Global Warming Scientists Stuck in Antarctic Summer Ice

It's a funny irony that a boat carrying global warming scientists is stuck in summer ice in Antarctica. That's right, it's the summer in Antarctic.   Scientists went to Antarctica to prove that Antarctic ice is melting but ended up "stuck in their own experiment."   I am being a bit unfair as ice does shift in Antarctic, but the irony is delicious.

None of the major media outlets have mentioned the mission of ship and it's climate research passengers---except Fox News.  More MEDIA FAIL!

I'm in favor of continued research in global climate, by anyone with a hypothesis, but it's pretty clear from the evidence that the Antarctic ice extent and thickness is stable.  Antarctic ice might even be expanding.  See my blog "Global Warming Made Easy." 

Businesses Export Jobs Because of High US Corporate Tax Rates

Giving US businesses an incentive to re-locate operations and jobs overseas is the last thing that we need.  That would have the effect of exporting jobs.  But this is exactly what has been happening for years due to high marginal US corporate tax rates of over 38% -- the highest in the world.

The problem is that other countries have been lowering their corporate tax rates for years, leaving the US with the highest rate.  The US now has the highest corporate tax rate in the world.  Even Japan is set to lower it's tax rates.  And, for a decade or more, jobs have been streaming overseas to Ireland, Asia and the rest of the OECD!   And you wander why the US economy has chronic anemia?  This is the answer to that question.  See the following charts from Tax Foundation:

 

Japan is Considering Lowering Their Corporate Tax Rates Leaving US Corporate Tax Rates an Outlier

It's true the "effective" US corporate tax rate is quite low at 13.4%, but this is because businesses have already relocated overseas.  Companies have effectively taken advantage of the prevailing tax codes.   The effective foreign tax rate on US company's overseas subsidiaries is about 14%.   The US tax code also does not require companies to pay US taxes on profits until that money is repatriated.  This means that 100s of billions of dollars are accumulating overseas and benefiting overseas locations---not the US.  It stays there because it's treated better than in the USA.

FYI, here's the chart of world-wide effective corporate tax rates:
 

If you want to remove an incentive for US business to locate overseas and to encourage repatriation of jobs from Asia and other locations, then lower the US corporate tax rates and reform the tax code.  It's the most obvious thing in the world but our government is frozen in inaction.  A new rate of 14 to 15% would be similar to the corporate tax rate in prosperous countries like Singapore and, up until recently, Ireland to name a few.

Add high corporate tax rates to the 1001 reasons that our economy and job growth is anemic.

Mr. Obama, It's Your JOB to Negotiate!

The next debt ceiling is already looming.  And here we go again.

From Townhall: 

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is telling Congress that he will have only a few weeks after Feb. 7 to avoid an unprecedented default on the nation's debt. He says Congress should act quickly next year to raise the borrowing limit.  Lew said the president will not negotiate over raising the debt limit.

Apparently, ordinary politics of the Presidency overwhelm our intellectually lightweight White House "occupant."   I hate to tell our slacker-in-chief, but it's HIS JOB to negotiate just like every other occupant of the post WWII White House.

Like I said in my previous blog on this topic,

Going back decades, the debt ceiling bills have been linked to campaign-finance reform, Social Security, ending the bombing in Cambodia, voluntary school prayer, banning bussing to achieve integration, and proposing a nuclear freeze. Way back in 1982, then-Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker unleashed a free for all, allowing 1,400 non-germane amendments to the debt ceiling legislation.   Obama himself, when he was a Senator, voted against a debt limit increase for budgetary reasons.  From WP,  then-Senator Obama refused to approve a debt-limit increase in 2006 if there was not a plan to reduce the deficit.

Asking Congress to just rubber stamp debt limits extensions when our nation is careening toward $20 Trillion of public debt is unacceptable.  I personally think that NO debt limit increase should EVER be given to stop the runaway freight train called the federal government.   Such a step would require balanced budgets starting right away and no Constitutional amendment!  Sounds good to me!  Cutting the current spending by 4 percent of GDP is relatively small potatoes compared to cuts in government spending after WWII and after the Korean War.

Just say no.  No more debt.  After all, what part of the term "debt limit" does O-blah blah not understand?

Our 'New Normal' Economy

This is a good "sign" as to the "new normal" USA economy:  Flipping burgers or flipping houses.  From ZeroHedge.

Nigger Nation: Brawls Break Out For New 'Air Jordan' Shoes

Have a look below at videos of mostly black crowds acting no better than animals while trying to buy the latest version of Air Jordan training shoes.

