Author: Matthew G. Saroff

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Have you heard the latest thing that conservatives are seizing on to accuse Barack Obama of being a godless secret-Muslim socialist Negro?

Well it appears that Barack Obama’s speaking positively of the Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum, on the seal of the United States since 1792, has given them a new reason to be shrill:

The culture wars have a new battlefield, thanks to a letter this week from the Congressional Prayer Caucus to President Obama. To the religious right, the motto “E Pluribus Unum,” which has been part of the fabric of American democracy since it was emblazened on the national seal in 1782, has become a controversial, anti-God statement. See the Congressional Prayer Caucus letter:

http://forbes.house.gov/UploadedFiles/National_Motto_Letter_to_President.pdf

Obama referred, innocently enough, to the motto “E Pluribus Unum” in a recent speech, pointing out that the Latin phrase, first adopted by the Founders, means “out of many, one.” This beautiful motto perfectly captures the spirit of pluralistic America, where one country is formed out of many states, and where one people – the American people – are formed from a melting pot of immigrants from all around the world.

Out of many, one. Indeed, the wisdom of the Founders, in enscribing “E Pluribus Unum” on the Great Seal of the United States, can’t be questioned.

Or maybe it can. As the above letter shows, to Rep. Michele Bachmann and others on the Congressional Prayer Caucus, Obama’s reference to “E Pluribus Unum” borders on unpatriotic. They say he should instead be promoting the motto “In God We Trust,” which was adopted as the official national motto at the urging of religious conservatives in 1956, during the McCarthy era and at the height of the Cold War Red Scare.

Well, I get why they object to the phrase E Pluribus Unum. First, it’s another hammer to use against a figure that they clearly see as an uppity (*insert epithet here*), and second, the basic idea of E Pluribus Unum is the acceptance is that people who are different from them, either in philosophy, theology, or pigmentation, are legitimate Americans, which fulfills them with horror.

They are really deeply repulsive human beings.

Gee, You Think?!?!?!

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After it was revealed that something like ½ of the top flight academic economists have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wall Street, and then enthusiastically endorsed the policies of deregulation and “financial innovation” which lined their patron’s pockets, it now appears that the members of the American Economic Association are considering adopting a code of ethics.

Let’s see

  • Stanford Business Prof. Darrell Duffie wrote a book on Wall Street regulations without mentioning that is on the board of Moody’s
  • Laura D’Andrea Tyson, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, business school UC Berkeley, is a director of Morgan Stanley.
  • Richard H. Clarida, Columbia: executive vice president at the bond behemoth Pimco
  • R. Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School: director of MetLife
  • Frederic S. Mishkin, Columbia Business School: high priced consultant to Wall Street Firms
  • Martin S. Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University: former board member, American International Group
  • Larry Summers
  • Larry Summers
  • Larry Summers
  • Larry Summers

Why would anyone think that economists might need a small dose of ethics?

David Zurawik is the Dumbest Muthahf%$#er on the Face of the Earth

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And considering the fact that he is the Baltimore Sun‘s TV critic, which means that he had to beat out other TV critics, this is a big hurdle to jump.

You see Zurawik was commenting on the fact that former CBS reporter, and former CNN anchor John Roberts, a generally well respected journalist, was moving from CNN to Fox, largely because Fox was willing to base him in the same town as his fiancee.

When all is said and done, I can agree that this was generally a net plus for Fox in terms of journalism, considering the fact that “Biff the Wonderdog” would be an improvement over the likes of Britt Hume, but then he unleashes this corker:

The channel doesn’t need more ratings magnets — it has all of them any cable channel needs right now. What Fox needs to do is continue to add journalistic strength and depth as it did in October with Juan Williams.

Yes, he said that the man who vehemently defended Clarence Thomas against accusations of sexual harassment while not revealing that he himself was accused of sexual harassment is a paragon of Journalist Strength and depth.

This is a guy who had an interview with George W. Bush, and said, on camera, that he prayed for him.

