Here's Why Jobs Are Going Overseas

Unions aren't all bad, at least in theory, but here's a story that perfectly illustrates their tendency to cut off their nose (and ours) to spite their face.

GM is closing a parts plant in Indiana where unemployment is an Oregon-esque 10.2%. Another company is interested in buying it if the workforce will accept wage and benefits cuts that bring it into line with other companies in the sector. Current GM workers at the plant could stay on at the new lower wage and retain their union seniority as well as pocket up to a $35,000 bonus, or move to another GM plant at their current salary for 2 years with a "no-cut" guarantee. If the deal goes through it is projected that as many as 3 times the current number of workers would be employed in a region that badly needed jobs. So what did the union do? Yup - shut it down - no deal. Even other UAW members were outraged.

When Frank Borman, the Apollo astronaut, ran Eastern Airlines he knew that he had to slash its unionized labor costs or go under. He presented a proposal to the unions and said if they didn't accept it, he was shutting the airline down. The union bosses didn't believe him or didn't care because they refused. Bought a ticket on Eastern lately?

The same thing is happening today. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it and that is something that we cannot afford as a country in the deep economic ditch in which we find ourselves. So when you hear about politicians who support "card check" legislation and other laws designed to further entrench unions, just say "NO" on November 2.

townhall.com/columnists/VincentVernuccio/2010/09/29/united_auto_workers_local_costs_650_jobs_in_indiana

Crunch Time for Oregon

Spoil sport! The Oregon Treasurer (a Democrat) is taking away the Legislature's credit card because Oregon has exceeded its debt ratio secured by general fund revenues. Translation: Oregon's constitution requires a balanced budget and we can't handle the debt service with current tax revenues. It will be interesting to watch our elected representatives squirm as they try to balance the next budget without the magic of the credit card to cover the deficit. Government can't be all things to all people and stay solvent. Expect some real blood-letting when things get cut that never should have been added to the budget in the first place. Our governors and legislators have flown the state into the ground and now there is a big hole to crawl out of.

www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/09/oregons_treasurer_calls_for_ha.html

Who Do You Say I Am?

The disappointment with Obama on the Left is growing exponentially from Chris Matthews to Margaret Carlson and other high profile lefties. He has failed them; he has failed the Cause. As I have read and listened to their growing angst, there was a dawning realization that many of them were talking in religious terms as if they had been convinced that Obama was the messiah and to their profound chagrin, he has proved to have feet of clay. Listen to what Jon Stewart said on the O'Reilly show the other night:

"I think people feel a disappointment in that there was a sense that Jesus will walk on water and no you are looking at it like, 'Oh look at that, he's just treading water' … I thought he'd do a better job."
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/23/stewart-saddened-by-obama/?iref=NS1

Liberals and leftists are looking for a secular messiah to worship and lead them to the Promised Land and this is a job description that no mere mortal can live up to. Hence the continual cycle on the Left of high hopes,  uncritical worship, inevitably followed by disappointment and despair. It also explains their inability to discern a tyrant and why they are drawn to dictators like moths to a flame.

There is only one Messiah and his name is not Barack, or any other name except Jesus, and His kingdom is not of this world. Yet. Yield unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's - it helps even out the bipolar ride between adulation and despair.

CyberNuke

Here's a name to remember - STUXNET. You will be hearing a lot more about it in the years ahead.

Basically,  it is the first cyberweapon in the nuclear class. It is spread by insertion of a memory stick into a computer system rather than hacking from the outside. Once uploaded, it takes over the operating system of things like nuclear power plants, electrical grids,chemical plants, and the like and waits patiently until its self-contained instructions trigger it to take over the facility's own control system and cause the facility to self destruct. You can imagine how pleasant that might be if you happen to live next to a nuclear or chemical plant that blows up of its own accord.

Stuxnet was clearly designed by a nation, although which nation is unclear. Iran appears to be targeted at the moment, so suspicion focuses on Israel and the U.S. Perhaps. Once this genie is out of the bottle, though, we can expect a cyber race akin to the nuclear weapons race after 1945. In all likelihood, it is already going on. I hope the U.S. plays great defense too - we're going to need it.

news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20100921/ts_csm/327178

I Kid You Not

"Feds Spent $800,000 of Economic Stimulus on African Genital-Washing Program"
cnsnews.com/news/article/75198

Wunderbar!

In a post on May 24, 2010 I predicted that we will begin to see Germany start to move away from the EU and toward making its own way in the world. Well looky here - the NY Times reports that Germans are beginning to explore their long dormant national identity. Super. Vee shall see, ja?

www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/world/europe/11germany.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Take a Tour of the World as It Really Is

Victor Davis Hanson and Charles Krauthammer are by far the best writers on international affairs today. Hanson gives a global tour de force  that depicts the world as it really exists at the movement. If there are any liberals reading these posts, take off your rose-colored glasses for a few minutes and see what is actually going on around the globe. It is enlightening.

townhall.com/columnists/VictorDavisHanson/2010/09/02/the_new_old_world_order

Church is for Women?

