Monday, November 30, 2015

Navy's Helmets for the Army/Navy Are Super Awesome! Hand-painted ships!

Now this is some very ingenious thinking from the Midshipmen.

• Linebacker: Cruiser- Provides anti-air defense and packs the biggest punch of Naval surface ships representative of the linebackers on the Navy football team
• Defensive Back: Destroyer- Known for significant fire power, speed, and anti-missile defense as are Navy's defensive backs
• Wide Receiver: Submarine- Predominantly utilized as blockers, wide receivers play a key role in driving the Navy rush attack, taking on a stealth-like persona as they blend into the rhythm of the offense but bring significant fire power when called upon, just like a Naval submarine
• Lineman: Amphibious Assault Ships- Just as a lineman's job is the create a hole for a running back or linebacker, these ships are utilized to establish the "beach head" that enables the invading force to gain access and ultimately accomplish their objective
• Quarterback: Aircraft Carrier- The QB of the Naval Fleet, the aircraft carrier is the ultimate decision maker; the "quick strike" weapon of the Naval fleet
• Running Back: Littoral Combat Ship- Like running backs, these fast and nimble ships can navigate through both crowded shallow and deep waters
• Kicker/Special Teams: Minesweeper- Much like the specific task of the Navy special teams, this small ship has a unique mission of identifying and eliminating mines


Here is each of the helmets in all their hand-painted glory:

Wait People Still Think Temperatures will Rise by 10 degrees by 2100?

These global warming articles are just so full of misinformation.

But climate change could also have a bigger impact on the economies of the U.S. and other developed nations than many experts have thought up till now. Two researchers at Columbia University, Geoffrey Heal and Jisung Park, argue that a moderately warmer planet could produce an economic downturn as bad as the Great Recession that battered the economy from 2007 to 2009. If the worst global warming prediction—a temperature spike of about 10°F by the year 2100—were to materialize, the result could be a depression that rivals or exceeds the devastation of the 1930s, which bankrupted much of America.

They shouldn't even be throwing around that number because it is about as useful as the prediction of no arctic ice by summer 2013. Trying the mitigate the worse-case scenario is a big waste of time. Also this study is highly spurrious.

A 2012 study of productivity at 64 U.S. auto plants during a 10-year period found that extreme heat—defined as six or more consecutive days with a high temperature of 90° or more—cut production by about 8%. Workers got tired faster, or just performed worse overall. Air conditioning seemed to mitigate the production slowdown caused by a heat wave, but not eliminate it completely. And unlike some lost production, which is simply made up at a later date, output lost during a heat wave may be production that simply gets lost for good. Not surprisingly, lost output caused by extreme heat was highest in southern states and lowest in northern ones.

What US auto plants have no air conditioning? The United Autoworkers would shut that place down in a minute. I wonder if that would be an OSHA violation to have so many workers stay in an non air conditioned plant? Also what other factors could have cut production as well? In fact there was a recession during that 10 year period that slowed auto sales. Perhaps that cut into production? Also if human workers get so run down by high temperatures then I guess we need to turn to robots instead. They can work in any conditions. Global warming hysteria costs auto workers their jobs!

Friday, November 27, 2015

Trump's Polls Dips Among the GOP Faithful

I think is song-and-dance is getting old and Republicans are finally tiring of it.
Trump was the favorite of 31 percent of Republicans in a rolling poll in the five days ended on Nov. 27. That was down from a peak of 43 percent registered on Nov. 22.

The dip follows criticism of Trump for comments he made in the aftermath of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more.

Following the attacks, Trump told an NBC News reporter that he would support requiring all Muslims within the United States to be registered to a special database, which his critics have likened to the mandatory registration of Jews in Nazi Germany.
Maybe that creeping fascism of requiring Muslims to get on some database sounds like something the Left would do against their perceived enemies and not the so-called "freedom loving" GOP. Maybe the idea of Trump being so deathly afraid of Muslims is finally starting to wear on him.

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Now Princeton Students calling themselves Black Justice League are going After Woodrow Wilson: Maybe another Liberal President will Lose his Job?

If I were a liberal dean or president at one of these Ivyies I would be running scared.
Members of a group calling themselves the Black Justice League walked out of their classes late Wednesday morning and assembled at Nassau Hall, where they were met by Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber. The students presented a list of demands inspired by similar lists that have been seen at Yale University, the University of Missouri, and elsewhere.

“WE DEMAND the university administration publicly acknowledge the racist legacy of Woodrow Wilson and how he impacted campus policy and culture,” the students’ demands say.

“We also demand that steps be made to rename Wilson residential college, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs, and any other building named after him. Furthermore, we would like the mural of Wilson to be removed from Wilcox Dining Hall.”

The students called on Eisgruber to sign their list of demands, and said until he does so they will occupy Nassau Hall, for days if needed.

Wilson was a pretty racist guy from what I can gather so maybe they have a point but they are really going to sit in on this poor guys office until he cowtows to them? What would be wrong with covering the mural or posting signs on campus highlighting how racist Wilson was? I guess that sort of change is too slow for these students. 
 
What is laughable is that they are at Princeton which is one of the top schools in the world. I'm not sure how they are marginalized being there? In any case I wonder if this President will show how wimpy he is and give in to them. My money is on he will be as spine-less as the Missouri losers were and resign in disgrace.

Also I guess you can figuratively form a Black Justice League as well. You have the leader be Cyborg (he led the Titans so he has experience,) then have Black Lightning, Steel, John Stewart Green Lantern, and Mr Terrific (actually he may make a better leader though.) Then you can add Dr. Midnight, and Vixen to have black women on the group. I had to actually search for black female DC superheros so maybe that is an injustice that needs to be cleared up going forward.

