accused of doing it as political retaliation on the mayor of Fort Lee.
Yesterday Christy held a marathon news conference, at which he announced the firing of two people, pretty high up in his adminstration, said he was sorry, and took all reporters questions for nearly two hours. Christy blamed the whole thing on underlings. He is a convincing speaker.
So what next? If you believe Christy, it wasn't his fault, and he has taken action against the perps. If you like Christy, and a lot of people do, you are inclined to believe him. As long as no evidence surfaces to pin the blame on the governor, this will probably blow over, in time. Right now, the state legislature (all democrats), and the federal government (mostly democrats) are going to investigate, i.e. go on fishing expeditions looking for something to hang Christy with. So long as they don't find anything incriminating, Christy ought to be OK. I figure they can keep this ball in the air for another 6 months or so.
I can believe that in New Jersey, plenty of pols at all levels are into eye-for-an-eye. I can believe that underlings could have pulled this off without Christy's knowledge. After all, that's what happened to Nixon. Gordon Liddy planned and executed Watergate without Nixon's knowledge.
We'll see. I kinda like Christy, and I hope he survives.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Antibiotic Resistant Diseases
The TV news has been running pieces about the rise of drug resistant diseases. The bacteria evolve resistance to what ever it is in antibiotics that kills them. Survival of the fittest. The narrators on TV, often guys in white coats, blame over use of antibiotics by doctors. Antibiotics only work against bacteria, they do nothing against virii. When parents bring children in to the doc, with earaches, or the flu, or all those childhood problems, the doc often proscribes an antibiotic on general principles. The kids get well and every one is happy.
We raised three children, and when they were small, we had a bottle of that pink amoxillin stuff in the fridge pretty much all winter. Some times for one child, sometimes for another child, sometimes for all three at once. I dare say things are much the same in most households.
Although doctors ought to back off on antibiotic use, we ought to bear down on the farmers. They feed antibiotics to livestock pretty much every day. It's not that the stock is sick, it's that they grow faster and put on more weight when fed antibiotics. That may be, but the practice breeds up an army of drug resistance bacteria. The light dose of antibiotic kills the weaker bacteria, leaving the more resistant bacteria alive to breed. Animal diseases can infect people. Smallpox, swine flu, bird flu are three that come to mind. There has got to be others.
So, before we get too fierce about doctors proscribing too many antibiotics for small children, we ought to get fierce about feeding antibiotics to livestock.
We raised three children, and when they were small, we had a bottle of that pink amoxillin stuff in the fridge pretty much all winter. Some times for one child, sometimes for another child, sometimes for all three at once. I dare say things are much the same in most households.
Although doctors ought to back off on antibiotic use, we ought to bear down on the farmers. They feed antibiotics to livestock pretty much every day. It's not that the stock is sick, it's that they grow faster and put on more weight when fed antibiotics. That may be, but the practice breeds up an army of drug resistance bacteria. The light dose of antibiotic kills the weaker bacteria, leaving the more resistant bacteria alive to breed. Animal diseases can infect people. Smallpox, swine flu, bird flu are three that come to mind. There has got to be others.
So, before we get too fierce about doctors proscribing too many antibiotics for small children, we ought to get fierce about feeding antibiotics to livestock.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
We have secret ballot. Why not secret political donations?
We have secret ballot so voters can vote for who ever they choose without fear of retaliation by political bosses, bosses at work, union bosses, the mayor, the sheriff, who ever. Secret ballot has been standard in the US since the revolutionary war. It's an established bulwark of democracy. Countries that lack secret ballot are regarded as banana republics.
Next to voting, contributing money to candidates, parties, and causes is the basis of political liberty. Many, perhaps most, would prefer to donate anonymously to protect themselves from retaliation, harassment, assault, strikes, picketing, and kidnapping by the political opposition.
So why not allow citizens to donate anonymously?
Largely because of a dense web of campaign finance laws passed by "good government" (Goo-goo) groups over the years. I ran for a minor state office up here in NH some years ago. I raised less than $1000, which I spent on yard signs and palm cards. I had to file forms monthly in Concord listing name rank and serial number of each of my contributors. PITA. The "good government" groups feel that campaign contributions are the same as bribes and attempt to outlaw the practice.
The Goo-Goos are mostly democrats. They oppose campaign donations because the Republicans have members who will write checks. Democrats are mostly academics, newsies, union people, students, welfare people, and incumbent pols, none of whom will write a check. Partly 'cause they are cheap, and partly 'cause they don't have any money.
The country would be more democratic if we scrapped all the campaign finance laws and let anyone contribute as much as they please, and keep it secret. The Supreme Court, in the Citizens United case agrees with me.
Next to voting, contributing money to candidates, parties, and causes is the basis of political liberty. Many, perhaps most, would prefer to donate anonymously to protect themselves from retaliation, harassment, assault, strikes, picketing, and kidnapping by the political opposition.
So why not allow citizens to donate anonymously?