If this is what David Zurawik calls journalist strength and depth, I am Edward F%$#ing Murrow

And the Insanity Continues

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So after a ruinous recession, the economy shrunk by over a fifth, made worse by austerity programs that were intended to maintain a hard peg to the Euro, Estonia’s government has finally achieved the desired result, and at the start of the year, Estonia joins the Euro Zone.

Truth be told, the Estonian government set it up such that there was no choice, since it maintained a hard peg to the Euro, and the Deutsch Mark before that, and almost all the loans outstanding are foreign denominated, so there really never was any sort of fiscal or economic sovereignty in the small Baltic Republic.

If anyone expects an improvement in the standards of living as a result of this though, they are very likely to be disappointed.

China Expected to Field First Carrier in 2011

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The Varyag is out of dry dock

It looks like the Chinese will be launching their first carrier this year.

It’s made from the hull (no equipment or propulsion when bought as scrap) of the old unfinished Soviet STOBAR aircraft carrier Varyag, and while I doubt that it will ever serve in anything remotely resembling a combat capability, neither did the USS Langley, though it did see service as a seaplane tender.

What is important here is that it means that China will be developing equipment, doctrine, and training for a carrier borne air wing.

Missing the Point Completely

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This article notes that Israel appears to have made significant discoveries in offshore natural gas, but that access to foreign markets will be difficult:

Israel can look forward to long-term energy security after the discovery of a huge off-shore natural gas field but obstacles lie ahead in exporting its output, experts said Thursday.

Israel will find it hard to secure foreign buyers as European gas consumption is weakening while competition is stiff in the expanding Asian market, they said.

Texas-based Noble Energy and its Israeli exploration partners described Wednesday the Leviathan prospect — 130 km (80 miles) off the Mediterranean port of Haifa — as the world’s biggest gas find in the past decade

This misses the reality of the situation.

When one looks at oil exporting nations, with the exception of Norway, the truth is that it does not bring prosperity to the masses, nor does it make for a better society.

Simply put, Israel should not plan to export the gas in any significant quantity.

First, from a defense perspective, the natural gas serves as a way to achieve energy independence in the relatively short term, and exporting the gas diminishes this.

Secondly, natural gas is the raw material for much of the petrochemical industry, and this could be used to establish such an industry in Israel. A focus on exports would serve to subvert the development of this industry and the additional profits, and jobs, that they would create.

Not Enough Bullets … No Consequences for the Rich Edition

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The New York Times has an article on real estate developers who repeatedly fail and default, but continue to attract other people’s money to their schemes:

Larry Gluck, the apartment building king whose company defaulted on loans in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, recently bought the Windermere Hotel in Manhattan and Tivoli Towers, a subsidized housing complex in Brooklyn.

Ian Bruce Eichner, who lost two major New York skyscrapers to foreclosure in the early 1990s and defaulted on a $760 million loan for a Las Vegas casino resort in 2008, is working on a plan to rescue One Madison Park, a troubled 50-story condominium project.

Even Harry Macklowe, whose $7 billion gamble on seven Midtown skyscrapers at the top of the market almost cost him his entire empire, is out looking for new deals.

Industry lore has it that New York is one of the toughest, most unforgiving real estate markets in the world. The costs are so high, the unions so ornery, the politicians so demanding and the rivalries so fierce, that one false move invites financial disaster.

But the truth is that there have been surprisingly few career fatalities among New York developers, even though they have lost billions of investor dollars on overpriced real estate and have littered the city with unfinished apartment buildings. While a homeowner who lost a house to foreclosure would find it difficult to borrow for years, developers who defaulted on enormous loans have still been able to attract money.

The reasons, experts say, are that there is still plenty of money floating around and that the market has a very short memory.

“You can always find an investor who’ll put up equity with a guy, unless he’s Attila the Hun,” said Daniel Alpert, managing partner at Westwood Capital, a real estate investment bank.