These people are low-IQ idiots who are completely sucked into vapid and immature consumerism.  The sad truth is that Black culture in this country is mostly about "bling" and "ho's".  By the way, NONE of the media outlets report the overwhelmingly black content of this behavior, some of it violent, but it's clear enough from the videos.

Part of the explanation for the outright violence is that the Air Jordan shoes might re-sell for up to $500 on the "street."

Here's a video from East Columbus OH of crowds who literally broke down doors of the Champs Sporting Goods store in E. Columbus:

Here's a violent fight from Stockton, CA (warning: a little disturbing) at the shoe section:

Here's a video of a black kid throwing a sucker punch and knocking down (out?) a fellow shopper (more disturbing video):

 Here's a video of humans acting no better than animals in the Bronx, NY. 

 Welcome back to Nigger Nation.  It never left.

Political Correctness Is Speech Censorship

There's a saying that "in the heart of every progressive liberal, a totalitarian is trying to get out." A&E network is a good example of that. Their actions regarding Phil Robertson are totalitarian.  Perhaps it's because his comments were a double whammy against Liberal causes?  Phil's comments were based in Christianity and the Bible and they were anti-gay.  After all, Liberals shun and pooh-pooh Christianity and champion gay rights.  Their violent reaction was clearly notable.

I don't care much of what Phil Robertson thinks about gay people. He's entitled to his own opinions. I happen to think, in this case, that he's making a mistake to rely on a few passages in the Bible to base any opinion about any sexual matter or women's issues. That's not it's 'purpose.'  But I wouldn't be surprised if Phil Robertson would defend my right to speak my opinion!   That's more than a Liberal would do.  Liberals don't believe in free speech if you disagree with them. 

The issue here (obviously) is free speech and a very pervasive attempt by liberals and liberal media to "enforce" political correctness (as defined by liberals of course) and thereby stifle free speech and opinion. The effort is to propagate "narratives" and "talking points" of what liberals believe. I guess it's natural that they do it, but it's done in a sneaky way.   Liberal news and media, a powerful mouthpiece, has the "veneer" of truth-seeking and fact-checking but I constantly find that the "real truth"and "actual story" is missed or suppressed. Shoddy scholarship and shoddy work is also widely evident except in select alternative media. Nearly all of the major media people are themselves liberal arts majors who are indoctrinated by other liberal arts academics and Marxists. None of these media types have degrees in engineering, business, science, law or history. Their major is always journalism, and that major and the lack of expertise and diverse viewpoints is obviously inadequate.

The lynching of Paula Dean was another example of a political correctness censorship attack.  Paula Dean was denied her livelihood by the "political correctness police." Her crime? She spoke frankly and truthfully about her past use of politically incorrect terminology.  The term "nigger" is insensitive given history, but so is the media's failing to report the outrageous and despicable crime wave in this country committed by blacks.  Black crime is an epidemic. See here, here and here.  Our prisons are not big enough. But don't expect it to get reported correctly--it's not!!

Oh, and black people are equal intellectually to whites, right?  Wrong.

That Barack Obama is in the White House is itself the result of a choreographed campaign by liberal media: 1) never ask him a difficult or pointed question, 2) overlook his unremarkable CV and 3) never ask about his GPA in any school program despite the fact that academic degrees are the only thing on his resume. 4) Aide and abet the smear campaign against Romney, 5) Smear anyone on the Right. 6) smear anyone who disagrees with the Left.

But the liberal agenda extends even further. Barack Obama was a professional student, who never had to any real work thanks to (liberal) affirmative action programs and promotion without merit. He basked comfortably (and lazily) within the Liberal academic community who formed him and indoctrinated him in incorrect and discredited (Liberal) ideology. The results speak for themselves. Now the rest of us have to tolerate the folly, the incompetence, the stagnation and the ignorance of Obama and the Loony Left.

Intelligence Explains So Much; US Blacks Are Not Intellectually Equal

Academic intelligence is not everything but it has an exaggerated importance in modern society. Yes, we are all born equal in the eyes of the Lord, but black Americans score significantly lower in IQ and other standardized academic tests. Remember, we are talking about academic intelligence here and nothing else.

From the book "The Bell Curve" and other sources, the African Americans median IQ score is 85 with a standard deviation of 13. This data is confirmed by SAT, GMAT and every other standardized test. (Incidentally, no one argued about the raw data in this book, only the interpretation of the data.)  Yes, the scores vary by family income and socioeconomic status, but the 1.2 standard deviation "gap" persists even there and for all the data and the various tests.  The 1.2 standard deviation gap has also persisted and held steady even after 40 years of affirmative action for African Americans.  It's entirely possible that over 100s or 1000s of years it can change, so nothing is 'etched in stone.'

