Sunday, September 18, 2011
Recent Reading
First prototype built from MIT’s effort to construct houses for $1,000 each. Probably slightly more basic than a British new build.
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London’s Jubilee line cost £3.4bn to build, but raised land values in adjoining areas by close to £14bn. Looks like the thousands of times greater areas of the Highlands and Islands could thus easily provide enough added value for the £1 billion needed for the Scottish Tunnel Project.
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The fractions of a second that could be saved in automated trading by having a sales centre half way between New york and London might be enough to fund seasteding. Personally I doubt it would be enough on its own but it is an added economic bonus on the plus side of the ledger.
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Spiked article by Colin McInnes on Germany being forced to give up its electricity supply by the ecofascists being the route to serfdom.
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Canadians (52%) and Americans (49%) say that that global warming is a fact and is mostly caused by emissions from vehicles and industrial facilities. Only 43 per cent of Britons (-4) agree with this assessment.
Maybe there is something to be said for having media so obviously propagandist liars that nobody believes them. The USSR used to show the same effect at the end.
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Pournelle' immediate jobs programme
My general principle is that economic growth happens when energy is cheap and there is a maximum of economic freedom, and of those two, economic freedom is probably the more important.
First, change all the rules for small business exemptions from regulations by doubling the maximum number of employees you can have for the exemption. There are a number of regulations that apply only to businesses with fewer than 10 employees; make that number 20. There are other regulations that apply only to this with more than 50 employees. Make that 100. Etc. The first time I proposed this I got mail saying it was useless because there aren’t any successful small businesses willing to expand but prevented by the threat of regulation. I have considerable evidence to the contrary; and besides, if there are no such businesses, then there won’t be any consequences of adopting this. In fact, though, I am quite sure there are many businesses successful enough to expand that would do so if the regulations weren’t so onerous.
Second, repeal Dodd Frank. It is estimated that Dodd Frank costs a hundred billion dollars a year. We have already seen that many banks find they have more people working in regulation compliance than in banking. Dodd Frank doesn’t do what it was supposed to do, and we got along without it before we enacted it. It hasn’t worked, and it ought to go.
Third, repeal Sarbanes Oxley. That’s another that costs too much and doesn’t accomplish what it set out to do.
Fourth, establish two commissions whose job is to recommend federal practices that ought to be eliminated on the grounds that we can’t afford them, or never needed them in the first place. The commissioners should not be government employees, and ought to be paid no more than $150 a day consulting fee and $50 a day expenses. Let it be a typical commission, with three members appointed by the President, three by the Speaker, and three by the President pro tem of the Senate. The whole thing shouldn’t cost more than $2 million a year. Any federal position that a majority of the commission recommends for elimination is automatically unfunded unless explicitly refunded by the Congress. If Congress doesn’t restore the position, that position is redundant and that task is no longer performed.
That’s one commission. There ought to be a second Bunny Inspector Commission. This one is to consist of 100 persons, one from each State and fifty to be selected regardless of state. They are to be selected by lot from a pool of volunteers who have high speed Internet connection. The Commission meets on-line once a week for four hours. Once a year it meets in the District of Columbia, expenses to be reimbursed. Each commissioner gets a laptop computer and conferencing software, and the government pays for high speed Internet connectivity for the year. Same rules: if 51 Commissioners agree that a federal regulatory activity is needless, then that activity is defunded, and those who perform that service are declared redundant. (Civil service rules for redundant federal employees apply.) Congress can restore any of those activities and positions, but if it does not, it goes.
The Commissions probably won’t do a lot, but they will at least get rid of the ridiculously obvious, and over time the various government activities will be examined and debated.
Apply all these immediately, and there will be an immediate effect on jobs.
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Christopher Booker - a 17-year-old girl, five months pregnant, who fled to Ireland with her parents, after receiving a letter from a social worker she had never met to say her baby would be seized the moment it was born.
After the birth, all seemed to go well, despite relentless efforts by the English social workers to persuade their Irish counterparts to return the baby to England. ....After a series of interviews with the family, the Irish social workers were satisfied that the baby was in good hands and that there were no grounds for further intervention. ... Buoyed up by a glowing appraisal from the Irish social workers, they decided to return to England.
