
vol_scouter
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Everything posted by vol_scouter
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I thought that whistleblowers were revealing wrong doing. Hiliary was requesting biometric data which is now commonly obtained by most countries. I do not believe that requesting biometric data on non-citizens violates US law though I am clearly not an attorney.
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Gern, Surely all of those Ivy League educated liberal politicians can figure out some way to become more competitive without returning to a time that none of us want. Many of the health, safety, and environmental standards could be relaxed without a significant impact. By the way, I noted that we were dominant after the Second World War and we had collective bargaining, some environmental standards, some health & safety laws, and child labor laws. You sound like someone who hates that the USA has been successful. The left seems to always make a ridiculous emotional argument so that they never solve problems - only make most worse. The republican party is not much better but I have so hope currently. So can the left offer any constructive ideas?
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Gern, You are right and that is where a started to realize that you were talking about Obama who has clearly demonstrated along wit your favorite president, G.W. Bush, that an Ivy league education may open doors but it does not lead to success in their job as Obama has most clearly shown.
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One of the interesting things to me is the hypothetical that Beavah brought up, if he were here he would be protected by the first Amendment to the Constitution under Freedom of the press. I would argue that Wikileaks is not a member of the press while others would surely aver that it is. In this digital age, the definition of the press is blurred. I do not believe that bloggers and websites constitute a press though I believe that those are playing an important role. I have not seen any stories that would fit with whistle blower. The State Department documents have assessments of countries and individuals that express their candid views. Those assessments will be combined with various other assessments from a variety of sources to form viewpoints and policies. Everyone on this list has at some time provided an assessment of someone else that they would not like to have published. That is not whistle blowing. People entrusted with classified information sign documents stating that they understand the importance and accept the responsibility as well as understand that revealing any of that information to anyone who is not cleared and have a clear need to know constitutes a crime. So the folks providing the information are guilty of a crime. They deserve harsh penalties. Assange is not a terrorist but he is an enemy. If his goal is to reveal how countries deal with each other then we will see the same thing about Russia, China, etc. Don't hold your breathe because he is a leftist out to damage the US. Besides, can you commit treason to the USA when not a citizen? He owes no loyalty to this country.
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Gern, When I started reading your post, I thought that you were describing Obama.
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Over the last 50 years or so, we have witnesses a continuing loss of both heavy and light to other countries. As a country, we have increasingly become a service oriented economy which is an economy that makes nothing. There are many reasons for this. Clearly cheap labor elsewhere is a major factor. American consumers typically buy on price alone instead of overall quality. The major export that we sell is intellectual property from research and development as well as entertainment. Even entertainment is being challenged by Bollywood. In the mid 1980's, MIT was asked by the federal government to study and determine the root causes along with potential solutions (as usual, the government paid millions for the study and ignored the conclusions). The study was covered in "Scientific American" (a once proud, interesting, reliable, magazine and now just a political rag). One of the issues that stuck in my mind was the problem that the US stock market presents. They pointed out that the companies responded to the stock market which rewards quick increases in value and punishes long term goals for market dominance. This is driven by retirement plans that are always looking for short term gains. The article compared and contrasted stories about American companies compared to foreign counterparts. The US often made innovations that would lead to long term market dominance that were sold to foreign companies to receive immediate stock market increases. Those foreign companies then went on to dominate the market. Obviously, the post WWII dominance due to the decimation of much of the industrial world would not last for ever. However, it seems that the US is one a negative slope and the rest of the world is on a positive slope. The US needs to be on a positive slope too. So what can the US do? US basic research is being eclipsed in the rest of the world. Industry is leaving, especially heavy industry. How can this trend be reversed?
