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

Reporting the same incident online or in print

by reader Tinman Here’s the NYT Internet “headline” of Obama “Shifting stand…” Yet here’s a pic of the actual print version! So what is it NYT? Is he “shifting” or “reversing”?! I love how the MSM is saying he’s abandoning his pledge to use public finance when he’s NEVER said such a thing anywhere!————————This one […]

Experienced acquisition staff drops over 35% as privatization escalates

Hat tip to reader vtcodger The NYT reports: Over the last decade, even as spending on new military projects has reached its highest level since the Reagan years, the Pentagon has increasingly been losing the people most skilled at managing them. That brain drain, military experts like Mr. Kaminski say, is a big factor in […]

GAO forces review of Northrop deal

by ilsm (submitted June 23) One point of view is here on the KC-45 win for the taxpayer.I will highlight a couple of points. 1. “The Air Force, in making the award decision, did not assess the relative merits of the proposals in accordance with the evaluation criteria identified in the solicitation…” This is contracts […]

Gitmo and recidivism…worst of the worst…and Scalia uses it.

by rdan The Seton Hall Law Center for Policy Research reported on: On December 10, 2007 The Seton Hall Center for Policy and Research issued a Report,THE MEANING OF “BATTLEFIELD”: An Analysis of the Government’s Representations of‘Battlefield Capture’ and ‘Recidivism’ of the Guantánamo Detainees, which demonstrated thatstatements asserting 30 detainees had returned to the battlefield […]

Rarely mentioned night soil and mineral

by rdan Hat tip to Healthy Rivers for this piece of news: We’re taking your Number Two and making it Number One That’s the goal behind an innovative plan to re-invent sewage bio-solids as garden compost, unveiled yesterday at the GMSC’s new facility on Delong Drive in Moncton. Marketed under the brand name Gardener’s Gold, […]

No data for Munich but…

The Healthcare Economist notes that you are more likely to die in a New York hospital than one in London or Paris. But London is less safe for “avoidable” mortality. (I believe the English translation of that is “Dying when you shouldn’t have had to do so.) Unfortunately, there is no solution to the problems […]

Running on air

The NYT reports: IN the push to free the auto industry from its dependence on oil, all kinds of alternatives are being tried. Consider now the refreshing concept of cars that run on air. The idea sounds simple: compress air and release it to operate a piston engine. But the execution is difficult, and in […]

The Social Security question…an op-ed.

HOW TO THINK LIKE A NON PARTISAN EXPERTby coberly Suppose you take your somewhat nerdish 13 year old son out for adrive. You pull gently away from the stop light, and your son, whohas been doing some reading, remarks that gas engines are not veryefficient at low speeds. In fact, at ten miles per hour […]

Where are the Household Entrepreneurs?

Glancing through the CBO survey that only checked one side of the ledger, and therefore made Greg Mankiw happy, I came across the data on Corporate Taxes paid, by Quintile of Income. Now, there has been a groundswell of declarations that people aren’t “leaving the job market”; instead, they are supposedly being “entrepreneurs,” starting their […]

New Dr. on board

Afferent Input has become Dr. Afferent Input, PhD as of last Wednesday. In two weeks he will be moving to Berlin, Germany, for two years. He has promised to open an AB office in Germany and resume posting when settled. Congratulations AI.