In the meantime, everyone has a talent and it's up to every individual to find their "gift" and pursue that.  But we shouldn't try to create false expectations or expect equal outcomes for persons with significantly lower average intelligence quotients.

What does a population with an IQ median of 85 and a standard deviation of 13 mean?

You would not expect persons below 85 IQ to graduate from High School.  One half of US blacks are below 85 (the definition of median). This means that you would NOT expect that 1/2 of the black population to graduate high school.  And the data confirm that about 50% of US blacks do not complete high school.  But the relevant point is that, for blacks, the 50% who do not graduate high school, about 35% of those people are in jail.   ( I wonder how many don't finish high because they are in prison?)   So, what do we do about that?

89.5% of blacks score lower than the white average median IQ of 100. That's nearly 90%. This is not opinion, only the math of statistics. 

An IQ of 75 is considered borderline 'mentally retarded'  You would expect persons with IQs less than 75 to be qualified for only menial or unskilled jobs. These folks would have difficulty surviving independently.  But 22% of US blacks fall into this category compared to only 4.8% of whites.  Why do you think so many US black males are in prison?  As a society, we are not dealing with these facts realistically. For example, we should be creating vocational high schools to teach trades and skills for the kids who are not able to graduate high school.  Kids with IQs less than 80 should probably be routed to a vocational high school if they want it.

An IQ score below 70 is actually considered a disability.  12.5% of US blacks have an IQ below 70 and are therefore mentally "disabled."  About 2.2% of whites are mentally disabled by this definition. So, out of the US black population of 38.8 million, 4.8 million US blacks would be considered mentally disabled or about.  For whites, it's also works out to about 4.8 millon persons.  So, what are we going to do about it, huh?  I don't exactly know, but don't you think it's important to understand the facts and discuss this?  I'm trying to be constructive.  Should be guarantee a minimum income for these persons?  There is something to that idea. The vocational high school idea is a good one.

Are we to continue to pretend that everyone is intellectually equal??

Persons with an IQ above 130 are "Gifted" and would be expected to attend the top US Graduate Professional Schools.  But only 0.027% of US black population would have this IQ  whereas 2.3% of whites would be gifted.   There are very few gifted blacks. For example, in Texas there are about 1.8 million persons of college age (aged 20 to 24) and about 13% of those are black.  Therefore about 234,000 persons in TX are black and of college age.  But only 63 blacks of college age in Texas would have a gifted IQ.  Extrapolating this data for the entire US means that only 693 blacks youths (aged 20 to 24) would be considered gifted.  In contrast, there are about 1.27 million white kids of college age in Texas and 34,500 would be considered gifted.  Texas is about 1/10th of the US population. You can quickly see that, based on IQ only, there is no room for ANY black kid in the top professional schools.  There are only so many slots available at the Princeton's and Harvard's.  

Most people, understandably, want to discount this information but it goes a long way in explaining the achievement, income, drop-out rate and even probability of criminal activity that we see in the US African American community.   IQ explains nearly everything even though it's a measure of academic intelligence.

The real questions are what to do about it: do we guarantee a minium income for intellectually disabled?  Can we better deal with those high school aged persons in a vocational high school?

Menendez Says 'No Way' to US Oil Exports: Shows His Ass

I could have named this blog entry "A Man Has Got To Know His Limitations"

We live in a time when ignorant (and arrogant) people are making rules where they have no knowledge and/or understanding--i.e., our politicians are dumb asses.   Not only do these people not know what they are doing, but they are not smart enough to get out of the way of people who do know best. 

Take Robert Menendez 's D-NJ comments:  "Lifting the ban on crude-oil exports would benefit major oil companies and hurt Americans."  Robert Menendez doesn't know what he's talking about and he should have the wisdom to step aside.  Menendez is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and he should stick to what he knows.

In Washington: Arrogant Big Government Officials Are the Problem.

I don't know much about the ban, but it was started in the 1970s when we were facing oil shortages.  Now we have a time of abundance in oil production and it's happening rapidly under the nose of Malthusian politicians who said that it couldn't happen (hint, O-blah-blah).  The US is already exporting 3 million barrels per day of gasoline and other refined products right now.  This is because US gasoline demand is down and we have excess refinery capacity.   So, we import about 9 million barrels of crude, process and re-export 3 million barrels of gasoline.  That's how free markets work.

Another example is Alaskan Prudhoe bay production.  It has probably always been more economic to ship that crude oil to Japanese or Korean refineries.  They could in turn, ship gasoline to the USA. (There was always a refinery capacity constraint on the US West Coast.)   Companies would chose this option only if it's a lower cost option.  Lower costs are passed onto the consumer.  This is how free markets work.