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This just in: The Obama Deficit Reduction Plan
vol_scouter replied to John-in-KC's topic in Issues & Politics
Beavah, I am trying to make the point that wind, solar, and geothermal cannot just be added to the grid and everything is better. Also, many seem to believe that the energy that is put onto the grid can somehow be saved for later use - not true. There are efforts to make large batteries to do that but each one would be the size of a tractor trailer and has significant environmental costs. As I have said, I think that we should pursue sustainable designs for our domiciles and places of as feasible there. To become more energy independent, the country needs to develop wind, solar, geothermal, and wave action technologies; improve fossil fuels plant efficiencies; and start building nuclear plants NOW (since it takes many years before they produce electricity). We also need to be innovative in using 'waste' energy such as the heat dissipated by nuclear cooling towers might be also used in other ways. At the same time, we must be honest about the entire cost energy wise of different new technologies. People want to forget the energy costs in making and disposing of batteries for the lifetime of hybrid and electric automobiles. We cannot favor technologies just because they seem 'good and clean' but must be honest. Also, you can send electricity to other places (it is done every day by the large utility companies) but there are line losses so you lose energy. Like all things, it is not a panacea. New thread on industrial competitiveness. -
This just in: The Obama Deficit Reduction Plan
vol_scouter replied to John-in-KC's topic in Issues & Politics
Beavah, It is not a matter of taking sides; it is a matter of being correct. Your example is correct. However, the concerns in the EE community is for a fall or spring day (or night) that has a sudden change in local climate - a large change in the wind or solar that would produce power to require the lowering of the base load which requires powering down the nuclear plants. Since the nuclear plants will not be producing power after that for a period of at least 3 days due to the physics of the nuclear reactor. That situation will consume more fossil fuel. That is not a matter of taking sides. Those occurrences may ultimately be rare but one way or the other, managing the power grid with little control over production as well as demand is a difficult problem that many are working upon. It is not a fully solved problem. Now for opinion, biofuels are a bad way to go. The addition of alcohol decreases the lifetime of automobile engines which has an energy cost. Plants like switchgrass are water intensive plants which taxes the water supply. The worst problem is in times of drought, do you want energy or food? There is much being done in energy research in all directions. In order to become the world's leader again, we must replace irrational fears of nuclear power with rational concern for real risks which have already been addressed. We must have a return of heavy industry to this country. The USA cannot build a large scale nuclear plant by itself. The containment vessel must be bought from Japan or China. I have noted that the chemistry and physics Nobel prizes are increasingly being awarded to folks other than Americans. We are losing our lead in all areas of science save medicine (since most of the developed world is socialized, the fund less medical research because it typically increases government costs). The future for America is no longer bright. This can be changed but it does not seem likely. -
This just in: The Obama Deficit Reduction Plan
vol_scouter replied to John-in-KC's topic in Issues & Politics
No, it was in a peer reviewed journal from an academic center. -
Gern, From past posts, I sincerely doubt that you agree with any of Palin's politics. So I am saying that the left is strengthening her rather than diminishing her. Like many conservatives, Sarah Palin says many of the right things and I have no doubt that she sincerely believes them. So Sarah Palin has the ideals that I and many others believe represent the best ideals for the country. Would she be a great president? That is a more difficult question to answer. For example, Clinton and Reagan were effective presidents by assembling a competent team around them. Obama is not effective because he has given the actual reins of power (often his czars rather than secretaries) who are inexperienced ideologues (extremist on the left). So who would Sarah Palin select? I do not know and I do not know how much authority she would delegate. This is the same thing that I would say about most presidential candidates and is no way unique to Sarah Palin. So I think that based on her views that Sarah Palin could be a great president like Reagan if she selects the best cabinet and delegates her authority.
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Though I stated above that releasing Plame's name was wrong, what was the crime? Her identity was no longer protected by the law. Had her identity been released a couple of years earlier, it would have been a crime. That is why no one was prosecuted. Scooter Libby was found guilty of not saying exactly the same thing in tens of times on the same testimony. Plame herself apparently acted in a criminal manner to get her husband a position and was never prosecuted for a possible crime. Revealing Plame's identity was wrong and should never occurred especially for the likely political reasons.
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Gern, Your humor is quite clever. The Palins are like so many American families who have successes and less than happy endings. I believe that bringing up such things makes Sarah Palin seem to be the most 'like us' of any candidate for office. Attacks on her family only strengthens her appeal. The left wanted Reagan to be the Republican candidate because he was 'a joke', 'not intellectual', and would be easy for Carter to defeat. Keep pushing as you are doing and you may very well be watching President Palin on the evening news.