Largely because of a dense web of campaign finance laws passed by "good government" (Goo-goo) groups over the years. I ran for a minor state office up here in NH some years ago. I raised less than $1000, which I spent on yard signs and palm cards. I had to file forms monthly in Concord listing name rank and serial number of each of my contributors. PITA. The "good government" groups feel that campaign contributions are the same as bribes and attempt to outlaw the practice.
The Goo-Goos are mostly democrats. They oppose campaign donations because the Republicans have members who will write checks. Democrats are mostly academics, newsies, union people, students, welfare people, and incumbent pols, none of whom will write a check. Partly 'cause they are cheap, and partly 'cause they don't have any money.
The country would be more democratic if we scrapped all the campaign finance laws and let anyone contribute as much as they please, and keep it secret. The Supreme Court, in the Citizens United case agrees with me.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Extending Unemployment benefits, Pro and Con
I gotta say, cutting off unemployment benefits, in the depth of winter, is hard. For a guy out of work, loosing benefits is a disaster. I have to feel for them.
On the other hand, some of the justifications for extending benefits are malarkey. Paying unemployment benefits does little or nothing to grow the economy. If you are unemployed, you don't buy stuff. You use your unemployment benefits to pay a little on the rent, pay a little on the utility bills, pay for heating oil, pay for gasoline. You get on food stamps to buy groceries. You don't buy anything (clothes, appliances, houses, cars, cable TV, Netflix, etc) that you don't absolutely have to have to stay alive.
So the Republicans ought to come around and extend unemployment benefits. But, it's perfectly reasonable to take money to pay for them out of the mountain of pork in the federal budget.
On the other hand, some of the justifications for extending benefits are malarkey. Paying unemployment benefits does little or nothing to grow the economy. If you are unemployed, you don't buy stuff. You use your unemployment benefits to pay a little on the rent, pay a little on the utility bills, pay for heating oil, pay for gasoline. You get on food stamps to buy groceries. You don't buy anything (clothes, appliances, houses, cars, cable TV, Netflix, etc) that you don't absolutely have to have to stay alive.
So the Republicans ought to come around and extend unemployment benefits. But, it's perfectly reasonable to take money to pay for them out of the mountain of pork in the federal budget.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Obama wants to create a US Dept of Websites
That's how it came across on the TV news. To hear the newsies tell it, if the government had possessed a specialized group of experts the adminstration could have brought Healthcare.gov smoothly into service. The newsies talked about liberalizing government hiring rules so such a group could make a job offer to talented people in a timely fashion. And some other stuff.
It won't work. Government departments are staffed with civil servants, lawyers, defeated politicians, and political cronies. Losers. This kind of people couldn't design a tic-tac-toe board. No way can a government department do anything creative. To build a website, you need engineers. Good engineers don't work for the government. Engineers want to work at places where they can do new designs, and see their designs get built and shipped. All the government does is paperwork. Engineers hate paperwork, and so they take jobs out in the real economy, where they get to do real work.
When the government needs something designed, it needs to go out for bids to private industry. Far as I heard, Obama didn't do that. He retained control of the design deep inside HHS and did a no bid contract award to a Canadian firm with a dubious record. The Canadians did what they were told to do by HHS and what they were told to do didn't work.
Moral of the story. Go out for bids. Get three bids. Pick the low cost bidder, as long as he is qualified (you think he can do the job). Even better, go out for firm fixed fee bids. Cost plus bids will be expensive. Only if you cannot get firms to submit firm fixed fee bids do you accept cost plus bids.
It won't work. Government departments are staffed with civil servants, lawyers, defeated politicians, and political cronies. Losers. This kind of people couldn't design a tic-tac-toe board. No way can a government department do anything creative. To build a website, you need engineers. Good engineers don't work for the government. Engineers want to work at places where they can do new designs, and see their designs get built and shipped. All the government does is paperwork. Engineers hate paperwork, and so they take jobs out in the real economy, where they get to do real work.
When the government needs something designed, it needs to go out for bids to private industry. Far as I heard, Obama didn't do that. He retained control of the design deep inside HHS and did a no bid contract award to a Canadian firm with a dubious record. The Canadians did what they were told to do by HHS and what they were told to do didn't work.
Moral of the story. Go out for bids. Get three bids. Pick the low cost bidder, as long as he is qualified (you think he can do the job). Even better, go out for firm fixed fee bids. Cost plus bids will be expensive. Only if you cannot get firms to submit firm fixed fee bids do you accept cost plus bids.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Google Image Search
So I'm making a model railroad car. I google for some photos of such a car. Get a lot of hits. Most of 'em are photos of other guy's models, rather than photos of the real thing. Conclusion. There are more model trains than real trains.
Cannon Mt ski weather
It's warmed up today, high 20s. My roof is melting off and the icicles are dripping heavily. Dispite all the TV newsie talk about super cold coming, it's "seasonable" here in NH. In actual fact, after all sorts of end-of-the-world-as-we-know it blather on the TV, we got a decent snowstorm (9 inches) followed by a one day cold snap where it got down to -9 or -10 Fahrenheit. Nothing unusual.
Unfortunately, the local weather forecasts are predicting rain tonight.
Unfortunately, the local weather forecasts are predicting rain tonight.
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