All went well until the young mother registered her baby with a GP, who reported to social workers that she was back in this country. The social workers were soon on the doorstep, threatening the girl that, unless she moved out immediately, leaving her child with its grandmother, they would take her baby.
....the social workers arrived at 8.30 in the morning, supposedly to check that “the house was carpeted”. One barged into a room upstairs, where the grandfather, semi-naked, was talking to his 21-year-old son. He told the woman in no uncertain terms to leave, and banged the door behind her. The grandmother was on the landing, holding the baby.
That evening the social workers returned, with four policemen, to remove the baby. They claimed that when the door had been slammed, the child “might have been injured”. They applied for an order to put her into foster care. As so often in such cases, the solicitors recommended by the council to represent the family refused to object, saying nothing.
Three times recently, in the weekly “contacts” with the baby which the mother and grandmother are allowed in the social services office, they have been horrified to see their formerly healthy, cheerful child covered in bruises (legs, thighs, knees, shins, forehead and arms) of which they have pictures. The social workers refuse to explain how such injuries could have arisen.
The "caring professions" need victims to care for whether they want it or not.
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On the other hand once they have decided not to investigate a paedophile ring they will go to any lengths, including attempting to Section the victim's mother, not to acknowledge their failure.
"Elish Angiolini prevented any police action taking place." a woman I have referred to before in relation to her protection of politically powerful politicians legally responsible for mass murder, child rape and worse.
--------------------------
An Iraqi Assyrian Christian says that the great age of Islamic culture was not the product of Moslems, they found it when they got there. Their contribution was merely conquest. Hardly impartial and i am not an expert on the other hand no glaring inaccuracies. If true it removes Islam's sole claim to have been a constructive rather than purely destructive religion.
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Morally preening ecofascists provably 6 times less honest than the average person.
"[those]who bought green products appeared less willing to share with others a set amount of money than those who bought conventional products. When the green consumers were given the chance to boost their money by cheating on a computer game and then given the opportunity to lie about it – in other words, steal – they did, while the conventional consumers did not. Later, in an honour system in which participants were asked to take money from an envelope to pay themselves their spoils, the greens were six times more likely to steal than the conventionals.
------------------------
London’s Jubilee line cost £3.4bn to build, but raised land values in adjoining areas by close to £14bn. Looks like the thousands of times greater areas of the Highlands and Islands could thus easily provide enough added value for the £1 billion needed for the Scottish Tunnel Project.
-------------------------
The fractions of a second that could be saved in automated trading by having a sales centre half way between New york and London might be enough to fund seasteding. Personally I doubt it would be enough on its own but it is an added economic bonus on the plus side of the ledger.
--------------------------
Spiked article by Colin McInnes on Germany being forced to give up its electricity supply by the ecofascists being the route to serfdom.
----------------------------
Canadians (52%) and Americans (49%) say that that global warming is a fact and is mostly caused by emissions from vehicles and industrial facilities. Only 43 per cent of Britons (-4) agree with this assessment.
Maybe there is something to be said for having media so obviously propagandist liars that nobody believes them. The USSR used to show the same effect at the end.
----------------------------
Pournelle' immediate jobs programme
My general principle is that economic growth happens when energy is cheap and there is a maximum of economic freedom, and of those two, economic freedom is probably the more important.
First, change all the rules for small business exemptions from regulations by doubling the maximum number of employees you can have for the exemption. There are a number of regulations that apply only to businesses with fewer than 10 employees; make that number 20. There are other regulations that apply only to this with more than 50 employees. Make that 100. Etc. The first time I proposed this I got mail saying it was useless because there aren’t any successful small businesses willing to expand but prevented by the threat of regulation. I have considerable evidence to the contrary; and besides, if there are no such businesses, then there won’t be any consequences of adopting this. In fact, though, I am quite sure there are many businesses successful enough to expand that would do so if the regulations weren’t so onerous.
Second, repeal Dodd Frank. It is estimated that Dodd Frank costs a hundred billion dollars a year. We have already seen that many banks find they have more people working in regulation compliance than in banking. Dodd Frank doesn’t do what it was supposed to do, and we got along without it before we enacted it. It hasn’t worked, and it ought to go.
Third, repeal Sarbanes Oxley. That’s another that costs too much and doesn’t accomplish what it set out to do.