Another example, it's entirely possible that it's more economic for companies to send crude from Pennsylvania to European refineries.  Let the company's involved decide!  They will do the most cost-effective thing, keeping costs as low as possible.  This is the way free markets work.  It's too bad more people don't know that. 

The simple truth is that there is one very large, world-wide, crude oil market.  All crude oil production is priced the same (but price-adjusted for quality and impurities) all over the world.  The same is true for gasoline.  There is no local markets that need protection.  Prices for these commodities are basically the same all over the world.   So Menendez's comments are ignorant.  And he needs to recognize his own limitations.  Let the markets work!  Geeez!  He is a Democrat, so that should be instructive.  They are nearly all economic idiots! 

Another other problem out of Washington is that programs, rules or laws, whose purpose is long forgotten, continue without end, without review and without oversight.  End the export ban if oil companies advise that it's best to do so.

Arrogance of Big Government Officials Is The Problem

Hubris of public officials is the bane of our existence now.  The problem, to quote Clint Eastwood, is that  "A man has got to know his limitations."

Let's survey the landscape.

You have Kathleen Sebelius, a long time government bureaucrat, trying to tackle one of the most over-reaching IT projects ever with far too little technical or managerial expertise.  She's either incredibly naive or incredibly arrogant.  And the results speak for themselves.  Not only that, she's wrong about everything:  1) the probability of a successful completion of an over-reaching IT project, 2) the wisdom of over-reaching Federal government programs and 3)  her understanding of the insurance market, insurance reform and what people want to buy.

Like Obama, she is a wrecking ball for our economy-- because they don't acknowledge their own limitations. 

It is stunningly obvious that her and Obama know nothing about health insurance or insurance reform.  They don't even know the real purpose of insurance (or lowest-cost insurance).  Insurance is supposed to cover unexpected and unlikely costs that would be a shock to your finances.  If insurance covers all things, then it's more expensive because it adds insurance company overhead costs to the things covered.  Most people know this, but not our arrogant masters!!  Check out my blog HHS Head Sebelius Doesn't Understand Insurance.

Both Sebelius and Obama are running around now saying that people, who are finding their coverage cancelled, never had "good" insurance anyway.  What??  People don't know what they were buying??  Obama has the gall to claim that the victims of his own ineptitude really had 2nd rate policies.   It's Obama that doesn't know anything!

Worse, ObamaCare policies have very high deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums but cost much more than comparable private policies!  The folly is to expect anyone to buy these policies except very desperate people!  It would have been cheaper just to help the desperate persons rather distort the entire healthcare industry!    

This is why there was an American Revolution: to prevent being subject to the damage of one man rule.  Obama wouldn't know about this either.

ObamaCare Policies Are NOT a Good Product as Obama Asserts  

Worse, ObamaCare policies are not a "good product" as the President has claimed. They are much more expensive then comparable private insurance.  It's more expensive because it forces you to buy coverage that you don't want and it also tries to act as a tool of income redistribution.  There is an intended re-distribution from young healthy "subjects" to older or sicker persons.

For me, ObamaCare doubles the cost of comparable private sector policies (ie., those policies without all the required bells and whistles mandated by the Federal Govt).

In Texas, Aetna is able to extend non-ACA compliant policies through 2014.  Aetna offered to continue my $5,500 deductible policy for $280 per month (up 10% in cost this year alone).  From Aetna, that same policy but with all the additional coverages required by ObamaCare (that I don't want) would cost $500 per month.  The out-of-pocket limits are the same.

In sum: Non-ACA compliant cost:  $280 per month.  ACA compliant policy cost: $500 per month.  Both are the same high deductible and high out-of-pocket policies, but one covers a bunch of stuff that I don't want or need!!   And I don't have a choice unless I want to pay a big fine! 

Comprehensive 'Anything' Out of Washington is a Failure--Liberals Never Learn

I was listening to Larry Kudlow on CNBC last night and he had a black "strategist" who, predictably, supports Obama and ObamaCare.  This same commentator repeated the Democratic 'talking point' that the Republicans never had a "plan" for health insurance reform.  The free market guest replied that Republicans always have had ideas for insurance reform but nothing over-arching or comprehensive.  The black guy smugly smiled as if he had proved his point.

But the black commentator, as is typical, missed the big point entirely.  The point is that anything "comprehensive" out of Washington is going to be a flop.  That is the point!!   ObamaCare is the greatest example.  Get this: this liberal commentator left the show with no further understanding of how he was wrong.  It's so typical!!  Liberals never seem to "get it."