I don't think so, but apparently there is a growing contingent of Canadian men who do. David Murrow, who wrote Why Men Hate Going to Church, is quoted in the Winnipeg Free Press as saying that:

"'Christianity's primary delivery system, the local church, is perfectly designed to reach women,' he says of the warm colours, robes, candles, flowers, sharing, tapestries, long sermons and soft, romantic worship music that are the hallmarks of many churches today. 'This church system offers little to stir the masculine heart, so men find it dull and irrelevant,' he states, adding that men who do go to church seem passive and bored."


There you have it. As one of those "passive and bored" (I'm not - well OK, I may be boring) male churchgoers, I have to take some issue with Mr. Murrow's analysis based on my experience, but it is certainly worth further investigation inasmuch as there is a pronounced drop off in participation by thirty-something males and this does not bode well for the Church.

www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/faith/no-men-in-the-pews-could-be-churchs-fault-102210019.html

Lawyers and Microsoft Get It Right

Microsoft lawyers have used a novel legal strategy to go after the spammers that send us all bucketloads of spam. Spammers use large computers that spew out spam to captive botnets, which are computers that have been taken over through viruses unbeknownst to their owners, which in turn multiply and send the spam to all of us. The Achilles' heel of spammers is that they have to have legitimate domain addresses for their master servers and these are regulated by an international organization and without a recognized domain, they cannot get on the net. Microsoft filed suit to take away the domain names for the master servers and it looks like a Federal judge is about to order the international registry to do just that. If that happens, then no on ramp to the internet for spammers and no spam. Excellent! As much as it pains me, props to Microsoft and their lawyers.

news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20015912-245.html?tag=topTechContentWrap;editorPicks

When a Shield Isn't a Shield Then is a Shield

Europeans now want to work with the U.S. to develop an anti-missile shield against Iran. Supposedly this effort has "full" U.S. support, whatever that means these days. This is an interesting position since I suspect that many key NATO countries probably sold Iran the components to make the North Korean imports work with some degree of reliability. Leaving that aside, though, it is a reversal of position both by the Europeans and the United States.

I posted on September 17, 2009 that the Obama Administration was killing a new land-based anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic after those countries had gone out on a limb for us with the Russians, who were vigorously protesting the system because they also wanted to intimidate Europe with impunity. I quoted Joe Biden as saying at the time that the system was pulled because the "Iranians do not pose a threat." No opposition from NATO was noted. Two conclusions can be drawn.

First, all of these guys either have no understanding of who Iran is and what it is up to or they have lied through their teeth to the people they are supposed to protect. Neither conclusion  is very comforting.

Secondly, cowardice (my own conclusion as to what happened is obvious) has consequences. The easy way out a year ago was to say stupid things like Biden did or talk the talk and simultaneously sell Iran high tech equipment like the Europeans did. The chickens are now coming home to roost. I think that we can reasonably conclude that all Western countries have now assessed that Ahmadinajad and the other nut burgers running Iran have an operational atomic bomb and a way to deliver it, so maybe we should do something about it now that it is a fait accompli. Good luck.

I stand by my prediction of two years ago that somebody, somewhere in the world is going to get nuked in the next 5 years. Apparently the Europeans are now earnestly hoping it's not them. 


www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/7996581/West-needs-new-missile-shield-against-Iranian-nuclear-threat-Nato-chief-says.html

Sweden More Competitive Than U.S.

Sweden, which as far as I know produces only blondes, furniture and Volvos (and even the Volvos may be going to China the company having recently been sold), has displaced the United States as the #2 most competitive economy in the world according to the World Economic Forum. Great. Although not too much can be read into this one survey, the flight of capital to places like Hong Kong (see 8/9/10 post) is a concrete expression of the same perception but one made by corporations and wealthy individuals in this country and therefore genuinely troublesome.

 www.thelocal.se/28878/20100909/

In Remembrance

Afghanistan, Oil Wells - and Carp?

Rest easy, friends - the Obama Administration has things under control in the Great Carp War. Yes, we now have a Carp Czar to prevent the spread of Asian Carp into the Great Lakes. Cynic that I am, though, I'm going to take a contrarian view and say that this means we can look forward to this scene coming soon all over the Great Lakes - after we have $10-$20 billion or so. Sigh.

green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/on-our-radar-an-asian-carp-czar/

Hillary's Running for President

Hillary Clinton recently made the statement below to the Council on Foreign Relations. In that most conservatives and everyone but the far Lefties would agree with it, she has obviously concluded that Obama is DOA for 2012 and is moving to get in the race. I guess Carville's comments about the Obama Administration's botched handling of the Gulf oil well were not a coincidence. Stay tuned for open warfare in the Democratic party, although I also note that Rahm is looking at the Chicago mayoral race. Perhaps it's already a done deal and Obama is the only one who doesn't know it yet.