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This just in: The Obama Deficit Reduction Plan
vol_scouter replied to John-in-KC's topic in Issues & Politics
Gern, You obviously have never had basic electrical engineering courses and are reacting emotionally to what you think is the way the grid works. The power grid is in no way a capacitor nor does it store energy. As I have explained before, some power sources can only handle a base load as in nuclear plants. Nuclear plants provide a constant power supply and cannot be adjusted up or done. If wind and solar suddenly provided more power than the difference between the current load and the base load, then the nuclear plant will have to shut down. It is either on or off. After powering a nuclear plant down, the reactor physics shows that the plant will be down for at least 3 days. So what makes up for the rest of the base load? Fossil fuel plants and hydro if available. There is only so much water in a lake so hydro is usually used only to help with peak loads. So for the 3 days the nuclear plant is down, you have to use fossil fuels to supply base load as well as peaks. This will clearly take more fossil fuel than running the nuclear plant continuously. Remember, if something produces electrical energy, it must be balanced with a consumer of the power generated. The energy must go somewhere. -
Gern, The PFC released classified documents which would constitute treason if it aided the enemy. I have no sympathy for him. Valerie Plame's identity was released after the period of a several years. I have heard no cogent reasoning that would indicate that the release of her identity aided the enemy in any manner so the release was not treason (it is difficult to prove that someone provided comfort to the enemy by releasing a former agent's identity). That said, releasing her name as a political payback is not right and I condemn the action.
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Beavah, I agree with your assessment of the first episode. I don't blame Sarah Palin for wanting to make the point about the muckraker who had moved next door. None of us would find that a tolerable situation either especially if we had young children as do the Palins. The later episodes are better with less political comments. It seems to me that the series is so far a win for all concerned: the Palins receive positive coverage and are paid; Alaska gets attention; and the Learning Channel has had a significant increase in viewership.
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This just in: The Obama Deficit Reduction Plan
vol_scouter replied to John-in-KC's topic in Issues & Politics
Gern, I am all for folks having ways to decrease their personal energy requirements with wind, solar, and geothermal so I agree with people using such devices. I doubt that the $1,000.00 wind turbine used to charge a yacht's batteries will save enough to pay for itself which is why such things are slow to catch on. However, the grid is not a capacitor nor does it store energy. This is a common misperception. Energy demand must be closely matched by supply. Having a large amount of wind and solar power to suddenly be added to the grid causes enormous problems that can jeopardize the entire grid. It can also endanger power plants. Also, those alternative sources tend to add during the day and cease overnight which is difficult to match with nuclear. Such variation is best matched with gas or coal. The coverage of those variations with fossil fuel plants may result in more total consumption of fossil fuels than not having the wind, solar, and geothermal on the grid (recent publication that I scanned). Heating water and assisting in heating one's domicile with wind, solar, and geothermal makes sense but connecting to the grid seems to me to be fraught with problems. -
You are so right Gern. We can just look at the last election when the more handsome guy won.
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The last time I remember a candidate receiving such derision was Ronald Reagan. Obviously, there was not an internet as there is now but the media ridiculed Reagan much as they are doing to Sarah Palin. If the left does not wish Sarah Plain to be president, then they should ignore her. The left's withering, brutal, criticism and outright lies about Sarah Palin has made her into a celebrity. Had the left ignored her when the election was over and not filed the lawsuits, she would have served her time as governor of Alaska and been an unlikely candidate. The left has themselves to blame if she is the next president. It is doubtful that the media can compensate for Obama's incompetence and arrogance, so it unless the economy is vastly improved which is doubtful considering the enormous debt that Obama and the democrats have saddled the country. So keep ridiculing Sarah Palin as you have and don't be surprised when it is President Palin.
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acco40, Conscientious objectors are not excluded from military service in times of a draft. They will be assigned a non-combat role. I agree with Gern as far as the facts of a case are decided and the guilt or innocence is determined. I do believe that factors such as religious beliefs can be taken into account in sentencing. In fact, I do not think that insanity should ever be a defense but it should be considered at sentencing instead. Sharia law should not be used to determine guilt or innocence in courts in the USA just as USA law will not ever be considered in countries under Sharia law.
