Monthly Archives: January 2015

Immigration and Elections

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Elections have consequences, a man said. Among those consequences is the shape of subsequent elections, I say.

Republicans in the new Congress are preparing their own immigration legislation, with the first batch centered on better border security and easing immigration requirements in technology, agriculture, and some other areas of interest to employers.

A question in too many minds, though, is whether President Barack Obama would veto such legislation, either because the bills might restrict his “executive actions” involving refusing to enforce existing immigration law or because, Republican.

The question is in too many minds because it might impact whether Republicans pass the legislation at all.

If the bills are good in their own right, pass them. Let Obama veto them. Shape the 2016 elections with those vetoes. Bring on the consequences of the 2014 mid-terms.

On Empathizing with Enemies

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Thomas Sowell had a Random Thought (not that very many of his thoughts actually are):

Hillary Clinton’s idea that we have to see the world from our adversaries’ point of view—and even “empathize” with it—is not new. Back in 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said, “I have realized vividly how Herr Hitler feels.” Ronald Reagan, however, made sure our adversaries understood how we felt. Reagan’s approach turned out a lot better than Chamberlain’s.

But Liberals think we’re insufferably arrogant to defend our own points of view. We always should subordinate ourselves to the other guy.

And this one on a different, yet sadly related, matter:

It tells us a lot about academia that the president of Smith College quickly apologized for saying, “All lives matter,” after being criticized by those who are pushing the slogan, “Black lives matter.” If science could cross breed a jellyfish with a parrot, it could create academic administrators.

Sometimes I think our Liberals are our modern-day Xanthippe, and their usefulness is limited to strengthening our own character.

Carbon Footprint

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[I]n 2011, the University of Technology Sydney made a significant breakthrough by synthesizing something called graphene paper (GP), an ultra thin layer of graphite that has five to six times lower density than steel, but is two times harder with 10 times the tensile strength and 13 times higher bending rigidity.

GP also works well in lithium-ion batteries and even better in lithium-sulfur batteries. The latter kind has far greater storage capacity and is a whole lot cheaper; GP solves the sulfur degradation problem.

There’s a lot more at the link.

Of course there are practical problems yet to be solved at this early stage. A carbon fire burns hot. Get the car, or pickup, too light, and the shock absorbers will need serious redesign—a particular problem for working pickups that do off-road work. But still….

An all-carbon vehicle? Gah. The horror.

He’s Not Helping His Case

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Mayor Bill de Blasio delivered another blow to New York’s Finest on Wednesday when he reappointed a Brooklyn judge who freed without bail two men who threatened cops just days after the Bed-Stuy double police assassination.

He also did this appointment two days after meeting with five New York police unions in an attempt to repair relations.

There’s this tidbit about that Brooklyn judge, Laura Johnson:

After…Coley’s [one of the two who’d made the threat above] no-bail release in the NYPD threat case, Johnson was informally admonished by an official with the Office of Court Administration, sources have said. The court administrator told Johnson she “should be setting an example to the public that threatening or assaulting police officers isn’t an acceptable thing,” one source said.

But instead of following the advice, Johnson doubled down later that same day and freed a man charged with attacking a cop outside a Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn.

Of course, a proper reappointment, or a decision not to reappoint, has to consider the judge’s overall performance, not just a couple of rulings, however….

The Veterans Administration Revisited

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To repeat: the VA needs to be disbanded, its employees returned to the private sector, and its budget distributed to our veterans as vouchers with which they can get the care they need from the doctors and facilities they choose.

The latest example of the VA’s fatal dysfunctionality is a hospital in Aurora, CO—rather, a hospital shell, since the VA has been mismanaging this project to the tune of claiming to “need” $1 billion (yes, that’s with a “b”) to finish—finish, mind you—building this building.

Those billion dollars are three times the original construction cost estimate in 2005, just nine short years ago. Accounting for inflation, that original estimate of $328 million would be a bit over $400 million today. Assuming it really would have needed all nine years to build the thing. Apparently, though, including VA incompetence, 18 years will be needed; the “hospital” is only half done. And just to saucer and blow it: the VA “is in arrears” with the payments it owes its current contractor.

Hoover Dam was built in five years (yes, yes, the dam wasn’t hindered by other government claptrap that also is in the VA’s way, but still…).

VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson has conceded VA fault, and he’s actually apologized (to his credit, it wasn’t one of those 21st century pap statements being masqueraded as an apology).

I apologize to veterans here in Colorado. I apologize to the taxpayers. We have let you down[.]

Sorry, though. It’s a fine apology (I’ll assume sincerity), but words don’t get the hospital built. Words don’t recover those hundreds of millions of lost dollars. Coming as they do in the midst of ongoing VA failure, words of apology are entirely worthless.

Get rid of the VA.