Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Private and public feedback and function discussion

It seems there are a few rules that emerged from yesterday’s discussion about private versus public functions and efficiencies. 1. Government functions are inefficient all on their own. There are not enough feedback mechanisms to make government efficient at any point in time, and its functions serve ‘minimal’ or no purpose. With the taxing ability, […]

Old meaning, new boost for Feb. 14

The headlines read Valentine flowers boost US economy Wilting flowers When researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel put cut flowers in a weak solution of Viagra — one-fiftieth the amount taken by men for impotence — the flowers survived for two weeks instead of one. They suspect the Viagra works through its effects on nitric […]

Patriots and viewpoints

Alternet reports the following: The Op-Ed by seven active duty U.S. soldiers in Iraq questioning the war drew international attention just three weeks ago. Now two of the seven are dead. Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance Gray died Monday in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad, two of seven U.S. troops killed in the […]

Too much WAPO? Try an expert.

John Robb on his website states one of his thoughts on the current state of the overall strategy towards terrorisms. A radical improvement in marketing war. The US military learned from Vietnam that it needed to be much better at marketing wars to domestic audiences in order to prevent moral collapse. It has gotten better […]

Ray McGovern at Consortium News had an opinion that got him booted out of the hearings with General Patraeus. If memory serves, the aforementioned generals and Westmoreland were required to testify under oath. And this was one of the main sticking points when CBS aired a program showing that Westmoreland had deliberately dissembled on the […]

Media Matters points to another ‘objective opinion’ in the press. Who is able to follow the money? Since 2004, Clifford D. May, former Republican National Committee communications director and president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), has appeared in the media several times to defend the administration’s conduct of the Iraq war […]

The Washington Post carried an article by General Patreaus in 2004. Still the optomist. Nonetheless, there are reasons for optimism. Today approximately 164,000 Iraqi police and soldiers (of which about 100,000 are trained and equipped) and an additional 74,000 facility protection forces are performing a wide variety of security missions. Equipment is being delivered. Training […]

Look to the holy for an answer for the sacrifice?

Yahoo news has reported a straight forward comment by David Walker of the GAO on interpretation of the statistics of The Interview forthcoming today. It is like reading oracles to interpret the future. Central information remains unavailable, but feel free to interpret. Some reports say Petraeus will argue that sectarian violence in Iraq has fallen […]

A world of coping…

After catching up with this week’s posts and comments, this article caught my attention as a method that also strikes a chord to protect oneself from the vagaries of the world. It is another way technology, economics, and values can come together. Somehow it brought up all sorts of associations to mind, one being the […]

Innovation, statistics, and truth

The New England Journal of Medicine had a statement that caught my attention that bore on the topic started on this post and this post about safety in big pharma and food. …For example, we know that in type 1 diabetes, metabolic control can reduce the risk of microvascular complications. On the other hand, the […]