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Larry McLaughlin has filmed and produced "The Philmont Documentary Collection" which starts out with some spectacular scenes and vistas of Philmont followed by a short history. Then the movie follows a Venture Crew from Austin, Texas. Only someone with a deep appreciation and knowledge of Philmont could have filmed this and Larry clearly does. There are several extras that are also great. If you have gone; are going; or considering going to Philmont; you will find this film of interest. One of the leaders breaks her leg and ankle on the trail and had to go to Taos for surgery so do not show to parents until you have first seen it yourself. You can see some trailers and order the movie at: www.philmontmovie.com as well as get a little more information. I highly recommend this to scouts and all scouters.
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I did look at the numbers of the debt as a function of GDP. Reagan was not able to cut spending because he had a democrat controlled congress.
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Gern, I believe that the folks that identify themselves with the Tea Party are not happy with the Republican party. The Democrat party is clearly tax and spend. The Republican party members at least say that they want smaller government (and thus less spending) and lower taxes. Neither party has demonstrated any fiscal responsibility. The Republican party could see a serious third party if they thwart the efforts of the Tea Party candidates to bring those principles to a vote. There is so much entrenched power in both parties that I am not sure that a third party would be ultimately successful but such a movement would clearly wreck the Republican efforts. So the Tea Party folks are working in the party that is most closely aligned with its view point. The level of debt that the Democrat party led by Obama, Reid, and Pelosi is not sustainable and if continued will lead to economic collapse. WWII was much different because when the war was over, the USA was the only industrial power not substantially destroyed in the war. So while we had a substantial debt as compared to GDP, we could sell to everyone else to rebuild their countries. The politicians have allowed our industrial base to leave so we cannot rebuild the world to get ourselves out of this. Both parties have led to the current situation - the Democrats wanting to do so and the Republicans saying that they do not want to do so but doing it anyway. Both are disgusting.
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Beavah, I would certainly think that a repeal of the drug benefit is in order. The government always wants control. We should encourage people to have private insurance as long as possible instead of forcing them to sign up for medicare at a certain age. The medicare benefits should be somehow needs tested so that the wealthy would receive less. Medicare and all insurance should return to an indemnity system to bring the market back into the system. Also, the patient would be responsible for the bill and the third party payor would pay the patient. These provisions would allow for competition for elective medical exams, tests, and procedures. Get the government out of the doctor's offices, clinics, labs, and hospitals. Curtail the unreasonable rules from JCAHO and decrease its' power. Some tort reform to include taking some or all of a professional's (not just physician's) personal assets off the table for lawsuits. The idea would be to encourage making decisions upon reasonable certainty rather than above any doubt. This would decrease needless testing and procedures which carry risks. Through the 1950's, medicine was paternalistic. Patients were empowered which was needed and appropriate but it has gone too far. We often continue treatments that we know are futile in the long run but must do so because the patient and/or family insists. Physicians should be able to document why further aggressive treatment is futile and be able to cease it. That is theoretically available but in practice is time consuming (and we are over worked and so cannot spend that time) and has the threat of a lawsuit. Sometimes I feel that what we do to keep some people alive is cruel. Anyway, those are some ideas that I believe would improve healthcare and ultimately make it more affordable to the government and individual.
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Wrong Gern. There were many conservatives angry about the TARP bill. It sunk McCain. Had McCain gotten elected he would not have surrounded himself with extremists and probably would not have spent money as Obama has done. If he did the same things as Obama, the Tea Party would have still been born. However, I doubt that he would have supported the health care bill. The racism and hatred that I see emanates form the left who viciously attack those who do not agree with them and call them names. This certainly applies to the way that the tea party is being treated. Polls show that Obama is well liked but his policies are not. People can vehemently disagree with Obama's policies and not be racist.
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Beavah, I think that the opposition to Obamacare comes from the fact that it has not been fully enacted. Medicare was opposed but has been in place for decades and so can not politically be terminated. I do not know the history of the VA but I am aware of the level of care. Medicare has provided medical insurance to the elderly but it has also caused significant problems in medical finances. Government control does not equal good care. At the same time, I agree with the insurance crisis that I have to deal. That said, it affects the elderly as well despite the medicare program. If a medicare patient needs a nursing home, medicaid requires nearly bankrupting the spouse first. I do not have simple solutions but Obamacare is not the solution.