Fourth, establish two commissions whose job is to recommend federal practices that ought to be eliminated on the grounds that we can’t afford them, or never needed them in the first place. The commissioners should not be government employees, and ought to be paid no more than $150 a day consulting fee and $50 a day expenses. Let it be a typical commission, with three members appointed by the President, three by the Speaker, and three by the President pro tem of the Senate. The whole thing shouldn’t cost more than $2 million a year. Any federal position that a majority of the commission recommends for elimination is automatically unfunded unless explicitly refunded by the Congress. If Congress doesn’t restore the position, that position is redundant and that task is no longer performed.
That’s one commission. There ought to be a second Bunny Inspector Commission. This one is to consist of 100 persons, one from each State and fifty to be selected regardless of state. They are to be selected by lot from a pool of volunteers who have high speed Internet connection. The Commission meets on-line once a week for four hours. Once a year it meets in the District of Columbia, expenses to be reimbursed. Each commissioner gets a laptop computer and conferencing software, and the government pays for high speed Internet connectivity for the year. Same rules: if 51 Commissioners agree that a federal regulatory activity is needless, then that activity is defunded, and those who perform that service are declared redundant. (Civil service rules for redundant federal employees apply.) Congress can restore any of those activities and positions, but if it does not, it goes.
The Commissions probably won’t do a lot, but they will at least get rid of the ridiculously obvious, and over time the various government activities will be examined and debated.
Apply all these immediately, and there will be an immediate effect on jobs.
--------------------------
Christopher Booker - a 17-year-old girl, five months pregnant, who fled to Ireland with her parents, after receiving a letter from a social worker she had never met to say her baby would be seized the moment it was born.
After the birth, all seemed to go well, despite relentless efforts by the English social workers to persuade their Irish counterparts to return the baby to England. ....After a series of interviews with the family, the Irish social workers were satisfied that the baby was in good hands and that there were no grounds for further intervention. ... Buoyed up by a glowing appraisal from the Irish social workers, they decided to return to England.
All went well until the young mother registered her baby with a GP, who reported to social workers that she was back in this country. The social workers were soon on the doorstep, threatening the girl that, unless she moved out immediately, leaving her child with its grandmother, they would take her baby.
....the social workers arrived at 8.30 in the morning, supposedly to check that “the house was carpeted”. One barged into a room upstairs, where the grandfather, semi-naked, was talking to his 21-year-old son. He told the woman in no uncertain terms to leave, and banged the door behind her. The grandmother was on the landing, holding the baby.
That evening the social workers returned, with four policemen, to remove the baby. They claimed that when the door had been slammed, the child “might have been injured”. They applied for an order to put her into foster care. As so often in such cases, the solicitors recommended by the council to represent the family refused to object, saying nothing.
Three times recently, in the weekly “contacts” with the baby which the mother and grandmother are allowed in the social services office, they have been horrified to see their formerly healthy, cheerful child covered in bruises (legs, thighs, knees, shins, forehead and arms) of which they have pictures. The social workers refuse to explain how such injuries could have arisen.
The "caring professions" need victims to care for whether they want it or not.
-------------------------------
On the other hand once they have decided not to investigate a paedophile ring they will go to any lengths, including attempting to Section the victim's mother, not to acknowledge their failure.
"Elish Angiolini prevented any police action taking place." a woman I have referred to before in relation to her protection of politically powerful politicians legally responsible for mass murder, child rape and worse.
--------------------------
An Iraqi Assyrian Christian says that the great age of Islamic culture was not the product of Moslems, they found it when they got there. Their contribution was merely conquest. Hardly impartial and i am not an expert on the other hand no glaring inaccuracies. If true it removes Islam's sole claim to have been a constructive rather than purely destructive religion.
-------------------------
Morally preening ecofascists provably 6 times less honest than the average person.
"[those]who bought green products appeared less willing to share with others a set amount of money than those who bought conventional products. When the green consumers were given the chance to boost their money by cheating on a computer game and then given the opportunity to lie about it – in other words, steal – they did, while the conventional consumers did not. Later, in an honour system in which participants were asked to take money from an envelope to pay themselves their spoils, the greens were six times more likely to steal than the conventionals.
Labels: Fixing the economy, Government parasitism, Reading