United Health Might Bail on Obamacare

They seem to be losing large sums of money on the exchanges so they might pull out of them by 2017.
“We cannot sustain these losses,” Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hemsley told analysts on a conference call. “We can’t really subsidize a marketplace that doesn’t appear at the moment to be sustaining itself.”

UnitedHealth said it expects as much as $500 million in losses on the Obamacare plans in 2016. The insurer will record $275 million of the costs in the fourth quarter.

The company’s shares fell 5.8 percent to $110.47 at 12:51 p.m. in New York. Anthem Inc. and Aetna Inc., the two biggest health insurers after UnitedHealth, also declined, as did hospital stocks including HCA Holdings Inc. and Community Health Systems Inc.
If other insurers pull out Obamacare will fall apart only 3 years into the program. I'm sure the White House will try to shame UNH into losing money but unlike the federal government they have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. It seems that one of the main complaints about Obamacare is coming to pass as well.
Customers the company has added have tended to use more medical care. UnitedHealth also said today that some people are signing up for coverage, getting care and then dropping their policies.
I think UNH needs to take a page out of the mutual fund industry. Create a stiff fee for pulling out of the plan early. But knowing how terribly written Obamacare was I bet they aren't able to do this so they will lose money until they finally stop selling on the exchanges.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Missouri Protestors Face Opposition from Odd Source: President Obama?

Now this is some interesting push-back.
And so when I hear, for example, you know, folks on college campuses saying, "We're not going to allow somebody to speak on our campus because we disagree with their ideas or we feel threatened by their ideas--" you know, I think that's a recipe for dogmatism. And I think you're not going to be as effective…

I do worry if young people start getting trained to think that if somebody says something I don't like, if somebody says something that hurts my feelings, that my only recourse is to shut them up, avoid them, push them away, call on a higher power to protect me from that.
Hopefully this changes some minds but knowing some of the PC Police on these campuses they will probably just dis-invite Obama from speaking at their graduations like they did so many others.

Trumps Plan on Syrian Refugees Should be Tried. Create a Safezone in Syria like the American Zone after WW2.

This plan seems sound but with a few caveats of course.
Trump offered an alternative solution for the refugees: build a “safe zone” for them — in their home country.

“In Syria, take a big swatch of land, which believe me, you get for the right price, OK? You take a big swatch and you don’t destroy all of Europe,” the real estate mogul said. “What I’d like is build a safe zone, it’s here, build a big beautiful safe zone and you have whatever it is so people can live, and they’ll be happier.”

That way, Trump explained, they won’t have to learn new languages or adapt to a new climate.
First of all we would need to provide the safety for this "safe zone" so that means boots on the ground in Iraqi Kurdistan where it will be the most logical place to have this zone. Our troops would be there in a humanitarian capacity but need to be prepared to destroy any ISIS units that come close to them. We cannot rely on the Kurds to be our proxy army in this particular fight.

What you do next is win the war by going after ISIS with the full force of the US land and air power. That means multiple carrier groups and 1000s of cruise missiles and drone attacks. No part of the so-called Caliphate would be safe from our bombing. Then you would have to invade to make sure you clean out the remnants that survive the bombing. If Trump can commit to this then we wouldn't need to take on any refugees because we would get rid of the source of their troubles.

Monday, November 16, 2015

The Paris Terrorist Killers: Why did that one guy Bring his Passport to the Suicide Attack?

Ever since I heard the news that they found a passport next to one of the suicide attackers in Paris I wondered why he brought the thing with him.
- Ahmad al-Mohammad? -
Close to the body of a second bomber outside the Stade de France, investigators found a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad al-Mohammad, 25, who was born on September 10, 1990, in the Syrian city of Idlib.

A passport bearing that name had been registered on the Greek island of Leros on October 3, with the attacker's fingerprints matching those taken during the registration process. The holder of the passport was later registered as crossing from Macedonia into Serbia where he formally applied for asylum, Serbian officials said.

But investigators are still trying to verify if the passport is indeed genuine and the name is not known to French anti-terror police. Serbia detained a migrant on Monday whose passport contained the same data.
It seems to me to be a forged passport to change the persons identity. That would make sense if ISIS wanted to make it seem that the Syrian refugees harbor all sorts of terrorist killers in their midst. Europe will reject them coming in and ISIS would then be able to recruit/extract revenge/kidnap them. 

I just couldn't understand why he would bring that passport with him. Perhaps he just got to Paris and the attack was just days away so he couldn't stow it somewhere. However, I think it was just a forged passport that got him in from where ever so he could take part. That where ever might be very important to the investigation. Also I wonder how many additional people are traveling under that name? 

China's Anti-Corruption Probe Catching Everybody

It must be pretty scary to be at the helm of a Chinese investment firm right about now.
At the beginning of November 'China's Carl Icahn', activist investor Xu Xiang was arrested on suspicions of "insider trading and other offenses,” according to a statement from the government's Xinhua News Agency.

Xu's fund, Zexi Fund No. 1 gained 323% for the year up to his arrest, while the Shanghai Composite has risen only 3% for the year, according to the New York Times.

Around the same time, officials detained Zhang Yun, the President of China's third largest bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, according to CNN. Both Xu and Zhang's arrests demonstrate that there's no financier too powerful to avoid the probe.
Yeah I would investigate a 323% gain when the market is only up by 3% too just to make sure things are on the up-and-up. I guess China's version of the SEC is going to work overtime to make sure these gains are real or not.