More Hubris From the Federal Reserve Academics

You have academics at the Federal Reserve manipulating stock and bond market pricing with extremely incomplete information about the unintended consequences or an exit strategy.  Things are so perverse that is our Federal Reserve's stated policy to cause more inflation when it's already 1.7%!  They've even taken credit for the good performance of the stock market!  Imagine that, we now have a Federal Reserve who is using the stock market as a policy tool!   How insane is that?  It is far from the original mandate of the Federal Reserve Act!

Worse, the effect of the current bunch at the Federal Reserve is to try to devalue the US dollar, transfer wealth from average people to the top 0.1% and hurt savers with more inflation and zero interest rates.  They are creating bubbles from here all the way to China and SE Asia.  They don't seem to understand that paper money is not wealth and increasing paper money doesn't create wealth.  There is no substitute for sound money.   Doesn't anyone know that anymore??

So, in summary, we're left with an extraordinarily unqualified President trying to "pretend" that he's competent and that he knows more than he does.  I think he really believes that he knows something!   You have an incompetent HHS head completely over her head.  You have a bunch of academics conducting monetary policy way outside of any historical norms or common sense.  We have nothing but low-information, low-capability, and/or ideologically-driven bureaucrats working in Washington, all with exaggerated assessments of their own capabilites.  The hubris of leaders from Obama to Ben Bernanke is striking.

A man has got to know his limitations.

Eerie Google Robots Reminiscent of Terminator Movies

Take a look at the video of Google's BigDog robot going through it's paces.  It's fascinating but it's also a chilling reminder of the robots in the Terminator movies.

Also check out the Cheetah robot running at 28 miles per hour or faster than Usain Bolt:

Lastly, check out a variation on the "BigDog" robot being developed by Boston Dynamics:

Is "SkyNet"coming?

Black American Trainwreck Part 2

The Black American trainwreck has quite literally hit home at my condo building. This blog follows my blog: Black American Train Wreck Reaches the White House.

Over this past weekend, I was taking out my garbage early one evening and heard a black man, sounding like he had an IQ of about 60, yelling loudly at my black neighbor.  I remember thinking, "at least it hasn't escalated."   But it did escalate.  As I was walking back, I heard crashing and loud noises from the front of my building.  My neighbors were running up the stairs to their unit and came back out again running---both carrying knives. 

The guy had tried to kill them by trying to run them over with his car.

The idiot-criminal had crash-driven his car up along a sidewalk and grassy area and had crashed into a tree trying to kill my neighbor.  He also side-swiped my friend's SUV tearing off the front fender and messed up the front landscaping.  No one was hurt.  Before the attempted murder, he had also bashed-in the front and back windows of my neighbor's BMW doing some serious damage.

This an example of the trainwreck that emerges from numbskull and idiotic actions of the intellectually deficient. These people lack impulse control and logical capabilities, and end up committing crimes out of stupidity.  Since there is such a preponderance of black idiots, the entire black community, the good and bad, are engulfed by the black cultural trainwreck. 

Incidentally, my two black neighbors are transsexuals, which I don't have a problem with.  However, since I know their landlord, I know that the state of Texas pays their entire rent of $750 per month.  These "girls" are able bodied and driving a 700 series BMW.  This is an example of how political correctness ends up with stupid and inappropriate policies.

South Carolina To Outlaw ObamaCare

Wow, this is a twist that I didn't anticipate.  South Carolina is about to pass a law to prohibit the implementation of ObamaCare in that state.

From LibertyBlitzkreig:

The bill’s main component prohibits agencies, officers and employees of the state of South Carolina from implementing any provisions of the Affordable Care Act, leaving implementation of the national health-care law entirely in the hands of a federal government that lacks the resources or personnel to carry out the programs it mandates.

This provision, according to Davis, comes from the anti-commandeering doctrine established in case law that says feds can’t compel states to enforce federal laws.

Additional provisions of H3101 further neuter the Affordable Care Act by outlawing state exchanges, issuing tax deductions to individuals equal to the tax penalties levied by the federal government, and directing the state attorney general to sue over whimsical enforcement of the law.  Taken together, the provisions effectively repeal the federal law for the people of South Carolina.

 It'll be interesting to see which other states follow suit.  It'll also be interesting to see how our current totalitarian Federal government responds.  Unless things change in the next administration, I think that the States will gradually refuse Federal dollars to avoid excessive intrusion into State 'business.'

Opponents of this effort in South Carolina are being labeled racist.  Hmmm. 

Remember, South Carolina was the first to succeed from the Union.  Is this another first shot in a new civil war against excessive US government power?