………

This is the very definition of moral hazard, and when someone does this repeatedly, it is not incompetence, it is fraud.

Time to end the bailouts and start prosecuting.

U.S. Navy Splits the Baby on the LCS Contract

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Both Lockheed-Martin’s conventional design and Austal’s Trimaran got contracts for 10 ships, at $538 million, without mission modules, which means not much in the way of meaningful sensors or weapons.

For a ship that weighs as much as a frigate, but is as lightly armed as a corvette, but has the advantage of being able to change tasks, by swapping out mission modules, going from anti-sub warfare, to anti-surface warfare, counter-min, ISR, etc. if it can find its way to suitably equipped port.

Yes, “It’s a dessert topping AND a floor wax!”

Yeah, the idea sounds really stupid to me too.

This is a Classic Case of Deterrence

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It appears that the Chinese DF-21 anti-ship ballistic missile is operational, a 900 mile range anti-ship missile, at least according to Admiral Robert Willard, Commander, U.S. Pacific Command.

It’s intended to be a carrier killer, and while the capabilities, particularly the targeting, are unclear, but considering that the Pershing II’s MARV (MAneuverable Reentry Vehicle) got a roughly 30 m CEP, it will certainly give a CVBG cause to pause.

Even the warhead is nothing more than 150kg of high strength steel descending at 1000 m/s, it will still completely ruing a carrier skipper’s day.

There are 2 possibility two possibilities here, either this is an attempt by the Pentagon to hype the Chinese threat, or the Chinese are trying to create an effective no-go zone for the flat-tops by creating uncertainty steps to cut in the missile in an operational posture.

Then again, it might be both.

Yes, This is a Big Deal

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Initial unemployment claims fell below 400,000 for the first time in over 2 years, hitting 388,000, down 34K, and the less volatile 4 week moving average fell by 12.5K to 414,000.

We are actually at a number that if sustained, might show a meager recovery in the unemployment rate.

The longer term numbers, continuing claims rose by 57K to 4.13 million, and extended benefits fell by 151.5K to 4.53 million.

I would expect the numbers to rise next week, the Christmas season is over, and this sort of move one week tends to have a rebound, but if somewhere around 375K is the new normal, then things are turning up a big.

Light Posting Today

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After I finish work today, I will be packing up my apartment, and turning in my key, because I gave notice a couple of weeks ago, because I found a job in my area.

I liked working at Niitek, and their work, designing ground penetrating radar to find mines and IEDs was about as worthwhile as one can find in defense related work, but I am glad to be going back to being a 7 day a week daddy and husband, as opposed to being a 3 day a week one.

Justice Department seeks tougher CFTC and SEC swaps rules | Reuters

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The DoJ is asking the SEC and CFTC to tighten their rules on ownership of clearing houses for derivatives.

The financial regulators are looking to limit individual members of the clearing houses to 20%, while Justice’s anti-trust regulators want there to be a 40% limit applied to all, “banks and other major swaps players,” in order to prevent 3 or 4 of the big players to create a monopoly situation, in addition to more strictly regulating the boards of these clearing houses.

I’m not sure if it is good news that the DoJ is asking for more, or bad news that the SEC and CFTC asked for so little to start with.

Pass the Popcorn…

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Someone just hit 4chan hit by DDoS attack:

Controversial image board 4chan came under a denial of service attack on Tuesday.

A status message on 4chan’s status boards (below) reported that the birthplace of anonymous and home of midget porn had joined the “ranks of MasterCard, Visa, PayPal” as victims of a denial of service attack.

Site is down due to DDoS. We now join the ranks of MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, et al.—an exclusive club!

The Anonymous contingent of 4chan was behind the attacks on Mastercard et al over the refusal of many elements of the banking industry to do business with Wikileaks. In response, patriot hacktivists have launched denial of service attacks on 4chan IRC channels.

This could get … interesting.

As to who I root for in this conflict, God bless them both, and keep them far away from me!