"Addressing the Council on Foreign Relations today in Washington, D.C., Clinton said the U.S. budget deficit under the Obama administration poses a national security threat and projects a "message of weakness" internationally. Responding to a question from CFR President Richard Haas, Clinton said rising U.S. debt levels pose a national security threat in two ways: "It undermines our capacity to act in our own interest, and it does constrain us where constraint may be undesirable."

Clinton continued, "I mean, it is very troubling to me that we are losing the ability not only to chart our own destiny but to, you know, have the leverage that comes from this enormously effective economic engine that has powered American values and interests over so many years."

www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=200849

There's Alot to Shrug About

Ayn Rand is a hero of libertarians. I first read her in high school starting with Atlas Shrugged and The Virtue of Selfishness and was very intrigued by her ideas. At the time, I was also a very new Christian and did not have a real background to evaluate her claims from a faith perspective. Although I still tend to be somewhat libertarian, a Christian has to be careful with Rand because she is definitely not coming from a Christian perspective.

The new Christianity Today has a good article about Rand by Gary Moore that quotes her own description of her philosophy as centered on:

"...the concept of man as a noble being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/september/2.36.html

It does not take long to critique this philosophy from a Christian perspective. Man is fallen and his nobility is long since gone. The moral purpose of man's life is not his own happiness but serving God. Productive achievement can be noble but it depends on the end and the motive. Finally, reason is clearly not the only absolute - faith is higher up the hierarchy and love even higher than faith.

Although her views are useful because a generally free economic system is more likely to produce more fruits for everyone, it is how individuals do this and to what end the fruits are put that are more crucial. As Christians, we are called upon to help the poor and share with those who are less fortunate, so while it's fine to go ahead and shrug with Atlas occasionally, be informed by your faith in all things, including economics and political philosophy, and let God be your guide.

Almost Christians

Did you know that 80%+ of Christian young people lose their faith during the college years. This story may give part of the "why" this is happening.

Actually the story is about "almost Christian" teenagers, but many of the points apply equally well to adults. The lead says that most kids today are being taught that God loves you and wants you to be happy; be nice to everybody and pray if you get in trouble. While it's OK, it doesn't have much to do with Jesus. The study is done by Kenda Creasy Dean of Princeton Theological Seminary and uses the term "almost Christian" because although the kids believe in God, they don't believe in bedrock Christian doctrines. Professor Dean says that:

"Researchers found that most young people believe in something they labeled 'Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.' It helps you feel good. Otherwise God stays out of the way.”

MTD - a very useful term describing a very common approach to faith: God blesses your agenda, helps you feel good, and otherwise makes no demands on your life.  Cool! A God like this is so, well so convenient.  This also describes the faith of a lot of adults. It certainly reflects our radically individualistic culture. And it's probably a vaccine against a grounded faith with the Living God. We need to know all we can about this phenomena and work to develop ways to get through the lie of this phony faith and get people grounded on the Rock.

www.mydesert.com/article/20100904/LIFESTYLES06/9030343/+Almost+Christian+++teenagers+cause+concern+for+church+scholars

Artifical Kidneys

The machine pictured to the left is a kidney dialysis machine. It is a life saver for many Americans but it is also a ball and chain because a person on dialysis must stay attached to it in a room for several hours while the machine does its work. Hope is on the way.

A research team at the University of San Francisco has developed a prototype of an implantable dialysis machine. If the prototype pans out, people suffering from kidney disease will no longer be tethered to a machine, but will take it with them while they lead their normal lives. Exciting technology and a ray of hope for thousands of kidney disease sufferers.

news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-20015581-247.html?tag=cnetRiver

Down with Big Units

Big usually isn't better. Small banks usually outperform big ones in customer service. Smaller airlines usually offer customer service better than the mega carriers.  Why? Because all too often big means unwieldy and unresponsive. Michael Barone has an excellent column describing the current public angst with things big - Big Government, Big Corporations, and Big Labor. The root of the discontent - Big isn't working very well. It's a good read.

townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2010/09/02/down_with_big_government,_big_business,_big_labor

Measures 66-67 Keep on Giving!

Weyerhaeuser announced today that it is closing its Albany plant producing engineered wood. The closure throws 70 people out of work. I'm going to hazard a guess on the reason. The market for engineered wood stinks right now because construction is just about dead and will become totally moribund as winter sets in. If they keep producing at a minimal level to keep the plant open for a hoped-for turnaround, though, the company gets taxed on its gross income, not net, so keeping a similar plant open in another state is more economic. What to do? The answer was announced today.  Thanks M66-67! You certainly are tagging all those rich guys!

www.kgw.com/news/Weyerhaeuser-to-close-Albany--plant-101997658.html